RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth, of which I am not a part of.
This chapter is not actually based on an episode, but rather is supposed to be between Volume 2 and Volume 3. Non-canon Episode 4: Tied Together
The sound of the shower pounded on Blake's ears, even under her bow. As Ruby and Yang searched through their drawers, Blake sat on her bed, face hidden behind her novel and paralyzed by the absurd reasons her mind had just laid out for her on why exactly she was focusing on the noise.
The one that had froze her seemed to involve the faint, almost inaudible sound within the running water that her mind chose to believe was Weiss's singing voice.
'Mirror, mirror, tell me something…'
The only reason Blake wasn't smacking her face with her book to chase away the thoughts was because it would attract attention from her partner and her leader. If there was no one else in the room right now, she would be screaming curses at her brain for what it was trying to convince her.
It's probably Yang's fault! She's the one who said that stuff the other day and it WAS later that night that this sort of thing happened!
The squeaking of the shower knob as the sound of falling water dissipated was far shriller than she had been expecting (probably because she was focusing on the sound so much in the first place). Blake tensed up as wet padding assaulted her feline ears. She did her best to bury herself as far into the pages of her book as possible as her snow-haired teammate left the bathroom in nothing but a towel.
Yang, having found a brush and sitting backwards on a chair while trying to tame her drying mane of gold, got a head-start on teasing her teammate. "Try not to take too long, Princess. I think we'd like to go out at some point TONIGHT."
"Oh, ha ha." Weiss replied with no audible tone, refusing to give the brawler the satisfaction of earning her frustration. "I'll be ready in a minute or two. Just let me get my clothes." She pulled the towel up to ring out her hair, exposing herself to room (the team having lost any need for modesty towards each other months ago) before searched through her drawer for underwear.
Blake had always thought that blushing was just an exaggerated term used in her stories because she couldn't remember ever seeing someone's cheeks turn red with embarrassment; yet, the warmth crawling up her neck, making its way to her face, seemed to tell otherwise. She clenched her teeth so hard, she was scared they'd shattered.
THERE IS NO WAY THIS IS HAPPENING!
Sure, it's not like Weiss ISN'T someone I care about, but this sort of thing is… I've been so close to her recently and this hasn't… well, it HAS, but… only an hour ago, I was lying on her-
The memory of their close proximity flashed through her mind at the same time as the night of the dance. Whatever happened next, she could only feel her book slip out of her fingers, falling to the mattress.
Her heart stopped when this new view showed that Ruby and Yang were staring at her, her leader looking down from her raised bunk. Weiss, however, appeared to be concentrating on NOT looking at her.
At all.
For some reason.
This was in spite of the heiress having finally put on most of her clothes, a fact which Blake greatly appreciated for her own sanity.
Still, whatever the reason for her teammate's distraction was, Blake was incredibly thankful it existed, even if she didn't know what 'it' was. Because there was no way she could've kept herself together if the heiress had seen her face.
She somehow forced out a smile and looked over at her partner. "What's wrong, Yang?"
The blonde girl raised an eyebrow, clearly not impressed by the attempt at deception. "Pretty sure that's my line, Blakey. Are you feeling alright?" She tilted her head, the look in her eyes betraying her concern far more than her calm voice. "If not, we can just head out without you and bring you back something. Just tell us what you need."
"No, that's not it, I'm-"
"Hey, Weiss? Do you know what's wrong with Blake?" Ruby suddenly spoke up.
Blake's words caught in her mouth. She instinctively turned towards her teammate to receive the answer, only to slam a fist to her mouth to stop whatever noise almost came out as she saw the heiress adjusting her pants around her backside. The Faunus girl was shocked that the dress-loving heiress was even wearing pants, casually or not, and was flustered by how form-fitting they-
DUST, BRAIN, WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?!
Weiss, for her part, did an excellent job steeling her mind for a subject about the target of her affections. Granted, it involved Blake's health, so it concerned her more than it shook her.
"Maybe she's having trouble sleeping again? You seemed pretty exhausted before, at the… at the cliffs." Despite stumbling over her words, the heiress kept her tone otherwise unreadable.
Naturally, the mention of her actions caused Blake's skin to pulse red, thought she also tried to keep from tripping up her words. "Uh, yeah. Probably. I have been feeling kind of… tired lately. BUT-" she got up quickly, drawing all eyes back to her as embarrassment came crashing back down. "I-I mean, its fine. I can go. Actually, I'll head out right now and see when the next airship is leaving. Don't wait up."
