AN: A huge thank you to my lovely beta Rumblovebelle on tumblr.
Belle's mind was filled with the images that taunted her from last night. The brunette hated that Ruby had acted like a five year old with what had happened yet again; she didn't know what was really going on with the taller brunette. With every wipe of the tables, she kept thinking about her. The brunette hadn't shown up for work that day and it made Belle sick to her stomach. The petite brunette had taken every single possibility into consideration:
Ruby was afraid of getting attached to someone, check.
Ruby had feelings for someone else, check.
Ruby hated her maybe, check.
That whole thing was Belle's fault somehow? Check.
A tired sigh escaped her full lips at the possibility of that last reason. If she hadn't asked about making those pancakes, they wouldn't have gone through that little food fight and Ruby would have been acting normal instead of how she was acting that day. Even when Belle had to work overtime due to Ruby not being there, she was still more worried about the brunette than mad at her.
The bell of the diner door rang and Belle busied herself more with cleaning the tables and delivering the orders. If that was Granny, she didn't want to look like she was slacking at work (which she totally was).
"Hey." Belle stiffened at the voice, Ruby's voice.
She turned around to face the taller brunette to be greeted with a smile. She arched an eyebrow at Ruby's face. Why was she smiling like nothing had happened yesterday; like she hadn't ignored Belle's reading session last night; or when Belle had heard the water running in Ruby's bathroom, yet when she knocked because of another bad dream, she hadn't ignored that as well.
Suddenly Belle went from confused to furious in a matter of seconds. Yes, she was relieved that Ruby was fine, but seeing that smile made her feel like her feelings weren't that important compared to Ruby's. So it was okay for Ruby to stop talking to her whenever she wished, and then go back to it again whenever she wanted?
"Oh, so we are on speaking terms now?" whispered Belle a little too harshly, which caused Ruby's smile to drop. Ruby's lips parted as if she was going to say something, but with that look on Belle's face, she just couldn't do it. Before she could do something about it, Belle left her for another table.
It took a good whole hour before Belle finally dropped the cloth in her hand and went straight to where Ruby was. She should be mad at how Ruby had acted, but she just couldn't bring herself to feel that way. Maybe Ruby had a reasonable explanation.
"You have five minutes. Explain your actions from last night," she whispered lowly as she sat across from the brunette. Ruby's hazel eyes glanced up to meet Belle' blue ones. Ruby's hands fidgeted with the phone in her hand before she placed it on the table. Belle's eyes curiously followed her every move. Ruby turned slightly to her side to pick something up and the brunette's hands revealed a wrapped package, a little one. She slid it across the table hoping that Belle would accept it as a little apology.
"I'm not accepting anything until you explain."
Crap.
"Um…ok." She didn't pull the package back to her side, but let it lay there in between them.
"Yesterday, we – you - I was afraid that had I made you uncomfortable and I was just too shy to face you and talk about it."
A lie.
"Why didn't you say so, silly? Nothing happened! You made it look like I killed a relative of yours!" Belle's eyes shined at that, her hands stretched forward and held Ruby's warm ones.
A smile finally overtook Ruby's face. Maybe it was for the best, she thought. She pushed the package once again, subtly, with the tips of her fingers into Belle's direction, silently asking her to open it already.
Belle held the package up to her ear and shook it lightly, trying to guess the contents of the mysterious box.
"What is it?" she whispered more to herself than to Ruby.
After she finally gave up on guessing the contents, she tore the wrapping gently to reveal-
"Oh my God! Ruby! You got me an iPhone phone?!" Her voice bubbled with excitement at her new toy.
"An iPhone Belle, just iPhone, no phone." She chuckled at how adorable Belle was, all curious and surprised by her gift.
"Here let me show you." Ruby mustered up her courage and slid into the seat next to Belle. She showed her everything she needed to know about how things worked on the phone. The e-mail and the SMS messages were the first things she taught Belle about; she even registered her a new e-mail. Ruby finished off her little tutorial by saving both her number and her email so that if Belle needed anything, she could contact her right away.
Belle's arms circled Ruby's neck as she hugged her tight. Granny shot them both a look to get them to understand that the diner wasn't going to serve those costumers on its own.
Belle was brave enough to plant a kiss on Ruby's cheek before she tottered her way to Granny to brag about her new iPhone phone.
The taller brunette released a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding for a while before she turned around and observed how happy Belle was with her phone.
The petite brunette tucked her phone into her pocket and went back to work happily.
Ruby too got up from where she was and gathered the remains of the wrapping paper that was all over the table so that she could put on her outfit and start working as well.
An hour later, Ruby busied herself with the dishes while Belle was busy waitressing the other tables. The taller brunette's phone chimed once indicating a new message. She unlocked her phone, but found a new e-mail instead of a message.
"Hello.
This is Belle. I just want you to know that I mastered sending messages through this brick finally. At first I mistook the note pad for the messages and wrote you a message, but when I saw that you took longer than expected I realized that maybe I had made a mistake. I think you should get me a cake! Look at me sending my first message!
Love,
Belle."
Ruby couldn't keep a straight face throughout the e-mail at all. A whole-hearted laugh left her lips as she clung to her phone. Belle was for sure the most adorable thing ever. Her fingers danced on the screen for a while before she typed in her response.
"Hello! Well Belle I hate to be the one delivering such bad news but you sent me an e-mail, not a message! But that's ok as well! It means you are learning what is what and that is amazing! I'm pretty sure by the end of the day you will be able to hack into other people's phones through yours ;)."
Ruby placed her phone down on the table next to her and made sure not to place it in a puddle like she had done to that poor thing the week before.
The phone chimed again indicating another new message. Ruby wiped her hands clean of the water that she had been cleaning with and grabbed her phone smoothly, ready to reply to whatever Belle sent her.
