Sullen Melody, Needed Friend, a tales of destiny fanfic

Title: Sullen Melody, A Needed Friend

Disclaimer : I do not own Leon Magnus. He's copyrighted to Namco. Eiskka's mine, however...

Notes: I was thinking about my Tales of Destiny campaign and the character I made for it, and this story just kind of... popped out... Not that good, though.

::*~~*::

Eiskka stroked the strings of her guitar gently. The coils vibrated, making sound after sound, fitting together to form a melody. It was a dark melody, of course, but she was in a dark mood. Nothing made her happy anymore. Nothing.

Outside the music room door, Leon stood, wearing his silk pajamas. Again, Eiskka played her depressing tunes at around midnight, waking him. His back was against the hard wood of the door, and he did nothing but listen. He didn't like to talk to her when she was like this; she normally ended up using him as the shoulder to cry on. He couldn't help but listen, though, because no matter how depressing the song, the music was still beautiful.

Leon rushed away from the door when he heard the music stop. He heard her shuffle over to the piano and a new song began to play. Leon had never heard it before, and it was more depressing than most. He moved from the door and began to walk to Eiskka's room.

When he walked in, he took a seat at the chair in front of Eiskka's desk. He adjusted the chair so he faced the Swordian Myclouse, who was hanging up on the wall.

"Good evening, Leon," the sword spoke. "Are you worried about her, too?"

"No, of course not," Leon lied, trying to seem cool about the whole thing. "I only wish to know why I'm being kept up late this time." He paused for a few seconds. "Why would I care anyways?"

"Because she's your friend?"

Leon snorted at the notion. Even though Eiskka and he had known each other for five years, he had not once mentioned out loud his feelings for her, nonetheless say he was her friend.

"Well, I'm not exactly sure why she's upset right now. She woke up with quite a start; most have been a nightmare… She was… crying…"

"She woke up crying?" Leon raised an eyebrow.

"Yes," Myclouse confirmed. "She said something about someone being killed. Then she ran off to play her music."

Leon took a deep breath and sighed. "I wish she wasn't like this. I don't like to be the shoulder to cry on…"

"It only means she trusts you, Leon," the rainbow-bladed sword replied. "It's a good thing. Trust me."

Leon made a sarcastic chuckle under his breath. "It's annoying, more than anything…"

Eiskka's fingers fell gracefully upon the keys of the piano. The song she played was new to her. The notes flew from her fingertips, to the keys, to the hammers, to the strings, until they were air bourn, making the melody.

As the music played, she glanced around the room. There were blackboards with spaces to write music on, other instruments of which to play (a broad variety of them as well), stands to place music on, and shelves full of music books and sheets. All of this was given to the once bare storage room at her request. She knew that she was not the only one that played here, but she was the one here the most.

What stood out the most in the room, though, were the five suits of armour decorating the outskirts of the room. It ruined the feeling of calmness and comfort when she began to play. Weapons were meant to be kept in areas of fighting or show, not in areas of which to relax one's self. Hence why she never brought her sword, Myclouse, into this room.

Eiskka's eyes fell upon the keys once more, continuing her newly made song. She remembered what had brought her to this room tonight. The depression she was feeling, the sadness that began at the end of her soul and ate it away as she played. There were two main reasons that she played this night.

The first one was Garr. Garr… Eiskka believed for so long that she loved him. They were made for each other, was what she thought. But when they were going out, it just didn't feel right… Something was wrong. She found out later what it was. All this time, the five years she knew him, she loved him because he took care of her. He was there for her. Like… like a friend does. Things came from her mouth that she thought she could never say to her boyfriend. That was her main clue.

Another clue was the fact that she could never go beyond kissing. And sometimes, a deep kiss was too much for even both of them. They both knew it felt wrong. It was only that Garr was the one strong enough to bring it up. So he broke up with her. That was only about three or four days ago.

