Special Thanks to @MagLoopy for the awesome fan art of Lea! Also for those of you who are wondering, the contest goes on until the end of the book and if there are still fan arts that weren't featured in one of the chapters, I will make a collage of them and feature a chapter just for them. Enjoy the Chapter! -Golden

3rd Person's POV (A year later)

"OI! GET BACK HERE!" 10 year old Lea dashed off through the marketplace, a small bushel of apples in hand as she ran away from the merchant. With a huff, Lea pushed her legs to go faster, wind brushing past her. She could hear shouts in the distance coming from the merchant and Earth Kingdom Officers who were supposedly patrolling the area when Lea stole the apples. Lea looked around her frantically 'Where are you Shinya?' Lea asked herself, looking for the brown haired boy who was nowhere to be seen. Lea turned into a alleyway, right into a Dai Li Agent. Lea froze, knowing that the Dai Li were more advanced then regular officers

"Where do you think you are going?" Lea snapped out of her state and began struggling against him, the bushel of apples falling to the ground with a thump, apples rolling out of it and into the streets. Soon came the merchant and a few officers

"Come here thief I will yeah you a less-"

"I don't think that would be necessary gentlemen." Stated a voice behind the group. They turned to see Shinya who was throwing a rock up into the air before catching it, his other hand on his hip with a sly smirk

"That's the other one! Get him-!" The merchant was caught off when Shinya threw the rock at his head, knocking out the merchant

"Tsk, tsk. Tu Lin why do you always have to get yourself into trouble?" Shinya asked Lea who rolled her eyes at him before replying

"Say so for yourself, I'm only warming up." Lea stated before elbowing the Dai Li Agent in the stomach, having his grip lighten giving Lea a chance to escape. She turned around and kneed his face, breaking his nose with a sickening crunch. Lea turned and ran over to Shinya, passing the officers and the unconscious merchant. Shinya pulled Lea into him, a triumphant smirk on his face

"See ya later, and thanks for the apples!" Shinya mockingly thanked with a bow before he rose himself and Lea upwards, them jumping onto a rooftop and ran along it, heading back to their hideout

"What do you mean by, 'thanks for the apples'?" Lea asked right when Shinya swung down and grabbed another bushel of apples from the stall Lea stole from earlier

"Oh ya know, just that I did just that." Shinya stated causing Lea to laugh at him. They arrived back at their hideout, Shinya raising the boulder off of the whole as they climbed down the ladder, he put it back on top, closing the entrance. They walked inside, Lea placing the bushels onto the makeshift crappy table before collapsing onto her mattress with a loud sigh, knowing what was coming...

"What did I tell you Lea?! Wait until he was looking away, wait until I made a distraction, wait-" Lea blocked out his scolding, mimicking what he was saying with her hand, acting out him talking. Shinya stopped, noticing her mocking him causing him to groan

"I'm serious Lea! You could have seriously been arrested or worse, hurt!"

"Killed..." Muttered Lea quietly unknown to Shinya. Shinya ran his hands through his rubbish hair frustrated with the red headed girl

"Look, I get that we are practically starving but there always has to be patience with these sort of things." Shinya told Lea, sitting down on her bed next to her. Lea sat up, sitting cross legged as she crossed her arms and pouted

"I know~ You don't have to keep scolding me every single time when I do something wrong." Lea whined

"I'm just looking out for you is all." Shinya told Lea, placing his hand on his shoulder

"Still, you aren't my mother so stop acting like it!" Lea screamed at Shinya, her eyes dilating in anger. Hot head, trait passed down in her family since the beginning of time. Shinya, who suppressed his hurt feeling, calmly told her

"I know I'm not... But I'm the closest thing to your mother right now. So please don't get angry with me when I'm just trying to help you." Lea sighed, throwing her head down into her hands as she breathed in and out, calming herself before speaking

"Sorry." She apologized, Shinya nodded and hugged her, pulling her into his side

"No harm done. Now let's eat before those apples go bad." They both chuckled and Lea nodded.

To Be continued