CH203 Thera’s Perspective

Augh, why did I react like that? Something is clearly wrong with me.

Ever since she’d walked in on Ben getting his blood sucked and briefly losing control of her mana in the surprise her thoughts had been a mess. She’d done worse with training with her father and during the time she spent helping her aunt in the hospital, she’d been needing more guidance to make up for her straying thoughts.

Worse was that she kind of understood why. She was jealous. It was a feeling she was used to enough, experiencing it plenty for other succubi with normal levels of charm, and more intensely for the races that were lucky enough not to have it at all, but feeling it like this was new to her and she didn’t understand why seeing that had set her off so much. Even though she was an adult in the eyes of her people, her experiences with any sort of positive relationships outside of her family were few, making her go through situations she never had in the past. Understanding why it just had left her so unhappy was proving to be a struggle.

That left her in her current situation, regretting how she acted while not knowing what to do from there, or how to keep it from happening again. I mean, it’s not like I don’t want Ben having other people in his life. I’m not some possessive psycho and I even liked Steph and Will well enough. I just… Ugh, why did it bother me so much?

They’d both been so busy since then that they hadn’t even been able to talk either, with Ben focusing on his work and herself doing what she could to get the most out of her time there, but that was its own issue. She’d found herself so used to his companionship that without getting to chat for a while she felt lonely, no matter how much she enjoyed her aunt’s company. Just one more thing that left her in a poor headspace, but one she wanted to fix.

“Thera,” Lux began, pulling her from her thoughts. “Why don’t you take a break for the rest of the day? Maybe even go and talk to your friend?”

She’d cut straight to the heart of the matter, and while Thera wanted to decline, she couldn’t deny her head wasn’t in it. “Maybe a bit of a break would help. Thank you Lux.”

She walked out of the hospital, thinking a walk would be good to clear her head when she ran into the very target of her thoughts, Ben, waving wildly from the distance as he biked over to her.

“What are you doing here?” She asked, surprised to see him at the hospitals of all places. “Don’t tell me you managed to hurt yourself while my mom wasn’t around.”

Looking him up and down, he didn’t seem injured, but she couldn’t be certain and went to apply her healing magic before he shook his head.

“No, I’m fine. I finished up everything I’d had to do and figured I’d come see you, not hanging out for the last couple days has felt… unusual I guess. Wanted to see if you’d be up for a ride around town since I finally put this back together?” He asked as he patted the back of his bike, right behind his seat. It was more of a long, flat bar compared to what he was sitting on, but it didn’t look too uncomfortable and if she were being honest with herself she was curious about what it was like to ride given the amount of effort he’d put into making it.

“Sure, I guess that could be fun,” And with only a little bit of work to figure out how to actually sit on it, riding sidesaddle instead of mounting it like Ben had to, they were off.

“You might want to hold on for safety,” He told her as they started to make their way through town, Ben taking it slow for the well-being of themselves and those around them while Thera was trying to figure out just what she was supposed to hold onto as she tried to keep the speed and lack of control from freaking her out.

“Hold on to what?”

“Me. I don’t want you getting tossed off if I need to hit the breaks.”

“I feel like you should have mentioned that could happen before I got on!” She yelled as she wrapped her arms around him.

“Ha, it’ll be fine, now just relax and enjoy the scenery. Let’s try some different parts of the city for the day. I feel like I’m always going to the same few places when I’m here.”

With that they spent a few hours riding around, stopping occasionally for a snack and carrying on to enjoy the sights. As new as it all was to Ben, plenty was new for Thera as well, with them traveling through parts of her city she’d never bothered to visit herself in all of the time she’d lived there.

It was only when they came across a public garden that Ben decided he needed a rest, so they found a bench to sit at while admiring the surrounding flowers.

“Nice place, I didn’t know there was anywhere like this in the city.”

“I didn’t either, she agreed, smiling down as she took in the plants around her. She was fairly sure they were all ones that originally hailed from the succubus homeworld, though there were a few she didn’t recognise so she couldn’t be certain. A rainbow of colours was blooming around them and she was able to enjoy them in all of their vibrance, none of the muting that came with having to view them through her cloak, and she couldn’t help but look to the person who’d made that possible, only to find him already looking at her.

“…What? Is there something on my face?” She said as she looked away, not able to meet his gaze.

“No, I was just wondering if you’re ready to talk about whatever’s bothering you?”

“What makes you think something’s bothering me?” She asked, playing dumb despite the fact that she could already feel her blood reaching her cheeks. She just hated how easily he could see through her, all the more so for the fact she didn’t have her cloak on.

“You seemed put off when you saw me being munched on, and both Myriad and Pelenia mentioned that you seemed to be more… expressive since then.”

She couldn’t help but cringe. Of course her mother would say something, but she tended to ignore the fact that as an apostle, Ben was typically under the watchful eyes of his god. Since they were always together then of course she was being watched too. As for his question though, it left her struggling to figure out how to answer, so she didn’t, instead leading with her own question.

“Do you think you’ll be leaving Stonewall soon?”

“What? Where did that come from?”

“I mean, no matter how much you think you still need to improve, it’s obvious various nations are interested in your skills, and at your levels you really don’t need to be training under anyone at this point. Besides, it seems like you could get some good rewards if you left.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Maybe, but I really don’t want any of that.”

“In that case, what about Mercy? She seemed interested in you, at least more genuinely than anyone getting their braces made.”

She hated herself as soon as she said it. Why did that even bother her? The vampire was attractive, even she could tell that. Surely Ben could be happy being involved with someone like that, but the thought was far from pleasant and left her comparing herself to the other woman. Unlike Mercy, who had one of the more standard hominid type forms, she was alone in her appearance, looking more like a well-made sculpture compared to a person because of her heritage. It was never anything that bothered her in the past, but for whatever reason it now circled her mind with her other worries. The only thing that pulled her from her thoughts was Ben’s gentle laugh as he took her hand.

“I don’t want Mercy. Aside from the fact that she’s going to be somewhere between three and six hundred while I’m… probably around twenty, I think? Either way, I wouldn’t run off with someone just for showing me a little interest, and hers was one hundred percent focused on my flavour.”

“I guess I’m, well, I just don’t want you to leave Stonewall,” Her face burned as she blushed, feeling like she wanted to curl up and die from admitting that. No matter how much she told herself that he had his own life, that if he would one day go off to do what he wanted then it would be fine, that didn’t change the fact that she cared for him and that any such parting was going to hurt terribly.