'Weiss?'

Oh. Oh no. Ruby has that tone to her voice.

Weiss looks up from carefully polishing the edge of Myrtenaster and sees Ruby hovering before her, bobbing up and down on her toes like a fish on a line, arms shoved behind her back as though it's the only way she can physically hold herself back from a hug, Weiss isn't surprised.

Unfortunately, Weiss also notes sourly, this attempt at physical restraint is just causing Ruby to lean forward slightly more than she would usually, as though the additional weight of her arms behind her back presses her on to invade Weiss' personal space anyway.

'What?' she asks sourly. 'In case you haven't noticed, I'm busy.'

Yang snorts. 'With what?' she asks, faux-casually. 'Trying to make your sword shine brighter than your lien card?'

Weiss shoots a glare over to the blue bed on the opposite side of the room, where Yang is lying back, one leg crossed over the other, as she gleefully doodles a set of spiraling flames onto the bright yellow stripe of her prosthetic arm with a black pen.

'...I hope that isn't permanent marker,' Weiss finds herself saying in her driest voice possible.

If Yang was the sort of violent, biker chick the Weiss of over two years ago would have initially pegged her as, she would have expected to be flipped off. As it is, all Yang does is raise her solitary flesh-and-blood hand up in a casual thumbs up, all after propping her pen down into the crease of her lap.

'Aw, whacha' talkin' 'bout, this'll be totally rad!'

Ruby snorts at the weird ...accent or whatever it is Yang's putting on, and Weiss, very determinedly, swallows. Because no, it isn't funny, isn't funny at all! Even if Yang's cheeks do swell up like melons as she does it and she ends up looking more like a hamster than Weiss ever thought possible.

A golden hamster, her mind slyly supplies, and never has Weiss felt more like beating herself up for such a terrible internal pun.

'Aw, come on Weiss, I just want to try and beat you up!'

Weiss blinks. That was Ruby, right? Ruby Rose, who just said that?

'Excuse me?' she asks, but Ruby is already leaning down, running a critical silver eye over Myrtenaster with a look of vague longing on her face. 'I mean, Myrtenaster is a work of art and I can understand why you would want to spend time on it, I really, really do...'

She looks so close to salivating that Weiss very firmly draws the sword away, out of her reach, and slides it back into her belt.

'I'm sorry, but what was that about beating me up?'

Ruby switches gears instantly, bouncing up onto her toes with a light cackle. She mimes boxing, her punches raining the air with light jabs that barely leave her sides. Honestly it's like watching a wet kitten try to puff out its fur while it's still heavy with moisture, and judging by the second snort she hears from Yang's side of the room, she isn't the only one who thinks so.

'Your stance is all wrong, sis.'

Ruby turns round with a glare. 'Shut up! I'm not a professional brawler like you! I specialize in slicing things up, not knocking them down!'

Yang smooths her flesh and blood hand out into a upraised, supplicating palm, in a surrender that mocks, and Ruby spins back round in a huff. 'I'm been practicing my hand-to-hand style! And I just want to see how well I can do against you, because you know, you're not really a close-combat fighter the way Yang is...'

Weiss raises an eyebrow. 'I can get pretty 'close' with my sword, thank you very much-'

'Oh, you know what I mean!'

'-Aaaaaand,' Weiss finishes off with a drawl. 'There's no way you've been practicing like that out of your own initiative. 'Forced to' maybe.'

Ruby scowls. 'I so have!'

Yang snorts again. 'Please. I remember how much begging I had do to get you to leave Crescent Rose behind that one practice session we did before we left for Beacon.'

Ruby puts her hands on hips and tilts her nose in the air, eyes closed. 'Well, I for one, think the lack of faith you have in your leader is shocking! Just shocking!'

Weiss catches Yang's eyes from across the room, and as though they've both locked in the same clubhouse, they share the same fond smile.

'Alright,' says Weiss. 'Impress me.'

