The lights of France cast long shadows over the room and the noise from the lively streets was strangely comforting to his ears. Potato growled at something in his dreams from beside him; the habit of sleeping on the same bed as Shinichi was incurable now. Shinichi, on the other hand, was wide awake, his eyes glazed over. How she could act like nothing had happened between them was inconceivable to Shinichi. He felt like an idiot for suffering (no, not suffering, reminiscing. He still had his pride to hold on to, damn it) all those years with memories of them—of her.
That night, while immersed in his somber thoughts, the phone rang quite suddenly though Shinichi was not expecting a call from anyone, much less the person he heard on the other line.
"Chiaki," the voice of Stresemann boomed out, "I haven't spoken to you in so long!"
"Wonder why," Shinichi countered but his former teacher chose to ignore this comment.
"How's Nodame-chan?" he asked flippantly but Shinichi was too used to the maestro's tactics by now to understand his schemes.
"She's practicing her piano as usual."
Stresemann scoffed on the other line.
"Of course, Shinichi. I mean how is she?"
"Have you spoken to her?" Shinichi asked incredulously, rubbing his sleepy head with his hand, "She's weird…well, weirder than usual. I don't know what going on in her hard head."
"What do you mean Shinichi?" he sang out happily, the noise in the background (laughing women, pleasurable moaning, the works) indicated where he was at the moment)
"Nodame's acting exactly how a person should act," he continued joyfully, "there's no weird noises coming from her anymore, her playing is impeccable, she's a real lady now. What more can you ask for?"
"I knew it!" Shinichi cried out, pointing an accusing finger to the air, "This has Milch Holstein written all over it."
"Ja ne compredez trios, Shinichi," Stresemann said innocently, successfully butchering the French language, "Nodame-chan is acting on her own accord. I had nothing to do with it."
His giggle though, gave his lie away.
"Stupidity—" Shinichi muttered, running his long fingers through his hair, "I'm going to get Nodame back so don't stand in the way, old man."
His threat went unnoticed to Stresemann.
"It's not me you have to warn," he spoke seriously, for the first time since the conversation started, "I'm afraid your relationship with Nodame has nothing to do with outsider meddling. Maybe you should think about that," he ended sagely.
"Yeah yeah," Shinichi mumbled and without a single air of regret, he hung up the phone. He sighed impatiently, too annoyed at his maestro to even fathom the significance of his words.
Practice continued as usual with Nodame leaving the moment it was done. Strangely, Shinichi despised this more than not seeing her once in five years. She was purposely ignoring him which only made him angrier and far more stubborn than she ever was. If she wasn't going to say anything to him, then he wouldn't either. But her piano, as incredible as it was, sounded stuck to him. No one else noticed; no one else could. Only he knew Nodame's real sound. And that was enough of an excuse to drag her by the arm toward the nearest park one day, throw her down on the bench and glare down at her with the best imitation of a strict teacher.
"Oi," he started angrily, his face a mask of annoyance, "What's that crap flowing from your fingers?"
"Geh!" she grunted, obviously taken back by his accusation, "That's not crap—"
"It is. It sounds so stiff. What's the matter with you?"
She mumbled something under her breath, definitely not any language he knew. He sat down beside her, allowing himself to look her burrowed frown, pink lips, and long eyelashes.
"I'm playing according to the score," she answered quietly, "Isn't that what sen—Chiaki wants?"
"No, I want you to play it however you want to play it."
Nodame looked up at him with a dead serious expression before bursting into giggles.
"I can't do that," she said with a nonchalant wave of her hand, "You once said that no orchestra could follow me if I played the way I want, remember?"
Shinichi stared off at the dusty pavement, his feet shuffling like the movements of a small child caught in the act.
"I can," he deadpanned, looking up toward the moving trees. The wind, though warm and quite enjoyable, was strong and roughly played with the branches of the fragile but stubborn tree.
Nodame stared at his profile and held back a smile. He hadn't changed much.
"Mmm," she hummed in agreement and held out her hand, "Agreed then."
Shinichi stared at her hand for a long time, as if inspecting it before grabbing on to it and shaking it.
"Well, we should really—"
"Let's grab some lunch," Shinichi interrupted and this time, she didn't wait for her answer. He grabbed the same warm hand she had offered and led her off into the nearest restaurant he could find. Under the shade of the trees in an outdoor restaurant in the park, Shinichi all but forced her to sit down and order her meal. Giving up with a sigh, Nodame waited until Shinichi ordered before speaking.
"Je voudrais ordonner l'escargot, s'il vous plait," she spoke fluently, the words leaving her lips just as quickly as her native language, "et une tasse de café, trios cubes de sucre."