The second reason was because of a dream she had been having for the past couple of nights. In it, a man, about ten years older than herself, blamed her for the death of his mother. From all that she had gathered in the dream, the woman was also her mother. How did she die? Eiskka did not know. It was never explained to her in the nightly world.

The dream seemed to be a link to her forgotten past. Yet, she never brought it up with Myclouse. He would deny it or just tell her not to worry about it. Myclouse refused to tell her anything she wanted to know about what lied in the unknown regions of her history. Even though she knew he would do this, Eiskka was positive that the dream had something to do with what was lost.

The guilt welded up inside her, though. Did she really have something to do with her mother's death? Did she really take away the most important part of any child's youth? It ate away at her soul, tearing away the high self-esteem she once had.

These reasons were what brought her to the instruments that adourned the music room this night. The music, she hoped, would comfort her. Yet, it did not. The pain only grew stronger. And stronger. And stronger, until she could not keep it inside any longer.

She drove her hands through the keyboard. Her fingers received many splinters, but she did not feel it. All pain was mental, and covered any physical wounds that came. When her fingers reached through one side and out the other of the keyboard, she curled her fingers, and brought them up, carrying at least three white keys and two black keys in each hand with it. She threw them angrily on the marble tile floor. She stood from the bench she sat at and swung her arm in one strong swoop that knocked off the covering of the piano. It bent over to the other side and snapped off of its hinges, falling to the floor. A loud crash followed.

She growled lowly at the piano. Why was she angry at it? It became the manifestation of her pain; it reminded her of it when she played. She had to destroy it. Destroy it for good.

Leon turned his head in the direction of the loud crash.

"What was that?" Myclouse asked.

"I'm not sure. It sounded like it came from the music room, though." Leon got up from the seat. "I'll go check it out."

He left Eiskka's room and headed down the hallway towards the source of the crash. He slowly opened the door and poked his head into the room. He saw the cover of the piano laying on the floor and several of the keys dropped to the floor. Blood covered them as well as dripped across the room, making a tiny trail to where Eiskka now stood. She was un-sheathing the sword that one of the suits of armour held.

Leon watched from the door as she made her way back towards the piano, intent on finding out what she planned to do with the sword. When she was with range of it, she raised the sword above her head. Eiskka angrily brought the sword down upon the midsection of the piano. After the blade had found its way through the piano, the strings within found chance to relieve the tension they had. They snapped and flung themselves up and back away from the cut. Eiskka's face, however, was in the midst of this, and received three strong whips on the right cheek and four on the left. They bled profusely.

The situation happened so quickly, that Leon did not know what to think. But as soon as the first drops of blood hit the floor, he was by her side.

"Eiskka? Eiskka, are you okay?" Leon shook her gently. She fell to her knees and began to cry.

Leon quickly ran to the bathroom that was down the hall and came back with a towel in hand. He went over to her and bent down, softly washing the blood from her face onto the piece of fabric. The room fell silent other than her sobs.

Leon finally broke the silence. "What's wrong?" She did not answer. "Eiskka? What's the matter?" She suddenly hugged him and started to cry harder, using his chest as her handkerchief. Leon was taken aback by the suddenness of her movement, but replied to it by putting his hands around her and stroking her hair.

She stayed in his arms for almost an hour, he trying to comfort her the entire time, before her sobs finally begin to die down. She eventually pulled a little ways away from him and looked up with big eyes, full of tears. "I'm sorry," were the only words she could utter. She repeated them over and over again.

Leon pulled her close. "Don't apologize. I don't mind." Her sobbing began again. This time, Leon pushed Eiskka's head towards his chest, allowing her to cry on him. This was the first time he had actually motioned for her to cry on him. Normally, she just did it, no matter what he said or did. But tonight, she needed comfort. So he gave it to her. Sleep didn't matter anymore. Just calming the crying girl mattered to him.

After another thirty minutes, the sobbing stopped. He looked down at her. Eiskka had fallen asleep.