89 Completely Unheard Of

Ruby's brain was currently experiencing a total shutdown. She could not fathom a single word she was hearing. Ash was in love with her? How? Why? What had the world come to?!

This wasn't happening. He was going through some sort of bizarre rebound attachment thing because she was the first person he met after losing everything. It was physically impossible for him to be in love with her.

She wasn't in love with him! They weren't in love with each other! She only got flustered because she was inexperienced with that sort of closeness and she thought he had no idea what he was doing.

Apparently he did. He was doing it on purpose. He wanted to do more.

What was Ruby even supposed to say to that? She cared about Ash more than anyone else aside from Flora but a relationship between a vampire and a fairy was completely unheard of.

She had daydreamed before about being able to stay with him forever but this sort of thing had not been a part of those daydreams. She had always pushed thoughts of that one meaningless kiss in Las Vegas out of her mind because it was impossible.

But now he was saying it wasn't. What was stopping them, anyway? They were free fae. If they had mutual feelings for each other there was no reason not to date!

What was Ruby even thinking?! She wasn't in love with Ash!

Ash let out a heavy sigh and dropped her hands, moving away from her. His tone was unbearably sad as he headed toward the door. "I told you that you didn't want to know. I'm going outside; I'll be back in the morning to watch Flora."

He thought she was rejecting him and still cared enough to help her out. That was what snapped her out of her brain fog.

"Wait!" Ruby cried and flew forward to grab his wrist.

He half-turned in surprise and she realized she wasn't even sure why she had stopped him. It wasn't like she had any idea what to say; she simply hadn't wanted him to leave like that when he was obviously upset.

She pleaded, "Can you give me a minute here? You just dropped a bomb on me and I had no idea what to say."

"Your face kind of said it all," Ash said dully. "Let go of me please. I'd like to be alone right now so I can pull myself together by morning. I already know you don't love me back but that doesn't mean I don't want us to stay together as friends.

"We can get past this. Give me time to lock my feelings away and I'll be able to continue supporting you as you raise Flora as promised. I don't want to be a burden to you, which is why I never said anything. I got overexcited about what you were saying and misunderstood it."

"You didn't misunderstand," Ruby blurted, regretting the words the moment they came out of her mouth.

What was she doing? There were a million reasons this was a bad idea, the least of which being their usually different sleep schedules.

He was grieving and likely a little out of his mind. He would want to go be with vampires again someday so why would she set herself up for that kind of pain now? Wouldn't it be better to be friends forever than have an ill-fated relationship that was doomed to fail?

Ash had been the first fae to ever accept her completely as she was. He was more precious to her than she had words to express so how could she bear the probability of getting even closer only to lose him later?

"I've been agonizing over this ever since you kissed me in Las Vegas," Ruby found herself saying. "You didn't seem to be affected by it at all and I was a blushing mess. I thought it was only because it was my first but then you kept acting more and more like a boyfriend would and I kept getting more confused because I didn't think a relationship was possible.

"You're so important to me Ash; I can't bear to lose you either so how could I cross a forbidden line? There's no going back to the way things were after this! I've been abandoned my entire life be it through death or betrayal so I can't bear getting even closer to someone else if it means going through that again.

"I really can't. You are the only fae in the world who saw me as I was and cared about me anyway with no real reason to. It isn't that your feelings are completely unreciprocated; it's that I'm too terrified to go into uncharted territory here.

"We care about each other and both know what it's like to be lonely but those are the only things we have in common! We're incompatible; it would never work out. I would rather be confused forever as your friend than get even closer and lose you forever when it fails. I'm sorry."

Ash turned around fully to face her with a fierce expression and blazing eyes.

"Who says it would fail? Who gets to decide that? I love you and I would do absolutely anything to keep you safe and happy as long as it means I get to have you by my side a little longer.

"Who cares what we are? When we go to Alaska we aren't going to be around other fae anyway; there will be no one to judge us! You can make yourself look like anything you want so if you're that worried about it you can glamour yourself into a vampire when we have to go to the witch coven.

"Flora doesn't care either; if she grows up with us as her norm she'll never question it either. We've already established that we can work out the sleep thing and the sun thing so what exactly is it that you're so afraid of? Why won't you give me a chance?"