"I love you."

...Weiss didn't want to open her eyes. She said it. She'd finally managed to say those three words. What did Ruby look like right now, she wondered? Was she happy? Angry that Weiss had taken so long? Disinterested? Weiss was starting to stress herself out, so she opened one eye for a peek, and–

Ruby was sleeping. No. No no, no way. She'd heard it right? What Weiss had said? There, there was no way she could have fallen asleep right before Weiss said it, and missed it, right? Right?! Weiss sat up, and felt her blood run cold. It had taken her more then a week to gather up the courage to finally say it, and she was only able to because Ruby had figuratively given her her heart! This situation would never happen again! She'd never be able to say it again if this time had been a flop!

She heard Ruby giggling. Weiss looked down at her, and saw the girl smiling back up at her. "You looked so panicked just now~"

Weiss wanted to KILL HERRR..! "You, little..! Mmmnghg!" Weiss flopped over on top of Ruby, pinning her down and staring into her eyes. Ruby was trying to seem confident, but Weiss could tell she was nervous.

"Heh. Sorry, I couldn't resist teasing you just a little." Ruby pushed her head up and touched her nose to the tip of Weiss's. Cute.. She laid back down, her eyes sparkling. "Woa… Does it always feel like this when someone tells you they love you? Its like my heart is trying to run away." Ruby breathed deeply to calm herself.

Weiss, similarly felt like her heart was about to jump out of her chest. She was above Ruby, she'd just confessed... Was she supposed to kiss her now? Kiss? Wait was that what was supposed to happen? She wasn't emotionally ready for that yet! Weiss flipped herself over quick as lighting, onto her side facing away from Ruby.

"Hm? Nooo come back..!" Ruby called dramatically. She moved herself over and put an arm around Weiss's middle, pulling her close. Ruby leaned into Weiss, smelling the back of her neck. "You smell so nice... It's a smell only you have~ Your human smell."

Weiss only just barely kept in the screech of embarrassment she wanted to let out. She could feel Ruby's breath on the back of her neck, tickling her, constantly reminding her that she was there. The arm softly clinging to her middle was another reminder. Ruby's legs kicked playfully at Weiss's, entangling themselves with them. Ruby held Weiss tightly, like she never wanted to let her go. She fell asleep for real that time, clinging softly to Weiss like a baby panda. Weiss had been so tense when Ruby first hugged her, but over the weeks, she'd learned to accept them. And at this moment, despite how flustered Weiss was, she was truly enjoying Ruby's physical affection. She wanted to hug her back. But the position she was in now was so warm and comfy, and she didn't want to wake Ruby up. She let herself slowly drift to sleep, Rubys prenense enveloping her.

Morning now. As soon as Weiss awoke, memories of the events of last night crashed down upon her. She felt such relief, and yet at the same time such fear. She wasn't sure how to act in a relationship! Were her and Ruby in a relationship now? They hadn't talked about it yet. They needed to. Weiss felt something gently patting her head. She opened her eyes, and saw that her position from last night had been altered. Instead of Ruby spooning her, now Ruby was lying down on her back with Weiss resting her head on Ruby's chest. And Ruby was petting her. Weiss lifted her head a little, to meet Ruby's eyes.

"You're awake." Ruby observed, still patting. Weiss felt like a cat, the instinct of wanting to flee only being held back by the fact that the petting was nice.

"Yeah.. Um." Weiss wanted to ask her. Ask her if she remembered Weiss's confession.

Ruby sat up, indirectly pushing Weiss to a sitting position as well. She looked to the side, and rubbed the back of her head a little. "Was that true?"

"Was what?"

"What you said. You, love me. Was that just spur of the moment, or did you mean it?" Ruby asked calmly, as if she was trying not to get her hopes up to high. But Weiss could sense the worry in her voice. Ruby covered her mouth and gasped. "Was it a dream?"

"No! No, it wasn't a dream. I did say it." Weiss reassured her. The sight of happiness flushing throughout Ruby after she told her was a sight to behold.

"Are we girlfriends now?" Ruby asked excitedly.

Weiss held in an embarrassed laugh at her sudden excitement. "Yes, if you want to be."

Ruby paused, and narrowed her eyes at Weiss. "I only want to if you want to.."

Weiss looked away and covered her mouth to hide a huge smile. "I do, I want to."

"Can you say it again? That you, um, love me?" If Ruby had a tail it would have been wagging excitedly.

It was still hard for Weiss to get the words out. Her family had never been one for expressing open affection, whereas Ruby could say she loved Weiss at the drop of a hat. Weiss wanted to be like that too. Able to openly express affection, without having to fear consequences that may or may not exist. Weiss closed her eyes, her hands in her lap, feeling far more vulnerable than she'd ever felt before. "I.. love you."

A moment after she said it, Weiss felt Ruby wrap her arms around her in a hug. "Thank you for saying it~ I asked Yang for advice a little while ago, and, she said you might have trouble saying stuff like that. I don't know what your family was like, or why you ran away from them, but I'm glad you feel safe enough with me to hug and stuff. And say you love me." Ruby backed up a little and smiled at Weiss. "And it's okay if it takes time for you! You don't have to be able to say it all the time immediately! Yang said I might want to tone it down a bit myself, heh." She made an awkward laugh.

Weiss initiated the hug that time. "Don't. It makes me so happy to hear you say it, say it as much as you like." She squeezed Ruby tightly, the feeling of hugging another person so completely almost making her dizzy. It had been years since she hugged Winter. Holding another person in her arms felt so good.

