Get What You Wanted 37
Tsukune was the first to wake up when he heard the rattle of a doorknob opening across their hall and a cart being knocked into their adjoining wall. Several people in white coats and masks were noisily getting their gear ready and had yet to cross their thresh hold. It was obvious they were about to enter Yukari's habitat after organizing the necessary equipment.
Rubbing his eyes, he took in the cramped bed with Yukari still painfully out cold and her lithe body still dormant and unmoving. Getting whatever perception he could, his brown eyes were soon looking into twin pools of violet.
Ruby was awake and staring at him with the smallest smile that made him blush.
"You still snore," Ruby chided, gently rubbing her finger over his.
"I guess I do," He blushed lightly, then tightened his grip on her's. They had slept for whatever time they had like that. Her smaller hand was noticeably warmer then when he first held it. "I haven't been sleeping well."
"I know." She nuzzled herself deeper into her pillow, her gaze never leaving his with their friend in between them. Tsukune could tell if she could have pushed herself closer to him, feel his own heat against her's she would have pursued it. "It will take some time, Tsukune, but after the trial is over you'll find peace again. I promise you."
"How can you say that?" He asked in an annoyed whisper that was directed more towards himself then at her, "I still have the hardest time trying to get what she did out of my head. I still hear them, in here." Tsukune tapped the side of his temple for emphasis. "It's like this stupid voice in my mind that echoes and I feel it," He followed with his fist over his chest. "I feel everything over and over again, especially when I am asleep."
Reaching out with her cloth gauntlet hand, she gripped his hand with her's.
"I'll try harder to help you, Tsukune." Ruby affirmed easily, sincerely.
"I'm better now, thanks to you," he brought her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles.
The rosy tint of her cheeks expressed her pleasure, but the glow in her eyes reflected her simple gratitude.
"I just can't stop the sounds of her kissing him, seeing her touch him, smelling the perfume on her and then...and then..."
Ruby nodded, not really expecting him to continue but he did, "...and when the door opened I could smell...everything else."
It was there again, Ruby noticed. That ache, the nightmarish memory just staining his trust and honor he had for the woman he loved. She remained quiet as he said more.
"There Gin was, standing in front of me as if he belonged there in the same room with Moka and I was the intruder, the other man. Before that, I heard Moka ask him if 'he' was still out there."
His self depreciating sigh was not lost on Ruby.
"I wasn't even a name or her 'husband' anymore. I was just 'he' or someone who had interrupted them."
Her dark brows furrowed, but she let his fingers rub against her knuckles.
Did Moka really give up such an amazing man for the sake of her stubborn pride?
What a waste.
Ruby really wished Yukari wasn't there right now. She wanted to kiss him so badly.
"And she covered herself." He laughed mockingly to himself. "As if she was ashamed or embarrassed to be seen naked in front of me. Me! Her husband and mate. Moka was worried of her modesty and she was trying to protect herself from me."
One of his own hands covered his face and he seemed all the more like a boy trying to hide his tears.
"I dream of it still." He snuffled a wetly through his nose, his lips pulled back in a wretched grimace of heart shredding agony. "I feel so stupid to be in love with her, Ruby. I know everything she did and what I have to do, but I can't stop thinking of everything we had and how hard I worked for us to be together. I still can't get it out of my head that after all we went through, after all I endured with her sister, her father, those times trying to get her Inner Self to accept me...It was just tossed away because of a disagreement. Is that how little I meant to her that I could so easily be dismissed and discarded? How do I fight for that? What do I say to fix that? Where do I begin?"
"I don't know, Tsukune," Ruby admitted with a helpless shake of her hair. "I've never had a boyfriend, let alone a lover. The closest thing I can offer you in guidance is what was taught to me through my Master. Honestly, I am as lost in the dark about what to do to help as you are. I do know that when it comes to getting over hate or anger that the only thing that helped me were my friends and time. You, Moka and everyone were my friends that calmed me enough to realize not all humans were like the one's my Master made them out to be. I'm very glad I met all of you."
