Semi-mature content at *
You'll see when to play the song.
~Sapphire's POV~
"You will?" I ask incredulously. She wouldn't leave behind her family would she?"
Ruby walks closer to me and takes my hands. "For you, I'll do anything." She kisses me softly after that, making me forget everything we're running from. Just for a moment. It feels so nice, her hands holding me steady as I fall deeper in love with her.
When she releases she looks me in the eyes, full of concentration. "We need to pack right now."
"Where will we go?" I wonder out loud. "We went to Monterey last weekend. I'll take us there, we'll rent a hotel for a few days, lay low," she informs me. She speaks as if this is a mission but I guess in a sense it is.
I head to my closet and grab my suitcase, folding my clothes neatly into it. Ruby leaves the room and goes into the bathroom, grabbing a few things from there.
She's willing to leave with me. Leave the chaos that is her family behind. Is that a good thing? It's such a confusing situation that I can't feel right about anything. I can't focus on what the right choice is. I feel almost lost with myself. It's beyond frustrating to feel unsure of the future, the one thing I could always be certain of.
"Hey, where is the..."
I turn to look at Ruby as she speaks but immediately get pulled away from reality. All I see is bullets flying everywhere, gunshots going off, sirens. Ruby's there behind a pile of rubble, dressed in black with a star symbol on her shoulder. She has a gun loaded and ready. There are bullets approaching her faster and closer. Ruby takes a deep breath before jumping out and shooting back at her attackers.
And then, she's shot.
Right in the heart.
"Sapphire!" In a flash I'm back home, sitting on my floor as before with Ruby looking worried.
"I might be going crazy or I just had a vision."
She visibly relaxes as I seem to be okay. "A what?"
The house is quiet as we sit in the still air, waiting to understand what just happened. I'm not entirely sure. I'm not sure of anything anymore. This is getting out of hand. "A-a vision. I saw you fighting and getting shot at, you couldn't dodge then, you got hit, Ruby. You were dead."
I wait for my girlfriend's response but she just looks back at me. I finally notice the bags under her eyes, most likely from the all-nighters to help her dad plan. Her entire face is exhausted, begging for a wink of sleep. Her hair is slightly frazzled and falling from her headband. When was the last time she ate? Her cheeks look a little less full.
"Are you okay?" I finally asked, breaking the silence.
Ruby grows confused. "Me? I should be asking you!"
"When was the last time you ate? Or slept," I ignore her questions.
"Sapphy that hardly matters, we need to get going. Soon."
"You need to take care of yourself, Ruby." I cup her cheek and feel her head rest into my hand like it's a pillow. She sighs and closes her eyes for a moment. She's too young to be dealing with anything of this kind of problem. We both are.
"I'd much rather be taking care of you Sapphy," she whispers quietly while opening her eyes. She picks up her head and stands, helping me up as well. "I'll go make us lunch, you sit down and breathe for a moment, alright? We have time. The whole world can wait."
"I love you," she whispers to me again. Her voice is so fragile now. "I love you too." I place a small kiss to her lips before leaving to the kitchen.
...
"Here you go," I hand her the plate full of as much food I could make. It'll all go bad once we leave anyway. "And take this it'll help with the headache."
She smiles at me before taking it, "How'd you know I had a headache?"
"I just know you, and I know what causes them."
Her smiles goes back to a serious stone cold mask in under a second. "My dad texted, asked where I was. We need to get out before he realizes I'm here." I nod in understanding and finish my packing. Ruby eats a part of her food but gets distracted and goes back to helping me pack.
Before we know it we're in her truck. She insisted to drive but I told her to finish her food and nap. "You'd practically crash the car if you drove in this condition," I told her.
On our way out, she had two extra bags, looking a bit suspicious. I wouldn't need that much stuff for this, and she said she had her stuff packed already in the truck but I haven't seen one of her bags. I'm trying not to think that she's not coming with me, but I can't get rid of the feeling. The bad feeling.
~Ruby's POV~
"So what do you want to do first when we get there?"
"I want you to sleep for a long time," she stubbornly commands me. I laugh at how cute she gets when she takes care of me. "I told you Sapphy I'm perfectly fine."
"BS. You nap. I'll drive. And then you'll nap again when we get there."
"It's like you want me to be sleeping beauty." I chuckle.
"Well you are beautiful," Sapphy tells me. I blush hard and shy into the blanket she convinced me to take.
I look back behind me at the back seat where our bags sit. Or hers. One has her extra clothes that I packed and a few things she'd miss. The picture of her parents, her favorite books, a necklace her dad gave her as a kid, and a ring. One that I'll never have a chance to give to her myself.
