Page 151 of A Soul to Steal

It felt like he’d been transported to eight years ago, but in a way, that was uplifting.

He had to pause a few times when he played the incorrect note, or accidentally played two instead of one. Still, he felt his chest swelling, and his mind emptying.

Words threatened to bubble past his lips, but he kept them at bay. He liked to sing, but was utterly tone-deaf and one hundred percent aware of it. He wouldn’t subject Aleron’s sensitive ear holes to that unpleasantness.

Plus, this moment was meant to be between himself, Aleron, and the guitar.

It took him a while to notice it, since he kept needing to look down at the fingerboard, but wings twitching captured his attention. When he looked up at Aleron, his orbs had flared to bright yellow.

The smile that pulled at the edges of Gideon’s lips and crinkled the corners of his eyes was a reflection of the lightness that came from his hurt and internal struggles lifting away.

Until now, he hadn’t realised how important this guitar was to him, nor had he known just how much he needed Aleron to enjoy him playing it. Perhaps it was a small thing, but it made Gideon feel closer to him by knowing he accepted this.

Not wishing to draw it out for too long, he finished after a couple more minutes, then settled the instrument in his lap.

Aleron’s tail feathers vibrated in a pronounced manner, and combined with his joyous eye colour, Gideon took that as his version of applause. “That was very good,” he added, confirming Gideon’s guess that he enjoyed the music. Aleron shifted like he wanted to come closer, even lifting a little before sitting back down. “I have never heard anything like this.”

“Want to have a go?” Gideon offered coyly, lifting the neck of it in his direction. He wiggled his eyebrows playfully. “You just can’t break it.”

Aleron shook his head. “No. I do not trust I will not harm it.”

Dammit, he just wanted the big guy to come over.

Since his excuse didn’t work, he rose to his feet and walked over. Facing him, Gideon sat in front of Aleron with his legs crossed and placed the guitar in his fur-covered lap.

“Just sheath your claws,” Gideon stated, turning it so the strings were facing him. “I’ll show you how to play. It requires very little pressure.”

When Aleron refused, still hesitant, Gideon grabbed his massive hand and forced it to cup the neck of the instrument from underneath. Then he grabbed Aleron’s other hand and made him strum the strings. None of them snapped as a mess of notes cascaded from it.

“See?” Then Gideon showed him each string on its own by using his fingers, letting him hear each one individually. Hequickly discovered a problem. “Your fingers are a little too big. One second.”

He stood and walked back over to his guitar case to go rifling through the inner pockets. Two earrings clinked together, but he ignored them for now; the Duskwalker was his priority. Once he found what he wanted, he moved back over to Aleron.

“This is a guitar pick,” he explained, holding it between his thumb and forefinger to show it. “You use it to pluck strings individually.”

He placed the blunt, triangular pick in Aleron’s hand, taught him how to hold it, and then waited for him to experiment on his own.

His finger pads were still too big for the fingerboard, but that was fine. This was still fun, even though Aleron seemed hopelessly lost with it all.

It also gave him an idea – one that had his head bowing forward so he could poorly hide his reddening cheeks under his brow-length hair.

“Here. It’s hard to get a gauge of how to play since it’s from an odd angle for me.” Gideon grumbled the lie as he pushed the guitar up into the air.

He crawled underneath it, turned around, and sat between it and Aleron’s torso. A strange shiver ran down his spine at the heat that pressed against the small of his back. Now that he was sitting between his legs, Gideon’s heart raced like it wanted to come up his throat – especially since Aleron didn’t lower the guitar to secure him in place.

He clenched his eyes shut when the urge to bolt itched at him.

Aleron finally lowered his arms, locking Gideon in, and somehow his pulse went fucking faster.

With a shaking hand, he grabbed Aleron’s to show him how to use the fingerboard. He explained how notes worked, what each one of the six strings was, and helped him play.

Slowly, bit by bit, Aleron’s chest pressed more and more firmly into his back. Gideon thought his entire being shuddered all the way to his soul between Aleron’s horns, when the end of his bony snout pressed against the side of his head as he sniffed. Aleron’s exhale brushed through his hair, tickled his scalp, and had goosebumps trailing down his arms and legs.

His mouth dried, and suddenly Gideon became tongue-tied as he tried to teach him about the instrument. It became obvious that Aleron wasn’t listening anyway.

“You play it,” Aleron grated behind him, his voice gruff and deeper than usual. Hearing it directly in his ear almost had a groan falling from him. “You are better at it, and I liked the sound of your...music.”

Gideon did as he was requested. He played the same song as before, a little more confidently now that he fully remembered how to play. Or perhaps he didn’t care what or how he played, since he was waiting with anticipation to see what would happen now that they were so close.

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