The Third Time it Felt Routine (As it did with the Fourth and the Fifth)
Ruby hated the fact that she had a clue as to where she probably was. Even though it was a different apartment, the décor was far too similar to be a coincidence. Even when she turned an entirely different corner, she had a sinking feeling that she was indeed heading towards the bedroom of one Roman Torchwick. And upon reaching the sleeping quarters, she knew herself to be right. He was wearing about as much as he had been in the night before (rather, she hoped he was but couldn't see past the sheets over his legs)—she smiled a little as the bangs normally covering his right eye had fallen away a bit to reveal more of his face.
Ruby closed the distance between herself and the man, making it all the way to the edge of the bed before his eyes flicked open and she was yanked onto the bed once more, this time by her…waist.
"Nice to see you, Red," Roman chuckled as Ruby squirmed against his arm, "Sneaking out to see me again, are we?"
"Don't flatter yourself," Ruby hissed.
"Hm, I'll take that as a yes," Roman smirked and pulled her closer to him, causing her to let out a small whine and blush as her arms met his chest. "Seriously, you need to tell me how you keep find these hideaways of mine. It's embarrassing to have such a young security leak."
"What, am I putting a boo boo on your ego?" Ruby asked flatly.
"Hardly," Roman grinned and pressed his lips lightly against hers, "I'm just curious."
Ruby whined again as Roman kissed her firmly, one of his hands travelling to her head and tangling into her hair. When he broke away, she let out a breathy whimper, some small sane part of her was still cursing her out for enjoying his lips.
Roman smirked, but instead of leaning in for another kiss, he pulled away and fell back onto his back. "So Red, since you've gotten me alone for a while, why don't you tell me about yourself?"
Ruby's brow furrowed in confusion as she rolled onto her stomach and leaned on her elbows. "Since when do you care?"
"I don't," Roman said dryly as he lifted a hand to straighten out his bangs. "I simply think it's a better way to pass the time than sitting here in silence. Unless of course you'd prefer that."
"No," Ruby shook her head and sighed. "What would you like to know?"
"I don't—" Roman sighed and cast a sidelong glance at Ruby, looking somewhat frustrated with her. "Favorite food?"
"Strawberries. Yours?"
"Churros. Favorite song?"
"This Will Be the Day. You?"
"Not really a music person. I suppose something classical every once in a while doesn't hurt though."
"You like snooze tunes?"
"Go ahead, judge me. Favorite hobby?"
"Weapon maintenance. Yours?"
Roman's face contorted into a sly grin. "Pickpocketing."
Ruby wrinkled her nose in disgust and he laughed.
"I'm kidding. Card games are always fun. Poker especially."
"So your favorite hobby is gambling?"
"Card games in general, Red. You can play cards without placing a bet. I'm rather partial to Spit or Spoons when I'm not in the mood for gambling."
"How do you play those?"
"Maybe I'll teach you sometime. Parents?"
"Ah…" Ruby looked down at the mattress, and after a small silence Roman spoke up again.
"Bad topic?"
"Yeah, kinda…"
"Moving on then. Favorite subject in school?"
Ruby paused and looked at Roman quizzically. "You don't care?"
"Hm?"
"About my parents?"
"Not that it was important to me to begin with, but no, I really don't care if whatever it is is some kind of sob story."
"What about your parents?"
"Dead," Roman stated bluntly, "killed by a bill collector. Can we move on now?"
"…Do you miss them?"
Roman groaned loudly. "No, not really. Can we move on?"
"Why not?"
"Christ, Red, beat the dead horse, why don't you…because I don't. It's a long story that I don't feel like telling and honestly, bottom line, it's not your business."
"Fine, sorry I asked…" Ruby muttered and looked away, her eyes wandering the well-kept apartment thoughtfully. "How does a criminal even afford a place as nice as this?" she murmured.
"Generous bribery and document forgery," Roman stated carelessly, causing Ruby's vision to shift back to him.
"Generous bribery? How do you afford that?"
"Um, I'm a professional thief? You do the math. Besides, my deals with the landlords are simple. I pay enough for a one bedroom apartment in order to occupy this under an alias, or they can watch me take away everything they love. Most of them choose the former option, but I have had a few…accidents."
