Kauru Hitachiin's Love Story || an OHSHC fanfiction

Two || Making Music

After a long week at school, it was finally the weekend, but that didn't mean that there was nothing to do; Maverick and Kaoru had agreed to work on their French project on Saturday

Kaoru approached the McMasters manor and looked up, it was surprising that an estate of this size had been built in only eight months. He rang the door bell, and to his surprise it wasn't a servant or Maverick that answered the door but Maverick's younger brother, Matthew.
"Yes?" Matthew asked, he looked almost identical to his older brother, except that Matthew's eyes are chocolate brown where as Maverick's were a deep, bright green and Maverick is about half an inch taller than his younger brother.
"Hello, Matthew, I'm Kaoru Hitachiin, I'm a friend of Maverick's. Is he home?" Kaoru asked politely. He wanted to make a good first impression on Maverick's younger brother. Matthew nodded. "Yeah, he's upstairs, just follow the music." Matthew replied, stepping aside to let Kaoru in. Stepping inside, Kaoru was slightly confused at to what 'follow the music' meant.
While the outside of the house was built to look more aged than it really is, the interior was very modern, with little accents of English architecture, décor, culture, the like; Kaoru was amazed at how it all fit together so nicely.

As Kaoru ascended the stairs, he understood what Matthew meant by 'follow the music'; there was soft piano music coming from one of the rooms upstairs. Kaoru followed it until he came to a room with the door slightly ajar, light streaming from inside. As Kaoru got closer to the room, he could see inside and what he saw was definitely not what he was expecting. Maverick was sitting at a piano in the middle of the room playing and singing a song Kaoru didn't recognize, shirtless. Kaoru stepped into the room and watched him, smiling as he leaned against the door frame, he noticed something that he never would have thought he would see in person; Maverick had tattoos, two of them; a sun on his left shoulder blade and the name Natalie with two dates after it; he also had scars on his back, which took longer for Kaoru to notice. When Maverick played the last note on his piano, Kaoru walked further into the room. "I didn't know you play the piano." Kaoru said, standing beside him.
Maverick jumped a little, he hadn't been expecting Kaoru so early. As Kaoru got closer to Maverick he noticed more scars up and down his arms and a few on his chest. Part of him wanted to ask, concerned for Maverick's well-being, but more of him decided to leave it alone, hoping Maverick would tell him when he was ready.
"Uh, yeah, I play almost every instrument in here." Maverick replied and smiled up at Kaoru. "There isn't much else to do but learn when you're locked in you own house for three months every year." Kaoru was confused by the statement but felt it best to not ask; if Maverick wanted to tell him, he would.
"Do you sing at all?" Maverick asked, changing the subject, bringing Kaoru out of his thoughts. Maverick turned the page of his sheet music back by one page, the song was called 'Seventeen'.
"Uh, a little?" Kaoru said, not really sure as he hadn't even attempted in years. Maverick scooted over a little on the piano bench and motioned for Kaoru to sit, which he did.
"This is your part." Maverick said, pointing to a bar. "The tenor part." He added and smiled before he started to play and sing. Kaoru followed along, rocky at first, but once he got more comfortable with it and just let go, he sounded pretty good, they sounded really good together. Maverick played the last chord and smiled at Kaoru. "You can sing, Kaoru, trust me." Maverick said, taking his hands off the keys. He closed the lid over the keys and stood up, grabbing the book of sheet music with him. He put it in a plastic bin marked 'MUSICALS' in a cubby. There were other bins too; 'ENSEMBLE', 'CLASSICAL', 'ORIGINAL', among others.
"We should probably get started on that French project." Maverick said before pulling a hoodie, that had been in a different cubby, over his head.
"Probably." Kaoru agreed and followed Maverick to a different room in the house; the study/library.

The boys sat at the table in the middle of the room atop which Maverick's notes were already strewn. Maverick opened his binder to the assignment page which had little hand-written notes all over it, all in English. Kaoru had almost forgotten that Maverick's first language was English, despite having sung with him in English just moments ago. They got started on the project, working very closely together. After figuring out who was in charge of what, they got off topic, which was inevitable with these two. "Can I ask about your tattoos?" Kaoru asked, putting down his pencil, looking at Maverick.
Maverick nodded. "Uh, yeah," he replied, "what do you want to know?" Kaoru didn't think he would get this far.
"Do they mean something?" He asked, he assumed they would, but didn't know how to word it.
Maverick nodded. "When I was eight, my mum died, so I have her name, birth date and death date. The sun is for my ex-boyfriend who passed away of leukaemia shortly before I moved here." He explained and gave Kaoru a small smile.
"I'm sorry, Maverick." Kaoru replied, placing a hand on his shoulder.
Maverick shrugged. "It's okay. I'm okay." He replied, placing his hand over Kaoru's. "Moving here has really helped me to move on, like he would have wanted." Kaoru and Maverick smiled at each other. Knowing that Maverick had an ex-boyfrined was bitter-sweet for Kaoru; on one hand, he now knew that Maverick was into guys, and that he might have a shot, but on the other hand, he wasn't sure if it was too soon for Maverick to have another boyfriend or girlfriend as he had only been in Japan for about a month and had said that his ex passed away 'shortly' before his move. It wasn't like he could talk to anyone about this; Hikaru definitely wouldn't understand, and neither would the other hosts. So, what was he to do now that he felt like this? What was the next logical step? Kaoru wasn't sure what to do, so he changed the subject back to their French project, and they got back to work.
After writing out what they were going to say for the oral part of the presentation, and what was going to be on the slides, it was time to practice their oral presentation, but not before a question popped out of Kaoru's mouth that he really wasn't expecting to actually ask.
"Do you want to join the host club?" Kaoru blurted out as Maverick had just finished numbering his cue-cards. Kaoru's eyes went wide as he realized what he had said.
"I wouldn't be intruding, would I?" Maverick replied. Kaoru couldn't believe that Maverick was actually considering this.
"I would have to check with the others, but I don't see why you couldn't. We lost two members last year, they graduated."
Maverick nodded. "If they say no, I won't be upset, tell me when they've made a decision."
Kaoru nodded. "Will do."