#lou's oc: romeo fogarty

[n0-eyedtaissa]

Five Long Days (Serpent Siblings!AU)

A/N: In follow up to Christmas Kids, the day after the Southside kids have themselves a Christmas party, Ruthie and Romeo wake up before anyone else and need a caffeine fix in order to quell the hangover. They share more than just breakfast and coffee, and are both counting down the days until New Years. (featuring literally all of @hughstheforcelou​‘s OCs)

Word Count: 3,028

The day after Christmas was a testament to how fast everything had the ability to change. None of the radio stations in town played any more Christmas music. All of the storefronts were abandoning their themed displays and the flashy, holiday tackiness. All across town families were discarding crumpled wrapping paper and big cardboard boxes that shiny new toys came in, beginning to repack decorations back into the plastic storage tubs to be pushed away into the rafters for the next eleven months. It was as if when the clock struck midnight on December 25, the fog was lifted and the harsh reality of the real world sank back in unclouded. Usually, the day after Christmas felt disappointing, a let-down after all of the build-up from the weeks before. This morning, though, was quite the opposite of disappointing.

Romeo Fogarty wakes up with a sharp pain emanating in his temples and when he squints his eyes open, it takes him a minute to realize where he’s at. The pillow that his head is pressed into smells clean, like cheap laundry detergent and lavender scented shampoo. The blankets are warm but not scratchy and old-feeling like the one’s in Abuela’s guest room. The curtains over the window are gauzy and paper thin, doing little to stop the bright morning sun from streaming inside. He tries his best to blink away the sleep and rub away the sandpaper feeling from his lukewarm eyes. His joints ache from being bent at odd angles to compensate for his height and his awkward frame against Ruthie’s, trying to keep as respectable of a distance as one could manage with the two of them tangled in her full size bed. They didn’t kiss last night or even touch, but it was something different. It would always be something different between the two of them. Romeo closes his eyes and wills himself to go back to sleep just a little bit longer to savor the moment, but like most things, sleep never comes easy when forced. He tries not to move too much and wake Ruthie up, rolling onto his back carefully and continuing his survey of the surroundings because Romeo realizes he’s never been inside her room. In the year and a half that he’d known Ruthie, he’d only known her bedroom as the second door on the right, a frame that she ducked through here and there to grab extra blankets or her glass pipe. Ruthie’s room is simple and it looks like it hasn’t really been redecorated since she was a kid. Romeo liked it, though. Thought it felt right for her. The comforter on the bed was purple and printed with flowers and there were more than enough pillows for the two of them. There’s a white wicker dresser that’s covered in what Romeo would call “typical girl stuff”: strewn clothes, Ruthie’s favorite pair of heart-shaped sunglasses, bright-colored bottles of lotions and sprays and polishes. There’s a bookshelf piled high with books and mix cds stacked in their colorful jewel cases — probably all of the ones she made for Spyder — Romeo thought, even though he didn’t like that he did. 

Romeo slept in his jeans last night, not wanting to do anything to make Ruthie uncomfortable. His belt buckle has been digging into his skin for hours now and Romeo finally decided to do something about it, holding his breath and doing a barrel roll out of Ruthie’s bed, pulling the purple blanket closer around her shoulders. Romeo stands in the middle of the room for a moment, taking it all in, not knowing the next time Ruthie would open her doors to him. There’s a long piece of string tacked to the wall with pictures clothes pinned to it, Romeo steps closer and investigates, rubbing his eyes: There’s  picture of young Ruthie and who Romeo could only assume was her dad, sitting in one of the booths at Pop’s, blowing out candles on a birthday cake. There’s a handful of pictures of Ruthie and Sweet Pea, a picture of Ruthie and little Queenie showing off their orange-peel smiles on the sidelines of a junior league soccer game. Romeo likes one picture specifically. He doesn’t know who was the one to take it because Ruthie, Dante, Spyder, and CD are all in the picture…a rare and momentous occasion. Ruthie’s head is tilted back and she’s laughing, her eyes crinkled like Dante had just told one of his shitty jokes. In the picture Ruthie looked carefree, comfortable, and unworried. Romeo wondered about the last time she smiled like that. Stopping in front of the bedroom door, Romeo takes a look at Ruthie who’s fast asleep, her hair covering her face and her mouth open only a little, and he feels a sort of deep tug in his chest but pushes it away as he turns the doorknob quietly, leaving her to sleep. 

