The Systems Challenge-Chapter 403: Unexpected Reactions

When Jonas woke up, he heard a giggling sound first. After opening his eyes, he was surprised to find it was still in the predawn light. With Etaina standing over him and Elmo, giggling away.

Which was a cute sight to begin with, since she looked like she was maybe seven or eight in her human form. Though, beyond that, and her hair, she looked and behaved like any other kid that Jonas had known. Which merely annoyed Jonas.

Looking at Etaina, he couldn't tell what it was that she found so funny. She was looking at him and Elmo, though, Elmo had shifted his weight onto Jonas and Jonas could feel certain parts of Elmo pressing against him that he could imagine Etaina would find amusing, but those parts weren't visible from her angle, which left the mystery of what she was laughing at unsolved.

"What's funny?" Jonas asked quietly, not wanting to wake Elmo up.

Etaina pointed to her mouth, then to Elmo, making Jonas look at Elmo, and he noticed Elmo was drooling. Though, his mouth was also moving, like he was in the middle of a dream of some sort, but Jonas couldn't imagine what it was.

It wasn't clear what Elmo was exactly trying to say or do, but he could see why Etaina was so entertained. Although, he couldn't help but wish he had a camera to take a picture, or video, of that. While it likely would embarrass the crap out of Elmo, it certainly would be something that would be good for a laugh on days when he would be getting rather bored.

However, he didn't, and he doubted that Elmo would appreciate even Etaina getting a laugh out of him like that, so Jonas shook his head slightly as Etaina, who merely looked disappointed in response, but moved away as she continued to giggle about the sight.

When she was away, Jonas then gently shook Elmo awake. He wasn't sure what the best way to wake him up would be, especially given he wasn't sure if one could call what they had a relationship just yet. Only that they at least needed to talk about things. As if they didn't, then he's not sure he'd ever be able to figure out what exactly to call what they had right then.

Elmo, however, seemed like he had been soundly asleep. As such, he was rather resistant to waking up. Either that or that's how he usually was when he wasn't ready to wake up on his own. Although, Jonas couldn't recall if Elmo had been this hard to wake up when he'd had to wake Elmo up to take his turn on watch.

When Elmo finally started waking up, the first thing he did when he saw Jonas was pull him in, their mouths meeting for a kiss. Jonas had a feeling that Elmo was enjoying it more than he was, but he couldn't bring himself to push Elmo away. Largely because he, again, wasn't sure what to call what they were right then. Besides, he wouldn't say that it made him uncomfortable or anything, just unsure about himself.

After the kiss, Elmo pulled away and yawned. Jonas waited patiently, a little unsure if Elmo might just fall back asleep. He knew he had felt like doing that in the past several times through his life. Although, some of those times didn't exactly allow him to just turn over and go back to sleep.

"What's got you up so early?" Elmo murmured after his yawn.

"Nothing you'd like to know," Jonas replied, thinking about Etaina. "I just thought that I'd wake you up so we could talk about things before everything started up for the day."

Jonas could kick himself for how he phrased that. He couldn't imagine sounding more lame and pathetic than with what he'd said. It was almost like part of his mind shut off partway through what he'd been saying.

"What?" Elmo asked, sounding rather confused.

Jonas merely sighed. He didn't want to say that again, but his mind wasn't coming up with another way to phrase it right then. Which wasn't helping his peace of mind out any. So, he took a different tactic. "You heard what I said," he muttered, not able to put the amount of annoyance and irritation that he'd like into his words.

Elmo merely shrugged. "What's there to talk about?" he asked, apparently not understanding what Jonas' confusion about things were about. "We're together and so you can take me whenever you want."

Jonas blinked. This wasn't going the direction he expected. If anything, this felt like one of those weird dreams that come up periodically. Although, as Jonas smacked his head against the ground, hard, he had to admit he was awake, as the pain tended to not be present in dreams.

"Why'd you do that?" Elmo gasped, looking a little horrified.

Jonas shook his head, which was a little bit of a mistake as it made the world around him swim a little. "Just making sure this wasn't a dream," he replied, hoping to move on from the topic.

Yet, the grin Elmo got on his face as a result let Jonas know they were only just starting on that topic. "I know, it is like a dream," he said, pulling Jonas in for an embrace. "I never thought you'd return my feelings. Especially not like this."

Jonas had the feeling he might have said the wrong thing. Not so much wrong as in something that would hurt Elmo or push him away, but rather wrong for him. Where Elmo would take that to mean something other than what Jonas meant it as. Though, he hoped things wouldn't turn out as bad as he feared they would.

However, Elmo merely snuggled up against Jonas. "Would you hold me?" Elmo asked, making Jonas feel like maybe something had happened to Elmo when he was held captive by the orcs and that had made him a little too open with his affections now.

"Alright," Jonas grumbled, not sure that he really had a choice at the moment. He certainly didn't want Elmo to get upset, like he remembered seeing briefly on some shows that others had watched around him, where one person doesn't do what their lover wants, so their lover throws a fit that draws everyone's attention to them.

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Jonas couldn't be sure if Elmo would be like that, but at the moment, he really didn't care to find out the hard way that he was the 'throw a fit' kind of person. Just for not getting his way.

So, Jonas put an arm around Elmo, hoping that would be all Elmo wanted right then. Jonas was merely glad that everyone else was currently asleep and the only person still up was on watch and not looking in this direction.

Or at least he hoped not, since he hadn't really taken the time to look for that person.

"What made you open up yourself to me?" Elmo asked quietly as he rested his head against Jonas' shoulder.

Jonas sighed. This was at least what he'd been hoping to talk about with Elmo. Which was good because the others weren't yet awake, so it was possible there'd be no one who could really say that they heard him say what he was about to say.

"When I heard you were captured, I guess I was afraid I wouldn't be able to see you again," he said.

While Jonas remembered in the shows where there was a romantic moment, a confession like that always had the other swooning. However, Elmo certainly didn't have that reaction.

"Seriously!?" he exclaimed, pulling out of Jonas' hold. "After all that's gone on, what get's you is a lousy stereotypical situation like that!?"

Jonas felt a little confused. Wasn't that supposed to be what others wanted to hear? That the person who'd rebuffed them so much had finally realized they did have feelings for them when they nearly lost them? Jonas was pretty sure that's how that worked.

Yet, it clearly wasn't working that way with Elmo. If anything, it was making him the one who was pushing Jonas away.

"I thought maybe seeing Elin search for her memories made you think about your own past and how much of an important part I was since we came to this world," Elmo said, no longer trying to keep quiet.

Jonas sighed, as others started to wake up from the noise Elmo was making. Not that Jonas was surprised. Although, he hoped that whatever this was would just blow over and he could eventually find out where his own feelings would lead both him and Elmo in a relationship, or whatever it would be.

"I don't know what the problem is," Jonas said, hoping to at least calm Elmo down a little, "but does it really matter what made me realize... things?"

Jonas wanted to be straight with Elmo, but the fact that others were waking up made him uneasy about being too straight in this situation. As he just felt uncomfortable continuing their conversation as they had been having it a minute ago when there were others to hear what he might say.

"I guess not," Elmo grumbled, though his tone made Jonas think that it somehow did. Not that he had any idea how or why.