Chapter 14:
She was generally a very nice person. Adam and her were probably the friendliest Cullens, especially when it came to mingling with the kids at school. While their elder siblings chose to remain aloof and distanced themselves from the others when they were still in school, Adam and Ruby were the popular sociable kids who had it all - smarts, money, and most importantly, a great number of humans who reciprocated their friendliness.

So Ruby was not exactly thrilled to be regarded as an invislble entity. Moreover, by someone whom she could not get out of her head.

Legolas was the closest she ever had to a crush. She probably had a massive crush on someone too, back when she was still a human. But that part of her life was a distant hazy memory now.

What was most important was that she knew it was not a one-sided and unrequited puppy love. The kisses they had, the lingering touches, and even their little spats were not her imagination. But now, the only evidence of all that, was that this person remained incredibly pissed with her.

Or, maybe, he was terrified; she could not tell. He had regarded her other companions as he had always did. Friendly and diplomatic. But even with her staring directly at him with no shame, he would glance past her as if he could not see her.

Feeling helpless and lost, she confided in Bella. Bella was sympathetic to what she was going through, having been through something similar herself. Yet the only advise she could dispense to Ruby was to leave it in the hands of Fate and to give him more time. He had to come to terms with it himself. After all, they have only returned that very morning.

(-)

Later in the evening as she walked into the familiar ballroom, Ruby instantly realised the difference. The ballroom was usually lighted up by grand chandeliers that were powered by hundreds of candles. Yet that night, they seemed even brighter than usual.

Castril, whom she was delighted to see again, had proudly shared that it was attributed to a wonderful idea of Mirlanna's. It included the placement of mirrors that intensified the candle flames to all other parts of the grand ballroom. She admired the significant change that this idea had brought to the space. Although already a classic idea in interior designing back at her world, she figured it must be a relatively new concept in Middle Earth. Ruby did agree that Mirlanna deserved some credit after all.

She soon found herself thrown at the same main table with the royal family. Word of their innumerable Orc conquests and successes have reached the Kingdom. It was a very pleased King Thranduil that night who toasted to the heroes of Mirkwood so many times that Ruby lost count.

The night got colder as the dinner celebration continued.

"And what better way to end the night, than with fireworks." The King announced with his hands stretched out, signaling the start of a great performance. Excited cheers and applause sounded throughout the hall. Everyone excitedly got on to their feet amidst busy chatterings as they made their way out to the ballroom's balconies to get the best view.

With each colourful explosion of fire and colours, the crowd cheered, mesmerised by the vibrant display that lighted up the sky.

Ruby and her family stood with the rest, appreciating the marvellous sights while halting their breath due to the overbearing smell of gunpowder, no thanks to their keen sense of smell.

She felt like a third wheel, with Bella's elbows hooked around hers, and with Edward on the other end of Bella's arms.

"I think I shall retire for the night." She whispered to Bella, who looked at her with understanding. Bella patted her back and nodded.

With a grateful smile to both her siblings, she retreated to the back. At the corner of her eye, she witnessed Jasper and the King engaged in a talk on the balcony. She made a mental note to follow up with Jasper again on what transpired.

As she emerged from behind the curtains, she noticed that most of the candles in the ballroom had already finished burning. With everyone out on the balcony, the attendants did not find it necessary to relight them since the meal was already finished, and were instead paying more attention to clearing out the used dishes and cutlery.

She offered them an appreciative smile as she made her way out of the ballroom. She walked along the corridors towards the opposite wing of the castle which were much darker than the illuminated ballroom in comparison. Ruby realised that she was so deep in thought that she had not noticed a silent figure in the dark making his way towards her direction.

The wind was not in her advantage that night, or she would have picked up the scent of freshly cut grass emitted so strongly by this person.

Legolas had been successfully avoiding her the whole day, whether in his conversations, or thorugh his eyes. But there was no avoiding now. The 26feet corridor was wider than the ones Ruby had at home, but it felt like just a mere 6 feet.

She realised with dread that she had not give it much thought about how to react if they had some time off together. Like right now. It was something she did not expect to happen. They must have stood in the semi-dark, looking at each other in complete surprise for a few seconds.

But in that mere seconds, she had a flashback. About how they met for the first time, how she was afraid that the Prince would be able to see through their disguised lies about their identities and real diet. How she then tried to pathetically seduce him to throw him off their tracks. She smiled bitterly at the ill-timed memories.

Focusing back to the present at the scenario that laid in front of her now, she recollected herself, and gave a curtsy as she bowed her head in respect. She had seen many of the ladies do this.

Legolas' usual reaction to this was to nod in reply, which was exactly what he did.

She never looked at him after the curtsy, choosing instead to move off quickly around the bend of the corridor to disappear from sight.

She heard his movements, how he turned around to face her as she passed by very quickly. She also did not miss out how he did call out her name hoping that she would stop. But her feet would not allow it. They continued walking as if they had a mind of their own. The soft sandals made no noise as she continued hurrying back to her room.

"Ruby!" she heard him call out her name again.

This time, she slowed down.

"I'm sorry." she blurted out as she turned around to face him. His eyes widened slightly in wonder.

"I shouldn't have showed you that much. Right?" She continued, as she turned her head away to admit. "I regretted every single day after that. I shouldn't have. But there was no way for me to explain to you. Would you have believed me?" He remained silent.

"Yes, we feed on blood - my family and I. But that is the real us. And we live among humans in my world - humans whom we would not hesitate to kill in order to keep this identiy a secret."

"That is how we live!" she threw her hands in the air in resignment. " And we love Middle Earth because we are not constrained. We are not bind to act in a certain way that we have to back in our world."

She paused for awhile, and turned her head to face him again. "I tried to keep away Legolas. Let you continue on with life on Middle Earth while I lead mine. But I couldn't keep away. I thought about you all the time."

"You could have gotten us killed. You could have hurt my people." He finally spoke. And it hit Ruby - for dating a Ruler, or someone of royalty was not in her CV. She was quite ashamed that she had not considered things from his point.

Legolas did not go on further to explain that it was a good thing the Cold Ones had packed up and left hurriedly while he was still recovering from his shock that night. In his panic and haste, Legolas knew that he could have impulsively called the guards upon them, despite knowing that Ruby and her family would have expertly resisted arrest, although the fatalities that ensued would have been disastrous.

The Cold Ones might not have any intention to hurt anybody, but the Elves were fiercely loyal and would go to extremes to take down their target. The thought of it possibly happening scared him.

"You were never in danger with us. We would never hurt an Elf. Especially you." she almost growled back as the accusation raised her hackles, though there was a small part of him that was right. If Elves had appealed to them as do human blood, they might have lost the self control that Carlisle and Esme had so painstakingly instilled in them, considering the countless perfect opportunities that exposed them to seriously wounded Elves on the verge of bleeding to death.

"I am sorry." she admitted. "I really am."

They continued standing in the dark, in deafening silence. He evidently had nothing else to say.

"Are we... still... friends?" she ventured. Ruby then felt extremely stupid for even asking. Till then, their roles in each other's lives has never been clearly defined. But the term 'friends' seemed to sound ridiculous. Now he is going to think that she frolics around nonchalantly with other guys who are 'friends'.

He gave a very slight nod of his head. If she had not been staring at him intently, and if her sense of sight was not as sharp, she would have missed it.

"Thank you." She whispered to him.

Ordinarily, she would have went ahead to hug him - a show of affection that would have been a natural closure to an argument with someone who meant alot, but she found herself rooted to the ground, unable to take a step nearer towards him.

"I... Good night, Legolas." She fumbled, as she left him alone in the near-dark corridor to continue her walk back.