The air in team RWBY's room was filled with tension, as it rarely ever was. Ruby was unnerved by the silence, but that wasn't what bothered her most: it seemed like she was the only one aware of how everyone was acting.
Weiss had been running in and out of their bathroom, trying out different outfits as if her life depended on it. The leader found it both funny and disturbing, because the clothes all looked the same to her, which their white colorations and such. She didn't have a single clue about why her partner was so obsessed with them.
Blake's agitation was more difficult to detect, but Ruby had caught the numerous times she had looked discreetly at Weiss. She also hadn't turned a page of her book in half an hour, so that was also worrying. Ruby felt bad for her, but she wasn't about to say anything that could hurt any of her teammates.
Well, she also probably would never get the opportunity, because Yang was poking her and throwing her concerned glances with intervals of less than minutes. While it was sweet the first few times, Ruby was now seriously considering the ramifications of… well, her scythe was pretty sharp…
"Are you sure you wanna go on this date, sis?" Yang asked, rolling around on her bed. "I mean, you're fifteen! You have all the time in the world for dating!"
"Yang." Ruby said tiredly. "I'm not a little girl. And yes, I wanna go on this date. You've asked me so many times, I'm not even embarrassed about calling it a date anymore!"
"I just worry about you." The blonde sighed. "Sorry."
Like a sign of salvation, Ruby's phone beeped, and a text message from Cinder flashed on its screen, telling her she was ready. The redhead almost squealed with excitement as she jumped down to the ground and raced out the door, wishing a good afternoon for all her friends.
Weiss gave her teammates an emotionless look, then glanced down at her own phone. It had been silent for the whole day.
"Well…" She examined her current set of clothes. "This will have to do. Wish me a good afternoon."
"Have fun!" Yang winked at her "Don't forget to use protection!"
Weiss would have given her an outraged response, but she was too flustered for that. Instead, she pretended her face wasn't bright red, nodded towards Blake, then headed out of the room.
"Good joke." Blake deadpanned.
"Sorry." Yang said, realizing her partner must not have liked her implications. "Hey, suppose Weiss did touch butts with Neptune. I just did you have a huge favor! She won't get pregnant, at least."
"What joy." The faunus stuck her head out her bed's side to look up at her friend. "You do realize your touching butts expression makes absolutely no sense, right?"
"Half of the expression people use don't make sense! Why can't I make up one myself?!"
Blake shrugged, realizing her partner had a point.
"Anyway…" She said. "You're going after Ruby, now?"
"Huh?" Yang frowned. "Why would I do that?"
"…To make sure she's okay?"
The blonde shook her head sadly, looking down at her hands.
"No. Like she said… Ruby is not a little girl anymore." She thought about asking if Blake would go spying on Weiss, but refrained from doing so. Even if she disagreed, Blake had made it pretty clear she didn't want to pursue the heiress. "You know what, Blake? We should go for a drink! I'll cry about my sister getting with hot ladies, you cry about Weiss getting with dorks… Sounds good?"
"I'm not a drinker." Blake answered drily. "And I don't need to cry."
Yang dropped to the ground and looked at her partner. The faunus's eyes were fixed on her book, but Yang knew her well enough to realize she wasn't focusing at all on her reading.
"Yeah, you don't." Yang said softly. "I'll be going by myself, then."
Blake didn't give any response, so she started to walk out of the room. Yang stopped on the doorway, her hand lingering on the knob for a few seconds. She looked back at her partner, so silent and thoughtful, and couldn't help but feel a pang of sympathy for her.
"Blake?" She called.
"Hmm?" The faunus answered without looking at her.
"If you need anything…" Yang smiled, doing her best to appear as kind as possible. "I'll always be there for you. Okay?"
Blake didn't respond aloud, but her ears twitched beneath her bow and her lips parted to form a warm smile.
When Ruby saw Cinder standing on the gates of the Academy, she wished she had followed Weiss's lead and changed into another outfit. Even her alternate combat uniform would have been better for the occasion! But, no, she had to be a silly girl and stay in her everyday cloak and battle skirt.