Another email.
She shook her head and muffled another laugh once again.
"Hello, it's me again! Wait, what does ;) mean? You can't place a semi-colon and a bracket like that! It doesn't make any sense and it's highly confusing. Also what does hacking mean?
Love,
Belle."
Ruby's fingers pressed against her temples softly as she smiled down at the e-mail. Teaching Belle to use a smart phone was going to be tough, but it was so worth it to see how happy Belle was about having it.
Ruby sent her reply explaining what a ;) meant before she subtly reached for the kitchen door and peeked to see how Belle would look when she replied to her message.
Belle picked the phone up as soon as it vibrated in her pocket. The brunette didn't know why her phone only vibrated without those cheerful melodies that Ruby's phone had. What she didn't know was that Ruby had made sure it was on silent otherwise Granny would have taken it away and asked Belle to finish her work instead. Ruby couldn't hold that laugh back at how Belle looked at that moment. The tiny brunette used her pinky to type down the message or e-mail like Ruby had suspected.
Belle was so into typing until something happened. Something she did not expect. Something that made Ruby laugh so hard that she had tears in her eyes.
Granny, who had eyed Belle for some time, was fed up with Belle being distracted from work, and instead of warning her for the hundredth time, she lightly slapped her head to get her attention back to the waiting customers. Belle pouted her lips at the attack and her hand rubbed at the offended area until Granny disappeared into the kitchen.
She knew she heard Ruby's laugh and she prayed to God that one day she would get to see that same thing happen to Ruby so that she-
"Ouch! Ouch! Granny I'm not five anymore, let go!" Granny walked back to the cashier, pulling Ruby by her ear for playing that game again on her phone and neglecting her duties at the diner.
Oh sweet revenge. Belle's hand covered her mouth as she giggled at how bitterly Ruby stood behind the cashier while she rubbed her ear with that same pout Belle had had a few moments ago.
Belle's obsession with books never bored Ruby, not even once. She loved how the brunette talked endlessly about her favorite book, character, and author. Ruby also noticed how Belle's eyes shined at the mention of the word "book". She might not have read that many herself, but she liked how Belle would read her some chapters till she got sleepy.
The brunette remembered when she walked by the library the other day. The old place was shut down long before the curse was broken. Maybe with some effort, this library could be up and running again.
This town was run by the one and only Regina, the evil queen. Ruby toyed with the idea of talking to Regina about the library and the possibility of her getting those keys back. By the end of that day, Ruby had decided to meet up with Regina to get those keys for her Belle.
The meeting with Regina after the diner shut down had gone smoothly. Ruby explained the advantages of having a library in the town and how it would benefit everyone living in it. Keys in hand, Ruby smiled at the Library chain attached to the key. Belle was going to love it.
She shoved the key into her jeans pocket and hoped that Belle wouldn't stop her on her way up because she wouldn't be able to contain her excitement and therefore would ruin the surprise.
Back when Belle first came around, it was easy for Ruby to excuse herself for the night and just leave to God knows where. However, now that Belle was almost attached to her hip, it was really hard to get away from her when Ruby was on her wolf-time.
That day started out perfectly with them being all happy and bubbly in the morning. Belle tottered through the hotel doors, headed to the diner with Ruby in her tracks. The taller Brunette smiled gently at how Belle always seemed to be in a happy bubble all the time. She fingered the little box in her jacket pocket a few times, unable to stop her smile from growing. She could practically see Belle's shocked face and her running around the diner with the library key, high on happiness.
Later, when the two finally had their breaks, Ruby faked a worried face and hoped that Belle would notice it, which she did shortly after. A gentle hand wrapped around her forearm to get her attention, which caused Ruby to look up into the brunette's worried eyes then down, just like a scolded puppy.
"Ruby? Are you okay? You don't look okay, what is it?" The grip got a little tighter as if Belle was trying to show her that she was there for her, no matter what she needed.
Hold it together, you are the wolf. Ruby tried her best to keep that sad face for as long as she could.
She reached down to her pocket, slowly to add a little more suspense to the scene. Belle looked like she was watching some sort of horror movie: her eyes were wide and followed Ruby's every move. Ruby pulled out a little rectangular, navy blue box out of her jacket and complained about that little thing and how it had dug into her pocket all day. Belle was now confused. Well if that box was really bothering Ruby why would she keep it in her pocket? Why does she even have a box in her pocket?
"And I don't know what it is. I thought you might? So here, open it up." She handed the box over to a confused Belle, who was still wondering what that box had been doing there in the first place.
"Ruby-." No, there was no way. Belle's hands tightened around the edges of that box in her hand after she had opened it up. The word Library looked back at her. She looked up at Ruby who wore a huge grin that filled her face.
The tiny brunette couldn't register the fact yet; she held the library key in her hands and repeated the information over and over in her head as she looked to the keys then back to Ruby and then to the keys again.
When her body finally caught up with her brain, she launched forward and wrapped her arms tightly around Ruby's neck, drew her in and held her tightly. Ruby hoped and prayed that the hammering in her chest wasn't obvious to the little brunette who held her tightly. She closed her eyes and took in the smell of Belle's hair, the warmth of her embrace. If she could keep Belle in her arms like that forever, maybe in another life-. Belle rested her head on Ruby's shoulder; it felt so welcoming and comfortable if you asked her.
Their embrace took a little bit longer than either of them was willing to admit.
Belle was the first to pull back from their little heaven. Ruby bit into her lower lip. She knew she would get hit after that long embrace because of how worried she had made Belle. Instead Belle's hand reached forward and held hers for awhile. Silence draped over them like a thick blanket yet it was a rather enjoyable type of silence, where neither needed words to convey how each one of them cherished the other.