Reaping Amore

C

CaptainFrost

Guest
Original poster
((I'm not really good at making profiles, so I usually just give name and basic info ^^ Also, I write in 3rd person as a habit and I like colours~ ^^;; I also have never been good at first posts, sorry! :x ))

Ruby (prefers to be called "Ronnie" by friends) Chester.
Aged 20
Brown hair with rainbow-coloured bangs. She's a people person and fairly tolerant, it takes a lot to piss her off. She's also very playful and kind of a joker, but knows when she should be serious. Currently, she's working as a waitress in a family restaraunt, trying to put herself through college. She usually gets out of work late, but doesn't really mind walking three blocks in the dark.

Supposed to have died after being attacked by a mugger and falling, hitting her head to hard on the cement curb.

~~~~

Just like any other night, Ruby walked out of the restaurant with her bag slung over a shoulder and a hoodie over her waitress outfit. She usually enjoys the fresh, night air, but today something was bothering her. Since having left the restaurant, she was sure she'd heard other footsteps.

Ruby quickened her pace, wanting to get home in a hurry. Unfortunately, a desperate man had other plans. "Hold it lady," he said, grabbing her arm. She screamed as she was turned around and held tightly in his grip. "Give me whatever you have and you won't get hurt."

Naturally, Ruby would have given him all her money and jewelry. Her first instinct though, was to struggle free of his grip and get away from him. The man held on tightly as she wriggled, but she managed to trip him. To Ruby's dismay though, they both fell to the ground and she felt an intense pain shoot into her head, coming from her temple. For a moment, she could feel the warmth of blood running down her skin through the pain, but it didn't last long as she blacked out.
 
Steele had been watching the girl for a while. Ruby Chester, a young female who was next on his list to be reaped. Throughout the days he'd been over seeing her daily life, he'd come to like watching things she did and how she interacted with people. Her personality was less annoying and more interesting than that of other humans he saw. Tonight would be the night that he'd finally come to take her soul with him. Steele felt a twinge in his chest when he imagined her future.

It was when Ruby left the restaurant that the grim reaper had begun paying close attention to the factors that would cause her death. The man who would be after her was right on time. At that point, Steele should have gotten the paperwork out to begin his report on Ruby Chester's death and his planned success in retrieving her soul, but when he noticed the usually level-headed girl slowly becoming more nervous and scared, he felt an "uh oh" feeling arise. Steele had seen several deaths, gruesome and tragic, but for some reason, Ruby's death unfolding before him made him tremble a bit.

Looking at her body as she lied on the concrete, bleeding and unconscious, he took a deep breath and left her soul in her body, making sure to push her spirit in and locking it in there securely. She'd be in physical pain for a while, but it was better than having her die. For some reason he felt like he couldn't let her die. A strong feeling in his gut confirmed that he wanted to help this girl live. Returning the the grim reaper realm, Steele snuck into the upper class reapers' storage room and stole a key to the gates that led to the human world (leaving by those gates instead of just teleporting to the human world gives him a solid body) as well as a small marble-looking object (called a "healing pellet", used by grim reapers when their solid bodies got injured, it would heal them to perfect condition, regardless of how bad the injury). Arriving at the location of Ruby's body, he fused the pellet with her soul by forcing her to swallow it and carried her unconscious body back to her home, using the keys on her to get in. He placed her body on her bed and sat on his shins, patiently waiting for the girl to wake up. Her body was completely healed, all she had to do was awaken. Steele felt the urgency to keep her alive pulsing through his now solid veins.
 
((It was perfect, and no problem. Character bios aren't necessary :3))

The man had gotten up and ran away, just as he'd been destined to do. He was scared that he'd killed her, which should have been the case. As the man was hit by a car though, another reaper was alerted. This man had been meant to die in a prison fight. The reaper didn't care much as he took the man's soul, humans were accident-prone, so he assumed it was just a little change in plans. For the time being, no one knew that Steele had changed things, nor did they know that Ruby was alive. They would be left alone for now, but the domino effect that would be cause by Ruby living would bring attention eventually.

Ruby didn't care much for anything at the moment. First of all, she was unconcious. Her mind was completely blank, as opposed to the usual dreams and visions people see in their sleep or when they're knocked out. She wasn't supposed to be seeing anything.

