Note: Well, here it is. Part of us never thought we would make it this far. It's a bit of a commitment writing a story, especially one that you know you aren't going to profit from, one that eats into your work hours and sleep hours, one that is just one small story in an ocean of others in a fandom that itself is just one of thousands. You probably don't know how awful our sleep schedule is. Most of our writing happens between the hours of 10 P.M. and 2 A.M. because that's typically when we feel we have the free time to let our writing flow without fear of being interrupted. And interrupted it was! You know all about our delays and our struggles. This past year was our most productive ever, and it still didn't feel like we were updating fast enough. Most of the delays were due to our personal issues. A lot of times we got hit with this sort of existentialist emptiness when writing. "Why are you putting so much time and effort into this? It's fanfiction. No one cares."
But maybe that's a sad way of looking at it. A different way of looking at it is just to see how much we changed in the three and a half years since the first chapter got published. We didn't even really have a plan for this story back then. It was just a project to try out as we were falling out of the RWBY fandom. Now, it's kind of crazy how different our life has been. In the time since LUBYP began, we have: graduated college twice to snag a Master's Degree, gotten full-time employment after a lifetime of feeling like our life wasn't going anywhere, completely evolved our political and personal views of the world, changed a gender (Happy Pride, bitches!), survived a pandemic, and moved houses to different houses three times in two states. Maybe most importantly—contextually anyway—we actually learned to fall in love with RWBY again, and a large part of that was because we stayed attached to the fandom through writing this absolute behemoth of a story.
We also had a chance to write smut for the first time. It was a glorious disaster. And yes, we will start updating that again soon.
So now, Let Us Be Your Poison is coming to a close. We made it, and a major reason why was because of all of the feedback we received. We don't respond often, but we read literally every comment. We've seen every message. Yes, every message. Even the ones you thought we didn't see. We found them. We found them all. And not all of that feedback was great. Some of it was actually pretty harsh. The word "garbage" was thrown around a few times, if we're not mistaken. But that's a perfectly reasonable reaction. You can't please everyone, and we're especially thankful to the people who were more critical for keeping us honest. We wouldn't have worked as hard without you. We were going to go through and give thanks to every person who commented, but holy shit that's a long list so we would never remember. Our memory sucks, believe it or not. You don't see the Word doc we have that keeps track of what happens in each chapter so we don't forget.
As LUBYP finishes, you will probably notice something. When we originally wrote this story, this was intended as a Volume 1 rewrite, and despite all of the crazy things that have happened, despite the length and the revelations and the Gods and monsters and everything, we still consider it to be our version of Volume 1. As such, you will notice that this final chapter does not wrap up everything. Considering the reveals in the last chapter, it might not wrap up most things. That is one hundred percent intentional. While LUBYP is an incredibly complicated story with a lot of moving parts, we have always fundamentally viewed it as the story of how four girls with completely contrasting views and personalities come together to form a team. While there are certainly narrative and lore elements still left unanswered, we feel like the story has reached its conclusion. Team RWBY is together now. There is certainly more they will have to face, and there are other Kingdoms and Fables and struggles they will have to overcome, but as far as we are concerned, now that they have finally joined as one, there isn't any reason for Let Us Be Your Poison to continue. The narrative has served its purpose, and we like the idea of ending the story optimistically with our character's heads held high while moving into a new, uncertain future.
And that brings up the question you're all asking: will there be a LUBYP 2? There's certainly room for it. Back when we thought we were doing more of this (before it became 600k words long), we did plan out some ideas for Volumes 2 and 3, though they never got super far as we spent most of our time focused on Volume 1 first. There were some pretty good ideas in there (we spent a weekend writing a tournament arc that we think is actually super well done). However, the simple fact of the matter is that writing a sequel would be a ridiculous time commitment. We already have a track record of beginning sequels to long stories, seeing a lack of interest, and then fizzing out after like three chapters. It's happened twice already, and we don't want to start a sequel just to get bored and give up. It's been really satisfactory getting to complete this on its own, and we don't want to undo it. We hope you understand. However, we were very happy to see that some people in the comments said that LUBYP inspired them to start writing again, and even a comment or two about someone wanting to write fanfic based on LUBYP's world. We'll make this clear: if anyone wants to do anything based on this story, whether it be a spin-off or a fanwork or fanart or whatever, you have our total blessing. It actually really makes us happy that we inspired other art out there. The world always needs more artistic minds at work. Maybe—and we mean this with a grain of salt—we'll consider writing more in like a year or two, but for all intents and purposes, consider our part in this rewrite done. You're all free to pick up where we left off if you want, or make whatever you want out of the RWBY universe. The floor is yours.
Lastly, some plugs. While we aren't giving a shoutout to every commenter ever, we do have to give a thanks to l.a._foster_art on Instagram for their LUBYP Ruby fanart. Last we checked, they are still planning an adaptation of LUBYP in comic form, so follow them on Instagram for updates on that. Or fuck it, follow them on Insta anyway just to gaze at their art. It's good art.
Second, one of you lovely folks needs to go on TV Tropes. Someone gave this story a page on there like two years ago and it's horribly out of date, so if any of you love filling out forms, we are giving you that assignment.
Third, if you are interested in reading more of our stories, we have two more in progress. Our other RWBY fic, Yang's Eternal Hotness, is coming to a close soon also, so if you want to read the most degenerate, sinful, comedic filth in all of RWBYdom, check that out. We also have an ongoing Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure sickfic called Blue Scar Odyssey, which is all about angst and lesbians and traveling to other dimensions.
Lastly, we don't do social media, but we have a Discord username where you can bother us. GodSaveTheKings#6799 is where we're at. Come tell us how awful we are to our face, or maybe pester us and we'll tell you some abandoned LUBYP 2 concepts! Want to know what the second volume would have been called (Hint: It wasn't LUBYP 2). Bonus shoutout for the dozen of you we've already had lovely chats with. You know who you are. We are sending you a big virtual hug.
