Gold (Christmas Eve Was An Epic Fail)
Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY
Summary: Christmas AU. On Christmas Eve, Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang are stranded in an RV on an abandoned highway—but they make the best of it anyway. No pairings, but friendship
Author's note at the end.
"I blame this on you."
"Me? Why?"
"This was all your idea!"
"Well...you agreed!"
"Reluctantly, you blonde-haired fiend!"
"Fiend?"
"Yes, fiend!"
A tall blonde woman huffed in irritation, blowing a few stray strands of hair out of her face. Next to her stood a shorter woman with odd white hair, her hands on her hips. "I thought we were better friends than that," the former muttered, much to the other's chagrin.
The white-haired woman dipped her head in embarrassment, her pale cheeks coloring a bright red. "Well..." She began in a low voice, her embarrassment evident in her tone. "I suppose...this isn't all your fault...And you're not a fiend. You're actually very...very..." The red in her cheeks deepened considerably.
It was completely unlike the blonde to be sullen, and sure enough, as soon as her companion began to apologize (in a way that only she could do), a huge, shit-stupid grin broke out on her face. As the snowy woman struggled to find her words, the blonde squealed and scooped her up in a big hug. "Aw!" She exclaimed, squeezing the life out of her and burying her in her sizable assets. "I knew you loved me, Weiss!"
"Hey!" Weiss yelped, struggling to get the blonde to release her. "Get off me, Yang!"
Yang released her but that stupid grin never faded. "I feel so fulfilled now that I know you love me!" She sighed, her smile turning blissful. Weiss, however, seemed offended by Yang's antics.
"I'll have you know that I—" Suddenly, Weiss's voice cut off as if she realized whatever she was about to say wasn't true or wasn't wise to say. She snapped her jaw shut before sniffing and whipping her head to the side, her ponytail swinging as she ignored Yang.
"It's over, right, Blake?" A redhead whispered to the black-haired woman seated next to her. They were sitting on a bench which was positioned before a table. The table was in a nook of the RV, and a blinded window was to their left. Across from them was another bench meant for seating two, but the people who could have been sitting there were currently off in their own world.
"Yes, Ruby, it is," Blake answered without looking up from her thick novel. She turned the page before setting her bookmark there and looking over at Weiss. "Weiss, I know you're upset, but let's not blame each other. It is Christmas Eve."
The white-haired woman sighed in exasperation, rolling her eyes slightly. Still, that didn't diminish the quiet regret in her voice as she muttered, "I know. I'm...sorry, Yang."
The blonde's eyes lit up like a Christmas tree (no pun intended) at the actual apology. She knew how hard it must have been for her to swallow her pride and apologize. She felt honored for sure, but if Weiss was feeling bad...She hid her devilish grin under a visage of a slight frown. "Well...I obviously accept your apology, but...I think I need you to make it up to me."
Weiss frowned at her, a seed of fear planted in her heart. "But I thought you were happy because I—" Her cheeks, which had been paling back to their usual color, flared red once more, and Yang had to use everything in her not to smirk.
"Well, yeah, but I feel like...I need an extra Christmas gift to feel better," she hinted with a sly grin. The red in Weiss's cheeks deepened but for an entirely different reason.
"Why you—you—" Weiss fumbled for a proper word that wouldn't set Yang off, causing all three of her companions to let out laughs. "Ugh!" She stomped her foot on the floor of the RV, crossing her arms childishly. "Why do you even take offense to being called a fiend? You're never bothered by my nicknames!"
Yang snickered, back to her usual bubbly mood. "Eh, I guess I was just in a bad mood," she said with a grin. "But you cheered me up, so don't worry!"
Weiss gave her a blank look. "Fabulous."
"Totally!"
Weiss rolled her eyes.
Ruby decided to intervene in whatever this was. An argument or a trivial spar? Why did these two have to do this so often? "So, uh, what now?" The redhead asked, hesitantly, gaining the attention of her blonde older sister. "We're stranded in an RV on an abandoned highway. And it's Christmas Eve! We're not gonna make it."
