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Mari Ohara scrunched her face up as she looked down at her watch (an ornate gold pocket watch, to be specific, that fit with the rest of her regal outfit). “You’re late, Ruby-chan,” she murmured under her breath. Which was actually a bit of a cause for concern, seeing as how Ruby wasn’t usually the sort to be late for anything. A moment later, though, she got her answer, as two small hands slipped over her eyes from behind, and a familiar voice chimed up in her ear.
“Boo!”
“AHH!” Mari cried out in response, completely exaggerating her reaction as she jumped a solid foot into the air. As she pulled away from Ruby she clutched at her breast with one hand, pressing her other to her forehead and tossing her head back. “Goodness, Ruby-chan, you’ve scared me half to death! You’re lucky I didn’t faint on the spot!”
“But it’s Halloween,” Ruby giggled back, clearly quite proud of actually getting the better of Mari for once (even if the older girl was still playing up her responses considerably). “You should expect something like that!” The smaller of the two girls was, for this special occasion, dressed as a pirate herself, donning a ruffled dress complete with an eye patch and stereotypical hat. As she took a small step back she looked over Mari’s costume, tilting her head a bit curiously. “Are you… A queen?” she asked.
“Ah, not just any queen!” Mari replied, brandishing her royal scepter and tapping Ruby on the shoulders with it. “The Queen of Hearts! Have you ever read Alice In Wonderland, Ruby-chan?”
“Nuh-uh,” Ruby replied, shaking her head.
“Well the Queen of Hearts is the cruel, twisted, stuck-up ruler of all of Wonderland! Very evil! ” Mari exclaimed.
“But you’re not evil, Mari-chan,” Ruby teased. “And you’re just a little stuck-up!”
“ Gasp! ” Mari gasped, clutching at her chest once again. “Your words have slain me, Ruby-chan! I’m dead! ” Ruby just rolled her eyes in response to all of that, skipping past Mari and reaching out to grab the other girl’s hand while she went.
“C’mooon!” she urged. “If we don’t hurry up we’ll miss everything!”
“Aww, you’re like my own little white rabbit!” Mari commented, letting Ruby drag her along. “Ruby-chan’s late! She’s late! For a very important date!” Ruby didn’t get the reference.
As Ruby and Mari approached the central street of Numazu, they could already see the stalls and decorations lining the area. There were crowds of people gathered around, the orange glow of candles and carved pumpkins standing out rather clearly against the dark atmosphere of the early evening. A good number of the people down below seemed to be in costume as well, which only served to make Ruby even more excited.
“Mmm, can you smell that?” Mari asked, lifting her nose to the air. “So many kinds of sweets! I hope you’re ready to get a bellyache, Ruby-chan.”
“I’m ready!” Ruby agreed, starting to walk a bit faster down the hill, while still tugging at Mari’s hand. “Let’s go!” Mari simply laughed as she got dragged along behind Ruby, and the two girls quickly found themselves at the beginning of the long row of stalls that stretched down to the far end of the street. Most of them were serving up foods and sweets of one variety or another, although a handful also offered up games and activities. It was the sweets that seemed to have captured Ruby’s attention first, though, and before Mari even had the chance to say anything else the redhead was staring intently at a large display of caramel apples, face inadvertently twisting into that same determined expression she made whenever she was especially focused on something.
“Hmm? Do you want one, bella?” Mari asked, scooting up beside Ruby while barely managing to bite back a comment about how cute she looked when she was focused on something like that.
“Well…” Ruby said, before glancing over at the price markers and shaking her head. “No. I’m okay.” Suddenly she felt an arm around her shoulders, though, and with a startled squeak she was being pulled in closer to Mari, tugged right up against her.
“Hey now, don’t be shy!” Mari replied. “I already told you, I’m paying for everything tonight!”
“Yeah, but-”
“No buts!” Mari insisted, before locking eyes with the person working the stand and holding up a single finger. “One apple for my lovely lady here!” she declared, causing Ruby’s cheeks to flush bright pink.
