A/N: I had to deconstruct and then reconstruct this fanfic because the direction that the story was going in started to veer completely away from what I'd originally imagined and intended. The story turned into a completely different animal, and became difficult to not only write but to continue.
Title: Song of Sorrow
Rating: T for suggestive themes and language
Summary: A/U. On a cold snowy winter day Noel was alone in Eden Park depressed that his band Ragnarok didn't make the finals in the Eden Band Showcase Contest, but on this day he met a special person in the park named Claire, and at the time they didn't know it, but their fates were intertwined from that day forward and would bring them together again ten years later. HopexLightning & eventual NoelxLightning
Setting: This story completely disregards the canon plot/storylines of FFXIII and FFXIII-2. Cocoon and Pulse are on good terms with each other and all of their respective cities/towns remain intact.
Chapter 1 That Fateful Day
30th Annual Eden Band Showcase Contest (Practice Room 03)
Noel and his band mates were practicing diligently before it was their turn to take to the stage and perform in front of the contest's judges. Noel was excited because he and his band members worked hard and had to go through quite a bit to get to this point, but in the end he thought it was all worth it.
But while Noel was excited he was just as equally nervous too. A perfectly normal combination of emotions during a situation like this he thought.
The band had just finished wrapping up their song when a female staff member knocked on their practice room door and told them that they could now start setting their equipment up on the stage.
Noel could feel the butterflies in his stomach increase which wasn't a good thing. Hope could tell that Noel was extremely nervous and decided to reassure him that things would pan out.
He placed a hand on Noel's shoulder in an attempt to comfort him. "Hey, everything's going to be alright. Just play like you normally do during all of our practices." Noel turned his head to face Hope. "Thanks, Hope. I needed that." He said with a slight smile.
Noel was close to all of his band members including Cid and Yuj to a certain extent, but out of all the Ragnarok band members he was extremely close to Hope. He felt that Hope understood him the best.
Noel, Hope, Yuj and Cid have spent two years preparing for this very day. Each and every one of them knew exactly just what was at stake here. The band was able to make it to the semi-finals in the contest if they made it past this round they would be in the finals and one step closer to debuting as an official band. The winning band of the contest would be granted an exclusive contract with a major music company of the band's choosing and awarded $100,000 to kick start their music careers.
"Are you guys coming or are you just going to stand there all day?" Yuj asked. "Cid's already gone off ahead." Noel and Hope just looked at Yuj and replied in unison, "We're coming."
Eden Park
Noel let out a huge sigh before he took a seat on his favorite bench in Eden Park. It was early winter and the snowfall had just begun. As he watched the snowflakes fall his mind raced back to the Eden Band Showcase Contest. Everything was going great, but when it was finally time for them to perform in front of the judges Noel had let his nervousness get the better of him. Ragnarok was a notably well-known band within the underground music scene. Despite that fact, the band had never performed in front of such a large scale audience before because the underground music scene scope was relatively small, and Ragnarok as a band wasn't at that level of an audience draw yet. They were still in a sense essentially considered rookies.
Noel normally didn't have stage fright to this degree, but since he had never truly performed in front of such a largescale audience something like this was bound to happen. Prior to the contest he had only performed in front of small audiences at local bars. Noel believed he could handle facing such a large crowd, and that his nerves wouldn't get the better of him. This train of thought, of course led him to disaster and his band ultimately being disqualified. Noel hated to admit it, but he knew deep down that he was the main liability within the band. He would need to overcome his stage fright if the band was ever to become successful.
He soon returned to reality and tried to shake off the after thoughts of that horrific event. "I really blew it didn't I? We were so close, but I had to ruin it all because I got nervous at the last second. Why couldn't I deliver for the band when I needed to the most?" He said to himself. "Dammit!" Noel pounded his fist on the back rest of the bench in frustration and buried his face into his hands. Abruptly, a burst of chilling winter wind blew through the air Noel shivered in response and proceeded to re-adjust his navy blue scarf around his neck. In the distance, he heard what sounded like the clicking of high heels on the park's cobblestone sidewalk. He looked to his left to where the sound was coming from, and saw a girl with shoulder length rose-colored hair, which perfectly fell down the sides of her heart shaped face approaching. She was wearing a long-sleeved red winter themed top, a medium-length black skirt with pockets, black stockings, black ankle boots, and had a crimson red scarf wrapped around her neck. It was an oddity to Noel to see someone else here because no one was usually in Eden Park on Sundays let alone at this time of day which made it the perfect place to come, to think, and to be alone. Before he knew it the girl had already reached the bench that he was sitting on.
Noel looked at her taking in more of her features especially her piercing cerulean blue eyes. The girl then spoke, "It seems like I'm not the only one who likes to come to this park to escape from reality", she paused before she continued, "And it would also seem that I'm not the only one who thinks this bench has the best view of the scenery within the park", she remarked. She then took a seat in the empty space on the bench next to Noel. She then turned to face him and asked gingerly, "You don't mind if I sit here do you?" Noel was a bit flustered by his sudden company's presence.
"No, not at all." He answered blushing slightly.
"That's good to hear I didn't want to unintentionally intrude on your personal space."
Noel took this as a chance to strike up a conversation with her. I mean, it wasn't everyday that a beauty like her appeared in front of you. He was very curious about her.
"So, call me a little curious and I hope you don't mind me asking, but I was wondering what type of harsh or depressing reality are you escaping from?"
The girl remained silent and Noel began to immediately regret asking that question. He was about to apologize for prying but she finally spoke.
"I just have a lot on my plate right now with high school, my sister, and my overall future. Just your typical teenage stuff", she said with a slight smirk. "How about you?"
