I Think I Like You

Chapter 14: What's Mine Is Mine

"Let's have a toast." The council members raise their glasses. "To annoyingly well-planned events that are somehow always a success!"

Glasses clink and nominal applause is heard around us.

"Cheers!"

A round of sparkling grape juice, in very tall and skinny glasses, is held together in a tight circle by the student council members.

The party Weiss had mentioned, the one we earned from doing so well in our earnings at the basketball game, is in full swing. The entire cafeteria had been cleared out and people filled the room, teachers, players, and students alike.

Currently, I stand in our circle towards the back end of the huge room, holding up my glass of juice with the rest of the council. Yang had just made the toast and Weiss, who stands by my side, looks annoyed by the way my sister chose to… give the celebratory words.

Nevertheless, we all pull our juice away and take a sip. Across from me, Nora takes a huge gulp and ends up downing it within seconds, then proceeding to shake her head and let out a satisfied sigh.

"Damn, feels like only yesterday we were hanging posters and yelling at each other about what color tickets should be."

Beside me, Weiss raises an eyebrow at the comment. "I remember it being quite a bit more… civil than that."

Yang, who is standing on the other side of Weiss, leans over and rests her arm on top of the girl's perfectly manicured head.

"I think what the pres here means to say-" Yang sarcastically gestures to the girl she's still leaning on, causing me to giggle, and arising an aggravated grunt out of Weiss. "is that we all missed you at the game, and we're happy to have you back in action!"

"Ugh, tell me about it." Nora bumps her head against Ren's arm. "I'm never drinking alcohol again, that was the worst day of my life."

Ren looks skeptical and takes another sip of his juice. "Didn't you just tell me the other day you wanted to throw another- mmph!?"

Nora slaps a hand over his mouth and loudly shushes him.

"Shh! It's supposed to be a secret! I haven't even come up with a theme yet."

"The last one didn't have a theme." Blake deadpans from her spot beside Yang.

Nora looks to her, dumbfounded. "The theme was a bonfire, duh."

"That's not really a theme though- is it?" Blake retorts.

"An attraction, maybe?" Pyrrha offers.

They start debating and Weiss looks down towards her glass, obvious disinterest displayed on her face.

She looks really pretty today, even more so than usual. She's wearing a grey blazer with a collared shirt underneath and a matching skirt. Yang still has her arm resting on her head, which I can tell is irking Weiss, but I try not to let the action bother me.

Yang notices me watching and is easily able to look over Weiss's head to give me a sly grin.

"So, Ruby, tell me how it feels to be taller than someone for once?" She motions to Weiss, who she's still leaning on.

Weiss scoffs and, finally having enough, shoves Yang's arm off her head, causing the blonde to lose balance momentarily.

"As if Ruby is taller than me."

Yang snickers and takes a drawn-out gulp of juice out of her glass. "Hate to break it to you, princess, but when you're not in those three-inch heels, you tend to lose, well, three inches."

Weiss stands up straighter, as if that was even possible from her normal posture and turns to me with squinted eyes. I feel my face heat up at the attention, but after a moment of what seemed like sizing me up, she shakes her head, as though she's come to a conclusion.

"You're delusional." She states.

"Oh, yeah? Why don't you turn back to back then?" Yang inquires, obviously trying to get a rise out of Weiss.

I decide I should probably step-in; an irritated Weiss was not a very pleasant one.

"Yang, stop messing with her." I whine. "If Weiss says she's taller, then she's probably right."

Weiss gives me an approving nod, but, regardless of what I just said, I'm a bit skeptical myself.

This year alone, I've grown a good inch or two and I'm willing to bet that if we did stand back to back Weiss might not like the results. She did normally wear her heels though, but even when she is wearing them I feel like I'm starting to be more eye to eye with her.

Height didn't bother me so much nowadays, however, it obviously bothered Weiss. A lot of things bothered her actually. Including these weird notions she gets about our relationship, like not even wanting me to look at her in public, much less touch her in any way, out of fear we might be seen by someone.

However, it's substantially different when we're alone. When Weiss lets her vulnerable side show she's just so cute and honest and I honestly can't get enough of it. Whenever this side of Weiss is around, it's hard to think she can be so cold and distant with other people.

I like both sides of Weiss. I just wish she'd show much more of her humble side in public.

Then again, I kind of don't want people to see that side of her. It's nice thinking that's a side of her only I get to see, and when I think about other people knowing Weiss like I do, well, it makes my stomach clench with an odd sense of greed.

