A/N: Just a fun 'What if?' from All I Have Needed

Birthday Bash Prompt 1: Music/ Road Trip

Muta finished tapping on the computer, sending a somewhat disgruntled look at his teenage daughter next to him on the couch. "After we get this cleared up, I never want to hear about this nonsense again. Am I understood, young lady?"

Haru nodded, still beaming from ear to ear as she got her phone ready for the big moment.

"Now, try not to be too disappointed if they say no," Naoko warned while trying to make her excited daughter sit still on the other side of her, but she could see it was going in one ear and out the other.

The large man smiled in grim satisfaction as he raised his phone to start tapping. "Okay, here's the number, Hashi is watching Natsu upstairs, and the time zone in their area will make this a convenient call for them. Ready?"

His eldest child nodded again, more eagerly than before.

'Poor Chicky. She's going to be so disappointed.' But since this was a safer and cheaper way of crushing her dreams, he punched in the number, set the phone to speaker, and set aside the laptop.

It rang for what seemed too long before someone picked up. The longer it rang, the harder a time Naoko was having trying to keep her daughter still.

"Greetings, you have reached the von Gikkingen estate. This is Adrian, how may I direct your call?" an elderly gentleman droned.

Even that was enough to excite Haru all the more, slipping off the couch to kneel at her father's knee, where the phone was resting. Her large brown eyes seemed larger still, as if they were trying to reflect a world's worth of hope as a smile of fondness overtook her lips.

"Could I speak to either the baron, or someone who's been close to him since they were kids?" Muta asked, rubbing his daughter's hair in an effort to calm her down. "I don't have any official ranking or business. I'm just a father trying to keep his daughter from doing something unbelievably stupid."

Adrian gave a small hum. "I'll retrieve his cousin. I'm afraid my lord is indisposed for the time being. Please hold for a moment."

Haru nearly bounced from her place next to her father's knee, racing across the room for her art bag and pulling out her favorite sketchbook so she could rifle through the pages as she walked back to her parents.

"Yes, sweetheart. You've shown us how Toto looks," Naoko reminded her tiredly as she pointed first to a handsome dark-haired man in one of her drawings, and then at a respectable older man dressed like a butler three pages after him.

"Adrian," she mouthed, since speaking was beyond her for the moment.

"Yes, Chicky," Muta fought not to groan, tapping his fat thumb on the armrest. "We'll know who's being crazy soon enough."

After a few more minutes, the line picked up again.

"All right, then. Please give me your name, and what seems to be the trouble?" a different voice asked, making Haru switch back to Toto's picture to give it a fond glance.

Her father took in a deep breath and prayed the man had a sense of humor. "My name is Muta Moon, and the problem is with my daughter. It's probably better that you handled her problem than the lord, since I don't know if he'll want to press charges over this."

Toto gave a small scoff. "It would take a great deal to make him go that far. What's wrong with your girl?"

Muta started twiddling his thumbs nervously as his teenage daughter begged him with her hands and eyes to keep going. "… There isn't really an easy way to say this, but… Haru is dead convinced that she was Lucy Cross in her past life."

There was dead silence from the phone.

"She's been convinced almost her whole life," Naoko added, passing worried glances with her husband. "We thought we convinced her to forget about England and Humbert and everything else years ago, but we just found out that Haru hasn't been saving her money for seven years to get a car. We tried to take her looking for one, and she admitted that she's saving up to come to the von Gikkingen estate right after she graduates high school next year. She's completely obsessed with going to see your cousin. Please. Can you talk some sense into her?" she begged.

Haru was kneeling next to her father's knee again her eyes wide with hope as the subtle moving of her fingers pleaded for the man to speak.

"Thank heaven Humbert didn't answer this," Toto finally exclaimed with a tired sigh. "He would not have handled such a discussion well. But this should be easy enough to fix. Please give Haru the phone."

"She's a partial mute," Muta explained. "Her chords aren't working today, so the phone's on speaker."