She walked out the dorm's door rather quickly and slammed it a little more forcefully than her teammates were expecting. Lilac and silver then turned to blue.
"W-what?" Weiss asked in annoyance at the change of attention as she flicked water out of her hair with her brush.
Yang put her hands behind her head. "Nothing. It's just…" She went over to her desk and picked up a long black ribbon. "She forgot her bow."
After a second, the words clicked in the heiress's mind. She bolted up to the blonde and snatched the ribbon out of her hand, bursting through the door. "BLAKE! BLAKE, WAIT! YOU FORGOT SOMETHING IMPORTANT!"
As the slammed shut, Ruby looked over at her elder sister. "Blake didn't forget her bow, though."
Yang flashed her a smile. "I know. I just wanted her to leave so I could say 'I told you so'."
Her leader threw out her finger. "No teasing them, alright? No crazy romantic schemes either."
The brawler heaved out a loud groan. "You guys are so boring!" She folded her arms across her chest.
"Fine. But only if they don't make any progress before the Vytal Festival is over. Then, I'm not holding back."
The large tailoring store they decided on had a large 'WE SERVE ALL RACES HERE' sign on the outside. Normally, Blake's mind would be frustrated by the fact that they'd even require a message like that in the first place, but she was a bit too distracted at the moment to notice.
For one, she kept actively trying to avoid looking at her snow-haired teammate as the heiress chastised Yang for the cheapness of the cloth the blonde was trying to buy.
The duo had taken their showers last, which meant that their hair was still somewhat wet and the sparkling had managed to turn a number of heads on their way to the city.
Yeah. That had to be the reason why she was staring at Weiss so much.
Right?
Ugh… How many times have I said that to myself lately?
As the heiress insisted on paying for better bandanas, Blake felt a hand on her shoulder, turning to come face to face with her leader.
The younger girl had three small roses arranged on the upper chest of her outfit. The white, black and yellow flowers worked well with Ruby's theme and she was brimming with pride.
"Hey, Blake. You sure you're okay?" The cloaked girl asked, her silver eyes consoling yet strangely relaxed in spite of her words. "You've been acting weird since we got back to the room before. AND you're spacing out a lot. You aren't sick or something, are you?"
The girl in question bit her lip. "Its fine, Ruby, I just… well, I'm not completely sure, honestly, but it'll definitely pass."
Her leader's eyebrow arched, but she didn't press any further. Though she hid a grin when Blake looked back at their teammates.
Ruby wondered to herself how long it would take for her partner to notice Blake's small new ponytail being held up by the white ribbon.
Blake felt a knot in her gut. Lying to her younger friend did a number on her conscience but she couldn't simply tell the other girl 'I might have a crush on Weiss.' She could barely put it into words herself!
Seriously, is this even a crush? If even Ruby noticed me staring…
She nearly jumped out of her skin when she caught sight of two black dots, each accented by azure. If she wasn't staring, Weiss certainly was. As soon as their eyes met, however, the heiress's went wide and she turned away, a move that froze the brunette where should stood as though she was being watched by a King Taijitu.
After a few seconds, the smaller girl approached her, her hips swaying elegantly despite the odd look on her face. Blake found herself too preoccupied in trying to figure out what had just happened (and why she was suddenly focusing on her teammate's hips) to notice the pinch on Weiss's lip as the heiress bit it nervously.
"H-hey, Blake. So, uh, did you find the color of ribbons you needed?"
The taller girl shook her head, both in a vague attempt to answer the question and to try and clear her head of whatever obscene thoughts had surfaced. What the heck was wrong with her? Her gaze strayed to the heiress's ponytail, her amber eyes lingering on the black ribbon that had been tied back into the bound hair (its previous spot replaced by the metal hair-tie once more) before tracing along the two additional ribbons in it. The clash of ebony, scarlet and gold brought an incredible new contrast to the platinum in a slightly different way than the black and white from before.
It was strange yet captivating all at the same time. This made it all the more confusing when she spotted her partner down the aisle, wrapping three bandanas of red, white and black around her right arm, each with an old Valean stitching design. Yet, this view was incapable of invoking the same amount of wonder that Weiss's own ribbons did.
She looked back down at the heiress, startled by the sparkle that she found in the blue pools, waiting for her to… something? Her lips were moving…
Dust, she just asked me a question, didn't she?!
Blake smacked her mind back into action. "Oh, right! Yeah, no, I was… just looking for a red ribbon! Do you know where I can that… beautiful…" She could feel herself getting distracted again by the ponytail, which Weiss was now playing with.
