Ruby pulled a stale block of bubblegum from the pocket of her hoodie, eyes widening in delight at the small treasure before popping the wad into her mouth. She worked furiously on the piece of gum, ignoring the faintest taste of lint that lingered along her tongue.
Ruby walked aimlessly, veering side to side as she shuffled along the cobblestones of Beacon. Weekends were nice –it wasn't often that she had time to herself. Every minute of her life was with her team or training partners or Grimm or friends or – a nervous giggle bubbled from the base of Ruby's throat.
Cinder.
Cinder seemed to be ever present in the grand scheme of Ruby's mind, pressed and stung into her thoughts and daydreams. The sun was rising – gentle light glimmering blandly through a patchwork of clouds. Ruby dug her hands deeper into her hoodie – morning chill crawled down her spine in sprightly jumps.
Ruby hadn't been getting much sleep lately. She was never tired at the right times and she had found that the training room was emptier at four in the morning. Slipping out of her dorm room at night had become practiced habit – it had been almost crucial that she left after watching her sister kiss Blake all gentle and sweet and soft.
It wasn't that she was grossed out by the contact; Yang had had boyfriends and girlfriends over all the time at their house on Patch, and she had been exposed to a lot more than kissing if she walked into her sister's room to search for a hair tie at the wrong moment.
It was more about the quiet calm of their touches – Blake and Yang moved like lazy lawn cats in the sun, stretching and warming their skin with each other's. The phantom feeling of Cinder's fingers in her mouth made Ruby shudder. At the exact instance when Cinder was sucking a mark onto her skin, nothing else mattered and Ruby wouldn't have cared if the entire congregation of Vale watched her writhe and moan under Cinder. But in the sudden chill of Cinder's absence, shame dripped along the fingerprints on her thighs and guilt curled around the pit of her stomach like a commanding grip.
Ruby blew out a shaky breath and took off in a flurry of rose petals.
Cinder sat upright in her bunk, gazing outside her half-curtained window. The sun rose slowly, muddied spectrums of light dusting parts of her dorm room in abstract patterns and shapes. A lit cigarette was pressed between her lips, a cloud of smoke shrouding her eyes in a weak parody of a funeral veil. Cinder fiddled with her lighter, fingers searching out the thumbwheel by muscle memory.
A flame burst alive in a sleepy corona, its spine slowly straightening when Cinder blew along the sides of it. The tips of the spark began to burn blue, searching for anything to latch onto and consume whole.
A knock came from outside her door, and Cinder extinguished the flame and sent the lighter into a pile of creased blankets. Cinder reached up to take a drag and stood to check on her visitor.
She opened the door halfway – she was only dressed in a bralette and sleep shorts – when Ruby collapsed into her, arms locked around her waist like an anchor. Cinder gasped softly and laughed around her cigarette, closing the door with her foot.
Cinder walked backwards, running her fingers through Ruby's hair and tugging on the ends a bit. Cinder fell onto her bed with the Huntress attached to her, and she set to work to pry Ruby of her waist.
When Ruby was detached from her waist and propped against a bedpost, Cinder smiled lazily. She tapped the ashes from her cigarette with a crooked finger and brought it to her mouth again.
"To what do I owe the pleasure, little rose?" Cinder asked, her voice husky with the traces of nicotine along her lungs. Cinder ran a hand through her hair and yawned, shoulders concaving forwards until her bra straps threatened to slip.
Ruby's fingers slipped together into a white-knuckled cluster.
"Cinder – I – I'm not being bad, right?" Ruby asked suddenly, her voice stilted with uncertainty.
Cinder blinked, taken aback, and tilted her head to the left, onyx hair falling rumpled along her shoulder blades and curling around her cheek. She took a hasty drag before speaking again; smoke curling out of her mouth like frost.
"Whatever do you mean, sweetling?"
Ruby stood and began to pace the worn carpet of Cinder's dorm room.
"I don't want to be a bad person. I – I feel like I've been sneaking around a lot, and I feel guilty but I don't know what for. I j-just don't like feeling like this." The last word broke off in Ruby's mouth like a glass shard, and tears glimmered in the younger girl's eyes.
Ruby glanced back at Cinder. It was clear the Huntress was desperate for some sort of validation that she was still good inside. Cinder clucked her tongue in a quiet way, lips pursed in worry.
"Come here, pet."
When Ruby faltered, Cinder clamped the rest of her cigarette between her teeth and grabbed one of Ruby's trembling hands in her steady one. Cinder dragged Ruby onto her lap, fingers finding the strip of skin where the younger girl's shirt rucked up around her waist. Ruby reacted immediately, turning herself around in Cinder's lap to face the older woman.
It was a deadly cocktail of instinct and practice – pleasing Cinder was second nature to Ruby, and every word of praise that she received was infectious and dizzying.
Cinder smiled – the rise in the girl's courage had been amusing to watch, the way her fingers began to take claim of skin as if it were own was the perfect payoff after constant weeks and days of coaxing and teasing and seduction.
Ruby nuzzled against Cinder's cheek, leaving behind a trail of damp tears as she kissed her temple.
"I don't wanna be bad, Cinder." Ruby whispered, pulling back to face Cinder. "I'm not… right?" Cinder made a noise of sympathy and brushed Ruby's hair behind her ears.
Her cigarette had found itself in a precarious hold between her index and middle finger, but Cinder sought out another draw before blowing the smoke into perfect ringlets toward the ceiling.
"Poor petal. Of course you're not a bad girl – I don't think you could be bad if you tried. As long as you're enjoying yourself, I think you're as good as good gets." Cinder tugged on Ruby's chin with her thumb, the slightest jerk to part Ruby's mouth.
Cinder's smile was wicked in the hazy light of the room. She placed her half-finished cigarette between Ruby's lips, upper lip curling in delight as Ruby gasped. A draft of smoke billowed in her mouth, forcing its way into her lungs and squeezing in a death grip.
Ruby coughed, leaning forward to spill the air out of her mouth, and her eyes watered painfully. But Ruby forced herself upright and blew out a shaky waver of smoke. Cinder smiled in delight.
"But then again…" Cinder retrieved her cigarette and kissed Ruby so hard that the younger girl saw stars. "What's so fun about being good?"