Air Violin

A gentle breeze rustled the pages of Kahoko's sheet music and then settled. There was calm in the air as the last of the students made their way home. She wasn't feeling calm, though. She was frustrated with her lack of progress since she began practicing almost an hour ago. After yet another ragged sigh, she lowered her violin and shuffled her feet, wondering if there was another way of tackling this piece. She just wasn't feeling it.

She put her violin in its case and began pacing. How could she approach this composition from a different angle? As she gazed across the courtyard, she could hear the music playing in her head. It was so real to her, as if she were actually playing it on the violin. It was the first movement of Brahms' first violin sonata, a beautiful piece that to her felt like pure emotion, full of sweeping musical strokes that begged to be painted or danced to. Standing there, she let the music grow in her mind's ear and then raised her arms into playing position, as if to hold a violin and bow.

Starting over from the beginning, she listened carefully to understand what each phrase wanted, and she was surprised at how readily the music spoke through her. With no violin or bow to hold, her movements were more creative and eloquent than normal. By exaggerating what she was feeling, she arrived at decisions about how to shape each melody. It was such an effortless and potent exercise for her that she was quite enraptured. With quieter melodies she respected their subtleties by hardly moving her body at all. With louder sections, she felt the crescendo pulling powerful long breaths out of her, and her heartbeat quickened. She yearned to move more, to rise off the ground, anything to better serve the symphony in her head.

She couldn't believe how transcendent this experience was. It was as if the beauty of the universe was flowing through her, exerting its will for her personal enjoyment. This musical dance was helping her interpret the piece with a freedom and authority that she had never felt before. She was completely transported by the music surging through her.

A young man opened the door, unheard. Seeing the red-haired girl dancing before him, he instinctively stopped the door from making a sound as it closed. He was utterly transfixed by the scene in front of him. His petite violin student had become a force of nature. She was carving through the air with an imaginary bow, riding waves of emotion. She was larger than life. Why wasn't she actually playing her instrument? Where did she learn this technique? She seemed to be totally immersed in what she was doing. He crept closer, afraid to disturb her before having figured out her secrets.

A twig broke and crackled under his shoe. She heard him and spun around to look at him, her hair flashing in the late-afternoon sun.

"Tsukimori-Kun" she said with a smile but again closed her eyes, drugged as she was by the soundtrack in her head. She resumed her swaying for a moment before opening her eyes again. She held out a hand, beckoning for him to come closer. He walked to her side, entranced by her hypnotic movements. "Play Brahms with me" she said with a sweet smile.

She knew that she wasn't quite herself and that she would be crossing a line with him, but she didn't care. For once, she just wanted to feel…and to share, without concerning herself with what was proper. Who better to appreciate her experience with the Brahms, but him?

His emotional reserve gave way to curiosity as he stood next to her and allowed her to lean her back against his chest. He stifled a gasp as their bodies made contact. She placed her left wrist in his left hand so that they would be holding her imaginary violin together. Her touch made him panic a little, but it felt good too. With her right hand she reached down and cupped his right hand fingers over top of hers, of her bow hand. She moved her head to the side so that there was room for his chin over her shoulder.

He wondered why he was letting her do this, but he was powerless to stop. It was her intoxicating aura that made him yearn to partake in her passion. Would he finally find out how she was able to play so sweetly, why her sound exuded so much emotion? With his arms around her and her back against her chest, they looked like two violinists intertwined, ready to play one shared violin. She took a breath and began to play. With the first phrase she guided his bow hand to begin the stroke, and swayed her body with the music.

Right away he felt what she was playing because he had been coaching her on it for the past 3 weeks. He too could hear the music in his head, knew what the bowings and dynamics were. He rode in the slipstream of her movements as she played. Her breaths were so expressive that he was able to anticipate and flow with her interpretations. He got caught up in her experience. He was feeling things that he had never felt before. His heartbeat quickened and his breath soared. Within mere minutes she had blown his mind.

Most of his attention was on the powerful musical experience he was having, but his body kept telling him that he and Kahoko were making love. The physical contact, the motion, the powerful emotions…they all added up.

He was struggling to control his emotions and his body when the girl suddenly turned in his arms and looked up at him. Her eyes were full of passion, but her eyelids soon fell because the music was still playing her. It was a section of the piece where the violin was subordinate to the piano's melody. Kahoko's violin and bow hands were moving in time as before, but now they were softly grazing his chest. He was overcome with…urges. He wanted to taste her lips…crush her body against his…run his fingers through her hair, leave a trail of kisses down her neck… Instead he left his hands where they had settled on her waist and watched her in the thralls of her rapture.

As the music in her head came to an end, she laid her forehead and hands on his chest. She kept swaying gently back and forth because she didn't want it to end. It felt to him like an erotic dance. She softly hummed a few notes and looked up at him. Her amber eyes were like a magnet. The longer she looked at him, the more he knew that he would kiss her.

His beautiful eyes were boring into hers. When he bent closer, she couldn't believe it was actually happening. Then his lips were pressing into hers, kissing her passionately. So that's what these lips feel like, they both thought. Who knew it would be this good?

How could he have spent so much time with her these past few weeks, not knowing how she tasted, unaware that her skin felt like silk? How could he have ever walked past her in the hall without gathering her in his arms?

Hands were making up for lost time, the melding of two bodies, of two people who had long been afraid to acknowledge their love.

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Author's note: The inspiration for this story came partly from my own experience. I was practicing violin one day about 3 months ago and suddenly decided to try playing through the piece without my instrument. I couldn't believe how powerful the experience was. I'm not generally an emotional girl, and here were all these powerful feelings rushing through me. This technique really helps me to focus on how I will interpret a particular piece, and I've used it regularly since then.

Sometimes I feel a little sad that it's an experience that is so powerful for me, and yet I can't really share it. I mean, no one else can hear the music in my head or feel my emotions, right? That's where I thought Len would be perfect for her experience, since he already knew the music well.

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This story has sitting on my computer for ages because I wasn't satisfied with the ending. I finally decided to post it anyway.