Chapter 7

The next morning, Hiro eats breakfast with Lumina. Lumina never mentioned a single word about what she and Pony has discussed the day before. Hiro also never mentioned anything about what he and Pony talked about last night. They both just eat silently wondering what is Pony planning in Forget-Me-Not Valley. They both decide to keep their thoughts to themselves and hope everything will play out without any issues. Hiro then grabs his tools, then says goodbye to Lumina as he walks out of the house for another day of farm work.

As Hiro enters the barn to care for the cows, Pony sneaks into the farm carefully. She is carrying a large sack, and she doesn’t want Hiro to know what she is doing. As soon as she is sure that the coast is clear, she sneaks into the house to meet up with Lumina.

Inside the house, Pony unpacks an easel, several blank canvases, a collection of clean brushes, a paint set, and other related supplies. Lumina examines the items Pony brought as she says, “this is my painting set. I left all of these at the villa. How did you get all this?”

Pony giggles sheepishly as she recalls herself sneaking into the villa the night before. She enters through an unlocked window cat burglar style, and sneaks around without waking Lumina’s butler Sebastian. Once she found Lumina’s room, she packed as many painting supplies as she can carry. She then leaves out as quietly as she got in.

“That’s not important,” answered Pony hoping nobody will notice what she did.

Lumina gives her a confused expression as she asks, “okay. . . What do we do now?”

“The plan is to get my brother to like you more than a friend. Since you like to paint as a hobby, I figured that I could model for you. Once Hiro comes home from work and sees you painting, he will be impressed with your artistic talent. This will be a perfect ice breaker between the two of you, have something to talk about besides his job.”

“I suppose that could work,” responded Lumina as she thinks about Pony’s plan.

Pony nods, then takes a seat on a chair next to a window ready to pose to have her portrait made. Lumina instructs her sit elegantly allowing the light to highlight Pony’s best features, then begins to dip a fine paintbrush in some black paint. She begins with a silhouette to outline Pony’s unique body type. She then begins to paint the mayor details such as skin tone, hair color, and clothes.

As the easier details are painted on canvas, Lumina dips her paint brush in water, then begins to blend some colors for the finer details. She looks at Pony over and over to capture her finest details. She asks her to turn her head around to get the hard to see parts of her face and head to make a fine portrait. As the paint begins to dry on the canvas, Lumina uses fine brushes to make smaller details such as individual hair strands and the most minute details of her clothes. Pony starts to feel cramped after hours of sitting and posing, but he grits and bears with it so Lumina can finish.

As Pony’s portrait comes close to completion, Lumina begins to paint the room around her. She spends extra time to make sure the lighting is perfect to give Pony’s portrait a bright appearance. She uses a lot of browns, but the shades she uses are very warm and comforting. She also uses a great collection of pastels to make a dramatic contrasting effect. She does her best to express how comforting Hiro’s house is after so much time of living there. As Pony’s portrait is complete, Lumina stands back to look at her masterpiece. A young farmer girl sitting by a window on a cool fall day.

“I’m home,” called Hiro as he walks through the front door.

“Hey brother,” cheered Pony, happy to take a break after many hours of sitting and posing.

Lumina stands up and bows gracefully, “hello Hiro, you are back early today.”

Hiro nods. His mood shifts drastically as soon as he sees Lumina’s painting. In a matter of seconds, his mind drifts back into the villa back in Leaf Valley. A time when he and Dia are casually walking through the halls of the villa which are filled with hand painted art. Dia walked through those halls holding Hiro’s hand as she explained each portrait and their hidden meaning. Their favorite painting was of a couple who are dressed in white standing under an arch exchanging vows. Hiro remembers promising her that someday, that will be them in the future.

Lumina notices the painful look on Hiro’s face, the only time he looks that way is when he is thinking about Dia. She then looks at the portrait she made and gasps as she realizes her mistake. Pony is just standing there confused not knowing what is going on. Things go silent for a minute until Hiro walks out of the house without saying a word.

“That son of a-” growled Pony. She then rolls up her sleeves as she walks towards the front door saying, “I don’t know what his problem is, but I am going to find out even if I have to beat it out of him!”

“Please wait,” cried Lumina. Pony looks back at Lumina and sees her sitting in front of the portrait sadly. “I know why Hiro is this way. Please don’t be angry with him, it’s not his fault.”

Curious to know more, Pony takes a seat and asks what is going on. Lumina takes a deep breath, then explains to Pony everything about Hiro’s previous love back in Leaf Valley. After hearing the full story, Pony sits back and pouts sourly as she wraps her head around it. She doesn’t know if she should feel bad for her brother, or annoyed that he never said anything to her or their parents.

“So, my brother had a girlfriend back in Leaf Valley? On top of that, she is a rich girl just like you. And that is why he is living here instead of grandpa Gus’s farm. Why didn’t he say anything to me, mom, or dad?”

“I wasn’t supposed to know either. I only happened across it by accident before he told me,” Answered Lumina. “Please don’t tell him that you know about Dia, Hiro is already stressed enough as it is. I thought that he was already over her, but seeing me paint must have made him remember her.”

Pony grunts out of frustration as she scratches her head. “This is going to make things a lot harder. It reminds me of when uncle Gray got his heart broken, and he left to Waffle Town suddenly. Hiro built himself a wall, and he won’t let you in because of that girl!”

Lumina sighs just before she says, “maybe it’s time I just give up on him. All I end up doing is hurting him anyway.”

Pony stands up and points at her yelling, “you can’t give up on him now! Tell me, do you love my brother? Tell me the truth!”

Lumina is taken back by Pony’s sudden outburst. She then looks down as she thinks about Pony’s question. Does she love Hiro? In the beginning when they met, Lumina only wanted to marry him just to go back home with a husband. But after living with Hiro since spring, Hiro became much more to her than that. She trusts him with her life. She gets very happy when she thinks about him as she cooks and keeps the house. Even though she misses life at the villa, she found that she enjoys life at the farm a bit more. She someday sees herself being Hiro’s loving wife and the mother of their children.

Lumina stands up with renewed determination as she declares, “yes I do! You’re right, I cannot give up on him now!”

Pony nods proudly at Lumina. “That’s my future sister in law! But the only thing we need to figure out is how do we get through to my brother?”

Both girls sit down and begin to exchange ideas. Each time one bring up an idea, the other one points out a flaw behind it. After everything that happened, they know that they need to be very careful of their next move. If they make another mistake, they could break Hiro for good.

After several hours, Pony decides to turn in for the day and go back to the inn. Hiro comes back home not too long after, but nobody discusses what happened. Hiro just eats dinner silently as Lumina watches him wondering what is on his mind. She tries desperately to think of something to talk about, but she is too nervous to bring anything up. Instead, she’ll just wait for Pony to help her figure out the next step.