A Curse Upon Thee 16 (Patreon)

Artificial cherry and something that smelled just a little bit saltier fought for living space in the back of his nostrils, the alley behind Granny’s Diner putting up its own challenge with decades of fryer oil and burnt coffee.

They could war it out all they wanted, but Finn knew which one he was focused on as kisses ran up and down his neck, hands in his hair pulling him closer as he did the same.

Every early morning, afternoon — of course, most nights too — had been spent almost like this the last two weeks since a Valentine’s Night to remember, Ruby showing him exactly how much she loved her mobile little good luck charm. Finn met the same enthusiasm with plenty of his own, doing his absolute best to show Ruby exactly how many ways he could do what he had no previous memory of doing and how well he could do it.

Like right now, he had her pinned against the cold cinderblock, the grit of the wall snagging the material of his new red leather jacket. Hands roamed down from his hair and fisted in the fabric at his collarbones, pulling him down and in with that hungry animal intensity that always felt like it wanted to eat him whole. 

It was hot. It was messy. 

It was the only thing in this frozen ugly snow-globe terrarium town that felt like it actually had a pulse.

Speaking of pulse…

Finn’s right hand slid down the curve of her waist, fingers hooking the edge of that ridiculous, tiny red apron she had to wear and going und-.

“Ruby Lucas!”

The voice shattered the moment, worse than a baseball bat through a windshield as Finn flinched, full-body reacting a half-second before his brain did. His heart jumped in his veins, the taste of blood in his mouth as he pulled back from Ruby and bit down on his own tongue.

Wincing, his hands dropped from his girl’s waist as he took a quick step back, putting himself between Ruby and the other end of the alley. 

Oh.

Granny.

The old woman stood at the opposite end of the backstreet,  a grease-stained dish towel clutched tight in her fist like she was just waiting for the chance to strangle someone with it. Of course it’s her. Finn almost let out an easy breath, but he wasn’t relaxed enough for that. Should have known.

Really, he should have honestly. Granny was a special one…

Like very few people in this town were.

For one, her energy wasn’t Cursed, not like the evil politician running the town or the devil with the pawn shop he used to be a gofer for. Thing is, though, it was still as wild and feral as her granddaughter, and enough to put him on edge.

Hell, it was so much like Ruby’s that it was hard to tell them apart just from that.

“Gran—” Ruby blinked green eyes at her grandmother, cheeks flushed and chest heaving as she swiped the back of her hand across her cherry-smeared mouth.

“Don’t you dare ‘Gran’ me!” Granny Lucas marched forward, her old-lady shoes squeaking loud against damp asphalt. “Table four has been waiting ten minutes for their darn coffees, the grill is backing up, and people are waiting for their waitress to come take their orders!”

“Grann-”

“And where are you?” The old woman could not be slowed or stopped. “In the back alley playing tonsil hockey with the town delinquent!”

Ouch. Finn shoved his hands into his jean pockets, leaning forward with a little bit of a smile on his face. “I’m actually the new town deputy.”

Eyes narrowed behind a pair of classes, pure green aimed like lasers. “Shouldn’t you be solving crimes then?”

Finn shrugged, as loose and unbothered as he could be with an angry sixty-something standing not too far aways. “I’m on my break.”

“And I’m taking mine.” Ruby added her piece as her posture shifted, the confident girl from two seconds ago evaporating into a rebellious kid.

“You take a break when the lunch rush is over, not when you feel like sneaking off with the first stray dog that wanders out of the woods!”

Again, why am I getting hit here?

“I’m nineteen!” Ruby’s hands balled themselves into tight fists, almost shaking at her sides as her voice spiked off the narrow walls of the alleyway. “I’m an adult! You can’t… you can’t just dictate every second of my life! I’m suffocating in this place!”

“Then stop acting like you’re twelve!” Granny closed the distance in several furious stomps, the old woman jabbing the dish towel in Ruby's direction like a weapon. “You want to be treated like an adult? Act like one! For once in your life, do your damn job and behave like a proper young lady instead of parading around town in skirts barely big enough to be a belt, acting just like your m-”

“Don’t!” Ruby’s voice cracked on the way out, Finn blinking at the expression flickering past fast as he’d ever seen them on Ruby’s face; embarrassment, hurt, and anger all at once.

“You know what?” The tiny red apron came free with a single pull, cheap strings snapping off her chest with pathetic little pops. With a grunt, Ruby threw the thing on the floor between them, the red fabric already damp in seconds on the misty asphalt. “You can keep the damn job. Keep the diner. Keep all of it. I don’t care what you do with this or who you give it to me. But it’s not going to be me!”

Granny blinked, the angry red flush in her cheeks draining away as the already-old woman looked at least half again her age. “Ruby, don’t be foolish—”

“I. Quit.”

“Ruby!”/“Ruby?”

Ruby didn't look at Finn or her grandmother as she shouldered past them both, her soles hitting the floor hard and fast as she stormed into the back door of the diner, slamming it behind her so violently the frame rattled against the wall.

