Space.
That endless, black ocean of emptiness. Man and Faunus sail through the void, plying the invisible stellar currents with great machines of magnificent power. In a time long past, man looked up at the stars and said to himself, "One day I will own these too."
That day has come, and passed. Space is no more strange to mankind than the oceans are to you and I. Countless generations have been born, were raised, and have died amongst the light of dying suns. When the history lessons tell them of a time when Man, Faunus, and Grimm were restricted to one small planet, orbiting a small main-sequence G2V star, they would shake their heads in wonder, that races so mighty could have come from beginnings so small. The Grimm were especially interesting to them, as they are now no more than a legend, a nightmare from a time of old. The Grimm went extinct long ago, you see.
The planet that birthed the two races would later come to be known as Earth, only to be renamed once more. It is currently known as Terra.
The year, you ask? The year is 1536, almost exactly a thousand years since the education of four huntresses, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Yang Xiao Long, and Blake Belladonna. Almost exactly a thousand years since the four of them successfully graduated from Beacon Academy, and started hunting Grimm as fully fledged huntresses. Almost exactly a thousand years since they had slain the mythical Grimm Lord. The quest to find the Grimm Lord had been long and arduous, full of danger and adventure. It had taken Team RWBY nearly four years to finally track down the beast, after learning of his existence from an ancient tomb.
Ah, but that is a story for another time. When the Grimm Lord finally met its end at the hands of Team RWBY, something... miraculous happened. With its controlling and dominating presence gone from the minds of the Grimm, they went feral, insane even, and slaughtered each-other and themselves in blind fits of animal rage. Humans and Faunus rallied around this inexplicable event, and within a single year, the very last Grimm on the planet was hunted down, and ended. But that wasn't the only thing that had happened when the Grimm Lord died. No, something else far, far stranger had occurred.
The Grimm Lord was an incredibly powerful and magnificent beast, and its aura was powerful and potent beyond measure. Such a magnificent aura could not be ended by something as paltry as the death of the body it inhabited. So the aura had split and poured forth from the Grimm Lord as it died, seeking new vessels to inhabit. And it had found them, in the form of four young women standing before it. As it poured into the shocked members of Team RWBY, their wounds closed with a golden light, their fractured bones re-knit, and for a time, they seemed to glow, with an inner, golden light.
After much debate, and some not-so-well-thought-out experimentation by Ruby and Yang, the four girls had determined that the aura of the Grimm Lord had bestowed on them nigh-invincible powers of regeneration and healing. They never fell ill again, any wounds they received in battle healed almost instantaneously, and they found themselves possessed of uncommon strength and vigor. But still, that was not the strangest and most miraculous of the effects the Grimm Lord's aura had upon Team RWBY.
They began to notice it as the years dragged on, as their comrades, friends, and family grew old and aged, as was natural, and they stayed as young and beautiful as ever. No wrinkles, grey hair, or signs of aging in the slightest ever appeared on their features. When Ruby Rose looked at herself in the mirror on her 40th birthday, and saw that she looked just as she had at age 24, and that Weiss, Yang, and Blake all looked the same, she knew something was wrong. But like always, the four of them stuck together through thick and thin. They had formed an unbreakable bond. And some bonds between certain members of Team RWBY were stronger than others.
Weiss and Ruby had been dating since the end of their third year at Beacon, and Weiss, surprisingly, had been the one to propose to Ruby two years after their graduation from Beacon. She had taken up the mantle of CEO of Schnee Dust Company, after her father died of natural causes shortly thereafter. Ruby remained a full-time huntress, but they managed to work their schedules together. That is at least, until the hunt for the Grimm Lord drew all of Weiss' attention away from her work. But again, that is a story for a different time.
Yang and Blake had been dating longer than Ruby and Weiss had, but took longer to marry. It was only after the death of the Grimm Lord that Yang worked up the courage to propose to Blake. And now, the four of them were family, by law if not by blood. It had been difficult for them, to watch as their friends and family slowly withered and died in front of them, victims of old age and the ravages of time, while they stood by, never aging a single day. And so time passed on, without them.
On Ruby's 100th birthday, they were forced to accept that they had somehow been blessed with the gift of eternal life.
Ruby concealed her identity and took jobs working under different names. Weiss had long ago taken control of her company through go-betweens and foreign accounts, running it through proxy, since she could not remain CEO for a hundred years without drawing attention. Yang took to wearing a hood, to conceal her distinctive blonde mane. She absolutely refused to consider cutting it. Blake had the least difficulty out of the four of them; she was already used to wrapping herself in the cloak of the night. They traveled the world, living comfortably off of what was largely Weiss' money. But she was a shrewd businesswoman, and even without direct control of her company, Schnee Dust Industries, as it was now known, continued to thrive and prosper.
The years dragged on and on, humanity and faunus-kind made incredible scientific advances as they delved deeper into the mysteries of Dust, and eventually, the two races used it to launch themselves into the stars.
Times changed quickly. Star systems were discovered, stations were built, colonies were constructed on alien worlds. Human and faunus spread through the galaxy as quickly as they had spread across Earth. A new era of exploration had begun.
The four women had found spaceflight strange at first, but Ruby quickly fell in love with space travel, and subsequently became a master pilot. Her skills and reflexes behind the controls of a starship were without compare. Yang was the only one who never quite grew accustomed to it; she still hated space travel.
