Common Ground

Weiss wasn't sure whether to be amused or disturbed.

"Shh, shh, it's alright. Don't be afraid, darling..."

"Ruby?"

"Mama Ruby just needs you to strip for her."

"R-Ruby!"

"Don't worry, it won't hurt a bit. I just need to—"

"Ruby, you're talking to your scythe again."

Ruby gently placed her fully-extended weapon on the workbench, then turned to grin at her partner.

"Of course I'm talking to her!" she exclaimed. "Crescent Rose is my baby!"

"Crescent Rose is a weapon," Weiss stated flatly. "Why do you treat it like it's your girlfriend?"

"I feel so sorry for your Myrtenaster," Ruby lamented, feigning tears as she gazed at the partially-disassembled rapier lying on Weiss's own workbench. "She's letting you open her up and touch her most intimate places and you don't even seem to care! You need to be gentle with her!"

"R-Ruby!" Weiss stuttered, blushing even as her eyes widened in disbelief.

Disturbed. Definitely disturbed.

Ruby twirled a screwdriver between her fingers with a massive grin, then went to work, disassembling her ridiculous weapon piece by piece, starting with its scythe blade. The Schnee heiress watched with thinly-veiled interest. While she wasn't nearly the weapons nut that Ruby was, Weiss was still a Huntress, and the one thing all Huntsmen and Huntresses had in common was a healthy appreciation for the tools of the trade. Ruby's particular tool was both unique and utterly fascinating.

"Did you really design that weapon yourself?" Weiss asked abruptly despite her better judgment. She cursed herself for letting her curiosity show. She wondered why she even bothered, though. Ruby had proven time and again to be capable of piercing right through any disinterested facade she put up.

"Yep!" Ruby affirmed as she finished disassembling the blade and turned the massive, high-caliber sniper rifle so she could look down the barrel. "Designed it, forged the parts, and put the whole thing together all by myself! Well...Uncle Qrow helped a little, I guess..."

Weiss turned back towards Myrtenaster, gazing at the weapon as she picked up a rag to clean out the Dust cartridge that served as the blade's guard.

"That's rather impressive," she admitted grudgingly. So the Dunce actually was good at some things besides charging in like a moron and coming up with ridiculous plans like using herself as a human slingshot to defeat a giant Nevermore—

"So...how'd you get Myrtenaster?" Ruby asked eagerly as she started to clean the inside of Crescent Rose's barrel with a long, circular brush. Burn Dust residue had an annoying tendency to accumulate in the grooves inside the rifle's bore. "Didja build it?"

"No, it was...a gift, actually," Weiss admitted. "An heirloom of my mother's."

"Oh..."

An awkward silence fell over the two as they continued servicing their weapons. Thankfully, it didn't last long.

"Oh come on you stupid little... That's it, Crescent Rose! If you don't stop that this instant I'll ground you for a month!"

This time, instead of being mildly disturbed by Ruby's antics, Weiss couldn't help but laugh as she looked over at her partner to see her struggle to remove a screw from the stock of the rifle. After much twisting with the screwdriver and grumbling under her breath, it finally came loose. Ruby picked it up and grinned in triumph.

"Hah! Take that!" she shouted. "Now I can finally strip you naked!"

Rather than comment once more on Ruby's somewhat disturbing love—or perhaps even lust—for her weapon, Weiss just shrugged, rolled her eyes, and turned back to her own work.

The two worked in silence for a time, though it was far more comfortable than the previous quiet that had fallen over the pair. Ruby finished completely dismantling her weapon and started wiping the pieces down one by one, removing stray Dust and grime that had accumulated since the last time it had been cleaned. She had barely begun this process when Weiss finished reassembling her own weapon and spun the empty Dust chamber with a smile.

"Need some help?" Weiss offered as she sheathed the rapier at her hip. She didn't bother waiting for a reply as she turned and walked towards the door. Ruby was so absurdly attached to her weapon that she had already refused several times in just the few days since they'd met to let anyone else even so much as touch it, let alone actually assist her with maintenance.

"Sure," Ruby answered distractedly, causing Weiss to stop in her tracks.

"Huh?"

Later on, she would berate herself for reacting in such a dumbfounded manner. Right now she could only watch as Ruby dropped her rag on the workbench and spun on her stool to grin at the heiress.

"Sure," the crimson-clad girl repeated as she held up a second cloth rag. "Pull up a stool. You can help me wipe down the parts if you want."

Speechless, Weiss dragged her stool over to Ruby's workbench and sat down. She took the proffered rag and chose a piece at random, one of the silvery blades that formed the inner curve of the scythe. She wiped it down gently, careful to keep her fingers clear of the razor-sharp edge. Yet another silence settled over them as they worked, cleaning each of the multitude of pieces and parts until they all gleamed like new.

"I'm surprised you said yes," Weiss eventually murmured, her insatiable curiosity finally overcoming her wish to enjoy the comfortable silence. "You never let anyone touch your weapon, not even Yang."

For a while, she thought Ruby might not answer, though she was eventually proven wrong when the younger girl finally spoke up.

"Yeah, Crescent Rose is pretty precious to me, if you haven't noticed," Ruby murmured. Weiss raised an eyebrow, causing the scythe-wielder to blush. "Okay, so maybe it wasn't hard to notice at all," she admitted. "Anyway, that's why I never let Yang anywhere near her. Don't get me wrong, it's not like I expect her to break my sweetheart or anything, but..."

"But you don't want to risk something going wrong," Weiss finished the thought after Ruby trailed off.

"Exactly!" Ruby affirmed with a grin. "I mean, she's really careful with Ember Celica, but still...Crescent Rose is one of the few things I own that's really mine and no one else's. Like I said, everything from the design to making the parts to putting it together was all me. I even tuned and adjusted her myself until she became a lean, mean, Grimm-beheading machine! She's a part of me."

"So if not even Yang is allowed to touch it, why am I permitted?" Weiss asked. Then she blinked. In the short time they'd been talking, Ruby had managed to almost completely reassemble the red, black, and silver monstrosity.

Ruby grinned as she finished attaching the last piece of her weapon. She quickly folded it up and hooked it on her belt.

"Because I trust you," she said with a teasing smile, "you dunce."

With a swirl of illusory rose petals, she was gone. Weiss just stared at the spot where she had been. Then she shook her head ruefully. Every time she thought she finally had the strange leader of Team RWBY figured out, the girl went and did something to prove her wrong once again.

And why on Remnant did Ruby's admission of trust make her feel so warm inside?

Her left hand absently stroked Myrtenaster's hilt.

"Come on Myrtenaster," she said absently. "Let's go track down the Roses before they get themselves into trouble."

She rolled her eyes and sighed as she left the workshop.

Now she's got me doing it too!