"I'm gonna go after her." Issei told us, "Sorry for all this. It's something between the two of us."

"Y-Yeah, I shouldn't have reacted the way I did either." Eleanor nodded, "I'll come with."

"If you could, it'd really help out a ton." Issei glanced back, "Then, Eleanor will come with me to go look for Othelia and hopefully clear things up, so you guys can just go back to the house."

"You sure you don't need us to come with?" I asked, though Cecily stopped me from that.

"No, it's best we don't bring any more unnecessary people into the mix." She warned, "Othelia just got told why things will never work out between her and Issei, so it's best for only the people that have to apologize to confront her."

"But-" I went to refute, only for Anna to interject as well.

"Ed, these things aren't something just anyone can fix." She rested her hand on my shoulder, "Let's trust Issei to do this alone."

"Y-Yeah." I turned to him, "Then, all I can say is good luck. And watch out for any straggler animals who might still be hostile towards humans."

"I'll be sure to keep your sister safe, Ed." He chuckled, seeing through me fully, "Sorry again for all this. Come on, Eleanor!"

"Right!" She agreed as they set foot towards the road ahead.

"Dammit, dad." I immediately frowned over to him, "What the hell was that about?"

"What? They seemed like a cute match." He shrugged.

"You're reaching, old man. She literally slapped and verbally assaulted him in front of your very Eyes." I pinched the bridge between my Eyes, "Disregarding the fact that the only thing those two did was argue even back on the mountain, what made you think they were like that?"

"Truth is, son..." Mom revealed his ulterior motives, "Your father just took a liking to the boy."

"He what now?" I glanced over at him as Cecily and Aru stifled their giggles.

"W-Well I mean, his frame might not be that of the burliest of men..." Dad tried elaborating on mom's accusation, "But he's very kind and respectful to his elders. We didn't really get to talk much, but you'd be surprised by just how nice he is when referring to us. He's also the only man in the house who cleans up after himself, not relying on his poor wife to put away the dishes or throw out the trash."

"He's the definition of a pervert?" I added, "The amount of dirty jokes stored in that one man is enough to turn a washing machine into a recycle bin."

"So what? A kid's gotta have a sense of humor, y'know?" Dad continued blindly defending him, "If there's anyone I would take as my son-in-law, it'd have to be him. So I figured I just had to get the ball rolling between him and Eleanor."

"You never know, Ed." Cecily joked about a dark possibility, "He might just become your brother-in-law. They do seem to have that slapstick chemistry going on between them."

"Just because you and Grim regularly beat the shit out of each other doesn't mean that's the standard for a healthy relationship." I continued getting more and more disappointed in these guys, "Seriously, if that guy tried anything on my sister, I'd straighten his Eyes back in."

"Hoo boy, then do I got some bad news for you." Aru disinterestedly let slip an ominous sentence.

"...Huh?" We all turned to her.

"Ah, uhh..." She then smiled deviously, "Shh, anything's possible with that foreigner, am I right?"

"...Hm?" Anna turned to glance over at me, however I was already sprinting back to catch up with them, "Hey, Ed! Come back here!"

"Fuck no, that bastard needs to know my sister's off limits!" I shouted back, "See ya' at the house, I'm gonna go warn that motherfucker!"

"Ed!" Their distant yelling and shouting completely fell on deaf ears as I booked it through the path that led me through the forest.

"Shit, why!?" I muttered to myself, "If it had been anyone else that said that, I would've taken it as a joke, but why did Aru have to say it!? The only person who knows how everyone's story ends, SHE had to tell me they might end up together!?"

Wait, what am I so worried about? From the way she said it, even she didn't sound so sure. Oh, that's right! She doesn't know Issei's fate, since he's not from this world! Right, she was just joking, she had to have been! Of course she wouldn't know the fate of that guy! B-But, she can still see Eleanor's fate... W-Which doesn't mean anything with that guy around! Right, what am I worrying about? Besides, he literally said he doesn't plan on dating anyone from this world, so why the hell am I... so...

"Worried..?" I then turned the corner, only to witness Issei, lying over top of Eleanor on the grassy ground in front of me, with his hand full-on groping her right tit.

"Gah!" He immediately got up the moment he saw me, "E-Ed! This isn't what it looks like! We were running, a-and Eleanor tripped on a rock, and...!"

"Bro, calm down." I gently approached him, fists raised to clearly show my intent.

"E-Eleanor can vouch for me!" He pointed to my bright Red sister, who was still lying on the ground in shock mind you, "Isn't that right, Eleanor!? You tripped, and I went to stop you from falling on your face, so we tumbled down a bit and got put in this fanservice-y situation!"

"Eleanor?" I turned to her, my fists slightly lowered as I gave him the benefit of the doubt, "What's your opinion on what I just saw?"

"Ugg..." She got up, glancing over to me, then my fists, then finally she glared over at Issei, "Pervert."

And with that, I found Issei guilty on all accounts. His sentence was a beatdown from his good friend Edward. The peaceful moonlit evening was now accompanied by a beautiful song Issei had conducted from his screams of agony, which only stopped after Eleanor felt he had enough and told me to calm down. One thing to note is that the song was a good 6 minutes long, and honestly I'm pretty glad she told me to stop when she did, because frankly, my arms were getting tired.

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"Unf... Huff..." The bruised up Issei tried speaking despite suffering from a rather bloodied and puffed up face, "Why... didnf... yu... stof... eawwiew?"

"Cause you abused the situation to grope me!" Eleanor yelled.

