She looked so small. Swallowed up the red cloak. Knees pulled to her chest. The hood flung over her head for good measure. Nothing like the cocky, flirty, girl she was by day, and most other nights of the month.
The first time Emma had thought about taking a drug test. But she was sure that without that first full moon she probably wouldn't have believed her. If she hadn't seen Ruby become that monster for a night. Not recognizing her at all.
It had been terrifying, and insane.
But the most convincing something could get.
Now the next full moon was approaching, and the memory of the last one had slowly begun to fade. A lot could happen in a month.
Like you could find out the woman that had been the first person you had ever really trusted, and cared about that wasn't blood. Actually could be. If it weren't for that first full moon Emma would probably have written it off as the whole town going bat shit crazy. Something in the water.
But things were changing. People weren't going crazy, they were remembering. The curse was breaking. Slowly, and in a kind of staggering, unsure way, but it was breaking.
Sadly though, the breaking of one curse meant the return of another for Ruby.
So she sat there wrapped in her red cloak. Courtesy of Mr. Gold.
It had a been a wordless present. He had left it at the sheriff's department. On the very cot where Ruby sat. A note attached saying that Red would know what it was for. It wasn't signed, but Emma knew who it was from. She had seen it in his pawn shop.
Emma moved another pile of papers around on her desk. She knew she should actually clean it. But that took more effort than she wanted to put in, and she was really just trying to look busy, because she knew that the second she stopped doing something Ruby would tell her she could leave. She didn't want to leave. She didn't want to leave Ruby alone.
"Do you want to talk?" Ruby's voice broke the silence that had only been filled by the rustling of papers, and Emma's occasional mumbling.
"Hm?" Emma looked up from where she was trying to look busy. The silence felt deafening, and she knew that it was because she was nervous. Nervous that maybe the cloak wouldn't work, and she would have to see Ruby become that monster again.
"Well obviously you won't listen to me if I tell you to leave." She let out a small unconvincing laugh. "So do you want to talk?"
"About what?" Emma took a seat on the edge of the blue couch, feet tossed over the arm. Very close to the bars of the jail cell Ruby was in. The brunette watched them warily.
"I don't know anything. I just don't want to think about the moon out there..., and have to watch you attempt to do nothing all night." Ruby had seemed different since she remembered. Well everyone did, but Emma was sure Ruby's changes were the strongest. She was still the flirty waitress, but there seemed to be more to her now. A depth she hadn't had before.
"Tell me about before... Before the curse?" Emma hadn't been bursting to ask anyone for awhile. It seemed like a childish thing to want to know to her. Like something Henry would ask. But that didn't stop her from wondering. Still wanting to ask. For some reason Ruby seemed like the best person to ask. Like she could trust her with her childish wonderings.
"Where do I even start with that?" Ruby asked, giving the ceiling a long stare. Stretching her legs out in front of her. The tension in her seemed to relax a bit as she thought about it. "It was like a world out of a storybook. It was a world out of a storybook." The brunette laughed as the realization slid into place in her head.
"Snow and Charming had a kingdom Emma. You would have been a princess." Emma's nose automatically crinkled with disapproval at the statement. Which caused Ruby to let out a long laugh. Which brought Emma's thoughts from that disapproval to noting how beautiful the sound was.
"Hey you would've made a fine princess." Emma looked back to Ruby's eyes to find them examining her. Causing a brief blush to seep into her cheeks. Something about the way Ruby was looking her up and down was making her think she was doing more than picture her in a crown.
"I don't think I would fit the role very well. I'm not exactly the dressy, crowny type."
"You would've been..." Ruby stated, and added just as Emma was about to respond. "That's one of the reasons I guess the curse could be considered a good thing. I like this type you are... and the fact that you're not like twenty years younger than me. Well I guess you kind of are... But I don't even remember those... God this makes my head hurt." Ruby gripped her temples and stared at the blanket beneath her.
"Let's just say you're twenty-two and I'm twenty-nine alright? Those twenty-eight I was alive before I came here were lost in the space time continuum to you."
"Now we're mixing science and magic? I don't think that'll go over so well." Ruby and Emma both laughed, even though Ruby was being a bit serious. Nerves were getting to them... No one really understood where the curse was going. How it was breaking, and what would happen to them.
"Do you wish you could go back?" Emma asked in a quieter, more hesitant tone than before. Ruby looked up at her confused for a moment.
"You mean... Like before?" Emma nodded in the positive. "I... I don't know. There are things that I miss... But there are things I would miss here you know?" The brunette pulled her knees to her chest again. Looking small again.
"Yeah..." The blonde frowned. Unable to think of anything that would make her want to go from the world she had known all her life to an unknown one about three hundred years in the past technology wise.
"Like hot showers." Ruby proposed, a grin tugging at her lips. Emma nodded again to that, rather profusely.
"Phones?" Emma leaned onto her knees at the edge of the couch closest to the bars of the cell.
"Yes..., and tv." The rather heavy atmosphere had risen, now. Both practically forgetting about the reason for their being there.
"I don't really watch that much tv... But I'm pretty sure there are some things on it I'd miss." Emma rocked on the couch, gripping her ankles as she did. A thoughtful look on her face. Ruby couldn't help but note how adorable it was.
"Well yeah... porn." Ruby replied. Almost as if she was talking about the weather. But it brought a bright red blush to Emma, who wasn't exactly the most reserved herself's cheeks.
"Ruby." She gasped into her fingers, feeling the heat of her face against them. Something about Ruby talking about porn around her feel all kinds of not so appropriate things.
"What. You can't say you wouldn't." Emma peeked over hands enough to see the blush on Ruby's cheeks. Like the brunette had realized that maybe what she had said wasn't exactly right between them. The kind of friendship they had...
"I-I uh. I'm changing the subject." Emma stumbled a bit over her words, the slight blush in her cheeks deepening more as she attempted to pull her thoughts from the gutter. The gutter that included Ruby. God this was not good. At least Ruby didn't know what she was thinking.
"Alright." An embarrassed grin had made it's way across Ruby's face, and she seemed just as happy to push off the topic as Emma.
Their conversation proceeded for quite sometime. Deepening in personal-ness, and jumping back up to playful... and maybe a bit flirtatious?
Late into the night. Until Ruby was nodding off and jolting awake between her inputs to it. Eventually Emma just stopped talking so she would fall asleep.
Waiting a bit, not even feeling creepy for watching her sleep... She was just very easy to look at.
Before she retrieved the key to the cell from her desk, and slipping as quietly as she could in. Something Ruby had been very placidly against. As if the cloak wasn't strong enough protection. She didn't want to risk another Peter incident.
Very carefully, she pulled the blanket from beneath the brunette, and shook it out over her. It was rather chilly in here. It was winter in Maine. She just wanted to make sure Ruby was warm. That was it. It wasn't a caring gesture because she didn't know how else to express her caring feelings. It definitely wasn't.
Her carefulness however was in vain, because when Emma glanced up to Ruby's face she found hazel eyes on her.
Emma opened her mouth very ready to defend her decision. But Ruby simply gave a small.
"Thanks." Eyelids drooping again. Emma, even though her gentleness had just been proven void. Carefully, as not to wake the barely asleep waitress. Gave her a small kiss on the temple.
Which set a flurry of butterflies off in a dozing Ruby's stomach.