~thirty-three~

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"It's pretty silly how perfect everything seems right now," Ranboo said. We were roaming the castle since there was nothing better to do. The rain was coming down harder than ever, and the wind was beginning to pick up.

"Aside from the rain," I chuckled.

"Aside from the rain," he repeated, agreeing with me. After only a few moments of comfortable silence, the sound of a guitar greeted us from a door at the end of the hallway we were walking down. I remembered that this was the hall with the back entrance to the throne room.

There were maybe four voices singing along with the guitar, maybe more. A soprano, an alto, a tenor, and a bass. A full arrangement, if you will. The song was sweet and soft, like a fresh cinnamon roll. Ranboo grabbed my hand and made a beeline for the throne room, the voices getting louder. He brought his index finger to his lips to tell me to be quiet, but I could have figured that out for myself.

Sitting before the throne was Wilbur with his guitar in his lap. His brow was furrowed in concentration as his nimble fingers danced across the strings. Ophie stood off to the side, and Anatolios had their arm around her waist. I could only assume Callista and Techno sat on the thrones.

Techno's singing voice still held a monotone value to it, while Callista's alto tone was much darker and sultrier than her speaking voice. Ophie's voice was very saccharine, yet still soft. And Wilbur's voice cut through them all, his accent peeking through his words. They sounded beautiful together.

And then Ophie took the lead, singing a song about a woman who goes undercover to see if her husband would fall for her again. Callista took up a harmony underneath the melody until what I assumed was the chorus, and she took over. All yours, she sang. Babooshka, babooshka, babooshka...

"Wil told me that Callista wrote this one. It's based on some story, he said," Ranboo whispered. He later told me that they were singing one that Techno had helped write before we walked up.

"They sound beautiful," I marveled, slightly leaning against Ranboo's arm. I felt him relax against me, a sigh escaping his lips.

"I love them. They're my family," he murmured and he squeezed my hand. "I wouldn't have anyone else." By now the music had ceased, and everyone was getting up to leave, so we hurriedly left our spot behind the door.

"Do you sing?" I asked once we were quite a ways away from everything. The thunder had calmed down a lot, something I was eternally grateful for. Loud claps of thunder were all it took to scare me.

"Not very well in English," he chuckled. He opened the door to his room and we entered, the fireplace barely smoldering. It wasn't very smart of us to leave it unsupervised. "There are some old Enderman folk songs I know though." For the first time, I noticed the small, beat-up piano in the corner of his room, staggering piles of books and papers on top of it. It was made of light wood, and the bench seemed to be splintering at the corners. There was dust on the entire instrument, save the middle two octaves of keys.

He sat down at the piano, a small soft smile on his face. Taking a deep breath, he set his nimble fingers on the keys and began to play the little tune that I had begun associating with the taste of vanilla and cinnamon. The old piano was a little out of tune, but it only added to the charm of the melody. In another context, it could have been creepy, but the things that came to my mind were nothing short of sweet and warm.

"Callista is helping me write this down onto some sheet music, so I don't forget it," he said, even as his fingers kept moving. "Her and Wilbur are going to see if they can add parts to it."

"Does it have a name?" I asked. I had sat down on his bed, perfectly content to do nothing but sit and listen.

"I think I'm going to call it Fallen Down."

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