(A/N: This is my passion project from the last few months. Huge thank you to my editors, NefariousDreams and Corrin, and to DreamingParadise for helping me along the way ;u;
Trees tumbled and crashed to the dry earth as they were roughly torn apart, spraying chunks of dried mud and crackled leaves into the air. A long, double-headed body slithered through the dense overgrowth, crushing anything in its path in a chorus of almighty crunches and snaps. Its half-white, half-black scaled body almost glowed in the glaring sun, some scales breaking off in its starved chase after its prey.
"WOO-HOO!" Yang hollered, her hand grasping Blake's tightly as she shot a rocket into the muzzle of the Alpha King Taijitu, the subsequent explosion booming out loud soon after the impact. The giant serpent recoiled and hissed as smoke and flames fell from it, fangs bared at the swinging targets in front of its snout. Yang smirked wide as Blake flung Gambol shroud through the air, using the ribbon as a makeshift slingshot.
"Eat that ya' lousy snake!" Yang shouted with glee, shooting off another round of rockets from Ember Celica, accompanied by her euphoric giggle. The monster growled with all its might, shooting forward and striking the base of the tree that Blake had Gambol Shroud dug into and snapping the bark in half.
"Uh-oh."
The tree fell with a groan, the weapon attached to it bringing Blake and Yang down with it.
"Brace!"
The partners hit the ground with a heavy thud, the air knocked out of their lungs as their aura strained. Blake recovered from the dive quickly, scrambling to her hands and feet with precise movements. She whipped the ribbon in her hand, the blackened steel blade flying through the air and finding its home back in her grip.
"Ow." Yang groaned, rubbing the bump on the back of her head as she stood, pulling twigs out of her hair as she returned to Blake's side, "Man, I'm gonna be pulling leaves out of my hair all night!"
"Focus Yang," Blake said steadily, tensing her muscles as the first head of the monster appeared.
A loud hissing filled the clearing, the head peering over the fallen oak. White scales reflected the midday sun, red eyes glaring down at them. Burns marred its face, adding to the scuffed scars running along its neck, proving just how long this Grimm had lived. It stood, poised with practiced talent, waiting to strike its prey.
"Where's yer' twin, ugly?" Yang asked the serpent, glancing around for the other half. As if on cue, the black half revealed itself, tongue flickering between its long fangs. It rose steadily behind them, Blake turning to face it. Yang looked between the two, clicking Ember Celica with uncertainty.
There was a moment of silence, all four pairs of eyes glaring at their targets. A bird could be heard, chirping innocently in the distance, a moment of calm before the storm.
The King Taijitu moved first, both heads snapping forward in its attempt to snack on the huntresses. The two girls launched into the air, watching as the serpent heads crashed into each other. Yang laughed, grabbing Blake's outstretched bow and tugging it over her shoulder. Blake swung in a tight circle, flying through the air and landing on the back of the black snake head, in a display of perfect balance.
It reared back, forcing her to dig the sheath of her weapon into the creature's skull as it swung its heavy head around to try and shake off its pesky offender. Blake narrowed her eyes, driving the blade in her hand through one of the beady red eyes beneath her.
The monster let out a strangled cry, contorting in pain. Blake took this opportunity to swing herself and her black ribbon around the maw of the beast before landing back on the top of its head. Pulling with all her strength, she managed to securely shut the Grimm's jaw, leaving just enough space for its tongue to loll out.
Meanwhile, Yang found herself keeping the white snake head's jaws open, unloading rounds of fire into the back of its throat. "Eat. This. You. Giant. Pain. In. The. Ass!"
A choked, angry hiss erupted from the back of the snake's throat as it reared its head back so high, it was looking straight at the sky. Yang's grip faltered, her eyes widening at the realization she was about to slip into the jaws of the Grimm.
"You want to eat me? Alright, but I'm warning ya, I'M HOT AND SPICY-" Yang roared, moving her hand to one of its fangs to steady herself before taking off and jumping straight into the bottomless, dark esophagus of the slithering creature. The King Taijitu snapped its mouth shut immediately, cutting Yang off from the outside world with a growl.
Blake looked up as the white snake head inched closer, angry, red eyes boring holes into her. The faunus scanned around briefly for Yang, unable to spot her rambunctious partner. Concern pooled in the pit of her stomach.
