From Luna's diary
The boys returned back home very late tonight, yet I had told them we were going to celebrate tonight!
As you can notice by yourself, my dear diary, today was my birthday! I have to admit that I'm probably too old to feel genuinely excited about the idea of getting one year older, but any celebration with my family remains very enjoyable to me.
What I was really not enjoying was this aching back instead, my poor old bones...
Kiwi the cat is growing very quickly too, at this point she is agile enough to jump on the table and try to steal our food.
Luna: Kiwi, no! Chocolate is bad for you!
Kiwi: meow!
Only then I sat at the table, and noticed that the boy hadn't said a single word yet. They hadn't wished me "happy birthday" either, when that's usually the first thing they say whenever a cake is on the table. I couldn't avoid to be extremely suspicious of their attitude at that point, wouldn't you be too, my dear diary?
Luna: Dis something happened? And be aware that this time I won't take a: "Um, nothing" as an answer!
Once again the boys didn't answer, but both Orion and Aster cast a worried look at Leo, implying he was the one who should have said something. Yet, Leo just avoided any eye contact, and just pretended to be focused on his slice of cake.
I just couldn't stand that silence anymore, even if I was hoping not to go that far...
Luna: Okay, you forced me to.
Leo: Wait a sec, mom...
So I found out that Mr. S.'s daughter is a disguised alien too, of how she discovered the disguise of Leo, Orion and Aster, and how Orion erased her memory and dragged his brothers away from the scout gathering.
It took me a few minutes to process everything, before bursting out saying:
Luna: Why didn't you tell us everything right away? You took a huge risk!
Then I managed to calm down enough to add:
Luna: Orion, you were right to erase her memory. Are you sure you've erased everything about your disguise?
Orion: I think so, in practice she had just discovered us, and so I just had to erase the last half an hour.
Luna: Instead you, Leo...
Leo: ...
Luna: I understand you care about her, but it would be too risky for everyone. Do you realize it?
Leo: ... yes, I do.
There was so much going on in Leo's mind, with my telephaty I clearly saw how frightened, sad, worried, and frustrated he felt in that moment. I was not surprised when, at that point, I noticed how he wasn't even able to look at me when being scolded. That's also why I didn't say more, I know he realized by himself how great of a risk he took. I would really like to be able to lift him a bit from all those troubles I saw in his mind, but probably all he can do is to wait, and try to pass over this bad episode...
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From Leo's diary
My parents didn't give me any punishment but, obviously, I and my brothers weren't allowed to participate to any scout group gathering anymore. However, for me it was impossible to just remain on the sofa all day long, which is why I ended to ignore the cold weather and decided to take a walk in the countryside just out of town. It could also have helped me elaborate the situation, I thought.
Trying to be rational, it is obvious that Mom, Dad and Orion are right. Letting Claire know about us would have been a huge risk for everyone, a risk that we cannot afford to face. This is also the compromise we accepted when decided to use a disguise again: we can avoid the discrimination at school, at work and with our friends, making possible many opportunities which would be otherwise precluded to us, but, on the other hand, we must avoid being found out at all cost. I know it well, and probably I shouldn't be thinking so much about it.
But I can't stop thinking about Claire, and about how I would really like to know more about her, her life outside of the scout group and everything. Orion had probably used the right word yesterday, because I really got a crush on her... My usual bad luck, this would just make it harder to pass over this messy situation.
But at that point her memories about the previous night had been erased and I wasn't allowed to meet her anymore, all I could do was to forget her too. That's what I was trying to convince myself about, what else could I do?
Claire: Hey Leonard, I wasn't expecting to see you here! How are you doing?
Leo: (caught off guard) wha... Claire? What are you doing here?
Claire: I was just taking a walk, it's such a boring day. What about you?
Leo: Well... quite the same, actually.
Without asking me anything, she sat next to me. She seemed her usual confident self, while I really didn't know what to do at that point. All I could think of was: "Try not to make this mess even worse".
Claire: Why did you and your brothers leave the scout group? It's such a pity!
Leo: (cautious) Ehm... In a few months there are the final school exams, we have decided to focus on those, you know.
This was the official version they had decided to stick to, and it wasn't a complete lie either, we actually needed more time to study.
Claire: I see...
Leo: How are you, by the way?
Claire: So did you notice my dazed face too? I hardly remember anything that happened last night, it's so weird...
Leo: ...
Claire: I almost have the impression that someone had erased my memory... By chance was it you, or any of your brothers?
There and then I could only stare at her open-mouthed: if Orion had erased her memories about the last night, how could she still suspect us? Was I supposed to erase her memories again? Was I really able to do that, by the way?
Leo: (trying to stay calm) Claire, I really don't know what you are talking abou...
Claire : (thoughtfully) Even in a situation like this you don't want to erase my memories, I felt it wasn't you! It was Orson, right? If that's his real name, I mean.
At that point I shouldn't have hesitated any longer, I should have erased all her memories of us in that very moment and made her completely forget about all of us. That would have been the safest way, I knew it, and I knew my family would have wanted me to do it.
However, I couldn't avoid thinking that she had probably found out about us well before Orion erased her memories about yesterday night. And that, despite she had had who knows how much time to do so, she had never reported us to any authority. But what if, instead, that was only a trick? How could i know? How...
Claire: I definitively don't plan to report you, if it's what you are wondering. If you have decided to disguise yourselves I'm sure you have a good reason, isn't it? And, to be honest, I'm probably not the one who should judge you.
Leo: (uncertain) Claire...
Claire: Leonard, I really think you are a good person, I trust you. And, maybe, I should give you a way to trust me too, right? If you want, you can read my mind.
Leo: What? But like this ...
Claire: We can't lie with telepathy, right?
No, it's impossible to lie or hide anything when you let someone else read your mind. Did she really trust me up to that point?
A quite loud voice in my mind was telling me to run away, but an even louder one wanted to do what she told me to. And so I did.
I have seen so many things. About her childhood, spent with a family who didn't accept her being an alien and who seemed to pour all the anger towards the alien abduction suffered by her father on her. I saw how guilty she feels, because she can't avoid thinking that if her dad wasn't abducted and she wasn't born, then all those horrible laws against aliens wouldn't even exist. I saw the efforts she had made to get away from that father she hated, and to put together the group of scouts with whom she had spent a lot of good times. And, above all, I saw all her loneliness, dictated by the fact that she, after all, had never managed to show her real self to anyone else.
Until that moment.
At that point, I also allowed her to see my memories, to give her a way to understand me.
What she had shown me was so similar to what I had felt since we started disguising ourselves and wearing this mask, with the difference that it was even worse for her because her family was actually against her, instead of supporting her.
How could I have used telepathy to erase all this? After what I've seen, I'm sure I can trust her, and the same goes for her. And, most importantly...
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§HermioneSims§ corner:
Also for this chapter the development felt so fast to me, I really would have liked to have a couple of chapters to cover this part, but the three brothers are about to age up to adults and for that point I have other ideas to follow. Again, this is part of the challenge in a Legacy!
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