"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit," Ruby breathed, a string of curse words unlike any she'd ever muttered before. Not that she didn't have reason. Today, logic and fear stated, would be the day that her girlfriend would finally murder her.

The tall seventeen year old hissed softly through her teeth and analyzed the damage.

Last night, Weiss and Ruby had curled up together on the older woman's bed with their textbooks. It was approaching the end of their third year at Beacon, and finals were on the minds of every partnership in their class. Armed with copious amounts of coffee and hot cocoa, they'd stayed up past midnight, reading and quizzing each other and maybe kissing... just a bit.

Weiss had been the first to fall asleep, despite all her words that she would stay awake until dawn. Ruby didn't rub it in. Instead, she took out a package of chewing gum and popped a piece into her mouth.

Weiss rolled over. "What are you eating?" she spat, her voice as sleepy as it was demanding.

"I'm chewing gum!" Ruby whispered quietly, with a worried glance over at Blake and Yang, both asleep. "I read that it helps you remember stuff easier."

"Chewing gum is disgusting," said Weiss, but her voice was groggy and slurred, and she rolled back over. Ruby giggled quietly, unsure if her girlfriend was awake or not, and softly kissed the heiress's hair, that being one of the few places that didn't bother the pale woman's tactile sensitivity.

The redhead lasted a couple hours that way... gum, studying, and soft kisses on her sleeping girlfriend, whispered hopes that even in dreamland, Weiss would realize how much she was loved.

Who would have known it would come to this?

A large hunk of bright pink juxtaposing with white hair was the most noticeable thing about Weiss. Stuck high up in her long, soft locks, just above her pale and perfect shoulder, was Ruby's study gum.

Chewing gum is disgusting, Weiss had said, when it barely affected her at all. Now, it was affecting her so deeply that Ruby could almost feel Myrtenaster the Fourth's cold steel between her ribs... man, she was so dead when Weiss woke up...

As though some evil genie had personally heard of Ruby's dilemma, the inevitable happened: Weiss stirred.

Ruby jumped back, startled and scared, without regard for the physics that had to follow. The bed shook, and Weiss's quiet and cute waking ceased, only to be replaced with a harsher reality. The white haired woman sat straight up. "Ruby!" she snapped. "You dolt, I was sleeping! Girlfriend or not, I don't tolerate interruptions to my beauty sleep. It's called that for a reason, you do realize?"

Ruby smiled shakily, and even she could feel the lack of genuineness. "Ooooooops," she said, exaggerating the word unintentionally. "I, uh, didn't mean to wake you... you should just go back to sleep... rest as long as you need to... all day if you want... maybe all week..."

Weiss raised a perfect eyebrow. "We have finals," she said flatly, "and besides, I'm awake now." The woman sighed. "Just please, don't let it happen again."

"I promise," Ruby sighed, and she looked away. I wonder how long I have left to live?

Weiss swept her feet across the bed and onto the floor. Gracefully, she stretched pale arms, then stood. "I'm going to the young ladies' room; I'll be right back."

"Don't you want something to drink, first?" Ruby asked, desperate. "To get that morning taste out of your mouth?"

"Ruby, are you toying with me?" Weiss crinkled her nose in confusion. "I'm going to brush my teeth."

"But... you should do that after breakfast! We can go downstairs and eat something, then you can brush..."

"Are you hiding something?"

Ruby's eyes widened. Shit, shit, shit. No way out of this one. If she lied, it would be a breach of trust that'd never be forgiven. If she told the truth, Weiss would proceed to have a fit. There was no winning, but there was the right thing to do, the Huntress thing to do. "Weiss... try not to be too mad..."

In response, the pale woman walked into the restroom. Ruby didn't try to follow.

There were a few beats of silence, then a calm, cold question, flatlined into an almost-statement. "Why is there gum in my hair."

Ruby took a deep breath. "I..."

"You got your chewing gum in my hair." The coldness in Weiss's voice was almost a tangible thing, and Ruby caught herself shivering. The cold was the kind that could shatter glass, the kind that could shatter hearts if it tried hard enough. It was the burning cold of frostbite combined with the deathly cold of a blizzard. Weiss's voice was the kind of cold that destroyed cities and took every last person down with it.

There was nothing that could be done about this cold, except whispered warm words. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to."

The nineteen year old stepped out of the bathroom. "You didn't mean to," she repeated, her voice turning each word into ice, then shattering the meaning.

"I don't know how it happened," Ruby said, her voice hushed and rushed. "I don't know if I fell asleep and somehow it got from my mouth to your hair. I don't know if some got stuck when I kissed you, or if Yang did it as a really bad prank."

"I didn't," Yang said from the other side of the room. She sounded like she was about to laugh, as though she was simply enjoying the show.

Ruby bit her lip. "It was my fault. I didn't mean to... but it was. I don't expect you to forgive me, but I hope that you'll let me make it up to you. Somehow. I, uh, think I can get some peanut butter from the dining hall?"

"Don't," Weiss said, and even that single word was cold.

Ruby took a deep breath, but found it quivering. She's not going to kill me. She's going to break up with me, and that's even worse.

"Get scissors instead."

Silver eyes blinked, confused.

"Don't just stand there!" Weiss ordered. "You want to make this right? Cut it off."

"Cut the gum out?" said Ruby weakily.

Weiss glared. "And make my hair an uneven mess? Not. Likely. All of it. Cut all of it off."

Ruby gulped and ran a hand through her own short hair.

"Well, the gum's out," Ruby said, her voice halfhearted. She held up the handheld mirror she'd borrowed from Blake. "See? All gone."

Weiss tilted her head, examining the choppy cut. Her hair stopped just below the tips of her ears. She shook her head experimentally, somehow still graceful in the awkward movement. Loose strands flew out, and the short hair whipped around her face. She smoothed it back down with her long fingers. "It's so light."

"Have you ever had short hair before?" Ruby asked.

"No."

"Do you like it?"

"Yes. I mean," she amended, "I'll have to get it a little evened out in Vale after finals... but it looks nice."

There was silence. In it, Weiss took a small segment of her hair and tied it up, so that a tiny sidetail hung roughly where her old full-length one used to be. "Perfect," she whispered.

Ruby gave her beautiful girlfriend a nervous little half-smile. "So... does this mean it's okay I got gum in your hair?"

"Don't push your luck, you dolt."