I can honestly say I'm proud of the first part of the chapter. The second part…well…you'll see that when you get there. It had to be done, but for the life of me I had no clue how to do it. Any pointers for future moments of that same kind would be greatly appreciated. Also, just because I'm rather proud of the first part of this chapter doesn't mean you have to go easy on it. Feel free to tear it a new one, if you can provide me with some solid reasons for it. I always seek to better myself, so don't hold back. Only criticism brings improvement. With that out of the way, enjoy!

Chapter Nine: At Last

The night was cold. Despite the darkness, I could see my breath forming little white clouds in front of my face. Behind me, the smoke of our campfire came out through cracks in the rock that made up the roof of our little cave. I looked out over the swamp through Crescent Rose's scope. Nothing moved, other than some grass gently swaying in the wind. Just to be sure, I kept my aim focused on it for a moment to see if any Grimm would come out of it, but nothing happened. I lowered Crescent Rose and sighed. Watch duty was necessary, but on nights like these it was pretty boring. Then again, that was probably a good thing. At least we'd all be able to get enough sleep tonight. There were probably more than enough nights to come where we wouldn't get so lucky.

My scroll beeped once. I got up and stretched. My watch was over, now it was Blake's turn to gaze over the swamp for a few hours while nothing interesting whatsoever happened. I made my way down, already looking forward to the warming fire and some nice sleep. I almost wished I was still feeling sick, so I could ask Weiss to stroke my hair again, but she was probably asleep anyway. I entered the cave and gently shook Blake to wake her up.

"My turn?" she asked as soon as she was awake. I nodded, and Blake got up to make room for me.

As soon as Blake had left the cave, Weiss whispered, "Ruby? Can we…can we talk for a moment?"

She sat up now, facing the fire. Had she been waiting for me to finish my watch? I was curious, so I sat down right next to her so we could be as quiet as possible to not wake anyone up.

"What do you want to talk about?" I asked.

Weiss didn't look directly at me. Instead, she kept watching the flames. "The other day, when we were in that restaurant…do you remember what that waiter said to us?" she asked.

How could I have forgotten that? That, more than anything else, made me realize my crush on her. My heart started beating a little faster, but I tried to ignore it. Weiss probably said this for some other reason.

"I remember," I said.

Weiss swallowed. "Well, I, um, I was thinking about that, and…" She paused, finally turning away from the fire to look into my eyes. "Ruby, I think I've fallen in love with you."

I felt pinpricks all over my body and my heart now beat faster than the White Fang's machineguns. I was so stunned by what Weiss had just said I couldn't find the words to reply immediately. Weiss went on talking. "I realize you probably don't feel the same way, and I don't want this to change anything between us, but…"

"Weiss." She stopped talking when I said her name. I smiled at her. "I do feel the same way," I said.

She blinked a couple of times. "You…you do?" she asked.

I nodded. I looked into her eyes. Her beautiful, blue eyes. I wasn't sure what to do now. I'd never liked someone like this. I'd never had someone tell me they liked me like this. I began to lean closer to Weiss, slowly, hesitantly. She did the same thing. We kept looking into each other's eyes as our faces moved closer together. My heart was racing, and all kinds of thoughts went through my head. What if I'm a horrible kisser? What if I've got bad breath? What if…? I ignored the thoughts, drowned them out just by looking into Weiss's eyes as we got closer and closer still. She closed her eyes. I closed mine.

When my lips brushed hers, I felt like a shock ran through my entire body. I leaned in just a little bit more. Her lips were so soft, so warm, so nice. She smelled like the smoke of the fire, but beneath that I could smell the sweet scent of her shampoo. Nothing mattered right then but her, and the feeling of our lips touching. The Grimm didn't matter, the White Fang didn't matter…if the world had ended right at that moment, I wouldn't have noticed. I don't know how long we stayed liked that. It might have only been a few seconds, or it might have been hours. If it were up to me it would last forever.

