"Daddy?"

"Yes, Mari?" Kousei responded, eyes still glued to the keys of his piano.

"Why does Mommy always call you Friend A?"

The wheels on which Kousei and Kaori's musical journey rode came to a screeching halt as they both racked their brains for an answer. Kousei sheepishly eyed the little girl sitting on the bench next to him, whose expectant blue eyes seemed to pierce into his soul. She was certainly not going to let them go without an answer. He smiled to himself then; she really was the spitting image of her mother, both in appearance and in spirit.

"It's a really long story," he said, as he began to play another song on the piano.

He looked over to Kaori, who nodded with a knowing smile and brought her bow to her violin once more. The happy tunes of Love's Joy took form as the piano and the violin danced in unison.

"I love stories!" Mari replied excitedly. "Tell me! Tell me!"

"Okay, Mari," Kaori cooed. "It all started when Daddy and I were five."

"Like me?"

"That's right, Mari," Kousei replied. "It was Daddy's first performance and, although he didn't know her at the time, Mommy was watching right there in the audience!"

"Wow! Did you say hello, Mommy?"

"No," Kaori said with a chuckle. "Mommy was too embarrassed! Let me tell you a secret, Mari. Mommy used to play the piano just like Daddy."

"Really?"

"Yep! But as soon as she heard Daddy play, Mommy knew the one thing she wanted most in the whole wide world was to play with him so she switched to playing the violin."

"And did you get to play together, then?"

The switch from Love's Joy to Love's Sorrow was so subtle, little Mari hadn't even noticed it. Despite that, Kousei could tell the song was having its effect as her little eyes began to droop. This really was the greatest lullaby.

"No," Kousei replied. "Daddy lost his mommy a few years later and stopped playing the piano because he couldn't hear the notes anymore."

"So how did you start playing again, Daddy?"

"Well, Mari," Kousei started, locking eyes with Kaori, "Daddy met Mommy then."

"Really? How did you meet?"

"It all started with a single lie, Mari," Kaori said. "Mommy was really shy, you see. She didn't know how to meet your Daddy. It took until Mommy got really sick before she finally worked up the courage to."

"So what was the lie?"

"Mommy told Daddy that she liked Uncle Ryota."

"What?" Mari exclaimed, her eyes bulging in surprise. "But that's so mean! Poor Uncle Ryota!"

"Your Mommy was mean!" Kousei said with a chuckle.

Kaori raised an eyebrow at that.

"Mommy always beat Daddy up, yelled at him, and forced him to do things he didn't want to do," he continued.

"To be fair," Kaori added, "Daddy was a bit of a stubborn and mean pervert."

It was Kousei's turn to raise an eyebrow before he continued.

"But one of those things Mommy made me do was to play the piano again."

"Is that when Mommy and Daddy started playing together?"

"Yes, Mari," Kaori replied as she played with her eyes closed and the corners of her lips turned up, as if in reminiscence. "But it took a lot of work to get Daddy back into shape."

Kousei chuckled. He could see Mari's head start to bob up and down as she battled the urge to sleep.

"That's right," Kousei continued. "It took Daddy a lot of help from people like your aunts Tsubaki and Hiroko and your uncles Ryota and Takeshi. Even your piano teacher, Ms. Nagi, helped by forcing Daddy to be her teacher."

"You taught Ms. Nagi how to play?"

"That's right."

"That's so cool!"

"But the one person who helped most was Mommy." He looked away from the piano and towards his wife. "She's ultra-violent, her personality blows, and she leaves the worst first impressions-" Kaori opened her mouth to make a retort. "-but Daddy couldn't help but fall in love with her for everything she did for him. Every time he played the piano after that was for her." They exchanged a smile. "But Mommy was really sick so we only got to play together once before she was stuck in the hospital."

"Were you scared, Mommy?"

"I was," Kaori said, tears coming to her eyes at the memory, "but when Mommy went to have surgery to fix her, Daddy saved me."

"How?"

"By doing what he does best: playing the piano."

A cute snore met Kousei's ears as he felt his daughter's head lean against his arm. They slowed down as Love's Sorrow faded away to Lovely Rosemary. He looked to Kaori, who shook her head as she continued playing their beautiful medley.

"Every day since then has been a dream come true," Kousei said, his eyes closed as he played from memory. "The day you got out of the hospital, I wouldn't have cared if you jumped off of a cliff; I would've jumped with you. The day I found out you loved me back, I was so happy, I couldn't help but cry. Going to high school, making up with my dad, playing in Vienna, and raising Mari with you; it all feels too good to be true. Sometimes, I'm afraid I'll wake up one day and find out none of this ever happened, that I lost you on that day so many years ago."

At last, the song came to a crescendo before its end, leaving them in silence. Kousei kept his eyes closed, afraid to open them to see that she was gone. Instead, a gentle hand cupped his cheek and he felt a familiar pair of lips on his. He raised a hand to caress her cheek.

"Thank you, Kousei," she said finally.

"For what?"

"For giving me a future."

He laughed.

"You're so selfish. I should be the one thanking you."

"For what?"

"For everything."

He opened his eyes and smiled as he looked up at his wife. She held a finger to her lips then and nodded. Gently so as not to wake her, Kousei picked Mari up and followed Kaori as she made for the door of the room, stopping only as something on the piano caught his eye.

"What is it?" Kaori whispered.

She smiled as she followed his gaze towards the two picture frames on the piano. The first one was one he'd seen many times before. In the foreground was a blonde girl with her friend, smiling for the camera, and in the background was a bespectacled black-haired boy walking by. The second picture was newer. In it, a little blonde girl stood smiling, holding the hands of her parents: a lively blonde woman with brilliant indigo eyes and a bespectacled black-haired man whose smile shone brighter than it ever had before.