#bela x ruby

Bela crosses her arms over her chest. She didn't mind waiting, really.

“What are we doing here, Ruby?” she asks.

“Cutting right to it, huh?” Ruby stands in front of her, leaning from one foot to to the other, hands stuffed in her pockets.

“I need to find a demon.”

“Found one,” Bela remarks.

Ruby rolls her eyes. “Another demon, wiseass. I tracked him down to somewhere in town. I was hoping you could do your spirit board thing and get me an exact location.”

“Of course I can,” Bela says. “What does this demon have that you need so badly?”

“None of your business.”

Bela holds her hands up. “Fine,” she says. “Speaking of business, you have to know by now that no favor of mine comes without a price.”

“Oh, of course not,” Ruby says haughtily, mocking her accent.

Bela raises an eyebrow.

“This demon travels with an impressive collection,” Ruby explains.

“Collection?”

She nods. “Charms, hex bags—you name it. Millions in market value.”

Ruby is trying to tempt her, and it’s working. It’s an acquisition, like any other, and if Bela wants to keep those high ceilings over her head and the wheel of that cute Mercedes in her hands, she needs to take it.

“I’m listening.”

Ruby smirks. “You find him. I get mine, you get yours. We got a deal?”

Bela ponders this. Demons are vengeful creatures. She only had to learn that lesson once. But, she reasons, if Ruby is there with her, nothing too disastrous can happen, right?

“Deal.”

“You’re sure this is it?”

The spirits led them to an abandoned warehouse off the highway. Bela stares at it from the passenger seat of Ruby’s car.

“I’m sure,” she says.

She climbs out of the car and checks the chamber of her pistol. As she starts toward the building, she catches Ruby watching her with an amused eye.

“What?” Bela snaps.

“Nothing, James Bond,” Ruby teases, glancing down at the gun in Bela’s hands. “It’s cute. Like you.”

The comment was intended to get a rise out of her, so Bela only rolls her eyes, suppressing the smile from some part of her that has deluded itself into thinking Ruby meant it.

“But you know a peashooter like that won’t do squat to a demon,” Ruby adds.

“I do know that,” Bela sighs. “But what else do we have?”

Ruby pauses to glare at the building. “We would have a demon-killing knife if the bastard hadn’t stolen it from me.”

Bela follows Ruby’s gaze, then turns back to her. “Is that what you’re after here?”

Ruby nods.

Something foreign lingers in Ruby’s eyes, Bela thinks. Anger, yes, but something stronger than that. Maybe fear? No, that doesn’t seem right. Do demons feel fear? Do demons feel anything?

“Well, I do love a challenge,” Bela says. “Shall we?”

She follows Ruby up to the warehouse and through the sliding metal doors.

After circling the stacks of metal shelves and rusted power equipment, Ruby lets out a sigh.

“I guess nobody’s home,” she concludes. “My knife should be here. The rest of his stuff, too. Let’s split up.”

Bela barely lets her hesitation delay her agreement. “Okay.”

There’s no reason to be worried. The demon should be wreaking havoc in town, far from here. Bela’s had a long career without needing backup, let alone from a demon she barely trusts.

Still, she can feel her heart pounding in her chest, sure it would give her away if the demon were here.

It’s not a big warehouse, no greater in size than her own house, but the emptiness, the quietness, makes it seem endless. Bela navigates her way across the faded yellow markings on the concrete floor, around the racks, an abandoned hand truck, a few cardboard boxes.

She reaches the corner and almost turns around before she sees it. Against the wall, next to an air vent, a large wooden trunk sits on the ground.

Glancing around once more, Bela kneels next to the trunk. It looks out of place here, old and worn in a way the rest of the place just looks abandoned.

She releases the latch, and lifts the cover. The sight that meets her leaves her without breath.

Ancient-looking books are stacked one on top of the other. Charms of all sizes made of wood and silver and brass, some bearing symbols even Bela doesn’t recognize, hang from the sides of the box. Cloth bags—hex bags—are piled up neatly in one corner next to a range of other items too wide for her to process all at once.