As weapons technology had advanced, and "mere mortals," as Yang jokingly referred to them, began to adopt the use of railgun and laser technology, the four women incorporated them into their own weaponry, while still maintaining their original forms. Crescent Rose now had an energized edge that could slice through the hull of a starship, and the built in sniper rifle was replaced with a small railgun, a weapon that uses incredibly powerful magnets to fire a solid projectile faster than the speed of sound. Weiss had sharpened Myrtenaster to microscopic levels of sharpness, and energized the blade similar to what Ruby did with Crescent Rose. Blake had modified Gambol Shroud's blade with modern metals, and replaced the ribbon with an incredibly light-weight flexible steel variant, that could act as cloth one second, and the next, when charged with a magnetic current, become as inflexible and strong as titanium. Yang had done to least to her gauntlets, Ember Celica, choosing only to augment them with an energy field that could disrupt solid mass. When activated, the energy field wreathed her gauntlets in anti-matter, and enabled her to punch through multiple layers of titanium with ease. The world mourned the day Yang Xiao Long had gained the ability to punch through walls.
Time dragged ever onwards, and as old professions died out, and new ones rose up to take their place, the girls realized that they needed new ways to occupy their time, if nothing else.
Blake and Yang took jobs as security contractors on frontier worlds across the galaxy, never staying in one place for long, but using their skills to protect those who couldn't protect themselves. They often refuse payment for their services.
Ruby, of course, wanted to be an interstellar bounty hunter more than anything else, and while it took a while for Weiss to warm to the idea, she eventually settled her accounts, split her massive fortune across multiple identities, and agreed to travel with Ruby. Together, the two of them ply the stars, tracking down convicted felons and bringing them to justice.
Which brings us to our current situation.
"RUBBYYYY!"
"Owowow, Weiss, what what what!" Ruby yelled back, wincing as the the personal communicator in her ear was filled with the sounds of Weiss' wrath. She sprinted through the gunmetal-grey corridors of the ISR Rebellious Rose, vaulting over sparking wiring and exposed metal plates, as explosions rocked the mid-sized frigate. Oil was splattered on her red overall top, underneath which she wore a grey undershirt and a pair of dark grey camouflage pants. She had changed the most out of Team RWBY, in the years before the Grimm Lord's aura had frozen their souls in time, for lack of a better metaphor. She was much taller than Weiss now, much to her chagrin, standing at 5 foot 8 inches. Her... chest has also grown considerably. Weiss didn't mind that part as much. The biggest difference, however, was the robotic arm where Ruby's left arm should be. It was smooth, sleek, and light-grey, almost silver. It matched the brunette's eyes. The result of an encounter with an alpha beowulf, many, many years in the past. Weiss had never truly forgiven herself about it, either. She had been the one forced to amputate Ruby's arm with Crescent Rose, after all. But that is a story for another time.
"Did you fix the FTL drive yet, you dunce!? I can't evade them for much longer!"
"Uh, y-yeah, it should work fine now! Be right up!"
Ruby dashed the last couple of metres to the cockpit ladder, climbed up it, and threw herself into the pilot's chair. The cockpit was small but not cramped, with two leather seats facing a glass viewport. Multiple screens and holographic displays were clustered around the pilot and co-pilot's seats, so that whoever was in them had access to everything they needed to know about the ship and what was around it.
Pressing a few buttons in rapid succession, she grasped the controls, as control of the ship transitioned from Weiss to her. Weiss was a decent pilot, but she had never quite taken to it like Ruby had. As the controls transitioned, explosions bursting around them, Ruby leaned over to the seat next to her and pressed a kiss to Weiss' cheek, who was wearing a simple white jumpsuit, her hair tied up into a tight ponytail.
"W-what! You dolt, they're still on us, and our shields are still down! Focus on flying, not me!"
"Unlike you," Ruby replied with a smirk, "I can do both."
With that, Ruby wrenched the controls sideways and downwards, sending the frigate into a spiral, beginning one of her favorite maneuvers. As she turned, she bled she ship's momentum into the prototype inertia-coils on the exterior of the ship, enabling her to turn more sharply than would normally be allowed by the laws of physics.
The three fighters on their tail attempted to follow, surprised by the sudden move. They slowed, as they tried to burn off enough speed to keep their turn tight enough to follow the Rose's.
Finishing her downward spiral and follow-up turn, Ruby slammed on the reverse thrusters and wrenched the ship around, presenting the enemy fighters with a full frontal view of the Rose's armaments. In their haste to match her speed and her physics-defying turn, they found themselves face to face with the gun batteries of the Rose. And they far outclassed the small weapons the fighters carried.
"Wrong move, sorry guys!" Ruby shouted with glee, as she unleashed banks of laser cannons and plasma missiles.
All three fighters were obliterated in an instant; the short-range attack ships weren't equipped with shields.
"Oh yeah!" Ruby shouted. "See Weiss? I told you we'd be fine."
Cycling a new rack of missiles into the launchers, Ruby checked the shields to make sure they were recharging as they should be. Satisfied, Ruby turned to look at her partner, only to see Weiss staring back at her, with her arms crossed and a frown on her face.
"What now?" Ruby sighed.
