Anais looks between Leo and I before she smiles as well. I look just beyond Anais to see that there's a decently sized wooden house with large glass windows and a front porch in the distance, smoke coming out of its chimney.

"Welcome home, big brother," Anais beams before she directs her gaze to me. "Is this Rosie?"

"Y—Yeah," Leo clears his throat and turns to introduce us. "Rosaline, this is my younger sister, Anais."

"Nice to meet you," I smile.

"You're just as pretty as Leo described you," Anais says, making me raise my eyebrows in surprise.

"Alright!" Leo exclaims a bit too loudly. "Let's get you both inside. It's rather cold out, yeah?"

Deciding I can ask about it later, I decide to follow after Leo and Anais to his house. Leo opens the door for Anais, who walks in ahead of us and heads off to the right to place the wood in the fireplace where their living room is, two tan couches and a white rug sitting by the fireplace with a glass coffee table that has a dark wooden frame, bookshelves resting on either side of the fireplace and family photos hung all over the wall. Across from the front door is a hallway that leads to more rooms and off to the left is a kitchen with an island with bar stools, the counters in the kitchen arcing around the wall, a latticed window in front of them and cabinets hanging around the window. Just beside the hallway across from the door is a wooden staircase going upstairs, the stairs facing the kitchen.

I step into the house further, my boots echoing across the wooden floorboards, and I continue to look around in admiration, finding his home very warm and welcoming. Leo takes my coat from me and hangs it on the coat rack by the door and I proceed to take off my boots, as does Leo. The two of us set our shoes aside from the door with the rest of the family's shoes. The smell of something baking in the oven drifts over to the front door and I smile fondly.

"Anais, did you get the firewood—" a blonde haired hazel eyed woman asks as she comes down the hallway, brushing her hands on her dark blue jeans, the sleeves to her white sweater rolled up to her elbows.

The woman stops when she sees the two of us by the doorway and her lips part in surprise.

"Leo," the woman breathes out, blinking away a few tears as she rushes over and pulls him into a tight hug.

"Hi, Mom," Leo says softly and hugs her back.

"And who's this?" Leo's mom asks as she turns to me and places her hands on her hips, a smile gracing her face, her eyes crinkling. "Oh, I know! You must be Rosaline, right?"

"Yeah..." I trail off, wondering how all of Leo's family seems to know about me. "It's nice to meet you, madam."

"Please, call me Hailee," she waves. "You two are just in time for dinner. Why don't you put your things away and join us? You will be staying a while, won't you?"

"Yeah," Leo nods.

"Perfect!" Hailee beams and claps her hands together. "I'll let you two go freshen up."

Still unsure of what exactly is happening, I follow after Leo as he heads towards the stairs and heads up. Once upstairs, I notice there are four sets of wooden doors, two on each side of the room, and across from the top of the stairs at the back of the hall is one more room. I follow Leo as he goes to the first door on the left and opens it, revealing his room to me.

Leo's room has a bed with blue and white sheets with white pillows across from the door, night stands on both sides of the bed and a bookshelf beside the night stand on the left. To the right of the room, across from the bed, are a pair of dark wooden closet doors. There's also a dresser to the right of the room against the center of the wall with a mirror hanging above the dresser, multiple items strewn across the top of the dresser. In front of the bed is a blue circular fluffy rug and to the left of the room is a desk with a wicker chair and a wicker trash can beside the desk.

"Your room looks nice," I say, watching as Leo heads over to his closet and opens the doors.

"Thanks," Leo says. "You can put your clothes in my closet. Most of my stuff is in my dresser, so there should be plenty of room. I'll push my things off to the right, so you can take the left side. If you have anything that you can't hang up, you can use the last drawer in my dresser. You can use my hangers, by the way. I assume you don't have any."

"Alright, thanks," I nod.

"No problem. I'm going to go use the bathroom. It's the door at the end of the hall. There's also a bathroom downstairs," Leo says.

Leo heads out of the room after making room for me in his closet and I begin to hang up my clothes that I brought with me. After a few minutes, I hear footsteps approaching and assume that it's Leo coming back.

"So, you must be Rosaline," a firm yet feminine voice says from the doorway, and I look over to see a blonde woman with icy blue eyes staring at me as she leans in the doorway in her white skinny jeans with her arms crossed, her black long sleeve pullover bunching up around her arms and a golden locket resting against the center of her chest.

"Who are you?" I ask, furrowing my eyebrows.

"Mishka Velasquez," she introduces herself.

"Mishka," Leo frowns as he appears behind her, "get out of my doorway."

"Don't worry," Mishka rolls her eyes, "I wasn't harassing her. I simply heard Mom making a fuss in the kitchen and wanted to see what it was about. When she told me Rosaline was here, I had to come see for myself."

"Well, now you've seen her, so you're free to go," Leo says as he brushes by Mishka.

"What's the matter? Aren't I allowed to look into my little brother's affairs? After all, it's the first time in all of your twenty-one years of living that you've brought someone home," Mishka says. "I was starting to doubt that you had a heart. Your work certainly didn't help that, but perhaps I was wrong to be worried."

"I think you have the wrong idea," I frown, "Leo and I are just friends."

"Is that so?" Mishka sighs. "That's disappointing. Everyone was so excited, too. With the way you wrote about her, we all assumed. My apologies."

At Mishka's words, my eyes flicker over to Leo and he stills.

"It's fine," Leo clears his throat, "you should go help Mom."

"Yeah," Mishka says, her eyes shifting between the two of us uncertainly, "alright. I'll see you at dinner."