“Ruby,” she calls.

She hears light steps behind her growing closer as she hooks various charms around her finger and places them in a canvas sack. Any one of them could sell for thousands of dollars.

By the time Ruby reaches her side, she has already begun poking through the bags of voodoo.

Without a word, Ruby reaches into the trunk and picks up a knife, eyeing it with admiration.

“That it?” Bela asks.

Ruby nods. “This is it.”

As Ruby twirls it in her hands, Bela studies the knife. It’s a simple weapon. A well-worn wooden hilt holding a modest-sized blade with one serrated edge and markings etched onto the sides in some Middle Eastern language, Bela would guess.

“Come on,” Ruby prods. “We should go.”

Bela plucks a few books from the stack and shoves them in her bag before following Ruby.

Ruby slides open the door, and a force sends her flying backward.

Bela exclaims in surprise, dropping the bag.

A man with jet black hair bursts into the room. He starts toward Ruby, who landed across a row of shelves, but Bela catches his gaze. His eyes travel down to her feet.

The bag has fallen limp to the ground. One of the books Bela hastily crammed inside has toppled out. She can’t see the title, but the demon seems to recognize it as his own.

He flashes her an accusatory glare. “Didn’t anyone ever teach you that stealing is wrong?”

Bela stumbles backward, falling onto her hands.

The demon stalks toward her, ignoring the bag on the ground as he passes it. Black fills his vicious eyes.

Bela staggers back. He stands between her and the only exit, and she suspects she wouldn’t get far if she did run. He’s close enough to touch her now. She would barely have time to reach for the gun in her block-heeled boot.

The demon whips around, narrowly missing Ruby stabbing him through his back. She swings again, missing his chest. Instead, she buries the blade in his shoulder and yanks it out.

He screams in pain, doubling over.

“Let’s go,” she shouts to Bela.

Bela scrambles to swipe the bag from the ground and chases Ruby out the door. She hears heavy, staggering footsteps behind her but doesn’t look back.

“Drive!” she commands as she and Ruby dive into the car.

Ruby’s tires crackle on the dirt as she lurches onto the road. Bela turns back anxiously at the warehouse but sees no movement.

“What the hell was that?” she demands.

“That,” Ruby sighs, “was Raim. He’s a demon.”

“I gathered that much,” Bela snaps. “What was he doing there? I thought you said he wouldn’t be back.”

“I said I guessed he wouldn’t be back,” Ruby clarifies.

“Well, hooray for you.”

Ruby glances at her. “You want to keep bitching, or do you want to celebrate a job well done?”

Bela sighs. Her bag, full of priceless objects, sits heavily in her lap, and Ruby’s knife gleams with blood on the console.

“Okay,” Bela agrees. “I don’t know about you, but I could use a drink.”

Bela wakes in the middle of the night. The silky sheets of her hotel room bed surround her. She doesn’t remember switching off the lamp on her nightstand, but the room is dark.

After the job, she invited Ruby to her room for that drink. She doesn’t hear or see her now, so she assumes Ruby must have turned out the lights and gone home, wherever that is.

Bela sits up in bed. Still in a dreamy state, she knows she hasn’t slept long, but she doesn’t feel tired.

Then, she realizes, someone woke her up.

A chill runs down her spine. Something feels wrong.

She turns her head to face Raim.

Her own screams fill her ears, not pausing for the crunch of her neck twisting in the demon’s hands.

Bela startles awake, hands grasping at her unbroken neck. She sits in the chair in her room, where she remembers deciding to close her eyes for a few seconds. The lights are on, the way they were when she dozed off.

Ruby walks into her line of sight, a glass of ice and something clear in her hand.

She raises her eyebrows at Bela. “You okay?”

Bela runs a hand over her face, in a cold sweat, and smooths out her hair. “I’m fine,” she says, though her voice quivers.

