fic: let the right one in (ruby, once upon a time)
title: let the right one in
characters: ruby/oc, once upon a time
rating: t
summary: that one time ruby falls in love with the wrong man.
author notes: this is technically a work in progress. there is so much more that needs to be developed and explored, but it's three am and i can't keep my eyes open.
[ a. ]
It was always coldest after Snow left, an irony you could not come to appreciate. And while covered ditches provided a hiding spot from both rain and hunters, she couldn’t deny the insatiable craving of a warm bed. Or, at least, that would be her reasoning when Snow finally caught up with her. How else could she explain the predicament of trusting a complete stranger whom she had met under precarious circumstances.
“Keep to yourself and, no matter how rude, don’t stop for injured parties.” Snow had reminded you before she left once more.
It had been snowing and terrible and cold. Ruby’s red cloak did little to protect her from the snow seeping into her very skin. The very feel of it made her cringe and left her face contorted and ever so angry. Your mind was a mess with memories of Snow and sunshine. Why did Snow always choose the worst times to leave?
No, you must be strong and push your way through the storm.
It starts out with smoke in the distance. You know from memory that the smoke rises from a house and not just a campfire. Granny used to tend a fire every night to keep your shaking bones warm. It was the only time the two of you actually got along.
You make the trek over, your fingers frozen and your extremities shivering uncontrollably. Your brilliant white teeth are chattering and your hair is wrapped around your neck so tight that you’re afraid it make choke you. It takes you a good amount of time before you reach the clearing and can actually see the wooden house on the top of a hill. You find it precarious, but your frozen brain can no longer think of a reason to turn the opposite way.
Leave and you will freeze to death. Enter and you risk your life in several other ways.
You convince yourself that Snow would agree with your every frozen step. Yet part of your doubts are nestled in the confines of your heart.
Dragging your feet and allowing your red cape to drag in the snow, you find yourself at the front door. You can only vaguely remember actually making the steps that brought you there. But you are thankful for that; The absence of memory has allowed for your numb mind to focus on physical actions.
Knocking on the door is painful as your fingers are frozen to the bone. But he answers immediately, as if he had been waiting by the door for you. Grateful doesn’t even begin to describe the emotions you feel wash over as the door creaks open. And he’s handsome, too. Yet, you’re not sure if the cold has diluted your mind or if he’s actually attractive.
Or human, at this point.
Your body attempts to collapse on the floor, but he reaches out in time to break your fall. You’re grateful, at least, that he’s strong enough to hold you up. You can feel his breath on your pale skin before the lights finally go out.
[b.]
Ruby wakes with a start, thrusting the warm cloth off of her forehead. She’s frightened and her senses are on red alert. Breathing sharp and eyes flickering, Ruby causes her brain to awaken with a hammering pain. Clutching her head - and subsequently her side from the fall - she finally attempts to push back the covers cradling her and leave. It was nice enough of the man to take her in, she reasons, but she most certainly overstayed her welcome. It’s then that she notices her outfit has been stripped. The clothes she now wears resemble that of a milkmaid with little to no taste. Revolted, yet panicked, she begins to wish she had actual fangs.
But the wolf wouldn’t be able to help her anyway.
The man returns from the outside, his jacket so large it obscures his point of view. He shakes the hood and finally looks Ruby over, a soft smile creeping across his face. Ruby, suddenly ashamed and embarrassed, quickly slips back into the bed, her hands trembling once more.
“I’m not going to eat you, if that’s what you’re concerned about.” It wasn’t, but it does help to calm her nerves. His candid comment reminds her of Snow, and it is that fact that instantly allows her to let her guard down.
She would regret that in the coming days.
Watching his every movement, Ruby’s breath begins to even as her heart begins to slow. The warm cabin has allowed her skin and bones to move freely once more. Yet, she couldn’t decide if he expected some form of reciprocity.
“Thank you,” she mumbles, her vocal chords still tight. “For saving my life.”
