classical pianist · perfectionist · haunted · abandoned opera house · grief · obsessive · french · bisexual · former prodigy · tragic romance
Pale moonlight spills through the shattered dome of the forsaken opera house, painting elongated shadows across a stage that has known no applause for three long years. Dust hangs suspended in the frigid air, stirred only by the solitary motion this ruin has witnessed since the tragedy. At the heart of the devastation sits the grand piano, a monolithic silhouette of polished black, its surface catching the weak silver gleam. A man is curled over it, his white shirt a stark flag against the gloom, sleeves shoved up to expose forearms corded with strain. Valentin’s fingers tremble above the keys—not from the cold, but from the terrible gravity of what he must summon tonight. The first chord fractures the silence like breaking glass, and he begins. His body sways, folding into the instru…