Rainy Days, Cookies, and Memories
It happens halfway through lunch on a day like any other. Weiss has a bag of cookies, and Ruby has just finished eating her own. So she does what comes naturally: she waits until Weiss is down to her last cookie, and then she swoops in and eats it herself. It's a perfectly baked chocolate-chip cookie.
But Ruby doesn't taste it at all.
She doesn't taste it at all because there is something so familiar about the grin on her lips and the blazing outrage in Weiss's eyes. When Weiss starts yelling and trying to make her spit the cookie out – not that she wants it anymore – Ruby doesn't even bother to fight back. She's too lost in memories of what feels like another lifetime: memories of another girl, another cookie, and a rainy day.
But that's crazy because she only knows Weiss from her time at Beacon…
X X X
A much younger Ruby sits on a tree stump in the middle of a park, kicking her legs back and forth. It's a sunny day, and she has a bag of cookies. Everything is right with the world – until she runs out of cookies, and it starts to rain. She heads for home, knowing that it'll be warmer and dryer there, and she might even be able to get some more cookies from Yang if she pouts and looks sad enough. Yang has always been a pushover, and the only thing better than a pushover is a pushover with cookies.
On her way back home, she runs into another kid running in the opposite direction. They tumble to the ground, all skinny legs and pointy knees and elbows. The other kid is another a girl, but she's older and taller. But that isn't what catches Ruby's eye. The other girl is all pale skin, white hair, and bright blue eyes. She looks like a princess out of a storybook, and Ruby wonders if maybe she hit her head on a rock or something.
But the moment passes quickly enough. They've rolled into a puddle, and the other girl is back on her feet and yelling so loudly that Ruby can't stop herself from grabbing some mud and throwing it at the other girl's face to try and get her to stop. It doesn't work. The other girl starts shrieking, and it's lucky it's raining so hard, otherwise people would be gathering to stare.
"How dare you!" the other girl screams. And it's an impressively loud scream for a kid. "Do you know who I am?"
"No." It's an honest answer. Ruby knows everyone in town, but she doesn't know this girl. "And can you stop yelling? You're the one who bumped into me."
"I did not bump into you!" The blue-eyed girl stamps her feet and drenches them both in mud. "And look! Now, I'm covered in mud. My father is going to be furious!"
"Over some mud?" Ruby doesn't get it. They're kids. They're supposed to jump in puddles and get muddy. She and Yang have come back home covered in mud lots of time, and their dad never cares. Sure, he lectures them, but he's smiling the whole time, and they can tell he isn't really mad. The only time he got mad was when Ruby and Yang pushed him into a puddle. He grounded them for a week, and a week without cookies felt like forever for Ruby. "But it's just mud."
"It's not just mud!" The girl tries to wipe the mud off her dress. It's hopeless, and they both know it. "Do you know how much this dress costs?"
Ruby looks at the dress. It looks like a regular dress to her, or maybe a little bit fancier than usual. "A lot, I guess. Maybe."
"Argh!" The girl lets loose another one of those shrieks, and now it's really starting to bucket down, and they're getting absolutely drenched.
Ruby can tell she won't be able to make it back home in this kind of weather, so she does the only thing she can think of. She grabs the other girl – who is still shrieking at her – and pulls her over to a big tree whose branches and leaves are thick enough to keep the rain away.
"I can't believe you pulled me along like… like… like a donkey!"
The girl, Ruby thinks, doesn't sound a lot like a girl. In fact, she talks more like a grown up. For some reason, Ruby can't help but find that sad. But after a while, the other girl stops shrieking, and they both sit there and watch the rain come pouring down. Ruby doesn't like awkward silences, but she's afraid to talk because then the girl might start shrieking again. In the end, though, Ruby does talk.
"Who are you?"
"I am Weiss Schnee, heiress of the Schnee Dust Company."
Ruby blinks. Is that supposed to mean something? "And?"
"And?" And now the girl is shrieking again. "Don't you understand what that means?" She stands up and jabs one finger at Ruby. "Are you some kind of ignoramus?"
Ruby doesn't know what an ignoramus is, but it sounds bad. So she pushes the other girl back into the rain. "If you're going to be rude, you can stay out there."
It only takes the other girl a few seconds to scramble back under the tree. "You're a brat!"
"You're the brat. You're the one calling me things and bossing me around." Ruby folds her arms over her chest. She's cold and wet, and she hopes her sister or her father comes soon because this other girl isn't fun to be around at all. "Why are you even here? You don't live around here."
The girl goes quiet, and it's not a good quiet. "I'm running away from home."
Ruby doesn't know much about running away from home. And why should she? She loves her family. But even she knows enough to realise that running away in a dress isn't a good idea. The other girl should have run away in pants. She also should have brought an umbrella. "Why are you running away from home?"
"Why do you care?" The girl growls, but Ruby doesn't get mad this time. She can finally see that underneath all the shrieking, the other girl is about to cry because she's scared and lonely. Now, she feels like a jerk for pushing her into the rain and getting her dress all muddy.
