A/N: This chapter is a little bit of fluff, I hope you don't mind. I promise, the action starts with the next one, so just please stick with me through to the end, maybe another 5 or 6 chapters. Thank you so much! 

A few hours later, they stood in front of the bar, and Mozart inhaled the smoky air, the aftertaste of cigars at the back of his throat. Bar might have been the wrong word to use; pub may have been more accurate. The wooden doors were heavy as he pushed them open. Mozart stood awkwardly at the entrance of the pub, and stared at the crowd. The place looked like it was trapped in the late 1960s, walls plastered with pop culture references from that decade. Most of the patrons were old men and women; they chuckled in the tall wooden bar stools and stubbed their cigars on the countertop. That's why the cherry wood was covered in scorch marks. The cigars also contributed to the haze of an atmosphere, everything could only be seen through the grey sheen, except for the neon sign behind the elevated platform which proclaimed 'Poosie Nansie's'.

"Poosie-" Mozart started.

"Nansie, yep you read it right. Been here for a long, long time. Most of the people you see here today were there on the opening day"

Mozart stood there, stunned but happy. His face filled with a happy grin, and the trio joined the musicians on the stage, Draqueesha and Adrianna had their velvet cases in their hand. They pulled out their instruments, and Mozart walked over to the keyboard that had been set up prior to his arrival. Adrianna swaggered up to the microphone, trumpet in hand.

"Ladies, gents and variations thereupon the divine duo is back... joined by Greg!"

The thumping of the base drum started, reverberating through the wooden beams high above their heads. It beat a rhythm, which pounded its way into Mozart's ear.

The trumpet joined in trembling notes which arced and soared.

Draqueesha joined in with her viola and the deep notes joined the medley.

One by one, the quartet joined in, forming an eclectic mix of jazz and classical. The fifth one stood up to the mike, his deep voice joining in.

They played for the next hour, until Mozart's fingers started to cramp up, and Draqueesha's neck ached and Adrianna's face had long since turned red.

They sat at the bar, laughing and smiling. Mozart wrapped his hands around a steaming mug of hot chocolate with a dash of bourbon. He had insisted that he was underage but the bartender had only smiled her wizened smile and dashed a bottle over the cup.

"You played well today." An old man stood behind him, and his smile crinkled his face, revealing his very pink gums. Mozart smiled, somehow this one old man had made him feel happier than packed auditoriums clapping politely.

"Thank you" Mozart grinned.

"Feels good, doesn't it" Adrianna smiled at him,short brown hair swinging forward and half covering her face, and green-brown eyes glittering with amusement. Her eyes were beautiful, a light brown with flecks of green interspersed within. They were wide and almond shaped, which contrasted magnificently with her sharp and long Roman nose and pointy chin. Adrianna looked rather severe, actually and her cat eye eyeliner only made her look more intimidating.

"Yeah" Mozart looked at the shining rows of glasses, reflecting the light from the wicker lamps. The glass bottles were mostly green or brown, and they cast a shadow of that colour on the wall behind the bar.

"Hey Greg?" Adrianna asked.

"Yeah?"

"You play really well." Her smile made Mozart queasy inside and his fingers tingled. Goosebumps erupted. Adrianna chuckled softly. "Careful with the spiked hot chocolate, your face is turning the red of a thousand burning suns."

"Y'know Draqueesha" Adrianna turned to her right "You sounded different today"

"It felt great", she smiled "something about the bow, it was just perfectly balanced in my hand."

Mozart clutched the handle of his mug tightly and brought the trembling red cup to his lips, gulping half of it down his throat. It scalded his tongue and the bourbon created an unbearable heat in his throat and chest. He forced himself to calm down. Mozart let out a long exhale. Calm. Calm. She didn't suspect anything.

"Woah there Greg. Watch it" Draqueesha looked at him, concerned.

"I- I'm fine." He would have to change the hiding place when they got back.

Mozart reached across the bar, and grabbed a peanut from Draqueesha's hand. He cracked it open and slipped the kernels into his mouth before she could say 'hey'.

"HEY!" she exclaimed "There's a bowl right in front of you!"

"I know that, but food tastes better when stolen from you"

"I must infect it with my perfectness" Draqueesha angled her chin towards the high ceiling, smirking with arrogance. Adrianna reached a hand up and smacked the back of Draqueesha's head slightly, causing her hand to jump and the cocoa to splash out. Mozart laughed as she stared at her ruined shorts morosely.

"Those were my favourite shorts." She said sadly.

"Burn them." Adrianna stated with disgust as she looked at Draqueesha's lap. "Seriously, you're rich. Buy better clothes."

