Chapter 17: An Uncomplicated Relationship

The world of ARS was an interesting place where grass rats danced to background music played by unseen hands. The people were generally friendly, though often overly emotional. In that world existed many things that would be deemed impossible in another. The sight of a blue-haired elven badass zipping around at high-speed while easily cleaving large armored beasts in half was one such sight. The fact that the elven badass was also an incredibly beautiful woman was another reason to make the situation seem implausible.

From a distance, Scott watched Rhea mow down monsters like they were nothing. The last few days had been spent watching her do things. He’d gained a little experience or a few ability points on occasion if he moved too close to where she fought, but he had dutifully granted it all to Ero. They were planning to allow Rhea to reach a level higher than Scott so she could lead them to her closest major weapons’ cache using the world traveler function.

Rhea leapt into the air then crashed down atop a charging monster. The point of her sword slipped between its plates neatly just before she leapt away once more. The creature stumbled then flipped end-over-end before it began to pant. Blood pooled around it. Already dead, yet it did not know it, Scott watched as it slowly stopped moving. The elven slaughterhouse continued her deadly dance even as the last armordoe fell to the ground.

All of the monsters had fully respawned on the mountain by the time that they had returned, so Rhea had chosen to slaughter her way through the entire area in the hopes of finding rare drops or enough raw materials to have a much stronger weapon created for Scott to speed the leveling process.

By staying within a minimal range, Rhea could gain party experience and cause more monsters to spawn, but since Scott was at that minimal range most of that experience stayed with her. She was easily gaining twice the experience that she had before.

It was not enough, however. She had only gained a few levels in the last few days. The difference in experience required for her race was an obscenity. If it were a game played on a console, no one would be an elf in the land of ARS. Who would be willing to take ten times longer to gain a level? Sure, the extra ability points were useful and kept things even, but when someone wanted to level quickly to reincarnate it was difficult.

“Rhea’s amazing.” said Ero.

“Yeah, she really is. She’s been here practically forever and it shows.” said Scott.

The fairy girl fluttered over to a nearby branch and watched as the blue-haired girl continued her rampage of bloody carnage across the landscape. Heads and limbs flew away with incredible ease and monsters died in great numbers. It would not be long until this, the last herd of armordoe on the mountain were annihilated. “She’s like an extinction event.”

“She should change her name to the Blue Apocalypse or something.” said Scott with a smile.

Ero tapped her chin. “Hmm, maybe the Pretty Apocalypse?”

“Sexy Calamity?” asked Scott.

The fairy made a sweet noise then pouted slightly. “I kind of want to be called the Sexy Calamity.”

“No, you’re the Cute Fairy of Mischief.” said Scott.

“Adorable! But not the same thing at all.” said Ero.

“Fine, you can be the Fairy Apocalypse.” said Scott.

Ero giggled warmly then nodded. “I like that.”

They shared a laugh then returned to silently watching Rhea fight. The elf maiden was completely focused on the battle. Her hair whirled around in perfect harmony with the whipping motions of her blade.

Scott had known that she was a far better fighter than he was on technical merit, but she was a pure killing machine at the moment. She was too far away to allow him to see her facial expression but he knew that she would likely be wearing her ice queen persona. It was strange that she even had such a nature. She had mentioned it to him on occasion, the fact that most of her people thought of her as unapproachable and unfriendly. It seemed absurd. She was possibly the sweetest person he had ever met. Only Ero even compared in that regard.

Ero glanced over at Scott and watched him as he watched Rhea. She saw how the light in his eyes seemed to dance and how his lips parted in a warm smile. A brief pain stabbed through her chest and she closed her eyes for a moment to fight down the feeling.

The little fairy knew that he loved her, she could easily verify that by rambling through his memory. Yet, she also knew the truth. He loved her but still saw her as more of a best friend at heart. There was nothing wrong with that, and it was a wonderful thing.

She looked at Rhea, beautiful, radiant in the light of day as her sword flashed and her hair seemed to sparkle in the light. She bit her lower lip and fought back a sigh. She loved Rhea. She fully understood why Scott looked at the blue haired elf-maiden the way that he did, and yet it still hurt sometimes to know that he did not look at her the same way.

It was a momentary thing, a fleeting bit of jealousy. She knew that he would do anything for her, would never abandon her, and did love her. It just hurt a little knowing that he loved someone else just a little more.

The little fairy bit her lower lip then slowly slip her hand down to her stomach. A slight blush crept across her nose. Was she really pregnant? She hoped so. Eventually, Scott and Origin would have children, she was sure of it. Still, as much as she loved the blue-haired goddess, Ero wanted to have Scott’s child. The idea of raising a tiny little light with him made her fairy happy.

