A/N: Piano prompt from Tumblr. This will be a multi-chaptered fic. Chapters, I'm planning on so far is just 3, but that may be subject to change. I have two pieces in which inspired this ficlet, the first played by Levi and the second played by Levi and Mikasa.
For those interested in listening along they are:
Toccata and Fugue in D Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach. (the right version I couldn't find worth my own life on youtube or anywhere else save spotify - so here's the link for it. k - lionheart dot tumblr dot com / post / 64754275573 /so - someone - asked - me - once - upon - a - time - what - version
just eliminate the spaces and connect the dots.
Passacaglia (piano duet) by Handel-Halvorsen. (if you want an exact sound to how I pictured it - go and search it on youtube under passacaglia piano duet - the fourth result is the video with the version closest to how I've learned to play the piece.)
(sidenote: Toccata translates from Italian meaning, Touched.)
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Toccata
Summary:
She had been wandering, cast in insomnia. When she heard a melody on an instrument she had never heard before. Suddenly, she is desperate to find it and when she does, the hand she had once loathed for its violence extends the invitation to create. There are only tears in her eyes and a burning in her hand where their skin meets.
The night was merciless. Where the day had been bright and overwhelming, the night crushed and consumed. Mikasa stared deep into the dark, hands curling and reaching for the cobwebs of sleep to lull her into oblivion. But there was no comfort tonight, nothing save tantalizing shadows and laughing silence.
She sits up, fists clenching in order to stop the trembling and she stands. Placing pale and slender feet on the cool ground, Mikasa escapes the dark of her room and begins to tread. Her footsteps padded the ground gently as she tried to focus on the scarce moonlight, silver and soft and bright.
The woman worth one hundred soldiers stops to gaze out a window, staring at the full moon with the haunted look of someone being chased by their demons.
She can't stop now.
She continues walking.
It is silent. People were sleeping and she was nowhere near where soldiers did their rounds at this point in the dark. All she can hear is the sound of her footsteps and shaky breathing.
Mikasa wanders, aimlessly and without destination, only caring for the feel of the air against her exposed arms and legs. She realizes then that she left her scarf on the foot of her bed and feels cold.
It is silent. That is... wait...
Mikasa stopped, a frown etching shadows on her face as she struggles to listen. Silence... until she can hear it. There. What is that?
She moves again and she is walking faster now, curious. Mikasa turns down a hallway and feels a rush when she realizes it was getting louder. She is jogging, feet silence against the cool ground and she is running up the stairs and turning down another hallway before stopping, abrupt and gasping.
It was a song. A music so strange to her but it was enticing, drawing her in with its somber tones and low rhythms.
Standing before two large doors she frowns again. I don't remember this... where am I?
Her hand is touching the handle and with a deep breath she pressed and softly turns it, grateful that it made no noise save a gentle clack. She pushes the door and peeks in and her breath is stuck in her throat.
The room was bare save one large table looking instrument soaked in moonlight, and before it sat, back facing her, the familiar body of the Lance Corporal Levi.
She is in the room and she blinks, unsure when she had crossed the threshold of the door and when she closed it. But she was mesmerized, listening to the ever so sad music with wide eyes.
A tear spills over an eye and lands on her chest. Mikasa bites her lip, puzzled as to why this music was affecting her so much. Even more so when she realized the feeling of loathing she had for the Corporal didn't manifest itself like it usually did. Instead there was only surprise and awe.
How could this be? How could hands that have been trained and used to harm and destroy Titans, hands that had ripped into Eren's hair to yank cruelly and cause pain... make music so beautiful?
His hands suddenly slammed into the keys, the chord startling her into a tiny gasp as the song crescendo'ed and lifted before gently softening, gently slowing, before tenderly uniting in final chords. The last one was low and strong even though it had been played so carefully. Mikasa could feel it in her chest and the silence that followed was no longer laughing and taunting... but reverent. Still.
