#fun fact; i have a level 2 distinction in orchestral performance (or whatever its actually called) from the royal school of music lol

[onboardsorasora]

felt inspired to write this on tuesday, so I'm happy about that. my regular trope of not sure where its going lol but here it is, enjoy! cw: helmut, felt i needed to tag that lol

The Music House was an older wooden cottage at the crest of the hill on the far end of the campus. The welcome booklet says its for the acoustics and so that the noise of campus doesn’t affect the orchestra students while they practise for whatever award winning event they had coming up.

Truthfully, it was so that no one truly heard how loud Helmut got when he yelled at people. 

Lewis sighed as he stopped playing, his tattooed fingers jarring the piano keys harshly in his annoyance. Daniel leaned back in his chair, pulling the neck of his cello to rest against his chest while they both listened to the shouting coming from down the hall. 

“He’s really giving it to him today isn’t he?” Lewis muttered, knowing just who the unfortunate victim of Helmut’s warpath was today.

“Jos called this morning. Mentioned Max was spending more time studying chem than prepping for the music exams.” Daniel flicked the g string absently, barely letting the plucked tone sound before he flicked it again. He looked up at the clock on the wall, counting down the time before his own one on one with the raging mentor.

“Fuck.” Lewis breathed, knowing that their friend’s father was the worst kind of overbearing parent. They were all under differing levels of stress this year. Last year's music exams hadn’t ‘met the schools’ standards’ as per the lecture Toto had given when the results had come in last year where there had been more Merit grades than Distinctions. The one kid that had gotten a Pass had been dismissed quietly.

The door slammed open and a broad figure stormed out and towards them. His usually pale face was red and pinched and he clutched his sheaf of sheet music in one hand and his violin and bow in the other. Daniel shifted to get up and go after his friend.

“Ricciardo, get your ass in here!” Bellowed from the hallway. Lovely. 

Lewis watched with a grimace as Daniel collected himself. “Meet me afterwards?” He asked.

“I’ll let you know.” Daniel felt bad for not outright accepting– no matter how much he did want to meet up. But he couldn’t think about stolen moments with Lewis when he was about to literally be ripped to shreds. Helmut was in one of his moods and that meant that he was going to be a nasty asshole no matter what. And Daniel was the next victim up.

Lewis didn’t understand, not when he was Toto’s star mentee. Not when he topped the Distinction list year after year and had been playing the piano backing in the orchestra since his first year. He didn’t have it easy, of course not. Not while sitting on such a high pedestal– he had to push himself twice as hard to be perfect every time. But Daniel didn’t have the time to appease Lewis’ ruffled feathers. Not when he was fighting to be promoted to first chair, not when his 129 Pass haunted his every waking moment. It was what the board used to put him on probation for a few months last year. All to scare him into doing better, as if the red envelope they’d mailed his ‘failure’ in hadn’t been enough. That one point haunted him all year and he couldn’t let Lewis distract him into making the same mistake twice.

Daniel entered the studio as quietly as possible, Helmut was making himself a cup of tea in the far corner so he took the opportunity to set up his things. He was sat in the chair with his sheet music open to his exam piece by the time the older man lowered himself back into his chair.

“We’ll start at the arpeggio.” Helmut muttered and Daniel inwardly cursed. It was going to be a long session.