Red Rose, RedRum
Dancing Roses Book Two
By: Adjudicato & Rebecca
Prologue
Hear, Feel, Think
Ͼ
But acceptance does not always entail a lack of curiosity, or a lack of drive to understand. Acceptance does not mean one forfeits their right to know further of what they have accepted, implicitly or explicitly.
Under a bright shining sun and amid the dancing petals of the many cherry trees around. Amid chirping birds and gossiping passersby, all of which went unheard. In the chilling winds of a Spring come far too early to the fresh, new year. Within the comforting embrace of an ever wider-opening truth of cosmic proportions—individual though it may have been, concerning only the two to whom it was opening. There, in that moment and in that expanse of revelation…
Ruby Rose sat at a small table of white iron, her mouth loose and ajar. Her cheeks were splotchy with both fresh tears and burgeoning blush, of embarrassment mostly but of astonishment as well. The words just spoken to her were still bouncing around her mind. Echoing relentlessly as she tried to make complete sense of them. Peace lay around her like a crown of soft down, as though a pillow her head now rested on. Acceptance was that peace, one without hesitation or initial thought. But now there was thought—wonder, curiosity, a need to understand the concept laid before her—as Ruby tried to make sense of those echoing words.
Across from her, burgeoning embarrassment also coloring the alabaster flesh of her cheeks, Weiss Schnee sat unmoving and silent. She'd said her piece only moments ago, and now sat there trying to decide what came next. Or perhaps trying to figure out what her choices were from which to decide. Logic had ever been both her most cherished tool and her stoutest ally—an ally that now had left her high, dry, and holding the bill.
The heiress's lips were pursed to a tight line, tongue licking the back of her flawless teeth in fretful compulsion. Sweat had begun to prick at her forehead and accumulate, a single runner of which now slid gently, ticklish, down her left temple. It was as though the cold of the too early Spring were not there at all. Like the fire within her heart and belly stood ready to leap up, engulf her and make her little more than a bit of charred brimstone.
This was mostly for that damnable silence. Weiss had made her decision—quickly decided though it was, we all say thank you—and now sat there with little more than the echo of it roiling in her feverish head. Across from her, gorgeous silver eyes staring in unblinking surprise, Ruby said nothing. Silent for surprise, or for lack of reciprocation?
Despite how unnerving that question was, the silence itself was the source of Weiss's building anxiety.
"You… love me?" Ruby said at last. Her tone made it sound like a question, and Weiss jumped at the start of the woman's voice, but the delivery said she was repeating it. If only for herself, Weiss could not discern.
Then the silence came back. Of course, the silence was only between they themselves. Birds still chirped, the wind still blew noisily through the empty boughs of the cherry trees, people still jabbered all around them in the now more populated patio of the bistro. One of the trains—on which Ruby would now be departing, likely for good, if not for Weiss's intervention—even slid into its station none too far away. Its arrival rattled the ground beneath them and filled the air with a cacophony of hisses and low rumbles, none of which was noticed. And when it departed again minutes later, neither Weiss nor Ruby noted the harsh thrum of its engines spinning up or the whistle of its departure alert.
Somehow, both lost themselves to this silent rumination, and sat transfixed therein. Maybe it was Fate once more, then, that called Ruby back first. Or maybe it was just dumb luck, as life ever seems ready to throw in just to shake things up.
"You… love…" Ruby said again, a whisper now that was more like a shout to Weiss's ears. This was because the only thing Weiss could hear was Ruby, there in that ensorcelling moment.
So, Weiss did the only thing that came to mind in response.
"I love you." Weiss repeated.
No sooner than the words had left her mouth, the clock-tower—more of a clock-lamppost were one to be discerning—by the bistro's exit onto the street sounded off. It chimed four times, loud and clear.
As if some spell had simply been wished away, the chiming of that bell brought Weiss and Ruby back to the moment. Back to the bistro and out from that cosmic doorway of truth, in which both had stood ready to lose themselves entirely.
Ruby blinked a few times and shook her head. Weiss took a deep breath and tried to coax her heart to calm, to stop burning as an inferno beneath her collar. Once both had done their motions of coming to, they met gazes. Purest silver to coldest blue.
"How do you love me?" Ruby asked after another moment of quiet staring. There was a brief thought in Ruby's head that the question was conceited and maybe even selfish, but her honest curiosity won out and stayed her tongue from trying to qualify it further.
Weiss was all but upended by this question. With the doorway to that truth now mostly shut and only what little she had thus far gleaned remaining in her head, Weiss had no more capability to answer that question now than when she'd first delivered her profession, before the silence. In all honesty, she might not have known how to answer even if that door were open fully and she had boundless access to its truths. Logic had been her anodyne to alleviate the lack of love in her life. And logic could not be brought to bear on this subject, as Weiss now found while trying to discern how to answer Ruby's question.
Ruby watched this train of thought go through Weiss's head, the workings of which painted a clear picture of itself on the heiress's face. Lips opening and closing in mute response, trying desperately to deliver half-formed words. Eyes bouncing up and down as Weiss looked in her mind for an answer that was not there—where she could find it, at least.
"I…" Weiss tried, and fell silent again. And again her mind wandered through the vagaries of this new thing, this nascent truth. Finally, the heiress caught just the barest idea and said, "I just… I love you…"
Perhaps that barest idea was that repeating it would somehow force it to make more sense. Not just to Ruby, but to her as well. Was that so wrong? Or misguided? Had Weiss ever had the experience of actually falling in love on which to look back upon, and with which to reason her present assertion?
No, she had not. In fact, love had ever been the one factor of Weiss's life that seemed ever ready to slip away. Perhaps just within grasp at times—for understanding, for experience, for truth—but always pouring through her fingers like so much sand…
Weiss watched Ruby regard her with careful compassion, losing herself more and more to the truth she could neither reason with nor express. Ruby meanwhile was coming out of the shock of it, as the emotions that had so ravaged her these past weeks were first strangled and then entirely snuffed out—a fire on which succoring ice-water had been slowly poured, leaving it only a smoldering remnant.
"You really mean it, don't you…" Ruby observed in a calm, caring voice, watching Weiss struggle with the expression so far from her grasp.
"Of course I do!" Weiss shouted her reply.
Suddenly, both women were made aware of the many people around them. In her heated reply, Weiss had stood and knocked the table between them. Its iron legs skittered across the cobbled ground and made a most horrendous racket, quieting the jabbering crowd of people. All eyes turned to them both, now collectively aware and interested in the commotion. Not a few of these eyes picked out Weiss Schnee, heiress to the company for which this massive city and university were built.
Ruby scanned the crowd now staring at them, then looked back at Weiss. She offered a placative smile and stood.
