Author's Note: Got done editing this one a bit ahead of time. Thankfully, I was afforded more time to do so this week. Anyway, enjoy!
"It's a surprise."
The look on Ruby's face when I say that is the epitome of cute. Her bright smile replaced with a pout of annoyance. "Weiss," she whines. "Don't do that to me!"
"It's not like you didn't do the same thing to me the other night," I tease in a singsong voice.
"I… You… It's not…" Ruby trails off while looking at the ground, clearly flustered. Her face becomes tinted a slight shade of red as she realizes what's happening right now.
Dust, she looks so cute.
"It's not what?" I ask, still smiling a bit. Playing with her like this is so rewarding.
"It's not the same thing…" she sighs, her face drooping slightly. It strikes a chord inside me. I start feeling kind of bad that I made Ruby upset.
"I suppose you're right. I'll tell you what," I say. Ruby's face perks up a little bit. "I'll give you three guesses to see if you can figure out where we're going. I will be completely honest in my answers. Sound good?"
Her face lights up at this. "Okay! I'll guess it for sure!" Ruby says. She looks determined in this. I'm not sure what I have just awakened.
"Okay, well whenever you want to guess, go ahead," I say smugly, expecting her to guess almost immediately; however, much to my surprise, she goes silent. Unsure of what to do, I walk in silence as well. Her face is focused, and her nose is cutely scrunched up up as she tries to think. The scenery passing us lost to her, but not to me. The evening sun catches Ruby's hair in just the right light to accentuate her natural hair color along with those tantalizing red tips that have become the marker of who she is, aside from her hood and infectious smile.
I wonder what she's thinking about so hard. She's cute when she's thinking like that. Maybe I should make her guess stuff more.
If nothing else, I find that her silence and intense concentration is a good chance to drink my fill on her appearance.
"Hmmmm…" Ruby starts saying, a minute or so passing since the last time that she spoke. "Is it the ice skating rink? That would be fun!" We're currently on the other side of the city from the Ice skating rink, so I don't know where she came up with that thought process.
I laugh inwardly to myself. "No, it's not the ice skating rink," I say. But she's right. It would be fun to visit it again… Would that have been a better date?
"Hmmmm… okay, then. Well maybe, are we going to dinner? It's about that time of day," Ruby guesses.
"Oh, um… no. It's not dinner…" Doubt starts to creep into my mind.
Are these the things that she wants to do? What if my plan isn't good enough? What if it's not what she wants? For years I've envisioned what it would be like to be with Ruby, but now that I have my chance, what if I screw it up?
A softness envelopes my hand, and I'm pulled from my musings. I look down to see Ruby's hand firmly grasping my own. Looking up, I see Ruby standing there. Her face shows an expression of concern.
"Hey, Weiss. I know you put a lot of thought into tonight. So even if it's not something that I expect…" she stops talking for a split second and squeezes my hand with her own. I can feel her shaking slightly, as well as the fact that her palm is sweaty; probably from nervousness. "I know that it's going to be a lot of fun," she finishes and smiles sweetly at me. My heart skips a beat. Maybe, just maybe, there's more here. That she wants to be with me too. The feeling of that grows with each passing minute spent with Ruby.
Walking forward from there, my pace slows down over time until I've eventually stopped moving. Ruby, still holding my hand, is pulled into stopping too. As soon as she stops and turns to look at me, I pull her closer. I wrap my arms around her and hold her close. My eyes start watering up.
"Thank you. You don't know how much that means to hear you say that." I say, trying to hold the tears at bay so that they don't fall. Ruby returns the hug. While she can't see my face, I stealthily raise one hand to my face and wipe my eyes of the tears that are gathering at the edges
I'm so blessed in this life to have her so understanding. She makes every day brighter for me.
Ruby breaks from the hug, grabs my hands, and smiles.
"Okay, now let's get going." Ruby smiles, and we both start walking again. Ruby falls in step next to me. I snake my hand into hers nervously. She grabs my hand in return and laces our fingers together. I feel myself heating up, and I start feeling self-conscious.
Why do I feel self-conscious about holding hands with Ruby? She's the girl of my dreams, and yet I'm nervous about holding hands with her? What's wrong with me?
Despite myself, I squeeze her hand and smile.