That's it, we guess. Nothing else to say. Thank you for reading. It's been a blast. Enjoy.
From,
Andrea
aka
"GodSaveTheKings"
"Do you have any idea how much trouble you are in?"
In the time between the press conference and Tai asking that question, Ruby really hadn't been able to consider that. By the time the sun set, it had officially been the wildest day of Ruby's life.
That wasn't a small statement. In fact, it had a lot of competition. The day that her mother passed. The day she stopped Roman Torchwick. The day she fought her sister. The day she fought literal—or not-so-literal—gods. But this particular day really set the bar high. She saved the City of Vale from the Grimm. She reunited with her sister. She brought Team RWBY back together. She took an unwinnable situation against her Headmaster and somehow managed to come out not just on top, but with more power and fame than she ever had before. She didn't really know how to process it.
Ice cream helped. It was Weiss's idea, because if there was one thing Weiss understood better than anything else, it was the healing power of trash Valian cuisine. So, once they were able to slip away from the frankly insane levels of paparazzi, they headed straight to their favorite diner and bought some ice cream. And burgers. And chicken. And sandwiches. And basically, anything else that they could afford. They gorged themselves until they were ready to burst. They hadn't eaten anything since the day before. Yang hadn't eaten anything in two days. Fighting a Grimm burned a lot of calories, and getting the opportunity to sit and eat allowed them to rest and really take everything in. Ruby didn't really process what had happened until they left the diner when she checked her Scroll for the first time in hours. There were twenty-seven missed calls, all coming from the same number. Only then did it set in: She was probably in so much trouble.
She showed it to Yang, who briskly shrugged. "Well, we had to know this was coming."
Blake and Weiss gave them space. Ruby held her Scroll between her and her sister as she called the number back, taking a deep breath as she turned on the speaker and waited for the worst. She didn't have to wait long, because that sentence was the first thing out of her father's mouth.
"Hi, Dad," Yang responded meekly.
"Hi, Dad? Hi…do you have any idea how worried I have been?"
"Sorry. We were going to call earlier. It's just been…" Ruby tried to explain. "Hectic?"
"You think I don't know?" he shouted. "I've been watching the news all day. What the hell has been going on?"
Ruby looked for Yang for an answer, only to see that Yang was expecting the same from her. "Dad, we're really sorry. We had to. A lot of people would have died if we didn't."
"That's what they've been saying. I just…I have literally so many questions. First of all—"
"We promise it won't happen again."
"First of all," he continued, "I am very, very proud of you."
Ruby stopped before she could utter another word. Yang seemed particularly taken aback, snatching Ruby's Scroll out of her hand and holding it close to her face.
"Wait, seriously?" she asked. "You're not mad."
"Oh, I'm furious," Tai said further. "That's the second thing. Both of you are grounded forever. I am literally never letting you out of my sight again."
Yang nervously scratched the back of her neck. "Oh. That's more what I expected."
"But you're proud of us?" Ruby clarified.
"I mean…yeah. I have to be," Tai explained. "They're saying you saved Vale. That's incredible. I've already had three different calls asking for interviews. Everyone wants to hear from the father of the Heroes of Vale. You were insanely irresponsible and stupid, and I want you home immediately, but yeah…you did the right thing. I'm proud of you."
Yang clutched the Scroll ever slightly closer. He said he was proud of her. When was the last time that ever happened? It seemed like she had been waiting her entire life, but maybe that wasn't entirely true. She remembered him saying it when she first got into Beacon, when she learned how to ride a bike—hell, lots of times. They were still rare, perhaps more than they should have been, but yeah. He said it. She guessed she never really noticed until now. The day was full of strange revelations. What was one more?
"Um…okay then," Yang said with a shrug. "T-Thanks, Dad. Means a lot."
"And Yang, I'm…I'm very glad that you are okay."
Ruby wasn't aware of that statement's context, but to Yang, it meant everything. The image of herself—sleeping in her own bed, in her own home, Zwei snuggling up to her—suddenly came over her, and she shakily smiled and felt a warmness permeate through her chest.
"Uh, yeah," she sighed. "I'm glad I'm okay, too."
"That doesn't mean you don't have a lot of explaining to do."
"Of course," Ruby said quickly, taking back her Scroll. "We promise we'll explain everything once we get home. Also, um…" She glanced over her shoulder toward her other teammates, who just so happened had nowhere else to go for winter break. "We might be bringing home some friends to stay over."
Her father's sigh was so heavy she felt it weighing down on her. "Just…just please get home safe. Okay? I love you both."
"Love you, too," Ruby said warmly.
"Love ya, Dad," said Yang. Ruby hung up the call and took a deep breath. She let the quiet linger beneath the orange sky for just a little while. Yang crossed her arms over her chest and gave a cautious smile. "So…that went better than I expected."
"He's going to lose his mind when we get back," Ruby said knowingly.
"Maybe he'll go easy on us in front of Weiss and Blake?"
"I hope so. That reminds me: Where are they going to sleep? Weiss was staying in your room. Blake was crashing on the couch."
"I'm sure we'll think of something. Maybe we can double up. It'll be like when we were kids."
"Yeah. Maybe."
God, that was so long ago. Ruby remembered the day Yang asked to get her own room. She was so excited that she finally got to sleep all by herself, and Ruby cried because she thought it meant Yang didn't love her anymore. That was a long, awkward conversation to have. Being together reminded her of a simpler time when they weren't constantly at each other's throats. Up until a few hours ago, she thought that they would never be that close again. Hell, a few hours ago, Yang was trying to murder her. That wasn't something they would just move past, and Ruby made sure that Yang accepted that. She seemed perfectly fine now; a little more heterochromatic than before, but still fine. But if something got knocked off-balance again? Neither of them wanted that. They talked earlier about co-therapy visits, and Yang seemed extremely receptive. She doubted it would be the end of their struggles. Whoever heard of siblings that never fought? But for the first time in months, they both felt hopeful. That was more than enough to guide them through whatever trouble came ahead.
