The Road Trip

by thisvexesme

Ruby loves Weiss, yet Weiss doesn't know it. Weiss loves Ruby, yet Ruby does not know. And now, trapped for 4 straight days in a truck driving across the continent, they both want to come out the other side in the other's arms.

47. Chapter 47: Together

Chapter 83

Her hand gripped the handle of the gun case. This was it. No turning back. She chuffed out her breath, blowing a cloud of condensation around her head, adjusted her scarf tighter around her neck, and stepped forward onto the driveway.

"Here we go…"

The snowy driveway was steeper than she remembered, but that might have been due entirely to the ice. It was clear that no one had salted here in a while, mostly on account of how the house's owner didn't like what it did to her grass, the one month a year when it was visible. She trudged forward, her boots digging deep holes up the cobblestone walkway that led up to the house's front porch. She had to grab onto the railing with her free hand as the slick concrete had collected a thick sheeting of the frozen stuff that threatened to pitch her off into the deep snowbank that lined both sides.

"Oof…"

Her muscles ached. Her joints pined. Honestly it felt like she'd been run over by several trains. There was a new creak in her left knee that hadn't been there before. She groaned quietly to herself, having to place the gun case down on every step for a moment to let her shoulder rest. Funny, since the case and gun weighed only slightly more than her. She finally crested the steps and found herself on the landing of the porch, just in front of that front door to the little bungalow. The red paint glared back at her, like a giant square stop sign yelling for her to get back in her car and drive right on back the way she came. This was, unfortunately, not an option.

"C'mon, Weiss. You can do this."

It was blatantly obvious to anyone watching from the outside that no, she could not do this. Her hands shook as she reached for the doorbell, arms pulling them back and straining her wrists. Her whole body was fighting her now, it just wasn't possible. Her arm came back, fist balled.

"Fuck, I can't."

She turned in place and stared out over the front yard, which was a white blanket of fresh, even snow. A lovely sight, usually. But today it was like white noise, filling her senses with a cloud of mist and making her feel worse. Well, worse than dismal was still dismal, so it was only terrible. She found herself unable to stop smirking.

"Ugh, you're impossible."

She spun around again, ignoring a grinding noise from her back that was probably a crushed disk in her spine. Problems that a good doctor could fix, and it was a good thing her personal physician was the best in all of Remnant, since she figured this might take more than just a massage to correct. But a bad back was the least of her problems. She faced the door again, eyeing the rough paint and the tarnished brass fixtures upon it. She wasn't sure why it had a Beowolf's head doorknocker on it. The house had a perfectly functional door bell. Still, its tarnished red-bronze knocker handle made her want to try it out anyway. In days past, she would have just texted when she was at the door to avoid pressing the little lit button to its left, but she had deliberately left her phone in the car to force her into a real interaction.

"Hoooo, okay, you and me, Weiss. We can do this. We're gonna do this. It's not that hard."

Except it was that hard. Her heart pounded in her chest. It threatened to become arrhythmic and make her become one with the concrete porch with how hard it was beating. The sound filled her ears with the dull, overpowering thud-thud that was almost affecting her vision. She tried her best to steady her nerves, but this point was made completely moot when she looked down her own arm to see her finger pressed into the doorbell button.

"...shit."

She recoiled her arm and brought it up to her chest. Now there was really no turning back. Her heartbeat silence in her ears as her face attempted to blend in with the surrounding snow cover. It didn't work. She was as pink in the face as a raspberry. She could now hear all the sounds in the house as her senses suddenly flipped into overdrive. She could hear the fridge running. She could hear the sound of the analogue clock that sat above the armchair in the living room. She could hear the sound of the curtains in the bedroom blowing gently in the breeze of the floor vents. She bit her tongue. That's when she heard the sound of someone's head turning towards the front door. The occupant was in the back room. On the couch. The same place Weiss had put herself in during her brief stay in this bungalow.

The person in the seat turned a little further, creaking the old couch's wooden frame under the weight. She could hear the sound of something being put down on the table in front of the couch. It sounded heavy. Four hundred and fifty-seven pages heavy. Hardcover. It was her copy of Knight's Brigade she had left in the truck after the fateful trip. She shivered. She could clearly hear the sound of someone unwrapping their left leg from under their butt and placing both feet on the carpet floor. Bare feet. Bare feet that leaned over onto the right one to lean around the corner and look up the hallway to the backside of the front door.

The feet took a step towards the door. She could hear a distinct lean in the person's step, as they seemed to favour the right foot over the left and held onto the wall with their right hand. She frowned to herself. This was new. The house's occupant usually walked with both feet balanced equally. There was another step taken. Weiss had to force every bone and muscle in her body to lock up manually as she felt them all try to flee at once. With how far she could hear the steps were from the door, she knew she wouldn't have made it to the car or been able to escape at all. She grit her teeth so hard it hurt.

Another step, and another three feet closer to the pain and suffering she was sure was waiting for her. The steps sounded hesitant. Weighted. Why did they sound so pained? Weiss focussed her attention on something in the distance, a siren far off in the city. Or at least she tried to. Another step. The feet sounded tired. Well-worked. The feet of a soldier, or a farmer. Or perhaps both. Even after only three steps, Weiss could hear the distinct gate of a trained soldier, the way the steps were taken in a precise measured way, even if they were leaned over to one side. Normally, when she herself walked around barefoot she would lead with the balls of her feet as if she was wearing invisible pumps and would never actually let her heels touch the ground. This of course, was a taught posture learned from actual teachers when she was four years old. The walk of a lady, upright, chin up, chest out.

This was not the steps she heard through the door. They were heel-first, ball second, even bare foot. The steps of someone who wore boots all the time. She could hear the strength in the calves as they almost seemed to press the occupant's feet into the floor instead of lifting the body up. This was also a taught posture, but one specific to the Atlesian Special Forces. Their march was different to the high-lifted goose-step of the rank and file forces. It had purpose, and direction rather than pomp and circumstance. And Weiss could absolutely tell the difference.

Another step. Two more to go and the doorknob would be within reach for the house's occupant. She'd noticed a long time ago that there was no peephole on the door, like most of the other ones on the street. In fact, from where she was standing, every house on the street had a peephole in the door. It was almost expected of them. She remembered that the occupant had explained that they didn't make a door with a peephole low enough to see through, but she honestly didn't remember asking the question. She knew the answer was made up, since the front doors on the Schnee Manor had peepholes in them that she could see through, despite standing almost an inch shorter. So clearly they did exist. In fact, with the occupant's known history of manic depressive disorder and paranoia, it was a surprise the little bungalow wasn't surrounded by closed-circuit television cameras.

But Weiss knew why there wasn't any. There was a sense of privacy without them. The little bungalow could be like a fortress. No way to see out, no way to see in. She knew the occupant's feelings on the matter, especially with how the curtains were always drawn and very few lights were turned on. The house's tennant liked the sense of security the loneliness provided. A security Weiss realized she was less than three feet from breaking. She heard the sounds of the feet stopping just in front of the door. Their body leaned over, and a hand came to rest on the knob on the other side. It seemed to hesitate for a second, lifting off, before settling back down on the deadbolt just above the knob. The sound of the lock sliding open was deafening, and she winced and cursed her exceptional hearing for a moment. She heard the chain slide out of its track, and the bar latch at the top of the door slide down. She grimaced, remembering that when the house's occupant left the house, they would only ever lock the main deadbolt. When they were home alone, however…

She heard the hand drop back to the knob. The grip was strong. The knob turned. And for the first time in likely ten years, Weiss Schnee's entire world stopped spinning as she met the shimmering silver eyes on the other side of the door. Her mouth opened to let her words come out, but none wanted to leave the comfort and safety of her tongue. All she could do was stare. Stare at the glowing pink cheeks, the long and neatly brushed feathery brown hair that hung down in front of her shoulders, stare at the freshly cleaned white t-shirt and pressed slacks. It was Ruby. It was just so different than she was expecting. Gone was the thick hoodie, the pyjama pants, the messy short hair, the cavalier attitude towards personal grooming, and the thousand yard stare that usually left those brilliant silver eyes cloudy and distant. The girl, no, the woman that opened the door left her utterly, utterly breathless.

"W-Weiss…"

Her voice was soft and welcoming. Her lips, cherry red. She could smell the gloss from where she was standing. Ruby never wore lip gloss. She never wore makeup of any kind. This new development had her head spinning as she tried to decipher the emotions the woman was currently displaying. Was it surprise, was it anger? Was it trepidation? Weiss knew she had an eye for that sort of thing, but with the mist of confusion that filled her mind she was lost. Lost in silence that gripped her throat like a noose, her knees buckling beneath her to choke out the words and kept her at the mercy of Ruby's penetrating stare.

"I…" she tried, to no avail. It was caught up in her throat, leaving her with only monosyllabic vowel grunts to communicate with. With no method of getting her words across, she felt trapped, and despite Ruby standing mere feet from her, alone. She wrenched her eyes shut for a moment, and bit down on her tongue to stop from screaming into the uncaring void. She felt a shake in her arms as her heart tried to cavitate her blood and give her an air embolism. Death by air embolism almost seemed preferable at that very moment. It was a fight to get any sort of muscular response out of her body, especially with all of her nerves fried and lathered in what felt like an acid of shame as Ruby stared at her, waiting for her to say something. Nothing came.

In lieu of words, she simply held out the gun case in her arms and waited. Ruby took it, and she let go and recoiled her arms up to her chest. Even through her thick leather gloves she could feel the soft, well-moisturized skin of Ruby's fingers as their hands brushed by one another so very briefly. A touch that made her shiver as her eyes drifted open again.

"What's this?"

She couldn't answer, so she just pursed her lips briefly and nodded once. Ruby kind of glared for a moment and set the case down flat on the floor, kneeling down to take a look at it. She watched her pop the clasps and open the plastic lid to reveal the padded foam liner and the two weapons held within. Crescent Rose gleamed back up at them, along with the titanium-framed Kort pistol that both belonged to the young woman who's ire had started to boil.

"Why do you have these?" she asked, closing the case and locking the clasps down. With a flip of her long brown hair, her eyes directed back up to glare at her. "Weiss, why do you have my rifle?"

"...needed…" she tried, her throat constricting.

"For what?"

"...Confront...J-"

Her body locked up on her and silenced her, a river of tears springing forth from her right eye. Ruby stood up slowly, her back straightening with almost robotic precision. A frown crossed those pretty red lips.

"Confront? Confront who? What did you do?"

Her voice croaked, forced out with herculean strength.

"What I… had to… to put him in… prison…"

"Put who in-" Ruby's face scrunched up in realization. "-Oh. Oh. No, you didn't. Tell me you didn't."

Weiss nodded once.

"Oh, for f-"

There was a pause, and Weiss waited for death. It did not come. What did come was a sharp pain across her right cheek that forced her face to the left. The shame rose up from her chest and grabbed her by the neck and forced her to relent a sombre nod.

"That's for trying to get yourself killed."

It couldn't be disputed that she had indeed put herself in mortal peril. It just felt so much worse hearing it from Ruby. There was a choked cry in her voice as she said it, just below the surface disappointment. She had brought this out in Ruby. She was the one who made her feel this way, this disappointment. Weiss was sure she wouldn't be able to forgive hers-

"But this is for doing what I couldn't."

A hand grabbed that very cheek again, much softer but with the same insistency. Out of her control, the hand that gripped her cheek pulled her face back up and around, straightening her whole body and taking her by complete surprise. But the hand on her cheek was mere small fry compared to what she felt next. Eyes still closed and head full of static, she was unable to perceive the motion of Ruby's body as she stepped into her guard circle and pulled her head forward. Then, like lightning striking twice, a warm and soft feeling encapsulated her whole face, emanating up and outwards from her lips. The feeling only lasted for a mere five seconds, but it's afterimage continued through her like wildfire. Her eyes slowly fluttered open, triggering her nervous system as the woman across the doorway from her retracted her hand. Recognition set in as she noticed the formerly scarlet red lipstick had dulled slightly. Weiss's hand subconsciously drifted up to her own lips. They were tacky.