As conciousness returned, she felt a gentle sting followed by no more pain in her head. She started dreaming like usual, though, as memories flooded back, Ruby sat up with a jolt. She was prepared to start screaming, regardless of whether or not the man was still laying on top of her or not. As she saw the familiar surroundings of her room though, she looked around, puzzled. "Was I... Dreaming?" she wondered. Though, as she noticed Steele sitting nearby, she jumped out of bed.

"Who are you?" she asked, pointing at him. Now she was really confused. From the dirt on her clothes, she assumed that the guy who attacked her had been real. Who was this guy though? And how did he get into her house?
 
"I've been watching you," Steele said, unaware of how creepy that sounded. He paused for a moment, thinking of how he could explain to her what was going on. Then he proceeded to say, "You were supposed to die tonight, but I saved you." Relaying all the information regarding Ruby and her death was a bit tricky for Steele. He figured that he should get all things in the clear before suddenly mentioning he was a reaper, "I'm a grim reaper and I was in charge of taking your soul with me. Instead, I let you live and healed your body. I apologize for allowing you to be hurt and killed, because I can only be useful in things regarding after someone dies.
 
Ruby stared at him silently for a moment. She got off of her bed slowly and walked backwards towards the door. "Okay then," she murmured, not taking her eyes off him. "I'm going to just find a phone book real quick, and then we can talk more about how you're a grim reaper, okay?" Ruby told him gently. "After a while, some nice guys are going to come and then you can talk to them all about it."

This guy was obviously insane. Maybe he'd saved her and brought her home to take care of her injuries, but there were just a few problems. One, he'd admitted to being a stalker. Two, he'd created some fantasy world where he was a grim-reaper and could go around killing people. Maybe it was just Ruby, but that was a little creepy.
 
Steele looked at her blankly when she didn't believe him. He wasn't sure how to convince her of his authenticity, but he figured he would try his best. "Your name is Ruby Chester and on your way home from work tonight, you were to be killed in a confrontation with a mugger. Only a while ago, you fell and hit your head on the concrete, the blood stains remain if you wish to see them. Your head feels a slight pain, yes? I gave you a healing pellet, which is why you're not dead and you feel little pain in comparison to the pain you should be feeling after almost dying from a concussion and blood loss." He pulled out a notepad from his pocket and drew a cartoony (but still recognizable) picture of the mugger before showing it to Ruby, "You were supposed to die while struggling to get away from him. He should look familiar."

Steele had no other way but to rationally explain everything to her. "I erased your wounds, not your memories. Look at your clothes, they're dirty and have blood on it. No one could have survived a death planned by Death unless someone in the afterlife business interfered. Like me. Grim Reaper Steele."
 
She took a look at the notepad. It did look like the mugger, she remembered him clearly, and her head did hurt a little. How could it be possible? Grim-reapers being real? They were always just stories and things people used in movies or comic books. They weren't supposed to be real.

Ruby was seriously starting to believe him? It didn't make any sense, but he honestly didn't look like an escapee from an insane asylum. He looked normal, he looked so sure.

"Let me get this straight," Ruby said, "You... Are a grim-reaper, you've been watching me, and tonight I was supposed to die?" For a moment, she continued to stare at him, but the doubt was disappearing from her eyes. "Well, if that's true... Tell me something that I do only when I'm alone, completely alone," she told him, "Something that only I and a stalker grim-reaper would know."

((Lulz, make something up, just don't make it bad xD))
 
Steele thought for a second before giving her evidence that would confirm his identity, "Your bangs are rainbow because it matches your favorite character of the show you somewhat secretly obsess over. The show about ponies and friendship." His face looked completely serious, which made him look really funny when saying such a line.

He put the notepad back in his pocket and moved his bangs out of his face. His hair was jet black, matching with his reaper outfit of a long black coat over a black long-sleeved shirt and the same colored pants with onyx combat boots. The only thing that wasn't a deathly color was his silver belt, which was his Reaper's Scythe in a more transportable and less conspicuous form. He took off his belt and revealed its true form to Ruby, it was like the scythe that Death was typically shown having in pictures drawn of him. Except each reaper had a specific scythe made for him/her, that was given another form that would suit the reaper's liking. In Steele's case, a belt was easier for him. He held out the scythe to let her touch but warned, "Don't touch the blade. Any living being who gets touched by it gets their soul taken out of their body."
