Leo's POV

The next morning, I was the very first to wake up. Usually, I wasn't, but today I was. I looked to see what time it was, and it was barely 2:00AM.

Damn, that's early.

I got up from my bed and went downstairs. Down there, Virgo and Pisces were both cuddled next to each other in a blanket, sleeping on the couch.

I made a disgusted face. I mean, Virgo and Pisces would make an amazing couple, don't get me wrong, but we already have too many relationships in this house. Yes, it's one, but that's one too many.

The kitchen light was on, and that's what caught my eye now. I could've sworn I was the only one awake. I went to go to the kitchen to see Scorpio with a glass of water and the fridge wide open. He was gulping down the water and quickly pouring more water in his glass like it was a routine. I only saw the back of him, and his grey shirt was super sweaty along with his hair that was soaken wet.

"What are you doing up?" I ask, not realizing I had a sour tone.

Scorpio turned to me, and I could see beads of sweat dripping from his forehead and hair.

I look at him up and down. "And what the hell happened to you?"

He rolled his eyes at me and went back to the fridge. "It's too hot," he says, gulping another glassful of his water.

I furrow my brows in curiosity. "It's not even hot," I say.

He side eyed me now. "You're a Fire element. Of course you can't feel it," he says, pouring more water.

He was right. Even if it was hot, I couldn't sense it. Guess I just had to take his word for it.

I lean on the wall now. "Why don't you just go outside? It's cold there. Y'know, since it's almost winter."

He just shook his head. "Already tried. Still pretty hot," he says, shutting the refrigerator door and putting his glass in the sink.

He was making his way up the stairs now. I didn't stop him. Who was I to make him stay? I didn't even care.

I walked to the fridge this time to find something to eat. I swear there was an apple in here somewhere. Unless Taurus took all the green ones.

"Ahem," a feminine voice behind me clears their throat.

I turn around to see that it was Virgo. Her dark brown hair was a complete mess since she just woke up.

I smile. "Virgin!" I say, holding my arms out in front of me.

"Shh!" she says, putting a finger on her lips. She used the same finger to point to her left, where Pisces was still sleeping on the couch. I didn't realize I was that loud.

"Did Scorpio wake you up?" I ask her.

She shook her head. "You woke me up, Leo. Do you ever whisper?"

I grabbed the orange juice from the fridge, convinced that it was Taurus who took the apples. "Oh... oops," I say with a large grin. I drunk straight from the carton again as I did a few days ago.

She furrowed her brows and marched over to me as she took the carton from my hand. "Get a glass, Leo!"

I put a finger to my lips. "Shh!" I say, mocking her then smirking. She only gave me her signature eye roll.

"God, you're so annoying," she tells me.

"Good to know you have opinions on me," I say, taking the carton from her hands now and taking another gulp of orange juice.

She cringed at this, which I was hoping for. "Yeah, bad opinions," she says.

I shrugged. An opinion is still an opinion. And it's still about my favorite topic: me!

"So what else do you think about me?" I ask, leaning on the closed refrigerater.

Her lips pressed together to a straight line. "Here's the thing, Leo. I don't think about you at all."

"C'mon, you always think of me," I tease, giving her a just as teasing smirk.

She groaned and snatched the orange juice carton from my hand again. "Other than thinking that you're annoying and immature, no thanks," she says, shooing me from the fridge.

I get off, so she could put the orange juice back in the refrigerater. She was the one leaning on the fridge now, giving me a mean look.

"How about we go to my room," I suggest with another grin.

She gave me a confused look. I waited for her to say something, but she didn't.

"Everyone's sleep. We can, like, make out or something," I say with a wider smile.

She scoffed and pushed herself off the fridge. "You're so disgusting," she says.

"Was I too forward?" I ask in a teasing way.

"Go back to bed, Leo," she tells me, walking across from me now.

"What? Is it that you're dating Pisces or something?" I ask, raising a brow.

She smirked. "And what if I am?" she says in a teasing way, almost as teasing as mine.

My eyebrows furrowed now as she went back to the living room. I decided to follow her there. She was tapping Pisces on his cheek now.

"Pi... Pi, get up," she says.

Pisces slowly opened his eyes to find the short, dark-haired girl standing in front of him.

"Go upstairs and sleep," she tells him, taking the blanket off him.

Pisces looked over at me, and I waved at him with a grin. He didn't respond to it. He was always like that when he wakes up. He's either super happy or still super tired to the point he didn't like to speak.

Virgo and Pisces both make their way up the stairs now.

Yep. They're totally dating, I thought to myself.

