"Girlfriend~ Girlfriend~" Ruby sung as she skipped along beside Weiss. This was killing her. Weiss, this was killing Weiss. Each time Ruby sang that word it felt like a knife being plunged into her chest. But somehow, in a good way? Why would it feel good to be stabbed. Weiss couldn't understand her own feelings.

"Hey Ruby?" Weiss called, stopping Ruby's song. Ruby looked at her expectantly. Weiss still had some questions about dragons she wanted answers to... And she'd do just about anything to stop Ruby's girlfriend song right about now. "Do you like being in dragon form or human form more?"

Ruby stopped, thinking for a moment. "Well, being human is like, wearing tight clothes. It's a little weird at first, but easy to get used to." She shrugged.

"Does it hurt?" Weiss asked hesitantly.

"Oh, no! It doesn't hurt at all!" Ruby waved her hands at Weiss. "In fact, I wouldn't mind staying like this all the time! Maybe just, I don't know, if I got something red to wear..." Ruby looked down at her brown dress. "I really liked looking at the color red."

Weiss turned back to the path ahead. "I'll buy you something red. When we get to the next city." She paused for a moment. "And this time, I'll take you in with me. You're not leaving my sight for a SECOND." She shot Ruby a quick glare.

Ruby rubbed the back of her head and smiled sweetly. "I'll be good!"

It took them 3 days to reach the next city. As it finally came into view, Weiss fell to her knees in relief. "FINALLY!" She clenched her fists and tried not to scream. Ah, she needed a nice big tub of water to stick her head in and just, scream out all her stress.

3 straight days of walking was hell on Weiss muscles. As good at the sword as she was, Weiss still wasn't used to roughing it this much. She was living in a cushy castle not two weeks ago. "Do you want me to carry you?" Ruby asked her.

"What? No, you're tired too, and I'd be to hea–AHH!" Weiss's speech was interrupted as Ruby hoisted her up, into piggy back riding position.

"Weiss, I'm a dragon. You're light as a feather!" Ruby trotted off towards the city, as Weiss began to feel sleepy.

"Uhhg... Fine. Just, wake me up before we get to the gate." Weiss mumbled as she drifted off.

"Weiss... Weisssss... WEISS!" Weiss was jolted awake by the sound of Ruby's voice.

"Huh? Where ar– ahh!" Ruby and Weiss were standing directly in front of the city gate. "Fffffffffffff Ruby!" Weiss hissed. "I said wake me before we get to the gate!"

"This is before the gate!" Ruby said, like nothing was wrong. Weiss hopped off Ruby's back, and started digging through her pack to find the fake ID she'd had prepared for her journey. She handed it to the guards.

"Name, White Sneeze. Race, human. Hails from, atlas. Age 18. occupation... Swordswoman?" The guard glanced at Weiss's rapier sword. He shook his head, not carrying enough to even ask. "Accepted. And your companion?"

"Yes, Ruby can I see your ID–" Weiss froze. Ruby wouldn't have an ID. She was a dragon for god's sake. Weiss turned back to the guard. "Sheeee, ummm, doesn't have one? Can we, get her one?"

"What's an ID?" Ruby chirped from behind Weiss. The guard groaned in annoyance. He told one of the other guards to get it done for them. Weiss and Ruby followed the new guard into a registration room.

"Ok, name?" He asked,

"Ruby!"

"Full name?"

"...Ruby?"

"Ruby Ruby?"

"Ruby!"

Weiss stepped in and chose a fake last name on the spot for Ruby. "Ruby Rose."

"Nice!" Ruby gave a thumbs up.

"Sorry miss Snow, I need to hear her say it." The guard ordered.

"Ruby Rose!" Ruby chirped.

"Right. Race? And birthplace?" The guard questioned as he tapped his quill on the side of the paper.

"Human." Ruby said. Weiss had briefed her before on how important it was that she pretend to be human. Ruby thought this was one such time to keep that facade up. "And I was born in the mountains."

"Which kingdom? Or are you an outsider?"

"Let's go with outsider." Ruby nodded, thinking carefully. There was no way dragon territory could possibly fall within the boundaries of any kingdom.

