rayemma oneshots & other

Somehow, I Know This is Home

• Oneshot

Spoiler warning for chapter #180 and onward - mentioned event

Note: for RayEmma week 2021, day 1, reunion/dream. This is the reunion prompt.

This feeling was real.

Not a vision in his room, not a person mistaken in the crowd, not a phantom presence lingering in his brain, no - this time, Ray didn't imagine the feeling of Emma being there. It was too strong to not be real. And he had no evidence, he saw nothing, but he could feel her there undoubtedly. 

He saw the shadow of his mother's dress.

'This way.'

He felt Conny tugging on the crinkled ends of his shirt.

'This way.' 

He heard the leather shifting in Yuugo's glove as he pointed ahead. 

'This way.' 

This was not Ray's imagination. She was here and he was being guided to her.

He turned on his heel and started running. Fast as he could. Didn't spare the people a sorry and just continued barrelling through the traffic. He couldn't stop. He could feel her there, so painfully close.

The winter air of former New York city burned his throat, Norman and Gilda were trying to reach him over the phone stuffed in his pocket, but he did not stop.

And then, there it was. 

The familiar sound of a golden chain, stirring, hitting the back of a gem. 

Emma's necklace.

"There it is!" He heard her say, and God, his eyes immediately watered. It was her voice. It wasn't in his head.

After two years of searching, dreaming about her, holding the kids at night when they missed her so much they cried, having to go to school and experience life without her there, worrying that she might be dead-

Ray got onto his knees, or more like he fell, right in front of her. 

She slowly lifted her head.

Her hair was the same shade of tangerine orange. She still had that stupidly long strand at the top that stuck up like a stubborn weed. Her eyes were so green. Oh, she had grown taller. A lot taller. Her hair had gotten longer. She was older. She'd been away from him for two years. It felt like forever. 

Ray didn't care that his tears were well down his cheeks now. 

"Emma," he breathed. "I finally found you." 

But instead of anything in reciprocation, she only looked confused, ripping her necklace off the ground and holding it to her chest defensively.

"I'm sorry?" She blinked. 

Ray's stomach dropped as he immediately realized what this was. 

The price.

"Do you- do you remember me?" He stammered. He knew what the answer was.

But when she said "No, have we met before?" it was an entire stab to the heart that he wasn't ready for. 

Ray scoffed and dipped his head in shame. He'd believed her. He should have known she'd lie for the sake of them! He could have stopped her! If he had just interrogated her a little more, if he'd made it to the day and night with her all the way back in the Seven Walls, this could have been prevented.

The reward was in fact Emma's family, in the end, but not their lives. Just her memories of them. What a cruel joke. That's why they couldn't find her. She didn't even know who they were.