TALES FROM THE HUNT TOWER

"That time Ruby and Weiss built a thing"

Setting: after Weiss Schnee: Legacy

"Did you drop this? Nope. 'Cause that would have made too much sense," Ruby grumbled, holding the controller unnecessarily close to her face. "It's got to be this guy, then. Even though it makes no heckin' sense. Right?"

She pressed the confirm button, then watched the screen intently as her player character offered another character a lost item he'd found lying around. She held her breath in suspense… then groaned as, for the twentieth time in a row, he was rejected and turned away.

"Who the heck does this belong to, then?!" Ruby yelled, gesturing at the screen. "Ugh, whatever. This is stupid. Let's do choir practice already." She started to move her character again, grumbling to herself all the while.

She played for a couple more minutes, her annoyance only slightly lessening, until she heard the elevator stopping on their floor and turned to look. Weiss appeared around the corner of the hallway, her steps echoing loudly as she walked into the living room.

"Oh hey Weiss, how was your-" Ruby trailed off, watching as Weiss crossed the room and headed for the bedrooms, not even throwing a glance her way. "…mission. Huh."

Weiss left her sight, and a couple seconds later, Ruby heard a door slam shut in the distance. Ruby sank into the sofa a bit, and looked at the elevator hallway again. Blake appeared in a moment, rolling her left shoulder. She looked in the direction Weiss had gone, a slight frown on her forehead, then looked at Ruby.

"What's going on, Blake?" Ruby said. "Weiss looked a little, uh… mad. Did something happen?"

"Something did." Blake shrugged, and her face contorted with a wince. "Hold on. I'll be with you in a minute."

Blake went to the kitchen and came out with a pack of ice. She sat down beside Ruby and set the pack on her shoulder, biting her lip for a moment as she acclimated to the cold.

"Oh gosh Blake, are you hurt?" Ruby put down her controller and leaned close to look at Blake's shoulder. "Oh man, maybe I should have gone with you guys after all…"

"No, you shouldn't have," Blake said. "You are on mandatory break."

"I'm the leader. I decide what's mandatory," Ruby said. "You didn't break your arm or anything, right? Please tell me you didn't."

"It's not that big a deal. Nothing that Aura, ice, and a couple days of rest won't mend," Blake said.

"How did it happen?" Ruby asked.

"There were more Grimm than we thought," Blake said, and raised a finger as Ruby opened her mouth to speak. "You couldn't have known." She watched Ruby for a second, and put down her finger. "I got cornered, my Aura got dangerously low. An Ursa grabbed my arm and I had to break loose however I could. Honestly, I didn't notice anything was wrong until we were on the jet back home, and I didn't do a very good job of hiding it from Weiss either. Hence the stomping and the cold shoulder."

She blinked and looked at the ice pack, then grinned at Ruby and raised an eyebrow. Normally, Ruby would have been delighted by Blake making a pun like that, but she wasn't in a mood for that right now.

"So you almost got killed and had to injure yourself to survive, and Weiss is mad at you because of it." Ruby got up. "You know what, I think I need to have a talk with her."

"Wait." Blake grabbed her wrist with her good hand. "It's fine. She's angry with herself, not me. Give her space."

Ruby sat back down, casting a skeptical look at Blake. That didn't make any sense. Was she just trying to get the heat off Weiss for some reason? That was nice, but as leader, she couldn't let that sort of thing go without at least a conversation.

"We had a game plan," Blake said. "Weiss was supposed to provide me with air support. The usual stuff. But I guess she dropped her Dust crystals, or she didn't realize she was going to run out until she did, or something. I'm not sure what happened."

"Oh," Ruby said. "I guess it makes sense she'd be upset, then. She feels like it's her fault you got hurt."

"Which it's not. It was just an accident. It's not like she left me hanging on purpose, and at the end of the day, we took care of all the Grimm like we were supposed to," Blake said. "Anyway, I'm not upset with her. What's more to be said?"

"Hmm. I guess I don't need to talk with her, after all," Ruby said. "But maybe I do. Just to make sure she's doing okay?"

"Ruby, if you go into that room right now, you're just gonna get yelled at," Blake said. "Trust me, I know."

Ruby sighed and picked up the controller. She supposed Blake made a good point. Angry Weiss was truly something to fear, especially when she was angry at herself. Nobody should redirect her ire in those cases, unless they wanted to get a ten-minute rant and possibly a shoe thrown at their head.

Ruby had never actually witnessed Weiss throw a shoe at someone, but she felt that was something that could feasibly happen under the right circumstances.

