95 A Little Burned Ou

Ruby didn't have any human tools to build with either so she had to create those herself after looking them up on her phone for reference. Neither she nor Ash had any idea what they were doing but they followed the instructions to the best of their ability.

Everything was set up by Flora's bedtime and she went to sleep happily on top of her My Little Pony comforter in her new bed. The other two were so exhausted after putting all of that together that they collapsed on the bed in their room.

"How do humans do anything on their own?" Ruby huffed in exhaustion. "That was terrible. I should have just bought premade furniture…but then I would have needed you to help me carry it."

"Excuse me for needing to sleep," Ash said irritably.

She hadn't meant her comment to come across as criticism of his sleeping habits. She was merely complaining about how difficult it was doing things the human way. "I wasn't blaming you; simply making a comment."

He sighed. "Perhaps I am being too sensitive. I dislike the fact that our schedules are so different right now. I only get you to myself for a few hours in the evening after Flora is asleep and you're usually so tired from dealing with her all day that you don't have enough energy to pay attention to me fully."

Ruby peeled herself off the bed and floated a few inches over until she was right on top of her boyfriend before dropping back down so she covered most of him and her head rested on his chest. He didn't even grunt when she did it; he told her before that fairies weighed practically nothing.

"There. You have my full attention," she mumbled into his shirt.

Ash laughed slightly and stroked her hair. "You have the strangest way of appeasing me but I'll take it."

"I promise it won't be like this forever. As soon as Flora is older and doesn't need naps anymore she won't wake up as early. I'll be able to match my sleep schedule to yours more easily then and we'll have more time together without her around."

He had her eternal gratitude for sticking around when she had a small needy child in tow. A lot of fae wouldn't want to get into a relationship with that sort of baggage but Ash had been wonderful with Flora and usually didn't show his impatience like this.

Affection for him filled her heart and overflowed. He really was so good to them and rarely made a single complaint about their rather unique situation.

Ruby tilted her head back to look at him properly. "Hey…I hope you know how much I appreciate you. You really aren't obligated to help me raise my cousin but you're doing a great job; she loves you! And I do too. I love you so much Ash and I'm so grateful you're here."

Her boyfriend sighed and craned his neck so he could kiss her forehead. "I love you too. Thanks for that. I think I'm a little burned out. I know Flora needs you a lot right now but I need you too and—"

She cut him off by kissing him and gently rested a hand on the side of his face. "We have a few hours until I have to go to bed, you know. I'm all yours until then."

Ash sat up and took her words very seriously, soaking up her attention like a sponge. He really did love her a whole lot, didn't he? Once again Ruby's heart overflowed with affection for him and she enjoyed their time alone every bit as much as he did.

===

Decades passed and Ruby's prediction came true. Now eighty-six years old, Flora woke up around 8 AM but kept herself entertained for an hour or two while waiting for her cousin to stop sleeping in.

She was back to the schedule she and Ash had been on before the kidnapping happened all those years ago. He seemed a lot happier with the arrangement and no longer complained about their sleep schedule differences or lack of time together at all.

During that time, Ruby and Flora put a ton of effort into cultivating a series of greenhouses after trying and failing to grow a garden normally for several years in a row due to the climate. They had moved in the summer and hadn't realized what a short growing season there was.

They stubbornly persisted in trying to make things work but all they were successful in keeping alive were trees that were native to the area or capable of adapting to the climate. The walkways closest to the castle were lined with such trees and shrubs.

The greenhouses ended up being a little further away from the castle. There was one solely for aesthetic purposes with a bunch of flowers and shrubs that Ruby had loved back in California and another for fruit trees and vegetables on the other side of the property.

Ash was usually able to find them in one of those two places if they weren't in the castle when he woke up. He enjoyed watching the two of them work as always and pitched in wherever he could.

Ruby was in the middle of pruning an apple tree when he snuck up behind her and tapped her on the shoulder. "Good afternoon."

She didn't even flinch anymore. He was a vampire; his natural tendency was to sneak. "Hey! Did you sleep well?"

"Of course I did. Look at this glorious weather!"

Ash loved Alaska because there it was so frequently cloudy there. He still had to cover up during daylight hours but claimed it wasn't as difficult to do as it had been back in Northern California or even Oregon.

Ruby laughed. "Yeah. Glorious."

Flora rolled her eyes at their banter. She had long gotten used to this though she still wasn't aware that her cousin and their vampire roommate were a couple. She had accepted that having Ash live with them was simply the way things were by this point.