I shrugged it off and decided to go back up stairs. When I was up there, I can see Virgo walking Pisces to his room. I decided to lean on the stairway, waiting for her to finish that.

Seeing them together only made me feel a small amount of happiness. That happiness turned into sadness and worry right after. Why? Because there's someone out there who's trying to rid all of our happiness. The thought made me shivver a bit.

When Pisces went in his room, Virgo sighed and turned around where her eyes met mine. She rolled them and went to walk to her room.

"Wait, Virgo," I say, before she can turn the knob.

She sassily whipped her head to face me. "What, Leo?" she asks in an annoyed tone.

"Can I talk to you about something?"

"About what?" she says, still in monotone.

"Not here. Can we, like, go to my room?" I ask, not even noticing the annoyance in her eyes now.

"God, you're so annoying, Leo!" she says, pulling her head back to look at the ceiling.

"No, no, nothing like that! Swear!" I quickly say. I didn't even realize my question sounded like a flirt. "It's actually important."

She squinted her eyes at me, probably not believing that I wanted to talk about something important for once. She opened her door and gestured her hand inside.

"We're talking in my room," she says, waiting for me to go inside.

I push myself off the stairway and make my way inside her room. Her room, of course, was neat. The last time I was here was when Lyra, Cepheus, Virgo, and I watched a movie here. The movie was boring anyway.

I throw myself on Virgo's bed as she was closing the door behind her. She squinted her eyes at me now.

"We're here to talk! Not for you to get comfortable on my bed!" she says, pulling me by my sleeve and dragging me off.

I threw my hands up in surrender. God, she was strong. She decided to sit down on her own bed and tried spreading a wrinkle. I don't know why though. Isn't she about to go back to sleep?

"So what do you want?" she says, crossing her legs on the edge of her bed and tying her short brown hair up.

"I want to talk about Ophiuchus," I say.

Her eyes widened. Before she could say anything, I continued.

"I know what you're thinking. I'm surprised too that I'm even serious about this and not calling him Obeanicus. But I've actually been worried about it. He's close with my best friend, and I don't know what to do about that," I ramble.

"Look, Leo, I understand you're worried about Sagi, but-"

"I'm worried about everyone," I interrupted. "I do want to help with this whole thing, I swear."

Virgo squinted her eyes at me as if she was trying to read me. She didn't say anything yet.

"Leo," she finally says, "are you scared?"

I swallowed whatever lump was in my throat. I hated being pointed out as scared. "I'm not scared. I'm just worried about everyone," I say.

And it was true. I wasn't scared of Ophiuchus. If anything, I just felt protective over everyone else ever since the whole library incident.

She was slowly nodding her head.

"We can just talk to him," I suggest.

"Talk to Ophiuchus? I knew there was something stupid you were going to say," she says, rolling her eyes. This was a whole record she's gone for not rolling her eyes while we were in the same room.

"No, I'm serious," I say. "Can you just hear me out? All jokes aside, I swear."

Virgo only bit the inside of her cheek then her botton lip as she was squinting at me again. I couldn't tell if I sounded serious or not. I was really trying to be though.

"Okay, then," she says, uncrossing her legs. "Talk."

I was thrown back for a quick second. I didn't know what I actually expected her to say. I was more proud with myself that she could actually take me seriously for now. Or says she will.

"So since Ophiuchus thinks we trust him, it should be easier for us to talk to him. Not Gemini, of course. She could easily speak in his mind with her not realizing. That's dangerous for all of us," I explain.

"So what are you even getting to, Leo?" Virgo asks me, shaking her head yet still taking me seriously.

"We can get him to trust us. Y'know like the way he trusts Sagittarius. That way he can tell us things such as weaknesses or whatever," I tell her.

"Leo, that's stupid," Virgo finally intervened. "He trusts Sagittarius because they're connected. He's not going to automatically trust us too."

"But he doesn't trust Scorpio. I don't think that it's the connection that even matters," I say, managing to keep a point. "I think that it's just the understanding."

Virgo was quiet now. I was waiting for her to comment on that, but she never did. I decided to continue all without rehersal. I was practically thinking out loud and hoping what I'm saying will make sense.

"I know Sagittarius. Very well. She doesn't really trust quickly, but she's great at understanding. I can't say that I know if she fully trusts Ophiuchus now or not, but so far, she understands him which is the only reason she's around him," I explain to the shorter girl.

Virgo nodded her head. "Okay," she says. "But what about Aquarius? He somehow trusts her too."

I was twittling with my thumbs now. It was a habit of mine whenever I got anxious or completely confused. "That's another reason I think the connection doesn't matter. We all know Aquarius. She's the most misunderstood person we've ever met," I say.