Weiss simply pointed out the viewscreen, keeping her eyes locked with Ruby's.
Ruby followed the direction of her finger, right to a group of four battleships approaching them at speed, disgorging a steady stream of attack fighters.
Blaring warnings began to sound, and Ruby slammed her fist onto the button that silenced them.
"Alright, so I forgot that short-range fighters need a point to launch from..."
"Typical," huffed Weiss, as she blew a strand of her from her face. "Unless you're feeling particularly suicidal today, and don't answer that with a yes, I'm going to plug in the coordinates for our FTL jump. We should be gone before they catch us. You... did fix the FTL drive, right?"
"Of course I did!" Ruby grinned sheepishly. "I mean, it looked fine when I was done with it."
"It better work..." Weiss mumbled under her breath. "There, coordinates are locked in. Now make the jump before they get any closer!"
Ruby crossed her fingers and toes, and pressed the button to activate the FTL drives. The ship rumbled, and the familiar sound of the FTL drives warming up was music to the two girl's ears. Ruby powered up the engines, flying away from the approaching battlegroup as fast as she could. They would easily outrun the battleships, but the swarm of fighters was a different matter.
"They're getting closer," Weiss said, her eyes glued to the ship's gravimetric radar screen.
"Oh yeah?" replied Ruby. "Watch this." She grasped the FTL drive activation lever and thrust it forward. With a whining noise, the FTL drive sputtered and died.
"Watch what?" Weiss said with a sigh.
"I think we're in trouble." Ruby said.
Weiss checked the FTL status on her holographic display, swiping her fingers across the icons and bringing the drive up.
"Great, the hyperdrive motivator's been damaged. It's impossible to go to lightspeed," Weiss said.
"We're in trouble," Ruby confirmed.
Weiss shook her head in exasperation, as Ruby attempted to outrun the pursuing fighters.
Tapping her chin in thought, an idea suddenly came to the white-haired girl.
"Ruby! The micro jump-drive! The one we just had installed!"
"Oh right!" Ruby shouted with glee. "I'd forgotten about it..."
Ruby looked at the many buttons on her control panel, and her expression of hope turned to one of confusion.
"Uh... which one was it again?"
"You dolt," Weiss said, as she reached over and indicated a button to the left of Ruby's chair. "That one."
"Oh, right! Heh heh. Anyway, here goes nothing!"
Weiss moved her left hand over, and placed it on top of Ruby's. The brunette turned her hand upward and entangled her fingers with Weiss', giving her hand a quick squeeze.
Ruby pressed the button to activate the micro jump-drive, a relatively new module designed for short-range, unplotted jumps, presumably to shake off any pursuers a vessel might have.
Right as the stars blurred into straight lines, signalling the jump, a well aimed railgun blast from one of the battleships slammed into the aft section of the Rebellious Rose, jolting her off of her course. The starship flew forward all the same, exceeding the speed of light, and vanished into the gap between the stars.
Ruby awoke to a cockpit full of sparks and broken machinery, regaining consciousness with a jolt, and immediately reaching over to her right to check that Weiss was okay. Luckily, it seemed she had largely escaped injury, with only a large gash on her forehead to show for the crippling railgun strike they had taken. The gash was already glowing with a golden light, and sealing itself shut. Ruby closed her eyes and breathed a quiet sigh of relief. When she opened them again, she saw Weiss begin to come to.
Blinking her eyes rapidly, the white-haired girl glanced around and assessed their situation, eyes lingering on Ruby for a second longer than the rest of her surroundings.
"You dolt..." she moaned.
"Hey. You okay?" Ruby asked, concern evident in her voice. "I mean you look fine, but who knows if you damaged something internally, or maybe you broke a bone and don't know about it, or maybe you even have a concussion because sometimes the shock from a railgun blast can-"
Weiss placed her index finger over Ruby's lips, silencing the brunette's worried rambling.
"Hush. I'm fine." Weiss smiled at her over-protective wife. "Now, any idea where we are?"
"Oh, uh, I hadn't checked yet. I only woke up just before you did."
"Alright, I'll run a quick scan," Weiss said. "On the bright side, at least the navigation systems are still intact. Lots of other systems are down though, and I don't think we have the necessary parts to repair them by ourselves."
With a pleasant sounding chime, the navigation relay system signaled that it had confirmed their location.
Weiss stared at the display in disbelief.
"What, what is it?" Ruby asked, leaning over to try and get a better view.
"Ruby... please tell me that the micro jump-drive is rechargeable."
Ruby looked thoughtful for a second, and then replied. "Nope, if I remember correctly, they're a one-and-done kind of deal. It has to be swapped out at a repair station.
"Well then, we have a problem," Weiss said, as she rubbed the bridge of her nose with her thumb and index finger. "A very, very big problem."
"I don't like the sound of that," Ruby winced.
"According to the star charts," Weiss said with a heavy sigh, "we're 7 months sub-FTL travel away from the nearest station. Or planet. Or moon, or anything for that matter. We're floating in the dead space between two systems. We're going to have to plot a course to the nearest station, and just drift there on whatever fuel is left."
"Oh, well that's not that bad."
"Not that bad?! Ruby, did your hearing get affected by that railgun? We're stuck drifting for at least 7 months! That's 214 days!"
