OneShots For All My Favourite Ships

#2

This for all my Cluby stans out there and my boy UniversalAsteroid. Ya like angst? Well here, take some.
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Clancy and Ruby. Ruby and Clancy. Even their names sounded good paired together. It was inevitable. It was meant to be. Two kids, friends from childhood, different appearance, different personality. A more obvious plot had never been written. The entirety of Twinford was sure of it. Their parents were sure of it. And Clancy Crew was sure of it.
He loved Ruby. He loved her so much. He didn't know what he'd do without her. Whenever Ruby was on Spectrum duty, he sat anxiously on the staircase, tapping his fingers against the telephone, waiting for Ruby to call, as she always did, to tell him she was back. He did sometimes fear for her life but as time went on he became more and more confident that she'd be fine. Ruby Redfort was no amateur. She could handle anything life threw at her and life really did throw everything at her. But Clancy still sat on that step, every time, waiting. He didn't read to pass time, he didn't go to the kitchen to fix a snack. He just sat there.
Eventually he got the call. He always got it.
----
16. Clancy was 16. He could barely believe it. He had often thought that he had been stuck as an awkward, scrawny, prepubescent preteen for the rest of his life, but somehow that had not been the case. His remarkable ability to age wasn't the most surprising thing though. He was still yet to work up the courage to push his relationship with Ruby a direction he felt they both wanted to go in. But Clancy wasn't worried. The town wasn't worried. It was like reading a book series and then watching the films and just waiting for your favourite moment to show up on screen, alive and in the flesh. It was bound to happen, they just had to wait. An agonisingly long time. But Clancy was patient and he was confident. The time just wasn't right that's all. He was just not ready to tell her yet, and a part of him was afraid it would all go wrong if he did.
His 16th birthday party was a success, both on his term and his father's. He had received many luxurious (but often impractical) gifts from visiting ambassadors and some considerably cheaper (yet somehow more sentimental) gifts from his friends and family. Everyone had come to the party at the Crew's mansion, and were all dressed immaculately. Clancy's father had been delighted at the number of photos the hired camera man had taken, and he had sent them off immediately to be processed so he could stick them in the next batch of letters and cards he sent to far off family members. Ruby had given him a bell for his new bicycle and a kiss on the cheek which had caused a round of delighted 'ooooohing'. Ruby had laughed as Clancy had gone bright red.
Clancy's cake was a Mrs. Digby special, baked in the shape of an Encyclopedia (much to Clancy's delight and mostly everyone else's confusion) and everyone had sung happy birthday together and cheered as Clancy blew out his candles. When he looked up he saw Ruby smiling fondly at him from around the other side of the table, as if she couldn't quite believe he was 16 either.
Ruby had (unusually) been the first to arrive at the party, and she was also the last to leave.
"Walk me to the gate?" She asked, and Clancy was happy to oblige. The moon was out and there was not a cloud in the sky as they walked towards the large gate at the front of Clancy's house. When they reached the gate Ruby turned to grin and say goodbye to Clancy.
"Happy Birthday Clance. But forgive me for saying that you'll always be my gangly teen." Clancy's stomach did a happy jump when she called him her gangly teen,
"I still feel like one." He rubbed the back of his neck and tried to think of what to say. Ruby gently pushed his chin up so he was looking her in the eye and pressed a small kiss to his lips. The wind seemed to sigh with relief, the birds chirped happily and behind them a spying Crew sister nearly fell out of the window swooning. The moment was finally here.
Houston, we have a problem.
But when Ruby pulled back from the kiss, Clancy could not say anything. He just stood and gaped like a fish. Ruby sighed this time, and it was more of a sad sigh than a contented one.
"Goodnight Clancy." She said quietly, and left.
-----
Clancy had often dreamed of graduating with Ruby as a couple. They'd hold hands as they walked onto the stage to collect their graduating certificates, and perform a picturesque kiss before the delighted screaming crowd. But when graduation rolled round, he and Ruby were still no closer to being together. He had to settle for a tight squeeze of the hand and a hug afterwards, and Clancy felt sadness spike his stomach as he descended down the school steps for the last time. Why did he feel like everything was ending when his whole life was before him?
