A/N I apologize that this took longer than usual, I have no other excuse then that I was trying to make this the best it could be. Well that and I was sick.
Ruby didn't want to move.
It was an absurd and somewhat alarming fact.
She was practically sitting in the lap of the woman who had kissed her without warning. This woman that she barely knew.
It was a brisk night on a beach of coastal Maine, and the cold sand was leaching the body heat out of her. She was wearing nothing but her waitress's uniform and this red cloak.
Yet she didn't want to move.
Emma however was getting up, and the action caused Ruby to slide out of her lap. Which the blonde noticed and quickly put a hand around her to stop her from falling onto the well packed sand.
"I'm sorry, I probably should have warned you." Emma apologized, with that half grin that suited her so well. Her hand gripping the small of the brunette's back.
"You're fine." Ruby all but giggled. The emotions that seemed to be born from nowhere bubbling up in her at being so close, being almost held, by the sheriff.
Then Emma released her, simply dropping her hand back down at her side, and Ruby felt foolishly empty. All of these emotions, mixed in with Emma's recent revelations. It was, in the simplest terms, confusing.
–
After a call to the Charming residence Emma told Ruby she would walk her home, seeing as that was where her ride was anyway. It was the kind, sheriff-like thing to do. It wasn't because she didn't want to leave Ruby. Not that Ruby seemed to mind if it was.
On their walk Emma noticed Ruby's constant shifting with the material of her cloak, and with nothing filling the silence between them she decided to take it upon herself to explain.
"The cloak keeps you from turning into a wolf." The so-called savior explained. "It's enchanted, I guess. Henry explained it to me... You'll turn tomorrow night, and the night after if you don't wear it. I know they're not all full moons-"
"But the day before and after the full moon, as well as the full moon are like, just as potent. It's called wolfstime, I know." Ruby finished Emma's explanation looking at her boot clad feet. Then back to Emma's bewildered features. "I was kind of interested in werewolves when I was like, thirteen. Maybe now I know why." The hazel-eyed girl explained.
"Snow says that she always had things like that when they were cursed. Like.., deja vu moments. Things that caught her attention for no reason." Emma looked to the woods on the left of them after her statement, because if she didn't look at something she feared she would just keep staring at Ruby.
"I think I'm having them too... The more I look at these memories..., the ones I think, or thought, are my life. Well the more I look at them there's holes. Places where things don't line up quite right, and..., and things I can't explain..." Like what I'm feeling for you. Ruby left off her example.
It wasn't that she didn't want Emma to know that she was feeling this way about her, Emma obviously felt something rather strongly for her. It was just that she wanted to wait until she could explain it.
"I can't imagine..." Emma drifted, she hadn't really thought about that fact. Ruby was being told all of the memories from her life weren't real, they were just the delusion of a curse. Without the proof of a life you'd lived, it would be a very hard fact to grasp.
They floated into silence, not an awkward one, even before they had begun the dance around each other that had led to their relationship the two had never suffered an awkward silence.
Ruby however eventually broke the comfortable silence. "I didn't..." She faltered, as if she was suddenly unsure if she wanted to finish the statement. Before clenching one fist around the edge of her cloak. "I didn't hurt anyone did I? Tonight... when I was..."
"No... Archie was there, but he wasn't hurt.." Emma felt the pound of her heart in her ears, that natural urge to protect Ruby from hurt flowing through her. Pongo didn't really count as an anyone did he?
"So... not this time... not that you know of..."
The seagulls covering the beach floated across Emma's mind.
They reached the inn however before Emma had to respond to that, and Ruby turned on her heel at the door. Startling Emma with how close they were, rather suddenly.
"Thank you." The waitress stated, eyes looking past Emma in an almost shy manner. "For making sure-" The brunette stopped, and restarted. Finding Emma's eyes as she did. "For what you did tonight, and for telling me what no one else was going to." She looked away again. This time to the practically full moon.
"It's no problem, I'd do any-" Emma stopped mid-word, when hazel eyes snapped back to hers. "It's no problem."
The silence filled the dark cool air between them, and Ruby felt like she was almost being drawn to Emma.
After waking up with that ice pack to her head almost two weeks everything had felt askew. Except for one thing, Emma.
There seemed to be nothing magnificent about her in her leather jacket and worn skinny jeans. Nothing to make you look twice, but maybe the crossbow hanging in the limp grip of one hand. However every little lackluster thing about her just seemed to grip Ruby's high tuned senses.