"Weiss, we're immortal, remember? That just means we get a lot of alone time."
Ruby's wife squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her fists.
"You. Are. Absolutely. Insufferable."
"Yeah, but you love me anyway," Ruby said, as she leaned over and pecked Weiss on the lips.
Weiss sputtered and flailed. "Ruby! You're not taking this seriously enough!"
"Oh, but I think I am Princess. You just need to relax a bit. Look, we're out here all on our own, no one is going to find us. We've got 7 months alllll to ourselves, and honestly I don't see a downside to this situation."
As Ruby spoke, she moved her hands to Weiss' waist, and began attempting to unzip her jumpsuit.
Weiss realized what she was doing, and smacked her hands away. "Argh, that's it! You can fix the damn ship on your own, I'm locking myself in my room, and I'm not talking to you for an entire week!"
With that, she pushed herself up and out of her chair, and stormed down the corridor separating the cockpit from the rest of the frigate.
Ruby looked a little stung, but recovered quickly. "But Weiss!" she called after her. "That's my room too! Where am I gonna sleep?"
Day 1
Weiss sighed and rolled over on her bed, struggling to find a comfortable sleeping position for what seemed like the thousandth time. She couldn't sleep, and even though she knew the cause, she refused to acknowledge it.
Weiss and Ruby's shared living quarters was a moderate sized cabin, situated near the rear end of the Rose. The walls were made of a light gray metal, strong, but not cold to the touch, as most things were on a starship. There was only one entrance, and the wall opposite it was an armaglass viewport, boasting a crystal clear view of space from the inside, with retractable armored shutters that came down when the ship was a state of alert or combat. Against this viewport sat Ruby and Weiss' king-sized bed, decorated with red sheets and fluffy white pillows, both embroidered with designs of roses and snowflakes. Everything on the bed was as comfortable as money could buy, thanks to Ruby's influence. The brunette always did love to snuggle with her wife...
In truth, since she and Ruby had been wed almost a thousand years ago, she had found it impossible to sleep on her own. Over the years, she had grown used to Ruby's warmth and presence enveloping her as she slept. A sense of discomfort filled her as she turned over again, and was once again struck with the realization that the space beside her was empty. It had only been a day...
But she would not give in to the foul temptations of Ruby Rose. When she had pledged to not speak to Ruby for a week, she had meant it. Weiss Schnee did not give up. Ever. Ruby had tried knocking, she had tried speaking to Weiss through the door, she had even attempted to use the ships intercom to convince Weiss to let her in. But Weiss would not, could not give in. Even when-
*THUD*
Weiss jumped in surprise, as something struck the viewport, and she quickly turned to see what it was.
Plastered to the outside of the viewport by the force of her impact, was a very embarrassed looking Ruby Rose. Weiss sighed and smacked her forehead with the palm of her hand. The lengths that her partner would go to just to get her attention...
Wait, how did she even manage to reach this side of the Rose while still attached to the safety tether on the opposite side?
"Oh my god." Weiss realized with a rush of panic. "She's not wearing a tether line!"
With no tether line securing Ruby to the ship, if she somehow lost her grip and floated away from the ship, there would be no way for her to get back. The Rose's sensors were too damaged to detect an object as small as Ruby, and if she floated off into the void, she would likely be lost forever.
Weiss felt sick at the mere thought. She couldn't imagine her life without Ruby Rose in it.
Spurred into action, she stood up, wincing as the blood that had pooled in her legs rushed into the rest of her body. Staring straight into Ruby's eyes, she mouthed the words, "DON'T MOVE."
With that, she rushed out of the room as fast as she could, sprinting through the Rose's corridors on her way to the hangar bay.
"Good, at least that dunce remembered to close the hangar doors behind her."
Moving to one side of the hangar, she quickly donned a spacesuit of her own and slammed her fist on the door release button, hanging on to the safety rails as the atmosphere vented from the bay. The hangar bay doors opened wide, and Weiss drifted out into the cold emptiness of space, making sure that her tether line was properly attached before continuing. She tried to ignore the terrifying feeling that came with seeing nothing but black emptiness all around her.
"Gotta get to Ruby, gotta get to Ruby, come on Weiss, you can go faster than this!"
Moving hand over hand, she grasped the hull of the Rose and flung herself towards a protruding sensor cluster, grabbing onto it, and repeating the process as she traveled towards the other side of the ship. Her progress was impeded by the fact that she had to stop every few dozen feet, to detach and re-attach the tether line to the various tether latches lining the outer hull. Finally, as she neared the other side of the small frigate, she caught a glimpse of Ruby's spacesuit.
Horror flooded her mind, as she realized that Ruby had somehow lost her grip, and was actually floating away from the Rose. She couldn't lose Ruby, not now, not ever.
Without a second thought, she attached the tether to a nearby tether latch, calculated her trajectory as best she was able, and flung herself out into empty space.
Luckily for her, Ruby was floating away slowly, and Weiss her predicted her movements almost perfectly. Holding her arms out in front of her, Weiss slammed into Ruby, unable to slow her movements. Hands scrabbled for purchase, and she managed to wrap her arms around Ruby's leg, and Ruby reached over and managed to grab onto Weiss' leg as well. Flipping Ruby around, she turned her over so that they were face to face, floating alone in the silent void. She grasped Ruby's arms tighter than she ever had before, afraid that if she were to loosen her grip, Ruby would slip away and be lost forever. That thought terrified her more than anyone else.
