Chapter 35: Catch Me When I Fall"
Long after the sun had sunk below the horizon, Etou Kiriya and Shouji Megumi had arrived back at the Hotel Wien much later than any of them expected of thedriven-to-musical-perfection teen. But the flushed with excitement looks still etched on both Etou and Shouji's cheeks and faces were proof than neither of them regretted a single moment of their exhilarating afternoon. With an uncharacteristic grateful smile adorning his brightly colored lips and something even deeper in his eyes, Etou cordially thanks Tsukimori for filling in for him today.
Len turns, his violin still erect beneath his strong chin to gaze on the boy's ruddy features.
"Thanks a lot, Len-san. I'll return the favor someday." He had a crooked grin on his face that only Shouji understood, as Etou gives her a gorgeous, rakish glance of hidden conspiracy that the two shared before relieving Tsukimori of his role as first violinist. Etou takes his place with a nod as the other ensemble members oblige their previously missing star player with a last full airing of the 'Violin Concerto' piece together, of which he performs extremely well.
This practice proved to be his most inspired and lucid ensemble playing to date, each player's entire heart in it, setting everyone's mind well at ease in the promise of an impeccable showing at the Opera House the day after next. By the end of the late practice, the pleased ensemble is dismissed by equally contented Tsuzuki Mari and Ousaki Shinobu. Kanayan had long disappeared, for he had an adoring audience of his own awaiting his acting and singing skills on that very stage where his loving wife was keeping the frazzled opera director at bay during their lead tenor's absence.
Yunoki's health was assured by his adoring attendant, Ayano, whose quiet command was finally, though hesitantly, passed off to eager Hihara and worried for Ayano's own fragile body's lack of sleep, Miyabi, under her big brother's own advisement for his own selfless Florence Nightingale.
As for the rest of the gang, they disperse to enjoy what little rest and relaxation they could squeeze in, in between practice in the beautiful city.
Determined not to miss out on one last night out on the town, Kaji Aoi seizes this peaceful lull for his opportunity.
"Mori-san?" Building his courage the entire elevator ride up, Kaji smiles, his gaze focused on his viola as he collects his thoughts.
Suddenly, he puts a hand on her turned shoulder before she enters her room across the hall. He, however, quickly removes the guilty digits that were meant only for a simple courtesy tap. Kaji was already blushing by the time Mori has to turn around to gaze upon him.
"Yes, Aoi-san?" She didn't quite know what to expect from the mixture of emotions crossing the 19-year-old boy's face.
"Would it be all right, I mean, would you like to...I mean, that is..." Kaji's usually exuberant eloquence fails him every time that pair of feminine eyes was fixed upon him. "Would you care to have dinner with me?" He says in a practiced rush, all in one breath.
Mori is touched at how cute this congenial politician's son could be when he ashamedly bows his head before her, just to hide his reddened face, she was sure.
"Yes. I wouldn't mind if I do, kind sir." The sure-footed girl with a good head on her shoulders smiles at the sweet invitation. Kaji's big aqua eyes, a dazzling sight to behold, were like a child about to blow out a brightly burning birthday candle for a wish, knowing full well it already came true when she said 'yes'...
It was a beautiful night for romance in Vienna. Tsukimori Len had already booked the best table at the Wien Garten, the finest five-star restaurant/ballroom in all of Vienna's authentic cultural quarter. He had been on the waiting list of privileged guests since last Monday. Wien Garten's reported stellar service and excellent cuisine was in constant demand, not to mention its bowery of gorgeous flowers that decorated nearly every section of the spacious, refined establishment all year round.
Its soft lighting and romantic resplendence was just what Tsukimori Len had in mind. He hadn't told Kahoko where he'd intended on taking her for dinner, instead just assuring her that she was well-dressed enough in a lovely cerulean blue evening dress that the girls had especially acquired (i.e. Mori Manami feigning college assignment work and sneaking her friend's most beloved frock from the closet clandestinely) for the redhead back home before they left.
But once the couple steps through the idyllic, rose encrusted trellis that served as the Wien Garten's front entrance, Kahoko is absolutely certain she is anything BUT equal to the affair. There was a sparkling indoor fountain that bubbled in the front lobby, gold crusted trimmings on every wall wherever an exquisite painting was not hanging. And the flowers—Kahoko had never seen such a display of flora in all her life within any building, much less a restaurant in the throes of wintertime!
"How breathtaking...!" She breathes in wonder at the classical beauty of poetry set into floral motion before her bedazzled eyes.
