"And you are?" Vivi looked at me with curiosity in her eyes as I closed the door behind me.
"Stop playing around."
"I mean… You have the same body as that man. And the same markings. But you can't be him! That man looked more homeless and not this… decent." She circled around me before taunting me.
"Shut up and take a shower. You stink."
"Ooohhh! That shitty personality- You have to be El! Ah, see, what did I tell you? Drop the beard and you would look at least a decade younger." Vivi went past me and opened the door.
"That's because I am a decade younger than you."
"Whatever kiddo. Don't mess around too much when I'm gone." She said while closing the door behind her.
"So annoying."
After she left the room became silent.
'That's that, I guess.' I stared right into the room.
Staring right back at me from across the room was a single large wooden bed. A SINGLE large wooden bed.
I looked around the room and there was no other place big enough to fit either Vivi or me. In the end, one thing became abundantly clear- I would have to sleep on the same bedding as her.
Yet, another headache.
"AAAHHH! WHATEVER!" Evidently, too much had gone wrong for me to care about this minor inconvenience and it wasn't like I was in a relationship anyway. I gently laid down on the bed careful to not break it and planted my face into the mattress. I pulled my engagement ring off.
The vacancy on my left hand felt weird. I rubbed that purple area. But before I could come to terms with it, my regeneration kicked in and the finger returned to normal.
It was that easy, huh? I pressed my index and thumb together and the ring deformed. I tossed it aside.
It was all over. I just needed to focus on one thing now.
'So what if I had to sleep in the same quarters as her?' We already did plenty of that in the cave.
After agonising it over for a couple of minutes, I chose to stop thinking about it. We can cross that bridge when she comes back from her shower.
I wasn't particularly sleepy or hungry because I ate some of the moose earlier. In fact, I didn't quite get hungry anymore.
Over the past week, my ability to control my hunger increased exponentially. To the point that going berserk because of gluttony wasn't much of a threat anymore. My hunger pangs resembled those of a human's.
'Wait... I am human.'
A normal human's.
Over the week, I also become aware of my situation and how abnormal my strength of absorbing monster's skills were. If people were to find out about it I would turn into an object of political strength or of clinical interest. I didn't want either of those.
So I must hide most of my abilities as well as my identity.
Oh well, all of that could wait. Right now, all I wanted to do was close my eyes and think some more, but as soon as I started to sink deeper into the bed most of my thoughts vanished.
As I laid down mulling this situation over in agony I realised that I underestimated mattresses. After sleeping on hard rocks for weeks, after having all the bones in my body broken, after having the back of my head smashed into the cave- the gentle wholesome embrace of the mattress was heavenly. I pulled the sheets up and before I knew it I was asleep.
###
{5 days before the breakdown.}
At first, there was light coming through my eyes. Later, everything turned dark… but then light started to scatter again. The sound of curtains and birds. It was only after that, did I realise that another morning had come.
I slept through an entire day!
This might have been the soundest sleep that I had in the past week, had it not been for how heavy my body felt right now.
Opening my eyes, I saw red everywhere. Wet long hair scattered across my face. Vivi's legs were pinning mine down and she had practically half her body on mine. Over the last week, I believed that I had gotten used to her bad sleeping habits.
Little did I know they would only become worse when we slept on the same bed. What didn't help was the fact that even though the bed was big, it wasn't big enough for the both of us.
'Try to see the glass half full, El.'
Yeah.
Every cloud had a silver lining. There was a sheet preventing my bare chest from touching her. Suddenly her hand started to move as she started to scratch her side.
'She doesn't plan on waking up, does she?'
I put my strength behind my arm and in one go attempted to push her off the bed. And I succeeded. The sheet on top of me got pulled back as she pulled on it while falling off, but before she even reached the corner of the best, she somersaulted off and stood up while yawning.
'The hell is up with those monstrous reflexes?!'
"Eh? What happened?" She sleepily rubbed her eyes.
I felt like at this moment, after waking someone who was sleeping so well, I had the responsibility of making my words relevant.
"It's morning already. Put your clothes on." I said completely ignoring everything and in a serious manner.
"Okaayy." She replied while taking her 5th and final yawn.
From her rucksack, Vivi took out her tiny top and another pair of tights.- "Look away, kiddo."
"As if I'm interested in a walking brick house with boobs."
"Even when you wake up on the right bed you're like this."
Wait this was an opportunity to get even more out of our companion relationship! In this scenario, only Vivi could help me out.
"That's just how it is. Say, Vivi, do you have something I could use to cover my torso?" Going out like this might be a little unsightly. Don't know why I didn't ask for something like that earlier.
"Here ya go." A piece of cloth landed on my shoulder. See? She was already useful.
"Thanks…" I picked it up and stretched the fabric out a bit to see if the shirt would fit me. And my gratitude instantly disappeared ."What the hell, Vivi?!" I asked the very smug lady.
Within the grasps of my hand was the small garment the red-haired lady wore all the time. The one that only covered breasts. A bra.
"Sorry, this is all I have. But it should be enough to cover your chest." She said after noticing me staring at it.
"You little!" I promptly threw the garment back at her. I would rather go shirtless than be seen wearing a bra!
"So what are we going to do today?" Completely ignoring her own prank, she asked to cover up the sound of elastic slapping on her skin.
"Well, first of all, breakfast. Then we'll go out to buy a shirt and maybe some equipment for our journey."
"Journey?" Her face was the most confused and excited I'd seen yet.
"Didn't I tell you? After our stay at the inn, we'll head over to a town called Leifbarr." I explained the bare minimum of my circumstances.
It was an explanation that put a curious reaction on Vivi's face. But it was a more sinister kind of curiosity. Until she finally let out a sigh.
"Ahhhh… So that's why you kept me around. I was wondering why you didn't abandon me after we got out of the training area."