The silence that rushed in to fill the vacuum was thick and ringing.

Well, damn. Finn stood there, hands in his pockets, the crumpled red apron on the floor still on the floor looking sad. He wanted to go after her but… When Ruby’s in one of her moods, she needs her space. 

And this was definitely a mood.

A loud low breath hit his ears, blue eyes blinking as Granny stooped down with knees popping loudly and picked up the half-torn apron. She stared down at the cloth in her hands, her shoulders slumping and the prickly cloud of energy around her withering with them.

“So.” Finn cleared his throat as he drawled the word out. “Guess you’re taking applications for the breakfast shift.”

A pair of watery eyes turned their way to look at him, almost the same exact green he saw in Ruby’s face all the time glaring from behind those old-lady glasses. “You think you’re very clever, don’t you, Mr. Deputy?”

“I mean, I… I…” He shrugged again. “I have my moments.”

Granny closed her eyes and clutched the apron to her chest, her back to the wall behind her as she leaned up against it. After a few seconds of silence, some words slipped free. “She’s exactly like her mother.”

Finn frowned. Her mother? 

The world seemed to slow, his mind racing past a hundred different conversations — most of those in between interactions that didn’t involve many words at all — and so many days in Storybrooke as he tried to piece some things together. Wait… wait…

A few seconds went by, the alley as silent as it had been before, as Finn realized that in all the time they’d spent flirting, making out, and struggling to answer questions about his barely-there past, Ruby had never once talked about her past.

Hell, she’d never once even brought up the idea of parents, at least not her own. Why did she never mention that? It was like it had always just been her and Granny.

“A wild little thing, she was. Nothing like I was at that age.”

He blinked up as Granny kept talking to him or herself or maybe a friendly ghost in the alley with a listening ear. “I had to be responsible. Only girl in a house of seven men.”

Seven?

“Yes, seven.” Finn’s mouth fell open as he realized the word hadn’t been stuck in his mind like he thought, Granny fixing him with a look. “Six older brothers and my own father. I had things to handle. They did the man’s work. I did the woman’s work.

“But not my little girl, no.” Granny continued on, eyes dropping down to the dirty floor of the backstreet. “Reckless twig of a girl, could never sit still. Always looking for the next thrill, something to distract her from this life. Thinking that the world outside Storybrooke was just waiting to hand her something better.”

“Most people think that,” Finn added, voice quiet. “Usually ’cause the town they’re in sucks.”

Granny let out a chuckle, the sound as dry as the morning air wasn’t. “Anita thought so too. She ran off the second she was old enough. Only came back when she found herself a man she said was just as wild as she was, or so she said. Some random drifter on his way through town, with as much money as he had charm.” She looked up, her gaze locking onto Finn’s leather jacket, his messy red hair.

Clearly sizing him up.

Wait, what’s that look about? He wasn’t broke-broke, not anymore. But with the money from Gold and his first paycheck as a deputy, he was sitting on maybe two thousand dollars at most. I’ve got way more charm than money. Very unbalanced here. 

“And?” Finn prompted, pushing the old woman to get to the point as he could already see the shape of the story. The shape of it was clear enough to anyone paying attention, but he wanted to be sure all the same. Instinct and faded memory pinged in the back of his brain, a dozen dozen variations of a ghost of this same happening to close for comfort. 

“And,” Granny’s voice turned brittle, the gray-haired elder brushing the front of her apron as the sandpaper in her tone went even raspier. “He left her the moment she came back to town. Left a note and some money, disappearing into the wind before I ever even saw his face. My little Anita was angry and pregnant, but I could tell she was broken too. Something on the inside just snapped with that man gone. She… she didn't stick around long after Ruby was born.”

Oh.

Finn’s jaw tightened as he looked away.

Dead mom. Deadbeat dad. Raised by the rigid grandma.

Damn it, Ruby.

“I know I push her sometimes. But I do it… I do it because…” Granny’s voice came thick and heavy with a desperate kind of love, the kind that was too suffocating from comfort and usually came from old ladies. “Because if I don't hold her down, she’ll float away and tear herself to pieces. Just like Anita.”

Finn pushed off the cinderblock wall, the alleyway suddenly feeling far too small and the air in it feeling just as thin. Too thin for comfort; like he was breathing through a straw. “Holding people down usually just makes ’em want to bite you, Granny.”

The deputy didn't bother to wait for a response as the old woman looked up at him. He just turned and walked down the other end of the alley. My break’s over, anyway.

– o – o – o – o – o – o – o –

The Sheriff’s station smelled like cheap Pine-Sol and burnt coffee, the smell hitting him hard and fast the second Finn pushed his way through the heavy glass doors. He wore his new badge loud and proud on the front lapel of his jacket, only when he was on the clock though. Don’t need people thinking they can come up and bother me anytime.

Right now — about an hour after the big hand hit twelve — was one of those anytimes. 

