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Thanks to recent events, namely discovering that she’s a different species and having to run – and then take down – an organisation that is hunting people like her, it's been a while since Riley's had the chance to sit down and make a mix again. Now that it's all over though and she's finally safe, she starts getting into it again, pushing her headphones over her head whenever Will leaves the apartment to work-out with Diego, allowing herself to get lost in intertwining melodies and rhythms. She quickly discovers that it's both easier and harder to make mixes now that she's connected to seven other people; on the one hand, her already broad music knowledge is expanded even further, all seven of them more than willing to answer her many questions about the music scene in their respective cities, but on the other hand, she now has to deal with eight conflicting music tastes in her head. She's halfway between weaving together two electronic tracks when she notices Wolfgang sitting on a stool in the corner of the room, subtly nodding his head along to the beat as he polishes his shoes. He glances at her then, seemingly realising he's no longer in Paris but in Chicago, and he gives her a small smile in acknowledgement. It's not a huge gesture, but from Wolfgang, she knows it means a lot. She grins back at him, her brow furrowing slightly in concentration as she continues matching up the beats when Kala suddenly appears, hovering next to Wolfgang. She places one hand on his shoulder, the other hand gesturing aimlessly in the air, scrunching her nose.
"No, no, this is just…sounds. You should try this," Kala says, and it's directed at both of them. Before she knows what's happening, Kala has walked over to her, typed in the name of a song into an internet search bar and starts playing it over the electronic music still thrumming through her speakers. "This is the soundtrack to one of the first movies I ever watched,” she tells them, “isn't this so much better?"
It's not better, or worse; just different. Riley tilts her head, hums to herself absentmindedly as she listens, and then realises that it does almost work together; all she needs to do is line up this first beat with that drum and then fade out the bridge and--
"What about this?"
She blinks at the interruption, her hands hovering over the buttons in front of her as Capheus is suddenly by her side, taking over her body momentarily to change Kala’s song to one of his own choice (“Capheus!” Kala says, but Wolfgang’s now put down his shoes, his hands gently reaching for her waist, so she doesn’t sound particularly annoyed about it). It’s upbeat, with a complex guitar rhythm, but before she has a chance to study it in any more detail, the song changes again; this time, it’s slower, more peaceful, almost meditative, and she knows who’s visiting before she even looks up to see Sun at the keyboard, shooting them all a rare smile. It’s not long before the rest of the cluster appear, all of them scrambling to reach for her keyboard so that they can share their favourite songs. She ends up with an extensive playlist filled with songs from all across the globe, some of which feature instruments that she’s never even heard of, and she promises wholeheartedly that she’ll try and create something out of it. She’s not sure whether she’ll be able to make anything listenable out of them, seeing as all the songs are so drastically different, but she’s always up for a challenge. Besides, all of them look so excited at the prospect that she finds herself grinning as well, her hands flying over her keys as she starts to blend. She’s so focused on what she’s doing that she doesn’t notice the six of them shooting her knowing, affectionate smiles and then disappearing from the room one by one.
Riley doesn’t stop working until she feels a gentle tap on the side of her head and then a nudge to her side. She turns, smiling instinctively as she sees Will gesturing at her to take off her headphones. She nods, tugging them down from her ears.
“Hi,” she greets with a grin, one hand stretching forward to pull him closer to her, her fingers twisting themselves into the material of his shirt.
Will grins back, scooting closer until their noses are touching. “Hi,” he replies, presses a chaste kiss to her lips, then glances at the screen. He eyes it for a few seconds, his forehead furrowing in confusion, but eventually just shrugs his shoulders, turning back to her. “What are you working on?”
“A mix,” she tells him, reaching over for her mouse and clicking on the playlist of songs that the rest of the cluster had given her earlier. Will instantly knows what it is as soon as he reads the first few lines and his hands are on the keyboard adding his own additions to the list before she can even ask him what he thinks. She waits for him to finish, then sighs a little, though it’s mostly at herself. “There are so many songs,” she says, her eyes widening, “I don’t know how I’m going to manage to mix them all.”
Will just laughs at her, nudges her side. “You’ll make it work,” he tells her, and he’s sounds so earnest and proud (of her) that Riley can’t help but pull him down to kiss him. “You always do.”
