Theme set

[ladybug_archive]

I've been wanting to try one of the 1sentence community's theme sets with Baby Face and Ruby, just for fun. I didn't see any point in joining the community, since I'm not a romance buff in general and since they most likely wouldn't be familiar with my pairing, so I just wrote it up in Wordpad and don't intend to take it there. But I'll post it here. ^^ I used the Epsilon set, and I actually ended up with a couple of plot bunnies, which I imagine is the idea behind the concept.


#1: Motion. Ruby was almost always in motion when she was around him---embracing him, kissing him, running a hand through his hair---and though he did not always appreciate the attention, as it made him uncomfortable after having been deprived of kindness and love for so many years, there was still something else about it that he liked at times---though he would not admit to it.

#2: Cool. The breeze wafted over them, bringing its cool air, and Ruby sighed softly in serenity as she looked down at him; he was laying on his back with his head on her lap, his fingers laced on his chest, and his hat pulled low over his eyes; he looked genuinely passive---moreso than she had usually ever seen him.

#3: Young. She often wondered how old he actually was; he looked so young, as if he could not possibly be a day over twenty-two, but his heart and soul were already weighed down with so much pain and hatred and bitterness that he seemed as if he carried a lifetime's worth of agony in just the few short years of his life.

#4: Last. It seemed that Baby Face put her last, after he worried about the latest heists and the ill-gotten gains; some women would have dropped him by now, but she stayed with him---something in her heart telling her that he did love her, even if he did not fully realize it yet; she knew that he might not ever fully understand it, or even be able to recognize if he loved her; he had never been taught love before.

#5: Wrong. Cindy had not been the first person to tell Ruby that she was wrong for being loyal to someone like Baby Face, but Ruby had long ago stopped paying heed to such opinions; she saw something in him that made him worth loving, and so she stayed, hoping that someday he would let out the more noble side of his personality more often.

#6: Gentle. Sometimes Baby Face was gentle towards her, though he had never been very affectionate---but she loved the occasions when he spoke to her in a soft tone, or ran his hand over hers, or looked into her eyes; those moments meant more to her because of the very fact of their rarity.

#7: One. Ruby wondered if she was the only one whom Baby Face had ever claimed as his girl; she knew that the hussy Vivalene had tried to win him over when she had been with the gang, but he had never liked her---he had known what her type was like, he had said, and he did not have any use for girls who would use him and then run him through once they were done with him; Ruby was different because the affection she showed towards him was genuine and heartfelt---she did not have any ulterior motives and that was why he had chosen her.

#8: Thousand. Baby Face was someone special and unique, and Ruby believed that even if a thousand years went by, she would still love him---though she feared that they would not be able to remain together in any sort of afterlife; still, she could not deny their connection, or the fact that it seemed that they had known each other before; sometimes she wondered if he ever had those sensations too.

#9: King. Though Baby Face was definitely one of the criminal kingpins in the Los Angeles area, he was most certainly not the only one, and Ruby often feared for his life; none of the kings were very willing to give up any smidgeon of their territory, and it seemed like a disaster smouldering in a pot, waiting to explode forth.

#10: Learn. He was surprised sometimes, at the things he had learned from her and about her---he had always known that she was loyal, ever since that fateful night when they had first met and she had been running in terror from her abusive boyfriend Ralph; for some reason, he believed that if it ever came to it, she would sacrifice herself for him---not that he would want her to; he was not a pathetic coward who would hide behind her if the going got rough.

#11: Blur. When he was angry, all of the abuse and pain he had suffered would blur into one great demon that possessed him and caused him to lash out in fury; she had once been afraid that he would end up being just like Ralph and beat her, but he had never laid a finger on her to harm her, and sometimes she wondered why she was exempt.

#12: Wait. She always hated it when he went out on capers, for that was when she had to spend endless, agonizing hours wondering if he would come back; so many things could go wrong---he could be arrested, he could end up injured, or he might end up being killed and never come back at all---and as she was forced to wait, the possibilities would run through her mind many times over until he came through the door again and she knew he was safe.

#13: Change. Sometimes she wondered if he would ever change; in all the years she had known him, he always seemed to stay the same---bitter, cold, cruel, vindictive---but she could not say that he was heartless; no, she could never say that, because there were times when he showed that he did have some sense of honor, and those were the occasions when he proved that he did have a heart; the problem was that not only had he not been loved as a child, but he had not been allowed to love.

#14: Command. She froze when he gave her the command to leave, knowing that there was about to be a vicious battle; her heart caught in her throat, the fear of his death coming over her like a blanket of ice; he wanted her to leave either so that she would not have to watch or so that she would not be caught in it too---or maybe both.

