Warning: Adult content ahead... nothing overly explicit.

Chapter 1

How am I blest in thus discovering thee !
To enter in these bonds, is to be free ;
Then, where my hand is set, my soul shall be.
Full nakedness ! All joys are due to thee ;
As souls unbodied, bodies unclothed must be
To taste whole joys…

("Elegy: To His Mistress Going to Bed", John Donne)

I

He was up early. Too early. Too late to sleep in and too early to enjoy the warmth that his bed companion afforded him. Taking no heed of time, Shinichi Chiaki sat up gazing tenderly at the petite and slender frame lying beside him in an open foetal position, shielded only by a thin sheet of cotton wrapped around her lily white skin. While, her ruddy brown hair fell loosely over her face, hiding it from the gaze of the observer, her pale white arms gleamed in the semi-darkness that was gradually being overwhelmed by the daylight. Having had a taste of her, he was desirous of more. He was well aware that he had not married a great beauty by any definition but it was her brand of personal charisma that made her truly unique. 9 years later, he could unequivocally acknowledge that this life with her was the outcome he wanted for himself.

Emotionally and physically he had strenuously kept her at bay for as long as he could remember. If anyone had said to him ten years earlier that an encounter with a rubbish accumulating hentai would lead him to this point, he would have told them that they were insane. There were moments where he wondered if he wasn't insane himself for choosing to inhabit her world but the thought of her being absent from his life seemed oddly disturbing… unbearable almost. The recent incident in Rome and his short stint with the London Philharmonic had been severe reminders to him that life without her was not something he would want to contemplate. No doubt, she was mad… but her madness was gleefully infectious, her unconventionality had become his compass. Against all conventional wisdom he had come to love this larger than life Puck.

Shinichi allowed himself a grin. He was married to Puck… or was it Till as he had once said to her? Either way, this reminder stirred him into sudden activity around the bed. Shuffling warily through her bedside drawer for any offending objects, his watchful eye was on the prowl particularly for the ubiquitous Nodame camera. In the early days of their relationship, that hentai had a pervert's fondness of capturing him in the most outrageous moments. Whether it was pictures of him reluctantly dressed in eighteenth century garb, or of him undressing or while in the bath, she had mischievously found a way to capture it on camera. Like a persistent shadow, she had been the voyeur from hentai hades.

But last night… he had been completely vulnerable. Any reservations he might have had previously were cast into the wind. Given her history for voyeurism, it did beg the question… Did she have a camera hidden somewhere? The search yielded little apart from dog-eared copies of the Kama Sutra and Ideal Marriage: It's Physiology and Techinique carefully hidden under a pile of Mozart scores. Shinichi's grin widened further. Nodame never did anything by halves.

Her mad, voracious appetite for life extended to the pleasures of lovemaking. She was coy yet bold and the restless passion that had been brewing under the surface had been given full flight. He had an inkling or two that she would be no passive bystander but for her to touch his heart the way she did made him tremble with exhilaration. What was it about the way she whispered his name that moved him to tears? He had said little, being consumed by the whirlpool of emotions that bound them together… an ecstasy that had threatened to drown them both.

The frustration that he would have to leave the warmth and pleasures of the marriage bed in a short time was something that dwelt uneasily in his mind. He cursed himself for his own indecisiveness… for allowing himself to be a manoeuvred by some powerful hands. Now they would both have to pay for his dithering and lack of assertiveness. Still, she had been very supportive.

He watched her stir as the morning light broke through the gaps of the curtains and then saw her lips move.

"Viens-tu du ciel profond ou sors-tu de l'abîme,
O Beauté? ton regard, infernal et divin,
Verse confusément le bienfait et le crime,
Et l'on peut pour cela te comparer au vin." ("Hymne a la Beaute", Charles Baudelaire)

Where did in God's name did she learn that? Shinichi was in a complete state of shock and then a whisper of a smile registered on his lips. It seems as if she did spend more time in the library than I thought.

"Up already, husband?" She muttered sleepily as she turned over to look at him.

"I have to go in half an hour."

