The haunting strains of a cello filled the dimly lit lounge hall of the Last Note, a composition that, rumor had it, one could only hear there.

In point of fact, that was quite true, since the composition was never named nor recorded, to my knowledge. Of course, that was true of every composition that I played now, which was a relatively consistent test of my abilities even after ten years of playing this particular stage.

Adagio’s backlog of composed material turned out to be quite extensive, number in the four or five dozen compositions, to the point that some even whispered that I had found some stash of masterpieces lost to history. It also qualified Adagio for a record of some kind I’m certain in terms of number of compositions penned, although in the defense of mere mortals, she had far more time to do so.

Amusingly enough, I can’t say that aforementioned rumor is particularly inaccurate which at times makes me feel as if I’m a bit of a fraud, but Adagio wouldn’t let anyone else but me play her music so needs must, I suppose.

With that said, I could hardly keep the smile off my face today, and a very small part of me felt a bit petty about the nature of my good mood.

I’d heard, through the grapevine, that none other than Stalling Reins was being indicted on better than two dozen counts of discrimination among a laundry list of other accusations from sexual harassment to nepotism.

Of course, everyone and their dog knew the only reason he was being thrown under the bus now was for the markedly poor performance the Orchestra has shown over the past several years. His mismanagement had apparently encouraged terribly high turnover, which I’m a bit pleased to say began with my own egress from the organization, and that in turn resulted in a string of subpar tours that put him well out of the good graces of the wrinkled old relics he was so eager to please.

Without his societal shields, all of Stallings dirty laundry and awful business practices eventually came back around to slap him wetly in the face like a pair of improperly used undergarments.

Oh yes… today is a good day.

My fingers played up and down the neck of my cello with an easy familiarity, and I relished the comfort the action brought. It had been quite some time since I’d played this particular piece, but it was an old favorite of mine and given the recent events I felt like digging up something sentimental.

And what could be moreso than the very first true composition I ever learned under the tutelage of the woman who would later become the love of my life?

“Feeling nostalgic, darling?”

I blinked, knocked from my mental reverie by a familiar, mellifluous voice. I glanced up and over the empty lounge room at Adagio who was standing in the doorway entrance. She was wearing her long, golden evening gown, the scaled one that I’d found so charming, and her hair fairly floated around her.

I felt a touch under-dressed, I was still in my gray, terry-cloth bathrobe, slippers, a cotton tee-shirt and sleep pants. In my defense, my day didn’t really start til the evening, and it had been Adagio’s turn to do all of the little morning rituals.

“I’m surprised you still remember that one,” Adagio teased as she entered the room, her hips swaying seductively in a manner I had never quite decided was purposeful or just a side-effect of her delicious proportions.

“My darling wife, if I ever forget one of your compositions you are free to punish me however you wish,” I said cheekily as I set my bow on the stand.

“Aren’t I free to do that anyway?” Adagio replied, her voice taking on a smoky tone,

I blushed but didn’t look away. “Mm, perhaps so…”

As she moved between the evenly spaced tables of the lounge I appreciated, not for the first time, how Adagio wore her years with such extravagant grace. Had she been human she would have been a shade past thirty-four, or thereabouts, and yet the years hardly seemed to touch her.

I did my best to take care of myself but, as I had suspected, I inherited my father’s natural inclination towards graying early as I’d found more than a few silver hairs hidden among my dark locks over the past few months.

Perhaps it’s a sign of my faith in Adagio that I didn’t even consider dying my hair… I knew she would love me regardless of how I looked. Still, since joining her little work-out regimens some years back I feel confident in my health and appearance at the very least.

I sat my cello aside as Adagio mounted the stage and held out a hand to me.

Sighing, I rolled my eyes and took it, rising from my seat as I did. I knew where she was going with this… Adagio was a delightfully romantic woman.

As soon as I was standing Adagio raised her free hand, snapped her fingers, and somewhere in the audio booth, someone flipped a switch.

I supposed that it was likely Sonata, as Aria was unlikely to be awake since it wasn’t yet more than three in the afternoon. It might have been Sonata’s partner, of course… oh, who am I kidding, if either of them were up there the other one would be as well.

Sonata Dusk was rarely out of her the company of her lovely little nerd.

A lively waltz flowed out of the speakers and I turned to face Adagio, resting my left hand on her shoulder and as she took hold of my right.

The music rippled about us and we whirled around the familiar steps as Adagio held me close, and I sighed happily as I rested against her, letting her lead and carry me in her arms. Bathrobe or no, Adagio always knew how to make me feel like a princess.

As the waltz struck the crescendo, I moved to the music, moving in time to every beat as we stepped out and around one another, spinning in time before reaching out to clasp hands once more as Adagio pulled me in, spinning, til my back came to rest against her hand, the back of my head resting against her shoulder as I stared up into her eyes for a brief moment before the music rose again and was spun out of her arms once more.

Adagio pulled me close one final time as the song trailed off and closed, the strings fading as I stared up at her with a deliriously happy smile on my face.

“What did I do to deserve you, darling?” I asked, feeling a slight welling of tears. “To deserve… all of this?”

