RWBY
For Eternity
The white-cloaked figure ascended the obsidian steps towards the centre of the castle. The air around her was so dry it burned her throat. Her weapon was ready in her hands, but the darkness around her was so all-consuming it blurred her vision to the point where she couldn't quite make out the fine details of it, even though she held it close. She could only just make out the shapes of the cerakoted metal plates on it that were as white as her own cloak.
This mission would have been a lot easier with her team, but they'd been needed for another purpose. It wouldn't matter though. She'd trained in how to use her hidden power. One glare from her silver eyes and she would have won. Ozpin had even given her a map of the castle; supposedly provided by a scout of his that she'd never met. She'd been hesitant to trust it, but it hadn't led her wrong so far.
Suddenly, she reached the top of the stairs and spotted a figure in the far end of a corridor. Whoever it was had clearly seen her too, because they fled immediately, probably to sound the alarm. She couldn't have that. She gave chase instantly. It wasn't hard to track the figure. They were howling out at the top of their lungs as well as banging and crashing into everything they could, probably to draw attention. They were clearly more interested in alerting others that appearing relatively competent to any intruders.
But just as suddenly as the howling had started, it stopped again. The woman had to slow down and try to find other ways to track them. It wouldn't be hard to follow the path of destruction they'd left. This tactic took her to a central room that appeared to be a focal point for the castle. She knew that the throne room she'd likely find her target in would be several floors up, able to look out over the entire approach.
"Majestic!" a voice crowed from behind her as a searing pain jolted through her lumbar column. All the feeling in her legs vanished in an instant, causing her to collapse. "A huntress is a huntress, even in a dream!" The shadowy figure from the corridor picked her up with a strength belying his skinny figure. Unfortunately, the poison that was in her system was blurring her vision to the degree that even up close like this, she still couldn't see his face. She could tell what had hit her though. She could just see the sleek, dark shape of a scorpion tail arching up over his shoulder. He'd hit her with an incredibly high dose of venom and she could feel it tearing through her vital organs at a blistering rate.
Suddenly, another searing pain struck her in the back. She looked down to see a needle-thin shard of glass sticking through her back. She coughed and a river of purple venom-infused blood spilled from her mouth, splattering to the floor and seeming to glow in the dark light that everything else in the castle seemed to radiate. The figure holding her threw her to the floor again as her vision began to fade. The last thing she saw was another figure approaching them. She seemed to be in her mid teens. Her black combat clothes burned in elegant patterns from embedded fire dust.
Weiss crept silently across the floor to the edge of the bed, placing her glass of water on the nightstand, but not wanting to wake Ruby. She hadn't been sleeping much lately, and Weiss was glad to see her finally resting. Tiring her out just before bedtime appeared to have done the trick, although Weiss had drawn the line very sharply when Ruby had tried to unhook her bra for her with Crescent Rose, thinking it would be a turn-on. Weiss didn't want to kill the mood by sitting her down for a lecture, but had strongly insisted that the weapons be left outside the bedroom that night.
"Why did you leave me?" It was barely a mutter, but Weiss heard it easily in the silence.
"It was just a glass of water, you dolt." Weiss whispered as she got back under the covers and leaned over to plant a kiss on the top of Ruby's head. Suddenly, something caught her attention. Ruby hadn't woken up. She hadn't been talking to Weiss at all. Weiss leaned over and clicked Ruby's bedside light on, only to see tears streaming down her face. She was locked in the grip of a nightmare.
Weiss was stuck for what to do. She didn't want to jolt Ruby awake for fear of startling her. Cuddling in and trying to comfort her seemed reasonable, but it also felt a bit like she wasn't doing enough as opposed to something. Suddenly, the decision was made for her as Ruby sat up with a scream, headbutting Weiss in the process and causing both of them to flop back down onto their pillows with tears in their eyes.
"Weiss, I'm so sorry!" Ruby practically screamed as she frantically turned to check on her. "I was having a nightmare and I just…"
"I know you were." Weiss said in a soothing voice as she leaned over and wiped a tear from Ruby's left eye with her thumb before leaning in and kissing her gently on the top of her head. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"No, it didn't really mean anything." Ruby lied. "It was just a nightmare." She got up and grabbed her dressing gown from the bedside table. It was made of red Atlesian silk and was a birthday present from Weiss. Even though she had money, she seemed to refuse to spend it on herself and instead focused on treating Ruby like royalty while she lived life as though her old family name meant nothing to her.
"How long is it going to take?" Weiss asked furiously as Ruby trudged into the living room. Weiss didn't even bother to grab her own dressing gown before following her, kicking her discarded clothes from the evening activities aside while unbothered by the cold night air.
"How long is what going to take?" Ruby sighed as she flopped down on the sofa with a face like thunder.
