Morning after.
Summary: A steep price to pay for passion.
Tag: Future, cheating, borderline M.
Disclaimer: RWBY belongs to the blessed Monty Oum.
-O-
Ruby Rose awoke to the first morning light peaking through the closed curtains, just as she always had been for the last seven years. She breathed in greedily, the scent of sweat and cold steel mixing with roses filling her lungs. She pulled herself up, stretching her cramped and sore muscles. And shivered when a breath of cold air ran on her naked skin and a hair-raising feeling of guilt settled in her stomach.
She looked to the other side of the bed, to him also sitting up straight, his back to her. For some reason, she knew that what he felt was many times her own, given the way his hands were running over and over through his sweat-streaked, dirty blond hair and a half-manic expression on his face. The golden ring on his finger shone like it was judging them, a testament to their shared sin.
A flash of pain shot across her face, before her gaze fall over the rest of the room, her finger flicking a feather from her hair. One of many laying sprawled out across the wooden floor and the single bed, along with red petals, strands of hair and pieces of discared clothings, things torn in the moment of passion in her suite at the Hunter's Inn. Her lips were bruised, cut from the hasty, greedy kisses. Kiss marks - no, love marks ran along the length of her arm and leg and neck and all-over her pale skin, her hand tracing over them sending a shiver down her spine at the memories of what happened last night.
He noticed her waking up, and his body turned rigid like stone. Like a marble statue decorated with scrapes and little bites of fingernails into the flesh and bruises of love. Those would be gone soon, she knew, just a few minutes after he reactivated his Semblance, but not the knowledge of what had been done here.
"...Last night..." he started, still not facing her.
"Was a mistake. We were drunken, Jaune. Drunken people do stupid things they regret." Her own words stung her in the heart, the denial more painful than any mere Grimm claws or physical attacks she had ever received. Of the fact that it was a mistake, or that it was not, she does not know which hurts more.
"I don't remember you drinking."
She stayed silence at his spoken words. He turned back, to see her too was gazing at him, her private places covered only by an arm and not hiding the many marks on her skin. His jaws fell slack at her sight, before gritting tight.
"I do not regret this." She admited, after a while.
A pregnant pause reigned between them two, with only the sounds of her sliding off the bed, her hand running through the bedsheet damp with shared sweat and other bodily fluids.
"I..." Jaune swallowed hard. "...What do you want?"
You. "Nothing. I said so, didn't I? We're only friends that had too much to drink, and you decided to crash at my place." Friends that kiss, a poisonous whisper in her mind added. Friends that do more than just kisses.
The pause resumed full-force. Neither of them really believed in that lie.
Floorboards creeked as they begun to retrieve their clothes. The man's heavier, weighed footsteps and her much more nimble ones, that which the night before had been lost -shared- in the sweet alcohol-fueled bliss of ectasy. Her cloak had been the first to come off, now laying in a corner of the room. The knight's cuirass had been next, then her shirt with a few missing buttons. Her sport bra under the bed, her underwear under it, together with her skirt and his jeans in a bundle smeared with liquids. She frowned, moving to the side of her rucksack and dug in for changes, before she turned her gaze back to the man.
"Do you need help?" Ruby offered, seeing how her friend was having difficulties with his cuirass. While normally a task he can accomplish by himself easily, it was less so when the cuirass cut into his bruises every few second, yielding a low grunt everytime. Jaune stubbornly fumbled for a few more moments to no use before giving in, letting his hand drop down with a sigh.
He sat down on the frame of the bed, as to allow her to kneel up behind him and tighten the straps of his chest piece. Her more nimble fingers easily got the straps in, tightening just enough so that it wouldn't constrict his movement in the slightest, while still being tight enough to not just fall out at the slightest blow. Something that could only be gotten with so much practice from their shared journey long ago.
Her hands paused at the final knot, her darkened eyes falling to the bed again as she leaned slightly forward, resting her chin on his shoulder.
The man didn't stiffen (or recoil) like she had half-expected him to, and he just kept staring blankly at something by the wall before them. She followed his gaze, and her breathing quivered. Their weapons, Crescent Rose and Crocea Mors laid leaning agaisnt one-another, like they were right now. Her hands hesitantly snaked themselves around his wide chest, holding him in a loose embrace. The man's hand softly clasped around hers, and the embrace tightened, something swelling within her chest. And for a few moment, neither of them spoke anything, just basking in the blissful warmth of the moment, unbreakable by anything.
It was as if a small hopeful part of her wished they could just stay like this forever. Like they were RNJR again. Or just RJ.
But before that little intimate moment could grow again to something they would regret, the huntress found the will to release her embrace.
"Alright then. It's on." She smiled as she finished the knot, her hand givig a small pat on his shoulder pieces for good measure.
"Thanks." He returned her smile, before his gaze fell to the floor. "..."
"Hm?"
There was a moment of hesitation. "I missed you."
"Yeah, me too." Perhaps it was why last night, neither of them stopped.
...Maybe...
He quietly mumbled something under the nose, something she didn't quite catch in her moment of musing. She asked him to repeat. The way he paused before he would, she took as a sign of reluctance.
"Ruby... Is this really just a one-night stand?"
She was probably right.
No. "...Do you love her?" She looked at the ring. Burning jealously rose within her at its shine, as quick as the feeling was replaced with more guilt.
"I do." He said.
"Then it is." Something in her broke. Even if she knew it's something that would happen, that she wanted (not) to happen. A tearful smile came to her face. That it would be better than to wish.
His blue eyes fell, the iron grip of guilt gripping in his heart. Just as he'd hoped.
Her hand retracted from his face; sub-consciously she pulled the cape tighter to her chest, as to give a reason for the tight, almost choking feeling she felt inside.
I'm sorry, Ruby. "Thank you, Ruby." He spoke, his head bowed low in shame.
"Go home with her, Jaune." Her voice cracked. She pushed him outside, and he didn't resist. She locked the door behind her.
Her back slid down the wall, her silver eyes staring at the rays of light shining through the gap in the curtains.
As her body doubled over in great heaves and the tears began to freely fall, she knew their friendship was lost.
-A steep price to pay for passion.-
-O-
A/N: So... yeah. I wrote this.
*winces at dirty stares undoubtedly shot at me.*
Ouch. :(
Hope you guys like it, or at least, tell me what do you guys think? Please R&R!
Thanks to Sandiitos96 for beta-ing! :)
Cheerios!
-P
Updated as of 05/10/2018