Cerulean eyes met with silver eyes, as the two girls stared at each other face to face, devoid of words. Weiss tried to hide her panic, but found her fingers twitching as she held onto the brunette's shoulders. To make matters worse, her breathing rate was elevated and her heart pounded away in her chest with fear.
What am I going to do when she tells everybody?!
I'm going to lose my place at Beacon, my future career, my reputation, my-
"You're like a superhero!" Ruby squealed with a great, toothy smile. Weiss blinked and leaned back in surprise.
"...A what?"
"I can't believe superpowers are real! Oh my god oh my god oh my god, all the stuff I read in comics is like - is like true! There really are heroes! Can you fly? Do you have lazer eyes?! Do you fight crime at night, l-like a vigilante? Like Batman? Do you have an arch-nemesis?! Oh, oh! Wait! Do you have a costume? 'Cos if you do I really really really wanna see it an-"
Weiss silenced Ruby with a decisive flick on the forehead, overwhelmed by the barrage of juvenile questions directed at her.
"Just stop. Stop talking already. I...nobody can know about this, do you understand?!"
Ruby nodded like a lunatic.
"Oh I definitely understand, Weiss, I promise! I- I can be your crime-fighting partner! We'll be a team! You can be Ice-Girl, and I can be...uhm...'The Mysterious Rose'. Yeah! That's what I'll be...I mean, I don't have a superpower, but-"
"Stop it."
"Stop what?"
"Stop calling it a superpower! You have no idea what I have to-"
Weiss fell silent in an instant. "Someone's coming. We need to hide, now!" she whispered, and the two of them scarpered into a stall, with Ruby's mouth being covered by Weiss's shaking hand. They stood motionless, waiting.
The echo of the creaking door opening reverberated off the icy walls.
"What the..." said a bewildered, unfamiliar voice. Several tense econds later, the door slammed and they heard rapid footsteps outside the bathroom. Weiss and Ruby relaxed, stumbling out of the stall.
"Whoever that was is going to be back soon. And, they'll have a staff member with them. We need to leave, right now."
Ruby nodded in agreement, and the two girls scurried out of the bathroom and down the hallway - fortunately, without being seen. They came to a halt after a full five minutes of escaping the scene, stopping in the quiet confines of a desolate library. The two took a moment to catch their breath, hiding behind the cover of various dusty bookcases.
"So, uhm, why did you do that to the bathroom?" Ruby questioned.
Weiss shot her a look, as if Ruby had just spat in her drink. "Ugh, you dunce! I didn't do that on purpose! You don't understand anything about me, or my condition-"
"Then make me understand!" she retorted.
Weiss paused, folding her arms as she faced away from Ruby.
"You're a threat to my safety. If people find out what I am...what I can do..." Weiss did not finish her sentence, instead leaving it to Ruby's interpretation. "Fine. I'll strike you a deal. I'll tell you all about me...and you don't say a word about this to anybody. Agreed?"
Ruby held out her hand.
"Agreed. Shake on it?"
Weiss hesitantly placed her hand within Ruby's, and they shared a tentative handshake. Immediately, Weiss recoiled and went back to folding her arms defensively.
"Alright then. Come with me. We'll go back to my accomodation...I don't trust this place enough to have this conversation within these walls."
Weiss led Ruby out of the building, proceeding down a short road towards a gravel parking lot. The white-haired girl produced a set of car keys from her pocket, and nonchalantly clicked the button. Ruby's jaw dropped when she saw the car which responded with a flash of its xenon lights.
A sterling silver Mercedes-Benz SLR winked twice from across the parking lot.
"No way! This is your car?!" Ruby gawked at the spotless sports car. It was probably worth more than her house.
Weiss shrugged as she swung the door open, reclined into the driver's seat, and gestured for Ruby to get in. She complied, and her eyes were fixated on Weiss in sheer awe.
"But...but it must have cost you a fortune! How rich are you?!"
The girl with the snowy hair looked blankly at Ruby.
"Very rich. My father owns Schnee Pharmaceuticals."
Weiss turned the key and the engine roared to life. She manoeuvred the sleek vehicle out onto the main road, and accelerated away from the campus.
"Schnee Pharmaceuticals?! That's like, one of the wealthiest companies in the world!"
"Yes, I am aware of that Ruby."
"So you're Weiss Schnee? Whoa...wait, where are we going? The campus apartments are the other wa-"
"I have privately purchased accommodation."
"Ohhh...so, why Chemistry?"
Weiss rolled her eyes as she shifted the car into fourth gear. "Why do you think? I'm next in line to inherit the world's largest pharmaceutical producer, a multi-billion dollar empire. I'm expected to know the science behind the various chemical compounds we produce and sell."
"Ahh, okay..." Ruby slouched into her seat a little and fell silent; she was beginning to feel rather unimportant, very rapidly.
