A/N: Ohhh, I said I wouldn't do a Halloween fic this year because I have no time and I was worried I'd written most people's ears off with this pairing, and yet... Here we are! I couldn't resist :p. This will be the first of probably around 10-15 chapters (I've actually very loosely planned, which is very unlike me, but I want to get the full story up before Halloween, so for the sake of updates and a vague idea of what I'm doing, I've made a very illegible list of scenes I want to include). I hope you like this first short instalment to get things going :).
(PS. I apologise for doing this every year with my Halloween shorts, but at the moment I mainly work as an artist, and historically, I try and take part in the #inktober challenge held on Instagram. This year, I'm somewhat drawing into the abyss after my account got hacked and I had to sort all of that, so if anyone DID want to support me while I split time between this story, meeting that daily picture challenge, and work, any likes/ follows/ comments, ANYTHING on my insta would be hugely appreciated as I tear my hair out with all of the deadlines I set myself for my favourite month of the year :p - spookshowillustrations on there and on TikTok).
I will have the next chapter up at the beginning of next week, after a couple of days spent camping in Sherwood Forest with my favourite person and the dogs :)
Reviews/ comments on this first chapter would be massively appreciated :)
(Set at the same time as a lot of my shorts - season 2, after Regina pulls MM and Emma out of the well, but without the drama of Cora and Hook following then into Storybrooke).
"Beer me."
Ruby demands as she leans over to place her empty bottle on the coffee table and Emma pulls their shared blanket off of her legs with a theatrical sigh.
"You couldn't have asked two minutes ago when I got up to pee?"
"Oh, because the kitchen's so far?"
"So, you go!"
"No, I'm comfortable."
The waitress grins, before reasoning impishly
"And there's no need to make such a fuss. Just do it the cool way."
"The 'cool' way?"
"You know..."
Ruby wiggles her fingers pointedly in a way that subjects the blonde to a brief flash of PTSD of her fourth-grade gym teacher demanding that the class perfect their 'jazz hands' before she catches on.
"Oh, right. Magic."
"That old thing."
The brunette teases, before furrowing her brow when Emma shakes her head with a wrinkle of her nose.
"Regina says I shouldn't go messing around with it too much while I'm still figuring things out."
"So? Since when did you start listening to the Mayor? I thought your whole thing was going directly against anything she says?"
"It's not my thing, I'm just not quick to blindly trust a woman who tried to murder me and enslaved my parents and all of their people... In this instance, I've decided to take her word for it before I accidentally do something stupid I'd have to go ask for her help to sort out."
"Shame."
Ruby chuckles as she pushes herself up to go and get more drinks from the blonde's fridge the regular way, shaking her head as she shoots down Emma's victorious smirk with sly teasing.
"Fine, I suppose I can see your logic, just this once, but don't pretend that's why you make it a point to disobey Regina, Swan."
"What are you talking about?"
"Oh, come on! That woman could tell you the grass was green and you'd insist it was red and refuse to budge on the matter just to get under her skin."
"Hey, I'm not the one that makes a habit out of being unreasonable."
"No, but you are the one that enjoys the game of winding Madame Mayor up... She tells you what to do and you take that as your cue to do the opposite because you like the result. You like watching her get all flustered."
"... Maybe."
Emma admits, although she accepts the beer Ruby hands her with a frown as she wishes the younger woman would word things slightly differently.
I don't like watching her get flustered, I just like knowing she's not creaming herself over the fact that she's bested me for the thousandth time.
... Okay, maybe I'm not so keen on the way I worded that either...
Offering her beer a dubious twitch of her lips, she takes a sip and strives to push any further bizarre thoughts from her mind.
"Whatever. Show me the stuff you found in Granny's trunk."
"Oh, so that you can still go against Regina's wishes and use your power..."
The waitress laughs coyly as she leans down to retrieve her bag, and Emma pulls a face as she argues lamely
"She never expressed any 'wishes', she just advised that I would be wise to refrain from using my magic when I have no clue what I'm doing... And you said that this book Granny had was more a collection of charms and stuff anyway. That's not really using my magic..."
