Mafia Town was creeping with anticipation, palpable in the way Mafia men bumbled about the town chatting among themselves. The hustle reached its peak when three or four men descended into a complete brawl in the market square when one caused the others to fall over and drop their crates of fruit and fish. Watching the cartoon carnage below, balanced perfectly on a ribbon line, was Bow Kid, with a small smile in silent amusement. What losers...
A celebration was planned tonight, or so Bow caught wind of. If what the Cooking Cat had told her was to be believed, it was primarily for the appearance of a centennial multicolored meteor shower happening tonight, but it wasn't just that - today also marked two of this planet's years since she and her Hat Kid had defeated a red-hooded mustachioed menace armed with God-playing, reality warping hourglasses. Though the Mafia Boss would never admit that he'd found it within his visceral smoothie of a heart to forgive Hat for what had happened to him, there'd been a celebration like this one last year, too. Bow wasn't one to doubt the Cooking Cat, either.
...Where was Hat, anyway? And for that matter where was Mustache Girl? The two had vanished sometime before with Hat citing that Mu needed to talk before the shower. Bow, frankly, was jealous. Maybe it wasn't her business, but she still might've liked to be with Hat right now, instead of alone while those two were doing who knew what who knew where.
As the sun set around her the faint, crisp sound of a familiar etude made her ears perk up. Bow recognized that tune...
Hat struggled to settle atop a vacant hot air balloon. She'd been on one plenty of times before, but she was always alone enjoying the view, and Mustache Girl's added weight made the fabric give in unexpected ways as she scooted over to her friend where she sat, viewing the horizon. It was warm beneath them and chilly above. Together they sat, heads tilted slightly away from one another, the air somewhat thick and the reason they were up here to begin with unclear - at least from Hat's perspective.
She slanted a glance over at Mu. The other girl insistently stared away, shoulders round and her knees drawn up to her chest, where she embraced them. Mu was taller now, but not by much, and even sitting Hat's head went over hers. Gingerly, she laid a hand on Mu's shoulder. "...Are you okay?" she asked finally.
Mu's head snapped around, surprised at the contact, making Hat shrink away a smidgen. But then Mu relaxed morosely, her large yellow eyes softening. "Am I okay," she murmured. "I should be asking you that. Your last Timekeeper mission was really long, wasn't it? We haven't been able to talk in awhile."
"Five weeks," said Hat. She'd been tasked by the CEO of Time to repair a series of Time Rifts on the other side of the galaxy that were worryingly close to collapse, a task incomparably easy when she considered what she'd faced on this planet. "But really, I'm fine. We came up here to talk about you."
Mu had been acting weird even before Hat and Bow went on their last mission. Hat had spent so much time on this planet since declaring it her second home that she was aware of her little family's little tics, and Mu had been setting off all the alarms. Mu flip-flopped between being horrendously antisocial and all over Hat, moods more unpredictable than a collapsing star...well, more than usual. Did I do something to make her upset? Hat wondered worriedly.
"You always say and do stuff for other people," Mu muttered darkly. "I wonder why no one ever gets mad at you for it."
Oh. It was about this. "Mu, I think we both know what you did wasn't for the greater good..."
"Maybe not," she snapped, turning and snarling at Hat. "But it's what I thought I was doing it for. Isn't that what matters?" She turned away again, burying the bottom half of her face into her arms. "Why am I the bad guy for trying to do what I thought was right? Why do you and Bow and everyone else hate me? Why are you two the heroes?"
Hat wrinkled her nose. She swore they'd had this conversation many, many times, but...well, Mu was an anxious person. Maybe she just needed to hear this again. Hat didn't mind so much. "That's not true," she said quietly, putting her hand on Mu's shoulder again. "Bow and I don't hate you. And...Bow and I aren't heroes. If you think about it, we're guilty of the same things as you." Hat's shoulders slumped. "We killed people to get what we want. We were careless with the Time Pieces and everyone suffered because of it."
Such was why almost everyone in Hat's little family had tried to kill her at some point. Getting shanked in a basement was definitely never on the bucket list.
Mu hadn't ever heard Hat talk in that tone of voice...It scared her a little. "Well," she said bashfully. "...I think you're a hero..."
Hat smiled a little in Mu's peripherals. "Thanks." She turned back to Mu with a deep, intense stare. "More importantly, everything turned out okay in the end, right? Bow and me and you are together again and people who hated each other before don't hate each other so much anymore. I'm glad I can be here with you today. I've learned a lot from you, you know."
Hat thought of herself as a blunt person, almost passive in how little things bothered her. The blonde before her nearly destroying the space-time continuum? Not a big deal. Mu almost prayed for Hat to do a complete 180 in that moment and start screaming, though she knew it never would happen.
