I have to give credit to the author, mikotyzini, for giving me the initial idea for this chapter while we were talking about our stories. It was just too good to resist. If you haven't read miko's story, The Fire Within, you should definitely give it a read. It's a very well-written story! So, without further ado, here's chapter twelve!
It had taken longer than either any of the huntresses had liked it to, but both Weiss and Ruby finally made recoveries in about a month. Their injuries had left them both with notable scars, a large one in Ruby's abdomen and a smaller one on Weiss' chest. The closeness of the wound to her heart showed what significant luck the former heiress and her fiancé had, Ruby's own brush with death only serving to prove this point. Yang had finally come down from worrying and fussing over the two, despite still sending a wary glance to the pair every once in a while. It had taken long. Too long. But, things were finally normal between all. They were each starting to look out and ask the important questions again. The things that really mattered…
"Seriously? All ya got is tea? Nothin' else?"
"What can I say? We drink a lot of tea, Yang. Weiss really got me into it, actually. It's so soothing and warm~.." Ruby says with a happy giggle, tilting her head. "It's good for what ails ya."
The blonde raises her eyebrow, looking at her sister with a pout as she crosses her arms across the table. Her finger loops into a curl of gold and twists around her tan skin as she speaks, a quizzical expression coming to her face. "You tellin' me that you have no soda, no booze, no-"
"Weiss hates the carbonation in soda and doesn't drink booze. So, no. Besides, she's the one who shops for groceries most of the time…"
"She hates the carbonation? That's, like, the best part! And, what's wrong with a little booze? Sheesh, does she have you whipped or what? Oh, wait... You have her whipped, too… So… You whip each other-"
"Yang!"
"Okay, okay, whether you whip each other is none of my business, I suppose… Didn't know Weiss would be into the kinky stu-"
"If you finish that sentence, you're going to get a hot cup of tea in your lap so fast you won't even be able to yell in surprise."
"Alright, Miss Cranky-Skirt, I was only joking. Why don't YOU shop for groceries, anyway?"
"Oh, um… I'm kinda not allowed to… anymore…"
"Oh? Why is that?"
Ruby rubs the back of her neck, a sheepish grin coming to the redheaded huntress. "Erm, well… One time, she told me to go get the groceries and I came back with fifteen pounds of desserts. She, uh, wasn't too happy about that."
"Wouldn't doubt it. Bet she had a fit, didn't she?"
"Oh, she did. She was all like-" Ruby starts, standing up from the chair and making a strict expression as she aims an accusing finger at her sister. "Ruby Rose, you dolt, you were supposed to get REAL food, not all this junk! I don't care WHAT you say, we're not having cookies and whipped cream for dinner! Honestly, did you even LOOK at the list I gave you?"
Yang smirks as she hears Ruby's impersonation of her fiancé, which is actually spot on. She absolutely nails the shrieky aspect to the former heiress' voice when she's annoyed, no doubt from hearing it numerous times in the relationship. The blonde is unable to hold in her laughter when Ruby performs Weiss' signature annoyed hair flip and eye roll combo, bursting into hearty laughter.
"Shit, Rubes, you sound like just like her!" Yang laughs, wiping a tear from her eye.
"That's what happens when you've been with someone long enough. I'll bet you can do a pretty good Blake impression, too."
"Sure can! Check this out," Yang says, turning her facial expression to a dull and reserved one. "Yang, stop smelling my underwear and calling the scent 'kittylicious'. That's… not okay."
Ruby blinks a few times, unsure whether to be impressed by the superb impersonation or disturbed by what Yang had just said. She decides to go with a more neutral response to this over-sharing of information. "Um… What?"
"See? Pretty cool, right? I totally rock my Blake impression, don't I?" Her sister responds, looking at the redhead eagerly.
"Do you really… Um, nevermind, I don't want to know. Yeah, that sounded like Blake. Hmm.."
"What's 'hmm', Rubes?"
"Do you think Blake can do a good impersonation of you, in return? Y'know, since she lives with you and all… She's got to have gotten some sort of expertise in what your voice sounds like."
"Oh, I don't think so. My voice is all complex and everythin'.. Completely complex and impossible to-"
"I always kick off my new year off with a YANG~" Ruby interrupts, her voice the same pitch as her blonde sister and a smug smirk on her face. "Yours is the easiest to do, Sis. It doesn't help that you keep re-telling the same jokes every year, either."
"Yeah, sure, that line maybe.. Let's see you try-"
"Paging Dr. Belladonna, paging Dr. Belladonna, this is Yang callin' in for a Bella-booty call~"
Yang's cheeks take a light flush as her sister nails her voice spot on (even throwing in a fluttering of her eyelashes for added effect), a pout coming to her face. "Har-Har, Rubes, I told ya that in confidence. Anyways.. How good do you think Weiss could impersonate YOU?"
