I got a lot of positive reviews for the last chapter, so I hope I can meet, and maybe even exceed your expectations with this next one! Warning, this chapter contains quite a bit of squee, Fubuki humor, and fluff!

Again, as a reminder, I still have the original! All you need do is ask for it, and I will send it to you via PM or email.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! GX.

Dear Johan,

I cannot imagine a greater pain for someone like you, who has the passion and desire to play an instrument, yet has no channel. I don't think I could live without a violin to play, or any other instrument for that matter. I think I would break into pieces and be lost forever. You have my deepest sympathies.

Your letter touched me deeply. It actually moved me to tears. Never before have I heard of a person who bears the same misfortune as you. And your determination is awe-inspiring. Despite being shunned by your family, despite this great pain in your heart, you still press on. Some might call it stupidity to pursue a seemingly impossible dream, but I applaud you. Nothing is impossible. I am honored to be a source of hope for you.

So keep your dream safe, Johan. Hold it close to your heart and protect it from those that wish to trample on it and destroy it. Your dreams are yours, and yours alone.

Yours, truly and sincerely,

Juudai Yuuki

P.S.: I am doing well, thank-you very much.

Juudai's letter left Johan feeling breathless and reeling. Short though it was, it stuffed him so full of emotions that he could barely breathe.

Giddy with delight, Johan jumped on his bed, clutching the letter close to his chest as if it were his very dreams. In a way, it was.

Smiling, he traced Juudai's messy, squashed signature which graced the bottom of the page. 'I must look like an obsessed fan.' Johan shook his head. That wasn't the image he wanted to convey to Juudai: he respected and revered the violinist. But he had responded to the bluenette's letter, so obviously there was something about Johan that the brunette liked.

One way or another, there were two things Johan could be sure of: Juudai Yuuki responded to his letter in what could possibly be the most emotional, heart-wrenching way ever, and it made Johan's insides feel like Jell-O.

Even though Juudai's letter was enough to put Johan on Cloud Nine, the start of his music classes on Tuesday shot him down back to Earth.

The classes took place at four o' clock, in downtown Chicago. Johan would take the bus to and from the classes, which lasted for an hour on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and two hours on Saturdays.

When he first arrived at his first class, Johan imagined his teacher, Fubuki Tenjoin, to be a short, fat balding man in his mid-thirties or forties, with a dull, monotonous voice, beady eyes, and thick glasses.

No, what Johan got was a crazy, off-the-wall pianist in his mid-20s. Fubuki (who refused to answer to "Mr. Tenjoin") wore loud clothes, and taught equally loudly. He often tapped out the rhythm of songs, shouted out the beat, and constantly sang or hummed.

And Johan adored him. Fubuki was the best teacher the bluenette could ever hope for. He was in-tune with his students, and he obviously loved his job. Fubuki encouraged his students to do well, whether he used gentle coercion, or by cheering loudly and performing an elaborate dance routine complete with backup singers and frilly pompoms. In short, Johan actually enjoyed going to his classes.

Best of all, Fubuki didn't judge him for not being able to play an instrument. The moment the pianist laid eyes on Johan's last name, he knew the kind of pressure Johan faced, and he pulled the bluenette away from it.

"Don't focus on what other people think of you, Johan. If you want to play an instrument, then you shall. Nothing is impossible," Fubuki had told a stuttering, red-faced, fidgeting Johan when he confided in his teacher about his misfortune. "Just be all that you are."

The classes became a sort of haven for Johan; a time and place to study music without being criticized by his family. It was refreshing, almost.

"Okay guys! Today is Field Trip Saturday!" Fubuki announced, practically waltzing into class one day. "We're going to the Lyric Opera house to do our studies, and then we're taking a bus to the outdoor symphony hall at Millennium Park to have lunch. Everyone under eighteen has their permission forms, right?"

Johan and the other underage students held up their forms. "Excellent! Then we shall be off!" Fubuki made a dramatic pose towards the door, causing all the other students, Johan included, to chuckle at his antics.

Once the students packed their gear, the class set off, chattering excitedly about everything and nothing. Even though his classmates were good kids, Johan really hadn't made any friends with them. Part of him was embarrassed that he didn't-no, couldn't-play an instrument, and the other part of him was uncertain. He stuck close by Fubuki during the walk to the opera house.

"So Johan, did you know?" Fubuki asked as the Lyric building came into view.

"Do I know what?" Johan tilted an eyebrow at his teacher.

"Juudai Yuuki is going to be performing at two of this season's operas, The Magic Flute and The Tales of Hoffman." Fubuki grinned at him. He knew about Johan's little crush on the violinist, and he encouraged it. If he could, he would stand outside Juudai's hotel window, wherever the brunette stayed in Chicago, and sing love ballads about him and Johan. More than a little embarrassing, yes, but Fubuki was Fubuki.

"H-he is?!" Johan gasped, his mouth agape. "I didn't hear about that!"

"Mmhmm," Fubuki hummed in affirmation. "He is. I heard that he's really peeved about it, too."

"W-wow," Johan breathed. "I'll have to get tickets..."

Fubuki chuckled as a soft pink blush spread across Johan's cheeks. Young love could really be adorable sometimes. As in, all the time.

