Everyone was right. At the end of the day, when it really came down to it, Ruby was the one who had to make the final decision. Everyone gave her conflicting viewpoints, differing solutions: lie, be honest, do what you really want.
Ruby couldn't satisfy everyone with one decision, but everyone seemed to know that she is her own person with her own set of messy emotions. She walked past the elevators and made straight for the stairs. If she couldn't convince herself to turn back in the time that it took to ascend twenty-six flights of stairs, then she wouldn't do it. Simple as that.
Ruby turned the handle and pressed her weight into the door. She grabbed the handrail and started climbing up the stairs as quickly as her feet would allow her. Her own determination fueled her, and she made it up to the tenth floor without losing her breath. By the time she reached the fifteenth, she had to slow down to pacify her cramping sides.
But Ruby kept going. Even though literally everything and everyone was trying to hamper her efforts, slow her down, prevent her from making this decision, she still persevered. Ruby thought to herself, if that isn't a sign of Ruby's sheer determination, then it was a sign that she was about to walk a self-sabotaging path of idiotic humiliation.
Ruby was well aware of the risks, and she hardly even knew if they were really worth it, if he was worth it. Thinking about it only made her feel like she was making one big mistake, and she didn't like to. If she thought about until she realized her chances were slim, she might just give up entirely. At the twenty-sixth floor, Ruby finally stopped to catch her breath. She often ran as a hobby, but climbing twenty-six flights of stairs without stopping to catch her breath? Brutal.
Wiping the sweat off her face with the sleeve of her school uniform, Ruby stood up and opened the door. A thin layer of sweat coated her skin, but it felt blissful when she stepped into the hallway, the cold caressing the part of her skin that was exposed to the open air.
Ruby let her mind float in space as she executed the directions she created the last few times she'd been here, disregarding the signs completely. She reached the door she was looking for, inhaling deep enough to fill every corner of her lungs and exhaling.
She confidently raised a fist to the door and pounded on the wooden surface. Her stomach dropped, but it wasn't much worse than the uneasy feeling she'd had in her gut all day. She paced to quell her nerves, to little avail, but Ruby found that it kept her thoughts in check. When nothing happened right away, Ruby walked up to the door again. She rapped her knuckles on the door loudly enough to attract the attention of everyone on this floor. Maybe that'll get him to open his door, Ruby thought.
She chewed on the inside of her cheek. His apartment was strangely quiet. What in the world could he possibly be doing? Did he even get up to see who was there?
Ruby opened her mouth but shut it. She settled for slapping her open palm on the wood. Her hand certainly paid the price, but she didn't mind. If Torchwick wasn't going to open up, then he might as well have to deal with her.
Ruby creased her brows. He was hoping she'd just leave. Even though she was here, tossing their agreement in the wood chipper, Torchwick was still trying to hold up his end. "Oh come on," Ruby muttered. "Can't you just go back on your word this one time?"
At this point, Ruby was steaming. Her ears were vibrating, and she was working up the nerve to shout his name until he opened the door. But then he'd have to leave, and then she would never see him again. Not in these circumstances, at least.
"Hey!" Ruby shouted. "I know you're in there, and I'm not leaving!"
Nothing.
"I wanna talk to you!"
Still, nothing.
"Just open the door, for crying out loud! I know you can hear me!"
Ruby put her ear up to the keyhole. All she heard was the whistling of wind passing through. For a moment, she considered the possibility that he wasn't home or that he was a really heavy sleeper. But if he was here, and he watched Ruby just give up…
"Hey, come on!" She slammed both of her palms down. "Answer me!"
Balling her hands into fists, she felt tears pricking behind her eyes. She was so frustrated right now. All of these feelings that she'd been suppressing for the past two weeks came rushing to the surface. Ruby sank down, hiding her face from view of the peephole. She couldn't stop the tears from coming out, and that weight in her gut jumped up into her throat. She pushed the heels of her hands into her eye sockets and refused to let herself cry.
"Just open up," Ruby whispered.
She pressed off the ground and stood up. If he was going to open the door, he probably would have done it by now. Ruby turned and started to walk away.
Out of her line of sight, Ruby heard the creaking of a door. She stopped moving, but she didn't turn around.
She couldn't hear anything save for his voice. "Red."
Ruby turned around slowly. Her eyes must have appeared sore, and Torchwick probably found her visit annoying at the very least, but even so, he opened his door. His eyes wandered up to meet hers, and he held his glance for a good five seconds before checking down the hall for any bystanders.
He reached for her hand and pulled her inside.
Ruby stumbled into the foyer, running hands through her hair. It was such a bad idea. Holy crap, what on earth was she thinking? Torchwick turned to close the door and lock it.
"I can't go on like this," Ruby stammered, voice shattering like glass. "I—I just can't." Her lower lip quivered and Ruby felt like she was going to puke.
Torchwick turned and scanned Ruby. He gestured to her current state of being and rubbed his shoulder with his other hand. "Yeah, I know," he breathed.
"I just—how can you do this? Live a lie?" Ruby felt like sinking to the ground, but she was standing in open space with nowhere to hide. A tear rolled down her cheek, and she immediately swatted it away. "God, what was I thinking?" Ruby grabbed fistfuls of her hair and scrunched her eyes shut.
"I was hoping you'd tell me that," Torchwick responded.
Ruby shook her head. "I can't." If Ruby's face wasn't already red from her dramatic overload of emotions, then she would have blushed. Torchwick doesn't even know why she's here, aside from audaciously breaking their agreement.
Ruby opened her eyes and found Torchwick standing only three feet away from her, watching her intently. She had a complete meltdown and dumped it on the one guy whose opinion actually mattered. God, she's an idiot.
Torchwick sighed. "All right, can you at least tell me why you're here, then?"
