Survival Of The Fittest

"Awesome." Rick sat down at the seat next to Fiyori. He felt like he would scare the kid off if he got to close, even on accident. Once he sat down their were a few moments where he did not speak, only to realize he had not introduced himself.

"Oh, uh, I'm Rick. Rick Brea. One of Fiyori's friends," he replied to the boy, trying not to sound as awkward as he felt. "Who're you? I mean, what's your name?"

He did not look, but knew Fiyori would be judging Rick for his stammering. He sucked with introductions. It was a good thing that his family lived in such a small town where everyone knew everyone, or at least knew of them. He was surprised how there was still people around he had not talked to yet.

"I overheard you talking about swimming, and that sounds awesome. I'm in water polo myself."

Brendan felt himself nod a little as he heard the guy's name and he realized that the kid must be feeling as awkward as he felt. Rick Brea..... Hm. Brendan was surprised that he didn't even know who Rick was and he felt like he should know more people at this school. But Brendan didn't. Oh. Rick had asked him a question. So he didn't know who Brendan was either. Well, this kind of made Brendan feel a little less awkward now.

"O-Oh, I'm.... Brendan. Brendan Harte.... I'm friends with Bernadette and Ty. Maybe you know them?" He was trying hard not to mumble too quietly and he leaned forward in his seat slightly, trying to keep eye contact with Rick. "It's very nice to meet you, Rick."

Brendan suddenly has a huge grin on his face when he heard that Rick was in water polo and he stopped himself from blurting out something about swimming in excitement. He didn't want to sound too passionate over something that he had enjoyed for almost all his life. So he was going to make sure that the topic was focused on Rick for the moment. He was hoping that Fiyori didn't mind him paying more attention to Rick right now.

"Oh, really? You do water polo? That is amazing to hear. Do you enjoy doing it?"

It would be impolite, right? To snicker at the way those two dorks were introducing to each other. Well, gotta restrain herself to a classic smirk. Fiyori reclined in her seat, her head resting on her palms. She'd read somewhere about this. Some article about how you'd introduce yourself at a dinner, or party in general. You go to some stranger and feel for whom you two might know together. Nothing weird in itself, she guessed, just the way Rick and Brendan did it was way too amusing.

Like a business meeting, yeah? That seemed to be the fitting comparsion.

She listened over to the boys. Of course, the topic would shift to their passions in the water (novel title idea #45) and Fiyori couldn't say a lot about that. Well, fine with her. Listening to people was more fun than talking about herself anyway.

Brendan seemed nice, but kind of shy the more he talked. Maybe that's why he and Rick had never talked before.

"Nice to meet you, too. And Bernadette and Ty?" he replied, before placing them in his head. "Ahh, yeah. I know them. Not that well, though."

The two were an interesting couple, to say the least. Bern had been a dedicated bully hunter earlier on in high school, and Ty always seemed like a ticking time bomb  through their interactions at school. You'd think mixing them together would've been trouble, but recently they had proved everyone wrong. At least, if someone as nervous as Brendan called them friends, there was probably even more he did not know about them. Fiyori was better friends with Ty, though, wasn't she? He forgot.

Rick couldn't help but grin at Brendan's obvious enthusiasm about swimming, and how excited the boy looked even when he tried to contain his feelings. Then he asked him if he enjoyed water polo. A surprisingly difficult answer. His eyebrows scrunched up in thought.

"Yeah, I like it well enough. But probably going to stop once I graduate." Rick replied, rubbing the back of his hair. If he graduated, that is. "Not good enough to get into any schools with it."

He was disappointed with himself that his response was so lackluster compared to Brendan's joy in swimming, fiddling with his earphones, before he had an idea.

Rick leaned in further towards Brendan, his hand partially covering his mouth in case the librarian overheard, with a conspiring air in his actions. "But, I do have a special skill."

He turned to grin over at Fiyori. "Do you mind if I give one of my famous performances and risk us getting kicked out?"

Brendan still kept a smile on his face as Rick told him about how he felt about water polo and Brendan was trying to not feel disappointed. Well, that was a shame that Rick wouldn't possibly continue to carry on with something that he obviously liked to do. Well, Brendan knew that it happens so he shouldn't feel too bad for the guy. Right? He blinked a little as Rick leaned closer towards him and Brendan was trying to not show how nervous he was feeling around this guy. Ugh, what was wrong with him? Rick wasn't going to do anything bad to him anyway.

Brendan raised an eyebrow at what Rick said to him next and he couldn't help but glance over at Fiyori with a puzzled expression on his face, feeling curious about what kind of special skill that Rick could have. Although, there was a possibly of getting kicked out. Hm. Well, he could always do his school work at home anyway. But he was sure that Fiyori had wanted to study.

