The sun was bright and cheerful in downtown Vale, cars and people going by without thought, paying no heed to the white haired young woman standing in the middle of the sidewalk.

Weiss stared up at the shop sign.

Grimm Creations Studio.

A tattoo shop.

The windows were tinted so dark she couldn't see inside but the neon 'open' sign blinked its welcome.

This was stupid. She growled to herself. Why did she even come?

"20 bucks says she wimps out before she even goes in the shop."

Blake was her best friend (never mind the technicality that she was Weiss's only friend) but her big blonde girlfriend was a pain in the heiress's side.

Her constant badgering of her height led her to make some snide remarks about the blondes tattoos, Yang grinned devilishly in turn.

"Tough talk for someone who bawls when she breaks a nail." Yang snorted, crossing both tattooed arms across her massive chest.

"You think I couldn't get a tattoo?" Weiss puffed up defensively, rising to Yang's bait.

"I don't think…"

"For once we're agreed on something." Weiss cut her off with a derisive snort. Yang bowed up and Blake decided this was an appropriate place to insert herself between her friend and girlfriend.

"Enough, Yang."

"Come on Blakey, you know she couldn't." The Blonde continued to poke at the heiress. "20 bucks says she wimps out before she even goes in the shop."

"Yang," Blake warned.

"Just you wait, Yang. I'm going to get a tattoo and shut you up." She snarled. Blake's eyes widened and Yang grinned like Christmas and her birthday had all come at once.

"Well let me help ya out there, Snow cone." She grabbed a piece of paper of Blake's kitchen table before writing down an address and a name.

"Best tattoo shop in all of Vale, tell 'em I sent ya." She grinned.

Weiss looked up at the shops sign with disdain. She couldn't go back without a tattoo, her pride and the infuriating face Yang would make would not allow it.

Steeling herself she pushed open the door and was surprised. She expected a grungy den filled with a chain smoking hoodlums.

What she actually got was a warm golden yellow painted lobby with accents of red and green, two leather couches and a black metal coffee table strewn with magazines.

"Welcome to Grimm Creations, you dream it we ink it." Called a voice from the front. She looked over to the counter and found a grinning blonde with a wide open shirt, tattoos sprawled across his bared chest. She walked up to the counter, still glancing around at the shop.

"Name's Sun, what can I do for ya? Tatt, piercing?" He gave her a friendly smile. Weiss straightened; steeling herself, there was no turning back.

"I'd like to get a tattoo." She said simply. Sun nodded.

"Do you have an appointment?" He flipped open a book on the counter. Weiss startled at that. You had to have an appointment?

"I'm afraid I don't." Maybe she could back out of this with her dignity after all.

No such luck.

"No problem," Sun gave a wave of his hand. "One of our artists doesn't have any appointments for another hour and a half, depending on the size of the tattoo you can be in an out within an hour." He snapped his fingers for emphasis.

"Hold up." He walked around the counter and down the hall disappearing into the back.

Weiss wandered over and sat on one of the couches, doing her best not to fidget in the quiet shop, just now noticing that music was playing over the sound system, though quietly.

Footsteps echoed down the hall as Sun came back, walking behind the counter.

"Ya sure I can't interest ya in a piercing? Tongue and specialties are 2 for 1 right now." He grinned cheekily, pointing downward.

Red surged up her face as she got his meaning

"How da..."

"Now you're bothering my clients, Sun?"

Sun just grinned as he turned toward the new voice.

"Come on, Rubbles, I'm just playing." He grinned harmlessly.

Weiss appraised, who must be one of the artists.

She certainly looked the part. Shoulder length onyx and crimson hair, giving brief glimpses of the several silver rings in her ears. Black jeans and sleeveless red hoodie showed off a large tattoo covering the entirety of her right arm, a black wolf surrounded by a field of bright red roses. What really held the heiresses attention were the two liquid pools of silver staring back at her.

She walked up to Weiss, black combat boots, making quiet thuds on the wood floor.