The ground outside is wet, having recently been littered with rain, so it does not merely scuff against the side of Weiss' shoes: it slithers. Weiss stares down at it in disgust, at the clear contrast of her pale heels against the dark brown squelching at either side. She can already tell that it's going to be a pain to pick this mud off the clothes and hair of whoever will be the first to fall. Which will clearly be Ruby.

'No weapons,' Ruby declares firmly.

Weiss smirks. She remembers the Ruby who panics at the thought of doing any practical lesson without Crescent Rose strapped to her back, and wonders at how she's changed. 'Fine,' she agrees. After all, it's not like she can't summon -.

'Oh! And no glyphs either!' Ruby's eyes have widened at the thought, and she's quickly shoved her palms out as though she can somehow chase away the clear advantage Weiss has here physically.

It could be cute, if it wasn't also annoying. Still, Weiss casts her eyes to the way Ruby's fidgets and the slight curl in her fingers as her arms drop, as though the other girl's not sure what to do next. In no way does it look like a stance designed for close combat.

'Alright...' she agrees slowly, wondering if there's any improvement to be found here. She's curious, despite herself. And it's not as though Winter hasn't drummed a few moves for self-defense into her mind when she was younger, just in case she does lose her sword one day. 'But only if you don't use your semblance, either.'

Ruby perks up immediately. 'YES!' she exclaims in a near screech, pumping her fist as though she'd hissed 'sweet!' or 'awesome!' instead. 'It's a deal!'

Then Weiss feels her breath chased out of her as Ruby straightens, eyes narrowing slightly under the thin slopes of her eyebrows all as a cocky smirk crawls onto her face. The kind of smirk that's only present when she has Crescent Rose in her hands and she's just done, or else is about to do, something with it that will result in a Grimm losing its head. Quite literally.

Weiss hates that look. Loves it too.

But then has no time to savor it, or else chase it off with a remark of her own, as Ruby charges forward and throws out a punch. She's still fast, even without her semblance, which is a stupid thought for Weiss to have, but she has it anyway. Annoyed at herself, Weiss ducks and weaves her way round the outstretched fist, remembering the old rhythm to her steps, the ceaseless one-two, one-two Winter has drummed into her skull over the years, only to feel a decent thud against her ribs as Ruby spins with her movement, alongside the curving reach of Weiss's arms, and brings her other fist up into Weiss' side. Not enough to throw her off balance perhaps, but enough to hurt.

Weiss spins round with a kick, with one long lean snap; she's not as good at them as Ruby is, but if the need calls for it...but Ruby is still fast, too fast, ducking down with a quick sharp movement, with none of that dancer's grace Weiss has been taught to exert with her own.

Red flies against her vision, harsh and strong, as Ruby spins round, so fast that the end of her tattered hood reaches out to slap Weiss in the face, temporarily blinding her. Something sharp and light pounds her in the stomach then, and as Weiss falls she thinks, really? A simple kick when I couldn't see? You rotten little, cheating...

And then down into the rain-soaked muck of the ground she falls, landing with a wet smack. It pushes into her, smothers her skin, and Weiss frowns as she feels the moist squelch of it sucking her down with a greedy sucking noise, staining the fine blue of her dress.

Urgh, she thinks. Hope they have a washing machine here.

'Yes! I did it! I felled the mighty Weiss!'

Ruby is jumping and gallivanting around like a child, hooting out her happiness and Weiss pulls her face out of the muck to watch her with annoyance. Odd, how merely a year ago, she would have been furious. But not today. Today, not a single spike of real anger infects her.

However, clearly Ruby has suddenly remembered both herself and her place in the universe, because she has quickly quietened down and is now nervously creeping over to Weiss, eyes darting to and fro as though afraid to get pulled into the blue hook of her eyes.

'I, err, I'm sorry about the dress...please don't kill me!'

She extends one, shaking hand to Weiss and Weiss lets the small smirk play at the ends of her mouth, just enough to get Ruby to relax, to settle her gaze on her own...before Weiss grabs her hand and rolls, yanking the younger girl into the mud with her.

