Blood of The Rose
Chapter 43: Cult of Personality
Downtown LA, Sewers
Ruby's seeming nonchalance regarding the presence of rats in the sewers rapidly faded under the realities of their situation. The water dripping onto her head, the muffled squeaks in the distance, all served to put her on edge and drain away her enthusiasm for their current endeavor.
"Fuck… goddamn shitty sewers…" she grumbled to herself under her breath. "Tiny little cocksucking shits are just waitin' for me to drop my guard… Not gonna happen, no siree, you're not catching me unawares…"
"Um, you okay, Rubbles?"
The brunette fledgling let out a shriek at the hand that landed on her shoulder, leaping around in a circle with her sword half-drawn from its sheath.
"Whoa!" her blonde sibling protested, backing away with hands raised. "Easy there, sis!"
Nora was bringing up the rear of their procession and had wisely remained well out of range. "You seem a little nervous, there, Ruby," she commented nonchalantly.
"Me? Nervous?" Ruby gave a high-pitched laugh that did not sound nervous at all, thankyouverymuch. "Nooo, I'm fine!"
"Uh-huh…"
She turned back around, slamming her sword back into its sheath, and tried to swallow down her revulsion for the whole situation, working very hard to hang onto the indignation she'd felt above ground.
They'd traveled for some time now along the rounded corridor, past plenty of branching tunnels. Some of those were blocked by old, rusted but still-sturdy bars, others that lead nowhere, and some that lead back to the surface. Finally, though, they reached a dead end with one remaining unexplored side tunnel.
Nora pushed past the brunette, much to her private relief, and poked her head into the corridor. "Yep, I see some rungs in the wall," the orange-haired Brujah announced cheerfully. "Looks like they go up a level!"
"Then up we go," Yang stated.
Fortunately, the new chamber they found themselves in after climbing the rungs was far different from their previous passage. It was large with a vaulted ceiling and iron pillars set into concrete bases. Though the water there was knee-deep, it seemed relatively cleaner of sewage and absent of any indication of the dreaded rats, thus vastly preferable for Ruby's liking.
However, as they ventured further in, the rank smell of rotting meat began to fill the air.
"Ugh," Ruby gagged slightly. "What the hell is that?"
"Nothing good," Nora replied grimly. "Try not to breathe, fledgling."
"Right, right, I keep forgetting that," she mumbled.
Set into one wall in the middle of the chamber was a wide opening and at the other end a seeming barricade with steps leading up to it from this side. The entire area was lit by dim lights with protective wires wrapped around the fixtures, but the side opening glowed brightly.
"Sooo guess we found it?" Yang opined, gripping her shotgun tightly.
"Looks like," Ruby agreed.
Nora shot them an eager grin as she strode forward. "Then what are we waiting for?"
The side area was a stark contrast to the larger chamber. Stone pillars with inset flickering lanterns were spaced about the room. Along the side walls were chains hanging down, many of them ending in cruel hooks that uncomfortably reminded Ruby of a slaughterhouse. And then, at the end where a raised platform rose out of the water and encompassed most of the back of the room were several corpses strung up grotesquely and in a variety of poses. Some attempts to imitate crucifixion had been made, others hung upside-down, and one hung by her feet and wrists bound together behind her back so that her flayed body was almost bent in two. None of the bodies seemed to be alive and most were missing their clothes, though one corpulent man was still dressed in a police uniform.
When Ruby gave in to her impulse and took a quick whiff, she was almost knocked off of her feet by the putrid smell.
Right, that was a terrible idea, back to the not breathing thing again...
As the three approached the back cautiously, once they had reached about the center of the room they simultaneously spun about at a ringing slam as the previously-unseen gates behind them dropped down to block off the entryway.
Nora let out a groan. "Oh, I got a bad feeling about this."
"Yeah, that looks entirely too heavy for the three of us to lift," Yang mused. "Gotta be a release lever somewhere around here…"
The youngest vampire among them nodded, turning around to head forward again towards the rear of the room. She'd only ventured a few steps when a figure suddenly materialized upon the dias. From all appearances, the Kindred seemed to be a Nosferatu, but with the piercings and hooks driven into his own flesh to hold his numerous gaping wounds together, he looked more like…
Ruby gasped softly. "Holy crapbaskets, it's a Reaver!"
"A what?" Nora replied, brow furrowed.
"A rutting Reaver!"
