Chapter 10

Tuesday evening had rolled around, and the four members of team RWBY were by the Vale dockside, waiting for the sisters' boat to signal. Classes had ended just over an hour ago, and the four of them had hurried over immediately after. The sisters would be gone until Sunday evening, meaning 5 days away from Beacon.

Some people were taking the imminent separation better than others.

"Make sure you call me when you get there!" Weiss repeated for what Ruby was sure was at least the tenth time in the last hour.

"I will, and every day." Ruby smiled weakly, but Weiss had been doing this for the whole day, only letting up during class, and then passing the odd note anyway. On the one hand, Ruby was happy that Weiss was so worried, on the other it was starting to get just a tiny bit repetitive.

"And don't eat too many cookies, and do try to stay rested, you're not meant to be doing anything too physically active this week still."

"Weiss, I know," Ruby beamed at her. "I'll be fine, I managed to survive the first fifteen years before I met you, I can manage not to get myself killed for five days without you."

"Yes you managed fifteen years, but if you get hurt now it's my problem!" Weiss looked at her feet, "So... you know... be careful... come back to me in one piece."

Ruby hugged the heiress, "Will do!"

Yang and Blake were chatting a little distance from the couple, close enough that they clearly belonged, but far enough to give the two a little space.

"So how are you going to survive without me for a whole five days?" Yang asked. "You won't get a look at this for nearly a week." As she spoke drew her hands out to indicated herself.

"I think I'll survive. I'm more worried about those two being all mopy for the duration."

Yang chuckled, "Well you take care of yourself... and Weiss."

"I'll try."

"Just don't let her wilt and die. If anyone or anything is going to kill that girl, it'll be me."

Blake smiled at that. Yang had said it as a definite joke that time. The blonde finally seemed to be accepting the relationship between Ruby and Weiss. Blake suspected the time away and the prospect of Ruby having to depend on Yang for the duration were helping the situation.

"I'll do my best, though no promises. If she starts whining about being lonely, I might have to do her in myself."

A horn sounded from the ship, signalling it would be leaving soon, and the sisters grabbed up their packs, then turned to their partners once more.

"Take care," Weiss said as she and Ruby hugged. "I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you too." Ruby gave Weiss a quick peck on the cheek, then they broke off the hug.

Next to them, Yang bear-hugged Blake, "See ya later kitty."

"'Til Sunday."

"Yeah, laters!" Yang released the girl, and the two sisters hurried off to their boat, waving at their partners as they ran.

"So... it'll be just the two of us for a while," Blake said as she turned to Weiss.

Weiss was staring after the sisters, at the last point where she had seen a red cloak vanish around a corner. "Oh great... I miss her already."

Blake glanced back to where she had lost sight of the sisters. "I can't exactly blame you." Blake smiled, "But you know, we can spend some time doing quiet things, without our favourite distractions for once."

Weiss giggled, "So... pyjama book party?"

Blake smirked, "Totally."

The book party was a quiet affair, unsurprisingly. Blake was genuinely finding the chance to make headway in her pile of books pleasant. Weiss was finding it unnerving.

Normally, she would sit down with a book, and within ten minutes, Ruby would start asking questions:

"What're you reading Weiss?"

"Weiss, can you help with my homework?"

"Weiss, will you come and train with me?"

Now that there were no questions forthcoming, it just made Weiss feel weird. One could apparently get used to the strangest things. Every so often, she would glance at her scroll, hoping that it would ring, signalling Ruby's call. But silence reigned. Eventually, the break from the silence came from Blake.

"Hey, Weiss, you wanna go get dinner soon?"

"Eh?" Weiss had been staring at her scroll again. Blake's words startled her and she stared at the faunus for a moment. "Sorry, what did you say?"

"Dinner? Soon?"

"Uh... sure..."

Blake frowned, "It's been an hour or so, is it really getting to you already?"

Weiss frowned, "Just a bit..."

"You really are hopeless."

Weiss frowned, "I know... I know..."

"Well she's probably missing you just as much."

Weiss sighed, "That just makes it worse..."

"Really? If she didn't miss you then you'd be okay with it?"

"You know what I mean."

"No, I don't."

Weiss stared at the faunus, and her words began to click into place, and Weiss understood what she wanted to say.

"I'm sure Yang will miss you as well."

"Really? I'm not so sure."

Weiss smiled, "I'm pretty sure she depends on you a lot more than you think. Who else would stop her from going overboard?"

Blake gave a light laugh at that. "I suppose... well with any luck they'll both survive without us. Now come on, we need to survive too, which means eating."

