It had been a week and Tezuka was going insane. It seemed that he couldn't go five minutes without seeing Fuji. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing all the time. In fact, it was quite nice when he ended up walking behind Fuji in the hallway and managed to get a very nice view of the genius's ass. It was also nice to be in the same changing room as him for dance, but it was much harder to get away with starring at him then.
The bad part was dance class. Fuji was an amazing dancer while Tezuka felt lucky to survive every class. It was even worse when they got out of dance class and walked down the hallways together to get to Philharmonic. Fuji walked out of class without even being short of breath while Tezuka was a sweaty mess of burning muscles. Even if he had dared try and start up a conversation with the dancer, Tezuka would probably be too out of breath to speak.
He continued watching Fuji (in the least stalker-ish way possible) waiting for the perfect moment to speak to him. The opportunity presented itself with a tall friendly boy named Kawamura. Tezuka rarely talked to him because the boy played bass and was always on the opposite side of the orchestra, but he was the type of person that everyone liked and everyone knew.
Kawamura was talking happily with Fuji when he gestured Tezuka over. He stood trying not to wobble on sore legs and self-consciously wiping some lingering sweat off his forehead. When he'd maneuvered to where Taka was the tall boy immediately introduced them.
Fuji smiled warmly at him saying in an angelic voice, "I've heard that you're the best violinist to come here in years."
Tezuka blushed despite himself. It was true, he was the best, but he'd never expected praise from someone as perfect as Fuji. The stoic boy replied nervously, "I guess I am. I've heard you're an amazing dancer."
Fuji shrugged and accepted the praise with the same nonchalant attitude, "I'm not the best, but I will be."
Taka snorted and said, "That's a pretty brave statement. Can you back it up?"
"I never say anything that I cannot back up", replied the beautiful boy calmly opening his eyes to give Kawamura a pointed look. When the gaze was turned on Tezuka, he felt his mouth drying up and a fresh line of sweat beaded on his forehead.
He stuttered nervously at a loss for words. It wasn't until those beautiful blue eyes closed again that he was able to talk. "That's a good thing. There're too many kids in this school that act like they're the best thing that ever lived."
"Like you're friend?" commented Fuji, "The silver-haired one."
Kawamura and Tezuka glanced at each other and the taller boy burst out laughing. Fuji looked between them with confusion. Tezuka commented with a faint smile playing on his lips, "You're an excellent judge of character."
Fuji laughed as well and something in Tezuka's chest fluttered. Beautiful, smart, musical, and funny. This boy had everything and he didn't even seem to realize it. Wishing he could spend all practice chatting with him, but Ryuzaki entered and they all scurried back to their seats.
Practice was going perfectly, until about halfway through the second movement of Peer Gynt when Ryuzaki stopped. Without her saying anything, the first chair cellist told his stand partner, "You forgot the F sharps."
"Shut up, Kaidoh", snapped Momoshiro, "I know that. I'm fixing it"
"Maybe you should mark it in your music", suggested Ryuzaki.
"It is marked", said Kaidoh, "Twice"
"It was one time", exclaimed Momo angrily, "You were playing in the entirely wrong key at the beginning of the first movement"
In an attempt to stop the childish bickering that always resulted from the heads of the cello section being in the same room together, Inui said, "You're both right and Momo, you're A string is approximately 1/12 steps flat."
Momo rolled his eyes and retuned the string muttering, "You always take his side"
Ryuzaki suddenly remember something and said excitedly, "Have I explained the showcase to this group?"
They all shook their heads as she continued, "This year, we're invited to send nine kids to play in a huge showcase with some of the world's top professionals. The auditions will be next month and we'll have to choose three soloists and three duets to send to the showcase. The auditions are open to any singer or string player, so you'll be competing with all the choruses as well as the other orchestras. Anyone who's interested in trying out, take one of the blue papers that I'll leave on the stand after rehearsal.
Practice began again, but now everyone was whispering during any break they had. A big showcase like that didn't happen often. Usually the only excitement like that came from challenges, speaking of which.
"We have two challenges this week", said Ryuzaki calmly, "Momoshiro's challenging Kaidoh", everyone groaned just like they did every week, "and Echizen Ryoma is challenging Inui"
Inui's expression changed into one of interest. It was quite daring for a freshman to even attempt a challenge, let alone challenging the second chair after less than a week with the music.
They started off with the "dueling cellos" as Kaidoh and Momo were nicknamed due to the tradition of challenging each other every week. Tezuka zoned out and concentrated on looking at Fuji's face without making it obvious that he was looking. The genius was pretty far away and there were too many people in the way to get a clear view. Tezuka gave up and turned back to watch Momo flying through a particularly difficult sight reading passage.
