Weiss rubbed her eyes and shook her head, but the image remained the same. A picture of a girl in a red cloak, brandishing 4 knives as if they were claws, with a single glowing silver eye peeking out from under the hood. That was what Weiss was holding. Knives? When had Ruby ever had knives? Weiss read the description. 'Wanted for murder. Alive'.
… Murder? Since when was Ruby a murderer? She was like the most innocent little– oh. Ohhh, noooo. Oh no, they had. They HAD killed someone! That guy! When Ruby was still sick with her dragon sickness or whatever! What? How?! How did anyone find out about that?! Oh this was BAD, if anyone had seen this they'd take Ruby and try to collect the reward and–
"Hey." A hand touched Weiss's shoulder, making her jump. She turned to see a confused Blake behind her. "You doing ok?" Before Weiss could hide the paper, Blakes keen eye spotted it. "Hey, wait. What do you have ther–" Blake reached over and tried to wrestle the paper out of Weiss's grasp.
Weiss was resilient "Nothing! No-nothing at all! None of YOUR CONCERN!"
After a minute or two of squabbling while walking, Blake obtained the paper from Weiss. "Oh. Oh, no." She read it over, then looked back to Weiss. "So, any idea why something like this might have come up?"
"No, I– … Ok, well, there WAS that one person she sliced in half with her claws... When she still had them." Weiss mumbled.
"Aha, claws. That explains the knives." Blake nodded. She was right. To anyone who did not know Ruby's dragon situation, those claws definitely would have looked like knives.
"Maybe lets get her out of the cloak for a little while." Weiss said, picking up her speed and rejoining Ruby and Yang. "Ruby! How are you? Feeling good?" Weiss asked.
Ruby gave her an odd look. "Yes? I'm alright. Do I not look alright?" She tilted her head ever so slightly.
Weiss felt her chest tighten. "You're great! Looking fine! Say, can I see your cloak for a bit? Maybe the rest of the night? Until we leave?"
Ruby made a small laugh. "Heheh, I would let you, but I think you'd be mad if I did." Weiss stared at her, unsure of what she meant. Ruby spoke again. "You said humans need to have covering clothes. The back of the dress I'm wearing is completely torn open, and one of the sleeves is nearly burnt off. But as long as I have the hood on, no one notices!" She smiled.
… Ahhhhh, that's right, her wings had burst through the dress. That little brown dress was ruined. Not that Weiss minded, she'd never been to attached to it, but now they'd have to go shopping for new clothes for Ruby? With wanted posters for her up everywhere? They'd have to do it soon, before too many people saw the posters. Weiss heard Blake call out to Yang, and Yang's pace slowed, leaving Weiss and Ruby a few feet ahead of them alone together.
Ruby stretched her arms as she walked, letting Weiss see the charred fabric. Oof. Ruby glanced over at Weiss, with a smile that almost made her forget every bad thing in the world. "It'd be nice if we could go a week without bleeding, huh?" Ruby said jokingly.
Weiss scoffed playfully. "That would require a certain someone to think more clearly before jumping out of 100 ft trees."
"Hey, I tripped! It was hard to find a branch to stay stable on after changing back!" Ruby stuck her tongue out at Weiss.
Weiss shook her head and smiled. She looked up at the sky. It was dark now, stars out and abound. Weiss thought to herself. Ruby had killed someone. It was for self defense, yet, that fact remained the same.
Why? Why was Weiss so ok with that? Shouldn't she have been at least a little disgusted or worried, or feel bad at all? But she didn't. Weiss could understand why Ruby wasn't bothered, dragons were so much more powerful than humans. It would be like killing a pesky mole. But Weiss, Weiss should have felt something. Something. But there was nothing. Being with Ruby made her happy, so did being around Yang and Blake. Maybe she just wasn't LETTING herself dwell to hard on the murder thing, because she subconsciously didn't want to let go of the safety and security she felt with her friends? She been surprised, maybe a little scared for a bit, but not once had she felt disgusted buy the action at all.
Funny. Weiss was more stressed about not being worried about murder then she was stressed about the actual murder itself. Murder? No she shouldn't call it that, it was in self defense. It was, wasn't it? Weiss thought back again, she'd been in the room, grabbed, and... Hmm... Ruby had kind of jumped in and sliced without warning, hadn't she? Gahh, whatever. Weiss slapped her cheeks to rid herself of her train of thought. Ok! Ok, done with that! Don't think about that now! Just take a look at Ruby and–
Ruby was staring at Weiss, eyes unblinking and wide as the moon. "You make interesting faces when you think too hard." Ruby observed.
