Previously in NWC-
Reno and Luna let Medusa be alone for the first time as they go to shower. CeCe visits Lyn to use her utilities and then the party meets back up at the FTG. CeCe gives Reno the remainder of the payment and returns to Lyn's to relax after their journey. After that, Reno, Luna, and Medusa decide to go to sleep...
The following morning, Reno wakes up first. He yawns as his mind slowly begins to start processing the universe around him. He lay in silence, his eyes closed. His sleep was strangely better than usual, and he even felt somewhat light. In fact, he almost felt too light. He opens his right eye, glancing over to where Medusa usually sleeps next to him. Medusa was still asleep, but her vines weren't wrapped around him. Instead, she only wrapped a vine around his arm and slept huddled next to him. "What the?" His mind slowly begins processing this odd turn of events before he makes a realization. "This feeling… Medusa isn't crushing me, but…" He feels a small rise and fall of a foreign body, accompanied by a light weight pressing down on him. He opens his other eye, rubbing it with his free arm before looking above him on his chest. On top of him was a small girl who was deep in sleep. The girl appeared to be 8 or 9 and her long straight hair was a light blue, almost white. The hair color almost reminded him of something, and it took him a couple seconds to think of it. Reno breaks his gaze and looks around the room in confusion. "Luna?" He's slow and methodical with his movements, twisting his head without waking up the girl. "Luna?" He says her name again, this time slightly louder.
"Mnn…" In response to this, the girl begins to stir awake, shuffling slightly until she pushes herself up. She sits up completely, now sitting on Reno's chest. As she does, she covers her mouth with one hand to yawn, and uses her other hand to rub her eyes. "What's the matter, Reno?" The girl speaks, her voice high-pitched.
"Huh?" Reno watches as the girl looks down at him expectantly. She finally opens her eyes, revealing two pupils that resembled a certain goddess. "Luna? Is… is that you?!"
Luna tilts her head, the blue locks falling over her shoulder and brushing against Reno's nose. "Hmm?" The girl seems almost as confused as Reno when she watches her own hair dangle in front of her. She curiously reaches and touches her hair with her hands. As if something clicked, she looked at her hands, then up her arms. She feels around her body as if she was finally realizing she was a real living creature. "It can't be!" The girl visibly becomes increasingly excited as she inspects her body with a great deal of energy. "I can't believe it!"
"Umm…" Reno feels extremely awkward as he interrupts the girl. "Are you… Luna?" Reno looks at the girl, trying to study her eyes.
The girl looks down at Reno with the brightest smile he's ever seen and speaks. "Yes, Reno! It's me!"
Reno's heart begins to race with confused excitement as he hears her answer. "Seriously? How?!"
The girl is frantic, her excitement uncontainable. She does her best to speak slowly enough for him to understand him. "Because of the power shard! I gained enough of my power to maintain a more human form!" She suddenly lurches forward and hugs Reno, clinging to him and shoving her face into his body. "Thank you, thank you, thank you! You have my deepest gratitude, Reno!" She continues to hug him aggressively as he tries to sit up.
"Alright, alright! I'm happy for you too!" He waits for her to let go of him but she doesn't. Instead, her grip gets tighter and tighter. Reno awkwardly places his hands on her back and pats her, cringing slightly from the discomfort. "You're squeezing me a bit tight." He tries to shift his body in hopes she'll let go, and it works to an extent.
"Oh!" She loosens her grip, enough to raise her head and look up at him. "My apologies!" She let's go enough to let him sit up and adjust himself. She continues to sit on his lap and hug him, shaking with excitement. "I'm sorry, Reno, this is just quite exciting! I finally have a body again! I can actually help from now on!"
Reno makes a bit of an attempt to wiggle out of her grasp. "That's great, Luna. I'm so happy for you!" He smiles awkwardly, slightly loosening her grip on him.
"Luna notices this and puffs out her cheeks, wearing an angry expression. "Hmpf!" She angrily tightens her grip again, squeezing her as tight as she can. Despite her currently small stature, her grip was incredibly tight, causing Reno to wheeze as the air was forcefully pushed from his lungs. "If you're happy then start acting like it! Your first action is to try getting away from me? How rude!" Lun continuously hugs Reno, getting progressively tighter as she's able to bring her hands together.