“Well, we both know that’s a lie,” Ruby remarks.

Bela feels her eyes stinging. Before she can blink them away, tears trail down her cheeks.

She brushes them away, not meeting Ruby’s eyes. Bela waits for her to call her weak or delicate or human.

She hears the thump of Ruby’s glass on the counter. Bela thinks, by some miracle, Ruby will leave to let her flounder in her weakness alone.

Instead, she sits in the chair across from Bela’s, leaning forward, elbows on her knees.

“You can talk to me, you know?” Ruby says.

Surprised, Bela finally meets her gaze. Even more surprising is the softness she finds there. One could even mistake it for compassion.

“It was the spirits,” Bela explains, almost without meaning to. “I’ve been working with them long enough that they sometimes they send me warnings when I’m in danger.”

Ruby nods. “Okay. And?”

“And I think Raim is after me.”

Her voice cracks this time. Those dreams always leave her drained, and she doesn’t have the energy to fight the sob that jolts through her body.

She can’t go out like this, not yet. She knows exactly when her time will come, and it’s not now. But the thought of that demon makes her blood run cold through every inch of her.

Something brushes her shoulder, and she flinches away before she realizes it was Ruby’s hand.

Bela offers her a teary, apologetic look, which Ruby brushes off.

“We’ll work on a game plan in the morning. Why don’t you get some sleep?” she suggests. “I’ll be around.”

Bela wants to argue, but once she hears the idea, she can barely keep her eyes open.

Ruby leads her to the bed and pulls back the covers so Bela can collapse inside them. She clicks off the lamp on the bedside table.

As Bela watches Ruby’s silhouette walk back to her chair, the softness of the sheets and the darkness feel too familiar, too nightmarish.

“Ruby,” she voices.

Ruby turns around.

“Will you stay here?”

“I’ll be right here.”

“Will you stay here?” Bela pleads.

Ruby pauses. Bela can’t see her expression as she waits, suspended in the stillness and silence before she gets her answer.

Ruby walks to the other side of the bed. Bela feels the mattress dip behind her, feels arms encircle her.

Ruby runs her hand up and down Bela’s bare thigh. “You’re shaking.”

Upon realizing how terrified she is, how vulnerable she’s let herself become, Bela’s chest begins to tighten.

“Try to relax,” Ruby whispers so close to Bela’s ear she can feel her lips moving.

Bela forces a deep breath into her lungs and releases it shakily.

When Ruby’s lips drift from her ear along her jaw and down her neck, Bela cranes her head to face her, eyes wide.

Ruby pulls back only to place her lips softly on Bela’s.

Bela is too shocked to move at first. But soon, her lips push and pull in time with Ruby’s, parting enough for Ruby to taste her tongue. It’s all the permission Ruby needs.

She slips her hand to stroke the inside of Bela’s thigh, pausing when Bela gasps sharply.

“Just relax,” Ruby whispers.

Bela nods, surrendering her apprehension to Ruby, opening a door to her that hasn’t been opened in ages.

Bela closes her eyes. She feels Ruby peel back the blanket, sending a chill across her skin. Ruby makes her way down the buttons of Bela’s shirt, unhooking each one with ease.

Ruby places feather-light kisses from the valley between Bela’s breasts down to her navel. Bela shudders when she stops there, hands reaching out for her, begging her to continue.

Ruby’s fingers hook onto the waistband of Bela’s panties and pull them off. She returns to Bela’s mouth, pulling at her lip between her teeth.

Without warning, she skims her hand over Bela’s stomach and through her folds.

“Oh.” The moan escapes Bela’s lips of its own accord.

Ruby works her lips down to Bela’s breasts again. Bela reaches a hand up to tug at a fistful of Ruby’s hair as she works in circles.

Bela is almost embarrassed at how easily Ruby’s fingers slip into her. She can feel her own desire dripping, coating Ruby as she explores her.

She bites her lip when Ruby hits right there, and Ruby notices. She strokes the spot while her thumb rubs circles on Bela’s clit. Bela rolls her hips to the time.

