#touch utot ff

[ruthserbel]

Fanfiction Information [x] Chapter Title: Chapter 13 Song: N/A Release Date: October 15tth, 2023 Word Count: 3.8k Content Warnings: N/A Notes: So of the voting for the poll is done, and it was 100% people want more NSFW things. So, I have an idea for one coming up within the next three or so. As I've said before, if a chapter is NSFW, I will have a SFW version as well, with anything NSFW stripped out. The NSFW version will also be clearly labeled, and marked as Mature using the Community Labels. Anywho~~ enjoy! I promise this is the last time there will be a 'do they?' chapter. I promise. From now on, we are into a fluffy romance. ♥ PS: At the bottom of this chapter there is a timeline - just so people are aware of where we are currently in the terms of this fanfiction. There are going to be some time skips coming (esp for book 2). But part 1 of this series is going to end after book 2.

Aria's POV

With a sigh, Ruth spoke quietly.  “If they are interrupting me for nothing important...” Ruth whispered, leaving his statement unfinished. He slowly moved back, making space between them again. “Who is it anyway?” Ruth asked as he walked towards the window, trying to see who it was.

Now, with space between her and Ruth, Aria realized what she had just done. Her face started to flush as she thought about it more – she had kissed Ruth. Not only that, but she also re-initiated it herself. Her face grew even more flushed as the memory replayed in her mind repeatedly. In order to conceal her embarrassment from Ruth, she turned around, with her back facing the window.

After a moment of looking out, Ruth let out another sigh. "Of course," he muttered as he made his way towards the stairs again. He noticed that Aria had her back turned to him, but he didn't have time to question it as another knock came from the floor below. This time, there was a voice after the knock.

"I know you're in there, Ruth," Riftan's voice said, muffled as it passed through the walls.

Ruth walked down the stairs and opened the door. Aria, however, remained where she was, temporarily hidden from view at the doorway. She heard their voices, but she couldn't understand what they were saying. Aria took some alone time to calm herself, placing her hands on her cheeks to cool them down.

After a few minutes - once Aria’s face had gone back to normal – she made her way down the stairs. As she took the first few steps, she heard the conversation between Riftan and Ruth.

“How long will they need people for?” Ruth questioned, his voice quiet.

“Uncertain. They asked for a few knights to go up as soon as possible," Riftan replied, speaking quietly.

Aria stopped her descent down the stairs as she heard their conversation. She was uncertain about whether she should stay upstairs until Riftan left. As she contemplated, the conversation continued downstairs.

“Who’s going first?” Ruth questioned, sitting down in the chair by the stairs and didn't notice Aria standing on the top steps.

Riftan mentioned several knights, some of whom Aria knew, but many of them were unfamiliar to her. She noticed a lull in the conversation for a moment before Riftan let out a sigh. "If you didn't need to recover, you were going to be one. They did mention that they needed more mages, but..." Riftan added, his voice trailing off briefly as Aria took another step down the stairs upon hearing about sending Ruth.

Although Aria hadn’t given it much thought, she knew it was something that would happen eventually. They were knights after all. Eventually, they would need to depart to fulfill a mission, conduct raids, or engage in various tasks. Worry consumed her as she pondered over it, even though she lacked the complete information. With her increasing concern, she had taken a few more steps down the stairs – now catching Riftan's attention.

Aria looked into Riftan's eyes and noticed a slight smirk playing at the corners of his mouth as she continued down the stairs. The smirk on his face grew even wider, and as she reached the bottom of the stairs, her face started to blush slightly.

She felt her face slightly flush again before she cleared her throat, greeting him. "Good morning," Aria said, her voice trembling as she spoke, which made her face blush even deeper out of embarrassment.  

Riftan replied with a short nod, but the smirk lingered on his lips as he turned his attention back to Ruth. "I'm sorry," Riftan said, his gaze fixed on Ruth. Aria couldn't help but feel that his apology wasn't directed solely towards Ruth. “Are we able to discuss this more?” Riftan asked his question, directing his full attention towards Ruth. His tone conveyed the desire for their conversation to remain private.

Aria picked up on that fact, and she cleared her throat again. "I... Um... I should leave," she said, looking down at Ruth as she spoke.

“Sorry,” Ruth said to Aria with a weak apologetic smile. Shaking her head, Aria waved her hand in the air – brushing off his apology.

 With that, Aria snuck past the two men, making her way to the door. As she opened the door, Riftan spoke from behind her. Your brother was in the dining hall when I left. That was about ten minutes ago,” Riftan informed Aria as she stepped out of the door.

"Oh, thank you," Aria replied, now realizing that she still hadn't been shown the new location of their rooms. With a small wave, she closed the door behind her, leaving the two men alone in the room.

Ruth’s POV

Ruth watched as the door closed behind Aria. The two men sat in silence, listening to the fading sound of Aria walking away. After they faded, Ruth let out a sigh, going back to the previous conversation.

“You can continue now,” Ruth said, leaning back in his seat as he waited for Riftan to continue. He chose to ignore the smirk still on Riftan's face in the hopes of returning to their previous conversation, especially since Riftan had interrupted him.

Riftan chuckled quietly before responding, but his response wasn't connected to the previous conversation. "She seemed a bit flustered," Riftan said, raising his eyebrows questioningly at Ruth as he spoke. “Did something happen?”

Ruth rolled his eyes in response to Riftan's question. "If you're going to interrupt me, at least finish the conversation," Ruth said, sounding annoyed. Riftan immediately recognized this and chose not to press for more information at that moment.

"As I mentioned..." Riftan said, restarting their previous conversation. "They asked for any available mages to go... But with your arm," Riftan said, briefly glancing at Ruth's arm, "you are unable to do it at the moment. So, we will hold off on sending you right now.” Riftan explained.

"'Sending me right now'," Ruth repeated what Riftan had said, understanding the meaning behind his words. "So, to clarify, are you saying that there could be multiple groups going?" Ruth questioned, even though he knew the answer. Yes.

Aria’s POV

The halls seemed busy with knights carrying things around in every direction. Aria hurriedly went to the dining hall, making sure not to obstruct the knights as she went. Once she entered the dining room, she noticed that it was quite empty except for Jasper and Lily sitting at a table with a few other knights. As she got closer to them, she overheard their conversation.

“How many were injured?” Jasper asked Ulyseon who was on the other side of the table. Lily ignored their conversation, drawing on a small sheet of paper in front of her with a pencil. At the mention of injured, Aria felt a wave of fear wash over her for a moment. They must have been talking about the same thing Riftan was talking to Ruth about. She shook her head after a moment, trying to wash away the thoughts.

"So far, there have been around 100," Ulyseon responded to Jasper. 

"But that number will continue to increase," Garrow added from across the table before he glanced up at the approaching footsteps. "Oh, hello Aria," he said. With Aria's name mentioned, Jasper and Lily both turned their heads to see her approaching the table.

“Hello,” Aria said as she reached the table and sat down next to Lily, who leaned against her. "Why is the number going to increase? What’s going on?” Aria asked, unsure of what had actually occurred. She had overheard a bit of information from Riftan at Ruth's, but they didn't explain to her what was actually happening.

"Two nights ago, another village was attacked during the night, just like the previous incident..." Ulyseon began to explain, but then paused, allowing Aria to complete the rest of the details.

Aria thought back to a moment, remembering the day from a few months ago. The thuds rang in her ears again. The sensation of heat and pain returned as she delved deeper into her thoughts. She was only brought out when she felt her brother gently place his hand on her shoulder, trying to comfort her. With a small smile to her brother, she turned back to Ulyseon.

“So, some of the knights are going?” Aria asked, although she already knew the answer to that. Hoping that perhaps she had misheard or misunderstood, and that it wasn't true.

“A few for now,” Garrow replied. "They believe the monster responsible for it is still nearby, so they are hoping to address the issue," he further explained. Before they could explain anything else, a voice called out from the door.

"Ulyseon, Garrow, could you both come and help for a moment?" the knight at the door called, grabbing the attention of all five individuals in the room. It was a knight whom Aria had never talked to before, but she had heard his name mentioned before: Uslin Rikaido.

“Well,” Ulyseon said as he stood up from the table with Garrow. "See you three later," he said as both he and Garrow followed Uslin out of the dining room, which was now almost empty. The only other people in the dining room were a few maids cleaning up some of the tables, talking amongst themselves.

As the three of them sat in silence, Aria couldn't stop thinking about the information she had just received. It made her worry as she thought about it - people she knew and had become close to leaving, and possibly getting injured. The thought spun in her mind. She thought about Ulyseon, who was younger than her, getting injured, or Garrow.

“Aria?” She heard, dragging her out of her mental spiral. Lifting her head, she looked towards her brother.

 “Hmm?” She questioned, unsure of what he had said earlier.

Jasper let out a quiet chuckle before he placed his hand on her shoulder. "Why don't I show you to your new room?" he offered.

 “Sure,” Aria said with a nod.

Jasper led Aria to her room, which was one floor up and located at the opposite end of the castle from their previous rooms. As she sat down on the bed, she expected her brother to start questioning her about the events of the previous day and where she had been at night. However, much to her surprise, he didn’t question her.

Instead of questioning her, Jasper chose to go and see if the knights required any assistance. After he left, Aria and Lily stayed in the room for a while – Lily preoccupied with one of the cats that had followed them into the room. Lily sat on the floor playing with the cat as Aria watched.

The day went by uneventful after that. Aria and Lily stayed in Aria's room for a while before heading to the library, as Lily wanted to check if Ruth was there. The two stayed there for a while, waiting to see if Ruth would come. Aria had eventually picked up a book and started reading it, even though she had already read it. It was something to keep her busy for now. 

She read for a while before there were some sounds from outside which caught her attention. Standing up, Aria walked over to the window and immediately identified the source of the sound. As she looked outside, she saw a group of knights on horses, carrying supplies with them. Aria scanned the area, and that’s when she spotted Ruth.

Aria watched as the knights departed, leaving the castle grounds. Once they were out of sight, I looked back down to where Ruth had been standing, only to find that he was no longer there. “Huh…” She whispered before she turned around again, making her way back to her seat. ‘Maybe he’s on his way here now,’ Aria thought to herself as she opened her book back up and attempted to read again. 

After a few page flips – which Aria hadn’t even read any of it – Jasper came into the library. “There you two are,” he said. Once Jasper reached Lily, he gently placed his hand on her head. Lily laughed and tried to swat it away. Aria observed Lily's unsuccessful attempt to push Jasper's hand away briefly, before shifting her gaze back towards the door - waiting. After a moment, she sunk into her seat. ‘Guess not,’ she thought to herself again.

The days that followed went similarly. Aria would wake up and then wake up Lily. Jasper, Lily, and she would sit down for breakfast every day. Aria would always look around to see if she spotted Ruth, but she never did. Throughout the day, Aria and Lily would go to the library, and every day Aria expected to see Ruth there. However, every day she felt saddened as she walked into the room to find it empty. There were traces of him being there though, as he would often leave something out on the table.

Eventually Aria got questioned by her brother one night after Lily went to bed. With reluctance, Aria explained what had happened that day between Conan, Ruth and her. When he asked her about what happened later that night, she sighed and replied.

"That..." she began, reclining on her bed. “I don’t want to talk about it right now,” she said. Truth was, she herself wasn’t sure what was going on. They had kissed, but they haven’t seen each other since then. Aria was confused, and worried about the whole situation. When she had pulled him back in for the kiss, did she do something wrong? A frown formed on her face as she thought about it. She had been going to the library every day for a few days, hoping that Ruth would appear or already be there. Instead, she always found an empty library when she and Lily arrived, and they always left without him showing up. When she glanced around the room, it became evident that he had been there. The presence of scattered papers on the table indicated his visit. Aria neatly stacked the papers and placed them on the side of the table for him.

Jasper understood and didn’t pressure her more for information.

On the seventh day, Lily had decided to do something with Jasper instead, so they left early in the morning. Aria debated on joining them, but ultimately decided against it. She had found a few books within the library that she hadn’t read yet, so she had been enjoying reading those.

Aria made her way to the library, carrying a few of the books she had borrowed to read. As she turned the corner to the library, she was shocked to see a figure sitting at the desk. His white hair was disheveled as he worked on something on the table, some kind of object. A wave of relief washed over her at the sight of him being there.

Quietly she entered the room, carefully setting her books down on the table as she watched Ruth work away, not noticing her. He was fixated on the small object in front of him. Aria looked at the object, puzzled, as she watched him etch some figures onto it. After a moment he set the object down with a sigh. 

“What is that?” Aria asked once the object was on the table, so as not to startle him beforehand and risk him dropping it.

Ruth looked up at her as she spoke, and that's when she noticed the dark circles under his eyes, a clear sign of exhaustion. He let out a sigh before he responded. "It's a magical device," Ruth explained, stretching his arms out in front of him.

"Oh..." Aria said quietly as she looked back at the object on the table. She noticed similar markings as she had seen on the object in the tower the other day, even though she had no idea what any of it meant.

“Is this what you’ve been busy with?” Aria asked after a moment, noticing Ruth's tired expression. “Is… Is it something I can help with?” She asked wearily. She had a feeling she already knew the answer to that, but she offered anyway.

Ruth looked at her for a moment, raising his eyebrows. After a moment of thought, he shook his head. "No... There is nothing you can do to help," he said, leaning back in his chair now. "It is what has kept me busy, though."

"Is this why all of those the papers that were scattered on the table?" Aria asked as she sat down across from him.

With a laugh, Ruth nodded. "You mean the ones that always appeared to be neatly stacked whenever I returned?" He jokingly questioned her.

"Exactly those," responded Aria, playfully echoing his tone and releasing a gentle giggle. "We needed to use the table, so I tidied them up for you," she explained after a moment.

Ruth waved his hand in the air as she explained. "It's okay, I'm used to not sharing this room very often," he said, lowering his hand back to his side. "Other than Maxi, who has been gone for a while, I have primarily occupied this room. None of the knights enter this room, so I have become accustomed to leaving my things out." Ruth leaned forward again, explaining as he grabbed the object and flipped it over again - inspecting the piece.

Aria watched as Ruth inspected the object. He examined the object carefully, flipping it over a few times. He made some adjustments to the engravings that were already on it and added new ones, occasionally referring to the papers in front of him.

After a few minutes, Aria reached for the top book from the pile she had brought in. She opened the book to the page where the piece of paper was and placed the paper on the table. 

The room fell silent for a while, with only the sound of pages being flipped and the occasional sound of Ruth etching something. As Aria finished reading her book, she glanced over the top of it to observe Ruth, who was still going over the device in front of him. Her mind started to wander to the last time they were together as she silently observed him. She felt her heart racing as thought about it, and her face started to flush. Biting her lip, she closed her book – setting it on the table.

But what did it all mean to him?  They hadn’t had a chance to talk about it, since she left right after. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to ask Ruth about it. What if he said it was a mistake? After a moment, she mustered up enough courage to clear her throat. Her voice was quiet as she spoke.

"Um..." Aria murmured, catching Ruth's attention. "Can we discuss what occurred in the tower?" Aria asked, her voice growing slightly louder as she spoke. As she spoke, Ruth placed the device back on the table.

With a small sigh, Ruth spoke, his voice quiet as well. “I’m sorry,” he apologized. “I shouldn’t have done that…”

Aria’s eyebrows furrowed at his statement. "Are you saying that because... You feel like I didn't want it, or because you don’t feel… that way… about me?” Aria questioned, emphasizing her sentence.

"I am not saying I don't have those feelings for you." Ruth whispered, as he noticed that Aria misunderstood his apology. "I shouldn’t have don-" Ruth explained, before Aria cut him off with a quiet whisper.

"I told you not to apologize for it… Honestly… I didn’t mind it," Aria whispered.

The room fell silent after that. The only sounds were footsteps outside the library. After the footsteps faded, Ruth broke the silence.

He slid his chair backwards, standing up from the table. "Does that mean..." Ruth trailed off as he made his way around the table. Aria watched him, taking bated breaths as he walked around. "what I think it means?" Ruth questioned as he stopped in front of her.

Aria stammered for a moment, as she tried to speak. "Um... I..." Aria whispered as Ruth started to bend over so they were at the same height now. She felt her face start to flush as she realized the closeness between them again. Taking a deep breath – attempting to get a coherent answer out, she gathered herself.

"Yes..." She finally said after a moment, and her eyes locked with Ruth’s as she said the next part. "I… like you," Aria said, her voice going back to a whisper as she spoke, her face going a deep shade of red. She said it. She felt a relief fall off her shoulder when she had said it.

Once her admission came out, the room fell silent again. Aria opened her mouth to speak a few times, but every time she tried to, she wasn’t able to form words. She could never have imagined that she would be telling anyone that she liked them, but there she was. They locked eyes as the room grew silent, their only sound was their breathing. 

Ruth stayed quiet for a short time. Then, he smirked. His voice was no more than a whisper.

“I’m glad you said that.” Ruth whispered, before leaning in. The distance between the two – which wasn’t much beforehand – vanished as he leaned forward.

Aria closed her eyes, shutting out the world, amplifying the sensations that followed. His hand gently lifted her chin, causing butterflies to flutter in her stomach. This had happened before, but those sensations still happened.

Aria felt a rush of emotions when their lips met, along with a growing warmth. The warmth started in her core, then grew out – expanding to her whole body.

Aria felt as Ruth’s hand moved from her chin, moving up to cup her cheek. His thumb gently stroking her jaw line. The feeling of his moving along her jawline caused her to let out a quiet moan. As the sound came from her, her body stiffened. That was a sound she had never made before, and it startled her. She wasn’t able to focus on it for long though, as their kiss deepened.

As Aria kissed him more, she felt a strange sensation in her stomach, growing like the warmth had before. At first, she felt butterflies, but then it spread and tingled throughout her body. It was something she had never felt before. As the sensation grew more and more, she scrunched her nose. It wasn’t a sensation that hurt, but it was one that felt weird.

"Uh..." Aria groaned as she broke the kiss, pressing her forehead against his. She took a few deep breaths before she was able to think straight. The sensation that had been growing was now fading. The room was filled with sounds of them breathing again, as they both tried to catch their breath for a moment.

[ruthserbel]

Fanfiction Information [x] Chapter Title: Chapter 12.5 (Ruth's POV from last chapter) Song: Photograph - Cody Fry/Golden Hour - J/\KE (if you listen to either song, you will likely notice some of the lyrics kinda sprinkled in here - although I had to reword them~) Release Date: October 9th, 2023 Word Count: 1k Content Warnings: N/A Notes: Hello all! Here's a shorter .5 chapter that contains Ruth's POV from last week + a bit more ~ On top of this, I have also posted a drabble post (SFW [x] & NSFW [x]) for Ruth Serbel. The NSFW one has a poll at the end - which is just asking if people are generally interested in a NSFW stuff. If it is a resounding no, then I won't bother writing it. So yeah, vote on that if you have the time! You might need to message me about how to view it (it's a setting that needs to be set), as it might be hidden due to it being tagged as 'Mature Content' that way minors can't interact with it. Next week we will continue where we left off. :)

Ruth's POV

Ruth awoke to the sound of feet moving within the room he was in. As he opened his eyes, he felt a small pain in his back from falling asleep while sitting up. He blinked a few times, trying to get rid of the morning fog in his brain as he tried to recall why he had fallen asleep on a chair instead of his bed. It didn’t take him long to realize why though, as he looked around the room, and found the source of the noise as well.

Aria was standing in the room a few steps away from him, although her attention was focused on something else. For a moment, Ruth was entranced by Aria as she stood there, the light from the window shining, eliminating her frame. If he wasn’t feeling the small pain in his back, he would have thought this was a dream.

After a moment, Ruth shook his head slightly, bringing his focus back. Once he was focused again, he followed her gaze, landing on a magical item he had been working on at one point, although he was never able to get it to work quite right. Ruth watched as she took a few steps towards it, reaching her hand out.

‘Is she going to touch it?’ Ruth thought to himself as he watched her for a moment longer, before realizing she indeed was going to.

“I wouldn’t touch that,” Ruth warned as he stood up from the chair, his joints protesting as he did so. His previous night of sleeping sitting in a chair proving to have caused some issues for him. For the moment though, he ignored it as he reached his hand out, grabbing onto her wrist, stopping her from moving her hand closer to the object.

Ruth took another small step forward, closing some of the distance between them before Aria turned her head towards him, whispering his name in acknowledgement. She must not have realized how close they were, as once she turned to face him, her face started to flush before she stammered over an apology to him.

"I'm... I'm sorry," she stammered. "I didn't mean to wake you up," she said as she pulled her hand back from his – but she didn’t move back. As wrist slid from his grasp, he noticed the change in the atmosphere in the room. It made him think back to what Jasper had said during their conversation the previous night. At the time, he pushed it off, not really believing in it. Could the atmosphere in the room just be in his mind? He felt as if there was a longing and excitement lingering in the room - although that could be his own.

As he looked at Aria closer now, with the feeling in the room, he felt like he would do anything just to have her reciprocate his feelings. Even just a little bit. He would give anything for it. His heart started to accelerate as his mind reeled. The light coming in the window seemed to be shining off her skin now – which Ruth knew wasn’t possible, but it seemed like it at this moment.

As the room stayed silent, Ruth wanted nothing more than to feel the gentle warmth of her lips against his. Without realizing, Ruth whispered her name, surprising himself. His voice was dripping with longing as he whispered her name.

‘I shouldn’t be doing this…’ he thought to himself as they held gazes with each other. ‘But…’ Ruth thought. Maybe just maybe, Jasper was speaking the truth?

“Do you trust me?” Ruth questioned in a whisper.

Ruth watched as she opened her mouth to reply, but nothing came out. She then nodded, which gave Ruth the last push he needed.

“Please... Stop me if you don’t want this,” he whispered, as he gently lifted his hand, placing it underneath her chin, tilting it up slightly. As he did so, he felt time slow down around him. As she fluttered her eyes closed, Ruth waited for a moment. This was his last chance. He could stop now, and not cross a line that would possibly ruin things between them.

Despite his concerns, Ruth leaned in, gently grazing their lips together at first – and he waited for her to pull away. He waited for any sign that he was currently going too far. But that never came. He then felt a cascade of emotions rushing through him. He deepened the kiss, his greed taking over for a moment. Ruth felt as if he could get drunk off this moment, although he wouldn’t mind the repercussions of it. He didn’t want it to stop.

As Ruth started to run out of breath, he reluctantly pulled back. As Ruth opened his eyes, his gaze met with hers again, and he was struck with the realization of what just happened. His mind reeled again – and he started to feel bad. He hadn’t even asked her.

“Sorry…” Ruth whispered as he caught his breath, his hand falling from beneath her chin. “I shouldn’t ha-“ he started, but he was cut off. Before he knew it, Aria had closed the gap between them again. She gently placed a kiss on his lips before whispering.

“Please… Don’t apologize.”

Ruth let out a soft chuckle as he processed what was said. He felt his greed come back. His mind focused on her last words; he wanted nothing more than to get drunk off kissing her. He almost missed the sound of the knocking coming from down the stairs.

The two stood still for a moment, before the knock repeated after a few seconds, causing Ruth to sigh.

“If they are interrupting me for nothing important...” Ruth whispered – not finishing the rest of his sentence aloud. He felt as if he would kill the person – although he knew that he wouldn’t. “Who is it anyway?” he questioned, pushing the idea of murder out of his mind as he walked towards the window to see who it was.

taglist: @kunikida-simp, @tylerhasmyheart

[ruthserbel]

Fanfiction Information [x] Chapter Title: Chapter 9 Song: N/A Release Date: July 16th, 2023 Word Count: 3.8k Content Warnings: lost child(?) Notes: I put a lost child warning on the chapter because I was unsure what I should actually put there. If you know, lmk and I'll update it as applicable. This chapter has 4 different POV's, and some of them overlap each other, so I've made a helpful timeline chart to show the POV's and what time everything was happening. That is at the bottom of the chapter, so refer to that if you need to. :) I'm aiming for next week to have a chapter as well. Will update as needed.

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Jasper's POV

"What did you want to go to the market for Lily?" Jasper asked, looking down at Lily as they walked. As they walked, Jasper noticed an influx of people around. He held his hand out for Lily to take a hold of as they walked.

Lily took ahold of Jasper's hand as she shrugged. "Last time we were there they had some candy I was kinda wanted," she said before she looked up at Jasper. "Can I get some?" She asked with a small smile.

"We'll see," Jasper said as they passed a large group of mercenaries. The group headed towards the area that the mercenaries had their tents set up. As Jasper looked around, he started to notice that the influx of people all seemed to be mercenaries. "Lily," he said as he turned his attention back to Lily, who had started to pull him as they got closer to the market.

"Don't leave my side today, okay?" Jasper warned as Lily slowed her pace.

"Okay," she replied as she continued to lead Jasper towards the market.

Once they entered the market, Lily looked around for a moment. After a moment, she pulled him in the direction of the same place she had been last time. One place they had always visited when coming down to the market was a place that had different types of ribbon. Aria often did Lily's hair, tying the ribbons that Lily had gotten from the stall.

"Busy day," the person behind the stall said to Jasper as Lily started to look through some of the ribbons.

"Busier than normal, yeah," Jasper said as he looked around again. "Seems like it's a lot of the mercenaries," he added as he turned back to the person behind the stall. Although his response wasn't a question, he waited, trying to see if they knew why there it seemed to be busy.

The person seemed to notice that Jasper was waiting for an explanation about why it was so busy. "From talking to a few people today, it seems to be because the mercenaries had the day off today." The person explained as Lily gently tugged on Jasper's shirt, getting his attention.

"Do you like this one?" Lily asked, holding up a ribbon for Jasper to see.

"That one is very pretty," the person behind the stall said with a smile. "You always seem to pick out the pretty ones," they added.

"I agree," Jasper said as he took a hold of the ribbon. "Is this the one you want?" He asked as he looked back down to Lily, who nodded in response. With her confirmation, Jasper handed to ribbon to the person behind the stall. "Just this," he said as he went to pull out some coins from his pocket.

"It's fine," the person said, waving her hand. "Don't worry about it," they said as they handed the ribbon back to Lily with a smile. "I'm sure you'll look very pretty with this. Whoever does your hair does a good job," they added, which made Lily's face beam.

"Thank you!" Lily said as she took the ribbon back. "Aria does it," Lily said excitedly, although her reply was drowned out by a loud sound behind her.

Everyone turned to look towards the source of the noise. A young boy carrying an arm full of things had fallen, causing a few other people to fall as well.

"Shoot," the young boy said as he stood up again. "I'm sorry," he said to those who had fallen as well.

"Stay here, Lily," Jasper warned as he walked forward, towards the younger boy. He bent down, picking up a few things that the boy had dropped in front of him. He piled them neatly before he held them out the boy.

"Are you okay?" He asked as the boy gave a small bow before he took the items.

"I'm fine, thank you," the boy replied as he took the items back. "Thank you, and I'm sorry," he said turning back to the people who had stood up now.

Jasper and a few other people collected the items that were thrown across the ground. Once they were all collected, they handed the items to the boy, who bowed slightly, thanking them again. Quickly after, the boy took off again, walking away.

"Where to now, Lils?" Jasper asked as he turned around again to where he had left Lily. Only, when he turned around, Lily wasn't there.

Jasper felt his stomach drop as he looked around himself. "Lily?" Jasper called out, looking around again. After a moment of looking around his general area, he looked to the person behind the stall. "Did you see where she went?"

The person behind the stall looked around for a moment, not seeing her either. They shook their head. "I saw her before the boy had fallen, but she walked away shortly after. I thought she was collecting some of the items," the person explained.

"Okay," Jasper said as he thought. He scanned the area again, trying to see if he could see her now. Letting out a sigh, he turned back to the person behind the stall. "If you happen to see her, please keep her here. I'm going to go look for her," Jasper said, waiting for a response.

The person gave a small nod. Jasper walked away, searching the area of the market for Lily. He spent about ten minutes searching around the market alone. He let out a sigh before he walked out from the market, looking around the surrounding area.

"Lily?" He called out, his voice laced with panic as he searched around for her. He continued searching the surrounding area, calling her name periodically.

After a few more minutes of searching the surrounding area, he made his way back to the market. He peered back over towards the stall, checking to see if Lily was there. He made eye contact with the person who shook their head, answering his silent question.

"Shit," he swore as he made his way back out of the market. "Lily?" he called again, his voice laced with more panic now.

"You losing at hide and go seek there Jasper?" Hebaron asked jokingly as he walked up to Jasper, Gabel following beside him.

Jasper ignored his question, instead posing one of his own. "Have you guys seen Lily?" He asked as they got closer.

Gabel picked up on the panic laced within Jasper's voice. He gave Hebaron a slight nudge before he responded. "No, we haven't, why?"

"Shit," Jasper swore again. "She was with me... Then I turned my back for a second... Now she's gone," Jasper explained. His stomach falling further as he now was saying out loud what had happened. "She's... Gone," he repeated.

"Shit," Hebaron swore as he himself looked around their general area. The three of them stayed silent as they all looked around themselves, but coming up with nothing.

"Can one of you go tell Aria, I'm going to keep looking," Jasper said as he started to walk away, leaving the two behind.

Lily's POV

Lily jumped at the abrupt sound. She turned in the direction of the noise, seeing a young boy standing up from the ground, apologizing as he stood up. The things he had been carrying were scattered on the ground.

Lily gave Jasper a nod as he walked forward, helping the boy in front of him. Lily looked around as Jasper helped the younger boy, her eyes wondering - trying to spot the place that had candy. Unable to see the place at first, she took a few steps in one direction, looking around again. Without her noticing, she kept walking around as she looked for the place.

After a bit of searching, she was finally able to see it. She turned to look back towards Jasper, trying to point it out to him.

"Loo... Huh?" She said as she tilted her head. She looked around herself, now noticing that she had actually walked fairly far. "Um..." She hummed to herself as she spun around, gripping onto the ribbon in her hand.

"Jasper?" Lily mumbled, still spinning as she searched for Jasper, worry setting in as she looked around. As she spun around, she felt tears start to well up. "Jasper?" she repeated, her voice shaking now, barely audible as she spoke.

"Are you lost?" A man's voice came from above her.

Lily turned towards the man, looking up slowly to see who was speaking to her. Once she looked at the mans face, she realized she had no clue who the man was. She felt tears rolling down her cheek as she turned to look around herself again, checking to see if she saw Jasper.

Once she finished her final search for Jasper, she looked back up at the man in front of her, who was still watching her. She lifted her hand, brushing off the tears on her cheek as she gave a small nod in response to his question.

"Come with me," the man held out his hand, offering it to her.

Lily looked at his hand, shaking her head slowly. "No," she whispered. "I need to find Jasper," she continued before looking around again, more tears rolled down her face.

"It's okay," the man said, retracting his hand. After a moment he knelt down so he was closer to her as he spoke. "I'll help you, but first we need to get out of the crowd, don't you think?" He asked, as he held his hand out again for her to take.

Lily looked at the man's hand again, shaking her head again. "I... I don't know you," she murmured, as she wiped the tears from her cheek again. "Aria and Jasper told me to stay away from people I don't know," Lily insisted, shaking her head once she finished.

"That is good advice," the man said with a slight chuckle. Lily watched as he pulled his outstretched hand back, putting it into his pocket. When he pulled his hand back out again, he pulled out a piece of wrapped hard candy, holding it out for Lily. "In that case, my name is Conan," he said still offering the candy out to Lily.

Lily looked at the candy in his hand, her eyes widening at the sight of it. Lily stayed silent as she looked at the candy, not reaching for it. After a moment, Conan continued speaking. "You can take it," he said with a chuckle again.

Lily lifted her hand slowly, taking the candy from his hand. Once the candy was in her hands, she inspected the candy before she unwrapped it. Looking back up at Conan, she placed the candy in her mouth. A grin spreading across her face as she tasted its sugary goodness.

"See? You can trust me," Conan commented as he watched her. He stood up, holding his hand out again for Lily to take. This time, Lily reached out, taking his hand.

Lily followed Conan as he led her away, unsure of where she was going. After a bit, Lily started to notice that they had left the market area, but she didn't think much of it.

Conan's POV

As they walked towards the mercenaries tents, Conan periodically looked down at Lily. He was surprised to see the girl alone, but even more surprised that he was able to get her to agree to come with him.

He looked around as they walked, keeping an eye out for Jasper. Once they got outside of the market area, he pulled out another piece of hard candy, handing it to Lily as they walked. She accepted the candy, unwrapping it again, and placing it in her mouth.

"Thank you," she said with a smile as she looked up at him.

"No problem," Conan replied before he turned back to look around, thinking. He didn't actually have a plan when he had decided to interact with Lily. All he knew was that she might hold information he would need if he wanted to get close to Aria right now.

After his last encounter with Aria, she hadn't left the castle at all. As a mercenary hired to help with the construction of the new port for Anatole, Conan did have access to the castle. But, he was unsure of where anything was within the castle.

As they walked, Conan asked Lily some questions. He knew this would be the easiest way to get information out. Many of the knights wouldn't answer his questions about Aria. So he used this time to get any information out of Lily that he could.

"So, you're staying in the castle?" Conan asked, looking down to Lily as he handed her another piece of hard candy as they walked.

Lily nodded, and took the candy again. "Yeah," she replied as she popped the candy into her mouth.

"What's that like?" Conan asked nonchalantly, now looking ahead of him as they walked. He knew getting information out of Lily would be easier, as she wouldn't question him.

"It's cool!" Lily exclaimed, her face beaming as she explained. "Aria loves it because we're right down the hallway from a library, so she has a lot of books to read. They also have some cats, who like to play."

"Although there are a few scary knights... They're so big... Kinda like you," Lily said as she looked back up at Conan. "Although you gave me candy," she added with a small giggle.

"That does sound like fun," Conan replied, smiling. He at least knew now that they were close to the library.

As they continued to walk, Lily kept talking about living in the castle. She explained her typical daily routine of going to to the library with Aria and Ruth. Or her occasional days she would spend with Jasper. Conan - half paying attention to Lily as she spoke asked her questions, letting her continue.

Before long, they had made their way to the mercenaries tents. Their conversation had petered out as Conan thought to himself. With the information he had gathered today, he had a good idea where to look now. He also knew that Jasper was out of the castle since he and Lily had come together.

"Lily," Conan started as he led her somewhere to sit down. "I'll go look for Jasper if you can stay here," Conan offered as Lily sat down. She replied with a small nod.

