oooh holiday prompts! Can I ask for Maedhros & Maglor, and “singing carols” please? ❤️
Thank you for the prompt! Here we have ~1100 words of Maedhros saving the show -- a little canon fix-it, if you will. Handful of F-bombs, otherwise G-rated brotherly fluff.
Posting these to AO3, here. Prompt list. Beleria Cast of Characters.
Maglor flung his hand under the tap and unleashed a string of curses entirely inappropriate for the greenroom of a children’s theatre school. Already blisters bubbled up on the tip of his index finger and the heel of his palm. There was a gash across his thumb joint from the broken ceramic.
Shit. He glared at the microwave as if it had personally injured him. What kind of shit-ass microwave only heats the bowl—! Why was it so damn hot!
“I swear, I could throw you out the fudging window right now,” he grumbled at the appliance.
“Hey, uh, Mr. Finvesen? Are you okay?”
Maglor startled. “What? Oh, hi, Galdor. Yeah yeah, I’m fine.”
“You don’t sound fine,” said Galdor with all the arch attitude of his thirteen years.
“I just burned myself a bit.” Maglor examined his blisters with trepidation.
“Why is there a shattered bowl and soup all over the floor?”
“Because that’s how I burned myself!” Maglor snapped, then took a deep breath.
“That doesn’t look like a microwavable bowl,” Galdor drawled.
Maglor grit his teeth and did not respond.
“Hey,” said Galdor, “how are you gonna accompany us for the concert if your hand is fucked up?”
“Galdor! Don’t swear!”
At that, Maglor’s eyes flooded with tears and he sank to the ground in front of the greenroom sink, cradling his bleeding, burning hand in his lap.
Galdor huffed and left him to his misery.
*
Relatives and friends filed into the small black box theatre at Lindon Studio. For all the effort that went into the children’s summer musical, it was the Yule concert that the kids’ families looked forward to most. The old metal folding chairs creaked as proud parents took their seats and boasted good-naturedly about their children’s many achievements that year.
Maglor stood in the entrance, greeting each group with forced enthusiasm and hoping no one would notice that his left hand was rammed in his pocket where it clutched an ice pack.
In the background, he listened anxiously to the garbled melodies Daeron was plunking out on the piano. It was not good. It was frankly embarrassing. Maglor had to implement Plan B.
But would he come?
There! Maglor nearly tripped as he wound a path through the press of bodies towards the head of red hair rising above them all.
“Oh thank god you're here,” Maglor said in a breathless rush.
“Whoa, hey. Of course I am,” said Maedhros, pulling him into a hug, which Maglor returned one-armed. His head fell against Maedhros’ shoulder with a pained choking sound.
“Uh, Cáno?” Maedhros pulled back to look at him. “Are you okay?”
“No, no. Not at all,” Maglor gritted through his teeth, aware of the crowd around them.
Maedhros guided him to a bench around the corner of the building.
“What’s going on?” he asked when they were seated. “Why do you have your hand shoved in your pocket like that?”
Maglor took a deep breath and pulled the hand and ice pack from his slacks. Then, eyes shamefully cast to the ground, he showed Maedhros the ruination wrought by his dinner plans.
“Yikes,” said Maedhros. “Still not using a rag to take things out of the microwave, then?”
“Shut up,” said Maglor.
“Sorry. Looks pretty bad.”
“It is bad. I’ve got to lead kids in a concert in twenty minutes and my hand is fucked! I can’t play piano!”
“Oh. Right, shit. What about Daeron?”
Maglor frowned and glared at Maedhros. He waited for the sound of Daeron’s playing inside the theatre to make itself heard.
“Is that him?” Maedhros asked, and grimaced. “I thought he was, like, super talented.”
“He is!” Maglor said, and stuck his throbbing blister in his mouth. “But he can’t read sheet music,” he said around the finger, “and barely knows his way around a piano. He taught himself by ear on a guitar, the fucking hipster prodigy.” He pulled his finger from his mouth and flapped it frantically in front of him. “That was mean. Don’t tell him I said that. Ugh! I’m just—!”
“It’s all right," Maedhros chuckled, "I know you like fucking hipster prodigies.” Maglor groaned. “Okay, so. Surely someone else who works here can play piano though?”
“No! Of course not! The admin is all actors who didn’t make it because they didn’t have these skills. Nelyo,” Maglor pivoted towards him, “you remember how to play, right?”