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It was just a passing comment, just a sentence, with a name in it.
"Yeah anyway, this guy at work called Evan-" began Ruby between bites of her cookie at the graduation dinner.
"Hold on," said Clancy, going very white all of a sudden. "Evan?"
"Just this guy I know." Said Ruby vaguely, "You haven't met him. I don't think I've mentioned him before."
"You haven't." Said Clancy, and Ruby must have detected the twinge of jealousy in his voice because she gave him an odd look.
"Anyway..." she continued. Clancy zoned out. Evan? Who was Evan? What a ridiculous name. He sounded like a right clown. Clancy wished he could meet him. He could see it now, this Evan greeting him with a big stupid grin and Clancy would shake his hand tightly and that grin would just melt delightfully of that awful face, and...
"Clancy?" They were walking home, he and Ruby, for the last time. They were both attending Twinford University, Clancy for a degree in medical science and biology, Ruby under criminology and code cracking of all subjects, but she was required to take it for her Spectrum business.
"Yeah?"
"Are you alright? You seem kinda... distant?"
"Yes, I'm fine...Evan?" Ruby groaned.
"I wish I hadn't even brought that up. He's a guy I work with at Spectrum, like I said, strictly professional business. He's not some kind of super villain who is vowing to snatch me away from you." Clancy said nothing. "You have nothing to worry about Clancy. I don't care about anyone the way I care about you." Clancy looked up and saw Ruby looking at him, waiting, just waiting, for him to say the right thing.
But it felt like walls were closing in on him and Clancy couldn't even choke out a 'me too'.
-----
Clancy stood at the window of the coffee shop, holding the bag of groceries and slowly let his heart take the endless hits from a large metal hammer. Inside the shop, he saw Ruby sitting with who could only be that guy from work, Evan. She was talking and laughing with him over a cup of coffee, or even several. You have nothing to worry about Clancy.
He felt the hammer smash into his chest once more, and his heart shattered into tiny little pieces. Ruby chose this highly convenient moment to look up from her business meeting and she saw him watching agape from the glass. Her eyes widened and he saw her rise to greet him, or call him in or something awful like that, and he tore his eyes away from the heart wrenching sight and speed walked the way back to his university dorm. He was sobbing before he hit the bed.
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Evan this and Evan that. Was it all she ever talked about? It seemed to him that it was. What was worse was that she wouldn't even look him in the eye anymore.
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The day Ruby Redfort waltzed into his house with a horrifyingly shiny diamond ring on her left hand was the day Clancy felt the world would end. It sat there smugly on her finger, gleaming at him as it's delighted owner told Clancy all about how Evan had proposed under a starlight evening in the South of France during their recent vacation. She still hadn't looked him in the eye.
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Wedding preparations. Had it really been a year and half since the world ended? Clancy really had lost track. They were picking out the dresses, arranging the flower girls, writing invitations, booking venues. Clancy made himself useful. He really had nothing else to do.
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She wanted him to be bridesmaid. The head bridesmaid. Of course she did. The whole 'boys can be bridesmaids too!!1!1' thing was honestly exhausting. But Clancy went along with it, even though it broke his heart again just seeing that grin.
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Today was the day. The day that Ruby would walk down the aisle, smile on her face behind a veil, kissing a man who was not him. It also happened to be the day Clancy got to be a bridesmaid.
Hitch would be there, of course. Ruby had persuaded her father to let him walk her down the aisle with them. Hitch still worked for Spectrum. Not active service but he still played a huge part in proceedings. He had turned down the choice to become the boss because he still wanted to be hands on at Spectrum. That was Hitch, right down to the core.
Evan had shook Clancy's hand and he had been the one squeezing and making the joke about how he was astonished he had been to have the honour to marry Ruby. It sounded too much like something Clancy himself would say. And that's really what Clancy had a problem with. Evan was too much like he was. Same kind of humour, same kind of personality, heck, Clancy bet he even had been a seriously awkward teen just like him. It would have hurt much less if Ruby hadn't ended up with someone who felt like a replacement. Evan and Ruby reminded Clancy of what he had let slip away, and it was a mistake he would never let himself get over.
-----
Ruby looked up as Clancy walked through the door and smiled. She stood, the folds of her wedding dress rippling around her legs. She twirled.