“Ah, don’t thank me. Thank yourself; You made it here just in time.” He turns to smile before turning his back on her once more. Whatever he is doing in the corner of the house he doesn’t allow for Ruby to see. She finds that it worries her that even her own ears cannot pick up on the sound his hands make. Her nose cannot even pick up on the smell of rabbit.
Minutes that feel like hours pass before he finally looks at her again. This time, his hands are full. A bowl of soup rests in his palms, considerably hot from the pained look on his face. He walks it quickly over to Ruby, placing it on the bedside table before handing her a spoon. The man looks delighted and almost ecstatic at his accomplishment.
Ruby takes it that he doesn’t have guests very often. Nor does he cook very often.
“Zac.” He says plainly as Ruby takes the spoon from his cracked hand. She nods in reply, but doesn’t take the opportunity to introduce herself until he asks, “Not going to tell me your name?”
“Ruby.” She pauses to see if he’ll laugh or question her, because even she finds her name to be oddly ridiculous.
He doesn’t. In fact, he says nothing more, just smiles and finds his way back to the tiny kitchen in the corner. Ruby is left to her own devices, which involves gulping down the rabbit soup without so much as a thought to the temperature of it.
Hungry like the wolf, Granny used to say.
[ c. ]
Weeks go by and it seems the terrible snow will not stop. Ruby isn’t sure if it’s fate or just bad luck. Zac doesn’t seem to mind. In fact, he’s more than happy to have her stay and enjoys her company more than he lets on. Ruby begins to help out around the cabin - not that there is much to do. She takes to cooking and keeping the tiny room clean to the best of her abilities. It’s the least she can do to keep herself from going insane. Zac leaves for hours at a time. He often returns with firewood or some poor animal in his grasp. She doesn’t mind and, in fact, often finds herself with a smile permanently glued to her face.
But then one evening he comes back with something she did not expect.
At first she can’t tell exactly what it is, but she can smell the blood and the hatred. Zac dumps it on the floor, leaving Ruby to contemplate how she’ll clean the stains. But that thought vanishes from her mind as quickly as it appears. It’s not a deer Zac has laid on the floor. Rather, it’s a wolf. Ruby all but gracefully returns her breakfast to the floor. She’s appalled, yet she isn’t sure how she’ll explain her horror.
Zac’s eyes grow wide as an apology begins to form on his lips. But Ruby can’t take it and she bursts out of the cabin. Her head is throbbing and her heart is ripping at the seams; Her hands shake as she attempts to shake the vision from her mind. She cannot collect herself before Zac slips out the door. He wraps his arms around her and her red cloak and attempts to console her. Ruby knows he must be baffled by her reaction, but he doesn’t act as so.
“I’m sorry.” Ruby knows he isn’t apologizing for killing the animal, but for the shock of dropping it on the cabin floor.
She accepts it, graciously, and allows him to hold her in the snow until her hands stop shaking from the fear.
They don’t talk for days after. She’s too torn up about it and he’s too busy skinning the wolf around back. And Ruby is grateful that he keeps it outside, for her heart could not take another death. But he drags the smell with him when he comes around. She grins and bears it, for it wouldn’t bother a normal person’s sense of smell.
And he’s sweet to her in the silence. She sleeps in the bed while he finds a home on the floor. It isn’t until the night she can’t sleep that they actually talk. He tells her about the time he almost chopped his arm off with an axe; about the passing of his father and the abandoning mother that left them in the woods. There’s a story about a sister who left just as their mother had.
Ruby tells him about Granny, yet leaves out the part about the moon.
And then he asks a question that makes her wonder if he knows about the wolf inside.
“So you like wolves?” It’s harmless in its posing, but his smile leads her to believe there’s something more.
“Yeah. Granny used to tell me stories about wolves when I was little.” It’s more of a half-lie than a half-truth.
“Why wolves?” He sits up, propping his elbow on his knee to get a better view of her.
“I don’t know.” Ruby, instead of turning to look at him, turns over to stare at the ceiling. She wished then, more than ever, that she could see the stars above.
[ d. ]
Ruby wakes with a sudden fright. She shakes Zac awake, repeatedly asking him what day it is. Zac, half-asleep, grumbles some inaudible answer, mixed with the remark that it isn’t even light out.
