tallulahgs

Title: Violin Lessons
Rating: G
Fandom: Death Note
Pairing/Characters: little!Raito and Sayu, Sachiko
Notes/Summary: Raito is angered when playing the violin doesn't go as he expected. Written for and crossposted to

dn_contest, prompt "music".

The lady who's going to teach him violin is quite pretty and she smiles at him and says don't you look smart? And the room is quiet and shady and smells of books and that varnishy stuff you put on the bow. And it is all just how he thought it would be. And then he holds the violin for the first time and scrapes the bow across the strings and it all goes wrong.

(He was the first one in his class to understand fractions and the first one to be able to do a forward roll and the only one to get full marks on every spelling test and he didn't even have to try. Not much, anyway.)

It doesn't sound like it could even ever be music, and then she doesn't look surprised. Why isn't she surprised that it sounds so awful? She must have been expecting something better than these squeaks and squawks. No one expects screw-ups, not from him. The strings cut into the pads of his fingers and they smell sour and his palm is so sweaty he thinks that he will drop the bow. He bites down on his lower lip and grits his teeth because he doesn't want her to see that he might maybe almost be going to cry. He doesn't cry. Not much, anyway.

And when the lesson is over she helps him put the instrument away as if he's a little kid like Sayu or something. As if that terrible music has decided it. It's not supposed -

He says thank-you to her and smiles up at her and she smiles back as if he's still smart and they pretend-smile at each other until his mother says say goodbye now and leads him out to the car. Did you enjoy it? He puts on that face that Sayu calls Raito's grown-up face and he says I think so. I'm not sure yet. Mum laughs and squeezes his hand. I'm sure you'll be making beautiful music in no time! You can learn nice tunes and play them to Daddy when he comes home. And he pretends more, he pulls a face and says, Oh, Mum, Dad won't be interested in soppy stuff like that, he's got criminals to catch, and she laughs and she doesn't know.

Sayu is waiting in the car, lying across the back seat with her shoes off. He shoves at her legs, and why don't you keep your shoes on? Your feet smell anyway and Sayu sticks out her tongue at him and says yours smell worse and Mum tells them both to stop it as she gets into the car too. He wants to be old enough to ride in the front seat instead of stuck in the back with stupid Sayu (who is so much stupider than him, they all say so, he's checked, he found his report cards from when he was her age and they're better so that proves it). Sayu kneels up on the seat, sweaty hair sticking to her forehead, and stares out of the window, waving to strangers as they pass. She only does that because people have told her it's sweet. It's pathetic, her trying so hard to be sweet. Because you can tell she's pretending. He doesn't understand why most people are so bad at pretending, but he doesn't understand why most people are so bad at fractions either.

(He should have been better at that stupid violin -)

There is music playing on the radio and Sayu is singing along, loudly, and waving her arms about. She keeps going out of tune like the violin did and why doesn't she mind? He never sings along with things unless he's asked to. (He's not that good at singing. But he's better than her, anyway.) Why doesn't she mind that she sounds terrible?

Because she isn't good at anything, not really.

Shut up, Sayu!

Mum, Raito told me to shut up!

Well, you should shut up! You can't sing, anyway.

Well, you can't sing! You can't sing and you can't play the violin either!

(She knows. She -)

She isn't supposed to be allowed to say stuff like that!

And he leans over and grabs her wrist and twists it as hard as he can and she screams.

Mum stops the car and says that thing about how she's not going to take them home until they stop and they creep into opposite corners of the back seat and Sayu sniffles and mutters about how it's not fair and he folds his arms and keeps his grown-up face on as hard as he can and won't cry, won't cry and a bit later Mum says how it's a shame that he and Sayu have spoilt the end of his first violin lesson and by now he knows he isn't going to cry so he smiles at Sayu and he says he's sorry. Mum says he's a good boy but Sayu sticks her tongue out at him, so he half-kicks her and pulls a face. She kicks him back, but she's giggling now.

(He's going to practise and practise and he will be the best violin player ever and then when the teacher tries to tell them it was all because of her he will say no, it was me, I was good at it from the start and she will gasp like someone in a cartoon but no one will believe her because it will be him saying it and he is good at pretending and everyone always believes him. No one will ever know and if Sayu says anything else like she just did people will laugh at her because it will sound so stupid. Because he's always the best and he never does anything wrong. Not much, anyway.)