Disclaimer: All characters belong to Rooster Teeth Productions
Co-Authored by ToxicExotic
Ruby was half surprised she had been allowed to remain in her current position for as long as she had, not that she was complaining at all. It could be two weeks until she saw her best friend again, so even if Weiss tried to struggle, Ruby would be getting her cuddles. Though admittedly, she was convinced that the only reason Weiss allowed the affection to continue so long was because the contact and her scarlet cape were blocking out the icy wind that still blew through Vale.
The weather had finally dipped below freezing overnight, causing a thin layer of frost to cover the city; and despite Weiss' constant insistent that she was used to such weather, the girl had definitely been shivering when Ruby first initiated the hug. Behind her, Ruby knew that both Yang and Blake were likely rolling their eyes while watching them, but she didn't care. The only thing she cared about was showing Weiss how much she would miss her.
"Ruby, this is really quite excessive," Weiss groaned, though her arms didn't move from their position on her back. "I must get going."
"Your private airship takes off whenever you want," Ruby heard Blake said from behind her with a small amount of humor in her tone.
Feeling Weiss' hand leave her back and twist, Ruby tightened her grip on the heiress. Ruby had friends before, but never had she made a friend like Weiss. There was no denying that their relationship started out rocky, what with Ruby having literally blown the girl up; but as time went on, Weiss had slowly warmed up. She certainly was still rather cold on occasion, but she often tried her best to listen and give advice. As far as Ruby was concerned, the girl was not only living up to her promise of being a good teammate, but also a great friend.
"Alright," Weiss sighed, Ruby feeling a hand tugging at the back of her jacket. "For fear of your girlfriend misconstruing this situation, maybe you should take this display of affection over to her?"
"Like Ruby didn't give her enough affection at the party," Yang joked, causing Ruby to bury her head in the shoulder of her best friend to hide the blush.
Last night had perhaps been one of the best nights of her whole life, right up there with the night Ozpin had allowed her early entry into Beacon. To further add to said happiness, she had finally managed to push aside her awkwardness and kiss Blake. And not just once. The first at the party had been initiated by her, and in hindsight she knew it had been sloppy and not the best, though it was still amazing to Ruby as it was her first.
The second had been initiated by Blake at the door of their room once the party was over, and she could say without a doubt that it was much better than the first. The kiss had been a little more heated with Blake taking the lead, though there had still been no tongue, but was something Ruby allowed herself to melt into. That too had only lasted seconds and was more something to say goodnight and that they'd enjoyed the night; but the thought of Blake's hands on her hips as she reached up to meet the older girl's lips was still enough to cause her heart to race. However, while her face was buried in the crook of Weiss shoulder, she felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her waist and lift her up.
"Alrighty, Sis," Yang said as Weiss' hands pulled her arms away and Yang carried her backwards, the cold air immediately pushing its way through the fabric of her jacket. "Stop holding Weiss up."
Pouting as Yang placed her down on the seat of her bike, Ruby crossed her arms to show her sister her displeasure with having been so forcibly removed from her partner. The displeasure didn't last long however, as Blake quickly sat beside her with a smile and Yang took her turn to embrace the snowy-haired girl in a goodbye hug.
"Don't let the assholes in Atlas get you down, okay?" Ruby heard Yang say as Weiss returned the hug before they quickly pulled apart.
"I'll try my best not to skewer them," Weiss grinned as Yang moved away. "And I will try to get back before the break ends."
"Either way, we'll see you in two weeks," Blake smiled with a small wave that was returned by the heiress, the subtle goodbye probably the most expected thing in the world for two girls who avoided unnecessary contact where possible.
"If I'm unlucky," Weiss groaned, handing off her bag to a man who approached after seeing his boss was no longer occupied by hugs. "Anyway, I really must be going. I will send a text when I get there."
"No problem."
"Have a safe flight, Bestie."
"Later."
