Ice candies.

Around 3 pm in the afternoon, in Carla's room.

" Leon, Leon, I... "

Leon felt two small hands pushing his chest as if trying to wake him up. He slowly opened his eyes.

Doing so, he saw Carla looking at him with teary eyes which made him worried.

" What's wrong Carla? Did you had a bad dream? What happened? "

" I... I.... no, Leon.... I..... "

" No? Then what? Did you get hurt or anything? "

" No... Leon... I.. "

Carla leaned even closer, bringing her head near his ear and whispered something.

" I.... Bathroom.. "

" Eh? That? Then why don't you go? Don't tell me you still don't know how to do it on your own, Carla? " Leon asked in both surprised and confusion.

He can't understand why Carla still had to wake him up for something like that.

" No. I can do it. I know how to do it alone but.... " Carla looked down, patting his arms that comfortably wraps around her body. " You are holding me, Leon. I... I can't go. "

" Oh, I'm sorry Carla. " replied Leon embarrassly.

' So it's like that. ' he thought to himself as he let go of her and got up.

" Let's go Carla, let me bring you there. "

Carla also stood up and went off the bed before holding Leon's hand.

" Mn. Thank you. "

The two of them then went out of the room.

....

" I will wait for you here. Take your time and be careful because the tiles inside are quite slippery. " Leon opened the bathroom door for her.

The little girl simply gave him a small nod before going inside.

Leon has a wry smile on his face at this moment. It's the first time something like this happened.

First time that Carla woke him up because she has to go to the bathroom.

In the past four months, Carla tend to wake up earlier than him most of the time, especially every afternoon.

She will then wake him up in a different ways she can think of and sometimes, she will just let him wake up on his own too.

* Creak *

The bathroom room opened after awhile and Carla's figure came out of it.

" You are done, Carla? "

" Mn. I'm feeling better now. "

" That's good. " said Leon, holding Carla's hand. " Come with me, I will buy you some ice candy outside before we go and see our parents. "

Carla's eyes quickly shined brightly after hearing that. Her adventurous instincts slowly awakening.

" Really Leon?! Then.. let's go, let's go! I want to eat ice candy. And go play outside too! "

" No. Before we go, you have to promise me three things first, Carla. This is very important. "

" Three things? What three things? "

" That's right, three things. First, you have to promise that you won't let go of my hand while we are outside.

" Second, no matter what you swe or happen outside, you will always stay beside me. No running away.

" And third, you will not let go of my hand no matter what.

" If you can do all of that, then we can go now. "

" Eh? " Carla cutely tilted her head in confusion. " But why does the first and third similar, Leon? "

In response to that, Leon smiled before gently pinching both of her chubby cheeks.

" It's to make sure that you will remember it, you clumsy and forgetful girl. "

" I'm not forgetful. " She playfully pouted her lips with a chuckle. " But.. Mn. I promise. I will always stay with you Leon all the time. Can we go now? "

" Good. Let's go. "

Satisfied with her response, Leon pulled Carla with him and the two of them went out of the house.

A few minutes later...

" Wow! Leon, look, there is a big brown doggy over there. Let's go and see it. " said Carla, excitedly as she pointed at the dog lying inside the waiting shed at the other side of the road.

It's a huge dog, definitely bigger than the two of them and it doesn't have a leash on it.

There's simply no way in hell he will let Carla get near that thing.

Luckily, it was sleeping deeply and hasn't noticed them yet.

" No. That's dangerous. And we didn't came here for dogs, Carla. Look, we are almost there. "

" Eh? But.. I want to pet it. "

"...."

Leon was speechless. This girl's courage was definitely bigger than her size.

" No means no, Carla. What if it will bite you? "

" Bite me? Why would that brown doggy bite me, Leon? Is it a bad doggy? "

" I don't know. But it didn't know us so it might get angry if we get closer. Come on now, let's hurry so we can go back immediately. "

Carla can only take a few more glances at the dog before she reluctantly nodded her head.

" Okay, let's go. "

...

" Oh, Leon. What do you want to buy? " asked the Sari-Sari store owner after seeing the two of them.