The Christmas-loving girl heaved a dejected sigh as she sat back with a bang. Blake patted her shoulder in an attempt to console the girl. Yang frowned; if her little sister wasn't happy, then neither was she.
She tapped a finger to her chin in thought, trying to figure a way out of this. Everything had been going smoothly until the RV's battery died, which unfortunately meant that the lights of the RV wouldn't go on either, so right now, they were riding it out on the full moon's light. But, more importantly, a dead battery meant they couldn't operate the RV, and since they didn't have anything that could give it more juice (Yang had already attempted to jump the battery), they were stuck. On an abandoned highway. During Christmas Eve.
She sighed. Life really did suck.
Giving up for the moment, she shrugged helplessly. "I don't know, sis," she murmured, apologetically. "Sorry. Maybe I shouldn't have gotten this RV—"
"You asked me to buy it for you," interrupted Weiss.
"—and declared a road trip. We should have just flown to Philadelphia."
"We do live in New York," Weiss pointed out with a sigh, "and even though it's not far, it would have been wiser to just take an airplane."
Yang shot her a sour look, sitting down on the bench across from Blake and Ruby. "But it would have been less fun, Princess," she noted, grinning when she called her Princess. Weiss merely rolled her eyes, used to the comment. She was the daughter of one of the most powerful business men in New York, after all.
Wanting to break up her friends' argument, Blake leaned over and whispered something into Ruby's ear. The younger girl grinned and nodded before sliding out of her seat and skipping over to her sister. She pushed her into the inner part of the bench before taking a seat next to her.
Blake glanced at Weiss with a smile on her face, motioning toward the seat next to her with a bob of her head. "Have a seat, Weiss. We could all use the distraction."
Weiss paused, looking at the smiling group waiting for her, and couldn't help her own small smile to appear. "Alright. But, first..." She spun around and retrieved something from one of the cabinets embedded in the counter running along the wall opposite the table. She turned around with four paper cups cradled against her chest and a sheepish smile on her face. "I had expected us to have light—and heat—when we drank these, so I didn't think much of it...But, anyway, this is hot chocolate from a café near our last stop at that convenience store. Well, it's not hot anymore, but I—oh here, just take it," she huffed, shoving the cold cups in front of her friends.
Ruby looked up at her in surprise but accepted the drink anyway. "Why didn't you give us these earlier?" She asked, curiously.
Weiss sat down with her cup held between her hands. She wished that it was still warm because it was awfully cold tonight. Maybe it would snow over night? She hoped so, even if she was cold. She had always loved the snow.
"I don't know," Weiss admitted. "It was just a feeling I had, I guess."
Yang tapped a finger to her chin once before her eyes lit up. "Oh! Hey, I know how to warm this up really quick. C'mon, we gotta go outside!" She shooed Ruby off the bench so she could stand before gathering both of their drinks in one arm and using the other to drag Ruby outside with her. She glanced at the pair still on the bench, shouting, "Come on, you slowpokes!" She grabbed something from the cabinet before opening the door and going outside.
Blake sighed, picking up her drink and nudging Weiss with her leg. "We'd better humor her," she mumbled into her friend's ear. Weiss hummed in agreement, though a sour look was present on her face as she scooped up her drink and stood, heading for the door. Before she exited, she donned her white trenchcoat.
Blake pulled on her black coat before following Weiss out. She stuck close to the woman because she had been closest to her; after all, they had been friends long before either of them met Ruby and Yang. But that was a story to be told with a hot drink in hand, and all she had was a cold one.
The pair of sisters were found huddled around a mass of sticks that had, apparently, been quickly gathered by them. Yang took out a lighter from her pocket and hovered it over the pile of sticks. A fire was soon crackling on the blacktop.
Weiss raised an eyebrow as she moved closer to the fire. It sure is cold out here...Still, she needed to be the one to ask logical questions as always. "Yang, what are you doing?" She edged a bit closer to catch some of the heat radiating off the fire. While the cold didn't affect her as much as other people, it was still cold, and she wanted to be near a source of heat.
