Chapter 16: Realized Feelings, Still Indenial

Once everyone was back on board the Solar Flare, things had mostly returned to normal. Mostly. With Team RWBY returning to their duties, Ruby was going to utilize her position as Silver's 'assistant' to dig more information out of him.

Silver was sitting at his desk, pouring over charts, maps, journal articles and news reports from various galaxies. As soon as Ruby entered he shut everything off in an instant.

Ruby was quick to notice, "That wasn't suspicious at all," she commented dryly.

"Red, you're here," he noted awkwardly, finding more solace in his glass than her face.

She climbed around the piles of notes and sat down on the chair opposite him, "Can we finally talk?"

"What's there to talk about?" he tried to dismiss it.

"You killed that man back there, why? We could've gotten more information and…"

"What? Are you going to say he didn't need to die?" Silver cut her off sharply, "News flash Red, this isn't exactly a law-abiding part of the galaxy and those weren't law-abiding civilians. They were UFSH operatives who not only took hostages and occupied land that wasn't theirs, but they also figured out your identity!" he snapped harshly. "We also killed those soldiers, well... I did but the fact is that you need to get used to it."

She growled back and moved closer, eyeing him through his mask, "So what? I don't need your protection and they didn't need to die. So what if they know who I am? The UFSH already knows you've captured me? I'm your goddamn prisoner aren't I?!"

Silver reigned in his anger, "If you still think that then you're stupider than you look!"

"I'm stupid?! What about you? Mr. I'm going to set fire to a forest?" she snarled at him, "FYI I don't need your protection!"

They were glaring daggers at each other for a long time before Ruby broke the silence, "What's with all this secrecy anyway?! Can't you just tell me flat-out what's going on? I thought you wanted me to trust you!"

"I DO WANT YOU TO TRUST ME!" he fumed, "BUT I CAN'T FULLY TRUST YOU YET! AND FOR GOOD FUCKING REASON!"

"And why is that?! Huh?! You let me into your personal space, you gave me a place on your ship and trust me enough to help you but you don't trust me enough to tell me the full truth!" She got up and began pacing the room, "You know something about those men, their real motives, so why won't you tell me?"

Silver got up and grabbed her wrist, "You talk like you've officially switched sides like you're my fucking first mate. Your eyes tell me otherwise!"

Ruby suddenly faltered as she realized the way she sounded. He was right. Why did she care so much for the workings of pirates? Was it because of the UFSH conspiracy? Was it because she needed to figure out what was really happening behind the scenes or… was it… because she…

No. She quickly shook that thought.

"You're conflicted," he said calmly, "You want to help but your programming is telling you otherwise. You're latching onto the nearest semi-stable thing and forcing your mind to focus on the problems in a one-dimensional manner. Right now you're not a pirate, but at least you're not the brainwashed UFSH Captain I met five years ago."

Ruby was silent for a bit, "I… I want to find out what's really going on… I just want to know the truth, that's all."

"For you to know the full truth," Silver clutched his mask, "You'd have to be ready to accept that truth."

He walked over to his desk and pulled up a compiled list of crimes.

Ruby read them, they ranged from illegal occupation of land to man hunts to slave trade to black market deals and drug trade, "What's all this?"

"A compiled list of all the crimes UFSH Soldiers have been committing across the galaxy," he pulled up the maps, charts and news reports he'd been reading.

"UFSH Soldiers crush the rebellion on Centurai, UFSH Soldiers defeat local warlord on Gamma Prime, the list goes on…" he let her scroll. "All of these are false reports, I knew these people, those so-called rebels were a group of refugees living underground. They were starving and had no running water, barely enough to feed the children they had."

Ruby gripped the edge of the desk as her breath began to seize in her throat. This… couldn't be true.

"That 'warlord' was a goddamn potato farmer who was forced to defend his village when the SDC tried to illegally occupy the land because it had trace deposits of Living Dust in the soil." Silver continued, "The truth is, Captain Rose, that your entire operation on Remnant is one gigantic enslavement and conquering crusade to squash the life of those who don't conform and squeeze the resources of the galaxy until there's nothing left."

