Chapter 3: House Call
What was I thinking yesterday, calling her the one? I'd been on practically one real date with her and suddenly she's my soul mate? I think I jumped to that idea just a bit too quickly. It had to have been that private concert she put on for me. After all, her songs had the power to stupefy anyone so why wouldn't it have the same exact effect on me?
In any case, I was still going to show up at her house since I told her I would do so before I left that day. The trip through my "underground" was filled with these utterly confused and slowly frustrating thoughts. I had just reached her door, my head still a clouded mess, when suddenly, she burst outside and tackled me to the ground.
"Surprised?" She was on top of me with her arms pinning me down.
"Yea, I didn't expect to be pounced on, today."
Using my strength, I overpowered her and managed to sit up, a decision I regretted as fast as I had made it. I saw that she was losing her balance from being forced up in such a manner and quickly grabbed her shoulders to steady her.
"Sorry. I didn't mean to do that." She smiled at me and I knew she didn't care about my mistake.
"So… let's get off the floor and go inside." She got up, dusted herself off, and then proceeded to pat the dirt off of me also as soon as I hopped back up to my feet.
I threw myself into the same seat I had taken the night before. The point of today was to have more conversation time to pick up where we left off yesterday. Unfortunately, my head wasn't there and it seemed even she wasn't up to it either. She walked around, looked out the window, turned around, and made a look like she was thinking about something before she quickly ran upstairs.
"Lenne?" Those were some confusing actions. What was she up to? I heard a bunch of sounds coming from the ceiling so I decided to check up on her.
Mid-way up the stairs, she started coming down, and brushed right past me, holding some kind of box. "Hey! What are you doing?" Of course, I was completely lost.
"I'm gonna teach you how to sing!" Her excited voice filled the air with such a delightful sound as she began to rummage through her various albums and her other music collection.
"Sing? Me? You want me to sing?" To hear me sing is like hearing a chocobo slide its beak across the side of an airship. Believe me if you've never heard that before, count your blessings.
"Sure. Anyone can sing." Apparently, she decided not to take to heart my lack of faith in my songster abilities.
The lesson began as soon as she decided on the song she would use to teach me with. The one she chose was the song that would eventually become "our" song. She had titled it "Real Emotion" and it was a new song that she just started and completed the day before, after I left. It appeared that that blitzball game and seeing me play in it had given her some inspiration.
"So sing the line after I finish it, okay?" She looked at me with a small smirk. She knew she was going to be able to laugh it up in just a little while.
"Okay. Whenever you're ready." I tried to fake an optimistic smile though it probably didn't work seeing how her smirk appeared to have grown somewhat before she began.
"Ano hiko koro no kanata ni" Her voice was so sweet. I really didn't want to ruin the pleasant vibe I was getting again from her amazing songstress abilities, but she was waiting for me to follow suit. I repeated the line and sure enough, I must have shattered a few spheres. Lenne was too busy rolling on the floor and laughing to notice my reddening face.
"I told you… I'm just not a vocalist."
I hung my head low. Almost immediately, she stopped laughing and looked up at me. Picking herself up and walked over, she put her tender hand on my cheek.
"You sang fine. Nobody's born a star." As if. How could she have been anything but with that voice? "You know what? Let's just keep at it. I know you'll get the hang of it sooner or later." Her other hand moved up to my other cheek and she looked at me, eyes full of kindness and sincerity. How could I refuse her?
So we sang that song, and we sang that song again, and then we sang different songs, and after a while, I did notice that my voice was actually improving. It went from chocobo beak on steel, to chocobo beak on steel covered in thin layer of cotton.
"See, you're getting the hang of it. After some more practice, I'm sure you'll be able to sing just as well as me!" Lenne smiled while proclaiming that to me and I smiled back, quite surprised at myself and the progress I made.
"Sure. One of these days, I'll be right up there with ya, singing real emotion to all of Zanarkand!" I smirked, acting out what one of those hot shot opera singers would do while performing and it made her giggle a little. I had one arm out diagonal to my side and my hand on my chest, head raised up high and mouthing the words to one of the songs we were singing.
