She's Mine

Chapter 3: Adriano

She was here. He felt it as soon as she arrived, he didn't need to open his eyes to know that when he looked at the water fountain she would be there. He could not explain it, he could not do it with anyone else. But he always knew when she was around, something in his body always told him so. He kept his mind focused on the music and the notes he was playing as he slowly opened his eyes, looking over at the fountain and there she was removing a spoon from her mouth. He made his gaze drift away from her as he played the music. Adriano loved the way she listened to him play, loved the way she could not help but sway to the music.

Adriano had loved music from the time he was a little boy in Brazil. It started with guitar lessons and later break dancing in his young adult years. But seven years ago, he taught himself how to play the violin, and it had become his true passion. Playing the violin was like discovering a missing piece of his soul. It filled a void he had not realized he had had in his life. Soon after, he decided he wanted to chase his dreams and had moved to America two years ago. Away from everyone he knew to try and chase after the dream of playing violin professionally and being famous for it.

It had been a hard transition, but he had been able to find a small two-bedroom apartment overlooking this very park. To support himself, he taught at a local charter school as a music teacher. He also taught private music lessons after school to some of those students. However, on Sundays he would play in the park for strangers. He loved playing for people, loved how he could make people stop on their busy day to watch as he played his heart out on the violin. It made him feel connected to the people around him.

Adriano pulled the last few notes from the violin and removed his bow from the strings. A few onlookers clapped, and he smiled at them kindly and gave a professional half bow. Most of the audience were elderly as he had been playing a classical piece called Winter, his eyes drifted briefly to Serena on the fountain, who was clapping politely before resuming her snack. Adriano needed to be careful with his playlist with her here. He always needed to be careful what he played with her around. If he played the wrong songs while she was there, he would run the risk of his online identity no longer being a secret.

In addition to playing the violin at school and private lessons, he also played online on the same streaming app Serena used. On the app, he was known as the masked musician Zedge. As it so happened, Serena was one of his most loyal followers and had been for many months now. She would write beautiful and encouraging things to him, and they had alot in common. They were both in their thirties, loved video games and music. Their musical tastes were also similar, with a love of styles from rock to classical music. It was rare to find a woman who loved both with equal passion.

He enjoyed her company so much that he began to visit her in her own streams, where he discovered she was a dancer. She would put music on and sing and dance for her followers. Adriano admired how she moved and the way her body moved effortlessly as it moved to the music. Her followers called her The Feral Goddess, and she would flirt with anyone who came into her stream. It is what drew men and women to her. The first time he had gone to see her stream, she had gotten so excited that he was there, and it made him feel good. So he kept visiting her and, on occasion, he would get onscreen with her. He had once told her she looked beautiful and she had turned bright red. Adriano had been surprised she had turned red because many men in her chat told her this all the time and never once had she turned red. As a matter of fact, he had never seen her turn red at all. He soon realized it was only him who could make her blush, a fact that he had come to enjoy and exploited when he felt like teasing her.

Adriano honestly had no idea they were in the same city until one Sunday he was playing in the market square and Serena had appeared in person before him. His Feral Goddess was in front of him, he could not believe his eyes. At first, he did not want to believe that it was her. But overtime, on Sunday, he would see her in outfits she wore online, such as dresses, boots and chokers that he had seen around her beautiful neck while dancing. The way she would dance while he played were also the same moves she used on her stream, so he knew for sure this was the Goddess who had stepped out of the virtual world and was a part of his reality.

Serena was a bigger woman, but with curves that needed a road sign as a warning. Adriano had always preferred bigger women, liking how they felt beneath him and in his palms. Serena, in his opinion, was blessed with a perfect body. She had large breasts that tightened into an hour-glass waist but flared back out at her hips with a well-rounded ass. She also had an edgy hair cut with one side shaved and styled in a Viking braided hairstyle. Yet he could not approach her without running the risk of her figuring out who he really was. Damn his luck! If she was not a follower, he would have approached her by now and talked with her. Maybe asked her out. But he couldn't risk his identity...

Adriano kept playing classical music songs, sticking to Beethoven mostly and not doing his usual routine of pop culture music and classical music switched off. If he did do that, she might recognize his style and he did not want that. Playing classical music only, however, would not draw her attention to the fact that he was Zedge as many street performers stuck to playing only classical music. Deep down, though he knew there was a second reason, Serena loved classical music and often expressed on his streams that there was not enough classical music left in the modern world. Something in her gaze today made her seem hollow, she wasn't herself, and he could tell by the look in her eyes. Though he had never met her in person, he had seen her enough online, gotten to know her as an online friend enough to be able to tell her emotions. Today she was trying to bury those feelings in ice cream and music, her eyes having a dull hue and there was not the sparkle he had come to love in her eyes.