Ruby was shaking as she silently scrolled through the list until she found one in particular, "What about this one?" she pointed to an article about one of her missions, "This one where we stopped a massive heist on a pharmaceutical company on Remnant?"

Silver chuckled darkly, "One of your best works when you were a dog of Salem and Onyx," he glared at the page, "Those pharmaceutical supplies were going to be sent off-world to Xenos III, where a village of Faunus was dying of a plague."

Ruby felt her mouth dry up as she tried to swallow, "W-What happened to them?"

"Dead. Every. Single. One of them. Dead." He said sadly as he closed it off to gauge her reaction.

Her body was shaking, her hands trembling and he could see the bits of tears in her eyes. She was beginning to shut down… he needed to bring her back to reality.

"I killed those people…?" Ruby whispered.

He calmly put a hand on her shoulder, guilt was eating at his soul because this whole process felt manipulative… but what choice did he have? Leave her to ignorance? She wasn't going to discover this on her own… not with the way the UFSH kept their secrets. She deserved to know.

"No, you didn't," Silver responded with an even voice, soothing almost, "The people who really killed them are the ones who abandoned them in the first place. The SDC and major pharmaceuticals trap the necessary supplies behind a massive paywall. Poor places like Xenos III could never hope to afford them."

"What do you mean? Aren't medical supplies easy to come by on Remnant?"

"Yeah, on Remnant," he said darkly, "Outside in those far corners of the galaxy, those prices are quintupled sometimes on account of 'transportation' tax. If the transport was so costly, then they should've opened up a branch and developed those parts of the galaxy. Instead, they let people settle there under their rule and jurisdiction only to abandon them when the planet isn't deemed profitable."

Ruby was still hung up on the guilt as Nova saw the tears running down her eyes.

"This wasn't an isolated incident either. Shit like this happens everywhere on a near-weekly basis, you just don't hear about it because it's not a major city."

"I… oh gods I… what have I done…?!"

He was layering on the information too fast, this was the opposite of what he was trying to do, but there was just something about the way she fed into the scenario that just made him spill his guts. "You didn't do anything wrong. You were just following orders, just like most of the soldiers that did these things," he pointed to the list. "I don't blame you, but the world has a different perception."

Ruby swallowed hard, finally driving down that lump in her throat.

He wanted to hold her, for some reason, to put her head against his chest and soothe her with words of calm until she started acting like herself… but it wasn't his place. They weren't… like that… 'yet' his head would whisper, and he would feel guilty for even thinking that.

"You're still not telling me everything," Ruby said with renewed vigour after a few minutes of her contemplation. She was quick to recover, and he realized, her mind was stronger than he could ever be.

"What else do you need to know to be convinced?" he asked genuinely.

She turned around and stared at him, "You're identity. That man back there in the village… my gut is telling me that you're still hiding something and it has to do with who you are."

God damn her intuition.

"My identity is meaningless. Who I am without the mask is nobody, there is and always will be, Silver."

"Bullshit," she called him out, "It's something major and your reaction is flat-out telling me that it has everything to do with your identity."

"Silver is who I am, and who I am is the man that will carve a path whether it be by blood or gunfire, through the UFSH, through hell or high water. I will eliminate anyone that gets in my way." He responded coldly.

"That! That right there is your fucking problem," she fumed, getting angry again, "Not everything needs to end in bloodshed!"

"Tell that to the world! That's just how shit works out here!" he snarled back and Ruby could hear what sounded like an animalistic growl in his throat.

"You just don't know how to resolve things peacefully!" she retorted.

"OH! WAS IT PEACEFUL RESOLUTION TIME WHEN YOU CAUGHT ME STEALING?!" he yelled, and so their shouting match resumed.

She got flustered, "That was different! YOU'RE…"

"What?! A wanted criminal?! A terrorist?! A pirate?! A monster?!" he spat venom.

"A dangerous threat!" she narrowed her eyes to him.

