Chapter 198 Clara And Elysia’s Talk
Night had arrived. Elysia was turning in bed, unable to sleep, her mind plagued by worry over whether she should try to accept Clara into their relationship.
'Fuck it, I will just talk to her.' Building up the courage to finally talk to Clara, Elysia carefully got out of bed, trying not to wake Shaman up.
Entering the hallway, her nervousness began to build up and she started to second guess herself.
Now just outside of Clara's room, Elysia was contemplating whether she should go through with this or not.
'I need to do this for both me and Shaman.' Elysia held her hand to her chest finding the situation rather difficult.
Raising her hand up to the door, Elysia finally gave it a few knocks.
"Coming~." Clara called out and quickly came to the door. Opening up, she was shocked to see Elysia and became rather defensive.
"It's okay, I'm not here to assassinate you or anything. I-I just wanted to talk about our feelings." Elysia stumbled on her words slightly as the mere thought of Clara having feelings for Shaman caused Elysia to be irritated.
"O-oh okay." Clara eased up a little bit, but she did not let her guard down.
'Why does she want to talk about that? I know Elysia has been a bit more accepting of me as of late but didn't think we would have this conversation so soon.' Clara noticed that Elysia had a better grip on her obsessiveness, seeming much more reasonable than her usual threatening self.
"Well, come in and take a seat." Clara felt extremely nervous as she had not been prepared at all and the suddenness of the situation made it worse.
Walking into Clara's room, Elysia sat down on a chair while Clara sat across from her on the bed.
"So what specifically did you want to talk about?" Clara was still a little unsure what Elysia was after, but she could make a good guess what it was about.
"You probably guessed it, but it's about our feelings for Shaman." Elysia fidgeted with her hands trying to make sure she didn't explode.
"I see, I wasn't expecting this to be so soon." Clara looked down as she was a bit surprised that Elysia even knew that Clara had an attachment to Shaman.
"Yeah well, Shaman has been pestering me to talk it out and get myself under control." Elysia scratched the back of her head as she recalled the many times Shaman nagged Elysia.
"Aha well what did you want to talk about first?" Clara wanted to get straight to the point as she felt extremely nervous and wanted to get it over with.
"Hmm well, for starters I wanted to ask how you see Shaman?" Elysia wanted a direct answer. Although she guessed Clara had some feelings, Elysia needed to hear it from her directly.
Hearing the question, Clara couldn't help but freeze for a moment, as depending on her answer she felt like she could get herself killed.
'I know I have some interest, but I told myself I would suppress it.' Clara had no idea what to do as she wanted to hold off on developing anything for Shaman because of Elysia.
'Do I be honest, or do I lie?' Clara contemplated if it was a good idea to hide the truth, but at the same time, if she kept hiding it, her relationship with Elysia would never improve.
'No, I can't lie, especially not now.' After mulling over it for a few more seconds Clara decided to be upfront with how she felt. Taking a deep breath before answering, she steeled her resolve.
"I have some interest, but I have suppressed my feelings. Still, if she wasn't with you, I see myself being with Shaman." Clara readied herself for Elysia to attack, but surprisingly she did not move or show any signs of attacking.
"Hmm, I understand." Elysia took a deep breath and thought for a moment to formulate a response.
'I was hoping it was a no, but it seems like that won't be the case.' Elysia's best-case scenario was that Clara had no interest in Shaman, but that was a false hope in and of itself.
'I don't want to hate Clara for having feelings, it's totally normal, but at the same time I don't want that to be a threat to our relationship.' Elysia knew it was stupid to think that Clara would do anything to bring her harm, but due to Shaman being the only family she has left in the world, losing her would mean she lost everything.
'Maybe I should try what Shaman said and open my heart to Clara. It might be better that way, as at least then I could stop viewing Clara as an enemy.' Elysia considered changing her view on Clara. That way maybe they could work together to please Shaman rather than be at each other's throats.
'I like the sound of that. If I end up with feelings for Clara as well, maybe it won't be so bad.' Elysia's mind began to imagine different scenarios and she couldn't help blushing a little.
In a spur of excitement, Elysia quickly stood up from her chair.
"U-ummm, this might sound weird, but how about we both date Shaman at the same time?" Strangely enough, Elysia noticed that the side of her that would get agitated was not flaring up. Surprised to find that Clara has slowly warmed her way into her heart, Elysia realised she was no longer feeling threatened by Clara.
Although it would take time for Elysia to adapt and for her to actually get emotionally attached, it was something to work towards. Clara was a little stunned by the idea and even blushed. Giving it some thought, she concluded it was something she could live with.
"I-I, y-yeah sure, why not." Clara felt like she couldn't say no as there were no real negatives and it may even be something healthy for the both of them.
"Phew." Elysia let out a sigh of relief as she expected Clara to be weirded out or look down on her.
"Wait, hang on, but what about you? Are you sure you are able to handle it?" Clara was rather concerned for the long term as she could see Elysia eventually snapping.
"Hmm, I don't know." Elysia had thought about it for a moment until her face suddenly went red.
"??" Clara was curious as to what Elysia had just thought of, leading her imagination to wander in similar directions...
'Damnit why do I have these thoughts?' Elysia had thought about the kind of things they would do together, but this was pushing it a little too far and she could feel herself wanting to lash out.
Clara, who also went red, was still finding this all hard to believe and the spiral of her thoughts only made the conversation even more awkward.
'I mean that would fix the many issues between us, but that doesn't solve the underlying problem. However, what if the problem doesn't need to be fixed?' Clara thought that as long as they did not get any more group members there was no reason to fix the issueHell, perhaps they could even use it to their advantage.
Sitting there embarrassed by their thoughts, the two remained silent until Clara finally spoke.
"W-well how about we focus on the small things and see where it goes from there, plus we need to talk to Shaman."
Clara was fine with any outcome, but if they wanted to move things forward, they'll have to take it step by step.
"I-I think so too." Elysia felt a little mad at herself for having those thoughts about Clara, but in the end, if Shaman was okay with it then Elysia will try her best to let Clara in as well.
After fighting off the lewd thoughts they were having, they continued on to talk for a little longer.
"So what now?" Clara had no idea what Elysia had in store and wanted to make sure they were on the same page.
"For now, I want us to work together so we can accept each other, but I will warn you now that if you go too fast I will most likely end up lashing out." After their heart to heart talk, Elysia felt a lot more comfortable with Clara and was willing to tell her more.
"That's easy enough, but you know, sometimes mistakes are unavoidable, especially considering Shaman can be a bit pushy and may force me into a risky position." Clara was sweating after Elysia's threat as she saw many times how Shaman didn't think much of the consequences of her teasing.
"Haha, those times don't bother me. You see, as long as Shaman allows it I don't seem to be affected by it as much, so in a sense you are safe as long as Shaman is okay with it." Elysia felt rather proud of herself for getting better at understanding herself as well as finding ways to abuse it.
"Ohhh I see, that helps relieve a lot of my stress. Sometimes I felt like you would just pounce at me at a moment's notice." Clara also admitted that she had been feeling rather stressed when around Shaman due to Elysia.
"Oh I'm sorry about that, but I'm glad we were able to clear this up and I hope you can feel more comfortable around me." Elysia was already enjoying Clara's company and was glad she was able to talk to someone else normally for once.
'Tsk, why was I so afraid? I really need to stop this horrible attitude towards everyone.' Elysia was seeing why it was such a huge problem but nonetheless was happy with the progress she had made.
"Aha, Likewise, I was feeling a bit isolated from the group, so I'm glad we can talk like this." Clara felt a huge weight was taken off her shoulders and now she could truly feel a part of the group.