"Yeah..." Weiss pulled herself up, then slipped her scroll into her pocket, before making her way down to dinner with Blake.

Dinner had been quiet, at least until team JNPR joined them. Weiss and Blake had somehow extracted themselves from the madness that was Nora, and left after eating. Blake had gone to the library, while Weiss sat in their dorm room, trying to focus on some work, but really just constantly gazing at her scroll.

'They should have arrived by now... what's the hold-up?' Weiss tried to drag her attention back to the essay on grimm habits she was writing, but whenever she wrote a sentence, her mind would wander mid-way through. 'How can I be acting like this? It's like I'm some idiot in love, and I am definitely not an idiot.'

Weiss finally managed to force herself to focus on what she was doing, and managed to write a few paragraphs. As ever when waiting for something, the moment she stopped paying attention to it, her scroll rang.

In a second she had dropped her pen, grabbed her scroll, and pressed the button to receive the call. "Hello?"

"Weiss? That was fast."

Ruby's voice through the scroll was music to Weiss's ears, and a balm to her soul. "Yeah, well I was just working on that essay Professor Port set us today, so I was desperate for something else to do." That was not a complete lie at least.

Ruby seemed to buy the excuse, "Well we've arrived. I would have called you sooner, but Uncle Qrow had dinner ready for when we arrived, so we went straight to that, and there was no chance to leave politely... ya know, first time we've seen each other in months, had to do a little catching up."

"Fair enough. Was the journey all right?"

"Yeah, pretty boring, except Yang was somehow managing to make a lot of bad jokes about everything... or 'aboat' everything as she put it..."

Weiss's face contorted a little at the joke, "That sounds... disheartening."

"I'm just glad she's in a good mood again."

"Yeah..." Weiss did not want to talk about that issue. "But anyway, have you had a chance to see your father yet?"

"No, he's still in hospital and we arrived too late to go visit. We'll be going to see him tomorrow morning. Apparently he's out of any danger though."

"That's a relief..."

"By the way, Weiss... we didn't get the chance to talk about this, what should I say to Dad about... us?"

Weiss paused to consider the question. It was a tough one, but needed an answer. "Tell him as much as you think sensible. He deserves to know. Although... I'm a little worried."

"Don't worry, Dad's, like, super-non-judgemental."

"I can imagine, but he knew my father once, and well... people who know my father seldom get a good impression."

"I'm sure it'll be fine. Strange isn't it though, that they knew each other? It's a small world eh?"

"I suppose so."

"So anyway, how's it going without us around? You missing me yet?"

'More than you can imagine.' "It's been quiet. I've been able to make some good headway on my dust research."

"A~w, you're supposed to say you miss me more than you can imagine, or something like that."

'Does this girl read minds or something?' "Okay, okay, I do miss you, idiot."

"I'm kinda glad... though not that you're sad, I mean, I'm just glad 'cause it means you really are happy when I'm around, and that makes me happy."

From across the line, Weiss heard another female voice, she suspected Yang's, calling out to Ruby.

"Coming! Sorry Weiss, I need to go."

"Okay, well I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"Sure, after dinner good?"

"Yeah. Well, goodbye for now."

"Okay, bye bye, love ya!"

Ruby cut the call, and Weiss stared at the scroll. 'That idiot cut it off before I could reply... idiot.'

Weiss stared up at the ceiling, and smiled to herself. "I love you too Ruby."

Day 1. Mood: lonely. Situation: moping about, waiting for Ruby to return.

Weiss stared blankly at the board as the lecturer took them through some dust-related topic. She knew the stuff like the back of her hand, but that was not the reason she had stopped paying attention.

'I love you.'

Finally, she had said it. True, Ruby had not heard it, but at least now she could voice it. It was the case, she loved Ruby Rose. Perhaps not passionately and madly, but she definitely loved the girl. Facing being apart, even for such a short time, had taught her that. She had never missed anyone so much: not her family, not any friends, no-one.

Blake had spaced out next to her, the faunus clearly pining for her own partner. Blake still had not said it directly, but Weiss knew that Blake had something for Yang. Those feelings were also being drawn out by their separation.

Weiss kept her eye in the direction of the lecturer, not really taking the woman in, or even hearing a word she said. All Weiss wanted was to get to the end of the day so that Ruby would call her again.

"That's all for this lesson. Make sure you all turn in your homework by Friday."

At the lecturer's words, the class began to leave. Weiss and Blake both sluggishly picked up their things, and headed towards the canteen for lunch.

"When will this week end?" Weiss asked as the pair left the lecture theatre.

"About 100 hours... we can last..." Blake had a sullen look on her face. "But dammit I need a terrible joke right now."

