"Aren't you excited?" Ruby bounced up and down in her seat, grinning from ear to ear. She was clearly excited. Weiss, who was sitting still with her arms crossed, didn't seem to be sharing her enthusiasm. "C'mon Weiss, it's your first time camping! You could at least be a little bit excited." Weiss sighed, slowly unfolding her arms. She loved Ruby to death, but sometimes she could really oversell the situation. This was a prime example.
"I've told you already that I've been camping before. My family took me several times when I was younger." Admittedly, it had been nearly a decade since she'd last gone camping, but that didn't mean she'd never gone. Saying she was a complete novice was certainly overreaching. Just because it had been awhile since her last venture into the woods didn't mean she needed to be as hyperactive about it as Ruby was. It wasn't even that fun for her back then, honestly. She had only agreed to go because it made Ruby happy. Ugh, she could hear Yang making a 'whipping' sound in her mind right now.
"Weiss, that was glamping, not camping." Blake spoke up from behind the wheel, a hand on Yang's knee as she drove the four of them to the campgrounds. "Your family took you to the woods, yes, but you were in a fully-stocked portable home with air conditioning and beds. That's like saying living in a house next to the woods is camping. You've never actually experienced the wilderness in your entire life." Between Ruby's high-pitched excitement and Weiss's stubborn attitude, she was already starting to get a headache. She'd known what she was getting into when she'd agreed to do this, though. There was no one to blame but herself.
"That's not a real word, Blake. Besides, that is camping! What else would you call sleeping out in the woods, staring at the stars through the visor in the ceiling? Don't be ridiculous." She paused when she heard Yang laughing, turning her indignant attention to the passenger seat. "And just what is so funny?" Now Ruby was laughing, and she couldn't figure out which of the two sisters she should be glaring at. How could they sit there and make fun of her camping experiences? She hadn't expected them to be so elitist.
"You can't be serious, Weiss. That's not camping!" Yang could barely get the words out because she was laughing so hard. Weiss puffed out her cheeks, which made Ruby poke them with a giggle. "Real camping involves staying in a tent with a sleeping bag, not a comfy bed. You sit around a fire and roast marshmallows, telling ghost stories and watching the stars from above the treetops. Sounds nothing like what your family did, right?" Hearing Yang's words made Weiss's face fall. Her eyes slowly widened as she stared at her in increasing horror.
"What... That's camping?" She gaped at Yang, then turned towards Ruby so fast her neck cracked. "Tell me she's lying." Ruby just shook her head, smiling sheepishly. "Are you serious?! We're going to be spending the weekend in a tiny tent like homeless people?!" Yang busted out laughing again while Blake glared at her through the rearview mirror. "Why didn't you tell me this was what you meant, Ruby?!"
"I thought you knew what I meant!" Ruby had known that Weiss's camping experience wasn't exactly typical, but that was why she'd been saying it was Weiss's first time camping. Her first real camping trip. She'd had no idea that Weiss didn't know that was atypical. It'd just seemed obvious. Everyone knew what camping was, right? Apparently not, as it turned out. "It's okay, though. It'll be fun! A weekend in the woods with your best friends!" She spread her arms as wide as she could in the car, smiling brightly. "What do you think about that?"
"I think I'm going to die." Weiss groaned and laid her head back against the seat. She should've known something was wrong when Ruby was packing sleeping bags for them. It should've raised some sort of an alarm, but she'd stopped questioning her partner's eccentricities awhile ago. That would turn out to be costly this time. She closed her eyes and tried to astral project herself somewhere with an actual roof. A weekend in the woods with all sorts of insects ready to take bites out of her skin, woodland creatures wanting to do more than that, and worse of all: Blake and Yang, who'd proven that they couldn't keep their hands off each other for more than five minutes. This was going to be hell.
When they got to the campsite, Blake parked the car and everyone started getting to work. Ruby and Yang pulled out the tents and started to nail them down to the ground. Blake got their supply of food and drinks out of the trunk and started hauling it over near where they were going to start a fire that night. As for Weiss, she hovered around Ruby and asked a variety of paranoid, ridiculous questions.
"What are we supposed to do if we get attacked by a bear? Did you bring enough bug spray for the entire weekend? What about sunscreen? Are there snakes in these woods? There's no Wi-Fi and I can't check which snakes are venomous. Where are we supposed to use the restroom? You don't expect me to go in the woods like some kind of a barbarian, do you?" Ruby exhaled deeply, hammering in a pike with a look of increased annoyance. Across from her, Yang was shaking so hard from keeping her laughter in, the tent kept threatening to come down when she held it. She loved her partner, though. She really, really did. That didn't make her any easier to deal with when she was like this, though. 'This' being so very... Weiss-like.
