Andante con Brio

CLV

He had been sleeping so deeply that he startled when the phone alarm went. 
"No." he grunted. "Not fucking yet."
Brett breathed in sharply through his nose beside him and stretched. He must have let him go at some point in the night. 
"Hmmm." he said, and somehow that brought it all back. The panic. And Brett's solution. Eddy turned on his side, his hand on Brett's chest. 
"Thank you." he said. 
"What for?"
Eddy shrugged. 
"You know what for."
Brett turned to him and his eyebrows danced. 
"Oh, that? That was my pleasure. Come on, let's get up, huh?"
Brett hopped out of bed before Eddy could say anything else, and started putting on his jeans. Eddy leaned back in the bed for a moment, and watched him as he took his bed shirt off and took his button down shirt out of the wardrobe. 
"Eddy! Up!" he said sternly. Eddy grinned. 
"In a minute. I'm just enjoying the view." he told him. He watched on fondly as Brett cast his eyes down to the floor, suddenly looking all shy, and turned to him with his shirt half done up. 
"Really?" 
Eddy moved the covers back and padded over. Put his arms around him from behind and kissed him on the neck. 
"Really."

He shot into his somewhat dressy trousers, pulled the white shirt he had ironed the night before off its hanger. He had no desire to get changed at the competition, but the second he touched the clothes the nerves were flooding back in. 
"Oh man." he said. "Remind me why we're doing this to ourselves again?"
Brett grinned. 
"Because we're going to be famous soloists and need the competitions to get noticed."
Eddy sighed deeply. 
"Yeah."

The ride to the venue was a silent one. All of them were preoccupied, in their own worlds, even Todd hadn't made a single joke yet. And try as he might, Eddy couldn't keep the shivers away anymore. He had done competitions before, but not one like this. Not one while he was a con student. He swallowed the nausea away and looked out at the street. 
"You've been to this venue before, right? What's it like?" he said, quietly enough that the guys in front wouldn't hear.
Brett took his hand and sqeezed it. 
"Yeah, last year, when I bombed out massive style. It's okay. A couple of smaller rooms, some warm up spaces and one decent auditorium. The first round will probably in the small room with just the committee."
Eddy could picture it now. Playing in a small room filled with only experts. Sucking. Being sent away with their faces disgusted. He shivered and looked out of the window again. 
"You'll do great, you know." he said softly, but Brett never responded. 

Todd parked the car and they walked together, to an ugly concrete building that looked nothing like a music venue at all. Seriously, where were the beautiful concert halls? Eddy took a deep breath as he followed the guys in. Todd introduced them and a young woman with blond pigtails waved them to the left, where she said were warm up rooms. 

How was it that practice rooms were the same wherever you went? He looked around at the room as he walked in. His very own one, for once, no sharing here. These rooms were always a bit dirty, all over the world, and always with an old, grotty piano, and never with enough music stands. Still, he was going to take it, and it was a relief to put his violin case down on the table and open it. But before he could even take his violin out the door opened. 
"Eddy, hi."
He turned around with a shock, and almost ran forward. 
"John! What? You're... hi!"
John smiled. 
"I'm in the committee. I'm not really supposed to talk to you before, but I'd figured I'd say hey before surprising you when you entered the audition chamber."
Eddy grasped around for something to say, but his mind had blanked. 
"It's so good to see you!"