"S-sorry…" she finally managed to force out.

Ruby's eyes floated down to her feet and she shook her head.

"It's alright." she mumbled, looking back up at her. "Wanna come in?"

Weiss sniffled back her sadness and nodded. Ruby's face glowed with a small, barely noticeable smile as she stepped backwards into the bungalow and gestured her arm to welcome her inside. She barely was able to convince her body to accept the invitation and lift her shaking legs to cross the threshold, but it happened. Whether she was ready or not. The door clicked shut behind her with the quiet creak of the rubber door seal, and Ruby slipped effortlessly around her and stepped into the hallway. She'd been close enough to smell, and she smelled like peaches. A new flavour of shampoo, she realized. It used to be lavender.

"You can hang your coat up there, but…" Ruby paused and frowned to herself. "...It's not like it's your first time here. I don't know why I even pointed out where the coat rack is. Sorry."

This pulled a chuckled out past the sadness, making her sputter pathetically and crack a small smile.

"Y-yeah."

She peeled off her coat with an almost painful slowness, her shaking hands having difficulty manipulating the delicate white suede. She had to do a harsh shake of her right shoulder to convince the coat off of it so she could hang it from the loop sewn into the collar on the wall mounted brass hook. She reached down to untie her boots. Ruby interrupted.

"Oh, you can leave your shoes on. I'm having the tiles redone in the kitchen, it's fine."

Weiss sniffled and reached for her laces.

"I'd prefer to take them off."

"Alright."

With a strain, she pulled her laces loose and fiddled them out of the hook eyelets, first on the left boot then moving over to the right. She stood up and despite being taught not to do this by her 'Manners Instructor' when she was seven, used the toe of her right boot to kick off the heel of her left, wiggling her ankle until the crisp, clean, salt stain-free white leather boot fell off into the plastic boot tray under the coat rack. The right one came off with more wiggling of the ankle, dropping into the tray and landing on its side. Weiss elected to leave it and turned back to the hallway, where Ruby had been watching her with her hands in her pockets. She gestured over her shoulder as Weiss brushed some invisible dust off the front of her AtlasU hoodie.

"C'mon. I'll make some tea."

"O-okay. I'll follow you."

Ruby nodded and turned around, supporting herself with her hand against the wall. It was at this moment that Weiss noticed the medical bandage wrapped around Ruby's right wrist and forearm. She shivered, her mind doing gymnastics to try to work out why it was this way or what could have possibly happened. She was also able at this moment to see the very mild limp the girl was exhibiting that definitely was avoiding the left leg. Ruby almost never hurt herself. She was as near as makes no difference invincible. What could have possibly happened to cause two injuries at once? She mulled this over as she followed her into the kitchen, watching as Ruby stepped carefully onto the tiles in the kitchen as they looked like they had been freshly laid and were all still separated by little plastic crosses to keep from butting into one another.

"You did all this yourself?" she asked, attempting to engage a conversation. "The floor, I mean."

"Hmm?" Ruby turned, pulling the electric kettle away from the wall and lifting it off its base. "Oh, yeah, I figured I could look it up on the internet and figure it out. It's not as hard as I thought it was gonna be."

"I know a contractor who would have done it for you. Same company that did my kitchen."

Ruby shrugged and held the kettle under the tap, filling it with water before slapping the lid shut like she was slapping the bolt closed on a K&H submachine gun. She returned it to its base and flipped it on.

"Yeah, I suppose that would have been a lot cleaner. You know I just- I just wanted to see if I could do it myself."

Weiss glanced down at the tiles on the floor, careful to step around the ones with the separators between them, and sat down at the stool on the opposite side of the counter.

"They look pretty straight to me."

Ruby chuckled to herself.

"'Bout the only thing in this house."

It took a moment for the joke to register in her head, but when it did, she rolled her eyes and lolled her head back.

"Har har, very funny."

"I thought so. What kinda tea do you want?"

"What do you have?"

Ruby moved effortlessly through the kitchen, still avoiding her left leg, and pulled open a cupboard that was just at eye level.

"Let's see… we've got Jasmine, Sleepytime, green tea, orange pekoe and…" she reached into the back of the cupboard and pulled out a box hidden by the rest. "...Earl Grey."

"Huh. Uhh…"

"Look, I'm not Ramona Flowers, I only buy what I actually wanna drink. Orange Pekoe?"

Weiss shrugged.

"I guess."

Ruby grabbed the box and put it on the counter, flipping it open and pulling out some tea bags. Weiss watched her face change as she held the bags in her hands.

"Something the matter?"

"Yeah, these don't smell right."

Ruby brought the bags up to her face and inspected the watched her eyebrows reach orbit as she pulled the bags away from her face and held them out at arm's length.

"Oh, these are wildly out of date!" she chuckled and put the expired tea back into its box and slid it in the direction of the garbage bin. "I don't clean out my cabinet often enough."

Weiss nodded.

"No, you don't."

"Yeah. Earl Grey?"

"As long as it's still good."

Ruby grabbed the box and placed it on the counter in place of the turned Orange Pekoe and pulled the box open. It was still glued shut, which was a promising sign. Ruby inspected the bags more closely this time.

"Yup, still good. Two bags or one?"

"Two, please."

Ruby turned and opened another cupboard and pulled out two mugs. She set them down on the counter between them and put two teabags in each, sliding the one with the little cartoon kitten over the counter to her. The switch on the kettle clicked off loudly and made her jump a little, but Ruby seemed unaffected as she turned around and picked it up off its base and poured the boiling water into the two mugs, leaving about a quarter inch of free space at the edge of the rim. She put the kettle back on its base and slid it back against the wall.

"Milk and sugar?" she asked, already reaching for the fridge.

"You don't have any milk left."

Ruby paused, fridge half open. Weiss's ears went red.

"You're right, I don't."

She padded back over and took up residence on the other side of the counter and picked up her mug, taking a slow sip at the tea. Weiss did the same, channeling her aura into her mouth to avoid burning her tongue. A dull silence fell over them, disturbed only by the soft humming of the refrigerator. After a moment that felt like an eternity, Ruby put her mug back down on the counter and smacked her lips, turning her head to look back down the front hallway. Weiss put her mug down as well and watched Ruby's face for any sign of emotion.

"You know, I should be mad."

Weiss's heart sank.

"O-oh."

Ruby sniffed and took another sip of tea.

"I really should be. I should be mad that you broke into my house. I should be mad that you stole my rifle and my clothes. I should be mad that you stole my identity to go off and do something so incredibly stupid."

Ruby was right. It was stupid. It was dangerous. It was illegal.

"But-" she paused for breath. "-But I'm not."

Weiss sniffled.

"You have every right to be."

"Oh, absolutely, I just- I just can't bring myself to be upset about it. I mean, I tried to be angry about it. I knew it was you doing it, I don't know how I did, but I just knew. When I asked Ren to help me out with this problem, he said he had a friend who would take care of it, and I- I knew it was gonna be you. I didn't want to think about it but I knew."

Weiss gripped her mug in her hands, fingers straining against the ceramic. Ruby continued.

"I knew it was you and that made me scared. I thought you were gonna do something stupid. I- you did. You broke a lot of laws. You tried to get yourself killed. I was worried for a long time. I just- I can't figure out why. I wanna know why you volunteered to do something like that. Why you willingly walked into that."

Weiss thought about the question for a moment, shivering in her seat. An answer came to her, but she had to figure out a way to word it without crying or yelling. She gave it a shot anyway.

"You-" she started. "-you left me in a bad place when you ran away. I was left alone, and that's not something I like very much."

"Me neither-"

Weiss tried to not interrupt, but it happened on reflex.

"Ruby, I spent a lot of my life being abandoned by the people who loved me. My father abandoned me a long time ago and left me to the dogs, my sister abandoned me to go off to join the army… my mother abandoned me for a life of idle alcoholism. I just- I wanted to have something in my life that could be a constant, and I thought I had found it in you. For nine years, through thick and thin, I thought it was you. But you ran away from me, right when my life was reaching its peak of normalcy again. So it all came crashing down. You did what you thought you had to do, and I commend you for it, but you left me with nothing. I was alone again."

She realized she was starting to push blame onto her.

"I'm not- I don't-" she paused. "-I'm not saying I blame you. I definitely blame myself. I realize I wasn't the person I needed to be for you, I wasn't the person you needed me to be for you. I was still selfish and rough. I pushed you too hard into a relationship on that trip, and for that I'm sorry."

She paused to wipe her nose on the sleeve of her hoodie.

"But as cheerful and positive as I tried to be, I knew that going to confront Jaune was very likely going to be a one-way trip. And I… almost looked forward to that."

She heard Ruby's shallow and silent gasp. She sighed and tried to press on.

"I knew I had to. I knew I had to try and make things right. Try to go in there and make him pay for what he did to you, or at the very least pay for what he was going to do to me. I was… not in a good place, Ruby. I had to do what I had to do, and if that meant I was gonna die… I was gonna die."

"You can't…" Ruby's voice was choked up. "...you can't put your life at risk like that. Not for me."

"Yes, for you, Ruby. I had to. I didn't know if you were ever coming back, or if you even loved me anymore. But that didn't matter. Jaune had done something unspeakably evil. And I had to make sure he fucking paid."

Ruby bit her lip and recoiled into herself, her good hand playing with a strand of hair that had escaped from behind her ear.

"I didn't mean to make you feel that way."

"I know. I'm sorry."

"I asked Ren to help me with a problem and he made it ten times worse. For everybody. He had to call you instead of… anybody else."

Weiss ran her finger around the edge of her mug and stared at the deep yellow tea. She watched the little ripples bounce against one another and return to the edges of the cup.

"Everyone else I spoke to short of the Fall Maiden said that if they had fought him they would have lost."

"So why did you still go?"

"Because I almost wanted to lose."

"I don't think I would have handled that so well."

She sighed.

"No, I don't think anyone would have. My sister would have probably sent every elite task force in Atlas after him to make sure he was so dead there was nothing left to bury. Our contingency plan if I was to actually die was going to be to tell your father and your sister and let the two of them finish the job."

"I already told Yang."

Weiss looked up from her cup, catching the fleeting glance from Ruby.

"You did?"

"Yeah."

She tried to restrain a tiny chuckle.

"How was I still able to face him, then?"

Ruby too started to smile, but only a little.

"She was mad. Obviously. But she was more disappointed that it took me so long to tell her. We had a… conversation about trust and self-worth. And… how I could make myself a better person by focussing on myself before anyone else. But she was mad. Like, I think without Ren there, you'd have read on the news about the entire island of Patch suddenly disappearing from the sea in a cloud of smoke."

"I can understand why."

There was a deep silence that penetrated the air, triggering her tinnitus and almost inciting a headache. She didn't know where to focus her eyes, be it on Ruby or somewhere else in the room. She chose to simply stare out the back sliding glass door into the backyard, watching the snow fall gently against the cast iron barbeque on the back patio. Her mouth started to water as a memory of a very salty and very peppery piece of sirloin that had come off that grill passed through her head. She sniffled, hearing Ruby drum her nails against the edge of her mug. They sounded like they were short. A glance over confirmed that they were indeed trimmed short, and covered in tile cement.

"Why did you…" Ruby started, almost making her jump out of her skin. "Feel like you needed to pretend to be me?"

Weiss paused for a moment and scratched at her hair.

"I felt like it would get me a more honest confession without having to use force. I had to use force anyway, so in the end it was really not worth it. The giant scythe definitely helped, though."

Ruby kind of squinted at her from the other side of the counter.

"You're aware that Crescent Rose is the biggest piece of shit in the world, right?

"Was."

Ruby frowned at her.

"Huh?"

"It was the biggest piece of shit in the world. I fixed it."

The woman's eyebrows met in the middle, crinkling her forehead. She reached across the counter to the gun box and slid it over between them, popping open the clasps and lifting the lid. It creaked like new plastic as she set it down gently, fully recently polished latches glinted in dimly in the soft glow of the kitchen's lights as the huge rifle sat in patient silence on the padded case.

