CHAPTER 49: FRIENDS

The guards in the Dormant Hall let him in after a quick check-up since he had been coming there every day. Leon would always visit Silver in the morning and evening, telling her everything that had happened, even though she couldn’t hear a word of it.

But still, he wanted to accompany her. It wasn’t like he was losing anything, and if it meant there was even a small chance of being with her, he would take it.

Now that he was going away for a week, how could he possibly miss seeing her?

He walked directly toward the room she was in and sat outside the glass wall. He stared at the Dormant Portal for a while before sighing.

"Howdy, Silly?" he greeted her cheerfully and began to recount his day as if it was the most normal thing to do. He didn’t go into detail about his deeper feelings on all of this, but still spoke a bit, knowing there was good privacy here.

He spent almost an hour there, doing all the talking, only stopping when he remembered his appointment with Amber. He said a few more words to her before stepping out of the Dormant Hall.

Just as he walked outside, he found his teammates standing there. All four of them were present, even though they should still be under probation.

"Why are you guys here?" Leon asked.

"I don’t like hospitals. They make me feel weak, and that’s the worst feeling," Denver said.

"Seconded!" Rani nodded along with him.

Bella rolled her eyes at them and said, "We’re here to thank you for everything you did in the dungeon. Without you, we wouldn’t be alive right now, so we owe you a lot."

"We were teammates, so I’m sure you would have done the same," Leon shrugged. "But I’ll take the credit. You can pay in cash too if you really feel you owe me something."

"My life is invaluable, so I can’t give you enough money. Sorry about that, we can’t pay you," Bella chuckled.

Everyone laughed at that. Going through a life-and-death situation together really did bring people closer. The same could be said for them.

"Seriously though, how did you even find me?" Leon asked. "I was going to sneak away."

"I’ll take the credit for that," Natasha said with a smile. "When we went to find you, we were told you’d already checked out. So I came to the next place you could possibly be."

"And you were sure I’d be here?"

"Yes. Little Brother always visits Silver whenever you have time, so I was sure you’d come here right after getting discharged from the hospital," Natasha nodded.

"You’re stalking me now?" Leon took a step back and narrowed his eyes at her.

"What can I do? Little Brother is a tough nut to crack, so Big Sister needs to find other methods," Natasha spoke with a sweet smile on her face, as if her words weren’t crazy at all.

"You do know that’s creepy, right?" Leon voiced out, but then he added mentally, ’But being stalked by such a beautiful girl makes me happy. Am I crazy or what?’

"One shouldn’t mind small matters when they’re pursuing someone with their everything." Natasha crossed her arms over her chest. "That aside, I also owe you one now. You can ask me for anything~~ in return~"

Leon ignored the way she spoke and asked, "I already owed you one, so doesn’t this cancel it out?"

"No, it doesn’t. Both have different values, so we should keep them separate."

"Stop it, Nat. You can flirt with him later," Bella cut in before turning to Leon. "Where are you going this vacation?"

"Back home to meet my mother. She’s my pillar of support, so I’ll be in my prime again after seeing her," Leon smiled at the mention of his mother. "What about you all?"

"I’m going to meet my sister," Denver said. "She’s coming to pick me up soon."

"We don’t really have a family, so we’ll probably just go hiking or something," Bella shrugged. "We don’t have anything big planned out. Just going with the flow."

"I’ll be dragging my sister out of her books and taking her to a park. The goal is to get her to see the outside world," Natasha responded.

"Isn’t your family super duper big or something? Why don’t you visit your parents?" Bella asked, being the talkative one in their group.

"Yes, but if I go back, my little cute sister won’t come with me, so I’m choosing something else," Natasha said. "And my sister is more important to me than my family."

"You’re a good sister."

"That I definitely am!"

"Why..." Denver paused before continuing. "Why don’t we meet back at Vale before coming here? We can meet Leon there too and throw him a party as thanks for saving our lives."

"That’s a brilliant idea, Big Guy," Bella exclaimed. "We can also meet his mother this way."

"You didn’t even ask if he wants us to meet her," Rani sighed at her overly excited best friend.

"Oh! You’re right!" Bella calmed down and turned toward Leon. "So, will you allow us to meet your mother? We can also thank her for bringing you into this world so you could save us."

"Stop!! No need for so many excuses. You’re all my friends now, and that alone is enough reason to meet my mother," Leon said. "Besides, I didn’t really have many friends back in the Research Department, so my mom was always worried about me."

He checked the time and said, "Anyways, I need to leave quickly. I’ll see you guys at Vale then. Just give me a call, okay?"

"We’ll do!" Natasha wanted to give him a hug but held herself back. ’No need to scare him away. Take it slow.’

She glanced at Bella and asked, "By the way, are you interested in him?"

"Interested as in romantically?"

"Yes!"

"Not really," Bella shook her head. "He’s great, and I genuinely admire him. He has my respect, but I can’t see him in that way. He’s not really our type."

"Oh, that’s good!" Natasha heaved a sigh of relief.

"Even if we were interested, we aren’t really your competition," Rani said. "What you need to worry about is Silver’s presence."

"Oh, I’m not worried about her," Natasha smiled and said. "She’s already made her home in his heart, and it’s indestructible, so why bother trying to destroy it? I’ll just become her neighbor."

"That’s for the best," Denver said from the side. "I can tell you that for him, no one can even come close to the place his mother and Silver hold in his heart. Trying to compete with them will just make him hostile."

"You got close to him so fast?" Bella asked. "How?"

"He’s the one doing most of the talking between us; otherwise, we wouldn’t even have this friendship," Denver shook his head. "He knows I’m bad at communication, so he takes the lead. He’s a great friend."

"You seem to be having a good time talking with us, though?"

"Because we’re discussing a topic I’m familiar with," Denver sighed. "I’m bad at opening up new topics since I don’t even know much about other things."

"Ohh, then how about we drop you off at your sister’s place? We can help you get comfortable with us. I want us to keep this team for the future too."

Denver seemed conflicted but eventually agreed since he couldn’t bring himself to refuse Bella, who was giving him puppy eyes.

Natasha shook her head at them and turned to leave, but caught sight of a pink head not far from her. Her lips curled into a beautiful smile as she shouted, "Little Sister!! You came to see your Big Sister? I’m so happy!!!"