Riley’s not sure how, but in the end, she does (sort of) make it work. It’s almost two o’clock in the morning and Will has attempted to pull her to the bed a number of times to sleep, but she’s managed to resist, not wanting to leave the mix incomplete when she’s so close to cracking it. Will’s now got his head in her lap, his eyes closed whilst she works, but she knows he’s not really sleeping, just thinking.
“I’ll be done soon,” she tells him, leaning down to press a kiss to his forehead, smiling as Will shifts tiredly, reaching up to touch her cheek, “I promise.”
Will nods, his eyes falling shut again, and she presses another kiss to his forehead before continuing to work. When she finally lines up the final beat and she’s satisfied with the whole piece, she leans back, stretches up, then realises Will is fast asleep on her lap. She laughs softly, gently nudging him awake.
“Hey there,” she greets, as he blearily opens his eyes, the startled look in them from being woken up quickly fading away as they fix onto her face. “I’m finished.”
Will rubs his eyes, a smile slowly forming on his lips. “Let me hear,” he says, as he sits up and gently tugs the headphones off her head, sliding them over his ears. She slowly presses play, her eyes fixed on his face as she waits for his reaction. She’s usually not nervous when she shows someone one of her mixes – instead, she normally does so wholeheartedly because she loves introducing people to pieces of music that they haven’t heard before – but she finds that this time, she is. She’s not entirely sure why either; perhaps it’s because Will’s opinion means a lot to her, or perhaps it’s because this mix not only has pieces of her in it, but all eight of them.
Will’s expression changes from thoughtful, to appreciative, to excited, as the music plays in his ears. “Riles, this is great,” he says enthusiastically, bobbing his head in time to the beat. “You need to show this to the others!”
Riley grins in response, knowing that he doesn’t mean that literally, already feeling the pull of the others at the edges of her mind. She blinks, and then they’re all there, in various different stages of dress (or, in Wolfgang and Lito’s cases, undress, having been summoned from the pool and hot tub respectively). She knows without asking that they can all hear the music Will is listening to in their heads, and she starts laughing as she suddenly feels several pair of hands reaching for her, tugging her in multiple different directions.
“This is so good!”
“Riley, sister, you have to email this to me; Hernando will love this!”
“Yes, yes, you must send this to all of us!”
“I don’t know how you managed to combine all of these songs!”
It doesn’t take long before Will’s unplugged her headphones from her computer so that he can play the mix out-loud through her speakers and suddenly, everyone is dancing, the room coming alive. They dance for what seems like hours, lost in their own bubble, everyone spinning and cheering and spinning some more. The sound of their collective laughter makes her heart expand and she can’t help but take a moment to just pause, stop and take it all in.
“This is exactly why I love music,” she exclaims, one of her arms wrapped around Will’s waist and the other around Nomi’s, as she watches Sun, Capheus and Lito gleefully twirling each other around in circles, right next to where Wolfgang and Kala are swaying. “It has the power to bring everyone together.”
Will grins in response, twists to press a kiss to the side of her head, and then she’s suddenly being pulled into the middle of room. Will twirls her around to Nomi, who spins her to Sun, Capheus and Lito, and then she’s thrust right in the middle of Wolfgang and Kala. They blink at her, clearly startled by the interruption, but then they exchange glances and laugh, each one taking one of her hands. Before she knows it, all eight of them have formed a messy circle, connected by their conjoined hands, and as the music shifts to a familiar tune, they all lift their heads up towards the ceiling and start singing along loudly. They’re not exactly in-tune, but none of them particularly care, their voices getting increasingly more fervent, feeding off each other’s energy (“I said hey, what’s going on?”).
The only issue is, thanks to their connection, her mix is the only thing that she hears for the next week. She had emailed the track to all of them on Lito’s request, and then she had visited Lito in Mexico when he had proudly played the mix to Hernando. Hernando’s eyes had immediately turned thoughtful, almost wistful, picking up on all the subtleties of her mix, his mind analysing the contrasting genres of music and putting meaning behind every shift in the beat.
“Lito, tell Riley this is beautiful,” Hernando had said, his voice heartfelt, before he realised that Lito was staring off into space and changing his words slightly. “Riley, this is beautiful.”
