One Ring to Rule Them All Who: Lance and Ember Where: Lance's House When: Late Afternoon
Ember had been consumed in her own thoughts when she finally stopped to observe her surroundings. Her legs had been on autopilot since she left Gin's shop and subconsciously, she just knew she wanted to be somewhere that she wouldn't run into Cody. Not yet. Her need to control situations was taking over her previous flurry of feelings she had experienced and she just wanted to make sure she had a clear decision on what to do with him set before their next interaction. So, that apparently meant entering into the house of her least favorite thief and venturing further along into his bedroom. She was disappointed to find he wasn't there and it seemed with the general silence that surrounded her that no one else was home. She glanced around, hoping her ring would pop out at her, but again was disappointed to not see it laying in some obvious area. Had he given it to someone or sold it? With a heavy sigh, she flopped onto his bed and lay there, sprawled out. Well, at least she seemed in the clear to avoid any unwelcome run-ins here.
Lance had been with Zan most of the morning napping and then coaxing some more attention out of her since she was dragging him to that damn party later. Eventually he’d left, headed home for a shower and to change. He looked for Kenzie but didn’t see her, which was fine. He guessed she was at work or somewhere else, then headed back towards his room, slipping out of his jacket and about to toss it at his bed before stopping just short. “Um...who the hell are you?” And why was there some girl on his bed?
Ember's eyes had slipped closed as she tried to drift off into a meditative state, the closest she could get to sleeping. But then there was a voice and she didn't even bother opening to see who it was, knowing the voice from the times she had lingered around him in a much less visible state. "Does it matter? Are you really objecting to a person in your bed?" She had observed him enough to know how he liked to spend his time, though her avoiding giving an answer didn't have the flirtatious meaning as how it may have come across.
“Yes. Especially since the door was locked.” Lance didn’t usually object, but that irked him. “Who the hell are you and why have you broken into my house?” He threw his jacket towards the bed, not quite towards her, but on what space might be available.
Finally, she opened her eyes and sat up, swinging her legs to hang over the side of the bed. She smoothed over her skirt, glancing up as she let out a laugh. It wasn’t a genuine one as though she was enjoying the conversation, but one that rang with spite. “Are you really upset that I entered your house uninvited? That’s real rich, coming from you.” She looked down at his coat then back up to him. “I’m Ember, and you have something that belongs to me. I want it back.”
“Are you tryin’ to say something?” Lance asked, raising an eyebrow and peeling out of his shirt. If she was going to drop into his room, he was going to undress. “Do I now? I have a lot of things.” That was kind of a lie, but he supposed he could have something. “So Ember, you’re going to have to be more specific.”
That answer did nothing but irritate her and his undressing wasn’t about to deter her from getting what she wanted. “So, you just go into people’s houses all the time and take things that aren’t yours then? Back in New York. You took a ring.” She was near snarling at him now, but remained seated where she was. “It was mine, so give it back.”
“Most of the houses are abandoned,” Lance pointed out, since that was where they got most of their stuff, raiding abandoned buildings. Instead of giving in to her demands he undid his jeans, taking those off as well and hellbent on a shower. “What makes you think I still have it? And how did you get in again?”
He spoke as though that made it okay, that taking jewelry from a girls’ dead body was acceptable. She clenched her hands into fists, glaring at him. “If you don’t still have it, you better find it. I will make your life a living hell if you don’t.” Despite the threat she issued, her tone remained steady. “I walked in. How else would I get in here?” If he was going to hold out specific answers, she would happily do the same.
He raised an eyebrow at her, standing in the middle of his room with just his underwear on. “Walked in? So you’re dead.” Lance shook his head. “No. Don’t threaten me. You can’t even do anything with it.”
“Well, that’s a stretch. Your door was unlocked.” Ember answered, ignoring his statement that she couldn’t do anything with it. That wasn’t the point, and now she was just going to fuck with him if she couldn’t have what she requested immediately. “Really? Who just jumps to a dead person walking around.” She looked at him like he was crazy.
“Pretty sure the front door was locked,” Lance said. “Because out there, I didn’t raid places with live people in them. Just asking for trouble. Plus they don’t want to let their things go.” He waved towards the doors and shook his head. “Still no.” He hooked his fingers in his boxers. “Are you planning on joining me for my shower or are you leaving?”
“Were you here to check?” Ember kicked her legs lightly in front of her, shaking her head at him. “And maybe you were wrong. Sometimes, people had to leave to get supplies. Returning to find things taken is never pleasant.” Of course, she wasn’t speaking from personal experience.. more so, from what she had witnessed after her own death. “I’m not leaving until I get my ring back.” She crossed her arms before her, her stare cold and reading that she wasn’t budging.
“Check my door? I think I unlocked it when I came back.” Plus he’d seen Lydia just wander through walls. The ghost thing made sense. “If it was so important you should have taken it with you.” He shook his head and dropped his boxers. If she was staying she was staying. “I’m not ready to look for it yet. I’m gonna take a shower. You can...wait here.” He grabbed his towel and headed towards the bathroom.