"How long do you plan to stand there gawking?" Levi's voice made her jump and Mikasa looked away, throwing her hands to wipe at the tears in her eyes.
"How did you know I was here?" Mikasa asked and Levi's shoulders tensed. He turned, face caressed by moonlight and the light bounced off his narrow blue eyes, making them glow like something out of this world.
"I could hear you sniffling," Levi replied, even and without any hind of dryness or sarcasm. Mikasa frowned, even so.
"I wasn't sniffling," She denied, looking away and at the instrument in front of him. "What... what is that?"
"It's called a piano." Levi said again, tearing his vibrant gaze from her to stare solemnly at the black and white keys. His hand caressed the top with a tenderness that a loving mother would have for her child.
"Come," He said again and turned in the bench facing the keys again. Mikasa hesitated, torn. But curiosity was a wretched mistress and before Mikasa could find a good reason to leave she was walking down the large empty room to stand by Levi, awkwardly.
"Sit," He ordered and she slid next to him, the bench creaking under her added weight.
"Play with me." He says again and Mikasa looks at him in shock. He meets her eyes, unabashed. She dry swallows before clearing her throat, softly.
"I...don't know how." She protests. He doesn't seem perturbed, instead he lifts his hands and rests them against the keys and Mikasa stares, fascinated. The moonlight bounced off his skin, shining off the keys in a picture so lovely Mikasa wishes she knew how to draw. Huh.
"I'll teach you." He says again and begins to play some of the keys, going up and down. "This is a scale."
He plays some at once. "This is a chord."
He plays some in a certain rhythm, and they let out a lovely stream of notes that Mikasa listens to, speechless. "The black keys are known as the sharps and flats of the regular notes, listen. There are different kinds of scales and different kinds of chords. Certain pitches and sounds that work well together, and others that don't. "
He plays some keys and the sound comes out discordant. Mikasa realizes she's nodding until he looks at her.
"You get that?" He asks, her eyes are on his mouth. Mikasa tears her gaze away, biting her lip.
"Try." He urges, and she reels in confusion and surprise. This was not the Levi she was familiar with. The Corporal who demanded for movement with sharp commands, not suggesting softly with half-lidded eyes.
Unable to stop herself, Mikasa lifts a hand and begins to play some of the keys in the first scale Levi showed her. When she looks at him, His eyes are wider and something in his gaze tells her he is pleased.
"Very good." He praises and Mikasa feels like someone punched her in the gut. What was this? Who was this man? Certainly not Levi Rivaille. I'm dreaming... I must be.
"I'm going to play the Harmony, I will teach you the melody." He begins and Mikasa begins to protest but he silences her with a simple shake of his head.
"It's very simple," He soothes. Mikasa is gaping. "Let me show you."
He is pressing keys in a descending scale before ascending and finishing in the black keys. It is slow, but Mikasa catches on quick and her hands are following his movements easily and then smoothly.
"You have a natural musical ear, Ackerman." Levi murmurs and Mikasa glances at him, unsure how to reply to that, instead she nods and quietly thanks him.
"Now, that you've learned this much, I will play. I will repeat the chords until you feel good in joining like I taught you."
Mikasa feels nervous when his hands start working the lower keys, but as she listens Mikasa feels something. Something in her chest she had never felt before, as if she knew how to match his slow moving rhythm.
She begins to press the keys, following and Levi accompanies her. Mikasa is startled when the chord he plays shifts to another, and she pressed a key that sounded off. Levi stopped and Mikasa looks away, embarrassed.
"S...Sorry." She apologizes quickly, letting her hands fall.
"It's fine." Levi shrugs. "Try again."
He begins to play the beginning chord gently, repeating a couple of times until Mikasa felt ready to follow. Her fingers press the keys again and this time she does not mess up when he switches chords. They continue this for a short while, before she finishes the notes he had taught her.
When she looks away from the keys, Mikasa feels her lips tighten upon catching the small smile on his lips.