According to the schedule, he was supposed to be doing something called  "administrative familiarization" today. Which was Emma’s way of blabbing some bureaucratic bullshit to him instead of just coming out and saying she wanted him where she could see him, probably so he wouldn’t pick another fight with those Blackwood guys.

Or have their security car towed.

Or give Momma Mayor a ticket for double-parking.

Like she wants to ruin all my fun.

He stepped into the main reception area, thoughts racing through his head of how to abuse his power for shits and or giggles, when those same thoughts — like his footsteps — froze to a complete halt at the sight in front of him.

Ruby Lucas was sitting behind the main dispatch desk.

She wasn't wearing the tiny skirt or the low-cut tops. No, his girl was wearing a surprisingly normal, if slightly too-tight — not that he was complaining — dark red sweater with a pair of black jeans that hugged her hips. Her dark hair was pulled back in a messy bun that spilled down the back of her head into something like a half-ponytail as she furiously typed something into the blocky computer monitor on the desk, her glossy red lips set in a hard line that screamed focus.

It was like walking into a dog kennel and finding a panther playing poker.

“What the fuck?” The words slipped out of his mouth before he could stop them, Ruby’s head snapping up immediately.

The defensive green-eyed glare melted embarrassment for a split-second as Ruby blushed bright enough to match her lipstick. It took a full second for his girl to bury that same look under a loud scoff of alaugh. “Excuse me, Deputy, I believe that’s inappropriate language for a municipal building.”

Emma walked out of the back office, carrying a stack of beige file folders, the woma looking exhausted with her blonde hair messy and the circles under her eyes deepening into permanent bruises.

“Hey, Finny.” Emma said, dropping the folders onto Ruby’s desk with a heavy thwap. “Meet our new executive assistant.”

Finn looked from Emma to Ruby, then back to Emma, even as his eyes struggled to leave Ruby’s. “You hired her? Here? As a secretary?”

“Executive assistant, actually.” Ruby made herself heard again, a single red finger held up.

“Secretary.” Finn didn’t even look back at her as he corrected her correction.

“I needed someone to answer the phones and manage the filing system.” Emma shrugged his way. “I’m the Sheriff. You’re my only Deputy, and your primary qualification is that you’re hard-bodied and fluent in snark. We’re paying you under the table, because as far as I know, you have no identity. Hell, I don’t even know if you finished high school.”

“Emma…” That was just offensive. “I speak three languages.”

The blond stared half-lidded at him. “And apart from English, none of them are useful. Not unless I want to arrest a leprechaun.”

Why does that feel racist? “That’s a little hurtful.”

“Your feelings aside…” A grunt slid out of his boss’s lips as she stretched her back, something popping loud enough to hear. “This office is going to need an actual adult to handle the paperwork.”

“And that’s Ruby?” He glanced back at his girl with an apologetic smile. “No offense, Bee.”

She shrugged, rolling her eyes back at him. “None taken.”

Finn whirled back to Emma. “And that’s Ruby?”

“Well, I did graduate high school and I can type seventy words a minute,” Ruby leaned back in the rolling chair as she proudly listed off her qualifications, as few as they were. “On top of that, I also know everybody in this town’s phone number by heart. Granny made me memorize the whole directory when I was twelve.”

Emma tilted her head over at Ruby, eyebrows raised. “Well, can you beat that?”

Finn stared at the two of them for a second before he let a sharp breath slip free, a laugh already bubbling up from the back of his throat. “No, no, I can’t.” He shook his head as he spoke the words, walking over to lean against the edge of the dispatch desk. “I really can’t.”

“Well, there you go.”

“Right,” Finn drawled, a little bit of an accent pulling at his vowels as he leaned his head back to stare up at the water stains on the ceiling, categorizing them like constellations. “So we got the runaway mom, the delinquent deputy, and the angry waitress running the police force of the weirdest little town in America.” Finn clicked his tongue as he tapped his knuckles against the fake wood of the desk. “Honestly… I give it a week before we accidentally burn this place to the ground.”

Emma rubbed her temples with a sigh, the twenty-eight year old looking almost seven years older as she glared back at him. “Just go put the coffee on, Finn.”

Ruby looked up at him with a grin, green eyes flashing with eagerness she didn’t have as a waitress. “And make it strong, Red. We got a lot of files to alphabetize.”

Yeah. Finn turned toward the breakroom, a lopsided smirk pulling at his mouth. We’re definitely gonna burn it down.

– o – o – o – o – o – o – o –

Learning Lore – 100 NP

Secret pasts of Storybrooke.

ROLL: Vehicles Galore (200 GP) [God Of War (2018)] {Control}:
Across the Nine Realms are a variety of vehicles from carts, to boats, and even flying boats! With this perk you will find that you have a rough idea as to how to pilot or drive any vehicle you come across. This wouldn’t allow you to pull off fancy tricks or emergency maneuvers, but it would allow you to figure out how to get things moving and how to stop at the very least. The more complicated the vehicle the more basic the information you will receive.

Grimoire Points: 200