“You didn’t have to do that, Mari-chan…” she whined.
“Oh, but I did!” Mari insisted, pulling a bit of cash out of her purse and exchanging it for an apple, which she then held out to Ruby. “What sort of date would this be if I didn’t offer to pay for you?”
“But then I should be paying for you too!” Ruby insisted, reluctantly reaching out to take the apple from Mari.
“Hmm, alright,” Mari agreed, nodding thoughtfully. “Then the next time we go out together, I’ll let you pay for everything! Deal?”
“Deal,” Ruby agreed, putting her stern, serious face on once again. And just like before, it took everything Mari had not to burst out laughing at how adorable it was.
It didn’t take Ruby long to realize that when Mari had said she was paying for “everything,” she really did mean everything . Any time Ruby so much as glanced at something from one of the stalls Mari would insist on buying it for her, despite Ruby’s own protests that it really wasn’t necessary. By this point, she was starting to feel like she had eaten her own body weight in sweets. And yet, every time she saw something new, she managed to make just a little bit more room inside her stomach.
“Are you having a fun night, Ruby-chan?” Mari hummed. When she didn’t get an immediate response, though, she looked over to find that Ruby’s attention had once again been caught by one of the stalls. As she followed the other girl’s bright green gaze she found donuts hanging from strings, a sight that seemed to perplex Ruby greatly.
“What’s the point of that?” Ruby asked, pointing a finger towards the stall.
“Oh? You’ve never seen this before?” Mari replied, tugging Ruby over towards the display. “It’s a game! You have to eat the donut off the string without using your hands,” she explained. “Wanna try?” Ruby puffed her cheeks up in response to that, thinking for a moment before speaking up cautiously.
“Promise you won’t laugh if I look silly?”
“Promise!” Mari replied. “I won’t even laugh if you look super extra cute! ”
“Alright,” Ruby agreed. Mari fished more change out of her purse, trading it for one of the donuts and dangling it out in front of Ruby.
“Now remember, no using your hands!” she insisted. “And try not to let it fall off either!”
“Right,” Ruby replied, giving a determined nod. She stared at the donut in front of her for a few seconds, as if formulating a plan of attack, before leaning forward to try to snatch her first bite. Before she was actually able to do so, however, the donut swung away, and was replaced by Mari herself. Instead of finding sugary deep-fried pastry, Ruby’s mouth instead found Mari’s own, lips pressing up against each other as the older girl stole away a kiss. Ruby froze in place for a moment when she realized what had just happened, before jumping backwards, burying a very quickly reddening face down into her hands. “Mari-chaaan!” she whined, causing Mari to break her promise and burst out with delighted laughter.
“Consider that payback for trying to scare me earlier,” she giggled. “I guess you could say we’re even now.”
“That’s not the same thing!” Ruby protested.
“Aww, don’t be upset,” Mari replied, stepping back and dangling the donut out in front of Ruby once more. “ Go ahead, try again. I’ll let you do it for real this time! Pinky promise! ”
“No,” Ruby huffed, spinning on her heels and turning her back to Mari. “I don’t wanna anymore.” Mari pouted in response to that, stepping closer as she came up behind Ruby, eventually dangling the donut down in front of her face over the top of her head.
“But it doesn’t it look good?” she asked. “So sweet and sugary? Delicious! ”
“I don’t care,” Ruby insisted, crossing her arms, and turning her nose up at the dangling treat. “I don’t want it.”
“Not even sugar is enough to make my little Ruby-chan forgive me?” Mari gasped. “She must truly hate me then! I’m wounded!”
“Mari-chan…” Ruby grumbled, only to be interrupted by the sound of a rather loud thud. She looked back over her shoulder to find that Mari had collapsed to her knees in the street, still in the middle of her usual dramatics.
“Woe is me, woe is me,” she cried out. “My heart has been broken! Shattered into a million tiny pieces. I’m overcome with grief!”
