Pairing: Ruhn Danaan/Lidia Cervos
Summary: This is just Ruhn taking Lidia to have some fun post-hofas.
Warnings: This have small Ruhnlidia spoilers! I wrote them after their hofas ending, so pls be aware!
AO3: Link | Thanks to my ruhnlidia friends for giving me the idea 🥹
“Drop everything you're doing. We're going on a date.” Ruhn stated, sitting on my table.
“Where are we going?” I replied without knowing if I understood his words correctly.
“We are in the middle of a working day!. We can’t leave Aux without superv…”
“We are going. Clean your desk.”
I cross my hands across my chest and look at him seriously, with my more menacing expression.
“I'm the Aux Commander, so I'm your boss and I'm kindly asking you to shut things down.”
Ruhn smiles. That damn charming smile, and he knows damn well that I lose the ability to argue against him when he does that.
“You can’t use the ‘I’m the commander’ card with your own mate.”
“I can't?” Ruhn says, leaning towards me until our faces are inches apart. “Who's going to stop me?”
I return the provocation with a fake smile, leaning further towards him.
“You can be the commander, Danaan” I whisper, bringing my index finger to his chin. “But I’m your mate, so I command the commander. And if I say you can't, then you can't. Am I wrong, Night?”
Lust stands out in the glance Ruhn gives me. He runs his tongue across the piercing in his bottom lip, pondering his next move.
“No. But if you refuse to go out with me to be stuck in this office on a very boring day, I will take it personally...Day.”
Appealing for my emotional side. Ruhn 1 x me 0.
I can't take it and let out a loud laugh, leaning back in the chair.
“Your plan was to come here and ask me out, but you didn’t plan where to take me?” I say, raising my eyebrows.
“ I've never taken you on a date. It would be our first, so I thought to let you choose where you wanna go.”
Even though we're having fun, I feel the weight of those words hit me. We are together. Married. We are mates. Still, Ruhn is right. We never had a date. The simple act of acting like a normal couple, developing our relationship like any other couple would, was taken away from us a long time ago. We had been trying to find a rhythm in our life as a couple, but with so much to resolve in our brief sigh of peace, marital plans ended up being shelved.
“And you're going to let me choose like this? Anything I want?”
“I enjoyed my youth. You didn't. Anywhere you want to go on our first date, I'll take you.”
“Even if I choose a very expensive restaurant?” I tease him one more time.
“Money has never been a problem for me. But I doubt you want to go to dinner somewhere fancy.”
And he was right. Gods, sometimes I hated how well he could read me.
“And you're right, I wouldn't like it.” I ponder for a few seconds thinking about everything I've ever wanted to do in my life, but never had the opportunity. Fun. Freedom. And a childhood dream that I was never able to fulfill. “Anywhere, really?”
Ruhn's confident face falters for a brief moment. Almost imperceptible to others, but to me it was visible.
“Any problems with the amusement park? I don't want to force you…”
“No way! I was just…surprised.”
I stare at my partner suspiciously. Ruhn was never the type to hide feelings and tastes, in fact, he was always like an open book that was even too open. Showing too much. Giving too much. Gods, he was on the verge of death, but he would run to save me even though he was mad at me, if the others hadn't stopped him. Of course I loved him even more for these attitudes. But I wouldn't want him to be uncomfortable because of me.
“Are you sure that's all?” I try to force it a little, checking if he will let anything slip.
“I am sure! Let's go before it gets crowded with noisy children.”
I smile at his overconfidence, but take his hand, leaving all the boring work behind.
The park is…noisy. Much noisier and crowded than I thought it would be. Despite our efforts, it was packed with a wide range of audiences. Children, family, teenage couples, elderly couples. It's a place for anyone, and everyone's so focused on having fun that they don't pay attention to us.
I squeeze Ruhn's hand tighter, afraid of losing him in the crowd. He squeezes my hand in response, offering a shy but welcoming smile.
“So, which attraction will it be?”
“Attraction?” I ask confused.
“Do you even know how an amusement park works?”
“I never stopped to think about it.” I admit, shrugging my shoulders. “I only saw people coming here and I wanted to come one day too.”
“Well,” my mate begins to drag me across the wide space. “There are several attractions here. Some are more radical, others more calm. Most are made to get the adrenaline pumping in you. There's usually a lot of screaming, especially in the Haunted Mansion and the Haunted tunnel.”
“Yes, haunted. Like in horror movies.” amusement dances on Ruhn's lips. “You stay in a small, roofless car. Then you enter this dark, gloomy tunnel or mansion, full of scary figures, coffins, skulls, blood, people jumping at you screaming out of nowhere, it's very...chaotic. But good if you like horror.”
“We can go there, I think I'd like to! I like horror movies”
My partner looks at me as if I were a mental hospital patient.
“Come on, Night! You have a skull tattooed on your hand, don't tell me you're afraid of horror things.”
“I'm not afraid!” Ruhn defended himself. “I just...it's not my favorite spot.”
I cast one more suspicious glance in his direction as we walk through the park. I evaluate some of the attractions trying to judge which one would not be boring.
“Okay, what's your favorite ride?”
