Applause was not what Jericho expected at the close of that half-baked thought-in-melody. The strings made a tinny sound as his fingers slid unchecked, clamping around the neck and silencing it as he straightened, eyes big, and spotted Asuka nearby. His face immediately flushed red as he gawked, and his stomach did a little flip at the praise.

Oh, gosh. He'd just been playing around – he didn't even know if it was anything that listenable!

He forced his hand off the guitar, lifting it in a still and silent gesture of greeting despite the embarrassment currently crushing him into the dirt as if it were a twenty-ton sledgehammer. What was the big deal, though? Raven and Sollux and Ashraf heard him play...yet strangers and barely-acquaintances were still a challenge.