[M] Snow (Lerouge and The Gypsy Queen) IC

[The Gypsy Queen]

Keeva stood in front of a wall of floor to ceiling windows, watching the snow fall. Slowly she turned, long red hair falling over her plain, beige sweater as she overlooked her ultra-modern, high rise apartment.

It seemed like it was always snowing lately, but that was weather in Portland. She shivered lightly, glancing up as her phone rang. She padded softly, barefoot, over the gray tiled floor towards the kitchen bar, where her cell phone rattled off Beethoven's Fifth. She picked it up and snapped it open with a soft " Hello?"

" Keevie, honey, how are you?" A shrill woman's voice assaulted her ears, and she held the phone away with a wince.

" Diana-" she barely managed to get her publicist's name out before the woman plowed on.

" Listen, sweetie, I just booked you the premier deal of the year!" Diana continued. Knowing better than to try to speak yet, Keeva kept to her mouth shut. " There's this really famous rock star who's agent got this crazy idea for a publicity stunt and now they're pushing this sob story about how he never properly learned how to play his guitar cause he was underprivileged or something like that. So they wanted him to get music lessons from the best, and I thought, well, that's Keevie!"

" Please don't call me Keevie, Diana." Keeva said flatly.

" Don't be such a wet blanket, sweetie, this is perfect for you!"

" I'm not a music teacher."

" Well, you are the best musician in the country, I'd say the world, so how hard can it be?" Diana rattled on, oblivious to Keeva's mildly annoyed tone. " Besides, he can already play, and judging by his record sales he must be doing something right, so this will be a piece of cake. Plus, he's paying a very hefty sum."

Keeva bit her lip. She did hate the choice between money and her artistic integrity.

" How hefty?"

" Let's say more than six zeroes are involved. And, this is going to mean all kinds of publicity!"

Keeva bit her lip. She couldn't ignore that.

" And anyway, Keevie sweetie, the deal is signed and done, so you'll be starting tomorrow at three!" Diana prattled on cheerfully.

" What? No, Diana, you can't-"

" I've got to run, sweetie, be sure to be at the studio at three! And be on time!" There was a click as the line went dead. With a resigned sigh, Keeva closed her phone. She could only hope that whoever he was, he already could actually play, and she would be spared the pressure of trying to teach him.

[Lerouge]

"Gabey relax, it's all going to work out great." Came the excited tone from the messages that Gabriel was listening through as he arrived at his home. "You'll go, pretend to learn something, play some new songs in a concert and BAM! I'm... I mean you are rolling in money baby. LAX... 7 A.M... Flight 103 to Portland, meet you there!" With that the phone went dead, leaving Gabriel standing there with his jaw open staring at the receiver. His mind raced and the first thing he decided on doing was cursing, he yelled at the phone with all his might causing his voice to echo throughout the house. He slammed his cellphone into the couch leaving it for the most part unharmed before collapsing into it and resting his hands over his eyes and laid his head back.

Gabriel's fingers ran through his hard brown hair as his bright blue eyes stared at the ceiling of his home. He lifted his legs and rested them on the table in front of him, allowing his body to slouch a bit and get comfortable. "Stupid Tony and his stupid publicity stunts, all cause the last record didn't go double platinum. Not like it's a surprise with the idiotic music people are listening to now a days anyway..." He muttered to himself before rolling sideways and laying his entire body on the couch. Even if the couch was big, he was still a bit too tall for it and his feet swayed in the air at the edge of the couch. "People now a days wouldn't know good music if it bite them in their ass!"

DING DONG

Gabriel turned toward the door, the source of the sound being his doorbell, before looking at the clock on the table beside him. "10:51... who's here this late at night... if it's Tony I'm going to punch his face in though..." He spoke almost in a whisper, his exhaustion obviously taking their toll on him. He stood up slowly and patted himself up and down slightly, mostly out of habit, before walking to the door and swinging it open.

His eyes widened slightly and his exhaustion left him as he saw a beautiful woman standing before him in nothing but a very revealing bikini. His eyes wandered up and down her body before stopping and looking into her, a smirk on his face before finally speaking. "Veronica, looks like you are cold." He teased leaning his his body against the frame of the door.

"Why don't you warm me up then rockstar." Was the last thing she said before pushing herself in and locking the door behind her, showing Gabriel the perks of being a famous rockstar.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Come to decide that the things that I tried
Were in my life just to get high on
When I sit alone come get a little known
But I need more than myself this time

Step from the road to the sea to the sky
And I do believe that we rely on
When I lay it on
Come get to play it on
All my life to sacrifice

The alarm bursted to life, waking Gabriel from his sleep and allowing him to gaze at the time. An ancient clock radio on the beside table read 6:00 A.M, causing him to groan slightly before finally sitting up. He was alone now and the memories of last night were coming to him, it was obvious it was just a late night thing for her a way for both him and her to enjoy each other and his over favorite thing. His eyes wandered to the table across from him where a baggie full of white power was sitting, and a few remaining lines of it were placed on the wood.

"Snow.." He muttered before slamming the radio shut and walking to the table cleaning off the baggie and placing it in his pocket and with a few sniffs the lines were gone. His actions from last night were deleted, and yet the feeling he had was still there. Gabriel smiled as his fingers ran over his nostrils, his mind was spinning and yet he was perfectly calm as he walked off to get ready for the flight.

[The Gypsy Queen]

Keeva was pacing the length of the studio, unable to quell the nervous tingling in her stomach. Diana had, of course, failed to appear. Which meant that now she had to meet this complete stranger without even so much as the meager reassurance Diana would have offered. At least she wouldn't have to be annoyed by the woman's incessant prattle and infuriating pet names.