“Bro! Oh no you fuckin’ didn’t!” CD whisper-shouts from his spot on the ratty green couch as he watches Romeo make his way up the hall. Romeo puts is finger to his lips to signal to be quiet but it’s no use because soon CD was rolling out question after question. 

“You dirty dog!” CD whisper-shouts again, smacking at one of the deflated couch cushions with an excited palm. “Man I’d like to be a fly on that wall!” 

Romeo rolls his eyes, “Watch your mouth, nothing even happened, fool!” He smacks CD’s leg as he sits down on the carpet with his back resting against the couch. There’s a baggie of weed on the table, leftover from their little event the night before, so Romeo starts breaking it up with his fingers so he can roll a joint. 

“They always say nothing happened when something actually happened” CD wriggles his eyebrows suggestively but Romeo is adamant. 

“Nothing happened, dude, be respectful” 

“Man she likes you, you know that right?” 

Romeo raises an eyebrow. “How do you know that, she say something?” He tries not to sound as eager as he feels but it’s obvious, especially to CD. 

“She ain’t gotta say shit, you can see it on her face, man” CD explains “I’ve known that girl for years and she doesn’t act like that with just anyone.” 

Romeo wants to ask like what, not being able to see these things since he hadn’t been around long enough, but instead he asks again, “How do you know?” 

“I’ve tried that door like a million times, man, that shit’s been locked…”

“Will the two of you shut the fuck up!” Spyder squints one of his eyes open and chucks a rolled-up sock at CD’s head before closing his eyes again, his hands folded over his chest as he laid back in the reclining chair. 

Romeo chuckles softly and goes back to rollin up his morning joint. The clock on the wall tells him that it’s finally nine o’clock and his stomach rumbles as if on command, he was in dire need of some breakfast and his morning coffee. Spyder falls back to sleep and so does CD, Dante’s such a deep sleeper that a hurricane couldn’t wake him up so he didn’t even budge to begin with. Soon the living room is quiet again, the only noises being the idle sounds of steady breathing and the occasional car horn or bird sound from outside. Time seems to move slower that morning, as though time stopped after Christmas and the five of them had yet to catch up. Romeo doesn’t know how long he was sitting on the floor in front of the couch, could’ve been twenty minutes but it could’ve been an hour. Yet still, sometime after he hears the doorknob turn. 

Ruthie is still wearing her tights and her socks from last night, though she elected to trade her hand-sewn party dress for something more comfortable. Her big sweatshirt dwarves her frame and Romeo can’t help but think she looks cute with that sleepy look in her eyes. “Morning” she mumbles, like she was surprised that Romeo was awake. 

“Morning, Shorty” Romeo smiles and tucks his tightly rolled joint behind his ear for later.  “Sleep okay?” Ruthie nods noncommittally and looks around the living room to survey for any open spots she could sit in. Spyder was snoring in the recliner, Dante was sprawled out on the love seat with his long legs bent over the side, and CD was taking up all of the space on the big couch. 

Romeo gets up quickly, “You hungry? Angel’s definitely at the coffee shop by now, lemme buy you breakfast.” It wasn’t really a question — he wasn’t going to take no for an answer even though he knew that Ruthie was more than capable of paying for herself. It wasn’t that he was trying to buy her affections, Romeo simply wanted to spend more time with her that wasn’t clouded by knowing glances and the immature comments from his cousin and their friends.

Ruthie is quiet for a second, half drowsy and contemplating. She looks down at her sock covered feet and then back up at Romeo, “What about these guys, though?”

Romeo kisses his teeth and waves a noncommittal hand, “These fools sleep like they’re dead, I guarantee you we could leave and come back and they’d all still be out cold.” Ruthie cracks a sleepy smile because she knew Romeo was right. “Go grab a jacket, Ruth, it’s cold out…” 

Ruthie and Romeo bundle up in their puffy winter jackets soon Ruthie is pulling the front door closed quietly behind them, trying not to disturb the three boys still sleeping inside. The two of them make their way down the front steps of the house and hold onto each other as they try not to slip on the icy gravel in the driveway. It feels eerily silent outside and the cold only made it more apparent. That false sense of warmth that the holidays can bring on was starting to fade, and by the stroke on midnight on New Year’s Eve, anything left of that so-called holiday magic would be gone without a trace. The December air is the kind of cold that stings their noses as they inhale and Ruthie finds herself taking the corner of her sweatshirt sleeve to dab at the corner of her watery eyes. Neither one of them say a word until they’re outside the confines of Sunnyside Trailer Park, as if everyone in the neighborhood had their ears pressed to the doors waiting to hear their secrets. 

