This turned out longer than expected for just a random idea...but here's the second and last part! I don't usually write White Rose, but this was kind of fun.
"Stay still you stupid, wretched, worthless beast!"
She slammed the palm of her hand against the bars of the cage in frustration when the boarbatusk spun away from her for what must be the twentieth time. Pinching the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger, she took a slow, even breath to calm her rapidly frying nerves.
She did not have time for this. Ruby was currently upstairs absorbed in that silly cartoon show she loved to watch, but as soon as it ended she would fly back to Weiss' side. The ring needed to be on the boarbatusk and the disgusting creature on its way out the door before that happened.
How badly she wanted to use Myrtenaster and blast the despicable Grimm to smithereens...but then she would have to come up with a completely new plan to propose to Ruby - something she couldn't do when she had already told Yang that she would be proposing tonight.
Plus, she really didn't want to be finding bits of boarbatusk scattered about their living room for the next few weeks.
Pulling her weapon from her side, she tossed it lightly in the air, feeling the comforting cold steel hum in her grasp as the metal reacted to her familiar aura. Turning back to the boarbatusk, an idea finally formed in her mind.
Spinning the dial on Myrtenaster until it smoothly landed upon the blue vial of dust, she pointed the tip towards the foul animal's legs while focusing her mind around her semblance. A thin stream of ice began to emerge from the end of her sabre, wrapping itself around the boarbatusk's front legs. The animal let out a loud squeal of distress as its front legs were effectively frozen into place.
Surely, she should have thought of this earlier. Thankfully, no one else had been around to witness her repeated failed attempts to tie a ring box onto a boarbatusk tusk.
Now that the beast had ceased its incessant spinning in the large cage sitting in the middle of their living room floor, she was able to successfully reach in and grab ahold of one tusk, using her free hand to securely attach the small ring box with a special loop of wire that she had been assured would not fly off no matter how much bucking the creature did.
Finally finished with that part of the plan, she straightened and dusted her hands off, wanting to go wash them of this animal's filth as soon as possible.
But now for the slightly more difficult part...getting the boarbatusk to run straight outside and not crash through their home. She needed something that would direct the creature and prevent it from taking any course other than the one Weiss set for it…
Drawing upon her semblance once again, she carefully sculpted two lines of icicles running in parallel lines from the front door directly to the cage opening. She would just have to destroy evidence of the ice before Ruby got downstairs.
Finally feeling prepared, she nodded once in satisfaction at her work before drawing one last, deep breath.
Here goes nothing.
After unlatching the cage, she broke the ice holding the boarbatusk's legs. Once freed, the Grimm made a beeline for the exit, screeching for the entire house to hear as it tore through the chute of ice Weiss had created. Within seconds, it burst through the front door, causing her to cringe as splinters of expensive mahogany flew in every direction.
The door's sacrifice would be worth it - she was (almost) positive.
"Ruby!" she yelled at the top of her lungs, trying to sound as panicked as possible while she cast the icicles and wire cage hastily to pieces and blew them into the corner of the room to be collected later.
"What happened?"
Just as Weiss had expected, Ruby appeared less than a second later - a gust of rose scented air blowing over her from the girl's semblance.
"There was boarbatusk in the house!" she shouted, trying to perfect a tone somewhere between annoyance and frustration. "I think his tusk hooked onto one of my necklaces!"
"Don't worry, Weiss! I will track him down and retrieve your stolen necklace!" Ruby gave her an exaggerated bow that didn't fit the mood at all, causing Weiss to crack a smile while the girl flew back upstairs for Crescent Rose and crashed through the remainder of the door a second later - leaving an even larger hole in its extravagant frame.
"Dolt...you could have at least opened the door…" she muttered, shaking her head.
Now that Ruby was on the hunt, she knew it was only a matter of minutes before she would have to do the hardest part of the evening - propose.
She began wearing a track in the living room floor while she paced rapidly back and forth across the carpet, mind swirling with all of the possible things she should say to the woman she loved.
How happy Ruby made her each day.
How much she adored all of the stupid, silly things the girl would do - even when they resulted in a mess for Weiss to clean up.
How Weiss could no longer walk by a single rosebush without stopping to take in the scent.
How much Ruby had changed her life for the better, whether she realized it or not.
How much she loved her…
A loud clock striking the hour finally drew her from her thoughts. She glanced at the timepiece closely, confused at the time it read. It couldn't possibly be six already...because if it was, that meant Ruby had been gone for half an hour.
