Warning: This chapter contains some mild noncon/dubcon sexual content. If you are under 18 or if such themes disturb you, please skip this chapter.
"If you so much as lay a finger on me, I'll…"
Ruby's sentence slowly faded into silence. She knew she was powerless to do anything except scream for help, which was useless, considering that the only other person on the airship was Roman Torchwick himself. As if he was going to charge in there and rescue her from his own partner.
Ruby hissed softly at Neo when she heard the distinct rasp of steel. Sure enough, the multicolored young woman had been concealing her long, thin blade in plain sight, thanks entirely to her powerful semblance. Her eyes glimmered as she rested the tip of the blade against the hollow of Ruby's pale throat. The slightest amount of pressure, and it would be over.
"This.. is pointless," said Ruby, as slowly and calmly as she could. What's more pointless is that I'm trying to reason with a madwoman. She swallowed— carefully so as not to drive the razor-sharp blade through her skin— and locked her eyes with Neo's. She knew she was taking a deadly risk, but with her physical abilities rendered useless, the last thing she had to fall back on was her words.
"If you kill me, everyone I know will come after you and Torchwick. Professor Ozpin, General Ironwood— the entire military if necessary. Only this time, Torchwick won't just be thrown in prison. He'll be killed."
For a brief second, Neo's eyes flickered scarlet as they slowly narrowed. Her jaw muscles visibly tensed and she emitted a soft, hissing breath.
Ruby knew she'd struck a nerve. How effective it was, she didn't know yet, and she fervently hoped that playing on Neo's obvious emotional bond with Roman would be beneficial and not deadly.
"Killing me is only going to mean the end of the line for both of you." Ruby purposely parroted back one of the lines Roman had spoke to her, hoping to at least buy herself time, if nothing else.
A soft smile crept slowly across Neo's face, directly contrasting the way she lightly tapped the blade against Ruby's throat. A faint shudder snaked through Ruby's body and she hissed slightly. To her surprise, Neo laid her weapon over her knees and reached for her whiteboard.
Who said I want to kill you?
Ruby was slightly taken aback, but her face hardened. This was the woman who'd almost murdered her own sister in cold blood. This woman was a liar, an illusionist, a psychopath. Nothing she said… er, wrote… could be trusted.
"Am I supposed to believe you?" Ruby asked rhetorically, her voice curling with sarcasm, but she knew better than to push too many of Neo's buttons in her current unarmed state. "Or maybe you're telling half of the truth— you plan to torture me first, and then Torchwick will have the pleasure of actually killing me. Though, if you ask me, it's seemed so far like things should be the other way around. He doesn't seem to favor getting blood on that white coat."
Ruby flinched as a sharp, openhanded slap landed across her cheek. Maybe this time she'd talked herself into a lethal corner that she couldn't shimmy her way out of. Insulting Torchwick had probably been a very… unwise idea.
Neo stood up after delivering the slap as if nothing had happened. The heels of her white leather boots clicked loudly as she climbed the three steps that led up to the bathtub. She lightly tapped the screen embedded in the wall and a cascade of steaming hot water began flowing from the faucet. Smiling in a satisfied fashion, she descended the steps and knelt in front of Ruby again.
"What are you—"
Ruby's question was abruptly cut off as Neo brandished her long blade and sliced it cleanly down the front of the huntress in training's tattered black garment. Ruby couldn't suppress a sharp gasp, shakily looking down at herself and half-expecting to see scarlet blood dripping from a gruesome wound. Instead, she saw exposed swaths of her own porcelain skin, only her most sensitive areas concealed from view by a lacy red bra and a pair of matching panties.
At first, Ruby was too astonished to react at all. Neo drew closer to her and tugged away the shreds of her dress with nonchalant motions, tossing them aside on the floor. Ruby shuddered as the chill of the airship's bathroom struck her bare skin. She was now completely undressed, save for her undergarments and the elegant black stockings that she always wore beneath her skirt.
"W-What are you doing?! Stop!" Ruby growled, indignation and panic flaring up the minute she realized exactly what had happened.
Neo made a small gesture in the direction of the bathtub, which was now filled with steaming hot water, but the way her eyes danced faintly assured Ruby that her motives had very little to do with cleanliness, or even with Torchwick's orders.
The petite girl drew close to Ruby and began slowly unbuttoning the tiny black buttons on her crisp white blouse. As each one sprang free, it became increasingly clear to Ruby that Neo was wearing nothing underneath the blouse at all. Despite her mounting rage and fear, Ruby felt a heated blush overwhelm her cheeks and she looked away.