He laughed airily, "Yeah, I am a fucking threat. You want me to trust you? Do you want to know what my problem is? Then answer me this, if I gave you a gun and you had the chance to shoot Salem in the head, would you?"

Ruby hesitated and opened her mouth to answer.

"That hesitation is the answer I needed," he moved toward the door, "You're still not ready," he walked out of the room and headed for his quarters.

"GOD, I WANT TO STAB HIM!" Ruby screamed as she kicked his desk hard.

Nova sat on his bed with his face in his hands, "Why am I even putting up with all of this? Just throw her out the airlock and be done with it!"

A knock came at his door.

His head shot up from his hands as he put on his captain face, "Yes?" he tried to sound as even as possible.

"It's me," Hex replied, "I'm coming in, we need to talk."

Nova knew this was going to happen eventually, "Alright," he remotely opened the door as he stood up and turned on the lights. Hex walked in and shut the door behind her.

"Captain," she looked at him with a slightly annoyed expression. "What have I told you about keeping important stuff from your crew?"

He locked eyes with her, "What did you hear?"

"I get that you'd want to hide stuff from RWBY but we've been with you long enough," she pulled his desk chair and sat with her chest leaning on the backrest.

He grimaced and sighed, "Those mercs back there, they were after me."

Hex had a placid look on her face. She had a feeling it was that.

"They were hunting the heir to the throne," he continued, "The reason those people were in danger was because of me. Those young Faunus were executed because of me!"

She calmly listened, letting him vent his frustrations, "My very existence is a goddamn curse Hex," he threw off his mask onto the bed and looked at her. "The galaxy will know no peace until either I'm dead or I give up."

She spun on the chair and threw her head back in exasperation, before staring at him again, "Captain, you know if either of those things happen, the result will never be peace. It will be a tyrannical rule by the UFSH and Salem. Your people would be exploited and killed, and the poorer humans not on Remnant would suffer as well. Their purist ideologies cannot be sustained yet their greed overpowers their rationality."

"I know," he muttered, "I know I…"

"You can't help but feel guilty," she gazed at the mask, "Part of the reason you took up the monicker of Silver."

He shrugged, feeling some weight lift off his chest, "I don't even know what to do right now. There could be hundreds if not thousands more colonies just like that one that are suffering the same fate. I can't be everywhere at once."

"You don't have to, you know," she suggested cautiously. She was about to tread on thin ice, so she tried to choose her words carefully, "I know you don't like the idea of joining the rebellion but…"

Nova anticipated that line, "You know exactly why I don't want to, Hex. That rebellion… it's led by a man who knows even fewer boundaries than I do. He would slaughter innocents to get his way."

"You could always reveal yourself to them and lead the charge," she prompted.

"And what good would that do? They'll still follow Adam, he's been their leader for nearly a decade now." He says out loud, but deep inside he's genuinely considering it.

She noticed that look on his face "Well… that's one of the topics I wanted to discuss."

He paused, "What's the second one, is it Luna?"

She shook her head, "Not her, nor is it the cryogenically frozen mother in the lab. I'm talking about the other woman in your life."

Nova frowned as he tried to figure out who she was talking about… then it dawned on him, "Oh… you heard our fight again did you?"

She nodded, "I see what you're doing. Playing the villain in her story while simultaneously trying to be her guide."

"I… don't know what you're talking about."

"Cut the bullshit, Nova, you're tormenting yourself like this, why can't you just be honest!" she hissed.

He glared at her, "Be honest about what, Hex? She's not ready to learn the full truth, she's still walking the tightrope between truth and delusion."

Hex walked closer and jabbed a finger into his chest, "You know that's not what I mean."

"Nothing is going on between us," he answered harshly, "She's a naïve soldier and I'm just some criminal, the only thing I care about is pulling her to our side so she can help fight the powers that be."

"And why is that? Huh? Why her? Why are you so damn fixated on her that you went out of your way to bring her aboard and show her all of this?!" She gestured widely around.

