Fandom: Inception
Pairing: Arthur/Eames
Rating: Explicit
Length: 24,152 words
Summary: Being a freshman piano performance major at a prestigious New England conservatory is difficult enough without landing the school's star baritone as your singer, and inevitably, your hopeless crush.

Ah, the boy's eyes
So sweet and clear to me,
and something radiates from them
that wins my whole heart.

With those sweet eyes
He looks into my own!
If he should see his image in mine,
He would surely greet me lovingly.

And so I surrender myself entirely,
Just to serve his eyes,
For something radiates from them
That wins my whole heart.

A/N: While this is set in the Steinway!verse, you really don't have to have read any of the other stories for this one to make sense, particularly as this story is set 10 years before any of the others. Other ficlets in this 'verse (where Arthur's a pianist and Eames is a lyric baritone and their love is so lieder) are here (on AO3) or here (on DW) or here (on LJ). Copious linkage to various songs contained both in the text and at the end of the whole fic. Hopefully everything else is fairly self-explanatory.

You can also read the fic on AO3 if you like. Wherever you read, comments are love.

( Ach, des Knaben Augen )

Fandom: Inception
Pairing: Arthur/Eames
Rating: Explicit
Length: 24,152 words
Summary: Being a freshman piano performance major at a prestigious New England conservatory is difficult enough without landing the school's star baritone as your singer, and inevitably, your hopeless crush.

Ah, the boy's eyes
So sweet and clear to me,
and something radiates from them
that wins my whole heart.

With those sweet eyes
He looks into my own!
If he should see his image in mine,
He would surely greet me lovingly.

And so I surrender myself entirely,
Just to serve his eyes,
For something radiates from them
That wins my whole heart.

A/N: While this is set in the Steinway!verse, you really don't have to have read any of the other stories for this one to make sense, particularly as this story is set 10 years before any of the others. Other ficlets in this 'verse (where Arthur's a pianist and Eames is a lyric baritone and their love is so lieder) are here (on AO3) or here (on DW) or here (on LJ). Copious linkage to various songs contained both in the text and at the end of the whole fic. Hopefully everything else is fairly self-explanatory.

Ach, des Knaben Augen (on DW due to length)

You can also read the fic on AO3 if you like.

Wherever you read, comments are love.

So I went, just now, to try and write coherent responses to some of the comments I've gotten on the fic I posted this morning. And I've admitted before that I've felt overwhelmed at the prospect of answering comments sometimes, but this feeling, this one I'm having right now -- it's different.

Dearest flist, and dearest readers, this fic is the closest I've ever come to baring my soul in this venue. I joke about my id showing when it comes to fics with too much farting or too many blow jobs, but this is something more. Sometimes when you're a professional musician -- all too often, actually, at least for me -- it becomes everyday. It becomes humdrum and work and tedious and stressful and all the things that any job can be. But at its heart, my choice of profession has this small precious thing, this blissed out worshipful awe, this eternal and inexplicable surety that music is everything, it contains everything and is contained in everything...and if this all sounds too airy fairy for some, believe me, I am right there with you. But it's still there, it's still true.

All this to say that I'm awed and humbled by the reaction I've received from many kindred spirits. To write about music in a way that reaches other musicians; that is humbling. That is moving. And, as much so, to hear from non-musicians who say "It's not my world but I recognize the emotions you're telling" -- that is what I always hope to do, as writer, as singer, as conductor, as composer.

Tomorrow I will probably feel more prosaic and able to coherently approach the task of answering individual comments, but for tonight I wanted to express my gratitude. You -- the collective you and the individual yous that make up that mass of energy out there -- you have been unexpectedly and wonderfully kind and generous as I've offered something very close to my center. I thank you, and I am so thankful *for* you.

(Insert plor-style fart joke here.)