A/N: Here's an early chapter! Hope you'll enjoy reading this! ^^

Disclaimer: I don't own any characters mentioned in this crossover fanfic. Also, I don't own "Fun Time" by Depapepe.


Aside from boredom, Aiza Takeshi hated losing. To him, losing meant that he wasn't good enough to win and that he was lacking something that the winner had.

When Kousei defeated him during the Eastern Japan Piano Competition, he wondered what was missing in his performance since he made sure that he had completed all necessary steps to win. He even gave his all and poured every bit of his feelings onto the piano, so why did he lose?

Without knowing the answer, he continued to compete against Kousei and Emi in all domestic competitions throughout Japan during high school. He managed to defeat Emi sometimes, but he couldn't beat Kousei at all… It felt like they went back again to the past when no one could stop the bespectacled pianist from moving towards the light of glory, however Emi made history when she defeated him and Kousei in two competitions. Nobody knew how she did it or how she had improved so much…, except him.

During their fourth year, in the middle of the competition, he accidentally saw Emi confessing her romantic feelings to Kousei in the lobby after his performance. Unfortunately, the black-haired pianist rejected her with a sincere apology and told her that he could only see her as a rival and friend. After that, Takeshi caught a glimpse of hell and heard a loud snap… He didn't want to recall about what exactly happened next, but he learned that breaking someone's heart was the worst move a person could make (since he also experienced hell after breaking up with his girlfriend). Thanks to dumb Kousei, Igawa Emi became the Enthralling Demoness of the Piano and stole the spotlight from them completely with her new unlocked potential as a pianist.

Losing to both of his rivals, he became frustrated with himself and decided to study abroad after graduating from high school. He swore to himself that he would not return to Japan until he was great enough to defeat Kousei and Emi in every piano competition. He was really lucky when he caught the attention of a very famous conductor named Chiaki Shinichi (who offered tutelage to him if he was interested) when he competed in Ile de France International Piano Competition and won second prize there last year. Plus, he even got an invitation from the International Tchaikovsky Competition Administration a month ago. In order to get motivated in winning, he decided to return to his home country if he could win first prize in the upcoming competition under Shinichi's guidance. Everything was going smoothly for him until…

"Huh…?! W-What are you doing here…, Arima?!" he exclaimed with a shaky finger, pointing at his long-time rival, after finding his new teacher.

Of all the people that he might bump into, why it had to be Arima Kousei, the least person that he wanted to be reunited with?!


Chapter 2: Rekindling Admiration


Maybe meeting Kousei again a bit early was inevitable after he learned that his rival was invited by the International Tchaikovsky Competition Administration, too, and that his former teachers had connections with the golden pair and hence he was here in Russia to get taught by Shinichi's wife, Nodame. Well, even if Takeshi did reunite with his rival unexpectedly, he would show how much he had improved and would defeat Kousei in the upcoming competition.

Since it would take an hour to arrive at their destination by car, he and Kousei used that time to catch up with each other about what happened to them during college. He was the first one who told his experiences in Paris Conservatoire and even bragged that he learned how to play a guitar and won some famous competitions there. When it was Kousei's turn, he thought that Kousei's stories about his university life would be boring, but slowly, he became engrossed in them and kept laughing when the bespectacled pianist told a story about wearing a mongoose mascot costume and playing a pianica during a cultural festival to maintain the tradition of the orchestra club. Nodame even joined their conversation. She confessed that she was the one who initiated the tradition and told them a lot of her college experiences with Shinichi, much to her husband's chagrin.

While Kousei continued to laugh at Nodame's antics back in college, he couldn't stop noticing how much his rival had changed. The bespectacled pianist he was staring at right now grew a bit taller (but he was still taller than him), became handsomer with messy, medium-length hair and less baby fat in his face (but he was still much better-looking than him) and his deep blue eyes, which he couldn't look away from, held more warmth than before. As he kept staring at Kousei intently, they already arrived at their destination.