"Because…! She's… been my mortal enemy for so long. She's not just strong, strong enough to fight me, she's a kind and honest person. If we can get her to trust us we'd have one of the strongest allies in the galaxy! We'd be one step closer to taking down Salem and ending this tyranny once and for all."

Hex felt her irritation grow as she slammed her fist onto the table, "Didn't I say no bullshit? Do you know how you sound?"

He stopped pacing the room and stared at her, feeling a cold knot form in his stomach.

"You're singing her praises but add the bit about using her like it's an afterthought. Nova, you're a grown-ass man, you've had relationships before, and you know exactly what you're feeling right now!" Hex narrowed her eyes toward him and locked their gazes.

"What do you want me to say, Hex? What do you want me to admit?" he countered in fury before quieting down, "It could never work out… Hex," he finished softly.

The engineer softened as well and placed a hand on his shoulder, "I know you're afraid, the last time you…"

"The last time I opened my heart to someone they stabbed me in the back and I lost my damn eye for it…" he looked at her and she saw at that moment, not her powerful captain and leader, but a broken man.

"The wound left on your heart was worse," Hex folded her arms, "That doesn't mean you should shut yourself away from happiness."

"Hex, even if she sees the truth and comes around, a relationship between me and Ruby could never happen. We're still stuck on opposing sides of a war that won't end anytime soon. Knowing her, even if she came around, she'd want to go back to the UFSH and try to fix it from the inside out. I'm a pirate by nature, I can't... we can't…" He trailed off, his eyes no longer looking at Hex but at the closed door behind her, as if daring it to open, but it didn't. No one was there after all.

"You forget who you are, Prince," she continued, "You say you cast aside that person, but his nobility never left. He never left. He's still you deep down in there and it's not my place to say, but I think you should stop denying who you are."

Nova stopped his trance and sobered up, "You're right, Hex, it isn't your place," he opened the door, "I think we're done talking about this."

She rolled her eyes at him but she knew what she said was working. She walked toward the door, "You should still tell Ruby, at some point. She needs to know…"

"She needs to know what? That I'm in love with her?" he folded his arms.

Hex snickered as a smile played on her lips, "Well, you said it, not me," she sauntered out of the door feeling victorious, "By the way, I was referring to your identity, not your feelings there."

As the door closed Nova's face was ashen and his mouth was dry.

Curse that genius engineer… she played him like a damn fiddle. Even he didn't realize the extent of his feelings until he said it out loud.

Of course, he was in love with Ruby Rose.

He knew from the very moment they met on Romulus that he'd fallen for her, that inexplicable tug in his heart, drawing toward her like an inescapable magnetism. Yet, he continued to deny it.

Ruby was fuming as she stomped back to her room, "Stupid idiot Silver, stupid idiot pirate… oh when I get my hands on him I'll strangle him to death I swear to god…"

She passed through the corridors, it was oddly lonely and silent. Her team was probably fast asleep by now given the time… not that she ever cared about time in space. It could be any hour of the day she'd feel awake. Sleep was something she didn't get much… and how could she now? Not when she still had so many questions and burning anger stored inside her.

As she passed by one of the rooms she'd never gone into, she heard a soft muffled sound like a thud, followed by a girl's voice saying, "Excuse me, whoever is outside, could you please tone it down?"

The voice was small and oddly polite for a pirate, she instantly felt the need to apologize, "Uh… sorry. I wasn't paying attention."

The voice perked up, "Um, would you by chance be Miss Rose?"

Ruby's eyebrow perked up, "Yes, that's correct…"

"Oh! Can you come in and help me out a little, I still can't move around very much…" There were sounds of struggling and shuffling sheets.

Ruby sighed and turned the doorknob, "I'm coming in…" She entered into a cozy room with a large bed pressed against the middle of the back wall. Large windows showing the outside of space were currently open and there were various furniture all arranged neatly in the room. It was quite girly, especially the amount of stuffed toys and other décor that occupied the free spaces.