Ruhn seems to be scheming something in his mind.
“Then take me there.” I encourage him to take action. For someone so brave, Ruhn seemed more fearful than usual. “I want us to have fun together, Night.”
I rub my thumb over his hand. Maybe he was nervous about it being our first date, but he takes a deep breath and smiles at me.
“Get ready then, I'm going to show you all my favorite rides to go.”
And he showed. The Teacups. A kind of chair that collapses from a frighteningly high height. The bumper cars that, although he denied it to the death, I won every time. Spinning gravity, The Rotor, Pendulum ride, he even encouraged himself to go in the haunted mansion with me and his frightened screams amused me more than anything. I have never felt so free and alive. Being able to be with my mate, without any worries, just acting like a normal woman was more than I could have asked for. Ruhn also won me a stuffed deer from one of the stuffed animal machines. I was still thinking of a name for my new creature when I felt like something was missing.
“I want to go on the roller coaster”
Ruhn doesn't show any reaction at first, but he seems to consider my request carefully.
“Are you sure about this, Day? Some roller coasters are dangerous, people vomit…”
“Oh please, Night!” I give him a quizzical look. “I've never been to one, I'm willing to do anything! Not to mention look at all the rides we've been to?! Every single one of them is dangerous, I'm sure we can face the roller coaster.”
Ruhn doesn't answer me, he just looks at me with a skeptical face and I knew he was about to give in.
“Please…” I give him my best pair of puppy eyes.
Ruhn catches me off guard and gives me a peck on the lips.
“Okay, sweetheart. Let's do this”.
I jump in celebration as we walk to the line. The queue was huge and we spent about five minutes standing around waiting until it was our turn. Ruhn was silent, making only occasional comments when I tried to talk to him. I didn't let myself be affected by his lack of words, I just held my deer plush and excitedly entered the attraction. Ruhn checked that the safety lock was truly secure about ten times and only stopped because the car started to move. At that time he grabbed my hand tightly.
“I love you.” Ruhn declared randomly.
“Because you are brave, you saved my life, you are beautiful, you’re my mate, you….”
I start laughing hysterically.
“I meant, why did you say that out of nowhere?”
“Because if we both die here…”
Another laugh that I can't contain.
“Honey, we're not going to die! It's just a roller coaster.” I stroke his arm trying to comfort him.”
“That's what you 're saying!” Ruhn argues desperately.
That's what I do, but Ruhn doesn't. When the carriage plummets at high speed, screams begin to echo and Ruhn's are the funniest. I couldn't stop laughing, I've never felt so complete. Full and sincere happiness runs through my veins and I wouldn't change anything right now. The wind whipping through the strands of my hair, the adrenaline burning in my blood, Ruhn's hand squeezing my thigh as he screams, terrified but smiling. Everything is a blur, the rise, the fall, the curves, suddenly we are upside down and before I could recover it starts again. And again and again. Happiness, freedom, fun, love for my mate who agreed to this madness for me, I experienced a real overdose of feelings in minutes, but it felt like hours until the carriage stopped and the lock released us to get up.
My breathing was labored and I still couldn't stop laughing. Ruhn, next to me, with his eyes closed, breathed deeply, trying to find the strength to stand up. My mate threw his head back and laughed loudly, slightly desperately, and it was the most beautiful sound I'd ever heard. The moonlight reflected off his lower lip piercing and I leaned in to give him a kiss.
Ruhn grabs my hand and we exit the attraction as quickly as we can to let the next group on.
“That was…Insane! I never felt like this! Wow, Night, that was absolutely hysteric…’
Ruhn lets go of my hand before I finish and sticks his face in the nearest trash can, throwing up his last meal. I have to bite my lip to contain the laughter rising in my throat, but the other part of me, the protective part, rushes toward him. What a great mate I am, laughing at my mate while he spilled his stomach.
I approach Ruhn, grabbing his hair with one hand and rubbing his back with the other. It doesn't take him long to get up and wipe his mouth with the sleeve of the shirt he was wearing under his leather jacket.
“Did you have fun?” That was all Ruhn asked me when he could speak.
“It was the most fun day of my life. In truth.”
“Great. So it was worth it.” My partner speaks still breathlessly and looks at me with satisfaction in his eyes.
He was much paler than usual though.
“I think we can go home now.” Ruhn declared
“I think we can face the roller coaster one more time.”
He looks me up and down in disbelief and I can't help the smile that appears on my lips. Ruhn gives me a playful shove and starts walking toward the exit.
I run until I reach him, intertwining our hands. I try to kiss him, but Ruhn avoids my face.
“I'm not going to kiss you tasting like vomit.”
“What nonsense! I've seen you worse.”
“I can't argue with that.”
We walked in comfortable silence to our apartment. As soon as Ruhn passes through the door and takes off his boots and hangs his jacket on the wall, I grab him with my hands in his strong arms. I look deep into those violet blue eyes, noticing the confusion in them.
“I also love you because you are brave, beautiful, my mate and…”
Ruhn shows me the middle finger in response to my mockery and I throw myself on the couch, laughing uncontrollably, while I hear him close the bathroom door.
