three's a crowd (also, zhou yu doesn't have a car)
Band!AU Prequel
Fandom: Dynasty Warriors
Who: Zhou Yu, Sun Ce, Taishi Ci
What: PG; 4300w. ♥ Just you and me (and Gongjin makes three). For animesque who wanted, "Sun Ce. Zhou Yu. Arguing over Taishi Ci is uke or seme." IT DIDN'T REALLY HAPPEN, BUT UM. 8D ANYWAY.
"You're kidding right?" Sun Ce pleaded. But his wrist was in Zhou Yu's hand and Zhou Yu's grip was unyielding. "I thought you meant like, a concert concert! I'd never have agreed to-"
"Why do you think I didn't tell you?" Zhou Yu smiled.
"Yuuu~" Pushed into the back seat of his own brother's hatchback, Sun Ce tried to make a quick getaway as Zhou Yu rounded to the driver's side. But the doors were child-locked. "Yuuu~! Spare me!" he wailed, rattling at the handle. "Take Lu Su instead!"
"Quan will kill you if you break anything," Zhou Yu said, calmly adjusting the driver's seat back a notch. He and Sun Quan were the same height, but the latter tended to drive with a borderline-manic hunch over the wheel.
"…he wouldn't," Sun Ce pouted, doubtful.
"He'd get Zhou Tai to do it for him."
"Shit."
"Seatbelt on, Ce, or you'll be paying the fine."
"Yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu~!"
*
"What exactly is your problem with philharmonic orchestras?" Zhou Yu asked on their approach to the venue. "A musician should appreciate all genres; pop, classical or otherwise."
"You don't like metal," Sun Ce pointed out, sullen.
"Metal is not music," Zhou Yu replied. "And besides, neither do you."
"That's not the point. This is gonna be as boring as a board meeting."
Zhou Yu did not answer for a moment, presenting their tickets to the girl at the small hotel's reception door with a congenial smile. "...It will not," he told Sun Ce once they were in.
"Player," Sun Ce said. Then picked up right where his argument had left off: "They'll be worse. At least board meetings bring out the emotion in people!"
"The term philharmonic means 'music lover'," Zhou Yu said. "If love is not an emotion, pray tell what is?"
"They're amateur!" Sun Ce protested, grasping at straws. "They probably won't even sound good!"
"Oh, so you're a connoisseur of the classics now?" Zhou Yu laughed. Sun Ce followed him down to their seats. Unable to argue further, he scuffed his formal black oxfords petulantly against the carpet as he walked. Zhou Yu didn't bother telling him to stop-he knew Sun Ce hated those shoes and was probably feeling stifled in the ironed shirt Zhou Yu had pressed him into before they'd left the studio, sharp though the ensemble made him look.
Zhou Yu glanced over his shoulder just as the scuffing stopped. "Ce?" Sun Ce was looking around with an oddly intent curiosity. "…what have you found now?" Zhou Yu asked.
"They're a lot younger than I thought they'd be," Sun Ce observed.
"This audience?" Zhou Yu gave a little shake of his head, a smile. "Ce, do you really think I'd put you through something completely geared toward geriatrics?"
Sun Ce shot him a glare. "You'd put me through it and make me enjoy it just to prove a point!"
Zhou Yu didn't deny it or point out Sun Ce's obvious flaw in reasoning; the show was starting anyway and Sun Ce's eye soon caught on one of the orchestra's performers.
Following his best friend's line of sight, Zhou Yu scanned the string section and eventually his gaze, too, locked onto the man in the chair of principal first violin. A stark contrast to the conductor (who didn't seem to be doing much but shuffling his notes about), the orchestra's concertmaster seemed imbued with authority. He fielded inaudible questions from his fellow players, checking time and again with sharp eyes that all was in order before the first number.
"That one…" Sun Ce said slowly, knowing they both knew exactly who he was talking about.
"What about him?"
"...has a seriously hot shirt."
Zhou Yu almost laughed aloud. "Really." Of all the things to comment on. Still, he had to admit that Sun Ce had a point.
Semi-formal was the theme of the night, for performers and guests alike. The concertmaster's shirt was a deep, wine red-well-cut and sleeves rolled up to show off a broad chest and strong arms. The man clearly hit the gym several times a week, but still handled his bow with remarkable delicacy, entirely self-aware and controlled.
"Attractive, I'll agree," Zhou Yu said obliquely.
"I want it," Sun Ce said.
Zhou Yu raised a brow. "Excuse me?"
"Look at the jack," Sun Ce pointed, grinning sharply. "Electric violin means he's totally got a killer solo coming up."
"You can't just buy concertmasters, you know," Zhou Yu scoffed.
"Can't you?" Sun Ce asked, a mischievous light in his eyes that Zhou Yu had long learned to suffer.
"Your whims, honestly," he sighed. "What on earth is our band going to do with a classical violin?"
"What aren't we going to do with one, Yu?" Sun Ce said with satisfaction, and sat back in his chair as the ambient lights dimmed around them.
*
The violin solo, Zhou Yu had to admit, had turned out pretty 'killer'. Even restricted by the nature of the piece, the concertmaster had played with a style and flamboyance rarely seen in the classical arena.
Sun Ce had barely stopped grinning since.
"Taishi Ci," he said for the umpteenth time. "Awesome."
"You're not liable to forget the name if you stop repeating it, you know," Zhou Yu said dryly. Not that he was jealous-he wasn't. It was just that heady, semi-orgasmic states weren't generally accepted in polite society.
"Taishi Ciii~"
"Ce. Please."
"This way," Sun Ce said suddenly, grabbing Zhou Yu's arm and veering from the route to the car park. He led them down a side alley with the air of a kid wagging school, and it didn't require a man of Zhou Yu's intellect to deduce their destination-not after the poor hotel staff had taken nearly an hour to usher (herd, really) Sun Ce out the correct door at the end of the concert.
