Prompt: In late medieval France, inventor Ruby Rose has created the first ever flying machine! Something she dubs a Hot Air Balloon. It is her goal to take it to show the king of France and use it as a gift to ask for the hand of the king's second daughter, princess Weiss Schnee
Ruby was in her workshop, hunched down as she was scribbling down her latest work. She like to think that this place was her hideout. All of her Tools were placed on one corner, each organized by type and category. The opposite of that was where countless other blueprints are plastered on the wall. Below those are two large blackboards with different drawings of machines and such.
In the middle was a long work table, all of her other little projects littered the space. A random bolt here, a random piece of metal there, and another bunch of tools and quipment thrown in on the mess.
After wiping the sweat from her brow, Ruby lifted the piece of paper she was sketching on for the past six hours. Using the candlelight to illuminate the blueprint she had just drawn.
The blueprint depicted a basket suspended by a globe-shaped parachute of sorts made from sackcloth.
But this wasn't just some basket with a parachute attached to it. What Ruby did was genius of her. She can make the thing fly! By heating the air with open flames inside the parachute. Although, she had yet to test the actual concept with people.
She was sure she could pull it off, hoped she pulled it off.
Her very first test was with a simple 111.3m box made out of very thin wood, and covered the sides and top with lightweight cloth. She crumpled and lit some paper under the bottom of the box. The thing quickly lifted off its stand and collided with the ceiling.
Ruby was excited at her invention. After years of hard work and dedication. She could finally make something remarkable.
After she was done doing some final calculations. She placed the blueprints next to the stack of letters. She picked up the latest one from the pile and held it up. It was light blue and written on the front were the words "my beloved Rosebud".
She opened it with a letter opener, she was greeted with the most beautiful handwriting she had ever seen. Well, that could be said with all of the letters she had received.
Dear Ruby,
Did you receive my last letter? I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't. You can act like a dolt sometimes. Have you eaten already? You do know that non-stop work is bad for right? Rest from time to time isn't a bad idea.
If you're asking how my day is. It was another mundane affair. My father took me with him to his palace parties. He made me sing in front of his guests again. I hated how he paraded me like I'm his prize trophy or something. You know that this wasn't the first time but I'm just so sick and tired of it.
Sorry if I'm venting while writing this. It's just... Life has been hard recently. And the only thing I look forward to is writing this letter to you. Imagining your cute dopey face when reading this. I can run away from here and go to you if It is that simple. Just know that every moment I miss you so much.
I know you're thinking of ways to get me out of here. Just don't do something dumb that will get you killed okay?
Because I want to finally say I love you in person. Stay safe you hear me?
With love, Weiss Schnee
Ruby sat there rereading the letter again and again. Even though they exchange letters every month. Ruby still cherished every single letter she had. She keeps on repeating the words Weiss said in the letter.
I love you
This got Ruby super motivated to finish her invention now. All she had to do was add the final measurements and it was good as done.
She wasn't doing this all for herself, but all of this was for Weiss. No way would the king surrender one of his children. But by giving the king something a gift, a gift never before been seen. Like for example, a way for someone to fly? She asked Weiss about this plan last month, and she approved of it.
The final part of this plan was that after she'd given the king the flying device. Ruby would then ask the king for... For the hand of the king's second daughter, Weiss
She couldn't believe it herself. All she had to do was give that sorry excuse of a king a gift and then they would be together finally. Ruby wasn't sure if they could succeed in this. She was relying on if the king was greedy enough to make the deal. But Weiss reassured Ruby that her father was a greedy man that thought nothing but money.
All she got to do was trust Weiss. And trust her she did.
Ruby hadn't noticed that she was working for the past nine hours. She could tell by the number of candles she'd used. All nine of the candles are reduced to nothing but puddles of wax.
"Oops, Sorry Weiss! I'll try to sleep now." She said to the letter. The first thing she did was to compile all the work that she did and place all of them in a locker.
With one final yawn, she went back to where she was originally sitting. She then rested her head on the table, Finally closing her eyes.