"... You can't read my mind, can you?" Weiss asked, squinting a little.
Ruby giggled. "No, dragon telepathy only works one way. You have to answer out loud for me to hear it. Unless you're a dragon too. Me and yang can have secret conversations!"
Weiss nodded and they continued in silence.
When the four girls finally arrived back at the inn, each went off to their rooms, all flopped onto their beds. Ruby, yawning, stretched out her hand and knees like a cat. Weiss hid a small snicker. Either Weiss wasn't very good at hiding her laughter or Ruby had some good ears, because Ruby pounced on Weiss a second later.
"AHK! Hey!" Weiss yelped, nearly having the wind knocked out of her. Ruby smiled devilishly.
"You laughed first!" She gave her reasoning for the attack.
Weiss raised an eyebrow. "First?"
Ruby patted Weiss's hair from her position on her stomach. "Hehehe, your hair goes all messy when you lie down~" Ruby ruffled Weiss's head some more.
Weiss took a deep breath, and asked Ruby a hard question. "Ruby? How did you feel when you... Sliced, that guy?" Weiss avoided using the word 'killed'.
Ruby blinked, and let her body relax on top of Weiss's stomach, giving Weiss a comfortable weight. She took a while to answer. "I wasn't really feeling anything. I'd hit a dead end, so I went back and retraced my steps like you said. I ran a bit because I wanted to see you faster, but when I did, something just snapped." Ruby ruffled her own hair now, scratching her head in a thinking like way. "I don't think I wanted to slice him. I just wanted him away from you. And that seemed like the fastest way to do it. I'm... I'm getting better! At thinking! It's just, sometimes at important moments, I forget how to think and just act. Like a wild animal..." Ruby shifted her position again and nuzzled her head against Weiss's hair. "Does that make sense?"
Weiss nodded. "Even humans have moments like that. I'm sure every species does." Weiss rested one of her arms on Ruby's back, hugging her close. Ruby snuggled into Weiss's side like a puppy. The two lay there on the bed, lost in their own thoughts, and drifted to sleep.
"Oh my god that's so CUTE!" A whisper sounded. Weiss furrowed her brow. Noooo... Sleep...
"Shhh, you'll wake them!" Another voice said.
The presence of a second voice started waking Weiss up more, and she barely opened her eyes. Weiss was on the bed, on her back. And Ruby was lying half on top of her, snuggled and cuddled against her like the cutest baby animal you've ever seen. Weiss felt her cheeks redden.
"So cute…" Weiss hear a small snicker. Glancing up, she saw Yang and Blake both admiring Ruby's cute position. Weiss face only grew redder. But, she didn't want to wake the oh so content looking Ruby. So she settled for shooting Yang a death glare.
Yang clasped her hands together and pressed them against her cheek, tilting her head and making a kissy face. Blake gave her a gentle knock to the head after she noticed Yang's pose.
Ruby didn't seem like she was going to wake up any time soon, so Blake dragged Yang out of the room and discretely gave Weiss a thumbs up. Weiss would have thrown something at her if there had been anything within reach. Ruby was still asleep, but Weiss was now awake. Weiss moved an arm slowly, and eventually let her hand rest upon Ruby's head. She stroked it gently. This calming warm sensation reminded Weiss of simpler times, times like when she'd practiced singing with Winter in a warm room lit by firelight. Without even realizing it, Weiss let out her voice in a gentle song. Hours of training had forced her to memorize her songs perfectly down to the smallest note, so Weiss wasn't even aware that she was making any sound at all.
"You have a beautiful voice." Someone said. Weiss glanced down at Ruby, preparing to shush her and deny the statement, but... That voice just now was male? Uhhhhhhh.
Weiss turned her head and saw Ren standing at her bedside. She just barely held in a scream. And as soon as she recovered from the startle, she wasted no time in hissing at him in a whisper. "What are you doing here?!"
Ren blinked. "I did knock."
"You did NOT." Weiss said through gritted teeth.
"I came to see if you'd gotten back from last night. Nora was worried." Ren said in monotone.
