#maleficently

So, using this as my post all the random scrapfic week :)

This one is a little special because it is a Completely Unauthorized Spinoff of one of the best, classic OUAT fics, Somewhere, Someone Must Know the Ending, by Maleficently, with random iCarly cameos (don’t ask, and yes i watched iCarly when i was 25 and injured)

When Emma came into the diner on her break, it was empty, save for a student on her computer eating chili fries in one corner, and Ruby, leaning on the counter and gazing absently out the window.  She didn’t look up when the door chimed, and her expression was pensive.  She gave a low, resigned sigh.

Emma frowned and wrinkled her nose at her.  She thumped the counter to get her attention.  “Aren’t you supposed to be working?”

Ruby jumped up and gave her one of her broad grins, but it was a little less joyful than usual.  “Hey, Emma.  What can I get you?”

Emma glanced around.  The place really was deserted.  “Bear claw, coffee and some conversation?”

“Coming right up.”

Ruby slid the confectionary and coffee across the table and herself into the opposite booth.  “What’s up with you?  How are things with your mayor?”

“Good,” Emma smiled, still feeling a little like it was impossibly good, clean, in a way it hadn’t been before, and she was so, so grateful that Gold was not bothering them anymore.  “And how are things with you?  What was that sigh you gave looking out the window?”

Ruby ducked her head, blushing a little.  “Nothing.”

“Come on.  I know that look.  What is it, now?  Lovesick?”

“Lovesick?” Ruby grinned.  “Really?”

“It looked kind of lovesick.”

“Naw, it’s just…”  Ruby tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Okay, I have to tell someone.”  Her eyes were lit and eager.  “And you’re all right.  Just keep it on the down low for now, okay?”

Emma’s eyes widened.  What was this?  “Sure.”

“So, you know how your wife got Belle French back to town last week?”

“I was kind of there.”

“Well, she stayed here overnight.”

“Huh, not at home?”

“She’s not really talking to her dad.”

Emma stared at her.  That sounded… in the know.  “Were you two friends, before she left?”

Ruby blinked.  “No.  She’s a couple of years older than me.  We weren’t even in high school at the same time.”

“Ah.” Emma sipped her coffee and raised an eyebrow at Ruby.  “Where is this going, exactly?  Like, she left a dead rat in the bed, or you shagged her—”

Ruby grinned, her color heightening in a flush.

“Oh my god.  You shagged her.  She was here for one night.”

“She was really sweet.  And so messed up about what your wife had her do at the meeting.  I mixed her some drinks, and we talked, and she started to cry, so I took her up to her room, and, well, one thing led to another.”  Ruby smiled again, a little wistfully.  “It was really nice.”

Emma laughed.  “One thing led to another, did it?”

“She kissed me back.”

“And… what?  You’re long distancing it now?”

Ruby looked surprised.  “What?  No.  It was just one night.  She kissed me goodbye in the morning and caught her cab to the airport.  I didn’t even get her number.”

“And you’re… still staring out the window and sighing about it?” That was not normal one-night-stand behavior.  To be honest, it wasn’t normal Ruby behavior.

“I liked her.  The sex was nice, especially for after a crying jag and with someone new, but I just liked talking to her too.  I wish I hadn’t, well, missed my chance.”

Emma’s eyebrows shot up.  “You’re not still after the ‘real thing’ are you?  Because chasing it is kind of looking for trouble.”

Ruby blinked.  “I just meant that I missed my chance to be friends with her.”

“Oh,” Emma said.  But she didn’t totally believe her.

* * *

“So, um, I saw Ruby today.”

Regina turned, half undressed for bed, and Emma forgot what she had been going to say.  “Yes, on what days don’t you see her?”

Emma scrambled for words and they tumbled out in a muddle.  “You know she hooked up with Belle French the night she was here?”

Regina blinked.  “What?  Really?”

Emma grinned, then realized that she hadn’t been supposed to tell.  “Um, it’s on the downlow, of course.”

“Yes, dear.”

“And, well, she doesn’t have any contact info, obviously.  And she’s looking a little lovesick lately…”

* * *

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Subject: Re:

Hello dear, how are you?  I do hope that your trip was not too traumatic and that you are doing well.  Thank you again for your assistance. Things have been quiet here recently, all thanks to your intervention.

Well, all quiet except for the long lingering sighs that our Ruby Lucas is sighing while gazing longingly out the window of the not so fine dining establishment in the center of town.  You left a swathe of broken hearts behind you, apparently, dear.  Emma, who can only be considered soft hearted, has inquired if you might be interested in sharing your email address with the poor girl.  It is up to you.  She has no expectation of it.

* * *

“Emma!” Ruby was grinning wider than Emma’d ever seen her, her floppy red tam bouncing.  “She wrote me!  How did she get my email?!”

Emma smiled.  “Awesome.” she said, and kept her secrets to herself. “You guys going out now?”

“No.” Ruby batted her arm and then hugged her. “Friends.”