The waiter nodded and left, leaving Shinichi dumbfounded and staring at Nodame. He hastily ordered his meal as well.
"I thought you hated the escargot—" he trailed off, unsure of what to say after hearing her impeccable speech. Nodame shrugged, placing her hands on the table.
"In Germany, I stayed with a teacher that loved escargot. He used to eat it every day," she commented, getting a far off look in her eyes, "He gobbled it down like chocolate. Guess I got used to the taste."
She chuckled, the memory obviously a good one. Shinichi nodded but while Nodame fell into an easy silence, he couldn't help but realize just how far away Nodame seemed to be. As he had always thought before, she had always been close enough for him to reach for her when he needed her, discard her when he didn't. Now, she wasn't anywhere in his radar anymore.
The waitress came back with the orders, settling the plates down quickly and quietly. As Nodame sipped her coffee, the atmosphere suddenly tensed up (or at least, it did to Shinichi).
"After your concert and the orchestra's, will you be leaving again?"
Nodame looked away, nodding fairly quickly, auburn hair jumping against her shoulders.
"The Czech Philharmonic Orchestra has invited me to perform Chopin's first piano concerto with them so I thought it would be a good thing—"
"But you dislike Chopin, don't you?"
Nodame shook her head, popping the escargot in her mouth.
"I've learned to really like Chopin though it's only a few specific songs I like."
Shinichi nodded, trying to understand where she was coming from but he couldn't. He was getting a little frustrated with her. She was too different and he didn't like it at all. He decided to bring the conversation to a place he found himself comfortable with.
"There was a commercial yesterday, " he started conversely, "that a Puri Gorota marathon is running on today."
Her eyes flashed for a moment with excitement but it was so quick that Shinichi thought he must have imagined it.
"Do you want to come over and watch it?"
Nodame set her coffee down rather heavily, looking down at the swirling mass of black.
"I have to practice for my concert so I can't…"
Then, as if catching herself saying something bad, she quickly announced,
"Besides, I'm too old to be watching that."
She smiled brightly at him,
"Thanks, though. You remembered."
Shinichi frowned, nodding but he zoned out as she continued her one sided conversation on how lovely the day was.
"Enough, Nodame."
Her lips stopped their incessant movement and a familiar look on her face appeared.
"Let's leave it at this then," he muttered, knowing very well she knew what he was talking about. How could she not?
"Ok, Chiaki."
A definite answer, with no struggle and no defense on her part. It was enough.
"Damn it, Nodame. Stop the act!"
He stood up rather suddenly, knocking the table and making its contents spill to the floor.
"This isn't the Nodame I know. What the hell is wrong with you?"
"Nothing is wrong, senpai," she muttered darkly, eyeing her broken coffee mug angrily, "I'm the way I am but whether its this Megumi Noda or simple hentai Nodame, it never seems to satisfy you, does it?"
Her large hands slammed against the table, successfully making a bigger mess of things.
"I gave up on trying to impress you a long time ago," she yelled towards the coffee spilling on the floor then angrily looked up to him, her eyes full of rage.
"Arrêtez d'agir comme un tas de merde et laissez-moi la paix!"
She stomped on the ground with her foot and hit Shinichi's foot by mistake. She didn't care though as she swept around and stomped off, a smoke trail behind her.
The Parisians talked amongst themselves, eyeing Shinichi glumly but now that he had seen her finally be herself, he worried about another thing.
"Oi!" he cried out after her, "What about the bill?!"
Nodame's fingers flew furiously over the keys. Each note struck held some insult toward the one person she loved the most and at the same time, the one person she wanted to kill the most. How dare he treat her like that? She was quite content with her life; why did he have to appear? Regardless, she knew this day would come. No matter how big the world was, fate just seemed to put him in her way. She had almost not played Rhapsody in Blue in America for fear that he may be the one conducting. An odd thing to fear really, since that had been her fondest dream. But now all she had were memories and she intended to keep it that way.
Five years without him had made her fiercely independent and though every now and then she longed for his smell and food, she kept telling herself it was for the best. After all, he was now a big shot conductor and she was in her own league of piano players. So she had a huge motive to do what she needed to do and leave as quickly as humanly possible.
But today…
Today, she had smelled him again. Musk, cologne, a hint of mahogany—the smell that drove her senses wild and for a moment or two, she found herself giggling idiotically to herself. Her giggles sobered quickly as she remembered the reason why they weren't together anymore. She had been right to yell at him. He had treated her like crap and she wasn't going to take it anymore. Then again, a nasty voice in her head said, he could also be incredibly sweet. Apart from herself, he was the only one who could keep up with her in many aspects of whom she was. She had yet to meet a man like him.