"There are no bears. We have enough bug spray. We have sunscreen too. There are no snakes either, so you don't have to check how poisonous they are-" "Venomous," Weiss quickly chipped in. Ruby chose to ignore that. "And no, I don't expect you to pee in the forest. There's an outhouse near here that we can use." For once, she didn't put any excitement into her answers. Normally she was happy to answer any questions Weiss had, but being bombarded by all those questions at once, along with her generally sour attitude for most of the ride there, had worn down Ruby's normally chipper mood. She figured that had answered everything properly, but she was incorrect.
"What did you say?" Ruby just turned and stared at her, unsure of what she'd said that Weiss was referring too. She'd answered what felt like a dozen questions without pause. "An outhouse? You expect me to go to the bathroom in an outhouse?" She was visibly shaking in distress. Weiss hated public restrooms. They were usually not taken care of well, and the thought of walking into one with coarse graffiti and shredded paper towels everywhere made her gag. An outhouse was even worse, though. It was the most public of public restrooms. Absolutely disgusting. She might as well use the woods for all the good it would do her!
"Sorry, I forgot to pack a toilet for us to use."
"The joke is not appreciated." Weiss huffed and stormed over to Blake, who had hoped that if she'd been quiet enough, she'd be able to avoid Hurricane Schnee. Nobody was safe from that unnatural disaster, though. "Blake, give me the keys. I'm driving home right now. This is ridiculous." Blake sighed and dropped down onto a large log that was next to their fire pit. She'd tried to tell Ruby that bringing Weiss outdoors was a bad idea. She'd even floated the idea of bringing Winter instead, since she was like a bigger Weiss. That kind of counted. Ruby was adamant that Weiss come with them, though, even after being warned that something like this would happen. She just had to go and fall in love with the ice queen, didn't she?
"Fine, fine." She put her hands in her pockets, feeling the keys in there. However, when her hands came out, they were empty. She knew this was probably going to bite her in the butt eventually, but the opportunity was too good to pass up. "Uh, they're not here."
"What?" Weiss stepped closer, hands on her hips as she glared at Blake. "This is no time for games, Blake. Give me the keys now."
"I don't have them, Weiss!" She did her best to sell the lie, looking a bit freaked out as she made a scene out of patting down her pants. "I must've dropped them somewhere." That did it. The annoyance on Weiss's face was quickly replaced by panic at the realization that their only way home was now lost somewhere. She whirled around and ran to the car, tugging on the handle of the front door. It was locked, though, and wouldn't give way to her. Not that she could do anything if it had. She didn't know how to hotwire a car.
"Get over here and help me!" She yelled at all three of them, dropping down to her knees in desperation to see if the keys had fallen beneath the car. Then she started crawling through the grass, trying to find a hint of silver or black that would reveal them to her. When she looked up, nobody had moved from their positions, which only frustrated her further. "Why are you just sitting there?! We're going to be stranded here forever! Girls!" Finally, after finishing setting up their first tent, Ruby stood up and headed over to her distressed snowflake.
"Please don't rile her up, Blake. I'm the one who has to calm her down," Ruby muttered as she passed by Blake, heading over to the car. She went down on her knees and started massaging Weiss's shoulders, whispering calming words in her ear. Eventually she was able to get Weiss back on her feet and over to the tent, an arm over her shoulder to keep her close. As they passed by Blake, Weiss stuck her tongue out at her. So Ruby told her the truth, then. Well, it was fun while it lasted.
Ruby was actually able to corral Weiss into helping her set up the other tent, though she grumbled about it the entire time. It sort of made Ruby regret asking her to help, and that was compounded when she looked up and saw Blake and Yang making out by the fire pit. She really needed to remember to have those two separated whenever they were setting things up. Seeing Blake's tongue down her sister's throat wasn't her idea of a fun camping adventure.
When everything was finally set up, the four of them ventured into the woods for a nice, relaxing hike. They were going to appreciate nature, then bring back some firewood to light up that night. It was as relaxing a walk as possible when one of the participants was Weiss. She was as jittery as a caffeine addict, jumping backwards at any sudden movement. Whether it was something rustling in the bushes or an insect that had flown near her, Weiss clearly wasn't doing much appreciating of her surroundings. When she wasn't yelping like someone was attacking her, she spent a good deal of time complaining about anything and everything.