Blake nodded at the screen. "This game again?" she said. "Four Abodes, right?I thought you'd already beaten it, like, twice."

"Well yeah, but I'm doing a new route and recruiting the extra characters this time around," Ruby said. "Also, since I'm playing a boy this time, I get to romance Claudia, and that's what's really important."

"Wait, you can't do that as a girl?" Blake blinked at the screen. "Well that's stupid."

"I know, right?! And the guy character is so boring too." Ruby groaned. "That's life, I guess. You wanna watch me play?"

"Sure. I'm not going anywhere."

Ruby resumed playing, though she wasn't as invested in it as before, even as she explained details about the game to Blake. Her mind was elsewhere, on matters of friend-and-leadership, and as the afternoon steadily passed, she began to come up with a plan of action…

Weiss held out her hands before and summoned a glyph. She looked at the training dummy at the other side of the training room, and closed her eyes. Taking a deep breath, she locked the image of her target in her mind's eye… then swiftly took a crystal from her pouch, pressed it to the glyph, and fired off a beam of fiery energy.

She opened one eye, and sighed as she observed the results of her attack. She'd hit the dummy alright, in the shoulder, but not in the chest as she'd been aiming for. She did incinerate a good part of it, such that its arm even fell off – if it were a Grimm, it would have died right then and there. Still, it wasn't perfect.

Weiss shook her hands, getting ready for a second attempt. She couldn't rest until the movements were second nature. But just as she started to form another glyph, she heard a faint creak behind her, and turned to see Ruby peeking at her from the hallway outside.

"Ruby Rose! What are you doing staring at me like that?" Weiss shouted.

"Eek! Sorry, sorry, I just heard you training and wanted to have a look!" Ruby said. "I totally haven't been here for ten minutes, so you don't have to worry about that, okay?"

Weiss just stared at her.

"Uh, you're doing a great job! Excellent form!" Ruby said, and gave her a meek thumbs-up.

"I would appreciate the compliment, if you weren't being so rude and creepy," Weiss said. "Can you let me do my work alone now? And please leave the door as you found it. Closed."

"Okay okay! Sorry again!" Ruby said, and closed the door.

Weiss sighed and rubbed her forehead.

A second later, the door opened again.

"Those dummies are very expensive, by the way!" Ruby squealed, poking her head inside. "Okay I'm going away for real this time good luck with your training!"

Weiss glared at the door, and only looked away after it remained locked for a full minute.

"I swear," she muttered. "Sometimes it's like I'm your sister."

"Hey, Weiss, are you busy?" Ruby asked, bursting into the kitchen with no warning.

Weiss gestured at the sink, at her hands covered in soap, and at the pile of plates still waiting to be cleaned. Finally, she looked at Ruby, and started to cross her arms – stopping herself when she realized what a mess that would be.

"So… you're not busy?" Ruby said.

"Ruby, I very clearly am. Someone has to clean up after dinner, and I have taken the task upon myself tonight," Weiss said, lifting her chin. "That is what a dependable teammate does, after all."

"Right… We are all very impressed, Weiss," Ruby said. "Are you scrubbing the bathrooms later?"

Weiss turned around to face the sink. "Sorry, I can't hear you over the running water."

She thought that would get the message across to Ruby, but she was very wrong about that, as she immediately appeared at her side with a pleading expression on her face.

"I just need you for thirty seconds. You won't even have to move from where you're standing," Ruby said. "You do that, and I'll get out of your hair."

"Hmm. You'll get out of my hair," Weiss said, "and you'll do the bathrooms for me?"

"That doesn't sound like an even trade, but okay!" Ruby said. "I just need you to show me your hands. Palms up, please."

Weiss did so, knowing better than to ask questions. She did get curious, however, when Ruby took out a measuring tape and rolled it around her wrists, muttering the findings to herself as if she were solving some great equation.

"Yes," Weiss said. "This is my life now. There is no way out but death."

"Hopefully not anytime soon!" Ruby said cheerily, and took back her tape. "Done! If you're wondering, I'm taking everyone's measures. It's for a competition!"

"A competition. Over what, who has the widest wrists?" Weiss said. If so, she was sure she'd end up in last place.

"Yup, that's exactly it. And the winner gets an end of year bonus!" Ruby said. "Aren't I a nice boss?"