“Yes, but what day is it.”
“What does it matter?”
“I have to meet Snow.”
“What is it with girls and odd names?” Ruby doesn’t offer a reply, but kicks him once more.
It’s urgent that she knows, for if it has been four weeks since she last saw Snow, then she must leave immediately. Snow would worry if she wasn’t there on time, and that was something she could not afford. Zac finally pulls himself together, his lack of shirt making Ruby blush. He notices, too, and stretches for his own amusement. She turns away, resisting the urge to bury her face in the pillow once more.
He finally checks the handmade calendar - although Ruby is unsure as to how exactly he knows what day it is - and counts audibly for her.
“You’ve been here three weeks exactly.” She breathes a sigh of relief at the statement. Her body gives way and she recedes back into the covers. Her whole world seems to be in place once more.
But her peace is disturbed when Zac falls into bed next to her. Ruby doesn’t move, simply murmurs some word of discontent. He rolls over and asks her to repeat herself, pretending that he didn’t hear her the first time.
“What on earth are you doing?”
“The floor is cold.”
“Not my problem. You gave up your bed when you took me in.”
He laughs, but Ruby knows he has no intention of actually getting up. It was her fault that he was up in the first place. And it’s not as if she minds.
[ e. ]
Three and a half weeks pass before their lips actually meet. It’s a thought that passes through Ruby’s mind every waking moment Zac is either around or gone. It’s the moments when he’s gone that she finds herself thinking about it the most. Questions about what his lips must taste like run circles through her tired mind.
Snow would be appalled with her current state of mind. But Ruby knows that even that thought isn’t true. Snow, the believer in true love and all things good, would see Ruby’s situation as destiny. Ruby, on the other hand, can’t seem to will her mind to think one way or the other.
Some decisions are better made on animal instinct.
Zac returns home before the sun sets for evening. His blood is the first thing Ruby notices.
“Zac! Are you okay?” She rushes over, her hands fluttering to find the wound. He looks surprised that she actually knew he was injured, but he pushes the thought to the back of his mind.
“Yeah, yeah. Fucking deer ran me through thorn bushes.” He laughs as if the gash in his side is but a mere scratch. The blood begins to seep through his darkly colored tunic and Ruby can feel herself panicking.
It’s then that her instincts kick in and she begins stripping Zac down. His shirt hits the floor with such force that Zac actually looks surprised. Ruby pays no mind as she begins to tear at the bottom of her brilliant emerald dress. She realizes, however, that the wound needs to be cleaned before it can be wrapped.
She finds herself thanking Snow for going against her own rules of leaving strangers by the side of the road.
Ruby grabs the nearest washcloth next to her and soaks it in the basin of water on the floor. She rushes back to Zac, her hands pressing the cloth to his skin. He winces at the pressure, but doesn’t fight her kind heart. Ruby somehow manages to keep her hands steady as she continues to apply pressure to his wound. She then slips a hand around his arm and pulls him to the bed, forcing him to sit as she finds a seat next to him.
Once the wound is clean, Ruby begins to wrap his side before realizing that the ripped shred of fabric would hardly cover half his torso. She glances up at him, Zac nods to the trunk on the edge of the bed. Quick as she can, Ruby opens the trunk and pulls out - what she assumes to be - a second set of bed sheets. She begins to fold them, as she walks back to Zac, and begins to press one end against his wound.
Around and around, Ruby wraps his entire torso until she runs out of fabric. She knows that it won’t do and that he needs to see an actual doctor. But, for now, she knows that he, at least, won’t pass during the night. It’s a relief so overwhelming that she eagerly welcomes his hands against her jaw. For a moment, she forgets that he must be in pain and wraps her arms around his sides. Yet, he doesn’t wince. Regardless of whatever pain he must be in, Zac’s expression doesn’t change. And neither does Ruby’s, as he lifts her chin up to meet his.