Eventually, though, we pulled apart and opened our eyes, once again looking at each other. It was hard to see in the light of the fire, but I was sure we were both blushing like crazy.

"That was amazing," I whispered. Probably the most dorky thing I could have said right then, but it was the first thing that came to my mind.

"Was this your first kiss?" Weiss asked.

I nodded. "Was it yours?" I asked.

"No, but it was my first one with you…and it was definitely the best first kiss I've had," Weiss said.

"That was incredibly sappy," I told her. I loved the sappiness, but I just couldn't resist teasing her a bit.

"I was trying to be sweet, you dolt," Weiss said.

I wrapped my arms around her. "You're cute when you're annoyed," I said with a smile, nuzzling up to her as close as I could get. Now that I was over my insecurity I was back to my regular self…and now I actually had a reason to hug Weiss.

Weiss still acted huffy, but since she now had her arms around me as well I figured she was just doing it on principle.

"I was actually afraid you wouldn't feel the same way," Weiss whispered. "I was afraid you wouldn't want to be around me if you didn't, but I just had to say it."

I squeezed her closer to me. "I'm glad you did. I thought you liked Neptune and I was happy just being your friend, but I like this even better," I said.

"I did like Neptune…but when I began thinking about it I realized that you were the one with whom I wanted to be." It was just like Weiss to announce something like that so dryly she might have been giving a weather forecast. Still, that was just the way she was. I wouldn't have it any other way. "But the same went for me, you know," Weiss said. "I mean, I wasn't even sure you were into girls in the first place."

I shrugged, which is a pretty hard thing to do with your arms around someone. "I wasn't sure what I was into either," I said. "But I have always liked a lot of things about you. Like your confidence, and the fancy words you like to use. I even like the fact that you're a lefty like me," I went on, waving my left hand in front of her face for a moment before putting it back around her.

"You really like something so insignificant?" Weiss asked.

"Yup," I said cheerfully.

"You dolt," Weiss said, shaking her head in amusement.

"Yup," I repeated, just as cheerfully as before. "But I'm your dolt," I added.

"Yes you are," Weiss agreed.

For a moment we just sat there, enjoying the embrace were in. I closed my eyes. I heard Weiss's heartbeat through her chest. It was a very soothing sound to listen to. It was so comfortable I could've easily fallen asleep cuddled up with Weiss.

"So…does this mean you're my girlfriend now?" I asked, to keep myself awake.

Weiss nodded. I still had my eyes closed, but I could feel the movement. "Yes, Ruby, I'm your girlfriend now," she said. "And you're mine," she added. She sounded like she was very proud of that.

It was hard to believe that the girl who couldn't stand me at first was now my girlfriend, but here I was, with my arms around her and hers around me, half asleep next to a campfire.

"I think we should try to get some sleep," Weiss said.

"Can I stay with you?" I asked sleepily.

Weiss was silent for a moment. She seemed to hesitate, but then she said, "Yes. You can stay with me. Just give me a moment to lie down."

Unwillingly, I let go of Weiss so she could get into a sleeping position. I lay down next to her and wrapped myself around her again, burying my face in her hair.

"Good night, Weiss," I mumbled.

"Good night, Ruby," she whispered back. It didn't take long for me to fall asleep.


When I woke up, it took me a moment to realize I wasn't alone on the camping mat. Then, the memory of the night before hit me and I sat up excitedly…and saw Yang looking at me with a huge grin on her face. A grin she would refer to as a, well…you know, let's just say it was a huge grin.

"Good morning, sis," she said suspiciously cheerfully.

"Good morning?" I replied uncertainly.

"So how was your night?" she asked.

"Um…"

Yang's grin got even bigger. It's a miracle it still fit on her face.

Now Weiss began to wake up as well. "What's with all the…?"

"Good morning, Weiss," Yang said, in the same cheerful tone she'd been using to talk to me.

