Nickel wandered through the Resistance headquarters, wondering where he'd seen it. He'd finally managed to get a copy of what he wanted to play - he'd tried to memorise at least some of it already, but now he'd be able to play the whole thing.
"There you are," he said, seeing the varnished wood cover of the relatively new piano that someone had put there. Nickel never knew who had been the one to add it to the HQ, and he had always presumed that it was purely recreational; unless somehow someone knew how to harness music as a weapon, which he doubted.
He opened the lid that concealed the keys, put the sheets of paper onto the little rack, and began to learn the piece that had carried him through the war.
The beginning was simple, and he already knew it and could play it relatively easily. The ending was a little bit harder, and he didn't know some of the notes and timings, but it wouldn't be too hard to learn. The middle was what worried him.
He really wanted to learn this piece, and he would. No amount of precariously placed notes would stop him.
.
A few weeks later, Lily got curious enough to check the HQ for where her friend kept disappearing to. She didn't usually go there for lack of want to disturb the Resistance members, but she just wanted to know where Nickel was going all the time recently.
As she approached the building, she heard faint, familiar music coming from the inside, accompanied by hushed chatter. She tentatively knocked on the semiautomatic door, and the sound stopped; she was shortly greeted by a pink hedgehog whose name just evaded her.
"Oh, hi!" the hedgehog said enthusiastically, before calling two others over to her - two others she knew very well. One was her caretaker-friend she'd been looking for. The other? Just Sonic the Hedgehog.
"Hey, Lily. Did you come here lookin' for me?" Nickel asked.
"Uh, y-yeah, I did," she answered. "What was that music just now?"
"Oh, I was just playin' the piano over there." That caught Lily's attention.
"You can play piano, mister Nickel? That's so cool! Can I hear?"
"Sure." Nickel walked deeper into the HQ, and Lily followed close behind him. She had no idea that Nickel could play an instrument - although he had at one point said that he could do a lot of things, so she supposed she couldn't be too surprised.
"Nickel's actually really good," the pink hedgehog - Amy, that was her name - said, looking right at Lily.
"You should have been here earlier - he was playing some amazing stuff." Lily turned her head toward Sonic - the blue blur was smiling at her. She blushed a little bit, but which six-year-old girl wouldn't if Sonic the Hedgehog smiled at them?
"I'm not that good," Nickel said rather bashfully as he sat down in front of the piano. "You should hear what the actual professionals can do."
"I don't know, the cover of Green Hill Zone you played was pretty good," Sonic complimented.
"You didn't even hear the whole thing," Nickel retorted. Sonic shrugged with a smirk. "Well, I can play something that I think is really good, if you want."
Lily hurriedly said yes. She wanted to hear him perform. Amy joined in her eagerness, swaying the vote.
"Alright," the russet feline said. "See how well I can actually play this thing," he whispered.
Just before he touched the piano, he added, "Oh, by the way, you know this tune. Sonic, you definitely know this."
There was no time to formulate guesses as to what he would play, the sounds came forth from the piano immediately after his words; the two hedgehogs audibly gasped. Lily didn't quite hear any familiarity in it just yet, but she kept listening.
It was around what she'd presumed to be the middle section that she finally caught on to what Nickel was playing.
"Fist Bump!" she said softly, trying not to break his concentration, but hardly concealing her amazement.
The rest of the music passed by without words from the audience. Nickel didn't put a foot wrong, as far as she could hear. He even smiled a little bit near the end.
When he was finished and had stood back up, Lily ran up to him and hugged him. "That was so good, mister Nickel!"
"I'm just glad I managed to get everything right," Nickel said, downplaying his performance like he usually did.
Of a sudden, Sonic and Amy joined the hug; Lily felt the pink hedgehog squish her against Nickel. "Whoa, why are you two hugging me?" the red cat queried.
"You act like you didn't just play the song that got us through a whole war," Amy answered, somehow sounding sarcastic and genuine at the same time. "It was beautiful."
Nickel said something under his breath before quickly continuing, "Well, it helped me too. And I have Sonic to thank for that as well. He was the one who kept me goin' with his positivity and I wouldn't be talkin' to you now without him. So, thanks, Sonic."
"No worries," the cobalt hedgehog returned, before giving Nickel a fist bump. Lily smiled at that.
.
.
.
Lily often noticed that when Nickel was walking, there were times when he would almost dance to some unheard music: his strides took on a tiny little bounce, his steps sped up or slowed down slightly, his hands started moving around in time (when he thought no one was watching), and his tail danced along. Sometimes she would even hear him humming the tune that was playing in his mind.
She supposed it made sense that he would be a little musically inclined, he did play piano after all.
He would hum all kinds of songs or tunes, from the Chemical Plant Zone theme to 'Endless Possibility' to the Apotos Night sound to, of course, 'Fist Bump'. She didn't know how well he sang, but he seemed to get all the notes right when he hummed, so technically he sang just as well, right?
She wanted to find out, but she wasn't sure what she would want him to sing. She wasn't even sure if he would be open to singing for her. Nickel was shy about a bunch of stuff, who was to say that this wasn't one of those things?
One day, she finally decided to ask him to sing her a song. He complied, but he went to fetch something first. As soon as he was out of sight, she jumped girlishly for joy and had to hold in an equally girlish squeal. She couldn't quite believe that he was actually willing to entertain her wish, to the point where all she had to do was ask him!
He returned with his screen - which Lily didn't notice he hadn't had with him - and smiled at her a little shyly. She guessed he was still a bit shy regarding his singing, but she was certain he'd be good.
"Okay, are you ready?" he asked her, and she nodded quickly. "Alright, here we go."
As it turned out, he wanted his screen so that he could play the audio and sing alongside it. The song he had chosen was apparently called 'Reach for the Stars', and it sounded really colourful and upbeat in the first few seconds. She liked that.
Then Nickel began to do his part. He, naturally, sang in his impressively low register, which actually didn't clash with the song too much. Of course he knew all the words and all the notes to hit, but that didn't stop Lily from being slightly impressed. He did sing well - but he probably didn't think he did, so typical of him.
By and by Nickel started to slip into his own little world as he sang, and those musical tics that happened while he walked began to reappear. His hands and tail moved in time with the beat, and even his head would sometimes match them. At one point he remembered that Lily was beside him and his antics toned themselves down, but Lily didn't really care what he did while he sang so long as he was enjoying himself.
Near the very end of the song, Lily heard something she thought unprecedented. A little snippet of the song reached a pretty high note, and the little yellow kitten thought that her big red friend would sing it as he had all the other parts.
She was wrong. He decided to sing possibly the highest note she'd ever heard from him, whether he was humming or singing. Granted, it was still lower than the actual song, such was the nature of his voice, but she was still taken aback a little.
He finished the tune back down where he'd sung for the most part, and then turned to Lily for her opinion. "What'd you think?"
"That was so good, mister Nickel!" she praised immediately, making him look away in embarrassment. "I never heard you sing that high before and it was really good."
"Well, thank you," he said, accepting the compliment with a shy expression.
"Can you sing another one?"