"Trespass is trespass even when void of malicious intent!" Zhou Yu told him, albeit in vain as Sun Ce let go of his arm to climb the wire fence at the back of the hotel.
"You don't have to join me," Sun Ce grinned, dropping to the ground on the other side. "Just stand guard. I won't be five minutes. ♥"
And with that, he disappeared into the shadows around the hotel's service bay.
*
Taishi Ci stood on the stage in subdued light. First to arrive and last to leave, his chair was the only one not yet packed away. It still faced the hall's empty rows in the silence, but he let it be a moment longer.
He didn't have to close his eyes to feel and hear echoes of the night's performance around him, through him. The concert had been good. The entire orchestra had played well despite Liu Yao being his typical touch-and-go self; Taishi Ci had managed, he felt, to cover for the conductor's lapses in direction a shade better than usual, and this pleased him.
He took a deep breath, the satisfaction of it all still thick in his veins. Progress. Accomplishment.
...sort of.
In the back of his mind Taishi Ci knew that the orchestra would never make a professional debut. Too many elements fell short, not limited to Liu Yao's talent. The job would never pay the bills. When dawn came, Taishi Ci would be back in a starched white collar on an inner-city bus and would spend his day hunched over a keyboard, drafting monkey letters for monkey clients, and occasionally fetching coffee.
There were other orchestras out there, professional ones, looking for competent strings. But Taishi Ci had not auditioned for any of their positions. While it was true a move would necessitate demotion from concertmaster to possibly even the reserves bench, more importantly Taishi Ci felt that he owed Liu Yao somewhat for putting even as much faith in him as the man had. He also owed his orchestra-mates his leadership. (They, after all, had been the ones to vote him principal first.)
He did not want another orchestra, but as long as Liu Yao refused to really invest in this one it would never really take off...
Taishi Ci shook himself from the inconsequential thoughts. At the end of the day, casual though it was, the gig allowed him to play and that was enough.
"Found you~"
A voice from the darkened wings made him look up. "Who's there?" With even the janitor already gone, all that illuminated the hall were exit signs and backstage lowlights.
"Taishi Ci~" A well-dressed figure materialised from the shadows, carrying himself with an authority that seemed attractive at first... dangerous at second. A devilish goatee and mischievous grin lit his sharp features.
"Can I help you?" Taishi Ci asked, wary.
"Nah," the intruder said. "Just wanted to tell you your solo was one of the best I've ever seen. Not that I've seen a lot, 'cause honestly I haven't. But you know, it was good."
"Thank you." Taishi Ci gave a slight, formal bow. Knowing the other had been in the audience helped a little. (But only a little.) "Still, you needn't have troubled yourself to say so. That you appreciated our music would have been enough." In fact, Taishi Ci was fairly sure the guest should not have still been in the hotel at all.
"No, no, I had to meet you," the man said, grin sharpening as he held out his hand. "I'm Sun Ce."
Taishi Ci nodded. Sun Ce's handshake was solid and his name oddly familiar, but Taishi Ci was certain they hadn't met before. "Pleased to make your acquaintance."
"The pleasure's all mine," Sun Ce said. He sat amiably on the polished wood floor of the stage and toed off his shoes, all athletic limbs and graceful strength. Feeling far too tall suddenly, Taishi Ci crouched and took to fiddling with the violin case at his feet as Sun Ce continued talking: "See, the thing is~ I head a band and think you'd make a wicked addition to our sound. Interested?"
"Excuse me?" Taishi Ci felt his brow crease. His gaze flickered over Sun Ce's shoulder to the wings. Surely somebody was pulling his leg. The other strings had told him he needed to lighten up before. A practical joke was not...
"Hey, work with me here," Sun Ce said, calling back Taishi Ci's attention. He spread his hands. "It's not like I run recruitment drives every other Saturday, but after tonight I want you on my stage."
"Your stage," Taishi Ci repeated. Groomed appearance aside, only the intensity in Sun Ce's eyes stopped Taishi Ci from dismissing him outright. "...What do you play?"
"Rock," Sun Ce looked up at the dimmed lights, giving the impression of rolled eyes with his smile. "Pop, the blues. Does it matter?"
'I'm classically trained if you hadn't noticed,' Taishi Ci didn't say. It was clear enough Sun Ce did know what he was talking about, and indeed Taishi Ci could play other styles well enough. Still, he returned Sun Ce's smile with an edge of challenge. Every half-musical kid wanted to be a rock star when they grew up but very few had the talent to make it. "I suppose genre mightn't matter," he answered. "If you're any good."
Sun Ce sat up, his grin meeting Taishi Ci's gaze steel for steel. "If I'm any good?" Unfastening his watch, he shucked it off and held it out. "How about you take this, and let me let you judge for yourself."
"...what?" Taishi Ci's brow furrowed again. This man took leaps of logic that were hard to follow. Impatient though, Sun Ce took Taishi Ci's hand and pressed the watch into it, and Taishi Ci frowned some more as he turned the item over in his palm. It was a Rolex, genuine by weight and feel. "I don't-"
But Sun Ce helped himself to Taishi Ci's violin anyway, game face on. (His game face was a grin.) "Just hold it hostage while I handle this, okay? Consider it a guarantee." He unclipped Taishi Ci's bow and drew it from the case, debonair.
Dubiousness welled up in Taishi Ci's chest. "You... play?" he asked, watching Sun Ce manhandle his precious violin. It wasn't the most expensive instrument he owned, but it was his favourite.
"You'll see," Sun Ce said.
"...right," Taishi Ci said. And waited. And watched.
Allaying a little of his trepidation (but only a little), Sun Ce did not over-tighten the bow, forget the rosin, or misadjust the shoulder rest; and despite a few winceworthy flats initially, his left hand was fluid on the fingerboard. Letting out a small breath, Taishi Ci relaxed somewhat. The violin was in good hands.