"You fixed it? I couldn't even fix it, and I've been working on this thing for over a decade."

Weiss nodded.

"I know.I just… picked it apart, found the parts that didn't work, and replaced them with parts that did. And I had it… rechambered and rebarreled for a bigger cartridge."

"Oh yeah?" she mumbled, picking up the rifle and reaching for the charging handle, confused as to why it wouldn't lift out of the latch. "What to?"

"Straight-pull. Twenty-millimetre anti-aircraft."

Ruby pulled back on the charging handle, exposing the enormous bolt face and action. Weiss watched what she had just said click in the woman's head.

"You what?"

Ruby's head snapped around, eyes wide and a concerned grin on her face.

"Fifty Browning wasn't big enough."

"Fifty Browning is an anti-material round! You know, for going through concrete? Twenty-AA would have broken your shoulder, your ribcage, and your clavicle if you had tried to shoot this!"

Weiss found her smirk unshakeable.

"Well, I did. A-and that's exactly what it did to me. The recoil from this round will break your aura. And then without an aura, most of your upper body."

"I don't ever want to fire this."

Weiss nodded.

"I don't ever want to fire it again."

"You're aware there are certain… restrictions on muzzle energy for personal use firearms, right? It's ten thousand joules, anything more than that is prohibited and requires specialized licenses."

"R-right, is this not-"

"This is fifty-three thousand joules. This is a destructive device."

Weiss turned a little pink.

"O-oh."

Ruby sighed and let go of the charging handle, letting it snap shut under the huge spring.

"I mean… I do kinda wanna see what it would do to a range target if it was mounted." she pulled the bolt back again, hitting some resistance halfway open. "Huh, it's a little rough."

"Yeah, the receiver buckled after the first shot, I had to kick the action to cycle it. I did my best to fix it but I couldn't get that hard spot out."

"This is a milled receiver, and you managed to buckle it like it was stamped. That's an impressive amount of force."

Weiss chuckled and rubbed the back of her neck, a little embarrassed.

"Yeah…"

"You know, the issue rifles we have in the ASF, when they show signs of receiver wear-out, we have them cut up and scrapped. It's generally not worth trying to fix. Also, this is not the receiver I made all those years ago."

"No, the one you made originally is sitting on my workbench at home, still in pieces. That one there is hand-made based on a design Winter found in the ASF archives."

Ruby shrugged and placed the rifle back down in the case, running her fingers over the barrel to feel for any imperfections. She found none.

"That would explain why it buckled. What'd you make it out of?"

"High-carbon steel. I didn't have any bits tough enough to go through anything else with my mill."

Ruby sniffled and shut the case, closing the latches.

"I'd have used a tungsten alloy. No one ever has for firearms use, I'd be interested to see if it could stand up."

Weiss nodded. "Tungsten is the strongest steel by its properties."

"Thank you, professor."

A soft giggle escaped her lungs and drifted out over her lips. Ruby chuckled as well and took another sip of her tea. Weiss did as well, now that she had been reminded that it was there. Ruby smacked her lips as she put her mug down. Weiss noticed a smile on the woman's lips.

"You know, I like what you've done to your hair. It's cute."

Weiss blushed, her hand automatically rising up to touch the ends of her hair.

"Oh, this, uh, it's… it's nothing special. And… I kinda did this the wrong way and in a desperate moment."

"What's the 'wrong way'?"

Weiss shrugged.

"Not using scissors."

"Then with what? A knife?"

"Broken piece of mirror." She tilted her head to the side and pulled the short locks out of the way, revealing the little pale white scar on her neck. "Caught myself with it, too."

Ruby sighed. It wasn't a disappointed one, she noticed.

"You could have at least used a sword or something cooler."

Weiss chuckled and let go of her hair.

"Do I look like someone cool to you?"

"Yes." Ruby said, nodding.

"Strongly disagree. I'm the biggest, dorkiest loser ever."

A smile. That famous, award winning smile. Weiss flushed.

"Yeah, but that's okay. I still like the haircut."

"Thank you. I see you've grown yours out."

Ruby nodded and flicked her hair around so it hung over her left shoulder. Weiss noticed that it hung down almost to her stomach, a look she had never seen before. She liked it. She liked it a lot.

"Yeah, I thought I'd try it out. Did you know my hair actually has a natural wave to it? Because I sure didn't."

"It's almost like Yang's."

"I don't have the same amount of volume that hers does, though. I actually tried to get it to floof like hers when I was at my dad's, but it just wouldn't go. So this is what I got."

"I think it suits you."

Ruby flushed, and despite her already pink cheeks doing a fair job of hiding it, Weiss absolutely noticed.

"Y-yeah, I'm still not so sure. I mean, I like it, but I've had short hair for twenty four years, this is still just an experiment. I don't know if I'd go much longer than this."

"My hair used to be long enough that it would touch my heels."

"I don't have that kind of money for shampoo and conditioner. I've got this kind of money."

Ruby ran her fingers through her hair to demonstrate its length, before pulling it back behind her head and tying it up with a convenient elastic she had around her wrist. With a bit of fussing, she managed to get the ponytail to sit neatly and not pull on her scalp awkwardly. She seemed awfully new at this whole long hair business, and frankly, Weiss didn't blame her.

"Yeah, being rich certainly affords the ability to grow your hair out. Which is weird because my sister and my brother both have relatively short hair."

"Your sister's in the army, and your brother is a boy, so…"

Weiss gave her the side-eye.

"Ren's got long hair, Whitley has no excuse for not growing his out."

"Ren's weird, though. He's a genius tech magnate and he wears polyester."

Weiss chuffed in mock offense.

"Hey, I wear polyester!"

"No, you don't."

"You're right, I don't."

They chuckled together a moment. Weiss sniffled and sipped at her tea again.

"It's funny that we have… switched hairstyles. You went short, I went long."

"Yeah, it's… a good change, I think."

"Yeah…" Ruby picked up her mug again and finished the last of the tea in it, setting the mug down gently just off to the side. "You know, for store-bought, this is really good."

"Sometimes store-bought is better. I've had worse teas at actual tea plantations made by actual professional tea brewers. But I think in that case it's a matter of expectation versus results."

"Probably."

They sat for a moment, as she quietly finished her drink. Most of the heat had entropy'd itself out of the cup and into the air of the kitchen. A tiny thought nagged at the back of her mind, not loud enough to grab her attention, but annoying enough to make her flinch. She watched Ruby pick up her cup and carry it over to the dishwasher, tossing out the teabags and placing it upside down in the top rack. She watched carefully as the girl turned to the cupboard above the toaster, pull it open, and fetch out a small box of cookies. The way her back muscles moved as she reached up to the top shelf was almost entrancing. But the question of why someone who liked cookies as much as Ruby did would put them on the top shelf took up more of her mental facilities than the sight of how buff the girl was did.

"Cookie?" Ruby asked.

"Huh?" Weiss's attention snapped back to the task at hand.

"Would you like a cookie?"

Weiss's cheeks almost glowed.

"Oh, uh, no thank you, I'm okay."

"Great, more for me."

Ruby dropped the box on the counter and flipped the two little flaps open and slid the plastic tray out. She grabbed one of the very crumb-y cookies and stuck it between her teeth, holding it there as she closed the box again and slid it just to the side. Weiss watched her bite down on the cookie, a river of crispy crumbs falling from her hand and landing on the counter. To be fair, they looked good, if a little messy.

"Ruby…" she started "...can I ask you a serious question?"

Ruby nodded.

"I would certainly hope so."

Weiss's face broke a smile for a moment before returning to her resting face. She swallowed a lump in her throat and continued.

"When I showed up at your house, a few moments ago… were you upset to see me?"

Ruby was quiet for a second, her stare pointed somewhere off in the distance. She stood like a statue, holding her half-finished cookie in one hand as the question was processed in her head. Weiss watched as she put the cookie down on top of the box and rubbed her hands together to get the crumbs off them. Her hands fell to her hips as she seemed to come to a conclusion.

"No."

"Oh."

"No, I wasn't mad. And I'm still not. I was… confused, I think. Like, no calls, no texts, no e-mails, nothing for eight months and then you just show up on my doorstep, I was… a little shocked, actually. I wasn't mad. I was surprised, for sure. But not mad."

Weiss rubbed her cheek, the sting still there.

"...then you slapped me. Which I deserved."

Ruby sighed.

"I'm sorry for doing that. But you have to think about it from my perspective. There's no communication for most of a year, then all of a sudden you show up covered in scars, with my stolen weapons, telling me you went and did something suicidal for my sake. That part I was upset about, and I lashed out. You didn't deserve it, I'm sorry."

"I did, though."

"I'm not going to argue with you about this. You might think you deserved it, but think about what you did for me. Think about how you helped me at your own expense."

"R-right."

Ruby sniffled, staring longingly at the unfinished cookie.

"I should be thanking you for what you did. As stupid and reckless as it was. Thank you."

"I don't feel I deserve thanks."

"I'm gonna come over there and slap you again."

"That I will have deserved."

"Fuck's sake, with you."

Ruby rolled her eyes and sauntered around the counter to end up on the same side as her. Weiss watched with her cheek pressed against her fist as the woman stepped over and pulled out the other stool and sat down next to her, slumping her weight onto the seat and placing her forearms on the counter. Weiss's heart fiddled around in her chest for a moment, unable to sit still and pulse like it always had. Had a cardiologist been present, he would have likely called for a crash cart.

"Hey, uh…" she started. "After you…"

"Hmm?" Ruby sat up straighter. Not all the way, mind you.

"After you slapped me, I had my eyes closed and I didn't see what happened, but… did you, uh…" Weiss rubbed the back of her neck. "...kiss me?"

Ruby blinked twice, and flushed a deep pink.

"Yes."

"Why?"

Ruby's brow furrowed and her lips pursed.

"I don't know. I felt like I had to."

"You had to?"

"Every fibre of my body said to do it. I just… I was overwhelmed with feelings and… confusing emotions. I was bewildered by your sudden appearance, and I don't know what overcame me."

Weiss nodded.

"Well, I'm glad it did."

Ruby bit her lip, her beautiful, sparkling eyes flicking over.

"... did you want me to do it again?"

Her whole body stopped its major functions all at once as her face sheeted over.

"Uh huh."

In opposition to her own almost unpleasantly paled complexion, Ruby's face was a wash of reds and pinks, and the goosebumps that covered her neck nearly had a noise they were so prominent. Weiss was surprised the poor woman had any blood left for her muscles to move her body, seeing as it all seemed to be in her cheeks, neck, and collar.

"O-okay…" Ruby mumbled, leaning slightly towards her. "...Uh…"

Ruby stopped halfway, a dumb smile hitting her like brick. Weiss's body started to mirror Ruby's in both skin pigmentation and in movement as she too started to lean closer on the stool.

"Wh-what?"

Ruby bit her tongue again.

"This is kind of embarrassing… Feels like Beacon again..."

"O-oh." Weiss shivered. "Do you want me to do it?"

"No, no, I-" Ruby put a hand up. It was shaking. "I gotta do this myself. Please."

"Okay. Y-you've got th-this."

"Unlikely."

Ruby's right hand came up to collect her cheek. The bandages were rough against her skin, but the strength in her fingers was not, gently cupping the side of her face. She didn't pull her in, like she had been expecting, but rather she used her face as a guide as she leaned across the divide to meet her. Weiss closed her eyes slowly as Ruby's face moved in. Her breath smelled vaguely of mouthwash, and her hair definitely smelled like peaches at this distance. The soft, warm feeling returned, as did the pressing of a nose into the spot just between her cheekbone and her right nostril. She let in a shallow gasp through her nose as her chest straightened automatically and her shoulders locked back, completely out of her control as the feeling of Ruby's lips on her own faded the rest of the world out into nothing.

