A/N For those of you following this story, I know I said it'd be up this weekend, but I had a bunch of stuff to do and spent an entire day competing in a climbing comp so I'm a day late. But a day isn't too bad, right? Anyways, I apologize and I hope y'all enjoy!
Thursday afternoon came too quickly for Ruby. She dreaded seeing the look of hatred Weiss was bound to give her or, even worse, and probably more likely, act like Ruby didn't exist. Even after Blake's explanation of Weiss' family business, Ruby still couldn't help but want to be her friend. Besides, Blake's love for the environment (which had led to her choice to minor in Environmental Sciences along with her major in Nonprofit Business Administration) often led her to over exaggerate just how bad businesses and their owners were. At least Blake wouldn't be at work today to remind her of the incident since Blake only worked on Tuesdays.
Thursdays at the Wall tended to be even less busy than Tuesdays, so the trio on duty spent most of their time completing routine maintenance and house-keeping duties, only giving the occasional belay. Ruby, Pyrrha, and Fox finished their tasks by 3:30 and went off to spend the rest of their shift hanging out.
That was the great thing about working at the Rock. Everyone on staff was friends with one another, and the climbing community was pretty small, so chances were you had at least one friend climbing around while you were on shift, just like right now Jaune, Ren, and Nora were all there. Other than the weekly rope checks and making sure the area around the Rock stayed clean, working at the Wall was like getting paid to hang out and be the occasional belay slave.
Ruby was reflecting on this when while she sat at the desk working on making a flyer for the belay class coming up in a couple of weeks. She was struggling with the difficult decision of whether the letters should be red and outlined in black or black and outlined in red.
She finally decided it would be best to get Pyrrha's opinion. Ruby looked up to call her friend and noticed Pyrrha talking to Jaune as he belayed Ren up the wall. She thought better of interrupting her friend and decided to leave Pyrrha alone to flirt with the oblivious boy. Ruby wasn't always the most perceptive person, but even she couldn't figure out how Jaune could be so clueless.
Ruby looked back down to focus on her work and glanced at the clock on the bottom right hand corner of the screen: 3:38PM.
"Eek," Ruby squeaked as she quickly hopped off the bar stool and ducked behind the counter-like desk.
Ruby had decided that the best course of action would be to hide behind the desk and not see the heiress. This way, Ruby would never know if Weiss was going to ignore her or show outright hate. What you don't know can't hurt you, right? Reasoned the young brunette. The entirety of Ruby's plan consisted of "tying her shoe" until her watch said 3:40PM and she had no chance of seeing Weiss. When it was time for Weiss to come out of the locker rooms, Ruby would just hide on the opposite side of the Wall nearest the weight room until the blue-eyed girl was upstairs.
Ruby's genius plan was interrupted, however, when her watch only read 3:39PM by a cold voice.
"Does it always take you that long to tie your shoe?"
"Uhh…no, I just…" Ruby struggled with her words as she clumsily stood up. As she looked up, Ruby's eyes were greeted with a beautiful face marred only by a pale scar over the eye. "Weiss."
"Dolt," was Weiss' only response.
"Umm, are you here to yell at me again..?"
"No, I wouldn't want to waste my time. I'm here because I decided it would be a good idea for me to try to climbing this wall. It's on the University's bucket list or something."
"Ohh! Okay! Can you swipe your Student ID? Pic towards me, please!"
Weiss silently did as she was told.
"Awesome! I'll go grab you a harness and shoes and get you all setup!" Ruby breathlessly continued. "Whatsizeshoesdioyourear"
The blue-eyed girl blinked and stared blankly at Ruby. "What." Speaking to this small brunette girl was going to take all of her patience.
"Sorry… I speak really fast when I get nervous," Ruby sheepishly responded. "What size shoe do you wear?"
Weiss sighed, "Size 7 is good."
"Okay sweet, have you ever climbed or put on a harness before?"
"No."
"Okay, I'll walk you through it then," said Ruby as she turned around to go get a harness and shoes from the gear closet behind the desk.
As Ruby was explaining to Weiss that the small blue loop on the harness went to the front and which end was the top, Jaune walked up behind the blue-eyed girl clad in black tights and a light blue dry fit t-shirt with a white snowflake where one would usually find a frocket.
"You just put it on like a pair of pants, and make sure the waist band is tight and near your belly button. I'll go help you once you get it on and I finish checking Jaune's gear in!" Ruby finished as she nodded at Jaune.
"Hello there, Snow Angel," Jaune said as Weiss turned to go put her harness on in the open area where participants put their stuff.
