Pierce slipped silently into the music room, switching on the lights with a flick of his wrist. It had been such a long time since he had dealt with anything musical, though that had been one of his passions before the incident. He was rusty, definitely, but he could still vaguely remember the chords he'd taught himself to play on the guitar and piano back when he'd had all the time in the world.
With a smile, Pierce sat himself down at the piano and began to pick his way through a song he remembered. It was something from one of the weird musicals his mom had loved to watch, and as he remembered the tune, he began to sing along. "Nothing's gonna harm you, not while I'm around..." his fingers glossed across the keys. "Demons will charm you with a smile, for a while, but in time..." the soft melody filled his head, drowning out his worries. Music was therapeutic. He's forgotten just how much he loved it. "Nothing can harm you, not while I'm --"
He was interrupted by the sound of footsteps. A student. "You shouldn't be out of bed," he muttered as he turned around, somewhat embarrassed.

Kurt was walking through one of the most wonderful areas of the Academy to him, the music rooms. Kurt had always loved to play the guitar, and also loved to sing. As he was walking down the laminate wood floors of the hallway, he heard the sounds of a guitar, so sweet to him throughout his life, and also the sound of singing. It was a sweet little melody, one of which he had never heard before.
He opened the door to the music room, where he saw a man standing with a guitar, picking a little diddy that seemed familiar to the man but not to Kurt. The man swung around and said, embarrassingly, "You shouldn't be out of bed."
Kurt looked around the music room, and said, "And why shouldn't I? The music's still playing." He pointed to a red electric guitar and raised his thin eyebrows as he said, energetically, "Hey, pass me that there guitar over there."
Suddenly realizing that the man probably didn't know him, Kurt said, "You may not know me, the name's Kurt. Kurt Park. I came here from Wheeling, West Virginia. What's yours?"

The boy didn't recognize Pierce. He had good reason to, I mean, Pierce was only ever out and about a few times a year, and then usually in nice clothes and a tie. Right now he was in an old t-shirt and flannel pants, the most casual he could be. Not to mention the mess that his hair was. He definitely didn't look the part of the headmaster, a sleepy guy sitting at the piano in the middle of the night. Well, this could be fun, see how long it would take to get him to recognize him.
"Kurt, huh? I'm Pierce." He rubbed one hand through his hair, trying to make it at least a bit more presentable, as he grabbed the guitar the student had motioned to and handed it to him. "So what do you like to play?"

Kurt listened intently to the man, still waiting for his guitar. The man told him, "Kurt, huh? I'm Pierce." The man combed his fingers through his hair, probably trying to improve the way it looked, as it didn't look very good. The man handed him the glossy red guitar, and he played a few chords, just seeing if it needed tuning. As far as he could tell, it didn't need tuning.
Then Pierce asked, "So what do you like to play?"
Kurt turned away from him, and then turned back and said, "I like to play mainly rock, punk rock. You know, stuff like Jimmy Eat World, Foo Fighters, Local H, stuff like that." Kurt concluded the sentence with a short notion to Pierce. And then, all of a sudden, he remembered seeing a plaque that read Pierce Johnson. He turned back to Pierce and said, "Hey, aren't you the headmaster of the academy?"

"Punk rock. Nice. I'm into a little crappy pop punk, don't know if that's your style. Also Queen, because why not?" He continued to just sort of mess around with the keys, hearing a little bit of Bohemian Rhapsody in the patterns he clinked out. He glanced at the boy, Kurt, to see a look of recognition dawn on his face. His little charade was up. The boy asked if he was the headmaster, and Pierce grinned.
"Yeah, you figured it out. Not much to look at, am I?" He turned his attention back to the piano for a moment. "Be glad I'm not giving you any sort of punishment for being out of bed after curfew, heh."

Kurt looked around the music room again, this time focusing on the many instruments there. He reached back at his guitar, and after Pierce said, "You're lucky I'm not giving you any type of punishment for being out of bed after curfew." Kurt looked back at him, kind of raising his voice a little, saying, "Yeah, I didn't expect you to. I also didn't expect you to be out here. I guess this whole Academy is like your personal mansion after curfew, huh? Sounds nice." Kurt messed with some of the pedals by the amp with his foot, turned the amp to ON/STANDBY, and looked back at Pierce and told him, handing out a guitar tab, "You know Sweetness by Jimmy Eat World? Nah, who cares. Here's a tab. Let's play it."

Pierce frowned slightly as the student handed him a guitar tab. "But I'm playing -- okay, whatever." He glanced back at his piano, trying to evaluate the chords in front of him and translate them to keys. Kurt began playing the song, and Pierce listened along for a few measures as he transposed the music in front of him. Warily, he struck a few keys on the piano. Not bad for someone who hadn't done anything musical in quite some time. At the very least he wasn't making a fool of himself.

Kurt played the first few power chords of Sweetness, then switched back to regular chords as Pierce started playing along. Kurt sang, "And I'm still running away... I won't play your hide-and-seek games... I was spinnin' free, with a little sweet and simple numbing me... No the sweetness will not be concerned with me."
After he finished the last chord, he looked at Pierce and said, "You're not half bad. You played piano from a guitar tab. I can't do that." Kurt looked at Pierce and said, "Wonder if we woke anyone up... That was kinda loud." Kurt looked around the music room, frantically thinking of what to say next. He, of course, asked the stupidest question. "So how'd you become headmaster?" he said, placing the red guitar back down on the black rubber stand, shut off the silver amp, and turned back to Pierce.

Pierce grinned as Kurt complimented his playing. "Yeah, it wasn't easy, but I got close enough, I suppose." He watched as the boy put down his guitar, flicking off the amp. If he was being honest, Pierce had probably played better on the piano without proper sheet music than he would have if he had picked up the instrument the tab was intended for. He barely remembered anything about guitar, as he'd only really played that for a year while his mom had made him play piano from a young age to actually develop some sort of talent that could set him apart. So much for that.
As Pierce almost slipped away into his thoughts, the younger man looked at him and asked a question. How had he become the headmaster? "Well, I kind of got kidnapped by the Defenders... I managed to escape, but seeing all the people they'd hurt... I just wanted to do something to keep people like me safe."

Shortly after Kurt had asked how Pierce became headmaster, Pierce answered that he had been captured by the defenders and he wanted people like him to be safe. "Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. Growing up Wheeling, there were quite a few defender outposts."
Looking around, Kurt spotted a clock. It read 11:12. He whipped back around to Pierce and frantically said, "Oh no... Hey, it's 11:15 and I kinda want to sleep. Maybe we could do another session together sometime?"