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A simple trip to Camille's place had made Maria drunk.

She was lethargic and dizzy by the time she had gotten back to the villa.

Stumbling in, Maria felt the weight of her belongings on her. As she slouched, her back slipped off her shoulder, attempting to drag down the strap of her mini dress along with it down her shoulder. She lifted her feet to her tiptoes and let her shoes fall off before continued to attempt to walk in a straight line.

Maria groaned in exhaustion, her hand moving her wavy hair away from her face as she felt the pressure of her headache throb harder. All she wanted to do was sleep. She felt her eyelids drop more and more; the second she kept them closed, she tripped over her bag strap and stumbled forwards, completely waking her up again. "Ouch," she mumbled, rubbing her forehead as she continued the search for her bedroom.

It was dark downstairs. The only lights that were guiding her came from the natural light coming through the windows. She gripped onto the railing as she moved slowly, counting each step out loud. She reached the top and wandered along to the bedroom, pushing the large door open widely.

Her grey eyes landed on him. He was shirtless, sat on the edge of the bed in the middle of the large room holding a lotion. Maria struggled to stand straight, wobbling constantly, and blinked multiple items to make her vision a little less distorted.

She let go of the door and a childish smile came onto her face. "Oops!" She gasped loudly, covering her mouth with a giggle. She then covered her eyes quickly with her two hands. "I'm not supposed to see!" She snorted with a laugh, her two fingers separating to peek at his bare chest through the gaps.

"You went out?"

His voice sounded incredibly deep. She moved her hands away and met his hazel ones. Nodding too enthusiastically, she began walking closer to him. "I danced and danced and danced all night like a princess - no! Like a movie star with my friends and I only drank one glass of the magic potion then I-"

"What magic potion?" He asked suddenly, taking greater notice of her sluggish words. Leonardo analysed her drunken behaviour, his bloodshot eyes running across her rosy face. It was the first time he had ever seen her so drunk.

She snorted again, uncontrollably giggling. His eyebrows raised at her playful expression. "The one that makes me a movie star! It tastes different every time!" Leonardo struggled to find the meaning of her words and grew concerned. He held onto her bare arm gently to keep her stable, his eyes following her every movement. Was it drugs or alcohol? He only had to wait a few seconds later to receive a conclusion.

"But Zia calls it different names every time! It's so annoying, Leo!" She whined, stomping her foot against the ground. Leonardo blinked in surprise as her childish action and immature voice. "It's shots, or it's double shot, or then she says the magic word like mar-tini - or was it mar-tina? It sounds like Latin-"

"È italiano." {It's Italian}

"-And they taste really nice, I like it when she says the magic word! But I only had one, I pwomise!" She grinned, wiggling her pinky finger in front of his face. "Just one!" She whispered, with a twinkling glint of amusement in her starry eyes.

Leonardo heartily chuckled, "I think you've had more than that, and different ones," shaking his head at her behaviour. She was quite different under the influence of alcohol.

"Mmm. ." She hummed, with a finger to her temple, as she came closer to his face, her eyes intently gazing into his. Her lashes kept batting the closer she got, she was so close, their noses were practically touching. He could smell the alcohol mixed with her vanilla scent. She had definitely had more than one. Leonardo moved his backwards, staring at her in utter confusion and caution, his eyes darting between her full, moist lips and her intense gaze.

"But why are your eyes red, bello? Did my baby cry?"

Her soft voice was laced with worry as she moved her head backwards and stuck out her bottom lip into a pout. "Who made my Leo cry?" Her hands balled into fists on her hips as she tried to look intimidating.

Leonardo immediately looked away, blinking. He stopped ages ago, how did she notice? Leonardo cleared his throat, feeling awkward. "Stop being silly and-"

Her arms unexpectedly wrapped around his wide shoulders as she tightly hugged him, her head pressed against his. He was shocked, frozen still at her sudden act of kindness. "Don't cry, baby, I'll protect you," her muffled, cute voice comforted, patting his bare back with her soft hand. "You're safe with me, I'm your shield because I'm a knight!" She said strongly in a determined tone, "I'm a girl knight that fights for the kingdom. I want to be a knight - why can't girls be knights too? And-And that means you're the king because the knights protect the king-"

Through her babbles and unexplainable imaginations, her words had touched Leonado's heart. She had shattered the wall he had been fighting so hard to keep up. Leonardo closed her eyes and let his head rest on her, listening to her strange words, yet finding the simplest comfort in them. He sighed quietly as the heavy weight on his chest began to lift, somehow feeling at peace with her.

She tapped his back, stopping her speech mid sentence. It was bumpy. "Your back is. . ." Maria pulled away as Leonardo opened his watery eyes. She frowned, climbing onto the bed beside him and crawling around to see what she had just felt, her short dress lifting higher as she moved.

She gasped.

It was the first time Maria had ever seen his scars - any scars to that extent.

What she was seeing wasn't a back. It was a mountain of pain in one place.

It was as though his skin wasn't bare but covered in layers and layers and layers marks that had somehow merged to create a vivid and gruesome image, with ranging colours throughout, right before her eyes. It wasn't one or two marks - thousands of scars had entirely grown on him, across the back of his arms, beginning to spread to his neck, his shoulders, all at the back.