"Yeah" Draqueesha looked away. Adrianna tried to read her face, then bit her lip as she remembered how Draqueesha hated to be reminded of her privileged background and an easy pathway to everything. Not to mention she didn't like how she got that privileged background.

Draqueesha remembered going through her father's things, she was looking for something, and she had forgotten what it was. What stood out in her mind was finding the alimony check. Her mother was a world-class neurosurgeon and as paying for Li Chan. That was a huge amount of money, and her father was a defense lawyer as well. Not a very good one, but a rich one nonetheless. Desperate to change the topic, she turned to Adriana.

"Y'know when I first met Greg here he thought he was Mozart!" Her face lit up with an artificially elated smile.

"Really?" Adriana questioned in disbelief. "No way!"

"True story" he said. "I had one too many pot brownies that day. Never doing drugs again." Adrianna and Draqueesha chuckled in amusement, sipping their hot cocoa.

"Where did you pick him up anyways?" Adrianna turned to Draqueesha well gesturing to Mozart over her shoulder.

"I met him in a cemetery actually." She let out an exaggeratedly long sigh. "I should have known not to feed him, he followed me home." Adrianna snorted into her mug. They made their way through the cocoa steadily, and on the last dregs, a young woman had tapped on Adrianna's shoulder. She smiled bashfully as Adrianna turned around and focused her intense gaze on her.

"My name's Remei" she stated, extending her delicate hand "And I thought you were wonderful." The girl was short and buxom, with blond hair tied back in a braid and muddy brown eyes.

"Pleased to make your acquaintance Remei. How are you this fine evening?"

"Wonderful". Remei beamed an extraordinary smile. Adrianna grinned back. Then through some unspoken communication they both walked out of the pub with scarcely a look back.

"That was quick." Mozart's narrowed eyes followed them out of the door, and his nails dug into the table. "is she?"

"Bisexual" Draqueesha nodded.

"She's a little bit of a flirt, isn't she?" Mozart struggled to keep the slight twinge of jealousy out of his voice.

"Lets just say I'm used to walking back to the dorm alone, that's why I carry this." She pulled a ziploc bag out of her purse, containing a switchblade and pepper spray. Mozart burst out laughing at the image of the short girl bravely fending off a mugger. "Plus she has an apartment slightly away from the campus." Mozart smiled and nodded.

"Look" she began frankly "I know you may be emotionally scarred and damaged and all that crap but why did you run away?"

Mozart looked at her, aghast and appalled by her utter rudeness, and he prayed fervently she would never become a counselor.

"Erm... my dad was not the greatest person. He was actually kind of a bad one. He was what you would call a tiger dad. He continually pushed me passed my limits." Mozart flashed back to his memories; it was easier to tell a little bit of the truth than an outright lie.

He remembered being a seven year old boy; his father had made him play his scales and compositions over and over, for hours and hours. He was let out of the cramped room once, for a bathroom break. Those white and black keys became his life. Darting his fingers over them rapidly became his sole purpose. He recalled his fingers slipping across the keys, unable to gain traction because of his tears making the keys slick. And she stood there silently, watching judging. Whenever he made a mistake, a tendon in his neck would twitch. That fateful movement would make his heart wrench.

"So I ran away. And naturally I tried drugs. For kicks. It wasn't a great decision" He almost wished he had run away, instead of being forced into a future of stuffy neckties and uptight auditoriums.

"I'm sorry Greg. Not living up to expectations can be difficult." Draqueesha struggled to get the words out, unsure of how to approach the situation.

"Yeah." Mozart said simply. Laying the cup down and staring off vacantly.

"What now?" she asked.

"I don't know, Draqueesha. Maybe I'll go make myself a life somewhere."

"You could stay here."

"I could."

"You could join our school."

"Yeah."

"But you can't can you?" Draqueesha looked at him, brown eyes boring into his blue ones beseechingly.

"No." He gave her a sad smile. "No I can't"

"You're not really nineteen are-"

She broke off and looked at Mozart in shock. He was glowing with a strange light. Not bright enough to attract the attention of those sitting near her, but she could see it. His outline pulsed and blurred, as if he was being pulled away. His face was thrown into a slight shadow, and she could have sworn she saw a silhouette of an arc flitting across his face. Mozart's body glimmered with a light rainbow sheen.

"I guess I should tell you what's up, huh." he murmured as he closed his eyes and furrowed his brow. His jaw clenched in concentration, and the glow shut off.

"The dorm will be empty right now, everyone would have gone to bed." Draqueesha was exhausted, but this definitely demanded more attention. Getting up silently, they began the walk to the dorms silently. Not one word was uttered during the entire walk. Draqueesha buzzed with excitement, growing more and more excited as they neared her room, and she pushed him in roughly and leaned against the door, shutting it with a harsh click.