Ruby couldn't talk to her, but Weiss could see the look of love and gratitude in her wife's eyes. Funny, here they were, surrounded by an endless sea of stars and glowing nebulae, and the only thing Weiss could stare at were Ruby's gorgeous grey eyes. They were like storm fronts approaching on the distant horizon, foreboding and mysterious. And then the shades of grey seemed to shift, and Weiss could see summer rain showers, comforting and warm.
Weiss was startled out of her reverie as Ruby tapped on Weiss' faceplate, smiling sweetly.
She shook her head, and held up three fingers to Ruby, indicated that she should switch her communicator to local channel 3.
There was a crackle of static, and then Ruby's voice filled her ears, and the sound of it after so long caused her heart to start pounding almost painfully in her chest.
"Hey there snow angel. You all right? You were just uh, staring at me for a while there."
Weiss remembered why she had come out there in the first place, and Ruby was startled as the look of relief on her partners face changed to one of anger.
"You absolute, total, completely incompetent, insufferable dolt! What the hell were you thinking, spacewalking without a tether?!"
"Oh, you're upset about that? Relax Weiss, I'm fine, you caught me right? Nothing to worry about."
Weiss shook her head in exasperation, struggling to convey her feelings to her wife.
"No, there is something to worry about! You! What if... what if I had lost you? What if you had floated away, and I hadn't been able to find you? What then, huh?"
Ruby simply looked shocked, unable to find the words to respond.
Weiss blinked back tears, as she started to realize how foolish she had been for refusing to talk to her wife. Even if she was simply being stubborn and prideful, she had let it almost separate the two of them, forever.
"Y-you're the most important thing to me in this entire universe, and if I lost you... I just don't know what I'd do. I don't think I'd want to live anymore, if it's without you at my side. I just... I just can't lose you. Okay?"
Ruby simply nodded her head in acceptance, and wrapped her arms around Weiss as tight as she could. The spacesuits they were wearing prevented them from feeling the others warmth, and the electric feeling of Ruby's skin on her own, but the gesture was not lost on Weiss.
The white-haired girl took one last look around at the endless expanse of stars, and pulled out of the embrace, making sure to keep a firm hold of Ruby's arm with one of her own.
"Come on," she said. "Let's get back inside."
Day 4
"I love you."
"I love you more," replied Weiss.
The two of them lay side by side on their bed, safely back aboard the Rebellious Rose.
"Oh ho ho, I doubt that. You're the perfect snow angel, flawless and beautiful, and yet you saw fit to come down from the heavens and focus your attention on me, just a nervous young girl trying to be a huntress. If we're anything like the stories say, I should be madly in love with you, and I'd feel happy if you happened to even notice me. You have to be all distant and cold, remember? I'm just the poor orphan girl, and you're beautiful and immaculate Ice Queen. Emphasis on beautiful, by the way."
Ruby leaned forward and kissed Weiss to emphasize her point, drawing back to continue speaking before Weiss could fully return the kiss, leaving her flustered and blushing madly.
"To me, you'll always be this perfect, untouchable angel. Yet, somehow, you chose to love me. And you stayed with me, crazy, clumsy, imperfect Ruby Rose, when you could have left me at any time and had any woman or man on the planet with a snap of the finger. And for that, Weiss Schnee, for choosing to love me back, I will always love you more than life itself."
Weiss giggled as she ran her fingers through Ruby's brown and red hair, shifting her legs to further entangle them with her wife's.
"Ugh, since when did you get this romantic? I think I felt my heart melt just then."
"What can I say?" whispered Ruby, as she leaned forward again for another kiss. "You inspire me, I guess."
Weiss sighed and wrapped her arms around Ruby's waist, before leaning forward to whisper into her wife's ear. "Well that crazy declaration of love you just gave has inspired something else, if you catch my meaning."
Ruby grinned involuntarily. "Oh, has it? And what exactly have I inspired with my oh-so-sweet and honeyed words?"
"You know exactly what," Weiss whispered into Ruby's ear. She then bit down on her earlobe softly, just enough to tease. "Don't play games with me, Ruby Rose, or else this will be a long night for you."
Ruby whimpered as she felt Weiss run her tongue over and around her ear, knowing she had already lost this game they were playing. A thousand curses upon Weiss and her knowledge of Ruby's most sensitive spots.
It was going to be a long night for Ruby indeed.
Day 27
Ruby groaned as she shuffled over to the ship's kitchen, a red comforter from the bed wrapped around her shoulders. They had turned off the heating to the Rose a few days ago, and Ruby was no fan of the cold. And it was cold, miserably so.
Her nostrils twitched as they detected the mouth-watering scent of bacon, ears perking up at the same time as she heard something sizzling on the frying pan.
"Ohmygodohmygodohmygod Weiss is making bacon yes yes yes! Aauuughhgh I love her..."
Ruby turned the corner to the kitchen, and saw Weiss standing over the old-fashioned gas stove they had installed. Sure, other, newer, more efficient technologies were available, but Ruby had insisted on buying an old gas stove. Bacon just didn't taste the same when it was cooked with searing plasma or microwaves.
