Course of Love
by
Weirdbard.
Love is like a river. It can start out small but quickly builds. Unfortunately the course of love does not always run smooth. It may take many twists and turns till it finds its way to the end. And rapids and whirlpools may be more common than expected.
Ruby peeked over the side of her suspended bed as Weiss arose from the bed underneath her and started stretching, preparing to face the start of a new day. Since it was Sunday and there were no classes she knew that Weiss probably thought her still asleep so she took this opportunity to do her most favorite thing in the world. Weiss watching.
Ruby's heart beat loudly in her chest as she watched Weiss stretch upwards before bending over to touch her toes. The night gown Weiss wore inching upwards as she fully bent over. The sheer material of it giving a good glimpse of the young woman's tight rear end. Some would say it was so tight cause of the stick Weiss kept shoved up there, but not Ruby. She had fallen head over heels in love with the pale woman and that even included her icy and abrupt personality. Ruby tried to decide just when she had started falling for the young heiress and almost giggled when she realized it was their very first meeting. When Ruby had fallen over the young woman's luggage and had first looked up as Weiss had begun scolding her. It really was a case of 'love at first sight' for Ruby.
Ruby with a silent sigh rolled over on her back and stared at the sheet that she had draped over her bed forming a makeshift canopy. "but was it love at first sight for Weiss as well?" Ruby worried to herself. Ruby was certain she knew her feelings. She was in love with her best friend Weiss but Ruby didn't know if Weiss felt that way at all. Even if Weiss considered Ruby her best friend or even a friend at all. With Weiss it was so hard to tell. She was cold and abrasive to almost everyone. Everyone except her sister Winter. Whom she treated respectfully but not what Ruby would call lovingly.
Did Weiss even 'swing' that way? Did she find girls sexually appealing? Would she find Ruby appealing? Ruby swallowed in nervousness. She didn't know how much longer she could go on without telling Weiss how she really felt.
Looking over at her sister's bunk she was surprised to see it empty. Looking down she noticed Blake was not in her bed either. Apparently the two had something planned for this morning and had already left, which left Ruby alone… With Weiss. The longing, the love, the desire finally grew stronger than Ruby could stand.
Ruby silently dropped down from her bed and landed behind Weiss who was just finishing her morning exercises. As Weiss turned around hot and sweaty from her brief work out, her night gown clung to her body and to Ruby there was no lovelier sight in the world. Almost against her will Ruby's eyes tracked to where the gown was sticking to Weiss's chest outlining her small but perfect breasts. She had to tell Weiss how she felt right this moment before she lost her nerve again.
"Ruby! You startled me. What are you doing there and staring at me like that?" Weiss demanded putting her hands on her hips.
"I need to tell you something Weiss but I'm not sure how to go about it. I'm afraid you'll hate me." Ruby began nervously as she dragged her eyes to stare into Weiss's impossibly perfect pale blue ones.
"What of mine did you break?" Weiss demanded.
"It's nothing like that." Ruby nervously chuckled. "Nothing got broken I promise. I just really like you Weiss."
"Well… I'm very fond of you as well."
"Are we friends?" Ruby asked hesitantly.
"Of course we're friends. We're teammates." Weiss said unsure where Ruby was going with this.
Ruby took a deep breath and a visibly steeled herself for what she had to say. "I think of you more than just a friend Weiss." Ruby said her voice shaking with her worries.
"What do you mean you think of me as more than a friend. You mean like teammates or more like family?" Weiss asked suspiciously.
"Nooo…" Ruby drew out. "I… I… I think I'm in love with you Weiss!" She said and then hugged the young woman and brought her lips in contact with hers. Ruby knew the instant she had Weiss in her arms that her dreams were destined to fail as she could feel the young woman become stiff and unyielding in her arms. Weiss pulled Ruby's arms away from her and pushed her back to hold her at arm's length. "Ruby Rose. Are you saying that you desire me?" Weiss asked in a voice that Ruby could almost swear she could see frost coming out with the words.
