Author's Note:
And we are back again to this story~ I wrote it to take a break from writing 'The Truth and What Matters', and... yeah.
Enjoy!
Strangers: Become Lovers
Act II
SCHN33
14:00
WEDNESDAY
"Hey, Weiss?"
She felt as though a simple hum would do - she still disliked the name, but the human, unfortunately, was insistent on calling her that.
"What do you think about Beacon?"
She slowly turned her head to the girl sitting on the bench next to her, slightly puzzled by the vagueness. "The school, or the revolution?"
Ruby herself looked a little unsure, but nonetheless answered, "Err, both, I guess."
Weiss straightened her face and closed her eyes, going through many, many networks and downloading each and every description of Beacon before compiling it all and handpicking which one was the most rational and easy-to-understand information.
The process took half a second in human's time.
"Beacon; a school, created by Ozpin, to learn - a university of sorts. Beacon; a place that has become a haven for both humans and androids who want to be 'free'."
She prided her answer and was frankly a little offended when the human began laughing. She gave a glare and demanded, "What's so funny?"
"Nothing, nothing," lied the human. She then turned her body sideways so she could look at the android better. "Let me rephrase my question; how do you feel about Beacon?"
The android blinked, staring into those lively silver eyes for a second too long before moving them to the scenery in front of them.
It had been a week.
A week since the brunette made that bold claim.
The claim that, for some reason, resonated within something inside her.
It was… odd. Yet she didn't question it.
In fact, she didn't question a lot of things, even if the more diligent part of her urged her to. The past week which she'd gotten to know Ruby felt like years compared to before, where each day felt like one torturous, draining hour.
It was a change she welcomed wholeheartedly.
Ruby had also taught her many things no codings could ever teach. She taught her why it was important to smile to people, even if they didn't smile back nor if she didn't see any use. Ruby taught her what it meant to have fun.
And sure, she might not understand it all yet, but she was starting to. And to her, that was a far bigger progress than any she'd made cooped up in the place she called 'home'.
Ruby showed her more than any scientists could ever have.
And that was…
Liberating.
"Weiss?"
Oh. Right. The question.
-[COLD]-
-[HONEST]-
With any other humans - and perhaps even androids - she might've chosen the former. But this was… Ruby. She knew that, no matter how inappropriate her answer was for an android, the human simply wouldn't care.
She chose.
And then she spoke.
"Beacon seems like the kind of place I'd rather be. It's… a distant dream to me. To every android, except the ones who already live there."
"So… do you want to go to Beacon?"
Her LED flashed yellow.
It took her a little too long to give a proper answer.
"My current primary directive is to regain my memories." She met the human's eyes. "Which you are helping me with."
Ruby simply chuckled, standing up and stretching. The android saw her shirt lifting up, revealing smooth, lightly-tanned skin.
She didn't know why, but she wanted to… analyze that skin with her own two hands.
Ruby craned her neck to meet her eye, and with the afternoon sun washing over her features, she looked a little… familiar…
Bzz-
Two heartbeats. One, weak and erratic. The other, strong and unusually fast.
She eyed the two humans, glaring the latter; the one that held the gun.
She had to play it smart or else she'd-
-zzt
Weiss blinked, only now noticing that the human was looking at her curiously.
It was a slow process, but a process nonetheless.
And what was more peculiar about it was how none of the tinkering scientists back at her home could bring back any semblance of memories, yet Ruby easily could without realizing it.
There was something amiss.
A piece of the puzzle that would solve all of her questions.
Why had she decided to intervene? Who had commanded her to intervene?
What had she done to aggravate the shooter that much?
And what did Ruby Rose had to do with it all?
"Hey, Weiss. Let's buy ice cream."
A hum with a nod sufficed.
She knew Ruby would be the only one enjoying the treat, but for some reason, the human always insisted she came. Weiss tried to deduct why, but even with the most advanced system, the android simply couldn't understand why.
So she simply chalked it up to Ruby being 'Ruby', knowing that all humans had these weird, unexplainable quirks to them.
Sometimes Ruby's quirks endeared her.
Though, most of the time, she didn't get why the human had these quirks, such as humming an off-note tune, playing with the rope of her hoodie, and many more things.
They arrived at the ice cream truck, and after scanning every bit of it, she concluded that it was safe for the human to buy her treat from here.
Ruby leaned toward the counter, humming and frowning. It meant she must be thinking hard, which was a little weird considering this human was simply buying ice cream and not… dealing with an exam.
Eventually, she bought two scoops of strawberry ice cream, topped with a large helping of chocolate sauce and chocolate chips in abundance…
"Ruby, please. Don't eat it all. With such a large quantity of sugar and sweeteners in your choice of ice cream toppings, I fear you may contract some sort of disease, such as diabetes." There were other potential side-effects, such as bloating or excess gas, but those were the kinds of things that most likely not bother Ruby, especially seeing how eager she was to eat this… concoction, and also because there was a 70% chance Ruby wouldn't be interested in those effects.
Ruby pouted as though she was four. "But I wanna…"
She stared at the girl, and most importantly, how shiny those eyes were - as if they captured light itself and stored it in those pearls of silver.
"... I guess I can allow it."
She didn't have to think, options didn't appear before her. She simply… did it. She didn't understand why, but… she liked it.
The android had tried telling herself the things she did with this particular human was part of her program.
Someone bumped into them, causing Ruby's chocolate-filled spoon to bump into her own nose. The brunette blinked before giggling almost sheepishly, even though it wasn't her fault.
The android smiled, fishing out a tissue from her pocket, using one hand to gently cup the girl's cheek as she wiped away the chocolate.
Ruby stared at her, her cheeks reddening slightly.
"There," said the android. "Now you don't look like a clown anymore."
Ruby eventually broke into a goofy smile. "If I were a clown, would you still hang out with me?"
-[COLD]-
-[SINCERE]-
She didn't have to think.
"If you were a clown… you'd still be you."
And Ruby's laughter was, as the humans said it, music to her ears.
She had tried telling herself it was part of her program.
But that was then.
Now, she… knew better.
And she didn't know what was happening.
She only knew that, whatever was happening, she didn't want it to stop happening.
Author's Note:
Yeah, in retrospect, not much happened in this chapter. But we now know that it's been a week, and Weiss already gains some of her memories - though they're all so blurry and lasted for one or two seconds, not enough for 'Schnee' to draw some kind of conclusion.
The next chapter, in my opinion, will be far more interesting than this one, especially considering how Bumblebee's story ended.