"Alright," Conan said, before taking his leave. He made his way toward the castle, ignoring everyone around him.

Ruth's POV

"Where was she, and who was she with?" Ruth asked Gabel, standing up from his chair. Before waiting for his response, Ruth started making his way to the door of the library. He had expected Gabel to answer, so he was shocked when he heard Aria's voice behind him, replying to his question.

"They went down to the market, her and Jasper," Aria said as she followed Ruth.

"When I left Jasper was going to go search for her again," Gabel added as the three of them started to leave.

The three of them hastened their pace, quickly making their way towards the market. Along the way, Ruth noticed the large number of people around today. Ruth let out a quiet sigh. Of all the days for her to go missing, it had to be on a day when all the mercenaries were around as well.

As they got closer to the market, they saw Jasper who was stopping a few people speaking to them. As they got closer they heard the conversation between Jasper and the other people.

"We haven't seen a child, sorry," the person replied, shaking their head.

Jasper let out a soft sigh. "Thanks," he replied before turning around, noticing Ruth, Gabel and Aria approaching.

"What happened?" Ruth asked once they were close enough.

Jasper gave them a short explanation of what happened. Half way through his explanation, Hebaron re-joined the group from his search for Lily. As Ruth listened to the explanation, he kept scanning the surrounding area for Lily.

"I turned my back for one second," Jasper mumbled once he was done with his retelling of events. "I've looked everywhere," he added, his voice defeated. "It's so busy today, but no one has seen anything."

Beside Ruth, Aria lifted her head to look around. "It is busy..." She whispered before turning back to their group. "Why is it so busy today?" She questioned the group.

"The mercenaries have today off," Gabel responded nonchalantly. "So all them are out and about," he added after a moment before he turned back to Jasper. "No one has seen her? At all?" He questioned, although he didn't get a response.

Once it was mentioned the mercenaries, Ruth watched both Jasper and Aria's face drop. Quickly clueing in, Ruth understood where their mind had went. He himself felt his stomach drop at the thought. If the mercenaries are off, that would mean Conan was as well.

After a second of silence among the group, Ruth shook his head. Ignoring the questioning gazes from Gabel and Hebaron - as they had watched the silent understanding between the Aria, Jasper and Ruth happen without being told anything. "Okay," he started before he turned, looking towards Jasper, Gabel and Hebaron. "We'll split up and cover more area. Hebaron and Gabel, keep to the general area. Jasper, come with me..." He said trailing off.

Once the three of them nodded in response, Ruth turned to Aria. As he looked at her, he noticed the slight crease on her forehead, as if she was deep in thought. Without thinking, Ruth reached his one hand out, placing it on her shoulder.

"Hey," he whispered, getting her attention. Ignoring the looks from the three around them, Ruth kept his focus on Aria. She lifted her head. Once their eyes met, he found himself drawn into a world of her emotions. Without words, he knew what her thoughts were, and what her feelings were. He knew she was worried that Conan had found her. She was worried about the previous cycle of Conan using other people to get to her was starting again.

"I... I'll go explain everything to Riftan." Aria whispered after a moment of silence in their group, all eyes turning to her now.

Ruth rose his eyebrows in surprise. "Okay," he replied, taking his hand off her shoulder. "I'll come find you if we find her," he added as he let his hand fall down to his side.

Aria nodded, before she looked over to Jasper for a second, her face still laced with worry. "Okay," she said after a moment before she turned around.

The group remained silent for a moment as Aria walked away. Gabel and Hebaron shared questioning faces as Ruth turned back. He ignored them, putting his attention back to the task at hand.

"Okay," he said as he looked towards Gabel and Hebaron. "You two, stay around here. She might still be here," he explained - to which they nodded. As he turned to speak to Jasper, Gabel and Hebaron started to walk away. "Come with me," he said once it was just the two of them.

Jasper gave a small nod, before they started to walk away. Ruth directed Jasper towards where the mercenaries tents were. Once reminded that the mercenaries were off, he had a feeling he knew where she might be - although he hoped he was wrong.

It didn't take them long to make their way to the mercenaries area. Looking around, Ruth quickly spotted Lily. "Found her," he said before he made his way over to Lily, Jasper following behind.

Once they reached Lily, she looked up, smiling once she saw Jasper. "You found me," she exclaimed as she stood up. "He must have found you."

Jasper and Ruth looked at each other for a moment before Ruth turned back to Lily. "Who is he, Lily?" Ruth asked, reluctant to know the answer.

"Conan," Lily responded nonchalantly. Ruth looked back to Jasper once she had responded. The two of them looked at each other as Lily kept talking, oblivious to their reactions.

"We talked about what it's like in the castle, before he told me he would go find you, Jasper... Which he must have since you're here now." Lily continued, looking at both Jasper and Ruth as she spoke.

A knot developed in Ruth's stomach. He had a question, although he already knew the answer to it. "Lily..." Ruth started, the knot growing bigger in his stomach. He started to regret letting Aria leave them beforehand. Though he dreaded the words that awaited him, he continued his question. "Did you by chance happen to mention anything about where you guys were staying?"

Lily pursed her lips, thinking back for a moment. "Uh," she said finally. "Yeah, I said we're close to the library," she answered, tilting her head slightly. She was starting to notice the worry on both Jasper and Ruth's faces.

Silence surrounded them. For the first time, Ruth was truly feeling anxiety. He thought about the fact that Conan now knew where Aria was staying. The worry etched itself onto his face. Lines of concern creasing his forehead, as he thought the myriad of possibilities. The weight of his concern bore heavily on his shoulders as he turned to Jasper.

"You and Lily go to my tower, stay on the first floor. I will go there once I've found Aria," he instructed before he took off. He started to make his way back to the castle, only stopping once he saw Hebaron and Gabel, who looked at him confused.

"Where's Jasper now?" Hebaron asked, once Ruth was closer to them.

"He and Lily are going to my tower." Ruth explained, ignoring their questioning gazes as he mentioned his tower. "We need to find Aria. I'll explain everything later." Ruth said before he started to make his way the castle again, the two knights following behind him.

The three of them quickly made their way back without speaking. Once they got closer, Ruth finally broke the silence between them. "I'll go check the rooms, and the library. I'll let you two split the rest between yourselves. If you run into Riftan, inform him of what's going on, and tell him to find me." Ruth instructed before he took off again, making his way towards the library.

With each step, his worry deepened. He couldn't shake the persistent unease that clung to him like a shadow. He should have stopped her from leaving when she had. As he opened the library door, he pushed his anger at himself aside, looking around the room.

The room was in the same state it had been when they had left a while ago. He let out a sigh, before he left the room, continuing down the hallway. As he walked down the hallway, he started to hear hushed voices behind one of the doors.

He looked around, confused at first. This floor was typically vacant. Except for Ruth, Lily, Jasper and Aria, no one else came to this floor, as it was just empty rooms, and the library. As he looked around more, he heard the voices again. Now closer, he recognized one of the voices. He turned in the direction the sound was coming from, and that's when he noticed who's door he was in front of.

taglist (let me know if you want to be removed from this list btw): @kunikida-simp, @tylerhasmyheart

[ruthserbel]

Fanfiction Information [x] Chapter Title: Chapter 12 Song: N/A Release Date: August 27th, 2023 Word Count: 2.9k Content Warnings: N/A Notes: First, I've been kinda looking foward to this chapter for a while. Second, I am back with a chapter. The fanfic page was also fully re-done. So now it has character information, as well as all of the chapters, so that way for anyone new reading it, it can be read all on one page vs many posts. For next weekend, what I'm thinking I want to do is do the last part in Ruth's POV (so it won't be a big chapter), then the weekend after that I will be back with a full chapter. We will see how that ends up going though.

Jasper’s POV

"Hello," Jasper greeted Riftan as he entered Riftan's office.

Jasper had given much thought to what he was going to tell Riftan. For a while he had debated on telling him it would be better to speak with Aria on the matter. Although after a while of waiting for Aria to come back, he decided against doing that. He had a general idea of Aria's location. She ran after finding out where Ruth was. But he couldn't confirm his suspicions – which had nagged on him all afternoon. He had instead decided that he should go and at least explain the situation - similarly to how he had with Ruth.

Riftan greeted Jasper, and gestured towards a chair, which Jasper sat in. He sat quietly waiting for Riftan to speak first - which took a moment as Riftan was looking at something on his desk. After Riftan finished with the papers, he glanced at Jasper.

Since coming to the castle, Jasper hadn't spent much time with Riftan. Typically, Jasper was with his sister and Lily or - if they were busy, he would spend his time a few others of the knights. As he sat alone with Riftan and noticed his aura. Jasper had always assumed was intimidating; he realized he had been wrong.

With a quiet sigh, Jasper started from the beginning. He knew his sister wouldn't like it, but he knew he had to explain it to Riftan. He made his retelling of the events as short as he could, only giving the important details.

"We hadn't seen him, or even heard anything of him for a while. Although I knew my sister was scared of the possibility of running into him again." Jasper added after a few moments of silence. Riftan gave a slight nod as he took in the information that Jasper had just given him.

The room then filled with silence as the two of them sat in thought. Jasper felt better about telling Riftan. Both he and Ruth wanted to let Riftan know once they had ran into Conan again; although Aria told them not to. After a bit of thought, Jasper spoke again, asking a question that had popped into his head.

"What... Where is Conan right now?" Jasper questioned.

"He's going to be dealt with, don't worry. He can't get to anyone else right now," Riftan said, as he leaned back in his chair. "Besides all of the things with your sister, he did injure one of my men," Riftan added after a moment.

Jasper felt relief when Riftan had said that Conan couldn't get to anyone else, at least for the moment. Then he thought of Aria's reaction earlier when Riftan had come to get them from the tower. Aria hadn't said anything of what had happened, and Jasper didn't want to question her before she was ready.

Before Jasper could question Riftan on what he meant by his last sentence, there was a knock at the door.

"Come in," Riftan said before the door opened, revealing Ruth on the other side.

This was the first time Jasper was seeing Ruth since they had parted ways earlier in the day. His eyes scanned Ruth until they landed on his bandaged arm. Jasper then put Riftan's earlier information together. Jasper continued to scan Ruth, although he didn't see another bandage or point of injury on him.

“Glad to see you’re okay,” Jasper said as he stopped scanning Ruth for further injuries.

Ruth gave a brief nod as he walked into the room, sitting down in the other chair was in the room. Once Ruth was sitting, Jasper asked the question that had been nagging him all afternoon.

"Do you know where my sister is? And what happened?" Jasper started to question Ruth. He had spent all afternoon wanting answers, but his sister had left before he was able to ask her any.

"She's currently in the tower." Ruth said, before explaining the events that happened after Aria had left them at the tower. "She ended up falling asleep in a chair in my room, so before I came here, I moved her to my bed." Ruth added after his full explanation.

"But what about what happened?" Jasper questioned once he realized that Ruth hadn't answered that question.

Ruth let out a sigh at his repeated question. "I can only answer what happened after I got there," Ruth said as he leaned back in his seat. With another sigh, Ruth explained his side of events - although there wasn't much.

"I don't want to force your sister to talk right now though." Ruth added after a moment, pointedly looking towards Jasper.

"Alright," Jasper said with a small sigh.

Silence fell in the room for a moment as Ruth's retelling of the events processed in Jasper's mind. After a moment of silence, Riftan cleared his throat, getting the attention of Ruth and Jasper.

"You had mentioned earlier," Riftan started, looking to Ruth. "'now's not the time,'" Riftan said, repeating previous words that Jasper had heard once before. Jasper tried to think back to where he had heard those words before. After a moment of thought, he realized that he had heard Ruth whisper them once to Riftan beforehand.

"Is this what you meant?" Riftan questioned Ruth with a smirk growing on his face for a moment.

Ruth gave a small nod in response.

Jasper sat quiet for a moment as he thought. He knew they both had feelings towards each other. Although he also knew that his sister wouldn't act towards it. When he was younger, Jasper always felt bad for his sister. He realized the fact that his sister felt like she had to look after him. That responsibility for her only got amplified when their father passed away.

"Is that still how you feel?" Jasper asked Ruth after a moment of thought.

Ruth gave another nod in response. Jasper frowned slightly as he thought for a moment.

“Maybe I shouldn’t say this…” Jasper started, as he leaned forward. “But... I also do want my sister to experience things that she missed due to looking after me when I was younger. So, I guess I will say it,” Jasper continued.

Both Riftan and Ruth gave Jasper confused glances towards Jasper as he spoke again. “She won’t act on it… but she does like you,” Jasper confessed.

Ruth’s POV

Ruth couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at Jasper's unexpected statement. "What would make you say that?" he asked.

"If you don't believe me," Jasper started. "You can ask her yourself," Jasper added after a moment.

Ruth tilted his head slightly at his response. Although before he could question more, Riftan and Jasper started having another conversation. Ruth leaned back in his seat, staying silent as he thought for a while. He only got brought back to the conversation as he saw Jasper standing up from his chair.

"I should leave now... Lily wakes up early," Jasper said excused himself from the room, closing the office door behind him.

"Why was Jasper here?" Ruth asked as he turned to look at Riftan who was leaning back in his chair now.

Riftan shrugged slightly. "Earlier, while taking them to their temporary rooms, I asked him to explain more. He said he would find me later," Riftan explained. "He came after Lily went to sleep."

Ruth didn't bother asking what Jasper told Riftan, as he already had a good idea as to what Jasper had said. Ruth gave a nod in response before he leaned forward in his chair. "What happened to him after I left?" Ruth questioned, omitting the name, but Riftan understood who he meant.

"For now, he's locked up in the dungeon." Riftan explained. "I needed more information, although he did injure one of my men." Riftan added, looking at Ruth's arm, which was still bandaged.

"How is the arm?" Riftan asked after a moment of silence between the two of them.

"It's fine," Ruth said as he turned his arm over, letting Riftan see that it besides the bandages, it was fine. "It will heal within a few weeks," Ruth added as he let his arm fall. "Medrick didn't want to use magic to heal me, so I get to deal with it," Ruth muttered, causing Riftan to laugh.

The two conversed for a while speaking of mundane topics. After a while of passing time, Riftan turned to look outside at the dark surroundings of the night. "You should go back to the tower, it's late," Riftan said as he turned back to Ruth. "You'll need to rest to heal up faster," he said lazily pointing to Ruth's arm.

Ruth gave a small laugh at Riftan's comment. "I would, although as I mentioned before, someone is currently occupying my bed." Ruth said with another laugh.

“And?” Riftan asked, a small grin playing at his lips. "From what I've heard... This wouldn't be the first time you two slept in the same room while at the castle." Riftan added, his voice laced in a teasing tone.

Ruth let out a small laugh at Riftan's comment. "True," Ruth commented after a moment. "Although now things are different..." He added as he stood up.

"Are they?" Riftan questioned, as he watched Ruth walk towards the door of the office.

"It's no longer a 'bad time'," Ruth said as he opened the door.

Aria’s POV

The soft moon light seeped through the windows, casting a gentle glow on the room. As Aria stirred from her slumber, the sounds of the door faintly creaking caused her to fully awaken. With a groan, she leaned up on the bed, trying to access everything. She knew it was still nighttime from the darkness in the room, although she wasn't quite sure of the time.

As her eyes focused on the room, she realized who had opened the door as her eyes focused on Ruth.

"Where were you?" Aria asked, her voice groggy still.

"I just had something I had to do," Ruth replied as Aria moved to sit up on the bed. "It's still late," Ruth added after a moment. "You should go back to bed."

"So should you," Aria muttered, then looked around. "I... I should go to my room," Aria added after a moment. In her sleepy state, she completely forgot about the fact that her room was - for the moment - no longer her room. Ruth's hand on her shoulder stopped her from leaving the bed, reminding her as he spoke.

"You can stay here... You don't know where your room is right now," he commented.

"But... What about you?" Aria questioned, as she allowed herself to be pushed back on the bed.

"I am not going to go back to bed yet," Ruth said as Aria laid back down on the bed. "I have something I need to do upstairs."

"Okay," Aria whispered, now that she was laying down again, she felt her body slowly being drifted back to sleep. The last thing she saw as her eyes fluttered closed again was Ruth proceeding up the stairs.

The morning sunlight crept through the window, casting a golden hue across the room. Aria slowly stirred from her slumber, eyes fluttering open. The room filled with silence; the only sound was the soft chirping of birds outside the window.

As her senses slowly awakened, Aria looked around room for a moment. Her memories from last night coming back - Ruth had come back to the room, but had he maybe left again? She didn't see any trace of him sleeping down here at all. Confusion swept over her as she looked back out the window, trying gauging the time. It was early morning, earlier than she would typically wake up.

Aria called out his name as she stood up from the bed. She made her way to the bottom of the stairs before she called out again. She paused, then considered checking if he was there, despite his warning. He had always told her not to go further than the first floor in the tower, although she was unsure why he had told her that. Aria thought about it, but then she decided she could go upstairs if she was careful. At least go and see if he was upstairs or not.

Aria quietly made her way up the stairs, looking around as she went further than she had before. Once she got to the next level, she looked around, quickly spotting Ruth - who was fast asleep in a chair in the room. Aria let out soft giggle at the sight of him, preparing to go back down the stairs again.

As she turned around, her eyes landed on a circular object, of which she had never seen before. Curiosity got the better of her as she walked towards the object. As she approached, she saw that the object appeared to be made of bones - of some sort. It had something inscribed on it, although she had no clue what it was. As she got closer to the object, she reached her hand out to touch the object, unsure of what it was.

"I wouldn't touch that," a voice behind her warned, startling her, causing her to jump. After the warning, she felt their hand grab onto her wrist, stopping her from moving her hand closer. She spun around to look at who was behind her - although there was only one person it could have been.

"Ruth..." she whispered as she looked up at. It was now that she noticed just how close they were. They were just inches away from each other. Her heart was in a frenzy, its erratic beats echoing in her ears. "I'm... I'm sorry," she stammered, feeling embarrassed now. "I didn't mean to wake you up," she said as she pulled her hand back.

As she gazed into his eyes, she wondered if he could sense her silent plea. She longed for him to come closer, to kiss her and erase the space between them. In that moment, she wished for the courage to lean in herself. The courage to explore the uncharted territory of their emotions together.

The thought of his lips meeting hers was an intoxicating daydream she couldn't escape. The thought of his mouth on hers sent shivers down her spine. The mere idea of a kissing him was enough to make her knees weak. It was a longing so profound that it eclipsed all else, a yearning that whispered in the quiet corners of her mind. But the fear of risking what they already had held her back. What if he didn't feel the same way? What if their friendship was too precious to jeopardize?

"Aria..." Ruth whispered, his voice breaking her train of thoughts.

He had said her name many times before, but this time it felt different. She felt butterflies in her stomach as they held their gaze. What was she thinking before? Why was she thinking that? She felt her face flush as she thought back, although she was pulled out of her train of thought again.

"Do you trust me?” Ruth whispered, causing goosebumps to form on Aria’s arm from the energy between them. he tried to reply, but her breath caught. she nodded, unsure of where he was going with his question.

“Please... Stop me if you don’t want this,” Ruth whispered, which confused Aria for a moment.

Before she could question what Ruth was doing, she felt his hand gently tilt her head up. As he started to lean in towards her, she felt the butterflies in her stomach again. Time around her started to move slow. Fluttering her eyes closed, she surrendered herself.

After a second of darkness, she felt it. She felt the brush of his lips against hers, and she felt the butterflies in her stomach once again. Her mind went blank, the only thing it was capable of focusing on at the moment was his lips against hers. The warmth of his mouth against hers sent a cascade of emotions rushing through her. Her knees felt weak, as if the ground had slipped away beneath them.

When they first met, she was intrigued by him, despite the less-than-ideal circumstances. However, after spending so much time with him, she had found herself falling for him. He had been the first person outside of her family that she had spoken with about her issues in the past. Aria had long ago realized she liked Ruth - but she was never sure of his feelings towards her; until now.

After a moment, she felt his lips move away from hers. "Sorry," Ruth whispered as he took a second catching his breath. He let his hand that was under her chin fall to his side before he spoke again. "I shouldn’t ha-" Ruth started, but he was cut off.

Aria had closed the gap between them again. The previous lack of apprehension she had beforehand was now gone. It was now replaced with a burst of confidence. She placed a gentle kiss on his lips before she parted their lips again, but she didn't move back. "Please... Don't apologize," she whispered.

Ruth let out a soft chuckle before tilting his head to kiss her again. Just as they were about to kiss again, they were stopped by the sound of a knock on the door downstairs.

The two stood still for a moment, before the knock repeated after a few seconds.

With a sigh, Ruth spoke quietly.  “If they are interrupting me for nothing important...” Ruth whispered – leaving his statement unended. He slowly moved back, making space between them again. “Who is it anyway?” Ruth questioned as he walked towards the window, attempting to see who it was.

taglist: @kunikida-simp, @tylerhasmyheart (again, please let me know if you want me to stop/start tagging you!)

[ruthserbel]

Fanfiction Information [x] Chapter Title: Chapter 11 Song: N/A Release Date: August 27th, 2023 Word Count: 4.2k Content Warnings: Mentions of blood and injuries/wounds due to daggers Notes: Hello! It is I, and I am back from summer vacations/BG3. I am going to spend a few days working on redoing the fanfiction information page, so that way I use the character images I had commissioned. So that will be upcoming. We will see about a chapter next week due to me wanting to spend time on that.

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter (N/A)

Aria’s POV

Aria's eyes traced his movement, watching as the dagger sliced his skin. The thud of impact echoed in her ears as Ruth blocked the blow meant for her. Her heart started to race - unable to rein in the torrent of emotions coursing through her veins.

Silence fell in the room afterwards. Aria stood there, trying to understand the scene unfolding in front of her. The only sound that filled the room was the dripping of liquid on the floor. It was as though the world had muted itself, leaving only the sight of him etched into her mind. She watched as blood dripped from the cut on his forearm - going from his wrist to the middle of his forearm.

Aria continued to watch as drops of blood fell from Ruth’s arm. Ruth held his arm still - still blocking her. She wanted to move, wanted to make sure he was okay - although sheer surprise kept her locked in place.

Drip... Drip... Drip...

Despite the silence in the room, Aria missed the sound of footsteps coming down the hallway. She only noticed when she heard the footsteps enter the room. Worry growing in her as she heard the footsteps - she turned around to see who was approaching her.

Her worry vanished once she saw Riftan walking in, standing a few steps from her. His eyes swept over the room, trying to understand what had happened. Ruth - who had noticed Riftan's footsteps as soon as he heard them lowered his arm. With Ruth's movement, Aria exhaled. She hadn't noticed, but she had been holding her breath for a while.

The room around them stayed silent - and Riftan continued to scan the room. After a few seconds, Aria went to lift her arm towards Ruth to look at the cut on his arm. Although before she, could Riftan spoke behind her. Riftan broke the silence, causing her to jump at the sudden voice filling the room.

"I'm not sure what happened here," Riftan started, his tone flat as he spoke. His eyes landed on Ruth as he spoke again. "But Aria, for now go find Jasper and Lily. Gabel will take you there," Riftan addressed Aria without looking at her.

Once his name was mentioned - Gabel turned around the corner of the doorway, showing himself. Gabel too looked around the room, although he eventually looked towards Ruth and Aria.

Aria opened her mouth to speak - but she couldn't find her voice. She looked back to Ruth after a second, looking at his wound again.

"He..." Aria managed to speak finally before she – once again, slowly moved her hand towards Ruth's injured arm. Aria stopped once she saw another drop of blood fall on the ground.

"It's my fault," Aria breathed, her voice not traveling far - the only one that heard her was Ruth - who didn't react.

"He will go get that looked at, but for now you should leave," Riftan said, moving his gaze from Ruth to Aria as he spoke now.

Aria let her hand - that had hovered for a moment - fall by her side again as she decided against protesting. Giving a small nod to Riftan's comment she moved away from Ruth's side. Turning away, she made her way to the door.

Before leaving the room, she looked at Ruth one last time, who hadn't moved at all since Riftan had entered the room. Without saying anything, her and Gabel left the room, making their way down the hallway.

Ruth’s POV

As the faint echoes of footsteps receded, Ruth turned to look at Riftan now - although no one in the room spoke. The room stayed silent, Riftan still trying to piece together the events that led to this. His expression changed to anger - which was felt in the room’s mood - as he looked towards Ruth's injury. Ruth ignored the stinging pain that was radiating from the slice on his forearm.

It wasn't until the footsteps echoing in the hallway were gone that anyone spoke. Ruth broke the silence first, knowing that Riftan wanted an explanation. Although, he wasn't sure if it was for him to give a full retelling of previous events. Ruth explained as much as he could - leaving some of previous events. Ruth didn't want to reveal all Aria's issues that she had in the past with Conan, so he kept his explanation brief.

Throughout Ruth's explanation, neither Conan nor Riftan spoke. Riftan listened to Ruth, whereas Conan preoccupied himself - sheathing his dagger again. Once Ruth finished, Conan took the break in the conversation to excuse himself.

He attempted to make his way past the two of them, without speaking. Once Conan got arm's length to Riftan, finally spoke as he lifted his arm, placing it on Conan's shoulder.

"Where do you think you're going?" Riftan questioned Conan, anger lacing his tone as he spoke. Although he questioned Conan, he didn't stop to wait for a response from him before he spoke again - this time to Ruth.

"You should go deal with that," Riftan said to Ruth as he looked towards Ruth's arm. Ruth's arm was still dripping blood occasionally on the floor still. With the mention of his injury, Ruth became fully aware of the injury. He had known he had been cut, but he wasn't aware of how much he was bleeding, nor the pain. His mind beforehand was only focused on protecting Aria from being injured instead.

With a nod, agreeing with Riftan, Ruth made his way to the doorway of the room. He stopped for a moment, wanting to speak - although he couldn't formulate words at the moment of what he wanted to say. He started to feel an anger rising in him as he looked back to Conan - the man who had attempted to hurt Aria. There were many things he wanted to say and question, but with his rising anger, he couldn't speak.

"Go," Riftan said quietly. Ruth looked back to Riftan again, and he realized that Riftan knew what he was thinking. He let out a sigh, before he nodded again. Ruth knew Riftan would deal with Conan for the moment, and that he would have another chance to speak to Conan. Turning around, Ruth gave another nod, before he walked away.

Aria’s POV

A sense of quiet tension hung in the room as Aria, Jasper, and Lily waited. Jasper kept Lily busy - meanwhile Aria sat on the bed, waiting silently. Her nerves wearing thin as she thought more and more about the injury that was now on Ruth's arm. Her mind reeling more and more as she thought about it.

Outside the room, the sound of footsteps approaching broke Aria out of her train of thought. Within a few seconds, there was a quick knock at the door, before Riftan's voice was heard on the other side. "It's me," he said as Aria jumped up from the bed. Her haste to open the door shocking both Jasper and Lily - as she hadn't moved for the last hour she had been in the room.

Aria opened the door, looking behind him. Quickly noticed that there was no trace of Ruth behind him, she turned her gaze back to Riftan. Her worry overflowing now - although she could not contain it, rapidly firing questions at him.

"Where's Ruth? How is he? Was he badly injured?" Aria fired questions at him - causing both Jasper and Riftan to stare at her stunned. Before Riftan could respond to her initial wave of questions, she started with a new wave. In her rushed state, she started throwing in questions she had already asked.

"Where is he right now? His arm - is-" Aria started - although she was cut off when Riftan answered her, only answering her initial question.

"He went to go deal with his injury, he should currently be in the infirmary with Medrick," Riftan answered. That was all Aria needed, she knew where that room was, so once she had the information, she quickly slid past Riftan.

Behind her as she took off in the direction of the infirmary, she heard Riftan call after her. "Your rooms have changed," he called after her, but she didn't pay attention to him as she made her way to the infirmary.

Aria was able to quickly find her way to the infirmary, as she had started to get used to where rooms were in the castle. When she got close to the room, she heard Ruth’s voice behind the door, speaking to Medrick.

“If you would just use magic then we wouldn’t have to do this,” Ruth said with a sigh as Aria approached the door. Once she was in front of the door, she pushed it open, scanning the room for Ruth.

Medrick – unfazed by the doors opening continued his conversation with Ruth. “The best thing for humans is to endure pain and learn from their wounds.” He said as he wrapped a long piece of cloth around Ruth’s arm a few times.

Ruth however was now ignoring Medrick, looking up as the door was opened. “Aria…” Ruth said as she made her way towards him. “Why are you here?” He asked Aria as he reached to grab the cloth that Medrick was still wrapping around his arm. “I can deal with it from here Medrick,” Ruth said as Aria approched them.

Medrick looked between the two of them for a moment, although Aria was more focused on Ruth at the moment. She looked down at the bandage on his arm – which covered the vast majority of his forearm.

“Are you okay?” Aria asks, as Medrick stepped away, leaving the infirmary room - leaving the two alone now.

"Yeah," Ruth replied as he continued to wrap the bandage around his forearm. "It wasn't that bad of an injury, so Medrick decided to just let it heal naturally, hence this." Ruth explained as he finished wrapping the bandage around his arm. He tucked the end piece under a cross weave in the bandage. After ensuring it was secure before he turned his attention back to Aria.

"Why are you here?" Ruth repeated his question from before as he looked at her.

“Riftan told me where you were… And… I was worried,” Aria admitted, keeping her eyes on his forearm as she spoke.

“It’s fine,” Ruth said, as he rotated his arm, letting her examine it for herself. “It will heal within a week or two,” he added, trying to put her worries to rest.

Aria watched as he rotated his arm around, although there wasn’t much to see besides the bandage. After a moment of silence between them, she looked back up at him. “I’m sorry,” she said eventually.

“For?” Ruth questioned her as he let his arm fall back down to his side.

“Well… If I wasn’t here, I don’t think this would have happened,” Aria said, gesturing her hand towards his arm.

Ruth opened his mouth to reply, but he was stopped as Medrick came back into their room. Aria and Ruth both turned towards him, as he approached them again. Medrick was holding a small fabric pouch in his one hand, and a cup in his other.

“Here,” Medrick said as he handed it to Ruth. “It will help with any pain,” he said as Ruth took the pouch.

“There is another method that would help with any pain…” Ruth trailed off, as he slid the pouch into his pocket.

“No,” Medrick replied, as he handed Ruth the cup. “And that’s that,” Medrick said as he walked out of the infirmary again.

Ruth let out a small sigh as he watched Medrick leave the room. “Thought I’d try one more time,” he said before he lifted the cup that Medrick had given him to his lips. Tilting the glass, Ruth finished the full contents of the glass, scrunching his nose a bit at the taste.

Watching as he downed the liquid in the cup, Aria tilted her head slightly. Before she could question him on it, he had already set the glass down on the table beside the bed. “I haven’t asked yet…” Ruth said as he scanned the room once more before he continued his sentence. “You didn’t get hurt, did you?” Ruth asked.

Although Ruth’s words were vague, she knew he meant if Conan had hurt her. Aria shook her head slightly. “No, he didn’t,” she answered quietly.

“Are you okay though?” Ruth asked.

Aria tilted her head slightly at his question. Since everything happened - she had been worried about Ruth over herself. She hadn’t taken time to think about herself, and how she was feeling for a few hours. Without realizing, her eyebrows creased as she thought. She hadn’t lied, Conan didn’t hurt her physically. However, she wasn’t quite sure how she felt about the day’s events.

“I…” Aria started, closing her mouth after a second. She wasn’t sure what she should say at the moment.

Ruth watched her reaction to his question, and he shook his head slightly. “Don’t force yourself,” Ruth said as he lifted his good arm up so he could gently poke between her eyebrows. Once he touched her forehead, Aria noticed that she had been scrunching her eyebrows. “I won’t make you talk about it,” Ruth added as she relaxed her facial expression.

Once her expression was back to normal, Aria gave Ruth a small smile in gratitude. “Thanks,” she said quietly as Ruth lowered his hand, placing it by his side as he stood up.

“Don’t mention it.” Ruth claimed before he tried to change the subject. “We should get going,” he said, before turning back to Aria. “I’m sure your brother is worried about you right now.”

At the mention of her brother, she realized that Jasper hadn’t asked her yet about what had happened. Normally he would have already started his questioning, so that surprised her. “He’s most likely going to want me to explain what happened with Conan,” Aria said with a small groan as she thought about it more.

“Sorry, I can’t stop him,” Ruth apologized as she spoke.

“No, it’s fine,” Aria groaned again. He would want to know what happened when she left them while they were searching for Lily. As she tried to think about a way out of it, she made her way out of the infirmary.

Without looking back, Aria started to walk down the corridors. She wasn’t quite sure where their rooms were at the moment, although she figured she would be able to find Gabel to ask. She only stopped walking when she heard Ruth start talking behind her again as he walked behind her.

“If you want, you can come back to my room for a bit…” Ruth offered with a small shrug. “It won’t stop him, but it will give you some time to think,” Ruth explained as they walked.

“Mmm…” Aria hummed, as she thought about it. After a moment of silent thought, she slowed her walking pace. Ruth matched her pace once they were beside each other.

“Are you okay if I do?” She asked after a bit.

“Yeah,” Ruth said with a small laugh. “I wouldn’t have suggested it if I wasn’t,” he added as he turned a corner in the corridor, heading towards the tower. “Up do you,” he said as started to walk away from her, his pace slower than normal.

Aria watched as he walked away, unsure of what to do. She knew her brother would be worried if she didn’t show back up in her room after a while. However, she also didn’t want to go face her brothers impending questioning. As Ruth got a few yards down the hallway, Aria made her decision.

“Wait,” Aria called to Ruth as she quickly making her way towards him.

Ruth laughed as she caught up to him. “Same rule as last time though,” Ruth stated once she was beside him. “Be careful what you touch in the room,” Ruth warned as the two of them made their way towards the tower together.

Aria looked around the tower – any traces of Lily having been here earlier in the day now gone. Sitting down in a chair, she watched as Ruth took the pouch out that was in his pocket, setting it on the desk by her.

Aria looked at the pouch for a moment, curiosity getting the better of her. She had intented to ask him this while they were in the infirmary, but she had gotten sidetracked.

"Um... Ruth?" She asked as Ruth sat down on the bed across from her.

"Hmm...?" He hummed, looking up at her.

"What was in that glass that you had drank earlier? Medrick had said it was herbs, but..." Aria asked, trailing off. Growing up, she had never been exposed to any herbal remedies. She had heard of them before, but not even when her dad fell sick were they able to acquire someone who could help.

