How to Write Music for Two: A JBD Love Story ~ Ver. II

[Rabbitheart]

How to Write Music for Two

also entitled: How to Train Your Dragon to Fall Love

by Rabbitheart

This thread will contain the re-vamped story of my two Jellybean Dragons, Amanda Lynn Sonata and Toothless. In this version, I'm going to be doing things a little differently from the first version.
For starters, the story is going to be typed out on a Word Document first and then I'm going to break it up between posts. Secondly, I'm going to be inserting more background info as well as allude to events that would have been going on in my other bean's lives. For example, Chry would have been dating Pyro at some point during this story, as well as adopting the twins Papyllon and Kallyma. Yes, I am thinking about adding Papyllon in as a minor character this time around.
Thirdly, I'm going to strive to somehow make things a little slower. I think in the first version Amanda Lynn and Toothless just took control of the story in the beginning and were diving head-first in love with each other far too quickly.
Finally, I'm going to be doing a bit more polling of my readers, especially when it comes to parts I'm uncertain about.

[Rabbitheart]

Chapter One

Amanda Lynn walked through the fourth floor hallway with her mandolin case slung over her shoulder like a purse, her right hand clenched tightly on the strap as the cold sickening feeling fell over her insides. A sign that she was nervous and feeling uneasy about all of this change. She was looking for room 438, her apartment. She knew what to expect: a clean room with everything neat and tidy, but lacking things such as dishware, certain furniture, and some other things that she couldn't think of at the moment due to her nervousness. She fervently prayed that whoever her neighbors would be that they wouldn't be crazy, loud, late night party people, or something else far worse.
When she got to approximately the middle of the hallway, she found her room number. She stared for a moment at the pristine white wooden door with the gold numbers bolted to the front of it. She fitted the key into the keyhole and turned it until the door made a snick sound, signaling that it had been unlocked, Amanda Lynn took a deep breath in through her nose and let it out through her mouth, trying to relax herself before opening the door to her new home; her first home away from her family.
Turning the knob, she then gently pushed the door open to reveal the inside. It was just as she had thought it would look, clean and tidy; but then this was a new apartment complex, so what else would it be? She walked in and looked around, soaking in every detail of her apartment. Her childish side urged her to find the bedroom and just flop on the bed immediately and just revel in being alone, but she clamped down on the urge and just walked about her apartment. She looked into each room and smiled as she went, she enjoyed this far better than just having a room to herself; she had the whole place to herself.
"Well," she said with a sigh when she had finished touring her place. "I guess I'd better wait here until Zimri calls me when he gets here with all of my boxes."
She walked over to a wooden stool that was in the living room and set her mandolin case down on the seat of the stool, undid the latches, opened it up, and withdrew her mandolin from the case gingerly. She then placed the case down on the floor, leaning up against the wall, and sat down on the stool, setting her hands on the instrument. She held it, her fingers at the ready to play, frowning slightly she pondered what song she wanted to play on it.
I want to play something that's happy and peppy, she thought to herself. Maybe a love song...
Then she remembered a song that she had had stuck in her head since her ride over here, she smiled to herself and started playing the first chords of the song. Gradually getting into the song, tapping her foot in time to the beat and then she began to sing the lyrics. She started off quietly in her uneasiness, but as her confidence grew, so did her volume and exuberance as she sang.

➴ ❤➶

[Rabbitheart]

