Another Chance

by EldinKaiser

Ch. 3 (Zest Family Reunion)

Hours passed with us finally finding our way back to the bedroom. Our hair a mess, the only thing covering us is a blanket. Our body's still twitching and our breaths still rapid. "T-that...was amazing." I breathed out. Lemon looked up at me, giving me an exhausted smile.

"Hopefully next time, we'll be able to plan out everything better." She teased, crawling up to me to rest her head on my chest.

"What time is it? I lost count after the third hour." She looked up at me and groaned out.

"I just got comfy too..." She pouted, rolling over to grab her phone.

I smirked, sliding up behind her to wrap my arms around her to pull her close to me. She yelped out in surprise, but quickly blushed and smiled, snuggling up to me. "Comfy?" I asked, my hand tracing along her belly with her nodding softly.

"Oh, it's almost 4:30 in the morning." She said, still in her blissful state. She rolled over and smiled, kissing me softly and curled up to me. "Sweet dreams Sonata." She said before dozing off in my arms.

I smiled and leaned down to kiss the top of her head. "Sweet dreams Lemon."

As morning came, of course Lemon was the first one to wake up, the scent of bacon, eggs, biscuits, and gravy filling her apartment. "Sonata, time to get up." She said, walking into the room, gently shaking me.

"Nooo, I am comfy." I pouted out playfully, pulling the blanket up over my head though poked my eye out of the blanket to look up at her. She smirked and leaned down to kiss the top of my head.

"C'mon sleepy head, you don't want you food getting cold." She said, walking out of the bedroom.

I sat up, pulling the blanket over my chest and searched around for my clothes, only able to find my shorts and shirt. "Hmm, look like I'm running around without any underwear." I said, quickly getting dressed and walked into the kitchen, my hair a mess, hickeys and bite marks covering my neck.

She looked up at me and began to laugh. "What's so funny?"

"It looks like you went round and round with a tiger last night." She said, referring to my hair and the marks along my body.

"Well, I guess you can say I went round and round with another certain type of cat." I grinned, sitting down and looked up to see her blushing deeply.

As I got ready to eat, her phone began to ring. As she went to answer it, I saw her face go pale, worry instantly flooding her face. "My mom is are calling me." She said, as if she was starting to panic.

I rose a brow with a mouthful of food. "Ith that a thuch a bad thing?" I said. Though she didn't pay no mind to my comment.

"Hey mom!" She said, her voice some what shaky. "Yeah, everything's fine. Just been busy with school." She got up from the table and walked towards the bedroom.

"Wait, you're in town?! N-No, that's not a problem, just wasn't expecting any company is all. Wait, who told you that?! Y-Yeah, I'll see you in a few. Love you, bye." She said, hanging up her phone. I've never witnessed someone have an anxiety attack, but to see her panicking, I'd imagine it would have been pretty close.

"Is everything alright?" I said, walking up to her.

"N-No, she knows that I'm with someone and that she's wanting to meet this person."

"Ok? Why is that a problem?" I asked. She looked up at me, tears flooding her eyes.

"She hates gays. She believes that all of them should just go away and that they have no place on this planet." She said, sinking down onto the ground.

I began to worry as well, not for myself, but for her. I've never known my parents so I could care less in what they'd think, but she cares what her parents think. "M-Maybe she'll be ok with the idea of us?" I suggested, trying to lighten up the mood.

She shook her head. "L-Last girl I was with, she looked at me and told me to get rid of her or I'll be disowned." She said, tears now flowing freely from her eyes. "Sonata, I don't want to lose you, but I don't want to lose my mom either. I-I don't know what to do." She said, crying into her hands.

Panic began to set in as a was pacing the apartment trying to think of something to say and what to say. "W-What are we going to do?" I asked myself, though as I stepped out of the bedroom, I hear someone knocking at the door and saw that Lemon's breathing hastened immediately.

"Lemon! Honey, I'm here!" Her mom called out from the other side of the door.

She walked over to the door and opened it. "H-Hey mom." She said as she tried to control her breathing.

"Hey, sweetie. Are you ok? You look like you've been crying." Her mom pointed out. Lemon looked over at me and then back at her mom.

"Y-Yeah, everything is fine. Just had a past couple stressful days." She said, making up an excuse.

"How come?" Her mom asked, letting herself in.

"W-well, just school's been piling up on me. Been busy with the Shadowcolts and haven't had much free time to do anything." She said.

