Time After Time

He looked up at London's sky. It was bright, pale, beautiful blue. Gustav inhaled and exhaled slowly, enjoying the feeling of air in his lungs and the ground below his feet—and just enjoying his life. He walked home where he found her, reading the last book from The Dark Tower series with his cat—or maybe he should start to call Sampson their cat—lying on her lap.

“Welcome home,” Rose smiled and Gustav smiled back. He must be grinning like an idiot now. He looked at her and the excitement in his face made her said, “What is it?”

“We made it,” he said, stuttered in happiness. “We signed new contract and we're going to big tour in US. Now I have so much money, Rose. I can buy you everything! Do you want something? Another cat? A dog, maybe? New car? We can also move to better house...”

Rose laughed in sheer delight. It was such a pleasure to see that she was just as happy as him—and she was happy for him too.

“Rose, seriously, I can buy you anything that you want!” Gustav exclaimed cheerily.

She chuckled as she stood up and put Sampson aside.

“Do you... do you want something? Anything?” he was still grinning he could start to feel that his cheeks were hurt.

“Oh, yes, I do want something.”

“Yeah? What is it? I can give it to you.”

“A hug.”

“... huh?”

“A hug, Gustav.”

“What?”

“Hug me. Just hug me.”

And as he hugged her, he knew realise what does it means when people said that there are things in this world worth more than money, that money couldn't buy you such a great happiness...

“I can buy you a new house or private yacht and you want a hug?” he whispered.

“Why in the world would I want a yacht?” she giggled. “I want you. Just you. Not the money, not the fame, not even your cat—well, maybe a bit...”

He felt like he was back on that pathetic Granny's flat of his back in Illawarra escarpment. He was in a bad shape, he stayed in ugly, cheap accommodation, and everyone ignored him—but she wanted him in the worst moment in his life.

And now, when he was in the best moment in his life, she still wanted him for the simplest thing. And Gustav know it would never change.

And then he woke up.

Gustav blinked to feel that there were tears in his eyes. He sat and stroke his eyes abruptly. It wasn't abnormal to have tears in your eyes when you just woke up from sleep, but that was something entirely different. He hugged himself as he shuddered, thinking about how magnificent it would be if that dream comes true—he didn't even dare to dream of living with Rose in London.

He looked at his phone on the table next to his bed. Five in the morning. He felt the weight of sleepiness pulled him back to the bed and before he knew it, he fell asleep again, hoping and wishing to continue his beautiful dream.



Fraser Taylor was waking up to the sound of piano playing somewhere in that house. He sat and he tried to recall where he was. He wasn't home, to be sure. He wasn't home a lot of time because of touring, so this didn't surprise him. What surprised him, as he thought sleepily, was that someone played piano so early in the morning. It wasn't Ben. He knew how Ben played piano and that was totally not his style. It sounded a bit rusty, as if the player hadn't play piano in ages, so it was obviously not Ben—but then who...?

“Woof.”

The big, white, furry Samoyed dog was smiling, panting with his mouth open in front of him.

“What the fuck?” Fraser laughed.

It was still dim outside. He remembered slowly that he brought the dog with the famous vampire name to sleep with him, like always, because he liked dog and any cute animals and he'd like to be with them as long as possible. Then he remembered Lestat's owner and that they were in Canberra and that he was drunk last night and that his head felt strangely not heavy considering the amount of alcohol he put into his body a couple of hours ago...

Upon seeing Fraser awaken, Lestat apparently decided that it was his time to rest. So he lied down and sleep, while Fraser sat there, listening to the familiar melody... he didn't know that Rose played piano. But if he think about it, she did look like people who play music just because she likes it.

He stood up and decided to find the room where they kept the piano.

The reason why he could hear the piano clearly was because his bedroom's door was slightly opened. He walked, following the sound, and it felt magical. Like he was walking in a dark tunnel, trying to search a glimpse of light in the end of darkness...

And there she was.

Staring down at the tuts, her hands moving like dancing. Fraser just stood there, looking at her back, until she finished playing. Then he clapped his hands and she gasped.

“Oh! Fraser... good morning,” Rose smiled.

Fraser jerked his head into the piano.

“I don't know you're playing piano, Rose,” he said for his 'good morning'.

She chuckled, “Chopin's Nocturne. Op. 9.2 in E Flat major. Not a very difficult song to play... since it's been awhile since I play...”

Fraser walked closer to her and that when he just realised that they were in a big, round room with bookshelves around them. There was a strong smell of old book in the air and there were a couple of non-uniformed sofas all over the place. It was easy to tell that they were in a room where people play music, relax, and read book.

Rose closed the lid of the piano slowly when Fraser looked at her again.

“Do Gus knows you can play piano?” he asked, just so they had something to talk about.

She shook his head, “Should he knows about this?”

