A/N: I found this hidden in my flash drive and I remembered that I wanted to do 30kisses for Nodame and Chiaki. I had this written months ago, but wanted to wait until I had more stories to start posting the collection . . . but look how well that went. But I'm starting this, and hoping that posting this will drive me to finish the rest. Fingers crossed!
Title: Dispelling of Fears
Pairing: Nodame/Chiaki
Theme: #29 -- The Sound of Waves
Rating: K+
Summary: Chiaki and Nodame in France and near the water. And you know how that goes.
Disclaimer: Nodame Cantabile and its characters do not belong to me.
Dispelling of Fears
The sound of waves quakes up an innate fear inside of Chiaki, and he vowed to never be near enough to hear them again after each time Nodame dragged him someplace where the ocean nearly drowned the area.
This time was no different.
Chiaki clutched onto the sparse tufts of grass and tried to not look out at the expanse of water. He didn't know how he let Nodame weasel him into taking her this close to the water; the Opera House should have been enough. Even though he was as high up as he can be on this grassy cliff, the water was still below. And ominous. One glimpse of a parasail slowly drifting across blue had his stomach churning and he asked himself why he was doing this.
As he was forcing his lunch (all expenses paid for by him, of course) to stay in his stomach, he heard rustling behind him and was glad to have a reason to look away from the sea. He turned and saw Nodame coming towards him, her hair wildly combated against the wind, and the coin pouch in her hand jiggling in tune with her humming.
"Ah senpai you're here!"
He could have left. He could have made up some excuse to go back to the hotel, away and safe from the water. But he was here.
Nodame dropped down beside him and smiled brightly at the ocean below them. She turned back towards him with a pout having noticed his countenance. "You don't have to be so scared of the ocean, Chiaki-senpai."
He frowned and grumbled, "It's not a matter of want, Nodame. I can't get over it."
He was ready to hear Nodame's reply, his own mind working a retort around the fear, but he wasn't ready to have her lean over him so that she was nearly tucking herself into his body. It must be the wind, he thought. She can't speak over the wind. Surely it wasn't the wind that had his pulse quicken, but maybe it was the wind that pushed Nodame slightly forward so that she was lightly kissing his temple.
"Senpai," Nodame said. Chiaki wasn't sure if she was whispering or speaking softly. He couldn't really comprehend past the hollow of her throat working to form her words.
"Close your eyes," she was saying, and instead Chiaki stared at her in confusion.
"Wha . . . ?"
Then suddenly a something was covering his eyes and through the darkness Chiaki could only feel the warmth of Nodame's hand and the faint scent of caramelized strawberries alluding to the crepes she messily ate for dessert.
The weight of Nodame's hand was lifted from his eyes but he kept them closed. He felt the sunlight straining against his eyelids and ignored the temptation to open them. It was easier to ignore the sight of the ocean this way. The weight of her body was also lifted before he felt the front of her body press against his arm. Then Nodame was speaking again into his ear.
"Senpai, you have to listen to the waves. See?" She paused to let the rumbling of a wave drift past the wind's rustle into his ear. "You hear the crash of water against the shore? That's the sound of the wave's greeting. It's come to take your uncertainties away. You have to let everything go with the wave and let it fall back into the ocean where the bad things are now forgotten."
Nodame's simplistic and naïve approach to explaining the wave's meaning was silly, but Chiaki didn't have the heart to refute her. When he felt her take his hand he let go of the grass and wrapped his cold fingers around hers.
"Just listen," she said, and he did. He was good at listening. If he could listen to music—no, if he could listen to Nodame's piano, then he could certainly listen to the sound of waves.
The waves lulled him to what he later realized was a meditative state; his heartbeat slowed and his breathing measured to match Nodame's so that he couldn't tell where his body melded into hers. He was at peace for the second time since arriving in Marseilles, the first occurring as they listened to the opera. It would then mean that the sound of the Opera was synonymous to the sound of waves in respect to their affect on Chiaki's mood, and he felt himself loosen from the tangle of fear. Nodame had been the one to ease his fear of flying, so it was only natural that she would be the one to ease his fear of the sea.
They picked themselves up after the sun moved behind their backs, and on the walk back to the hotel Nodame's hair flitted under Chiaki's nose and for the rest of the trip he wasn't able to separate the smell of the sea from Nodame.
He wasn't completely over his fears; the thought of flying and sea still sent tremors deep in his stomach, but as long as Nodame was with him, he'd be all right.
