life just doesn't begin (p)

Oliver could hear the party roaring before him and Lachlan could see it.  It'd been a good few months for Oliver. He hadn't had any violent or demonic outbursts, his mom was doing well, and most importantly, he was happy. Ollie was wearing a simple pair of dark jeans, brown boots, a blue tshirt, and a grey and black flannel over it. He had his glasses on, like he always did at parties. Who wanted to be drunk and have to try and take their contacts out? Lachlan, Oliver's best friend, clapped his hands onto the son of Letus' shoulders, grabbing on to the flannel he was wearing and giving him a little shake. "It's good to be back." As much as Oliver liked to party, Lachlan would always like it more than him. It was impressive that this guy ever got by without a beer in his hand. Oliver laughed and shoved Lachlan a bit as they hurried towards the party.

The music was loud, maybe louder than it should have been, and that was the way Oliver liked it. Who came to a party to think, anyway? As hard as Oliver tried,  he could never quite place his finger on the way parties smelled, but it got him excited. They made their way into the crowd of people: brushing elbows, sharing hugs, shouting hellos to the other usual party goers and clocking new-comers. Eventually they made it to the keg and poured themselves a beer, pounding that back, and then pouring another before heading back into the mass of humanity.

A few hours and a few more drinks passed before Lachlan left Oliver for, inevitably, what Lachlan always left Oliver for: finding a distraction. He knew that he needed it after his apparent fight with Caroline..  It didn't bother Oliver too much. He was expecting it hours before and he was far enough into his buzz where he could really make a conversation with anyone. He refilled his drink, delivered Lachlan's refill to him, gave a polite hello to this other girl, and then turned on his heels to head towards where people were dancing. Oliver wasn't a very skilled dancer, but he didn't need to be to jump up and down in a crowd of people to a techno beat.

Lachlan and Oliver had broken out the good stuff that his brother had bought for them about an hour back, and it was working better than the shitty beer in the keg. After officially losing Lachlan to some red head, Oliver was dancing with some of his fellow party friends on the dance floor. He tipped his cup back, and as he did he felt someone bump into him. He was used to people bumping into him, especially on a crowded dance floor like this. Oliver was planning on just ignoring it when he heard a girl's voice apologizing.

Oliver turned around and looked down at the girl. She was more than half a foot shorter than Oliver and was holding a nearly empty glass mason jar. He chuckled a little bit. He remembered one of his first parties here when the Bacchus kids had "saved him" from the shit beer, too. He doesn't remember anything after that until the next day when his head was in a toilet and Lachlan was sharing pictures of his stupid behavior around. Not Oliver's best day.

"It's really okay. No party foul here." Oliver looked the girl over. He could say for sure that he had never seen her at a party like this before. He always got a little bit worried when someone he didn't know was very drunk at a party. Not everyone who came around was a good person. Oliver put his hand on the girls shoulder.

"Hey, are you okay?" Oliver asked with a sweet and genuine smile.

Oliver laughed a little. "I'm only 6'2''. I'm not that tall. I guess, maybe I am to you. What's it like looking at people's chests?" Oliver teased back. This girl probably wasn't that much drunker than him, but he'd learned how to handle it. This was Oliver's scene. He looked over the crowd. She did have a point. He was seeing a lot of tops of people's heads. Maybe he was that tall.

Oliver looked back down when she answered his question. "You don't know where... You are? You are with? Someone is?" Oliver ran through the typical thoughts of a drunk person. He couldn't even count the number of times that he'd walked around this field and asked people if they'd seen Lachlan, or the dark haired boy with the nice cheekbones as he'd eventually become. "I'm Oliver, by the way." The odds of her remembering that were slim to none but it was worth the try.

"You probably shouldn't do any of those things. That's how you break every single bone in your body and end up in the hospital. And I won't take you there. I don't like hospitals." Oliver joked. Hospitals were very bad for Oliver because death, but he could joke about that. "Any less dangerous activities you want to do drunk? I feel like this is..." Oliver trailed off.

