Walk With Me

Chapter 14

Tamaki didn't understand what was happening. He was a stranger in his own body, pins and needles dancing from his toes to the tip of his head. He was drowning, floating, falling. He couldn't breathe, couldn't speak.

The sun was blinding, but he refused to close the curtains. The windows caused his music room to pool with light, draping over every sharp edge in the room and make it all the more welcoming. He was at his piano, running smooth fingers over the keys. He pressed down once, allowing the initial chime to wash over him. He tilted his head, flicked his wrist, and began to play in earnest. The music echoed down the hall, poured from his very being.

Doctors rushed around him, yet they looked as if suspended in molasses. Tamaki blinked, his vision reduced to shades of white as he stared at the ceiling. The same melody, over and over in his head.

The notes flew by as he pushed and pulled the melody, flowing and shifting with the keys.

He was free, he was weightless.

But the song was reaching it's end.

The ceiling spun, his hands clutching the sheets like they would stop it. He didn't know what was happening, he couldn't feel the hands on his arms, the pricks in his skin, the beeping and the shouting. He twitched, it was fast, it was spinning too fast -

He was chasing the final note, fingers frantic. He could see it, in front of him. He had gotten to the last note... but his hands faltered.

He couldn't remember the melody.

He couldn't remember who he was.

He was slipping, the world tilting to one side. His eye slid close. Belatedly, he remembered the song. It was one he wrote, a long time ago. He wrote it... for...

Like lightning, Tamaki jolted awake, electricity surging through his nerves and arcing down his spine until falling was the last thing he could do.

His melody... His song...

'Kyoya'

The final note in the sequence, the missing piece that kept the flow of the tempo in check. Tamaki could not allow himself to slip away when the rest of his song was still waiting to be played.

He hummed it to himself, over and over, the simple melody keeping him lucid.

He had to play it. Once, for Kyoya. He had to.