With one last sullen glance towards them, Weiss turned and walked away into the large crowd they'd escaped from. In less than a minute, the heiress' small frame was swallowed by the masses and Ruby couldn't help but feel a little saddened by the sight. It wasn't a terribly long flight to Atlas from Vale, but with Grimm there was always a chance that even a short flight could end in disaster. Thankfully, she felt a warm hand slip into hers and turned to see Blake giving her a reassuring smile.
"She'll be fine, that girl could handle a Queen Lancer if it dared to mess with her," the Faunus said with a firm certainty to her voice.
"Yeah, don't worry, Sis," Yang replied, picking up Zwei as she too sat down on the bike with the panting corgi on her lap. "I'm sure Weiss will be back and scowling at us in no time."
"You're right," Ruby sighed, knowing that Blake and Yang were right but still feeling a little worried too. "Anyway, we should get home since it's still kinda cold. Are you cool coming with me and Zwei, Blake?"
"An hour wi…"
"I got Zwei, Rubes," Yang replied while unzipping her large jacket and pulling it open. "Came prepared this time. Zwei, in." On command, Zwei hopped into the open jacket and Yang quickly zipped it back up to secure the little hound. "There we go, he can keep me warm and enjoy the ride while you two can cuddle all the way home."
"Just don't get caught," Ruby said and rolled her eyes as she stood up and addressed the adorable little puppy. "You behave, okay. And duck your head if you see the cops."
Receiving as small bark in return, Zwei ducked his head out of sight for a moment before popping back out with what Ruby knew to be a pleased look on his face. Giving him a quick pat on the head, Ruby moved away from the bike with Blake's hand still in hers as Yang moved to straddle her pride and joy. A second later, the yellow bike roared to life as Yang gave the corgi a quick head scratch.
"I'll see you guys at home," she said, placing the helmet on her head and slipping her usual aviator over her eyes. "Remember, people just finished their breakfast. You don't want to make them bring it back up with your PDAs."
Blushing a little as she saw Yang's eyebrows wiggle over her aviator, Ruby heard the girl laugh to herself and take off with a cloud of dust, quickly pulling out of the car park and turning onto the road. With Yang and Weiss gone, Ruby and Blake were finally alone for the first time since the dance and Ruby was surprised to find that there wasn't much awkwardness remaining. And what awkwardness did remain was a result of Yang's comment triggering the memory of the night before for both of them.
Shaking her head free of the memory, though she would have happily allowed herself to get lost in it were she not so cold, Ruby turned to Blake with a smile; unsure if the pink tinting the girl's cheeks was because of the cold or the memory. Feeling her innards warm at the smile she received in return, she motioned toward the line of taxis that were waiting nearby and took off at a quick pace as she knew they always had the heating on.
Blake looked around as they stepped off the boat, the beautiful island of Patch filling her vision for the first time. It was so different from the city, with no massive buildings or busy streets, even the docks that she stepped onto held barely more than twenty people. With trees surrounding almost every building, it almost felt more like she had stepped into Vale's attempt to design their own Menagerie than anything else. Admittedly, the winter-stripped trees of Patch were nothing like the perpetually green trees of home, but she could imagine that, had she been visiting during Summer, everything would have been so much greener.
Not that the leafless trees detracted from the beauty at all, they simply altered it. Instead of brilliant vibrance, the island held a more subtle, peaceful visage that was easily capable of putting her at ease. As she felt her body relax, the chill of the slight wind caused her to shiver and clamp her fingers tighter over Ruby's warm digits. Glancing to her side, she saw the reaper gazing at her with a silent question in her eyes, clearly waiting for her opinion on her home island.
"It's nice," Blake replied honestly, giving the girl a smile and receiving one in return. "Hard to believe it's part of Vale."
"I thought you liked Vale?" The redhead said in confusion as the two of them stepped forward, Blake letting Ruby take the lead.
"It's fine," Blake grinned and gave her arms a slight flick so that the sleeves of her jacket slipped down to cover her bare skin. "Just very… uniform. And grey."
"I guess that's true," Ruby chuckled, quickly turning off the pathway and into the forest next to it.
"Are we not getting a car?"