"I wish we had something to gag her with..." Blake muttered to Yang, getting close to ripping off her own ears. Weiss acted like they were keeping her there against her will. It wasn't their fault she had a warped view of what camping was.
"We could use my underwear-" Yang started, only to get cut off by Blake's 'It's time to stop' look. "Okay, okay, we can use your underwear." Blake just sighed. Sometimes...
Ruby, meanwhile, wasn't feeling so frustrated anymore. In fact, she felt a little guilty. She could tell that Weiss was struggling, and this was the only way she knew how to react to the situation. Instead of trying to force her to enjoy it like she did, or become extra chipper to try and drown out her pessimism, she just took Weiss's hand and held it tightly. She pulled Weiss close to her and walked in lockstep with her, falling a couple paces behind Blake and Yang so she could have Weiss to herself for a bit. Sort of.
"Hey, it's okay, Weiss. Nothing's going to happen to us out here." She made circles on the back of Weiss's hand with a finger, smiling reassuringly at her. "Dad took Yang and I camping plenty of times, and nothing bad ever happened to us. Besides, if there is any wildlife out here, I'll protect you from it." She giggled as Weiss rolled her eyes.
"I doubt you can do anything to protect me from bears, Ruby." Though she was still nervous about walking around in the forest like this, she felt a bit calmer with Ruby's warmth next to her. For whatever reason, Ruby had the ability to calm her down when nothing else could. It was one of the reasons she'd began to trust her when she refused to extend that courtesy to others. They weren't like Ruby: they couldn't even hope to get close. She was just special like that. "Are you sure we're not going to get lost in here?"
"Yup! Blake's got a compass and everything. She can point us back to camp." Blake gave a wave over her shoulder, acknowledging that she'd heard her name. That put Weiss further at ease, though she hadn't forgiven Blake yet for pulling that key prank on her. However, there wasn't too much to get mad about for the rest of their time in the forest. They were able to collect a good amount of firewood: mostly with Yang ripping branches off of trees with her bare hands. There was enough wood for everyone to carry a handful back, which Weiss made sure to grumble about. It was 'work for the help' and all that.
They set the wood down by the pit and relaxed for awhile while the sun was still up. Yang had brought a deck of cards, and the four of them sat in a tent to play poker. There wasn't any betting made: it was just for fun and to pass the time. Yang did suggest betting something, but the other three unanimously rejected playing strip poker. Things were pretty calm for the next couple of hours, all in all. There wasn't anything for even Weiss to complain about, which was a relief for all parties involved.
When the sun started to go down, Yang loaded the fire pit up with wood and put some lighter fluid on it. Then she struck a match and tossed it in, quickly getting a good flame going. "Alright girls, let's get this cookout started!" She went for the cooler and grabbed out a packet of hot dogs, opening the packaging while Blake grabbed four skewers. Then she put a hot dog on each skewer and handed them around so everyone could cook their own. While everyone else took theirs without complaint, Weiss stared at hers as if she'd been handed an alien device.
"You want me to put this in the fire?" Weiss stared at it some more, then turned her attention to the fire. It crackled and burned at degrees completely unsafe for human skin. A small ember popped out and landed near her feet, making her squeal and fall backwards off the log. Yang proceeded to laugh her ass off while Ruby hurried over to help her back up. Of course, she was laughing too, so the gallant gesture wasn't as appreciated. Weiss 'hmpf'ed and folded her arms. "I'll just eat it cold, then."
"I'm pretty sure you'll get salmonella or something." Ruby gently grabbed the skewer and pushed it away from Weiss's face. "Just put it in the fire for as long as I do, and take it out when I do. It'll be cooked to perfection." She gave Weiss a thumbs up, but only got a sour frown in return. Seeing her eyes glance towards the fire, she put two and two together. She leaned in and whispered, "The fire's not gonna hurt you, Weiss. You'll be okay."
"Hmpf." She didn't answer Ruby, but she did hold out her skewer and glanced over towards her partner. "Well?" Smiling, Ruby plopped down next to her and stuck her hot dog in the fire, with Weiss following suit. Both Blake and Yang sat down on the opposite log and did the same, and the four of them just waited for their food to be cooked. The entire time, Weiss had her eyes on Ruby, her hand twitching every time Ruby moved. Finally, she pulled out her hot dog, and Weiss yanked hers out right after her.
On the other side, Yang handed her skewer over to Blake so she could grab everyone drinks while the food cooled down. She and Blake had a beer, while Ruby had a soda and Weiss had water. Originally she'd asked for wine, but Yang claimed that it wasn't very 'camping friendly', whatever that meant. She would just stick with water, then. With their drinks, they also got buns for their hot dogs once they were cool enough to grab.