"Hang on, I'm not done yet," the blonde muttered, grabbing four large rocks that had been put to the side. She put two side by side in two small areas before propping two thick sticks in between them. She then whipped out a knife and carefully carved out a small cranny on each stick before placing another thick piece of wood in the crannies, creating a strange sort of arch over the fire.
Before anyone could ask, Yang sprinted back inside the RV. A moment later, she appeared with string and a metal pot. Weiss finally understood what she was doing—and she couldn't help but smile.
She did have great friends.
Blake was sitting in between Weiss and Yang with Ruby across from her. They were gathered on folding chairs around their small fire, their pot of chocolate slowly heating up. While she preferred tea to hot chocolate, she had to admit that a cup of the sweet drink did sound nice.
"Okay, it's still Christmas Eve," Yang announced after checking her phone. "It's 10:47 right now. So, I think we all need some cheering up, so how about some Christmas carols?"
Blake's eyes widened in slight horror at the notion. Much as she liked Yang and Ruby, both of them had...strange singing styles. Yang liked to mess around and do horrible country singing while Ruby tried for equally horrible metal.
Weiss, apparently, had the same thought because she quickly shook her head. "I don't think—"
"Oh, come on!" Yang whined, banging her head against Weiss's shoulder. "You sing in front of hundreds of people at your concerts!"
Weiss blushed. Blake knew that she was a little sensitive toward the subject of her singing career, seeing as her father had forced her into it. While Weiss was a naturally good singer, she hadn't wanted to make a career out of it. "Yes, but—"
Yang cut her off again. "So why not here?"
Weiss huffed in annoyance, flicking her ponytail over her shoulder. "If you would just let me finish," she bit out, eliciting a sheepish grin from Yang, "then you would find out. And I meant I don't think it's a good idea because I'm really not in the mood for you and your sister's horrid mixture of country and metal music right now."
Ruby winced from Weiss's left side. "Harsh," she muttered to her friend, but the white-haired woman only rolled her eyes in response. While the two hadn't quite hit it off (there may have been an incident involving a tray of Chinese food and Weiss in a very expensive dress), they had come to know each other and care about each other over time, so Ruby didn't take any actual offense from her comment.
Yang pouted at Weiss's harsh comment but didn't push the subject. Weiss, though, feeling a little bit guilty now, slowly said, "Well...I could sing. I mean, I know it's not the same, but maybe you guys could join in at the end?"
Both sisters brightened while Blake shrugged before all three agreed. Weiss nodded, taking a breath and closing her eyes. A moment later, she began to sing.
"Dream of anything
I'll make it all come true
Everything you need is all I have for you
I'm forever always by your side
Whenever you need a friend, never far behind
If the stars all fall, when there's no more light
And the moon should crumble, it will be alright
Don't you worry about the dark
I will light up the night with the love in my heart
I will burn like the sun, I will keep you safe and warm
Like the smell of a rose on a summer's day
I will be there to take all your fears away
With a touch of my hand, I will turn your life to gold
With a touch of my hand, I'll turn your life to gold."
Weiss, her eyes closed, thought about the song. It was a lullaby Yang used to sing to Ruby when they had been younger, but Yang had asked Weiss to sing it one night when all four of them were at their house. Weiss did, and she had liked the song. She wasn't sure why she was singing this particular song when she had so many to choose from, but there was just something about this song. Maybe that was because it made her feel warm inside.
"Let's have everything
Nothing we cannot do
Every heart just beaming, every sky turns blue
I'm so happy just to have you here
Smiles bringing sunshine, worries disappear
When the days turn dark
And we start to fall
I will pick you up and we will fix it all
Don't you worry about the dark
I will light up the night with the love in my heart
I will burn like the sun I will keep you safe and warm
Like the smell of a rose on a summer's day,
I will be there to take your fears away
With a touch of my hand I will turn your life to gold."