Ruby grinned as she realized that Weiss hadn't noticed Ruby's arrival, and so she carefully slipped around the small table in the middle of the room and snuck up behind her wife.
"BOO!" She shouted, wrapping her arms around Weiss' waist at the same time, to prevent her from jumping backwards and spilling the bacon.
But Weiss made no reaction at all. She simply continued moving the bacon around the frying pan, making sure it was being cooked perfectly, and not being burnt.
"I heard you the moment you entered the hallway outside, you dolt. You're not as quiet as you think.
"Awww, but I thought I had you this time..." Ruby pouted. "I even- *mmmph!*"
Ruby squealed as Weiss shoved a piece of bacon into her mouth.
Weiss smirked as she watched Ruby struggle to chew and swallow the strip of perfectly cooked pork.
"Boo."
Day 36
Ruby slowly awoke to the warm, incredibly feeling of Weiss' body pressed against her own. She never grew tired of it. Wrapping her arms tighter around her wife's waist, Ruby buried her head in Weiss' hair, moving one of her hands upward to run her fingers through it.
Weiss groaned as she was slowly forced back into the waking world of consciousness. She smiled softly as she felt Ruby playing with her hair.
"Good morning gorgeous."
"You're only saying that because you want me to stay in bed with you," Weiss huffed in reply.
"Weeeelllll, it's not like we have anything to do. The Rose is going to continue on this course until we reach the Akiainavas system, right? Do you really want to get up and sit around with nothing to do? Or would you rather snuggle with me?"
Ruby kissed her wife's shoulder to emphasize her point.
"Hmmph. I guess I see your point. But when we get up, we're going to clean up the ship and organize the cargo bay, alright?"
"Ugh, but it's already organizzeedddd..."
"Not to my standards it's not. Now come on, back to sleep."
Weiss turned herself over, burying her face in the crook of Ruby's neck and nuzzling it until she was comfortable.
Ruby smiled as she felt the warmth of the white-haired girl on her neck.
"But if I fall asleep again, how am I gonna enjoy having you in my arms?" She asked innocently.
"Just shut up and go back to sleep." Weiss said, as she kissed Ruby's neck.
Ruby giggled and focused on the sensations of warmth and love she was feeling for her wife, knowing that they were reciprocated in kind.
The brunette shifted ever so slightly, and was on the verge of sleep, when she decided to take one last glance at Weiss, to burn her figure into her mind, so she could dream about her while she slept. Which normally happened anyway. Over the years their auras had fused, melded together as one. A few different things happened as a result. They could sense each-others presence, and could pick up basic emotions from one another. Their auras were also much stronger when they were close. If they were apart for too long, they would begin to feel a sense of unease, like something was just wrong with the world. And as a consequence of their souls becoming one, they almost always dreamed about each-other.
But as Ruby glanced at her wife, what she saw filled her with trepidation. Weiss was staring down at Ruby's robotic arm, an expression of unrest on her face.
The brunette reached up to Weiss' face and turned her head so that her eyes met.
"Hey, look at me. I told you to forget about that. It wasn't your fault. I can't forgive you for it, because I never blamed you in the slightest. Not that I wouldn't forgive you if it was your fault, but I mean I just... ugh, listen, please let it go?"
"I know Ruby, but... that's harder to do than it sounds. It's not like I haven't tried before. I just feel... guilty when I look at it."
"Oh come on Weiss, don't be that way. I think it's awesome, I get to punch walls, and trees, and people, and not feel a thing! Plus, have you ever blocked a sword with nothing but your arm? I bet you havennnnn't."
Weiss couldn't help herself, and a small grin slipped onto her pale features.
"No, I can't say I have Ruby," she said with a giggle.
Ruby leaned over to whisper in Weiss' ear. "Cuz it's awesome."
Weiss tightened her hold on her wife. "Just go back to sleep, you dunce."
"Alright, but don't let me catch you staring at my arm again. Otherwise... I'll have to punish you."
"R-Ruby!"
Day 59
Ruby wiped the grease on her hands onto her red work overalls, giving a sigh of relief as she carefully worked her way out of the tangle of pipes and machines in the Rose's engine room. A small frigate like the Rebellious Rose was small compared to other ships, but was still much larger than a single or multi-man fighter craft.
Frigates typically were meant to carry a crew of 5 to 10, with an engine room, a small hangar and storage bay, a kitchen and recreational area, and any number of other rooms used for various things such as observations rooms, rooms with dedicated communications or scanning suites, or rooms filled with advanced technology such as cloaking devices, sensor probe launcher units, even small storage bays for the storage of ore and materials. They were mostly used for transportation or scouting purposes, light skirmish combat, or high-speed pursuits. Frigates came in many classes and designations, there were frigates made for scouting, mining, hauling, and many different types of combat. Some specialized frigates were even made for stealth bombing; frigates like that were equipped with advanced cloaking device units. Others were made for full-frontal heavy combat, such as assault frigates.