Toothless walked through the hall on his way to his apartment, ready to collapse in exhaustion after his long, stressful day at work. As he drew closer and closer to his apartment, #437, his ears perked at the sound of music pouring from somewhere in the hall, he could tell that the music wasn't coming from a radio or a television. It was clear and real, like someone was playing and singing right there on the floor.
Strange, he thought to himself. Must be a new bean, I know that no one on this floor sounds like that.
His previous feeling of exhaustion disappeared swiftly and was replaced with curiosity and wonder, for the voice of whoever was singing was absolutely captivating.
As he drew closer to where the music was coming from, he recognized the song immediately as being "Compass" by Lady Antebellum; the voice that was singing it was pretty, enchanting, definitely female and it just drew him in. Encaptured him.
He soon found himself standing outside of the apartment that was right next door to his, the door had been left wide open. Toothless smiled at the sight that met him and he leaned against the outside of the frame of the doorway with his arms crossed in front of him as he watched.
The bean who was singing was breathtakingly beautiful, her fur matched the color of her instrument, being both vibrant and cheerful, her lolwut horns were colored with bands of what seemed like dark brown and violet purple, her pretty tail ended in a fluff that curled, tied around her tail was a pretty scarf with what appeared to be musical notes printed on it. Her voice was...angelic, at least to his ears it was. She was dancing around the small living room area of her apartment, playing her mandolin and singing confidently. Toothless was almost tempted to join in, for her exuberance seemed so infectious, as did the song, but he didn't want to interrupt her or to frighten her, besides he very much wanted to just listen to her voice.
The longer that he stood there in the entryway, the more he could feel his heart leaping from his chest and into his throat, making him swallow hard to try and force it back down. He was mesmerized by her, enamored by her. Her energy and clear joy at singing the song, and the scarf fluttered in the air as she waved her tail happily while she was dancing and playing her instrument.
As she finished up the song, she twirled around and faced the doorway, still singing...until she spotted Toothless and the last word in the last line died softly in her mouth as soon as she saw him.
Toothless shifted awkwardly, uncertain of what to say or do, so he gave her an awkward smile and gave a little wave. He felt even more awkward due to the expression that she now wore on her face upon seeing him; it was a textbook example of the “deer in the headlights” look.
"Hi," he said. "Umm...er...sorry for creeping in your doorway, I just...I heard you singing and you sounded really fantastic so I came over and well...yeah..." he trailed off awkwardly, beginning to feel like he was starting to look foolish.

[Rabbitheart]

Amanda Lynn felt embarrassed knowing that the tall, dark, cute, and rather handsome male bean had been standing there, leaning against her doorway for who knew how long watching and listening to her. She felt heat rise to her furry cheeks in her embarrassment and she didn't know what to say in response.
"A-A-Amanda Lynn," she squeaked, clenching her mandolin tightly in her hands. She didn’t know why she said her name, he hadn’t even asked for it.
"Oh, that's what instrument you're playing?"
Amanda Lynn's nervousness broke and she found herself laughing. "Nooo, that's my name, silly."
"Oh," Toothless felt stupid for thinking she was talking about her instrument. "Sorry."
"It's alright, I get it a lot," she laughed, smiling. "But it is the name of the instrument I play, well, it’s close to it. It’s called a mandolin."
"Alright, I parked the truck outside close to the entrance, I'll start unloading soon if you want to come out and help-Who're you?" Zimri was now standing there, looking a bit upset seeing a male bean in his little sister's doorway.
"Uh...Toothless?" Amanda Lynn felt sorry for Toothless, he seemed to be really scared as he stood there near her big brother, her biggest brother as she often called him as he was the eldest of her siblings and she had one other older brother besides him.
"What're you doing here?" Amanda Lynn watched as her brother fixed Toothless with a hard look, scrutinizing him. She felt like her brother was considering whether or not he should beat Toothless up or not.
"I-I live next door," Toothless explained hurriedly. "I was on my way over there and I heard your sister singing and I just came over to look..."
"It's okay Zimri," Amanda Lynn interrupted, coming to Toothless’s rescue, coming over to her big brother to give him a big hug. "I'm sure that he doesn't mean any harm, now let's get started on unpacking."
She watched as her big brother shot Toothless a hard look that seemed to carry some sort of warning to it, she mentally rolled her eyes, clearly this was a big brother thing and he felt obligated to do this.
“Bye Toothless,” she said, smiling at him. “Maybe we can talk later?”
“Uh…okay, sounds good,” Toothless seemed to be watching her brother leave; clearly he was terrified by him, “Will he be okay with that?”
“Who? My big brother Zimri?”
“Yeah, him,” Amanda Lynn laughed at Toothless’ response, noticing that he was looking fearfully in the direction that her brother Zimri had gone.
“Nah, I don’t think he’ll mind too much,” she laughed, “just so long as your intentions are good and you don’t hurt me or something. Don’t let him scare you too much though, he’s not usually this menacing. Besides, he’s only here with my other big brother, Brandon, to help me unload all my things from the truck into my apartment.”

