Author's Notes:

So now that I'm stuck in lockdown for three weeks, I finally got the next chapter done with a lot of help from Corona Pax. It's been an unfortunate mix of writer's block and starting a new job that's delayed this so long and I'm really sorry about that.

Hope everyone is keeping safe.

Chapter 87

Cooking

Jeremy discovered, very painfully, that the deals made in the pizzeria definitely still held when outside the place.

When Ruby knocked on Hedy's door where he and Amelia were still staying, an invisible force suddenly chucked him out of his nice, comfortable sleep and into the terrifying reality of taking Ruby to the shooting range.

Apparently the deals were big on punctuality. He'd only overslept by a little. And his wife and darling little sister didn't even bother to wake him. Amelia probably did it as a passive-aggressive form of revenge for the previous night. Hedy most definitely did it because it was funny and she enjoyed watching someone else suffer Ruby's antics for once.

The teen bounced around the place excitedly while Rena and Sarah watched her warily. When she exploded into the kitchen where Jeremy was mourning his fate over a cup of coffee however, she froze.

"What the hell is that?" she demanded.

"Language!" Amelia scolded, gesturing at the two curious children at the kitchen table.

Ruby ignored her and went about poking at what was supposed to be Hedy's attempt at pancakes. The kids had begged for pancakes from their favourite aunt and wouldn't accept anything less and it hadn't ended particularly well.

Hedy muttered something under her breath before answering, knowing Ruby wouldn't stop until she got an answer. "The kids wanted pancakes but Amelia was still asleep. It didn't go well."

"No kidding." Ruby deadpanned.

"Pancakes?" Marcus looked up at them with big eyes and Hedy sighed.

"Your mom's going to make you some in a bit love." she assured the little boy.

"How'd you turn pancakes into rubber?" Ruby asked, poking the 'food' again as Rena and Sarah came in.

"Hedy and the kitchen don't mix well." Rena told her, keeping a healthy distance between them.

Everyone grew concerned when Ruby started digging in the cupboards.

"What are you doing?" Hedy asked suspiciously.

"Making pancakes." Ruby shrugged. "Your brother is still half asleep and I'm bored. So I either make pancakes or I rig your shower with dye again."
"I don't think I like either option," Sarah whispered to Rena. "How about we go out for breakfast?"

The adults all watched the teen warily as she found the ingredients and started measuring them out. She definitely knew what she was doing, which made them all even more concerned.

"I'm not going to blow anything up." Ruby's sudden statement made them all jump and Jeremy almost spilled his coffee. The teen smirked at them. "I cook back home all the time."

Hedy muttered something again, more insulted than actually worried about whatever Ruby was doing. She was too used to the girl by now. She went to the table and put on her reading glasses to scan the newspaper, wordlessly setting the comics aside.

Jeremy groaned into his coffee for no real reason. "Just don't set anything on fire," he begged.

"With the wallpaper in here, it would be a blessing," Sarah snorted, eyeing Ruby warily. "Then Hedy would finally have to hire someone to fix it. It's hideous."

"Hedy picked it out," Jeremy chuckled.

"I was ten. It looked nice on a dress," Hedy deadpanned. "Dad's the one who chose the pattern."

Ruby watched them curiously, noting the family dynamic in the group. It wasn't long before the room filled with the smell of cooking pancakes and Jeremy's stomach decided to wake up with a growl, prompting a giggle from the children.

Ruby had added chocolate chips when Amelia wasn't looking so the kids were very keen on the suddenly chocolate breakfast they were going to have.

Jeremy and Amelia were both suddenly hit with the memory of Rose's love for the sweet breakfast treat, something her daughter seemed to have inherited.

The teen piled the pancakes on the kid's plates first before asking if anyone else was going to brave, as she put it, 'the psycho girl's cooking'. Despite the words, they were surprised at how...calm Ruby seemed in the kitchen.

Hedy rolled her eyes and held out her plate. It Ruby was going to prank her so be it. She had enough opportunities to get even at work.

There was no glitter, or explosions, or strange dye in the food. It was just pancakes.

Really, really good pancakes at that.

Hedy knew she could bake since she made those annoying exploding cookies but she'd never considered that Ruby cooked regularly. And well apparently.

Ruby went back to studying the rubber pancake in fascination.

Hedy silently glared at her. "Oh shut up," she said as Ruby poked it like it was a deep-sea squid or something.

Ruby gave her a cheeky grin back and stuck her tongue out.

"Oi! Hedy's brother! Are you awake yet?!"

"No," he said flatly around a forkful of pancakes in his mouth.

Amelia promptly smacked his arm. "Don't talk with your mouth full."

"Like thish!" Mercy chirped, also with a stuffed mouth.

"Careful. When you talk while eating you might bite your tongue." Ruby said to Mercy. It was obviously completely automatic, a line she'd use to discourage the kids in the orphanage from bad manners. Moments like that reminded Hedy of Ruby's 'big sister' side, those brief times of responsibility that Alice and Clint saw all the time. She was behaving surprisingly well right now.

"Ugh," Sarah sighed, finally sitting down. "Ok, you psycho kid. Those smell really good. I'll take the risk."

Rena was already eating after seeing Hedy get her food with little worry.