Belatedly, he realised that Sun Ce was watching him as he played, eyes tinted with light amusement. A corner of Taishi Ci's mouth lifted in a smile.
"How's my driving?" Sun Ce asked, though it cost him a couple of notes to do so.
"Rusty," Taishi Ci replied. "Lacking finesse." But if he were honest it was also competent. Striking. Powerfully melodic.
"Thought so," Sun Ce said with a knowing grin, and slipped into a wordless song. The tune was familiar to Taishi Ci's ear but, like Sun Ce's name earlier, he couldn't quite place it.
"…what was the name of that piece?" Taishi Ci asked, when at length Sun Ce lowered the bow.
"You know it?" His expression was somewhere between harmlessly self-satisfied and outright smug. "It's just a thing one of my bandmates wrote, though for the piano originally. He's the brains of our operation, you know? But I'll have to kill you if you tell him I said that."
"Is that right," Taishi Ci said, Sun Ce's tone putting out of mind any question of borrowing or plagiarism by this 'friend' of his. "On piano, you say?" With that clue factored in, the tune felt even more familiar to his mind's ear. Strange.
"Yeah, he's… actually, I left him out in the car 'cause he didn't want to climb the back fence. Wanna meet him?"
Taishi Ci blinked. The offer seemed almost an afterthought as Sun Ce packed the violin back up. "Members of your band appreciate classical music?"
The question made Sun Ce laugh aloud. "More like he's the connoisseur who dragged me here." His gaze turned wicked. "If you want to know what mistakes you guys made tonight, he'll be able to tell you down to the player, beat and bar. Forty-seven total, apparently. Not bad."
Taishi Ci flushed. "You…"
"He'd be a helluva lot better than me at this shitty little thing, too," Sun Ce went on, patting the violin case he'd just latched shut.
"...excuse me?" Taishi Ci felt like he should be properly offended, but Sun Ce only grinned at his expression.
"My strings're usually on a longer neck, y'know. Bass is my forte. He's the one that does piano and all that delicate stuff. I rock."
For a long moment, Taishi Ci just stared. But then his mouth quirked upward. Picking up his violin case, he stood and dusted his knees. Sun Ce was certainly intriguing if nothing else. "Fine. If that's indeed the case then I concede you must be at least moderately talented."
"Still not bought?" Sun Ce laughed. Picking up his shoes, he headed down the stage in his socks. "Damn, you're demanding. Guess I'll just have to kidnap you and prove it for real. Call a jam session at the studio~♪"
"Tonight?" Taishi Ci raised a brow. Sun Ce seemed to expect him to follow, and had left his Rolex behind besides. "It's ten in the evening."
Sun Ce waved his concerns away. "The crew'll still be there, you'll see; they're all freaks. You'll fit right in. Ah, Yu ought'a call ahead and get our manager to leave a new contract on the table…"
"A contract?" Taishi Ci asked, surprised but not rudely. Sun Ce's band was at least above garage-grade if they had management and official paperwork. The thought was... comforting-relative to how fast everything else seemed to be moving along. "I haven't yet agreed to anything, you know."
Sun Ce only seemed amused by the token protest. "Haven't you? C'mon, Taishi. I'm gonna pay you to play and hang out with awesome people: a better job description doesn't exist this side of the South Pole. Right now, you're second fiddle to a shitty conductor in an amateur orchestra. You play classical-"
"There's nothing wrong with classical music," Taishi Ci said. "It is an opus of beautiful pieces, if you can appreciate them."
Sun Ce grinned. "Yeah, but in my line of work? You get an orgy of beautiful people as well. If you can appreciate them."
His turn of phrase made Taishi Ci's brain hurt somewhat, in the effort required to convince himself that none of it was literal. Regardless, Sun Ce kept walking and for better or worse Taishi Ci followed behind him.
Until, "He thinks you're hot, you know," Sun Ce smirked, glancing over his shoulder. "This pretty, pretty friend of mine."
Taishi Ci stopped dead in his tracks. His cheeks felt flushed despite himself, and they must have been because Sun Ce laughed again.
"Just kidding~"
"...Please don't say things like that."
"Figure it out when we get to the car. ♥"
*
Zhou Yu had retreated without waiting. Playing lookout was pointless when Sun Ce was involved (and predictably, he had been far longer than the promised five minutes anyway). In Sun Quan's car with the driver's seat reclined, Zhou Yu dozed lightly until at length his sharp ears caught the faint sound of laughter on the breeze. Voices. Sun Ce and another. Zhou Yu got out of the car.
And presently, Sun Ce rounded the corner with Taishi Ci in tow.
"Told you you can buy them, Yu!" Sun Ce called merrily. "One classical violin coming right up!"
"Buy them?"
"Ignore him." Zhou Yu offered his hand as the pair approached. "Taishi Ci, I presume? Zhou Yu. It's an honour. And I apologise for any unbecoming behaviour my friend here may have subjected you to." Blackmail, bullying, coercion-he knew well it was all within Sun Ce's arsenal.
Still, "No, not at all," Taishi Ci said, shaking Zhou Yu's hand. He seemed surprised, and Zhou Yu wondered fleetingly if there was something on his face. But Sun Ce looked far too gleeful for it to be anything so innocent.
"...Ce," Zhou Yu said, tone warning, "what did you tell our poor friend here?"
"Nothing~" Sun Ce grinned, in what appeared to be complete honesty. "Not even your name, I swear!"
"Zhou Yu," Taishi Ci repeated. And Zhou Yu realised the other hadn't yet let released his hand. "Your feature in the ModClass autumn issue was very informative."