Oliver shook her head and laughed when she said that she'd heal faster than anyone else would. The invincibility you felt while drunk mixing with some borderline actual invincibility could not be good. Those are the kind of people who end up dead in a ditch and they base an after school PSA on. He let out a sigh of relief and smiled his "friendly smile" when she suggested something much safer that sounded fun to her. This girl was going to have a really rough day tomorrow, he could already tell.

"Uh, yeah. I play saxophone, bass, piano, and a bit of drums and trombone." Oliver explained. "I was raised in New Orleans so jazz is life for me." The son of death pushed a hand back through his dark hair as he looked around for Lachlan. If he was going to leave, he should probably tell him. Oliver looked down at Delilah. Who was she with? They should probably find out where they were to. He didn't want to leave with Delilah if she should really stay here.

"We could go and play some music if you'd like, Delilah. But who are you here with? You shouldn't just leave them." Oliver suggested. Over the top of the crowd he could see Lachlan talking to this new girl. She was very pretty, but no Caroline Hanson.

Oliver was only a little bit worried about Delilah, but that part was not non-existent, especially when Delilah started to go on about a bear. Oliver had definitely never seen a bear before so when she got excited to spot one, Oliver followed her eyes to the wall where he saw a dog. He let out relieved sigh. He smiled as he watched the dog wait patiently. He was shocked out of his focus, though, when Delilah exclaimed that she had come here with Skye. Oliver only kind of knew Skye, and he knew that Caroline and Lachlan did.

Oliver jumped to a start when suddenly Delilah was darting through the crowd towards the door. He really wanted to find Skye but he couldn't spot her anywhere. He heard Delilah urging him to follow her.

"Yeah, I'm coming, just a second." Oliver waved his arm to get Lachlan's attention. Once he had it, he pointed at Delilah who was darting towards the door still and quick strummed an air guitar, hoping he'd get the message. Lachlan looked confused for a moment but through up a hang loose sign to him and turned his attention away. Oliver caught up with Delilah.

"Okay. I told Lachlan... oh uh he's my friend... I told him that we were leaving." Oliver started to walk away from the party, still carrying the bottle he had been drinking from.

Oliver's eyebrows rose when Delilah said that she knew Lachlan and darted back into the party. Was it the same Lachlan? It had to be. How many people with a dumb name like Lachlan could there really be at one party. Oliver tried to follow Delilah back into the party but was cut off by the mass of people. Luckily, she was back quickly and he hadn't had time to worry about whether or not she was actually coming back. She didn't break her stride to start walking towards the music room so it took a couple of big steps to catch up to her before they were walking next to each other. Oliver fixed his glasses as they walked and Delilah explained how she knew Lachlan.

"Oh you're from his childhood squad, then? He talks about you guys a lot. Not really by name or anything,  just in general. You're the second person I've formally met from the group, actually. The first was Tieghlur." Oliver laughed a little to himself thinking about the first time that he was with Lachlan when he got weed from Tieghlur. The dude was so high that he took Lachlan's money and gave him more money for change, despite Lachlan giving him the exact right amount. "What is with that guy?"

Oliver was kicking a rock down the path when Delilah mentioned Sam Reid. "Mr. Reid's quite the guy, isn't he?" Oliver's voice was laced with a just a tint of sarcasm, barely noticeable. If he was Delilah's  dad's best friend, maybe he shouldn't trash talk him in front of her, but he hated the guy. He'd had to piece most of Lachlan's stories together to figure out some coherent narrative, but he'd mostly gotten there and Mr. Reid really sucked. And Lachlan thought Oliver needed therapy.

"He's got a pretty dope accent." Oliver added. Luckily, they hadn't been that far from the music room. Oliver was thankful because he wasn't sure how far they would get before Delilah had another drunk idea for something that would be fun but would ultimately get one of them hurt. Most likely, him. Oliver pulled the door handle, but the door stayed closed.

"Locked." He muttered.

