In Joy and Sorrow

Anna climbed out of the cab she was in and stared up at the large hotel that stood before her. It wasn’t as massive as some that were in California, but for the smaller city that Clisson, France was, it was large. People were running around all over, taxis coming in and departing, bellhops loading luggage onto carts as quick as they appeared. Her own driver was dragging her luggage out of the boot of the car, grumbling a few swear words in french as he tried to handle her heavy suitcases. She would have helped if the driver hadn’t all but shoved her out of the way when he had picked her up from the airport, obviously he didn’t want her lifting her luggage, how chivalrous of him, she thought dryly.

She caught the eye of a bellhop running around and waved him over, his steps slowed as he switched his direction towards her. She probably should have changed her attire since she had flown from California to France in her ring tailed lemur kigurumi, a fancy asian for onsey. She always flew on longer flights in her kigurumi, they were soft, comfortable, and had giant pockets, making all the stares she got well worth it.

“Bonjour Madam.” The bellhop greeted as he got close enough.

“Bonjour, do you speak English?” She questioned, her french was mediocre at best, she could ask for essentials like booze, swear words, a bathroom, and more booze, but it didn’t go much further than that.

“Yes, would you like me to take your bags for you?” He offered and she nodded her head.

“That would be wonderful, I haven’t had a chance to check in yet but can you please have them sent to the room under the name Anna Taylor?” The bellhop whipped out a few tags and wrote her name down on them before looping it around her luggage. She had no doubt that all elevator wait times were ridiculous, even the service ones were probably crowded with luggage going up to everyone’s rooms, she had no problem waiting a bit for her things to come up to her room. The bellhop gave her a nod of the head and whisked her luggage towards the bellhop entrance. Turning she gave her driver a rather generous tip and he thanked her excessively in french before she gave up trying to understand and walked towards the hotel.

Anna was in France for this year’s Hellfest, a gathering of rock and metal bands from all over the globe. Fans flocked to the event but usually ended up in the hotels surrounding the main hotel which housed all of the talent and their guests. Anna ended up rubbing elbows with some of the people slated to play this year and they had pulled some strings to get her into the main hotel, a blessing she profusely thanked them for. While she herself had no huge international following she would not be happy to run into fans waiting outside her hotel room.

Anna was known in America and a few counties in Europe for her alternative modeling, having gotten a lucky start from larger names like Threnody in Velvet and La Esmerelda that had taken her under their wings. Once designers recognized that she knew their established models they began to include her in their community, offering her jobs that had her flying all over the globe every other week at least. One designer in particular had acquired her quite a following in Europe, AusrieFel, was a latex designer that was throwing more products at Anna to model than she could nearly keep up with.

Since Hellfest was a gathering of all things alternative and dark a lot of designers that Anna modeled for had chosen to also hold a fashion show that week, making it readily available to any festival goers that would no doubt be interested in acquiring a piece or two over the weekend. This also meant that Anna would not only be busy with trying to keep up with her friends all weekend, but also prepping for a fashion show at the middle of the week.

Quite a few people glanced at her oddly as she walked through the front door, the hood of her kigurumi pulled up had a lemur face on it, and the long six foot tail was buttoned to her back. She sent the people staring a smirk, none of them or security tried to stop her as she entered the building, they probably figured she was weird enough to actually belong in the sea of rockstars entering the building. She had to wait a few moments for a concierge to finish with another customer before he turned to her, doing nearly a double take.

“I have a reservation under Anna Taylor.” She smiled at his blatant stare but he quickly typed on his computer finding her reservation quickly.

“Yes, Miss Taylor, it looks like your room has already been taken care of, you will be in room 612.” He slid two cards through a machine and slid them in an envelope towards her.

“Taken care of?” Anna questioned as she grabbed the keys and slid them into the pocket of her Kigurumi.

“Yes, the expenses for your stay are being taken care of by another of the guests.” She could hear him become slightly impatient as a line was starting to form behind her.

“Who did that?” She pressed, she wanted to know which of her friends she was going to beat and then hug. Anna was a very proud person so she hated to have others pay for things for her, something most people in her life knew and either accepted or exploited.

“He wished to remain anonymous Madam.” The concierge pressed a little harder.

“Alright, alright, thank you.” She waved him off and turned to head towards the elevators. The lobby of the hotel was very nice and spacious, large open spaces were decorated with chairs and sofas where friends were gathered reuniting. She looked for a familiar face in the crowd but it was so densely packed that it was like finding a needle in a haystack. She decided to cut through the middle to get to the other side where the elevators were, and was halfway across when a pair of arms wrapped around her and jerked her backwards.

“Mein liebling!!!” The voice behind her was familiar which was the only reason she didn’t freak out and kick the person holding her. After a second she was released and she turned to face her captor, Tilo Wolff. She gave a squeal of delight and threw herself at him once more, excited to see a friend she hadn’t seen in years. She had spent a lot of time in Germany a few years back, working with a designer there and Tilo had been a patron of the designer, giving Anna and him plenty of time to build a friendship.

“Wolff what are you doing here?” Anna pulled away to regard him with warm eyes, looking him up and down to see that he had hardly changed in their years apart.

“I came to enjoy the festival!” He laughed and clapped her on the shoulder. “Come, you have many friends that have missed you!” He began to lead her over towards a large group of people, many she knew and many she did not. She had a moment to be self conscious, usually when she was around people like the rockstars around her she put more effort into her appearance, but as it stood she had on no makeup, was wearing a onsey, and probably had circles under her eyes from the long flight. She took a breath and gripped her confidence tightly, these people were her friends, it shouldn’t matter if she was done up or not.

Anna had barely gotten ahold of her emotions before she was side tackled, a large body ramming into her side and swinging her in circles like a rag doll, she clutched at the body frantically, not wanting to fly out of their grip.