Too soon, and yet not soon enough, Ruby removes her fingers and climbs down between Bela’s legs. Her hand is wet as she caresses Bela’s thigh. Her mouth disappears behind Bela’s body.

Bela can feel Ruby’s teeth grazing, her tongue thrusting, her lips sucking.

Then, Bela can only feel the coil buried deep within her winding tighter and tighter still.

It snaps.

Bela whimpers softly between gasps as she comes. Fresh tears fall into her hair.

“We’ve got a problem.”

Bela hears Ruby’s voice before she realizes she’s been shaken awake.

“What is it?” Bela slurs.

The last thing she remembers is the dust settling over the night before and Ruby climbing back into bed with her. Bela fell asleep in her arms then.

“It’s Raim,” Ruby says, out of breath as she darts across the room to close the blinds. “He’s coming.”

It takes Bela a few blinks to realize what she means. When she does, she almost can’t breathe.

“He’s coming here? How did he even find me?” she asks.

“Money’s on he’s tracking something in there.” Ruby nods to the canvas sack on the floor, filled with the stolen items.

“Then, we need to leave it and get out of here.”

“It’s too late. He’s already on top of us.”

As if on cue, a dark figure swings past the balcony and shatters the glass door.

Bela covers her head as she falls to the carpet. When she looks up again, she sees Raim glaring at her before Ruby stands in front of her, blocking the way.

“Ruby and knife, reunited,” Raim says, “albeit at my expense.”

“You stole it from me,” Ruby spits.

“You’re right,” he says. That’s why I don’t want to kill you Ruby. I’m here for the girl who helped herself to my hard-earned personal belongings.”

He tilts his head so Bela can see him, but Ruby steps in the way.

“You want her, you’ll have to go through me,” she says.

Raim clicks his tongue. “Haven’t we been through this before? Last time we went mano a mano, I ended up with that precious knife of yours.” He nods to where Ruby has raised the knife to chest level.

“You know what they say,” she says. “Today’s a new day.”

Raim lunges at Ruby. She thrusts her knee into his stomach, and he doubles over. She swings the knife at him, but he sidesteps her. He catches her arm and twists it with a crack. She yelps, and the knife falls out of her hand.

He picks her up by her jacket and punches her across the face, again and again, before shoving her head-first into the dresser.

She collapses at the foot of it, motionless.

He turns to Bela, who has risen to her feet, the sack in her hand.

She hurls the bag at his feet. “Please just take it,” she begs. “Leave me alone.”

“You still think this is just about the stuff?” he scoffs, kicking the bag out of his path as he walks toward her.

Bela looks at him in confusion as she backs away from him.

“This is about you people—humans—thinking you’re entitled to everything,” he sneers. “Earth, trinkets, ‘get out of hell free’ cards.”

He continues to walk toward her slowly. She feels her back hit the wall.

“Please,” she tries again. “I won’t bother you ever again. Just let me go.”

He pauses, as if considering. “I don’t think so.”

When he glares at her, Bela swears she can see the demon in his face. She shuts her eyes tight.

She hears him roar, then a crackling sound.

She opens her eyes in time to see him fall to the ground, orange still flickering from his eyes and mouth.

Ruby stands over his body, bloody and bruised. She holds her knife, the blade covered in red.

Ruby winces as Bela cleans the blood from her forehead with a washcloth.

“Sorry,” Bela whispers before continuing.

The two sit at the foot of the bed. Blood flows from a deep gash embedded in Ruby’s forehead. Shallow cuts and minor bruises on her face have already begun healing, which Bela attributes to her demonic healing qualities.

The sight of her—the thought that it was all to save Bela—tugs at Bela’s heart. Still, she feels lighter than she has in a while, since the two of them raided the demon’s warehouse. The fear that plagued her is gone.

Ruby, on the other hand, won’t meet her eyes.

