A/N: This fic is inspired and dedicated to nobyas on tumblr for their lewd White Rose hand holding art. Special thanks to elfenlied1012 for checking over this fic for me. Thanks to both of you for the help and encouragement! Go check out both their works! This might be multichaptered fic as I do have some content for what happens after the final scene of this story but at the moment I am rather pleased with it as a one shot. Please read and review!
Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY.
"Are you serious?"
"Yep."
"You expect me to lift those dusty boxes with my expensive white clothes and move them to the attic?"
"Well, yeah, Weiss. That's kind of what Yang and I meant when you and Blake would help us around the house during spring break. It's kind of a joint effort, you know?"
Weiss sighed. For as long as she could remember, she always had a servant to do tasks that required hard labor. It was beneath a Schnee to do something that others could be paid to do, her father said. So when Weiss was asked to spend spring break at Rose-Xiao Long household on Patch, the last thing she thought she would be doing upon arrival was heavy lifting, particularly dusty old boxes. Weiss made to complain some more but Ruby had already picked up a box and was walking out of the room.
"Hey! Ruby!"
"Less talking Weiss and more moving! I made a bet with Yang that if we moved all these boxes before we got back she would have to make dinner."
"But I didn't think…oh, fine!" Weiss grumbled as she bent down and picked up a box. "You guys owe me big time!"
"Oh don't be such a princess, Weiss! It's good to get down and dirty sometimes." Ruby said over her shoulder, grinning.
She chuckled as she heard Weiss mumble under her breath, complaining about her jokes becoming like Yang's. For the next hour, Ruby and Weiss moved boxes from the room they were clearing out into the attic. Ruby to a break for a moment at the steps leading up to the attic and wiped the sweat off her brow. She saw Weiss coming her way with a box slightly larger than the others they had been carrying up to this point and noticed that the girl was trembling as she struggled to keep a hold of it.
"Weiss, I don't think you should—"
"Hey guys! Me and Blake brought snacks!" Yang said as she barged from the side door by Ruby into the hallway.
"Yang wait!" Ruby shouted but it was too late.
Yang and Weiss collided, both falling onto the wooden floor. Ruby gave her sister a dejected look as Weiss groaned: the box she was carrying had fallen on top of her. Blake approached carrying a bag, frowning.
"Ow…well that was a thing. Ugh." Yang said as she slowly got up.
"Weiss are you okay?!" Ruby said as she attempted to lift the box off Weiss to no avail.
"Does it…ugh…look like I'm…ow…okay?" Weiss huffed out.
"Yang, I told you to stop running indoors like that." Blake said.
"Yeah yeah." Yang said. "I'm sorry Weiss. C'mere Ruby."
Ruby and Yang both bent down and lifted the box off Weiss. The heiress gasped for breath and Blake extended out a hand to Weiss. Weiss reached out but the moment their hands touched, she recoiled away and fell back to the ground. Blake narrowed her eyes as she looked closer at her teammate.
"Weiss, why are your hands so pink?" Blake said.
Everyone in the room looked at Weiss' hands who tried to hide them but Ruby was too quick and snatched them, face dropping immediately.
"Weiss, your hands look like they've been rubbed raw!"
Weiss wretched her hands from Ruby and hugged them to her chest.
"Leave me alone! I'm fine!"
"But Weiss, they look like they really hurt? What happened?"
"Dust happened!" Weiss growled, as the burning sensation in her hands started to increase. Ruby's face faltered at her partner's reaction, and Weiss willed herself to calm down and tried to ignore her growing pain.
"I…I'm not used to cleaning. I always get an allergic reaction with dust and cleaning chemicals when I do so I grew up having others do it."
"So then all those times you skip out on heaving cleaning duty at the dorms is because…?" Blake trailed off.
Weiss flushed as she got up, refusing to look at her teammates.
"It's not that I don't want to help clean. It's just that I…shouldn't."
A long silence pervaded the atmosphere until Weiss gave a small sound of discomfort. Yang sighed.
"Alright, follow me to Ruby's room."
"But why her room?" Weiss said. "Can't I just go—"
"Just follow me."
"Hmph."
The three girls followed Yang into Ruby's room and watched her enter its bathroom. Weiss looked at Ruby curiously but she merely shrugged. Yang came out moments later with a blue jar.