Neither of them could really remember moving closer, but Ruby's hand was on Emma's bicep. Light, gentle, and slightly questioning. Emma just barely caught Ruby's hazel eyes, reflecting the moonlight, flickering between her eyes to her slightly parted lips.
It was a situation all too familiar for Emma, and yet her heart still sped up. Her lips still felt suddenly dry, and her nerves all seemed much too sensitive.
"Ruby! Girl, I was worried sick. Then I see you two out here dawdling." The pair snapped apart, not unnoticed by Granny who was standing at the door, making a face somewhere between scolding and menacing.
"I, was just, thanking Emma for... Um..." Ruby looked down at her feet, cheeks heating up as she wrapped her cloak around herself, a comforting habit she didn't know she had formed over twenty-eight years ago.
"Get in here." The innkeeper waved her granddaughter in the door with a small smirk. "And my crossbow?" Granny turned her eyes to the blonde who stumbled forward. Flustered and still rather caught up in the moment. Well the almost moment.
Emma offered up the weapon which Granny reached over, creating a cover to wrap her in a bear hug. "Thank you. You got her home safe." She whispered into the blonde's ear before releasing her with a small nod.
The sheriff rocked on her heels, before turning to go.
Half way to her bug however Emma was stopped by a hand clamped on her shoulder and the blonde spun around, closer than before to Ruby. Their toes bumped together and the tall brunette gave her a rather flustered grin.
"I want to see you again, not under some weird circumstance. Just you, and me, and dinner or something." Ruby stated, her words rushed and excited. She hadn't come out here with much of a plan.
"Tomorrow...? What about a picnic." Emma answered almost instantly, the prospect of being alone with Ruby was too good to pass up. "I know a great place." The fact that it was the place of their first 'official' date was definitely a deciding factor.
"Meet me after my shift? I get off at five." Ruby was still extremely close and when she proposed the time she moved back just a bit. Leaving enough space between them to let a drift of not so warm air in the gap.
"I'll be there with the food." The shorter woman replied. She couldn't keep the smile off her face any longer, and the sight of it seemed to cause Ruby to break out into one of her own.
–
"We were totally lost." Ruby stated as she helped Emma spread their blanket.
The perfect spot was a spot Ruby had actually been to before, although most memories of it were vague. Like a picture someone had erased the edges of.
It was a clearing somewhere in the middle of the woods that surrounded Storybrooke. A few hills met and a small lake was near dead center of it.
"We weren't lost." Emma replied stubbornly. Setting the basket with their dinner in it in the center of quilt.
"If I didn't figure out where you were taking us, we would have never found this place." The brunette argued, kneeling on the blanket, and peeking into the basket.
"That doesn't mean we were lost." The sheriff grumbled, smacking the werewolf's hand off of the basket.
"It kind of does." Ruby teased, with a smile directed at Emma over the small box separating them. The blonde just glared playfully at the brunette in return. "What're we eating?"
"Um..., pasta primavera... salad..." Emma offered, pulling the dish it was in out of the basket.
"Impressive." The waitress noted, moving toward the blonde to get a better look at the dish. A hand closing around the plaid material of the quilt under them.
"Snow made it." The blonde confessed, watching the brunette inspect their meal through the curtain of her hair covering the right side of her face as she set the plates next to the younger woman.
"It looks delicious." Ruby complemented the absent brunette, rolling onto her back on the quilt.
"I hope it tastes delicious too." Emma stated, placing a plate, now with pasta on it on the brunette's stomach. "There's dessert too." She added as Ruby attempted to sit up with out moving the plate or spilling.
"Did Ma-Snow make that too?" The waitress asked, finally giving up and lifting the plate from her stomach, before turning her eyes to the other woman's blue ones. There was a teasing flicker in her hazel orbs and Emma felt a flutter in the bottom of her stomach.
"No..." The blonde replied, sounding a bit breathless, her voice lost somewhere deep in her throat.
"Did you?" Ruby asked shifting so she was facing her date on the blanket, causing everything else on it to quiver.
"Uh- No... I bought it. Sorry I amazing cooking skills to woo you with." Emma was still having some difficulties speaking with Ruby looking at her like that, and her abilities to be witty seemed to be malfunctioning.
