Rachel’s lips curled up in a mischievous grin when she spotted the timid kitty they called their leader peeking into the room.
"Ohhh, she’s definitely still mad~"
She cooed, practically singing the words as she wagged a finger, acting as if she was chastising a naughty child.
Leo’s ears flattened, shooting Rachel a wary glance, trying to determine whether her smile was teasing or playfully malicious. Knowing her, it was probably both. He inched further into the room anyway, only to stop dead as Lily who was still dramatically cradling empty wrappers locked eyes with him.
"You... did you eat my Pocky...You did, didn’t you?!"
"What, I didn’t even know you had Pocky!"
"You should have known!"
Lily’s voice cracked as she hysterically spouted nonsense and pointed an accusatory finger at him.
"The sacred stash! The Holy temple of my sweets! Desecrated!"
Crystal looked up from her half-finished dunkaroo, confused as she looked at Adam
"Didn’t you take those?"
Adam, with zero shame, held up the half-empty box.
Lily let out a sound that was somewhere between a sob and a screech, collapsing onto the floor again like the heroine of a tragic drama. Aria instinctively stepped back.
"Uh... should we... leave her there for a bit?"
Luna called from the hallway, clearly having heard everything. Her tone, however, made everyone including Leo go still.
A shadow loomed at the edge of the hallway as Luna stepped into view. Her arms were crossed, her expression unreadable.
Leo immediately straightened like a soldier before inspection.
Her gaze didn’t soften.
"I don’t recall raising my brother to be a liar who lets a woman cry."
Leo flinched at her words, guilt flickering across his face.
Her words were cold as she continued to give him a withering look.
"You used me to hide your condition from someone who genuinely cared about you."
Leo lowered his head as that was indeed true.
"While Crystal and I may have not seen eye to eye on some things but we were united when it came to you and your selfish act ruined that. For the last few years we actively avoided each other because of what you did."
Leo’s shoulders slumped as Luna’s words carved through him like a blade. The once-lively mood in the room had dropped to a dead hush. The room felt unusually quiet as everyone felt like they were hearing something they weren’t supposed to.
’Rather than the scolding of a sibling, this felt more like the nagging of a wife..or mother.’
Adam had that thought as he lowered his head and pretended to pass out from exhaustion in the chair, deciding it would be best if he acted like he didn’t hear any of this.
Leo raised his head as he tried to justify his own actions.
"Sis I didn’t mean for you and Crystal to have a falling out like that! I was just trying to save her from the pain of knowing I was dying. If I could, I would have hidden it from you too."
Luna’s gaze faltered for a second at Leo’s unexpected confession. Still she lowered her chin and raised her voice
"That alone is incredibly selfish of you. Don’t you care about others..."
No sooner had those words left her mouth, she felt a pang of regret as her brother’s eyes flashed with hurt before he shouted.
"Yeah. I know it was selfish of me but what could I do?! I was fucking dying! If it wasn’t for this game turning us into literal freakshows, I would have been fucking dead! So forgive me..Forgive me if I wanted to spare myself from seeing those I cared about watching me rot away! Day by day withering into nothing more than a desiccated corpse!"
Luna was left speechless as Leo’s voice cracked under the weight of his outburst, raw and trembling. His hands were clenched into fists at his sides, trembling slightly as he struggled to hold himself together.
"The way I was, I felt it every day that I was just a burden. I thought... I thought if I could just disappear quietly, it’d be easier for everyone. Cleaner. Less pain, less mess. Just letting myself fade away."
Luna immediately crossed the distance between her and Leo and grabbed a fistful of his clothes as she roared.
"It doesn’t work like that Leo! You don’t get to say that! You and I know that losing people that you love is a pain that can’t be put in words. Disappearing without a word? The people you would have left behind would be hurting even more!"
Leo had tears in his eyes as he met Luna’s angry glare. He felt vulnerable as he finally revealed the dark thoughts that had plagued him for years
"I know, Luna. I know...,"
he said hoarsely as if trying to restrain himself from crying
"But can you understand how I felt? Back then, every day was a countdown, another day of torture as my body broke down. I couldn’t sleep without painkillers to muffle the agony I was in and I passed the time by listening to a clock ticking behind my ears . I wasn’t trying to be a martyr or some tragic idiot. I was just... scared."
His voice cracked again at the last word, and Luna’s grip on his shirt loosened slightly, the fire in her eyes dimming just enough to show the hurt beneath the rage. Her lips pressed into a thin line.
For a beat, no one spoke. The air was heavy, as if daring anyone to make a sound. Even Lily, who moments ago had been wailing over her candy, sat up quietly on the floor, her wrappers forgotten. Crystal gripped one of her arms as she bit her lip. She agreed with Luna but she had no idea what Leo had gone through in the past few years.
Luna let out a shaky breath as she placed her forehead against Leo’s chest.
"You absolute idiot. You were never a burden."
Leo blinked. He was still trembling as the emotions he had bottled deep down erupted and wracked his body
Luna interrupted firmly, one hand gripping his arm.
"You listen now. You were never a burden. Not to me, not to Crystal, not to any of us. We’re your family, Leo. That means we carry the weight together. You don’t get to decide for us who we grieve, or when."
A silence settled between them but this one was not heavy, but fragile. Honest.
Nobody said a word as quiet tears slid down Leo’s face. He had opened his heart to show the wounds he bore and now he finally had a chance to heal.