notes – I promised an anon on formspring to write more rubysapphire, so here's a drabble I wrote for a friend, hope you like.
rendezvous over rock and roll
Ruby, as a boyfriend, leaves much to be desired.
Ruby himself leaves much to be desired, actually. He thrives on constant complaints and fashion advice from sticky froufrou magazines and the cosmic alignments of the stars (horoscopes or whatever). He never overgrows his weird fetish for making girl-clothes, even when they are seventeen – (supposedly) happy and free and everything teenagers spend their empty days wishing for.
Sapphire explores the forest twice as much, laughs twice as loud, lives her life with twice as much risk to make up for him and his plausible incompetence.
She should nag him for locking himself in his room, or yell at him for reluctantly bunking in her secret base when his father settles into one of those 'moods'. But after seven years and countless arguments, everything's lost its immature charm. Sapphire learns when they can fight and forgive, knows when she shouldn't bother him because, at times (rarely) Ruby gives as good as he gets.
He gets loud and fierce, and rants on and on about life and the sheer unfairness of it all, about rebellious hair and the tragedy of shirts that take ages to iron. Sapphire never understands him as much as she thinks she should, but that's all good. Knowing someone from head to toe, inside out, would probably kill the excitement of a relationship, leave two people left with nothing to do.
Except the term 'girlfriend' is pretty much a title, never really a fact. He touches her fingers when she's sad, no matter how muddy they may be, and smiles when she needs him to (not always though, Ruby's never that reliable). And that's it. Apart from the hand-holding that reminds her of the throat of the sea and a cavern deep down, beyond human reach, everything's the same.
Sapphire considers this, and she decides that she's fine with the way things are, just for now.
They fight. Make-up. Laugh. Torture one another. It's a ritual they have adapted to over the historical years in Littleroot. Y'can't ask for too much, can't trip over excessive amounts of greed.
Still, she's a girl, and yeah, she's a tomboy, but even she's got expectations too. About romantic nights with a trek under the stars and peaceful days talking about nonsensical thrills (like diving down from the top of a waterfall). Ruby doesn't cooperate though (does he even know how to do that?) he's all taunt and glitter and glamour, in love with contests and the precise colour of painted fingernails. Sapphire feels unsettled because it seems that he likes the contests even more than her.
She says this as a joke. But Ruby looks up from his sewing kit when the words leave her lips.
He pacifies her with a quick kiss, and even that is soft and weak like him, just as much as it is kind and wonderful. Sapphire sort of loses her intense disappoint over her horrible boyfriend halfway between a pleased sigh and clumsy hands wrapping around her waist.