Author's Note 1:
And here's another update! To celebrate a year of this fic, have this chapter (which I'm really happy about surprisingly for myself). I actually finished this a week or so ago but wanted to make sure I had something to upload on the anniversary (I'm only a couple of hundred words into the next chapter, so not even remotely ready to publish) so I've kept it back until today. Anyway, please enjoy!
Once the four girls reached the hotel in their separate pairs, they met up with Ruby and Weiss waiting outside the black and yellow pair's room. Yang gave a slightly weak smile as they neared, and Ruby gave Blake a quick look as she unlocked the door. Blake met Ruby's eyes and nodded.
As Yang walked in behind Blake, Ruby spoke up, her voice full of concern, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." She smiled at Ruby, who gave Yang her best disbelieving stare, "I am!"
Blake and Weiss both gave her a similar stare but of the three Blake was the one who spoke up, "Is it because it's Mercury again?"
Yang scoffed, "Pfft no. I'm not worried about facing him again. It's more that this is our first proper mission as Huntresses. The others we've been on have been the same level as the other third years, but this?" Yang raised her arms as she sat down on hers and Blake's bed, the three watching her, "This is a professional Huntress mission. Are we sure we're ready?"
Ruby opened her mouth to reply, but Weiss beat her to it, her tone of voice brooking no disagreement. "Last year we took down the most powerful evil anyone has ever fought. Whilst Ruby and Ozpin did most of it, the rest of us still had to fight hordes of Grimm. I'd say we're ready, and if you disagree with me, do you really think Professor Goodwitch would give us this mission if she thought we weren't?" She raised an eyebrow at Yang, daring her to argue.
Yang grimaced, "The majority of that was against Grimm, if this was against Grimm then I wouldn't worry for a second, we know we can handle them. This is someone else who was trained to be a Huntsman and is now an assassin for hire."
Blake sat next to her partner and placed her hand on Yang's knee, Yang turned her head slightly to look at her. "We've faced tougher people than Mercury, and we survived it, together." Yang knew exactly who Blake was referring to, and she was right, "This time it's not just you, it'll be all four of us."
"Plus the Ace Ops! Literally Atlas' best Huntsman and Huntresses. Until they trained us, and we beat them of course." Ruby's grin was massive, smug, and thoroughly deserved. Despite that Weiss still rolled her eyes.
"You're never going to stop bragging about that are you?"
"Nope!" Ruby giggled and Yang cracked a smile.
She looked at the three girls, all looking at her with support and she smiled warmly. "You've got a point; we did kick their asses, didn't we? And that was four on four, not four on one. Thanks. I...I needed that." She shrugged, "I know it's not like me to doubt, but..." she sighed, "This is our first proper mission. I don't want to mess it up."
"You won't Yang, trust me, you won't mess it up." Ruby's optimism shone through into her words. "Okay!" She clapped her hands together, "We're gonna go over the plan one more time and then we're having a team night. No arguments, all four of us watching a movie together." The other three nodded at her and Yang gave a look of appreciation to Ruby who smiled back.
Weiss tapped the screen of her scroll and the 3D holo map of the area came into effect, the main warehouse that Mercury was known to operate from highlighted in red. Ruby stepped up to it and Blake and Yang followed, all of them looking down into the map.
"Blake, once Mercury leaves the warehouse, your job is to get me and Weiss into that warehouse undetected, then wait outside for him to return and let us know. You and Yang will be there for the other half of the pincer movement." She pointed to a rooftop that gave them a vantage point whilst still being close by. "Once we're inside, we're going to set up an ambush point. Once he's inside, we corner him and get him to stand down."
Weiss raised an eyebrow, "And when he doesn't?"
Ruby nodded, "And when he doesn't, we take him down. Once he's in handcuffs and we've removed his weapons, we'll call in an airship and take him back to Beacon." The others nodded in agreement, and Weiss pulled up a holo video of Mercury fighting. "He focuses nearly exclusively on his legs, a few punches and blocks thrown in, but it's mostly kicks and shotgun blasts." She looked at Yang, "We need to work as a team to keep him off balance. Weiss, you use glyphs to keep him from getting a good foothold anywhere, as well as bouncing Yang and Blake around if needed. I'll be by you to take shots when I get opportunities and in case he heads for you." Weiss nodded sharply, a grim look on her face. "Yang and Blake, you two fight him close quarters, it might be his speciality but it's yours too. If you can tie him up or disable his weapons before breaking his aura, then even better."
The two looked at each other and gave a short nod. "Got it Ruby." Yang punched one hand into her fist, "We won't let you down on this."