"O-Oh, ok then." She looked around the house to see the furniture. "How in the world are you able to afford all of this, Lemon? Is this new boyfriend of yours rich?" Her mom asked, then turned to see me, my body covered in bite marks and hickies. Her mom began to glare at me. "Who is SHE?" Her mom asked.

"W-Well, she's...she's my girlfriend." She said, preparing for the worse.

Silence immediately filled the house though the filling of anger sprouted from her mom. "Excuse me?! My daughter isn't a dyke! You need to get rid of that girl or"

"Or what?" A new, deep, voice came out from the door way.

I looked at Lemon who acted like she just saw a ghost. The man stepped forward, his head almost reaching the ceiling. He looked almost identical to Lemon! He stood there in bright blue jeans, his long hair in a ponytail, a white shirt with a black leather vest with different patches along his vest, tattoos covering most of his arms.

He looked over at Lemon and walked up beside of her, gently placing his hand on her shoulder. "Hey sweetie, sorry it's been a while." He said with a tender smile before looking back at Lemon's mom.

She looked at him, initially intimidated by his size though finally recovered her thoughts. "It's about time you showed back up in her life, Citron." Her mom growled out at him.

"Well after my psychotic bitch of an ex-wife tried to hit me and said that if I tried to take her daughter away, you'd have me put in jail, as well as not allowing me to contact her. It's been kind of difficult to stay in contact." He said with a cold stare.

She rolled her eyes before lashing out "Our daughter is with that...thing! And I do not find that to be ver-"

"Shut up, Avalon." He demanded. "So you're being pissy over the fact that our daughter is happy with another girl?" He asked, disgusted at Avalon's actions.

"Do you know how childish that is? Because someone is doing something that you don't agree with, you're throwing a fucking fit?!" He said, anger slowly building up in his face.

"She was raised to be a lady! Not a dyke!" Her mom protested.

"Oh cry me a river Avalon. She wasn't happy with your bullshit and she's happy now! Do you not care about our daughters happiness?!" He growled out.

"If it means being a trashy dyke then she doesn't need it!" She said. I looked down at Lemon who was curled in a ball behind her dad, her body shaking from everything that's going on.

"You know what? Excuse me, miss?" He looked over at me, his eyes as gentle as Lemon's

"Y-Yes, sir?" I replied.

"Do you love my daughter?" He asked me, my face going into a deep red.

"W-Well, we just started dating. But I wouldn't let her get hurt and I'd do anything to protect her." I said with a gentle smile.

"Lemon, sweetie, don't listen to a thing your mom has to say, only reason she's pissed is because her daughter is actually found happiness before she did. If being with another girl makes you happy, then do what you want." He said, helping Lemon back up and walked her over towards me.

"Now as for you." He growled out, turning towards Avalon. "You are absolutely horrid. You dare think you have the right to say who she's with? You think because she came out of your glory hole, you have exact say so over her life?! Let me tell you something, I had another daughter, her name is Fino Zest. She doesn't hide anything from me. She can tell me whatever is on her mind. As for you, I've watched how you raised her. Lemon has hidden so much from you because she's terrified of you! She's terrified that she'll lose her mom, and only thing you can say, instead of supporting her, is 'Oh well my daughter isn't a god damn dyke!' He said in a mocking tone.

"I wish I would have taken Lemon with me, but I couldn't for two reasons, I was still on active duty and you would have tried to put me in jail. But now that I look at it. To see my daughters happiness, I'd gladly take jail time to see my daughter happy." He said, just inches away from her face. Anger sparking between both of their eyes.

"Lemon! You have two choices, either leave the dyke or I'm gone!"

I looked at Lemon to see her heart sink to her stomach upon hearing it. "Well, if you leave her, she'll be accepted into a family who will love her for who she is. And if you try to take me to court or anything, trust me, I'm one person who you do NOT want to get into a hairy asshole contest with because I. Will. Win!" He said, glaring at her.

"Lemon!" Her mom snapped out.

"N-No mom! You've done nothing but put me with guys who treated me horribly. Guys who used to beat on me. Guys who cheated on me. And anytime that I came to you about it. Only thing you'd say is 'Well you should have done better. No wonder you can't keep a man.' You knew I was in pain and yet, you done your best to put me with assholes who abused me!" She cried out.