Weiss paused, taking a deep breath. She still didn't open her eyes, but she could hear the quiet breathing of her friends. "Good singing, Princess," Yang whispered.
She couldn't help the smile that appeared on her face.
"Don't worry, I've got you
Nothing will ever harm you
I'm close by, I'll stay here
Through all things, I will be near
Close your eyes
Don't you cry
Love's around you
In time you'll fly."
Weiss's eyes flickered open as she made a quick gesture for them to join in. Yang grinned widely, Ruby's grin somehow surpassed her sister's grin, and Blake smiled softly.
"Don't you worry about the dark
I will light up the night with the love in my heart
I will burn like the sun I will keep you safe from harm
Like the smell of a rose on a summer's day
I will be there to take all your fears away
With a touch of my hand I will turn your life to gold
With a touch of my hand I'll turn your life to gold."
Surprisingly enough, they weren't tone deaf this time, and were actually quite good. Weiss smiled at them appreciatively. "Superb singing for you two dolts."
Neither of them took the 'dolt' jab to heart and instead just crowded around her and hugged her. Blake was trapped in the hug, but the normally reserved girl didn't mind. They were her best friends, after all.
"Alright, alright," Weiss grumbled, pushing them off her. "Is our hot chocolate done yet?"
"I think so." Yang took off the lid of the pot, and a mass of steam billowed out. "Yeah, I guess so," she hummed, pouring the drink into each other their cups. Putting the pot back, she turned to her friends and held out her cup. "Banzai!"
The other three females exchanged exasperated glances but banged their paper cups against hers anyway. "Banzai!"
They knocked back their drinks only to nearly spit out the liquid a moment later due to its nearly boiling temperature. Ruby, Weiss, and Blake swallowed with much difficulty before turning on Yang with identical glares. Somehow, Yang wasn't affected by the heat of the drink.
"Yang Xiao Long!"
After their drinks had cooled off, the three girls who couldn't handle the heat thoroughly enjoyed their hot chocolate. It was, after all, still cold even with their small fire. Around the fire they were recounting stories, from Ruby's 'terrible' trip to the dentist to Weiss's run-in with a competitor of her father's to Blake's book she was reading right now to Yang's boxing lessons when she was a kid. Mashed in there was the story of how they became friends, being told by Ruby in excited tones with her friends chiming in every so often.
The four girls had become friends after they all ended up attending the same jewelry convention, and yes, they did have jewelry conventions. Weiss was there as the heiress to her father's company while Blake was there as a sort of moral support. Ruby and Yang had been there because there was free food.
So, their friendship had started under unusual circumstances, what with Weiss and Ruby's meeting going terribly, but they were all good friends now and couldn't imagine their lives without one another.
Right now, Yang was recounting her adventures as a Girl Scout, which had been the only reason why she knew how to "carve and shit" according to herself.
"...and then I saw this shape outside our tent. I woke up the girl in my tent and dragged her outside with me," she snickered, leaning back in her seat. "I think she was only half-conscious and didn't know what was going on at first. Anyway, I walk outside, and there's this huge black bear outside the tent, right? The girl sees it and starts screaming her head off. That, you know, made it mad, so we had to run. Of course, it chased us, but we managed to make it to like this really big tree. We climbed the tree, and the bear couldn't climb up or shake us out so it just sat there and waited. Long story short, we were there until sunrise when our supervisor saw what had happened and called for help. Thank God because that girl was sniveling the whole time."
Blake frowned at her friend. "I know that you were only eight, but you're supposed to be very quiet and possibly play dead when you encounter a bear and have no manner of defense."
Yang scoffed at the bow-wearing girl and waved a flippant hand. "Yeah, yeah. I was eight, like you said. What'd you expect?" Blake said nothing and opted instead to sip her hot chocolate.
"Can we go back inside now?" Ruby complained, shifting uncomfortably in her chair. "I have a hot drink, and I'm still cold."
