Sing a song or play a tune

Xanyu opened the door to the music room timidly. She sighed, glad to find the room she was looking for. Walking in, she went straight to the piano, brushing her fingers along the keys. She pulled the seat up and sat down, resting her left thumb on the middle 'c' key. She played the note, humming along to tune herself. It was a good piano and it didn't take long for her to match the note.

Xanyu looked around, making sure she was alone. She always felt stagefright around people when singing. Even when her father had forced her to play or sing for him and his friends, she would freeze up and lose the words. She hummed the note one more time, before she began to sing. The song she sang was her father's favorite and the first song she was taught.

1915 on Christmas day
On the western front the guns all died away
And lying in the mud on bags of sand
We heard a German sing from No Man's Land
He had a tenor voice so pure and true
The words were strange but every note we knew
Soaring o'er the living dead and done
The German sang of peace in No Man's Land

The left their trenches, and we ours
The smiles beneath tin hat bloomed like wild fires
With photos, cigarettes, and pots of wine
We built a soldier's truce on the front line
The singer was a lad of twenty-one
We begged another song before the dawn
And sitting in the mud and blood and fear
He sang again the song all longed to hear

Silent night
No cannons roar
A king is born of peace forever more
All's calm
All's bright
All brothers hand in hand
In 19 and 15 in No Man's Land

And in the morning all the boomed in the rain
And we killed them and they killed us again
At Night they charged, we fought them hand to hand
And I killed the boy that sang in No Man's Land

Silent night
No cannons roar
A king is born of peace forever more
All's calm
All's bright
All brothers hand in hand
And the young soldier sings
And the song of peace still rings
Well the captains and all the kings
Built No Man's Land

Sleep in heavenly peace

------------
If you don't know the song. It's called Chirstmas 1915. It was the prettiest sad song I know.

Valentin was walking through the grass along the outside wall of the castle, returning from some snacking and napping beside the fountain outside, and now on his way back towards... well, somewhere else. He hadn't really decided yet. He still had a box of wheat crackers in hand and was munching on those happily as he turned the corner and passed by the music room.

A faint sound reached the faun's ears as he walked, and he paused his stride with one ear flipping back towards the window of the music room now just behind him. He spun his head round to glance at the castle and quickly swallowed the cracker he'd been crunching. He tip-toed up to the window and pressed his ear against it, frowning thoughtfully. The distinct tinkling of a piano floated through the old glass and then a voice followed. Someone was singing, and it was.. rather nice.

Valentin pulled away from the window with a curious look on his face. He glanced left and then right, as if he didn't wish to be caught, but the grounds appeared the remain abandoned for now. With a gentle nudge, he pressed on the wooden trim with his palms, easing it open as slowly as he could so as not to interrupt the musician inside. With a minimal space clear for him to squeeze through, the faun sucked in his tummy and slipped inside, swiftly ducking suspiciously into a nearby chair pushed against the back wall. He was typically decent at being stealthy, but there was no telling if his sneakiness would be wasted. He just hoped the singer hadn't spotted him yet, as he wanted to hear out the rest of the mournful song.

When he caught sight of the being seated behind the piano, Valentin smiled because she was rather unique and he found her appearance paired with her song sort of charming. Distracted, he didn't notice he'd loosened his hold on the box of crackers until it slipped lamely from his fingers and the broad side smacked loudly against the floor. He nearly jumped out of his seat at the unexpected and noisy echo of crackers rattling loudly in their cardboard container. He winced and flinched, and glanced quickly back towards the piano.


(( Listened to the song.. It's very beautiful D'x ))

Xanyu felt her happiest when she sang. It reminded her of the only time her father was nice to her even when he went bad. She remembered how he had used her to entertain his friends by singing or playing the piano. She still wasn't very good at either, so she had asked for music. Singing was one of the few activities that she didn't hide her feelings through. It was also the only time her father looked upon her kindly no matter his mood.

Xanyu's ears flicked at a sound but she decided it was only a branch lightly scraping a window. She ignored it and went on singing. Once she had finished her song, she looked down at the piano. What song to do next? Usually her father told her what to sing and in what order. She had sung Christmas 1915 because it was almost always the first song he wanted her to sing.