Avalon glared at her and stormed over to her and went to raise her hand with Lemon flinching down. I darted in front of Lemon to take the blow. "Move dyke!" She demanded, raising her hand back up. Though by the time she went to swing. Citron was standing in front of me, his whole body protecting us.

"I dare you to try and go through me." He hissed out, not standing down.

Finally, she decided to back down, shooting me and Lemon a glare. I tell you, if looks could kill we both would have been dead. "Fine, we'll see where she is in the future. Don't come crying to me when you're a failure at life, Lemon." She snapped and walked out of the house. Lemon was shivering from what happened and finally collapsed on the ground, sobbing out loudly.

Citron knelt down, placing his hands on Lemon's shoulders. "Listen, sweetie, I know I haven't been there in the past years, but I promise, from here on out, I'll be here anytime that you need me. Even if it's early in the morning, if you need me, I'll drop whatever I'm doing and head right here." He said, remorse filling his eyes.

"Dad, why does mom hate gays?" She asked, looking up at him.

He sighed heavily and finally pulled up a chair to sit down in. "Well, your mom was raised like that, though instead of questioning it like you did. She blindly followed through on everything. She actually experimented one time though, only to have her heart broken by the girl." He stated.

"And honestly, you're not her only child. She had a son before I came into the picture. Only reason I know this is because she had a picture of him in her purse. When I asked her about him. She said that he was a lost cause and she kicked him out. The boy was no older than 10 in the picture. She had him at a very young age as well. I'm guessing, right out of high school probably." He said, scratching his chin trying to remember.

"As for you, if you're happy with this girl, then be with her. I don't have a say in it and neither does your mom. I just want you to be happy Lemon." He said, a single tear coming from his eye.

She looked up at him, her eyes stained with tears. I felt bad for her losing her mom, but he was right. If you have a child, then regardless of who they love, you are supposed to love them as well.

"S-Sonata, p-please promise me something." She said, looking up at me.

"O-Of course, anything." She looked up at me, tears still flowing freely from her eyes.

"D-Don't ever hurt me. Please don't allow my mom to prove herself right." She said, wrapping her arms around me, cradling herself into my chest.

I looked down at her and pulled her close to me. "I wouldn't ever be able to hurt you, Lemon." I said softly. kissing the top of her head.

"Dad, I want you to promise me something as well. D-Don't leave me again. I lost mom. I-I don't want to lose you too" She pleaded. He looked down at her with a soft smile.

"Sweetie, I'm here to stay. Besides, someone's gotta make sure the both of you stay in line." He joked.

A small chuckle came from her as she nodded softly. "Thank you, Dad." She said softly.

"Anytime, and honestly, here soon. I'd like for you two to meet the rest of the family. It doesn't have to be today or anytime soon, but, ya know, eventually within the next year or so." He joked.

We both nodded softly and watched him stand back up. "Well, I'm gonna head on out. Hopefully, the wife won't beat me for vanishing on her." He said, stretching out. "You two have a good day, I promise that everything will get better." He said as he walked out of the door and shut it behind him.

I looked down at Lemon and kissed the top of her head. "Are you going to be ok?" I asked, holding her close to me.

She nodded and looked up at me to see the hand print along my face, gently placing her hand over top of it. "Are you going to be ok?" She asked me. I laughed softly and nodded.

A few minutes passed before we got back up and walked over to the couch and sat back down, doing my best to comfort her. "Thank you so much for being here." She said, resting her head back on my chest.

I smiled softly and kissed the top of her head once more. "To see you happy, I'd walk through hell and back." I replied, her face blushing deeply.

"If it wasn't for Dad. My mom would have probably ended up dragging you out of here by your hair. Though seeing what you done the other night to that one girl. I don't think she would have gotten far." She said, laughing softly.

I smiled and nodded. "Well, I wouldn't go full siren on her. I'd just make it blunt that I wasn't going anywhere and would dare her to try and move me." I said, smirking softly. She looked up at me and smiled. "So since our day kind of started off a mess. What do you want to do?" I asked.

She shrugged and began to sit up. "I know that you need to go clothes shopping. Seeing as how you had to wear my clothes the night before last and you're still wearing your same clothes from the day I found you." She teased.

"Yeah, haven't really thought of that. I just like sleeping in your clothes I guess." I said, blushing deeply, Lemon eyeing me down with a big grin.

"W-What, they're comfy and they smell like you." I said, my voice growing softer with each passing word.