[Rabbitheart]

“Oh, okay,” Amanda Lynn was certain she saw a look of relief on his face as he said it and she couldn’t help but giggle.
“Anyway, I’d better go catch up with him; I’ll talk to you later, ‘kay?”
“Okay,” Toothless watched as she walked away, as he did, he felt something come over him. He wasn’t sure what it was, but he felt as if he was breathless, as if he had been knocked completely off his feet.

➴ ❤➶

Kissing her brothers goodbye, Amanda Lynn painfully watched from the doorway as they walked away, leaving her alone in her new home. When they were out of sight, she let out a heavy sigh and turned around to look at her apartment with all the boxes that had been stacked in the living room.
She stared at them for what seemed like forever, feeling her heart get heavier with sadness and her eyes beginning to water. For some reason, this whole moving thing was just a scary undertaking for her. She’d never done it before and she was beginning to doubt her original thoughts on the idea. It had only been a couple hours and already she was beginning to feel homesick.
Ugh, I got to pull myself together, she thought in frustration, I can’t always live with my siblings and they’re all moving into their own homes to be with their new families.
Letting out a heavy sigh, she went over to the cardboard box with the word “Electronics” written on it in black Sharpie. Taking one of her golden yellow claws, she cut the strip of tape down the center and on both sides, and then opened up the box. She withdrew the dock for her pink gen seven iPod nano, taking it over to the nearest electrical outlet and plugging it, then she took her iPod nano out of her front left pocket of her jeans and plugged it into the dock.
Turning her iPod on, she touched the music button, which took her to the list of search selections, she selected “Albums” and then scrolled through the list of albums she had on it. Frowning slightly, she slid her thumb across the touch screen to the right, going back to the previous list. Once there, she selected the “Artist” option, then scrolled through her music selection by artist. She briefly debated between Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift, but eventually decided upon Taylor Swift.
After selecting the “All Songs” option, she then selected the song “22,” then set her iPod to shuffle and repeat all of the songs. With that now out of the way, Amanda Lynn returned her attention to the numerous cardboard boxes that were stacked in the middle of her apartment.
Sighing, she went to work, singing along to each song as she began opening the boxes, unpacking the items within, and putting them away in their new places. It was slow going and time consuming, but thanks to the music, it wasn’t all that boring. After awhile, she started having some fun with the job, starting to dance over to each place where she was putting the items away at, stopping only to either put an item down/away, plug something in (if needed), or open up a box; then she’d recommence dancing.

[Rabbitheart]