The second bag has money I earned working with dad. None of it is illegal, I would never tie her to that. Just a few hundred thousand. She'll need it to start over, get a new place, a car maybe, food for a while until she can start getting on her feet.
I hope she'll forgive me. For lying, for taking her away from her friends, for ruining her life. For leaving her...
I shake the thought out of my head. At the very beginning, I promised I'd fight for her. That's the one promise in my life that I'll never break. I'll fight and try my hardest to stay alive for her. Maybe after the war, if we're not all dead or in jail, I'll go back to her. I'd have to lay low for a while. Maybe a few years. But I'll come back to her.
It's going to be a living hell being so far away from the love of my life. She probably won't even want me back. She'll hate me for this. But I'd rather she hate me than be dead.
"Hello?" Sapphire picks up her ringing phone as she drives the empty yet curvy road. "Sapphire," I say as I glance at her a bit disapprovingly for being on the phone while driving. She only rolls her eyes. I think she forgets that her driving skills aren't as good as she imagines them to be, and being half blind also concerns me. I sit up and watch the road just in case.
"Yeah, I'm doing fine. No, I'm not at home. Pearl relax. I'm just taking another trip with Ruby. We'll be back. I don't know a few days or something."
Sapphire's face pales with realization and looks at me. She mouths 'what about them?' but I shrug. "Tell them to leave town, without alarming them."
She nods and focuses most of her attention on the road. "Pearl listen. You remember how I usually can tell when something bad is happening right? And you trust me right? I need you to get out of town, bring Lapis and Peridot." Sapphire's eyes dart to me for a second before she talks to Pearl again. "No not Amethyst. She'll be fine. What? She did? Pearl..."
Sapphire pulls the car over, much to my relief and finishes the call. "What happened?" I asked.
"Amethyst called Pearl right before Pearl called me. She told Pearl that she loved her and basically told her to leave the city too. Pearl was so stunned and worried that she couldn't even say it back before the phone hung up. She tried calling Amethyst back but it was if she deactivated her phone."
"She probably did, so she couldn't be tracked in the case that The Diamonds hacked us. My phone is already long gone too."
Sapphire nods before starting the car and heading out.
...
Were here, It's only about 4 pm. No gas station incidents this time.
We go to the same hotel we went to last time, in the same room. "Sapphy I slept a while during the car ride, so let's just go out and do something! I saw some posters for a town fair! That sounds fun right?" I turn to see her back facing me. "What's wrong?"
"Don't you feel a little guilty?"
"Of course I do..."
"So why did you leave?"
All I can hear is the ticking of the clock. My time with her running out. "So I know you're safe," I finally admit.
"I know but, are you really okay with this?" I sigh and wrap my arms around her waist. "Of course I am. Because I have you here with me. And that's all that matters. Alright?"
"Alright," she turns around and faces me, nose to nose. "So what are we going to do first?"
"Fair?"
...
Sapphire laughs happily as we come back to the hotel, 4 hours later with stuffed animals and tiny plastic toys.
"I can't believe you actually yelled at that guy to get me the bear."
"He was disrespecting your womanly rights!"
"But Sapphire we didn't even win the game!"
Sapphire brings the said bear to me which I gladly take, "Does that mean you don't want it," she asks teasingly.
"No no no no I want it. It's mine now."
The laughter dies down as we lay on the bed together. I was able to keep her busy and her mind off everything while we were there. Hopefully, she's tired out enough to fall asleep early.
"You know I love you right?" Sapphire starts.
"Yeah. I love you too," I lean to kiss her softly on the forehead but she sits up before I can.
"I mean it, Ruby. I've been certain about a lot of things in my life. It all came easy. But I have never been as certain about anything as I am about you, no matter how risky you are."
I nod to her, a bit speechless as she pours her heart out. And guilty because I know I'll end up breaking it. "I've been really uncertain about everything in my life. Where I belong, who to follow, who to trust, where to go, what to do. But you clear that all up. It's like, you lead me to exactly where I need to be and you make me a better person by doing so."
I move her bangs away and look deep into her eyes, one of my favorite things to do in the whole world. She stares back, searching for something. I continue, "You're just so beautiful, and smart, and wise, and caring. And I'm the complete opposite of all those things. But for some crazy reason, you love me."
"I do," her cheek is gently caressed in my hands as she leans over me, kissing my lips softly.
~Third Person POV~
* The sheets rumple as Sapphire swings one leg over Ruby, straddling her gently. Her hands rush under Ruby's shirt, not thinking of anything but her. It's barely noticed when it breaks their kiss for only a second. The same happens again for the other.