"Already? What time is it?"

"7:30."

"Why didn't you wake me earlier?"

"You needed the sleep."

"But now we're going to miss breakfast."

"You have plenty of time to have breakfast. But I have to go earlier and organize a few things before hand."

"Why the hurry… there's still plenty of time for us to continue where we left off last night…" She remarked suggestively, baring her legs seductively.

Sorely tempted by the prospect, he regretfully held her off with a throw of a pillow in her direction. "Go back to sleep, hentai… Some of us have business to attend to." He spoke abruptly and kept his breathing under control. Chiaki Shinichi was a man afterall and there were chinks in that armour that he was still inclined to conceal.

Catching the pillow deftly, she studied his facial expression carefully. "Did Nodame not please you, husband?"

"No… not at all… it was a good… er… performance…" Shinichi said awkwardly. How did one talk about such things?

"Performance? You make it sound like a recital." She grumbled. "I'll have you know, I put all of my heart into it. The Nodame Special is not something I demonstrate freely to any audience."

"I know…" Shinichi blushed slightly, remembering the ferocity of her enthusiasm.

"Nodame felt like a bird flying for the first time. Nodame kept thinking that Nodame was going to fall to the ground. It was difficult at first… more difficult than I thought… And also, there is that line between pleasure and pain, like going into a very hot bath in the first few minutes. Still, I found it enjoyable in the end." She remarked, as if analyzing a piece of music.

"Just enjoyable?" Shinichi's manhood felt somewhat deflated by the rather off-hand and succinct description.

She scrounged up her lips thoughtfully. "Well… it was one of the rare moments that Nodame has really seen Shinichi. Not the Shinichi Chiaki that everyone else sees and admires but the real Shinichi Chiaki… the man that hides behind the music… no mask, no holding back, no pretence. It was Nodame's first time seeing the passion outside of the music."

"Did you… like… what you saw…" He stammered… almost diffidently.

"Hmmm… well… it's hard to say…" She pretended to think hard and then saw a boyishly disappointed expression creeping into his face. She shuffled over to his side of the bed and flung her arms around him with unrestrained ardour. "I loved everything I saw."

II

Franz Stresemann was deep in thought. So pensive was his mood that he did not realize that the attractive company he had been keeping had got out of the bed and gone to the bathroom. She was one of his usual types. Here today and discarded tomorrow. It was how he liked them. Despite his reputation for frivolity, however, he was not a frivolous man. Underneath the devil-may-care attitude, was a razor sharp mind that schemed, plotted and cared… when, of course, it suited him. Those who knew him well would know that there was something weighing on his mind at that moment. But apart from that, he was one who seldom let his guard down.

Stresemann was no idealist but the Conductors Guild was one of the few things he cared about since joining as an up and coming conductor almost thirty years earlier. He had no taste for administration and left that to others but it was well known that he was one of its power brokers. He did not see himself in that light except as his own way of guiding the guild to greater importance and influence in the classical music world. Arguably, a word or two from him would influence others, not because he was politically minded or had any such ambitions but because he understood people and that they would happily confide in him things that even their partners were not privy to. He was good at keeping secrets but he was no sentimentalist and did not hesitate to use whatever resources he had at his disposal to achieve whatever end he deemed best.

In his entire career, Stresemann had only taken on a single apprentice. In spite of the constant nagging of his intrepid business manager, Elise, for years, Stresemann was able to steadfastly resist the expectation that someone of his calibre would bother with the mentoring of the younger generation. Nonetheless, there was something special about Shinichi Chiaki. A singular talent combined with a drive for musical perfection was something worth moulding. Chiaki, was to all intents and purposes, the perfect student. Furthermore, Chiaki had come bundled in a package with that dark horse Nodame. With characteristic shrewdness, Stresemann saw from the beginning… the wheels in his mind had determined to act… that those two would make an amusing and formidable pair. It was rare thing in the kind circles that he traveled for two people to be so different and yet so intrinsically bound together. With Nodame, while he saw something of himself in her, there was also something essentially naively bewitching about her. Hidden underneath all that naivety however, was a steely determination that thrived on challenge. She would have to be, poor girl, to be able to wait around that long for Chiaki. Hence, he was one of a handful of people who truly understood what it was that drew Chiaki to her.

