She knows she's falling, and hard. She knows this, and despite the fact that she has every reason not to be, she falls anyway and lets it happen. It all starts right in the center of her chest, though her heart is realistically positioned slightly to the left, and spreads throughout her body like liquid fire burning through her nerves to the ends of her fingertips and toes. The feeling is intoxicating, and she's addicted and hopelessly so, and wonders if there's an AAA for lovesick fools.
Too bad she doesn't have the freedom to attend, even if there is one.
Yang tugs on her sleeve, wrinkling the fine texture of the black suit, and she gives her sister an annoyed look. "If you ruin this," she frowns, "Weiss is going to kill you. And then me."
Yang laughs, rather heartily and loudly, almost nervously, and goes, "Only if these yakuza don't get us first!"
Which is true, sadly enough. They're holed up in some nice hotel off the shore of the lake, VIP suite rooms overlooking the concrete docks and dark blue water, and she knows Blake can't be happy about how vulnerable they are up there. "They can just blow the foundation of the building up and we're gone," she mutters, clenching her fists uneasily. She almost falls over when Yang claps her shoulder.
"Cheer up, sis. There are worse ways to go."
Ruby glares.
Yang holds up her hands in a pacifying gesture. "Alright, alright, if it makes you feel better, I doubt they'd do something that would kill at least a couple hundred innocent people."
Ruby huffs, but she calms her ruffled feathers and shakes her head. Yang is right, of course, but the worry is gnawing away at the pit of her stomach, and she wonders when she started getting so anxious and so scared. But it's not so much wondering as it is tracing back her thoughts and biting her lips, because she knows when she changed and why she did so and who caused it all. She swallows thickly and forces her mindset back to business mode.
"Has Blake finished hacking into the hotel's security system?" she asks, picking at her sleeve and trying to soothe the wrinkles out. The suit is a gift, and before it, she's only ever worn used tuxedos and suits from the secondhand shop, and while money is a factor, staining the suits with blood only to get a new one afterwards is not worth the effort. She hopes she can keep this one clean for as long as possible.
"I think she's–" Sudden beeping interrupts her sister mid sentence, and they simultaneously reach into their pockets and pull out their respective phones.
System hacked. Perimeter secure. No signs of suspicious activity so far.
"Does that answer your question?" Yang smirks. Ruby rolls her eyes and turns away, walking toward the window that showcases the vast blue of freshwater and the sprinkle of city life below their feet. She lays a hand against the glass and stares, unseeing, into the horizon. The day is gray, overcast, and nearing darkness and dinner time, and as if on cue, she hears a growl from behind.
"There should be food in the fridge," Ruby tells her, and Yang doesn't respond, simply hums a cheery, indistinct tune and shuffles across the marble floor.
The hand on the window goes white. The stress is clawing at her nerves, terribly so, and she wonders not for the first time why she was designated leader. Yang has had a wealth of experience in the field in comparison, and Blake is a legend in the underworld. Ruby has nothing. All she's got is a glock, a dozen hidden knives and a sniper rifle packed up in a case, and her Uncle Qrow's voice in her head and a childhood of pain in her arsenal.
She takes a shuddering breath. Focus. She tries. The perimeter is secure, Blake is somewhere keeping a lookout over their surroundings, Yang is scarfing something down, and–
A pale hand covers her trembling one and gently lifts it away from the glass.
"M'Lady," she croaks, then clears her throat. "You should go back to your room."
"And you should step away from the window because anyone and everyone can see you from there," she receives.
"They don't know who I am," she contests, and whatever else she is going to say slips out her mind as her hand is enveloped by a gentle, soothing caress so unexpected and unbelievably tender and warm. She stands there, unmoving, can only concentrate on how soft her charge's hands are, how nice her fingers feel, how strong and delicate, and the tension slowly oozes out her body and her shoulders gradually sag and her mind goes blank but her heart begins to jitter and twitch and tumble and roll and squirm and struggle within her ribcage.
Then the moment is ruined. "They might not know who Ruby is," they hear from the open kitchen directly behind them, "but they sure as hell know who Weiss Schnee is, and she is standing right next to the giant fucking window."
"Language," Ruby automatically corrects, and the movement of her mouth and tongue sends the blood flowing to her brain again and she notices how hot her face feels. She jerks her hand out of Weiss's grip and turns away, unable to meet the ice blue eyes she knows is surely waiting to catch her silver ones. Instead, she controls her breathing and says, "We should make a plan. There's no way they won't find us in the next 24 hours if we stay here like this."
"Well, what do you suggest, oh great leader?" Yang sing-songs out. Ruby flinches, and Yang blinks. "Oh shit, sorry, I didn't mean–"
"Yang Xiao Long." And although it is only Yang's name that is called, both Ruby and Yang turn to attention and stand up straight at their charge's voice. "Please go check up on Belladonna's position."
Yang doesn't hesitate to comply. Throwing what she hopes is an apologetic look at her sister, she rushes out the door and shuts it behind herself with a click.
The two left inside the luxurious suite freeze. It is only then that Ruby notices the ticking of the ornate clock in the silence, and the rhythmic sound syncs itself to the beating of her struggling heart reverberating throughout her ears.
Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.
"I should probably–"
Weiss's hands dart out and snag her by the tie, quick as they are from her fencing expertise, and prevents her from escaping the suffocating atmosphere of the living room. Ruby knows she is caught and doesn't struggle. As if she could disobey her lady in the first place.
"Don't," she hears.
What happens next completely fires a bullet through her skull.
"Don't," Weiss repeats, and she takes the hand not gripping the tie and places it on Ruby's chest, right over her pounding heart, "try to bear the burden all by yourself. We're a team."
The words escape her mouth before her brain catches up to speed. "We're your bodyguards, and your safety is all I'm worth."
Ice blue eyes burn and smolder and flicker dangerously in her direction, and Ruby's head is jerked down to Weiss's level as the heiress tugs on the tie. "After everything we've been through," Weiss starts, "that's what you think?" But Ruby hears nothing, can only take in the nonexistent distance between their noses, intensely watches Weiss's full lips move up and down in a tantalizing pattern, and that is when her brain suddenly kicks into overdrive, spitting out a thousand words per minute, and the only thought she can clearly hold onto after the onslaught is: We are in terrible danger and can die at any moment right now, so what have you got to lose?
So she throws her muscles forward and captures those lips in her own.
A/N: I was so tempted to name this "Booty Guard", but uh...
Thanks to Nishizono for staying up with me and helping me get this written HAHAHAHA