Neo let her unbuttoned blouse gape open as she leaned forward, gracefully slipping off her heeled boots and setting them aside. She edged just an inch closer to Ruby, and the soft click of her belt being unfastened echoed in the tiny room. She laid it beside her boots and then slowly, much too slowly, shimmied her slender legs free of her tight-fitting black leggings. Ruby glanced over and another soft gasp escaped her lips when she was faced with the glaringly apparent fact that Neo was wearing no undergarments at all.
Ruby's mind went dangerously blank for a few seconds. She hadn't been expecting anything like this. If anything, she'd expected to end up chained to the wall and bludgeoned by Roman's cane, or something of that general nature. She never expected to be lying on a bathroom floor in only her undergarments, with a stark-naked young woman sitting mere inches away from her.
Ruby swallowed hard as her blood turned to ice in her veins. She'd faced countless gargantuan monsters without batting an eye, yet here she was, a thin layer of perspiration coating her skin and her limbs giving the faintest quiver as she lay on the ground in front of the smallest woman she'd ever seen.
Ruby Rose was afraid.
Not of death, or pain, or Torchwick, or Grimm, or anything else she could readily identify. This fear was something entirely new to her; something more subtle, more insidious. It began at her throat, like a gentle pressure, then snaked its way ever so slowly over her chest, leaving chills wherever it touched. It crept over the toned muscles of her abdomen and slipped down between her slender legs, now switching subtly from ice to warmth.
Ruby shuddered, suddenly jolting to attention when she realized that Neo's hands were on her skin, ever so lightly slipping around behind her to reach the clasp on her lacy red bra. Ruby started and yelped when the garment fell away, instinctively trying to cover her exposed breasts with her hands, but she was completely unable to do so due to her manacles.
"S-Stop, you pervert!"
Neo glanced up at her long enough to offer a devilish wink and a small smile, her hands settling on Ruby's hips. The raven-haired girl tried her hardest to remove the contact, but all of her indignant movements seemed to only aid Neo, who took her time in peeling off Ruby's black stockings with an absurd gentleness. She curled one of her small hands around the toned flesh of Ruby's calf, as if admiring the faithful way the huntress-in-training had tended to her body.
"S-Stop touching me!" Ruby demanded repeatedly, but each time her voice seemed to weaken as Neo's gentle fingers explored their way up, brushing against her inner thighs. The warm, unfamiliar fear that had nestled itself deep in Ruby's stomach was growing stronger, but to her horror, it felt.. good.
She gulped back a heavy breath and tried to edge away again. Apparently, she'd managed to subtly wriggle herself across the bathroom floor even with her wrists and ankles being restrained, as a few seconds later the back of her head knocked soundly on the bottom step that led up to the bathtub. Ruby's gaze snapped over to Neo, who had a delicate hand over her mouth to suppress a silent giggle.
"Look, I don't know what kind of a game you and Torchwick are playing, but it's over." Ruby tightened her fists and glared at the multicolored psychopath who knelt in front of her, blinking innocently. "You're completely insane, and if you so much as come near me again, I'll—"
Her words were cut off abruptly as Neo's lips crashed down onto hers. The strange ball of heat in Ruby's stomach suddenly twisted, sending vines of warmth down her inner thighs, ghosting where Neo had touched before. The petite criminal was still kissing her hungrily, her soft tongue subtly asking for entry into Ruby's mouth. Whether it was out of an acute sense of peril, or her body's sheer instinct, or something else, Ruby made a split-second decision and began to return Neo's kiss with just as much force. And to her horror, it felt good.
Ruby had shared a few kisses with others in her past, but they'd been inexperienced and rather chaste; nothing like the ravenous kiss Neo was currently giving her. She instinctively parted her lips and gave Neo entrance. The silent girl's soft tongue darted into the warm chamber at once, curling around Ruby's and making her give a muffled gasp.
What exactly Ruby was doing occurred to her just a few seconds too late. Both girls broke away from the kiss, breathing heavily. It seemed strange to hear any sound out of Neo, who'd never spoken a word, at least not that Ruby had ever heard. The smaller woman reached up and laced her fingers through the sides of Ruby's lacy panties, dragging them slowly over her hips and down her slender legs before tossing them aside as if they'd burned her.
Ruby gasped again, her silver eyes widening and a fierce blush staining her cheeks. She'd never… exposed herself to anyone before, much less in such a compromising, helpless state. She tried to form an indignant shout, but the words blurred and dissipated like the steam from the hot bath they'd yet to climb into. Her thoughts were muddled and incoherent.
And to her horror, it felt wonderful.
