A Talk Between Friends

Even though she had wanted to have some private time with Kim, now that she was settled at the table with something to eat, Elin found she'd lost interest in leaving right away. Not to say she wasn't interested in the idea of private time with Kim, it was more that she knew it could still be done later and since she'd seen Heather, she was hoping that she'd be able to catch up with her.

Though, there was also the part that she wasn't sure if Kim would be happy to hear about her. Since apparently Jonas had picked up on it, she knew she needed to talk with Kim about how she'd been useless and needed to find a way to talk with her about it, so Kim wouldn't eventually abandon her while they were stuck in this stupid competition.

Though, she did notice that Elmo seemed to be rather withdrawn himself, which she couldn't understand why. After all, he'd done everything that he could, so there wasn't a reason why he should be looking that way. It wasn't his fault that the portal nearly killed all of them as none of them could have predicted that.

Elin knew that she was the one primarily responsible for how bad things had gone. After all, she'd left Elmo to deal with it on his own while she merely did only enough to try and keep the goblins at bay. She hadn't tried to end them, but rather delay them. If she had gone in with the intention of defeating hem, then she was confident that they wouldn't have ended up being so cornered.

On top of that, when she was given the choice to rest more or push forward, she should have trusted Kim and opted to rest. If they hadn't gone to battle then, maybe they wouldn't have had such a difficult time in the fight. In essence, it all came down to the fact that she herself was the one responsible for all of it.

As Elin ate, she was especially conscious of Kim and Jonas at the table with them. She felt that she should talk with Elmo, but didn't really want to do that with Kim and Jonas around them. Not that she didn't trust them, but rather because it felt like it was something more private.

Just because they were a team didn't mean that they had to share everything with each other. Besides, she liked Elmo as a friend and didn't like seeing him looking so miserable.

Elin was only partway done with her soup when Kim finished hers. "Anytime you want, we can head up to our room," Kim whispered in Elin's ear.

Elin couldn't help but smile in anticipation as to what they were going to do, but rather than abandoning her soup, she turned to Kim, giving her a quick peck on the lips.

"I'd like to stay down here for a bit," Elin said. "I wanted to talk with Heather and Sonya first, but I'll be up as soon as I do that."

Kim merely smiled. "Don't take too long. I might fall asleep otherwise."

"I'll find a way to wake you up," Elin whispered, feeling her face flush as she said that. She wasn't sure how she'd feel if anyone else heard her suggestive statement.

Kim smirked as she made her way to the stairs. Then as she started climbing, Elin noticed how she yawned. Elin wasn't surprised to see how tired Kim was. She was sure that she felt much the same way.

However, she pushed those feelings aside so she could do what she was determined to do, regardless of if she ended up being to tired to do anything with Kim tonight. After all, they could always do that in the morning. It wasn't like they would need to leave the town any time soon.

She glanced at Jonas, wondering when he'd leave. It wouldn't be good for what she wanted to do if he stayed the entire time until Heather and Sonya were done with their jobs. While at the same time, she couldn't ask him to leave. That would be almost the same thing as discussing why Elmo didn't need to feel bad about what happened in the dungeon and why it was her fault in front of Jonas. It would completely defeat the purpose.

After Jonas had finished his soup, he stayed where he was sitting and Elin was nervous that he was just going to wait there until the window to talk to Elmo was gone. Yet, as Elin was getting close to finishing her own soup, Jonas stood up and stretched.

"I'll be calling I a night. Come up when you're ready to go to bed, Elmo," Jonas said. "Don't worry about waking me up."

Then before Elmo or Elin could respond in any way, he started walking towards the stairs. Elin couldn't help but feel rather confused at how sudden it felt like that had happened. Almost like he was aware at what Elin wanted and accepted it without saying anything or even acknowledging it.

Despite that, she quickly moved to sit next to Elmo. She could always try to figure out what that had been about later. Right now she needed to deal with Elmo. If she didn't, she had a feeling that she wasn't going to be able to. Which actually frightened her more than she liked.

"Elmo?" she asked, unsure how to start the conversation.

