Yang woke up pretty early for a Friday. She rolled her shoulders and tossed off her covers with a flourish, rocketing to her feet with silent drama that none would appreciate… Mostly because everyone was asleep. The Blonde scratched her lower back absentmindedly as she started to walk towards the washroom when she noticed something odd. The lack of a lump in Ruby's bed was rather interesting indeed, and the dead silence in the room indicated she wasn't in the washroom. Glancing to the front door she saw that Ruby's boots were gone, and gears began to turn.
"OK, so, she's out. Why did you wake us up Yang?" Blake grumbled a few minutes later, slouching in her fleecy pajamas and rubbing the sleep from her eyes. Beside her, substantially more awake but with a much deeper frown was Weiss, whose sleeping mask was perched on her brow.
"This is huge news." Yang said as she motioned to the empty bed.
"The only huge news coming out of this is 'Schnee Dust Company Heir strangles idiot'." Weiss growled.
"No need to be grumpy Weiss, this is an exciting discovery." Yang smirked, rubbling her hands together diabolically. She held up her scroll and pointed to the hour, just before 7 AM. "This is exactly when Pyrrha goes for her morning runs. If Ruby isn't here, she must be with Pyrrha. This would be the perfect time to do some investigating about my little hunch."
Weiss and Blake both groaned, the white-haired girl looking like a migraine was coming on while Blake trundled back to her own bed noisily.
"Yang, you realize you could just ask Ruby if she's got the hots for Pyrrha, right?" Blake asked, half-glaring at her partner as she flopped onto her bed. "Like, that's a totally normal question you could ask your sister? It would save you some scheming, and us some valuable time in the morning to sleep."
"That's not very sporting of you two." Yang huffed. "Come on, it can be my 'thing' for the weekend!"
"Vetoed."
"Not happening."
Yang deflated a bit as Weiss stomped into the bathroom and Blake pulled a blanket up over her head. It looked like her allies were going to need some convincing to begin this merry hunt.
"Excuse me Miss Nikos, I know you're rather busy…"
Pyrrha stopped mid-stride in her morning jog to look at the older woman talking to her. Pulling out her earbuds that were blaring some offensively inspirational music she smiled at the school secretary and gave a slight bow in greeting. "Good Morning Mrs Portia."
Miss Portia was a woman in her early fifties though she wore the age well. She stood a hair over 5'1 but somehow looked even smaller. She had her hands behind her back and stood somewhat stiffly straight, like she was at attention. She wore a plain brown suit-dress that ended well below her knees and black boots that extended up above the hem. Pyrrha had sometimes wondered if the woman had once trained as a huntress, but she never found the right time to ask.
"Please dear, everyone calls me Itsy." Insisted the lady with a smile. "I was hoping that you could do something for me, if you have the time."
"Of course!"
"Thank you dear," Itsy brought her hands around from behind her back and revealed a somewhat sizable cardboard box. Tied to it with some ribbon was a letter which obscured the company logo on it. "This is a package for Ruby Rose, who's in your year. She's had this sitting in the mail room for quite some time and I was hoping you would give this to her."
Pyrrha took the box with a smile, slipping it under her arm. As she did so she could nearly taste the warm aroma coming from the box, and it rattled a bit with whatever bits and bobs were inside. "I'll make sure this gets to her then. It smells rather nice."
"That was the problem dear. Our mail room's furnace vent is jammed open wide, and the heat in there was making the scent a bit overpowering. Oobleck was complaining about migraines while the rest of us were debating how we might be able to justify confiscating it." Itsy's smile was sly despite her sharp expression. "Glynda was moments away herself, but I think she decided to go straight to the source and head down to the store."
"Well, if only for the sake of peace in the office," Pyrrha sighed with a mischievous grin. "She's supposed to be helping train Jaune later today. I'll see her then I think."
"Magnificent. Thank you my dear."
"Pyrrha?" Cinder hummed, glancing down at the girl curled into her side. Ruby was easily physically much larger, but she was more than willing to all but curl up on Cinder's lap whenever they watched TV.