She carried on this way for awhile, happily singing along with all of the songs, dancing around, and so on as she put away the items. She was in the middle of singing along to the song “Sparks Fly” when everything changed. She came to an abrupt halt in her dancing, so fast you could almost hear tires squealing, her eyes snapped wide open, her mouth parted slightly, and the box she held in her hands slid out from between them when her hands had relaxed. Amanda Lynn was struck with a sudden realization, a realization that had her heart beating as fast as a hummingbird’s wings and her breath to be stolen away from her.
Normally, when she sang along to songs, she either envisioned the music video for the song in her mind or sometimes envisioned random people playing out some sort of fitting scene to go along with the song, sometimes she even envisioned herself in the fitting scene that went along with the song. Normally, when she sang along with the song “Sparks Fly,” she’d envision herself with some generic guy with emerald green eyes and short brown hair acting out the scene she created to go with the song, but this time was different. Suddenly, her mind had changed things on her in an instant. She was no longer meeting some unknown guy on the sidewalk while it rained, or seeing sparks fly as the unknown male smiled, she was no longer running her fingers through some random guy’s hair, or some unknown male leading her up the staircase and whispering to her softly and slowly in her ear “I’m captivated by you baby like a firework show.”
Suddenly, the mysterious and unknown guy her mind had been using for what seemed like years and years had transformed into someone new. Toothless.
Oh my gosh, Amanda Lynn thought in shock and horror, swallowing hard as she tried to absorb what just happened, at the sudden change in the cast in the scene that her mind usually played when she listened to the song.
Her face would have worn a disgusted look or a scowl if she hadn’t felt what she felt when she saw the scene play out in her mind’s eye. Her heart had pined for it. The imagined scene was beautiful to her, what was worse was that it seemed so….real…tangible even. It wasn’t like her mind had paired her with someone ugly or someone she loathed or someone who seemed disinterested in her, something that would have her laughing or wrinkle her face in disgust because it was so impossible and would most definitely never happen. It seemed plausible, something that could actually happen to her.
Amanda Lynn closed her eyes and gritted her teeth, shaking her head, ashamed at what her mind had done.
Get it together Amanda, her inner voice ordered her, don’t let yourself go down that road again. Remember what happened last time?
Yeah, I remember, she thought sullenly, sighing. The memories of the last time her mind had done something like this to her came flooding to the forefront of her brain and she clenched her teeth angrily as a tear began to roll down her cheek. The feeling of shame and embarrassment of what she’d done the last time she’d fallen in love with a guy, a guy who had nicely turned her down twice when she’d asked him to two of her high school’s dances. She still felt so foolish; still hated herself for her actions then, even though it was several years ago. She didn’t ever want that to happen to her, despite knowing he’d probably turn her down the second time, she’d still clung to the hope that he’d say yes instead. Her heart had been shattered after that and she had no desire to have it be shattered like that again, she also didn’t want to spend an entire day crying after it broke.
Why does my heart keep forgetting to remind me that falling in love is a bad idea? She thought despairingly.
Because it has tasted the euphoria that comes with being in love and wants you to feel that way always, her inner voice whispered to her, almost tauntingly.

➴ ❤➶

[Rabbitheart]

Toothless lay on his bed looking up at the ceiling, he had no idea what had gotten into him, but he just couldn't stop thinking. Couldn't stop thinking about her. She was like a ray of sunshine, she had brightened his day and now he couldn't stop smiling when he thought of her.
Gah! What the heck has gotten into me? He thought in frustration, and not for the first time, when trying to make himself stop thinking about his new neighbor.
Somewhere in the back of his mind, a tiny voice whispered to him the answer of what had gotten into him.
You're in love. It whispered to him, tantalizingly, causing him sigh. Shaking his head, he got up off of his bed in frustration. He couldn't seem to sit still, he wanted so very badly to be doing something, but nothing he tried to do seemed to hold his interest long enough, didn't make him feel like they were really what he wanted to be doing, what he should be doing, whatever that was.
He contemplated going over to see Amanda Lynn next door and see if maybe she needed or would like help with unpacking her things, but he quickly nixed that idea. Instead, he decided to go over to his small kitchen and make himself something to eat for dinner. He ended up making himself something simple, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. As he sat at his small dinner table, he thought to himself about what he was going to do for the rest of the night…or at least that’s what he tried to do because his mind kept taking him back to Amanda Lynn.
Finishing his meal, he put his plate in the sink, figuring that he'd wash it later. He went over to his living room and sat down on the couch, briefly debating on whether he wanted to pop in a movie or just turn on the TV and see if there was anything good on. He was just getting up to get a movie to put in when he heard a crash come from next door, where the new girl, Amanda Lynn, was moving in. Without really even thinking about it, he left his apartment and went over to hers, opening the closed door and peering in.
"Are you alright? I hear a large cra-ash-" he saw Amanda Lynn on her hands and knees, crying over a box lying on its side on the ground, its contents strewn out, some looked broken. Toothless bit his lip slightly, uncertain about whether or not he should go over to her or not, eventually he gave in and came over to her, tentatively wrapping one arm around her.
"Hey, it's going to be alright, what's the matter?" He asked softly as she cried.