"Oh, me well…my band almost made it to the finals of a band contest, but I cracked under the pressure when we had to perform in front of the judges and a large audience. Last minute stage fright kind of embarrassing, huh?" He said sheepish.
"No, not really stage fright is something that you can grow out of overtime with practice besides you're young you still have time. You're like what? Fourteen?" She said jokingly.
Noel became slightly offended by her remark. "Hey, for your information I'm fifteen and you're still in high school too, but since you find it so amusing to poke fun at my age how old are you then?"
"That's classified information, but maybe I'll tell you later or when you're a little older." She said teasingly.
Noel leaned back on the park bench. "Hey, that's not fair. You're a total tease." He said smiling. After that they just fell into natural conversation with each other as if they had been friends for years. It was so odd and yet calming at the same time her presence just had that effect on him, and it was nice having someone that he could confide in and talk to.
"My name is Noel. What's yours?"
"Claire."
Noel felt an instant connection to her. There was a deeply seated mutual understanding shared between them. He could also tell from the casual friendly vibe shared between them that the feelings were mutual on her side as well. Time just seemed to fly by when they were together.
They had found themselves meeting up with each other at the park around the same time on Sunday evenings; it had become a routine occurrence for them. Sometimes he would arrive at their usual spot before she did. Each time they met up they would talk and hang out telling each other how their week has been and so forth.
It was now mid-winter Claire and Noel were in the park Sunday evening for their usual meetup, but there was something different about Claire today she wasn't her usual self. Something wasn't quite right. The evening light in the sky soon faded into night and the park's lamppost lights started to turn on.
Claire was moving away with her family within two days' time and this would be the last evening that she would be able to spend with Noel in the park. She would usually stay until 9:00 p.m. but she was staying way past her usual curfew time. Claire wanted to tell him that she was moving far away, but she didn't quite know how to get the words out. Right now, she was just biding her time. Trying to enjoy her very last moments with him.
When Noel questioned her about staying way past her normal curfew time she simply said that she felt like staying longer than she usually did. Noel summed it all up as her wish of being a little rebellious. She did mention to him before that she wanted to act rebellious at least once in her life.
Claire was slowly building up the courage to tell Noel what she had been meaning to tell him all evening. While she was doing that Noel was slowly inching his left hand towards her right hand that was sitting on the bench's seat. Today he had made up his mind he was going to confess his feelings towards Claire. Over the course of their meetings together he had come to love Claire as more than just a friend. He wasn't afraid of rejection he's faced rejection during various different intervals within his life.
He wanted Claire to know the truth and how he truly felt about her he couldn't lie to himself anymore. His initial feelings of friendship had blossomed into love this was all-new territory for him as he had never felt this way about a girl before. He was trying to proceed into this new foreign world of love with caution.
His hand had reached its destination and was now resting on top of Claire's. He was waiting to see if she would say anything or quickly remove her hand from his. You can imagine his shock when she didn't. He wondered if maybe just maybe she felt the same way about him.
When Claire felt Noel's hand come into contact with hers it initially caught her off guard. She turned her head so that she was facing him. Was this his way of encouraging her to say what she needed to?
A small smile formed upon her lips. She was going to go for it. Claire figured she'd already wasted enough time skirting around the issue. "I-" Both of them said in unison. The pair of teens started laughing. "What were you going to say? You can go first." Noel offered her.
Claire took him up on his offer. She couldn't help but to be curious about what he was going to say. She cleared her throat before starting. "Noel I'm..." Noel's lovingly gaze was fixated upon her very own and it made it all the more difficult for her to say what she needed to.
Claire admitted to herself that through the time she had spent together with Noel she had grown too fond of him and didn't want to sour the current look on his face. "I'm eighteen. You've wanted to know my age and I said I would tell you it later." Dammit! She just couldn't go through with it. Claire was disappointed in herself.
Meanwhile, Noel was baffled by her sudden confession why did she bring up her age all of a sudden. It's true that he did want to know it, but why did she mention it now of all times; especially just when he's about to confess?
"Hmm, so you're three years older than me."
"Surprised?" She asked.
"Not really, in a way I kind of expected it."
The clock tower within the park started chiming signaling that it was midnight. Claire abruptly arose from the bench. "I'm sorry Noel but I need to get home before I get scolded even more than I already am." She started to run off in the direction which she had come from earlier.
Noel also stood up running after her. "Claire, wait!" He called out. She was too fast for him and already out of earshot. When he realized that he wasn't going to catch up to her he stopped running. All he could do is helplessly watch her reseeding form under the cloak of night. "Claire, I love you." He whispered softly.
Noel made his way back to the bench which he and Claire had frequently occupied. He was about to start heading home himself when out of the corner of his eye he spotted an intricately designed key sitting on the bench where Claire had sat minutes before she left. He figured that the key must've belonged to her, and had fell out of her pants pocket when she left in such a haste. He proceeded to pick up the key; examining its design.
The key was beautifully designed it had a chain which artistically ran down the main length of the key, the bottom end of the key was square in design with a cross-like inner cutting, the top of the key had an intricate design with two flower leaves adorning it along with a small red rose on a relatively small cogwheel, and a small mini-clocklike structure located slightly just beneath the cogwheel with the small red rose. When Noel flipped the key over on the side he saw two small initials inscribed onto the top of the back of the main length of the key which read "C.F."
"These must be Claire's initials." Noel thought while looking at the key fondly. "I guess I'll hold onto this key for her until we meet again next Sunday."
A/N: Thanks so much for reading! Reviews are greatly appreciated.