Ruby grunted, her face pressed into Cinder's thigh. She was laying on her belly on the couch, her feet off the one side of the love seat while her arms wrapped around Cinder. She'd been like that ever since she'd risen from her bedroom like some sort of zombie. She'd barely formed a sentence since.
"I don't mind." Cinder said carefully, staring through the television as the weatherman rattled off . "Though I'm curious why."
"Strong." Ruby mumbled, her voice well-muffled in Cinder's soft thigh. She turned a bit red, if the tips of her ears were anything to go by. "Redhead."
Cinder openly chuckled at that, placing a hand menacingly on the back of Ruby's neck. The brunette shivered as her blush got incrementally deeper. "You're not planning a third-act heel-turn are you?" The older woman growled playfully. "Fucking the villain in the first, falling for the heroine in the second, and slaying your lover in the third?"
"No." Ruby hummed, placing a kiss on Cinder's leg. "We go together, or not at all."
Cinder smirked at the oath, shaking her head and settling back into the sofa. The pair remained like that for quite a while, Ruby dozing and Cinder vegging, before Ruby finally got up and wandered into the kitchen for something to drink.
"Oh fuck." Ruby whispered into her half-full glass of orange juice.
Cinder looked away from the television back into the kitchen, and could see Ruby sitting at the island there and staring up at the old analog clock that hung over the stove. Cinder frowned. "What's wrong?"
"It's like, nine." Ruby groaned, tossing back the rest of her juice with a mighty gulp. "I gotta be at school in like, thirty minutes."
"Why? It's a Friday."
"I promised someone I'd meet them for half past."
"Hah!" Cinder laughed, shaking her head and turning her attention back to the news report in front of her. "You should probably cancel those plans."
"That's quitter talk." Ruby called with a shake of a fist as she disappeared into her bedroom. The noise of drawers being thrown open and shut could be heard even in the living room, and Cinder shook her head as she turned up the volume on the TV.
"In council news, the normally rather sleepy congregation of Councilors was rocked by a surprise vote from the representative of Laurent West last evening," Cinder smirked, "Councilor Atrox — the newest addition to the Council — put forward a motion to create a committee to investigate the current relationship between the Kingdom and the Huntsmen Academy. The constitutional inquiry comes as a surprise, as his father, the late Tartanicas, stopped short of such a declaration during his long tenure. The council refused to vote on the motion, which would have seen a civilian group assess the rather strong institutional powers of Headmasters. Whether this is an attempt to sequester more power in the council, or the beginnings of an appeal to the courts, has yet to be seen."
"Well, he certainly didn't wait very long." Cinder mused to herself with a smile. The fact the motion didn't succeed was immaterial, nobody expected it to be that easy.
Her attention was brutally murdered when Ruby flickered into sight in front of her. The girl leaned quickly in towards Cinder and placed a firm kiss on her lips. Cinder was a bit overwhelmed as the normally chaste Ruby deepened the kiss hungrily before pulling away just as quickly. Cinder scowled as the girl checked her scroll.
"Sorry to run but I actually need to go." Ruby sighed.
"You really know how to leave a woman wanting." Cinder bit with a frown.
"Yeah well, my fingers are chapped and my jaw hurts so at this point if you're still wanting we need to invest in some sort of hormone suppressants." Ruby chuckled, shaking her right hand dramatically. "Any kind words before I go?"
"Don't trip."
"Love you too Cinder." Ruby smiled before walking away, her boots clacking against the wood floor. Cinder didn't turn to watch or follow her out but she did listen closely as the door opened and closed.
After the girl left Cinder pondered at whether or not Ruby had received her gift. She had sent some new soap in the mail a few days ago, and it should've arrived by now. Could she have forgotten to thank her benevolent benefactor? It was unlikely, and Cinder shrugged it off. The next time she saw Ruby, which would be sooner than later, she'd have to grill her over it.