#15: Hold. He felt her hold onto him, her voice rising as she pleaded with him not to leave her, and he wanted to reassure her that he would not die, if only to get her to calm down---but what would be the point in it if he then perished anyway, as then she would just become hysterical again---and he did not want to make a promise to her that he could not keep.

#16: Need. Through the growing fog over his senses, he heard her cry that she needed him, and he wondered about this; he knew that she loved him, and that she wanted him, but why on earth would she need a sneaky and vicious mobster such as himself; he had always been taught that he was not any good, and eventually he had come to believe it.

#17: Vision. He gazed up at her, seeing the tears running down her face, and again he felt uncomfortable; he told her to stop crying, but even as his vision clouded over and left him falling deeper into an abyss of death, he could not get the image out of his mind---he was haunted by it, especially the heart-broken look in her eyes; no one had ever looked at him in that way before.

#18: Attention. It occured to her to wonder why he had paid attention to her at times, or why he had even saved her life that first time they had met; he was always so cold and aloof, and yet his sense of honor had driven him to protect her then---and it seemed that their paths had been completely entwined since that fateful meeting.

#19: Soul. She watched him, her eyes wide, as he gripped the wall with a bloodied hand and then moved his fingers across the surface; pain was etched into his features---emotional, not physical---and she knew that his soul was aching; he would not admit it, but it was obvious, and as she continued to observe him, he sank to the floor and slammed his fist into it.

#20: Picture. It was strange, now that she thought about it---she remembered having heard of Baby Face Morales when she had still been Ralph's girl, but at that time hardly anyone had ever actually seen him; hence, the picture she had gotten in her mind was very different from the truth---she had imagined him to be, perhaps, a cliché Latino drug dealer or something of the sort, but he actually did not look Latino or Hispanic at all, and he was not part of the drug market.

#21: Fool. At times he entertained the thought that he was a complete fool for keeping Ruby around so long, and sometimes he wondered if he was growing soft, but then he would put aside such ridiculous notions; Ruby was loyal to him, and had been ever since the day when somehow, she had ended up as his girl, so if either of them was a fool, it was most likely her.

#22: Mad. People often told her that he was completely mad; he had to be, or he would not behave the way he did, losing his temper over sometimes even small things and attacking others; she did not doubt that there was some element of truth to the idea, but it did not change the fact that she was not afraid of him and never had been---and she felt that if anyone would have ever tried to help him control his outbursts when he had still been a child, he might have turned out differently.

#23: Child. Ruby could not deny that occasionally she had pondered over what it would be like to have a child, but these thoughts would always come back down to several important factors---one, that Baby Face was not likely to ever wish to get married, two, that Ruby did not really feel capable of being a mother, and three, she doubted that Baby Face could possibly be an able father---even if he did not ever harm the child, she knew he would not be a good influence, and anyway, she knew that their life of crime and adventure would not be the kind of environment that they could raise a child in.

#24: Now. Ruby had never believed that she would get involved with any mobsters again, after what had happened with Ralph, but now she could not imagine life without Baby Face---he meant everything to her, and she was willing to do what it took to keep him with her, even if that included lying to the police about the extent of her involvement with him and her knowledge about his crimes; she believed that someday she could more fully bring out the good she saw in him.

#25: Shadow. There was always something lurking behind him---the shadow of his past, the apparitions of the people who had made him who he was, the demons of hate and selfishness; no one had ever cared about him before, so he had always been the only one who did---but now there was Ruby, and he was still getting used to having someone around who loved him.

#26: Goodbye. She held his limp and broken body tightly in her arms, sobbing uncontrollably as the tears spilled over and dampened his tussled hair; she had known that someday things would come to this, but that did not make the blow any easier to take, and she knew that she could not bear to say goodbye; it had been forced upon her, now that his life had been unfairly taken away, and she felt like taking her own---but she knew that he would not approve of such an action, or understand it; he would want her to be strong, but she did not know if she ever could be again.

#27: Hide. She never tried to hide her feelings from him; she loved him and she did not see any point in not showing her affections, and sometimes she wondered whether he was hiding anything himself; she always came to the conclusion, however, that he was not, and that he treated her the only way he knew how.

#28: Fortune. By now he had accumulated quite a lot of wealth from his crimes, but he never went about frivolously spending it, as he was actually a more practical person; Ruby never knew exactly where it was that he kept his fortune, but that was alright---she would rather not know, in the event that she would be taken and questioned by the police again, for the less she knew, the less she would have to lie about.

#29: Safe. Perhaps it was strange, but she always felt completely safe around him---he was always careful to make certain that nothing dangerous ever happened to her on the rare occasions when she was with him on his heists---she would stay in the car as a lookout and would report anything suspicious back to him, but he never involved her in the actual crimes; and if anyone ever tried to get fresh with her, he would let them know he would not have it.