"Leonardo. . ." Her shaky voice whispered in empathy as she exhaled. Her teary eyes continued to stare at what was in front of her.

Her heart sunk. Tears began to leak out of her eyes as she struggled to come to terms with what she was seeing. It had brought her back to reality. Was it real? Was a question that floated in her mind. It couldn't be. There was no way he could have such a thing on his back. How was he still alive?

There were so many burns of different shapes. Her eyes recognised many; iron  marks, cigarette burns, splatters that looked like a melting candle. Her breath hitched as she realised it was acid. The horror of his torture then began to settle in deeper. Whips, knives, bullets, ropes, belts had all had some kind of interaction with him. Their involvement in such crimes were evident through the mottled scars of merlot, juniper, brown and purple.

Many were unidentifiable. Scratches? Punch marks? And some appeared more serious than others. The bullet wound on his shoulder, small yet intensely abominable. The dry skin had twisted and grown layers around it. It hasn't healed well, with rough patches and bumps in the surrounding areas. It was then she realised that her fingers had been sliding across his skin, feeling each various texture at different spots; smooth, bumpy, rough and dry.

Leonardo exhaled slowly, sitting up straight which made Maria's eyes widen more. She had finally seen it. The secret was out. He knew it would be the moment she entered the room.

"I thought killing Javier would at least appease some anger in me," Leonardo said in a disappointed tone, squeezing the closed tube of ointment he was going to put on his back earlier, as he usually did. His hands then held onto his thighs. He let out a dry chuckle, "but why do I feel more shit than before?" He shook his head as he chuckled then ran his hand through his hair. "Javier's. . .dead?" She managed to say, struggling to keep her eyes away from his back.

He scoffed at himself before saying, "I thought S-Sienna. . .dying would somehow make me feel less guilty about all the crap she went through but the regret is still eating me alive every day."

Maria could no longer contain the sadness and heartbreak building within her. The tears raced down her cheeks. She let out a sob of pain. "How could this. .how could this happen. ." Her shoulders shook as she cried, hanging her head low. Her forehead was against his back as she gripped onto his broad shoulders. "Listen. ." Leonardo began in a low voice that slightly wavered. "Maria, I'm about to tell you things that. . .I never believed I would. . ."

"Why?" She asked, wiping her wet cheeks as she sniffed, trying to compose herself. Leonardo shrugged a little. "You're going to forget all of this by morning." He quietly added, "and I. . .trust you. ."

"You're right. After the fire, after you left. Things did get worse."

"I did get burns from that night." Leonardo felt it, the tight feeling in his chest, that would spread into his throat, that always came to choke him whenever he spoke of the past. He swallowed roughly, feeling the pressure build within him and deeply inhaled, fighting the intensity of emotions attempting to suppress him. "I went back to find Sienna. I went back because I heard her scream." There. He managed to say her name again.

It was a name he had avoided for years.
A name he could never say without a stutter. For guilt would trap him and send him to an endless tsunami of traumatic thoughts as a punishment.

"It was so loud. .so piercing," Leonardo remembered, one of his hands curling into a tight fist on his thigh. It was as though he could remember each syllable. A scream that would torment him in his sleep.

Maria's tears were still rolling down her cheeks, she tried to keep quiet, to allow him to express his feelings. Her comfort was provided by wrapping her arms around his waist and placing her head against his back, holding him between her legs.

"I searched and searched. ." He divulged, beginning to resist the hot tears prickling at the back of his eyes. "In that hot, burning hell. . ." His words came out as a shaky whimper. He hung his head low, his large hand covering his eyes as they closed. He didn't realise he was beginning to shake. He could see it; the flames engulfing the walls, burning debris falling all around him, the intense heat ready to strike. "I reached her bedroom. . .but. ."

He couldn't hold it in any longer as the tears escaped from his eyes and rapidly ran down his cheeks as he silently cried of guilt. "I passed out in front of her door, something fell on me. A firefighter brought me out. I was the last one to leave."

"She died."

Maria wished she could soothe his broken heart. Words that her heart wanted to say were trapped in her throat. She squeezed her eyes closed in repentance, tightening her hold on him. His pain was hers, her whole body heaved in sadness.

"I couldn't save her."

He sobbed. Leonardo's words broke up as he heavily breathed, being reminded of all the terror he had endured all his life, the constant feeling of agony and depression. He broke down completely, unable to maintain the wall that had prevented his heart to pour out. His cries were loud and profoundly filled with affliction.

Maria lifted her head and stared at the scars before her as her hand patted his shoulder. They cried together. She wept for him, seeing each burn as a symbol of his suffering. What could she say? That she was sorry? That she wish it all never happened to him? She struggled to find the words that would provide him relief. He knew that it wasn't his fault, but it never completely got rid of the regret that filled his fractured heart.

"I never fully recovered. .I never grieved for her death - none of us did. Now I can't even handle the sight of flames." He managed to convey further, "at first, there was hope. The body was never found. . ."

