"Andrea?" Fenris said, confused.
"Yes. That's my daughter's name, and I'm Rosa, by the way."
"Would you mind telling me yours?"
Fenris didn't respond. Instead, he looked away, taking in Rosa's words. 'Did Luna change her name? Why? Maybe this Andrea isn't Luna. But if she is…'
Fenris's mind raced through all possibilities. None of them were good, and they all centered on the person in front of him.
He frowned, his brows quivered as he looked at Rosa. "What did you do to her?"
Rosa, by instinct, shifted her chair backwards.
"What are you accusing me of, young man?" Rosa asked.
"Anything!" Fenris shouted. "Why else would she change her name? Why else wouldn't she say anything about you?"
Rosa opened her mouth. It seemed she wanted to argue against Fenris, but she couldn't. She simply placed her head downwards, not looking at the sliced fruit or the table.
"She really said nothing about me? At all?"
"No, she didn't," Fenris answered bluntly.
Rosa chuckled slightly, with tears rolling down. She tried to wipe them off, but they just kept pouring.
"Years of not knowing where she was, if she was alive, if she was well… and she never mentioned me."
Rosa began to sob, no longer trying to contain the tears. Fenris, seeing this, felt like he was stabbed in the heart. He looked away. If it was anyone else, he wouldn't have cared.
But Rosa looked too much like Luna. It was like Fenris was with her, making her cry.
"Damn it!" he muttered.
Just like in the alley, he didn't comfort her. He simply waited for Rosa's crying to end. Rosa's crying seemed like it would go on for an eternity.
'I can't take this anymore,' Fenris thought, restless.
Rosa seemed like a grieving mother. Whatever doubts he had about her were gone when she broke down in tears. However, after two years of searching for Luna, he needed answers.
Rosa would have to grieve another time.
He prepared to silence her. But Rosa's sobbing finally quieted down. She wiped off the remnants of tears across her cheeks.
"I'm sorry for that," Rosa said, voice cracking. "Your words about my daughter… they were just too much to bear."
"It's… fine," Fenris said, conflicted.
An awkward silence followed, far louder than Rosa's cries were.
"Tell me about her," Fenris said, breaking the silence. "Luna, or… Andrea. If they really are the same person. Why did she leave?"
"I wish I knew," Rosa said, looking adrift.
"When did it all start? Maybe when she was ten. I'm not completely sure. But I do know there was a time I felt like I had lost my daughter for the first time."
"Her father, my husband, died when she was too young to remember. Heartbreaking, but at least I still had her. She was a sweet little girl. Until she began to… change."
"Change?" Fenris asked, surprised. "Change how?"
"I'm not sure exactly," Rosa said. "At first I thought she was just developing faster than the other girls, but that wasn't it. The way she talked. The way she moved. Her personality. It felt like…"
Rosa paused, her hands shaking slightly. "It felt like my daughter had slowly become someone else. Someone I hardly recognized. It bothered me, but what could I do?"
"It was long after these changes that we discovered she was a blessed one."
"I was ecstatic. I thought that the gods had changed our lives for the better. But she wasn't. She wanted to keep it a secret. She begged me not to tell anyone. Not the neighbors. Not her friends."
"She said she didn't want to be taken by any noble away from me. I was touched and hoped that maybe she would change her mind in the future. Even if she didn't, I'd support her."
"We began to drift apart over the years, and her claims of wanting us to remain together became hollow when she decided to leave home at sixteen."
"I couldn't stop her. She had passed the marrying age. I asked her to at least write to me when she had the time. She said she would."
Rosa's eyes, still teary, looked past Fenris. Fenris followed their direction. It was the door.
"That was five years ago… I haven't received a single letter since then."
Rosa rested her head on an open palm. Not to cry. She simply rested her head on her palm and let out an exhausted sigh.
Fenris observed her.
'She must have been staring at the door for so long, hoping Luna would return to her,' he thought.
It seemed Luna was just as cruel to her mother as she was to him. But at least he got a letter from her. Rosa had nothing.
'Five years ago. That's awfully close to the time she and I met.'
With a heavy breath, Fenris stood.
"Wait!" Rosa exclaimed. "Where do you think you're going?"
"I'm leaving," Fenris said. "I came to look for someone. She isn't here. I have no reason to stay."
"Oh," Rosa said, broken.
He turned to leave, but had yet to take a step. Rosa's likeness to Luna kept him still.
"Enough… she's not her," Fenris muttered. He took a step.
"Before you leave…" Rosa paused, stopping Fenris in his tracks as well. "…I want you to tell me about my daughter."
"You claim to be her friend. Then you must know the woman she became. Tell me stories of the two of you. Please, I need to know."
Fenris contemplated. He felt the more time he spent with Rosa, the less he'd want to leave, and that would no doubt be disastrous for them both.
He slowly turned back to Rosa.
"Fine," he said.
He took back his former seat and thought of what to tell. He would have to make some edits about him being a werewolf and her daughter protecting him while knowing that.
Fenris slightly smirked as he came up with the perfect story to tell about him and Luna.
"I guess the best story I can tell you is how we first met… when she first saved me."