Life From Your Lips (Ruby Rose fanfic)

SEVENTEEN (Iselen POV)

"I could get used to this..." I mumble looking through the car window, watching groups of girls and boys wearing fancy clothes, laughing and walking down the boulevard while we're waiting at a red light.

"What?" Ruby asks confused tapping on the wheel with her fingertips nervously, frustrated and angry because heavy traffic in Paris doesn't let her drive as fast as she'd want to. I can't help smiling looking at her furrowed brow and she stares back at me, puzzled.

"Business Premier Eurostar train tickets, a suite at the Ritz hotel, a fancy car to drive around the city... I've never travelled like this."

"Well, I don't usually travel like this either, I mean..." Ruby fidgets on her seat awkwardly and smiles shyly. "I like comfort and first-class seats, although I prefer smaller hotels and less crowded where Athena feels calmer, but I also love... spoiling you, Meri."

"Are you doing this for me?" I ask surprised. "Ruby, you don't need to..."

"I don't care if we're in the modern world now, nebet, I was raised to treat Isis' messengers like queens." The princess cuts me off, smiling, and I nod amused.

"It's okay, babe, if this is important to you, I'm not complaining. Do you like your hotel room, Athena?" I turn to talk to her and the girl smiles from the backseat but she keeps looking through the window and doesn't avert her eyes to me.

"The bathtub is big..." she answers and I take that as a yes. She liked it and felt better when she found out there was a communication door between her bedroom and our own suite and we were sleeping near her, she enjoyed the train ride too and seemed happy to learn that she was going to visit her friend Miroslav Verner.

"Have you talked to Professor Stephens?" Ruby interrupts my train of thought while turning right on a street and she starts looking for a spot to park.

"Yes, he's not happy at all with what's happening but told me to thank you for the invitation to the presentation of your book. He's found out that some artifacts from last year's campaign have vanished, funerary cones made of clay, they aren't important masterpieces but he's upset because they stole them given that they provide crucial information about the tomb: who the owner was and what he did for a living."

"Small collectors love those cones because they have beautiful hieroglyphs and they're cheap, something curious to show to their friends. They're sold well in the black market... Damn it, I hate tomb robbers," the princess growls and, suddenly, she reminds me of my Praa Sat more than ever before. "I hope Miroslav can help us."

"Oh wow... I love this..." I whisper surprised jumping off the car, pointing at a very beautiful wood door. "It's an antique shop."

"Yes, of course, I told you my mentor was retired and running this business now," Ruby answers confused while helping Athena to get off the car.

"I'm not talking about that, I mean that it looks like a real antique shop. In my country, they tend to decorate them to imitate modern art galleries lately but, this way, they've lost all their charm. I like when they smell of old books and candle wax, when they're incredibly cluttered and I can rummage in drawers and wardrobes to find the little treasures they hide... It's so much fun..."

"Well, you may think that antiques are scattered all over tables at random but I can assure you there's an order in this chaos, Miroslav has his own method and knows where every single piece is. Let's go inside..."

The sound of the little bell above the door makes me smile while I walk across the dark hardwood floor looking around with curiosity. It smells the way I imagined it, exactly: old books and wax polish for wood, it smells of history and memories attached to every object. There're fresh roses in a Venetian crystal vase, I can hear the bronze clocks ticking and the pieces of crystal hanging from a chandelier clinking because of a soft breeze that has followed us from the street when we opened the door. At first glance, Ruby's right: there're many antiques scattered around but there's a method here.