underneath the lights || hsmtmts

swear i'm perfect for you | ricky x gina

{author's note: this, like so many of the others, was requested on ao3! definitely do feel free to make your requests on here too! i hope you enjoy this tiny little married rina college oneshot. title is from the song endlessly by the cab. highly recommend.)

gina brushed off her hot pink coat with her gloved hands as she was walked through the doorway, letting the cool november air seep into the red brick building only briefly before she reached back to push the dark wood of the door flush with the frame. a few of her curls had slipped out of the bun her hair had been held up in all day. ballet class had more than necessitated piling the strands atop her head, but she was home now, and taking down her hair was probably going to be one of the first things she did.

going to the joffrey ballet school as a trainee was hard, to be sure, but it was what she wanted, and her mom had supported her all the way through that decision. ricky too, he was a bit unsure how he felt about going to new york city, living away from not just one but both his parents for the first time, but gosh had gina made the change of scenery worth his while. he had needed a solid amount of time spent just getting used to the big apple, but having lived so many places, gina had truly made their little house a home, and done so in only a matter of weeks.

but then he had said he made her his new home the day they said their vows... so that certainly helped.

she couldn't believe she was here... in new york, pursuing her dream as a dancer. the young woman's eyes glance to the mirror on the nearest wall, and it's when she does that she's caught off guard by a voice, but her body relaxes instantly when she does recognize it, and that oh so familiar person it belongs to.

"what, no 'hey honey i'm home' this time?" ricky bowen calls over to her from down by the "living room" (if you could delineate the space like that, these homes were one long strip of room more or less), teasing her as per usual. it was endearing, even a few years into this relationship.

"hi baby, i'm back from school." hina replies slightly mockingly, shaking her head at his antics as she removes her gloves and then her jacket. he walks over to meet her at the door, setting a cup of hot coffee in her hands once she's gotten her boots back off, but not before leaning in to kiss her gently on the lips.

"well i'm happy you're home." he tells her with that dumb smile she loves so much, and gina is feeling more than happy to be home.

"you'd better be." it's a joke, and he knows it, but he so clearly is. "thanks for the coffee by the way." she tells him, glad to be out of the cold, and the hot beverage was going to make shaking that chill off so, so much easier. the dancer had to keep her muscles warm, which was easier said than done in these winter storms. 8:30 to 4:30 monday through friday she was at joffrey though, so she didn't go outside much except when she wasn't within those hours.

he takes her by the hand, the one that isn't carrying the full mug of scalding liquid, and leads her back over to the couch to sit down. the townhome wasn't much, either in terms of square footage or quality of the building, but it was theirs, and that was more than enough of either one of them. and though he's a bit ashamed to admit it, he supposes the same could be said of the ring on her finger...

—

ricky had proposed to gina when the pair were pretty freshly out of high school. he "didn't want to take any chances on something he was so undeniably certain about". that was what he'd said to her, and while the proposal was perfect and sentimental and complete with a song he'd written on his guitar, it wasn't as though he had the sort of money he'd like to be able to spend on a proper engagement ring... so the diamond was fake.

he promised her he'd work to get her a real one, something she could be proud of wearing... but she'd shaken her head and just smiled at him. "what are you talking about, of course i'm proud of it. i'm proud to be engaged to you ricky, i don't need some fancy rock to know that."

her dismissal aside, when it came time for the wedding (which created quite the buzz around their old classmates), he had made sure he could get wedding rings that weren't so cheap. "a love that's meant to last deserves rings that will last a lifetime with you." sure the propaganda around the diamond industry, the wedding industry, was excessive and more than a bit ridiculous, and he knew it too.

forgive ricky if he says he wants to not just meet but surpass all of her expectations, he still has anxiety over a lot of things, it doesn't just go away now that he's started going to therapy, and frankly being good enough as gina's husband was definitely one of them.

—

"do you think we can do dinner on saturday instead of friday?" she asks him, legs draped over his lap as they sit together on the sofa. quiet voices and soft

"sure, i don't see why not." he nods, trying to think about what the weekend looked like for him so far. "what's going on?"

"i've got an audition..." she admits, and the way his face lights up is enough to make her blush.

"no- gina that's amazing! our date night dinner will just have to be a celebration dinner then." he's looking at her with so much pride, and she thinks she couldn't have gotten luckier in a partner.

"ricky, babe, i love you, and i really appreciate your enthusiasm, but it's just an audition... i don't have the job yet." she giggles, ruffling his hair and watching that one rogue curl fall into his face. she loved this man so much...

"gina... i know you're going to get the job. you're so incredibly talented, and you're going to joffrey. hell even just that you got in to joffrey. they have to take you." he insists, and she moves over to be closer to him before settling on just seating herself on his lap.

"you're perfect." gina says, and when she cups his face in her hands, she sees him shiver slightly as the cold silver of her ring brushes his cheek.

"no you." he replies.

she's about to close the distance between them when he takes initiative and does so himself, crashing his lips onto hers with a quiet fervor she was definitely not anticipating just now. ricky was passionate when he cared about things, and once they had finally gotten together, he always made it incredibly clear how much he cared about gina.

—

they made time around classes and working, making certain they did get their date nights once a week even though they did live together. and sure, things weren't perfect, but when gina remembers the way he looked at her the day she'd promised him to be his for the rest of their lives, and continues to look at her now, with such pure admiration and love, she knows that there was nothing she would change if she had the chance. deep down he was still the skater boy with ripped jeans and that silly smile he hid behind, but the boy she fell in love with had grown into a man who she would happily continue to love for years to come.

she called him perfect, though she certainly knows he isn't, no one is... what he is though is perfect for her. and gina couldn't be happier than to spend the next years of her life figuring out what their little definition of perfect would mean. she'd have taken a plastic ring he got from an arcade for a quarter if it meant she got to be his wife for the next however long the universe granted them. richard bowen was hers, and she was his, there was nothing more to it.