"Why art?"
Ruby glanced sideways. "Huh?"
"Why did you pick art?"
"...I'm good at it?" Ruby spoke nervously, waiting for the reply.
Weiss raised her eyebrows.
"As good a reason as any, I suppose."
The Mercedes came to a smooth stop outside an impressive, glass paned penthouse. Weiss swivelled out of the seat and slammed her door shut, barely giving Ruby a chance to scramble out of the car before she locked the car. She caught up to Weiss as they walked up the driveway and into the lavish residence of the Schnee heiress.
Weiss marched in to her residence, headed straight to the maroon leather couch ahead of her, and slumped into it with a tired sigh. She held her head in her hands and rubbed her eyes. Ruby awkwardly followed her into the room and sat into an armchair opposite her.
"So..." Ruby chirped.
"So."
"So...Ice-Girl. How did that happen?"
Weiss glared at the girl opposite her.
"Stop saying that. Just stop."
"Stop saying what?"
"Ice-Girl. Or superhero, or superpower. You have no idea how it feels to be a freak."
"But I don't think you're a frea-"
"Well other people DO, RUBY!" Weiss shouted, slamming her fist into the couch. Ruby jumped back in her chair at the explosion of sound, too frightened to move. The heiress began to quietly sob into her hands once more, droplets twirling and falling from between her fingers. Anxiously, the brunette stood up from the armchair and sat beside Weiss, placing an arm around her.
Ruby gasped as frost seemed to materialise around Weiss's being; ice worked its way into the carpet, and elegant shimmering crystals of it were forming into miniature stalagmites on the floor.
"It hurts..." Weiss whispered through sobs with her head hung low. She was a sorry sight, far removed from the confident, stoic academic Ruby had met earlier this morning.
"What hurts? Do you need help? An ambulance?" Ruby said, pulling out her cell phone. The girl next to her waved her hand, signalling Ruby not to bother.
"It's always so cold...inside my veins..." Weiss brought her head up and mopped up some tears from her reddened eyes. "It happens when I least expect it, and when I least want it. Sometimes, when I'm in a big crowd, I just...get so scared, and...and then this happens!"
Weiss started crying into her hands once more, and Ruby offered a tighter embrace around the heiress's shoulders.
"Hey now, Weiss...it's...it's okay..."
Weiss exhaled and tried to compose herself. She sat upright and gently rested her trembling hands in her lap.
"I grew up in Alaska. I had to move schools a lot as a kid...it never took long before an 'incident' would happen, and my father would have to cover it all up and transfer me somewhere else. I didn't really have 'friends'...I never knew anyone for long..." She sniffed and cleared her throat. "It's just certain things trigger me, trigger these panic attacks, and once they start...I can't...I just can't stop the cold taking over..."
Weiss slumped back into the couch, swallowing and staring solemnly up at the ceiling.
"Maybe I can help."
The heiress turned to face Ruby with a grimace.
"You can't help. No-one can..."
"Have you ever let anybody try?"
Weiss did not reply; in turn, Ruby took this as a positive sign to continue.
"We can't be around each other all the time, since we have different classes, but...but if we hung out at lunchtime and after classes, at least at those times, then- then I might be able to keep you calm when you think you might start to panic..."
"And why is it that you can help me?"
"Because I know what it's like to be scared of the crowd...to be the weirdo." Ruby muttered with a sigh. "I'm, uhm, not exactly popular with any of my flatmates right now. So yeah, I think I can help you, Weiss. And nobody has to know anything."
Weiss cracked a weak smile. "Promise?"
"Promise." Ruby grinned back.
The door to Amber Apartments creaked open as a red-hooded girl tip-toed back inside. She crept into the dark, deserted communal kitchen, headed for a secret supply of chocolate chip cookies she had cached within a cluttered cupboard. She clasped her hand around the packet, trying to open it with as little noise as possible...
"You're late."
Ruby suppressed a shocked squeal, unaware of the figure which had been sitting silently in the corner of the room.
Blake.
Dammit, she's so sneaky!
"Uh, I was out. Socialising. Meet and greet kinda thing."
"It's past midnight, Ruby. You told me you were going to the bathroom...I was worried when you hadn't returned after four hours."
Ruby held her hands up defensively.
"Okay okay, I'm sorry! I got talking to...someone. Someone cool."
"You spent a lot of time talking to them."
"Yeah, but...this was important. Trust me Blake."
Blake twitched her head, curious, but asked no more questions. Ruby bid her good night and left for her room, giving her some much needed solitude.
What a day.
Ruby had started the day feeling like a child amongst her older peers; she felt like a child even next to Blake. But now? Now she had a responsibility, a serious duty to a newfound friend in need.
Ruby Rose was finally starting to feel a little more adult.
Short chapter I know, but useful for some character exposition I think. Hope you enjoyed it.