1This was originally part of the main series but I ended up taking it out and posting it on it's own because it ran longer than the rest and kind off messed up the flow. It was originally the fourth, or fifth one in the set I think.
Again, the prompt is from the rare pair prompt lists over on LJ. And for those of you who don't know, Kristy is season four's "Ruby".
Someone asked me what home was and all I could think of were the stars on the tip of your tongue, the flowers sprouting from your mouth, the roots entwined in the gaps between your fingers, the ocean echoing inside your ribcage. – e.e. cummings
ordinary people:
The very first thing Ruby does once the war is over, once God has returned and heaven is in order, hell is finally locked away, is get a job. A real job with a W-4 form and shifts and coworkers that she wants to beat up half of the time.
She gets a job and eventually gets enough to rent an apartment and yeah, it's a shit hole with some suspicious stains and it emits odd odors during specific times of the day but it's hers. She hasn't had something all her own in centuries.
She makes Sam and Dean do all the heavy lifting, enlists Bobby in the carpeting and she watches it all go down with Castiel by her side, sipping beers and judging the other three cruelly.
They don't stay, can't stay. She knows this. Watches the three of them leave with quiet goodbyes and tight, small hugs. She knows this won't be the last time she sees them – they're stuck with her for good – but god it sure feels like it in that moment.
Cas leans against her, offers a small smile and she's pulling him back inside. Those idjits had left without putting away the dishes after all.
She gains a routine after. Becomes predictable, normal. Human.
First thing she does in the morning is take a scalding shower, just because she can, and then she has two pancakes and a cup of coffee. She leaves the apartment for the next seven hours and comes back, sweaty and tired to find Cas setting out the take-out and getting the DVR ready to watch. Then it's off to bed with a kiss on the check and a flutter of wings.
It's a nice routine, calming and she's so grateful she no longer has to wash her clothes with the intention of getting out blood. She's grateful she can now actually sit down and finish a meal and that she knows there's a place for her to rest and sleep if need be.
Stability… it's comforting. Soothing. She can see why Dean wanted it so badly, why they fought so hard for it. And she knows that right now he's off with Lisa Braeden, trying to get his own slice of routine and that Sam is finally calling up that Sarah girl and who knows, Bobby might actually make a move with Marcy the neighbor.
It's a new thing, routine and she finds she loves it a lot.
"Where do you go after I go to bed?" It takes her five months to ask this and it's with a mouth full of pad thai.
Castiel stops mid-beer sip and sighs, "Here and there. I mostly just travel back and forth. Lot of cleaning up to do."
"You need help?" Even as she's asking, she knows he won't accept her offer because he knows she doesn't really mean it. The last thing she needs right now is to get caught up into more angelic business and wind up with more dead friends. She already has plenty of those.
"It's fine, nothing I can't handle. Besides, you have a life now, a home. Who am I to disturb it?"
"Hey," she nudges him with her foot; wiggles around until she can fit both of her bare feet under his warm thigh. "This is your home too, you know. Unless there's another reason for half of your clothes taking up my space."
The look he shoots her is so unimpressed. "You bought those for me."
"Yeah but you wear them." She barely represses the urge to stick her tongue out and settles for stealing his beer away.
"Ruby, what is it you're really asking?"
Shyness overtakes her now and she's looking away before she can stop herself. "I like it when I come home to find you here, it feels nice. I just… I'd like to wake up with you here too, that's all."
His face turns soft and amused and he steals back his beer. "You could just ask."
She scowls, wiggles her toes around and hisses when he tries to remove her feet. "Would you do me the great honor of moving in, pretty please?" Her eyes slip and she doesn't bother to change them back. He shows no reaction to them, simply drops her feet back to her side of the couch.
"We'll see."
She beams because she knows what that means. She steals his beer once more and finishes it off.
The routine shifts, just slightly. Now, in the mornings Cas showers first and when she exits the bathroom it's to find a pile of pancakes with eggs at the ready. The coffee is to go and before she leaves for seven hours of work she receives a short kiss on her temple and a warm smile. She comes back and instead of take-out it's home cooked food and whatever sitcom is playing at the time as background noise. Castiel goes to bed with her and as she dozes off, she does so to the touch of her best friend.
She likes this routine better.
It comes to a halting, screeching stop sixteen months in.
Sam's hair is longer now and she fights the itch in her fingertips to go find the nearest pair of scissors.
"Sam, I'm not hunting anymore. Happily retired and all that. I make pancakes now."
The younger Winchester is shooting her a very unimpressed expression and handing over a folder.
"So am I. But this… you're going to want to take this one."
She opens the folder and oh. Hello.
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure I burned her bones almost three years ago. We saw her go up in flames."
"Apparently it didn't stick. Look Ruby, you know I'd take the case but – "
She knows, got the sonogram picture last week in the mail and she understands why he can't be the one to do this. Kristy has already taken too much from him.
"I'll do it. I'll call you when it's done, don't worry."
The hunt takes a week longer than she would have liked and she comes out of it bloody and tired and alone. She's sitting on the curb of a street with a name she's never going to bother to learn and she hasn't felt this kind of tired in a long while. The kind that seeps into your bones and refuses to leave, the kind that stays with you forever.
She swallows around the blood in her mouth and calls for him, voice barely above a whisper.
Arms wrap themselves around her the next second and she leans into him, her body curling inwards. "I never want to do that again."
He presses a kiss to her head and holds her closer. "Let's go home."