Weiss immediately sat up straight. "Oh God no," she said.

"Why so apprehensive, Weiss?" Yang asked. "It's not like I'll send the pictures I took while you were all cuddled up to Team JNPR…oh wait, I just did."

"YOU DID WHAT?!" Weiss exploded, and she jumped forward to strangle Yang.

"How did you even have range here?" Blake, who had so far kept out of the conversation, asked.

Holding Weiss away from her with one arm, Yang replied, "We're close enough to Mistral City." Her scroll beeped. "Oh look, it's from Pyrrha. She says she's really happy for Ruby and Weiss, and that Jaune bashed his head against the wall when he saw the picture. Sounds about right," she said. "I bet Pyrrha was really overjoyed to see it, though. Maybe Jaune will finally give her some attention now," she went on.

Weiss gave up her attempts at murdering Yang, and instead settled for giving her a death glare. To be totally honest, that had gone better than I'd expected. At least Yang didn't begin about…

"So when are you going to do it? At least you don't have to worry about unwanted pregnancies," Yang said.

I groaned loudly and pulled my hood over my face. "Yang! I so don't want to hear this," I said.

"But why not?" Yang asked. "After all, it's natural for you to have certain…interests, certain…curiosities."

I shuddered and hid deeper in my hood, but Weiss had a very different reaction.

"YANG XIAO LONG, I WILL END YOU!" Weiss lunged forward again while Yang roared with laughter.

"Good morning, ladies. What is going on here?" Dr. Oobleck asked from the entrance of the cave.

"Weiss is attempting to murder Yang," Blake said dryly.

"Yes, so it would appear. May I ask why? And while we're at it, why is Miss Rose hiding behind her hood?" Dr. Oobleck asked, entirely ignoring the fight between Yang and Weiss.

"I was just making some jokes," Yang told Dr. Oobleck.

"You had your mind in the gutter, you insufferable pervert," Weiss protested.

"I'm not the one who wants to get freaky with a fifteen year-old girl, though," Yang pointed out.

"I am not 'getting freaky' with anyone!" Weiss yelled. "We kissed exactly once, if you must know, and I'm perfectly fine with taking this slowly."

"Weiss, please don't give her more material," I pleaded from behind my hood. But of course, my warning came too late.

"Oh, so you like to make love slowly? Like how, with a nice jazzy tune?" Yang said.

If I could've gone straight through the muddy ground I would have done it.

"Miss Xiao Long, while I appreciate a good joke every now and then, I must ask you to stop antagonizing Miss Schnee," Dr. Oobleck said. "And Miss Schnee, murdering your teammate would be counterproductive, so I'd appreciate it if you could refrain from doing so."

He didn't raise his voice at all when he said those words, but the authority in them was so absolute that both Weiss and Yang immediately stopped their fight.

"Thank you. Now, then, I inferred from all of this that Miss Schnee and Miss Rose seem to have entered into a romantic relationship. Am I correct in that?" I looked at Weiss, and then we both nodded.

Dr. Oobleck's face remained expressionless, and for a moment I thought he was going to scold us for it, but then he smiled widely and said, "How amazing! It's always great to see young love blooming! Congratulations to the two of you!"

"Uh, thanks, Dr. Oobleck," I said uncertainly.

"Yes, thank you," Weiss said as well, still giving Yang an angry look.

Yang raised her hands in a gesture of surrender. "I really am happy for you two. I just…got carried away a little. Sorry about that. I can't make any promises not to joke about it again, though," she said, again with a grin.

Weiss grumbled something, but I smiled at Yang to show her I wasn't angry. Horribly embarrassed, maybe, but not angry. I was actually glad that she was so supportive of it. Yang's opinion means a lot to me, and if she had been against it, it just wouldn't have felt right.

"I'm happy for you as well," Blake said. I smiled at her, and she smiled back.