“I think it would make him pretty happy,” Fraser snickered and Rose smiled—but she looked confused at the same time. “I mean, you can play musical instrument and stuffs... I'm pretty sure he'd be happy to know. After all, he's...”

He stopped. He didn't know whether he should continue to say how he believed that his best friend was completely and utterly in love with her. She seemed to notice that as well, but Fraser knew Gustav; if he wants it to be 'official', he'll make it official.

“... he... he can play guitar, so...”

Rose smiled and Fraser just realised that he had never been standing this close to her that he could see clearly how her eyes squint when she smiled.

“He can? He never play guitar in front of me,” she said, almost politely.

Fraser stared at the piano again as he sighed—it might be good to drove them away from that topic because he felt slightly guilty by talking about Gustav behind him, especially with someone that he thought special for him.

“So, Rose, you haven't play piano for awhile. Why?”

“I don't need to.”

Fraser laughed, “So why do you need to play it in the first place?”

“So people will like me,” she answered, naturally, as it was something as obvious that fish will die if you scoop it out of its aquarium.

“Huh?” mumbled Fraser.

“Because, back then, I thought if I can play piano, people will like me more,” Rose smiled widely, but he could see that she wasn't really smiling. She looked a bit sad when she said that, so Fraser remembered the time when they were in Gilbert's house, where Rose told them that she wants to be a mother and that she had no parents and considerably sad childhood...

“Does it... worked?” asked Fraser, who didn't really know how to respond.

“Not really,” she chuckled bitterly. “You see, I don't really remember what happened after my parents dead. But I do remember that they move me around, because no one liked to have me in their house... so I moved and moved and moved all the time. I made friend and then I needed to move to different place. I liked a place, I met nice people... but in the end, I had to leave them behind.

“It frustrated me quite a lot, you see. And people always seemed to dislike me... I mean, the family that I was with. They only looked happy when they finally got the chance to throw me into some other families, into another house... and I felt sad about it. I didn't know what I did wrong. I just wanted to stay and make friends and all those things... just... being normal... I wanted my parents, so much, but they're dead, so I tried to be more likeable. I did well in school. I was being nice. I learned how to play piano... but nothing seemed to change. Not until Angela took me when I was thirteen—oh God, I'm so sorry, I didn't meant to tell you such a gloomy story in the morning...”

But Fraser shook his head and whispered, because he couldn't speak out loud for reasons he didn't understand, “... it's... okay.” He didn't know what he was feeling. It felt like he was sad, but also angry at people in Rose's past. He knew that there are some despicable people in this world, who would despicable thing, even to such innocent people like children, but it still saddened him.

He stared down at Rose who was sitting in front of piano and she looked so innocent, so fragile—and now she looked guilty because he must be looked quite angered by her story.

“I'm sorry,” he mumbled. “I just... I'm sorry.”

Rose nodded, “It's okay. It had passed. I'm okay now. I can live on my own and I keep finding people who like me.”

Fraser shook his head, “Why were they so evil to you, Rose?”

“I don't think they're exactly mean or something... I mean, life is hard for them, I guess. They're all immigrants—I mean, my parents and their relatives. After they moved to Australia, they started their life again from tiny dormitory so they can move to better house and stuffs... and suddenly, when life gets a little better, they need to have me in their house. I understand that it was annoying. So they move me around and I was so scared I would run out the number of people who would take me as time goes by... I just wanted to go home. I just wanted to feel that I belong to something, someone...”

Her voice disappeared and Fraser didn't say anything. He just looked at her and be there for her as he snickered.

“Those bastards,” he said. “They missed the chance to get to know how nice you actually are.” Fraser scoffed.

Rose smiled and he felt so much better by seeing her smiling, even though his anger was still with him, like water ready to boil. He sighed and she must noticed that, because she said, “Say, Fraser, do you think you can teach me how to play guitar?”

He was startled for a second before managed to reply, “Yeah. Sure. … but why?”

“Because I think guitar sounds beautiful. I want to be able to play it.”

And Fraser smiled, big.

“Call me 'Teacher' from now on,” he snickered as he agreed.

“Okay.”

“Haha, no, I was just kidding.”

They laughed. Rose then closed the piano and they walked to the kitchen, where Fraser helped her to prepare their breakfast.



“So, where do you guys want to go today? Art museum? Parliament Building?” Rose asked to Fraser, Gustav, Si, John, and Ben who were eating their bacon, egg, and salad with such a slow speed.

“I don't know,” mumbled Si, and then everyone proceed to copy him. Rose chuckled by their response.

“Let's just rest, then?” she raised her eyebrows and everyone nodded. She looked at Lestat, who lie down as he ate his breakfast. “... okay. Let's just call it an off... day-off.”

Rose finished her breakfast first. She put her plate on the sink, went to brush Lestat's fur, and then sat on the veranda while reading newspaper. When the sun finally start raising properly it started to get hot, she finished reading an article about Saint Petersburg and decided to buy ice cream or something. But then he saw Fraser with two guitars and she smiled.

