I do not own Rosario Vampire or any of the characters.
There For You
Damon dipped the cloth in cool water, wringing it out before laying it on the witch's head. Yukari had explained that the witch's name was Ruby, and that she had seemed genuine in her desire to be friends with Yukari, but also in her steadfast hatred of humans. After they had gotten to the motel, Ruby had developed a fever, probably thanks to Damon ripping her wing off, and he had been tending to her for the past three hours.
"Hey Damon, there's a package here for you," Tsukune said. "Also, your name's spelled with an E after the A."
"That's because that's the way my name is supposed to be spelled," Damon said, accepting the package. "No return address. Guess I know who it's from then."
"You do?" Tsukune asked, just as Moka, Kurumu, and Yukari walked into the room.
"Yup," Damon nodded, opening it. "Hm. Classy." He reached into the box and pulled out a foot-long, three-inch-thick dildo made entirely of ice.
Yukari shreiked, covering her face and the other three gaped at it. Damon tossed it to Kurumu, who shrieked and dodged it.
"Don't throw that thing at me!" Kurumu shouted. "Who the fuck mails that to a guy anyway!?"
"It's a part of a prank war," Damon said. "Looks like I'll have to step up my game."
Just then, Ruby gasped harshly, sitting bolt uprightb only to look around in confusion. "What? W...Where am I?"
"You're safe," Damon said. "We brought you back to our motel with us, since it was us who knocked you out."
"I'm sorry for before," Tsukune said, bowing. "I accidentally lost control and hit you, even though you're a girl. Please forgive me."
"What are you?" Ruby asked.
"I'm a human," Tsukune said. "Earlier I had to borrow Moka's power to heal, but I kind of lost control."
"No human can do what you did!" Ruby snapped. "And humans can't be friends with witches either!"
"Some can," Damon said. "With witches and monsters. We're proof. I'm a Fire Devil."
"Witch," Yukari smiled.
"Human," Tsukune said.
"Vampire," Moka said.
"Succubus," Kurumu smiled.
"As you can see, we're a mixed group," Damon said. "But we're all friends."
"You're a liar!" Ruby snapped. "Humans can't be friends with witches or monsters! And certainly not Fire Devils!"
"I would agree with you, but in this case, it's true," Damon said, just as Tsukune hissed in pain, holding a hand to his shoulder, which still wasn't healed properly.
"That wound," Ruby said. "Is that...where I slashed you?"
"Yeah," Tsukune smiled. "It's not fully healed yet, so it still hurts a little."
"I tried to kill you!" Ruby snapped. "Why are you trying to help me?"
"Because you needed help," Tsukune said.
"It's who he is," Damon said. "He wants everyone to live together peacefully, regardless of species."
"That's ridiculous!" Ruby snapped. "You can't trick me! I won't fall for it!"
Ruby lunged at Damon, fingers extended, apparently meaning to kill him barehanded, but stopped as he held up a can of juice. "What..."
"It's for you," Tsukune said. "We weren't sure what you would like, so, I hope it's alright."
Ruby accepted the juice but didn't open it. Damon held out her wand and Ruby's eyes widened.
"Truce?" Damon asked.
"You would...ARE YOU FUCKING STUPID! ? !" Ruby demanded. "I tried to kill you!"
"Yes, but that wasn't going to happen," Damon said. "Besides, Yukari really wants you to be her friend still, as well as friends with all of us, so for that, we can't treat you like we don't trust you. The only way to earn someone's trust is for them to be willing to trust you first. So we've decided to give you a chance."
Ruby stared at her wand in silence before accepting it. However the moment she did, a wing of razor-sharp feathers formed behind her and shot around at Damon. He smiled, tilting his head to the side, allowing her access to his neck, only for her wing to stop on a dime, less than an inch from his skin. Ruby glared at him as he smiled pleasantly back.
"Are you insane?" Ruby demanded. "You'd actually let me take your head off?"
"You stopped," Damon said.
"And if I hadn't?" Ruby asked.
Damon smiled just as Ruby blinked, only to recoil, her wing pulling back. In the span of time it had taken her to blink, about the same amount of time as for the wing to close the rest of the distance to his neck had she not stopped, dark red scales had formed along Damon's neck and arms, his fingernails becoming claws.
