Title: Amor Perpetuus
Author: AoN (bellalinguista)
Word Count: 2,000
Genre: Romance, Angst, Hurt/Comfort
Rating: T
Summary: (AU) They met each other thousands of years ago, in an ancient Roman city under extreme circumstances, and tragically parted ways, but true love always has a way of reuniting two bounded people.
Prologue
'But if you close your eyes, / does it almost feel like / nothing changed at all? / And if you close your eyes, / does it almost feel like / you've been here before?' (Bastille)
It was the one place in the entire world Belle had always wanted to see: the ruins of the ancient Roman city, Pompeii. Although Ruby did not understand why, given how the city came to be notorious for its raunchiness and the terrible tragedy that ultimately destroyed it, she had promised to take Belle here – to Pompeii, to Italy, to so far beyond Storybrooke's town limits.
And that was exactly what Ruby did.
On their first anniversary, Ruby had surprised Belle with the airfare; Ruby had managed to keep it a secret, with some difficulty. She had wanted to tell Belle, who had probably suspected something was a foot (Belle later swore that she had not suspected a single thing, but Ruby was well aware of her horrible inability to keep a secret).
They walked along with their tour group, towards the back of the group. They would have been up front if Belle had any say, but Ruby could not help but linger behind a little bit. She was not feeling well.
"Oh, what did he say?" Belle frowned, unable to hear the leader of their group. She looked down at the book in her hands, one she had just purchased from the gift shop, and started flipping through it quickly, searching for the answers within the pages.
"There's a brothel down this street," Ruby replied. She pointed to the left as they approached one of the ruins' ancient intersection. Their group had just turned right, heading towards the large theatre and the quadriportious of the theatre, according to their map, anyway.
"Many, actually," Ruby found herself adding. She wasn't sure why, but she knew she was correct, which she considered impressive. Belle had been the one who studied all the different books and maps. Ruby had barely glanced at the Wikipedia page online.
"Oh, I guess we'll be heading there after the theatre, then," Belle commented, already heading towards the right to follow after the group that was murmuring about the baths they had just saw.
"Only to the Lupanar," Ruby pointed out. "They're only going to take us to the Lupanar."
Belle looked over her shoulder to Ruby, who had not followed after her at all. She was still transfixed on the opposite path. "What do you mean? …Ruby?"
"Past it, past the Lupanar," Ruby said with a growing frown. "It's hidden off to the right, but it's there. Another one, a smaller one, and I want to see it," she stated.
"I'm sure we'll be able to once we get closer-"
"I need to see it now," Ruby interrupted.
"Now? Ruby? Ruby!"
Belle called out once more, but the name fell on deaf ears as Ruby took the opposite path of their assigned tour group. Ruby could not wait for the group to make its way back to this area, not when she felt such a strong pull among the streets that were now beginning to feel strangely familiar.
With every step Ruby took, her tunnel vision grew steadily worse. She could barely hear Belle over the ghostly echos of the empty streets – murmurs, drunken slurs, and loud shouts in a language long gone, but Ruby understood nearly every word, and it angered her. The sound of wooden wheels on the stone street caused Ruby to look up and, for a split second, Ruby was certain she was about to be run over and plowed by a wagon being pulled by a large mammal. Why else would she have leapt onto the sidewalk with such velocity?
Ruby looked over her shoulder, half expecting to see the wagon continuing to make its way up the road, toward the main street. Instead, she only saw Belle, but… it was not her Belle. No, her Belle left the hotel room this morning in a yellow sundress and her hair had been tied back into a high pony tail in an attempt to combat the humid Italian summer heat. Her Belle also had a large red purse slung over her shoulder for the both of them to carry around bottles of water and, in Belle's case, book guides to the site.
No, this Belle, the Belle (it had to be Belle) standing before her, was a far cry from the love Ruby knew, but she felt so familiar at the same time. Her hair was pulled up. She wore a loose fitting white cloth, from her neck which adorned an aquamarine necklace, to her ankles. The bottom of the cloth – no, the tunic – was slightly dirty, perhaps from travel, and her bare shoulders were free from any purse.
"Valesne?" she asked, concerned.
Ruby's eyebrows furrowed as she cocked her head to the side, still frowning. She then looked down upon herself. Her racing heart leapt to her throat upon seeing that she herself was no longer in her jean shorts and tank top, but a dirty, ripped toga instead. As Ruby took a small step back, she felt the atmosphere grow dark and dreary. The ground rumbled and shook beneath her feet. The afternoon sky was black. The sounds of the hustling and bustling quickly grew to sheer panic and people were now screaming. Their fright echoed in Ruby's ears. The potent smell of ash and burning soot quickly became over powering, making it nearly impossible to breathe.
"Ruby?"
Belle, who caught up to her, reached out and grabbed Ruby's hand, snapping her out of the strange vision. All of a sudden, they were standing alone in the empty, ancient road, in their own modern clothes.
"W-What?" Ruby mumbled.