“I rather think I should be asking that question, my love,” Adagio replied, her voice filled with somber warmth as her hand snaked around to rest just above my backside. “However did a beast of a woman like me catch the heart of such a flower?”

“Granting how long I spent looking for you,” I said evenly as I pretended not to notice her hand sliding downwards until it rested on the curve of rump, “perhaps it’s a matter of my own choices.”

“No accounting for taste, then,” Adagio teased, before giving me a squeeze and pulling me into a kiss.

I moaned softly against her lips as she dragged me closer. In our ten-and-change years of marriage, Adagio had gotten no less forceful in her affections, something I was quite grateful for as I have never stopped enjoying them.

My lips curved into a smile as I felt her hand slip past the elastic waistband of my sleep pants and down, around my legs, to rest against my nethers, and I shivered as I felt her slip a finger inside.

“Well, hello there,” I said in a slightly breathless voice as I did my utmost to keep my knees from knocking together, “c-can I help you?”

“Mm… I don’t know,” Adagio replied with a playful smile as her finger pressed gently inside of me and I gasped, clinging to her to keep myself upright. “I haven’t quite decided what I’m looking for yet.”

‘A-Adagio, darling, please,” I gasped again as she twitched her fingers, “y-your sister is u-up there and-”

“I told her not to stick around after starting the waltz,” Adagio countered easily as she slipped another finger inside me and I stifled a loud moan by biting the sleeve of my robe.

“O-one of the e-employees could-” I started again, my voice muffled by my terrycloth bit.

“They don’t come in for another hour and you know it,” Adagio whispered back, her smile becoming absolutely predatory.

“I h-haven’t even showered ye-”

“I don’t give a damn,” Adagio hissed over me.

“Mmm…” I groaned quietly as I let her go to work on me, and I could feel her relaxing at the same time.

By the time I came, and Adagio had her own satisfaction, my legs and arms were delightfully rubbery, and I was resting upright only by dint of Adagio’s firm grip, with Adagio sitting in the chair I’d been occupying earlier and myself in her lap.

“S-Stressful morning, then, dearest?” I said after a moment.

“Those wretched harridans in the PTA make me wonder if Sirens still exist in this world,” Adagio replied aridly as she stroked my hair, “they certainly inspire me to hitherto unseen heights of violence.”

“You’ve far more patience for their jeers and nasty looks than I do, my dear,” I replied as I nestled against her shoulder and sighed happily. “If I had to endure more than one of those meetings in a row I’d surely be jailed for homicide, justifiable though it might be.”

Adagio shifted in the chair then made to stand, giving my bottom a firm pat as she did.

“You should clean up, she’ll be home soon,” Adagio chided me playfully, and I smiled up at her happily, leaning up to kiss her on the cheek.

“Oh, I suppose I can stand one shower without your presence, Dazzle,” I joked back as I walked towards the backroom, sashaying my rear a little for her as I did and called out before vanishing around the corner: “Be out in a moment!”

“Tease me like that again” Adagio called after me, “and I’m liable to follow you back there and really give you a thrashing.”

I leaned back, peering out the door and fixing my wife with a smoky look.

“Promises, promises,” I teased, before licking my lips and retreating to our shared room and shower to the sound of muttered, flowing Sirenic oaths.

My ablutions were short and I emerged only ten minutes later drying my hair, wearing my blouse, bow-tie, and a pair of low-cut jeans that Aria had bought for me which, I had to admit, showed off my meager curves nicely. I made my way towards the large kitchen area of the dining chambers, one of the newer additions to the Last Note, finished just a year and a half ago, to scrounge up some late lunch.

‘Mama!”

My face split into a wide smile as I stepped into the kitchen and was body-checked by a small missile of adoration, her slim arms wrapping around my waist and the wind went out of me as she head-butted my midriff in her eagerness to reach me.

“Oh dear,” I gasped, staggering, and I watched Adagio cover her mouth and shake with silent laughter as I hugged our daughter while simultaneously gasping for air.

“H-How was school, Serenata?” I asked, trying to keep the choking to a minimum as I looked down at her.

She stared back up at me with a toothy smile, and my heart melted all over again, as it always did.

Our daughter was so beautiful.

She was seven years old, with her hair cut to a short inky bob tapering to a sharp widow's peak. Serenata had Adagio’s statuesque frame and build, so she was a bit taller and broader than most of the other girls and quite a few of the boys. She had a dark gray complexion, closer to my father’s than mine, but her eyes were an almost identical shade of mulberry to mine, and in turn my mother’s.

I will say that she lacked any of the guile or causticity that her mother and I shared, more favoring the guileless humor of her aunt Sonata.

And, naturally, as her final gifts from the last of her Aunts…

“I won at soccer today!” she cheered.

“She got detention for kicking the ball into the goalies face on purpose,” Adagio said dryly.

“I got it into the goal…” Serenata countered a little sullenly.

…Serenata had unfortunately inherited her Aunt Aria’s sense of ‘fair play’ and belligerence.

“You do realise that probably hurt quite a bit, right?” I admonished her, and Serenata stepped back glaring down at the floor.

“He’s a bully anyway,” she said replied with some annoyance. “He tried to take Canta’s pudding cup.”