Weiss felt a pang of guilt. If things had gone correctly yesterday, her and the others would have left today without a word to Nora. "I'm fine. And, I'm actually leaving town soon. In a day or two. Let Nora know." Weiss mumbled.
Ren nodded, and faded back into the shadows. Huh? Weiss craned her neck to try and see where he had gone, but all she saw was the door to her room slightly ajar. GOD Ninjas are creepy...
Weiss's frantic looking around jolted Ruby a tad, and force her to wake up. Ruby stretched her limbs, burying her face in Weiss's chest. She raised her head a little and rested her sleepy gaze upon Weiss. "... Murninf"
Weiss could feel herself blushing, but pretended she couldn't. "Hey sleepyhead." She fluffed Ruby's hair with her hand.
"Mmmmmm awake!" Ruby flung herself off Weiss, insisting she was indeed wide awake. She wobbled for a moment, but regained her balance almost instantly. Ruby stared blankly at the bed, then shook her head, messing up her hair and making her morning hair even worst. She sat on Weiss's legs and rubbed her eyes. "Ok. Ok! I'm awake! I really am this time!"
Weiss put a hand to her cheek and playfully pretended to be suspicious. "No! Are you? You are this isn't a dream?"
"Yeah! Yeah I'm, I'm... Sure..." Ruby's confidence in her statement dropped further with everyone word she said. She glanced around, checking and trying to make sure everything was as it should have been. "We're both awake! Don't do that!" Ruby stuck her tongue out at Weiss in a playful manner.
Weiss flicked Ruby's forehead to get her off her, and swung her legs over the side of the bed to sit up.
Ruby pouted from the flick and dramatically rubbed her forehead, staring at Weiss with puppy dog eyes. Weiss avoided her gaze. Too gay to thinkkkkkk aaauuhhgggggg... Weiss shook her head to clear her mind and stood up, stretching her arms. "So. Are we trying that blanket thing again?"
They indeed were. Apparently Blake and Yang had scouted multiple areas to use, but both chose the clearing as it was the biggest. Today they would be going to a smaller clearing, a bit further from the city. Weiss was extra careful to be on the lookout for any pesky ninjas.
"You look like you've seen a ghost." Yang said to Weiss as the four girls walked through the forest.
"No, just... Searching." Weiss kept up her watch.
Yang poked Weiss on the side of the head. "Cut it out, you look suspicious as hell. Me and Ruby can tell when people are nearby, no one's gonna sneak up on us!" She proudly insisted.
"Did you sense anything this morning? Any boys in me and Ruby's room?" Weiss asked.
Yang raised an eyebrow. "If a boy snuck into your room, he wouldn't have left alive, if I had anything to say about it. No one peeps on my little sis!" She pumped a fist in the air.
… Ah. So Rens little colorless ninja trick could keep him out of dragon senses, huh? That was... inconvenient. At least he seemed to be on their side, for the most part. The 'I'll at least ask first before I stab a dragon' side, Weiss was calling it in her head. He was weird like that.
"We're here." Blake's voice sounded, breaking Weiss's train of thought. Blake pulled aside a mess of leaves and foliage, revealing a small clearing. Unlike the one before, this one didn't let any large patches of sun peak through. The sky wasn't visible through the massive trees extending branches.
"And this time we remembered to bring the blankets!" Ruby announced proudly. She began setting on on the ground, flattening it out nicely. "Ok, weiss! Get on!"
Weiss grimaced. The thought if being carried around in a blanket like a sack of potatoes was unappealing to say the least. She glanced at blake, and blake shook her head in a 'Lets just get it over with' sort of way. Weiss sighed, and sat in the middle of her blanket. Blake did the same on another.
Two dragons now stood before the girls, having appeared in an instant. The shock from yesterday was gone, but it still hurt Weiss's heart to see the chopped off stub that was Yang's front arm. Ruby and Yang both carefully picked up the tips of the blankets, and though Weiss's vision was now limited to the inside said blanket, she could tell they were airborne.
Even the fabric didn't stop the chilling wind from caressing Weiss's form. It was exhilarating. Though, short lived. No more than 2 minutes after they'd left the ground, Weiss head a strangled dragon screech and a human scream. What? Her and Ruby were fine, so did something happen to Yang and Blake? Yang wouldn't have... She wouldn't have DROPPED Blake, right..?