"Oh," Zhou Yu said, faintly embarrassed by the reminder. Modern Classical Quarterly had interviewed him earlier in the year about the rise of the popular-classical genre and he'd talked with them at length about a variety of things, from opera singers going pop, to string quartets sexualising their image in order to appeal to a wider audience. But to prove its own point, the magazine had ended up asking a bit more of Zhou Yu's own image than he'd expected, and the content of the interview had turned out rather secondary.
Sun Ce wore a frown. "What the hell, you know him from that? I wasn't even in that one."
Taishi Ci didn't seem to hear him. "It was a very interesting interview," he told Zhou Yu solemnly. "Your answers were full of depth and insight."
"And your fold-out poster that came with it," Sun Ce added in mimicry of the same sincere tone, "was full of soft light and a lack of shirt buttons. I never knew you could play the piano with your hair falling everywhere like that!"
"Ce, that was hardly the point of the article," Zhou Yu said-but the faint red tint over Taishi Ci's cheeks betrayed him fast, much to Sun Ce's delight. Zhou Yu sighed and shook his head, though also more amused than not. As often happened when Sun Ce was involved, there was nothing for the situation. He changed the topic. "Modern Classical is not exclusively a strings publication. Do you play any other instruments, Taishi Ci?"
Taishi Ci gave him a grateful glance before the light in his eyes turned sharper and he looked over at Sun Ce. "I do. Piano, guitar, bass, double-bass."
"Hey hey hey," Sun Ce grinned. "Is that a challenge I hear? Yu whips all ass when it comes to the keys, but I give no quarter over a baseline."
"I'm sure I could manage at least as well as you play the violin," Taishi Ci said.
Zhou Yu laughed. "He played for you? Ce hasn't touched a violin in years."
"Likewise," Taishi Ci smiled. "I own no other instruments. My point stands."
"Get in the car," Sun Ce said, pointing to the front seat with a sharp smile. His air veritably pulsed with anticipation. "We're going to settle this back at the studio, just you and me."
*
Later (much later. When the sun was just about getting ready to rise), Sun Ce stretched out in the only bed in Zhou Yu's neat little townhouse and made himself comfortable. Across the way, Zhou Yu was still working, seated at his desk with his computer on and a bunch of little composer programs running. Listening with one ear, Sun Ce could pick out snatches of some of the melodies and rifts from their earlier jam session. Documentation.
He closed his eyes with a pleased little smile at the fresh memories. "Mm~ Taishi Ci."
"Please stop that," Zhou Yu told him.
Sun Ce chuckled. "Jealous?"
"Of what?" Zhou Yu scoffed. "Disturbed on his behalf, more like. Your chasing that poor man will only give me a break once in a while."
Sun Ce grinned, rolling over to prop his chin up in his hand. For a shameless moment, he admired the way Zhou Yu let his pretty hair stay half fallen out of its clasp at the end of a long day. It was pretty after all. "He's sweet on you, you know."
Zhou Yu set his tablet pen down at that, finally looking up. "And yet it was you two who played 'til you bled on the frets. Ling Tong won't forgive you when he finds out, you know."
"He won't find out."
"Oh, but he will."
"What! Yuu..."
From the tone of Sun Ce's whine, Zhou Yu apparently decided to finally call it a night, shutting his computer down. He rubbed tiredly at his eyes. "Please move over if you don't want to be relegated to the couch."
Obligingly, Sun Ce made room. "Anyway, you can't complain. We got some good music out of it. And a violin."
"He's signed nothing yet," Zhou Yu reminded, tugging his hair free and setting its clasp on the bedside table before slipping under the covers. He nudged Sun Ce over. And over. Until Sun Ce made a noise of annoyance and pinned Zhou Yu's arms, spooning up against his back.
"Mm~ doesn't matter, we'll be seeing him again."
"You sound so sure."
"He plays bass, Yu, and a decent one at that." Sun Ce's grin was practically audible. "He's obviously entertained delusions of rock star grandeur in a past life."
Zhou Yu didn't bother pointing out what that assumption said about Sun Ce's own instrument of choice. "If you say so," he said.
"I do say so," Sun Ce told him. "And besides. ♥ He still has my watch."
"If I were him, I'd sell it on eBay," Zhou Yu muttered.
Sun Ce laughed. "He's not that kinda guy. And you gave it to me in the first place."
"It's ghastly. Has all the subtlety of a gold brick on a strap."
"You know, I love it when you show how much you care. ♥"
Zhou Yu refused to reply. At length, he had nearly fallen asleep when Sun Ce's breath tickled the back of his neck and sent unwanted shivers down his spine. He blinked bleary eyes back open. "...What is it now, Ce?"
"He's totally sweet on you."
"What exactly is your issue with that point?" Zhou Yu asked.
Sun Ce giggled. Giggled. "You saw the way he looked at you between rounds, right? Like he'd do anything. You'd totally top."
Zhou Yu made a noise of irritation. "That is an absurd notion, Ce. I would not. Especially not when he'd clearly top you, unless you were blind to the exact way you two were eyeing each other down during your little contest."
"Are you saying I'd top you?" Sun Ce purred, with a suggestive nudge of his hips.
Zhou Yu gave him a sharp elbow to the solar plexus. Or tried. Annoyingly, Sun Ce dodged it. "I'm saying the entire content of this conversation is inconceivable and therefore moot."
"...You're such a prude," Sun Ce chuckled, snuggling back up against Zhou Yu's back. "You know what would solve this problem?"
"No," Zhou Yu lied. Unfortunately, he knew Sun Ce's ways a little too well.
"A threesome," Sun Ce announced, true to form. "That way he'd top and bottom."
"You are depraved," Zhou Yu said, "and I want no part in it."
"Liar, you totally do. How about I invite you over when it happens?" Sun Ce said, and only smiled when Zhou Yu again refused to answer.