I then started shaking my head. I ran out. I didn't know what else to say about that. "Which only makes this more complicated to figure out," I thought outloud.

Everything started to confuse me now. Ophiuchus doesn't even know Aquarius, yet he has an urge to protect her. Aquarius was very misunderstood. Very unique, actually. She was extremely rebellious and weird, and I don't mean this in a bad way. I just didn't understand why Ophiuchus had a liking for her: a girl he hasn't met and her own friends can't even understand her.

Sagittarius wasn't completely the opposite, but she was much more predictable and understandable. It was simple and easy to find why Ophiuchus had a liking for her.

All these thoughts confused me more and more. I don't know what the guy wants with my best friend. We don't even know what he wants from Aquarius either. It would be much simpler if we could just talk to him about it.

"Leo," a voice softly says out of the blue.

My eyes averted to the short, brown haired girl in front of me. Her head was tilted to the side, and her eyebrows were still furrowed in confusion.

"Are you okay?" Virgo asks me, sounding completely worried.

I quickly nodded my head a bit too fast. "Y-yeah, I'm okay. I'm just thinking," I tell her.

She only paused as she looked at me then looked down on me. I was confused, so I went to see what she was looking at.

My foot was tapping. Very fast and very loudly. I didn't even realize that. My nails were also digging into my skin, and I couldn't feel the pain until I saw it. I quickly let go of my hands and stopped my tapping foot which filled the air with complete, horrifying silence. The skin on my hands were like they were stabbed and scratched with claws.

I look back at Virgo to see her reaction. I didn't want her to worry more than she already does. She only continued to look worried.

"Leo, I think you should go back to sleep," she tells me in a soft manner.

I quickly shake my head a bit too fast again. "No, I'm not even sleepy. I'm thinking," I close my eyes and tell her with a slight tone of frustration.

"You're over-thinking it," she says.

"You always overthink things. I'm simply just thinking!" I say, opening my eyes again to look at her. I was surprised she didn't make a sassy comment such as "for once" at the end of my sentence.

Her eyebrows furrowed again and she scooted farther away from me on her bed. Her face started to lose a bit of pigment to where she looked kind of pale. Her brown eyes were opened with more amusement and fear.

Was she scared of me? I didn't even say anything that rude.

I quickly caught myself anyway. "Sorry, I didn't mean to yell at y-"

"What the fuck?!" she says, still looking at me.

My expression softened. It was rare for Virgo to cuss. She never did it unless she was upset or scared. I couldn't tell which it was now.

She quickly sat up off her bed and walked closer to me with caution. I give her a weird look.

"Virgo, what's wrong with you?" I ask, not noticing it sounded kind of rude.

"What's wrong with you?" she asks me, still keeping the same expression as before.

"Nothing!" I say, almost yelling out of frustration. I was just trying to think of keeping everybody safe. Why the hell is she acting so weird?

She pointed to her eye hesitantly. "Y-your eyes are..." her voice trailed off.

I give her a weird look. I was going to ask about it until she grabbed a mirror from her dresser and handed it to me. I snatch it from her hand, eager to see what was wrong with my eyes.

In the mirror I could see my eyes. They had vertical-slit black pupils like a vicious cat or a snake's. I squint in the mirror to not find a difference. I quickly blink my eyes, and there still were not a difference in the pupils of my eyes. I started growing frustrated and a small glare or flame of fire sparkled around them. It scared me to where I jumped and accidently dropped the mirror.

I immediately close my eyes shut to hear the mirror shatter on the floor. Virgo might kill me, but I didn't care right now.

What the actual fuck was wrong with me now?

I started rubbing my eyes now, hoping it would go away. I wasn't so sure if it did or not.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" I say, rubbing my eyes harder.

I could hear Virgo loud and clear walking closer to me.

"Shit," I mumble under my breath.

I don't even know how I got like this. This has never happened before. Ever. I was more scared of what was going to happen to me now. Why were my eyes like that?

"Leo," Virgo's soft voice says. She still managed to sound very calm through it all. "Your foot."

I stop rubbing my eyes only to hear myself tapping my foot again, vigorously. Again, I didn't notice until Virgo reminded me. I stop it only to let to allow the thick silence fill our ears. So thick that I was so uncomfortable. It was like my ears were going to literally bleed over the noisiness of this silence.

I became itchy now. Itching with confusion. I didn't know what the hell was going to happen now.

A soft, warm hand touched mine now which caused me to open my eyes and flinch at the sudden movement. Virgo flinched too because I did. Or maybe it was because of my eyes still. I immediately shut them again.

"Shit," I repeat.

