Title: Playing From Within
Author: Nativestar
Pairing/Character: Alec with a cameo by Joshua. No pairings.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Just playing.
Rating: PG, gen
Word Count: 392 words
Warnings/Spoilers: None.
Author Notes: Written for justruth on LJ who prompted me to write Alec at the piano when I asked for DA prompts. Set after Hello, Goodbye.
Summary: While laying low at Joshua's, Alec starts to put past events behind him as he discovers what Manticore didn't teach him about music.


The urge grasps him one lazy afternoon. He's bored, it's raining and there's only so many hours of TV he can watch before his eyes glaze over, and without any real conscious thought he's walking down the stairs to the basement.

She's still uncovered and a light layer of dust has begun covering the keys. Alec doesn't know why he's thinking of a piano, just wood and strings, as feminine, but it seems right.

He stands next to her and tinkles a few keys together, like before. A trill that could be a part of many songs or the start of a brand new piece. Alec decides he doesn't want to repeat something he's already played, he wants to do something different, something new. He moves to sit without thinking, his posture as he was taught.

His fingers pause above the keys, and he sucks in a quick breath as the memories assault him.

Learning to play in a bare grey room.

Killing a man in cold blood.

Rachel improvising a jazz tune.

But they don't cripple him any more, time has dulled their edges.

Then he's playing. Fingers skipping over the keys like they have a life of their own. They weave together the notes and chords in a melancholy sadness. The dynamics rise and fall and he's not sure where the music is coming from but he thinks it might be his soul. Feels like he's playing from his soul.

The notes are speaking the words that he can't. No, that's not right. The notes are expressing how he feels? He doesn't know how to describe this, but the music simply fits.

Manticore taught him the technicalities of playing. He learned about the great composers, classical pieces and the language of music. Crescendo and diminuendo, legato and staccato. He learned it all. But they failed to teach him the joy of playing music. He discovered that one on his own, with Rachel's help.

Playing the piano makes him feel closer to her. Something he both loves and hates. He wonders if she would have wanted him to continue playing, and he thinks the answer might have been yes.

When he finally stops playing, he feels drained. But as he takes a deep breath and turns, and sees Joshua standing captivated by the stairs, he realises that it's a good feeling.


Feedback is wonderful, I'd love to hear what you did or didn't like. Especially as this is my first Dark Angel fanfic.