Patting her hand, the tired and spiritually fractured young man nodded. There really wasn't much more that could be done.
Except laugh at Tsukune when an obvious gurgle broke their mood.
Tsukune's stomach rumbled noisily.
Both young man and woman glanced at the other and chuckled.
"You aren't hungry, are you, Tsukune?" Ruby raised herself off the bed and supported herself on her elbow.
From his vantage point, Ruby had the tired, warm look of a dark bewitching invoker with the way her tussled rave black hair halo'd around her head, the press of her corset keeping her breasts enticingly snug at his eye level and the taper of her waist to her hip drew his eyes with memories of desire that he had not remembered since their last tussle the just a few hours ago.
Their kiss came to mind and how much he enjoyed it...The lips from another woman that was not his Moka.
Memories of the times he had touched and looked at Moka the same way haunted him. Her scent started to pierce his senses. Where was she now? What was she doing? Was she still having thoughts of Gin like he was sure she had when they had last meet?
He really was a fool to think they could even try. Her mouth said one thing, but even her thoughts betrayed her.
"Tsukune?" Ruby called out to him with a dip of her brows, her head tilted.
Catching the shine of her glossy hair, Tsukune saw the slight bend of her neck and the two dark dots where he had left his mark on her. An uncommon thirst he still had to come to grips with started to consume him. Licking his lips, he thought back to the way his throat drenched itself with her blood and how it's unique and magical flavor sated him. It was like something that nourished him in spirit as well as sustenance.
He understood how Moka could get addicted to such cravings such as those.
"Famished," He finally answered her, leaning over Yukari with his eyes on the elder witch's neck.
A giddy giggle escaped Ruby's lips when she saw him drawn to her with a hunger that bordered predatory. Her hand swept her locks of blue black away from his desire and she craned towards him.
She offered herself with expectant hooded violet eyes.
Tsukune reached for her, his hand hooking around the other side of his soon to be feast, his mouth opening eagerly.
Ruby's voiced a small whimper of excitement before another sound stopped them...and a box pushed in between them.
"I have bentos if you're hungry." a small voice broke either of their focus.
It was Moka's.
Both of them turned to see her wounded and wretchedly despaired green eyes framed by long flowing pink silk hair taking in their very 'almost intimate' embrace.
Ruby was already scowling heatedly with her body coiling up like some kind of threatening serpent.
Tsukune's face screwed up in confusion and, to Moka's dismay, annoyance that she was there in the room with them.
He hadn't heard her or felt her at all.
"Moka-san, what are you doing here?"
He understood with the way her jade green eyes expressed a pierced soul that was bleeding and ripping itself within her.
Tsukune saw pain he had endured not so long ago in those jade green orbs.
She must have heard everything, saw everything between Ruby and him. From his talk about not sleeping, to what had happened that night and what he saw, what he smelled, what he felt, and how displaced she had put Gin before him.
Just everything...everything...
Now there she was, trying to brave what had been parlayed between husband and ex best friend with her intrusion. Moka said nothing, but it was all there in the arch of her brows and the quiver of her lips.
She was there right in the middle of that almost kiss and wanted it stopped...needed it stopped...
Moka needed him to look at her with those eyes again. She wanted Tsukune to take her into his heart as he had been just a week ago when she was his 'Moka-chan' or just 'Moka', and not Moka-san, as they were before their intimate bonding and marriage. Just having him calling her something so detached as 'san' and viewing her presence some kind of trifling thing hit home to how much her beloved husband now saw her as 'just' a person instead of his once perfect ideal of a woman.
The bento box was pulled away from over Yukari to rest on Tsukune's stomach.
Her voice ached when she couldn't meet any of their eyes. "I came to see Yukari and you, Tsukune. I knew you would be here." Guiltily, she glanced at Ruby and found no friend or intended absolution in her glower. "I was worried about all of you. I missed you. Here's some food if you're hungry, but I think it's gotten cold. I could reheat it..."
Fidgeting under both of their appraisals, Ruby was the first to set foot on the floor. She never took her eyes off of her friend's wife as she started to round Yukari's bed.