She gasped, having forgotten to breathe as usual. For someone with such well-trained lungs from years of singing, it was almost a little shameful that she had to remember how to use them to not pass out. She could feel the subtle movements that Ruby's mouth made as her head moved to better align itself with their kiss, and she let her jaw open slightly to accept. The touch of Ruby's hand on her neck startled her, and if only briefly they separated before coming back together. Ruby's lips were soft. So much softer than she remembered. And like memory foam, they moulded exactly to match her own and it almost frightened her how much she missed it. She pressed her tongue against the back of her bottom teeth but didn't let it advance over the threshold. If Ruby wanted that, she'd have to come and get it.

She hadn't, however, and pulled back. Not quickly, and even though Weiss was disappointed that it ended, she was pleased to note that so seemed Ruby. Weiss shuddered and grinned stupidly. It really felt like she was seventeen again, all gushy and in love. Her left hand lifted from her lap and grasped Ruby's right wrist as it let go of her neck, almost in a pleading gesture. She tried not to let it show.

"S'that alright?" Ruby whispered.

"More than."

Ruby giggled quietly.

"I'm glad."

"Me too."

Weiss sniffled and dabbed the corner of her good eye with her knuckle, not realizing she had teared up a little. She held Ruby's bandaged hand in her own, gently stroking the fabric around the webbing of her thumb.

"What did you do to your arm?" she asked in almost a whisper.

Ruby shrugged slightly and avoided direct eye contact.

"Broke it."

Weiss perked up, tilting her head a little to show attention.

"Oh? Doing what?"

"Stopping a charging Goliath by the tusk."

She retracted fully.

"You what?!"

Ruby snickered through her tongue, sticking it out and holding it in her front teeth.

"It was running at me, and I had to stop it. So I put my arms out, grabbed it by its tusk and flipped it over my head and onto its back?"

Weiss brought her hand up and grabbed herself by the forehead.

"I'm sorry, you suplexed a Goliath?!"

"Pretty much, yeah."

"They weigh like a hundred tonnes, how were you not crushed?!"

"Hundred and fifty, actually. Figured I could lift it, so I tried."

Weiss sat back on her stool and rubbed her scalp in her fingers, screwing her eyes shut for a moment.

"You know, most sensible people would dodge out of the way of an oncoming Goliath."

"I punched an Alpha Manticore hard enough to give it a stroke and break its faceplate."

"Why were you within punching range of a Manticore?!"

Ruby twiddled her index fingers and looked sheepishly to one side.

"I let myself get eaten by a Taijitu so I could pull one of its fangs out and stab it in the brain with it."

"I- I- Wh-"

"And I was briefly the Alpha of all of Kayaba Forest's Grimm. Briefly. Then the Alpha Beowulf that gave me this stomach scar and I had to fight off a giant Sabyr and the entire population of the forest together."

Weiss just blinked dumbly, unable to form a coherent thought.

"I mean I got my knife back, so it all worked out in the end."

"You mean…" she stumbled out "...the Alpha Beowulf that tried to cut you in half…"

"Yep."

"...you befriended it?"

Ruby nodded.

"Yep."

"How?!"

"Well, see, I needed my knife back-"

Weiss interrupted.

"No, no, I got that."

"-and it was, you know, in his eye."

"Uh huh."

"So I borrowed an antique Tank from the base museum, took it to Kayaba Forest, killed a shitload of Grimm-"

"This story's getting wildly improbable."

Ruby shrugged.

"S'what happened. So I meet the Alpha, we have a heart-to-heart about humility and forgiveness. Then I took my knife out of his eye, and then I healed his eye."

"Wai-wait, you healed a Grimm? H-how?!"

"Pyrrha showed me."

"Pyrrha showed you how to heal Grimm?!"

Ruby laughed.

"No, silly, she showed me how to heal people. It just… happens to also work on Grimm. It takes all of your aura, though. So after that, we, together, fought a forest full of Alpha-class Grimm."

Weiss clamped her hands on either side of her head and squeezed her temples.

"You fought a forest full of Alpha-class Grimm with no aura?!"

"Yes. I got a lot of cool new scars from it, you wanna see them?"

"You are insane."

"Coming from someone who took on a deranged sociopath with no aura."

Weiss sighed painfully and put her face into her hands.

"This is really not at all the same thing, Ruby. Also, since when do you think scars are cool?"

Ruby flipped her ponytail around so it came down over her left shoulder.

"I learned a lot about body positivity when I was back with Yang. Why, did you want to see my cool new scars?"

She pondered for a moment, dropping her hands and glancing at Ruby's figure.

"I mean… kind of."

Ruby blushed, her cheeks almost glowing.

"Okay, then… f-follow me."

"Why?"

Ruby paused, halfway stood up from her stool.

"Well… I can't show you here."

"Why not?"

Ruby blushed even redder. She gestured around the room

"'C-cause there's windows!"

"Oh." the point clicked in her head. She blushed too. "O-oh!"

"Yeah, so…" Ruby stood up and stepped away a few steps. "-Come with me, please. If-if you want to."

"I-I do…"

Weiss slipped off her stool and diligently followed Ruby, who's careful steps hadn't lost the slight limp yet. They were silent, methodic. She was almost envious of how quietly the woman could move while injured, finding that even with socks on she still was unable to not make a dull thudding noise with her heels as she followed her. Ruby led her down the side hallway that led to the other half of the little bungalow, past the wall of framed pictures that the woman's overeager father had no doubt compiled of her youth. And right at the centre, encircled by the rest, was the picture she knew was Ruby's favourite.

It wasn't a very big picture, as it was a standard four-by-six disposable camera size, but it wore the thickest and sturdiest frame, and was the only one that was ever dusted. A simple picture of a two-year-old Yang holding a one-day-old Ruby, wrapped up in a blanket with her giant silver eyes shining like diamonds up at her sister. It was so heartwarming it physically hurt. Weiss tried not to stare for too long and had to pull herself away from the memory wall to follow Ruby into the bedroom. And as she crossed the threshold, her eyes were immediately drawn not to Ruby, but to the floor.

"Oh my god, you cleaned your room."

Ruby sat down on the edge of the bed and bounced.

"Uh, yeah?"

"Why?" she asked, breathlessly.

"It was messy, and I was tired of the mess."

"It's been messy for five years!"

"And I didn't like it, so I cleaned it. Now I like it again."

Weiss shuddered, but didn't it show as she stepped into the room and sat down in the computer chair across from the bed.

"Alright. You… wanted to show me a scar?"

Ruby flushed, but nodded.

"Yeah, not just one though."

"Oh, Ruby, don't tell me you got badly hurt."

"I mean, yeah I did, but I was fighting without aura, it wasn't going to be smooth sailing. Look-"

Ruby hopped up onto her knees and turned away so her back was facing her. She reached over her back and grabbed the neck of her t-shirt and pulled it up, revealing the tough and muscular lower back Weiss remembered so fondly. The tone and definition of the woman's lats were almost hard to not stare at. But her attention was then grabbed by three pink lines that ran vertically down her back, parallel to the woman's spine.

"Holy shit."

"That big Sabyr I was talking about?"

"Yeah?"

"He wasn't so pleased when I punched him in the mouth."

"I mean, I wouldn't be either."

Ruby chuckled. Weiss realized she liked the way it sounded.

"Yeah, he, uh, tried to stomp me into the ground. And then the Alpha bit his front leg off, and I was left with this sick scratch mark."

"Still looks like it hurt."

"Oh, it was wildly painful. But it gets better, check this out."

Weiss watched the woman almost eagerly pull her shirt up over her head and toss it at her pillow, revealing her whole back, naked and bare except for the navy blue strap and buckle of a surprisingly new-looking utility bra. She thought she remembered Ruby only having two of them, and neither of them were this well-kept. Her eyes drifted up from the bra strap to the bulking wide and muscled shoulders for a brief moment as Ruby shuffled sideways and lifted her arm up to show off the side of her torso and pulled her ponytail back forward over her shoulder. Naturally, Weiss's eyes drifted up the woman's stiff triceps instead of down where she was trying to display at first, before coasting back down to the powerful lats that wrapped under the woman's beefy arm. A line of small dotted scars ran down her side , separated by an inch of skin each. Weiss grimaced.

"What caused that?"

Ruby lowered her arm.

"So you know the inside of a Taijitu's mouth?"

"Not intimately, no."

"Well, I do. So just inside their first row of teeth they've got this second row of much smaller ones, that are like, six, maybe seven inches long. And they're all on muscled pivots, they're meant to flex and draw food in like a bunch of little fingers."

"That sounds super gross."

"They're also really sharp."

"I still don't like how you were inside the mouth of a giant snake."

Ruby shrugged.

"I needed one of its fangs, and, unfortunately that's where they're found."

"What about that tank? You said you brought a tank!"

"Oh, it fell in a hole and then I blew up the gun. So I had to get up close and personal with the Grimm."

They sat in the dim, quiet room for a moment. Weiss took the opportunity to watch Ruby turn around and hang her legs off the side of the bed, feet barely touching the floor. She watched the woman idly kick her feet as she shuffled her bum around on the comforter. She noticed the blue-painted toenails. They were neat and uniform, and almost looked like they were Yang's handiwork, but since they lacked the four-layer deep clearcoat she could tell that Ruby had done them herself. Her eyes drifted back up the boot-cut jeans, up past the thin waistband and up the stunningly tight abdominals to the wide diagonal scar that cut across Ruby's stomach. It was still there, and for once she noticed that the woman's posture wasn't set to hide it. A good change. A shimmer of metal caught her eye, and she let her gaze be drawn up to the small set of Allen keys tucked into a velco strap on the side of Ruby's left cup. An odd place to put them for anyone else, but completely normal for the hardworking and mechanically minded woman.

"Those utility bras are awfully useful," she said, breaking the silence. "Those metric or SAE?"

Ruby looked down at the set of keys and brought her hand up to fiddle with them.

"Metric. This one's actually brand new. I've got a red one with imperial Allen keys in it, too."

"And I assume a black one with Torx?"

Ruby nodded with a gleeful grin.

"Yeah, I bought the three of them online when I got back from my dad's. They're not cheap, but they're damn useful."

"I still don't know why you'd need tools in your underwear."

Ruby sat up straight and puffed her chest out, a confident smile on her face. Weiss tried not to stare at the woman's breasts, but seeing as they were almost proudly on display, she figured it was allowed.

"Actually, funny story, this morning when I got up, I put my underwear on and went to the kitchen to make a coffee, the cabinet door for my coffee stuff was loose on its hinges. So instead of having to put on pants and my coat to go into the garage to get my toolbox, hey presto I had the right tools already on my person to fix it."

"That's super convenient. Maybe I oughta get one."

"I also bought the wrench sets and the socket set. One's got eight double-sided metric stubby wrenches, one's got eight double-sided imperial stubbies, and one's got a line of socket clips down the straps and a half-inch ratchet strapped to the underwire."

Weiss pondered this for a moment and ran her thumb down the front of her sweater over her own bra straps.

"See, that sounds super heavy and inconvenient. Wouldn't it rattle and poke through any shirt you wore?"

Ruby shrugged and fiddled with the set of Allen keys.

"You're supposed to wear loose clothing over top of it, because you're supposed to wear them while you're working. Never been uncomfortable for me."

"So how 'not cheap' are they, I might get one."

"Four hundred lien apiece for off-the-shelf sizes, but mine are custom fitted, so six hundred."

Weiss gawked. This wasn't expensive in her opinion, but for Ruby they were.

"Oh my god, and you bought six of them?!"

"Yeah, they last like twenty years, and they're warrantied. The original two I have might be faded but they're still in good shape."

"Your underwear is warrantied?"

"Yeah, they're considered tools, so Kreig has a lifetime warranty to cover breakages. If it wears out, that's on you, but if it breaks, they'll replace it with no questions asked."

"That's astonishing. I should get one."

Ruby frowned. It hurt not seeing that smile.

"Doesn't the SDC own Kreig?"

"I mean, I own the company, I don't own any of their products."

"Oh. Right, you go to a tailor, you don't shop in stores."