"How long will it take for us to start being honest with each other?" Weiss crossed her arms over her chest and stood over her glaring. "Ruby, we've been married for eight years now! I thought we didn't have secrets!"
"We don't!" Ruby protested.
"Well, do you want to tell me what the nightmare was about?" Weiss' glare didn't budge.
"Which one do you mean?" Sarcasm dripped from Ruby's words, but Weiss could tell she wasn't joking. Her face softened and she sat down, wrapping one arm around her wife and pulling her closer.
"When did it start?" she asked.
"It's been about a month now." Ruby said, her voice seeming hollow. Once again, Weiss could see tears in her eyes. "It started with that day I woke up after the fall of Beacon and found out you'd been here in Patch but you'd already left. Then another night, I saw you getting stabbed by Cinder with that weapon made of magma."
"Ruby, how the hell could you keep this from me?" Weiss pulled Ruby to her as the younger woman burst into tears. She let her sob into her shoulder for a bit until she'd recovered.
"It was different in my dream." Ruby continued, seeming to forget about Weiss' question. "We didn't save you. You died and I went to your funeral and you got buried on the same cliff as my mother…"
"You've been seeing this all in stages for a month?" Weiss looked at her disbelievingly. "No wonder you've been afraid to sleep!"
"Things were starting to seem backwards." Ruby confessed. "It was starting to feel like my nightmares were the real world and the time we spend together in real life was the dream. Tonight, I saw my mom's death. I already have to live without her around. I don't want to have to live in a world without you in it too."
"Ruby, I can promise we won't have to worry about that for at least sixty or seventy more years yet." Weiss grinned as she gently kissed her on the forehead.
"My mom promised me she'd never leave me." Ruby looked up at Weiss and for the first time ever all she could see in her normally lively partner was pure grief. "That was right before she went on a mission and never came back."
"You haven't been up to visit her since the nightmares started, have you?" Weiss asked. Ruby shook her head. "Go do it tomorrow." Weiss encouraged her. "I'll go with you and wait by the tree line if you want." Ruby nodded, but didn't seem satisfied.
"Weiss, I don't want you to go anywhere." Ruby said, sounding weak from all the crying.
"Okay, I'll stay here and keep busy then." Weiss shrugged.
"No, I mean that business trip you're planning." Ruby admitted. "I came to bring you a drink once and you must have been in the bathroom or something, but you definitely didn't leave SDC business documents wide open on your desk to read."
"Ruby, you're such a nosy dolt!" Weiss snapped as she shoved her playfully. "That was meant to be a surprise! We're not going for at least a couple of weeks yet. I still have one important thing to finalise."
"What do you mean 'we'? It's your trip." Ruby's face was a mask of confusion.
"That's the important thing." Weiss rolled her eyes. "I was planning to ask you to come with me tomorrow night over dinner. Do you really think I'm going anywhere without you voluntarily? I'm even prepared to pay you and everything!"
"I thought we'd agreed that I wouldn't work for the company so there was no danger it would come between us." Ruby shuffled closer and rested a hand on Weiss' shoulder.
"No, I'd put you down as an outside contractor." Weiss explained. "Some of the Faunus that used to make up the SDC's slave labour force still feel victimised and even though we now offer them the chance to sign up voluntarily, they feel nothing has changed. As head of the business, I'll be vulnerable during the talks and so I'll need a bodyguard. I can't think of anyone I trust more than you armed with a sniper rifle full of stun rounds. Are you up for it?"
"Weiss, I'd love to!" Ruby flung her arms around Weiss and instantly seemed brighter. It warmed Weiss' cold heart to no end seeing such a small thing that had caused this whole mess being put right instantly clearing everything.
"I'm sorry I caused you a nosy dolt, by the way." Weiss allowed herself a grin as she leaned back on the sofa, bringing Ruby to lie with her; her hands resting just above Weiss' hips at the waistband of her pale blue bed shorts. "I didn't mean it."
"Well what did you write it in your diary for then?" Ruby grinned mischievously.
"I really hate you sometimes." Weiss muttered before they both burst out laughing. It was something Weiss hadn't heard Ruby do properly in just over a month and it made her melt inside in a way only Ruby could do to her.
"By the way, when we're on the trip, I do want to take some clips of live rounds too." Ruby added. "If these talks bring up not-so-old history with the Faunus, there'll probably be a lot of negativity in the air. When we killed their master, most of the Grimm died. There are just a few waifs and strays left. But if any of them come sniffing around, I don't want to be going against them and only have stun rounds. I know I'm good, but I still bleed."
"Fair enough, then." Weiss nodded. "Just make sure you justify it in the equipment manifest and we'll have no problem with that."
"God, I love it when you talk business in all these big official-sounding words I struggle to understand." Ruby grinned as she nuzzled into Weiss' neck, tickling her and making her laugh. "Come on. Let's get back to bed. I'm starting to get cold."
