Tuesday August 1, 2062
Ruby kicked a wave thoughtfully, shoes dangling from the hand Cole wasn’t holding; she’d been almost-silent for the past several minutes, which meant she was preparing to add another line to the list of Not-SO-Tragic Things About the Island. “I didn’t think there’d be any beaches that weren’t overrun,” she commented neutrally, then scoffed without attitude and added, “Shows what tourists know I guess.”
It was a short list, but they’d only arrived that morning… and it was a small miracle that there was a list at all considering how reluctant she’d been to leave Japan. She’d woken up from the reset nap earlier feeling… different. Not exactly better, but not so sorry for herself. Sorry for Cole, but not that exactly either. Weird, but not entirely bad. She was moving forward again, it just wasn’t the pace she was accustomed to moving at. Absurd to feel slowed down when everything was objectively unfolding at a breakneck pace, but she did, like moving through waist deep water. But the whole point was trying to imagine living on the Isle of Wight with Cole, and starting their family there, and BEING a family there. That was more easily done when she wasn’t speeding along… normal, human rumination could be applied right now, and she was better at thinking about Cole when she was being human. …that was the part of her that loved him better than anyone else on the blue marble. The choosing part.
And she was choosing to try (VERY hard, actually) to not hate it here, for him. ‘Here’ only because it was the location currently on the table, but also ‘here’ in a more metaphorical sense- even if she lost the election (she was probably going to lose the election), she knew they’d be leaving London. Anywhere else required her to make some internal adjustments, and she was trying. For real, not like it was a joke; his happiness wasn’t a joke. Not sullenly or sarcastically either because she knew that wouldn’t improve her odds. She’d been mostly quiet, and he was, as always, Cole- he’d filled the silence just enough to keep her engaged without triggering stubbornness.
They’d passed other people walking along the rocky shoreline- an old man with three fishing poles propped up, lines dragging in the ebbing tide; a few shrieking teenagers guarding their paper sack of chips from gulls; a couple leaning into each other’s shoulders facing out towards the sunset Ike some kind of postcard. The universe was pulling out all the stops, truly- might as well have sent those ghosts from A Christmas Carol. This had been all day, the very obvious signs, but she hadn’t been pointing them out; she was the one who needed convincing, they were meant for her… and he had two eyes and a brain anyway. They weren’t on a movie set, it was still decidedly a shithole in a great many ways; but she was sort of forced to admit it was mostly fine. In some ways, maybe better than London: a lack of paparazzi was one of the early additions to the list.
Not a complete lack, but only because her being here was legitimate news… but then that was press. She supposed. Weird and welcome to have crossed that threshold, but she knew she wasn’t important enough for the other kind of coverage (photos for sale) to have ended in the name of decorum. Tabloids were just a very Muggle concept- hard to flock magical celebrities when they were only celebrities in a hidden underground society, and Secrecy’s effects were long- and far-reaching. It made more sense for vultures to circle cities where they were likely to catch a bonus in the background of a shot, who else would they be HERE for? Summering D-list Channel 4 actors? The odd multi-millionaire with bad taste and a long boat? Everyone like that was locked up in their gigantic houses, she didn’t even need a full day to ascertain that. Otherwise, it was middle-class tourists and a whole bunch of people who could barely afford to live where they were born.
It had been nice to walk around like normal people. Not that she got bombarded regularly at home… but the PRESENCE was constant even if it wasn’t necessarily a frightening or overwhelming experience, she rarely left the flat without her outfit of the day being posted somewhere. It didn’t bother HER, but she couldn’t even remember when it had become normal… and she liked the idea of their kids being more removed from it. Not everyone was like her or Will (where would EITHER of their careers be without all the external validation); she KNEW Hazel wouldn’t have needed to retreat so far into herself if she’d been left alone, and that wasn’t even the only way attention could be toxic. It was quiet here, but not so quiet that she wanted to come out of her skin… or at least not overwhelmingly so far. The expansive feeling still had bounds here, there were enough people to feel them.
…though not for a while, where WERE they? the tide was still low enough that she hadn’t noticed they’d ended up in a cove that would be isolated in… well, she didn’t know tide charts off the top of her head, she wasn’t her husband. Soon, probably. She switched her shoe- and hand-holding hands so she could spin to walk backwards and look at where they’d come from. The beach curved into the distance, awash in a warm pink glow, and Ruby got A Feeling. A return of intuition. Which was a relief, because she was not used to so much effort and it had turned out to be a sort of tiring day of doing not-much.
When she repeated the same move in reverse and turned back in the same direction as Cole, she was only a little surprised that the third thing her eyes landed on (bird, bird,-) was a weathered wooden realtor’s sign wedged between some rocks up the beach at the base of the cliffs. This was how things usually happened for her, that a ‘for sale’ sign had appeared out of nowhere wasn’t the surprising part, she just couldn’t immediately tell what the sign was FOR. She tugged him towards it anyway, and a stairway revealed itself on approach, cut into the rock face so that it was almost hidden from their earlier angle when she hadn’t been looking for it. Her eyes followed it up to a salt-bleached house that was obviously THEIR house, and she was glad her list had been too specific to be transferred to any other location anyway. “…are you going to make me wait for a scheduled showing or would a little breaking and entering be an acceptable honeymoon indulgence?” She could be patient if she had to be, but wards weren’t much to either of them (if there were any she couldn’t feel from here). What were the odds of getting caught? …when had she ever gotten into trouble she couldn’t talk herself out of, for that matter?