"Get out of my way," Weiss responded as she continued walking.
"Aww man Rubes, what did I do wrong? How come I never get the girl?" Jaune asked as he swiped his ID.
"You'll get a girl one day Jaune," Ruby laughed as she glanced at Pyrrha. "Weiss is just a little on the frosty side."
"Thanks for the encouragement Ruby. I'll see you at practice tonight?"
"Of course! We've got core workout tonight!"
"Ugh, I'd forgotten about that! Looks like I'll be sore tomorrow. Oh well, see ya Ruby!"
Ruby waved to Jaune and then went to go return his gear to the closet. Once it was put away, she headed towards Weiss, calling to Pyrrha as she went, "Hey, can you watch the desk? I'm gonna go help a new climber."
"Of course," Pyrrha responded with a knowing smile. Ruby had always known Pyrrha noticed more than she let on. Judging by her smile, Pyrrha had noticed Ruby staring down Weiss every Thursday.
"Hey there," Ruby said as she approached Weiss.
"Hi."
"Sooo, your harness looks great, you put it on perfect. There's just one last step," Ruby continued nervously.
As Ruby explained to Weiss how to "double-back" her harness, the heiress felt strong hands touch the buckle on her waist and took in a sharp breath.
"Here, I'll show you cause it's kinda hard to explain. You grab the end of the excess webbing and feed it back through the opposite end of the buckle," said Ruby as she manipulated the harness. Ruby hardly dared breathe as she fed the waist strap back through the buckle. She didn't want to accidentally touch Weiss and get yelled at again, so she fed just enough of the strap through for Weiss to be able to grab it. "There, now you just pull it tight and you're good to go! Making sure you're double-backed is the most important part of putting on your harness. It basically locks you into your harness so it doesn't come undone when you're on the Wall."
Ruby led Weiss over to the easiest route on the Wall, a 5.6 jug ladder. "There's a couple of ways to do this. The way it's supposed to be done is you follow the route, which is marked by the colored tape. The other option is just grab whatever you want until you reach the top. But that's kinda boring and you look pretty strong, so I think you should try to follow the route. The rocks with blue tape under them are 'on'.
If you get stuck, just grab whatever you need to, but I think you'll be okay. Hands and feet on the rocks with blue tape tails. Got it?"
"Climb the ladder of rocks using only the rocks coded with blue tape. Got it." Weiss said with a hint of boredom.
"Perfect! Now I'm just gonna tie you in," Ruby said as she deftly maneuvered the rope in her hands and made some sort of interlocked loops in the rope about an arm and a half's length from the end. "Can you put this straight up through your two hardpoints? Bottom one first" asked Ruby as she handed Weiss the rope and pointed to the two small loops in the front of her harness.
Weiss did as she was told, glad Ruby had asked her to do it instead of Ruby trying to do it herself. The two "hardpoints" lay a few inches apart on the front of her harness. The bottom hard point was where the two leg loops attached and the top one was right at the center of her waist. Weiss did not think she could handle Ruby that close to her… personal space.
Once Ruby got the rope back, she pulled the rope further through the hardpoints until the interlocked loops she had made earlier lay less than an inch from the midpoint of the two hardpoints in Weiss' harness and then began folding the rope into the loops. "I'm tying what's called a figure eight follow-through knot. It gets tighter when weight is applied to it, which is why we use it for climbing. If you weight the rope, or fall, while climbing, the know gets tighter instead of coming undone."
At the mention of figure eight follow-through, Weiss realized that the interlocking loops were a "figure eight" and Ruby's "folding" was her somehow following the original figure eight with the end of the rope. When Ruby finished, she showed Weiss the knot, and the blue-eyed girl saw that it was still a figure eight, only it had two strands instead of one. The "open" end of the rope coming out opposite of her harness.
Ruby grabbed the excess rope at the other end and skillfully made a couple of loopy-things that ended with the excess rope being tied to the rope hanging down from the wall.
"This is called a keeper's knot, or a simple fisherman's knot," Ruby said. It just keeps the rope from flopping around in your face. Now you're all set! Just give me a few seconds to clip in so I can belay you. Once you reach the top, or just want to come down, just let go of the wall and let me know and I'll start lowering you. When I lower you, just keep your feet in front of you and either gently push off the wall of "walk" down. Basically, just use your feet to keep you away from the wall so you're not scraping your face against the wall the whole way down," Ruby said with a grin.
"I think I know what to do, I've seen people come down while using the elliptical upstairs," said Weiss.