"Oh shut it, dude." I groaned as we continued looking for Othelia together, "Aru can just heal you when we get back, so quit whining. Here, Anna always gives me a bandaid whenever I go traveling somewhere, so you can use it if you want."

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"A bandaif? Sewwiousfy?" He took it from me angrily before sticking it on his broken lip, "Ugh, at least I can talk normally this way. Thanks."

"Why the hell are you thanking the guy who just beat the crap out of you?" I recalled dad's appraisal of him, which only further drove me up the wall, "Stop it, it's creepy!"

"Alright, you don't gotta go that far..." Eleanor felt a bit guilty after everything was said and done, "I did kind of overreact, especially since he was obviously just trying to keep me safe. It's my first time having someone else touch them, though, so I kinda panicked."

Her first... was Issei? God, what the hell is wrong with me, she didn't mean it like that. Seriously, my mind's been weird ever since we ate dinner at the Grys mansion. I think I'm just not feeling all good in the head after all that happened in the cave. Neither Eleanor nor Issei have expressed any intentions like that to one another, so why am I the only one livid here? Ugh, now that I've calmed down a bit, I'm just now realizing how much I bruised and battered a good friend for no real reason. Just how immature can I get, damn...

"Hey, Issei-" I went to properly apologize, only to get shushed the very next moment.

"Shush, she's over there!" He pointed to a crying Othelia sitting on a larger rock in the forest's clearing, "Alright Ed, you've done enough, so please sit back and watch over Eleanor while I talk to her."

"Huh? But I gotta apologize as well!" Eleanor refuted.

"Please, just let me handle this." He genuinely begged her, "This is something I gotta do. Please."

"Mn..." She thought it over for a moment before sighing, "Fine. I'll apologize later, so do your best."

Nodding, he slowly approached the crying White haired girl, trying his best not to frighten or alert her as much as he can. Despite his best efforts though, the moment he gently placed his hand on her shoulder and started the conversation off with an apologetic "Hey...", the look on her face when she saw his bruised and bloodied state quickly went pale, matching the natural color of her hair even.

"Gyaaaahh!" She yelled for her life, "I-Issei!? What happened to your face?!"

"Never mind that." He tried his best to smile despite the swelling, "I came to apologize for what I said. Where to start...?"

"It's fine." She slumped forward, hiding her face under her knees again, "I understand, it makes sense now that I think about it."

"You do?" He glanced back at us for a second before quietly sitting down next to her, "I like you, Othelia."

"Yeah..." Her tone indicated she hardly believed his words.

"It's true. I like... I l-love you." He braced himself to say such a line, "You've been with me from practically the beginning. We've traveled the world together, saved each other's butts more times than I can count. W-We even shared our first time together."

Uhh, should Eleanor and I be listening to this? Eh, I'll cover her ears up for good measure. Oi, stop squirming, this conversation's too adult for you!

"Mn..." She revealed her face to him, the moonlight illuminating her lightly flushed expression, "So then..."

"I can't be with you." He reached out to hug her, but wussed out midway, instead lying on his back as if he had completely given up, "When I go back home, I can't bring you with me."

"Why?" She raised her voice slightly, the desperation in her tone clearly audible, "I've followed you thus far, so why not now?"

"Because I'm dealing with something even the Gods of this world don't know about." He sounded like he was on the brink of tears, "I heard this from some old man a decade ago, who knows if it's even true? And if it is, whose to say you will be able to travel with me? What if it only works for me? Then there's the issue of having to explain your identity to the people of my world, having you adapt to our normal, and even more... Taking you away from your family."

"...God..." She laid down on her back as well, putting them in a position where they could both gaze up at the starry night sky, "What made you think after that night that I would choose this world over you?"

"!" He looked over at her in surprise before tiredly looking up again, "I... I guess I didn't think you would. Not just you, I never assumed anyone would give up their entire homeworld, the one place they were familiar with, and jump to a completely unknown place just to be with someone... like me."

"But I like you." She turned to her side to face him, "And I wanna be with you. So, if you were to say, ask me once again if I wanted to date you, just like you did all those years ago... I can gladly say the answer always was and always will be - yes."

"O-Othelia... Tch, heh." He got up, ignoring the entire mood that was preparing the audience for a kiss scene, "If that's the case, then I should probably start teaching you some japane-Mnf!"

To everyone's shock and surprise, Othelia didn't seem all that satisfied with just that, so to start off their love's reset with a bang, she pulled him close before going in for a kiss. A bombastic and rad move that she was probably waiting for a good long while to happen, yes, but the issue was that she wasn't really letting go.

"O-Othelia?" He talked in between her barrage of sensual kisses, "I'm glad, mnf... but we should really... wait until, augh... we get back home!"

"But I haven't done this for so long?" She straddled him before he could even react, "The moon's out, we've got the whole place for ourselves... Really, what's stopping us from having a little fu-?"

"Ed and Eleanor are watching!" He covered his bright Red face as he hastily gave away our hiding spot behind the bushes, "I really would do it otherwise, but they're just over there!"

"...What?" She glared over at the shrub we were hiding behind, which was the final signal we needed to send us booking it back to the house.

"We're sorry, carry on!" I shouted back as I ran full speed in the opposite direction.

"H-Hey, what's going on?! Ed!" Eleanor lagged behind a bit, but I urged her to follow me, "My ears were covered, what happened?!"

"Just shut up and follow me!" I ordered.

Well, we got that cleared up at least. What happens next will be up to them, ultimately, but I'm at least happy that they settled their misunderstanding and can finally be honest with themselves. Issei better perform well on his side now that he has no distractions, otherwise all this running away will have gone to waste, though.