A/N: I am stupidly proud of today's teaser. I don't know why, I just thought it was a hilarious play on words. ;P
Also, fun fact: while I'm some four days ahead of you guys right now, my Word document with this story in it is now well over 200 pages. 65,000 words. It's like I did NaNoWriMo for this fandom or something. o.O
When Sapphire recovers her form, she is of course back in her quarters. Her plan is to ask how everything went, even though the likelihood of success hadn't changed when she poofed. She could look herself, but she's too afraid of what she might See.
Sapphire opens her mouth, but finds herself being fiercely embraced instead.
"I'm so sorry. I know I apologized in advance, but I'm still sorry now." Ruby draws back and snatches Sapphire's face with broad, worried hands. Her gem is hot and pulsing uncertainly against Sapphire's cheek. "You're okay, right? Tell me you're fine, because it's been two hours and I didn't think I hit you that hard but—"
"Ruby." She means for her voice to come out calm and soothing, but standing stock-still like this, shocked and uncertain on how to proceed, her tone takes on a quavering, questioning quality. Nobody has ever touched her like this. Not once in nearly 4,000 years.
"Yes?" Ruby is still unreasonably frantic, eyes wide and fingers twitching like she want to hold Sapphire's face even more firmly. "You are okay, right?"
She isn't going to stop asking until Sapphire replies, is she? "I'm fine. Did—" is it appropriate to ask, in this position? "Did it work?"
"Fifty year extension," Ruby says, albeit somewhat dryly. "On the higher end of your predictions, but otherwise everything else went exactly like you said."
Which means that the blatantly selective enforcement of Unit 6's rules by Kunzite and Morganite had not gone unnoticed by the inmates. Sapphire jumping to Calcite's defense, too, had also been noticed. The aim of their plan had been to cause such a commotion about the stilted and abusive power structure of Unit 6 that even the gems in administration wouldn't be able to ignore it. It also had the added bonus of keeping the inevitable investigation from looking too closely into why an allegedly reformed inmate would suddenly snap back into her old habits.
Is Sapphire the only one who notices that Ruby's hands are still cupping her cheeks?
Or that this means they now have fifty years to figure out whether or not this will work?
What is 'this', anyway?
"Sapphire?" Ruby's brows furrow in confusion as she peers at her. Her gem hand peels off of Sapphire's face and hovers just next to her bangs, debating whether or not to push them out of the way, or if that is even an option. "You feel a little warm, are you—" she gasps when she realizes, and then she is grinning from ear to ear. "You're blushing! Why are you blushing? What did you see? What are you thinking about?"
Ruby doesn't seem to mind being pushed away. In fact, she starts dancing around Sapphire, teasing and excited, trying to peer past her hair and get a better look at her expression.
"Was it something I said? Did I do something? Is this a good blush or a bad blush?"
At least, that's what would have happened if Sapphire hadn't decided to head it off with the most impulsive and distracting thing she could think of, just as Ruby gasps with realization.
If one wants another not to talk, and one is already in close proximity with said other, the perfectly rational course of action would be to use one's lips…?
In hindsight, she probably should have used her foresight, but such is the nature of impulsivity.
Ruby blinks, utterly dumbfounded. Her lips part in a stunned gape. Slowly, a dark maroon color creeps up her neck and into the apples of her cheeks.
No. There is no way this is going to end well.
"Erm." Frankly, Sapphire doesn't know where to go from here. She's also too flustered to check for the appropriate possibility to follow. She takes a hasty step back and tangles her fingers in her skirts. Her face will never, ever stop burning, she's sure. "Err, I apologize if I've violated a boundary—"
Out of all the reactions she might have expected without the help of her future vision, being swept up in Ruby's arms and kissed firmly on the mouth is decidedly not one of them.
Well, at least now they both have a reason to be flushed darker shades of their natural hues.
"I can't believe you just did that!" exclaims Ruby. She is apparently so ecstatic that lifting Sapphire by the waist and swinging her around in a circle seems like the perfect thing to do.
The action is so sudden, so effortlessly strong, so carefree—so Ruby—that Sapphire can't help the delighted sounds that leaves her as she braces her hands on Ruby's shoulders and whooshes through the air. She surprises herself with the giggles, rich and from the gut, but she doesn't regret them. She should feel unstable and insecure to be tossed around like this, but she doesn't. At this point they have been through enough for Sapphire to implicitly trust Ruby with herself in this way. They've saved each other's lives. They've protected other gems. They've sparred to the point of physical exhaustion, and not hurt each other once.
"You," Ruby, grinning from ear to ear, sets her gently onto her own two feet. "Have the best laugh I've ever heard. Have I ever told you that?"
And just like that, it clicks into place. She's not afraid. Whatever 'this' is, however they figure it out in these next fifty years, Sapphire doesn't fear what they are going to find. She can't, because she's going to be finding it all out with Ruby.
Sapphire smiles, flattered and flushed (compliments like this are new to her, too), and replies, "No, I can't say you have."
Nobody's ever looked at her with eyes like this, either. Sparkling with levity and excitement, but also deep with understanding. Ruby's hands are still on Sapphire's waist, and Sapphire's are still on her shoulders, and they both know what it means that they are still standing here. This is not happening by chance or arbitrary whimsy. This is intentional and fully informed, and right now they are both exactly on the same page.
"I guess this means we'll have to break the news to the gang back at the rec center," Ruby says. "What do you think would give the best impression, walking in holding hands or me marching in carrying you bridal style?"
Sapphire snorts and laughs despite herself, physically pushing Ruby and the ridiculous suggestion away as she does. Then it hits her, and she looks up with abrupt solemnity. Her fingers tighten on Ruby's shoulder. "Wait. You're not being serious, are you?"
After a tense minute, Ruby can't hold her own mirth in any longer. As she roars—"You should have seen the look on your face!"—Sapphire reflects that this is the most comfortable they have ever been. She certainly can't remember a time where she has smiled and laughed this much. Is this what they have always been capable of, or has this been made possible only just recently?
Well, that doesn't matter now. The past is passed, and if this conversation is anything to go by then the next fifty years are going to be just as, if not more, entertaining.
Sapphire smiles. She can hardly wait.
