Zodiac Tower || A Zodiac Story

chapter iii || skating

Leo woke up quite early that day. The house they were staying at had four rooms, so Leo occupied a room alongside Libra and Taurus - both who were asleep.

She had always been an early riser, ever since she was a child she'd be forced to be awake by her personal trainer and hone her abilities at the wee hours of the day.

She fixed herself in the mirror, before coming down.

She heard someone cooking, and expected it to be Pisces. But instead of her it was unexpectedly Aquarius, humming a tune to himself.

"Good morning," he greeted cheerfully.

Leo greeted back, entering the kitchen. "Mind if I lend a hand?," she offered, checking the cupboard for some bread.

Aquarius made room for Leo, who started to skillfully make garlic bread. It looked like she was used to making the dish and didn't even need to look up measurements. Seriously, was there anything this girl couldn't do?

"Why were you cooking? Is Pisces not up yet?," Leo asked, attempting to strike a conversation.

"Ah, she went to get something from the neighbors. So I thought I might help in the meantime," Aquarius replied. "How about you, why are you already awake?"

"What, I can't be awake this early?"

"No, you can," Aquarius replied, a bit afraid he offended her. But by the look on her eyes, she was just messing with him. "But you were awake pretty late last night too so I thought-"

"I'm just used to being awake this early."

"I see, that's something we have in common."

Aquarius scooped a bit of the soup on the ladle, and made Leo taste it.

"It tastes good," Leo said, a bit surprised at how good of a cook Aquarius was. "Didn't know you were such a chef, Mr. Gale."

Aquarius chuckled, taking the compliment. "You're the first person to compliment me genuinely."

"What about Emilia? You know, your girlfriend?," Leo asked, puzzled. A bit of sadness flashed across Aquarius' face, but he gave her a half smile.

"Let's say Emilia and I's relationship is not accurate to how the media portrays us."

Leo, afraid she might have digged a bad memory for him, gave an apologetic smile.

The door opened revealing Pisces, carrying a bunch of ice-skates. "The lake is solid today, perfect for skating. I had old man Keiki make these for us yesterday and picked them up today - oh my."

Pisces looked at the sight before her, Aquarius and Leo both cooking. She gave them a sincere smile, and went upstairs, "thank you for cooking for me, I was afraid I wouldn't have time when I returned."

As soon as Pisces went upstairs both Leo and Aquarius looked at each other, and smiled.

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"I swear if you two drop me I'm killing you both," Sagittarius threatened Aries and Taurus, with his legs shaking.

They were teaching him how to skate. And with how bad Sagittarius was at skating, he needed two teachers.

Taurus snickered at Sagittarius who was clinging to Aries for dear life. Aries kept shouting at him, not appreciating the physical contact.

"Get off me, idiot!"

"No I'll fall!"

"I don't fucking care!"

With how loud they were, Scorpio couldn't help but roll his eyes. Capricorn was skating with Cancer. And while they did have fun, Cancer couldn't help but feel Scorpio staring daggers at him.

Cancer looked towards Pisces for help, he didn't want to die at the hands of Scorpio. But Pisces only gave him a supportive thumbs up. Not helping, sis!

Meanwhile, everyone was at awe at Libra gracefully skating. She was like a professional with how effortless she made skating look. It was like she could do it with her eyes closed.

Well, maybe she was doing it with her eyes closed, mostly because her mind was wandering somewhere else.

Gemini was keeping an eye on Libra from the sidelines, not bothering to skate. He couldn't keep his eyes off of her, in that regard she was exactly the same as Lili-

No. Gemini thought. Why are you always thinking about Lilith? This is why Libra hates you.

Gemini couldn't help but think about the rumors spread about him and Libra dating. Yeah, right. They were the furthest thing from a couple. In fact, Libra despised him.

Libra was skating with a lot in her mind, before she knew it, a strong hand gripped her and stopped her in her tracks.

An icy breath whispered into her ear as the grip was still firm on her hand. "The ice is thin in that area, you'll fall in."

Libra looked at the person who warned her. Virgo. Their faces were close to each other, well, he did just yank her hand.

Virgo dropped her hand and skated away, his back turned from her. Libra looked at the ice. He was right, it was thin, she would've fell in.

Now she was annoyed she couldn't thank him.

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Virgo stared at the messaging device in his hand. It wasn't working, not on the 51st level, at least. "We can't even inform our commissioner we're alive."

Virgo deduced that this place was a checkpoint, of sorts. Maybe that's why everyone who ventured into this floor disappeared. They didn't disappear, they got stuck with no means of communication with the lower floors.

This meant that there was only one way out of this mess: and that was to climb the tower.

He preferred they'd climb the tower as soon as possible, but looking at the happy faces of his party members, Virgo decided to put it off for now.

They'd need the rest, after all. He'll let them have their fun, but they'll leave after the first week of spring.