"Five paul fifty-one, go to Anderson and Kyrene for a 647 tom, suspected transient."
Ruby Rose sighed and glared down at the radio in her police cruiser, hoping that if she stared at it hard enough, the dispatcher on the other end would somehow feel her anger and give the call to another unit. Or burst into flames. After five seconds of the radio not bursting into flames however, she sighed again and picked it up.
"Five paul fifty-one, copy that."
She put down the radio and pulled a quick u-turn down the dimly lit street she had been driving down. There weren't any other cars on the road; there hardly ever were at 3:37 in the morning.
"I hate the graveyard shift," she muttered to herself as she drove. "Let's see… Anderson and Kyrene, that's where that deserted lot is at, right? Why would a homeless person be hanging around there?"
She knew every inch of her zone by now, the roughly twenty square-mile area that she had been assigned to four months back. It would be another eight months before the shift lottery ran again, and she was already desperately praying that she would somehow get lucky and pull a day shift.
The long nights were really starting to take a toll on her. Her shift was from eight at night until eight in the morning, and it left her so dead tired the next day that she found herself nearly incapable of functioning. She couldn't hike like she used to, she couldn't go out and treat herself to nice restaurants - she loved good food, despite her inability to cook it - and she couldn't even hang out with her old friends anymore.
She sighed a third time as she pulled into the old lot at the corner of Anderson and Kyrene. Her headlights cut a large swathe into the darkness, illuminating scattered piles of trash and detritus. The husks of old cars lay abandoned next to discarded furniture, splintered bed-frames, and twisted piles of metal. The whole place somehow reeked of abandonment and loneliness.
"What kind of person wants to live here instead of begging on the streets?" Ruby murmured.
She climbed out of her police cruiser and straightened her uniform, then pulled out and flicked on her powerful flashlight. Her other hand subconsciously went down to rest on the butt of her service pistol.
She thumbed the mic on her collar. "Five paul fifty-one, on scene."
"Copy that," came the reply over her radio.
She cautiously began moving forward, deeper into the abandoned lot. She swept her flashlight back and forth, but the only thing she found was more trash. The call was for a suspected transient—a person living here that wasn't supposed to be. This lot was private property, and anyone staying here would be trespassing and loitering. The proper course of action was to find them and take them to the county jail for the night, where they would be released from the next morning. However, she had to actually find them first.
"That is if they actually exist in the first place," she grumbled.
She swept her flashlight over a particularly dense pile of trash bags and abandoned mattresses. Suddenly there was a quick flash of movement. A ghostly blur darted from the trash bags and disappeared behind a pile of scrap metal, startling her and kicking her instincts into high gear. She tightened her grip on her pistol, but kept it in its holster.
"Come out and put your hands up!" she shouted into the darkness.
There was no reply.
She growled in frustration and carefully moved around the pile of trash, keeping her flashlight trained on the scrap metal hill. She reached the other side, but found nothing.
"The heck?" she whispered.
She swept the flashlight beam across the hill, up to the top, and back down to the bottom again. Nothing. She frowned and was just about to turn away, when the beam glinted off of something. It was only a dull gleam, but she knew from experience what it was: a pair of eyes. She pointed the beam directly at them, and realized that there was someone hidden inside the tangle of metal.
She narrowed her eyes as she realized that they weren't actually hidden inside it, but they were so dirty that they actually blended in with the rest of the discarded trash.
"Hey, you," she started. "Step uh… step away from the trash and into the light! No quick movements!"
The figure stood up and complied without any hesitation. She stepped fully into the light, and Ruby gasped, her hand dropping from the butt of her pistol.
The figure was undoubtedly a girl, judging by the way the clothes—or rags, more accurately—she wore clung to her thin frame. She wore what looked to be the remains of a tank top and a pair of sweatpants, and Ruby could see the girl's ribs poking out from her exposed midsection.
Her hair was long, and hung down nearly to her knees. It was a splotchy medley of browns, all different shades and hues. It was also clumped and matted, and Ruby wondered how much of the brown was her natural hair color, and how much of it was dirt.
But the girl's state of dress and appearance aside, the most disconcerting thing was the expression on her face. More specifically, the lack of one.