A small girl with bright silver hair sat on the bed, she had thin, pale, skin and was wearing a white nightgown. Her eyes were bright blue, glimmering like sapphires. She looked barely over fourteen but if not for her height, subtly hidden by the myriads of comforters, Ruby would guess she was probably around seventeen.

"Um, hello…?" Ruby spoke up, gingerly approaching the girl.

She looked at her and beamed a sweet smile, "Hello Miss Rose, nice to finally talk to you face to face!"

Ruby scratched her head for a moment and then it hit her, "You're the girl in the blue Exo-Suit right?"

She nodded, "My name is Luna, I'm No- I mean Silver's sister," she quickly corrected. This wasn't the first time she'd heard someone almost slip up Silver's name. So it began with the letter N huh?

"Hi, Luna, what is it you need help with? Sorry… that was rude it makes it sound like I want to leave…" she felt kind of bad.

Luna simply nodded in understanding, "It's alright Miss Rose, I'm kind of stuck, could you shut the blinds on the windows please?" she pointed to the large windows on the left of her, toward the opposite end of the door.

Ruby silently walked over and began closing the blinds until the room was only bathed in dim light.

"Thank you very much," Luna politely expressed gratitude, "You're much nicer than my brother makes you out to be."

Ruby snorted, "And you're much more polite than he is. It's been five minutes and you haven't yelled at me."

Luna frowned, "He yells at you? Is that what all that shouting was about earlier?"

Ruby flinched, "You heard that, huh?"

Luna nodded, "Yeah, it sounded rough, though my brother didn't sound all that mad. That sounded like his cranky voice."

Ruby blinked in surprise, "He can get angrier than that?"

She nodded, "Oh yes, you should see him whenever any of the crew gets badly injured. His anger isn't the loud kind… it's the very quiet, scary kind."

Ruby was about to retort when she realized what Luna alluded to. The fact that Silver only got truly angry when someone in his care was hurt. He was very protective of his people, his crew, she realized. She'd known before but having someone point it out made it sink in that, if above all else, Silver cared for his crew like they were his family.

She felt the same way when it came to her direct crew. She felt guilty for leaving them behind, but she knew they were fine. They were probably back at the UFSH headquarters mounting a search party for her. It seemed there was at least one thing she had in common with Silver.

"I know that look," Luna nodded seemingly reading her thoughts, "It never really sunk in that my brother has a shred of humanity in him, did it?"

Ruby faltered, "I… guess it didn't. I mean I knew, I'm not sure when, somewhere between our third and ninth fight that I realized he prioritized his crew over his own life and goals. It never really registered fully."

"You'll find that my brother isn't like those pirates that run around the galaxy," Luna said calmly, "If you haven't realized already that is."

Ruby hesitated but pulled a chair from the desk and sat next to Luna, "Yeah, this ship, this crew… everyone I've met feels like an ordinary person, no cutthroats, no evil slavers or warmongers. Just… regular people."

"The crew is specially selected, you see. My brother only brings on those without a home left to go back to. Refugees, ex-slaves, stolen prisoners with nowhere to go. Earnest people who are just looking for a place to call home. That's what the Solar Flare is."

"A home for the homeless…" Ruby realized. "But why go through all this trouble? Surely he'd faster achieve his goals if he treated his crew like any other pirate would."

"Would you be able to do that?" Luna asked her, locking eyes with Ruby.

The UFSH captain began to feel a bit of sweat drip down her neck, "No…" she answered finally, "I could never abandon my people willingly."

"My brother is the same, you two are more alike than you realize," her eyes had a faint shimmer to them.

Ruby hesitated, "But he's a pirate! He lies, cheats, steals and kills his way across the galaxy for his own personal gain."

Luna who was looking at her almost amicably suddenly got deathly serious, "Is that what you think we do?"

"I…" Ruby couldn't bring herself to answer that. Not after all the evidence she'd seen to contradict that statement. Everything Silver and his crew have done so far have been nothing but borderline humanitarian.