"Yeah, there were six of us. The Cul De Six if you will... I know it sounds dumb it sounded a lot cooler in my mind." Delilah said with a little bit of a laugh, it seemed as if she were slowly coming down off of her drunk high and she was just settling in a nice state of drunk, but little did she know the closer she got to being sober, the more she'd feel the affects of what she had done. The mentioning of the group of them brought a goofy smile back to Delilah's face, it was a good group and for the most part her memories of childhood were super fond due to the other five. Lachlan, Skye, Monroe, Kirsten, and yes even sometimes Tieghlur had made the group more interesting.

"I'm sorry your first experience of us had to be Tieghlur, he's quite the character." The brunette commented and just laughed a little to herself thinking abotu how Tieghlur was. Most times he was just really high and really annoying, but other times he could be quite comical. Delilah still remembered when they were about seven years old and someone from another neighbourhood stole her bike, instead of going off with the rest of the gang to get her lilac coloured bike with the white wicker basket and little silver bell back, Tieghlur stayed to try and make her laugh with all his stupid jokes he had. He even introduced her to the 'drums' he played which just turned out to be Tupperware his mom sold. "Tieghlur means well, but I think he's destroyed a lot of his brain cells by this point."

As they continued walking they were getting fairly close to the music room and it was in sight. She wasn't sure if it'd be open, but she was sure she could find a way in. The mention of Sam read with a slightly bitter sweet one. Growing up she recognized that Mr. Reid wasn't always around as much as it seemed he did, but her knowledge of that was mostly due to Juliana telling her about it since she was so close to Augustine. "He's not much of a dad if we're talking seriously. He puts on a good show, he'll show up and make his presence known and then slip out at the next chance he gets. My father is the same way for the most part. But I truthfully only know to that extent because my sister's told me...Oh, she's Augustine's girlfriend. They've been friends for gods know how long." It wasn't generally in her nature to talk on and on about her friends and family or her family friends, but it seemed the state of drunk she was in was just a much more open and talkative version of her sober self.

Despite the fact that Oliver had tried to open the door, Delilah still went up to it and tried to open it once they got there. She pouted as little as she realized the door was locked. That put a little damper on things, but the whole talk about childhood friends and everything brought up an idea for the daughter of Epione. "Well, we have two options." She declared before she continued speaking, "One, we can try to pick the lock with one of my bobby pins, or two we could always go the music room in my house. My dad is out with Mr.Reid tonight, so I'm sure I could sneak company in."

Oliver smirked when Delilah gave the little  nickname of her childhood crew. He locked it in the part of his brain that he used for harassing Lachlan, already planning how he would tease him later. It was really very cute, though. It was so different than the childhood that Oliver had had. He grew up on an extremely busy square in New Orleans. He didn't fit in well with the kids that lived around him, and it wasn't like he could run across greener than green lawns to get to their McMansions. They weren't too keen on hanging out with the witch's son. So, he spent his time in the city, meeting people and learning. He'd dance to street musicians, or hold polish for shoe polishers. He'd work with gardeners or listen to stories. He absolutely loved his childhood, it just wasn't the suburban experience so many people had had.

Oliver's snicker broke into a full laugh when she talked about Tieghlur. She must be a pretty good person if that's what she had to say about him. He was relieved, though, that she wasn't too good to lie and be kinder than Sam Reid deserved.

"I'm glad that you get it. I was worried he had you tricked like he still kind of has Lachlan does. Like, Lachlan gets that he sucks but he still finds a way to defend him a lot. He missed Lachlan's birthday this year. It was just me, Lachlan and Augustine, and well that must have been your sister wow weird, sitting around a huge table being served this obscenely fancy dinner none of us wanted to eat. He texted Lachlan the next morning asking what he wanted to do for the big game that'd night. No apology. Who knows if he even realized it." Oliver said, leaned up against the locked door, the bitterness lacing his voice. it was easy for him to give into emotions like that, but he couldn't.

Oliver bent down to look at the lock. It was crisp and new like they liked to keep locks around here. They did basically train them to do what needed to be done out in the field. They couldn't make it too easy for them. He turned to look at Delilah.

"You have a music room? That'd be awesome."