The girl—who appeared to be an inch or two shorter than Ruby—had her arms hung down by her side, and her expression was blank and unreadable. Her eyes were a muted, empty blue, and she stared straight ahead without looking at anything in particular.
"Um, hello?" Ruby asked. "Are you okay? What's your name?"
The girl said nothing, nor did she make any movements.
Ruby flicked her flashlight to a lower setting and the girl's pupils dilated slightly, but she still didn't seem to actually see anything. The brunette felt a strange worry in the pit of her stomach, like a twisting knot in her chest. Something about this girl tugged at her heartstrings. She rarely let herself feel anything while she was working, otherwise she would have become an emotional wreck long ago.
But this girl… She couldn't help but feel for her. Something terrible had happened to her; her dead eyes and blank stare said that much. And her current state, her current condition? Living in a pile of trash with nothing but a few rags to her name?
Ruby suddenly wondered if she would actually be able to take this girl to jail or not. Her gaze wandered down to the girl's emaciated ribs, and the Mcdonald's she had in her car - the Mcdonald's she hadn't been able to eat yet because of this call - sprang into her mind.
"Hey," she said in as soothing and friendly of a tone as possible. "Are you hungry?"
The girl's head snapped up, and she stared at Ruby with all the intensity of a starving dog.
"Whoa, I'll take that as a yes. Just follow me back to my car, okay?"
The girl continued to stare at her, but made no move to follow. Ruby cocked her head in confusion. Did this girl not understand English or something?
"Food, my car," Ruby said. She pointed to her car. "This way."
Ruby walked back to her cruiser, glancing behind her every few seconds to make sure that the mysterious girl was following. She was, in a way. She stared directly at Ruby's back and exactly followed the path that she made, not even deviating a single step.
Ruby was stuck somewhere between concerned and creeped out. Was this girl so broken that she couldn't even think for herself, or was she just mentally impaired?
Ruby reached her patrol cruiser and flicked the interior lights on, then turned off her flashlight and tossed it inside. Watching the girl out of the corner of her eye, she reached inside the car and pulled out a Mcdonald's take-out bag.
The scent of still-warm hamburgers and fries filled the chilly night air, and the strange girl's eyes went wide as she bit her bottom lip.
Ruby stifled a giggle at the sight of it, and reached inside and pulled out a wrapped triple cheeseburger.
"You want this?" she asked.
For the first time that night, the strange girl met her eyes. Ice blue irises with the depth and complexity of an arctic ocean stared at her with a terrifying intelligence, startling her with their sudden intensity.
The girl nodded once, and Ruby found herself handing over the hamburger with no conscious effort on her part. She took it and began eating it, not hastily like Ruby had expected, but almost delicately in a way. While the girl was eating as if the food had became her entire world, Ruby took the opportunity to look at her. Her skin was dirty and her hair matted, but under all the dirt and grime, Ruby could tell that she must have been absolutely beautiful. It made her heart ache to think about this poor girl and how she was left to fend for herself like an abandoned dog.
"So uh, do you have a name?" Ruby asked once the girl had finished the hamburger.
She said nothing, but only stood there with her arms at her side and her eyes somewhere… else.
"Are you mute or something?"
No response.
Ruby frowned. This girl needed to be taken away from this place, not taken to jail. She needed a home, somewhere to stay, someone to take care of her. A part of Ruby wanted it to be her, but she knew how unrealistic that kind of thinking was. The legal process existed for a reason, and this girl was technically trespassing on private property.
She would have to spend the night in jail before any other action could be taken.
Ruby's frown deepened as she realized what she had to do.
She lured the girl into the back of the police cruiser using the fries—which was pitifully easy—got into the front, and backed out of the lot.
She drove down the lonely streets: long stretches of road illuminated by intermittent street lights. And for some reason, she found herself reflecting on the comparative loneliness of her life. She lived by herself in a cramped one-bedroom apartment, and had no one to greet her when she came home. Maybe…
As the county jail grew closer and closer, all she could think of was someone inside taking advantage of this poor girl. Sure, the drunk tank cells that they kept people in for one-night stays usually weren't bad, but something about it left a bad taste in her mouth. She didn't know if this girl was mute, dumb, or just broken. She wouldn't feel right just dropping her off at the county jail.
