A/N: Well.
*UPDATE* Sorry, but for personal reasons, I have to miss one upload week and will instead be updating this story on July 15th 2015
Ruby
I shouldn't be this nervous; this is something that we've done many times before. Why should this time be any different? Maybe if I tell myself that enough times, I'll start to believe it.
She stands with all of the grace and beauty that I've come to love. A five mile per hour wind blows from my right, courtesy of Jaune and Pyrrha's - mostly Pyrrha's - combined effort. She uses her semblance to rotate Jaune's Crocea Mors like a fan, but at a very high speed. I told her earlier that she really didn't need to do this, but she insisted on helping.
"Are you ready?" Weiss calls out from across the field, her hair let down and somehow blowing picturesquely over her shoulder.
"I guess so," I shout, readying Crescent Rose and holding it at shoulder level. The sun's rays are in my eye and I can't sight in right - I don't understand why I need to do this, but if it helps Weiss feel better, I'll do it.
"Ok. Nora may I?" she asks, holding her left hand out.
"Sure, but don't forget our deal," Nora replies cheerfully, handing Weiss Magnhild.
Weiss scoffs, a teasing smile playing across her face. "I couldn't if I wanted to, Nora."
Satisfied, Nora steps back and drops onto the grass, next to Ren who takes her hand affectionately.
Looking back at me, Weiss empties Magnhild of most of its rounds and lets them fall to her feet with muted clattering before pulling Myrtenaster out of her waistband.
"Should we have a countdown?" Jaune asks from the sideline, probably fishing for something to do. Poor guy, Weiss never lets him do anything.
Weiss visibly slumps her shoulders, but quickly fixes her posture. "Sure, Jaune. Why don't you count down from five?" She asks with obvious condescension in her voice.
I giggle, feeling bad for him, but at the same time understanding where Weiss is coming from. Even with the training that Pyrrha has given him both on off the battlefield, he's still not one hundred percent dependable.
"Yes! Five . . . Four . . . Three . . . Two . . . One!" He yells.
Weiss creates a glyph by her feet, seemingly gripping all of Nora's grenades and throwing them into the air. Creating a second vertical glyph, she catches and holds them in the air. In response, I press Crescent Rose against my shoulder and aim down its sight. Seeing that I'm ready, Weiss pokes her right index finger at one of the grenades. The precision strike launches it towards me in an arc and I roll forward squeezing the trigger to fire my baby. I figured that at this range, the effect of the wind would be almost negligible. The bullet flies through the air, its bearing is changed, but not drastically and my bullet clips the edge of the grenade, causing it to spin off course and explode harmlessly away from all of us.
"Ruby, remember to always factor the wind into your pattern," Pyrrha calls from the sideline. She's right, on the battlefield, taking shortcuts could get me or more importantly Weiss killed.
I nod at her, taking aim at Weiss and waiting for the next round. She pokes her finger separately at two grenades and launches them both in two separate flight patterns towards me. This time, I correctly factor the wind in like Uncle Qrow showed me and hit both grenades dead center before they start to fall.
I smile triumphantly at my girlfriend, who gives me a look in return that says not to get comfortable. I eject my clip for good measure and reload just in time for Weiss to toss the rest of them at me randomly.
Lightning fast, I sight in and fire two shots at each of the three grenades just to make sure that I do the job. The bullets spiral through the air hitting their marks - at least I think they do and creating two pink clouds of dust.
The last grenade gets hit somewhere on the grenades side, giving it a back-spin that spirals it towards me.
At the last possible second I dive out of the way, trying to avoid it, but can't and the grenade hits the floor behind me. The explosion that comes afterwards knocks me clear off my feet and forward, throwing me into the air. Luckily for me, when I land, I land on something soft and white.
"Wow, Weiss! Nice catch," Jaune explains, clearly impressed.
Weiss though, obviously isn't and rolls to her side, letting me slide off of her gently. Before getting up, she inspects me for anything wrong, "Ruby, are you alright?"
As much as I appreciate that concern of hers, I wish she would stop asking me that. Why doesn't she understand that if I wasn't alright, I would tell her?
"I am. Can we do something else now?" I ask, getting to my feet and running my hands through my hair.
"Yes," Weiss begins, getting to her feet and patting herself down.
She reaches for my hand, but is interrupted by Nora, who holds up Magnhild with its cylinder freshly filled with ammo. "Not so fast, Weiss. You're not getting out of this one."
"Wait, Ruby just got blown into the air. Why don't we . . . reconvene tomorrow?" Weiss stammers, holding up her hands defensively.
Maybe I am a little bit hurt, but not physically, it's more emotional and I don't even know why. Maybe I'm not thinking straight because I grab Magnhild and shoot Nora a look, stopping any protest before it starts.
"Nora. If you don't mind, I want to do it," I request, positioning my hand around its handle.
The face that Weiss makes is one of momentary betrayal, but it quickly turns to ice cold determination.
"Sorry, Princess," I call from across the field, holding the weapon at my waist.
She scoffs, drawing Myrtenaster elegantly and facing me with a smirk. "I'm sure you are, Ruby."
Nobody dares to interfere because I guess they feel the tension between Weiss and I. After a quick adjustment, Weiss nods, telling me that she's ready for me.
Unlike her glyphs, this grenade launcher was built for this task and, well, launches the first grenade through the sky.
Weiss cycles Myrtenaster cylinder and fires a blue line of dust infused aura. The two projectiles crash into each other midair and react. The grenade freezes and drops to the ground like a stone.
Without giving her time to recover, I fire a salvo of three more grenades. Just as quickly, Weiss does a backwards somersault to gain distance before following up with her own salvo. The energy strikes the grenades and again drops them to the ground. Unlike my bullets, her aura doesn't need a direct hit to stop the projectiles.
She gives me another confident look and something inside me snaps. I can feel sorrow, anger and frustration welling up inside me - or spilling over at least.
This'll wipe that smirk off of her face, I think, squeezing the trigger. Just as I fire the final round, she recovers her form and everything moves in slow motion. I drop Magnhild, realizing what I just did and before Weiss can react, the grenade hits her in the chest. Suddenly, she's flying through the air clouded in pink smoke.
If it wasn't for my super speed, she might have been really hurt. Luckily I was able to catch her. She lands pretty hard and we fly backwards, bouncing off the ground twice.
Synchronized 'ouches' ring through the air when we finally come to a stop accompanied by the sound of footsteps on the ground.
I think I might have blacked out because when I come to, I'm lying in bed and my team is standing over me.
"Are you ok?" Yang asks, putting her hand on my back and helping me sit up.
"What? What happened?" I ask, pressing my hand against the bed to push myself into an upright position.
"I don't know, Ruby. What do you remember?" Weiss asks, resting her right hand on her waist. I open my mouth to respond, but the look in her eyes shuts me up. "Blake, Yang. Could we have some privacy?"
Yang smiles knowingly and winks at me. Blake, however looks on with a grim face before walking out of the room. At this point, my heart's living in my throat, beating almost faster than I can run and I don't know why.
When Blake and Yang are well out of the way and left the room, Weiss pulls a chair up beside the bed and sits down without another word, giving me the same, disgusted look that she gave me when we first met.
"Weiss, what's wrong?" I ask, swinging my legs over the edge of the bed.
She doesn't even meet my gaze when she says the only thing that I've been afraid of since the start of our relationship.
"Ruby. I think we need to break up."
A/N: There is angst in this arc. What I still need is reviews to know what's working and what isn't, maybe to tell me what you think about the story so far. I'm sorry for that by the way. If it could have led anywhere else, I would have pushed it in that direction, but you know. Thanks for reading.