Why So Silent Inara?

[ladyonyx04]

Natalie followed the sound of the violin having just sat comfortably in the darkness having abandoned her cloak and had put on the half mask once more. Her footsteps carried her closer to the Bach performance. She smiles slightly. He was a little nervous, and feeling apprehension. Not that she truly blamed him of course. If their roles were reversed...but she wouldn't think like that. Fate had handed her these cards and she would deal with them. She opened the door softly and closed it behind her. Should she say something? She was...nervous. What a funny thing for her to feel. She went with her instinct always before, but she felt almost like a normal person seeing someone after a fall out might when trying to reconnect. She wasn't normal. But perhaps she could pretend. "Christopher?" She asked softly.

[Inara]

Christopher's bow stopped at the sound of the cloaked woman's voice. He opened his mouth to say ... something, and then stopped. For all the impeccable Victorian social etiquette he had learned at the Opera House, for social skills were important in attending parties and finding potential patrons... there was nothing to teach him what to do here. Nothing in Choreographer Madame Meg Giry's lessons told him a single thing about "how to apologize to your friend and teacher whom you just found out was tortured as a child and turned into a murderer." For everything she was, for everything she had done, she was truly a remarkable woman, and it was difficult to stay angry at her for losing her temper with one or two people who... well, quite frankly, he would have loved to throttle himself. Given her background, it was amazing that she had not turned out worse, but he had still felt his shock justified, and to apologize for it would be dishonest.

Thus he could think of nothing to say, nothing that could possibly be appropriate here. So he said nothing. Calmly, he put his violin and bow back into their case and walked up to Natalya. Feeling almost foolish, but again, having no better way to express his emotions, he bowed to her and raised her hand to his lips, kissing it lightly. Then, despite everything he had been taught, everything about being proper and perfect, he hugged her, holding his friend and teacher to him tightly for almost a full minute, but he did finally say the following, during their embrace.

"I can't honestly apologize for my shock, but I will apologize for expressing it in a way that was so rude and distrustful to you. I would like to be friends and colleagues again, and learn from each other the way we have for so many years," he finally whispered, finally breaking the embrace and holding her hand.

[ladyonyx04]

((Whoops I've been writing 'Natalie' hehe -sweat drop- sorry. I was probably still writing as another character in a different role play. I got it now >.>))

Natalya did not at all expect the embrace. Never having had something like this from another, she had stood there in surprise, course that wasn't to say she hesitantly didn't return it in slow measured steps. Cause she did. "I wasn't expecting that." She admits with a very small smile on her lips as he drew back and apologized. She felt as if the weight she had been carrying around was suddenly lifted from her shoulders and felt at 'peace' at this moment then in any other in her lifetime. Even when she felt that ring leader's life fade under her hands. "I would really like being your friend once more." She said. Hopefully there wont be a need for my hands to become red with blood again. Hopefully, I can learn to let go of this anger at the world that I feel. She hoped silently. She then noticed that he still had her hand in his. She wasn't complaining. She wouldn't mind staying like that for a while still. It was....a pleasant feeling, the one that came from their contact. She would perhaps write about it later.

[Inara]

(Eh, typos. No big deal.)

Christopher smiled and let go of Natalya's hand. He too felt a sense of peace, that things were alright between him and his longest friend. He smiled at her, looking around the small enclave, almost a small chapel, that had been their private music lesson room for so long. But something still disturbed him.

"You messed up Carlos's voice, didn't you," he commented. It was far more a comment or a statement of fact than a question. "And I bet you dropped the scenery on him a few days back. Why?" the young singer asked, placing a nervous hand on the piano. "I don't understand." He did not want to be too critical; these were relatively harmless pranks, and he did not want to cause another argument, but they were still uncalled for.

[ladyonyx04]

"Yes I did. He'll have the use of it again in a few hours as long as the moron doesn't try the bottle again and then the same results would show." Natalya said feeling no regret at her small prank on the prima dona. She could have made him lose his voice forever but had decided not to. "Why?" She echoed his question and shook her head a small laugh escaping her. "You are so much more talented than that waste of oxygen. I wanted for Paris and yourself to see that you have so much more potential then being a chorus boy. I knew you could be successful. You only needed a bit of help. That's when I came to you." She said sitting down on the piano bench. "And I knew that with another 'mishap' the spoiled baby would storm out leaving a gap for the lead. I had Meg suggest you when I dropped my infamous little note."

[Inara]

Christopher was unsure what to think. On the one hand, he was grateful that his friend and teacher had such faith in his abilities, and wanted to see him be successful. And well, if the young man was perfectly honest with himself, he had to admit that he had never been particularly fond of Senor Carlos himself. He had always found him ever so slightly full of hot air. On the other hand, that did not excuse Natalya pulling childish pranks. He looked into the woman's eyes, and touched her shoulder.

“Thank you for your faith in me. I am glad that you want me to succeed. But please, would you promise not to do anything like this again? I don't want to become successful through pranks and scheming. Besides, music should not be about who is the lead, I don't want to 'win,' for lack of a better term, this way. It's not right,” Christopher requested intently. It just did not seem fair for him to have this strange Opera Phantom pulling pranks to further his career. And he did not want any more harm to come to anyone on his behalf.

[ladyonyx04]

Natalya thought about his request, staring back at him as she weighed the pros and cons. "I can't fully stop my pranks. But I won't be just targeting Carlos, if that will make you feel better." She said knowing that if she stopped those employed at the Populare would gain confidence that would be catastrophic. She sat down facing the piano as she studies the notes there, changing some things when in her mind they didn't make much sense or when it sounded wrong to her. The left side of her face was in the light once more showing the stark white of the mask she wore.