"You sure the storm is lightening up at all?" Ruby felt the hand of her wife, Penny, being placed on her shoulder. She stood behind her as Ruby stared out the window at the storm.
"It seems like it, it's not as dark at least," Ruby pointed out, the sky has lightened within the last couple of minutes.
"I don't like the storm…" Ruby quickly turned around to see Reina had come up to stand with them looking out the window. She held onto Penny's dress as she stared.
"Well it should let up soon," Ruby shrugged, "Storms don't go on forever after all."
"But what if the-" Penny began just to be cut off by Ruby.
"Oh, I doubt the power will go ou-" Irony struck her words before she could even finish as a loud crack of lightning lit up the sky. With that causing a crash from somewhere nearby. Then darkness as the lights flickered off.
Silence. Aside from the rain outside the window there was silence.
"Can you cover Reina's ears?" Ruby asked Penny. Penny nodded lightly before leaning down and placing her hands over her daughter's ears. Ruby walked away from the window before shouting, "GOD DAMNIT!"
"We should probably open the curtains, it's awfully dark…" Penny said as she lifted her hands from Reina's ears. She carefully opened the curtains and let more light in.
"Where did the lights go?" Reina asked, staring up at the ceiling where there were light pendants.
"The power went out, did we even think to refill the generator?" Ruby asked, yet she already knew the answer. Penny simply shook her head.
"You shouldn't go outside during the storm though, dear," Penny said, "We can just have some candles until the power comes back."
"You and Reina both hate the dark though! I don't want you guys to suffer if I can do something about it," Ruby said, walking over to the garage door to be stopped by Penny.
"Ruby, don't," Penny said, "It's one day, I'll be fine, Reina will be fine. We'll all be fine. The power will probably be back on within an hour or two anyways."
5 hours had passed since Penny said that. The power had yet to come back at all and evening was quickly approaching. Unfortunately for being up so north on Remnant, the sunset time for Atlas was a lot earlier than other places on Remnant.
Another thing to add to the already unfortunate situation.
When the light started getting dark inside, Ruby tasked herself to leave the brightness of the windows and go search for a lantern or candles.
Luckily she was able to find an ample collection of seasonal candles in a closet. Perfect.
She grabbed the candles and brought them back to the area that was the living room and kitchen and sat them down on the kitchen table.
"Would you guys like to help me spread these around the house?" Ruby suggested. Penny had been sitting on the sofa with Reina. The two instantly stood up. Ruby could understand very quickly how bored they were.
Penny and Ruby took the majority of the candles, dividing to carry about 4 at a time. Reina took one at a time, and she usually had to have hers moved as they were too low or in inconvenient spaces.
Ruby had been placing a Pumpkin Spice candle in one of the bathrooms. She carefully adjusted it, trying to center it on the counter. She then heard a startled screech from down the hall. She poked her head out of the bathroom to look and see what happened. She couldn't see anything so she took a lighter out of her pocket and lit it. She saw Reina at the end of the hall, holding a candle with a confused expression on her face.
"What happened?" Ruby asked. Reina only pointed to the door beside her, a concerned look on the freckled faced girl. Ruby paced down the hall and opened the door to find Penny behind it with a candle in hand. It was unlit and she was breathing heavily.
"Penny, oh my gods are you okay?!" She wrapped her arms around Penny as her breathing gradually slowed down.
"S-Sorry I just got startled, I don't think Reina realized I was in there…" Penny breathed out. Ruby turned to Reina and sighed.
"Sweetie, you should've checked the room before closing the door," Ruby said. She wasn't upset at her daughter, it was an accident after all. Reina looked o down embarrassed before muttering apologizes.
"Sorry mama… And mommy…" Reina said. Eventually Penny let go of Ruby and took a deep breath.
"I'm good now, is that about all the candles?" She asked.
"I think so, I'm gonna go back to the kitchen and see what we can have for dinner," Ruby said. Penny and Reina followed closely behind her. When they got back to the kitchen it was even darker than before, but Ruby lit the candles in the room and there was light.
"I hope that storm goes away," Penny mumbled under her breath while Ruby dug through the pantry.
"I mostly just hope we can get the power back on soon," Ruby admitted. She found some peanut butter and marshmallow fluff. She had an idea. She grabbed some bread and took it out as well. Walking back to the kitchen counter she grabbed a spoon and knife and began her creations.
Within minutes the counter had 3 peanut butter marshmallow fluff sandwiches. She grabbed plates and a few bags of chips and brought it to the kitchen table.
"There we go!" She said. The other two came and sat at the table and the family soon enough were done with dinner.
If only there had been something else they could do.
Ruby had yet another idea.
She rushed off and approached a closet, and with her scroll light she dug for a board game.
Mouse trap. It'd be simple enough at least for Reina to understand how to play.
When she sat the board game on the floor of the living room Reina was quick to approach. Penny was in the kitchen washing the dishes while Ruby explained the basic rules of Mousetrap to her daughter.
"So, basically you're a mouse, you're trying to not get caught by the trap that's at the end. You roll a dice and move your piece however much the dice rolls, so…" Ruby picked up the dice and rolled them, to which the dice landed on 3, "I'll move three places forward. Whatever the spot you land on you'll have to do what the spot tells you to do. So for example," she moved the piece she was using to demonstrate three spots and landed on a building place, "Here you'd add a piece to the trap system. You add a piece at a time and when the trap is done you can use it to win. Basically in order to win you have to get the other players caught in the mousetrap. Do you understand?"
"Mhm!" Reina hummed as she grabbed one of the mice pieces, "I wanna be this one!"
"Penny, you almost done?" Ruby called over to Penny who was putting the plates back in the cabinets.
"Yeah! I'll be there in a second," The redhead said back. When she got to the floor the three played. It was rather intense, and Reina was doing incredibly well.
It was Ruby's turn and she'd rolled the dice.
"5 spaces…" She grumbled as her mouse ended back up on the cheese wheel. Penny had already been caught and was now only spectating. Reina took the dice off the floor and rolled. She made rhythmical moves to her arms as she tossed the dice in an odd manner.
She got three spaces. Exactly where Ruby had dreaded she'd land…
Reina widely smiled as she stared up into Ruby's eye. The silver eyes made contact as Reina wasted no time in cranking the lever.
The trap fell.
Ruby let out a sigh as she put her hand out to Reina.
"Good game…" Ruby forced out, disappointment wrecking her as Reina took her hand and shook it.
"It was fun, mama!" Reina exclaimed, standing up.
"Well the fun may have to end soon, it's getting late after all," Penny pointed out, showing the time on her scroll.
"Maybe it'll be an early night for all of us," Ruby said, "One more round though?"
"Sure," Penny said.
Ruby once again lost.
Penny won this time.
Admitting defeat and yawning Ruby stood up after putting the board game away and she stuffed it back in the closet.
She went to her and Penny's room and soon enough she was in pajamas. A black tank top and red shorts. Penny wore a light green t-shirt and pink shorts when she changed to her own pajamas.
Ruby had helped Reina into her own pajamas. A purple long sleeve top and black shorts. Ruby had been tucking Reina into bed when Penny entered the room.
"You know she's not going to be able to sleep without her nightlight," Penny said, Ruby was just about to blow out the candle but turned to acknowledge her wife's point.
"Dang it…" Ruby thought for a moment before snapping, "Reina, you wanna sleep with mommy and mama?"
"Okay," Reina tiredly answered. Ruby leaned down and picked Reina up, carrying her to their room and sat her on the bed.
Within minutes the three were under the covers, Ruby keeping a tight grip around them as they gradually fell into slumbers.
Light was there after all. The light was them being together. As a family.