"Yang?!" She called out, quickly running out of time, as the head beneath her boots flicked roughly, taking advantage of the distraction. Blake stumbled, her grip on the ribboned half of Gambol Shroud completely lost.
The muzzle came loose, the black head whipping around instantly to try and bite the feline in an attempt to envenomate her. Blake squeaked, activating her semblance in combination with the Dust she was carrying. A stone copy of her form appeared seemingly out of thin air; she used the momentum to push herself away from the angry reptile.
Landing on the grass with a soft thud, Blake watched as the black Taijitu tore her rock form into chunks. Her stone head fell to the ground in front of her, cracking in half on the grass. Blake looked up to see both heads staring down at her, poised and ready to strike. She took on their unspoken challenge and steeled herself, hands gripped tightly on the sheath of Gambol Shroud. That's when she noticed the white head's mouth oozing smoke.
"Oh, that's where you went."
*
Yang grunted as she dug her fingers into whatever purchase she could get, nails digging into slimy flesh down the Taijitu's throat. She hadn't intended to go this far deep- Yang hadn't expected its fangs to fold back when its jaw snapped closed, causing her to lose her grip. She had managed to get a grip on something on the way down, digging her fingers into slime for dear life.
Yang grunted as she struggled to climb higher, using her shotgun shots to propel herself upwards, before clawing to get a grip again. She felt the Taijitu move, its neck becoming levelled for a moment. The walls around Yang closed in tighter, practically squishing the blonde between them. Her face pressed into the mucus lining of its throat, earning a disgusted "Eugh!" from inside.
"Time to get out of here-" Yang said to no-one in particular, reloading her gauntlets with a dull click. She smirked, letting loose in the beast's neck. Rockets and shotgun pellets flew from her wrists, exploding in the pit of its stomach. Black smoke began to rise from the darkness below, a heavy stink following it. Yang gagged, holding her breath.
The white head began to heave, the walls around the blonde contracting tightly. Yang felt panic pull lightly at her stomach, reaching her hand up as far as it could go and grabbing. Her fist tightened around the base of the tongue, squeezing it tightly. The Grimm hissed, its throat lifting the pressure and giving Yang a moment to escape.
Her eyes turned crimson, her hair crackling to life in a ball of flame, and suddenly she was rocketing out of the monster's maw like a cannonball. She landed on the ground with a thud, almost getting a perfect superhero landing if it wasn't for the slime on her body. She landed on her back with a hollow cough, her flames extinguishing.
"Eww! Now I'm completely covered in snake goo!" she protested, kicking herself off the ground.
Blake stood not too far away, staring at her partner in mild disbelief.
"What did you think was going to happen?"
"That's the thing, Kit Kat!" The feline frowned at the pet name, "I don't think!"
"Please don't call me that."
A loud, dangerous growl filled the air, pulling the bee pair's attention back to the Grimm that was miraculously still alive despite Yang's flamboyant exit. While the white half appeared severely weakened, its mouth hanging open loosely with a constant stream of sparking smoke drifting from it, the black half was beyond enraged.
Its single eye glowed brightly, as did the red markings across the top of its head. Yang and Blake crossed glances for a minute. This was new.
In their moment of unawareness, the black side struck, its sleek head bolting through the air like black lightning. Blake reacted a second too late, golden eyes flashing wide in shock as she faced the throat of the King Taijitu.
A swift, icy, rose scented wind filled the clearing, a colossal chunk of ice seemingly appearing out of nowhere, smashing into the side of the serpent's head. It hissed painfully, rolling to the ground and lying there for a moment, before rising up again to glare at whatever had attacked it.
It opened its mouth to hiss. However, a well-aimed sniper round hit one of its fangs instead, cracking it in half with a single shot. It fell to the ground, remaining there for a second before fading to black mist.
Yang and Blake both looked up to see the first half of the team standing nearby, weapons aimed towards the monster. Ruby pulled Crescent Rose out from the ground, eyes wide at the sight of the Grimm before them.
"It's huge!" she gasped, swinging her scythe to her resting position behind her back.
"Thanks for the save!" Yang bellowed over, throwing a thumbs up over to the other pair. Weiss rolled her eyes.
"You wouldn't have needed saving if you weren't too busy flirting with your partner!" she snapped.
