Work Text:
The cold lights of her own kitchen would hurt her eyes if Ruby was any more aware of her surroundings, it had been two weeks and she still wasn't able to abide by the simple request Joey made her. His voice rang in her head as she stared into the blank paper, this used to be so damn easy it hurt her head why it was suddenly so complicated to come up with a recipe.
It was just the dessert menu.
Of course, she treated all of her work, all of her recipes as a way to shred a little bit of her soul and transfer it to the plate. And she succeeded to work out one of the main specials and the entries without breaking a sweat. But now she got absolutely nothing.
Maybe because she always made sure to be extra detailed when it came to desserts. No one knew, but she had a sweet tooth and in her culinary school years the best classes always involved making them.
She sighed and leaned back on her chair, ran a hand through her hair and wondered if a cigarette would make the ideas flow. Maybe some coffee too.
Ruby startled when slim but slightly callous hands touched her shoulders gently, expert fingers starting to knead on tense skin and though there was a millisecond of surprise, she relaxed against the touch. Throwing her head back to lean on Nicole's stomach.
“You fuck me, wait for me to sleep and leave?” She asked, snark and venom dripping from her surprisingly soft spoken words. Maybe it was just the haze of sleep. “I feel like a cheap whore.”
Ruby scoffed, starting to feel the strain of sleepless nights, rushed days and stress tiring her out.
“I doubt you'd ever be cheap.”
Nicole playfully groaned and ceased her massage, letting her hands merely stroke the skin available to her from Ruby's tank top.
“You’re right…you'd pay for it, though.”
Ruby just hummed, her eyes closing and mind stringing along in thoughts she barely processed. She breathed in, the slow movement on her shoulders started to move down her arms, Nicole smelled nice, like her peach scented body wash and the tiniest bit of lavender from her shampoo and something inherently sweet, inherently Nicole.
“I don’t know…why would I waste money if you’re here already?” She mumbled.
Nicole pinched her arm and she tried to get away with a pained hiss, suddenly much more awake than she was just now.
“C’mon,” Nicole caressed the place she hurt gently and tapped Ruby’s head with the other hand. “You look like shit,” came out as flat as always.
“Charmer,” Ruby put a palm on her chest and deadpanned.
Nicole rolled her eyes but her smile gave her away, it usually did. Sometimes the curve on the edge of her lips tilted up just the slightest bit, as if she was withholding both herself and Ruby any access to her true emotions, but in the end she just had to let it escape, just the tiniest bit. Just a hint of actual tender feelings beneath her usual apathy and sarcasm.
It melted her in the same rate it built her from the mushy goo her insides seem to let out.
So Ruby followed her without question, without even wanting to do anything else, why would she? Especially when Nicole only wore one of her shirts, nothing at all underneath and especially when she knew that even though her nighttime lover was too tired to do anything other than sleep they would spend a while just existing on her bed before succumbing to unconsciousness. It was one of her favorite moments of the day.
Just her. Just Nicole. Just the two of them, sometimes they talked and sometimes they merely laid in silence, entangled in one another and enjoying the closeness that now came as easy as breathing. It was interesting, at first, both of them would want to sprint away at any moment that suggested affection after they had sex – then Ruby’s stupid, traitorous heart started beating for closeness and aching when Nicole ran, when she dressed as quickly as possible and bolted straight through her door.
But that didn’t matter, not when Nicole’s head laid on her chest, she enjoyed the heavy thumps working as a lullaby to her and her alone. Not when Ruby’s fingers were under her shirt and tracing the curve of her spine. Not with their legs tangled and hands so close they would be able to touch with a half an inch more.
Ruby closed her eyes, delighting herself in this little piece of heaven. A breath…two. Things were good. Nicole nuzzled into her, one arm across her waist and a heavy sigh on her shirt.
“What were you doing?” She muttered, almost inaudible.
“Joey asked me for a new dessert menu,” she whispered back, reluctant to break their shared bubble.
