Playing with Fire [COMPLETED]

17 ~ shimmering waters

The place Ruin brings me to is gorgeous. It's a cave system, with the only natural light being that of the bioluminescent moss and glowworms. I follow Ruin through the cave, and he trails his hands along the walls, making the moss glow in bright purples, greens, and blues. The tunnels themselves are cold and so dark that you cannot see your hand in front of your face. But with Ruin's power, I'm not too terribly cold. And the lights from the moss are bright enough that I can see our path as we travel through the tunnels, going someplace only Ruin knows.

When we reach the end of one of the tunnels, it expands out into a huge cavern, one filled with glowing blue water that shimmers bright. As we walk alongside the water, steam rises up from its blue, shimmering surface.

Ruin kneels down beside the water, and puts his hand into it — steam rises from the glowing blue surface, and he smiles up at me. "You wanna get in?"

"But my clothes...."

"I can conjure some new clothes for you," he says. "But I'd recommend not wearing anything but your underclothes."

"Oh, you would, would you?" I ask, smirking at him.

He snaps his fingers, and his clothes vanish. I find myself forcing my gaze to stay on his sculpted face, not his sculpted body. I feel my cheeks heat up, and he chuckles. The sound is low and sensual, and my toes curl in my boots. He leaps into the water, splashing me as his wings unfurl.

I shield myself with my wings as best I can, but he laughs, and I find myself laughing with him. I peel my shirt, pants, and boots off, and step into the water. Once it is up to my chest, I look up at him again. His black hair drips with shimmering blue water, and he smiles wickedly.

"Do you have no shame?" I tease.

He laughs. The sound is like a soothing bell. "You do know I am a demon, right?"

I splash him. He laughs.

"You didn't have to strip in front of me!" I exclaim.

"I didn't have to, I wanted to!" he exclaims. I stare at him, my jaw dropped, unable to form words. He smiles wide, his eyes shining.  "What? Cat got your tongue?"

"You should be so lucky," I say, splashing him once more.

He tosses his head back, laughing. Honestly, the sight is amazing to me. I find myself smiling and laughing along with him, his laughter is contagious.

Ruin and I sit in the shimmering waters for a long time, so long that we both get pruned up from the water, and then, we stay in even longer after that. We just hang out, talking about things. When our conversation flows into uncomfortable territory, we switch and talk about something else.

For a long couple of hours, we have fun. We are at peace. And even though we know that when we return, we'll have the war and Erasmus and his friends to deal with, we still have fun. We still end up returning to the mansion, albeit late at night, when those who need to are asleep.

I turn to him, as we walk into the hall outside my room. My room is down the hall from his, and to the right a bit. But I don't inow if he needs to rest, or if he's just humoring me. He stands in my doorway as I step into the room I've called mine for so long. And I sense ..... a strange jumble of emotions that I cannot decipher.

A medley of melancholy emotions swirls within his heart. He seemingly realizes he's just silently standing in my doorway then. He offers me a mock salute, and a good night. I return his goodnight wish, and he smirks before leaving my room, and closing the door behind himself.

I sit down on my bed and take a deep breath.  I know that tomorrow, I'm bound to find something terrible has happened while we had fun. I know that tomorrow, I'll have to face this strange new world I'm in with determination and the grit to get shit done. But for now....

For now, I lay down, cover up with my warm and soft blankets, and drift off to the sleepy world beyond.