Ruby looked up into his eyes, which were all but sympathetic. More tears flowed across her cheeks, but she didn't look away. What's the point?
He raised his brows expectantly. "You've come all the way across town, made one hell of a ruckus outside my door, went back on our agreement, and you're telling me that you cannot tell me what the reason is?"
most certainly could, but there was something blocking her throat. She walked further into his apartment, shaking her head and rubbing her arms. She couldn't control her breathing, and all of a sudden she became too dizzy to keep her balance. Arm anchored on the counter to keep herself upright, Ruby covered her mouth as she gasped for breath.
"Oh, fucking hell," Torchwick muttered, crossing the room and placing a hand on her back. "Jesus Christ, what could possibly be that bad?"
Ruby swallowed hard. "I'm so afraid."
Torchwick grabbed her by the forearms and forced her to face him. "Of what? Just tell me." He did his best to sound reassuring, but it came off more as a threat than a kind gesture.
"The truth," she whispered. Even though Torchwick was holding both of her arms, her hands were shaking.
Torchwick's brows knit in confusion. "What do you mean by that? That I saved you, that you saved mine, I don't get it."
"No," Ruby laughed, "I'm sure you don't."
His grip on her loosened, and Ruby slipped free. She turned around and dug her nails into her arms, numb to the buzzing in her head.
"Then what do you want?" he asked, tone softened.
Ruby bit her lip and turned on her heel, resolute and impassive in her movements. Stepping up on her toes, she raised a hand to his jaw. Her heart fluttered when she felt her fingers tickle his soft skin. She moved forward closing the space between her mouth and his.
But then the dam broke, and reality came crashing down on her head. Her heart stopped, and Ruby halted. She was so close in this moment that she could feel his breath on her lips, and infinity stretching around them.
His lips parted, and he spoke as softly as his voice would allow. "Are you sure this is what you want?" Ruby scanned his face, his eyes. She couldn't quite focus hers, but Ruby sensed something in them. A flicker, a spark of the fire inside of him. She focused on her hand. Her fingers were barely hovering over his skin, and she felt the tension, the burning lack of contact. She balled her fingers into a fist and retracted it.
Ruby slid back down to the ground. She could turn back now—it wasn't too late. All she would have to do is walk out the door and pretend he never touched her heart in the way that he did. She looked up at him, visibly biting her lip. Torchwick—no, Roman appeared as if he was in a trance. He wasn't lost. He was removed from time completely. This moment was theirs forever, no matter what happened from this point forward.
Ruby broke away, and stepped away. She couldn't do this. Screw it.
Fingers circled around her elbow and spun her back around. Roman slid his fingers onto her neck, tracing his thumb along her jawline. He didn't waste any time in closing the gap between them and pressing his lips to hers.
Ruby's initial reaction was shock, but then she let herself go, closing her eyes and pushing up onto her toes. Electricity numbed her body, starting from her spine and working into the fingertips she pressed into his soft skin.
Roman slid his hands under her arms and picked her up off the ground, setting her gently on the countertop. Ruby slung one arm around his neck and raked the fingers of her other hand through his hair for leverage.
One hand on her outer thigh and the other on the small of her back, Ruby stopped to inhale. Roman took her bottom lip between his teeth and gently tugged. Chills shooting up and down Ruby's spine, she murmured in response. Roman closed his mouth around her lips and moved to her jawline as he angled her head upward with his thumb under her chin. Ruby's hand grabbed Roman's forearm, feeling the muscles beneath his skin twitch as his hand moved. The hand she tangled in his hair slid around to wrap around his shoulder. Her legs wrapped tightly around his waist, tensing up in anticipation.
He traced his tongue in a line from the middle of her neck to the place where her jaw connected with her ears. When he formed his lips into a circle, pressing them softly against that indentation, she let out a high moan, indicative of how she felt. Hearing how she sounded, Roman chuckled and moved along her neck, pushing her chin in the opposite direction.
A tight coil warmed in her belly, stretching from her heart all the way to her gut, slowly increasing in tension. Ruby was seeing stars in her vision, and her head instinctively tucked into her neck. He lifted away, short of breath. He swallowed, trying that it affected him as much as if affected her.
Ruby snapped out of her reverie long enough to remember that she promised her team that she would go see a movie with them tonight. She turned her head to look at the clock on the oven. "Oh, sh—"
"What is it?" he murmured.
"I'm late. Crap, I'm so screwed." Ruby hopped off the island, moving to dart out the door and fly down the stairs. Roman grabbed her arm.
"What do you drink?" he asked.
"What?" she spluttered.
"Name something."
"Uh, I don't know, milk," she offered. "I really gotta go."
He smiled with a bit of ardor deviously tugging at the corner of his mouth. "I'll see you later, Ruby."
Ruby softened. She closed in to press one more kiss against his lips. "Bye, Roman."
She turned and sprinted out of his apartment.
I have been waiting for this moment for months. The moment when I can finally say, "IT'S HERE!" FINALLY. OH MY GOODNESS I HAVE WAITED TOO LONG FOR THIS. AGHHHHHH. I'M GONNA GO TO SLEEP SOON, BUT BEFORE THAT, I GOTTA SAY SOMETHING FIRST. IT'S BECAUSE OF YOU GUYS AND YOUR AMAZING SUPPORT THAT I HAVE BEEN DRIVEN TO WRITE THIS STORY. I WOULD NOT BE HERE TODAY WITHOUT ALL OF YOU, AND I AM SO FUCKING GRATEFUL FOR EVERY SINGLE READER THAT COMES BY. YOU GUYS HAVE BEEN THE DRIVING FORCE BEHIND MY BULLSHIT. THANK YOU. BE PROUD OF YOURSELVES. OKAY GOOD NIGHT.
