Time ticked away, as it always has done and always will. Time had done a lot of things to Ruby Rose, both positive and negative. The relentless march of time had long ago taken her mother from her, and later had ended her career. Time had taken away her childhood, her innocence, and most of the things that she cherished.
Time had also given her a great many things, too, though. Time had given her many scars she could be proud of, and one she could not. It had given her experience and intelligence and an understanding of the world that few others could boast. Time had preserved her optimism despite that, though. Time had given Ruby her sister and current closest friend, Yang, and kept her Father and Uncle in good health, though it had taken from her two other members of her family, her mother and one other, one by death, and another by causes unknown.
Time had given her a collection of weapons that would simultaneously make her younger self drool in mild arousal and most militias on Remnant blush. Time had given her a home that she loved more than life itself, and time had also taken it away. But time had picked her up afterwards, and held onto her until the wound healed, both physical and emotional, though the scars of both remained. Time had given her a job that pays incredibly well, even if it wasn't the most exciting thing in the world.
Yes, time gave and time took away a great many things from Ruby.
Currently, the time was about 12:45.
Ruby signed her name on the document she had just annotated and got up to take it to Weiss's desk. She slid the paper into her boss's inbox silently, not wanting to disturb her more than necessary. Even so, the richest woman on Remnant still took just a moment to say, "Thank you," before getting back to her business.
A small smile came to Ruby's face. Over the past few days they had known each other, Weiss had been giving off a lot of mixed signals. Sometimes she was almost friendly, like the other night at dinner, but then again, sometimes she could be colder than most anyone Ruby had met before. Even so, Ruby got the sense there there was a deeper layer to Weiss Schnee that she couldn't see yet, so for now she was content with the little reminders that Weiss was indeed a human being who knew something about common courtesy.
Ruby sat herself back down at her desk and looked at the schedule she had set up earlier. Later on in the afternoon she had that meeting with the building's security team, and later still the both of them had a meeting with the Board of Directors to close out the day.
Just a moment later, Ruby's watch chirped on her wrist loudly. Weiss, looked up from her work, brow scrunched in confusion. "What's that?" she asked as Ruby pushed a button on the device to silence the noise.
"Oh, whoops," Ruby said, embarrassed, "Ah, I set that alarm so we wouldn't go over time." She then stood up from her desk with purpose and, supporting a subdued but happy grin, said, "That means it's one o'clock, and it's time for lunch!"
Weiss was far from matching Ruby's excitement at the prospect. "Lunch?" she asked rhetorically, unimpressed. She decided to humor the other woman though, blinking once, slowly, and waiting for further explanation.
"Well, yeah," Ruby said, only a little put off by Weiss's cold front this time. Briefly, she entertained the idea that Weiss didn't know what lunch was, but that was too absurd for even Ruby to believe. Determined, Ruby explained, "Lunch is really important for a healthy diet. Everyone's gotta eat lunch."
Weiss was silent for a moment. When she decided that Ruby was done, Weiss leaned back over her paperwork and continued to work. After a beat of silence where the only noise in the room was a quiet scratch of pen on paper, the CEO noticed that her assistant's gaze had yet to leave her. Hoping to dissuade Ruby from pursuing this idea any further, Weiss simply said, "Not me," and continued writing.
Ruby stared at Weiss for a moment longer. 'Calvin did mention that she'll skip meals before, I think,' she remembered. Not wanting to drop the issue, she pressed on, "It's my job to make sure you maintain your health, too, right?"
At that, Weiss set down her pen, a flash of anger in her eyes. She started at Ruby with a glare that would've wilted a lesser woman like a flower before a blizzard. Not being a lesser woman, Ruby instead felt a cold thrill of something flash through her system. It wasn't fear, per say, but it was definitely something.
A part of the ex-huntress was suddenly curious as to what that glare could do to a normal person.
"Miss Rose," Weiss began, a cold kind of anger clear in her voice. It was unfamiliar to Ruby, as her previous encounters with anger were primarily from her sister. When Yang was angry, she was all fire and brimstone. Yang's anger was a wild and burning thing. Weiss's was different. The tone -the cold- in her voice as she said Ruby's name was like a single shard of ice fractured to a razor's edge. With a start, Ruby recognized what that something was.
It was that same little mixture of glee, fear, and knee-shaking anticipation that she usually felt when holding a particularly interesting weapon for the very first time.
'Shh, stay calm, Ruby. I don't want to get excited. At least, while those weapons,' she was referring to Weiss's eyes, "are pointed at me."
