Paradise Is Here

Fight The Whole World (Lady Lesso XII)

☂︎

The passing weeks have been a bliss for both Lesso and Ilaria, though they haven't shown affection to each other in public and even looked like they despise each other. They would make up for it when they're in private.

The young woman never thought Lesso could ever be romantic, but she was wrong. There were nights where Lesso would prepare a lovely dinner, slow dance under the stars, leaving flowers, share their favourite poetry and watch sunsets. Ilaria couldn't help, but fell even harder for the Devil.

Although, with all those lovely things Lesso does for Ilaria, the nightmares that take up the older woman's mind doesn't go unnoticed over the night. She would be woken up by Lesso stirring around, crying as she whimpers things she couldn't understand, then when Ilaria tries confronting them, Lesso avoids the topic.

As much as Ilaria wants Lesso to lean on her, to trust her completely, she also doesn't want to force her, so she just lets it be until one night.

Ilaria was sound asleep at the dead of night when she suddenly felt a weight being laid on her chest. That woke her up and it was none other than her partner, pressing her ear against her heart, clinging onto her like she was going to be pulled away from Lesso.

Lesso's breath shuddered when Ilaria placed a hand on her hair and began stroking it, "Lesso, what's wrong?" She whispered.

"Promise me, when you want to leave...tell me, okay?"

"Why would I think I would ever leave you?"

"Just please...promise me." Ilaria couldn't understand why Lesso was, out of the blue, asking her this sort of thing, but she knew that it would bring her comfort to say something.

"I promise." The older woman seemed to be relieved after she said those two words. "That is, if I ever thought of leaving you." Not a word was said from Lesso and Ilaria was worried about what Lesso was going through, so she tried comforting her again, hoping she might open up. "Leonora, you've been having these nightmares, night after night. You're worrying me. I want to help you like you've helped me, so please, talk to me." Ilaria pleads, repeating the words that were once said to her by the same woman.

With a few more seconds of silence, finally Lesso attempts to speak. "They always leave without saying anything..."

"They who?"

"People I cared about...When I was young, father was often out to earn money, leaving me with mother. Mother was often sick, I would take care of her when father wasn't around. One night, my mother was dreadfully ill and I was trying my best to take care of her. When she was asleep in her bed I decided to take a short nap on the chair beside her..." Lesso took a pause and laria patiently waited for her as she proceeded to gently play with her hair.

"Woken up by the sound of thunder roaring in the sky...I turned to the clock, it was time to feed her. I grabbed the heated porridge and when I went to wake her up...she wouldn't wake up...I called and called and called for her, but...she was gone...She died when I was asleep, without any struggle-which was a good thing. Though I just wished she said something before she went..."

"I...I'm sorry you had lost her like that..."

"Then next was father...got robbed and killed when he was on his way home a few years after mother passed." Ilaria only knew little bits of Lesso's past, but never about her parents. "The night after that was the night I got brought here." She knew that Lesso was gone, but she didn't know they had died like this. "For years, I couldn't sleep properly because of that, so my anger grew and...I fell for this boy and I thought then that he might make my life better, but no. He was just there to use me for my powers because...Well, we're villains. It's what we do, but I loved him nevertheless. Anyway, he died in the school grounds shortly after..."