"No? What would you call it, then?"
"I mean there's a difference between folk tricks and huge blasts of power... Right?"
"I asked you to conjure some beers, not the whole damned fridge!"
Ruby giggles, but she shrugs her shoulders amiably and pays no attention to Emma's sudden hesitance as to feed into it would only ruin her fun. Handing over an old book from the confines of her bag, she apologises for the state of the covers which are in danger of falling apart.
"How does Granny still even have this in this realm?"
Emma asks, squinting to read the cramped text on translucently thin pages decorated with diagrams and sigils.
"I don't know. Maybe it's kind of like Henry's book? I just know she's had that old trunk in her closet for as long as I can remember, filled with a bunch of weird old books like this one, and... Well, and my cape."
The brunette clears her throat awkwardly, aware that she's blushing as the Sheriff looks up to consider her curiously.
"Weird."
Emma remarks finally, going back to studying the book, but she puts Ruby's discomfort to rest when she simply muses pensively
"I'll bet people have uncovered all sorts of stuff that's taken on new meaning since the Curse broke."
"Maybe... I never really knew why Granny kept an old robe in her trunk when it looked as though it might be worth a bit of money, but whenever I asked her about it, she just dismissed it and told me to put it back. I don't think she knew the answer herself, but for some reason, neither of us ever felt like getting rid of it... Sometimes I'd put it on and mess around in front of the mirror."
Ruby admits, her cheeks now positively scarlet, but she is shameless by nature, and she merely meets Emma's brief smirk with her own.
"Cute."
The Sheriff teases and the brunette tosses her hair back with a coy flicker of her tongue.
"I'm glad you think so... The rest of the books in the trunk were mostly cookbooks and this old sewing bible full of parchment cutting guides. Mostly those were for different types of corsets and I guess I just thought maybe the apple didn't fall too far from the tree and that Granny was secretly quite scandalous back in her heyday... I know."
Ruby nods commiseratingly when Emma chokes on her beer in response to this last statement.
"This one was always my favourite, though. Well, this one and then there was this tiny little notebook documenting the phases of the moon. It was all kind of folksy and interesting."
She shrugs, and the blonde nods as she can see why, even with the frequent references to magic, the book in her hands wouldn't have aroused any suspicion. She's seen plenty like it in the new-age section of big brand bookshops. She'd even owned a couple in her early twenties before deciding that she was much too smart to go believing in hippie shit like magic.
"I wonder if they actually work."
She states as she looks back up at the waitress; the book lying open across her lap to display a hex for banishing penny-pinching pixies.
"I guess we'll soon find out."
Ruby grins, and when she catches the flicker of uncertainty that finds green eyes, she reminds the blonde firmly
"Emma, you promised!"
"I know, but..."
"Come on, we both agreed it would be fun to experiment with this stuff for Halloween! You said you were down for it!"
"I know I did, but I was thinking more along the lines of trying a Ouija board or summoning a spirit or something."
"Are you crazy?!"
"I just meant like movie stuff! This is all... I mean, what if it actually works?"
"Isn't that the point?"
"Ruby, I can't hex anyone, I'm the Sheriff... And my mom would kill me."
Emma tacks on awkwardly, and the waitress chuckles conspiringly as she reaches over and flicks through the pages of the book in the blonde's lap.
"Relax, princess. I'm not suggesting we try and hex anyone... Here. This is what I wanted to try."
She smirks, finding the page she wants, and she speaks up before Emma can argue; her tone syrupy sweet.
"Look, it says right there in the title that it's a charm. Charms are good magic, right?"
"I mean... I guess."
"They are! It's literally in the word!"
Ruby insists, and the blonde sighs as she considers the book in her lap before rolling her eyes and relenting.
"Fine."
"Yay!"
"I guess it's hard to go too far wrong with a love charm."