Unknown to them all those years ago, Stresemann had appointed himself their "dark" guardian angel. In his own way, he cared about them. He had taken it upon himself to oversee their training and thus far was satisfied. Whatever knowledge he had of their individual personalities, he had put to good use. Their recent marriage was only the icing on the cake that he had helped stir the ingredients for. It was good to know that at least they would have something that he had once yearned for but never had. It was too late for him but he, at least, still had his outside interests.

While thoughts of the young couple gave him some degree of personal satisfaction, Stresemann was at this point deeply troubled by the recent rumblings within the guild… more troubled than he had let on at the last AGM. The growing rifts in the guild were a real threat to the continuity and long term health of the guild. The guild desperately needed changes but the old guard were obstinately resistant to any change. The newer, more progressive members were demanding immediate changes to the structure and powerbase of the organization. Personality conflicts were deteriorating and that meant threats of breakaway groups. In the old days, it was an unspoken code to shut up and put up with your worst enemy but the times were a'changing.

Stresemann's endorsement of Chiaki as secretary was meant to placate both sides. In many ways he was the perfect candidate. He was relatively young, charismatic, intellectual and had the oriental quality of being respectful of his elders. That he was Japanese was both a selling point and an obstacle. The guild had been accused of being discriminatory in the past… the dominance of Europeans in its powerbase. Hence, many from within and outside the guild thought that for the organization to be much more viable, it needed to be much more international in its outlook. Although Chiaki was not the first non-European or North American to fill that position, he was the youngest. While a sizeable majority supported his appointment not everyone was equally amenable. To those, he was the "token" Asian on the committee.

Much to his surprise Stresemann found an ally in Sebastiano Vieira, a rival and a man he had loathed for years. It was Vieira who approached him initially, expressing his own concern for the divisions in the guild and the need for the guild to become more in tune with the times. It was a tentative truce, with both men well aware of the problems which threatened to tear their beloved guild apart. The younger generation had little qualms about breaking away, something in which the more progressive of the older guard were deeply concerned about.

Both these men had powerful voices in the guild and as the apprentice of both, Chiaki was their common ground. They knew that he would not be their pawn… or anyone's pawn but on him rested their hope for the future of the guild.

Still, Stresemann couldn't help but wonder if they had not put on Chiaki a burden that he was not ready to bear. It was unfair, of course… a young man on his honeymoon had other priorities that did not include being caught in the middle of a barn fight. Nevertheless, Stresemann was a man concerned for the big picture and right now from his vantage point, the big picture was in jeopardy… and in danger of becoming a shattered relic with nothing left but useless shards of history.

III

Left to her own devices and after recent exertions, Nodame was on the prowl for food and the smorgasbord offered by the hotel did not disappoint. What was disappointing, however, were the sizes of the plates which on appearance could barely hold enough to satisfy her ravenous appetite. Croissants, bread rolls, English muffins, an assortment of spreads towered precariously over a selection of steaming bacon, scrambled eggs and grilled tomatoes. She hung on to the dish with all the aplomb of a tight rope walker. It was a balancing act that she had become adept at over the years.

So absorbed was she in her food that Nodame was completely oblivious to her surroundings and to the two men who were casting surreptitious glances in her direction.

"So that is Chiaki's lovely new bride?"

"Yes… Megumi Noda."

"She's not at all what I expected. Not the stunning sophisticated beauty I was expecting. I would have thought that a man of his ilk would be somewhat more… how shall I put it… discerning."

"Don't underestimate her, James. She did take the silver medal at the Tilburn afterall. Rumour has it that she foiled a kidnapping in Rome."

"Oh, I don't underestimate anyone which is why the ladies love me. But it's a fascinating insight into the husband, don't you think? His choice of a life partner. I wonder what it is he sees in her."

"Who knows… Do we care?"

