summer nights & silent sonatas
.
cause I think you're from another world,
and I, I couldn't have another girl,
'cause you, you make me feel like I'm intoxicated
.
— intoxicated, the cab
.
.
It's unspoken by now — instinctive. It's second nature for him, a wandering, restless soul, to succumb to the pull in his heart, leading him, guided by moonlight through the dark to that canopy in the park square.
Ikuto feels it every now and again. He hears its voice on the breeze — that voice that rides on the breath of the wind and comes to tease him, to lure him, to pique his interest again and again and again until he cannot help but rise to his feet and follow it aimlessly through the streets.
It pulls him.
It tells him that this night is a promising night.
He finds himself here.
And Ikuto realises that his hunch was right. He realises that the pull is to be trusted, for he spots pink sat on the steps and when she smiles at him she dazzles brighter than the stars above — glows brighter than the moon in the sky.
Ikuto still has visions sometimes when he cannot sleep — when the darkness is too thick; when the shadows of his teenage years come creeping up on him; when he wakes in cold sweats with that haunting pizzicato still ringing in his ears — of that light falling from the heavens, angelic and overpowering, pushing back whatever still lurks at the back of his consciousness…
A diamond falling from the heavens, snapping him out of his stupor, sending warmth throughout his chest…
A shooting star glowing bright as he stands silently beneath the canopy and raises the violin to his chin.
He hasn't said 'hello'. He doesn't need to. So many nights they've spent here together, they don't need those trivial words. Not anymore.
Amu's face lights up, bathed in the glow of the night sky, and turns to face him, silent, expectant.
She once said that his notes were otherworldly — so beautiful and uplifting that she thought she had been transported to another time.
Ikuto disagrees.
He's stood beside a fallen star, after all.
And so he just closes his eyes and raises his bow and he pours his soul into whatever masterpiece flows from his fingertips; focusing his mind, his body, his spirit into something that he hopes will earn him another breathtaking beam from that little ray of light sat beneath him on the steps, watching up in awe, her eyes as wide and bright as paper lanterns in the dark.
She soaks up his music as he drinks in her light and by the time he's finished, the chill of the night doesn't bother him, nor the whistle of the breeze, for he feels warmer than he has in days.
Amu calms his soul. Her presence clears the fog in Ikuto's head, helps him forget. He is soaring, his heart so light and mind so free that he feels as though he could seize her hand and take her dancing way up high in the haze of the moon, set in the sky as constellations for all eternity…
But, most of all, she understands — understands him in ways no one else ever could…
And that's all he needs.
He doesn't even need to say those three flawless words on his mind.
Because Amu already knows.
Besides, Ikuto's known he's loved her for years.
They just need these nights together — sat together with only the flowing notes and the twinkling stars to bear witness to their company.
And even when the night begins to wane, even when the moon lacks its lustre and the gleam of the stars begins to fade... all he has to do is glance towards her and instantly he feels that pull tug at his heart anew.
Because she shines so much brighter than all of them combined.
.