She stopped at a red light. The light went green, but she didn't move.
Her thumb hovered over the send button on her radio. She bit her lip and tapped a beat into the plastic of the cruiser's dashboard.
She threw a quick glance behind her and was startled to find the girl staring at her again with those ice-blue eyes, and with all the intensity of a cornered animal.
"You don't want to go to jail, do you?" Ruby whispered.
The girl didn't give any response, but Ruby hadn't expected her to anyway.
She fought down a guilty grin and thumbed her radio. "Dispatch this is five paul fifty-one. Investigated the area, no suspect found, over."
"Copy that five paul fifty-one," came the reply.
A thrill of fear and excitement coursed through Ruby as she pulled a u-turn and began driving away from the jail. That was the first time she had ever lied to dispatch. She would get fired for this. That is, if anyone ever found out.
Somehow, this felt like taking home a stray dog. Because she wasn't driving to the jail anymore.
She was driving home to her apartment.
The key turned, the lock clicked, and Ruby pushed the door open and stepped inside her pitch-black apartment. She nearly stumbled over an empty stack of pizza boxes before making it to the light switch and flicking it on. It dimly illuminated a modest kitchen that bordered a living room with a couch, a few chairs, and a large television. To the left of the living room was a small hallway that led to the apartment's single bedroom and single bathroom. Blankets, pillows, weapon parts for various rifles, plastic utensils, empty boxes of delivery chinese, single shoes without their partners, and discarded clothes littered the entire place.
"So uh, this is my place," Ruby said. "I know it's not much, but you can stay here for a while while I… figure out what to do with you I guess. Don't um, don't mind the mess, I wasn't expecting visitors. I'll clean it up as soon as I get back though!"
The girl from the abandoned lot said nothing, as always. She stood out in the hall on the lip of the door, as if waiting for permission to go inside.
"Well come on," Ruby said as she gestured her inside. "I'm technically still on shift, so no one can see you or me. Good thing it's still four a.m."
The girl stepped into the apartment, but made no move to go any further inside.
Ruby frowned in confusion. "Hmm. Um, do you want something to drink? Water?"
The girl gave no response.
Ruby walked over to the kitchen, pulled a tall glass from the cupboards, and poured some tap water from the sink. "Maybe you really are just mute," she muttered.
She handed it to the strange girl, who drank it in four gulps without stopping. But then she did something unexpected. She held it back out to Ruby, and actually looked at her for the third time that night.
"You want… more?" Ruby asked. She mimicked drinking with her empty hand. "More?"
The girl looked confused, but nodded.
Ruby smiled at her accomplishment and refilled the glass, and the girl drank it just like before. Ruby giggled and refilled it a third time. Then a fourth time. Then a fifth. After the sixth glass, the girl returned to staring at the wall.
Ruby's radio picked up suddenly. The call was for another officer, but it snapped her back into reality.
"Oh crap," Ruby muttered. She grabbed her utility belt and strapped it back on, and was halfway out the door when she realized the girl was still standing in the kitchen, staring at the wall.
"You can like, sit down or something," Ruby called out.
The girl didn't move.
Ruby sighed in exasperation. She didn't have time for this.
She walked over to the strange girl, took her by the hand, and led her to the couch. She gently pushed the girl down, and she complied. She sat on the couch in a strangely elegant pose, back straight with her hands folded over her knees, staring straight ahead at the blank television. Ruby frowned and switched it on.
"Well at least you have something to watch. You can sleep on the couch, and don't worry about getting it messy, I'll clean it up afterwards. And I'll uh, I'll show you how to s-shower or something when I get back too. It'll be four hours until my shift is done, so give me until eight thirty. Oh, and my name is Ruby. Um, bye!"
With that she flew out of the apartment, locked the door, and ran to her patrol cruiser.
She was halfway down Amberlamps St. when the full weight of her actions finally hit her.
"What the hell did I just do?" she muttered into her hand.
Ruby's hands were trembling the next time she unlocked the door to her apartment. Normally when she got off shift at eight in the morning she was dead tired and barely functioning, but normally she didn't have a dirty, beautiful girl waiting for her at home. This was first time she'd had someone waiting on her, and it was far from how she had imagined it to be.
