Disclaimer- I don't own Cowboy Bebop.

I've never written a Cowboy Bebop fanfiction before, but I just felt like I had to after rewatching Jupitar Jazz...:) This takes place after the Titan war, and mentions Gren/Vicious.

Enjoy! :)

"Do you hate me?"

"Hate you?"

"He could never love you. Didn't you hate me?" Her soft tone was betrayed by her words.

He stared at her with blue eyes, but the stain of Vicious would never disappear no matter how hard he tried.

"I was glad to know he could love."

She could see the truth reflected in those sad eyes.

When Julia walked into the bar, she saw Vicious. It was gone when she blinked. She opened her eyes and saw nothing but a dimly lit bar and a saxophone.

Every man in the bar watched her, except him. His eyes were only on his music, and hers were on him.

She sat in the corner seat every night, waiting for him to notice her, if only to attract the attention of the only man who didn't want her.

"Play it again."

She always asked for this song, but only because he always smiled a sad smile and played it again.

She wondered if her smile was just as sad.

Her heart sank when he handed her the music box with hands softer than hers. She had known when she heard the song, and so had he. To her the music box meant her broken promises and the smile she would never see.

To Grencia it meant hope and heartbreak and confusion, the loss of his friend and lover, the ending of his world. Julia hated to break the music box open, because she knew she was breaking part of him.

He took it like the man he was, chuckling as he said, "I lost a lot of sleep over this little trinket. And to find out it was was a token from his women..."

Julia didn't know what to say, so she plucked a cigarette from a pack with two slender fingers.

"Vicious was a cruel man." he finished, taking a smooth sip from the heated sake.

"He still is."

"Was it worth it?"

She didn't answer. Silence had always been her choice of words.

He fruitlessly turned the broken music box over and she wondered if every veteran's shoulders were so hunched.

"Do you miss him?" she asked. He didn't meet her gaze.

He peeked at her through long bangs. "Was it worth it?" he repeated.

She felt her lipstick crack as she smirked. "Worth what?"

"Leaving him."

The words stuck in her throat. Here she was, a woman who had left the very man that Gren had longed for.

"Yes."

"This Spike of yours must be quite a man."

"He is."

Gren reached for the pack of cigarettes, then stopped himself at the last moment. "I wouldn't mind meeting him."

She tapped her ashes into an old ashtray he'd put on the table for her. How thoughtful of him.

He finally answered her question. "I wish I had never met him."

Vicious was a man true to his name. She could tell how badly he had betrayed Gren by looking at the transmitter lying on the table between them.

Or so she thought. It wasn't until Gren unbuttoned his blouse that she truly learned how badly he had been betrayed, exactly how much sleep Gren had lost because of him. She had never hated Vicious before, not really, not even when she'd tried, until that moment. She slid her polished fingernails from his Adam's apple to the cleft of his breasts in one solemn, bittersweet moment.

His hand reached out to stop hers.

"You've paid a heavy price."

"So have you."

He didn't seem to mind when she rose from her seat and excused herself. He knew she would be back the next night, asking for the same song.

"I hope you find your mismatched man."

She looked slightly startled, so he pointed to his eye, and she relaxed.

"You too."

Gren didn't sleep that night.

Do you have a comrade?

Reviews are love! :)