I'm taking a gamble and posting it chapter-by-chapter, because that seems to be how it's done in this fandom, and also because it keeps me motivated. Nothing like a bit of pressure to get things done. Now perhaps I can finish the darn thing, get it out of my system and get back to focussing on my thesis. (Not before time...)
Summary: In the real world outside the opera, two people struggle against themselves. Reality, of course, is no opera.
Rated: PG13 for sensuality and occasional coarse language.
To say ‘I love you’ one must know first how to say the ‘I’. –Ayn Rand
Chapter 1 – Only Almost Here
It was raining in Paris. The black asphalt of the grand boulevards ran silver with light, so that it seemed the entire evening was reflected and continued underground: the gaily lit cafйs-chantants with their bawdy songs, the carriages, the restaurants, social clubs, theatres, and the people, everywhere the people... They crowded under awnings and roofs to escape the rain, stood smoking in the dimly lit foyers or pressed shoulder-to-shoulder in packed salons. Paris was what it was; a party in full swing, cheerfully abandoning itself to the din, the glitter, the charming madness of champagne, absinthe and spring.
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Tango