"Yeah?" he replied.

"Are you feeling okay?"

Elmo shrugged. "I'm alive if that's what you mean."

Elin felt her face flush. Was he being this prickly on purpose? "Of course you're alive," Elin merely said in response. "If you weren't, then you'd be dead. If you were dead, we'd be out one of our most important members of the team."

Elmo snorted. "Sure, very important," Elmo said rather derisively.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Elin snapped, more upset than she had expected. Elmo was her friend and she wasn't going to let even him talk about him like that.

"Just that I could have done more in that fight where we all were almost killed," Elmo said. At first his statement had started off softly, but then it started to pick up momentum and Elmo kept talking faster and a little louder. "If I had stopped trying to close the portal, I could have taken out all of the goblins and we wouldn't have even gotten nearly killed. Instead, I just focused only on the portal and let the rest of you hold off the goblins and take all the risk. I was safe and sound doing my own thing while the rest of you were on the front line, facing the threat that I couldn't." By the end Elmo was practically yelling.

Elin was shocked. She hadn't expected to have had that kind of response. If anything, she expected Elmo to have broken down rather than lashing out. It was almost as if they both felt like they were responsible for what happened.

"How can you say that?" Elin challenged, at a much quieter volume. "I abandoned you to deal with the portal on your own. I didn't want to deal with it when I didn't know how much it would take out of me. I just wanted to take the easy road out of that." Elin paused, as she felt her own pulse start to quicken and tried to calm herself sos he wouldn't blow up like Elmo. "And that's just there. I was the one who decided we should go up the stairs and start the fight then rather than letting all of us rest up. If I had done that, then maybe we could have had an easier time. Whatever happened was a direct result of me just wanting it to be over and not considering the condition all of us were in."

Elmo glanced at Elin as she finished saying her piece. She wasn't sure if she'd accomplished what she'd wanted to do with her statement, but couldn't think of anything else to add or saying anything differently. Yet, she still felt like she should say something more.

Her thoughts came to a screeching halt when Elmo suddenly smiled at her. "Maybe it's because we both have so little to do in the team that we expect so much more out of ourselves," he commented, his tone and expression a lot lighter than it had been a moment ago.

Elin could only look on in confusion. She really didn't understand what just happened. It was almost like the world suddenly turned upside down, leaving her the only one who hadn't turned with it.

Elmo merely chuckled as he looked at her. "Maybe I've been overthinking this, but listening to you say what was pretty much going on in my own head made me see how ridiculous it was," Elmo said, his voice sounding like it was lighter suddenly.

Elin still hadn't a clue as to what he was saying. Of course she head the words he said, but it was almost like she was trying to unlock a door with the wrong key. It just wouldn't turn. Then the more as she looked at how carefree Elmo was now, it seemed that something had happened that had completely passed her by.

Suddenly her surroundings felt suffocating. She didn't know what to do and all she was aware of was the pounding in her ears while the world around her changed into something she couldn't recognize.

"Elin!" Elmo snapped at her, startling her out of her thoughts.

"What?" she asked, confused.

"Are you okay?" he asked, looking rather worried.

"Why wouldn't I be?" she asked, feeling like she was trying to put water back into a bucket that had already soaked into the dirt.

"Because you wouldn't respond. Then you looked like you were about to start hyperventilating. So, I couldn't be sure if you might be not feeling well or had something going on that I wasn't aware of," Elmo answered.

Elin merely shook her head. She still felt confused at what had just happened, but pushed it away for the moment. She could deal with it later and right now it probably was only going to hurt her more. "I'll be fine," Elin assured Elmo.

Elmo looked like he didn't really believe her, but didn't say anything. He merely looked at her with an unreadable expression.

"Anyway," Elin said, eager to change the subject, "would you like to catch up with Heather and Sonya? I'm sure they'd like to hear how things went for us in the dungeon and it'd be nice to have someone else with me while we talked."

Elmo smiled, looking more relaxed than she'd seen him since before the had left that room when they had first met.

"Sounds good. They should be done soon, right?"