Nicole snorted the best she could. “He’s so lazy.”
“Hm.”
A small, tired laugh, almost a giggle – though Nicole would never admit it. “Where’s my samples? Huh?”
“When I come up with something I’ll let you know,” maybe it came out a little bitter, a little pissed off or merely exhausted.
Nicole didn’t snap her head up, didn’t gasp or pretended to be offended. It wasn’t a big reaction by any means, not really, not to anyone, but her head tilted up and her lips touched Ruby’s neck once and then her jaw. The hand on her waist fisted her tank top wanting closeness, always, always closeness.
It was a great attempt of comfort, Ruby had to give her that, the weight of frustration in her chest was a little easier to house.
“Nothing yet?” The words touched her neck and were absorbed into her bloodstream. Ruby shook her head so subtly Nicole was only aware of it because her cheek mussed up blonde hair a little. “Too much work?”
“I wanna do it…I just…can’t.”
Admitting it felt a little like defeat, like she was just raising her hands and giving in to the sudden block in her creativity. It wasn’t that she hadn’t had any, she created great dishes over the past few months, but for some reason this very easy, almost menial task was too much.
“Just do whatever,” Nicole yawned. “I’ll still eat it even if you think it won’t make the cut.”
“Yeah?”
Nicole hummed in affirmation and cuddled closer, Ruby could feel her fighting the weariness. She chuckled, a little too fond a tad too endeared but it was fine. The way Nicole nuzzled her skin as she surrendered to sleep was just as affectionate.
Ruby would try again the next day and it would be fine.
***
It was entirely too unconscious. She would swear on her life to anyone who asked.
Her eyes would give her away in a second.
Regardless, her first attempt at her job came to her in what she called a random bout of inspiration. Nicole was, surprisingly, doing her job and Ruby happened to have a second to look at her. Maybe it was the way she was close to a window and the sunlight from the end of the morning made her blonde hair shine golden. Ruby was maybe a little biased, but Nicole looked like the kind of angel people usually sang about.
She tried to emulate the color, that strong yellow, with the mango reduction, a little rum to add a kick to it – it would pale in comparison to her muse otherwise – she usually didn’t like to work with gelatine too much, but Ruby caught herself sighing as she combined the ingredients with a few fast paced whisks.
A few sponges grabbed and she decided to assemble it in the glasses Terry forced her to use because apparently ‘it was trendy’ and ‘it added value to their food’ or whatever that meant. She cut a few more mangoes to add to the gelatine and took a look around again. Raspberries would be great.
Nicole’s scarf was so pretty that day, a starking white across her pale skin with little green drawings scattered across it. Ruby knew there were red lovebites underneath the fabric, it was such a juvenile way to ‘stake a claim’ but Nicole loved it and there was very little Ruby wouldn’t do for her.
The process would be long but she didn’t mind it too much, or at all. This type of dessert was good to stock and keep in the fridge.
She grabbed the coconut milk and mixed it with vanilla, there was a song stuck in her head and she watched, keeping time, as Nicole laughed at something a customer said. Her pretty, pretty laugh traveled across the entire restaurant until her bones buzzed with its sound.
Now a custard to go above the cream.
Maybe some lemon zest on it. Green was suddenly such a pretty color.
She’d have to bake it and then chill it.
It was fine.
The next day was Tuesday and Nicole always served Poppy on those days, for some reason she always craved something sweet after their confrontations. Ruby wasn’t good at denying her ever, maybe a new one would make the annoyance melt a little, just a tiny bit.
A trifle wasn’t that bad of an option after all.
She handed it to Nicole and watched as she ate with something a little too alike sparkling satisfaction to be anything else. A tiny moan that made fire erupt everywhere and feelings, welcome and warm, blossom and bloom.
***
The second one was supposed to be sweeter, more chocolate than fruit.