Ruby hadn't tugged him in any direction at all since coming to this island, which was a very unfamiliar way to be holding hands with her. But she hadn't really been her and he hadn't really been him so he hadn't been dwelling on it. Had kind of forgotten that he'd even noticed her lack of pull until it was suddenly back.
It was like being tugged back into himself through a litany of cliches. The fog lifted, clouds rolled away, and holy shit: he married his best friend a week ago and there she was casually asking to break the law while trying to BECOME a law maker. Barefoot and red hair more vibrant than the sunset. He shook his head and laughed. "No breaking! Not when we can enter without that part," he teased.
He maybe should have made her wait, probably would have in other circumstances, but how could he immediately douse her spark the moment it returned? Ruby without momentum was... sad wasn't right, but it was the first time she'd ever been that way and he didn't like it and knew she didn't either.
Ruby took the first stair backwards, dropping his hand to wrap her arms around his neck and leaning into him with nearly her full body weight. Her shoes hit the ground with two soft thuds then shuffled themselves neatly under a wooden bench to the side of the steps that seemed designed for that purpose. His ‘yes, but-‘ had filled her with more affection than she knew what to do with; she had no choice but to kiss him about it- what had she done BEFORE that was an option? She couldn’t really remember, and it hadn’t even been all that long. She broke the kiss gently with both hands on his shoulders, reclaiming her own center of gravity before tracing his jaw with her fingertips and pressing her lips there too. The sunset casted him in chiaroscuro- the thin red shell of his ear was almost glowing, but the rest of his face was darkened by the vibrant light behind him. She appreciated him quietly for a beat, smiling like she’d won a prize- hadn’t she? She’d been the only competitor, sure, but she was tough competition! She was the underdog in any fight against her own ego, it was a miracle she’d come out on top.
She ascended another step so she could look past him at the fiery sea, stretching her arms out so she could keep hold of his shoulders. …it WASN’T a private beach, they hadn’t passed any signs and theirs weren’t the only footprints on the beach. But the cliffs jutted out into the surf in a vaguely inhospitable way- it made her think immediately of Ada’s cottage. Charlie and Ada’s cottage, whatever, she’d internalized a matriarchy. Rather an odd place for a house in either case, if you weren’t in need of rather an odd house, way out at the end of everything. The scale was wrong in a distinctly Not By/For Muggles way… nature was too big in comparison to the structures, or something, she couldn’t exactly grasp it. Bash’s family’s repulsively enormous mansion hiding in the middle of London was… similar? Sort of? Just a different kind of hiding in plain sight, she supposed.
She didn’t think of herself as particularly cautious, it wouldn’t have occurred to her to prioritize security so… dramatically. But she wouldn’t be living alone, and not EVERYONE had a sixth, seventh, and eighth sense- maybe sea fortress WASN’T dramatic. Uncle Eoin was pretty adamant her mum hadn’t always been neurotic, MAYBE THAT WAS COMING FOR HER TOO because whatever was happening was something primal. She was still trying to cajole her fighting spirit even though things were feeling familiarly inevitable again: they HAD walked here from civilization so it wasn’t THAT far, and they’d have neighbors even if they couldn’t see them from HERE, and… it was easy to picture. Coming home to her family here. It was already so charming it was almost cheating, and they hadn’t even made it onto the property. Thick moss dotted with tiny white flowers had all but overtaken the stone staircase and the salt-bleached wooden railings were tangled with vines that seemed to be growing straight from the cliff face. The air was sweet and green and salty and the only human noise was their own breathing, which was swallowed up by the steady crashing of waves. And she was going to be fine, she thought. If she wanted to climb out of her skin, it was only because she always wanted to, a bit. She felt different, but not worse, and not more volatile in the ways she’d expected to.
“Good job, that was a test,” she teased with a grin, bringing her focus back to him after a second or two. It hadn’t been, but he HAD answered correctly even if she hadn’t been fishing- when had ‘no’ ever (EVER) worked on her? …but this would be a very high-stakes time to test her so far theoretical lock-picking prowess, she’d kind of forgotten that recent events had retired her from casual mid-stakes lawbreaking. She let her hands fall from his shoulders, but grabbed his right with hers when she spun back around to continue up the steps. Low-stakes lawbreaking was fine, even Cole thought so. It’d been so long since she’d seriously contemplated consequences that exercising a small amount of caution (even at someone else’s urging) was actually kind of exhilarating. Oh wait… was this what actual pride felt like? The making-good-choices kind of pride, not just the came-out-on-top kind. You didn’t really get that following a set course.
