The Heart Thief Who Played Chopin

Chapter 2- Melody and Cantabile

Hayner huffed in exasperation as he read over the math problem again. His review sheets lay scattered on the table marked with red x's and blank spaces everywhere. By now, the boy was tugging as his hair so hard, he thought his skin might disengage itself from his scalp any second.

'I'M SO SCREWED FOR THE MATH TEST!' his mind literally screamed, as Hayner flew off his chair and jumped onto his bed. He wasn't frustrated at his mathematic skills; in fact, he understood radians, unit circles, and sine laws perfectly well…well, as good as Hayners come. It was the fact that a certain someone had to waltz in on his relaxation time with nothing better to do than to make him feel like a complete idiot for having the same dream for three weeks and being honest about it! Whenever he and Seifer had gotten into an argument, Hayner couldn't concentrate. It was as if a massive red cloud would settle on his brain and drain out any legitimate or logical thoughts he had. Usually those moments of anger wouldn't last very long….but today was different. Hayner wasn't sure why he felt that way; not only was his head throbbing, but his chest seemed to collapse in on itself, squeezing the blood out of his heart that seemed to pump twice as hard just to overcome the sensation of suffocation. Amidst these feelings, Hayner knew that it wasn't just anger; but Seifer…Seifer kind of broke his heart.

He wasn't sure when it started, but it happened; more than once. When he was in arguments with Seifer, he could notice that the blonde wasn't exactly himself; it was almost as if they were arguing for the sake of arguing; for the sake of being rivals….but are they really still rivals?

'Of course we are! As long as he continues to live in Twilight town, we're rivals! I won't let him have his way and he won't let me have mine!' screamed the desperate 10-year old Hayner living in his head.

….But he wasn't ten anymore; and neither was Seifer. Maybe Rai and Fuu didn't notice, but Hayner could tell that sometimes…just sometimes, the blonde only cussed back at him to show his unwavering image as the leader of the Disciplinary Committee to his henchmen. The roll of his eyes when he talked, the unnatural way he brushed his hair off his forehead, the forced attitude of annoyance and cynicism in his voice…Hayner could see, and hear it all. Of course, all of those were very subtle notions, but Hayner still saw them. He wasn't sure why, and he didn't care for it much either. It wasn't anything special, right?

Hayner let out another sigh, frustrated at the amount of thought he had put into Seifer when he should have been studying for his dreaded math test. But he found his mind numb from his anger, and he didn't feel like thinking anymore. All he wanted to do was….sleep. After a few moments of blank thoughts, Hayner finally gave in and gratefully closed his eyes, allowing himself to drift far away from the stressful world he lived in, back to his dream world, where he could once again hear the music.

…It took a while for the dream to appear in his mind, but it came, as expected. Hayner took a while to adjust his position in the dream. This time, his surroundings came as a surprise to him; he was in Twilight Town!

'Twilight Town? Why…all of a sudden-----gasp!'

He suddenly noticed the same melody that played in all his other dreams seemed afar. It wasn't like the other dreams where the melody was loud, as if it was right beside him. This time, it seemed to have came in the direction of the clock tower from his town. A feeling of suspense hung in the air. He could tell there was something different about the dream from all the rest. For some reason, he felt that something special was going to happen….something that could changehim.

His heart silently beat in anticipation, as he wasted no time and descended toward the clock tower in the fastest dash he could muster.

'Tonight…tonight, I'll be able to discover--!' his mind said aloud in childish excitement. He didn't care whose voice it was; all he knew was that he could finally find where the source of music was, and then, and then---

The ground beneath his feet suddenly began to shake, as loud, rumbling noises broke the surface like rapid fissures. Hayner stopped in surprise, and turned around in curiosity, and saw something frightening: the ground behind him was crumbling, and the quake was headed for him!

His body went rigid.

Time seemed to freeze for a split second as realization dawned on him: it was now or never.

Sprinting with newly found spirit, Hayner ran desperately towards the door to the clock tower; with every step he took, the melody seemed to ring louder, and louder----

The door opened without a fight, as Hayner discovered he was faced with a familiar set of spiraling stairs.