"Erm, I dunno… She really isn't one for impersonating, really…"
"Heh… Lemmie take the idea a bit further… How would you feel about Weiss IMPERSONATING you?"
"Um…" Ruby says, casting a curious glance at her grinning sister. "I don't follow."
"Picture, if you will, Weiss in your cloak with Crescent Rose-" Yang starts, frowning when the redhead bursts into loud laughter. "What?"
"Okay, Yang, like Weiss would be able to use Crescent Rose… It weighs more than she does!" Ruby jokes, shaking her head in amusement. "Not that I'm takin' anything away from Weiss (she's my fiancé and I love her OH~ so dearly), but she doesn't have the right muscle to hoist a scythe onto her shoulder. Besides, Crescent Rose is a highly complex weapon after all the fiddling I've done with her over the years-"
"Hence, why you didn't have a real relationship until you were seventeen and left you with many a night of fiddling with yourself-"
"Yang, remember the tea? Still a threat, you know. I'm just sayin'… Weiss is REALLY smart, but I don't think she'd be able to do it. It's a combination kind of thing."
It was about this moment in the conversation that Weiss had walked near the dining room, hoisting a laundry basket in her arms as she headed toward the basement to wash the dirty clothes with her typical perfectionism. She happened to catch an inkling of the conversation and finds herself silently listening as she mumbles something to herself about 'wondering what those dolts are up to'. Her eyebrow raises in interest as Ruby speaks of her inability to use Crescent Rose, her first instinct being to march into the room, dump the redhead's week of dirty underwear right on her head, and proceed to prove exactly how wrong she was. But, she allowed herself to listen on and hear what her lover had to say.
"It takes a lot of practice just swingin' her around, not to mention learning and getting all the motions right… Though… It WOULD be pretty sexy to see her doing that, swinging' Crescent Rose around with that cool look she gets on her face… Okay, I'm lying, it would be COMPLETELY sexy~...My love and my sweetheart together in an awesome combination of-"
"Are you gonna have to take some time to change your undies, Rubes?"
Ruby flushes, throwing a pout at Yang and shaking her head. "My undies are JUST fine, thank you."
"Well, I would think so, they're full of-"
"Yang!"
Weiss smiles lightly, rolling her eyes as she silently continues on her path to the basement. As she thinks about what Ruby said, she can't help but let a little huff of air escape her lips. "I couldn't wield Crescent Rose? Of course I could, Ruby… I could use that weapon, if I wanted to…""
Weiss frowns a bit as she loads the clothes into the washing machine, Ruby's words of finding her 'sexy' whilst wielding the weapon causing a small blush to come to her face. She knows the motions of her fiancé's weapon like the back of her hand, both from being with her partner nearly every waking moment and being blessed with a rather obsessive memory when it came to certain areas. She had felt that she had to know each of her teammate's styles of fighting to make them the best synced team in Beacon, which had come in especially useful when helping Ruby plan strategies and the best way to use their team effectively for taking down bigger foes. But, now the question was proposed, could she apply that to actually wielding it?
Of course she could.
Weiss was nothing, if not a determined woman. In fact… "It's been a while since she had a nice surprise from me…" The former heiress muses, tapping her fingers on the lowly rumbling machine after she activates it. The last couple months had been so hectic, what with preparing for their wedding and having to deal with her lunatic parents. The month that they had spent recovering (Ruby in particular) had forced them to push the wedding back, hoping that winter was kind enough to give them snow when they walked down the aisle. She knew Ruby had been disappointed in doing that, having been looking forward to the wedding as the date steadily arrived. If her parents hadn't decided to go insane and try to kill them, the wedding would have occurred three weeks from now. Unfortunately, a month of recovering had given them little time to plan for a wedding. So, now they had to have it into another month in order to properly prepare. Ruby had gotten over it, but Weiss still saw the occasional glint in Ruby's eye as when she looked at the calendar and saw that the former day of their wedding had been crossed. After what she had gone through, the redhead deserved to have a nice surprise. And, Weiss was the perfect woman to give it to her. She was going to do this.
There was only one question. When would she have the time to use Crescent Rose without Ruby knowing?
She walks back up the stairs from the basement, mumbling quiet ideas to herself as to how she could get Ruby out of the house for the proper amount of time it would take her to practice to a decent ability. Thankfully, as she passes the dining room, she is given the perfect opportunity in the form of her sister-in-law. The sister's conversation had shifted since she had left, now talking about current projects.
"Yeah, I'm workin' on building a new room for me an' Blake's house, myself. Let me tell ya, THAT is work."
"Oh, really? What's the room for?"
Yang stares at her sister for a moment (a slight pink briefly coming to Yang's cheeks, as Weiss notices) and shrugs a bit. "Just wanted an extra room in case we need to store our stuff, y'know? Like BOOZE or SODA, for instance."
