[fic] From Dislike to Love (Trinity Blood, Ion Fortuna, Alpha #21)
Fandom: Trinity Blood
Title: From Dislike to Love
Author: moony810
Theme: Alpha #21, Keyboard
Pairing: Ion + Esther, mentions of past DietrichxEsther and AbelxEsther
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: If I owned Trinity Blood, I wouldn't have to write fanfiction about it.
Summary: It's the usual story. Boy meets girl. Boy asks girl to join his band. Boy and girl end up married- wait, what!?
From Dislike to Love
She hadn't liked him very much at first. He was so cocky and arrogant at times and she couldn't stand it. But the other times, he was kind, kinder to her than Dietrich had ever been, and he was always honest with her, which neither Dietrich nor Abel had ever really been.
They'd met early on in the school year. She sat in a park near campus, practicing her scales for choir practice. She'd switched over to singing one of her favorite songs, then at the end of it, she had heard clapping, and had been startled to look up and see she had an audience of one: a petite blonde boy who looked a lot like Dietrich if she squinted just so.
“You...you shouldn't sneak up on people like that.” She muttered defensively, getting ready to leave.
“I didn't sneak. You just didn't hear me.” He grinned. “And how could I resist finding out where that beautiful voice was coming from?”
She turned her head away to hide her blush at the compliment. “Liar.”
“Not lying. In fact, why don't you join my band? We could use a voice like yours.” He settled next to her, totally serious now.
“I...I don't know. I've got a lot of studying to do, and-”
“Come on. Please? At least think about it.”
“Alright. I'll think about it.”
He smiled, bright and almost devastatingly beautiful (it made Esther want to shield her eyes). “Great. Here's my number.” He brought out a pen, wrote it on her hand, and left. She had called about an hour later and agreed to his proposal.
So she'd been inducted into the band. The boy, Ion, was the lead singer, and the band consisted of a few of his close friends: a tall, pale, dark-haired boy named Radu and two other girls, petite dark-haired Seth and tall, blonde Asta. The group turned out to be nothing like she'd expected. Radu smoked cigarettes, as opposed to the weed so many college students preferred, and never drank except a glass of champagne on New Year's Eve, Seth was getting straight A's and planned to major in forensic sciences, Asta had a B-average and majored in psychology even if she did sometimes nick cigarettes off Radu, and Ion himself was an A-student who majored in performing arts just like Esther. Over time, they turned into a sort of family for her.
She'd been a little jealous at first that scales and notes that took her hours of practice to achieve came effortlessly to Ion, but she couldn't hate him for being talented, and the jealousy had died down. They made great music together, him and her, and Radu and Asta and Seth. She loved it, and she loved them like the family she hadn't had growing up, except in Bishop Laura. Especially Ion, as much as she tried to deny it to herself and the others.
But it wouldn't last, and she knew it. She planned on going into a convent as soon as the school year was over, and she'd made sure her band-mates knew that too. She'd decided on it after her relationship with Abel had ended, and even the band had been unable to change her mind. But now...now that the school year was almost over, and their band was starting to be recognized, and she loved her band-mates like family and Ion moreso? She was torn. She still wanted to go into the convent -she was tired of all her relationships ending in disaster, and the only way she wouldn't keep looking for romance was if she became a nun- but on the other hand, she didn't want to give up her new family or Ion.
“Penny for your thoughts?” Ion's voice near her ear snapped her out of her thoughts, and she whirled around.
“Don't do that, you sneak!”
“I didn't sneak. You just weren't paying attention as usual.” Ion grinned impishly, and she stuck her tongue out. He laughed, reaching up to brush her bangs out of her face.
“Come on now, stop spacing it out. It's show time.”
“Right, I'm coming.”
She followed him out onto the stage, taking her place at the keyboard and scanning the crowd. Quite a few regulars from their other shows, but a lot of new people too. That was good.
Ion leaned on his mike, smiling sweetly at the audience. “Hey. You guys want to hear some tunes?”
The crowd cheered enthusiastically. Esther wondered, briefly, why he didn't say that this would probably be her last night in the band, why he didn't let their fans know. The best she could figure was that he was saving it for after the show. Radu and Asta started playing, drums and bass, and Seth joined in on the guitar, and last was Esther with her keyboard before Ion started singing.
They did a long set, of ten songs. After the music and applause had died completely, Ion spoke again. “I didn't want to say this earlier because it would have completely killed the mood, but...this just might be Esther's last performance with us before she becomes a nun.” He held up a hand to forestall the crowd expressing their disappointment. “But plans can change. So...” He turned to her, leaning oh-so-casually on his mike. “Hey, Esther. Marry me?” His whole manner was so casual he could have been talking about the weather, and Esther was too stunned to do anything more than nod.
“Great.” He came over and kissed her -brief, sweet, and gentle- and when he drew away there was a ring on her finger that hadn't been there before. The crowd cheered ecstatically, and their band-mates were all grinning.
Asta clanged one of the cymbals on her drum set. “Dibs on maid of honor.”
Esther's eyes widened, then she smiled and nodded and threw her arms around Ion, who hugged her back just as tightly as she was hugging him. He drew away after a few long moments, kissing her gently again before turning back to the mike (with an arm still around her, even as he spoke). “One more song before we hit the road, to celebrate. What do you guys think?”
The crowd roared their approval, and Ion kissed Esther one last time before turning her loose so she could go back to her keyboard and play the last song of the night- which, also, happened to be a first of sorts. The first of many in her new life with Ion.
The normal route was meet, get to know each other, find something in common, start dating, THEN get engaged and married. She and Ion had met, found something in common, gotten to know each other and completely skipped dating, but...she had a feeling this relationship would be the first not to end in disaster for her. Ion was bright, affectionate, and far more honest with her than either of her past loves had ever been. And she did love Ion, possibly more than she'd loved the other two. She glanced over at him, smiling back when he glanced over and smiled. This would work out, she could feel it.