“Oh, it is you playing.”

Rune yelped and turned around to see Hyde standing behind him with a startled face. Hyde smiled apologetically. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” He was wearing a hoodie and jeans—Rune’s hoodie and jeans—and looked like he just came out of the shower. His hair was a lovely mess and not fully dry yet.

“Hey,” Rune greeted as he admired how he looked a little while longer. 

Hyde leaned on the top of the piano with his arms. “What were you playing?” 

Rune scratched the stubble on his chin. “A simple melody my dad taught me.” 

Hyde raised his eyebrow. “I thought you said your dad couldn’t teach you?”

“It’s the only thing he could.”

“Oh.” Hyde smiled. “It’s nice.” 

Rune slightly smiled too. “Yeah.” He felt frozen, unable to continue. Not with this pair of eyes staring at him.

“Why don’t you keep going?” Hyde asked.

“Uh.” Rune felt his face warm. “It’s been a while.” He didn’t get it. He was never this shy. Was it only because of his realisation from this morning?

“You were doing fine before I got here, don’t let me stop you,” Hyde grinned. 

Rune stared down at the keys, but couldn’t make his fingers move. Hyde frowned. He took a seat next to Rune on the small bench, leaving no space between them, making Rune flinch and tense up. 

Hyde smiled at him. “Come on, it’s always better than what I could play, which is nothing.” 

“Surely, you know something.” 

Hyde shook his head. “I’ve never touched so much as a shitty school piano thingy.”

“Really?”

Hyde hummed and looked down at the keys. “They were always reserved for the kids who were actually interested in music.” 

Their legs brushed together, making Rune blush. Hyde didn’t seem to have noticed the touch. Or he didn’t care. Rune couldn’t tell if that was a good or a bad sign.

“—me?”

Rune snapped out of it with a flinch. “What?” 

Hyde squinted his eyes with a curious smile. “What’s up with you today? You’re so jumpy.” 

“I don’t know, sorry. What did you ask?”

“If you could teach me. The basics.”

“Oh.” Rune’s eyes lit up. “Yeah, sure.” 

They turned to the keys. Rune rested his left hand on them, Hyde followed suit and placed his right hand next to Rune’s.

“Let’s stick to one hand for now. Do you generally know how a piano works or do you need the real basics?” Rune began the lesson. 

Hyde hesitated. “I know it makes noise when you press down.” He pushed one key down to prove his point.

“Well, that’s something.” Rune placed his right hand on the far right of the piano. “The right side makes the higher tones.” He pressed one key down, producing a short, high tone. He turned his head to the left. “And the left produces low tones.” Hyde pressed a key with his left hand, indeed producing a low tone.

“And it gradually goes from one end of the spectrum to the other.” Rune slid a finger across several keys.

“What about the black ones?” Hyde asked as he pressed a black key down.

“You can ignore those, that’s a bit more advanced. That should be all you need to know for now, do you want to try a little melody?”

Hyde smiled. “Sure.”

“Okay.” Rune readied his left hand beside Hyde’s right. “Then try to follow what I do.” He slowly began to play the same melody he played before. Hyde tried to follow his hand movement, but got confused about the finger placement. “Wait—”

“Hm? Oh, hang on,” Rune realised. He switched his hands, placing his right hand next to Hyde’s, causing him to lean closer to Hyde; against his shoulder. Hyde didn’t move away. Rune glanced at Hyde’s face with a blush. He was so close, he could see all the individual little hairs on his cheek and jaw. 

He moved his gaze back to their hands. He began to play again as he said, “That should make more sense,” with a little chuckle. 

Hyde chuckled too as he tried to follow along. “Yeah.”

They kept going. Hyde didn’t seem uncomfortable about their current closeness at all. Rune decided to test the waters a little. His left hand was currently tightly tucked against himself to not accidentally touch him, but he relaxed and let it rest against the outside of Hyde’s thigh. Hyde glanced down for a moment before looking back at his hand on the piano, as if he didn’t even feel it. Rune squinted his eyes. He couldn’t tell if he was genuinely so nonchalant about this or if he didn’t want to make Rune uncomfortable by telling him to back off. 

Rune stopped playing and sat back, moving away from Hyde. Hyde raised his eyebrow at him. “What?” 

Rune shrugged. “Thought you wouldn’t want me breathing down your neck for so long.”

“No, it’s fine, I don’t mind,” Hyde reassured him.

“Really?” Rune still wasn’t sure. 

Hyde huffed. “Why do you keep thinking I’m so uncomfortable with you?” He heavily leaned against Rune. “Come on,” he chuckled as he put his hand back on the keys. 

Rune was stunned, until Hyde expectedly looked at his face. Rune smiled and began to play the melody again. 

Rune was confused. So, he was this nonchalant about the closeness. He wanted it, even. Had he always been this way or was this new? The only times he could remember him being so… affectionate, was when they were talking about their pasts and during the full moon. But the moon didn’t count, did it? And when they were trauma dumping on each other, Hyde wanted to comfort him. He had noticed physical affection was comforting to him, that’s why he had offered it, right? But the fact he noticed that, though—

Rune had no idea where these thoughts were going. Again, he had no idea how to tell the difference between Hyde’s platonic and romantic affection. He could simply be this comfortable with close friends. He guessed the easiest way to be sure would be to ask him, but he didn’t want to do that. What if it ruined everything?

He noticed Hyde looking at him. “Huh?” 

Hyde laughed a little. “Where are you with your thoughts today? Fucking hell.”

“Eh—” Should he answer honestly? Probably not the full truth, but maybe a little snippet. “You, I guess?” 

“Me?”

“You seem a lot more comfortable than usual.”

“I do?” Hyde furrowed his brows and bit his cheek in thought. 