"You let the word 'pirate' cloud your view of what he's really like. Just because he's a pirate, doesn't mean he chose that path willingly, nor did he choose that title. Just because he's a pirate doesn't mean that he's a greedy monster." Luna gently reached out her hands to grasp Ruby's shoulder.

Ruby spotted along her pale skin were the veins on Luna's forearm, almost dark blue.

When Ruby didn't answer, Luna continued, "Do you want to know how I ended up like this?" she noticed Ruby eyeing her hands.

"I… don't want to overstep," Ruby answered truthfully.

Luna shook her head, "It's fine," she got up from under the covers and pulled her nightgown just low enough to show her upper chest.

Ruby gasped in horror as she saw the same dark blue discoloration spread along the girl's skin, "What…?"

"It's a respiratory disease that I contracted from too much exposure to the fumes of those triple fusion cells," Luna eyed her and laughed, "I see you have many questions."

Ruby nodded furiously.

"Let's just say a long time ago, back when Silver and I were homeless, we were barely able to survive. We were staying on Xenos I at the time, a backwater slum where poor Faunus go when they're out of options."

"Is that where this happened?" Ruby asked in concern.

Luna nodded, "At the time, Silver was barely fifteen, I was maybe ten. We were poor, and couldn't afford to live on dumpster food and scraps anymore, so when the SDC came in with their ships and said they were setting up a mine and looking for workers… well we jumped at the opportunity."

Ruby gasped, "And they hired you?! You were minors… without a legal guardian right? Surely they would have the human decency to…"

"They hired us without a second thought, and we didn't care. We were going to be paid for once… we could afford to eat something other than rotten food," Luna gazed almost solemnly at Ruby. "Then… the first paycheck came. It was barely half of what we were initially promised, they said it was a tax for the tools we had to borrow."

Ruby felt both growing rage and deep sorrow at her story, "How could they do that?! That's exploitation!"

Luna shrugged, "Well… not a lot of people complained. Money was money and who were we to stand up to the SDC and their army of UFSH soldiers? We were just a colony of starving Faunus. Still… that wasn't even the worst part."

Ruby was gripping the armrests with rage as the wood threatened to crack.

"They brought in this massive drill, said they were going to set up deeper mines for the workers to dig… said they'd found some larger deposits lower down. What they didn't tell us was that the triple fusion cells that powered the drill emitted an invisible, odourless, toxic gas that infected the lungs of the workers."

Ruby softly muttered, "I… can't believe this…"

"It's all true, workers started dropping like flies after a week or so of exposure. Many were sick and barely able to move but they didn't have a choice, it was either work to death or starve to death. My brother was spared because of his Semblance, on the other hand… I wasn't that lucky." Luna looked at Ruby sadly.

The captain stopped, "What's a semblance?"

Luna mouthed an 'O', "Right… you'll figure that one out in time if you earn my brother's trust, but you know how I was tanking hits from Yang back on Romulus, how Yang suddenly turned fiery… how Nitro was blitzing around the place like a speed demon?"

Ruby nodded, Yang had neglected to mention that but she did read the reports on the others, "Yeah… and I think I used a weird power when I fought Silver back then… I thought that was just my imagination…"

"That's a Semblance. You'll learn how to use it in time but back to the main topic at hand…" Luna gestured to the IVs being dripped into her veins, "I got sick, like really sick. My body fought it off for a while since I wasn't fully exposed. Once Silver found out people were getting sick he forbade me from going back to work… instead picking up my duties as well so no one complained. He used to come back so tired…"

Ruby felt a deepened sense of respect toward Silver. If what this girl was saying was true, not only did Silver practically raise her and keep her alive despite the odds, but he did everything in his power to protect her. She knew she would do the same if that were Yang and her in those positions.

"I was getting better, you know… it took me a few years but I started feeling a lot better," she tried to flex her arms to no avail.

Ruby chuckled at her, quite amused, "Is that when you started joining the fight with him?"

She nodded, "Yeah I felt bad, not having the capacity to help him out… then it just… got worse."

"That's when Silver found the cure, right?" Ruby alluded to his raid on the ice moon of Titan.

