Moments before running off and bumping into Zephyr, Roxanne accompanied Rudy through the bustling night streets of the market. Smoke, lights, and constant yelling and chatter surrounded them, and yet none of it mattered. The two were meant to be looking around for anything useful for their next adventure.
Dried food for the road was their priority, with their last destination being the blacksmith to check out new equipment. And yet, despite the predetermined stops, there was a tension in the air, thick as honey and bitter as medicine. Roxanne could feel it too, the way Rudy's body was tense, and his eyes were quivering.
She had heard a commotion in Freya's room, not long after which Rudy had come out and asked her to accompany him. Somehow, she knew that this whole thing was related to her in one way or the other. Rudy's many glances did not help to dissuade those claims.
"Hey…" Grabbing him by the shirt, she tried to stop him. "That's the shop where we usually buy the food from."
Tugging on her through her grip on him, the hero kept urging her to walk.
"Let's check more places out first?" He said and continued walking.
Growing more cautious, Roxanne followed him from a distance. For a while, Rudy mindlessly wandered until eventually the end of the market came into view. Walking some more into the darker regions of the town, he stopped under the last street lamp and tentatively turned around to face Roxanne.
"Rudy?" Coming to an abrupt halt, Roxanne froze in place. "What are you–"
"I… I wanted to tell you something." With a gulp, the hero stepped forward, his heart pounding so loud even Roxanne could hear it. "Mom said not to do this, but I want to know if you–"
"Rudy, stop!" Squeezing her arms close to her chest, Roxanne lowered her head and closed her eyes. The hero on the other end stared at her in shock; he hadn't expected her to have such a strong reaction before he'd said anything consequential. "Let's… let's just stop for now, okay?"
Shaking her head, she looked up at him. His eyes were quivering, and so was his right hand. To her surprise, he grabbed her arm out of nowhere and spoke in a desperate tone.
"Just hear me out, please!"
Pulling her arm out of his grasp, Roxanne took a step away. Panting from a racing heart, she tried to speak up, but no words would come out of her lips. Rudy tried to move closer and grab her by the arm once more, but this time, with a blink, the healer flashed a bright light that blinded him for a few seconds.
"I'm sorry!" Running away from the hero, she could hear him calling out to her. Screaming her name, and almost begging for her to come back and at least listen to what he had to say. Alas, she didn't have to hear him say it to know what he had in mind. It was a confession–one that she wasn't ready for, not now, perhaps never.
'Why did you have to do this now?' With everything that they'd been through and the years spent together as friends, Roxanne knew that now that they were both at that age, none of them could go back to how things were after Rudy's confession. 'We were finally making progress and–what?!'
Suddenly, she could hear the hero's voice getting closer and closer. He was calling out to her through the bustling market.
'Just give it up, why won't you?!' Upset both for her and him, Roxanne kept making her way through the crowd, knowing full well that she could not face him now. Maybe in the morning they could talk, but after what happened just then, there was no way she could talk to him–especially since his intentions hadn't seemed to have faltered.
It wasn't that she didn't wish for companionship, but to be forced into something so intimate was far beyond tough for her than toughing a dungeon full of monsters. The scars of her family's abandonment ran deep still, making her reluctant to reach out to anyone to be anything more than friends. And perhaps it was that fear of abandonment that made her run before Rudy was done confessing.
Running through the crowd, Roxanne wanted to get as far away from him as possible. And even though she could no longer hear him, her feet kept carrying her forward until eventually she bumped into Zephyr. Taking his offered hand, she tried to run away some more, but the inquisitive nature of the merchant forced her to drag him away with her.
'I wouldn't want him to run into Rudy either…' The possibility of Rudy running into Zephyr and the hero asking him about Roxanne made the healer drag him far away from the street. Even there, in the darkness, she couldn't help but feel anxious, at least until she was offered to stay at the Devil Away for the night.
The thought of being under the same roof as Custer was a bit concerning for sure, but since she was offered a separate room, and that too a floor beneath where he would stay, Roxanne felt more at ease. Although even then, the voices from back when he used to stay at the inn echoed inside her head.
Too distracted by those memories as well as the confession, she quietly followed the devil, hoping that everything would be alright in the morning. But morning was far from her grasp even now, for the embarrassment and the memory of the failed confession were about to keep her up all night.
Not to mention the moment she stepped inside the shop, Zephyr was greeted by smiling faces of two beauties waiting for him–a reminder to the girl that Custer, despite his appearance, had sex slaves that served him every night. Once again, she would be subject to those voices, but this time, there was nobody else around, just her and the couple making love like animals.
That thought was enough to turn her away at the door, but with Okio taking her bag and offering her a coat to wear, she was dragged in by the necessities. She didn't have it in her to offend two different groups of people that night, after all. And so, even as Zephyr and Aura went upstairs and she was offered a warm bath, Roxanne struggled to say no and walk away.
From one embarrassing situation to another, she almost had to check her luck stats to ensure that she wasn't suddenly cursed like Rudy, but thankfully for her, it was about to be one big yet amusing night without any sign of bad luck.