Summary: Ruby and Weiss reminisce about the past together.

*Bittersweet

"Do you remember the first day we met?"

The question popped up frequently, more than Weiss could count on the digits of her hands and feet. It was still one of her favorite questions to be asked by Ruby because the nostalgia stirred a warm and pleasant feeling inside her heart. It was the type of feeling that was special and irreplaceable. Like with every answer, she smiled at Ruby without reservation.

"Yes, I do."

Weiss reached out and placed her hands on top of Ruby's. Her bare skin felt cold at the touch, but that was all the more reason for Weiss to hold onto her hands. She brushed the wedding ring with a thumb to remind Ruby that home wasn't just a place. It was a feeling; home was wherever with her.

"You bumped into me in the courtyard at Beacon Academy."

Ruby said it so confidently that Weiss didn't have the heart to correct her. She let this trivial mistake go because Ruby looked younger than her age when she spoke so happily about their past.

"I did," Weiss chuckled. The smile on her face didn't change the slightest bit. Her blue eyes continued to gaze at Ruby softly like they always do. Doing the simplest of things like talking always brought a smile to her face. Simply being together with the love of her life made her happy.

"Everything from your suitcase spilled out," Ruby remembered perfectly.

"It was such an awful mess," Weiss said with a head shake. She vividly recalled the events that happened afterward. There was a heated spat between the two. A massive explosion occurred right after. Initiation followed the next day. A long list of field training and homework was piled on top of them during the school year. Beacon tragically fell, which led to the beginning of an unforeseen war. The battle dragged on for ages until the long-awaited calm.

"Vials of dust rolled out…" Ruby tried to hold back her giggle, but she couldn't. "…then you sneezed!"

While Weiss remembered it the other way around, she pictured herself sneezing and let a small laugh slip through. "A tragedy, honestly. Was I always this clumsy?"

Ruby shook her head, her cheeks and lips lifted by a youthful grin. "No, you are very coordinated. Me, not so much."

"That's why we make a perfect team, don't you agree? We balance each other out, like…" Weiss tried to think of a different analogy this time, but Ruby beat her to it.

"Like cookies and milk!"

Weiss laughed again, her smile glowing like how they would light the darkness in each other's life. "Like cookies and milk."

"Do you remember the dance?" Ruby asked next.

It wasn't a memory Weiss held dearly to her heart, but thinking about it felt nostalgic. They weren't dating at the time, but she wished she had gone to the dance with Ruby, even if it was just as friends. Although she liked to ruminate over the past, there was no point in regretting something so small since she found a future with Ruby in it.

"Of course. Do you?"

"Of course!" Ruby cheerfully said too. "We all looked so pretty in our dresses."

"We did." Weiss smiled at the memories. "Especially you. You looked lovely in your red dress."

"That's because you're biased," Ruby laughed. There used to be a time when she would blush at every single one of Weiss' cheesy compliments. Now that she was older and accustomed to Weiss showering her with flatteries, her blush was less apparent and her smile was more prominent. Making Ruby smile was something Weiss looked forward to every day. "You think I look good in everything."

"I'm only stating facts." Weiss squeezed their hands to stand by her statement. "What was your favorite thing that happened at the dance? You can't say everything. You have to pick one only."

"Only one?" Ruby complained.

Weiss nodded because she knew Ruby could go on forever. If eternity existed, she could listen to Ruby talk endlessly. "Only one."

Ruby pondered at the question, playfully smiled after she thought of something, and answered. "When we were on the dance floor, you broke out these cool moves. You started doing the sprinkler and then the chicken dance."

Ruby let go of their hands, so she could show a weak imitation of what she described had happened. Watching her wife move childishly and enthusiastically brought a large smile to Weiss' face. While her heart bubbled with warmth, she wondered if she should step in and correct Ruby this time. After watching a minute of Ruby's antics, she decided to let Ruby have her fun until she was done.

"I'm kidding," Ruby finished with a labored laugh. She was out of breath from exerting herself, but by the end of it she was grinning ear to ear. "Team JNPR stole the entire night. It was fun watching them."

She put her palms face up, and Weiss saw it as an invitation to intertwine their fingers back together. They caught each other's eyes and shared a smile. There was no such thing as eternity waiting ahead of them, but their love for each other was endless.

"I heard Ren was harsh with his dance lessons."

"I heard Ren traumatized them with dance lessons."