Yang tilted her head to the side. "Huh, yeah, suppose he does kinda look like one…"
"What's a Reaver?" Nora asked, still confused.
"Y'know, from Serenity?" Ruby shook her head. "Know what, nevermind, I'll tell you about it later. Let's deal with this fucker first."
The trio of armed Kindred approached further as the Nos held his arms out to encompass them in grisly greeting before crossing them across his chest. As they got closer Ruby noticed he had flies buzzing around his grey, pallid skin, and that his yellow eyes were set into bleeding sockets.
"Found your way down here, did you?" he leered. "Following the smell of entrails and rotting flesh? Looking for a free meal, little bloodsuckers? There's meat galore in my kingdom."
"And who the hell are you?" Yang called out defiantly.
"Brother Kanker, they call me… High Lord in the diseased halls of the dead. Look around you! The blood, the bloated bodies, the maggot-ridden mortal shells… These are the signs, the coming of a new age!"
"Yeah, kinda hard to miss your sick shit here, buddy," Ruby broke in. "Why are you feeding on the homeless?"
He giggled, the sound grating and high-pitched. "They are the weak, sick, hopeless. I bring them a new purpose. They are the vessels of darkness, carrying the diseased truth in their veins."
"Oh. I see," Nora nodded sagely. "You've lost your goddamn marbles."
Brother Kanker grinned widely, ignoring the jibe. "The doors have been opened, the seals broken, and the final steps into the abyss; the terrible mysteries of the Ninth Circle!"
Ruby laid a restraining hand on Nora as she recognized the last phrase from earlier. "Ninth Circle? You mean the Brotherhood of the Ninth Circle?"
"The Brotherhood of the Ninth Circle!" he cackled in affirmation. "The darkest dawn is almost upon us! Come! Join us in these last nights, spreading our disease upon the earth, sharing this unholy communion with our human herd!"
"Yeah, I don't know what you're talking about, but I've heard enough." Yang pumped her shotgun to prime a shell into the chamber.
"Come! Join the disciples who have gathered here, floating in their own putrescence! I will show you the mysteries of our Brotherhood as I feed on your flesh!" His voice raised to a shriek at the end, but all three girls paused in their approach at his words.
Ruby glanced at the others anxiously. "...Disciples?"
It was then that they noticed numerous forms rising from the water like bloody revenants, claws and fangs extended eagerly.
Yang laughed, turning towards the biggest cluster of cultist vampires. "Whelp, you wanted a rumble, Nora."
"Oh, yeah," Nora giggled eagerly, brandishing her combat baton. "Come get some, bitches!"
With that, the battle was joined.
Ruby had to trust in her companions to handle the hordes of disciples that seemed to be pouring into the chamber from unseen alcoves and hidden doorways as well as rising from the water. She soon had her hands full with Brother Kanker.
The fledgling was experienced enough by now to recognize the glow around the other vampire's hands from seeing Jack fight, knowing that a hit from him would send her flying. Not to mention a few cracked bones. So she endeavored to keep her distance, slashing out with her sword whenever he got close. She was still clumsy with it, to be sure, but she was starting to get a bit of a feel for the weapon and tried to keep her attacks focused and not extend herself.
"Bloody horseballs," she grunted after Kanker dodged yet another of her swings. "I really, really need to get Weiss to give me some lessons…"
And then, just as she braced herself for another rush… he disappeared from view.
"Oh, shitbiscuits!" Ruby yelped, leaping backwards and right into the charging path of another cultist. Fortunately, her reflexes were up to the task, and with one deft swing, he exploded into ash as his head went flying.
"Yes!" she hissed exultantly. "Now, if I could just get this Brother Fucker to stand still long enough… Or, yeah, actually show himself…"
She looked around wildly, sword up at the ready. The battle surged around her, but both Yang and Nora seemed to have things well in hand. A handful of Disciples dropped down from the ceiling near her, but Yang promptly blew them apart with her shotgun.
"Hey, tits!" Nora called out cheerfully. "Takin' your sweet time with your side of the room, ain'tcha?"
"Workin' on it, bitch!" Yang laughed gaily, emptying another shell into a Nosferatu's face.
Ruby shook her head, resuming her search. Those two have the weirdest friendship...
Almost too late, she spied a set of indentations in the water that seemed to be approaching her from the side. With a yelp, she lunged away, barely missing Kanker's charge.
And then she was upright once more, eyes probing for the telltale sign of the invisible Nosferatu.
