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In one of Air Supplena’s buildings, there was an old piano.
Suzi Q didn’t know where it came from, if it had been there before Lisa Lisa came to live on this island or was bought afterwards, but it had been there before she had been employed in Lisa Lisa’s service. It sat in the corner of one of the sitting rooms, accompanied by couches and small tables, but it wasn’t gathering dust.
Granted, one of Suzi’s jobs was to keep it free of dust, but she much rather enjoyed playing it when she had spare time. She even bought sheet music from the mainland, claiming to the vendors that her employer wanted it, and the island’s inhabitants would sometimes overhear her playing and come listen.
But as of late, with her dear friend and a new rambunctious addition to their lives arriving for training, she had been spending most of her free time hanging out with them instead. The piano had gone neglected.
Today, with her duties momentarily finished and her friends still in the middle of a lesson, she finally had some time to herself. Gathering a bunch of sheet music from the study, she went to the sitting room and got herself ready. She looked through the sheets she gathered: classical pieces, a few pieces from this century, and one that was handwritten with crooked bar lines.
Her fingers danced over the keys as their peaceful sounds began filling the empty rooms. The melody was simple and slow, but it brought a warmth to the heart that soothed any aches it may have. This healing effect didn’t surprise Suzi, who knew of the deep devotion the composer held.
Time passed as Suzi circulated through the scores, playing them in turn. She was so caught up in playing that she hardly noticed anyone entering.
“Huh? Whatcha playing?”
Suzi shrieked as she turned around and saw Joseph trying to look over her shoulder. She gave him a swift punch to the arm, puffing up her cheeks.
“Ow! The hell was that for?” Joseph whined, rubbing at the shoulder she hit.
Suzi put her hands on her hips. “That’s for sneaking up on me like some sort of weirdo, you jerk!”
“Weirdo? Jeez, isn’t that too harsh?” He put his hand on the side of his head. “Seriously…my feelings could really get hurt, you know!”
“Oh, don’t play all innocent!” Suzi huffed, knowing his tricks by now. “Did Loggins give you a hard time today or something?”
Joseph’s attitude did an immediate 180; he dropped to his knees and wrapped his arms around her midsection. “You wouldn’t believe what that lunatic put me through!” he wailed. “I swear, all he does is yells and yells! He wants to slowly torture me to death!”
“Oh, you poor thing,” Suzi sighed, petting his head. He’d only complain more if she pointed out to him (like she had so many times) that Lisa Lisa’s training was necessary for a reason – even if no one would tell her what that reason was.
Joseph let out a little huff. “At least someone understands! You’re the best, Suzi!”
As he spoke, Caesar walked into the room. He took one look at the pair and shook his head.
“Jojo, we’re going through the same training,” he sharply reminded him. “Stop fooling around! We still have afternoon training to do.”
“C’mon, Caesar! It’s called ‘break time’ for a reason, you know?” Joseph argued. “They’re pretty much obliged to let us relax for a while. I mean, we can’t train if we’re dead, right?”
Caesar rolled his eyes, then he looked up at Suzi to greet her. But as soon as he opened his mouth, his eyes drifted past her to where the music sheets were propped up on the piano.
“Is that…?” He pointed to the score currently open on the music rack, the handwritten sheet with crooked bar lines. Suzi only smiled sheepishly. Caesar sighed, “I’m going to burn that damn sheet.”
“Not on your life!” Suzi shouted, pushing Joseph’s arms away so she could place herself between Caesar and the piano.
Joseph looked between the two. “Hey, uh, am I missing something here? What’s going on?” he asked. The Italians ignored him.
“It’s embarrassing and you know it! Why do you still play it?!” Caesar demanded.
“I don’t think it’s embarrassing! You got a high mark on it, didn’t you?!” Suzi flipped over the sheet, to where the number 87 was written in pen and circled at the top of the page. “Besides, I can think of more things that are embarrassing than that! Like the first time you wore that breathing mask that Jojo has!”
Caesar’s face began to flush red. “That’s-!”
“Oh, I can think of some too,” Joseph interrupted. “Something about a pigeon, perhaps? Or maybe you trying to explain to our instructors why you needed binoculars?”
Another swift hit was delivered to Joseph’s shoulder, but from Caesar this time. As Joseph yowled in fake-pain, Suzi giggled at their antics. The fighting never seemed to end, but she had to admit, it sure was entertaining sometimes.
“Alright, now that he’s done being a jackass for now,” Joseph declared, getting a glare from Caesar, “can someone tell me what’s the deal with that sheet?”
“Well…” Suzi turned and picked it up from the piano. “Caesar wrote it!”
Joseph let out a loud “HUH?!” and pushed himself into her personal space to inspect it, while Caesar put his hand on his forehead to hide the embarrassment on his face.
“He did this as a university project at La Sapienza, and he wrote it while he was on a trip over here,” she answered. “He made a tune and sang out the notes, then wrote them down! Gotta say, you’re a good singer!” Suzi teased, looking over at Caesar.