After a moment, Weiss continued, frost in her voice, "Do not overestimate your authority. Your job is to do as I say first and foremost. This work is much too important for me to neglect for something as trivial a noontime snack." Her voice softened a bit, but still held that same edge to it, if dulled somewhat, "If you wish to leave for lunch, you may, but I am staying right here."
Ruby held eye contact with her boss for a moment, schooling her face into something unreadable. After a moment, she nodded, forcing her tone to sound just a little more formal than she usually would, "Alright, ma'am, if you stay in this room there's no security concerns. I'll head out then." She brushed her red-tipped hair out of her eyes and tucked a few strands behind her ear. It was longer than she liked it, reaching near her shoulders now.
Satisfied, Weiss nodded, that off-center ponytail bobbing and catching Ruby's eye. "That is fine," Weiss said, plucking her pen back from her desk, "Be back within an hour, if you can."
Ruby nodded back, "Yes ma'am," and walked to the door. It opened with a soft click, and Ruby stepped back into that hallway.
Deciding her own little reaction to Weiss's anger was not something she wanted to analyze right now, Ruby instead opted to focus on a more pressing concern. She recognized the behavior Weiss was showing. She was neglecting her own health for her work. What she had said -that her work was too important for her to stop- stuck a chord within Ruby. That was a behavior that Ruby was more than familiar with.
A little pang of sadness went through her. Her old teammate was like that at times. She would obsess over the things that she thought were important, and it was all Ruby and Yang could do sometimes to get her mind back on track.
'Well, at least I have some experience with it,' Ruby thought, forcing the melancholy memories from her mind as she made her way towards the elevator. Determination shone in her eyes as she formulated a plan.
Whether Weiss liked it or not, enabling her here would only harm her in the long run. Ruby was no enabler.
'Well, not anymore, anyways'
Ruby snorted in amusement as the doors slid closed and the elevator began its descent. Yes, there was a bit of sadness in that memory as well, but she managed to focus on the good ones yet.
No, Ruby would not give ground here. If Weiss didn't want to stop working, that was fine. She had a point, she was doing important work, but Ruby wasn't going to let her neglect her health for it.
The doors slid open, and Ruby walked out into the lobby of the SDC building, a purpose in her step. 'If she won't let me bring her to lunch, then I'll just bring lunch to her.'
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Weiss was focused almost entirely on the work that sat on her desk. Her computer was minimized again as she sat in her very expensive chair and scanned through one of the more important documents she had today. It was a packet of paper large enough to qualify as a novella and bore the company's tax records for last quarter. There was small scandel earlier in the year where one of her accountants had been embezzling money, so she was taking special care to ensure all these documents were in order.
She was so focused on her work that she almost didn't notice the door to her office open. She briefly considered being concerned about the door opening, but only one other person in the building could open that door other than her. With a soft click it slid open, and Weiss's suspicions were confirmed as the door's AI said, "Welcome back, Miss Rose."
"Hello," Weiss said distractedly, not glancing up from her paper. It briefly occurred to her that maybe she was being a little discourteous, but she deemed that thought unimportant and pushed it out of her mind. Her pen skimmed over the paper silently as she read the document, letting it hold her full attention.
That was, until something large and flat whump'ed onto her desk. Her eyes snapped up immediately to the package. I was a white box that was wide and almost flat, being a little bit longer than a foot in length and width, but only about an inch and a half tall. On top of it sat a small package of paper plates and a box of napkins.
Weiss stared at the items for a moment before looking up at her assistant, a rather cross look in her eye. It wasn't the glare that she had fixed Ruby with earlier, but it certainly wasn't happy. "Miss Rose, what exactly do you think you are doing?"
Weiss didn't miss the hint of smugness showing both on Ruby's face and in her voice when she simply replied, "Lunch." Weiss's eyes did not waver nor did they shift away from Ruby's gaze, silently demanding further explanation. After a minute, Ruby relented, her smug expression falling just slightly, "I won't try to force you to eat something, but I figured that I'd at least grab enough for the both of us, so if you change your mind or want to eat while you work, it'll be here. Plus," she motioned one hand at her box, "Pizza is always a winner!"
Weiss didn't match her enthusiasm. She glanced back down at the box. For the first time, she noticed the smell wafting off of it. It was...interesting. Weiss couldn't really tell if it was good, but it definitely wasn't bad. She couldn't really describe the scent as anything other than kind of greasy. After a minute, she shook her head, "No, if you wish to eat, go ahead, but don't...don't...what exactly do you think you're doing?"