Takeshi hadn't expected to see a simple two-storey brick house with chimneys and a small garden full of different flowers and plants from a couple who probably made a lot of money from performing a lot around the world. He kind of expected a mansion with a large garden full of statues, fountains and mazes made of bushes…

"Surprised at how simple-looking our house is, Arima, Aiza?" asked Shinichi when he spotted his and Kousei's confused looks while Nodame rushed towards the door of the house to unlock it.

"Um… yes. To be honest, I actually imagined that you and your wife are living in a mansion," he replied as he continued to observe his surroundings with wonder.

The raven-haired conductor laughed. "You're pretty blunt, huh? I like that attitude. Anyway, my wife actually wanted a mansion."

Surprised, the two pianists glanced at the conductor in unison. "Eh? Really?"

He nodded with a smile. "Yeah, but after hearing that mansions are built to confuse the ghosts inside, she hates them now."

After imagining that, they chuckled in amusement.

"Your wife is such a funny person, Chiaki-san," commented Kousei, making the conductor sigh tiredly.

"You got that right, but most of the time she's random and crazy to the point of making my hair go white early if I'm not mentally strong. You two might get freaked out by her actions now and then once you start living with us, but I hope that you will tolerate her weirdness and childishness. She's the type of person who's too open about her feelings and opinions."

"I see…," his rival mumbled thoughtfully. Takeshi felt a bit sorry for Kousei for having a new teacher like that… He was glad to have Shinichi as a teacher.

"And, you can just call me and my wife by our first names, Arima," added Shinichi.

"Ah, but…"

"It's all right. It'll be confusing if you'll call us two by our last name, right?"

"…Okay, I understand, Shinichi-san," answered Kousei with a nod.

"Good."

Suddenly, Nodame ran back to them with a distressed look. "Darling!"

"Huh? What's wrong, Nodame?" her husband questioned anxiously.

"I can't open the door!" she cried out, causing Shinichi to raise an eyebrow.

"Eh? But you have all the keys, right?"

"No. I only brought the house key with me, but it seems like I took the wrong key…," she explained before sticking out her tongue cutely like a child who did a small mistake. "Tee-hee~!"

They heard a vein snapping from Shinichi as he nagged, "'Tee-hee~!', my ass! How many times did I tell you to bring all the keys with you before leaving the house, idiot?!"

"Mukya!"

And, this was why Shinichi let Takeshi and Kousei go sightseeing for awhile as the golden pair tried to find the spare house key that they hid in the garden.


"Aiza-san, did you study some Russian words before going here?" asked Kousei as the two of them strolled in the sidewalk while viewing the display windows of the shops that they were passing by.

"Nope. I think the people here can understand and speak in English, so I don't bother learning Russian words," he answered confidently, making his rival frown a bit.

"Are you sure about that? What if we need to read the signs here…? Like that one, for example."

Glancing at what Kousei had pointed at with his finger, he stopped walking and found a café with a hanging signboard, which was written with a few undistinguishable letters. He couldn't read it at all. "Huh? What the heck does that signboard say?"

"You can't understand it, too, right? But since it's hanging there in front of the door, maybe it means 'We're Open'?"

"Yeah, maybe… There are customers inside the café and all…"

"Then I'll go inside and buy some coffee. It's too cold here. Do you want to tag along?"

Not accustomed to Kousei inviting him like that, he blushed in surprise. When they were still kids, Kousei wouldn't even look at him for a second even if he ate his snack bar noisily beside him back then. His rival really did change. And he liked it.

"…Sure!"

