Roman leaned against the doorframe, hands in his pockets, uncertain about how to handle the situation with Ruby. He knew that she probably came over to talk about something-likely whatever she ran off about two nights ago. The edge of his own sanity was creeping up on him, and Roman wished he would have been able to give her his best self. But then again, his best self probably would have shot her twice in the head and never even regretted it. Setting his jaw, he stumbled to the bed and sat down beside Ruby.
He was about to reach down and shake her gently until she woke up, but he realized he had been smoking a cigarette for a good fifteen minutes. Knowing she would likely hate the smell, Roman stood up and walked into the kitchen. He pressed the burning end into an ashtray sitting out on the counter. His arm was shaking, but he knew nicotine jitters were always relatively ephemeral, so he decided not to wait for them to subside.
He decided to pour something heavy into a glass cup for Ruby when she woke up again. Critically destructive, the messy details of his own damn life. He wanted to keep her out of it before she was in too deep, but Roman suspected he was too late for that. He opened the door to his bedroom, drink in hand.
Ruby had stirred, facing opposite the door with a pillow underneath her delicate head. Her hair grew a couple inches since she first became a part of his life. So had his, but he didn't trust Neo within a mile of his head if he had a pair of scissors in her hand, so he had resigned to letting his hair grow longer. But Junior's right. Too long in this apartment, and Roman would fly off the handle faster than Neo could sign, "You have a problem." Hell yeah he did. But it's damn time to fix it.
"Ruby," he called, standing over the bed.
She woke with a jolt. Ruby scratched her head and reached across the bed. She patted down the duvet, but she was unsatisfied. She lifted her head and scanned the sheets, but nothing was there. She turned to look at the other side. Ruby's weary eyes met Roman's focused ones. He felt in control, and she was barely returning to consciousness. Something was fundamentally unfair about this predicament, and for the first time, he didn't feel like that was an advantage to be sought after.
"How long was I asleep?" She murmured.
"Not long," Roman responded, swirling the drink in his hand. On second thought, maybe Roman would be better off with it, given what he was about to do next. "It's late." He paused, biting his lip and letting it slide from his teeth as he thought. "You should probably go home."
Ruby looked confused. "I came over here to talk to you and explain," she began to protest groggily.
Roman avoided her eyes, dumbly honest yet simultaneously entrancing. He could be so easily persuaded into letting her stay, but he can't be so cruel as to start denying her respect. If he started down that path, he would never be able to stop himself. He scrunched his eyes shut. "I know, but I'm not exactly in the right mindset to listen."
As she righted herself on the bed, Ruby rubbed her eyes. "What do you mean?"
"You see the makeup on my face, don't you?" His sardonic tone, a little unfair given she's hardly conscious, suddenly made it very clear to Ruby what he was talking about.
"Oh." Ruby played with the hem of her shirt. "Can I come back tomorrow?"
Roman's jaw closed very tightly, then released. "Yeah." He chewed on the inside of his cheek. "Come back tomorrow. Do you have school?"
"I have classes until noon," Ruby answered, back straightening.
"Three o'clock," he decided. "I'll try to get some food."
Ruby furrowed her brows. She looked hesitant to leave.
Throwing her legs over the side, she slid off the bed and rearranged the hair around her face. She walked up to him, seemingly preparing herself to stand on her toes and kiss him. And he was right-Ruby hardly seemed to give much of a second thought to it, perhaps due to routine, but she hesitated when Roman's hand came down on her shoulder and stopped her.
"Please don't," he strained.
Ruby's eyes, innocently distraught, focused on his chest. She looked like she wanted to cry, but she closed her eyes and wouldn't let him see. Ruby let the heels of her feet come back down to the floor, and Roman removed his hand from her shoulder.
"Good night," he whispered.
"Yeah." Ruby's voice cracked. She didn't look him again as she left the room and walked out the door.
Tears rolled gracelessly down her cheeks as she waited for the elevator to reach the ground floor. Ruby bounced on her feet as she thought about what Roman said to her. There could be several reasons why he would say that, she thought, none of them involving you. But she could hardly convince herself, and as the doors to the elevators opened, she rapidly wiped the tears away from her cheeks with the heels of her palms.
The gilded doors opened to the shining, pearl white lobby. Black accents like artwork and perhaps ridiculously overpriced furniture scattered masterfully across the space. Everyone fit in. Fast paces, stylish-chic outfits, poignant and stern faces. Except one person didn't fit the mold. Her body casually strewn across the sofa, she casually held a book in her hand, another tangled in a blonde mop of hair.