"Same for you and Rubes, Princess!"
Weiss' nostrils flared, already frustrated at the elder sibling. The lack of response only fueled the blonde's fire, a loud chuckle coming from the opposite side of the field. Ruby blushed furiously at the comment, thanking the Gods that they were still sheltered beneath the shade of the oak trees.
"You two can fight later," Blake's monotone voice broke the silence, "Our friend still isn't finished."
The snake lifted both its heads, the white half shifting its attention towards Ruby and Weiss, while the black half locked onto Blake and Yang, eager to finish off the job on the puny creatures that had almost killed its other half.
"Ruby, what's the plan?!" Yang asked, hopping out of the way as the black head struck again, punching the side of its mouth with a sharp thwack that made Yang's knuckles ache. She pulled her hand back, waving it around in the air to dispel the pain.
Blake flipped over its head, grabbing the second half of Gambol shroud as she did so. It slid out of its now blind eye with a pained shriek, turning and aiming for Blake with another strike. Blake fazed out of the way again, the serpent crunching down on a fake clone again.
Ruby also jumped out of the way of the white head, shooting twice into the side of its face while Weiss used her glyphs to summon chunks of earth from her Dust and hit its weak spots.
"We need to separate the heads! Stretch it out as much as you can!" Ruby ordered, reaching for another round of ammo from her back pocket.
Beside her, Weiss came to life, racing along a line of glyphs to get behind the white head. She moved smoothly, a dome of glyphs appearing around the viper as she planned her attack. She played strategies over and over in her mind, flipping out of the way of an attempted coil and onto an awaiting glyph.
She flew down, the tip of her rapier striking its scaled form. The snake hissed again, moving to try and catch the white blur around it. Instead, it only bit down on air as another strike slashed its eye. It snarled as the onslaught continued, jerking with each hit as its scales began to break.
"Leave some for me!" Ruby hopped up, sliding under the serpent's neck with the help of a glyph from Weiss. She hooked the blade of her weapon under the lip of the white head and shot a bullet, tearing it off with a swing.
The now jawless half reared its head back with an agonized wheeze, smacking Ruby in the process. The leader yelped in surprise, crashing into Weiss on her way down. The two collided with a thump that sent them both to the ground. Weiss managed to crouch mid-air and land on her feet, unlike Ruby, who took a mouthful of dirt to the face.
"You need to be more aware of its movements," she scolded, a hand landing on her hip as she turned to help the crimsonette up. Ruby dusted herself off, spitting the soil and grass from her mouth with a cackle.
"I know, I know– Sorry... W-Watch out!" Ruby bumped Weiss out of the way, knocking them both to the ground again as the black half shot towards where they had been standing just a second earlier.
"Get back here you!" Yang roared, hands beneath the lips of the reptile as she tried to pull its head back from on top. The black head swung around madly, smacking into a tree before continuing deeper into the woods.
Blake followed quickly behind as the black half tunneled into the forest with Yang on its head, stopping briefly to gaze at the heap Weiss and Ruby were in, before smirking knowingly and following swiftly.
"Owie- Are you okay Weiss?" Ruby asked, sitting up from Weiss' chest, hands planted on either side of Weiss' head.
The Schnee beneath her groaned, sapphire eyes looking up and staring at Ruby in shock. Her hands were splayed out on either side of her, Myrtenaster having fallen during the scuffle. Her bangs shaded her face, her coat drifted back to expose her chest. She looked so helpless like this.
Ruby suddenly lost all the strength in her arms, gulping as a bright red flush burned her face, "U-uh."
"W-Well?" Weiss hated herself for stuttering, glancing away as a gentle warmth began to form on her cheeks "Are you going to get off of me?"
"Yep! Yes- yeah getting off now," Ruby stammered, clumsily scrambling back to stand back up. Weiss pulled herself from beneath the reaper, wishing that the stupid hot blush on her face would fade.
"To answer your earlier question, yes, I am fine. Thank you," Weiss hummed, dusting off grass that stuck to her and pulling her coat back over her shoulders. Ruby nodded, standing oddly straight.
"Y-Yep! No problemo, partner!" Ruby chirped, flicking Crescent Rose back up from the dirt with her heel, "Now let's go kick some Taijitu booty!"
