Ruby embraces the void, moves into the Schnee mansion, and falls in love.
Everyone, and she does mean, everyone, disagrees with the beginning. Yang says it's too simplistic; Ren points out that it's factually untrue — seeing as she realized that she was in love with Weiss, when it had, according to her own admission, been building inside her a long time. Which, okay, semantics, but that's no way to tell a story.
Ruby realizes she's been in love with Weiss the whole entire time and also there are other things does not a good title make.
"I'm going to start at the end," she says aloud, one day, and Winter sighs a long-suffering sigh.
"You're going to spoil it," Winter says.
Ruby disagrees. There can only be spoiling if there is significant doubt. A will they won't they, if you will. There's no point in wondering if Weiss Schnee and Ruby Rose end up together — that's not really a story. That's an inevitability.
Long before the beginning, there was the end.
There's a cracked glass ball lying on the floor. It's all that's left of Salem. Oscar sits on his knees in front of it, wipes a bloody hand across his forehead. And immortal witch locked in an immortal battle with an immortal knight, and now this is all that's left of her. Ruby hangs back as they all look at each other.
"That's it?" Nora asks, as if she's almost disappointed.
Oscar shrugs.
"Huh." Jaune's scratching at the back of his head. He stretches, drops his sword. It makes a clanging sound as it totters around on the floor. Then he sits, cross legged right where he stood.
Smoke's still in the air when Yang finally takes a step forward, right up until she's standing next to Oscar. She seems to regard the entire scene for a moment, and then takes an almighty run up and kicks the glass ball, hard. A moment of silence as it arches in the air, and then shatters when it hits the floor. Ruby winces for as long as the fireworks last.
But then they end. They end, as most things do and they're all still left looking at each other, wondering what to do next.
Ren speaks, finally. "Noodles?"
Everyone murmurs back Noodles. Nora goes to help Oscar up, waits until he dusts off his clothes. Jaune makes a show of wanting to stay on the ground until Ren finally cracks a smile and pulls him up by force. Qrow briefly touches her right shoulder; she gives him a tiny smile and tells him to walk on ahead. Watches as he leaves to get the Maidens, watches as Blake stands next to Yang for a while, then carefully maneuvers an arm around her and walks past her. Yang reaches out once to pinch at her cheek before they're on their way.
Ruby walks over to Weiss, who's on her knees, at the very end of the arena. She's staring off into space with a vacant look in her eyes, face smudged with dust and a little blood smearing her temple. Myrtenaster rests on Weiss' lap, her hand still loosely gripping the hilt. Ruby gets down her knees as well, waits quietly for Weiss to register her presence.
"Hi," Weiss says, a minute later. Her back's still straight, no bend borne of exhaustion, even though Ruby can read it all on her face.
"Hi," Ruby says, back.
"Aren't you worried they'll leave?"
"Please," she replies, smiling. "It's Yang and Blake. You think they could ever leave without us?"
Weiss doesn't react when Ruby's hand reaches for her weapon. Ruby gently loosens her hand, counts all five fingers as she straightens them out and takes Myrtenaster from her lap. She places it on the floor next to Crescent Rose.
"I'm sorry, I'm just — tired," Weiss explains. She's talking slowly, like it's taking up more of an effort than it usually does. Ruby nods. "Could we sit here for just a little while?"
"Yeah," Ruby tells her, shifting so she's sitting more comfortably. "We can sit here as long as you want."
(Yang and Blake come looking for them eventually. Partly because they were worried, but also because they wanted Weiss to settle a debate for them. Yang wins when Weiss ends up vetoing Blake's idea for a giant cake made of just prawns. When they walk out of there, they're all almost hanging off of each other, walking like they're drunk. When they walk out of there, Ruby has never loved them more than she does right then.)
When they are done eating, they sleep. When they are done sleeping, they argue.
"The relics! Their safety is clearly first priority!": Jaune.
"Our political climate, economy and healthcare are in shambles. We're gonna need the council in place soon.": Robyn.
"I know this kind of doesn't figure in the grand scheme of things but the global communication tower would be really useful right now. Plus, transport": Ruby.
"Um," Blake pipes up, mildly, "maybe we focus on repairing Mantle. And raising Atlas again?
When they're done arguing, they stare. Say Oh. Start planning.
It takes them half a day to come up with the request they're going to make of Ambrosius. Whitley helps with city plans. It amuses Ruby to see him with his normally perfectly coiffed hair in tangles from having slept in less than desirable places. He's lost absolutely none of his attitude though, still squabbling with his sisters. Weiss and Winter are both sick of the fact that neither Willow nor Klein will let them use their weapon or Maiden powers on him.
("Just a little," Winter hovers behind Klein, holding out a palm and showing him tiny sparkles erupting from it. "Just this much when he's sleeping."
"Absolutely not, Miss Schnee," he tells her, and then raises his voice slightly. "And you may tell the other Miss Schnee that she is not to summon a Boarbatusk to scare him, either."
"Damn it, Klein!")
Ambrosius makes a display out of the whole thing — escaping the Staff, stretching his arms, flexing his biceps for the audience, before he looks to Ruby for instructions.
Her first question, however, is one that has been concerning her for a long time now. "How do you maintain your physique if you're trapped inside there the whole time?"
He looks delighted at her question — "I'm so glad you asked. You know, people rarely do. The last guy, no wait, there was that woman after him — now she was a character! But even that dude with the walking stick. No niceties. No interest in my well-being. No polite conversation. In fact—"
Everyone's heads slowly turn towards Oscar, who sinks into his jacket even more than usual.
"Nevermind!" Weiss cuts in. She looks extremely annoyed, and Ruby has no idea why. "Can we, please, get down to the actual task at hand?"
Ambrosius deflates, then brightens up again. "Is it a good task? Challenging? Smart? Worthy of my skills?"
"Oh," Ruby tells him, pulling up the city plans. "It's the best."
(When everything is back to the way it was — or almost, Ruby would say. Atlas is floating again, and Mantle has been rebuilt; all buildings in place and yet there remains a lot of work left — Winter reminds Weiss that Schnee Estate is now officially back up, and ready to host people. In case there were people who needed a place to stay while they figured the rest of it out, she says, awkwardly. And then lets out an indignant squawk when about six people jump on her at the same time, chanting Sleepover! She only threatens to exile them from Atlas thrice, though)
Nora skates into the Schnee residence, hits a very expensive looking wooden table, and breaks it into three pieces. It's as good an entrance as any.
"Woah, this place is huge huge."
"Fifty rooms and counting," Weiss informs her, picking up one leg of the table, and looking at it with disdain.
Ruby can see it. The front hall is so massive she was sure Yang and Nora could have a fight and still only barely damage the corners. Two staircases lead up to the first floor, ornate wrought iron railings line the far ends of the room, and there's a massive elaborate chandelier hanging above their heads. And the floor is so clean. Ruby wants to lie down on it, wants to stare at the chandelier upside down.
Then again, there's this subtle melancholy hanging in the air — even with all the light coming in through the massive windows, Ruby thinks that this place must be very lonely. It permeates every inch of the room and — Ruby presumes — the rest of the house as well. These are not tiles that have felt the slide of socks in the mornings, and thinking that makes her frown. She walks over to Weiss, pokes at the corner of her stomach until she sees her lips turn up slightly.
"Hey," Yang says, conversationally. "Who wants to bet me fifty lien that I could swing from this chandelier and land at least halfway up the stairs?"