The girl was still sitting on the couch, in the exact same pose Ruby had left her. However, the apartment was not exactly the same.
It was clean. For the first time that Ruby could remember in over half a year, it was clean. The pillows were arranged neatly on the couch, the the blankets were folded, the weapon parts were neatly organized on the coffee table, and all the discarded food containers and plastic silverware were missing. What few dishes she owned were sparkling clean and drying in the rack on the kitchen counter, and Ruby could see her clothes neatly folded on her bed.
She dropped her keys. "What the fuck."
The girl simply remained on the couch, unblinking and unmoving.
Ruby moved to stand in front of her, blocking her view of the television. "Did you do all this?"
As always, there was no response. The girl didn't even seem to mind that she was blocking the television. Ruby stared at her for a few long, drawn out seconds, and then threw her hands into the air in frustration.
"Argh! Why am I even bothering with you?"
The girl said nothing.
Ruby smacked her own forehead with her palm. "Screw this. You need a shower. You're getting a shower. Follow me."
She grabbed the girl's wrist and pulled, and she followed without an ounce of hesitation. She passed through the bedroom and reached the bathroom, then turned on the shower. She turned to the other girl.
"You need to uh, u-undress. Like, take your clothes off."
The girl didn't do anything of the sort.
Ruby frowned and took off her jacket. "See? Taking off clothes? Getting undressed?"
The girl continued to stare at the wall, but now there was a strange glint in her eyes. Surprise? Fear?
Ruby bit her bottom lip, and then hesitantly reached out with the intent to tug on the girl's shirt a little, show her what she meant. But the second her hand touched the girl's shirt, she screamed like a wounded animal and shoved Ruby away.
Ruby hit the wall hard and almost fell down, but barely managed to catch herself on the sink.
"What the hell!" she shouted, dazed and confused from hitting her head.
The strange girl stared at her, her fists clenched and her eyes full of a burning anger. She pointed at Ruby and spoke for the first time.
"Ne trogayte menya! You do not touch me forever!"
Ruby's eyes went wide. What was so surprising was not so much that the girl had spoken, but that she had spoken another language. When she had switched to English however, her accent was distinctly Russian.
"Y-You speak?" Ruby whispered.
"Yes. I speak. English not good language. Dirty. Cheap. But you understand nothing else, yes?"
"Um… no, I don't really speak Russian." Ruby realized that she was still on the bathroom floor, and picked herself up. "Why did you freak out just then?"
The girl's glare had softened a little, but now it returned with full force. "You do not touch me. Forever."
"Do you mean… don't touch me ever?"
"Yes. Fine, that. English is dirty."
"Um, okayyy. Well you're pretty dirty too, so you should probably take a shower…"
"I take shower the moment you leave room. Ubiraysya!" The girl made a shooing motion with her hands.
"Okay, okay! Just don't use all my hot water!" Ruby said, then turned on her heel and exited the bathroom with a huff. She walked into the living room and looked around, marveling at how much nicer her apartment looked when everything was clean. But even that somehow rankled her; it wasn't the other girl's business to clean up her house.
She flopped down on the couch to the sound of water running through the creaking pipes in the ceiling above her. "Who the heck does that crazy girl think she is?" Ruby muttered to herself. She flipped the TV on and tried to lose herself in the mindless entertainment. "I don't even know her freaking name… and I can't even go to bed yet because she's still up..."
Her eyes started to droop, and she didn't stop them.
Almost thirty minutes later, Ruby blearily awoke on the couch. The television was still blaring, but something was different. With a start, she pushed herself up off of the couch as she realized that the water was off now. She was a light sleeper, and even a minute change in the background noise around her would wake her up.
She was walking to the bathroom with hesitant steps, ready to call out and ask if the girl was done, when the door was pushed open and the girl strode out of her own accord.