A certain hissing answered Ruby's comment, red eyes glaring at them as smoke rose from its throat and missing jaw. Suddenly tense and ready for action again, Ruby and Weiss shifted their footing, weapons raised towards the creature as they waited for it to move, and it did.
The pair dived out of the way of the white snake as it lunged for them, glyphs shining beneath their boots as Weiss worked her semblance. The injured Grimm slammed head-first into the ground, too tired to stop itself fully after lunging for them. Its extended fangs got caught in the dirt, sinking deep into it up to its gums, jamming the serpent in place.
Weiss, thinking quickly, spun the revolver in Myrtenaster, locking onto the ice cartridge, a blue glow reverberating along the cool blade. "Ruby! Ice Flower!"
"Great idea, Weiss!" Ruby swung Crescent Rose forward and loaded a high caliber round. She watched in awe as the glyphs formed in front of the barrel, counting them as they appeared and waiting for the right moment. She could feel Weiss' chest rising and falling steadily as she focused her breathing, sending goosebumps along her arms.
"Hmph, of course it was." Weiss hummed, a smile appearing. "It was my idea."
Ruby smirked and fired her sniper-scythe, several icy chunks hitting the snake's head and the area around it. Each load formed another, bigger chunk of ice, until the Grimm's head was fully encased in it, effectively trapping it on the spot.
Weiss lowered Myrtenaster. "And that's that."
Ruby folded up Crescent Rose, clasping it to the clip on her lower back. "Woo! Great teamwork Weiss!"
Weiss smirked, sheathing Myrtenaster temporarily. "Now, let's hurry up and make sure your dunce of a sister hasn't been eaten yet."
"Yang! Let go!" Blake called to the flaming blonde perched on the snake's head, who was being flung like a rag doll.
"Not until he- STOPS!" Yang slammed her fist into its nose, shotgun pellets going through the creature's jaw with a crack. It screeched loudly and swung roughly one more time, Yang finally dropping off to the ground beside Blake. The snake hissed, its nostrils now smoking black. Yang cocked her gauntlets again, a frown on her face.
"It won't die!" She groaned.
"You need to behead it, or else it won't die," Blake explained, "We learned this last week in Professor Port's class."
"Psh- Yeah I totally knew that and paid attention."
Blake rolled her eyes at her partner, looking up as Ruby and Weiss appeared through the overgrowth. Yang waved them down, shooting another rocket into the black snout that lunged at her.
"Hey did you guys know we had to decapitate this thing!?" she asked as they got closer.
Weiss huffed, slowing to a jog, "Well, your sister seems fine."
"You do?!" Ruby squealed, ignoring Weiss' earlier comment while earning an annoyed glare from the faunus girl beside her. Yang clicked her gauntlets, in response, a grin on her face.
"You need to break the scales at the base of its neck first," Weiss pointed out as the snake began to rise up again, mist still rising from its nose, "Especially on an Alpha. They have hardened necks."
"Yang?" Ruby called, folding out her weapon to its full size. The blonde nodded, giving her little sister a thumbs up.
"Break the scales, gotcha!" She changed Ember Celica to melee combat mode, looking at the white haired member of her team, "Think you can help me out, Ice Queen?"
"Only in my nightmares, Brute," the heiress lifted her hand, a circle of glowing glyphs appearing around the snake head, "But I'm ready when you are."
"Blake, can you cover Weiss?" Ruby asked, the tanned girl already moving into position next to the Schnee.
"You don't need to ask." Blake replied, placing the sheath back over her shoulder as she changed her weapon from its main blade into the alternate gun and katana.
The King Taijitu slithered around, unsure on who to target. Ruby locked eyes with it for a second, its tongue flicking as it stalled, waiting for the right moment to strike. Ruby's eyes were fierce, taunting the Alpha to up its game. It hissed louder, shooting back a venomous glare.
"GO!" Ruby ordered as the serpent went for her.
It missed Ruby by a small margin. Ruby sprinted away, leaving a burst of petals in her wake. The beast turned to stalk the fleeing, red shape. Before it could give chase, Yang wound up behind it, driving her fist across its neck. The beast shrieked, turning to face its aggressor, only to be met with another punch to the opposite side of its neck. Scales were sent flying under the brute force of each hit, more and more progressively dislodging from the Taijitu's skin.
