The date was perfectly planned. Mary Margaret had helped her pick out her outfit, so she knew she at least looked decent. One of the only fancy restaurant in town. Ruby had made jokes about how her and Emma didn't belong in a place like this. She treated her like a princess. Just kind of thing Emma knew Ruby liked. But it didn't feel right, it wasn't the right moment. It was too perfect. Her heart was still in her throat, and she still felt like she might throw up. So she didn't tell her then.
Then next time it was also just as perfect. Or possibly even more so. They went to the drive-in movie theater the night it opened, there was only so many days it could be open, and they were playing one of Ruby's favorite movies.
But still Emma didn't tell her. She just couldn't get the words out. Even though she found herself fighting them down everyday. At the strangest times.
"Emma you know it doesn't have to be 'perfect.'" Mary Margaret air quoted. Looking up at her roommate as she paced. "You're stressing about all these things that aren't going to matter to her." The brunette sighed.
"I want it to be 'perfect.'" Emma scowled. Running her fingers through her hair. The usual jitters, nervousness, and fear she felt when she thought about telling Ruby how she felt. It also filled her with this hopeful feeling. All these feelings she was so used to, she was feeling them in these different ways.
"I know Ruby, I've known her for forever." Mary Margaret stated. Crossing her legs and wrapping her fingers around her mug. "Trust me Emma. When you say it... She won't care where you guys are, what you're wearing, eating. Just that you're there and you love her, because Emma, she loves you."
Emma looked to the brunette seated on the couch. She talked about love, in this magical way. Like it could solve all your problems, and she been smacked in the face with it. She talked about it like it was this all powerful thing. Emma wanted to believe her. But these feelings that specifically Ruby could stir in her. They were so foreign. So new. That Emma was a little scared of them.
"I've never said it before." Emma admitted, pretty sure that Mary Margaret already knew that.
"You don't have to be scared." Mary Margaret reassured. Giving her mug a squeeze in replacement for the squeeze she wanted to give Emma's hand.
"How should I do it?" Emma fell against the armrest. Bending her head back to look at her roommate. Her brow crinkled in that way. That way that Ruby loved. Her lip pouting, really wanting Mary Margaret to tell her what to do.
"Just tell her when it feels right. When you feel it." Emma was about to reject it when she remembered all the times it almost slipped out. Sure when she was picking Ruby up from the diner, or when they got a few moments together at her lunch break on lucky days.
But when she was watching movies with her, or when they were having one of those conversations late into the night when Emma knew she should be going home, but she just didn't want to leave Ruby. When she could just feel her feelings for her swell to the surface.
"That could work." Emma smiled, one of those somewhat rare. Big toothy grins. Which Mary Margaret returned.
XxXxXxX
"I thought you were coming over for dinner?" Emma glanced over as Ruby opened the door to her bug and sat down in the passenger seat. Raising her eyebrows, her lips twitching up and down, as she tried to give her girlfriend a disapproving look.
"I was coming." The blonde jumped to defend herself. Looking up into hazel eyes lit up in the dark from the small light in Emma's old bug. Ruby rose her brows.
"Normal people have dinner at like six." She replied. Looking around it was so obviously not six.
"I lost track of time. Paperwork." Ruby frowned suddenly feeling guilty. "I swear Regina somehow knows when we're going to do something together." The blonde frowned. Looking up to her brunette girlfriend, to find her brow creased in a frown. "Look I really am sorry, I really wanted to see you-" Emma was cut off as she pulled across the divider to meet Ruby's lips.
The kiss lingered and deepened. A considerable task leaning over the divider like that. But it had been a little over a day since they had kissed, and both once they had started had a hard time stopping. When they did they were breathing a little heavy.
Ruby leaned her forehead against Emma's and smiled. That big brilliant smile that could make Emma's heart skip multiple beats. The speed up to make up for it.
"You have pretty eyes." Ruby giggled. Still holding onto the lapels of Emma's jacket holding her close over the small divide between them. Everything in the car was small.
"I love you." It fell from Emma's lips, and when it reached her ears her eyes widened. The words seemed to have skipped the stop at her brain for permission.
But Emma didn't have time to panic, to worry what would happen next, or even really think, because Ruby's mouth had fallen open in a sort of smile.
"I love you too Emma."
Just like that Emma knew that she never had anything to worry about. It should have been obvious all along, but it was better to feel that rush of relief, and disbelief. Quickly followed by that strange throbbing burning, fluttering, thing she had knew was love. Her love, for Ruby.
She was in love with Ruby, and Ruby loved her.
It was one of the most amazing things in the world. She figured, maybe Mary Margaret was right in her views on love.