Chapter 15

Babysitting Ruby

Dante's POV

Ruby was under the couch. Lok hadn't meant to scare her, but he had and now she was hiding.

"Ruby, come out." I tried again. My babysitting career was shot now.

"No." She squeaked. She was so much like Tersly.

"You poor child," Cherit landed near me. Ruby's hand came out of the darkness and dragged Cherit closer to pet, "Oh, ok." Cherit laid down and let the young girl pet him.

"You come out when you're ready, ok? I'll be at my chair." I sat at my chair and read the paper. Ruby slowly got out from under the couch and wanted attention. She sat in my lap. And that's all the attention she wanted.

Montehue must cuddle her. I finished reading and turned to her. She looked at me, "Ok, what do you want to do now?"

"Um, I dunno." She shrugged.

"Do you want to go play?" I asked.

She thought, "Ok."

"What do you want to do?" I asked her.

"Rope!" I thought and realized she wanted to go in the training room.

"Montehue and Zhalia are in there. Let's go see my game room." I smiled.

"Ok." She got up and followed me. I made sure the room was empty before letting her in.

We played ping pong and I showed her how to play one of the arcade games. Then she wanted to go outside and play catch. We played catch and then I took her inside for snack time. Montehue and Zhalia came out of the training room and my friend flopped onto the couch, shaking the house.

"Careful, Monty. I don't think my house's foundation can take another hit like that." I smiled.

"My brain hurts." He moaned.

"He needs a lot more training." Zhalia told me.

"Daddy!" Ruby climbed on her dad and laid on him.

"Ruby, shh. Daddy needs to rest his brain." He patted her on the head.

"Don't lie there all night." Zhalia snipped.

"Is he really that bad of a student?" I asked.

"He's so stubborn!" She glared and Ruby hid her face, "Ruby, that wasn't for you." Her tone softened.

I looked at Zhalia and then to Ruby, "Zhalia never'd be mean to you."

"Hmm." She hummed anxiously. We looked at each other.

It was a bit before Montehue was ready to leave, but he noticed Ruby's doll was missing. It was under the couch she hid under. I said I didn't know how it got there. Ruby hugged her doll. The small family left.

"I don't know why Montehue pretends he's a single father. It's obvious." Zhalia told me.

"He'll come out when he's ready." I said again.

"He's been married almost as long as you guys have been friends." She repeated what I had told her awhile ago.

"He probably doesn't want Tersly to get bullied. You know how they are." I cleaned up.

"He's worried about Ruby. He said that she hasn't gone anywhere without them. And that he wants her to make friends, but she can't. She can't even talk to Lok and he's like nicest one here." Zhalia told me.

"He said all that?" I raised my eyebrow.

"Kinda. He wanted me to give him a break." She smiled.

"I see. Don't push him too hard. I don't want to clean up after him because you didn't listen." I warned her.

"What's the worst he could do?" She asked.

I remembered training with Montehue and going drinking with him, "…So much."

"Dante?" She worried.

"I'm fine. Just bad memories." I shook my head. She frowned.

"Bad memories about Montehue? Who would have guessed?" She snarked.

"I'm not saying that's not true, but he's already training with you so maybe save the teasing for when my house isn't in danger of smelling like sweaty lumberjack." I said and she grimaced. I nodded.

We continued with our day normally with the exception of Lok and Den setting fire to a deck of cards. Zhalia went over fire safety again. I made dinner. We had a calm night.

Dante's POV End