"Great, then you can start climbing whenever you're ready!" As they had been talking, Weiss had watched as Ruby unclipped a carabiner with an ATC attached and reclip it to the larger loop in front of her harness that ran through the two hardpoints. Ruby then grabbed a bite of rope, fed it into the ATC, and then clipped the loop that resulted into the same carabiner. She finished by twisting the gate of the carabiner closed. Ruby didn't even look down at her waist once, holding eye contact with the heiress and grinning the entire time. Weiss had to admit, she was slightly impressed at how confident and smooth the clumsy and seemingly awkward brunette girl was being.
At Ruby's okay, Weiss began to scale the wall with minimal trouble, staying "on" the route the entire time and only pausing once in confusion. Ruby congratulated Weiss when she got down, but Weiss' only response was, "Are they all like that? It was boring."
Ruby just grinned and eagerly told her they weren't and that Ruby had just put her on this 5.6 to gauge her ability. After hearing this, Weiss consented to climb another, with the only stipulation that it had better be more interesting and pose some sort of challenge.
Ruby led Weiss over to one of the harder 5.7s. This time, Ruby talked Weiss through how to tie the figure eight knot and moved much more slowly so that Weiss could follow the movements of her hands. She also told Weiss that ATC stood for Air Traffic Controller and explained that the device used friction to drastically reduce the weight felt by the belayer. It explained how Ruby could belay people who outweighed her slight frame by 100lbs or more.
As Ruby was explaining, she noticed how interested Weiss looked and began to smile. Once Ruby had gotten both of them set up, she gave Weiss the okay to climb. Weiss struggled a little more with this route than the previous 5.6, and it took her a little bit to recognize the traverses across that this route featured, but Weiss didn't give up. With Ruby yelling encouragement from the ground, Weiss reached the top without falling once. It was by far the easiest Ruby had ever seen a newb make this 5.7 look.
"Are you sure this is your fist time climbing? You make it look so easy!" Ruby called out when Weiss was about 10ft from the ground.
"I already told you it was, Dolt," but this time Weiss spoke with what could only be described as a small smile on her face. "That was definitely better than the first one."
"Great! You feeling tired, or do you think you have another one in you?" Ruby asked with a toothy grin as Weiss untied herself from the rope.
"I'd like a drink of water, but I don't feel too tired just yet."
Ruby's face lit up even more. It actually seemed like the Ice Princess was enjoying herself. Weiss had even smiled! It was a small, but still, it was something, and it was nothing short of beautiful.
After Weiss had gotten some water, Ruby led her over to a 5.8 in the "cave". The Rock Wall at Ruby's University didn't have a whole lot of overhang, but most of it was in the cave. The Wall was free standing, a 50ft tall textured concrete monolith that was the center piece of the Rec Center. It was the first thing you saw when you walked in, and most people couldn't help but stare as they walked around it. The locker rooms and indoor pool were to the back left of the Wall, the weight room was directly to the right, and the basketball courts were to the back middle, between the locker rooms/pool area and the weight room. All the cardio equipment was located on the second floor, and the stairs lay directly to the left of the Wall. Several racquetball courts lined the walls to the front right of the Wall, across from the weight room. The space between the racquetball courts and weight room was filled with several ping pong tables.
The cave was the front faces of the Rock Wall that faced the Rock desk. It was easily the most intimidating part of the Wall. It consisted of three faces of rock making two opposing dihedrals, kind of like a rectangle with an opening instead of a fourth face. Instead of going straight up at a 90o angle or more like the rest of the wall, this part of the Wall went up at more of an 70o angle, and steeper in some parts. When climbing in the cave, you weren't only trying to climb straight up, you had to engage your muscles just to stay on the wall.
"We don't put anything easier than a 5.8 in the cave due to the amount of strength it takes just to stay on the wall here. Technique-wise, it's a pretty straight forward route, but you're kind of short, so it may be a little reachy," Ruby explained to Weiss. At Weiss' scowl at the word "short" the young girl quickly added, "But you're totally strong, so you shouldn't have any problem!"
Weiss' scowl softened and Ruby offered to let Weiss tie herself in based on what she had learned from the 5.7. Ruby offered Weiss the climber's end of the rope and watched carefully as Weiss attempted to make the initial figure eight. It took Weiss a couple of tries, but she got it without any prompting from Ruby and went on to tie the follow through. Ruby quickly got distracted by the look of fierce concentration on the blue-eyed girl's face. Luckily, Weiss was so focused on her knot that she didn't notice. Ruby shook her head and went back to focusing on Weiss' slender hands. Ruby hadn't been this distracted by a girl since, well since her ex. It was weird for a girl she hardly knew to have this effect on her.
