Chapter 1: Dion x Ruby
"Heartless"
The scorching sun beat down, bathing everything below in its golden rays. Hiding in the shade of the trees that towered above them, a group of warriors rested after a long trek. Though tired of the intolerable heat that knew no mercy, they would soon have to continue their journey.
"This heat is really something…" muttered the leader of the group. The Oracle knight glanced at his comrades, in case the heat got the better of any of them.
"I have to agree… We must be in a heat wave or something." Sighed Medina who, with a relatively revealing outfit, shouldn't have been affected as much.
"Quit whining - with an outfit like yours you should consider yourself lucky," scoffed the necromancer. "Or does our princess need a prince charming to come and make the heat go away?" He added with a smirk.
"Shut up Yuura, I don't have the energy left to be your source of entertainment," she retorted, irritated with Yuura's constant verbal abuse. "And it's clear to see the heat isn't just affecting me."
"Indeed. Although the two of you were made for each other, you're far from the ideal prince charming and Medina is too violent for the role of a princess." Rinon cut in, her patience wearing thin. Receiving a glare from Medina, Rinon could only sigh as Yuura's smirk grew larger.
"Anyways, you're right, A heartless person like Yuura couldn't be even close to a prince," Medina agreed after seeing Yuura's irritating smirk.
"Aww… I'm hurt, you know. I do have a heart. I shower my affection on you every day." Yuura jested with a mocking tone.
"Affection? More like a subject of interest." snapped Medina.
"One that never ceases to amuse me." He laughed,
"Honestly, Dion is the heartless one," Ruby interjected. "If it's not about a difficult fight or something, he does even bat an eye!" She exclaimed while shooting a glare in Dion's direction.
"And your point is...?" Dion asked flatly.
" See?! There he goes again with that stupid tone! And my point is that if something happened to one of us, you wouldn't even care!" Ruby angrily accused.
"Who said I didn't care?"
"I did! And you know that you wouldn't care!"
"Since when were you right?"
"So are you saying you do care? Fine then. Say it!"
"I care." With all his reply in monotone, it only seemed to anger Ruby even more.
"Now, now, let's not get into a fight. After all, we still have a long way to go to reach our destination." Ilia calmly interjected keeping the two from bickering any longer. The group was silent for the next few minutes, everyone's patience at its limit. "Hmm... What a sour atmosphere, this isn't good." Announced Ilia, trying to find a way to lighten the mood. As if a light bulb had been turned on she smiled, "Hey, how about we take a break, after all, we need someone to scout out the area ahead, right? It would be a great time for the rest of us to rest," she proposed.
"That's a great idea Ilia," agreed Ark. "Who thinks they can still go and scout out the area ahead?" He asked. Silence filled the air until a certain fox girl spoke up as if the former events never happened,
"I'll go! I've still got a lot more energy in me!" Ruby chirped, smiling at the chance to help Ark.
"Alright, thank you Ruby." He returned the smile.
"Dion, could you go with Ruby too? Just in case," asked Ilia, turning to the cyan-haired male who was leaning on a nearby tree, his distaste for the predicament he found himself in was shown with his perpetual frown. Maintaining the aloof nature he queried,
"Why me? I'm sure Medina could fit that part better than I could."
"Please?" urged Ilia, her kind and innocent plead reached him and with sigh, he reluctantly agreed,
"Fine," he glanced over to the fox girl who began to spout objections,
"What?! Why does Dion have to come, I can take of myself you know!" She protested pleading to Ark to do something about it. Ark could only reassure her that it would be safer and that this applied to anyone in the group. Resigning to her fate Ruby could only reluctantly approval of the plan. "Fine… If you say so."
The two would then set off down the path scouting for enemies Ruby glaring at Dion all the way. "Hmmph. I guess in a way this is good for me because now you definitely won't be fighting Ark behind my back. " She boasted, skipping ahead of the male warrior.
"A lost opportunity is lost, there's no point in crying about it." He dryly replied, looking around for any possible threats to the group.
"Why is it all about battling strong opponents huh!? The world is full of so many other things!" Ruby questioned turning around pointing at Dion, determined to get an answer for his apathetic look on everything.