"It's a mixture of herbs that help with pain," Ruth explained with a small shrug. "Take a look if you want,” Ruth offered.

Aria reached across to the table, grabbing the pouch. Pulling the drawstrings on it, she carefully opened the pouch, peering inside. “Hmm…” She hummed as she looked – although she didn’t know much about herbs. As she was looking in the bag, she caught a smell of the mixture, which caused her to pull the pouch away from her face.

“It is helpful for the knights sometimes, although it also can make you tired. They tend not to use it due to that," Ruth added with a small laugh at Aria’s reaction to the smell. “It doesn’t smell the best, although I guess most of the time it doesn’t.” Ruth said as Aria pulled the drawstrings on the pouch, closing the pouch.

"I thought Medrick could heal people, same as you can... Can't he?" Aria asked as she reached to the desk again, setting the pouch back down. She had caught some of their conversation earlier, but still feeling puzzled. Why would Medrick give herbs out over healing – which would solve the issue right away.

Ruth let out a small laugh at her question. "I'll start by saying, he is quite knowledgeable when it comes to magic... But he doesn't like using it to heal wounds unless it's needed." Ruth explained. "He thinks - like many others - that excessive use of healing magic could lead to some people to have a dependency." Ruth explained.

"Is that true?" Aria asked, tilting her head slightly as she listened to Ruth.

"Well... It does have some merit to its claim," Ruth admitted, before he covered his mouth, yawning. "Someone who gets healed often will notice that their tolerance for pain is lower than others." Ruth added with a small shrug.

Aria thought for a moment, understanding the point behind the claims. “But… You don’t often get healed… Do you?” Aria asked after a moment. For the few months that she had been there, she couldn’t recall a time in which Ruth would have healed using magic.

Ruth shook his head in reply. “No, but he is against it. I tried to get him to heal me using magic, but he wouldn’t.” Ruth said with a shrug, letting the conversation die out as he started to feel some fatigue – which Aria didn’t pick up on.

As time passed, Aria and Ruth engaged in a casual conversation that often changed topics. Aria used the time in Ruth's room to get away from having the impending conversation with her brother. She felt gratitude towards Ruth who offered her this opportunity.

After a while of talking Ruth moved to lay down in the bed, continuing their conversation. Aria repositioned herself in her chair after a while, getting comfortable again. Their conversations continued for a while - until Ruth's words began to slow. His sentences stretched out, his drowsiness kicking in. Aria hadn't noticed this until she asked Ruth a question, and never got a response.

A small, amused giggle escaped her lips. "I'm sorry, I should have noticed," she admitted as she looked over towards Ruth, who was now fast asleep on the bed. Aria stood up from her chair, reaching for a blanket to cover Ruth up. Carefully laying the blanket on him, she felt relieved when Ruth didn’t stir in his sleep.

She sat back down on the chair – throwing her head back. Now that she was – virtually – alone with her thoughts, she was able to try to figure out what she would say to her brother. Even if she didn’t want to, she knew he would want an explanation.

After a while, Aria let out a deep sigh, closing her eyes. The silence in the room causing her mind to constantly drift away, almost in a dream like state as she tried to focus. Before long, she found herself not being able to fight it anymore, falling asleep in the chair.

In the soft chair she was curled into, Aria closed her eyes. The world around her seemed distant and muffled. Time lost its meaning as she surrendered to the tranquility of slumber.

She slept in the chair for a while, exhausted after today's events. Only awaking when she felt an arm wrap around her body. Her eyes opened - trying to see who was picking her up. Although due to the darkness in the room - and her groggy mind, she couldn't make anyone out.

As if guided by an unseen hand, her body was lifted from the chair, and was being held in the person's arms. Her mind was too tired for her to do much else - so she gave into the person lifting her. Curiosity still got the better of her - and she slowly reached her hand out to touch the person who was now holding her.

"Sorry," the whisper came from above her, causing her to look in their direction again. In her sleepy mind, she as unable to make out the speaker - although she knew the voice. "I didn't mean to wake you," the voice spoke again, as she lowered her hand back to her side.

As the voice spoke, she felt the movement of footsteps across the floor - although not for long. After a few footsteps she felt herself being lowered again, this time onto what felt like a bed to her. Aria let out a weak laugh once the hands moved away from her.

"I fell asleep, didn't I?" she groggily mumbled to the voice - as she rolled over on the bed. A relaxed sigh escaped her lips, and without waiting for a reply, Aria fell asleep again.

Ruth’s POV

After gently laying Aria down on the bed, Ruth sat down in the chair. He sat in the dark room for a while - watching over her peaceful form. The silent room exuding a sense of tranquility - which was a stark contrast to the events earlier in the day. Aria's breathing was steady, her face radiating calmness. As Ruth looked at her, he found himself momentarily captivated by the sight.

Aria slept peacefully, her breaths forming a gentle lullaby in the quiet room. Their chest rising and falling with each breath had a calming rhythm. The moon's gentle light formed a soft halo around them - while shadows and light combined to create a dreamy glow.

Ruth sat for a while, his mind replaying the events of the day as he stared off into the void. After a while, he turned his injured arm over. Ruth inspected his arm to see if he needed to do anything with the bandage he had applied earlier. As he turned over his arm, he felt a sharp pain coming from the injury. Letting out a sigh, Ruth looked back out of the window. Judging by where the moon was in the sky, it was still early in the night. With another sigh, Ruth eventually stood up from the chair - he had some questions he wanted to ask Riftan.

Before leaving, Ruth draped a blanket over Aria - who stirred in her sleep as she felt the fabric land on her. She lifted her hand to grip onto the edge of the blanket before she rolled over, her back towards Ruth now. "I'll be back," Ruth whispered to the Aria - although she was asleep and didn't hear what he had said.

Leaving the tower, he stepped out into the corridors - searching for Riftan. The castle was quiet, as most of the people inside where asleep - only the occasional maid or knight. Ruth's journey to find Riftan was brief; having already a few ideas where he was. Ruth knocked on Riftan's office door - waiting until he heard 'Come in,' from behind the door.

Once the door was open, Ruth looked around. Confusion hitting him when he saw the second person in the room.

“Glad to see you’re okay,” Jasper said in greeting as Ruth entered the room.

taglist: @kunikida-simp @tylerhasmyheart

[ruthserbel]

something i am going to make a change about when it come to my ff chapters - i am no longer going to push myself to write 3k plus chapters. i feel like that is part of the reason why i will take breaks from writing - because i feel like im pushing myself too hard. i want to do it (trust me) but sometimes as im writing, i find i am writing something i dont quite like, just to get the word count.

i dont think i will do that anymore... if im not happy with something, why am i posting it?

okay that was a rant - because im sitting here trying to reach my 3k word count - realizing what i keep writing and deleting is only happening because i want to hit a specific word count.

annywayyy - new chapter at some point tomorrow. :) i'm about 3/4s done - then i just need to proof read quickly because i did this one in sections - and i jumped around a lot because i knew how i wanted a specific section to go so i would write it. so i wrote the end before i wrote the middle. so i need to make sure it actually flows.

[ruthserbel]

Fanfiction Information [x] Chapter Title: Chapter 9 Song: N/A Release Date: July 30th, 2023 Word Count: 2.3k Content Warnings: Conan warning Notes: Shorter chapter/leaves off where I would jump to Aria's POV, so next chapter will pick up on Aria's POV. As for the next chapter, I am gone next weekend, and the weekend after that. I'm hoping I can get some time to write the chapter before I leave on Thursday, but we shall see.

Also, I've thought about it. Once 'part one' of this is done (still have like 10+ chapters before that) I will be releasing a post with every chapter, and timelines and such. Then I will start work on the next part after that, and get some of the ground work done for that. :)

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

Aria's POV

Sounds of chatter surrounded Aria as she left the group - none processing her mind. She could only think about one thing - her mind focusing on it as she quickly made her way back to the castle. Of course he would go after Lily - Aria should have known. The moment he had seen them together he would have realized that Lily would be another target for him to use.

Aria felt her stomach drop further and further as she made her way close to the castle. 'What if I had just told Riftan sooner?' Aria questioned herself, although she already knew the answer to that. "This wouldn't have happened..." Aria whispered, answered her thoughts out loud as she made her way into the castle. She quickened her pace as she walked, trying to ignore her thoughts for the moment.

Aria made her way to some of the common areas of the castle, looking around for Riftan - although she only found maids. The maids gave her quizzical looks as she entered the rooms, then quickly left after a scan of the room.

'What do I even tell him?' Aria thought as she left the room - ignoring the maids who were exchanging quizzical glances. As she made her way to the next area to check, she started to think about what to tell him. She would have to explain a lot, but she didn't want to waste time - not while Lily was missing.

Aria let out a sigh, deep in thought as she turned a corner in the hallway. She had been so focused on what to say that she hadn't even heard footsteps coming down the hallway. Nor had she seen the man in front of her. She was brought back to her surroundings when she ran into someone in front of her. "Sorry," Aria apologized as she stabled herself from running into the man, looking up to see who it was. Aria felt some relief at the man in front of her - Riftan. Aria quickly opened her mouth to speak again, but now nothing came out.

Riftan stood looking down at her in silence for a moment as Aria thought. His expression grew quizzical the longer it took for her to speak. After a moment of her standing frozen, Aria spoke. The most important thing right now was for them to find Lily. "Lily..." Aria said at first, which caused Riftan to look around for the small child, who was normally found with Aria.

"What about her?" Riftan asked, his confusion lacing his voice as he stopped looking around them.

"She's lost."

"What do you mean?" Riftan questioned, tilting his head slightly at Aria's response.

"Jasper and her went to the market today," Aria started, her words coming out quickly now. "He turned his back for a second, and when he went to go talk to her again, she was gone. He's searched around for her, but he can't find her." Aria explained, words flowing out of her without pause.

"Ruth, Gabel, Nirta and Jasper are still looking for her. They sent me to come let you know," Aria said before she took a deep breath. She went to speak again but Riftan stopped her.

"They were by the market?" Riftan asked, his voice taking on a strikingly serious tone, compared to his previous tone.

Aria gave a small nod, and before she could say anything else, Riftan strode past her, speaking again. "I'll go meet them there. Stay here incase she comes back. Check her room too," he instructed as he walked away - not stopping for a response from Aria.

Aria stood still in the hallway, watching Riftan as he walked away. Once he turned the corner down the hall, she shook her head, coming back to her surroundings again. "Okay," she whispered to herself. "Her room," Aria said as she spun around, making her way towards their rooms.

Aria turned around the corner of the hallway, making her way down towards their rooms. As she looked around for any sign that Lily had been here, she felt a small pit grow in her stomach. Pushing the feeling aside, she continued down the hallway - getting closer to the bedrooms.

Once she reached her bedroom door - which she had closed in the morning, she realized it was now left ajar. She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion as she slowly approached the door. Why would Lily have went into her room if she came back early? Aria had no answer for that question, which worried her.

What if it's not Lily? Who else would go into her room? Aria's thoughts started to spiral as she reached out. Did Conan find out where her room was? The tips of her fingers touching the door - pushing it open - the hinges creaking as it opened.

Aria swallowed a sigh of relief when her room was revealed, her hand falling back to her side. Her room looked the same as it had when she had left. No one would go into her room other than the maids, and they must have left the door open by mistake when they had left. She made her way into her room, deciding it would be best if she waited in her room as she waited.

As she made her way to the bed, she reached out to grab the book she had resting on the table beside her bed. She had already finished it, but she didn't want to leave her room incase Lily came while she was gone. As soon as her hand touched the book, she heard the door start creaking again.

Jumping at the sudden noise, Aria turned around to the door to her bedroom closing. As it closed, it started to reveal a man. The man was leaning against the wall that was hidden before due to the door being open. The man in front of Aria now wore a hooded cloak that covered his face. Despite the cloak, Aria could tell who he was by his body build.

"Hello," Conan said after the door had closed. Moved his hand from the door to his hood, he revealed his face - which was sporting a smirk as he saw the shock on Aria's face.

As Aria's eyes locked onto Conan in front of her, a chilling wave of shock engulfed her entire being. What was he doing there? How did he find his way here? Did he mean to be here? Questions floated around Aria's mind as she stood in the middle of her room, her mouth agape.

Aria started at Conan for a while, silent out of fear. His piercing gaze seemed to pierce through her. His smirk growing on his face as he watched the fear grow more and more on her face. After a bit, she tried to avert her eyes, but she was unable to look away. The world around her seemed to slow down, and all she could hear was the thumping of her own heart. Her breaths now coming in shallow gasps as she looked at the man in front of her.

"Wh... What are you doing... here?" Aria quietly stuttered after a moment, once she was able to talk. She didn't wait for a response though, continuing to speak. "Please.... leave..." She stammered, trying to sound forceful - although she could hear her voice wavering from fear.

Conan lets out a chuckle at the waver in her voice, causing Aria's face to flush. She knew she didn't sound forceful at all in the moment - although she had hoped he would at least listen to her request.

"I think you know why I'm here," Conan answered before he took a step towards her.

"Stay back," Aria warned as she matched his step backwards, although her leg hit against her bed. She turned to look behind her, realizing that she didn't have any more room to move away.

She heard another footstep coming from in front of her, which caused her to look back up. As she turned her head, she realized that Conan had taken a few steps towards her. Aria repeated her warning, although her voice wavered again.

"What will happen if I don't?" Conan asked, as he took another step. A knot of worry tightened in the pit of her stomach again, as she tried to move to the side to get more room between them. By the time she was able to shuffle her feet to the side, Conan had already reached her, grabbing ahold of her wrist.

"Let go," Aria warned again, looking down at his hand on her wrist. She tried to turn her wrist so it would slip out of his hold. Once she started to twist her wrist, she felt his grip tighten on her. A small whimper escaped her lips as she looked back up at Conan. His face was unreadable, and that ambiguity only fueled her apprehension more.

Her mind replayed all the past encounters, and she knew there was nothing she could do. With a deep, steadying breath, Aria closed her eyes. She knew didn't have enough strength to get away from him. She wasn't sure what was going to happen, but she did know that there was no point in trying to get away. She felt his body shake with a quiet chuckle at her reaction as tears started to build behind her eyelids. But before he could say anything else, she heard her door creak open once again.

Ruth's POV

Ruth stood in front of Aria's door. He had heard voices coming from behind the door - voices he knew. One belonged to Aria, and the other belonged to Conan. He couldn't make out what they had said, and once he approached the door, the sound stopped. Ruth lifted his hand, placing it on the door in front of him now, pushing the door open.

The door let out a quiet creak as it opened, and Ruth was looking at the back of Conan. If he hadn't heard Aria's voice, he would have thought that Conan was in the room by himself.

Silence filled the area once the door stopped creaking. Conan eventually turned around to look at Ruth, revealing Aria on the other side of his body. Conan had a smirk on his face as he looked towards Ruth, but Ruth ignored Conan at first, looking at Aria.

Ruth felt his stomach tighten as he noticed the tears forming in Aria's eyes. He held her gaze for a moment before he moved his gaze towards Conan - who had re-positioned himself. He had let go of Aria's wrist, which was red from the grip he had on her before.

"Kind of expected you to show up, to be honest." Conan announced, as he turned to look towards Ruth, a smirk still plastered on his face.

"If you expected me, why would you bother doing this?" Ruth questioned as he looked back to Aria, who was slowly inching her way away from Conan's side.

Conan shrugged in response, placing his one hand on his waist. With Conan's movement, Ruth's gaze followed his one hand towards his waist. He felt his heart skipped a beat when he noticed the glint of a dagger attached to Conan's waist. Panic and concern flooded his mind as he realized the danger it posed. Ruth looked back towards Aria again, his mind raced with thoughts of how to protect her if he needed to.

He looked back at Conan who's smirk had grown bigger - he knew what Ruth was looking at, and what he was thinking about. He had placed his hand there to bring attention to the dagger. Ruth thought back to their previous encounter as he looked back to Aria. She was still inching her way away from Conan.

The room stayed silent, the only sound was Aria's feet shuffling along the floor as she moved away from Conan. Ruth kept his eyes on Conan, watching his movements. Conan hadn't made any move to stop Aria - although Ruth knew that Conan was aware of her moving by the sound of her feet.

Ruth's gaze turned to Aria, and he noticed that she had managed to move herself far away from Conan. He felt the knot in his stomach lessen when he realized the distance between her and Conan now. If Conan tried to do anything, the chance that Ruth would be able to stop him now was high. Ruth lifted his hand - motioning to Aria to come towards him before he turned his gaze back to Conan.

"Conan..." Ruth sighed, breaking the silence in the room. "This whole thing ends... Now..." Ruth continued as Aria dashed towards him. He looked down at her, her face sharing both with fear and relief emotions. Once she was beside him, Ruth felt relief as well. The only thing he had to deal with now was getting Aria out of the room. He would be able to keep Conan there until Riftan came, and he would explain everything to Riftan then.

Now that Aria was in his arm, he felt her body tremble. "It's okay," Ruth whispered - almost forgetting Conan was in the room. Aria lifted her head to look up at him as he spoke, fear still showing on her face. Her presence against Ruth's side felt delicate, like a fragile flower. The depth of his feelings for her became all the more evident in that moment. Ruth would go to great lengths to keep her from harm's way.

Ruth opened his mouth to speak again, wanting to get Aria out of the room while he waited for Riftan to come. However, as soon as went to speak, from the corner of his eye he noticed an object being thrust in the direction of Aria. He knew what it was, as he had been shown it before. The dagger that Conan had attached to his waist that was sheathed before was now being used.

Time slowed down as Ruth's thoughts processed. He didn't have enough time to get Aria out of the way, nor to even try to use any magic to stop the attack. On instanct, Ruth moved his arm down, blocking the impact point of the dagger with his lower arm.

taglist: @kunikida-simp @tylerhasmyheart

[ruthserbel]

Fanfiction Information [x] Chapter Title: Chapter 8 Song: N/A Release Date: July 9th, 2023 Word Count: 3.5k Content Warnings: N/A Notes: Cliffhanger chapter (sorry). Next chapter, my plan is to have it broken into 4 parts, from different peoples perspective. Ruth, Lily, Aria and Jasper's. I am also going to be doing a re-haul of all of my pages, so the fanfiction information one might be broken for a bit, hopefully it will come out fine.

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Aria's POV

Aria leaned against her bedroom door, keeping her hands pressed to her face. After a moment, she felt her face cool down. She took a quick glance at the mirror across her room, and she noticed that her cheeks were back to their normal.

"Okay," she muttered as she let her hands fall down to her sides. Taking a deep breath, she pushed herself off the door. She had told them she would only be a few minutes when she left them.

Walking across the room, she picked up a book from the side table, putting it under her arm. "If I'm there for a while," she muttered. "I think that's all I need," she continued, walking back towards the door.

Aria quickly made her way towards Lily's room, knocking gently on the door. "It's me..." she said as she opened the door, stepping into the room.

As soon as Aria entered the room, she picked up on the silence in the room. She closed the door behind her, quietly muttering "sorry" as she did so.

The silence in the room hung for a moment before Aria looked over at Lily who was asleep on the bed. "What's wrong?" she asked as she walked over to the bed, setting her book down on the table beside the bed. Aria sat down beside Lily on the bed, bringing her hand up to feel her forehead.

"A maid is going to bring some water and a cloth," Ruth explained as Aria was checking Lily's fever. "I believe it's just a cold, so we're just going to reduce her fever for now," Ruth said. Aria moved her hand back from Lily's forehead as Ruth spoke, nodding in response.

"Okay," Aria said quietly as she turned to face Ruth. "Should I stay with her tonight?" She asked.

"That would be a good idea, just to be safe," Ruth said before they heard a knock at the door. All three of them lifted their head to look at the door as a small maid made her way into the room.

Aria had seen the maid a few times, but she had never learned her name. She looked younger than Aria herself, her brown hair tied back in a neat bun. The maid carried a small bucket and a few cloths.

"Uh..." The maid started, looking around the room, noticing everyone looking at her. "Here," she said as she held out the bucket.

Jasper reached out and grabbed the bucket from the maid, setting it down beside Aria's book on the table. "Thanks," he said as he turned back to grab the cloths that she was now holding out.

"Thanks Yvonne," Ruth said to the maid, before he turned his attention back to Aria. Before he started talking again, the maid - Yvonne left the room, closing the door behind her.

"Uh..." Aria started, trying to get back to the conversation. "So, I'll stay in here tonight then," she added as Jasper sat back down on the bed, the handful of cloths still in his hand.

"I'll be in the library for a while tonight." Ruth said as he held his hand out for one of the cloths from Jasper. "If you do end up needing me," Ruth added as he held he dunked the cloth into the bucket of water. After a moment of the cloth sitting in the water, Ruth lifted it, ringing it out of any excess water.

Aria watched as Ruth folded the cloth, and set it onto Lily's forehead. Aria remembered the several times growing up that she had to do the same thing with Jasper. Or when her mother had done the same for her growing up as well.

The room stayed silent as Ruth held the cloth to Lily's head for a moment before he lifted his hand. "She should start to cool down soon," he said as he looked back at Aria, who nodded in response.

"If I need you, I'll come get you in the library," Aria said, repeating Ruth's instructions from before. Ruth nodded as he moved away from the bed. The three of them stayed silent for a bit.

After a while, Ruth left, promising to come back later and check in on Lily. Once he was gone, Aria and Jasper conversed for a while. They talked about nothing in particular. Once dinner time came around, Jasper stood up from the bed.

"I'll bring you something to eat," he offered as he left the room, closing the door behind him.

Aria sat in the silent room for a minute, alone again. After a while, she took the cloth off Lily's forehead, and dunking it back into the water. She wrung out the excess water. Aria folded the cloth, laying it back down on Lily's forehead, pushing her hair back as she did so.

Aria looked around the room afterwards, trying to find something to keep herself busy. She tidied up the room, although there wasn't much to tidy up to begin with. The whole process of tidying up took her 10 minutes to do. Letting out a sigh, Aria grabbed the book she had brought into the room. She opened the book to where she had a scrap piece of paper sticking out.

Aria read her book, periodically checking in on Lily. Aria made sure her fever was going down - which to her relief, it was. As Aria changed the cloth on Lily's head again, she heard a knock at the door. "Come in," she whispered as she heard the door open. Turning her head, she watched as her brother walked in with some snack foods for Aria to eat.

"Thank you," Aria whispered as her brother set the plate down on the table. Aria placed the cloth back on Lily's head before she walked over to the table. She took a piece of the finger food that was on the plate, taking a bite before Jasper spoke.

"How's she doing? Did the fever start to go down?" Jasper asked as he leaned over the bed where Aria was beforehand. He moved his hand to Lily's cheek, checking her temperature.

"Yeah, it's went down a bit." Aria replied before she took another bite.

"That's good," Jasper said, relief lacing his voice as he stood back up. He turned to Aria before he spoke again. "Are you fine in here tonight?" He asked as she took another bite of the food.

Aria nodded, taking a moment before she spoke. "Yeah, I'll be fine." Aria replied as she lifted her book that was sitting on the table. "I've got this, and if I need, Ruth is in the library," she said as she set her book back down on the table.

Jasper gave a small nod in response. "Alright, well, if you need, I'm just in my room," he said before he made his way to the door. "If you need me, just come get me," Jasper offered before he opened the door.

"Goodnight," he said as he left the room.

"Goodnight," Aria replied as he closed the door behind himself.

Aria picked at the food in front of her for a while before she finished the plate of food. Once she finished eating, she changed the cloth that was on Lily's forehead again. As she changed the cloth, she felt her forehead.

"Perfect," Aria whispered as she placed the cloth back on Lily's forehead. The fever had went down even more since the last time she had checked. Aria felt relief in that. She pushed Lily's hair back again before she made her way back over to the chair she was sitting in before.

Lighting the candle on the table, she sat back down in the chair. She picked up her book again, taking out the scrap piece of paper again. She set it down on the table as she continued reading her book again.

Aria flipped the the page in her book as she heard a soft knock at the door. She lifted her head up from her book to look outside. She hadn't realized, but it had gotten dark outside, the moon and the candle illuminating the room.

She set the book down on the table again before she got up, making her way over to the door. She opened the door, seeing Ruth standing on the other side.

"Oh, hello," Aria whispered as she moved to the side, letting Ruth into the room. Once Ruth moved walked Aria closed the door again, before she turned to watch as Ruth made his way over to Lily. Ruth sat on the side of the bed as he lifted the cloth off her head before he started to speak.

"How's she doing?" He asked, as he felt her forehead.

"Her fever's went down," Aria commented as Ruth confirmed that himself. Aria made her way back over to the chair she had been sitting in.

"Good," Ruth said as he placed the cloth back on her forehead. "Her fever should be gone by tomorrow," he added as he turned to talk to Aria.

Aria placed the piece of paper in the book before she set it down on the table again. "That's good," she whispered.

The room was silent for a moment as Aria fiddled with the book in front of her. Their earlier encounter playing in her mind again.

"What are you reading?" Ruth asked as he stood up from the bed, breaking Aria's train of thought.

"Just a small novel," Aria replied in a shrug as Ruth made his way over to sit in the chair across the table from Aria. He picked the book up from the table, looking at the title. "I found it in the back of the library," Aria added as Ruth flipped the front cover of the book.

"Mmm," Ruth hummed as he scanned the first page before he closed the book, setting it back down on the table. "I'm surprised the library even had this type of book to be honest." Ruth admitted with a light chuckle as he looked back to Aria.

As Ruth chuckled, the two of them heard Lily stir on the bed, making a quiet groan as she rolled over. Aria and Ruth both sat still and silent for a moment, waiting to see if Lily was going to wake up. After a moment of silence between them, Aria let out a hushed laugh.

"Maybe I should leave before we wake her up," Ruth whispered.

Aria opened her mouth to stop him, but she realized that he was right. She nodded slightly as he stood up from the chair across from her.

"Goodnight," she whispered as he walked towards the door of the bedroom.

"Goodnight," he replied, before he turned towards her again. "If you need me for anything, you know where I'll be," he added after a second before he opened the door, leaving the room.

Aria sat in silence for a moment, looking around the room. Her gaze fell on the window, looking outside. With a gentle sigh, she settled into her chair. Her mind drifting towards what had happened earlier between her and Ruth.

Her fingers tapped the table gently as she thought. She wasn't sure about Ruth's feelings towards her, although she was sure they were not the same as hers. She continued to drum her fingers on the table as she watched the stars outside for a while.

"I should go to bed," she whispered to herself after a few minutes. She let out a small yawn before she blew out the candle on the table, standing up from the chair. She made her way over to the bed, going to the opposite side than Lily. Carefully Aria laid down on the bed, making sure not to wake Lily up from her sleep.

Aria laid her head on the the pillow at the top of the bed once she was on the bed. Closing her eyes, she quickly fell asleep.

As the first rays of light entered the room, Aria stirred, trying to move away from the light source. She let out a quiet groan as she brought her arm up to cover her eyes, blocking the sun.

"Aria?" a soft voice asked from beside her.

Aria slowly opened her eyes, moving her arms down. She blinked a few times, letting her eyes adjust to the morning light that entered the room. Aria turned her head towards the direction of the sound. She then noticed someone sitting beside her on the bed, leaning over her slightly.

Aria stayed still for a moment, her eyes fluttering as they focused on the person sitting beside her. Once her eyes focused in on Lily, she pulled herself up so she was sitting on the bed. "Lily... You scared me," Aria whispered, to which Lily gave a small giggle in response.

Aria took a moment to calm herself before she started to lifted her arm up to Lily's forehead. Once her hand was halfway towards Lily's forehead, she heard a quiet knock coming from the door.

"It's me," Jasper called from the other side before the door started to slowly open. "Can I come in?"

"Yeah," Aria said as she pressed her arm against Lily's forehead, checking to see if Lily still had the fever.

"How's she doing?" Jasper asked as he walked into the room, closing the door behind himself. Lily jumped down from the bed once Aria moved her arm away from her forehead.

"Her fevers gone," Aria replied as Lily made her way over to Jasper.

"Jasper," Lily said once she reached Jasper's side. "Can we go to the market today?" Lily asked gently tugging on the edge of his shirt.

Jasper looked down at her, as he brought his own arm to her forehead, checking her temperature. "Depends, how do you feel?" He asked as he lifted his arm from her head.

"I feel good," Lily responded as she tugged again. "Please?" She asked after a moment.

"Alright, alright. We can go," Jasper agreed, looking over to Aria. "Want to join?"

Aria shook her head. "No, I'm good," she replied before she got out of the bed.

"Alright then." Jasper replied before he turned back to Lily who was still gripping onto his shirt. "Get ready, Lily. I'll be back in five minutes." Jasper said.

As soon as Jasper had said that Lily turned around and started looking for clothing to wear. As she searched, Aria grabbed her book from the table before she and Jasper left Lily's room.

"Just make sure if she starts to get warm again you guys come back." Aria warned as they walked down the hall, to which Jasper nodded. "I'll be either in my room of the library," she added as she stopped in front of the library door, which was open.

As they peered in they saw piles of books on the table, and Ruth who was organizing the books. Jasper smirked slightly as he looked down at his sister, who rolled her eyes once she noticed his smirk.

"Please... If she starts to get a fever again, come back right away," Aria repeated herself, walking away from her brother. Once she was inside the library, her brother walked back down the hallway.

Aria looked around the library. "Trying to find something?" Aria questioned as she set her book down on the table.

Ruth emerged from behind a bookshelf, his head still down as he looked through stack of books he had in his hand. "Well," Ruth started, as he set a few books down in the bookshelf in front of him. "After last night I got thinking about it," he said as he looked up to Aria. "I believe there might be more books for you to read here, I just needed to organize the books a bit more."

Aria looked around the room again, shocked. She had been here the previous day, and the room was in its normal state of organized. Now however, there were multiple stacks of books through the entire room. "Please tell me you slept last night," Aria said as she walked up to a pile of books on the table.

"Yeah, I came back here about an hour ago," Ruth commented as he walked back towards the table. Aria carefully pulled the stack of books towards her so she could help Ruth.

“Here, I’ll help,” Aria said as she continued to pull the stack of books towards her. As the book pile got closer towards the edge of the desk, they started to wobble more.

“Careful, that is fairly heavy... you might want to-“ Ruth started to warn, before he stopped himself. The stack that Aria had been pulling towards herself was now falling towards her. Aria braced herself as she saw them start to fall towards her.

Ruth moved his hand to stop the books from falling. Once he was sure the pile wasn’t going to move anymore, he pushed the pile back so it was completely on the desk. “You might want to take smaller piles,” Ruth continued with a playful smirk towards Aria.

Aria looked up to Ruth as he spoke. “I guess so,” she whispered in response, letting out a small laugh. “Um… thank you,” she said as Ruth moved to grab a few more books from the table.

Aria grabbed a few books from the pile in front of her. She looked at them as she walked over to Ruth, who had made his way over to one of the book shelves. “Where should I put these?” Aria questioned. She lifted her head to look at Ruth who was skimming the books in his hands as he placed them away on the book shelf.

“If they are books about medicine or magic, I’ve been placing them on these book shelves. But if they are novels I’ve been placing them over there.” Ruth explained as he pointed to one of the book shelves on the other side of the room.

Aria nodded before she looked back to the books in front of her. She quietly sorted through the books in her hand, setting them all down on the bookshelf in front of her. The two of them did that for a while, clearing all the piles of books that had been set around the room.

After an hour had passed of them organizing the books in the room, Ruth spoke. As he set down the last book in the bookshelf he turned to Aria. “That was it,” he said as he walked back over to the table. "Thank you for the help," Ruth added as he sat down in his normal chair.

"No problem," Aria replied as she looked around the room. Her eyes landed on a small stack of items on the corner of the table. She made her way over to there as Ruth leaned back in his seat, closing his eyes.

Aria made her way over to the section of books that Ruth had organized into the 'Novel' section. She looked through the titles, noticing many she hadn't seen before.

"What made you want to organize the books?" Aria asked, as she looked through the books.

"Riftan always complains about the mess in here," Ruth said as he turned to look at Aria, opening his eyes slightly. "And I figured it would be easier for you to find something to read if it was at least somewhat organized," Ruth added.

Aria felt her face flush slightly as he added the part about it being easier for her to find books. "Thank you," she said quietly as she pulled out a book she hadn't read before.

She made her way back to the table, sitting down across from Ruth. The two of them stayed silent as Ruth leaned his head back again, closing his eyes. Aria opened the book, and started to read.

The silence lingered for a while, as Aria read. Ruth didn't move either, although he didn't fall asleep either. After thirty minutes of silence, Aria heard footsteps behind her. From the sound of the footsteps she could tell it wasn't Jasper or Lily's.

"Good morning," Aria greeted Gabel with a smile. She set her book down on the table as Gabel walked farther into the library.

Aria then noticed that Gabel didn't seem to be here with good news. His brows furrowed, creating creases that mirrored the mood that emanated around him.

Ruth lowered his head when he heard Aria speak, and he looked at Gabel. "Oh, so you know where the library is," Ruth started, in a joking tone, but he quickly picked up on Gabel's mood. "What's wrong?" Ruth questioned, leaning forward in his chair.

Gabel looked at Aria as he spoke. "Jasper sent me. Lily seems to be missing," Gabel explained.

Aria stayed silent, her mind racing now. How could Lily be missing? Her breathing quickened, matching the pace of her racing thoughts. The worry painted itself across her face, transforming her smile into a mask of deep concern. Her gaze darted around the room as Ruth stood up, speaking to Gabel.

"Where was she, and who was she with?" Ruth asked Gabel, but it was Aria who spoke instead as she also stood up.

"They went down to the market, her and Jasper," Aria said as she made her way to the door of the library.

taglist: @kunikida-simp, @tylerhasmyheart

[ruthserbel]

Fanfiction Information [x] Chapter Title: Chapter 7 Song: N/A Release Date: June 25th, 2023 Word Count: 3.9k Content Warnings: N/A Notes: For once there isn't a lot to say here besides my posting schedule - since I'm busy for the next month and a few weeks. I will be planning on posting one either next weekend (I get an extra day off this coming week, so I should be able to do that this weekend) or the following weekend (I will be gone, so it will be queued).

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Aria’s POV

Aria sat in a chair by the window, watching some birds flying in the distance through the window. She watched them for a few minutes, as they swooped down to the ground. A few moments later they would take off again. Holding a few small twigs in their beaks, the birds disappeared within the tree branches.