"Now age? And occupation." The guard yawned. He seemed tired… Or bored, it was hard to tell.

"16! And uhhh... Undecided?"

"Wait you're 16?" Weiss balked. "I thought we were the same age!"

"Well, you never did ask." Ruby raised an eyebrow and shrugged playfully.

"Hah, lucky you." The guard chuckled sleepily. "Old enough to work, but not old enough to be married off yet."

"Hm? Whats 'married'?" Ruby tilted her head.

"We'll talk about that later." Weiss brushed the question aside for the moment.

The guard read off Ruby's ID. " Name, Ruby Rose. Race, human. Hails from, the outlands. Age, 16. Occupation, undecided." The guard nodded, and handed it to Ruby. "And with that, you can enter and leave any city in the world. Now leave. Please." This guard really looked like he wanted a nap.

Ruby and Weiss were now in the bustling city, and Ruby kept taking out and looking at her ID. "Put that away!" Weiss scolded.

"K' Weiss– White" Ruby corrected herself.

Weiss shuddered. "Please don't. It's Weiss."

"Oh, sorry. Did they write it wrong? Are you not allowed to fix it?" Ruby shoved her own ID into her dress pocket.

"Well, not exactly. It's technically a fake ID, so people don't find out who I really am." Weiss cringed inwardly. "If they did, we'd have to leave."

Ruby bounced as she walked, getting right next to Weiss. She gave a catlike smile, and spoke almost in a whisper. "Me too~!"

Me too? What did she– oh right, the dragon part. If people found out Ruby was secretly a dragon... Yeah they'd definitely have to leave. Leave and never come back.

"We need to go to the guild and find a job to do. Something like wolf slaying. A city this close to the forest is bound to have wolves just crawling everywhere." Oh. That brought something back to Weiss's mind. "What was that fruit you gave me? When we first met?"

"Oh those? I'm not sure. I call them peachys! But they're nothing like peaches. If you eat one, all your hurt goes away! Like, I got cut really badly once in the mouth from a sword I bit, but I found the peachy tree and ate one, And then the cut was gone!" Ruby nodded to herself, but then looked guilty. "They don't seem to heal wounds caused directly by dragons though... So your eye will stay like that."

What? So that fruit was some kind of miracle heal item? No wonder that vendor wanted it! And considering what Ruby said it did, Weiss could have gotten so much more for it anywhere else! Well, what's done is done. She'd already sold it, and it wasn't like she was going to go all the way back there and demand more money for it. But, that other thing Ruby had said. That was interesting. Weiss touched her scar. So this was a scar that nothing could ever heal, huh? Honestly, she didn't mind it to much. She liked having a small bit of imperfection, similar to why she liked wearing a side ponytail. And it made her happy to think that if her father ever did steal her back somehow, he'd never be able to erase it. "Don't worry Ruby. I think it's kind of cool."

Ruby cheered right back up. "I could give you another!"

Weiss held in a laugh. "Pfft– No no, that's fine Ruby." She smiled affectionately "You dolt~"

Weiss and Ruby reached the guild. Everyone there looked battle hardened and mentally worn, even the girl at the front desk. Despite that, they all seemed to have a certain air of warm unity. That is, until they saw Weiss and Ruby. Weiss still had her hood up, not wanting extra attention due to her very noticeable hair. Eyes followed them as they walked across the front room.

A completely cloaked figure, and an oblivious looking girl being towed around by said unidentifiable figure, would raise a red flag in anyone's head. "Hey Weeeeisss...!" Ruby whispered. Weiss glanced at her. "Why's everyone looking at us like that?"

"People look at things that move. And we're moving." They stopped at the front desk.

"Weiss, we stopped but they're still looking." Ruby observed. Weiss ignored her. "Hey Weiss! He has a sword!" Ruby pointed at someone, still whispering. "I want a sword! Can I have a sword? Do you think I could use a sword? Oh! Can I get a sideways sword?" Weiss tuned out Ruby's whispers as the front desk lady noticed them standing there.