“Remember that thing I said yesterday, Shorty?” Romeo pipes up, slowing his pace in order to compensate for Ruthie’s shorter legs. 

“Which part?” Sure a lot of word were exchanged between Ruthie and Romeo yesterday at the Christmas party, but even more was left unsaid.

“About, you know…” Romeo feels his face heat up as he finds himself shying away from an honest declaration of his feelings. It felt more real today, like it held more weight. Last night things felt easy because it was Christmas and they were carefree and happy and under the influence of more than just the Christmas spirit. Romeo sighs and decides to spit it out: “About me thinking you’re pretty and like…wanting to do something about that.”

Ruthie stops in her tracks, smirking at she shields her eyes in order to look up at him. “And what do you think you’re gonna do about that, Fogarty?” Ruthie hopes that she sounds flirtatious but she thinks it might’ve actually come across as mean. 

He smiles down at her and thinks for a second. “I don’t really know yet, Shorty but I think I’ma start with this” Romeo reaches for her hand and interlocks his fingers with her own. Ruthie squeezes his hand and they keep walking. “That okay?” 

“Definitely okay”

They hold hands for the entire rest of the walk to the coffee shop although neither one of them were talking all that much. Silence was comfortable between Ruthie and Romeo, they didn’t feel the need to fill the empty spaces in conversations only for the sake of talking. It sounded cheesy to admit, but it felt like the two of them were on the same wavelength; always somehow able to understand one another without having to say anything. Romeo opens the door for Ruthie like always but this time it feels different. Both of them are painfully aware of the fact that Angel Abrejo is staring at their entwined hands from under the dorky visor he had to wear while he was working.

“Looks like the Christmas party was pretty exciting?” Angel raises his eyebrow and Romeo’s neck gets hot. 

“You could say that” Ruthie laughs and squints at the menu above his head. She didn’t need to look at the menu, she’d been a consistent enough presence at the coffee shop that she already had her usual…she just didn’t want to meet Angel’s gaze right now. Angel had been finding reasons to push the two of them together since they met and neither one of them wanted to give him the satisfaction of an I told you so.

“All right man, lemme get a large black coffee and a slice of that banana bread…and I assume Shorty over here wants her usual?” Romeo smirks down at Ruthie, his thumb brushing over the back of her hand. 

Ruthie gives an emphatic nod yes and Angel looks at both of them like he’s on the verge of throwing up. Romeo takes his coffee with no milk but lots of sugar and Ruthie crinkles her nose in distaste as he pours another sugar packet in his ceramic mug. He laughs at her and steals a bite from one half of her chocolate chip bagel. The two of them finish their breakfast and leave the coffee shop feeling more energized and much less hungover. Both Ruthie and Romeo were unofficial caffeine addicts who weren’t afraid to admit it — that was another thing they had in common. 

They don’t say it out loud but they both start heading the long way home. Romeo remembers the joint he has tucked behind his ear and retrieves it and his lighter, sparking it up and handing it to Ruthie who politely declines. 

“Sometimes, when I get too high I think people can’t hear me so I start talking really loud…” She shrugs, somewhat sheepish. 

Romeo laughs loudly, puffing away, “Believe me Ruth, I’ve realized.” Ruthie shoves him playfully and Romeo runs a few steps away from her, whooping as he bobs and weaves out of her arms reach. 

Ruthie runs after him, giggling, and suddenly it’s a full blown race: Romeo’s holding onto his belt as he runs, his puffy jacket billowing out behind him as he tried to catch up to Ruthie a few paces ahead of him. She may be skinny but she’s fast, her freshman year of high school Ruthie was almost a star of the girls track team before it lost its funding. Shortly thereafter she decided to dedicate more of her time to smoking cigarettes and consuming her weight in french fries from Pop’s. Ruthie might have been out of running shape but she wasn’t going to lose to Romeo. Her lungs are burning because of the cold air and she can feel her breakfast churning in her stomach but she looks over her shoulder and keeps running all the way to the street corner Ignacio’s bodega was on, smiling the entire time.