"Here princess. Put this medical cream on your hands. It's what I use for my knuckles when they crack. It'll help them return to normal."
"Oh, good idea Sis!" Ruby chirped. "Use it Weiss! It really helps me out too and heals my calluses. Even Blake uses it when she and Yang—"
Weiss watched bemusedly as Blake covered Ruby's mouth with one hand and wrapped her arm around her waist, preventing her from moving around. She gave Yang a strained look, pointing her head towards the door as Ruby flailed about, trying to break out of Blake's grasp.
"Blake what are you…oh. Oh! Yea, uh, well Weiss. Ruby. We gotta go…um…"
"Taiyang!" Blake shouted, momentarily lessening her hold on Ruby.
Ruby at that moment managed to escape from Blake's grasp, and collapsed on her bed, gasping for breath. Weiss ran over to the bed, looking alarmed as Ruby tried to steady her breathing.
"Ruby! Are you okay?" Weiss turned to her other teammates and scowled at them. "You two are being ridiculous. What is going on—"
"Er, right! I forgot Dad wanted us to do…a thing. Yes, a thing. A very important thing. A thing that if we do not go to do right now, it will result in us being grounded. Right Blake?"
Yang barely registered it when a black shadow dashed in front of her and down the hall, yelling, "We're going to be grounded if you don't hurry!"
"Blake wait for me!"
Yang placed the blue jar next to her sister, and smiled sheepishly at her and Weiss. "Sorry about that Weiss. Er, once Ruby is normal, have her help you with the cream, yeah? Catch you later!"
"Wait, Yang don't—
Yang slammed the door shut, leaving Weiss flabbergasted as to the quick turn of events. She sighed and looked at Ruby, who slowly sat up properly and gave a disgruntled look.
"I wasn't going to say anything bad…" She mumbled as she grabbed the jar from the bed. "Anyways, here Weiss. Put it on and you'll be fine in no time!"
Weiss looked at the jar hesitantly before reaching out for it. The moment it touched her hands, she let out a little cry, dropping it. Ruby managed to seize the jar before it hit the ground, raising an eyebrow at her partner.
"Weiss, are you okay?" She began to approach Weiss and became concerned when the heiress backed away from her.
"I'm fine. Just put the jar there on the desk, and I'll put it on later." Weiss said, looking away from her partner.
Ruby looked down to Weiss' hands and realized they were shaking a bit.
"Weiss, what's wrong? Are your hands hurting you that badly?"
"No, they're fine I just—Ah!" Weiss gave out another small cry as Ruby grabbed her hands. "It hurts!"
Ruby immediately dropped Weiss' hands.
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to." Ruby sputtered.
"Just leave me alone!" Weiss snapped but when she saw the pained look on Ruby's face, regretted her tone. "Sorry Ruby. I just…just leave me alone. It's my problem. I'll put the cream on eventually when they don't hurt as much."
"Nope."
"What?"
"Nope." Ruby said, slowly taking lid off the jar as she sat down next to Weiss.
"W-what do you think you are doing?" Weiss narrowed her eyes. "Don't touch me. I already told you it hurts and—"
Ruby grabbed Weiss by her wrists firmly, surprising the girl in front of her, who immediately tried to pull away.
"Ruby, what are you—
"Do you trust me?" Ruby said suddenly.
"I don't see what that has to do with—
"Weiss, please. Do you trust me?"
Weiss tried to think of something, anything to avoid answering that question, but when Ruby loosened her grip to the point Weiss knew she could pull away if she wanted to, she looked directly into Ruby's eyes and felt something tug at her heart.
Silver eyes gazed steadily into her own and held no sense of malice or negativity of any kind. Only pure honesty was to be found in them, and Weiss felt that she had never seen such caring eyes before, eyes directed only at her. And the familiar tug from earlier suddenly felt stronger, but she did not know what to make of it. She closed her own eyes for a moment, listening to the quiet breathing of her partner, and decided just this once she could show her own weakness in front of this particular person.
"I…trust you, Ruby." Weiss said quietly as she started to relax her stance, until Ruby gave her a smile she had never seen on her partner before, entire face aglow with delight. The tightening in Weiss' chest increased painfully for a moment before fading away and once more Weiss tried to ignore and forget what it might have meant.
"Thank you, Weiss." Ruby gently placed one hand on her lap, taking note of the hesitancy her partner exhibited.