*
A half-hour later when Zhou Yu's shoulders finally relaxed, his breathing even, and the first of the day's light began filtering in through the window, Sun Ce said smugly, "I think I'll take that as tacit consent. ♥"
Fandom: Dynasty Warriors
Who: Zhou Yu, Sun Ce, Taishi Ci
What: PG; 4300w. ♥ Just you and me (and Gongjin makes three). For animesque who wanted, "Sun Ce. Zhou Yu. Arguing over Taishi Ci is uke or seme." IT DIDN'T REALLY HAPPEN, BUT UM. 8D ANYWAY.
"You're kidding right?" Sun Ce pleaded. But his wrist was in Zhou Yu's hand and Zhou Yu's grip was unyielding. "I thought you meant like, a concert concert! I'd never have agreed to-"
"Why do you think I didn't tell you?" Zhou Yu smiled.
"Yuuu~" Pushed into the back seat of his own brother's hatchback, Sun Ce tried to make a quick getaway as Zhou Yu rounded to the driver's side. But the doors were child-locked. "Yuuu~! Spare me!" he wailed, rattling at the handle. "Take Lu Su instead!"
"Quan will kill you if you break anything," Zhou Yu said, calmly adjusting the driver's seat back a notch. He and Sun Quan were the same height, but the latter tended to drive with a borderline-manic hunch over the wheel.
"…he wouldn't," Sun Ce pouted, doubtful.
"He'd get Zhou Tai to do it for him."
"Shit."
"Seatbelt on, Ce, or you'll be paying the fine."
"Yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu~!"
*
"What exactly is your problem with philharmonic orchestras?" Zhou Yu asked on their approach to the venue. "A musician should appreciate all genres; pop, classical or otherwise."
"You don't like metal," Sun Ce pointed out, sullen.
"Metal is not music," Zhou Yu replied. "And besides, neither do you."
"That's not the point. This is gonna be as boring as a board meeting."
Zhou Yu did not answer for a moment, presenting their tickets to the girl at the small hotel's reception door with a congenial smile. "...It will not," he told Sun Ce once they were in.
"Player," Sun Ce said. Then picked up right where his argument had left off: "They'll be worse. At least board meetings bring out the emotion in people!"
"The term philharmonic means 'music lover'," Zhou Yu said. "If love is not an emotion, pray tell what is?"
"They're amateur!" Sun Ce protested, grasping at straws. "They probably won't even sound good!"
"Oh, so you're a connoisseur of the classics now?" Zhou Yu laughed. Sun Ce followed him down to their seats. Unable to argue further, he scuffed his formal black oxfords petulantly against the carpet as he walked. Zhou Yu didn't bother telling him to stop-he knew Sun Ce hated those shoes and was probably feeling stifled in the ironed shirt Zhou Yu had pressed him into before they'd left the studio, sharp though the ensemble made him look.
Zhou Yu glanced over his shoulder just as the scuffing stopped. "Ce?" Sun Ce was looking around with an oddly intent curiosity. "…what have you found now?" Zhou Yu asked.
"They're a lot younger than I thought they'd be," Sun Ce observed.
"This audience?" Zhou Yu gave a little shake of his head, a smile. "Ce, do you really think I'd put you through something completely geared toward geriatrics?"
Sun Ce shot him a glare. "You'd put me through it and make me enjoy it just to prove a point!"
Zhou Yu didn't deny it or point out Sun Ce's obvious flaw in reasoning; the show was starting anyway and Sun Ce's eye soon caught on one of the orchestra's performers.
Following his best friend's line of sight, Zhou Yu scanned the string section and eventually his gaze, too, locked onto the man in the chair of principal first violin. A stark contrast to the conductor (who didn't seem to be doing much but shuffling his notes about), the orchestra's concertmaster seemed imbued with authority. He fielded inaudible questions from his fellow players, checking time and again with sharp eyes that all was in order before the first number.
"That one…" Sun Ce said slowly, knowing they both knew exactly who he was talking about.
"What about him?"
"...has a seriously hot shirt."
Zhou Yu almost laughed aloud. "Really." Of all the things to comment on. Still, he had to admit that Sun Ce had a point.
Semi-formal was the theme of the night, for performers and guests alike. The concertmaster's shirt was a deep, wine red-well-cut and sleeves rolled up to show off a broad chest and strong arms. The man clearly hit the gym several times a week, but still handled his bow with remarkable delicacy, entirely self-aware and controlled.
"Attractive, I'll agree," Zhou Yu said obliquely.
"I want it," Sun Ce said.
Zhou Yu raised a brow. "Excuse me?"
"Look at the jack," Sun Ce pointed, grinning sharply. "Electric violin means he's totally got a killer solo coming up."
"You can't just buy concertmasters, you know," Zhou Yu scoffed.
"Can't you?" Sun Ce asked, a mischievous light in his eyes that Zhou Yu had long learned to suffer.
"Your whims, honestly," he sighed. "What on earth is our band going to do with a classical violin?"
"What aren't we going to do with one, Yu?" Sun Ce said with satisfaction, and sat back in his chair as the ambient lights dimmed around them.
*
The violin solo, Zhou Yu had to admit, had turned out pretty 'killer'. Even restricted by the nature of the piece, the concertmaster had played with a style and flamboyance rarely seen in the classical arena.
Sun Ce had barely stopped grinning since.
"Taishi Ci," he said for the umpteenth time. "Awesome."
"You're not liable to forget the name if you stop repeating it, you know," Zhou Yu said dryly. Not that he was jealous-he wasn't. It was just that heady, semi-orgasmic states weren't generally accepted in polite society.
"Taishi Ciii~"
"Ce. Please."
"This way," Sun Ce said suddenly, grabbing Zhou Yu's arm and veering from the route to the car park. He led them down a side alley with the air of a kid wagging school, and it didn't require a man of Zhou Yu's intellect to deduce their destination-not after the poor hotel staff had taken nearly an hour to usher (herd, really) Sun Ce out the correct door at the end of the concert.