Hearing the tale of Lachlan being stood up for his birthday this year by his dad only made Delilah's heart hurt a little. It was a tragedy that the group had fallen apart because given that it had been together? They could have made him feel like there wasn't even a void and it made her realize how much time really had gone by since she spent time with Lachlan, but now wasn't exactly the time, especially since she didn't want her first good reunion with him to be when she was this intoxicated, but the sober mind was slowly starting to take a little more hold on her.

"It's difficult to just write your own parent off, no matter how bad they can be. That's something Lachlan and I have in common. I still defend my own father, but I think part of me holds out for the part of him I thought I had seen when I was kid, I'm not sure Lachlan and I are too similar there though. Sam Reid is a special kind of demigod you could say. I think he is still living his glory days out despite them long being gone, he acts like he could be the same age as his sons, but there's not much anyone can do about that. Sam and my father still go out for 'guys' night every now and then." Delilah said with a bunch of emotions crossing her face as she spoke, no same person had the exact same reaction, but her father was hardly around and left her and Jules hanging sometimes. "My father doesn't really spend a lot of time with my sister and I. He used to when we were really young, but he stopped invited us into his life long ago. But hey, Jules and I grew closer and I had Skye's grandparents."

When he asked if she had a music room she looked over to him and laughed, "Yeah, my father wasn't always around but he always wanted us to have hobbies. I would spend hours sitting on the piano bench practicing the new songs Mrs.Maddox would teach me, sweetest elderly lady you could meet. But c'mon lets go." She said motioning for Oliver to follow her.

"So, you've heard a little bit about me, I hardly know anything about you." She quipped with a goofy smile on her face, "Tell me about yourself a little. Are you a legacy? are you a demigod? are you both? My hunch is demigod, but who knows."

The dark haired boy chose not to lend anymore to the conversation on Sam Reid. He couldn't stand the guy, but he knew it would make Lachlan mad if he found out he went in to hard on him. Him and Lachlan had been best friends for a while, but he still didn't understand Lachlan. Oliver listened as Delilah was talking about her dad. He felt like the people at camp really tended to have parent issues. Not just their godly parents, just in general.

"I got lucky, I guess. My mom is totally awesome." Oliver smiled to himself and took a swig from the bottle that he was still carrying. If Oliver was good at something, it was maintaining a solid buzz. As they left towards the Residential District and Delilah explained how her father supported their endeavors, he was still thinking about his mom. He missed living in that cramped apartment with Jasmine. It only had one bedroom, so Oliver lived in the corner of the living room in a makeshift room with some shoddily put drywall, but his window overlooked the square. Oliver was brought back to New Rome when Delilah asked about him.

"Oh, uh, yeah. Well, my mom is great like I said. She raised me in New Orleans in this one bedroom apartment that overlooked the Square. We lived atop her mystics shop. I was kind of raised by the city, I guess, and I was deeply entrenched in like the city's mysticism." Oliver smiled, mostly to himself. "You guessed right, I am a demigod. Son of Letus." Oliver looked straight ahead. "I'm not going to look at you because I know the face you're giving me already. It's like a mix of concern and pity, with just enough fear to make it hurt." Oliver chuckled a pitiful laugh.

They had been walking for a little while, but eventually they had ended up in New Rome, it was still a little bit of a walk, but the night had a nice cool breeze which was nice due to the fact that the fortress in the field of mars had been overly warm with all the bodies stuck in one confined space. She listened to as Oliver as he began to speak about where he grew up and his mom, the thought of Oliver and his mom in that apartment, Oliver being raised by the city, and the mystics shop just brought a big smile on her face. It was beyond refreshing to hear a different type of background, sure it was cool living next to all the people you lived with and you had a legacy to uphold, but to have such a story like that? It was priceless.

