The Perfect Sonata
Original



“I use to hate this piano when I was a child.”

The prince was sitting quietly on the piano’s bench, staring at the dusting, old worn out piano that had been neglected over the years. It seemed that with his own exile his father had completely shut off the music room—it probably hadn’t been touched for hundreds of years…. which would explain the dust.

His hand trembling slightly the crimson-eyed man lifted his right hand to gently touch the dusty covering. When he pulled his fingers away the dark glossy surface shined through almost as if it had never been left alone to suffer in silence all these years. Yami couldn’t help but notice how fingers were feathered with the hundred years of solitude. It was a strange feeling. He almost felt sorry for the piano, his old companion.

“Yami?” Kaelin called softly. His hands were folded in front of him as he stood quietly in the doorway.

Yami’s eyes searched the covering for a moment longer before he pulled it up to expose the keys. The sound rolled off the high ceiling and wide walls. It was an eerie feeling. It was making his heart suddenly pound in his chest.

“Yami, what are you doing?”

The prince frowned. What was he doing? He hadn’t touched a piano for… well, since he had left. There was no way…

Before he knew it his fingers were fluttering across the keys, and the sound that emitted wasn’t unpleasant, but the piano was hardly on key. It surprised him how easily it was to fall back into the old days—where he had sat, alone, annoyed, bitter... The music room was one of the only places he had been permitted to go. Even though he hated this piano, hated the way it made him feel, he still couldn’t stop his fingers from dancing across their keys. His entire childhood he had suffered loneliness and this piano had been probably the next best thing to a friend he had had. Sure, Ankei and his mother had done their best to keep him company—but seeing the same faces over and over…

This piano, though, he had created masterpieces all alone here—beautiful sonatas that would never be acknowledged. He had sang here too—he had always been too embarrassed to do so in front of others… but here… Even though it had been most painful, sitting here alone, he had also been able to explore who he was. It was where he had let his bleeding heart comfort itself through music. It… may have been the one thing that had saved him when he was a child.

Yami sneezed suddenly and the music ceased. “Ah… Damn.” He cleared his throat and jerked the covering back closed and another cloud of dust rose into the air. He sneezed again. Yami gave the piano a dirty scowl. Was it trying to punish him?

He returned to Kaelin’s side and gave him a quizzical look—Kaelin was smiling gently, though that was not unusual, the way his eyes were searching his indicated, however, that he had something he wanted to say. ”What?”

“I didn’t know you could play the piano. It was pretty.”

“It was out of tune… I…” He stopped himself and his gaze unwilling returned to the grand piano. A sliver of light was peeking through the window and the sun was high enough that it cast itself over the bench where he had been sitting. Dust was sparkling in the light in a dramatic way. It made Yami laugh quietly. Who would have thought he would miss that silly thing? His gaze returned to the monk and after a moment he dropped his crimson eyes to the floor.

Kaelin reached out to gently take the others hands. “Yami? Would…. you like to—”

“Yes!” the man blurted out his response even before the other could finish and the crimson eyed man flushed, looking away. “I’ll ask my brother in the morning…It needs some tuning but…” he slowly turned, brow furrowing as he stared, once again, at his old companion. “…I can’t leave it here like this. It… it doesn’t deserve it.”

Kaelin found it a little strange that the other man was referring to the inanimate object almost like it had feelings—but then again, the monk realized that it wasn’t that it had feelings… it was that it held memories. Memories, maybe painful, that Yami didn’t want to lose.

You only receive one childhood and be the memories bad or good, they were all you had of a child you had once been long, long, long ago.


[Ramirez]




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