I shake my head, trying to rid the thought, and take a leisurely sip of my juice. I look up to take a glance around the room, only to realize there were actually a lot more people here than I was expecting.

Over by the drink table there was a rowdy group of teenage boys, who, judging by their height and stature, I presumed to be some of the basketball players. They were roughly shoving each other around and running in to some of the unfortunate volunteers and staff who were happened to be passing by.

Most people were dressed nicely. Weiss had told me to wear something nice as well; I don't own much classy clothing, so I ended up throwing on the school's uniform shirt and some black jeans. I seem to be fitting in well enough, and Weiss only spent about a minute fixing my shirt collar before allowing me inside.

Amongst the crowd, I spot a drop of orange hair and strain my neck to look past the chattering council members. As my friend comes into view, I step out of the circle of members and wave to the familiar face.

Penny gives me a wave back and holds up a shiny camera that is dangling around her neck. As I raise an eyebrow in question, she changes her direction over to where I stand.

I step out of the group of council members and meet her halfway. We share a brief hug, causing the camera to dig into my stomach, and when I pull away I have to smooth my shirt back down.

"Sal-u-tations, Ruby!"

"Hey, Penny. I didn't know you were coming to this either, you really need to start telling me these things."

"Don't be silly." Penny gives me one of her signature boops on the nose. "I wasn't planning on coming. It was kind of last minute that yearbook decided I should go to get some pictures." She pridefully pets the camera she's holding.

"Oh, I see. Just text me or something next time then."

I turn my head around back towards my group of friends. I spot Weiss looking over at me. When I catch her staring her eyes widen momentarily, before she guiltily looks back towards the group, like a kid caught stealing candy.

Cute…

"Well, since I'm here, why don't I take a picture of the student council?"

"Huh?" I ask, turning back around to face her.

Penny looks at me with a confused expression. "You guys were the ones who made most of this happen. If it wasn't for you, yearbook wouldn't have the funds to get new equipment next year."

I don't see what harm it could do, so I shrug and motion with my head for Penny to follow me back to the group.

I'm a little nervous that she might have seen what happened between me and Weiss just now, but if she caught onto anything, she wasn't letting on.

As I re-enter our little corner, everyone notices the new addition I've brought back, and greet her warmly.

"Greetings, councilmen!" Penny salutes, provoking Yang to give her a mock salute in return, which earns her an elbow to the side from Blake. "I was wondering if I might be able to snap a quick shot of you guys for yearbook." She holds up her camera and offers a bright smile.

"Of course!" Nora says enthusiastically. "I get to be in the front!" She quickly claims.

Everyone forms a line, with Yang and Nora in the front and the rest of us lined up behind them. We took a few serious pictures, some with us smiling, and one or two goofy ones that Weiss wasn't having any part of. For those last ones, I opted for stealthily holding bunny ears behind Weiss's unknowing head.

I assumed we were done, until Yang told everyone to stay still.

"I think we need to get a few with our representative members in the front."

The representative members I'm guessing to be me, Weiss, Blake, and Pyrrha, since we were the only ones in the council with actual titles.

We repositioned ourselves again, with me and Weiss in the center of the front and the secretary and treasurer on our sides respectively. I'm unexpectedly nervous now that I'm in the front of the picture, and I'm pretty sure Weiss is too. I can feel how stiff she is beside me, so I subtly reach over and gently lace one of my fingers with hers.

We're squished so close together you wouldn't be able to see it, and looking over at her between pictures, I can see there is a blush on her cheeks.

Once we finish taking the shots, Penny gives us a thumbs-up and we all go back to our random chatter, this time in more paired off groups. Weiss and I stand off to the side and watch some of the basketball players throwing punch around.

"Honestly, I don't see why we let such uncouth students into events like these."

"They're just trying to have some fun, Weiss." I shrug to myself. "It's not like they're hurting anyone."

"What they're hurting is our schools reputation." She continues, indignantly. "If this was one of my family's banquets, they would have been escorted out before they even came in."

Weiss doesn't talk about stuff like this much, stuff that has to do with her family. Sometimes I think that's what triggers her panic attacks, but then there are times like these where she seems to freely talk about it.

I really don't get it…

"I thought you didn't like the banquets? Aren't you usually forced to perform at them or something?" I question.

Weiss let's out a breath of air, blowing some of her bangs out of her eyes in the process.

"I wouldn't exactly say forced. It's more like my father strongly suggests it." Weiss distractedly switches her gaze from the rowdy basketball players to the floor, almost as if she wants to say something more.

