Summary: Lovino knows he is too intense for his own good, and Beethoven might just kill him again when he dies, but between the guy stealing his mails and creative license, he knows what completion is.
Warnings: Human Names. Spain/Romano.
Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia or the characters, it all belongs to Hidekaz Himaruya. I don't own Beethoven's Exodus either.
Fortissimos and Pianissimos
He thinks while creating a heavy and powerful melody with his hands, Beethoven would be horrified if he could hear what is becoming of his Moonlight Sonata.
Pressing down hard on the keys again, fortissimo where it is supposed to be soft and suave, he chuckles at his own thoughts.
His hands are heavy, it's his style, and he is just too intense to hold back on the piano, that's what everyone says. He does way better with powerful and heavy pieces than quiet, pianissimo ones. Creating his own music when what he is supposed to play is too soft.
He just thinks he is too lazy so his hands drop heavier on the piano.
Never mind that he isn't a pianist as great as his –austrian stuck up- former teacher; he can still rock the instrument if he wants.
As he finishes the piece the way it is supposed to go, he sighs. And then the sound of claps surrounds the room. He starts for a moment but turns to face the door.
"What are you doing here?" Not so surprised anymore, Lovino is frowning at the intruder.
"Someone stole your mail again." His eyes widen and he lets out curses and expletives that would have made the albino potato bastard proud. And Antonio is laughing at him. He blushes.
Antonio is just thinking he loves the way Lovino gets riled up by these things. And that maybe he would wait a bit more to stop that particular charade; He hasn't thought up on a new way to unsettle his friend yet, and he was having too much fun with his current prank.
"-Cazzo! And you saw the fucker run with my mail and did nothing?" Embarrassed and furious he looks back at the piano. The bastard is still chuckling as he answers.
"I didn't see anyone, just the broken lock, great idea by the way." Antonio couldn't be more amused.
Letting unintelligible words escape he thinks of what he will do, someone has been stealing his mail for over a week now. He thought putting a lock on the box would prevent any weird robber from reaching the contents inside. Why would anyone steal fucking mail anyway?
He looks back to his still chuckling visitor and glares. It's not funny.
Antonio stops laughing and approaches. He scoots back on his seat.
"Don't be like that! Maybe they just want to pay your bills!" He sits on the space he thought was being given to him and plays with some keys, a small smile on his face. Lovino is glaring again.
"You really think that or are you just that dumb?" And decides he already knows.
"I am-"Antonio starts.
"Don't answer that." Lovino shifts away, but their sides are still touching, and the matter is forgotten for the moment.
The sound of some random and sometimes broken notes isn't supposed to be calming, but it is right now. Like some forgotten lullaby wanting to resurface but struggling with clearer memories.
For his mind sake, he does try to resist. This isn't some gay movie where they bond over the piano. But in the end he puts up his left hand on the board again, and a strings of notes, just as broken but somewhat melodic as the other's rings in the air.
"What are you doing here Antonio?" Absently minded, he doesn't turn his face from the board, but glances at him through his bangs.
The other doesn't answer immediately, just stringing some notes together, a minimal frown on his face, as if trying to recall something. He hits some alternate notes adding a semitone to what his previous maneuvers were and his face clears up, a smile breaking across it.
"Playing the piano apparently." A round of melodic and not broken notes forms a little melody, but just enough to morph into two or three scales (but it was enough to trigger something in Lovino, almost breaking through). And he stops.
Lovino is surprised and faces him. Antonio is still smiling, his eyes glinting. He blushes.
He knows what he has to do. Damn these gay bondings.
He plays with his left, at the center of the piano, the same string of notes Antonio just did, and adds a different conjuncture at the graver notes, faster, heavier and more harmonic than melodic (he still doesn't remember it in full, but he was sure he would be playing it in the next minute).
Antonio picks it up then, going above his partner's hand and touching the graver notes, his notes are slower and staccato. He uses both hands' thumbs and little fingers.
Lovino starts again in the middle, but this time he doesn't press as hard on the keys, Antonio ends his part on the left side and goes over the right again, a melody is clear now, both using their hands, Lovino on the left, playing more harmony and a little melody and Antonio just melody.
He remember this piece now, Beethoven's Exodus is recognizable as it combines the two styles, forte and piano, heavy and soft, while a part does the grinding and hasty notes the other does easy, flowing ones. Combined it makes a completion of opposites. It is truly a beautiful creation. Not that anyone would hear it from his mouth. He may think about it, but he doesn't spout romantic poetic shit about music.