And before she can move, Blake, Jaune and Ren are on her, grabbing at her limbs. Winter visibly relaxes.
"You guys are so boring."
Weiss tells them to go ahead and pick a random room. There are more than enough for all of us, she says, plus, considering most of our stuff isn't here, they're mostly the same. They spent most of the day walking from room to room — or, in Ruby and Yang's case, running into rooms and jumping on all the soft surfaces. To test their structural integrity, Ruby explains, when she cracks a tile right in the middle from being hurled against it, and then: WeissI'msorryI'llmakeituptoyou.
Three rooms away, she assists with Ren's space. He cleans a corner, picks Nora up, deposits her on another surface, which, wouldn't be as lengthy a process generally, if it weren't for Blake baiting her with inane challenges everyone minute. Jaune finally ends up yelling for Yang to get her when she and Nora manage to jump in a massive dust cloud and leave the rest of them coughing their lungs out while they laughed maniacally.
Weiss is still staring at the walls in some room when Ruby finds her.
"Was this your room before?"
"Oh no," Weiss says, matter-of-factly. "I think Jaune's crashing there."
"Did you," she asks, "not want to live there?"
Weiss shakes her head. "I never liked that place, anyway. It's all high ceilings and beige walls and," she takes a deep breath, and her smile turns bitter, "slaps from daddy, so. Yes. I'm fine with this one."
Ruby can feel her palm curl into a fist on its own. They had known that something major had gone down between Weiss and her father before they were reunited, but not details. And good for him, she thinks, a little surprised by how savage her own voice sounds in her head, because she would have killed him when she saw him just before the fall of Atlas.
"What?"
Ruby blinks at Weiss. "Sorry, I just... got distracted."
"I'm okay, now, you know?" Weiss says, like she knows what Ruby was thinking. She probably does. Weiss always knows what's going on with her. Affection from Weiss is abundant and yet easily overlooked — it's a steadying hand on the small of her back, a strong hand grasping her in the middle of the air, the comfort in jumping off the edge of the world knowing that Weiss would be there to break her fall.
"No, you're not," Ruby says, and then grins at Weiss. "Not until we decorate. Now, I know you love blue, but I'm thinking we just splash some color on the walls and see how it goes—"
"—Ruby, no."
"—Weiss, please."
(The very next day, Weiss finds someone has written ICE QUEEN STANS UNITE in bright neon on her walls. The day after that, someone just prints uwu in the four corners of one wall. When she spends the entirety of breakfast lecturing them on the consequences on any more nonsensical things appearing on her walls, someone manages to write Don't be unWeiss, and she loses it for a week. The writings dwindle down to once a week. It's a very memorable day of the week)
So Yang and Blake walk into breakfast one day and announce that they're together. As in, dating. As in, true love. As in, the same forehead touches but probably for a billion minutes more, and a billion times more annoying. After a brief, very uncomfortable bout of silence, in which everyone looks at each other and wonders how to tell them that they've all, kind of, known for a long time now, Jaune does a mock spit take with his mix fruit juice, Nora clears her throat, says How dare you? I object to this union! very dramatically then goes back to wolfing down her pancakes and Oscar pretends to faint right at the table.
"Yeah, yeah," Yang drawls, then sticks her tongue out at them. "Play it up all you want. I'm still the one with the hottest girlfriend ever."
"I'm going to have to object to that one," Ren says, but he's smiling.
"Hey," Nora pipes up, "when Blake and Yang hook up, would they...blang?"
She immediately gets assaulted with a variety of condiments on the table. One of them is even thrown by Winter.
Ruby has to admit, there's something very sweet about the entire thing. Yang and Blake have always been in that phase where they know know, but refused to do anything about it because there was a mad witch on the loose and what with her minions and the Grimm, she guesses there never really was time to sit down and have the talk. So, sure, if now Yang can't make it past one sentence without kissing Blake or they're constantly on each other's lap, they're all ready to accept it because the two of them are so happy.
(So goddamn happy. The way Blake looks at Yang is so intense, it makes Ruby want to turn away. Just seems too private for words. She watches Yang when she's sprawled out on the couch, one leg high up in the air like the sight takes her breath away, stops in her tracks when Yang starts singing old songs, awfully out of tune. Like Blake's helpless against her gravity.)
That in no way means that Blake's off the hook with her. So, later, when everyone's in a napping mood, Ruby teleports them to her room, sits her down on the chair.
"Blake... Belladonna? Is that your last name?" Ruby asks, eyes narrowed at a very befuddled Blake.
"Ruby, we've known each other for years, you know what my last name—"
"—answer the question, Miss Belladonna."
There's a long, stretched out sigh. Ruby waits patiently for it to be finished.
"Yes, that's my name."
"And you're dating a Miss. Xiao Long, sister to one awesome Ruby Rose."
There's a loud chuckle from behind her, and she turns to watch Yang and Weiss walk in.
"I'm sorry, sister to who?" Yang asks.
"Ruby Rose, who happens to be awesome," Ruby replies, face turned up. "Also, you guys aren't supposed to be here. Weiss, you should be giving Yang the talk separately."
"Oh, the talk?" Weiss asks, faux-interested. "Yeah, we're done with that."
"Ooh, what'd you talk about?" Blake pipes up, while her arms automatically raise and her fists keep opening and closing like a baby's, until Yang sits on her lap.
"Well, you know, the basics," Weiss says. "One, no banging when I'm in the room. Two, no making out when I'm in the room. Three, no sappy looks directed at each other when I'm in the room. Just, basically, no breathing in each other's vicinity when I'm in the room."
Yang shifts exaggeratedly, and then leans down to give Blake the messiest, loudest kiss ever. It's personally the grossest thing Ruby has ever seen, and she once skewered a Beowolf and got thrown up on by another creature of Grimm.
"Good talk," Blake says, eyes a little hazy, when Yang is done extracting her life force through her mouth. Weiss can't drag Ruby out of the room fast enough.
Ruby would later think of that one moment that the archway was suspended in space right above her head as a pivotal moment in the history of her — one of those days that she should have pondered over more than she would, that she should marked down in a diary with a footnote It begins or something else equivalent. As it is, she would one day look back on it, frustrated that she can't remember most of it.
This is how it goes: they're helping with the heavy lifting in Mantle. While Ambrosius has taken care of constructing the homes and the streets and everything else, they still need to help people move in, carry their belongings, construct the occasional odds and ends and transport supplies. Jaune, Ren and Oscar are at the borders, putting up additional security measures with Robyn. And the rest of them are helping the citizens carry supplies to places.
Ruby's working with Weiss' summoned Arma Gigas, who she's somehow programmed to work in the same motion every three seconds, pulling up huge logs of wood along with Ruby and Yang while she herself is off with Blake on another endeavor. Ruby's standing beneath the archway, looking out at the city, when she hears a loud collective gasp, and then a massive crashing sound.
When she looks up, the Arma Gigas is carrying the weight of the entire archway above her head.
And then things are... kind of fuzzy.
Loud questions, repeated entreaties, and concerned hands patting the top of her head. Ruby blinks, tries to say something and then is drowned out by the voices of other people. It's not a big deal, she wants to tell them, I've had my entire aura break — multiple times. And then Weiss steps in front, squeezes at her hands five times, slowly and Ruby can think.
"Can you all calm down?" she says, exasperated, when Yang won't stop fussing over her. They've convinced the townspeople of her well-being, thankfully, although one old lady had looked close to tears as she walked off. Ruby quite liked her, actually. "I'm completely fine. This doesn't even make the list of top ten worst things to have happened to me."