#30: Ghost. Ruby felt that he was still with her, even though he had been killed; occasionally she would catch a fleeting image of his ghost in mirrors or glass windows, and she would wonder whether it was just her imagination, or if instead of passing to an afterlife, he had remained on earth as a wandering spirit; in one way, such a thing would ease her mind---that he had not ended up in Hell---and yet on the other hand, she wondered if such an existence would be the worst kind of Hell imaginable.

#31: Book. Baby Face was not fond of reading; Ruby doubted if he had ever picked up a book in his life, but she did know that he could read, as she had sometimes seen him looking over documents, and every now and then, he would write her notes---nothing romantic, of course, but notes telling her to meet him at a certain place, or that the police might follow her, or things such as that.

#32: Eye. If she looked carefully at him, she had recently discovered that he had a small, almost invisible scar over his right eye; she had decided that such an identification mark would help her not get confused if Micky tried to impersonate him again, and she wondered about the events surrounding the injury---she had asked him once, when she had first found it, but he had grown furious and said that it was just something he had received during a fight in his childhood, and so she had dropped the matter.

#33: Never. She knew that she would never betray him, no matter what happened; not even her family knew anything about him, save for the time when she had been forced to tell her sister Jade a few things because he had been badly wounded when someone had attacked him with a knife (and then had been killed by him during the fight) and she had needed a place for him to stay for a few days where no one would find him; of course, she had not mentioned his profession, and she had given him a false name, but Jade had figured it out anyway; however, she had kept quiet about it, as she had promised she would.

#34: Sing. Baby Face could not sing a single note on-key, not that Ruby cared---she did not need or want a singer, after all---she only wanted him; he had never tried to sing for her, of course, as that was not who he was, but every now and then, she heard him idly singing a line or two from various songs when he was by himself and in a fairly decent mood.

#35: Sudden. It had been such a sudden thing---when she had realized that Vivalene was plotting with a rival gang to put Baby Face's life in danger, she had not thought twice about going to warn him, and it had been then that she had fully understood that she loved him and did not want to ever live without him.

#36: Stop. It was during that dark and stormy night when Baby Face had drank too much and was taking out his anger on the furniture---throwing it, stabbing it, and shooting it, all while screaming incoherent things in his rage---that she had screamed desperately for him to stop, afraid of what he was going to do and that he would end up hurting himself; she had finally ran to him, embracing him from behind and pleading with him; he had shoved her aside, which had probably been the only time that he had been rough with her, but then he had simply knelt there, breathing heavily as he had slowly calmed down; when she had gone to him again, he had not pushed her away.

#37: Time. It was when she felt him go limp that time ceased; nothing else mattered---not the rain, or the fact that she was kneeling in so much blood and getting it all over her, or that she herself had been physically injured as well---the bullet to her heart was far more painful; as she continued to remain there, holding his lifeless body, her mind drifted away, back to the time when they had first met---and she wished with all her heart that she could go back then and relive everything, but to change the outcome of this horrible reality.

#38: Wash. He watched her silently as she began to wash and bandage the wound in his shoulder, his hazel eyes masked and devoid of his inner emotions---but inwardly he was both fascinated and confused as she worked; she was so gentle and kind, trying to make certain that she did not hurt him worse, and any time when he growled in pain, or even when he did not but she was concerned that she had pressed down too hard, she apologized; it was so very different from anything he had known before, when his guardians would be tending to his injuries and slapping him harshly whenever he told them that they were being too rough.

#39: Torn. Ruby felt torn between her love for Baby Face and not wanting to break the law; she had not wanted to, but she had lied to police officers about how much she knew him, and since she served as the lookout on some capers, she knew that she could be arrested as an accessory---still, that did not stop her; she just wished that she could be better at getting Baby Face to not take out his anger on other people.

#40: History. It was strange, Ruby loved him so much and yet she knew next to nothing about his history; all she knew was that it had been very painful and devoid of love, and she had learned long ago that he did not want to be reminded of whatever family he had living; once she had asked him about his mother and he had growled that she was a promiscuous whore and that he hated her, and she had sighed sadly and sat with him in silence after that, running a hand through his hair.

#41: Power. He liked having a certain amount of power, since he had been at the mercy of his cruel aunt and uncle as a child, and if he ever saw them again, he would delight in making them fear him, the way he had feared and hated them years before; they had always said that he was inherently evil, but it was actually they who had made him what he had become---he had learned well their lessons of malice and sadism, and the fact that they were such hypocrites, believing themselves to be in the right; he was a hypocrite as well, but he still liked to think that he had a code of honor, and Ruby had been teaching him love, interestingly, though he doubted that his cold heart would ever melt.