"Shit! I'm out," Yang grunted, tossing her shotgun up onto the raised platform. It landed next to her duffle bag that she'd already left there. "Here, Rubbles, switch with me, why don't you finish off these suckheads." The blonde slipped her silver knuckledusters over her fingers, moving forward in a boxer's stance. "I got this asshole."
"Works for me," Ruby agreed. She slipped past her sister and met another rush of Brotherhood vampires. The brunette sidestepped one, tripped another, and severed the arms from a third. As the latter paused, looking dumbly down at the stumps that ended just below his elbows, Ruby spun once more, decapitating the hapless Nos. She then took a step forward and put an end to the fallen one.
Before she could deal with the last, Nora was there, gleefully running her baton through his eye. Once her opponent turned to fiery ash, she shook the blood off of her weapon and gave Ruby a wide, fanged grin. "Pretty rad, huh?"
"Um, yeah," the brunette snickered. "Totally rad. Should we help Yang?"
"Nah, she's got things in hand."
The duo turned to see the Kindred in question in a fierce battle with the now-visible leader of this particular group of cultists. Her fists were enshrouded with blue energy much as Brother Kanker's were, but she moved in a blur, easily dodging each strike sent her way. It wasn't long before the Nosferatu let out a wail of fury as his cranium collapsed after a particularly fierce roundhouse punch, and shortly thereafter was nothing more than a greasy patch on the sewer water.
With relieved smiles all around, the three Kindred set about searching the place. Each alcove seemed to be a dead-end, but in a recessed portion of the rear, Ruby discovered a rusty lever. She let out an exultant shout as she pulled it and the portcullis across the entrance began to retract.
"Nice job, Ruby!" their orange-haired companion cheered. "Oh, and hey, I found this. Think it's important?"
They gathered around to peer at a waterlogged, blood-stained flyer. The writing on it read 'I am Enlightened' around the image of a skull superimposed over an eight-point dark sun.
"Well, that's super-creepy," Ruby murmured. "Guess I can hold on to it, ask around, see what others think…"
"Does it look familiar?" Yang asked, frowning. "I mean, I think maybe… I've seen it somewhere?"
Nora shook her head, though Ruby pursed her lips thoughtfully. "Maybe? I dunno, maybe it'll come to us later."
It didn't take them too long to escape from the sewers, over the barricade, and up another tall set of rungs leading to the surface. Ruby felt discomforted about leaving the corpses of those mortals they'd found in the cultist lair, but Yang promised to let Nines know about it. The Anarchs had their own methods of cleaning up after the Sabbat and other Kindred who broke the rules, and they'd make sure the place was either cleansed or entombed.
As soon as her feet were back on solid ground, Ruby took a deep breath and let it out explosively. Before she could open her mouth to question their next move, however, her phone began to ring. She let out a little squeal as the opening riff to a Lizzy Hale song began.
"Oh! It's Weiss!"
She pulled the device out of her pocket and swiped to answer the call with a wide grin.
"Heya, Weiss! What's up? ...Oh, well, yeah, we were in the sewers, must not have heard ya… Right, underground. Yeah, it's a long story…" Ruby nodded several times as she listened to the other end. "Oh, cool beans! Yeah, I'll be right over! Bye, bestie!" She snickered to herself as she closed the connection on the platinum-haired Kindred's indignant squawk.
"Okay! So, Weiss and Blake managed to rescue Lily for E, how cool is that?"
At Nora's blank expression, the brunette hurriedly filled her in on their efforts on the behalf of the thin-blooded vampires in Santa Monica. By the time she was done, Yang had finished cleaning the weapons off and repacking her bag of tricks.
"Whelp, I gots nothing else to do, Rubbles," the blonde grinned. "Mind if I tag along?"
"No, that'd be awesome! How about you, Nora?"
"Ehhh, pass. I gotta shower and change out of these funky clothes, y'know?"
"I hear that," Yang chuckled. The two women shared a fist bump before the group separated, Ruby thanking the orange-haired Kindred profusely for her help, and said vampire laughingly insisting it had been such a blast that she'd better get an invite to the next bash.
"Sooo cab time?" Ruby inquired, swinging her arms at her side cheerfully.
"Cab time," Yang nodded. "First, though… lemme drop my bag off at the bar."
"And maybe change?"
"Yeaaahhh… I'm smellin' kinda funky myself."
Ruby brought the hem of her sweatshirt up to her nose, giving it a cautious sniff.
