"Hey, Luna."
That was a call from a much younger Leo from nineteen years ago as he ran toward Luna who was sitting on the grass looking up at bright clouds.
Her hair was much shorter back then and Leo had his hair almost covering both of his eyes.
"Look over there, Luna." An ecstatic Leo said just after stopping beside her. He was pointing up ahead.
"Huh? What is it?" Luna responded, following his hand to see what he was pointing at.
It didn't take her long to find the single apple dangling on the apple fruit up ahead.
"Oh." She muttered.
"You want it, right?"
"Well, yeah." She nodded.
"Then let's race for it," Leo suggested. "The first person to get to it keeps it."
"Why don't we just share it?" Luna uttered, clearly not eager.
"No, I don't want to share." Leo retorted. "If you want it then take it from me."
He quickly took off toward the apple tree after that.
"Hey, no fair."
She didn't want to race, but she wanted the apple still, so she had to do everything to get it.
Getting a headstart, Leo was able to get to the tree first and without slowing down, he began to run up the tree like he had glue on his feet.
Luna had to copy what he was doing because that was the only way she could ever hope to catch up to him.
Despite that, Leo was just too fast for her, and in no time, he had gotten to the apple. Just as he grabbed hold of the apple and pulled it, Luna stepped on a defective branch which snapped the instant her feet made contact with it.
"You should have made up your mind faster." Leo chuckled while dangling from the top of the tree.
He was just about to take a bite from the apple when he heard a screaming Luna crash to the ground. A second later and she was wailing in tears.
Letting out a sigh, Leo quickly made his way down the tree to find her sitting on the floor, her face covered in tears and mucus slipping out from her nose.
"She cries a lot but I haven't seen her cry this much before." He muttered to himself.
"I..told you we…could just share it." She cried.
'So, it's my fault.' Leo sighed inwardly.
Watching her cry for about one minute, he shook his head with a sigh before squatting down beside her.
"Here, you can have it." He said, a bit reluctant as he offered her the apple.
"Huh?" She muttered, her crying slowly coming to a halt.
"Here, take it." Leo reaffirmed before placing the apple in her hand.
"Really?"
"Yeah, take a bite." He nodded before pushing the apple toward her mouth and getting her to take a bite.
Her crying slowly came to a halt just after that, and now she was left staring at him.
"I don't like it when you cry," Leo said before reaching for her face to clean her tears with his hand. "Are you okay? Did you hurt anything?"
She didn't seem to have found her voice again after she stopped crying and instead looked down on her legs.
"Oh, your legs."
He quickly reached for both of her legs after taking note of her sign before turning back to her.
"Which one is it? The right or left one?" He asked.
There was no vocal response from her this time either as she slowly brought the apple down from her face to reveal the soft smile on her face.
Immersing herself in her blissful dream, Luna found herself smiling in the real world as she slowly opened her eyes.
Lying on her back on a family-size bed, she found herself staring at the white ceiling.
"Where am I?"
She was soon able to answer that question for herself as all it took was a little looking around to confirm that she was in a hotel suite room.
"How did I get here?" She groaned as she slowly pulled herself up to sit on the bed. "What…."
She wasn't able to finish that statement as the door was suddenly pushed open for Leo to walk in wearing a black night robe. He was also holding a medium-sized pot.
"Oh, you're up." He smiled as soon as he saw her sitting on the bed.
"Leo?" She uttered, looking quite surprised.
It was at that that moment that everything that happened last night just before she passed out immediately came rushing back to her.
She suddenly felt a stinging pain on her left shoulder, forcing her to let out a sharp groan as she grabbed hold of it.
A concerned Leo quickly dashed to her at that moment, placing the pot he was holding on top of the cupboard beside the bed before reaching her shoulder.
"Are you okay?"
The pain only lasted for a moment, and as she was starting to calm down, Luna slowly looked up at Leo, who still had his hand on her shoulder.
"Take it off."
She didn't sound pleased in the slightest as she pushed his hand off her shoulder.
"Oh, sorry," Leo uttered as he slowly pulled his hand back.
What followed next was a few seconds of awkward silence before she suddenly let out a deep sigh.
"You're unbelievable." She said as she shook her head.
"Huh?"
"I heard you were in Doran but I wasn't expecting you to tail me. You must have heard."
"Heard what?" Leo sighed as he slowly brought his head down.
"That I was with an orb piece." She responded. The hostility in her eyes was something she wasn't trying to hide.
Leo's response was a weak sigh as he got up from the bed and began to head toward the door.
"You must have the orb now."
Shaking his head, Leo turned to her before nodding toward the cupboard.
"Check the first drawer." He instructed.
"Huh, why?" She inquired.
"Just check it, you'll see."
She was quite hesitant, staring at him quite suspiciously before reaching for the drawer.
Pulling the drawer open, she saw the thing she was expecting to see the least. The red orb was sitting there in the comfort of a small piece of cloth.
The expression on her face was one of shock as she slowly picked up the orb.
"You didn't take it?" She uttered.
"I guess I'll have to prove that it's the real thing."
After saying that, he made his way to the cupboard and pulled out the second drawer to take out a pistol.
He quickly loaded the gun with bullets before taking the orb from her.
"Watch carefully."
Riss knocked on the door at that moment before entering the room to find Leo throwing the orb up.
He raised his gun toward the falling orb and pulled the trigger without hesitation.
His precision was on point as the bullet was able to meet the orb head-on,
However, instead of blowing the orb into pieces or at least pushing it back, the bullet ended up getting crushed as the orb fell to the ground.
"What is he doing?" Riss muttered.
That demonstration was enough to show that the orb was indeed the real deal. However, someone still wasn't convinced of something.
"I see. Is that your plan?" Luna said, forcing a smile on her face.
"Huh?" Leo responded.
"Do you think taking it while you're still in Doran will inconvenience you in some way? Are you planning to take it after I leave with it?"
"I honestly can't understand how you can say something like that?" Riss snapped before turning to Luna with a sharp glare.
"And what do you mean by that?"
"Do you even know the kind of condition you were in last night?" He retorted. "He removed the bullet lodged in your shoulder, treated your wounds and even stayed up all night exhausting his spirit force to restore your spirit force's flow that was messed up by the unsafe amount of absimo you inhaled. Yet all you think of him is…."
"That's enough, Riss," Leo interjected.
"Good things shouldn't be done for ungrateful people." He scoffed before walking off toward the kitchen.
Luna was left dumbfounded and hugely embarrassed, and with that feeling, she found herself staring at the floor.
She still had her gaze on the floor when Leo walked up to her and placed the orb in her hand.
"Here." He smiled.
There was no response from her as she closed the orb in her hand before pulling it back.
"I almost forgot about this," Leo said before reaching for the pot he placed on the cupboard earlier. "It's chicken stew. I wanted to make it myself, but it turns out there's a lot I don't know about cooking."
"You didn't have to tell me all that," Luna muttered before taking it from him. A sigh escaped from her lips afterwards as she turned away from him.
"Hold on, let me get you a spoon."
He hurried to the kitchen after that, but just as he was taking out a spoon, he turned to Riss who was taking out a bottle of water from the fridge at the moment.
"So, what's the report?" He inquired.
"Zax managed to get home safe but he won't be able to use his arms for a while." Riss disclosed.
"And the dark soul gang?"
"I think they're aware she hasn't left the city. They have their men stationed everywhere, some of them in disguise." He reported.
"I guess they're not willing to let this one go." Leo sighed before turning to Luna who was staring at the orb in her hand now.