Author's Note: Here we go! Another Thursday, another chapter! This one was actually really fun to write. Less fun to edit, but still fun. Anyway, enjoy!
The ice skating rink was almost empty when we got in. A teenaged-looking snow fox faunus greeted us at the door. How fitting, a snow fox at an ice skating rink.
"Hello, welcome to Dry Ice Skating Rink. Two?" She asks, motioning towards us. Ruby nods. After telling her our shoe sizes, we get our skates and go out onto the rink. There's another family of four that looks to be teaching their youngest how to skate, but other than them and the one snow fox faunus, Ruby and I are the only ones here. We get our shoes on, and we step out onto the rink. Well, I step out first. I feel that familiar rush of skating and remember how much I really love doing it. I skate forward to the other side of the rink and do a quick look back at Ruby. Ruby, well, Ruby starts going out onto the rink, her face confident. And while she shows confidence, she just kind of tumbles onto the rink. On her first step, she slips and falls onto her back. But does she give up? Oh, no. She keeps going. Every step she takes, she falls flat.
"Ruby?" I ask, skating right up to the front of her, concerned.
"Yes, Weiss?" She asks, looking up from the ground.
"You've never skated before, have you?" Our eyes meet, and she looks away from embarrassment
"I have! Once… a few years ago…" her face starts turning red, and I can't help but smile. She's adorable.
"Come on, take my hand. I'll teach you how." Hesitantly, Ruby grabs my hand and I help her up. She's shaky, but holding onto my hand, she's standing.
I run her through the basics of skating, and she catches on somewhat quickly. She stays up for a few minutes at a time instead of seconds before falling. Progress is progress. A part of me is proud of her for learning and improving so quickly, but a part of me is sad that the better she gets, the less she falls; and the the less she falls, the less I'll get to see the absolutely adorable face that she makes when she does.
Her eyes go wide as she falls. But then on impact with the ground, her nose scrunches and her eyes squint. After that, she looks up at me from the ground with the cutest pout I've ever seen and little puppy dog eyes. And then followed by a smile as I help her up each time. After about an hour of teaching Ruby how to skate, her normally carefree and jubilant attitude slowly fading into a more sombre one. She slows down her skating and ends up stopping behind me. I quickly turn around and make my way over to her.
"Ruby, what's wrong?" I ask after stopping next to her.
"Weiss, you've been trying to help me learn how to skate this whole time. You haven't done anything that's fun for you, and that's why we came here. When I first did this, it was a lot easier. Or at least, it felt easier than now. I'm sorry for letting you down, Weiss."
"Ruby, of course I'm having fun. I've been having fun since you decided that's what we were going to do." Silver orbs shine up to me.
"It was fun, wasn't it?" a smile accompanies the now happy tone in her voice.
"Yes, it has been fun. But I don't know, Ruby…" I trail off. Her smile fades a little bit. "I don't think I've had enough fun. Let's keep going for a while more, and then do you have anything else we can do?" Her smile lights up once again: a sight that I can never really be tired of, even if I tried to force it.
"Well, I might know of a few places…" she smiles. I smile back. We keep skating around for another half an hour or so, enjoying one another's company.
As we ended our skating, we go back to the edge of the rink, take our shoes off, and walk to the counter laughing about how many times Ruby fell compared to me. The total was somewhere around 50 or so times compared to my impressive 0. We approach the front desk where the faunus is there, waiting for us.
"Did you ladies have fun out there?" She hands us back our shoes. Ruby nods excitedly.
"Yes we did…" I trail off as I look her up and down for a name tag of any sort so that I could be polite and address her by name, but can't find one.
"See something you like?" the lady asks, a smirk on her face. I guess she thought I was checking her out when I was looking for her name tag, if they even do that here.
I look away, a little flustered. "Th-that's not what I was doing. I'm sorry."
"Hey, to be fair, I do."
I look back at her, surprised to see her looking me up and down, her eyes hungry, her smirk very apparent, and her ears standing at attention. I blush.
"Ahem" Ruby coughs. She's standing behind me awkwardly, her hands clasped in front of her, and her face downcast.
"Oh, sorry. I didn't realize. You shouldn't be checking out other girls in front of your girlfriend," she says, slightly judgmentally and with a smirk.