"Got any spare clothes that might fit me?"
Santa Monica, Garage Beach Access
The two sisters exited the cab and entered directly into the Santa Monica garage. Yang had changed into ripped jeans and a bright orange tee shirt that read 'My Eyes Are Up Here', while Ruby wore a pair of capris black leggings and a long, loose red tank top.
As soon as they rounded the bend towards the rear staircase, they spied the other two Kindred. Their friends were conversing softly together, peering out of the gated vehicle entrance towards the pier. As one, they turned to observe the siblings' approach.
"And how were the sewers?" Weiss asked with a small, mischievous smirk.
"Ugh," Ruby groaned in response. "Nasty."
"Yeah, I've been in better places," Yang laughed, flicking her hair over her shoulder. "Hey, Blake, how goes it?"
"Oh, erm… Well, thank you." Blake ducked her head with a shy smile. "You… heard of our success?"
"We did!" Ruby exclaimed with a wide smile. "I'm so excited, you guys are seriously awesome!"
"Well, Blake here actually did most of the work," Weiss replied, giving the shy Gangrel a soft smile.
As the four made their way down the stone steps towards the beach, Weiss recounted their activities with some hesitant input from Blake. By the time they reached the sand, Ruby had given each Kindred a tight hug.
"Ah, there she is," Weiss murmured, nodding her head to the approaching orange-haired girl.
"Hi, Lily!" the brunette greeted the thin-blood cheerfully, stepping forward to meet her approach. "I'm Ruby, and this is my sister Yang! I'm glad to meet you finally!"
"And I can't thank you enough for what you've done for me," Lily replied warmly, her smile a bit crooked but genuine. She glanced over her shoulder towards where E was warming himself by the fire with a cluster of other thin-bloods. "But I'll keep doing it until the end of days. Thank you, all of you."
"How did it go with E?" Weiss asked cordially.
"This life's been hard on him… both of us." Lily sighed, though her smile remained. "But he forgives me. We're leaving soon. I have some family with a place out in the middle of nowhere in Oregon. It should be okay for us to stay out there. As long as we're together."
"That's awesome." Ruby tilted her head to the side as a thought occurred to her. "Hey, so… The whole reason I got involved with this in the first place was asking about thin-bloods. Was there anything you could tell me about… well, your condition?"
The surfer girl nodded slowly. "Rolf, my sire, told me some vampires consider thin-bloods a bad omen and want them destroyed. Rolf wasn't a thin-blood… and apparently, I am. I don't know why. Rolf abandoned me. His group wouldn't take me in. They said I was a liability."
Lily gazed out across the water somewhat wistfully with the air of a person having to give up something she loved in order to hold on to something else far more important. "He left me with so many questions. And I did the same thing to E. But I didn't want to leave E - he forced me out of his life. But not any longer."
"Well, you two kids stay safe," Yang interjected. "Actually… here, take this. Should cover some of your bus fares, yeah?"
The thin-blood blinked her eyes rapidly as she accepted the small wad of cash. "I… Thank you again, I would say you've already done too much… But yes, this will help tremendously. You should go talk to E, though, I think with this we can start on our journey first thing tomorrow evening."
They gave Lily a cheerful wave as she stood in the sand, watching the waves crash upon the shore.
"That was admirable of you, Yang," the platinum-haired Ventrue spoke up softly.
"Yeah, well…" Yang shrugged her shoulders with a sheepish grin. "What can I say, I'm a sucker for love stories."
Before they had reached the edge of the small crowd, E noticed their approach. A wide, happy grin broke out across his face as he pushed his way forward. For once, Ruby was the one to be caught off-guard by a warm hug.
"You brought my Lily back!" the Australian man gushed, looking around at the group of girls once he released Ruby. "She told me all about what happened with you, dark girl…"
"Oh, yeah, this is Blake," Ruby broke in. "Weiss here also helped. And this is my sister, Yang."
E just shook his head wonderingly. "I don't know why you lot helped us, but… your blood's worth bottlin'. I'll never let her go again. Thank you."
"You're welcome, E," Weiss replied with a smile of her own. "Keep her safe."
"Oh, no doubt, I intend to." The thin-blood glanced around before leaning in slightly and lowering his voice. "We're gonna be gettin' out of LA soon. Too dangerous here. Rosa told us something big's about to happen and I don't want to be here when the Jack comes out of the box. Take that for what you will."