And Ruby nearly tripped over her own feet. The girl was gorgeous. Her face was thin, her eyes sunken in with heavy dark circles, but it was easily still the most attractive face Ruby had ever seen. Smooth cheekbones, a sharp chin, and pale blue eyes framed by somehow still-perfect eyebrows. There was a noticeable scar over her left eye, but that wasn't even the strangest thing about her. Her hair was white. Not off-white, not light grey, not a dull cream, but the purest, whitest white Ruby had ever seen, like fresh powder from the surface of an untouched mountain.
Her emaciated ribs and too-thin stomach were covered by a thick white towel, so Ruby was free to imagine what her figure might have looked like if she had been eating. It was an image she knew she would remember until the day she died.
Weiss gave her a quick up-and-down look with all the interest one shows a bug. "Kak glupo ty? Will you stare at me all day? I need clothes."
Ruby's mouth flapped open and closed like a fish, but she managed to look away long enough to open her dresser drawer and pull out the first thing she could find: a pair of sweatpants and a white t-shirt.
She handed them to the girl, who stared at them for a few seconds in apparent disgust before taking them. She stepped back into the bathroom and closed the door.
"Y-You can uh, I mean I'm tired after my shift, so you can sleep on the couch until tomorrow? We can like, uh, figure out what to do with you then. L-Like not figure out what to do with you, but find you a place to stay and all that stuff so… yeah. You can uh, you can sleep in my bed if you want, and I'll take the couch?"
Ruby swallowed nervously while she leaned on the door and waited for the girl's response, feeling like butterflies were tearing up the inside of her stomach. No one had ever made her so nervous before. She was the top of her class in the Academy, which had been full of men determined not to let a girl outperform them. She had never taken crap from anyone, and yet this almost illegally beautiful woman seemed to possess the strange ability to turn her into a stuttering wreck. It was confusing.
The girl pushed open the door and pushed past her, already on her way to the living room. "I will sleep on couch."
Ruby was stunned for a second, but then moved to stand by the couch. She started unconsciously twirling her hair, before realizing what she was doing and stopping herself.
"O-Okay. Well I'm just gonna… go to sleep then. You gonna be okay? I mean it is technically like nine in the morning right now, but I don't have work tomorrow so-"
"Perestan'te govorit. I am tired, I will sleep."
"Oh. Alright then."
Ruby was halfway to her room before she realized she still didn't know the girl's name. She stopped and turned around.
"Hey uh, can you tell me your name? I mean you're kind of staying in my house and I already told you mine so-"
"Weiss."
"W-what?" The girl was staring at her from the couch now, and Ruby felt her knees grow strangely weak.
"My name is Weiss. Spokoynoy Nochi. Means goodnight."
"Well it's technically morning but…" Ruby realized that the girl was no longer listening to her, so she turned around and headed into her room.
She flopped down on her bed, feeling more tired than she ever had in the past six months. But even still, she couldn't stop thinking of this girl, this strange, beautiful girl that she had literally brought home from the dump.
"Weiss, huh?" she whispered to the light of the rising sun.
The sun was almost fully set when she finally awoke, and only the smallest slivers of light peeked in through her bedroom window.
She groaned and rolled over on her stomach, bunching the sheets up in her fists and trying to shake off the lingering effects of her slumber. Her throat hurt and her mouth was dry. Dimly, she became aware of the smell and sound of meat sizzling in a pan.
She bolted upright and was about to rush into her kitchen to find out who had broken into her house, before memories of the previous morning flooded into her mind. She remembered the strange girl, her nearly-incomprehensible Russian accent, and her breathtakingly beautiful white hair. And now she was cooking too? And even stranger, she was cooking well? Ruby couldn't remember the last time she had smelt something good coming from her kitchen; the most complex thing she could cook was pizza, and she regularly burnt it beyond recognition.
After putting on a loose-fitting t-shirt and a pair of pajama pants—she had to remember the pants because she normally didn't wear any at home—she crept through the tiny hallway separating her bedroom from the living room, then peeked around the corner to the kitchen.
Weiss was there, standing in front of the stove and pouring a strange seasoning that Ruby didn't quite remember buying into a pan of some type of meat. She put the seasoning back in the drawer, and then stirred the meat around the pan with a pair of tongs.
Ruby stood there for a few seconds, admiring the girl's flawless, almost ethereal beauty, while at the same time trying to figure out how to break the silence.