"Firstly, the only person you're the boss of is Zwei, and he's a dog," Weiss said. "Secondly, you don't handle our payments. We all take the same cut from the Beacon funding. So unless you've been pulling some questionable money practices…"

"It's not a money bonus! It's a bonus in hugs and… and kisses!" Ruby blushed. "But not on the lips, of course! I'd never think of kissing you on the lips, Weiss."

The sound of running water echoed throughout the kitchen.

"I'd like to finish the dishes now, please," Weiss said.

"O-okay, bye…" Ruby said, and slowly backed out of the kitchen.

Weiss shook her head. At least she had gotten out of bathroom duty.

"Blake, have you noticed Ruby acting… strangely as of late?" Weiss asked, sitting beside an eating Blake on the living room couch.

Blake stopped eating her sandwich and looked at Weiss, a listless expression on her face.

"I mean, more than the usual strange," Weiss said.

"I can't say I have," Blake said. "But you know me, I'm not a very observant person." She licked her fingertips and started eating again.

"Hmph. I can just tell there's something going on with her," Weiss said.

"Do you think she might be sneaking out to visit a supervillain in a maximum-security Beacon facility?" Blake munched on her sandwich. "There is precedent for that, you know."

"No, no, it's something far more nefarious than that," Weiss said, and squinted in the direction of Ruby's room. "Yesterday, she measured my wrist. She's plotting something, I can feel it."

"Sounds serious."

Weiss straightened her back and pressed her hands to her laps, her eyes darting to every corner of the room. If she was right about Ruby, then she needed to stay alert at all times, perhaps even while she slept. Ruby's attack would occur fast and without notice, and if she caught Weiss unaware, that might just spell her-

Something buzzed beside her, and Weiss jumped off the couch - and nearly out of her own skin. She landed in a squat beside the couch, and carefully raised her head to peek over its arm. Blake had put her sandwich aside on a plate to look at her Scroll, her eyes flitting up and down and forehead creasing as she read something.

"What is it?" Weiss hush-shouted. "It's Ruby, isn't it? What does she want?"

Blake looked at her quizzically. "She wants me to ask you what's your favorite color."

"The devil!" Weiss said. "Do not tell her, Blake Belladonna, or by the grace of Atlas I swear I will rip the flesh from your body."

Blake nodded. "I'll just tell her it's white, then." Her fingers moved dexterously as she typed, and a second later the Scroll pinged as the message was sent out.

Weiss gasped. "Betrayed by my own teammate. Does our friendship really mean so little to you, Blake?"

Blake contemplated the question for a moment, before she shrugged and picked up her sandwich again.

"You realize you're being dramatic for no good reason, right? This is bordering on paranoia," Blake said. "It's the Pyrrha situation all over again."

"No, it's not!" Weiss said. "It's different this time. I know Ruby is up to something, and I'm not sleep-deprived."

"If you say so," Blake said. "But even if Ruby is plotting something, how bad can it be?"

"You wouldn't say that if you were in my shoes," Weiss said. "Whatever. I can see you're of no help. Just know that I expect you to remember this conversation when you're attending my funeral."

"You have my word, Weiss."

Weiss hmphed and stood up. She started to walk away, but turned around before she left the room.

"And by the way, you can't prove Pyrrha was not polishing her shield in my room in the middle of the night, so," she said, and realized she had nothing more to add. "So, I… would think twice about my words if I were you. Is that unreasonable?"

Blake stared at her. "I'm just having a sandwich."

"Typical," Weiss spat, and stormed out.

Weiss stood in the doorway of her room, staring at the floor with a half-confused, half-incredulous look on her face. There were flower petals in her room. Not so many to be absurd, but still, she'd have to be blind not to notice them. Most were scattered next to her bed, and the night table just beside it.

Huffing, Weiss marched over to the night table and opened its first drawer. Everything seemed to be in order there. She opened the second drawer, and – aha! Her dust box was off-center, something she'd never allow.

Wait, her dust box? Her eyes going wide, Weiss took the box out and put it atop the night table, then opened it and peered inside. All the crystals she'd stored there after her last refill seemed to be there still, but they were organized in a terrible fashion, which could only mean someone had meddled with them.

And she knew exactly who this someone was.

Weiss closed the box and stood up, marching out of her room with her fists clenched. She went to Ruby's door and, without a moment of pause, kicked the door open and walked inside. A yelp and a squeal rang in her ears as Ruby jumped from her work chair – nearly hitting her head on the ceiling, so high she went – then landed back on her feet and stood nervously in front of her desk.

"Ruby Rose! Just what the hell do you think you're doing?" Weiss said.