Ruby nodded easily. "I'll think about that. Thanks, E. Good luck."
As E made his way to go stand by Lily, Yang leaned in towards the others. "Who's Rosa?"
"Oh, she's one of the thin-bloods… But she's got some kinda…" The brunette shrugged helplessly. "I dunno, somehow I think she can see things, tell the future, or something."
"I think it likely she was Sired by a Malkavian," Weiss murmured, looking towards where the woman in question was standing almost expectantly on the edge of the other thin-bloods, her attention on the four Kindred. "She may have received some of their… gifts."
"It would seem she wants to speak with you, Ruby," Blake broke in, her voice barely above a whisper as she noted the woman's posture.
"Well, let's go talk to the fortuneteller, then!" Ruby grinned, leading the way.
Once they reached her, Rosa gave herself a shake as if from a slumber.
"You continue to gather those who support you," she intoned, her deep brown eyes glazed and unseeing. "But a pair of potential allies are always in flux, the future is so unclear with them… One or the other, neither or both, may become friends or enemies. The granddaughter of Janus and the pumpkin king. More allies lurk in the shadows, their faces are unclear as they have not yet determined that they will pledge themselves to the one in Red."
"Um," Ruby murmured hesitantly. "Hi, Rosa?"
"Oh, hello," the woman replied, once again giving herself a shake. "It is good to see you again, Ruby. Have you been well?"
"Yeah, so far, so good… So what was all that about potential allies?"
"I… do not know what you mean." Rosa shook her head somberly. "I do not know what I say… please, ignore me with such things."
Ruby opened her mouth once more to introduce the others, but before she could, the gypsy woman turned and stalked off into the shadows.
"Whelp," Yang grunted. "She was weird."
The brunette slapped her lightly on the arm. "Be nice. Some of what she's told me about was close to the mark, so I'm not discounting anything she says. Right, Weiss?"
"Indeed," the other Ventrue mused thoughtfully. "I actually wonder about the first… The granddaughter of Janus… the god of duality, the two-faced god…"
"Two-faced? You mean…" Ruby lowered her voice to a whisper. "You mean like Jeanette?"
"Jeanette, one of the owners of Asylum?" Yang glanced between the two in confusion.
"Shit… Yeah, okay, so you can't say anything about this, alright? Either of you, this is super-secret, I mean it!"
Blake nodded solemnly. "Very well, it shall not pass my lips."
"Yeah, yeah…"
"Yang, I'm serious! Pinky-swear!"
"What?" Yang looked at her sister and the extended pinky incredulously. "What are we, five?"
"Pinky-swear!" Ruby repeated earnestly.
"Oh, for… Fine, fine…" Yang grabbed her sister's pinky with her own. "I so do solemnly pinky-swear never to talk about whatever it is we're gonna talk about. Happy?"
"Yes." The brunette extended her pinky to Blake next, who regarded it with perplexion before she hesitantly mirrored Yang's action.
"Erm… I also swear?" the Gangrel enjoined curiously.
"Right then…" She spent the next few minutes filling them in with Jeanette's Malkavian lineage and Therese's eventual demise. "So, yeah, I think maybe Weiss is right about the Janus thing if that applies to them… I guess they could be, like, daughters of Janus? Which would make the granddaughter…"
"Neo," Weiss whispered with foreboding.
Ruby nodded. "Yeah. Her."
"It's a rather convoluted line of reasoning," Blake opined. "But possible."
"So what about the other?" Yang asked. "A pumpkin king?"
The brunette fledgling suddenly snapped her fingers. "Roman!"
"Roman Torchwick? The smarmy Toreador prick?" Her blonde sibling tilted her head with a frown. "Why him?"
"Indeed, I wouldn't expect him to be someone you could trust at any point in time," Weiss interjected dryly.
Ruby just shrugged with a sheepish grin. "Orange hair?"
The other three Kindred, even Blake, graced her with almost identically skeptical looks. "Right, well… Let's just agree to ponder that further," Weiss returned.
"Fine, fine… So, what's next?"
"Gettin' pretty close to daylight, maybe another hour or so," Yang mused. "I think I'm gonna head back to the Last Round for the night, see if I can't soothe Skelter's feathers, y'know, nurse that fragile male ego of his… maybe convince him not to be such an asshole to you two Cammies..."
Ruby giggled at the thought. "Yeah, sounds good, guess we'll head back to my Haven… Weiss, Blake? You wanna come with?"