"Will you stand there forever?" Weiss suddenly said. She didn't turn around to look at Ruby. "You have so few ingredients, but I still make food best I can."
Ruby jumped in surprise. She stepped out from behind the corner and rubbed the back of her head. "Uh, s-sorry, I wasn't trying to spy on you or anything. I just didn't think you'd be able to cook or anything."
"Why? Because you find me in a dump?"
"No! I mean like, because I… I mean, yeah I guess. Kinda."
Weiss snorted. "Of course. So predictable. The ingredients you keep in your kitchen tell me you have no idea what you are doing when it comes to food. So I fix that. I cook for you."
Ruby stepped into the kitchen and peeked over Weiss' shoulder. The meat inside—beef, by the look of it—looked and smelled absolutely mouth-watering. "C-Cook for me? You're cooking for me?"
"Yes. You let me sleep in your house. I repay you with cooking. Fair, yes?"
"Sure, uh, fair. What're you making anyway?"
"I will tell you when it is ready. Now go sit down. I do not like you watching me."
"Oookay," Ruby replied. She sauntered over to the small table in the corner of her living room and sat down. There were only two chairs, and while she had always wanted the other one to be filled, this was the last thing she had thought of when she imagined finally entertaining a visitor.
A few minutes later the food was ready, and Weiss brought over a steaming plate of some type of dough-wrapped meat dumplings and set it down. Ruby sat patiently as she returned to the kitchen, then came back with two forks and two glasses of water as well.
"I notice you don't have plates," Weiss deadpanned in her seductive—albeit strangely, uncomfortably arousing—accent.
"Well uh, yeah. Mostly, I just eat by myself on the couch out of whatever I cook with. Or I order chinese… or pizza…"
"Disgusting American foods," Weiss replied while placing a few on the dumplings on Ruby's plate. "This is pelmeni. Good food. Eat some."
Ruby picked up a piece of pelmeni with her fork and placed it in her mouth, and then actually had to put down her fork to savor how truly delicious it was. She closed her eyes and moaned unconsciously. The dough was hot and tender and actually melted in her mouth, and the meat inside was seasoned to absolute perfection.
She opened her eyes to find Weiss grinning at her. "Is good, yes?"
"Like… wow. Wow. Holy cow, wow. Where'd did you learn to cook like this?"
Weiss' grin disappeared, and she looked down and started eating her own pelmeni. "Russia," was all she said, and Ruby decided not to press the issue.
They finished eating in silence, which wasn't actually all that difficult because of how good the food was. Ruby only stopped eating to wash the pelmeni down with gulps of water; she couldn't remember the last time she had eaten something this good and she wanted to take advantage of it while it lasted. She didn't know how long this girl would be staying with her, and she didn't want to make any assumptions either.
Once the plate was empty, Weiss picked it and the empty glasses up without a word and took them to the kitchen.
Ruby watched her go, and then realized that she didn't actually know what to do next. Normally her shift would start in a few hours, and she would already be getting ready for work: cleaning her pistol, making sure her gear was in order, working on unfinished reports from the night prior. But today was one of her days off; she only worked five days a week under normal circumstances.
And under those normal circumstances, she would already be on her couch in nothing but a t-shirt and panties, eating freshly-delivered pizza and trying to find something on Netflix to entertain her for more than five minutes.
Now, she didn't know exactly what to do. She knew she was supposed to entertain her guest somehow, but she had a feeling Weiss wouldn't take too well to sitting on the couch and watching shows.
What she really wanted to do was find out more about Weiss. Where she was from, why she was in the dump, where she learned to cook so well, what had happened to make her move from Russia to the States. The girl was a mystery, a beautiful puzzle, and Ruby loved puzzles. Like her fascination with weapons, she loved taking things apart and finding out what made them tick. Not that she wanted to take Weiss apart, but she wouldn't mind seeing more of-
She mentally slapped herself and stared at the ceiling as she caught her thoughts wandering down a path much more lewder than usual. She needed to find something to do with Weiss, and the quickest way to find what Weiss liked was to ask.
"Hey Weiss? I'm pretty much free for the rest of the day so uh, is there anything you wanna do? We could like go somewhere… and do something?"