They both erupted into laughter because they had heard similar complaints from the same sources. Nora was on the verge of tears, Jaune was wrecked and burnt out, and Pyrrha… Oh, Pyrrha…

"Beacon was full of good times," Ruby tapered off with a sigh. Her eyes cast down to the blanket on her lap, and she stared at their folded hands with a solemn smile. "Sometimes I wonder how different life would be if things didn't go wrong."

"We'd still be dating," Weiss assured her, "but during a more peaceful time."

Ruby lifted her eyes up, then a smile next. "Wiping out a nest full of Grimm is pretty romantic."

"It was only romantic because we made it romantic."

With a shortage of hunters and huntresses, times were rough. Weiss remembered spending one of their anniversaries clearing abandoned villages and hunting for stragglers. It wasn't the most ideal date in her book. Eating a hot dinner at a nice restaurant sounded more appealing than forcing rations down their throats, but she didn't make a big fuss about it on that day. She enjoyed spending every minute with Ruby.

"Remember our candle-lit dinner?" Ruby waggled her thin eyebrows.

"Unflavored rations as a starter, entree, and dessert?" Weiss quirked her lips because they were thinking of the same thing. "Most romantic night I've ever had with you."

"I bet you were dying to marry me again after I brought out the candles."

"After receiving such a grand gesture? Absolutely."

Ruby giggled at the quip, and they settled into a comfortable silence. With a softened expression, she squeezed Weiss' hands. "Can you show me your semblance?"

"Again?" Weiss raised an eyebrow. "You've seen it plenty of times before."

"I never get tired of it." Ruby smiled. She didn't need to pull out the puppy dog eyes because Weiss could never refuse her anyway.

"Oh, if you insist."

Weiss let go of their hands and held a palm face up in front of Ruby. A small glyph, one that was equal in size to her hand, appeared and a flock of masterfully crafted birds fluttered out. Although Ruby had seen them before, she marveled at the gentle creations as if this spectacle was her first time. She never got bored from looking at them because summons were a meaningful part of Weiss' life. It was impossible to be tired of something this beautiful.

With a snap of a finger, the small birds dispersed until they left nothing behind. Weiss flicked her wrist to put on another performance. It wasn't anything impressive, but Ruby continued to marvel at her summons as if it was, the 'oohs and aahs' bringing joy to Weiss' smile.

"Would you like to see something even cooler?" Weiss asked, the hesitation in her voice was discerning. Her heart gripped painfully, though it didn't reflect on her smile. She thought she made up her mind, but she wasn't ready to let go yet.

"What is it?"

Weiss made another gesture with a hand and presented a glyph with a unique characteristic. It spun slowly, its clockwork winding backward.

"Is that…?" Ruby gleamed with anticipation.

"Time dilation," Weiss nodded. "I used to play with this a lot on my own time."

Out of curiosity, Ruby touched the glyph to see if it would do anything out of the ordinary. Nothing happened. Her fingers didn't phase through, it was as solid as a platform. Other than how it appears, she didn't spot any difference between this and the ones Weiss used in the past.

"It's been a while since I've seen it. What are you planning to do with it — wait, are you going to time dilate your summons?" Ruby started jittering with excitement, her silver eyes growing bigger and sparkling. "That'd be so cool!"

Weiss smiled and shook her head. She could easily see what Ruby was imagining inside her mind — birds flying across the ceiling at the speed of light. "Close your eyes."

"Ooh, it's a surprise." Ruby fluttered her eyes shut. "I like surprises."

Weiss closed her eyes also. She knew how disoriented she'd be if she kept them open. Like how she practiced many times before, she channeled her aura into her glyph and let the clock tick. Her energy started to sap, then she felt a sizzle of pain on her skin and through her bones.

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

When she opened her eyes, she found herself standing at the front of a door. She drew in a steady breath and knocked once she was ready.

Entering inside the room, warm silver eyes framed with fine lines at the corner greeted Weiss first, then a joyful smile followed immediately after. The frail skin hanging onto her gaunt cheeks wrinkled even more, but her smile never lost its touch. It was just as youthful as their teenage years, perhaps even more beautiful than Weiss remembered.

Weiss returned a warm smile and made her way to the bedside, slowly and steadily using her cane. She held their vows they had exchanged at the altar dearly to her heart. Together, until death did them apart. She cherished their promises. She also cherished everything about her wife and the time spent together.

She took the vacant chair near the bedside before her legs gave away. She had lost most of her strength, a victim of age but also from overexertion. She rested her cane against the wall near the vital machine. The beeps drawing from the monitor were cruelly counting down the time they had left together.

"Do you remember the first day we met?"

Like with every answer, she smiled at Ruby without reservation.

"Yes, I do."

Some things read differently now that you know.