 
Dear god, he is telling the truth, Ruby thought, paling a little. She was the only one who (should) know that. Her doubt was completely cleared as he took off his belt, showing it as a scythe.

It was a little scary, to say the least. Ruby wasn't the kind of person to touch dangerous looking things, but part of her wanted to believe it was fake. Nodding to him a little, acknowledging that she'd hear his warning, she touched the handle. "How is this... Even possible?" she murmured. Ruby stepped back a little more, leaning against the door. "So... I really was supposed to die tonight?"
 
He nodded before returning the scythe to its belt form and wearing it again. "I wanted to save you, so I did. I will have to stay by your side from now on. Some other reapers may find out you didn't die and may come after you," Steele switched his sitting position to cross-legged. He figured that since she was starting to believe him, he would give her a bit of the background of reapers. It would help her to understand him more as well.

Steele took his notepad again and drew a typical, but cartoony, picture of Death. A skeleton in a black hooded robe with a gleaming silver scythe. He used the back of his pen to point at the skeleton's face, "Death apparently looks like this. I'm not really a high level reaper, so I've never gotten the chance to see him, but he controls what happens to living things when they die. He has been here since life began, making sure that the souls go where they need to so that people don't take advantage of the power within the souls."

He looked at Ruby before drawing on the backside of the picture of Death; he drew a Casper-looking type of ghost and continued with his explanation, "All souls have energy, regardless of living or dead. The living live only for a short while, but the dead can live for forever. My job is to make sure that the dead and their energies don't pile up and cause havoc in the world. You see, energy is positive unless otherwise affected by some sort of corruption, like confusion, anger, and other negative feelings. The longer a spirit stays in the physical world without a physical body, the more likely it becomes that their energy becomes negative. The negative energy grows and grows until the spirit is corrupted and begins to interfere with the system of life. Reapers are here to make sure that doesn't happen, by sending off all the spirits to be either reborn or to purgatory."

After his little Spirits 101 session and explanations, Steele looked straight into Ruby's eyes, "From now on, I will be protecting you. But for the times I am not with you, I need you to protect yourself. For that, I have to teach you about almost everything I know. For a person who is supposed to have been fated to die already, are you prepared for fighting to keep your life I saved?"
 
((Don't worry about it ^^ I like longer posts anyway, and I always try to post back as much as I can~ Besides, I love the explanation~))

Ruby listened to him, thinking his drawings were cute all the while. So that was how things went down. It was interesting, to say the least, and under any other circumstances, she would've been asking him questions and telling him to draw more things. Right now though, it felt overwhelming. Considering the fact that he said other reapers would be after them.

It was like... She was a wanted criminal. Scratch that. That was exactly what it was. Ruby had legitimately cheated death. That would probably cause a lot of trouble for both of them. She wondered, though, what was the worst that they could do to Steele? Just a slap on the wrist and a warning? Or maybe there were ways to torture a grim-reaper. As for herself, Ruby knew that she'd probably just be killed and taken to... Wherever she belonged.

She didn't answer his question immediately. Ruby thought hard. She could just tell him to kill her, or to let someone else kill her. It would be troublesome for him though, since he went through the trouble of letting her live, then telling her all the reaper secrets. The least she could do was be grateful, right? Ruby knew that the right thing would be to say yes. She'd gotten a second chance at life, she should thank the one who gave her that opportunity. But...

"Why?" she asked gently, looking down. "Why did you save me? You know there will be consequences. I want to know why you went through the trouble of doing this."
 
Looking a bit surprised, Steele's eyes stared off into space, thinking about the question that was asked to him. Why did he save Ruby anyway? He only remembered that having her die made him nauseous and made him feel like he had to do something about it. If she died, she would just be reborn. There was nothing wrong with that right? No, there was, actually. She wouldn't remember who she was in the past if she was reborn. The Ruby he came to know by observation would be gone. How interesting she was now would mean nothing if she were to be reborn. He felt his stomach twist as a pang of pain hit his chest. After waiting a moment until he calmed down, his grey eyes met Ruby's, "I don't know. I just don't want you to disappear, I like the you that you are now. The thought of having you disappear makes me jumpy and unsteady."
