A/N Oh my god, something that isn't Cinderruby. Yep. This features two pairings I've never done before: [Cinder x Emerald & Ruby x Neo] or [Emberald & Cookies & Cream] Freezerburn is in there too! Just wanted to try something that isn't Cinderruby. Honestly I'm a big fan of them as well.
Short fic maybe like, 10-ish chapters long. Leave a review with your opinion on these pairings, as I'd like to know what you guys think of them. But above all, ENJOY!
Chapter 1. Crush
"You get back here right now young lady!"
Cinder ignored her mother's call. Or what at this point had almost sounded like a plea. The usual routine had already commenced: she'd come to this modest two story place she called home, late. Late being roughly seven-o'clock. Then, not even three seconds in the door, her mother would chew her out to no end. Cinder would give her mother some negative rejoinder, and things would just spiral downwards from there.
This time their argument had carried off into the living-room, and just as it reached its meltdown point, Cinder scoffed at her mother and got up to leave. She pulled herself up from the expensive recliner and brushed past her mother who was stationary in the hallway. Just as Cinder passed, or rather, pushed by her. The taller woman grabbed onto Cinder's forearm and yanked her back.
"Where do you think you're going?" She asked, her voice still not quite intimidating as one would think.
Cinder rolled her eyes and smirked at the woman before her. Her mother's name was Autumn, middle aged, dark-haired, and looked as if she was cut from stone. She was still dressed in her cream colored business suit, high heels and all.
"I'm going out." Was Cinder's simple response.
"Says who?"
"Says me."
Cinder followed her deadpan answer with a small smirk. It was almost pitiful really. She could see Autumn, struggle to find words that were strong enough to get her point across. But every each time she failed, and Cinder would walk all over her.
Autumn didn't know what to say. Everyday had been an uphill battle with Cinder ever since the divorce three years ago. Her husband was having an affair with another woman, and after everything was said and done -he wanted nothing to do with herself nor Cinder.
"And just what makes you think-" Autumn trailed off, seeing nothing but an empty space in front of her.
Cinder laughed to herself as she trotted up the steps to the second floor. Her mother was so lost in thought she could get away with her even noticing. The ebony-haired girl took the first left in the upstairs hallway and entered into her small room. To an adult it was messy, to any other seventeen year old it was normal. A mostly dark themed room with the odd orange accent here and there.
Cinder walked up to the mahogany nightstand next to her bed and disconnected her phone from its charger. She unlocked it quickly and opened the messaging app. There, at the top of the list, was her closest of friends;
Ruby Rose.
Her relationship with the excited and impressionable girl had started a little over three years ago. It was Ruby's first day of classes and it just so happened that Cinder was the one she went to for directions. Cinder being a year older than Ruby, sent the girl in the right direction and went on with her day. Fortunately or unfortunately, Emerald and Mercury were late that day, so Cinder just decided to hang out with the new girl at lunch, people were smart enough not to look twice as to why Cinder Fall was sitting with a first year student -unless they wanted trouble. Things took off from there. Ruby wasn't the typical fare Cinder hung around, but it was a nice little change. She found out quickly enough that the younger girl was pretty caring and was always there when Cinder was feeling down.
Cinder quickly hit the contact and typed up a quick message:
C: Red, you busy?
R: No, why?
C: Wanna hang out?
R: Sure, where?
C: Idk ideas?
R: Come to my house
C: K, be there in a bit
Cinder closed the app, and slid her phone in her pocket. She flipped around and dug through the small closet on the far-side of the room. The girl swapped out her plain red tee for a warmer off-the-shoulder low cut maroon blouse. She looked in the mirror and smirked, the sweater complimented her tight ripped jeans perfectly.
Just before leaving she grabbed her keys from her drawer, fixed her hair to its customary style, and jogged out the door, relishing in the fact that Ruby was free and she could get out of the house.
Cinder jogged down the stairs, only to come face to face with Autumn again. "You're not leaving." She stated with crossed arms.
"Oh, whatever." Cinder scoffed.
"If you walk out that door; I'm not letting you back in."
"Isn't that the scoop of the century." The ebony-haired girl said while slipping on her shoes.
"Excuse me?! You don't talk-"
'SLAM!'
Autumn winced at the door quite literally slamming in her face, jostling the curtains off their rungs.
Outside, Cinder was smirking once more. Fed up with how her mother treats her like a child. She shook that thought and dug her car keys out of her pocket, making her smirk even wider. When her parents got divorced, her father practically up and left. Not even bothering to come and reclaim his all his stuff. He took a little, but one of the things he left was his black 1997 Mazda RX-7. Before Cinder could even drive she claimed it as hers. It was old, hence why her father left it. But a car's a car, and Cinder was thrilled to have her own. Even if it really wasn't hers.