Weiss continued washing the pan she had cooked the pelmeni in. "What would you want to do?"
The way she said her w's as almost v's made Ruby's heart jump a little. She wasn't sure if she liked that or not. "Well I mean that's why I was asking you. I usually just kinda sit here and watch Netflix."
Weiss raised an eyebrow. "Netflix? What is that?"
"It's like this thing where you can watch tv shows whenever you want, and you can pause them and stuff. It gets kind of addicting, heh."
"Hmm."
Weiss' lack of a response was somewhat disconcerting, but Ruby decided to press on. "But yeah, is there anything you wanna do?"
"No," Weiss replied without looking up. She placed the pan on the drying rack, and started washing the glasses.
"O-Oh," Ruby replied. Strangely crestfallen, she sat at the table with her chin in her palm. Why was this girl capable of making her feel this way? She had just met her yesterday, and normally Ruby didn't pay the slightest bit of attention to others opinions. So why was this strange girl capable of controlling her emotions so effortlessly?
"But," Weiss said, breaking the silence, "I am open to… you say, suggestions?"
"S-Suggestions?" Ruby asked. Weiss was looking at her now, and Ruby thought she saw a hint of concern in her Alice-blue eyes. "Well uh…"
She said the first thing that came to her mind. "We could go take a walk? There's a park nearby and—"
"Yes. Mne nravitsya, chto."
Ruby smirked. "I uh, don't speak Russian remember?"
Weiss shook her head. "It means nice. That sounds nice. Like that, you see?"
Ruby couldn't help but smile. "Yeah, I see. That uh, that sounds nice. A walk in the park, you know?"
Weiss smiled at her. "Yes. Nice."
Ruby fought down a blush at the sight of that smile, at the sight of that perfect, beatific smile that was making her heart pound uncomfortably fast and her palms to get uncomfortably sweaty.
Suddenly her actions caught up with her, and her eyes went wide as Weiss turned away to put the glasses back in the cupboard.
A walk in the park? With her? What are we gonna talk about? What am I gonna say?
"S-So uh, nice night," Ruby said.
"Why do you stutter when talking to me?" Weiss asked.
Ruby scratched the back of her neck as they walked through the quiet park outside her apartment complex. The moon was full and bright overhead, and moonlight streamed through the trees and made beautiful patterns on the grass. The air was comfortably warm, and all in all it was a perfect night for a walk.
Or it would have been, if Ruby had any clue at all what to say to the strange, beautiful girl beside her.
"Well I guess I just get nervous around you, if I'm being honest."
"Honest? Hmmph. Not many are honest in this country."
"Yeaaah. You've kind of got a point. But honesty is a big thing in my profession actually. I've never lied or anything about my job, and I'm pretty proud of that."
Ruby suddenly stopped walking. "Oh. Wait. Nevermind, scratch that."
Weiss turned and raised an eyebrow at her.
"I uh, I kind of… well that is, you were the first time I've ever lied about my job. Or on my job, or whatever. You know what I mean."
"You lie for me?"
"Yeap. You see, technically you were loitering, and trespassing on private property. I should have took you to jail that night. I mean, if I had followed the rules. But I lied and said I didn't find anyone, and took you… took you home instead."
Weiss stared at her in confusion. "If you value your… what is the word? Not lying?"
"Honesty?" Ruby ventured. She resumed walking down the path, and Weiss fell into stride beside her.
"Yes. If you value your honesty, why did you lie for me?"
Ruby shrugged. "I guess I just kind of felt bad for you. You looked really, I dunno, sad and hopeless. Like abandoned, like you needed somebody's help but nobody would take the chance to try and help you. I've always liked helping people, and you definitely looked like someone who needed help."
Weiss nodded. "That makes sense."
Ruby took a chance, and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear while saying: "Also, you're really beautiful."
Weiss coughed and looked away, but Ruby could have sworn she saw a blush on the strange girl's face.
Well at least she knows what the word beautiful means. Oh man I hope I didn't just screw things up. I hope she didn't take that the wrong way… or the right way, I don't even know…
"You said your name was Ruby?" Weiss asked.
"Yeah. Wait, wow you remember that? You were still in your state of shock or whatever that was."