I could feel my hand in Virgo's. Both of her hands were wrapped around mine. I didn't mind it. That was until I realized what I did to my hands earlier. The vision of when I scratched and scarred my hand not too long ago came to mind, so I snatched it from her grip.

"Leo, I wanna see it," she tells me, being bossy as usual.

I only shake my head. "No," I say, standing up with my eyes still shut. "I'm going to sleep." I should've gone to sleep when she fucking told me to.

I was beating myself up. I was so angry with myself. I didn't even know why. I was first just completely confused with Ophiuchus, Sagittarius, and Aquarius, and all the sudden, I'm scratching myself, absentmindedly tapping my foot, and my eyes are fucking vicious.

Virgo grabbed my arm and pulled me down to the seat. "You can't walk with your eyes closed," she says, still managing to stay calm.

How could she stay so calm? I'm eternally screaming on the inside. I don't know what the hell was happening.

"Open your eyes, Leo," she tells me.

"Seriously, my eyes look completely horrifying, and you're still bossing me and being normal. Stop that," I spat.

"Just open your eyes, Leo," she tells me again.

I shake my head.

She grabbed my hand again, and I snatched it back quicker than I did before.

"Stop," I tell her in a serious, rare, stern voice.

"Can I just see them?" she asks me. I felt a light touch brush the back of my hand again as I yanked it back the third time.

"No."

Virgo sighed now. "Leo, if you don't open your eyes or let me just see them, nothing will change about it," she tells me.

And she was right. Fuck, she was always right. I hated that too. There was nothing I can do about it anyway. So what was the point now?

I sighed in frustration and hesitantly opened my eyes to avoid hers. I looked directly at my hands in my lap that were still scarred. How the hell did I even do that?

I see Virgo's hand come out to reach mine. She delicately picked it up as I watched. She was admiring it. She looked more worried than scared now which made me worry now.

Only for a quick second, I looked up to meet her eyes now. Her eyes beamed, and that only made me realize that my eyes still weren't normal. I quickly looked at the other hand on my lap, internally cursing.

"Leo, you can look at me, y'know," she tells me.

I chuckle. "That's something I've never heard you say," I say, trying to make a joke out of it somehow.

"I'm serious. Look at me," she says, being bossy again.

I only laugh. I found it funny how at a time like this, she's still calling shots and bossing me around. She only patiently waited for me to look up at her again which I did.

Only this time, she didn't give any expression. I started to think that my pupils were normal again. I sighed in relief.

"It's gone?" I ask her, sounding like my usual, confident self.

Virgo only smirked. "Nope," she says. "But it's okay."

That only made me look down again. I fucking hated this. They looked so weird. And hideous. And scary. I couldn't tell if she was acting like this to make me feel better or because she was genuinely worried about me.

"Leo, stop looking down," she tells me.

"But it looks weird," I confess.

"It looks fine," she says, still admiring my scar on my hand that she was holding.

"You're lying," I say in monotone.

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are."

"I'm not."

"You are."

"Okay, maybe I am," she finally gives in, grabbing my other hand to look at. "But that doesn't even matter. Why are you so obsessed with what you look like all the time?"

I look up at her only to give her a mean look. "I'm not obsessed," I tell her.

She nodded her head. "Yeah, you are. You can ask anyone, and they'll agree with me."

"I'm not that obsessed with my appearance."

"Now you're just being in denial," she says, rolling her eyes. A new record.

She only brought my hand up so we could both look at it now. "How did you even do this?" she asks me.

I quickly look at her to see her staring at my hand. I then look at my hand again and shrugged. "I don't even know."

"Were you angry when you did that?" she asks me, tracing my skin with her soft thumb.

I shake my head only to find her still looking at my hand instead of me. "No," I say, swallowing whatever lump in my throat. "I was just confused."

"Like you were going mad?" she asks me, raising a brow and meeting my eyes.

I quickly look at my hands again and nodded my head quickly. "Y-yeah. Something like that."

Virgo nodded her head and continued to admire my scars. "Was it because you were worried about Ophiuchus getting closer to Sagittarius and Aquarius?" she asks me.

I shake my head now and closed my eyes for a quick second. "No. Everybody. I'm worried about everybody, Virgo. I know I don't really show it, but I am."

I could feel my heart beating fast. Super fast. Inhumanly fast. I open my eyes again and remembered that feeling not too long ago when a small flame skidded across my slit pupils. That probably happened again.

"I just don't know what to do about it. The best thing I can come up with is just getting him to trust us," I explain, blinking fast.

"Okay," Virgo says, leaving a small pause afterward. "And you not knowing what to do made you feel what?" she asks me.