"Yeah…"

They went quiet again. The furnace kicked on in the corner, whirring softly and pushing warm air up from the floor vents and making the curtains by the window flutter. Weiss let her eyes wander past the woman for a moment to her desk against the back wall. It was usually very messy and covered in paperwork, plates, soda bottles, and whatever else had been neglected to be disposed of or finished properly. This time, it was not any of these things, it was clean and tidy, save for the spot right in the middle of the desk where a half-finished plastic model of a VHI Blaze-Charger sat on a thin sheet of plywood. It was painted red with black accents. Ruby's sniffle drew her attention back over.

"So, uh…" Ruby sheepishly rubbed the back of her head. "...I don't wanna pry, but… did… you get any new scars from your fight?"

Weiss paused for a moment before blushing a deep red, having to physically hold her hand down so as to not touch her collarbone out of instinct.

"Uh, yes. Quite a few."

Ruby flushed and scratched at her nose, clearly embarrassed.

"...may I see them? Please?"

Weiss bit her lip.

"I-I guess that would only be f-fair…"

Ruby grinned, her face many different shades of pink, and patted the bed next to her.

"Come join me?"

"Oh-Okay."

Weiss stood slowly and shakily up from the computer chair, having to use her arms to push herself upright, and slowly crept across the floor to the bed. Ruby had already scooted backwards and crossed her legs up by the headboard, giving her space near the foot of the bed to climb on. And she did, sitting in about the middle of the queen-sized mattress, on her knees and just out of arm's length from Ruby. She shivered and reached for the hem of her sweater.

"This might take a moment, sorry."

"Take your time." Ruby mused, rocking back and forth on her bum.

Her hands shivered as she pulled her sweater up over her head and placed it aside, neatly folded. She reached for the buttons on the blue dress shirt and started to unbutton them one by one. She made sure she was careful with them, having only very recently repaired this very shirt she had destroyed in a rage. The internet was a useful tool and a nice man with a Mistrailian accent had made a video on sewing buttons. She noticed Ruby's curious frown as she was finishing the last button on her shirt.

"What?" she asked, nervously holding the unbuttoned shirt closed.

"What's with all the layers? I thought you could handle the cold, Miss Atlesian."

"The layers are why I can handle the cold, Ruby. Just because I was born here doesn't mean I'm impervious to the effects of low temperatures on my body. I like a warm fire on a cold night just the same as anyone else."

"Hmm, sounds romantic."

"Hush. And… don't watch so intently."

Ruby grinned but didn't look away. Weiss shivered and slowly opened her shirt to reveal the white undershirt underneath. She noticed Ruby's eyes wandering along her collar and across to her shoulders as she slowly shrugged the blouse off and slid the sleeves down her arms. Of course, this was the point she noticed Ruby's expression suddenly shift from pleased bemusement to an intent stare accompanied by a wide-eyed frown. Weiss paused, setting the blouse aside and folding it so it wouldn't wrinkle.

"What are you looking at me like that for?"

"When the hell did you get so jacked?!"

Weiss blinked for a moment, before looking down at her own arms.

"Oh, right. I, uh…well, my sister thought I needed to bulk up a little."

"And you think this is a little?!" Ruby sat upright and stopped swaying. "Lift your shirt up."

Weiss stammered.

"Wh-"

"Just do it."

She relented and grabbed the hem of her undershirt and lifted it slightly, revealing her midriff. She watched Ruby's eyes almost hungrily roam across her stomach as she tensed up her core to put on a bit of a show.

"Y-yeah?"

"Holy… fuck, Weiss. You look like you belong on a magazine cover. C'mon, take it off, take it off."

She noticed that Ruby had scooted way forward and was definitely within reach at this point. She hadn't meant to, but she had subconsciously slid herself backwards and was now touching the footboard with her back. But as instructed, the tank top came off and was added to the pile of clothes. She felt a little exposed, sitting there in her thick black slacks and just a bra, which wasn't nearly as interesting looking or useful as Ruby's. Her left arm came up to cover herself, her hand grabbing onto her right shoulder for support.

"This feels a little awkward…" she started. "I, uh… guess you want me to show you some scars?"

"If you have any new ones."

Weiss nodded and thought for a moment on which one to start with.

"Well… there's this one…"

She let go of her shoulder and held out her left arm, holding her palm facing up. Ruby stared at the two puncture wounds on her forearm for a moment, her hand wavering as it reached out before retracting to her side again. Weiss realized in that moment that she wouldn't have minded if she touched it.

"What did you do there?"

"Stabbed myself with dust crystals."

Ruby looked up from her arm and pursed her lips.

"No, seriously, what'd you do."

"I'm being serious."

"Don't be ridiculous, Weiss, that would've killed you."

"And it almost did. I was out of Aura, out of weapons, and generally out of ideas. I, uh, I saw it in a movie once. What was it called, that one action movie from a couple of years ago? Attack on Haven or something like that? Anyway, it worked. First it tried to kill me, then suddenly I had all of my Aura and strength back and I could fight again."

Ruby scratched her head and slumped her shoulders.

"You know, the Atlas army was doing tests on supplementing Aura using dust crystals, but, like, really tiny ones, and they found that a crystal the size of the head of a pin was enough to fully replenish a soldier's Aura from ten percent. What you did to yourself was like suddenly having the power of two maidens all at once."

Weiss nodded and rubbed the scar. The stitches had only come out two days before.

"Yeah, I, uh… definitely had power. It apparently put me out for a week. The doctors had to hook me up to a dialysis machine to filter all the dust particles out. They said there was so much unrefined dust in me that the hospital could have powered itself for a year just on the byproducts of the dialysis machine alone."

"Fuck, Weiss. Why were you so reckless?"

"I explained to you why I was reckless already."

Ruby nodded with her eyes screwed shut.

"I-I know, just- Fuck's sake. I mean, there's a difference between accepting death and encouraging it."

"I know. I'm sorry."

Another long pause. Weiss swore they were getting longer. It was Ruby who once again broke the silence, perking up and deflecting away from the subject again.

"So, you got any more?"

She was a little rattled by the sudden change of pace, and it made her trip over her tongue as she had to actually think about where all the damage was on her body.

"Uh, yeah, uh…" she paused and held up her right wrist, showing off a thick horizontal scar that sat where a watch would go, "Here, too. Deflected a swipe of his sword and missed a little."

Ruby hummed at it and nodded.

"Surprised he didn't cut your hand off."

"I still had my Aura at that point, no doubt he would have otherwise. I, uh, have a few more, but-"

Ruby grinned.

"Below the beltline?"

"Uh huh."

"Me too, want me to go first?"

Weiss shook her head.

"N-no, I should." She reached for her belt buckled and fumbled with it. Funny, it hadn't been this hard to put on or adjust that morning. "Hold on a sec."

"Want me to do it for you?"

Weiss paused, heart skipping. Where had this playful attitude come from?

"Uh, no, I think I can take my own pants off, thank you very much."

"I dunno, looks like you're having trouble."

"It's this stupid buckle." she mumbled, not looking up.

"You sure? Or are you just embarrassed to take your pants off in front of me?"

"I'm not!"

"Hmm hmm, okay. Whatever you say."

She grumbled under her breath and finally got the buckle to release, begrudgingly slipping the black leather belt through all nine of the belt loops and setting it aside on the ever growing pile of her clothes. She flushed a deep red as she turned sideways and hung her feet off the edge of the bed, lifting her butt up to slide her pants off of it and down her legs. She silently cursed herself for wearing mismatched panties that were in no way interesting to look at. She heard a chuckle from Ruby, but didn't look over.

"What?"

"Mm, nothing. Just wondering where your lingerie is."

"Look, I didn't expect to be taking my clothes off this early in the day, let alone in front of you. So my underwear is underwhelming, bite me."

"You can't threaten me with a good time."

Weiss let out a nervous laugh, and kicked her pants all the way off her legs and bent down to pick them up off the floor. As she sat upright to put them aside with her shirts and belt, she noticed Ruby's smug smile out of the corner of her eye, which made her turn and look at the woman properly. Her eyes went wide and her pants fell from her fingers and back to the floor. Ruby was lying there, legs outstretched, in just her bra and panties, having already taken off her pants and tossed them aside. While they weren't as utilitarian as the bra, her panties were at least colour matched, unlike her own. Weiss's brain took a few extra moments to process this.

"How-"

"Elastic waistband, stretchy cotton."

"When-"

"As soon as you looked down at your belt. It was just too easy to not do it."

"Ruby. I said I was gonna go first."

The woman shrugged and made no effort to cover herself.

"Yeah, but then you took forever with your belt. Besides, you're less uncomfortable this way. I remember that you always said we should undress at the same time back at Beacon so I wouldn't feel embarrassed. Now I'm just tryna reciprocate."

"I mean, that's very considerate of you, but you could have warned me."

"Nope." she said, popping the 'p'. "I prefer to surprise you."

"Colour me surprised." she said, finally scooting back into a seated position opposite Ruby. She frowned and pointed at a round mark on her thigh. "What'd you do to your leg?"

Ruby looked down at where she was pointing and chuckled. The scar on the front of her right thigh was circular, almost perfectly so, and about three inches in diameter. Weiss crossed and uncrossed her legs a few times as she watched Ruby sit up and roll her knee outward to better show off the scar.

"Funny story, I didn't notice this was even here until I got back home from Kayaba and had a shower. I guess I had a bad ejection with the tank and one of the spent casings bounced off the recoil guard and landed, uh, open side-down on my leg. It seared the same circle into my combats and I only noticed when the water from the shower started to burn quite a lot more than normal."

"Oh, so there really was a tank."

"Yeah, I wouldn't lie to you. It was an antique. A Mark IV."

"What did the army say when you got back?"

"Well, The General wasn't pleased, but he wasn't angry with me. I had actually submitted all the request forms properly, sorta, so I technically had every right to be in that forest with that tank. He was more worried that he would have to face my dad if I died."

Weiss shuddered.

"That would have been a bad conversation."

"There would have been a General Ironwood-shaped smear on his office floor. But man, you shoulda seen it when the airfleet came to get me. The whole Atlesian Armada flew in over the clouds. It was pretty spectacular."

"Isn't there like, fourteen hundred ships in the fleet?"

"Closer to sixteen. He deployed the entire military to come get me."

"Why?"

Ruby shrugged.

"He thought he'd need to burn the forest to the ground and rid it of Grimm to keep me safe. I was plenty safe. Mostly."

"Sounds like the only person in danger was the General."

"Pretty much." Ruby paused, pulling her knees up and resting her arms against them. "Any more?"

She flinched, lowering her right hand to her waistband.

"Yeah, one. But…"

"Oh, is it-"

"Yeah."

Ruby grinned.

"Hey, me too! Matching! I'll show you mine if you show me yours!"

Weiss noticed the wink and the sly smirk. Her lips quivered, forming a small frown.

"Th-that means getting naked…"

A nod from the woman across the bed.

"Yeah. Are you… comfortable with that?"

Weiss bit her lip.

"I… I dunno if I'm allowed to be."

"What are you talking about, of course you are."

"Well, I just mean-"

She was interrupted by a hand on her knee. Ruby's. Her voice caught in her throat.

"Look, you've seen me naked. I've seen you naked. At this point, we're just putting off the inevitable."

Weiss sighed.

"I know, I know…"

"Tell you what, I'll go first."

"No, that's not what I-"

She didn't have time to argue as Ruby had already slid back and started undressing, hands behind her back and fiddling with her clasp. There was five distinct clicks as she wiggled the extra heavy-duty hooks out of their loops, and the bra went loose around her chest. With a shrug of her shoulders, she slid it off and put it gently aside, letting her boobs join their peculiar party of two. She didn't slow her roll for even a moment, sliding her legs off the bed and pushing her panties down them. With a deft kick, they landed in the laundry basket in the corner of the room almost dead centre mass. She shouldn't have been surprised, Ruby was a crack shot. She was however surprised by how free and open the woman was being. Her eyes traced over the nude woman as she watched her sit down on the bed again and cross her legs, leaving her completely vulnerable to her wandering eyes. And wander they did to a little chrome barbell pierced through her left nipple and a tiny yellow tattoo just to the outside of it. Weiss frowned, now less interested in Ruby being naked and more so in her new body mods.