To be honest, I was extremely curious about Weiss's little talent. She's mentioned singing before, and how much she enjoys it, I've just never actually heard her sing before.

Sure, there have been a few occasions where I've caught her humming a little tune while she was working on something in the council room, or even just nodding her head to a song on the radio, but I've never gotten to hear what her voice sounds like. Just picturing what she'd look like while doing so almost makes me go weak in the knees.

She probably sounds like an angel…

"…Ruby?"

"Huh?" I look up from the glass of juice I was still holding, realizing I hadn't been paying attention to anything Weiss had been saying.

Embarrassed at being caught, I scratch the back of my head, eliciting an eye roll from Weiss.

"I said, I'm going to go walk around and welcome some of our guests." Weiss reaches her hands back to readjust her ponytail. "Don't let the rest of the council members get to rowdy."

"Aww, I wanna go with you though." I pout.

Weiss finishes fixing her ponytail and lets her hands drop to rest on her hips, then proceeding to let out a long sigh. "You're such a child sometimes, Ruby. I won't be gone long."

I try not to let the immensity of disappointment I feel show on my face, but I know I must look like a brooding kid to Weiss.

"Okay… I'll miss you."

For the first time since we've been talking tonight, Weiss actually gets a bit flustered, not knowing quite what to say. She tries to keep a composed look on her face, but the heat flaring up in her cheeks give her true feelings away.

"Dolt… me too." Weiss scurries off into the crowd, leaving me smiling after her receding form.

"Well I'm sure glad someone's having fun tonight."

The voice comes from behind me and I turn around to find Mr. Oobleck making his way over.

For a second, it almost seemed as though he was insinuating something about me and Weiss, and I start feeling a bit defensive.

"It sure is wonderful to have such good friends at such a young age, wouldn't you agree, Ruby?"

Oh…

I instantly feel silly for getting worked up so fast and offer my teacher a wave as an unknowing apology. "Yep, it's really nice."

Mr. Oobleck nods his approval and swirls around some liquid in a coffee cup he was holding. He was wearing a nice button down and some dress pants, which is honestly a big step from the coffee stained shirts he usually wears to school.

"I would like to congratulate you for your work in the council, Ruby. Your group has done some amazing work this year and it deserves to be recognized like this."

I scratch the back of my head and scuff one of my shoes on the ground, feeling awkwardly bashful from the compliment.

"Thanks, Mr. Oobleck. We worked really hard."

"Well, I am sure glad you've taken to it." My teacher lifts his mug and downs about three large gulps before taking a breath of air. "Speaking of, have you given any more thought on the science festival? I would sure love to have my brightest student there."

I nod enthusiastically at my teacher. "Oh, yeah! I'm definitely going, Weiss and I want to look at the reptile exhibits."

It wasn't exactly a lie. I wanted to look at the exhibits and Weiss didn't say she didn't want to look at them, she just said we can look at whatever booths we come across.

"Excellent! I'll have you know, Ruby, some of Sciences biggest opportunities appear at this festival. Jobs and college offers from all over the country show up here. It's great for discovering what you would like to do once you're out of high school."

I nod and silently wonder if I will actually find something I want to do once I'm out of high school. This festival seems like a good bet for finding something I like, and Weiss was pretty excited about it as well.

It made me curious as to what her plans would be once we enter the real world. Not that we haven't talked about it before, she's dead-set on following in her family's footsteps and taking over the business. But does that mean she's going to business school somewhere? What college is she going to anyways? Is she even going to college?

I feel myself frown as I fail to answer any of the questions in my head. I turn away from my teacher, who was happily sipping coffee, and look around to see if I could spot Weiss.

Sure enough, across the room a familiar length of white hair makes itself standout amongst the other guests. However, when I spot her, my frown only deepens.

The sight of Weiss laughing was enough to make me smile almost guaranteed. The key word being almost. When Weiss is laughing with a certain lean and blue-haired boy, it's enough to make my blood boil almost instantly.

Calm down, Ruby. Don't make a scene.

"Are you alright Miss Rose?" Mr. Oobleck is peering at me over the rim of his coffee cup.

I spare a glance at him, but by the time I answer I'm already walking away. "Yeah, I have to go do something. I'll see you Monday, Mr. Oobleck."

"Take care!"

As I approach the two across the room, I watch as Neptune says something, making crazy hand gestures to go along with it, while Weiss watches intently. I pick up my pace and by the time I've made it over to them, Weiss is smiling at whatever dumb joke Neptune must have told.

"What's so funny?" I pop up from behind Weiss, startling her.