"I think your presence here is inappropriate." Ruby announced crossly. "Leave."
Had she struck Moka between the breasts with a spear, her words would have had the same affect.
Tears fell unchecked down her pretty, anguish streaked cheeks. "I know I have done a lot of wrong here and I have acted very foolishly as of late, but please believe me when I say I didn't mean to hurt Yukari or anyone."
"Oh? But it would have been sufficient to strike either Tsukune or myself down like this? Tell me, Moka," Ruby's tone and pace began to quicken with the much needed release of her ire at the woman before her. "Who would you rather have on this bed at the moment? Who was your anger directed at?"
"None of you! I just wanted to talk to Tsukune and then you got in the way-"
"So you wanted me on this contraption. Very well," Ruby was curling her fingers at her side and a deadly grin creased her lips. "Outside in five minutes and see if you can best me, you foul bitch. Do your best so you can succeed in having both witches next to each other in matching beds. I would rather be next to her in a coma then enduring your false repentance."
"Ruby, lets not do this again," Tsukune stood up and pulled Moka away from Ruby's dominating posture.
"I AM sorry!" Moka wailed loudly when the door to Yukari's room was opened and several doctors in long coats and masks entered.
Their medical presence caught them all off guard.
"Please excuse us, but you all are going to have to leave. Yukari needs to be prepared for surgery. Have some respect for your friend!"
"What are you going to do?" Moka asked nervously, glancing at Yukari's little form when she saw several technicians start to disconnect tubes and wires.
"She is going to get her jaw wired," The head doctor/dentist announced with dismissal. "This procedure will take some time and we'll need all the space available and no distractions. We really do need you all to leave."
Tsukune, Moka, and a very austere faced Ruby followed behind.
Looking through the closed door of the room, Tsukune couldn't help but see all the people swarming around Yukari like vultures to a dead carcass on the side of the road.
"Will she be okay?" Moka asked as she matched his worrying gaze.
Apparently Moka envisioned the same illusion.
"Oh, what part of her will she just be fine with, Akashiya Moka?" Ruby ground out her name like chewing nails. "The part where she has to endure you break your beloved husband's trust and heart for the sake of dominance? Where you lash out at the people trying to help you because they care for both of you? Where she has to suffer who knows how many years as a cripple because you have successfully turned her into a quadriplegic?"
"What? No! I didn't want any of that to happen!" Moka wailed in a soft, hissing voice of disbelief, reaching for Ruby's shoulders just to have them swatted off . "I just wanted Tsukune back!"
"Oh, so you were only thinking of yourself?"
"That's...You're twisting my words around! Stop it!"
"No, I won't! Your actions speak the truth!"
"What Truth? I just wanted my husband back and you were getting in the way!"
"Really? I thought I was doing considerably much less then what Gin did."
Moka reeled back at that jab vicerally.
It's hard to rebuttal when the facts are thrown with so much weight behind them.
"I will protect my friend from the woman who knows how to manipulate him with demands by using his love of her. I won't let you talk to him without someone there to ensure you're not taking advantage of his good nature. I've had a hell of a time trying to get him just to come to terms that he CAN smile and laugh again. You took that from him, Akashiya Moka."
"My name is Aono Moka! Stop calling me that! I'm his wife!"
"No decent woman would make a mockery of what you did to him and still be able to call herself a wife! No one!"
"You don't understand! No one understands!" Moka was weeping into her hands now, hiccuping and sobbing before Tsukune and Ruby. "I just wanted to protect my children and...and...it wasn't supposed to be this way."
"No? Of course not, since you didn't mean or want any of it to happen so it must be okay for us all to forgive you, right? You didn't MEAN to fuck Gin, but you did. You didn't mean to break your word, your bond, the very relationship between you and Tsukune, but you did. You didn't mean to nearly kill Yukari and break her neck down to her spine because we all 'don't understand', but you did!"
"It wasn't at all what I was trying to do-"
"But you did! You stupid, horrible woman!" The elder witch lunged at Moka, hands bared like claws to tear into her.