“Mari-chan!” Ruby protested, a bit more loudly now. It still wasn’t enough to snap Mari out of her routine, though.
“Oh, if only there was some way to mend my broken heart,” Mari sighed. “If only my precious Ruby-chan still loved me.”
“Hnnnn, fine!” Ruby huffed, balling her fists up. “I love you!”
“You do??” Mari blurted out, feigning shock as she suddenly jumped back to her feet, tossing her arms around the smaller girl and pulling her into a tight hug. “Oh, how wonderful! I love you too, Ruby-chan!”
“I know,” Ruby grumbled, shrinking in on herself as her face gradually approached a shade of red that matched her hair.
“Hmm? What’s the matter?” Mari asked, dangling the donut in front of Ruby once again. “If I didn’t know any better I’d think you’re embarrassed to be seen with me!”
“I am.” As Ruby spoke she started to trying to walk forward again, although she found herself somewhat hindered by the fact that Mari was still clinging onto her, and she ultimately had to drag her girlfriend along with each step that she took.
“Even after everything I’ve done for you? Even after all the sweets I bought you?”
“I told you not to,” Ruby pointed out.
“And I did it anyway!” Mari replied. “Because it’s my job to spoil my very special little lady. I wouldn’t be a very good girlfriend if I didn’t do that, now would I?”
“You don’t have to buy me lots of stuff to be a good girlfriend.”
“Hmm, I know!” Mari giggled. “But I want to! So are you going to eat the donut I bought you? Or is it going to go to waste? Tragic! ”
“...Fine,” Ruby huffed, reaching up to snatch the donut away from Mari. “I’m using my hands though.”
“Alright,” Mari giggled back. “I think that’s a fair tradeoff. Now,” she hummed, eyes starting to scan the surrounding stalls once again. “What can I spoil my little bella with next?”
It took longer than either of the girls would have expected for Ruby to reach the point of regret, but she got there eventually. As the fair was starting to wrap up and stalls were beginning to close down, all of the sweets that the small girl had packed away had finally caught up with her. She sat on a bench beside Mari, groaning and clutching her stomach as the sugar got its revenge.
“Did somebody have a little bit too much fun tonight?” Mari asked, wrapping an arm around Ruby’s shoulder.
“I told you not to buy me so much,” Ruby whined out. “You did this to me.”
“I’m sorry, but I just couldn’t stop myself,” Mari replied, laughing softly. “You just looked so happy every time I bought you something, how was I supposed to say no to that?” She leaned over after speaking, nudging Ruby's hat out of the way and pressing a kiss to the top of her head. Ruby, in response, just whined out again, sinking even lower down on the bench.
“Onee-chan warned me not to eat too much…”
“Well if Dia had been in charge she probably would have told you to stop eating after that first caramel apple,” Mari pointed out. “Buuut… Maybe we’ll just keep this a little secret, okay?”
“Mhmm,” Ruby agreed, nodding lethargically against Mari’s side. “We still have to go back home too, don’t we?”
“Unless you wanted to spend the night sleeping on a bench.” After saying that Mari hopped up to her feet, causing Ruby to whine out as her support was suddenly yanked away. She looked up, emerald eyes blinking a few times as Mari extended a hand down towards her. “Let’s go!” the older girl encouraged. “We’ll start out walking, and if you get tired halfway there then I’ll just have to carry you the rest of the way!”
“You would drop me,” Ruby said, taking hold of Mari’s hand and hoisting herself to her feet. “I weigh too much right now.”
“I think you’re underestimated how super strong I am right now!” Mari replied, flexing her almost nonexistent muscles. Which, while goofy, at least earned a small laugh from Ruby.
“Okay,” she agreed, leaning up against Mari as the two of them began to make their way back down the street. “If I get too sick to walk you can carry me.”
“Yay!” Mari exclaimed. “And if I do drop you I’ll just have to buy you a hundred more sweets to make up for it.”
“Mari-chan,” Ruby huffed, clutching her stomach and fighting off another wave of nausea. “Don’t joke about that…”