You can learn a lot about someone from what they do when they think you aren't watching. It can show as much about them as what they would rescue from a burning building, what motivates them, when they're vulnerable, and who they trust to know it.
Isabella taps.
Not particularly loudly, it's tiny, inconsequential, just a quiet tha-dum, tha-dum, tha-da-da-da-da-dum in the background, but it makes him wonder why she keeps it secret. Sebastian's the same, always tapping out some new rhythm – on the walls,on tables, plates, his own neck – but Isabella never adds even the slightest hesitation.
After a while, he gets so used to it that when she's not there, he taps it out himself – tha-dum, tha-dum, tha-da-da-da-da-dum on his thighs while he waits for the bus to take him into town at the weekends. Bizarrely, when the bus actually arrives, he finds the rhythm more engrossing than the book Nonno finally trusted him enough to let him take out with him, and starts to make it more challenging, adding complexities every few repetitions.
He doesn't even notice Isabella when they reach her stop, not until she pushes his bag tumbling to the floor so she can sit down herself.
"It's good to see you were looking out for me," she laughs. If she recognises her rhythm, she doesn't show it, and begins to join in, flicking her wrist to make a double beat at the end of each phrase with a sly glint in her eye. He retaliates by scraping his palm across his thigh on the offbeat, and it becomes a battle of rhythms, adding and changing complexities to vary the rhythm so far it's almost unrecognisable.
They're so caught up in their game, Lovino only remembers they're on public transport when he feels everyone else staring at him.
"Maybe we should stop," he whispers to Isabella.
"Huh?" She looks confused, but that's hardly any different from usual.
"All these people are staring at us," he looks around, suddenly embarrassed. "It's really awkward."
"They're just jealous they haven't the skills to join in," she winks, but offers him a headphone and attempts the cheesiest dancing possible, which is obviously just as embarrassing, but soon he's too busy pretending not to laugh to care.
A/n: I'm so sorry, all my good intentions, and I'd forgotten to finish writing this chapter. It wasn't written with the main body of the story, so that should explain any inconsistencies, but it's up now, anyway.