Don't think like that, Weiss. You're just nervous. Now come on and enjoy your date with the best girl.
The rest of the walk to the movie theater is uneventful, with both Ruby and I electing to stay silent and enjoy the scenery. I wonder what her reaction is going to be? I'm nervous to see what she thinks, but I'm really looking forward to it.
Upon getting to the theater, Ruby's eyes go wide. "We're watching a movie?" She asks excitedly. She bounces up and down slightly on her heels.
"Yes, Ruby. We're watching a movie," I say while leading her inside and paying for the tickets to the movie.
"Oh my Dust! We're watching that movie about the book I just finished! I'm so excited! I was going to bring this up with everyone soon that we should see it as a team, but this… This is great! I was hesitant to see this, but I'm more than happy to if this is our date!"
Ruby leaps at me and envelopes me in a hug. She lets go, and both of us immediately realize what had just happened. Ruby coughs awkwardly as we both look away, blushing.
Wow, I knew this was a movie that Ruby liked back in my original reality, but I didn't expect her reaction to be this… much.
I feel a wave of relief roll over her over Ruby's enthusiastic reaction. Smiling shly at the girl I love, I grab her hand and lead her to the doors, holding one open for her. "After you."
Ruby giggles cutely and takes the invite.
"Weiss, are we getting popcorn? We have to have popcorn at the movies," she says, walking towards the concession stand and pulling me along with her. I don't resist and laugh. Ruby's natural cheerfulness is infectious and all my worries are washed aside. The euphoria of the moment nearly makes me feel what I imagine being drunk is like.
"Okay, let's get popcorn." I walk up towards the counter and get in line behind a lovely old couple that are in the middle of deciding what they want to order. When it's our turn, I step up to the counter. Behind it is a boy, probably about Ruby's age, although possibly a year or so older.
"Welcome to Vale Cinemas. How can I help you?" His name tag says Rick.
"Could I have a large popcorn and two large waters, please?" I ask after a few seconds of looking at their menu.
"Water? C'mon, Weiss. You can do better than that. We need soda!" Ruby says from behind me.
I rolly my eyes dramatically. "Fine, what kind of soda do you want?" I ask, turning to face Ruby.
"I want some Coke," she says after a second or two of thinking.
"Okay, so a Coke and a… oh, I suppose I'll indulge myself a little bit. Two Cokes?"
"Sure thing, I'll have that right up for you and your girlfriend." He turns around to get the order. Instead of correcting him to the fact that this was just a first date and that did not mean that she and I are girlfriends, I blush and say a quick "thank you" under my breath. He turns around again and gives me the popcorn and sodas. "Sorry if that was an incorrect assumption. I just saw you two holding hands on the way in. I just assumed. My apologies," he says. I thank him, pay, turn around to see Ruby standing there, blushing almost as much as I can feel myself blushing. Upon making eye contact, both of us look away from the other quickly. My heart pounds.
"H-here's your Coke. I g-got us a large popcorn too. To uh… share… if you're okay with that."
Why am I so nervous? I can't even finish a sentence without stuttering through words. Ruby, you have no idea what you do to me. Ugh, I know WHY, but just… WHY? Why can't I be more calm?
"Yeah, that's okay with me," she says. She takes the Coke from my hands and falls in step next to me. We go through the hallways until we get to the theater that the movie is showing in. We get into the room and find our seats relatively quickly. I'm honestly somewhat surprised that the venue isn't more full with people. 'The Man with Two Souls' is still a relatively new release, probably a week or so old at this point, but the room is only about a quarter full.
It's not because it's a bad movie… I remember this movie being really good back in my original time. Oh well, I guess it's just time to enjoy the movie now.
The lights in the room dimm after a few minutes of ads, and the trailers start. The movies shown in the ads range from comical to horror to downright cringey. The trailers for horror movies are a little… more than I'd like. But thankfully whenever I jump due to a well time jumpscare, Ruby holds my hand. It was nice. There were some awkward moments when both of us reached for popcorn at the same time and our hands touched, followed by quick apologies, removal of hands, and flushed faces. The movie started and all of the non-movie sound quickly died in the theater, replaced by surround sound audio.
