CHAPTER THREE

"Who would believe that I actually Pinned down the almighty King of the underworld hmm? Those who fear you will laugh if they see this." she bragged.

"Piccola, It's funny how you think that you've Pinned me down when you can't even wrap your tiny palms around my wrists completely." He smirked, and with a swift turn of his hands, he released himself from her hold, and reached for her waist, tickling her there, causing her to laugh out madly, twisting and turning till she voluntarily slipped off his body, and rolled on the grass as he didn't stop his attack on her tiny figure.

"How come you're so tiny, and yet you have so many laugh buttons? Every part of you that I touch makes you giggle." He touched her neck and she curled and giggled harder.

"S-T-O-P." She laughed hard. She could barely breathe as she twisted and turned on the ground. "P-P-Please. Hahaha. You win… Please stop." She begged, and there it was, his own victory. He was the only one who could make her really beg for anything, he knew all her crazy buttons. He knew exactly what made her crack.

"Good girl." He said, as he finally set her free, crashing down back flat next to her, both of them staring up at the moon, trying to catch their breaths, their heartbeats syncing into each other.

"Here" He hands over a little box to her. "Happy birthday Piccola," he says as he places it on her flat belly.

Almost instantly, she bolts up, a rush of excitement fills her system as she picks up the little black box. Slowly and carefully, she opened up her birthday present, and the glint of tears in her eyes could not be missed.

"You like it?" he asks sweetly. And she turned to him, wondering if that was even a question. Even in the dark night, the necklace was lovely, the moon-shaped pendant dazzled just like how the moon in the sky brightened up the night.

Whenever he got her a present for her birthday, it would always have something to do with the moon. She already had a dozen moon-shaped necklaces, earrings, bracelets, and more which she got from him, and yet she always anticipated the next moon and was ever happy to receive one.

"Thank you." She simply says. "Help me with it." She says, trying not to let the tears fall from her eyes.

He pushes himself off the ground, and pulls her by her leg, dragging her closer to him causing her heart to race faster than it was already going.

She felt her heart banging on her chest, threatening to jump out and fall into the lap of the one it longed for.

He collected the necklace from her, and leaned in closer to her neck, her entire insides tingled as she felt his breath on that spot on her neck.

Hot and smooth was the air that flowed from his lips and nose, and when that air touched the flesh of her neck, Oh dear Father in heaven, how she longed for him to touch her.

"There." He clasped it, his fingers falling on her neck, causing her breath to cease for that second, her eyes swept over his face, pausing on his lips.

It was like his lips were calling her.

She could hear them whispering her name, she longed to touch him there, not just with her fingers, but also with her lips. She wished to—

"I was worried you'd make the pendant ugly," his words snapped her out of her head, pulling her back to reality. The reality where her love was never going to happen. "but you didn't ruin it completely." He shrugs.

"Just say I'm beautiful, and I make the pendant even prettier." she boasts.

"There's no need to tell you what you already know." He simply says, laying back on the grass.

"So you agree that I'm beautiful." her grin grew wide. "Meh," He sticks his tongue out and shrugs, placing both his palms under his head as a pillow.

"Come on, just say it. Just tell me." She shakes him, but he doesn't give her another response, and she continues shaking and asking nonstop.

"Sorry to intrude, Miss Luna, your father, and some guests are asking for you." says a maid who suddenly appears next to them.

Luna flashed the maid a death glare, "Tell them I'm not coming." she hissed, and then turned back to her main person, still urging him to tell her what she wanted to hear.

"Go and answer Papa, and I will say it." He proposed, and in a flash, she was up on her feet, dusting the dirt off her clothes, causing him to laugh at how crazy she was. "I'll be back in a sec." She says as she picks up her shoes. "Don't you dare go back on your words," she warns, and he just shakes his head as he watches her sprint off into the house.

Just before she disappeared into the main building, she turned and stared at him from the distance that was now between them.

He was no longer lying on his back. He was seated, his back was turned to her, his hands were upon his knees and his gaze was set on the sky above.

How she wished she was what he was thinking of. How she wished staring at the moon would remind him only of her, but Luna knew better.

Something pinched at her heart as she stared at him. A kind of pain she'd been experiencing for a long time but could not explain in words.

There was only one person Zeno thought about when he sat alone and stared up into the endless sky. Maybe knowing that was why she felt that pain in her heart.

"Why won't you let go?" She muttered to herself as she stared at his trembling shoulders. "You're suffering so much it's hard for me to keep pretending I can't see it."

He always hid his pain from her. He'd smile and crack jokes with her, but the moment she turned her back on him, he'd revert to a gloomy lifeless being.

She too looked up at the sky, and said, "I'm sorry, but I think he'll only learn to live again if he lets you go, so forgive me but from now on, I'm going to do all I can to make him forget you because I want to comfort him. I—I want to fill up the space you left in his heart. I hope you'll watch over us… Ara."