“I locked it when I came in. I wasn’t looking to surprise you.” Ember spoke without hesitation, not sure if her lie was working to her advantage or not. “Why would I take something important to me when it could get lost outside? It makes sense to keep things in your home. Where people are not supposed to take your shit.” She rolled her eyes when he lost his boxers, waiting for him to turn and leave the room before she allowed herself to go invisible. She moved quickly, a small grin on her lips as she scooted by him to make herself visible again within the shower. Arms crossed and leaning against the shower wall behind the curtain, she waited.
“Right. Except you were in my bed,” Lance didn’t catch her changing or passing him, his focus on the shower, opening the curtain and jumping when he saw her there. Glaring at her he reached around her to turn on the water. “Not a ghost?” he asked, but his tone was dripping with annoyance. “Get out of my shower.”
Ember gave a light shrug of her shoulders. “Okay, I may be a ghost.” She wasn’t phased by the water as she appeared to remain dry and certainly didn’t make any steps to move. Her eyes flicked down to observe his nudity, returning her gaze up to his face with a frown. “Does that really get the job done? Do people seem satisfied after?” She shook her head. “I can’t imagine it does..” And her eyes wandered down again.
Lance raised an eyebrow at her. “I don’t ever get complaints. But what would you know. How many have you really seen?” She looked like a young girl anyway. “Shame you can’t get any now or I’d show you just how. Now get out of my shower.”
“That’s very nice of the people you’ve slept with.” Ember nearly coo’ed at him, uncrossing her arms as she let out a sigh. “I’ve seen enough to know what to look for for a good time.” And with his next sentence, she scrunched up her nose. “I wouldn’t let you touch me with a ten foot pole.” She ignored his orders to get out of his shower, resting her head back against the wall. “As soon as I get my ring, I’ll be gone. It’s easy. Just find it.”
Lance really wanted his shower, which had him leaning in to rest one hand against the wall near her head as he leaned in closer. “You’ve seen enough? Really? Trust me. I am fully loaded. And you would. If you could. Trust me. Get out of my shower, then I’ll see if I still have your ring. Why the hell you care so much about a stupid ring is beyond me.”
Ember could have moved through the shower’s wall if she wanted to as he got closer, but she was trying to make a point here. She filled with rage when he called her ring stupid, her eyes seeming to spark at the inner fury she was feeling. She immediately reached forward for his chest, hoping that sticking her hand through him would be just as painful as it was shocking. “Fucking find it now!” She growled.
Alarming wasn’t nearly as bad as painful. The cold radiated through him, like it was inside his chest and Lanced shock backward, stumbling and clutching his chest, sputtering as he tried to get feeling back in his lungs and heart. “God damn stupid fucking ghost,” he spit at her, chest heaving. “See if I fucking help you now. So help me god I will make you head straight for that goddamn white light.”
Ember moved out of the shower, bridging any distance that occurred from his stumbling back. She could feel every ounce of her emotion flowing through her being, the air seeming to be charged with unsettling energy and picking up pieces of his own to infuse with her. “It can get worse than that, trust me.”
Lance was truly unamused. He grabbed his towel and wrapped it around his waist. “Can it? Because right now you’re annoying the hell out of me.” He glared at her then started towards his bedroom and dug into a drawer for a box dropping it on the floor, still closed. It was full of jewelry he’d collected over the years, nothing something people wanted much these days. What was the point? But Lance still collected it, an old habit that didn’t die. “Good luck.”
“And here I was trying to charm you.” Ember followed him out of the bathroom and back into his room, watching him drop a box on the floor then looked back up to him with a raised brow. “If you know I’m a ghost, you should know I can’t rifle through it.” She moved to kneel beside it, looking back up to him and waiting expectantly.
He looked at her grinning as he crossed his arms over his chest. “You wanted it. You’re not even going to be able to take it out of here.” Lance started back towards the door. “If you haven’t figured it out once I get back I’ll take the top off the box for you.”
She glared at Lance’s back as he moved back for the bathroom, being so close to finding the one item that might bring her back to some sort of mental normalcy overwhelming. It was in these kind of emotionally charged situations that her own overflow of energy poured out into others and triggered memories and feelings of loved ones that had passed on. She never really intended to do it, it was always just a side effect from her own heightened emotions. She looked back down to the box then around the room, trying to see if she could maneuver the box open in some way.
Lance was headed towards the abandoned shower when he felt it. He had no reason to think of her, but there she was, his mother. She was long gone, since he was young, but she was gone and for a moment he felt it hard, yanking him down into a despair he knew all too well. It was a struggle to get to to the shower and once there he only barely managed to clean himself before the water ran cold and he left headed back towards the bedroom.
