58 Paranoid (1/2)
She thought he was being paranoid but couldn't brush off the worry in his eyes because she knew he was only like this because of his recent loss. He didn't want to lose her too.
So she spent a lot of time cultivating the garden and summoning endless heaps of jewels in preparation for when she was able to get back to a big city and sell them. She used her smartphone as a design reference, which was rather helpful in allowing her to branch out.
Ruby was nervous about testing her powers on other minerals so she stuck to what she knew. That sort of power came with an awful lot of responsibility she did not want at all.
Ash liked to help in the garden but she kept jewelry-making a strictly daylight hours activity. They had come to a sort of accord though, slowly shifting their sleep schedules so Ash went to bed/woke up earlier and Ruby did it later.
This allowed for a few more hours of the day that they were able to spend together. At this point he was sleeping 6 AM to 3 PM and she was sleeping midnight to 9 or 10 AM.
He had to wear his cloak to help her garden when the sun was high in the sky but he said he didn't mind because he liked seeing her in her element. That made Ruby blush. Sometimes she wondered if he was even aware of the things that came out of his mouth.
Ash was able to tease her with a perfectly straight face so she could never be sure if he was teasing her purposely or not. He was difficult to predict. After spending so much time with him she still didn't understand him.
Ruby was in the middle of transporting today's jewelry haul down to the dungeon when he woke up. His eyes widened at the sight.
”…how long did it take you to make all of that?”
”A couple of hours. At this rate I'll willing to bet you'll be able to buy a small country for the price of all the jewelry I'm keeping down here. The problem will be spreading them out enough for buyers to be able to afford them,” she said with a shrug.
”We might need to randomly tour around the country hitting every big city we can. Or…uh…I might. You don't have to come with me since you wouldn't even be awake for hours of operation at most jewelers' anyway.”
Ash's expression grew insulted. ”As if I would make you go off by yourself when you're doing work on my behalf! We can go together as soon as it's safe for you to travel freely. We don't know how far the fae who wants to buy you can reach.”
He frowned. ”Ruby, we talked about this…”
”I know but as soon as I get these things I promise I won't leave the barrier again for the next month. I know what food I need to stock up on this time so I won't run out as fast. Please pretty please with a cherry on top?”