"A special skill? I am a bit curious to see, but...." His eyes were still focused on Fiyori and he was waiting patiently for her to say something as he didn't want to finish his sentence. He wanted her to join into their conversation too.

Well, now she kinda zoned out. Her eyes were lingering on her learning material. Could - perhaps and maybe - use the time and finally get to the learning thing.

It didn't take her long to reject that notion. No sense in learning now, right? She already got involved in some other thing. So she couldn't concentrate. Yeah, actually she had to be careful. Careful to vacantly stare into the ceiling and somewhat follow the conversation of the boys. Waiting for some interesting stuff to emerge.

And lo, something like that happened. Rick moved close to Brendan, whispering something. Fiyori did not move, but she did raise an eyebrow. Sheer reflexes, that one.

She could see Rick turn over to her, grinning. So it was that, huh.

"I don't know why you even ask me of all people."

Another smirk, one of those foxy ones.

"If you had planned to study, I didn't want to interrupt your concentration." Rick grinned even more at Fiyori. he put one of his earphones in and began to scroll through his playlist. He had been working on the Tokyo Ghoul opening for his channel, but he had not gotten all the words memorized yet. And the yelling bits were not something he was comfortable doing in the library. He did a quick look over at Brendan. Then again, maybe he should pick a song that wasn't in Japanese. Like, he didn't want to offend him on accident or anything.

Looking back down at his screen, he landed on Claire Littley's cover of "Fly me to The Moon."

A simple classic, and maybe something Fiyori would know. She liked to play the piano in her free time, right? "Fly me to the moon" was pretty much a classic, and this version had been stuck in his head so much that he had to download it after binge watching Neon Genesis Evangelion. That was a bad series to binge watch, in retrospect, and in the later episodes the cut to credits was jarring, but in Rick's opinion a desperately needed break.

And the song was quiet enough that he might be able to get away with singing it without getting kicked out of the library.

He set his phone on the table and tapped play on screen, then he started to sing.

"Flyyy me to the Moon, and let me play among the stars..."

He tried to concentrate on keeping his voice soft. It wasn't the kind of song he usually belt out in the studio closet. It needed to be sung with the same emotion but carefulness that he thought Littley always put into it.

When he finished, he focused back on Fiyori and Brendan, hoping they enjoyed it. "It's not much, and it would've been better with actual music, but it's all I got, heh."

It would've been better if Isaac was around with his guitar. Singing always sounded better with musical instruments, at least in Rick's mind. Maybe he should've picked a song he was more comfortable with.

Brendan wasn't really the type of person who really listened to music that much. He would just normally listen to any genre of music when he was doing his short stories in private and that was it. He only listened to music as it would help keep him relaxed and it would help him concentrate on getting his ideas down on paper. But right now.... Listening to Rick singing.... He was actually really stunned by Rick's voice. He wasn't that bad....

Brendan felt himself smile at Rick and he gave a small clap. "W-Wow. That was really breath-taking, Rick. I don't really listen to music that much but I got to say.... just w-wow...." He laughed quietly and he shook his head a little as he wasn't very good at giving other people good feedback. "U-Um..... Yeah, you were truly great at singing that song. What was it called?"

Brendan averted his eyes away from Rick and he caught Fiyori's eye. He didn't want to tell her that he was falling for Rick's voice. Oh man. He didn't want to get a crush on this guy because of his voice. He barely even knew the guy! And Rick could even be going out with someone. Brendan wasn't good at relationships anyway. He remembered when he used to have a crush on Bernadette and he had to move on as she was in a relationship with Ty. Why was he even thinking about this...? Maybe he was should back off before he would say something stupid. He glanced away from Fiyori as he was feeling embarrassed and he was waiting for Fiyori or Rick to say anything. The silence was making him feel uncomfortable now.

Fly me to the moon, huh? Fiyori leant on the table, head turned to Rick. She listened to his trained voice dance along the melody with soft care. Fiyori, as she knew the lyrics, had to hold herself back. Would be kinda rude to sing too, given that Rick's voice was superior to her own. And yet, she could not help her fingers druming on the table. Creating a shadow of the rythm of the song Rick was singing. Actually, she kinda wished she had her instrument with her, right now. That would've been a contribution.

Her stream of thoughts ended as Rick hit the last note, and Brendan burst out in admiration. She nodded in agreement. Then, she noticed Brendan meeting her eyes. Looked pretty flustered actually. Awkward, as usual. But Fiyori had an idea on the specifics. She'd have said it out loud, too, but that would've done no good. So she relegated the idea to being a mere dirty thought.

"Fly me to the Moon. Rick's been obsessed with it lately."

Rick smile grew even bigger at Brendan's praise, and his cheeks flushed with pride. It wasn't much, but he was happy that Brendan enjoyed it. "Thank you so much. I'm glad you enjoyed it."

He had to roll his eyes at Fiyori's comment. "Yeah. And I'm not "obsessed" with it..."

