Disclaimer:
I don't own Nodame Cantabile. If I did, I wouldn't need to write a fanfic. All rights go to Ninomiya-sensei. I only own the plot.
Warnings:
AU – It doesn't happen YET, manga-verse. It's just my imaginations running wild. There are some references (SPOILERS!) to Opera-hen, and a few chapters towards the end of Nodame Cantabile (the ones before Opera-hen). Uhm, I think Nodame might be a bit OOC, but then this is a Nodame I imagined would have grown into… whimsical, yet somewhat grown. =)
A/N:
To get a feel of the story, the pieces mentioned in this fic come greatly recommended for listening purposes.
For Beethoven's composition, I actually referred to the version published ca. 1930, edited by Leipzig: Ernst Eulenburg that has the composer's cadenzas included.
As for Brahms' Overture, if you want to know more about the piece, the Program notes from the Los Angeles Philharmonic should help a lot. Just go to laphil [dot] com [slash] philpedia [slash] piece-detail [dot] cfm?id=334
To help picture the significance of Mozart's famous Symphony no.41 (Jupiter), visiting nwsinfonietta [dot] com [slash] notes8Nov02 [dot] htm should do the trick.
Title: Bound to You, Bound by Music
Verse: Prequel to Their Promise
Author: C. I.
"Please come to tonight's performance. I want to show you something, and I would like it if you would listen to what I'm trying to tell you tonight."
"I always have…" and leaning over to whisper in his ears, she assured him in a low voice, "and I always will."
As she straightened her back and turned to the kitchen, she tilted her head to give him a smile. "Tonight's no different."
"But tonight will be different. You're coming with me. You aren't going to be late and there will be no dysfunctional clock that's causing you to run late. Not tonight."
And with him, come she did…
A beautiful piano sat on the center of the stage. Fingers gently stroke the chords, issuing the delicate tunes of the concerto and introduced to the world the most mesmerizing masterpiece. Her heart seemed to echo with each beat, and the serenity of finding love after some patient waiting finally surfaced with the final chords.
She watched him with those expressive eyes. Once, she had thought she would never come back to another one of his performances. But as always, her heart brought her back to him. His music... she was always trying to catch up to him. Yet after he had told her how he was the one catching up to her now, she found that she was no longer bothered by it. The chase between them in order to catch up with each other was the very thing that had brought them together.
She remembered the times she saw him conduct at the Theatre Blanc. The way he guided his orchestra, even that one time when he conducted as he played the piano himself... it brought her back to the time she first heard him play Rachmaninoff; that defining moment when he had kindled the determination in her to play with an orchestra as heartfelt as he did that night. The precise, yet soulful stroking of keys lightly pounding on the strings mesmerized her.
She promised herself that she would do her best. Though she had lost and found the enthusiasm for piano since then, she couldn't help but remember the moment she almost completely gave up on him. Yet somehow along the way, she found that she had lost that zest; the fervor that initially made her determined to play the Rachmaninoff, one that never existed until Chiaki.
That tugging feeling she now knew as love on this very night brought her back to that one night when he came for her, and she rejected him. Although she seemed dispirited, pretending not to care about the way her heart thrummed at the presence of her one love, the truth was that she cared. But she was so tired of waiting, tired of chasing, and tired of being left behind.
Yet he came back for her, persuaded her to play with him, and at that point, she knew why she loved him. His persistence, determination and passion, along with the newfound fervor in taking action at the realization of being in love with her made her embrace those feelings again.
She remembered how she used to be naïve, always telling him of her dreams to be his wife. She did it without weighing the consequences, without understanding the person he was before that time and the person he had become at that moment in time. But then, she remembered also the way music had brought them together and the way he still stuck by her despite her silliness. She still remembered the exact words Chiaki had said when they walked together after their performance in Mine's production of Die Zauberflöte.
The way he had said, "You're amazing Miss Nodame. Truly," [1] had surprised her a little, but made her happy at his sudden admission. It prompted her to reply with "Sempai too… You did rather well!" [2] Indeed, he finally managed to conduct his first opera, and it was successful.
She remembered also saying that she felt that it was a dream come true: their first performance together. It had warmed her heart when he replied, "Don't be silly. Our first performance together will be with you playing a piano concerto, won't it?"
The thought of performing a concerto together left a kind of giddy feeling in her heart. She wanted to feel his music alongside hers. She wanted to be with him as he freely expressed himself through his music.
