Chapter 7.5 [Interlude chapter]

A young Anna Lucia was walking down the empty streets as tears poured down her face. Her vision was blurry but she had luckily already memorised the path to her destination. Luckily, it was in the middle of the night so, apart from the few drunkards and people doing their late night shopping, no one was in her way.

She had just been yelled at by her parents for wasting their money and not bringing back good grades from school. They kicked her out of the house as punishment. This type of 'punishment' could go on for weeks on end, and she knew this from first hand experience. Though no matter how many times she endured it, it still hurt every time.

Anna was never the smartest kid in class. Her grades were average at best. Though with the help of a certain class nerd, she had been improving little by little. But that improvement wasn't seen by her parents. Instead, they would berate her for every little mistake she made. Even the smallest of mistakes wouldn't escape their watchful eyes. Normally, Anna was able to keep her emotions stable and not allow them to break through, but for one reason or another, today she wasn't able to.

Maybe it was because she wasn't able to get her favourite food as the last one had just been sold out. Or maybe it was because she stepped on what looked like a dog's business. But for whatever reason, she couldn't, and the dam opened. Thankfully she had been able to escape her house before hearing more hurtful words. She ran, and ran with only one destination in mind. A friend that she knew would help her, and wouldn't hurt her purposefully. Someone who she could put her trust into and even if it didn't work out, she knew that that friend would've put all her effort into it.

In front of her was a door with a little peephole. She took in a deep breath, wiped her tears using the ends of her sleeves and knocked.

*knock* *knock* *knock*

Seconds felt like hours as she took deep breaths and tried calming herself. The sound of something making a rhythmic contact with marble resounded through the door. The door slowly opened to reveal a young girl with ruby red eyes that seemed to stare directly into her soul.

"Anna?" she spoke in shock, clearly not expecting her friend to visit her at this time.

Without the slightest of hesitations, Anna forced herself into the occupied house, closing the door behind. The unknown girl finally managed to take a good look at the intruder's face and realised how red and teary eyed she was.

"Are you oka-'' But before she could even ask, Anna jumped on her and hugged her as tightly as she could. A downpour of tears started as she kept pulling her tighter and tighter.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." The same words kept repeating over and over again before they seemed to muffle with the cries.

Hearing this, Emily hugged her friend back before gently caressing her hair. "Anna." She spoke with such authoritative power that it made Anna shiver a bit. Seeing the reaction, Emily automatically softened her voice before speaking. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Anna silently nodded.

Wanting to check out the commotion, Emily's mom, Ms Chloe, went into the hallway where the entrance was only to see the two girls hugging whilst one was crying. Emily gave a silent look towards her mother, conveying what she meant and Ms Chloe only gave a slight nod before going out of sight.

Taking her hands, Anna was brought upstairs to where Emily's room was. They both sat on the bed, facing each other as Emily asked.

"What happened?"

Although Emily had no tact in these types of situations, she would still do anything to try and help.

"M- my parents s-shouted at me." Anna replied, her voice broken.Emily's eyes darkened as she listened to the reason why she got shouted at. She barely kept her cool as she comforted her friend.

She complained about everything. The unfairness of it all. How her efforts weren't acknowledged by her own parents. The people who should be there for her. How she wanted to be able to live a free life instead of being shackled by a family that didn't even seem like they were trying to keep her. The irony of it all made her chuckle a bit.

As she finished, Emily brought her friend back for a hug and gently stroked her back. She didn't know what to say so instead, she chose to show it through her actions. Anna hugged her back as they stayed in a comforting silence for the better part of a minute. It would have lasted longer if it weren't interrupted by a knock.

The two girls separated from each other before Emily answered in Japanese. "Come in"

The door opened revealing her mother who was holding a tray with glasses of juice on it. "I've brought some Juice." She walked towards the little table in the room and placed the tray on it. Anna thanked Ms Chloe in a broken version of Japanese.

"Will she be staying here again?" She asked her daughter.

"I think she will… I'll go and prepare the guest room for her," Emily responded

"Don't worry, I'll do it."

"Are you sure?"

Ms Chloe simply nodded and left the room. Anna looked at Emily and asked "What did she say,"

"She said that you can stay here for the day."

"Huh. No no no no no. I can't bothe-"

"Anna, you've been staying here a lot for the last year. It's hardly a bother." Getting out of the bed, Emily picked the 2 cups of juice and gave one of them to Anna. "Here."

An almost silent, inaudible "Thank you" escaped from Anna's lips as she took the juice from her friend's hands…

=== [Cannon Extra Content] ===

*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*

Emily woke up from her sleep and scratched her eyes which were half asleep. She looked at the clock reading '02:00'. Wondering who was awake at this time, she called for the person to come in.

The door opened, revealing a slightly dim orange light before a short figure entered the fray. Her long brown hair flowed behind her as she held a pillow close to her chest. Stepping into the room she was met by a slightly confused Emily who looked at her.

"Umm…"

An awkward silence followed soon after.

"What are you doing here?" Although Emily didn't mean to, she had spoken in Japanese as her brain was still in auto pilot. From the amount of anime that Anna watched, she managed to immediately understand what she was saying and answered.

"Umm… I know this is awkward but can I sleep with you tonight?" She said whilst fidgeting her fingers

Emily raised an eyebrow as she looked at the guest.

"Um- ah, no… I.. uh…" she stammered. "Umm, I just couldn't sleep after everything that happened today, so please…" her voice lowered as she continued speaking. She hugged the pillow much tighter as she looked at the red eyed girl with a pleading look.

Unable to resist the cuteness of her friend, Emily simply beckoned over her friend and lifted the bed sheets as a sign of inviting her over. Anna's eyes widened with joy as she quickly went ahead and snuggled into the tiny bed with her pillow. "Thank you," She whispered.

"Are you okay now?" Emily asked, whispering.

Anna nodded and looked into Emily's eyes as she spoke. "I'm still a bit shaken but I feel better now."

"That's good. So for now…" She put her arms over Anna and brought her closer to her chest. "Sleep."

Taken aback by her friend's action, Anna looked up only to see the girl breathing softly onto her hair. It was clear that she did it half-asleep but Anna couldn't help but blush. But she didn't try to push her off or escape the hug and instead she slowly fell asleep under the warm embrace