"It saddens me that the dessert section will still have cookies when we get there."

"I need someone to mope at me about their friends' relationships."

"Really?"

Blake shrugged, "It helps to pass the time."

Weiss sighed, "Well anyway, let's look on the bright side... er... what was the bright side again?"

"Peace and quiet?"

"Overrated."

"A chance to do some work?"

"I'll spend next week helping Ruby catch up, net loss I reckon."

"Uh... I dunno, not having to hide the cookies and not having to clean up rose petals?"

"Let's go with that. So yeah, let's be glad we don't have to do either of those things."

"Have you even moved the cookies?" Blake asked.

"No I haven't wanted to eat any."

"Come to think of it, we should probably clean anyway, while those two aren't around to make a mess as we're cleaning..."

"Blake, stop ruining my silver lining!"

The two girls managed to make it to the canteen, get their food, and collapse at a table. As Weiss dejectedly reached for her fork to start eating, her scroll buzzed. She took it out, and found she had received a message from Ruby.

Instantly her eyes lightened up, and she checked the message's contents.

'Hey Weiss. I talked to Dad about us and he seemed cool about it. He was a bit surprised when I said who you were, but he was fine about everything. Talk to you later.'

"Something good?" Blake asked, having noticed Weiss's eagerness.

"It's from Ruby. Apparently her father is completely fine with our relationship... I have to say I'm a little relieved."

"You thought there'd be a problem?"

"I feared there would be. But, realistically, anyone who could raise Ruby and Yang would have to be incredibly open-minded."

Blake chuckled. "Yeah, I suppose so."

The two girls ate, silence surrounding them until it was suddenly broken, in possibly the second most typical way the girls were used to.

"Hello!" Nora's excited call alerted the pair to the approaching team JNPR.

"Well there goes the peace and quiet," Weiss muttered as she and Blake turned to the four approaching students.

"Hey guys, how's it going?" Pyrrha asked as the four seated themselves at the table next to Weiss and Blake.

"Quietly... or rather it was..." Weiss replied, shooting a brief glare at Nora. "But yes, no Ruby and Yang means it's been quite peaceful."

"It must be a bit boring without those two around though," Jaune said as he took his seat next to Pyrrha. "I mean, with them around it can't often be boring."

"No... 'boring' is definitely not the word for either of them," Blake replied with a smirk.

Jaune and Pyrrha nodded knowingly, as Nora went off on a lengthy talk in Ren's direction. Ren for his part just sat there, starting on his meal before it got cold, occasionally giving a nod or noise of assent to Nora's comments.

The conversation continued, with the recent lectures, upcoming tests, and the tournament in a few weeks each getting a mention. Through all of it, Weiss and Blake both managed to forget their feelings of loneliness, if only briefly.

"I'm totally going to fail that test on dust..." Jaune sadly sighed. "I just don't get it at all."

"It's really simple, I don't get what you find so hard about it," Weiss replied with a disparaging look.

"Well I'm sorry that I wasn't brought up with it all around me," Jaune sighed again. "But seriously it's insanely hard."

"It's also insanely useful," Pyrrha pointed out. "I wish I could use dust."

"You can't? I suppose I never saw you use any. How come you never learned?" Jaune asked.

"Low compatibility. I was born not to be good at it," Pyrrha shrugged. "At least, not good enough for it to be time-efficient in a fight."

"I see..." Jaune mused. "How does that work again?"

"Some people are good with dust, some aren't, that do?" Weiss put in. "Seriously, we covered this in detail in class, how can you not remember?"

"Er... you know, it didn't seem important."

"And what if you're fighting someone who can use dust?"

Jaune frowned, "Well I'd hope I won't have to fight people anyway, but if I did I don't imagine thinking 'oh this guy must have high compatibility' is really going to help more than 'this guy can throw fireballs at me.'"

Weiss realised she had reached a new low: Jaune was being sarcastic to her. "Well see how far that gets you. Anyway, if you would excuse me," Weiss stood, "I need to go to the library."

"See you later!" Pyrrha called out after Weiss's retreating form.

Evening arrived again, and Weiss sat staring at her scroll. Ruby would be calling soon, and she needed to hear the girl's voice. She had once again made a pretence to herself of working, only to spend so long staring at her scroll that she gave up the attempt. Blake had once again disappeared shortly after dinner.

'Come on Ruby, it's nearly 8.30, you must have finished eating by now.'

Weiss continued to silently urge the scroll to ring, and when it finally did, she wanted to immediately pick up, the same way she had the day before, but now she was more sedate, forcing herself to slowly pick it up, then let it ring a few times before accepting the call.