“I’m in a humanities program, one that Master and Signor Speedwagon pushed me to enroll in. They said it would help me continue my family’s work in hunting the Stone Masks,” Caesar reluctantly explained. “We were doing a music unit, about its history and its impact, so our project was to write a song inspired by classical music.”
“Oh, you can sing? Very nice,” Joseph commented in a way that showed there was a smile behind his breathing mask. “I can do music too, y’know! Granny put me in violin lessons, and I can still do some songs on it now.”
“Wow! So I can play piano, Jojo plays violin, and Caesar can sing! We should make a band!” Suzi exclaimed. “Wait, isn’t there some sort of name for that kind of group? Like, a trio or something…?”
“Piano trio,” Caesar answered curtly. “But that required a cello player, not a singer. And I wish you the best of luck finding one, because it’s not me.”
“Aww, you don’t want to play in a band?”
“No.”
Suzi and Joseph pouted at Caesar, and he turned away, refusing to give in to their puppy eyes. He went over to a nearby couch and fell into it with a sigh.
Joseph turned back to Suzi. “Can you play it, then?” he asked her. “Caesar’s music, I mean.”
“Okay!” Suzi chirped, ignoring the groan of exasperation Caesar let out in the background.
She sat back at the piano, flexing her fingers and wiggling them. She then put them back on the keys, playing the slow, soothing melody out through the halls again. To her surprise, Joseph was quiet as he stood beside the piano, earnestly listening to the music.
Suzi repeated the score a couple times after she came to the end, having memorized most of the piano’s sheet music on Air Supplena by heart out of boredom. She enjoyed playing Caesar’s music especially, even if the paper was wrinkled and the handwriting on the sheet wasn’t perfect. To Suzi, the music wasn’t just something created for a project, but proof that her friend had changed from the ruffian who accosted her over Lisa Lisa’s envelope years ago.
–Even so, Caesar had made her swear not to tell Joseph about his past. He claimed that he wanted to tell the truth himself, but Suzi could see through him. He wanted to bury it for as long as he possibly could. Still, she had every intention to keep her promise.
Finally, Suzi’s playing came to an end. She opened her eyes and turned to look at Joseph. “So? How was that?”
“That was…” Joseph trailed off, brow furrowed as he looked for the word to describe it.
Suzi mistook his silence for being speechless and smiled teasingly. “That good, huh?” she snickered. “Well, Caesar would be glad to hear that…huh?”
When she looked over to the couch where Caesar was sitting, she saw him slumped against the couch’s arm and his legs splayed as they fell off. She didn’t need to see his closed eyes or shallow breathing, his lack of movement told her everything.
“No way… He fell asleep?” Suzi remarked. “I guess training’s pretty tiring, huh… But he never fell asleep like this back then.”
“Who cares?! The problem is that he fucking fell asleep at all!” Joseph snapped. “We’re on break, what’s his problem?! He better not come crying to me when Loggins and Messina kick his ass!”
Suzi tilted her head with a hum. “Sounds to me like you’re jealous.”
“Eh- Jealous? Me?” Joseph shook his head as an edge of nervousness crept into his voice. “What do I have to be jealous about? Getting yelled at? Because I’m definitely not jealous of that.”
Suzi gave him a knowing look, as if she was looking right through him. Joseph whined and averted his eyes, unable to maintain his composure when she started getting serious.
She had a gut feeling that he was jealous of Caesar being able to sleep. Besides the breathing mask and the nightmares, the dark rings under Joseph’s eyes were noticeable to anyone on the island. But Lisa Lisa wouldn’t relent, and Joseph had taken to gobbling his food before falling asleep at the table during meals.
“Well, I’ll just play piano for a little while longer,” Suzi replied. “If you help with dusting the room, I’ll make an excuse to Loggins for you.”
“YES! I mean, okay! Sure! Happy to help!”
Joseph gave her a mock salute before starting a hunt for the cleaning rag. While he got to work in her place, Suzi turned back to the piano and turned the page, starting to play another score.
One of the best things about the Joestars’ loft, in Suzi’s opinion, was the grand piano in the living room. Joseph had bought it for her birthday a few years ago.
During the afternoon, and sometimes after dinner, Suzi would go to the piano and play to her heart’s content. She had an immense collection of sheet music, though she sometimes had trouble deciding between pieces she wanted to play. More often than not, she took multiple sheets and books to the piano with her.
While she played today, she looked further in front of her, past the piano. On the long corner couch, she could make out one of her husbands spread across its cushions. Judging by the lack of snoring, she guessed that it was Caesar.
She wanted to scold him for sleeping there, for potentially screwing up his back. Neither of them were young anymore, no matter how much Joseph still acted like a child sometimes. But he looked so much more handsome when he was asleep, so peaceful and far away from the world they lived in.
Suzi smiled. She would not disturb him for the moment. Instead, she took out an old paper from the pile of sheet music she had brought, laminated in plastic to carefully preserve it. It had more wrinkles now, but the writing was still legible.
In the empty silence, she began to play Caesar’s melody again.