When they do kiss, it’s clumsy and nervous and pure. Ruby’s mind flutters to the last man she kissed; The man who died by her hands, because she was foolish to count herself out. But as Zac pulls her in, she thinks nothing of the man before him.
characters: ruby/oc, once upon a time
rating: t
summary: that one time ruby falls in love with the wrong man.
author notes: this is technically a work in progress. there is so much more that needs to be developed and explored, but it's three am and i can't keep my eyes open.
[ a. ]
It was always coldest after Snow left, an irony you could not come to appreciate. And while covered ditches provided a hiding spot from both rain and hunters, she couldn’t deny the insatiable craving of a warm bed. Or, at least, that would be her reasoning when Snow finally caught up with her. How else could she explain the predicament of trusting a complete stranger whom she had met under precarious circumstances.
“Keep to yourself and, no matter how rude, don’t stop for injured parties.” Snow had reminded you before she left once more.
It had been snowing and terrible and cold. Ruby’s red cloak did little to protect her from the snow seeping into her very skin. The very feel of it made her cringe and left her face contorted and ever so angry. Your mind was a mess with memories of Snow and sunshine. Why did Snow always choose the worst times to leave?
No, you must be strong and push your way through the storm.
It starts out with smoke in the distance. You know from memory that the smoke rises from a house and not just a campfire. Granny used to tend a fire every night to keep your shaking bones warm. It was the only time the two of you actually got along.
You make the trek over, your fingers frozen and your extremities shivering uncontrollably. Your brilliant white teeth are chattering and your hair is wrapped around your neck so tight that you’re afraid it make choke you. It takes you a good amount of time before you reach the clearing and can actually see the wooden house on the top of a hill. You find it precarious, but your frozen brain can no longer think of a reason to turn the opposite way.
Leave and you will freeze to death. Enter and you risk your life in several other ways.
You convince yourself that Snow would agree with your every frozen step. Yet part of your doubts are nestled in the confines of your heart.
Dragging your feet and allowing your red cape to drag in the snow, you find yourself at the front door. You can only vaguely remember actually making the steps that brought you there. But you are thankful for that; The absence of memory has allowed for your numb mind to focus on physical actions.
Knocking on the door is painful as your fingers are frozen to the bone. But he answers immediately, as if he had been waiting by the door for you. Grateful doesn’t even begin to describe the emotions you feel wash over as the door creaks open. And he’s handsome, too. Yet, you’re not sure if the cold has diluted your mind or if he’s actually attractive.
Or human, at this point.
Your body attempts to collapse on the floor, but he reaches out in time to break your fall. You’re grateful, at least, that he’s strong enough to hold you up. You can feel his breath on your pale skin before the lights finally go out.
[b.]
Ruby wakes with a start, thrusting the warm cloth off of her forehead. She’s frightened and her senses are on red alert. Breathing sharp and eyes flickering, Ruby causes her brain to awaken with a hammering pain. Clutching her head - and subsequently her side from the fall - she finally attempts to push back the covers cradling her and leave. It was nice enough of the man to take her in, she reasons, but she most certainly overstayed her welcome. It’s then that she notices her outfit has been stripped. The clothes she now wears resemble that of a milkmaid with little to no taste. Revolted, yet panicked, she begins to wish she had actual fangs.
But the wolf wouldn’t be able to help her anyway.
The man returns from the outside, his jacket so large it obscures his point of view. He shakes the hood and finally looks Ruby over, a soft smile creeping across his face. Ruby, suddenly ashamed and embarrassed, quickly slips back into the bed, her hands trembling once more.
“I’m not going to eat you, if that’s what you’re concerned about.” It wasn’t, but it does help to calm her nerves. His candid comment reminds her of Snow, and it is that fact that instantly allows her to let her guard down.
She would regret that in the coming days.
Watching his every movement, Ruby’s breath begins to even as her heart begins to slow. The warm cabin has allowed her skin and bones to move freely once more. Yet, she couldn’t decide if he expected some form of reciprocity.
“Thank you,” she mumbles, her vocal chords still tight. “For saving my life.”
“Ah, don’t thank me. Thank yourself; You made it here just in time.” He turns to smile before turning his back on her once more. Whatever he is doing in the corner of the house he doesn’t allow for Ruby to see. She finds that it worries her that even her own ears cannot pick up on the sound his hands make. Her nose cannot even pick up on the smell of rabbit.