Ruby sighs into the kiss, relaxing for the first time in years, she doesn't take note of the city they're in, or the horrific situation unfolding at home. Right now, her home is with Sapphire, in her arms.
Sapphire holds on tight, wishing she never had to let go, in the back of her mind a voice tells her to. It tells her to stop, but she doesn't listen. She's certain that this is right. This is where she needs to be.
The girl in red flips them over, laying her girlfriend on the pillows, her hands traveling down her side. Every curve, every divot, every simple detail is memorized by her fingers, creating a shiver down her spine.
Ruby makes haste with unbuttoning Sapphire's jeans while leaving tiny marks on her neck, creating little moans escaping from her lover's lips. Sapphire reaches down to do the same, leaving both girls in only their underwear breathing heavily already.
As Ruby's hands lowered themselves to uncharted territory, she stopped. Sapphire's grip on her hair loosened and they looked to each other.
"Are you sure?" Was all she asked.
"Yes," was all that was answered.
...
~Ruby's POV~
"What are you looking at?" Sapphire says across from me as she covers herself from the cold air. She's never looked more beautiful. Her hair all over the place yet still classy, lips red and swollen, cheeks puffy.
"You. My beautiful gem." I kiss her swollen lips, missing the feeling as soon as it ends.
"You're amazing," she sighs.
"Yeah, you're not too bad yourself," I tease. She pushes me slightly and giggles, such a euphoric sound.
I take in every detail of her face. Her cleanly shaped eyebrows, long lashes, a deep blue ocean for one eye and a cloudy storm for another. A tiny button nose, dusty rose cheeks, lips I could kiss forever. If only I could stay here forever.
"Ruby, what's wrong, did something happen?" I focus back on her eyes and try to process her words. Sensing my confusion she continues, "You're crying."
I am? I feel the wetness as she wipes a tear from my eye. I guess I am.
"I just love you so much, every part of you. Every inch of your face and body." I'll miss you.
"You're just so beautiful." More than you'll ever realize.
"This was amazing." I'm sorry.
She nods, laying her head under my chin. "You're more than I deserve. I love you a million times more." A bittersweet chuckle escapes my lips as I held her tight. She falls asleep safely in my arms.
(Press play)
After an hour or so I get up, gently removing her arms and instead placing the bear beside her instead. I search the room for my clothes and get redressed. Once fully clothed I grab a pen and paper and start to write my goodbye. This feels like a suicide note. The dread of writing it nearly prevents me from doing so... Here goes nothing or everything.
Sapphire Erica Frost,
I am so sorry. You've realized by now that I'm gone. I'm sorry I lied. I needed you safe and away from everything. It was just too risky. I couldn't chance it. I took you here because you know the city. I have a friend here to watch over you, you'll be safe, I trust them. There's about $500,000 in the green bag, use it however you need to. In the purple duffle, you'll find a few things I knew you'd need with you. I can't guarantee they would've been safe back home. The Diamonds know who you are to me, you have to understand that you couldn't have stayed there. I could barely protect you with the first attack... I'm so sorry baby. I'll try my hardest to stay alive for you, but I can't leave my family behind. They need me. At least you'll be safe, and that's all that matters to me.
In the time that I've known you, you've changed me. You made me better and stronger and so much happier. When we bumped into each other in the hall, I thought it was some other douche ready to get on my last nerve, but instead, I met the love of my life. Remember when I brought you your favorite coffee after the game? I was so obsessed with getting to know you that I made a list of every way to win over your heart. I guess it worked. And when you accepted me and everything that I am, I knew I could never let you go.
Please don't change. Stay the beautiful smart, wise, and caring person you are. Stay safe. I love you so much my Laughy Sapphy.
Love, Your Ruby
I leave the note on the desk along with important numbers she'll need to know and gather my things. I walk back over to the bed where she's sleeping peacefully, a smile on her face. It makes me smile a little until a rush of tears fills my eyes. I pull the covers tighter over her and kiss her forehead. "I love you so much," I whisper quietly.
If I don't leave soon, I probably never will. In a hurry, I leave the hotel and get in the car. I take a deep breath before letting it all out, the anger, the fear, the sadness, all in long, choked up, stupid, ugly, angry sobs. God, I'm pathetic. I'm so pathetic for letting things get this bad. I should've been smarter, should've kept her safer. Should've protected her better, now I have to leave my Sapphire...
Okay, Ruby. Ruby Charlyne Burns. The Champ. You can do this. Turn the car on, pull out, and drive away. Do it. Before she notices.
I wipe my eyes and put the keys in the ignition. It's only 10. I'll make it on time.
I pull out of the parking lot and head onto the empty freeway, trying my hardest not to look back.