A win-win Deal.

Leonardo smiled.

When night arrived, both women didn't want to leave, so the premise was for Hailey to sleep on his feet, but the girl changed personality as she started to breathe evenly. Somehow, she crawled her way up and, as if angry with it, pulled his pillow away without opening her eyes. He tried to hold it but she bit his hand and threw it out of the bed. Then she used the intersection of his shoulder and chest as a pillow.

She threw one of her legs above his and hugged an arm across his chest. She was treating Leonard as those long pillows she got for herself.

Smiling, he looked at her. She was a sixteen-year-old slender thing that's usually in her room when not at her friend's. She studies hard and earns money by posing as a mannequin for her friend's makeup youtuba videos. She gains quite well. But she barely talks at home, being aloof and cold. Now that he lived through Szumi's eyes, Leonardo understood that she was just putting on a front.

Azumi, like a butterfly, flew from the armchair Helen was "resting her eyes" on for at least seven hours now and landed on his arm.

[The less fat on the body, the colder you feel, and now you're unintentionally releasing some warmth, you're her warm blanket.]

He frowned and gently held Hailey's wrist, feeling the bones he frowned deeper and slid his hand down her arms. At each time he held her, she squirmed. He slowed down and tucked his hands inside her hoodie through the waist he warmed his palms and tactfully felt her hips. though he lingered a bit each time, when he reached her ribs, an abysmal feeling stormed his stomach. He took his hands out and laid it in her ribcage from above the hoodie but still felt the bones with ease.

"W-What are you doing?"

Only now did he notice her big eyes staring wide open at him with a blushed face.

Leonard looked on coldly. She had lightly scratched her cheek on him earlier and the makeup on her cheek was a little deformed, showing her sickly pale skin underneath. It was then that her voice screaming at him through the phone passed by his mind. She was filled with hate then. Thinking abour it now. The reason why she would rather be at her friends or her room, and the reason she's gathering money in any way she can..

Leonardo closed his eyes. 'She's trying the same as I did..' Money to live on her own and studying to be able to protect them.

He sighed and said with disappointment.

"It's no fun to squeeze if it's just skin and bones."

"W-W-What!?" Her pale skin became bright red as she jumped from the bed.

Leonardo grinned. "Mom, can you take Hailey for a full check-up? If they ask for money tell them I'll pay with a debit card."

The girl felt two arms draping over her shoulders and a Helen smiling with a sleepy face appeared with a glint in her eyes."Yes, and I want to hear about that squeezing thing you two were talking about too."

Leonardo looked at her tight jeans that were holding her hip and bottom, then wondered his eyes over the loose blouse showing the curves of her plentiful bosom.

Giving her the most good-boy smile, he said; "I'd be more than glad to demonstrate- ouch!" And earned a playful slap in the head.

"Respect your mother, brat." She giggled away.

Seeing her pulling Hailey out of the ward with a bright smile on her lips made Leonardo sigh with a grin of his own.

[Relieved sigh because she didn't outrightly reject you pushing the boundaries? Or because she didn't comment on your sudden ability to do it?]

Looking at the butterfly for a few seconds, Leonardo smirked, "So, lust really is the sin of the curious..."

[What? Why do you say that?] Azumi fluttered her wings

"Other sins have a propose; one is a glutton, because whatever they consider "food", tastes good. One is prideful because they know the glory that comes with the feats that make one proud. But lust, while similar, is more often guided by curiosity."

The butterfly was lost. But understood as Leonard started mumbling while bitting on his grinning lips.

"How would that person taste like? What's underneath that skirt? Will it be as tender as it looks? How would it feel in my tongue? How sour? Will there be sweat? Hair? How would my fingers feel traveling those curves and contours?"

By the time he finished, Azumi saw him lick his lips with hazy eyes.

The butterfly felt chill on her back. [You're truly a pervert, but don't be too worked up, unsatisfied lustful thoughts, unfulfilled desires, and fantasies that can't be made true, will severely hold you back.]

Before he could answer, a nurse entered the ward with a wry smile. "There's a man called Silvio downstairs, he says he's your father? But it seems he's blocked from visits?"

Leonardo's eyes went normal. "Allow him to come up, but, can I ask for a favor?" He asked, with a hint of fear showing on his face, just enough to alert an experienced nurse.

****

The door of the ward opened, Silvio came in with a disheveled hair and black suit.

"What the hell was that? Do you not want to live with your mother and sister anymore? Cause if I want to, I don't need to keep an eighteen-year-old man with his own income at my house. The law agrees and I doubt your mommy can do anything about it."

Leonardo laughed, "Would my dear dad do that? With this valiant son of his, that he's been praising nonstop on radios?"

Silvio squinted.

Leonardo was wearing the hospital clothes while relaxedly staring through the window at his mother and sister on the free clinic's waiting benches downstairs.

"...Who are you?" Silvio asked.

Leonardo smirked showing his canine teeth.

"Dad, let's make what the Americans call, a win-win deal."

An eerie, malicious light blossomed on Leonardo's eyes.