"There's another little park nearby." Ruby said, offering her hand to Weiss. Weiss looked at that hand for a moment. "Come on." Ruby persisted, "It'll be quieter there, and no one will wonder what we're talking about."
Then it made sense to Weiss—why Ruby was offering her hand to hold and just what she was on about—so the heiress took that hand. And not for the last time, she was amazed (even if only a little) at how well this ditzy-seeming woman could handle herself under pressure. In that realization, Weiss wondered just how badly the death of her sister must have gotten to her, to so drastically drag her into the despair that had almost seen her flee the MTU altogether.
Letting this rumination go for the nonce, Weiss followed Ruby—hand in hand—away from the bistro and down the street, to a small patch of greenery and trees that overlooked a tiny lake.
Ͼ
Getting there took only a few minutes. Those were quiet minutes, but not as the curtain of silence that had marked most of this tense exchange. Instead they were the quiet of both women considering the implications of the situation as a whole—how it would affect their lives and their futures, what it would mean between they themselves, and just how much of it was presently true and how much was a passing fancy.
When they arrived, Ruby led the way to a small copse of ironwood trees. These were a funny thing to see in a city at all, but were made much more out of place given that they were typically desert trees. Their funny round leaves, lined in straight rows on either side of the stem, were just as verdant green as could possibly be. They smelled of a very earthy, strong flavor and cast quite the reaching shadow beneath their boughs.
Ruby let go of Weiss's hand and picked a spot by one of the largest tree's gnarled roots, setting herself down with a deep sigh. Weiss watched for a moment, still lost in herself, until she noticed Ruby beckoning her to sit at the tree's base. The heiress hesitated.
"I won't bite, Weiss." Ruby teased with a giggle, her mood now much recovered.
Weiss looked at the hand beckoning her and felt a pang for the bandaged digit. Blood still seeped fresh into those bandages, which wrapped around the knuckles of Ruby's left hand. Then Weiss let it go and did go to sit, leaning her back against the tree's rough bark once she'd done so.
"You didn't need to drag me out of the crowd to say you don't feel the same way."
Weiss said this with her eyes closed, face turned to the canopy of the massive tree. Thus, she did not see the brief flash of hurt across Ruby's features.
"That's… not it." Ruby said, softly.
The heiress opened her eyes and looked at the woman only some three feet from her, legs crossed and posterior cradled by the verdant grass. What she saw was a woman as none she'd ever beheld before. Not in a sense of alien features or anything like, but in a sense of being colored by some new aspect Weiss had never known to exist. The definition of this aspect and why it was there were lost on Weiss…
But any who know of love would know it for what it was quite easily.
And suddenly, watching Ruby bathed in this foreign and unknown glow, the rest of the world simply slipped away. University deadlines and projects that loomed on the horizon; plans and schemes to overtake her father's company, so she could bring it back to the path she knew it should be upon; concerns of upkeeping her own image and legacy so that path could be maintained…
All of it melted and dissipated, revealed for the lesser concerns they were all quickly becoming.
"Weiss, I…" Ruby started, then choked a bit. Her heart was racing mad and hot beneath her bosom just as Weiss's.
It took Ruby a minute of swallowing the lump in her throat and a minute more of gathering her courage to go on.
"Do you know what you're saying?" Ruby asked at last.
Again Weiss was caught off guard by this query. Now her resolve was wearing thin, and the heiress took little time to decide that admitting present defeat might be the only path to lasting victory yet left.
"No, not really." Weiss confessed with a heavy sigh. Then she added, "I do know I've come to care for you. A lot, at that…"
Ruby smiled at this, and both their hearts calmed a tad. With the cold wind no longer blowing, however, the heat within them that showed no signs of abating was quickly overtaking their racing hearts. The sweating had stopped, for both, but that heat was becoming ever more of a nuisance.
"So… you love me like a friend?" Ruby questioned further.
Weiss thought about that possibility, then said: "I don't think so." But she sounded so very unsure, even to herself.
"Then… like a sister?"
To that, Weiss nearly laughed. What ended up coming out was a brief snort instead.
"No, definitely not." The heiress answered assuredly, thinking of Winter and how cold their relationship was.
Now, Ruby's face began to blush. After a moment of watching that blossom of red heat creep into her fair features, Weiss realized why and began to blush as well. She knew what question was coming next—one she had asked herself not a few times since that night in the alley, so long ago, only to push it out of her mind as quickly as she could—and somehow dreaded finally confronting it.
"You feel… that way… about me?" Ruby asked in a tiny, almost terrified voice, clearly dancing around outright saying it.
Weiss summoned up the last of her resolve and courage.
"I think so."
"You think so?" Ruby's tone was shaken and unnerved, but took on a certain authority to it. Like a negotiator trying to talk a jumper from the building's ledge, insisting that there is indeed so much more to live for.
Lost, tired, and flagging, Weiss sighed again. Harder now, and deeper.
"What are you getting at, Ruby?"
Then, Ruby said it. She said the only thing that was left to say, and for the first time in her entire life, Weiss Schnee was confronted with the true obstacle that lay between budding love and truly embraced love.
"You need to know how you feel, Weiss." Ruby said with sudden gravity. "You need to be sure of what you're feeling, and why, and what it will mean—for both of us, but more importantly for you."
Ruby reached out and took Weiss's right hand in both of hers, then lifted it to chest-level between them. She leaned in close, silver eyes all but burning with some new mystery Weiss could not discern the meaning of, and squeezed that hand tight. A few more pinpricks of blood stained the last white spots of her bandages.
"Saying this is one thing, Weiss, but meaning it and knowing what it means are something totally different. I don't know how your dad thinks or how your company works—I just wanted to be a therapist after all, to help people deal with their own small, individual problems—but I'm pretty confident assuming you'd be risking a whole damn lot for this.
"Falling in love is one thing, sure. I've dreamed of it myself a few times. Never really saw it happening this way, but I never really thought I'd be going to the world's most prestigious non-combat school either. You, though…?"
Ruby squeezed the heiress's hand a little tighter still, and moved just a tad closer. There was now only two feet between them at most, and Weiss could feel her friend's radiating heat. It was a realization of fellow humanity Weiss had never known. Scary and foreign and mysterious—but somehow not unwelcome.
"You've done more for me than anyone outside my family has ever come close to, Weiss." Ruby whispered, tears starting to peek at the corners of her eyes. "And I care about you a whole lot, you know? So… I'm saying this because I care so much about you. And I want you to keep that in mind, ok?"
Weiss nodded once, slow and deliberate.
"You need to take some time and really think about this. Go back to your dorm and sit down, have some coffee or tea or whatever, pick up a book or just meditate—but during any of that, you need to think very hard. You need to decide if this is what you think it is, and you need to know if it's worth what you might be risking…"
As she delivered this earnest plea, Ruby's own heart was beginning to break. She hadn't quite latched onto the understanding, but her care for the heiress was much more than just care. And saying these things—delivering this plea for surety, selfless though it may be—was hurting more than she'd thought it would. Or could.