Tsukimori Len, properly attired in a handsome white dinner jacket and black bow tie, is certain that no one was lovelier than the girl on his arm as he leads her into the restaurant overlooking the ballroom. After they were seated by the German headwaiter, he fluently orders their meal in the native tongue. Hino is too awestruck by the garden's beautiful appearance to even notice how nervous her beau was, or how many times he had stuck his hand in his pocket to feel if a certain item was still safely nestled within, or how many times he'd gazed upon her innocent face glowing with wonder, as she praised the
restaurant, the food, the decor, with a lump in his throat that never seemed to go down.
"Kahoko...?" He asks, after the delicious dinner of grilled quail and Viennese potatoes was finished. But she was still too enthralled to pick up on his tension yet, for it was normal for Tsukimori Len to only utter a few sparse words in the course of an hour of mealtime.
"Yes, Len?" Kahoko loved the way his name rolled off her tongue. He did, as well, though the joy of hearing it close up disturbed his train of thought, and all pre-practiced words flew out the door.
He glances around in desperation, grasping for something to say that wouldn't make him sound as stupid as he inadequately felt. "Would you care to dance?" He suddenly asks, upon hearing the in-house orchestral music begin to play, and seeing other couples rising to the ballroom floor.
"Oh, Len! It's been so long since we've danced together! I'd love to..." Kahoko says blissfully, oblivious of her love's true intentions, as the dashing young man stands from his seat, and escorts her to the dance floor. Feeling like she had stepped into Heaven amidst the dreamy world of pink petals swirling around them, she takes Len's arm and the two begin a slow, romantic waltz.
He expertly spins her around the floor in perfect rhythm with one another, as looking up into his eyes, she could feel his need—his desire—to ask her something, his lips just parting to speak...
"Tsukimori-kun? Hino-san? What a small, small world it is! Even in Vienna!" Kaji Aoi's bubbly voice shatters the romantic atmosphere to pieces.
Tsukimori and Hino break their entranced gaze to look up and see the golden-haired boy with Mori Manami, also in full dress, waltzing and winking at each other, across Wien Garten's exclusive ballroom floor.
"We didn't know you were going to be here! Aoi-kun just called the place and they let us in! Something about a favor owed, really..." Mori says apologetically to Hino through gritted teeth and a tight-lipped smile as Kaji slows down their waltz that he was surprisingly well-versed with, to speak with the other couple just bumped into.
"How did you manage to reserve a table on such short notice?" Tsukimori almost was demanding of the iniquity of it all.
"I...uh...my Dad knows a guy who knows a guy here." Kaji giggles at the infinite power of being a renowned politician's heir.
"Oh." Tsukimori says with an unbecoming frown.
"That's great! We can...have dessert together after the dance. How's that sound to you?" Hino Kahoko, ever so kind, ever so dense, doesn't pick up Tsukimori's reticence at all, as she tugs him back to their dance.
"Sounds like fun! See you at your table in a few minutes!" Every bit just as dense, Kaji calls back boldly across the dance floor, unaware of any civilities he was stepping on, when someone else's steps on his.
"Owww!" He whines, when Mori trods a well-turned heel on his tuxedoed foot, none too lightly.
"Mori-san?" He asks pleadingly, fighting the urge to rub his poor foot in the middle of the dance floor.
"You've got a lot of learning to do if you're ever to make a politician, Kaji Aoi-kun." Mori sighs at the 'boy', knowing he and she had blown Hino's romantic night-not to mention a big chunk of her own.
But perhaps the night was still young...
She forgives his sad, puppy dogs eyes on her instantly, pulling him closer to her in an even more intimate slow dance, as the music changes into more serious romantic tones.
The friendly dessert was just that. Mori sensed that Tsukimori Len's romantic moment factor had passed, but as she just told herself a minute ago—the night was still young. So as a proud 'girl power' trooper, she cajoles Kaji into excusing themselves from the after dessert coffee. Mori gave the false pretense that the two had other pressing plans for the night. So after a hurried 'adieu,' she and heskedaddle from the pink flower bowery. Kaji was already on his cell phone for a limo to come pick them up, before Mori could say:
"Thank you for a wonderful evening, Aoi-san. The ballroom was beautiful, dinner was marvelous and—" Mori sheepishly glances up at him in the darkened back seat of the limousine.
"I am sorry I stepped on your foot. Does it still hurt?" Mori recalls how her handsome
escort had limped out of the restaurant minutes ago.
"Well..." A wincing expression on his face, he was about to reply honestly, but chivalry kicks in soon enough.