"Whuh…" she started, pointing. "What's with the piercing and the… is that a flaming heart tattoo?"

Ruby looked down at herself and grinned.

"Heh, yeah it is. The piercing's part of a matched set. Yang's got the other one."

"Am I to assume that she has a matching tattoo?"

"Uh huh."

"And that it's a red rose?"

"You got it."

Weiss chuckled and shook her head.

"That's adorable. When did you get those done?"

"Day after my birthday. We had a girl's night and she suggested the piercings. I suggested the tattoos. You and uh… you and Winter should do the same."

Weiss shrugged and scratched herself idly on the collar.

"I don't know if I could convince Winter to get nipple piercings. The tattoos, probably."

"What about your brother?"

"His are already pierced."

Ruby scoffed.

"What?"

"Yeah, he did it as a dare in university and he still wears them. Don't tell him I told you, though."

"My lips are sealed. That's pretty metal, though."

She watched Ruby sit back against the headboard and shuffle two pillows around to lean on, stretching her legs out and relaxing. She honestly felt as if the woman should feel a little awkward, but this was Ruby's room so why would she?

"I think it's really sweet that you and your sister got matching tats and piercings."

"She paid, too."

"She really loves you."

"Yeah, I've been finding that out lately. It was nice hanging out with her again. We spent a lot of time at Junior's, hitting on the wait staff and eating terrible food. And we went skinny dipping, and we broke out mom's old motorcycle and went to visit her."

Weiss smiled, idly staring down at her knees.

"You, skinny dipping? You can't even swim."

"You don't need to know how to swim to skinny dip. You just need to bring Yang along. She just holds me up in the water."

"Hmm." she pondered for a moment, blushing. "Sorry, I just realized I was stalling."

Ruby shrugged and put her hands behind her head. Weiss tried very hard to not just sit there and stare dumbly at Ruby's scarred and nude body, despite how very exciting that prospect was to her. She huffed and shook out a shiver in her spine.

"I can wait. It's been… several months."

"Sorry."

Weiss fiddled with her thumbs for a few moments longer, her hands visibly shaking. Ruby sat almost impossibly comfortably on her end of the bed, her eyes lidded shut and a very quiet tune being hummed with a content smile on her face. Weiss shuddered, freezing up.

"Actually, I uhhh…"

Ruby 'hmm'ed and opened one eye, peering over at her. Weiss sniffled and scratched idly at her arm.

"What's the matter?"

"I don't know if I can do this in the full brightness of the room."

Expecting a chuckle, Weiss braced herself. But Ruby didn't laugh in any capacity.

"That's no problem. Watch this. Hey, Sayori!"

Weiss frowned. There was a paused, followed by a dull electronic ringing.

"How can I help?"

Weiss turned around fully to where the soft female voice had come from, noticing a soda-can sized black plastic device on the bedside table. It had a little ring around the top that was glowing pink and white.

"What is that thing?" she asked, pointing.

The device answered.

"I am Sayori, I am a personal assistant. How can I help you today?"

Ruby chuckled.

"It's a present from my dad. He thought that me living alone was unhealthy for my mental state, so he bought me these so I'd have someone to talk to. It's a stripped-down version of the AI that Penny's OS is built from. It's really personable. I've got a terminal in every room so I can talk to it everywhere."

Weiss paused, frowning.

"Isn't Penny's AI a stripped version of the Atlesian Warmind?"

"Yeah. So it's a stripped-down stripped-down Warmind."

"...And you're not worried about it taking data from you and monitoring you to take over the world?"

Ruby shrugged, the muscles in her neck bulging slightly. Weiss bit her tongue.

"I mean, my cellphone does that already, so I figured it's probably fine. But check this out. Hey, Sayori! Dim lights to ten percent!"

There was a momentary pause, and the pink ring on the device flashed green.

"Okay, dimming lights."

The overhead ceiling light dimmed slowly, coming down almost to a candle-lit din.

"That's neat."

"Thank you."

Weis sputtered a chuckle. Thanks to Ruby's blackout curtains, the room was nearly completely dark. The dim orange glow from above beamed gently down on them, and as she turned to look at her much more relaxed bedmade, she had to actually stifle a gasp. The way the light hit Ruby's body served to accentuate all the highpoints, leaving little dim shadows danced across her skin. The way it almost cut lines into the woman's tightened abdominals was a little much for her, and she couldn't stop herself from just sitting there and staring dumbly.

"Could you maybe…" she started, sniffling. "...not look so relaxed?"

Ruby almost immediately sat up and crossed her legs again, pulling back the comfortable posture she had. The woman nodded vigorously, her ponytail bouncing back over her shoulder.

"Yeah, of course, whatever you want. I'll even look away."

"...would you mind?"

"Not in the slightest."

Ruby spun around, showing off her muscled back once more. Her stiff and military-toned shoulders were even more prominent in the low light. It was like looking at a sculpture in a museum. During a power outage. She shook her head and looked away, finally. With shaky hands, she reached up behind her back and undid the clasp of her bra, keeping an eye on the back of Ruby's head to make sure it didn't turn around before she wanted it to. She slid the unassuming garment off and freed herself from it, placing it aside on the pile of clothes. She tried not to think too hard about this whole situation, but it was getting to her. Whether in a good way or a bad way, she wasn't sure yet. It felt pretty good, though.

With a wiggle of her bum on the bed sheet, the mismatched panties came off as well and slid to the floor past her knees. She left them there, pulling her legs back up onto the bed and sitting back in the middle, up against the footboard. She brought her knees up and crossed her ankles, doing her best to cover herself, even though the only other person in the room was someone she wanted to see her like this. It was just habitual.

"O-okay. I'm…. naked."

"Do you want me to turn around?"

"I mean… I did say I had another scar to show you… that was ill-placed."

Ruby sighed but didn't turn around.

"Every scar is ill-placed. Are you uncomfortable?"

Weiss nodded, knowing full well Ruby couldn't see her.

"A little, but I can power through this. Aside from doctors, you were the last person to see me like this… So… you can turn around. If you want."

"Alright."

It felt incredibly awkward that she couldn't be as open as she used to be. Here was Ruby, this whole new woman who was confident and outgoing and brave, and very very naked. She remembered it took an intense amount of convincing to get Ruby to disrobe before, and now it felt like it was Ruby who was convincing her. Ruby really had changed so much. Would she even be able to see her the same way? Weiss bit her lip and clenched a fist. If Ruby could be brave, so could she. Before the woman had a chance to turn around, Weiss lowered her knees and crossed her legs, straightened her back and sat upright. She wanted to hide so badly, but that wasn't an option anymore. Ruby turned around to look at her. Weiss shivered. She'd never felt so exposed, as if there was a step nakeder than being naked.

"Oh, wow."

Ruby's words shot through her like a cannon. Her face flushed. As did her neck. And her collar. And the upper fifty percent of her breast. Her muscles tensed unconsciously under the watchful gaze of the buff woman across the bed, and her body shook momentarily.

"Oh, wow."

"Ruby-"

"You… are… so attractive."

If it was possible to blush harder than she already was, Weiss's body certainly tried.

"D… don't say that."

"Weiss, please. You don't understand. You aren't seeing what I'm seeing."

"I'm not... "

"Trust me, Weiss. I know from muscular women. Remember, I'm in the Army. You are… I… I'm coming up short, here. You are… stunning to look at."

"But I'm all muscly, and-"

"Shut up and let me look at you. Show me this scar."

"Okay…" she managed, her words hoarse and breathless.

With her whole body shaking, she managed to gather up enough of what remained of her courage and straightened her legs, lifting her bum up to show off the three-inch-wide scar just to the inside of her hip bone. Thanks to the dim light, her deep red face wasn't visible to the woman who slid over to her and peered almost excitedly at the wound.

"Ooh, that looks rough. How's you do that?"

"I got… stabbed."

Ruby's eyes narrowed. Honestly, she would have been surprised if they hadn't.

"He do this to you?"

"Yes. Was trying to not have my ribs broken by the shield and I didn't notice the sword slip into my body."

"There's a pretty significantly large artery down there."

"That's correct. When I woke up in the hospital, the doctor told me that even a fraction of a millimetre further in and it would have punctured. There's actually a scar on the outside of that artery from where the blade grazed by."

"Holy shit."

Ruby sat back on her knees and sighed, staring over her shoulder at nothing. Weiss crossed her legs again and shivered. Despite the sound of the furnace coming through the vents, it felt awfully cold in the bedroom. She brought her right hand up to grab her other arm in a feeble attempt at heat conservation.

"You said… you had a matching one?"

"Yeah I did." Ruby perked up and looked back over. "Here, check this out."

It was Ruby's turn to show off an awkwardly placed scar. And show off she did, standing up on her knees and shuffling forward a few feet and arching her back to give her the best view. Weiss tried to not look inward, as tempting as it was, and focussed her eyes on the two and a half inch wide laceration that crossed Ruby's hipbone, across from the start of her more prominent bisection.

"That looks like it hurt. Did you land on something sharp?"

"I have been known to do that in the past, yes. But uh, this one is my own ineptitude."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, back in Patch, I decided to make myself a new weapon, specifically from a set of plans that Yang had been hiding from me, plans that my mother had drawn up."

Weiss perked up.

"Oh?"

"Yeah. A pair of folding sickles. Great designs, and once they were built, they were deadly effective. But I made one, uh, crucial error."

"What's that?"

"I made the blade catch out of aluminum. I should have made it out of steel. What had happened was that after so many times of using it, you know, opening the blade, hitting the release button, closing it, opening the blade, hitting the release button, closing it, the little steel sear wore a groove in the aluminum catch and made it stay latched. And not realizing this, I hit the catch release and went to sling it into the holster on my belt and…"

Ruby made a swinging motion with her arm. Weiss flinched and grit her teeth.

"Ouch."

"Ouch is right. Sharpened, hardened plate armour cuts like carbide. It was like shink and it was against the bone."

"Ouch."

"Yeah, it did hurt. This was like, a couple of days ago. I was just playing with them in the garage, and I got myself with one. I'm not usually this clumsy with weapons."

Weiss shrugged.

"It was an honest mistake. Did you fix the clasps to make them not stick anymore?"

"I was gonna do that today while the tiles in the kitchen were setting, but…since you showed up, I haven't really wanted to do that anymore."

She watched the woman's face flush pink. A lot pinker than it had been through the entire process of them undressing in front of one another. Weiss shivered.

"Wh-what did you have in mind instead?"

"I, uh…" Ruby mumbled, biting her lip. "Kinda want to kiss you again."

As soon as the words registered in her head, Weiss's brain tripped into self-preservation mode so hard it almost caused whiplash.

"But… we're naked, we can't do that."

"Why not?" she pleaded, silver eyes shining. "That hasn't stopped us before."

"I know but… I don't wanna…" she struggled for reason, but her lesser brain was fighting back. "... push you into something you're not ready f-"

Ruby interrupted by scooting closer and pushing an index finger against her lips. Weiss's eyes went wide as she was silenced.

"Which one of us got undressed first? Me. I've been waiting for this for a while." Ruby paused and let go of her mouth. "I know why you're hesitant. Because you think I'm forcing myself into something, into a relationship when my history of relationships is frankly frightening. And I ran away from you, and I know that makes you think that I don't like you."

Weiss waited for her to continue, too afraid to make any sudden moves.

"But that's not who I am anymore. The past is the past, I've dealt with it in my own ways. I'm not the scared little girl I used to be. And I'm sorry for running away. That was… irrational, juvenile, and stupid. And I'm sorry. I see now that you wanted to help me. That you cared. That you did nothing but respect me every single moment you were around. And I don't…. I don't want to run away anymore. In fact, I wanna do just the opposite."