“Jesus—“ Romeo leans over and puts his hands on his knees as he regulates his breathing, “—why did I do this — I hate running!” He wheezes and Ruthie laughs, pushing her windswept hair out of her face. 

“It’s not your fault, the oxygen is much thinner up there” She winks, joking about his height. Ruthie’s about a head shorter than Romeo but she’s all long, skinny legs. 

“Yeah, maybe that’s it” 

They sit on the front steps of Ignacio’s and catch their breath, taking a moment to sit and pet the bodega cats. Ruthie gives them scratches behind their ears and Romeo tries his best not to sneeze. Ruthie holds Romeo’s hand hight as she pulls him up from the stairs now that he’s caught his breath and they continue their way home, wondering how much damage they would be met with having left Dante, CD, and Spyder unsupervised for a handful of hours. 

The two of them stop short in front of the Sunnyside Trailer Park sign and Ruthie looks over at Romeo, confused. 

“You know I wanna kiss you, right Shorty?” Romeo sighs. He’s nervous for lots of reasons. One being that he’s never kissed a girl before and he doesn’t wanna fuck it up somehow, the other being that he was nervous about overstepping Ruthie’s boundaries or taking her too far out of her comfort zone. Hell, it had taken them a year and a half to even hold hands, how long would it take for something like that to happen if both of them were too scared to be honest and make a move. 

“Really?” Ruthie was just as nervous as he was. 

“Yeah…is that okay?” Romeo asks and Ruthie nods in response, taking his hand. Definitely okay. “I know you don’t like surprises so I wanted to tell you and all.”

Ruthie quirks up an eyebrow at him. “Okay…so are you gonna do it?”

Romeo’s face heats up. “Well, uh, not now, no—” he sputters, feeling thrown off guard. “cause I just told you it was gonna happen and like, I dunno. Gotta let the tension build…”

“Oh-kay” Ruthie says with bemusement, pulling Romeo into the grid-work labyrinth of trailers and motorhomes. 

“I’m gonna kiss you on New Years, Shorty, just you wait” Romeo smiles at her, pulling her closer to him and slinging his arm around her shoulder. 

“That’s a whole five days away!” She protests.

“Tension, Shorty. Gotta build some tension!” Both of them would find those five days to be the longest ever. 

[n0-eyedtaissa]

Christmas Kids — Ruthie Soh-Peterson x Romeo Fogarty (Serpent Siblings!AU)

A/N: Just a little late Christmas/holiday themed moment about Ruthie and Romeo for @hughstheforcelou​! Featuring secret Santas and not-so-secret feelings when Ruthie and Romeo take a break from the family Christmas party.

Word Count: 3,707

Holiday season at the Fogarty household was always a big deal. The Abuelas decorated every available surface with knickknack Santa’s and intricate Christmas village sets that included moving pieces and miniature light fixtures that actually worked. Decorating was a weekend-long event that took all hands on deck. Maria and Atzi sat, watching and instructing as Dante and Fangs brought the big boxes down from the rafters so they could pick through which decorations were deemed worthy of the occasion. Dante was getting frustrated with how indecisive Maria was being, like how she would tell him to put a big box away just to have him cart it back down a few minutes later. When Fangs got on the roof to string the icicle lights, Dante grabbed the ladder and ran off with it so Fangs was stuck up there in the cold until Atzi threatened to whack Dante with her cane if he didn’t get his brother down from there this instant. But because the Abuela’s had scheduled extra time on their decorating agenda (space to either be filled by snacking or arguing), they had predicted that something like this would happen so they found a way to work around the two brawling boys, chastising them and letting them know there was still more work to be done. Maria decided it was smart to let Dante get some of his anger out, so she tells him to set up the nativity scene in the front yard and hands him a mallet. Dante laughs as he goes to town staking the hollow plastic pieces into the dry yellowed grass. When he’s done, he pulls out a cigarette and stops to admire his handiwork, basking in the warm glow of the lights. He exhales sharply, unable to distinguish his cigarette smoke from the warm fog of his breath against the cold air. 