"Holy shit!"
Their attention turned down the block, where Weiss and Blake were waiting for their conversation to end. The two former bitter enemies were looking at Blake's own Scroll, and it was Blake who had screamed out in surprise. Curious, the two sisters walked over to join them. Weiss seemed particularly unenthused, while Blake was dumbstruck, laughing in disbelief.
"What's going on?" Yang asked.
Blake tried to calm down. "Okay so, remember how I told Ozpin I wanted to get verified on social media?"
"As a joke?" Ruby asked.
"No, not as a joke," Blake explained. Weiss rolled her eyes even harder before Blake continued. "I was thinking that since we have this National Hero thing going, we might as well get Knightspage accounts. It would be cool if we could use our celebrity status to do some activism, you know?"
"I said that Knightspage was dumb," Weiss stated. "I didn't want to get involved with it."
"Yeah, so I made an account for her without her permission. You too, Ruby. Yang already had one, but that's beside the point. I started them like four hours ago, and look at this."
Blake showed her Scroll to them, and Ruby and Yang were both left equally stunned. She had the screen pulled up to her Kinghtspage account: Blake Belladonna RealBlakeRWBY. Her profile photo was a photo she took earlier in the day, cuts and scratches clearly showing. Beneath the photo was her profile summary:
Member of Team RWBY – Hero of Vale – Progressive Activist – Shadow Warrior - RWBYIceQueen's Best Friend - Constant Nuisance
"For the record, I hate the name she chose for me," Weiss clarified, though neither Yang nor Ruby really seemed to notice. They were far too distracted by the little number that appeared directly beneath Blake's summary, a number which they thought had to be a mistake.
Followers: 1.1 Million
"What?" Yang asked. "Is that real?"
"Fuck yeah, it's real!" Blake claimed. "And guess what? You two have even more followers than I do."
"W-What?" Ruby said, freaking out just a smidge. "More than a million people are following me?"
"You have 1.2 million. Yang's got 1.5 million," Blake explained. "And that's all without you doing any work. Crazy, right? Meanwhile, I've been, uh…paging out some things." With a cocky smirk, she tapped her screen and scrolled down slightly. She had four pages out. In order, they were:
I guess I'm going to need one of these now, so s'up.
Faunus Rights are Human Rights.
Fuck the police.
Eating a hot dog now. This day has been fucking WILD.
Ruby didn't understand how any of that was relevant, but Yang was slightly savvier than her and nodded her head in approval. Blake tucked away her Scroll into her back pocket, shrugging innocently.
"So, yeah. I think you should get on that," she suggested.
"Wait, how many followers does Weiss have?" Ruby asked.
"I don't care" Weiss stated.
"Eight hundred and forty thousand."
Yang held back a laugh. Weiss huffed, flustered. "I don't care about social media."
"Oh, it's okay, Weiss," Blake said teasingly. "Someone has to be the unpopular one."
Weiss threw her hands into the air. "The only reason you all have over a million is for bullshit reasons. Ruby's the leader, so of course, everyone wants to follow her. Blake's posting a bunch of political stuff, and Yang's been on there for years, so she has a head start. Plus, she probably has a bunch of hot pictures of herself."
Yang shrugged. "I mean, she's not wrong."
"I'll follow you, Weiss," Ruby said comfortingly. Weiss just blushed and looked away.
"S-Shut up…"
"Look, I'll help you get started," Blake promised her, trying to cheer her up. "It's really not that hard once you figure it out. People are just a little afraid to follow a Schnee, you know? Once they get to know you, they'll see you're—"
"Only mostly terrible?" Weiss said, finishing Blake's joke. However, the assassin just shrugged.
"I was gonna say…pretty cool."
Blake smiled slightly, and Weiss was pleasantly surprised. Was…was she actually genuine?
"Oh. Thanks, Blake."
"You know…because you're the ice queen."
Of course not.
"Right."
"Ice is pretty, pretty cool."
"I get the joke."
"Just doublechecking."
"Any chance I get to argue with you on Knightspage?"
"Are you serious? It's social media. It's made specifically for pointless arguing."
"Then maybe it's not so bad," Weiss said. She flashed Blake a cold smile, yet weirdly, Blake felt the warmness radiating from her icy blue eyes. What was their relationship if not one of constant fighting? Black and white, left and right, Human and Faunus—the day they could be openly sincere with the other would be the day that hell froze over. They would keep their mutual respect hidden behind a thick, healthy layer of sarcasm, insults, and apathy. For what it was worth, Blake was absolutely going to help her craft a decent social media page; or, more specifically, she would ask Yang to help her help Weiss craft a decent social media page. She also planned on keeping her online debates against Weiss to a minimum, partially for the sake of maintaining the public image of unity, but also because she was looking forward to giving this "Weiss-as-a-friend" concept a try.
She was absolutely not, however—under any circumstances whatsoever—going to tell Weiss how to change her username.
Yang smiled somewhat awkwardly as a wayward thought crossed her mind. "So, Belle…you're trying to be more social now?"
Blake was surprised. "Uh, yeah. You know, I won't be as social as you."
"I'm sure you'll be pretty popular, though," Yang stated. "It's just kind of weird to see you, like…talking."
"Yeah," Blake said uncomfortably. "It's not…um…my forte…"
"Yeah. But it's like—"
"Yeah…totally…"
"Yeah."
"Yeah."
A silence suddenly fell over the four of them, and Blake and Yang awkwardly shifted on the balls of their feet. They couldn't make eye contact with each other, but they couldn't exactly look away either. Ruby nervously glanced between the two of them, not really understanding why they had fallen silent, but Weiss picked up on the tension and cut herself in between them.