"Course you won't! I've got faith in both of you. Plus, all four of us will be there, so he won't stand a chance!" Ruby grinned and raised a fist, "Go team RWBY!"
The other three raised a fist as well, Yang chuckling, Blake with a smile, and Weiss with a roll of her eyes and one corner of her mouth curved upwards that betrayed any derision from the eye roll and revealed how she really felt. "Go team RWBY!"
"Awesome!" Ruby giggled, elated that they'd all done it, as it wasn't something they'd done in ages.
Weiss put the holomap of the warehouse district away and opened up Holoflix, flicking to the genre section. She looked to Ruby who dramatically turned her head towards Yang. Weiss sighed and immediately scrolled down to the horror section, knowing Yang's love for terrible B-movies that looked like they'd been made by a group of college students. 'Thankskilling' and 'All Grimm's Eve' being the worst picks so far.
"I'll admit I love seeing you jump out your skin at stupid jump scares, but I'm not that cruel the night before a fight like this Weiss. Head up to Family Feelgood." Weiss resisted the urge to fire back, knowing that Yang was completely right, she was awful with jump scares and could never tell when they were coming, even if it was obvious.
When she reached the right genre, she scrolled down until Yang told her to stop on a movie that looked a little sappy and probably had far too many cliches. Nobody argued as the rules for team movie night had been established long ago. Take it in turns to pick, and no moaning or arguments for a different movie unless it was genuine - They'd all agreed no movies that had anything racist or derogatory towards Faunus, so if Blake vetoed it for that reason or something happened the movie was switched immediately.
Despite being away from home, they ran through their normal movie night procedure, Yang puffing pillows up and ensuring there was enough space for all of them, Weiss setting the movie up with the best view and position. Blake was in charge of sound and finding the right volume, and Ruby was normally in charge of snacks, but this time they were forced to go without. Once everything was set up, they got changed, normally it would be into their pyjamas, and whilst Yang and Blake did that, Ruby and Weiss didn't want to walk down the corridor in their pyjamas so instead removed a layer or two. Weiss ended up in her under dress, devoid of sleeves or boots, the dress leaving her shoulders and upper back bare. Ruby meanwhile was down to her skirt, tights, and the long-sleeved top she normally wore underneath her corset and cloak.
Once that was all done, the four of them lay on the bed watching the movie. Ruby was resting her head on Yang's bicep on one side, with Blake leaning against Yang on the other, head resting on her shoulder and the rest of her body lightly pressed against Yang. It had taken a long time to convince Weiss to join in the traditional movie cuddles, but slowly, over several nights, she had inched closer and closer until finally, after several awkward and uncomfortable starting positions, they'd found the best position. Weiss took up her long since preferred position once the movie had started playing, curled up at Ruby's side with her head resting on one of Ruby's legs.
Within minutes she was paying little attention to what was going on in the movie, tuning it out and instead running through the plan again. Once we're inside, we wait. Blake gives us the signal, we ambush him. If he talks and comes quietly great, if not then we fight. If we fight, then I need to try and keep him grounded or off balance. Gravity glyphs are best for that, I can pull and push at his legs and throw him off balance when he least expects it. Her internal train of thought was interrupted by Ruby reaching with one hand to gently start to unravel the braid in her hair, her fingers slowly and very gently working it out and running through the white strands. Turning her head slightly so she could look at Ruby, Weiss raised an eyebrow. She was met with a soft smile and a nod of the head towards the screen, Ruby's intention clear.
When did she get so good at reading me? She didn't even see my face to know what I was thinking about. Not wanting to ruin movie night, Weiss managed to keep her sigh internal and focused instead on the movie. At first, she was a little bit worried she'd missed too much, but then a small, and admittedly slightly comedic, scene meant she was caught up nearly immediately. What Weiss hadn't expected was how difficult it was to focus on the movie with Ruby's fingers working through her hair. Her hands, only slightly bigger than Weiss' own, were slowly and incredibly carefully unwinding the braid. Starting from the bottom, each level of the braid was gently pulled free from the layered design, then stroked through to ensure no knots had managed to appear.
The sensation was close to heaven for Weiss.
Whilst she wasn't quite like Yang in refusing to allow anyone to touch her hair, it had never really come up before and nobody had attempted to do it. The trail of Ruby's fingers gently and slowly unravelling her hair left tingles across her scalp, an electric shock running down her spine every time Ruby's fingertips barely brushed the bare skin on her shoulders. Every care and worry about the mission the following day was washed away, and Weiss felt her shoulders relax slightly as the braid became looser and looser. She tried to move as little as possible, wanting the sensation to last as long as possible, but when Ruby was just over halfway through it stopped.