Now it's the part where both hands are quiet, gliding through the keys, crescendo, adding up the volume bit by bit, and then Lovino's hands are moving quickly, nor heavy, nor light, ghosting by the keys, it's Antonio's time to press down his hands, he is fast, but his notes are strident and adding weight to the song, like ying and yang, both of them trade places with their styles, but just a little so that they can still be distinguished as different.
The music quiets again, the jumble of heavy notes on Antonio parts stops and both are just ghosting over the keys.
The sound is distinct even then though, just quiet, sizing each note up.
After a moment of that, Lovino starts to press hard, Antonio moves fast, and both are doing forte now, their hands indistinguishable on the piano, hearts beating faster and adrenalin kicking up they continue their movements, at times their hands going over an arm to the other side. Thighs pressed close they lean over each other, their hands chasing one another on the board, when one has to move away the other instinctively gives way for the movement.
Alto and bass again, one starts to slow down, to control their hands, heart still beating fast and the other follows.
They continue their chase of slow and fast, heavy and light, completing each other a bit more, looking for one another until they reach the end, were Lovino's fast and grave notes indicate it's almost over and Antonio's repeated trills go until they both stop at the same time.
Pausing for breath they don't look at each other just yet, and Lovino's still trying to control his heartbeats when Antonio turns to him with a gentle smile on his face and trembling hands from the exercise.
"My hands kind of hurt now." He mumbles, afraid to disrupt the atmosphere.
"You were rusty, what'd expect?" Is the retort, but a fond smile appears on his face and he leans over to the taller guy.
"It's been awhile for me too, I just started playing again today." Lovino admits and Antonio puts his arm around his waist, both of them very close already.
A moment of silence, Lovino gets lost in his thoughts as he enjoys the other's company.
Feeling the arm tighten around him, he looks up, Antonio is pressing closer yet with an indistinguishable look in his eyes. Feeling the breathing on his face he is closing his eyes as another mouth cover his own.
They don't battle for dominance of the kiss. They complete each other, chasing one another, not trying to take control, just leading and being led from time to time.
Hands grabbing one's hair, gliding down the other's back they stay at this for some time.
Stopping for breath, still close to each other, Lovino looks in Antonio's eyes and sees the emotion there, probably the same reflected in his own.
"I love you." And one of them says it, not sure who did it, they repeat themselves.
Lovino laughs and Antonio smiles, happy, they stay in each other's arms like that until he says what he's been meaning to since the kiss.
Whispering in the taller man's ear, he is confident:
"Don't think I didn't notice the letters in your pocket." And he smacks the back of the jeans where the envelopes were being hidden.
Laughing, Antonio reaches down to the other's ear and says:
"Don't think I didn't notice you coping a feel." And laughs again when Lovino blushes and swats at his arm.
They didn't need much to be happy, just having these moments between themselves was enough. Life could throw many things at them, but Lovino swears, and he knows the other does the same, as long as they had one another everything would be fine. They would complete each other.
Forte or Fortissimos: heavy notes, indicates when the musician must force the sound to be loud (first term) or as loudest as possible (second term).
Piano or Pianissimos: soft sound, it's when the musician must soften the sound of the note (piano) and the softest as possible is pianissimo .
Trills: repeated, fast notes.
Staccato: note of shortened duration, it is pressed quickly so as to not prolong the sound too much.
Alto: high notes.
Bass: low notes.
Crescendo: escalating sound.
Scales: In music, a scale is a sequence of musical notes in ascending and descending order.
Melody: is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity. In its most literal sense, a melody is a combination of pitch and rhythm, while, more figuratively, the term has occasionally been extended to include successions of other musical elements such as tone color. It may be considered the foreground to the background accompaniment. A line or part need not be a foreground melody.
Harmony: is the use of simultaneous pitches (tones, notes), or chords. The study of harmony involves chords and their construction and chord progressions and the principles of connection that govern them. Harmony is often said to refer to the "vertical" aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic line, or the "horizontal" aspect. It is the oppositeof melody, generally the background accompaniment.
Semitone: also called a half step or a half tone, is the smallest musical interval commonly used in Western tonal music, and it is considered the most dissonant when sounded harmonically. It is defined as the interval between two adjacent notes in a 12-tone scale (e.g. from C to C ). This implies that its size is exactly or approximately equal to 100 cents, a twelfth of an octave.
A/N: I think that's it, this is just something I did when plot bunnies attacked. Though it ended up different from what I originally wanted, I hope you guys like it. I'm sorry if there is something wrong with the terminology or anything like that, because though I finished my piano education, it's been years since I last touched the technical parts of music.
Also, Happy Valentine's!
Please comment, it would help me know where I can do better.
The piece they play is Exodus - Beethoven.