She laughed at the overkill that was this garden when she was already convinced, but she supposed the house predated her doubts about living on the island. …a much smaller, much sunnier island. Someone had clearly cared about the garden for a very long time, which clarified the origins of all the plant life spilling over the cliff side. It was overgrown, but delightfully so, a wild assortment of intentionally selected trees and shrubs and flowers. The pebbled pathway had been encroached upon from every side, including above, there wouldn’t have been room for them to walk side by side- they were practically in a living tunnel. The humming drone of insects closed around them, not overtaking the crashing waves, but softening the sound with the papery rustling of leaves and grasses in the breeze. There wouldn’t be a clear view of the house until they were right up on it, then- from here, on its level, it was even more obscured than it had been from the beach.
“I feel miniature,” she observed, laughing again. Like that movie Hazel loved with the tiny girl who lived in the floorboards. “Good magic,” she added, but that was obvious, she thought, even if he couldn’t see it. They came into a… was it a clearing, in a garden? No, right? A seating area, she supposed, because the gravel transitioned into rough stone pavers that might’ve been pulled right off the beach and hewn flat. Flat-ish. There was room for chairs around a charred but mostly empty fire pit, and the vegetation had been cut down along a low wall to give a wide view of the beach below. The path they’d walked in on split in four or five other directions off the little patio- “This would be a fun place to actually be small.” It was magical in the way non-magical people used that word too. “Okay,” she agreed, like he’d been the one who’d asked instead of the Universe. Not a begrudging ‘okay,’ a pleased one; didn’t she always get what was good for her eventually? She had a lot to track, it wasn’t her fault if she needed to be hit over the head with the point when it came to her personal life. This would be an easy place to be happy, and that was obvious now that she was here. Even taking her deep, lifelong love for London into account. This would be a simpler and more peaceful kind of happiness. ‘Okay’ was as close as she was going to get to admitting she’d been wrong.
Cole grinned back at her after her kiss, then barked a single laugh after 'good job, that was a test.' He was going to pinch her waist, but no, he wasn't fast enough- she'd spun away and grabbed his hand, back to pulling him along before he could choose any action of his own.
He took a deep breath as they came into the garden- mostly from the exertion of the stairs but he was glad he had, the air was different up here already. He laughed at her laughing, because what else was he supposed to do? She was still too far away to touch except to keep holding onto her hand. He kept grinning at her commentary and added an enthusiastic "Yes!" of his own after her 'good magic.'
He rolled his eyes and laughed at her 'Okay.' But she had stopped pulling him, maybe actually stopped, it was hard to know because he hadn't. He'd kept going until he caught up, close enough to wrap his free arm around her middle and pull her into his chest. "Oh, 'okay'? You haven't even seen the inside. We don't even know the asking price-" okay so no, he did know, and they were both trust fund babies after all, so no issues there- "-okay, you don't even know-" he clarified, laughing, as he stepped even closer and moved them inside as he did. "Probably this part matters less, you're right: there's nothing we couldn't remake to our specifications. But no breaking yet," he teasingly reminded.
She shrugged a shoulder dismissively- who cared about interiors or listing prices, those weren’t actually roadblocks. There was only so much magic could do about where you were when you opened the front door. Sure, views could be manufactured, but she’d been in houses with false windows and that was a little uncanny valley even for her. It just never felt quite right… artificial in the same way lightbulbs meant to mimic daytime sun felt. Location mattered most, and this was THE location. It wasn’t such a wide open space that she felt wild, but this was decidedly not an enclosure. She was immediately invigorated, and in a new-to-her way. This was the Just Right. She wanted to find out who she’d be with this kind of balance, and who Cole would be.
SHE knew they wouldn’t have even ended up on this part of the beach if the house was outside of their price range, she didn’t need to be able to supply the exact numbers… solid, fact-based knowing was for him. “I don’t know like you do,” she pointed out, turning in his arms to face him again once they were inside. The intuition that’d never led her astray was back, and she wasn’t being impulsive, she was following it. Not that there was necessarily a meaningful difference from an outside perspective- except that he knew things too! Everything, even! And he hadn’t told her no, which amounted to agreement. She didn’t think he’d have brought her inside at all if what he knew contradicted what she was feeling. He’d only been following her until then, actually doing the entering was definite co-signing.
“No breaking,” she agreed. To reassure Cole or the house she wasn’t sure. She had the sense it was already trying to be theirs and she didn’t want to seem ungrateful- it didn’t know them yet, but there were details that seemed a little too tailored to not be meant for them. Who else had a couch in the kitchen apart from her mum, like what were the odds that was already there? “I like it how it is,” she added. She HAD cheated a little once they were inside, but what was a metaphysical form for if not a quick snoop around. Just Right, the whole place. Bright and airy but not exactly open, just like the garden had felt. Full of nooks and crannies and places to explore on the upper levels- the right number of bedrooms tended to simply exist, in her experience, and the ones that already did were absurdly charming. It was hard to imagine fighting for the best one, they were all the best one for different reasons. And the view she’d imagined having from their bed was real after all.