Her fingertips had inadvertently brushed a line all the way down the back of Weiss' neck to the tip of her spine. Weiss couldn't help the shudder that rushed through her as the electric shock became a full body experience, the tingles rushing out from the spot Ruby had touched to every extremity, her nerves lighting up. Ruby misread it as a shudder from being uncomfortable, and immediately withdrew her hands, placing them behind on either side of her hips and leaning back to give Weiss more space. Weiss felt her heart drop at the withdrawal but was unable to do anything to correct it without alerting the other pair in their team to what had happened, and for some reason something inside Weiss revolted at the idea of sharing something that had seemed to be quite intimate and caring beyond the pair of Ruby and herself.
There was only about half of the movie left by the time Ruby stopped playing with Weiss' hair, and Weiss tried to get back into the film, but unlike before, she struggled. The plot, so easy and predictable before, was now lost to her, so she just focused on counting as many cliches as she could in the remaining time. It helped keep her thoughts on the movie and not the feeling that had ripped through her body earlier, especially as the cliches were plentiful. Once it ended, she was fairly certain she'd counted at least twelve, and that was just the second half of the movie, never mind the first.
Blake and Yang got up and stretched, Yang collecting the scroll and chucking it to Weiss, who sat up to catch it, releasing Ruby's legs, and Ruby immediately rolled off the bed, bending down to collect their clothes.
"Okay team! Everyone to bed, we need a good night's sleep before tomorrow, so plenty of water and get to sleep quickly. So no reading Blake." Ruby looked deliberately at Blake who chuckled.
"I only brought one book with me, but I'll leave it in the suitcase for now."
Weiss walked past Ruby, determined not to let the earlier situation affect her, and said as she was walking to the table to collect their room key, "That includes you playing games on your scroll too."
Ruby laughed nervously and rubbed the back of her head before tucking the clothes under one arm and grabbing hers and Weiss' boots in her other. "See you both in the morning!"
Yang and Blake nodded as the other two walked out and headed off to their room.
Turning to look at each other, Yang then looked at the bed, realising that neither of them had brought the situation up before. "I'll take the sofa; you take the bed."
"No."
Blake's refusal wasn't unexpected, and Yang crossed her arms. "You need a good night's sleep Blake, you're going to be jumping across rooftops tomorrow and keeping an eye out for Mercury, and then probably fighting him, so you need your sleep."
Blake shook her head as she reached into her case to pull out her small travel case of toiletries. She straightened up and looked back at Yang. "And you're going to be fighting him up close even more than me. So you need to get good sleep." Blake indicated the sofa, "I'm used to sleeping on the ground from...before Beacon, and that is much better, so I'll still be able to get a good night's sleep."
"Nope! Not happening Blake."
They stared at each other again, neither willing to back down before Yang finally glanced to the bed, a soft pink blush starting to creep onto her cheeks. "So..."
Blake looked to the bed as well. "Yeah."
"It's not much different to sleeping next to each other in a sleeping bag."
"No, not really."
"Then…"
"Yeah."
Blake walked over to the bathroom and got ready for bed first, then left the room and slipped into the bed. Yang did the same, reaching to turn the light out before walking slowly to the bed, Blake's amber eyes glowing slightly in the near pitch-black dark giving her something to aim for.
Yang climbed under the covers, her eyes looking right at Blake's as they lay on their sides facing each other. A soft silence crept over them, neither wanting to speak first as they just stared at each other, Yang feeling her face heat up even more than before from the closeness. Whilst they had slept next to each other on the ground in sleeping bags before, they'd never shared the same bed. Even though there was enough room that they weren't pressed up against each other, Blake could feel the heat radiating from Yang.
Blake broke the silence first, "Ruby did say we should get to sleep, so maybe we should?"
"Yeah...night Blake." Yang closed her eyes and tried to focus on letting sleep wash over her. She was tired.
Blake's night vision helped her see that since Yang had first suggested it, her blush hadn't disappeared and had in fact gotten worse. She was also grateful that Yang didn't share her ability to see in the dark, else she'd have seen a similar blush covering Blake's cheeks, and that wasn't something she wanted Yang to see. "Good night Yang."
Author's note 2:
Holy crap, has it seriously been a whole year since I posted the first chapter for this?! Time really does fly. I'm so grateful to everyone who has read this, any and all reviews are really great to see, and the fact that some people have followed, and even favourited this work is honestly amazing to me. So thank you so much to everyone, and here's to getting more of this written!