She’d grinned at him, switching with Lito momentarily to give him a hug, before disappearing back to Chicago. Over the next few days, she’s pulled into multiple different locations across the globe as all of them start listening to the track on repeat: Sun listens to it whilst she’s practicing her kicks, Capheus plays it through the speaker of his van when he drives to visit Zakia, Nomi plays it loudly in her apartment until her and Amanita know the exact order of all the songs, and so on. Riley decides to post it online as well, her heart expanding even further as the network of people who used to come and see her gigs begin sharing it and comments asking her if she’s ever going to play a show again start flooding in. She’s missed DJing, she realises, and she starts making plans to perform somewhere in Chicago, Will and Diego helping her to secure a venue and publicise the event. Once she’s finalised everything, she publishes the details online and then smiles to herself as she receives a few messages from strangers declaring that they will be there; that it’s not an event that they can miss.
“I’m proud of you, Riles,” Will tells her, just as they’re about to go to sleep that night, curling his body tightly around hers until she can feel his chest solid against her back. She grins, presses back against him in response, and then slowly lets her eyes flutter shut.
She’s woken up at four o'clock in the morning by the sound of her phone buzzing relentlessly against the surface of the bedside table. She blinks, sits up, blearily reaching for it and staring at the screen. As the words slowly register into her head, she blinks again, wondering if she’s still dreaming. She’s reasonably well-known, sure, but only in Europe. In Chicago, she’s not exactly expecting a huge audience, and she’s not entirely sure how her show is suddenly sold-out or why her mix has been shared thousands of times, the number growing rapidly right before her eyes.
“Will…” she starts, but Will is awake now too, having felt her stirring through their connection. She wordlessly shifts so that he can see the screen as well, and then frowns as Will’s expression doesn’t turn to one of surprise as she expected, but to one of fascination.
"Oh man," he says, but he's grinning widely as he speaks, and Riley can feel his excitement as if it was hers. "I can't believe they actually pulled it off. This is insane!"
She frowns at his words, tilting her head as the excitement she’s sensing is now not just Will's, but is multiplied by five others. “Pulled…what off?”
Riley slowly raises her eyebrow as the room is suddenly filled with five other people, each one of them baring a wide grin on their faces even though she knows for a fact that some of them should be fast asleep right now. Will laughs quietly, his hand gently reaching for her arm to tug her attention back onto the screen where the notifications are streaming in. She bites her lip slightly, still perplexed, but then he takes the phone from her, pressing on the screen a few times until she can see a map of exactly where her track is being shared and she understands immediately. There are hits from all across the globe, but they’re concentrated in a few, specific locations: Reykjavik, San Francisco, Paris, Bombay, Berlin, Nairobi, Mexico City and Seoul.
She feels her heart twist as she starts seeing flashes of memories playing in her head: Will sending the track to her dad in Iceland, Nomi, Amanita and Bug advertising the track heavily amongst the virts in San Francisco and elsewhere in the world (“I could make every radio station in America play it if we wanted,” Bug says, his fingers already hovering over the keyboard. Nomi and Amanita stare at him, contemplate the idea, and then slowly shake their heads. “We should probably, uh, not draw too much attention to ourselves. I might be free from BPO, but I’m still technically…dead.”), Felix, Wolfgang and Kala putting up flyers in poorly translated French with a link to the track on it everywhere in Paris (“Are we a hundred percent sure this says what we think it says?” Kala asks, her forehead furrowed. Felix just shrugs at her, continuing to stick the flyer he’s holding to the wall, pasting it down with vigour. “Doesn’t matter. There’s a fucking link, they’ll get it.”), Kala sending the track to her family and friends back in Bombay, a bemused Wolfgang watching Felix demand that the track be played on repeat in the club that he still owns in Berlin (“I fucking own this club, do you hear me? You will play it all night!”), Capheus deciding to use it as the theme tune for his election campaign, Lito, Hernando and Dani asking for it to be played at every bar they can find in Mexico City and Sun playing it as loudly as she can in the parks of Seoul whilst she spars with Mun.
“You all…did this for me?”
All seven of them are grinning now, reaching for her until they’re all wrapped in a group hug, and Riley blinks hard a couple of times to stop the tears that are suddenly welling up in her eyes from spilling out. After the death of Magnus and Luna, she wasn’t sure if she’d ever be truly happy again, but right now, in this moment, she feels complete once more.