"That's because Weiss was there," Yang tells her.
"But," Blake frowns, then turns to Weiss looking confused, "Weiss wasn't there. Remember you told us to go all the way over to the edge of the block to help with the food bags? We were there. Weiss didn't even know something had happened until everyone screamed."
Weiss fiddles with her rapier, then her sleeves, and looks like she would do absolutely anything to avoid this conversation.
"Yes," she says, after a couple of minutes of that. "Blake's right. I have no idea how that happened."
"Wait," Yang says, slowly. "That means... that means your summoned avatar acted out of your control—"
"—wait, that's not exactly—"
"—but that is how it is, right? Like, in a fight, you have some degree of control over it as in, you're always aware of what it's up to. But now..."
"Blake," Ruby says, pointedly, hoping she catches the hint and stops talking about it. Weiss looks supremely uncomfortable. Her face has that tell-tale flush on it that always creeps up when she's embarrassed. "It happened. We don't have to keep talking about it."
Yang nods slowly, and then hurls herself at Ruby. "I'm just glad you're okay," she says, squeezing her tight.
"Me too," Weiss says. She hesitates a little. "I know we've no idea why the Arma Gigas behaved the way it did but I'll try my best to find out. Just wish there was a way to test it somehow..."
"Well, that's easy!" Ruby says, brightly. "We drop another building on top of me and see what happens."
Yang hits her in the back of the head.
God knows Ruby is not an expert in family dynamics. It probably comes from having grown up in a pretty dysfunctional one herself, with her and Yang having two mother figures, one dead and the other deadbeat, one whacky yet trying his best father, and a cool uncle who would fly in time to time to save their skins, which is why it's a massive surprise to her that Jaune keeps in touch with his entire family, his mother, his father and his seven sisters. And that Blake has two parents as well.
(Two parents! Both alive! Both affectionate! Both stupidly adoring towards their daughter! It's a miracle really)
Willow Schnee carries herself with an air of someone who's just now found out that she's boarded the wrong train — which is to say that her manner is always questioning, uncertain, hesitant. She's a wisp of a woman whose touches apply to her own children like they're skittish birds. And while Whitley is, in his own way, almost close to her, if Winter and Weiss are skittish birds, then her hands could be compared to that of a child's, always grasping for familiar warmth. Here, she seems to say, whenever they're in the same room, ill at ease. Here I am. No weapons, no hurt. Just me.
"Weiss scared me as a baby," she says, chuckling self-consciously, a little shamefaced. "That's a strange thing to say about a child, I know, but it's true. Now I think about it, she was so clearly different from Winter and Whitley, almost as if she was built in a different mould."
She has her hands in the soil, constantly flitting, planting seeds here, picking up the pitcher to water some other plant there. Ruby leans back on her chair, makes a small noise to let Willow know she's listening.
"I mean, oh, of course, she grew up to worship her sister nonetheless. Build most of her entire personality around Winter, but it was back when she was a baby," Willow trails off, then shakes her head, "I remember she never needed me. Winter was a fussy baby. She cried all throughout the night... well, Jaques put an end to that pretty soon. And even later, when Whitley was born, he could only sleep if I was close."
But not Weiss, Ruby thinks ruefully, before Willow continues all the same.
"But not Weiss. She cried very, very little. I remember just holding her one day, my finger on her button nose, and her eyes kept crossing to focus on it. And then she looked right up at me, and I could've sworn she knew who I was, what I was thinking."
"And what were you thinking?" Ruby asks her, to make her laugh. It works.
"That she was going to end up killing us all in her sleep. Oh, I don't know. I just — Weiss always knew. I'm convinced she knows everything that's going on with everyone, just doesn't let on to that fact. You children probably think Winter's too closed off, but I've always been able to read her. Winter's straightforward; Whitley's the consummate liar. It's Weiss that's always been the dark horse of the bunch."
She takes off her gloves, fiddles with her fingers, then laughs softly again, looking at Ruby. "God knows I've never been much of a mother to them, but I know," she says, her voice resolved, certain. "I knew them. I just — I just wish..."
She doesn't say anything after that. Ruby understands nonetheless.
When she exits the greenhouse she passes Weiss' Queen Lancer, which seems to be trembling minutely. She reaches out, touches it on the head.
"You're okay," she whispers, softly, moving her hand gently, until the shaking stops.
The house is pandemonium most days. Now that a temporary transport system of doorways has been built between districts, they have parents and relatives coming in all the time. Her dad visits for a week, bringing Zwei, which immensely cheers Weiss up. Jaune's family drops in for a while as well, and the house is full of children running around corridors. The funniest thing, however, happens when Kali and Ghira decide to surprise Blake and somehow manage to enter the living room where they find their daughter and her girlfriend enthusiastically making out. As Yang later tells her, blushing harder than Ruby has ever seen her, after they rolled off each other in horrified surprise and destroyed the tiny glass teapoy, Kali laid a calming hand on her husband's arm, and bravely said — "And this must be Yang!" — resulting in the longest silence any of the four people involved had experienced in their life.
"And now her father won't make eye-contact with me at all!" she wails, dramatically, while Nora and Ruby roll around laughing. Even Weiss and Whitley, who are in the same room working on SDC reopening plans have restrained smiles on their faces. Blake rubs Yang's back.
"Can you make eye contact with her dad?" Ruby asks.
"No! We're two people doing our absolute best to not look at each other. One time he passed me the salt and I said Thank the brothers instead of Thank you."
Nora's practically choking for air at this point.
"Babe," Blake says. "He seems to like you better than Sun, at least. I can vouch for that."
"Oh, great!" Yang tells her. "Your dad likes me better than your ex, the walking set of abs. Joy."
"Again," Blake rolls her eyes affectionately, "not my ex. I maybe had a tiny crush on him in the beginning. But that went away soon, believe me."
"You didn't have a tiny crush on me!"
(Ruby has a lot of respect for Blake's patience)
"I don't know how to tell you this, my darling," she says, slowly, "but we're dating because I had a huge crush on you."
But her sister's already in it now. Ruby can read the signs — the pout, the eyebrows drawn together, eyes squinty. "Fucking Sun," she says. "Fucking cool-ass Faunus dude with a tail. And an even cooler friend. And what do I have? Hair. And Ruby."
Ruby shoots an indignant Hey! at her, but it is halfhearted at best.
"Eh," Nora says. "They were really not that cool."
"They were," Yang replies, morose now. Blake's barely hiding her amusement, lips still pressed together to keep from laughing. She leans forward, kisses Yang on her forehead. Then on her cheek. Keeps blowing raspberries against her skin until she finally makes Yang laughs.
(It's gross. But so, so cute)
"They kind of were," Weiss interjects, dryly.
"Oh, you would say that," Jaune says, and Ruby realizes with a start, that somewhere in the middle of this conversation, he'd entered the room, planted himself near the wall and started devouring a bowl of grapes. "Remember the giant crush you had on him?"
(What? Neptune? No)
(What? Neptune? Really?)
(No)
(No?)
