Broken Descent (Bruno Mars)

Wanted

Soon after the tour ended, Bruno was excited to get back into the studio. For Doo Wops & Hooligans, he felt extremely rushed. The second time around, he would have time and also experience from being on the road.

At one point, Phil took a break, but Bruno kept going.

"Bruno we've been at it for hours. Maybe we should take a break."

"In a second," Bruno said, plugging away at the piano. "I'm onto somethin'."

Bruno's energy was unstoppable. Every bit of life he saw, the little life sitting on the floor, playing with her toys, forced him to keep going. Being a father was the biggest source of motivation he ever had in his life. He watched her; he couldn't stop. Charlotte stopped playing for a moment to watch him. He gave her a wink and bent over on the bench. She hopped into his arms and sat on his lap, watching him play. She bounced up and down excitedly.

"You like that, peanut? You wanna try?" Bruno asked, taking his hands away from the keyboard.

Bruno took one of her fingers and pressed it down onto one of the keys. Her eyes lit up and her mouth dropped open when she heard the one note of music she created.

"She's a genius!" Phil exclaimed.

Bruno laughed, taking her little fingers again, pressing onto many keys at the same time. Charlotte released herself from his grasp and started banging on the keys. She giggled over and over.

"Aww..." Bruno said, kissing her cheek. "I love that sound."

"Alright," Phil said. "Let's take a break. Maybe we should go out to eat?"

"Great idea," Bruno said, standing up from the bench.

Bruno, Phil, and Charlotte drove to a restaurant down the street. They decided to sit outside to get fresh air after being inside for a while.

"I really like where we're heading with this," Bruno said, taking a sip. "I think we can have all of it done by the end of the year."

"Yeah man, I think we could probably do it and then tour by next summer."

The waitress came by to refill their drinks and take their orders. Bruno and Phil ordered their food first and then glanced over at Charlotte, vigorously coloring a picture.

"What do you wanna eat, sweetheart?" Bruno asked her, rubbing her back.

"Pasketti!" she said loudly.

"Alright," Bruno grinned widely and Phil smiled. "She'll have some spaghetti."

Two young men were sitting several tables away. One was bulky with dark hair; the other was tall and skinny with blond hair.

"Are you sure that's her?" the bigger man whispered.

"Yep," another man with blond hair replied, taking out a picture and article of her from the Internet. He looked at the picture on his phone at the same time."

"Yeah but it's been a long time..."

"She was found in Charlotte in February of 2011. It's her. It has to be. She looks just like Katrina. Fuck, she looks like me too."

"What are you going to do?"

"I have a plan...we're gonna make things right again."

"But he's a celebrity. He's probably got so many connections..."

"I need to get her back...she's mine...and you're helping me," the blond instructed.

Beginning in August, Bruno decided all he wanted to do was go to the park. . After living in the studio for sixteen hours a day, he just wanted to be normal for a while. He didn't want to be Bruno Mars; he just wanted to be Dad, without a care in the world. For three straight weeks, the only thing he did was enjoy his time with Charlotte.

One of those days, Phil joined him too, with his son, Zadeh who was a year older. Zadeh was in the sandbox and Charlotte was eagerly waiting for Bruno to unzip her jacket so she could go play. When he did, Bruno and Phil laughed. She and Zadeh were both wearing their shirts from South America.

"Aw," Phil said. "It's like they're a couple."

"Hey," Bruno snapped. "She's not dating until she's thirty."

"I'll be sure to alert the authorities when they find the body of one of her boyfriends."

"Don't hate on me for being overprotective."

"I'm not, man," Phil said, patting Bruno on the shoulder. "I get it. I get it."

"I just wanna be careful, ya know. I've been reading about..."

"Bruno what did I tell you about that? You're going to psych yourself out."

"No," Bruno shook his head. "No I know. I just wanna help her in the best ways I can. I just wanna keep her safe. She probably has some sense of insecurity already. I mean think about it. She's going to grow up and begin to understand everything, and begin to understand that someone out there gave birth to her and decided they didn't want her. I have to make her feel wanted."

"She does feel wanted, Bruno. Look at her."

"I just really hate the scumbags that not just left her, but threw her away...threw her away like she's trash. She's treasure...treasure," Bruno stopped for a second. "Wait a minute. I have an idea."

"I thought you didn't want to write any songs about her? I thought you wanted to keep her as private as you could."

"I could base a song off her though," Bruno said, quickly taking a little notepad out of his back pocket, "like a verse or something. She is part of my inspiration. I can't really help that."

They both kept their gazes just on Charlotte as she built her sandcastle as high as she could. Bruno and Phil began to bounce ideas off each other as Bruno wrote everything down. Within fifteen minutes, they had the chorus for a new song.

Treasure, that is what you are
Honey, you're my golden star
You know you can make my wish come true