"Do you think that we should invite Blake and Yang with us?" Weiss asked as they got up and walked back to the bedroom. "Negotiations with the Faunus should take about a day, so if I put us down as being gone for three, we can all use the next two days as time for us."
"I'd like that." Ruby nodded. Weiss didn't miss her hand reaching out in the darkness just as they got to the bedroom door.
"I saw that, Ruby!" Weiss snapped. "I said no weapons in the bedroom tonight!"
"Aw." Ruby looked downtrodden. She tried to give Weiss Bambi eyes, but Weiss turned away quickly.
"No. You can have it in the bedroom tomorrow night, provided you don't try what you did tonight."
"Okay, I promise not to use Crescent Rose to get your clothes off." Ruby rolled her eyes and sighed.
"That's better." Weiss grinned smugly.
"But only if you promise to stop using Myrtenaster to light the gas cooker." Ruby shot Weiss an evil look. "It makes the food taste different somehow. From now on, you have to buy matches like regular people."
"But that'll cost an arm and a leg!" Weiss protested.
"Weiss, worse things have happened. I think we're going to be fine." Ruby shrugged as she held the bedroom door open for her wife and let her through.
"You don't have to do that." Weiss commented as she shot Ruby a withering glare.
"It's fun." Ruby replied, flashing a smile that reminded Weiss of when they first met.
"Yeah, but you don't need to treat me like royalty, remember?" Weiss said as they climbed back into the bed together. "I have a whole sycophant army that I don't even like at the SDC for that and I really am thinking about firing them and getting some more genuine people in. I would have done it four years ago, but they're such good workers."
"I know the feeling." Ruby muttered. "You should have seen the people in the last village I helped out. I swear I thought that they were going to build me a shrine! As cool as that is, just a few Lien and a new blade for Crescent Rose was more than enough. Still, we're both married. We should have equal duty to each other. I remember the wedding day when the vicar said 'I now pronounce you Weiss and Wife'. That was so cute."
"Ruby, that wasn't a vicar. That was your uncle Qrow." Weiss reminded her.
"Well he's still fully qualified to marry us!" Ruby protested. "He did the same for Yang and Blake eventually once they patched things up."
"Yeah, but saying 'I now pronounce you Yang and Wife' doesn't seem nearly as inventive when he'd basically made the same joke four years previously at our wedding."
"Yeah, but their honeymoon was great." Ruby defended. "I mean who could have imagined a blindfolded sushi taste test would turn into a bloodbath like that?"
"Literally anyone who knows Yang at all could have seen that coming." Weiss replied drily as she rested her chin on top of Ruby's head and pulled the covers over them properly. "How do you think she would have reacted when she found out the place didn't do strawberry sunrises."
"That guy whose sushi she grabbed by mistake pulling her hair definitely didn't help." Ruby reasoned. "And he didn't even have the sense to run away!"
"Well, he did but he didn't get very far after Yang shot his legs out from under him." Weiss grinned.
"Yeah, that definitely seemed to hamper his speed a bit." Suddenly, they were both laughing again. In that moment, Ruby knew that no matter how low she ever felt, her snow angel would always be there to help her. Yeah, there were times when she really earned her name of the Ice Queen. That being said: if someone managed to melt through that cold exterior, (and the other cold exterior underneath it), they would find a genuinely caring person. Ruby loved that she'd been the one to find that out and even after eight years could barely believe how lucky she was to be able to call this woman her wife.
For the rest of the night, Ruby slept contentedly until the next morning. Far from wanting to wake up the next morning and keep busy to avoid sleeping, she dug herself into the covers so deep as the first rays of sunlight came through the window that Weiss had to affectionately kick her awake so that she could make the bed.
"Well, I see you're feeling better." Weiss rested a hand on Ruby's shoulder and pulled her close.
"Get your knee out of my back." Ruby mumbled as she rolled over and pressed her face into her pillows. "Just five more minutes…"
"No, I need to make the bed." Weiss ground her kneecap into Ruby's side just below her ribs, right where she knew she was ticklish.
"Ah! Weiss, cut it out!" Ruby protested as she rolled over to get away. Unfortunately, she misjudged how much bed space she had left and dropped off the edge with a thud. She picked herself up and shot the cutest glare Weiss had ever seen her give. "Seriously, I'd never in my life heard of anyone wanting to do chores until I met you! You can learn to relax a bit sometimes, you know?"
"Yeah, but I like to keep the place clean." Weiss shrugged as she grabbed the sheets and started straightening them. "You cook, I clean."
"Yeah, I still need to show you how to use an oven for when I'm not around." Ruby sighed as she sat down on the sheets Weiss had just straightened. "I can't keep coming home to find the batteries ripped out of every smoke alarm. Not to mention when I put the batteries back in again and they start screaming like they're having a PTSD attack."