I look at her again. She wasn't even looking at my hand now. She was looking at me. She still had my hand in hers. Maybe for my comfort. Or maybe she just forgot she still had my hand in hers.

"I guess I was feeling mad," I admit outloud.

Virgo didn't say anything now. I could see her look at my eyes now, admiring the slits and probably another flame. I look down again and blink my eyes fast.

"Leo, your eyes are normal now," she tells me. "You don't have to be afraid to look at me."

I let out a sigh of relief, but my eyes were still closed. I was only trying to apprehend what the hell just happened. I've never felt like this before. Ever. Everything was always a great feelings for me. But now, I was just overwhelmed. Everything was real. Too real for me.

"Sorry," I mumble.

"Don't be sorry, Leo. At least this way, we know you can probably turn into a lion soon enough," she chuckles.

That thought made me shivver. I thought that would be cool, but now, I wasn't so sure about it. If I had to turn into something cool, I didn't want to feel so overwhelmed like this. Now I know that it's not just a command, but a feeling.

I look at Virgo again to see her smiling at me. My hand was still in hers and she knew it. At least I think she did.

That made me feel another overwhelming feeling. I wasn't sure if I liked this feeling or not.

I quickly snatch my hand back from her, causing her to flinch and stop smiling. I lock both of my hands together and set them on my lap.

"Yeah," I say, twittling my thumbs again. "But I should go to bed now." I stand up from the seat and immediately face the door.

"Yeah," she repeated after me. "You should." She stood up too. "And by the way, your plan isn't completely idiotic."

I turn around to find her smirking. It made me smirk too. Not because she said it. But because it was so damn contagious all the sudden.

"We'll have to be careful though if we want to gain Ophiuchus' trust. Just don't forget that," she tells me.

I let out another sigh and this time, I gave her my dominant smirk. "Night, Virgo," I tell her, walking towards the door now.

She smiled for a second then it quickly faded. "Night."

°°°

A few hours later, it was 6AM. I was only awake 2 hours ago. I couldn't sleep knowing I could probably turn into a lion in any second. The thought scared me. Maybe I was overthinking things. Maybe I was thinking right inside the box, and the whole situation is as scary as it seems.

Outside my room was usual. Gemini banging on Cap's door to hurry his shower. Taurus and Aquarius talking to each other. Sagittarius only talked to Aries. So I'm guessing Scorpio and Cancer were in the other two showers while Libra took the shower beside Capricorn's. Pisces was walking back inside his room, probably wanting to conceal Gemini's loud voice.

Virgo was sitting on the floor, patiently waiting for an available shower. I don't know why everyone was still ready for showers now. We all took one last night.

I went to sit down beside Virgo on the floor. I gave her a huge grin. "Hey, V," I say.

She gave me a weird and mean look. "V?" she asks me. "No Virgin or BossyPants today?"

I shrug my shoulders. "You don't like those words, so I guess I can call you V now."

She rose an eyebrow. "So you have listened to me before," she says, shaking her head.

"Yeah, I just chose not to," I confess.

She scoffed. "Can you leave me alone, Leo?" she asks me.

I furrow my brows now. "Why? I thought you didn't hate me anymore."

She chuckled. "I do. Just because I took you seriously last night doesn't mean we're friends now."

I frowned. "Can I not thank you?"

Virgo shrugged. "For what? I didn't even do anything," she bluntly says.

I just stared at her for a quick minute. She acted like she hated me again which kind of pissed me off. I was actually starting think that I didn't annoy her as much as I did.

I ended up rolling my eyes and standing up, ready to find someone else to talk to. Usually, it didn't give me a bad vibe, but now it's different.

I was walking over towards Sagi and Aries. They were still talking to each other. Sagittarius smiled as she saw me.

"Hey, Leo!" she excitedly says.

"Hey," I say, squeezing myself between the both of them. "What are you guys talking about?"

"Just about how Sag got thrown in a cell yesterday," Aries answers.

"Is Pisces still mad at you about that?" I ask Sag.

She just shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know, and right now, I don't care. I have bigger problems such as torture from Acella today," she says, rolling her eyes.

"Yeah, but luckily you did get arrested. You got us out of training early," I say with a huge smile.

Sagittarius punched me, and I playfully punch her back with a laugh. We were play fighting now until Sag accidently hit Aries.

Sag's eyes widened and she immediately looked at me then at Aries who wasn't even paying attention or caring. He was just looking straight ahead.

"What's up with you?" I ask him.

He didn't answer me.

Sagittarius jumped in front of him and started waving her hands in his face. "Hello. Earth to RamBoy," she says, getting all up in his face.

