Idk what happened to the text, it got deleted or something, so I just pasted it back in from my doc.
A Supernova AU (written before it came out) where Oscar gets injured in the “big battle,” and Ruby is waiting by his bedside, hoping he’ll wake up.
TW: coma
Ruby’s face was buried in her hands, and she felt numb. She’d been three days without a real rest, just brief naps. Three days of heartbreak, pain, and waiting.
A machine next to Oscar started beeping, and she saw something flashing green. She was almost sure the nurse had said that was a good sign.
Maybe...
Maybe he was finally waking up.
Hope trickled through her as she speed dialed Danna on her watch.
"I think he's waking up."
"Ruby you've called us four times already and it's been a false alarm."
Ruby hung up. She knew Danna would come anyways.
Oscar turned towards her, eyebrows drawn. Her heart clenched. She recognized the signs of a nightmare. He'd been having them sporadically. The nurses said this was a good thing- at least he was thinking lucidly in his dreams. Either way, Ruby couldn't stand to see him like this. A tear trickled as her own mind raced with scenes from the battle.
The smoke and screams thick. Red
Oscar being thrown back by an explosion.
Her running, the world slow. Blood pooling. His beautiful face marred by dirt and blood.
The memory of her own cries ripped through her mind.
Some machine started beeping, and Ruby pushed the memories away.
The door quietly opened, and Adrian and Danna raced to Ruby's side.
No Nova.
Ruby felt a sour taste touch her tongue at the thought of Nova.
Nightmare.
Insomnia.
The paradox.
A small movement caught her eyes. The flutter of eyelashes.
She could feel Danna and Adrian tense. She did herself.
There were no doctors here to witness Oscar awake, or check his vitals. With injuries abound, they were spread far too thin. Most patients were left with their families to care for them, and small amounts of medicine.
Oscar was muttering again, louder.
It sounded familiar.
"Ruby." Adrian whispered. "I think he's muttering your name."
Ruby's heart caught, and Oscar muttered again.
Ruby.
She dropped the uneaten bagel in her lap and pressed a hand to her mouth. Her cheeks were wet again. She felt Adrian squeezing her shoulder reassuringly.
Oscar's eyes fluttered open.
He locked eyes with Ruby and smiled, like she was exactly what he wanted to see. She couldn't believe it.
He was awake.
He wasn't dead.
He wasn't dead.
She started sobbing in relief.
The relief in Oscar's eyes quickly changed to concern. She squeezed his hand tight as she could.
She saw Danna and Adrian exchange a look. Wordlessly, they left, leaving them alone.
Ruby was still crying. Days of grief and anxiety, and finally, her Oscar was with her.
"Oh no, don't do that." Oscar covered her hand with his. She glowered at their hands, sniffling. He lifted it and brushed away a tear.
"That's a lot of okay's for a person who just came out of a coma." She mumbled.
Oscar gulped, and she saw pain reflected in his eyes, She couldn't help it, she started crying again.
Oscar cupped her cheek with his hand. She turned her face so it was pressing into his palm. "I really want to punch you." She mumbled into his hand.
"That's better?"
Now she was laughing and crying. She made a fist and bumped his arm.
"That was hardly a punch." He pointed out.
"Try me, Oscar. You scared me." She said, the words muffled by his hand.
"I scared me pretty badly too."
His hand gently gripped her chin and turned her face towards his.
"No matter what, I will always come back to you." He swore, his joking eyes for once serious. Her heart thumped painfully as she took in the magnitude of the promise. Lifting his hand, she wrapped her fingers cautiously around his.
"And I to you." She swore. Her words did not falter, nor her gaze as she looked into Oscar's eyes. As her words hit him, he relaxed against the pillow. He turned his hand so he could entwine his fingers in hers as he lowered his hand.
She noted how, like her, he seemed to want to be constantly touching- connected in some way.
She wasn't sure what that meant.
Oscar closed his eyes, and she could see his exhaustion. Tenderly she brushed her fingers against his cheek. He sighed and she saw the IV bag was slowly starting to drain.
"I'll be right here." Ruby promised, tucking a damp strand of hair behind Oscar's ear. He smiled faintly, and she saw... relief? Flash across his features.
"When I was-" He broke off, voice heavy. "I saw you. You were why. I kept going and fighting."
Ruby swallowed the lump in her throat. A final tear snuck out of her eye and she bent down a brushed a kiss on Oscar's feverish brow.
"I love you." She whispered, and his breath caught.
She got no response- he was too far gone.
She wondered when she realized it.
The explosion?
The wait?
Just now?
Was that truly what it took- a near death experience for her to understand?
Whatever the case, Ruby knew one thing as she sat back, gently holding Oscar's hand in hers.
Should I be worrying if I sometimes look at C++ code and think ‘this would be better with type traits’?
no but srly here at Reuben Industries we value strict adherence to the Don’t Repeat Yourself principle even if it means the the finished code is somehow twice as long. For example: read and weep
you know what they say: low-entropy low-volume codebase, low chance of achieving your life goals