The first tear fell free as Ruby said what she thought would be her last on the matter.
"I'll be right here in a week, Weiss. Right under this tree at noon. I'll wait for two hours before I assume you've decided against it, ok?"
The raven-headed woman let her friend's hand go after a last squeeze, then stood and dusted the grass from her rump. She turned to leave but decided to add one more thing before doing so. Ruby turned again and knelt beside Weiss, who now sat slumped against the ironwood tree in total shock.
"We really shouldn't talk until then…" Ruby said, then planted a single peck of a kiss on Weiss's cheek.
And with that, Ruby left.
Ͼ
Weiss watched her go.
The heiress continued to sit there under the ironwood tree, lost in her shock and reeling. Now that voice had been put to them, the hollow gnawing of her worries danced fresh and anew in her mind. Ruby had had one hell of a point, Weiss couldn't argue that. And once it was all settled and things moved on, she would even be grateful for this. For the fact that her friend showed such a reliable and reasonable side of herself that day (this day) under the ironwood tree.
Ruby was out of sight and gone so far as Weiss could tell. Only a minute this had taken, and it was a grueling minute for the young Schnee. A trying, painful minute that would stretch on for most of the next week.
But at last, after sitting under the tree for half an hour after Ruby's departure, Weiss stood on her shaky legs and dusted herself off. The movements were stiff and stilted, and her muscles felt like rubber as she did so. Then she cast a look over the tiny lake which sparkled under the afternoon sun, like so many glimmering firedims.
"Delah…" Weiss muttered under her breath.
α
Ruby got back to her apartment sometime just after sunset. She had walked the entire way, not really knowing why she decided to do so. By the time she walked inside and flipped on the lights, her whole being ached miserably.
A throbbing headache had started almost the moment Ruby stepped back onto the street and began her journey home (was it really?). This had bloomed into a full-blown migraine roughly half the way, and now it felt as if her eyes would pop from her skull at any moment. Add to this the fact that her legs were made to bear her so far, and one could reasonably understand that Ruby sorely wanted a drink of something. Anything that might dull the terrible aches—especially the one at the middle of her right thigh—but she knew the apartment was dry.
Ruby staggered in after spending a minute simply scanning the derelict. Clothes piled up, trash scattered everywhere, books and papers carelessly tossed hither and thither, a leaning stack of polystyrene take-out boxes. Somewhere buried in that mess was Ruby's apartment proper, but she had no inclination whatsoever toward cleaning to find it. So, she just staggered in after taking her time to ingest the mess.
I love you.
The words bounced around Ruby's tired, spent mind as she took lumbering steps into the clutter. She bobbed around a pile of something or other—mostly clothes and garbage—and fell onto what was at one point a futon-couch. It was a catch-all for her study materials now, and at present had just become a meager resting spot.
The haggard woman thought of lifting herself from it for a moment, to continue her journey to find clean-ish clothes to dress in after a shower, but decided against it. Instead she turned over, and draped an arm over her throbbing eyes.
I love you.
It went again, scrolling across her lids like neon text, and Ruby's lower lip quivered lightly. She wondered if it could really be what Weiss thought it was. She wondered if it could be something so powerful—and yet so simple—so soon after knowing each other.
Their first year of acquaintanceship was nearly behind them now. In that time, yes and say thank ya, acquaintanceship had become partnership, and then friendship. That friendship saw Weiss—heiress, cold heart, snowy mien, icy blood—go entirely out of her way to help Ruby. To spirit her across the world to see her sister. To be beside her at the funeral, and to chase her through woods and rain and grief. Then, it saw Weiss chase her once more—hardly nine hours past—and this time, stop her. From running, from giving up, from cashing her chips on this venture.
Academically minded? Maybe. Concerned for herself? Maybe. Selfishly aimed? Maybe, but doubtful.
Ruby thought and thought and thought, until at last she spun herself up into a tizzy and began to sob into the arm over her eyes. Choked and gasping sobs, sounding more like a drunkard spilling out the poison from their gut than a hurting woman, barely finished with her twenty-fourth year.
Why would you love me? Ruby wondered, rasping another cry from her quickly drying throat. What could have possibly made you thinkyou do? What could possibly have been so changing, so upending?
Why…
Liar.
Why…
She doesn't really, she doesn't know…
Why…
The exchange went on for a little while, and Ruby's heart grew more and more strained, her breathing more and more forced, her sobs more and more hysteric, until at last, Ruby bolted upright and leaned over.
What little bile was in her stomach came out, all over the floor, hateful and hurting.
Ͼ
Weiss Schnee, heiress apparent of the Schnee Dust Company, star student of the SDC Management Training University, Atlas's brightest mind (like as not), and the likely savior of both the Schnee name and Company…
Was a mess.
She sat in one of her apartment/dormitory's two chairs—the ones that flanked either side of her posh couch—in total shock. Her icy-blue eyes stared unmoving, unthinking, into the darkness that had come with sunset. She hadn't turned her lights on, because the lights in her head weren't really on. The ancillaries were, sure, but no one was there to take any calls, or fill out any paperwork. Everyone (figuratively imagining) that made up Weiss Schnee's inner workings was out for coffee, or tea, or liquor, or maybe even something harder. Back in… sometime.
Speaking of liquor, an open bottle of exactly such sat in front of her. Beside it was a high-baller glass half-full with ice and some dark, molasses-colored liquid. The bottle itself was now mostly empty and the heiress was mostly besotted beyond reason. Not that this really mattered, checked out as she was, but the heavy flush and slow breath and laborious thought of drunkenness was strong about her.
Weiss hiccupped and coughed. This seemed to bring her out of it a bit, and she focused her vacant sight onto the window to her right. Nothing much to be seen but blinds backlit with streetlight, but she looked at it all the same.
At that moment, some of her faculties returned from fetching coffee—or whatever the poor sods decided to imbibe—and a rudimentary thought occurred to Weiss. Its full-fledged version was something she likely should have considered before saying what she had earlier, but shit can't be put back in the horse, sadly.
So, Weiss stared at the window and let this rudimentary thought ramble about her sotted head. That was all it could do for the nonce. Ramble around and hopefully imprint itself well enough to be recalled on the morrow, through the raging hangover and bodily aches.
And the nausea, too, can't forget that…
Λ
'Do I love her?'
Right? Or at least something close, enough to pass a driving test. Enough to remember when you wake up.
And then, it came like thunder, rolling bones off on the horizon…
Ͼ
The morning came as it ever does, time running on in its endless cycle, in its tireless forward march. The sun rose, the world awoke, people went about their daily lives. Places to be, people to see, things to do. Much ado about nothing, in many ways.