“Do you think the mums would let us host Christmas?” she wondered, slipping her arms under his and wrapping them around him. There shouldn’t have been room, but there was on this main floor- or now there was, anyway. The kitchen island extended a few more feet in response, but the house had NOT met Briar and PJ, so she had more faith in Cole’s answer. She paused like something had just occurred to her, kissed his shoulder gently, and followed up with a second question before he could answer. “Am I giving you whiplash or are you alright?”
He kissed the top of her head. "You're giving me whiplash and it's all right." He grinned and hugged her. It was right all the way into his bones. She'd been giving him whiplash his whole life long. He was who he was because she was like this. He didn't like it from non-Ruby sources so maybe it seemed like it didn't like it at all. But that wasn't true, the feeling just wasn't right from anyone or anything else. Whiplash was fun when it was your best friend holding the whip and you loved them and then were in love and then sometimes took it away from her and tied her up with it. It was otherwise just uninteresting and no thanks he would rather be reading a book than jerked around for, what, just the sake of movement? No, he liked this kind of movement and none of its poor imitations.
"Hey!" he chastised the house, pointing at the offending island. "Christmas is months away; no changing things until we live here that's what 'no breaking' means!" but he laughed immediately after because SCOLDING A HOUSE?! He shook his head.
He brought his hand that had been pointing to the back of Ruby's head and guided her to look at him. "The mums will let us; they'll have to support their oldest children starting a new life in a new place all grown up and living down the street from neither of them." He kissed her. "I don't think we'll be allowed to do all or even most of the cooking, but they'll do it here. IN FOUR MONTHS we don't need an extra large kitchen for just us two!" He directed at the house when he saw the kitchen start to try to expand like an accordion, the whole thing, not just the island this time. But it closed back up like a kid snapping the cookie jar shut. Caught! He laughed again.
She squeezed him a little tighter when he kissed the top of her head. “Good,” she agreed; all right, just right, same difference. It was one thing to feel like they were on the same page and another to BE. But she could remember to check even if it didn’t come naturally, she just had- no prompting even! He seemed to be back, too; he WAS generally delighted by her, so she wasn’t looking for validation, just confirmation they were both done spinning out. For the moment at least.
“Hey!” she shot back, laughing and tugging his shirt sharply, “Don’t be discouraging while it’s calibrating!” She was mostly teasing, it wasn’t a machine… didn’t seem especially temperamental either, it’d just responded to each of them in kind. She hummed happily into his kiss and when he pulled away she was still looking at him; he was still holding her head, so she didn’t really have a choice. “Do you WANT to cook?” She tried to kiss him again, unsuccessfully because she was grinning too hard. It would probably never occur to her to fight a professional chef for the rights to prepare a meal. “Maybe practice your rack of lamb, we’ll probably have a baby to use as collateral by Easter.” ‘Four months’ had put the timeline back into perspective… it was closer to FIVE- if they got pregnant soon, people would KNOW by Christmas.
He threw his head back and laughed at her pointed question about cooking, dropping his hand from her head as he did. No, he didn't want to COMPETE with her mother: he wasn't a chef! Cooking was just part of hosting (generally! Not for Ruby; Ruby didn't really cook, but when had she ever really had to?) and he liked the 'doing for others' part of cooking. He was the cook in their relationship! But he liked homey things and was raised by a vegetarian so NO he wouldn't even be attempting a rack of lamb that was well beyond his skill level SHE KNEW HOW HIS FAMILY DID HOLIDAYS FFS.
"Your mum can keep the fancy holiday dinners: I'm not interested in hosting that kind of family event. I will, for you, for work dinners or as a birthday request... But not general family gatherings. So no: I don't want to cook like that. More like... Bunny rabbit pancakes here after the Easter Vigil," he grinned. "Your mum can still do special chef dinner Easter Day, then.
"Maybe we'll let them keep Christmas this year and negotiate for next year," he teased. "We'll have a New Year's Eve party; that's more your speed. It's too late to have a baby by Easter, anyway- unless you got pregnant before the wedding. Which would have to be a literal act of God, and we'd know already so: no. But a grandbaby at Christmas next year? They'd have to come here," he reasoned.
"Maybe we'll get lucky and be able to close before my birthday. Definitely before yours!" He was excited. He finally felt allowed to be. It had felt mean to be before. How could he be excited when Ruby was expecting misery? But she hadn't gotten misery- she was excited, too!
She loved making him laugh. Not ONLY for her ego, he just looked so pretty when he did. She’d always thought so, but now that he was HERS, she was allowed to just admire instead of teasing him for his freeze-framable poses. Not that she’d been pining for permission to ogle before she had it, the teasing had come VERY naturally. As a rule, she didn’t think much of men who thought they were special to look at… she KNEW they’d all seen women. Cole knew he was beautiful in the sense that he knew everything and had access to reflective surfaces/third party opinions… but he didn’t really lean into it. Not with her. The times she found him most attractive now always seemed to catch her off guard. It was mundane things, mostly, that struck her, things there was absolutely no way for him to replicate. Who could say why the 23,618th and 30,426th times struck her while the 28,639th didn’t- so much history had created TOO MANY VARIABLES.