She laughed softly and helped me up from the couch. "So you like the way I smell, huh?" She mocked with my face turning a dark shade of red, pulling my hood over my head to hide my face. "C'mon, let's get you some street clothes then." She said, grabbing my hand and pulled me towards the door.

Surely enough, when we arrived at the mall, the first store she brought me to is some punk rock clothing store. Wasn't exactly sure what to think, but I thought that I'd try on a few things to entertain her. Finally, she handed me a black pair of really loose and really baggy pants that had these straps hanging all over them.

"Um, Lemon? W-What are these? Suspenders?" I asked, examining them closely to also see a bunch of chains dangling from them as well.

"No, they're a certain brand of pant's, just try them on," She pleaded. I shrugged and slid them on, though instantly fell in love with the way they felt, but hated the fact that they had so many things hanging off of them.

"Is there anything that feels like this, but doesn't have all this junk hanging off of it?" I asked. She nodded and snatched the pants and vanished from my sight to return seconds later with a pair of pants made out of the same fabric.

I examined them closely to see that they looked rather small, but decided to try them on anyways. Surprisingly enough, they fit perfectly, hugging each and every contour of my lower body and actually making my butt stick out more than usual. "I want twenty of these!" I said, bolting out of the changing room. She looked at me and smirked playfully.

"You do have a cute butt in those." She teased, making me blush a bit.

"How many more is left of these?" I asked. "Well, there are those black ones, a few light blue ones, a pair of purple ones, I think that's it though." She said, looking at where she got them from. "Also, we need to get you some shirts. Though we'll go somewhere different for those if you'd like." She said, walking up to the register and placed all the pants down.

After we was rung up and paid for the pants, we began to walk around the mall in search of other stores. Finally, we came upon a store that had more brightly colored clothing, which quickly attracted our attention though still had the same style as the store before. "Hmm, guess we can go in here and check it out." She said, pulling me inside.

As we began to look around, we saw other items, from regular clothing to toys...really vulgar toys. Embarrassed in being in there longer than needed. We just grabbed whatever looked nice and left. "Did you see how big some of those were?!" She asked me, I just nodded softly and blushed deeply. "So, w-where to now?" I asked, trying to get the images out of my head.

"Well, it looks like your boots are ready to fall apart." She pointed out. I looked down at them to see them torn and tattered, multiple holes riddled through them.

"Yeeaah, maybe it is about time I get a new pair." I replied.

When we finally came up to a shoe store, Lemon darted inside and instantly began to look around. "Wait for me!" I called out, chasing after her. When I caught up she was handing me a pair of solid white boots with silver studs running along the sides of them that reached up to my calves.

"Try these." She requested of me.

"So far, I haven't had the chance to pick out anything." I pouted playfully.

"W-Well, yeah, but so far you haven't complained about anything I picked out, aside from those pants earlier." She stated. I was getting ready to reply, but she was right. So far everything she picked out does look amazing on me.

I gave a sigh of defeat and grabbed the boots and kicked off my old ones and put the new ones on. Surely enough, they were comfortable and fit really well. I sat there for a minute before looking up at her.

"Ok, you win. Let's get these ready to go." I said as I was getting ready to take them off.

"Excuse me, Ma'am, you can wear those out of the store if you'd like." One of the store clerks said.

"Oh? Well, thank you so much!" I replied, walking over to the counter with the box in hand. "Excuse me, miss, we'd like to purchase these bo-" I froze up, seeing that it was Adagio working behind the counter.

Only thing I felt was anger as I saw her. "O-Oh, hey Sonata." She said, backing away from me.

Lemon looked up at me and saw the anger building up. "Sonata, don't. We are out in public." She pleaded. I looked down at her and nodded.

"I just want to buy these boots." I said, slamming the box on the counter.

Adagio walked up and cautiously grabbed the box and began to ring it up. "That'd be $350. Would you like to pay with cash or credit?" She asked. I pulled out the cash and placed it down.

She looked up at me in awe and then back down to the cash. "H-How did you come across so much money?!" She asked. I didn't ever her an answer, I just stood there eyeing her down.

She looked at me and rose a brow. "Alright then. Well, $50 will be your change." She said, getting ready to hand it to me. I looked at her to see that she was skinnier than before, a wave of guilt beginning to fill me.

"A-Actually, you keep it. You look like you need it more than we do." I stated with both Adagio and Lemon looking up at me in surprise.