"W-what? I don't know what you're talking about," Ruby said. "I was just working on Crescent-"

"Do not play me for a fool! You've been acting strangely around me for days now, so I know something's up!" Weiss said. "Spying on me as I train, taking measurements… It's all very disturbing, but I can live with those things. But I draw the line at going into my room without permission and rummaging through my personal belongings!"

"But I didn't-" Ruby saw the look on Weiss' face and changed course. "Okay I did that but I promise it was for a good cause. A-and I'm really really sorry, I shouldn't have-"

"A simple apology is not going to cut it," Weiss said. "What you did was a serious breach of privacy, Ruby, and frankly, I didn't expect to ever have to deal with that from you."

Ruby's shoulders sunk, and she looked away from Weiss, pouting. Weiss almost felt bad, but remembering the nature of Ruby's transgression, she steeled her resolve and raised her chin to look down upon the girl. It was then that she noticed what Ruby was doing – she had strategically placed herself just in front of her desk, concealing whatever she was working on from Weiss' view.

"Ruby," Weiss said, "what are you hiding behind you?"

"Nothing," Ruby said. "I said I was working on Crescent Rose."

"Lying to me is only going to make things worse," Weiss said. "Step aside."

Ruby stared at her for a moment. With a heavy sigh, she shuffled over to her bed and sat down.

Weiss walked to the desk and looked at what lay on it. Dealing with Ruby, her expectations of what she might find had been very open, yet she was still surprised. There were papers, many, many papers, with sketches and calculations and otherwise ineligible scribbles. That much wasn't surprising. But the blue Dust crystal – so she had stolen something from Weiss after all – and the… mittens… those, Weiss didn't expect.

"What in…" Weiss pinched her nose and turned to look at Ruby. "I don't even know what to make of any of this."

"Well, the project's still in the planning phase, so…" Ruby said, twiddling her thumbs. "It's Dust gloves. Like, normal gloves – or mittens, 'cause they need to be a little thicker for it to work, I think – with Dust in them that you can draw out."

"Dust gloves," Weiss repeated.

"Yup," Ruby said. "Uhm, they were supposed to be a surprise… But I guess they're not anymore."

Weiss looked at the desk again, then at Ruby.

"Wait," she said. "You're not making them for me, are you?"

"Uh, yeah. I can't think of anyone else who could really use them," Ruby said. "Maybe Yang, but she already blows up way too much stuff with just her bare fists. I'm not gonna be responsible for any more destruction, no sir."

"But…" Weiss shook her head. "I don't understand. Why would you do this?"

Ruby visibly deflated, her eyes turning to stare at her shoes. "I knew I should have asked. You don't want them."

"What? No, that's not the issue at all," Weiss said. "It's exactly as you say – you didn't ask. And I didn't say anything either. I didn't ask for you to give me such a… gift. Any kind of gift. So why would you?"

Ruby stared at her, blinking once, then twice. "Now I'm the one that's confused," Ruby said. "The whole point of giving someone a gift is that the person doesn't need to ask. I know you've been having some issues with your powers, so I wanted to do something to help you with that. Because… I care about you? Does that make sense?"

It certainly did, and the way Ruby laid it out, she could just as well be explaining a basic concept to a child, and that was not a dynamic Weiss was used to, much less comfortable with. It was a humbling experience, to be on this side of the relationship for once. But more than that, it left her mortified about how she'd been behaving recently.

"Uhm, i-it doesn't even have to be a gift just for you, if that helps," Ruby said. "Think about it – by equipping you with new tech, I'm helping out the whole team. I'm just looking out for everyone's safety." She paused, biting her lip. "It doesn't have to be anything more than that."

Weiss almost gasped in relief that Ruby had provided her a way out. She very much wanted to apologize, and to thank Ruby for her thoughtfulness, but no matter how she formulated the words in her head, they seemed unable to get past her throat.

"Of course. That is very sharp of you, Ruby," Weiss said. "As always, you prove yourself an excellent leader."

"Yup. That's me – ten outta ten leader at all times," Ruby said. She rubbed the back of her neck, a silence falling between them, before she cleared her throat and walked to her desk. "Anyway, I'm not finished making them yet. I'm not even close, actually. But don't worry, it shouldn't take any more than a week."

"A week, you say." Weiss looked over the scattered notes on the desk, and poked one of the mittens with a finger. "I say we can do it in three days. Four, at most."

Ruby blinked. "We?"