Presently, she was finding herself very charmed to be looking up his nose while he laughed- the way their friendship had expanded with no awkwardness would probably remain amazing to her for a while yet. They hadn’t lost anything in the crossover… that was the sneak-attack allure of it; it turned out EVERYTHING HE’D EVER DONE WAS ATTRACTIVE. So now, when he did something like this, she thought of all the other times she’d made him tip his head back and laugh- it was NOT the same as finding him hot, which he was, and she did. Hot was fine, but it held her interest for ninety minutes max. ATTRACTION. Was different. She hadn’t really understood that because flings didn’t challenge her attention span. She’d never THOUGHT she’d been in love-love before Cole, but there wouldn’t even be room for the thought these days.
She laughed too at her family’s holidays being called fancy. “Festive holiday dinners,” she interrupted to correct him in a spot-on Briar tone. She grinned though and let him continue. He’d never even had to go to the actually fancy ones! Well, never even BEEN ABLE to go. Her family had plenty of bunny-pancake equivalents! …just not many food-related ones because a rack of lamb was a standard Wednesday in their house. OBVIOUSLY he’d think of the PJ Holiday Experience as being cozier and more low key. He was in his house! …and certainly in many ways it was more low key, but both of their mums sort of had permission to take the reins and run with their own style of holiday BECAUSE they always shared them. No tradition went by the wayside, they’d just been divided over the years. Like… she was CERTAIN her mum would have done gingerbread if his didn’t actively enjoy doing it. …Briar did NOT- she was intentionally NOT a baker, she hated being sticky. And she was happy to ASSIST, but she especially didn’t love wrangling thirty-thousand small children for such an activity; famously, they’d stopped at four kids because they ran out of eyes to keep on them- they knew their limits. Or knew their children. Ruby liked that she’d always had both kinds of parties, but if she HAD to choose… she’d always choose to overdo it. She was a product of her familial culture! And THEIR house was clearly on her side, it wanted to stretch!
She frowned a little when he said a New Year’s party would be more her speed, but she didn’t have time to figure out why it bothered her because she had to laugh at the very next thing he said. “That’s why you’re in charge of the calendar.” She didn’t know when Easter even was, let alone when she was ovulating. She left one arm wrapped around him, but brought her right hand to his chin to pull him in for a kiss. “Before your birthday, I feel lucky,” she quipped; things worked out for her when she was moving in the right direction. It was different than luck, but… in what meaningful way? “Can I put in an offer now?” she asked, releasing his chin and letting her hand fall to the center of his chest. Had she ever bought a beach house? No. But it seemed reasonable that realtors would operate during sunset hours when they were selling sunsets. And she could go make a call without even leaving.
He was barely able to return her kiss due to holding back a grin, and it bloomed across his face when she pulled away to quip about feeling lucky. What a difference from earlier! He laughed at her ask to put in an offer, rolled his eyes because OF COURSE she would. He hadn't so much as taken a single step instead but SURE. Hadn't he been thinking that the inside mattered less and hadn't the house ITSELF just proved it would change for them, even? ON A WHIM. He clasped his free hand over hers on his chest and nodded at the end of his eye roll. "Calling from inside the house is usually a move in horror movies," he teased.
But he was working while he was talking, he dropped his arm from around her waist, pulled his phone from his pocket and typed the phone number The Well of Knowledge had supplied as the one belonging to the seller's agent. He brought their joined hands to his lips and kissed her palm, then passed her the phone with his other hand. "Godspeed," he told her, then laughed.
He shook his head at the absurdity of it all, THE WHIPLASH, and then having suddenly found both hands free he put them immediately back on Ruby. Who, ugh, had on high waisted shorts belted with the shirt tucked in: there was NO easy way to get his hands under her clothes, which hmmm was probably his fault. He didn't think it was punishment, just a reaction to everything being closed for business, generally. ON THE LAST DAY OF THEIR HONEYMOON THOUGH?! He wanted to grumble because he didn't want to actually take her clothes off while trespassing, he just wanted to have his hands directly against the skin of her back, feeling warm and real like that first night when she came in through the window. He didn't grumble, though, because important phone call, he just slid his hands over her back anyway. She was still warm and real even through a layer of cotton.
She’d spent too much time with her brain off over the past week to be handed a phone that was already ringing. She barked out a laugh at his ‘godspeed;’ FUCK, she didn’t really have a plan for what to say. She could bullshit with the best of them but what did she know about real estate! She hadn’t really expected him to say yes- he was supposed to be the reasonable one, and waiting for morning was reasonable. So she’d expected an opportunity to LEARN THINGS WHILE ARGUING, as she did. HE already knew the asking price, and she knew he did but that didn’t help her now. Would this inspire her to be careful what she asked for in the future? No. …was she not getting her way? So, exactly.
