Beautiful Music: Desires of the Heart by ValleyKnown

Desires of the Heart: performed by Higurashi and Taisho

Beautiful Music: Desires of the Heart

A one-shot devoted to the power of music and how it binds souls together

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The definitive 'click' of their instructor's heels echoed in the rehearsal room as the twenty-five students sat in straight-backed chairs, instruments resting on their laps or at their sides. Ms. Ogata's crisp voice and rigid, vertical movements held their attentions captive.

"Tonight is the night you all have been preparing for. For ten months you have composed, practiced, and perfected one piece of music all for one night. Your performance tonight is what will determine who will play in the Orchestra in Athens next year in front of the entire world. I have seen your dedication and your determination and not one of you has a better chance of being chosen than anyone else in this room."

Ms. Ogata paced up and down in front of the students, a sign they knew meant she was gearing up for their performances; it also meant that she was just as nervous as they. She made sharp left and right angle turns in her figure-eight pattern; the wax on the floorboards showed wear from ten months' worth of pacing in the same pattern. She stopped suddenly and looked up at the clock on the wall. "Haruko. You're up."

A rather tall girl with gangly appendages and a steady smile and short brown hair stood and smoothed her formal dress. She played the grand piano, and so it would be waiting for her on the stage of the outdoor concert stadium.

Tense minutes passed until she returned, silent but happy. Not wasting a moment, Ogata gestured another up, this time a group of three. "Ichiro, Yukiko, Yoshi; go."

Nodding, the group of three ascended the stairs that led from the well-inhabited basement to the stage above them, instruments in hand. Eleven minutes later they returned, still silent but pleased with themselves.

Anxious time slipped slowly out of the hands of the students as they were called up one at a time or in groups as large as four to take their turn to audition for the chance of a lifetime.

In the back of the room, a certain duo sat side-by-side, knowing that they would be the last ones called.

Unsure of how to say what needed to be said, she shifted in her seat, eliciting soft sounds as her pure white silk dress slid casually against the bare skin beneath the dress. She nervously re-adjusted the shoulder strap of her dress, brushing the soft, shining black hair she wore down behind her ear. Finally, she murmured in the silence of the room, "So it's tonight,"

It sounded like some childish, unfulfilled promise but it was all she could come up with.

Instead of simply nodding or making a small noise of agreement, her partner cleared his throat softly and pulled with one finger on the tight collar of his pitch black tuxedo. "Indeed..."

The silence dragged on for what seemed like forever as they waited for yet another prospective performer to exit before he continued. "But you are ready. We are ready."

Looking up at him through long sable lashes, she asked him, "Do you really think so?"

He nodded in acknowledgment and they both thought back to their confrontational meetings at the beginning of their time together, ten months past, when Ms. Ogata had first suggested (or in more accurate terms, ordered) them to construct a piece together.

There had been fights, tears on her part and a sore throat on his part, frustration, drama, astronomical arguments, and small reconciliations. But what made it all worth it was the result of their hard-fought battles.

Somehow, through all of the strife and angst, they had managed to create the most amazing and complex piece of music either of them had ever performed. Composing had only taken two months (and it would've been less, had he not gotten frustrated one day and ripped what they'd composed so far to pieces); however, it took up until the night before to perfect it to suit their tastes.

Ms. Ogata called the final student before it was their turn and she knew that she had to do this; it was now or never.

"I have enjoyed this time together!" She blurted out, then blushed and looked down, having discovered the most interesting highlight in the grain of her violin she'd ever seen.

He looked down at her with his saffron eyes and wondered what had made her finally decide to come out with what they both knew had been on each other's minds for the past month and a half. He sat in silence and knew that he was drawing out her turmoil with every second he remained quiet. It wasn't out of malice; it wasn't that he enjoyed watching her squirm--he didn't. I was simply that he did not know how to reply to such a thing. He tossed several ideas around in his mind but discarded them all as inadequate.

Finally, the perfect remark produced itself and just as he was about to speak--

"Kagome! Sesshoumaru! You're up!"

They both jumped slightly and Sesshoumaru sighed very quietly. Standing, he extended his hand to his partner and guided her to her feet. She stood and made to take a step, tripped on the train of her formal gown and stumbled. "Darn... First day with my new feet, ne, Sesshoumaru?" She smiled shakily up at him, clutching the hem of her long dress to prevent further embarrassment.

She turned to walk away, holding her head up, but inside she withered as she saw her last chance slip away like the special moment that had been interrupted seconds before. When she felt warm fingers close over her hand, she stopped half-way up the stairs to the stage above and turned around.

"Tonight, Kagome, we will make beautiful music."

Breathless, she nodded, engraving those words into her memory forever. "We will," She murmured, smiling. Later she would forget she ever even said anything in reply.

At the foot of the final set of stairs that would lead them onstage, they stood and faced each other, violins tuned to perfection and resting in the cradle of their arms. "Take what you want, more than anything in this world; hold it in your hands and play your soul...play how you want your life to unfold." He told her cryptically.

Kagome made no remark but filed the advice away for later. They turned without anymore delay and parted ways, Kagome entering from stage left and Sesshoumaru from stage right. Kagome paused right before the point where the audience would see her if she took another step forward and took a moment to gather her thoughts.

She nervously twisted the lenght of blue silk tied around her left wrist and pushed her hair back behind her ear. When she glanced up again, she saw her partner on the other side of the stage, watching her. Blushing, she thought he might be impatient to begin, so she gulped and nodded briskly, walking gracefully onto the stage.

