** BRIAN **

LOOKING BACK, THE RECORDING PROCESS OF MY first motion picture soundtrack is quite a blur. All I could really remember was the ridiculously large amount of work I had and Allan coming to the rescue way too often to make sure I was eating and sleeping. Then, as if by some kind of divine intervention more than just the natural passing of time, the first week of June ended and I was finally on hold. I was free unless they needed me and they were most likely not to. I had three weeks to rest before the premiere, to which I had RSVP’d me, Allan, and Mama Maggie. She was probably Allan’s number two fan (I will never give up the top post for no one) and she called us a lot to say how proud she was of our work.

On the last day of studio work, Allan was there to pick me up, but drove us right home instead of taking me to a restaurant.

‘Wait here,’ he said with a kiss before taking the lift. I stayed down there watching the street from behind the double glass door for just a little more than five minutes. Then, I heard the ding of the lift and the door opened to reveal him, smelling amazing, with a hand outstretched to me.

‘Come,’ it was all he said and I didn’t need telling me twice. The lift door closed behind my back and he kissed me passionately, all along without saying another word. It was only when the lift reached our floor that he broke our kiss and spoke softly to me:

‘Tonight is all about you.’

He spun me on my heels and motioned me out of the lift. The landing was pitch dark except for some flickering lights I could see coming from the open flat door. As soon as we both crossed the threshold, Allan came behind me, locked the door, and started undoing the buttons of my shirt, gently kissing my shoulder as it became exposed.

‘Tonight I want you to relax. We will take a shower together first, then you will jump into those comfy shorts you love to wear and I love to see. After that, we will come back here where I already have our pizza waiting for us. And then, finally then, you’ll be entirely mine.’

Allan followed that exact order. A lot of times between his taking off my clothes, washing me, caressing my hair, until the moment we were seated to have our pizzas, I kept trying to skip to the ‘entirely his’ part, but he wouldn’t budge. It was only when he lifted the lid on the pizza box that I realised how hungry I was.

‘Cheese-and-ham stuffed crust!’ I was far too relaxed to act as excited as I truly felt, but I was happy to see he got my true intentions.

After we ate, Allan at long last took me in his arms. His lips travelled all of me and I know it’s a little bit selfish to admit it, but tonight he did all the work. All along he told me to just relax and enjoy myself and that’s exactly what I did. One of the things I loved the most about Allan in bed is that he always knew how to balance the kinks and the romance and tonight he was giving me a little bit of everything. Occasionally, he would give me some kind of order, making me enjoy his bossy side. At other times, he would do something to me without even asking, giving me some serious dominant vibes. All the while, his hands would still caress my skin as he made sure I felt loved above anything else. I don’t know what time our night ended. All I knew was that I slept in his arms again.

And sleep was something I did a lot that weekend. In fact, it was the only thing I remember doing. I wasn’t at all used to a physical routine of going to work on a daily basis, so when that exceptional period of time ended, my body was craving to adjust itself. Allan never insisted that I should wake up, he barely came into the bedroom a few times to check on me and other times to cuddle and sleep a little himself. I had no idea whether he was taking naps or if that was actually night time and he was just coming to bed.

I finally felt rested and fresh when the clock struck three on Monday morning. The room was icier than usual and I enjoyed it for a while. Allan was sleeping next to me, but as I reached the bedroom door, his voice came sounding worried.

‘Hey, are you feeling okay to get up?’

‘Sure. I’m great. Why?’

He moved his head in the direction of his nightstand. I could see a half-empty water jar, a cup, some open medicine packs, and a thermometer.

‘Was I sick?’ I sounded worried.

‘Yup,’ he said, taking the duvet off of him. He stood up and came close to me, pressing his hands to my forehead, neck, and wrists. ‘A lot. You spent the whole weekend with a thirty-eight, sometimes thirty-nine-degree fever. I was already determined, if you didn’t wake up feeling any better today, to take you to the hospital.’

‘Oh my God,’ I heard my voice sounding as shocked as I felt. ‘I had no idea I was sick. Honestly. I thought I was just tired and sleeping.’

‘Brian,’ he sounded worried. I hated hearing his voice like that. ‘Are you sure you’re feeling okay?’