He continued to play in an attempt to make her happy. He couldn't help but glance her way. Enjoying watching her sway and eating her ice cream. He smiled as he moved to the music, letting the notes flow through his body and soul. He may not be taking all the hurt from her eyes like he wanted to, but he was helping her. He forced himself to look at other audience members' faces, counting to three and moving to the next face in the crowd in attempt to control his impulse to watch Serena exclusively.

After a while, movement by the fountain caused him to quickly dart his eyes towards Serena in time to watch her toss her ice cream container and stand for a moment next to it, watching him play. He allowed himself to look directly into her eyes and felt a spark rise in his chest as she looked directly back at him. Both of them stared unblinkingly, both of them smiling gently at each other. Once the song had finished, she approached him and dropped some money in his violin case on the ground. Adriano inclined his head to her in thanks.

"You play beautifully." She said softly and walked toward the street. Adriano watched her retreating form as the wind picked up, gently pushing her dress to one side, giving him a glimpse of her tattooed leg. She had beautifully shapely legs, he could tell she had muscular legs and allowed himself to think about how they would feel wrapped around his waist. He mentally scolded himself to behave.

"Oh, Serena, Serena, Serena..." he said under his breath. "One of these days, I am going to actually talk to you. And see if you really are the 'Feral Goddess' you claim to be." He waited until he knew she was out-of-ear shot of his playing and began to play a modern pop song to draw in more observers before it got too dark.

A few hours later Adriano went home to his apartment and made a quick sandwich before dressing in his black pants, a black muscle shirt and his black ski mask that was painted with a skull. Only his arms and his eyes were shown, and it completed his online character Zedge. Adriano adjusted his lights, tested his sound equipment and got his laptop up and running. He always tried to open his streams at least once a day. Some nights it was hard to open them because he was so tired. But he tried to be ever present on his streams to hang out with his followers.

Once he had his stream running, he began to play music, keeping his eye on who entered the stream and greeting his regular followers by name. He continued to play songs and when he was gifted, he thanked everyone personally, taking requests and playing everything from anime songs to rock music on his violin. Once he deemed there were enough people in his stream, he announced he was starting the battle. This is where gifting could cause him to win battles over other streamers. It was a friendly competition.

He searched his mutual list and smiled when he saw Serena was also streaming at the same time. He sent her a battle request and felt his heart leap when she accepted it almost immediately. She was still wearing the black low-cut dress with the slits on both sides, but she had on a spiked collar. She smiled widely as she tilted her head and said, "Hello Zedge. How are you tonight, honey?"

"SERENA, SERENA, SERENA! How are you doing, beautiful?" he said with his usual enthusiasm. He could not help but look at her sternum tattoo and wonder what the whole piece looked like. He glanced at his stream and thanked those who gifted him. Though he caught a blush on her cheeks as he called her beautiful.

"I am good love. Can you play me some rock music tonight?" She asked with a smirk.

"Of coarse! Anything for the Feral Goddess!" He twirled the bow before playing Metallica on his violin. A smile erupted on her face as she danced to the music. As he played, she danced, and together they continued to greet and thank gifters as the battle continued. Adriano noticed she got alot of kissing hearts, and she would always turn her head, so the kisses landed on her lips. He smiled at her flirty nature, he loved watching her like that. Right before he won the battle at the last second, her screen erupted with a heart explosion and golden hearts rained down on her. She grinned and giggled as she looked dead into the camera screen with a seductive stare and said, "Welcome in Assassin! Thank you so much for the wonderful gift!" Serena bit her lip and threw up hand hearts to Assassin.

A stab of jealousy coursed through Adriano as he recognized the screen name of a man who was (self-proclaimed) Serena's number one fan. He hated it when Assassin was around in her comment sections and in her lives because he was someone who was able to draw her eye immediately.

"Serena, congratulations on your win!" Adriano said, his accent getting thicker at his displeasure.

"Thank you handsome Zedge. You are welcome to get whipped by me anytime." She flashed a dangerous smile and licked her lips.

Adriano was happy that his mask covered his blush and grinned as he felt his eyes widen. "Oh Serena, you are gonna make me a very bad man."

"That's the point lovey. I will fly to Brazil and corrupt you," she said playfully. Adriano chuckled internally and thought, 'If only you knew, Serena, I am much closer.' An extra precaution to keeping his identity a secret online, he pretended he was still lived in Brazil. Which is why she thought he was there. He even had his second bedroom set up exactly as it had been when he was in Brazil, so his followers would not notice that he had moved.

"You can come anytime," Adriano said with a smile.

"Oh I will. Have a good night Zedge, I will message you later."

"Yes, Serena. See you soon, MY beautiful goddess," Adriano said as he expressed "my" in a way that sounded possessive even to his ears. Serena winked before disconnecting the battle and Adriano knew it would be a long... hard night... Where he would be watching his favorite videos of Serena while getting rid of the hard on she had left him with.