Ryuzaki constantly tried to deter the cellos from challenging each other by making the sight reading harder, but neither of them would stop. Every time Momo was bumped to second chair, he got pissed off and challenged Kaidoh. In turn when Kaidoh lost, he immediately challenged Momo.
By the time they'd both played, Ryuzaki had a very bored look on her face. Instead, of deciding herself, she turned to Inui asking, "What do you think?"
He replied swiftly, "Momo's threes were all a little sharp, but Kaidoh miscounted 37% more rests"
She looked back at the two chairs and said, "Just switch already"
Momo grinned happily and Kaidoh sighed and they switched. Ryuzaki turned to the first violin section saying, "Peer Gynt, In the Hall of the Mountain King. You play first Echizen"
The small freshman asked, "What measure?"
"Play the fast part. You know what I'm talking about and I can't read these little measure numbers"
Echizen lifted his instrument and began playing the end part perfectly without any hesitation. He glanced up to whispers in the group. Freshman never played like that. Inui was unaffected by this and lifted his own violin. He played the same part just as perfectly, as you'd expected from him.
Ryuzaki's eyes glittered in interest. She handed them both sight reading and waited for a minute. Tezuka didn't dare interrupt Inui as he concentrated on the piece in front. Tezuka recognized the piece. It had been the same one that he'd played when he challenged the first chair last year. It was a famous piece that anyone with any knowledge of classical music would recognize, but few people actually knew the proper rhythm and therein lay the challenge.
Echizen played first again and to Tezuka's trained ear, it was nearly perfect. Several notes were slightly off and he'd skipped a beat near the end, though. All eyes turned to Inui who still wore a stony look of calm. He played through the song easily and Tezuka heard similar mistakes, but he couldn't figure out which of the boys had really been better.
When Inui finished, he immediately stood up without waiting for the official results. "I made 7% more mistakes than Echizen. I will accept defeat."
Ryuzaki sighed and said, "You're right. Echizen move to the front. Everyone else, move back one seat"
Commotion filled the room as the small boy moved to the front with a cocky grin on his face. He sat next to Tezuka without gloating. The boy didn't even look old enough to be a freshman. He had dark hair and large golden eyes that seemed to say, "I'm so much better than you".
When the conductor turned to remind, Niou, a silver-haired violist, that since he played viola that he couldn't challenge anyone in the second viola section, Tezuka asked Echizen, "Why didn't you challenge me?"
The boy grinned smugly and said, "I knew that I was good enough to beat him and I wasn't sure if I was better than you… yet"
Tezuka ignored the kid's overconfidence. Echizen was good, but he was nowhere Tezuka's level and wouldn't be for at least another year. The violinist made sure to grab the information for the showcase before it he left. Inui had the same idea and they walked out together discussing who would potentially win.
Tezuka suggested, "If any of the singers are going to get this, then it would defiantly be Eiji and Oishi. They'd probably try for one of the duets"
Inui nodded and said, "I was thinking of trying for a duet myself. Maybe, I could play with Kaidoh"
"You two don't usually play the same style of music though", said Tezuka, "Doesn't he prefer baroque and you play modern"
"There is always room for compromise. Who do you expect to get the solos, besides yourself?"
That was a hard question. There were many musicians in the school that were near professional level, after all. "Niou will definitely try out. So will Mizuki and Yagyuu. We might want to watch out for Echizen, too. He doesn't seem content with second chair."
"Don't forget Kawamura and Jackal. They're always complaining that basses don't get enough solos."
"You haven't mentioned me yet", said an angelic voice behind them. Tezuka almost dropped his case as Fuji grinned at them, "Or is it only first chairs that are worthy of your attention?"
Tezuka blustered immediately, "Of course not. It's just that usually only first chairs get solos."
"You shouldn't be so sure about that," said Fuji with an innocent smile.
The next week, Fuji challenged Niou, crushed him, and took his spot as first chair viola. The class all watched Fuji take his new spot with fear. After practice Fuji walked over to Tezuka saying, "Now that I'm first chair, am I worthy of notice?"
Tezuka gaped at the boy, unsure of how to reply. He'd never intended to compete with the boy and after hearing him play, the concert master wasn't sure he wanted to. Fuji waited until he realized that Tezuka wasn't going to reply and then left without another word. Tezuka turned to Inui and asked, "Could you tell me what just happened?"
Inui watched beautiful boy walk away saying, "I believe there is a 96% chance that you currently have a new rival."
AN: Momo and Kaidoh are exactly like my stand partner and me. We're always competing over stupid things and bickering in the middle of rehearsal. We're also secretly planning on taking over the second violin section, but that's a different story.
