The ball had been a success, at least - for most students. As for Dion, he couldn't wait for it to be over.

Well, he was going to tell her. He kept telling himself that, over and over again - even after he'd asked the younger Flickflick to meet him outside the tent, the deserted side facing the woods. He still had bruises from this morning's 'talk' with Dax, and Dax had been surprised when Dion offered to...to not have Dax tell her for him.

He was going to tell her, and damn what she said - well, okay, he couldn't even begin to pretend her response didn't matter - but at least she'd know and he'd have...said something. He wouldn't be leaving school wondering. In a way, the relief was almost palpable; he hadn't been aware how much the 'Sophie situation' had been stressing him out. Getting it over with - in a good or bad way - would be nice.

He'd move on to stressing about something else, of course, but still.

Part of him still wanted to just let Dax do this. Despite all of Dion's posturing and pride, people were not his strong point. He was good at classes and impressing his teachers and...well, he was good a working. It was Dax who was better with people. Dax could carry on a conversation with almost anyone.

Dion sometimes envied his twin for that.

Dion leaned back against the tent and chewed a thumbnail as he thought. He did feel bad for doing this when she was..going out with another guy. Even if it was just Figaro, who he could probably snap in half with a shift of his weight. But - she didn't have to agree or say yes or run off and dump Figaro or...something. (Not that he would stop her if she did, of course.)

Looking up at the sky, he sighed and tried uselessly to get his garbled thoughts in order. The sound of someone approaching, however, broke his concentration.

Sometimes... Ruby just knew things. She had lived with Dax and Dion for almost seven years now. Whatever you wanted to call it; intuition, hyper-sensitivity, keen perception but Ruby knew what was going to happen tonight. And she also knew if she didn't finally say something it was going to be all bad for everyone involved. If Sophie thought the mess with Devlin had set a dirty bomb off in her life she wouldn't be able to process everything that Dion was going to tell her. Sophie was just back on track; just back to herself. Ruby might have resented the hell out of her job - but keeping her sister save was her job. That was the long and short of it and Dion was too old to be putting any kind of pressure on the far more delicate 15 year old than anyone knew.

Rubbing her arms for warmth as she approached she kept her eyes focused on the blanket of stars above them. How could she tell him that telling Sophie was bad? How could she tell him that he wasn't as sneaky as he thought? She didn't want to hurt him, she had to be gentle.., and yet when she was standing toe to toe with him looking up into his face she knew there was no good way to say what she had to say. Taking a deep breath she unfolded her arms and shook her head, her voice soft; "You can't tell her Dion. Not right now. Not tonight; not this year, not for a long time if ever. It's selfish that you're even thinking of it and I think if you really look deep down you'll realize; I'm not the only one who knows that".

Dion's first response was a kind of 'buh?" facial expression as he tried to figure out what the hell Ruby was talking about. After a few moments of silence he figured it out and, for once, she saw him look openly shocked and kind of hurt.

"What?" he said, finally. Her damn intuition. It'd helped her as a prefect, he'd liked her for it sometimes and here it came to bite him in the - well, in some place rude, at least. He looked honestly at a loss of what to say, just seemed after a moment to resolve to go down the list of what she'd said. He set his lips into a firm line.

"You don't want me to tell her, ever?" he asked, face returning to his normal scowl. "Exactly how..." Well, yes it was kind of selfish. Of course it was. Ugh - in many ways Ruby was the last person he wanted to talk to about this kind of thing.  "What do you want me to do, then?" he snapped, more as a form for defense than anything else.

Ruby looked at him and sighed; "Someday, maybe, when she's older - but we both know she isn't in a place to handle you telling her you love her. She isn't grown up enough to love you back; not right now". Folding her hands together she looked back up at the sky; "You know it's selfish. If you didn't think it was selfish you'd have told her a long time ago". She said this like it was a fact, like it was just the truth and there was no disputing it. "She's fifteen, she's just gotten her first boyfriend..."

She reached out slowly, touching his shoulder lightly,  "I'm not saying she doesn't love you - I'm saying she doesn't know enough about love to give you what you need. In a few months you're going to go out into the real world, you're going to take it by storm, you are going to do amazing things and meet amazing people... and she will be here. She will be playing revolutionary with SAWS, she will be giggling over notes and cuddling with someone down by the lake. The two worlds you live in are going to be so far apart they won't even be in the galaxy anymore - they barely orbit one another now".

Dion looked down at her and felt like a dope, honestly. What she was saying was true, but...