"Hi, I'm Ruby Rose." She held out her hand which to her credit Weiss didn't hesitate more than a moment before taking it.

"Weiss Schnee," She returned.

"Weiss." She repeated and the heiress felt an odd chill go up her spine when it passed her lips.

"That's a cool name, white." She smiled

"That's right." Weiss blinked, surprised. Few people knew that.

"Follow me and we'll talk." She turned and went back down the hall from where she'd come. She followed, ignoring the grin on Sun's lips.

She led Weiss into a small room; the walls were bright red but mostly covered by drawings and a few posters. Stencils and drawing stuff lay across the desk in the corner She plopped herself into a leather desk chair and motioned for Weiss to sit on the stool next to her.

"So, do you know what you want or..." Ruby trailed off and Weiss pulled her phone out of her jeans pocket and pulled up the correct photo before handing the device over to Ruby who appraised the snowflake that was her family crest.

Ruby hummed, nodding to herself before setting the phone down and picking up a nearby sketchpad and quickly drawing out the snowflake, the tip of her tongue stuck out of her mouth in concentration, showing Weiss the silver ball pierced through it. She reached back and grabbed a blue colored pencil.

After a minute she flipped around the completed drawing of the light blue snowflake about 2 by 2 inches around.

"Good?" She asked.

It was, a few tweaks and it looked better then what Weiss had shown her actually.

"Yes," Weiss nodded, pleased.

"Great, so it'll be…I'll say 70 bucks. I'm going to make the stencil and you can go and pay Sun and sign the papers and we'll get started." She jumped up with a bright smile and vanished down the hall, Weiss swore the smell of roses followed her.

She followed the hall back to the lobby where Sun was still sitting behind the counter.

She handed him the lien and he handed her a clipboard with a few sheets of paper.

She scanned the paper, a few health questions and a waiver. She lifted her hand to sign it to finally notice the slight trembling as she signed it, Sun noticed it too.

"You okay?" She forced the shakes away, straightening.

"Of course," She replied steadily.

Sun eyed her suspiciously for a minute before he smiled.

"This is your first time, isn't it?"

Weiss turned her nose up, refusing to let the scoundrel see her scared, which she wasn't!

"So what if it is?" She huffed.

Ruby came into the lobby in time for Sun to turn to her excitedly.

"You got a virgin, Rubbles." He laughed.

Weiss could feel her face heat up.

"You… cretin!" She scowled.

Ruby quickly walked up to her, pressing her hand into her lower back, moving her along back to her office.

"Come on, Weiss. Let's get started."

She sat in the latex covered chair.

"So, where do you want it?" She smiled, hoping to ease some of the tension out of her irritated client.

"Oh, um…I hadn't thought about it…" She hesitated, trying not to but shuffling nervously in her seat.

"This is your first time then?"

Reluctantly Weiss nodded.

"Don't worry; I hear Rubbles is very gentle." Sun grinned from the doorway.

Weiss's face darkened, though from anger or embarrassment was unclear.

Ruby spun around in her chair.

"Sun!" She yelled. The blonde jumped, holding his hands up in surrender.

"I'm going, I'm going." He called as he fled back down the hall. Ruby shut the door behind him from before sitting back down next to Weiss.

"Okay, well the fleshier an area the less it will hurt…and if you want to be able to hide it easily the lower the better, generally." Ruby pulled on a pair of purple latex gloves, giving both an audible snap.

"Like...where?" Weiss asked cautiously.

"Like your butt, hip or your thigh, for example." She said offhandedly as she set up her equipment.

Weiss chewed her bottom lip thoughtfully; on her hip would be the best place.

Ruby spun back around, everything placed out on her tray.

"So, what's it going to be, Princess?" She smiled.

Weiss bit back the scathing retort on the end of her tongue, as much as the nickname annoyed her usually, from Ruby, she couldn't hear the same sarcasm or maliciousness normally underlying the word.