"I shall decline," Blake replied with a grateful smile. "But thank you. Beckett is expecting me."
Weiss agrees to accompany Ruby for another night in the Downtown Haven. With that, they all took their farewells, the brunette granting both Blake and Yang tight hugs and effervescent thanks for all their help that evening, and began to go their separate ways.
"Weiss?"
The platinum-haired Ventrue turned, a quizzical look on her face, as Ruby continued on towards the exit from the beach. "Yes, Blake?"
The Gangrel was standing with her arms crossed and a pensive, tremulous smile. "I just… I wanted to thank you for allowing me to… accompany you this evening, and… and for your, er, company." Blake took a step forward, uncrossed her arms, and just as quickly crossed them once again. "And for your… friendship."
"Oookaayyy…" Weiss drawled uncertainly. "You are most welcome, and I thank you as well."
The pair of Kindred stood there for a minute in awkward silence as Blake once again uncrossed and then recrossed her arms.
"Was there… anything else?" Weiss tentatively asked.
"Well, yes… that is…" Blake let out an irritated huff. "Ruby makes this look so easy, I do not understand how to… how to…"
"How to…?"
Finally, the raven-haired girl hung her head in defeat and let her arms hang at her sides. "I wish to offer you a hug," she declared mutely.
"O-Oh," Weiss stuttered, perplexed. Eventually, a slow smile crossed her face. "It's… really not all that hard. See?"
She closed the distance, pulling the timid vampire into an embrace, her hands crossed at the small of her back. Blake stiffened but quickly relaxed, her own arms slowly wrapping around her friend.
"Oh," she breathed. "This is nice. I like hugs."
Weiss giggled into the Gangrel's shoulder. "Less violent than Ruby's. And… don't tell her I said this, but I do sometimes like hugs myself. That dolt just tends to overdo them."
"I shall endeavor not to do so," Blake murmured in amusement.
They pulled apart then, small but pleased smiles on their faces.
"Well, I suppose Ruby will be waiting for you," Blake noted. "Er, thank you again for this evening, and… and for the hug."
"Anytime, Blake," she replied with a smile, waving over her shoulder as she trudged through the sand. "Anytime."
Downtown LA, Skyeline Apartments
Ruby shouldered the door to her apartment open with a weary sigh. "Man, what a long-ass night."
"Indeed, it's been rather busy," Weiss conceded, entering in behind her and securing the door. "Granted, that seems to be par for the course ever since I met you…"
"Well, wouldn't want you to be bored or anything, right?" the brunette replied with a cheeky grin, flopping down on the couch.
Weiss rolled her eyes though she was unable to keep a smile from her face. "Such a dolt."
"I'm so glad you're back!"
"Ack!" Ruby yelped, flailing about as she rolled to the floor. She sprang back up as nonchalantly as possible before meeting the emerald gaze of her ghoul. "O-Oh, Heather, hi there!"
"I've been waiting for you… it seems like forever." Heather wrung her hands somewhat anxiously as she stood in the kitchen, as if afraid to approach further. "I- I- I've been kind of nervous… I don't think I can... feel you… in me anymore… um, in my veins… Could I…?" She glanced over at a studiously disinterested Weiss who was sitting primly on the other couch. "Could I have just a little bit more, Ma- I mean, Ruby? Just… Just a few drops?"
The brunette Kindred frowned, trying to do the math in her head. It hadn't been all that many nights since she first gave Heather her blood and unwittingly started this whole mess, and from what she recalled from Mercurio, he only received blood once a month. She faced her platinum-haired partner, eyebrows raised and received a miniscule shake of the head in return.
"Maybe not just yet, okay? I mean, not tonight, anyways… I'm, um, pretty wiped out…"
"Oh! Of course, how silly of me, I wasn't thinking…" The redhead chewed on her lip for a moment before entering the living area and standing awkwardly next to the couch. "Um, I do have something for you…"
Ruby sighed as she sat back down, patting the couch in invitation. "You don't have to get me anything, Heather."
"But I want to!" The girl smiled a little too widely as she perched on the edge of the couch. "I got a college loan check today, I want you to have some of it!"
With a groan, the brunette began to massage her temples with her eyes closed. Why is it that dealing with her always brings on a headache… I forgot she'd mentioned she was going to college for… fashion design, was it? Her eyes slowly opened as an idea began to percolate in her head. First, though, this needed to be dealt with.
"Heather, I don't want your money," she began gently. "That's for you to go to college. You're still going, right?
