fandomhighdorms | First Floor Rec Room, Sunday Afternoon

You could probably have said Natalie's meta senses were tingling today. She didn't know what exactly it was, but she would've bet a fair bit of money on it having something to do with people at keyboards cackling madly.

It was making her feel a little twitchy.

And when Natalie got twitchy like that, she really only had two choices: either have one of her rare cigarettes, or try to drown the feeling out by playing some music. This time around, the latter won. She grabbed some sheet music from the room and made her way downstairs to the rec room and the piano there. There was just more comfort to be had from an actual piano than from the keyboard in her room, see. And yes, she would generally have preferred going into town and to the Boards to play there, like Jono had told her she could, but it was a Sunday, and things had been pretty quiet in the dorms this week. Maybe it'd be fine to stay here.

And if her Moonlight Sonata drew people in, she'd deal with that. For now, she'd just refamiliarize herself with the piece and let that relax her.

[ooc: Open rec room!]

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There wasn't much going on for Sam today so he'd spent the majority of the morning skateboarding along the boardwalk. Now, coming back, he'd started heading up to get a shower when he heard music coming from down the hall. Since he'd never actually been in the rec room, he decided to stop by.

Seeing Natalie in there, he leaned a shoulder against the door frame, board stuck under one arm while he watched and listened for a second or two.

Natalie didn't notice.

Or, it didn't look like she had, anyway. In reality, there had been a change in the light coming through the doorway when he'd stopped there, so she knew there was someone standing there, she just didn't know who.

And since she hadn't been spoken to, she kept playing. She didn't feel like randomly stopping, after all.

She would be someone to notice when things like shadows and lights changed. Sam didn't want to interrupt her in the middle of her song either and, since he did have a fascination with her playing, he kept still and quiet.

He was a rapt audience.

So, Natalie finished the piece, with only a few minor mistakes that came from not having played this particular one in a while, though it was kind of a favourite of hers.

Once she was done, she turned to look towards the door. And no, she didn't seem surprised he was there.

"Hey."

"Hey," Sam returned, smiling at her. "How's it going? Giving out free concerts today?"

"Just playing," Natalie said, pushing hair away from her eyes before resting her hands in her lap. "Felt like a thing to do today."

"Any reason why?" Sam asked, tilting his head. "Not that you can't just play but sometimes you have a reason or something to play out in public."

"I'm only playing out in a public because I wanted to hear the sound of an actual piano," she shrugged. "And the less public one is at the Boards."

Of course that didn't really answer the question.

"Avoiding the question," Sam said, half smiling. "Everything all right, Nat?"

"Everything's fine." For now and on this side of the wall, anyway. She pressed a few random keys on the piano. "Just a weird day."

"Weird day?" Sam prompted. He wondered if this was gonna be another one of her days when she was moody for no reason and he had to figure things out. He remembered last time vividly.

"The kind of weird you have a hard time grasping," Natalie replied with another shrug. "It's nothing. It'll pass."

It already mostly had.

"Ah." He scratched his cheek and was quiet for a second. "Anything I can do?"

"Nothing any of us over here can do," she said, one hand lightly playing a little melody, distractedly. "Like I said, it'll pass."

"Well."

That was about what he expected.

"I think I'm gonna go get a shower."

She didn't seem to much want company right now.

"If you feel like you should," Natalie shrugged, because he was probably sweaty and gross. And no, she hadn't entirely realized why he was leaving.

Mostly because she'd come down here to get her comfort from the piano, and had been mostly successful in that. "I'm not throwing you out or anything."

"I didn't think you were," Sam told her, shrugging right back. "But, you seem like you wanna be alone. And no, that's not an assumption. I know the cues by now."

"When I want to be alone, I tell you so," Natalie retorted. But at least she was catching on to what was going on here now.

Sometimes she was a bit thick, socially.

"Not always," Sam said because he didn't really recall her ever telling him that. "But, you told me you're fine and I'm not gonna keep pushing. Skateboarding took too much out of me for that to happen."

The fact that he couldn't recall that ever happening should have told him something, too.

"There's nothing to push," she pointed out. "I told you it's a weird day. That's all there is to it. There's nothing there to talk about. Promise."

"Which is why I was gonna go get a shower," Sam told her, shrugging. He didn't know what else to really say either.

Natalie shrugged, and turned back towards the piano. "Then, go take your shower," she said. She wasn't going to start pushing any kind of a point, either. "Probably need it."

"Yeah, thanks," he mumbled, shaking his head and turning to go. "See you later."

"Later," Natalie agreed, as she went back to Moonlight Sonata.

A better person might have called after him and made him stay, or something. But Natalie didn't think she'd made him leave in the first place, so... Guess she was just average.

First Floor Rec Room, Sunday Afternoon

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