"I just..." Hat murmured, "wish I could go back and do everything over." She laughed without humor at the resulting expression on Hat's face. "Oh, Hattie. I'm not gonna steal the Time Pieces again."
"Okay."
A long, long silence passed while Hat watched the sun creep ever closer to the ocean, searching for something to say.
Finally, she piped up tepidly. "What would you do differently?"
This was Mu's chance. She had to say what she'd meant to say now, even if the thought made her stomach drop into her pelvis.
She might never have the guts to try again if she didn't.
"I...would tell you I like you sooner, I think."
It was out in the open. Hat's head whipped around at breakneck speed, eyes wide with surprise. "Oh. Oh, Mu-! I never knew you felt that way!"
"I'm sorry!" Mu balled up her fist, gripping fistfuls of her pink dress and stuffing her face into her elbows. "I know you and Bow are...whatever you and Bow are, and I don't want to get in the way of that. Cod..." Her shoulders began to tremble softly. "I'm so stupid..."
Guilt crawled up out of Hat's throat and died, leaving a bad taste in her mouth. She awkwardly put an arm around the girl's shoulders as some show of comfort. Hat loved Mu, sure, but...Not like I love Bow. Hushed sobs rippled from Mu's throat.
Oh no. "Mu," Hat said, reaching for her friend with her other arm. "Oh, Mu. I'm sorry. Please stop crying." You're gonna make me cry, too. "I know!" She pulled away quickly, wiggling her hands with a sudden rush. "I-I'l' play you something. People say they feel happy when they hear my trumpet!" She reached up and squished Mu's cheeks with her palms, faking a smile for both of their sakes.
"Huh?" Mu looked confused behind her tears, a little taken aback. Only Hat would offer something so out of left field..."O-okay, I guess..."
Hat sat back once more, removing her titular top hat and turning it upside down. Then, to Mu's alarm, her entire arm disappeared into it, then the other, and she pulled out a brown instrument case bigger than her head! Hat chuckled cheerfully. "It's magic!" she said. Putting the case on her lap, she gave one jazz hand to emphasize. "Magic~!"
From the case she produced a golden instrument with a peachy sheen to it. It had three valves and a mess of piping that Mu, as a strings player rather than a winds player, couldn't possibly hope to understand. Delicately, Hat stuck a silver mouthpiece into it and assumed a playing position, slipping her thumb and ring finger into the slide rings. She pumped the valves a few times and blew a stream of warm, noteless air into it. "It's not totally a trumpet," she murmured absently. "It's more like a horn from my world. There's a band that practices on my ship sometimes, and their trumpeter called it an 'E flat' trumpet. I think it's pretty."
"It is." Mu laid back to look up into the sky, where the first few stars were peeking through the atmosphere. Resting her head on her arms, she sighed. "...Serenade me," she said with another humorless laugh.
"Alright." Hat took a deep breath. "'An Etude in Time', number one."
There was a certain fascination Mu had always held toward the few wind players she'd encountered in her life, back when there were people like her on this island. The way they held their instruments like babies, the purpose with which they pressed the keys and moved their tongues...
The way Hat kissed that mouthpiece...
And she pointed her bell to the sea and played, loud and proud.
Her face went red with the effort, determined to reach everyone in her mind with this one song. Not one to question the why of things, though she wasn't sure why in the first place, she ignored the mezzo piano mark she remembered from her sheet music and played with the volume and tone she found befitting of this situation. Her spirits soared as blood rushed to her head.
Mu felt Hat's conviction in every note, shaking her to her very core. For being a teenage girl, Hat had quite the pair of lungs on her, strength rooted in her species as well as hundreds of long hours practicing, pouring her blood, sweat and tears into perfecting her craft. Shoulders rigid, Hat played at but one dynamic, and Mu couldn't help but notice that the amount of sheer emotion she funneled into her playing destroyed any subtlety in its delivery, each articulation shrill and harsh.
Then Hat's eyes half-lidded. Her bell fell from its erect position ever so slightly, and with the key change came something...sadder. Hat's volume dropped. She closed her eyes serenely, and let herself be swept away.
She was taken back to a dark, dark time in her life. All around her, Hat's friends brandished fists and knives and unbridled willpower, taking each other down to give Hat the strength she needed to finish Mu off. She saw, with heartbreaking vividity, Bow in the arms of the Snatcher, gasping and dying and bursting pitifully into a couple of red Pons...Hat's final push. The primordial rage and agony on Hat's face haunted Mu's nightmares to this day. In her memories she saw Hat swing Bow's beloved bat over her shoulder, ready to smash Mu into oblivion-
The song ended somberly, tapered but sudden enough to catch Mu off guard. She opened her eyes to feel tears dripping down her face.