"That's a puzzling condition. I don't think I've heard of it before," Toto mused before they could almost hear him shaking himself back to the previous conversation. "All right, Haru. Whistle once for yes, two for no. You understand why this would be difficult for me to accept?"

Haru pulled her head back so that her short whistle wouldn't hurt the noble's ear.

"May I assume that if your parents were willing to call me, you have proof that I won't be able to deny?"

Haru whistled once while signing at her mother.

"She says that if Humbert shared her final moments as Lucy with you, what she has planned will convince you. Honey, I still think you should pick something else to say to him," Naoko hissed, but her child shook her head stubbornly.

Toto's tone turned almost into a mocking challenge. "Ah. That's how direct you're going to be about this. I'll make you a deal, Haru. Does your family have any plans for the coming summer?"

"Nothing concrete," Muta answered nervously.

"Excellent. Haru, if what you tell me, or however you plan to convince me, is enough to make me want to go running for my cousin, we'll pay for your entire family to stay at our estate for the summer."

Haru's smile turned devilishly smug.

"And if it isn't?" Naoko asked with a sickening pit in her stomach.

"I'll be able to confirm it isn't her, we all have a good laugh about this, and Humbert will never hear about it. He doesn't need any more heartbreak over Lucy. All right, Haru. Give me your best shot," the nobleman challenged.

It was the cue she had been dying for. Holding her phone close to her father's, she pressed 'play' on her music app.

"I don't know what I'm thinking,

"Because all that I see

"Is his face screaming

"Mephistopheles!"

Haru paused the music almost as quickly as she started it, giving a smirk to the phone as if she had already won the argument.

Her parents shared another worried look. Having their daughter insist she had been a baron's bride in a past life was bad enough. How she had insisted it ended, however, was a completely different story, straight out of a nightmare of a fairy tale.

There was no way, on heaven or earth, that something that ludicrous-

"Mr. Moon?" Toto asked formally, making the parents look down at the phone in intense worry.

"Yes?"

"Is Haru your only child?"

"N-no," Naoko answered instead, gripping her husband's hand like it was a lifeline. "We have a ten-year old boy and an eight-month daughter upstairs."

"Get your passports. Pack your bags. Give me your number so that we can align the best time for you to come."

"Wait, that worked?!" Muta yelped in shock, jumping from the couch and accidentally sending his phone flying.

Haru managed to snatch it out of mid-air, smiling happily at it before whistling a tune that neither of her parents had ever heard before.

Toto's voice was nearly full of tears as she finished. "Yes, Lucy. I heard loud and clear. Humbert is going to go through the roof when I tell him. We've missed you so much!"

Her smile turned very loving as her mother yanked the phone out of her hand.

"But-but- what about the cats?" she demanded while shaking the device. "What about the business with the cats and the duel and the-?!"

Toto was still breathing heavily through his tearful joy. "The cats are the reason why everyone thinks Humbert killed her. Who would believe a story like that, even if he did bother to try telling anyone?"

"Not you two," Haru signed smugly, making both of the parents flinch.

It wasn't hard to see that she was going to be gloating about this business for a while.

"… I guess this phone call wasn't going to be the end of this," Muta sighed, taking back his cell and glaring at it like the baron's cousin was in the room with them. "Okay, Haru's said more times than I've changed my socks that Humbert was never less than a perfect gentleman to her when she was Lucy. But if he tries to pick up where they left off as soon as we get there-" he began to threaten.

"I'll beat it into his head that things are different, now," Toto promised in earnest. "Twenty-six years difference would be a little hard to overlook, and I'll keep him from forgetting that fact."

Haru made sure to face the opposite direction of her parents before rolling her eyes in happy anticipation. 'Right. Because you have such a history of successfully reigning him in when he gets excited.'

xxXxx

A/N: the lyrics were from Mephistopheles's Return, the album Beethoven's Last Night by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. I found this part so powerful, it was what gave my villain the name for All I Have Needed.