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Mari had always loved roller coasters. That didn’t tend to surprise people, given that every conversation with Mari was a small roller coaster in and of itself. Any time she went to any amusement park with any of her friends she always wanted to rush to the biggest, scariest looking coaster in the entire park, and then ride it over and over again until she was finally at a point where she looked like she was going to collapse. The same couldn’t always be said for her friends; Kanan had always been down to ride alongside Mari, but both of them still mocked Dia for the time Mari had dragged her along onto a ride when they had been around ten and Dia had ended up crying. Dia insisted that she had gotten over her fear since then, and that she wasn’t the scared child she had once been. And yet, whenever Mari and Kanan wanted to go on a massive roller coaster together and gave Dia the option to wait on the ground with their bags, she always jumped at the chance to take it.
All that said it had been a while since Mari had actually gone to an amusement park with any of them. It had been easy to plan and make the day trip back when they had been in high school, but once they had all gone off their separate ways to college, and had then graduated and entered the working world, their schedules didn’t line up quite as well as they once did. That was why Mari had been delighted beyond delight when Halloween had started approaching, and her lovingly wonderful girlfriend Ruby had suggested they go to one of the Horror Nights their local amusement park was putting on- delighted, and a bit surprised as well. In all the years they had been dating Ruby and Mari had never once gone to an amusement park together, and Mari had gotten it in her head that Ruby didn’t much care for them.
The park’s Horror Nights had plenty of things on offer: decorations covering the entire park, costumed monsters wandering the crowds and scaring people at random, a few haunted houses set up where other attractions usually stood. Rather than any of those, Ruby had seemed most interested in one of the park’s roller coasters; specifically, the biggest, scariest looking one they had to offer, and Ruby had made Mari promise to go on it with her, saying something about “wanting to face her fears.” Needless to say, Mari had been more than happy to agree to that.
So now the two of them were standing together in line for the coaster, as they had been for quite a while at this point. It had already gotten dark around an hour ago, though the park was open late tonight, and with all the lights covering every inch of the venue it was actually still just as bright as ever. If anything, now that the decorations could be lit up and the eerie reddish-orange floodlights could wash over the rides and the walkways, it looked even cooler than it had during the day.
“We’re getting close,” Mari commented, peering up towards the front of the line to see that there were only a few more people ahead of them. “Are you getting excited?”
“Mhmm,” Ruby replied, though it was obvious just from taking one look at her that she was a little jittery at the moment as well. She had been holding Mari’s hand the entire time they had been standing in line together, and Mari could swear she could feel Ruby’s pulse all the way through her fingers.
“Good. And don’t you worry your pretty little head about any of this,” Mari added on, reaching up to ruffle Ruby’s hair with her free hand. “Mari’s here to protect you from the big scary roller coaster.” That was enough to earn Mari a small giggle from Ruby, albeit accompanied by an eye roll, but she would still take that.
“You’re my hero,” Ruby said, cracking a small smile and leaning her head against Mari's shoulder.
It wasn’t much longer after that until they had reached the front of the line, and then they were shuffling onto one of the parked trains along with all of the other guests, finding a set of seats about two-thirds of the way back. The cars were only two seats wide, which meant Ruby and Mari got to sit right next to each other, and didn’t have to share their space with anyone else. Still, Ruby hadn’t let go of Mari’s hand all the while, and Mari did have to admit that the view from sitting there in the station was a little bit daunting. The ride already looked tall from the ground, but that first hill looked even taller when you were sitting there at the base of it, staring all the way up towards the top. If Mari had never been on this ride before, she could see how she might have been a little afraid as well.
“They’ve got one of those on-ride photo cameras at the bottom of the second hill,” Mari said, leaning over a bit as she spoke those words to Ruby. “Make sure to smile.”
“Good to know,” Ruby replied, giving Mari’s hand a small squeeze, and Mari had to admit that she was being just a little bit of a bitch here. Did she want Ruby to hate this experience? Of course not! But did she want Ruby to be just scared enough that she would make an adorable face for Mari to then buy a dozen photos of? Absolutely.