Moka squeaked in fright, hunching her shoulders away and holding her hands up high to protect herself.
Tsukune would have none of it.
"Ruby, Moka, stop this!" Tsukune grabbed both of them by their shoulder's to pull them apart.
Ruby was pulling at him to get to Moka, her large violet eyes almost wild with rage, but it was Moka who distracted her into motionlessness when she latched onto Tsukune and wept bitterly, sorrowfully, and dejectedly.
"I'm sorry, Tsukune! Please, forgive me! Please, please, please don't leave me alone again! I couldn't bear it. I'll do anything you want to prove I won't do it again! You can have children raised by humans if that is what it will take. I won't see Gin ever again and I'll have my family do whatever is in their power to make sure Yukari is given the best medical treatment so she can recover as fast as possible, but please, please forgive me! Don't leave me, Tsukune, my love, my husband, please...please...please...don't leave me."
Ruby could only keep her feet from under her as she watched Moka's pathetic and desperate plea for Tsukune to accept her again.
This was the Moka she had grown to love and respect.
A sickness that made her want to wretch burned in her belly kept her attention elsewhere then at Tsukune and the woman he vowed to love for better or worse.
...or worse was definitely rearing its head right now.
Everything about her actions reflected her own anguish in her heart and how she felt towards the jade eye'd vamipress who had caused everything to up and crumble from the foundation up. Splinters of what was once her friendship to Moka started to corkscrew back into her, feeling for the woman who she knew, so very, very long ago, and loved Tsukune just as shamelessly as she did now.
However, among those feelings of her's, one that was starting to roar it's ugly head was jealousy.
Mixed between what she wanted to say and what she needed to do, it was Tsukune's expression that solidified what her next course of actions should be.
"Ruby," he looked over Moka's mop of messy pink locks and the quivering shake of her head as she pressed herself bodily against him. Her whimpering whine and trembling hiccup and hyperventilating vulnerability cinched what he needed to do as a friend and, still, as a husband and mate. "I think it's safe for me to talk to her alone for a bit. This is something I feel I can do without your guidance."
A part of Ruby wanted to latch onto her dear friend as well, rip that awful wife of his away from the man she had to rebuild from the ground up again, but she realized it wasn't her place to be that possessive of him.
He had come to her for help and she was just supposed to do that without expectation.
That's what a good friend would do.
The elder witched took in the picture of Tsukune's wife holding onto him with all her might, fearing what was going to happen next. Her sullied, bloodshot red eyes, trembling lips and fingers digging into his shirt was a rare sight and seemed proper.
Tsukune had yet to hold onto her as Moka had. His soft brown eyes were still hard and his lips pressed against each other in resolution.
Aono Tsukune was not bent by the picture of remorse his wife was presenting.
The dark haired witch had to admit she did feel comfortable leaving him unchaperoned with the woman who had taken so many failed chances.
"Then, I'll be going back to my lab, Tsukune." She straightened her hair out of her face and calmed her breathing after a few mental counts to ten. "If you should need me, just call. I'll be right over. Don't forget we have the first meeting of your trial in about ten hours from now, Tsukune. Get some sleep."
When she turned to take her first few steps away from the husband and wife friends who had saved her from her own self destructive ways, it was Moka's voice that stopped her in place.
"Ruby-chan?" Moka stepped away from Tsukune to pick up one of the bentos.
She offered it to the dark haired witch shyly as a gesture of hope to reconcile and rebuild the bridges of their friendship.
"I-I don't know if you're hungry, it's still cold but if you are I could heat this up for you. Please accept-"
"Yes, Akashiya Moka." Ruby snapped the name without any affection or attachment, absolutely crushing any doubt whether she wanted to be Moka's friend again.
She didn't.
"I was hungry."
The Headmaster's aide glanced between Tsukune and Moka and spun on her heel, ignoring the offered food and Moka's apologetic and hopeful eyes. It was the mere thought that after spending time with Tsukune, her friend, her handsome and fragile friend that was going to be spending time with Moka in bed doing who knows what or otherwise when she left.