***

Two weeks had passed while Rhea trained before she had finally reached a level above Scott, a fact made more difficult due to his increase in experience for each fight. He had regained his lost level due to the fact that Ero could not be level higher than he was. In the end, it did not matter. They had discussed things with Crimson Shadow and moved on to the next part of their journey.

The trip to Rhea’s storehouse in the Northern Mountains of the mainland continent had taken only a few hours by their reckoning, but several months had passed in the world of ARS before they had arrived.

“So, this is your cache?” asked Scott. He looked at the large pile of rocks in the far corner of the natural cavern.

Rhea nodded. “Yes, I don’t keep a large amount of items in any one place.”

“Why do this at all. Surely you could buy a house or a vault or something.” asked Ero.

The elf girl shrugged. “I’d be too tempted to get them too soon.”

“Self-imposed challenge?” asked Scott.

“Something like that. Before you arrived, I mostly played to take out my frustrations and to be free for a time.” said Rhea.

“I see. So, if your equipment was too bad ass, you’d kill everything too quickly?” he asked.

The goddess in elf form sighed softly. “Yes. Pretty much.”

Scott reached out and rubbed her shoulder. “I’m sorry. That could never work.”

“Huh? Why not?” asked Rhea with an innocent and curious expression.

He made a big show of eyeing her up and down in a perverted, yet friendly, manner. “Your natural equipment is already pretty badass.”

Rhea blinked at him then snorted. She looked him in the eyes then sweetly said, “Stupid.”

“You haven’t called me that so sweetly in a while.” said Scott. “I kind of missed it.”

Her nostrils flared slightly and her face reddened. She did not say anything, however. Scott and Rhea stood there looking into each other’s eyes for a moment.

Ero glanced from one to the other then lifted her fist and calmly coughed into it. She repeated the action once more. When they did not look up, she loudly said. “A-Hem!”

“Hmm?” asked Scott.

The fairy shook her head. “How you two can be so sweet that you can give a fairy cavities is something I’ll never understand.”

Rhea blinked at the fairy girl. “Ero?” Was something wrong? The tiny girl hardly ever said things like that.

The tiny girl shook her head then smiled warmly. “Nevermind. We have loot to loot!”

“Right! Let’s abuse Rhea and take all her cool things.” said Scott cheerfully.

Rhea glanced at him then snorted. She spoke in a flat tone of voice. “Oh yes, abuse me.”

Scott glanced at her in kind. He then lifted one finger into the air. “That set up was too easy. I refuse to take the bait.”

Rhea laughed then then turned toward the pile of rocks. “Fine. Don’t say I didn’t try to make things easy for you.”

“That’s cool. I don’t like easy girls.” said Scott.

“Didn’t you get engaged to an exotic dancer?” asked Rhea.

Scott smiled wryly at her in response. “Yeah, why do you think I stopped liking easy girls?”

They all shared a laugh upon hearing that. Life was a funny thing. A guy might start out engaged to a stripper but end up in a mostly accepted love triangle with a fairy and a goddess.

Ero and Rhea began to chat freely about Scott’s love life. They had both seen all his failures and triumphs. Rhea, as Origin, had directly seen his life story in detail. Ero, had rattled around inside his brain and seen how he actually dealt with those events internally.

It was a strange thing for him to accept at times. Both of the girls in his life knew him better than he knew himself, and yet he’d only just met both of them. It was entirely unfair. He chose not to be upset about it, however. If anything it made the relationship that much easier.

Scott needed easy. He’d joked about not liking easy girls, but in truth he truly enjoyed how easy the current relationship had become. Sure, there were bumps and tears along the way still but that was to be expected. Ero and Origin were both sweet girls, and they both wanted to spend time with him. That led to one or the other of them feeling left out.

He knew that to be the case. He’d seen the look of sadness in a girl’s eyes when she thought the one who she loved had lost interest in her. A few of his relationships had ended because of that no matter what he had said or how he had tried to convince his current love interest otherwise.

The sight of Ero and Rhea laughing together, even if it was at his expense, was heartwarming. Of course, the special sweet little feeling he had developed soured slightly when he realized their current topic of discussion.

“Yeah, I couldn’t believe he thought that would work!” said Rhea.

Ero laughed then threw a hand to her forehead and cried out, “I love you Elizabeth! Don’t marry this douche. Marry me!”

“Total rom-com action hero stuff.” said Rhea. She said it with a bright smile and a laugh, but also with what sounded like a hint of jealousy.