"But. ." His voice cracked as he continued to speak in a slightly hoarse voice, "as time went on, it became clearer that she was never magically going to appear. She. .she's dead."

"We weren't allowed to talk about her. All of her pictures, her clothes, her items were destroyed. It was as though she never existed to begin with."

"Mamma has never been the same since. I think she feels regretful. . .for being unable to be there for her own daughter because of him. She looks happy a lot of the time. . .but I know she's keeping a lot to herself." Maria thought about his mother. How devastated she must've been. The pain of losing her only daughter could not even be felt because her husband had prevented her to make terms with the loss.

"He used to hurt her a lot. .the most," Leonardo explained solemnly as he was reminded of his past. "She was the youngest. I didn't want her to suffer what we had to go through. Sometimes I thought. ." He hesitated, feeling like the most horrible person in the world for saying, "that she was better off dead. At least in death, she would've free."

"I hated him more after that." He clenched his jaw then dryly chuckled, "I don't know," he said, wiping his eyes as the waves of anger began to course through him again just at the thought of that man. "Something clicked in me. I turned rebellious." It was then. That was when he changed. He was no longer the feeble boy who was pushed over, it was the making of the Don he would soon become.

"That earned me years of wounds to create my back."

"It hurt, didn't it?" Maria quietly said with tears. "Every single scar hurt. I wish I could take away your pain, your suffering, your hardship. ." Leonardo's had held onto hers, he clutched onto it, his thumb caressing her soft skin. "It did. . .it really did hurt. .there was no one I wanted to cry to, I didn't want to show any weakness, any pain. I kept it all to myself for so many years. I was in so much pain. It really. Fucking. Hurt." His eyebrows were knotted together at the thought of all the torture he'd been through, how he managed to endure so many years.

"I'm sorry I left. I should've-"

"This has nothing to do with you," Leonardo replied strictly.

Maria sighed in disagreement tearfully, her head pressed against his back. "I wasn't a very good knight. I didn't protect you." She had unintentionally made him laugh, a gentle half-suppressed laugh came from him as he remembered she was still drunk.

"Don't laugh," Maria cried, "I left you all by yourself and now look-"

"The best thing you ever did was leave," Leonardo said sincerely, "your life would've been completely different if you'd stayed. I pushed you to leave for a reason. I wanted to be your knight."

"But I'm a knight. You're my King. You don't have a shield."

"Neither do you," Leonardo pointed out in a matter-of-fact tone.

Maria blinked, realising that he was correct. "You're. . .right. Where's my shield?" She slurred slightly.

The corners of Leonardo's lips lifted a little. "You can't be my shield. You're human. You can't take everything that comes my way. It'll break you." She frowned with her eyes shut, feeling weak.

"Besides, you're a queen, not a knight."

"A queen?" She drowsily repeated in confusion, her head sliding down his back a little.

"A queen. ." Leonardo quietly confirmed, more to himself than her. He noticed her arms had gotten looser around his waist and held onto them. He smiled to himself as he realised her state after wiping his face. "You stayed awake longer than I expected." She was already sleeping behind him.

It occurred to Leonardo that he somewhat felt better after speaking for all that time. His chest was no longer compressing him, and what one would call a burden seemed to have lifted off his shoulders. He felt good.

He moved backwards gently and let Maria fall onto her back with a light bounce. Carefully, he stood and turned. She was completely asleep, laying flat with her limbs open on the bed. He put one leg against the other and slid his arm under them and her arms to lift her. Once she was under the duvet, he grabbed a small face towel and ran it under some warm water before squeezing it out.

Leonardo used it to lightly dab her cheeks that were covered with tears earlier. He delicately rubbed her rosy cheeks after removing her makeup, sighing softly as he gazed intently at her in awe of her beauty.

Then he thought about it. He thought about his feelings; just how much he loved her. It made his heart skip a beat. He loved Maria.

Her eyebrows scrunched slightly, looking discomforted. "Leo. . ." Her quiet voice murmured in her sleep. He assumed she was extremely tired.

"I'm sorry. ." Her drowsy voice continued. Her eyes were still shut. He stopped and stared in confusion.

"I'm keeping secrets from you. . ."

His hand gently caressed the top of her head, brushing away small strands of hair from her face. Maria's face relaxed as she quietly continued to sleep.

"I know you are," Leonardo acknowledged quietly with a sigh. His mind trailed back to the marks he saw on her neck, her smile that was unable to match her eyes. "But I'll wait, Ria," he said, though she was back to sleep. "I'll wait for you to tell me yourself." He believed in her. Leonardo believed that Maria had her reasons as to why there was clearly something she wasn't sharing with him. She was the first person he had ever felt he could fully trust.

So he would wait. He'd hopefully wait for the day things became more understandable. That was if that day would ever come.

"I'm keeping secrets from you too, Ria. ."

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~ Author's Note ~

This chapter really made me emotional writing! Despite Maria's drunken state, Leonardo opened up to her and truly showed his feelings on his past. He really broke down his walls this chapter and let Maria in on his painful past which has given a lot more insight on what he had experienced.

As for the ending of that chapter, more will soon be revealed on that - the secrets that will soon have to be unleashed. . .

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Thanks for reading!

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