Tara Bethany and Lucy walked over to Eli after the others had left with worried looks on their faces, Tara sat on one side of him and Bethany sat on the other. Lucy stood in front of him in a perfect military parade rest stance and a serious look on her face. Eli looked her up and down, then glared daggers at Tara, he knew instantly that she had taught her that and this was not going to help him get her to be more casual.
"Eli, we are worried about you."
"Yeah I know, there are a lot of things I just kept telling myself that I would have time to think about later. Well, later just kept getting pushed off and after I tortured that guy, I realized that I needed to face them now. I have quick and easy answers for everything, but that's not how I like to do things. I need time to let it settle in my thoughts so I can let my understanding develop, then let who I am and who I want to be show me the real answer." Eli explained, trying his best to put it into words so that they understood, he really needed someone who understood him that he could talk to without explaining everything or watching the confused looks on their faces.
To Eli's surprise, Bethany looked like she understood somewhat, Lucy looked like she wanted to help but wasn't sure what was going on, and Tara just looked lost, totally and desperately lost.
"Ok, so are you saying you need time alone again? Or someone to talk to? I want to help but this is not one of the areas I was trained for. I hope that doesn't disappoint you." Lucy said with sadness and hope in her eyes that she hadn't let him down.
"I'm not disappointed Lucy, I think I'm just now letting the reality of this new world sink in and I'm having trouble processing it. It's been three months but I haven't let myself think about it until now focusing my mind solely on survival for myself and you guys." Eli was letting everything hit him so he could get it all over with, all the pain and trauma, fear and death. He had no practice or skill with digesting emotions so it was confusing and more than a little overwhelming.
"What do you need from us babe?" Bethany asked. Eli didn't miss the pet name she used but since he was being honest with himself, it felt nice. She had always been warm towards him, the kind of warm that felt reassuring and right. This was only adding to his confusion, but all three women noticed his face lit up a bit when she called him that.
"We are here for you, just let us in and I'm sure we can help," Tara said, with as much false confidence as she could muster. This was getting painful for her, in the past he was always the emotional rock that she relied on. No matter how bad things got, if he wasn't panicking, then she felt like everything would be fine, but now he was in need of a rock. Something he could lean on to help him while he processed and she knew that it wasn't her. She couldn't even be her own rock, much less his.
"I just need time and support from patient and loyal friends, I'll have it sorted out soon enough." Eli said, but no one believed him.
"Well, I think you should tell me. Sometimes just saying it out loud is enough to help get your mind around it." Bethany proposed and the other two nodded.
"It's hard when I see confusion on everyone's faces, could we do it with just one of you at a time?" Eli asked them.
"Yes, I'll go first," Bethany said and rushed the others out the door. She did it so quickly that the other two didn't have time to argue, not that Lucy would or that Tara had it in her at the moment. "We should start with me sharing something, then we discuss, then you go."
Eli nodded and Bethany began to talk, they sat there in the bed facing each other for several hours working out why those events were stuck in their minds. Bethany was stuck on the fight with the weird guy before a monster event. She felt weak in a way that surprised and scared her, she hadn't been hurt, but it was obvious that he wasn't putting in much effort and could have killed her quickly. Eli spoke about his system labelled destiny and how he felt the system's hand on the scale. He thought that was endangering everyone by being around them. This was combined with his feelings of being alone despite all the people here, he had never been a very social person, but he just felt like he was so different from everyone.
There was a pause in the conversation after Eli's topic was discussed and Bethany was looking him up and down, he was sitting there in just his ape underwear. Bethany started taking off her clothes, Eli wasn't expecting it and was caught between wanting to see her naked and this not being appropriate.
"Bethany, I…" Eli started but she cut him off.
"Nothing sexy yet, I think this will help, come lay with me."
Eli felt this was a trap of some kind but he nodded and laid down with her. Bethany maneuvered their bodies so that Eli's head was laying on her chest and she was stoking his hair. She started out by just humming until she could feel his whole body slowly start to relax. His shoulders were the last to release their tension but then she started to speak in a soft voice.
"Don't interrupt me, ok babe?" she said and Eli nodded. "You feel my skin, and I feel yours, warm and comforting. You see my body, and I see yours, present and attentive. You hear my heart, and I hear yours, beating loud and strong. You smell my essence, and I smell yours, inviting and pleasant. You taste my love, and I taste yours, sweet and bottomless."
After a slight pause she continued, "We are the same, it doesn't matter how strong you are, or if you are human or not. What you feel, I feel for you and more. We are both people. We both love and cry for the same reasons as everyone else. We make mistakes and have fears and dreams together. Sometimes we kill and sometimes we die. Most of all, we do these things together, connected and influencing each other. There is no person without people, and there are no people without the person."