A realtor would know what to do; luckily, her parents were friends with one, so she had a voice to borrow when the call connected. “Hello!” she trilled- wait, no, that was Mrs. Doubtfire- recalibrating tone back to the realm of reason. “I’m on-island,” did people say that? Irrelevant, she wasn’t from here, fictionally or actually. “-with a newlywed couple who are just in LOVE with the view from the cottage on….” Hm, so, pretending to be qualified didn’t mean she knew where they were, she’d looked at that sign for long enough to recognize it meant for-sale… she wasn’t CERTAIN she’d even read it. But she HAD taken a quick aerial view of the property while they were in the garden, so she tried to remember a mailbox or street sign, but there hadn’t been either. “…not a road?” she continued after half a beat, in her own voice oops.
She rolled her eyes at being corrected with a snippy ‘beach access cottage, yes’ and put the call on speaker so Cole could listen, sandwiching her arm between them when she leaned into him again. Maybe there was a reason the for sale sign had looked so weathered, the seller’s agent seemed like a twat. It was a beautiful house to THEM, but trying to make it sound fancy was an absurd stretch. Fancy MAGIC, but no one was ever talking about that quality and the fact was there was a gap on every side of the door frame and the floorboards were creaking even while they were standing still. It would right itself for THEM (maybe not exclusively them, any magical person might do), but it did look rather abandoned at the moment. If it was exclusively beach access, it was only because it PRE-DATED THE ROAD, and for MOST people that would be incredibly inconvenient. She thought it was silly to give it a formal name to make it sound like a feature you’d want to pay more for. But that was why she wasn’t in sales… it all felt this silly to her.
“I wasn’t contacted about a showing.” The other woman’s voice had a clipped quality that was overly crisp through the phone.
“They haven’t been impressed with anything I’ve brought them, and then of course I get a call from their sunset stroll saying they found their house and they’re ready to be done looking,” Ruby lied, sort of. True in reverse- she knew she wasn’t going to like anything else they looked at after seeing this.
There was a long pause before the tone abruptly shifted from put-upon to mildly curious. “View from the garden, not of,” the agent half-asked, stressing the prepositions. “How did they get up to the garden?”
…she hadn’t been about to admit they were calling from inside the house, but did this imply they maybe shouldn’t have gone up the stairs at all? Why wouldn’t there be another sign on the beach to warn about that! “The usual way?” All the way true, she’d known better than to try to apparate- it seemed disrespectful in the same way slipping through the wards at PJ’s would be. She’d still never tested those even though she figured marrying into the family probably gave her a new kind of permission. Beautiful work deserved admiration; she knew a well woven web when she saw one and she would be staying well back from it, thank you.
“The stairs let them up?”
Ruby raised an eyebrow at Cole to silently ask if he knew something she didn’t. It hadn’t felt like they’d needed to pass a test to go up to the garden. But then again… hadn’t the whole house almost shimmered into existence like a cartoon mirage?
“Because between you and me, that’s been a challenging property to show- no one has made it more than halfway up in months.”
Ruby grinned; she liked idea of living somewhere described as challenging by the person trying to pitch it. That probably meant it was actually hostile and full of terrors, which was probably perfect. She was sort of aware that she had a skewed sense of safety; the half-wall over a cliff didn’t even give her pause… but it was nice knowing the house had been deciding on its own to keep people out. If they were going to live away from proper civilization, she wanted ALL the benefits; they wouldn’t get any visitors they didn’t want here. She’d never actually encountered an unwanted visitor, so not for HER, but she liked the idea of their children being free to wander when they were old enough to be less supervised. A Nanny House was familiar territory, she would like it here… and that was a relief, she’d been prepared to simply tolerate the move. “Well I may have good news for you- they’re VERY motivated, would the seller accept a cash offer today for 10% below listing?” She shrugged at Cole… she would have asked first under different circumstances, but money was money, he’d agreed to the part she needed permission for.
“Ye- let me call you back in five minutes before I make promises, but the estate is being handled by a distant relative of the longtime owners. I think he’ll be glad to close the book on all of it, there are no emotional ties.”
Which would explain why it seemed sort of abandoned even though it was still partly furnished. That made her a little sad, but only a very little. They hadn’t just been let up the stairs, they were standing in a kitchen that kept trying to expand to fit people who weren’t even there. It would be cozy and lively again in no time, it had good bones. “Perfect- I’ll wait for your call.”
She made sure the ringer was on after she ended the call, then slipped the phone into Cole’s back pocket. She drummed on his chest excitedly once she had two free hands again- it was clear from the aggressive enthusiasm that she’d been holding onto it for a while. “DON’T tell my dad we bought a house before looking at it with human eyes.” She needed Elliott un-exasperated and on task; he couldn’t help his non-magical upbringing, but it did make him ANNOYINGLY PRACTICAL sometimes. “I don’t know why I invented a character,” she added, laughing, “Might have to fire her before signing.”
"'Don't tell your dad'- don't tell me!" he shot back, but laughed immediately after saying so. Because, ugh, he did like her whiplash. He would have never in a million years done something like this on his own. But WHEN had he ever been on his own?! He'd always been hers, even before he was in a romantic sense. He was reasonable in theory ONLY; in actuality he jumped off every cliff she thought was worth falling from. Cliffside house was right! The house was right and she was right about it.
