#Smitten finally realising and accepting that Cold is very similar to him and in turn treats him with gentleness

[sorry-not-feeling-it-right-now]

Bridges are Burning into my brain fu@k me

[worryinglyinnocent]

Fic: Shippers on Deck

Summary: Jefferson is absolutely determined to make sure that Gold and Belle’s first date goes swimmingly. Ruby and the rest of the diner’s patrons are only slightly less enthusiastic.

Written for the @a-monthly-rumbelling prompt: “Captain and Lieutenant”

Rated: G

Shippers on Deck

“Jefferson, I’m pretty sure that what you’re doing right now is illegal. Or at least very dodgy.”

“Lieutenant Lucas, since when have we been worried about criminal activities in our mission? Did we, or did we not, accept that when we undertook this undertaking, we would be laying our lives on the line in pursuit of the greater good? Did we not swear to do everything within our power to see this noble quest through to its positive conclusion? Including risking incarceration?”

Ruby rolled her eyes and gathered up the empty coffee mugs on Jeff’s table. He was sitting in the booth furthest away from the doors with a pair of binoculars fixed on the window next to him. He was hunched down in the seat so that only the binoculars were visible from the window, but even so, it was very clear to all inside and outside the diner what he was doing. Namely, he was creeping on Belle and Mr Gold on their date.

Considering how long she and Jefferson had spent trying to get the two of them together in the first place, Ruby could understand his desperation to see everything through to a satisfactory end, but she thought that the binoculars were taking it a bit far.

Nevertheless… Now that she was here at the window, she couldn’t resist squinting out through the misty glass towards the library to see how the two lovebirds were getting on. For the moment they were just standing outside the library, talking to each other, their breath curling into wisps of fog in the cold early spring air.

“I wish I could hear what they were saying,” Jefferson muttered. “I knew I should have given Gold a microphone and an earpiece so that I can coach him through his wooing. To be honest, I was amazed that he managed to accept Belle’s offer of a date without any assistance. I was getting to the stage of thinking that cue cards might be necessary. I could have hidden under the counter in the shop with them.”

Ruby sighed and slid into the seat opposite Jefferson.

“Jeff, I know how invested you are in making sure that they get on all right, but they do have a little bit of common sense of their own.”

Jefferson raised an eyebrow. “It took them six months to admit that they liked each other to us, and then another three and a half to admit it to each other and actually make a move. They don’t have an ounce of common sense between them and if we’re not careful, then they’re going to completely ruin everything that we’ve worked so hard to achieve.”

“Sometimes, I don’t know if you want them to get together for their sakes or for yours.”

“Mine, obviously, Lieutenant Lucas! I can’t let all of this careful planning have been for nothing, I’ll never live it down! I have been the self-proclaimed captain of this ship ever since Belle first arrived in Storybrooke and laid eyes on my completely clueless friend there, and I want something to show for my time and dedication! I need to be best man at their wedding at the very least.”

“If you keep stalking them like this, then they’ll probably elope just to get away from you.” Ruby reached across and snatched the binoculars away from Jefferson. “I’m sure they’re going to be fine.”

She had to remain positive, because the alternative was turning into another Jeff and just being creepy about it. Ruby had been Belle’s best friend from the moment that Belle had first walked into the diner needing a guide to her new home; they’d bonded over pancakes and it had become the beginning of what Ruby hoped would be a lifelong friendship. Jefferson had been Gold’s sole friend and confidante for even longer, and naturally, when it became clear about two weeks into Belle’s tenure as librarian that crushes were developing mutually in both directions, they’d teamed up to make sure that lasting happiness would ensue. True, Ruby had never before thought of Gold as the kind of man to have a crush on a librarian. He never seemed to be at all romantic and she’d just assumed that he wasn’t into relationships at all. As time had gone on, however, it had become painfully and woefully obvious that ‘smitten’ wasn’t a strong enough word for his feelings. He was completely and utterly head over heels in love with Belle despite having never exchanged more than about five words with her, usually to do with the rent.