Once Ruby and Mari were settled into the seats the ride attendants came around to make sure they were properly buckled in, and after that it was only a few more seconds before the car lurched forward and began rolling out of the station. Mari felt Ruby squeeze her hand even more tightly at that point, and she looked over to see her girlfriend staring dead ahead, eyes practically bugging out of her head. Mari couldn’t stop herself from laughing a little bit at that, bad as she might have felt.
“You ready, Ruby-chan?” she asked, squeezing Ruby’s hand back as the coaster’s train hit the bottom of the first hill, as the chain kicked in and began pulling them up towards the top.
“Mhmm,” Ruby replied, though the high-pitched, abrupt way in which she made that sound suggested that maybe she was still just a little more scared than she was trying to pretend.
“Just relax,” Mari promised. “These things are perfectly safe. You’ll have fun.”
“I know,” Ruby repeated, eyes still glued to the track in front of her as they went higher and higher, cold night air nipping at them more freely now that they were out of the shelter of the line, and getting fifty feet up in the air, then a hundred, then more.
“Once we’re back on the ground I’ll buy you a sweet potato from one of the stands down there,” Mari went on. “And then we can find a cozy little bench to cuddle up on while you eat it.”
“That sounds nice,” Ruby said, finally pulling her eyes away from the track for a moment to glance at Mari, and there was a faint hint of a smile on her face, even if it looked strained.
“For right now, though…” Mari went on, looking back towards the track herself, and realizing just how close they were to the top. “You ready?”
“I’m ready,” Ruby promised. And she damn well had better have been, because it was a bit too late to back out now.
In another moment they were at the top of the hill, and Mari felt that split second of a pause, before the train was passing over the top of the arc and plummeting down the other side, picking up a tremendous amount of speed in no time at all. Mari, just like many of the other riders, let out a loud “WOOOOOO!” as they started to drop, tossing her hands up into the air while still holding onto Ruby’s. And she was surprised, then, to feel Ruby throwing her own hands into the air, and to hear her cheering right along with her.
Stealing a sideways glance as they rushed down the first hill, wind whipping past her ears and stinging at her eyes, stomaching flipping around inside her abdomen, Mari was surprised to see that all of Ruby’s fears and apprehensions seemed to have vanished fairly quickly. She was beaming from ear to ear, eyes lighting up even in the darkness, letting go of Mari’s hand to throw both of her own high into the air, and in that instant it warmed Mari’s heart to see Ruby looking so happy. As they dropped all the way down the rest of the first hill, and as the train hit the curve at the bottom and then whipped back up to climb the second, Mari was just watching Ruby the entire time, utterly enamored with how beautiful she was when she was happy like this.
So caught up in admiring her girlfriend’s beauty was Mari that, for a moment, she almost forgot about the very cameras she had been telling Ruby about ahead of time. It was only as they crested the second hill that she remembered, and at that point she finally turned away from Ruby, looking towards the side she knew the cameras were on instead. Mari did her best to strike a pose, despite the wind still whipping past her and surely making an absolute mess of her hair. She put on her most coy smile as she looked towards the cameras, lifting a hand up and curling her fingers into an OK-sign. She held that pose until she saw the bright series of flashes that told her the picture had been captured, absolutely blinding against the darkness, and it took a few seconds after that before her vision came back to her. A few seconds of terrifying, blind rushing along a track at upwards of seventy miles an hour.
That didn’t stop Mari from screaming with delight the entire way, of course, and she was still throwing her hands up into the air for the entirety of the ride, still having an absolutely wonderful time. From the sound of it Ruby was in a similar boat, and when Mari’s vision did eventually return to her a glance sideways was enough for Mari to see that Ruby still looked just as delighted as she had after that first hill. And just like before, it warmed Mari’s heart to see her that happy.
The roller coaster wasn’t actually all that long, and at that point it was only another minute or so before they were coming back into the station, probably less. Mari had still been loving every minute of the ride, of course, splitting her attention between watching the tracks ahead of them and watching Ruby, and it seemed like Ruby had enjoyed herself just as much. When they finally came around the last bend and the train slowed down, gently pulling back into the station, Mari could feel her heart racing inside her chest, limbs still a little floaty and shaky from the adrenaline pumping through her now, but she was still positively beaming as well.