"They can't get up to our house, Yang's bike only just makes it," the girl replied, her voice punctuated by the cracking of the frost-hardened twigs beneath their feet. "I'm glad I got my hair cut though, long hair in the woods is a pain."
"Well I guess I should be careful then," Blake laughed, gaining an apologetic look as she reached up to tuck her hair beneath her jacket.
The conversation subsided just as quick as it began and Blake was more than happy to fall into an easy stride beside the girl. My girlfre... The thought was cut off just as soon as it began, as Blake had no idea if they could be considered that yet. Sure they had kissed a couple of times, and those kisses had been wonderful, but it was still a decision they would need to talk about. Blake knew that she herself was more than willing to start using the title however.
The party the night before had been more than enough to confirm to her that she was happier than she'd been in years. The thoughts were there for a while in fact, and not just because of Ruby, but as she'd danced and laughed with the young reaper, she couldn't help wishing that the night would never end. Unfortunately it had, but not before Blake had stolen a second kiss. The first they'd shared was incredible, albeit clearly Ruby's first, and Blake had felt her stomach flutter at the girl's way of reassuring her that she wasn't feeling pressured. The second one however, was a selfish one; one born of a desire for more contact, but Ruby had happily gone with it. And as clumsy as the first had been, the girl was certainly a quick learner as there had been no problems with the second.
Allowing a smile to pull at her face, Blake looked to her side and saw Ruby staring ahead with intensity. Turning to see where the girl was looking she saw a small puff of smoke coming from the ground ahead of them. She recognised it instantly, having come across them numerous times over the years and wasn't surprised to see Ruby digging into her pocket and pulling out a handful of bullets. Sorting through then, she held up one marked with a red band, but quickly put it back and selected one marked with blue instead.
"I hate Termights," Ruby groaned and pulled Crescent Rose from her back to slip the bullet into the chamber. "They almost burned our house down once."
"I've seen them burn down entire camps," Blake replied as they came to the smoke and Ruby offloaded the round into the hole.
Before the hole was covered in ice, Blake saw the wriggling red and black bodies of the tiny Grimm. Small embers littered the bottom of the hole that Blake knew could eventually cause a huge fire if the colony was left unattended. Fortunately, Ruby's bullet froze them all instantly and they faded to dust as the ice cracked to emit the small black fog, as per usual with the death of a Grimm.
"Yeah, Dad usually patrols the woods to take out as many as he can," Ruby sighed and put the sniper scythe back onto her belt. "I guess he still isn't back."
Ruby's hand slipped back into her own as they continued through the woods, the earthy scent of dead leaves filling her senses as she crushed twigs underfoot and pushed aside low hanging branches. An eerie silence hung in the air now that they were away from the docks and civilization, serving as yet another difference from Menagerie; where it was so packed that there was nowhere you could go on the island without hearing people.
"Almost there," Ruby grinned after they finished climbing a rather steep hill that would have given any non-huntress quite a work out. "Sorry, it's a little out of the way."
"It's alright," Blake smiled and turned to look over the path they had just taken to see a river a short distance from it. "The longer we take, the more time we have away from Yang's teasing."
"That is a very good point," Ruby laughed and joined her. "It sucks that the first time you see Patch is when it looks like this."
"The bonus of reading is that I have a very good imagination," Blake chuckled, feeling Ruby nuzzle against her side a little more. "It's not hard to imagine everything in front of me as green and full of life."
"It's not just green," Ruby said with a shake of her head and pointed out to the river and slowly swept sideways. "Around there is," Her hand stopped on a clearing among some trees. "But that clearing grows so many flowers in the spring that the floor looks like a painter's paint... board thing."
"Palette?"
"Yeah, that," Ruby nodded with a smile. "I used to spend hours down there everyday because all the colours together look so pretty. But as you get to town," Her hand pointed to a few faint buildings in the distance. "It gets really white since Patch's official flower is a tulip and people put them everywhere. And up there…"
Ruby's hand came to a stop of a far off cliff that stood alone, the large outcrop that was overlooking the ocean visible even from their current position. With a quick glance to her side to see why Ruby had stopped talking, she saw the girl's face had dropped a little. She was certainly still smiling, but a hint of mourning had taken hold of it.