Weiss still sat in her chair when that sun came up and the world roused with it. Slumped over. When the brightness peeked in through the blinds of her window, it stabbed at her lidded eyes like hot irons. A headache bloomed to painful life and the fire in her belly flared, bringing the heiress quickly, rudely, from her restless slumber.
"Nn…" Weiss groaned, sitting up stiffly. Every joint felt like stone. Each motion was a study in raucous flares of agony.
She looked at the bottle first, after peeling her eyes open. Had to squint to see it right, keep it from going double. Once it came into focus and memory returned of what she'd done the previous night—begun hardly a moment after entering her door—the heiress was filled with shame and revulsion.
Weiss swung her hand out and smashed it into the bottle, sending the thing flying across her room to shatter on the wall. Just left of the door it did, and what little was left in it splattered and began to dribble down to the floor. She watched this with a maddened sort of fascination, for the moment ignoring the bloom of pain in her hand.
A few minutes passed, Weiss watching the liquor run down the wall until it stopped, and then she stood slowly from the chair. Weiss looked around her room, lucidity returning to her bit by bit.
Do I love her?
It echoed, like a lost whisper crossed over timeless distance, and settled in Weiss's heart. In her head. In her soul.
She shook her head and staggered to her desk. Weiss pulled open one of the drawers and took out a little white bottle marked 'Schnee Pharmaceuticals' in bold, red lettering. Below this it read 'EXPERIMENTAL' very clearly.
Weiss ignored this and wrenched the thing open, spilled seven little white ovals into her hand and carefully dropped five back into the bottle. That done, she tossed the bottle back where she got it and dry-swallowed the two she'd kept. And after that, Weiss sat in her studying chair. Leaned her head back and thought. Sighed, and thought some more.
The little oval-shaped, chalky miracles began to work after some five minutes. The aches left her, the splitting headache fled, and her stomach calmed. For the time, at least, Weiss's head cleared and she set her every fiber to her newest task.
No more grades, no more schemes, no more papers or books or academic things…
For now, it was silver, and whatever her spoken words might mean.
Ϭ
Both women spent that first day in a nearly spiritual trance of introspection. Neither ate nor drank, and only once did Ruby utilize her lavatory. This was to puke out another stomach-full of acid, as it amounted to. Other than that, it was as though bodily function left them for the day. No hunger (for obvious reasons), no thirst, no calls from nature, and no real fatigue despite the circumstances.
Weiss spent the first half of her day reclined in her studying chair, leaned back and staring at the ceiling in a haze. This haze came mostly from her uniquely unfamiliar state of mind, but not a little bit also from the two little white pills.
Then, sometime around four in the afternoon, Weiss sat up and rummaged for her scroll. She checked four of her six pockets before finding it, and flipped it open at once.
She scrolled through the text messages Ruby had sent her since their numbers had been exchanged. At the time Weiss had first done this, the heiress had been almost ashamed of herself. Giving out a private number for something besides business? Perish the thought. But, she warmed up to it much after only a day. While studying apart, she and Ruby exchanged questions and solutions at first; this became quips and jokes, and friendly nothings not long after.
The crazy symbols made to look like faces and expressions baffled Weiss the most. A semi-colon and a closing parenthesis, a colon-mark and a capital 'P,' two at-symbols with a lambda in-between. They were frivolous, they were puerile, they were superfluous… but they were also endearing, and impish, and somehow gave levity to the heiress.
Weiss spent a good hour reading over those texts, thinking more than once she would send one anyway, regardless of Ruby's request. In the end, she decided not to. Instead Weiss read them once more before finally putting her scroll away, so she could consider.
Across the city, Ruby spent the first half of her day fighting off the aches of the previous.
When she first awoke, Ruby instinctively reached down to rub her right thigh. Of all the gnawing pains, it was the worst—a great and roaring fire beneath her skin, taut and hot to the touch. Her chest hurt too, and was very tight as well, but the leg called her attention most. It reminded her, as ever, why she had never seen Signal Academy or Beacon thereafter, and now accused her of not being enough for her sister (poor poor sister) when it actually mattered.
Ruby lay on her pile of study materials, on her futon-couch, and rubbed at her leg for a good hour before doing anything else. After that—after she'd coaxed the worst of the pain to go away—she sat up and looked around her room again. It was becoming a habit, to look over the discord and chaos her apartment had become.
But it would not remain a habit. Today, for some odd reason, Ruby felt herself fill with vigor and vim and not a little bit of willpower. Today, Ruby felt some small reason return to her, though its meaning would remain hidden for yet a few more days.
And with that vim and vigor and willpower, Ruby proceeded to begin the arduous task of cleaning the discord of her apartment. She made good headway too, for the first two hours—all the while fighting off the remaining aches—until her thoughts turned back to Weiss.
By the time this happened, Ruby had managed to clean up most of her tiny study-nook. Her thoughts came back to what the heiress had declared to her (Liar) and she stopped her present task of filling a garbage bag full of polystyrene boxes. Ruby let the bag down to the floor carefully, so it wouldn't spill, and sat beside it. She pulled her scroll from her pocket and, almost whimsically, began to read her text-message log.
It was funny to her, thinking on it a bit, how the first of them were so business-like. They looked more like correspondence between a jaded executive and a doe-eyed intern than messages between study-buddies that were quickly becoming close friends. But as she went on, going from oldest to newest, they did indeed become ever more familiar and ever less guarded.
Ruby wanted more than once to send a message, to ask fervently 'are you sure?' Consequences be damned, her own words be damned, all doubts and so forth be damned. But, she didn't in the end. Instead, after reading the entire log thrice, Ruby put the scroll away and returned to cleaning.
So she spent the rest of her day.
Ϭ
On the second day, Ruby still cleaned and Weiss still thought. They drank water here and there that day, but neither had their appetite return—though Ruby began to tire out on her task due to lack of it. Yet all the same, food was nowhere on their thoughts.
On the third day, Ruby did at last eat. She'd had to leave her apartment—it was coming together nicely by then, cleaner with each passing hour—to go to a little convenience store just down the street, where she purchased a few bowls of cup noodles. Weiss, however, had only eaten one of the remaining bananas on her kitchen counter, and not touched the bagels. This was all the sustenance she seemed to either want or need.
It was on the fourth day that things started to finally fall back into place, that Fate decided to continue to weave its tapestry with the needlework that was these two women's lives. Four days after Weiss delivered her declaration and stopped Ruby from tossing her sister's greatest gift away, the wheel slipped back into gear and motion reached their dilemma once more.
On that fourth day, Ruby's apartment was finally cleaned up and the raven-headed woman was finally able to sit down and truly think about it all. And think she did, long and hard and for all the day.