Scott grunted. He had wanted to forget that particular scene from his life. One of his first girlfriends, the only other one besides Sarah who he had gotten up the nerve to want to marry. They had dated for over a year. Yet, she had chosen to go to college across the country in California.

The long distance relationship went on for six months. Scott was a year younger than her, a school scandal when they first got together. However, after around two months she didn’t answer his calls as often. Sometimes she would not answer a text until the next day.

By the time the sixth month came around, she told him that she had cheated on him during a text that he had assured himself was tearful and heartfelt. The way she had written things and admitted that she loved him, had convinced him that the only problem was their distance.

Scott had pulled a road trip scenario. He’d gathered up two of his friends and hit the road. Flying would have been faster, but he’d wanted time to think. He needed to figure out exactly what he needed to do. It was an epic adventure with his high school friends. There were thrills, chills, bums who thought they were Jesus, and his friend Greg had even lost his virginity in an ill-conceived wager with a fat waitress named Sally.

“Yeah, I can’t believe he barged into the wedding while it was happening and said that!” exclaimed Ero.

“Can we not talk about this?” asked Scott quietly. It no longer hurt to hear about it, but it still made him feel like a fool.

The girls ignored him and continued on with their conversation until they reached the rocks. Scott had not been more thankful for the end of a conversation in a long time. Elizabeth was one of the true sore spots of his sordid past. If anything what had happened with her had set the scene for his break down when Sarah had done what she had done.

Sadly, the conversation was not completely done. Rhea looked at Scott then smiled. “Hey, at least you don’t have to worry about that with us.”

“Yeah!” exclaimed Ero happily.

“So, neither of you have a childhood friend on the other side of the country to convince you to go to college where he is so that you’ll know someone there?” asked Scott.

“Nope.” said Rhea with a bright smile.

“Don’t think so.” said Ero.

“Well, that’s something I guess.” he said, before reaching down to casually start moving rocks to the side.

Ero helped move the smaller rocks while Rhea helped with the larger ones. While they worked, the conversation continued.

“I’m sorry if we upset you. If it still bothers you, I won’t talk about it anymore?” asked Rhea.

Scott shook his head. “It’s fine. I have to try to laugh at the stupid crap that I used to do, or it’ll eat at me forever.”

Ero lifted a rock twice as big as she was and flew off with it. When she returned, she said, “If you’d done that for me, I’d have more of your potential babies.”

Scott laughed. “Thanks Ero.”

She giggled cutely then hefted another massive, for her, rock. She might be little but she did her best!

“It was really sweet, what you did.” said Rhea.

“Really? Kevin thought it was kind of stalker-ish, even if he wanted to see me crash and burn.” said Scott.

The elf girl laughed. “Well, I thought it was sweet. Though, if you recall I spent decades of my life watching you live yours.”

“I’m going to pretend that you spanked it a few times whenever you saw me in the shower. That’ll fix everything.” said Scott.

Rhea’s face turned bright red and she laughed again. She looked to the side and struggled to lift another rock. “Well…”

Scott blinked at her and stopped what he was doing. “Wait…”

Rhea laughed nervously and started to dig at the rocks with greater speed. “We should really get moving on this. These rocks won’t move themselves.”

He suddenly felt absurdly pleased with himself. His life and all of its pains and pleasures had been the spank material of his goddess girlfriend. It should have been some sort of extreme violation of his privacy, but the image of Rhea doing that sort of thing while daydreaming about the random crap he had done in his life invalidated that response.

“So, the goddess of love got off on watching me do things.” said Scott casually.

Rhea made a strangely noise then dug at the rocks faster. “So many rocks!”

Ero glanced at Rhea then tilted her head to the side. “Why are you so red?”

Rhea whimpered cutely and shook her head. “Darn rocks.”

“Must have been hard for you whenever I had a girlfriend.” said Scott softly.

The blue haired girl sighed loudly. “You don’t want to ask me these questions.”

“I don’t?” asked Scott.

She shook her head. “No. You don’t.”

“I kind of do now.” said Scott.

Rhea stopped and let the rock she had picked up fall from her hands. She looked down at the ground and her hair fell forward to shadow her eyes. “I hated it.”

“Rhea…?”

“I hated every second of it!” she exclaimed. Her hands turned into tight little fists and her body began to tremble.

Scott stepped toward her and she looked to the side. “The thought of those girls with you, touching you. I hated it.”

“You kept watching, though…” Scott was not sure why she would keep watching if she hated it.

Her trembling increased and a slight gasping sob escaped her lips. “It was all I could ever have.”