"Alright," Yang grumbled, reluctantly getting up and ducking into the RV. Half a minute later, she emerged with an old towel which she used to stomp out the fire. She folded up her chair and carried it inside, her friends on her heels.
It was still cold inside the RV, but considerably less so. Ruby and Blake sighed in relief, while Weiss and Yang just slumped their shoulders a little. They weren't as badly affected by the cold.
They decided to call it a night after putting their chairs away. They took turns using the bathroom (which was somehow still operating) before making their way through a doorway into the back.
The room in the back was their sleeping room. The doorway was covered by a curtain for privacy, not that they really needed it. Four beds were embedded in the walls with privacy curtains over those also. Four different colored beanbag chairs were tossed in the corner for when they wanted to just sit around and be lazy.
Their beds had just enough room for each of them to sit up. They tucked their legs under their blankets but sat up, still drinking their hot chocolate.
"Hey..." Ruby began in an uncharacteristically quiet voice. "Do you guys remember our first Christmas together?"
Weiss let out a tired scoff. "Of course, you dunce. How could I forget you inhaling all of my Christmas cookies?" The image of Ruby stuffing her face with cookies shaped like stars, Christmas trees, gingerbread houses, and even Santa flashed through her mind, making her chuckle.
Ruby blushed, an embarrassed grin appearing on her face, Blake smiled, and Yang outright laughed, rolling her head against the wall to the right. "Yeah, and I remember how your eyes lit up when we gave you that picture of us, Princess." Yang grinned to herself, thinking of the picture. She had been in the middle of laughing her head off at Weiss who looked pissed and had remnants of a snowball on her face. Blake was covering her mouth, but you could tell by the twinkle in her eyes that she was laughing. There was a close up of a grinning Ruby as she pointed a finger at Weiss; the redhead had been the one to take the picture. And while Weiss had been angry in the picture, she had always secretly loved it.
Weiss rolled her eyes but a smile still crossed her features. Blake chuckled. "While Ruby may have had a huge appetite for cookies, I remember that you were the one who ate over half of my spread, Yang," Blake commented with a sly grin even though the other woman couldn't see it. Yes, the black-haired woman could see her pig of a friend seated at a table covered with roast beef, turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top (because Ruby insisted upon something sweet like that), corn, and more than a few choices of pie because she had known that a couple were going to be used as throwing devices. And, yes, Yang did, in fact, eat half her spread that very day.
Yang gave an embarrassed chuckle. "Yeah...probably shouldn't have eaten that much. But it was all so good!"
"Thank you."
Ruby looked at the wood above her wistfully. "But the best moment was when we took that picture by the fire."
All four girls fell silent in reverence for that moment. They had been seated on the fluffy white carpet by the fire, and during the picture, they weren't messing around for once. Yang was in the middle, her arms thrown around all of her friends and leaning forward slightly with smile on her face. Weiss was to her left, hands placed in her lap, legs folded beneath her. She was smiling softly at the camera. Ruby was to Yang's right, leaning into her sister's side with a grin on her face. Blake was next to Ruby, a small smile on her face. The fire behind them illuminated them in the growing darkness, capturing their figures in a perfect mixture of light and dark.
They had used a camera with a timer, and with the way they had to scramble into position (well, Yang did), it was amazing that they got such a good picture. Still, to all of them it was their favorite picture, and each of them kept it in a frame on their nightstands so that they could look at it every night.
Their heads all turned simultaneously to the left wall where a blown-up form of the picture was hung. They all smiled at it before looking away and toward where their friends rested.
In unison, they all called out, "Merry Christmas."
With that, they put their cups to the side, slid under their blankets, and fell asleep.
The next morning, they all woke up early and exchanged Christmas greetings. Ruby had bought them all oversized sweaters in their respective favorite colors as an early Christmas gift, and they all donned them on this morning.
"Think they'll be mad?" Yang asked, referring to the friends they had been planning to visit on this road trip. They hadn't called them because they had no cell connection out here.