"I care… very much. She intrigues me, that Megumi Noda… in an earthy, uncouth sort of way. Yes, she will be an interesting challenge."

"James… you're not thinking of…"

"Come, come… it'll be fun. These conferences are always such a bore. I need a little diversion."

"Can't you just play golf like everyone else?"

"Golf is such a tedious game. Wasn't it Mark Twain that said... 'Golf is a good walk spoiled.' The man was on to something. But women… they offer countless pleasures, my friend."

"She just got married, for goodness sake, man."

"Better and better. It makes the hunt that much more enjoyable."

"You are incorrigible, you know that."

"Guilty… but I have such a good time being so."

"One day, James… you are going to…"

"Oh do stop nagging, Peter… Now, be a good boy and run along. Go somewhere that's not here. I have work to do."

The man called James was James Harrington Beresford III, music director of the London Symphonia… a brilliant composer and pianist with a weakness for wine, whiskey and women. He was good-looking in an oily sort of way and used it to his full advantage. He indulged in a little preening before ambling towards his intended subject.

"Excuse me… but I couldn't help noticing that you were alone. May I sit with you?"

Nodame was unable to answer with a croissant hanging out on one side of her mouth and a piece of bacon danging from the other. With no other means available to her, she nodded in her most amiable manner.

"A pretty lady like you should not be left alone." He flashed her his most agreeable smile. There's something appealing about this creature… in an almost vulgar sort of way. "I can't imagine how your husband can tear himself away from you."

Pretty? "Uhucallenmeapttyleidai." Nodame obviously hadn't been schooled in the Emily Post institute of etiquette and was loathed to be interrupted while breaking fast.

Beresford determined to carry this through, was undeterred by her lack of delicacy. "I'm very pleased to have finally met you Mrs Chiaki."

Nodame swallowed her food whole and choked. Did he call me Mrs Chiaki? Muki… so he did. It sounds strange… very strange. But I could get used to it.

Recovering her wits, she said graciously, "Please call me Nodame, Mr…er…?"

"Beresford. But I would prefer it if you called me James."

"Sure, James…" Nodame twittered girlishly and pointed to his aquiline nose.

"What's the matter?" Beresford wondered if he'd just walked into the March Hare's tea party.

"There's a piece of bacon on your nose. Sorry, it's probably my fault." Still she seemed heartily amused by her faux pas.

Is this woman for real? What is her game, I wonder? "No problems, Nodame." He pulled his handkerchief and wiped off the offending bacon. I'm glad I put in a clean handkerchief this morning.

"How do you know who I am?" She looked at him curiously.

"How can I not know who you are? Megumi Noda, the winner of the silver medal at the Tilburn and recently married to Mr Chiaki, our new secretary. It would be remiss of me not to know such important things."

"Oh, so you're a conductor too."

"Among many things. I am a man of many interests as I am sure you are an accomplished woman."

"Me accomplished? Where did you hear that?" Nodame looked puzzled.

"I hear many things from many places…" was the quick come back. "But I am sure you are a lady of many talents." Is she deliberately being coy?

"Not really. I like the piano but I can't cook, I'm untidy and I don't take baths as regularly I should." She said matter-of-factly.

Beresford gave his best impression of being entertained. "Really… Nodame, you are such a funny person."

Nodame shrugged her shoulders. "Most people think I'm strange, including my husband."

Is this all an act? If so, she's a better actress than I gave her credit for.

"So what kinds of things are you interested in?"

"I like… eating, going to the beach and Puri Gorota."

"Puri Gorota?"

"It's a Japanese manga/anime series." Seeing the blank look, she added, "Japanese comic book and animation series."

"How delightful… Do you do this often… Puri Gorota, I mean?"

"Oh I have the entire series on DVD as well as the manga collection."

"Wow… how very enchanting…" Mental note: call Jack to find out about this Puri Gorota thing.

"Nodame… I can't couldn't help noticing what a healthy appetite you seem to have."

"Yes, I do like my food." She convulsed into a fit of laughter, showing bits of croissant and muffin sticking to her top front teeth.