“Maybe you’re a little too happy to just be wanting to be friends.”

“Well, she was pretty hot in bed.”  Ruby ducked her head.  “But I just… liked her.”

“You know I’ve got your back.  If she’s what you want, you deserve it.”

Ruby hid her face.  “God, we’re just emailing.  This could go nowhere.”

* * *

It’s not like I’ve got anything going for me here.  I love Storybrooke, but I know I’m just going to be working in a diner for the rest of my life.  I just wanted to look beyond that, see something different, exciting.  Have something real.

I know what you mean.  I didn’t want to be chased out, didn’t want to have to go into hiding, but I had to.  And I was about ten miles out of town when I looked at my new papers, my new self, and the new world out of the window, and realized that this was what I had said I wanted.  I wanted adventure and change.  It wasn’t as unambiguously wonderful as I had expected, but nothing ever is.  It was my chance to see a new world, and I made myself appreciate it.  But it was hard to be alone, have no one know who I am.  It’s funny, even now I can’t really explain, and if I do, they won’t understand.  You do, though.  

I can’t say I understand at all what it must have felt like.  Gold scared the shit out of me, and he wasn’t even targeting my family.  But I do know who you are, and you can tell me anything.  And, wow, this is going to be the most embarrassing thing I’ve said, but you’re kind of the bravest person I’ve ever met.  I can’t say I wouldn’t have curled up into a ball and cried if I had to leave town like that. And realizing that it was an adventure?  Making myself act like it was something I was supposed to enjoy?  It’s amazing.

* * *

“Granny? Um, I’m going to Seattle.”

Granny stared at her.  Emma stared at her.  “You’re going to visit Belle French?”

Ruby flushed.  “She said I could crash with her and, you know, see a new city.  She’d take me around, let me meet her friends.”

Emma grinned.  “Get you laid?”

Granny smacked her in the back of the head with a towel.

“We’re just friends!”  

* * *

Ruby spotted the young woman waiting by the baggage claim and froze. Heels and a pencil skirt and a tweed jacket, her hair up in a bun, she was way prettier and way classier than Ruby had remembered and it made her panic.  But then Belle looked over, caught sight of her and smiled.  Ruby bolted to her and swept her up in a hug.  Belle clung to her neck and grinned up at her.

“Oh, it’s so good to see you.  I… forgot how tall you were.”

Ruby laughed, carefully setting her down.  “I forgot how pretty you were.  Um, and your hair.  It’s darker.”

Belle gave a few shy nods.  “A little change.”  She fingered the red streaks.  “I like these.”

“I like you.”  And Ruby blushed.

Belle looked up at her, arms still looped around her neck.  “I’m such a… hypocrite, aren’t I?”  She smiled.  “We’re just friends, I can tell you anything, you’re just coming for sightseeing.  I told everyone, very firmly, no, that you weren’t my girlfriend from back home.  But I kind of really want to kiss you right now.”

“I would be… totally okay with that.”

And Belle kissed her.

* * *

The tension was high as Belle showed Ruby around her apartment – two bedrooms, no roommate.  “It’s a little more than I can comfortably afford.  But I’m all right.”  They ate leftover Chinese around the coffee table, and drank the half bottle of wine Belle had in her fridge.  And then Ruby yawned, and Belle went all flustered about getting her in bed.

“I’m not that tired,” Ruby said with a hand on her shoulder.  Belle turned and looked up at her.  “And… maybe you don’t need to make up the other bed?”

“Oh?” Belle bit her lip.  “That kind of not tired?”

“Only if you—”

Belle slung her arms around Ruby’s shoulders.  “I think I could lie down myself.  Take me to bed, my knight.”

Ruby laughed and picked her up and carried her off to bed.

The bed never got made up.

* * *

“Soooo,” Emma said when she finally got Ruby on the phone.  “Having a good time?”

“Yes,” Ruby half growled, then laughed.  “God, yes.”

“And have you taken her to bed again yet?”

“Lets just say, my sheets have not been slept on yet.”

“Ruby! You dog!  First night!”

“Hey! She’s the one who kissed me in the baggage claim!”

“Nice.” Emma’s voice went soft.  “When’s your ticket back for?”

“Um, well, Granny said I could be gone for a month before she stopped holding my job.  So I just… made an open ended return.”

“Oh,” Emma said.  “So you’re… hanging out.”

“I figure she’ll get sick of me eventually and I’ll take the hint and get out.  But it’s been good so far.  She’s taken me to her work, and around Seattle, and to the lake.  And I’ve read a lot of books.  It feels like my first vacation in years.”

“Sex, sun and sand?”

“Great sex, calm rainy days and excellent novels.”

“Eh, sounds like a dream.”

“Who are you talking to?” came a voice from the other end of the phone.

“Just Emma.”

“Ah, so all of Storybrooke knows just where you’re getting all your great sex?”

“Hey! Emma’s discreet!”

“Mhm. Because Emma being discreet is why Regina gave me your email address.”