"Hey Weiss? Now that we're girlfriends... Can we kiss?" Ruby asked innocently.

Her asking that gave Weiss what felt like a psychic punch to the gut, nearly doubling her over. She recovered quickly, trying to compose herself. "Y-yes, but, there things like the timing, and the mood, and lots of stuff that needs to fall into place before we, uh.."

Ruby was thinking carefully. "Ok! I'll make sure to do that! We'll do it when its really romantic and stuff!" She glowed with determination. It was almost blinding. "Are we still going on a quest today?" Ruby asked, hopping off the bed.

Weiss blinked, remembering asking her yesterday. "Yes! We are, we can go choose one right now if you want. Maybe eat at the guild, or on the way there."

"Oh! Can I tell Yang? That we're girlfriends now! She'll be so happy!" Ruby chirped, eagerly eyeing the door.

Weiss waved a hand. "Go on, and tell her we won't be eating at the inn this morning either."

"K!" Ruby vanished in a flurry of rose petals, a trail of them leading to the now half open door to their room. Weiss let herself fall onto her back among the tangled blankets of the bed, sighing. She had a girlfriend. Ruby Rose was her girlfriend. And that sentence brought her so much joy. Weiss grabbed one of the pillows and rolled around on the bed a few times, screaming silently into it. A moment later she heard a loud thump and a yelp from the next room over. Weiss smiled as she imagined Ruby dive bombing Yang and knocking her out of bed to tell her the news.

Weiss put a hand over her heart, trying to calm herself down from her confession high. The necklace. She felt its smooth form under her hand. She pulled it out to get a better look at it. It really was the scale from that time, carved ever so slightly to become a perfectly rounded heart. The Ruby red color of it was so vibrant, as if it were alive! It shone in the morning light, a tiny rainbow reflecting off of it. A small sturdy was rope wrapped around it, keeping it tethered. This really was something super valuable, wasn't it? It's the first thing someone would try to steal if Weiss ever got mugged. She thought about taking it off and hiding it away for a second, but no. Ruby had given it to her, to wear. And Weiss wanted to keep Ruby's heart as close as possible at all times. What better way to do that then to have it as a necklace? She'd keep it close forever.

Weiss stood and stretched, walking over to the window. She opened it and leaned out against the windowsill, letting a gust of fresh air waft over her. She shivered, but felt refreshed. Out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw something. When she looked, there wasn't anything there. Just a tree, nothing around it. Except.. Something near the base bothered her. A black little lump. Was that a rock? It almost looked like a boot, the tree was big enough for someone to hide behind it.

That was silly, why would anyone be hiding behind a tree at this hour? Unless, it was some assassin or kidnapper hired to capture Weiss, like Blake had been before. Weiss was starting to stress herself out. She shook her head, trying to rid herself of such thoughts. When she looked back, the little black lump behind the base of the tree was nowhere to be found.

Yang burst into the room a wild grin on her face, scaring Weiss. "Congrats ice queen! You finally did it!" She put a hand on Weiss's shoulder to show support.

"IcE QUeEn?!" Weiss felt her voice crack when she spoke. Yang nodded.

"Yep! You're finally melting!" Yang let go of Weiss, and did finger guns at her with one eye closed. Weiss wanted to toss her out the window.

Blake came in with Ruby excitedly bouncing next to her, whispering into her ear. Blake had probably told her not to yell, so now her ear was being whispered to death. Ear? Human ear. Blake had a pair of human ears, and cat ears? She had four ears then. Huh.

"Congratulations." Blake yawned. It seemed she wasn't much of a morning person. Yang strode over to Blake and put an arm around her shoulder.

"So. You two gonna do anything special today?" Yang asked, turning back to Weiss.

"Yeah! We're going on our first quest together!" Ruby exploded in a fit of joy. She then froze. "Ah! Bathroom–" Ruby dashed away, leaving more rose petals in her wake.

Yang gave Weiss a loving look. "I haven't seen her this exited in a long time. She's zooming all over the place! It's a good thing the petals disappear, otherwise it'd be HELL to clean up." Weiss had noticed that, Ruby's rose petals seemed to vanish on their own after a few minutes. Weiss wondered if she should tell Yang and blake about the thing she just saw behind the tree. But it might have been nothing. And she didn't want to bother them if it was nothing. "Something wrong?" Yang asked quietly, seeing Weiss's expression.

"No, it's just.." Weiss glanced at the tree outside, then shook her head. "Its nothing." Weiss was about to walk past Yang and Blake, but blake put a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey. You can talk to us about stuff." Blake said.

Weiss tried to shrug off the kind gesture. "No really! I'm fine, I was just getting that watching feeling from Blake."

Yang tilted her head. "Watching feeling?"

"You know, when she follows you. When she was stalking me a little while before Ruby got 'kidnapped' I kept having a feeling of being watched. I don't, I'm not.." Weiss really didn't want to trouble them. "I'm just being paranoid. Sorry." She stepped past them and left without another word. Weiss slapped her cheeks, shaking her head. She was going to go out with Ruby today, and have FUN. It was their first day officially together. She wanted to make the most of it. Ruby met up with her downstairs, and her and Weiss set off to the guild. They passed the tree Weiss had thought she'd seen something behind earlier that morning.

Weiss tried to ignore the footprints in the mud behind the tree as they left.