CHAPTER 22 - Inn and Out
Even if Thia wasn't a treasured party member or an enticing romantic partner, I knew I would want to stay friends with her, because she was the best damn wingman I'd ever had.
It was hard to believe that this was the same day that Ves and I had first kissed and fooled around. To be fair, it was so early in the day that it may as well have been the previous day, but we never went back to sleep. We were so excited about this quest that we were pushing ourselves as much as possible. Only once I started thinking about that did I start to feel just how exhausted I was.
Of course, I wasn't too exhausted to go spend some more time alone with Ves.
What, exactly, did those two talk about when they went upstairs?
Despite Thia's suggestive tone, I honestly wasn't expecting anything more to happen than maybe comforting Ves after an especially... difficult day.
That's probably all it is. I was hoping for a chance to check in on her, and Thia just helped set that up.
When I reached room 3, I knocked lightly on the door. A few moments later, Ves unlocked and opened the door slightly, and when she recognized me, her eyes briefly widened and she let me in. The room was mostly dark, lit by only a single candle on a stand near the bed. While it was roughly the same size as Thia's room in Perrenbrook, the woodwork was significantly nicer, just like it had been in the dining area.
"Hey... how are you doing?"
She locked the door behind me, but didn't turn around. "...I don't know."
"Do you still hurt? Is it getting worse?"
"It's getting better."
Ves walked over to the bed and sat, looking towards the ground.
I didn't respond immediately, wondering if she was going to say anything else. Instead, she seemed to be waiting for me to say something. No words came to mind. No words for me to speak, at least; more than enough were swirling around my mind, as usual.
Seconds passed by, as I strained for the right thing to say. I finally just told her something that I had been thinking about almost nonstop all afternoon and evening.
"What happened to you... I've never been more scared in my life. It's almost hard to believe that I'm talking to you now. It-it's amazing, really."
She raised her head and I saw tears falling from her green eyes. "I... I thought I was dead. It hurt so much, and then everything went dark..." I quickly sat next to her and put my arm around her, and she put her head on my chest. "What the hell? Why would he do that? I-- This guy I don't know makes monsters attack us, and then just appears and almost kills me without breaking a sweat?"
I held her tight and stayed silent. Ves made a few shuddering breaths and sniffles. She wiped off her tears, then raised her head to look at me with a fierce expression.
"Jeremy... I want to get stronger. Whatever this power is, this-- this
thing
where we can use your class abilities, I want to figure it out and do shit that no one else has ever done before."
"Oh, I'm with you on that." I kissed the top of her head, between her ears.
"I don't care about that stupid rune anymore. All I want to do is focus on fuckin' destroying that guy. Red Gauze. Whatever."
"Right! He tried to kill you. And growing stronger to defeat some powerful evil being sounds pretty damn cool. Well, horrifying, but in a cool way."
Ves sat up straight, fire in her eyes. She took my hands in hers. "Right! That's not weird, is it? I want revenge, but it's also the kind of thing that every adventurer dreams of doing. Like in the old stories."
Some things are universal. Or multiversal.
"We've got stories like that, too. I know just what you mean. Underdogs facing impossible odds, saving the world... right?"
"Yes! Exactly!" Another tear ran down her face, and this time I wiped it off with my thumb. "Who knows what that guy is up to? He might not have an army, or... or some kind of artifact, but he's fucking
crazy
and too damn powerful."
I nodded. "The next people he attacks might not be as lucky as us."
Ves was getting worked up. This was the most excited and determined I had seen her in the admittedly short time I'd known her.
"And whatever his deal is with you... he could keep trying to kill us. How stupid would we be if we just waited for that to happen?"
A thought hit me. "Hey, maybe Thia's right? Is he the reason why I'm here? What if I'm meant to stop him?"
Ves gasped. "The Goddess! Whoa, maybe!"
"Actually, it doesn't matter. The Goddess could tell me to leave him alone, and I wouldn't listen. You and Thia are the only people that matter to me. Hell, I already care about you two more than anything back home."
"Jeremy..." She leaned in closer to me.
"If some wrinkled old dick wants to fuck around with us, then he's going to find out what happens."
The beautiful netharri pulled me into a deep kiss, her fierce energy being harnessed into passion of a different kind. Our arms wrapped around each other as our tongues danced.
Ves broke off the kiss, biting her lower lip. "I know it hasn't been long, but I-- Ugh... I like you a lot." She averted her gaze as she blushed, and it was one of the cutest and sexiest things I had ever seen.
I placed my hand on the side of her face to gently encourage her to look at me again. "It's okay! I feel the same way."
Her tail swooshed back and forth as she tensed up slightly, and she narrowed her eyes. Suddenly, Ves pounced on me - well, we were both sitting, so it was more of a lunge - and pushed me onto the bed.
She planted numerous kisses all over my face before returning to my lips. I held her tighter than before, passionately returning the kiss. One of my hands stroked her back, and Ves arched her back to push against my hand, moaning faintly.
Although I got the impression that I could continue doing that as long as I wanted, there was something else that I was craving to do again since early that morning. My hand continued down, past her back, until I could touch her sexy ass again. This was not the time to just slowly explore its shape and contours, so I grabbed it hard.
Ves gave me the reaction I was hoping for. She groaned while we kissed, and this time, she bit
my
lower lip.
By this point, my armor was feeling more restrictive than ever. I tried to remove my pants without interrupting our makeout session, but couldn't, while Ves was rubbing her body against me. Fortunately, she got what I was trying to do, and eagerly moved down to help me.