"You wrote home about me?" I ask, furrowing my eyebrows and crossing my arms as I stare at Leo. "Why?"

"I couldn't help it," Leo says softly, moving to sit on his bed. "You were always on my mind. I mentioned I had met a beautiful, intelligent, empathetic woman during my travels and that one day I hoped to bring her home for everyone to meet. I didn't really mean anything by it, but I can see how they misunderstood my intentions."

"You— what?" I find my face heating up in embarrassment. "So, that's how everyone knows about me. And they assumed what? That you like me? That we're together?"

"I'm not sure exactly what they assumed," Leo sighs. "Something along those lines. Don't worry, I'll correct them at dinner."

"Alright..." I trail off, chewing on my lower lip nervously.

"We won't be able to see Tatiana for a few days, so best to get this over with now than to have to deal with any more awkward misunderstandings," Leo says.

"Yeah..." I breathe out. "Alright..."

As I stare at Leo, I know that there's little chance he doesn't realize what he said about me in his letters made it sound like he had feelings for me or was attracted to me at the very least. Which means, either he does and he's hiding how he feels or he doesn't realize how he feels. Perhaps he really was just being genuinely nice when describing me and didn't realize how it sounded, though. Regardless, if he does feel that way, if he does have an interest in me, how does that make me feel? And what does that mean for us? It seems, only time will tell.

***

At dinner, I also met Leo's father Marquis, his little brother Adrian, and his older brother Aleksi. His family seemed disappointed at the misunderstanding of Leo and I's relationship and his mother apologized profusely, feeling that I was put in an awkward position. I assured her it was alright and that everything was fine. At the admission, however, Aleksi seemed to share the same insightful gaze that Mishka held towards us both.

If I had to describe Leo's family, I would say that they're kind and loving people who work hard. Leo's father works at a lumber yard and his mother stays at home to take care of the kids, who are both homeschooled. Leo's mother is kind and outgoing, always full of energy, while his father is calm and more reserved but just as kind.

Adrian is full of curiosity and has an adventurous spirit and always likes to make everyone laugh. Hailee said that Leo also used to be that way as a kid, which brought a smile to my face as I imagined Leo running around in the woods and making his own adventures. Anais is more quiet and reserved, much like her father, and is really into the arts. She loves painting and playing piano and crafting things.

Aleksi and Mishka are both soldiers in Tatiana's ranks, which made me wonder why Mishka was so cold about Leo's choice to also work for Tatiana. The two of them are both similar in personality, both a little mischievous but typically rather composed. While Mishka is more blunt, however, Aleksi is more subtle and charismatic.

After dinner, Leo offered to take Adrian and Anais out back to play in the snow and Adrian asked if they could ice skate on the pond in their back yard. Unable to say no, Leo grinned and picked the both of them up before he rushed them both outside as they laughed. The sight warmed my heart, to see a different side to Leo, to see Leo Velasquez and not Leo the Horseman for a change.

"He never really changed," Aleksi muses and I look up from my place on the back porch stairs to see him standing behind me.

"Yeah?" I question, looking back out to Leo, Adrian, and Anais as they skate together on the pond, Leo holding onto both of their hands.

"He's always been the favorite among the kids," Aleksi sighs as he sits down beside me, his blond hair catching in the moonlight, his hazel eyes fond. "He has this presence around him that just exudes life and wonder. People have been drawn to him all his life. When he had his accident, I was worried that would change."

"Accident?" I ask, furrowing my eyebrows.

"He didn't tell you?" Aleksi asks, his eyebrows raising in surprise. "Maybe I shouldn't, then. With the way he looks at you, I just assumed he'd have told you."

"The way he looks at me?" I laugh dryly. "You know we said that the letter was a misunderstanding, right?"

"Was it really?" Aleksi hums and places his chin in his hand as he rests his arm on his leg, his eyes still fixated on the pond. "I wonder..."

"Can I ask you something, Aleksi?" I ask.

"Shoot," Aleksi says.

"Why was Mishka worried about Leo growing cold with his position under Tatiana when you and Mishka both work for Tatiana as well?" I ask.

"For similar reasons as me, I suppose," Aleksi says. "Although Mishka and I are both soldiers, we do what we do for our country and for our people, not for Tatiana. Leo works directly with Tatiana and he chose to work for her because she's the one who saved him during his accident. He feels indebted to her. But, I think Mishka is more concerned because his position has caused for him to become a killing machine. Leo always enjoyed the thrill of a battle and pushing his limits to see how much better he could be, always sparring with me or Mishka when we were kids. I think Mishka worries that he'll grow to enjoy it for the wrong reasons."

Memories of Leo recently mentioning pushing himself too hard and refusing to tell me why suddenly flash through my mind, making me nervous.

"It changed when I exhausted too much of my magic," Leo admitted. "...Maybe it's a warning to not push myself so hard..."

"Instead of enjoying it because it tests his limits, Mishka worries he'll enjoy it because of the killing," I frown.

"She didn't want him to lose his sense of empathy," Aleksi nods. "However, looking at him, I don't think he has. And if he did, I think you're the one who saved him from that. He would always love his family and he would never put anything else above us, nor would he ever harm us, but for him to look at you the way that he does, to form that kind of a connection to a stranger, it means a lot."

"I think I understand," I nod in return, "and I think you're right. I don't think he's lost himself, and I appreciate you telling me you think that I mean a lot to him."

"Of course," Aleksi says, turning his gaze to me before he smiles sincerely. "I do hope that you'll remain a part of our family, Rosaline."

"Yeah," I whisper softly, "me too."