Ruby only lived a five minute walk away, but she opted to take the car just in case they needed it. There was no way in hell she'd come back again and get it.
Cinder yanked open the driver side door and climbed in, breathing in the scent of old leather upholstery. She slotted the key in, gave it a turn, and backed out of the driveway. Once she got out onto the street, she made a funny face at the house and peeled off, glad to just get away.
######
"Ugh, for the third time Yang, it's divided by the tangent of 'A' not 'R'..." Weiss Schnee, groaned. This was definitely not how she wanted to spend her evening. Yang and herself were paired up for a small advanced functions assignment. The blonde had insisted on them going to her house to work on it and now she found herself arguing over which letter goes where in the formulas.
"Not it's 'R', see?" Yang held up the sheet and pointed to the equation in question.
"Yang that's an A."
"It is? Weiss not trying to be mean or anything, but your handwriting is shoddy as hell."
"Well it is when I'm getting dragged out of class while trying to write them!" She seethed, remembering how the blonde pulled her out of class as soon as the bell rang with just a few seconds to get down the writing on the chalkboard. She could've gotten them down sooner -if Yang hadn't insisted on chatting so much during class.
"Give me that." The white-haired girl tore the sheet from Yang's grip. She stood up and ruffled out the wrinkles in her white hoodie and dusted off the eraser shavings on her white skinnies. "Why don't we take a break." She suggested.
"And do what~" Yang said, eyebrows raised.
"Ugh, nothing you brute." She chided.
"Well i was thinking we could-"
"Ah ah ah, let me stop you right there. What's rule number one when it comes to us and school work?" She pointed at Yang.
"No kissing, touching, or general inappropriate behavior until after the work is finished..." The blonde droned.
"Right. And is the work finished?" Weiss asked, smirk growing on her features.
"No..." Yang sighed sadly.
"So how about we take a break and eat, finish the project, and find something else to do."
"Oh really~?" Yang's mood shot back up.
"For heavens sake Yang don't push your luck."
"Sorry."
Yang couldn't help but say that without a smirk too. If not evident enough, she and Weiss had recently made their relationship official, and have been dating for a few months now. It was a combination of Yang's advances and Weiss' rebellious attitude that brought them together and -despite the contrary- they share a pretty happy relationship.
Yang stood up and went from the living-room to the connected kitchen to fetch something to eat. Summer and Taiyang had gone out to see some terrible movie none of the girls wanted to see, so the house was free to just Yang, Weiss, and-
"What's all the yelling about?" A higher pitched and calm voice questioned.
Yang tuned from the fridge to see her sister Ruby skip the bottom step of the stairs and walk into the kitchen. She wore nothing special. Just a black v-neck and worn-out red jeans. "Oh y'know Rubes, Weiss just being..." Yang trailed off seeing the "I dare you" Look Weiss was giving her from the corner of her eye. "Being t-the best person on all of Remnant. T-That's who." She fake cheered. "So what're you doing? Thought you were gonna 'Game' all night."
"Nah, Cinder's on her way over." Ruby spoke with casualty.
Weiss frowned, "You mean that goth girl? The one Emerald's got a crush on?"
"Yeah- wait. How'd you know that?" Ruby queried. "And just because her hair is black doesn't make her goth Weiss."
"She told Mercury, he told Neo, she told me, and I passed it onto Weissy here." Yang cut in, obviously proud of her gossiping skills.
"Wow Weiss. I though you weren't into gossip?"
"I'm not. I just think someone like Emerald could do much better than... Cinder." Weiss grimaced at the word 'Cinder'
"Why not?" The crimsonette stood up for her friend, "What's wrong with Cinder?"
"Her piercings are weird, she's- wait why're you defending her so much? You want to date her too I assume?"
Ruby glared at the white-clad girl. "What?! No, I like her, b-but not like that." The girl felt her embarrassment rise when Yang started to grin.
"Yeah, Rubes here has got another special lady in the cross-hairs."
"Would you stop saying cross-hairs? I'm not trying to kill someone." Ruby was defending herself now.
"I don't even want to know..." Weiss sighed. She grabbed Yang by her broad shoulders and directed her back into the kitchen, muttering the words "We have work to do" in a venomous sneer. She was the only one on Remnant who could make the blondes skin crawl with nervous worry.
Eliciting a content sigh at the fact that Yang didn't prod further into the mystery of her crush, Ruby decided that staying here was probably not the best of ideas. Yang and Weiss were definitely going to get some work done -just not the pen and paper kind.
She paced over tint he front door, slipped on her runners and snuck out the door. Once on the porch she dug her phone from the depths of her jeans pocket and checked the time; the thin numbers reading : 7:47 P.M. sort of late, but as long as she was back by ten -it was okay.