Aries immediately frowned and looked down at Sagittarius. "What do you want?" he asks with a growl.

She furrowed her eyebrows. "What's your problem?" she asks, kind of offended.

Aries only side eyed her with a resting bitch face then back over her shoulder. His expression lightened as the corner of his lip upturned to a smirk.

Sagittarius furrowed her brows in confusion and looked behind her as I did the same. It was just Gemini smiling at Aries.

. . .

Wait a minute.

"Are you and Gemini a thing?" I immediately ask, raising both of my eyebrows in surprise.

Aries' focus averted to me and Sagittarius now. "What? No," he quickly says. "You guys know Gem and I are basically best friends."

"You growled at your best friend. You smiled at her," Sagittarius says, gesturing her thumb to Gemini behind her who was now huffing and puffing at Capricorn's long shower. Sagittarius sounded more excited than upset with Aries' behavior with her.

"I didn't smile," Aries bluntly says.

"You smirked. Same difference," I exclaim.

Aries gave me a mean look as he side eyed me. I only smiled. "Aw, you like her! Don't you?" I say, being smug.

Aries fully turned towards me now. "Yeah," he says.

Well, that was honest.

Sagittarius' eyes beamed so bright and huge. "Really?!" she asks, growing five times more excited than I was.

"Yeah," Aries shrugged.

"When are you gonna ask her out?" I ask him, getting in all the gossip about Aries and his little crush on Gemini.

Aries shrugged his shoulders again. "I can't now. She's going through a lot right now with the whole mind reading and Ophiuchus wanting to destroy us thing," he explains.

Sagittarius scoffed. "Yeah, but you guys forgave Ophiuchus. Right?" she asks looking at me and Aries with a raised eyebrow.

Aries' eyes widened as he caught himself that he wasn't supposed to let Sagi know we didn't hate her new best friend. He just immediately nodded his head. "Yep," he quickly says, pursing his lips together.

Sagittarius' shoulders slumped down. She looked at Aries then me, then at the floor. She looked pretty disappointed or hurt, and I couldn't tell why. That didn't stop her on wanting to know more about Aries' reason.

"So Gemini," she says, still looking at the floor. "You weren't going to ask her out because..."

Aries blinked a few times as he realized he was getting back on topic. "Oh, right," he says. "She's going through too much right now. I don't wanna overwhelm her with a relationahip right now. It'll just stress her out, and I don't want that for her."

"I will get her into liking you, my friend!" I say with full enthusiasm.

Aries chuckled. "No need. She already does," he tells us.

Sagittarius looked up at Aries again. "But I thought she didn't. That's what her and Cancer were going on about at Lupus'," she states with a confused look.

"You mean little naive Gemini? The one who's always in denial," Aries asks, raising his eyebrow.

"Are you sure she likes you?" she asks him.

"Oh trust me," Aries says, leaning on the wooden rail of the stairway. "She does."

"How can you be so sure?" I ask him, squinting my eyes at my best friend.

Aries shrugged his shoulders as he stared back at me. "I just am," he says.

Aries and I had a little staring contest until a door opened and a yell of happiness.

"Finally!" Gemini shouts, raising both of her fists in the air.

Capricorn was walking out of the bathroom with a white towel wrapped around his waist like every morning. "Yeah! Finally! You can finally shut the hell up!" he says with a sassy smirk.

Gemini only frowned at him.

"Well, it's my turn to take a shower," Aries says, sending Sagi and I a boyish peace sign.

He walked over to where Gemini was about to enter and literally pulled her away so that he was inside the bathroom.

"Aries, I swear-"

"You can join if you want," he tells her, opening the door wider and gesturing his head inside.

Gemini only began to grow furious. I couldn't tell if it was pure anger, but her cheeks were starting to blush now.

That never happened when he used to flirt with her before.

"I-I'll just wait again," she pouted, blinking a few times and crossing her arms in disappointment.

Aries just shrugged, winked, and smirked at the smaller girl as he closed the door. Gemini only stood there with her arms crossed and slid against the door, waiting for him to finish his shower.

She didn't even try rushing him this time.

"She totally likes him," Sagittarius nods her head. I nodded in agreement.

In all honesty, Aries and Gemini would make a perfect couple in my opinion. They were both super athletic. I don't know much about relationship, but something's telling me that's all it takes. Just a connection of something.

Sagittarius turned back to me with her hands clasped and a face with a smile. "So training today," she says super excitedly which I now realize her smile was completely fake. "I am so excited!"

I just chuckled. "Maybe you shouldn't had shoplifted. You're obviously not as good as Aquarius."

