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Yosuke stepped close and set the strap carefully on Souji’s shoulder, the instrument hanging in front of his torso. “There we go! I cleaned it all up and tuned it and everything.”
Souji fidgeted with the bass at his front, tilting it up and down, trying to get a good angle, “Thanks. For that and for teaching me how to play.” He let the neck of it settle in the palm of his left hand, fingers pressing delicately across the thick strings.
He pushed himself back into Souji’s personal space, mindlessly adjusting the strap so it settled better along his body, “Huh? Nah, it’s fine. It’s my ass on the line and you guys are helping me, so it should be me thanking you.” He stepped back to see if the angles of his arms and wrists seemed comfortable, then nodded. “Okay, you’re set! Now I just have to…” he trailed off, leaning away to grab a wire that led to a small amp not too far away. He plugged it into the bass and immediately a quiet hum filled the room.
"What are you doing?" Souji asked, looking down curiously as Yosuke fiddled with the knobs on the front of the instrument. He was impressed by how smoothly Yosuke did everything, as if he did it all the time.
"Checking the volume and pitch," he replied. He clicked one knob up twice and rolled the other down, "Okay, try plucking a string."
Souji hesitated, but then grabbed a string with two fingers, pulled it away from the body and let it go. A loud twangy CLANG came from the amp and both of the boys flinched at the same time.
"Wow, okay. Ow," Yosuke hastily walked over to the amp and turned a knob almost all the way to the left. He turned back to Souji with a small frown on his face, "First off, that isn’t a pluck."
"Sorry," he said, slumping a little.
"Nah, it’s all right. When someone says pluck, that’s what people do," he scratched the back of his head. He walked back over and took Souji’s right hand in his, then placed the pads of Souji’s fingers against the strings, "Like this, use the pads of these two fingers to kind of like, flick the strings."
Souji hummed curiously and Yosuke let go of his hand, “Flick? Like this…?” He rolled one finger over the top string and the second finger over the second string down, producing shaky but nice, deep notes.
Yosuke smiled, “Yeah, like that! Still a little off but a lot better than that twang before.” He kept grinning as he adjusted the sound on the amp, now that no more twanging would be happening. “Oh, right, I should probably tell you some basic stuff too,” he said, moving back to his side.
He smiled back carefully, still worried about messing up, “I think that’d be a good idea, yeah. I don’t know anything about guitars…”
"Yeah, well." He ran his fingers down the strings, "From the top, this is the E string, this is the A string, this is the D string and this is the G string." His nails scraped a string as he moved them to press over a fret, "This is a fret, it keeps the notes you play in tune. These dots here tell you where you are on the fretboard when you’re not looking at it."
"Okay…" Souji was smart, he knew it, but he realized that he was slowly getting lost in all the information Yosuke was teaching him. Not to mention that he said it so quickly, so practiced, almost, that it was hard to catch. He didn’t want to stop Yosuke when he was in the groove, though.
"Oh!" Yosuke said suddenly, startling Souji. "I almost forgot, you have to mute strings you aren’t playing," he said, taking Souji’s hand on the neck and pressing his fingers down gently on the strings. "If you don’t it’ll be a mush of sound and it won’t be as clear. It gets kind of tricky when you play some notes on the middle strings but…"
Yosuke kept talking on and on about the muting and eventually moved away to mumble loudly about chords and roots. “Uh, Yosuke?” Souji tried, but he kept mumbling to himself.
"I might have to teach you how to play octaves and fifths too… but I’m not sure if you’ll need many of them for the song Rise picks," he hummed, his arms crossed in front of him, fingers tapping to some unheard rhythm. "I’m not even sure if it’ll be notes… Hey Souji, can you read music? Ah, well, even if you can’t, that can wait until later—"
"Yosuke!" Souji interrupted, making Yosuke blink at him owlishly.
"Huh? What’s up, partner?" he asked, completely oblivious.
He hesitated again, rubbing his fingers along the texture of the thickest string, “I’m not cut out for this.”
"What? Why?" Yosuke asked. "You’re doing good! You look cool and everything!"
Souji closed his eyes, “That’s not the point. I haven’t been learning anything, I just know how to pluck the strings. And I’m not sure if I can learn it all in time for the concert…” He opened his eyes to see a confused and slightly hurt Yosuke, and he looked away, “Maybe we can do the song without a bass player? I can probably play the maracas or something.”
Yosuke said nothing, so he kept talking, “I don’t want to mess up and be the reason you get in trouble or,” he swallowed, “Move away. I don’t know how else to help you.”
There was a touch on his hand and he looked up to meet Yosuke’s eyes, “This is the first time you don’t know how to help, huh?”
He nodded and Yosuke sighed. “Yeah, I know how that feels,” he walked back and sat on the edge of his bed, legs crossed. “Souji, you’ve helped me so many times since you’ve been here. Hell, you’ve helped me since the second day, you’ve been here, and almost constantly since. You’re helping me again, and I’m grateful,” he breathed out and smiled. “To be honest, I’m a little happy you don’t know what to do for once, because I do know what to do,” he gave Souji an apologetic look.
He stood up and stood in front of his partner, “So, let me help you. Uh, let me help you help me.” He frowned and scratched at his cheek, “That sounded really dumb…”
Souji stared at him, then said, “You’re only helping me so you can save your own skin.”
"No! Well, yeah," he groaned. "But it feels cool to actually teach Mr. Know-It-All something for once! And maybe after the concert we can have our own little…" he trailed off, his voice getting quiter, "Jam sessions. Together. If you want."
Both of them were quiet for a bit as Yosuke stewed in his own embarrassment for awhile, then Souji smiled. “Okay, that sounds good, Master.”
"M-Master! No, okay, that was cool before, but now it’s kind of embarrassing," he flushed, turning away.
"What, calling you Master? Master, can you please, please teach me the bass guitar? Master?”
"Shut up, Souji, or I swear to god I’ll play the part myself and dub it over your playing in the real concert!"
Souji gawked, “Actually, that sounds easier. Let’s do that.”
“NO, I CHANGED MY MIND, I’M GONNA TEACH YOU GUITAR,” Yosuke shoved him and Souji laughed as the bass made a loud CLANG.