"I can see that… will you be able to finish all of that?"

"Absolutely… I would have taken more except that this plate is rather small."

"You realize, of course, that you can go back for extra helpings?"

"I can? Really… that's amazing." Nodame looked like a child that had been given an assortment of confectionery.

A pig in a doll's disguise. A frightening creature in some ways and yet…

Unfortunately for Beresford, he did not have a chance to probe further on that occasion. From a distance, Stresemann had seen them engaged in, what appeared to be, a lively exchange. What does that Don Juan think he's doing?

Immediately it aroused all his protective hackles and he stormed up to them.

"What do you think you're doing?" He alternated glances between Nodame and Beresford.

"Milch, you're here."

"Go away Beresford, stay away from her." Nodame had never seen the normally cool and collected Stresemann on a rampage.

"Herr Stresemann… what an unpleasant surprise. I was here first. Go and find your own quarry."

"Nodame and I are old friends." Stresemann wanted very much to throttle him on the spot.

"Really? Somehow I find it hard to believe that you are friends with any woman."

"It's true, James… Milch and I are friends from when I was a student in Japan."

"Curioser and curioser… does your husband know about this?"

"Oh yes, Shinichi and I met Milch about the same time."

"Nodame… don't waste your breath on this man. Come on, let's go somewhere else and talk. The air here has turned foul." Stresemann grabbed her by the arm and dragged her off the table.

"But I haven't had any…" Nodame protested vainly and then waved to Beresford forlornly. "Bye, James."

"Lovely to meet you, Nodame." Beresford returned the wave, showing a brilliant set of whites.

A disgruntled Stresemann swept her away as fast his legs could carry her. "I'll buy you a cup of tea from the café outside." He promised.

Nodame, brushing the dust from off of herself, was far from impressed by Stresemann's belligerence. "What's the matter with you, Milch? He was just being friendly."

"He is always being friendly. He cannot be trusted with women."

"Like you, you mean…" She accusingly.

"Like me?" Stresemann looked hurt. "We're different… He collects women like trophies."

"And you don't?" Nodame challenged.

Stresemann chose to ignore the obvious dig. "His specialty is married women and it seemed as if you were his next target."

"Me?" Nodame giggled. "Why me? You're being overprotective, Milch."

"I'm serious… that man is a shark and a wolf combined… I wouldn't trust him with my mother."

Nodame flashed him a mischievous grin. "It takes one to know one, right?"

Stresemann narrowed his eyes. "Whatever… just don't let him get close to you. Mark my words, that man is nothing but a predator underneath all that gloss."

She tried to reassure him. "All right, Milch… don't worry. I'll be extra careful. Besides, men like that aren't usually interested in women like me."

Stresemann, on the other hand, was not as confident. "I hope you're right."

"Why so glum, Chiaki?" The president of the Conductors Guild looked momentarily concerned. "You really look like you want to be here." He added with a twinge of irony and a grin.

Alex Weiss was the incumbent president and had been a leading light of the guild for over twenty years. First as an ordinary member, then secretary, and then vice president. His success in the guild had much more to do with his affable nature… his ability to smooth over ruffled feathers… than any real accomplishments on his part. The presidency was more the public face of the guild than an office with any real power. Alex Weiss did not need to distinguish himself as an administrator… he was a figurehead to remind the world that conductors were an active force in the classical music industry. The real work of the guild, whether in negotiating financial matters, promoting the classical music industry or meeting with other interests groups, fell to the secretary, treasurer and occasionally vice-president. Weiss played it safe… and he was a safe choice. Nobody disliked him even if they secretly hoped that he would be much more proactive for the guild.

"Oh, I think Mr Chiaki would prefer to be elsewhere. He is a man with new priorities now." A soft spoken, gentle looking man with a graying fringe looked on with a slight smile. Although not a committee member, Ivan Chekhov was one of the guild's more loyal and longest serving members.

"New priorities?" Weiss looked puzzled and then slapped his forehead in horror. "Didn't you just get married, Chiaki? Congratulations! I can't believe that I forgot."