"Hey, Ruby," Weiss said quickly, "I want you to show me something…over there…by ourselves."
It took Ruby a few seconds, but she quickly nodded and joined in with Weiss's opinion. Blake opened her mouth to stop her, but before any sound could come out, Weiss grabbed Ruby by the wrist and pulled her down the street, and fearfully, Blake watched them go. She could have just walked down the street after them. Both she and Yang knew it. Literally nothing was stopping them. And yet, something was stopping them, as if some supernatural force had come and glued their feet to the floor. The awkwardness was inescapable, and probably they knew it shouldn't be escaped. They had put it off for hours, distracting themselves by trying to focus on everything else. Granted, the day had given them plenty else to think about, but they knew they had to face it sooner or later.
Yang looked at Blake.
Blake looked at Yang.
They both awkwardly smiled.
"Uh…"
"So…"
Blake noticed a bench nearby, and hurriedly gestured to it. "Wanna sit down?"
Yang didn't know how that would make anything better, but she accepted the terms. "Sure."
They kept their heads low as they quietly sat down on the bench. Yang tried to relax, leaning back against the stone slabs that made up the bench's back and wrapping her arms around them. Blake sat hunched forward, interlocking her palms in her laps. Neither of them said anything for a while, though their thoughts had managed to synch up with one another. They both remembered the last time they were alone: Yang in chains, red lights and sirens blaring all around them, Goodwitch bleeding to death in the hallway. They both remembered her exact words too when Blake refused to let her out. A few hours before that, Yang had been actively trying to kill her, overcome with Semblance-driven rage. A few hours before that, Blake was desperately pleading with her to get help for her deteriorating mental state. It was nothing but several days of fear and loathing and hatred and misery, and the aftereffects of their revelations and subsequent battles had lingered far longer. God, what the hell were they even supposed to say to each other? There was literally so much that they had to address.
Of course, Weiss and Ruby had to leave them like this. They couldn't let them put it off a little more? No one wanted to see them do this. How to even begin?
Yang decided that she didn't really care. She just said the first thing that came to mind, a passive, plain observation that made her smile somewhat more genuinely.
"So…you came back."
Blake nodded carefully. She picked at her lip and stared at the floor, feeling the cool winter breeze on her forehead. "Yeah…so did you."
Yang hadn't even thought of that, but upon realizing it, she nodded as well. "I guess we couldn't stay away, could we?"
"I guess not," Blake stated sadly. "What a disappointment, right?"
"Yeah," Yang sighed. "Maybe."
Another awkward silence. Another brief feeling of worthlessness.
Blake suddenly sat up straight and turned to Yang, but they spoke at the exact same time.
"I'm sorry."
"I'm sorry."
They both froze in surprise, and finally, they allowed themselves to laugh at the pure ridiculousness of it all.
Blake nervously smiled. "So, uh…you want to go first?"
"Honestly?" Yang said. "I don't even know if we should do this now. I mean, are we ever going to stop once we get going?"
"That's a good point," Blake noted. "Our ledgers are pretty full."
"But also, like, what do you have to apologize to me about?"
Blake laughed. "What? Seriously?"
"No, like…generally I get it," Yang explained. "Blowing up a school and stuff. That you should be pretty apologetic about. But I mean, when it comes to me, specifically?"
"I left you to die in an exploding building."
"Yeah, and I was threatening to kill people if you let me out," Yang said. "I mean, I clearly wasn't in a good headspace. You were trying to make sure I didn't hurt anyone else."
"You're seriously defending that."
Yang shrugged cluelessly, laughing along with her. "Look, I don't know! It was all terrible. I don't think there were any objectively good options. My point is that I was acting unhinged, and I don't blame you for trying to hold me back. You saw what happened back in the square when I saw you again."
"Yeah, but…" Blake groaned, "I'm not blaming you for mental health problems either. You can't apologize for that because you didn't have any control over it. It's not fair to you."
"Okay, so…we're not apologizing to each other then?"
"Fuck, that doesn't sound right, does it?"
"I know."
"It really feels like we should be apologizing to each other."
"Well, yeah," Blake reasoned. "Because we're kind of shitty people."
That was something they could definitely agree on. They may have had their reasons, but there was a fine line between understandable and acceptable, one that they crossed back and forth many times over. Still, Yang smiled at her, shrugging like it didn't really matter.
"But we're here now."
Blake nodded again. "Yeah. I mean, look at you." She gestured up to her own face. "I'm loving this, uh, new aesthetic you got going on."
"Thanks," Yang said kindly.
"So, like…Yin's gone now?" Blake asked, curious. "Or you are Yin now? How does that work exactly?"
Yang took a deep breath and looked down at her own hands. "To tell you the truth, it's kind of hard to explain. It's not the same as when I was just Yang. I know she was always more dominant, but I don't feel like I'm her. It's like I'm Yin either, and yet, I can feel them both. Except, I also can't? Both of them are there and fused, even though it seems like they shouldn't belong together. It's kind of like, um…you know how when you close one eye, you can still see straight out in front of you? It still seems like most of your vision is there and you only lost your periphery, even though you technically only have half your vision. When you look out of both of your eyes together, it's not two distinct halves meeting in the middle. The whole expands. You see everything from all sides. I kind of feel like that now: I'm seeing everything all at once, fused and blended to show what was always there in front of me. I'm neither Yin nor Yang. I'm both. Does that make sense?"
Blake raised an eyebrow. "I'll be honest. I wasn't following that eye metaphor at all."
"Dammit," Yang muttered under her breath. "I suck at metaphors."
"Yeah, you do," Blake told her with a smirk, "but I think I got it. You're still you. Now you're kind of just…more you."
