His eyes scanned the room full of people that came to watch him perform.
It seemed natural; great talent attracted great crowds.
Roderich started to play the piano before him only to be distracted a little after he began by a woman that rushed in.
She wore a blue gown with a blue flower pinned on right overtop her breast.
The woman stood out not by what she wore but rather by how she acted coupled with how tardy she was to the performance and her oblivious seeming smile.
She apologized and sat down with eager anticipation despite the fact that Roderich had messed up a few notes upon her arrival.
Roderich quickly focused the rest of his skilled mind on his piano and the continuous notes of the song.
He was very surprised by the fact that she'd stayed over after everyone else had left.
She walked over towards the stage once she saw that he had finished talking to others that had stayed behind for a small bit.
"I'm sorry for arriving late, and you did a good job from what I heard except for the fact that you'd missed the first few notes that I heard when I came in." She smiled wryly at him.
"Why weren't you held back by being late?" Roderich was further annoyed by her presence before him.
"That's my secret." She smirked.
He rolled his eyes at her.
"Ciao! I have to get back." She smiled at him as he finally determined that she was Italian due to the accent that she had when she spoke.
He watched her leave and had determined that that would be the last of it.
Roderich found that he thought of her often: the strange, nameless, Italian girl that had the nerve to show up at his performance late.
He never did think that he'd see her again, so it really surprised him when she shown up at one of his violin recitals, and again, she was late.
She stayed throughout it all and headed over to talk to him at the end of it yet again once she was sure that the others had left.
"I would have never thought that someone like you would care for the finer arts." Roderich spoke first this time and noticed that she wore a pale pink gown.
"You did much better this time." She grinned up at him and did not respond to his insult in anyway as if she hadn't heard it.
"Of course, I did. I'm a renowned pianist and violinist." The Austrian responded almost snobbily.
"I know that, Roderich." The Italian woman laughed and was noticeably informal when she spoke to him.
"I don't know your name, and you can't call me by my first name." Roderich answered her.
"Felicia, Mr. Edelstein." It sounded sort of wrong for her to refer to him so formally.
"Do you have a last name, Felicia?" Roderich asked her almost coldly.
"Not one that you need to know, Mr. Edelstein." Felicia refused to let him know that she felt a shiver go down her spine when she heard him say her first name.
He glared at her which only seemed to make her giggle and say a fast "ciao" to him.
The next time that he saw her, she was wearing green and had been on time to his piano recital which surprised him immensely.
Felicia watched him attentitively, and Roderich wondered for probably the first time in genuine curiosity what she was thinking as she watched and listened to him.
He yet again wondered what brought her here as she stood out though today it wasn't as obvious to the masses that she didn't belong.
As was her routine, she headed towards him to speak a few words with him once everyone else was gone.
"Do I get to learn your last name today, Miss Felicia?" Roderich asked in a surprisingly teasing tone of voice to greet a mere acquintance in when he never seemed to tease those that he was close to.
"No," Felicia grinned up at him, allowing him as he came to stand beside her to realize how short she was exactly in comparison to him as she was a petite, Italian woman.
"Why not?" Roderich asked her as he met her eyes for once that seemed so warm and hazely brown.
"May be I want you to change it, Mr. Edelstein." She teased him.
Roderich surprised himself by not asking for the real reason.
"Are you going to arrive at my next concert on time?" Roderich asked her.
"We'll have to see." She teased him with a wink.
Roderich found himself fighting off a blush which surprised him as he could never remember feeling this way within his whole lifetime.
"I still don't even know why they keep letting you in." Roderich stated.
"Do you not like me anymore?" Felicia had a sparkle in her eyes as she teased him.
"You know that that's not the case." Roderich answered her.
"Oh, it isn't?" She teased with a smile.
"It isn't." Roderich stated while seeming almost emotionless in his response.
Felicia grinned as she caught the charmed sparkle in his eyes.
"It wouldn't do for you to fall for someone like me." She sighed.
It would be a lie to state that Felicia wasn't attracted to Roderich at all; she admired his talent, his voice, his arrogance, and so much more about him including his professionalism and just everything including the way that he could tease her.
"Why would that be a problem?" Roderich was startled by that comment to say the least.
"It just would be." With that, Felicia turned on her heel and left.
Roderich began to be plagued with near constant thoughts of her and why she felt that way.
It hadn't mattered to him how informal she was or the fact that falling for her would strike others has below him.
Was that what she was concerned with?
He sighed as his thoughts once again focused on her as he realized that she hadn't shown up at any of his concerts in a while.
He missed their banter and rather short but meaningful conversations whether they appeared meaningful to others or not.
Felicia had managed to find her way in to his heart after such a short time, and she managed to stay there with out obstacle.
He missed her.
Felicia sighed as she stared at the list of names before her, "They betrayed us?"
It wasn't uncommon yet it also wasn't a common occurence.