Although she had entertained the idea of being in love with Chiaki, remembering the time during which she said, "fall in love, desu ka?" she couldn't help but feel content at the thought that the familiar feeling she had harbored towards her sempai was being returned. She had said the very same thing after they played Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos in D major. It was on another occasion when Chiaki had dragged her to make her realize she could still enjoy making beautiful music.
So when she came tonight to listen to his orchestra's performance in which he had promised her that he would play the piano for her on this night, she was mesmerized from the time the first piece was performed. Critiques had been giving favorable feedback about him, even from the time he played the Rachmaninoff with Stresemann. But she always thought that reading the critical reviews were nothing compared to the real thing, to hearing him perform before her eyes.
She never thought that she would hear him bare his heart for all to hear, singing his love and patient waiting in the way he played the piano on this very night. That was what brought her here on this fateful night. To hear his heartfelt confession with her ears, listen to it with her own heart, and see the spectacle he had promised her with her very own eyes.
The opening was Brahms' Festival Overture Op.80, filled with excitement and a touch of humor. The cheekiness of the deliberate off-the-beat violas and cellos captured their relationship well. Elements of seriousness blended well with the light-hearted ones. It made the composition all the more befitting of capturing the beginning of their relationship until the present time. This was followed by Mozart's Symphony no.41 "Jupiter" that expressed the memories he had with her that were sometimes unexpected and brought back memories of the time when he realized he loved her. Then, the main course was served after the intermission. It was Beethoven's Piano Concerto No.2 in B flat.
Just as he did the one time when he performed on the piano with the Roux-Marlet Orchestra, he played the piano by himself. And just as the composition had been said to be playful, his performance was playful too. It was as if he was playing with her, teasing her with each note. Yet, within the playfulness he exhibited in his rendition of Beethoven's composition bled his feelings that were checked, but deeply entrenched in its expression of a captivating love for another.
It was love that sometimes seemed irrational, a whirlwind, nonsensical, but at the same time, it was also love that was unconditional. He never thought he would play with such strong emotion but after a long chase, some brief period of uncertainty, and finally realizing his love for her had changed some parts of him little by little.
Her heart tugged with the first beat, bled with each crescendo, and healed with each diminuendo. Then her soul remembered each memory they'd shared and soared with the blissfully artistic cadenza that was beautifully played. When the piece ended beautifully, her heart almost stopped when she felt a trail of wetness on her cheeks. She brought up a hand to wipe away her tears.
She felt his love for her in his masterful performance, the subtle references to her in the playfulness of the night's program, and basked in his warm memory of her in the thoughtful touch of each key that reminded her of his mostly hidden warmth. Then she realized that within tonight's program, from the first to the final performance, laid a hidden message from the conductor himself. As she savored the closing bars of the final piece, she fiddled with the promise ring on her finger and whispered a 'yes' to the unspoken proposal -one that is more solid than the promise he made on that night long ago, that Chiaki had just offered her in his music.
And so, Chiaki's Papageno finally found a happy ending to mark the start of a new beginning.
The following are loosely translated from the original Japanese manga. Sorry though if the nuances don't quite match up. I'm still learning the language. Many thanks to an LJ user whose summaries made it possible to understand the original manga, and to my friend/Japanese tutor, Jian. Thanks also to my soul sisters, analissemarie99 and ya-dia for reading this 1st hand.
[1] Nodame-san wa sugoi na. Hontou ni. = You're amazing Miss Nodame. Truly.
[2] Sempai mo… nakanaka yarimashita ne = Sempai too... You did rather well! OR You managed to do it! (According to a friend who asked her Japanese tutor, this is rarely used when referring to one's sempai –or older people for that matter. It's like saying you did well, but with a tone of looking down on that person.) – I tried to translate as "You did rather well" but it didn't really capture the tone as much as how the summarizer did it. If I did, I would have to explain further… I cross-referenced my friend's translation and the summary I've read. Remarkably, they're almost similar! (-and she's never read the summary before) According to her, it may be translated as "You didn't do too badly" or something like what the summarizer did.
Papageno is a character in Die Zauberflote who landed himself in trouble for telling lies. He was also unable to keep quiet in the 2nd challenge requiring his and Pamino's silence. The references towards Papageno made in Opera-hen could lead one to think that Ninomiya-sensei is referring to how much Nodame and Papageno is alike.
Final note: If you try putting "Noda Megumi, please marry me" in the first few beats of the 3rd movement of Beethoven's Concerto, you'd understand why I found it entertaining to write that part.