"Ruby!" Weiss places a hand on her chest and takes a shaky breath out. "Don't scare me like that, you dunce."

I continue to glare at the boy standing across from us. Neptune gives me a wave and a knowing expression appears on his face.

"So you're the vice president! Weiss has told me a lot about you!" He says, enthusiastically.

"Oh, has she now?" I turn towards Weiss, whose gaze immediately focuses anywhere but my direction. All I get from her is a shrug and some incoherent mumbles.

"So, what were you guys talking about?" I ask with a hint of indignation.

Neptune's face lights up and for some reason it makes me even more on edge.

"We were talking about the play the student council put on last year. There was this insanely funny moment when the lead broke a door handle on one of the set pieces during the last night of the show. The improv was so bad, had me rolling."

"It was quite amusing." Weiss says. "Even though they spent so much time rehearsing, it was really unfortunate."

"You put a lot of effort into it, Snow Angel. It was honestly pretty dope even for a school play. The costumes were great too."

I start feeling like I'm a bit of a third wheel, but there's no way in hell I'm about to stand around and let my girlfriend get hit on by this idiot.

"It brought a plentiful amount of revenue to the school, that's what matters."

Out of the corner of her eye, Weiss watches me as I silently seethe, and I feel her elbow my side as if to say, 'play nice.'

"Well that sounds hilarious." I deadpan.

Neptune, of course, is oblivious to the irony and continues talking away, talking like he wasn't trying to flirt with Weiss right in front of me.

Granted, he didn't know we were dating, no one did; sometimes I don't even feel like we're dating. It's few and far in-between when we've actually gotten to be ourselves without anyone around.

"Weiss was an usher, ya'know? She had to wear a flight attendant costume while escorting-"

"-I don't think it's necessary to bring that up, Neptune." Weiss quickly interferes.

Weiss in a flight attendant costume…

"Don't worry Snow Angel, it was hot."

I feel my cheek twitch at his comment. I'm not sure how much more of this I can take.

Even though this is my first time meeting the guy, he's already made a blatantly obvious pass at Weiss, in turn making me very wary about him being around her.

And even though we haven't been dating that long, I worry she might come to her senses all of the sudden and question why she's even with someone like me. She's better in every aspect of, well, everything, and because of her desirableness, I get stupidly jealous like this.

"You know what I think?" I cut in, casually stepping halfway in front of Weiss.

"Ruby…" Weiss quietly warns.

"I think Weiss is very hot."

Neptune stares at me for a moment, unsure of what to say. Weiss looks absolutely mortified.

"...How about you go get her a drink to help her cool off?"

Neptune stares at me dumbly, before realization crosses his features and he gives me a thumbs-up. "You got it, Vice Pres."

He walks away and makes his way towards the drink table towards the front of the room.

Thunk.

"Ow!?" I put a hand to my freshly thumped forehead.

"You dolt!" Weiss hisses.

"What?" I say, feigning ignorance.

Weiss looks like she's about to yell at me, until she takes a moment to look around at all the people around us. Thinking better of it, she grabs my wrist, dragging me through the crowd and into one of the back corners of the room, right next to the bathrooms.

As soon as we reach the corner, Weiss drops my wrist and, even though she's pissed at me, I find myself instinctively missing her touch.

She glares at me and crosses her arms over her chest. "You can't just say stuff like that, Ruby." She huffs.

"C'mon, I didn't do anything wrong. I was just trying to get him to leave."

"So, it's okay for you to interrupt my conversations and then just chase away my company all together?"

"He was blatantly flirting with you!" I counter.

"That might be so, but he's still an old friend of mine, and what you did was incredibly rude to both him and me." Weiss unfolds her hands and places them on her hips.

I feel myself growing increasingly guarded. "You could at least tell him you're not interested, or already have a partner or something, instead of just letting him continue to hit on you."

"What I say to my friends is my business, Ruby. And what you said to him could be more telling than you think."

"There's no way he knows about us, Weiss!" I, almost hysterically, throw my arms towards the large crowd of people in the cafeteria. "For god sake, no one knows! So do you know how seeing something like that makes me feel!?"

"Keep your voice down, I-"

"Oh-ho-ho, what's this? A lovers quarrel?"

We both freeze.

Weiss frantically takes a step back from me and looks towards the voice we just heard. When I see who it is, I feel my face go pale.

Yang walks over to us, just having exited the girls bathroom. As she nears us, she must have seen the horrified looks on our faces because she knits her eyebrows together in concern.

"What happened? You two look like you just saw a ghost." At our lack of response, her concerned expression turns into one of confusion. "I was just messing with you, what are you two fighting about now?"