“So? How was that?” Mari asked, reaching over to take Ruby’s hand again, and the moment she did Mari could feel how cold Ruby’s fingers had gotten from the cold and the wind- not that her own were any better right now.
“It was good!” Ruby replied, perking up when Mari spoke, looking over at her with bright eyes and an absolute mess of red hair that made Mari snort with laughter.
“I’m glad you enjoyed yourself,” Mari said, reaching out to make a halfhearted attempt at fixing Ruby’s hair while her hands were still shaking. “Wanna go again?”
“Somebody promised me a sweet potato,” Ruby reminded her.
“Alright, alright. Sweet potato first, then we go another round.”
“Deal.” Mari was surprised she’d gotten Ruby’s agreement on that so easily, but she definitely wasn’t going to complain about it.
In another few seconds the train had pulled all the way into the station and their restraints released, and from there Mari stepped out of the train, feeling her legs wobble ever so slightly as she did so. She kept a hand on Ruby’s to help her along as well, escorting her out of the car and down the ride’s exit ramp. She stood just a little bit closer to Ruby now, huddling for warmth after the chill the ride had given her, but Ruby didn’t seem to mind that in the slightest.
“Hey,” Mari said, eyes catching the sign for the on-ride photos as they reached the bottom of the ramp. “What do you say? Should we buy a couple souvenirs to commemorate your grand triumph over your fear of heights?”
“I don’t have a fear of heights,” Ruby replied.
“Well, your fear of roller coasters.”
“I don’t have a fear of roller coasters either.”
“Well, not now,” Mari agreed. “Because you’ve conquered it!”
“I never did,” Ruby insisted. “I’ve always liked roller coasters.”
“Now you hold on just a second,” Mari huffed, stopping just in front of the photo counter and puffing her cheeks out, scowling down at Ruby. “You specifically said you wanted to go on this ride to ‘face your biggest fear,’ or something like that. You’re not going to try to pretend you didn’t, are you?”
“The coaster wasn’t the thing I was scared about,” Ruby replied. She was still smiling, despite the scowl Mari was giving her, and as she spoke Ruby raised a hand, pointing a finger towards one of the screens. Mari raised an eyebrow in confusion at that, though after a moment she let her eyes follow to where Ruby was pointing, and her heart stopped when she realized what she was looking at.
Their picture was there on the screen in front of her, and in it Mari could see just how poorly her attempt at posing had come out. Her hair was flying backwards and tangling down in front of her face, and her expression wasn’t nearly as suave and charming as she had been going for. What was far more noteworthy, however, was Ruby. She was sitting there in the seat next to Mari with the biggest grin Mari had ever seen in her life, and in front of her she was holding a paper sign that she had somehow, apparently, managed to sneak onto the ride, pink bubble letters meticulously written out in Ruby’s adorable handwriting, spelling a very simple message: “Will you marry me?”
“Ruby-" Mari started to say, and as she looked sideways she found that Ruby was already getting down onto one knee beside her, fishing around in her pocket, before producing the most gorgeous ring Mari had ever seen, gold and diamonds glittering under the tacky photo counter lights. For a few seconds Mari was speechless, frozen in place, unable to do anything but stand there and gawk at the beautiful ring, and at the beautiful look on her girlfriend’s- no, her fiancee’s face.
“Of course,” she finally said, extending her hand out towards Ruby. “Of course I will.” A smile appeared on Ruby’s face as she heard that, possibly even bigger than the one she was wearing in the photo, and without a moment of hesitation she slipped the ring onto Mari’s finger, before she was jumping back to her feet and they were both tossing their arms around each other. Ruby leaned up to kiss Mari, and her lips felt so warm against Mari’s own, so much nicer than the cold air that had been nipping at them for the past while. If they had been alone Mari would have stayed like that much, much longer, but when they were in public she still had at least a little bit of a sense of decency left, and so she pulled back after just a few seconds, still smiling so widely her face hurt.
“I love you,” Ruby whispered.
“I love you too,” Mari whispered back. “So, so, so much.”
“I’m glad,” Ruby said, before the smile at her lips tugged just a little bit more. “Now, about that sweet potato...”