She's a woman in her late fifties and she easily recognized Leon because he already came here to buy things before, with his mother of course. " You even bought Pauline's daughter with you this time. "

" Mn. She's Carla and we want to buy some ice candies, aunty. Can you tell me what's available for today? "

" Oh, I have two kinds of ice candies today. One was worth 1 peso each and the other was worth 5 pesos each. What do you want? "

" Ermm... Please tell us the difference first, aunty. "

" Oh, that's right. The 5 pesos worth ice candies are a bit unique because it's a salad that I made yesterday while the 1 peso worth are chocolate flavored. The ordinary ice candy. But of course, they are both delicious. "

" I see. " Leon paused for a moment to think. " Then please sell us ten pieces of the salad ice candy and also, ten pieces of the ordinary one. "

The temperature is a bit hot today so he bought plenty. Leon has his storage ring so he's not afraid of it melting.

" That many? Can you two even finish them all? " asked the store owner before turning around to prepare it.

Leon only smiled but didn't say anything. He put his hand in his pocket and took out three twenty peso bills. This money was given to him by his father and Christina before. And he still has quite a lot left since he never really had that much time to spend them.

" Here's your ice candies, 60 pesos in total. "

The store owner handed a plastic bag to Leon, it contains plenty of ice candies inside.

Leon received the plastic bag and looked inside it before handing over the money and left with Carla.

...

Leon took out two pieces of a salad ice candy and gave one of it to Carla. The rest, he threw them all inside his storage ring.

After a lot of testing and experimenting in the past four months, Leon became more familiar with his storage ring's abilities or functions.

For example, its ability to maintain temperature. If Leon will put a hot bowl of noodles inside his ring, it will be able to keep its temperature for a whole month.

That's right, a whole month!

Leon isn't sure about the exact limit of it yet because his experiments is still ongoing. The hot bowl of noodles he put inside his ring last month is still there without any changes.

It didn't even get spoiled or turned bad.

Its appearance an temperature also remained the same as the first time he put it there.

Based on the way it looks right now, Leon believes that it's also still edible.

When Leon first realized this, he became excited and hope that his ring is just like the other storage rings from the novels he had read before or even better.

Just imagining the possibility of his storage ring being able to maintain the condition of anything he put inside without spoiling or anything.... It makes Leon's blood boil from excitement.

" Eh?! Where did you put the other ice candies Leon? Where did it go? "

Carla saw the plastic bag in Leon's hand disappeared so suddenly. She'd witnessed this before for a lot of times now but Leon never answered her how.

" Hehe. It's magic. Let's go Carla. " said Leon before pulling Carla with him.

It's already around 3:30 pm now.

Leon believes that the eatery was about or probably closed now.

...

" Sit down first Carla, I'll go and get a bowl and a spoon for the two of us. "

" Mn. I will wait. "

Unlike before they left here earlier, the canteen was now empty and silent. Aside from the few employees talking with each other while cleaning the table, no one was around.

Leon then went towards the kitchen and there, he saw both of his mother, Christina and Pauline cleaning all the things they used earlier so they can use it again tomorrow.

" Oh Leon, you came. Where's Carla? " asked Pauline after seeing him. She's wearing a chef clothes which suits her very well.

She's very beautiful, as usual.. which made it difficult for Leon to move his gaze away from her.

" Carla's outside, aunty Pauline. I only came here to get a bowl and spoon. You told us not to use those that are outside after all.

Christina heard what he said. She stopped what she's doing and get bowl and a spoon for Leon. " That's right. Those things outside are for customers so you and Carla shouldn't use those things. Here, take it. But what will you need these for? "

" Me and Carla bought some ice candies just now, mom. We plan to eat them here. I've also bought some for you and auntie, mom. "

" Ice candies? You mean.... * sigh * You and Carla went out of the house again? I already told you, didn't I? Call me first before you do that right? What if something bad happened to you and Carla while you're out there? "

" But mom, I don't want to disturb you and auntie Pauline. Also, it's quite near and the streets here are safe to walk to. " replied Leon, insisting that it's fine.

The store where they bought the ice candies is only around half kilometer away from this place and you don't even have to cross a road so Leon can't see any problem going there with Carla.

But it's a totally different case for Pauline and Christina.

Christina looked at Leon seriously before saying, " That won't do. Promised me that you won't do this again. If you want something, just tell me or your auntie here so we can get it for you. Understand? "

" Your mom is right, Leon. You and Carla are still too young. You two should not go outside on your own. " added Pauline agreeing on what Christina said.

Seeing their serious expression, Leon can only nod his head before answering, " Mn. I promised mom. I'm sorry. "

" Good. As long as you understand. Here, take it with you then and wait for us there. We'll be finished here soon. "

O.-.0

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A/N

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