They lay there, bodies naked and intertwined for what felt like hours. Bethany never stopped running her fingers through his hair and humming to him, just letting her words and the feel of her body sink into his mind. As tempting as it was for her to give into her lust, she held it back and did this for him, he had mutilated himself enough times on her and the others behalf that she felt like she could do this as much as he needed. Then a thought struck her like a lightning bolt to her entire body, it was such a strong and shocking feeling that her whole body shivered a couple of times. Bethany was in love, real love, something she didn't even believe was real, but now she knew, she was ovaries deep in love.
"Fate convergence detected, Destiny found."
"Your fate has generated for you a destiny: Paragon's Bosom."
At first, Bethany did not know what to think about the system windows and her mind short circuited and she stared at it. Her first coherent thought was that she was in love, true real love. Next her mind thought that she really enjoyed laying in this bed naked with Eli. Then, gaining a bit more control over her mind, she remembered that Eli had just told her about the system giving him a destiny and that had been the first time she had heard about them. This was something that they shared, just the two of them. She opened her system menu and found the destiny in it and stared hard at it asking for help or clarification.
"System Help"
"Destiny: Paragon's Bosom"
"You are the sole source of comfort and ease that the Paragon of your world has found. He will need you by his side as he faces the trials and hardships of his own grand destiny."
"Warning: Failure in Destiny will lead to unforeseeable dangers and disasters for you and for your world."
Bethany read the help window multiple times and was about to tell Eli about it when she realized that he was asleep. Thinking back to what he had said about his destiny, he had not mentioned the help window information for his destiny. Thinking about how this probably meant that the system had a vested interest in keeping them together, she decided to leave out as many details as she could when telling him about it after he woke up. In fact she thought that it was best not to even tell him what hers was called because it might give too much away. She was in love for the first time in her 37 years of life, she was not going to let this destiny mess with that.
Several hours later, Tara and Audrey were standing next to Eli's bed, Tara was tapping her foot in anger and Audrey was blushing and half looking away and half staring in fascination. Eli and Bethany were both asleep, Bethany was naked and their bodies were all tangled up in each other. They were a pile of arms, legs, hair, and boobs, one of which Eli had a firm grip on. Tara cleared her throat and Bethany's eyes opened, she glanced down at herself and Eli, saw Tara and surprisingly, looked and felt sheepish.
"It's not what it looks like," Bethany said quietly, not wanting to wake Eli.
"Oh, I know, if it was, things would be a lot messier and there would be more sweat," Tara said, reminding Bethany that she was the one actually sleeping with him.
"Should I wa…" Bethany started to ask, but stopped as she and Tara both turned to Audrey who was staring at Bethany's naked breast in Eli's hand, then looking down at her own and grabbing it.
"Oh shit, get out of here kid," Tara said, and pushed her out. "I forgot she came in with me when I saw you two like this. I'm going to have to explain some things to her now aren't I?"
"You probably should, maybe explain them to Lucy too, it doesn't seem she knows much about it either and we both know you don't want me explaining anything." Bethany said with a smirk.
"That's true, get him up, we all have tasks we want to do and you are going with Audrey, Arinya, and me to check out the city's food and see if any crafters are making anything useful."
"What about Lucy?"
"She won't go without 'captain gropes' permission." Tara explained, pointing at Eli in frustration.
"Hey Babe, you need to get up." Bethany said to him so sweetly there was almost honey on her lips.
"I'm awake, just settling myself. Nothing sexual happened Tara, she just helped me get my head on straight," Eli said.
After a firm look to each of them, she said, "Never mind that, I gave her permission anyways, I don't know how to help you but obviously she does."
"It's not like I'm special," Bethany said, realizing that the system recognizing her destiny would hurt Tara's feelings. "I just helped him how my nanny helped me when I was young and lost."
"It's fine, we need to get…" Tara said, but Eli interrupted them.
"Wait, so I'm some kind of child now?" Eli said as he stared off into the middle distance in realization.
The two women looked at each other with a genuine smile, "Yes," they both said.
Eli grumbled, untangled himself from Bethany and went outside. After splashing some water from the fountain on his face, he saw Lucy sitting on a nearby bench and walked over to her.
"You can go with the others, Lucy, you don't need my permission." Eli said, putting a hand on her shoulder and taking a knee in front of her." "In fact, I would prefer you go with them and keep them safe. Who knows if my intimidation tactics worked on Ghost or not."