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Jesper’s day began, as many of his days now did, with Wylan dragging him by the hand around the mansion.
Well, that wasn’t technically true. They first spent a lazy morning lounging in bed (because what was the point in being a mercher if you couldn’t sleep in?), and had breakfast together in the dining room after finally getting up. And most mornings, Wylan would’ve been dragging Jesper towards the study to actually get some work done like a good and upstanding Kerch citizen. But today was one of the rare days where Wylan decided to take a much-deserved break from work, so their destination was clearly not the study.
But really, it was hard to think about all that when Wylan was wearing a smile that could brighten even the darkest of nights.
Wylan Van Sunshine, indeed.
In a tangle of limbs, the two of them stumbled into their destination, the music room. That didn’t surprise Jesper much; this room was by far Wylan’s favourite in the mansion, and he’d been spending more time in it recently, seemingly working on a new project.
Jesper took a second to catch his breath — either the mansion was getting bigger by the day, or he was getting too used to the comfortable mercher lifestyle — before asking, “Okay, Wy, what was so important that you had to drag me in here first thing in the morning?”
At this, Wylan’s excited smile seemed to dim a little into a nervous one, his free hand coming up to fiddle with Jesper’s fingers.
“Okay, um. Remember when we visited your father in Novyi Zem?”
“Of course, love. That was barely a week ago,” Jesper answered. Where was he going with this?
“Right. So remember how you and your father were singing some traditional Kaelish songs?” Wylan led Jesper towards the piano in the middle of the room.
“Sure…?”
“Well, they sounded really interesting and I couldn’t stop thinking about them, so when we got back, I started transcribing and analysing them.” Wylan gestured towards the numerous music scores scattered across the piano cover. Before Jesper could react, Wylan continued.
“And they really do have some incredible characteristics! A lot of them — or, at least, the ones you sang with your father — either have compound meter, or syncopated and dotted rhythm to imitate the swing feel. There’s so many ornamentations which were a little hard to transcribe onto a score, but they add so much character into the music. And some of these songs not only use non-Ionian modes, but also use the pentatonic or hexatonic versions of these scales. It’s just fascinating!”
Jesper decided to interrupt Wylan’s rambling before he collapsed from lack of oxygen. “Wait, Wy, hold on. That’s a lot of scores on the piano, and we only sang some of those songs once or twice. You’re telling me you managed to remember all of them and write them all down? I’ve never even heard you play them out.”
Wylan seemed to pause for a second. “Well, yeah. Most of the songs are pretty repetitive, so hearing one or two verses was enough for me to remember the melodies. Besides, I’ve played them over in my head enough times on the boat trip back to know what the notes are. All I needed to do when we came back was to write them down.” Wylan’s eyebrows furrowed, and he tilted his head slightly. “Is that not…normal?”
Instantly, Jesper surged forward to cradle Wylan’s head in his hands, pressing kisses all over Wylan’s face. “Wylan, honey, love of my life. You are extraordinary. Amazing. Brilliant. The greatest person to have ever lived.”
“Okay, okay, stop distracting me! I haven’t even gotten to my point yet!” Wylan laughed, pushing Jesper away slightly to sit on the piano bench.
“As I was saying, I thought the Kaelish songs you introduced me to were really interesting, so I wanted to write something inspired by it.” Wylan hesitated, fiddling with his sleeves. “I haven’t been able to get this melody out of my head. It’s pretty short and it isn’t finished yet, I just wanted to hear what you thought about it.”
Careful to avoid the many, many pieces of paper, Jesper leaned against the piano. “Of course, Wy. It’s always a pleasure to listen to anything from that brilliant mind of yours.”
Relaxing slightly, Wylan placed his fingers on the keys. As he continued playing, the tension completely left his body, leaving him gently swaying to the beat. Fully immersed in the music, Wylan started humming an upbeat and lighthearted tune, his gentle tenor voice floating through the lively melody. As the sunlight streamed through the window and perfectly framed Wylan’s head, Jesper couldn’t help but recall another moment, in another mansion, with another piano, but with the same relaxed and quiet smile on Wylan’s face.
As Wylan finished his playing, he turned to Jesper. “That’s all I’ve got so far. What do you think?”
And just like that moment in what seemed like a lifetime ago, no words came to Jesper’s mind, and he could only stare at Wylan in a trancelike state.
Apparently, the silence lasted a little too long, as Wylan averted his eyes and tried almost desperately to fill it. “I mean, I wanted to put in words — it’s a song, after all, it’s supposed to have words — but I couldn’t figure out which ones to use, so I decided to just leave it for later. And I’m really sorry if I did something that bastardised Kaelish music, the only concepts that I could use to analyse it most likely weren’t developed with traditional Kaelish music in mind, so it’s very possible that I oversimplified it. I promise I’ll stop immediately if you tell me t-“
“Wylan, that was incredible.”
The frantic wringing of Wylan’s hands abruptly stopped. He snapped his head to look back at Jesper.
“Wait, really?”
And who was Jesper to resist staring back at his genius of a boyfriend when he looked at him like that?
“I- yeah.”
As a grin began to spread across Wylan’s face, Jesper swore he saw Wylan’s blue eyes sparkle. It reminded him of the way light glinted off the wings of a butterfly, probably one of those blue butterflies that Wylan had used once to save his life — oh right, Cyan Morphos. Wylan had showed him a picture of them once and rambled about…symbolism, or something. The butterflies and those poisonous orange flowers kept each other alive. Sounded pretty romantic, if you asked him.
Actually, now that he’s thinking about it, the blue of Wylan’s eyes didn’t quite match the shade of those butterfly wings. It looked more like a beautiful spring day in Novyi Zem — the bright blue of the cloudless sky belonging to the first home he’d ever known.
Wait…
“Play it again.”
Wylan blinked. “What?”
“Play it again, Wy. I have an idea for the words.”
Sparing only a moment to send a questioning look at Jesper, Wylan got into position. The sound of the accompanying piano once again filled the room.
And Jesper sang.
And I, I finally found a cloudless sky, a butterfly
And I, I finally found a reason to romanticise being alive
My blue-eyed boy
As Wylan took his fingers off the keys, he gaped wordlessly at Jesper, with an expression that Jesper could only assume resembled the one he wore just a few moments earlier.
There was a beat of silence. Two. Then:
“Wait here.”
Without any further indication of what was happening, Wylan jumped up from the piano bench and ran past Jesper to the other side of the music room.
…Okay?
Turning around, it was immediately obvious that Wylan had rushed to grab his flute. What was not so immediately obvious was why these were Wylan’s next words:
“Sing that again.”
But of course, Jesper had never been able to refuse a request from Wylan, not least one as simple as that.
As Jesper opened his mouth to sing, Wylan began to improvise a version of the piano accompaniment on the flute, and even added a short catchy refrain that made Jesper want to grab Wylan by the arms and start dancing. So naturally, that’s exactly what he did.
The rest of the day went by in a similar fashion. Wylan would add more sections to the song, which would prompt Jesper to add more lyrics, which would inspire Wylan to add more accompanying music. And as day turned into afternoon turned into evening, the room filled with music and laughter.