Ruby smirked back at her, not noticing Jeremy and Amelia taking the moment to observe her when she wasn't glaring at them. The soft look that entered her eyes when looking at the kids wasn't surprising to Jeremy of course but it was still strange to see. She was definitely only behaving because of the twins.

"If I ever messed with the food at home Alice would throttle me. I'm reckless not stupid. I know how to cook. Kind of a skill you need to know in a house of kids."

Sarah smirked at Hedy. "Or just if you're a single adult and don't have the money to go out all the time."

"Oh shut up. You're not a great cook either."

"I can at least make macaroni and cheese."

"You're the oldest there right?" Rena asked Ruby. "Do you have your own room?"

"Hmm? Oh yeah. Oldest kid by a few years. The next oldest is thirteen. And yup, I got my own room. That was mostly because of the night terrors though. And then it was so the other kids didn't get in my supplies." Ruby answered absently, still poking the pancake rubber.

"Ruby, quit poking it and just throw the stupid thing away," Hedy snapped while Jeremy and Amelia shared a glance.

Night terrors. Was Ruby aware when she accidentally told them things like that?

"Do you have to move out when you're an adult?" Rena asked. She stilled at the look Hedy sent her, but she didn't know anything about how the system worked and was curious.

Hedy knew Rena mentioned her parents were looking to register as a foster home with all their own kids already out of the house.

Ruby paused briefly in her actions and they could see her muscles tense before she forced them to relax and continued her poking.

"Yeah. Can't stay after I finish school." she kept her voice light and even. "I'll probably still volunteer to help Alice and Clint though."

"You can move in with Hedy," Sarah shrugged. "Rena and I are just here for school and I graduate next year."

Hedy glared at Sarah for volunteering her house but didn't argue. She was right, with Sarah gone it was another open room.

"What?" Rena asked, losing a bit of colour. She had two years to go and the prospect of living with Ruby, even for a short while sounded terrifying.

Ruby scoffed and rolled her eyes but she was tense again.

"Don't need any charity thanks." her pokes towards the rubbery thing were more forceful than before.

"She's the landlady," Amelia pointed out, despite Hedy silently asking them to drop it with a look, "It isn't charity if she charges you."

Ruby turned her head and sent them a frosty glare that sent a chill up their spines. This wasn't like the usual anger they saw from her. It was colder.

"Drop it."

She grit the two words out as she stabbed the rubber pancake savagely, poking a hole through it with her finger.

Jeremy just kept his head down as he ate the food, knowing the conversation was doomed from the start.

Amelia opened her mouth to argue but Hedy kicked her under the table, a rather obvious action giving the effort Hedy needed to put into moving her lower half.

"Which range are you going to?" Hedy asked Jeremy, "Not the usual one right?" It was a three-hour drive back toward where Amelia and Jeremy lived.

"The one in town," he looked at Ruby. "There's this farmer about an hour's walk from here who opened one of his fields up as a range. I haven't been there in a long time, but he invited me to come whenever I wanted. Used to go all the time as a kid and a cadet."

Hedy nodded, gingerly rubbing her neck where the salt burns from the paint were peeking out. Her usually pale skin was looking a bit red. Even her scalp felt tender. Apparently, salt did work on her. It wasn't much worse than a sunburn and all she could do was bemoan her ghost side effects.

"Haven't been there," Ruby commented. "So can't have been banned from there. Good choice Hedy's brother."
She glanced over at Hedy with a curious expression.

"Something wrong Hedy?"

Hedy sighed, flinching as the fabric of her clothes stung her sensitive skin, "Remember when you asked if salt affected me? It does...I'm guessing there was salt in the paint last night? I heard the flood hit Michael. Felix was orange."

Sarah and Rena looked at each other, then at Hedy, utterly confused.

"Uh, who's Felix?" Rena asked.

"Friend of mine," Hedy said, waving her off.

"What... happened with salt?" Sarah asked.

"I'm allergic." Hedy shrugged as Jeremy grimaced into his coffee and Amelia scowled.

The roommates blinked, even more perplexed.

Ruby blinked a couple of times and then grimaced.

"Oh, sorry." the apology startled some of them. "The paint bomb wasn't supposed to be that...explosive either. It was only supposed to hit Fazbear's Fright..." she did actually look apologetic for once.

Hedy waved her hand as she swallowed another piece of pancake. "I'm fine. Knowing Michael got it full force makes up for looking like I got a sunburn. It's already healing faster than something normal. I think I'll be fine by tonight."

"What. On. Earth. Are you talking about?" Sarah asked stabbing her food. Hedy was weird ever since she took that job, and Sarah passed that off on being around Ruby, but it was really annoying being one of the only two who weren't part of this conversation. Who's Michael? Why did Hedy have what apparently were chemical burns and what did Ruby do to cause them?

"Nightshift stuff." Ruby waved her hand dismissively in their direction. "Aka, none of your business."

Hedy snorted while Rena just shrugged.

Sarah didn't look happy with that statement but didn't press either.

"I want to shoot the shotgun," Hedy said, simultaneously declaring she was going with them.

"You're going to get knocked over," Jeremy said. "AND you're still recovering. You have a freaking hole in your chest."

"My stitches didn't tear out from last night," Hedy pointed out while Amelia sighed and sat back.

Ruby's eyes gleamed.

"I haven't used a shotgun in ages!"

Jeremy looked even more terrified and took a long swig of his now cold coffee, hoping to postpone the inevitable.