Housemates

Ruby woke with a start. She wiped a bit of drool from the corner of her mouth as she felt around the bed. Her husband was missing yet again. Unlike other women, she did not have to worry about where he might have gotten off to. Their infant son was not in his crib which meant the two men of her life were certainly together. She pulled on a robe, bundled it tight against herself. Ruby padded downstairs to the kitchen. A fire was already crackling and water heated on the stove. She noticed the door cracked to the spare room, the one Dezik has resided in before they'd gotten married. She peered inside to find her husband asleep in a chair, head leaned over onto him shoulder. Their son, Seth, breathed the rapid, noisy breath of an infant, secure in the crook of his father's arm and an innate promise of safety.

The baby was correct: there was no safer place on earth than the nest he found himself in, cradled in the heart of arguably the most dangerous man in the country. Well, when he had to be. Ruby hadn't seen much of that in their almost five years together, though there were hints. He was unnaturally quick, a trait that had been the cause of most of his woes in life. The reason he had been taken by mercenaries as a child and raised to be one. He'd lost the majority of his sight, no way he'd ever know what his son looked like or his wife for that matter.

Honestly, that part was fine with Ruby. He could feel the disfiguring burns on her body, but he didn't see them, and that meant something to her. It meant nothing more to Dezik other than to give him another reason to admire her, for her resiliency and strength.

Ruby backed out and started making some breakfast. It wasn't two minutes before she felt a kiss on her cheek. She turned as Dezik settled at the table, Seth still snoozing. His black hair stuck off at various angles, odd violet eyes hooded with lost sleep, but he still smiled slightly.

"How long have you been up?" Ruby asked quietly.

Dezik shrugged carefully. "A few hours. He just wanted to walk around for a while, then he fell back asleep." Dezik would never admit that he was utterly exhausted and might not turn down an assignment to get him out of the house. He had spent so much of his life tuning himself to be up and ready at even the slightest disturbance, getting any rest with Seth's crib in the bedroom was nearly impossible. He could count his hours of sleep in the last twelve weeks on two hands.

But though he was tired and kind of bored and feeling a little useless as a house-husband, Dezik did not for one moment wish for anything to change. Since his torturous childhood, having his whole family ripped away from him, Dezik had never dreamed of a life like this. A wonderful woman who loved him and his very own child. A family all his own again. He wouldn't let anything take this one from him.

Ruby set down a mug of tea and scrambled eggs in front of Dezik and one for herself. He eased his hand to a fork, expertly keeping Seth still.

"I'm sorry," Ruby sighed. "You should wake me up. I just don't hear him fussing."

"Oh, I don't mind," Dezik assured her. "I mean, I can't really feed him," he added lightly.

As if on cue, Seth started to squirm and gurgle. Ruby plucked him up, opening her robe as she sat back down to eat. Every once in a while it still amused her that she could walk around completely naked and it wouldn't make one wit of difference to Dezik. Ruby rocked the baby as Dezik picked at his breakfast. It wasn't really like him

"Something wrong?" she asked.

Dezik had not yet told Ruby about his visitor from the day before. She had been out picking up orders for her seamstress business when there was a knock at the door. Dezik, ever cautious, let the two large guard dogs make first judgement. When they failed to be roused, he took Seth with him to answer it.

"Dezik," a young man greeted. Dezik could hear the distinct swish of a familiar uniform fabric, the creak of issued leather. Soldier.

"Do you have news for me?" Dezik wasn't ever rude to unfamiliar soldiers, he knew they were messengers for Kael Ajax, the one really giving the orders, but he was none too friendly, either.

"Yes, sir."

Dezik stepped back and allowed the man to step just inside the doorway, enough to keep voices from carrying. He didn't say anything else, just waited expectantly until the young man got uncomfortable. Even holding a baby, Dezik was intimidating.

"Yes, sir, so Lieutenant Ajax regrets to say that he has to request your presence at the north base in ten days. He has a matter he must discuss with you in person, sir."

It would take Dezik three days to get to the north base which meant he had less than a week to think of a way to tell Ruby that he was going. And that he had no idea when he'd be back. And that he didn't know what the assignment was. One thing Dezik would not have to mention that if Kael was requesting him, knowing full well that he had a new baby at home, something very serious must be going on. Kael and his wife Sophia had taken Dezik in as a teenager and he was something of an older brother to him now, as well as being the closest thing he had to a boss. There was no way Kael would take Dezik away from his budding family without good reason.

"Dezik?" Ruby pressed, noting the contemplative furrow between his eyebrows. It vanished as he glanced up, shifting.