Ruby glanced up from what she was doing, box lid halfway raised. "Oh, I was just getting a slice, why?" Her silver eyes were the picture of innocence, but Weiss didn't believe them one bit.
Weiss looked at her suspiciously for a moment longer. A moment too long, it seemed, as Ruby shrugged and flipped the top the rest of the way off, exposing the food she had brought back to the open air. It was an amalgamation of cheese and meat along a large disk of bread and tomato sauce. The first this Weiss noticed about the thing as Ruby reached to pull a slice of it from the box was the grease. It seemed to be almost dripping with it, and, to Weiss, it made the -alleged- food look as if it was sweating.
Her nose wrinkled, very important tax report on her desk momentarily forgotten. "You're going to eat that?" she asked incredulously. Ruby grabbed a slice, and Weiss's eyes caught on the thin strands of cheese that stretched between Ruby's slice and the rest of the pizza. In her mind, she could only compare the thick, gooey cheese to some kind of slime. To her mind, it was something dirty, uncouth, and improper. She was, to put it simply, disgusted.
Or so she told herself, as, seemingly in spite of what her mind had just decided, her mouth began to water at the sight.
Ruby shrugged and said, "Yes ma'am, I am," before taking a bite of her slice with a small hum. It did not slip by Weiss how many rules of etiquette Ruby was breaking right now, standing up in the middle of her office and eating a slice of pizza without a plate and with her bare hands, all while wearing a very expensive suit.
'Oum, does she even know how expensive bulletproof coats are?!'
Even so, Weiss felt her stomach rumble. Briefly, she told herself that that was it roiling in disgust at the gooey pile of grease her bodyguard had just put in her mouth, but even she herself could not believe that lie for long though, soon conceding (if only to herself) that at the very least some primal part of herself did indeed want some of the pizza. Bullheaded as she was, though, Weiss remained resolute, "Miss Rose, you are lucky enough that I am allowing you to eat food in my office. Would you please, at the very least, eat it at your desk?"
Once more, Ruby shrugged and said, "Alright, suit yourself," and finally put her lunch on one of the many paper plates she had returned with. Weiss felt herself grow angry at Ruby's flippant attitude, and briefly considered ordering her take her damn food elsewhere, but then an image flashed through her mind.
It was of the previous owner of this very office. Jacques Schnee was famously intimidating when it came to meeting someone. When one was called into his office, it meant their life was about to change, for better or worse. He kept the space almost unsettlingly clean, and anyone who left even a speck of dust in his office may as well as signed their own Pink Slip. This fear was, of course, intentional on Jacques' part. He used it, like anything else, as a weapon in order to maintain absolute control. Nothing entered this room without his say so, and it was him alone who decided in what state anything left it.
With that in mind, Weiss glanced up at her bodyguard, who now sat at her own desk munching on a slice of cheap and greasy pizza in his same office while absentmindedly scanning her computer. Her anger seemed to simmer down, then, as she took a moment to appreciate just how delicious the irony of that was.
With that in mind, Weiss let it go. At least, for a minute.
It was only when Weiss put it out of her mind and put her pen to her paper again that she noticed the smell. Ruby had left the box open now that she had moved it to her own desk, which allowed the smell to waft across the room. The greasy, cheesy mess that sat in the box let off a rich smell that seemed to fill the room not a moment later. It rolled across Weiss's desk like a fog, and seemingly in spite of herself, her stomach grumbled silently.
Briefly, Weiss glanced up at the pizza sitting on her PA's desk. Ruby had her eyes shut as she chewed her bite of pizza. Weiss couldn't help but notice how her face seemed to screw up in delight at however the food tasted. 'How uncouth,' she thought, even as saliva began to pool in her mouth. Weiss shook her head once, hard, and focused back on the document she had laid out on her desk. That didn't do much of anything about the smell, however.
Weiss tried to focus, she really did, but no matter what she did, her mind seemed to keep dragging her back to the fact that a slimy, greasy, delicious smelling mess was sitting in her office. She frowned at that through, before closing her eyes tightly and focusing on breathing. 'This tax form is so, so much more important. Focus, Weiss,' she told herself, frustrated at her own behavior. Slowly, she could feel that hunger receding, being pushed back through sheer force of will alone.
"Mmh."
