The Wooing of Ruby Button

This chapter has been prompted by DBS2000 and their request was Ruby didn't take back Ziggy in the hospital after her heart attack, he's hurt her way too much already and she can't cope with all his games. Too bad Ziggy just can't let go, and he's going to win his girl back

Ruby had felt awful for breaking up with Ziggy, but she knew it had to be done. Their relationship was just going round in circles, each lap more toxic than the last. And even though it had hurt watching the man she loved walking out of the hospital room and from her life for the final time, Ruby knew she had done the right thing, even if her heart was telling her otherwise.

She had thought Ziggy was on the same page as her, for a whole week they didn't exchange a single word, didn't have any contact with each other, bar the occasional wistful gaze across the pub. Overall the break-up was seemingly a clean cut one, though the illusion that Ziggy was ready to move on was shattered when Ruby was getting ready for school the following Thursday.

A huge box of chocolates were lying on the kitchen table (and the school-girl doesn't even want to know how Ziggy got those into the house), a short and simple note laying on top to clarify just who had sent them.

They were the most delicious things Ruby had ever tasted, causing all the Osbourne's to have a very chocolately and rich breakfast that morning, which whilst the best idea at the time, was not as such as Ruby made her way to school half an hour later, both her and Esther groaning in discomfort as the expensive treats laid heavily in their stomachs.

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Ziggy's second wooing attempt was completely disastrous, especially in comparison to his first attempt which had Ruby retching into the school toilets at breaktime as the chocolates got too much for her.

When the teen woke up one morning, her whole room was littered with roses. They were gorgeous, and made the whole house smell amazing for a week after, but there was one problem. Ruby was allergic to a lot of flowers, roses being one, and after having spent hours in close quarters with at least 50 of the sodding things, it was safe to say her allergies had been well and truly set off.

She didn't leave the house for two whole days, her eyes were so swollen she could barely see, her nose didn't stop running once, and there was no point even mentioning how badly her skin had blotched in such a short time, but long story short, it had not been a pretty sight, and if Ziggy had caught sight of Ruby once during those two days, all his wooing attempts would have been thrown out of the window as he counted his lucky stars that he could stop his wooing attempts then and there, with the valid excuse that he was just doing it for Ruby's wellbeing.

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The love letters hadn't been as bad as the flowers, simply because they hadn't forced Ruby to make another trip to the hospital. But that was the only reason why, because they were simply put, diabolical. Ruby could see Ziggy was trying to be romantic, he just wasn't pulling it off as smoothly as he had hoped, after all, terms like 'your hair is almost as big as my love you', most often paired with misquoted poetry wasn't exactly what Ruby had been dreaming about when she was a little girl, and imagining what her future boyfriend would be like.

So far none of Ziggy's acts of love had done anything of any positivity, bar make the brunette sick and embarrassed on his part, though the rest of her family seemed to be loving the latest form of entertainment.

And as all laughed over the mechanic's latest letter, Ruby couldn't help but feel guilty, Because yes they were bad letter, but it was also apparent that the mechanic put a lot of time and effort into them, and whilst the romantic declarations weren't all that, the thought that went into them did have the desired effect of making Ruby feel special, as well getting her to question the demise of her and Ziggy's relationship. After all, if he didn't love her, why would he be putting all this effort in to wooing her?

Her thoughts were focused on just this as she made her way down the stairs to the pub, frowning in confusion as she saw Esther and Ziggy in deep conversation, though at least it solved the mystery of how he kept getting into the pub in the dead of night.

"You can't serenade her, no-one actually does that!" Esther's indignant cry caught Ruby's attention, though she couldn't help but laugh at the genuinely put out look that painted itself on Ziggy's face. "The letters were a bust, and I think we both know why."

"I just put what sounded romantic, it's in all of those old books," Ziggy shot back, groaning into his hands.

"Yeah, none of it came from you. If you're going to do something like that, you have to speak from the heart, make it personal so Ruby will really love it."

"But I'm rubbish at all that, I tried a million times and all the others were ten times worse than the letters I sent Rubes."

"Why didn't you put what you told me? How you loved her smile and the way her eyes crinkle everytime she laughs. How seeing her is enough to make your day that much better, and without her you've been completely miserable these past few weeks."

"I've tried, honestly I have," Ziggy said miserably, looking as if all the fight was leaving him. "But everytime I did, it just sounded stupid, like I couldn't ever get the words right."

"Maybe you should try again," Ruby spoke up, making her presence known and causing both Esther and Ziggy's eyes to widen in ill-concealed shock. "Because I would have much preferred that to all these elaborate gestures, it's making me feel like I live in a sitcom! I fell in love with you without all of this, why would I need it now?"

"Are you saying-" Ziggy began to ask, trailing off as Ruby only nodded, walking around the bar to come toe to toe with the older man.

"Ziggy Roscoe, I love you," she breathed, pulling him into a mindblowing kiss. Their cheeks were both flushed when they separated a few moments later, though as they leaned on one another, both smiling brightly, Ruby couldn't help but get in one last shot. "Though I wouldn't have minded to see you try and serenade me though."

Next Chapter - After Robbie humiliates Finn, the young schoolboy decides his friend needs to get what's coming for him, though he knows nothing he could do to Robbie would hurt him. But Robbie's always been over-protective of Jason and Finn isn't scared of hurting others to get his revenge – prompted by anon on tumblr, elliebugg and cupcakes

Mollie – I'm really glad you enjoyed your prompt and are still enjoying the story. I do try and message people when I post their request, but obviously can't if they don't have an account, so I'm glad you saw it. Good luck with your exams!

Guest – I haven't actually written that many Leela and Ziggy fics yet, because when the prompts were open they weren't actually a couple and Ruby was still in the show. But chapter 56 has a little bit of them in it, so you may like that.

Off the top of my head, chapters 199, 210 and 212 will definitely have Leela and Ziggy as a couple, but any chapter that I can fit them into realistically will have at least a mention. And any Ziggy centred chapter that I write whilst they're still together will no doubt have Leela included too.

Sorry if that's quite vague, unless stated by the prompter I don't really know who will be included in a chapter till I start properly planning it. If you want to try and get a clearer idea, chapter 66 has a list of all future prompts, and there may be something I've missed.