Ruby was shaken from her thoughts by Weiss holding out her knot and looking at Ruby expectantly. Ruby stepped up to Weiss and gently gabbed the knot from her hand, brushing Weiss' fingertips as she did so. Ruby was too focused on the knot, making sure Weiss was safe, to notice the rush of pink warmth that flooded the Ice Princess' face at the contact. With Ruby this close, Weiss could smell a faint hint of rose petals wafting from her hair and Weiss felt her heart begin to beat a little bit faster. She attributed it to the adrenaline that must be flowing through her body at the thought of climbing the overhang.
All of this went completely unnoticed by an oblivious Ruby as she checked over her ATC so Weiss could begin to climb.
Weiss had no problem with the first half of the route. She could definitely feel the strain of being on the overhanging wall, but every move was perfectly manageable. That is until she came to a point where no matter what she did, her right hand was about 5 inches short of the next hold. Weiss' left foot was resting on a rock below her, and her right foot was on a hold just below her waist, her knee bent and jutting out to the right at about a 60o angle from her waist. Her left hand was holding her to the wall with a rock that was pretty much level with her face and to the left. Weiss' left foot was tiptoeing and her right hand was fully extended, but she just couldn't reach.
"See Weiss, this is exactly what I meant when I said you were kinda short!" Weiss heard the grey-eyed girl who was belaying her yell up at her. "Don't worry, I'm not much taller than you, so it happens to me all the time! You need to shift all your weight over to your right foot. Then just push up on it, kinda like you're doing a one-footed squat. Your left hand is just there for balance. Use it and engage your abs to keep your body as close as you can to the wall from the waist up. All the force to go up will be in your leg! You got this!"
Weiss had no choice but to listen to Ruby's directions and gave it a try. She shifted her weight over and pulled her body close enough to the wall that her face was practically scraping up against it. The, she closed her eyes and pushed off her right foot as she extended her right hand.
With her a shocked look in her face, Weiss found her hand making contact with the previously out of reach hold. Ruby cheered and the heiress of Schnee-Mart continued climbing. Maybe that clumsy dolt knew what she was doing after all.
Weiss had to perform the one-footed squat movement several other times, on both her right and left sides, as well as a few other strong moves, in order to reach the top. But the heiress didn't fall once, and it felt good.
Ruby congratulated Weiss on the way down, saying she had never seen anyone climb so well on their very first day. Weiss couldn't help but let out a true smile as she wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead, and Ruby couldn't help but notice just how breathtaking that smile was.
As Weiss untangled herself from the rope, Ruby couldn't help but remark with a smirk, "Not bad, for a princess."
"And you're not a bad coach, for a dolt" Weiss quipped back. This time, however, her voice lacked its usual coldness and her ice blue eyes showed warmth. There was even a smile grin on her face. Ruby just smiled.
As Ruby tied the rope up, Weiss admitted she would probably be sore tomorrow, and not just in her arms. Her legs and abs felt like they would be sore, as well. Ruby laughed and told her that was perfectly normal. Climbing was a full body workout.
Once Weiss finished taking off her harness and shoes, the duo went back to the desk together so that Ruby could check Weiss' stuff back in.
"Hey Ruby," Weiss used her name for the first time softly as she swiped her student ID. "You were right, I really do feel free when I'm up there."
Ruby's face broke into her biggest smile yet that day. "Well, if you want to come back, we're open every day, 2-10 PM!" Ruby's huge grin turned into a shy smirk as she added, "And I'd love to belay you again, if you'd want… I work-"
"Tuesday and Thursday, every week. I know," Weiss finished for Ruby. "I'll see you Tuesday, Ruby."
With that, Weiss turned and walked off so that Ruby couldn't see the smile that played across her lips.
As Ruby watched the blue-eyed girl walk away, Ruby tried to figure out how Weiss knew she worked every Tuesday and Thursday. Ruby's confused face transformed into a smile when the realization hit her. Weiss had noticed her, too.
Well, that's that. And for those of you who don't know, a frocket is a front pocket on a t-shirt. I'm not really sure if that's a legit word or if it's something my friend made up, so I figured I'd make that clear. Reviews are appreciated, especially if you have an opinion/question on how I explained the climbing aspect of the story! I'm still worried I got a little bogged down in the details. Stay awesome guys.
-Lynn