Ruby shrieks. 'You complete jerk! Why I oughta...'

'Yes? You ought to what?'

Weiss leans over her smirking, brown mud pouring from her hair, running into its pristine white like permanent dye. The colour clots, running areas of it into grey, dark and mussed like a deep shadow, and Ruby's mouth twists with a strange, stilted guilt to see it.

'Your hair...oh no, it's not like mine, it's such a bad colour for this...'

Weiss sniffs. 'A noble one you mean.'

Ruby gives her a cheeky grin, spirits lifted by her tone.

'Not like my ratty locks, then?'

'Oh, I don't know...' Weiss' hands reach out fiddle with the short locks. Longer than when they were at Beacon, but still falling what felt to be metres shorter than her own. The black ran against the pale colour of her fingers, like dark feathers soft as a bird, like a crow or raven. Okay, maybe a bad example, given their human namesakes with the team Ruby's mother had led. But still. They stirred like feathers over her soft grip, disguising the mud that infected it, rubbing cold slime against her touch. The red at the ends though, thoroughly doused with dirt, had warm tongues of colour barely peeking through.

'A bath, I think,' Weiss says firmly, ignoring Ruby's exaggerated 'nnooooooo' as she pulls them both to their feet. 'Then once this dirt is out, I can decide just how 'ratty' they truly are.'

Ruby looks at Weiss pathetically. 'You're so mean,' she mutters.

And Weiss smiles back at her. Meanly. 'I'm not the one who wanted to 'beat' the other person 'up.' Well done though. You have improved.'

Ruby brightens immediately. 'I know, right, I'm awesome!'

Weiss looks at her, at the bright-moon paleness of her face, at the glitter in the silver eyes Cinder wants to put out. There's a girl they left behind months ago, whose hair ran redder than the ends of Ruby's, who burnt away to nothing, even though she was better than all of them.

'Yeah,' Weiss says, letting nothing of this show on her face. 'You're awesome.'

'I'm going to have all the chocolate!' Ruby cackles. 'All of it! As a reward!'

Weiss leans forward. And places a kiss on the side of Ruby's face, just under her eye, at the dip that later rounds out and bursts up into her moon-bright cheek.

Ruby sputters. Backs away, and falls back into the dirt again.

Weiss smirks again. 'I'm not always mean, you know. I can be 'nice Weiss.'' I guess,' - and she leans forward here, just so she can really see Ruby's eyes go wide – 'I decided to 'strike again,' as you'd put it.'

She turns and leaves, before something more shows on her face. It's been a hectic few days. The time between now and when the next great battle, as harried and frightening at the one at Beacon had been, will happen, is drawing short. Between this breath and the next, Weiss savors all the time she has left to spend beside these people.

'Weiss? Weiss, come on! Bring 'Nice Weiss' back!'

Weiss smiles again. She has missed this. And she turns.

'What? Do you need me to wash your hair for you?'

The pout Ruby sends her is truly adorable. And, unbidden, Weiss preserves it in her memory. No telling when, this moment and all others like it, will be torn away from her again.

A few days later, Ruby's hands stay knotted in her lap as she watches Weiss breathe. In a blue bed, in shadows, with the light of the moon pouring into the other side of the room, Weiss breathes, the motion of her chest lost to the grey slope of the duvet. But without the illuminating light of the moon pouring into every wrong part of the room, every piece of her looks dark, even her hair.

Ruby squints. But there's nothing dark pooling across her chest, no blood soaking through the duvet from her ribs.

Jaune has seen to that.

Ruby's fingers clench the covers across her own chest tightly. Right now, it's hard for her to breathe, despite the fact that Weiss has far more reasons for her lungs to stutter than Ruby does. Because they are going to Atlas, they have to, the place Weiss has spent so long trying to separate herself from.