‘Yeah. I’m positive. We can check my temperature if that’ll make you feel more relaxed, but I do feel perfect.’

‘There’s no need. If you say it, I believe it,’ he kissed my nose. ‘It’s still three in the morning, but I take it you might want some distance from this bed. Why don’t you take a nice shower and in the meantime, I’ll change the sheets and fix us some breakfast?’

‘I like the shower idea, my love. But, like you said, it’s the middle of the night. Are you sure you don’t want to go back to sleep a little more?’

‘I’m sure.’

‘Allan?’

‘Hmm?’

‘Are you staying up because you want to or are you staying up just to keep an eye on me?’

‘A little bit of both. I want to keep an eye on you and you know I don’t sleep when worried.’

‘But you don’t have to worry, baby. I’m fine.’

‘I know you are. Now go take your shower. Take your time while in there and when you get out, we’ll have a nice midnight snack slash breakfast, huh?’

I knew a lost cause when I saw one, so I just did as I was told. I felt fine, though. And I kept on feeling fine after that. We didn’t take long to fall back into our old and sweet routine of YouTube videos, piano lessons, music for his videos and stuff alike.

Before too soon, we were putting on our tuxes to attend the premiere. Mama Maggie was already at our flat, wearing a gorgeous dark purple dress.

The car ride to the venue was joyful. I drove, so Allan could spend some time with his mother talking in the back seat. I gave the car keys to the valet when we arrived and I enjoyed the best kind of success that came with working in the technical aspects of a piece of art: I had all the recognition in the industry as possible, but the large audiences had no idea who on Earth I was.

If anything, Allan was getting the best recognition as we walked the red carpet. He was, after all, a famous gamer YouTuber. We posed for the press and I enjoyed watching Allan have his moment. Photographers took a few shots of us together, others with Mama Maggie in the middle. Reporters all over were screaming Allan’s name, trying to make him spill anything he could about the movie. He kept quiet until we reached the official reporter for the event, who was handling the interviews with big smiles.

‘And here we have Allan Altridge and Brian Leech! Allan has been teasing us about the movie the whole year and through his channel we’ve already had access to lots and lots of behind-the-scenes moments! Brian Leech, internationally famous prodigy piano player—’

I felt Allan’s hand tenderly squeeze mine. He knew well enough how I hated being called prodigy, it was all my old manager tried to sell me as.

‘…comes back again to the spotlights, this time as the composer and conductor of the movie soundtrack, which is being released tomorrow on CD, double vinyl, and on all digital platforms! Tell us, Brian, how was the feeling of creating and recording the score?’

For a millionth of a second, I thought about shoving that microphone up his butt for mentioning the recording process to me, but Allan’s quick second squeeze to my hand made me open up a smile.

‘It was very collaborative and rewarding. I’m sure we made something the fans will be very proud of!’

‘And Allan,’ thank God. ‘I know the other guys back there were begging for any insight you could give us and you kept very quiet. But come on, man! Just a little thing!’

Allan laughed nervously, trying his hardest to answer the question and keep the movie’s secret.

‘Okay. I can tell you one thing! The special effects are things you guys have never seen before and they make the whole difference in telling this awesome story!’

‘Oh my! Now I can’t wait! Thanks, guys! Best luck with this project!’

We thanked him with smiles to match the one he had and we moved along.

‘Well, I didn’t lie,’ Allan said close to my ear. ‘Remember those scenes we got without effects that we could hardly make sense out of? The effects are really essential.’

I chuckled and we entered the venue, proceeding to the projection room and our seats. We stayed there chatting for about twenty or thirty more minutes when the movie finally started and I was greeted by my first notes on a black screen. My very first motion picture soundtrack.

I had watched a lot of my performances over the years, having edited most of them myself before uploading the videos, but I never expected the level of thrill I felt at that moment. This was a huge blockbuster film that was bound to earn over a billion dollars in the box office around the world and all those people would hear my music helping tell a tale they liked so much.

I could keep trying to find the words to explain, but it would be all in vain. Even if I wrote the largest book in history exclusively to try and put the emotions I felt into words, I still wouldn’t come even close to accuracy.

And the emotions were just beginning.