“Hej min vackra!” She was greeted in Swedish and put back on her feet to stare slightly dizzy into the face of Sabaton’s lead singer Joakim Broden.

“Hi Joakim.” Anna greeted him, holding onto his arm until the world stopped spinning around her, but she didn’t get the chance for she was swept up into someone else’s arms.

“Look at our adorable little lemur!” The booming voice of Kosmo Kröger, drummer of HIM, exclaimed in her ear as he crushed her small form to him. She had known Kosmo for a few years having run into him during a brief spat in Finland with a designer that happened to be his sister. She pushed him away though he clung like glue, rubbing his cheek against the soft fleece of her Kigurumi.

Finally she shoved him off and stumbled a few steps away. “Can we please stop man handling me!” She exclaimed looking a the faces of her friends that lined up around her. “My god you act like you never see me!” She chuckled at the crestfallen face that Joakim made at her.

“We never do see you!” He pouted, looking odd for the largely built man with a metal vest on. Anna patted his face and smiled up at him.

“You would get sick of me if you saw me all the time, dear.” She assured him as the group began to return to the section of the lobby that they had taken over. Scattered across chairs, couches, tables and the floor were the members of Sabaton, the individual artists like Tilo Wolff, and HIM. Anna’s heart gave a little hiccup in her chest as she saw them, fighting to keep the flush from rising to her cheeks.

Anna had been in high school at the time of HIM’s debut and once they had reached America with their music she knew she was smitten. If not for the image of their singer on the cover Anna would never have known the face that the poetic, raspy voice she fell in love with belonged to. As it stood she purchased all albums she could, however she had lived in a small town far away from any of the places that HIM toured in the States and had never had the chance to see them live.

She kept up with their activities the best she could as she got older and a career threw itself in her lap, however she always thanked HIM’s influence in her younger years for pushing her to accept the darker side of herself that thrived in her career as an alternative model. Some of her best shoots had happened with HIM playing in the background. When she had first met Kosmo he had yet to become a part of HIM and as such he was one of the few that wasn’t casting a knowing glance her way.

Anna had never hidden her love of HIM from her friends, it was her ringtone, a heartagram was tattooed on her left side, and when they gave her DJ rights it was almost certain she would put on HIM. Tilo gave her a wicked smile as he looked between Anna’s stunned face and Ville Valo who was deep in conversation with Rob Zombie. She gulped and sent Tilo a glare, hoping that he planned no mischief for this week, he was quite the prankster at times and Anna didn’t want to be on the receiving end of any of his plots.

Rob Zombie glanced to the side and caught her eye, smiling brightly at her. “Anna! Come here darling it’s been ages!” He exclaimed, dropping off from his conversation from Ville who turned to look at her curiously. Anna sent him a small smile and walked over to her friend, making sure to not look at Ville let she make a complete fool of herself in front of him. She had encountered Rob earlier this year as he released a new clothing line and she had been recommended to model for him. He had appreciated her love of the darker aspects of his work and had made her model the entire women’s portion of his line.

Rob swept her into a hug as she got close enough. “How have you been? I didn’t know you were going to be here this weekend!” He pulled away and looked her up and down grinning at her outfit.

“I’ve been good, busy as all hell with work, and that’s exactly why I’m here. I’m modeling in the fashion show at the middle of the week.” Anna smiled up at the older man, he was so father like sometimes, besides his macabre personality.

“I will attend then! I can’t forget to support my best model!” He clapped her on the shoulder and turned to face Ville. “Ville do you know Anna?” He questioned the Finn who had just been staring at her his face curiously amused.

“I don’t think I’ve had the pleasure.” His voice sounded like a purr and Anna had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from screaming or fainting, whichever she wasn’t sure since having his dark eyes and rolling accent directed at her made her want to do both. “Ville Valo, I sing for HIM.” He held out a hand to her and she sucked in a shallow breath, throwing a smile she hoped was calm on her face.

“Anna Taylor, alternative model.” She slid her hand into his, it was startling warm compared to hers. Anna always ran quite cold so she usually would end up stealing a jacket or sweater from someone, and if they were somewhere really cold she would force one of her friends to huddle with her to leach off their warmth.

“Bah!” Kosmo exclaimed from beside her and slapped her back, making her send a glare his way. “You sound so modest, you should say alternative model extraordinaire! Goddess of sultry and sexy! Master of latex and lust! Why you could drive any man to his knees here with a simple look!” He boasted from beside her and she laughed at his flaunting of her, turning to smack his arm.

“Shut up, I’m nothing like that.” She chided him giving him a playful glare.

“I think he’s right.” Tilo supplied from the couch across from them and she sent him a sharp look to meet his playful smirk. “I think there is only one way to know for certain though, why don’t we all attend the fashion show you are in this week?” He turned his attention away from her, placing at Ville before raising his voice. “What say you lads, shall we support our girl in her show this weekend?” He addressed all in their little crowd and a cry of agreement went up, a few beers were even raised.

Anna could feel her face flushed a bright red and she wanted to sink into her onsey, she didn’t mind public attention, however it was a difference when the man she had a crush on since high school stood in front of her smirking slightly.

“I think I’ll have to attend the show to see if Kosmo is right.” He said simply and Anna couldn’t stop her eyes from widening. Rob laughed from beside her and pushed her down into the chair he had been sitting in next to Ville.

“I think we have embarrassed our little vixen enough.” He winked at her, but she caught the quick glance he sent over to Ville. Son of a bitch, she forgot that at their last shoot she had put on HIM for background music. “I’ll be back in a bit, I’m going to fight my way to the bar again.” And he disappeared into the crowd leaving Anna stunned and tensed, slowly she turned her gaze to the left meeting the green eyes of the Finn next to her.