Lovely (Ruby x Dyrroth)

seventeen

The next night, Dyrroth let Ruby see her friends again. Not that the prince wasn't annoyed. In fact, his annoyance at her wanting to see her friends was probably the most obvious thing in the entire world. Ruby found herself determinedly suppressing her snickers whenever he acted all sulky when she mentioned her friends.

She wondered how on earth she'd ever thought of Dyrroth as cunning and unpredictable. Whatever he was thinking seemed so obvious to her now.

'Um, Earth to Ruby.'

Harley's clearly impatient words jolted Ruby out of her thoughts. Embarrassed, she shook herself. 'Sorry, I was just thinking about something. What were you saying?' she asked.

The young magician boy blatantly ignored her question. 'Who were you thinking about? Dyrroth?'

Very pointedly, Ruby turned to Kagura. 'What were you guys saying earlier?'

She rolled her eyes. 'We were asking, have you gotten any useful info yet? About when would be a good time to escape.'

Ruby shook her head. She'd totally forgotten about it. Not that she'd even had any chances to find out info yesterday. Her two friends groaned in unison.

'Then what do we do now?' grumbled Harley, turning away from her.

She rolled her eyes. 'We've still got hope. Don't be so dramatic.'

'I'm not being-'

'Not again, you guys,' interjected Kagura irritably with a long-suffering look. This was precisely why Ruby, Harley and Kagura couldn't hang out together without either Lesley or Harith, or both, with them as well. Ruby and Harley had a very irreparable animosity between them which Kagura alone could never hope to get rid of. They needed at least two people to shut them up whenever they started arguing. 'Focus. We need to plan our escape, not waste time arguing.'

A wry smirk pulled at Harley's lips. Ruby knew from experience that this was a very bad sign. 'Right, right, plan our escape. So you already know a lot about it, don't you? Go on.' He waved at Kagura. 'Speak.'

'As a matter of fact,' said Kagura dryly, 'I do know a lot about it. Sort of.'

Ruby raised an eyebrow expectantly, waiting for her to talk.

'We'll need Dyrroth's help for the plan to work,' she said, her sapphire-like blue eyes momentarily flicking towards Ruby. 'We'll pick a time where most of the Abyssal Demons would be unavailable, as I've said. And we'll need him to somehow sneak over here and set us free. After that, if the demons are really occupied, finding an escape route shouldn't be too hard. We can ask for help, anyway. The problem is that we might get caught, but the demons being busy sorta eliminates that.'

Harley blinked. 'Why am I getting the feeling you thought of all that on the spot?'

'I dunno. 'Cause I totally didn't.' Kagura shrugged and smiled.

Before they could go off topic again, Ruby spoke, 'It's not really detailed enough, is it? Like...the part about an escape route. We're not gonna be able to somehow get out of here just by running around. You do remember Alice herself had to use her magic to get us here, right?'

Her friends exchanged curious looks. 'What are you implying?' Kagura questioned.

Ruby was quiet for a while. Then, somberly, she said, 'We might not be able to get out of here if it's only the three of us. We'll need help from outside.'

Harley blinked dubiously again. 'From...?'

Ruby rolled her eyes. 'From outside.'

'Which means...?'