Silent Bonding

Hours after Eric mercifully shared a part of his past for Sebastian's sake, Lila suggested Sebastian sleep in the bedroom in which he had convalesced after the dissolution. Given the day he'd had, she didn't think he should be alone with his thoughts. She took him some sleeping pills and a glass of water. After handing him the objects, she closed the bedroom door and headed back to the living room.

She crossed Eric in the hallway. He held the Manpax box, quick to tell her he had to change the manbelt. Lila scrunched her nose and waved him off turning away from him in a hurry. Feeling the strain of the day, Lila nodded absent-mindedly and walked to the kitchen in a daze. She needed a drink more than anything. She knew she didn't have any liquor around, but that didn't stop her from hoping for an overlooked bottle somewhere.

After rummaging through her entire kitchen, which was once again, mostly devoid of anything consumable, Lila grabbed her purse and pulled the door open.

"Where are you going?" a familiar masculine voice halted her.

With a huff, she turned to Eric, who was standing at the hallway entrance. "I need a drink," she shared. "I don't anything stronger than chamomile tea here and I should probably have something for Sebastian to eat in the morning."

Eric's long legs began to move toward her. Without missing a beat, he grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the house as he closed the door behind them. "I'll drive," he said while escorting her to his SUV.

He walked around the passenger side, quickly opening the door for her. Despite the brute manner in which he had collected her at the door, he now exercised gentleness as he helped her in his vehicle.

Lila stared at him as he walked around the front of the vehicle. He had tried to make his own dissolution sound like it had been no big deal, but the slight frown between his eyebrows made her believe otherwise. As soon as he began to drive, and she felt enough distance between them and Sebastian, she felt at ease to speak.

"Eric," she began as she turned her body toward him. "Why did you feel the need to lie to me when I asked you if you'd had a dissolution before?"

The cabin grew heavy with tension in the matter of a couple of seconds.

His face remained stoic as he continued to drive down the street. The sun was beginning to set, and streetlights were starting to turn on.

Lila was going to let the question remain unanswered.

Eric opened up for the greater good. He didn't deserve to have his dissolution shoved in his face if he didn't want to talk about it. She stared at his profile, so focused on the drive. "You'll want to make a left at the light," she said, realizing he likely wasn't too familiar with her neighborhood. To her surprise, he ignored her and kept driving straight.

"Eric?" she said as she turned back, looking at the missed turn. "The store is that way," she used her thumb to point behind them.

He remained silent. The look of seriousness had not vacated his features.

Lila gasped. "You're going to kill me, aren't you?" she stated monotonously.

That worked.

"What?!" Eric's visceral reaction pulled him out of his thoughts.

Lila eased in the seat. "That makes sense, actually," she crossed her legs. "I must admit, it's quite smart and i didn't see it coming."

"What are you talking about?" He repeated. "Can you come land your spaceship and tell me why you think I'm going to kill you?"

"Well, sure," she shrugged. "First, you open up about your past, can't leave any witnesses that don't understand the toils of men. Second, with me out of the way, it'll be easier for you to convince Alex to get that dissolution, and third," she waved to his abdomen. "You're manstruating. I hear men can plea temporary insanity to any crimes committed while they're oozing and get away with murder. It's quite genius, i must admit."

Eric turned his gaze at Lila for a moment before redirecting it back to the road. "You're an idiot," was all he said.

"Sticks and stones, baby," she said as she relaxed into the leather seat and closed her eyes.

She opened her eyes a few minutes later when she heard the car engine die and the heard the clamoring of her seatbelt being unbuckled.

Eric had parked on an overlook that surrounded them with trees and nature while a landscape of faraway county lights began to illuminate the space in the distance. It had gotten darker too, which only helped the sparkle of the lights intensify.

Eric reached over, hovering above her as he reclined her seat back. Lila smiled at him, she didn't want to remind him that his manstruating had grossed her out earlier, but she figured she could take one for the team - especially given they were in his car, so if a mess ensued, it was his problem to deal with, not hers.

She brought her hands up to his neck, burying her fingers in his hair. She parted her lips as she began to pull his face down toward her.

Until she met with resistance.

"What are you doing?" he asked with a look of confusion as he pulled away from her grasp. He reached up, opening the sunroof. The feeling of cool air filling the shared space immediately.

Lila felt her cheeks blush. "I thought we were going to.." she let the sentence hang, clearly indicating what she thought was going to happen.

He snickered as he reached over between the passenger door and the driver's seat to recline his own support. "No offense but your face full of disgust killed the mood for me earlier," he said as he leaned back. "Not to mention the talk with Sebastian," he finished. "I just wanted to us to get some fresh air and leave the world behind for an hour or two." He pointed to the sunroof, "The stars are always brighter here," he said.

Lila stared out the open window.

She had never seen stars look so bright. She inhaled and exhaled slowly; she decided she would let Eric decide the course of the evening.

"It's not that I wanted to lie to you," he spoke after a few silent minutes. "I didn't want to announce to a bunch of strangers around us that I'd had a dissolution."

Lila turned from the stars to the man lying next to her with a console in between them. She shifted so her belly was facedown; she caressed his cheek with the back of her hand. Her fingers bumped against his glasses. "If you want to open up about it, I'll listen. If you don't, I will respect your wishes."

Eric closed his eyes.

He hadn't gone into much detail about his experience with Sebastian because he had chosen to focus on the church's stance on procreation for the sake of more congregants for the church. More congregants equaled more money. They didn't really seem to care about the small, hungry children that already existed among poor families.

Lila herself had heard that Sebastian's religion did not allow for male clergy, or for married priestesses because the church didn't want offspring or spouses to have rights over any religious property that the church felt belonged to itself.

The sound of their phones chiming filled the silence. Eric reached for the steering wheel and pulled himself up. Lila looked around for her purse.

"That's my brother's notification ring tone," he said as he grabbed the phone from the console.

Truth was, Lila had forgotten about Alex altogether at this point. She was still looking for her purse when Eric shared the text.

"He texted both of us," he said with the glare of the phone reflecting on his glasses. "He chickened out. Mom and dad still think I'm the one that's nested."