"Sure," Yang said. "I guess that's an easier way to put it. It was either that or be destroyed apparently."
"What do you mean?"
"Oh," Yang said somewhat suddenly. "I, uh…I talked to my Mom."
Blake was taken aback. "Shit. Really?"
"Mmhmm," Yang nodded, her smile fading slightly. "Turns out she was in some home not too far from my house. My Dad kept her there to keep her safe, and I suppose, keep us safe from her."
"How was she?" Blake asked, interested.
Yang shrugged. "Calm. Surprisingly calm. She wasn't really anything like I thought she would be. She gave me some pretty helpful advice, though. She told me not to fight myself anymore, and I didn't even realize that was what I was doing all this time. I think…I think I'm going to start visiting her more often, now that she knows who I am. There's a lot about this new me I don't really understand. Maybe we can try to figure it out together. I want to bring Ruby there, too. Family's important, after all."
"I think that's a good idea to make amends with her," Blake stated. "Plus, you can show her your cool new eyes."
Yang blushed. "It's certainly going to get used to looking in a mirror."
"I know that feeling."
"Speaking of which," Yang said, nudging Blake in the side. "You're a cat?"
Blake rolled her eyes, pretending to be annoyed. "Yep. I'm a cat."
"That's…" Yang laughed. "That is so weird."
"Racist."
"No! No, I mean…it's just weird thinking of you like that."
"It's weird being like that," Blake explained. "I thought this would just be temporary. I really thought I might be able to go back to how things used to be. But now, I guess this is the way things are. As long as I'm a public figure, people will expect me to be Human. I have to learn to act like one."
"Well, as long as you don't forget where you came from," Yang said comfortingly.
"Right. Where I came from…" Blake became quiet and contemplative. She remembered her battle against Mrs. Glass and the words that the Grimm's master said to her Faunus comrades before their fight. She claimed she had abandoned her cause, that the temptation of being a Human and escaping her oppression was too much for her. It was a lie, but it did make her wonder just how much she left behind in her fight to make the world a better place. When she joined the White Fang, she left her mother. When she joined RWBY, she abandoned Adam. And, of course, wedged right in the middle of that was another person that she heartlessly, needlessly betrayed. "I spoke to Ilia."
It was Yang's turn to be pleasantly surprised. "Really? T-That's great! Were you able to patch things up with her?"
Blake stayed quiet for a long while. She leaned forward, bowing down her head to hide her face. Yang's optimism faded, and worry quickly consumed her. Blake tried to smile and laugh it off, fighting off the invisible enemy that was her memory, but Yang could see that she was actually barely managing to hold back her tears.
"Uh…no," Blake said. She cleared her throat and brushed something out of her eye. "I, uh…I don't think I did."
Yang slouched uncomfortably. "Oh. I'm…I'm sorry."
"No, no, it's okay," Blake said dismissively. "It's not a big deal. I was never really expecting it to work anyway."
"Belle, you don't have to pretend."
"No, I'm not. Really, I'm not." She sat up straighter, looking out ahead toward the orange sky. "I've come to terms with it, you know? Like…I just kind of have to accept that there isn't anything I can do. I hurt her, and that's…that's it."
"You could try again."
Blake somberly shook her head but spoke with clearer confidence. "That's all right. She made it pretty clear that she doesn't want me in her life anymore. The least I can do is respect that. You know, I wasn't doing it for her. Any of this hero shit, I mean. I wasn't doing it for me either. I'm trying to do right by people just because it's the right thing to do. I have people who look up to me now. People who expect things from me. I always hated that—the idea that people wanted me to do things for them. It meant having to hold myself up to a higher standard, and God knew I couldn't do that. I just accepted that I was always going to be rotten and tried to justify it the best I could. But now, I…I don't know. It just doesn't seem like a good way to live anymore. I want to try to be better. For everyone. Maybe one day if I try hard enough, Ilia will see that I've done enough. Maybe she won't. Maybe I won't. But I'll keep doing it. I have to be a better person than I used to be. I think that's the only thing I can really do."
"Wow," Yang muttered. "That's a very un-Belle-like thing for you to say."
"Yeah, well," Blake's gaze wandered over to the other end of the street where Weiss and Ruby were watching them. "I had some good people show me the way."
Another awkward silence fell over them. They both smiled, but there wasn't anything happy about what they were thinking. They both wandered back to the inevitable, that one dark cloud that was still hanging over them. Yang got better once she spoke to Ruby and her mother. Blake got better after her fight and talk with Weiss. It was obvious what happened in their past before those fateful encounters, and there was no point in pretending, especially since they had pointed it out themselves just a week ago. Blake took a deep breath, trying to steady her nerves, and Yang sighed, leaning back and staring up at the clouds in brief, meditative silence.
"Belle," she asked carefully, "is it safe for us to still be close?"
Blake closed her eyes, thinking over it deeply. "I don't know. We brought out the worst in each other. Belle and Yin mixed together make for a toxic combination."
"I know. But," Yang said somewhat hopefully, "I think we're headed down the right path now. We know what's right, and we have other people looking out for us. I'm not saying we should date or do anything like that."
"Fuck no," Blake smiled softly. "That was a disaster."
"Yeah. Totally," Yang said, allowing herself to laugh once more. "But…maybe thinking that we can't overcome each other isn't healthy either. If we can't get past this idea that we'll always ruin our lives together, then I don't know how we could ever fix ourselves. I'm not saying it's going to go perfectly. Hell, with us, things never go perfectly. But, even knowing all the risks, I don't want to just give up any of the good things we had because we're afraid of trying again. Maybe Yin and Belle couldn't make it together, but…" She cautiously extended out her hand and smiled. "Maybe Yang and Blake can still be friends?"
Blake casually looked at Yang's outstretched hand out of the corner of her eye, and a hesitant smile appeared. She paused for a moment, but then gladly shook Yang's hand.