His expression softened. "I know," he said, finally. "Why do you think it's taken so long to even try? She's..." he looked up at the sky again and sighed. "It's weird to talk to...you about this," he admitted after a moment's silence. "But...your sister...when she's being responsible, and even when she's being cute..." he flushed slightly. "Whatever," he said, quickly. "You're right, Ruby, but..." he looked down at his feet and wrapped his arms around himself, hugging himself in a way that had nothing to do with the cold. "I hate this," he said, to himself.

He smiled at Ruby, but it wasn't a happy one at all. "Liking people sucks," he said. "Especially when their sisters insist on being sensible."

Ruby sighed and nodded, "My sister is the girl that sucks up all the oxygen in the room without even trying. She glitters and shines... and has this power to draw people in she doesn't even know about yet. If she knew Helga's hairpins she'd be impossible to live with," she bit her bottom lip trying to choose her words carefully, "But Dee... I think it's more than that, and I mean you can tell me to mind my own business and that I'm really crazy..."

She trailed off rubbing her bare ams again her bottom lip caught between her teeth; "I've known you for a really long time right? And even though we fight about some things you know I would never just say something to be hateful or hurt you..." she trailed off, rubbing the raven charm at her neck before she went on; "I'm not going to pretend to know everything about love because quite honestly I've never been in love..."

She inhaled sharply before continuring in that fast Flickway; "I do know a lot about wanting what you can't have; and that wanting something you know will reject you being a lot easier than looking for something to have that might want you back; that might really work. Wanting Sophie is doomed from the go, even if she loved you back in the big way she loves everything a relationship couldn't ever work because you would always feel wrong about it if anything happened".

She stopped then, because she actually needed to catch her breath, "What I'm trying to say is that... we're the same kind of person Dion. We want what we know will reject us because we have a job to do - we have people we have to take care of... and when we want things we know we can't have it makes us feel like we at least have this one thing; even if we can't have it...when really it's just something to distract us from the next disaster we have to clean up. It's a way pretend to be living without really having to live at all because we never really risk anything".

"Mind your own business, you crazy bint," he said, but his tone was warmly humorous. He was aware that he was going with her largely due to still being too damn nervous to tell Sophie anyway, but she was...right. Sort of.

Dax probably would have argued with her, admittedly.

"Hard to believe you've never been in love, Ruby," he said instead. "Given you seem to know a lot about it." He couldn't help it; maybe it was wanting to get his mind off this, maybe it was because he was trying not to wander off into the woods to sit and think. Thinking was not something he wanted to do right now, because then he'd have to...he'd have to argue back and frankly he didn't - didn't want to fight with Ruby, not over this, not when she was giving him a perfectly justified and thought out reason to take what Dax would think of as the coward's way out.

Her last words made him smirk a little sadly. "Sure you're not just sayin' this cause you want me for yourself?" he said, tone still clearly joking. "It'd explain why you've been riding my ass on the prefect stuff for all these years." He grunted and ran a hand through his hair, aware his body language made it so damned obvious that he was trying to cheer himself up. "Sorry. I'm acting like Dax, aren't I."

Ruby smiled and shook her head, pushing his arm lightly when he called her a crazy bint. What she was telling him, what she was doing it could have been twisted a million ways. Some people would chalk it up to jealousy over how many boys wee just infatuated with he sister while Ruby felt largely invisible.  Some people might even suggest that Ruby had feelings for Dion and was playing saboteur so he'd go rushing into her arms instead. Others still might say she's just a bitter old hag at the age of eighteen who destroys other people's happiness.

Anyone who knew her at all knew that she believed it was better to hurt a little with the truth and a warning than to feel that gut wrenching pain later on. Sophie would hurt Dion because she was young, she was flighty, and her heart was so big she would try; really try to love him in a grown up way... but Sophie fell in and out of love like the moon went through phases.... and hurting Dion - which she would never even mean to do with her big heart full of love and her brain full of ever changing dreams and boys and adventures... but she would hurt him and it would kill a piece of her because Sophie wasn't grown enough to know sometimes you the hurt had to happen.

Ruby knew this; Ruby had seen this in her baby sister over Christmas. Sophie was so lost without Fauna, without Chance; so confused by how Devlin could have used her like that, treated her like he'd have treated any other girl because she believed him when he said she was special and different. It had broken Ruby's heart two fold watching Fauna try to make sense of it all. Ruby may have never been in love but she had seen it tear people apart. The only thing that even gave her hope in the world they lived in was the way her parents still loved one another after twenty years, four babies, and polar opposite personalities.

