Sing once again with me,
Our strange duet...
-Phantom of the Opera
Music of the heart
By: dOedOebird
disclaimed
I've never wondered what it would be like to be able to see again. Cause sometimes I think that sight is both a gift and a curse. I don't ever want to remember the way my family died before my very eyes.
I don't ever want to see random scenes of carnage, decay, death, or carrion crows violently ripping pulling tugging at flesh and gut of people I know and love.
My therapist calls this a kind of self induced blindness. Sealing my ability to see along with the memories of things I do not want to remember. Perhaps it is. I just wish that he wouldn't keep trying to force me out into the light. I wish that he would just join me in the darkness, and let us sit, quietly, side by side.
My name is Kinomoto Sakura. And I am blind.
The sound of brass against ceramic, ceramic against brass, endlessly hitting separating, coming together again, filled the air around me as I erratically stirred the contents of my cup, trying to break the sound of silence lingering in the air around me. The courtship of the spoon and the cup was hollow; rhythm-less. Just like myself. Empty, and confused over life.
"How long more is that girl going to take....." I muttered to myself. The annoyance was growing within me. I just don't feel comfortable being alone in an unfamiliar place.
A tinkle of bells was followed by the loud clanging of the door. I raised my head and cocked it to one side. Sure enough, the familiar scent of vanilla hit my nostrils, as a near breathless woman sat down next to me. "Sorry... was... shopping." She spluttered out between loud heaves.
I sighed. Only God could understand Tomoyo's obsession with shopping.
Another person pulled out the chair across me and sat down.
"Sakura, meet Eriol. Eriol, meet Sakura." Tomoyo said when she finally caught her breath.
Then she leaned closer to me and whispered "Guess what. He's got the face of an angel and the body of an Adonis."
Yep. Meet Tomoyo. My cousin, my best friend, and the self-appointed matchmaker and image consultant of Kinomoto Sakura all rolled into one. Personally, I couldn't care less if Eriol had the face and body of Charlie Chaplin...... At least I thought I didn't, until I heard his voice.
"Hi Sakura. You can call me Eriol."
Deep, mysterious, yet friendly, and with a slight foreign kind of diction... did I mention that I just died and went to heaven? I could feel my cheeks heating up already.
"Hoee... Tomoyo-chan...didn't you ask me out to talk about renting a house somewhere?" I blurted out suddenly remembering.
I could hear Eriol chuckling softly, and if possible, my cheeks were getting hotter by the moment. "I happen to be renting out my apartment. If you don't mind we could go over and get a feel of the apartment now."
Nope. He didn't use 'see' or 'look' or 'view'. How sweet could a guy get! I think I'm going to melt soon.
"Yep! Lets go!" Tomoyo grabbed my hand and yanked me up. As we linked arms and walked out of the café, she whispered in my ear again "Hohohohoho. You're as red as a lobster."
Hoeeee I am?!
"Sakura-chan is in love! Fufufufufuu"
"Pardon me? Were you saying something?" Oh no. I thought. He couldn't have heard.... Could he? I grimaced. Tomoyo had better keep her mouth sealed....
"Oh it's nothing. Girl stuff you know?" She sounded awfully innocent, and Eriol merely went "Oh". No added questions.
I let out a breath that I didn't even realize that I was holding.
"Eh Eriol-san...."
"Nani?"
"I play the piano... So would it be disruptive for the other people staying there?"
"Not if your piano playing is half as sweet as you are, Sakura."
Fine. So I imagined that. A girl should be allowed to let her imagination run wild at times shouldn't she?
"I play the violin myself. Quite horribly might I add. So I don't think that should be a problem. At least nobody ever complained about me." I could hear the smile behind those words, and felt a lot more relieved.
"I'm sure that you're just being humble." I smiled "I'd love to hear you play some day."
"Oh? I'm more afraid that you'll ask me to stop playing once I start." He paused. "Anyway, this is the building. There are five floors. The first is the lobby and fifth would be the rooftop. There are two apartments on each floor in between... I stay on the fourth floor, and the apartment you'd be looking at is on the third..."
I gasped. "Hoe....you stay in this building too?"
Oh no. I definitely squeaked.
"Yep. So should there be any problems I'll be readily available."
He bowed, and pretended to sweep a top hat off his head. "Eriol Hiragizawa at your service m'ladies"
Ding.
"Ah. The lift is here!" Tomoyo happily dragged me into the lift and guided my hand to the buttons at the side. "Nya the button for the third floor is here." I pressed the button, trying to remember the position of my hand for future reference.
She then lifted my hand slightly, and said cheekily "And the button for the fourth floor is here."
Hopefully Eriol didn't read too much into what Tomoyo just said......
Ding. "Storey Three. Going Up." The mechanical voice of the lift echoed.
"Turn left"
On cue, I started humming the theme song of the movie 'Turn left, Turn right'. Until I heard a gasp from Tomoyo.
"Oh my god. I love the place!" She squealed.
"Hoeee? Tomoyo-chan! Calm down...."
"Tomoyo-chan..." I sweatdropped as I tried to weasel my arm from her hands.
"Sakura-chan Lets rent this place!" She was starting to pump my arm up and down now.
"Okay..."
"Yatta!" She gave me a huge bear hug.
"Hoee. Tomoyo-chan... You... can... let go... now...."
"Er Tomoyo, I think she's turning blue."
Thank goodness for Eriol.
We spent the rest of the day moving our belongings over to the apartment.
Correction. We spent the rest of the day moving luggages and luggages of clothes that Tomoyo bought or made for me over to the apartment.
When we finally got almost everything done, I was so tired I didn't even feel like bathing before I slept. But my head started hurting when I thought of how we were going to get my beloved grand piano up to the apartment... somehow I didn't think that the lift was big enough to accommodate her.
Slowly, I drifted off to sleep as fatigue plagued my body. Then the faint strains of someone playing the violin cut through the crisp night air.
I sat up with a jolt. Was that... Eriol? Didn't he say that he played the violin?
That playing... The music...
All my life, I believed that the music a person played was the window to his soul. This afternoon I had thought that Eriol was charming, suave, mysterious, yet at the same time, carefree. Anything but pained, sorrowful, angry, struggling to burst free. How could I have been so wrong?
Eriol Hiragizawa... He was one intriguing person indeed.
This is a story of love between two musicians,
fumbling in the darkness,
and the magic of music,
which will guide their way to each other.
In the darkness I have created,
you shall be my light.
A/N: I'm tempted to write this entire story in Sakura's point of view. Which means that there's going to be very very little visual detail : sorry if the story doesn't make sense. And SS or ET fans please don't kill me for the first chapter. You could throw rotten tomatoes at me because the writing sucked though.... Weak attempt at A/U fic writing. Plot is 100 original though.