"There is no point in you working alone now that I know what you're doing, now is there?" Weiss said. "I've never been much of an engineer, mind you, but I believe my scientific expertise could be of great value here. Not that I doubt your own abilities, Ruby – I know about your many, er… projects – but…"

"You'd feel safer knowing you worked on the gloves too," Ruby said. "I guess that's fair. You're gonna be the one wearing them in battle. What if your hands blew up?" She made a placating gesture with her hands. "I was gonna test them out on myself before I gave them to you, by the way! Lots of testing, very thorough. Good ol' trial and error."

Weiss breathed out slowly. "Yes, I do believe my help will be invaluable in this process," she said. "So, what do you say? Shall we work together?"

She offered her hand, and without a second's consideration, Ruby grabbed and shook it, a huge smile on her face.

"Heck yeah!" Ruby said. "This is gonna be awesome, partner."

Working with Weiss did turn out to be pretty awesome, though it took them some time to get there.

They butted heads a lot in the first couple hours, because as smart as Weiss was - and she was really smart, recalling informations from years ago as if she'd heard it just yesterday, and solving calculations that had taken Ruby minutes like they were afterthoughts - she could also be really impatient and rigid. Why did she have to try every conventional solution to a problem when she already knew it wasn't going to work?

Now, Ruby might have made that a little worse, because apparently she couldn't sit still for more than a minute, and "her application of the scientific method is akin to a monkey shoving a shape in the same wrong hole until it fits". Clearly, Weiss didn't know what she was talking about. Ruby had built Crescent Rose all by herself, using only junkyard scraps and her ingenuity, and she hadn't even burned her house down in the process. She was a kickass scientist, that was pretty much a fact.

But eventually they'd worked out their differences, and found a way to work together while playing to both their strengths. They got into a good rhythm after that, and Weiss even laughed at a few of Ruby's jokes.

Having Weiss as her partner made things much easier, and not only because of her smarts. Before, Ruby had been working with a lot of assumptions regarding her Semblance and how she used it, all information she'd gathered from her time fighting alongside Weiss, as well as… less honorable methods. But now that the project was no longer a secret, she could get every detail she wanted just by asking, and even some she would have never thought to ask.

Weiss' former industry connections also proved useful. Ruby hadn't been the first person to think about weaving Dust into clothing - it was technology many had already experimented with, and having heard about it before, that was where she'd gotten the idea from. But most information about it was kept private by its owners, and what wasn't was very rudimentary and hadn't helped her at all. Yet all it had taken Weiss was a phone call or two, a few emails, and shortly after, they had heaps of documentation to study from.

Unfortunately, that was when things started to go downhill. It turned out that Dust clothing was an experimental technology for a reason - nobody had been able to get it quite right, or at least to a point where it might actually be useful.

There was little reason for an ordinary person to wear Dust clothes, so its main application would be for combat. But then, Dust was a finicky thing to work with. Use too little, and it doesn't have the potency to be useful for anything. Use too much, and it becomes hazardous to the user, not to mention that the infused items proved rather unwieldy even for trained individuals. At that point, full-on power armor and automated soldiers became more worthwhile pursuits.

Weiss had Aura, so the chances of her getting hurt in case of a malfunction were small, but that didn't mean she wouldn't be hampered by it. What was she supposed to do if all her Dust discharged at once because a Grimm hit her? And was she supposed to fly around the battlefield with gloves three times the size of her hands? What if she had to itch her nose?

They needed to find the right balance, considering every factor, but they weren't getting there. They finished the first day with no answers, but still determined to see things through to the end.

They gathered in Ruby's room again the next day and got back to work. They whittled away the hours, Ruby coming up with new solutions, and Weiss working them out in paper, only to always find them insufficient. Night came, and they were forced to stop and rest.

On the morning of the third day, they decided to work in the living room instead, hoping that a change in environment might help them focus better. But they made no headway still, and every failed idea deflated them further. Blake even helped them by bringing them food and tea every once in a while, but that did little to lift their spirits.

It had just turned dark again, and Ruby had her eyes glazed over as she read through the same project report for the fifth time, when a clatter made her jump in alarm. She looked up and saw Weiss sitting at the other side of the desk, her hands bunched up on her lap as she glared at the shattered pieces of a teacup on the floor, and the stain coloring the carpet under them.

"Oh boy," Ruby said, starting to get up. "It's okay, Weiss. Lemme just-"

"No." Weiss raised a hand. "I'll get it."

She marched off, leaving Ruby sitting by herself in the living room. It was depressing, staring at the mountain of papers scattered across the table, each and every one of them all but useless.