"Just thinking about something. We can talk about it later," he said. He was up in a flash, employing that legendary speed whenever it suited him, halfway up the stairs before Ruby registered that he'd left the table.

It wasn't like him to keep things from her and it certainly felt like that was what he was doing. A tickle of anxiety fluttered up in her chest and Seth mewed unhappily as she bounced him a little too vigorously.

"Oh, shh, shh, I'm sorry," she whispered. Ruby couldn't help her gaze going up the staircase. She half expected Dezik to come back down, but he did have an old lingering habit of exiting from random windows, rooftops, and back alleys: remnants of another life. He didn't employ his tricks often, but it usually meant he was avoiding something. Ruby hated thinking it was her.

Dezik had indeed already changed and slipped out the roof. He was just too tired to field questions at that moment. He didn't really have anywhere to be, but every so often he needed to get out of the house. He made his way to the street and headed for the market. He liked the anonymity of the crowded place. This community was used to him by now. They knew who he was, his relationship with Ruby, and that he worked under certain contracts. Dezik was left alone and didn't really need to slink around when he was close to home.

There were a lot of things Dezik kept from Ruby. She had only travelled with him twice, both to places he knew well. She had no idea what it was like for him in the majority of the country. He didn't think it would do her any good to know just how much he was hated, how terrified people were of him based on what he'd been forced to do as a teenager and young man. Most people thought that the military had something on him and that was the only reason he did things for them. In reality, Dezik had never been a violent person by nature. Kael Ajax had offered him a way out and he'd taken it.

Dezik picked up some flowers for Ruby and few things to restock the house. He was deliberating between telling her about work as soon as possible or waiting until right before he had to leave. If Seth hadn't been in the picture, it definitely would have been the latter, but that choice seemed thoughtless now. He was about to head back home when he caught the sound of honking just rising over the din of the marketplace. Dezik had installed geese in the alleyway at his Ruby's home shortly after they'd met to act as a warning system. The geese knew the regulars. If they were going off, someone was aggravating them.

The familiar gut churning sensation of dread roiled up in Dezik's stomach as he took off towards home. It was too soon after Kael's message. He hadn't even verified the message, like a fool. Maybe that wasn't a messenger from Kael at all, maybe it was s scout. Maybe the message was true, but someone had been watching. Every scenario that he had ignored clicked along through his head, pumping along with his racing heartbeat, reminding him what a fool he'd been to get lulled into this domestic life. His enemies hadn't gone anywhere but into hiding, waiting for just this kind of moment. When he was tired, careless, unthinkably oblivious. By the time Dezik skittered into the alley, he'd decided his family was gone, dead once again, and he was to blame.

"Damn these birds!" A familiar voice scolded the still screaming geese. "Ruby, will you open the door already?"

"Beth?" Dezik gasped, hardly able to speak from relief. The sudden plummet of adrenaline left him feeling heady. The geese settled at the sound of his voice.

Ruby's sister smiled, patting her hair, forgetting momentarily that her handsome brother-in-law was blind.

"Dezik, be a dear and get these creatures out of the way. I cam all the way here to meet the baby and Ruby's just hollering from upstairs telling me to give her minute," Beth prattled on as Dezik stepped up to the door to unlock it. He could barely hear her over the rushing in his ears.

"Honestly," she went on, "who keeps the door locked when they're home?"

Good girl, Ruby, Dezik thought.

"Probably my fault," Dezik told her, juggling his disrupted flowers and grocery bag. "I'm a little cautious. Just old habits, I guess."

Ruby came down from the bedroom with the snoozing Seth in her arms just as Beth and Dezik bumped inside. Ruby knew instantly that something wasn't quite right with Dezik when she saw him. There was a light sheen of sweat on his forehead and his shoulders hunched a bit. She hurried to his side, leaning in close.

"The flowers are lovely, thank you," she said. Kissing his cheek, she whispered by his ear. "Are you alright?"

Dezik straightened up and cleared his throat. "Yes, fine. Your sister is here."

"Yes, I am!" Beth announced. She shoved in and took Ruby in a hug, then pushed her back and arched over Seth. "Ohhhh, Ruby, he's so precious." She clasped her hands together.

Ruby smiled. "He is. Do you want to hold him?"

No point in asking, Beth was already sitting at the table with her arms extended. Ruby snuck a glance at Dezik and was comforted to see a proud little smirk on his face. He had something to tell her, that much was clear, but watching him now, she was confident it had nothing to do with her and Seth.