Weiss, meanwhile…
Ͼ
Weiss walked down the street in the seedy part of the city, her long coat about her shoulders. It was evening and she was a woman in wandering thought. Wandering thought that had propelled her body to wander also.
The Siren's Call was some five blocks off. The place where this entire capricious escapade had begun. It would only have taken her perhaps three minutes to walk there, had she a mind to. But she didn't.
No, the heiress was out this evening simply to walk about. The coat was not at all meant to hide her from anything, but merely to keep her warm. Something about the evening air was unusually cold. Not quite cold to touch, but cold to be within.
Why doI feel this way? Weiss wondered to herself, her icy eyes cast to the cement sidewalk that passed beneath her feet. This same question kept popping up again and again, confounding her endlessly. She was Weiss Schnee after all, a woman not given to flights of fancy or bouts of impulsivity. She said what she meant, when she meant to and how she meant to. She did nothing unintentional or unthought out. That was the Schnee way…
Isn't it?
But this held so much more gravity to it, so much more weight. There was so much more to be considered here, and so many nuances as yet unknown.
And so, it broke down to this: Was love really the right word? If it was, then did she really mean it? If so, then why? Considering why mattered at all, that is. If it did, she had to know; if it didn't, all the better. Most important of all, however, was the very weighty point Ruby had brought up. This mattered more than every other question, like as not…
Father won't like this, Weiss admitted to herself at last. He definitely won't like this…
The crucial question it boiled down to, all in all, was whether or not Weiss was willing to risk absolutely everything she'd spent her life working toward. Her vie for head of her family's company, her status among the Atlesian elite, and perhaps even her place as heiress apparent. Might not even that be at risk, should she truly commit to this road?
It pained Weiss to think about this. About the fact that, to her father, she was little more than another tool with which he could advance the company. Aye, maybe she could work her way to leadership—chief executive-ship, if it please ya—without having to marry herself to some wealthy someone or other, for her father's sake guised as the company's sake. But if she truly chose this path, that avenue would shut entirely. If not factually, then at least in Weiss's heart, say true.
What would father say to that? Weiss mused. I've decided I love this woman, father. She's the nicest person I've ever met, and she really does care about me. Not my money, not your company, not our family name—but me. Can you understand that, father? Can you comprehend caring about someone? Without concern for your own gain?
Oh, how clearly Weiss recalled that night in the alley. Her racing heart, her surety that life was over—the life she knew the life she wanted the life she so strove for—and the crushing weight of her slip up. Battered and bleeding from her mad flight, shivering and scared and sure she had been found out. Had been made. Crushing, burning, bile-tasting despondence…
And then, she came. Ruby—lovable, affable, caring, kind, sweet oaf—had followed her, with no thought whatsoever for gain or personal fortune. No attempt to blackmail, no foul word or judgement said or given. No effort to milk the situation, nothing remotely of the sort.
Plain concern, and only thus.
She gave me her mask…
Weiss touched her face, ran her fingers along the deep scar over her left eye.
She asked if I was ok…
Weiss's face blushed and her body flushed with heat.
She assured me no one had seen…
Weiss's heart began to race, but a lucid calm washed over her at the same time.
She cared…
Weiss passed by the park Ruby had led her to, what felt so long ago now, and she stopped to look. In the shadowed cast of evening, it was nearly too dark to see beyond the wrought iron gates. She could make out the silhouette of the statue of her grandfather, but little else. And yet, the memory returned…
She pinky-promised me…
And Weiss remembered that feeling on her pinky finger, lying in bed after it had happened. Like a string were tied to it, radiating heat and purpose, sailing off into the ether to connect to gods-knew-what. Now, though… now she knew what it connected to. Aye, she knew indeed.
The heiress turned her gaze back to the sidewalk and continued to walk.
Ͼ
But Weiss almost had to laugh at the exchange with her father in her head. The declaration to her father, as it more truthfully amounted to. She almost had to laugh because it very much was funny how inconceivable it would be. Say all those things to Jacques Schnee? Head of both the Schnee Family and Company?
Why not throw herself off the Grand Spire while she was at it?
Weiss truly believed both these things would accomplish roughly the same end result. To so brazenly defy her father was tantamount to social-suicide at the least, and might even be worse.
But Fate stepped in, as it so often does: silent and unnoticed and tiptoeing. A gentle nudge to keep things going where it wants. To keep its prey marching ever on to whatever terminus it wishes to bring them to.
For Weiss, this came as a display in a store window. As she walked down the street, staring at the sidewalk, hands in her long-coat's massive pockets, a flashing color caught the corner of her eye. Might have been a passing car, might have been a glimmering bit of trash tossed out of said passing car, might have been some cosmic being farting for all she knew. Whatever it was, it caught Weiss's eye and drew her attention.
She looked up and settled her gaze on a brightly lit display across the road. A painstakingly clean window, behind which sat a marvelous arrangement of fanciful knickknacks. Ceramic baubles, clockwork doodads, plush stuffies. Posh and fanciful shadowboxes on the wall behind these, and a most gorgeous watercolor painting hung centered and above the whole caboodle. Depicting a waterwheel turning lazily within an amber river, amid falling leaves all shades of fire and fall.
The heiress turned her gaze and nearly ran down the street, hurrying to the closest crosswalk she could find. There she waited just long enough for the light to turn red and the sign to display the white-lit symbol of a walking person. As soon as it did, Weiss tore off across the road—almost falling twice—and began to run back up the other side.
One thing in particular from that display was in her head, calling out to her for a reason she simply could not fathom. Once Weiss reached the store, she wasted no time going in to purchase that one particular piece. After that, she wasted no time either in heading back home. It was like all the pieces had fallen into place, just because she saw that one thing—special thing particular thing resonating thing—and the heiress found a sudden pep in her step as she went, item tucked jealously protective under her arm.
Weiss slept very well that night, all her answers suddenly found.
α
Ruby's thoughts ran the gambit the fourth and fifth days. Everything from musing over Weiss and her words to thinking about her sister and father and even her mother. She'd never known Summer Rose aside from some few stories, but the dream she'd had at the bistro was stuck within her. On her more so, like a lingering warmth from a hot bath. And with her apartment now clean, her very soul somehow and somewhat righted, she could finally experience that lingering warmth a tad.
Experience it to grieve, for both her sister and mother.
On the fifth day, the backlogged grief mostly done with, Ruby's head finally turned back to Weiss in full. Back to her friend, and what her friend had said.
What Ruby Rose—daughter of Summer Rose and Taiyang Xiao Long, sister of Yang Xiao Long who was no more—finally concluded was frightfully selfless. Almost like something in her was broken in a manner most beneficial to her fellow man, but most harmful to she herself. Maybe it was and maybe it wasn't, but the effect was eerily like such.