"She's not… we're not… it's not like that!" Ruby flusters, her face red with blush; meanwhile, I'm too embarrassed to even say anything. I can feel my face flush more than it has any time in the past 3 weeks. I wish we were like that. That's one of the two reasons that I'm here now.
"Whatever you say, Red." She rolls her eyes and looks at me. "In that case, cutie, here's my number. Message me or call me, whatever you want." She winks. I gingerly take the slip of paper with numbers scribbled on it that she's extending towards me. Immediately after taking the paper, I realize that I didn't WANT to take the paper, that my brain seemed to go on autopilot. I curse myself internally.
"Th-thanks…" I say, still extremely embarrassed, trying not to meet the eyes of either Ruby or Jemma. I exit the building quickly, head bowed and cheeks tinted crimson. I throw the piece of paper as soon as I can. I wait outside of the building for Ruby, thoughts swirling in my mind that I hadn't thought of before.
I don't even know if Ruby LIKES girls, let alone ME. And she seemed like she was disgusted by the idea of us being girlfriends. Am I really going to get what I want here?
Just then, the door opens and out walks Ruby. I walk up next to her. She's still kind of blushing.
"So where's that paper with her number on it?" She asks, almost immediately. Her voice is almost akin to a schoolkid teasing her friend.
"I threw it away," I huff, crossing my arms, feeling like an idiot for taking the paper in the first place, especially with Ruby standing right there.
"Why'd you do that?" She asks me. While she obviously tries to hide it, I can see a slight change in her eyes. It's small, but there is a newfound glint in them for a split second.
"Because I'm not interested in her. She's not my type." As I say it, I try to make it obvious that I'm really not interested in this girl, but in Ruby. I look at Ruby after saying this, hoping that it'll make it more noticeable that it's her that's my type, not this fox faunus..
"Same. Yeah, she's really pretty, but she's not the pretty that I like." Ruby explains, walking us towards the next location. I'm not paying attention to the direction that we're going because this conversation has the potential to answer some of my questions that I had earlier.
"Oh? So what kind of pretty is your type?" I prod, not wanting to dig too deep yet.
"Well, it's gotta be real beauty. Not this fake beauty that a lot of people have these days, but like actual, real, genuine beauty. And I'm not talking about using makeup or not, I'm talking about inner beauty. The kind of girl that will make you feel happy just by being around them. Like, funny and caring and sweet and affectionate and not overly confident and just, yknow?" Ruby rambles on, surprisingly finishing all of that in the same breath she started it with.
Wait, she said "the kind of girl". As in, she does like girls. Wow, well that answered that. A surge of emotions rises in my chest, happiness and relief being the chief ones. "Wow, you certainly know what you want," I say.
"Yeah, I'd like to think so." Silence falls after that as we keep walking, but shortly after it starts, Ruby speaks up again, somewhat awkwardly. "So… what's your type, Weiss?"
You.
"Ummmmm, I need to think about that." I lie.
It's you.
Gathering my thoughts, I come up with something that won't give that desire away, yet stays true to what I think. "I think that a big part of who I like is who I enjoy being around. Being able to be around a person through anything is very important to me: forming the bonds necessary for a healthy and happy relationship and understanding the person well enough before dating so that we can make each other happier in the relationship."
You're my type, Ruby Rose.
"If… if she… if she can make me happy with just a smile; if she can make my heart flutter with a simple greeting; then she is my type. So I guess it's not a type, but more of a feeling." I'm rambling again and sound like a lovesick schoolgirl, what with all the talk about what my type is, and then the dreamy voice that I ended up having during my explanation.
I love you.
By the time I'm done explaining, Ruby has stopped in front of a small café. It turns out that we were walking West the entire time.
This is so much harder than I thought. My feelings are so strong, but I can't do anything now. Or can I? I could ask her out now… No, that's too soon. And right after talking about my type. How cheesy is that? But I can't just do nothing forever. Waiting like this hurts. Coming back in time, I thought that everything would be easier because I knew how I felt, and I could just start off right to it… But it's so much harder than I ever could have thought. I just want to wrap my arms around Ruby, push her up against the wall and kiss her… But that's not an option right now. It may never be an option. No, stop thinking like that, Weiss. Just be patient. All good things to those who wait.