Dion's voice brought her back to reality and she laughed a little - then did something she had not in the seven years she had known the twins; she hugged him. People who knew the sisters could tell you all the things about them that were night and day - but the most physically obvious was the way Sophie burrowed into people, making a space in them just her size. Ruby's hugs were warm, and strong for someone so small. Thatch had told her once she hugged like she was trying to take the weight of the world off people's shoulders. When she finally spoke her voice was soft but not without amusement; "If we didn't fight like old crows you might have a point De".

"Hmph," he said, and patted her vaguely on the head for a moment before he sighed. It was a long one as he expelled all of the breath from his body.

Then he wrapped his arms around her chest and hugged her back tightly, ending up lifting her off the ground slightly. "Eh," he said, ever the verbose one. "You're too much of a nag for me anyway. We'd burn the dorms down in 5 minutes," he said, smiling again. A sound that might have been a laugh followed.

"Thanks, Ruby," he added, after a moment of silence. "But you totally owe me a new Valentine's gift now, you know."

It had taken Sophie sometime finally tear herself away from the dance everyone needed something - but it was nice to feel useful. Also she was all antsy and excited to because her big surprise for Fig was looming in the not so far future. SAWS booth was doing well - even if there had been some kind of scene between Dion, Ruby, Toko, and other dramas. Also there had been the way Pop's blood pressure went through the roof when he'd seen Ruby's dress. However he'd also at least taken note of how miserable Ruby looked and just told her she looked pretty and kissed her forehead. If she had looked like she enjoyed showing everyone she had boobies the reaction would have been totally different Sophie was sure.

She felt awful keeping Dion waiting but she really had come as fast as she could - she'd had to steal Fig's 3OS hoodie so she wouldn't freeze to death in the cold gardens and mostly that was what she was focused on until her eyes landed on what was definitely the back of her sister's head hugging a scowling looking Fayette that could really only be Dion. He had looked miserable all night - even after she had given him his pretty SAWS shirt... AND GORDIC'S GARTER THEY WERE SMOOCHIN! Sophie's jaw dropped and suddenly everything made sense in her head! Of course Ruby and Dion fought all the time! It was a cover for their torrid love affair. Besides, it seemed to be how Flickwick women showed their affection; Soph bickered with Fig and their own mum and da play fought over everthing! Sophie's mind was officially blow and she could not help the gleeful squeal she emmitted as she clapped her hands; "YOU GUYS ARE KISSING! YOU'RE GOING TO GET MARRIED AND HAVE BABIES! I HAVE TO GO TELL EVERYONE!" and like a shot she was running back toward the tent.

The kiss came as much of a surprise as Sophie's voice did, and the expression on his face must have resembled a deer in the headlights. She didn't seem to notice, if her squeals were any indication.

He sat in silence, eye wide, as Sophie squealed happily and bolted back into the tent. His mind felt like it was frozen; thoughts ground to a halt.

Then he looked down at Ruby, whose face was equally surprised, and he couldn't help it; the laugher bubbled up from somewhere deep inside of him and had a bit of manic edge to it. He let Ruby go and sat in the grass, laughing uproariously.

"You're amazing, Ruby. I don't think you could have do a better job at ruining my chances with your sister," he said as his sides shook. "Also, I draw the line at babies."

What had she just done? Had Ruby Joon Flickwick just kiss Dion Fayette? Was she really that stupid? She had never claimed to be a Ravenclaw but Merlin was she that stupid? In the moments between looking at Dion's bewildered face and the sound of Sophie's obnoxiously loud voice her mind raced to what the hell she'd been thinking. It came up blank and now she was frozen stiff with a look of horror in her brown eyes BABIES What the feck was everyone on about! No! No babies! No kissing! No getting married! Not to Dion Fayette. Not to ANY Fayette! Maybe not to anyone ever! Not before she was 25! She was not going to be her mother. She was not going to throw her whole life away over a dumb boy with blue eyes and blonde hair and the temperament of a ninety year old! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!

Of course then she realized Sophie was running back toward the tent to tell people; Ruby panicked and in a voice that could have belonged to Ramona Flickwick herself bellowed "Sophie Hannelore Flickwick if you take one more step toward that tent I will tell Da just exactly how much grabassing has gone on between you and Sellaphix and he will murder your boyfriend. Do not make me make you send Da to Azkaban. She said all of this without turning around because it would have completely lost all composure and started begging. It was better to be in control of the situation with. Closing her eyes she swallowed hard and finally turned to look at her sister who was frozen midstep and also slowly turned to look at the pair - only to come scurrying over when Ruby snapped her fingers. Rue had trained her well.