Naturally, she woke up very sore and very hungry. She knew it was a bad idea to sleep here than in her bed. That was what she get for being too lazy to climb a bunch of stairs and sleeping in her bed.
As she was shaking off her last bit of drowsiness. Looking outside through her window, she noticed that it was already high noon.
Ruby stood up and slowly went to the bathroom to wash herself. After she was done she cooked herself a modest breakfast, or lunch depending on who she ask.
She then remembered that there was something she was suppose to do. After doing some morning stretches, Retrieving all of her notes from last night, putting them in her bag, and ran outside.
When Ruby reached the palace gate, She saw two identical men in armor guarding the entrance. She was getting near the entrance, but she was blocked on the way by the two guards.
"Halt!" Said the guard on the right. He hefted his spear towards Ruby.
"Woah there! Are you... Threatening me?" Ruby raised one eyebrow to the right guard holding the spear.
"Yes, yes I am" the guard confirmed.
"Oh, yeah you have a point there. Uhh... No pun intended. Just asking." Ruby retreated an inch from where she was standing earlier, using her finger to move the spear away from her face.
"leave now, little girl. The palace is forbidden to those not invited by the king." The left guard said.
"Wait!" Ruby exclaimed.
A few moments later, she could hear the sound of an oncoming carriage. When Ruby turned around she saw a line of carriages, each wealthy-looking, and was being dragged by white horses.
The guards opened the gate and the first half of the carriages entered the gate. The middle carriage halted before it could enter. The door of the middle carriage opened. Revealing the king himself, Jacque Schnee. He stepped out of his carriage and stood in front of Ruby.
There was another familiar white-haired girl coming out as well. The person in question was a lot shorter, About a little taller than Ruby with high heels. Instead of disgust like her father, the look she was giving to Ruby was affectionate. It took all of Ruby's focus not be a blushing mess in front of the king.
"Why is there a girl in front of my castle? Don't tell me she's another beggar? Look at how dirty she is." Said the king with a disgusted look on his face.
Ruby had to resist the urge to punch the king his crown jewels. She didn't even look that dirty. She already had a bath and change of clothes this morning, or noon depending on who she ask.
She was doing this all for Weiss, she reminded herself. She couldn't mess this up. One wrong move and potentially they would never see each other ever again.
"No your highness." Ruby kneeled down. "I'm uhh... Ruby Rose, I own a workshop and I invent stuff. I inherited that from dad, the workshop I mean. Did an apprenticeship in blacksmithing and I always dream of making amazing things. Sooo... I would like to give you something your majesty." Ruby finished her babbling and presented to the king the notes she was carrying in her bag.
The king took the blueprints from her hands and started to read it. "what is this then?" Referring to her drawing.
"Oh. That's where you stand king sir. Above that is an inflatable parachute, all it needs is open flames to-" Ruby was cut off from explaining when the king raised his hands.
"Did you test this to see if it works? Can this make a person fly?"
"Err... not yet your highness. So far I only tested the concept of-"
"Then this is useless! You're not the first inventor to give me these ridiculous claims like flying. Leave before I put you in my dungeon like the rest of the liars!" The king shouted. Throwing all of her blueprints away.
She watched in horror as the man stomped every paper on the ground with his shoes. All that effort she did on making those, Basically amounts to dirt to him.
"And it doesn't even look like a flying device. It looks like a basket with a huge egg on top. It doesn't even have wings!"
Ruby started to pick up every paper from the ground. She tried her hardest not cry in front of Weiss. But she couldn't stop a tear or two from running down her face. She never felt so useless in her life. This was suppose to be the chance where Weiss and her could finally be together. Now she was failure in keeping that promise.
Ruby then felt something wiping her tears. She looked up at the person who was doing that, and saw Weiss kneeling next to her. Wiping Ruby's face with a handkerchief.
"There there...Ruby" Weiss whispering her name. "I'm so sorry." She had a look of concern in her. This caused Ruby to tear up even more. She took the handkerchief and wiped her face with it. After she was done, she continued on picking up her notes. Next to her was Weiss Helping her.
