Ruby had fallen asleep to the sound of Roman typing away on her laptop. He said nothing about what he was trying to do, but Ruby decided not to ask him about it. After all, she had a rough day, and she was more than happy to put it past her with a good night's rest.
Though Ruby almost welcomed the intrusion of her dreams, the toilet flushing in the room next to her, waking her from the vivid images of her darkened past. They were all she seemed to dream about lately. Ruby lay in bed with her eyes sluggish in their movements, air bristling the stray hairs in her face. Her apartment, once glowing with the soft rays of sunset, had darkened. Outlines only gave her suggestions, but her eyes could not focus.
She sat up, pulling the blanket around her as she huddled her knees to her chest. Ruby looked behind her at the bathroom door, waiting for him to emerge.
The sink shut off, followed with Roman's silhouette appearing, backlit by the bathroom light.
"You're awake?" he said, returning to the couch.
Ruby rubbed her eyes. "What time is it?"
He turned on his scroll. "Three in the morning."
Ruby tossed her legs over the edge of the bed. "You're not tired?"
He shook his head. "I'm used to sleeping six hours."
"Still, though," she yawned, stretching her arms above her head. "What were you doing?"
"Catching up on some work, keeping an eye on you. Nothing special." Roman fell onto the couch, tipping his head back as he reached for a flask.
"Illegal stuff?" Ruby pondered aloud.
He faced her. "What do you care?"
Ruby said nothing, shrugging her shoulders in response. She pushed off the bed and stumbled over to the fridge. Expecting it to be empty, she squinted at the unopened gallon of water sitting on the top rack, next to them, an unopened bag of plastic cups. She scratched her head.
"Picked it up with a pack of cigarettes earlier."
Ruby looked back at Roman, who was midway through a drink from his flask, laptop perched on his lap. She hardly knew what to make of it, so she ignored it, pushing away the thought and reaching for the water.
As she poured herself a cup, Roman spoke up. "Have you ever fired a handgun?" he asked.
Ruby sighed, trying to remember. "A long time ago," she responded. "Part of the whole thing where we made our weapons."
"Why's that?"
Ruby sealed the jug and replaced it inside the fridge. "We got to test out a whole bunch of things to figure out what we wanted to use for a weapon."
He grunted.
Ruby walked back to her bed. "Why do you ask?"
"You're gonna need a sidearm. Something you can conceal."
Ruby frowned. "Can't most of the drones tell nowadays whether or not you're walking with a concealed weapon?"
Roman perked up. "What?"
Ruby jumped. "Oh, right. Future thing."
He turned back to his laptop and began to drill away at the keys. "The way you make the future out to be, I'm surprised they still had the money to funnel away into military resources."
"No, it wasn't military," she said. "The general turned all of them over to be the respective kingdoms' property. They all decided that would be worthwhile programming, but it didn't help people unless you were in one of the few places that wasn't out of control."
Ruby remembered the riots when the disease first broke out. Everyone was in such a panic, and at first Ruby wondered why they would broadcast it so publicly until she learned that infection was a lot easier when the target displayed high levels of stress in their system. She had looked one of them in the eyes, but for some reason, she wasn't infected. And no one had been able to figure out why, even with the two years' worth of time that they had. If they had more time, maybe Ruby could have avoided all of this…
"What is this disease, anyway?"
Ruby had not noticed she had been staring at Roman, completely spaced out for a moment. Thankfully, he did not seem to notice. "It's supposed to be some sort of Grimm-related thing. Last stage is when you start turning into a monster and mumbling some incoherent stuff."
"Right," he trailed. "And how am I supposed to help with that?"
"It's a specific gene somewhere. I don't understand all of the science behind it, but doctors said they could make a vaccine out of it."
"What do my genes have to do with any of that?" He swiveled on the couch, turning to face her.
"Well, you know how you're a sociopath?"
Roman rolled his eyes.
"It's not necessarily because of any trauma or anything like that. Theoretically, it's supposed to make you feel only a limited range of emotions."
"I do anger pretty well," he replied, nonchalant.
Ruby ignored him. "That's my point. The vaccine is supposed to act like an antidepressant, making you feel less of stuff. Without all of that, we might be able to avoid infection."
"What makes you think it'll work?" he asked.
"Well, that's the weird part. Apparently, the doctors doing your autopsy found a whole crapload of the spores in your leg, but usually by that point, your skin had already turned black."
"Your point?"
"If your leg was turning into Grimm, we wouldn't have anything to look at, it would have already disappeared, but didn't. It was completely human."
"So I'm a carrier?" he concluded.
"I guess." Ruby tucked hair behind her ear. "I don't remember all the science-y stuff. That's all I know."
"That's pretty vague," he remarked.
"Hey, those medical terms are literally a different language," she defended. "A dead one, too. Gibberish."
However, Roman was not listening to her. He had a hand up to his mouth, pulling his lip as he was deep in thought. It only lasted a second, but Ruby could have sworn she had seen something in him—something evocative of forgotten pain. Though, Ruby could have been imagining it because in the split second that she noticed him, he noticed her, and he immediately turned back to the computer screen.
Good morning! It is currently 7 AM where I live, and guess what? This schmuck hasn't gotten ANY sleep yet-and I have an eight-hour shift in...five hours? And I haven't showered. I don't know what I'm going to do. Ugh.
seraphimnight: Thank you! Welcome to the dark side.
Rosewick4ever: Bless your soul I'm so glad you like it this is really fun to write
Thank you so much guys! Also, you may have seen this update on Fallen World, but we just made a forum so you can pester us about updates and shit. Search "Satheon and Mimakiko." Okay, buh-bye!