Ruby hung her head down and stared at the floor. "Yes?" She asked hesitantly.
"Well Ruby, I'm not one of those kind of girls." Weiss stated in an icy voice. "I would never have expected you to be one of those type either. I mean you looked so nice and… Well clean. Not a dirty type of girl that lusts after other girls."
Ruby could feel her heart breaking in two.
"Have you been watching me when I get dressed and undressed?" Weiss's voice began to take on volume and anger.
"No! I swear I haven't. Can we just forget I said anything and go back to the way things were?" Ruby asked in desperation.
"How can I? knowing you are laying in the bed above me thinking Dust knows what? I'm not sure I feel safe with you in the same room anymore. You disgust me."
"Oh come on Weiss. I just told you that I have crush on you. I'm not some kind of molester just waiting for you to drop your guard or something. You said we were friends. Teammates."
"Well I'm not sure if I can remain friends or even teammates with someone who is…" Weiss turned to walk out of the door but was stopped as Ruby grabbed her arm in desperation. She looked at Ruby's hand pointedly and Ruby quickly let go of her but pleaded never the less. "Don't quit the team Weiss! Please! I'll… I'll… move out! Will that make you feel more safe or comfortable? I'll move out and outside of missions or school we won't have to come in contact with each other!"
Weiss seemed to think it over. "Where would you move to?"
"There is a room across the hall from ours. I can ask if I can use that! That way I can still be close enough in case the team needs me but you can feel safe." Ruby said in desperation.
"The room across the hall from ours is a broom closet Ruby."
"I know but they hardly use it. If I explain the reason, I'm sure professor Ozpin would let me use it."
"It's a closet Ruby. Its tiny and cramped and windowless."
"But would it make you feel more comfortable and safe?" Ruby asked hoping Weiss would take the offer as enough and not force her to…
"I suppose. As long as you leave your key to this room here so I know you won't be tempted to sneak in when I'm sleeping."
Ruby's heart crashed to the very soles of her feet. "Yes Weiss. You won't have to worry about me bothering you. From this day forward I'll be the most professional leader you have ever seen."
"Very well. I'll keep your secret and not tell anyone as long as you promise to never bother me again and act with nothing but perfect professionalism."
Ruby's voice sounded like she was already dead and buried as she replied hollowly. "Yes Miss Schnee."
Ruby mechanically got dressed and walked to the door. She stopped before exiting though. "Miss Schnee?" She called out.
"Yes Ruby?" Weiss who had been sitting on her bed replied.
Ruby didn't reply but merely held her hand out. After a moment Weiss held her hand out palm up and Ruby dropped her scroll into her hand. "I'll have my sister bring my things over after I get official permission to use the janitor closet." Ruby stated woodenly and then opened the door and left.
Ruby wandered the grounds of the campus. Her tears a constant stream down her face. How was she supposed to ask Ozpin if she could move across the hall to a janitor's closet? After the way Weiss has reacted did she dare tell him that her and Weiss got into an argument cause Ruby liked girls and Weiss didn't want to associate with her anymore? What if he reacted the same way? Thinking she might be a danger to Weiss or other females going to school? She could be kicked out of Beacon! All her dreams of becoming a huntress gone in an instant.
And how was she going to tell her big sister that she can't stay in the room with them anymore? Worse, what if her sister felt the same way?! Would Yang suddenly wonder about all those times Ruby slept with her when they were kids? Would Yang start to look at her differently too? Would she suddenly refuse to hug her? To talk to her? To be her sister? Ruby paused near a lake on the school's property staring at it but not really seeing it. "Did I just throw everything away in my life on a gamble that Weiss would feel the same way I do?" She asked out loud to no one.
Eventually Ruby pulled herself together and dried her tears and went to see Ozpin. She told him that her and Weiss had an argument but not what it was about and temporarily she wanted to move into the closet across the hall from her team's dorm room.