“I reckon today would be a good day to start.”

Rose clapped her hands like a child and Fraser beamed at her with big smile.



Fraser Taylor couldn't remember whether he had teach anyone how to play guitar from scratch before. Fraser loved teaching her to play guitar. To be obvious, she was not the brightest guitar player that he knew but she was willing to learn, she progressed rapidly in hours, and, the top of everything, she could stare at him and she could tell whether they should or should not continue the lesson that day, even though Fraser didn't say anything.

If there was anything magical about Rose Lette, that would be her ability to read people.

That was actually one of the best Gustav's quality as well. He was such a sensible man with good understanding of what's going on and love being involved with people.

But Fraser secretly wanted to roll his eyes whenever he saw Gustav anywhere near Rose. Because he was so in love with her it was so painfully obvious.

It had been obvious for anyone with a pair of eyes, really.

It was kind of cute, actually. It was like seeing a very diligent, smart, and discipline student in a class suddenly trying to impress a new teacher that he had managed to fall in love with. But Gustav was better than that. He was a grown up man, not just an immature student. But it was still too cute, because sometimes, even Fraser forgot that Gustav was twenty eight years old and he hesitated to hold Rose's hand in so many occasions—and they lived in a world where teen pregnancy is a national issue. It was like he was so pure. Even too pure, but Fraser like it that way. It felt like humanity still has hopes—that there are twenty eight year olds who still look at someone they love like they made out of pure gold and shouldn't be touched just like that.

It hurt Fraser a little to know that Gustav wouldn't make any move on her because he was still suffer from his state of being unable to sing. It was such a big deal that Fraser just knew that Gustav would trying so hard not to hate Michael Jones-Andretti, the creepy old dude that Rose dated, just because he was her ex-boyfriend and he had the capability to help her, while Gustav had not.

Not to put aside that Michael Jones-Andretti somehow looked like he still wanted to get inside Rose's pants. Fraser couldn't really tell. Michael Jones-Andretti pulled the most perfect poker face in the world. He was so grown up he looked like a really old man in Fraser's mind. He was so in control that sometimes Fraser felt like he just wanted to do a standing applause for Rose for somehow made such a man fall for her. Michael Jones-Andretti looked happy whenever he was with Rose, but then again, Fraser felt happy himself when he was with Rose too, so that didn't exclusively make Michael Jones-Andretti still had feelings for Rose.

If Fraser were Gustav himself, he would be sure as hell jealous like crazy.

But there was something that Fraser thought would make Gustav as someone that could work things up with Rose, not Michael Jones-Andretti. Not because he was his best friend, but because they were so similar in the kindheartedness. Gustav still had all his pride as a man and also all his wretchedness—and Rose could appreciate all of them while understanding him fully because they were so alike.

And they would make a wonderful family.

He could see it already; Gustav, nervous and everything because he didn't exactly grew up with a father figure and he didn't know whether he would make a good one, and Rose, who was just as nervous as much because she didn't experience a childhood with parents at all. The thought of young Rose without parents always made Fraser sad, but he was happy that somehow she managed to grow up to be such a brilliant lady. She would make brilliant mother. Fraser could wake up any day to the view of Rose feeding her toddler with crayon-coloured spoon as she says things like, 'Say good morning to Uncle Fraser, Roland!' And then Gustav will be somewhere around and eventually greets his son, Gustav's smile is fragile but precious as he staring at him, his eyes are promising the toddler that he will be a great, caring father...

And when he realised it, their trip in Canberra was finally finished. They visited plenty of places, took heaps of photos, and got drunk quite a lot in the, probably, richest town in Australia.

When they packed up and Rose was the van driver once again, she could play one or two easy songs already, so Fraser was pretty proud of himself as a teacher. He sat next to her in the seat next to driver seat as they chat while they left the capital city.

“So where are we going next, again? We're not going to go home yet, are we?” he asked.

“Nope, we're going to Jervis Bay,” Rose answered.

“It's a magnificent place,” said Gustav, and that was when Fraser realised that he was listening to them talking for awhile.

“You've been there, Gus?”

“Yeah. Met some annoying fans there... can you believe it?”

Fraser laughed, “Maybe we should bring bodyguard this time. Maybe.”

Gustav managed to laugh too, “I believe so.”

“So, Gus, Rose, tell me about Jervis Bay.”

Suddenly, Gustav and Rose looked like kids that had been asked to tell story about what do they want for Christmas if they can get anything they want.

“... beautiful beach, excellent weather, and a really really awesome cottage that we're going to stay to...” said Rose cheerily.

Gustav added as he smiled widely, “And then there are whale and dolphin that we can see if we board on ship... also, the sand on one of the beach is the whitest sand in Australia—or even the world!”

And in that moment, Fraser knew exactly what is happiness.