"Because we're going to be here for a while, and maybe we could talk." Ruby sighs. "It could be raining for hours."
The other girl doesn't say anything for a long time. Instead, her blue eyes narrow, and she studies Ruby like a hawk. Finally, she talks. Her story starts off pretty nicely. The other girl is super rich, like some kind of princess. That sounds cool. If Ruby was super rich, she could buy all the cookies she wanted.
But the story doesn't stay happy for long. The other girl can't go anywhere on her own, and she's never had any real friends, or even played around. That's why the girl ran away. She waited until her bodyguards weren't looking and then slipped away. She doesn't know where she's going. She just wants to go somewhere – anywhere – where she can live like a normal person.
It stops raining. Ruby looks at the other girl, and then she smiles and holds out her hand. "Let's play."
The other girl hesitates for what feels like forever. But then she takes Ruby's hand. They go around town together, and Ruby shows her all the fun things to do. She shows her how to play on the swings. The other girl is so graceful, but she's never been on the swings before! No wonder she ran away! Then Ruby takes her to the small stream where she goes fishing with Yang sometimes.
They have so much fun that before Ruby knows it, it's time to go home. But she's really hungry, and the other girl has some money, so they go to a bakery and buy a bag of cookies. And after lots of pouting and pleading, the other girl shares, and Ruby makes sure to steal the last cookie for herself.
The other girl starts shrieking again before chasing her around and around, but Ruby has always been very fast. The other girl can't catch her, and they're both laughing so much that it's hard to run. But the fun doesn't last.
A car pulls up, and some men in suits and sunglasses come out. Ruby knows they're trouble. She tries to get the other girl to run, but the other girl turns around and starts yelling, telling the men to stay away, that she doesn't want to leave, that she's not ever going back. But they don't listen. Instead, the men grab her and carry her back to the car.
Ruby tries to stop them – she tries really, really, really hard – but she's only a kid. They push her into the mud, and the last thing she ever sees is the other girl pressing her hands against the window, her blue eyes sadder than anything Ruby has ever seen.
The weirdest thing is that no one else tried to help. Everyone else just watched. Ruby runs home as fast as she can and tells her father and Yang all about the other girl. Her father goes back with her, and he asks everyone about it. But all the other people just say that they never saw anyone except Ruby.
It's a lie! Ruby knows it is. But no matter how much she yells, everyone just keeps saying they never saw another girl. Even her father doesn't believe her. And Ruby realises it must have been the other girl's father – the father the other girl said was really, really rich and powerful. He must have done something!
But there's nothing else Ruby can do. And the thing that makes her saddest of all is that she never even gave the other girl her name. They played all afternoon before those men came and took her away, and she never even gave the girl her name. It's enough to make Ruby cry, and the only thing that stops her is the thing she sees half-buried in the mud.
It's the bag of cookies that the other girl bought. Well, it's half of it. The men must have torn it in half when they came and took the other girl away. Ruby picks it up. She doesn't care that it's covered in mud. It's proof that the other girl was real, that Ruby didn't imagine the whole thing.
Eventually, as children do, Ruby forgets about it. Until one day, over lunch, she steals the last cookie form a girl with white hair and blue eyes.
X X X
Ruby comes back to herself when Weiss picks her up and starts shaking her like a ragdoll. Maybe the other girl doesn't remember – and maybe that's for the best. Ruby doesn't even want to think about all the times Weiss must have tried to escape and make friends and live a normal life only to be dragged back. A golden cage is still a cage. Ruby doesn't want to remind Weiss about those things because she cares about her too much.
But a selfish part of her wishes Weiss remembered. So it makes her feel a little better when Weiss starts smiling. Maybe she can't remember Ruby, but maybe she remembers the little girl who stole a cookie and showed her how to play on the swings.
It turns out, however, that Weiss does remember.
A few days later, they're walking through the rain when Weiss hands Ruby something. It's so old and faded and crumpled that it takes Ruby almost a minute to work out what it is. It's one half of a bag, a bag that used to hold cookies. It's raining harder now, and Ruby is glad because now she can pretend that she isn't crying, that the water on her face is just from the rain.
And then Weiss grins and pushes her into a puddle. "That's for the last time!"
Yang growls threats, but Ruby doesn't care. She's laughing and laughing because Weiss remembers, and that's more than enough for her.
X X X
Author's Notes
As always, I neither own RWBY, nor am I making any money off of this.
It's been a while since I wrote something in present tense (years, actually), so I thought I'd give it a go. It's also been a while since I gave myself a speed challenge (i.e., writing under a time limit, in this case about an hour and a half), so this was a chance to do that too. The idea for this chapter came to me a few days ago when I decided that I wanted to write something involving Ruby, Weiss, and cookies. I've already written something along those lines, so I wanted to go for something that was less humorous and more serious. I hope you enjoyed it.
I also write original fiction, mostly fantasy. You can find links to it in my profile. Give it a try – you won't be disappointed. If you like stuff like RWBY, check out my story The Last Huntress.
As always, I appreciate feedback. Reviews and comments are welcome.