Christmas on the Southside of Riverdale was never something that felt unnaturally hopeful: you were born knowing that Santa was too good to be true, and that it was always better to get new socks as a present because they’ll be useful long after any toy. Christmas morning was meager at best, but always appreciated regardless. It was humble, and on the Southside you learn early that there was nothing wrong with being humble. Ruthie had this theory that people like the Abuelas would dress up fancy and decorate their houses with bright colorful items as an attempt to brighten up their way of life, to make even the most mundane things feel exciting, even if they weren’t. Like if they could distract someone with bright lights and sparkly tinsel, everything in the outside world wouldn’t feel so shitty by comparison. It still seemed to be working on Sweet Pea and Fangs, but Ruthie had outgrown the sugar-rich feeling of artificial Christmas cheer. Things felt forced this year, though no one could put a finger on why. It felt like the first breath of fresh air that anyone had in a while, but it would prove to be the last breath of fresh air they’d be able to take for the time coming. 

When she thinks no one is looking, Ruthie slinks out of the living room and into the Fogarty’s garage in order to sneak out the side door. She makes her way outside unscathed, it was the part of the evening in which everyone was either too full, too buzzed, or too hopped up on sugar. Dante was leaning back in the reclining chair, one hand resting on his stomach from eating one tamale too many. Sweet Pea and Fangs were laying under the Christmas tree playing with the new Lego set Fangs got, looking over their shoulders and snickering as they listened to the Abuelas as they belted along to old Christmas records. It was the perfect diversion tactic. Ruthie shivers as the late December wind picks up, but she’s had enough peppermint Schnapps where she can try her best to pretend that the cold doesn’t bother her as much as it does. She pulls her pack of cigarettes out of the pocket of the dress Atzi made her, but before she can light it a voice pops up from over her shoulder. 

“Trying to get away from us already, Shorty?” Ruthie looks up and finds none other than Romeo Fogarty standing in the doorway. He smiles and steps out into the cold, rubbing his hands together. 

Ruthie fumbles to light her cigarette and she hopes that Romeo doesn’t notice. 

“I just needed a breather, I guess”

Romeo nods, “I feel that.” The two of them stand next to each other quietly in the side yard, the sound of laughter trickling from the windows as everyone inside got their second wind of energy. Neither one of them talk for a little, and neither one of them have a problem with it. It’s always Romeo that breaks the silence, though.

“So do you know who had you for Secret Santa?” The wind picks up and blows loose leaves over the concrete and stirs Ruthie’s hair around her shoulders. Romeo looks over at her and her bare arms starts shrugging off his cardigan before she could say no. Ruthie tries to scowl at him but she knows it’s no use. 

“Of course I do,” She laughs “I know who everyone has….And I think I know what everyone got, too” She raises a conspiratorial eyebrow at Romeo as she flicks away her cigarette ash. 

“Well, now you’re speakin’ my language!” Romeo laughs, giving Ruthie a nudge in hopes that she’ll divulge some details.

“I’m not telling you shit” She nudges him back and tosses her cigarette on the ground. 

“That means you have me, huh Shorty? Am I gonna like my present?” He teases. She shakes her head at him.

Ruthie can’t help but laugh, knowing that Dante had been pestering her about the same thing as well, earlier that evening. Once Maria and Atzi finally declared the Christmas party was over, Ruthie, Romeo, Dante, CD, and Spyder were all planning on heading over to the Soh-Peterson household for their own kind of after party. When the topic of doing a Secret Santa gift exchange came up, Ruthie really didn’t think anyone would follow through with the idea but they did. Earlier that month they had drawn little slips of paper out of one of CD’s old hats, each one with a name on it. She coordinated all of it. She was Spyder’s secret Santa, he was Dante’s, Dante was Romeo’s secret Santa, CD was Ruthie’s, and Romeo was CD’s. And ever since then, Ruthie had been getting pestered with questions by her friends: Do you think he’s gonna like this? What should I get him? What do you even like? For a group of friends that had known each other for years, they were all rather unobservant.