At least, it was receding until her oh-so-subtle personal assistant decided to let out a little groan of joy and utterly shatter Weiss's fragile composure. Both of Weiss's hands met the desk with considerable force, sending a single pen rolling off of the desk and onto the immaculate tile floor. Ruby looked up, startled, for just a moment. Then, even with a mouthful of pizza, Ruby couldn't help but look a little smug.
Weiss stormed at Ruby's desk, heels clicking on the tile, all while a constant stream of old Atlesian spilled from her lips, "Ich sollte dich dafür feuern!"
That subtle smugness slipped off of Ruby's face as she swallowed her mouthful and was replaced by a wide-eyed look of confusion. "Eh...gesundheit?"
Weiss swiped a plate off of the desk and all but hissed, "It means, just give me a damn slice of pizza."
Ruby grinned like a fool, cheerfully serving her boss a slice of the Valean treat and saying, "No problem, ma'am. All you had to do was ask."
Weiss dropped back into her seat, all pretence of formality replaced with a indignation at being coerced into eating this...trash. "Don't think I don't know what you're doing, Miss Rose," Weiss said, venom in her voice and giving Ruby an angry side-eye. Ruby's only response was to look back at Weiss with wide, innocent eyes and take a slow bite of her own slice. Huffing, Weiss looked down to the triangular slice of food on her paper plate. She curled her lip. 'I am the single most wealthy woman on Remnant, and I am about to eat what amounts to a pile of grease on a paper plate. No ceramic, no glass, paper. What is the world coming to.' Her stomach still urged her to eat the pizza, though, so she really had no choice in the matter.
Only, she froze. 'How do I...?' Weiss thought for a moment. She hadn't ever really eaten food like this before. Whenever they had something similar at the manor, she had always eaten it with fork and knife. Weiss hadn't seen Ruby carrying any utensils when she had walked in. Weiss quickly unfolded a cheap, thin napkin across her lap before looking towards her assistant once more.
She had no intention of asking for instructions, but instead to watch how Ruby ate closely enough that she could replicate the action. Her nose curled once again when Ruby, luckily enough, reached out to pluck another slice from the box. Weiss watched as Ruby held the slice by the crust and supported the tip of the slice all the way to her lips and simply bit into it. 'How...quaint,' Weiss thought, ruffled.
Weiss looked back down to her own and, after working up the courage to, reached down towards the greasy piece of junk food. She grabbed onto the bready line of crust at the top of the pizza, careful to keep her hands out of the rich red sauce. She lifted it up with her left hand, and was quick to grab onto the end of the slice with her other one once as the toppings began to slide off.
Her stomach rolled just a bit as she felt the slimy feeling of grease on right hand, which held onto the tip of the pizza slice. Slowly, she brought the slice to her face, being careful to stay over her small paper plate lest some cheese spill onto her incredibly expensive desk.
Hesitantly, and completely oblivious to the silver eyes subtly watching her every move, Weiss took her first bite of what was she was sure would be an unpleasant and unhealthy meal. Simply to cure the ache in her gut, she told herself.
Her first bite was, in the simplest terms, a paradigm shift.
Even all her years of training could not stop her eyebrows betraying how pleasurable she found the sensation as the several flavours of the pizza exploded across her tongue. The bizarre combination of meat and cheese and vegetables filled her mouth with a taste that was unlike anything Weiss had tasted before. That's not to say it was the best thing she had ever tasted, but the sheer surprise of just how good this cheap junk food was was enough to almost make her purr.
"What do you think?" Ruby asked, smug curiosity just noticeable below the surface.
Weiss absolutely refused to let this joy show, however. Schooling her face into a neutral expression, Weiss chewed and swallowed the bite. Quiety, she savoured the unexpectedly rich flavour before saying simply, "It is...adequate." Hoping that was enough to get that woman off of her back. She looked so damn smug about it, though, so Weiss preemptively prepared a sharp string of words to deter any continued annoyance on Ruby's part.
Ruby once more subverted Weiss's expectations, though, by saying simply, "Yes, it is, isn't it?" before going back to her own slice.
Weiss blinked, rebuttal dying on her tongue as Ruby left her in peace. Unsure of what exactly she should do with that, Weiss simply huffed again and went back to her food. She did feel somewhat ashamed for enjoying such a trite food, but with Ruby unabashedly scarfing it down at her own desk, Weiss couldn't really find it in herself to be upset. Even though Weiss had only known the ex-huntress for a few days now, Weiss didn't peg her as a judgemental person. It wasn't a feeling Weiss was used to, that freedom of action, but one she appreciated even as she took another bite of the delicious treat.
