A/N: Was playing some game where you had to be the main character of the last anime you watched. Seeing as the last one I had watched was K-ON!, I was left with either the music store clerk, Ritsu's brother, or the male teacher. So instead I said I was Mio's boyfriend/lover who plays an important part of the series though is never seen nor mentioned. After some laughs, it led to this idea.
K-ON!
Another Way To Do Things
She looked wistfully at the basses lining the wall of the store, trying to keep the greedy and jealous look off her face. She knew deep down that she had no reason to feel that way. Her trusty Fender Jazz, affectionately named "Elizabeth" by Yui, had yet to let her down. For what they played, it suited their purpose. And yet, she couldn't help but want more. She knew that with a five-string, or even a six-string bass, she could add in new ranges of lows and highs that only Mugi could match on her keyboard. She remembered watching people playing six-string basses through delay pedals, and had become entranced by the sound. She longed to play like that, but knew deep down it wouldn't happen. At least, not with her current budget.
Sometimes, she had to admit it really did suck to be a left-handed musician.
As she continued to stare at the store's very small collection of left-handed basses on the wall, she noticed a man walk up to the counter next to her. He looked her age, and definitely not from Japan. If she had to guess, he must have been from somewhere in America.
"I'm here to pick up an order. Richards, Scott." he said in accent-less English.
"Of course, Sir." the clerk replied, typing something into the computer in front of him. "One fretless bass, one highly modified Fender Precision, and one modified Strat, correct?"
"Yes." he said simply.
"Alright, can you sign this please." the clerk said, pulling out a print-out. He handed a pen to the man and Mio watched in shock as he took the pen and signed his name.
He was left-handed.
Not only that, but he was a left-handed bassist.
"It will be a few minutes, Sir." the clerk said, taking the print-out. "Feel free to browse what we have while you wait."
"I'll do that." he said, nodding his head slightly. The clerk walked away, and Mio walked up to him. She opened her mouth to say hello when he turned sharply and bumped into her. She lost her balance and started to fall when he caught her.
"Thank you." she said, her English slightly broken. Ever since their trip to London, and the problems the language barrier caused, she had taken her English classes far more serious than the others. Still, only two years of classes would never be enough to put her on par with someone who seemed to be a native of the language.
"Are you alright?" he asked, his voice steady. She nodded her head, doing her best not to blush. She couldn't stop all of it though, and was glad for the first time that Ritsu had turned her down on coming to the music store today. She knew if anyone she knew saw her right now, they would never let her live it down. He helped her steady herself, and then stepped back.
"I'm Akiyama Mio." she said, noticing her voice was slightly star-struck. She shook her head slightly before blushing a bit more. "Um, I mean I'm, uh." she stammered. He simply smiled a bit and bowed slightly.
"Watashi no namae wa Richazu Sukotto des." he said, getting her to open her eyes in shock. "Yes, I do speak some Japanese. Just enough to introduce myself, and then get beat up." he continued with a small chuckle at the last statement.
"You play a fretless?" she asked a moment, mentally beating herself. Everything she could say, and she says that?
"Yeah, I do." he replied, walking up to the wall of basses. She watched in interest as he picked up a fretless and plugged it into a Fender amp. He hit the octaves, making sure it was tuned. He nodded his head a second later before he started to play.
She watched, shocked, as his hand moved along the neck of the bass as if it was nothing. She heard him hit the notes perfectly, adjusting on the fly as needed. He then threw all her known skills aside and reached up to detune the E to a D in the middle of playing. He moved high up the neck and continued to play, letting the D and the A add the low-end to the song. He then started to tap the notes in the low octave while playing the notes in the high octave through tapping as well.
As he finished, he returned the string to an E and held it out to her.
"I..." she trailed off, embarrassed to admit she couldn't play both right and left-handed like he could.
"I know it's intimidating the first time you play a fretless." he said, taking her hesitation as a fear of playing a fretless for the first time. "This one could use some work on the intonation, but it's close enough for jazz."
"I can't play both right and left-handed like you." she blurted out. She watched as he lowered the bass and cocked an eyebrow at her.
"I can't play left-handed." he said. "Feels wrong to me."
"But..." she trailed off, racking her brain. "But you signed that receipt left-handed!"
"Yeah, I did." he replied. "However, with the exception of writing and eating, everything else I do is right-handed. It just feels right to me. Though..." he trailed off, looking sheepish for a moment. "It was a pain to learn to tie my shoes as a kid."
"I wish I could play right-handed." she said, turning to look at the small selection of left-handed basses they had. "I can never seem to find anything I can use."
"Then why don't you Jimi Hendrix it?" he asked, his voice implying it was the most simple answer on the face of the earth, as he unplugged the bass and put it back up on the wall. She turned to look at him, confused for a moment before her eyes grew big.
"I...I never..." she trailed off, already thinking of the possibilities. It would take a few days to get used to the controls being on the top, but she would have an entire selection she thought she would never play at her finger-tips.
"Ah, your instruments, Sir." the clerk said, breaking Mio out of her thoughts. She turned to see the clerk had set three hard cases on the counter. She saw Scott smile and walk up to the counter. He picked them up with a practiced ease and turned to leave. As he passed her, though, he stopped and turned to look at her.
"You in a band?" he asked.
"Yes." she said, blushing again. "It's called...well...it's called Ho-kago Tea Time." she said. "Our old club advisor in high school gave us the name because we couldn't come up with a name."
"You playing anytime soon?"
"Uh..." she said, trying not to look him in the eye. "We're kind of a...well...girly band." she said, voicing it for the first time. She looked up at him after a moment to see him smiling softly.
"Well maybe I'll look you guys up." he said, giving a small bow again. "I'll go to see the bassist."
With that, he walked out of the store, leaving a blushing Mio behind him.
-End-
A/N: Firstly, no. The bassist isn't "me" so much as my knowledge of instruments and knowledge of being left-handed (though I really do only write and eat left-handed). This piece isn't going to turn into some long love story about two musicians, one a young girl from Japan and the other a touring musician from America (at least, I doubt it will). It's more my way of pointing out the fact that Mio complains about the lack of left-handed instruments, while ignoring the fact that Jimi Hendrix played a right-handed Fender Strat strung left-handed with the front strap-pin replaced on the lower horn in order to play it left-handed.