After a while of watching the birds, Aria's attention was drawn back to Lily. Lily had grown close to the cats that would wonder the castle - which Aria had been told belonged to Riftan's wife. They were told that there were three cats originally, although one was missing.

Aria leaned back in her chair as Jasper moved to lean against the table beside her. The two of them talked quietly while Lily kept herself preoccupied with the cat on the ground. It had been a week since she had admitted to her brother about her mixed feelings for Ruth. He had dropped the conversation afterwards due to Ruth coming back into the room.

"So..." Jasper said as he looked down at his sister.

The two of them hadn't had a chance to talk about it since she had admitted it to her brother. She knew the moment he had a chance; his questions would come. She let out a small sigh before she looked up at her brother.

"So..." Jasper repeated, a grin playing at his lips. "My sister, who had never shown interest in anyone, has decided to show interest in someone..." Jasper said, playing judging his sister’s shoulder.

Aria let out a groan and tapped the hand he used to nudge her. "I said 'I think', didn't I?" Crossing her arms across her chest, she continued. "It also isn’t a big deal," she added.

"Mm," Jasper hummed before giving a small laugh. "It is though," he added after a moment. "Like I said, you have never shown interest in anyone before..." Jasper continued, as he looked back over to Lily.

"It actually kind of worried me," Jasper admitted. "I was worried that you had been too busy with me to experience that." Jasper added, keeping his attention on Lily as he spoke.

Aria shook her head at his comment. "No..." She whispered as she looked at her brother, who looked back at her after a moment of silence. "I guess... It's true that I was never interested in anyone growing up, but..." Aria trailed off.

"He is..." Aria started again, before trailing off again as she thought. She had a hard time trying to explain why she felt the way she did about Ruth. She let out another sigh before she shrugged. "I don't know... But it wasn't anything to do with you," Aria said and she shook her head. "I just never... felt that way in the past," she explained before she turned her attention to Lily again.

While Jasper and Aria had been speaking, Lily started to pay attention to the two of them. She was now looking at them, her head tilted to the side as she tried to understand their conversation.

"Felt what way?" Lily questioned.

"Uhh..." Aria groaned, as she tried to think of a response to Lily, however Jasper spoke up first.

"It's nothing," he said nonchalantly as he pushed himself away from the table. "How about we leave the cat alone for a while and go for a walk?" Jasper asked Lily, as he walked over to Lily.

Lily nodded in response, and she stood up from the ground. Once Jasper reached her, he placed his hand on her head. Aria noticed Jasper's confusion at first, when he moved his hand to her forehead, before turning to her.

"Aria... Come here for a second?" Jasper asked, as he moved to the side. "Does she feel warm to you?" Jasper asked as Aria moved towards them.

Once there, Aria gently put her hand on Lily's forehead. She instantly noticed the difference between her temperature and Lily's. Aria frowned before she replied.

"Yeah, she does," Aria stated as she moved her hand away from Lily's forehead. "Do you feel okay?" Aria questioned Lily, who shook her head.

"I'm fine," she replied quietly before she walked towards the door. "Jasper, c'mon," she said motioning for them to leave.

Jasper laughed at Lily's eagerness to take a walk, before he turned to look at Aria. "Are you joining?" He asked before he started to walk towards the door.

Ruth's POV

Ruth wandered into the dining hall, holding a few pieces of paper that he had been working on. He scanned the hall, quickly finding Riftan sitting at the table with a few knights.

Making his way over to Riftan, he set the papers down in front of him when he reached their table.

"Here you go," Ruth said as he sat down beside Riftan, who turned to look at him, and looked around for a second.

"Thanks," Riftan grunted, before he pointed to Ruth's side. "Where are the other two?" he asked, referring to Aria and Lily, who nowadays accompanied Ruth most places.

"Did Ruth bore the females already?" Hebaron joked from across the table.

Ruth rolled his eyes at Hebaron's question. "No," he retorted to Hebaron before replying to Riftan. "I'm not sure, they didn't come to the library today," Ruth explained as he leaned back, giving a small shrug.

"Weird," Riftan replied with a small grin, before grabbing the glass that was in front of him, taking a sip.

Ruth rose his eyebrow in confusion. "What's weird?" He asked, as Riftan set his glass back down on the table.

"Well," Riftan said as he pushed the papers into the middle of the table. "The three of you typically spend your days in the library since they got here," Riftan said with a small shrug.

"I'd call it unfair," Hebaron interjected from the other side of the table. "Wizard gets to sit inside all day while the rest of us work on the construction," Hebaron added, as he leaned back.

Ruth let out a small laugh at Hebaron's complaints. "Not really up my wheelhouse," Ruth replied, waving his hand in the air as if the brush off his complaints. "Sorry about that," he added with a joking tone.

Hebaron rolled his eyes at Ruth's reply. "Sure you are," he replied, turning to Gabel beside him. The two continued the conversation they were having before.

Riftan turned towards Ruth again, ignoring the two men across the table from him. "You know what's weirder?" Riftan started keeping his voice down. He left the question in the air for a moment before he continued.

"Ruth Serbel, the man who typically wouldn't like people entering his space. He however has seemed fine with Aria entering," Riftan said, keeping his voice quiet. A smirk grew on his face as he spoke.

Ruth shifted his eyes to Hebaron and Gabel across the table. He checked to see if they were listening to their conversation, which they didn't seem to be. Once Ruth confirmed they weren't paying attention, he looked back at Riftan.

"I've heard that she ended up staying in your room the other week." Riftan added after a moment, the smirk still playing at his lips as he spoke.

Ruth opened his mouth to protest, but he closed it shortly after. He couldn't deny the fact that she had spent the night in his room. As he thought about it more, he also couldn't deny the fact that he typically didn't allow anyone into his room.

"This actually makes me curious," Riftan continued, pulling Ruth out of his thoughts. "It seems like you've grown quite close to Aria," he added, raising his one eyebrow questioningly.

"Does it seem that way?" Ruth answered Riftan's question with one of his own.

"Oh, yeah," Gabel answered from across the table.

Ruth turned to look at the two across the table, who seemed to have started to pay attention once Aria's name came up. Ruth shook his head after a moment before he replied to the group who were now waiting for his answer.

"Just... Let me think about it for a while," he said hoping that would get them to leave him alone for now. "Besides, I have to leave now anyway, so this conversation is ending now," Ruth said as he stood up from his seat.

"Yeah, I'll need to leave for now too," Riftan said as he stood up as well, grabbing the papers from the table.

The two departed from the table, walking in silence as they made their way to the hallway. Once they reached the hallway, Riftan was the first to break the silence between the two.

"So... That's a yes, isn't it?" He asked with the smirk appearing on his face again.

Ruth let out a sigh. Of course, Riftan out of anyone else would see right through him. The two have known each other for a long time. "I'm not sure, okay?" Ruth replied.

Before Riftan could reply again, they heard a yell coming from down the hallway.

"Ruth!" Lily yelled as she ran down the hallway, holding a handful of flowers out. "Look Ruth," Lily said, this time quieter as she got closer to them. Ruth looked down the hallway as Lily approached them.

Ruth looked down the hallway, his gaze fixated on Aria as she approached. The hallway was silent - besides the quiet footsteps of them approaching. Ruth felt a light jab to his side, but he didn't look over to see where it had come from. He had an idea, as Riftan was the only one beside him.

"Still not sure?" Riftan whispered from his side.

Ruth stayed silent, not responding to Riftan as Lily came closer, although he didn't take his gaze off Aria. He felt as though his body was going warm, although the temperature in the hallway hadn't changed.

It was in that moment that he was able to recognize the truth - although he feelings had been so jumbled before. He was in love with her. "Fine..." Ruth whispered to Riftan as Lily reached them.

Ruth looked down at Lily for a moment, although his mind was elsewhere. He hadn't though much when he had first seen Aria when they had first met. He had also found it inconvenient that he was tasked with looking after them. But now as he stood there, he was realizing he hadn’t minded it since the beginning.

Ruth looked at the flowers that were outstretched in Lily's hand, clearing his mind. "Maybe I do know the answer, but... Now's not the time," he whispered again to Riftan.

Once he said that, he thought about the stories he had heard about Conan. Due to what had happened between Aria and Conan in the past, Ruth wasn't sure how Aria even felt about 'love'. Ruth held back a sigh as he reached his hand out, placing it on Lily's head.

"Those..." Ruth started, before he felt the warmth coming off Lily. "Those are nice," he replied as he moved his hand from her head to check her forehead.

"She was warmer this morning," Aria said - noticing what Ruth was doing - as they got closer to Ruth and Riftan. "Although she felt fine," she added before they stopped in front of them.

"Mm," Ruth said as he moved his hand from her forehead. "Do you still feel fine Lily?"

Lily gave a small nod in response as she lowered her hands. She then turned to Aria. "Can we find something to put these in?" Lily asked.

"I'm sure we can find something," Aria replied as she held her hands out to take the flowers from Lily. "Although for now, you should go lay down for a bit, see if you cool down a bit."

At first Lily started to shake her head but let out a sigh before she placed the flowers into Aria's hand. "Fine," she said as she reached her hand out for Jasper's.

As Lily and Jasper walked away, Riftan gave a small wave as he departed as well, leaving just Aria and Ruth alone.

Aria's POV

Aria stood silent for a moment, watching after Riftan as he left. "Uh..." she said after a moment, before looking back to Ruth.

"I'm headed to the library for a bit," Ruth said, pointing in the general direction of the library. "If you want, there is a vase to put those in the library..." he trailed off.

Aria looked down at her hands again, which were still holding on to the handful of flowers Lily had handed to her. She gave a small nod in response. "Sure," she said quietly before Ruth and her started to walk towards the library.

The walk to the library was silent as the two made their way to the library. Aria felt awkward being alone with Ruth after her conversation with her brother. She had just admitted to liking Ruth, however she now felt awkward around him.

Ruth had never shown any sign of liking her that way, so she was sure he didn't feel the same way. She let out a small sigh with the realization of that, fiddling with the flowers in her hands.

"Hmm...?" Ruth questioned as they entered the library. Aria hadn't even realized they had made it all of the way to the library, her mind elsewhere as they walked.

Aria shook her head. "Nothing, just thinking," she said, giving a small smile.

Once inside the library, Aria found the vase that Ruth had mentioned, and she set the flowers in it. 'I'll need to get some water for it later,' she said thought to herself as she sat down in her regular seat.

Ruth, who had already sat down and picked up a book, peered over at her for a second. Although Aria hadn't noticed, as she was fiddling with the flowers - arranging them in the vase.

Lily had just grabbed a few as they were walking, so there was a random assortment. The assortment reminded her of the ones she would pick for her mother when she was younger. A smile growing on her face as she thought back to her childhood for a second.

As she thought about it, she looked up at Ruth. It was now that she was realizing - Ruth knew quite a bit about her past, although she knew nothing about his. This had now spurred her curiosity.

"Ruth..." Aria started after a moment of internal debate. Aria bit her lip as Ruth peered over his book again, looking at her as she spoke. "I was wondering..." she said as she pushed the flowers aside. "When did you and Riftan meet?" She asked, wanting to at least know something of his past.

"Well, it was a while after I had left the World Tower I guess," Ruth said as he closed the book in front of him. Ruth set the book down on the table before he spoke again. "Back when we were both mercenaries," Ruth explained.

"World tower?" Aria questioned, her head tilting slightly. She had heard of something like that existing in the past. In her village, they had never heard much about it besides it's existence. "I've heard of it, but... I guess I know nothing about it," Aria admitted.

Ruth let out a small chuckle as he explained.

"It is the origin of sorcerers, a repository containing all of the worldly knowledge - although..." Ruth trailed off with a sigh. "I would refer to it as living hell. I took the opportunity, and escaped."

"Escaped?" Aria questioned.

"Yeah, I left." Ruth said with a small shrug. "Although it was considered high treason. That has made others from the World Tower treat me as nothing more than a mere criminal."

Aria sat there, confused for a moment. "Why did you leave it it was considered high treason?" Aria asked, still confused as she looked up at the man that - apparently - others would consider a criminal. He looked nothing of the sorts, nor did he act that way.

"Best way to explain it is that it was stifling..." Ruth explained, shrugging again.

"How long were you there for?" Aria asked.

"Born there," Ruth replied with a sigh. "I still have family there as well, although, as you can imagine, our relationship is a bit... strained."

Silence filled the room for a moment as neither of them spoke. With the silence, Ruth slowly rolled up his sleeve, revealing a small drawing on his wrist. Aria stood up, and leaned across the table without thinking. She reached her hand out to trace over the drawing on his wrist.

"There's a long reasoning for this, but..." Ruth said as Aria traced the enchantment on his wrist. "In order to master the attributes of magic, you need to be awarded this by the World Tower..." Ruth explained.

As Ruth spoke, Aria stated to realize how close she had gotten to Ruth. She hadn't realized that she was inches away from him when she leaned over. Her hands moved to his wrist without her thinking. She felt her face flush as she realized, looking up at Ruth, who was looking down at her as he spoke.

"Sorry," she whispered, but she didn't move back. Aria started to feel a weird sensation in her stomach as she slowly pulled her hand away from his wrist. Her fingers lingered on his hand for a moment as she maintained eye contact with him.

"It's fine..." Ruth replied in a whisper.

Aria's face flushed more, but she stayed still. The feeling in her stomach became more prominent. She felt her heart start to race as she looked at him. She went to open her mouth to speak, but nothing came out, as her breathing hitched for a moment.

Both Aria and Ruth jumped when they heard a knock at the doorway of the library. Aria quickly leaned back before she looked in the direction of the doorway - seeing Jasper. Jasper stood in shock at first, before he quickly composed himself.

"Sorry, just..." Jasper started, clearing his throat after a second. "Uh... Lily's fever doesn't seem to be going down... It actually seems to have gotten worse," Jasper said from the doorway.

Ruth stood up from across the table as Jasper spoke. "She probably just has a cold, but I can come check," Ruth said as he walked towards the library door.

"I'll come too," Aria said, following behind Ruth. Once they reached the door, Jasper leaned over to Aria, whispering in her ear as they walked to Lily's room.

"Sorry," Jasper whispered.

Aria shook her head. "Shh," she replied quietly to her brother as they walked. This wasn't a conversation she wanted to have now. Nor did she want to think about what was happening before her brother interrupted. Had it continued, Aria was unsure what would have happened, the thought of which made her face flush again.

As the three of them walked down the hallway to Lily's room, they passed Aria's room. Aria stopped outside of her door for a minute. "Actually... I'll join in one second," she said to Jasper and Ruth before she opened her door, closing the door behind her.

Once she was inside her room, she pressed her hands against her cheeks. She could feel the warmth radiating from them, causing her to let out a groan. She had to compose herself before she left the room again.

Ruth's POV

Before Ruth or Jasper could reply to Aria, she had already closed her door. The two men stood in the hall confused for a moment, Jasper breaking the silence.

"Well," Jasper said as he turned to continue walking.

"Yeah," Ruth replied, following Jasper the rest of the way to Lily's room - remaining quiet as they did so. Ruth wasn't sure how much Jasper had witnessed, nor did he want to ask.

Ruth wasn't one to get caught up in the moment often. However, once he had realized Aria was so close to him, he lost all train of thought, or restraint.

Once they had entered Lily's room, Ruth walked over to Lily, who was still asleep in her bed. He lowered the blanket that was covering Lily up slightly. He gently placed his hand on her forehead, frowning as the temperature he felt now. Jaser was right - it was indeed higher than before.

Ruth pulled the blanket that was covering Lily back up, before he stood up. "I'll have a maid bring some cloths and some water," he said as he walked towards the door.

Ruth stepped outside the door, and looked around the hallway for a maid. It took him a moment, but once he found a maid, he requested the items needed, explaining the situation. He was sure Lily's fever was due to a common cold, although the temperature she had right now was too high.

Once the made agreed to bring the items to Lily's room, he made his way back to Lily's room. "They'll bring it here," Ruth whispered as he walked back into the room. Jasper had moved to sit on the side of Lily's bed while Ruth was gone. He looked up as Ruth spoke, and gave a small nod in response.

He looked around the room to see if Aria had joined while he was gone, although she wasn't there still. Ruth them turned back to Jasper as he spoke again, letting Jasper know what he was going to do to try and help Lily.

"I believe she just has a common cold, which there isn't much I can do about that. What I think we should do for now is just keep her fever down as best as we can, so the water and cloths will help with that." Ruth explained as he moved further into the room. "I'll let Aria know when she comes in here, but I think it might be best if one of you stay in here with her tonight. Just to be safe," Ruth added.

"Actually," Jasper said, as he turned to fully face Ruth now. Ruth had an idea what Jasper was going to say, which caused Ruth to hold back a sigh. He had figured Jasper had caught some of what had happened in the library. He knew that their following conversation was going to revolve around that.

"Before Aria gets back... Can we talk about something?" Jasper asked, which Ruth nodded to, making Jasper continue his train of thought.

"What happens between you and my sister is not my concern," he said as he raised his hands. "I won't question you on that," he added, letting his hands fall back down to his side. "Although, what is my concern - and I'm sure you understand where this is coming from... Is your intentions behind it," Jasper said, raising an eyebrow slightly.

The room fell silent as Ruth thought for a moment. He knew why Jasper was worried, although he wasn't sure how to address his feelings to Jasper either. With Conan still being an issue within Aria's, he wasn't sure now was the time to do so anyway.

Ruth let out a sigh before he began to speak, reply to Jasper. "I know my previous answer might have not been any help to you on knowing my intentions with your sister..." Ruth started, before he walked over to the table in Lily's room, leaning against it as he continued.

"Right now... Isn't the best time for anything to happen." Ruth answered. "Right now your sister is dealing with what has happened in the past..." Ruth trailed off, knowing Jasper would understand what he meant. "As well as what she worries might happen in the future." Ruth added, which caused Jasper to tilt his head in confusion.

"Future?" Jasper asked, his eyebrows furrowing. "What do you mean?"

"I haven't told her this yet... As I'm worried it will make matters worse..." Ruth trailed off, frowning slightly. He remembered his conversation with Conan beforehand. Ruth could tell Conan wasn't going to just sit quietly, not while he was this close to Aria again.

"And I will say this beforehand," Ruth continued, "without your sister wanting to inform Riftan of any of their... history... There isn't much I can do but try to keep Conan away from her, and make sure it stays that way while he's here," Ruth explained. Before he spoke again, he quickly looked to make sure Lily was still asleep.

"He hasn't changed, although it seems like now he's just had years of fighting experience..." Ruth said, letting out another sigh.

Silence fell around them again. Jasper took in what Ruth had said, understanding the meaning. Before Jasper could speak again, Ruth continued speaking.

"So... For right now, it doesn't matter... It isn't the best time for anything... That's the answer to your question, and my intentions. Yes, I have feelings for your sister." Ruth said, letting silence fall around them again.

They sat in silence for a minute. The weight of confession lifted from Ruth's shoulders. The silence in the room hung, creating a quiet atmosphere. The sound of a knock started and ended the silence.

"It's me..." Aria's voice said as she opened the door, quickly picking up on the silence in the room. "Sorry," she said, as she quietly closed the door behind her.

taglist: @kunikida-simp, @tylerhasmyheart

[ruthserbel]

Fanfiction Information [x] Chapter Title: Some Kind of Disaster Release Date: Dec. 7th, 2022 Word Count: 4.1k Content Warnings: N/A Summary: On route back to Anatol, the Remdragon Knights run into a run down village - although, wasn't this place not run down when they past it last? The group quickly realized that there had been a monster attack on the village. Ruth searches for wounded, while the knights check the surrounding area. Notes: I'll try to keep this short... First, I'm sorry if this sucks. Second, it's finally done - well... Chapter one is. I have my general ideas laid out, and where I want to take this fanfiction, and how I generally want it to end. If you like this, please drop a like, or send me a message and let me know! The more people that like it, the more likely I am to actually finish this without dropping it. Anyways, enjoy! LAST THING, I will say, this song's theme 'Some Kind of Disaster' is going to come back in a later chapter. So consider this Some Kind of Disaster pt. 1!

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Aria’s POV

Aria puttered around the kitchen, gathering supplies she would need for lunch. Before she started to prep anything, she tossed her hair back, wrapping it around itself so it would stay up. "Alright," she whispered to herself, grabbing her knife.

The girl hummed as she prepped all the ingredients, setting them into the pot once they were ready. When everything had been set into the pot, she put the lid overtop, closing it, and moving it over to the stove. While Aria waited for the food to cook, she grabbed the plates and set them on the table. Once the plates were set, she tossed a cloth down in the middle of the table for the pot once the food finished cooking.

“Jasper, lunch is almost ready.” Aria called out to her brother who had went to tidy up their bedroom.

“Coming,” Jasper called back from the other room. After a few moments, he emerged from the doorway, carrying blankets in his arms. His hair askew from cleaning the room.

“Once we’re done eating, I was figuring we could go give these a clean, so they'll be dry before tonight.” He said as he tossed the blankets down in the basket by the front door.

“Sounds good,” Aria said in agreement, making her way across the room to her brother. She lifted her hand up, fixing his hair. “We can also trim your hair once we're done,” she added, her hand falling back down from his head.

“Yeah, yeah,” her brother said with a chuckle. “My hair is fine.”

“Summertime is coming, and you will have to help with some of the farming again this year.” Aria pointed out said, walking back into the kitchen. Aria lifted the lid off the pot, checking on the food in the pot. “It’ll be another minute, sit down.”

Jasper nodded. “I guess you have a point there… I’ll let you cut my hair,” he said after a moment, moving to the table, pulling out a chair.

Thud.

Both of their heads turned to the front door, following the source of noise.

Thud.

“What the heck?!” Jasper said, walking towards the door. Aria followed a few steps behind. Once they reached the door, they heard screams.

Jasper opened the door, stepping outside. Jasper’s gasp was barely audible to Aria, who was stepping outside of the house. “What is it?” she whispered grabbing onto his shirt with her hands. Soon after she questioned him, she herself saw the source of the noise. Her hand moved from holding his shirt to cover her mouth, as if holding in a scream.

The house that had once stood a few down from theirs – fallen to the ground and was set ablaze. “Aria, get inside. I’ll be back.” Jasper said, looking down at her. Placing his hands on her shoulder, he pushed his sister back into their house. “Do not come outside until I’ve come back,” he said before closing the door.

Aria stood in front of the door for a few seconds, not able to command her legs to move. Once she was able to move, she placed her hand on the wall, using it to keep her balance. Aria's head was starting to spin. Out of her 34 years alive, she had never once thought anything like this could happen to their village. 'Calm down,' she thought to herself.

Aria moved along the wall, walking to a corner of the room. Once she reached the corner of the room, she spun around, pushing her back into the corner. 'It's okay,' she repeated in her head, sliding down the wall so she was crouching in the corner.

She moved her hands from the wall, covering her ears, trying to block out the noise from outside. “Please, let no one get hurt. Please,” she pleaded, closing her eyes. Once the words came out of her mouth, she felt a sob emerge from her chest. ‘Don’t cry’ she thought, biting her lips to hold herself back.

After 10 minutes, but had felt like an eternity, everything outside seemed to fade. She lifted her hands off her ears. All she could hear was wood burning. She kept herself low for a moment, listening for any other sounds. ‘Is it done?’

After only hearing wood burning for a minute, she lifted herself off the ground. Her feet crept towards the door again, keeping her hands on the wall as she walked to stabilize herself.

Aria cracked the door open, trying her best not to make any noise. She peered outside of the small crack she had made. There didn’t seem to be many buildings left standing at this point. But she also couldn’t see what had done the damage. ‘Brother… Please…’ Fear overcame her, and she opened the door more. She could go and find him, make sure he was okay. She hadn’t heard anything in a while, so whatever had made this mess had moved on.

As the door opened it creaked a few times. Aria hadn’t even heard it, her ears filled with the sound of burning wood. She stepped outside of the door, leaving it open behind her.

She scanned the area, trying to spot her brother. "Jasper..." she whispered, taking a few more steps. Her eyes kept scanning the area around her, not seeing her brother.

"Jasper!" she yelled this time. She started to walk further away, scanning the area still. She had to make sure he was okay. She couldn’t lose another person. She refused that reality.

Thud.

Aria staggered, as a massive rush of air came from behind her, accompanying the sound. She turned around, meanwhile she heard a large inhale.

Darkness. Confusion. Heat. Pain.

Aria tried to shuffle through her feelings. She couldn’t hear anything, nor see anything. What was happening? She tried to open her mouth to scream, but her body wouldn’t allow her. Darkness enveloped her.

‘Mom, Dad, is this... Is this it?’ she thought to herself.

Aria stared off into the darkness for what seemed like a decade. She didn’t couldn’t hear anything. All she had was her thoughts. ‘Please body, wake up from this never-ending dream. That’s what it is right? I’m about to wake up soon, and the day will have never happened. C’mon Aria, wake up!’ Aria pleaded with herself in her thoughts.

As if her brain had listened to her this time, a voice came through her muddled head. “Look for anyone else that is still alive, I’ll deal with her first.”

“Brother…?” she managed to whisper, although her voice was hoarse. The person didn’t even understand her, even though it was only one word. She swallowed, her throat burning, almost causing her to scream out of pain. “Brother…” she tried again.

Her eyes fluttering open, now seeing the person the voice belonged to. It wasn't her brother, but instead an unknown male. Her mind went blank as she looked at the boy in front of her. All her previous feelings vanished.

Aria let out a small laugh, expecting to feel pain from the movement, yet she felt none. "You're not him," she whispered, her eyes fluttering closed again. Sounds vanishing as soon as her eyes closed.

Ruth’s POV

Ruth let out a yawn, gripping the reins with his left hand. “How much longer?” He asked, which was – as he expected, met with groans from the knights.

“I’ve said it a few times already, Ruth… around one to two days… Unless you don’t want to sleep. I’m okay with that,” Riftan replied, grinning at the end.

“No, Commander, please…” a few of the knights in the back cried out.

“Well, you heard them I guess,” Ruth said with a slight chuckle. Although he knew that he himself wouldn’t be able to push through a full day and night of ridding. He was already sleep deprived before this trip, and it hadn’t gotten any better.

Ruth hated visiting the capitol. Normally he would get out of it, but this time he wasn’t able to. Maxi wasn’t in Anatol so he couldn’t use ‘protecting her’ as an excuse this time to stay behind. The trip and being in the capital caused his sleep deprived state from before to duplicate.

“When I get home, I’m sleeping for a week straight,” Ruth mumbled under his breath. He was sure Riftan heard what he had said, although Riftan didn’t comment.

“Right, then let’s keep going. We will stop soon, there should be a village along the way we can stay at. It’s small, but we can stay there for the night.” Riftan informed the group of knights before the group started to move along the trail again.

While moving along the trail, Ruth looked up at the sky, and around the forest. At least there were generally good views on these trips. That was the only solace he had when forced to go to the capitol.

The knights chatted amongst themselves as they traveled. Ruth pushed their conversations out of ears. He tried to focus on staying awake, although the rocking of the horse was fighting to also put him to sleep. “Soon,” he mumbled, yawning again.

Ruth zoned out trying to keep his mind busy while they moved along the path. He wasn’t sure when it happened, but all the knights had sped up. They were heading towards, what looked like a run-down village. ‘That’s weird, there was a village here on the way up, it must be a bit further up…’ Ruth thought to himself.

Ruth sped up his horse, trying to get beside Riftan. Before he even reached Riftan's side, he heard one of the knights' yelling.

“There’s been an attack!”

Everything made sense now. Ruth gave a slight kick to his horse, speeding up so he could get beside Riftan. “Ruth," Riftan said once Ruth was beside him. "Deal with looking for the injured," Riftan instructed as they reached the front of the village. Both men jumped off their horses, handing the reins to a few knights who were taking care of the horses.

Ruth grabbed the medicine pouch that hung from his horse's saddle. “Send someone to me when you have the bodies to spare,” he said to Riftan before walking towards the village. His eyes scanned the village as he walked up. Not only were the houses knocked down, but whatever it was also set fire to the houses.

Whatever had done this was surely long gone. The fires around had died out. Ruth started down the main path of the village. Looking through the rubble of houses for humans. He had found a few, but upon inspecting them, they had already passed away.

Ruth let out a heavy sigh as he checked the 20th person, who had also seemed to be dead. “Is there anyone that survived this?” He questioned aloud.

“There’s still about ten more houses, don’t assume the worst yet,” a voice said behind him.

“I’ll take it as you're done already?” Ruth asked, knowing it was Riftan behind him. He stood up, walking together towards the next house. "We can split up, and search. Cuts down the time," Ruth said as he walked along the pathway to the houses. His eyes scanned the remaining houses, counting them up.

“One, two, three, four, five, si…” Ruth’s counting petered off as he noticed a body close to one of the houses. “Over there,” Ruth said, breaking out in a sprint towards the body. Riftan following behind him a few feet behind him. Ruth could tell when he got closer to the body of a female that she was still breathing. “She’s alive,” he exclaimed before he crouched down beside her. Started to inspect her body for any wounds.

“Keep looking for anyone else that is still alive, I’ll deal with her first.” Ruth instructed as he pressed his hand against an open wound on the girl’s side, assessing the wound.

“Brother…”

Ruth’s hands froze. Was he imagining that sound? His eyes moved to Riftan who had stopped in his tracks once he had heard the noise. 'Alright, I'm not imagining the voice,' Ruth thought.

“Brother…” the voice said, in a raspy voice as if it was all she could do to get the word out. Ruth’s eyes met her eyes when they fluttered open. He wasn’t sure what he should say, so he kept quiet for a moment.

Ruth kept his hand against the wound on the girls side, reducing the bleeding.'Probably doesn't realize that she's injured yet,' Ruth thought to himself.

His thoughts confirmed when he heard the girl let out a soft laugh. "You're not him," he heard her say before her eyes fluttered shut again.

Ruth waited for a moment. He wasn't sure if the girl was going to wake up again. Once her breathing slowed down again, he lifted his hand from her side for a second, looking at the wound. “The pain should go away in a moment,” he said to her, although she was knocked out again. He placed his hands back on her side, starting to heal her using his mana.

Ruth could feel the girl’s body relax as the healing worked. “There,” he said, although the girl hadn't regained continuousness. “You'll be fine.”

Ruth stretched his hands up, untying his cloak from around his shoulders. He pulled the cloak off, folding it around his arm a few times. He lifted his head seeing Hebaron walking in his direction. “Look after her please. She should stay asleep, if she wakes up, call for me and I will come as soon as I can.” Ruth instructed as he placed his cloak on the ground, moving her head to lay on it.

Ruth pulled himself up off the ground, brushing some of the dust off his pants. He scanned the houses, finding Riftan walking around one. "I'll be back," he said to the knight, walking towards Riftan.

Ruth made his way over to Riftan, who had entered a house at the end of the path. He followed behind Riftan who had no issue maneuvering the rubble of the fallen house. Ruth used his feet to kick some of the rubble to the side so he had a clear pathway.

Riftan held his hand up, stopping Ruth from kicking the rubble for a moment. It was then that they both heard it clearly. Both turned to look around for the source of the sound.

Sitting in the corner of the room was a little girl. She was leaning over another body, crying. Ruth started to walk towards the girl, slowly trying not to scare her. "Are you okay?" He questioned, stopping when he saw the jump.

She cautiously turned around, looking at the two men in front of her. Tears streaming down her face. "Help," she sobbed. "He's hurt," she added, looking back at the boy who was laying on the ground in front of her.

“I will help him, but are you yourself hurt?” Ruth asked, starting to walk towards her again. Once he reached the two people, his eyes scanned the boy, seeing a wound on his back, and some minor burns.

Ruth used his foot again to move some pieces of wood that was laying on the ground around the two of them. Once the area around had been cleared, Ruth knelt on the ground, getting to eye level with the girl.

The little girl fidgeted with her hands, then pointed back to the boy that was unconscious on the ground. “I’m not hurt. He’s hurt… because of me,” she said quietly, letting out another sob.

“Alright, I can help him,” Ruth said, as he placed his hand on the boy’s shoulder, using his healing magic again. He could feel the strain on his body this time, his tiredness coming back as he used his mana. He was nowhere near mana depletion, but his body didn’t have enough energy to do this much longer.

Ruth lifted his hand after a moment, “There, he should be all better now.” Ruth said, looking back at the girl with a small smile on his face. “No more crying, you’ll give yourself a headache,” he said, giving the girl a small smile.

Ruth pushed himself up off the ground and turned towards Riftan again. “If the knights are done making the tents outside, we can move the wounded to there for the night. I'll have a knight help me move them if you can take the girl," Ruth said quietly to Riftan, who nodded in response. “Okay,” Ruth said, walking out of the remains of the house.

“Sir Hebaron,” he called as he walked back towards the knight. “Can you help me move this girl, and the boy that is in there?” He asked, walking towards the knight.

“So, you mean I carry them while you make it look like you’re helping,” Hebaron said jokingly before nodding. “Yeah, I guess I can.”

Ruth collected the cloak that had been under older girl’s head, putting it back on. The two of them then worked on moving the two unconscious wounded into one of the two tents.

Once they had both been moved into the tent, Ruth moved over by the makeshift fire that had been set up.

Finally getting a chance to relax, he let out a sigh, and threw his body down against the ground. Ruth closed his eyes, listening to the sound of the fire burning. ‘Maybe I could get away with taking a nap,’ he thought, draping his arm over his eyes.

Crack.

A few minutes after he had started to nap, Ruth heard a small twig beside him break. He removed his arm from his eyes looking in the direction of the sound, seeing the small girl sitting close to him.

“The big man told me to come over here,” she said quietly, pointing her finger behind Ruth. Ruth turned his head and sat Riftan talking to the group. ‘I’ll curse that man for not letting me sleep,’ Ruth though, holding back a sigh.

Ruth pulled himself back into a sitting position, rubbing the back of his neck. “What’s your name?” Ruth asked the girl, scratching the back of his head.

“Lily,” she replied.

“How old are you, Lily?” Ruth asked, looking at the girl now. He watched her as her fingers traced through the grass. Her finger traces left marks in the grass for a moment before the grass moved back into place again.

After a moment, the girl held up five fingers, answering his question.

“What about those two in there?” Ruth inquired, pointing towards the tent where the wounded were.

Lily lifted her head towards the tent, then turned her gaze towards Ruth. “The girl’s name is Aria, and the boy’s name is Jasper. He is her brother.”

