Ruby woke without having realised she'd fallen asleep. She'd thought getting even a wink of sleep in this hellhole would be all but impossible, but apparently she'd been wrong.
Yawning tiredly, Ruby let her eyelids flutter open. She felt groggy all over again.
The room slowly shifted into focus. She frowned. Wait a second.
Where the Hell am I?!
Panic immediately spiked through her. Ruby scrabbled upright frantically, glancing left and right, waiting for the teeniest sense of recognition to surge through her. She noticed Kagura and Harley, who were also in the room with her, and suddenly all the memories came flooding back.
Oh, yeah, I got kidnapped...
'Ruby?' A small, sluggish voice drew Ruby's attention, and she jerked her head to the right to see that Harley was rubbing his eyes in a dazed, half-awake state, his pale orange hair disheveled from sleep. He blinked twice when he laid his eyes on her, mild surprise flitting across his face. 'What's wrong?'
'Nothing,' responded Ruby, forcing a nonchalant smile. 'I just...got confused for a moment.' She sat back down with a sigh.
Time to endure yet another day in the Abyss as a prisoner, she thought grimly as everything that had happened the day before slowly came back to her. As a lowlife.
Ever since she was young, some part of Ruby had secretly believed that starting a new day would naturally make her burdens vanish into thin air. She'd thought that dawn was the equivalent of a new beginning, a new hope. Because it was the thing that put an end to yesterday and shone a new light on the world, giving people hope and determination. Or whatever they needed to make it through another day.
But even dawn had betrayed her.
---
'Alice!' Selena stormed through the Abyss, her pink eyes hard with rage and intent. 'Alice!'
Not so far away, a familiar Abyssal Demon with gleaming yellow eyes and wavy purple hair shot her a questioning look. 'Why are so many people shouting for Alice these days?' Moskov wondered aloud, annoyed but amused.
Selena pointedly ignored him. She wasn't going to let anything or anyone distract her.
Finally she spotted Alice in the distance, chatting with Thamuz with a dignified, imposing air. They seemed to be in a very serious conversation, but that didn't make Selena's determination die down. Instead, the knowledge that she wouldn't be welcome only filled her with a defiance that spurred her on.
'Alice,' she called loudly, diverting Alice's attention. The queen's eyebrows lifted gracefully in a silent question when she noticed Selena. 'I...I need to talk to you.'
Not without a moment of reluctance, Alice stood up, brushing her skirt. She strode over to Selena deftly, an expectant look on her face. Selena clasped her hands together in front of her stiffly, preparing what she was about to say.
'What is it, Selena?' asked Alice, crossing her arms.
Selena took a deep breath, twisting her fingers self-consciously. 'I, um,' she began, 'have something very important to tell you. I know it's none of my business, but I just thought you would...um...want to hear this, because it's about your son.'
Alice's features rearranged themselves swiftly, turning into a look of sharp wariness. 'What about my son?' she said hollowly.
Selena fidgeted, brushing an errant lock of hair out of her face shyly. It was time to put on an act of innocence and uncertainty again. 'I'm not sure if you noticed, Your Highness, but...yesterday, when you returned here with the three humans, your son was very protective of one particular girl. The small, blonde one...you know?'
YOU ARE READING
Lovely (Ruby x Dyrroth)
Fanfiction'And who are you?' Ruby asked warily. The man stepped into the beam of light spilling from between the leaves of two tall trees. Ruby's breath caught in her throat. He was sickeningly beautiful, with that perfect smirk curving his lips, the angle of...