Even when he mentioned that he had been a son of Letus she was musing at it in wonder. What was that like? To be the son of a death god, it wasn't common to hear about and she was just thoroughly intrigued, but before she could really comment on anything, he decided to not look at her. "Oliver... I'm not looking at you in pity or sympathy, just look." Delilah said and drunk her had a split decision to make, so she made it and figured if it ended up being offensive she could apology late. Her hand reached up to his face and tapped his chin to look over her way. "I think it's bad ass, I wish I could have a cool lineage like that." She said and released her hand before continuing to speak, "I'm a child of Epione, healing god and legacy of Cupid. I have zero offensive powers which only hinders my fighting ability. I do have wings though!" It was an odd comment and she wouldn't usually just bring up the fact she had wings, but in this moment she felt very proud of them.

They were finally coming up to the cul de sac where her and the Cul de six grew up. In the middle at the very end of the cul de sac was her house. The one with the white iron fence and hedges lining the inside of the fence with the gate placed in the middle. A stone pathway leading up to the front door. "New Orleans sounds really fun though!"

Genuinely, Oliver didn't believe Delilah. Or, more technically, he didn't believe that she wasn't trying to cover something up. He knew what being a child of death meant. His dad was called the Reaper of Souls, for gods sakes. He wasn't going to look at Delilah until he felt her hand on his chin. Oliver smiled as one corner of his mouth turned up in a smile. He turned is face as her hand was asking and looked down at Delilah. He had to admit, if she did feel like he felt like she should, she was putting on a good face. Her face looked soft and gentle without even a hint of deception or fear. Oliver snorted a laugh when she said that being a child of Letus made him a bad ass.

"I'm not a bad ass, but I'll let you believe it if you want." He was smiling fully now. It was nice to feel like he didn't have to hide that part of him away, even if it was for a drunken night. He guessed that if she had her wits fully about her, Delilah might feel differently about him. It just didn't make sense for any demigod, let alone the daughter of a healing god, to think highly of a son of death. It was sort of counter-intuitive to her whole thing.

Oliver remembered how he felt when he found out who is father was. It explained a lot about him as a kid. It explained how when his mom would read his tarot cards, they'd often turn out the exact same. He knew that tarot cards weren't some deep magic or anything, and so did his mom, but it was definitely creepy when it turned out the same each time. His archetype was the death card, upright: Endings, change, transformation, transition. His physical card was the King of Swords, reversed: Quiet power, inner truth, misuse of power, manipulation. His mental card was the Six of Cups, upright: Revisiting the past, childhood memories, innocence, joy. His spiritual card was the Knight of Wands, upright: Energy, passion, inspired action, adventure, impulsiveness. It also explained why when Oliver got upset, he'd often go to his local cemetery. It was very old and he'd love reading the names and dates on the headstones. The little bursts of dark power he had, too were explained.

"Offensive powers aren't all they're cracked up to be, especially when they make you a raging death monster every once and a while." Oliver said and then stopped, his eyebrows turning in. "Let's just forget that I said that." Oliver started walking again and then stopped again. "Wait, hold on did you say you have wings?"

When the words came through her ears and settled in her brain about how she could believe he was a bad ass if she wanted, but he didn't really think that of himself. It was in this moment that Delilah realized that underneath the genuine smiles and the friendly personality there was a boy who grew up to be insecure about himself. Things like this happened based on the situations around you and who shaped you into being you. If you're always around people telling you that you aren't that great you're eventually going to grow up to believe it. Delilah herself had her own insecurities about various things, but it wasn't to this extent.

"Hey." Delilah said to Oliver, once he had looked away again she also turned her head away, even though now she was addressing him. She felt like he didn't want to look over to see her face right now. "It is bad ass. We're all bad ass around here, not many people get to say one of their parents is a god. Sure some people are scared of death and therefor they associate it with you, but we are more than who are god parents are. You seem to love your mom and you have to remember, she's the one who raised you, she's the one who count. Oh by the way, I for one, am not scared of death, it is meant to happen. It's the natural order of things really, the circle of life you will. It wouldn't be a circle without death, there's a reason your dad exists." Delilah didn't mean to go on a little soft rant about it, but she hated when people got down on themselves and she just wanted people to be able to grow positive about their lives, but even if they could never get there, she wanted to be that positive piece to everyone's life. Living in negativity only rotted the soul.

