Lock's fingers trailed over the row of ivory, bare fingers touching the age stained keys so softly that they didn't make a sound. He eyed the bench that sat before the grand piano as his fingers fell to the key slip just before the keys, the heat from his fingers causing slight prints against the cool cast iron. He couldn't remember the last time he'd seen this thing... He'd been but a child in the halls of his family's manor, long before he learned what greed and corruption were. So much had changed since then... So much had transpired.
Two hands fell flat to the seat of the bench at the head of the piano, fingers curling around the edges of the seat. A deep breath was taken as he steadied himself, then finally pulled up the seat, opening the hatch to a past he thought he'd all but lost. Within the belly of the seat were papers among papers and books, things he didn't know even still existed. The scores of music from the simplest Sin'dorei verses to more elusive works from Dalaran. It was like a piece of his past that had never been touched by the darkness that followed him and the name of his family. It was from a simpler time... From a time where music could erase the truth of the world around him, and take him to another place.
Lock had been surprised by the slow trickle of artifacts and items that had began to show up at the Lighthouse since his parent's... Untimely demise. He never expected to gain so much from the death of his parents. And this piano was the last thing he'd thought he'd see being rolled in to the parlor of the shop.
The Lighthouse around him was silent, he'd been left home alone to deal with some affairs of his own. Ara had taken Serah shopping and Nana had taken the twins out to the forest to gather berries and herbs for potions that Ara and Lock were running low on. He thought he'd be alone for a while longer, so when the voice pipped up from the door behind him, he jumped slightly, but smiled.
"Daddy... Is that... A piano?" The small girl asked as she came up behind Lock and peered out from behind his legs. Lock's left hand came back to his side so that his fingers could bury themselves in the girl's dark curls, wrapping them around his fingers much like he did with Ara's own curls on occasion. "Yes, Princess... I forgot you and your brother haven't ever seen one up close." The small girl giggled at that, her small frame slipping past Harlock and on to the bench. She crawled over it and pulled her knees and legs beneath her, sitting on them as she reached up to touch the keys. But she touched the keys a bit harder then Lock had, and a musical tone of mixed pitches sounded out through the room. This shocked the girl and her hands shot back to her face, covering her mouth with a gasp. "Sorry!"
Lock laughed softly at his daughter, moving. "Don't apologize. That's what it's supposed to do. And if you press the keys just right... Well it can make some very pretty music." He said softly, moving to sit on the bench beside his daughter. Carefully, he plucked the small girl up, causing her to giggle, and slid her on to his lap, so that his feet reached the pedals and her hands reached the keys. He took her smooth, small hands in his much larger and rougher ones, and carefully made her put out both of her index fingers. "Watch..." he whispered down to her.
Carefully his feet hit the pedals of the piano as he guided his daughter's two fingers slowly and carefully over simple keystrokes, causing a soft, simple tune to ring out. The girl watched in awe as she watched her father guide her hands to create music, a smile curling her cherub lips upwards. "Woooow..." She whispered, giggling.
But the sound wouldn't attract just the small girl's attention. In no time, with just a few tones from the belly of the piano, small feet came rushing in to the parlor behind them, wide eyes peering at Harlock and the girl through an all too familiar tangle of hair. "Awesome! Daddy me too! Show me!" The little boy called out as he rushed to the bench beside Harlock, his toy dragons tossed to the floor on the way. "Aha... Alright alright... Here... You sit here..." He said, moving the small girl again so that she was sitting beside him, opposite of her twin brother.
"Play something, daddy!" The girl demanded in a sing-song voice. "Yeah! Play something!" The little boy chimed in as well. Lock laughed, rolling his eyes and shaking his head. "I'll try but... It's been a very long time since daddy has touched a piano..." He mumbled, looking at the keys. But the kids were ready for him. They were entranced by the simple yet elegant tones of the piano... And Harlock was remembering a happier time from his past, one he'd forgotten long ago.
He used to sit at this piano for hours and play these songs, drowning out the sounds of the manor he'd grown up in. But now... The piano was before him again, and it wouldn't be used to escape his reality. It would be used to teach two children a talent that would grow with them.
Lock's fingers began to move over the ivory keys, carefully pressing both off white and black in rhythm and patterns that began to create a simple but well rounded song. His feet moved simply over the three pedals below the bench, hitting soft, sostenuto, and sustaining respectfully. Of course, there would be small slip ups where he'd hit the wrong key and a note would be one or two tones too high or low, but the twins wouldn't notice the difference, and Lock would just keep going.
In time, the twins grew restless and Lock would stop, putting one of each of their hands on the keys. The little girl's hand was on the high keys, her brother's on the low, and Lock's left hand on the middle toned keys. "Now... Do what I do, alright?" He asked, and both twins would nod their heads excitedly. One key at a time, Lock lead them to play an all too familiar lullaby, and as he did, his voice, though extremely hushed, matched word to tone in soft song, something very few knew he could do.
"Twin-kle.... Twin-kle... Litt-le... Star..." He sang each syllable to the twins, and they smiled brightly as their father taught them carefully how to play their first song on the piano. Lock wouldn't see Nana in the doorway behind them watching silently, and he wouldn't see her turn to look over her shoulder when she heard the front door to the Lighthouse open. The old woman turned and walked up to the woman and older girl that accompanied her. "Serah... Come help me with dinner..." She said in a very quiet voice, looking to the dark haired woman and smiling, putting a finger to her lips and letting out a soft 'shhh' as she ushered Serah away, leaving Ara to see Lock's secret and his time with the twins for herself...