Ember wasn’t able to remove the lid of the box to search for her ring, looking up to Lance as he returned with an expression of plain defeat. Not being able to complete even the smallest action when it came to the physical was incredibly frustrating and enough to make her feel completely helpless. She hated it more than she could express, so she chose not to address what she couldn’t do. “Are you going to open it now?”
He looked at her, feeling more defeated than usual, especially with that look on her face. Instead of answering right away he went for clean clothes pulling on his boxers before looking at her. “Why do you want it so bad?”
She was annoyed that he chose to get dressed before assisting her, but not surprised. She took a moment to contemplate whether to give him an answer or not, not particularly feeling like she needed to, but finally decided to humor him. “It was given to me by someone I cared about. A lot.” She continued to stare at the box, as if speaking to it was likened to speaking to her lost fiance. “I just need it right now, okay?”
“Someone dead?” he asked before reaching forward and flipping the top off the box to reveal the tangle of jewelry. “You can’t do anything with it. I’m guessing you can’t even pick it up.”
Ember’s eyes drifted to Lance with a frown, wondering why it even mattered. “Yes, someone dead.” As soon as the box’s top was removed, she frantically scanned over what she could see of the tangled mess, supporting herself over it on her hands and knees. “Maybe it’s on the bottom?” She couldn’t see much more than necklaces, earrings, and dangly bracelets on the top. “If I can’t, then I know someone who might be able to bring it somewhere for me.” She hoped Gin would be willing to help her, anyway. She was nice enough to give advice, she might be willing to cart around a ring for her too.
Lance shook his head and dumped the box over. “I’m not giving it to anyone but you. That’d just be bad business.” He smirked a little. “Though if you do find it, I’ll hang on to it for you until you can move it yourself.” Since apparently Lydia could paint, maybe Ember could figure out how to take her ring with her.
Ember flashed a glare up to him, not looking down to the jewelry that was now sprawled across the floor. “Do I need to remind you that part about me making your life a living hell? Because I’d be more than happy to drive you fucking insane, if need be.” She looked down to the floor again, eyes pouring over the contents. It was almost sad to think of all the people these pieces belonged to. She stopped suddenly as her gaze landed upon a vintage engagement ring, the center diamond round with a row of three smaller diamonds entwined on the silver band on either side of the larger diamond. She couldn’t speak for a moment, all she could feel were tears welling up in her eyes as she reached towards it, wanting more than anything to just be able to hold it. She blinked as she felt her fingers actually run over the smooth metal. Unsure if she was simply imagining it, she pinched the ring between two fingers and lifted it then looked to Lance with wide eyes, speechless.
“Like I care.” Lance said before turning away to find clean jeans. He did look over to check on her, seeing her holding the ring. “Well that’s impressive.” Drifting in closer, he looked at it and remembered it. He didn’t remember the people, but he remembered their things. She’d been dead and he’d been pretty sure she hadn’t needed it. “Now what?”
It was a solid question that Ember didn't exactly have an answer to. Maybe this was some type of Christmas miracle, just way before Christmas. Or maybe she just willed it hard enough to happen. Between this and discovering a sex life was still a possibility, she was beginning to wonder what else she had stupidly missed out on. "I.. I don't know." She slid the ring onto the ring finger of her right hand, purposely avoiding the left. She stared at it for a minute before shifting her attention to the jewelry laid across the floor, reaching out to run her fingers along the pieces there with the same focus she had earlier. "This is amazing." She murmured.
He looked at her, how she put that ring on her finger, all of it. There was something there that he wouldn’t understand. Relationships weren’t his thing any more than they were his cousin’s. “I’ve heard it happens. Tiring though. You probably won’t be able to wear it all the time.”
Ember glanced up from her distraction, tilting her head curiously. "Who else do you know that's a ghost?" Before re-uniting with her ring, she probably would have thrown something if Cody's name left his mouth. Now, all she could think about was sharing this experience and the excitement of it with him.
“Why should I tell you? We aren’t friends.” Lance reached to replace the jewelry into the box again. “Aren’t you leaving?”
"Right, I forgot for a minute that you're an asshole." She pushed herself up onto her feet, staring back down at her hand and the ring sparkling upon it as she left his bedroom. "I'll consider not terrorizing you now."
“I am only assholes to creepy ghosts who break into my house after...what? Something you haven’t needed since you died?” Lance waved her away and put the box back in the drawer it came from. “You’d better not terrorize me. I can still shove you into that light.”
Ember lifted her now blinged hand in the air to flip him off, not feeling the need to give any other response for his rhetorical question or threat. She continued wandering to the front door, hesitating midway when she remembered she could just short-cut it through the walls and onto whatever other destination she could think of. Turning to the wall, she took a few steps full force into it and bounced back with a bewildered expression. She looked down to her hand then back up to the wall and let out a loud laugh, hurrying for the front door again.
Lance had followed after her, just to be sure she left and when it didn’t work, he just laughed at her. “Stupid ghost,” he muttered to himself at first, then called after her. “Hope you don’t lose it between here and wherever you’re going.” Though he might keep an eye out for it later.