"No! No! Not at all! My foot is...fine." He whispers with a giggle, reassuring her, as Mori sighs with guilty relief. Her comforting hand was still on his arm as the pulsating lights of the city just stream through the window enough for him to catch a glimpse of how lovely her face was, framed by the moonlight in the side of the backseat.
"Mori-san? Are you very tired?" He asks out of nowhere, hopefully.
"No...actually, not at all." She answers. She too, had been a victim of the passing moonlight upon his sweet golden features.
"Oh, good!...I mean—" Kaji was still new to this whole 'romance' thing, though he believed he was an expert. "I'd like to take you someplace...that is...if you wouldn't mind this time of night...and you don't mind...and you're not too tired..." He quickly repeats himself.
Mori chuckles at his valiant attempts to stay calm. "I am not too tired, Aoi-san. I swear it!" She places a dramatic hand on her heart and with closed eyes, crosses it.
"Oh! I'm so relieved!...Driver!" Kaji breathes a big pent up sigh as he leans forward to give the driver of the limo instructions.
"Well then, we're off! If we get chilly, I brought us some jackets to keep us warm!" Kaji Aoi launches into a stream of nonsensical jokes and conversation amounting to nothing in particular much for an hour or so as the sleek limousine cuts through the night.
Mori engages in his happy prattle, but any suspicious prompting as to their elusive destination seemed to not be a topic of discussion in his chatty book. Her eyes grow heavy as the darkened landscape seems to speed past her deep tinted window in a glazed hallucination. She finds herself so entranced by his sweet voice and pleasant tone, accompanied by the rhythmic sound of the traveling limo, that she loses track of time.
A few times, Mori was almost tempted to take out the cell phone in her purse, but she had purposely switched it off when Aoi-kun had asked her out to dinner, and she had no intention of turning it back on—yet. She herself was annoyed by people who constantly disturbed the peace when they should be paying attention to whom they were with physically, instead of filling the air with rude cellphone chatter.
Now, this wasn't a public place anymore—far from it—as she smirks to herself about the virile young man's proximity to her unchaperoned self, but it was the principle of the thing, and this was a date.
A date on which I have absolutely no idea where I'm going...Mori contemplates as the dark limo flies towards a secret location, cloaked in ebony mystery.
Just then, a brilliant idea must've popped into her lone companion's head. Kaji giggles and gurgles as he switches seating arrangement sides and ducks under the seat to produce with gusto, a certain familiar case. Mori, with curious eyes, wonders just how far planned in advance this trip was.
"Ta da! How about a Little Night Music, My Lady?" He boyishly grins flirtatiously, as he whips out his trusty viola from its case. Like a pro, before his singular audience's laughing eyes, he begins with a sloppy phrase or two of Mozart's piece.
"Play away, kind Sir! I'm not going anywhere!" She answers in jest and so he does. At first energetically, but then he breaks into softer tones, followed by a sweet serenade that lullabys Mori's eyelids to sleep. Her head comes to rest against an oddly placed plush pillow, as her half-asleep questioning about the nonstandard issue item in the back seat fades into a lulled slumber by the gentle strains of Aoi-kun's tender viola playing...the music sweeping her away...
Mori awakens sometime later, when she overhears Kaji's high-pitched whispered voice in a giggle conversing with the limo driver through the glass he was seated under. Somehow sensing her groggy eyesupon him, he quickly shuts up and turns back towards her with a guilty grin, sliding the window closed.
"Did I fall asleep, Aoi-san?" Mori states the obvious drowsily, as she heaves her tired body up from the comfortable limo's back seat that she had curled up on for a cat-like doze.
Somehow a light blanket joined the plush pillow and had found its way over to cover her. She stifles a yawn as she meets her attendant's bright gaze. It was still pitch black dark, and Mori's gaze out the window assured her that she mustn't have slept very long.
"Aren't we there yet?" She smiles with the question, feeling quite warm and fuzzy whenever she woke from a cat nap, even in an unfamiliar moving vehicle, as she hugs herself with the downy blanket, her arms embracing the velvet pillow.
"We're almost there." Kaji answers, nervously giggling at this night's covert action. "It's a surprise you'll like."
Mori was puzzled by this, but Kaji Aoi had that kind of contagious smile and laughter that couldn't be denied. There was an excited gleam to his eye, too, that had her wondering even as the limo begins to slow, and finally stops.
"We're here!" Kaji announces, bubbling over with enthusiasm after a confab with his limo driver through the glass.
She was about to peer out the tinted windows for a better look of where 'here' exactly was, when Aoi's voice raises at her with a warning.
