Cinder calls her angel.

Ruby's not sure if it's fitting, really - she always thought that angels belonged in churches with pews that sat straight in front of an all knowing God and his army of glimmering golden saints. Religion has never appealed to Ruby; the idea of eternal salvation sounds nice in theory, but not when the other side of the coin happens to be eternal damnation.

She's always felt small and dirty compared to the local clergymen who ran around Patch, shoving Bibles at homeless people along with half-warmed TV dinners. Piousness didn't dwell in the Rose-Xiao-Long family, just floated in once in a while when one of the ancient grandmothers tottered in and one unlucky family member had to stutter through an improvised prayer before dinner to please her conservative wiles.

Ruby's got crosses hanging above her hip bones, but they don't mean anything, and they're there purely for decorative purpose. She's never read into any of the other nicknames that people have given her, but this one feels different. Maybe it's the way that Cinder purrs it or grits it through her teeth when everything is veiled with haze and lace and lingering whispers caught in her hair.

But when Cinder calls her angel and her tongue forms around the very last syllable of word and holds onto it like she never wants to let it go, Ruby closes her eyes and thinks that she could be anything if Cinder asked her to be.

"Pretty thing…" Cinder's hand strays up Ruby's side and she arches into the warm pressure, scarlet tipped locks tumbling backwards across her shoulders. The sigh that falls from Ruby's full lips lives a half-lived moment before Cinder slants her tongue between Ruby's mouth, suckles the bluish veined spot under Ruby's tongue.

Ruby whimpers, deliciously breathy; the sound is almost as soft as an eyelash and its sweet flutter against creamy skin. Cinder pulls her onto her lap and slips her hand across the wings of Ruby's shoulder blades, marks a path across her thin sloping neck with scarlet lipstick.

Ruby cradles her hands along Cinder's chin and lifts her head eye level. Cinder's eyes are black, hungry for something that Ruby wants to surrender, even if she doesn't know what it really is. Cinder's tongue flicks between her painted mouth with the pink tease of a snake's forked tongue, wets the arching bow of her Cupid's bow until it shines, slick and shimmering.

Ruby's eyes stay on Cinder's mouth, enraptured by the new distraction.

Ruby glimmers in youthful excitement from her spot on Cinder's lap; Cinder traces her fingernail along each full, lush feature of the younger girl's face, from the teasing arch of her brow to the translucent veils of her eyelids, the symmetrical twins of her jawline and cheekbones, the bitten tint of her petal pink mouth.

"Your youth is astonishing, Ruby Rose." Cinder's voice rumbles gravelly from long moments without use, throaty and deep along the purr of her neck. "I've forgotten what it was like to be your age." A look of faint regret passes over Cinder's face.

"It can't have been that long ago." Ruby says softly, her hands cradling Cinder's jaw like a treasure. The laugh that Cinder lets out is hollow and far away, and she closes her eyes. The thin lines by the sides of her eyes appear in greater contrast now, shadow lying slyly in the farrows that had once been completely covered with powder and pale foundation, and Ruby brushes her hands against them.

"I was young once. But my adolescence came with foolish stupidity. I still had my rose colored glasses on to the world, to the people in it." Cinder opens her eyes and tilts her head towards Ruby's hand, accepting the coaxing touch, albeit reluctantly. A wide barreled curl falls over her eye. "I had something taken from me, Ruby. Something that I had never wanted so much in my entire life. It wouldn't happen again, I swore to it."

Cinder's smile dimples across her face, but it's sad and small, a thin vulnerable veneer that never reaches the cold coals of her eyes.

"My beauty withered while my mind flourished. It was a sacrifice I was willing to make, but I can't help but wonder if you would love me more if I looked as young as I once did." Ruby shakes her head furiously, presses a fevered kiss to the flat of Cinder's cheekbone, almost devotional in nature.

"Never. You're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen, Cinder." Ruby looks down, bashful and blushing. "Honestly, I'm still surprised that you even looked twice at me."

Cinder pauses and gently parts Ruby's lips with two of her fingers. The movement is slow but assured; it's like she's tracing the inside of Ruby's mouth so that she can keep it in her imprinted in her hands forever.

"Do you want to know what I lost, Ruby?" Cinder's eyes hood over slightly, lashes dipping downwards. Ruby nods her assent, bumps Cinder's fingernails with the ridges of her teeth in a coaxing gesture, nibbling on them as a soft afterthought when Cinder's eyes gloss over, lost in a memory.

"I lost my first angel, a doll. She didn't know the business that I was in at the time - sweet thing was a bit lost to the world around her. Her naïvety was lovely, but in the end, the thing that cut her life short." Cinder's voice wavers for a moment. "You see, the world takes things from you when you don't offer it a sacrifice firsthand. We like to play pretend that we're in control of our decisions, of all the little things that happened to us. But it's far from the truth."

Cinder runs her hand through Ruby's hair, a caress compared to most of her feverish touches. "We can surrender gracefully or watch it all crumble down." Cinder presses her fingertips under Ruby's chin, tilts her head upwards.

"I never meant to stay so long next to you, Ruby. I'm afraid you've captured me under your spell. I told myself that I wouldn't fall in love, not after the innocence was taken from me." Cinder pauses to lick her lips. "But I think you've brought it back."

"I think I love you, Cinder." Ruby whispers the words out like a prayer, all in one breath. Cinder doesn't look taken aback, but something shifts in her golden liquid eyes, turns over once like a stone in hand.

Cinder presses her lips together before she slants a kiss across Ruby's mouth. Ruby groans at the back of her throat, rumbles like a sustained note. Cinder pulls away, lets out a breath between herself and Ruby.

"Oh, angel, you should run from me while you still have the chance…" Cinder whispers guiltily, looking down to gaze at blinking crosses inset in the black silk of Ruby's dress. "Good things can never come from being close to me."

"Don't say that, don't say that, don't say that." Ruby murmurs into the side of Cinder's skin. "Please, please, Cinder, I want to stay with you. Things will never be the same if I leave you."

"Angel, you've got your whole life ahead of you. Wouldn't you rather be free?" Cinder gazes down at Ruby, strokes her thumb up to her temple. Ruby presses a frantic and fevered kiss to Cinder's lips, steals the rest of her words with her kiss.

Ruby pulls away, chest heaving, eyes damp with nervous tears.

"I can never be free when I'm away from you."