"Did you want to head back to the hotel early?" I asked once YiFan and I both dried out tears while watching the match on stage.

"No, I have to get back to my team. They will get worried."

"Mad yes, worried hardly." I huffed. From the few days I been at Tiny Herb, it was easily seen the cold treatment that everyone, minus YingJie, gave to YiFan.

"They are not that bad." YiFan attempted to save his teammates some face. But deep down, he knew I was right.

"Alright. Go back. My hotel room number is 811. You can come over if you feel like you need to."

"Thanks Sis. You are the best."

YiFan gave me a quick hug before heading his way back to Tiny Herb's spot. As for me, I was lost and doubt that I could find my way back without assistance. The hallways looked dark and empty. I tried my luck going down this hallway and that, and somehow ended up in the front reception area of the stadium. But I suppose that could be considered lucky too by some standard.

x

"Do you need help?" The male receptionist asked from the desk.

"I got lost."

I showed the man my special guest pass, hoping he could figure it out just from looking at it. The receptionist didn't disappointed. He quickly recognized the importance of my badge and paged security to guide me back to my seating area.

When I got back to my seat, the last match of the night was already at its end. The last match was one between the rookie from Samsara and their captain, Zhou ZeKai (周泽楷). The battle was more of a well-planned performance to show off the projection more than anything. There was nothing exciting about the final match. When I returned to my seat, no one around me asked where I went. I'm sure Lin already filled them in on the situation.

"The kid okay?" Lin asked without taking his eyes off the battle until the words GLORY eventually appeared on all the screens around the stadium.

"Yea, he is a tough cookie."

Immediately after the final match, the oversea group headed back to the hotel before any of the pro teams to avoid exiting rush. There were no plans for us to do tonight. The official announcement won't be made until tomorrow night when number of fans and viewers watching would be at its highest. I suspected to have us sitting close by Team Samsara was to get people curious and talking.

Many of the pro teams were held up at stadium for interviews and news conference. But that doesn't have too much to do with us, so we were free to leave the stadium and head back on a shuttle bus all to ourselves. When we arrived at the hotel, we said our good nights and headed back to our assigned rooms.

x

The announcement for the figure would be part of tomorrow night's program. There was nothing I can to change the image that will be presented tomorrow night. But I couldn't get my burst of motivation go to waste either. I felt inspired from watching parts of Vaccaria's battle under the new 3D projection.

In the end, I opened up my laptop, plugged in my drawing tablet, and worked on the finer details for Vaccaria. He still needed a base to stand on. Thinking back to the careful engineered battle between Wang JieXi and Gao YingJie, I couldn't get the image of that lava field, when the Lava Flask was dropped, out of my head. Flying above that burning field and watching his enemy burn under him would be something Vaccaria would do. I started to recreate that scene I remember from my memories. I wanted the base to be textured, realistic, and have bright colors that makes people think that the lava would really burn them if they touched it.

I would run the idea by and show the sketches to Lin in the morning to double check everything was in character for Vaccaria. I should just ask Wang JieXi directly, but I felt like Wang JieXi had already decided to toss away YiFan after tonight. I just couldn't bring myself to talk to the all business captain right now.

I worked on the figure and base past midnight without knowing. If it wasn't for the soft knock I heard at my door, who knew how late into the night I would have continued to draw until.

I got up from the crappy hotel desk chair I was sitting in. The moment I opened the door, YiFan tackled me into a hug and hid his face in my shoulder. I felt tears sinking into the fabric of my shirt. Poor baby. I hugged him back and rubbed his back.

"You want to talk?"

A head shook. No.

"You want to sleep over? I have the room to myself."

A nod. Yes.

"Well, let's get you cleaned up and ready for bed. You are still a growing boy. Sleeping late is going to stun your height. Then you won't able to find a cute girlfriend. What is Aunty is going to do with you then?"