"Muh?" Medusa slowly wakes up, rubbing her eyes. She looks over to see Luna and Reno hugging. Her eyes light up and her vines quickly begin wrapping around both of them. Luna's eyes shoot open with surprise as she looks down at the vines. "Luna! Reno!"
"Medusa, no!" Luna tries to leg go of Reno to get out of Medusa's constriction but fails. Their bodies are pressed tightly against each other. Their backs bend in unnatural ways as Medusa excitedly squeezes them. Luna feels her back nearly break as Medusa lets go of them. Reno, having only been used to being squeezed alone, was unaccustomed to the feeling of being crushed into another body. The new sensation is enough to make him fall back, laying on the floor gasping. Luna falls forward, her head hitting his chest and causing him to flinch, throwing his legs in the air for a moment. The two catch their breath and Luna finally pushes off of him. "You deal with that every morning?!" Luna slowly manages to stand up. As she stands on her feet, the blanket she had wrapped around her slowly slides off. Her eyes close as she feels her body immediately lower in temperature. "Why is it so cold?!" She looks down and her eyes widen, her face turning bright red.
"Ugh, that was worse than usual." Reno slowly begins to recover. Right before he's able to open his eyes, Luna shouts.
"Medusa! Reno wants another hug!" She screams this, her voice even cracking from the sudden pitch change.
"What?!" Before Reno could do anything, Reno had wrapped his entire body except for his nose and mouth for breathing purposes. "Luna, what the hell?!"
Luna quickly rips through Reno's bag, grabbing some of his clothes and putting them on as fast as she was physically capable of. Finally clothed, she lets out a sigh. "Alright, Medusa. I think Reno is ready to be released." Medusa smiles brightly and lets go of Reno.
"Twice in one morning, this is gonna be a bad day." He stands to his feet, seemingly unaffected by being constricted this time. "At least it was just me. I'm used to her doing it to me but having something else pushed into me just seemed to make it worse." He stretches and brushes himself off as he yawns. He looks at Luna and inspects her. Luna stood at 4'4" (1.3m). Her skin was fair, with a minor blush on her face. Her long straight hair reached halfway down her back and was a shade of blue so light it almost looked white. Her light blue eyes avoided contact with his as she nervously gripped the extremely oversized shirt that almost reached the floor. He notices that the shirt she was wearing was his and his eyebrows raise in curiosity. "Did you really just almost kill me because you wanted to put clothes on?"
Luna's eyes shoot open again and her blush deepens. "Shut up!"
Reno smiles, his voice genuine as he speaks. "There's no need to be embarrassed. I changed my little brother all the time when he was a baby!"
Luna's face continues to burn bright as she gets progressively more frustrated. "Well I'm not your brother! There is an immense difference between a younger infant sibling and a goddess who's lived longer than your entire family combined!"
"Jeez, sorry. I was just trying to help lighten the mood. You look like a little kid so I thought you'd want to be treated like one."
"That is the most ridiculous thought process I've ever heard! I've wanted nothing less than to be treated with dignity and respect like an adult since we first met! You treated me with more of that when I was a ball of light!"
"I can't help it! Seeing you like this makes me think of my little brother…" Reno's face darkens slightly as his smile fades.
Luna sighs, recollecting herself as her blush weakens. "Well, we're one step closer to you seeing him, right?"
Reno nods his head. "Yeah, that's true."
"Speaking of that, you need to make a wish! Something doable, please. Don't make me feel bad by wishing to be back home again, please."
Reno chuckles and shakes his head. "Nah, nothing like that. I was actually thinking about that on the way back, and I think I know what I want!"
Luna excitedly nods her head. "Perfect! Now that I've fully fused with all of the powers from the shard, I can grant you the wish!"
"Great! I'd like for you to make me stronger! Every time I get hit I end up almost out of the fight. I'd like to be able to withstand a couple more attacks before getting taken out."
Luna puts her hand to her chin and taps it. She lets out a noise of deep thought. "That's quite the excellent idea, but how about this?"
TO BE CONTINUED...