It was almost funny that she found herself disgusted with the idea that Tsukune would be sharing a bed with his wife.
"But I've lost my appetite."
Without looking back, Toujou Ruby walked down the hall and away from both Aono's.
Her demeanor only soured each step away she took...without a doubt, she was absolutely certain the vampire heiress would hurt him again.
She was certain of it.
Ruby's mood had went from riled to near down right deadly when she left Tsukune and his wife, so it didn't help her ire when she noticed the door to her laboratory opened and with all of her warding seals dismantled. The scones and candelabras inside were lit with their smokey orange flames dancing scary shadows and their warm glow.
Flicking her wrist to grip the wand charging in it's appearance, she pushed the door with the gnarled tip to see a woman in a dark flowing formal gown looking through the files that were on her desk.
Without looking up, Ria spoke as she flipped from one page to the next.
"Information like this is rather sensitive. You really should have a better security set up in place, not to mention this was a horrid mess. Thank me later for organizing it for you. It wasn't a problem."
Six pairs of wings grew out of her back with a very menacing promise of pain. It was unlucky for Ria to catch her in the middle of this temperament. Ruby only hoped Ria had done this on purpose to alleviate any potential of this not being a crime of passion.
Ria ignored her overt threat and continued to read on.
A glossy black crow landed on her shoulder and waited for her instruction.
"Call the Personal Guard and have Mikogami know to have medics sent this way."
Ria smiled as she placed the file she was finished with on a neat stack, just to pull up another one and scan it with interest.
"Tell Kuyou that I'll have dinner with him when I get back. I would like to finish what we started. When he comes to visit me, there will be some special permissions and sanctuaries he'll have to apply for in order to see me at Fairy Tale."
Ruby was not amused, however she would have to find out more about why Kuyou was associating with someone who may or may not be some kind of infiltrator.
"You have one chance to explain why you are in my office, dispelled my wards, and are rifling through our personal files, Sekitan Ria."
Flipping a page on the current file she was reading, Toujou Ruby took it especially personal when she realized it was Yukari's.
"Did you like the flowers?"
The answer threw Ruby off guard a bit, however it was still impolite to not return courtesy so she decided to answer anyways.
"Yes, they were lovely. Thank you. I thought the foxgloves were a nice touch."
Ria nodded as she continued to scan the contents and wince at a particularly nasty bit of information.
"Quadriplegic with possible recovery after years of therapy."
Shaking her head, she closed the file and placed it neatly on the other stacks.
"For what it's worth to you, my family and myself included would like to express our sincerest apologies to what has happened to your colleague."
"She was my sister of the arcane and a personal friend!" Ruby's wings snapped open and her violet eyes began to glow, her teeth bared angrily. "Don't tell me you're sorry because from what I can tell between you and your sister 'you're sorry' are as empty to you as promises of love and friendship! Don't you dare tell me you're sorry when you don't feel any regret in the first place!"
Ria listened to her and nodded, taking in her perception as to her standing as an opponent and threat to Akasha's desire to help mend things between Moka and Tsukune.
"I can see why you would feel that way," Ria spread her hands and spoke to her softly, soothingly. "That's why I am here. I want to show you that, on the behalf of my family, we wish to make amends however we can."
"There is nothing you have that I could possibly want." Ruby snapped, moving away from the door and gesturing for Ria to leave. "However, you are invading a sanctuary of this realm and if you don't offer some reasonable excuse, I will have you confined and interrogated."
Ria's lips turned up with interest.
"Will Kuyou be there? That would make things interesting."
"Enough of this," Ruby glanced at the crow on her shoulder and nodded. The glossy black bird spread it's wings-
"Wait," Ria beckoned Ruby to enter her office with her fingers. "I have something you really may want to consider before you go off and lose this tidbit I have."
Ruby was already shaking her head. "I'm not interested. You can't offer me something unethical for the sake of your gain, Ria."
Grinning, the eldest vampiress was already walking around Ruby's desk and sat on it, crossing her legs.