"On my hip." She hesitated before sliding her jeans down to her knees, suddenly quite self-conscious of her choice in underwear.

If Ruby made any notice of the blue lace panties it didn't show on her face at all as she instructed Weiss to lay on her left side.

Weiss jolted when something cold was pressed to her skin.

"That's just the alcohol." Ruby assured her, glad that Weiss was turned away from her and couldn't see her grin when she jumped.

She pressed the stencil to her thigh and pulled the paper away leaving a purple inked duplicate of what would soon be there.

"Aight, if you need to take a break just say so." She assured the white haired woman. Mutely Weiss gave a tense nod and then the buzzing of the gun filled the room and Weiss tensed.

She forced herself to stay perfectly still when the needle began to prick her skin. It wasn't the lightning pain she thought it would be. It was more of a muted burning sensation across her skin.

Her fingers fidgeted against the chair as the burning went on.

"How ya doing?" She almost, almost jumped when Ruby's voice cut through the quiet.

"Fine." She nodded but her eyes never left her work.

"Is that really your name?" Weiss finally asked, curiosity getting the better of her and needing something to distract her mind.

Ruby did stop at that, looking at the curious blue eyes trained on her.

"What?"

Weiss blushed at the utterly confused stare. Too late to turn back now.

"Ruby Rose… that sounds like a stage name... like John Vegas or something..." She trailed off as Ruby continued to stare before bursting into laughter, making Weiss's face burn brighter.

When her laughter died down to a chuckle she went back to work.

"Yeah, that really is my name, the one my mom gave me." She finally answered, an amused smile stuck to her face.

"Oh," was all Weiss could think to say, mind going unusually blank.

After 20 minutes she was about ready to take a break at least when the buzzing ceased and the excess ink was wiped from her skin.

"All done." Ruby announced with a wide smile. Weiss sat up and looked down to find a sharp and pristine powder blue snowflake, standing out against the backdrop of her milky skin.

"It's beautiful." Weiss mumbled.

Ruby's smile turned into a wide grin as she kicked off the wall, sending her and her chair across the room to the waste bin where she peeled off her gloves.

"That's what I love to hear." She placed a piece of gauze over the tattoo and taped it down. "Leave that on for half an hour and then clean it."

She picked up a bright green piece of paper and set it next to Weiss who was trying to pull her jeans back up without disturbing the gauze.

"This will tell you everything you need to know…but uh…if you maybe need to go over it in more depth we could talk about it over… coffee or something..." Ruby managed to choke out making Weiss pause, eyes wide.

Only a second had ticked by before Ruby was tripping over herself as she back peddled.

"I mean, if not that's cool, you can just… look it up or something…"

"Coffee would be nice." She said, halting the other woman's rambling. She picked up the light blue pencil still sitting on Ruby's sketchpad and jotted down a few numbers.

"Call me." She said with as much dignity as she could muster given that she had just finished pulling up her pants. Ruby grinned goofily as she left.

"Weiss is back!" Yang called out to Blake as Weiss walked into their apartment. "You were gone a while, so did you chicken out?" Yang grinned wickedly.

"Of course not and you shouldn't have expected anything else." Weiss stood even taller than usual in the face of Yang's defeat.

Black and blonde eyebrows rose simultaneously.

"Oh, well then let's see it, Snow cone." Yang smirked. Weiss growled under her breath but didn't hesitate to pull her jeans down enough to show Yang and Blake the tattoo.

Blake nodded with a smile

"Very tasteful, Weiss" She complemented. Yang grunted sourly before smiling herself.

"I tip my hat to you, Weiss. I was wrong." Yang nodded to the heiress in defeat. "Who did it? Ren, Pyrrha?" Yang wondered.

"Ruby Rose."

A grin split Yang's face as she turned to Blake.

"See Blake, didn't I tell you my baby sister does awesome work?"

Blake nodded with a smile.

Weiss choked.

"Sister?!"


~ Malthazar LOS