“Hmm…” Ruth hummed. ‘So, we found her brother,’ he thought to himself. He wanted to ask further questions, but he knew it wasn’t a good idea to be asking the child any other questions.

Ruth and Lily sat silent for a while, not saying anything. Ruth watched the fire burn while the girl traced things in the ground. A few of the knights made their way over to the fire, setting up an area to cook.

As the fire started to get more surrounded, Lily moved closer to Ruth, hugging her legs up to her chest. Her teeth started to chatter after a while, as it started to get darker and the air chilled.

Ruth looked over at the girl as he heard the chattering. He looked at the progress of the meal that the knights had worked on. “I’ll get you something to eat,” Ruth said, standing up. Before he walked away, he slid his cloak off and draped it over Lily. “This should keep you warm,” he said.

Ruth made his way over to where Riftan was standing. “So, we found the brother,” he reported to Riftan, who looked over to him.

“And the names, did she tell you them?” Riftan asked, looking at Lily, who was now playing with the corner of the cloak that Ruth had given her.

“She is Lily, the other two are Aria and Jasper,” Ruth replied. “For tonight, I’ll sleep in the tent with the wounded. I'll keep an eye on them throughout the night,” Ruth said.

Riftan nodded, and pointed towards Lily, “You get to look after the child for now. She didn’t seem too keen on talking to anyone else other than me or you. Although she barely wanted to talk to me.” Riftan said, shrugging a bit. “You and the child should eat then go to bed; she has to be tired.” Riftan said.

Ruth nodded, ending the conversation there. He turned and grabbed two bowls of the food that had been made. Ruth walked back over to where Lily was, her eyes watching him as he got closer. “Here you go,” he said, setting it down in front of her on the ground. “It is a bit hot still, so let it cool down first,” he said as he sat down again beside her.

Ruth ate for a bit, looking at the fire. He could feel his body warm up after eating, and the tiredness came back. After a few moments, Lily picked up the bowl, and started to eat from it as well.

The two ate quietly, meanwhile the knights had conversations around them. Every few minutes Ruth could see a few knights glancing over in the direction of the girl beside him. After a while, Ruth set his bowl down on the ground once he had finished eating. He looked down at Lily as she ate.

Lily's eyes were looking around at all knights around her. She absentmindedly took bites of her food as she looked around. Anytime her eyes met another knight, she ducked her head down again, taking another bite.

Ruth stayed silent, listening to the knights around him talk. After a while Lily leaned forward, setting her bowl on the ground in front of her. "Let me know when you're ready to go to sleep and we can go inside." Ruth said to Lily as she curled her legs up again under the cloak again.

“Someone got put on babysitting duty,” Hebaron said, sitting down beside Ruth. “Lucky you,” he added with a smirk before his eyes shifted to the little girl beside Ruth. “Is she one of the wounded?” He asked, pointing to her.

Ruth felt Lily freeze beside him when Sir Hebaron’s finger pointed towards her. After a moment of sitting still she moved closer to Ruth, hiding herself against him. The knights who had seen the exchange laughed. Ruth joined them after a moment, laughing. “Don’t worry, a lot of girls feel that way about him,” Ruth said to Lily, still laughing.

Once the laughing around the fire had stopped, Ruth turned to Hebaron before he spoke. “Yes, I did get put on babysitting duty, but alongside that, I also get to sleep,” he said, grinning. “I would trade you, but alas, sleep…” he trailed off, laughing again.

Hebaron rolled his eyes as Ruth spoke. “If you keep bragging, wizard, you’ll have to heal yourself soon,” Hebaron grinned. Ruth knew there was no actual malice behind his words, so he ignored them. “So,” Hebaron continued. “What’s the child’s name?” He whispered.

“Lily,” Ruth replied, turning his head to look at the girl who was using him as a shield. “She’s a bit scared of anyone but the other wounded, Riftan and I,” Ruth said, turning back towards Sir Hebaron.

Ruth and Hebaron talked for a bit, other knights joining in and out of the conversation. After a while the conversation started to die down, and it was then that the sound of feint snoring was heard. Ruth looked back down at Lily, who was leaning against him, now asleep.

“Well, I guess it’s time for bed,” he said, moving so he was able to stand up, then pick Lily up without waking her. “If anything happens, don’t wake me.” Ruth said jokingly before he walked away from the rest of the knights, carrying Lily.

Ruth entered the tens with the two wounded people in it, and a few extra makeshift beds had been placed down. He laid the Lily down on one of them, rearranging his cloak so it was still covering her.  He walked over to where Aria rested. Grabbing the blanket that had been set on the corner of her bed and covered her bed, doing the same for Jasper.

Ruth finally sat down on one of the makeshift beds himself. “Finally,” he mumbled, laying down, closing his eyes. Falling asleep instantly.

[ruthserbel]

Fanfiction Information [x] Chapter Title: Oblivion (part 1) Song: Oblivion by Bastille Release Date: April 15th, 2023 Word Count: 5.9k Content Warnings: There are mentions of blood, and I would describe it as mild violence? There is also some flashbacks of what I would consider harassment (unsure if others would view it that way, but figured I should warn people just to be safe!) If you have better terms, let me know and I will update this - and if I forgot anything, please let me know! Notes: Firstly, I've changed my URL. I am no longer uurravity, I am now ruthserbel (I had to go back and update all of the old links, which took so much time, sos) Secondly, I've removed the playlist, as I've decided to remove the song aspect. If there is a song that is used for chapters, I will add the song specifically to the post. Also, this is part one of the chapter. The next chapter is going to be a lot of previous events from Aria's past, as Ruth is going to get some answers~ More notes are under the read more, as it was getting quite long with disclaimers.

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Notes (cont.): Something I will say is I toned down (at least for this chapter, unsure if it will go back to the way I had planned it) the character (introduced in this chapter) acted in the past. He's depicted (rightfully so) as a shitty character, who thinks kinda highly of himself... Please, please, please, if something like his attitude/actions bothers you, let me know how you want me to tag this for him showing up in other chapters acting the same way, and I can also remove parts and send you personalized chapters if wanted (you need submit open for me to do so). I don't want to make anyone uncomfortable reading this. I will also take this moment to say, these characters, and the way that they act, or think, or speak is not a representation of me. I do not always agree with some of the things in here. They are fictional.

Aria's POV

Aria placed the piece of paper she had been using as a bookmark in the book she had been reading for the last few hours. She carefully closed the book, setting it down on the table in front of her. She then turned to look at Lily, who was sitting beside Ruth. The two of them were looking at a book that was on the table, Ruth helping Lily read it. Jasper, Lily and Aria had been in Anatol for a few weeks. Jasper had been spending his free time with Hebaron or Gabel. Meanwhile, while Jasper was busy, Ruth had started teaching Lily to read and  write. Aria typically joined them, reading her own books. Growing up Aria had been taught to read by a few of the people in her village. Although she exhausted all the books that her family owned, or that were owned by friends in the village. Once she had walked into the library in Anatol, she was shocked at the number of books that were there.

“Is it only you that reads?” Aria had asked Ruth as she looked through some of the books one night. “For the most part, yes, although…” Ruth started, looking up from the current pages he was writing on. “Maxi reads as well,” he said, pointing to a small stack of books that were at one end of the table. “She was mainly reading learning materials for medicine.” He added as he went back to working on the papers in front of him.

“Alright, Lily,” Ruth said, pulling Aria back to the present. “We’re going to have to stop for now,” he said, bringing his hand up to cover his mouth, letting out a small yawn. “Aww…” Lily complained as she closed the book in front of her. “Sorry Lily,” he said as she pushed the book forward on the table and slid off her chair. “There are more people coming today, so I was asked to help with them.” Ruth said, as he stood up from his spot as well. “More people?” Aria asked, confused. “Yeah. Riftan has hired another group of mercenaries. He wants the project done before winter,” Ruth explained, shrugging slightly. Once Ruth was done talking, Lily gently tugged on Aria’s shirt, getting her attention. “Can we go down to the market?” she asked, looking up at Aria. “I’ll see you two later,” Ruth interjected quietly said left the room with a small wave of his hand. Aria lifted her hand slightly, to wave back at him as he left before she turned back to Lily, answering her question. “Sure, I guess we can…” she trailed off. The word mercenary rung out in her head. 'It's nothing,' she thought to herself. “We can go see if Jasper wants to join us.” Aria added, as she placed her hand on Lily’s head. “Okay,” Lily said cheerfully. She reached up, grabbing Aria’s hand from her head, pulling Aria out of the library. “Where is Jasper right now?” Lily asked, as she led Aria. “Try the training grounds,” Aria said after a second of though. Jasper could typically be found there. She allowed herself to be dragged along by Lily. After a few minutes they rounded the corner to the training grounds. As Aria had expected, they spotted Jasper standing outside. Jasper looked over once they rounded the corner and waved. “Jasper,” Lily called out, letting go of Aria’s hand, and running over to Jasper. Aria followed behind Lily. She looked around, noticing the lack of knights around. When she reached Jasper and Lily, she heard Lily ask the question, “Do you want to come with us?” “Sure,” Jasper responded, before looking up to Aria, who was still looking around the area. “Mostly everyone is busy right now." Jasper said. "Due to the new group of mercenaries...” Jasper trailed off. "Yeah... Ruth explained already," Aria murmured. She knew what her brother was thinking. "Don't worry," she said, giving her brother a small smile. "There are so many... There's no way one of them would be him..." Aria reassured her brother. “True,” Jasper replied as Lily started to lead the way. After a moment of silence between them, Jasper spoke again. “Ready to go, Lils?” He questioned, to which Lily nodded, then started to walk in the direction of the market. During the walk Jasper and Lily conversed together. They talk about what she had learned during the day, and what she wanted to do that night. The two of them made small talk, which Aria tuned out after a bit of walking. Despite what Aria had said to her brother, she thought about it. If one of them did turn out to be him... Would things be alright? They hadn't seen each other in years, since he had left after turning 16. Him leaving had been a great relief to Aria.

"Aria," she heard his voice in her memories. "I like you," he admitted, looking right at her. Aria shook her head slowly. "I'm... I'm sorry, Conan... I don't feel that way for you," she replied, emphasizing the words 'that way'. She had always viewed him as a friend, or a brother who was close to the same age as her. "But..." he whispered, confused.

Aria felt a small pain on her lip, which she had been biting as she zoned out. “Ow,” she said quietly, bringing her back to the present.

For the rest of the walk, Aria listened to the conversations that Lily and Jasper were having. When they reached the market, Lily dragged Jasper away, showing him different things.

Aria looked around, trying to find somewhere to sit down while Lily and Jasper explored. Once she found somewhere to sit, she caught Jasper’s attention. Aria pointed to where she would be, which he responded with a nod before turning back to Lily.

Aria sat down, and looked around again, this time looking at the people who were there. They had come here a few times since coming to Anatol, so she noticed a few people that she had seen before.

Aria’s eyes landed on a group of men, who were wearing armour. She titled her head. ‘Must be some of the mercenaries,’ she thought to herself as she kept her gaze on them. ‘Wasn’t Ruth supposed meeting with them?’ she questioned herself again.

Once she thought that, she heard one of them speak up. “We should go, Conan” said the one who was closest to Aria, with his back towards her.

She froze as soon as she heard the name. Her body went from a decent temperature, to feeling as if she had cold water poured over her.

Aria looked at the group again, looking for any features she remembered. 'Coincidence, right?' She thought to herself as she looked at the group.

That was when she saw him. There was no mistaking it, it was him. He had grown up, sure, but he still looked the same as he did when he was younger.

"Aria," Conan's voice rang out from her memories. "I'm serious here," he pleaded. "So am I," Aria replied, feeling her anger grow. "Why don't you just take my 'No' as an answer, and drop it," she groaned, walking away from him. She took a few steps away before she felt a hand grab her wrist. Aria stopped on the spot, turning around to look at him again. "Let go," Aria demanded. Instead of loosening his grip on her wrist, Aria felt his hand tighten on her wrist.

“Aria,” Lily called out as she ran back over to Aria again, holding a piece of fabric that was used to tie hair back. Aria shook her head, looking down at Lily. “Look at this, Aria,” Lily said when she reached Aria, and she held the fabric out for Aria to see. Once Aria’s name was said, the man she had been looking at made eye contact with her, following Lily’s voice to her. Aria felt his gaze on her. Aria couldn't lift her head up again, to look in the direction of the man. She let her head fall, not wanting to make eye contact with the man again. “Aria?” Lily questioned after not getting a response from her. “Jasper, I don’t think she likes it,” Lily said as Jasper walked up, frowning up at him. “Sorry, Lily,” Aria said quietly, before she lifted her head again so she could see what Lily was holding out. Her eyes flickered to the fabric to where the men were. He was for sure there. Her hands curled into a ball, the pain from her nails digging into her skin. “It’s… pretty,” she said as her eyes went back to the fabric. Before she could say anything else, Jasper spoke. “You don’t look so good,” Jasper said as he knelt to Aria’s level, looking at her face now. “You’re pale…” he said as he held his hand up to her face. “Are you okay?” He questioned, putting his hand under her chin, tilting it up again. “I’m fine.” Aria said as she twisted her chin out from his hand, catching a brief glimpse of the man. Aria felt her fists grip tighter once she saw that he was walking towards them. “We… Uh…” she stammered, trying to think of what to say. She could feel her fingernails digging deeper into her skin as she stammered. Her heart started to beat loudly, almost as if it was drums inside of her. The sound from around her started to fade away. “There you four are,” the voice broke through. Aria lifted her head, looking up to the voice she heard. "Ruth," she whispered.

Ruth's POV

Ruth looked around the market for the four men who had been missing. He let out a groan as he walked around the market. He was tired and would rather be sleeping, or just working away in the library. Yet he was forced to help instead today. When he made it to the main part of the market, he looked around again. In the back of his mind, he wondered if Aria and Lily had come to the market or not. He had left before Aria had even answered Lily. His question was answered when heard Jasper’s voice within the crowd. He looked in the direction of Jasper's voice and found the three of them. Ruth watched as Jasper tilted Aria’s face up, and he saw her pale complexation. His eyebrows slightly furrowed in confusion. She had seemed fine earlier, however she was pale now, looking almost ill. Ruth followed Aria's gaze to the dark-haired man. It was one of the men he was here looking for, but… Ruth’s eyebrows furrowed deeper, getting more confused. The dark-haired man was making his way towards Aria. Ruth looked back to Aria. She now had her face down again, but her knuckles that were balled up. They looked as if they were strained from the amount of pressure she was using. There was something wrong here. Before Ruth even thought about it, he composed his face, and decided to step in. He wasn’t sure what was happening, but he felt as if it was going to end well if he didn’t stop this. “There you four are,” he called out, looking at the dark-haired man, getting his attention. The dark-haired man who had been walking towards Aria stopped. He tilted his head to look in Ruth’s direction. Ruth swallowed a sigh before he spoke again. “You four should come with me,” he said, his gaze now landing on each one of them in turn. “We should go now,” he added, looking back to the dark-haired man. The dark-haired man looked back over to Aria for a second before turning to walk towards Ruth. As the man walked over, Ruth looked between the man in front of him now, and Jasper and Aria. He stayed silent for a moment. Once the other mercenaries made it to him, he held his hand up for a second. “One moment,” he said to the men in front of him. He walked over to Aria and Jasper, getting close to them so they wouldn’t be overheard. “I’m not sure what is going on, but…” Ruth spoke softly, as he looked down to Aria, who’s eyes were still on the ground. “Gabel came with me… I’ll tell him you three are here, and he will walk back with you guys.” Ruth said, his eyes turning to Jasper now, who nodded in response. Ruth wanted to ask Jasper what had happened, but he didn’t have the time. He stood in silence for a moment, his gaze going back to Aria again, who hadn’t moved at all. “Aria…” Ruth whispered after a moment, lifting his hand to place it gently on her shoulder. Before he left, he wanted to hear that she was fine. Although, once his hand met her shoulder, Aria jumped , causing Ruth to lift his hand again. He knew he wasn’t going to get to ask her if she was okay. Ruth stood with his hand held in the air for a moment before he let it fall back to his side. He let out a soft sigh as his focus switched back to Jasper. “Please make sure she gets back to her room safe,” Ruth said, although he knew he would have already planned that. “I’ll go now,” he breathed. He waited a second before he spun around, walking back over to the group of men who were waiting for him. Ruth looked at the men in front of him again, and after a moment he started walking, calling back to them. “Follow me,” he said, walking back towards the meeting area.

Aria's POV

Aria kept her eyes down as she heard the footsteps fade away from them. Once she couldn’t hear them anymore, she lifted her head, meeting Jasper’s gaze now.

“Do you feel sick?” Jasper inquired Aria.

Aria shook her head in response. She wasn’t sure she wanted to let him know what the actual issue was, not now at least.

Jasper looked at his sister for a few seconds. Realizing that he wasn’t going to get many answers from her, he stood up. He placed his hand on her shoulder, which caused her to jump again, although he kept his hand there.

After a few minutes, Lily spotted Gabel walking towards them. She ran to him, holding out the fabric again. “Do you like it?” she questioned Gabel who let out a chuckle from her excitement.

“It’s nice, Lily,” he replied, and he looked towards Aria and Jasper. Jasper seemed to be recomposed, but Aria still was pale. “Is she okay to walk?” Gabel asked, as he walked over to them, Lily leading him.

Aria stayed silent, for a moment, not answering him. She tried to force herself to speak. She quickly realized she couldn’t get anything to come out, so she nodded instead.

With her response, the four of them walked back. This time both Aria and Jasper staying silent as Gabel and Lily chatted between each other. Jasper walked beside Aria, looking at her every few steps to make sure she was fine.

Aria kept her face turned away from the group, looking off into the distance.

"Conan, what are you doing?" Aria's memories played back again. She looked at Conan, his hand pressing her shoulder against a tree. "Let me go, please. My brother is waiting for me," Aria said as she tried to free herself from him. "I've given you... many chances" Conan growled at her. "And I've told you no each time," Aria said, still attempting to free herself. "Oh please," Conan laughed. His hand pressed down on her should further as he leaned close to her. Aria turned her head, avoiding him. She was unable to free herself. "Who else is there, Aria? There's no other people our age here," Conan continued. "Are you expecting someone stranger to happen by here and take a fancy to you?" He said. "That's... Not it..." Aria said, trying again to break free from him. "Please, just let me go," Aria pleaded, tears starting to form in her eyes. "Please... My brother," she said through small sobs. "Aria?" A small voice questioned. Aria didn't need to lift her head to see who it was. "Well, would you look here," Conan hummed, taking his hand off her shoulder, causing Aria to fall to the ground. "Hello Jasper," Conan greeted happily. "Conan... Leave him alone," Aria said as she tried to stand up again. She looked over to Jasper who was looking at her with a worried expression. "Jasper..." Conan started, walking towards Jasper, who looked up at him, startled. "You see," Conan said, placing his hand on Jasper's shoulder once he reached him. "I need your help, I think your sister will do something if you ask her," Conan mused. Jasper looked back to Aria, and he shook his head. "No..." Jasper insisted. "Whatever it is... It's made her upset." "Jasper," Aria said, more tears forming in her eyes. She pushed herself off the ground, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. Once she had composed herself, she started to walk over to her brother. "Conan, please let us go," she said when she got closer to them. She took another step towards them before she felt something flat hit her cheek. Aria let out a scream of pain as soon as she felt his hand meet her face. "Aria!" Jasper screamed, before being shoved to the ground. Aria let out a groan as she lifted her hand to cover her cheek. "What the hell, Conan," Aria screamed after a moment. She glared at him as he walked closer to her again. "New plan..." Conan sneered, taking slow steps towards her. "You say no again, and your kid brother-" Conan started before there was a shuffle in the trees around them. Conan spun around, looking for whatever was making the noise. Aria took the moment of opportunity, and ran over to Jasper, who was still on the ground, shocked.

“Aria?” Jasper’s voice came from behind the door.

Aria hadn’t even noticed they had made it back. She didn’t notice she was in her room until she heard the knock on the door, shaking her back to the present.

Aria thought about responding to him, but when she opened her mouth to speak, nothing came out. She sat there silently for a moment, her mouth ajar.

Jasper’s shadow under the door vanished after a minute without another knock.

Aria let out a small sigh as she listened to the footsteps in the hallway disappear. She laid down on her bed, turning herself so she could look out the window. The sun was low in the sky, creating an orange sky.

‘Must be dinner time,’ she thought to herself as she closed her eyes. ‘I’m not hungry anyway…’ Aria thought as she laid there. Her body quickly overtaken by sleep.

---

Aria felt her body shake with a violent sob as she pressed her hands down on the body in front of her. No matter how hard she pushed, blood was still coming out. Her hands painted deep red from how long she had been trying to stop the bleeding. She couldn’t bring herself to look up at the face of the body in front of her.

This was happening because it was her fault. She heard a noise behind her, but she didn’t turn to look. Instead, she let out another sob as she rearranged her hand on the body in front of her. To no avail as the blood kept seeping through her fingers.

“This… It’s too far,” she stammered through her teeth. She knew who was behind her, but she still couldn’t bring herself to face them. “You didn’t have to do this,” she said, her voice getting louder as frustration started to kick in.

No matter what she did, the blood didn’t seem to slow down.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered to the person in front of her. “I… I should have done someth-“ Aria stammered, before she was cut off by the person behind her. The person knelt down beside her.

“You know,” Conan started, lifting a strand of her hair with their finger, twirling it around. Aria wanted to pull away from them, but she didn’t want to lift her hands off the body in front of her. “If you would have listened to me, I wouldn’t have had to do this.” They said as they let her hair fall from their finger. “Poor Jasper,” he whispered.

Hearing her brother’s name made her freeze for a moment. For the first time she looked up at the face of the body in front of her. She let out a shriek as she saw for the first time – this was her brother.

Aria rose in her bed, letting out a scream. She quickly stopped herself, realizing what had happened was in her dream. Her heart raced drowning out all sounds around her.

She had been trying to save her brother. Her hands were coated in her brother’s blood. Instinctively, Aria lifted her hands up, looking at them. She felt some relief when she couldn't see any trace of blood on her hands. She let out a soft sigh, dropping her hands down at her side.

'It was a dream...' She thought to herself, trying to calm down.

Aria turned her head to look out the window, she took deep breaths. The moon was now in showing in the sky, along with many stars.

If she had any chance of getting back to sleep, she needed to calm her heart, and relax again. After minutes of deep breathing, she was still wound up, her heart still racing.

She threw her legs off the side of the bed, and stood up, flattening out the clothing she had been wearing. Aria started pacing around the room, going back and forth to calm herself down. But, it was a failed attempt as well. After a few minutes of pacing, she let out a groan. “I’m wide awake now,” she groaned to herself, as she walked over to the door. “I’ll go see if I can find something to read, I guess,” she said as she opened her bedroom door. She looked down the hallway, but no one was walking around.

Aria tiptoed, being careful to not let her footsteps echo as she walked down the empty hallway. She didn’t want to deal with Jasper’s questions about what had happened, nor why she was up. She silently made her way to the library, sliding past the door.

The room was being illuminated by a fireplace along the far wall, and a small candle on the table. She saw no presence of anyone else. With that realization, she let out a low sigh.

Aria made her way to the table, and picked up the candle that was there. 'I wonder who left the candle lit...' she thought to herself as she started to walk towards the empty chair she often used.

“I would appreciate it if my light wasn't stolen.” A voice jokingly spoke from within the bookshelves.

Aria jumped, turning around to reveal who had spoken. Ruth stood in front of one of the bookshelves, flipping the pages of a book in his hand. He flipped a few more pages as Aria composed herself, before he closed the book again. He lifted his head, a small smile on his lips.

“Sorry,” Aria apologized as Ruth walked past her. She placed the candle back down where it had been.

“If you want some light,” Ruth began as he sat down, opening the book in his hands again, not looking up from it as he spoke. “Why don’t you sit there instead,” Ruth added, gesturing with his hand to the spot in front of him.

"Okay," Aria said with a small nod, and she reached over to grab her book from earlier. She sat down in the chair across from Ruth, pulling herself closer to the table once she was seated.

She opened her book, removing the paper that she had stuck in there before, and set it down on the table. The room stayed silent for a while, as Ruth skimmed the book he was reading. He occasionally stopping to write something down on some paper in front of him.

Aria on the other hand, didn’t turn a single page. She thought she would be able to calm down reading, but instead she stared at the page. After a while, her heart started to calm down, although the dream still played in the back of her head as she sat there. She couldn’t get the image of her brother laying there out of her head.

Ruth eventually laid down his book on the table, and looked across at Aria, who was staring at her book, zoned out. In the semi-lit room. “You look better than you did earlier today,” Ruth noted, breaking the silence that the room had been in.

Aria’s eyes darted up at the sudden sound. “Oh… Yeah, I guess I was tired. ” She grabbed the piece of paper from the table again, placing it back into the book in her hands.

“Is that all it was?” Ruth asked quizzically. The light from the two fires in the rooms gave off enough light for Aria to be able to make out Ruth’s facial expressions. She knew he didn’t believe her, but she didn’t want to explain it to him either. She shrugged her shoulders, hoping he would drop the issue.

“Yeah,” Aria whispered as she set her book down on the table. “Um… Anyway,” she started, trying to move past that conversation. “What are you doing up this late?” Aria questioned, folding her arms in front of her on the table.

Ruth let out a small chuckle at Aria’s question. “I needed to finish something up, which,” Ruth said, pointing to the paper in front of him. “It's almost done now,” he added. He pushed both the book and the paper before he spoke again. “Although…” he said as he made eye contact with her again. “I should be asking you what you’re doing up this late?” he said in a teasing tone, leaning back in his chair.

“Oh…” Aria said pausing for a moment. “I had a bad dream,” she sheepishly explained. She wasn’t lying when she said that. “Couldn’t get back to sleep, so… I decided to come read instead.” Aria explained, a small smile growing on her face as she smiled. She hoped he wouldn’t ask her any more questions about it.

A small frown grew on Ruth’s face for a few seconds before he composed himself and stood up again. He placed the book in his hand, and he walked around the table, collecting a few books that were sitting around. “Do you want to talk about it?” Ruth questioned as he walked back over to the bookshelves with the stack of books in his hand.

Aria thought about it for a moment. Could she explain it without going into too much detail? She shook her head after some thought. “No… It’s fine,” she answered as Ruth walked back around the table, sitting down again.

“Alright,” Ruth said.

Silence fell around them again, as Ruth took the paper again, and started writing a few more things down. Aria watched him as he wrote, her eyes growing heavy as she listened to the sound of his writing. Aria held back a yawn as she laid her head down on the table, shutting her eyes.

Ruth's POV

After a while of writing on the paper, Ruth pushed the paper aside again. He decided he would finish up tomorrow, exhaustion starting to hit him. He lifted his head, looking to Aria, who he expected to still be awake, however, she was fast asleep. He let out a small chuckle after a moment.

“So much for not being able to sleep.” Ruth murmured, reaching his hand out moving a few strands of hair that was covering her face. “You should go back to your bedroom,” Ruth added, pushing the strands of hair behind her ear.

Ruth pulled his hand back, remembering the events from the day. He wasn’t sure why that man - whom he later learned was named Conan - seemed to cause an internal issue for her. He knew he wasn’t going to be able to get it out from her.

‘Jasper might tell me…’ Ruth thought to himself, as his gaze moved towards her hand. Earlier he had seen her balling her fists up to the point of straining her knuckles. As he gaze moved to her palms, he noticed small crescent cuts on her hands.

Ruth leaned back further into his chair as he played the events of the day back in his head. He let out a sigh as he crossed his arms over his chest. 'What was it about him?' Ruth questioned himself, however his mind couldn't keep up with his thoughts.

"I guess I can't say much about you sleeping in here," Ruth murmured as he lowered his head onto the table in front of him.

Aria's POV

Aria woke up shivering. She reached around her, searching for something to cover up with, but her hands found nothing. “What the…” she grumbled as she lifted her head. “Oh…” she whispered, remembering where she was.

Aria looked towards the fire - or what had been a fire. The wood that had been on fire was now charcoal and unlit, causing the temperature in the room to drop. Aria moved to sit up, her back protesting from having been leaning forward for hours. She looked out the window, and saw the light orange on the skyline, signalling that it was early morning.

She reached her arms over her head, stretching. She let out a yawn, wrapping her arms around herself, rubbing her arms attempting to warm herself up a bit.

After a few seconds of rubbing her arms, she felt something drape over her shoulders. She turned around in her seat and saw Ruth behind her, walking towards the exit of the library. “Good morning,” he said as he walked away.

“You should maybe head back to your room soon, or you brother is going to be worried,” he added as he got closer to the door.

Aria gave a small nod in response as she lifted her hand to the neck of the cloak that was draped around her shoulder. “Thanks…” she said as she repositioned it on her shoulders. Ruth waved his hand in the air as a response, before he left the room.

Aria sat there for a moment, staring at the doorway. ‘Did he stay here last night?’ she thought to herself.

After a few moments, she stood up from the chair, her legs protesting as she tried to walk to her bedroom. 'I'm never sleeping while sitting again,' Aria thought to herself as she walked. She walked her way to her bedroom, opening the door when she heard a voice from behind her.

“Aria…?” the voice said in confusion. “Where were you?” They asked.

Aria looked back and saw her brother, stepping out of his bedroom. “Library,” she responded.

“Were you there all night…?” He questioned, looking at her outfit. She gripped the neck of the cloak again with her fingers.

“I… accidentally fell asleep in there,” she added with a shrug, omitting the fact that she hadn't been alone.

“Let me guess…” Jasper said, a smile playing at his lips as he leaned back against the wall beside his bedroom door. “You fell asleep reading a book, didn’t you?” He questioned, a full smile on his lips now.

Aria let out a small laugh as her brother smiled at her. She was relieved that he wasn’t trying to ask her questions about what happened the previous day. She wanted to act as if it hadn’t have happened, as if it wasn’t true.

“Yeah, something like that,” she said, opening her door more. “I’m going to go change, then we can go down and get something to eat,” she said as she turned back to walk into her bedroom.

---

Aria, Lily and Jasper made their way downstairs once they were all dressed. Once they neared the dining hall, they heard conversations from inside the room. Lily pushed the door open - with Jasper's help. Lily made her way over to where Ruth, Hebaron and Gabel were sitting, having a conversation.

“You know the library isn’t your secondary bedroom, right Ruth?” Hebaron asked as he lifted his cup to his mouth, taking a sip.

“I thought Riftan had already told you to stop sleeping in there, didn’t he?” Gabel asked, leaning back in his chair, looking over to Jasper, Lily and Aria as they walked up to the table.

Aria felt Jasper look down at her as they overheard their conversation. She hadn’t lied to him about last night, but she also hadn’t given him the full information. She kept her eyes averted from his, not wanting to answer questions about it right now. Although she knew he would have a bunch when they were alone again.

“He did, although no one ever enters the library other than me… for the most part.” Ruth pointed out, shrugging as he followed Gabel’s gaze, seeing them walk over.

“Good morning,” Aria said when she reached the table. She was met replies of greeting from the knights as she pulled out the chair that was beside Ruth.

Hebaron went back to the previous conversation. “How is it even comfortable to sleep in a library?” He asked, looking to Aria now as she sat down. “It can't be comfortable, can it?” He asked as he took another sip of his drink.

Aria bit her lip, feeling Jasper’s gaze again as he sat down across from her. “Um…” she hesitated. “Well... I guess you can lean on the table…” she said, her eyes flickering over to Jasper, who was looking at her quizzically. She quickly looked away, turning her head to look towards Ruth now, who had a smirk playing on his lips.

“It’s not a bad place,” Ruth finally replied, as he leaned back in his chair. “Although, you knights wouldn’t know.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Hebaron replied, letting the conversation end.

Ruth's POV

The conversations broke into smaller conversations as everyone started to eat. Jasper and Hebaron were having their own small conversation amongst themselves. Occasionally Gabel or Lily would jump in.

Aria and Ruth stayed silent. Jasper occasionally looking over at them before going back to the conversation. Aria felt his gaze each time, but she ignored it.

After a while, Ruth stood up, collecting the paper that he had set to the side. Before he started to walk away, he looked across the table at Jasper.

‘If I want to know…’ he thought to himself.

“Jasper…” Ruth started, waiting to continue until Jasper was looking at him. “When you have time today, can you come find me?” Ruth asked to which Jasper nodded in response.

‘I guess I’ll get some answers.’ Ruth thought to himself before he excused himself from the dining room.

taglist: @tylerhasmyheart, @farce-melancholy

[ruthserbel]

Fanfiction Information [x] Chapter Title: Birth of a Wish (pt. 1) Release Date: Dec 20st, 2022 Word Count: 5.2k Content Warnings: N/A Summary: The Remdragon Knights have offer protection, which was accepted. However; they still have a decent amount to travel back to Anatol. Will they be able to protect the three new comers the whole way there? Notes: Next chapter is going to Birth of a Wish pt. 2. I was going to make a mega chapter (10k+ words, but I decided it would be better if I didn't). P.S: I don't expect to be posting another chapter before the new year, as I'm going to be very busy. If I do post one, it will be a .5 chapter most likely - mainly because I want to write something from Jasper's POV.

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Ruth’s POV

Ruth awoke before the sun rose, hearing voices outside. He sat up, stretching, and looked around the tent. He saw Lily and Aria still asleep, but the spot Jasper had been now empty. ‘He must be up…’ Ruth thought as he lowered his hands back down to the ground, pushing himself up.

Ruth walked over to where Aria was, softly placing his hand on her head. 'No fever, that's good,' he thought to himself, as he brushed her hair off her face. Ruth lifted his hands from her face, letting them fall by his side again. 'She'll be fine.'

Ruth sluggishly made his way out of the tent before he woke Lily or Aria up.

“Ahh... It's about time that you woke up,” Ruth heard a voice say once he had stepped out of the tent. He turned towards the voice which belonged to Riftan.

Ruth turned his head to look towards Riftan, who was leaning against a tree beside the knight’s tent. “If only I was able to get proper sleep these past weeks,” Ruth replied, walking over to him.

“Yeah, yeah.” Riftan said with a small laugh. “Come with me for a second,” he added, before turning to walk further into the forest.

Ruth nodded, starting to follow him further into the forest. After following for a few steps, he stopped walking, turning around. He looked towards the makeshift fire where Sir Hebaron was sitting with Jasper. “You can talk to him after,” Ruth heard Riftan say as he continued to walk into the forest.