Bela knows something is bothering her. Maybe guilt from killing a fellow demon, she thinks, or fear of retaliation from whoever may have considered Raim an ally. Whatever it is, she’ll give Ruby time to work through it on her own if that’s what she wants.

“Bela, I’m sorry,” Ruby says suddenly. “For this, for all of it.”

Bela furrows her brows. “You’re sorry?” she repeats. “Without you, I’d be dead.”

“Without me, he never would’ve been after you,” Ruby retorts.

Bela opens her mouth to argue but can’t find the words. Ruby was the one person she never considered placing the blame on for all of this, the one person she would have blamed had she been anyone but Ruby.

“I should’ve kept my trap shut,” Ruby continues. “It’s just, I knew you were in the area and…”

And I wanted to see you, she finishes in her mind when Ruby pauses.

“And I’m sorry.”

Oh.

Bela sighs, a sudden wave of confidence washing over her. “Well, I’m not.”

Ruby’s eyes flicker up to her finally. “You were terrified.”

“Yes, well…”

Bela thinks back to that deer in the forest, the one Ruby’s car scared off. It ran away, ran hard and fast, for what was probably the hundredth time in its life, and, for the hundredth time, it wasn’t caught. Tomorrow, it could be hit by a truck or killed by a hunter—a real hunter. But today, it’s safe.

“I’m not anymore,” she says.

She kisses Ruby. If she waited any longer, she would have lost her nerve. Even as their lips are pressed together, she’s half-afraid Ruby will pull away, that last night was more out of pity than anything.

But Ruby doesn’t pull away. She leans into Bela like she expected it, like she hoped for it.

And Bela repays her.

Bela heard Ruby before she saw her. She sighed, lifting her cup to her lips and resisting the urge to duck under the table. Ruby knew she was here and wasn’t likely to take the hint.

Ruby’s voice got louder as she approached, apparently arguing with whichever poor waiter had made the mistake of accosting her at the entrance. Bela set her cup back down and secured her most diplomatic smile, and a second later the pair were rounding the corner.

“Talbot!” Ruby made her way over and threw herself down into the opposite chair. The waiter hurried up behind her, “Is this woman a friend of yours miss?”

“Regrettably,” Bela said and Ruby stuck out her tongue. “I apologise for the commotion, Charles, I’ll deal with her.”

“Not at all, miss Talbot. Can I get you anything else?”

“That’ll be all, thank you.”

Ruby watched, smirking, as he retreated, “I was half expecting him to bow.”

“They look after their loyal customers here, Ruby. Take even better care of their regulars. In return they expect a certain standard of conduct and presentation.” Bela glanced pointedly at Ruby’s leather jacket and jeans.

Ruby snorted and swung her legs over the arm of her chair. A couple in their 60s seated across from her gave them both scandalised looks and Ruby waved back cheerily. Bela pursed her lips, annoyance warring with amusement. “If you despise this place as much as you claim to then why are you here?”

“Well, if Mohammed gonna hide from the mountain in fancy tea rooms then the mountain’s gotta brave the tweed and china.”

“I’m not hiding from you.”

Ruby stared at her, “You’ve been avoiding me, Talbot, do you really think I haven’t noticed? You’ve barely been home recently.”

Bela looked away, taking another sip of tea. She had been aware of how painfully obvious she was being but hadn’t known what else to do. She’d unprepared for all of this.

She hated being unprepared.

“It’s Sam, isn’t it?”

Bela swallowed, still avoiding Ruby’s gaze. “Whatever makes you say that?”

Ruby groaned in frustration, attracting another flurry of disapproving stares, “My God, Bels, am I gonna have to beat it out of you? ‘Cause I will. I’ll knock your front teeth straight into Grandma Tightass’s soup if I have to.” She shot another look over her shoulder at the old couple, who were now whispering angrily to each other.

Bela grinned, “I don’t doubt you. But I’d prefer it if you didn’t, I have a reputation here I’d like to hold onto.”

“Of course you do, where don’t you have a reputation.”

