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It all started during the spring cleaning , in which , of course , everyone was forced to participate . As they were taking care of a storage room , they found an unknown musical object that most likely belonged to a past nameless . Pompom was the first to identify the object or at least to know its name but he had no idea how it was supposed to be played and declared that it was taller than him anyway .Since no one really seemed to be wanting the “guitar” , Dan Heng decided that he was gonna take it and study it’s use , as he said it “would have been a shame to just discard the object simply because we don’t know how to use it”
The rest of the cleaning continued as usual with no other discoveries , the instrument was forgotten by the crew until one afternoon , Dan Heng came across a book on how to actually use it . It worked on a principle similar to that of a ruan , an instrument that one of his past incarnation used to enjoy playing, not that he himself had any real idea of how to play it .
But the lose memory of a distant play and the content of the unknow book made him curious enough to try and use the guitar . Of course the sound was awful at first and Dan Heng had to do more research on how he could tune it but after a week he could confidently say to himself that he was progressing in his research .
It took a month before Dan Heng stopped lying to himself , admitting that he actually liked the instrument , that he enjoyed playing with the strings, and that now that he knew the basis of how it worked he was also discovering different sounds that weren’t recorded in the book he’d found. It offered him a sense of freedom , playing the instrument became a moment where he would let loose , relaxing , even shedding his human disguise for a while .
This lasted until one night when he came across the trailblazer , across Stelle . Of course, seeing her in the kitchen wasn't the problem, no, the problem was what she was humming. She was humming HIS melody , the one no one was supposed to know about , because he was only playing for himself , in secret , a secret , his secret thing .
Dan Heng was stunned , he didn’t move or say anything just left as fast as he could, having forgotten what he had planned to do in the first place.
The thing was that it happened again, several times, Dan Heng was much more aware of Stelle and especially when she was humming. Until he couldn’t ignore it anymore , he felt like Stelle was everywhere he was and everytime he could hear her humming . Worse still , she began to add lyrics to them and he lost it .
Because this wasn’t just a normal nameless , it wasn’t like March 7th who was more of a colleague turned slightly annoying friend .
No , this was Stelle , who didn’t ask any question when she saw his Vidyadhara form , who accompanied and fought alongside him when he decided to meet Bailu . And who apparently enjoyed his music .
Ever since their return on the express , Dan Heng had wanted to do something for Stelle , to thank her for her kindness and truthfulness . And now he had an idea of what he could do.
Of course another week passed before Dan Heng actually did something , he was looking for the right moment .And that moment came one evening, in the kitchen, when he walked in and saw Stelle again, humming one of his melodies. He started at her before opening his mouth and blurting :
“I know that you have listened to the music I’m playing sometime”
She turned around, her cheeks flushed with surprise.
“I'm sorry , does it bother you ? I heard you once when I was passing by the archive and couldn't help but listen , it's really pretty you know ? And also very soothing..”
It was the turn of his cheeks to turn red this time, although the color disappeared very quickly. He shook his head and gave a vague, shy smile. “I find it soothing too , it’s a very liberating experience”
he coughed
“anyway I wanted to ask , I mean I noticed that you were adding lyrics to some part while you hummed sometime… I wanted to ask if. hum you wanted to try and write something with me ? like a song or something along those lines …”
She had a stunned expression on her face , both were blushing , she gave him a slight smile
“I would really like to , when do we start ?”
“How about right now?" he answered .
During the week that followed, Dan Heng and Stelle met every other night, talking and writing in a calm and relaxing atmosphere , having fun , letting things loose .
So much so that he ended up asking for something that, less than a month ago, he would have thought was impossible.
He turned to her and asked in a calm but uncertain tone.
“Stelle , do you mind if I take my other appearance ? To be honest I don’t usually play under this guise”
“Of course , you should do as you are most comfortable , first of all shall I remind you that we are in your space ? The archive is your room . Second .” She took a pause and blushed a bit “I think that your other form is really pretty Dan Heng , so of course I don’t mind if you take it .”
He let out a sigh of relief, just because she hadn't had a problem with it the first time didn't mean she wouldn't have a problem with it now . Besides… the fact that she said she liked it... For an appearance that had caused him nothing but pain and suffering .... was something he'd never heard before.
