RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth, of which I am not a part of.
Yeah… I'm gonna have to bump up the rating for real this time. The event that pushed the threshold is pretty minor but I'd rather play it safe, even if it makes this fic harder to access.
And considering May's content, it's probs long overdue.
December 13th: Hot and Cold
"Does anyone smell… burning?"
"It wasn't funny the first time, Ruby."
Yang grit out the words from her strained frown. She'd been the laughing stock for most of the student body that day (in a way that she didn't enjoy, as opposed to the norm) from this semblance malfunction, whatever it was, and the fact that it was putting her little sister in a good mood wasn't helping.
She'd always taken her flaming hair for granted so the fact that it didn't seem like it would be turning off anytime soon was more than somewhat concerning.
The only upside was that Weiss was paying a lot more attention to her than she usually did.
Despite the lack of pain or frustration, flames had been licking at the blonde's head since breakfast and the Atlesian girl had been enthralled ever since. Just like the others, she'd taken to doing little things to poke and prod at her head and it was the only one she'd accepted without malice due the evident and pure interest that was sparked within the mind of a girl as scientifically minded as the Schnee Dust Company's aspiring heiress.
And she was forever grateful that the few flirty lines she'd directed at the white-haired girl that had somehow bypassed her filter were interpreted as symptoms of this 'heated' condition (which, for what it was worth, was a hypothesis that seemed more than feasible at the moment).
"Ruby, I told you not to worry; it's just the convection lapsing through the currents in the air. I'm sure that whatever Yang uses to keep her hair so well-conditioned is contributing to that scent."
The fiery blonde took the compliment with pride. "That's so sweet of you to say, snowflake."
"You're welcome, Yang," came her reply, the tone level and cold as her usual Ice Queen persona. "Now if you could keep still, I'd like to see if this might have a cooling affect."
Something that at least felt cool flowed down the back of her conflagration and judging by the frustrated hum that accompanied it, it seemed they'd have to go back to square one.
"Do you think it might be dust-based?" Blake spoke up from her spot on the bed behind them, though a glance in the table mirror Yang was sitting in front of (which, she had to admit, brought out her red eyes rather well) showed that her attention was captured by her own story rather than the science experiment taking place in the dorm. Somehow, her partner seemed more relaxed than she usually was, lying on her back and staring at the book she was holding towards the ceiling, almost without a care in the world. Probably because Yang wasn't in a position to mess with the rest of them at the moment, a luxury that pained her to have to miss as she forced herself to sit upright for the sake of Weiss's work. "Like, maybe someone pulled a prank of her and poured some in her shampoo?"
Yang let out an exasperated sigh. "There's no way it's dust." She growled, voice taking on a gravelling tone once more. "If it was, my hair would ACTUALLY be burning and I would be pissed, not mildly inconvenienced."
She could almost hear Weiss nod behind her. "Exactly. Whatever this is, it's coming from her semblance." She paced over to her desk, where scribbled pages and textbooks were laid out in a chaos that their resident Snow Angel would denounce on the average day as unkempt clutter. She picked up a small red handbook and started flipping through. "Let's just hope I can get it to stop before it gets too late; I don't want that flame burning down both your bunks if Yang tried to go to sleep with it still active."
"Yeah, then it would be an issue for more than one person." Blake rolled onto her stomach, dropping her book to smirk in the duo's general direction as Weiss rounded Yang once more and snatched a pen from the desk, jotting something down in the red booklet she was trying to keep out of sight of the rest of her team.
But as the heiress reached around her, the brawler managed to catch a glimpse of the title, causing her to beam.
"Weiss? What does that book say? 'R-B-Y and You: Your Guide to Helping Out Your Best Friends'?"
Ruby and Blake immediately broke out into snickers and chuckles as the white-haired girl slammed the book shut and hugged it to her chest. She made sure to cover the announced title and managed to hold her blush to a mild-pink dusting of her cheeks.
"Well… okay, fine." She gave in, returning to her side of the room with a bit of shame. "As I'm sure you three are well aware, I haven't been the most… sociable of individuals since I joined the team, so I tried to write things out about you three as a way to help myself fix that. I'm just… trying to see if I wrote anything else that might be of use in this situation."
Her wording was rushed and evidently embarrassed so the black and red duo decided to spare her any further harassment.
