#I bet everyone else's entries are going to be focussed on Oscar's curse and potentially be dramatic and angsty and serious

[carlottastudios]

Rosegarden week 2.0 Day 7: Curse

“Forget it, Ruby,” Oscar shook his head. “I’m not going to teach you how to curse in dead languages.”

“Aww, why not?” Ruby wailed, her shoulder slumping.

Oscar exhaled impatiently.

“Because-Wait-Why do you even want to know that anyway?!”

Ruby was all too eager to explain.

“Because I want to know how to curse without my dad or Yang or Qrow catching on. They don’t want me cursing because ‘it’s not lady-like’ or, even worse ‘I’m not old enough’.” she said, making air-quotes and rolling her eyes. “Which is ridiculous! I don’t have to be a lady AND I’m old enough to know what the F word means!”

Oscar frowned doubtfully.

“And do you know-”

“Yes! I know what it means!” Ruby interrupted.

“Just thought I’d make sure.” Oscar said, though at least now he seemed convinced in Ruby’s knowledge in profanity.

“So, will you teach me?” she asked, her big silver eyes shining with hope.

“No.” he said firmly.

“Come on, pleeeaaase?” Ruby begged. “What’s it going to take for me to convince you?!”

As she spoke, she leaned close to him, causing a bright rosy blush to spread over his cheeks. For just the briefest instant, his eyes automatically flicked towards her lips before he made himself look back into her eyes. Ruby noticed this (it was difficult not to) and found herself blushing too. Oscar shook his head vehemently and backed away on the couch.

“Nothing! Th-There’s nothing you can do that’ll change my mind!” he stuttered, his blush deepening.

His answer left Ruby thoroughly unconvinced. For all his protests, there was definitely something that could change his mind. And that, coupled with his reaction to her approach, gave her an idea.

“Are you sure?” she smirked cunningly, edging closer to him.

Oscar’s face heated up again and he scooted away until he ran out of couch. Ruby promptly closed the gap the boy had attempted to put between them, holding back a giggle at the look on Oscar’s face. His big eyes were now the size of dinner plates and his freckles stood out adorably against the vivid pink of his cheeks. It was almost funny how cute she found him when he was this shy.

“Positive.” he said in answer to her question, and his voice was practically a squeak.

This only encouraged Ruby to go along with her idea.

“What about this?” she hesitated a beat, then kissed Oscar on the cheek.

He was scarlet and freezes as soon as her lips touched him, as though he’d had a hundred volts of electricity suddenly shoot throughout his body. Then he seemed to melt, a moonstruck smile spreading across his face.

“W-Well I g-guess one or two words might be okay…” he conceded.

“Yes!” Ruby pumped her fist joyfully. “Thank you, Oscar! You’re the best! Also, just as a side-note,” she added, blushing as she spoke, “your cheeks are very kissable.”

This statement nearly gave Oscar a heart-attack.

…

And so, the lessons began. Oscar and Ruby would find a quiet place to sit down, every day, and Oscar would teach her a few curses, which she’d then repeat with his aid until she had memorized them. After every new word he taught her, she rewarded his teachings with a kiss on the cheek, or wherever else on his face that she wanted to kiss. And as the lessons continued, Oscar grew less and less nervous about her kisses, though his enjoyment of them never diminished. If anything, he seemed to look even more forward to them, so much that he once tried to rush through the lesson to get a kiss on the forehead. He only did this once though, and Ruby teased him for his impatience until he apologized. For her part, Ruby found that she very much liked kissing Oscar. And then, one day, the dynamic changed. This time, he was teaching her curses in latin.

“So there are two words in Latin for the F word.” Ruby said.

“Right,” Oscar nodded, “and they are?”

“Irrumabo and futuo.”

“Correct. And the S word is?”

“Stercore.”

“Exactly. And if you’ve just stubbed your toe extra hard on the edge of the coffee table…”

“Malum sit! Which means ‘Damn it!’! And the next time I see Tyrian or Cinder and I want to give them a piece of my mind in Latin, I say ‘Vilis!’!” Ruby beamed triumphantly.

“Correct!” Oscar grinned. “So that’s 5 ways to curse in Latin, which means you owe me 5 kisses.”

Ruby raised an eyebrow at him. Already the flutters were starting up again in her stomach at the thought of kissing Oscar five times.

“But we only translated 4 curses.”

“But the two different ways of saying the F word count as two separate curses. So that makes 5.”

He smirked, and Ruby could feel even more fluttering, this time in her chest.

“How do I know you’re not just trying to get extra kisses?” she scooted over to Oscar and kissed him on the cheek.

Oscar laughed lightly.