Weiss's breathing hitched for a moment. Her whole head burned. She hadn't noticed that Ruby had slowly moved closer and closer to her. She was well within arms reach, now.

"And… I wanna tell you something, Weiss. I was never ready for any relationship with you. Of course I wasn't. No one ever really is ready to fall in love with someone else. Nobody ever plans to love someone, it just happens. When I say that I wasn't ready, what I mean is that… it just hit me. It just happened. And… it took me a while to associate the feeling that the idea of it brought me with love. I didn't know what it was before. I had this hatred and fear of intimacy with everybody else, but when I was with you, it was different. It was comfortable, it was… joyful. I didn't realize that… I needed it."

Ruby's knees now almost touched her own. She could smell the minty freshness of her toothpaste at this distance. Her eyes darted down from the silver ones across from her for a moment to the dull red lipstick and back up again. She didn't flinch.

"I spent some time away from you. I don't regret all the learning I did but I do regret leaving you. And I want you to forgive me for that, but I understand if you don't. I needed to become a bigger person. And now I realize that I can't do that… without you. Does that make sense?"

Weiss nodded.

"Yes."

"I just, I want you to know. I'm sorry."

"I forgive you."

Ruby smiled. Weiss's heart wasn't prepared for how beautiful a smile it was. Her voice shook for a moment before she got a handle on it.

"Can I tell you something, Ruby?"

"You may."

"You are the most astonishingly beautiful person I have ever seen in my entire life."

Ruby smiled again, this time pulling her dimples in.

"Flattery will get you nowhere."

"It's gotten me this far." she said, running her tongue over her lip. "I think it will get me a lot further."

Ruby smirked. Her voice softened to a whisper.

"I hate it when you're right."

Ruby's lips were just as soft as the first time. Weiss's eyes rolled backwards and closed, her shoulders going limps as the feeling overtook her. She relaxed her jaw and let her autopilot feature take over for a moment, mirroring the movements of the woman across from her. It allowed her to collect her thoughts, and remember just what she was doing. Of course, this revelation quickly took hold of the controls and cranked them hard backwards, pulling her mouth off of Ruby's for a brief second.

"Hahh…"

It was almost a tackle the way that Ruby closed the distance again. The way her body moved almost seemed practiced, and truth be told it kind of was. Since Ruby was a Special Forces operative, she was quite well-versed in several martial arts, and could therefore be expected to know sit-down grapples. Her legs moved like coiled springs, closing the gap between them and landing the buff soldier directly in her lap, her immensely powerful thighs gripped around her hips and tightened down. Those puckered red lips slammed into hers again with renewed vigor, and the tough, calloused hands grabbed her around the back of the neck and didn't let her escape. The heat from her body was intoxicating, and had sufficiently quelled any shivers she had by the time she realized she hadn't taken a breath yet.

For all the chastising of Ruby she had done once, she was the one left breathless. She put her hands on Ruby's sides and tried to push her away but the woman wasn't having it. She was intent on thoroughly examining the inside of her mouth with more attention to detail than even the exceedingly expensive dentist she went to twice a year. It was still obvious to anyone that Ruby was clearly stronger, as no matter how hard she tried to straighten her back, the woman in her lap kept pushing her more and more horizontal. As flexible as she was, it was getting uncomfortable, and a sharp pain ran up her spine as she was finally pushed far enough that her back touched the footboard. She gasped into Ruby's mouth, making her stop the intense osculations for a moment.

"Ruby, my back-"

Ruby giggled and bit her lip, letting up some of the pressure.

"Oh, sorry. Would you prefer this instead?"

The woman's muscular arms wrapped tightly around her torso, and she was pulled back into an upright sitting position. Just as she was about to say that yes, this was indeed preferable to being bent over the back of the footboard like a blanket, she felt the weight of their bodies continue to fall forward. Her eyes went wide as Ruby's powerful legs yanked them backwards and dropped them onto the mattress, where they bounced into each other. Weiss barely had time to extend her arms to cushion the blow, almost smacking her forehead into Ruby's. After a moment to collect her bearings, Weiss found herself missionaried between the woman's legs, a pair of immensely muscled thighs holding her tightly in place. The heat of Ruby's abdominals and breasts pressing into her own made her shiver. The sly smile never wavered.

"Better?"

The question came out as a whisper. Weiss nodded.

"Uh huh."

"Good."

Ruby's hand came up to caress her face, her short, well-worked fingers brushing ever so softly against her cheek. There was a sparkle in those silver eyes. They spoke to her. As if to say 'I need you'. It made her heart flutter. She couldn't stop staring, examining every line and curve on the woman's dimly illuminated face. She could tell that Ruby was doing the same, studying her so intently.

"Ruby?"

"Yeah?"

Weiss sighed, gazing longingly at one of the woman's many dimples.

"Why are we like this?"

"As in, here, on this bed, naked?"

Weiss stifled a short giggle.

"No, no, as in… in general. As humans. Why are we so flawed?"

"Why do we do stupid things for each other, you mean?"

She nodded, pulling half a smile across her lips. Ruby shrugged, her voice lowing to a whisper again.

"I don't know. We're a peculiar species, biologically. Our heads are too large, our spines are too straight, our claws are… nonexistent. We don't fit in with the social norm of animals. And the way we procreate is… in itself flawed. Our species relies on the interaction of people to continue manifesting, but…"

Ruby paused, exhaling deeply. Weiss caught herself staring at the tattoo on Ruby's boob again, but made no conscious effort to look away.

"But?"

"But we're so driven by this emotion of compassion and attachment that we willingly subject ourselves to personal harm over and over again just for those few fleeting moments of human connection that we may never get again. We're a flawed and stupid species. But I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm glad I did what I did. And I'm glad you did what you did. Because here we are. The same as we were before. But… this time we've earned it. Don't you think?"

Weiss's eyebrows flinched together for a moment.

"I'm not sure what you mean."

"It means that I missed you, Weiss."

Her smile returned. Weiss was happy.

"I missed you too."

"You are so staggeringly beautiful as a person, Weiss. I'm only distraught that it took a pair of life-threatening incidents for me to notice that."

For once, Weiss found herself not filled with the burning feeling of a whole-body blush. She was calm. Her eyes drifted back up to Ruby's. She noticed just how much the woman's pupils had dilated, as if they were trying to capture every last photon of light in the room just so she could look up at her. Weiss blinked very slowly, her eyelashes barely touching.

"Well… from one beautiful person to another… What do you want to do to make up for it? All the lost time?"

Ruby stuck her tongue out slightly and looked up and down along her face for a moment. Weiss watched the movements with a patient trepidation.

"I know what I want to do. What about you, Weiss?"

"Well, I'm in your house. On your bed. Between your legs." she lowered her voice to a whisper. "Don't really think I'm in charge here."

Ruby's fingers traced a delicate circle on her back. Weiss tried not to shiver.

"How about you show me just how sorry you are, then? In a way that I might understand."

This time, the burning blushing sensation had moved further south than her face. About foot and change further down.

"And you're sure?"

The heat coming off Ruby's body felt like it could cause burns. The woman nodded.

"Never been more sure of anything in my life. Sayori, Lights Out, Pink Glow."

This time, the machine didn't say anything. The lights dimmed the rest of the way down and went out, and a soft pink glow started to shimmer out from the baseboard trim, casting an almost romantic light over everything in the room. Including Ruby. The shakes went away.

"Okay."

Weiss reached her head down to kiss her again. But deliberately missed, landing her lips square and gentle on the woman's clavicle. The feedback of a tiny gasp from beneath that clavicle was more than enough invitation to do it again. So she did, peppering a few more kisses along the woman's prominent collar, sweeping from left to right. As close as she was now she could feel the woman's heartbeat through her lips, and it seemed to be speeding up. She traced back across to the woman's right breast, her lips dropping pointed and intention smooches along the soft curve where boob met ribcage. Her eyes flicked up to Ruby's face. The woman's eyes were closed and her bottom lip was tucked up under her front teeth. Weiss shivered. And continued.

Ruby had always been better endowed than she was, that was just a fact she had to come to terms with. Even at Beacon, when they were both still barely adults, Ruby had been the genealogically superior. But that didn't bother her anymore. Not at the moment, anyway. The softness of the skin felt like it was so fragile, as if even her lips could cut through into the almost perfectly round lumps of fatty tissue that so elegantly adorned the woman's otherwise muscular chest. She traced a careful line of kisses along the red mark left by the underwire on the woman's heavy utility bra and up the deep and smooth valley of her sternum, taking a sharp right turn and kissing her way up and onto the boob that bounced back against her lips with each impact. The silver piercing was warm against her lips as she placed a more risque kiss upon it, opening her mouth slightly and gently holding what it was pierced through between her teeth. The tip of her tongue traced the outline of the silver barbell, and she flicked her eyes upward to gauge a reaction. Ruby had her hands up on the headboard, and her eyes softly closed.

With a damp pop, she released the suction on the woman's nipple and let it bounce back down to where it was, and quickly brought back the barrage of gentle kisses to the woman's chest. She could feel the soft and trained heartbeat through her lips, and how it would flutter every time they made contact. Weiss brought her left hand up to the woman's chest, holding her right boob still as she kissed her way up and over the soft skin and across to the other nipple, latching on for a moment. The sound of Ruby's soft, moaned giggle was putting more confidence in her than she had anticipated it doing. She rolled her tongue around the puffed out areola for a moment, Ruby's body moving and twisting beneath her touch. As she unlatched from the mound and pulled back, she noticed that both of Ruby's nipples had puffed out, like they had been inflated off the surface of her breasts. Weiss shivered.

"O-oh."

Ruby opened one eye to look down at her.

"Yeah?"

"Yours do that too, eh?"

Ruby's face, while already deeply red, darkened another shade.

"Uh, y-yeah. I… hope that's okay…I'm a little embarrassed by them..."

Weiss nodded, quite excitedly.

"Definitely okay. Definitely very very okay."

"Goo-ahhh"

Weiss cut her off by eagerly returning her mouth to the unpierced side, sucking almost wantonly at the presented mound and swirling her tongue around the clearly over-sensitive tip. She leaned her bodyweight over to her left side and supported herself on her elbow, reaching up with her right hand to fondle tenderly at the left boob. She was careful to not get too aggressive with her hand, lest she pull the piercing out and inflict any bodily harm to the person she was actively doing the opposite to. She let go of Ruby's right boob with a wet pop, her lips soaked by saliva, and gingerly bit down on the soft and pliable sensitive nipple. Ruby's body jumped, and a gasped sound came from deep within the woman's throat. Weiss responded to this the best way she knew how, by letting go of Ruby's boob and tracing the ends of her fingers very slowly and very deliberately down the woman's stomach, over the scar, and down past her navel. She traced small circles on the woman's lower abdomen, and mirrored the movements with her tongue around her areola.

Ruby's body seemed to be reacting automatically to the treatment. Everywhere her fingers would go, Ruby's hips seemed to follow, the muscles in her butt flexing and thrusting to almost chase her hand around. Like they wanted something. Like they wanted more. Weiss's lips curled into a sinister smile, and she very quickly realized what the woman wanted. She let her fingers trail down the woman's immensely taut and prominent abdominals, following the contours of her very prominent v-shaped adonis belt as it guided her fingers lower and closer to the heat-radiating centre of the woman's body. Weiss deliberately allowed her fingers to trail outwards again as they crossed the divide between stomach and legs, sliding gracefully down the inner curve of Ruby's left thigh. The muscles in said leg tensed and relaxed with an almost rhythmic quality, and the hips turned to try and force her hand back to where she wanted it.

But Weiss wasn't planning on being forced to rush this. She knew exactly what Ruby wanted. And she was more than willing to give it to her. She just wanted to play a little bit first.

"Now, Ruby…" she whispered, her tone silken and levelled. "...tell me what it is I can do for you. To make you feel better."

Ruby's tongue was firmly planted between her teeth, so the only noise the woman made was a breathless, mildly masculine grunt.

