Hello my faithful readers! I know I'm updating a little late, sorry, I was up all night writing this chapter. First things first, this chapter mentions Ingrid Michaelson's "The Way I Am," and I do not own it on any of these characters. (cri cri) Read and review, my friends. As always, enjoy the show!

Summary: Zu wants a piano, so Liam and Ruby set out to find one.

"Where in the world is music store?" Liam whined boyishly as he and Ruby walked down the sidewalk.

Ruby too, was paying close attention to the passing storefronts that lined the streets of a little shopping village a ways downtown from their house.

Zu had wanted to learn piano for a while, but being Zu, had attempted to try to teach herself. It was found quite difficult to teach oneself piano without a piano, and so Zu had hesitantly asked Liam if she could get a piano.

"Um…I was wondering if you could get one of those, keyboards. I want to learn the piano, but I don't have a piano. I mean, I you can get it it's fine, really…"Liam had cut her off by there, and assured her it was no trouble and took Ruby by the arm and marched off to the downtown shopping center.

"There! I see it!" Liam said as he pointed at a huge storefront called, "Olivia's Music."

"We'd better hurry, it's starting to get late." Ruby told Liam as they entered the large store with a bell of the door. The clock by the entrance read 9:30, and Ruby was not sure what time the store closed, so she didn't want to risk it. Liam and Ruby now had to a daunting task: find the piano section in this giant maze of instruments and music.

"What do you think of this one?" Ruby asked running her hand over an ivory keyboard.

"Yup, I like this one. I'll go get someone at the front desk to help us pick it up." Liam said. Wondering how late it was, Ruby looked around to find some indication to what time it was, but there were no clocks or windows to give some marker of what time it was, and her phone was out of battery.

Liam returned around 15 minutes later, pale-faced and wide-eyed.

Standing from where she sat on the floor, Ruby asked warily, "What's wrong?"

"I think we've been locked out."

"WHAT?!" Grabbing Liam's wrist to look at his wristwatch, the time read 10:25. "What time did the store close?"

Liam ran his hand through his hair anxiously. "Ten, I think."

Groaning, Ruby took a peek at Liam's phone to find it also dead. "Well looks like we're going to have to what it out until morning."

"Let's go explore!" Liam said suddenly.

"Where did that come from?" Ruby queried.

"Well if we're going stuck here all night, we mine as well entertain ourselves."

Pausing for a moment, Ruby thought, hey, we got nothing better to do, and followed Liam into the breach.

She didn't know how, but Ruby and Liam just somehow ended up by the ukuleles and guitars. Longingly passing her hand over the body of the guitar, Ruby felt Liam's eyes watching her movements. After a few comfortable silence-filled seconds Liam asked,

"Do you play?"

Looking up, Ruby answered, "A little. I played a lot before IAAN hit."

Suddenly very excited, Liam said, "Can you play something for me?"

A bit unsurely, Ruby almost said no, but Liam's puppy dog eyes forced her to say, "Sure…but I warn you, I haven't played in forever."

Nodding his head enthusiastically, Liam plopped himself crisscrossed on the ground like a school child waiting for story time.

Strumming a few experimental chords on a nearby guitar, Ruby was struck with an idea and sat next to Liam. Starting with a long forgotten tune, Ruby started to hum out the first few lyrics in an alto voice,

If you were falling,

Then I would catch, you,

Face brightening, Liam clapped his hands together in a picture of glee.

You need a light,

I'll find a match,

Adjusting her finger's grip on neck of the guitar, Ruby started the chorus of the song.

'Cause I, love

The way you say good morning,

And you,

Take me the way I am.

Singing the next verse, Ruby was hyper-aware of how Liam was listening to every word. Starting the next verse, Ruby smiled and looked at Liam.

'Cause I, love,

You more than I could promise,

And you, take me the way I,

Am,

You, take me the way I,

Am,

You, take me the way I am.

Stopping with a final strum of the guitar, the room was struck with a laden filed silence.

"That was…" Liam's voice was serious. "AMAZING!" When Liam looked up and there were stars and the moon in his eyes.

Giggling suddenly, Liam attempted to sound a tune on a nearby ukulele in a parody of Ruby's smooth music. Screeching off-key, Ruby couldn't hold back full, deep chested laughs that shook her sides and left her breathless.

"Shh," Ruby said between laughs, "if someone hears us in here, they'll probably think we're ghosts."

Looking at Ruby, there only one second of quiet before giggles erupted from their chests and echoed into the night.

Ruby didn't remember falling asleep, but when she awoke, she could keys trying to open the front door.

Springing into action, Ruby shook Liam. "Liam, wake up! The store's opening!" She hissed.

Liam groggily rubbed sleep from his eyes and shifted to stand as quietly as possible. Apparently, that wasn't very quietly at all, as when Liam moved his feet they collectively knocked over several guitars nearby.

"Who's there?" The music store clerk asked warily. Ruby eyed Liam darkly, then released a sigh.

Freeing unfurling tendrils, Ruby slipped into the store clerk's mind without any resistance. She didn't like doing this too people unless necessary, but she'd really rather not go to jail for spending the night inside a music store. Ignoring the memories around her, she simply tweaked a very recent memory to make it look as if she and Liam had just entered the store right behind the lady-clerk.

Pulling back carefully, the woman's eyes cleared and she cheerfully asked if they would be needing any assistance. Liam told her they would only need the keyboard they were looking at the night before. Smiling, the woman left to ring it up on the cash register.

"Sorry." Liam told Ruby as they lifted the keyboard out of the shop. "I know you don't like doing that to people."

"It's fine," Ruby told him. "Besides, she probably heard us laughing from wherever she lived anyway."

Chuckling, Liam turned to close the truck of the car they had put the large instrument in.

Boy, would Ruby have a story to tell Zu when they dropped off the keyboard.