“Yeah, you don’t usually lean on me like this in the village.”

“Oh.” Hyde got off him with a frown. 

Rune’s eyes widened. “No no no, wait—” He grabbed Hyde’s arm. “I didn’t mean it as a bad thing, it’s good that you’re comfortable with me, great even. Please don’t get anxious about it, now.” 

Hyde shook his head, confused. “Then I don’t get what you’re trying to say.”

“It was only an observation. That’s all.”

“So, if you’re fine with me being comfortable with you, why do you seem so uncomfortable with me?”

“I—” Rune considered what to say that wouldn’t make things worse. “I guess I’m not used to friends like you. But that doesn’t mean I don’t like it! Just—” He groaned, rubbed his face and grabbed the roots of his hair. How was he going to dig himself out of this hole? 

He let his hands drop into his lap with a defeated sigh. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what I’m saying anymore.” 

Hyde breathed out a chuckle. “If I seem different, then so do you.”

“What, why?”

“You’re usually way more confident and cocky, where did the confidence go?” 

Rune knew the answer. Straight down the drain after he realised he actually did like him. He never had a hard time flirting with people to tease them or as a way to be witty. But, as soon as he actually liked someone, he worried about what that person thought about him, which he normally didn’t care for.

But he couldn’t tell him that. Not yet, at least.

“I don’t know, I feel off today. Maybe because of all the changes lately. Having a hard time adjusting?”

It wasn’t a complete lie. But also not the full truth. The perfect balance.

Hyde hesitantly smiled and nodded. “Right. I’m sure you have a lot on your mind with how Night is being and that you can’t see your grandad and everything. Can’t expect you to keep the confidence up all the time.” 

Rune sighed in relief and smiled. “Yeah.” 

Hyde leaned against him. “I guess this is a side of you I haven’t seen much of before.” He ruffled the front of Rune’s hair a bit to fix it from when he had grabbed it before. Rune chuckled. He wrapped his arms around Hyde’s waist and leaned his chin on his shoulder with a flustered smile. 

“Thanks,” he whispered. 

Hyde was surprised, then put a hand on Rune’s arm and rested his head against Rune’s. Hyde put his other hand on the piano and badly played the melody, making Rune laugh. Hyde snorted along with him. 

Rune knocked on Lullaby’s bedroom door.

“Yeah?” he heard. He opened the door and saw her sitting on the two-seater she had on the opposite side of her room as her bed. 

“Hey,” he greeted and closed the door behind him. “I need to talk to you.” 

Lullaby raised her eyebrow, then gestured to the space next to her for him to sit. He sat. 

“About what?” she asked.

Rune sighed. “You were right, I do like Hyde,” he said, hushed.

“You don’t seem happy about that.”

“Because it’s making me act weird. My head is all over the place, I can’t think of anything else and I can’t have fun with him without overthinking every little touch and it’s very noticeable. It nearly caused an argument between us, because it made him think I’m not comfortable with him or something.”

Lullaby snickered. “Oh, Runy.” She pat his cheek. “Seems like you broke the dam of feelings.”

“What do I do about it before it actually causes an argument?”

“What do you do about the feelings? You don’t want them to go away, do you?”

“No, but—how do I manage them, I guess?”

“Well”—she placed her arm on his shoulders and pulled him against her side—“first of all, calm down. Only because you now realise the feelings are there, doesn’t mean they weren’t there before. And you could act normal, then.”

Rune sighed and nodded.

“Second, give it time. You need to get used to the idea that these feelings are there and not going away anytime soon. For now, it’s new. But you’ll settle into it. Third, be yourself, clearly that’s the Rune Hyde likes. Don’t overthink every little touch or thing you say. Do as you normally do.”

“I’m trying, but—”

“See points one and two,” she interrupted. “Lastly, think of how it would look from his perspective. For him, you began to act weird overnight, every time he so much as lightly brushes against you. So, it’s understandable that he gets confused and upset over it, right?”

“Yeah.” Rune sat up, removing Lullaby’s arm from his shoulders. “Then, if I manage to do all that, how would I know how he feels? I don’t know what he’s like with other close friends, I don’t know how to tell the difference between his platonic and romantic feelings. Or how I’d even try to flirt with him.”

“Since when are you afraid of flirting?”

“It’s different with someone I actually like, and not only doing it to mess with people! And I’ve done that with him before—”

“What?”

“Flirting to tease him. If I start to flirt with him again now, he might think I’m not being serious again. How would I get him to take it seriously?”

“I don’t know the ins and outs of your relationship. But be persistent with it? Surely, when you keep doing it, he’ll realise you’re not joking anymore?”

Rune nodded and sighed. “Makes sense.” If he kept flirting with him, either verbally or physically, Hyde should get the hint eventually, right? If he did it for several weeks, he’d understand. Right? Surely Hyde wasn’t that oblivious, he was so clever and perceptive with everything else.

Rune smiled at her. “Thanks. I needed to hear all that.” 

“Of course.” She smiled back. “That’s what best friends are for.” She booped his nose. “And it’s not that weird how you’re acting.”

Rune raised his eyebrow. “Really?” 

She chuckled. “Do you know how I acted when I figured out I had a crush on you?”

“No?”

“You remember that day when I was dragging you around town, shoving a bunch of food in your face, even though you couldn’t safely eat any of it, and refusing to leave your side all day?”

Rune’s eyes widened. “Oh, yeah! I do.”

“Yeah, that was the day I figured I liked you.”

“So, you tried to poison me with normal people food?”

She laughed, then nudged him with her shoulder. “It’s hard, having a crush on your friend. It makes you act like an idiot. But, you’ll figure it out.”

Rune smiled again and nodded.