"Sort of, he found something like an antibiotic that would give me a fighting chance. The rest is up to me to get better, so that's why I'm on bed rest until further notice. Thank you, by the way." Luna gave a light bow.

Ruby was confused, "What for?"

"I heard from Silver, that you risked your career and your life to get the information he needed to save me. You had no reason to trust him, but you did… so thank you. Thank you for saving my life."

Ruby turned away in embarrassment, "I… it was nothing. Silver did most of the work I just got him the info."

Luna chuckled, "Still, I am forever in your debt, and so is he, which I guess is why he's trying to show you the truth."

Ruby grimaced, "He's still hiding a lot, like who he is and so much more…"

"It's for good reason," Luna said softly, "My brother and I… our secrets are of a shared past. The less you know the better off you are, knowing who we are would only cause more harm than good. At least that's what he says."

Ruby frowned, "Wait… why don't you hide your face?"

Luna almost facepalmed, "Oh shit, I forgot my mask!" she almost began coughing again and had to calm down, "I'm supposed to hide my face but… well I guess since it's you it's okay. The world isn't looking for me anyway, they think I'm dead."

"Dead? Why would they think you're dead? Who exactly are you?" Ruby asked continuously.

Luna quickly shushed her, "That's not for me to tell, that's Silver's job. When he's ready he'll tell you, or rather when he thinks you're ready to hear it."

Ruby huffed, "Well, I don't think that'll happen given what he thinks of me."

"And what does he think of you?" Luna asked, batting her eyes.

Ruby rolled hers, "That I'm naïve, ignorant and stubborn, willing to betray him at any given moment."

Luna frowned, "Are you? Would you betray him?"

The captain hesitated… really giving it thought for the first time, "I… no… I'm not sure I could. I have no reason to."

"Is that all?"

"What do you mean?"

"Here, I'll make it easier for you," Luna pointed at her, "What do you, Ruby Rose, think of him?"

Ruby hesitated again for the ninth time tonight, "I… think he's stubborn as a mule, he has anger management issues, he's a thief, a liar, a criminal…" she paused as she realized there was more to it. Instead of fighting the words she found herself compelled to say them, "I also think he's admirable, strong, a good leader and an even better person than I probably am."

"Go on…" Luna egged her on.

"He's annoying, but in an endearing kind of way. He teases me but… I don't hate it. There's also some weird quirks about him like he can cook good food… he's got a sense of justice and treasures freedom," she remembered how he helped those slaves. "He makes me angry sometimes but for some reason, I can't stay mad at him. We're supposed to be mortal enemies but we have so much in common, like mech piloting and to a deeper level he understands me… he understands what I need even when I don't realize I need it."

Luna was grinning like a madman as Ruby found she couldn't close her mouth.

"He's very sweet… and thoughtful when he's not trying to bite my head off," she realized how he remembered her favourite drink and gave her his comic books, even how he made her coffee. "And… he's really charming… downright attractive…" she said that last part softly as her eyes widened in horror.

Luna on the other hand was clapping, "Oh this is brilliant! You must tell him!"

Ruby was mortified, "I did NOT just say that!"

"You totally did!" she squealed in delight.

"You're smitten! You've fallen for him, and you've never even seen his face or know his real name! It's just like in those romance novels! EEECK!" Luna continued to gush at Ruby's expense.

"I-I wouldn't say smitten, he's just… very charming and admirable and I value his good qualities," Ruby said stiffly.

Luna rolled her eyes, "Sure, whatever you say lady."

Ruby squinted her eyes at Luna, "Oh now you're starting to sound like him!'

Luna shrugged, "What can I say, we're siblings. Now, I'll let you think about what you just told me in detail while I get some shut eyes," she yawned.

Ruby blushed crimson as she got up, "I refuse to think about it!" she quickly walked out of the door while Luna yelled, "Oh I bet you will~"

Now on her way back to her room instead she was grumbling, "Stupid sexy pirate, stupid idiot cute… dork! I am not in love with him!'