After a few seconds Weiss finished picking up half of the notes on the ground. She then stood up and face her father. "That's no way to treat people, father. You hadn't even let her explain what she did." Her tone was almost like knives stabbing her father. But he paid it no attention.
"And you young lady need to learn that compassion is nothing but weakness. And a Schnee doesn't have any weaknesses."
She ignored her father, turning around to face Ruby. "Just wait until I'm no longer that...but instead a Rose" Weiss whispered quietly that only Ruby could hear. Handing over the notes as if putting all of her trust to Ruby.
Ruby saw Weiss walking back towards the carriage. Not saying a word to her father, The king followed soon after.
Ruby didn't need to be told twice that she needed to leave. With one final look at the palace, she retreated back towards town.
As she was walking back to the workshop, she noticed that she still held on to Weiss's handkerchief. She held it up as if it was made of pure gold. She tied the handkerchief on to her wrist. As a reminder of what she was fighting for.
When she got back, Ruby cleared out all of the junk on the table. And then she spread out all of her notes she salvaged from earlier to see if she could still decipher some of it.
She could still see the drawings, but the finer details and calculations were all unreadable. She had no choice but to redo some of it. And this time, she would make it so that it could accommodate a person.
Grabbing one of the ink trays, she dipped her pen on it and started writing.
Weiss was sulking in her bed, Ruby still hadn't wrote a message since the incident. And it was a month ago. She was getting extremely worried.
She tried sending more letters but still no reply. Could it be that she couldn't? Maybe she might be busy finishing her project.Was her father blocking their communication? Maybe he found out that they're exchanging letters and put a stop to it.
What if her father did something to Ruby? He was still angry after she helped Ruby, could that be it? She was scared that her father might send assassins or hitmen to Ruby's house. He was a petty man and didn't hesitate to resort to such evil.
Or what if... it wasn't because of her father's doing, but Ruby's? What if Ruby decided that she had enough of this relationship and didn't want to see her now? Ruby probably thought that Weiss wasn't worth the trouble and cut Weiss out of her life.
Just thinking about it felt like a punch in the gut. Like a hole drilling in her chest. She didn't want to believe that Ruby had given up on her. All she could do was put all of her trust in Ruby.
Ugh... All of this stressful speculation was driving her crazy. Weiss climbed out of her bed and walked towards her window. She could see the whole place from way up here. Even the gate area where she last saw Ruby.
Weiss gazed towards the sky. It was late afternoon, and it was cloudy the whole day, making today extra dull.
She then noticed that there was a parting of clouds. Sunlight streamed down from the sky. Then from above she saw... Something coming down from the sky where the clouds parted.
Weiss stood up and pressed her face in the window. Her reaction was that of suprise and bewilderment. The thing was globe shaped with a hanging basket at the bottom.
She wasn't sure what she was seeing. But at the same time it was somewhat familiar to her. As if she already saw it from somewhere... but that was impossible because she would surely remember if she saw something flying up in the air...
She could also see something waving from the basket. It was almost like a person was in there.
Weiss suddenly remembered that she had a telescope somewhere in her room. She went to her closet where her stuff was. After grabbing her telescope, she dragged it to her window. Looking at the eyepiece, her vision was enhanced to the point she could see far away objects. Like a waving person in a flying device.
Wait. A Flying device, globe-shaped basket. A very familiar silver-eyed brunette... It was none other than Ruby.
Ruby! She really did come back for her, in a functional flying device no less. She could see that Ruby was descending slowly down towards their royal garden.
Weiss didn't know why. But she suddenly had a feeling that she was leaving this place for good. She started packing her clothes and other memorabilia. She grabbed her personal rapier, Myrtenaster, and hurried outside.
It took her thirty minutes to finish packing. At that time the other people in this palace noticed Ruby descending as well. All from gardeners, bakers/cooks, to soldiers and other officials.
They formed a semi-circle as they waited for that thing to descend. Weiss had to elbow her way to get to the front. When she arrived in the front, she saw her father standing there looking irritated. With him stood armored soldiers about ten of them.