"Speaking of sociable…" The phrase seemed to etch itself in the back of her burning mane as the burning girl spotted the familiar amber gaze in the mirror, "have you guys noticed how nice Yang's been to Weiss throughout this whole ordeal? Like, even before she started trying to help, Yang was acting so cordial to her and nobody else." The gaze narrowed. "She even yelled at me, her own partner."
The face that Blake was treating her like she wasn't listening kinda ticked the blonde off but she knew her partner wasn't trying to being rude. Her hair didn't seem to, though, as a rather strong flare came up and sent a wave of heat through the small room, the other three blocking their faces as Yang could naught but plant her face into the desk with a groan of annoyance.
"Who knows?" Weiss resumed the conversation, bringing her handbook back down and opened it to jot something else down; either a formula for the heat of the blast or a simple note acknowledging the action, Yang couldn't tell. "Maybe I'm the only one that hasn't distressed her so far."
The smirk was audible in Blake's tone. "Oh, yes. You have the temperament of benevolence that can ground a raging inferno."
Even as the heiress rolled her eyes, aware of the teasing nature of the playful chide, Yang tried to hide the light blush that flared on her cheeks. That… might not have been as far from the truth as it may seem. Sure, she didn't understand this problem any more than the one girl trying to stop it, but it was true that she found herself letting her smaller teammate off the hook more than one might expect for such a stubborn, haughty attitude clashing with her own. And yeah, that might be more than an exception for someone like Weiss when compared to her best friend and her little sis.
Hence why she hoped that such slip-ups would continue to be dismissed in such a manner… at least until she worked up the courage to voice them outside of an incident like this.
Flipping the cover closed again, the heiress tapped her fingers against the soft leather before turning to her leader. "Ruby, do you know if there's something that could make Yang happy? Like, something that she does when she's angry and never fails to calm her down?"
The younger girl made a concentrated hum. "Well, I know that when Dad and I make fun of her too much, she goes off and takes a bubble bath to sulk. Does that count?"
The azure gaze went off to the side, ignoring the sound of an insulted sister off to the side, contemplating the unknown before returning with a bit of inspiration in her expression. "Yeah, that could work." Her smile turned wicked. "Actually, I've got an even better idea."
"Are you sure this is gonna work?" The blonde grumbled, sinking further into the dorm's bathtub to better hide her body, steam hissing as her long fiery strands met the frigid water.
"Well, the fact that you said it didn't feel cold when you got in is an encouraging sign." Weiss replied, her attention drawn to her hands as she worked out another vial of ice dust through her glyph, the substance melting into the bathwater before recrystallizing a bit at the other end of the tub.
Even though Weiss's gaze wasn't on her, Yang couldn't help but cover herself, submerging to eye level to fight off the tremendous blush pulsing from her cheeks. When the shorter girl suggested she 'cool off, in the literal term', she'd been hoping they would've utilized a strategy that better protected her modesty.
Even so, there was no longer any question whether the tactic was working or not; the rough blaze had been reduced to a quiet burn in only a manner of minutes and the brawler could feel herself calming as the passive heat began to subside from her limbs and her mind regained control over its flirtatious undertakings. She could almost sense her eyes reverting to their natural lilac.
Despite this, she was taken by surprise when fingers ran their way through her hair, letting out a shocked yelp as Weiss took a bit of her mane and brought it up to check for anything else that could go wrong. With grace, she let the blonde locks drop back to the icy bath.
"Seems to be going fine. The fire's already out." She kneeled over, patting her way across the top of the blonde's head, who could do nothing but try not to burst back into flames, though from embarrassment this time.
Despite being so focused on this self-serving task, Yang managed to notice the soft wetness of lips that pressed against her forehead in the meantime.
And thus, she shot upwards, from the mixture of pure elation and utter confusion, and such an internal conflict became nothing compared to the massive new problem that was the lack of available towels within arm's reach as the girl who'd occupied her thoughts for the past half a year got an absolute eyeful.
At the very least, Weiss didn't try to hide the fact that the view was nice, given the tall sweeping look she gave Yang. Though after her brain reset itself, she did have the kind-enough sense to grab for a cloth, along with giving a silent agreement that they wouldn't mention anything to their two teammates in an acknowledgement of their mutual flusterment.
Well, at least it's not my HAIR that's on fire anymore…
I like making them blush. That's a recurring theme that you might notice throughout my works. You know, in case it wasn't already obvious enough :P