The Rebellious Rose was an Interceptor-class combat frigate, built to reach incredible speeds that other ships could not while still packing enough of a punch for light combat once it reached its intended target. Their modus operandi, once a target was tracked down and identified, was to close at extreme speed, orbit at close range to evade fire from large-class weapons, and scramble the target's FTL drives so that they couldn't warp away. Some were even equipped with specialized interdiction modules such as target locking jammers which scrambled a ships targeting computers, or webbing devices which entangled a ship in heavy particles that slowed it down and prevented it from making high-speed turns. The Rose had all of these, and it was build from the prototype hull of a Raven-class interceptor, a design that had never been publicly released. In other words, it was a bounty hunters dream ship.
Ruby sighed as she admired her ship, running her hands along the smooth metal of the engine room walls. She fancied that she could hear the engine purring, the thrum of its systems an artificial heartbeat. She loved it more than anything else, except for her wife of course. Oh, and there was Crescent Rose too...
The Rose was feared and admired all across the galaxy, but only by those who actually knew of its existence. Weiss and Ruby weren't the most famous bounty hunters, but they were the best. And they aimed to keep it that way. They tried to draw as little attention as possible, using false names, changing identities every century or so. They didn't want anyone to find out they were immortal; they didn't want the attention such a revelation would bring, both good and bad. There were evil people all across the galaxy that would pay dearly to discover the secret to immortality, even if they had to kill the two of them in the process. Weiss and Ruby didn't know if they could die, their wounds had never been enough to kill them, even when they had been covered in horrible gashes and lacerations. Any wound, even broken bones and snapped spines had always healed impossibly fast. They weren't sure if they could be killed. But they weren't about to test the theory.
They treasured each-other far too much to risk intentionally putting themselves into harm's way.
Ruby didn't think she would have the strength to go on if Weiss died, the only reason she had been able to carry on through a thousand years of living, of having to leave her friends and watch them die, of seeing her world dissolve and everything change, was because she had Weiss by her side.
"Heck, the only reason I'm still sane after so long is probably just because of her... Weiss, I honestly don't know what I'd do without you..."
Ruby leaned against the wall and contemplated just how much Weiss meant to her. It brought a smile to her face, but still a small nagging voice in the back of her head simply refused to be put down. Did she mean as much to Weiss?
Day 60
"There you are."
Ruby nearly jumped off the black leather couch she was sitting on, as she turned around to see Weiss leaning against the door frame of the port observation room dressed in a pair of black pants and a white tank top. Her snow white hair was long and loose, cascading down her shoulders to her waist. The sight of her made Ruby's heart pound in her chest.
"Hng, why do she have to look so beautiful no matter what she wears?"
"I haven't seen you all day," Weiss said. "Have you been in here?"
"Oh uh, yeah pretty much. I've just been looking out at this white nebula. I forget its name though."
Weiss walked over to the couch Ruby was sitting on; it was the only piece of furniture in the observation room. The room was empty, and the wall facing away from the ship was a giant armored window, with an amazing view of the expanse of space beyond it. The stars twinkled and shined, but the white nebula in the center of the viewport stole the show. It was slightly shaped like a blooming flower, with lighter shades of white on the inside, almost grey near the edges. It looked massive from this distance, but even still, it was hard for Weiss to imagine that it contained millions of stars and planets. Space never failed to fascinate her with it's sheer vastness and ethereal beauty.
Sitting down next to Ruby, she leaned her head against the brunette's shoulder and joined her in gazing out at the infinite abyss.
Ruby was being uncharacteristically quiet. Weiss knew that meant something was on her mind. Something important.
"That's not all you've been doing, just staring at that nebula, is it? You're thinking about something."
Ruby simply nodded.
"You know you can tell me anything Ruby, what is it?"
"It's just..." Ruby sighed. "Weiss... do you ever get... tired of me?"
Weiss' eyes went wide with shock, but Ruby continued before she could stop her.
"I mean I know I can be clumsy and annoying sometimes, and honestly a thousand years is a huge amount of time to spend with one person, even if you love them, and sometimes I feel like I'm not good enough for you, and maybe I don't know, you need a break from me, because maybe you're bored of me and you need some time alone, and if you do that's totally okay with me even if you-"
Weiss stopped the brunette's rant by pressing her lips to Ruby's with passion. She tilted her head and leaned into it, attempting to channel all of her love for Ruby into that one kiss, how thankful she was for her wife, how grateful she was that she had stayed with her for a thousand years. How much she treasured her Ruby Rose.
She broke the kiss when her chest started to hurt, her lungs crying out for air. She leaned back and stared into Ruby's eyes. The brunette looked shocked and flustered, at a loss for words.
"Oh. Uh... oh," she managed to stutter.
Weiss took her wife's head in her hands and pressed it to her chest, forcing Ruby to listen to her heartbeat. Whenever Ruby was anxious or nervous about something, listening to Weiss' heart beating always kept her grounded and calmed her down. Weiss took a moment to gather her thoughts and her breath, as she stared out at the white nebula in the vast distance before her.
"Ruby Schnee, listen to me."
Ruby had never officially taken Weiss' last name, but saying it like that always served the calm the brunette down, a spoken reminder that they were together.
Ruby moved her arms to wrap them around Weiss' waist and squeezed her tightly, as if she was afraid that if she let go, Weiss would disappear.