“Fine,” Ruth replied, speeding up to catch up to Riftan.

Once they had gotten out of earshot of anyone, Riftan turned around to face Ruth

“How is the sister?” Riftan asked, leaning back against a tree.

“She seemed fine. She didn’t have a fever, so she will hopefully wake up soon,” Ruth explained, raising an eyebrow. “Why did you call me out here? Was it just to ask me that? I’m sure her brother would like to know that as well,” Ruth questioned.

Riftan waited to respond, thinking for a moment. “Their village,” he started, pointing in the general direction of the burnt down village. “It’s not habitable anymore,” Riftan said, causing Ruth to nod.

“I’m sure anyone would know that one just by looking at it,” Ruth agreed. “That still doesn’t explain why you called me over here,” Ruth pointed out.

Riftan didn’t speak for a moment, letting Ruth think. If their village wasn’t habitable anymore, what would the three of them do? It then dawned on him.

“Oh…” Ruth said after a moment. “I mean... If you want to make that offer to them, that’s your choice.” Ruth said with a shrug, getting ready to turn back around and walk back.

“Well, yes, it is…” Riftan agreed, his voice trailing causing Ruth to stop. “That’s right, it is my choice. But with the construction that is going to be happening soon, I’ll be busy,” Riftan pointed out. “You on the other hand…” Riftan started, pushing himself off the tree, taking a step towards Ruth.

“Me what?” Ruth questioned, although he already knew where it was going.

“You’ll be able to look after them for the first little bit,” Riftan explained. “The knights can help as well when it comes to protection for them, but Lily…” Riftan trailed.

“Okay, but why me?” Ruth questioned.

“As I just said… Lily seems to not mind being around you, so that’s one reason,” Riftan explained.

Ruth sighed after a moment. He knew there was no point in trying to refuse or argue. “Fine,” he said through another sigh. “If they agree to come, I’ll help them for as long as they need.” Ruth said.

“Great,” Riftan said, nodding his head. He started his way back to the tents. “If they agree, we will need to figure out how to get them back to Anatol. We don’t have spare horses, nor carts.” Riftan said, thinking aloud.

“We can split them amongst a few of the knights,” Ruth said, following Riftan back.

“We will need to see if we can get Lily to agree to go with one of the knights,” Riftan said with a small laugh. “That, could prove to be a task.”

“Yeah…” Ruth agreed. Ruth tried to think about the best knight to have Lily go with, trying to think of one that she possibly wouldn’t fear. “We could try Sir Garrow or Sir Ulyseon,” Ruth suggested.

“Hmm…” Riftan hummed, thinking for a moment. “There is a chance she might say yes to those two. That or we can put Aria and Jasper with them, and you get Lily,” Riftan added, smirking slightly.

Ruth let out a small laugh. “Good joke,” Ruth said through a laugh.

“Well, only part of that was a joke,” Riftan said, not looking back at Ruth as he walked. “Since you don’t wear bulky armour, it would be best if Aria went with you. It would be most conferrable for her with you.” Riftan explained. “Although, if we can’t get Lily to go with someone else, then…” Riftan said, trailing off with a small shrug.

Ruth opened his mouth to argue for a moment before he thought about it. What Riftan said was true. Lily was small enough that riding with a knight wouldn’t bother her. “Alright,” Ruth said, defeated.

As they reached the tents again, Riftan finally turned towards Ruth. “I’ll be out in a bit,” he said as he ducked back into the knight’s tent. Ruth stood there for a moment, letting out a sigh from his previous conversation.

After a moment, Ruth made his way over to the makeshift fire, stopping beside Sir Hebaron. “Good morning,” Ruth said before he sat down beside Hebaron. After a moment, Ruth turned his gaze towards Jasper now. “How are you feeling this morning, Jasper?” Ruth questioned.

Jasper looked towards Ruth quizzically. The blanket that was wrapped around him falling off his shoulders. “How do you know my name?” Jasper questioned, surprised.

“Lily told us yesterday,” Ruth answered, lifting a finger to point towards the tents. “Ruth by the way,” he added lazily before he continued his questioning. “She was quite worried about you when we found her. She said something about you getting hurt because of her… What happened?” Ruth questioned.

Jasper sighed, looking down. “I thought she would feel that way…” He said quietly before lifting his head again. “Once everything started yesterday, I went trying to help anyone I could... and Lily was one of them. Although, I ended up getting injured, helping her.” Jasper explained, the corners of his mouth frowning. “I blocked some of the house that was falling down from landing on her...” Jasper trailed off, staying quiet for a moment. “After that… she didn’t get hurt, did she?” He asked, worry flashing across his face.

Ruth shook his head at his question. “No, she was fine. No need to worry about that,” Ruth reassured Jasper.

“My sister…” Jasper trailed off. “Was she injured?” Jasper questioned quietly, frowning already, as if he already knew the answer.

At first, Ruth didn’t answer, thinking for a moment. “She was,” he said, breaking the silence. “She had some small wounds, but I healed them,” he explained. “She’s fine now and should be waking up anytime soon.” Ruth said confidently.

“Now that we’ve sorted out the injured people,” Hebaron interrupted the two. “I would like to know what happened?” Hebaron asked, looking to Jasper.

“I would too,” Riftan’s voice chimed in. The three men turned their heads towards Riftan, who was already walking towards them.

“Ah, hello again,” Ruth greeted Riftan as he sat down beside him. Riftan gave a small grunt in response before he continued the conversation.

“Did you see what attacked?” Riftan questioned Jasper.

“I… I didn’t see it…” Jasper said, trying to think back to the day before. “I came out when I heard the screaming… I told my sister to go back inside before I left. That’s all I know,” Jasper said, looking between the three men in front of him. “We… we were the only three that survived, weren’t we?” Jasper questioned, now looking at Ruth.

Riftan and Ruth both gave a small nod, neither answering out loud.

“So, Lily’s family…” Jasper trailed off. He sat quiet for a moment, his face deep in thought.

"Sorry," Ruth said quietly.

“If you’re worried about what happens now,” Riftan started, tossing a twig into the fire in front of them. “The three of you can come back with us to Anatol. That way we can at provide some protection for now,” Riftan offered, first looking to Ruth, then to Jasper.

“I’ll confirm with my sister when she gets up, but…” Jasper said, looking towards the remains of the village. “We might have to take you up on that.”

“Let one of us know once you two decided. We will figure everything else out,” Riftan said, getting back up from the group. “We’re leaving this morning,” Riftan said, this time looking at the Hebaron and Ruth, who nodded as a response. Riftan then made his way back to the tent, while the group exchanged small talk. Ruth and Sir Hebaron talking the most about small things while Jasper listened.

It stayed that way while the sun started to rise, casting a bright light on the ground.

“I’ll go see if Lily or your sister is awake.” Ruth said, standing up, making his way back over to the tent.

“Ruth don't go back to bed,” Hebaron called, laughing quietly.

“There go my plans,” Ruth joked back, before he walked into the tent.

Once Ruth stepped inside the tent, he looked over at Lily, who was still fast asleep. ‘I’ll let her sleep longer.’ Ruth thought to himself as his eyes moved over to Aria, who had started to stir.

After a moment of Aria’s stirring, Ruth noticed Aria grab for the blanket, pulling it up over her eyes. “Well good morning, Aria,” Ruth said, letting out a chuckle.

Aria’s POV

Aria groaned at the sudden light hitting her eyelids. She lifted her forearm over her eyes, blocking out the sun. She reached her other hand down, grabbing for her blanket.

“Well good morning, Aria,” an unfamiliar voice spoke with a chuckle.

Aria froze, unsure of what to do. After a moment, she lowered her arm from her eyes, opening them slowly. Her eyes took a moment to adjust to the brightness. ‘This isn’t my house,’ she thought, her eyes starting to focus on the fabric overtop of her. ‘Where am I?’

Aria looked around the room, trying to understand here she was. Her eyes landed on a man with short light-coloured hair who was standing by the source of sun in the tent.

Aria sat up quickly, grabbing the blanket that was on top of her, holding it up as if it was a shield in front of her. “Who… Where… How…” Aria stammered, unsure of what question she should ask first.

The man in front of her gave a small chuckle before he raised his hand, “Calm down, it’s okay,” he said. Composing himself for a second before he started again. “Lily told me your name. We – The Remdragon Knights came here yesterday on our way back to Anatol... That’s when we found out your village had been attacked. You’re currently in a tent that we set up outside of your village. We moved you here so I could keep an eye on you, your brother and Lily.”

Aria thought for a moment once he mentioned The Remdragon Knights. She had heard who they were. The knowledge of who they were let her relax a little. She looked around the tent as he spoke, listening to him still. Her eyes landed on Lily who was still fast asleep. ‘Lily…’ Aria thought to herself, feeling a wave of sadness come over her body.

“Now that’s the what, where, why and when...” The man counted on his fingers, “Ah yes... As for who,” he said before lowering his hand down, “My name is Ruth, I helped you and your brother yesterday. Lily came out without a scratch thanks to your brother,” the man explained.

As the man talked, everything came back to her. She remembered now, she had seen this man briefly yesterday. Aria groaned as she thought back to the day before, her body feeling the pain she was in the previous day. She laid her hand on her side where the pain had been the worst the previous day, but to her shock, there was no pain.

Aria’s eyebrows creased in confusion. Her gaze then turned back to Ruth. ‘He must be able to heal people,’ Aria thought to herself. She had never seen it before, but she had heard about it in the past.

After a moment, something Ruth had said struck her. “Brother…” she said quietly.

She thought back to the previous day, when he had closed the door to their house, leaving her behind. “You helped my brother?” She questioned, scrambling to get to her feet. “Where is he?” She questioned as she started to walk towards the Ruth.

 “Outside with Sir Hebaron,” she heard the man say, opening the tent flap open for her to walk out. “Be careful,” he said as she walked past him outside.

“Brother.” Aria said again, her eyes adjusting to the sun again. Once she could see, she scanned the area for her brother.

“Jasper!” Aria yelled out when she finally spotted her brother.

Aria attempted to sprint across the ground to her brother, but she didn’t get five strides in before she tripped. Aria's body started to stagger forward. She held back a scream, not wanting to wake anyone who was still asleep. Aria closed her eyes expecting to hit the ground, but that never came. Instead, she felt an arm wrap around her, holding her up.

Aria sprinted towards her brother. She felt joy when she saw that her brother was alive and well. Her mind couldn’t think of anything else right now, so she herself didn’t even notice when she had started to fall.

“Aria,” Jasper’s voice called out in warning.

As soon as Jasper’s voice called out, Aria felt someone’s arms wrap around her, catching her. “Let’s not run first thing in the morning,” she heard being whispered in her ear.

Aria tilted her head to look at Ruth, who was the one who had caught her. She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Her eyes met with his, and her train of thought left.

After a few seconds she broke her gaze with him, feeling her face flushing. “I’m… I’m sorry,” she said quietly to Ruth before she turned her gaze towards the other two men. The two men in front of her had two different reactions to what had happened. Her Brother’s face wore a worried look on his face, then the knight beside him who was holding back laughter. She groaned and started to steady herself so she could stand again.

Once she was ready, she started walking towards her brother again. “Jasper…” Aria trailed off as soon as she had reached her brother dropping herself to the ground beside him. She looked at her brothers face for a few seconds, before she let out a big sigh. “I'm glad you're okay…” She said, wrapping her arms around his shoulders.

From beside them, Hebaron cleared his throat awkwardly, before standing up. “I’ll leave you two alone… Just let Ruth or I know your answer,” Sir Hebaron said to the two of them before he walked away.

“What answer?” Aria questioned her brother after Hebaron had walked away.

“They’ve offered for us to go with them.” Jasper explained, waiting before he continued. “My opinion, for now, is that we should go.” He said, looking down at his sister for a response.

“What about Lily?” She questioned. “Her family is…” Aria trailed off, not wanting to finish the sentence.

“Naturally that invitation included all three.” Ruth who had made his way over to them after a while started to explain to them. Ruth stopped by the fire, but he didn’t sit down.

Aria turned towards Ruth. She through for a moment before she replied. “Okay, we’ll accept that offer,” she said with a small nod.

Ruth nodded as she gave her answer. “I’ll go let the everyone know.” Ruth said, looking at Aria for a moment before he walked away towards the tent that Riftan had entered.

Aria’s eyes followed him as he walked away. She couldn’t take her eyes off him until he had entered the tent.

“Aria…” Jasper’s voice causing her to jump, breaking her out of her trans once Ruth had entered the tent.

“Hmm…?” Aria hummed as a response, turning her gaze towards her brother now. “What’s up?” She asked after a moment of silence.

Jasper shook his head. “Never mind,” he said after some time. “I’ll let this one play out,” he said quietly.

Aria eyebrows creased in confusion. She was about to question her brother, but she didn’t get an opportunity. As she was about to question him, knights started to come out of the tent.

Silence fell around Jasper and Aria again. They sat there quietly for a bit, watching the fire as it burned. More knights made their way over, having their own small conversations.

After a while, Aria stood up and made her way back into the tent to wake Lily up. After that, everything moved quickly.

Some of the knights had started to make food, while another group of knights were taking down the other tent. Lily and Aria made their way back over to the fire, sitting down again. Aria knew it was better if she stayed out of the way, knowing she would end up slowing them down if she tried to help.

Halfway through eating, Aria noticed Ruth walking towards them again. This time he was followed by two other knights she had not seen yet. The three men stopped in front of the three of them before Ruth started talking.

“Good morning, Lily,” Ruth greeted Lily before he turned to look between Aria and Jasper.

Aria felt her face flush slightly as Ruth and her eyes met again. She looked down as soon as she noticed, hoping that no one noticed.

Ruth stayed quiet for moment, before starting introductions for the men behind him. “He,” he said pointing to his left, “is Sir Ulyseon, and he,” Ruth continued, now pointing to his other side, “is Sir Garrow. They’ve also been put in charge of helping you three on the way." Ruth explained.

“We don’t have a spare horse, so we figured the three of you could split up amongst the three of us...” Ruth said, his eyes landing on Lily now. “Is that okay with you?” he questioned Lily.

Aria and Jasper both turned to look at Lily, worried that she wouldn’t agree to it.

Lily stayed quiet for a moment, nodding after a moment. “Okay,” Lily whispered.

“Who’s with who?” Jasper asked once Lily confirmed it was okay.

It was then that Ulyseon moved forward from behind Ruth, answering Jasper’s question. “I’ll be taking Lily,” he said, bending down so he was at eye level with Lily. “That is if Lily is okay with it,” Ulyseon said.

Lily looked up at the man who was in front of her now. At first, she didn't make a reaction to the man in front of her. Lily sat quiet, thinking for a few seconds. Once she was done, she lifted her hand to take the knights outreached hand. "Okay," she said in a soft voice.

“Hmm... I was not expecting that one,” Ruth said quietly, letting out a soft chuckle.

“Nor was I to be honest. After all, last night she glued herself to you,” Garrow replied, chuckling as well.

Aria looked at the two of them confused. Yet, before she could question it, Ruth had started speaking to Jasper. “If it’s fine with you, you’ll be with Sir Garrow.”

“Yeah, that works for me,” Jasper said with a nod.

“Which leaves,” Ruth started, turning towards Aria. “You with me. If it’s okay…?” Ruth questioned.

Aria nodded slightly, her face flushing again. “Yeah… that is fine.”

“Perfect. Since that is settled, we should go get you three set up on the horses. The knights will be ready to leave soon,” Ruth said, holding his hand out to Aria. She grabbed his hand using it to pull herself off the ground.

“Thank you,” she said sliding her hand out from his. Once she had let go of his hand, he moved his hand to help Lily, then Jasper up.

The group started to make their way over to where the horses were. Aria let herself fall behind them by a little bit.

“Aria,” Ruth whispered from beside her.

Aria jumped to the side. She hadn’t even noticed him match his walking, so he was beside her. She looked at him, her face flushing from embarrassment.

Ruth let out a quiet laugh. “Are you feeling, okay?” Ruth questioned, grabbing her arm, stopping her from walking. “Your face seems to be red today,” Ruth said, moving his hand from her arm to her forehead.

“I’m… I’m fine,” she said, covering her cheeks with her hands. “There’s just a lot happening today,” she insisted.

“If you say so,” Ruth said, lowering his hand from her face. He started walking again. “Do you happen to know how to ride a horse?”

Aria started to walk again, keeping a step behind him. “I’ve only ever ridden a horse when I was younger, so not really,” she explained as they caught up to the rest of the group.

“Alright, we have enough time now for you to get up and get accustomed to the movement of a walking horse.” Ruth said as he grabbed the reins of his horse. “Follow me over here,” Ruth instructed as he walked away from the group, getting space between them. He walked far enough away so there was room for them to move around on the horse.

Aria followed behind Ruth, keeping distance between them. When Aria had made it to where Ruth had stopped, she looked at the height of the horse, and she could feel her stomach drop. “I… This horse is so tall,” Aria said breathlessly, looking back to Ruth. “How do I get on?” She questioned.

Ruth let out a quiet laugh as he moved to stand beside her, moving the reins into his left hand. “Put your hand on my shoulder. You'll use that to stabilize yourself." Ruth explained. "You’re going to put your left foot here,” Ruth said, grabbing the stirrup.

“Alright,” Aria said, her voice shaking. She lifted her hands up placing them on Ruth’s right shoulder. ‘Don’t fall, don’t fall.’ Aria chanted in her head as she lifted her left foot up to the stirrup.

“Alright,” Ruth said once she had her foot in place. “Now push up, using my shoulder to balance.” Ruth instructed, bracing himself.

“Okay,” Aria said weakly, still chanting in her head. Aria took a deep breath in, then pushed herself off the ground. Her hand squeezed on Ruth’s shoulder as she felt herself lose balance for a second.

“Good.” Ruth started, moving his right hand behind Aria’s back, using it to stabilize her as well.

Aria’s body stiffened when she felt his hand on her back. Her face went flush, and she felt her body start to lean back as she lost control of her legs.

Ruth pushed his hand further up her back, pushing her so she was standing straight again. “Careful,” he said quietly to her, letting her regain her balance.

“Sorry,” Aria murmured after a moment, tilting her head down letting her hair cover her flushed face.

The two sat there for a moment quietly, letting Aria calm down. She looked up after a while and saw Lily sitting on the horse with the knight, playing with the horse’s mane.

“When you’re ready,” Ruth emphasized, breaking the silence. “You’ll lift your right leg up and over placing your right foot in the other stirrup.” Ruth said, keeping his hand pressed against her back.

“Oh, right…” Aria said quietly before she slowly started to lift her right leg up and over the horse’s body. Once her leg was over to the other side, she slowly sat down on the saddle, sliding her foot into the other stirrup. ‘I did it,’ she thought excitedly.

Ruth let his hand fall from her back once she had sat down on the horse. “Good job,” Ruth said as he put his hand on her knee. “Make sure your legs are tight around the saddle,” he said before he moved his hand from her knee. “Once you’re ready to start walking, let me know.” Ruth said, taking the reins in both hands now.

Aria took a few minutes, calming herself down. She felt unsteady this high up, but she knew she had no other choice.

Once she was finally ready, she looked down at Ruth. “I'm ready now... I think," Aria said quietly, making Ruth turn to look at her again.

Ruth nodded and passed her the reins. “I’ll let you hold onto this,” he said as she took them from him. “We'll just walk around for a little bit. Let me know if you want to stop,” he said as he gripped the reins closer to the horse’s head, using that to maneuver the horse.

Aria tightened her legs around the saddle when the horse started to walk. At first, it was uncomfortable for her. It took a while for that sensation to leave. By the time it was gone, Aria had noticed a lot more knights had made their way over and were preparing to leave.

“For someone who hasn’t rode a horse in a while, I’d say you’re fairly decent.” Ruth said as he walked the horse over where Jasper, Lily and the two knights were sitting on their horses.

Once they got there, Ruth let go of the reins and walked to the side of the horse. “I’m going to pull myself up now, so please try not to fall off,” he warned before looking over to Garrow who was beside them. “Steady her please,” Ruth said.

Aria removed her feet from the stirrups, so Ruth was able to pull himself up. She took the hand that Garrow had put out at Ruth’s request, using it to keep herself as upright as she could. Before she even knew it, Ruth had already up on the horse, sitting behind her.

Aria’s stiffened when she realized just how close she was going to be to Ruth during the travels. She felt her face flushed again. ‘Why does this keep happening today? Stop it face,’ she thought to herself. She slipped her hand away from Garrow and used that hand to fan her face.

“I’m sorry if this is going to be uncomfortable for you.” Ruth whispered as he reached around both sides of her, grabbing the reins from her.

“We figured since I don’t wear armor, it would be more comfortable for you with me... If that isn’t the case, let me know and we can come up with something else.” Ruth whispered to the girl, keeping the conversation only between them.

Aria’s face flushed even more when Ruth had moved his arms around her to grab the reins. She could now feel her brothers gaze on her, but she kept her eyes down, averting his gaze. “It’s… it’s fine,” she stammered.

Aria kept her eyes down while the knights all made their way over, getting ready to leave. She listened to conversations happening around her.

“So, how much longer till we’re home?” she heard one of the knights asking.

“About a day, assuming everything goes okay,” one replied, pulling himself up on his horse. Their conversation trailed off after that while they prepared everything they would need.

Aria lifted her head after a while, looking around at all the knights who were now all on horses, and ready to leave.

“Ulyseon, Garrow, Ruth,” Aria heard a voice from the head of the group of knights say. Her eyes looked through all the knights trying to figure out who was talking. Her eyes landed on Riftan, who was now looking between her and Ruth, a slight smirk starting on his face. “If you need to stop for whatever reason, signal me,” Riftan said.

“Will do, Commander,” the two knights replied. Ruth nodded in response.

Riftan started off after that, leading the group down a path. The knights chatted amongst themselves as they traveled. Aria paid attention to some of the conversations as they went on. Their group stayed quiet while they traveled.

After a while, Ruth leaned forward, whispering to Aria, keeping quiet enough so it was only heard by her. “If you find yourself getting tired, let me know. The knights aren’t going to stop until sundown, so we do have to let them know.”

Aria nodded slightly, whispering back. “I’ll let you know.”

“Bunny!” Lily shouted from Aria's side, tugging on Ulyseon's arm while pointing in the direction of a bunny.

Ruth leaned back once Lily spoke, looking in the direction that Lily was pointing. Aria followed both of their gazes. Where Lily had pointed, she saw a small white rabbit. The bunny was now jumping away from them, startled by the sudden shout from the kid.

“I’m sure if you watch, you’ll see a lot of bunnies today,” Ruth said to Lily, who got excited at the mention of seeing more bunnies.

Aria let out a faint chuckle seeing Lily so happy. “She seems to be enjoying this trip,” Aria said quietly.

“Yeah. She seems... Well... For her it seems like yesterday didn’t happen,” Ruth whispered, leaning forward again.

Lily let out a soft sigh at Ruth’s words. “This isn’t the first time Lily has had to deal with loss,” Aria whispered back, looking back at Lily for a moment. Before Ruth could even question what she was talking about, Aria whispered again. “I’ll explain… later.”

Ruth nodded before leaning back again. The group fell back into silence again. Lily interrupting it from time to time to announce when she had seen a bunny or another wild animal.

“Doggy…?” Lily question, pointing to Jasper’s side. Lily’s tone caused their group of six, plus a few closer knights to look in the direction Lily was pointing. Aria looked in the direction, seeing a large four-legged creature.

Aria looked towards the forest, at first not seeing anything.

“That’s not a dog,” a knight in front of them said as he stopped his horse, jumping down. As soon as he had jumped down, his sword was already out.

[ruthserbel]

Fanfiction Information [x] Chapter Title: Chapter 6 (pt. 1) Song: The Killing Kind by Mariana's Trench Lyric: One for the memory, two for the pain Release Date: May 15th, 2023 Word Count: 3.4k Content Warnings: alcohol use (not bad alcohol use, but it is mentioned) Notes: This is a shorter chapter, as I had more written, but I ended up re-reading this as I went to post it, and I didn't like what I had written (didn't seem to fit), so I scrapped parts of it, and will re-introduce them next chapter. The lyric doesn't have much to do with this chapter, but it leads into the next one (the parts that I removed from this one).

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Aria’s POV

Aria glared at Conan as she held onto Ruth’s wrist. She wanted to walk away, but she knew she wouldn’t get far. Conan would stop her almost immediately, and it would only call attention to herself if she did. She looked around and she noticed that no one around them had even turned to look at them. She felt relief in that as she didn’t want to call much attention to the current events. Her gaze fell back on Conan, who was still at her.

“Long time, no talk, Aria,” Conan remarked, as he let Ruth’s wrist fall from his hand. He kept his voice low as he spoke, leaning against the wall.

As her name fell from his lips, Aria felt a chill roll up her back. The way he said her name, his tone, the smirk on his face… Aria couldn’t help but become frozen in place as she looked at the man. Her grip on Ruth’s wrist tightened. She was now realizing that running out here wasn’t something she should have done. She could never stand up to this man in the past. Just yesterday she had proved she still wasn’t able to, the sight of him causing her to panic.

“Leave us alone,” Aria managed to whisper after a moment of silence between the three of them. Her voice wavered as she spoke, turning her – what was supposed to be a demand – into a feeble statement.

Conan let out a chuckle, mocking Aria’s statement. “Or what?” Conan questioned.

Aria felt her stomach drop as she realized her statement had no effect on Conan. He was taking it as a joke. She felt her body temperature drop as she stood there silently, unsure of what to say, or even do.

Silence fell around the three of them, Conan forgetting that Ruth was even there now that Aria had shown up. The only reason Aria knew Ruth was there because her hand was still gripping onto his wrist. Everything else around Aria was a blur; the noise of outdoors drowned out by the growing tension. She felt Ruth’s gaze on her as she stood frozen, but she couldn’t bring herself to look away from Conan. She wanted to release Ruth’s wrist, but instead she tightened her grip even more.

Conan was the one to break the silence around them. He pushed himself off the wall, walking over to Aria as he spoke. “You know…” He started, as he stopped a step away from her. Aria felt herself cower as Conan got closer to her. The height difference between them was large enough that she felt as if he was towering over her.

Before anything else could be said between Conan and Aria, Ruth spoke up. “I’ll say one thing…” Ruth repeated from before – when Conan had cut him off. “Leave them alone,” Ruth warned, repeating Aria’s words from before.

Before Conan could reply, Ruth started to walk away, pulling Aria along with him. Aria kept her hand on his wrist, allowing herself to be pulled alongside, keeping pace with Ruth. The two of them made their way back towards the castle, stopping when there was no one around.

“Why did you come out there?” Ruth questioned as he spun around so he was facing her.

Aria opened her mouth to answer, but nothing came out at first. “I…” She started as she cleared her throat. “I saw you and him talking... And... I saw him grab your wrist,” she continued as she looked down at her own hand, which was still grasping his wrist. “Oh…” she mumbled as she released her hand, letting his hand fall.

“Okay,” Ruth said as his hand fell back by his side. “But that doesn’t answer why you went out there?” Ruth questioned again, emphasizing his question.

“I… Um…” Aria stammered for a moment. “I was worried…” She said, her voice growing quiet.

Ruth let out a small laugh at her answer. “Worried… About me?” He questioned before he continued. “Don’t worry about me,” he said as he leaned against the wall.

“But-“ Aria started, before Ruth raised his hand, stopping her.

“Your brother explained… some things…” Ruth said as he let his hand fall to his side again. “Trust me… He can't do anything to me. So don’t worry about me.”

Aria opened her mouth to protest, but she closed it after a second. Jasper had explained some of the previous events to Ruth, so he knew what Conan was like – or at least used to be like. As Aria thought about it, she gave a small nod. “Alright… I trust you.” she whispered.

“Aria…” Ruth started, lowering his voice – even though no one was around. “I spoke to your brother about this as well… But if you want, we can talk to Rift-“

“No,” Aria said, cutting Ruth off. “Please… I don’t… No one else needs to know…” Aria said, shaking her head.

“Alright, fine,” Ruth exhaled with a sigh.

Before anything else could be said, they heard Riftan calling for Ruth from the distance. Both Ruth and Aria looked towards Riftan. “Coming,” Ruth called back to Riftan, who turned around and walked away. Once Riftan was out of site, Ruth spoke again to Aria.

“You should go back,” Ruth said as he pushed himself off the wall, but he didn’t walk away. He instead stood still for a moment, looking down at Aria.

Aria gave a small nod in response but didn’t move either. After a moment of silence between the two, Aria spoke again, her voice low. “Please... be careful around him…” She warned, even though she had already said she trusted him, she was still worried. Before Ruth could even respond Aria had started to walk away.

Aria made her way back to her bedroom, her worry still present. As much as she knew that Ruth could handle himself if Conan decided to do anything, she couldn’t help but worry. She didn’t want to think about what would happen if Ruth got injured because of her.

As her mind spun, she felt herself become tired, not physically, but mentally tired. She let out a small sigh, as she continued to walk towards her room. Her brain kept spinning around, thinking things she didn’t want to think. She was thinking of the past, thinking of what could happen – especially to her brother, Ruth or Lily.

She walked through the bedroom door seeing Jasper and Lily were still in there, waiting for her to come back. She noticed Jasper’s questioning gaze as she re-entered the room. “Where did you go?” Jasper questioned as Aria walked back over to her bed.

“I had to… see something,” She replied, as she let out a sigh. She didn’t feel like explaining it to Jasper. She knew he would disapprove of her even confronting Conan again. Before Jasper could question her again, Aria continued speaking. “Can you actually do me a favour?”

Jasper tilted his head before responding. “Sure… What do you need?”

“Can you do look after Lily for a bit… I’m… tired,” Aria answered, before she leaned back further on the bed. She closed her eyes once she saw Jasper nod in response.

Aria heard Jasper speaking to Lily for a bit, but she didn’t listen to their conversation. As she heard their footsteps head towards the door, she lifted her arm for a second, opening her eyes again.

“Thanks Jasper,” she whispered, closing her eyes again, letting her arm rest over her eyes again.

The silence in the room after Jasper and Lily left lulled her to sleep.

Aria lifted her hand to rub her eyes, letting out a small groan as she did so. “What time is it?” she mumbled as she opened her eyes. She looked around her room, which was being lit by the window, which showcased the sunset.

“Mmm…” Aria groaned as she sat up. “I missed dinner time again…” she said to herself as she sat on her bed. She thought about laying down again, but that thought ended when she heard her stomach growl.

“Alright…” She whispered, as she pushed herself up from her bed. “Possibly people are still eating,” she said as she made her way to the bedroom door. She knew some of the knights ate later at night, so there was still a chance that she could get something to eat.

She quietly made her way down to the dining room. Once she was outside of the door, she was relieved to hear some noise coming from the room. It wasn’t as loud as it normally was, but as she opened the door, she saw Hebaron and Gabel sitting together at one table. She made her way over to them, pulling the chair out that was across from Gabel.

“We were wondering if we would see you,” Gabel greeted as Aria sat down. “Your brother and Lily left about 30 minutes ago,” he continued as he took a sip from his cup.

“Yeah…” Aria whispered as she grabbed a piece of bread from a basket that was on the table. “I slept for longer than I meant to…” Aria admited as she took a bite from the bread. “Guess sleeping in the library doesn’t help either...” She mumbled without thinking as she took another bite of the bread.

Hebaron let out a laugh as she mumbled. “Don’t tell me…” He started, letting out another laugh. “Both you and the wizard have taken to sleeping in the library,” he finished, still laughing.

“Didn’t Ruth sleep in there last night?” Gabel questioned, smirking at Aria as her face started to flush as she realized what she had said.

“Um…” she started, feeling her face flush more. “I… I misspoke…” She stammered, which caused the two men to laugh again. “I…” She started again, before being stopped by Hebaron, who was handing her a cup.

“You get flustered easily… It’s fun to tease you,” he said as she grabbed the cup from him.

“It’s not nice though…” Aria muttered as she looked down at the red liquid that was in the cup. “What is it…?” She questioned, although she already had guess about what it was.

“Wine,” Gabel answered, as he took a sip from his cup.

“Thought so,” Aria muttered as she looked back in her cup. She’d had wine before, but it had been a while since she had any. She sat there for a moment looking into the cup in front of her before she took a small sip from the cup.

The flavor she remembered from wine was there, although it was stronger than she was used to. Letting out a cough, she set the cup back down on the table. “That’s… strong…” she choked after a moment.

“You’ll get used to it,” Hebaron said as he took another sip from his glass.

“I don’t think so…” Aria said as she let out another cough.

The conversation between the three of them petered out, and after a while Hebaron and Gabel both left. Aria looked around the dining room then and noticed that almost everyone else had left. Aria reached out to grab the cup that was still in front of her, and she took another sip. This time she was expecting the strong taste, so she didn’t cough.

She pursed her lips as she sat there, still looking around the dining room. She saw the last few of the knights getting up and leaving the room. Once the door closed behind them, she let out a sigh. ‘I could go back to my room… But I’m not even tired…’ she thought to herself as she laid her head down on the table in front of her.

After a few moments of silence in the room, Aria let out another sigh. She lifted her head again, taking another drink from the cup. Since she was alone again, she had no one to distract her thoughts. She had no doubt that her interactions with Ruth today would put Ruth on Conan’s list of ways to get to her. She let out a groan at the thought of it.

Her mind spun around those thoughts as she continued to drink. Occasionally, she'd pour more of wine into her cup, before finishing it. Before she knew it a few hours had passed, and she had finished the bottle. She let out a small giggle as she set the empty bottle down on the table. The bottle spun for a second before the bottle fell over, rolling off the table.

“Oops,” Aria said, looking down at the bottle which had shattered upon hitting the floor. “I… I should clean that up,” she said aloud as she pushed the chair back. She slid from her chair, kneeling on the floor, picking up the larger pieces from the ground. “Good thing it was empty,” she giggled to herself.

Aria placed a handful of broken glass onto the table before she went to pick up a few more pieces. As she reached her hand down to pick up a piece, she noticed a hand grab onto her wrist.

Aria jerked herself backwards in shock. The sudden movement causing her to lose balance, and fall backwards. She placed her hands out behind her, catching herself from falling completely over.

“Ow…” she said as she looked up at the person who had grabbed her wrist.