“Rhea, what do you mean?” asked Ero.

The blue haired girl took a breath then said. “You both know what it’s like for my people. We love humanity, yet we can never truly be human.”

“You feel human enough to me.” said Scott.

Rhea lifted her hands to her chest and she sighed softly. “Thank you for that.”

Scott soon realized what she was getting at. She had mentioned this sort of thing to him before. Her people tried to be like humans in order to understand humanity and deep emotion. Yet, they could rarely interact with them on any equivalent manner. They were gods or at least god-like beings. Even when they created avatars and entered a mortal world, they were never truly human or mortal. So, in the end his life in her eyes had been like a fascinating movie. No matter how much she might want it, she could not be with the person on screen. All she could do was daydream and live vicariously through the characters of the women who he had dated.

“Rhea, I’m sorry.” said Scott before moving closer and slipping his arms around her.

Her trembling stopped, but her eyes remained downcast. “Why, Scott?”

He leaned his forehead against the back of her head. “All this time, you wanted to be the girl with me, but could only watch me with other people.”

She gently placed her hand atop his arm. “I can’t stand the thought anymore.”

Another thing occurred to him not long after that. “You once said your people are normally polygamous. This is why you aren’t?”

“I… Can’t share you. I’ve had to do that for too long.” she said softly.

Ero placed a hand to her mouth and tried not to make a noise. She fluttered down and sat on a rock. Her eyes began to shimmer gently as tears started to form. She now knew why Rhea went a little crazy sometimes, and it was her fault. She kept reminding her of how she could not be Scott’s one and only special someone.

“I wanted to be Elizabeth, or Mary, or Jennifer, or…” Rhea rattled off a list of Scott’s past failures ending with Sarah. “I wanted to be any of them, but at the same time I kind of wanted them to die in a fire.”

Scott held her tightly until the end of her statement. That was a bit dark. He understood the sentiment, but it also made him wonder about her a little. He realized what she really mean, though. She wanted to be with him, but as herself.

Ero flew up and exclaimed. “Oh, I’m so sorry, Rhea!”

The blue haired elf blinked quickly to clear the tears from her eyes then looked askance at Ero. “Huh?”

“It’s my fault! If not for me…” Ero looked down then placed her hands over her eyes and started to cry.

The elf looked at the crying fairy for a moment then lifted her hands up and held Ero gently in her cupped palms. “Ero, it’s alright.”

The fairy sniffled a little then lowered her hands. “Is it?”

“Yes, I hate the idea of sharing him, but I don’t hate you.”

Ero wiped the tears from her eyes then sniffled again. “Really?”

Rhea moved one of her thumbs forward and used it to gently massage Ero’s belly. “How can I hate someone he truly loves? Especially someone as sweet as you.”

Ero sniffed again. “I guess… But what about other people, like Shara?”

Rhea snorted. “I love my sister, but she can get her own Scott. This one only has two arms and both are taken.”

Ero laughed softly. “So, am I the left arm or the right one?”

Rhea smiled gently down at the laughing fairy. A sudden urge manifested within her. It would be so easy to just close her hands right now, close them and squeeze real tight. The impulse passed and she immediately felt bad about the thought.

Ero was a sweet girl. Things would work out. They would. She would just have to learn to share. The urge to close her hands reappeared. She laughed at a joke that Ero made and the urge passed. Everything would be alright. She could do this. She could accept this.

The fairy girl laughed loudly. “Rhea! You’re being so rough.”

“Huh?” asked Rhea.

“Your thumb is pressing down a little hard.” said Ero with a giggle. “The baby’s not ready to pop out, yet.”

“Oh, was I?” Rhea released Ero from the thumb of death and smiled gently. “Sorry. I don’t want to hurt you.”

“I know.” said Ero sweetly. She looked into Rhea’s eyes and her expression shifted slightly. Ero knew exactly what Rhea had really meant. “I love you Rhea.”

Rhea inclined her head then smiled warmly at the fairy girl. “Love you too, Ero.”

“What, no love for me?” asked Scott in a faux-hurt tone of voice.

“It’s not always about you, Scott.” said Ero with a laugh. “We can be crazy about each other, too.”

“Yeah, Scott. Listen to the mother of your child.” said Rhea sweetly.

Ero grinned at Rhea, and the elf girl maintained her sweet smile while looking down at the fairy. Scott said, “It’s good to see you girls getting along so well.”

Rhea and Ero both laughed simultaneously while not looking away from each other. Scott could not help but laugh as well. He was so glad that being with the girls was so easy and carefree. He was so tired of complicated relationships.