Chapter 1: Reminisce
It had been a year since Ruby, Adam and Seth made their way back.
Esme was worried sick, if she had been physically capable of it. She made them promise not to go off too far to hunt alone again since the 3 of them were the perfect ingredients for a recipe of trouble.
Hunting trips exceeding Forks' borders were disallowed to them for the longest time.
But now that the incident had seemed so long ago, Adam and Ruby found that they could sneak off to further places. However, it was not without the supervision of their older siblings.
Ruby could not deny that the sight of blonde hair and piercing blue eyes would make her pay more attention to the particular person. It would then begin, a mental comparison inside her head, of how the person resembled or do not resemble Legolas.
The increasing longing to see him again began to eat at her. She hated the way when she would do something and it would lead her to think of him.
She had never outwardly spoken of it but the Cullens could tell there was something troubling her. The worse thing was knowing that questioning would get them nowhere, they did not attempt to.
Edward, of course, could tell straightaway. Ruby's thoughts were clear and loud. And simple, too. She wanted to see someone again, though he do not know who it is. But that someone had to do with a trip that Ruby had back then that made Esme fatigued with worry for almost 2 months.
After their return, Ruby had been the quietest among them to speak about it and relate their experience to the rest. It was almost as if she would rather choose to avoid the topic.
She was happy to be back at first. Thankful that they were among shy and ignorant humans once again and not the more intellectual know-all Elves who made immortality seem stunning and beautiful. She found herself appreciating humans all and opening up to them more readily than before, resulting in a few more good school friends, which was all the better to occupy her time with.
She was vexed with herself sometimes. Of course, she had to admit that she did get jealous of all her siblings at times. They were attached and partnered. She could not help but feel left out at times even though there always was big brother Adam. But at least even he managed to find someone whom he had a huge crush on, and that was the lovely Tanya.
She drummed her fingers impatiently on the table while pretending to pay attention to the TV in the living room.
Major examinations were just over last week and she was extremely bored. The life of a vampire can be pretty boring.
Esme was grocery-shopping, probably with Sam's wife, Emily. She took forever whenever she does because technically, Esme shops to feed a whole pack of wolves.
Ruby felt it was a good thing because Bella had once told her that the Kitchen at the Cullen's house was never in use before up until the wolves started having regular meals at their place. She could never imagine the state-of-the-art Kitchen (if there was such a thing) not being in use.
Carlisle never ever held back expenses when it came to the house renovations, which Ruby had to admit, was a rather frequent thing.
For sometimes when the brothers were fooling around, there would usually be a broken door or a hole in the wall that needed professional help.
She made her way to her room and as she closed the door behind her, she leaned back against it and sighed.
Her mobile rang as a text message was received. It was from Esme.
The message read: Home tonight? They are coming for dinner.
She keyed in her reply.
Where else could I be? She thought bitterly.
It was after the exams and all her friends were more busy than ever, taking odd jobs to save up for vacations or something expensive gadget that they were aiming throughout the school term.
Ruby knew she was lucky because she never had to wait on tables or work tiring shift hours to get what she wanted. Money was never a problem, and honestly there was nothing much that a Vampire could want or need, she thought, and a pair of blue eyes flashed in her mind once again.
She jumped into her bed. The sheets still smelt fresh and clean. Not surprising because sometimes the bed sheets could be changed up to two times in a day when Esme gets really bored.
It would be 3 times a day when Seth came to visit, to get rid of his stench.
Seth, and she smiled at the thought of him, would always jump into her bed to take a nap and at the same time, achieve his lifelong goal of irritating her by snoring. That guy also had absolutely no sense of privacy.
Ruby closed her laptop shut and decided to make her way down. Realising it was late afternoon, she decided to take a look to see if Esme needed any sort of help though she was quite sure it will not be necessary with Emily around.
Esme and Emliy had gotten to know each other after the Wolves started having dinner over at the Cullens' house. It was not difficult to figure out that 2 cooks are better than 1 when feeding the wolves. The food prepared was probably enough to feed a small village.