'How convenient…'

The sound of crumbling stones brought him back to the task at hand. Taking two steps at a time, the dirty blonde charged up what seemed to be his final test. His feet seemed relentless; ascending the flight of stairs that seemed almost endless. The music was resonating in his ears now; his eardrums pumping in and out like lungs gasping for its last breath; he was near the top, like a symphony nreaing its finale—he finally saw it! A single door trimmed in gold lay in front of him; just winthin his grasp—so close, he's so close---!

CRACK!

His right foot almost slipped on his last step, which was violently torn off the stairs into black oblivion as soon as he laid another step. It was catching up to him now, and if he didn't jump for the door, he knew he would fall into darkness as well. With one final breth, Hayner summoned all his strength into his legs, and lept off the last step! He took off like a plane, as the last step was ungracefully devoured. Time seemed to have slowed down for this desperate leap for survival; his voice rang out and echoed in this space; his arm stretched out to push the door open. Almost, almost, and—

'There!' Hayner shouted victoriously in his dream, and the door vigorously flew open, like a bird that was released from its cage. Light filled the rims of his sight, and after what seemed like five seconds of chaos, there was…silence.

The ginger-skinned boy waited a few moments before cautiously opening his eyelids, excited; and slightly afraid of what surprises awaited him beyond the door.

The first thing he noticed was the dark blue wallpaper that covered the entire room. It was decorated with silver flower embroideries that seemed to be newly sewn into the wallpaper. The room itself was relatively large; well, larger than his bedroom, anyways. The next thing he noticed was the transparent French-style doors that opened up to a balcony on the wall in front of him, followed by the large bed with a royal blue silk blanket, located in the northeast corner of the room. Just like the wallpaper, the bed also looked brand new, as if everything on it was just made, without single flake of dust on it. The room was lighted by the silvery glow of the moon; a warm, mystical glow that acted almost as a fireplace. For some reason, Hayner felt like this room had somehow always belonged to him, even though this is his first time here. Shifting his gaze to the west side of the room, his attention was suddenly fixed to an unfamiliar object. It was quite big, about a head taller than him. It was well polished, and black-coloured on the outside. Hayner assumed that it was a musical instrument since there were many ivory and black keys that stuck out from the object, along with three pedals on the bottom. The keys seemed to tease him, delivering an unspoken message that dared him to touch them; to play them. Slowly, Hayner succumbed to the lure of the object and stepped towards it. He cautiously ran his right hand across its frame, and assured himself it wasn't dangerous…not that he had expected it to be. A sense of familiarity seemed to grace him upon having contact with the instrument.

'I wonder what it's called?' Hayner wondered in his mind, but before he had time to react, everything faded to white. His time was up; the dream was over. But before he woke up, a voice whispered lightly in his head…

'Piano……..'

"Uggn…." Hayner woke up with a groan and held a hand up to his forehead. The clock beside him read 6:30am, but time didn't really matter to the dirty blonde. He felt like he had just came back from running a marathon…or something similar to a marathon. The feelings of anger from last night's argument completely disappeared and was instead replaced by confusion and wonder.

'Did everything in my dream really just happen?' Hayner thought to himself, as pieces of his dream played over and over again in his head. The dream took place, he was quite certain of it. But now, the question is: is there really a piano in Twilight Town's clock tower, and how will he get there?

'It's not like I could just barge in at any time and ask to see that room. Nobody has gone up there for fifty years, and when can I even find time to get in?'

Hayner shook his head and decided to think of solutions after he took a shower and washed up. Yes, that was a good idea.

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Seifer would never call himself over observant. Especially not for miniscule matters like Hayner falling asleep during his math test. Was he going to fail another one? Well, that would certainly give him something to tease the dirty blonde about, Seifer thought with a smirk. Still, he couldn't help but feel a small nagging at the back of his mind to wake the other boy up. Afterall, it couldn't be because of him that Hayner didn't get enough sleep last night, could it?

