fic snippets: untitled red queen fic (once upon a time) (2)

Jan 14, 2013 00:03

ruby/regina (background past emma/regina, will include various others)
pg-13, mostly canon only through 2x11, ~900
Long after the destruction, as they struggle through the recovery, there is (again) a mayor and a waitress.



She is still the best-known waitress in town, not-so-little Ruby with the not-so-blinding red lipstick and the deliriously tall heels, but she doesn’t remember the last time anyone tried to make a grab for any body part they weren’t supposed to. And now Snow’s hair is finally nearing its old length, Henry’s shattered leg has been healed for months, Archie has lost some of his terrible skittishness-

And no one knows that the reinstated mayor cannot help desperately muffled snickers when Ruby licks a trail across the crease of her hip in the darkest parts of the night.

The first sign of a problem comes from bright eyes gazing at her narrowly one morning across the diner.

Ruby thinks nothing of it as she heads over to the sheriff’s table and tops off her almost untouched coffee, only vaguely noting that Emma hasn’t even mixed her jam into her eggs the way she always does. And the utensils are still wrapped actually, and Emma has a curious expression on her face.

There’s a hint of ‘I’m watching you’ in her squint that leaves Ruby a little confused and more than a little amused.

“Something wrong with your breakfast?”

“Everything’s great.”

Emma’s voice is a little sharper than it should be, maybe a little high-pitched, even a little… crazed, almost.

Ruby says, “ah” even as she feels her lips curve into a smile, can feel her eyebrows lifting in amusement.

“Want me to grab you something else?”

A muscle in Emma’s cheek twitches, once and then twice, before: “No.”

Like Ruby’s just offered to run over her dog instead of bring her something else to eat.

“Right,” Ruby replies because she’s been in a pleasant mood for months now and Emma’s moods are as impossible to curtail as any of Regina’s have ever been, and Archie is peering at the coffee pot in her hand hopefully from his booth because he’s sometimes (always) too nervous to call for a refill.

Emma will call her over if she changes her mind.

There is a shop on the other side of town (run by the woman with the pet geese and the impressively ecological house that lives near the border) that sells too many specialty drinks and baked goods to count. Ruby’s always liked the woman (she’d actually taught Ruby everything she knows about making coffee that doesn’t suck) but Granny’s had a feud going with her since they’d wound up in Storybrooke decades before.

Granny doesn’t like to admit that there certainly is room enough in the town for the both of them.

So when Granny starts banging pots and pans around in the back during what counts as their breakfast rush, Ruby is pretty sure that it’s about the woman on the other side of town and knows better than to mention anything.

Until it goes on for a good half hour.

Then: “What's wrong?”

“She went to that woman,” Granny blurts, voice heated and a little crazed as she slams a frozen block of lasagna down on one of the open counters. “Got one of those fruity coffee things- supporting your local business, my rear-”

Ruby says, “Granny” and waits, half her focus on the clatter and chatter of the crowds just beyond the kitchen door.

“Our sheriff,” Granny huffs with the first hint of sanity since the banging had started, “walked right past us this morning holding on to one of that woman's take-out cups.” Mouth quirked in dislike, she glances up at Ruby with a level of fierceness unwarranted by the situation. “Graham never once went by that woman's place.”

Not true.

He'd just been good enough to not let Granny have any inkling.

“I'm sure it was a one-time thing, Granny.”

“So she hasn't been giving you the evil eye the last eleven times she's been in here?” Ruby straightens, frowns in confusion. “That last time wasn't the first time, Ruby. You do realize she's been looking at you like she wants to smash a coffee pot over your head for over a month, don't you?”

She starts to laugh, honestly uncomfortable for no reason she can understand, but it dies off within a few moments when Granny's face remains unchanged, as comforting as granite and so much more stubborn. “What are you talking about?”

“Hell if I know anything about what's going on in her head,” the elderly woman replies with an edge that was the entire reason Graham had kept his trips to the other side of town such a careful secret. “But she's moved from angry to petty in the last two days and we both know why she'd be focusing it on you and it's the last thing this town needs right now, so if you and-” Granny stops, considers, and it's new, how she chooses her words so carefully for Ruby's benefit.

“You don't have to-”

Granny glances at her, expression so knowing that Ruby goes abruptly quiet.

“I'd handle it now rather than later,” Granny says after a careful beat. “Our sheriff is too hot-headed for her own good on a good day and we both know those two set each other off like lighter fluid and kindling.” She can't help her grimace, the starkness of the near-destruction the two women had nearly rained down on each other. “For what it's worth...” There it is again, Granny considering each word so carefully. “I don't think she's the worst you could do.”

There's a warmth in Ruby's chest, something soft but strong growing as Granny manages a nervous but sincere smile.

Cora had caused more than just destruction when she had brought herself to Storybrooke.

ships: regina/ruby, fanfiction: once upon a time, ships: regina/emma, fic: snippet

Previous post Next post
Up