He laughed again at her laughing about her improvised character and pulled her in for a squeeze. "I can't imagine you as a real estate agent, either," he teased against her temple. He thought that was probably why she'd done it; had to be an entirely different person to be in sales. "We should get a real one though-" he pecked her right where his lips were anyway, "-get Charlie on it: we've got five minutes." He'd pulled his hands back and one was at her collar pulling it away from her body, and his other had his phone back in it, but not for long- he dropped it down her blouse. Then he stepped back from her further to escape any potential physical reaction and unceremoniously collapsed back into the couch that he knew would move to catch him; sprawling with his head up on one arm of the couch and his bare feet not even reaching the other. "I'll wait."
“Well then pretend you don’t know.” Ruby flashed him a cheeky grin- he liked it and they both knew it. Cole loved her, even the parts that possibly needed some fine-tuning (she could admit there were one or two of those). This was probably the tallest bridge she’d ever asked him to jump off of, but she knew he would… because he always had. It was a responsibility she hadn’t always taken as seriously as she should have; she felt its full weight now, though. The decision might’ve been quick, but she was as sure as she ever was. She wrapped her arms around him automatically when he pulled her in, humming when he squeezed her like some kind of accordion of satisfaction.
“Hey-“ she whined in protest before he’d even done anything objectionable, just started to release her. It was nice to be squeezed that tight, he never let her forget where her body began and ended. No one else had ever quite understood the right way to be rough with her, not in ages anyway; people grew up and forgot how to play right. Cole did everything right. When he didn’t immediately pull away, she stopped complaining under the assumption she was being appeased, but. She was known! Appeasement lasted her about twenty seconds. They had five minutes. “What are you- hey!” She would’ve shoved him, but annoyingly, he’d known to anticipate that and had removed himself from shove’s reach before she could react to his phone being dropped down her top.
And then he was sprawled out, looking, as always, like he was posing for an editorial campaign. Like he lived here already. Like he owned the place. Attractive from every angle, as was his way, so it would’ve been rude not to admire him, obviously, which took priority over her revenge. “I love you so much,” she offered fondly when her eyes finally met his again. The morning had been… very rough. Everything was looking up now that she could imagine their future again, and this was a place they could be relaxed, and playful, and happy. She didn’t think it was just in her imagination: she felt more powerful here. Or maybe not exactly yet, but she felt the potential for it. “I like you here,” she added with the same soft affection, unconcerned about being misunderstood: she liked him anywhere, and all the ways he was, and he knew everything so he knew that, too. In the next instant, whiplash personified, she launched herself at him full-tilt, only landing gently because magic slowed down her momentum unbidden. Or maybe fully bidden by the one experiencing an aerial attack, who could say. Regardless, she kissed him, and soundly.
She pushed herself back a bit with her forearms on his chest so she could look at him. “D’you suppose we’d be bad parents before we even start if you knock me up during a quickie in an abandoned house?,” she asked, only half-joking. …one-quarter joking. There were, maybe, some unresolved feelings being projected, but she wanted to be taking this as serious as she was supposed to and historically, Cole was her barometer for acceptability. Owing, actually, to how ready he generally was to leap after her. When he wasn’t, on the rare occasion he wasn’t, it was because he was better at being human than she was; he’d known things she didn’t even before he knew literally everything.
A grin took over his whole face as she openly admired him. For so long he'd eschewed attention, but he'd always welcomed hers. This kind of attention was new to the romance era but that made him like it even more, not less. God WHAT was he going to do when their honeymoon was over (tomorrow!)? Miss her terribly. Have horrible withdrawal.
No,actually, not yet: she wasn't going anywhere and neither was he. The tone was about to shift but he'd be around for campaign strategizing. That would be a together thing: it already was.
Their eyes locked and his heart cinched at her 'I love you so much.' He knew, he Knew, but it was still so heady to hear, especially after the morning they'd had. He might have choked up at her 'I like you here' because he knew, too, that he'd been....a way she didn't like, earlier. For maybe the first time ever. It hadn't really been him, so they were moving past it well enough. It was just nice to be recognized. He was here, now, again. In the metaphorical sense: back to himself. And he knew being here, in the literal sense, it would be easy for him to be himself.
But he didn't cry or even almost cry, because in the next moment Ruby had launched herself at him and so he was laughing and pushing magic back at her to keep her from damaging any of his organs and then unable to laugh for the kissing. His hands moved automatically to her hips and he tried and failed for a second time to get them anywhere on her skin. FORT KNOX.
He tugged, though, even as she pushed herself back and stopped kissing, on her blouse up her back, attempting to liberate it from her belted shorts. How long was this shirt?! Several tugs in and it was not yet free. "I think my parents had to neglect a newborn to make Lucy; we're fine," he joked back. But he knew she wasn't really joking, so with a sharp tug that finally left passage for his hands to fit under her shirt he slid his hands up under it, onto her shoulder blades, and pulled her back down against him and answered more seriously. "I'd never marry anyone I'd suspect to be capable of being a bad parent, Rue," he said while he squeezed her and kissed her hair. "The only thing a quickie on this couch will make us bad at is keeping phone appointments," he teased, though it was true.
