fic: Fantasy Notes
Fantasy Notes
Author: peace-and-war
For: KK, whom I've known since kindergarten, and our relationship is like a musical symphony, with all the lows and highs, the soft notes, the loud notes. She knows who she is, and how much of an influence she has been on my life. This is for you.
Pairing: Established House/Cameron
Summary: Short scene, House/Cam goodness. AU Sister.
Disclaimer: House is not mine, just like Chopin's Nocturne. I really want to learn it though. It's a beautiful piece of musical genius.
Word Count: 688 words.
ONESHOT. This is actually a one-shot.
UNBETAED.
Music was House's talent. He played so softly, so beautifully. The notes were soft, yet sharp, fingers not missing a note. Cameron didn't know if he was actually playing, the phantom notes gently evaporated from the air, leaving Chopin's Nocturne fading like sunset, slowly, but beautifully. He must have noticed that she had entered the room, because the fingers stopped playing, the notes fading into the background noise from the darkening street.
"You didn't need to stop." She gently pointed out.
House stared at the piano keys. "I know."
"I'm not going to judge, you should know that."
He looked up, staring vacantly at a point on the wall. "I know that."
She noticed the hesisansy in his voice. "But?"
"But-" House just stopped. "Never mind."
"Okay." Cameron dropped the subject, of which she didn't actually know. But in the time she had been around to House's apartment, she had never heard him finish Chopin's Nocturne.
Chopin's Nocturne was special. Not in the notes, or the symphony, but the fact it was a special bond between House and his sister. He had started to teach her the melody, but had never finished. The reason he had never finished was the fact that he couldn't bear to finish. He promised his sister that he would never finish it until he had taught her all of it. He never did.
30 Years Ago.
House was waiting at home, playing Chopin's Nocturne. The phone rang, but he ignored it, it was picked up by the third ring, he heard his mother greet the person on the other end, and two seconds later he heard a gut-wrenching moan. He ran up stairs to find his mother sitting on her bed, distraught, tears running down her face.
"Mom, what happened?" He was worried, his mother never got emotional unless there was a damn good reason.
It took her a whole minute to reply. When she told him that Natasha had been killed by a hit-and-run driver, his tuned out. Some bastard had run over his sixteen year old sister, and left her to die on the side of the road like roadkill. Rationality was thrown out of the window.
From that point on he refused to finish the melody past that note.
"My sister." He simply said.
That caught Cameron off guard.
"What?" Cameron had a confused look on her face.
"My sister is the reason I don't finish Chopin's Nocturne."
She didn't reply, she just looked at him. Intently, waiting for a more detailed explaination.
House looked back at the piano keys. "She got run over by a hit-and-run driver. She died at the scene. I was waiting for her to come home so I could finish teaching Chopin's Nocturne to her. She never came home, therefore I never finished teaching it to her."
"Do you want to finish it?"
"What?" It was House's turn to be caught off guard.
"Do you want to finish teaching it to her?"
"I can't." He was still looking at the keys, gently tapping the key, not making it move, not making it play.
"Yeah, you can. Just because she is not here, doesn't mean she is not here."
House raised his eyebrow at her.
"I still think you are a naive athiest."
"You don't need to be religious to believe that there is an afterlife, or to believe in presence of spirits."
House looked at her. "Fine."
"Do you want me to leave the room?"
He shot her a grateful glance. He didn't want to her to hear how he taught his sister the first part.
Cameron didn't actually hear him speak whilst teaching her, but through the walls she could hear the notes, the light notes, the pauses, the sharps and the flats. She knew when he was finished, because she heard him say, "That's how it's done Nat."
He started playing again, this time he played start to finish, and she realised the music was like a fantasy, a cover for who he actually was, it was his protection, his armour, and that was why it was his talent.