Ozpin looking very confused indeed and pointed out that a team that had a leader staying in another room was hardly an effective team. Ruby thinking he was about to pull her team away from her had a panic attack and begged him to not remove her as leader. She would solve the problems they were having but just let her do it her way. Eventually and with grave feelings of misgivings he finally agreed to let Ruby take the basically unused tiny room as her own.
Ruby walking like a soulless zombie made her way back to the dorms. She automatically started to reach for the door to her team's room before she remembered she no longer had her scroll to open the door and wasn't welcomed in there anymore. Slumping down against the door to the janitor closet she waited for Yang or Blake to show up so she could explain the change in sleeping arrangements and see if they could retrieve her bed for her.
Yang and Blake came by two hours later and found Ruby sitting with her legs drawn up and her face resting on her knees.
"Ruby?" Yang asked.
Ruby woke from an emotionally exhausted sleep and made the mistake of looking up at her sister and Blake. They could see the tear tracks on her face and Ruby's lost look. Ruby looked away for a moment and when she looked back she had one of the most fake smiles either of them had ever seen the young woman wear. "Hey guys." Ruby said with false cheer. "You enjoy yourselves today?"
"Um yeah. We had fun. Why are you sitting out here in the hallway?" Blake asked.
"I'm… Just excited?" Ruby stuttered. "I found out that I'm going to get my own room? Isn't that cool? Not only will this mean your fearless leader has her own place but that you guys won't have me cluttering up yours? Isn't that great?"
"No." Yang finally said.
"No?"
"Yes. No. Why would you have a room to yourself? No other teams are separated from their leaders. Why is ours?" Yang asked somewhat reasonably.
"Its… Um…. An experiment! Yeah the school wants to see if it makes for a more respectful relationship between a leader and her team if she is not always with them."
"And they chose to do this experiment with you?" Blake asked unbelievingly.
"Yeah… Cause… Why would they do that?" Ruby muttered to herself. "Oh. Because my sister is on my team. Yeah that's it. It's to see if it also helps with family members being on the same team if there is a little distance between them!" She replied louder to Yang and Blake.
"This is a joke, right?" Yang asked.
"Nope. No joke. So if you'll just go into our… I mean Team RWBY's room and retrieve my bed for me I'll be shoehorning…. I mean placing it inside so I have somewhere to sleep tonight." Ruby said gesturing to the door behind her.
"Your new room is a closet?" Blake asked her in shock.
"Why haven't you opened our door and got your bed yet yourself?" Yang asked suspicious.
Ruby hung her head and mumbled something.
"What?" Yang asked.
"I said yes this is my new home and Weiss has my scroll." Ruby replied not looking at either of them.
"WHAT?!" Yang yelled starting to get angry.
Team JNPR's door opened and Pyrrha looked out. "What's going on?" She asked.
"Nothing. Nothing." Ruby frantically said. "Just some team RWBY stuff. No problems."
"Oh. Okay." Pyrrha replied confusedly and shut her door.
"I don't know what the hell is going on but we're getting to the bottom of it now!" Yang snarled and quickly unlocked the door to their room and threw it open.
Weiss sat on her bed. Ruby's bed was already taken down and was in pieces ready to be moved with her mattress stacked against Blake and Yang's bed. Stacked very neatly against the bed was also all of Ruby's belongings. Ruby walked to the doorway but didn't trespass over it. Her heart which she thought couldn't hurt any more still caused her agony as she realized that Weiss must have started breaking down her bed as soon as Ruby had left earlier. "She can't wait to get rid of me." Ruby moaned inside her mind.
"What in the fucking hell is going on?" Yang yelled. Ruby was terrified she would draw team JNRP's attention again and frantically waved her hands at Yang.
"See? Miss Schnee knows about the school experiment to move a leader from her team and approves of it. She thoughtfully broke down my bed and gathered all my stuff for me to transfer them to my new room." Ruby watched out of the corner of her eye to see if Weiss, even if she now hated her would go along with the lie.
