87 Kidnapper

The rest of the day continued to revolve around Flora. They went to an arcade and pizza place for dinner and then the sun blessedly started to go down so Ash could take off his hood indoors at least.

Windows were terribly inconvenient things. During the sunniest parts of the day they didn't prevent him from getting sun sickness at all.

Ruby took a lot of pictures of Flora having fun and was looking through them on the edge of her bed once the baby was asleep. Most were of Flora alone but there was that ridiculous picture of her riding on Ash's shoulders plus one of the two fairies enjoying their jelly beans.

His favorite was probably the selfie the three of them took after dinner where everyone was holding up their hands to show off the plastic rings with the giant fake jewels on them that Flora won with her tickets. She had proudly bragged that she was just like Ruby, which made the older fairy laugh and muss up her hair.

They looked like a bizarre little family in that photo since glamours couldn't fool cameras. The thought was disquieting.

Ash's family was gone. First his father, then his mother, sister, and nephew all in one go. When he lost them he had no intention of forming a new one—EVER—but that was exactly what ended up happening with these two.

Ruby loved Flora and Ash loved Ruby so he ended up caring about the baby fairy by default. He thought of them as family but was certain they didn't think of him the same way. He was the outsider and that was why he felt so off.

"That's a good picture; you should send it to me," he said.

She looked up at him and tilted her head. "You okay?"

Oops. That came out much more monotone than Ash had intended. He didn't want her to worry so he flashed her a strained smile and said he was fine. She didn't seem to buy it but let the matter drop.

===

Ash's mood didn't get any better as the trip went on. While Ruby was out summoning and selling jewelry, he was on babysitting duty. In the sun. With a child that was far too energetic.

A few days in, someone actually called the human cops on him because he looked suspicious hanging out on a park bench as Flora dug around in the sandbox. He desperately tried to explain that he was babysitting and had a sun allergy but they didn't listen to him.

He was fairly certain they were about to arrest him when Flora came over to see what was going on. "Ash? Why are you talking to a policeman?"

"Do you know this person young lady?" the officer trying to detain him asked suspiciously.

She nodded and smiled. "Yeah! He's Ruby's friend and he lives with us."

"Who is Ruby?"

"Her guardian," Ash cut in. "Look, all I'm doing is watching her while Ruby is working. I am not doing anything wrong."

The officer squatted down to talk to Flora. "Is he really allergic to the sun?"

"Uh huh! 'Cuz he's a vampire!"

This was exactly why fae children weren't supposed to hang out with humans. Ash immediately jumped in to do some damage control. "Vampires don't exist; she must have overheard Ruby joke that I was like a vampire because of my allergy. Kids, right?"

Flora stomped her foot. "You are too a vampire! Ruby said!"

Thankfully this seemed to strengthen his cover. This officer understood what children were like. "I see. I would recommend getting some sort of umbrella to block the sun instead in the future; you do look like a kidnapper in a park full of kids."

"I will take that under consideration," Ash said grimly.

Once the police left, he sighed and got down on Flora's level, putting a gloved hand on her shoulder and looking her in the eye so she would know how serious her slipup was. "Flora, you can't tell humans I'm a vampire. Just like you can't tell them that you're a fairy. That's why we use glamours, remember?"

Realization dawned on her little face and tears filled her eyes. "I'm sorry, Ash! I didn't mean to!"

He sighed. "I know. I'm not mad at you but you can't do that again, okay?"

She nodded seriously before asking, "How come you still play with me even though you have to go in the sun? I thought you liked sleeping in the daytime."

"Ruby needs me to watch you while she's working, remember?"

Flora pondered this a moment. "You really like Ruby, huh? Is that why you're so nice to us and let us stay in your castle?"

Ash let out a self-deprecating laugh. He had been seen through by a thirty-two year old child. "Yeah. That's exactly why. Remember how you said Ruby was your favorite in the whole world before? She's mine too."

She smiled and accepted his answer before running off to play. The incident ended just like that.

Ruby met up with them at the playground once she was finished with her work for the day and Flora ran right up to her to tell her all about the policeman. Alarm registered on her face and Ash was quick to reassure her.

"Some human thought I might be a kidnapper so they called the police. We explained the situation to them."

She snorted. "Seriously? Well, I can't really blame them. It's impossible to see a single inch of you and only bank robbers or kidnappers tend to dress like that."

"This is exactly why I don't go out during the day," he muttered mutinously.

Ruby seemed to realize he was actually upset about this and sobered immediately. "I'm sorry for teasing you. I hope you know how much I appreciate you watching Flora for me while I get my work done."

Ash still wasn't happy. His response of "yeah" was rather reluctant.