Angel Of Music

Chapter 2.

Ugh *cringes at how small the chapter is*

Aaanyway yay I'm back only to post this and disappear for an aeon again! Alright I'm joking... Sorta. I'm overloaded with schoolwork and I barely have time to breathe, let alone write a fanfic :D but I'll try my best to update more regularly from now on. Also, sorry for the short chapter :/ The following ones will be longer, I promise!

November passed and December arrived. December meant Chirstmas and Christmas meant many concerts and a new repertoire for Tarja. She practiced the whole day and barely had time to eat and sleep so thoughts of the mysterious man at the opera didn't bother her much. There were no concerts planned until 19th of December and she didn't see him so she forgot about him completely. The woman wouldn't even have remembered that he existed if Agnes didn't remind her.

"By the way, Tarja," Agnes said matter-of-factly as she sat in Tarja's living room, watching her friend run around, getting ready for her first Christmas concert, "How's your opera stranger doing?"

"Who?" Tarja stared at her friend for 10 seconds, until she realized who was Agnes talking about. "Oh him... I don't know, he hasn't shown up for a long time, I even forgot he existed." She avoided her friend's gaze and hastily changed the subject, claiming that they were running late and had to go, even though they still had 15 spare minutes.

Just like the other times, this concert was a huge success too. Everyone was on their feet and Tarja was bathing in applause. She smiled at the audience but her smile wasn't genuine, it seemed like she just did it automatically. The truth was, her thoughts were far away, with the mysterious stranger who owned her mind again and she was looking for him with her eyes among the present people. Yet, he wasn't anywhere. Tarja wished she had paid more attention to the audience during her performance, maybe he'd been there and left early.
Backstage, she hastily made her way through the opera staff members who congratulated her on her amazing performance and disappeared in her changing room. A while later, somebody knocked on her door and the same man who brought her the bouquet last time, came in again, carrying another one.
"Who is that from?" Tarja asked, hope creeping into her heart again.
"I don't know Miss, it was left on one of the seats. There is a card, though."
Tarja tried hard to control herself and not let her happiness and nervousness show.
"Alright, thank you."
She waited for the man to close the door behind him, and as soon as he did so, she snatched the flowers and grabbed the card.
A sigh of disappointment escaped the woman's lips.
The card bore a single letter, nothing else. "T," Tarja thought, "I wonder what his name is... I know it's him, I can sense that. And my senses have never failed me before."
Just then, the door opened and Agnes came in. The singer quickly hid the card on her chest, under the pullover she was wearing and smiled at her friend widely.
"Aww you got flowers!" Agnes cooed, placing her handbag on a chair nearby and going to examine the bouquet, "Who's that from?"
"No idea," Tarja lied, "There's no card or anything like that."
The blonde frowned. "Creepy. Anyway, are you ready to go?" "Yeah sure." Tarja gave back, grabbed her bag and left the room.
Outside the building, Anges suddenly gasped and turned to her friend. "I think I left my purse in your changing room!"
Tarja rolled her eyes, "Oh come on! Not again!" Nevertheless, she passed her friend the keys and the latter sprinted back into the building.
Tarja stood still, admiring snowy, lit up Helsinki and breathing in cold air when somebody walked up behind her and spoke in a smooth, low voice. "You sing beautifully, Miss Turunen." The woman turned around abruptly and felt her insides tie into a knot. The mysterious man stood in front of her, smiling slightly. "Thank you, Mr... er - " "Holopainen. Tuomas Holopainen." The man held out his hand and Tarja shook it, her hand trembling slightly as she did so.
"T, Tuomas." Tarja thought and smiled. "There's no doubt that it's him." She looked the man in the eyes and felt the world spinning around her, she simply couldn't see anything except his mesmerizing eyes. Even though it seemed to Tarja that this feeling lasted for eternity, it was only a few seconds before her friend's voice brought her back to real life.

"I'm here!" Agnes panted out loudly, making Tarja turn around. When the singer turned back to face Tuomas again, she saw with a surprise that he wasn't there, he disappeared and was nowhere to be seen. "Who were you talking to?" Agnes asked slyly.

"Oh, nobody, just someone I know." Tarja lied, not wanting to bring up the topic of mysterious stranger again. Though, Agnes was not to be fooled. Blue eyes, long hair, handsome face and metalhead-ish appearance said everything - she understood who the man was, but kept quiet, knowing that her friend would talk to her when she'd be ready. Meanwhile, Tarja was walking quietly, staring into the ground and giving no more than one-syllabic answers. She was so happy that she finally had a chance to talk to Tuomas, that she couldn't help thinking about him the rest of time.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Agnes asked when she noticed that Tarja wasn't paying attention to anything around herself.

"Huh?" Tarja looked like somebody who had just woken up.

"I asked what's wrong, you're acting strange."

"It's nothing, I'm just very tired." Tarja lied again. "The concert wore me out, these arias are really difficult."

Tuomas lit up a cigarette, inhaled and blew out a cloud of smoke. He watched it as it dissolved in the cold evening air and continued walking. The man couldn't help thinking about Tarja, he couldn't believe that he had gathered courage to talk to her. Since the moment he saw her and heard her voice he had been dreaming of this moment and he had finally done that! She was even more beautiful closer, her beauty and her cuteness blew him away. Tuomas remembered her eyes and groaned audibly. They were so beautiful... the colour, the form, everything about them was amazing. He determinedly promised himself to use the first opportunity to get to know the singer better.