"Yeah," she said. "Friends."
Yang beamed and pulled Blake in for a hug, which the assassin gladly accepted. She was never good at hugging. It was the one kind of physical intimacy she wasn't comfortable with. But this? This was nice. They could both get used to this.
From the other end of the street, Weiss and Ruby were trying to determine what their teammates were saying. They assumed that the hug meant it was going well. Ruby was particularly happy knowing that her sister had found peace. Weiss noticed Ruby's grin and got her attention.
"Happy?"
"I think so," Ruby stated. "It's kind of nice to see them actually being happy."
"There's a lot to be happy about," Weiss noted, "though I think they'll settle for just not killing each other."
"You might be right," Ruby sighed. She had to think hard: Was this really the first time they were all finally on the same side? She thought of one other time, and that was the night after they defeated Team CRDL. She remembered them eating a lot that night also. It was also the first time that she and Weiss ever spoke cordially, though she hardly remembered any details aside from that. That day was so vivid, but it was overshadowed by the events of the rest of the semester. That made her wonder: Would things really get easier from now on? Common sense said yes. How could it get worse? They finally had public support, team unity, and a clue what they were doing, but with Ozpin as their enemy and Mrs. Glass on the loose, they were going to be due for more work than ever.
She must have let her concern show because Weiss became slightly worried. "You're wondering about how long this is going to last, aren't you?"
Ruby put her hands on her hips and sighed. "Unfortunately. Ozpin's not just going to take this lying down. He'll whatever it takes to break us apart again."
"Then we'll just have to find new ways to gain leverage," Weiss stated confidently. "I'm not giving this up. I'm finished letting people dictate my life."
"I know," Ruby said proudly. "And don't worry, I wasn't giving up either. I was actually thinking about expanding our ranks."
"What do you mean?"
"Ozpin probably has a lot of allies," Ruby theorized. "The four of us together have power, but if we're going to learn more about these Fables and stop the Grimm, then maybe having some friends wouldn't be a bad idea."
"Have any friends in mind?"
She did. "Do you still talk to Velvet and Coco?"
"Team CFVY?" Weiss said, surprised.
"And Team JNPR," Ruby added. "I mean, they were present during the God's Arm. They saw what we did. Having some confidants within Beacon will probably be useful if we're going to attend school. Plus, if we're going to fight Grimm again—which, let's face it, we probably are—would you rather fight them alone…or with Pyrrha Nikos?"
When phrased like that, Weiss's doubts evaporated. "I can see that. But how will you get them to work with us?"
"I'll think of something," Ruby shrugged. "They're nice. I'm sure it won't be that hard. I mean, comparatively speaking."
Weiss couldn't help but smile. Ruby sounded so confident, so self-assured. She was such a far cry from the anxious, miserable little kid who stumbled her way into Beacon on accident. Her voice was still squeaky, and her frame was still frail—though hey, Weiss wasn't complaining about the extra muscle tone that was there—but she just radiated this power and enthusiasm that was outright infectious. Those silver eyes of her seemed to glow whenever she looked at them. She was going to say something to let Ruby know, but she decided against it. She didn't need to.
"Also," Ruby noted, "we are going to have to come up with some new training methods. Now that you can summon at will, we have to see how far we can push it." Ruby stammered nervously. "S-Sorry if that sounds a little pushy."
"No, that's all right." Weiss flexed her wounded shoulder, trying to shake out some of the lingering pain. "It's actually kind of weird when I think about it. I've always felt like I had this massive weight on my shoulders. It was like every day that I wasn't perfect made the burden get bigger and bigger. Whether it was my dad or the Gods, it always felt like I was disappointing people. Now, with these powers, I have more responsibility than ever before. Literally the entire world is depending on me. And yet…I feel free. It's like I'm ready to take on everything."
"That's because you have someone to share that burden with you," Ruby told her. "I mean, I don't know what it's like to summon or anything, but I'll make sure to help you however you need it."
"Thanks, Ruby."
"Like, I'll…I'll design some crazy new battle strategies," Ruby spitballed, making it quite clear that she hadn't really spent any time or effort thinking about it. Why would she when she thought she wasn't going to live past ten o'clock? "There have to be tons of ways we can augment our weapons with golden chains."
"Thank you."
"Actually, that's pretty cool. There are a lot of good mid-range capabilities. Yang's pretty limited from a distance. But wait, is it a good idea to make such radical changes to our team formation?"
"Ruby…"
"I don't want to put too much strain on you, but we're going to have to run some tests to see how long those chains can last without direct control. They seemed to be fine during the Grimm fight. How long did that last?"
"Ruby."
"Oh man, I haven't even considered all these possibilities until now. If JNPR and CFVY join us, those are twelve different people we can combine with dynamic weaponry. Wow, that's a lot of different team attacks. I'd have to come up with so many names—"
"Ruby."
Her train of thought ground to a halt. She had only just noticed it, but Weiss was staring at her. Not in an accusing way. Or a judging way. She had this little, bashful smile on her face, and she was fidgeting and breathing off-center, and she was just sort of…looking at her. Ruby's heart skipped a beat, and she felt something tugging at the back of her throat. Why was she staring at her like that?
"You know…you were what triggered my summons," Weiss said softly. "When I thought about protecting the others, I wasn't able to do anything. But you were the one that finally broke through. It made me realize something. I know I said that I was going to fight for myself from now on, but that's not really true. I may not be fighting for Atlas or my Dad, but I have someone else important to me that I want to fight for…someone new I care about that I need to protect."
A slight blush appeared on Weiss's cheeks, and suddenly Ruby understood. Her own cheeks turned red and she laughed awkwardly.
"O-Oh, y-yeah!" she said excitedly. "I…I almost forgot about that."
Weiss's gaze narrowed, though her smile could still cause Ruby to melt. "Really?"