"Ooh, the sun's finally gone down!" Yang exclaimed happily, chomping down on the remainder of her hot dog. Well, her second hot dog, but who was counting? The four of them had been eating and chatting amicably as the sun set on them, but now the dark had finally spread into the woods. "It's time for ghost stories!" She clapped her hands together, excitedly looking around the campfire. Ruby was the only one who appeared to be excited. Blake usually didn't tip her hand when it came to her emotions, and Weiss just looked thoroughly uninterested. That just meant she needed to come up with something super scary to freak her out.
"Did you know this forest is actually haunted?" She grinned as she looked around the campfire, the fire casting her face in an eerie orange glow. "I chose this place exactly for that reason. They say that a group of guys drove by this campground in the winter time. It was cold, and the forest was blanketed in snow. Their car ran into a snowbank, but it would've been easy to push it out. They were more than capable." She halted her story, changing out her grin for a more somber, serious expression. "However, they didn't. Something compelled them to abandon their car and venture into the cold, unforgiving forest."
"They wandered in the woods for so long that two of them ended up falling to the ground from exhaustion and perished where they fell. The other three luckily found a cabin to stay in, and if we went deeper into the woods, we could even find it ourselves. This was only delaying the inevitable, though." Blake was already curled up next to Yang, taking in the spooky story pensively. Ruby actually appeared frightened by the story, leaning forward with her hands on her knees and taking in every word. Weiss found it hard to believe that anyone would actually be scared by something like this, but Ruby had helped her with her own forest troubles...
"They stayed in that cabin for months, but no matter how long they waited, nobody was coming to help. All the snow made it too difficult to get through the forest." Weiss reached over and took Ruby's hand, squeezing it tightly. Ruby looked over at her in surprise, then smiled and leaned against her side. It embarrassed Weiss somewhat, but she would allow it for tonight. "Eventually, one of them died on the lone bed, wrapped up in enough blankets that it was like he had turned into a cocoon."
"The other two set out on foot, but it wouldn't be long before one of them died. They found his bones just outside the cabin, along with an extra pair of shoes. The two who had died in the forest, and the dead guy in the cabin? They eventually found all their bones when the Spring thawed out the snow. The fifth guy, though? They never found him. No body, no bones, no nothing. He walked out of that cabin and disappeared, never to be seen again... except some campers still say they can hear his voice on the wind on some long, lonely nights. They even say they can hear his footsteps coming closer to their tents. Closer, closer... Until it vanishes into the dark. He still haunts these woods today, and he's not the only one..." She stopped talking, tilting her head as if listening for something. "Can you hear that? I think I hear something."
"No, I can't hear anything." Weiss bit down on her lip as Ruby clung onto her arm, squeezing the life out of it. "C'mon Ruby, let go! There's nothing out there!" She looked over at Yang with disapproval, then realized something was missing. Or rather, someone was missing. "Wait, where's Blake?" Yang just grinned at her, but said nothing more. "What the hell? Yang, where the hell is Blake-"
"Boo." A voice came from right next to her ear, making her scream and jump off of the log. She flew up and tripped over her own feet, screaming again as she fell backwards into the grass. Ruby, who had just been in the process of relinquishing Weiss's arm, squealed as she fell face-first into the grass. Groaning, Weiss jolted up, only to find that the 'ghostly presence' was none other than Blake. Yang, who had held back her laughter the entire time Blake had 'disappeared', couldn't contain herself anymore. She fell off the log and rolled around on the grass, laughing so hard that she could barely breathe.
"Oh man, you should've seen your face! I thought you were gonna jump right outta your skin!" She howled with laughter while a mortified Weiss glared poison-tipped daggers at her. Her words were garbled a bit with how hard she was laughing, but the intent was clear. "I think I'm gonna die! Oh man, I can't breathe! Blaaake, that was beautiful! Help me!" She laughed and laughed while Blake trotted over to save her girlfriend from a laughter-based paralysis. Weiss considered pushing her into the fire, but she wasn't sure she could get away with that one.
"That was a good one, Yang! You really got us!" Ruby pushed herself up from the grass, laughing as well. Weiss turned and gaped at her, unable to believe that she was laughing after that little stunt those two pulled. That didn't seem to matter to her, though. Her eyes shined with determination to one up Yang's ghost story with one of her own. That was... one way to look at it. When she was focused on something, you could either walk next to her or get out of the way. She decided her best course of action was to sit back down next to her and pretend that she hadn't been scared out of her wits.