"Now then, with that taken care of, we still have a mission to worry about," Dr. Oobleck said, getting down to business. "First of all, I want to discuss what went wrong last night. Somehow, they knew we were coming."

"There was a good reason for that," Blake said. "I heard one of the guards on patrol mentioning that a light was seen in the field, and that it was immediately assumed we were infiltrators because people had been asking around town about the rally."

Dr. Oobleck stroked his chin. "A light, you say?"

Blake nodded. "I think I know what it was. You checked your scroll, and they must have seen that."

Dr. Oobleck blinked a couple of times. "How could have I been so careless?! Of course their sensitive eyes would have seen it. That means we were found out before we even got close," he said.

"Not entirely," Yang objected. "Yes, you and Weiss were spotted, but they didn't know we would be coming from two angles. And because they already knew you were coming from the north, they didn't bother keeping a good watch on everything else."

"It has always been a weakness of the more militant members of the White Fang," Blake took over. "They see themselves as so superior to Humans, they can easily be tricked if they believe they have the upper hand."

Dr. Oobleck nodded. "I see. Then can it be assumed that the information they gave the recruits at the rally was legitimate?" he asked.

Blake nodded. "I think so. Adam is one of the few members of the White Fang who knows better than to give his enemies real information. The guy who held yesterday's rally was one of the many with near suicidal overconfidence."

Weiss scoffed. "He has absolutely no spine whatsoever," she said angrily. "Who in their right mind would give him command over anything?"

Blake surprised everyone by laughing at that question. "They actually do that on purpose," she said. "At each rally, there are a few good fighters, but generally the spokespeople are just there to rile up the crowd. They're not selected for their competence. There was a time when the speakers at rallies were the smartest of us, with the best education, but the new leader abolished that because charisma brought in more cannon fodder." She clenched her fists. "Everything that was good and noble about the White Fang was destroyed by the new regime."

Yang put her hand on Blake's shoulder. "We'll stop them, Blake. That's our mission, isn't it?" she asked Dr. Oobleck.

"Not precisely," Dr. Oobleck answered. "We know that Roman Torchwick worked with the White Fang, so we feel someone else is pulling their strings. However, the White Fang are currently the only lead we have. If our enemy is pulling their strings, we must keep tracking down the White Fang."

I looked at Weiss while Dr. Oobleck was still talking about how vital it was to keep tracking the White Fang. She noticed me looking at her, and I smiled. She smiled back at me. In my head, I flashed back to our first, and so far only, kiss. I felt all warm and fuzzy inside just thinking about it.

Dr. Oobleck was still talking about the White Fang, and from what I could tell he was pretty much on repeat at this point. "So, Dr. Oobleck, what will our next move be?" I asked him.

Dr. Oobleck stopped his monologue, and my teammates seemed grateful that I had stopped him. "They mentioned having a base in the southern swamps. That, then, will be our next destination. Now, the southern swamps are big and home to many amphibious Grimm. We shall have to be on our guard at all times. Are you all ready for this task?" he asked, looking at each of us in turn.

"I'm always ready," Yang said cockily.

Blake just nodded.

"I'm ready, too," Weiss said.

"Where Weiss goes, I go as well," I said, earning myself a painfully sweet 'Awwwwww' from Yang.

I ignored my sister and stood next to Weiss, who had begun to blush at my remark. Dr. Oobleck nodded in approval. "Very well then. We shall set off to the southern swamps immediately."

Shortest chapter thus far, woohoo. I'm sorry for that exposition dump. I just wanted to briefly explain why the White Fang knew the group was coming, and why Yang and Blake weren't detected, as well as giving the next marker for the plot. Aside from that, a small word of warning. With the first kiss done, this fic will gradually start moving toward the moment where the M rating it's had since Chapter One will finally come into play. It won't be for a while yet, but I figured I'd warn you early. Don't forget to leave a review and again, if you have any tips on avoiding exposition dumps like this one, don't hesitate to tell me. See you next time!