Dread began seeping into her veins while she rapidly calculated how long it should have taken Ruby to track down the creature, find the box, and make it back to the house. The boarbatusk had only had a thirty second headstart, at best, and it would be making a terrible ruckus when it made it into the woods past the backyard - Ruby would have had no trouble tracking down such a rambunctious animal. Unless…
Unless Ruby had run into trouble.
Cursing under her breath, she headed towards the front door at a sprint, hand lightly brushing against Mytenaster as she instinctually checked to make sure her weapon was still by her side.
She was an idiot. A complete fool.
She had sent Ruby out into the forest - at night and alone. Depending on how far the boarbatusk had managed to travel, it could have lured Ruby into the more dangerous section of woods - the part filled with hordes of Nevermores and Death Stalkers.
"Hey, want to marry me, Ruby? No? Ok, how about I get you killed, instead," she muttered angrily at herself as she jumped through the shattered wreckage of what had once been their front door.
"Looking for something?"
"Jesus!" Weiss shouted in surprise while jumping as far away from the unexpected voice as possible. Turning around, she found Blake leaning against the outer wall of the house, tossing a familiar looking box casually up in the air.
"What are you - ? How did you - ? What are you doing here?" she finally managed to spit out while her heart tried to resume its normal speed of beating.
Blake smirked at her flustered response, crossing her arms over her chest in a very Yang-like display of having the upper hand.
"You didn't really think that you were going to propose to Ruby without a certain, overbearing sister being present...did you?"
"I...uh...well...yes?" Weiss didn't know what else to say, having gone from fearful for Ruby's life to fearful for her own in less than two seconds.
Blake laughed at the answer, which was at least honest. The Faunus girl took a step forward, extending the small box towards Weiss with a reassuring smile.
"Don't worry, I'll make sure you don't even know she's there."
The instant the box touched Weiss' hand, she felt her pulse skyrocket - quickly reaching speeds faster than when she had thought Ruby might be in danger. Accepting Blake's assurance with a nervous smile, she glanced quickly around them, noticing a conspicuous absence of the aforementioned blonde or Ruby.
"Uh...where…?" Weiss managed to ask before Blake nodded in the direction of the woods - to a small path Weiss knew by heart.
Stepping forward, she allowed her feet to guide her to the place she knew Ruby would be waiting for her.
If nothing else, Yang at least had good taste in romantic locations…
Blake followed Weiss across the lawn, but as soon as Weiss ducked underneath the first tree branch at the very edge of the woods, the girl mysteriously vanished from her side.
Rolling her eyes at the girl's propensity to disappear without a trace, she continued onward by herself - knowing that Blake and Yang were nearby, but not knowing exactly where. Which was just as well, because proposing was already going to be difficult enough without her two teammates there to watch her stumble over her words.
She slowed down when she was near her destination. Through the leaves up ahead, she could just make out the small clearing at the end of the path - not thirty yards from the very edge of the forest. It was close enough to the house to still be safe, while far enough away to block out any noise except for the wind gently rustling the leaves overhead.
Trying to be as quiet as possible, she crept the last remaining steps. And when she had finally made it to the small clearing, her eyes instantly found Ruby.
The brunette had her back turned to Weiss while she sat upon the small bench they had placed in the center of the clearing over a year ago. What was left of the day's sun filtered through the break in the forest canopy up above - the dying light casting the girl's hair in a beautiful auburn glow. Ruby's head was tilted back as she gazed up into the sky, seemingly lost in deep thought.
Firmly grasping the ring box in one hand, Weiss walked slowly out from the cover of the trees. Circling the edge of the bench, Ruby didn't even notice her presence until Weiss was standing directly in front of her.
"Oh, hey Weiss!" the brunette said, giving Weiss one of those big, carefree smiles that melted away any ice that might have collected upon her heart.
"Took you long enough - I thought maybe you'd gotten lost or something!"
"Oh...uh...I'm sorry?" she answered in confusion, the comment throwing her completely off balance in its unexpectedness.
Ruby just laughed at her answer, the easygoing nature of hers continuing to prove just how polar opposite the two of them were.
"You said you'd meet me here, remember? Pretty clever - making me think a boarbatusk had stolen one of your necklaces just to give me a cryptic message!"
Ruby held out a small slip of paper in Weiss' direction, which she hesitantly accepted. Scrawled on the front in what looked eerily like her own handwriting it said, 'Meet me at our favorite spot in fifteen minutes.'
Of course, due to Weiss losing track of time back at the house, she was now ten minutes late for the rendezvous she had never set up.
"I'm sorry I'm late," she murmured apologetically.
"Don't be!" Ruby responded with a laugh, patting the bench beside her in invitation. "It's gorgeous outside tonight, so I didn't mind waiting. Plus, you're more than worth waiting for."