Ruby wrinkled her nose once more. "That's evil."
Roman simply smirked. "You didn't actually think that I acquired this place through honest means, did you?"
"How are you that unfazed? You're hurting those people!"
"And? Do I really look like I care?"
Ruby looked at the man in shock as he smirked lazily at her. "You're evil."
"Oh, honestly, Red, I'm really quite aware of that."
Ruby scoffed. "If you're so aware of it then why do you keep acting like this?"
"Because to date I haven't found a valid reason not to."
"You're hurting people."
Roman shrugged and Ruby shook her head.
"What? Are you really that disappointed? Honestly Red, were you expecting something different?"
"Yes, maybe a little emotion on your part," Ruby snapped.
"Emotion and empathy are not the same thing," Roman clicked his tongue in annoyance. "And honestly I never cared for the latter very much."
"Why not?" Ruby nearly yelled in frustration.
"Because the more you care about the world, the more it'll tear you apart. I'm not particularly invested in the concept of being life's chew toy."
"So you hurt people."
"So I do what I want and don't give a rat's ass who has a problem with it," Roman spat, "Stop making it sound like I've made it my personal goal to ruin other people."
"Isn't that what criminals do? Ruin other people?"
"On occasion, yes. But that isn't a goal, it's a side effect."
"That's awful."
"That's life."
oooOOOooo
Roman had spent quite a bit of time watching Red sleep at this point, his lips formed into a thin frown and his brow knit together in contemplation. Admittedly his thoughts were centered mostly on the night before, which had ended on a less than happy note and had left Roman in a more agitated mood than on the days preceding it. He tilted his head as he continued to study the sleeping girl, his mind wondering why he had even cared what she thought of him. It wasn't exactly surprising that they didn't see eye to eye; Roman had a habit of not letting morals get in his way and…Ruby had always exhibited a strong sense of justice, even back in their previous, uncivil meetings.
He already knew that they would disagree. So why did he care that she had been so upset? Why should he care what she thinks of him at all? Ruby stirred from her spot on her bed and Roman averted his eyes to the bookshelf he was sitting Indian style in front of.
"How long have you been there?" Red asked sleepily, yawning a bit as she lazily addressed the man with less spark than she had in their previous meetings.
"A while."
"What have you been doing…?"
"Well I visually organized the bookshelf by color for a bit and contemplated the idea of swiping your coffee cup for a small game of tiddlywinks."
"Sounds boring."
"Quite. Are you going to kick me out now? Because if you want I can just see myself out."
Ruby didn't answer with the expected growl or bitter 'please do' that Roman had anticipated, instead she slid off her mattress and shuffled up to him in silence. Upon reaching him, Red wordlessly dropped into a seated position and flopped her head down onto Roman's chest. He blinked, thoroughly unprepared as her forehead pressed against his breastbone to the point where he had to press his hands against the floor to hold himself up. "To what do I owe the chest flop?" he grunted in an attempt to downplay his surprise. A muffled mumble came in response. "Care to repeat that in a language I can understand?"
"Sorry."
Roman perked an eyebrow at the barely audible response as he looked down at her. "What for?"
"For…yelling at you. I should've known better than to get upset…I just…I can't understand that mentality…"
"I don't expect you to understand it," Roman brushed it off and averted his gaze from Ruby. "You don't have to apologize, Red."
"But I yelled at you about it…"
"And? My occupation is strongly opposed to your morality, I wasn't expecting anything different," Roman could feel a small lump in his throat beginning to form, making it hard to swallow. He hadn't expected an apology from her, especially considering how cynical he'd been in the process of refuting her logic.
"But…"
"Ruby." Roman slid a finger under her chin and lifted her face away from his chest. "Had the roles been reversed I probably would've reacted the same way. Don't worry about it." Ruby stared at him, looking positively dumbfounded until he clicked his tongue in annoyance and spoke again. "What?"
"Nothing, just…that's the first time you've ever referred to me by name…"
Roman did a mental once over of his previous sentence and realized that he had indeed called Ruby by her actual name. "Do you mind?"
