Hero in our Universe: Hard Day
I woke up the next morning on the couch. Man that was a strange dream.. Wait. What is all my stuff doing in a pile on the floor? I turned my head and curled up at the other end of my couch is Ruby.
"It was all real." I couldn't believe it. She was still beautiful curled up there.
I walked into the bedroom to grab the blanket off the bed. There on the wall my prized poster where she was supposed to be was a white silhouette she came from the poster that girl drew for me. I guess since she didn't see herself in it she didn't rip it off the wall. Well one mystery solved. Grabbing the blanket I brought it to cover Ruby. Taking a look around I noticed my whole house had to have looked like a stalkers shrine to her. I'll do some cleanup of everything to make her more comfortable.
They were my prized positions in a lot of ways so I took care not to do any more damage to them that she already did. Staying as quiet as possible I took care of everything, and placed it in my attic.
My stomach started to rumble so I decided I'd cook us breakfast. Then I saw it I left my pistol out. Man that was careless. I cleared the Magazine from the gun and pulled the slide back removing the bullet from the chamber. The Slide moved forward when I released it. Then it happened, a streak of read burst through the door and I was knocked back into the fridge. Crescent rose transforming right in front of me as the blade neared my neck again.
"Oh shit, Ruby calm down it's me."
"What the hell were you doing?" Man I have to watch what I do around her.
"Emptying my gun to put it away." Pointing to counter where the magazine and bullet lay.
"Looking toward the counter. Listen I'm just jumpy when I hear weapon action." No Joke.
"Understandable." She collapsed Crescent Rose and rea holstered it.
Her stomach grumbled. She gave me a bit of a look of embarrassment.
"Ruby, how about some breakfast?"
"Sure, What'cha got?"
"Well I can throw together some pancakes and bacon. Or whatever you want?"
"Well Since I'm not really from around here just make anything."
I started throwing together some pancakes and frying up the bacon. "Hey you want some coffee?"
"Yea that would be great. Cream.." I cut her off not thinking.
"And five sugars right." I smiled.
Oh that was not a good thing. "Um, no offense that was kind of creepy." I could see that she was uncomfortable.
"I'm sorry, It must be really hard for you."
"Well not just that. When you talk about me from the show or the toys and pictures I can tell there is something more than just liking something."
And here we go. I thought I was hiding it. "I'm sorry Ruby. I don't mean to make you uncomfortable. I was actually trying not to be creepy."
I gave her black coffee and laid out the cream and sugar for her. She smiled a bit. I guess even though I know everything about her I still have to understand her.
"Well I have a bit of an Idea where you came from. There is a poster in my room that use to have your picture in it. But now it's just a white silhouette."
"Yea saw that thought it was weird. Any idea how or why?"
"No but I'm thinking about asking the woman who drew it for me?"
"We should get on it….. Hey where'd all your me stuff go."
"I put it away. I thought it might be creepy for you to be in a shrine to you." I tried to laugh it off but really I felt like I was already losing her. She wants to go home.
She smiled, "Thanks that's really nice." I love that smile so much.
"Here try this." I put a plate down for her. She drowned her pancakes in syrup. Then she did something I didn't expect. She took the bacon and dipped it in the syrup just like me. I laughed. She looked at me with a mouth full of bacon. "I do the same thing." I never wrote about that. So maybe there is more to this amazing woman than even I know.
"It's probably something you wrote." She just looked at me waiting for some reaction.
"Nope, that's all your own there." I know every single one of my stories inside and out. I have never once written that you do that.
She smiled and just kept staring at me. "So where are your kids?" pointing at the refrigerator.
"Oh they are with their mother this week." I always hate it when they are away.
"Ooooo. Touchy subject sorry." She seems concerned for my feelings.
"No it's just I hate it when they are not here." My ex-wife and I share custody of our kids. I have them half the time and she has them the other half.
"Ex-wife?" She looked confused.
"Yea their mother and I really had a lot of issues, it got to the point where we just couldn't get along while living together. So we separated. We make much better friends than we do husband and wife." I could see she was thinking really hard about this.
"Hey this stuff is really good." She had a huge smile on her face with another mouthful of pancake.
"Glad you like it." Not sure what she's thinking but at least she seem happy.
"So Terry, I guess I need to ask a few questions. Mainly where am I going to stay."
"Well I'd thought about that. Ruby you can use my bedroom." She gave me a glare like I was a pervert or something. "No no no, not like that. I'll take the couch and you can have the bedroom. If I need anything I'll arrange to get it out while you're awake. It has its own bathroom and everything."
"Oh here I thought you were saying…" Her smile returned a bit.
"No. I figured you don't have any money so getting a place would be impossible right now."
