Co-operation

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"No. Absolutely not!" Ruby Lockhart's grey eyes were narrowed in defiance, despite the fact she was stood in her commander's office right then. "Bringing them in will only bring more questions and red tape!" She insisted, her slender fists balled up by her sides.
"This isn't a discussion, Lockhart. I have my orders, and now you have yours." The grey haired man told her, though he sounded somewhat weary, like he was all too accustomed to these childish outbursts. "You are to meet your new partner at 8pm and brief them on the case. The sooner we clear this whole mess up, the sooner I can go back to letting you do things your way, alright? Believe me, I don't want these blind fools involved anymore than you do, but this last case has made local news. We need to stop it before it goes national, or global."
Ruby's lips pursed together as she continued to scowl, seeming to be considering all this new information. There was a reason she didn't have a partner; no one could put up with her hotheaded, shoot first ask questions later attitude. It created mountains of paper work, but unfortunately she came from a long line of the divisions pure bred hunters, and her skills were... invaluable. 
"Fine!" She huffed at last. "But if this yokel ends up dead because they couldn't do what I said or panics when faced with the truth, I won't be held to blame!" Having said that, she stormed from the office, waves of dark hair swinging behind her before the door slammed shut.

Jett shook his head, though followed Piper indoors. “Piper... are you... happy?” He found himself asking rather awkwardly.

“You really don’t want me to answer that.” Ruby assured him with a smirk. “How about we just leave it as elves, for now?”

Piper paused in the long hallway, a confused look on her face. "I suppose I am. Why?" She tucked her long crimson hair behind her ears, not sure what he was getting at.

"All right..." Red agreed, lowering himself onto the bed. "is that why you came here? To remind me I've lost my mind?"

“Alone... in this creepy old house?” Jett asked uncertainly. “Don’t you... I dunno, ever feel like travelling. Seeing the world?”

Ruby chuckled quietly. “Oh sweetie, you lost your mind the moment you went on that fool mission to get me out of that place last night.” She teased.

"It's not that bad. Gran comes around sometimes. And there's the bar. Besides...can you imagine me out in the world alone? I get lost in town." Piper laughed softly. "Okay, so if you didn't come for healing potions...did you need something for Pigpen? To help with his rage?" 

"Your usual partner was pretty pissed. He came into the hospital room talking about goblins and unicorns. I'm pretty sure he was doing it because he knew it would make the headache worse. He blamed me for you getting hurt too. I wasn't about to argue with him. That dude is huge!"

Jett didn’t yet understand why, but he always felt that’s Poper’s resentment of his oldest friend seemed to run deeper than simply something they had done as annoying teenage boys. “What rage?” He asked coolly.

Ruby snorted quietly, easily able to imagine exactly how Tobias had reacted to someone else getting her to safety instead of him. “Don’t worry about that, I’m pretty good at getting hurt all on my own. Tobi is well aware of that.”

"Pigpen scares me." Piper told him, glad to be off the subject of her. "He's always ready to fight. Ready to hurt someone." She moved him into the kitchen and searched the shelf. "Are you sure you don't need anything."

"I'm not sure what that guy is aware of. Other than you." Red told her. "He's in love with you, you know."

Jett shook his head. “The stuff you gave me last night worked pretty well.” He assured her. “Pigpen is just...” he honestly didn’t know how to finish that sentence. “Are you and my sister being kind of hard on the guy?”

“What? Don’t be absurd.” Ruby replied with a nervous chuckle. “Tobias just enjoys the convenience of our arrangement.” She added a little more confidently. What bothered her the most, was that lately she had been entertaining the thought that perhaps she was in love with Tobias, though notion was quickly tossed aside when he flitted in and out her life at a whim.

"No!" Piper shouted. Jett knew better than anyone the young woman never raised her voice. Much less threw potion bottles like she was doing now. 

"You guys could fool me." Red said, shaking his head. "That man is madly in love with you. I don't think it's an arrangement to you."

Jett slowly approached Piper and gently pulled her hands into his own. “What did he do to you?” He asked, worried Piper had been hurt and he had been too blind to see.

Ruby’s lips parted as she tried to protest, but she seemed unable to find a valid argument. “It’s really that obvious?” She finally asked rather meekly, wondering if everyone else saw it too.

"He didn't do anything to me but...you really are blind aren't you?" Piper said sadly. 

"Kind of, yeah." Red laughed softly. "Even your captain was trying to explain to away."

Jett still wasn’t getting it. So many years had passed since Ruby started cutting herself off from her brother that he simply didn’t seem to care why anymore. “What is it I’m supposed to see, Piper?”

Ruby groaned loudly and leaned forward to bury her face in her hands. “It’s not like we were ever even that civil to each other!” She whined.

"I have to get ready to open the bar. Screw Aren. He can't stop me from doing what I love. It's all I have left." Piper said, again changing the subject.

"You guys work together perfectly. Civil is just a thing. It has nothing to do with love."

Jett knew Piper well enough to know when not to push. “Alright, let’s go then.” He replied, making it clear he was coming to help, whether she wanted him to or not.

Ruby had again convinced herself Red was wrong, Tobias wasn’t in love with her. “And yet, he isn’t here now.” She replied rather coolly as she pushed herself back to her feet. “Come on, you should see the rest of the town now the veil is gone. I can’t have you getting lost.”

Piper sighed deeply. "You just got out of the hospital for one thing. For another I don't want your crew hanging around longer than they have to. They start too many fights with everyone else."

Red smiled at this but shook his head. "Can't I just take a blue pill and forget everything? Or was that the red one? I can never remember."

“They don’t know where I am.” Jett replied with a devil may care grin. “And if it comes to it, I’ll knock Pigpen out myself, how does that sound?”