Once she ate enough of the slice to hold it with one hand, Weiss shifted the crust into her right one. She plucked up her pen from the desk, and began to continue scanning the tax form as she ate.
The next few minutes were populated by only the sounds of eating, punctuated occasionally by the scratching of a pen. All too soon, however, Weiss finished off the slice of pizza she had snagged from Ruby. Strangely though, she was left feeling rather...unsatisfied. While she wasn't particularly hungry anymore, the scent of the food from the box was still enticing enough to call to Weiss like a siren. She glanced up at the food, before shaking her head and looking back at her work. 'You don't need any more, Weiss, you are not a glutton.'
Of course, within two minutes, she was sitting back at her desk with a second slice of pizza on her plate.
Ruby made sure to seem outwardly oblivious, but inwardly, she couldn't help but feel remarkably pleased with herself. 'So she is human, after all.'
Weiss barely noticed as this cycle continued a few more times.
Eventually, the silence of the room was broken by Ruby as she stood up from her chair. Weiss, swallowing the last bite of her current slice of pizza, looked up curiously. Ruby picked up the box and said, "I should probably thank you for the help. I only eat like two slices of this stuff, so it's nice to actually finish one off, you know?"
That took a moment to sink in. Once it had, no amount of training could stop her eyebrows from creeping up towards her hairline. 'How much did I eat?' she thought, concerned when she couldn't remember the answer. Thoughtlessly, one hand laid over the place where her belly met her ribcage, and she was struck with just how full she felt. Surely she couldn't have eaten more than two or three?
Ruby, feigning obliviousness, said, " I mean, these things come with like seven slices, which is really more than one person needs." Weiss's alarm was only compounded as Ruby effortlessly crushed the cardboard box small enough to fit in the small waste bin by the door, showing off the the box was, indeed, empty.
'Five?!' Weiss thought in what felt like a near panic, 'How the hell did I manage to eat five pieces?' Weiss found herself at a loss. She couldn't even imagine herself slipping to such a temptation, let alone allowing it to sweep her away like that. Even so, she couldn't deny that the sensation of being so full was indeed rather pleasant. It certainly wasn't a feeling she had ever really felt, as the portion sizes at the manor were rather small growing up, and any time there was more food available, her father closely monitored her and her siblings' intake.
She wiped off her face with the napkin she had in her lap, hoping desperately that she at least hadn't smeared any of the tomato sauce on her face. When the napkin came away red, it was all she could do not to bury her head in her hands and groan aloud.
"Are you done with that?" Ruby asked, pulling Weiss from her thoughts. She was pointing at the paper plate that still sat on her desk. Weiss didn't trust herself to speak, so she simply set her napkin on the plate and nodded. Before Weiss could go back to contemplate just how uncouth it was to stuff herself as she had, Ruby sighed happily, stretching upwards in the middle of the room after tossing the plate in the bin as well. She was facing Weiss and had her eyes closed. That messy red-tipped brown hair brushed Ruby's jawline and shoulders as she cracked her neck. The suit jacket she wore over her red collared shirt was unbuttoned and flared outwards as her arms stretched above her neck. For a second, Weiss could see everything that Ruby's carried with her. On her left hip, where her coattail would cover it, the hilt of a knife rose out from underneath her pants. Underneath her arms she wore a few leather straps that functioned as a holster for her gun. Weiss could see the red grip of Rosebud sticking out from the section under Ruby's left arm, along with that suppressor she had used earlier sitting in a separate slot underneath the gun. Under her right arm, she saw the golden shine of brass casings that made up the bullets that were visible in the magazines of ammunition she kept there.
This was, of course, no surprise to Weiss that she noticed this. She had found herself becoming rather curious with Ruby's arsenal the more she got to know her. Weiss had accepted this about herself, chalking it up to her former interest in becoming a Huntress. What was more surprising, however, is that Weiss's eyes caught on the ex-huntress's neck as her head arched up towards the ceiling. It was, objectively, nothing too special, but Weiss couldn't help but observe closely as the muscles of her neck stretched upwards. It looked...lithe, in a way Weiss didn't know what to think about. Briefly, ever so briefly, a part of her brain wondered what it would feel like under her teeth.
Weiss blinked, time seeming to rush back into the room like a flood. It left her cheeks burning and that image fading into the aether just as fast as it had appeared. Before she could contemplate further, Ruby dropped her arms back to her sides and said, "Ah, I love pizza. It's such a relaxing meal, you know?"