Ruby then unscrewed the lid to the container of cream and paused as she glanced at Weiss, who started to fidget again. Ruby reached up and squeezed Weiss' shoulder reassuringly to try and calm her.
"I can stop if you really want me to, okay?"
Weiss shook her head and gave Ruby a small smile.
"No, I'll be okay. Just be…gentle."
Ruby smiled.
"I promise."
Weiss watched apprehensively as Ruby dabbed her fingers into the jar and took out some cream. As gently as she could, her partner began to rub the element into her hand. Weiss gasped at the sudden contact as the cream's coldness penetrated her hypersensitive skin and squirmed at the added discomfort until she felt the medical effects start to take hold. The soothing sensation it gave surprised her and she closed her eyes as she began to enjoy it, making small sounds of pleasure as Ruby continued her administrations. This went on for a few minutes until she realized Ruby had stopped and was not doing anything. Weiss sighed and opened her eyes, surprised to see Ruby looking almost as red as Crescent Rose.
"Ruby, what is—"
Ruby suddenly stood up from the bed and was slowly backing away toward the entrance of the room, looking anywhere but at Weiss.
"I…I'm sorry Weiss but I just remembered I really need to go do something important for Professor Goodwitch. Something about local tree sap being needed ASAP. I'll uh…I'll tell Yang to finish helping you on my way out, okay?" Ruby bowed as she opened the door. "I'm sorry! Get better! Bye!"
Before Weiss could say anything more, Ruby rushed out. She heard a slight commotion and then saw Yang and Blake enter the room, both appearing confused.
"Man, I don't know what Ruby was in a rush to get to but I haven't seen her run that fast since our last fight with a Nevermore." Yang said. "What happened?"
Weiss merely shook her head, still in a slight daze. Blake frowned as she surveyed Weiss and noticed her hands, one looking more noticeably better than the other.
"Well, whatever it was it must have been important if she didn't finish with you Weiss." Blake said. "Do you need help putting cream on the other hand?"
Weiss snapped herself out of her daze and shook her head.
"No. I think I can manage now. Thanks."
Blake gave Weiss a raised eyebrow but nodded.
"I'm going to go take a shower then. See you guys later."
Weiss nodded in return as Yang gave a grunt of acknowledgement, who opened her scroll and was reading something.
Weiss sighed once Blake left the room and she began to apply cream to her other hand but stopped when she felt heat emanating from the other side of the room. Yang was glaring at her. Weiss' eyes widen at her friend's sudden aggression and scowled.
"What? What is it?"
Yang pointed at her scroll.
"What did you do to Ruby? She just sent a message saying she doesn't want to see anyone for a while and said to tell you not to wait up for her."
Weiss scowl deepened.
"I…What did I do to her? I didn't do anything! Hands, remember?"
To emphasize her point, Weiss waved her hands in the air.
"Uh huh." Yang said, not convinced. "Then what did you say to her?"
"Nothing!" Weiss insisted. "All I said was that I didn't want her help at first but then I caved and let her." There was a bit of a pause as Weiss recalled the events from earlier. "She smiled at me..."
"Go on."
"She gave me a smile, and I felt different. It was…it made me feel…strange." Weiss' voice trailed off as Yang continued to look at her suspiciously.
Weiss cleared her throat a bit, trying to remember if anything else of importance happened.
"Then she began putting the cream on me and after a while she stopped, told me she had to leave, and just…left."
"And you didn't say anything while she helped you?"
"I know I made a few noises because it felt nice but—"
Yang suddenly broke into laughter as she got up and sat next to Weiss, throwing an arm around her.
"Oh, Ice Princess." She began. "Were the sounds you made like this?"
Yang began to make a series of sounds that instantly made Weiss turn a bright pink as she started to hit her friend on the shoulder. "Yes! Fine! I made sounds like that! Just stop it!"
Yank laughed again and Weiss started to feel her patience wear thin.
"So?" She said icily. "What about it?"
The blonde girl immediately stopped her laughing and wiped tears from her eyes, tilting her head slightly as she looked at the white haired girl glaring before her.
"You haven't realized it yet, have you?"
"Realized what?" Weiss snapped.
Yang's eyes narrowed and flashed red for a moment at Weiss' tone and the girl withdrew back, suddenly cautious of her friend. Yang sighed and rubbed a hand over her face.
"Weiss…Ruby is in love with you."