Weiss returned with a broom and a dustpan, and took the shards to the trash in the kitchen. When she came back again, she fell back on her chair and gestured at the desk, a bitter look on her face.

"This was stupid," she said. "I should have known better. Wasting all this time trying to fix something that can't be fixed. It serves me right."

Ruby sank into the sofa, feeling her throat getting tight despite herself.

"Ruby, I don't mean-" Weiss looked at her and sighed. "It's not anything about you or what we've been doing. It's just that... I shouldn't have bothered."

"But why?" Ruby said. "I know you're not happy with how your Semblance has changed. You used to be able to point your fingers and shoot freeze rays and stuff. I mean, your powers are still awesome, but… I know you feel like you can't do as much as you used to."

"That's because I can't," Weiss said. "But it doesn't matter. It's better this way." She shook her head. "The power I had before wasn't earned. It was given to me."

Ruby frowned. "I thought you made that Semblance formula thing. How was that not earned?"

"Trust me, it wasn't. That was all just… lies and manipulations. My father's best work," Weiss said. "I earned that Semblance as much as I earned a top position in his company."

Ruby looked at Weiss, sitting so despondent in her chair, and felt a sudden need to run across the northern ocean and punch Jacques Schnee in the mouth. Weiss was so smart. Ruby wished there was some way she could help Weiss see that in herself.

"Listen to me, acting like I left that behind." Weiss scoffed. She flicked her wrist, making a small glyph that hovered over the palm of her hand. "It's not like I earned this either. It all comes from someone else." She looked at Ruby and raised an eyebrow. "I suppose this is when you tell me it doesn't matter where my powers come from."

Ruby thought for a moment. "No, I think it matters."

Weiss sat up, staring at her inquisitively.

"I didn't, like, earn my Semblance either. I got it from my mom, just like you," Ruby said. "But I don't think that's a bad thing. Sometimes when I use it to help people, or even to do dumb stuff… it feels like she's with me. Like I'm honoring her legacy that way." She gestured at Weiss. "You love your mom, right?"

Weiss nodded. "Yes."

"So it's not a bad thing that you've got something of hers in you," Ruby said. "And even your dad. I mean, he sucks, and I know I don't really know what that's like, but… He's a part of you too. Not in that stupid, he made you strong kinda thing. But because you're strong despite him." She gulped. "If that makes any sense."

Weiss looked away, and Ruby could swear she saw tears shining in her eyes. "Yes," she said. "That makes sense, Ruby."

Ruby took a deep breath. Hoo, boy. That had gotten deep and serious all of a sudden. How were they even supposed to act after a moment like that? She looked at the papers on the desk, and-

"Oh my gosh." Ruby jumped up, getting onto her feet atop the sofa. "Weiss! Weiss!"

Weiss looked up at her, confused. "W-what?"

"I just had a moment! A revelation! This is so awesome, it's just like how it happens on TV!" Ruby shouted. "It matters where it comes from!"

Weiss blinked. "I feel I should be scared."

"Here, I'll explain it to you." Ruby hopped down from the sofa, grabbed a pencil and paper from the desk, and went around to lean beside Weiss. "How do you feel about belts?"

"Alright, everything looks to be in proper shape," Weiss said. "I suppose there is nothing left to do than to finally put it to the test?"

"I'm not the one wearing it, so…" Ruby shrugged. "It's up to you."

Weiss supposed Ruby had a point. She looked at the training dummy on the other side of the training room, her arms tingling as the anticipation got to her. This was the moment.

It had taken three days after Ruby's breakthrough, but they had finally finished the device that would hopefully be their final solution. It was wrapped around Weiss' waist right now - a seemingly unremarkable leather belt. What made it different were the two circular shells attached on either side of it. That's what had taken up so much time to get right.

Each shell was four centimeters wide and two centimeters long, and built from a particular metal alloy, the same used in Dust batteries - resistant enough to store live Dust in small quantities, while still allowing it to be drawn out under the right circumstances. Currently, the right shell was loaded with blue Dust, while the left was loaded with red.

Ruby and Weiss had been too attached to the idea of the gloves from the start, such that they had lost sight of what they had been trying to solve in the first place. The root of Weiss' problem lay in that, with having to rely on Dust crystals to power up her glyphs, it simply took far too long for her to act. In the battlefield, every second counted, and taking a crystal out of her pouch, grinding it into a glyph, and waiting for the Dust to be absorbed - every extraneous second of that process could spell someone's death.

