Chapter Text
“And a little too good on piano, so good he's gonna own this place if I'm not careful, Khirye Tyler, everybody.” An electrifying cheer rippled through the crowd, and he smiled, reflecting the energy received from those in front of him, that dream he worked so hard to accomplish. He peered through the pale blue light that shined in his eyes, grinning widely.
Only...
Is someone in the crowd the only thing you really see?
His heart froze. That icy light swallowed her up, and a tunnel closed in around him where her bright eyes that always seemed to be sleepy pierced his chest and made his stomach tie into knots. Purples and blues and pale yellows blurred around her. It always did.
Watching while the world keeps spinning ‘round?
That man sitting beside her whirled into the shadows, the maroon behind her and the little lights on the table spun around him. A sharp needle jabbed into the back of his head as that tablepiece cast a light across her face, a sad little smile reaching up to her eyes.
“Uhh...” The silence was deafening, but only to him, where the quiet din of the audience was watching, waiting for something to happen. He opened his mouth to speak but found his heart in his throat and blood pounding in his ears.
Somewhere there’s a place where I find who I’m gonna be.
“Welcome to Seb’s,” he almost crooned, something deep and low in his voice he barely recognized himself. Maybe it’s the sound of a shattered heart?
This was him now, him without her. It had been her idea -- the name. But it was his dream from ages ago. And it didn’t have her in it.
He wanted it back. He wanted her back. What was the point of this if it wasn’t with her?
What was the point of these white keys, the black keys? There was no point if his gentle notes floated through the quiet room if there was no voice to sing with it, the perfect harmony and the little giggles as she leaned on his piano.
It was an old melody that hadn’t been played in what felt like eons. His fingers remembering the tune just like how they remembered the hand that was once his to hold. His heart breaking as it did before they met.
He was his own boss now, and the pain of deciding to play this piece was almost crippling. The notes reflected it, and soon the black blurred into the white his vision clouded up.
A somewhere that’s just waiting to be found.
The final precious note rang out into the club, echoing in his ears, in his head. The silence between notes to the applause of the audience gave him chills. The stare of the woman in front of him made his skin prickle.
He could only hear her. “No... We should go.” He didn’t see her come in, he didn’t see her stand up to leave. The floor swam in front of him, and when he slowly matched her gaze with his, she couldn't look away.
The hurt in her eyes, that deeply set somber line set into her cheeks, he couldn’t even imagine what he looked like, hiding his face with the bangs that had fallen loose. How could she smile so easily? He tried to match hers, but so much more shattered than a real one.
Sharing the kiss of a tear, and she turned away, gone. Lost, then found, then once more gone. Forever. He pursed his lips slightly, nodding. Turning back to the piano, he breathed in. Out.
Suppress, control, hide.
“One, two, a-one two three four!”
Only as time goes by, does one realize what they've lost.
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Walking out of the club...
Their club? Was that too weird to say?
It was her logo design hanging up on the wall in a neo-blue against red brick, with that silly little barstool that she could never really remember who's it was, but he'd talk for hours and hours about how it was priceless in his eyes. The time spent away, far far away, her memories were so blurred.
But as she turned to walk up the stairs, out up onto the street where her husband was waiting by the car, little seeds of memories replanted themselves, and she was left scrambling to pick up some of her pride off of the floor where that man just inside had always ripped her down to her true, natural self.
He could see her as she was, who she wanted to be. Her real self. And feeling violated, she crossed her arms, running a hand up to her bare shoulder. That sound of jazz faded as the car door slammed shut, and not long after, it was silenced by a rushed breathing and the pounding of Mia’s heart in her ears. David sat down, started the car, and began down the road.
Her husband smiled to himself, humming something gentle under his breath. She looked up at him as it didn't take long for her to recognize what he was trying to mumble. It had been ages ago since she had last heard it, even longer since the time she had first heard it, and the fact it was her husband singing the wrong song, their song, struck a pain inside her head.
David looked down. “Hmm?”
“Oh nothing,” Mia shrugged, plastering on a smaller smile. “You liked the song.” He... wasn't really singing it right either. He missed a few notes here and there as he hummed the last bit of the final strain. He didn't know the whole piece, just the repeating part, again and again.
“How could I not?” David looked away to watch the car cut in front of him as he merged onto the highway. “He played with such raw emotion, just like you do when you act. He definitely played the part of... dare I say pain?”
She fiddled with the small ring on her finger, the glittering gem in the orange light of the lamps along the road. “Something along those lines...” Flattered, yet surprised he could see the pain in him, but not see her as she was now. Maybe she played the part too well.
“It’s a bit far from home, and with Andy, we won’t really have much of a chance to go out often.” He took her hand in his, running his thumb over her knuckles, stopping her from fiddling with the ring before she the jewel slipped out as it had before. “However, is that a place you’d like to go more often now that you’re back?”
Her breath caught in her throat, and her mind did a double-take as she thought through with the wheels of her mind rapidly shifting to come up with something to say. “Let’s not go often.”
“Oh. How come?” He glanced down at her as he changed lanes. The highway rushed behind them, speeding along quickly. She took her hand out of his to swat at his forearm, shooting him a glare.
“Hand on the wheel, buster,” she scolded. “You and your... reckless driving.” Continuing, she withdrew back to find the word needed. “But I guess a place like that, I want it to keep its magic.”
Tread carefully. She didn’t want to ruin what she already had. Not over him, as much as she wanted to.
A daughter.
David nodded, changing yet another lane, with the insisted both-hands. “As in...?” He mumbled, almost absentmindedly now.
“You’re hard to talk to while you’re driving.” Mia pointed out, a small smile finally sneaking up as she watched him slow down to a crawling standstill on the highway. There’s no way they’d make it home in time for her to see her late night-owl girl, running around with her stuffed rabbit cradled against her chest.
“Sorry,” he grinned, turning away from the stopped cars in front to look at Mia. His eyes were soft, but with a sparkle of amusement, and after all these years, it hadn’t faded.
She couldn’t lose this.
“Don’t be.” She paused for a moment to think of the best way to explain, or more really, cover up how she felt about the bar that reeked of fulfilled dreams, yet failed promises. “What I mean is that if, for example, you go to La Palomina too many times-”
“I’d grow bored,” he finished with a small nod, the cars slowly inching forward, and pulling it from park, he moved forwards in the slow line of cars. “So, perhaps anniversary dates?”
“If you can remember!” Mia retorted, an air of humor in her voice.
David gasped in faux-horror, a hand to his chest. “Hey! That’s cruel.”
“Mm you should’ve known what you were getting into when you married me,” she teased, smiling up at him.
“Of course I did.” He took her hand in his, despite the cars shifting around him as they passed the accident in the median. David kissed her fingertips, whispering a soft, “of course.”
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