"Well, you know," Ruby stammered, "G-Grimm and Glass a-and all that. I've been busy."
"I know."
"That's…ooh, boy, that's an entirely different thing I have to plan out."
"Well," Weiss said suggestively, "I'm sure the two of us can think up something we'd both enjoy."
"Y-Yeah!" Ruby nodded nervously. "Like restaurants. We both like restaurants."
Weiss's blush deepened, and Ruby's awkward, childlike stammering only made her laugh. "I'll try to limit my tastes."
"That's good," Ruby laughed also, though she didn't know why. "I mean, we need to make ourselves look attractive. It won't really work otherwise."
It was frankly amazing. Weiss had seen Ruby plan battle strategies at two in the morning that could outsmart and outshine any foe. She understood combat and weaponry inside out, but the art of dating had escaped the young Huntress. What did Ruby even know about entertaining a romantic partner? She most likely hadn't any understanding past whatever awful Valian romance films she had seen. Then again, was Weiss any better? She had never considered herself a romantic, and her violent, abusive upbringing had stripped away hope of her ever finding a partner that wasn't forced upon her. She used to consider anything that wasn't her dying for her Kingdom to be a failure. But now, she had to admit she was looking forward to it. A restaurant would be nice, but would they get noticed by a crowd now that they were famous? Perhaps their first date would be quainter. She liked the idea of her and Ruby all by themselves, snuggled up on a couch by the fireplace, snow falling outside while they talked for hours and—
"Wait," Weiss said suddenly, "what won't work?"
Ruby didn't understand the question. "Getting…getting dates?"
Weiss cocked her head to the side, her smile still glued to her face. "Why would we—"
"You're right. I'm thinking too hard," Ruby said, once again distracting herself. "We'll lure the women in with our charisma or something. Or you lure a woman and I find a guy? I'm still not really sure yet. I'll figure it out at some point. It's fine. Don't worry."
Ruby quickly noticed Weiss staring at her again. Her face was mostly the same, but her body language was completely different. And those eyes seemed a little narrower than before. Weiss spoke through her stilted smile.
"Ruby," she asked curiously. "What…what are you talking about?"
The young Huntress nervously stammered again, a slight hint of confusion behind her words. "Well, you said…you said that we should like… enter the dating scene together. Like…wingman stuff…or something…right?"
Weiss stared at her.
She stared at Ruby really, really hard.
That sentence…that was dumb.
That was very dumb.
It made no sense in fact.
Maybe if she kept staring at her, it would make sense.
Maybe it would all fall into place.
Because it didn't make any sense…until Weiss suddenly remembered the very specific wording that they had used just yesterday.
"You know, I never really had time to think about that stuff. I wouldn't know what to do in any relationship if I had one," Ruby had said.
"Maybe we could figure out how to figure that out, like…together," she said back.
And with a bit of hesitancy, Ruby added, "That, well, uh, um…that sounds like a good idea."
And Weiss thought about that.
And she thought about it.
And she thought about it some more.
And then her smile disappeared.
And her eye twitched.
And her warm gaze turned cold.
"Are…are you serious?"
Ruby noticed the immediate shift, still trying to smile through it. "Um…w-what are you—"
"You can't be serious," Weiss said in disbelief. "I said all of that yesterday…and I held you today and hugged you…and I literally just said what I literally just said…and the thing you got from all of that was that I wanted you to be my wingman?"
Ruby became terrified to answer, but couldn't help but squeak out a response. "Uh…yes?"
Weiss's jaw dropped. Her hands balled into fists. She turned towards Ruby forward and rolled her shoulders forward, balling up like she was about to explode. And before she erupted into screams, her cheeks turned an even darker, embarrassed shade of red.
"Wha—No!" the ex-heiress shouted furiously. "No, I don't want that! How the hell could you think I want that?"
Ruby took a step backward, terrified. "You said you wanted to learn to date together!"
"No!" Weiss cried, throwing down her fists and stomping her foot into the ground. "I said…y-you know what I said! How could you not get what I meant?"
"I'm sorry. I had a lot on my mind!"
"It shouldn't matter what's on your mind!" Weiss yelled, her voice threatening to break. Her cheeks somehow even turned redder. "I pour my heart out to you, and you seriously interpret all of that as me wanting to go on double dates? How does a person even do that?"
"Y-You were unclear," Ruby said defensively, but that only caused Weiss to stutter even more. She was so flustered that she could barely find the energy to string her words together into sentences.
"I didn't…no! No, I…listen, you! What I said literally only has one interpretation! It can't be misunderstood! It's physically impossible!"
"Well, I did apparently!" Ruby exclaimed. "You know I'm bad with social cues!"
"No shit!" Weiss said, threatening to rip her own hair out. Her face looked like a cherry, and her screams of manic frustration had drawn Yang and Blake's attention. "You're not just bad with social cues. You're…you're awful! You're the worst! You are so, so, so…so, so, so, so bad!"
"I'm sorry!" Ruby said desperately. "We won't go on dates! I promise!"
Weiss stammered. "No! I want to go on dates! How can you not understand that is something I explicitly want to do!"
"Because you just said—"
"I know what I just said," Weiss said, baffled. "I know what I've always been saying. You…you haven't been getting it!" Weiss pointed at her accusingly. "You…word understander…you…"
Ruby didn't know what was happening here. "I don't know what's happening here."
"I'm losing my mind is what's happening!" Weiss declared. "I have been spending all of today thinking that we are one thing…one very, explicit, special…special, special thing…and then you—you—you with your brain and your face and you're…you dumb, stupid, little…argh!"
Weiss didn't lose her composure. Weiss didn't lose her ability to insult people. In the most damning of circumstances, she had always found the right words, whether it was telling of Blake or telling of Gods. But for the first time in her life, she was lost. If it was ever possible for a human being to be more embarrassed, then she couldn't conceive of it. Ruby could only watch in confused terror as her best friend threw the world's reddest temper tantrum two feet in front of her face.