Yang and Blake looked to Weiss. Weiss nodded her head. "The school wants to try a more military approach to training Huntresses. See if it works better." The heiress lied expertly.
Yang narrowed her eyes at Ruby. "Why is it Miss Schnee all of a sudden. You've called her Weiss since she first got here."
"Well you wouldn't expect military to be all so chummy with their teams would you?" Weiss explained. "I mean it's okay for enlisted personnel to call each other by their first names but you never see a leader calling their soldiers by their first names or them calling their leader by their first name."
Ruby felt this day couldn't get any worse but at least Weiss hadn't 'outed' her so she nodded. "So I guess I'll have to get used to calling…" Ruby swallowed and with a force of effort kept from breaking down. "You guys Miss Belladonna and Miss Long."
"Like Hell you will. I'm your big sister!" Yang growled.
Ruby her emotions about to break completely drew herself to her full height. Which wasn't that intimidating at all. "We came here to be Huntresses. Yes?"
Yang reluctantly nodded and Blake did so a moment later. "So we agreed to follow the school rules and become more professional. Right?"
Yang's nod was even more reluctant.
"Then we'll do this the correct and proper way. So now Miss Belladonna and Miss Long will you please move my things across the hallway to my new room?"
As Yang and Blake moved to get Ruby's things, Ruby glanced over at Weiss. Weiss wasn't smirking or looking triumphant. Actually for someone who was getting her own way she seemed kind of down and depressed about Ruby moving out. She held out Ruby's scroll to her and said softly. "I've removed the access code to our room and took the liberty of deleting the photos you had on there of you and I together." Ruby almost gasped as the feeling of a nonexistent knife turning in her gut but merely swallowed several times before she felt confident she could speak again without sobbing.
"Thank you for considerate actions Miss Schnee. I hope you have a pleasant evening and I will see you sharply at 7 a.m. for breakfast and classes." Ruby said as though she had a mouth full of Grimm dust in it.
Ruby had opened the janitor's closet door and was waiting as Blake and Yang carried her stuff over from the now forbidden bedroom. Yang suppressed a shudder as she saw the dank and musty smelling tiny room. "Ruby I don't think your bed will even fit in here."
Ruby looked over and could see Weiss standing in the dorm room dorm watching them. "Ahem." Ruby cleared her throat.
"Miss Rose." Yang said with a scowl. It was her damn baby sister and she couldn't call her by her first name anymore? Who the hell thought up this experiment? She would be talking to Ozpin soon she decided.
"I'll manage." Ruby told them with a painful attempt at a smile.
"Ruby. This room is even worse than what they force Faunus to live in at Weiss's father's companies." Blake said looking in obvious hate at the tiny windowless room. "There is no windows in here or ventilation. It smells of mildew and old mops. You can't possibly stay here!"
"I will be fine. Thank you for your concern Miss Belladonna." Ruby said and waved them away. "Now excuse me I have a bed to put together and stuff to stow before tomorrow morning. Got to be professional about this."
Blake and Yang stepped back into the hallway to have the janitor's closet door slam. They could hear Ruby moving stuff around inside.
"What is going on?" Yang asked Blake.
Blake could only shake her head in disbelief as well. "I don't know."
Later that night Nora was standing near the wall of her and her team's room. She would cock her head one way and then another.
"What are you doing Nora?" Asked Pyrrha.
"I think we have rats. Really, really sad rats." Nora said after a moment and then shrugging she moved back towards the middle of the room where Ren and Jaune were talking.
Pyrrha looked in confusion at the wall and then moving closer she put her ear to the wall to hear the most heartbreaking sobbing she had ever heard coming from it. It sounded like someone's soul was dying. "Jaune?" She called out getting his attention.
"Yes?"
"What is right next door to our room?" She said gesturing to the wall with the almost silent sobbing.
"Just a closet they hardly ever use. I think it's a broom closet."
Nora sat on her bed looking thoughtful. "Really, really, really sad and lonely rats." She said to herself.