Year one of Beacon

Ruby watched Blake with concern. Ruby had always been slow to fall asleep, but this was the first time something had happened after the others fell asleep that concerned her. The source of the disturbance was Blake, who seemed to be having a nightmare.

Tossing and turning about restlessly, Blake was the picture of discomfort; she was lightly layered in sweat, and she was letting out slight mewls of distress. Ruby felt her heart twist seeing her teammate like this.

It had been two weeks since they had found out Blake was a faunus, and in that time Ruby thought things had become better. Blake was more open, and she was more friendly with Weiss than in the past. The wounds were healing, or so it seemed to Ruby.

Now this. Ruby wondered what Blake could be dreaming about. She hoped the black themed girl wasn't having bad dreams about Weiss, or about their team in general. Ruby didn't want to relive the strife they had faced finding when they first found out Blake was a faunus, and was formerly a criminal.

Blake let out a frightened sound, and Ruby found she couldn't stand it anymore. Slipping out of bed, she landed lightly on her feet, not making any noise to disturb Weiss or Yang. Walking over to Blake, Ruby sat down on her knees by Blake.

Ruby hesitated for a moment, unsure if she should continue with her plan. Shaking off the feelings of hesitation, she gently shook Blake's slender shoulder.

… No response. Blake's face was tightened up as if in fear, and she was still rolling around a lot.

Feeling more confident about her course of action now, Ruby shook her again… Just not as gently.

This time Blake shot upright, regaining consciousness immediately and looking around the room wildly. Finding Ruby's eyes, she started into the silver orbs with her own amber eyes.

Ruby scrambled backwards a bit, startled by Blake's sudden reaction and by the fire in her gaze.

Coughing softly, Ruby began in a whisper, "So, Blake, what's-"

Blake slapped a hand over Ruby's mouth, grabbed her arm with her other, and dragged her to the door. Keeping her hand clasped around Ruby's mouth, she opened the door and tossed her out the door before following, shutting the door behind them.

Squatting down, she hissed, "Ruby, what are you doing? Waking up other people in their sleep? In their dreams?"

Ruby was completely taken aback. "Blake, I don't understand, I just thought-"

"No. You didn't think, did you?" Blake sat back with a sigh, propping an elbow on her knee and resting her face on her palm. "You never thing, Ruby. That's your problem."

"But… But you were having a nightmare! I was trying to be nice, to help-"

"Ruby, how could waking me up possibly help me?" Her tone was amused now, as if she were enjoying berating Ruby enough to make up for being awoken.

The nerve of… Ruby felt annoyed now. "I see I was clearly wasting my time, bothering to worry about you." She used a pouting tone, glad to see it have effect when Blake's slight smirk faltering before it had even fully formed.

"Look, Ruby, I appreciate the concern and all, but quite frankly, my dreams aren't any of your business. You have no good reason, and certainly no right whatsoever, to poke around my brain."

"What if I'm just curious?"

"Curious about what? You know I was a criminal, you know I'm a faunus, and you know I've done a lot of things I regret." Blake sounded sad now, her eyes hardening into chips of amber that seemed to gleam in the dim lighting of the hallway. "Do you really need to open up old wounds? Much less, someone else's old wounds that you aren't even involved in? My nightmares are part of my healing. I can't atone for what I've done, so instead my mind tortures me for it."

"But that seems so cruel and pointless! I mean, worrying yourself to death over the past won't change it… right?"

Blake's eyes had narrowed dangerously as Ruby spoke. "You don't understand, Ruby." She stood and faced the door, clearly intent on going to her bed and returning to sleep.

"THEN HELP ME TO UNDERSTAND!"

Ruby blurted this our a bit more loudly than she meant to, causing Blake to once again spin around and clap a mouth over Ruby's mouth. After a tense moment, Blake's ears twitched and swiveled towards the door.

She sighed, and, grabbing Ruby by the arm, dashed down the hall. Ruby didn't particularly feel like running, but neither did she want to fight her friend, so she consented to be dragged along.

They ran to the end of the hall, then up a flight of stairs. Eventually they busted out onto the roof, the chilly night air biting them in their pajamas.

"Sooo… There's a reason we ran up here, I assume?"

"Yes, because your yelling woke someone up. I could hear one of them getting out of bed, probably Weiss since she wasn't jumping out."

"That's not really a reason to run away. Or to go to the roof."

Blake glared at her again. Ruby sighed as she realized Blake had been glaring for most of time since Ruby had woken her up.

"I don't particularly care to have you trying to get in my head, much less Yang or Weiss. I get it, you won't leave me alone until you're satisfied but… Let's keep this to a minimum, okay Ruby?"

Blake walked to the low parapet and sat on it, carefully straightening her black yukata, which had become messed up despite how carefully she had run, before addressing Ruby again.

"So, you want to know more about me?"

I feel dirty for using that quote. Did everyone groan when they read it?

Okay, for those of you who have read my other work, this is literally the exact opposite of it, as the title suggests. "A Darker Nightmare" - "A Brighter Dream."

Get it? Get it? I know, it's a terrible reference and joke.

This series isn't going to be aimed for on a daily basis like "A Darker Nightmare" is, it's mostly going to be whenever I feel like it… Which I'm guessing will end around one chapter every three days. Or it could be significantly more. Variables are fun guys!

Speaking of variables, this isn't going to be linear. It's going to be Ruby x Blake snippets, and it's basically going to be at whatever point I feel like.

So what's my reason for doing this so weirdly? Because I think it will be fun, and I'm hoping it will turn out cool. Also, Blake x Ruby is a pairing I've wanted to see but haven't actually seen… at all… Though I'm sure there's some out there, and I probably just haven't looked hard enough.

The chapter lengths will also vary, so they aren't all going to be this short, I promise! This is just something I'm putting out as a "Hey, this is going to be a thing," notice. And I needed somewhere to put this ridiculously long author's note to explain the premise…

Chapter two will also be out today, and will be longer. (This one is only about 900 words w/o author's note, in case you were wondering.)