Suddenly, her eyes lit up. "What? You didn't think I was serious, did you?"
I was mostly sure she wasn't excited about that, but I still didn't know why she was so perky all of a sudden. "No. I just thought of something. Why don't I teach you how to play the organ? That way, when you sing, you can also play a little background music. It might help you out." She seemed to really want me to become musically adept.
"Um, okay. I hope I can do better with that than with singing." She giggled and took me downstairs to where she stored her organ.
I sat in front of the giant metal instrument with the keyboard of light and she showed me what each key sounded like while teaching me how to correspond them to notes on her music book. Simple enough. I could handle this. Having something else instead of my own voice making the sounds would be a lot better for me. I placed my hands onto the keyboard. I just moved my fingers to hit the keys that matched the notes and to my luck, I was actually a natural. After a few hours of playing through the drills, I was ready to try and create a little tune.
"See. So now you can sing to what you play." She said, showing her happiness for me and my newfound talent.
I played on and though the tune I played was rather eerie, at least it sounded like music so that was good enough for me. Although… I heard once that music comes from your soul. If my soul was really being portrayed by this tune, I had one heck of a problematic one.
"Now that you're familiar with how this works, let's try something harder. Try to play the music for real emotion." I guess I was ready to play some real music and after all, she sounded very confident in my abilities at the piano.
"Alright. Let's see." I had memorized the keys and knew what notes they played. I also knew what sounds I could make with combinations of these keys. As for the melody of Real Emotion, it just came naturally to me. I started playing from my memory of how the song went and somehow, I played it without flaw. The melody from that song reverberated throughout her house.
"Ano hiko koro no kanata ni, egaiteta basho ni iru; tomoho ni kureteta ni suru, keredomo wo, modorenai…" She sang along with my playing and both of us enjoyed the sounds of the other's talent. Her voice soothed me. The organ enchanted her.
Both of us were exhausted by the time we were done. We hadn't simply stopped at just that one song, you see. We practically went through every song she had in her house. It was around 10 o'clock and the two of us just had no energy left at all.
"You are so wonderful." Lenne commented, her voice coming out lightly to tell of her fatigue.
"Nowhere near as beautiful as your singing." That was for sure. As much as I was a natural at the organ, she still sang in a totally different class.
"Tomorrow, I'm going to be getting ready for an upcoming concert. Would you like to come with me and watch me rehearse? I wouldn't mind some company." I guess she wasn't at all tired of my presence, something I was happy about, however…
"I would, but the thing is that tomorrow, I also have practice. The season has been going good for us and we need to be in tip top shape for each game so that we'll make it to the championship." As much as I wanted to be there the next day, I spoke the truth. The Abes really needed to practice and train and I, being their champ, needed to be there, as well. She was understandably disappointed at the development, but I didn't want her to stay that way so I tried to think of a plan quickly.
"From when to when are you rehearsing? The Abes and I are only gonna practice from ten in the morning to around four."
"I'm going to be rehearsing the whole day. Not only that, but I'm going to try to finish a few of the songs I started from a month ago. I haven't had too much free time lately." I knew that she cheered up by the fact that when I was finished training with the team, I'd be with her again.
"So, I'll see ya tomorrow after four."
"I'll be waiting." She smiled at me as I got back on my feet.
"Here." I offered my hand to help her get up off the floor. Her exhaustion placed her in a position lying down on her back, an arm to her side, the other on her forehead.
"Why thank you kind sir." She gently placed her delicate hand into mine and I pulled her up.
"I'd better get going. It's late and you need your rest." I yawned and slowly moved to the door.
"Goodnight."
"Goodnight, Lenne."
When I got home I thought, maybe I wasn't so foolish to think she was "the one". She and I had only known one another for a little while, but we hit it off rather nicely. I began to wonder if I had a future with her. I began to wonder what fate had in store for us. I imagined a great deal that night, but only time could tell what we would become.