Comments like those always set a flush upon Weiss' face, no matter how hard she tried to fight it. What was almost worse was that Ruby was completely oblivious to the effect she caused with such statements. To the brunette, they were simple truths, meant to be uttered in the same breaths as any other.
To Weiss, they were declarations of true love - the type of love so unimaginable and inconceivable, she would never believe it to exist if she didn't feel it for Ruby in return.
When she sat beside Ruby, she realized that she was not nervous because she was worried that the brunette would say 'no' - she was absolutely certain that the girl would say yes, because Ruby loved Weiss just as much as Weiss loved her.
No, she was nervous because this was her chance. An opportunity she had been waiting to appear for quite some time. Because she wasn't like Ruby. She couldn't just make those simple declarations on a whim without even realizing it - she had to plan, prepare, and practice before doing anything of the sort.
But she wanted Ruby to know precisely how much she loved her. And this proposal would be the culmination of all that work - one giant proclamation of love versus the daily ones Ruby gave her.
So it was a big deal...to her, at least. She couldn't just 'wing it' like Yang had so astutely suggested several days ago.
It had to be right.
"Ruby…" she began, her voice coming out no louder than a whisper while her heart pounded in her ears. "Do you remember the day we became partners?"
The memory instantly lit up Ruby's face with a brilliant smile.
"Of course I do! It was one of the best days of my life!" the brunette responded joyfully, clearly not remembering any of the negative things Weiss had said to her on that day. But Ruby never seemed to remember the bad - something Weiss was eternally grateful for.
"I still remember how upset I was to get 'stuck' with you," she continued, finding it easier to speak when recalling a memory like this. "I thought that you were too young and immature to even be at the school."
"Well, I was both of those things," Ruby added with a laugh at her own expense.
"I know...but when I think about how I treated you back then...well, I wish that I could go back in time and slap myself."
Ruby turned towards her, silver eyes catching the evening sun and reflecting it back to Weiss. Her expression was the same as it always was when Weiss spoke about these things - pure forgiveness.
"I just...I certainly didn't know it at the time, but that was one of the best days of my life, too."
Grinning at the revelation, Ruby leaned over and bumped her shoulder gently into Weiss' in happiness.
Sucking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly, just as she had been taught in her breathing exercises, she decided that it was now or never.
And never certainly wasn't an option.
"I've been so blessed, Ruby, to be your partner for all these years."
Her voice was shaking now as she unlocked feelings that she normally kept under very firm control.
"I...when I got to Beacon, I wanted to have the best partner. The strongest, the most accomplished - someone who had already made a name for themselves - a name to go alongside my own."
"Like Pyrrha," Ruby quipped, already knowing that Pyrrha had been Weiss' desired partner when they had first been launched into the Emerald Forest.
"Yes…like Pyrrha…" she admitted once again, shaking her head slightly at how naive she had been back then.
"But, I could never, ever, have imagined that the short, fast, awkward little prodigy wearing a goofy red cape would end up being the best partner I ever could have wished for."
Ruby beamed at the comment, which gave Weiss the courage to continue. She turned sideways on the bench, with Ruby matching her movement so that they were both now sitting crosslegged facing each other. Reaching out, Weiss grabbed ahold of one of Ruby's hands, grasping it firmly in order to mask the slight tremors running through her own.
"Do you have any idea how thankful I am that it was you I found first in that forest?" she asked in a whisper, gazing deeply into calming pools of liquid silver.
"You've made my life better in every way imaginable...you've made me strive to become a better person - a better friend, a better daughter...and everyday I get to wake up beside you, I know that I'm the luckiest person alive."
In an uncharacteristic display of restraint, Ruby didn't immediately comment, somehow feeling that she should be silent and give Weiss the opportunity to say everything she wanted to say first.
"S-so I thought recently that I have everything I could possibly wish for, but there's still one little thing that would just be the cherry on top of our already amazing life together...a-and...that would be i-if...if I could call you my wife."
She momentarily dropped Ruby's hand while she held the small box in front of them, snapping it open with shaking hands to reveal an exquisite diamond ring shimmering inside. Ruby stared at the item as if it were the world's largest chocolate chip cookie - eyes wide as saucers with one hand raised to her mouth in shock.
"Ruby...will you marry me?"
Not one full second passed before a delightful squeal of glee emanated from the brunette as she threw herself at Weiss for a smothering hug, nearly knocking the ring right out of Weiss' hands.
"Yes! Of course I'll marry you, Weiss!"
