Vol.4 Ch.14 – Emotional Little Butterfly
Chapter 14: Emotional Little Butterfly
Aurora turned around after executing the hybrids and then tried her best not to wither under the stares of her teammates. She knew what those stares were about. The others had been frozen in horror at the visceral sight in front of them, had been unable to act despite knowing better. But Aurora didn't have that problem.
Assisting Caulder for years had disciplined the squeamishness out of her. A single day of working as a tool wrangler while Caulder had been busy digging around inside the guts of the Red Rider had been worse than just about anything any of the others had seen so far. Not that she took pride in that.
Aurora wanted her innocence back, wanted to be just as horrified by sights like these as the others were. However, being the only one capable of doing what was necessary might not be such a bad thing for now. It would make sure they found her useful and would keep her around, if nothing else.
Not that she thought that was an issue anymore. They wouldn't kick her out if she didn't prove herself useful enough. They weren't Caulder. Mariana and Elaine at least seemed to genuinely care for her and that Cassie girl seemed to like her as well. Jeanne she had more trouble reading but Rachel seemed to like her and Jeanne was clearly smitten with the nurse.
She hated that she thought like this. She wanted to just accept that she was part of a team. But after years of living in constant fear of being found wanting and then being disposed of it was hard to shake.
Evidently her worries had shown on her face and just as evidently Elaine had misinterpreted them because she rushed over and caught Aurora in a hug. It wasn't as unpleasant as she'd thought it would be. Elaine was wearing armor after all. But even with the armor, a hug was a hug and the gesture warmed her jaded heart.
Aurora blinked at the messages, then noticed that her vision was blurring. She blinked several more times and noticed tears running down her cheeks. God, was she really so starved for affection that someone comforting her with a hug made her tear up?
“Hey, it's okay,” Elaine said gently, patting her back with one hand. “Let it all out.”
**
Elaine didn't know why Aurora had suddenly started crying and, honestly, it didn't matter. She would be there for Aurora no matter what and she wouldn't pry. With anyone else Elaine would have thought the reaction to be because of the horrid sight she'd just witnessed, the sight she had then fearlessly stepped in and dealt with. But that hadn't been it. Aurora had clearly been entirely unbothered by the whole thing and, given what Elaine had seen of Caulder's work, she had to assume that the girl had seen far worse and was inured to such sights.
But somehow she'd still looked queasy afterwards and she'd started crying as soon as Elaine had pulled her into a hug. And now the girl was crying and shaking, sobbing on every inhale. And Elaine just held her, gently swaying with her, not even making soothing noises, just being there for her, holding her.
She had wanted to sweep the other buildings to look for more of the cocoons but that could wait. Maybe even another day. Clearly it had been a bit much for Aurora, for whatever reason.
**
Eventually, once Aurora had calmed down again, Elaine ordered everyone to return to base. She half expected Jeanne to give her a look for leaving without sweeping the other buildings but the angel had clearly understood why Elaine had been reluctant to do so and had let it rest.
Back at the base they headed for the cafeteria and Elaine watched in awe as Aurora grabbed nothing but a plate piled so high with fruit that getting it to the table without accident was an impressive balancing act on the girl's part.
“Would you like to assign your EXP?” she asked the girl once she'd finished eating an entire vine of grapes.
“How does that work?” Aurora asked, looking through her tower of fruit to find the next thing she wanted to eat. “I see that I got EXP and that I gained Bond Levels. But what does that mean?”
“Right,” Elaine said, only just remembering that Aurora was new to all this. “Your Bond Level describes your bond of trust with me. The more we trust each other, the more abilities you have available. Those abilities are then bought with EXP. Buy enough abilities and your Level increases, which increases your stats, making you stronger, tougher, faster, and so on.”
Aurora looked skeptical. “And how exactly does that happen? Do I need to meditate?”
“It happens at the push of a button on your CARD,” Elaine explained. “The CARD is short-cutting your nervous system to do all of this without meditation. Open your status screen and share it, that'll be easier to explain.”
“Okay.”
**
Aurora poked at her AR menus for a moment until she found her character sheet. The moment it opened, she was blasted in the face with notifications.
Aurora blinked as she wiped the notifications away. She really didn't like the idea of this system gamifying her ordeal at Caulder's hands but at the same time, getting any kind of recognition from the system at all felt satisfying. Even if her own freedom and the opinions of her teammates should matter more, this unfeeling computer acknowledging her suffering felt special.
She shook it off and then took a proper look at her screens.
Aurora could practically feel the blush on her cheeks. Even this stupid skill window had noticed that she was... no. Aurora was not obsessed with fruit.
She just liked what she liked was all. And the fact that she could make herself grow in power by glutting herself on fruit didn't excite her in the slightest. It was a purely utilitarian interest she was showing the mountain of fruit in front of her. Also, wedding necklaces? That was way, way too early. She didn't even know Elaine yet.
**
The way Aurora was blushing as she stared at her skill window was possibly the most adorable thing Elaine had ever seen and, given that one of her girlfriends was Alexis, that was really saying something.
As stone-faced and unreadable as the girl was under normal circumstances, right now Aurora's reactions were practically their own commentary track. The girl's eyes were darting back and forth from the skills mentioning a fruit obsession to the positively ludicrous tower of fruit she'd stacked onto her plate. And then her blush deepened a bit further still, with furtive glances thrown at Elaine, as the girl read the description on those necklaces.
With any other girl, in any other situation, she would have teased her relentlessly. But she didn't know Aurora well enough yet to know how the teasing would be received. From what the girl had been through Elaine should never tease her ever but at the same time, treating her as if she were made from spun glass wouldn't help her heal.
And while Elaine was still debating with herself whether to make a teasing comment or not, Mare decided to do it for her:
“Wow Elaine, I didn't know you already had a wife.”
And suddenly Elaine's cheeks felt exactly the way Aurora's cheeks looked.