Ruby popped another potato chip in her mouth as she waited in the elevator. With no music playing in the elevator, she had time to think for the first time since she had left this exact same spot. Roman's original intention may have been for her to clear her mind, but she felt like she was coming back just to add more crap to the pile. Especially because Yang was standing right beside her, waiting to meet him herself.
If Ruby had a choice, Yang wouldn't have come with. But when she threatened to tell the rest of the team, Ruby gave in. Hopefully he wouldn't be too mad.
Two knocks at the door. Junior stood, stretched his arms over his head, and shuffled to go open the door for Ruby. Roman glanced at the watch on his wrist. 2:55 PM. Excellent timing, Red. When Roman told Junior that he was essentially inviting Ruby over to his apartment to have the talk, Junior suggested that it might be a good idea for him to mediate it-less to protect or help Roman, but rather to keep him from saying the wrong things.
Roman agreed. And under Junior's painful instruction, he has remained sober all day.
The door opens, and Junior immediately curses. "Oh, fuck."
Roman furrows his brows and twists over the couch to see what was so exciting. Oh fuck no, he thought.
Blondie.
Awkwardly shuffling in, Ruby noticed that Roman grew tense immediately upon the sight of her sister. Appalled, he turned to Ruby. "What the fuck?" he shouted vehemently.
"Calm down!" Junior boomed. The stern look on his face suggested to Ruby that something similar to last night was happening.
Yang ignored them both, stomping directly up to Roman and peering up at him through narrowed eyes. "How old are you?"
"What? Twenty-one," Roman recited, caught off guard.
Yang continued her interrogation. "What's her birthday?"
Roman's eye twitched. "What's yours?"
Yang steamed and crossed her arms. "You're not doing a great job of convincing me that you give a damn about my sister."
Rolling his eyes, Roman shifted his weight onto the other foot and sighed, "You're gonna need to grow a couple of inches if you want to intimidate me."
"What the fuck would you know about growing inches?" Yang spat.
Junior contained fits of laughter behind his fist as Roman's face fell and contorted into outraged conviction. Absolutely certain that she was blushing, Ruby raised a hand to cover her gaping mouth.
Roman chose to say nothing in response to Yang, instead turning to Ruby. "Can you explain why exactly your sister seemingly knows where I live and that I am affiliated with you?"
Ruby winced at "affiliated."
"So, uh," Ruby said, speaking in undertone, "She might have followed me here last night."
Not even a twitch of his eyebrow. "Why?" he seethed.
Ruby stuttered. All she could think about was how Yang would likely react to this situation when in reality, this was the first time he has ever been this angry with her. The only things that came to her were breaths cut off in quick succession as she attempted to form the vowels to an unknown word. Ruby could feel Roman's temper shortening, his patience thinning, his glare intensifying.
"Recently I discovered something," Roman drawled, making a clear effort not to raise his voice. "Ironwood wants me dead. So he talked to his C.O.s, and as it turns out, they want me dead, too."
Ruby winced, replacing the hand she removed earlier over her mouth. Tears brimmed just at the edge of her eyelids as she began to understand what he was saying. If Roman Torchwick goes back to jail, Ironwood will have him executed.
Yang closed her mouth.
He saw tears beginning to stream down Ruby's glowingly red cheeks, and he almost felt bad about doing it, but even if just one person reports him to the police, he dies. Simple as that. If Blondie had decided to take his address to the police, Roman was sure that he wouldn't be standing here right now.
The cold draft put a chill in his body. He stepped around Ruby's sister.
"Junior, can you close the door?" Roman hardly felt in control of his own body.
Junior nodded and pushed the door to the apartment shut, latching the chain in the wall. Roman watched Ruby's tears of shock transform into sobs that made her knees weak. Guilt, he thought. He never really felt much of it, but as he slid his arms around Ruby's shaking body, he couldn't help but feel as if he shouldn't have told her. If he hates responsibility so much, why did he have to pass it all on to her?
Quietly raking his fingers over her back, Roman closed his eyes, lowering his head, and splayed his fingers over her scalp. She clung tightly to his shirt until she regained composure.
Short chapter. Again. Then again, this is all I can really afford on the nights I have to get up early the next morning. Remember when I said the next chapter will be longer? Yeah, well, let's revise that. The next chapter should be longer (and when I say that, I mean the overall quality will be better, not that I'm necessarily planning out my time), but that probably means I'm going to be updating later in the week because god damn it it takes time to write and WOW I am tired good night y'all. But first…
Astropurple009: Me too.
Drake187: Thank you! I personally understand how Yang would react in such a dramatic way, but she's very perceptive about people, and I think she deserves a little more credit than to automatically peg her sister's decision as wrong. Ily & ty :)
cipher111996: ...I swear I had this planned before I published 42. Thank you so much! I'm happy to see that you enjoy it! [15 heart emojis]
MidnightRoyalty: For real? How long have you been following, man? Thank you for reading my shit all this time lol ily :D
Scorch the 13th: THANK YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU
Yes, yes, I know...lazy as fuck responses to reviews. But honestly, it's almost midnight and hot diggity damn I just got dizzy typing that. Thank you all so much! (FF . net staff: let me put some god damn hearts in here, man)