"Over here!" Yang teased, launching from Weiss' glyph again and going for its throat. The Grimm hissed, lifting its head to look around again. It quickly spotted the monochrome duo standing still nearby.
Weiss was straining under the unaccustomed weight on her semblance, eyes widening as she noticed the Alpha zeroing in on Blake and her. It shot forward, tongue flicking with excitement. Bullets from Blake bounced off its scales, its maw opening wide as it got closer.
Blake narrowed her eyes, turning and hooking an arm under Weiss to move her. "Hold on tight!"
Weiss yelped in surprise, dropping Yang accidentally as her focus broke. The faunus jumped up into the air, scrambling up the tree branches with Weiss still over her shoulder. The Taijitu followed them up, growing taller in the trees as it balanced itself on its strong body.
Weiss scowled, reaching forward and summoning three black glyphs around the snake, freezing it mid-air with its jaw locked open. She grinned, a wind carrying the smell of roses suddenly appearing around them.
Ruby appeared, boots gripping onto a tree as she tensed her legs. The Grimm turned its eye to look at Ruby, realization flashing its crimson glare. Ruby smiled, grip tightening on Crescent Rose.
She shot from the tree, denting the bark as she launched. The curved blade caught the weakened scales of the Grimm, halting for a moment as the pressure caught up. With a single swing, Crescent Rose tore through the flesh, decapitating the Alpha King Taijitu cleanly. Its dying screech ripped through the forest, before it began to dissipate into nothing but black fumes.
Weiss dispelled her glyphs, the body of the serpent hitting the ground in two separate parts. Yang whistled, kicking the exposed neck with her foot, "And that, ladies, is how you separate conjoined twins, RWBY style!"
Weiss and Blake hopped down from the trees, reuniting with the two sisters on the forest ground. Ruby smirked, taking out her scroll and snapping a quick selfie of her kill with the team.
"That's one way to put it," Blake hummed, placing Gambol Shroud back into its sheath on her back. Weiss glared at Yang for a moment, taking a slight step back.
"Yang- what on Remnant are you covered in?"
The blonde stared at Weiss in confusion, before looking back down at herself and changing her expression to one of pure mischief, directed at the heiress. She wiped a handful of snake goo from her leg before flinging it at the girl, "Oh- It's throat mucus. Here, have some!"
Weiss gagged as the cold, slimy fluid landed on her, coating her face and neck in it. She tried to wipe it from her skin, finding it to be sticky and foul smelling, "YANG- I SWEAR TO THE GODS, I'm going to murder you and sell your body parts on Mantle's black market! WHAT IN THE NAME OF DUST IS WRONG WITH YOU?!"
"Love you too, Princess!"
"Okay gang, let's rendezvous with JNPR and go ho-" Ruby turned just as Yang flung more mucus at Weiss, a loud shriek of anger ripping from the Schnee, "Ew- what is that?"
"It's the way your sister is going to die if she doesn't STOP!-"
"It's throat slime from the Taijitu!" Yang explained briefly, grinning, "Pretty sure it was trying to digest me in there- but hey! I'm alive and it's dead so who cares?"
"Yang was eaten," Blake said, tightening her bow over her ears as they began to walk towards the Collection point. Ruby's eyes widened, starting over at Yang in disbelief.
"Really?!" she asked, excitement lacing her voice. Yang nodded her head proudly, clearing her throat as she geared up to tell the tale. Weiss grumbled. It was going to be a long hike back.
"So there I was-" Yang began, lowering her voice to add suspension, "running for my life with the King Taijitu on my tail!"
"And that's how we kicked ass!"
"Whoa," Ruby gasped, stars glowing in her eyes, "That's so cool!"
Weiss rolled her own, still desperately trying to clean the slime Yang threw at her from her pale skin with a handkerchief, "And then Ruby and I had to save you from it, remember?"
Blake giggled softly as Yang's expression fell from proud to knowing she had been called out. She corrected herself, "Y-yeah! Then the super cool couple that were probably making-out-before-they-came to-rescue-us arrived! And then-"
"YANG!" Ruby blurted, punching her older sister roughly in the shoulder, "We were not making out!"
"Were too."
"WERE NOT!"
"That's not what Blake told me, isn't that right Kit Kat?" Yang teased, throwing her arm around the Faunus' shoulders unexpectedly. Blake jumped at the sudden closeness, but continued to smile.
