“So what you are saying is that you didn’t talk about her payment and she didn’t ask for it in the first place?!” Dorian was in disbelieve. He was sitting down on a comfortable canopy bed located inside his huge apartment build on top of the tavern. Jamie had entered a few minutes earlier to talk with him. The birthday party had ended soon after the uproar with Ruby the party and thus it was only about eleven o’clock.

Dorian stood up and began walking in circles while taking off his glasses, showing off his huge eye bags. Sleep was a luxury he couldn’t afford right now but it’s not like he got a lot of sleep in his old world.

“Okay something is definitely wrong with her. I knew she was the daughter of someone rich, however maybe I underestimated her status…” Dorian said but Jamie looked at him in confusion.

“What are you talking about? Just because she didn’t ask for any payment doesn’t mean she’s some bigshot. It simply confirms that she never had to worry about money before but that’s all.” Jamie was trying to persuade his best friend to calm down, but he already knew that once Dorian was taking off his glasses he meant business.

“This is bad Jamie. What if she had royal blood? Damn it we should have been more careful… I mean it’s not that I dislike her but if she really is such a VIP then all she will bring is trouble. And you know our rule:”

““Always do what brings the least amount of effort.”” they said in unison.

Dorian continued speaking out his thoughts. “She could ruin it all… The plan was to enjoy life here and find a way back home. Then, we just stay in a big villa, each of us having a harem and once the Demon Lord is about to murder us we simply teleport back. But Ruby is a chaos factor ruining this all!” He began to breathe heavily.

“Calm down man. Listen there’s no telling what will happen and if push comes to shove with your skill of improvisation we can get out of any situation.” Jamie smiled as he got an idea on how to calm his friend down. “I know what will cheer you up! I’ll call the thief adventurer! What’s her name again…?”

“You mean Kristina?” Dorian sounded intrigued.

“Yes, her! I know you had an eye on her for a while now and if you show her your best side, there’s a chance you two will end up in the sheets. And let’s be honest we both know that you need this right now.” Dorian sighed and nodded in agreement.

“Great I’ll call her right now. Oh and if the thing with your best side doesn’t work, just flex with our wealth, worked for me at least.” Jamie grinned as he remembered the night with the twins. He then left whistling some love song.

Dorian quickly changed into the tailor-made suit he had bought a couple of days ago, put on some perfume, prepared a table for two, lit some candles and began cooking. After a while he was finished, it was a basic soup but in this world it was considered gourmet food. He put it on the table and checked himself out in the mirror, right when he heard a knock on his door.

“Perfect timing.” He smiled happily, thinking about how nothing could ever ruin this dinner.

* * * * *

Ruby couldn’t sleep. Maybe it was due to the new environment, maybe it was because she found out her friends died because of dragon puke or maybe it was the fact that her bed was too small for her. She rolled around in her bed which was as hard as a rock, but she soon realized that nothing would help.

She got up and looked outside, apparently the festival had ended and now it was pitch black on the marketplace. Ruby sighed and thought about all the things that had happened today. She saw a serial killer, got hired to work in this tavern, met lots of ‘unique’ personalities, fought a dragon on his birthday and last but not least she saw Jamie’s ability in action.

“Nothing is helping… I’ll just go for a walk to calm down.” She walked to the small cupboard in her room and looked inside. There she found some clothes Jamie and Dorian had bought for her, because all of her other clothes got soaked in the sewers. She decided to go for a pretty blue dress, but it shouldn’t really matter after all most people were probably asleep right now.

When she opened the door to the hallway, she spotted Jamie walking down the stairs of the private quarters. Come to think of it, she never had a real tour of the tavern, all she was shown were the restaurant area with the bar and the basement. She had no idea how it looked inside the other guest rooms or the entire second floor.

“Ruby, is that you?” Jamie had noticed her standing outside in the hallway. “Good to see you, I wanted to talk to you anyway, that is if you are free right now?” He sounded a bit worried but due to him being the one who took a lot of her pain away at the party, Ruby didn’t think much of it.

“I can talk right now, tell me, what did you want to discuss?” She walked in his direction, careful not to make loud noises, after all the other guests were sleeping in their rented rooms. When she arrived, Jamie quickly grabbed her arm and pulled her upstairs.

Looking around she noticed that besides the very small hallway, only two doors filled up the space in front of her, which each presumably lead to Jamie’s and Dorian’s private rooms. The whole space of the second floor was taken by two rooms, while she had to life in what was basically a closet. But they were the owners after all and lived here permanently so it was only natural for them to use a whole floor as their private quarters.

Ruby sighed thinking about the castle she was used to living in, but Jamie ignored her reaction. “Uh listen Ruby, Dorian is worried and even though I told him you aren’t like that, he is a bit of a wreck right now so…”

He’s worried? About what? Oh, is it because of what happened earlier today, does he think I am still mad? That’s so sweet! Maybe I should reconsider my opinion about him…

“Say no more, you want me to go in and calm him down, right?” Ruby said in an understanding tone. Jamie looked a bit confused but rolled with it.

“Yeah, that’s not really my point, I just thought that maybe you could tell him that he’s wrong and then leave. He really needs to ‘sleep’ if you know what I am talking about.” Jamie winked but the subtle hint he gave Ruby went right over her head.