It seemed so lonely out in the middle of the blank stage, completely open to the audience's scrutiny and totally bare of anything that could hide them or their mistakes, should they make any. It was somewhat disconcerting to Kagome, but how many times had she performed pieces as complicated as this while performing solo in front of a crowd just as large as this one tonight?

'But I have never had so much at stake,' she reminded herself, sparing a glance at her partner. 'We worked so hard... I don't want this to be in vain...'

The dull murmur of the audience quieted as the lights began to dim and then brighten to signal that there was another performance. There was no introduction or announcer to title their piece; it was in the program, along with their names. It didn't make a difference, anyway; everything that mattered in this concert/audition had just walked onto the stage and taken their stance.

The duo positioned themselves so that their shoulders were parallel with each others' and their were bodies slightly turned towards the center of the stage. They were, however, careful to make sure that they still twisted their shoulders towards the tiny hanging microphones so that their sound could be amplified for everyone to hear clearly.

They readied their violins on their shoulders and delicately, but firmly, grasped their bows and positioned them to rest ever-so-lightly on the strings. Kagome and Sesshoumaru looked to the judges and were given a nod to begin.

She glanced at Sesshoumaru and found that, as soon as the judges gave the nod, he looked to her. They nodded almost imperceptibly at each other and she bounced her right toe to a one-two-three count and they began.

A slow adagio opened the piece with blending chords and matching notes and beautiful harmony, followed with something slightly faster after the first minute of their performance. Slowly they worked their way into the frenzy of the piece they had come to know and love, much like their own relationship.

The lights spun around in a whirlwind as the two played in a perfect duet, transcending time and space, creating a clashing world of malice and hate and hope and love, depicted by the screaming strings as they were strolled across by their bows.

Perfect posture and composition, two contrasting figures stood across from each other, spinning their own tales, wrapped up in violin strings and then ruptured by bow strings; each was weaving their own world. As the music built in tension, so too did the pent-up apprehension between the two musicians. As their worlds spun around them, notes and beats and rhythms they had composed together drew them closer and closer to one of the climaxes of the piece.

Fingers flying and arms twisting in rigid and beautiful movements, they danced two worlds out of existence and breathed life into a new one that was all their own. With closed eyes they seemed to draw each other closer, past the barriers of their instruments to embrace one another, locking hands and binding spirits, dancing to the tune they had created together.

Spiraling the notes cascaded into crystalline years, all withered away in fleeting moments .

Not yet...

Ducking away from the final climax of the piece, they parted ways and set off on different paths again, the notes pulling apart, like when he had ripped the paper the notes that had been written on to pieces and a whole new composition had had to be made. The frustration and toil of hours upon hours spent preparing for this one moment rolled down their brows in the form of sweat.

Desperate to finish now, they wound their fingers tighter around the necks of their instruments; the strings squealed and moaned under the ecstasy of the bow as it drew smooth and strong across their thin lengths.

Breathe in life; exhale the death of time...

'Tonight I take my life into my own hands and play my future as I play my violin; as you said I should. Tonight in my dreams, I'll dance with you until the end of time...'

Whirlpools of emotions and histories written and left to rot were rediscovered and re-written and forgotten again that night, as two individuals spun cords of fragile bonding tighter into braided steel; cherished and remembered, if only for that moment.

Drawing their shoulders up and leaning into the instruments, their faces were masks of turmoil concealed by the ecstasy of their music. They played their frustration of the hours spent trying to work together, trying to agree... They played out their anger. Together, as they neared the final climax, strings hot from friction and sweat beading on their brows, they played the rendition of the desires of their hearts for all the world to see, but for none but themselves to understand.

Tension rising...

'The only time I have ever found such love in such solitude... Tonight in my dreams we share the soul of the night...'

Winding and twisting, the audience was held imprisoned by the spell woven by the two standing center stage, oblivious to the gentle awe around them.

In one enraptured moment the two performers shifted positions to stand exactly opposite the other, simultaneously drawing their bows across the strings at opposing sides of the spectrum, ending the reverie abruptly with a clash of perfect, beautiful, conflicting notes. In one moment the whole climax of the night was over and a hush hung over the open stadium; they did not realize the end had come and were unwilling to accept it as such.

The two artists stood side-by-side, instruments at rest, their souls still bound in harmony by their music-making. Not a sound from either of them, as they too, were still captivated by the piece that had drawn them together for one final moment before life would begin again.

Applause was thunderous and echoed through the foothills of Mt. Fuji where they had played that warm spring night. Bowing formally, they exited at opposite sides of the stage, not even sparing a glance at the other. The lights dimmed, casting final silhouettes of the two who had, in those moments, played out their history alone and their hopeful future together on the fragile strings of the violin. Then the lights went out completely, and there was silence once more.

~~*~~

Author's Notes: If you want to know what piece of actual music inspired me to write this, it was "Nightmare" by Ogata Megumi. Yes, "Ogata" (the instructor from the beginning) was derived from Ogata Megumi. I felt it was sort of like an honorific thing--not to mention suitable.

A special thanks to my first reviewer for this story, Modular Blues (she reviewed on fanfiction.net) for kindly pointing out that violin duos generally don't sit while performing! I've fixed that, as you can see!

Also, she was the one who taught me how to fix my formatting problems! Thanks again, Blues!

I would be very happy if you would leave a review and a rating behind for me! Thank you!

ValleyKnown