With the eting with Lucian over, Leo honestly felt like a couple of years had been shaved off his life. He knew it wasn't her fault, but he shot a semi-resentful glare toward Lily, who had slightly flushed cheeks as they walked away from the mansion. The air was cool and quiet, the weight of Lucian's presence finally behind them.
"I'm sorry about my dad," Lily said at last, breaking the silence.
Leo waved a hand weakly. "I survived. Barely. I'll probably have nightmares about it, but… I'll live." He gave her a small smile to take the edge off his words.
That was when Morgan finally spoke up for the first ti since the al began hours ago. His voice was calm but had a faint tightness to it, like soone speaking through the remnants of a storm. "I should apologize too," he said. "I wasn't much help in there. I could see you were dying under his questions, but I… I wasn't even really there."
Leo glanced at him, puzzled. Morgan's expression was distant, his violet eyes carrying a troubled look Leo hadn't seen before. "What do you an you weren't there? You looked like your mind was on another planet."
Morgan gave a slow nod. "It felt like it." He paused for a mont before speaking again, his tone carrying the weight of soone forcing himself to confess sothing deeply personal. "My power… it connects to a mirror version of myself. A reflection in a world where everything is reversed. Sotis I see things about that other self even when I don't want to. That's what was distracting ."
Lily tilted her head, clearly confused. "Reversed how?"
Morgan's lips curved into sothing like a humorless smile. "In every way you can imagine. The person I saw… when I looked at Lucian… it wasn't him exactly. It was the other version. And over there… Lucian wasn't Lucian. She was… a woman."
Leo blinked, caught completely off guard. "Wait. You're saying the other version of you saw… a female Lucian?"
Morgan nodded slowly. "And she looked at like Lucian looked at your father. Like a lover would." He let out a shaky laugh and ran a hand through his hair. "It made realize sothing about myself that I never stopped to question before. Maybe I don't care as much about gender as I thought I did. Maybe I… maybe I like both."
Leo stopped walking for a mont, unsure how to respond. Lily's eyes widened, her cheeks coloring faintly, though not with embarrassnt this ti.
"Wait… are you saying you're…" Leo began carefully.
"I don't know what I'm saying," Morgan interrupted before Leo could finish. "I just know that seeing her, the other Lucian, stirred sothing I wasn't expecting. And now I'm left wondering what that says about ."
For a mont, silence fell over the group, broken only by the crunch of gravel under their boots.
Then Lily turned her head sharply with a scoff. Her voice was cool, almost biting, but there was a faint softness hidden behind it. "Whatever your orientation is, it doesn't matter," she said. "You're still you. That's all that counts."
Morgan blinked at her, reading her tone carefully. He could tell there was still resentnt in her, still anger over what had happened with her mother all those years ago. But there was sothing else too. An attempt, however small, to comfort him in her own blunt way.
He felt conflicted. He had not expected any kind of kindness from her, yet here she was, offering it in the only way she seed to know how.
Leo gave Morgan an awkward smile and patted his shoulder. "She's right, you know. What soone believes in or the people they choose to love… there's nothing wrong with that. Love is love. Nothing to be ashad about."
He paused, then added with a grin, "Though I'll only take issue with it if it ans you start going after little boys or sothing. Then we'd have a problem."
For the first ti since joining the group, Morgan actually laughed. It wasn't a quiet chuckle or a dry smile. It was real, unguarded laughter, like sothing heavy had cracked open inside him. He shook his head, his lips curving into a smirk.
"So is this your way of telling not to hit on you?" Morgan teased, raising a brow.
Leo stopped in his tracks, his face twisting into mock offense as his kitten-like tail flicked with clear annoyance. "You bastard," he muttered. "You think you're funny, huh?"
Morgan's smirk widened. "A little."
The two stared at each other for a second before they both burst out laughing. It felt good to laugh after the heaviness of the mansion and everything that had been said since. The sound carried down the empty street, warm and unrestrained.
Then a soft chi filled the air.
Both Leo and Morgan froze as glowing letters appeared before their eyes.
Bond of the Zodiac: Rat has reached 10% Completion. Buffs will be applied accordingly. If the player wishes, they may also choose to permanently bind the Bond to the chosen player. Doing so will result in:
Zodiac Bond: Rat shall be permanently bound to Player: Luna.Zodiac Bond: Rat Growth shall beco uncapped.Total Available Zodiac Bonds shall be reduced to 5.
Do you wish to bind Zodiac Bond: Rat 5 to Player Morgan?
[Y/N]
The laughter faded into stunned silence. Both n stared at the screen before glancing at each other.
"This… is kind of a big deal, isn't it?" Morgan said quietly.
Leo nodded slowly. "Yeah. Feels like it." He held Morgan's gaze for a mont longer before shrugging. "But you know what? I think it's fine."
Without hesitation, Leo pressed Yes.
The screen glowed brightly before shattering into fragnts of light that rained down around them. Morgan felt a strange warmth flow through him, the bond settling in like a new heartbeat.
He didn't say anything at first. Neither did Leo. But the look they exchanged carried sothing unspoken.
They had both co out of Lucian's mansion with heavy thoughts. Yet here, in the quiet of the road under the night sky, sothing had changed. A bond had been forged, not just by the system, but by laughter, honesty, and a strange confession neither of them had expected to share tonight.
And for the first ti in a long ti, Morgan smiled without any weight behind it.
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