WHAT AM I SAYING?!
"-I MEAN, where did you… find yours?"
Weiss smiled, her fingers dancing through her hair and pulling at the ends of the fabric in a way that made the skin on the back of Blake's neck tingle. It was an odd feeling and her heart hammered away as the smaller girl let out an adorable chuckle and looked away shyly.
"Well, I don't know if I can describe the fabric as beautiful, but it's supposedly high quality. You certainly have a unique taste, Blake." After a second, her mind seemed to catch up with her mouth, a deep crimson rushing across her face. "NOT THAT- that's not what I- I mean, here, let me show you where…"
She went to grab the Faunus's hand, but Blake's own was already reaching out and their nails scratched against each other's skin, sending a shock bolting down both their spines and making them both stumble back.
As Weiss tried to right herself, she felt her eyes crawl up her crush's form, ending up focusing on the black ribbon on top of her friend's head for a few seconds longer than she should have.
"Hey, guys!"
Two screams rang through the store; thankfully, there were few other customers in the shop and those that did look up at the noise didn't seem interested in the source of the sudden cries.
Blake spun around and nearly fell onto her white-haired teammate, who herself nearly tumbled to the ground yet managed to brace her legs while steadying the brunette with a hand on her shoulder.
"P-Penny! What are you doing here?!" Weiss cried out, failing to suppress her blush as she let go. Her nervousness evaporated as her temper flared at the scare, her mask of ice back on in full force.
The redhead seemed oblivious to any wrongdoings and answered the question in a matter-of-fact manner. "I was gathering tools from a hardware store by the corner when I saw you four enter this shop. May I also partake in the social activity of clothing shopping that many of my peers routinely participate in?"
The heiress couldn't bring herself to follow. Penny's form of speech was weird and made Weiss wonder if the other Atlesian girl came from one of the more traditional sections of Mantle. Ruby had talked before about the redhead's admittedly strange past but the way she talked just seemed… off.
Almost robotic.
Blake spoke up, drawing back Weiss's deviating thoughts. "We're not here for fun, Penny. Trust me, there are far better ways for us to be spending our time than on a 'shopping spree'." The brunette said with a roll of her eyes.
Her teammate scoffed, her ideas of relaxing with companions of a similar vein. "Indeed, we're here to get hair ribbons for our team. It's supposed to strengthen all our bonds, according to Ruby, though it did work pretty well for me and Blake over the past few weeks."
She gestured to the black ribbon in her ponytail, moving it to give Penny a better view and simultaneously hiding the small quirk of her lips as she said 'bonds'. Blake, her thoughts in a much different manner, found itself turning over the words with disturbingly heavy observation, trying to keep the analysis strictly platonic and blushing madly as she failed.
Penny looked between the two, her green eyes scanning over the cloth in her friends' hair.
"Oh, I see, Weiss!" The redhead put her hands together, stringing her fingers between each other. "Is that why you seem so interested in Blake's Faunus ears under her ribbon?"
The words seemed to come out almost automatically. Honestly, the way Penny had been looking at them, she probably should've expected something like that in the first place.
Even so, Weiss's blood froze in her veins. She could hear Blake stop breathing. In that moment, the heiress's mind managed to short-circuit.
She knew that the other girl was just being honest. She KNEW that. It wasn't like she was doing it out of insolence like Cardin or teasingly like Yang.
That didn't stop her from regretting ever meeting the quirky girl as she buried her hands in her face.
I put in an Easter egg for you guys to find in this one. Let's just say you're gonna have to go out on a limb to try and figure it out.
And no, it's not Blake's white ribbon in the back of her hair. That is, however, based on one of WCG's drawings. If you need reference for the rest of her ribbons' positions, the yellow ribbon has moved to the white ribbon's previous location while the red one will be on the opposite side of her face. Weiss's ribbons are also arranged in her ponytail in a similar manner to another of Cold's drawings.
(Please visit WeissColdGlare on Tumblr if you like Weiss ships; her pictures are awesome and her shenanigans are hilarious!)
And don't worry, Weiss doesn't actually hate Penny. Nobody hates Penny. Penny is such a wonderful character, isn't she?
*smiles evilly*
When. It. Faaaaaaalls!
It's not time to suffer yet, thought. I've got two more inter-volume episodes before Volume 3 starts.
Also, if you thought this chapter was getting 'risqué', believe me; we're not done yet.