Ruby offered Red a sad smile; there had been so many times when she too had wished she wasn’t a part of this world. “You could always go home. I mean... you were brought in to help solve the murder case, and we pretty much did that. You can escape, unlike the rest of us.”

The bar was full that night. People of all kinds were in trying to get Piper to tell them the story of what had happened to her. One dark haired young man leaned extremely close to her, his blue eyes sparkling. "Tell me everything." He purred. 
Piper smiled warmly at him. "Have a seat and I'll get your favorite drink. Then I'll give you all the details."

"Maybe I should..." Red said softly. He wasn't sure he wanted to live with a burden like this any longer. It was almost too much for him to bear.

Jett was acting very much like Tobias in that moment; hating on anyone who dared look at Piper for too long. Needless to say, this new guy was greeted with an almost animal snark as Jett leaned past Piper and slammed the drink the guy had ordered down on the bar, sloshing some of it as he did so. “Kinda rude to ask personal stuff from someone you just met, dontcha think?” He growled.

Ruby was easily able to see that look in his eyes and took hold of one of his hands, pulling Red to his feet. “How about I buy you breakfast and we work on getting you that blue pill?” She asked with a little smirk.

"Who? Austin? I didn't just meet him. I've know him for about six months now." Piper laughed. "He's been hounding me for a date. I've been seriously thinking about it." She admitted, not thinking it would bother Jett who had so obviously moved on himself. 

Red laughed softly. "Are you promising me one of those places with better coffee? And less of those scary screaming things? What did your guy call them?"

All the glasses on the bar, including the one Jett had just given Austin suddenly shattered. “An asshole like that? Why?” He asked thinly, clearly not seeing the physical similarities between himself and the other man.

“Don’t call him that.” Ruby groaned, even poking out her tongue. “If he was mine, you really think he would let me take you to breakfast?” She asked, though Red wouldn’t know that wouldn’t have stopped her any way. “Can’t have my partner going hungry, now can I?”

"I'd watch who I called an asshole." Austin hissed, slamming a large shard of glass into the ornate bar between them. "And you better be paying for all those glasses since you saw fit to break them because you're jealous." 

"I think that since I'm your partner for a little while longer he can't possibly deny me the right to breakfast." Red chuckled, for the first time smiling at her.

“Who the fuck are you to demand anything from me, asshole?” Jett sneered, his sapphire eyes narrowed hatefully at the man who was trying to steal Piper away.

Ruby grinned and nodded her head. “Although... I guess it’s kind of late for breakfast now. That just means I can eat more because it’s lunchtime!” She declared, throwing upon the door and motioning for Red to follow her.

Austin simply smiled as piper came back with a broom. He stepped in Jett's way, taking the broom before she could even see the other man. 

"I love breakfast and lunch mixed together!" Red said cheerfully, unaware that his life was about to get so much more complicated. He linked arms with her, walking toward the cars with a laugh.

“Looks good on you.” Jett sneered, well aware Austin could hear him. “Need a pointy hat too?”

Ruby didn’t think anything of it as she told Red to get into her car and she would drive them both. She hadn’t eaten since before Piper was taken, and right then lunch was all she could think about.

"Can I borrow yours?" Austin paused, smiling sweetly at Jett. Behind him Pigpen began to laugh loudly. 
"Oh no..." Piper sighed, finishing up her own sweeping and heading toward their table. 
Pigpen was quick to grab her and yank her into his lap. "So lovely." He snorted. "Almost as pretty smelling as Ruby..." 

The table in the tiny restaurant called the farie hut was filled with food Red had never even heard of. The farie that was serving them was having trouble with the amount of food two humans were able to eat. It also didn't help that there was another human in the dark corner that was glaring at the feasting couple.

Jett saw who it was and groaned, knowing this was exactly the reason why Piper hadn’t wanted him to come with her in the first place. “Come on, you know that’s just going to get you thrown out.” He warned, reaching out to take Piper’s hand and help her remove herself from the other man’s lap. He was so worried about what was happening he had missed the comment about his sister.

Ruby was laughing at something Red had said about faerie portions being too small. So far she had no idea they were being watched rather closely. “Most guys I know don’t come here for the food anyway.” She mused, as one of the beautiful fae floated past them.

Pigpen's eyes were black as pitch. He turned them on Jett and he smiply smiled. "Yeah. I'm not sure I care." He breathed. "Why did you take her? She wasn't putting up that much of a fight?"

Red didn't even notice the fae. He was biting into a dainty little sandwich with the flourish of a starving animal. "What else do you come here for?" He said through a mouthful.

“What is wrong with you?” Jett breathed, yanking Piper our of the other man’s lap and pulling her into his arms. 

“Oh come on, like you haven’t noticed all these beautiful women!” Ruby laughed as she picked up a glass filled with a sparkling blue liquid that popped and fizzed with tiny little fireworks.

"maybe I want the power the demons are talking about. If they're fighting that hard to get it maybe it's really worth something. Ever thought of that?" Pigpen purred, getting up and moving toward them.

"Which one? I see only one." Red breathed, looking at her over the drink.

Jett pushed Piper behind him this time to square off against his childhood friend. “Don’t be an idiot. I know you have the brain of a pig, as well as smelling like one, but even you can’t be this stupid.”

Ruby’s throat suddenly felt like sandpaper when she saw how Red was looking at her. Quickly she located the straw in her drink and began to gulp it down. This was not the kind of attention she was comfortable with. It was exactly how her brother’s idiot friend had first looked at her.

Austin was near by, close to Piper, smiling at her when she glanced his way.
"You are stupid, Jett. She is right there. She was yours for the taking. The power could have been yours..." Pigpen was smiling wolfishly. "I guess she's fair game now. Right?"

"What? Did I say something wrong?" Red asked sadly, feeling like he was missing something.