"Si while you ran off and had fun with a famous musician." Lovino seemed frustrated with his little sister though Felicia noticed how much it brought out his Italian accent and hinted at his native tongue.
"I didn't do anything with him as I'm not an idiot." Felicia grumbled, knowing that a few, short conversations couldn't count against her.
"Will they see that?" Lovino asked his sorella for the first time that she recalled sounding defeated with their line of 'work.'
"They should. I barely even talked with him, and we never even kissed." Her heart raced in nervous fear.
Her brother held her as she realized that their family business had taken someone from him whether they were a friend, a lover, or an acquitance.
Lovino sighed, "They still might have seen you."
"I tried to watch out for stalkers or suspicious persons, but the guard knew who I was and probably would only be able to talk with police." Felicia answered her brother.
"They could pretend to be the fucking police!" Lovino was frustrated, and Felicia knew that no matter what, they were stuck to this life as if superglued there.
They held a certain job that would be given to someone else if they died even if neither of them had children.
"I'm sorry." Lovino muttered which wasn't in regards to him cursing in front of his sister but rather at the this life that they were born in to.
"It's not your fault." Felicia muttered strongly.
Lovino sighed and that was it with the conversation.
Felicia surprised herself by taking the risk to show up at one of Roderich Edelstein's concerts again though this was a private one at his house for an increasingly wealthy family.
She entered as an uninvited guest.
Roderich looked up, "Felicia?"
"Ciao." Her voice was faint.
"Is that your wife?" The woman that sat nearby asked Roderich with affection and adoration lining up across her face at the mere thought of it.
Roderich blushed.
Fear resonated on the woman's teenage daughter's face and recognition lit up Felicia's face, causing it to become heavy with sadness.
"Not quite." Roderich answered softly.
"Not yet then?" She asked with gentle pressure, causing Roderich's face to redden further.
"They never should marry." The fear on the teenage girl's face was replaced with bitterness.
"Don't be rude." Hissed the girl's mother.
Felicia sighed and took a seat by Roderich as she was tired of how people acted around her when they knew who she was.
"What's wrong, Felicia?" Roderich asked her, and Felicia tried to ignore the intimacy caused by the use of her name.
The dark haired mother gasped, "Felicia?"
She could easily see those wretched newspaper articles, 'Felicia Vargas killed a man for trying to to leave the Vargas Family Mafia right in front of his young daughter.'
She felt the sting of a slap and some yelled cursing and noticed the woman drag her daughter and new husband away.
"Why did she hit you?" Roderich had to know.
"Because I deserved it." Felicia did not want to explain why she deserved it.
"You have never deserved that treatment." Roderich stated.
"How could you be so sure of that?" Felicia's face was dark with a held in glumness.
"You don't strike me as the sort of person to cause that sort of reaction in people." Roderich seemed very sure of that fact or opinion.
"I killed the girl's father in front of her, and her mother had to have read the papers about that." Felicia gave up hiding that fact from him.
"You?" Roderich spluttered out.
"Yeah, me." Felicia sighed out.
"Self defense?" Roderich grabbed at that excuse.
"Calling it that would be a crime." Felicia answered dryly.
"Why did you kill him?" Roderich's question was point blank.
"I had to." She smiled grimly.
"You had too?" Roderich was startled by that one phrase in regard to the neccessity of it.
"Yes, my family does not take well to being betrayed." Felicia was deathly honest though her family had extended to the mafia in that one phrase.
"Are you forced to do all of the mafia's dirty work?" Roderich answered her for the first time bitterly though it was clear in his voice how much he wanted to 'save' her from the mafia or protect her in some way.
"No." He was permitted to interpret that one word whichever way he pleased to.
Roderich stared at her almost helplessly which was a look that Felicia doubted he'd ever wore before.
"Is there anyway for you to escape the mafia's grasp?" Roderich asked her.
"Not without dying." She dared to kiss him, knowing that the teenager and her mother would report Roderich as knowing her so that there was nothing to hide anymore between the two of them.
"Why don't you seem capable of murder?" Roderich couldn't imagine Felicia as a murderer with all that he'd seen of her.
"It's pretty much required." She sighed and helped him to stand up and leave with her.
"Where are we going?" Roderich seemed startled by all of this.
"Somewhere where you can't be found as they will report you as well." Felicia hated involving her longterm crush in her life, but she was now out of options.
That place would be the Italian's home, a place that authorities had never found; Roderich would have to live with the Mafiosos for the rest of his life, stalling his concerts and forcing him in to isolation.
It was the type of thing that insured immense boredom and almost made Roderich want to kill with the people that he lived with yet he knew better than to do so when they would come home nearly depressed in appearance as they clearly hated what they had to do.
Love was a funny thing as it left him with a gaping hole instead of a heart full of his preferred life and passion from it while also leaving a pleasant tingle of taste in his mouth often as he had never stopped being mystified and adoring her all the more for it.
It was a tragically beautiful life that left scars where joy should have been yet it was passionate in his love of her which the darkness could never destroy.