#aethtom

Phantom had been sitting alone in the practice room struggling on this new song for what seemed like hours. His fingers kept slipping which would make him mess up even further until he was so frustrated he felt like snapping his guitar at the neck and hanging himself with the strings. Why did Papa have to make this song so hard?

Sighing a bit overdramatically, he set his guitar down more carefully than he wanted to and stood up, his back cracking with how he had been hunched for so long. He stretched down to his tail and wrenched open the door, which felt good, to find Aether standing in the doorway, fully prepared to knock.

"Hey Bug. Long night?"

"It's this stupid song," Phantom moaned, stalking back over to his guitar and holding it out to the older Quint. "I just… I keep fucking up the fingering and it's just… a total mess."

Aether took the instrument from Phantom's taut fingers. "Okay. Let's see." Aether sat on the bench and plucked a few stray notes, his fingers reacting instantly to holding a guitar again. He still played occasionally but not nearly as much as when he was touring.

The sheet music was sprawled out on the floor and he slowly picked his way through the first half of the song, then the bridge, the final chorus and the big finish. Phantom stood in front of him, silent and attentive, knowing that of course Aeth would have been able to pick up something new right away. He was their silver bullet, their golden calf, the Ghoul who could do no wrong.

"Seems like you've got it…" The little Quint said morosely. Aether glanced up and caught the hurt in Phantom's violet eyes.

"Come here." Aether shifted the guitar and Phantom moved to sit beside him. "Not there, firefly." Aether motioned to his lap and Phantom flushed up to his horns.

"You… want me to… sit on your lap?"

"How else can I see what you've got so far up close?"

"I don't know, this new thing called just looking?" Phantom replied exasperatedly.

Aether patted his lap again. "Just humor me." Phantom trudged over and plopped himself in the bigger Ghoul's lap. Aether scooted the guitar into Phantom's hands and the smaller Quintessence Ghoul shifted to get comfortable, his blush still firmly in place.

Aether could easily see over his shoulder as Phantom slowly picked out the fingering, staring hard down at the shuffle of pages between their feet. After a long moment of Phantom trying to keep his playing smooth, his fingers faltered and he fudged the notes where he always fudged them.

"Ohh, I see…" Aether's voice was sure and confident as if he'd just found the secret cure for cancer or something. "Instead of that placement, try this…" Aether's large hands dwarfed Phantom's and the slighter Quint nearly eeped as Aether moved his hands gently through the notes he was struggling with, giving him a new perspective on his trouble spot and how sinful it felt to be enthroned up on Aether's lap.

Phantom's slim backside was pillowed comfortably on Aether's broad thighs, enveloped by the older Quint's comforting bulk. Aether continued to move his hands along the strings, pressing against the proper frets, trying to get Phantom's fingers to memorize the way his fingers felt.

The young Quint was getting it now, but he was also getting increasingly flustered with the way Aether's breath ghosted along his neck, the brush of his hair as he nodded Good good. "Try it once without me."

"Wha-?" But Phantom stared obediently between the sheet music and his fingers, trying to remember the way it had felt to strike the right notes for the first time in hours; trying to calm his racing heart, so loud Aether could probably hear it like a metronome.

"That's it! Good job, Bug!" Aether's praise washed over him like a soothing wave, buoying him up on the older Ghoul's endless positivity. Phantom beamed and set the guitar aside, hopping off of Aether's lap.

"It's only 'cause you helped me. I never would have gotten it on my own. Not in a million years."

"Yes you would've. All it takes is practice, and sometimes a new perspective.Do you want to try it without my help this time?" Phantom sat in Aether's relinquished spot, warm from his body. Phantom tried not to picture it warm from his bare skin- sticking to the bench as Phantom crouched above him, sinking down onto that-

"You still with me?"

"Oh-! Yeah, yeah, sorry." The younger Quint rushed to apologize. Phantom readjusted the guitar closer to his stomach, trying to hide his pants filling out. He focused extra hard, going slow when he needed to, picking the notes out carefully like hunting for diamonds among a stack of river rocks.

He finished with fewer mistakes than he ever had on his own and found himself beaming up at Aether who was smiling right back. The next time, there were even less mistakes, until he could (slowly and carefully) play it all the way through with no mistakes at all.

"Look at you, a natural." Aether praised, picking up another guitar and tuning it slightly before sitting on the other end of the bench and picking out his own matching rhythm, mirroring the new song with a beautiful harmony.

Phantom giggled at their impromptu jam session and slid right into an old one that they both knew, Aether even singing dreamily under his breath a little. The song Phantom had chosen was a ballad, a love song, something that always made his heart swell with an unfamiliar longing.

He had been topside for more than six months now and he had still never known love. Not that he was pining after it. He'd never really known anything like it in the Pit, but it was something that all of the other Ghouls seemed to indulge in freely. He always seemed to be the one who was left out.

"Hey Aeth…?"

"Hm?" The music had come to a twanging end and Aether looked up wistfully from his guitar.

"Have you ever… been in love?" The silence seemed to stretch out like an eternity between them. Had Phantom said something wrong? Was he opening wounds that Aether had cauterized long ago, vowing to never let them reopen?

"I have. Why? Who's asking?" The older Quint quirked a questioning brow in Phantom's direction.

"I- Who was it?" Phantom slid the guitar from his lap, hunching forward on his elbows with curiosity. He prayed to Lucifer that Aether wouldn't hate him for his forwardness. It's just, they were alone and it was late; Phantom just felt connected to the older Quint somehow.

Aether leaned back, sliding the guitar off of his own lap. "Well, let's see… Do you want the list chronologically or alphabetically?"

"Wha-?" Phantom looked flabbergasted.

Aether laughed. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding! There's mostly been one, or three… If you must know," The older Quint leaned in conspiratorially. "Papa Copia has been my one true love ever since I was first summoned. He was the first thing I saw when I came up out of the Pit. He was like my awkward prince in shining armor. Grucifix in one hand, juice box in the other." Aether laughed again, and it put Phantom at his ease a bit more.

"Who else?"

"Oh, I've had the odd fling with Mountain, Swiss, Dew -he's a little spitfire that one- Pretty much anyone who feels like a roll in the sheets. I'm not picky."

"Do you think I'll ever fall in love?"

"Oh, don't worry. You've got so much to look forward to topside. You don't need to rush into anything super fast."

"But," Phantom turned his bright, round, amethyst eyes towards Aether. "I want to." The little Quint fiddled with his tail. "Ever since I was summoned, I haven't ever felt like I… fit in. Everyone's been super nice and stuff, but it always feels like I'm just an afterthought."

"Oh, Bug." The older Quint furrowed his brows. "You're not an afterthought. I think about you all the time. Wondering how you're doing on tour and how you're adjusting to life on the surface. I'll always be here for you, even if no one else is."

Aether leaned slightly closer and brushed a bone-white strand of hair out of the young Quint’s face. The metronome in Phantom’s chest ticked louder.

“Can I, would you,” Phantom’s voice wavered with uncertainty but Aether didn’t push, he just smiled a little more sweetly, tilting his head a little more quizzically, patiently waiting for the younger Ghoul to work through it.