“My lips are sealed for another handful of hours”

Romeo sighs with fake defeat and pulls a joint from behind his ear, where he always put it for safe keeping. He lights it and inhales, the smoke engulfing the shoddily rolled paper. Ruthie watches the smoke seep from the gap between Romeo’s lips, how he blew out small little smoke rings that got carried away on the cold breeze. She puts out her hand out to take the joint but Romeo smiles and leans away. “You’re not gonna get any of this until you tell me some shit” 

Ruthie laughs loudly at his persistence and weighs her options. She knows that she’d have no problem divulging any secrets to Romeo, but she also knows that Dante and the rest of her friends took this Secret Santa business very seriously and would be upset that she let Romeo get a leg up in the game. So she does what she’s learn to do best and compromises the best way she can. 

“I’m not your Secret Santa, I’m Spyder’s” Ruthie lets it slip and only feels a little bit bad about doing it.  “He finally got the speakers in his car fixed so I made him a mix CD for the first time we all go out driving again.” She looks up at Romeo and sees an emotion on his face that looks a little bit like jealousy. 

“Well, I’m sure he’s gonna like that, Shorty” Romeo nods curtly and hands the joint over to Ruthie. 

Something about his words feel too harsh, heavy with the weight of something not understood fully enough to be well communicated. Ruthie wraps her sweater — Romeo’s sweater— tighter around herself and crosses her arms over her chest, suddenly feeling a lot smaller, like she had done something wrong. She wonders of she’s just already paranoid from the weed, tells herself that she’s being silly and reading into things and nothing was wrong at all. She inhales a big lungful of smoke and tries to act like she doesn’t have to cough when she hands it back to Romeo. 

“Yeah he’ll probably like his present, but I’m not too sure you’ll like yours…” Ruthie smirks over at Romeo, trying to probe past the tension that might have been present. She leans closer towards him, opens herself up to him more. Romeo seems to pick up on the shift and smiles down at her.

“What’re my odds?” He winces in preparation.

“About 50-50, I’d say” Ruthie blows a cloud of smoke upwards “You know Dante’s really hit or miss with gifts” She bites at her lip as she divulges that little piece of information, hoping that it might make up for earlier. Romeo laughs and starts nodding in agreement. 

There’s some sort of a commotion from inside that brings them back to reality, popping the little bubble of privacy they were able to have for a brief moment. Dante’s voice pipes up loudly and Ruthie guessed that meant Spyder and CD had finally arrived, or that he had finally slept off his food coma. The door that leads from the house into the garage opens and Dante ducks out, grabbing a six-pack of beers from the outside refrigerator before heading outside. “Nah man, I dunno where either one of them ran off to” Dante says, unaware of the fact that Ruthie and Romeo were only a few feet away, just outside of the side door and unseen in the shadows. When the coast is clear the pair break out laughing at their friend’s obliviousness. Now they had a secret just the two of them could keep. 

“Guess we should be getting back inside, huh?” Ruthie scuffs the toe of one of her hightop against the handprints that were pressed into the cement ground, not really wanting to meet Romeo’s eye. She feels a little bit deflated, like this was a moment that was hers for the taking yet she didn’t know what to do with it. 

Romeo takes a short pull from what’s left of the joint and hands it over to Ruthie one last time. “Nah, I’ll go inside and start corralling those idiots so we can do presents. You kill that joint and then come and join us, you probably need that shit more than I do, any ways.”

“You’re probably right…” She smirks.

“I’m gonna head inside now” Romeo adds, somewhat awkwardly. “You just finish taking your breather, Shorty, don’t even worry about those guys.”

“Why thank you, Romeo” Ruthie rolls her eyes but she smiles afterward, laughs at this unnamed thing they were both experiencing. 

“You ain’t gotta thank me” Romeo adds, turning on his heels and starting to walk back through the garage before stopping abruptly. “You look nice tonight by the way…pretty” He tacks the word onto the end of his sentence like it’s a nervous afterthought. He looks at Ruthie in her hand-sewn party dress (made from the green velvet that Atzi got from the fabric store for a great bargain), his own sweater dwarfing her skinny frame, sees the hole in her tights her uneven socks, and her beat-up hightop sneakers. And he thinks, ‘Wow…’ He had meant what he said. He thought Ruthie was one of the prettiest girls he’d ever seen. Hell, he hadn’t seen all that many girls but right then and there he knew that she would top every one of them. 

She looks over at Romeo, half flattered and half confused, like she was waiting for a punch line that made her the butt of the joke. “Thank you” She says. “You know, in the entire year or so that I’ve known you, I don’t think you’ve ever called me pretty.” She tries to laugh off her discomfort but Romeo picks up on it easily. 