"It's okay, I can cook just fine myself, so it kind of loses it's charm." Ruby brought her knees to her chest and rested the paper plate on top of them. The brunette wondered if Emma already knew that about her. "It's kind of cute that you can't though."
"I am not cute." Emma grimaced. The tone in her voice letting on that this was an old argument.
"You are, you're adorable." Ruby grinned at Emma's narrowing eyes. "Especially when you glare like that."
"Oh my god! How many times have-" The sheriff stopped suddenly, the fork previously stabbing at the air dropped to her plate. For a split second she had forgotten. Now she felt painfully awkward.
"And when you're embarrassed." Ruby added without missing a beat. Emma felt heat blossom in her cheeks at her embarrassment being point out. She looked up from the few noodles left on her plate to the woman across from her. She shifted closer, setting the mostly empty plate on the basket on the side of the blanket.
Emma visibly swallowed as her plate was taken from her. "Ruby."
"Yes?" The werewolf asked, the evening sun reflected in her eyes. The sheriff ran her eyes down her former lover, so close . She felt almost starved for her. It had been almost three months since the last time she had kissed her. Since she had been this close to her.
"Do... Do you want to have dessert?" Emma gestured to the basket. She was having trouble talking again, and focusing on Ruby's eyes.
"Depends, what're we having?" Ruby leaned forward, resting her arms on either side of the blonde's knees. The position gave Emma quite an excellent view of her date's cleavage and thinking when given that perspective was more than a bit difficult.
"Uh.. I have..."
It seemed as she spoke that Ruby had moved closer. Either that or Emma had leaned into her, and that was incredibly possible with the seemingly magnetic pull she was giving off.
"I want to kiss you." Emma nearly jumped when Ruby broke the silence that had formed between them, hot and heavy like a summer afternoon. Also one of her hands was resting on Emma's knee and the blonde wondered if Ruby was doing this on purpose.
"I've wanted to kiss you for a long time."
The tension was strung tight like a bowstring, and every word out of them was the pluck of an archer testing their weapon.
It was less than breathtakingly romantic when their lips met. The tiny fractions of seconds leading up to it felt like a first kiss on both sides though.
Emma felt almost frozen by the force of it. She had been looking forward to this moment or aching over the loss of it for the past few months. Their lip brush in the alleyway did not count. Right now she was kissing this woman she loved, and it was as always able to make her stop thinking.
They bent together flat against the blanket, Ruby on top of Emma. The brunette slid her fingers into fistfuls of Emma's blonde waves at the nape of her neck, supporting her head against the rather uneven ground.
Their bodies connected almost all the way to their toes which fit crookedly at the other end of the blanket.
Ruby's eyes had fallen shut, and when the moan Emma had been trying to suppress rather embarrassingly broke through a sound equal in pleasure burst from the brunette.
The kiss, the simple action of their lips together, and the feeling of Emma's impossibly soft lips moving against hers was jarring to Ruby. It was magical.
Not however the magical they had been looking for.
That thought didn't seem to even cross Ruby's mind. Not that many coherent thoughts at the moment. The added feeling of Emma's hands sliding up her back, and pulling her middle, and in turn her hips, flat against herself knocked any thoughts but the blonde's body beneath her, and her lips against hers from her mind.
The first kiss broke in almost the same way it had started. Hesitant but eager. Panting and staring into each others eyes it was no surprise when they were leaning back together, kissing again.
They spent the next half hour familiarizing or re-familiarizing themselves with each other.
At one point Emma built up the nerve, or her libido did, and she flipped the brunette over her. Which caused a rather fierce battle between them. Sweet gentle kissing turning a bit more aggressive. When they finally settled it, lying side by side in the grass, staring into each others eyes. Ruby felt her heart swell with this ever growing emotion.
It was clouded though, with a doubt. The kiss hadn't broke her stupor again. She knew Emma better now yes. But she didn't remember anything of the life she had supposedly lived.
It wasn't even that that she missed or yearned for though. Frustration beat deep in her because, she had already gotten to know this wonderful woman. She had already fallen in love with her, and shared sweet arguments about whether she was cute or not, (she was.) They'd obviously done quite a bit of making out based on the sweet spots Emma knew how to get just right. They'd been together, they'd been in love.
The fact that it was hurting Emma that she couldn't remember this. That the blonde couldn't be that person around her, it was hurting Ruby.
A/N Next chapter will most likely be the last. Review while you can, aka, review now..., and next chapter.