"I see… Well, if you don't use your words…"

"Tou-ouch me-"

Ruby's voice was reduced to a rough whimper. The shrill whine she used to have was gone, and all that was left was this almost broken and real sound that came from deep in her lungs. If this was what Ruby's actual voice sounded like, Weiss figured she needed to convince the woman to continue using it as it had started to make her ache in places that hadn't ached in a long time. She shivered, but hit it behind a sly grin.

"What's the magic word?"

Ruby's body twitched under her touch.

"Plee-hee-hease-"

"Well… since you asked so nicely…"

Weiss kept the devilish smile and let her hand float its way back up the inside of Ruby's thighs, thumb and pinkie finger brushing against the skin like her legs were a canvas she was painting. Just before her fingers reached their oh-so-anticipated destination, she stopped short and looked down at her hand, checking to make absolutely sure she had remembered to trim her fingernails. She let out her sigh of relief into Ruby's collar, puckering up her lips and blowing cold air over the smooth skin which quickly broke out into goosebumps as all the hair stood on end.

Weiss was reasonably confident that she knew her way around a body, specifically a woman's, and more specifically Ruby's, having only known the woman for nearly a decade. But she was just a little bit less than prepared for the sound that Ruby made as her fingers finally crossed the bounds of their friendship and into the realm of sexuality neither of them had experienced in this quality before. Ruby's voice, or lack thereof, was horse and strained, but it held a passion and a volume she was actually surprised by, making her briefly stop her handling of the situation. She held back a giggle and pressed on, finding the tip of Ruby's pleasure centre with the pads of her middle and ring finger. And as soon as she did, the woman's whole body flexed off the bed, her bum lifting a good foot off the comforter.

"Huhh-AHHH-fuck-!"

To Weiss, this was a clear indication of what exactly the woman wanted and what exactly she was doing correctly. She licked her lips for a moment, eyeing up her most willing prey, and lowered her mouth back down to the soft peaks. She kissed her way back and forth between the two, her body contorted to a peculiar angle to both keep from breaking her own wrist and pleasure the muscular woman. Every few moments the woman's legs would come together and tighten down, squeezing her hips and forcing her breath out. Weiss was doing her best to not be crushed by the hydraulic-like clamping action, and sped up her ministrations. Not that she wanted to rush this, of course. She just wasn't interested in being squeezed like a tube of toothpaste. At that particular moment.

She decided it was time. Time to turn the tables and allow Ruby the sweet release her convulsing body desired. With another wet pop, she unlatched from the woman's right nipple and started another line of kisses along her chest, kissing a small circle around her solar plexus. She began the trip downward, flexing her arm and fingers, making Ruby lift her stomach upward into her lips for a better angle of attack, gently running her lips down the huge diagonal scar across the woman's stomach. Since she had seen it the first time, she had wanted to do this, kiss the scar to show that she cared. And with what her hand and lips were doing, she was pretty sure Ruby knew that she cared. She crossed over to the woman's navel, kissing a circle around it before following the valley of her abdominals down even further. She only stopped her lip-based assault for a moment to shift her body down and into a more comfortable position, hooking her left arm under Ruby's right thigh and lifting it so she could still reach up to the woman's breasts.

And finally, to the woman's apparent surprise and disappointment, Weiss pulled her absolutely soaked right hand away from her body and hooked her other arm under Ruby's left thigh and gently convinced her legs apart with her shoulders. The woman's eyes flicked open and she sat up on her elbows, staring down at her. Weiss stared back through the top of an invisible pair of glasses.

"Whuh…" Ruby started.

Weiss smirked and licked the corner of her mouth.

"Not what you were expecting?"

Ruby blinked, her breathing heavy and ragged. She shook her head.

"Would you like me to continue?"

Ruby nodded. Vigorously.

"Then lie back down. And relax."

Ruby did as instructed, lowering her back down to the comforter and gripping her headboard with both hands. Weiss dropped the sly smirk as she looked back down to her job at hand. She realized that this, while not strictly a new experience, was certainly one that she hadn't taken part in in over a decade. And this was with Ruby, the one person she didn't want to disappoint. She took a deep breath to steady her nerves, and realized that while Ruby's body certainly had a smell to it, it wasn't unpleasant. She knew Ruby's thoughts on personal hygiene and grooming. And for once, she was genuinely excited. She closed her eyes, and lowered her head.

Ruby's thighs flexed against her cheeks, and her life flashed briefly before her eyes. She remembered a moment in fourth year at Beacon when the woman had cracked open a Beowulf skull between her legs in Port's Advanced Grimm Studies class. The mess had been so catastrophic the carpets had to be replaced, as did most of the desks in the first row. And the way the animal had suddenly stopped screaming was still etched in her mind almost six years later. She brought her hands around and grabbed the muscular weapons and did her best to hold them apart as she dragged a rough circle with her tongue. She opened one eye just slightly to watch what Ruby's body was doing, and was a little shocked to see her bending the solid hickory headboard. Weiss closed her eyes again and fought the muscular vice around her ears, focussed on one thing and one thing only.

It felt like what she imagined kissing a guy was like. The stubble was rough against her upper lip, but the rest of the experience was mostly no different than making out, although these lips didn't kiss back. She smiled into her actions, speeding up her movements and pushing her tongue harder into the very centre of all things Ruby. The woman's body responded in kind, the rock-hard core flexing and her glutes lifting her hips off the bed. Weiss felt Ruby's right heel suddenly press into her spine, which she thought nothing of right up until she felt the woman's other heel overlap it. The vice closed, making her body jolt to attention. Her own well-worked arms were no match for the brute force capable of Ruby's lower half, but they were just enough to stop her from ending up like that poor Beowulf. A sound escaped the woman's lips, one that Weiss had never heard before. And clearly, neither had Ruby, as it was followed by a short yelp, and the sound of a hand slapping against her mouth. Weiss chuckled to herself, content that what she was doing was working.

The sound of the headboard breaking was like a cannon going off, and it woke her up just in time to lift her mouth off of Ruby and slide her shoulders forward, as the woman's entire body flexed in euphoria and release. Weiss ignored the pop of her shoulder and the eye-watering pain that followed, simply holding on for dear life for a moment as the waves of pleasure finally subsided and Ruby once-starved, now-fulfilled weapon of a body relaxed against the bed. She sat up, untangling herself from the legs, and turned her body slightly to discreetly relocate her right shoulder into its socket with a dull pop. She settled onto her knees between Ruby's ankles and reached for her pile of clothing, pulling out a silk handkerchief that still smelled like the laundry.

"Huff-"

The woman laid out in front of her tried to speak, and failed spectacularly doing so. Weiss smiled, gingerly wiping her lips off, and stuck out her tongue to do the same. She neatly folded the cloth back up and tucked it away under her pile of clothes. She checked her breath, and finding that while it didn't smell bad, it still smelled like something she wouldn't want Ruby to be smelling. Seeing as said woman was still incapacitated, she reached back into her pile and found the only recently opened packet of chewing gum and cracked one into her fingers, slipping it between her teeth quickly and silently. As soon as she bit down, the mildly sour taste left in her mouth was replaced by 'Hurricane Mountain Mint', which she much preferred. Ruby's lidded eyes flicked slowly open, and a dumb smile crossed her lips once again revealing her pearly whites. Weiss chuckled and tilted her head.

"Are you okay?"

Ruby laughed.

"Fuck you."

"What?"

"How dare you keep this from me."

Weiss raised an eyebrow.

"I'm sorry?"

Ruby laughed again.

"Hell yeah, you're sorry. But you know what?"

"What?"

Ruby pointed, her arm obviously exhausted.

"I forgive you. C'mere."

Weiss shrugged to herself and crawled carefully around Ruby's legs, shuffling on her knees up to the headboard, which had a fantastic vertical crack right down the centre, and spun around to rest her back against it. Ruby sat up as well, shuffling slowly back so they sat against the headboard, shoulder to extremely naked shoulder. Weiss crossed her legs and politely placed her hands in her lap. Ruby, less so, her body sprawled mostly in an upright position, feet apart, one knee up to her chest. The woman sighed, and Weiss glanced over.

"I've never… I, uh…" she started.

"Hmm?" Weiss turned her attention to the woman, watching the red glow of her cheeks.

Ruby seemed sheepish, and she let out a dry chuckle.

"I, uh… this is kinda awkward, but, uh…" Ruby sniffled. "It's never… I've never…"

"Orgasmed?" Weiss said, pushing through the trepidation with ease.

Ruby shivered.

"...Quite so hard or fast before."

Weiss snorted, hiding it behind a smile.

"O-oh." she chuckled. "Well, if you wanted me to slow down, I would have."

"Hell , I-I.. I needed it then and I needed it to happen as fast as it did. I… think it would have hurt if you had gone any slower. I feel like I should say sorry, I feel like you barely did anything."

Weiss rolled her eyes and smacked the woman on the thigh.

"Oh, you, you're fine. I have actually done this before, I'm not as inexperienced as everyone always thinks I am."

"I didn't mean it like that, I just mean…" Ruby paused and scratched her head. "...When I touch myself, it's always very procedural for me. It's just get it out of the way, get it done with, go to bed. That's how we're trained."

Weiss frowned.

"Trained?"

"Yeah, it's something the military tells us to do when we go on away missions. Something like 'personal pleasure can reduce battle stress and improve decision-making faculties' or something. The base doctor emphasizes something about doing it."

"That's uh… that's certainly peculiar."

"And I've never really taken pleasure in… pleasuring myself, but to the doctor's credit, it does relieve stress on away missions when I'm out in the field, thousands of miles from civilization surrounded by Grimm or bad guys with explosives. So, again… sorry if I went off too quickly."

Weiss rolled her eyes and sighed, slinging her arm around the woman and grasping her by the shoulder.

"Please don't be sorry, Ruby. I can tell you I enjoyed what I was doing, short or not. Unless you plan on kicking me out now without even a smoke."

Ruby's laugh vibrated through her ribs.

"Ew, smoking is gross."

"Yeah…" she sighed. "I can agree with you there."

"Hey, uh… did you…" Ruby fidgeted. "Did you want me to, you know… reciprocate?"

Weiss looked down at the top of the woman's head, and watched her idly twiddle her thumbs.

"Hmm? Oh, goodness, no, I wouldn't expect that from you. Not now, anyway."

"Oh."

"I don't need to orgasm to have fun during sex, Ruby."

"I thought that was just a lie straight girls tell their boyfriends when they're bad at it."

Weiss gave Ruby's leg another playful smack.

"No, I literally don't though. That's the beauty of being a top."

She could feel Ruby's blush return without even looking.

"O-oh."

"Don't worry about me. I'll be alright. Knowing that you forgive me for being stupid and stealing your stuff. And your clothes."

"I do forgive you," she sniffled. "I mean, obviously, I wouldn't have let you do what you just did to me. Which, If I haven't already expressed, was fucking fantastic."

Weiss chuffed, and tried not to let the compliment go to her head.

"I'm glad you enjoyed yourself."

"No, I'm glad you enjoyed me. And I can tell you really cared about how I was feeling. Both before and after."

"What gave that away?"

Ruby smirked and looked up at her.

"Oh, I dunno, the fact that you bothered to wipe your mouth and try and get rid of the vag-taste with gum."

Weiss flushed.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Ruby giggled and rolled towards her, slinging a shaky leg over her lap and sat down facing her. Weiss looked up into the woman's beautiful silver eyes, illuminated still only by the red glow of the room.

"Don't think I didn't notice."

Ruby's fingers laced together behind her neck, and Weiss finally put aside her trepidation and laced her own behind the woman's back.

"Well, on the incredibly rare chance that you might want to kiss me again, I wouldn't want you to have to taste… well, yourself."

Ruby shook her head and pressed her chest closer. Their noses almost touched.

"Why are you so nice to me?"

"I have a reason."

"Oh yeah? What's your reason?"

Weiss smiled.

"I love you."

Ruby chuckled.

"How convenient."

"How's that?"

"I love you too."

Fin