Minutes that feel like hours pass before he finally looks at her again. This time, his hands are full. A bowl of soup rests in his palms, considerably hot from the pained look on his face. He walks it quickly over to Ruby, placing it on the bedside table before handing her a spoon. The man looks delighted and almost ecstatic at his accomplishment.
Ruby takes it that he doesn’t have guests very often. Nor does he cook very often.
“Zac.” He says plainly as Ruby takes the spoon from his cracked hand. She nods in reply, but doesn’t take the opportunity to introduce herself until he asks, “Not going to tell me your name?”
“Ruby.” She pauses to see if he’ll laugh or question her, because even she finds her name to be oddly ridiculous.
He doesn’t. In fact, he says nothing more, just smiles and finds his way back to the tiny kitchen in the corner. Ruby is left to her own devices, which involves gulping down the rabbit soup without so much as a thought to the temperature of it.
Hungry like the wolf, Granny used to say.
[ c. ]
Weeks go by and it seems the terrible snow will not stop. Ruby isn’t sure if it’s fate or just bad luck. Zac doesn’t seem to mind. In fact, he’s more than happy to have her stay and enjoys her company more than he lets on. Ruby begins to help out around the cabin - not that there is much to do. She takes to cooking and keeping the tiny room clean to the best of her abilities. It’s the least she can do to keep herself from going insane. Zac leaves for hours at a time. He often returns with firewood or some poor animal in his grasp. She doesn’t mind and, in fact, often finds herself with a smile permanently glued to her face.
But then one evening he comes back with something she did not expect.
At first she can’t tell exactly what it is, but she can smell the blood and the hatred. Zac dumps it on the floor, leaving Ruby to contemplate how she’ll clean the stains. But that thought vanishes from her mind as quickly as it appears. It’s not a deer Zac has laid on the floor. Rather, it’s a wolf. Ruby all but gracefully returns her breakfast to the floor. She’s appalled, yet she isn’t sure how she’ll explain her horror.
Zac’s eyes grow wide as an apology begins to form on his lips. But Ruby can’t take it and she bursts out of the cabin. Her head is throbbing and her heart is ripping at the seams; Her hands shake as she attempts to shake the vision from her mind. She cannot collect herself before Zac slips out the door. He wraps his arms around her and her red cloak and attempts to console her. Ruby knows he must be baffled by her reaction, but he doesn’t act as so.
“I’m sorry.” Ruby knows he isn’t apologizing for killing the animal, but for the shock of dropping it on the cabin floor.
She accepts it, graciously, and allows him to hold her in the snow until her hands stop shaking from the fear.
They don’t talk for days after. She’s too torn up about it and he’s too busy skinning the wolf around back. And Ruby is grateful that he keeps it outside, for her heart could not take another death. But he drags the smell with him when he comes around. She grins and bears it, for it wouldn’t bother a normal person’s sense of smell.
And he’s sweet to her in the silence. She sleeps in the bed while he finds a home on the floor. It isn’t until the night she can’t sleep that they actually talk. He tells her about the time he almost chopped his arm off with an axe; about the passing of his father and the abandoning mother that left them in the woods. There’s a story about a sister who left just as their mother had.
Ruby tells him about Granny, yet leaves out the part about the moon.
And then he asks a question that makes her wonder if he knows about the wolf inside.
“So you like wolves?” It’s harmless in its posing, but his smile leads her to believe there’s something more.
“Yeah. Granny used to tell me stories about wolves when I was little.” It’s more of a half-lie than a half-truth.
“Why wolves?” He sits up, propping his elbow on his knee to get a better view of her.
“I don’t know.” Ruby, instead of turning to look at him, turns over to stare at the ceiling. She wished then, more than ever, that she could see the stars above.
[ d. ]
Ruby wakes with a sudden fright. She shakes Zac awake, repeatedly asking him what day it is. Zac, half-asleep, grumbles some inaudible answer, mixed with the remark that it isn’t even light out.