"My kind are slightly different from lesser monsters," Damon said. "Other monsters can transform between their monster form and human form easily, and don't require any effort to maintain their human form. But Fire Devils are different. Our true form is what most people picture when they think of dragons, and we're generally as big as a house. It takes time, and a lot of effort, to compact our massive bodies, and even more massive power, into a human form, then requires constant effort to maintain the human form and not change back. As a result, changing from our human form to our true form is essentially instantaneous, because all we're doing to stopping resisting. I can generate my scales in less time than it takes to blink. So you won't be able to hurt me if you genuinely wish to."
Ruby stared at him before letting her wing fade and holding out the wand. "Please hang onto this. I...I'm not sure I should be trusted."
"Alright," Damon nodded, accepting the wand. "Let me know when you want it back."
Ruby nodded and lay back down, looking up at Damon suspiciously as he pulled the blanket up for her.
"I hope you have better dreams than you were," Damon said.
Ruby's eyes widened. "How do you know about..."
"I could hear your heart speed up, and you were whimpering quietly," Damon explained. "I'm not sure what you were seeing, but I hope you find peace and rest."
Then, he turned, crawling onto a pile of blankets a few feet from her and lay down, pulling the blanket up over himself. He remained silent, waiting for Ruby to try to escape, or attack. The others all went to bed soon as well, but after several minutes, Ruby still hadn't tried to escape. On the contrary, she actually drifted off into a more peaceful sleep. Damon remained silent a bit longer before getting up and walking out to their hotel room's balcony. He leaned on the railing and reached up, covering his mouth before beginning to cough. After several long moments, he finally managed to get himself back under control and grimaced, spitting out a glob of phlegm.
"I fucking hate the cold," he grumbled.
He sighed, lowering his gaze to the city. Cramped. Crowded. Silent. Too many humans. The whole city stunk of human filth. Not that Damon himself was any better. He was beginning to gag at his own stench. He smelled almost worse than the city. He reeked of witch, and monsters. He needed a fire shower. He needed to burn the stench off of himself so that he could breathe again. He needed a break from the sickening odor of monsters. It was liked rotten eggs that someone had swallowed, regurgitated, swallowed again, vomited back up, shat on, then eaten and shat out again. He was sick of it. If it wasn't for the fact that he needed people to think he had changed, he'd probably burn them all for making him reek so badly.
"Dammit," Damon growled. "Only a little longer. They can't keep me away forever. Not when..."
He turned, looking back as Kurumu sat up, looking around before seeing him. She stood, walking over and slid the door closed behind herself.
"How long are you going to keep this act up?" Kurumu asked.
"What act?" Damon asked.
"The nice guy act," Kurumu said. "I know what your kind are like too, you know. You're not nice. You don't need, or even want, friends. Near-death experiences don't make you want friends. They make you want to rip everyone who didn't save you apart piece by piece and feed them their own entrails."
"The thought did cross my mind," Damon admitted.
"So why act like a nice guy?" Kurumu asked. "Don't get me wrong, you're doing well. You're a good actor. But why do it at all?"
"Would you believe me if I said I'm not like the rest of my kind?" Damon asked.
"Not on your life," Kurumu said, crossing her arms. "You probably feel like you need to burn your skin off after being around monsters for so long."
Damon chuckled. "You're right. Your all reek. And your stench is starting to stick. I can't wait to take a nice, long, white-hot fire shower."
"And when are you going to stop pretending to be a good person?" Kurumu asked.
Damon shrugged. "Eventually, probably. Whenever I get around to it."
Kurumu nodded. "I thought you might say that. That dildo was from Mizore Shirayuki, right?"
"Yup," Damon chuckled. "Not sure how she figured out where we'd be, but she's definitely begging me to get her back."
"Get her back?" Kurumu asked, raising an eyebrow before remembering what he had said before. "Right. Prank war. What will you do?"
Damon grinned wickedly. "I think I'm going to employ her roommate again. Her roommate's such a well-behaved piece of filth whenever I threaten to cook her family."
"Wow," Kurumu said. "After losing your own family, I'd have thought even you wouldn't threaten that."
"I didn't lose my family," Damon said. "I didn't lose anything."