When he ended up asking about the wings part that she had blurted out of her mouth the thought came to her head about instantly back pedaling and saying no that it was a joke, but she figured she could trust Oliver and hopefully she wouldn't be miss placing the judgement. "I did say I have wings, and for now I will forget the comment you made, but I make no promises if sober me remembers and comes to give you a lecture about how you view yourself." Delilah said almost in a matter of fact way, but then she reached up to the back of her shirt on the collar and tugged it down enough to the start of her scars on her back, they always looked partially healed over and partially new. Delilah had to bring them out every now and then or the skin would slowly grow a couple layers over and then it made it painful to use her wings.

"Those are the tops of my scars on my back, they run down for a bit, but essentially that's where they come out. On one hand wings are fairly cool, on the other they're a pain because well my back will forever have scars on it, so goodbye wearing any swimsuit I'd like to wear." Delilah said as eventually she'd release her shirt so it could cover up the scars again. They were now in front of house so she opened the gate and she let him in and closed it behind them as the continued to walk up the front path to the door.

Oliver didn't look at Delilah as she pseudo-lectured him for his perspective on himself. Instead, he took several consecutive swigs from the bottle in his hand. He knew that she was just trying to be good and kind, but he also knew that it was an entirely unpractical way for him to be thinking. It's easy to say that something is bad ass when you're not living it. It's easy to claim the circle of life when you feel outside of it. It's easy not to be afraid of death when it's not staring you down every time that you close your eyes. If anything, Oliver was more afraid of death than anyone. Of course Oliver wasn't going to throw all of this back in her face. He wasn't a jerk, and he knew that she genuinely meant well. He could see that in her eyes. He felt bad that he disagreed with her, but it wasn't as easy for him to be good and pure as it was for her.

"You really are a good person, aren't you? Tell me again what you see in Lachlan." Oliver laughed, doing his best to pivot the topic away from him. It wasn't like Oliver didn't like himself. He was comfortable in his own skin. He'd gotten tall and his teeth grew in nicely. He had good friends who laughed and smiled and took selfies and did all of the good things friends did. His mother was the truest goddess on this planet. He'd accepted that things about him that he couldn't change, even if he didn't like them. Oliver Garrett was just fundamentally damaged. He was like a rose bush that was dying from the inside out. Oliver wasn't afraid of dying, but he was afraid of Death.

Oliver looked as she showed her scars to him. Physical scars were so easy to show, so easy to become one with.

"You mean to tell me, you're going to lecture me on how I view myself but you won't wear a certain bathing suit because you have a couple scars because YOU HAVE FREAKIN ANGEL WINGS." Oliver scolded her jokingly. "That is hypocritical. And also, if anything's bad ass, it's that. Skeleton warriors don't have anything on ANGEL WINGS." Oliver was still riding the drunk and there was no way he was going to miss emphasizing the baller status of having wings.

"An angel and a devil walk through New Rome sounds like the start of a really bad joke designed to teach morality or something." Oliver chuckled.

The only thing that came out of Delilah's mouth was laughter as Oliver made a joke about what she saw in Lachlan and she just shook her head, "The same thing you do, otherwise why would you be friends with him?" Delilah quipped as she opened the door, it wasn't locked, she knew if she had to carry keys around tonight it wouldn't end well, and besides that they had neighbours watching, it wasn't likely for anything to happen anyways. Opening the door they came directly into the foyer, the only part of the house anyone had ever seen before.

The foyer had a tall ceiling as it was the height of both the main floor and the top floor. Much like the bedrooms the floorboards in the foyer were a light to medium oak colour with a nice finishing. There were stairs on either side of the foyer that went up to balcony landing was that led to the upper floor. There was a darker wood used for the railing of the stairs to give a little bit of contrast in colour for the foyer. If you looked up you'd see a very expensive chandelier hanging directly in the middle of the room. Underneath the landing on what would have been part of the floor, was another set of doors matching the ones up the stairs.