"No, no it's just…you usually just call me Red…I guess I got used to it…"
Roman shrugged and looked away only to have the girl's small hand press against his cheek and bring his eyes to meet hers once more. He was about to ask what she wanted when she made her intentions clear by placing a small peck on his lips.
"I'm still sorry, you know…" Ruby mumbled as she pulled away.
Roman smirked and leaned in to kiss her again, breaking away from her only slightly at the end.
"I forgive you."
oooOOOooo
"Please explain how you are doing that."
Ruby giggled impishly as she cleared yet another level of the game she was playing on Roman's scroll. "Purely skill," she stated confidently as she continued playing. A notice popped up on the new level screen and Ruby's grin widened slightly as she presented it to Roman. "Beat your high score."
"Yeah yeah, big deal, good for you Red," he muttered, "Not like I play that time waster religiously."
"You know you're jealous."
"Actually I really could not care less," Roman stated flatly with a yawn.
Ruby looked over at the man and smiled at his disinterested frown—noting mentally that this was what he looked like when he was pouting. It was moments like this that made it difficult for Ruby—finding it in herself to hate Roman was challenging when he was simply sitting around in a pair of pajama pants and fiddling with wayward strands of hair in a childish attempt to hide his irritation. He looked too…human, if that was the right word. She snickered as his eyes fell on her again.
"What?"
"Nothing," Ruby hummed as she turned her eyes back to the scroll in her hands and moved on to the next faster paced level.
"You little—Red, seriously, it's a game, I don't care."
Ruby snickered again but didn't take her eyes off the screen. "Your pouty baby face tells a different story."
"I am not pouting like a baby," Roman said evenly.
"Did you just cross your arms?" There was a pause of silence and Ruby giggled again as she could almost feel Roman's eyes narrowing into a glare behind her. "Baby," she said with a smirk.
"My god, I think I've actually corrupted you in only five nights' time. That must be a new record."
"You wish, Torchwick. I'm just amused at your poor attempt to pretend you don't care."
"I don't."
"I beat your high scooore," Ruby sang and looked back at him as she cleared another level.
"Alright you little—" Roman lunged forward and grabbed Ruby at her sides, his scroll falling out of her hands as he pulled her back. He began tickling her and she laughed, struggling childishly in retaliation.
"H-Hey, stop it!" she choked out between laughs. "Fine, I give, you don't care!"
Roman smirked and ceased his attacks, pulling Ruby tightly into his arms in the process. "That's much better."
"But you're still a baby."
"You know, Red, I really don't wanna hear that from you," Roman murmured into her ear and Ruby just snickered in response.
"Whatever."
"Mm." Roman pressed his lips lightly against the side of her neck. "Your place tomorrow?"
"Yup."
Roman sighed into her neck.
"See you there."
oooOOOooo
Rosewick trash Peeves reporting in, and first and foremost I really have to thank you all for your support with this. I may be over reacting, all things considered, but I never expected to amass this many watchers in as little as two days. So a different format this time, three dreams in a row since I'm sure by now you know the daytime consists of. I've always felt a little put off that pretty much none of the Rosewick titles I've previously delved in have touched on the polar opposite nature of Ruby and Roman's moral compasses, so I'll be bringing it up in this on occasion, like I did at the beginning of this chapter. I may ship Rosewick to hell and back but I refuse to neglect this difference because as far as I'm concerned, it's a pretty big barrier next to the opposing affiliations and all.
p.s.- the get-to-know-you segment at the beginning is very headcanon heavy, especially on Roman's part. When I checked the wiki, none of this was listed anywhere, so I made up a bunch of answers that I found fitting. As always, fave, follow and review if you enjoyed this chapter, my ego is still hungry and honestly the reception this has received is making me want to continue churning out chapters at this speed (can't guarantee that my schedule will allow it, but nonetheless). Also last night I got a new tablet pen…so I might be able to draw a cover image for this story? Maybe a few small illustrations? Yeh. I guarantee nothing on that front, just a heads up tho. I'll let you know in following chapters if I do.
p.p.s- 'killed by a bill collector' is Roman's euphemism for 'murdered by the goon of a loan shark'. Also completely headcanon.
p.p.p.s.- Rosewick trash Peeves out until next chapter.