Not that there's anything wrong with it, obviously. Neptune is a cool guy. No reason why Weiss, along with the hundreds of other girls on campus couldn't have had a crush on him. It was completely possible. Probable. Even if he was a rake. And — now that she was thinking about it — kind of lame as well in the same way most boys are. His hair was so... cliché. And he was always wearing a jacket over the same anti-establishment t-shirt, even in scorching weather, because of some form of statement. How pretentious of him. In fact—
"Please," Weiss' voice breaks Ruby out of her reverie, and she's very interested in hearing further, "it was hardly a crush. A pre-crush at best. I just thought he was cool."
"You asked him to the dance," he says.
"You asked him to the dance?" slips out of Ruby's mouth, and she curses. Looks back at the ground, tries to look casual about the whole thing. Like the answer doesn't matter much. Like there isn't a specific answer she's actively hoping for.
"Unfortunately, yes," Weiss says, after the pause. "And he turned me down at first—"
He what? How dare he? Ruby knew he was up to no good.
"—because he couldn't dance."
Ruby feels the wild urge to laugh, bites the inside of her cheek to restrain it. It's insane, how funny the entire thing seems to her. A boy turning Weiss (Weiss! Of all people) down because of his inability to dance.
I can dance — the thought pops up in her head, as clear and as strong as the mental equivalent of a right hook to the face. The afterthought is sobering. Why did it matter that she could dance? It wasn't like school dances were a priority now. Wasn't like she was going to dance with Weiss now.
Although, she thinks, her head tempting her down the path of doom with glee, it would be nice to dance with Weiss.
Yang snaps a finger in her face, asks her what's up. Ruby doesn't know either.
(Blake's father eventually warms to Yang; and yes, Ruby's using the word rather liberally, but. After two weeks of distributing food in the Mantle shelters in complete, awful silence, Ruby catches him awkwardly patting Yang's back at the end of the day. Yang's smile a minute later is equal parts relived and horrified. Blake tells her to take the win.)
Ruby goes to sleep, wakes up one day to the sound of stomping in the hallway, and realizes that they've somehow managed to spend two months here. She pokes her head out, then retreats hastily when she sees a melon come flying in her direction. A second later she hears Whitley, who she assumes it has just hit, let out an undignified screech and Yang's subsequent giggle. She leans out again, still holding onto the doorjamb for safety purposes. Jaune and Oscar run past, nodding at her in the process and make a humongous flying leap to crash into Yang and Nora. They all end up in a heap.
"Ah!" Yang mock-cries. "How dare you? Unhand me, you bastards!"
Ruby, with the certainty of a sibling, knows what's coming next. Nora unscrews her arm and Yang goes Oh no not like this. The entire thing's very theatrical indeed.
She pats Whitley on the head as she passes him, feels the sticky bits of the melon he hasn't yet gotten rid of. Knocks on Blake's room, directs her towards the dining hall when she sleepily veers off in a different direction. Then she reaches Weiss' room. It's empty.
"Geist experiment?" she questions Ren, who's toweling his hair.
"Geist experiment," he confirms.
Weiss stops whatever she's doing when she enters the massive room, shoots her a self-conscious smile. "You know you're not supposed to be here. It interferes with the experiment."
"But that's exactly why I'm here," she says, then holds her arms out wide. "Now come here, my giant winged baby!"
The nevermore that Weiss has summoned barrels towards her, not wanting to fly the tiny distance. Skids to a halt on the floor with its talon, and comes to rest just in front of Ruby. It nudges at her hand insistently until Ruby starts petting it.
"I miss Uncle Qrow," she says, and then laughs at Weiss' startled look. "Oh, come on, I'm petting a bird, my brain had to have made that connection. Every day I sit and I pet this... adorable monster of yours, and I think to myself, when will Uncle Qrow return from war?"
Weiss raises an eyebrow. "He's gone on a jolly ride across the cities, being welcomed with an assortment of food and women and helping them out with minor difficulties in return. It's hardly war."
"You're mean. Also, isn't that what we were doing back in the day?" Ruby says. It comes out fond. Weiss' meanness is one of the things she finds most charming about her.
"I'm not mean!" Weiss protests. "You know who is mean? Winter and Robyn. Ever wonder how they convinced Qrow to take on such an arduous journey? They threatened to make him a council member."
Ruby laughs so loud that it startles the nevermore on her lap, who looks up and around, confusedly. Uncle Qrow the politician. Had a nice ring to it, to be honest.
"Although," Ruby says, continuing on her earlier track. "It's not like we were being welcomed with food and women everywhere."
"Did you want to be welcomed by women worldwide?" Weiss asks, deadpan.
Ruby sputters. "No. Did you want to be welcomed by women worldwide?"
Weiss smirks at her while she's shaking her head, like she's thinking of a joke Ruby wouldn't get. It makes her heart speed up somehow.
She stays in there for an hour, until Willow walks in with coffee, Whitley trailing behind her.
Sure, Ruby's a romantic who loves the idea of being in love with someone their entire life, but if she thinks about it, she can draw a line, cleanly, between the day she realized she was falling in love with Weiss and the day before.
It's the same difference as being asleep at the wheel and jerking awake to realize you're going down a cliff, as taking a step forward only to hear the tiniest click beneath your feet — part of her knows when she's gone and made Weiss the center of her universe.
They're in Mantle, done with a hard day of lifting and setting down things, when a little kid, about six years old, throws a snowball in Robyn's face. It's been snowing since the last week, and since Atlas is high above, they've all been spending more time in Mantle just to look at the snow better, even the council members. The entire team holds their breath collectively, waits to see how Robyn would react.
React she does. Takes out her weapon, bundles up an ungodly amount of snow in it, and shovels it back on the giggling child.
"Snow fight!" screams Nora, predictably, and then jumps behind Jaune for cover. Oscar scrambles to form his snowballs, Blake stands in front of Yang, and then all hell breaks loose.
In their defense, it has been a long time since they've played a game of any sort. The children of Mantle end up defeating them by a lot. In the end, even Nora has to beg for mercy. Yang's already tuckered out, lying in the middle of the game making snow angels. To her credit, Blake and Jaune did hold out for a bit but they're both hanging off each other, completely drenched, with Oscar sandwiched between them. Ruby sees, with no little alarm, Robyn sneaking behind Winter to pour a fistful of snow under her coat. She and Ren, who's standing beside her, wait with bated breath, for the explosion, but it never comes. Winter, to their great surprise, turns around and shoves at Robyn, then generates ice from her hands and presses them to Robyn's cheeks.
"The world must be turning the other way," Ren says.
Ruby agrees. "Hey," she says, frowning, because something's missing. "Where's Weiss?"
"The SDC office, remember? She and Whitley were setting a couple of things up here."
"Where?" she asks, and he points at a building nearby.
Weiss is fast asleep when she teleports there. It takes her a few tries, scaring unsuspecting employees out of their afternoon drowsiness, but she finally finds her, up near the very top. The window's completely closed, and completely transparent, and Ruby laughs at the sight of Weiss, conked out in front of her giant open scroll. She has her face turned this way, her mouth's slightly open. Ruby taps on the glass softly, once, twice, thrice, until Weiss jerks awake. She looks around, sees her, then covers her whole face with her hand.
"Good afternoon, sleepyhead," Ruby says, when Weiss has managed to get the window open. She rests her elbow on the ledge and waits for Weiss to drag her swiveling chair closer.
"I was... tired," Weiss says, defensively. "Also, why do you have a melting snowball in your hand?"
"Oh." She'd completely forgotten about it. "Here. We had a snow fight, but you weren't there. So I brought the snow fight to you."
Weiss pivots away from Ruby's incoming hand. "Touch me and you die."
"Really?"