Ruth's POV

Ruth stretched his one arm over his head, coving a yawn with his other hand as he walked down the hall. He had been helping Riftan with miscellaneous things all day, which caused him to feel tired. Not to mention the fact that he hadn’t had a proper night’s sleep the night before.

As Ruth walked down the hallway, a shattering sound broke the silence. The sound echoed for a bit within the hallways. The sound came from the dining room, which confused Ruth. He slowed down as he tried to think about who would be in there this late. He couldn’t think of anyone, and from the outside the room seemed to be silence otherwise.

As he got closer to the door, he heard a giggling sound coming from inside. He reached his hand out to open the door.

At a first glance in the room, there was no one in the room. Ruth walking further into the room, looking around the room again, he noticed a cup on the table still. As he took more steps towards the table, he heard another small giggle. That’s when he saw who was still in the room.

Aria was kneeling on the ground, picking up some glass from the ground. As she set some of the broken glass up onto the table, Ruth walked around the table. He noticed that there was a lot more glass on the ground, many of it in small pieces. As Aria reached her hand out to start picking up more glass, Ruth knelt in front of her, and grabbed her wrist.

Now that he was closer to Aria, he was able to smell the alcohol. He was sure that it wasn't only the bottle that had the smell on it. His suspicion had been confirmed when he looked at Aria, who's cheeks dusting of red on them.

Aria jumped backwards at the sudden touch, sliding her wrist out from Ruth’s grasp. She fell backwards on the ground, placing her hands to stop her from fully falling over.

“Ow…” Ruth heard as she lifted her head to look at who had joined her in the room.

“You’re going to hurt yourself picking up glass,” Ruth warned once Aria had looked up at him. Ruth looked back down at the ground again before he stood up. “Don’t touch it anymore,” he instructed as he walked back towards the door of the dining room. He leaned outside of the door, getting the attention of one of the passing maids.

“When there is time, can someone clean up a broken glass in here?” Ruth asked to the maid who was walking past. The maid gave a nod in response before she continued walking away.

Ruth left the dining room door open as he walked back over to Aria, who had repositioned herself onto a chair. “I’ll assume…” Ruth started once he reached the table again. He reached across grabbing the cup that was left on the table. “You haven’t had alcohol in a while…” He said, as he set the cup back down in front of him.

Aria shook her head as she looked at Ruth. “Not for a few years,” she said with a small giggle.

“You’re going to feel this tomorrow then,” Ruth muttered, as he let out a sigh. Aria titled her head at him, but she didn’t say anything, instead she sat silent.

Ruth thought for a moment. Aria likely wouldn’t be able to make it back to her bedroom alone. Where was also no guarantee that once she was there, that she would not go bother anyone else. He let out another sigh after a moment before he spoke again.

“You’re coming with me,” he said as he walked around the table, being careful of the glass that was on the ground.

“Oh… Where are we going?” Aria asked, excitedly as Ruth helped her stand up.

Once Aria was standing, he felt her lean her body weight into him. He wrapped his arm around her back, keeping her steady. “You are going to sleep in the tower tonight. I’ll sleep elsewhere,” he explained as the two of them started to walk outside of the dining room.

“The tower?” Aria questioned.

“My area… No one is typically allowed there,” Ruth explained. “I have a feeling that if I take you to your room, you will end up waking up Lily…” Ruth trailed off, and Aria shook her head.

“No,” she proclaimed, but after a few seconds she giggled again. “Alright, I would,” she said through giggles.

“Thought so…” Ruth sighed.

The two of them walked in silence the rest of the way to the tower. Once they reached the tower, Ruth helped her through the doorway, and he led her towards the bed. He pulled the blanket that was on top of the bed back so Aria could sit on the bed.

Aria threw herself on the bed once Ruth allowed her to, letting out small laugh. “This place is cool, I want to explore,” she said as she looked around. Ruth had stuff strewn about as normal, as people were not allowed in here. The only people who had ever been in his tower was Riftan and Maxi.

“Aria… Listen to me,” Ruth said as he placed his hands on her shoulders. “You are not to explore this area… At least not while you’re drunk, and without me,” Ruth warned.

Aria gave a slight frown at his warning, but she didn’t say anything. Instead, she continued to look around the room.

“Aria,” Ruth started again, moving one of his hands to her chin, forcing her to look at him. “Please listen to me, and acknowledge what I am saying.” Ruth pleaded, letting his hand fall from her chin now that she was looking at him.

After a moment Aria nodded. “Alright, fine,” she said with a sigh. “I’ll lay down and sleep,” she said as she dramatically threw herself down on the bed.

“Thank you,” Ruth replied quietly before he bent over so he could cover Aria up with the blanket. “Alright, I’ve given you the warning,” he said as he stood back up. “I’ll be back tomorrow morning with something for your hangover.” Ruth said, mainly to himself as he was sure Aria would forget by morning time. After a moment of silence, Ruth turned to walk toward the door.

He didn’t get far, as he felt something tugging at the back of his cloak. He turned around to see Aria, who had been laying in the bed beforehand, was now sitting up again. Her hand outstretched, holding onto his cloak.

“Can… Can you stay for a while at least?” Aria whispered, as she let her hand fall from his cloak.

Ruth rose his eyebrows at her request, and he looked out towards the window. He couldn't see the moon, although he was sure it was fairly late. "For a bit," he said, even though he could feel his exhaustion.

taglist: @kunikida-simp, @tylerhasmyheart

General reminder: I am gone (I will be out of province visiting my boyfriends family) for the next week and a few days. I will be attempting to write some while I am gone, but unsure if I will get any time to do so.

[ruthserbel]

Fanfiction Information [x] Chapter Title: Oblivion (part 2) Song: Oblivion by Bastille Release Date: April 22nd, 2023 Word Count: 5.4k Content Warnings: Harassment (aka, past Conan warning) Notes: Firstly, I'm glad people liked the 'past Aria' story I've put in. I needed to add it if I wanted to do post book 2 story lines, so glad people liked it. :) I've put a poll at the bottom of this chapter. Please answer if you have time, as that will let me know what to write for the next chapter. I'm unsure if people would want it written, that's why I'm asking. I can just 'skip over' writing it, or I can write it. Don't want to write something people aren't going to like/want :)

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Jasper’s POV

Jasper walked with Aria and Lily back to Aria’s room while he pondered what Ruth wanted. In the few weeks that he had been here, Ruth had never asked to meet with him alone. The two had the never been alone either, so he wasn’t sure what to expect when he went to meet Ruth. But, he did have questions of his own to ask Ruth.

Growing up, he had always been protective of his sister, despite their age difference. She was the one who took on the ‘mother’ role for him when he was younger. She had taken care of him while sacrificing a lot of her time to do so. Jasper always felt bad about that. He knew that if he hadn’t been around, things could have been different for her. Would she possibly be married at this point with a family of her own?

Once he had heard that Aria and Ruth had spent the night alone, Jasper’s protective side kicked in. He wanted to question Ruth about it. In the back of his mind, he knew it wasn’t his place to interfere with. He knew his sister would be angry if she found out, but he was still worried.

Jasper left the girls alone in Aria’s room, telling them he’d see them later as he made his way to the library. Ruth spent much of his free time there, so Jasper knew that was a good place to start his search. This was the first time Jasper was entering the library, as he never had an interest in books.

Once he reached the door the library, he slowly pushed the door open, stepping inside. Looking around the library, he spotted Ruth sitting at the table with a few books in front of him. Ruth didn’t even lift his head as Jasper entered.

“Hello Jasper,” Ruth greeted, as he closed the book he was currently reading. “If you wouldn’t mind…” Ruth continued before Jasper had taken a step further in the library. “Could you close the door behind you?” Ruth questioned as he placed the book down onto the table and leaned back in his chair.

Jasper followed his request, closing the door behind him. Once the door was closed, Jasper made his way over to the table, but he didn’t sit down just yet. He was about to start his questioning, although Ruth cut him off before he could do so.

“Your sister seems better today,” Ruth noted.

“Yeah,” Jasper replied, thinking back to the previous day. ‘Is that what this is about?’ Jasper thought to himself, still unsure of what Ruth wanted him for.

“I actually have a question about that,” Jasper started, as he placed a hand on the desk. “My sister was here last night, wasn’t she?” Jasper questioned, looking at Ruth.

“Yeah, she was… She came in… I’d say halfway through the night,” Ruth replied, and he pointed to the chair in front of him. “She stayed there, claiming she wasn’t able to sleep,” Ruth explained further.

Before Jasper was able to ask another question, Ruth spoke again. “Jasper...” Ruth started, leaning forward in his chair again, maintaining eye contact with him. “Has your sister ever had issues with any mercenary?”

Jasper thought back to the conversation him and his sister had had the previous day. She had assured him that there was no chance that any of the new arrivals could be Conan. Now Ruth was asking him about mercenaries.

“Did… she tell you anything about…” Jasper murmured, trailing off. He knew that there was no way she would have spoken to Ruth about that. Jasper let out a sigh after a moment before he nodded. “Yes, she has.” He answered.

They both stayed silent for a moment. Ruth waiting to see if Jasper would elaborate on his answer anymore, Jasper lost in thought. Once Ruth was sure that Jasper wasn’t going to say anymore, he questioned him again.

“Did that mercenary happen to be named Conan?” Ruth inquired, watching Jasper’s reaction to the name as well.

Jasper stayed silent for a few seconds. He kept himself composed, although the angry emotion he felt threaten to show. “Why?” Jasper asked through gritted teeth, not answering the question.

Ruth knew the answer from his response, letting out a small sigh before he spoke. “Your sister saw him yesterday,” Ruth explained. “I believe,” Ruth emphasized. He paused for a second before he continued “that is the reason for yesterday’s events…” Ruth finished.

The two of them stayed silent for a minute. Jasper thought back to the previous day. His face started to pale, his mind also playing back previous memories from his childhood.

After the silence, Jasper pulled the chair out that was across from Ruth and he sat down, leaning back in the seat.

“Conan…” Jasper started, his voice expressing anger he repeated the name. “Was someone we knew when we were growing up… My sister would have last seen him when she was 15.” Jasper took a deep breath, attempting to calming himself down. “He…” Jasper stopped for a second, thinking of the word he wanted to use. “Tormented my sister for a while... then when he wasn’t getting his way, he switched tactics…” Jasper explained, trailing off.

Jasper looked down at the table for a moment. He wasn’t sure if he should be talking to Ruth about this, as it was also about his sister. Aria had never fully talked about what had happened with Jasper himself.

“What do you mean by that…?” Ruth questioned after a moment, causing Jasper to look back up at him.

“I…” Jasper started, sighing slightly. “I don’t know if Aria would be okay with this…” Jasper murmured, lifting his hand to run through his hair.

“Jasper,” Ruth started, sitting back in his chair again. “He knows you and Aria are here... He saw you three yesterday,” Ruth stated before he continued. “I just want to understand the situation. I could talk to Riftan if I did... But, if you don’t want to talk about it, I understand.”

Jasper thought for a moment. 'He knows where here...' he thought to himself. Aria's reaction the previous day was starting to make more sense to him now. Jasper knew it would be better to explain this situation, at least his side of things to Ruth. It meant that he could possibly save his sister from going through the same things as she had from the past.

“I will tell you my side of it,” Jasper said after a moment. “If you want my sister’s side, you will have to talk to her about it... But good luck getting her to say anything about it,” Jasper muttered the last bit. He had tried getting her to open up about it for years, with no avail, so he was sure she would never open up to Ruth about it. “If you are fine with that, then I will explain.”

“Alright,” Ruth said with a nod, waiting for the explanation to begin.

“First things first,” Jasper started, as he folded his arms across his chest. “Conan was a friend Aria had growing up, even before I was born. Our village was small, and there weren’t many kids. At that point they were the only ones of that age group, so they spent a lot of time together, or so I’ve heard.”

“When I was 5 or so… things started to change with their friendship.” Jasper explained, letting out a short sigh as he thought back.

“Jasper! What are you doing up there?” Aria questioned, as she ran up to the tree Jasper had climbed up on. “Why did you let him do that, Conan?” she questioned the other boy who was standing on the ground looking up at him.

“He’s fine Aria, relax,” Conan said as he looked towards Aria instead. “Besides,” Conan started, as he wrapped his arm around Aria. “I’ve gotten him out of your hair for a while,” Conan said as Aria pushed his arm off of her.

Jasper watched as Aria swatted his hands away, and she took a step away from Conan again. “It’s not a fine,” Aria replied. She let out a deep sigh before she looked up at her brother again. “Jasper… Are you able to climb down?”

Jasper looked down at the ground, then back at the way he had gotten up. “Um…” He started, as he swung his leg over the branch. Once his leg was over it, he felt his balance go.

The only thing stopping him from falling off was his hands which were grasping as best as they could to the branch. “No,” he replied to Aria as he hung there.

“Conan,” Aria screamed, as she watched her brother dangling. “How did he get up there? Please get him down!”

“I lifted him up there,” Conan replied with a shrug as he looked up at Jasper. “I can help him…” Conan trailed off, looking back to Aria, a smirk growing on his face.

"Please," Aria pleaded with a groan as she saw the smirk appear on his face.

"Only if," Conan started. Jasper didn't hear the rest, which caused him to look down. He saw Conan whispering in his sisters ear.

Aria scoffed at Conan’s request, shaking her head. “I’d rather injure myself catching him” she muttered as she walked over so she was closer to her brother. Conan leaned back against another tree, watching.

“Jasper,” she called up to him.

Jasper looked down at his sister. He felt his panic start to kick in as his fingers started to lose grip. “Aria… I’m going to fall…” he stammered, his voice laced with worry.

Aria’s face paled as she heard the worry in his voice. She looked towards Conan after a moment of silence. “Fine,” she hissed as she stepped back.

Conan pushed himself away from the tree with a smirk on his face again. “Perfect,” he said as he made his way over to the tree that Jasper was on. He effortlessly climbed up, perching himself on the branch that Jasper was on. Reaching down, he grabbed onto Jasper’s arm, and lifted him back up. “Hold onto me,” he said to Jasper, who quickly wrapped his arms around Conan’s shoulders.

Just as quickly as Conan had jumped up there, he was back down on the ground. Jasper released his grasp on his shoulder once they were on the ground.

“Jasper,” Aria said as she went over to him, bending down to give him a hug. “No more climbing trees,” she warned, as her hug lingered for a bit longer.

“Okay,” Jasper agreed with a nod.

Once Aria released Jasper she turned to Conan. He was still smirking, standing beside them. “Don’t you ever…” she started, before she was cut off as Conan pulled her in, kissing her.

Aria let out a small shriek and pushed him away.

“You said,” Conan pointed out, looking towards Jasper, speaking to him. “Thanks.”

“Took me a while to understand why he was thanking me,” Jasper explained. “Or why he had kissed her. I guess that was his proposition," Jasper explained. "He had put me into danger, only to get my sister to agree to something...” Jasper sighed, taking a moment before he continued, Ruth listening quietly.

“Conan acted, and did things like that for a while. Although he did stop using me for it, mainly because Aria wouldn’t let me be alone with him after that.” Jasper explained, before continuing. “Aria started spending less time with him after that as well. But there were still times where they were alone…”

“Was any adult aware of this?” Ruth questioned as Jasper stopped speaking.

Jasper shook his head in response. “Aria didn’t inform any adult until way later... Although I feel like she wouldn’t have informed anyone if they hadn’t seen anything...” Jasper answered - trailing off as he thought back.

Jasper turned his head in the direction of the sound, ignoring the threat that was coming from Conan. He felt his sister move beside him, and he reached his hand out, gripping onto the fabric on her sleeve. After a moment of silence between the three of them, the source of the noise was revealed.

Aria and Jasper’s father walked out from the forested area, looking at the surrounding area. He then looked from Aria and Jasper Conan before he started speaking. “What is going on here?” He questioned as he looked back to Aria, who's cheek was starting to go a deep red from the sudden impact.

Jasper lightly tugged on Aria’s sleeve after a moment of her silence, but Aria stayed silent.

“Conan hit her,” Jasper finally replied, looking towards Conan now. Conan dropped the smirk that had been on his face as Jasper spoke. “He hit her, then pushed me down,” Jasper elaborated.

“My father dealt with it that night,” Jasper explained to Ruth. “I explained all that I could to him. Conan was no longer allowed around us, which neither of us were opposed to,” Jasper continued.

“Everything was fine for a few months. Aria had started to spend her free time reading books. She had read every book that was in the village... Some of them she even read twice once she ran out of books,” Jasper chuckled as he spoke. “It took her mind off things, and kept her busy, so my father didn’t complain.”

“After a few months my father and I needed to take a day trip outside of the village.” Jasper started after a moment of silence. “We asked Aria if she wanted to join us, but she declined, saying she would just stay in and read.” Jasper sighed as his gaze shifted from Ruth to the books in front of him as he continued his story. “The next part is where I can only speak from what I know of,” Jasper said, as his looked back to Ruth.

“My father and I left in the middle of the morning, and we were back just after sundown.” Jasper started, letting out a sigh after a moment. “When we got back, we were met by Lily’s father who said it would be better if I stayed at their place for the night. As a child I didn’t think much of that request until I overheard conversations later that night.”

Jasper rolled over, letting out a yawn. He opened his eyes, confused as to where he was, but he quickly remembered. “Oh right,” he mumbled as he got up, making his way to the door of the bedroom.

“Water,” he mumbled as he reached the doorway. Jasper stopped walking once he heard voices outside the bedroom.

“It won’t do any good to go and do anything right now,” Henry - Lily’s father claimed. He held his hand out in front of Eric – their father, stopping him. “No one knows where Conan went,” he added as he lowered his hand once Eric stopped making his way to the door. “We’ll deal with him when he shows up again,” Henry said before he lifted the glass that was in front of him, taking a sip from it.

Eric let out a loud sigh before he turned back to the table and sat down again.

“How was she when you went over there?” Henry asked, setting his glass back down on the table. He pushed the glass closer to Eric, gesturing for him to take a drink if he wanted.

“She’s resting right now... Beatrice is with her right now,” Eric explained, before he took the glass, taking a sip from it as well. “I… I thought this was dealt with,” he sighed as he set the glass back down on the table, empty now. “He had left her alone for months now…”

Jasper took a few steps back into the room. “Aria,” he whispered. He hadn't thought about it when they had gotten back, but he now found it weird that he was staying the night here.

Jasper looked around the room, thinking of a way to get out and go see her. He thought about trying to sneak past the men out in the other room, but he knew he would get caught quickly. He turned his head to the window. “Maybe…” he pondered as he walked over to the window in the room, bringing a chair that was in the room with him.

Jasper climbed up the chair, standing on it, and he pushed open the window. “Now…” he whispered as he pulled himself through the window, making sure to not fall. “Better than I thought,” he said to himself once he was outside.

Jasper walked towards his house, opening the front door. He tried to make as little noise as he could, but it didn’t matter in the end.

“Oh, your back already… Oh...” Beatrice titled her head as she walked down the hallway from Aria’s bedroom. She wasn't expecting to see Jasper entering the doorway. “Jasper…” she said with a small sigh.

“I want to see my sister…” Jasper admitted sheepishly as he waited by the front door, expecting to send back.

Beatrice held her hands out and motioned for Jasper to come over, to which he did. He hugged Beatrice once he got to her, being picked up.

“You’re almost too old to be picked up anymore, Jasper,” Beatrice said with a soft giggle as she held Jasper.

Jasper shook his head in response to her statement. He then turned his head to investigate Aria’s bedroom, as much as he could see.

Beatrice followed his gaze and sighed softly. “Jasper… You really should go ba-“ Beatrice started before a soft voice came from Aria’s bedroom.

“Jasper?” Aria called out, hearing his name being said.

“Aria!” Jasper exclaimed, moving in Beatrice’s arms to get down. Beatrice set him down on the ground, but kept a hand on his shoulder, holding him in place.

“He is here, but I am going to send him back to my place for the night...” Beatrice answered Aria, and before she could speak to Jasper again, Aria spoke again.

“Please… Let him come here,” Aria replied.

Beatrice waited a moment before she lifted her hand off Jasper’s shoulder. "Okay," she said softly, letting him go into her bedroom.

Jasper walked towards the room his sister was in, Beatrice behind him. He walked through the doorframe. The darkness in the room made it hard to see, but he was able to make out his sister, who was laying down.

Jasper stood still for a moment, unsure of what to do. He could tell that something wasn’t right, but he couldn’t see anything due to the darkness. He saw her lift her arm, and gently pat the spot beside her. “Come here,” she whispered.

Jasper made his way over, carefully laying down beside her. “Are you okay?” Jasper asked after a moment of silence between the three of them in the room.

Aria didn’t reply at first, she just moved the blanket that was on top of her, so it was also covering her brother. Once he was covered up as well, she ran her hand through her brother’s hair. “I’ll be okay,” she finally replied. Her response confused Jasper, but he couldn’t ask another question as she fell back asleep again.

“I remember laying there for a while, not able to fall asleep,” Jasper mentioned. “I wasn’t expecting to see what I did in the morning time though,” he said, as he ran his hands through his hair. “From what I’ve gathered, and heard from people, as I was never told...” Jasper continued as he let out a sigh, his hands dropping back down. “Conan had waited until we left, and went to go pay her a visit,” Jasper said, emphasizing words in his sentence. “She had some bruises, and a few cuts on her,” Jasper explained. “I understood why they didn’t want me to see her,” he muttered.

“After that, she was… different... ”Jasper trailed off, thinking for a moment. “I would try to talk to her from time to time, but she always seemed… distant…” Jasper explained, letting out a sigh.

“A few years later my father informed me that Conan had went and become a mercenary... I don’t think it was by choice,” Jasper added. “Since that news, Aria has always been cautious around any mercenary. Unsure of when he would show up again, although… She did go back to normal with my father and I after hearing that news.”

Ruth stayed silent for a moment, giving Jasper a moment to collect his thoughts. “Thank you for the explanation,” Ruth said after a moment.

“Like I said,” Jasper started quietly. “It’s not all of it… Aria would be able to give you everything, if she would talk about it. She’s never told me anything about it though.”

“I’m not going to ask her to talk about it,” Ruth insisted, leaning forward in his chair. “I don’t think that would be a good idea, however…” Ruth said, trailing off for a second. “I will say, I will do everything I can to keep him away from you three. I’ll also speak to Rifta-“ Ruth stopped as the door to the library opened.

Both Jasper and Ruth turned to look at the door as Riftan entered the room. “Should have known,” he said with a huff, before he walked further into the room.

Jasper looked back and Ruth, thinking of the last words Ruth had said. “No,” Jasper said, getting Ruth’s attention. “Don’t. Let me… at least talk to her first,” he said quietly as Riftan made his way over to them.

“Ruth, if you don’t mind, I need you for something,” Riftan said as he walked up to the table.

“Okay...” Ruth replied, looking from Jasper to Riftan, answering both of them.

“Go to the construction area. I’ll meet you there in a few minutes, I need to grab someone else.” Riftan explained as walked back out of the room, leaving the door open behind him.

“Well,” Ruth said, as he stood up. “I better go then,” he added as he started to walk away from the table.

Jasper called out to him again, asking a question. “Why did you want to know this?” Jasper questioned, not looking at Ruth, but instead out of the window in front of him.

Ruth stopped walking, turning his head to look at Jasper after his question. He silently contemplated an answer, as he wasn’t quite sure himself. “I…” He started, thinking again. “It’s something I can’t quite explain myself,” He replied.

“Alright,” Jasper said, before asking another question. “What are your feelings towards my sister?” Jasper questioned, now looking towards him. He had gotten sidetracked earlier form his questions. But that was still one that lingered in his mind.

Ruth's POV

Silence enveloped them for a few seconds as Ruth thought. He himself wasn't quite sure of how to answer that question. It's true he didn't hold normal feelings towards her, but how would he explain it.

Ruth caught Jasper’s eyes before he answered him. “Aria’s… kind of like air to me,” Ruth replied, a small smirk forming on his lips at his answer. He knew that didn't answer his question, however that was the best he could respond with. He watched Jasper’s face turn to confusion as Jasper tried to process what Ruth had said.

Before Jasper could question him more, Ruth walked out of the library, leaving the door open.

As Ruth walked towards the construction area he thought back as to what Jasper had told him. Ruth let out a sigh as he walked. His mind spinning with all the information. Ruth didn’t even notice when he reached the construction area. He only noticed when he overheard the conversations of the mercenaries around him.

Ruth leaned up against a wall as he waited for Riftan, trying to tune out the conversations of those around him. For the most part, he was able to tune out the conversations. However he heard a name that made him turn towards the speaker.

“Conan, where were you last night?” One of the mercenaries asked. They were a few feet away from Ruth, talking in a small group. Ruth searched within the group for Conan. It didn’t take him long to find, as he was rather tall, the tallest one in the group.

“Just… searching for something,” Conan replied. Once the words came from his mouth, his eyes looked over to Ruth, and a smirk playing at his face. “I’ll be right back,” Conan said to the group before he started to walk towards Ruth.

Ruth showed slight annoyance at the man walking towards him. He wasn’t sure if he would have shown the same annoyance if he hadn’t talked to Jasper beforehand. However, since he had, he didn’t bother trying to hide any dislike, or annoyance for the man who approached him.

“Yes?” Ruth asked as soon as Conan was close to him.

“Well hello to you,” Conan said as he leaned against the wall beside Ruth. He kept his voice low, not letting others overhear. “I’ll assume,” he started before raising his eyebrows and looking at Ruth. “That you’ve been made aware of my past?” Conan questioned, his smirk growing.

Ruth stayed silent as he looked at the man beside him now. The man stood taller than Ruth by a foot, and his muscle build was more in lines with Hebaron or Riftan. Ruth had gotten used to men of that stature, so looking at this man – he wasn’t intimidated by him.

After a moment he gave a small shrug in place of an answer to Conan’s question. “It doesn’t really matter if I have or not,” Ruth matched his volume.

“I guess that’s true,” Conan said, looking up towards the sky as he spoke again. “I will say one thing though… It’s not like that anymore.”

Ruth stopped himself from rolling his eyes as Conan spoke. “I’ll say one thing as well…” Ruth started, before Conan continued speaking.

“All I want anymore,” Conan continued, not listening to what Ruth was saying. “I would like the life back that I lost,” Conan said, dropping his gaze back down to Ruth again. “Ever since I was 16, I was forced into this life,” Conan said, gesturing towards the other mercenaries. “Not something I was ever interested in to be honest…” Conan shrugged.

“From what I’ve understood, that happened due to your actions,” Ruth pointed out.

“Mmm…” Conan hummed, thinking for a minute. “From what I understand… I lost a lot of my life due to the bit-“

“Alright,” Ruth said, pushing himself off from the wall. “I’ve heard enough… Just stay away from the three of them,” Ruth warned, before he started to walk away.

Ruth got a step away before his wrist was grabbed, pulling him back. A few of the mercenaries around watched the scene unfold.

The two of them stayed silent for a moment, waiting for the onlooker’s attention to be pulled to something else. Once everyone had stopped paying attention to them, Ruth spoke in a low hiss.

“Do you mind?” He questioned.

“No, no I don’t,” Conan smirked before he continued. “Just stay out of my way, and you don’t have to get hurt,” Conan warned, before he let Ruth’s wrist go.

Before Ruth could reply to his threat, he felt someone grab a hold of his other wrist. Shocked, Ruth turned to see who it was.

Ruth stared, stunned, at Aria as she took a few deep breaths, winded. “Aria…?” He questioned.

Aria's POV

“Come in,” Aria called out after a knock on the door. She watched as Jasper walked into the room, closing the door behind him. She rearranged herself on the bed so her brother could sit beside her.

“What did Ruth want?” Aria asked, as Jasper walked across the room. Jasper give extra room to Lily and the cat she was playing with on the ground as he made his way to the bed. He sat down beside Aria, staying silent for a moment before he let out a sigh.

“Well…” Jasper started, looking at Lily as he spoke. “He told me that Conan was one of the mercenaries,” Jasper said, not waiting for a response from Aria as he spoke. “He also wanted to know if we had any connection to him.”

Aria felt her face pale at the mention of Conan’s name. “Did you…” She whispered to him.

Jasper stayed silent for a moment, causing Aria to start to worry. “Jasper…” She groaned. She opened her mouth to start speaking again, but she was stopped by her brother.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Jasper asked, now looking at Aria. Before she could answer he asked another question. “Are you just expecting nothing to happen?”

“I…” Aria started, sighing. “I was going to tell you… Just…” She trailed off, sighing again.

“Let me guess… You were going to try to deal with it by yourself, hope that maybe he didn’t bother you.” Jasper said, trying to keep his voice down so Lily wouldn’t start to pay attention to their conversation.

“I didn’t want you to worry, and I didn’t want anyone here to… I didn’t want to bring up past things,” Aria stammered. She didn’t want to bring anyone else in on her past issues.

“Aria,” Jasper started, taking a deep breath. “Last time… You…” Jasper trailed off, letting Aria stop him before he said more.

“Nothing will happen,” Aria claimed. She knew she couldn’t be sure about her statement, however, she wanted to believe she was right. “So please don’t worry…” she said with a small smile.

After a moment, Aria changed the topic, wanting that conversation to end. “Where is Ruth anyway?” She asked, as her attention went back down to Lily who had started to listen to them as they spoke.

“Riftan came in and asked for him for a bit in the construction area,” Jasper explained with a small shrug. Once he had said that Lily jumped up from the ground and ran over to the window.

“I want to see if I can see him,” she said as she stood up on her tippytoes, looking out the window.

Aria let out a small chuckle as she watched Lily look outside the window. But before she could make a comment, Jasper was already questioning her again.

“Aria,” Jasper started, waiting for Aria’s attention. Once he had her attention, he continued. “I’ve been wondering… what are your feelings towards Ruth…?”

Aria’s face flushed at the question. “J… Jasper…” She stammered, giving a small laugh. Was she even sure how she felt? She would be lying to herself if she said she didn’t like him at all. However, she wasn’t sure it her feelings were just that of friendship or something more.

After a moment she let out another small laugh, still trying to formulate an answer. When she opened her mouth to speak Lily tapped the glass. “I found him!” She exclaimed, turning back to speak to Aria and Jasper.

Aria took her chance to get out of answering the question from her brother. She stood up from the bed, walking over the window. “You did?” She questioned, looking outside to where Lily had pointed.

Once Aria spotted him, her gaze moved to the person who he was with, and she felt her body freeze for a moment.

Conan...

'Why was Ruth talking to Conan?' She thought to herself.

She continued watching, keeping silent. She watched as Ruth started to walk away, she felt relief wash over her, but it didn’t last long. She saw Conan reach out, grabbing Ruth’s wrist.

“Jasper…” She whispered as she turned away from the window. “I’ll be back, look after Lily,” she said as she made her way to the door. Ignoring any questions that were arising from Jasper, she left the room.

Once Aria was out of her room, she started sprinting. She took the fastest route. She wasn’t quite sure what Ruth and Conan were talking about, but she knew what Conan was like. She thought about all the previous threats he made when they were younger, and she let out a groan.

The maids that were in the hallway gave her a curious look as she sprinted past them. But none questioned her as she ran past them. Once Aria was outside, she followed the road she knew would lead her to where they were.

After a moment of running through the roads, she spotted them. They hadn’t moved. ‘Thank god,’ she thought to herself seeing that nothing had happened. Aria sprinted the rest of the way towards them, only slowing down when she was closer. She reached her hand out, grabbing Ruth’s wrist.

“Aria…?” she heard Ruth question, but she didn’t respond. She instead was looking at Conan, who was now looking at her, his smirk deepening.

taglist: @kunikida-simp, @tylerhasmyheart

[ruthserbel]

Fanfiction Information [x] Chapter Title: Birth of a Wish (pt. 2) Release Date: Feb 26th, 2023 Word Count: 4.4k Content Warnings: N/A Notes: I've removed the 'Summary' portion from this, as I hate writing them. My brain just can't write summaries to save my life. Anyway, hello again. Sorry I've been MIA when it comes to writing this. Some may know, but I got very sick, so that's why this has been delayed. Anyway, I'm better now, so expect chapters again. Last note I want to add, I've made a taglist request form, which you can find on my pinned post. If you want to be tagged, please fill that out!

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“Sir,” Ulyseon called out as he moved his arm around Lily, pulling her closer to him.

Once Ulyseon called out to Riftan, everyone had stopped. Many knights were jumping from their horses. It was then that Aria saw it. Glowing eyes in the forest, slowly making their way towards them.

Behind Aria, Ruth slid off his cloak, passing it to Ulyseon. “Cover Lily with this,” he said as he slid down from the horse. “You two stay here with these three,” Ruth said to the two knights before sprinting over to Riftan.

“It’s not a dog?” Lily questioned the few that were left as Ulyseon wrapped Ruth’s cloak around her.

“No, it isn’t,” Ulyseon replied, flipping the hood over on the cloak, which fully covered Lily's face, blocking her view. “It might be annoying, but please keep the hood over your eyes for a bit Lily.” Ulyseon said once Lily tried to lift the hood off her head.

“But why?” Lily questioned as she tried again to lift the hood off. “I can’t see anything,” she added when she was stopped again, this time by Jasper who was leaning over slightly.

“Lily,” he said as he fixed the hood again, so it fully covered her face. “It won’t be for long,” Jasper added once he was done. He moved so he was sitting properly again on the horse and looked over to his sister. He could tell Aria wasn’t paying attention to their conversation.

Aria’s fingers gripped the reins as she watched ahead of them. She didn’t even notice her brother watching her, nor the conversation that was happening. Her eyes were fixed to the knights, as they drew their swords and slashed at the werewolf swiftly. Aria winced as she watched, but she didn’t close her eyes.

It wasn’t long before all the werewolves were dealt with, and the knights were walking their way back over. Aria scanned the group, her eyes landing on Ruth who was walking beside Riftan. Aria closed her eyes, letting out a small sigh of relief that no one seemed to be injured. She started to shift herself forward on the horse slightly so Ruth would have room to get back on the horse behind her.

“Ulyseon,” Ruth called out, which made Aria open her eyes at his tone. When her eyes found Ruth again, she saw a large ball of light growing in his hand rapidly. Before she could comprehend what was happening, she felt the reins in her hand being pulled. The horse moved closer to where Ulyseon’s horse was.

Aria turned to look in the direction Ruth was looking, and that’s when she realized what was happening. Ten feet away from her stood a werewolf, snarling its teeth at her.