"May I see your identification sir?" She asked warily. Weiss handed over her ID. "Swords… woman? Oh, I'm sorry ma'am." The lady bowed slightly. "Would you like to take a ranking test? Or take a quest, and if you complete it correctly, you receive the rank of the quest you took. There is a 70% chance of death with the second option though."

"The second, please." Weiss answered. She didn't need the entire city to know how good or bad she was at swordsmanship.

"I need to run your ID through the system, you can take a seat at one of the tables." The lady said.

Weiss dragged the whispering Ruby to a table and had her sit next to her. The patrons of the guild gradually inched closer to them, like wolves circling their prey. Weiss shivered and pulled her cloak tighter around her head. Weiss heard a yelp behind her, and quickly whipped around to see Ruby pointing a knife at someone. "What are you do– put that down!" She scolded Ruby.

Ruby pouted. "He was gonna grab you! I'm being heroic!"

Weiss took the knife from Ruby and scooted it out of her reach on the table. "Wait, where did you get this?" She asked, taking the knife back and looking at it closely. It wasn't a kitchen knife. A hunting knife?

"Oh, it's his." Ruby pointed to someone a few feet away from them. The dude checked his pack, and to his dismay, it seemed that Ruby really had stolen his knife. Weiss tossed it back to him. "I'm good at grabbing things secretly!" Ruby said triumphantly.

The guy who Ruby said was going to grab Weiss spoke up. "I apologize sir, I was merely trying to tap your shoulder." Ruby made a small growl like sound, and looked very much like an angry and small puppy that had been told to behave. IT WAS ADORABLE. "May I ask your name?"

"... Weiss." Weiss said flatly.

"Oh?" The guy seemed surprised that she was a girl. "You're a woman?" he said before covering his mouth. He recovered quickly. "Ah, I just wanted to let you know. Slavery is illegal here, so..." He glanced at Ruby.

Excuse me? Just WHAT was he implying?! "Weiss, Weiss! What's a slave?" Ruby asked enthusiastically.

The guy spoke again. "A slave, is a person that someone else thinks as their own, and can order to whatever they wish. Every human is free in this city, and there are no slaves allowed." The guy nodded to Ruby, as if expecting her to yell at Weiss.

"Are parents slave owners? Parents own their children right?" Ruby just looked more confused. The guys plan had backfired.

"Wait, no, it's different with family–" He tried to salvage his main point.

"What if a parent tells their child to do something bad? Or to do something they really don't want to do? Isn't that like a slave owner? How's it different?"

"A parent... A parent loves their child and does their best to take care of them, they know better–"

"But what if they don't love you?" Ruby tilted her head.

"At that point, you just run away and hope you survive." Weiss mumbled, her mind wandering. Her words were heavy with personal experience.

"... Is that what you did?" Ruby asked softly.

"Enough!" The guy barked. "You! You're her slave right?!" He pointed at Ruby and Weiss. It seemed he'd had good intentions, but was going about it a bit of a nasty way.

"What? She doesn't own me, I'm following her!" Ruby hugged Weiss.

The guy realized he'd made a mistake, and tried to change the subject. "Oh... I'm, so sorry for assuming! So, what is she to you then?" He asked. He asked in the same way Weiss remembered nobles and princes asking her about her love life. She cringed inwardly.

"She's my girlfriend!" Ruby said, loud and clear.

Weiss almost fell out of her seat, choked on her own spit, and started coughing furiously. Whaaaat? Rubyyyy! You can't say that! AHHHHHHHH! Weiss mentally kicked herself for not explaining that term to Ruby properly. She felt a huge blush surfacing. Tonight, when they got a room tonight, her and Ruby were gonna have a talk. A LONG talk.

Someone walked by Ruby and Weiss, and their foot caught on Weiss's cloak. They tripped, yanking Weiss back a bit and making her hood fall off. Her long white hair in a side ponytail flowed out, and the whiteness of her hair just made her pink blushing face all the more obvious. "Weiss! You're pink!" Ruby exclaimed.

Weiss covered her face with both hands, and felt like she wanted to disappear into a black hole.