I raised an eyebrow at that and glanced up at Adagio whose eyes were a little wide. She shook her head at my unasked question, so she hadn’t known either, and I looked back at Serenata.

“So what did you do?” I asked.

Serenata smiled wickedly. “I dumped my soda on his head and called him a wiener.”

“PFFFFFFHAAAAHAHAAHAHHAHAA!”

Uproarious laughter echoed from the other side of the room and I scowled.

“Eat your bloody cereal, Aria,” I snapped, shaking my fist at the half-naked ex-Siren who was chortling into her marshmallow bits at a table on the far end of the kitchen.

“Yeah!” Serenata chirped, “eat your bloody cereal!”

Oh no.

Aria’s laughter redoubled and she toppled out of her chair, and I clapped my hand over my face as she did so.

“Oh good, discussing that little verbal development is going to make the next PTA meeting much more entertaining,” Adagio said cheerfully.

“Serenata, darling, mommy said a bad word,” I knelt beside her, laying my hands on her shoulders. “She got upset and lost her temper, but that’s not a word you ought to use, alright?”

“Why?” Serenata asked with a bright, inquisitive smile.

“W-Well, because… it’s rude,” I replied, flailing for an answer she would understand.

“Then why did you say to Auntie Aria?” Serenata asked, her brow furrowing cutely.

I groaned.

“Because your Auntie Aria tests my patience dreadfully,” I answered evenly, “and, as I said, I lost my temper.”

“So if I get mad I can say it?” she asked, her smile returned with double the force.

Oh dear.

“T-That’s not what I-” I glanced over at my wife plaintively. “Adagio… help me!”

“Oh no,” Adagio raised her hands in surrender, “I’ve been up since six this morning, mommy Adagio is tuckered out, and besides you dug this hole yourself, my Melody.”

I clapped my hands over my face and groaned.

“Bloody perfect.”

“Bloody perfect!” my little echo chirped.

I chuckled quietly as I dragged my hands down my face, and a moment later my chuckles turned to laughter as I dropped down to my rump and pulled Serenata into my grasp. She shrieked in delight as I wrestled her to the ground, her small arms swatting playfully as we tussled.

“Do not!” I tickled her mercilessly, “use the word ‘Bloody’!”

My command went unheeded.

“Bloody!” She shouted at the top of her lungs and I made a mock yell of outrage and stood, hauling her up with me and holding her upside down where she flailed yet more against my.

I gave my daughter a brief shake, and she giggled, gasping for breath with her blouse askew and her hair falling wildly around her face as she smiled up at me. As she did I noticed something, and my eyes narrowed.

“Darling dear, where is your bow tie?” I asked suddenly, and the humor fled from Serenata’s tiny face in moments.

“I… I lost it when I was playing soccer…” she admitted dolefully, and I sighed as I slowly lowered her to her feet. “I… I’m sorry…”

And she genuinely meant it, I could tell. The subdued tone of her voice was quite out of character for her normally unless she felt she’d done something wrong.

“It’s alright, dear,” I said gently, pulling her into a hug. “But you must be more careful with your things, alright?”

“I know… I didn’t even notice it had come off until…” Serenata sniffled and wiped at her eyes, and my heart melted all over again. “I’m sorry…”

“You have more,” I said encouragingly, patting her head as I did. “Just be careful next time.”

“Why do I need to even wear it?” She asked in a huff. “I’m not doing anything fancy.”

I smiled as I ruffled her hair, glancing up to Adagio as I did who rolled her eyes and nodded before moving in and kneeling next to me.

“Because,” Adagio said gently, “whether you are playing music for a crowd, or pummeling a bully with a soccer ball,” she began, reaching into one of her cleverly hidden pockets and drawing out a loose band of silk, “you are still a lady.”

“Indeed you are,” I agreed as I reached out and settled her blouse correctly, “and remember what we’ve said about being a lady?”

Serenata rolled her eyes but nodded. “A lady is never without her bow tie.”

“Right you are,” Adagio voice was bright and pleased as she wrapped the silk tie around our daughter’s neck neatly, then tied it off.

“Hey! Sera!” Another familiar voice called out, and I looked up to see Aria and Sunset’s daughter, Cantata, peek around the corner. “Come play!”

Cantata was smaller, by about half a head, and more delicate than her cousin. She was as mischievous as she was angelic with her tumbling, many-toned ringlets and cherubic face, but the pair of them were as close as sisters and Serenata was fiercely protective of Canta, even moreso than she was of the twins. The young girl had a dancer’s build and a soft heart; she cried easily, and nothing made Serenata madder than when someone made Cantata cry.

“Can I?!” Serenata turned and looked up at the pair of us with bright, hopeful eyes, and I sighed.

I really ought to say no, she did get detention after all, but…

“Oh very well,” I replied after a moment, giving her a light shove towards Cantata. “But stay close by!”

“Auntie Sunset is outside with us!” Serenata called back as she raced off, grabbing Cantata’s hand as she did.

“I think that went well,” Adagio said with some satisfaction.

“Hey Canta! Wanna hear a new word I learned?”

Oh dear.

Author's Note

We Have Come To Terms