"Trespass is trespass even when void of malicious intent!" Zhou Yu told him, albeit in vain as Sun Ce let go of his arm to climb the wire fence at the back of the hotel.
"You don't have to join me," Sun Ce grinned, dropping to the ground on the other side. "Just stand guard. I won't be five minutes. ♥"
And with that, he disappeared into the shadows around the hotel's service bay.
*
Taishi Ci stood on the stage in subdued light. First to arrive and last to leave, his chair was the only one not yet packed away. It still faced the hall's empty rows in the silence, but he let it be a moment longer.
He didn't have to close his eyes to feel and hear echoes of the night's performance around him, through him. The concert had been good. The entire orchestra had played well despite Liu Yao being his typical touch-and-go self; Taishi Ci had managed, he felt, to cover for the conductor's lapses in direction a shade better than usual, and this pleased him.
He took a deep breath, the satisfaction of it all still thick in his veins. Progress. Accomplishment.
...sort of.
In the back of his mind Taishi Ci knew that the orchestra would never make a professional debut. Too many elements fell short, not limited to Liu Yao's talent. The job would never pay the bills. When dawn came, Taishi Ci would be back in a starched white collar on an inner-city bus and would spend his day hunched over a keyboard, drafting monkey letters for monkey clients, and occasionally fetching coffee.
There were other orchestras out there, professional ones, looking for competent strings. But Taishi Ci had not auditioned for any of their positions. While it was true a move would necessitate demotion from concertmaster to possibly even the reserves bench, more importantly Taishi Ci felt that he owed Liu Yao somewhat for putting even as much faith in him as the man had. He also owed his orchestra-mates his leadership. (They, after all, had been the ones to vote him principal first.)
He did not want another orchestra, but as long as Liu Yao refused to really invest in this one it would never really take off...
Taishi Ci shook himself from the inconsequential thoughts. At the end of the day, casual though it was, the gig allowed him to play and that was enough.
"Found you~"
A voice from the darkened wings made him look up. "Who's there?" With even the janitor already gone, all that illuminated the hall were exit signs and backstage lowlights.
"Taishi Ci~" A well-dressed figure materialised from the shadows, carrying himself with an authority that seemed attractive at first... dangerous at second. A devilish goatee and mischievous grin lit his sharp features.
"Can I help you?" Taishi Ci asked, wary.
"Nah," the intruder said. "Just wanted to tell you your solo was one of the best I've ever seen. Not that I've seen a lot, 'cause honestly I haven't. But you know, it was good."
"Thank you." Taishi Ci gave a slight, formal bow. Knowing the other had been in the audience helped a little. (But only a little.) "Still, you needn't have troubled yourself to say so. That you appreciated our music would have been enough." In fact, Taishi Ci was fairly sure the guest should not have still been in the hotel at all.
"No, no, I had to meet you," the man said, grin sharpening as he held out his hand. "I'm Sun Ce."
Taishi Ci nodded. Sun Ce's handshake was solid and his name oddly familiar, but Taishi Ci was certain they hadn't met before. "Pleased to make your acquaintance."
"The pleasure's all mine," Sun Ce said. He sat amiably on the polished wood floor of the stage and toed off his shoes, all athletic limbs and graceful strength. Feeling far too tall suddenly, Taishi Ci crouched and took to fiddling with the violin case at his feet as Sun Ce continued talking: "See, the thing is~ I head a band and think you'd make a wicked addition to our sound. Interested?"
"Excuse me?" Taishi Ci felt his brow crease. His gaze flickered over Sun Ce's shoulder to the wings. Surely somebody was pulling his leg. The other strings had told him he needed to lighten up before. A practical joke was not...
"Hey, work with me here," Sun Ce said, calling back Taishi Ci's attention. He spread his hands. "It's not like I run recruitment drives every other Saturday, but after tonight I want you on my stage."
"Your stage," Taishi Ci repeated. Groomed appearance aside, only the intensity in Sun Ce's eyes stopped Taishi Ci from dismissing him outright. "...What do you play?"
"Rock," Sun Ce looked up at the dimmed lights, giving the impression of rolled eyes with his smile. "Pop, the blues. Does it matter?"
'I'm classically trained if you hadn't noticed,' Taishi Ci didn't say. It was clear enough Sun Ce did know what he was talking about, and indeed Taishi Ci could play other styles well enough. Still, he returned Sun Ce's smile with an edge of challenge. Every half-musical kid wanted to be a rock star when they grew up but very few had the talent to make it. "I suppose genre mightn't matter," he answered. "If you're any good."
Sun Ce sat up, his grin meeting Taishi Ci's gaze steel for steel. "If I'm any good?" Unfastening his watch, he shucked it off and held it out. "How about you take this, and let me let you judge for yourself."
"...what?" Taishi Ci's brow furrowed again. This man took leaps of logic that were hard to follow. Impatient though, Sun Ce took Taishi Ci's hand and pressed the watch into it, and Taishi Ci frowned some more as he turned the item over in his palm. It was a Rolex, genuine by weight and feel. "I don't-"
But Sun Ce helped himself to Taishi Ci's violin anyway, game face on. (His game face was a grin.) "Just hold it hostage while I handle this, okay? Consider it a guarantee." He unclipped Taishi Ci's bow and drew it from the case, debonair.
Dubiousness welled up in Taishi Ci's chest. "You... play?" he asked, watching Sun Ce manhandle his precious violin. It wasn't the most expensive instrument he owned, but it was his favourite.
"You'll see," Sun Ce said.
"...right," Taishi Ci said. And waited. And watched.
Allaying a little of his trepidation (but only a little), Sun Ce did not over-tighten the bow, forget the rosin, or misadjust the shoulder rest; and despite a few winceworthy flats initially, his left hand was fluid on the fingerboard. Letting out a small breath, Taishi Ci relaxed somewhat. The violin was in good hands.