Weiss frowned and looked straight ahead. "I was not in shock. I just did not care anymore."
"You didn't care? About what?"
"Anything."
"Oh. Wow." Ruby bit the inside of her cheek. "Do you uh, do you wanna tell me why? Like why you don't care anymore?"
Weiss' answer was firm and harsh, made only harsher by her jagged accent. "No. I do not."
Ruby didn't say anything in response; she didn't think she could say anything in response to that.. She glanced at Weiss, only to find the girl still staring straight ahead with that constant frown she seemed to wear. She wore it so well, Ruby wouldn't have been surprised if she was born with it.
They strolled along silently for several minutes, and were nearing the end of their circuit around the park when Weiss spoke again.
"Perhaps one day, Ruby, I will tell you my story. But I do not trust you. I do not trust anyone. So I will remain silent."
"You're uh, I mean technically you're speaking right now. You're not really being silent."
Weiss glared at her, but Ruby was just glad that she was looking at her again. For some reason, when Weiss deliberately avoided her gaze it sent a pang of hurt into her chest.
"Are you always this annoying?" Weiss asked.
Ruby grinned. "Yeah, pretty much. It's one of the reasons I became a cop. Lets me get away with it."
Weiss snorted in derision.
They reached the apartment complex, and Ruby unlocked the door and stood aside to let her guest in. Once inside, the brunette flopped down on the couch and turned on the tv. Five minutes later, she was so lost in it that she didn't even notice Weiss standing behind her until the girl spoke up.
"Ruby?"
"Huh? Oh, sorry. What's up?"
Weiss was standing beside the couch with her arms crossed, staring at her with what looked like apprehension. "How long will I stay here?"
"Oh," was Ruby's simple reply. She had honestly been avoiding that topic until now; she didn't necessarily want Weiss to leave, but she didn't' know if the girl wanted to stay either. It didn't seem like she had any other place to go, but you never knew.
"Well uh," Ruby said carefully, "how long do you want to stay here? Do you have somewhere else to go?"
Weiss said nothing for several seconds, but then shook her head no.
"Ah. Alright well… do you think you can get a job?"
Weiss looked down at the floor. "Maybe. Do you want me to get a job?"
Ruby looked at her in puzzlement. "Uh, yeah? That's what people normally do, get jobs so they have money to buy stuff. Kind of what we do here in America," she chuckled.
Weiss sighed and looked back up at her. "Then yes. I will go and get job. Do you want me to leave tonight, or tomorrow?"
The look in Weiss' eyes and the tone of her voice, coupled with her question sent a jagged spike through Ruby's heart, and she scrambled to correct herself. "No, no, no! That's not what I meant at all! Like holy crap, I meant you can stay here until you get a job or find a new place to live! Not that you have to leave!"
Weiss looked surprised. "O-Oh. You mean that? You are being… honest?"
Ruby couldn't help but smile at her. "Yeah. I'm being honest. You can stay here as long as you like. I like having you here."
She clamped her mouth shut and averted her gaze to the television. Holy crap, did I really just say that?"
"Okay," came Weiss' reply after several long seconds of silence. "I will try to find job. Thank you for letting me stay here."
Ruby found the courage to look at her, and found Weiss staring off to the side with what could have been the beginning - or ending - of a blush.
"Y-Yeah, it's no problem at all. Hey uh, do you… do you wanna watch some tv with me? There's this really cool show I'm watching and-"
Weiss immediately sat down on the small, two-person couch next to her, and her close proximity caused Ruby to forget how to properly employ spoken language. Up close, Ruby could see that even through the zits and blisters - that were already clearing up - the girl was even more beautiful than she had first thought.
Ruby turned her head back to the television and tried to concentrate on the show. With Weiss right next to her, she was failing miserably. The white-haired girl eventually relaxed her posture and leaned slightly back into the cushions, and Ruby relaxed a little in turn.
"Ruby?"
The brunette jumped a little. "Y-Yeah?"
"I like staying here too."
Ruby had even more difficulty concentrating on the show after that.
Credit for the idea and the cover image goes to Moekumo from tumblr. Expect multiple chapters, and thanks for reading. Drop a review if you liked it!