But with the Dust already processed in the shells, all Weiss needed to do was hold a glyph next to them, and it would be charged up in an instant. All that was left, then, was to aim and release. A much swifter process, with the added bonus that she could take exactly as much Dust she thought necessary for the occasion, instead of consuming an entire crystal's worth every time.

It was a simple, elegant solution. And she couldn't hope harder that it would work.

"Okay," Weiss said. "Let's do it."

Ruby backed away, making twin V-signs with her fingers. "Go Weiss go!"

Weiss nodded and focused her attention on the dummy again, pushing her nervous thoughts to the back of her mind. Opening her left hand, she formed a glyph the size of her palm, then lowered it to her waist. She brought it near the left shell, took a second, then held it just next to it.

Please don't blow up please don't discharge-

She tensed her hand, and the glyph turned red in an instant. Her arm shaking, Weiss raised her hand and pointed the glyph at the training dummy. She made a forward motion - and the Dust shot out of the glyph in a narrow, translucent beam, which impacted the dummy in the chest and knocked it against the wall behind it, its entire body going up in flames in a matter of seconds.

"Oh my gosh! Weiss, it worked!" Ruby squealed. "It worked, it worked!"

"It - it did!" Weiss said, and shook her head. "Wait, we can't celebrate yet! Tests - we have to do more tests."

"You're right! Science! Can't forget science," Ruby said.

Weiss pulled back her glyph, now returned to its regular white glow, and lowered it next to the right shell. She drew out the Dust, and the glyph turned a light blue. She aimed and shot at the burning dummy, creating an explosion of frigid smoke that put out the fire.

She continued to test out the belt - drawing out higher quantities Dust at once; absorbing Dust into an already charged-up glyph; storing Dust back into the shells. With every experiment, Weiss expected something to go horribly wrong, but ten minutes later, she was still in one piece, as was Ruby and the room around them - except for a very abused dummy, now lying in shambles on the floor.

Weiss lowered her hands and put out her glyphs. She turned to look at Ruby, and found her with her knuckles pressed against her lips, staring back with barely-contained anticipation.

"So?" Ruby said.

"I think..." Weiss said. "I think we did it, Ruby."

Ruby's eyes went wide. "We did it?"

A moment passed with neither saying a word, just staring at each other. Then suddenly, Ruby released a high-pitch victory cry, and Weiss raced to her and wrapped her arms around her. Around they went the training room, jumping and spinning as they hugged each other.

"We did it!" Ruby cried. "We're geniuses!"

"Science wins!" Weiss exclaimed.

"I love science!"

"My limbs are intact!"

"Your limbs are intact!"

"I could just kiss you right now!"

"Wait, what?"

"What?"

They separated, Ruby rubbing under her nose, while Weiss cleared her throat and pretended to adjust her belt.

"Anyway - this is indeed a major accomplishment, but we shouldn't rest easy just yet," Weiss said. "There are still improvements to be made. Like the belt itself. Leather won't do, we need a sturdier material if I'm going to bring this out in the field."

"Right, and we need to make it cooler-looking too," Ruby said. "We have to make it white. And, like, add a symbol to it or something."

"That's also very important, I agree," Weiss said. "But I suppose we've done enough work for a week. Let's give it a couple days before we get back to work." She paused. "That is, if you still want to work on this with me. I'll understand if you're finished with it."

"Nuh-uh. No way I'm letting you do the rest without me," Ruby said. "It was a lot of fun doing a project with you, Weiss. Even if you got a little testy sometimes..."

"I'll work on improving that for the future. Now," Weiss put her hands on her hips and looked Ruby in the eyes, "what is it you wish in return?"

Ruby stared at her, tilting her head to the side. "Huh?"

"I asked, what is it you wish in return," Weiss said. "You went out of your way to get me a gift - to make me a gift I didn't even ask for. Surely, there is something you want in return."

"I… want you to use it and stay alive and keep other people alive?" Ruby said, still looking very confused. "Weiss, you do know that when you get a gift, you don't have to give anything back, right? That's what makes it a gift. I mean, you can give a gift in return if you want to, but it's not expected."

Weiss thought back to the gifts she'd asked of her father - or rather, begged him for. Music lessons, fencing lessons. Even small things. There were always quotas to be achieved, expectations to be met, commitments or actions to be made in return. Nothing came without a price.