[Rabbitheart]

Amanda Lynn hated herself in that moment; she had tripped over the rug while her mind was still distracted with thoughts about the last time she had fallen in love. When she tripped over the carpet, the box she had in her hands slid out and crashed to the ground and she fell to the ground as well. When she went over to the box and seen what had broken, she began crying.
She hated how Toothless must have seen her right now: weak, pathetic, and childish as she blubbered over the spilled box of what mostly contained her own copies of some family pictures, ranging from a portrait of her parents, childhood pictures of her and her siblings, to pictures from her school dances in high school.
Toothless removed his arm from around her shoulders as she looked apologetically at the picture she had clutched in her hands, the only picture she had of her parents, her, and her siblings all together in one picture. Her attention was broken when she heard the sound of glass being brushed into a dustpan, she looked up to see that Toothless had begun to carefully sift through everything that had fallen to the floor and sweeping up the shards of glass that had come from the pictures whose glass had broken from the fall. After most of the glass shards were swept up, he had begun picking the smaller pieces out of the carpet by hand. Amanda Lynn felt guilty letting him do all of that, so she set the picture aside and began to help him. When all the glass had been picked up she began putting the pictures away and Toothless continued to help out with that, although he was examining them and sometimes commenting or asking questions about them before placing them back in the box. She responded each time he did so, then it eventually became sort of quite between them and they just listened to the music while they picked up the rest of the pictures.
As Amanda Lynn reached absentmindedly for the last picture, she felt it being tugged in the other direction, she over to see what the resistance was and saw that Toothless had his hand on the picture too, she looked up at him at the same time as he did and they both broke out laughing, ending the previous silence.
When their laughter died and the last picture was in, Toothless flashed a smile at her; it was a charming smile that was irresistible to smile back to.
"Looks like your carpet is now safe to walk on now," he said, giving her another smile. "Would you like some help unpacking your things since I’m here? I don't have anything that I need to do or anything and I'd like to help you unpack, if you're okay with that that is."
Amanda Lynn smiled, "Yeah, I'd really love it if you would."
"Great! Let's get started then," he said, getting up off of his knees, and then offered his paw to her to help her up off of the ground.
Smiling, she accepted it. He's quite the gentleman, she thought to herself, "Thank you."
"You're welcome," removing his paw from hers, she watched as he bent over and picked up the box. "Let's start with this one, where do these things go?"
"Um...my bedroom, actually," she replied, laughing. "Just set them on the bed and I'll sort through them later."

[Rabbitheart]

"Okay," he began walking off in the direction of her bedroom. She watched him as he walked away, a slight smile still on her face. He was really cute...and handsome. She felt her heart become lighter in her chest as she felt herself fall another foot in love with him.
I wonder if he’s single or not, she thought to herself absentmindedly.
Violently, she shook her head, trying to rid herself of that line of thinking.
Stop it Amanda, don't you dare fall for him, you remember the last time you fell for a guy? Her inner-voice reminded her.
Yeah, she remembered alright. She was foolish and stupid and should never have allowed herself to fall that hard over a crush, let alone let her feelings be known to others. This time, she'd snuff her feelings out quick and bury them, try to forget them. She'd let him in as a friend, if he wanted to be that, but she wouldn't let him be anything more, no matter how much her heart may want to let him in as more.
Even as she thought that, she knew that it would be impossible for her to do it; she was incapable of doing that. Releasing a sigh, she hurried over to the stack of boxes and removed a box and began removing its contents and putting them away. She needed to get busy to get her mind off of Toothless and how cute she thought he was.