Her eyes widened. "Aquarius?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I remember when she stole her neighbor's dog for two weeks. Don't ask how she got away with it. I don't even know myself."

Sagittarius just smirked. I don't know why, but she just was. Then she started to speak again.

"We should go visit Ophi after training today," she tells me.

That only made my blood boil. The sound of his name irritated me ever since early this morning. More than it ever has. That only reminded me of when I was in Virgo's room and my eyes were... like felines. The scratches. All of that.

"No," I sternly say, not meaning to come out that way.

"Why not?" she asks me, furrowing her eyebrows.

I shrug, trying to be back to my happy, childish self. "He probably doesn't want to be bothered," I say. And yes. That was the best I could think of.

Her expression dropped again. "He's seriously lonely. I'm sure he won't mind it."

I just shrug again, desperately finding an excuse to not see Ophiuchus. Virgo agreed that getting him to trust us was a great idea, but we weren't ready to execute that plan yet.

I wasn't good at lying to my best friend or anyone in general. Lying was the only thing I was bad at doing. That and looking horrible during a crisis. Those two were the impossible for me.

"But you trust him, right?" she asks me, raising an eyebrow.

I just nod my head, knowing that if I spoke, it would come out as a complete lie. I was horrible at lying. I always told the truth. I guess that's why people tell me to shut up about my opinion all the time.

"You can tell me the truth, y'know," she says, crossing her arms across her chest now.

I just nodded and avoided eye contact. Soon, Cancer got out the shower. I took that as an opportunity to stall and get out of the conversation.

I immediately make my way in that direction, twirling Cancer around and kissing her on the cheek. "You just saved me! Thanks!" I tell the blonde.

Sagittarius and Cancer both give me a weird look as I left to go to the bathroom. I can hear Gemini complain before I slammed and locked the door.

Thank God.

°°°

After I finished taking a shower, Sagittarius was taking hers. Gemini had to take a shower last. Must suck to be her.

I knocked on a door only for it to open just a second after. I smile.

"Hey, Virgo. We need another talk," I tell her, making my way into her room.

Her eyes widened. "Out! I don't want people thinking we're hooking up or something," she says, pointing her finger outside of her room.

I go back over to her and slam her door since she didn't want to do it herself. She gave me a mean look I didn't really care about.

"I don't care. Plus, you're dating Pisces now, so that doesn't even matter," I tell her, now finding a way to say what I needed.

Virgo only rolled her eyes. "What do you want?"

I sit down on my bed, surprised she didn't tell me to sit anywhere else now. "Okay, so who's watching Sagittarius now?"

Virgo had her arms crossed as she shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. Libra I think."

"Well, Sagittarius asked me if we should go see Ophiuchus after training today. And you were right, I can't watch her. I'm bad at lying."

"Yeah, no kidding," she scoffed at the last part. "But what else did she say?"

I shrug. "That was it."

Virgo furrowed her eyebrows at me. "So you come to my room over what Sagi said? I would've thought it'd be more than just that." Then she paused and a small smirk formed on her lips. "Keep wasting my time like this, and I'm actually going to start thinking that you have a crush on me," she jokingly says.

I smirk back. "You have no idea," I joke back.

Then Virgo frowned. "Stop."

I frowned too now. "What? You flirted with me that time!"

"Yeah, well I forgot you of all people would follow through," she explains, blinking a few times over what she just said.

I just sigh. She was weird.

"Anyway," I say. "I know Sagi. If no one goes with her, she's most likely going to go by herself."

Virgo rolled her eyes. "The whole Fire Signs, Scorpio, and Aquarius included," she says in monotone.

She wasn't wrong. She never was.

"Okay," Virgo says, "then we'll just keep her busy or something. God, why can't anybody here be more like Taurus with Aquarius?"

I nod my head in agreement. So far, Taurus has been watching Aquarius pretty well. He claims that being around her doesn't really feel like much of a chore.

Sagittarius, on the other hand, was just difficult. She was full of trouble, much like Aquarius, but more impulsive with her actions. She never liked thinking things through and only thought about what's happening in the moment. It made me understand why nobody was able to tolerate her except for me and Aries.

Except we still can't watch her. We were the same way.

"I just don't want her anywhere near Ophiuchus. He's dangerous," I state the obvious.

Virgo nodded her head in agreement. "We'll find something. Don't worry about it. I can make sure Libra's watching her. I promise," she reassures me.

I only nod my head slowly. I didn't know what to say. It wasn't often since Virgo's been so civil with me. It was weird but welcoming at the same time.

"Now get out my room. And make sure nobody sees you leaving," she says in her signature rude tone again.