"S-Sonata, wait" She called out to me as I was turning to leave. I looked back at her, not wanting to hear her more than I had to. "I'm sorry for everything that happened. I know you can't forgive me right now, but I am sorry..." She stated. I turned to face her again, my expression showing no sympathy.

"Stop it right now. Not even four days ago. You were calling me stupid, useless, and everything else under the sun. Do you expect me to forgive you instantly, just because you are sorry?" I snapped at her. She shook her head and looked down. "Exactly. Now, you have a good day." I growled out, storming out of the store with Lemon following shortly after.

I finally stopped and sat down at a bench at the other side of the mall, my nerves all over the place. Lemon came up and sat down beside of me, placing her arm behind me to rest on the top of the bench. "Is everything ok?" She asked.

I just sat there, unable to say a word. "Do you wanna head on home?" She asked me in which I replied with a soft nod. She smiled, helping me back up with the both of us heading back towards the entrance.

As soon as we got outside, the bus to take us back to the apartment arrived and we quickly hoped on and took our seats. "Does she really piss you off that much?" Lemon asked. I nodded once more, my gaze finally meeting hers.

"Since the day that I met her, she has done nothing but mocked me and there for a while. I thought that I was that. Nothing more than an idiot basically. And with Aria blindly following her she began to start in on me as well." I said, remembering past memories that I've done so much to repress.

"Yeah, Aria gave it to me worse than Adagio did, but Aria only did it because she thought it would make Adagio laugh, plus I could tell that she didn't actually mean any of it. Or at least, I hope. Like before we got kicked out of my old realm. I pleaded that we didn't feed off of anyone as much as we needed to, but Adagio pushed me aside and said 'Why should we save from feeding when we had plenty to spare?' Well, if it wasn't for her feeding constantly, we wouldn't have been kicked out. After we got kicked out of our realm, she blamed me, she said it was my fault that we were banished." I said, tears beginning to flow from my eyes, my voice slowly growing shaky and soft.

"I put up with years and years of mental abuse from her is why I loathe her so much." I croaked out finally. Lemon sat there for a second before wrapping her arms around me, pulling me close to her.

"You counted them as your family and the only thing they did was hurt you?" She asked with me nodding softly to reply. She leaned down to kiss the top of my head and pulled me closer to her.

When we finally arrived back at the apartment, the sun was out of sight with the moon now shining brightly in the sky. We stepped off the bus and quickly felt the night air hit us. I looked around to see that the leaves were beginning to change colors and the night air was colder than usual.

"It's almost fall, isn't it?" I asked, still looking around.

"Yeah, sadly we're supposed to have an early winter and we're expecting snow within the next two weeks." She said with an annoyed tone.

Feeling a little bit better from earlier, I opened the door to feel a wave of warmth hit us. "Well, if it's cold, that means we can snuggle up more often." I teased.

She looked at me and smirked. "Doesn't mean we can't any other time." She said, walking passed me, carrying our bags into the bedroom.

"Yeah, true." I replied, following behind her, though rushed passed her to dive onto the bed.

She looked at me and laughed softly. "I swear, I think you more child than anything." She joked.

"Mmm, just a bit." I replied, instantly making myself comfortable.

"Now I'm not gonna be the only one putting up your clothes." She said, crossing her arms and looking at me.

"B-But I'm comfy." I whined out playfully. She rolled her eyes and walked over to the bed to lay down beside of me. "Fiiine, we can wait till later to do that." She said with a soft smile.

I rolled over and smiled back at her, resting my head on her chest. Letting out a sigh of relief as she wrapped an arm around me to pull me closer to her.

"Sooo, nap time?" I asked, looking up at her.

"Really? We just got home." She stated.

"Exactly! Perfect time for a nap!" I said cheerfully.

"Fiiine." She agreed. "At least, let me get comfy." She said as she got off the bed and began to strip down. By the time she turned back around my own clothes were thrown around the room with my snuggled up on the bed, taking up the majority of the blankets.

She smirked and shook her head. "Really Sonata?"

"What? You took too long."

"Alright, I guess I'll go sleep in the living room." She said turning to leave. I reached out, grabbing her hand. "No, I don't wanna sleep by myself." I pouted.

She chuckled softly before laying down beside of me the both of us returning back to our preferred sleeping position with my head on her chest and her arm wrapped around me, her heart beat quickly lulling me to sleep.