"I asked if you were okay," Belle repeated, concern still present in her voice. "You don't look well at all. We should get you out of the sun – or maybe we should go back to the hotel and rest, play it safe," she suggested, worried, but Ruby shook her head in response.
"I'm okay," Ruby lied. "And, besides, this is what you've always wanted, right? I'm not about to ruin this trip for you, Belle."
"You can't," Belle replied with a reassuring smile. "Ruin this trip, I mean – you can't. It's amazing that we're even here-"
"You'd be upset if we left," Ruby pointed out.
"That's not true!" Belle commented. "Not at all," she said, reaching into her purse to pull out one of the bottles of water. She held it out, offering it to Ruby. "I'm happy, I really am. I'm happy to be here, with you. I know it sounds silly and we've seen so little, but this is what I wanted. I feel like…" her voice began to trail off a bit.
Ruby uncapped the water bottle and brought it to her lips. She tilted her head back and the bottle up.
"This," Belle corrected herself. "This all feels very familiar."
Suddenly, Ruby coughed, nearly choking on the water. She pulled the bottle away and tried to clear her throat, to stop gagging. "I'm okay," she managed to wheeze before Belle could even ask. Capping the bottle, Ruby handed it back to Belle, who put it away in her purse once again.
"So, we can go back to the hotel, okay? Let's go rest for a little bit."
Ruby bit down on her lip. Was Belle feeling odd as well? Was she seeing these weird visions too and just not telling her, just as Ruby was doing now?
"Okay," Ruby responded. "But… there's still something I want to see."
"We just passed the Lupanar," Belle informed, gesturing to the building that stood on the adjacent corner just over her left shoulder.
"Then, we're close," Ruby said. "It's still a little bit north, maybe a block or two."
"How do you know of this place, Ruby?" Belle asked.
"I don't know," Ruby answered honestly. "But I just do," she said, thinking that Belle would not be satisfied with the answers, especially since it would be taking her away from their scheduled events of the day – the guided tour and everything else.
Belle, however, to Ruby's surprise, did not ask any further questions. She silently followed after Ruby who continued to head north, away from the Lupanar. Although she could not explain how, Ruby knew exactly where she was going, as thought she was returning to something to which she was already acquainted, especially when she turned down a narrow alleyway. The ground became more and more uneven. Ruby could hear Belle falling behind slightly, but she would soon catch up. Ruby quickly met a dead end.
They came to a stop in front of a partially collapsed building, unstable in nature. The entrance was boarded up with rotting wood, upon which a sign hung – a circle with a dash and a man holding up his hand, as though he himself would prevent Ruby from entering such a place. On the bottom of the side, it read È VIETATO. The only thing Ruby knew in Italian with confidence was 'pìu vino, per favore,' but they had seen this sign enough times already to know what it meant – absolutely no entrance.
Ruby did not care, though.
With one hard, firm kick, the old wood split and splintered into two pieces and Ruby pushed herself through carefully (not that she would care if she managed to scrape and bruise herself at this point), all while doing her best not to inhale the dust that had now been kicked up and continued to float about. She took a couple of small steps forward, ignoring Belle who lingered behind outside for the time being, murmuring something about not being able to believe that this was happening or that they were doing this to begin with. They were going to be kicked out and banned, for certain, if they were caught.
Ruby began to feel panicked once more, but not at the idea of being caught. This place, she knew this place. To Ruby's left was the matron's room – the largest of all the seven rooms in the entire building. Directly in front of her was the doorway into one of the six similar rooms, all of which still continued the stone bed frame.
She felt a strange pull towards the very back, so Ruby turned right and walked down the hall, at the very end of which was a window, nor barred with iron rods to prevent people from climbing in. She passed the entrance to four other rooms before reaching the last and smallest. Heart pounding rapidly and incredibly painfully in her chest, Ruby proceeded inside the bedroom.
Her eyes locked onto the wall, where the side of the stone frame rested against. A large square piece of clear plastic covered a portion of the wall above the remains of the stone bed. Ruby's eyes narrowed as she inched closer. At first, she hovered over the bed, but then she knelt down upon it to get a better look. There was graffiti etched under the protective plastic shield.
'SUSPIRIUM PUELLAM CELADUS THRAEX'
The word CELADUS had been crossed out, which made Ruby involuntarily smirk. Above it, someone had written RUBRA. Eyes squinting, Ruby leaned forward some more, closer to the markings on the wall.
There was a loud crack of wood breaking, followed by stumbling and Belle calling out Ruby's name. Ruby looked over her shoulder. "In here!" she called out and then turned her attention back to the wall. There was more writing underneath the first carved sentence.
'ADMIROR O PARIES TE NON CECIDISSE QUI TOT SCRIPTORIUM TAEDIA SUSTINEAS'
Her hand hovered above the words. Ruby pressed the tips of her fingers against the hard plastic. For some reason, she was smiling, and probably for the very same reason, she wished that she could have been able to feel those carvings herself.
"Ruby...?" Belle's voice carried from the doorway.
"Belle," Ruby murmured. "We've… We've been here before."
To Be Continued