I scoff. I think I jinxed it. "Why are you like that?" I ask her, not moving a muscle to leave her room.

She gave me a perplexed look. "Like what?" she asks me.

"We were having a great, civil conversation and then you go ahead and act like you hate me," I say, practically thinking out loud.

"I'm not acting," Virgo shrugs her shoulders as if she didn't give a care in the world.

I remained to say nothing after which caused her to continue talking.

"Leo, just because you fear what would happen with Ophiuchus and the rest of us, doesn't mean I think any different about you. You still annoy me. Regardless," she tells me with an edge of sassiness in her tone.

"I've been nothing but nice to you," I retort. "I just don't understand why you want nothing to do with me all the time."

"Not everyone's going to like you, Leo. Get over it."

I only blinked a couple of times. In all honesty, I could never understand what Virgo's problem with me was. I've been nice to her. At least I thought so. In fact, I believe I was nice to everyone. The only thing I get from her was how 'annoying' I was and how she wanted 'nothing to do with me' but I've only been fair to her.

I immediately just left her room, and I could feel her figure watching me leave, once again not giving a single care in the world. I was storming in the hallway now, not caring who saw me get out of her room or not.

It's not like the reason I was there was for her anyway.

I run my way downstairs only to find Scorpio once again drinking lots of water. He wasn't sweaty anymore, but he looked more than dehydrated.

Scorpio. Another person I've been too nice to and only recieved shit in the end.

I make my way to the fridge and find a bottle of water and start gulping. All of the sudden, my throat felt arid. I feel Scorpio watching me from the corner of my eye.

I immediately detatch the bottle from my mouth, wiping the corner of my lip with the back of my hand where some water spilled from my sudden, aggressive motion. "What the hell are you looking at?" I ask him.

Scorpio only squinted his eyes at me. "Am I high or are your eyes just fucking weird?" he inquired.

I pulled my phone out from my backpocket and looked at the black screen to see a darker reflection of myself. It was the eyes again. Those fucking eyes Virgo and I saw this morning.

I shut my eyes quickly as I saw the cat-eyed pupils. "Shit," I say, not realizing I was clutching my phone and water bottle as hard as my eyes were shut.

"So this means I'm not high. Hooray," he sarcastically says. I hear him take the last gulps of water and then walk up towards me. "So why do you have that?" he asks me, an edge of breathlessness in his voice. I didn't understand why he's out of breath. And why he was so calm about the eyes.

With my eyes still closed, I say, "Why are you talking to me?"

"Because you seem upset."

"Upset? You couldn't care less last time I was upset with you, Scorpio," I say, purposely adding a dash of sass in my tone.

Scorpio sighed, maybe still out of breath. "Yeah, but that was because I cared about how I felt first," he bluntly admits.

I peek my eyes to give him a look. God, he was so annoying sometimes. It was also a bit hilarious how blunt that statement was, but I wasn't going to admit that.

He squinted his eyes at me. "That's weird. Have you done that before?" he asks me, pointing to it.

"No," I lied.

He still had his eyes squinted as he nodded his head. "Okay," he says. "Well, I'm going upstairs."

Scorpio left to go upstairs now which let me clear to look at both of my eyes again with my phone screen. They were still the same. I remember why it happened earlier this morning.

I was angry.

At least I thought so. I never felt true temper like the other two Fire Signs did. Acella said it was a trait that we inherit. I wasn't much like that. I never got mad at things as quickly as Aries or Sagittarius did. I was just happy, and I liked it like that which was why I remained that way.

Acella also told me that because I don't get mad so easily, when I do, it'll be scary. And boy, these eyes fucking scare the life out of me. I didn't know why I was angry now.

I tried retracing before my eyes got like this just now. I didn't know I felt any anger. It wasn't because I saw Scorpio. I don't think I can get angry at someone who no longer affects me anymore.

I thought backwards to when I was in Virgo's room not too long ago. I don't think I was angry at her. She was right. Not everyone can like me.

But that doesn't mean they shouldn't. I'm perfect.

The thought of Virgo made me so confused. She was confusing. I didn't realize that until early this morning. One second, she's helping me overcome whatever feeling I felt about Ophiuchus, and another, she's treating me like an annoying parasite that lives under her skin.

I wasn't mad. I didn't think so. Usually, Virgo's opinion never mattered to me. Ever. I would take all the insults and purposely change them into my own little joke to annoy her more.

And now...

Nevermind.

It still doesn't matter to me.

I don't think.

It made no sense to me why I felt anger now. There was no way I cared what Virgo thought of me. It was the same opinion as before. It shouldn't bother me now.

Right?