"True, Um what do I do about clothes?" Well Looks like we will have to go out and get you some. None of my girls stuff will fit you and I don't really have anything your size.
"No you don't have to do that?" She has the look of not wanting to be a burden on her face.
"Well it's that or steal them, and I don't think you want to go there."
"I see your point." Guess shopping it is.
We finished up our breakfast. I did a little cleanup of the dishes and we started heading out the door.
"Hey Ruby you're going to want to leave Crescent Rose here."
"What? Why would I do that what if were attacked by Grimm or something."
"Well there are no Grimm here. No Grimm, No Dust, No White Fang." Just some stupid people that do stupid things. And with your speed semblance I'm pretty sure you can handle them without it."
She in a way looked relieved and depressed at the same time. "But….. My Sweetheart." She seemed really hesitant to separate from one of the few things that was still real from her world.
"Hey I have an Idea. How about you take it with us and you can lock it up when we get to the mall."
She was hugging it like a child hugs a security blanket at this point, and in a little pouty tone "Alright." Could she be any more perfect.
"You're doing it again."
"Sorry I'm trying not to." Man this is going to be hard.
Imaging having the woman of your dreams in your own house and your still a complete stranger to her yet you know almost everything about her. Yea that's my situation.
So we climb into my truck and she slides Her weapon between herself and the door. I had to explain about seatbelts to her. She didn't like feeling constricted. Then she saw the ornament hanging from my mirror. "Oh it's so cute!" She snapped it off the mirror and started fiddling with it.
"Yea I made that myself." a tiny transformable Crescent Rose on a chain. Probably the biggest smile I've seen on her yet. She seemed to relax a little.
"Umm… Can I have this?" she looked a little sheepish asking.
"Yea sure. It's yours if you want it." Her smile got even bigger.
"Oh thank you!" then she leaned over and gave me a big hug. Quickly she pulled back and we had a bit of an awkward moment. "I'm going to wear this like a necklace… Oh I broke the chain."
"It's OK. I think all three of my girls have done the same thing a dozen times. I keep spare chains there in the glove box just in case."
After fumbling to get it open for a moment she said. "Ummm.. Terry is there any chance I could use this instead. She pulled out a long thing black ribbon with red edging. I forgot I even had that in there.
"Sure if you want it." She quickly swiped the chain out of the tiny weapon and threaded the silk ribbon in it.
"Hey… Umm.. Could you help me with this." She handed the tiny Pendant she had fashioned out to me and turned he back raising her hair.
I really wish she knew that I've imagined doing things like this all the time. But I have to be cool about it. "Sure… I'll be glad to." I did my best not to go all creepy on her.
She turned back to me with a cute little smile. "Thanks." I almost wonder if she was just flirting with me.
Looking around everywhere as we drove, she asked tons of questions. "What's that? What do they do? What are they doing over there?" I almost forgot that she's from a different world.
She has no idea about our society even our basic laws. I had to stop her from trying to take Crescent Rose into the gas station when we stopped for gas. She seemed a bit overwhelmed overall the junk food choices when I asked her if she wanted anything eventually she just settled on a pack of the Chips Ahoy.
I laughed "We'll have to introduce you to all this stuff sometime." I noticed she was rubbing the Miniature Crescent Rose between her fingers nervously.
"I don't like this at all." I could see that she noticed everyone was looking at her. The way she was dressed was grabbing a lot of attention.
"Let's get you into something a little more local." On our way out a group of teenage kids went nuts. They swarmed her talking about how cool she looked and were bugging her for pictures.
She went into a panic. Running Full Sprint toward the truck where she locked herself in. The kids seemed absolutely amazed by the trail of rose petals left in her wake. I ran over unlocked the truck and she fell into my chest and started crying. I just rubbed her back and shoulders for a few minutes till she composed herself.
"I'm so sorry that must have been really awkward. Are you OK?"
"Yea." She paused for a moment. "Past day has been really rough on me."
"I can tell. Hey there's a store across the street. They sell tons of stuff including clothing. Maybe it would be better than the mall. Less crowded this time of day."
She hugged me tightly. "Thank you Terry." God my heart is racing right now. It's awkward for me to hide my feelings when this stuff keeps happening.
We drove over to Wal-Mart. Took her a second not to go for her weapon but then she touched her pendant and gave a bit of a sigh.
"Ruby, ya ready for this? I could see she was trying to mentally prepare herself for something horrible. She kept looking back to the truck. Then she did something I didn't expect she grabbed ahold of my arm and held it tight.
"I know this probably isn't easy for your Terry but please."
"Ruby it's OK. I should have found an easier way to expose you to my world."