I get it, he can’t sleep because he thinks I am still blaming him… Poor guy, I will properly consult him about it don’t you worry Jamie!

“Of course, consider it done!” Ruby said. Jamie wanted to add something but then suddenly remembered that he needed to find Kristina.

“Whatever, his room is the left one. I need to go now but I wish you good luck!” With these words he hastily left and Ruby was all alone again.

“Here goes nothing…” Ruby mumbled and then knocked on Jamie’s door.

* * * * *

Dorian had dealt with a lot of awkward situations in his life, but when Ruby was standing in front of him in a beautiful blue evening dress, he was baffled. Ruby blushed as it was the first time seeing Dorian without his messy hair and lab coat, but instead in a black suit looking very classy. Adding to that the perfume, something very uncommon in this world and he looked exactly like she had initially imagined the heroes to look like.

“C-can I come in?” The slight hesitance in her voice made Dorian’s heart skip a beat and without speaking a word he led her inside his apartment.

It was even bigger than Ruby imagined and had lots of fascinating things in it she had never seen before. However despite her expectations there were nearly no scientific instruments, thus she assumed that all of his experiments took place in the room she had seen him for the first time.

But only because there were no wacky science things inside Dorian’s room, didn’t mean that his other odd things weren’t as interesting. In one corner a small grey box stood with a label on it: “EXPERIMENTAL COFFEE MACHINE” It was handwritten and looked very messy. Ruby had never before heard of coffee and thus the thought crossed her mind that she might have misread it. However what the real word was she had absolutely no clue and thus her eyes wandered to the next quirky thing she saw. A big weirdly shaped box, all in black only broken up by some white buttons.

“Ah, that is a piano. I am actually quite proud of it because in this world it was exceptionally hard to get. There are only eleven other pianos and this one is worth a fortune. You know back in my old world I had started taking lessons for about a year, but when I arrived here it seemed impossible to continue. I really was lucky getting this one… Want me to play a bit?” Dorian spoke very quickly, apparently he was very nervous. But then again somehow Ruby felt the same and could only nod in response.

Dorian sat down and started to hit the buttons with his fingers. To the total surprise of Ruby a melody filled the room, made with sounds she had never heard before. It was a beautiful melody and she felt like she was being swept away by it. It was totally different from what she was used to listen to. The bards who performed at the castle seemed to only play one kind of music and after a while it got stale. After a few minutes Dorian had finished his piece.

“T-tell me, what is the name of this beautiful song?” Ruby was still in trance because of the new sensations she had felt.

“This is a legendary song on earth, called ‘Never gonna give you up’. Pretty good, don’t you think so?” He grinned and somehow Ruby felt like he was tricking her. But then again the song really was really great and thus she simply nodded.

Again she looked around and spotted more and more wondrous things, but before she could ask about any of them, a certain smell interrupted her thoughts. It was the soup Dorian had cooked and that stood on a wooden table in the middle of the room.

“You can cook?” She was genuinely surprised, to her Dorian just didn’t seem like a chef cook.

“Yes, my mother taught me some basic recipes. Anyway, tell me what you wanted to talk about so that you can le-” He was interrupted by Ruby who hadn’t heard a word of what he was saying, the soup was simply too engaging for her.

“Can I try some?” While she may have asked, she didn’t await Dorian’s answer but simply sat down and began eating. Back at the castle she also had to ask for things, but it was not like anyone would refuse her, thus this behaviour wasn’t too surprising coming from her. Usually she would try to fit in, however the pleasant smell had made her forget her new position entirely.

“Sure, might as well… Luckily I made more.” Dorian sighed as he also sat down, waiting for her to finish. It worried him that any moment now Kristina could show up, but he let it slide. Ruby looked like a kid who was about to open all its Christmas presents at once and her eyes had an innocent glow to them that made him feel nostalgic.

“Oh my god this was amazing! You knew that I would come over and prepared this for me, didn’t you?” She had finished up and looked overjoyed.

“Actually, this is-” Dorian wanted to set things right, but yet again Ruby stopped him in his tracks.

“Shhh, I know what you want to say. This is an apology because of what happened earlier today and I accept. Jamie told me that you felt sorry about what happened, but I didn’t expect you to go so overboard, you build up this whole atmosphere with the candles and the rose on the table. Or maybe… Oh no Dorian we mustn’t, you are a hero. You need to concentrate on saving the world! Well I am flattered and I do admit that earlier you looked quite attractive, but we are companions and as such… But then again, if we both want this, then… Okay, I’ll do it! B-but you would be my first, so… I-I need for you to take the lead…” She turned beet red in embarrassment as she drew her conclusion, while Dorian just grew more and more confused. Just what the hell was she talking about?

“Uhm, what?” He said, trying to piece together what had just happened. He slowly realized that he needed to correct this misunderstanding as fast as possible, but then it happened.

The door opened with a loud creak and there in the doorway stood Kristina in a breath taking black evening dress, looking dumbfounded and heartbroken at the same time. Tears started to well up in her eyes as she looked at this very misleading scene. Dorian and Ruby sitting on a lovely decked table for two, complete with candles and everything.

“Ah shit….” Dorian mumbled defeated, cursing himself for the red flag he set off earlier by thinking that ‘nothing could ever ruin this dinner’.