The real chapter 10, thanks to all of you wonderful people I was struck with inspiration like lightning from the blue sky. Thank you. I will be forever grateful! Hope you like this chapter.

Loki tapped one of the tangents aimlessly, he had gone over the message Frigga had left him on his phone. It was heart wrenching and frustrating, she would apologize and sound so conflicted as she strained her voice to hide the underlying sobs. It was hard listening to hear; she made Loki want to believe her words rang true. He knew better though, if he let Frigga lull him into believing again he would be even more disappointed than the last times it had happened.

His memory took him back to the first time he had tried and showed his adoptive parents his piano playing and Thor had hogged the spot light with his garage band. He clenched his fist and hit the tangents a bit harshly, getting the piano to cry out. He instantly loosened up and stroked the tangents comfortingly. His fingers found the first couple of tunes for "Twinkle, Twinkle" he had barley played the first segment before he got up from the stool abruptly.

Nocturne gazed at him lazily from her spot on the bed.

"I'm going out" He told her as he slipped on his coat, the slightly chilly autumn weather was already here and Loki had no intentions of getting sick. He stepped into the evening and started to walk towards the D&D building, halfway there he decided against it and stopped. He looked over at modern arts, from the looks of it they were "silent" partying, which meant getting wasted without music... Loki rolled his eyes, how those idiots weren't all suspended was beyond him. He began walking towards the "Heart".

He thought of going up to the cantina and catch some evening snack before they closed, sounds from the concert hall distracted him however and he walked over to the door. He spotted Bruce and nearly called out to him before he was interrupted by halting violin playing.

"Fucking hell Bruce I can't do this"

"Don't you dare toss that violin to the ground Barton" Bruce said warningly.

"Well get your shiny assed classic students to do this."

"This is supposed to be an introduction to the project"

"Yeah, but I don't see you play that piano piece you have in front of you there"

Loki slipped inside and more or less hid in the back of the hall.

"I… I can't play"

"Yeah, well neither can I so leave me the hell alone Banner" Clint set the violin down and marched towards the exit.

"The school has already made promises Ba-"

"Then find someone who can play!" Clint hissed as he turned around, from his hiding spot Loki could see how tense the man was.

"We can't do that, the project is meant to unify the students. Show them the potential. We can't show potential if we don't have proof it can work."

"Then I guess the school traditions continue Banner" Clint sneered before he turned on his heel and exited the hall. Bruce sighed heavily, Loki didn't dare move. For what would he say? Sorry I spied professor. It would be too embarrassing.

Banner moved about a little on the stage and a careful tune from the piano sounded, then another. Loki's eyes widened and he had to concentrate not to get up and see that it was truly Bruce Banner that was carefully tampering with the piano. The tunes were slow, haltingly, but by each tune it grew a little stronger and faster.

A smile grew on Loki's features until, but it quickly died together with a wrong tune from the piano. He dared to peek up and could see his professor stare down at his shaking hands before he buried his face in them. His shoulders shook up and down carefully before he suddenly slammed the piano shut and rushed out of the hall.

Loki must have stayed in that crouching position for at least 5 or 10 minutes before he got up and walked towards the stage, casting glances back at the entrances every now and then, almost sure that either Professor Banner or Clint Barton would come back in. He stepped onto the stage with the same feel of awe as he always got within the Heart Hall. By the abandoned violin there was sheet music and a recorder. He tapped the review button on the recorder and was greeted by a drum beat; he furrowed his brows before he picked up the sheet music.

"Flower Dance – strings"

"Flower Dance – bass"

"Flower dance – SFX"

He looked over at the piano who also held sheet music ; "Flower Dance – Piano"

This was a hybrid; Loki sat down by the piano and studied the piece further .He cautiously opened the piano and began to play the notes tryingly. Hybrids were meaningless anyway, they only made a mess of the cleaner instruments. The piece was simple enough and Loki had no problems playing out the intro, but as soon as he begun the main segment something sounded off.

He glanced at the recorder irritated, it was still on and- he stopped and listened to it for a good couple of minutes before he once more put his fingers to the tangents, his eyes at the sheet music in front of him as he started up the main segment again.

Even though he was gaping in surprise his fingers kept playing. It was as if he was bewitched and it was easy enough to simply replay rounds. But with the beat it sounded new every time he played it out. He got up quickly, breaking the spell and hit the off button on the recorder before he ran out of the hall.

"Natasha!"

"Loki, I'm kind of busy"

"Do you know someone decent who can play bass?"

"Uh…"

"Great, bring them to Heart Hall and if you know someone who's not a modern arts student that can work that SFX thingy in there that would be great too. I need to find Sue, maybe her brother can help" Loki was out of her doorway before she could open her mouth again.

"…aha?" She looked after the speed ball that was Loki.

"Okay piano dude, what is this?" Johnny Storm didn't look amused as he stepped into Heart Hall, Steven Rogers right behind him.

"Storm" Loki greeted before he turned to look at everyone.

"I know some of us here don't exactly like each other, but I was hoping we could put aside our differences for a little while" He let his eyes linger slightly by each of them. There was Sue Storm, her brother Johnny Storm walking up to her and nudging her shoulder with a teasing smile as she rolled her eyes. Steven Rogers who was the modern artist the classical students more than tolerated. His best friend Natasha who simply looked amused and her roommate Darcy Lewis who looked like someone had stolen her cookie.