"No peeking! I mean – please close your eyes, Mori-san..." Mori felt like a kindergartener again as, just like a little kid at recess in the schoolyard, as Kaji sidles over to her side of the limo bench and places a warm hand over her eyes.
"As if I could see in this pitch black anyway!" Mori giggles at his effervescent childish behavior. She hears him open the door and let out a low begins to tug her disoriented body from the car.
"Careful...step down now, Mori-san...Carefully..." She was entirely at his mercy, but she was adventurous enough to like the feeling of putting herself completely in his long-fingered hands, as the teen patiently leads her cautiously into the cool breeze. His palm was still cupped over her eyes as they walked.
"Aoi-san? Can't I look yet?" Mori begins to get a vague idea of where they were from the salty scent coming to her nostrils. The softly crashing sounds of waves ebbing out, assured her excited senses of something near and dear.
"Not yet!" Kaji really was acting like a child. He stoops down awkwardly to pick up something from the ground, while still keeping his long-armed 'hide and seek' hand over her eyes.
"Now, Aoi-san?" She starts to tease him back, feeling his struggle and enjoying flustering him.
"Not yet!" He manages to scoop up whatever his fingers were in search of and she heard him blow on something lightly before placing it in her hands gently.
"If you can guess what this is, all will be revealed!" He says to her the romantic taunt in his silly little game.
"It's a seashell!" Mori guesses correctly as she lightly feels the half-round object he placed in her hand.
"Correct!" He shouts happily, followed by his ever-present giggling. "Are you ready for your prize?" His voice goes somewhat husky.
"Yes, I am!" Mori chuckles back, caught up in his youthful excitement. Kaji finishes positioning her and slowly lifts his hand from her eyes. Whilst he does, the familiar scent of the air was as intoxicating as his incessant giggles. She couldn't help herself but join in with laughter of her own at this silly, giddy farce, as the sound of his heavy breathing mixes with softly cresting waves in her ears.
Mori feels her spirits climb in sweet anticipation of the moment of what Aoi-kun had planned for her in his happy enthusiastic innocence.
"Voila!" He whispers as Mori's acclimating eyes take in the breathtaking scene. She blinks, as her suspicions of what her other five senses were telling her were justified.
"The sea! How did you—?" Mori wonders, puzzled at how landlocked Austria could provide such a glorious sight.
"Welcome to Trieste, Mori-san. The land where the Adriatic meets the Mediterranean Sea." Kaji proudly plays tour guide as he revels when Mori's eyes seem to pop out of their sockets.
"Do you mean to say that we're in...Italy?" Mori never felt so romantic a notion than this secret late-night trip to the Mediterranean in all her life.
"Friuli Venizia Giulia, Italy, to be exact." With a fluent accent, Kaji shows off his worldly knowledge (the limo's GPS helped a bit, too!).
"Oh, Aoi-san, this must be a dream!" Closing her eyes, Mori Manami lets the unseasonably warm 60 degree weather, even at early morning, pervade her body. "Both the Adriatic and the Mediterranean?! Are you serious? How did you know I love to visit the sea! How did you know it's been my dream since I was a little girl to travel to all seven seas someday! But they were so far away..." Mori dashes up a sand dune to get a better view of the sparkling Adriatic, breathing in deeply the salty air as the stars seem to illuminate its every wave.
"It was? I mean...I mean...I knew that! Of course! Of course, because..." With an attack of that famous nervous giggle of his, Kaji strains his brain for a suave remark, but no lights were turning on. The look on his face was so endearing that Mori turns midstep to hear his explanation. "...because..."
Mori was so busy chuckling at Kaji's grasping for words that she fails to see the rock formation jutting out of the sands. "Ao-eeEE! Ohhh, OHHH!"
She plunges headfirst down. Kaji rushes forward to catch her fall, creating quite a romantic heroic scene of a watery maiden and her rescuer on the Adriatic/Mediterranean midnight shore.
Mori finds herself wrapped totally in his long arms, feeling the wind thoroughly knocked out of her, but nothing more, for the boy had saved her and was hugging her gently to him, as if she were a precious pearl.
"Because you're just like that beautiful mermaid who falls into my arms in every one of my dreams..." He finishes his sentence fully this time, for once saying the right words, as he blushes sweetly, locked in her eyes. She was safe in his arms, with no fear of falling whenever he was near. They were lost in each other's gaze.
"My beautiful mermaid, come to me from the depths of the emerald sea..." Dreamily, he whispers poetry as their tender lips meet each other for the first time in a sweet kiss full of playful longing, as the ocean waves crest and fall beneath the mesmerizing moonlight...