"Mukya…" she reverted back to herself, letting her head fall against the piano keys, the thunderous notes ringing in her ears.
"Puri Gorota is on tonight, huh?"
The man didn't give up. He had decided, after paying a hefty amount of money for the damages at the restaurant, that he would throw his pride to hell and let it rot there. He would be damned if he was going to get rejected by NODAME out of all people. After throwing his stuff around the room, scaring Potato a great deal with his yelling, and making a horrible dinner (which Potato took greatly to heart; he wouldn't sleep in the bed with Shinichi that night) he decided that he would make her see that this Megumi Noda she became didn't hold a candle to the hentai Nodame she truly was.
Her piano playing was as horrendous ass possible but only to Shinichi's ears. Everyone else thought she was magnificent though they didn't let Shinichi hear. Every day he bombarded her with instructions, each as radical as the one before.
"Your fingers are too stiff!"
"What kinda feeling is that?!"
"I can hear each note too clearly. Blur it like before!"
Nodame gritted her teeth and did as was told. The orchestra members offered the compassion she needed afterwards but after every possible rehearsal, he grabbed her roughly by the arm and made her play the entire thing over and over again until they both were too exhausted to argue.
Viera sensei often came to these Nazi-like rehearsals and offered his warmth to Nodame but even he could do little to help her. However, one night, he made the conscious move to bring two bottles of wine for them.
"To drown your sorrows down," he winked at her kindly. It was enough. Both of them soon became too inebriated to continue the lesson. Instead, as they exited the hall together, Shinichi got the great, drunken idea to finally get Nodame home.
"Ikimasho!" she yelled out, stumbling down the sidewalk. Shinichi smiled behind her, his own stupor letting it get the best of him. He grabbed her arm and dragged her to his apartment, singing along to her Onara Taison song, each word slurred into the next.
"POTATO!"
The dog jumped instantly at her, wagging its tail furiously as soon as the door opened.
"I've missed you! Yes, I have, oh yes I have!"
"Baka," he sung, patting her head, "the dog's not the only one who's missed you."
Nodame spluttered into Potato's fur, her face currently lost in there somewhere.
"Senpai's the baka! Senpai doesn't miss Nodame. Senpai's doing fine by himself."
"Senpai is not," he declared, staggering to the couch, "Senpai has had too much time on his hands."
He looked down on his hands to prove the point.
Nodame walked unsteadily to him, propping herself on her knees placing her hands on his legs.
"Senpai, have you missed Nodame?"
He nodded heavily, his cheeks red with the wine's spell.
"Then senpai should say so," Nodame nodded, looking toward Potato for reinforcement which she received by way of a tail wag.
"Geh—well—there's this---muki---"
His muttering lowered in volume as his head dropped down toward his chest, his eyes getting heavy. Nodame frowned, poking him repeatedly on his thigh.
"Like always, Shinichi never says it."
He aimed a slap for her head but hit empty air instead.
"Baka…" he muttered again, his voice deep with honesty, " 'course I missed you—"
Nodame stared at him blankly for a couple of minutes before giggling fiercely.
"Shinichi said it!" she sang happily, "Shinichi said it!"
When she got no response from him, she turned her heavy eyes to Potato who happily agreed with her. The world became blurry to her but it was ok. His words, though now a bit distorted, send her off into a very pink dreamland.
Needless to say that when they both woke up to their sane selves, the night's after effects weren't as pleasant as they thought. Very awkwardly, Nodame lifted her head from Shinichi's thigh and smiled blearily at him. His pants were covered in drool.
"Good morning," she mumbled, rubbing her sleepy eyes, reverting back to Nodame mode before she realized it. When she did, her head spun with disappointment. Her face clearly showed her confusion at being in Shinichi's apartment, something Shinichi caught on to instantly.
"You want breakfast?" he barely finished his sentence before Nodame cut him off, rejecting his offer as she scrambled for her shoes. Shinichi watched her discomfort quietly, wondering if he had ever seen her this eager to get away from him.
It saddened him.
Had he pushed their boundaries this far with his stubbornness, his inability to show what he felt? Without a word, Nodame burst through the door of the apartment, scrambling to get out. Shinichi sighed and messed up his hair even more. He cursed himself quietly and stared at the once again empty room.
Je voudrais ordonner l'escargot, s'il vous plait et une tasse de café, trios cubes de sucre- I will order the escargot and a cup of coffee, three sugar cubes please.
Arrêtez d'agir comme un tas de merde et laissez-moi la paix!- Strop treating me like shit and leave me alone ( in peace)!
I've been immersed in my own piano playing these days so updates are slow. Review please!