Authors Note: There will be several timeskips in this fanfiction. One of them has occurred between the first and second chapters. It was April the 16th, 2014. Now, it is March 31st, 2016. Almost two years later.

Thank you to anyone that reads or enjoys this!

Chapter Two: The Rough Patches of the Past

It had all seemed so silly to Kousei. It had been two years since they'd confessed, and he could count the number of dates they had on two hands. She had always had a lot of fun, since those dates were often her only time off from work or away from schoolwork.

She was Kaori Miyazono, the apple of his eye. Kaori Miyazono, who Ms. Hiroko liked to see around the house. Kaori Miyazono, the daughter of the bakers that lived on the other side of town. Kaori, the weird violinist. But more than all of that, she was Kaori, his girlfriend. Well, sort of.

"A weird violinist, huh?" He thought to himself, "I suppose I should get going over there. She'll be so pissed if I miss our first date in months."

He had understood when her parents hadn't felt right about her coming over to his house alone. That's a natural thing for a new relationship. Of course, after they had been dating a while, their fears had been stifled. Kousei was an outstanding guy. But even if her parents loved Kousei, Kaori had been having issues. He himself didn't know what. She had made him come over to her house, right up until the move. He had never really minded. The bakery was a nice place to sit and enjoy her in all her beauty.

But on his bike on the ten-minute ride to her house, he was going to find out. As he rode by the convenience store where she now worked, he considered the events of the last year. They had both gotten summer jobs that stuck as part-time jobs year-round. He worked in a ramen shop, and Kaori in a convenience store. He worked weekends with long hours, and Kaori worked afterschool most days with four or five-hour shifts.

"What a dilemma that caused," he whispered to himself, one corner of his mouth upturning. She'd been so angry when she learned about his schedule that she asked him to quit. But the only reason he'd gotten the job was because Ms. Hiroko knew the owner and spoke fondly of "Arima-kun." Kaori had been so mad that even his offer of canelés was turned down, and the door had been slammed in his face.

Hopefully the new door wouldn't be slammed in his face as often. They went to the same music high school. They'd both been accepted readily after the waves they'd made in the musical community of Japan. They had both gotten transfers from their jobs at home. And living in the countryside had done wonders for her health. She had gone from shaky at walking and weak, to golden-haired and robust. She was, in a way, more vigorous than she had been before. She wasn't athletic by any means.

"Neither of us are athletic anyway. Not that it even matters," Kousei whispered into the wind forcing its way passed his face. He had gotten a bit healthier through his biking to and from work, but that was about the extent of his athleticism. But Kaori was a different story. She had kept her gym schedule on the weekend while he worked, even after she finished her physical therapy.

Their schedules were still the same, and Kousei could tell that even after years of living that schedule, Kaori still hated it. And even as he pulled up to her apartment, he didn't know what to expect from her. When she was happy, she was the most spectacularly joyous person he knew. But in a bad mood, sixteen-year-old Kaori Miyazono was a menace in a category all her own.

And then he heard it. Jalousie 'Tango Tzigane', by Jacob Gade. She was weaving a melody full of chords and force one moment, and then in another moment letting the pauses do the work for her, going entirely spiccato, the ricochet bowing filling the air with resonant plucks. He just stood and listened. He never interrupted her playing, because she never played when she knew he was around. As the song entered its temperamental D minor melody, he swayed. He felt the full weight of her music. It pressed darkly on him. She understood this music, and her interpretation of it was reaching him through her open window. She understood what it meant to be jealous in the best way, and what it meant to be jealous in the worst way, like how she'd been jealous of Tsubaki. And even as the song switched to D major and grew more magnificent, that crispy undertone of jealousy was still there. It then grew from something fueled by envy into something fueled and nurtured by love, swelling to a crescendo before going into a furious solo cadenza of her own design. It started tremulously, the tremolo growing in force and wideness, before heading into a major run, which transitioned into minor and descending, into Locrian for chordal triplets ascending, and ended in a Lydian run down. Then she went up a run in eighths, the chords striking him. The spaces between the notes decreased as the run went up, before finally stopping on one top note. A powerful dominant chord ended the cadenza. Her playing turned rubato, and two notes, a chromatic half-step apart, were played, before going back into the major second theme. It grew more lilting, and the volume increased. She ended the song on a non-traditional chord for the piece; an F-major triad chord of F-A-C, which was also the III chord of D minor, the key the song's first section was in. She always did something different than what was traditional. Generally, you'd end on a chord that belonged to the section's key. But not for Kaori. She liked to do things differently when it came to her music. If Kaori was anything when it came to music, it wasn't traditional.

He finally got off his bike, putting the helmet he'd been holding for the past minutes down, and sat it on the seat of his bike, and locked his bike around a "No parking on Thursday" sign, making sure that his bike lock was secure by jiggling it after it clicked shut. He didn't know what sort of mood went into a performance like that, but he hoped in earnest that she would come out of it feeling refreshed.

"I wonder what sort of mood she'll be in today," he said to no one in particular. It was a plain apartment complex, basically a house split in two for two different people to live in. And as he walked around the side from where he parked his bike, he looked at the quiet meadow behind the complex. It wasn't large, but it was spacious enough for the complexes' veranda, which was painted white and had fallen into disuse with Kaori as its owner. Meant to be a social place, Kaori didn't have too many friends to have over. So it wasn't used, even though it was a beautiful place for a picnic, in his opinion. He'd once tried to do just that on one of their dates, but she had wanted to watch a movie inside. The complex was painted in a beige color, and had two driveways, one on either side of the building. He quietly appreciated her magnolias out front; she'd always been so proud of those damn flowers. The garden out front was small, and right in front of the porch. There was a side door, but she hated when he used it.

