Fourth Floor Common Room, Friday Evening

[furnaceface]

Well, this was it, then, wasn't it? Once again, they'd reached the last relative day of peace and quiet before the new students shuffled in and workshops got back into full swing. Jono's week had been an eventful one already, between his impromptu jam session with the slightly insane girl who had tried to smash her guitar on the floor on Tuesday,

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[angelo_wings]

The angel on Rinoa's shoulder -- which went nicely with the wings on the back of her duster -- was telling her that she should visit people and spread cheer and be congenial.

The devil -- who was scantily clad and had a fairly impressive rack -- said that she should poke her head in and annoy the crap out of Jono some more.

It was really nice when the two got along like that.

"What are you playing?" Rinoa asked.

Shame she hadn't brought nail polish.

[furnaceface]

Jono glanced up, raised an eyebrow, and then very nearly smiled. Or whatever counted, really. Either way, his fingers continued playing over the strings of his guitar.

//Tell me you've never heard of Led Zeppelin, luv? Stairway to Heaven? Granted, it's one of those songs that everybody knows, but that's really half the draw, I suppose, if I'm going to make the attempt to play things here where people can hear.//

[angelo_wings]

"Sorry," Rinoa said, shrugging. "Music doesn't seem to carry over. No one's asked me if I'm related to Julia Heartilly yet, so I'm guessing you never heard of her, either?"

The angel on Rinoa's shoulder approved of Stairway to Heaven.

The devil liked the song, don't get her wrong, but she would have preferred Highway to Hell. For the obvious reasons.

[furnaceface]

Well, it wasn't as though Jono didn't know that one, too. Give him a little credit, busty shoulder-devil!

//Unfortunately, I haven't,// Jono admitted. //She's fairly famous where yer from, is she?//

[angelo_wings]

"Do you have the expression 'one-hit wonder'?" Rinoa asked. "She wrote a song that took on a life of its own. She wasn't much for the spotlight, so after that she closed up shop. I think it bothered her. She'd written the song for something personal, not to try to have a pop hit, but ... everyone thought the story behind it just made the song more romantic. Instead of understanding what it meant to her."

It had to hurt, to have part of your life history turned into pop culture trivia.

[furnaceface]

Jono winced a little at that, but he kept on playing. This was a long song, after all.

//We have that expression,// he replied. //You don't suppose there were people out there who actually did appreciate the song for what it was?//

Jono didn't need the angel or the devil on his shoulder in order to reach for that particular insight. It was the musician in him that had to ask, especially considering his own career had ended before it had ever moved past pubs and bars.

[angelo_wings]

Rinoa lifted her shoulders easily. "I shouldn't have said everyone," she said. "I'm sure some did. Or maybe they took something else out of it that she didn't put there, but was still deep and meaningful and there to be found if you looked right. But a lot of people just thought it was pretty."

She took one of the chairs in the room as she searched for words.

"I don't think there's anything wrong with that," she said, "just thinking a song's pretty? But I think she ... didn't know how it would feel to have something that personal turn into That Song Everyone Knows."

[furnaceface]

//So it was a recognition that she really didn't expect,// Jono mused, nodding a little. //And the shape it took caught her off-guard. She wasn't looking for fame, then? Just a way of expressing herself when it mattered most?//

[angelo_wings]

"She was a lounge singer, in a hotel bar," Rinoa said, smiling fondly as she reached up to the ring on her necklace. The one that wasn't Squall's. "She met a soldier, and they fell in love. He convinced her she could write a song of her own. So she wrote it about him, and what he meant to her, but he got sent back to the front lines before he ever got to hear it."

Another casualty of the Sorceress War. Which did, Rinoa would admit, make for a hell of a story, if you weren't the person it had happened to.

[furnaceface]

Jono winced a little.

//With a story like that to go with it, it's no wonder the public grabbed on for dear life,// he noted. //I'd ask if you could sing a bit for me, I have to admit that I'm curious, now, but I think I'd feel like I was trespassing on something, if I did.//

[angelo_wings]

"I don't think you would be," Rinoa said quickly. "She was happy that so many people liked it, even when the rest was frustrating. She used to sing it to me as a lullaby. I don't sing it as well as she did, but I could try."

[furnaceface]

//If you didn't mind?//

Come on now. As if Jono would ever turn up the opportunity to hear a song that he never would have gotten the chance to listen to otherwise.

[angelo_wings]

"Not at all," Rinoa said, reaching up to her ring one last time with a nod.

She stood up -- her mother had always said it was easier to sing while standing -- and cleared her throat, wondering if she should just start and if he could fill in as she went. She didn't know what key it was in, otherwise.

"Whenever I sang my songs,
On the stage, on my own,
Whenever I said my words
Wishing they would be heard
I saw you smiling at me
Was it real, or just my fantasy? ..."

[furnaceface]

Jono listened intently, fingers away from the strings for a moment while he got a feel for what it was that Rinoa was singing. And then, quietly, he stepped in with a soft accompaniment of his own, something to sing to, nothing terribly intrusive at all.

It was a thing he did. His guitar wanted to play alongside a voice. It always worked out nicely, this way.

[angelo_wings]

Had he done that just from her singing?! That was an even better superpower than being able to talk in someone's head. And the song sounded so much better with accompaniment rounding out the edges, especially when it swelled and built up to the bridge.

Darling, so there you are
With that look on your face
As if you're never hurt
As if you're never down
Shall I be the one for you? ...

[furnaceface]

Jono listened. Jono listened, and he played, appreciating the words every bit as much as what the song itself meant, his toe tapping against the floor as he kept time with the lyrics.

He liked this. And he'd show as much by smiling as he played, even.