Belatedly, he realised that Sun Ce was watching him as he played, eyes tinted with light amusement. A corner of Taishi Ci's mouth lifted in a smile.
"How's my driving?" Sun Ce asked, though it cost him a couple of notes to do so.
"Rusty," Taishi Ci replied. "Lacking finesse." But if he were honest it was also competent. Striking. Powerfully melodic.
"Thought so," Sun Ce said with a knowing grin, and slipped into a wordless song. The tune was familiar to Taishi Ci's ear but, like Sun Ce's name earlier, he couldn't quite place it.
"…what was the name of that piece?" Taishi Ci asked, when at length Sun Ce lowered the bow.
"You know it?" His expression was somewhere between harmlessly self-satisfied and outright smug. "It's just a thing one of my bandmates wrote, though for the piano originally. He's the brains of our operation, you know? But I'll have to kill you if you tell him I said that."
"Is that right," Taishi Ci said, Sun Ce's tone putting out of mind any question of borrowing or plagiarism by this 'friend' of his. "On piano, you say?" With that clue factored in, the tune felt even more familiar to his mind's ear. Strange.
"Yeah, he's… actually, I left him out in the car 'cause he didn't want to climb the back fence. Wanna meet him?"
Taishi Ci blinked. The offer seemed almost an afterthought as Sun Ce packed the violin back up. "Members of your band appreciate classical music?"
The question made Sun Ce laugh aloud. "More like he's the connoisseur who dragged me here." His gaze turned wicked. "If you want to know what mistakes you guys made tonight, he'll be able to tell you down to the player, beat and bar. Forty-seven total, apparently. Not bad."
Taishi Ci flushed. "You…"
"He'd be a helluva lot better than me at this shitty little thing, too," Sun Ce went on, patting the violin case he'd just latched shut.
"...excuse me?" Taishi Ci felt like he should be properly offended, but Sun Ce only grinned at his expression.
"My strings're usually on a longer neck, y'know. Bass is my forte. He's the one that does piano and all that delicate stuff. I rock."
For a long moment, Taishi Ci just stared. But then his mouth quirked upward. Picking up his violin case, he stood and dusted his knees. Sun Ce was certainly intriguing if nothing else. "Fine. If that's indeed the case then I concede you must be at least moderately talented."
"Still not bought?" Sun Ce laughed. Picking up his shoes, he headed down the stage in his socks. "Damn, you're demanding. Guess I'll just have to kidnap you and prove it for real. Call a jam session at the studio~♪"
"Tonight?" Taishi Ci raised a brow. Sun Ce seemed to expect him to follow, and had left his Rolex behind besides. "It's ten in the evening."
Sun Ce waved his concerns away. "The crew'll still be there, you'll see; they're all freaks. You'll fit right in. Ah, Yu ought'a call ahead and get our manager to leave a new contract on the table…"
"A contract?" Taishi Ci asked, surprised but not rudely. Sun Ce's band was at least above garage-grade if they had management and official paperwork. The thought was... comforting-relative to how fast everything else seemed to be moving along. "I haven't yet agreed to anything, you know."
Sun Ce only seemed amused by the token protest. "Haven't you? C'mon, Taishi. I'm gonna pay you to play and hang out with awesome people: a better job description doesn't exist this side of the South Pole. Right now, you're second fiddle to a shitty conductor in an amateur orchestra. You play classical-"
"There's nothing wrong with classical music," Taishi Ci said. "It is an opus of beautiful pieces, if you can appreciate them."
Sun Ce grinned. "Yeah, but in my line of work? You get an orgy of beautiful people as well. If you can appreciate them."
His turn of phrase made Taishi Ci's brain hurt somewhat, in the effort required to convince himself that none of it was literal. Regardless, Sun Ce kept walking and for better or worse Taishi Ci followed behind him.
Until, "He thinks you're hot, you know," Sun Ce smirked, glancing over his shoulder. "This pretty, pretty friend of mine."
Taishi Ci stopped dead in his tracks. His cheeks felt flushed despite himself, and they must have been because Sun Ce laughed again.
"Just kidding~"
"...Please don't say things like that."
"Figure it out when we get to the car. ♥"
*
Zhou Yu had retreated without waiting. Playing lookout was pointless when Sun Ce was involved (and predictably, he had been far longer than the promised five minutes anyway). In Sun Quan's car with the driver's seat reclined, Zhou Yu dozed lightly until at length his sharp ears caught the faint sound of laughter on the breeze. Voices. Sun Ce and another. Zhou Yu got out of the car.
And presently, Sun Ce rounded the corner with Taishi Ci in tow.
"Told you you can buy them, Yu!" Sun Ce called merrily. "One classical violin coming right up!"
"Buy them?"
"Ignore him." Zhou Yu offered his hand as the pair approached. "Taishi Ci, I presume? Zhou Yu. It's an honour. And I apologise for any unbecoming behaviour my friend here may have subjected you to." Blackmail, bullying, coercion-he knew well it was all within Sun Ce's arsenal.
Still, "No, not at all," Taishi Ci said, shaking Zhou Yu's hand. He seemed surprised, and Zhou Yu wondered fleetingly if there was something on his face. But Sun Ce looked far too gleeful for it to be anything so innocent.
"...Ce," Zhou Yu said, tone warning, "what did you tell our poor friend here?"
"Nothing~" Sun Ce grinned, in what appeared to be complete honesty. "Not even your name, I swear!"
"Zhou Yu," Taishi Ci repeated. And Zhou Yu realised the other hadn't yet let released his hand. "Your feature in the ModClass autumn issue was very informative."
"Oh," Zhou Yu said, faintly embarrassed by the reminder. Modern Classical Quarterly had interviewed him earlier in the year about the rise of the popular-classical genre and he'd talked with them at length about a variety of things, from opera singers going pop, to string quartets sexualising their image in order to appeal to a wider audience. But to prove its own point, the magazine had ended up asking a bit more of Zhou Yu's own image than he'd expected, and the content of the interview had turned out rather secondary.
