Salem awoke eight hours later to a naked Alina snuggling up against him.
Smiling, she used her hand to trace circles on his chest.
"That tickles." Salem said.
"You know what tickles me?" Alina asked Salem, pressing her nude body closer to him. "Your self-control."
"What of it?" Salem asked, confused.
"You are the first man that I think either of us have ever met that hasn't ever looked at us for our bodies." She said, sighing. "You're so pure."
"I do my best to look primarily at personality." Salem said. "That's difficult when people hide behind façades of kindness and beauty, but easy when their true colours finally show."
"What was it like?" Alina abruptly asked. "Your world, I mean.
Salem gathered his memories from what felt like a lifetime ago. "It was big, but it was crowded." Salem began. "My world suffered from horrible overpopulation, to the point where there was so little housing, and the housing that was available was so expensive, that people ended up living on the streets.
"Those people living on the streets created another problem even for those with housing. Their feces, used hypodermic needles, garbage, even their blood could contaminate the city of Seattle, where I lived.
"Not only that, but our population was so saturated that a virus was able to sweep through the whole world, sending us scurrying into our homes trying to hide from it for two years. When I died, we had been out of lockdown for almost a year."
"Sounds like it was horrrible." Alina said sympathetically.
"On the contrary." Salem responded. "I just haven't gotten to the good bits yet. My world was just getting into nanotechnology. We were able to make very simple things with this technology when I died. What I am able to do with my nanobots could be considered witchcraft in my homeworld.
"What little we could do with nanotech, we used for good. We were able to make simple computers the size of a large molecule, camaras the size of a grain of rice, stronger alloys. Hell, we built a space station out of nanobots just to prove we could.
"By making simple computers smaller, we made more advanced computers cheaper, enabling some of the homeless to better themselves. We didn't have flying cars, or anything of the like. We were just realizing the potential of nanomachines.
"But that didn't stop any of the global and local conflicts, though. Gang wars, threats of nuclear warfare, espionage, sabotage, rape, murder, genocide, xenoxide, drug cartels, slaving, and riots don't even cover half of the conflicts happening."
Salem sighed. "It was a f**ked up world, but it was also a good one, if that makes sense."
Alina side-hugged him furiously. "How did you even survive such a horrible world?" She asked.
"My brother." Salem said sadly. "He did his best to ensure I wouldn't face any of the stress of bills, insurance, food, even clothing. He worked his ass off so I could continue college."
Salem sighed again. "I didn't see that until I died." Salem looked up at the destroyed ceiling. "I hope he's doing okay...I mean, he constantly told me I was his everything, so he probably was hit hard by news of my death.
"I hope that Sarah and Alexis help him through my death. He doesn't realy have many friends becuase he's always working." Salem felt tears slide from the corners of his eyes. He inhaled shakily. "He was always looking out for me. I truly hope I can find my original Universe so I can see him again."
Alina understood his sorrow at losing a brother.
"I used to have a brother." Alina said bitterly. "But when Colgate kidnapped me, along with others from my town, he killed my brother, along with many of the other men of my town. He didn't kill them cleanly either."
Alina began trembling against Salem, so he rolled onto his side and embraced her. She returned the hug and they spent a long while just drawing solace from each other's embrace.
At last, Alina drew a trembling breath and continued at a volume scarcely above a whisper.
"Colgate tortured them to death, Salem. He forced me to watch him mercilessly beat my brother, as he heartlessly cut parts of his skin AND PEELED IT OFF!" Alina ended her sentence in a shout before bursting into tears. "I never let myself cry over him, believing that if I gave myself to you, I'd be safe. But you rejected my advances, over and over, until in the baths of the previous world, I realized you truly cared for us."
Her eyes, glistening with tears found his and she smiled.
"And after I realized you truly cared for us, treated us as friends, I realized I had come to love you." She slowly began to relax against his chest and whispered into his ear. "I love you, and I hope you love me back."
Salem pressed her fully into his chest, and petted her hair.
"I love you too." Salem said, the words feeling strange in his mouth. "I don't think I've ever told someone I loved them before. Not even to my brother."
She looked up with her tear-stricken eyes. "I truly hope we can find your brother." She was about to say something else when they heard Ruby call from one of the exits Salem had made.
"You doing okay?" She asked. "I heard shouting."
Salem looked to Alina, who nodded her head.
"She was describing her experience before we met." He said. "And I described my world to her. Join us."
Salem sat up and made another blanket for Alina to wrap herself in and one for Ruby.
"I'm sending out bugs so you don't need to keep watch." He assured her.
She nodded, stripped and wrapped herself in the blanket.
Salem and Alina filled her in on what they had discussed, their emotions not burning so high the second time they told their stories.
Ruby sat herself in Salem's lap.
"When I was captured, it was by one of Colgate's subordinates." She shuddered at the thought. "He didn't have as much self-control as Colgate. I was mercilessy 'used' by them during the entire trip back to the warehouse, where you found us."
"I was lucky enough to not be 'used' by anyone, aside from some rather...intense foreplay." Alina said.
"I think you were one of the luckiest ones out of all of us." Ruby said. "I was forced to watch some of my friends get 'used' to death, I had to watch the light go out of their eyes as they were mercilessly strangled by the man enjoying them."
Ruby's voice got quieter with every word.
"I was subject to torture, I watched them negotiate for my body, and I watched them f**king kill every male they came across and used their severed members to f**k us." Ruby's words were so quiet that by the time she finished her sentence, she was whispering. Ruby began quietly sobbing, abruptly giving Salem a hug.
Alina patted her shoulder as she embraced Salem. After a short hesitation, Salem pulled her into the hug as well.
"After you rescued us, I briefly believed that you were going to use us like the slavers. After you told me you were going to leave, I didn't think that anymore." She took a shaky breath and continued. "After I was driven out of the village, I thought I was going to die there. But you came to find me."
Salem nodded.
"It was an accident that I created that massive wasteland." Salem said. "I was the reason you almost died."
"No." Ruby shook her head violently. "It was the fault of the villagers who couldn't remember who brought us together. You saved my life, and I can never thank you enough, even if I offer my body."
Salem stroked her hair.
"You don't need to offer yourself to me as thanks." Salem said, disgusted by the thought of exchanging her body like currency. "I'm fine with you just staying as my companion."
"But I want to be so much more than your companion!" She exclaimed, pulling out of his hug enough to look him in the eye. "I love you, Salem. And I want to be with you as long as I live."
Alina nodded as if she expected this.
"And, as long as you'll let us, we'll stay by your side." She said. "And we await the day you'll be ready to make our bodies yours."
"I love you both, as strange as this situation may be to me." Salem said. "In my world, taking more than one wife was worthy of the death penalty in some countries. I will do my best to love you both, even if it feels slightly wrong."
"I would expect nothing less." Ruby said, placing her blanket on the floor, gesturing for the two to lay with her.
Alina smiled at Salem, laying on the opposite side of the blanket, leaving room for Salem to lay in between them.
Salem lay down, placing an arm around each of their nude figures as they snuggled against him, laying their heads on his shoulders.
The two women quickly fell asleep against him, but Salem struggled to follow their example.
He was troubled by their tragic pasts, but if he was to truly love them, he needed to look past that.
Salem set a timer on one of his bugs and tried to go to sleep, but his thoughts kept him awake until his exhaustion drew him into the blackness of sleep.