"I like that description, Weiss. I think… I think it suits you. Er… your personality." Ruby says before taking me inside the café. She stumbles over her own words a little bit. I can't help but chuckle to myself at how endearing it sounds. But it's a shallow laugh, because as soon as it's done, the feeling of existential dread once again takes hold of my mind.
"Thank you, Ruby…" I whisper under my breath, not really sure if that's the correct response to that.
We get inside and take a seat. After about half a minute, a waitress comes up and asks for our orders.
"Hey there, you two. Can I start you off with something to drink?" She asks, looking between us.
"I'll take some coffee." Ruby says with a large smile. I make eye contact with her, my face somewhat stern. "Decaf…" she trails off, defeated.
"I will have a water, no ice," I respond.
"Great! I'll have those out for you real soon. Go ahead and look through your menus to see what you would like to have, and I'll be right back."
The time spent waiting for the waitress to return is filled with awkward silence as I think about what was said. Ruby also sits in silence, whether that be because she's thinking about what was said like I am, because she can sense me deep in thought and not want to bother me, or some other reason unbeknownst to me. The smooth jazz in the background making it easy for me to slip into my thoughts.
She likes girls… that much is clear. But me? That's still up in the air. I doubt it, honestly. I came back in time and space to find a way to save Ruby from her fate, yes. But also to fall in love with her all over again, and then to try and get her to be mine. But what if I never get that to happen? And if I do, then what? I don't know what a relationship is like, let alone how to have a relationship while I'm living a lie. How can I love her without telling her what has happened… what I am?
"Here you go, ladies. Are you ready to order?" The waitress pulls me out from my musings.
"Yeah, I'll take some of your chocolate chip cookies!" Ruby says enthusiastically.
"Okay, one plate of chocolate chip cookies for you, and for you, ma'am?" The waitress asks, looking at me.
"Oh! I'll uh… I'll take some… strawberry cheesecake." I fold my menu up and hand it to the waitress and stare off into space again. I don't have to look through the menu. This is always what I got when I went with Ruby back then. Or is it forward then? It's hard to know what to say when referring to the old life. It seems like seconds before she comes back with our food.
"Here you go, ladies. Enjoy your date!" She says, walking away.
"It's not…" Ruby starts, but quickly fades once she realizes that the waitress can't hear her anymore. Ruby blushes again and starts shifting awkwardly in her chair. I look down at my hands and start wringing them together.
She's also so defensive that we're not on a date. That doesn't bode well.
Once again, a wave of doubt floods in through my mind. She can't feel the same way about me. I knew her for fourteen years before she died in my time, and she never once said anything about interests in love. What makes you think that you're going to change that in three weeks? The doubt is making my anxiety flare up, but I'm trying my best to hide it so that Ruby doesn't see.
"So… are you having fun, Weiss?" Ruby asks cautiously, almost like she's afraid to disturb me.
"Yeah, I'm having a lot of fun, Ruby!" I respond with an extremely fake smile. Ruby sees right through my facade, apparently.
"But you're being so quiet, are you sure?" She looks worried. I can't tell her what's really going on in my mind. Not all of it, at least.
"Yeah, I'm just thinking about something," I say with a sigh, pinching the bridge of my nose. Great job, Weiss. Now you're making it MORE awkward than it already was."
"Is it the stuff those ladies said about it being like a date?"
I flinch a little at how direct she was. "Y-yeah, something like that…" I cough involuntarily, as I wasn't expecting this kind of thing to be talked about so quickly.
"I see…" She trails off. A few moments of silence pass as we both just kind of stare at the food in front of us. I can't help but dread the coming conversation.
What's she going to say? Is she going to say that this is nothing? That this is SOMETHING? My heartbeat surges.
"Hey Weiss?" Ruby asks, interrupting the quiet between us.
"Yes, Ruby?" The fear that I currently have over the next few words. Those few simple words that will most likely break me.
"Can I tell you something?" Her face is tinted slightly, and a shy smile is stretching its way across her face.
"Yes, Ruby." I swallow, anticipating whatever she's about to say. She might be telling me that she likes someone else. Or that she knows how I feel and doesn't feel the same. Or maybe she'll just say that she's not looking for anything right now. It would make sense.
"I… I uh…" She trails off, her face extremely red. She looks down at her lap and almost shouts. "Ithinkyou'rereallypretty!"