"And what exactly did Blake tell you?" Weiss pitched in, just as annoyed at Yang's teasing as Ruby was. Judging by the shit-eating grin that grew on her, it wasn't going to get any better.
"Blake here told me she saw you two in a certain position on the ground in the middle of the fight!" Yang laughed.
Ruby and Weiss immediately turned red, embarrassed at the accusation. Yang's sniggers only got louder at the sight of the flustered pair, while Blake smiled over at them from the other side of her partner.
"You don't have to keep your relationship a secret around us. No team secrets, remember?" Blake prodded, earning another loud snort from Yang as they broke the forest edge. Weiss merely rolled her eyes, shaking her head with an annoyed sigh as she moved further ahead. Ruby took notice, before looking to Yang with an annoyed stare.
"Oh my Gods, now you've upset Weiss too," Ruby grumbled, jogging to catch up with her snow-haired partner. Ruby could practically sense the humiliation rolling off the Schnee in waves, the girl was grumbling under her breath as Ruby caught up.
"Hey, don't take it personally. It's Yang, she has no filter..." Ruby sighed, her blush starting to fade away, "How was the fight? You're not hurt, are you?"
"I'm fine," Weiss replied coldly, averting her eyes from Ruby as they got closer to the ruins where the extraction point was. The rose themed girl took that as her cue to shut up, knowing from experience that if she pushed Weiss any further, she would get a firm yelling out of it. She could tell Weiss was in a sour mood after what Yang had just said, Ruby was too, but Ruby had built up a certain tolerance to it while Weiss hadn't.
"Sorry," Ruby hummed sadly, spotting the silhouettes of JNPR in the distance, already waiting for them. She changed her walk into a pace, hurrying up to them with a smile and wave, "Hey you guys! How'd your hunt go?!"
Weiss stared after Ruby with a sigh. Her muscles screamed at her to stop and sit down, or to simply drop where she stood, but she knew if she did, she wouldn't be able to stand back up again on her own. Her knees wobbled as she walked, even now, leaving her in a cranky mood. Yang hadn't made that much better. She didn't mean to snap at Ruby, but it just came out like that.
"Ruby! There you are!" Jaune stood as Ruby came to a stop near them, relief written on his features, "We were starting to get worried you'd miss the pickup!"
"Psh, us missing a pickup? Nah," Ruby waved her hand in the air dismissively, "Plus, if we did, Weiss would kill me."
"Good point," Jaune said with a laugh. Ruby smiled. She liked Jaune. He was a good leader; caring, compassionate, although a bit lacking in the combat skills field. Last she heard, Pyrrha had been helping him in that regard, passing on skills from her own 1v1 training sessions. She was glad for them.
"How did your mission go?" Pyrrha asked from nearby as the remaining trio from RWBY caught up.
"Fantastic!" Yang spoke up, placing her hands onto both her hips with a sick crunching noise as the slime began to harden in the sunlight, "We killed the Alpha King Taijitu- not a problem for team RWBY!"
A loud gasp revealed where Nora had been, prompting the ginger girl to jump out from behind Jaune at the sound of King Taijitu, a challenging look in her eyes.
"Well we cleared out an entire Ursa den!" she bragged, "The thing was huuuge! Like, gigantic!"
Yang decided to take her up on that challenge, electricity already flying between the two, "Oh yeah? Well this thing ate me- and then I blew it up from the inside!"
"False," Blake commented somewhere behind her partner, having pulled out a book to read on her scroll whilst they waited for the airship.
"OH YEAH?! Well this Ursa had my head in its mouth, so I ripped its jaw in half!" Nora retorted, taking a step closer to Yang.
"That's incorrect. Pyrrha saved you." Ren spoke up from where Nora had emerged from, well accustomed to Nora's nature to exaggerate.
"OH YEAH- Well I rode the black half into the woods! Didn't let go once!" Yang took a step closer to Nora, their foreheads practically pressing against each other.
"OH YEAH?!"
"YEAH."
Weiss groaned, rubbing the bridge of her nose as a headache began to form, "We get it! You're both buffoons."
A small round of laughter came from the teams at Nora and Yang's raging battle of brags, as they tried and failed to make themselves appear better than what they were. Their claims were riddled with lies and made up events, all to make the other sound tougher.