#42: Bother. Ruby had asked him once if she was a bother to him, and he had grunted and said that if he did not want her around, she would definitely know it; then he had swallowed another shot of whiskey and leaned back in the chair, allowing her to massage his shoulders.

#43: God. Baby Face was certainly not a religious person by any stretch of the imagination, and Ruby doubted whether he believed in God at all; she had been raised in a Christian family and still found herself praying now and then, in times when she was highly distraught and worried for Baby Face's life; she did not know that God would want to protect a vicious mobster, but she loved him so much and she knew that God would see the goodness within him, as she did; even so, she was afraid of what would happen at the day of reckoning, when he would have to account for his crimes, and that was one reason why she tried so hard to convince him to stop.

#44: Wall. Baby Face had built an invisible, yet strong wall around his heart and soul; he did not let anyone past it, but Ruby felt that she had come closer than anyone else---she had seen his dark moods, when he was angry and raging, and she had seen his deep, philosophical side, and very occasionally, she saw a passive and calm side---and she knew that behind all of his fury and all of his selfish bitterness, there was the pain of a child who had never been treated right, not even by the ones who should have looked out for him and loved him more than anyone else.

#45: Naked. Ruby had felt figuratively naked and vulnerable around him, during the first weeks after they had met---his hazel eyes seemed able to bore right into her soul, and it made her nervous; but he had never pried into her life, nor had he ever tried to do anything inappropriate with her---indeed, he seemed quite uninterested by the idea.

#46: Drive. Baby Face was startled to discover that Ruby was a wild driver, even moreso than he himself; the first time he had ridden with her, she had zipped around corners, over curbs and grass, and was fond of the accelerator in general; he still believed that Steve Blauner must have secretly taught her some of his techniques.

#47: Harm. He was not known for harming women or children, in spite of the damage he caused to other people when he was angry or trying to make a getaway; he had come close to pushing or slapping some females before, and with some he actually had, such as Vivalene; of course, he did not consider her worthy of any respect, and he had vowed that if they met again and she was up to her old tricks, he would kill her.

#48: Precious. Baby Face was more precious to her than anything else---her job, her money, even her life; she knew that Jade understood that, though she also knew that her sister wished that she could have found someone different; Baby Face frightened Jade somewhat, with his violent temper, and Jade was more attracted to the quiet and aloof Tony; Ruby liked Tony alright enough, but she knew that she would never feel about him the way she did about Baby Face.

#49: Hunger. She felt that some part of him hungered for kindness, though another part of her said that one could not desire something that they did not know existed; still, in his own ways, he could show kindness, when he felt like it.

#50: Believe. Throughout everything, Ruby could only continue to believe in him and in the goodness she knew was hidden; as long as he knew that she would always be there to support him, she felt that there was a good chance that someday she would be able to fully get through to him---and in any case, no matter what happened, she would always love him.

Comments

[yamsteapot.livejournal.com]

Awww . . . Now this is the type of romance I like! Nothin' sappy about it. It's actually romantic. More people need to learn what that is.

I can just hear Hagard Hagan (my English teacher) wailing now at all these amazingly long sentences. Faulkner would be proud. LOL I totally dig them, as I love that stream-of-consciousness style. It worked rather well, definitely encourage you to do more writing like that. >3 It all flowed really well and the choice of words was great. Though there were a few here and there that even I, the Queen of Verbage, found somewhat wordy. But you definitely pulled it off well.

My faves, strangely enough, were actually rather short. #2 and #42 were my faves hands down. Both really captured the moment and I got the best, clearest mental image with those two.

I need to do one of these, or one like it. >3 Hooray for meds~ I can hardly give anything constructive. LOL

[insaneladybug.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think that's one reason why I'm so love with the pairing. XD There's no way in Hades that they could ever get sappy!

XD I normally don't do such long sentences, but I had to in order to keep with the idea of "one sentence" per theme. The semi-colon is my friend!

^^ I liked writing those two as well. I finally finished the picture based on #2, and now I just have to decide if I want to ink and color it. And I wanna do a story based on #33 and #48, with Ruby's sister. One using #36 would probably be quite interesting too.

[yamsteapot.livejournal.com]

I would love to see a fic on that!!! >3 Dooo iiiiit.

And I wanna see the image pre ink and color if you decide to do so.

[pleasant-valley.livejournal.com]

Im actually in awe at your writing talent, i especially love #3 cos you've managed to sum up so much intrigue in a single sentence....it makes me want to learn more about his past.

[invincible1863.livejournal.com]

Thank god you posted this. I really wanted to try it, but I never quite got the concept. I will probably use Christien/Victoria if not, Daisuke/Riku (from DNAngel)