"Ruby, I think it's a lost cause." Weiss fluffed her pillows before sitting down and taking Ruby's hands in hers. "I nearly burned the house down twice already!"
"I know!" Ruby was torn between wanting to laugh and wanting to tear her hair out. "One of those times wasn't even when you were using the oven! How hard is it to cook a microwave meal for one? You just put the plastic container in, set the timer and leave it until you hear the ping! How the hell does a microwave explode during that process?"
"I thought my salad would be great with grapes." Weiss reasoned.
"Weiss, you don't microwave grapes!" Ruby dropped her head between her knees and counted to ten in her head. "They burn up in a fiery ball of plasma!"
"Well how was I to know that?"
"Didn't you pay attention in science class?" Ruby asked seriously.
"I paid more than you did!" Weiss shot back. "That's how I know they never once talked about grapes or microwaves."
"Well, just…" Ruby couldn't even bring herself to finish the sentence. "Let's just go and get some breakfast!"
"You read my mind." Weiss finished fluffing Ruby's pillows. She threw on a casual shirt and a set of jeans and then took her by the hand, going into the kitchen. Ruby wasted no time in grabbing some eggs from the fridge and breaking them into a jug while simultaneously grabbing the flour and some white chocolate chips from a top cupboard. Weiss started setting the table while repeatedly checking her scroll. Ruby wondered what she was doing, but never questioned it. This was Weiss. It was probably confirmation about another office appointment or something to do with the trip.
"Weiss, can you pass me a frying pan?" Ruby asked. Weiss went to the bottom cupboard and grabbed the frying pan before handing it to Ruby. Just then, the doorbell sounded. Weiss raced to the door to get it while Ruby wondered what the hell she could possibly have been ordering this time. She pushed it aside as she started pouring chocolate chips and batter into the frying pan while she heard Weiss talking to someone that sounded like a delivery guy. Yeah, she'd definitely ordered something. It was only as Ruby heard the front door shut and she finished serving the pancakes up onto plates and put them on the table that she saw Weiss come back into the kitchen with a barely concealed grin.
"Ah, it's chocolate chip pancakes." Weiss realised.
"Yeah, and you're hiding something." Ruby said, instantly cutting through the crap.
"I'll show you in a second." Weiss promised as she sat down. Ruby was about to protest but a growl from her stomach put an end to that before it even started.
"You'd better." Ruby muttered as she joined her at the table. After they'd eaten, Weiss got up and led Ruby through to the living room. It was then that Ruby caught sight of something that made her gasp. There were two bouquets of flowers on the drinks table. Both of them were roses. The first was a bunch of red roses with white edge highlights to the petals. The second was a bunch of white roses with red highlights. It was obvious that they'd been specially bred to order.
"I wanted to get you something nice for when I asked you to come on the trip with me." Weiss explained. "I couldn't decide between the two options, so I just went and got them both."
"Weiss, this is amazing." Ruby said breathlessly just as she noticed a small bag next to them. "What's this?"
"Oh, apparently when you spend more than two-hundred Lien, you get a free bag of bulbs too." Weiss told her. "I was thinking maybe we can go up and plant them by your mother's grave if you want." Ruby didn't say a word. She just walked over and threw her arms around Weiss, burying her head in her shoulder.
"Thank you." It was muffled, but Weiss heard it. She could feel tear stains spreading on her shirt as Ruby stood there in the embrace.
"That's okay, Ruby." Weiss replied as she returned the hug and planted a kiss on the top of her head. "It's perfectly okay."
As such, this was how Ruby spent her next two weeks. She planted the roses around Summer's grave and tended them until they became self-sufficient enough that they didn't need her anymore. Ruby also persevered in teaching Weiss how to cook. The cooking lessons didn't go well and were halted altogether when they both had to move in with Blake and Yang until the fire damage was repaired. Ruby ended up phoning Klein for advice, and got a very helpful suggestion: give up. From there, the conversation devolved to reminiscing about their wedding and how Klein couldn't have been there but wished he could have given Weiss away. Ruby promised him she'd suggest it when they renewed their wedding vows. A further phone call elsewhere led to another lengthy conversation about cooking advice, but was abruptly halted by Weiss, Blake and Yang all simultaneously yelling at Ruby to get on with it and order the pizzas.
"You know, I can't believe it's been so many years since we took down Salem and since then you've still stayed with me." Ruby joked one night as they were curled up under a blanket on Yang's couch. "I know I can be a handful when there's nothing around to kill."
"Ruby, that doesn't matter." Weiss told her as she rested her head on Ruby's. "I can be difficult at times too. I'll always be with you. I'm yours for eternity."