Hey everyone! I know it's been a while- the Kuku has been rather busy! Also, I suffer from a terrible disease called WRITER'S BLOCK. I already know what I want to happen to who, even how I want it to end…I'm just trying to think how to best connect the dots. So, until I figure out what the hell I want the next chapter to do, you'll be stuck with intermissions!
Oh well. I was planning lots of these anyways!
Sorry that this one rather sucks…I wrote it kinda fast because I've been feeling bad about not writing for you guys. o.o
But I still hope you can still manage to enjoy it! Even though it's short. And rather sucky. Sorry guys! I still love you!
Intermission 2
Madame Emiko drew her shawl closer around her as she glanced up at the twinkling night sky. How deceiving, she thought bitterly, that the sky should sparkle as such, but those of us on earth freeze.
"Boy!" Madame Emiko barked, turning her pointed stare to a boy, no older then ten, which stood next to her. He snapped to attention as her shawl was drawn closer to her body. "The message you brought DID say they would arrive at midnight, correct?"
"Y…yes Madame! But the roads have been muddy as it rained a few days ago…and it has not been…very…sunny…" the boy trailed off, twisting his coat tails in his fists.
"Damn this weather and the rain…" Madame Emiko cursed under her visible breath. She had received the message that she was to receive a new student just today. A boy. This fact brought a ghost of a smile to her shivering form. Madame Emiko had to fight to get the amount of boys that she wished in dance. She wanted her male students to equal her female, as she saw as much beauty and grace in the male form as the female. Any boy that came to be placed under her wing, she took. No questions asked.
Her head snapped up as she heard the echoing sounds of wooden wheels on the stone ground.
"Thanks be to God, I thought they would never get here," She said, crossing her forehead. The boy looked up to her nervously and nodded. "Don't worry, boy. The carriage shall take you to an inn to rest, then take you back. We shan't keep you any longer." She said, looking down to the boy. He seemed relieved, hearing what he knew already coming from her, as if he was worried she'd force him to stay. The horse whinnied as the carriage stopped in front of the two. The boy eagerly hopped up to open the door for the carriage's passenger.
A boy stepped up to the carriage's door frame. Madame Emiko could not make out much of the boy's looks or build as he was bundled up head to toe. She could tell by his small stature he was either very young or very short. But what caught her sight were his eyes. The one feature that seemed not to be bundled up in a scarf, his eyes darted around, wide and afraid. But that wasn't all she saw in them. No, his deep red eyes seemed to hold a pure pain that ripped at the boy's soul. The breath nearly caught in the throat in surprise, but she caught herself before this happened, and drew herself up.
"Niwa, I presume?" She asked, and to the messenger boy's- and her- surprise, in a considerably soft tone. The boy slowly nodded his bundled-up head. Madame Emiko gestured to the towering triumph of architecture behind them with a note of pride. "Welcome to the Opera Populaire."
Later, in Madame Emiko's Room
Madame Emiko hummed to herself almost silently as she brushed her shoulder-length locks in front of the mirror. It had been late in hour by the time the Niwa boy had arrived, and so tired from his journey, she showed him only the way to his room and his new bed. He seemed almost grateful for a place to rest his head, and eagerly shed his layers of clothing for bed ones. She shuddered slightly remembering his pain filled eyes. She would be stupid not to know the boy's father…the God-sent Kosuke Niwa, whose violin playing could bring the hardest-hearted man to tears. And it was well known that Kosuke valued his son more then his own being, and would do everything and anything for him. She could see why- the boy appeared to be a darling. They must have been very close.
But she had no idea that they were so close as to warrant the all-consuming pain in the little boy's eyes.
Her brush paused in its downward motion as she shuddered once more.
"A draft in your room, madam?" came a somewhat-mocking voice from nowhere. She made no motion to look about- she already knew that if he wanted to be seen, he would make himself known.
"No. Just a memory that haunts me." She put the brush on her dresser, and began to braid it. "You never come to me unless there's a reason, Satoshi. Tell me, as I'd like to get to bed."
The voice chuckled.
"Perhaps you shouldn't stay out so late waiting for new arrivals."
"You know of the boy already?" Holding her braid in one hand, she used the other to reach for a crimson ribbon.
The voice scoffed.
"I know all that goes on in my opera house. You know this."
"I occasionally enjoy asking stupid questions."
"But I don't enjoy answering them. Who is the boy?"
"Daisuke Niwa, son of Kosuke Niwa. Surely you remember the time the master violinist visited your opera house?" She tied up the end of her braid and tossed it behind her. She had started to be careful to refer to the Opera Populaire as Satoshi's.
"Of course. He played masterfully, but…" The voice chuckled. "not as well as me."
"Of course not."
"So, has the boy any talent?"
"Are you thinking of taking on a student?"
"His linage interests me."
"He has been here for less then a day, Satoshi. I know nothing more then rumor…and rumor has it monsieur Kosuke was praising his boy as a genius vocalist."
She heard a sudden take of interest in his voice.
"Vocalist you say?"
"Yes. What do you plan to do with the boy?" She asked.
There was silence.
She looked around her, even though she knew she'd see nothing. He would have answered her by now…
He was gone.