"No," she answers, grudgingly, lets Ruby shake the rest of the snow over her head. "I cannot believe you came all this way to throw a sad snowball at me."
"And I cannot believe you missed Yang hitting almost eleven people separately with her metal arm."
Weiss rolls her eyes. "Did she scream out Let me give you a hand before or was it just one of those things?"
"Of course," she replies, then leans in like she wants to reveal a secret. Lowers her voice. "Also, I may have some gossip to share."
"Ooh la la," Weiss says, voice low herself, sounding both scandalized and delighted. Ruby wants to take a picture of her like this, hair half wet, falling out of a normally immaculate braid; eyes shining with unrestrained mirth and her lips quirked up with her head resting on her palm. "Do tell."
Ruby blinks. She'd gotten rather lost there.
"I think," she starts, slowly, teasingly, "I think our good council member Robyn may have the tiniest bit of a crush on your sister."
"Well, then, I may have more interesting news for you," Weiss says, the same way. "Because I know for a fact that Winter likes Robyn."
She squeals in response. "What? No? Really?"
"Calm down, you dunce," Weiss says. "You'll wake Whitley up."
"Whitley's here?"
She's beckoned to lean forward. Just below the window, hidden out of sight, Whitley's fallen asleep against the wall.
"Aw."
He stirs. "Not aw. And you're being too loud."
Then he closes his eyes and seems to fall back asleep right away.
"Ridiculous," Weiss mutters.
"Weiss?!" Ruby says, urgently. "You were saying?"
"Oh, dear, yes," she says, "So Winter kept whining about how Robyn kept going over all of Winter's proposals with a fine-tooth comb, and how she'd find tiny mistakes and then have her stay over at Council meetings after the actual meeting was over for hours so they could work together, and... you probably know where this is going, don't you?"
"Your sister is an idiot."
"So, a month ago, I gently broached the topic with her. Of maybe considering that Robyn wasn't out to get her, but in fact, in her own, tough-lady-with-a-heart-of-gold way, was trying to woo her."
"And then?"
"And then she went red and told me to mind my own business. Either way, she's been coming back later and later and looking happier than usual."
Ruby grins. "Wow. They're such idiots. Wait, you're not allowed to tell your sister I said that."
"Hmm, I don't know."
"Weiss, she'll end me."
Weiss acquiesces with a tilt of her head. Then continues looking at her.
"You're telling me," she says, right about the time Ruby starts to fidget, "that you're not an idiot? That you would be able to tell if someone likes you?"
Ruby straightens up. "Absolutely."
Weiss considers that for a while, and then smiles wide.
"What?"
"Nothing," she replies, still smiling that secret smile of hers. "Now go, already. I have about an hour's worth of work that's still left, and considering my useless brother is no help, I should get started right away."
"But I can wait," Ruby starts, as Weiss kicks off the wall to propel her chair back, and when Weiss turns back at her, it happens. Ruby looks at her face, at her still sleepy eyes, and something shifts in the air around her, or so it seems to Ruby. It's Weiss. It's still Weiss, but suddenly it's Weiss of the beautiful laugh, Weiss of the soft, steady hands, Weiss of the photographable minutes. She wants to climb inside and hold her, wants to wrap her up in her cloak and keep her warm, wants to preserve every freeze frame of her being happy, develop it into a picture, and kiss it every night before bed.
I don't want to leave you, she thinks, and it's extraordinary, the ache that crawls up her bones at the thought of having to say goodbye. And on the heels of that damning thought comes another.
Oh no. This is bad.
Weiss smiles at her, and she has no idea of the explosion that's just taken place, has no idea of the fault line that has now split Ruby's days into a before and an after.
How had she even missed it?
The human experience, and that of a Faunus as well, she guesses, is one full of amazement at what someone can learn given enough motivation. An annoying red-haired dude with an even more annoying sidekick attacks you, you learn to fight. You find a horde of Grimm bigger than you have ever faced before, you manage to fight them off somehow. You meet death and immortal witches and blue jinns, you learn to deal. And yet, in her twenty years of being alive, nothing has prepared her for this.
The awareness of her feelings takes her off guard, but it is what comes after that unravels her. Did the air in her lungs always match the morse code of Weiss' breathing? Did the lines on her palm always spell out Weiss' name, or was that new? Did Ruby's whole world always pause when she passed by, captive to the way her scent carried in the air? Did her voice always fill up the empty space in every room she was in? Ruby wrestles with pure agony at night, tossing and turning with every twist of that stupid thing embedded deep inside her chest, and spends her days following Weiss around, helpless. It's a hurricane, it's a flood, it's the deadliest volcano breaking apart right underneath her feet.
(It's Weiss' gaze shot right through her)
"I didn't know," Blake says, while they're out on a routine mission. "You know me. I was generally so fucked, relationship wise that I had zero idea what was coming. And even when it was there, right in front of me, I couldn't see it."
"Which was Yang."
Blake smiles. "Which was Yang," she says, and the smile that lights up her face is one that Ruby has only ever seen in relation to Yang. "And I was so wrapped up in my own... issues, that I had no idea I was so close to being happy until she fell — and then everything was crystal."
The fall. The void. Weeks wandering around looking for Yang and Weiss, until Jaune had led them all to each other.
"Sometimes you know," Blake tells her, not once breaking sweat as she shovels snow out of the blocked pathway, "and it's buried so deep beneath that it's practically part of you. And, Ruby — I truly believe that you only see something when you're meant to, when you're ready to see it. Your sister and I do jibe at each other for not telling the other sooner, but really, I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm with her, finally, and she's with me."
"Well that's nice," Ruby replies, then mumbles in an aside, "and completely useless."
Blake laughs. "Was there something you were specifically looking for?"
"I mean, no," Ruby answers, avoiding her eye. Blake has a way of hitting right at the root of the problem, and that is not something Ruby is ready for right now. Not because she wants to keep it her business since she figures it's bound to come out eventually, with the level of idiocy she's been displaying around Weiss these days. Not even because she knows Blake is Weiss' closest confidant. No, it's because Yang would end her life if her girlfriend found out something major about Ruby before she did.
(Yang is so annoying about these things)
It's Jaune (Jaune! Of all people, Jaune!) who is of any help. Ruby's just about ready to give up on the house in general. Ren, when asked, told her he'd always known. How, had been her obvious next question, and he made a vague gesture. I don't know, he said. I've just always loved her. It's wired into my blood. I don't know any other way to be. Which was very cute, but ultimately useless. There was absolutely no way she would ever go to Winter for love problems, and Willow was Weiss' mother — she would easily figure out who it is that Ruby's talking about.
He sidles up to where she's sitting in Weiss' room, against the wall, drops down. "Heard you've been asking questions, kid," he says, in a put-upon gruff voice.
"I could break apart every bone in your body with my little finger, Vomit Boy," she answers. Then smiles sweetly at Oscar, who's sat down on her other side.
It's loud enough so she knows nobody can possibly make out what it is they're saying. In the background, she can hear Weiss asking why they were all in her room. Yang answers with a cry of Sleepover! and everyone else cheers.
"I could help," Oscar offers. He clearly has no idea what they were talking about.
"Oh, bud, buddy, mate," he reaches over to pat him on top of his head, "it's a little more complicated that what you're thinking of, I'm sure."
"Jaune, don't be annoying," she says, punching his shin lightly.
"Ugh, you're no fun," he says, going back to his normal demeanor. "Fine, okay. Seriously now. Tell me what's up. Papa Jaune can help."
