Odd timing

@"Anzellous"

It seemed as if this was a daily occurrence, at this point.

Every day for the past month, after his classes were finally dismissed, Apollo would find himself making his way over to the practice rooms. The hallway was always pretty quiet as he walked by- he couldn't tell if there was ever anyone around, as all of the rooms were soundproofed with the doors shut. He'd push the door open using the combined effort of his cane and his foot, and would never close it all the way afterwards- he really had to get out of that habit. He'd place his things down on the ground and sit himself down on the piano bench, with his fingers hovering just a mere inch above the piano keys. Every single day, he would end up in this position, and, taking a deep breath in, have to decide what in his vast repertoire would soothe his soul for the day.

Today, he was feeling Beethoven.

In particular, he was strangely in the mood for the composer's famous Moonlight sonata. He laughed to himself. "Odd timing to be playing this one..." Indeed, it was, as three o'clock was rarely a time that warranted any discussion of moonlight. His obsession with night-related pieces had really taken a turn for the worst, but gosh darn it, he was tense, and these kinds of pieces relaxed him immensely. He'd slept terribly the night before, on account of a new set of very bizarre and unsettling dreams, and thus had woken up in a slump and a grump and just a generally "ump"-ish state, which had persisted over the course of the school day. No, this was his time, and he'd play what he wanted to. It's not like anyone else was listening.

And so, he proceeded to make the piano sing for the night, in the middle of the afternoon.

Apollo jumped at the sound of clapping behind him. He had allowed himself to become too engrossed in the music he was playing to pay attention to anything else; thus, he had completely missed the sound of the door creaking open, and the woman- he was able to confirm from her voice- stepping into the practice room behind him. From the sound of it, she didn't appear to be much older than he was- another college student, perhaps?

His cheeks flushed red at her comment- he hadn’t expected anyone to actually be listening to him…-and he began to turn himself around toward the source of her voice, a shy smile on his face.

“You’re too kind,” he said, holding onto the piano bench as he properly positioned himself. “Thank you. I’m glad you liked it.”

He paused a moment, figuring he should probably introduce himself. “I’m Apollo.” He nodded, hopefully, towards her. “I don’t believe we’ve met.” He wondered if this girl might be a music student like himself- but then, he remembered that non-music majors were also frequently found using these rooms, just to jam or play around with each other. So, he took the safer conversation route, and asked her, “You a music fan as well?”

Apollo attempted to follow the sound of DJ's moving voice as she set something down in another part of the room, tilting his head in the direction of her speech. He was very happy to hear that she was a musician herself, but even more intrigued that she was a DJ both by name and by trade. "That sounds awesome!" he said as she patted the beat table- so that's what she'd been carrying. "That must be so cool, being a DJ. I'm sure it must be a lot of fun." He paused for a moment. "That whole side of music, all the electronically-based stuff- I think it's really cool, but it's pretty unfamiliar territory to me. I've always been curious to get into it, but...I haven't branched out much from classical, to be honest," he confessed, with a bit of regret in his voice. There were so many genres of music out there to explore, he felt like he was limiting himself a bit- but he was digressing...

Upon the proposal to let him hear her music, his face immediately lit up. "Are you kidding me? Of course, that'd be fantastic! I'd love to!" He was beaming, positively thrilled. He didn't know what to expect, but he could tell from the way she talked about her work and her music that she was passionate about it, just as he was. And another idea popped into his head: perhaps, beyond just sharing music, the two of them could eventually collaborate on something! Apollo was practically gushing with excitement.

Apollo listened intently as DJ began to play, and slowly but surely, he started to feel himself moving with the rhythm of the music, starting with him tapping his foot, and then progressing into him swaying and bobbing along with the beat. He allowed himself to become engrossed in each and every layer of sound, and as the piece built up more and more he felt himself getting into it, getting lost in the overlapping voices.

It was more than just the sound that was moving him so, however. It was the feeling, the emotion behind that sound. Apollo had never heard such a true, pure expression of feeling through music- it was so clear, and so strong, and it just heightened the musicality of the sound immensely. He found himself instantly enamored by this expression of emotion. He was thoroughly impressed. This girl had a gift, he could absolutely tell.

Once the music had ended and the final hit of the tambourine had been silenced, Apollo clapped his hands, getting up from the piano bench to give her a standing ovation. “That was AWESOME!” he cried, his enthusiasm apparent both in his tone and on his face. “That was incredible!! How…how did you even do that?! That is so cool…You don’t even need someone else’s music, that was brilliant enough on his own!!” He could feel himself about to ramble, so he tried to tone it down a bit, lest he scare this girl off. “You’ve got some talent there,” he said, kicking himself inwardly for such a gross understatement. “I’m really impressed,” he added, smiling genuinely.