“Can you blame me?” he asked as Ruby kissed him on the other cheek.

She pulls away, surprised.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Oscar realized what he’d just said and backtracked, going red in the face.

“Uh-Well-The thing is-I…well…I really…really like you-”

Ruby’s eyes went wide.

“I mean-your kissing me! But also you-uh-!”

Oscar cut himself off as Ruby put a hand on his shoulder.

“Oscar,”

“Y-Y-Yeah?” he nervously looked at her, and slowly seemed to realize that she blushing about as much as he was, if not more.

She chuckled nervously.

“I…” she said softly, not quite knowing how to put into words what she was thinking.

She looked back up at him, then cupped his face, facing him properly.

“I really” she said, then leaned forward to kiss him again on the cheek, “really” another kiss, on the other cheek, “like” a kiss on his forehead, “kissing you” on the tip of his nose, “too.” she finished, before kissing him very lightly and carefully on his lips.

As she did, there was a sudden burst of fluttering in her stomach and she could swear, when she pulled away, that her heart had skipped a beat. It seemed that Oscar had had a similar reaction as, when they both blinked open their eyes, he looked just as flustered as she felt.

“R-Really?!” he asked, the corner of his mouth pulling up into a smile.

He sounded so adorably surprised and happy that Ruby couldn’t help but laugh.

“Really.” she said, trying in vain to stifle her giggles.

It proved easier said than done, so she tried to muffle them by kissing Oscar again.

“S-Sorry!” Ruby said as she pulled away, her snickers slowly starting to subside.

Oscar shook his head and made it clear she had nothing to apologize for, this time, by kissing her. And then they kissed again, and again, and then a bit more. It was just so nice, so very very nice, kissing Oscar, that it was a bit hard to stop.

‘And to think,’ both teens thought, ‘it had started all with cursing.’

And as soon as that thought had crossed their minds, Oscar suddenly pulled away, his eyes wide.

“Oh no.” he said and Ruby looked at him in worry.

“What? What is it? A-Am I bad at this?” Ruby asked, all at once feeling the first twinges of mortification.

“Wh-No! Not at all!” Oscar quickly reassured. “It’s just that…” he stared in terror. “I’m going to die.”

Ruby frowned, confused.

“What?”

“I’m going to die!” Oscar exclaimed. “Your uncle’s going to kill me for kissing you and teaching you how to curse in dead languages in exchange for kisses and-Oh I’m such a dead man! And I’ve only just begun kissing you!” he moaned in dread.

“Oscar,” Ruby soothed, “don’t worry about it. Uncle Qrow’s not going to kill you. He likes you, he’s not going to hurt you!”

“Yeah, but you’re his niece! Isn’t it his job to be protective of you and murder any creature with a Y chromosome that approaches you?”

“Well, maybe, but he’s not going to murder this one.” she lightly poked him on the chest to emphasize her words, then smiled. “Tell you what, how about we just keep kissing until you forget all about him?”

Oscar gave her a skeptical look.

“Do you really think your kissing me is going to make me do whatever you want?”

In answer, she kissed him and almost immediately, she felt him relax beneath her touch.

“Okay, you’re totally right,” he admitted, “I’d give you the world.”

She smiled.

“Well, I’m not asking for the world.” she said, kissing him again.

…

A sharp pain flared throughout Ruby’s scalp as her forehead hit the refrigerator’s upper door. Her hand flew to the aching spot and she hissed loudly:

“Futuo suus damnare!”

“Ruby!” Yang cried, rushing over. “Are you okay?!”

“Yeah, I’m alright, sis.” Ruby said, rubbing at the tender spot on her forehead.

“You sure?” Oscar asked, having reached her side almost faster than her sister.

“Yeah, I’m sure. Just whacked myself on the head.” Ruby explained.

Then the three heard a voice from the kitchen doorway:

“Ruby,”

They all turned, slightly worried at the serious edge in the huntsman’s voice. The look on the scythe-wielder’s face didn’t reassure them.

“Yes, uncle Qrow?” asked Ruby.

“Where did you learn that?” he growled lowly.

That sent a jolt of fear down Ruby’s spine.

“Learn what?” she asked, feigning innocence, praying to the almighty Oum that he wasn’t talking about what she thought he was talking about.

“That sentence. That’s cursing in Latin.” he said, his red eyes narrowing.

He was talking exactly about what’s she’d thought, and feared, he’d been talking about. That alone was enough to make Ruby’s complexion go white. Even worse, Yang was now looking at her sister with growing menace.

“Ruby, how did you learn to curse in Latin?” she asked warningly.

Ruby and Oscar glanced nervously at each other and the look in their eyes spoke the same message:

‘Stercore!’