He shifted his left arm around to untuck the rest of her shirt and his phone dropped out from the side of her blouse, rolled off the couch and tumbled onto the floor with a clatter. Good- too far now to answer absentmindedly or casually- they'd have to retrieve it on purpose. "I can be quick but not 'four and a half minutes' quick. There's nobody else that wants this house. It's ours; they can wait for us to call back." It was their honeymoon! He was not going to say no!
He would have had the idea even if she hadn't, anyway, it was SO much like a redo of her couch in Paris the first day they were together....only, better. He fit this couch. His ankles weren't digging painfully into the opposite arm like they had on her tiny loveseat after she'd fallen on top of him. They were very comfortably on the cushions. He'd wanted to knock her up right then, lose his virginity and impregnate her in a single couch session. But she'd been clear: no Paris babies. So it hadn't happened after all. But she was asking him to, right now, in the home he was sure they'd raise their kids in. SO YES, OBVIOUSLY. "I love you so much."
“Alright, fair point- darling, why are you struggling so much, it’s a shirt!” she objected through giggles as Cole kept untucking like the hem of her top was some kind of magician’s scarf. Not her doing! Or not intentionally… she had been feeling a little prickly when she was getting dressed, so. But she wasn’t prickly now! So chop chop please and thank you!
She hummed contentedly once his hands were finally on her skin, nuzzling her face into the crook of his neck. She smiled at the reassurance, but only because he couldn’t see, then pressed a gentle kiss to his neck anyway because that was stupid, wasn’t it? To act like she didn’t need it? After the morning they’d had, THAT would not be believable. It wasn’t like she was actively worried about whether she’d be an alright parent… she didn’t slow down enough to worry.
But, obviously, there were certain aspects of her personality that were… not… very maternal, strictly speaking. And okay, yes, her ego was doing just fine, but she’d been inundated with public attention and public COMMENT her whole life- repeatedly seeing your reflection in the carnival mirror of a stranger’s opinion didn’t leave ZERO impression. No one else needed to know that! But Cole already Knew everything, and anyway, he wasn’t part of the else, he was her husband. Which was a very cute word the more she thought about it- she hadn’t expected to like using it as much as she did.
She sat up straddling him to pull her shirt over her head, tossing it in the direction Cole’s phone had clattered off in. Responsible! Everything in its place: one pile. She beamed down at him, blushing inexplicably- in the nice way that felt like the first sip of good wine. Diffuse warmth. It occurred to her that things would be different, after this. And she wanted all of it! Every bit was the best bit, and she knew she’d only be under the strange melancholy of change until the newness dulled. That was how it always happened. …just one more minute.
“That’s how much I love you,” she returned after a beat, then cupped his face in both hands and leaned down to kiss him. “Hey Cole?,” she added, pulling her face back just enough to be able to form words with her lips again. The effort was immediately undone by mirth- she laughed and dragged the tip of her nose up the bridge of his, then pressed an uncharacteristically gently kiss to his forehead. “I’m really excited for our life.” Now that she knew what it would look like. Now that they were here, at the start of the next part. “Why are we still wearing so many clothes?” she asked, tugging at his shirt impatiently. The minute was up, look alive!
He liked taking off her clothes with his hands, that's why! But she was right: it was ridiculous that he was struggling and he was still on board to be fast, so he'd switch to magic. Eventually! After she was done being gentle with him. He was not going to rush that part. He didn't need it all the time, but he did like it, and to get it from Ruby without even asking for it...fuck, maybe he wasn't going to be fast. No, he'd manage- he didn't especially want to significantly increase the time they spent trespassing or the time they kept the real estate agent waiting. Or the time until he made his wife come on his cock. Yeah, no, fast was good!
Possibly unavoidable- A BLUSH! While she was straddling him topless! He slid his hands down her back until they hooked into the waistband of her shorts and he tugged again, only this time with magical intent. Everything she was wearing disappeared from her body and reappeared onto the growing pile.
Only she kept being sweet to him! He was back to wondering how he was supposed to have a quick fuck with all this sentiment! He melted into the couch at her ministrations and couldn't help laughing and grinning along with her when she did. "I can't wait," he agreed breathlessly when she confessed to being excited. His Ruby! Excited to live by the sea instead of London! But he couldn't think on it too long because it was her turn to tug at his shirt ineffectually and so he laughed instead.
Laughed and disappeared his clothes, shifted his hands to hold Ruby better because he Knew the angle he'd need; his right hand in the curve of her spine and his left lifting her thigh. He rocked against her twice, coating himself with her wetness and then, rocked a third time at just the right angle to push into her. His right hand slid up her spine and into her hair to pull her back down into a kiss, and his left quickly moved to her clit with his thumb, pressing with firm strokes in time with his thrusts. He sighed into her mouth like being inside her was the final piece of himself coming back together. It probably was.