'Let's just make this quick,' he thought to himself, as he looked around the classroom to see if anybody was watching him. Well, he isin the middle of a math test. Seeing the coast is clear, Seifer gave the sleeping boy on the table beside his a light kick on the foot. Hayner frowned slightly, but went back to sleeping.

'Oh for Hyne's sake,' Seifer thought to himself, and kicked Hayner again, and again, and—

"Okay, I'm up!" Hayner shouted on the fourth kick, and glared at Seifer, who quickly looked at his math test, hoping not to get caught. Suddenly, Hayner felt tens of eyes glancing toward him, some in shock, some in annoyance, and others in amusement. His teacher's face fumed red, and that's when Hayner suddenly realized that he dozed off and shouted during a math test. For a second, he couldn't think, as he felt himself turn stone solid from the inside out. This day, no thisweek couldn't get any worse….

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"Hayner, may I remind you that there are 25 minutes remaining in your math test. It would be strongly advisable for you to finish, or should I say, start your test right now." the teacher curtly reminded him, his voice laced with a tinge of disappointment. The ginger-skinned boy could do nothing but nod in embarrassment as he raced against the clock to finish his test.

"Cheer up, Hayner, I'm sure you didn't fail the math test," Olette said in sympathy as she patted the hazel-eyed boy on his back. "Hey, I know what to do. Let's get some sea salt ice cream, my treat!" Pence offered, but Hayner threw him the best smile he could muster. He tried to look happy…if his efforts didn't look so sad. The usual gang arrived at the Sandlot, only to discover it to be empty.

"Wow, what happened? Seifer's gang isn't here today?" Roxas questioned in curiosity.

"Come to think of it, I don't think I've even seen Seifer dis someone today," Olette added, while Pence pondered in his usual detective-like attitude. Hayner silently pondered too; is it just him, or is Seifer becoming different lately? Which led him to the subject of the math test. He was almost certain that it was Seifer who woke him up from his sleep. I couldn't have been anyone else, right? Afterall, only Seifer's desk was beside his. His desk was the window seat, so was Seifer only pretending that it had never happened? Hayner suddenly thought of his dream, and how it revealed a room that he, for some reason, must visit. Although he deeply cursed that dream for disrupting his study night and his test, he knew, inevitably, that he had to go to that room.

'Okay then….I'll go tonight…to see if it really exists.' Hayner thought to himself, and looked towards the large clock on his destination.

"Hayner? Hello, earth to Hayner" Pence's voice rang, as the ginger-skinned boy snapped out of his momentary trance and gave a tiny smile to his group.

"We're going to the mall now, are you sure you don't want to come?" Olette asked him, swaying shyly , he toes pointing at the ground. But Hayner paid no mind to it.

"Uh…yeah. Sorry I can't make it….gotta start cramming or my mom's really gonna throw me out," he answered with an airy laugh, as Roxas, Pence, and Olette nodded. They exchanged goodbyes, and Hayner waved until he could no longer see them as they walked down the street.

'What I wouldn't give to hang out with them….' Hayner thought to himself with a small tinge of sadness, as he walked back to his house to prepare for his journey in the night…

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TBB: Hey guys, I just wanna apologize for this long chapter x-x;; hope I haven't bored ya'll to death It's just that I like a slow story development, because it just makes the intimate moments all the more juicy and worthwhile (in my opinion . ) I'd also like to apologize for not explaining my story concept in the previous chapter. I got so caught up in writing/listening to music that I just wanted to debut my story asap xD.

A not, when Seifer said "For Hyne's sake", Hyne is kind of like the "God" or "Christ" in FFVIII, the game where Seifer originated from. I have to say, while writing this story, this couple has really grown on me. And fear not, I promise that in the next chapter, ya'll will see some Seifer x Hayner action ;)

Oh, and Cantabile means "like singing". It's music terminology. Ironically, I have never played the piano and I'm writing a fic about yaoi and chopin O-o. But I am a musician; I play the violin :

Please R&R! Till next chapter!! mwah