"Hey I can preach about the circle of life and trying to love yourself and be hypocritical. Haven't you ever heard of Christian's being referred to as hypocritical before?" Delilah said jokingly laughing a little bit, "We'll agree to have our own insecurities. I have my own set of them and you yours. Everyone has them its inevitable." At this point Delilah had walked the length of the foyer to the set of doors downstairs and opening them. Immediately they were in a hall way that had no doors but the further they walked into it, the closer they got to the music room. They came into contact with a horizontal hallway which there were doors to the left and doors to the right. They took a slight turn to the right and there was the door to the music room.

"An angel and a devil walk through New Rome." Delilah repeated musing at the thought, "Sounds like a funny cliche TV show to me."

Inside the music room had a nice floor, but it was also one of those floors that was good to have in a music room, something that'd help out with the sound. Inside there was a grand piano, a variety of guitars hung on the wall, a variety of different drums and percussion sets, then a variety of cases that held various instruments from trumpets down to flutes. "My dad wanted to make sure there weren't any missed chances at being talented at something, that and Jules trying just about every instrument in the book."

Oliver nodded in feigned agreement with Delilah. He agreed that everyone had their insecurities. He felt a bit less like they were all equal in stature, both felt and earned. Oliver had known people like Delilah, and they deserved the world, but rarely got it. He felt really bad. He wanted to say something, but he was easily distracted when they entered her house. It obviously wasn't bigger, but they entryway into her house was more spacious and open feeling than any part of his apartment. He looked around before turning his attention back to Delilah.

"The funny thing about that show is that you're the devil and I'm the angel." Oliver teased, quietly. He didn't really know who could be in this huge place. He guessed not many people, since Delilah wanted to play instruments, but who knew. Oliver mimicked little wings with his arms as he turned into the music, laughing in Delilah's direction.

He stopped instantly, though, when he looked around the room. There was an insane number of instruments in this room. Half of this room probably cost more than all of the things that Oliver had owned in his whole life. He went over to the drum set and looked at the sticks. They probably cost more than the whole drum set that Oliver had bought off a musician who had gotten a new one back in New Orleans. He turned around and went up to one of the cases, tracing the shape of a tenor sex. He carefully opened up the case and took the saxophone in his hand. It felt like he was literally holding pure angelic gold in his hands. He could have never dreamed of touching a sax as nice as this one. The ones he had found back home were beaten by the weather and often dented to the point that they were barely playable.

"This is absolutely insane. This is how rich kids become prodigies, isn't it?" He looked at Delilah with a little nervous laugh. Was that too far?

Delilah couldn't help but let out a laugh as he used his arms to make wings and fly into the music room. Watching him look at this room in awe and wonder was a sight to be seen, the moment meant so much to Delilah and she wasn't sure she could ever fully explain why. Just seeing someone have the same feeling she had for this room was something she cherished. It was hard because so much of her life in her home she didn't even get the chance to share with people and now she was sharing it, it felt a million times better than keeping it all to herself.

"That'd be the biggest cliche of them all, I think I'd watch that show. Have you ever seen the trashy reality tv shows that they have? I don't watch a lot of TV, but when I do, they're good!" Delilah said laughing and watched him eyeing up the tenor saxophone, it was a beauty and a half, the sounds that came out of a tenor sax made her feel at home sometimes. "That's one of my favourites right there, there's a bunch of fresh reeds and clean mouth pieces over there if you wanted to play it." She offered to Oliver.

"Rich people are so powerful, they say money can't buy happiness, but it can buy you a whole lot of other things, that's for sure. Be right back." Delilah said to Oliver as she walked out the door and across the hall into the TV room. From there she opened the liquor cabinet that her dad hadn't touched in years. She pulled out some old scotch and brought it back into the music room. "Okay we can drink this in here, we just have to be careful, because if we spill this on these instruments it'll be a true tragedy."

Oliver smiled like an excited child when Delilah pointed him towards a mouthpiece and reeds. He grabbed the neck strap out of the case and slipped it around his neck. He hooked the saxophone to the strap as he walked to where the mouthpiece was. He unboxed it and slipped it on the neck. He pulled out a reed and slipped it into his mouth, moistening it before slipping it on the mouthpiece and tightening the ligature.

