Awakening - The Last Science #1

Interlude III - Family - II

  Cinza traced the scars encircling Ruby's wrist. Her arm was laying gently across Cinza's chest, and her warm breath on the back of Cinza's neck. They were laying together on the tree, which Cinza had managed to elongate into a small makeshift couch with the use of some of the larger roots. After the heat died down and they started to get a bit cold, they'd draped the two cloaks over themselves to ward off the chill of the night-time forest wind.

  Ruby's cloak was the only one to match Cinza's in its detail and care. That wasn't to say the rest of the cloaks they'd made for the group were cheap or flimsy—on the contrary, using magic they'd been able to enhance the tight stitching to a level of quality beyond what their meager means would normally support (before Nate Price had begun to supply them with cash). Ruby had simply spent just as long going over every inch with her own abilities, enhancing and decorating the surface with the tiny specks of light that made it shimmer, as well as patterns and designs that were only visible under the right light. The inner surface was lined with the smoothest soft material Cinza could imagine. At the moment, it was doing wonders draped across her skin.

  "How long do you think it'll be 'til he gets here?" Ruby murmured into Cinza's hair.

  "Oh, are you growing bored of me?" she teased.

  "Never," Ruby breathed into her ear, sending a shiver down her neck. She hugged herself tighter to Cinza's back, spreading warmth through her body.

  "Makoto should be coming soon, but we still have some time," she replied, checking her watch. Makoto was to meet them at this particular spot and lead them to the appointed ritual site for the night. Normally, Cinza was the one to pick the sites and lead the group there, but as she'd been preoccupied with the heist mission, she'd left the task to Makoto. The locations themselves weren't particularly important. Cinza just preferred a wide open clearing where she had enough room to perform her more complex and stunning movements.

  "Mmmm," Ruby hummed suggestively, tracing lines down Cinza's chest with her hands. Cinza laughed, but she stopped Ruby before it went any further. Her mind had already wandered onto other topics. She'd finally remembered what she'd been thinking about before the exquisite redhead had decided to seduce her into a makeshift tree bed.

  "Ruby, I've never asked about your parents."

  "Mmmparents?" Ruby asked, startled. "Why would you ask about them?"

  "I never knew my own. I didn't really have parents until I turned twelve, and I ended up leaving those behind eventually when our paths diverged. I wanted to know what yours were like."

  She hugged Cinza tight, and this time it was less seductive and more comforting—as if Ruby needed the embrace more than she did. "I never met my mom, she died when I was a baby. My dad hated me. I left him. It's not really a nice story."

  "Oh," Cinza replied awkwardly. "I'm sorry."

  "It's okay," Ruby answered, giving her another reassuring squeeze. "I don't mind you asking. You can always ask me anything. Why parents, though? How'd you get there?"

  Cinza relaxed herself within Ruby's warm embrace. "The parents who eventually adopted me were very religious."

  Ruby giggled. "And you're worried you're going to hell for sleeping with another girl?"

  "No, nothing like that. I was thinking about how much we've become like a religion ourselves. We have rituals and a holy text, we perform ceremonies and we evangelize."

  "By evangelize do you mean tossing those copies out for people to find?"

  "Yes, though it wasn't as productive as I'd hoped. It was pretty foolish in retrospect. We only managed to recruit one new member from all that effort collecting and distributing the copies, and we lost the capability to awaken newcomers."