“Oh,” said Maedhros. “I mean, yeah, I guess, but…”
“Can you do it?” Maglor grabbed him by the shoulder and stared intently. “Please. Please, I am begging you. Save my dignity in front of these theatre moms.”
“I mean, I would, but…” Maedhros showed Maglor his right hand, which was wrapped in a tensor bandage. “The injury has been acting up. I’m down a hand, too.”
Maglor’s eyes dropped to his brother’s hand and back up. “Fuck.”
“Hey, hey,” said Maedhros. “No wait, I’ve got an idea.”
“Please,” said Maglor.
“Well you remember how we used to play duets, when I sucked too bad to do the bass and treble at once?”
Maglor smiled wryly at the memory. “Yeah, you were pretty terrible.”
“So we do that. People will love it.”
Maglor’s racing pulse started to even out. His eyes widened. “Nelyo. You genius. Agh!” He threw his arms around his brother’s shoulders. “I could cry. Again. You saved me.”
A discordant clang slipped through the theatre door. Maglor winced.
Maedhros patted Maglor’s back reassuringly. “Now let’s get your poor boyfriend off that piano bench ASAP.”
*
With his left hand resting on a fresh ice pack, Maglor lifted his right to the keys. Beside him, Maedhros did the same with his left. The house lights dimmed and voices dwindled to a hush. Maglor could sense the buzz of excitement from the choir of children huddled on the stage, holding their breath almost as a single being in their shared anticipation.
As the stage lights came up, slowly bathing the space in soft gold, Maglor looked at his brother beside him. Maedhros’ eyes smiled back.
“I might still suck,” he whispered out the corner of his mouth.
“Too late,” Maglor replied, and struck the first chord to cue the children: Jingle Bells was about to begin.
Maedhros did struggle a little, but Maglor barely noticed, overcome by the warm pride that welled up in his heart whenever he heard a chorus of young voices singing in harmony. Yes, he was terribly underpaid, and terribly overworked, and terribly stupid about handling hot objects —but he loved this job.
By the time they were singing Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree, Maedhros was mouthing the lyrics along with them. Soon after, he was merrily singing along to Wonderful Christmastime (“ding dong, ding dong, ding dong, ding!”) with such performative gusto that Maglor laughed so hard he fumbled his own part.
No one seemed to mind.
38 notes
·
View notes
hello!! i've been spamming about billie the kid a lot lately, and for good reason. seeing this show was such a reset for me. i really do feel like i walked out of that theatre a different person. i feel braver in my own queerness, my expression, who i am as a person - and i know some people have been asking about the show, or have wanted to see it but can't, so i just wanted to tell you that if you enjoyed or are even a little bit interested in seeing billie the kid i really really recommend you go to any of the shows main socials (@/billiemusical on instagram, @/billiemusical on tiktok and @/billiemusical on twitter) and make posts or dm them to say that - the creators see everything that's sent to the main socials and it gives them the opportunity to tell producers that there is excitement for this show that would continue even with a full run.
look. are you tired of queer tragedy and trauma being exploited? this show is for you. are you tired of seeing queer media that doesn't have the guts to go into the complexities and nuances of the queer experience? this show is for you. do you want queer media that allows it's queer characters to get the happy endings they deserve? THIS SHOW IS FOR YOU. i've never seen any queer media that uses such care and nuance in it's portrayal of the queer experience - the good and the bad, the pride and the fear, the beautiful and the ugly. and that's why it's so important that the creators are able to tell their producers that there is a market for this show, that there is interest and excitement for it. you can do anything! wanna make fan content? go right ahead! you don't even need to post it publicly, you can just send privately in a DM to the show's instagram. or if you're like me and aren't really an artist by any means, you can just let them know that you're interested in the show. you can go in-depth, tell them why you want to see it, why you couldn't, if you'd be interested in a cast album, etc etc - or you can just keep it short and simple and say 'hey, i really hope you get a full run!!'.
the whole team are truly the kindest people - i was able to talk to a lot of them at stagedoor as well as message a few afterwards, and their biggest hope for this show is that it's able to instill hope and pride in all the queer people who need it, because they've BEEN those frightened queer people. this show is authentic, it's empowering, it's real and it's KIND. it treats us with the dignity we deserve, and i hope so desperately that it can get the life it deserves. so if you can spare them a kind word, anything that goes to show there is interest in this show, i really do beg that you do it.
28 notes
·
View notes