Though, the song had been stuck in his head a bit. And he had never attempted to memorize the lyrics before, and he didn't look up the lyrics while he was singing. "...Not much, at least." he offered back in defeat. "But, don't think I didn't see your hands moving. Itching to play the tune on your piano ivories?"

Rick leaned back in his chair, looking up at the ceiling. "Maybe we could collaborate on something... hey, Brendan, do you play any instruments?"

Brendan raised an eyebrow in curiosity. "You play the piano, Fiyori?" He asked as he continued to look at Fiyori and he was interested to know more about her. "That's pretty cool."

He had to say that if Rick and Fiyori did collaborate together. It would be a good combination. Piano and singing mixed together has always been his favorite type of music the most when he listened to it while he worked on his horror and romance stories. It would be great if he could hear Fiyori and Rick do something together.

Oh. Rick had just asked him if he could play an instrument and Brendan glanced back at Rick with a small smile. No, he had never played an instrument before. He just never thought that he would be good at it. Well, he has to tell the others that.

"O-Oh. No, I have never played an instrument before, Rick. I'm more into...." Brendan stopped himself talking and he suddenly got a great idea. He hoped that they wouldn't mind him saying this. "Hey, if you two do a collaboration together, maybe I could write a song for you. I mean if that is alright with you guys."

"What can I say, I got it in my blood."

Fiyori acknowledged Rick's remark with a smile, her eyes moving to study the tips of her fingers. Not that she studied the song or something. Gave it a few listenings, tried to arrange it for the piano a bit. Mostly impro stuff, though. Nothing she seriously attempted to do. Ah, but Rick had to mention a collab, no?

Brendan expressed his admiration for the new aspect of Fiyori he just learned. She actually disliked that. It's not that she was good in any sense. She knew how to use one, at least. And she knew how to get basic stuff out of the instrument. But she wasn't some kind of musical expert or piano master. Sure, her family and even her friends were quick to correct her. To talk about how Fiyori was indeed a pretty good player and how she would understate her own abilities. And then she was mad about that, and then they were sulky because she wouldn't play for them.

Not only a collab, also a song written by Brendan now? Jeez, how was she supposed to get out of that.

Fiyori nodded and shrugged at the same time.

Fiyori didn't seem too into the idea of them working together. Rick could understand that, and he probably should've made his response more joking. now Brendan looked really into the idea. But they couldn't have a band if the pianist wasn't interested.

"Ah. I might not have the time," Rick admitted. It was true, sort of. With sports, school, and his work schedule for the Infinicks channel it might be too much to attempt a collaboration with two real life people. And this would leave Fiyori with an out. However, he didn't want to crush Brendan's hopes and dreams, either.

"But I'm still interested in seeing whatever you come up with." he replied to Brendan. "Sorry if that sounds kinda selfish."

Brendan realized that Fiyori didn't seem like she liked the idea of her and Rick doing a collaboration together and he felt a bit saddened by that. But he wasn't going to beg her to do anything with him and Rick. He wasn't that type of guy who liked to beg for things desperately anything. But he was still glad that Rick wanted him to make a song for him. Brendan was going to try his best to make the song perfect for him. He just hoped that Rick would like it. He was going to work all night on getting the song done for this guy. Hah. It seems like he has really fallen for Rick a little. He wasn't sure how to feel about that right now.

"Sure, sure. That's okay, Rick. I will make sure to work on writing a great song when I get back home. What would you like the song to be about, Rick?" Brendan nodded his head a little excitedly and he gazed down at his phone on the table. "I got to get going soon. I have to go and visit my grandparents today. I need to help them out with some things."

Brendan started to scratch his bent nose and he wished that he would stop that habit. It was something that he would do if he was getting more nervous or feeling more awkward in a conversation with other people. Why wouldn't he stop being so shy and weird around people? He let out a small sigh and he picked up his phone to put it into his bag.  

"Mhm," Fiyori nodded along. "Pretty busy myself too."

Good one, Rick. Thanks a lot. Still, the guy himself seemed to be vaguely interested in Brendan's proposal. Well, that was fine. Not that she thought that anything good would come out of it. Brendan didn't seem to have any experience with musical composition. So whatever he produced would be of mediocore quality at best.

Not that such a thing would be bad, of course. No point in being a snob about it. All would be well as long as the guys had fun together. Still, she would rather not take part of it. Making a song together meant regular meetings and scheduled practice sessions and then she'd have to plan her days around that and she couldn't have that.

Brendan asked about what Rick would like the song to be about. Fiyori mumbled something under her breath. Something that none could realistically understood. Which was a good, because it was some lewd comment. Again. She snickered at her own humor.

Anyway, Brendan began to bid them adieu, for which Fiyori placed herself into a proper position.

"Seeya," she waved to him.