"Hello?"

"Weiss! How's it going?"

"Acceptably."

"Well that's... okay I guess. Why only acceptably?"

'Because you're across a sizeable body of water,' Weiss thought to herself. "Well you know, without you two around I have nobody to scold."

"A~w, really, is that all I'm good for?"

"Of course not you dolt." Weiss noticed the hint of tenderness which had crept into her voice. "I'm just bored with nobody talking my ear off. It seems as though I've grown accustomed to background noise."

"I'm... not sure if that's some sort of compliment or not."

"Pretend it is and let's move on."

"Okay."

Weiss smiled. This was what she needed, every hour of every day: Ruby being the loveable idiot who had stolen away Weiss's heart. She was quite relieved that Ruby could not see the joy and embarrassment painted on her face.

"So, how was your father?"

"Surviving. He was about as badly injured as he could be without his vitals being harmed. He got lucky though, and everything missed the important areas."

"And... what exactly did he say about us?"

Ruby hesitated briefly, soliciting a frown from Weiss. Ruby would only hesitate if something was wrong, so what was it?

"Well, you know how I said he was surprised it was you... when I told him your name, he looked shocked, and said something about... er, 'That Bastard Schnee's girl.'"

'Still not the least polite mode of address my father has solicited,' Weiss mused to herself. "But you said..."

"Yes, I told him I loved you, and that your father had at least okayed it, and that seemed to make him accept everything. Though I think he said that if you hurt me he'd... uh... what was it again? Oh yeah, he would 'feed your spine to an ursa, and the rest of your to a nevermore.'"

"What did you say to that?"

"Well Yang said that she'd already called dibs on getting you, so they spent the next half an hour agreeing on what each of them got to do..."

Weiss gulped, "What is it with our families and threats involving our lives?"

Ruby giggled, "Well it's all fine as long as we stay together forever, right?"

"That sounds like a good plan," Weiss replied.

They chatted a little more, until finally Ruby had to leave.

"Well, I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"Okay, until tomorrow."

"Love you!"

Again, Ruby hung up as words caught in Weiss's throat. Weiss stared at the scroll, a sad look in her eyes.

"I love you too idiot."

The week gradually passed, until Sunday arrived. Each day, Weiss and Blake would mope about, and each evening Weiss would fail to say what she wanted to Ruby. Perhaps it was for the best, she realised. It would be much better to say it face to face.

Now, Weiss and Blake sat on a bench just outside the docks, waiting. Both were impatient, staring at the main exit from the port.

"So... before they arrive, will you answer my question at last?"

Weiss stared at Blake, "Which one?"

"Do you love Ruby yet?"

Weiss sighed, "I'll answer if you answer mine."

"Which one?"

"Do you love Yang?"

"Okay... how about on 3?"

Weiss nodded, "1... 2... 3..."

"Of course!" Both girls spoke in unison. The serious faces that had come over them when they began faded, replaced by amused looks, then both burst out laughing.

"So... are you going to confess to her?" Weiss asked.

"Yes, probably. I don't know when," Blake smiled. "But I do know that it will be amazing."

"Well, please do not take a note out of Ruby's book for confession methods."

"It worked didn't it?"

"After nearly killing her, yes."

"Well maybe I'd die for a date with Yang."

"Really? That does not sound like a good exchange."

"Har-har-har, see how I'm laughing so hard?"

Weiss smirked, "I'm just saying, you would not be good at economics."

Blake sighed, "Whatever, I don't make fun of you and Ruby... too much."

"Your partner does it enough for both of you."

"Whatever."

Weiss smirked, then looked over to the dock entrance as she noticed a bright golden object in her periphery. "Speaking of her..."

Blake looked up, and saw Yang and Ruby walking out of the dock. The two girls stood from the bench and waved over to their partners, who jogged up.

"WEISS!" Ruby threw herself at her girlfriend. "I missed you so much Weiss I can't believe it!"

"Ruby, calm down, we're in public," Weiss hissed. Ruby pouted but removed herself from Weiss. The pout broke quickly though, forming a bright smile.

"Hey Blakey, how's it going?" Yang smirked at her friend.

"I don't really know, it suddenly became a lot noisier."

Yang chuckled, "So, you miss me Kitty?"

"Maybe," Blake smiled. "How was your trip?"

"Eh... all right, but it was hard to stop Ruby and Dad from getting up and going to hunt grimm for no reason. Seriously, I thought I was bad at sitting still, give those two a doctor's order and wait for the explosion when they build up too much energy."

Blake raised an eyebrow, "Yeah... I think you need to be put in that category too. Only with you the explosion would be literal."

