33 Don't Joke About Death

Ruby and Ash ended up going to a famous restaurant on the Strip for dinner. She said he didn't have to come with her but he argued that seeing a real human restaurant would be less boring than hanging out in the hotel room.

She couldn't dissuade him so they ended up ordering two different entrees for appearance's sake. She figured she could bring the leftovers back with her for later.

She was able to get away with trying two desserts as well. Maybe having someone who didn't eat come to dinner with her wasn't such a bad idea after all. Ash didn't seem offended by it either, merely curious.

"I ate way too much," Ruby moaned on their way out of the restaurant, clutching her stomach. "But it was fantastic so I can die happy."

Alarm flashed through her companion's eyes and he suddenly clutched her arm. "You're going to die?"

She blinked at him stupidly. "…it's an expression humans use. Don't take it seriously. I'm fine."

"Don't joke about death," he said sharply. "It isn't funny."

The expression that said he was out for blood was back and the grip on her arm grew painfully tight. For the first time, Ruby experienced a shiver of fear due to the vampire. There had never been a reason to be scared of him before.

He was inconsistent and changeable as the wind but ultimately harmless. It was hard to think of him as frightening when he had a puppy mode.

What she said really must have set him off. She could only think of one reason he wouldn't like someone being flippant about death. He had lost somebody. Recently. Perhaps that was related to the reason he left his coven behind.

"I'm sorry," Ruby said lamely. "I didn't mean to offend you. I won't joke about death anymore. Could you let go of my arm?"

Ash's hand released her immediately and she rubbed the sore spot. Great. Now she had a red handprint there.

He blew out a frustrated breath. "I am sorry as well. It was not my intention to injure you. Please let me know what I can do to properly atone for my blunder."

Did he only go into formal mode when he was stressed or what? Ruby was beginning to notice a pattern with him. She supposed it must be strange adjusting to the language trends all the time. Goodness knows she had heard a variety of strange slang over the years. It changed far too often!

"Uh…no need for that. But if you walk behind me to act as a wing buffer I'd appreciate it. They always get bumped when I'm in crowds," she admitted.

Ash stepped back and did as she asked, taking his role very seriously. He even held his arms out so they wouldn't get brushed from the side either. Her wings did stick out a decent amount on either side of her body.

It was around 10:30 PM but Ruby wasn't quite ready to go to bed yet because of how long she slept in. She wanted to go do something fun. The world was her oyster right now and she didn't want to miss anything.

Doing activities by yourself wasn't nearly as fun as doing them with another person. She needed to take advantage of Ash's presence while she could.

"Do you want to go do virtual reality laser tag?" she asked after stopping on the side of the street to check what there was to do on her phone.

"I have no idea what that is but I'll follow your lead," he replied penitently, still brooding about his mistake earlier.

Ruby rolled her eyes at how docile he became all of a sudden but ended up leading him to the VR laser tag place anyway. She hadn't done anything like this before either so they were equally confused and bumbled around trying to follow the directions they had been given as much as possible.

Neither of them were very good at it or got many points but it was still fun. Best of all, Ash's bad mood passed completely. He laughed with delight every time he managed to hit something and the earlier incident was forgotten.

===

Ruby spent most of the next day in a haze of boredom. She only got a couple thousand dollars in the cheap pawn shops she went to and her wallet was stuffed with hundred dollar bills. When she went to go buy a lobster tail pastry at a famous bakery they were very surprised that was what she was paying with.

She texted Cole and they set a time to meet up at his house in the nearby city of Henderson that wouldn't disturb Ash's sleep too much. He said they ate earlier in the day out of habit from the nights they had shows so she was on her own for dinner.

That wasn't a problem. There were still so many restaurants she wanted to check out!

Ruby wandered through the hotels and was able to see an aviary with a variety of birds and other animals like koi and turtles, tigers, and a store entirely based around M\u0026Ms. It wasn't as fun doing it alone but that was the problem with having a nocturnal travel companion.

Businesses in Las Vegas stayed open a lot later than most of the ones back home but she supposed it was the nature of being a tourist hot spot. It was nice that she was able to go out and do things with Ash after dark but didn't change the fact that she was by herself most of her waking hours.

She was used to having other people around most of the time, be it the other workers in the nursery or Flora who trailed after her like an imprinted duckling. Spending so much time by herself since crash landing through Ash's window had been an adjustment.

Ruby might have to readjust her future plans a little. She wasn't sure she would be able to spend so much time alone without going crazy even if she did have plenty of things to do. But anything more than superficial companionship was impossible so why should she bother?