Leona Makes A Decision (Solo)

-The Sheridan Home, Leona's Room-

Wearing a green tank top and blue jean short shorts, Leona was lying on her back on her sleeping mat with bandages wound around her left arm and her midsection beneath her shirt. She looked like she was in the early stages of being embalmed like an Ancient Egyptian mummy, but the ex-Shinigami was very much alive. However, the residual pain from the hit to the stomach from Armina's warhammer she had taken during their sparring match made Leona feel like she was on death's door. She had difficulty eating and could not lie on her stomach... as a matter of fact it was all she could do to tolerate the bandages wrapping her midsection and covering the cut she had received from Armina's zanpakuto. It also made any physical activity more strenuous than lying around painful, so the blonde was more or less forced to remain in her room for the day.

Leona's room was a small one without very much in the way of furniture or decorations. The only furniture was her sleeping mat with old white blanket positioned in the top right corner, a wooden dresser that held socks and undergarments on the left wall, and a small wooden wardrobe that held her clothes placed in the top left corner of the room. It was open and her old black Shinigami uniform was hanging in the center as if on display. On the right side of her mat lay her zanpakuto, which was resting in its scabbard but ready to be grabbed and unsheathed at a moment's notice.

"Hey Leona. Are you doing all right?" Lucia asked her younger sister as she stood in the doorway. Lucia was wearing a royal blue t-shirt and knee-length white skirt with brown sandals. In her right hand was a mug of coffee giving off a strong aroma that filled the small room the moment the older Sheridan stepped into the space.

"I've been better." Leona answered candidly. She tried to at least sit up and face her sister, but the moment she tried her stomach began to hurt again. She groaned as she gave up and lowered herself onto her back, letting the comfort sweep over her as she looked at the ceiling.

"Can you handle eating or drinking anything yet?" Lucia asked another question.

"I think I can handle drinking some coffee. That's about it." Leona named what she believed she could tolerate without any trouble.

"I'll bring you some then. I'll be right back." The older Sheridan sister said before turning around and leaving the room to go to the kitchen and get a cup of the beverage for Leona. Leona tried to get up again and sat up, causing pain to shoot through her stomach. She ignored it and forced herself to stand, fighting through the pain until she was on her feet and standing on her mat.

Leona stepped off of it with a single step to the left and then bent down to pick up her zanpakuto. Bending down was a bad idea because the discomfort she was feeling skyrocketed, but she fought through it and grabbed its scabbard with her right hand. She stood upright and grimaced as the pain lingered for a minute or two before beginning to fade again.

The pain had subsided and Leona was now standing normally with the scabbard of her zanpakuto clutched in her left hand. While she doubted that she would need to have a weapon handy in the safety of the Sheridan household, living where she did made the blonde always keep it available in case a lone idiot or a group of idiots tried a home invasion. Lucia entered the room with a second cup of coffee and paused at the sight of the standing short-haired blonde.

"Oh, Leona! I didn't expect you to be standing!" Lucia expressed surprise at her sister being up and about. The younger Sheridan grinned a little.

"It's hard to drink coffee lying down." Leona made an effort at humor. Lucia smiled a bit, but probably because she was the older sister and did not want to hurt her younger sister's feelings.

"C'mon, Leona. Let's go outside and drink our coffee there." She gently suggested.

"OK." Leona took her up on the offer. She and Lucia left Leona's room to go to the dining room and drink their beverages there.

-In the dining room-

Lucia and Leona sat at a low wooden table with their cups in front of them while Leona's zanpakuto sat on the floor to the younger Sheridan's right. The table was one that had seen a lot of use and showed it; its dark wooden surface bore numerous light scratches where cups, plates, bowls, and other utensils had been moved about over the years. Leona sat on the left and Lucia sat on the right to face each other for a conversation.

"Getting to your feet and standing up must have taken a lot of effort. Are you still doing OK, Leona?" Lucia repeated the question she had asked earlier.

"I'm fine, Lucia. As long as I don't have to do anything really strenuous like fight or run I'll be fine." Leona assured her older sister that despite the effort she had expended earlier she was OK.

"Mother, Father, and Leonidas are out shopping for food, so it's just you and me right now." Lucia informed Leona where the other members of the Sheridan family currently were. Leona made a nonchalant noise that sounded like a "huh" to acknowledge what had been said and drank from her cup of coffee, then set it down. Lucia silently raised her cup, then took a drink from it before lowering it.

"There's something I've been meaning to ask you, Leona. I know that you were a proud member of the Fourth Division and that a good part of your identity revolved around membership in it. What are you going to do now that the Gotei United's been dissolved?" Lucia asked her sister as the latter was reaching for her cup. The outstretched fingers of younger blonde's right hand stopped short of the handle and she looked Lucia in the eyes.

"I...I really don't know." Leona answered truthfully. She had entertained the idea of joining Captain Komomura's faction and she had briefly entertained the idea of going to the living world, but she had not reached a final decision yet. Each one had its pros and cons, pros and cons that she had weighed every now and then but had not spent any appreciable length of time analyzing.

"I'm just going to take a break for awhile and see how things unfold. I'm not going to run off and join one of the new factions yet." Lucia told Leona what her plan was. The older blonde had been serving as a Shinigami for a lot longer than her sister had been alive, so the former had more than earned a break. Leona was not going to criticize Lucia for hanging back and seeing what happened before picking a faction to join.

"What about you, Leona? What are you thinking of doing?" Lucia inquired.

"I'm thinking of either joining the Jieitei or going to the world of the living." Leona replied truthfully. The older Sheridan looked surprised to hear the second option that had been considered. She set her cup on the table with a rattle and maintained eye contact.

"You're thinking about going to the world of the living?" Lucia asked her sibling with a tone of unconcealed surprise, completely ignoring the first option Leona had mentioned.

"I've considered it." Leona replied truthfully and laconically. Lucia looked like she was at a loss for words. It was at that moment the front door opened and Leonidas' voice could be heard from the living room.

"We're home!" He announced.