When that conclusion finally found her sometime around the fourth hour of the sixth day, that odd peace descended over Ruby once again. This time to stay, at least for a good while. With it came blessed, restful sleep at last.
So, Ruby slept.
Ͼ
On the fifth day, Weiss went shopping.
It wasn't much of a thing to be made a fuss over, but what she accomplished with it was. Perhaps…
She woke up earlier than she'd planned, and found her sleep to have been well and restful indeed. The sun was already shining despite the hour being little past seven. Her body felt relaxed and convalesced, as did her soul in a way. Thus, in the early-morning haze of waking too soon, an interesting thought occurred to Weiss Schnee, once the Snow Queen of her last attended schools.
Coffee was made quickly and a light breakfast consumed while the heiress pondered Ruby's words yet again. Sipping on her cup, munching on her bowl of cornflakes, entirely ignoring the taste of everything she put in her mouth. It could have been ash and mud, for all Weiss would have noticed. Then, as is often the case of great ideas (even those of lesser greatness), a memory caused Weiss to think of something.
The heiress, in the midst of a sip of her coffee, recalled Levi. By Dust and all the gods, he was quite the handsome man. But more than that—more importantly, that is to say—he seemed fond of a most odd attire. Black on black on black, despite his darker complexion. Those garish cowboy boots, too…
But it was this exact attire that made Weiss think of it, and spurred her on to spill the remaining half of her coffee all upon her lap after a start. It soaked in quick and burned a little, but even this she failed to fully notice. No, for her thought was on this: a man in black.
Cussing absentmindedly under her breath, pawing with a napkin at the large stain on the lap of her nightgown which would soon be refuse in her trashcan, Weiss remembered Ruby's last goodbye to her sister. The little book (Riddle-de-Dum?) she had tossed onto the coffin, just as the first shovels full of dirt were thrown.
"The man in black fled across the desert…" Weiss muttered.
What followed was swift and fluid, like some cosmic force had planned it out and Weiss was merely following her script. A good actor is swift and a good actor is convincing.
In ten minute's time, Weiss Schnee stripped bare and dressed anew and gathered up her few necessities, then left her apartment. It wasn't much after eight when she did.
Ͼ
Weiss Schnee arrived on Librum Avenue, deep in the heart of the finer portion of the University City, at quarter past nine. Yet already was the city alive and bustling, with many students and faculty and business folk going about their daily do's.
This young woman of silvery-white hair knew well where she meant to be, but a fully new mindset had set its first true work within her this day. Stepping foot from the central transit onto the platform, Weiss was rendered nigh speechless when she took in the glory of Librum Avenue. Shining buildings glinting the early glory of the sun. Sky as blue as fit to rival the cleanest, purest waters. Colorful attire adorning the various passersby, like living rainbows on the move. Wonderful smells of all sorts—acrid stings of coffees, sweet caresses of baked goods, oddly woody and somewhat sour tickles of various teas wafting from the two nearby cafes—that sang as a chorus to her nose.
For a moment, Weiss wondered if she might have taken a medicine and forgotten, now made intoxicated by it. It would never occur to her exactly why everything felt so much more real and lucid this morning, unfortunately.
But, as Weiss Schnee is oft wont to do, the heiress enjoyed the sensations for a moment before putting them from her mind. She had a store to visit and another gift to buy.
α
The last couple days went by, and the fated day rolled around at last. Ruby spent those last two days in only thought, nothing else. She considered, she replayed the words, she decided her own on the matter, and she hoped. That was probably the largest forward step; hope in her heart for what the terminus of the week would bring.
Break given for rest after the End of Year Finals would also be over in only another week. With the dilemma presently engaged, Ruby worried a little bit as well over how the end of that break would find her. Would the outcome be heartening and uplifting? Securing and what she hoped it would be? Or would it go as she expected, with life shoveling yet another pile of crow atop her head?
But Ruby's own heart was decided, at the least. If nothing else could be said to have come of this, there was at least that small solace; that miniscule anodyne…
Ͼ
And when Weiss awoke on the seventh day, the weather was a treat.
Sunny and vibrant and full of wonder, with clouds the puffy white of cotton balls and blue between them like the cleanest mountain spring. The air smelled clean too, in some odd way. Almost like it was purified, perhaps? Given a new facet by her settled heart and determined mind?
But Weiss wasted little of herself considering the treat that was the day. She got up and made herself ready with vim, vigor, and speedy purpose. Even her outfit was selected without much thought, so concentrated was Weiss Schnee on getting where she was going. Words had to be said, gifts had to be given, palaver had to be made. All for the purpose of affirming something not only to herself, but also to that amazing oaf. That adorable, endearing, affable, considerate oaf…
Ђ
Weiss Schnee left her apartment none too long after ten in the morning. Under her arms, she had two paper bags tucked; one light as air and the other weighing at least two stones, if not a hair more. She made her way to the central transit station bearing those bags with a reverent sort of care, making only one short call with her scroll before boarding the train. The train that would bear her quickly to the dawn of her true Fate in this capricious tale.
Ruby Rose left her apartment that day with naught but a book under one arm. Her bright red cloak lay over her shoulders, billowing lazily as she walked up the street to the station, and the letter from her sister lay wedged in her book. But beyond these few details, Ruby looked little different from any other person that might be going to the station, ready to catch a train to take them anywhere in the city.
Ruby got to the bistro first by a wide margin. It was only a hair past nine, as it turned out, and she wasted little time making her way to the tiny copse of ironwood trees. She could still recall telling Weiss she would be there at the time of their last meeting—much later in the day, that was to be—and decided she wouldn't mind reading her book until that time rolled around. Another two hours she would wait after that, before chalking this up to yet one more cosmic joke in her life.
Was this a dour way to look at things, to expect them to unfurl? Aye, maybe so. And maybe also it was a pretty shitty way to respond to someone walking out on such a tenuous limb, risking much with just a few simple words. Yet…
Ruby leaned against the tree and slid to a seated position before opening her book. She let her eyes drift to the spot she'd left off, picking up on the adventure of one Geralt of Rivia yet again. A hunter of monsters great and small, one of terrible power who tempered such with great conscience. Witcher, oh Witcher, oh hunter of beasts…
"Sorry…" Ruby muttered as she read the pages and considered her current affairs.
Ͼ
Weiss stepped off the train and onto the platform overlooking the bistro just after eleven. She had gotten sidetracked for a few minutes at the first stop, when she could've sworn she saw Levi exiting. The figure was mostly hidden by the crowd but she did spot that familiar black rancher's hat. This saw her stomach make several quick flips and knots before, remembering why she was on the train at all, Weiss simply let it go.
