Teach me
"You can play piano?"
Rhydian whipped his hands away from the keys, startled by Maddy's sudden presence behind him.
The last notes echoed around the empty school hall from the much-aged instrument, wheeled out on occasion for special performances.
"Used to," he responded with a flash of a grin, trying to hide the awkward knot in his stomach.
"Sounded a bit more than used to," Maddy teased with a tilt of her head and the boy shrugged, eyes serious suddenly, a finger trailing absently over the keys.
"Not much use for a piano when you're a wolf."
Maddy dismissed the statement as though shaking out her fur and dropped herself onto the bench next to him, looking expectant.
"Well, c'mon then."
"What?" his face creased, then cleared with an almost can't-believe-this smile. "You want me to play."
"Noooo," she drew out with a taste of sarcasm before breaking it with a grin, her voice softening. "Course I want you to play." She nudged him with her shoulder in the cramped space on the stool adding even more quietly, "and then I want you to teach me."
The air shifted subtly, enough for even mere humans to notice. A sudden awareness of everywhere his leg pressed against hers, her shoulder leaning into his, but mostly the way their eyes expressed so much without the need for words. Rhydian let out his breath in an exhale he'd not realised he was holding and smiled, wholly gentle and wholly genuine.
"Yeah, all right."