Disclaimer: Trinity Blood and its characters do not belong to me. This fanfic consists of monologues by the characters at their most alone. Not in chronological order. May conain spoilers for the anime. Rated for potential dark and mature themes.

More on the Albion knights. I read off Wikipedia that William had a prior acquaintance with Isaak back in the Albion University lost and his fiancée in an accident (that also resulted in him being expelled from the university). Minor bloodshed ahead.

William: Ballads and Blues

I was dancing with my darling
The night they were playing
The beautiful Tennessee Waltz
When an old friend I happened to see
I introduced him to my loved one
And while they were dancing
My friend stole my sweetheart from me

I look up from my work as the voice on the radio crooned the ballad. Big mistake. The screwdriver slips and scratches my thumb, tearing through the fabric of my glove and into flesh. I give a yelp of pain, tear off my bloodied glove and run the cool tap water over my bleeding thumb. "Not again, William…" Her voice rings in my mind.

She used to bandage my injuries whenever I got hurt back in the research labs of the Albion University. Dark-haired, brown-eyed Rose Lancaster,the only daughter of the Albion University Chancellor and an Albionian duchess, she was also my fiancée. She used to work in the tea research lab next to mine with Kate.

Whenever I injured myself, I would drop by their lab to ask for bandages. Kate would simply hand me the bandages. She would also lecture me the need to keep a well-stocked first-aid kit in my own lab. Rose would simply give a resigned sigh and treat my injuries. I never saw the need to keep a first-aid box in my lab. Why should I if I could enjoy the company of my Rose on the pretext of having a cut bandaged?

I remove my hand from the water and turn off the tap. The bleeding has slowed but it is a deep scratch. "Antiseptic wash." Remembering her advice, I open a small bottle of iodine and proceed to gingerly clean the wound. It hurts but not as much as the memories the ballad's lyrics brought back...

It was the New Year Ball thrown by the Chancellor. The sparkling champagne was flowing and the band playing. I, William Walter Wordsworth, danced with my fiancée, Rose, to the strains of the Tennessee Waltz. I had been newly knighted then. Rose had quit the research team then in preparation for our impeding wedding. On hindsight, Rose was not suited to the rigours of research work. She preferred socializing to long hours slaving over data.

I saw Isaac Butler, a fellow researcher, looking decidedly awkward in sea of finely-dressed guests. He was from a middle-class Albionian family. His suit was almost tacky compared to the other guests. Isaac worked in the basement lab. He hardly left the facility. He always kept to himself.

We drifted over to him. Soon we, or rather Rose was chatting happily with him. I had to leave the ball thanks to a minor incident in my lab. I forgot to turn a generator off. It overheated, blew up and blew in the windows of Kate's lab. Kate was yelling at me over the phone over how her lab was in shambles thanks to my carelessness. I went back to the facility and Rose danced away from me...

"William, let's call off the wedding." Why, Rose? I had always expected to marry Rose Lancaster. My life had been meticulously planned and plotted out by my parents. Rose and I were introduced to each other at a house party by our mothers. We were engaged after a proper period of equally proper courtship of walks in the park, nights at the opera and afternoon teas. Her eyes were serious when she continued. "William, I don't want you to marry me just because you feel it is your duty to your family. Tell me truthfully, do you love me?"

My tongue froze. In shock, I could not manage those words. In that little café on that February afternoon, my world had turned upside down. Misunderstanding my silence, she rattled on.

"William. I have realized that. I like you, as a friend. But I do not love you that way. I am sorry, William. I can't go through with the wedding just because everyone else wants to see us married. Let's part as friends." With those words, she wrenched the engagement ring off her finger and placed it on the table in front of me. Utterly stupefied, I stared at it.

"Let's postpone the wedding instead. You will have time to think it over. Please, Rose, be reasonable." I gripped her wrist. The other patrons were starting to stare at us.

"I am being reasonable, William," she pulled free of my grasp.

"Is there someone else, Rose?" I had heard rumours about Isaac escorting Rose to the opera on those nights when my work kept me busy. An ugly thought formed itself in my mind. "Is it Butler?"

"In fact, yes. I think I may be in love with Isaac Butler." She walked out, possibly in a fit of pique.

I threw myself into my research, telling myself to forget Rose. I can't forget her, not even now. On the seventh day, I received a type-written note slipped under my door. It was from Rose. She asked me to meet her in the university's botany greenhouse. I went at the appointed time, smoking a pipe to hide my nervousness. Instead I met Kate. Her lab had moved to a separate building after her recent knighthood. Needless to say, she was more than pleased to have her plants away from the minor explosions that occasionally threatened them.

"William, what are you doing here standing Rose up? She went to your lab to talk like you begged her to on the phone. I had to talk her into going, so go to her!" she fairly snapped at me. "And this is a no smoking zone. The plants here must be kept from all pollutants."

"What? But I never called…" My words were drowned out by an ear-shattering blast. There was a huge explosion in my lab. The facility was razed to the ground. Rose was dead. My research was over. I was expelled from the university. I was charged with negligence but acquitted for lack of evidence. The cause of the blast remains unknown to this day. For many months afterwards, I remained in a dazed state, alternating between episodes of feverish activity in my apartments and drunken stupor on the streets. One day I stumbled into a certain cardinal. "A fine mind like yours is a sad thing to waste, Sir Wordsworth," she recruited me into AX. The rest is history.

The ache of losing Rose is still there though it has receded into the background. But at times like this, it resurfaces sharp and raw. I inspect my bandaged thumb. It is a piece of clumsy work, swathed up to four times its normal size.

Kate appears in front of me. "Lady Caterina wishes to know when Tres is due for his next inspect… Goodness, what happened this time, William? You look as though you've hit your thumb with a hammer," she giggles at the sight of my ridiculously bandaged thumb. "I will get Sister Esther to help re-bandage it properly."

"Thanks, Kate."

Her hologram flickers as she tries to control her mirth. "Something on your mind, William?" she asks, still trying to stifle her giggles.

"Nothing, Kate. Why don't you ask Esther to come over and help? I will need an assistant to help me with Tres' inspection at three-thirty." Kate has no memory of Rose's death after her own accident. I see no point in reminding her of it. She must have been as badly affected by it as I was. Kate bows before fading out of sight. I fumble with my pipe and manage to light it. The radio is still playing Afternoon Ballads.

Rose, Rose, I love you
With an aching heart…

I take a puff on it, listening to the ballad on the radio and thinking of happier times in Albion spent with Rose. I have thought over her words to me. She was right. I didn't love her back then as a lover, more as a friend. It was only after her death did I realize the depth of my true feelings. I love you, Rose Lancaster.

Author's Notes:

Please review. The ballads are old favourites of mine. I like oldies, country and folk ballads.

Er, folks, I would like an honest opinion here in light of certain happenings over the past week. Does anyone find my recent works disturbing enough to go for a little chat with the pastoral care unit? Or maybe I should be asking this after I am done with the Rosenkruez guys...