Ruby

The night always held a sweet place in Ruby's heart, sitting on the roof of her apartment building, listening to the city as it lived around her, watching the night sky slowly rearrange itself into stars, moon, and clouds overhead. Tonight was no different.

It was peaceful up here, and Ruby's parents knew she was safe, so they were happy to let her unwind above their heads. At eighteen, Ruby could come and go as she pleased, but she hadn't missed the secret conversations her Mum and Dad started having just after her birthday. It was weird. Usually, they were all an open book, no secrets, total honesty. And things were happening to her that Ruby needed to share, but whenever she'd gathered up the nerve to, she would round the corner, and there they'd be heads together, whispering.

The hairs on her nape sprang to attention, and Ruby was instantly on her feet, whirling around with her fists up just in case. 

"You're always just a little too slow." A masculine voice whispered in her ear, and Ruby jumped to the side with a muffled scream.

" I will kill you, Moss. Why don't you just take the stairs up here like normal people?"

But Ruby couldn't resist her best friend for long, especially when he graciously took off his jacket and draped it over her shoulders.

She watched patiently as Moss laughed, jogging around the rooftop, dodging vegetable garden beds, clotheslines, and couches, using them as points to climb or jump from. So graceful and energetic, Ruby could watch him dance around all day. There was something magnetic about the way he moved his body around, sometimes going so fast he was a blur, yet he never tried out for any productions or belonged to any dancing groups in the city, and whenever she asked him about it, Moss laughed like it was a juicy secret that he wouldn't tell her.

" What are you up to, Miss Ruby? What dreams are you conjuring this night?"

Moss flopped himself down beside her, his red hair all spiky and silkier than any boy had a right to, his weird marble coloured eyes sparkling as he grinned, poking Ruby in the nose with his finger, laughing as she tried to bat it away.

"Cut it out! Get your sausage finger away from me. Has anyone ever told you that you have weirdly long digits?"

If Moss could smile any wider, his pearly whites would outshine the moon itself. And he raised his eyebrows, trying and failing to be serious. " Well, you know what they say about a man's digits, long finger, long mmfff..."

Roby clapped her hand over his mouth before the last word could form, then quickly let go, " Yuck! Did you really have to lick my hand?"

"It worked, didn't it?" 

Moss wiggled closer to Ruby, as they did every evening, waiting for a show that was unique to their city, and before long, meteor showers began above, lighting up the night sky with their passage across the city. There had never been a case of meteors actually causing damage, and Moss seemed to always know how long it would last; afterwards, he often fell asleep. Ruby gently pulled the blanket up over them and closed her eyes, content to nap as well.

2.

" We are going to have to tell her soon."

Neil and Amelia looked at their daughter napping with her best friend. It was a chilly winter evening, and the snow had begun to fall half an hour ago. They'd walked up the steps to the rooftop, quietly checking, and as had happened in the past three nights, a cloak of red energy encased Ruby and Moss, keeping them both warm and dry as they slept. 

Neil clasped the latest letter in his hand, the unmistakable seal of Alliance Academy on the letterhead.

"They already know about her, and now she's been summoned."