When they entered the café, they didn't expect a disastrous scene happening in front of them right away. A hooded guy in leopard-printed clothing poured the contents of his cup on the top of a woman's head. The woman seemed to be a mother since she was grabbing the wrist of a young girl, who was crying loudly and was sitting on a piano stool, but she wasn't facing the piano. It looked like the grey-haired kid got slapped hard on the right cheek because a handprint was almost visible on it. After a few seconds, the grey-haired mother faced the hooded guy and spouted an unknown language to him, who was just glaring at her venomously. When the mother stopped shouting, he began speaking words that Kousei and Takeshi couldn't understand. His speech was calm at first but it became louder and more dominating to the point that most of the customers looked like they wanted to leave the café. After his speech, the ashamed mother clicked her tongue in anger and left the café by herself after crying out some weird words again. As soon as she left, the employees of the café began to clean the mess and even patted the back of the hooded guy in gratitude and respect while Takeshi and the other customers sighed in relief when it was finally over.

"What the hell was that?" he whispered to Kousei anxiously, but his rival left his side without a word and went towards the crying girl. He offered his handkerchief to her and patted her head to calm her down.

"Whoa… What a gentleman!" thought Takeshi, astonished by Kousei's skills in dealing with girls. He kind of understood now why his little sister was head over heels with the bespectacled pianist. Suddenly, the hooded guy approached his rival and began speaking English words unexpectedly.

"Are you Japanese?"

"Yes," replied Kousei in English, too, but since he was pure Japanese, his pronunciation wasn't smooth.

The hooded guy smirked. "You remind me of someone I know. He wears glasses and can't pronounce English words properly, too. Anyway, thanks for comforting her. I'm not good with things like that."

"Ah… No problem?" the bespectacled pianist answered uncertainly, making Takeshi chuckle a bit at their awkward conversation.

"Then I'll take my leave now-"

However, the young girl prevented the hooded guy from leaving as she held the bottom part of his leopard-printed jacket with a trembling hand. She said a few Russian words to him.

He bit his lower lip with a reluctant look for a few seconds before sighing in defeat. He replied something in Russian to the girl, who hugged him happily after saying it. Takeshi couldn't comprehend what they had said to each other, but he could see that the girl had calmed down a lot when the hooded guy didn't leave.

"Aiza-san."

He jerked in surprise when Kousei called him abruptly. "W-What?"

"Let's play a piece."

He gaped at his sudden suggestion. "Huh? Why?"

"Well, as you've witnessed earlier, I'm still having a hard time speaking in English," his rival explained sheepishly, causing him to muffle a laugh. "Fortunately, we're musicians and since we're musicians, what is a better way to express ourselves than playing music for this young fellow musician?"

After hearing such logic from a fellow pianist, he couldn't help but smile. However, it was weird… Kousei could play a solo piece right now with that piano, so why was he still inviting him to play with him?

"True, but why don't you play music on your own? You can play a solo piece for her without me… and we're rivals, you know…"

After he said that bluntly, Kousei still continued to smile at him without any ill feelings. "But it'll be no fun if I play music on my own, Aiza-san. Right now, I don't think of us as rivals or competitors. We're just two guys who love music and who want to express it freely to others. I think it's more fun that way. As they say, 'the more, the merrier', right?"

His eyes widened up as he listened to every word that his rival had said. Somehow, his heart wouldn't calm down at all. What the hell was going on inside of him? He didn't know anymore if it was really a good thing that Kousei had changed or not.

Slapping his cheeks twice to shake off this weird feeling, he finally agreed with Kousei's idea. "All right, I'm in. What piece? And are we going to play it with one piano?"

"No. There's a guitar over there," his rival informed, gesturing at the acoustic guitar (which was on its stand beside the piano) with his thumb. "You told me earlier that you learned to play guitar during your stay in France, right? And about the piece we're going to play…, how about 'Fun Time' - that popular song made by our new teachers?"

"Fun Time, huh?" he murmured nostalgically, remembering his time with his silly classmates as they played that song many times during his stay in Paris Conservatoire. Luckily, a friend of his gave a necklace to him with a guitar pick as its sole decoration before he flew to Russia. After removing the pick from the cord, he approached the acoustic guitar and picked it up from its stand carefully.