"Weiss, please don't hit me," Ruby begged, though that only seemed to drive Weiss even further insane.
"Why would you ever think I want to hit you?" she cried.
"I don't know!" Ruby cried back. "I don't understand how you feel at all anymore about me!"
Weiss suddenly stopped and became rigid. Her head snapped to attention. Her eyes went wide and stared straight into the depths of Ruby's Soul. She took a step forward.
"You…you don't understand how I feel?"
Her voice was laced with contempt.
"You can't figure it out yet?"
She snarled like a wild animal. Despite having all the space behind her to retreat, Ruby was frozen to the spot, unable to escape.
"You want to know how I feel about you, Ruby? You need it fucking spelled out for you?"
Weiss stepped closer again. And again. And again. When she was within hitting distance, Ruby leaned back and braced for the worst. Weiss, red face and all, stuttered and threw her arms down and shouted as loud as she could, her voice cracking apart in one final flustered flurry.
"Well, this is how I feel about you, you big dolt!"
And Weiss suddenly grabbed onto the sides of Ruby's heads…and before either of them were really ready for it, Weiss pulled Ruby toward her and kissed her as hard as she could.
Ruby's eyes went wide. A heavy shudder ran throughout her entire body. She was lifted up onto her toes, feeling the entire ground shift beneath her. Hell, the entire world shifted. Her heart somehow stopped beating and sped up at the exact same time. Weiss's lips were shockingly warm from a woman from a land of ice and snow, and their soft touch sent little electric shocks down her spine and to the tips of her fingers. Her mind was shattered beyond belief, and after a moment, her ability to process information just stopped. The sunset vanished. Her teammates vanished. She was left with nothing but her most basic senses and thoughts. Warmth. Pleasure. Surprise. Happiness. Horror. Weiss.
At that moment, Ruby's thoughts broke—and all of them were consumed by the strange, wonderful creature pressing their lips together.
It only lasted for a few seconds, but that one second felt stretched into a million. When Weiss pulled away, she shuddered, and Ruby's senses had dulled to where she could only feel her warm, uneven breaths against her lips. Ruby's eyes were wide open, but Weiss's were shut tight, unwilling to look at her. The ex-heiress's fingers trembled as they weaved through Ruby's hair, and it took her another long moment for her to try to regain any semblance of poise. She couldn't, and her face was still bright red, maybe the brightest it had ever been. She did get enough composure back to whisper a single sentence.
"I cannot believe that I'm in love with you…"
And with that, Weiss released her grasp on Ruby's head, turned around, and promptly stormed off down the street. Ruby nearly collapsed on her wobbling legs. Her arms dangled loosely by her sides. She slouched over, her jaw left hung open as the ghost of Weiss's forceful kiss lingered behind on her tongue. Her silver eyes were clouded by her fogged-over glasses, which threatened to fall directly off her nose and shatter on the concrete sidewalk. She didn't even hear the footsteps come up behind her as Weiss left her in the dust.
"Man," Yang sighed contently, clasping her hands together behind her head, "I'm glad to see she finally made her move."
"Yeah, took her long enough," Blake said, crossing her arms. "Seriously though, how did Ruby not pick up on that sooner?"
"I don't think she ever considered that someone could have feelings for her," Yang explained. "It's like typing the wrong formula into a calculator and you get a syntax error. Right, Ruby?"
Yang looked at Ruby. She didn't move.
"Ruby?"
Nope. Not moving.
"Uh…Ruby?"
Ruby's mouth loved a little bit. Something that resembled words came out.
"Weiss…Weiss just…loves me…"
Blake, concerned, waved her hand in front of Ruby's face, looking for a reaction. "Uh, is she okay?"
"No idea," Yang admitted.
"Weiss…in love…that's…kiss…kissing…Weiss…"
"Your sister's fucked up, Yang," Blake said, snapping her fingers in front of Ruby's face a few times to no response.
"I think she just needs a few more seconds to process it."
"Kiss…love and kiss…kiss love…"
"Yang?"
"Any second now."
Blake and Yang looked at Ruby expectantly as Weiss quickly began to fade from view, storming off on her own into the city. They waited, and they waited, and they waited, and they waited…and then all at once, Ruby suddenly jumped to attention, and she shook her head free of the cobwebs, and she sprinted as fast as she could down the sidewalk, completely forgetting she could use her Semblance as she tried to chase Weiss down.
"W-Wait! Weiss! Come back!" she shouted desperately, waving her arms in the air after her. "W-We need to talk about this! I finally understand it now!"
As the former couple watched Ruby pathetically chase down her wandering partner, Yang couldn't help but lovingly sigh. "Aw. I think they're going to be adorable together."
"Yeah," Blake agreed, though she quickly shrugged. "Or they'll kill each other."
"Equally plausible," Yang nodded. They calmly walked down the street in the same direction. "One thing's for sure: They definitely won't be cuter than we were."
"Hell no, sister," Blake said confidently.
For the first time all day, the City of Vale had gone quiet. The Four Huntresses would eventually work their way back to the Xiao Long household, and eventually to Beacon Academy. After that, they didn't really know where they were going to go. They would be bombarded with interviews. They would train. They would laugh and joke and maybe witness even more horrifying things than they already had. They weren't worried. Team RWBY had made their debut on the world stage, and they were damn sure they weren't going to waste their opportunity. The world was broken and corrupt, but they had the drive to fix it one scythe slash at a time. That was the one thing that defined them. They had the power to change the world if they wanted to, even with powers they may have not yet known they possessed. Together, they had done the impossible: They learned to care for one another. If they could do that, then nothing could stop them.
It wasn't exactly happily ever after, but it was a good start.