All he knew in his Vidyadhara form was the disdain that people had for Dan Feng . He felt a chill run down his spine, a harsh reminder of his treatment on the Luofu when he was younger . Memories of being confined in a dark place , surrounded by chains and locked away from the world . He shook his head, returning to the present time .
“Thank you , I really appreciate it”
Their little arrangement continued for another 3 weeks, during which Stelle discovered that she not only liked to sing, but was also quite good at it, or so Dan Heng had told her.
Everything was going great until one night when they were in the kitchen after taking a break to get some water. They were casually singing acapella , Dan Heng in his Vidyadhara form swaying his tail in rhythm . Until March 7th silently came in , gasped and nearly screamed
“HA HA !”
They turned to look at her, opened their mouths to at least greet her, but she cut them off before they could say a word.
"I knew it ! I knew you two were secretly seeing each other ! It all started when we came back from the Luofu ! I'm sure of it! You two went on your little secret thing and now you are having dates together at night !"
Dan Heng was as red as a beet and in his surprise had grabbed Stelle’s waist with his tail , drawing her near him , standing in a protective stance , which wasn’t a good way to defend themselves against the accusation that March 7th had just thrown at them
Stelle didn't look any better, her cheeks were red as well and she looked at both March 7th and Dan Feng in shock, or more precisely at Dan Feng's translucent tail still wrapped around his waist.
“Hum march ,it’s not what you think it is , Dan Heng and I aren’t.. like that”
“Yeah sure , if you two weren’t having a date right now then what were you doing exactly ? Also what’s with the tail ?”
“Hum .. well”
As they spoke, Dan Heng forced himself to remove his tail from Stelle's waist, fighting his inner self, telling it that this was not something one would do to a friend. His Vidyadharan instinct answered that this was not another Vidyadhara and therefore was too fragile for them not to protect her. Also adding that they had lost too many people in the past and would not make the same mistakes this time.
While he was at war with himself, he gave Stele a quick look of apology.
“We were practicing for our secret project March .”
Stelle finally let out
“What secret project?”
“Well you remember when we found the guitar ? Dan Heng and I created a song and we were practicing , hum.” she paused
“You know to show you guys later ! as a surprise .”
This time it was Stelle who shot an apologetic look at Dan Heng. She had no better explanation to give March 7th that would lessen her accusation.
If the pink haired girl heard that they not only had these secret meetings, but that they also spent most of the time, if not sleeping, at least napping together afterward. She was never going to let them off the hook.
Not that Stelle would really mind getting romantically involved with Dan Feng, but right now would really be the worst time to say so.
“Huh… really ? That is so cool ! I’ll tell Himeko and mister Yang tomorrow ! You guys seem ready , right ? So you can sing to us soon , right ?”
Dan Heng lost the color in his face for a while before he took a breath and answered . “sure.. we’ll do that soon”
Shortly after March 7th had left Stelle looked at him . “Dan Heng I’m so so sorry I didn’t know what to say to her and I didn’t want to create an even bigger misunderstanding for you . She saw us like that and-”
He looked at her with slight smile and said
“It’s okay Stelle , It’s also my fault , I was surprised and my instincts acted on their own , let’s also say that my tail didn’t really help our case here..”
“Oh yeah what was that by the way ?”
“hum..just a protective mesur- I mean reflex, it was a reflex”.
A silence .
“Are you gonna be okay playing for the rest of the crew ? I knew you liked it because you were alone , oh well mostly alone .”
“Yeah I’ll be fine .. How about you ?”
“I’ll manage just fine I think”
They smiled .
A few days later they finally played one of their little songs to the delight of everyone in the crew, PomPom even saying they were the best he had ever heard and Marc filming their performance.
“You know I really thought that you guys made that excuse on the spot seeing how you were all lovey dovey , especially with Dan Heng’s tail around you Stelle . But I’m happy I was wrong , this was awesome !”
Everyone else looked at them, their eyes seeming to say, "What exactly were you guys doing? This doesn't seem like something you'd do in a rehearsal.”