Bela raised one eyebrow, declining to comment. Ruby could scoff if she wanted to – pretend she didn’t put a lot of work into making sure everyone she encountered thought she was one bottle of scotch away from a major felony. They had known each other far too long for her to get anything past Bela.

Unfortunately, the reverse was also true.

“Come on, Bels,” Ruby swung her legs back around and leant forward, expression suddenly earnest, “nothing so bad you can’t tell me about it, remember?”

“I don’t-” Bela swallowed again, clamping down on the emotions roiling inside her; emotions she couldn’t even put a name to. “I have nothing against Sam. Certainly not after that débâcle with Lilith.”

“Hey, you call it a débâcle, I call it Saturday night.”

“It lasted three months and she’s still in jail.”

Ruby made a dismissive noise and Bela grinned again. Sometimes she truly envied Ruby’s screw you attitude.

“And in any case, it’s none of my business who you date.”

“No,” Ruby said, “but… you’d like it to be.” She was hedging, Bela could tell. Poking round in suspicions until she found truth.

“I have no interest in controlling you, Ruby, you’re not one of my contacts.”

“Not what I meant.” She hesitated. “You in love with me, Bels?”

Finally, Bela looked back at her. Ruby’s face was carefully neutral, body angled towards her. Bela realised she was braced for anything she might throw at her, and felt something warm tugging in her chest.

She said, “No. No, I don’t think I am.”

Ruby nodded as if that was the answer she’d been expecting.

Bela sighed, “I think normally that’s the end of the conversation.”

“Normally,” Ruby agreed, “but hey. This is us.”

And isn’t that exactly the problem? Bela thought. Neither she nor Ruby had ever bothered with much introspection when it came to their relationship – sure, they had never quite fitted the typical moulds of 'best friends’ and 'room mates’ but they were both unconventional people and really, what did it matter?

It hadn’t mattered. Not until Sam Winchester had come along and then, unlike anyone before him, stayed around. Not until Ruby had started talking about him and looking at him in ways that Bela could only interpret one way.

She wasn’t in love with Ruby. She’d never been in love with anyone and suspected that she never would be and she had no objection to Sam at all. But she was also feeling possessive of Ruby in ways that just a friend had no business feeling and she was at a loss for what to do about it.

She cleared her throat, “I’m not going to try and get in the way of you and Sam.”

“Of course you’re not,” Ruby said, “you’d never be so undignified. But you don’t have to be such a martyr, Talbot.”

“What do you mean?”

“What, do you think I followed you here to let you down easy? You know I don’t do that.”

“No, you don’t.”

It was Ruby’s turn to clear her throat. She leant back and pushed her hair out of her eyes, “I was talking to Sam the other day. About, y'know, plans and stuff.”

Bela raised her eyebrows in surprise. Ruby never had plans with anyone.

She continued, “He’ll be done with his PhD next year. He’s been looking for jobs out in Kansas, says he wants to be closer to his family.”

“And he wants you to come with him.” Bela felt her stomach drop. Kansas was hundreds of miles away.

“Yeah, he does.” A smile chased itself across Ruby’s lips, “and hey, not like this dump has anything left to offer me. Should be an easy sell right?”

Bela said nothing.

“And I wanna say yes, believe me I do. Sam, he’s… he’s our brand of screwed up, you know? But whenever I imagine doing it there’s only one thing I can think.”

“Which is?”

“Not without you.”

Ruby wasn’t meeting her eyes any more but Bela found she couldn’t look away. She took a deep breath, “Are you saying you’re in love with me?”

The corner of Ruby’s mouth hitched up in a smile. “Don’t you think I’d have made a move already if I were? No, I’m not in love with you.”

Bela found that that was a relief. Romance was messy, not something she wanted to ensnare herself in and not what she and Ruby needed in their relationship (whatever the hell that was).

“I told Sam all this,” Ruby said, interrupting her thoughts, “he thinks we can work something out. Between the three of us, I mean.”