Oliver slipped the saxophone to his side. He stretched out his fingers and ran through a few quick scales to warm up and tune the fresh reed and mouthpiece. Once he felt comfortable, he turned to face Delilah. Oliver closed his eyes so he wasn't looking right at the dark haired girl. He started with a few slow, low notes, but quickly stepped into improvised jazz, the music of his home. It was raspy and soulful, and Oliver couldn't help but get into it. He could see the streets of New Orleans. Oliver felt the pain, but also the laughs of getting hit with beads at Mardi Gras. He smelt and could almost taste jambalaya as it smelt when he walked back little hometown Mama's diners. Oliver could see the entry way to his mom's store, the drapes and the disorienting lights. He could hear the laughs of musicians as they teamed up for some group improv.

Oliver pulled the saxophone away from his lips, smiling, when he finished. He laughed for a second before opening eyes. He gave a joking little bow to Delilah as he slipped the saxophone off his neck and set it on a nearby stool. "It's been a while, I'm sorry." He had had infinitely better performances, but none he felt like that, and the beauty of the instrument didn't hurt. He went and grabbed the liquor bottle from Delilah and sat on the ground.

"Alright, I showed you mine. Now it's your turn."

There was a little bit of excitement as she had come back in the room and Oliver was ready to go with the tenor sax and everything, it was a beautiful instrument, it wasn't one she was extraordinary at, but it was one she could play some basic songs on. The instrument sounded right at home in the jazz music and honestly as he played she had closed her eyes to take in the sounds, it was nothing like she had heard before. It sounded like so jazzy that it was pulling parts of her imagination to try and pick up with New Orleans would have been like, because there was no doubt in her mind that he learned how to play notes like this back at home.

Once he finished her eyes had opened again and he set the instrument to the side and declared it was her turn in which she just had a devilish grin on her face. There was an excitement radiating through out her entire core, she loved to play musical instruments and to hear them being played was just such a gift, she always wondered how people decided to just one day wake up and make a little doo hickey that could produce such sounds that once joined together made something harmonious.

Delilah started to walk over to the grand piano that was in the room. It was where she spent most of her time in here. The girl had stretched her fingers out a little bit and did little exercises with them just to warm them up for playing, but it wasn't long before she was playing little nursery rhymes just to get her fingers adjusted to the various chords and notes on the piano. Once she was ready she started out softly her fingers moving slowly on the keyboard building a light tune. It wasn't long before they began to dance along the keys and the beat of the song was changing. It was melodic and peaceful, something about the piece just put the girl at east whenever she played it. It reminded her of fresh spring days out in the sun with the light breeze, the chirping of birds singing their tune.

At the final note she released her fingers and turned to look over to Oliver, "that's my favourite one. I learned to play piano from Skye's grandma, she's a really nice lady sometimes it feels like she raised me once I got a bit older."

Oliver sat crosslegged on the floor. He had the bottle in one hand and was leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. He watched as Delilah moved to the piano. He smiled, thinking about all the pianists and keyboardists who played on the streets. Music was the thing that most viscerally took Oliver back home. That, and a good southern meal. Gods, he could really go for a nice hot pot of jambalaya. This west coast diet was just not cutting it for Oliver.

The son of death was pulled back to New Rome by the sound of piano. It was so different than his music from home. It was soft and sweet and felt like spring air. It felt like an open field in the Midwest, where you could go for miles before finding any proof of how humans had touched the land. He could feel himself sitting on a big wide porch sipping from the bottle that he was sipping from in this music room. He smiled wide and leaned back on his hands as Delilah finished up her song. He clapped excitedly for her.

"Isn't it crazy how music can kind of just take you to somewhere else." He said with a sweet smile. It's clear that he's definitely intoxicated. He's speaking in that way that drunk people do when they think that they're being deep. He set the bottle down on the ground and sat down on the piano bench with Delilah.

"I wonder what happens when you put those together, though." He starts playing a jazzy tone on the high end of the keys.