"Darling, I have loved you for a thousand years. I will love you for a thousand more. And even more beyond that. You never judge me, you never take me for granted, even when I act like a bitch, which I admit... can happen, on occasion. You've always been there for me, no matter what happened. When I tried to push you away with all my might, unsure of my feelings for you, you stayed with me, no matter how horribly I treated you. When I accepted my feelings for you and asked you to come back, you came running to me when you had every right to turn me down and send me away. When my father disowned me, you were there for me. When we fought against the White Fang and everything else that Vytal could throw at us, you were there for me. You were my first friend, and for a long time, my only friend. You... well you taught you me how to live. You broke me out of that icy shell I had built up. When you lost your arm and I disappeared into the mountains, you searched for me until you found me, and you brought me back. And when we grew old, and everyone else we knew died and the world changed in strange and terrifying ways, you were there for me. You were my first love. And you still are."
Ruby shuddered softly in against Weiss' chest, and the white-haired girl realized that Ruby was crying softly. Ruby never cried anymore, this was rare. But Weiss had known Ruby for long enough to know that they were tears of happiness and relief. So she continued, rubbing Ruby's back in slow circles.
"If I'm the Ice Queen, then you're my knight in shining armor, always there for me, always ready to protect me, no matter the cost to your own self. You're the most caring, selfless, impossibly beautiful person I've ever met. And I'm just glad that I met you Ruby Rose, and that you gave me a chance, and took the time to see me for who I really was, not just the heiress of the Schnee Dust Company. No one like you has ever existed, and no one ever will again. And I'm just infinitely grateful that you're mine, and I'm yours. I will never, ever, grow tired of you. The stars will burn out and die, every single one, and the universe will freeze over before I might possibly feel an inkling that I know you well enough to let you go."
Weiss leaned her head down and kissed the top of Ruby's head, soft and sweetly.
"I will never, ever let you go. I promise. I love you."
Ruby looked up at Weiss, who smiled sweetly back down at her. The brunette's stormy gray eyes were glistening with tears, and she leaned up and kissed Weiss with fervor.
"I love you too."
Ruby turned around, keeping her arms around Weiss' waist, but moving so that she could join her wife in gazing at the white nebula.
"Hey Weiss, I remembered what the nebula is called."
"Oh?"
"Mmhmm, it's the Gardenia nebula. Named after the white flower of the same name. It's really gorgeous. Just like you."
Weiss chuckled and leaned down to kiss Ruby again, this time on the lips.
"You know," Ruby said, "We still have almost a hundred and fifty days left together. Does that bother you at all?"
"Ruby, I meant what I said. I will never get tired of you. It's kind of nice really, not having to worry about anything at all, just us drifting slowly together through space. The view is nice too."
"Yeah, that nebula is really pretty."
Weiss scoffed. "Idiot, I was talking about you!"
Ruby laughed, a rich, warm sound that Weiss loved hearing. "Weiss, was that an attempt at flirting? You are sooooo cute!"
She squeezed her arms tighter around her wife, and Weiss found it difficult to breathe.
"Stop squeezing so tight you dunce! Fine, see if I ever try it again," she pouted.
"No no no, I mean... it was cute Weiss. Really. Please do it more?" She put on her infamous puppy-dog face, the one she knew Weiss couldn't resist.
The white-haired girl tried to stare at the Nebula, anywhere but Ruby, but she could feel her willpower breaking down.
One glance was all it took. "Ugh... fine. You really are beautiful though, don't ever forget it," Weiss said. "Even if I... don't really say it enough. Please don't even think I'm taking you for granted, okay?"
"Okay Weiss, I won't," Ruby said with a smile that stretched across her face.
They sat there for a while, simply enjoying the feeling of being in the arms of someone else that loved them unconditionally, and romantically, even after a thousand years. The feeling was unlike anything else that had ever existed.
"Hey Ruby?" Weiss asked.
"Yeah Snow Angel?"
"Do you remember back in Beacon, when told me how great it would to be lost at sea with me, and I told you how silly that was?"
"Yeah, I remember."
"Well look where we are now. Lost at sea, for a long time, just the two of us. And I look forward to spending every single day with you."
Ruby looked up at Weiss with a warm and loving smile.
And in her smile, Weiss saw something more beautiful that all the stars in the universe.
"The level of matter in the universe has been constant since the Big Bang. In all the aeons we have lost nothing, we have gained nothing - not a speck, not a grain, not a breath. The universe is simply a sealed, twisting kaleidoscope that has reordered itself a trillion trillion trillion times over. Each baby, then, is a unique collision - a cocktail, a remix - of all that has come before: made from molecules of Napoleon and stardust and comets and whale tooth; colloidal mercury and Cleopatra's breath: and with the same darkness that is between the stars between, and inside, our own atoms. When you know this, you suddenly see the crowded top deck of the bus, in the rain, as a miracle: this collection of people is by way of a starburst constellation. Families are bright, irregular-shaped nebulae. Finding a person you love is like galaxies colliding." - Caitlin Moran
THIS IS CANON. Anyone who tries to tell me this is not canon, will be hunted down and sent to a Russian labor camp for the rest of their short lives. I can totally write more of this, maybe even some space Bumblebee if you guys want. Just let me know in the reviews. Also, props to you if you recognized the Star Wars reference. And yes, I basically copied the technology in the ships straight from EVE Online. It just makes so much sense, I think in the future ships will actually function like they do in EVE. ANYWAYYYY, please leave a review, and let me know if you want me to keep writing this.