"Heh..." Looking up, she spotted Hat swiping at her eyes with a purple sleeve. "Sorry...I, uh, wrote that piece about...when all my friends were sacrificing themselves to help me fight you. It still makes me sad."
"Weird..." said Mu absently. "That's what it made me think of, too."
Hat laughed hollowly as Mu sat up, lowering her horn in embarrassment. "Gosh, that probably wasn't good to cheer you up! It was just the only etude I had memorized, and I love it to bits, so-"
"It's okay, Hattie." Mu cut her off, reaching over and patting one of her cheeks. "I like your playing. A lot."
It was Hat's turn to look taken aback, but it was quickly replaced by a genuine smile of appreciation. "Thanks."
Maybe things will be okay.
It wasn't the end of the world if Hat didn't reciprocate Mu's feelings. Really...I should've known, the moment I first saw them together, that I never stood a chance.
"Hehe!" Hat pulled away abruptly. "Watch this." She leaned a little bit over the edge of the balloon, pressed a button on her trumpet, and blew through it. A waterfall of cloudy water spilled out of it and over the side of the balloon.
"Yuck!" Mu exclaimed.
"I know, right? That's all spit!"
"GROSS!"
For a little while longer the two chatted about Hat's trumpet...and Mu did feel a little bit better.
She'd just needed to hear Hat's trumpet to accept what was long established as the truth. Hat would never love her like she loved Bow. To be honest, Mu would probably cry about it later, but it didn't matter right at this moment - where she was here with Hat, laughing and making memories.
Just for now.
Several days later Bow sat in front of Hat's TV, playing a 32-bit platformer about a corgi when Hat's rear control panel to her right tweeted loudly - a ringtone of sorts. The ship was being hailed. Bow jumped in surprise, dropping the controller by mistake. She muttered curses as her canine avatar fell into a bottomless pit on the screen.
It had to have been Hat and Bow's former bosses, the Conductor and DJ Grooves. They weren't the only ones capable of hailing the ship, but the Cooking Cat was on board at the moment and Snatcher never called anyway, so Bow ruled them out. She zipped over to the panel and "boop'"ed one of the many screens to greet a crystal-clear audio-only call from their bosses-turned-weird-uncles.
Of course, Hat knew none of this. She was stuck in the Machine Room, with the Wowl band, where the trumpeter had put in front of her a particularly difficult piece titled "Sand n' Sails Movement 2: Heatgusts". The rhythms nor time were the issue, Hat reflected with a frown, just the notes; the range of the piece was barely outside what she'd practiced. She read through the music absently, fingering what she could and tightening up her mouth in anticipation.
The trumpeter, a quiet guy named Alex, peeped over her stand then glimpsed up to meet her eyes. "Play it an octave down at first," he suggested. "Don't worry too much if you can't play it right now. It's the first time the rest of the band has seen it, too."
"I'm sure this will go swimmingly," Hat deadpanned.
Alex rolled his eyes. "Fellas," he asked a little louder to the rest of the band. "From the top?"
A chorus of soft "sure"s responded. Alex put his wings up to conduct, gave the band a second to be in playing position, then began counting for them. "One, two, three, four-"
"Wait!"
Hat sighed through her teeth, not one to irritate easily, but practice today was just getting on her nerves for some reason. "What is it, Bow?"
Bow poked her head around a corner, eyes as wide as an owl's. "Phone call," she reported bluntly. "It's the Conductor and DJ Grooves." She clapped a hand over her mouth. "I'm worried about them, Hat! They're talking nonsense!"
"Sounds serious. Hold my horn." Hat stuffed her trumpet into Alex's arms and lead Bow by the hand to another of the ship's computer's many interfaces. "Computer," she ordered it. "Redirect call from living room to Machine Room."
A beep signaled the success of the action. A timid baritone sounded from the panel. "...Darling? You there now?"
Hat smiled. "Grooves," she greeted warmly. "Is Connie there, too?"
"Aye, lass. Good ta hear from ya."
"What's the matter?" She turned to Bow as the girl joined her by her side. "Bow says you're talking nonsense."
"Nonsense?!" Grooves sounded deeply offended. "Why, darling, this is a splendid idea! The Conductor and I are going to do a collaboration project!"
Hat's jaw dropped so far she swore she felt it brush the panel beneath her. Oh. She understood Bow's concern all of a sudden. "I..." she mumbled, exchanging a glance with Bow, "think you guys might be sick. Sit tight. I'll be on the planet soon and I'll bring soup."
"No, no no!" the Conductor barked. "We're serious, lassie! We've got an idea for a sequel to The Big Parade!"
The Big Parade? It sure had been awhile since Hat and Bow had heard about that old stunt. While she remained inclined to blow the birds off as feverish and delusional, she closed her mouth and narrowed her eyes. "Go on..." she said, still skeptical. "I'm listening..."