Ruby's heart jumped into her throat. Yang.
Why was she here?
Ruby walked as quickly as she could through the lobby, but she would never be able to blend in with the rest of the crowd that breezed through.
"Ruby!" Yang bellowed. Her voice carried in the open plot, the vaulting ceilings.
Ruby stopped cold. Her limbs froze. Everyone turned around and looked at her and her sister with affected surprise and disgust. Despite their apparent interest in the show, Ruby could feel their repulsion. As if walking through her wasn't bad enough. Now she'd never be able to wear her uniform here.
"Who did you come here to visit?" Yang snapped. Not even the slightest twinge of amusement could Ruby detect in her face.
"Yang." Ruby tried to defuse her, but she hardly allowed her the chance.
"I checked out the store you told me your boyfriend worked in," Yang declared.
Ruby pinched her eyes shut. Shit.
"So he had no idea who you were! I was surprised, I thought you would have at least told me, your own sister, the truth."
"Yang." Ruby asserted. Yang continued, defiant and unflappable.
"And I followed you here. Like, jesus, who the fuck is she seeing? For a second, I thought to myself, 'Maybe she's dating some rich kid and she was embarrassed,' but why? Why wouldn't you have told me. And then I realized-"
"Yang," Ruby snapped.
"-you had to be dating someone, like, way older for you not to have told me-"
"Yang!" Ruby blurted. Her voice raised to a shout so shrill that Yang shut her mouth. "Not here," she hissed.
"What's his name, Ruby?"
She suddenly felt dizzy. Yang would keep harassing her until she got a name. She can't just blurt it out in the middle of a hallway-more for him than her.
"I can't," Ruby breathed, casting her eyes to her feet as she thought of a way out.
"I want to hear his name." Yang crossed her arms.
Ruby looked up with the anger and distress muddying her thoughts crystal clear in the way she looked at her sister. "Fine," she decided. Ruby grabbed her by her hoodie and pulled her out the front door of the lobby, doing her best to ignore the petrifying stares icing them over.
She pushed the door open with a shaking hand splayed on the spotless glass. Ruby walked out onto the sidewalk, letting the masses surround them and drown out every possibility of someone overhearing them.
When she released her grip on Yang's hoodie, Ruby turned around to face her sister, who waited for an answer to her question. Ruby opened her mouth, but the words stopped short at the roof. Ruby bounced on the balls of her feet and looked up to the sky, trying to mull the consequences over in her head, but not a single thought formed.
"Well?" Yang asked expectantly.
To hell with it. Ruby set her jaw and marched up to her sister. On her toes, she put her face next to hers and mustered the courage to say the words she had been trying to hide for weeks. And when she finally said them, Ruby heard her sister gasp in her ear.
"Roman Torchwick."
Happy 40th. For some reason, I hear that people celebrate that as a milestone, so I decided to do something fitting to the occasion. Bada bing, bada boom, am I right? Now onto the good stuff.
Four reviews on the last chapter...in one day. That's a new record. No, seriously, you guys rock.
Scorch the 13th: It's just too fucking bad won't let me add a shitload of heart emojis in here because that is exactly what you deserve right now. ILOVEYOUIMSOGLADYOUREENJOYINGIT
Drake187: The original goal was to make this a totally different perspective on his personality. I'm happy to know it's landing well :) thank you!
cipher111996: Nah. I hope it wasn't confusing, but yeah, no, she isn't.
Nameless Panda: How'd I do? (ily please have a very happy life)
And now for the announcement. New readers won't find this information to be new because I put this in an endnote in a chapter I uploaded in either late may or early june (I can't remember and doesn't timestamp). But…
This thing I started a few months ago is finally happening. In fact, first chapter is dropping this week. It's currently unfinished, but I'll get there before the week ends. So now that we have an actual DATE… I can actually get serious.
Let me explain a few details: it's a Real-world AU set in New York, specifically the Chelsea Bay area. Ruby is an art student attending an art school in Lower Manhattan, and that's really about all the detail I feel like giving out right now because a lot of it is going to be in the first chapter anyways. MILD rosewick if at all because I haven't decided yet. But Roman's a big part of it, and I think it's gonna be interesting.
P.S.: I know, I know, I'm a couple hours late...I DID get it up on Saturday though. A la prochaine!
