“Hey, Lauren…” Luna looked at me with a guilty look painted on her face.

“Yeah?”

“Would you be able to go to a beach… you know… with your arm being like it is and everything.”

“Ah. So that’s why you were making a weird face.”

“It’s a bit of an awkward question…”

“Well, you are not wrong to ask it. But it’s not going to be a problem.”

“Really?”

“Depending on when we go, it’s really not that hard to rent a piece of private beach, especially if we don’t go to one of the mass tourism spots. So really, don’t worry too much about that. And I’m sure that Eva could even find something even cheaper than what I’m thinking of. She’s very knowledgeable about those kinds of things.”

“Even though she is called Winter?”

“Yeah, exactly.” I laughed. “If you think about it that way, our last names should definitely have been switched.”

Luna smiled and stuck out a little bit of her tongue. After that, we continued to view through the rest of the photos. While I managed to keep it dry for most of them. As we got closer and closer to the last pictures my parents had kept, it was getting more and more difficult to keep my composure. I finally broke down crying when we got to the loose pictures of the start of my military career, especially the notes that my parents had left on the reverse side of them hit like a truck. I was glad Luna was there with me, as I’d often not even dare to touch these pictures. Seeing their notes of them being proud of me as their daughter did mean a lot to me.

Luna had begun to tear up a little as well as we reached the last photograph I had sent them after my promotion to Sergeant Major.

‘Put this one at the center of the page!’ was scribbled on the back in my mom’s enthusiastic handwriting.

“They were great parents.” Luna collected the pictures and put them back in the box, after which she gave me a hug. Goddess knows I needed it. “Anyone who would read this would be able to tell.”

“They were.” I sniffled. “I really regret not coming home sooner… I should’ve been here when the invasion started. Maybe I could’ve made a difference…”

“Do you want to talk about it?” Luna asked. “Maybe that helps.”

I nodded into her neck, I didn’t want to let her go. Instead, I just hugged her tighter against me as I began my little story. “Back when the invasion of the Antarctic region first started, I was on an assignment back in the Asian region. I volunteered for it as we were having a bit of a lul in combat at the time. It seemed like the Antis were on the backfoot and the Federation was using that time to build up their forces again. The mission involved a certain degree of radio silence and when we got back on air…”

“You heard about the invasion?”

“Yeah… The Antis completely blindsided us. Somehow hiding that entire operation and hitting us where we least expected it. This entire region was of no big strategic value to either party, so it had been mostly ignored… Until the Antis launched their terror campaign here. The start of their last-ditch efforts of forcing us into a truce. It was outright gruesome, even if the rest of the war already was, this was exponentially worse. Civilian centers were hit hard, and they outright ignored Federation military positions, just trying to cause the highest degree of terror they could. The same day I heard about the invasion, I transferred here… But it was already too late… It makes me so angry…”

“Could you have done anything about it? As you said, they were ignoring military positions anyway.”

I shook my head in admittance. “Probably not… But at least I could’ve tried something… Anything…”

“... And what happened to the people who were behind the attacks?”

“We wiped every single one of them out. And when the war ended, the generals responsible were swiftly dealt with in court. So at least that’s something.” By now, my sadness had turned into anger. But the presence of Luna reminded me that it was all done and over with. There was no point in being angry at ghosts. “Thanks again for being here for me, Luna.”

She patted me on the back while still hugging me. “Don’t worry about it. I’m happy that you shared these pictures with me. I feel like I’ve learned a lot about your parents today, and that makes me really glad. Are we going to visit them soon?”

I distanced myself a little from her and smiled. “Let’s do so when we got your new clothes. Are you okay with that?”

“Yeah.” She nodded.

Luna put the box away with me and tidied up the bed. After which we headed back downstairs so we could order some clothes for Luna while chilling on the sofa. Neither of us were hungry yet thanks to our rather big lunch and as for the duster I decided to wait a bit longer before putting my hands to use, Ellie wanted to take a look at it first anyway, and I wasn’t in a big rush to fix it.

We prepared some hot chocolate for the both of us and cuddled up together in the sofa.

“Can you give me your holo stick again? That way, we don’t need to insert your sizes anymore.” That was one of the more useful features of holo stick integration that most shops used. You never really had to figure out what sizes to order, as your holo stick already knows what those sizes are. Even for different clothing models, it would still fit the size that fits your body best.

Luna handed the holo stick over to me “Do you know which shops have good clothes?”

“Yeah, I’ll just order at the stores I usually order at.” I started browsing through a variety of shops. The list had expanded quite a lot since the last time I had browsed it. A couple of the stores I knew had also disappeared, but luckily it seemed like the ones I used most were still available.

“Do they have cute options too?”

“Definitely.” Once I had selected one of the stores I gave the holo stick back to Luna. “This store has crazy good quality clothes. It’s a bit more expensive but I think it’s worth it.”

“It looks like they have a big selection as well.” Luna was browsing through the clothes faster than I could follow. “Oh.”

“Did you find something you like?”

She nodded happily and turned the screen to me. It showed a winter outfit of which the vest was a combination of whites and a light pink, it had a bit of a heart pattern on the sleeve as well. Which was obvious enough for you to notice it and not too in your face so that it would pull all the attention to it. Just a nice accent. “What do you think?”

“I think it would definitely suit you. Just the right amount of cute, not to overcute your cuteness. I like it.”

Luna rolled her eyes and bumped against me, after which she started giggling. “Can I order it?”

“Why not. I’ll pay for it.” I took out my holo stick myself and tapped it against her. It filled in the billing information for my account, while keeping Luna’s sizes and everything else set. “Don’t forget to buy other things too, like boots and underwear. And don’t think you have to limit yourself to one jacket, either. In other words. Feel free to let me spoil you.”

She blushed. “Okay, thanks.”

It was really fun to see her browse through the selection of clothes. By the look on Luna’s face, you could immediately tell if she liked a piece of clothing or not. And whenever she got really enthusiastic about a piece, she would show it to me almost immediately.

We were having a really good time. So much so that I needed to remind myself not to let our hot chocolates get cold.

“Oh! Oh! Oh! Lauren! Look at this!” I’d just put the cup of hot chocolate to my lips as Luna enthusiastically tried to get my attention. I almost spit out the hot chocolate because the intensity with which she did so surprised me a little.

I quickly put my cup back down to see what she was one about. Once I did, I was incredibly happy I did not currently have a hot beverage in my mouth though, as I’d probably have spit it out for sure. The image in front of me was a hoodie of which the hood resembled the mouth of a shark. Not much unlike the sharky that I had bought for her.

“What? Don’t you like it.”

“No, on the contrary. I think it’s great, brilliant even, and you should definitely buy it.” While it looked funny, Luna would for sure look cute as fuck in it. “In fact, you should buy one in pink too.”

Luna grinned and quickly added a couple of them to the cart. I really can’t wait until the order arrives. I really want to see her in that.