He was at her door when he noticed a flyer stuck in the door, which he held in his left hand while he knocked with his right. He quickly heard footsteps from inside. They slowly got louder until finally he heard the deadbolt go back, the door open inwards, to show the sweaty Kaori Miyazono. She was wearing a spaghetti-strap top, red-striped, with cute pajama shorts on bottom. Her golden-blonde hair was down, and the sweat dripped down her annoyed face. A drop dripped off a stray curl, and her face contorted into a different sort of expression.

She raised an eyebrow sarcastically. "I thought you worked today and couldn't make it," she said, almost too haughtily for her voice. There was a lot of accusation in that voice that he'd have to explain for. He thought to himself, "perhaps she'll be in a better mood now that I'm here."

"Yeah. I did. I skipped work today."

She was flabbergasted. He'd not skipped work since before the move. He always considered his job too important these days. His job as a manager for the ramen shop meant that if he was skiving off, the store would remain closed until the second manager of the day showed up. And he would be pissed.

"But don't you need to run the store today?" She asked, not able to believe what he'd said in the slightest.

"Nope," he said, moving in to embrace her sweatiness. He whispered in her ear, "How about we move inside and act like we know each other?" He said this as he tucked the flyer into her pocket, to be forgotten about until later. They pulled apart, and Kaori was now smiling coyly.

"I mean, I don't mind. But you might. The AC isn't working again, so you'll have to deal with that. You don't mind so long as you get to see me, right?" She said, moving back. He took off his shoes in the public space and walked in softly after her. He met her in the kitchen, where she got them both popsicles.

They sat down next to each other at her cute little island, each perched on a bar-stool. The countertop was a speckled gray granite. As he ate his popsicle, he looked around. He saw her dishes needed done (Lazy Kaori), but not too badly. He saw that her entire kitchen had been cleaned recently, and he smiled to himself. She only cleaned like that before he came over.

She had been silent for long enough, looking at him stare around her freshly cleaned kitchen. "So are you going to continue looking at my amazing cleaning job, or are you going to look at me? Or god forbid maybe talk to me?"

He watched her as she tucked that little piece of hair back behind her ear, and she didn't see him blush. "So. Cute!"he thought out loud. She had still been looking down at her holey socks, but then showed a knowing smile. She was entirely relaxed in his presence. But things hadn't always been so happy. She hadn't always been happy with him.

"Movie?" She suggested, happy to be done with her cleaning and practicing for the day. Jalousie was an intense song, even for her. And just being able to relax with her Kousei was a surprising, if not unwelcome, contrast to that. As for Kousei, he was more than happy to take off his jacket, open up a few windows, and sit with his sweaty, but admittedly happy, girlfriend.

The movie started. A normal rom-com, Kaori's favorite genre of movie. An acquired taste, to be sure. He only put up with them for her, really. He was thinking about how she played earlier. She was totally ready to start playing with him again. She had been saying that they couldn't play together for months. But then he had to open his mouth. "You sounded amazing today, when do I get to play that with you?" At her disbelieving look, he assured her, "No! Really! You sounded better today than you did when we first played together! I want to play it with you!"

She wasn't happy that he'd been listening in on her. Not at all. But she also wasn't surprised. Kousei had always loved to hear her play, after the surgery. He was always so encouraging, when it came to her playing. "You always did love hearing me play, didn't you, Kousei?" Oh how she longed to play with him again. But what if she wasn't as good as he thought she was, and she messed up? What if her savings dried up from lost shifts at work? "You know what? It doesn't matter. This boy is worth my everything, and nothing less." She was on the verge of making a decision that would change their relationship dynamic as she knew it. She was going to play with him again. For better or for worse, Kaori and Kousei would take the stage again, despite it having been more than two years since the last time either had been on a stage at all. They would take on the national competition and win.

He had waited for a moment to say anything, since her statement seemed to be more to herself than to him directly. "Of course, I want to hear you play. What sort of accompanist would I be without a violinist that could keep up?" He paused for a moment, allowing her to mull that over. "You always encouraged me, so why wouldn't I support you when you were losing the heart in your playing?"

Her eyes widened. "So this is just paying me back for what I did for you? Not out of love? Not for us?"

His eyes widened too. "No. Love is everything in what I do for you. Even my own practicing, I do for you. Its like you said, Kaori. 'Who will you play for?' I don't think I ever answered that question, but I'll answer it now. I play for you, Kaori. If you forgot, I did say 'I love you.' And that hasn't changed." This was his second confession. The first one had been simple, and this one was more complex in more ways. His first confession had been emotional because she had almost died. This confession was also about that same set of emotions. But it was more out of gratefulness that she was still his, and that gratefulness was steeped in his love for her, like how a strong tea is steeped for several minutes.

She knew what to say. But after so many years, would he even want to anymore? "Kousei, do you want to play with me again? In front of those adoring crowds, do you want to make them feel the weight of our music again?" And anyone would be able to tell what he said. He said yes.

And she didn't even think about those scars for a month afterward, she was so happy.

She was fine with the fact that she hadn't always been happy with him. Only time would tell what would happen to the two of them and their relationship. How could she not be happy, when he was with her? After all, there was love to be found, even in the rough patches of the past. Even as the scars in the mirror remained. But the stitches were gone, and she was getting more confident every day. They were just scars on a girl that was turning into a woman who would be able to say "I love you" without fear. And that is just the beginning of our tale.

Authors Notes: Please review! I need feedback! I have no clue whether this is good or not. Sorry if that sounds desperate for approval, but that's because I am (xD)

Until next time, this is MeridianPine, signing off!