Luna's favorite moments were the quiet ones.

Like now, sitting cross-legged on the Chens' living room floor, helping Emma with her kindergarten homework while Olivia napped upstairs. These peaceful afternoon sessions had become routine over the past few months, her hours stretching longer as Sarah and David began trusting her with more than just evening babysitting.

"But why do we have to write the letters so many times?" Emma sighed, her pencil dragging across the page. "I already know what they look like."

Luna bit back a laugh, remembering her own first-grade teacher's horror at Piper's chicken scratch handwriting. "Well," she said, "think of it like a video game. You can't just read the tutorial and expect to beat the boss, right? You have to level up your skills."

Emma's eyes lit up. "Like in Minecraft?"

"Exactly! Right now you're crafting letters instead of diamond swords, but same idea."

"Does that mean I get XP for doing homework?"

Luna grinned. If only Emma knew about the actual point system floating above their heads. "Tell you what - for every perfect letter, you get one Luna Point. Cash them in later for extra story time."

"Can I trade Luna Points for ice cream?"

"Nice try, but I don't think your mom would approve of that micro-transaction."

Emma considered this, then carefully started writing her letters again. Luna watched the child's determination with a familiar ache in her chest. She had Sarah's focused expression, that same little furrow between her eyebrows when concentrating.

+25 points: Teaching with patience and understanding

The front door opened, and Sarah breezed in earlier than usual, looking harried but elegant in her work clothes - the kind of effortless style that Luna's previous life had never quite mastered. Even after spending points on Charisma in this life, Luna still sometimes found herself wearing mismatched socks. Some things, apparently, transcended incarnations.

"Traffic was actually reasonable for once," Sarah announced, "which either means I'm hallucinating or the apocalypse is starting. How's the homework going?"

"Mama!" Emma held up her practice sheet. "Luna says my hands need to practice even if my brain knows things!"

Sarah's smile softened as she looked at Luna. "She's good at explaining things, isn't she?"

"I had good teachers," Luna said quietly, thinking of her own siblings in this life, of all the lessons she'd learned about patience and understanding. About acceptance.

Sarah sat on the couch, kicking off her heels with a sigh. "You really do have a gift with children. Have you thought about teaching?"

Luna helped Emma pack up her homework, rescuing a worksheet that had somehow ended up under the couch. In her previous life, she'd been the queen of losing important papers - at least this time around, she'd spent points on being organized. Though she still occasionally found herself searching for her phone while holding it.

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"Actually, yes. I'm thinking about elementary education, maybe special education." She extracted a crayon from where Olivia had wedged it between couch cushions. "I figure after managing these two, a classroom of twenty kids will be a piece of cake. And hey, at least in school they're not allowed to hide snacks in the furniture."

Emma giggled. "That was ONE time!"

"I'm still finding Cheerios from last month, kiddo."

"You'd be amazing at that." Sarah watched as Emma skipped off to play. "You have this way of... seeing people. Really seeing them."

Luna's heart skipped. There was something in Sarah's tone, a tentative reaching out that she recognized from her previous life—from all the times she'd failed to reach back.

+50 points: Creating space for authentic connection

"Everyone deserves to be seen," Luna said carefully. "To be accepted for who they are."

Sarah's expression shifted, almost imperceptibly. "That's... not as common a view as you might think."

"I know." Luna kept her voice neutral, fighting the urge to say more, to reveal how much she really knew. "But I think the world's changing. Slowly, maybe, but it is."

"Slowly," Sarah agreed, and Luna caught the weight in that single word, the years of struggle behind it. "My own sister..." She stopped, something closing off in her expression.

Luna's hands trembled slightly as she gathered up colored pencils, but she forced her voice to stay steady. "Family can be complicated."

A cry from upstairs saved her from having to say more. "That'll be Olivia," she said, already standing. "Want me to get her?"

"I've got it." Sarah stood too, then paused. "Luna... thank you. Not just for today, but for... everything."

Luna smiled, swallowing past the tightness in her throat. "That's what family's for," she said, then quickly added, "I mean, that's how you've made me feel. Like family."

Sarah's eyes softened. "You know, you really do feel like..." She shook her head. "Never mind. Let me go get that little monster before she wakes up cranky."

As Sarah headed upstairs, Luna let out a shaky breath. Another cry of "Mama!" floated down, followed by Sarah's gentle voice soothing her youngest.

Later that evening, Sarah and Luna sat at the kitchen counter together. Luna had stayed so that Sarah could get some work done.

"You know," Sarah said, sliding a mug of tea across the counter, "sometimes you remind me of someone."

Luna's heart skipped. This was it - a perfect opening. She'd been warned that trying to reveal her past life would be impossible, but surely there had to be a way around it. She took a deep breath.

"Actually, funny story about that—" Luna started, but the words twisted in her mouth. "I had this really vivid dream where I was a... professional sock organizer?"

*What? No!* That wasn't what she'd meant to say at all.

Sarah blinked. "A sock organizer?"

Luna tried again. "What I mean is, in a past... I mean, I once had this... pet goldfish who was really judgmental?" Her face burned. The "Remember the Afterlife" perk was working overtime to garble her confession.

"Are you feeling okay?" Sarah looked concerned.

"Fine! Just... sometimes I think about... parallel universes where people are... made of cheese?" Luna wanted to sink through the floor. "Never mind. The tea is great!"

*+25 points: Attempting authentic connection (even if completely mangled)*

Sarah laughed. "You're so strange sometimes, Luna. But in a good way. It's refreshing – most people are so careful around me, like they're afraid of saying the wrong thing."

"I'd never be afraid of—" Luna began, but it came out as, "I once taught a cactus to tap dance."

She pressed her lips together firmly. Maybe verbal communication wasn't the way to go.

Later, alone in her room, Luna glared at her reflection. "Really? A professional sock organizer? That's what you went with?"

Through her window, she could have sworn she saw Grim on a tree branch, his shoulders shaking in what looked suspiciously like laughter.