“I mean it” He rebukes, wanting her to realize that he meant what he said because it was true. “But I guess for you to know that, I gotta tell you more often, huh Shorty?” His playful confidence is back again. Same Romeo, charming as ever, but now Ruthie knew that he liked her, and she thought that maybe she could like him to, or that maybe she had liked him this whole time and now she just had a better word to describe what she was feeling. 

“Guess so” She smiles through a cloud of smoke, meeting Romeo’s eye one last time before he retreated inside to start gathering up everyone for their secret Santa gift exchange and getting their after-party started. Ruthie lingers for another few moments in the dark, stomping out the joint on the concrete and putting the roach in her pocket. She pushes her thick hair out of her face and sighs, butterflies bounding in her stomach every time she heard the echo of Romeo’s words in her ears, I mean it. She feels her cheeks get hot and goes to rush inside knowing that by now there was no way that her friends didn’t realize she’d been unaccounted for. She waits to sneak back inside until she hears an uproar of CD’s loud laughter, hoping that her return would go unnoticed if the boys were already distracted. 

“Where ya been, Ruthless!” CD’s already drunk when he runs up to hug her, his frame feeling heavy and unsteady. “Dante told me you Houdini’d and he’d been looking everywhere for you”

Ruthie rolls her eyes and can’t help but laugh. “He would’ve had a lot easier of a time finding me if he bothered to get his lazy ass up out of Maria’s chair!” Last time she saw Dante, he was taking a nap with his belt undone and his dress pants unbuttoned. 

Dante flips her the bird but still hands her a beer, and soon everyone is getting ready to head back over to Ruthie’s for the gift exchange. The Abuela’s make sure that the kids leave with a Tupperware dish full of tamales and the first thing Spyder does once Ruthie unlocks the front door is head over to the microwave (like he usually does). Romeo pours up a round of shots for everyone and Ruthie drinks both hers and CD’s too. He stares at her with wide eyes when she drinks both down without even flinching and Ruthie laughs, giving him a wink that wasn’t at ass as smooth as she hoped it was. The five of them drink more and a heated debate breaks out between CD and Spyder about whether or not it’s sacrilegious to roll a cross-joint on Christmas. They all argue while trying to find a Christmas movie that they could all actually agree on (Home Alone 2, of course), but they spend too much time talking about their respective awkward interactions with distant family to even really pay all that much attention to it in the first place. Dante starts getting impatient (because he always was impatient) and decided that gifts needed to be doled out at that very moment. He hops up from the couch quickly 

Ruthie handed Spyder a jewel case with a mix cd covered in sharpie doodles. She hand drew the cover art and wrote all the names of the tracks in her nicest handwriting. “Cause you got your speakers back, I figured you needed some good music.” Spyder puts his hand on her shoulder and gives a tender squeeze, the closest thing one might get to a hug from him. 

Spyder hands Dante a cross-joint and a lighter in a ziplock bag. Turns out he was rolling up Dante’s present that whole time. “It’s the gift that keeps on giving, you know?” 

CD gets a big mason jar filled with his favorite sour candy from the bodega. He gets so emotional that Romeo remembered all of his favorites that he just about sheds a tear. He watches the candy jar like a hawk for the rest of the evening, a protective hand sitting on the lid at all times. 

CD tries to juggle three packs of fancy cigarettes that he knew Ruthie liked to buy from Ignacio’s, ends up tossing them to her one by one. “Nearly risked my life to get this shit” He laughs, launching into an animated story about his attempts and Ruthie tucks her feet up under herself, getting comfortable and unwrapping the plastic from around one of the packets.

Last but never least was Romeo. Now Dante wasn’t always the most sentimental, he’d always say that he was shitty at gift-giving, but Romeo was his cousin and he was having a rough time so Dante wanted to do something nice for him. “If you don’t like it, blame Ruthie cause she was the one who helped me pick it out.” He laughs somewhat awkwardly as he handed Romeo his gift. Tearing away at the newspaper, Romeo reveals the small red leather-bound journal and runs his fingers over the spine. “Thank you” Romeo replies, and Ruthie knows it’s aimed at her more than it is Dante. 