"Would you let it go?"
"Never."
"Right. Anyway, why didn't you tell me you were addin' an addition to your house? I can help you with that, Yang."
"Nah, I couldn't impose, Rubes. I can handle it, myself."
"Is Blake helping you?"
"She can't. She's gonna be gone on a hunt with Nora an' Ren for the next week and a half."
"A hunt, really?"
"Yeah, just a couple Ursa pokin' around too close to a village for comfort."
"Why is she going with them, then? Nora could take down Ursa like they were nothing, not even counting that Ren is with her. Why do they need Blake?"
"Apparently, these Ursa are provin' difficult to track and giving them some trouble. Blake's the best tracker, this side a' Vale. So, they asked if she'd wanna give 'em a hand."
"Ah. Well, all the more reason I should help you, Sis." Ruby says with smile, offering a toothy grin. "What kind of girl doesn't help build a room for her sister's house when her girlfriend is on a hunt? Not me~ Plus, you know I'm good at building stuff."
"Yeah? What's Weiss gonna say? Takes time to add a room, even with you an' me doing it. You'll be gone most of the day, Rubes… And, it's gonna take a few days to finish-"
"I think that it's a great idea." Weiss interrupts casually, walking into the dining room and picking up Yang's untouched cup of tea. "It's been a while since you two had some 'sisterly bonding' or whatever you call it."
Yang raises her eyebrows as Weiss begins drinking the tea, the pale girl's eyes gently closed as she sips the warm drink. Ruby releases a happy 'hello, little lady, where have ya been?', looking up at her fiancé as she hugs her around the waist from where her chair sat.
"Don't you dare play the height card, Ruby Rose. You're not THAT much taller than me. And, I was just loading up the laundry to wash."
"Aw, sweetie… You shoulda let me do that…"
"The last time I did, you put way too much softener in. It felt like I was touching air."
"But, it was soooo soft! Like a cloud~"
"I don't want clouds, I just want clean clothes."
"Aw, that's no fun… But, what were you talking about before?"
"I was saying that I think it's a good idea for you to go help your sister, Ruby. You two haven't had a whole lot of time with her recently and I don't mind a little while without you during the day." Weiss takes another small sip, leaning down to give her fiancé a peck on the cheek and moving to whisper in her ear. "As long as I get you at night…"
Ruby's cheeks flush as Weiss pulls slightly back to drink her tea again, soft laughter passing from her lips as she brings the cup to her mouth. "R-Right, you sure y-you don't mind?"
"Not at all. Have fun, Ruby."
"Th-Thanks, Weiss. So, Yang, why don't we go down to your house and see what we got? We'll make up some concepts and maybe get started.."
"Huh." Yang starts, looking at Weiss with a curious expression before continuing. "Yeah, Ruby, sounds cool to me. Sure you don't mind that I'm borrowin' your snuggle bunny, Weiss?"
"So long as she doesn't become yours, I think I'll be fine."
"Heh, I've already got a snuggle kitty, why would I need a bunny?"
After the two sisters had left for Yang's house, the former heiress had raced down to Ruby's workshop with an odd excitement about her. She knew Ruby was going to love this, her fiancé swinging her Crescent Rose around with all the skill and expertise of the redhead herself. Ruby's workshop was a part of the house she admitted that she didn't visit often, other than to bring Ruby some food if she had neglected to check the time and pull herself away from her work. It was in a large part of the basement, taking up a good majority of the expanse of land, and absolutely covered with all manner of weapons, blueprints, bits and bobs of machinery. A good majority wasn't finished, in various stages of completion. She thinks Nora put it best when calling Ruby an 'excitingly lazy grease-monkey with a pretty face'. Weiss didn't really like going down here, as it smelled of oil and burnt out machinery, but she knew what she was looking for was around somewhere. Ruby had the almost compulsive habit of taking apart and cleaning Crescent Rose at least once, sometimes twice, a week to keep everything running in tip-top shape. She just hoped that it wasn't in pieces by now..
Luckily for Weiss, the scythe appears to be entirely assembled and lies in the middle of a large work desk sitting against the wall. "There you are.."
As the pale girl picks up the weapon, she immediately feels the weight of the metal used to create it. It was certainly heavier than Myrtanaster, by a considerable margin. And, yet, Ruby made it look so easy as she flew around the battlefield with this monster in tow. That was definitely the reason for Ruby's rather muscular arms and back, which Weiss admired greatly.
"Alright, Weiss. You have only a few days to do this…" She says to herself, gripping the weapon tightly as she walks out of the workshop. "You can do this. Ruby's going to love it, you'll see."
As she makes it out to the yard, she stares at the still folded weapon in slight confusion as she tries to figure out how to unleash it. "She always brings out her weapon with a swinging motion as she holds it.. this way. Now, swing my arm and.."