She was deep in her thought when a loud noise echoed through the room. She almost jumped off the bench. She turned her head slowly towards the source of the sound. "Wh...who?" Her eyes landed on the boy that sat in a chair on the other side of the room, then to the box of crackers on the ground. She figured that box must have been the source of the sound. That was when she realized that she had an audience. She blushed heavily, she was used to only a particular audience and a new one made her feel stage fright.

She spoke and he gulped because, yeah, there was no way he could pretend he totally wasn't sneaking around to listen to her song. Valentin glanced around the room quickly, as if he would have time to hide, but of course she was already looking at him. her blush was impossible to miss, and his nerves took off, suddenly overwhelmed with guilt. He stood up quickly as if he'd just been caught pulling a robbery, and raised his hands in a surrendering motion while taking a step backwards. The chair was still behind him, however, and when the edge of the seat hit the back of his knees he predictably stumbled clumsily, reeled his arms about for a second to try and regain his balance, and ended up catching the leg of the chair on his own ankle and pulling it down with him. This of course caused another round of unnecessary racket when hooves, antlers, and chair all crashed into the floor and the noise reverberated in the acoustically designed room.

The faun groaned from the floor where the chair had somehow landed on top of him, and his face felt hot enough to possibly rival the singer's. That really could have gone more smoothly.

With a resigned sigh, he spread his palms on the floor in front of him and pushed his torso up enough to turn his head and face the strange looking girl. He offered her a lopsidedly apologetic smile, looking properly embarrassed.

"Hey.."

Xanyu stared wide-eyed at the boy. For one, he looked like a human deer. Xanyu thought, maybe he was made like she was, though probably not. For another, he seemed just as embarrassed as she was. She blinked, watching as he stood up as if he was a criminal caugt in a police carls headlights. She lurched foreward as he walked backwards into his chair. Now standing, she looked on with a semi-horrified expression as he stumbled foreward and fell to the floor. She flinched at the sound that followed, a pained squeak escaping her mouth.

Once the initial incident was over, Xanyu looked worridly at the boy. She walked up to him and offered a hand as he propped himself up. "A..are you alright?... That was quite a fall." She stared intensely at the chair and it tipped over, off of the boy. She made sure to move it along with his movements, trying to make it less obvious of her ability.

Valentin glanced at the offered hand, hestating a brief moment before accepting. He scoffed in amusement at his sheer failness and nodded gratefully, accepting her aid and pulling himself to his feet. "Yeaah I'm fine, thanks. Nothing new." He grinned sheepishly, to preoccupied with his embarrassment to really notice how the chair released him so easily. He glanced behind him with another breathy noise, glaring at the chair like it had attacked him. But he snatched it by the backing and made sure it was righted properly again anyways.

When turned his attention back on the girl, his blush had settled, but he still tucked away a fly hair in a nervous fashion and seemed to have some trouble meeting her eyes. Finally he just shrugged awkwardly and pulled that lopsided smile again.

"Valentin," he offered by way of introduction. "Sorry for uhm," he gestured vaguely back towards the chair and the window. "For the noise. Well, for coming in here in the first place really. You just..." He paused with a small frown, wondering how to compliment her without it sounding like a cheesy pockup line. That wouldn't be a preferrable impression. Not that he'd been at all impressive thus far of course. Eventually he settled on declaring, "You have a really nice singing voice."

Xanyu braced herself so she wouldn't fall over and helped the boy up. She was relieved not to gain to much attention from her telekinesis and felt more at ease. She smiled, "that's good."

Xanyu bowed her head, "Very nice to meet you, Valentin. My name is Xanyu." She smiled sweetly, "I can't control what you do...Though..." She followed his gaze to the window then back at him. "It is a bit odd to enter a room through the window." Her ears perked foreward. She just? She was about to ask when he finished his sentence. "I have a nice.... Oh no." She looked down. "It's not that good. I still need to work on it..."

"Is it odd?" Valentin glanced at the window again, as if trying to come to the same conclusion as Xanyu. He shrugged again and tried to subdue his playful smirk "Ah so that's why there are never any windows on inside walls! I always wondered."