Sun Ce wore a frown. "What the hell, you know him from that? I wasn't even in that one."
Taishi Ci didn't seem to hear him. "It was a very interesting interview," he told Zhou Yu solemnly. "Your answers were full of depth and insight."
"And your fold-out poster that came with it," Sun Ce added in mimicry of the same sincere tone, "was full of soft light and a lack of shirt buttons. I never knew you could play the piano with your hair falling everywhere like that!"
"Ce, that was hardly the point of the article," Zhou Yu said-but the faint red tint over Taishi Ci's cheeks betrayed him fast, much to Sun Ce's delight. Zhou Yu sighed and shook his head, though also more amused than not. As often happened when Sun Ce was involved, there was nothing for the situation. He changed the topic. "Modern Classical is not exclusively a strings publication. Do you play any other instruments, Taishi Ci?"
Taishi Ci gave him a grateful glance before the light in his eyes turned sharper and he looked over at Sun Ce. "I do. Piano, guitar, bass, double-bass."
"Hey hey hey," Sun Ce grinned. "Is that a challenge I hear? Yu whips all ass when it comes to the keys, but I give no quarter over a baseline."
"I'm sure I could manage at least as well as you play the violin," Taishi Ci said.
Zhou Yu laughed. "He played for you? Ce hasn't touched a violin in years."
"Likewise," Taishi Ci smiled. "I own no other instruments. My point stands."
"Get in the car," Sun Ce said, pointing to the front seat with a sharp smile. His air veritably pulsed with anticipation. "We're going to settle this back at the studio, just you and me."
*
Later (much later. When the sun was just about getting ready to rise), Sun Ce stretched out in the only bed in Zhou Yu's neat little townhouse and made himself comfortable. Across the way, Zhou Yu was still working, seated at his desk with his computer on and a bunch of little composer programs running. Listening with one ear, Sun Ce could pick out snatches of some of the melodies and rifts from their earlier jam session. Documentation.
He closed his eyes with a pleased little smile at the fresh memories. "Mm~ Taishi Ci."
"Please stop that," Zhou Yu told him.
Sun Ce chuckled. "Jealous?"
"Of what?" Zhou Yu scoffed. "Disturbed on his behalf, more like. Your chasing that poor man will only give me a break once in a while."
Sun Ce grinned, rolling over to prop his chin up in his hand. For a shameless moment, he admired the way Zhou Yu let his pretty hair stay half fallen out of its clasp at the end of a long day. It was pretty after all. "He's sweet on you, you know."
Zhou Yu set his tablet pen down at that, finally looking up. "And yet it was you two who played 'til you bled on the frets. Ling Tong won't forgive you when he finds out, you know."
"He won't find out."
"Oh, but he will."
"What! Yuu..."
From the tone of Sun Ce's whine, Zhou Yu apparently decided to finally call it a night, shutting his computer down. He rubbed tiredly at his eyes. "Please move over if you don't want to be relegated to the couch."
Obligingly, Sun Ce made room. "Anyway, you can't complain. We got some good music out of it. And a violin."
"He's signed nothing yet," Zhou Yu reminded, tugging his hair free and setting its clasp on the bedside table before slipping under the covers. He nudged Sun Ce over. And over. Until Sun Ce made a noise of annoyance and pinned Zhou Yu's arms, spooning up against his back.
"Mm~ doesn't matter, we'll be seeing him again."
"You sound so sure."
"He plays bass, Yu, and a decent one at that." Sun Ce's grin was practically audible. "He's obviously entertained delusions of rock star grandeur in a past life."
Zhou Yu didn't bother pointing out what that assumption said about Sun Ce's own instrument of choice. "If you say so," he said.
"I do say so," Sun Ce told him. "And besides. ♥ He still has my watch."
"If I were him, I'd sell it on eBay," Zhou Yu muttered.
Sun Ce laughed. "He's not that kinda guy. And you gave it to me in the first place."
"It's ghastly. Has all the subtlety of a gold brick on a strap."
"You know, I love it when you show how much you care. ♥"
Zhou Yu refused to reply. At length, he had nearly fallen asleep when Sun Ce's breath tickled the back of his neck and sent unwanted shivers down his spine. He blinked bleary eyes back open. "...What is it now, Ce?"
"He's totally sweet on you."
"What exactly is your issue with that point?" Zhou Yu asked.
Sun Ce giggled. Giggled. "You saw the way he looked at you between rounds, right? Like he'd do anything. You'd totally top."
Zhou Yu made a noise of irritation. "That is an absurd notion, Ce. I would not. Especially not when he'd clearly top you, unless you were blind to the exact way you two were eyeing each other down during your little contest."
"Are you saying I'd top you?" Sun Ce purred, with a suggestive nudge of his hips.
Zhou Yu gave him a sharp elbow to the solar plexus. Or tried. Annoyingly, Sun Ce dodged it. "I'm saying the entire content of this conversation is inconceivable and therefore moot."
"...You're such a prude," Sun Ce chuckled, snuggling back up against Zhou Yu's back. "You know what would solve this problem?"
"No," Zhou Yu lied. Unfortunately, he knew Sun Ce's ways a little too well.
"A threesome," Sun Ce announced, true to form. "That way he'd top and bottom."
"You are depraved," Zhou Yu said, "and I want no part in it."
"Liar, you totally do. How about I invite you over when it happens?" Sun Ce said, and only smiled when Zhou Yu again refused to answer.
*
A half-hour later when Zhou Yu's shoulders finally relaxed, his breathing even, and the first of the day's light began filtering in through the window, Sun Ce said smugly, "I think I'll take that as tacit consent. ♥"