“She’s my wife,” Emma protested.  “I’m legally obligated to give her all the gossip I think she’d be interested in.”

Emma could hear Belle laugh.  “I’ll look forward to her email then.”

* * *

“So this is… the secret not-girlfriend from home,” inquired Carly.

Belle laughed, ducking her head and then casting Ruby a shy, pleased glance.  Ruby just grinned back at her.

“Really? Because hot mama, if you’re not hitting that, I’m getting in line,” added Sam.  Carly thwacked her arm.

Belle curled her arm around Ruby’s possessively.  “Don’t you dare. I’ve got dibs on this one.”

Sam grinned.  “Dibs or dibs?” she asked with a wiggle of her eyebrows.  “We want details, girl.”

The drinking ended with quick desperate sex in the bathroom, Belle hoisted up to sit on the sink, Ruby gasping into her neck.

“Not the secret girlfriend from home my ass.”

* * *

“Spencer’s diner needs a manager.  He’s hopeless, and everyone else has no idea how to make things run properly!” Carly complained.  “He’s going to lose all his money and the business if he doesn’t get someone involved who knows what they’re doing.  And soon.”

Ruby frowned.  “I know I’m only here for a visit, but I could totally help him out if he needed it.  It would… give me something to do during the day.  And it’s not like I don’t have the experience.”

Belle looked at her, studying her for a long moment.  Ruby waited for the question – how long are you going to stay – but it didn’t come.

* * *

“So, um, Spencer kind of fell on his knees and thanked me, and cut me a paycheck.  So, I’ve been freeloading like crazy.  Mind if I pick up half of the rent?”

Belle stared at her.  “You’ve been freeloading?  Just coming in here, tidying up after me, giving me amazing sex every night, picking me up and cooking and going shopping and now you’re paying the rent, and you just came to do touristy things.”

“I came to see you,” Ruby admitted.  Seattle was not part of the equation.  It could have been hell, and she still would have come running like a whistled-for dog when she got the okay.  She knew that now.  She knew why now.

“And you want to pay half the rent?”

Ruby hesitated.  “I… want to pay half the rent, forever.  Spencer offered me a permanent position, and I want to take it, but it’s not enough right now to get my own place.  And seriously, I don’t want my own place.  I like Seattle, but I’m here because of you, and I want to stay because of you.  So, a couple of months?  A trial run?  I’ll pick up half the tabs, and maybe actually sleep in my own bed, but… what do you say to a roommate?”

Belle stared at her, unspeaking.

“If that’s a no…”

“No. No.  It’s not a no.  It’s a… I don’t know.  Yes? Yes, please?”

Ruby grinned like an idiot.  “Seriously?”

“I never wanted you to go.  I’ve been trying so hard to not think about what I’d do when you left.”  Belle quickly swiped the back of her arm over her eyes.  “It’s been… so much less lonely with you.  I feel like I’m really here, really alive.  And, god, please don’t feel like you have to sleep in your own bed.”

Ruby just smiled.  “You don’t mind me sprawled all over you?”

“We could get a… bigger bed?”  

Ruby stared at her.  

Belle turned red.  She ducked her head.  “I might have been thinking about this for a while.”

Ruby caught her up and pulled her in, squashing her against her chest in a hug.  “Got to call Granny. Got to call Emma.”  She pushed her back and looked at her.  “Girlfriend?  I mean, I said roommate, and I don’t want to assume or anything, but, um…”

“Yes! Yes, I’ll be your girlfriend.”  Belle flushed.  “Is it all right if we make it… retroactive to the beginning of summer? Because otherwise that was a lot of casual sex, and I don’t really know if I can talk about it if people ask me how we got together.”

Ruby laughed.  “You can’t say, ‘I went to back to my hometown and cried all over my waitress, who proceeded, very insensitively, to kiss me, and then we hooked up.  And then she stalked me all the way to Seattle and moved into my house, at which point we started hooking up a lot.  And then she told me that she wasn’t leaving and so I figured I’d better let her be my girlfriend, since there was no way I was getting rid of her without a crowbar.”

“I can’t say that!”

“It’s true.”

“It is not!”  Belle smiled slyly at her.  “I met this girl, you see, when I was really upset.  And she took care of me and made me feel better.  Then we became friends over email.  And when she came to visit, I realized that I was kind of mad about her, and kissed her in the baggage claim.  And now… she’s mine.”

“I like that,” Ruby said.  “Let’s just add a ‘with sex’ to the ‘made me feel better’ and we’re good to go.”

Belle smacked her arm lightly.  “You’re the worst.  But fine.  I will accept the emendation.”

Omg you were there too!? I shouldn't even be surprised haha. Yasss! She was amazing! ��

there’s a roundup post on ONTD about it!

side note I always squee a little at your tumblr picture. Hes my bf in my heart okay.

March:favourite colour

I've always been drawn to pink but lately it's purple.

September:instruments I play/ want to play