Johan had never been to the Lyric Opera House during the off-opera season, and the emptiness of it spooked him, just a little. It was hard to imagine the ornate, opulent opera hall without being packed to full capacity.

One of the students, a girl with curly blonde hair and freckles, pointed to a group of people dressed in casual wear and carrying instruments. "Fubuki, who are they? They don't look like they're with the orchestra."

Fubuki chuckled. "Actually, Amelia, they are the orchestra. In order to keep their instruments in check with the opera house's acoustics, they have to practice here."

Johan's heart skipped a beat as he realized what Fubuki had said. 'That means Juudai Yuuki could be here!' He tried to search for the brunette in the crowd of musicians, but failed. With a sigh, he followed Fubuki and the other students into the first floor of seats, his teacher explaining the acoustics of the hall and how they worked.

"Derek, it is not my fault-"

"Juudai, I don't want to hear another word about it."

"It's not my fault that there's an accident Michigan Avenue!" Juudai argued with his manager as they clambered out the car.

"Juudai, we're ten minutes late. I don't want to hear another word about it." Derek hissed, running his fingers through his hair. True, he wasn't the first manager Juudai had had, or the second...or the third...or the fifth, for that matter, but he knew how to handle the violinist in an argument where Juudai was right for a change.

The brunette shut up like a clam as they entered the opera house, and his amber eyes scanned the near-empty foyer. A few members of the orchestra were standing by the stairs and chatting blithely away. Not thirty feet away stood a field trip of students and what Juudai assumed was their teacher, going on and on about the acoustics of the opera hall.

The latter group wouldn't be of major interest to the violinist if it weren't for the young man standing among the students, listening intently to his instructor.

'That's him!' Juudai's heart did a little happy dance in his chest when he spotted the head of blue hair that had evaded him naught but two nights ago.

Stealing a glance at the preoccupied Derek behind him, Juudai made good his escape to hide behind a pillar, the sound of his boots muffled by the thick carpet. Derek might have been his longest-standing manager, but Juudai still had a few tricks up his sleeves. After his mother came back to take advantage of his career, but before he moved away to New York to escape her influence, Juudai had practically lived at the Lyric Opera house. He knew the building back to front, and he was already planning his little escape route as he approached the bluenette. Derek would never know what hit him.

And apparently, neither did Juudai's person of interest. When the violinist grabbed his arm, he whipped around to face him, a strange fear in his eyes.

Oh, oh, oh! did those eyes take Juudai's breath away. The young man-Juudai estimated him to be at least a year younger than himself-had been blessed with a gorgeous pair of emerald orbs, set into a heavenly, pale face. Juudai had to re-teach himself how to breathe.

Imagine Johan's surprise when he came face-to-face with none other than Juudai freakin' Yuuki. The pictures he had seen on the internet didn't do him justice. Juudai had strict but lovely brown eyes, and an almost aristocratic nose and high cheekbones.

Johan's tongue seemed to dry up in his throat upon the scrutiny of those amber orbs. The most he could manage was a brief puff of air.

Obviously, Juudai was the first to speak. "You have the most beautiful eyes," he half-whispered, reaching up to touch Johan's face gently. "Such a deep, fine color...I could write a symphony about these eyes." His voice was soft and smooth, tumbling over Johan's ears like the finest of instruments playing some exotic, unknown score.

"Th-th-thank-you, M-m-mister Yuuki," was all he could stammer out.

"Please, call me Juudai. What's your name?" Juudai's voice alone could've made Johan do cartwheels.

"My name is Johan," the bluenette murmured softly.

Juudai's amber eyes widened. "Johan?! Then...that letter! Did you send it to me?"

'Oh crap, I forgot all about the letter I sent him!' Johan's brain went into panic mode. "Sorry, I have to get back to my class now," he spluttered.

"Johan! You have to keep up with us, or we're going to leave you!"

'Saved by Fubuki!' Johan thought, relieved. "That's my teacher. I-I really have to go." It's not that he wouldn't mind spending time with Juudai, but right now the violinist was making his insides turn out and his head feel light and his legs quake.

"Please, don't!" Juudai begged. But at the same time, he loosened his grip on Johan's arm.

"Juudai..." Johan choked out.

Like Johan (although he didn't know it at that moment), Juudai knew when he was soundly beaten. He let Johan slip from his grasp, only to grab the bluenette by the shoulder and pull him close. "I will come back for you, Johan," he whispered into the bluenette's ear. "I promise you."

The bluenette shivered as the violinist let him return with his class.

"What's the matter, Johan? You look like you're about to fall down," Fubuki asked with a small frown. "Do you feel okay?"

Johan glanced over his shoulder, but Juudai was absent from the doorway. "I'm fine...I'm perfectly fine." 'Yeah, getting seduced by Juudai Yuuki totally happens to me on a day to day basis...not!'

I didn't think I'd get done with the sixth chapter so fast! I'm impressed with myself!

The title of this chapter actually ties in with what happens in the chapter itself: Rubato is an important characteristic of the Romantic period. The strict tempo of a song is temporarily abandoned for a deeper, more emotional tone. D'aww!

I hope I got Fubuki right, OTL. I don't know how he acts in the Japanese dub, or if it's similar to the English dub. I'm assuming that it is...

Anyway, please review and tell me what you think!

-Rose