Eager to take her mind anywhere other than the frankly obscene amount of food she had eaten or Ruby's musculature, Weiss all but jumped at the chance to ask Ruby for elaboration. Metaphorically, of course. She made her best effort at maintaining an outward look of calm as she asked "What do you mean?"
Ruby seemed to pause at that. Standing in the middle of the room, she almost seemed to be genuinely contemplating what she had meant. "Honestly, I'm not really sure," she offered, before, "It's that kind of food I guess. Warm and heavy, you know?"
Weiss didn't know, but she could definitely relate to the 'heavy' part. She felt like she weighed three pound more than she did this morning. "It would appear so, yes," Weiss said, taking a cautionary look at the tax form in front of her to make sure that she hadn't accidentally gotten any grease on it. Satisfied that the papers were clean, she set about finishing her review, hoping that it would take her mind off of the confusing emotions flitting about her head or the stuffed feeling in her belly.
When no more conversation was forthcoming, Ruby turned and walked back over to her desk. She gathered up the remaining plates and napkins (both packages were practically full) and slid them into one of the drawers attached to her desk, fully planning on recreating this little lunchtime song and dance as often as possible. Maybe she was overstepping her bounds a bit, but she couldn't help but notice that her boss, who was a rather small woman as it was, was bordering on an unhealthily low weight. It was, Ruby reasoned, her job to keep Weiss safe, so making sure she ate proper food on a regular basis was probably a part of that.
Even if it wasn't Ruby couldn't very well stand by and see the other woman starve herself. That just wasn't who Ruby was.
Once Ruby sat back in her seat, she got back to work. Even so, her mind wasn't so keen to go back to spreadsheets and formal documents, and wandered back to the almost-frail woman sitting just a few feet from her. It was her job to make sure that Weiss Schnee was safe, but she could tell that there was a lot more to Weiss than she was letting Ruby see. Like her mind, her eyes wandered back over to Weiss, too.
She was sitting tall in her chair, scanning through the packet on her desk. She looked, Ruby thought, a bit like a hollow ice sculpture. Proud, Firm, but with a strange kind of weakness hidden beneath the surface, as if just a little pressure in the wrong place could break her. Ruby was always a rather caring person, she had gotten that from her mom, and she was always a rather good judge of character. She hadn't known Weiss for near long enough to be sure in this assumption, but Ruby thought she could see there that, like that hollow ice sculpture, Weiss now was so much less that she should be. It hurt Ruby to see, and it hurt that she didn't know why.
But, like that sculpture, Ruby could also see a kind of beauty to Weiss. She seemed almost regal there where she sat, and despite the weakness Ruby could see behind her facade, she could see a strength there, too. She remembered the anger that Weiss had shown so briefly earlier in the day, and the corner of her lips quirked. Yes, there was definitely strength in this woman.
A part of Ruby wanted to find it. Ruby contemplated this for a few seconds more. Maybe she was moving too fast, and maybe she didn't know enough about Weiss to really be able to make these observations, but given what she had gleaned from this cold woman over the past few days, she seemed like a puzzle. There was more to her, and Ruby could see that clearly, if nothing else, and she couldn't help but want to learn more.
Briefly, Ruby remembered another girl. One who Ruby had also seen as a puzzle when they first met. She had that same kind of hidden fragility as Weiss, and she also had that same kind of strength. Maybe that is why Ruby felt such an urge to solve Weiss's puzzle, and maybe that is why Ruby wanted to not only protect her as per her job, but to also do her level best to care for her.
She had only ever really wanted to care for one other person, a woman who was at one time as close to her heart as her own sister, if not closer. Maybe, just maybe, Weiss reminded Ruby just a bit of her.
The muscles on the left side of Ruby's chest cramped, and she rolled her stiff left shoulder to alleviate the pain. It didn't help.
Ruby drug her eyes off of Weiss and her mind away from her puzzle and her past.
Opening up her computer, Ruby got back to work.
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A/N
Another chapter out way too damn late. Sorry, it's my senior year, and there's much to do. I'll do my best to get this story out as quick as possible, because I can't wait to get to what I have planned. I may take a small break, however, to write a Tomb Raider oneshot that's been bouncing around my head, but I don't know. We'll see.
Regardless, if you want more of this, don't forget to review! It's the best incentive you can offer!
I'll start work on the next chapter as soon as possible, as I'm pretty sure Alisa will kill me if I fuck about for too long, haha.