“Am I that disposable to you?”
Eren asked the last question quietly like he was asking himself more than he was asking Nina. But she could hear him clearly due to their proximity and her ears resting on his chest, which carried his voice’s vibrations.
Nina knew that Eren was infatuated with her from when his age had barely gotten into double digits. But she always dismissed that affection as something a child will harbour initially and will forget about later on.
She never knew Eren not only harboured those feelings till now but also cultivated them to this degree. She was finally happy that there was a person in her life that was this affectionate towards her. But Eren’s last question shook her psyche.
She hurriedly replied:
“Erni, that’s not what I meant..”
“Then do you mean you regret being with me because I’m yet to become good enough for you?”
“That’s not it either. Your father and I were good friends and party members. So I need to treat..”
“F*ck my father. Who cares about him when he stopped caring about us? We don’t even know if he is dead or alive. And for goodness’ sake, don’t even talk about my whore of a mother. I’ve only forgiven her for my sake, not hers.
Do you want me to hate you equally because you want to take any of my parents’ place in my life? I thought you heard me the first time. I don’t want to ever have a parent-child relationship with you. And that’s the end of it.”
Nina tried to intervene after she heard Eren using foul language for his parents:
“Language, young man. Who gave you the right to use cuss…”
But Eren pressed on:
“My point is, we should have our definition of a relationship. You’ll still be my aunt. And my elder, my guardian. And I’ll always be your nephew, your junior, your student. But who says we can’t become more than our current roles?”
“But our age difference…”
“Haah! That’s even more of a joke. You are already a C Rank. If I don’t get promoted in ranks and stay rankless, I’ll be an old man after 40-50 years. Even if you stagnate your promotion now, you’ll still live longer than me, looking younger than my future-old self. And I can surmise that you are still eyeing a promotion.
I can tell you this much. I’m going to break into ranks like nobody’s business. I’ll keep on getting promoted and will never let anything or anyone stop my progress.
Therefore, you should focus on your promotion instead of worrying about our age difference. I already have an age advantage over you while you have a Ranking advantage over me. I can say with certainty that your advantage over me won’t hold for much longer when I start my ranking journey.
When I become a high ranked entity and if at that time you are still a C Rank and look old, then we can think about becoming only aunt and nephew again. Although I like you and will always like you, I don’t want to be ‘engaged’ in that way with grannies, you see.”
Eren concluded while suppressing his laughter. Nina broke their hug and pinched him hard on his arm:
“Hmph! Look who’s talking. A rankless nobody wants to leave me, a C Rank healer behind in a ranking race. By the time you catch up with my current rank, I would have already broken through multiple ones. I’m never getting old before you.”
Eren caressed his skin that was pinched hard. There was a red spot on it now. But he didn’t pay much attention and said carefreely:
“That settles it then. We won’t think about restricting our relationship to our current boundaries as long as you don’t become a granny or I keep on catching up to you in ranks.” Eren smiled wolfishly after saying that.
“Hehehe! Hold your horses, little rat. Though I must say, I should think about calling you an adult rat now. Your talk is more mature for your age.
But you are saying as if it’s a done deal. You are also forgetting that you are a minor.”
Nina laughed with her hands on her mouth. She wasn’t restricting her laugh though with that hand. She looked at Eren who suddenly became sad after hearing that. She was wondering which part of her words ticked him off until she heard the latter say:
“I know my package is small now, aunt Nina. We have to play the cards we are dealt with at the time. But give me a few years, it’ll grow to your expectations. Till then, apart from conventional art, we can employ other methods which I’m sure you can teach me.
If you remain unsatisfied, we can only wait for a few years. Or you can choose to drop the ‘little’ me from ‘engaging’ with you in that way!”
Saying that Eren tried getting close to Nina. But the C Rank healer with her enhanced body stats pushed him away with her single finger while saying:
“Hehehe! Who are you trying to fool with with such an obvious act? We both know that’s not what I meant when I called you to be a ‘minor’. I mean first, you shouldn’t partake in these activities with anyone at your age, not with me or other girls for that matter.
And second, a minor’s brain can get negatively affected when they start their sexual exploration earlier than their recommended age.”
Eren was pushed long back with a force so strong he lost his balance and fell on his butt. Hearing Nina’s reply he again got up and approached her while saying:
“Your argument would have made sense if we didn’t experience what he did just a few minutes ago.”
Eren taunted her and continued:
“All I’m saying is, I don’t know about my body, but my mind is mature enough to handle anything related to sexual activity. If and when that activity becomes part of my life, I won’t let it overshadow the other parts.
And if you think my minor body is the issue here, just consider going easy on me.”
“But I’m worried about skewing your taste in women forever with our age difference. You won’t be able to have a normal romantic relationship with girls your age.”
Aunt Nina voiced another concern of hers.
“Well, if you want me to date girls my age while ‘engaging’ with you, I can only thank your generosity. I’ll gladly cheat on you to prove my standards aren’t skewed.”
Eren said that while cackling.
“Hmph! I’ll break your bones before that.”
The contradiction incarnate struck again! Nina said that while pouting.
“My point is, if and when I like anybody other than you, I’ll come and tell you, be she is my age, a minor, or older than me. And I expect you to extend the same courtesy to me. If you find someone who is better suited to be with you, you’ll come and tell me.
I think we are both honest with each other enough to do that. At least I trust you enough for this part. Do you?”
Eren suddenly got serious and asked Nina. To which, she smiled as if all her questions were put to rest and said:
“No!”