"For three months of the year, that entire cliff in covered in goldgrass."
Suddenly the intrusive emotion on Ruby's face made sense. During one of her outing with Yang, the blonde had mentioned their mother had been buried on a cliff of goldgrass. Blake had considered it exceptionally beautiful when she'd heard it, as goldgrass was rather rare and only grew in small patches. Unfortunately the flora was rather weak, and always wilted in the winter.
"I'm sure it looks beautiful," She said quietly, giving Ruby a smile and squeezing her hand.
"It does," Ruby sighed and turned away with a shiver. "Anyway, we should get going. I'm freezing and I need a hot chocolate."
"That does sound pretty good, not gonna lie," Blake smiled allowed Ruby's hand to pull her along before catching up. "How far is it?"
"Just a couple of minutes…" Ruby said, though a playful grin overtook her face as she stopped and turned to face her while biting her lip adorably. "Unless…"
"Unless?"
"Unless we race."
"Except I have no idea where I would be going," Blake said with a raised eyebrow.
Clearly set on the idea, Ruby pointed to a large tree on a hill off in the distance. Unlike the rest of them, there were clearly still a few leaves clinging to it. It wasn't incredibly far, but the distance as great enough that Blake was confident Ruby's semblance could only carry her part of the way. Once that was done, Blake could certain she could catch up. However, a race was a competition, and competitions had prizes.
"Okay…" Blake said teasingly and took a step forward. "And what does the winner get?"
Ruby flustered for a split second, her lip slipping from the hold her teeth had on it, but she quickly caught herself. The grin on her face widened a little as a red blush settle on her cheeks.
"I can th-think of something," Ruby said nervously.
"Hmm," Blake hummed, knowing what Ruby was thinking as she had barely stopped thinking about it herself. "If it's what I think, I can definitely agree to that."
Ruby bit her lip again and Blake took another step forward. They may have settled on a prize, but it couldn't hurt to try for a little one now, and for a moment, Blake almost thought Ruby was going to let her. But as she drew close enough that silver filled her vision, the young reaper gave a wink and petals exploded in her face. Taken aback by the sneaky move, Blake turned to chase the blur of red that was weaving through the trees.
Jumping into action immediately, Blake took off at a sprint. Thanks to her training she knew she was rather fast, but so was Ruby. The girl would undoubtedly use her semblance where she could to get an edge, so Blake did the same. Every ten strides when she had a straight shot before the next tree she would leave a shadow, using the small amount of propulsion she normally used to double jump to give her a momentary burst of speed. But it was nothing compared to the speed Ruby had, so knowing she had to do a little more, she steered herself to a large, slanted rock nearby and draw her weapon as she used it to leap into the air.
In less than a second, her weapon was in it sickle form and she effortlessly slung it out at a nearby branch, the metal jamming into the bark firmly enough that she pulled herself along. With every few trees she would mimic her actions from the ground with her semblance, though this time pushing herself off the wood, to keep her momentum. Thankfully it was enough and she soon saw Ruby slightly ahead of her, the red blur of her cape and dexterity of how she moved through trees unchanged though she had stopped using her semblance.
Out of the corner of her eye, Blake saw Ruby glance over her shoulder and Blake swore she could see a mischievous smile. It was a smile she should have paid more attention to as the girl once again burst into rose petals, though this time they were headed straight up into the treetops. Had the smile not still been in the forefront of her mind, she would have recognised the red ball sooner, but she didn't. Her brain finally clicked just before it struck a branch and exploded, filling the area with red petals that obscured everything in front of her.
Cheater, Blake laughed in her own head, more happy that Ruby had successfully pulled off something she had been practising for a while than the fact it was a dirty trick. Thankfully, it was easy enough to avoid, but it did cost her time she couldn't afford and allowed Ruby to pull ahead more. Unfortunately, the great tree was quickly approaching so Blake pushed herself into high gear. From her higher terrain, she had the advantage of landing higher up the hill, but Ruby quickly caught up as she corrected herself.
