My Empire of Dirt

Slow Down You're Doing Fine

Johnny walked into the music room of the beach house, glancing around at the guitars and basses that hung on the wall, the drum kit in the corner, and most importantly, the baby grand piano that sat next to the large window.

The singer walked over to the book case and ran his fingers across the binders of each book until he saw one of his old composition books, and pulled it out, flipping it open on a random page and moved over to the piano, sitting down at the bench, and placed the sheet music on the stand.

He rested his fingers on the keys, breathing in slowly as a small smile spread across his face.

He had been playing the piano since he was seven, it was a love and passion he's had that was on par with singing for him.

No one except for Vic knew he played because they grew up together, no one knew because no one else seemed to care about Johnny outside of his voice and his looks.

Obviously Gretchen knew, and she always asked why he didn't have piano parts in their songs, and he didn't know how to answer that. While the obvious reason was that they were a rock band and that piano doesn't always work or make sense in their songs, but in reality, he liked having this part of his life kept to himself.

He played softly, getting lost in the music sl he didn't have to think about everything going on in his life for a few minutes.

Vivian and Faith were arriving that day, and Johnny couldn't tell if he was excited, anxious or a painful combination of the two.

It was odd, just a few months ago, he wanted nothing to do then pretend that Faith didn't exist, and a terrified part of him wanted to call and tell them not to come, but not for the old reasons, he was so scared that he would fuck everything up. What if he was a bad father?

He played Nights in White Satin, it was one of his favorite songs he had ever written, and originally he had wrote it to be a piano ballad, but as they worked and tweaked at it, the song transformed into what it is now.

Lily walked down the stairs, heading towards the kitchen when she paused, listening to the soft music coming from one of the rooms down the hall. She tilted her head to the side and padded across the hardwood floor, following the sound until she stopped in front of the door that lead to the music room, and pushed it open quietly, freezing when she saw Johnny sitting at the piano playing it.

She had known Johnny for years, she was in a band with him, and lived on a bus with him for a majority of it. How the hell did she not know he could play piano?

He was good, like legitimately incredible, why did he never mention this to her, or any of the band for that matter?

She recognized the tune as one of their- on of the Relentless' songs(she was still getting used to it not being hers too) and she slowly crept into the room, standing behind the singer as his long fingers danced across the keys effortlessly, his eyes scanning the sheet music in front of him absentmindedly.

As Johnny came to the end of the song, he jumped when a pair of slender arms wrapped around his shoulders.

"Why the fuck did you never mention you could play the piano?" Lily asked, nuzzling at the skin just behind his ear.

"I- well- um... no one ever asked?" Johnny tried, his face flushed in embarrassment at being caught. He was so private about this part of himself, so he wasn't used to being asked about this.

Lily scoffed, and rolled her eyes, moving to sit next to him on the bench. "Well I'm asking now, was this a thing everyone knew, and just not me, or was this top secret?" She questioned, resting her chin on his shoulder.