OFA: In the library

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Nikola is getting rusty.

But he has a good enough memory that despite the fact that it's been a good twenty years since he sat down at a piano, he's doing a fairly decent job of making his way through Au Claire de la Lune.

He doesn't play well, but he plays with great expression.

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Nikola shakes his head. "My father. He wanted me to play the church organ."

As if in illustration, he begins playing something that has a distinctly hymn-like quality.

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Will listens for a moment, then slips from the bench and crawls beneath the piano so he can get the full effect. He can imagine the church. Something small and stone with a young Nikola sitting at the organ.

He wonders if Nikola enjoyed it.

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He did. When he was young enough to appreciate the simplicity offered in faith, before he began to question everything.

Nikola chuckles as Will gets on the floor but plays on, fingers moving easily through what is clearly a very familiar tune.

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His mother wanted him to take lessons, but Will was too young to appreciate it and they fought. He can almost picture her, but that kind of safety and security keeps getting replaced by Magnus in his head.

He folds his hands over his chest and lets his mind wander.

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Nikola was very, very young when he began lessons. So young he can't quite remember when it was. He was around thirteen, though, when he started branching out from sacred music.

The hymn continues to the end, and he transitions into Brahm's Paganini Variations.

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Eyes open in shock, Will grins up at the piano as the music becomes complex and lively. Instead of touching his soul, it seems to be much more interested in other parts of his body.

He watches the strings dance and wonders how long it took to learn. There are certainly moments when Nikola's genius is more evident than others.

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Like the Debussy, the Brahms is not perfect. But Nikola does an excellent job of covering his few slips. This is clearly a piece he's more familiar with, and his previous warm up has brought back to mind what he may have forgotten. His fingers move quickly and gracefully over the keys, and he smiles as he plays.

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If he switches around he can watch Nikola's knees. He can't see his face, but Will can sense his concentration in his body. It's enjoyable, instead of demanding. A type of release Will rarely allows himself that he's entraced by. Nikola probably sees right through him.

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Nikola's knees occasionally move with his playing, almost as if he's dancing along with the music, though they don't quite follow the beat. When he finishes, he lets the last note hang in the air for a moment before sitting back.

"Enjoying yourself down there?"

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Will emerges with a shy smile. "It's like being inside of the music," he shrugs. "The vibrations are fascinating to watch." Amongst other things.

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"How poetic," Nikola says dryly, though he agrees about the vibrations.

"It's just math, you know. Music."

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"If I could get inside math, I would." He thinks about it for a moment, sitting down on the bench next to Nikola.

"I suppose a planetarium is close."

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"That's not math, that's physics," Nikola counters. "Related, but not interchangeable."

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"True," Will wracks his brain. "Maybe pure mathematics is too much of a language to embed yourself in."

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"It's everywhere, though," Nikola says. "Music, art, even fashion and societal standards for beauty."

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Music and art he has a lot of access too. Fashion he usually ignores until it's time to replace worn out shirts, though Watson does think he should dress better.

"Makes 'beauty is truth, truth beauty' seem a little more logical if you look at it that way.

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Nikola gives a dry chuckle. "Yes, perhaps Keats wasn't a complete idiot after all."

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"Maybe he got lucky." Will prefers Oscar Wilde, even if he is a little more depressing.

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"Everyone does occasionally." Nikola does as well, though his mun couldn't even begin to compare the two.

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"Some much more often then others?" Will raises an eyebrow.

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"With some, it's not luck," Nikola says.

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"Control your fate or someone else will" he quotes, wondering if he wants to get into a discussion of control with Nikola.

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Nikola snorts out a soft laugh. "Yes, something like that."

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"And you're the type to make your own luck, fate too, I'm sure." Will can't decide if the confidence came before or after the vampirism.

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Definitely before.

"I don't believe in fate, actually."