"Well, he's certainly showing his commitment to the guild by being here, instead of his honeymoon." Chekhov observed with a slightly amused look on his face.

"Honeymoon? Mein gott… What were you thinking?"

Chiaki smiled weakly. "A moment of madness, I think."

"Or were you trying to escape the little lady?" Weiss only just managed to hold back a guffaw.

Shaking his head, Chiaki explained, "We talked about it and felt that it was important for me to be here at the moment. She understands how vital the role of the guild is for my career."

"An advantage of marrying a fellow musician, I suppose." Chekhov commented.

Chiaki nodded. "It helps a lot. She's… she's been very patient." Nine years… I suppose that counts as patience.

"Lucky fellow! Sounds like quite a woman. I'd like to meet her some time." Weiss slapped Chiaki heartily on the back. "Dinner tomorrow night perhaps?" He added amiably.

"It would be our honour."

"Nodame… there's something else important we need to talk about."

Although the German composer had his hand on her lap, he looked unusually subdued and restrained.

The intensity of her gaze matched his sobriety. "What is it, Milch?"

"Do you remember the time when you came into my office and asked me to let Chiaki change over to the conducting course?"

"Of course… as if it was just yesterday."

"Well, I want you to do the same for him again.."

"You want me to kiss you again… and then punch you out?" Nodame looked at him incredulously.

A ghost of a smile swept past his lips. "I want you to fight for him."

"Huh?"

"He needs you to be a wife to him. It's your turn to take care of him."

"Take of him?" Nodame echoed dumbfounded. Me take care of him? He's always taken care of me, hasn't he?

"There are things that are going to happen that will test him as a man and he is going to need all your strength and determination to get through this."

"What kind of things?"

"I cannot say…"

"Eh? Why not? Is it… some… secret conductors' business?"

"I don't really know myself…" Stresemann gave a loud sigh. "But it's not anything good probably."

"Milch… what have you got him into this time?" Nodame glowered at him with her most intimidating look.

Cowering slightly, Streseman protested. "It wasn't me… it was that… Vieira…"

James Harrington Beresford III was deep in thought. He had never met anyone, much less a woman, like Megumi Noda Chiaki in his life. She certainly lacked the finer points of femininity and yet seemed to be oddly comfortable with it. Surely nobody could be that strange without some degree of contrivance. Still there was a distinct ring of honesty about this woman and the husband was the key to this puzzle. What the hell does Chiaki see in her? Was that merely a well disguised façade? Is there more to that coarse, simplistic creature. There has to be something. A perfectionist like Chiaki doesn't just fall for anyone.

At that moment, something happened to Beresford that hadn't happened since the day he discovered classical music. He became intrigued. While he had been out, someone had slipped under his room door, an envelope with a ticket to a recital given by the aforementioned Megumi Noda. Putting the ticket to his lips and meditating over its ramifications, the corners of his mouth gradually turned up into a smile.

Author's Comments:

I'm afraid this is as much adult material as you're going to get from me. ;)

The physical side to Nodame and Chiaki's relationship is at best, somewhat ambiguous, in the manga. Hence, I have taken a few liberties and for the sake of storytelling have chosen to take the course that I have.

The lovely poem by Baudelaire, "Hymn to Beauty", quoted by Nodame I found on baudelaire.cz with English and Czech translations included. It's a great site... worthy of a visit. Now, it seems the trend to quote poetry these days but when I planning this piece, I had already made up my mind to include some poetry without recourse to what anyone else was doing.

My thanks to Tacitus-8,Melpomene melancholia, kana-chan, mmestrange andaj98 for your keen interest in this story at this early stage. I hope not to disappoint and to tell a good story at the end of the day… that is if I haven't bitten off more than I can chew. And dear miyuki92… such faith, friend! I hope I won't let you down.

aj98… yeah, thanks for your concern… I've had a few question marks hovering over my head about the amount of time I spend on fan fics. I will attempt at least one more ficlet for The Labours of Shinichi Chiaki

As usual I would appreciate any comments that anyone would care to make.