84 Love Makes All The Difference

"I won't. Can I get those electricity generators I ordered before? I'm going to need them to take care of Flora properly in a vampire's castle," Ruby said with a shrug.

If Blair was surprised she dropped it so easily she didn't show it. She went to go get them and Ruby was able to let go of Flora's ears. She pouted up at her cousin for not letting her in on the fun.

"I wanted to talk to the witch too!"

"You can when she gets back," Ruby said patiently. "Then we're going to go home."

Flora perked up immediately. "Home? Really? Can I see Mommy and Daddy then?"

"No, baby, I meant Ash's home. The castle. It's going to be out home now too while your parents are busy. It's a lot nicer than that other one we stayed at because it has a real kitchen."

The little fairy wilted. "Oh. Okay."

Ruby's heart broke at her resignation but what could she do? She wanted to wait to tell her the truth until things settled down a little. She would give it a few weeks of living peacefully to tell her what happened to soften the blow.

She wouldn't be able to tell the full truth until Flora was old enough to understand what happened. She might get furious and blame Ruby for what happened even though it had been Flint's own greed that got him and his wife killed.

That conversation may have to wait until she was an adult so if she did get angry and wanted nothing to do with Ruby anymore at least she would be capable of taking care of herself. She didn't want Flora to somehow blame Ash for this either simply because he was the same race as those who killed her parents.

Blair came back and delivered the little boxes of electricity generators to Ruby, bending down to Flora's level to talk with the excited little fairy who wanted to know everything about witches. She watched them with a fond but sad smile on her face.

The thought of Flora coming to hate her one day because of what happened threatened to destroy her. By that point Ash would surely be long gone and she would be all alone again.

===

Months passed and the trio fell into a pattern. Ruby did manage to bring everything over from the Gardner house one afternoon shortly after Ash woke up so he could watch Flora.

They played, spent time in the gardens and forest surrounding the castle, watched way too many children's shows, and cooked once Ruby got proper kitchen appliances to do everything. Ash hung out with them when he was awake and Flora seemed to like him, which was a relief.

Once she went to sleep the two adult fae would play cards or board games that Ruby had gotten in town or simply sit around and chat. Ash preferred having her as close as possible but that seemed to be a side effect of nearly watching her die.

And he wasn't the only one. When things finally calmed down enough for Ruby to talk to Flora about her parents passing away like Uncle Reed and Aunt Heather (who she had never met) did, she did not take it well.

She cried constantly and Ruby had no idea how to help her process her grief. She had grieved the loss of both of her parents before but she had been older when it happened.

"Am I even doing anything to help her?" she asked wearily one night as she and Ash were in the middle of a game of Yahtzee.

"Of course you are," he said soothingly. "Having you here and keeping her as distracted as possible is making a world of difference. Give her time; she'll be completely over it in a few decades, trust me."

Obviously Ruby knew that but she didn't want to wait a few decades! All of the crying was really getting to her and it wasn't like she even knew how to parent before the grief hit anyway.

"I feel so useless though," she sighed as she took her turn.

She ended up getting a pair of sixes so she rolled the rest of the dice again. She rerolled one more time and ended up getting four of a kind. Not too shabby but it didn't really make her feel better. This situation could not be fixed by a good roll in a game.

Ash looked at her earnestly. "You aren't useless, Ruby. You're doing your best and she knows you love her. Love makes all the difference."

"…you sound like you're speaking from experience."

"I am," he said casually as he rolled his dice, not noticing that Ruby was about to spontaneously combust. "Oh, look. Yahtzee."

Was he saying what she thought he was saying?! Maybe he had worded it wrongly but it sounded an awful lot like he was implying that his grief had lessened because she had loved him through it. That wasn't what happened at all!

Love was an awfully strong word to throw around, wasn't it? Ruby definitely cared for him but she didn't love him!

Or did she? Was there a difference between caring about someone and loving them in a platonic way? She didn't have enough experience with anything but familial love to be able to tell.

She buried her face in her hands, certain she was blushing horribly. He said and did things that turned her world upside down so casually!

It was better to ignore it. Maybe if Ruby ignored it enough it would stop getting to her. He had always been like this, way back during the drive-thru incident when they had only known each other for a day or two.