A Star for Baby (boyxboy)

Corvus

Oooo things are starting to get real.

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"Do you have your phone?"

"Yeah."

"Keys?"

"Check."

"Music?"

"Double check."

"Violin?"

"Triple check, and you know it."

"Then I don't know why you're so nervous."

Oliver and Baby stood outside the entrance to the school concert hall, where Baby was supposed to be playing in less than fifteen minutes. They stood closer than normal, brushing their hands together where Baby wasn't clutching his violin.

Baby coughed rather viciously, then, and Oliver put a hand on his back. Baby turned away from Oliver to wipe at his mouth shakily.

"Hey, are you alright?"

"Yeah, just nervous, like you said," Baby composed himself.

"Well you have no need to be," Oliver tried to reassure him. "You're going to play beautifully. You've been practicing for so long. The last couple weeks you've sounded incredible."

"Do you really mean it?" Baby shuffled from foot to foot.

"I really mean it."

"This is a grade Oliver," Baby groaned. "If I do bad I straight up fail Instrument Techniques. I don't have enough credit hours to cover me."

"Hey, look at me."

Oliver gently took Baby's face in his hands. Baby looked at him with somewhat desperate blue eyes, clearly even more nervous than his sarcastic voice was letting on. Oliver leaned forward to kiss the tip of his nose, then rest their foreheads together. He loved being this close to Baby, being able to feel their breaths align.

"Baby Parker, you're going to go up there and play that violin like nobody's business," he said. "And when you're done, I'm going to go buy you the biggest Nacho Bellgrande in the entirety of existence."

Baby huffed out a little laugh. "I was thinking more along the lines of a nice makeout session, but any type of reward is appreciated."

"Well that works too," Oliver said. "I love you Baby."

"I love you too," Baby took a deep breath and stepped back from Oliver. "I'll see you in a little bit!"

"Go kick some ass. I'll be in the front row."

Baby grinned and entered the concert hall, taking the backstage route. Oliver sighed, watching him go. He headed to the auditorium.

Since it was a graded performance, Baby's entire class was performing excerpts of solo pieces. Baby had to explain to Oliver that it was different from what he'd seen before. What he'd gone to with his family had been an actual orchestral performance done by the college symphony. This was for a class, and probably only a few people would be in the audience to watch. The professor would evaluate each performance after it was given, and viola. Grading day.

Oliver entered the auditorium. Sure enough, there were only about a dozen people dotting the first few rows of the huge space. Apparently no one knew or cared about these small performances. But Oliver cared. He'd been hearing Baby practice his piece for weeks now. It was the Scherzo movement of Shostakovich's first violin concerto. Baby just played the solo violin part, sans orchestra, and it was the most hauntingly beautiful thing Oliver had ever heard out of a classical instrument. Baby had some real talent.