Well. It's not like she has a lot of options.
"You ever been in love?" she asks and has the pleasure of watching Oscar choke on air and start going red, while Jaune's eyes go wide with surprise.
"Oh, we need food for this," he mutters and screams for Nora. Thirty seconds later, he's opened a packet of wafers and shoved a bottle of soft drink into Oscar's hand.
(Also, unrelated, but somehow, she has a feeling if he ever has children, he'd make a great dad)
"The answer's no, by the way," he says.
"Oh," Ruby says, then hesitates. "I thought you and Pyrrha…."
"Ah," his smile turns a little sad, a little bitter. "Not like we had a lot of time to get anywhere, did we? The first I knew of her feelings, and subsequently mine, was about five minutes before she died."
Oscar leans over to pat him on the shoulder, awkwardly.
"But it wasn't love," he continues. "More like love in hindsight? You know how — I, wait. I'm muddling it up. It's like I hadn't ever thought of it because it was Pyrrha, you know? Leave being in the same league alone, she wasn't even in the same world as I was in. How could I ever even expect to have a chance? And then she kissed me, and went and died, and I was stuck wondering forever if life could ever have been kinder to the both of us."
"It's the goddamn if of it all that haunts me," he says, looking off into the distance. "It's been a long time, so I'm good now, but every once in a while I'll eat her cereals, or be in the middle of a fight and I'll hear her instructions in my head, and it's like going back in time."
She puts her arm around his shoulder, leans her head against his shoulder. Oscar's gripping at her hand, tight, but not uncomfortable. When she looks up in the middle of it, she sees Weiss adjusting the pins in her hair, in front of the full-length mirror. It's the mirror that faces her, and Ruby, awestruck, sees her carefully tie her braid, every level woven with utmost gentleness.
Weiss meets Ruby's gaze in the mirror, smiles at her, and Ruby smiles back in reflex, stuck to the same spot — forever, she thinks, she'd stay here forever staring at Weiss doing her hair. This is such a specific form of intimacy. She imagines they might possibly be the only people in the room, the universe even.
"Oh," Jaune's voice pulls her out of her head. When she looks away, grudgingly, he's got a knowing look on his face. "Got it."
"What?"
"Nothing," he says, sounding like he knows a lot more than nothing. Ruby's too distracted to follow up.
She's one of the very few left standing after the great Mantle drinking party, something she's very proud of.
Even Ren isn't spared. He skips out on the alcohol, instead ingesting some strange candy with the Mantle boys, and then starts ranting about radio and waves and something not even Nora can make much sense of. Oscar — the only one who was expressly forbidden from drinking — is half-pulling, half-carrying her to her room. Jaune's still whining about how they all pulled him away from a group of women who had been very interested in his biceps. And then there's Yang. Oh Yang.
"I love you, Blake," she says, slowly, spacey as they walk through the corridors, and then her voice turns urgent. "Blake, Blake. Can we get married? We have to marry. Let's get married, please."
"My petal," Blake replies, drunk as well, but sounding relatively composed. And very amused. "We're twenty-two. We couldn't possibly get married now."
"Why not? I'll ask your father for your hand. And then, so you don't think I don't respect women, your mother. And even Sun if you want me to. Fucking Sun."
Blake turns around to grin in Ruby's direction, and she hears her trying to convince Yang to hold off on calling her parents to plan out their apparent impending nuptials one more night.
"And then there were two," Weiss says, holding onto her arm, then giggles uncharacteristically.
(Ruby may not feel very drunk, but she will melt if this goes on for much longer)
"Alright, Miss. Schnee," she says, "let's get you to your room where your chariot awaits."
"But I don't have a chariot," Weiss says. She sounds very concerned about it.
Weiss, intoxicated, giggly, dancey, wanders around her room like she's never been there before. Ruby half keeps an eye on her while she makes her bed, sees her stand in front of her mirror and stare herself down. By the time Ruby is done, Weiss has progressed to tracing her own features in her reflection. She'll move her hand a tiny bit, frown deeply, then squint at herself. She smiles sleepily at Ruby's reflection in the mirror as she approaches.
"Hi," Ruby says, standing just behind her. "What are you doing?"
"Admiring my face," Weiss informs her. "I think it's quite decent."
Quite decent? Quite decent is blasphemy. Pretty is an understatement, Ruby thinks. Glorious. Angelic. Breathtakingly beautiful might be closer. She hums in assent.
"Do you think my face is decent?" Weiss asks, next, and Ruby wonders how to answer her.
There are stars in your eyes and whole universes stretched across your lips; if humans are made of stardust, then your existence is reason enough to justify the death of a million galaxies. Weiss, if you stare at yourself in the mirror and think you look decent, then I'm going to have to get you a better dictionary.
Also, your face turns me gayer every time I see it.
"Yeah," she sighs. "Your face is decent."
"Awesome!" Weiss exclaims, and then whirls around so sharply that she totters on her feet. Ruby grabs at her waist with one arm, steadies her whirlpooling hand with the other, and there they stand, wide-eyed, staring at each other with their faces inches away.
Had she though Weiss's face was breathtakingly beautiful before? Because she'd only been half-right. It was gorgeous. Stunning. Exquisite.
"Why didn't you dance with me today?" Weiss asks her, pouting. The smell of tequila mixed with berries washes over her, and Ruby wants, so bad that her legs are trembling. Wants to pitch forward and kiss the girl in her arms, wants to lose herself in Weiss' mouth. Had she ever wanted before? Evidently not. This was unprecedented. Damning. Utter agony.
"I didn't know you wanted to dance with me," she says.
"I always want to dance with you," Weiss tells her, simply.
"Okay, then," Ruby says, when she can talk again. She raises their joined hands until they're in position, starts swaying gently. "Like this?"
Weiss nods. She's still a little drunk so she lacks her usual Schnee grace — Ruby assumes all the Schnee children must have been trained in the finer art of dancing with other uppity rich people at boring wine parties — but the movement is ingrained in her body. Some form of muscle memory. And so they move, reasonably well, despite Weiss' intoxicated feet and Ruby's lack of grace and there being no music at all.
(Ruby doesn't mind the last part. The moonlight is a song all on its own)
"Ruby," Weiss says, quietly, turning her head so her nose is pressed against Ruby's neck, and…. yeah, there goes her breathing. She clears her throat.
"Weiss."
Weiss moves again, tips her head up, says her name again, softly, urgently, and now their faces are impossibly close again. Ruby closes her eyes against the wave of desire that it drowns her in, feels Weiss' forehead touching her own. There's movement again, the slightest difference, and then with the whiff of berries on her breath (irresistible, wet, wanting) comes the realization that Weiss is still drunk.
"Wait," she says, stepping back, and then breathes out a sharp, shuddering breath. "Weiss — we. You're, you're drunk."
They're still halfway entangled with each other; Ruby's arms are still sort of holding Weiss steady, but she feels the distance between them grow, seconds and miles until they're planets, adrift in this tiny space of the room, sees it in the way Weiss drops her gaze, and then takes a step back of her own.
"You're right. I'm — I'm sorry."
When Ruby reaches out to steady her again, she holds up her palm, a single, silent No that stops her right in her tracks. Wraps her arms around herself, as if to brace herself, and with that, Weiss makes her way to her bed, lies down on it with all the grace of a rapidly sobering person, then turns the other way.
