Chapter Text
February ???|| 2:35pm toontown time || Daffodil Gardens Playground
Two heels touched down off the trolley with a pause to grab luggage and open a note attached to it. “Lullaby lane-“ squinting harder to try and read the rest of the address noted on the cutesy post card, “wow this handwriting is extremely smudged now to figure out the direction—” Ruby paused to glance around the highly unfamiliar flower filled scene. She was a snow leopard from out of town and the humid gardens were not doing her any justice on what would otherwise be a kind spring day to toons. A lanky, dark brown and red big cat like this would surely die in these conditions; if it weren’t for the cooling vest under the coat she had on alongside the hat to protect her delicate curled tuft of fur on her head.
“Directions, shmirectons am I right!????” A familiar voice startles her before looking behind to realize
“Alu! Darling!! I never expected you to meet me here; especially during your work hours” Ruby quickly took her luggage along to bend down and give Alu a hug. Smushing the shorter bat’s face into giving her a hug back
“oh it’s been so long- have you gotten shorter since the last time we hung out?”
“nooooo!!” A muffled shout returns while Ruby teased them. Though Ruby’s train of thought was caught by something else in her sights.
“And is this your little friend you’ve been writing to me about?” Ending the hug to take a look at Alu’s coworker, Earthfox. Who’s been quietly standing behind Alu trying to figure out when to say hi.
Ruby extends a hand and Earthfox hesitantly returns “Nice to meet you!! You are?” Signaling him
“Earthfox.. it’s nice to finally meet you too” he gives a small warm smile back to her before nervously tilting his head away, “I heard you were into art too so maybe we could scrapbook together.”
Ruby grins wide in return making Earthfox feel a little less nervous. “Sounds like a fine plan! We’ll have to talk it out later! So anyways why did you two take the extra time to come to me instead of the other way around?
“Well….” Alu hesitated “I realized upon second thought that I both butchered the card and it would be super out of the way for you. Making me rush to Terra to tell him that it’d be super inconvenient to make you travel another 2 whole extra streets just to walk allllll the way back through them again!” motioning what would in this case be Ruby walking all that extra distance with their dark gloves. “You get me?”
“Oh alu, always overcomplicating in your head” Ruby chuckled, covering her face to try and hide the silly smirk.
“ANYWAYS, we brought the show to you!” Alu snaps from that focus to speed back over to Ruby offering a hand.
“Didn’t tell me you could do that” Ruby responded shaking their hand “Anyways can we please get out of this heat….. It’s gonna make me sweat to death” Trying to move the gaggle of toons along. Making their way through the gardens, Toontown Central, and Barnacle Boatyard taking in the sights to reach Ruby’s new place over in the Brrrgh.
Though going through Barnacle Boatyard, Ruby took a moment to realize “Hey wait if y’all can teleport, why didn’t ya just take me back to your place?”
“Oh. Uh. Okay since you are new here, we couldnt…. You gotta see the places before teleporting. Look try going up here just like tap it” Alu shows Ruby their Shticker Book pointing up to Drowsy Dreamland. With Ruby tapping attempting to tap on the local.
“I see…” The three continue their long walk chatting about random occurrences until finally reaching the connecting gate into the Brrrgh.
“Oh this place is GREAT!!!! Ruby rips off the coat and hat to reveal her real outfit, completely self made. Featuring a red bandana scarf, dull green vest, and black pants featuring bright red embroidered diamonds on the knees. Alu and Earthfox on the other hand scrambled to snatch up her coat and hat respectively to beat the cold blast the Brrrgh brought to their shorter fur. “I could just curl up right here and pass out”
“C-c-c-c-could we keep moving” Alu stammered back “I d-don’t think the two of us can stand-d this right now” holding onto Earthfox for warmth.
“Oh yeah I wasn’t gonna actually lay down here I can be close to you TWO-” Ruby is abruptly cut off when grabbing onto Alu, who decided the three needed to get to their destination NOW and sped over to Ruby’s new residence– sitting right between The Brrrgh and Dreamland.
Ruby and Earthfox spun around for a moment dazed before eventually stepping inside with Alu to an undecorated boutique.
Ruby thanked the two and remembered something before they all split off for the day. “Alu wait, before you two go back to your residence I have a gift” Making Alu’s ears perk up at the idea. “Remember how you swapped to being a baker, well I wanted to give a sort of I dunno reverse welcome gift that I was working on during the Trolley ride.” Rummaging through the suitcase while Alu and Earthfox eagerly watched, shuffling over slowly until both were nearly standing over Ruby.
“Here” Ruby stands back up and offers Alu a new Apron, embroidered with a few black loops and a red filled in diamond along the bottom. “Hope it fits”
“OOO THANK YOU!” Alu takes it carefully and looks over it “I’ll make sure to get good use out of this, oh and the little details this is perfect! I really do hate to go soon right after you got here”
“Aw, don't worry about it. We can see each other tomorrow, just make sure to whisper the address so I can read it this time.” Ruby gives one more hug to both before they depart and starts unpacking all her equipment and trinkets from previous homes.