Weiss and I look at each other and let out sighs of relief.

Yang continues to watch us and an awkward silence passes between the three of us. Neither me or Weiss want to say anything. Thankfully, Yang takes liberty to break the awkwardness.

"Okayyy… Well, I was planning on asking if you wanted to call it a night, Rubes, but uh…"

I look up at Weiss, who's refusing to look at me. She has a pained look on her face and it hurts me more than anything to see her look like that.

"Weiss…" I reach out for her hand.

Weiss shakes her head and backs away from me, leaving my arm hanging limply halfway in the air.

"Just go for now, Ruby. We can work this out later."

As we exited the cafeteria and headed towards the parking lot, where Yang parked Bumblebee, I feel my sisters eyes on me the whole way.

"You okay, Rubes?" She finally asks, breaking the long silence.

"I don't want to talk about it." I pout.

Yang doesn't question me any further as we continue our way into the schools parking lot.

Weiss and I argue all the time, but we've never had anything like that before. I don't see what the big deal is though. I just sent him away, why is it such a crime that I don't want some guys who's flirting with her to be around her?

I didn't think being in a relationship would be so hard. I keep thinking that I'll get used to it, waking up and having Weiss text me good morning, or ask to meet at the front of the school before classes, but I don't get used to it.

Every time I see her I feel like my heart might just keep pounding until it pops. I want to do things with her, go places with her, and tell her how much she means to me. Sometimes, it's so hard to keep these feelings bottled up and I'm scared they might come spewing out and scare Weiss away.

I still haven't even told her how I almost kissed her before we even started dating.

Ugh, forget about that already, Ruby.

I just want us to come to an understanding in our relationship, and I decide I'll talk to her about it in person on Monday. Communication is key in any sort of relationship; this is something my dad taught me when I was in middle school, not that I've ever been good at it, but I know it's important.

We reach Yang's bike and she grabs her helmet off the handlebar to hand it to me. I'm about to take it from her when she pauses and pulls back slightly.

"Listen, Rubes, I know you and Weiss don't always get along, but I hate seeing you upset. Something obviously happened, and if you don't want to tell me that's fine, but don't beat yourself up about it. If there's one thing I know about you, it's that you always know the right thing to do."

I take the helmet out of her hand and give her a smile. "Thanks, Yang. I needed that."

Yang plucked the helmet back out of my hand and put it on my head, proceeding to strap it for me.

"Yeah, yeah. Now quit your moping, let's go home."

The ride back was a silent one and when we reached our driveway I noticed my dad's truck was gone, but there was an oddly familiar sports car parked in the driveway. Yang and I glanced at each other with eyebrows raised.

We unlock the front door and make our way inside the mostly dark home.

"Hello?" Yang calls out.

There's a moment of silence before we get our answer.

"In the kitchen, girls."

No way…

As soon as I hear the voice, I sprint down the hall, not even pausing to take off my shoes. I reach the kitchen and practically pounce on the figure in the doorway.

"Uncle Qrow! Ooh, it's so good to see you!" I squeeze him in the biggest bear-hug I could give.

"Easy there, kiddo. I'm not as young as I used to be."

"Uncle Qrow!" Yang enters the kitchen in a much calmer manor than I had, but still proceeds to give the man a big hug. "It's been so long since we last saw you, what're you doing here?" She asks.

We let go and look up at Uncle Qrow expectantly. Qrow grumbles a few words and takes a sip out of the flask in his hand.

"Your father's gonna be out on business for a while, asked me to look out for you while he's gone."

"He didn't tell us anything?" Yang questioned, mostly to herself.

"Yeah, we saw him just before we left for the council party." I add on.

Qrow waves us off. "He said it was super last minute, and that you guys would probably wanna see me anyways." Qrow takes another gulp out of his flask. "So, what's new then, firecracker?"

Yang takes a moment to think. "I got some new mods on my bike, wanna take a look in the morning?"

"I also got a bike!" I exclaim excitedly.

"Now, I know there's no way in hell Tai got you a bike, kiddo."

"She means an actual bike, like a bicycle. It's actually pretty nice." Yang clarifies.

I absolutely love it whenever Uncle Qrow comes to town. We could just spend hours talking like this. I have a lot of fond memories of the four of us hanging out in the living room and going camping when we were really young.

Uncle Qrow was my role model in so many ways, but we hardly get to see him. That being said, when I do get to see him it's always a treat, but it's also sad when he has to leave, since we always know we won't see him for a while.

I wish Weiss was here to meet him.