"Those "other things" simply don't interest me, that's all there is to it." He absently stated, his eyes trailing of the path toward a large bush for an unknown reason.
"And why don't they interest you?" Ruby asked, waiting for his response she impatiently tapped her foot on the ground.
"..." Dion remained silent, still staring at the bush before his eyes narrowed. Noticing the change in his demeanor she brought out her dual blades.
"Hey, why are you stari-" she began but was cut off by the sharp gale sent toward the bush along with the sound of a bullet being shot. The perpetrator that was revealed hiding in the bush had fired his gun at Ruby, being part fox she was narrowly able to avoid the shot as it grazed her leg. This however left a large cut on her leg, wincing, she retaliating by sending shots of fire at them from her dual blades. Unfortunately, they weren't the alone ones as more shots rang, Ruby dodging them all thanks to her fox senses glanced at Dion who deflected every single shot sent toward him without much enthusiasm. This was a battle, wasn't it? Why wasn't he satisfied? Ruby couldn't help but ponder.
"Stop staring off into space unless you want to get killed." His tone remained level headed but the tiniest tint of concern reached her, snapping out of her thought she shouted,
"Yeah I got it, and what are we going to do about them?"
"What do you think?"
"Take them down!"
"Did you have any other ideas?" Dion sarcastically replied he was without a doubt going to shoot Ruby down at any chance he could. Ignoring his insults Ruby dashes forward toward her attackers before gracefully taking them down. At least it's not as degrading as Yuura's insults. There was a large difference between Yuura's snarky comments and Dion's filterless words. Dion's comments are usually just him being blunt, and Yuura's comments are anything goes as long as it is aimed to mess with you. Taking a step back Ruby felt a sudden pain in her leg, most likely from the shot, falling onto one leg and unable to block an upcoming swing from one of the enemies. Closing her eyes she braced herself for the attack, only for the sound of metal clashing filled the air. Opening her eyes she is met with the unusual sight of Dion standing in front of her in a sword lock with one of the other attackers before he swiftly kicked them away to take care of the other ones. "Stay back and don't get in my way." He ordered, taking out another enemy he gave Ruby the opportunity to retreat.
"Don't let the girl getaway! That's why we're here!" Commanded one of the enemies, firing another round at Ruby.
"Predictable." Dion swiftly deflected the shot before closing the distance between him and the leader before promptly taking him out. Ruby helped to the best of her ability taking out enemies with shots of fire while Dion dealt with the ones going after Ruby. Before they knew it, they had taken out every single enemy in the area. Unsatisfied with the results, Dion sighed. "How tedious…" before turning to Ruby, "Now we have to get that leg healed… Why does trouble always follow you around?" He remarked.
"Probably because I'm a rare species…" Ruby mumbled, glancing at the wound on her leg that prevented her from walking without feeling some kind of dull pain. "Let's go back, Ark is probably worried, so we have to hurry." She got up and turned back limbing and ignoring the pain and without waiting for an answer. She would hear Dion's sigh and footsteps as he began to follow. At least he didn't say anyth- she spoke too soon, but instead of hearing one of his remarks she was suddenly lifted off the ground as Dion slung her over his shoulder and began walking back without a word. Taken back by the sudden gesture she became a stuttering wreck " E-eh, W-what do you think you're d-doing?!"
"Making sure we don't waste any time getting back." He blatantly replied while carrying her.
"B-but I can w-walk on my own!" Ruby protested flailing her arms in comedic fashion.
"Can you now?" He countered, almost teasing her.
" S-shut up!" She fumed, turning away from the impassive male who said nothing more. Searching for something else to say to respond to Dion's remark she realized something the puzzled her more than anything else. Why would he help me? He could have made remarks all the way back while watching me try to walk back, yet he decided to carry me. Confused and wondering if he had any interior motives to his actions Ruby questioned: "Why are you carrying me back anyways, you could have left me and ran off to fight Ark or something." Taking a moment to think for a second Dion soon replied,
"That would be unfair." He answered.
"Since when did you care about it being fair or not huh?" Ruby accused suspecting that he had merely made an excuse, a white lie. She continued to pester him to much of his frustration, he couldn't come up with any more counters at this point. He gave in with a sigh,
"Didn't you want to make it back to Ark as fast as you can?" He muttered under his breath just loud enough for Ruby's fox ears to hear.
