RayEmma Oneshots

Overworking

RayEmma Week—Day 7: Summer time

It was late evening, and Ray was still working.

The company he, Norman, and a smattering of some of the other escaped cattle children had built from the ground up was thriving. Which was phenomenal, of course; their whole, huge family could live in luxury without the help of the Ratris.

Though this prosperity also came with a fuckton of work, and being the overworker that he is, Ray often would take on extra hours, working well into the night. He'd even take some of Norman's shifts, being the hypocrite he was, to try to get the younger man to sleep. Not like either of them were very good at having a healthy sleep schedule, between work and the trauma-induced nightmares that still plagued them two years after arriving in the human world—and a month after finding Emma.

They'd spent these past two years searching all over for her, until they finally found her in a small town cut off from society. From there, they brought her back to the mansion they now owned (take that, Ratris) and have finally settled down, instead of roaming the globe looking for her.

Though while they may have settled down here in the human world, a portion of their minds and hearts would forever be trapped in the demon world; still plagued by nightmares of Grace Field and the other premium farms, Goldy Pond, Lambda, the many battles and hardships they'd faced.

Ray in particular was stuck in a whirlwind of memories from the past as Emma quietly opened the door. "Ray, are you coming? You said you'd come with."

Ah, right. Despite it being in the middle of summer, this evening was surprisingly cool; the rest of their family were all running around outside having a picnic, and Emma had wanted to drag him outside and show him something that was "very fantabulous". Really, Emma found everything to be 'fantabulous', or whatever new word she made up every time she saw something cool. But he couldn't blame her for being so in awe of everything around her—it had only been two years since they'd arrived in this completely different world full of wonders, and they'd only just reunited with her a month ago.

"The Earth isn't gonna magically disappear, It'll be fine if we go see whatever it is you wanna show me in another hour or so," Ray rolled his eyes, turning back to his laptop. He really needed to finish this outline.

In his peripheral vision he saw Emma shaking her head, and started to approach him. "You don't have to overwork yourself, y'know," she murmured, wrapping her arms around him from behind.

I do, he thought. It was basically his coping mechanism. Maybe not the most healthy one, but certainly a very productive one. He was always working himself to the bone, since it meant he could unfocus on his thoughts while simultaneously improving himself and his work to its maximum potential. The ultimate win-win, if you skip over the part where your health becomes shit in the outcome.

Though Emma has always been able to notice when he started spiraling into this habit.

Like now, as she suddenly grabbed his laptop and skipped away from him, cackling.

"Wh- HEY! Give it back!" Ray shouted as he scrambled out of his chair and tried to chase her.

Emma dodged his reach and kicked open the door, turning to him from the doorway. "Nope! No more laptop for you until tomorrow~" she said in a singsong voice, and then took off running down the hall to her room.

Ray immediately followed after her, yelling profanities that he was really glad the kids couldn't hear from outside.

He burst into her room, but he was too late; she'd already hid the laptop, and was standing near the door with a shit-eating grin.

"You little shit," Ray grumbled as Emma started giggling. He took her laughter as an invitation to flop on her bed.

Emma walked over and sat on the edge next to him, patting him on the head. "You can get your laptop once I've shown you the surprise, and once you have had a full 48 hours of doing nothing but relaxing," she said with a hum, ruffling his hair.

He batted her hand away, trying to fight the blush that was creeping up his face. "Hey, you said you'd give it back tomorrow," he complained—though he knew that he would just root through her room until he found it while she was sleeping, so it didn't really matter. She loses her right to personal space when she steals his belongings.

"Well, now you gotta wait." Emma poked him in the nose, Ray immediately trying to swat her hand away again; this time he was too slow, and she pinched his cheek. "You were just like this back then, too." She sighed, moving her hand back to his hair. "You'd think at least some of our habits would've died by now."

Ray grabbed her hand so she wouldn't keep moving it ignoring how romantic holding hands like this was in the light of the moon and lights of the city from the window. "Stop harassing my head. And no, apparently these habits will never end. So let's just accept that there's nothing we can do and give me back my laptop, please and thank you- ow!" He yelped out the last bit as Emma sharply pinched his cheek again.

"I thought you said you wouldn't give up anymore and you'd put effort into things now," Emma frowned; Ray knew the exaggerated frown was only partially for comedic effect. "Come on, just relax a bit more. Hang out with the kids, find a new hobby. Like cooking, you like that. Oh—remember that one camera you put together back in the bunker? Maybe go into photography. I dunno. Just do something that won't make you work so hard that you die."

"I'm not gonna meet my untimely death from filing papers," Ray grumbled. But under her glittering green gaze, that may have aged but never lost its glint of determination over the years, he knew he wouldn't win this argument. He couldn't. As he'd said many years ago, she was the best at making impossible things possible. And making already possible things very much possible. Like him taking a break.

So he sighed and sat up, ruffling his hair. "All right, let's go see whatever stupid thing you have planned for us," Ray muttered in monotone. Emma immediately perked up at this. "Yay!!" She shouted, and pulled him up to his feet.

She tugged him out the door and out the Mansion—he was surprised when she dragged him past their family and into the woods surrounding the mansion. "Where are we going-" Ray asked, but Emma just shushed him with a grin, never slowing.

"Okay, close your eyes," She said once they'd gone some ways into the woods. Ray complied, and Emma dragged him—slower, gentler, so he wouldn't trip over a root and die from breaking his neck—just a bit more, until they stopped.

"Can I open my eyes now," Ray asked, impatient.

"Yep!" Emma chirped, and Ray opened his eyes—to be greeted with a field in an opening of the forest that seemed to be made of blinking sunlight.

After blinking a few times, he saw that it was actually just completely filled with fireflies. They were everywhere, making the small break of trees seem ethereal, like a scene right out of a fantasy book. It reminded him of all the glowing fauna in the woods of the demon world—minus the part where most of them wanted to kill you.

"Woah," Ray muttered, awestruck at the fantastical view in front of him.

"See? I told you it was the most funtasticabulous sight ever!" Emma said, her smile heard in her voice.

Turning toward her, Ray noted how well the light of the fireflies illuminated her figure—her hair seemed to be glowing like flames in the golden light of the field, and her eyes glittered even brighter, complimenting the brightened green of the leaves around them. He continued to watch how she gazed at the fireflies with unrestrained glee, their light dancing in her eyes.

Despite being so much older and having gone through so much... standing here now on this summer evening, gazing at a sight filled with such beauty they thought they'd never be able to see, her eyes still glittered with childish awe. Brighter than any summer firefly.

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