As Jefferson had said, it had taken a long time to get either of them to actually tell their friends about their feelings, and Ruby was fairly sure that if she had not taken matters into her own hands and practically forced Belle to stop beating around the bush and just say who it was in Storybrooke that she was nursing a crush on, they would still be sitting in a simmering hotbed of unresolved sexual tension even now. She’d almost been at the stage of shoving Belle into a booth and sitting on her to make her confess, and Jefferson had reached similar lengths of frustration with Gold.

Now though, everything had finally paid off and Belle had finally asked Gold out on a date, and he had finally accepted, and their evening seemed to be going very nicely. Wherever they had been, Gold was now walking Belle home to her flat above the library, and they were talking on the doorstep. Ruby allowed herself a little sigh of contentment, basking in the knowledge of a job well done, because if it hadn’t been for her and Jefferson’s intervention, there would be no way that they’d have got this far. Jefferson took advantage of her moment of abstraction to steal his binoculars back, sliding down below the level of the window again and not doing anything to make himself look any less conspicuous.

“Jefferson, you can see them perfectly well without the binoculars and it would look a lot less suspicious.” Granny had brought over a fresh pot of coffee and was pouring two mugs for the observers. She seemed to have accepted the fact that Ruby wouldn’t be getting any more work done until the two lovebirds had moved off the street, and indeed, she herself didn’t move away immediately after pouring the coffee, looking out in the same direction as Ruby and Jefferson.

“I’m trying to work out what they’re saying,” Jefferson muttered. “If I get it close enough, I might be able to lipread.”

“I’m sure that Gold will happily paraphrase the conversation for you if you ask him for a date post-mortem,” Ruby pointed out. Jefferson just gave her a look, and she reconsidered. “Ok, yes, it is Gold that we’re talking about here. But still, I think you’re taking it just a little bit too far.”

“What’s going on here?” Leroy and Walter had come over to the table, probably because they weren’t getting any service at the counter since Ruby and Granny were both preoccupied. “Is that Gold and Belle?”

“Yes it is, and it took them long enough,” Jefferson said. He refocussed the binoculars. “Hang on, guys, I think something’s happening!”

By this time, practically everyone in the diner was gathered around Jefferson’s booth, peering through the misty window until Ruby cut her losses and wiped the glass with her dishcloth.

How Jefferson had discerned in through the fog, Ruby didn’t know, but she was absolutely not going to credit the binoculars - still, sure enough, in that next moment, a collective gasp caught the observers as Belle brought her hands up to cup Gold’s face and went up on tiptoes to press her lips against his.

He seemed startled for a few seconds, but then relaxed into it with a smile, slipping his arms around Belle’s back and pulling her in closer as he deepened the kiss.

The bated breath that had been held in the diner was released in a huge cheer, and it was in that split second that Ruby realised that there were a lot of people invested in this kiss and that they were rather loud. Indeed, so loud that their exuberance could be heard through the window, and Belle and Gold jumped apart as if they’d been electrocuted, both of them turning in guilty slow motion to look straight at the gathered crowd who’d been watching them for the past several minutes.

Ruby had never fully understood the full ramifications of the phrase ‘life flashing before your eyes’ until this moment, because if looks could kill, Gold would have buried every single one of them several times over. She’d just finished going through all of the events of her life thus far and was now into events not yet occurred, like Gold hiking the diner’s rent to astronomical proportions, when Jefferson put the binoculars down and gave Gold an enthusiastic thumbs up. Leroy, Walter, and Granny had started a spontaneous round of applause that the rest of the diner’s patrons were continuing, even those who weren’t close enough to be able to see through the window and had no idea what was going on.

Gold’s expression softened marginally, and then Belle laughed, pressing a hand to his cheek as she turned his face away from the diner towards her own, distracting him with another kiss.

“All right, all right, show’s over folks. Everyone get back to your knitting.” Granny started shooing the other customers away from the booth, but Ruby lingered a little while longer. For now, Belle and Gold seemed completely absorbed in each other, no longer paying the audience in the diner any mind. It was so wonderful to see them finally acting on their feelings.

All the same, Ruby was still going to strenuously stress that it had been Jefferson’s idea to spy on them should the need to defend herself arise.