RayEmma Oneshots

Hold it in [Part 2]

Gilda loves Emma, she really does, but sometimes her idea of an ideal afternoon is not dealing with Emma's inane problem of the day.

Though recently it's been more like Emma's inane problem of the week, because of course every conversation Gilda's had with her eventually circles back toward Emma's - apparently problematic - feelings toward Ray.

"What do I doooooo," Emma mumbled, her head resting in her arms on a table in one of the spare rooms in the bunker. The pair was repairing shirts that had gained various tears in them - or, they were trying to, until Emma started flailing around about her current predicament. It was the day after Emma finally agreed to confess, though she hadn't made any progress yet, hence why this problem was still relevant. Though, to be fair, she had just done a near 180 from her previous attitude.

"Why don't you just go up and tell him?" Gilda calmly suggested.

Emma sighed. The first time she tried that, it didn't go so well. She just... didn't know how to do this. They never talked about romance at Grace Field, besides role-playing as princesses and princes—and even during that, she'd turn her role from a princess into a princess-warrior-dragon-witch who, instead if marrying the prince, fought a giant toad and won a soccer tournament, much to everyone's confusion. She lifted her head. "But I can't just upright tell him! He's a cool, calm, subtle person. I need to confess in a cool calm subtle way! I need to confess like... actually I don't know. Which is exactly my problem here!"

Gilda sighed. "If he felt the same way for you, wouldn't he feel that way for your authentic self? Just confess in a very Emma way and it'll surely be fine."

Emma mulled it over for a second. That did sound like something that would most likely be good advice. "Hmmm... but what if-"

"If confessing is a problem, why not just do something else to show your affection to him?" Gilda cut in, she wasn't going to get dragged into another repetition of Emma's rambling again. "Like what?" Emma asked, perking up. "Like... I dunno, hug him or something? If you can't articulate your feelings, at least show them."

Emma gasped. That was something she knew how to do, and wasn't just vague words bouncing around her head! "YES. I will do that!" And with that she bounced to her feet and ran out of the room. "Wait, there's still a few more shirts left!" Gilda called out as Emma tore away from the room. When she heard no response - the girl was too far away to hear her now - she let out an exasperated sigh.

—-

Emma sprinted into the kitchen, where she finally stopped and gasped for breath. Ray, who was working on his marvelous concoction of dinner (with a very cute concentrated expression on his face, Emma's brain found it important to add), turned around concernedly as he heard her enter. "You sound like a dying horse, what's the rush?" He smirked.

Emma just smiled at that, stepped forward and enveloped him in a big hug, happily leaning into his warmth. "What," Ray responded, sounding uncertain. He just stood there, soup ladle held uncertainly in the air, his limbs rigid in indecision. "I just wanted to give you a hug," Emma replied, practically the human embodiment of a smiley emote. Ray stood there frozen for another second, before he let out a little (still awkward) laugh and set his soup ladle down on the counter, and wrapped his arms around her as well, resting his head atop hers. Relieved that she had fully stopped ignoring him and was back to her affectionate self. They stood there for a few minutes, content to just be together, until Ray raised his head and looked into the pot of soup he was preparing. "I should probably turn off the burner..." he mumbled apologetically, and slowly unwound himself from Emma's hold. "All right..." Emma said, disappointment leaning into her tone.