Metal Band One-Shots

The Meet-Up (Tarstina)

 Cristina Scabbia was a bit nervous about meeting with Tarja Turunen that morning. Cristina had recently gotten a letter from Tarja, asking if she would be interested in doing a duet together on Tarja's new album. Excited about the idea, Cristina had immediately agreed, and hadn't begun to actually feel nervous until the day they were supposed to be meeting up in person. 

 Cristina and Tarja had meet in person a few times before. They had become friends after a short time and were often in touch with each other. Even though she knew she shouldn't have, Cristina had begun to like Tarja a lot more than she should have. It had been a bad idea from the beginning; even though she herself was currently single, Tarja was married, and she seemed perfectly happy with her marriage. What would have come out of it? And then when Tarja asked her about recording a duet together, she had instantly said yes like an idiot. 

 That was Cristina felt nervous. She wondered if she should leave, and tell Tarja she had simply changed her mind about it. But what then? She had no excuse for dropping out of it, so that would just make her look bad. She was just going to have to handle it, whether she wanted to or not. 

 When she arrived at the studio, Cristina was taken to a recording room where she met up with Tarja, who was her usual smiling, beautiful self. 

 "Did you see the lyrics I sent you?" Tarja asked. 

 Cristina nodded. "I did." 

 "And you heard the instrumental samples?" 

 Cristina nodded again. "I went through all of it before I came. It's really a great song, Tarja." 

 "It will be a great song," Tarja corrected her, "Once we're done here. We just have to record the vocals and then it will be finished." 

 Even though Tarja was smiling and seemed happy, Cristina had a feeling that something was wrong. Tarja seemed like maybe she was trying just a little too hard to be happy. 

 "Has everything been going well with the recording?" she asked. 

 "Oh, yes. Everything's been fine with that." 

 "Great. So, how are you, then? And how's Marcelo and little Naomi?"

 That was where she seemed to strike a chord. Tarja immediately answered, "Everything's good. Everything's fine," as if she were trying to convince herself that everything was fine rather than convince Cristina. 

 For the rest of the day, Cristina wondered about that. Was Tarja having some kind of trouble in her family life, something to do with her daughter or her marriage? 

 When the day was over, Tarja said to Cristina, "Do you want to get dinner with me? There's a good restaurant just down the street." 

 "Sure," Cristina answered. Smiling, she followed Tarja out. 

 "Hey, Tarja," Cristina began as they walked down the street, "Are you okay? For real, I mean. You just...don't seem much like yourself. I mean, if there is, you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to." 

 Tarja stopped. "Have I been acting like there's something wrong?" 

 "Uh, well, you just...didn't seem like yourself," Cristina replied, wondering if she had said the wrong thing. "I just wanted to see if you're okay."  

 Tarja sighed. "It's all right. There might be something wrong. It's me and Marcelo, you see. Things just...aren't as good as they used to be. We've been fighting a lot more often, and we don't seem to get along as well as we used to. I don't know what started it, and I don't know how we can fix it. And I don't want things to get any worse, either, for Naomi's sake." 

 "Tarja." Cristina gently touched her arm. "I get it. No wonder you seemed a bit off today. I'm sorry you have to deal with that. You know, I know we've never been particularly close, but I'm here if you ever need a friend to talk to, about anything." 

 Tarja gave her a small smile, and then hugged her. "Thank you, Cristina." She sighed. "I think I've been holding us up. I told you I was taking you to dinner, and we're not even there yet." 

 Cristina looped her arm through Tarja's, and they continued walking down the sidewalk together. She felt sorry and had sympathy for Tarja. Despite her own feelings for Tarja, she hoped that maybe Tarja and Marcelo would be able to fix their problems if that was what was going to make Tarja happy. And who knew? Maybe Cristina and Tarja would somehow end up together one day. But in the meantime, what Tarja needed was a good friend, and Cristina silently vowed to be the best friend she could be.