siver

The 100 Multifandom Challenge
Prompt: Practice
Fandom: The Legend of Heroes Trails of Cold Steel
AO3

The setting sun cast a warm glow over Trista. The air was still warm while a cool breeze danced about. It was turning into a perfect evening and was greatly appreciated if not entirely noticed by Elliot who stood near the edge of Thor’s rooftop, violin in hand and lost in his music.

There was schoolwork to be done later, but for now he was thrilled to be able to indulge in a longer and better practice session than he’d had time for lately. It had been no joke that Class VII would have a heavy work load.

He swayed in time to his song, eyes closed and hands working deftly. It was a song he knew well and a reward of sorts for his earlier efforts. He would continue to work at it, but for this song he was content to relax into it and enjoy the melody.

As he wound down to a finish he opened his eyes and his gaze wandered across the roof to the nearby bench. The nearby occupied bench and the eyes lazily watching him. He squeaked and abruptly tightened his grip on violin and bow to prevent dropping them out of shock.

“F-Fie! How long have you been here?”

He’d been alone when he started. He was certain he’d been alone for at least his warm-up and first song. At some point Fie had come up without his noticing and sprawled across the bench, her head pillowed in her arms. She blinked sleepily at him.

“Last few songs.”

“I’m not disturbing you, am I?” The rooftop was a great place to play and the weather was beautiful, but there was always the dorm…

“Nope.” Fie yawned. “I’m not used to sleeping to music. It’s… nice.”

“I guess there wasn’t a lot of music with the Jaegers, huh?” Elliot asked then winced. What was he thinking? All right, so once Fie opened up about her past she didn’t seem to care about hiding it and had made plenty of blunt comments, but it didn’t feel right to just ask.

Fie’s shoulders twitched in what he could only guess was a shrug. “Singing sometimes. More after drinks.”

Elliot briefly tried to imagine it and came up short. He couldn’t imagine it; their lives were too different. She lived her life fighting and surviving. He lived his life with his family and music. And now they were somehow both here in Class VII. Here he was playing on the rooftop with a classmate, former Jaeger and… friend (he hoped). Before coming to Thors he’d never have been able to imagine that either.

“It could be fun,” Fie said. She closed her eyes with a soft sigh and her voice dropped. “But your playing’s good too.”

Permission granted? A request to continue in her own way? Fie said nothing more and after a few moments of silence he was pretty sure she’d fallen asleep again.

He stood still a brief while longer, thinking, then raised his bow again and soon soft notes rang out once more to mingle with the breeze.