"How do I look?"
"Beautiful." Replied Clancy quietly. "You always do." Ruby blushed a light pink and stared at her feet.
"I wish I didn't have to wear this dress. Even a skirt would have been nice, but you know how my mother is. Evan wouldn't have minded, bless him." A slight smile played on Clancy's lips, but he did not respond. Ruby hesitated.
"Are you okay Clancy?"
"Yes, yes I'm fine. Great." Ruby sighed, like she had sighed when she had again and again given him the chance to speak up, to take it to the next level, and he had repeatedly not been able to take that chance, and well, here they were.
"Can you help me put on my necklace?"
"Hmmmm?"
"My necklace." Ruby held out a tiny silver chain with a pendant, and in the pendant Clancy saw a flash of red. A tiny ruby, one that had accidentally made it into Clancy's pocket during the Martha Fairbank rubies incident, over a decade ago. Ruby looked him in the eyes for the first time properly since she had become engaged. Clancy registered all the emotions on her face. Sadness. Frustration. Fear.
"I love you." He said, but he had no pleasure in saying it. The words felt hollow and empty. They no longer held meaning or emotional significance. Too little, too late. Tears filled Ruby's eyes.
"I know. And I loved you too. But I couldn't stand around for my whole life waiting for you to say those three words." She huffed, as if letting out two decades of pent up feelings. "Goddamnit Clance why did you have to say this on my wedding day?" Clancy was crying. They were tears of regret. Ruby softened considerably as she saw Clancy hunched, small, fragile and letting the tears pour down his face. "I'm so sorry Clancy." Choked Ruby, as she swallowed and bit back tears. Clancy beckoned, and took Ruby's necklace from her. He shakily draped it around her neck and his hands shook so much he could barely do the clasp.
"It's only myself I have to blame. Evan's a good guy, he'll take care of you." Ruby sniffed and smiled.
"So you don't hate him?"
"I could never hate a person who Ruby Redfort is marrying." And suddenly Ruby's face was pressed into Clancy's suit jacket and Clancy had her pulled into a tight hug. He pressed a kiss onto the top of Ruby's head. "I'll see you there." He told her, and he left.
----
Clancy watched as Ruby walked down the aisle, Hitch on one arm and Brant Redfort on the other. Clancy closed his eyes, committing the sight to memory. He didn't want to forgot a moment.
Evan looked dapper in his blue suit and tie. His best man was just like him, the same bright shiny smile. Clancy wondered who he'd choose as best man if he had been up there. If he'd been up there. And Clancy realised that he still had a chance. Ruby was his life but life could be started over. He had to get away. He was never going to recover if he was watching Ruby do all the things with her husband that he had dreamed of doing with her.
----
Ruby looked over at Clancy while they were saying their vows. It was a final lifeline to Clancy. This was it. If he did nothing nothing would happen. And Clancy knew if he asked Ruby to run away with him at that moment she would. And that was why Clancy just nodded and smiled.
When the deed was done and the new couple sealed their intertwined fates with a kiss, Clancy clapped the loudest.
-----
Everyone shot off towards the refreshments tent afterwards, and Evan went with them to ensure there wasn't a riot. Ruby stayed behind a moment to receive congratulations from the vicar. As she stumbled out the church in her heels, Clancy stepped out from the shade.
"I thought I'd catch you before I left." He said.
"You're leaving?" Asked Ruby, incredulous. Clancy took a deep breath through his nose.
"I have to kind of get away, ya know. I can't waste my life away." Ruby nodded hesitantly. "I'll miss you." Said Clancy fondly, and just like that he set off across the lawns towards his car.
"When will you come back?" Called Ruby.
"When I can look you in the eye again and you'll stare right back!" He yelled back.
And Ruby knew then that she'd never see Clancy Crew again.
And she didn't.

It was like reading a book series and then watching the films and just waiting for your favourite moment to show up on screen, alive and in the flesh, but then the credits roll and the lights turn on and you realise they cut it out of the film.
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I spent a long long time writing this. I proofread, I changed a few words, I rewrote paragraphs and at one point I scrapped the whole thing and started again. I was determined nothing would be happy in this and I think I may have succeeded.