Ruby knows nothing of Weiss' family, other than perhaps that Weiss' father has questionable morals when it comes to running his company and granting his Faunus employees basic rights. And also that Weiss never wanted to talk to him when they were at Beacon. Ruby remembers sending video call after video call to her Dad, and never seeing Weiss do the same.

And Winter is...had been...strict? Scary, certainly. But then Weiss had been happy to see her and she had put up a mean fight against Uncle Qrow (not that he wouldn't have won of course!) so Ruby can't really imagine her being a bad person.

But she remembers Yang's eyes finding Weiss's face, when Qrow had announced the decision to travel to Atlas earlier. And they had looked worried.

Ruby trusts Yang's instincts more than her own sometimes, especially when it comes to noticing the feelings of others. Her sister is awesome like that.

So Ruby feels the pressing need to move across to the other side of the room to see Weiss, to see her breathe more closely, but she holds herself back. It's enough that she's here, like Blake is, like Jaune and Nora and Ren and Qrow and Yang. Oh, and Oscar and Oz too. It has to be.

Qrow hadn't let her into Lionheart's office. 'No, Red,' he had said, gentle and soft and stern, hand clenched around the hilt of his sword, clenched tight and white. 'Trust me; he's not a Grimm remember? He hasn't disintegrated the way they do. And well, it's not pretty.'

Yang had insisted on being shown. Of course she had.

'I'm an adult now,' she said sternly, the gleam of yellow arm, fastened back where it belonged and speaking of a pain Ruby couldn't wrap her head round. 'I think I've proven that.'

Perhaps Ruby should have done the same. But she hadn't wanted to see, the same way she could barely choke down bile at the thought of Penny's body, scattered across the arena floor at the behest of Pyrrha's semblance.

Yang had held her tightly, afterwards. She remembered that.

Ruby stares back again at Weiss's form, shrouded in darkness. Wonders at the pain that clutches at her heart when she pictures Jaune's semblance being something different, failing to give Weiss what she needed to heal.

'Read a book or something.' Weiss' voice drifts over to her from the darkness. 'I can hear you thinking.'

Ruby's laughs stutters out her, stilted, too high-pitched and nervous, and she hates herself for it. 'Sorry. You hearing my thoughts would really be something scary though.'

Silence. Then: 'There's probably a semblance for that,' Weiss says thoughtfully. Ruby sees her hand stir in the darkness, curling on top of the covers. 'I mean, Emerald's can go inside your mind, make you see things that aren't really there.'

Ruby shivers, remembers the phantom of Salem rising from the floor, turning into an impossible ghoul that tried to sweep her body away with its gaping mouth. 'That's scary enough,' she says softly.

Grey shifts on the other side of the room and Ruby finds herself drawn in, tightened and fastened by the light hue of Weiss eyes. In this light, or lack of it, they look almost as silver as her own on a warm, golden day, when they're lighter, their usual harsh colour defused by the sun.

'Get over here,' Weiss orders her, but it sounds calm. Fond, even.

Hope dancing in her chest, the way it always does when Weiss is nice to her, Ruby slips out from beneath her bed, and plods over the path of white light the moon spills across the carpet to hover over Weiss' form.

Weiss rolls her eyes, looking a lot more bluer now that Ruby is closer, and tells her to, 'sit down. I won't bite.'

Oh. Ruby's glad to hear it. Though honestly, the thought of Weiss biting anyone makes her want to giggle. She pushes the impulse down though, for once.

She sits, perching on the edge of Weiss's bed, right at the curve where her friend's ribs peters out to allow her stomach and hips to branch out. It's the opposite side to the one where she was stabbed.

'Does it still hurt?' Ruby asks gently.

Weiss winces. 'Not really. Jaune did a good job, for a first try.'

Ruby smiles awkwardly. 'His semblance is amazing, huh?'

'It could certainly change the tide in a fight,' Weiss muses. 'If he could send it out over a distance, like Ren can with his, think of how unstoppable we'd be! Of course,' and here she smirks in a 'the world isn't that kind to us' way. 'We'll probably find out that it's limited to things and people he comes in direct contact with.'