"Then give us a reason" Johnny looked at him impatiently.

"How many of you know that our school is low on funding?" Loki raised an eyebrow, the others exchanged glances.

"Well… we had started to notice what with the cut downs and such…" Sue spoke up carefully.

"Something about that we didn't meet time demand or some other B.S like that" Her brother supplied and shrugged.

"Fury's looking into it, he upgraded the modern branch as recent as last year" He added as an afterthought with a triumphant glance at the classical arts students in the room. Loki's eyes narrowed somewhat before they eased up again.

"Whatever Storm, but I asked you all to come down because of this" He held up the sheet music before he handed out the different parts to them.

"What the hell is this?"

"This is sheet music Johnny boy, I'm not sure if you know what it is for seeing as you are a modern arts student but, you'll get it sometime" Darcy comforted and received a grimace and glare from Johnny.

"It's a piece consisting of both more classical instruments and modern elements" Loki explained.

"Hm… the violin piece can be done electronically" Sue murmured, this was why Loki wanted Sue here. She was perfect for what this piece required. Growing up in a home with modern musicians and still being able to keep up her interest for the classical arts, she had understanding and perspective more or less all of the other students lacked.

"Speak up sis, Ma always said you had to stop mumbling"

"This is a collaboration piece Johnny" She sent her brother a stern look.

"It was supposed to be an introduction to a project the school has cooked up in hopes of meeting society demand" Loki elaborated.

"But Loki… you hate cross music like that" Natasha spoke up, Loki closed his eyes for a second.

"True, but I heard how it was intended and it is a nice piece… to hell with it! It's a beautiful piece and who ever made it managed to keep the classics clear, it isn't drowned out by synthetic sound and drums." He looked at them all again, could feel an authority he had never felt before grow within him in time with seeing understanding in the other's eyes.

"Most of all" He continued. "This place is my home, my dream and my future. I don't know about you, but I would not want to lose it. This is the least I can do, I can try" Silence…

"Well, what the hell are we waiting for then?" Johnny sat down behind the SFX board.

It took time, much more time than Loki was used to spending learning a new piece which frustrated him. He wasn't the only one though, which was where Natasha and Steve as the calming centers came in. As they didn't dare to bring in any one else into this little project the practice was always late in the evenings, another thing was that they had to put in a recording of Sue's playing into the SFX board as the piece was meant for two violins and not just one.

Johnny proved he did have some patience when he managed to teach the art of an SFX board to Darcy so he could play the beat during the melody instead.

Steve was wonderful to work with and he handled the bass with great care and was always paying attention to the ones playing together with him. It was almost frustrating that no screw up was ever Steve's fault.

When Natasha wasn't calming disputes and frustration, she worked on composing a graceful dance to the melody.

'It IS called the flower dance' she would say the first time she was asked what she was doing.

Nocturne began coming down to the hall as she seemingly missed Loki, everyone thought it was quite cute and she became the mascot for the project.

The first evening they managed to get through the piece without screw ups Loki almost felt like he was 13 and had just mastered Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, only this time someone was there to cheer loudly as the piece finished.

"Are we AWESOME or what?!" Johnny grinned.

"This is a message to all students and teachers, please go to Heart Hall at once, repeat: This is a message to all students and teachers, please go to Heart Hall at once"

Loki couldn't have felt more nervous as he stood behind the stage together with the rest of the group, watching as students and teachers alike poured into the hall and sat down, questions in their faces, low murmuring filling every corner of the building.

"We'll be slaughtered" Darcy sobbed.

"If they don't think this is awesome I'm frying them" Johnny groused.

"Now, now everyone calm down" Steve reasoned.

"You're on Darcy" Loki nudged her gently, she swallowed harshly before walking onto the stage as the doors to the hall closed signalizing that everyone was in. The hall quieted as Darcy walked onto the lit stage.

"Could someone hit the light switch by the doors? This is kind of a one-group show so we don't have any fancy technicians to help us, thanks" Darcy waved at whoever turned and licked off the lights in the hall so the only lights were on the stage.

"We have a little something to show you, hopefully we haven't butchered it so the Profs. Will know what it is. You other people just have to sit and listen and please don't lynch us afterwards" With that said she moved over to the SFX board and sat down, starting the intro with recordings of Loki's piano playing as the rest of the musicians entered the stage.

Loki sat down in front of the piano and at once the intro was over and silence was followed by the "fairy dust sound effect" as Johnny called his fingers began the practiced dance over the piano, not long after he was followed by Johnny on drums and Darcy adding effects.

New murmurs erupted in the hall, Loki dared a glance in Professor Banner's direction, the man was the perfect picture of shock. The pianist smiled to himself and turned his attention back to the piano as Sue followed up with her violin and Darcy added the double effect as Natasha swept onto the stage in her beautiful green and glittering dress as she danced in the center of the musicians.

Together with dying tunes from the violin Loki faded out the piece, finally concluding the melody. Natasha did her final move and movement ceased completely on stage as the artists turned their gaze towards their public.

Song (I REALLY recommend listening to it!) (Please note that on the side bar there is a classic piano/violin version that gives a better resemblance as to how Sue Storm plays it) www. youtube watch?v=p7PMJfAT6fk&feature=related