Soon after the flying device landed in front of them. She could see Ruby peeking from her basket, looking at her surroundings. When Ruby's eyes met her's, all of Weiss's self doubt disappeared, replaced with the feeling of delight and bliss.
Ruby slowly exited her hiding place and stood in front of the king. "Why your majesty." Ruby bowed.
Grabbing something from her bag, she presented to the king a book. "I offer this" waving the book in her hands. "This book holds the blueprints in making more of these. I'm calling them air balloons by the way." Ruby said with a wink. Surprising both Weiss and the king. Weiss didn't thought that Ruby could be this confident. "Imagine how much money you could make selling these. How you can use them in transportation and such."
The king was about to grab the book when suddenly Ruby walked back an inch. "I did say that this was a gift to you, my king. But then I remember that *somebody* made it difficult to make this, since the original plans were ruined by someone. I do want a compensation for that." Ruby offered.
The king understood what she was talking about. "What do you want? Money? Say your price"
"Nope, the thing I want is..." Ruby stealing a glance towards Weiss. "Permission to marry a Schnee!" Blushing as Ruby said the final part. Hearing this, Weiss couldn't resist being a little red herself.
"Oh. You want to marry prince Whitley? Well, I know you just want to enter this family but-" she was cut off by Ruby.
"Eww no. I'm not referring to him" Ruby said. She turned towards Weiss. And with one hand, she grabbed Weiss's wrist and pulled her in. Now they were side by side.
It quickly dawned to Jacque on what was happening. "You want to marry the princess? But aren't you a girl as well?"
"Yes, yes I am. Is there a problem with that?" Ruby raising an eyebrow to the question.
"And of course I accept your proposal Ruby." Weiss stood defiantly right next to Ruby. "And I'm leaving with her."
The king finally noticed the bags Weiss was holding. His face not displaying any emotions of happiness or anger, Just annoyance.
"Do we have a deal your majesty?" Ruby asked again. Handing over the book.
The king took it and flipped through the pages. Something caught the interest of the king. He then gave Ruby a nod.
"You can have her. I was about have her just marry a random lord anyway. But otherwise I don't care who she ends up with." And with that, he turned around and walked away.
Without warning Ruby dragged Weiss away towards the air balloon. Ruby helped her in putting all of her stuff inside. When they're done with packing, they went inside the basket.
Ruby stood up and did something to the flames. In a few seconds they slowly rise from the ground. The other spectators gawked at the thing flying away. They continue to rise until they reached the clouds. The people below couldn't even see them now.
They sat in silence while the wind blew hard on their air balloon. Weiss couldn't process what had just happened earlier. It just happened so fast. One time she was mopping, now she was literally in the sky being the happiest person in the world.
"So... Hello again Weiss" Ruby breaking the silence, doing an awkward wave.
Naturally, Weiss did the most normal thing possible. She tackled Ruby into a hug. The air balloon jolted down suddenly before coming back up. But Weiss didn't care of that and instead focus on hugging Ruby.
"I knew that you'll come back" Weiss said, Buried deep down on Ruby's shoulder.
"Aww Weiss. Glad you think of that."
"But..." Weiss retreated a little, she then started to lightly punch Ruby multiple times in the arms.
"Why did you not message me as soon as possible? Did you know how worried I was you... dolt!"
After she was done bombarding Ruby with punches, they went back to hugging each other. All that time, Ruby hadn't stopped smiling.
"Hey Weiss."
"Mhmm?"
"Can you say 'i love you'"
"Why do you want me to do that? I already said that multiple times."
"Yeah, but those were from the letters. I want to hear it out loud." Ruby said, giving Weiss the most beautiful smile she had ever received. Her silver eyes twinkle like the stars above.
"I love you" Weiss said as she closes the distance between them. What they did could only be seen as a tiny speck in the sky.
A.N. So yeah, forget about Ruby somehow landing at the most convenient spot possible even though hot air balloons is uncontrollable. Let's just say that she has the power of love and anime on her side ;)