(PinkLotus's POV)
After her defeat, PinkLotus woke up inside the Arc Ship's VIP infirmary, a few hours after suffering the serious injury.
'Where am I?' she wondered, as she looked around her foreign surroundings in confusion.
'Who is that handsome man beside me?' She wondered, as looking around, her eyes eventually fell on Luke, who seemed to be arguing about something with the elf doctor beside him.
'Why is my stomach bandaged?' She wondered, as eventually her gaze landed on her own stomach, however, the moment it did, the memories of her fight against Leo came flooding back in her mind.
*GASP*
She gasped loudly, sitting back up on the recovery room bed as she clutched her stomach in panic.
The last memory she had before fainting was of her stomach being cut by Leo's attack, as she suffered a gnarly wound.
"The gash, it's gone…. I'm okay" she said, sounding confused as she checked her own body for injuries but found nothing worth noticing.
The pain in her abdomen was gone and the ugly gash that should have become a permanent mark on her skin was not even visible.
The alien surgeons had done a perfect job on her body and ensured that she recovered fully.
It was as if the injury had never even happened and the only memory of the defeat was in her own head.
However, the defeat did happen. PinkLotus knew it did, and that left a bitter aftertaste in her mouth.
"I lost, again…. And this time even worse than before" she said, reflecting on her fight, as she realized for certain now that the gap between herself and Leo was too wide to bridge within a few short weeks of training.
Devastated, she buried her face in her hands, unwilling to confront the world after such a humiliating defeat, however, Luke had other plans.
"Hey, are you okay? How do you feel?" Luke asked, his gentle voice breaking through as he rested his hands lightly on her shoulder in an attempt to lift her spirits.
But his kindness only intensified PinkLotus's shame, as her cheeks flushed and tears began to stream down her cheeks, as she realized that Luke had been right there, witnessing every moment of her failure.
*Sob*
*Sob*
After a few seconds, Her sobs became harder, and she pressed her hands even tighter against her face as she felt mortified to be crying so openly in front of Luke.
Having recently started to develop a soft spot for Luke. The last thing that she wanted was to appear weak and unappealing before him, however, the situation did not seem to be in her favor.
As the first guy she felt truly comfortable around—someone who treated her like a friend without expectations—Alia started to find herself drawn to Luke in ways she hadn't expected.
And it was precisely this budding affection that made her feel so vulnerable, as she hated the fact that he was seeing her like this, in such an exposed and defeated state.
"Hey, hey, don't cry. You're okay, you have already made full recovery. It's like the wound never happened" Luke said, as his words only made PinkLotus cry even more
"Y-you saw it didn't you? You saw my wound?" She asked, as at that moment, Luke misunderstood the reason behind her tears.
While PinkLotus cried thinking she had shown her weakest side to a man, Luke assumed that her tears were because he saw her exposed stomach and chest after she had been injured by Leo.
Blushing, he tried to clarify that he had not seen her exposed nipples and that he had wrapped her around in his own robes to protect her modesty, however, failed to connect the words to convey this message.
"Look, I did not see your chest okay, I covered you with my robes and tried to stop the bleeding. I swear, your modesty is intact" Luke said eventually, trying to console PinkLotus, as at that point she stopped sobbing for a moment, only to look at Luke with the most confused expression.
It was only then that she realized that Leo had ripped her clothes in half when he slashed her and that she could have been exposed indecently, if not for Luke who saved her.
"Oh, god, no" she said, crying once again, as she felt terrified to think what could have been.
Leo had shown her no mercy during the spar, going as far as slashing her clothes in half, as PinkLotus began to shudder at the very thought of Luke having seen her naked.
She was a pure virgin, and had never performed naughty acts with a man before, which was why even the thought of exposing her body to a man felt frightening to her.
She wanted to thank Luke for being such a gentleman, however, acknowledging the subject only made her blush deeper in shame, as at this point she just hoped that she could dig a hole and bury herself in it.
"Your brother is an asshole" she said instead, as Luke began to scratch his head in confusion.
He felt a severe sense of deja vu, when PinkLotus said those words, as somehow whenever Alia came to visit Leo, their conversation ended with Alia calling him an asshole for sure.
The two of them were polar opposites that could not coexist together, and with Leo having this cunning ability to annoy PinkLotus to her limits, the poor lady always left their manor fuming.
"I apologize on his behalf. He sometimes does not understand how hard to go in a fight. He could have killed you, it was too excessive in a spar" Luke said, apologizing genuinely, as it was only then that PinkLotus realized that she could have actually DIED in this spar.
This was not the game world and the threat on her life was very real.
Thankfully, she survived, but if she was a tad bit weaker, she could have genuinely died today, which felt like a mortifying thought to have.
"I could have DIED?" she said in shock, as it was at that moment that Luke understood that he fucked up.
Instead of consoling Alia, he was only making things worse, which made for an interesting soap opera for the alien doctor to watch.