“The three of us?” Bela asked.

“Look, Bels, I used to think I knew what was going on between us, turns out I don’t have a clue. But whatever we are…” she shifted in her chair, gaze fixed on the table in front of her, “I don’t wanna leave you behind. Not for Sam, not for anybody. I want our bedrooms to be down the hall from each other until we’re old and grey and rigging the bingo games in the retirement home, alright?”

“And… Sam’s okay with this as well?”

“Yeah. If you wanted to tag along with us to Kansas he’d be cool with that. I know you’ve built your little empire here but-”

“I can build connections anywhere,” Bela interrupted. Something that felt suspiciously like hope was stirring in her. Whatever fallout she’d been anticipating it hadn’t been anything like this.

“Are you saying you’ll stick with me?” Ruby met her eyes for a brief moment and Bela finally noticed that she was holding herself rigid, one hand dancing anxiously on her leg. She smiled; the proper, full smile that only Ruby could ever draw out of her.

“If that’s what you want, yes Ruby. I’ll stick with you.”

“Cool.” Ruby glanced away but not before Bela caught the start of her biggest smile. “That’s cool. Glad we could work this out.”

“Me too.” She didn’t think she’d ever been as sincere in her life.

“And you know,” Ruby shrugged nonchalantly, “I travel a lot. If you and Sam ever wanted to hook up or something while I was away, I’d be alright with that.”

Bela stared at her, “Seriously?”

“I’m a big girl, Talbot, I know how to share,” Ruby winked at her and Bela found herself abruptly stifling laughter.

The apartment in Lebanon was open-plan; spacious and high-ceilinged. Sliding windows ran the length of one of the lounge walls, opening up onto a balcony that overlooked a stunning city vista.

None of them had quite been prepared for just how much three combined pay cheques could buy.

Their first night settling in they strewed their boxes across the open stretch of pine wood that spanned the lounge to the kitchen and curled in front of the TV with Chinese food. Bela and Sam wielded chopsticks with efficient grace. Ruby ate rice straight out of the delivery container with a serving spoon.

“I’ll get you to learn how to use these one day,” Sam told her, poking her in the arm with a chop stick.

“Believe me Sam, it’s a wasted effort,” Bela told him, “If I couldn’t train her I doubt you’ll succeed.”

“The food gets to my mouth, what’s the problem?”

“It’s improper.” Bela said. Sam snorted and she lifted a shoulder in acknowledgement that that had, given the women she was talking to, been completely the wrong argument.

“So is jewellery theft,” Ruby said through a mouthful of rice.

Sam whipped around to look at Bela, “I knew you were lying about that robbery!”

“Yeah and how many others,” Ruby said.

Bela rolled her eyes, “Are we really going to have this discussion, Sam? Do you think my friends back home didn’t know all about your brothers past dabbling in identity fraud? Not to mention your involvement?”

Sam narrowed his eyes at her, then seemed to relent and returned his attention to his food, “Yeah okay. You’re not planning on holding up anywhere around here are you?”

“Don’t be absurd, Sam.”

“Good.”

“We’ve only just arrived. It’ll be at least a couple of weeks before I’ve gathered enough intelligence to start planning anything like that.” She winked at him and he flicked a grain of rice in her direction.

“Children, please.” Ruby chastised.

“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” Bela replied.

“Whatever.” Ruby curled into Sam’s side, pushing her bare feet under Bela’s leg. Bela made a show of rolling her eyes even as she shifted to accommodate her, then they all lapsed into silence, focussed on their food.

It was odd, Bela had decided; three people with such chequered personal lives moving to a small Midwestern town to play house together. Perhaps odder still that she was one them, an irregularity interrupting an otherwise closed romantic circuit. Pushing them even further from normal.

Then again, maybe none of them would survive normal even if they wanted it. Maybe that was what made them work so well.

She leant over and snagged the last spring roll, pointedly ignoring Sam’s noise of protest. The three of them had a house to organise and after that…