Weiss had never imagined just how happy hearing those words would make her. It was like all of the times Ruby said 'I love you' rolled into one giant, gleeful package. She knew she was probably grinning like a complete idiot at that moment when Ruby pulled away and allowed Weiss to clumsily slip the new ring onto her finger, but she really didn't care.
She had said yes.
They were going to get married.
As soon as the ring was securely in place, the brunette surprised Weiss with a loving kiss on the lips. It was then that Weiss heard the loud 'whoop' of happiness coming from the trees surrounding them - suddenly reminding Weiss that they had had an audience this entire time.
Ruby heard the sound too and looked around them in surprise.
"Yang?"
Rustling branches nearby caught their attention just as a grinning blonde and her partner emerged from the tree line. The instant Ruby caught sight of her older sister, she jumped off of the bench and dashed into the brawler's strong embrace. Weiss stood and walked over to Blake, who was shaking her hand lightly as if it were in pain.
"I thought we weren't going to know you were here."
"That was the plan…" Blake replied slowly, sending a small glare in Yang's direction. "But she became pretty uncontrollable as soon as you made that 'cherry' comment - "
"You described your relationship like a hot fudge sundae, Weiss!" the blonde said as she burst into laughter, causing Weiss' cheeks to burn in embarrassment.
"I...I say things so in a way I know she'll understand!" she shot back in her defense, earning herself a blown kiss from her new fiancée while Yang continued to laugh.
"Anyway...I managed to restrain her until Ruby said yes...but then she...bit me."
Blake held up her hand which, sure enough, was indented with two rows of red bite marks.
Yang sputtered when everyone look at her in shock, clearly not having expected to be judged for her action.
"But you see...I...well...my little sister just got engaged! I had to congratulate her!" Yang nearly wailed as Blake and Ruby giggled at her discomfort.
"Wait, how did you guys even know we were out here?" Ruby asked suddenly, glancing between Yang and Weiss curiously.
Yang immediately spoke up, cutting Weiss off before she could get a word out.
"Weiss told me she was going to propose, so we came to watch," the blonde answered with a wink at Weiss. "And don't worry, Ruby. Me and her already had the talk."
"Yes, Ruby...she nearly convinced me not to propose at all," Weiss replied drying, crossing her arms over her chest when she remembered the emotional roller coaster Yang had put her through a few days earlier.
"Yang!" Ruby yelled, turning on her sister angrily. So far in this life, Ruby was the only one Weiss had ever seen who was able to make Yang shrink away in fear.
"I was just! You know...just trying to protect you?" the blonde said as she tried to defend herself from her little sister's wrath.
Weiss reached out and grabbed ahold of one of Ruby's hands, deciding to spare Yang's life - just this once.
"She was actually very insightful…" she admitted, before a thought popped into her head that could change the subject.
"Hey, I have an idea. Why don't we go out and celebrate?"
"Ohhh yes! I know! Let's get ice cream sundaes!" Ruby suggested, causing Blake and Yang to let out more laughter while Weiss just smiled and shrugged her shoulders.
"Sure, let's go get ice cream sundaes," she replied.
Ruby's eyes met hers, clearly surprised that she had agreed without any fight.
"Really?"
"Yes, really," Weiss responded, pulling the brunette close for another kiss.
"From here on out - whatever you want, consider it yours," Weiss whispered to the now blushing love of her life.
Yang let out a long, low whistle - cutting into their perfect moment, as usual.
"Hey, Blake, when do I get a promise like that?"
"Probably not anytime soon," Blake responded, holding up her injured hand as a reminder.
The blonde cringed at the sight, muttering, "Yeah, I'm going to be paying for that for awhile…" while running one hand nervously through her hair.
"But let's go celebrate with these lovebirds!" she said with a big grin. "Who just put the cherry on top of their relationship."
Yang burst into more giggles as she and Blake turned and made their way back to the house. Weiss felt her face flush as she grabbed ahold of Ruby's hand and followed their teammates back down the trail.
"Don't worry, Weiss," Ruby whispered from beside her. "I loved the analogy."
Weiss grinned as the house came back into view.
She had thought that getting married would mostly be a grand gesture - one to prove to Ruby how much she loved her. But as she squeezed Ruby's hand a little more tightly, reveling in the way she could feel the engagement ring press against her own hand, she realized that this might mean more to her than she had ever imagined it would.
It symbolized Ruby's promise to her just as much as Weiss'.
It symbolized the years they had spent together - the fights and arguments, the apologies and laughs, the hours and hours of work they each put into making this work.
For all their effort, they deserved a cherry on top, right?
After all, the cherry had always been her favorite part.
