Moonlight spilled like silk through the dorm's window, casting glowing shadows against the thick carpet. Yang's soft breathing and Blake's occasional snuffles and drowsy mumbles were the only noises in the team's shared room. Weiss slept on her side, hands tucked neatly under the cool silk of her pillowcase, petal pink lips parted in quiet breaths. Her hair spread around her like a pool of glimmering ivory. Short, dark lashes rested against alabaster skin, and the high slope of her nose was silhouetted in shadow.
The heiress would have continued to sleep peacefully, if not for the muffled groan that thrummed above her. The metal lacing of the Ruby's mattress amplified the noise tenfold with a disconcerting, tinny aftereffect.
Weiss thumped the mattress with her foot and screwed her eyes shut, willing the disturbance to fall away at will, but the high pitched whimper from above her stirred her fully awake. Zwei had already been shipped back to Ruby and Yang's father, so there was no need for such animalistic noises to be in the dorm room.
Weiss hissed out Ruby's name, more like a curse than a call. There was no reply, and Weiss stumbled onto the carpet. She climbed the rickety bedpost as quickly as she could without disrupting their makeshift structure and shoved back Ruby's covers. Weiss was a millisecond away from berating the younger girl when her mouth fell open, slack with disbelief.
She was not expecting a dog. Nobody in their right mind would pull back the covers of their team leader's bed and expect to see a small dog with messy black fur and pointed ears instead of a coquettishly pretty, fifteen year old girl. Weiss stared, wide eyed and mouth hanging open for a few good seconds before trying to rub the sleep out of her eyes. Surely it was a hallucination; she did miss Zwei after all… but even after trying to wake herself up, the dog was still there, huddled in a small nest of sheets and cloth, ears pinned to the back of its skull. Ruby was nowhere to be found, instead replaced with the puppy.
Weiss stared intently at it – the dog had Ruby's eyes.
Of course it did.
Perfect.
Wide, watering silver eyes that always looked doleful and wet, and instead of being attached to the hyperactive dolt, they were now on some random dog. Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose between thumb and forefinger and sighed.
Weiss had heard of some Faunus that had more animal in them rather than human, those that mysteriously transformed into hulking beasts every month at the height of the moon, raging with bloodlust and uncontrollable power, but the animal was no bigger that her Humanities textbook. The dog gave a throaty whimper, almost a weeping howl.
The dog was waiting for Weiss to climb in. Weiss mumbled out a few choice words but pulled herself into the bunk nonetheless, tugging her nightgown below her knees.
She settled down in the sweet-scented covers, pulling the blanket up until it was tucked under her neck. Within minutes, the dog whimpered in protest at Weiss. Weiss huffed out an exasperated breath and pulled Ruby – Could she even call her Ruby? Dog? Animal? Werewolf? Weiss didn't even know anymore – closer to her and wrapped the sheet around them.
"Oh, hush." Weiss whispered when the puppy nuzzled into her neck with a contented sigh. "Just go to bed before I change my mind, will you?"
The first thing Weiss saw when she woke up the next morning was a pair of silver eyes. The warm silk of soft fur was gone from her arms and had been replaced with –
God dammit.
Ruby's waist was soft against Weiss's fingertips, her palms resting against the exact place where the younger girl's tank top rode up. Ruby was staring in awe at Weiss, as if memorizing every inch of her face and committing it to memory.
Weiss blushed and scooted as far away from Ruby as possible, cheeks burning hot in the morning sunshine. She cleared her throat and spoke, trying to keep her voice from trembling.
"Would you care to explain to me what happened last night?"
Ruby furrowed her brows and frowned.
"What?"
Weiss growled.
"Don't play dumb, you know, the… thing."
Ruby widened her eyes and stared at Weiss as if she had grown a second head.
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
Weiss knew when Ruby was lying, all of her little twitches and tells, but the leader was being wholeheartedly sincere. Weiss buried her head in her hands and sighed.
"Weiss, can you tell me why I woke up with you spooning me?" Ruby asked, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "I mean, not that I didn't like it, it was really nice, and you kinda snore a little, but I still really liked it – "
Weiss cut Ruby off with a kiss to her cheek, warm flesh meeting the supple skin of Ruby's face. Ruby leaned into the touch and closed her eyes as Weiss drew back.
"It's complicated."