"Are you ready, Aiza-san?" asked Kousei as he sat beside the young girl on the piano stool and flexed his hands.

Takeshi took a deep breath before nodding excitedly. "Yeah, let's start, Arima."

After finishing a short countdown mentally, he began plucking the guitar strings with his pick. All of the people inside the café stopped doing anything and stared at him all at once as soon as they heard him playing. If he was playing alone, maybe he would've vomited due to nervousness, but that would never happen because Kousei was here with him. After a few seconds, the bespectacled pianist joined him as he started playing the piano, producing rich sounds like gentle waves from the sea. They were perfectly in sync, he could tell as he closed his eyes, his hand continuing to pluck the strings easily as if it was already second nature. It looked like Kousei knew the song by heart, too, as he played it relaxingly with a smile. It felt like they were just playing around the beach – creating sand castles, splashing water to each other, taking sunbaths and the likes.

More importantly, he couldn't believe it…, but he was having a duet with Arima Kousei – the prodigious pianist that he had looked up to for many years! Although he already moved on from admiring Kousei back then, his strong admiration for him was coming back slowly yet surely like an extinguished candle being lit up again with fire. Childhood memories began flashing through his mind as his heart recalled again that unending excitement when there was someone more amazing than him. When he lost in competitions, he would climb the stairs towards the shrine without any pause and as soon as he reached the top like a hero, he would see the whole town painted with bright colors – a scenic reminder of how big the world was and how fulfilling it was to be at the top to see it. He only managed to discover that breathtaking scenery because he wanted to be an invincible hero just like that pianist!

Smiling, he finally knew now why he kept on losing during high school. How could he forget those important things? Maybe he got too complacent after feeling that he was unbeatable when he stopped admiring Kousei and started acting like a cool adult who didn't need childish inspiration during competitions? That might be the case… He thought that he could be a better pianist on his own if he would stop admiring someone…, but he was wrong. All along, he knew perfectly well that he was the type of person who would get really better if he had someone to look up to.

How naïve he was for not realizing this early. He wanted to laugh at his stupid self for being so sure that he didn't need someone to get him motivated and inspired. He forgot that he came this far as a pianist because of Kousei! No matter how disappointed he was of himself for realizing that he had the wrong impression of his hero for years, forgetting his admiration for Kousei just because of such a reason like that was also like trying to forget who he was!

Helplessly, he thought, "Can you let me admire you one more time, Arima…?"

Suddenly, warm yellow and cool blue hues began to get emitted from the music that Kousei and he were making inside the café, causing the listeners to feel relaxed and giddy as they reminisced their exciting childhood days. The young girl beside Kousei let go of the hooded guy slowly and was beaming in enthusiasm as she observed Kousei playing the piano elegantly with twinkling purple eyes.

With a big grin, Takeshi finished the song with a strum while Kousei followed it with graceful, gliding sounds by swiping his hand on the piano keys, from left to right, with a fast stroke. After a moment of silence, all the people who listened to their performance started clapping their hands while crying out Russian words that were probably meant as 'Amazing' or 'Great performance'. Although Takeshi couldn't understand what they were trying to say, just hearing their applauses were enough to make him feel happy as a musician.

However, did his words get through to Kousei? Well, he hoped that they reached him.

As he glanced at Kousei, time went slow as the hooded guy slipped on the wet floor when he tried to leave. Before he could fall onto the floor backwards, he was somehow caught by Kousei, who was fortunately near, with outstretched arms. Like a scene from a fairy tale, the hood from the mysterious guy slid down, revealing silky light-blonde hair, turquoise-colored eyes and a fair face too pretty for a male, while the bespectacled pianist, whose face was close to his, just stared at him with wide eyes.

Takeshi didn't know how to react after witnessing that. He only felt that something was stirring violently within him.


A/N: It's too obvious who the hooded guy is. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Reviews and suggestions are greatly appreciated!