 
Ruby blushed, taken aback a little by his response. It wasn't the first time she'd heard something along the lines of 'I like you the way you are', but the fact that he'd done such a thing for her was... Flattering? It was sweet, that was for sure.

She nodded then, "Alrigh then, teach me how to defend myself and all." Holding up a finger, she smiled a little. "Not yet though. This whole ordeal has made me hungry, would you like a midnight snack?" Ruby asked him. It wasn't actually midnight yet, but they were close. Plus she doubted she would sleep well anyway.
 
He was a bit surprised that Ruby had taken the news so well. Then again, Ruby was Ruby. Steele nodded in response to her question, "Yes please. I need nourishment to sustain this body." He sat quiet as time passed slowly in his head before asking the girl, "Are... You okay? You must be overwhelmed probably...?" For a moment he rethought about his choice to keep her alive. Only for a second.
 
Before leaving the room, Ruby shook her head. "Am I alright? No, of course not. If things are going down this way though, I just have to accept it, right?" With that, she left the room quietly. Ruby walked to the small kitchen half-mindedly, trying mainly to focus on making food for herself and the reaper guy. Did Steele eat? He was human now, but what about before?

Lost in thought, she stood in front of the refrigerator quietly. After a while, she opened it and pulled out the milk, opting to go with some Frosted Flakes so she wouldn't have to work too much. Ruby pulled two bowls out and started pouring the milk and cereal.
 
"I see..." Steele waited before following Ruby and watching her make cereal, "do you need help?" Although he'd watched humans for a long time, he hadn't been in a solid body for just as long. He clumsily tried imitating the motions of pouring that Ruby was making and ended up crashing into the refrigerator. He looked a bit confused as his body mechanics weren't as skillful as they were when he was just a plain ol' non-physically-existing grim reaper. "Sorry," he mumbled.
 
"No, thank you, I can--" she began. She stopped when she saw him wreck into the fridge. Ruby couldn't hold back the amused smile that pulled at her lips. "Are you okay?" she asked him, "How different are reaper bodies from human bodies?"

It was amusing to see him doing that, copying her movements and somehow managing to crash. Ruby motioned for him to come closer to her, holding the gallon of milk out to him. "Make sure you grab it firmly," she told him, grabbing his hand once he was close enough, and putting it on the handle.
 
"Okay," the reaper tried squeezing with his hand when holding the handle. It felt weird to be doing like the humans did. While practicing, he explained, "Well.. We reapers exist more as something similar to ghosts. As reapers, we can only touch spirits, each other, items specifically made for us or just specific supernatural items in general, and beings of similar existences to us. We don't need nourishment, so we don't need to buy or make foods and we don't need transportation because we teleport. Being non-physical is good for that, teleporting to where you want to." As he switched his focus more to explaining than pouring, he ended up pouring an excess amount of milk in his bowl. Milk puddles spilled as his eyebrows furrowed. "Being human is hard."
 
She tried to steady his hand as he poured, her hand hovering just a bit away from his. He was doing well, but ended up pouring too much and spilling. Ruby had been listening to him with interest and, at his last comment, she laughed.

"It is, I suppose," she replied, grabbing a few paper towels to wipe up the mess. "I'd tell you it's not, but seeing as you're new, I guess it is," Ruby said thoughtfully. Smiling, she handed him a spoon. "Eating, however, is going to be one of the easiest things you learn to do. Tomorrow, you, me, cheeseburgers."

Thinking for a moment, she put her hand over his again, helping him with the spoon. It was an easy task, but she honestly didn't want to risk anymore spills. She hoped he didn't mind the sudden amount of physical touch, she just wanted to help him adjust to... Eating, in general.
 
"Cheeseburgers? How do those taste? I've seen them but I didn't have to eat before, so..." his voice trailed off as he practiced eating. Ruby was kind enough to be harboring him willingly as well as helping him learn how to function as a human. The corner of his mouth pulled up a half centimeter: he had a slight smile on his face as he really realized what a good person she was. It was one thing for him to see her do kind things and another to experience it firsthand.

Steele successfully ate one spoon of cereal. And then another. And then some more after that. He was surprised it really was that easy. Looking at the spoon in his hand and then changing his gaze to meet Ruby's eyes before saying with a straight face, "Thank you Ruby, I will cherish this spoon forever."