Now, taking a deep breath to ready herself, Weiss was as prepared as she could get. Weiss Schnee was here, at the platform overlooking the bistro, and Weiss Schnee was full of determination, sure in her words and her intent.
So, Weiss Schnee descended the iron-railed stairs to the street and turned, to face the bistro's front entry. On she walked, as if she would go in, before diverting herself to where the sidewalk ended in grass. Onto the grass she stepped, ready to find the small copse of ironwood trees and await Ruby—red Rose, oh lovely Rose—and the time of reckoning thereafter.
The heiress's mind wandered somewhat as she went, thinking of how she might spend the several hours until Ruby arrived. The idea of reading one of the books she had purchased certainly crossed her mind—they did sound interesting, these tales of a lone gunslinger crossing an endless desert to chase a man in black—but it would turn out she had no need to consider such things. For when she arrived, Weiss saw the last thing she had expected to see, there under the largest of those ironwoods.
Leaned against it, open book in her lap, head tilted forward and soft snores escaping her mouth…
"Ruby…" Weiss whispered, then ran.
Ђ
The culmination came quickly, but not after a bit of palaver did indeed occur.
Weiss at first ran toward where Ruby sat, but slowed to a jog and then a pace. She took those last few steps carefully, almost afraid to wake the woman. Why? Weiss would never actually know, sadly…
The heiress hunkered down beside Ruby. For a moment, she allowed herself to watch the snoozing woman, wondering yet again how things had gotten the way they were. But after that moment passed and Weiss decided it was time, she reached out to Ruby's left shoulder and pushed just a little too hard.
"Gah!" Ruby yelped, pulled from her nap upon nearly tumbling over.
"I'm sorry!"
Ruby looked over and up, to see the last thing she'd expected. Weiss Schnee, dressed in the most modest attire she surely owned—simple pants and a tee-shirt, nothing flashy or fancy today. On the heiress's face was the most honest display of emotion Ruby imagined she could show. Actual sorrow for almost pushing her over, and actual surprise. Why the surprise, though?
"It's alright." Ruby groaned, clutching her head. A small headache was threatening to rise.
"Really, I'm sorry!" Weiss said again, "I only meant to wake you, not shove you over…"
Ruby's eyes turned back to Weiss, and now she understood why the surprise. To this, she could not help but to laugh. Fully laugh, with mirth and life behind it.
"What's so funny?" Weiss asked, honestly curious.
"Nothing at all." Ruby managed to get out between her laughter. Then, after calming, "Sit down, Weiss. You look like you've got a lot on your mind."
Oh, Heavens to Murgatroyd, wasn't that the truth?
Weiss huffed—not angrily, only a tad embarrassed—and sat down beside Ruby. With both leaning against the tree, which was more than wide enough, an odd sense of closeness enveloped them. Side by side they found they could both stare at the lake, watch its surface dance brilliantly under the midday sun.
"You thought about it?" Ruby asked at last, after at least five minutes of silent vigil.
"Of course." Weiss answered simply, "Did you?"
Ruby kept watching the lake, now remembering the passage of her week. Then, with a sigh, "Oh yeah…"
It was the sound of crumpling paper that made Ruby look to her left, to see what the heiress was up to. What filled her vision—brown and fuzzy and soft—was entirely unforeseen.
"It's for you." Weiss's voice trembled.
The raven-headed woman, thoughts reeling with surprise, scooted back before reaching out for the proffered item. She couldn't make out what it was at first. Still she took it, and stared at it with mouth agape.
"You don't like it?" Weiss's voice still trembled, but Ruby almost couldn't hear her. Too lost.
It took almost a full minute for Ruby to comprehend what she was holding. When that understanding finally dawned on her, she looked up to meet Weiss's icy eyes. They were full of tears readying to spill out.
"For me?" Ruby barely got the words out, a wheezing whisper.
Weiss ignored her, and proceeded to lay herself bare.
"I never had a teddy bear growing up…" She mused, staring at the lake, "Father always thought they were useless. Trivial things that made children weak, because they reinforced the idea that one was only a child. That one couldn't start moving toward being a useful member of society. Kind of stupid, now that I think about it…"
Ruby looked back at the stuffed brown bear, its beady black eyes staring at her the same. She touched its left ear, then its right, finding the softness somehow soothing and comforting. Funny, that…
"Always keep your eye on the prize, never stop working toward the next goal. No time to stop and smell the flowers, or watch the birds, or any of that nonsense. Papers have to be written, people have to be met, deals have to be struck. Learn your letters, Weiss; learn that instrument, Weiss; sing at this concert, Weiss…"
Ruby moved her gaze to the heiress again, now stroking the bear's velvety head as she listened.
"I really didn't mind pushing myself all the time, you know?" Ruby thought this was an actual question until Weiss immediately continued. "I grew to enjoy striving for the stars themselves, thinking I would one day run the Company and lead it back from the oblivion my father seems so intent on. Why not, anyway? I was greater than all the rest, a true perfection among simple knockoffs…"
One shining tear—caught in the glory of the sun—rolled free down Weiss's cheek. She turned to meet Ruby's silver stare, and the rest followed suit. But her voice did not falter, by some miracle or another, as the heiress continued what was nearly a soliloquy by this point.
"I came here thinking this place would be just another stepping stone." She went on, tears streaming like twin rivers, "Five years of heavy study and learning, then I could vie for father's place. Then I could start climbing the Company's ladder, marching ever onward for the top, ready to topple him and steer it back where it belongs. Reclaim my family's former good name, you know?"
Ruby nodded yes, though she really didn't. She understood the feeling, the sentiment, but not the actual state of being behind it.
"Then…" Weiss whispered, and finally her voice choked. The heiress sobbed once and pawed at her tear-streaked face. When she opened her eyes again and looked deep into Ruby's, the phantasmal nature of them was incomprehensible. They were icy blue, just as ever, but now juxtaposed with the red streaks of heavy weeping. Against that crimson tint, their true exquisiteness shone through almost perfectly.
Weiss reined herself under control and managed to finish, saying only, "You."
"Me?" Ruby responded quickly, entirely lost in the flow of Weiss's confession.
The heiress sucked up her present emotional turmoil and did her best to right herself. It worked, if only somewhat.
"Any person in their right mind would have sold me out after that incident at the club." Weiss said. When Ruby only continued to stare, confused, she added: "When I lost my mask."
Ruby nodded at that, understanding now, and Weiss went on.
"You could have blackmailed me, or sold me out to my father, or heavens only know what. In any of these cases, you could have made yourself a sizable fortune, Ruby Rose.
"But you didn't, and I'm sure I will never truly understand why. I see now I don't need to, though. I see a lot of things better, more clearly now. Mostly thanks to you." Weiss stopped and thought about this, then added: "All thanks to you."