"That was good," He murmurs. "Now add these notes..."
The lesson continued and he walked her through it, repeating when she stumbled and continuing when she got it. Soon, Mikasa was playing the melody smoothly and Levi played one of the chords with a flourish before raising the tempo.
Mikasa did not disappoint, following and matching his rhythm the more she followed the feeling in her chest. She was swaying now, feeling the rise and fall of the music in her soul as they played well into the night.
It was one of the most beautiful things she had ever heard and something was bursting with joy inside her when Mikasa realized she was doing this. She was making something beautiful, and the hatred she felt for Levi was crumbling when she appreciated doing it with him.
But all that stopped abruptly when her hand brushed against his right and just like that the music stopped, their skin still touching.
Mikasa froze, staring at the way the moonlight spread from his long fingers to her slender digits. Feeling something different she glanced up, only to meet Levi's eyes, staring at her with something she had not expected and could not pin point.
It was as if the bit of skin that touched his was being overwhelmed with warmth, spreading from her hand to her chest and body. Making her heart suddenly pound a little harder and thrum a little thicker in her ears. And no matter how she tried, Mikasa could not look away from the intensity in his eyes.
Blue met Onyx evenly, fiercely yet smoothly. Silent like the moonlight around them. When, ever so slowly, his eyes moved from hers to glide down her face and rest on her mouth and Mikasa could feel her mouth go dry.
Mikasa did not know how long he stared at her lips, but it must've been forever and a short moment all at once. Because all she could do was look down and look at Levi's lips and wondered if they would feel as soft as they looked.
There was a moment that held them both back. Neither moved, holding very still as if they didn't know if they should cross the very fine line the hung between them and was pressed tightly between the crevice where their hands touched.
It must have been eons before His eyes looked back into hers and then back down and Mikasa realized he was leaning in, tilting his head just millimeters to the side.
She felt her eyelids flutter, unable to breathe when she felt the softest brush on her lips and Mikasa began to lean in, as if pulled toward him.
Their lips just barely managed to graze into each other when there was a faint bang outside the doors, snapping Mikasa back into reality. She pulled away, startled and cheeks burning before scrambling up. Mikasa's fingers stretched and clenched into her fists a couple of times as she tried to gather her thoughts, unable to meet Levi's surprised and dazed look.
"I-I... I should go." She stammered, heart pounding loudly into her chest.
"Mikasa..." He breathed and Mikasa looked at him, a rolling turmoil of emotions flashing like neon through her eyes and searing into his.
"Thank you... for the beautiful music." She spoke again, clenching her fists one last time at her side. Something in his expression seemed to fall, a faint slump in his shoulders at her words when he nodded.
"Goodnight, Corporal." Mikasa bade. Levi said nothing for a short morning.
"Goodnight... Ackerman." He replied softly and Mikasa whirled, her feet doing half moons as she turned away and all but ran out the room.
Walking away, Mikasa tried to focus more on the way her feet struck the stone beneath instead of how her hand burned with memory of his touch and how her lips ached for the butterfly feel of his mouth.
I hate him. Mikasa chanted in her mind, over and over to remind herself of how he had hurt Eren once upon a time. How he was almost responsible for how Eren had almost been taken by Annie. But those reasons slowly fell apart in the cover of the night and the silence offered no comfort to her denial - only truth. Try as she might, Mikasa couldn't feel it - that spark of loathing for the Corporal. Instead her mind rang with other memories of how he stood by Eren and defended him, how he had spun with uncanny grace and speed - ripping into Annie's Titan form like paper when so many others had failed.
And now the image of him, drenched in moonlight, playing such solemn notes in the dark haunted her and consumed her until she reached her room and she fell into her bed.
Exhausted, Mikasa let out a shuddered breath and wondered if he was still there sitting on that bench in silence or surrounded in music and before Mikasa could dwell more on the music she had played with him, her eyelids drooped and she drifted off to a dreamless sleep.
Fin