The Systems Challenge-Chapter 446: Brother and Sister

He'd thought she was asleep.

"It is my watch," he replied, not caring to say anything more than that. If he did, he was worried that his thoughts would disappear and he'd forget where he was on his ruminating about the issue.

"I can't either," Kim replied, sounding like she was miles away from where they were physically. "I'm still thinking about how we're supposed to be siblings. I mean, what a load of shit that is."

Jonas blinked. In spite of his best efforts, he found himself turning his attention to what Kim was saying. Though, he wasn't surprised that Kim felt that way. Not with her attitude towards men in general. Or at least what she kept telling herself that it was.

"Whose to say that we aren't on another world?" Jonas asked, wondering if maybe using Kim as a sounding board would help him sort through these thoughts more easily and figure out possibilities that felt more likely than what he'd been able to come up with so far.

"Don't you start too," Kim warned, her glare looking more tired than heated.

"It's not that I'm starting anything," Jonas assured Kim. "It's more that with how little we know about traveling between worlds, couldn't there be a world where we are brother and sister while there's other worlds where we're not?"

Kim sighed, looking towards the campfire. "I'm not sure I follow. What does that mean?"

"Think of it this way, some worlds could be separated by mere degrees and pretty much have the same people, but with minor differences. Though, the farther apart you get, the more differences there are. My theory is that maybe I came from a world that was mere degrees from yours, where either I was never born or died before you even were aware of my existence."

Kim didn't respond immediately. He hoped it was a theory that she'd be able to accept. As it certainly had been more than a little annoying with how she'd been carrying on whenever the subject came up, which was usually by her.

"That makes more sense," Kim said finally. "I'm not going to act like you're my brother, so don't expect that."

"I'd be more shocked if you did," Jonas replied dryly, not sure how else to respond to that.

Kim gave Jonas a brief glare at his remark before focusing on the campfire again. "Whatever. You realize that the others are already thinking of us as siblings, right?"

Jonas merely shrugged. It didn't really matter to him what others thought about him, so he couldn't care less about that. Although, a sudden thought occurred to him at that moment. That if something happened to Kim, would the others react to him like they did to Elwin when Leon died? It was possible, even though he certain isn't close with Kim like Elwin and Leon had been.

"So what if they are?" Jonas asked. "Not all siblings care for each other. I've seen some get into a fight to the death and the winner would spit on the other." Jonas sighed as he shook his head before continuing. "For most of my life I've been glad I didn't have a sibling. I'd have expected that they'd have been out for my throat otherwise."

"Whose to say I won't end up like that?" Kim asked, though her lighthearted tone made it feel more like a joke than a threat.

Jonas merely shrugged. "I wouldn't know. You didn't strike me as the type to be that way when we first met. In fact, it felt like you trusted me more than even Elin in certain areas, despite the fact that I was male."

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Kim sighed, sounding rather annoyed, though given her temperament, Jonas had a feeling it had more to do with what he'd said about her trusting him than anything else. The fact that she didn't say anything said to him that she knew he was right. She just didn't like it.

Jonas continued on, picking up his thoughts from where Kim had interrupted them. "I've been wondering if maybe the book we got about traveling between worlds would give me some insights into the matter, but I haven't been able to get a chance to even glance at its pages."

"I'm sure Elwin will finish up with it shortly," Kim replied, not sounding as convinced as her words made it seem.

"Your shortly and my shortly probably are two different kind," Jonas remarked, feeling annoyed at the fact.

"Doesn't matter," Kim replied, not taking the bait that Jonas had laid out for her to launch an attack on him. Which confirmed that she was avoiding getting too upset with him. Whether it was because of her learning that he was supposed to be her brother or if it was an extension of how she treated him since the competition started, he couldn't say. All he was certain of about it was the fact that she was essentially going easy on him.

Although if he pointed that fact out to her, he was confident that she'd really go off on him then. Simply because he was confident that it'd embarrass her and no one liked being embarrassed in that kind of way.

"What would you do if it did turn out that we are siblings?" Kim asked after a few minutes of quiet between them. Jonas had thought for a minute that she'd finished talking about it when she spoke again.

However, it was a pertinent question. Just one he didn't really have an answer for.

"Not really sure. I'm not sure what to even think about it. For as long as I can remember, I'd always been on my own and didn't have anyone I could even think of as family. So, I couldn't really say."

"Huh," Kim remarked, sounding almost annoyed by his response, but not quite.

"What?"

"Nothing. Just that wouldn't you consider Elmo to be someone you could think of as family?"

Jonas looked at Elmo, sound asleep. While he was willing to accept Elmo's affections, he couldn't say for sure that he was really able to return those feelings. He'd let Elmo in for reasons he was still trying to figure out for himself. All he could remember about it was that when he'd learned that Elmo had been taken captive, Jonas felt like part of him was missing without Elmo there.

Up to this point, he still hadn't figured an answer to that out just yet.

He had considered looking for a book on the subject in the library, but he doubted that he really wanted to see would be good to have over heard by anyone in the group. Even if it was just with him and Blot, he wouldn't have been able to hide it from the others. Besides, it wasn't like he'd be able to get the book and read it on the sly. Not without having had books with which to trade in the first place.

"That's a hard question to answer," Jonas answered honestly after thinking about it for a few minutes. "I'm not really sure I know the answer to it yet myself."

"Well, you better figure it out quickly," Kim replied, sounding a little annoyed by his response this time. "We don't have much longer before we'll reach the starting dungeon."