It was still a tad bit visible outside. The sun painting the horizon an over-saturated purple. She was surprised to find how warm it still was for an April evening, winter always had a bad habit of sticking around far too long which in turn made the springtime much incredibly short.
Ruby took a deep breath of the fresh evening air and plunked her butt down on the cold concrete step; awaiting Cinder's arrival.
In the three years she's known Cinder, Ruby's been able to pick up on a lot about the ebony-haired girl. She knew her story back to front. Cinder grew up with not much of an parental influence. Her father treated her with disdain, and her mother was never around. Cinder would always refer to the woman as a "workaholic".
Cinder was the relaxed type with the whole "Whatever" attitude. She couldn't care less about what everyone thinks about her. Subsequently many people based their less than positive opinions off how she dresses, and who she hangs out with. Normally the girl would hang around Ruby herself, and their three other friends Mercury, Emerald, and Neo. And even days were Yang would come along too. Some called her goth, others called her a 'delinquent'. That was only on the surface however. Cinder got decent grades, albeit with a few detentions, and was overall a decent person.
Overall may be subjective.
The soft roar of a familiar engine derailed Ruby's train of thought. She stood up on the porch and looked out past the garden, grinning as Cinder's car pulled in the driveway. The scarlet girl continued to watch as Cinder climbed out of the low-slung vehicle, "Yo." She called out.
Cinder brushed her sweeping bangs away and took off her sunglasses. "Red Rose." She greeted. Cinder had all but ceased to call Ruby by her real first name and insisted on calling her 'Red' instead. "Why are you waiting outside? Am I not welcome anymore?"
"Nah, Weiss and Yang are in there, figured it'd be better if we went somewhere else." Ruby said, laying out the situation.
"Hm." Cinder hopped up and sat on the hood of her car, "Why don't we... go see that flame of yours?"
Ruby gave Cinder a flustered glare, "You need to stop calling her that too! Cross-hairs, flame..." she stammered off, "Her name is Neo. N-e-o."
"Defensive." Cinder giggled.
"What? Can't a girl like another girl and that be the end of it?"
"Not for you."
"Hey, why'd you text me anyway?" The crimsonette desperately wanted to change contexts.
"The usual."
"O-kay."
"C'mon, I'll text Merc and tell him to meet us there." The ebony-haired girl gestured for Ruby to get in.
"W-Wait we're actually going?"
"Yeah, I'm starving." Cinder said nonchalantly.
"Ffffine."
######
"Yay... a whole dollar. Pricks..." A girl with hair split between pink and brown sighed. She grabbed the pitiful tip off of the table and proceeded to place the dirty plates on a tray held in her offhand. Today was like any other day at her wonderful waitress job.
Her name was Neo, working at a decent restaurant called "The Wick". Owned by a man who's name just happened to be: Roman Torchwick. The man was an alright boss, but mostly handed his work off to subsidiaries and handled the simpler tasks. Still it got Neo paid, and when you're saving for college; that's all that really matters.
Neo shoved the single bill into her pocket and lugged the tray of dishes back to the kitchen. On her way her pantleg got caught under her heel causing her to stumble forward. "Dammit." she cussed, barely able to keep the tray from falling. If there was one thing she hated most about this job, it was the uniform policy. You had to wear all back clothes ordered from in store only. Meaning she couldn't just bring in her own. Even the smallest pair of jeans they had to offer didn't line up with her own shortness, and that resulted in a lot of trips and stumbles.
Neo hadn't really made any new friends in the two months she's been at the restaurant, but that didn't bother her. The multi-colored girl mostly kept to herself anyways, spending her breaks watching whatever hilarious videos she could find on YouTube, or playing games on her phone. It got lonely sometimes, but there was those odd days when her friends would stop by and make this mundane job a little more... colorful.
She'll never forget the day Yang and Cinder got banned for almost starting a fight with one of the waiters. When it comes to those two; you don't mess up their orders.
"Hey, Neo, boss says you can leave early today."
Neo perked up at the familiar voice. Emerald. The one who had helped her get this job in the first place. Emerald came around the corner to the front bar area and stood by Neo. Crimson eyes looking over the girls small form. "First I get a dollar, than I get to leave a whole-" Neo checked her watch, "-five minutes early. I must be so privileged." She spat, words dripping with malice and sarcasm.
Emerald stood idly by, the dark-skinned girl not quite sure what to say.
"Ah, sorry Em. Just not the greatest workday ever." Neo said, resenting her previous behavior.
"It's cool. I was the same way when I started. Things'll get better." Emerald reassured her friend.
"Thanks." Neo grinned. She left Emerald to tend to the food orders and skipped off to one of the registers by three entrance to clock out. She typed in her employee number and and successfully signed off. Just as she was about to jog off to grab her belongings, a trio of individuals came in through the front doors.