She squeaks in surprise as the large weapon surges into scythe form, the force of the transformation sending it flying from her hands and onto the grass. Weiss stares at the weapon before sighing and walking to pick it up, hoisting the heavy weapon up onto her shoulder. She closes her eyes and lets loose several soft and slow breathes, memories of Ruby's technique from many a battle flowing through her mind in picturesque and detailed sequences. She opens her eyes as the first motion plays over in her mind, a standard slash forward. She assumes the proper grip on the handle, making a quick slash forward with a quiet grunt of effort.
The first thing she notices about Crescent Rose is that it takes much effort to swing. This wasn't like Myrtanaster, where you had to use quickness and a lot of maneuvering to get your desired effect and power. Crescent Rose WAS power. That's the only way she could describe it. The only problem was… there was TOO MUCH power in each strike, often making them wobbly and easy to cause the weapon to slip from her hands with the force it took to swing. Getting used to the weight and force was going to be difficult, despite knowing the proper motions.
"But, Weiss Rose doesn't give up so easily." She says, her voice and expression determined to get this right.
Ruby walks home from Yang's house as the evening light begins to shine down on the area, her headphones on as she jams out to her tunes. Many people might find it strange to see a full grown woman sashaying down the sidewalk as her head moved to an invisible beat and her lips mouthed words, but anyone who knew Ruby Rose wouldn't find it all that surprising. Ruby knew that despite Weiss often telling her she looked like a psychopath doing it and to 'not walk near schools doing that', the woman found it incredibly endearing. It showed how childlike the redhead was, even in her age.
'At least things are back to normal, now. I can finally wear my cloak, now that hammers and nails are a safe distance away.' She thinks to herself, a light hum coming from her. 'And, with Yang's new room done, I'll be able to spend more time with Weiss!'
Ruby had to admit that she didn't know what had been up with Weiss lately as, when she returned home from helping her sister, the former heiress was often down for the count and already sleeping in bed. And, not just light sleep. It was HEAVY sleep. Like, the kind of sleep where you could blare an air horn in their ear and not get them to wake up. Not that she EXPECTED anything, but she wouldn't be lying if she said she wanted Weiss to 'have her at night' as the woman had whispered about a week ago. Oh, well. She couldn't complain when she got to snuggle up to a softly breathing Weiss as she lay in dreamland. Or, wherever Weiss went when she slept.
'Maybe she's just been working hard. She's always doing something. Maybe, she just needed to get caught up on some sleep…'
The huntress whistles as she pulls her key out of her pocket, pressing it into the lock and waiting for the humble click of the lock to let her in. As she walks in, she looks around for her fiancé and gives a loud 'Weeeeiss! Your favorite nincompoop's here!'. She stops in her movement when she sees a rose petal on the floor, her eyebrow raising as she moves to pick it up. As she crouches to take the crimson petal in her hand, she spots another one nearby, and then another, and another. Curious, she follows the trail of petals until she reaches the door to the yard.
"Okay… The yard. What's so special about the yard?" She asks herself, pushing the door open and walking into the evening.
The sight before her makes her jaw drop.
In the middle of the yard, a red cloak blows lightly as a cool breeze moves and carries small snowflakes through it. The wearer doesn't immediately face Ruby, though her ivory locks of hair can be soon flowing from the hood. Her thoroughly dropped jaw drops even further as the clanking of Crescent Rose being unsheathed penetrates the air, drawing a quiet 'oh my god' from the redhead.
"Good evening, Ruby." The figure says cooly, her light and feminine voice sending shivers down Ruby's spine.
Ruby finds an involuntary squeak coming from her when a whooshing fills the air, Crescent Rose suddenly being pulled up from the ground to spin in the woman's hands. She takes fast swings, flipping the scythe around with near perfect accuracy as she appears to show off exactly how well she can use it. The movements turn complex, drawing gasp after gasp as she sees herself in every strike. Down to every detail of her fighting stance and mannerisms, it's amazing. The cloak billows behind her as she leaps into the air, spinning gracefully, before slamming the weapon down to the ground as she lands. The woman finally turns to face her fiancé as she stands, a smile on her face. She gives another spin of the scythe before letting it rest in her weapon arm, the tip touching the ground.
"Who said I couldn't wield Crescent Rose?" Weiss asks, pulling the hood slowly off her head.
Ruby is staring at the woman she will be marrying in exactly a month and three weeks, internally thanking god for giving her such a sexy fiancé, her mouth dry as she seems to search for words. Her cheeks are crimson as she moves quickly forward, grabbing Weiss tightly by the hand and pulling her into a deep kiss that leaves the pale girl speechless as well. Ruby pulls back as she takes in the sight of her short, white-haired fiancé in her cloak with Crescent Rose in her hand, only uttering one phrase in response.
"Bed. Now."
