Tiny trigger warning

After dinner, Remington sits in his room and works out how to use the mp3 player, spending ten minutes trying to connect the bluetooth headpones before he manages. He looks up when there's a knock on the door and smiles at the young girl.

Kacey smiles back. She's holding a booklet. "Can you help me with the music stuff?"

"Sure. Come sit." He pats the bed beside him, putting the headphones down as Kacey joins him. "Have you been crying?" Remington asks, noticing how her eyes are red.

The girl nods. "I was getting stressed," she explains, "I didn't wanna bother you with it."

Remington takes the booklet from her. "It's not bother, kace, I'm happy to help." He skims  over the first page. "Oh, this sounds fun. I think there's a piano room somewhere. I'm gonna help you write the best fucking song."

Kacey giggles. "You can play the piano?"

"Yeah, I'm clasically trained. Come on." He stands up and offers a hand. "How was school today?"

"Stressy. I hate maths." She takes his hand and gets up off the bed, following him out of the room. "How was your school?"

Remington closes the door behind them. "I hated it. I didn't like being told what I had to learn. I wanted to learn stuff that I was interested in, like about artists and music. Not pythagoras and all that shit. And between me and you, Kace, I haven't used anything I learnt in maths since I left school. It's a load of crap."

"That's what I keep saying. No one listens to me."

The singer leads her down the hall and through double doors. "Well fuck them. Hopefully there's no one in here. I am uncapable of talking to strangers." He pushes open a door, propping it open with a chair and stepping in. "Good, it's empty."

"I didn't even know this room was here." Kacey looks around at the piano and the posters on the wall.

"Yeah, they should tell people about it really. I found it the first time I was here and spent a few days sitting at the piano crying."

The younger sits herself on the table by the back wall, swinging her legs. "Can you play me something on the piano?"

Remington pulls out black stool. "Sure! I can sing, too, if you like."

"Woah, really?"

"Mhm. I'm the singer in a rock band with my brothers."

Kacey is in awe. Everytime she thinks Remington couldn't get any better, he somehow proves her wrong, and she loves it. "Can you play one of your songs?"

"Absolutely. Let's see if I can remember the words. This is called Hang on to Yourself." Remington spends a moment finding the right chords on the piano, playing the intro twice through before he starts singing.

His voice is so calming for Kacey. The way he isn't even trying that hard and it still sounds so perfect. She sits and listens and finds herself wondering what it would be like to live with him and his husband. She's sure it would be the best thing in the world.

Remington forgets some of the words in the second verse and jokingly makes up something funny to the same melody, just because he wants to make the girl smile. She clearly isn't treated with much respect at home. When he gets to the end of the song he dramatically finishes it off with some random chords, laughing when Kacey does and spinning around on the stool to face her. "Well there you go. Hang on to Yourself with half the words wrong."

"You are very talented," Kacey compliments, "how do you even play that good while singing?"

"Lots and lots of practice. It's been a while since I played and sang. Normally Sebastian is playing the guitar instead." He pickes up the booklet off the top of the piano.

"Is Sebastian the older one or the younger one?"

"He's my big brother. I'm the middle. Emerson's the youngest. It says here you've got to make a thirty second piece of music for ann advert about a product you've made up. Have you done the product bit?"

Kacey nods.

"Okay, great! What is your product?" He's told about what she's been doing in music class and about how she finds it really difficult to come up with melodic ideas and to then transale them onto a page so she can remember it. Remington leaves her in the piano room and goes to ask a doctor if they've got any manuscript paper. He's given a few pieces and returns back to the room, telling Kacey to sit at the piano.

"How do you know what the notes are?" She asks, pressing random keys.

Remington smiles. It's nice to be needed like this. "This one here is always C, so that means the one above is D, and you carry on down the alphabet until you get to B. And then it's back to C again." He demonstrates, playing up the scale, leaning over her shoulder. "So for the advert song you should come up with one catchy short tune. Something people will remember. Just play around on the piano for a bit. Something will come to you. I have to go get weighed."

"Okay. Will you come back here?"

The singer hums. "Yep. I'll be back in ten minutes or so. Have fun!" He closes the door behind him and drags himself down the hall, waiting outside the doctor's office for them to tell him to come in.

They make him hold his arms up so they can check he's not hidden any weights in his pockets and he has to take his shoes and hoodie off. Remington stands on the scales and can't not look at the number, tearing up and wiping his eyes. Once he can step off he quickly pulls his hoodie and shoes back on, upset that he's no longer his goal weight. He's nearly two pounds heavier.

He steps out of the room and covers his mouth with his hand to try and stop himself crying. It sucks how something so small can make him feel so hopeless. And he knows gaining weight is good. But what if good isn't what he wants? What if him feeling good means him being underweight? What then?

After a few moments of desperately trying to convince himself that it's not the end of the world, Remington walks back to the piano room. Inside, Kacey is still playing around on the piano, stopping when he comes in and looking up at him.

Remington smiles for a second or two, aware it's obvious that he's on the edge of crying. "Hey Kace, how's your song going?"

The girl frowns. "Are you okay?" She asks, not liking to see him sad. Since he's been here she's made her so much happier and she doesn't want him to be sad.

"No, not really, but it's alright."

"Do you want a hug?" Kacey asks, "you gave me one when I was crying."

"Sure. A hug sounds nice." He sits on the table and Kacey gets off the piano stool, wrapping her arms around him as Remington sighs.

"I came up with a tune," she says, "I don't know if it's good, though."

The singer smiles. "I'm sure it's great. Do you wanna show me?"

"Yeah, if you play another song."

Remington chuckles, feeling a bit better now. "I'm sure I can do that."

Kacey steps back. "I'll play my thing first." She sits back on the piano stool and Remington wipes his eyes. "Ready?"

"Yep." He listens to the short melody and smiles when she turns to look at him after. "That's perfect! What're you on about it not being very good?"

"Really?"

"It's awesome, Kace. Here, I'll play a song." Remington slides off the table and sits on the piano stool, Kacey taking his previous space on the table. "Do you know My Chemical Romance?" He asks.

"I think so. They did I'm Not Okay, right?"

"That is correct. Well this is Teenagers by them, because all my songs I know on the piano are sad and I will start crying if I play a sad song. Oh, can you open the door?"

Kacey does as he asks, sitting back on the table after as he starts with the intro. "Oh, I know this one!"

"Great!"

After the first verse Remington starts changing the words to make Kacey laugh and ends up erupting to laughter with her in the second chorus and giving up on getting to the end of the song.

"Hey, Remington?" The girl chimes, and Remington hums. "This sounds weird, but...I wish you were my dad."

"Me too," Remington responds, "Kace, me too."