π˜›π˜©π˜¦ π˜’π˜ͺ𝘯𝘨'𝘴 𝘚𝘰𝘯

The Battle of Lipari took place on the afternoon of Christmas Eve. Lloyd and Kim were fighting together. Kim seemed to be distracted by the brown hair and laughter from his friend. He already knew he liked him a little more than a friend.

Lloyd turned around for a second to see a cadet limping from the battlefield before collapsing. A sitting duck.

"Shit!" Lloyd rushed to him and carried him fireman style. He felt warn blood rolling down his back. "C'mon man, you'll be fine."

The cadet moaned as Lloyd was able to hide them. He rolled up his pants leg and saw a bullet wound. He took off his blouse and wrapped it around the leg, the guy yelping before losing consciousness again. He got someone else to put him on their horse and bring him to medical.

The navy came a while after. Lloyd smiled when he saw James shoot a guy. They finished the battle before six, and it was a smashing success.

--------------------------------

"Look at that." His grandmother smiled as she saw him fight. "He really is great."

"Grandma," Da was watching with her grandparents. "Why did he save him? He was mean to him, wasn't he?"

"Well, Lloyd's a strong believer of forgiveness. That means when somebody does something wrong to you, you forgive them." Grandpa pointed to where the young man was bringing brought to. "If he didn't do that, he would've died. If he died, his family would be very sad. Luckily, Lloyd isn't bitter."

Da nodded, looking at her brother celebrating the victory of battle. "I like forgiveness. It seems like a good thing."

--------------------------------

"Since when did you get that tattoo?" Lloyd asked James when him and the rest of the cadets were celebrating Christmas at base.

"This?" He flexed his muscles to show the archer on his arm. "Got it in Vietnam. Pretty cool, I know."

"Tubby's too pussy for tattoos."

The group laughed at him as he covered his mouth. "Am not!"

A soldier walked up to him in crutches. "Excuse me, are you Sauveterre?"

Everyone turned around to see the bruised and embarrassed man staring at him. "Yes."

"Um, I want to say thank you for saving me. Thanks to you, I get to keep my leg."

"Oh, that's who you are. Don't worry about it, I hope you feel better soon."

His cheeks turn red. "And I'm sorry for calling you a cracker and for all the other stuff in boot camp..."

The group laughed as they remembered that. Most of them did bully Lloyd too, but that cadet was the one who did it the worst. He would trip him while they were running, turn the shower either freezing cold or melting hot when he in there, he even hid his ranks so he would get punished for not having them.

Lloyd laughed. "That's why you look so familiar!"

"Yeah..."

"Hey, it's ok." He wrapped his arm around him. "I already forgave you when you passed out."

The blushing cadet sheepishly passed him a drink. "Thanks, you're really nice."

"What's your name?"

"You could call me White."

------

"Do you think Lloyd's okay?" His mother's voice echoed in the hallway as she stared outside to the snow. Since nobody was in the mood, there were no Christmas decorations up. It was just another month.

Beom rubbed his forehead while sitting on the couch. "...Yes."

She glanced at him. She tapped her fingers on the glass. "He always liked stars, didn't he? The sky's full of them tonight."

He almost agreed with her, but she could've been wrong. Lloyd could be somewhere where it's daytime, and the sun could be burning his beautiful eyes. He could be in a place where there's just no stars in sight. The fact he didn't know where his own child was drove him insane. He could be anywhere in the world, even under their noses, and still have no clue where to find him.

"...could we bring the stars to him..?" Her voice was quiet. If it were any louder, he would've heard the quiver.

"If I could, I would." He kept his voice low as well. "I would bring him all the stars I could carry."

She looked on for a few seconds more before closing the curtains.

-----

The New Year was only a few minutes away. Kim didn't care enough about it, and Lloyd really had no other friends besides him. Nobody wanted to be friends with somebody who looked like him, and he didn't blame them in the slightest.

He walked along base without purpose. It wasn't even that cold. That was the strangest part to him. In Vagu, right now, it's freezing. It's so cold that he would have three blankets and his hoodie on just to sleep. Here, he was able to walk at night without goosebumps.

There was a half empty whiskey bottle on the ground. He picked it up. Whiskey wouldn't kill him. He climbed up to a wall, facing the sky as he took a drink. He wished it wouldn't be so dark.

"May I join you?"

He jumped at the sound of another voice. He looked down, holding the bottle to his chest. White looked so tiny from up there.

"Yeah." Knowing he couldn't climb, the shorter jumped down. White sat down, sighing like a fat dad. "How's the leg?"

He blushed as if he had forgotten that he had a broken leg. "Oh, it's okay. It's much better than before." He saw the bottle. "May I?"

"Take it."

As he drank, they heard a clock. White said to make a wish. So, they closed their eyes and counted to ten.

"I know we're not supposed to tell others our wishes, but whatever." He scoffed as he shrugged his broad shoulders. "I wish to be the king's son."

"A prince?"

"Yeah, I guess. You'll get anything you want. Money. Food. Clothes, stuff like that." He smiled slightly. "Wouldn't that be nice?"

"I suppose so, I never really thought of it." He looked up to the bright sky and beamed. "My wish already came true."

------

Sleeping Girl on a Crescent Moon
Kuri Huang

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