When Xanyu denied that her singing was good, the faun recognized it as modesty and hid his amusement behind a serious nod. "Yes, of course. Mozart would have had to keep working on his composing even after he was big and famous right? Good idea, Xanyu, keeping in practice." He nodded again, this time approvingly. He looked thoughtful a moment before quipping, "I enjoyed your song, but maybe I just have a bad ear. Want to test it?"

His teasing tempted him to wink, but he quickly wrote the action off as creepy and decided not to do so, instead slipping around Xanyu and trotting across the room towards a large cabinet along the wall.

Xanyu nodded and laughed quietly. Valentin was either trying to get her to laugh and succeeding or he actually meant what he said. She put a hand up to her mouth to stiffle her laugh. "That's true, though sometimes doors have windows, maybe not ones that open but they can have them."

Xanyu looked down in thought, "I wouldn't know that. Mozart was known as a composing prodegy, he might not have practiced. I think Beethoven might be a better example, he was deaf." When she looked up again her expression was confused. "Test it? How so?" She followed him with her eyes, wondering what he planned to find in the cupboard.

Valentin laughed at her point about doors, pleased to have made her laugh, if only a little. "Well, I wouldn't know about squeezing through unopenable door-windows, that's not my specialty. But this is." He grinned triumphantly when after a bit of rummaging, he'd located a moderately small and dark wooden box. He brushed off a thin layer of dust and went about opening the lid to reveal a flute, currently disassembled and nestled in the dark fabric lining. He went about putting the instrument together while he scoffed in amusement.

"Okay, Beethoven then. Know any Beethoven?" With the flute all together now, he raised it to his mouth and blew a couple random notes while jamming on the keys to make sure none were sticking. He crossed back over to the piano and hopped up to sit on it with his legs folded under him Indian-style. With a grin, he tapped the wood next to him, inviting her to return to the piano as well. "Comon, let's jam. Whatcha up for; I pipe, you sing, I pipe, you piano...?" The question trailed off hopefully.

Xanyu walked over, a curious look on her face. The box he took out of the cupboard seemed to please him and she wanted to see what was so important about the box. She stood a respectable distance away and watched him open the box. At the sight of the flute, her eyes sparkled. He can play the flute? She always loved that instrument, the light airy sound and the way the musician always looked graceful holding it.

Xanyu smiled, "Yeah, I know many of his works." She strode over and sat on the bench again. She placed both hands on the piano this time. She stretched her fingers then played a few scales. She looked up at Valentin, "I'll...piano this time." Her fingers twitched slightly over a few keys. "You wouldn't happen to know Moonlight Sonata?"

Instead of answering with words, Valentin smirked and blew through the flute once more before picking up the requested sonata. Both ears lifted high and faced outward to absorb as much of the sound as possible. Despite being the initiator of the duet, Valentin found himself at first a little nervous, but the familiar song lured him easily into it's languid tempo and he found Xanyu to be a fair pianist. It made him forget that they played and that he wasn't merely listening, but that was one of the wonders of good music after all.

When the song was through, he lowered the flute, and just nodded approvingly at his companion seated at the piano, not sure how to compliment her playing without drawing more modesty from her. When no solutions came, he chuckled and shook his head, taking a moment to look over the flute in his hands procrastinatingly.

nodded again, "That was swell! Do you play others?" He bobbed his chin vaguely towards the cabinets across the room where there were presumably more instruments stored.

Xanyu became absorbed in the song. It had been one of her favorites and now it sounded even better with accompaniment. When the song finished she almost whined not wanting to stop, but kept herself from doing so She smiled a little to Valentin, he was pretty good with the flute, and she felt envious, always wanting to play the flute.

At the question, Xanyu shoke her head. "I was only taught the piano and how to sing. It was pretty much all father wanted me to do." Her fingers hovered over the keys and seemed to twitch as if remembering other songs. She looked up at Valentin, "Do you play any other instruments?"

He nodded and watched her fingers a moment, before realizing he'd been asked a question. "Huh? Oh! Oh, yeah, not really. Well sort of I guess." He shrugged a bit bashfully and tugged on one of his ears distractedly. "I play a lot of instruments, but I've not been taught many. So like.. I wouldn't be able to tell you where certain notes are on a trombone, but I can figure out a song from listening pretty well." He smiles sheepishly and shrugs one shoulder.

"You know, you seem to really like music. You should try a new instrument just for fun sometime! It's never too late to start learning one."