"What if I told you that Lady Akasha has personally given me all authority to do as I feel to help Tsukune and Moka mend things?"
"Now I'm really not interested." Ruby lowered her long neck staff with it's pearly gem. She knew all about Ria and what she had done to Tsukune and Moka when they were in the blooming stages of their intimacies. "As his friend, I will do whatever I need to ensure Tsukune is protected from the likes of those who don't have his best interest in mind."
She also knew this woman raped Tsukune.
Now was not the time to put her personal feelings into why she was here. Shuzen Issa's eldest daughter was not an idiot and wouldn't be so belligerently aloof unless she had some kind of card up her sleeve.
"I know," Ria tilted her head. "You want him for yourself, don't you?"
There it was.
"I respect him and want the best for him," Ruby looked at her without remorse or guilt. "He is my friend and I will protect Tsukune and anyone who is my family without restraint."
"You didn't answer my question."
She hadn't and she knew it.
Ruby shook her head slightly, as if in regret. "Yes, I see a man in him that is kind and gentle. He has this quiet tranquility that makes me feel safe and cared for. It angers me that Moka so callously threw his love of her in his face just to show what extent she would go to get what she wanted."
Ria nodded, "He is that and so much more, Ruby. I know I enjoyed my time with him."
The tips of her eyebrows creased at Ruby's nose and a twitch made one of her eye's pulse.
"Have you had him as a lover yet? He's so adorable when he tries to act like he's not enjoying all the generosities I've bestowed upon him those many nights we shared. He also has this cute turn of his cock the points up when he's fully erect It really does tickle in all the right places when he's on top. I don't care what they say about men who are willing or not willing, but I know with the right motivation you can get that boy to do almost anything."
Ria licked her lips suggestively. "Anything."
One lone tear fell from Ruby's eyes and her knuckles turned white with the grip she had on her scepter.
The glow from it was blinding.
"My Lord Mikogami would punish me severely for attacking a visitor under political protection, but I think it would be worth it."
Ruby began to lean forward, but Ria held her hands up in surrender…not a very sincere one.
"I am unarmed and come in peace. Do you always attack defenseless messengers?"
The witch's teeth ground out curses so silent and so fervent that it made the magical weave of mana around them bend noticeably. For all her worth, Ruby knew attacking the messenger, even one as powerful as Ria, was the highest level of discourtesy and decorum for her kind.
It still didn't mean she couldn't voice her own opinions.
"You terrible, ruthless monster. I know there is a special place in hell for you, you cruel, heartless bitch. If I could, I would make it a personal mission to see you and your sister rot."
"Oh me, or my, I'm beginning to think you don't like me, Ruby-dono." Ria batted her eyes with false injury, even pouting childishly. "What would little oh me do without someone here to protect me?"
"I wouldn't be stupid enough to call you defenseless, vampire." Ruby snapped with a cautious perception of her intruder.
Ruby knew Ria was not dumb enough to lure her into fighting with just a few well placed jabs and taunts, so there had to be more of a purpose then this paltry belligerence.
"Why are you here, Ria?"
Ria slowly clapped her hands with surprise and appreciation.
"I was right to give you more credit then other elite creatures would. Most witches are usually just boarder beings of chaos and annoyance. But not you, hmm, Ruby-dono?"
Toujou Ruby entered her own lab and stood before Ria as she sat on the Headmaster's aide's desk without a care.
"Moka, on the other hand, would have came at me feet flying or fists swinging. She was never a really bright girl when it came to restraint. I'm sure you've gotten the gist of her temperament if you've been her friend for so long."
Ruby was well within striking range of her wings into vampiress and Ria knew it.
"Do not compare me to your sister, Sekitan-san. I find it highly insulting with her current display of impropriety. I would never do what she has done to Tsukune so flippantly and think she is right. Only vampires, such as yourselves, could be so arrogant as to believe you have the right to stain vows and fidelity just because you can."
"Spoken like a true virgin." Ria answered cheekily, placing her hands on her heart in a false gesture of sincerity. "And I thought Tsukune was the only cherry unpicked here. It really is adorable, considering all the available men in the Personal Guard's wing."