The movie was as good as I remembered it; although, truth be told, I was watching Ruby more than I was watching the movie. The look on her face when something exciting happened was priceless. She'd look at me with wide eyes and a huge goofy smile and mouth to me. "That's what happened in the book" or sometimes a furrowed brow and accompanied mouthing of "The book did that better."
Throughout the movie, I tried to psych myself up to kiss Ruby. The urge had steadily grown to kiss her as the movie had gone on. There was one point where Ruby and I made eye contact. She leaned forward towards me. My nerves skyrocketed, as I thought that would be the time in which I kissed the girl of my dreams. But it turned out she was just leaning towards her straw with her head because she didn't want to let go of my hand. I can't help the feeling of disappointment that falls into my gut.
The movie in and of itself was about two and a half hours, even though it felt like less than that. Time seems to be weird when I'm around Ruby: Sometimes it's a blur that I can't keep up with; sometimes it just stands still. Upon exiting the theater, the almost dull afternoon sun we had become accustomed to on the way to the movies was replaced by darkness.
The nighttime sky accentuating a feature of Ruby that the sun just hadn't. In the darker light, she had a different sort of beauty. A more mysterious looking, almost elegant type of beauty, even though she was far from elegant. The way the light of the full moon shone down on her made it harder for me to resist to kiss her then and there.
"Hey, Weiss? I had a lot of fun tonight. You did a great job planning this date," Ruby says. She once again laces her fingers with mine as we walk. It's such a simple gesture, and yet it makes me a nervous wreck. Stuttering, blushing, confusion. All symptoms of Ruby. And I had to have more.
"Thank you, Ruby. I'm glad you enjoyed it. I had a lot of fun myself," I say. The awkwardness that fills the air between us becomes almost tangible as we stride further into the night. A cool, refreshing breeze blew through the town.
Wandering around, we eventually come to a park. Dimly lit due to street lamps, it was a nice evening walk for us. Looking around, I see quite a few other couples sitting on benches along the path. Some laughing, some just smiling, some showing an incredibly indecent amount of PDA, and some just simply enjoying each others' company. Ruby seems to tense up at the sight, probably nervous from everything that's happening around us. Honestly, seeing all of this PDA makes me a bit nervous as well. But then again, it feels pretty nice holding Ruby's hand here. It's like we're an actual couple. Likewise, we eventually find our way to a somewhat secluded and private park bench, still hand in hand.
As we walked, I wasn't sure what to say. We'd both said what we wanted about the movie, we both understood that the park was a romantic place, and therein laid the problem. Would we sit down and cuddle? Kiss? My palm felt sweaty and I'm sure Ruby could feel it too. The air was suddenly slightly awkward between us and I didn't like that one bit.
Dammit, I need to ask her out again. I can't just let this be a one and done type of thing. But my nerves, they're making my heart beat so fast. I feel like I'm about to die. No, Weiss. You're not going to die right now, but if you don't do this, you will die because you let Ruby slip through your fingers again. Come on, you've got this!
With the small pep talk done and a newfound surge of courage, I do it. "I really did have a great time tonight, Ruby. I… I want to go on another date with you… If that's okay." My voice is noticeably nervous. A simple, gentle squeeze of my hand is enough to make me feel somewhat normal again.
"I'd love that, Weiss." She looks over at me, her silver eyes shining in the moonlight beautifully. She smiles at me, with a look of care I haven't even seen her look at Crescent Rose with.
"You're beautiful, Ruby," I say.
"You are too, Weiss. You're one of the most beautiful girls I've ever known," she says, her cheeks flashing crimson.
A small lock of hair falls down into in front of her eyes. My hand instinctively reaches up towards it and brushes it out of her face. Not knowing what to do next, my hand decides to cup her chin. Nervously awaiting what my body's natural desire is next, I give in. I lean forward, eyes closing. My breath hitches, my heartbeat quickens, and my mind goes through a million different ways this could play out. But all of those possible futures are immediately pushed out of my mind as the one I most wanted to happen becomes reality.
A feeling of somewhat plump lips on mine fills me with a sense of something I haven't felt in a long time: joy. And with that, I know that this isn't a one and done type of thing. That this isn't just something that I feel. That she feels this way too. And that this will be my future.
I went to the past, and yet... I yearn for the future...
A future with her.