"Yes," Weiss said. "I'm aware of that, of course. I was just wondering if there was something I could get you that will make you as happy as you've made me with this gift." She paused. "And I do feel awful that I… that I thought so little of you before. I'm very sorry. Perhaps something to make amends?"

"Hmm… I guess I can think of something, if you're that serious about it," Ruby said. She tapped her chin for a few seconds, before her eyes lit up. "Remember when you said I could do your hair sometime?"

Weiss froze. "Uhm… Yes, I do recall saying something to that effect…"

"Okay! So can we do that now?" Ruby squinted at her. "I know just the haircut for you, partner."

"O-okay," Weiss muttered.

She was going to regret this, wasn't she?

The kitchen door opened behind Blake. She didn't turn her head to look, knowing it was Weiss from her footsteps alone. Blake was simply too preoccupied with what she was doing to bother with anything else.

While Ruby and Weiss worked on their project, Blake had been engrossed in one of her own - namely, how much tuna she could fit in one sandwich without all its contents spilling out tragically. Results so far had been inconclusive, but delicious all the same.

"Hello, Blake," Weiss said, stopping in front of the fridge. "How's your night?"

"Good so far. Might even turn great, if things go my way." Blake nudged the top bread a little to the right, her tongue poking out of the corner of her mouth. "How about yours?"

"More than excellent," Weiss said. "I am pleased to announce we have built our first working prototype. From now on, you shall be much safer when paired up with me."

"I thought I heard excited squealing from the training room," Blake said. "I'm happy for you. But about me being safer, you should understand that I really wasn't upset about that-"

She looked at Weiss, and her brain stopped working for a few seconds, before it resumed its normal functions.

"Weiss," Blake said. "Forgive me if I'm being rude, but… Did something happen with your hair?"

"Oh, this?" Weiss touched the left side of her hair, which stopped just short of meeting her chin, and twirled a strand around her finger. The hair had mostly all been shaven on the other side of her head, exposing her ear and a lot of skin Blake thought she'd never seen before. "Ruby cut it for me. Do you like it?"

Blake took a second look after her initial reaction. "Yes. I think it looks good on you," she said. "It is bold, though. I can't say I expected you to spring for something like this."

"Well, I didn't exactly choose the cut. Ruby made that decision for me, and I couldn't find the heart to talk her out of it," Weiss said. She looked at her reflection in the fridge, and grinned. "But you know what? I like it. Symmetry is overrated anyway."

"All the more power to you, then."

Blake turned back to her sandwich, making the finishing touches on it, while Weiss opened the fridge and started rummaging through it.

"By the way, I overheard you and Ruby talking the other day," Blake said. "She was right, you know. About it mattering, where your power comes from."

Weiss stopped to cast her a dubious look. "Didn't you get your Semblance from being kidnapped and experimented on by a bunch of mad scientists?"

"Yes, and I thank you for reminding me of that moment in my life," Blake said.

"Sorry," Weiss said.

"It's alright. It's good you brought that up," Blake said. "Because those men, they treated me like less than a person. And they tried to make me into something even worse than that. But I didn't let them. I took what they gave me, and I did good with it."

Mostly good, she thought, her mind racing back to Ilia and Adam and the whole mess with Sienna and Vacuo.

"It matters, where we came from. That applies to everything in life," Blake said. "But what matters even more than that, is what we choose to do with it. And if you ask me, I think you're doing great on that front."

Weiss was silent for a moment, before she smiled at her. "Thank you, Blake. That means a lot," she said. Her eyes narrowed. "You know, for someone that acts so aloof, you sure like to insert yourself into other people's matters. I mean that respectfully."

"Well…" Blake shrugged. "If it fits, I sits." She frowned. "I can't believe I just said that."

Weiss let out an awkward chuckle, then all but shoved her whole head inside the fridge. Blake did not blame her.

It's okay if it's Blake making the cat jokes, right?

An observant reader might notice that this chapter indeed isn't the first chapter of the promised Juniper story. That's because I'm still working on that story, and as per my new policy, I'm only gonna start posting it once I have at least half of it written out. We're not far from that point, but you're not getting the story until the next year. Sorry! I wrote this to compensate, and also 'cause I needed to get it out sometime anyway.

By the way, the fact that I'm posting this chapter, wherein Ruby and Weiss give other gifts, with Christmas just around the corner, is completely intentional. Every piece of good writing in my stories is 100% intentional. Always.

(an earlier concept for this chapter had Ruby and Weiss building a slide in the apartment instead)

Anyway, have a happy and safe Holidays, everyone, and I'll see you next year!

-Zeroan