Piano Man

  He could hear Sarah warming up in front of the microphone, her small, soft voice rising and falling. The din of the waiters and servers setting up the many tables in front of them echoed behind her; the grating clatter of silverware wore against his ears.

He turned his attention back to Sarah. So much clearer, so much more pleasant... His shoulders, which had been tensed, relaxed, and he ran his fingers over the piano keys reverently, letting the background noise fade away.

And a pure, clear note from Sarah cracked.

His hands stopped over the keys, turning his head slightly and shifting on the hard piano bench so he could hear her better. Sarah had recovered beautifully, falling into a lower note and continuing the scale as she had been doing, but he could hear the small tremble in her voice, the quick gasps of breaths between notes. There was silence, for a moment, after Sarah finished the scale, before she began to sing again. She was determined, he was sure, to shake off her nervousness by repetition, if nothing else.

Her voice cracked, again, on the third note, and the remainder of her breath came out as a small, hitching sob, almost silent. Ian frowned, his ears picking up on what his sightless eyes couldn't. He lifted the hand closest to her and gently ghosted it over the edge of the piano, running over smooth wood and varnish, until he touched skin. Her hand.

With a smile on his face, he took her small hand into both of his and gave it a light squeeze. He heard her shift, smelt the sweet scent of her perfume as she moved closer to him, before her arms wrapped around him, one hand tangling in his hair, the other trapped between his fingers. She tilted her head down to rest her chin on his head and let out a breath.

His hands were still clasped over hers when he heard the room begin to fill, with the light chatter of a crowd and the scraping sounds of chairs being pulled back. Knowing they were expected to begin, he dropped a quick kiss on the palm of her hand before releasing it. As Sarah's arms unwound from around his neck, Ian's long, slender hands began to stroke the gleaming piano keys once more, lightly touching notes he had already memorized.

He heard the clack of Sarah's heels as she took a step away, and the scratch they made as she turned on her heel and came back to him. She leaned in close, again, he could feel the ends of her hair brush against his neck, before she took one of his hands from the piano. He could feel nothing but her hand against his fingers for a moment, before she brought the hand up to her lips, letting him discover for himself the smile on her face.

"Thank you." She whispered to him, tenderness touching every word, before standing up and stepping to the microphone.