➴ ❤➶

After placing the box on her bed, Toothless went back into the main room and noticed that Amanda Lynn's face seemed...more stern...almost angry. He wondered what had happened to make her countenance change so quickly. His brow furrowed slightly as he pondered over this for a brief moment, he decided that he didn't like the look she had on her face and he wanted to change it. Grabbing a box, he went over to where she was and placed the box down on the counter next to her, then turned his attention to Amanda Lynn.
"Hey, is everything alright?" He inquired as he opened up the box and began pulling things out and setting them down on the counter.
"Oh, yeah, everything is fine, I was just...it's nothing, honest," she answered, laughing.
"I don't believe you," he responded, chuckling as he turned around and leaned against the counter, looking at her, "What's the matter?"
He watched as her ears went back and she began to play with the scarf on her tail. "It's nothing," she repeated, "I was just...remembering something I didn't want to, that's all."
"Oh," he frowned slightly, debating on whether or not he should press on or not. He was afraid of prying a little too much or something.
"Heartbreak," she simply told him, he could tell by her tone that it was a major one and she probably wouldn't want to talk about it further either, so he decided that it would be best if he didn't press on.
"I understand," he told her, giving her a reassuring half-smile, "the great thing about hearts though is that they go on, and even if they're broken again, they're still capable of putting themselves back together and finding love again."

[Rabbitheart]

He watched as Amanda Lynn's expression softened a bit, then when she looked over at him, her eyes seemed to evaluate him, as if trying to assess whether he really meant what he said or not, then she nodded, smiled, then let out a light laugh.
"Yes, they do indeed do that," she replied. "Thank you."
"You're welcome," Toothless felt heat rise to his cheeks as he gave her another smile before getting back to work on emptying the box and putting the items away.

➴ ❤➶

Amanda Lynn could feel her cheeks getting hot and she knew she must be blushing under the fur on them. She tried to busy her mind by concentrating on the work. It was hard to do, especially since she kept smiling to herself when she thought about Toothless’ adorable awkward smile, it reminded her how the character Toothless from the movie How to Train Your Dragon smiled. The similarity between them made her giggle; it was obvious that his parents were a fan of the movie too considering they decided to name him after the character.
Actually, now that she thought about it, he held a striking resemblance to the night fury. It made her laugh; she found it kind of cute.
"Out of curiosity, has anyone ever told you that you look like Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon?"
He seemed to be highly amused by her question. "Yes, on several occasions," he chuckled, "Actually, my parents named me after him."
"That's really cool, it definitely suits you," she stated, smiling at him.
She watched him as he laughed and came over to her, "You have no idea," he told her, winking at her.
"What? Do you dress up as him or something," she asked him playfully, smiling at him.
When he shifted uncomfortably, Amanda Lynn realized with horror that she may have just touched on something that was a sore subject for him and she instantly wanted to take back what she’d said, "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to say it like that, I didn’t mean to sound like I was making fun of you-"
"It's alright," he replied, laughing good-humoredly, "I know you didn't mean it in a mean way, and to answer your question, yes. I do wear a costume to help me look more like him."
"No way! Let me see," Amanda Lynn excitedly exclaimed, wanting very much to see how he looked in it. She watched as he blushed and became rather flustered, which was starting to become something that she found absolutely adorable.
"Uh...are you sure you want to see me in it?" He asked, his arm going behind his head to rub the back of his neck. As much as he loved his costume and took great pride in it, he was leery about showing it off to a girl he liked.
"Oh yes, I would love to see you in it," she nodded her head eagerly, hoping that he would show her.
"Alright, if you insist," he told her, shrugging.
She watched him leave her apartment, leaving the door to her entryway open. She smiled to herself, excited and anxious to see what he'd look like in his costume. While she waited for him to return, she finished unloading the last of the boxes and began putting its contents away.