Disclaimer: I don't own OUAT blah blah blah. You know the drill.

A/N: I miss Ruby, so here, have my version of OUAT, in which Ruby accompanies Snow et al. to Neverland. This takes place during/after some generic battle with the Lost Boys that occurs during the earlier part of their time in Neverland.

All right, I think that's enough scene setting. On with the show!

Slamming a Lost Boy to the ground, Emma straightened up triumphantly but froze when she saw a poisoned arrow coming her way. It was both too fast and too close to avoid. As she braced herself, a blurred figure shot across her field of vision, taking the arrow with it.

Ruby seamlessly finished her dive by rolling to her feet, arrow in hand and her eyes gleaming yellow. She quickly found the offending Lost Boy with the bow and began to advance, menacingly morphing into her alterego. Once in wolf form, she stalked forward quickly, a fierce growl emanating from her throat.

Emma couldn't help but think it was the most terrifying thing she'd ever seen.

And she wasn't the only one. The Lost Boy began to shrink back in horror. He futilely tried to shoot another arrow, but the wolf easily evaded it and continued forward.

Emma watched as the wolf pounced, flattening its prey. It didn't go in for the kill as Emma had expected. It hovered above the Lost Boy, snarling threateningly, teeth bared and jaws snapping.

Emma saw the pleading, desperate look in the Lost Boy's eyes and took pity.

"Ruby! Ruby, stop," Emma said as she tentatively approached, only to stop short when the creature snapped its jaws at her.

"Red!" Mary Margaret yelled from across the clearing where she, Charming, Hook, and Regina had disposed of several Lost Boys and forced the others to retreat.

To Emma's surprise, the wolf responded immediately. Its head dropped slightly, and it looked up at Emma with sorrowful eyes and whined apologetically as if it had just realized what it had done.

As the wolf backed away from the Lost Boy, David approached. "Hook and I will watch him through the night."

"Or we could interrogate him now," Regina inserted, flexing her hands in anticipation.

"Tomorrow," David countermanded as he pulled the Lost Boy to his feet. "We need to rest."

"You're giving him time to gather his wits about him. The smart thing to do is to question him now," Regina shot back, and the duo continued to bicker as they walked away.

Mary Margaret walked up to the wolf and began to scratch behind its ears. "All right, come on, puppy. Time to settle in for the night."

The wolf growled.

"Sorry," Mary Margaret apologized teasingly as she continued to scratch behind her best friend's ears. "You're a fierce wolf, Red. Yes, you are."

Seemingly placated, Ruby leaned into Mary Margaret's petting hand and let loose a sound of contentment.

Emma couldn't help but stare incredulously at the entire exchange.

Mary Margaret laid down a blanket, which Ruby immediately curled up on. The former princess then joined her best friend, wrapping her body around the wolf, and bade her daughter good night.

As she too settled in for the night, Emma wasn't sure if it had been a good night, but it had certainly been an interesting one.

The next morning, Emma awoke to see her mother and a fully human Ruby still huddled together on their blanket. At some point in the night, they had turned over such that Ruby was now the big spoon.

"This is so weird," Emma muttered under her breath as she turned away to start the day.

A voice behind her made her jump.

"It's not weird." Emma turned to see a fully awake Ruby standing right behind her. At Emma's shock, Ruby merely smiled and explained, "Wolf abilities."

All semblance of coherent thought disappeared as Emma stared at the other woman – the woman who just seconds ago had been cuddling with her mother of all people. Then it came back to her. "How is this not weird? You were cuddling with my… with Mary Margaret, and David is over there."

"He's used to it," Ruby shrugged. "If not for the curse, you would've been too. In fact, you probably would've been between us."

Emma gave her a pointed look as if to say, How is that any more normal? before changing the subject. "Thanks for yesterday."

She didn't need to say anything more for Ruby to know what she was talking about: the poisoned arrow from the previous night.

"Just making up for lost time. And I'm sorry if I scared you."

Speaking with Ruby in Neverland (or maybe she was speaking with Red) was different. Her voice was harder, her eyes more jaded. And Emma thought that maybe - in a weird way - Mary Margaret had been protecting Ruby every time they'd asked her to watch Henry instead of join the fight in Storybrooke.

"You didn't scare me."

"Liar," Ruby rebuked, though her voice held a hint of affection. "It's okay. I used to scare me too. Actually, still do sometimes."

"But not Mary Margaret," Emma commented, thinking back to the previous night.

"Not Snow," Ruby agreed. "Ever since we found out I was the wolf, she's had some sort of faith that my wolf form would never hurt her."

"Must've been nice."

"It was and still is. She has that faith in you too."

"Well, there's no chance of me eating her," Emma responded snarkily without a second thought. As she registered what she'd said, she grimaced. If there ever was such a thing as a foot in mouth moment, this was it.

But Ruby took it in stride. "No, but I'm going to take a guess here and say you're worried you'll disappoint her, worried you'll do something that will make her stop loving you." Emma said nothing, but she fidgeted in response, so Ruby continued, "That would never happen. And you'll always have me as well."

"Why?" Emma looked at the other woman quizzically. "I mean, it's not that I don't appreciate it, but… I guess I just don't get it. And earlier you said something about making up for lost time as if you're –"

Ruby's words spilled quickly out of her mouth. "I'm your godmother."

"Oh." Eyebrows furrowing in thought, Emma said, "No offense, but ever since I found out about this whole fairytale business, I thought it'd be the Blue Fairy. You know, the whole fairy godmother thing."

And suddenly every trace of hardened warrior Red was gone. Ruby's face fell, and she looked at the ground. "Right, I guess that makes sense."

Emma could see the insecurity on the other woman's face and nearly kicked herself. She knew how insecure Ruby was about being the town werewolf despite its uses. She knew how insecure Ruby had been before the curse, like that time she'd given her own godmother – though she didn't know it at the time – a job and helped her grow up and have more faith in herself.

Jeez her life was so weird.

"But it's cool, and you're really badass, so this is definitely better," Emma quickly said to comfort her. That she meant every word of it helped the declaration sound convincing despite its rushed pace.

"Yeah?" Ruby asked with a shy smile.

"It's a little scary when your wolf growls at me, but yeah."

And in spite of the blonde's teasing tone, Ruby apologized again, "Sorry about that. The wolf part of me isn't used to you."

"I guess we're just going to have to spend more time together then," Emma said, making Ruby smile.

It was easier with Ruby somehow. Unlike Mary Margaret and David, who seemed perfectly content to dive right in to their new relationship with their daughter, Ruby was more tentative, placing her and Emma on more equal footing. In fact, it gave Emma the opportunity to take the upper hand, something she was definitely more comfortable with.

"Come on," Ruby said suddenly as her ears twitched and her eyes darted to look across the clearing. "David's getting up. What say your godmother teaches you some new interrogation techniques?"

Emma smiled.

"Sounds good to me."

fin

Thanks for reading!