Not at all inspired by how Nicole had to be home that day, the only text she sent displaying an agony unknown by her and her very predictable and easy cycle. Some people were quite lucky after all.
Ruby knew a lot of things, one of them was that Nicole was miserable this time of the month so she took the time to go to her apartment and cook her something warm to settle her cramps. It was when Nicole fell asleep tucked into her dark light purple and white blanket that she maybe felt like she could make something a little different. Maybe this whole thing was turning a little personal.
Not that she cared, she knew one day she would turn into a fool.
Ruby still put herself to work, first wondering how she would make a blueberry and white chocolate bite-sized treat without it being too cliche. And second wondering if she would pair it with something or just tell Terry to sell it as it was.
She ended up mixing the chocolate and the fruit, making sure they were well integrated and an admittedly beautiful color.
Nicole woke up mid preparations and hugged her from behind, clearly still in a little pain, a little discomfort and Ruby immediately led her to the couch, forgetting the insipid little treats in an instant – they weren’t collaborating with the shape she wanted anyway.
Nicole looked at her with a playful mirth, the artificial lights making her eyes so much lighter than usual, so shiny. There was sheer sweetness dripping from them and when Ruby felt like she was on the verge of ripping her heart out and handing it to her companion Nicole pulled her in and consumed it with her mouth locked on Ruby’s.
She breathed out shakily, whole body stifling a tremble so great that it came into her stomach and made the whole thing break out in butterflies. Nicole smirked, she knew the exact effect she had, and it made Ruby’s already too great for her body feelings explode and erode her ribcage to paint the exact frequency of Nicole's subsequent chuckle.
God, she was screwed.
Forget the silly, small, snacks.
She would bake a whole cake.
Dulce de leche and chestnut filling to match those brown eyes, some diced peach in the middle, she couldn’t not add something reminiscent of the blonde she looked for everywhere and a dash of honey on the nutty batter just to try to be as sweet as Nicole’s lips.
Maybe even some edible flowers to make it all pretty, maybe she would buy some for the woman clinging to her body and smirking like she won the biggest lottery prize in the world.
***
The third and last was simpler.
She would be lying if she said it hadn’t had anything to do with Nicole whimpering about the heat and wanting something good that would also cool her. It also had everything to do with how she had shared a few weeks before about the newly discovered love for passion fruit.
Just a sorbet. Just a little art made out of melted chocolate, dark to match the way Nicole’s eyes looked whenever Ruby was between her thighs. A single dash of handmade strawberry jam on the plate just to rival the way Nicole’s cheeks flushed a pretty red.
Sometimes she watched her, Ruby always, always watched her. There was something in the way Nicole moved that made her so compelling, like a choreographed movie where her feet stepped exactly where they were supposed to be and her hands had all the time in the world to emphasize whatever she wanted to say. When they were alone she would just lie sprawled on the couch or Ruby’s bed and it would look like nothing any painter could even dream of putting in a canvas.
She remembered giving Nicole her sorbet, made especially for her, never not for her.
She knew, she had to. Nicole had always been spectacularly bright, always knew just how to read a situation and she was well aware who was behind everything Ruby could ever hope to make. Her smile turned less smug and more gentle, a little hint of the honey in her eyes dripping for Ruby, for her soft spot.
She whispered, just in passing “Thank you,” and it sounded like a mix between awe and a confession.
Ruby knew her “Any time” in response was all devotion and shameless worship.
Terry praised her and asked where she took those from because apparently it was some of her best work and she said she didn’t know. That it just happened, it was merely her trying new things and broadening her horizons.
But her eyes followed Nicole as she strutted through the restaurant, her gaze caught in the curve of her neck and the sway of her hips and the way she threw her head back to laugh at something Bridgette said. Ruby hoped he couldn't see how her heart stuttered and raced.
“Sometimes great things just happen,” was the last thing she told him before leaving his office. Her eyes still on Nicole, always ever on Nicole.