"Um, well, I've missed a few classes…"
"Yeah, that needs to stop." Ruby straightened up, trying for a stern look without being too… judgemental? Ugh, how did mom used to pull this off so well? "You need to be going to classes, okay?"
"Well… okay…" Heather looked down at the hands she'd folded in her lap. "You… Ma- I mean, Ruby, you always seem kind of… tense around me. Are you… Do I not please you?"
Oh for fuck's sake… "Heather it's not that, honest, it's just… Look, I didn't ask for this, I didn't mean to..." She sighed heavily. "It's not the fact that you're my ghoul, really, it's just that I didn't really know you, to begin with and I didn't know what I was doing and… Neither of us had a choice in this, y'know?"
"You… Please, you're not going to make me leave, are you?" The redheaded mortal looked to be a bit panicked at the thought. "I mean… I know things, now, it's like you… pulled the shades off of my mind's window, I can actually see now… There's a whole world out there, under the world I once knew, and it's… it's mind-blowing."
"It's okay, calm down, please," Ruby broke in, holding her hands out soothingly. "I'm not gonna just kick you out to the curb, honest!"
"O- Okay, sorry, sorry, I'm just…" Heather stood up abruptly. "Sorry, I just need to… Excuse me, please." With that, she turned and strode quickly off towards the bathroom behind the dinette, closing the door behind her.
"That could have gone better," Weiss murmured, her tone more concerned than judgemental.
"Every time I talk to her could go better," Ruby sighed, flopping back against the couch. "I'm just… Honestly, I'm trying, but this still creeps me out, y'know? How much she… adores me… and I just don't feel anything for her in return, it just makes me uncomfortable and guilty and… Yeah."
Weiss rose from her perch, walking around the couch to lay a comforting hand on the brunette's shoulder. "I'm going to go prepare for the day," she murmured. "You should too. The sun will be up soon."
"Right, right… thanks…"
She waited until Weiss had entered the bedroom before she pulled her cellphone out, flipping through her ever-growing list of contacts. Selecting one for a certain shop she'd visited with Weiss, she sat back again, waiting for the other line to pick up.
"Oh, hello, Octavia, this is Ruby… Heh, yeah, I'm loving the outfit so much, seriously can't thank you all enough… They got you manning the phone, huh? Oh, well, I suppose that makes sense, you'd be the only one who'd want to, heh… No, no, actually, you're the person I wanted to talk to. By any chance, do you have a… a ghoul?"
A/N: I will not ship monochrome, I will not ship monochrome… hrmmm…. no, stay strong girl, stay strong…
Hello again, my lovelies! Yes, I'm still alive, as is this story! I promise you, I will not let it die off, it's just going to take a while to get things going again. Also, I got a new computer (yay!) but neglected to move my playthrough recordings from the old (boo!) so I still need to do that… But, yeah, I feel badly that it's taken me three months to update yet again. I'll try to do better, honest. Gave you all a little bit of a longer chapter to make up for it. Also, we passed the two-year milestone for this story! Woohoo!
So quick side note for Nora's nickname of Yang, "Tits". I was reading Dashingicecream's twitter feed the other day and one of their OCs called another one that, kind of in a surly fashion, but I just died laughing and could totally see Nora using it as a way to poke fun at her bestie, Yang. No disrespect is intended, of course. I just found it to be hilarious.
And a little more on the Heather problem, but Ruby has some ideas… Let's hope they don't blow up in her face...
Mad props to my talented and patient Beta and collaborator, SilvanaCrowe, who managed to find the time to help with this chapter on their break, and hugs to you awesome readers and reviewers! AntonSlavik020, Sharkdude5, Erenor, TacoKing23, noselo, kinigget, zerosabers, Kingofclubs8129, RexCaldoran, Blacsparrow, deathgundam006, Nagaichi, Nicodemus Cain, Knight of Everwatch, randomlolguy, Scott Wolf, Tamatoa, and a guest - great to hear from you all again! Sorry if I didn't respond to everyone who had reviewed, time kinda got away from me and then I forgot who I'd responded to… My brain is such a trainwreck sometimes...
Stay shiny!
(P.S. So I was on Facebook the other day and a post from the RWBY Fanfiction site came across my feed, it was one of those, "do you remember this classic…" and it was from the first chapter of A Thorny Tangled Triangle. I squeed loudly and for a solid ten minutes and felt like a famous person.)