"Well... I reckon you'd like it if I exploded in just the right way, all... over... you..." Yang smirked, punctuating her last words with seductive movements. Or rather, movements that should have been seductive, but Yang was trying not to laugh a bit too obviously while doing them.

"Hey, not in front of the kids, d~arling." Blake waved a finger, chiding the blonde.

"Would you two get a room?" Weiss asked. "I mean, the real couple here is less... distracting than the pair of you."

"Eh? What's to say we aren't a real couple?" Yang put an arm around Blake's shoulder, "What do you say Blake? Want to be taken out by yours truly?"

Blake had suddenly gone rigid, and slowly raised a hand to remove Yang's arm. "That's enough, come on, let's go."

Blake turned and began leading the way towards the airships for them to go back to Beacon. Yang stared after her, a confused look on her face, "Was it something I said?"

'No, it was the way you said it, idiot.' Weiss did not reply, but simply sighed, then turned to Ruby, "Come on, we'd better get going."

Ruby looked a little worried, but nodded. They began walking, when Yang looked at the pair, and smirked, "Why don't you two stay out for dinner, you could do with some time right? And I think I need to talk to Blake..."

'Yang being considerate and aware of others' feelings? I didn't realise it was the End of Times today.' Weiss glanced at Ruby, "You want to go to a restaurant?"

Ruby nodded, and smiled, "Definitely."

"Well, see you two later," Yang ran off, with suitcase in one hand, and waving with the other.

"Well, shall we?" Weiss asked, and Ruby nodded. The pair started walking, quickly settling on a nearby curry-house. A little beneath the sort of place Weiss normally ate at, but she was not going to object.

"So," Weiss said. "What is there that we haven't talked about yet? Was the trip back okay?"

"More boat puns, some of them recycled, and Yang seemed to be excited to see Blake again..." Ruby paused, "Well I hope she sorts her mess out now."

"The idiot, how can she not see what Blake is feeling?"

"Wait, you mean, Blake..." dots were joining together in Ruby's head.

"Right, you did not hear it from me... okay Blake will know, of course you heard it from me, but anyway: yes, Blake has feelings for Yang."

Ruby stared at Weiss, then her mouth fell open slightly. "Oh... my... gosh golly, wow! That is awesome!"

Weiss stared at Ruby surprised, "How so?"

"Well... Yang may kinda have told me that she likes Blake."

Weiss stared at her partner. "Ah..."

When they returned to the dormitory, Weiss and Ruby had expected a variety of things. These had varied from a furious Blake and begging Yang, to a calmed pair yet to admit their feelings, to a loving pair being almost as nauseating as Weiss and Ruby knew they themselves must be.

What the two of them had not expected was clothes strewn on the floor, hither and thither, and Blake and Yang both asleep, fortunately covered, in Blake's bed.

Ruby stared from clothes to bed, to clothes. "Well that was... unexpected... and quick."

Weiss stared. Her gaze had fixed on a black lacy bra, which lay on the top of a few other clothes. Slowly, she turned her gaze to the pair in bed. "They are going to have some explaining to do later..."

Edit: Okay, that stupid plot-hole thing in this chapter? I finally got around to fixing it... it's only, like a year since I finished the original story, right? Also just cleaned up some grammar and stuff... so yeah, that's a thing.

A/N: 'S.S. White Rose, come in, this is S.S. Bumblebee, we are afloat, I repeat, we are afloat.'

*Ahem* Yes, so there we go. There shall be much rejoicing for all the Bumblebee fans and all that. So I actually managed to answer all of the questions from last chapter, neat.

So, lacking anything else to say, I'm going to go on to the important stuff: I am slightly modifying my schedule for this! Now, before you all get upset, let me clarify: I will still be updating once per week. However, it will be much more rigid: I will be sending the new chapter to be proofread each Thursday (or Friday if I'm really desperate) and posting the chapter on Saturday (or Sunday if we've fallen behind for some reason). As I write slightly more than one chapter per week, this will allow me to get myself ahead, so that if things come up, I can make sure to stick to the schedule.

The reason I'm doing this is that my University term just started, and the extra work on top of writing this and my book is manageable at the moment, but I don't want to get to a point where I have to drop anything. So yes, all updates will now be on Saturdays (my time) unless there is a major issue (e.g. I can't get to a computer on the day) in which case I will try to post beforehand, but it may have to be delayed.

Again, a big thank you to CBV for proofreading this. Though I did just spot another mistake that we both missed... man, dis scrub. :p But yeah, that's all for now, so...

'Til Eternity Ends

E.D.