Work Text:
Every single morning it was the same thing. Get up, have breakfast, stride purposefully across the land with a righteous sense of dignity and purpose in the hope of winning the world over to Satan’s hellish, demonic and possibly despotic side.
Or maybe it was just a typical day for Ruby.
She wondered if that was what it was like for human beings. Real, live people like Amanda, who slept, ate and breathed by her side twenty-four seven, unable to understand why Ruby could go for days without stopping.
“I like the scenery.” Ruby flicked a french fry out the window to be pecked at eagerly by a small bird. “It keeps my mind sharp.”
“Right,” remarked Amanda under her breath, eyeing her curiously. “Sharp. On the quest. Got it.”
They didn’t understand one another, to put it plainly.
***
Amanda talked in her sleep. Ruby often watched her, for lack of anything better to do and for lack of her own ability to do the same. Words like ‘revenge’ escaped her lips. And fight.
Even a demon could relate to a deathless quest for revenge.
They stopped at a burger joint and Ruby had straight shots of whiskey while Amanda downed her bacon cheeseburger. They each had an eye on the world around them, expecting the absolute worst at every second.
“You never did tell me why you want to take Williams in,” pointed out Ruby. She already knew the truth but she understood that human preferred verbal communication over telepathic understanding.
“Surprised you don’t know the truth already,” Amanda said easily. “You were the one who was evesdropping at the diner.”
“I’m good at making educated guesses. You weren’t hiding anything very well back there,” she said. Amanda glared and kept stirring her coffee. “Well, if you don’t want to tell me…”
“No,” Amanda sighed. “All right. It started with this murder scene…”
Ruby inserted sympathetic sounds as Amanda spooled out her story. What else do these humans do things, if not for love, loyalty or the promise of both? “I can see why you want him to pay,” she said.
“What about you?” Amanda asked.
“My reasons,” Ruby said, “are much, much more personal.”
Amanda took her reaction at face-value. There was just enough time left to pay their check off before they headed to the next stop, the next new challenge.
***
Amanda makes them stop at the side of the road to buy some ice cream. Ruby’s never been a fan; it’s a bit too sweet on her tongue, even in this humanized form. But for Amanda, she’s discovered, she’s quite willing to do almost anything.
The girl, in her beauty and her toughness, made an appealing picture all on her own, watching the world swing by.
Perhaps Ruby would gladly endure the slings and arrows of ice cream on her tongue to spend time with her.
Maybe.
****
The night was ink-black as Ruby drove them quickly through it. Williams had been spotted a couple of miles outside of town, and he was never one to bed down for long.
Ruby glanced at Amanda. The girl had dozed off again. A thin smile turned Ruby’s countenance almost sweet as she tugged the lap blanket up over the girls’ shoulders. She almost looked at peace like this, unaware of the car, of the danger she was in.
She liked the girl.
The girl would die last.