"Could you turn out the lights when you leave?" she asks, a quiet dismissal that runs down Ruby's back like ice. Then a cool, polite: "Please?"
Clamoring voices again.
"—well, we know what happened—"
"—or, we think we do. We may have heard half—"
"—and it's all kind of muddled but no one will—"
"—Ruby, whenever you can eat, you've got to—"
A pause. A bite. A deep breath.
"—so Cinder was there—"
Ah, Cinder. Awful, violent, villain of the sad past Cinder. Cinder who was now locked in Atlas' prison complex. Cinder who never once stopped hating her.
"It was, it was all going okay," Oscar says, haltingly. "I mean, Robyn and Winter were there with us. I think it was when Ruby asked her something that she — that she…"
Lost it? Wrecked her cell? Starting blasting fireballs, left, right, center, and directly towards the tech? Towards Ruby on the other side?
Yang's hand keeps moving through her hair as they listen to Oscar continue.
"And then out of nowhere, the geists were there."
"Weiss," Jaune says.
"Yeah. But she can't summon all of them at the same time! She — she can't, right? She's never been able to do that?"
He sounds panicked, the same way he was when it all went down. The enormous flapping of the nevermore and the queen lancer's wings were generating so much wind that she could barely hear anything besides the enormous roaring in her ear, but this, Oscar's high-pitched cry for help carried through. Ruby anchored Crescent Rose to the ground, and tried getting back to where she knew Weiss was.
When Weiss came into view, wind whipping at her braid, face oddly blank, Ruby had stood, frozen to the ground by her magnificence. This was fury for Weiss — burning eyes, lips flattened, and not one line on her face.
"Weiss!" she'd called, while she stood in front of Weiss, trying to catch her eye. "Weiss, look at me!"
Weiss, still lost in her fury, twisted Myrtenaster, and then there was another violent storm. Ruby extended her hands, and grabbed at Weiss' shoulders, her lithe shoulders. Shook her a little, and saw, for the first time, a tiny frown on her face.
She moved her right hand to touch the place where her skin disappeared into her dress, touched her skin, and with her other hand, cupped her face.
"Look at me," she said, when the air slowed. "I'm okay, Weiss. Look at me."
And then the world stood still.
"We took Cinder away when it stopped," Oscar continued. "The prison was mostly destroyed, either way, not that it was built to last."
"I'm sorry," Weiss had gasped out, "Ruby, I'm so sorry. I — I don't. I'm so—"
"Shh," she said, her hands moving all over Weiss — her cheeks, her forehead, her hair, her neck. Some primal part of her had been activated, as it always did when Weiss was involved, to protect her, make sure she was alright. She stepped forward and hugged her again, felt the weight of her head on her collarbone. "It's okay. We're okay."
"I can't believe I nearly," Weiss pauses, still sounding horrified. "What if something had happened?"
"But that's the thing, Weiss," Ruby says, leaning back so she can look Weiss in the eye, make sure she understands. "We were never in any danger."
"—you don't know that."
"I do," she says. She's never been more certain of anything else in her life, ever. The geists were a part of Weiss, and something that was a part of Weiss could never hurt her — that, Ruby was sure of. If she knew three things, here they were: one, if she ever was in a fight, the best person to take along was a, Blake, if she wanted to look cool, and b, Yang, if she wanted the poor soul decimated; two, if she could jump off of tall places without a moment's thought, it was because she knew Weiss would somehow find a way to catch her; and three, that Weiss could never hurt her. Not deliberately. Definitely not subconsciously.
"You know those geists would never hurt me."
"Oh, you know that, don't you?" Weiss asks, and she's glad to hear her usual drollness in her voice.
"Yeah, I do," she replies, simply. "Weiss?"
"Yes?"
"You know why your summoned geists behave the way they do, don't you?"
Weiss' face turns inscrutable again. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Liar," she says, but doesn't protest when Weiss steps away, and runs off, citing the need to meet Winter and sort out last-minute details of Cinder's captivity. She's too drained to, anyways.
"Is Weiss back, yet?" she asks the group. They're all still staring at her, concerned. "Have you called her scroll?"
Blake shakes her head. "She's not picking up."
Ruby nods, runs a hand across her eyes. There's a headache that's been steadily pulsing at the center of her forehead, and every single part of her body aches.
"Ruby?" Yang says, once, softly, and then the tears come.
Consciousness is a lazy lake, bobbing her down and up to the surface. The entire day when she sleeps, she hears her friends flit in and out of the room. Jaune comes in, accompanied with the sound of packets crisping and crackling. She hears Willow's voice once, asking if she's alright. Oscar and Ren's murmured conversation when Yang has to take a shower. And throughout it all, Yang. Her hands occasionally on her forehead, checking to see if her fever's gone, a spoonful of medicine when she's woken up in the middle.
"Is she back?" she hears Yang asking, when her slumber ends properly, and she's just lying in bed.
"Nope," Blake replies. "Ruby?"
"Her fever's broken," Yang replies. There's a pause. "Can't believe my sister heard the term getting lovesick and literally ran with it?"
Blake chuckles. "Please. At least she didn't get insomnia for a month after her first kiss, like you did. Oh Blake," she says, putting on a high-pitched voice that Ruby guesses is supposed to resemble Yang but only makes Yang laugh, "I can't sleep because my stomach keeps tossing and turning."
"Fuck. You."
"Please do," Blake's voice drops lower, and nope. That's it.
"Please don't," Ruby begs, opening her eyes. "Please don't do any of that while I'm in the room."
Yang smiles at her, but it's still a worried smile. "Don't worry. We have class."
"And two whole rooms to blang each other in," Blake chimes in, with a wink.
"Ew," she says. Pauses. "Is Weiss back?"
Ruby can read the answer in Blake's eyes even before she shakes her head.
"Is she safe, at least?"
"She's with Winter and Robyn. I talked to her."
"Did," she says, then wonders how to phrase the question without sounding like a sad, desperate, lovesick loser, "did she say anything about — about me?"
Yang and Blake exchange an unreadable look. "Is there anything you wanna talk about, Rubes?" Yang asks.
"There's nothing to talk about, Yang," bursts out of her in a rush, and fuck, there's the tears again. "I can't stay away from her and she can't bear to be in the same room as me, so, yeah. That, I guess."
"Ruby that's not—"
"—babe," Blake says, and through her tears Ruby sees another look exchanged between them.
"You love her," her sister murmurs, realization coating the words.
"I don't know, this is such a mess. I don't know, I — yeah" she says, her voice a mess, her hands over her face. The next words come out defeated. "Yeah, I think I might. Fuck, what am I gonna do?"
Yang's immediately in her space, her arms wrapped tight around Ruby, tight, tight, like they're holding her together, and Ruby guesses they are. These are the arms of fifteen years ago, when their dad sat down to tell them her other wouldn't be returning ever, the arms of every adventure, every fight and bite and scratch and bruise, the arms that feel like home. Blake moves her hair away from her face, sitting down on her other side, holding them both, and the only thing Ruby can think after the tears end were — I hope someone's holding Weiss like this.
I hope she's okay.
When Weiss screams from five rooms away, Ruby teleports there in a second, leaving a trail of rose petals in her wake.
"Okay, who the fuck dared to desecrate my room again? I swear to everyone up above, I am going to—"
"—it was me," she says, standing in the doorway. Weiss, who she presumes was about to walk out of the room in her rage, stops in her tracks right in front of her, like she's been stunned. Ruby waits for her to recover patiently.
