Hi there! So I actually wrote this sometime last year because I couldn't get the 'verse out of my head. I've left it untouched (ie. unedited) so what you see here is what I left a year ago. I may or may not do one of these for Sheena, there's things about her that I never got to explore.

Anyway, please enjoy!

x-x-x

Time passed.

Not quickly, not slowly; time simply passed in this place.

That was the first thing Zelos really figured out.

It was quite the shock to be drowning one moment and standing in front of a bar the next, but if show business (that cruel mistress) had taught him anything, it was to take things in stride. He was a bit hesitant at first; it looked like a dive, and how did he even get there in the first place? Still, he opened the wooden door and entered. It was nice to be in a real bar for once – he hadn't been to anything but speakeasies for years – and the place was warm, which was a welcome relief. The first thing to really strike him about the place wasn't the bartender (who was giving him quite the thoughtful look) or the other patrons– it was the piano.

Honestly, he almost laughed when he saw it – one of the things that did him in, and here he was staring at it. He was too overcome with adoration for the instrument to laugh, though, and all eyes in the little room were on him as he walked over to it and ran his fingers lovingly over the keys.

Then he started to play, and it was wondrous.

People came and went. Some stayed, most didn't. He tried the door once or twice but quickly gave up trying and resolved to spend eternity at this piano. The only indication of the passage of time was the muttered dates from those who came in for a quick drink and promptly left. It used to be that Zelos envied them for being able to pass through that door so easily, as though it took no effort at all. It used to be that way. Didn't take long for him to get used to the fact that the door seemed to have it in for him. None of that mattered, though, as long as he had his piano.

Time passed.

A lot of time passed.

He really didn't feel it, and yet it still happened. His time was spent either at the piano or at the bar, beating gums with the bartender or a particularly chatty patron. It was when he was at the piano, messing around with some improvisation that someone came up to him and asked,

"You know Moonlight Cocktail?"

Looking up, he was treated to the sight of a gorgeous dame in quite the risqué evening gown. Is that really what women were wearing these days?

"Can't say I do, doll." He grinned at her and asked, "Would you still be willing to join me for a drink?"

She looked decidedly unimpressed by his normally irresistible charms and dashing smile, yet it took one glance around the rest of the bar to convince her that Zelos would probably the best choice in conversation partners. They headed to the bar, where Sebastian had already thoughtfully prepared two glasses of some very fine scotch.

In the short time (only a couple of years, he gathered from talking to others) between Sheena's and Lloyd's arrivals, Zelos and Sheena didn't do much talking. Mostly they performed for their small, somewhat unappreciative audience – Sebastian provided them with sheet music, the origins of which they weren't quite willing to enquire about. But then Lloyd arrived. Lloyd, who – unlike countless others before him – was quite willing to talk, not to mention the fact that he was surprisingly trusting for someone who had grown up in the mob. It was easy (maybe too much so at times) to feed him little lies, to hide little things about his past. There was really no point in doing so except for maybe his own amusement, and maybe the fact that he was a little bit less than willing to admit that he had been a permanent fixture of this place for the past twenty-odd years.

Sheena left.

Then somebody else came, someone who knew Lloyd.

He didn't stay long.

Eventually, Lloyd left too.

People came and went; years passed without warning.

And Zelos played on.