"...Eh?"
Ruby took a moment to process the information given to her before her face flushed red and mind went blank. "EHHHHH!? S-seriously?!" She shouted. Dion remained silent and continued walking back turning away from Ruby's gaze. "Hey! Hey, Dion! Answer me! W-why are you listening to me now out of all times?!" She continued while flailing about in Dion's arms.
"H-hey, Stop flailing like a child you're making it harder to carry you-" Dion tripped on a withering tree root, sending both of them tumbling to the ground. Opening her eyes she realized that not only had the quiet cyan head protected her head from the fall, but he was also on top of her.
"O-oi! J-just what are you doing Dion!?" She exclaimed.
"I told you not to flail didn't I?" Dion sighed with irritation, possibly to hide his embarrassment as he got off Ruby. Sitting down beside her both of them stared at the blue sky hanging above them.
"I guess even the stoic Dion is being affected by the heat." Ruby managed to snicker, too tired to get up just yet.
"Shut up…" Dion muttered still staring at the sky.
"You know, I kinda admire the sun," Ruby admitted while watching clouds pass by.
"And why is that?" Dion inquired, raising an eyebrow in subtle curiosity. Noticing the wound on her leg was bleeding more than before he took off his cape and gently wrapped it around the wound to stop the bleeding, Ruby, in turn, blushed again before continuing.
"No matter what happens below it, it continues to shine, even if clouds covered it up it is still shining. It has always stayed the same, always lighting your day up!" She smiled before sitting up and brushing the dirt off her clothes.
"This world would be boring without change though," Dion replied before getting up.
"Heh, I guess so! Especially for you!" She proclaimed, getting up and brushing the dirt off her clothes. "But let's get one thing straight! Even if a change is good, I'm not going to let you fight Ark again!" She warned while glaring daggers at Dion who only sighed.
"You'll always get in my way huh…"
"Yup! The both of us may slowly change, but we'll always argue with each other!" Ruby grinned.
"Is that suppose to be a good thing?" Questioned Dion as he continued to walk back with Ruby.
"Which part?"
"Nevermind."
"What?"
"I said nevermind."
"Nevermind what?"
"Why are you such an idiot…" Muttered Dion, Ruby quickly glared at him.
"I'm not an idiot! You're the idiot!"
"And why is that?"
"Because you don't smile!"
"What does that have to do with being an idiot?"
"Because no one can ever know if you're happy or sad! It's not good to bottle emotions up! Also, a smile can bring hope too!" Proclaimed Ruby as she stubbornly crossed her arms, Dion paused for a moment before he resumed walking back.
"...Fine, I'll keep that in mind." Mumbled Dion looking away from Ruby's proud grin.
"So you admit your an idiot?"
"No."
"Oh come on!" Ruby threw her hands up in defeat. She then remembered what she had accused Dion of before they went off scouting. She had accused him of not caring about the safety of the group, yet he had helped treat her wound and was now carrying her back. She began to feel guilty for accusing him beforehand. "Hey Dion," she started, Dion nodded, allowing her to continue. "I'm sorry for what I said earlier... I guess you do have a heart somewhere in that shell of a person you are." She quipped
"Is that so?" He questioned, ignoring the latter part of the sentence.
"Yes…" Pouted Ruby
"Alright," he replied, seemingly content with her answer.
"H-hmmph!"
"What is it now?" Dion sighed, wondering what in the world was wrong now.
"You're still an idiot."
"Look who's talking."
"Fine! We're both idiots!" Fumed Ruby, giving up as she was at his mercy at the moment.
"I can live with that." Admitted Dion. Though Ruby had no proof, she could have sworn she saw him subtly grin, as if silently mocking her.
"Stupid Dion!"
The End
I'm still alive! I've just been lazy. I hope you enjoyed the first one shot in this little series I plan to do. I had to do Ruby and Dion because OTPs but anyways, the next one shot will be on Tazer and Tora. Expect it to come out in April or early May. And that's all I have to say, till next chapter, Bye, bye!