"I can stand your presence in here in bits and pieces, Ria. Get to the point." Ruby made a point of pulling the files of the personnel records in her arms back into filing cabinet on the other side of the room.
In one of those files reviewed, was Ruby's own.
"Very well, I told you," Ria's dark brown eyes followed Ruby's back and winced when she slammed the cabinet drawer loudly. Lowering her hands and opening a small satchel she had laid out on the desk by her side, she pulled out an envelope Mikogami had given Akasha during their meeting. "I'm here as a messenger from Lady Akasha. My little imotou has been such a nuisance and we all would like to thank you for your help. Is that so wrong?"
"That is what being a friend is. I have done nothing less then what I would expect from him. No price or property is worthy of being exchanged for the value of true friendships, Ria. It is a privilege and an honor to be his friend so I want nothing more in his name. Besides, what has happened to Yukari and Tsukune have very little to do with what Mikogami and the trial about to come."
"This isn't about the trial or what those trumped up charges are, but for you, personally, to help stand clear of Moka and Tsukune. That is something Lady Akasha wants to see done in the next couple of days."
Ruby already knew this wasn't going to go in her favor. Sekitan Ria was already looking beneath the layers of political leveraging and foresaw what potentially could be used in her favor beyond that.
She was, indeed, dangerous.
"Then you're wasting your time. I have no intention of letting Moka get between Tsukune and I if he needs me."
"Really? Nothing?"
"That's what I said," She tapped the tip of her stave to emphasize her point. "Now come with me quietly and I promise we'll be lenient. More so then Moka deserves, any how."
Sighing with mock regret, "Then I guess there is no point in trying to negotiate with you. I suppose this is not going to interest you one bit, however, I would at least like to tell you what you are giving up in exchange for some time to at least let Moka try her hand at mending things between Tsukune and herself."
"I'm listening." She answered without enthusiasm.
"Hmm," Ria unfolded the envelope and pulled a sheet out that seemed to be made of parchment. "It's a property deed. Something called the 'Witches Knoll'…"
"What?" Ruby jumped forward, but Ria lifted it next to a torch that was only a few scant inches away from being burned.
The edges were already fluttering by the heat of the fire.
"It was never willed to anyone once your poor Master's death, not even to you. However, this land was purchased by Mikogami through means that are highly suspect and questionable. Either way, we know how important it is to your current Master and his attempts to find some kind of hand hold into our dimension. By having this under his name…or yours…you could have a place of asylum that is outside of Lady Akasha's authority to enjoy and be with Tsukune any time you want...or wanted, now that it will be gone. Now, if you're not interested, I could say that the document was not passable and is going to be simply lost under red tape and administrative slip ups. It happens all the time."
"Stop…just stop." Ruby reached out for the document as if it was the last thread to the memories of her former home. "What do you want?"
"You know, I happen to know many contractors who would be interested in this property. As it is, I heard there's a desperate need for a land fill or a parking lot."
"You have my attention, now, please just...stop!"
"I think I'll offer a bonus to anyone who can find your Master's grave and dig up her bones to put a urinal right in her eye sockets..."
"Damn you, Ria!" Ruby shot out her wing and snatched the document from Ria's fingers, dropping it into her trembling hands.
It was authentic and real.
This was her Master's property and everything that Ria had said was still very true. It was held under trust by Fairy Tale and Ria had all the authority in the world to still do as she threatened.
"So you'll listen?" Ria asked with eternal patience that ground on Ruby's nerves.
"I'm listening." Mikogami's assistant answered in polite defeat.
She wouldn't let Ria control her or manipulate her friendship with Tsukune, but if it meant for things to be given a little more freedom then what she has been doing as of late...what possible damage could be done by listening to Sekitan Ria's offer in full?
Closing the door to her lab, the tattered sigils and runes on the frame glowed a brilliant shade of orange and black.
Whatever happened behind the walls of Ruby's lab were hidden from all ears: magical, physical, and spiritual.