Ruby shrugged. "All of them are pretty cool, so no, I doubt it."
Weiss ducked through the curtains and made her way through the RV toward the front. The sun had risen and was casting its gentle rays over the...snow?
She ran to the windshield and looked out over the landscape with wide eyes. Snow covered the highway, burying the blacktop in its white sheen. Her hopes had been fulfilled; it had snowed over night.
"Yay, snow!" Ruby exclaimed, running up to the windshield to look out. She squealed excitedly. "Ah, I'm gonna use the bathroom and then go out!" She dashed into the bathroom, leaving the other three girls to marvel at the snow.
Eventually, all of them cycled through the bathroom and were outside. After a brief snowball fight (it was only a few tossed balls back and forth), Yang whistled to get their attention. "Hey! Come on, let's do this!" She waved a camera at them before positioning it on a tripod that seemed to have come out of nowhere.
Knowing better than to argue with her, the trio gathered in front of the forest off to the side of the highway. Blake wrapped one arm around Weiss and the other around Ruby, tilting her head toward Weiss. She was much taller than the white-haired woman, so her chin didn't even touch her head.
Weiss wrapped an arm around her old friend, smiling softly at Yang who was still setting everything up. Ruby cuddled into Blake's side with a warm smile on her face. Blake herself wore a small grin.
"Okay...let's do this!" Yang dashed to their side, pouncing on Ruby, who stumbled under her weight which caused them all to nearly fall forward. Yang snickered as they struggled to regain their balance. Among these girls, whenever one of them began to laugh, all of them laughed or grinned, too, (unless one of them was mad), so they all broke out in fits of laughter, arms around each other, huge grins pointed at the camera just as it flashed and snapped the picture.
As a group, they made their way over to the camera, still laughing. Ruby buried her face in Yang's arm, trying to stop laughing, and Weiss's head was currently in Blake's hair while she tried to do the same. Yang was still laughing her head off while Blake was using her hand to stifle her laughs.
They checked the picture and saw them stumbling toward the cameras with huge grins on their faces, looking as if they were having the time of their lives. All of them exchanged a smile as a silent vow was made.
This picture would be on their nightstands next to the one by the fireplace. Because they weren't just friends; they were sisters, maybe not by blood but by bond.
And that was all they needed.
A few notes need to be made.
In this AU, Weiss, Blake, and Yang are all twenty-two while Ruby is nineteen and acts a bit immaturely at times, which is why the other three refer to her as a girl and not a woman. In their eyes she's their awkward little sister.
I think I made the breakdown of the RV correct, but I'm not very good at mechanics, so I apologize if it was incorrect. Also, I doubt the bathroom on the RV functions without the battery running, but this is fiction, so yeah. Can't we make some things true in fiction that aren't true in real life? No? Next time, then.
I also don't own "Gold" by Jeff Williams feat. Casey Lee Williams. I like the song, but I first heard it at the end of an episode with Weiss's picture in the background, so I've always imagined her singing it. I figured this was the most realistic way to put it.
This probably seemed rather unimportant, but I purposefully labeled them all "girls" when they were laughing at the end. I think that they would have felt like kids again when that happened.
I like fluffy stories which was why I wrote this. I feel like Yang and Weiss would argue a lot but it wouldn't be like a real argument. To me, they're kind of like sisters, yeah. And I like Monochrome friendship so that was why Blake and Weiss were friends for a long time. Ruby didn't play a huge role in this, I know, so I'm sorry, but I just ended up focusing on the other three.
So this is like five days late, but I really wanted to write it anyway. I wrote it in half a day, so I doubt it's that good, but to anyone that read it, thanks. I know the beginning and end were a little choppy, but it was the best I could come up with. I've always liked verbal beginnings and one-line ends.
Feedback is appreciated but this is registered under my backup email, so I might not PM you back for a few days or not at all. I'm a bit busy with other things, too, since it still is the holiday season. Still, anyone who read this late fic is awesome, and again, thank you.
Cya.