"Cin I thought you got banned from here?"
"I did."
"So shouldn't you..."
"No, no. Neo and Em cover for me."
Looking up from the monitor, Neo made eye contact with her silver-haired friend Mercury, dressed in gray jeans and a black Adidas jacket. He was currently chatting up with Cinder -Ruby following close behind. "Hey, guys!" She called out. She watched as Ruby whispered something in Cinder's ear then trotted off. Mercury was the first to approach Neo. "Can I get some service please?" He asked with a grin.
"Don't be an ass Merc." Cinder jabbed him in the ribs, "Hey Neo."
"Where'd Ruby run off to?" The shorter girl asked, trying to look over Mercury's shoulder.
"She went to get us a table. You know how that girl is."
"Yeah, weird, that's what." The silver-haired boy quipped
"Mind if I join you guys? I just got off."
"Yeah, C'mon."
Neo was thrilled that today was one of those days her friends stopped by. Sure she was done work, but it's the thought that counts. She followed Cinder and Mercury to a booth in the far back corner of the dim restaurant. Ruby sitting on the padded seat patiently. "H-Hi Neo!" She erratically waved.
"Ruby." Neo nodded.
The four of them all took their seats. Cinder and Ruby on one side, Mercury and Neo on the other.
"I don't mean to repeat myself but are we getting some service here?" Mercury prodded again.
"Dude, would you shut-up please? Em should be around in a sec." Neo hissed.
All eyes fell on Cinder at the mention of Emerald. The ebony-haired teen completely oblivious to them, simply fiddling with her new phone in her lap. It wasn't the only thing she was oblivious to. Practically everyone knew about Emerald's crush on the proverbial bad girl. And Emerald had made it plenty clear for anyone not to tell Cinder. The thing was; Cinder didn't see Emerald that way, hence her oblivion to It all.
She finally looked up, with three pairs of eyes staring back.
"What? Is there something in my hair?"
"No." Mercury spoke. "You're just fine."
Saffron orbs narrowed. "Moron."
"Agreed." A fifth person came on the scene. Everyone's attention shifted from Cinder to Emerald standing at the end of the table. "You aren't going to cause trouble are you?" She asked.
"Don't worry, Yang's not here." Ruby reassured.
"Thank God. Now-" Emerald swept her minty bangs back and reached for the pen tucked behind her ear. "Wait, I'm guessing you're all getting the usual?"
"Question is, do you remember what that is? Hm?"
The mint-haired girl crossed her arms at Mercury's arrogant question. "Chicken Parm for you, Tuscan salad for Ruby and Neo-" Emerald took a pause to glance at Cinder who sat on the edge of the booth. Just as she was about to speak Cinder's favorite order her eyes caught the perfect view down the girls shirt, causing her to blush like mad. "F-For C-Cinder... it's... ahem." Emerald tore her eyes away from Cinder's cleavage and towards the wall. "For Cinder-"
"Actually Em, I'm feeling something new." Cinder interrupted.
"Like?"
"Something really greasy, and bad for me. Make it a surprise, kay?"
"Sure, anything for you." Emerald froze, "I-I mean, anything for all of you, yeah..."
With that embarrassing fiasco Emerald scampered off, internally scolding herself over her lack of smoothness when it comes to Cinder. The look down her shirt was sort of rewarding however. In that odd kind of way.
Back at the table Cinder shook her head, "What's with her all the time?"
"Who knows Cin. Who knows..." Neo remarked.
######
Within an hour the four of them finished their meals, paid, and all got ready to leave. Neo was less than thrilled to give up some cash for a tip, but Emerald was a friend, so exceptions had been made. They all pitched in even shares that amounted to twenty bucks before getting up to leave.
Emerald waved them off before walking back to tend to the table. She smiled at the generous tip but her expression quickly sank upon eyeing the spot Cinder had been sitting in. The dark-skinned girl slumped into the booth and flunked her head down on the table, her mind rewound to her embarrassing moment from earlier. She couldn't help it! Help the fact that Cinder appealed to all her tastes. She's attractive, sly, smart... Emerald could spend hours naming off Cinder's amazing qualities, but that'd get her nowhere fast.
Was it really that hopeless?
She asked herself that everyday. Hell, she didn't even know if Cinder swung that way. The soul-crushing feeling of finding out your crush isn't into the same gender was something Emerald didn't want to experience.
Be that as it may, she needs to start somewhere.
Maybe tomorrow.
Maybe the next day.
Who knows.
Hope for the best, and prepare for the worst.
Well there ya' go! Sorry if it was cliché at times, but you know...
Leave feedback with ideas or opinions, I'd love to hear what ya'll think of these pairings I'm going with here. Thanks for reading this new story of mine!