“Yes, but what day is it.”
“What does it matter?”
“I have to meet Snow.”
“What is it with girls and odd names?” Ruby doesn’t offer a reply, but kicks him once more.
It’s urgent that she knows, for if it has been four weeks since she last saw Snow, then she must leave immediately. Snow would worry if she wasn’t there on time, and that was something she could not afford. Zac finally pulls himself together, his lack of shirt making Ruby blush. He notices, too, and stretches for his own amusement. She turns away, resisting the urge to bury her face in the pillow once more.
He finally checks the handmade calendar - although Ruby is unsure as to how exactly he knows what day it is - and counts audibly for her.
“You’ve been here three weeks exactly.” She breathes a sigh of relief at the statement. Her body gives way and she recedes back into the covers. Her whole world seems to be in place once more.
But her peace is disturbed when Zac falls into bed next to her. Ruby doesn’t move, simply murmurs some word of discontent. He rolls over and asks her to repeat herself, pretending that he didn’t hear her the first time.
“What on earth are you doing?”
“The floor is cold.”
“Not my problem. You gave up your bed when you took me in.”
He laughs, but Ruby knows he has no intention of actually getting up. It was her fault that he was up in the first place. And it’s not as if she minds.
[ e. ]
Three and a half weeks pass before their lips actually meet. It’s a thought that passes through Ruby’s mind every waking moment Zac is either around or gone. It’s the moments when he’s gone that she finds herself thinking about it the most. Questions about what his lips must taste like run circles through her tired mind.
Snow would be appalled with her current state of mind. But Ruby knows that even that thought isn’t true. Snow, the believer in true love and all things good, would see Ruby’s situation as destiny. Ruby, on the other hand, can’t seem to will her mind to think one way or the other.
Some decisions are better made on animal instinct.
Zac returns home before the sun sets for evening. His blood is the first thing Ruby notices.
“Zac! Are you okay?” She rushes over, her hands fluttering to find the wound. He looks surprised that she actually knew he was injured, but he pushes the thought to the back of his mind.
“Yeah, yeah. Fucking deer ran me through thorn bushes.” He laughs as if the gash in his side is but a mere scratch. The blood begins to seep through his darkly colored tunic and Ruby can feel herself panicking.
It’s then that her instincts kick in and she begins stripping Zac down. His shirt hits the floor with such force that Zac actually looks surprised. Ruby pays no mind as she begins to tear at the bottom of her brilliant emerald dress. She realizes, however, that the wound needs to be cleaned before it can be wrapped.
She finds herself thanking Snow for going against her own rules of leaving strangers by the side of the road.
Ruby grabs the nearest washcloth next to her and soaks it in the basin of water on the floor. She rushes back to Zac, her hands pressing the cloth to his skin. He winces at the pressure, but doesn’t fight her kind heart. Ruby somehow manages to keep her hands steady as she continues to apply pressure to his wound. She then slips a hand around his arm and pulls him to the bed, forcing him to sit as she finds a seat next to him.
Once the wound is clean, Ruby begins to wrap his side before realizing that the ripped shred of fabric would hardly cover half his torso. She glances up at him, Zac nods to the trunk on the edge of the bed. Quick as she can, Ruby opens the trunk and pulls out - what she assumes to be - a second set of bed sheets. She begins to fold them, as she walks back to Zac, and begins to press one end against his wound.
Around and around, Ruby wraps his entire torso until she runs out of fabric. She knows that it won’t do and that he needs to see an actual doctor. But, for now, she knows that he, at least, won’t pass during the night. It’s a relief so overwhelming that she eagerly welcomes his hands against her jaw. For a moment, she forgets that he must be in pain and wraps her arms around his sides. Yet, he doesn’t wince. Regardless of whatever pain he must be in, Zac’s expression doesn’t change. And neither does Ruby’s, as he lifts her chin up to meet his.
When they do kiss, it’s clumsy and nervous and pure. Ruby’s mind flutters to the last man she kissed; The man who died by her hands, because she was foolish to count herself out. But as Zac pulls her in, she thinks nothing of the man before him.