Ruby nods. 'Still amazing though.' She risks another glance at Weiss. 'How do you feel about going home?'

Weiss' face closes off. 'Ruby,' she says sternly. 'In some ways, I already am home. Don't worry about it.'

Those words do funny things to Ruby's chest. She feels like she could dance a jig at the sound of them. Still:

'I am worried though,' she says. 'For you to feel like that, just means that it's going to be painful for you when we do go back to Atlas.'

Weiss's eyes rake over her face. It's amazing, that for once she's content to lie down, let Ruby lean over her, be taller than her in a way that shouldn't matter, but does.

'It's fine,' she says finally. 'It needs to be done, so I'll do it. Besides I have all of you with me. If there's one thing all this has taught me, it's that we can get through anything.'

Ruby shakes her head. 'I...I'm sorry, but is it really so easy? I mean, I r-remember when my M-mom...' she trails off, tears already springing to her eyes, ready to make the journey down her cheeks and turn her weak and pathetic in the process. 'When she was...gone. I-I couldn't...I couldn't even go into my Dad's room, because it used to be hers too. Or look at her recipe books, or even look at her picture. It hurt. And I know it's a different to your pain, but I also know that going to look at familiar things, that you've always seen before, everyday, can hurt, when there's been a change. Because that change makes you feel sad when you see them. And you want-'

'-I don't want things to go back to how they were before,' Weiss says fiercely and Ruby starts, feels pressure against and over her hand as Weiss's lonely one, still left on top of the covers, find hers and squeezes. 'You're right; it's a different kind of pain to yours. But we'll both feel a much worse kind if I didn't go and face up to what I've left behind. It would be like-''

She stops, but Ruby fills in the gaps. Like Pyrrha all over again. Or Penny. Maybe even like Blake, when she left them behind and ran once again.

Ruby smiles down at her, trying to care about the wetness of her cheeks. 'You're so brave,' she says. It sounds sweet when it comes out of her mouth, softened by her sincerity. Then – because she believes in returning gifts, even if it's a few days late- she bends down and tucks her mouth to the corner of Weiss' own. She's feeling a little more grown up now, after all, far more so than those first few weeks at Beacon where everything Weiss did made her feel stupid and clumsy and like she needed to impress her. She draws back slowly, spine uncurling and savors the widened shape of Weiss' eyes, the way surprise fills them and makes them shine.

'Goodnight Weiss,' she says softly. 'I hope we can all be as brave as you tomorrow.'

She gives Weiss' hand a final squeeze. But before she can leave, and drift back to her own covers and hide herself under them, Weiss' hand turns strong and yanks her down. Then another persons' mouth is clutching at her own, harried and soft, sweet in the breath that flutters out of it in a gasp, and Ruby scrambles back, her own surprise rearing up like a startled horse.

Weiss gives her a tired smile. 'Sorry,' she says. 'I...I guess I moved too fast for you.'

Ruby scowls. 'I'll have you know that I drink lots of milk and am only two years younger than you!'

Weiss gives her a smirk. 'Those two years can make a world of difference in terms of maturity level, trust me. I'm pretty sure your sister will be all too willing to verify that.'

Ruby quietens. And starts to feel a little grown up again as she motions between them with her hand. 'This...has nothing to do with Yang. And I'm the one who decides when I'm ready or not, or, I guess, mature enough or not, to kiss anyone.'

A glimmer of approval sparks in Weiss' eye. 'Okay then. Be sure to let me know when you are then. If you still want too, that is.'

Ruby laughs, and Weiss lets her take her hand back. 'I don't think I'll change that much.'

'I hope not.' Ruby hears the whisper as it chases her back to bed, but pretends not to. She does nothing however, to stop the smile it provokes from crawling over her face.

She'll be ready, she knows. She just hopes she'll be good enough to keep herself and everybody else alive until then.

Notes: These poor adolescents. I'm just glad they're together again.