Learning You Were Wrong (Red Beauty, Rebelle)

Pairing: Red (Ruby)/Belle

Rating: PG-13

Word Count: 1300

Note: My first OUaT fic! Woo!

Title comes from a lyric in "Beauty and the Beast."

"I'm mad at you."

Ruby didn't have to turn around to know that soft-spoken voice. She visibly winced but faced the source of said voice regardless of any fear that took hold, not wanting to give Belle more reasons to be so cross with her. "Hey, Belle… How- how's it going?"

The glare that matched the deadly serious voice had its effect. Ruby felt her wolf howl. She didn't like it.

"I'm very mad at you."

"I'm sorry!" Ruby leaned over the counter to grab Belle's hands. "I know. It was pretty damn shitty of me to lock you up in those chains."

"…and?" Belle looked up at Ruby expectantly.

"And I'm sorry for leaving you there for a couple of hours…?"

But Belle didn't budge, "…and?"

"Uh… It may be post Wolftime amnesia but I'm kinda running out of reasons why I'm sorry." Ruby ended with a hopeful grin but was disappointed to find Belle still looking upset and unimpressed. She could feel her wolf whine, ears down in shame. She fought every instinct to do the same.

"How 'bout some pancakes and iced tea… on the house!" Ruby let go of Belle's hands reluctantly but mustered enough energy to put on her megawatt smile as she made her way to the kitchen.

She knew she could get Granny to make the pancakes but the poor woman exhausted from the night's mob and Ruby wanted to prove she could do this herself. She was, after all, the heir to Granny's Diner… Was that even still happening now that the curse was broken?

Whatever, Ruby would knock the scowl off that beautiful face with kickass pancakes and then they'll laugh and have girl's night and-

"How could you ever think you deserved to be killed, Ruby?" Belle's voiced filtered into the kitchen.

Was that it? Ruby looked down at the spatula, unwilling to answer the question. Red was confident in herself, wolf and all. Ruby? She was 28 years of slutty clothes, meaningless flirtations and petulant arguments with Granny. That girl was certainly not the warrior wolf that fought with the Prince and Snow White. But now she was both. Hence confusion and a whole lot of self-doubt.

Belle saw Ruby make the same self-hating look she had the previous night. She made her way over to the stove and cupped Ruby's cheek. "You're not a monster."

"I chained you up." Ruby repeated, brokenly this time.

"Yeah, you did."

Ruby scoffed and covered her face. "And I left you there, God I'm horrible."

"You're not a monster," Belle declared once again, more fervently than the last. Her clear blue eyes shone with more conviction than Ruby's ever seen, "I've seen monsters. I've seen people behave like monsters. People who are given a choice and choose to use their power to make other people miserable or torture them or…or keep them locked up in the basement of a hospital for twenty-eight years. And maybe they're not monsters all the time. Maybe they have their reasons but in the one moment you know… They have the capability to be better and they choose not to."

Ruby clutched Belle's shoulders, squeezing them lightly in comfort. It was unfair. Belle had gone through so much. And she had done nothing but sacrifice herself for the people she loved.

"That's not you at all. You don't have a choice. Your wolf is a part of you. And last night you proved that you're no monster. Because even though you thought your wolf killed Billy, even though you locked me up; you went out there because you wanted to protect people. As stupid as that was, you would choose to sacrifice your own life before endangering others. That's far from monstrous. That's heroic."

Ruby's face took on the hue of her name. She tried to step back but Belle held her in place, unwilling to let her friend look away. Afraid that if Ruby looked away, she wouldn't get through to her.

Minutes flew past before Ruby could react. Tears fell down upon crimson cheeks, silent chokes followed. "I-I'm sorry I didn't believe you."

"How about next time, you'll believe me when I say I believe in you." Belle smiled.

"Okay." Ruby gave one last hiccup and sniffle then backed away. "I'd totally understand if you want to like punch me or something. I kind of want to do it myself after chaining you up like that."

"What?" Belle blinked in confusion.

"For chaining you up? Just hit me. Make things even."

"What in the world will that accomplish?"

"Uh, besides experiencing the feeling of joy you get when the person you're mad at gets hurt? Especially by your own hand?" Ruby closed her eyes, bracing herself.

"You really want me to hit you?" Belle asked dubiously.

"No, Ruby admitted, "But I'll let you if it meant you won't be mad at me anymore."

Red understood action. She understood agency. She was a physical person. Experiencing life with more action than dialogue. She needed Belle to be okay with her. And this was the only way she knew how to make things okay again. Well, that and pancakes.

Belle watched her close her eyes tightly, hands up in the air in surrender. "Ruby… I'm not-"

Then the metaphorical light bulb lit up above Belle's head. With a mischievous glint she left the kitchen for a moment making Ruby wonder what could possibly be going on.

Her leftover wolf-time heightened senses picked up the sound of Belle's rustling through the diner and she strained to hear more. Quickened heartbeats. Laughter concealed under heavy breathing.

…Maybe she didn't want to know.

She was brought back from her musings when light staccato footsteps started getting louder. Closer.

WHACK

Ruby was startled but there was no pain to accompany the loud hit. When her eyes blinked open in surprise, she could not help but stare incredulously at Belle's weapon of choice.

"Did you- did you just hit me with a rolled up newspaper?"

Smiling impishly, Belle nodded and bit her lip to keep from laughing outright.

"I'm not some animal that you can just hit whenever I behave badly!" Ruby exclaimed angrily.

And then there was a moment. A realization.

"Oh."

Belle twitched and her eyebrow rose. Her lips quirked to the side.

The look was so innocently mischievous and playful and entirely smug. It made Ruby's heart hitch and her stomach lurch.

It was the same feeling she had when she first met Belle. When she looked up from her empty cup of iced tea and confided in the nosy waitress with such wonder, curiousity and life. It was the same feeling as the previous night. As Ruby felt the wolf clawing out from her soul and Belle refusing to leave. Her indomitable belief in someone she barely knew.

At first, it was easy to ignore.

She missed Snow. She missed Emma. They were her friends. Her confidants and her biggest supporters. And they were gone.

Belle was there.

And here she was. Giving her hope that she hasn't felt in decades.

Her wolf, her heart was telling her that it was different. Belle wasn't a replacement. She was something more. She could be something more.

But Ruby would continue to keep that voice at bay. At least for now.

Because now? She was mock growling at Belle. The girl in front her backing away with the rolled newspaper up in playful defense.

Now? Ruby was going to chase her around the diner. Post wolftime high still telling her to run. Run after her.

In a few moments after that, when she would have Belle in her grasp, her wolf would howl at her to make a move.

After a beat, once she gets her nerve, she would bend her head down, eyes fluttering closed and then…

The fire alarm would sound, breaking the spell.

And Ruby would finish making pancakes for Belle and serve it with syrup and a cup of iced tea. And they would laugh and talk and dream of adventures in the great wide somewhere.

They would have time.

And Ruby didn't mind waiting for whatever it was.