It was fifteen after three, and her supposed student had yet to show. She didn't even know his name. She half hoped he wouldn't show, and spare her the embarrassment of trying to pretend to be some kind of music teacher.

At a loss for anything else to do and desperate to calm her nerves, she sat at the grand piano and began Bach's Prelude No. 2, in C minor. She began to lose herself in the piece she had long ago memorized, fingers fluttering over the keys like birds, and after a moment, she switched to Mozart's Sonata C.

Lost in the music, which reverberated through the state of the art studio, she was oblivious to the rest of the world.

[Lerouge]

The morning after he left the shower seemed to be just a simple blur to him, he hated flights and he hated even more having to be up so early yet somehow he managed to make it to both on time. Gabriel's feet felt like lead as he walked down the terminal to where his private plan was waiting, his eyes wide from the cocaine coursing through his veins, however the rest of his body was nice and calm. All he wanted was to be able to collapse in that comfortable chair in the plane and fall asleep, but he was far from that still.

"Gabe baby, you made it!" Came the familiar voice once again as Tony ran up to Gabe and patted his shoulder happily. The man was shorter than Gabriel, his height barely going up to his shoulders as the rest of his body was nice and skinny. Many times people would confuse Tony for a teenager just from the way he acted and looked, but I supposed you need the patience of a teenager to be able to deal with Gabe. He nodded at Tony in response and at once the message was clear between the two, Tony knew that Gabriel was obsessed with cocaine and hated every second of it. Yet, he was simply a friend so he grabbed Gabe's arm and rested it around his shoulder and let him the rest of the way to the flight. "You are like a big baby you know that."

"Yah... I know." Gabe muttered as he chuckled slightly his eyes staring at the ground in front of him as they walked. "Well it works out then dad, you set up music lessons for me that I don't want." Tony laughed as well and before the two knew it they were sitting side by side in the private jet with Gabe's powder resting on the fold-down table in front of him. "Wanna make this fight more interesting?" He said before they both grinned and vanished in themselves for the rest of the flight.

The flight felt like it took forever, but luckily the two slept through most of it like little babies. "Sirs, we have arrived at Portland." Was the first thing they heard from the pilot before they left the plane and were carted off into a cab. Gabriel had managed to recover for the most part, but Tony was a different story. That man would sleep from now until who knows when at this rate, so Gabriel reached for the man's planner and flipped through it until he found the time of his appointment. His eyes scanned the watch on the dashboard in front of him and smiled, they were already late. With a shrug he leaned back and smiled, waiting for them to arrive at their destination.

It took them a good 10 minutes to finally arrive, leaving the time to be about 3:15PM when Gabriel finally excited the car and walked up the steps of the school. His mind wasn't all there and every inch of him wanted to turn around and go home, but he couldn't do that yet. He already had a plan, be a brat, get kicked out, cocaine.... profit... let's see how well that goes. His eyes scanned a small paper with the door number that he had scribbled on it and looked around until he finally found it. He was about to knock when he heard the gentle sounds of a piano on the other side of the door and instead he rested his ear against it.

"Bach huh? This chick must really know what she is talking about." He whispered as his fingers wrapped around the doorknob, finding it unlocked he pushed open the door quietly staring at the back of the girl sitting on the piano. Part of him wanted to go over and start making a fuss about having to take these classes, but another part of him wanted to just lean against the side of the door and watch, which he did.

[The Gypsy Queen]

Keeva stopped playing suddenly, wheeling on the piano bench to see a young man leaning on the door, watching her. For a moment her heart stopped in fear at having been watched, but then she recalled why she was even in the studio to begin with.

She stood, took a deep breath to calm her nerves, and approached the young man with as much confident as her nervousness allowed her to muster.

" Hi. I'm Keeva Reynolds. You must be the person I'm supposed to teach?"

He was attractive in a sort of devil-may-care way, she supposed. He seemed mostly very normal for someone who was to be some kind of famous rock star... which meant nothing to Keeva. For all she knew about rock, he could have been a god.

[Lerouge]

Gabriel jumped up slightly as she turned around and stood up smiling at her as she walked over to him. His eyes grazed over her body and examined down stopping at the most important places in his mind before letting his eyes wander back up to her eyes. Her blue eyes gazed at him as she spoke and he smiled reached out his hand before introducing himself.

"Ya... I'm Gabriel Cooper, but I'm sure you know that." He said calmly to her as he took her hand and shook it slightly before pulling away. "I heard you playing on the piano, you are pretty good... but let's get this straight." His eyes narrowed slightly in an almost menacing way, but yet his tone wasn't like that. He sounded frustrated and tired more than angry as he spoke. "I'm no amateur, you and I both know why I am stuck here so let's make this easy on both of us. I don't wanna be treated like some dumb student."

Gabriel walked past her as he spoke, tossing the shoulder bag he was carrying onto a nearby chair and made his way to the piano and collapsing onto the bench in front of it facing her. "So why don't we just pretend like we actually did something so my manager will get off my back?"

[The Gypsy Queen]

Keeva watched him, shaking his hand back, consciously reminding herself to have a firm grip. It was important to make a good, strong first impression. She'd learned that. She didn't want to be walked all over.

He seemed confident... the kind of confident natural performers usually were. He also seemed cocky. Self assured.

She wondered if he had a reason to be.

After he'd sat down, she turned around and pulled off a pair of acoustic guitars and handed him one, pulling a chair over to sit across from him. She pulled her white skirt up a bit to let her sit cross-legged, propping the guitar in her lap.

" Okay. Not an amateur. Got it." she nodded, face blank and serious. " Show me what you can do?"