Ruby sat there for five minutes trying to come up with the perfect ghost story while Weiss held her hand and wished she could use her phone with the other. Someone needed to get wi-fi out in the forest. This was the current year, after all. Eventually Ruby came up with a story that wasn't half bad. At least, Weiss thought so. She sat there impassive throughout, however, refusing to be spooked again. Blake then told her own, but Weiss refused to budge. She even kept her eyes on all three of them, in case they tried to get up and pull a fast one over her.
"Alright Weiss, it's your turn!" Ruby patted her knee and smiled brightly, excited for whatever story Weiss was going to come up with. If she was expecting something great, however, then she was going to end up disappointed. Coming up with scary stories wasn't Weiss's forte. She wasn't really big on horror in general, honestly. Especially not with a heavy reliance on jump scares, Blake.
"Once, there was a couple who were very mean to an innocent girl. The innocent girl then left them in the woods to be eaten by bears. The end."
"That wasn't very scary." Ruby pouted, poking Weiss's arm. "And it wasn't long either!"
"It was honestly more like a fairytale," Blake chimed in. "With the 'Once' start and all."
"Scary Story Time is canceled."
After things had all wound down, Yang doused the fire and the four of them retired to their tents for the night. Blake and Yang were in one, while Ruby and Weiss were in the other. Weiss had considered bringing earplugs so she could sleep through any shenanigans those two were certainly going to get up to. However, impairing her hearing when there could be wildlife crawling through the forest to maul her alive made her want to have all her sensory faculties intact. She just had to hope that if a bear happened to find them, it would be attracted to the noise those two were making and she could make her escape.
Both her and Ruby had their own sleeping bags, but that wasn't acceptable to Ruby. She suggested they put them together and unzip them from opposite sides, so that it'd be like they had one big sleeping bag. Weiss acquiesced, because it was Ruby and she hadn't yet figured out how to follow through on 'no' most of the time when it came to her. She could say no all the live-long day, but when Ruby gave her those puppy-dog eyes, she'd crumble like a house of cards. She had a power over her that no one else could dare dream of.
"This was a nice day. Good food, good stories, good company." She rolled over to kiss Weiss's cheek, smiling at the blush she knew would be there, though it was too dark to see for sure. "I know you thought camping was something else, but I'm glad you stuck it out with us. Even though you did try to take the keys and drive off without us." She laughed and wrapped her arms around Weiss, pulling herself as close as she could beneath the dual sleeping bags.
"I would've come back for you. Once the trip was over." Weiss rolled her eyes, but she didn't try to push Ruby away. She'd gotten too used to her body warmth. Whenever she had to sleep alone, she could feel that something was missing. Now she found it unacceptable if she had to fall asleep without Ruby by her side. Not that she had admitted that in as many words. "It wasn't that bad, though. I mean, besides the bugs, and the scary stories, and having to be outside all the time."
"So the only thing bad about camping is camping, huh?"
"Yes, exactly." That sounded like Weiss, alright. Ruby giggled, continuing to snuggle up with Weiss. She could feel Weiss moving in her arms, which turned out to be so she could hold her as well. That made her smile brightly, happily squeezing her partner. Weiss's skin was always so cool to the touch, which was nice when they were out in the humidity of a spring forest. It was like having a bit of air conditioning she could always take with her. Feeling very content at the moment, she searched out Weiss's lips in the dark, pressing her own against them.
Weiss was more than happy to reciprocate that kiss. She held onto Ruby and closed her eyes, even if there wasn't much she could see with them open anyway. Maybe staying out in the wilderness wasn't where she thrived, but in that moment, it didn't matter. Because to her, wherever Ruby was was where she belonged. That was completely cheesy and undoubtedly cliche, which is why she wouldn't say it out loud. Well, that and it embarrassed her to even think of it. That didn't make it any less true, though. Maybe she'd put it in her vows if and when they got married. That'd be nice.
"I love you, Ruby." She could at least say that. It wasn't hard for her to express those particular feelings anymore. They weren't sleeping in a comfortable bed together, but they were together, and that was what mattered. Maybe not to her back when she would inevitably wake up with it all out of wack, but to her heart it would.
"I love you too! See, I knew this trip would be good, and now you can say you've gone camping for real for the first time!" She nestled her head against Weiss's chest and sighed contently. "The next two days are going to be just as good. I can feel it!" Oh yeah, they were going to be camping all weekend. Well, in that case...
"Pardon me, Ruby. I'm going to go get the keys from Blake."