But it was the last stretch, so darting after the girl who was within arms reach, Blake tried her best to pull ahead. Unfortunately, she knew it was lost as Ruby looked over her shoulder again and stuck out her tongue, once again bursting into a small cloud of petals and immediately covering the remainder of the ground.
"HA!"
The shout was full of victory and Blake came to the top of the hill and caught her breath, not that the run had been particularly strenuous. Looking up from her crouched position, she saw Ruby punching the air before falling against the tree.
"Fastest team leader, ever!"
"Biggest cheater ever," Blake chuckled and straightened herself out.
"Nuh uh," Ruby said and stuck her tongue out again. "We didn't make any rules."
"That is a lousy excuse," Blake laughed and made her way over to the happy reaper. "However, I do think we talked about a prize."
Blake wasn't sure if the scarlet of Ruby's cheeks was from the exercise or embarrassment, but the girl didn't make any attempt to move as Blake approached. A less than a second the silver once again filled her vision and Blake pressed her lips against Ruby's, the feeling of sparks rushing through her as the girl quickly returned the affection. Blake was still hesitant of course, and didn't push the limits too far, but for almost a minute the two of them enjoyed each other's embrace in the solitude of the forest. Once the urge to go a little further arose however, Blake pulled away and smiled down at the now certainly blushing leader.
"Congrats on the petal burst, though," she breathed, still not moving away despite the broken kiss; the smile and glint of the girl's silver eyes keeping her spellbound.
"Th-Thanks," Ruby stuttered in return, her hands still gently holding Blake's waist. "It's easier when I'm happy."
"Well I'm glad you feel that way with me," Blake whispered, relieved that she definitely hadn't pushed a little to hard by kissing her so suddenly.
"I do," Ruby said, clearly wanting to make sure Blake believed her.
Giving Ruby a wide smile of her own, Blake rested a hand against the girl's cheek and felt the urge to go for another. And after seeing Ruby bite her lip and tilt her head, she felt emboldened to go through with it. Unfortunately, just before their lips touched again, a loud shout drew her out of the moment.
"OI, LOVEBIRDS. PLAN ON JOINING ME SOON?"
Confused as to how Yang had found them, she looked to her side to see a large wooden house stood in the center of a clearing on the opposite side of the hill. She'd been so caught up in the happiness of the moment that the surrounding area has seemingly melted away for a while. However, now that she was aware of it, she could see the figure of the blonde staring up at them with her hands on her hips surrounded by what looked to be destroyed patio furniture.
"Looks like we are caught," Blake groaned and pulled back. "Looks like she had some fun of her own though."
"P-Probably a Beowolf," Ruby stammered, also clearly a little embarrassed at having been caught. "They are always sniffing around."
Once Ruby straightened her jacket, she reached her hand out and Blake was more than happy to take it. After a couple of seconds smiling at each other and properly registering how perfect everything had just felt, the two of them began to make their way down the hill to help the blonde clean up the yard.
Raalm's Notes
Hello all, there isn't really much to say on this chapter. It mainly just some cuteness and transitioning into the next arc, but I hope you enjoyed nonetheless. Now I'm not going to say too much about what's to come, but they're no longer within the safe walls of Beacon Academy. At Beacon we were able to focus on their relationship, and while that will still be the focus, expect more of their Huntress duties this arc.
But that is it from me, I hope you enjoyed and are looking forward to what is to come.
Toxic's Notes
Chapter 15, out of everything that myself and Raalm thought about for this fic, we never thought it would receive this much attention let alone the amount of love you all are throwing at it. 70k words, 2 dates and plenty of fluff, we aren't done yet, however the third date might be awhile seeing how that isn't planned out yet. Yes that means there's gonna be chapters between the dates, Beingelsewhere, le gasp. Being known for my work is something that I will probably never get used to, be it as a writer or a simple editor. Anyway all I have left to say in this note is this; Thank you so much for your responses, be it leaving a comment or just leaving a Follow/Favorite, you have no idea how much that helps, truly thank you so very much.