With the vampires now centred in Forks, there were also more wolves appearing within the Pack.
Ruby had long lost track but at last count, there was probably close to 30 of them, yet their appetite was comparable with 150 hungry and desperate people.
As Ruby reached the stairs, she decided to float downwards instead, just for the sake of using her special talent that was otherwise useless.
It was good she did that, for she eavesdropped on Esme's conversation with Emily.
"I'm worried about her." Esme confided.
"But I remembered you mentioned before that she's much better around humans now, isn't she?" Emily replied, as Ruby could hear her moving about the kitchen, probably in the midst of preparing some food.
"That's one thing, but there's this thing about her that I can't put my finger to it." Esme said, and Ruby could almost hear her frowning as well, judging by the tone of her voice.
"Since Edward had already hinted to you that it had to do with that trip a year ago, maybe you should let her go back." Emily said. There was silence in the kitchen and Ruby knew that they had stopped whatever they were doing to talk.
She froze in mid-air, unsure of whether she was supposed to go back to the top of the stairs and walk down 'noisily' for them to notice, or should she just stay at where she was and continue hearing the discussion that was obviously about her.
She thought, Maybe, I do want to go back to Middle Earth. Maybe I want to go back much more than I thought!
She was quite ashamed that it had to take another person to make her realize that.
She whirled around and sped through the air back to her room without waiting to hear Esme's response. Now that Ruby was sure of a return trip, the problem was how to go about approaching this sensitive topic to Esme.
It was another hearty dinner. Everyone was gathered at the huge dining table regardless of whether or not they are eating since it was the company that counts.
Jasper and Emmett had both once suggested that one day they would bring some live feed back but Esme and Carlisle would have none of it. Blood that wasn't fresh and warm was not good to taste. Moreover, it was quite a messy affair.
Ruby stood at the kitchen helping out by washing the dishes since almost every other lady in the household had a hand in helping out with the cooking while she hid in her room.
She felt someone coming up behind her.
"What's up, Leah?" She asked. It wasn't Leah's practice to creep up on someone like that.
"Nothing." She lied and made it sound nonchalant.
"Shoot." Ruby said through a smile.
Leah leaned against the kitchen counter and folded her arms. Her eyes never left Ruby.
"You know how I'm always the most grumpy and disgruntled person around here?" She started.
Ruby nodded her head without taking her eyes off the dishes she was washing.
"Yeah, well, you see, now I've lost that position to you." Leah said, throwing her hands in the air in pseudo frustration.
Ruby turned off the running tap and dried her hands, finally turning to look at Leah.
"Leah…" she began.
"No, look. Ruby, you look. I don't care what's bothering you, but it's bothering me as well, and quite evidently, everyone out there is worried about you." She interrupted Ruby's speech.
Leah added, "Well, of course, thankfully, you weren't as bad as how I heard Bella had been when Edward disappeared into thin air."
Ruby laughed. "Now, now. That's abit drastic isn't it? And let's try to keep Bella out of the picture before she overhears this."
"Already did!" Bella's voice reached them through from the dining room.
"I've heard Seth talk about this Legolas guy. Or was it the other one who's making you the way you are now?" She paused as she tried to recall what Seth had said. "Either way, get your sexuality figured out first, will you? I heard they're just a bunch of pretty boys."
"They're more than that! But anyway, just keep them out of this conversation, okay? Esme's going to start firing away questions if you even remind her about this."
"Okay. But do you intend to return?" She asked, not giving up until she got her answer for the most vital question.
"Eventually, the answer is yes." Rub replied, quietly. "I would love to see Middle Earth again. And more of Middle Earth this time." And she turned around to continue with the dishes.
A/n: Yes. I'm assuming that the War of the Ring and the entire journey travelled by the Fellowship about a year's time in terms of Planet Earth's calculation (If I'm not wrong in Middle Earth it was supposed to take about.. 3 years or so?).