Before she could react, the werewolf had started to lunge at her. Aria winced, closing her eyes at the impending pain she was expecting.

After a second, she heard a sound of something passing her, then the sound of an animal whimper. Aria opened her eyes in time to see the werewolf fall to the ground.

“Aria,” Ruth called out as he ran over to her once the werewolf showed no signs of getting back up.

Aria’s eyes met Ruth’s for a second. Her brain was fogged from what had just happened.

“Are you alright?” Ruth questioned, still looking at her.

Aria went to speak, but nothing came out. She cleared her throat, before giving a small nod. “Uh…” she started to reply before Gabel started speaking, horses away from them. Both Ruth and Aria lifted their heads to look in the direction of Gabel as he spoke.

“We should move before more come,” Gabel said, which Riftan agreed with.

Ruth gave a small sigh, before looking back to Aria. “Sorry Aria... We will be stopping for the night soon, just a little bit longer.” Ruth said as he pulled himself back up behind Aria on the horse. He grabbed the reins from Ulyseon, who was still holding them.

Once Ulyseon let go of the reins, he started to uncover Lily, who was still covered up by Ruth’s cloak.

“Finally,” Lily exclaimed once she could see again.

Ruth let out a small chuckle before he leaned forward to whisper into Aria’s ear. “Before we leave… Are you okay?” He asked Aria, keeping his voice low so no one else could hear them.

Aria nodded slightly before whispering as well. “Yeah, I’m fine…” She lifted her fingers, fiddling with them. “Thank you by the way,” she added in a whisper. “I didn’t even notice…” she said, looking back at the werewolf that was still on the ground. She now noticed a small circle burn wound on the werewolf.

Aria thought back to before, remembering the ball of light in Ruth’s hand. ‘Fire,’ she corrected herself. “Wait,” she whispered, before she turned her head to look at Ruth’s hands. “But that was fire,” she said, confused. His hands showed no sign of being burn, unlike the werewolves wound.

Ruth held back a chuckle at her concern for his hand. “No, it’s fine,” he said holding his left hand up to show her. “See, nothing.” He whispered turning his hand over to show her both sides.

“But how…?” Aria questioned. She had general knowledge of wizards – mainly those who used healing to help others. However, she had never seen it done in front of her before, let alone someone using fire in front of her. Aria lifted her hand to touch his hand, running her finger across the top of his hand in surprise.

“I’ll explain it to you later,” he said as the rest of the group started to move again. Ruth leaned back again, and their travels went the same as they had before, minus Lily calling out animals. Instead, Lily had pulled Ruth's cloak that she was wrapped with close to her. She eventually leaned back against Ulyseon, closing her eyes.

The knights stopped shortly before nightfall. They all tied their horses off on trees around them.

Ruth led his horse over to a tree, then slid down from behind Aria.  While Ruth was tying the horses reins around a close tree, Aria attempted to slide down from the horse. As she moved her leg to slide off the horse, she felt her other leg cramp at the movement. She let out a short scream as she felt herself falling backwards off the horse.

Before she hit the ground, she felt someone put their arms behind her, stopping her a foot above the ground.

“Are we going to make a habit of me catching you?” Ruth questioned jokingly from above her, smirking at her.

Aria let out a small groan as started to stand back up. “No, I’m sorry. I didn’t notice my legs were this sore until I moved,” she explained as Ruth helped her stand up.

“Yeah… Sorry about that, I should have warned you,” Ruth said once she was standing again. “If it helps, tomorrow we only have to travel about half of what we did today,” Ruth said as he went back to tying off his horse.

Aria nodded as she watched Ruth finish tying up the horse. Around her the rest of the knights started to get to work. Some worked on setting up tents, and some started to get an area ready to prepare a meal. Ulyseon brought Lily – who was still asleep over after a few minutes.

“I’m not sure if I should wake her up or not,” he said as he handed her to Aria.

“No, we should let her sleep for now,” Aria replied, then looked around. “Is it okay if I take her over there so we stay out of everyone’s way?” Aria asked, looking over to a small patch of grass away from where the knights were working.

“Yeah,” Ulyseon replied, following her gaze.

“Okay,” Aria said. Instead of starting to walk, Aria looked around for a few seconds, trying to find Ruth. She hadn’t even noticed him disappearing from beside her.

“I’ll let Ruth know,” Ulyseon said after a moment of Aria looking around.

Once Ulyseon had correctly guessed what Aria was looking around for, her face went a slight shade of pink. ‘Am I that easy to read?’ she thought to herself, before she nodded. “Thank you,” she said to Ulyseon, hiding her face from him.

Aria turned around and was about to start walking away before Ulyseon spoke again. “Oh, I’ll also let your brother know,” from behind her. Her face went a darker shade of pink.

“Th… Thank you again,” she said, without turning her back.

The knights made quick work of setting up some tents and preparing some food. Aria and Lily stayed in the small area she had pointed out to Ulyseon. After a while, her brother had stopped by, bringing a blanket for both Aria and Lily to use.

Aria took off Ruth’s cloak that was still on Lily, and she set it aside for a moment. She covered Lily up with the blanket that Jasper had brought over. Once done, she picked Ruth’s cloak up again, and looked around for Ruth. When she couldn’t see Ruth again, she set the cloak down on her lap.

After a while, Jasper joined them again, bringing them food to eat. Jasper woke Lily up, handing her the food. They ate with commentary from the now energetic Lily.

Once they finished eating, Aria took the dishes over to where they were being piled up. She looked around again for Ruth. This time she found him sitting beside Riftan, talking to each other.

Aria made her way back over to Lily and Jasper. Lily ran up to her meeting her halfway, hugging her leg when she reached her.

“Aria… Jasper said I need to go back to bed,” she pouted, as she held onto Aria’s leg, looking up at her. “I’m not tired though,” she continued.

Aria let out a slight laugh as she looked down at the little girl. “You’re not tired because you were just asleep.” Aria said, before she reached down, holding her hand out for Lily to take instead. “Why don’t we go lay down in the tent for a while,” Aria offered. “If you don’t fall asleep after a while, we can go outside again,” she added as Lily took her hand.

Lily thought for a moment, before she nodded. “Okay,” she said as she started to walk towards where the tents where, pulling Aria along as she walked.

“Goodnight,” Jasper said as they got close to him again. He had collected Lily’s blanket and the one he had brought over for Aria, as well as Ruth’s cloak. He handed all those over to Aria, who held them in her free hand.

After Aria had the blankets and cloak, Lily started to walk again, not replying to Jasper. Jasper let out a quiet laugh as he watched Lily pull Aria towards the tents again.

Once they got into the empty tent, Lily walked over to the makeshift bed that was in the far back corner. “This one,” she said as she knelt on the makeshift bed then pointed to the one beside it. “Can you sleep there?” she asked Aria, who was setting down Lily’s blanket beside where Lily had selected.

“Yeah,” Aria replied, and she set down the cloak and blanket down at the top of her bed.

Lily let out a sigh after a moment, looking back over to Aria. “I’m not tired…” she murmured before she threw herself down on the makeshift bed.

Aria let out a small laugh as Lily laid down. Kneeling beside her, she grabbed Lily’s blanket and covered her up. “You promised you would try,” Aria said as she tucked Lily in. Once she was done, she ran her fingers through Lily’s hair.

Lily smiled when Aria ran her fingers through her hair. “Aria,” she said, looking over to her. “Can you… play with my hair?” Lily asked, still smiling. “That might help me sleep,” she said, her smile turning into a smirk. Aria knew she only wanted her to play with her hair, and it had nothing to do with her sleeping.

Aria thought for a moment before shrugging. ‘Can’t hurt,’ she thought to herself before she moved so she could sit between the top of her and Lily’s bed. “Sure,” she said, and she tapped her hand on the pillow that was there for Lily. “Put your head here,” she instructed.

Lily did as Aria instructed and moved so her head was close to Aria.

Aria placed her hand on Lily’s head and started to run her fingers through Lily’s hair. The two stayed silent for a while, Aria moving her fingers around Lily’s head.

After what felt like a long time, Lily mumbled, her tiredness coming back to her. “Aria…” she said moving her head, so it was now resting on Aria’s knee instead of the pillow.

“Hmm?” Aria hummed questioningly as Lily moved herself. She waited for a moment for a reply from Lily. But when Lily started to murmur again, Aria could only make out one word – family.

Her fingers stopped moving for a moment while she tried to think about what Lily had said. After a while, she eventually gave up, and started to move her fingers again through Lily’s hair.

Silence fell between them as Lily fell asleep again.

“I knew you would fall asleep again,” Aria said, now to herself. She didn’t stop moving her fingers through Lily’s hair even though she was asleep. They stayed like this for a while, until the sun had almost completely set.

With the sun falling, the air started to feel cold again. Aria looked towards the top of her bed for the blanket she had set there. She carefully tried to reach for it, but without moving Lily, she couldn’t reach it. Instead, her hands landed on the cloak. She picked the cloak up, straighten her back.

‘Ruth is going to want this back,’ she thought to herself. She looked between the blanket and the cloak for a moment, feeling the cold air against herself. 'I guess I'll have someone toss me the blanket when they come in, then I can give this back to him.' Aria thought as she wrapped the cloak around her shoulders, letting it cover her arms.

Aria arranged the cloak so only her one hand was coming out, which she placed back on Lily’s head. She started moving her fingers through Lily's hair again. Aria felt her body start to warm up, and with that came a rush of tiredness. She lifted her hand from Lily’s head, sliding it under the cloak as well, letting out a small yawn.

‘Where is everyone?’ she thought to herself, as she closed her eyes, succumbing to sleep.

Through fog, Aria felt someone move something off her leg. She let out a small groan as they did so.

“Aria,” she heard someone whisper.

Aria groaned again as a reply, not opening her eyes. She then felt arms wrap around her, lifting her up slightly.

“Aria,” they whispered again. “It’s not good to sleep like this,” they said as they moved her slightly. Shortly after they picked her up, Aria was being placed back down. This time on something a lot softer than the ground.

Once Aria was set down on the soft surface, she felt the hands that were wrapped around her move to her shoulder. The person slowly lowered her, so her body was laying down instead. Once her body was straight, she let out another soft groan. She could now feel the slight pain in her back from sitting – although she was unsure how long she had been laying for.

“I must have fallen asleep after she did,” Aria said through her daze, and she felt a blanket rest on her body. Aria moved her hand out from under the blanket, reaching out. She grabbed onto the person’s hand. “Thank you, Jas,” she whispered, assuming the person she had been talking to was Jasper. Before the person could say anything else, she fell back into a sleep, still holding onto the hand.

Aria groaned as the sun started to hit her eyes. She reached both of her hands up to cover her eyes, blocking out the sun.

“Good morning, Aria,” the voice from the night before said.

Aria stirred and moved her arms down from covering her eyes. She slowly opened her eyes, expecting to see her brother beside her. When her eyes focused on the person beside her, she realized it was Ruth.

She quickly sat up, looking around. She saw that Jasper was awake a few beds away from where she was, folding the blankets. She saw Ulyseon and Garrow were walking out of the tent. Lily was the only person who was still asleep.

Aria felt the cape that she had wrapped around herself start to fall off her shoulders. She quickly clasped with her fingers before she spoke again. “Who… Who moved me here last night?” She asked, her eyes looking at the makeshift bed she was now sitting on. She let her hair fall from behind her ears, covering her face, which was starting to go a light pink.

“That would be me,” Ruth answered her quietly, moving closer to her. Once he was close enough, he reached his hands out, tying the strings that were on the cape around her neck.

Aria looked down as he tied the cape around her. She felt her face getting hotter as she thought about the previous night. “I… I thought it was Jasper… Not you,” Aria said, her face going deeper pink. “I’m sorry,” she murmured.

Ruth let out a small laugh as she started to stammer out of embarrassment. “It’s fine,” he said quietly. After a few seconds, he tied a small bow in the strings. His fingers lingering on the strings for a second before he brought them back.  “There… It shouldn’t fall off now.”

Aria slowly lifted her head as he moved away from her. However,  she let the hair that was acting as a curtain for her face stay where it was. “Thank you… Although… Don’t you want this back?” Aria asked and her hands moved to the bow that Ruth had tied around her neck.

“No, it’s fine,” Ruth said as he started to stand up again. “Keep it f-” Ruth started before hearing a voice come from behind him.

“Oh, good morning, Aria,” Jasper said as he walked over behind Ruth, holding his folded blanket. “You went to sleep early last night,” he added as he reached them.

Aria lifted her head a bit more to look at her brother. “Good morning, Jas,” she said before lowering her hands back to her blanket. She bunched the blanket up in her hands before she replied to him. “Yeah… I guess I was sleepy,” she said with a small shrug as she started to fold the blanket up. She used the opportunity to keep her face away from Ruth and Jasper as her face went back to normal.

Once she finished folding up the blanket, she started to stand up, and she held the blanket in her hand. “Where should these go?” she asked, turning towards Ruth and Jasper. Ruth was now holding two blankets, one of which was Jasper’s.

“I’ll take them,” he said as he reached out his hand to Aria.

Aria handed him her blanket. “Thank you,” she said as he placed her blanket on top of the other ones. “I’ll get Lily’s,” she said turning towards Lily – who was starting to sit up due to the noise going on around her.

“Don’t worry about it… She might want it today,” Ruth said as Jasper started to walk over to Garrow, talking with him.

“Okay,” Aria said before Ruth turned and left the tent.

The knights worked to get the tents all down again, and some had prepared a small meal. Ulyseon had come to get Lily once she was done eating so they could get her settled on the horse again. Once she was up on the horse again, Jasper had laid the blanket that was left out for Lily in front of her on the horse.

Aria slowly made her way over to where Ruth had tied up his horse from the day before. She saw Ruth there already, untying the horse.

Aria waited silently, watching Ruth untie his horse from the tree. Once he was done, he spun around, and gave her a small smile as he led the horse closer to her. “You ready?” he asked, when the horse stopped a few feet away from her.

Aria gave a small nod, trying to remember how she got on the horse from yesterday. She was still intimidated by the height, but she knew from yesterday she could do it.

With Ruth’s help, Aria was able to get up on the horse, and Ruth got up behind her again.

Shortly after, everyone was ready to leave, and similarly to the day before, everyone set off again.

Just as Ruth had promised, the travels for the day had taken half of the day. Once they got closer, Aria was able to see the castle. Her eyes opened wider in shock when she had seen it. Sure, when she was younger, they had gone to the capital. When they had went, she had seen the castle there, but she was now going to be staying here? Inside of one?

Aria zoned out as they traveled through the front gates. She hadn't even noticed when many of the knights had left them. When she came back to, only their small group and Riftan were left. Aria looked around as Riftan spoke, explaining a few things.

“You three will be put in separate guest rooms for now,” he explained to them. “Ruth, I’ll let you show them where,” he said before he got off his horse, handing the reins to one of the workers that was there. “Can you take the horses to the stables?” He asked the worker before walking away after their nod. “Garrow, Ulyseon, see me once the horses are away,” he said as he was walking away.

“Well, I guess he’s going to be grumpy now that we’re back,” Garrow said as he got off the horse, Jasper following shortly after.

“Now he gets to constantly be reminded that Maxi is gone.” Ulyseon said as he handed Lily to Jasper before he got off the horse himself.

Aria tilted her head slightly, confused by their conversation. “Maxi?” she questioned quietly.

Ruth slid off the horse from behind her. “His wife,” Ruth said quietly, and he held his hand out for Aria. “It’s a… long story…” Ruth said as Aria slowly got off the horse.

“Thanks,” Aria said, as she brushed off her pants once she was on the ground.

Ruth handed the reins of his horse to Ulyseon before both him and Garrow started to walk the horses to the stables.

“Why is he grumpy to be back here?” Aria asked Ruth after the other two knights had gotten farther away.

Ruth let out a small sigh, one side of his mouth curling down as he thought about something. “Later,” he said after a moment.

Aria gave a small nod, not wanting to push the matter too far. After their conversation had petered off, Jasper and Lily walked over to them. The group of them walked into the castle, with Ruth directing them. He led them upstairs and walked down a hallway. He pointed out a few rooms along the way.

“This is the library. Most of the time you can find me there,” he said as he walked past the door, then he stopped a few doors down from it. He opened the door in front of them and walked inside. “Lily, this will be your room.” Ruth said.

Once Ruth had said that this would be Lily’s bed, Lily jumped up onto the bed lying face down on the bed. After a moment, she turned her face so she could speak. “This bed is massive,” she said with a small giggle.

“It is, isn’t it?” Jasper said as he walked over to the bed, sitting down beside her on the bed.

“We’ve set it up so you two are close to her,” Ruth said as he moved back to the door. He pointed across the hall to another door. “Jasper, your room is that one,” Ruth explained before he turned his hand slightly to point down the hallway. “Aria, your room is one down from here.”

Both Aria and Jasper nodded as Ruth said where their rooms were going to be.

Ruth waited a moment before he spoke again. “If it’s okay with everyone here, I’ll let you all relax, and take a nap after these two days of travel... I need to tidy up some things in the library. I’ll come get you guys around dinner time.”

“Sure… Thank you Ruth,” Jasper said stood up from Lily’s bed.

Lily crawled further up on the bed as the three of them left the room, leaving the door open. Jasper crossed the hallway and went into his room before looking back at Aria and Ruth. Both of whom had stopped walking once they had gotten outside of Lily’s room. “I’m going to take a nap…” He said looking at Aria specifically as he spoke.

Aria nodded before she gave him a small wave. Jasper slowly closed his door behind himself. Once he did, Aria and Ruth stood in silence for a moment before Ruth broke the silence.

“I’ll come back in a few hours. If you need anything, come find me,” Ruth said as he turned to start walking away.

Aria nodded, and she watched him walk away. Once he had entered the library, she finally spun around, and walked towards the room that Ruth had said was hers.

Aria walked inside the room, closing the door behind her. She looked around the room. ‘This… is home I guess for now. I just hope nothing goes wrong now… Please…’ She thought to herself as she walked over to the bed, sitting down on the side of it.

She let out a small sigh after a moment of just sitting on the bed. She moved so she could lay down on the bed. Before long, Aria slowly fell into a sleep.

taglist: @tylerhasmyheart

[ruthserbel]

Fanfiction Information [x] Chapter Title: Chapter 6 (pt. 2) Song: The Killing Kind by Marianas Trench Lyric: One for the memory, two for the pain Release Date: June 11th, 2023 Word Count: 3.3k Content Warnings: Harassment (aka, past Conan warning) Notes: So this is the second part of the last chapter that's taken a while due to me being sick, and also very indecisive on how I wanted to write this. I've finally come up with something I like. Next chapter I am aiming for two weeks from now, since that I feel a lot better. :)

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Ruth's POV

Ruth raised his eyebrows in response to her request, casting a glance towards the window. Although he was certain it was late, he couldn't catch a glimpse of the moon. "For a bit," he replied, despite the exhaustion creeping over him.

Upon hearing Ruth's response, Aria shifted on the bed, tapping the empty space beside her. "Alright," Ruth whispered, making his way back to the bed. Settling down at the foot of the bed, he turned to face Aria.

Once he was sitting on the bed, she laid down again, covering herself up with the blanket once more. "Thank you," Aria said once she was curled up in the blankets.

The two of them talked for a bit, although Aria's drunken state caused her side of the conversation to be nonsensical at times. The two of them didn't talk about anything of importance, just general conversations. After a while, Ruth let out a small chuckle.

"Aria... You should get some sleep," he whispered after a while, stifling a yawn behind his hand. "I need to rest too," he added, aware that it was likely very late by now.

Aria gave a small nod after a moment as a reply. "Fine," she said quietly, and she closed her eyes. Just as Ruth began to rise from the bed, Aria's voice from behind him stopped him in his tracks.

"But... You'll stay here, right?" she questioned Ruth, her one eye open again, watching him as he moved.

Ruth turned to look at her, not saying anything at first, which caused her to open both eyes. "Please?" she added after moment of silence.

Ruth thought for a moment, before he nodded. "Alright," he said as he continued to stand up again. "I'll sleep on the floor," he added after a moment, guestering to the floor.

Aria attempted to protest, but Ruth swiftly stopped her. "It's fine," he reassured her, placing a few extra blankets on the ground. "I'm used to sleeping on harder surfaces," he said as he folded one blanket so it would he could lay on it. "Besides... I don't think it would be appropriate if we shared a bed right now, would you not agree?" Ruth questioned.

"True..." Aria muttered, closing her eyes again as Ruth started on his makeshift bed. He worked quietly, piling a few blankets together so there was a slight cushion under him while he slept.

Once he was done, he turned to look at Aria again - who had fallen asleep in the time it took him to make the makeshift bed. "Goodnight," he said as he let out a quiet chuckle. He then laid down in the bed he had made for himself, quickly falling asleep after he settled down.

Ruth awoke to a strange sound - he heard a few grumbles, and murmuring coming from beside him. As he opened his eyes, his room was illuminated by the moon which was coming in through the window now. The light helped him see around his room as he sat up - confused as to why he was on the floor instead of his bed. He looked towards his bed, seeing a figure in his bed.

"Right," Ruth mumbled quietly to himself as he remembered why he was on the ground. Aria was still asleep, back towards him in his bed. The noise he had heard came from Aria, who was muttering in her sleep.

Ruth laid back down, closing his eyes again. Unlike last time he laid down, he was not able to fall asleep right away. He laid there, listening to the sounds around him. After a few minutes of him laying there, he heard a quiet gasp coming from Aria's direction.

The light that had been seeping through his eyelids vanished as he heard Aria shifting in the bed. Ruth looked over towards the window, which was now blocked by Aria, who was sitting up. Ruth sat up as well, still looking at Aria. He was about to talk to her when he noticed a few tears rolling down her face.

"What's wrong?" Ruth questioned quietly after a moment. "Are you alright?"

Aria jumped at the sudden sound from beside her. She looked towards Ruth on the ground, and shook her head. She wiped away the tears, trying to hide them. Although there wasn't much use to it, because as soon as she had done that, more came out.

Ruth shifted from where he was laying on the floor, to sit himself on the bed instead. He reached out grabbing the side of the blanket that was covering Aria. He lifted it to her face, using it to carefully wipe away the tears that were still coming out.

Normally when someone was upset, Ruth wasn't the person to deal with them. His personality wasn't particularly the best to deal with upset people. Ruth sat there for a bit, gently wiping the tears that were coming down her face, unsure what he should do in this case.

"I'm sorry," Aria whispered after a bit. Her tears had stopped, which allowed Ruth to drop his hand back down to his side. "I woke you up didn't I..." She added.

"No," Ruth replied quietly, shaking his head. "You didn't wake me."

She sniffed before she took a deep breath. "I had a bad dream..." she answered Ruth previous question now that she wasn't crying.

The girl lay back down on the bed, but this time she faced him. The light in the room showing that her eyes were red and puffy. She sighed loudly before she spoke again. "It wasn't really a nightmare though," Aria continued. "It..." Aria let out a sigh.

"Does it have to do with Conan?" Ruth questioned after her sigh.

"Yes..." she trailed off with a slight nod.

The two of them stayed silent for a bit. Eventually Aria broke the silence again, looking towards Ruth. "My brother told you most things, but did he talk about... that day?" Aria asked, emphasizing her words.

Ruth moved the blankets so they would cover Aria again now that she was laying down again in the bed. "He explained some things yes," Ruth replied with a small nod. "Everything he knew, that is." Ruth added.

"So... he told you most of what happened that day." Aria murmured, frowning slightly, fidgeting with her fingers under the blanket.

Ruth noticed her frown, and her fingers under the blanket. "If you don't want to talk about this, you don't have to," Ruth added after a moment. He didn't want to make her speak about it if it was going to bother her.

"No," Aria said, shaking her head. "There isn't much more to say about that day..." Aria trailed off as she spoke. Ruth sat silent as she continued speaking, listening to her. Aria explained things from her side of the stories, retelling a few of them.

"When my father first found out about everything, he was angry. I had just dealt with it, not wanting to make my father deal with anything. He was busy often, dealing with Jasper - although I helped with things I could." Aria explained after a bit of recounting stories. "I explained everything to him, and he brought it up to Conan's father. Conan got into a lot of trouble over it, and was told to never visit me again."

"I didn't see him for a while," Aria continued. "It had been months - so when my father and brother left for the day, I thought it was fine... Our neighbours were going to checked up on me a few times that day, making sure I was fine while my dad was gone."

"Everything was fine. I had spent most the day in my room just reading. It was a fairly quiet day, until the afternoon..." Aria paused for a moment. She had started to fiddle with her fingers under the blanket again as she spoke. "I heard someone come in. Figuring it was just my neighbors checking on me, I just told them where I was. Turns out, it was Conan. He had found out that my brother and father were gone for the day, so he decided to come talk with me."

"At first, it was fine. After a while though, he started with his normal act... I brushed him off, ignoring what he was saying..." Aria trailed off. Ruth stayed silent, letting her continue at her own pace.

"I asked him to leave after a bit, but he refused..." Aria continued. "He got angry, which at that point he would typically use Jasper as way to get me to agree to something. This time Jasper wasn't around - thankfully," Aria added quietly before she continued.

"Conan was realizing he had nothing to make me agree to anything, so he targeted his anger at me." Aria muttered, "and I ended up getting hurt."

Ruth remained silent. He didn't know what to say. If Aria wanted to talk about it, he was willing to listen.

"I tried to stop him, but he wouldn't listen," Aria continued. "Then he hit me across the face a few times..." Aria whispered. "It didn't last long... The neighbors heard the commotion, and both of them came over." Aria explained, letting out a sigh.

"My dad hadn't told them the full story with Conan. They knew that he wasn't supposed to be around me, so they were shocked to find him in my room. They were even more shocked to see me," Aria went on. "Before they could do anything with Conan, he had ran away."

"That night, my father and brother returned home. My father was furious... My brother had no clue what was happening, as they had him stay elsewhere that night... Although he did end up sneaking out and coming to find me." Aria admitted, with a small laugh, which quietly dissipated.

"Turns out, a few days later, Conan showed up again, and they had dealt with him. His father told him to leave. I guess he was worried that everyone would look down on him due to the actions of his son." Aria said, shaking her head. "I never did blame his father for anything. I'm not sure about my father, but I would like to think he didn't blame him due to his sons actions..."

Silence lingered around them as Aria finished talking for a bit. Ruth wasn't sure how to respond to hearing all of this. Before he could think more, or say anything, Aria broke the silence.

"I've always wondered if he ever regret hurting me," Aria whispered after a bit. "I... I don't think so," Aria murmured the last part, looking at Ruth as she finished.

"Hmm..." Ruth hummed after a moment, thinking back to his encounter with Conan earlier that day. He knew that he hadn't regretted it. Not at all, and instead still held a resentment towards her, but for a different reason now.

Aria shook her head. "It's... Over now..." she replied. "I hope..." She added after a second.

Ruth stayed silent for a bit. He wasn't sure if he should bring what Conan and he had talked about earlier. He knew that it would worry her, so he wasn't sure if he should let her know now or not.

Silence filled the room again as he thought. He debated on telling her, but he knew it would cause her a lot of stress, and worry. He knew that he still held resentment towards her, which could come out towards her or Jasper. 'I'll speak to Jasper for now,' Ruth decide, thinking to himself.

After a while, Ruth spoke quietly. "You should go back to sleep. It's late," he said, as he started to stand back up, but was stopped by Aria.

"Please," Aria begged softly. "Stay here with me..." she said, guestering to the spot beside her on the bed.

Ruth opened his mouth to protest her request, but he decided against it. After a moment of hesitation, he spoke. "I shouldn-" he started before Aria cut him off.

"Just until I fall asleep... Please..." Aria pleaded.

Ruth nodded. "Alright," he agreed as he laid down on his back beside her, leaving room between them. "Only until you fall asleep again," Ruth repeated her terms.

"Alright," she said quietly as she closed her eyes again, attempting to go back to sleep - which didn't take her long. Within a few minutes, Aria had fallen asleep again.

Despite Ruth's original intentions of moving when she was asleep, he ended up staying. He looked over to her as she slept. "I've never said this before..." Ruth muttered as he reached out, fixing a strand of her hair without waking her up. "But I have a feeling you're going to make my life fairly interesting..." Ruth finished, letting his hand rest down on the bed.

Ruth thought back to Jasper's question about what his feelings were towards her, and he let out a quiet laugh. He had responded in a confusing manner to Jasper - referring to Aria as air. Ruth knew that would make no sense to Jasper - nor to anyone else.

It's easy to live with air, but impossible to live without.

Although Aria hadn't been around for long, he was noticing that she seemed different from most to him. He had gotten used to spending most of his days with her, typically in the library.

Ruth had never really had feelings to anyone before. It was just people he could tolerate, and people he couldn't. So he was unsure of what his full feelings towards her were.

He let out a quiet yawn as he laid there. 'I'll have to figure this out, won't I?' Ruth thought to himself. His eyes slowly shut, and before he knew it, instead of getting up like he planned, he ended up closing his eyes and falling asleep.

Aria's POV

Aria covered her eyes as the sun started to pour into the room. She felt a splitting headache starting as she woke up. "My head..." Aria said, letting out a groan she rolled over in the bed. She wanted to go back to sleep again. Once she was turned away from the source of light coming into the bedroom, she threw her hand down on the bed.

As her hand landed, she heard a slap, followed by a murmur. Confused, Aria opened her eyes. Instead of her hand hitting the bed, it hit Ruth's arm.

"Well... Good morning to you too," Ruth muttered as his eyes opened.

Aria looked at Ruth quizzically. At first she was confused about why Ruth was in her room, but upon looking around she realized she wasn't in her room.

The room around her was completely different to hers. She saw a desk with papers scattered on it, as well as stacks of books lying around.

Aria looked back to Ruth, wanting to question him about there she was. She watched Ruth as he looked around himself for a moment, sitting up in the bed beside her.

"I must have fallen asleep on the bed," Ruth said after a moment before he let out a sigh.

Once he had said that, some of the memories had flooded back into her brain, causing her head to hurt again. Aria let out another groan as her head throbbed.

Beside Aria she heard Ruth let out a quiet laugh, before he spoke again. "I told you-" Ruth started, before he they heard a knock at the door.

"Ruth," Jasper called from the other side of the door.

The two of them stayed silent for a moment once they heard the voice. It wasn't until the knock happened again that Aria felt the bed shift as Ruth stood up.

"Coming," Ruth replied as he walked to the door.

As Ruth walked over to the door as Aria sat up on the bed, covering her mouth as she let out a yawn. At her movement, she felt her head throb again.

Ruth opened the door slightly; not enough for Jasper to see the whole room, but enough for Jasper and Ruth to speak. Aria heard Jasper's voice start speaking right away. "Do you know where my sister is? I checked her room and she wasn't there." Jasper asked, his voice laced with worry.

"Uh..." Ruth started, bringing his hand up to rub against the back of his neck. Ruth turned his head to look at Aria.

Jasper noticed this. "Is she here?" he asked, before Ruth could finish his reply.

Before Ruth could answer Jasper again, Aria was behind him. She opened the door more so her brother could see her. "Yes," she answered Jasper, who now looked shocked to see his sister there.

The three of them stood at the door - silent. Aria knew this would cause Jasper to ask her a bunch questions. Especially since she had not answered his question the day before.

"I'll leave you two to talk," Ruth spoke, breaking the silence among the group. He opened the door all the way, turning to Aria before he spoke again. "I'll be back with the water - hopefully that will help your head" he said before he walked away.

Aria and Jasper stayed silent as Ruth walked away, neither of them speaking until he had turned a corner. Jasper was the first to speak, breaking the silence.

"What... Why are you here?" he asked her.

Aria moved back over to the bed, sitting down again. Jasper took a few steps inside, closing the door behind him.

"I ended up realizing my drinking limit... Ruth found me in the dining area," Aria explained, lightly shrugging. She didn't remember most things about what led her to here. "I think I remember him saying something about me bothering you or Lily - but I can't be sure..." Aria continued.

"Anyway, he brought me here," Aria finished. She looked back at her brother, who was still overflowing with questions.

"Did he stay here with you?" Jasper questioned.

"He did..." Aria answered, trailing off. "I did ask him to though, I remember that," she said.

"Why did you ask him?" Jasper first asked, before adding on another question. "Why were you drinking to begin with? You don't normally..."

Aria let out a sigh at his questions. "It stopped my head from spinning - the drinking that is." Aria answered, the same reply she had given Ruth the night before. "My mind wouldn't stop worrying about what could happen," she elaborated.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Jasper asked, walking over to sit beside his sister.

Aria shook her head. "No... It's fine," she answered. "In a drunken state last night, I ended up talking with Ruth about it..." Aria said with a slight shrug.

"Aria..." Jasper started, waiting for her to look up at him. Once she did, she knew what his question would be. "I asked you this yesterday as well, but you didn't answer," Jasper continued.

Aria stayed silent, starting to process her answer for her brothers question.

"What are you feelings towards Ruth?" Jasper asked, repeating his question from the day before. Aria knew her brother was only worried about her when he asked this question. She had never been one to have or show feelings towards people outside her family or close friends.

She wasn't sure how she should answer either. She would be lying to say she didn't have any feelings towards Ruth. However, she also wasn't sure what those feelings where. She felt her cheeks flush slightly as she thought about it.

"I..." She started, but stopped again, thinking again.

Ever since she had met Ruth, she had felt different towards him. Even when her and Conan were friends, she didn't feel the same way towards him as she did to Ruth.

'Would this be what people considered being in love with someone?' Aria thought to herself. She felt her face flush more at that question in her mind.

It was true she had never felt that way towards anyone before. But she wasn't sure if it was what others would consider 'love'. She looked back up at her brother after a second, who had rose his eyebrows quizzically at his sister. She covered her face with her hands.

Her hands felt like ice on her face. "I..." she started again. She took a moment to calm down, letting her face cool down. Once she felt that her face was closer to normal, she dropped her hands, and took a deep breath. Jasper broke the silence between them.

"Judging by your reaction there..." He said with a small laugh. "You love him, don't you?" Jasper asked.

Aria felt her face flush again as her brother asked her straightforward. 'Are those the feelings I'm feeling?' she thought to herself. Aria started to think again, trying to find a way to answer her brothers question.

As she thought, she realized something. The night before when Ruth had found her, she didn't ask Ruth to take her to her brother. She didn't even think about it - regardless of her drunken state.

Aria looked at her brother after a moment. "I think I do..." she said quietly.

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