"Sis!" YiFan held me at his arm's length. The expression on his face changed from sad, to mad, to embarrassed, and finally to a small smile.

"There is an extra tooth brush and towels from the hotel."

x

As YiFan was cleaning up for the night, I dug around the different cabinets and closet to find extra blankets. Of course they would put it at the highest place in the closet. It was like they purpose put the blanket up there so you can't get to it and use it.

I jumped as high as I can, attempting to catch a corner and pull it down. But no luck, I was too short and my limbs weren't long enough either. I looked around the room for something to stand on. I would really prefer not to stand on the unsteady desk chair, but it was the only thing that looked movable.

Carefully, I stepped on to the somewhat wobbly chair and reached for the blanket. So far so good. Almost there.

"Sis, that's dangerous!"

A panicked voice startled me, and I lost my balance. Hey, at least I got the blanket so it wasn't all bad. Thank goodness YiFan was there to steady me so I didn't fall off the chair and break something. But wait a minute…this was his fault for startling me from the beginning!

"I wouldn't have almost fallen if you didn't scare me." I lightly frowned.

"Sorry."

"It's fine." I ruffled his hair out of affection like normal. "You take the bed and I will sleep on the sofa."

"You sure? It is your room."

"You don't know me very well, YiFan. I can sleep like a rock anywhere." I assured YiFan that my sleeping abilities were top notch.

"But…"

"You know you are too old to be sleeping with me in the same bed." I gave YiFan a raised eyebrow.

"That's not what I meant! You are impossible sometimes Sis!" YiFan was flustered and blushing at my teasing. I laughed. At least his mind seemed to be taken off things for now.

"Sleep tight kiddo."

I made sure YiFan was all settled in. I kissed him on the forehead like a Mom would do to a young kid before bedtime before shutting off the lights and curled up on the small, rock hard sofa myself. I could feel the back spams coming already. I told YiFan I could sleep anywhere, but that was a lie. I had a hard time falling asleep and staying asleep all night.

x

A soft knock came from the door around 7 in the morning. Sure, I was already up at 7:00AM, but I still didn't want to entertain whoever was knocking at the door at this time of day. If I pretended that we are not in the room maybe they will go away. But, the knocking continued for 5 minutes until I couldn't take it anymore.

I rolled, well more like fell, out of the sofa with a thud and went to get the door. Whoever was at the door better had a good reason for knocking so damn early. They have just woken up a dragon from her slumber so they should be prepared to be missing their head very soon.

"What!" I yelled in English as I pulled the door open. Once I saw who was standing there, the intensity of glare died down drastically.

"Hm…morning, Big Sis Wang1 (王姐). Is YiFan here by chance? He didn't come back to the team's room. The team is all heading down to breakfast. He said he was coming to see you here. So I thought." YingJie explained timidly after seeing me in a terrible mood. I had allowed YingJie to call me Big Sis Wang because the kid had trouble saying Naomi and it was better than being called Aunty Wang (王阿姨).

I felt bad scaring this kiddo in front of me. He didn't deserve this rage at all.

"YiFan isn't well from last night. He is still sleeping. If it is okay with the team, we are going to have breakfast in my room when he wakes up." I whispered in a much softer voice than before.

"Oh." YingJie made a worried face and tried to take a peek into the dark room.

"He will bounce back soon enough."

"Okay, I will let the team know. The team is meeting up at 9AM in the lobby for today's events."

"I will make sure he makes it on time." I messed with YingJie's hair.

"Okay. Bye Big Sis Wang." He pouted as he tried to comb his hair with his fingers when I messed it up a second time.

"Bye." I waved and shut the door as quietly as I can.

"Was that YingJie?" YiFan woke up when YingJie was at the door.

"Yea, he came to check up on you. He was worried." I said as I opened up the curtains to let the winter sunlight flood into the room. YiFan's bedhead was too crazy. I couldn't help but smile fondly at his chicken nest for hair. "Want to call room service to bring up something to eat?"