"Um," Weiss says, looking anywhere but right at her. "Why — why did you do that?"
"You mean, why did I paint a giant half red, half blue heart in your room?"
Weiss' cheeks fill with color. "Yes," she says, her hands fluttering adorably. Ruby reaches down, holds it still for a minute, and Weiss turns even redder. "I was wondering that."
Ruby takes a step forward, and Weiss steps even more inside her room until they're both staring at the giant mural on the wall in front of her bed.
"Why do you think?"
"I don't know."
"I think you know, Weiss," she says, and her heart's a train in her chest. It's taking an awful lot of effort to not wrap her arms around herself, as she's wont to do, to make herself smaller in times of distress. There cannot be two panicking people in a conversation, after all, and considering all the grief they've collectively put Weiss through, Weiss deserves to have a bit of panicking. As a treat.
Weiss takes in a shuddering breath. "Ruby."
"You remember when you asked me if I could tell if someone liked me?" she asks, cutting in. Weiss nods, confused. "I was wrong. Ridiculously wrong. I — I can't even. I'm a fucking idiot, okay? I need people to spell things out for me. I think — I think I'm falling in love with you. And if you don't feel the same way, I'd understand, and I'll go back to being your friend, okay? But if you do, if I have even that little bit of a chance, then. Weiss. I need you to spell it out for me. I need to know."
She's out of breath after the last bit. Breathless, and curiously drained. Like everything — every single feeling inside of her has been scooped out like an ice cream and placed in Weiss' hands. Like: here you go. My hands. My heart. Everything that makes me who I am. It's yours.
An infinity later, Weiss steps forward. And punches her in arm, hard.
"Ow!" Ruby says, her other hand immediately raised to touch the spot. "What did you do that for?"
"You," Weiss seems to be struggling with something, "you. Complete. Imbecile."
"—um—"
"—oh, no, you're not saying a word further!" she draws herself up to her tallest, pointing a finger at her chest. "Real cool big speech you got there, you dunce. Boohoo, I think I'm in love with you and so I'm going to walk around painting hearts randomly in your room and make your geists come out on their own, and wow, so much suffering you seem to have gone through these couple of months, try doing it for two fucking years, why don't you?" Her voice cracks, and the next words come out trembling. "Try being in love two fucking years, and then start complaining about needing to know or whatever. I—"
"Why are you crying?" Ruby asks her, freaking out.
"I don't know, I want to!" Weiss shoots back at her, her voice equally panicked.
She falls backward in her bed, sits staring at her hands. Ruby kneels in front of her, tries to catch her eye. There's a tear running down her eye, and the bow of her mouth is drawn, trembling. It does strange, tender things to Ruby. Try being in love two fucking years rings in her ears again, echoes over and over until it's all she can hear. Weiss sniffles.
"Hey," he says, softly. "It's okay. You can cry if you want to. Can — can I hold your hand while you do it?"
"No," Weiss replies, then: "Yes. Please."
Her heart running jumping, tripping in her chest, Ruby holds her right hand in both of hers. Then leans down and kisses it. Feels Weiss's sharp intake of breath as she does that.
"We're going to have to talk about this, don't we?" Weiss says, and Ruby is relieved to hear her voice isn't shaky anymore.
"Not unless you want to," she says. "Honest. I know I was being annoying earlier, but. If you want to talk later, if you don't feel ready now, we can do that too."
Weiss shakes her head. "No, it's okay," she says. "You know now, anyway."
"That you….love me."
Weiss nods.
"You," she repeats, working it through in her head. Or maybe its just that she wants to keep hearing it. It's the best thing she's heard in her life, after all. "You love me."
Weiss nods, again. And then she smiles.
"Ay, you're smiling," Ruby says. Or blurts out, rather idiotically. Honestly, she has no idea what she's saying. Just that if she keeps saying words that make her happy, Weiss confirms their truth and that feels good.
Her smile grows wider. "I am. Because you amuse me."
"Well, I," she starts, laughing, "I'm glad. I like it when you smile. It makes this thing here"— she points at her heart, deliriously joyful —"happy."
Weiss half-laughs herself. The hand that doesn't lie in Ruby raises, approaches her neck. Presses against her chest. Her eyes are shining.
"You make me happy," Weiss tells her, and Ruby imagines them tied in some sort of competition. I love you. Well, I've loved you for two years. She chuckles.
"What?"
"Nothing," she says, then hugs Weiss. The force of it knocks her backwards onto the bed. Ruby's nose hits Weiss' head.
"Ow," she says again. Then rises up on her elbows. "I'm sorry."
"Why, baby?" Weiss throws the word out so easily, like it's anything less than a bomb going off in Ruby's insides.
"For this sudden onslaught?"
"Nope. Don't apologize for that."
"Then I'm sorry for taking so damn long," she says. There's a half-smile on her face, but she's never been more serious. All these years of pain Weiss had been in. Two months, and she'd nearly died. Two years must have been utterly awful.
Weiss narrows her eyes. "Are you going to keep apologizing or kiss me?"
Huh. "I don't know," Ruby pretends to consider, even though she can feel the warmth on her cheeks. Kissing! Kissing Weiss! "Maybe I want to sit here and keep apologizing forever. Like I'm sorry Jaune and I stole all your bananas, and that Nora used me as a springboard to propel herself and break your chandelier and oh—"
When Ruby will think back on this later, at night, tossing and turning and unable to sleep, this is what she'll remember — two already sore heads colliding, the taste of mint toothpaste mixed with something she surmises was pure Weiss and a billion bubble hearts rising in the air around them.
All in all, as she says to Weiss later, it was quite decent.
And then Weiss whacks her in the face with a pillow.
Which is completely worth it.
"How about," Nora muses at lunch one day, "Weiss Schnee summons geists who embarrass the hell out of her and ultimately lead to her downfall?"
Weiss chucks a breadstick at her, while the others laugh. "Absolutely not."
"Don't worry, baby," Ruby reassures her girlfriend. Her girlfriend! If you'd told Ruby at the beginning of her life at Beacon that Weiss Schnee would go on to become her girlfriend one day, she would not have believed you, like, at all. Or at least have fainted. But here she is, feeding Ruby the occasional bits of mushroom she finds in her stew.
God, Ruby loves her girlfriend. Her girlfriend, Weiss Schnee.
"My girlfriend was summoning geists, involuntarily, to protect me. Get back to me when your girlfriends do something that badass."
"Um," Yang disentangles from Blake, unscrews her arm and waves it in the air. "Remember this? I literally got my arm chopped off for Blake."
"Handy trick," Jaune murmurs to Oscar, and they break out in giggles.
"Children, please," Whitley announces from the very end. "Also, may I suggest — Weiss Schnee discovers many things, including the fact that her brother has better business sense than her. And that she has the hots for Ruby."
"Ren, smack him for me."
Ren slowly raises his arm, fist bumps Whitley, then lowers it.
Willow smiles at Weiss, and Ruby sees, from the corner of her eye, a tentative smile back. She reaches over, pulls an arm over Weiss' shoulder.
"What do you think about — Weiss Schnee falls into the void, opens her doors to her very best friends in the world, and falls in love?"
She slips the memory of that afternoon, of food shared and thrown, of laughter ringing in the air, and the image of her girlfriend smiling the world's most perfect smile in her direction into a mental envelope, safe, inside her chest, to bring out and dog-ear, over and over again.
"I think it sounds perfect," Weiss says.