Cross their hearts and hope to die...

[witches_hammer]

"I'm leaving. Anyone want to stop me?"

The crowd parts, black eyes and smirks… you're dead, bitch, and she files past them all, dagger at the ready, heels clicking on asphalt. This is the way the world ends, she thinks. But they had it all wrong, this is the way the world ends, with a bang, not a whimper, every last soul sucked into hell, and she'

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[weary_head]

There'd been a moment when Dean had wondered, watching her drag herself out of the sea and onto land, shaky as a newborn foal - there'd been a moment he'd wondered if it was really Ruby and not just a girl who looked like her.

And then she opened her mouth, her familiar smirking drawl cutting too close to home for her to be anybody but what she was, ex-witch and now, ex-demon.

"You're telling me, sweetheart," Dean said, pulling out his .45.

[witches_hammer]

"So, you've moved onto sweetheart now? How cute," she muttered, picking seaweed out of her hair and letting it plop to the sand and squish under her boot. It was a little slow to come to her, thoughts jumbled up in a way she wasn't used to, couldn't quite put her finger on it -- weird sort of interference -- but when it did, her lips stretched into a slow, bemused grin, "Didn't I just leave you two knuckle-heads for dead back there? Neat trick."

[weary_head]

"Me? Check out early and waste this fine packaging?"

Beneath his easy smile Dean was wondering from where and when Ruby had come, but if Bela had taught him anything beyond a new aversion to French perfume, it was to keep his cards close to his chest. "How's that saltwater tasting?"

[witches_hammer]

"It's not half bad. You should try some."

Lately, her whole world might've revolved around the Winchesters, but right then her patience with the whole witty banter thing was wearing a little thin. She was already trudging past him, eyes flickering to the gun in his hand before she turned to peer into the darkness of the jungle.

"You can put your little toy away now. I mean, don't you get tired of the same song over and over? You call me a damn demon, you wave a gun in my face, I save your life... on a loop."

Was that a parrot?

[weary_head]

He could put his gun away, in fact, but that would mean giving Ruby reason to believe Dean wasn't wary of her, and it'd be a damned shame to waste the opportunity to see a demon unexpectedly try on humanity for the first time in a few centuries. He wondered if she'd stamp her foot.

"Barring that hot-mouthed ex of yours I made into a pincushion, of course," Dean said with a sweet smile, taking the chance that she'd lived through at least that much.

[witches_hammer]

"Damn, you know I completely forgot to send you that Thank You note. I had it written out and everything, what a shame," she said, all mockingly doe-eyed sincerity.

She turned to him then, fisted hands at her hips, brow arched and any second her toe would start tapping impatiently. Well?

[weary_head]

Dean adopted her pose, his expression equally stern but for the crinkles deepening at the corners of his eyes.

"Sorry to keep you waiting like this," he told her after a moment. "But I'm sure the welcoming committee will be along at any time." Maybe he was being an ass, but the chances to one up this particular demon had been tragically few and far between.

[witches_hammer]

"And here I was, expecting to get leied, straight off the plane," she said, lips pursed into a humorless smirk.

"You gonna let me in on your little secret, or am I gonna have to get creative?"

[weary_head]

"I'd be interested in seeing what 'creative' means," Dean admitted with a small smile. With any luck, it'd mean something along the lines of introducing her knuckles to his jawbone. Back home, that'd have hurt like a bitch, but here, Dean was willing to bet it'd be more like a love tap.

[witches_hammer]

"I don't know, I was thinking about going to find your brother," she said, innocent wide-eyes and soft, kitten voice, "You haven't lost him yet, have you, Dean. I mean, don't tell me you've jumped the gun here. I'm telling you, Hell's looking a lot more cozy than the last time I saw it."

[weary_head]

Something in Dean's features hardened, though a person would have to be well acquainted with his smiles to see the danger in this one. "Be a hell of a keeper if I let him go so easily," he said, and then all traces of the smile were gone.

"You watch yourself with him. He's not the Sam you remember." This Sam was almost happy, and as unsettling as that was to behold, Dean meant to keep it that way.

[witches_hammer]

"And what Sam is that? Last I saw, I knew your brother better than you did," she said, stepping forward, toward that hard smile, her lips twisting into a smirk, "Tell me, how good is he at keeping secrets these days?"

[weary_head]

"Nobody knows him better than I do, bitch," Dean replied, the last word ground out and due in large part to the fact that that probably wasn't as true as it should have been. A lot had happened to Sam on the island - sometimes Dean thought his little brother was keeping as many secrets as he himself, and it might have pissed him off if the anger had been able to penetrate Dean's overwhelming unease.

[witches_hammer]

"Oh-ho, looks like I struck a nerve there," she said, throwing her head back with a laugh, "You better watch it, your soft little underbelly's showing."

They just kept getting easier and easier.

"And don't call me bitch."

[weary_head]

"I mean it, Ruby." That laugh did something to him, twisting up his insides and curling his fingers into fists, and the only thing stopping Dean from cracking her across the jaw was the fact that she was only a girl now. A girl with a few lifetime's worth of bad memories, but still a girl.

"Leave him be."

[witches_hammer]

She smile dropped from her face. She looks at him and something in her... knows. Everything's changed in the span of a few moments and for once, he's got the information and she's driving blind.

"How long have you been here?"