Now it was all coming roundabout, and Weiss steeled herself to give her answer. The week had gone a ridiculous direction—she had fully expected to spend the first half of the break much differently—but upon thinking about it, Weiss could see it more or less had to go this direction. She had stepped out on a tenuous branch indeed, without giving any real thought to all the implications of her statement.
So in the end, this really was the only path to take. Wasn't it?
"You told me to think about it—decide if I was sure of what I meant, and whether I was willing to risk so much for this—didn't you?"
Icy-blue eyes stared deep into Ruby's, feeling like they were looking into her soul. All she could muster for response was to nod her head once.
"I thought." Weiss went on, looking away, "I thought a whole lot, and you know what I found out?" She didn't wait for a response this time. "I found out that I'm different now. It hasn't quite been a year, but I'm very different from when I met you. Easiest way to know that is because I kinda hated you, especially for that first week. And the week after. The week after that one, also…"
The heiress shook her head, like she was trying to coax it back on track.
"But when you showed me that side of you—the caring side that was so concerned for me, with no thought for your own gain—I guess something just… broke? Snapped into place? Melted?" That last one sounded right, so Weiss nodded to herself before continuing. The light at the tunnel's end was so close now.
"My answer is this, Ruby. This to everything and anything…"
She turned to look at Ruby, to meet her eyes one of the last times as only friends.
"Yes." Weiss said.
Ω
Ruby Rose opened her mouth slightly to respond, but was shut up completely. Weiss Schnee moved like greased lightning to cross the two feet between their faces, planting her lips to Ruby's hard and fast.
The raven-headed woman reeled in shock at first, jerking back instinctively, but found it not such a terrible thing. Weiss's arms snaked around her neck and pulled her closer, and Ruby returned this gesture after a moment. Only a moment. Only a warm moment.
Then, the embrace ended as quickly as it began. Weiss pulled her lips and face away, released her arms from Ruby's neck, and sat up.
"Sorry for the theft." Weiss said, looking away. Blushing terribly. Red fire in her cheeks.
Ruby was panting, her face also flushed and now terribly hot.
"I love you, Ruby Rose." Yet, Weiss would not—could not—look at her as she said this. Too damn embarrassed, by miles. "Not like a friend, certainly not like a sister. I love you, just like that. Nothing more, nothing less…"
The daughter of Taiyang and Summer stared at the heiress with unhidden shock. It felt as if every last doubtful chain in her heart had now melted, replaced with the levitating weightlessness of elated joy. Was she happy to hear those words?
Why, was not the ocean made of water?
But, Ruby had words of her own to impart. So she set the teddy bear down, on her lap, and scooted closer until her knees nearly sat on Weiss's.
"You really mean it?" Ruby mused, but the heiress took it as a question.
"Didn't I just ex—" Weiss was cut off.
It was Ruby now that pulled Weiss into an embrace, meeting their lips with gentleness rather than swift force. Weiss did not reel as Ruby had—for shock or anything else—but instead pushed into that kiss, both their arms now about the other.
Thus they sat for a time, until lack of air forced their parting. Huffing and puffing and panting a storm, eyes wild and faces streaked with sweat. The heiress's face also had tears upon it, but whether they were hers alone or both of theirs was beyond the knowledge or care of these two.
"I couldn't give the lesser of two shits what I'm risking." Weiss said, the vulgarity of her words ignored, speaking in absolute truth, "You mean more to me than I can explain, Ruby Rose. I'm really not sure how that happened—and frankly, my lady, I don't give a damn—but it happened, and now it's true. Would you gainsay me?"
Ruby tilted her head, unsure what Weiss meant.
"Nevermind. I've said my piece. So, would you have me, Ruby? Will you accept my honest love?"
This was turning out like some cheap soap opera, a fact that brought levity to both their hearts. Weiss realized her words sounded more like they belonged in an olden play, not coming from the mouth of one such as herself—young and modern and elite. Did this truly matter, though?
"What you did for me, Weiss…" Ruby began, staring at the woman so close to her, "I'm really not sure how to say it. You think I did so much for you, and I think you've done so much for me…"
It was her turn now, as it seemed, but Ruby found her vocabulary empty. Her mind too, for that matter. Something was burning hotter than fiery brimstone within her.
Instead of trying any further, Ruby shook her head a few times and looked down at the teddy in her lap. She touched one of its beady eyes, felt the smooth stone it was carved from, and let her own inner turmoil out. Weiss had bared herself, now it seemed Ruby would do the same.
"I still can't believe I'm here." She mused, rubbing the teddy's smooth eye, "I'm going to the Schnee Management Training University, studying psychology and all this other amazing stuff. I'm on track to get one of the most valuable degrees in the world. A degree that would open the door to nearly any job I could want…
"Yang's gone, though. I never knew my mom, and my sister's gone to join her now. I still want to make my dad proud, but I can't ever show Yang what I've done with her gift, now can I?"
Ruby looked up at Weiss, forgetting the teddy's smooth stone eye.
"I would've thrown that all away seven days ago, Weiss." Ruby said, grave as death, "I would've gotten on that train and ridden out of the city, to the nearest airship I could find that would take me to Patch. What would I have done after that? I'm not even sure myself, you know? But I would've gone at least that far, I know…
"But you stopped me, didn't you?" Now Ruby's voice was barely a whisper, but no less grave, "You stopped me, and you said you love me. I told you to go off and think about it, like some kind of chastising shrew."
Weiss opened her mouth to disagree, but was silenced when one of Ruby's slender fingers pressed against her lips.
"Yet here you are, one week later like we agreed. Early, even. And what do you say now, after thinking it over?"
A minute passed, they both stared into the other's eyes. Once Weiss was sure Ruby would not go on, she said the only thing left to say. The only sensible response.
"I love you." Weiss echoed the words, and Ruby smiled so wide it looked like her face must surely fall in half.
"Yeah," Ruby whispered, "you did…"
Ruby pulled Weiss into a hug. It was at an awkward angle and hurt a little, but neither cared. They were lost in the sensation of their bodies pressed together, exchanging human warmth that let both know how true this all was. How simply right.
"What do I say, you ask?" Ruby murmured into Weiss's ear.
"What do you say?" Weiss echoed a whisper in response.
Ruby broke the embrace and looked into Weiss's eyes for the last time as her friend. From then on, it would be a person of different standing—still the same Ruby—that Weiss looked upon.
"I say I love you too, Weiss."
With that reciprocating declaration, they shared one more kiss under the ironwood tree.
Λ
And so, they embraced, the first act fully resolved.
Resolution proper, no?
But the second act began with that same embrace. Now we reach that beginning, and the tale will go on. They have decided how that tale will proceed, so we must watch them navigate the treacherous waters they set sail in.
Dance on Roses, and be merry, and be with great joy.
O' Discordia…