"What?" Kurumu asked. "I thought your family died."
"They did," Damon said, pushing off the railing and covering his mouth as he coughed before spitting more mucus out and walking back inside, climbing into bed and forcing himself to go to sleep.
Damon offered the tray to Ruby, who watched him silently for a long moment before accepting it. "It's food. It won't bite you. You're supposed to bit it."
"Hilarious," Ruby grumbled, eating slowly.
Damon sat down off to the side, eating his own breakfast in silence, ignoring the stare Ruby had fixed on him. He swallowed his mouthful of food finally and met her stare.
"You look good," Damon said. "You're healing nicely."
"Why are you taking care of me?" Ruby asked.
"Yukari wants to be your friend," Damon said. "As I explained, you can't make friends by pushing someone away."
Just then, the door slid open and Tsukune, Moka, and Kurumu walked in, sitting down with them. They all shared small talk for a few minutes before Yukari got back from the store, having chosen to go alone, at Tsukune's urging.
"I went shopping all by myself!" Yukari said proudly.
"That's great!" Kurumu smiled. "And just think, you were so scared of the city before!"
"You did really well Yukari!" Moka smiled.
"It's all thanks to Tsukune," Yukari said, hugging him. "He came up with the idea."
"Stop fooling around!" Ruby snapped. "I...I'm not going to be fooled, because I know how dirty and selfish the human race is! I'm never going to trust humans again! I'll tear off that monstrous human's skin right now!"
She moved to attack Tsukune, but Damon caught both of her hands in his left hand, which was suddenly scaled, his right raising his juice can to his lips so he could take a sip, only to grimace.
"I never did understand why you humans can stand to drink things cold," Damon said. "Now, Ruby, I'm going to let go of you and you're going to sit back down and eat your breakfast. And if you don't, I'm going to be forced to...persuade you."
She grit her teeth, but nodded, and when he released her hands, she sat back down, staring at her food. Tsukune offered her a juice can but she smacked it out of his hand and stood, storming out of the room. Damon ignored her, continuing to eat his food.
"Are you going to stop her?" Moka asked.
"From what?" Damon aside, reaching behind himself and picking up her want. "She's not going anywhere and she knows it. She'll calm down. Just give her time."
The others all nodded and ate. Throughout the rest of the day, Ruby was moody and silent. However, she was bearable, mostly. She even confessed that not only did she have a master at the Witch's Ranch, but that that master planned to burn the city and everyone in it. Personally, Damon liked the idea. He loved a good barbeque. However, the others weren't quite as enthusiastic about it.
Sometime around midnight, Ruby and Yukari left the room, Damon and Tsukune both following. They stopped just out of sight as they listened to the two witches' conversation. Ruby's parents had died in a car accident when she was a child, the first time they took her to a city to teach her not to fear humans. Just some drunk asshole. An accident. But Damon could understand why she hated humans so much now. For non-demon races, family tended to be important. Damon glanced back and saw Moka and Kurumu had joined them at some point and rolled his eyes.
"You're lucky Yukari," Ruby sighed finally. "You have friends like Damon and Tsukune. That's why...I'm jealous of you. I wish I could have met you guys a lot sooner."
Then, she turned and sprinted past them, sobbing, and bumped into Tsukune as she ran. Damon turned, following her out of the building and whistled, holding up her want.
"You'll need this."
Ruby watched him for a moment before walking over and reaching out, moving to take the wand and leave, only for Damon's grip to remain firm. She turned to look back and Damon gave her a serious look.
"You don't have to do this," Damon said. "You don't have to go. I'm not saying you have to be best friends with humans, but you don't have to try to wipe them all out. It's never too late to change. Just look at me. I'm a Fire Devil. We hate everything. If I can change, you can too. And we can help."
"I...I can't," Ruby said.
"Alright," Damon said, releasing the staff. "It's your choice. We'll be by later to try and stop your master. I hope you don't get in the way."
Ruby stared at the ground for a moment before forming herself six large wings and took off, the others getting outside in time to watch her smile back at them before leaving.
"Let's go," Damon said. "We have a Witch's Ranch to burn."
The others nodded and they began to head there as quickly as everyone who wasn't able to fly could.
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