Pyrrha giggled lightly, looking down to Ruby with a smile, "So it went well?"
Ruby nodded, stretching her arms above her head with a yawn, "Yeah, but I'm totally gonna sleep for a month when I get back. I'm pooped."
Pyrrha cocked a gentle eyebrow, "I meant your offer to bring Weiss on a da-"
"Uh!" Ruby quickly shushed the warrior by placing a hand against her mouth, glancing over her shoulder in horror to make sure Weiss hadn't heard Pyrrha's words. The heiress was picking leaves out of her hair nearby, oblivious to the conversation. Ruby sighed in relief, looking back over to Pyrrha as she dropped her hands.
"I didn't get to ask her," Ruby mumbled, looking away from her friends as her cheeks flushed red.
Pyrrha frowned slightly, chancing a glance at Weiss before her eyes drifted back to Ruby, a glow of support lighting her emerald eyes, "I'm sure you'll find the courage to do it soon. Are you still afraid of losing her?"
Ruby nodded, peering up at the treetops, "Yeah... and Yang's not helping much either. I wish I hadn't told her."
Pyrrha chuckled warmly, looking over to the named girl with a smirk, "I'm sure your sister means well, Ruby. She's just being an older sister."
The red caped girl huffed, groaning slightly in protest to Pyrrha's words, "I think she just wants to see me suffer…"
Pyrrha hummed,"I wouldn't say that. Just keep at it. I'm sure you'll get your opportunity soon." She turned her head upward, glancing up to the sky as the rumble of an engine slowly grew in loudness, the black form of the airship soon looming over the treetops, "There's our ride."
"Finally," Weiss grumbled, pushing herself up from a broken pillar she had been leaning against, "I'm freezing."
The airship sank below treetop height, kicking up loose grass and sticks from their surroundings as it got closer. Once it finally touched down, the wind lessened and dissipated entirely when the engines died off. The bay door opened with a hiss, emergency first aid members standing at the entrance as a precautionary matter.
"Everyone alright?" The woman asked, a red and white visor covering most of her face, as well as a black mesh over her mouth for hygiene. Ruby waited as the others got on, watching Weiss carefully. She seemed exhausted, dangerously so.
"We're all spic and span, thank you Nurse!" piped up Yang, as she opened her locker and began to throw all her gear into it, "Nothin' but snake mucus and good spirits here!"
Ruby hummed in response, jumping up onto the ship herself. She looked at the nurse and gave a subtle nod towards her partner, which the well tuned woman caught easily. She nodded back, closing the door behind her as Ruby headed to her own locker.
"I'm just going to make sure none of you have heat-stroke. I'm jealous of huntresses like you, being able to work in such heat is hard!" She said, grabbing her gear and beginning to look at Ren, who'd already put all his gear in his own locker.
Ruby let out a breath of relief, resting her baby against the locker wall before placing her leftover ammo beside it. She heard the ship come to life around her, a sign she needed to hurry up and get strapped in. She locked her weapon away, before turning and finding Weiss sitting alone.
Ruby frowned, moving to sit beside her partner. Weiss tiredly looked up as Ruby sat beside her, words edging on her tongue, before just deciding to swallow her pride and say nothing. She sighed, leaning back into the wall and closing her eyes again. These damned seats were so uncomfortable sometimes.
"You can lean on me if you want."
Weiss opened her eyes at the sound of Ruby's offer, leaning forward with a dull ache in her body. She was desperate for any type of sleep, enough to not care how she got it, "Are you sure?"
Ruby's eyes widened at the heiress' response, causing an unimpressed frown to grow on her face.
"I-I mean- Of course you can? You're tired, aren't you? I-uh- don't mind?" Ruby stammered, before a wave of seriousness came over her, "Um- You do look exhausted though, Weiss. You should sleep if you can."
Weiss watched Ruby for a moment, weighing her options. She could risk being teased by Yang again, or sleep and wake up with a cramp in her neck…
She'd get over the teasing sooner than the cramp.
"Then I'll take you up on your offer," Weiss grumbled, shifting herself so that she could comfortably lean against Ruby's shoulder. She slowly lowered her head, a blush forming on her face as she was greeted by Ruby's increasing heartbeat. She sighed, relaxing her tense muscles.
This was much better.