Christmas on the Southside was humble, but more often then not the small gifts shared among family and close friends were what always meant the most. A small recognition, a nod towards the gratifying ordeal of being understood by those worthy enough to be close to you. The five of them — Ruthie, Dante, Spyder, CD, and Romeo, knew more about the others than most of the outside world would ever. They knew each others strengths, weaknesses, knew each other well enough to see something and say hey, this made me think of you. They all liked their small gifts more than they would let on. CD shares his candy with his friends, but makes sure that he had enough saved for later. Dante never had a problem sharing his weed, he was sitting back in the big comfy chair and laughing at the end of Home Alone. Ruthie would always share her cigarettes, and never minded all that much when CD launched into one of his many animated stories about the situations only he could find himself in. Spyder knew that next time they went out driving, they had a soundtrack to yell and scream with the windows down, and Romeo could write all about it in his journal, cataloguing the best and the worst and understanding that growing up was hard and the world was cruel, but it was always sweeter when you had good friends by your side. 

They let the movie credits roll and they pass around what was left of Dante’s Christmas present. Ruthie doles out glasses of water and painkillers in preparation for the morning. She takes CD’s sticky sugar-covered hand out of his half-empty candy jar and puts a blanket over Dante as he snored. Thinking that everyone was probably asleep by now, Ruthie hikes herself up onto the kitchen counter and opens the window, pulling the white ceramic ashtray from its spot inside of the cabinet. She lights one of her fancy new cigarettes and resists the urge to pull at the too-high collar of the dress that Atzi made her. She blows a thin stream of smoke towards the window and takes a big sip off the discarded bottle of cheap tequila that Spyder brought from home. There’s a creak from the other end of the house and Ruthie snaps her head to attention. 

“Can’t sleep?” Romeo asks, rubbing his glassy eyes as he filled a chipped mug full of tap water from the sink. He pushes himself onto the counter next to Ruthie and scoots close to her so that their knees are touching. He takes a big sip of water and offers her some. 

“Haven’t got around to trying” She takes the water from his hands and finishes it.

“I feel that” He echoes his words from earlier that evening and suddenly it’s like they’re back outside at the Fogarty’s house again, hiding and smoking in the side yard and trying to navigate their feelings in a way that didn’t seem so scary. Ruthie leans her head down slowly until it comes to rest on Romeo’s shoulder and both of them try hard to pretend like they’re not completely breathless. His skinny fingers play with the ends of her hair and she hums contentedly.

“So did you like your present?” Ruthie asked, her voice tickling Romeo’s ear. 

“I loved it” He replies with the same forceful certainty as before. I mean it. I loved it. Like he always wanted to make sure that Ruthie knew that he was serious and to be believed. 

“Merry Christmas, Romeo” She whispers into the dark expanse of the kitchen. She can smell his cheap aftershave, can feel the vein in his neck pounding nervously after this bout of newfound contact. 

“Merry Christmas, Shorty” He mumbles into her hair, smelling the floral perfume of her shampoo. The two of them sit like that for a few quiet minutes, with Ruthie’s head on Romeo’s shoulder. His hand rests on one of her knees, his thumb tracing around one of the rips in her tights. Ruthie laces her fingers with Romeo’s and slides off of the kitchen counter, leading him down the hallways and towards her bedroom. 

[n0-eyedtaissa]

Ruthie

a song that reminds me of them: She’s the Prettiest Girl at the Party and She Can Prove It With A Solid right Hook by Frank Iero

what they smell like: lavender shampoo and clean linen 

an otp: ruthie and romeo fogarty ( @hughstheforcelou‘s oc)

a notp: ruthie and malachai.....but that’s what makes the two of them so fun to write (i am currently getting VERY carried away with that)

favorite platonic/familial relationships: her relationship with dante fogarty, CD, and spyder (all @hughstheforcelou‘s OCs)

a headcanon that is popular in the fandom but that i disagree with: that sweet pea has a daddy kink. that’s why i created ruthie and focused on him from a more familial aspect.

the position they sleep in: ruthie sleeps on her stomach, splayed out. 

a crossover au i’d love to see them in: hmmm Any crossover lol, but I'm currently loving the little piece ruthie get’s to play in A Lifetime of Promised by lou! 

my favorite outfit they’ve ever worn: she’s a simple gal. she loves her overalls and so do i.