Melody
Elliot had always claimed he could not sing, no matter how many times his valet insisted that he string a few words together and perform to one of the melodies he loved to write.
"It doesn't need words, the music speaks for itself," he would say with a huff, before, once again, insisting that he could not and would not sing.
Leo never gave up, though. It became part of his funny little game of taking something that mildly annoyed Elliot and turning it into a rage trigger simply by mentioning it too many times. He would volunteer Elliot when the teacher looked for vocalists, and the young Nightray would refuse loudly every time. He wrote words to music and suggested duets or asked for singing lessons. He requested, out of the blue, for the boy to sing him to sleep, and every time Elliot's face would turn red and his eye would do that funny twitching thing it so often did when he was embarrassed and angry at the same time (which happened far more often than Elliot would ever admit).
He never did convince Elliot to sing for him. The joke had gone too far, to the point that the youngest Nightray would refuse just to spite his servant. However… One day in mid-winter, Leo had spent too long in the cold library without a blanket to keep him warm and had caught a fever. He was bedbound for several days, which would have been fine if he hadn't been so uncomfortable and dizzy that he couldn't even focus long enough to make out an entire sentence on a page.
Frustrated, he had tried to sleep it off, but it proved impossible when being covered made him too hot and removing his blanket made him too cold. Elliot had come to visit him often. In fact, though Leo hadn't noticed it at the time, Elliot had spent all his free time in his servant's room, chatting idly or reading to himself. One evening, when an exhausted Leo had finished explaining to his master that he couldn't simply sleep when he was tired due to his discomfort, the dark-haired teen and suggested that the Nightray try to sing him to sleep.
"For the last time, I can't sing! Moron!" Elliot yelled, actually throwing his book at the sick teenager. Leo had chuckled quietly, but was too tired to carry the joke any further. Wrapping himself in thin sheets, he closed his eyes and tried to rest, unable to keep his mind off his sweaty hands, or fuzzy head, or burning face, or shivering limbs…
He had not noticed Elliot crossing the room and taking a seat on the bed next to him. He hadn't felt the teen's hand resting gently on his shoulder through the duvet, or noticed the stiffness of his form before he took a deep breath to calm himself.
But he heard… No words, but a quiet, gentle melody… It sounded like… Statique? But… It wasn't a piano, it was…
Leo forced one eye open, his blurry vision focusing on the form of his master sitting beside him, eyes closed, face relaxed, his thumb rubbing slowly back and forth against Leo's shoulder and…
He was humming… Statique… he was…
And it didn't matter that there were no words, it didn't matter that Elliot never had, and never would sing for him, because in the end singing just wasn't Elliot's style. When he used his voice, when he spoke, he did so freely, only conforming to the rules of melody with his hands on the keys of a piano. But this… pure melody, pure music, a song for Leo… a song that would always be theirs… It was…
He drifted into a peaceful sleep after that, feeling a strange, excited warmth in his chest that hadn't been there before.
And the next day, when he was feeling much, much better, he made no teasing comment about his master's kind gesture… Just a simple 'thank you', and a gentle brushing of fingers against the palm of Elliot's hand, before he moved to the piano and began to play their melody with all his heart…
[End]