Battle of the Bands

4.

Ludwig walked in to the room and internally cringed at the sheer volume of noise. He held his (relatively expensive) violin a little closer to himself and made a rather crooked b-line to an emptier corner of the room and sat down.

It was Christmas time and the school was holding their annual concert. That meant that the band and string students had to share a room after their respective performances because the dancers were changing in the strings room.

Most of Ludwig's fellow string-mates had left early because they didn't desire to stay but he had to because he'd forgotten his bus tickets at home and his mom couldn't pick him until after the concert.

And so here he found himself, desperately hoping his own instrument and the instruments around the dancers in the other room would survive the night. He was just thankful that he had this corner to himself.

For about five minutes.

Just then, the guy who's name was Feli according to a band student, sat on the chair facing Ludwig, throwing his feet up on another. The German looked at him and then his feet and then back at him.

"Hey violin virtuoso." He smiled cheekily and then popped a piece of gum in his mouth.

"Hello." Ludwig shook his head when he was offered a piece of gum.

"What's up?"

"Uh," He shrugged and gripped his violin tighter when someone with a large drum mallet ran past him. "Not much, I guess."

He cursed himself for leaving his case in the practice room.

"This is nice." Feli said and reached out for the violin.

Ludwig jerked it back out of his reach. "No, no, absolutely not."

"Ugh, why do you have such a huge stick up your ass?" He rolled his eyes and dropped his hand.

Ludwig frowned at him and squinted a little. He wished he hadn't forgotten his bus tickets.

~

Okay, okay, this wasn't supposed to happen.

Ludwig threw his head back with a laugh after taking a sip from the bottle in the brown paper bag. And then he hummed as he turned down the cheery christmas music playing from the radio.

He was having a good time, and only insisted it was because of the level of alcohol in his bloodstream.

Anyway, they'd ditched the concert and Ludwig packed up his violin and put in the trunk of the Italian's car after lots of reasoning. Feliciano drove Ludwig home (he'd missed the last bus) and parked a block away from his home.

He'd taken the bottle of rum out from under the seat and convinced Ludwig to stay and drink. It was Christmas after all.

"Fine." Ludwig had said and partook in the late night festivities.

After quite a few swigs of the strong rum, he'd leaned into Feliciano and planted one on him, square on the lips.

"You're gay?" The Italian asked.

"Mm, sorta."

"Me too." He kissed him back. "There's no mistletoe."

"I surprised myself too." Ludwig whispered and they made out for a while, blissfully ignoring the music.

After a few long minutes, a classical piece came on and Feliciano mumbled against Ludwig's mouth, "Mozart."

"Bach is better."

At that, Feliciano pulled back abruptly and stared at him incredulously. "What?"

Ludwig frowned back. "Are you saying-?"

"Duh! Mozart was a genius!" Feliciano rolled his eyes.

Ludwig opened his mouth to argue and then scoffed. "I can't even think to lower myself to your-" he waved his hands and cut himself short. "Jesus."

He got out of the car, rum in hand, and began to storm away. Feliciano called out of his open window, "You musically uncultured bastard, have you even ever listened to Mozart?"

Ludwig turned around at that and stormed right back, leaning down to look at him through the window and prodding him in the chest with his finger. "How dare you call me uncultured?"

"You just said Bach is BETTER than Mozart!" He exclaimed. "And you took my rum!"

Ludwig thrust it back at him and got his violin from the trunk, slamming it closed before stomping back home, only stopping to yell back.

"I can't believe I just had a Mozart-lover's tongue in my mouth!"

Feliciano flipped him off and grunted in disgust, speeding away even though he'd had too much to drink.

(He made it home.)

~