music masked (blm commission, part i)
Hey all! Iâm still working on this fic, but here is the first scene of a commission by @komorebirei for @mlbforblm*. The request was Lukadrien in a 1920s/1930s jazz club! Iâm hoping to have the first part of the fic posted sometime in the next several weeks or so.
(Fic title pendingâthe title you see above is just for this scene. Other scene titles considered were âgay jazz ficâ and âfic where they are gay and play jazz and also itâs the 1930sâ. Alas, I ultimately rejected those.)
*Proceeds from this charity drive went to Color of Change.
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Patrons stand shoulder-to-shoulder in the small, hot room, but for Luka, itâs just him and his guitar.
He closes his eyes and tilts his head back as his fingers find the strings instinctively, sliding from one chord to the next. Heâs following the lead of the trumpet and saxâcontent to keep rhythm for the combo, the sound of his strings melding with the upright bass wedged behind him.
The stage is small; itâs more of a nook than a proper performance space, with all the musicians squeezed together. Every once in a while, Julekaâs elbow bumps him, though Luka barely registers her touch. What he does notice is the heat: even with the night to chase away some of the sunâs fever, Lukaâs hair clings to his forehead, his limbs damp with sweat.
He supposes he could undo a few buttons of his shirt between songs. The Libertyâs dress code is laxâno one would be scandalized if he exposed a bit of skin.
In fact, hardly anyone would see. As always, the lights in the club are dim, with only a few lamps along the wall illuminating the faces in the room.
As their trumpeter, Henri, begins a solo, Luka lets his eyes rove around the room. He recognizes almost every face in the crowd, since most of clubâs visitors are regulars. Few find the place by accidentâwhile itâs right in the heart of the city, the entrance is found in an alley off the main street, and the club has a reputation among the upper crust for being seedy.
Itâs not, of course. Itâs just jazz.
The song moves to a piano interlude, and the space temporarily gets quieterâthough really, their pianist knows how to make the keys sing as loud as any brass instrument.
âWonder how long until we get a noise complaint,â Juleka mumbles.
Luka scoffs. âIâm sure the police are already on their way.â
Thereâs no law against running a jazz club, per seâbut their neighbors arenât too fond of the loud music and late nights.
âThey should just move, if they donât like the music,â Juleka says, her fingers lazing across the strings. âThey can afford it.â
âMaybe they secretly like us,â Luka teases.
Thatâs doubtful, though. Just this past year, Gabriel Agreste has sent the police to their door fifty-one times.
The song surges again, and itâs too loud for talking. A smile tugs at Lukaâs lips as he watches the crowd clap and sway, some of them attempting to dance in the close quarters. Others struggle to hold onto their drinks as they squeeze their way over to the bar, where Anarka happily refills their glasses.
Then Luka spots the stranger.
Theyâre tucked against the wall by the door, where the light barely reaches. At first, Luka thinks the shadows are making strange patterns on their faceâand then he realizes that the person is wearing a mask, pitch black, one that covers the top half of their face. Their outfit is dark, too, making them fade into the wall behind them.
Thereâs one thing about them thatâs light, though: the fair, tousled hair that falls on their forehead and curls over their ears, messy and unstyled.
The strangerâs eyes meet Lukaâs, and his fingers lag, fumbling one of the chords. Itâs not noticeable to the audience, but when he glances up at Juleka, sheâs looking at him strangely.
For the rest of the song, Luka keeps his eyes glued to the frets of his guitar, even though his fingers have known the positions for more than half his life.
When the band goes on break, Luka sets his guitar aside, his eyes drawn to the spot by the door. Itâs empty now, and when Luka scans the room, he doesnât see anyone wearing a mask or a light halo of hair.
âLooking for that masked person?â Juleka asks.
âSo you saw them, too,â Luka murmurs. He was starting to wonder if the strangerâs brief appearance was just a trick of the light.
Juleka shrugs. âYou could ask around.â
âWhat if they were a one-time patron?â
âThen they arenât coming back.â Â
Luka sighs as Juleka winds her way over to the bar, where their mother is still serving drinks. Usually he appreciates his sisterâs bluntnessâbut not when she steamrolls his daydreaming.
He does ask around. Only a few people saw the stranger before they left; one woman says the person murmured excuse me with a manâs voice, and another patron says that he seemed quiet and polite. No one knows his name or face, though.
Later, when the club has emptied out and Luka is sweeping the floor, he asks his mother if it was someone she knew. (She has strange friends, after allâa mysterious mask-wearer is just the sort of person she might be friends with.)
âNever seen them before,â Anarka grumbles, as she wipes the inside of a glass. âProbably one of Agresteâs goons, looking for a reason to shut us down.â
That feels wrong, but Luka doesnât push. His mother is right to be paranoid when the man in a mansion is constantly breathing down their necks.
The three of them keep cleaning, and Luka loses himself in his thoughts. He knows itâs not that strange for someone to slip into the club and leave before closingâbut someone wearing a mask? What are they trying to hide?
Their face, obviously. And thatâs the part Luka canât stop speculating about.
âYou know,â Juleka says, âyou donât have to sleep with every handsome stranger that sets foot in the bar.â
Luka rolls his eyes. âI donât do that.â
âOnly the unmarried ones?â
âUsually,â Luka says drily.
He knows sheâs kiddingâand she has a point. It doesnât really matter who the masked stranger is, if Luka doesnât want anything to do with them.
But Luka craves peopleâs stories. Because heâs always been more of a listener than a talker, heâs been mistaken for a loner, and thatâs stunted his social circle. Learning about peopleâwho they are, where they come from, where theyâre goingâis his way of feeling less like a recluse.
Almost everyone whoâs ever walked through the door of the club, Luka has learned something about them. (Even the policemen, who look increasingly apologetic every time theyâre called to investigate a noise complaint.) For this masked person to come and go without telling Luka anythingâŚhe canât help but feel that theyâve slipped through his fingers, like a melody heâs forgotten before he could write it down.
Maybe, though, itâs a tune heâll hear again.