Cinder was wearing a dress Ruby had never seen on her before. It wasn't overly fancy; in fact, it was rather simple, just black silk with red lines, ending loosely above her knees, but it made her look like… Ruby couldn't even find a term fitting to describe how good Cinder looked in the dress!
When she finally got to her, Cinder looked at her and raised an eyebrow with amusement. Ruby blushed and leaned her head down, realizing she had been really obvious in her gawking.
"S-sorry." She said. "I didn't dress up like you did."
"I wasn't expecting you to."
Ruby's expression soured.
"I didn't mean that as a bad thing." Cinder smirked. "You look wonderful in your usual clothes. Any attempt of dressing differently would be a waste of time."
"T-thanks." Ruby gulped. She hadn't ever gotten praised for her looks before. "You look… Uh, awesome! But I guess that was obvious by the way I was staring…"
"I'm flattered." The raven-haired girl said. "So, where should we go? I've never spent time in Vale, so I'm afraid I don't have any suggestions."
Ruby's face brightened. Now that was something she had planned for completely and with much care. Even if she loved weapon shops most than anywhere else (other than Beacon, of course), she still had a pretty good idea of where to take someone for a date.
"We're going to a fantastic coffee and tea shop called Iroh's. I heard they serve the best stuff on Vytal!" She told.
"Impressive. I didn't take you for that kind of girl." Cinder said. "It sounds really nice. Shall we get going?"
Ruby nodded enthusiastically, then grabbed her date by an elbow and headed down the path to the city.
Adam Taurus thought of himself as a very patient man. He could wait hours to raid a target, and he could watch someone for hours just to get the slightest bit of information. Once, he had even endured three weeks of staking out a single White Fang fugitive, just to make sure nothing important about the organization would be made public.
However, every man met his limit. Yes, maybe he had met that limit a tad too quickly; but he felt he was in the right, considering the circumstances.
"Let me repeat, just to make sure I understood you correctly." He said slowly, a top a Vale building. "Cinder Fall is postponing our meeting, and therefore our whole objective here, on the basis that she had a date."
"Yep." Mercury shrugged. "We thought it was weird too."
"And this girl she took on a date is a student from Beacon?"
"Like I said. Weird."
Adam resisted the urge to remove his mask and pinch his forehead. In all his years, he had never heard something so absurd.
If it had been anyone else doing something so stupid, then he could have just accepted it as idiocy and waited for another meeting, another day. But not Cinder Fall. She was the most effective and focused person he had met on his business, and now he was supposed to believe she was courting some random kid.
"You know, I feel a growing temptation to cut your head off and send it to her just as a warning." Adam said.
"Hey! I'm as pissed off as you are, believe me." Mercury raised his hands as a gesture of peace. "Cinder has been acting strangely for weeks now. Calling off standard procedures like taking out threats, lingering way too much on one particular group… She's even laughing and smiling now!"
"Oh." The faunus looked down at his sword. "Now that's serious. Try to get her to talk to me as fast as possible. I'll knock some sense into her."
"I'll do that." Mercury nodded. "Thanks for not cutting off my head."
The silver-haired boy jumped off the building, leaving Adam alone with his thoughts.
"Things just got a hell of a lot more complicated…" He said, then let out a long sigh.
The walk to the shop was a pleasant one, with Ruby and Cinder having a simple conversation of things that weren't really important. Neither of them knew very well how to behave in these circumstances, but Ruby's cheerfulness and Cinder's calm demeanor made their time together better than either expected.
Luckily, what Ruby had heard about Iroh's turned out to be true. It was in one of Vale's main streets, but even in the middle of the afternoon it wasn't crowded with people. When they headed inside, they had numerous choices of where to sit, and settled on a table by a window.
Ruby's lack of experience with the place's specialties was remedied by Cinder. Apparently, the raven-haired girl did like tea, which didn't exactly surprise Ruby.
"Jasmine." Cinder ordered quietly to the waiter. "For us both."
The young man nodded his understanding and walked away, leaving them alone. Ruby looked out the window awkwardly, trying to come up with something to say. Her sister always made romance sound as easy as slaying Grimm, but she couldn't even speak properly on a simple date.
"So, uh… Jasmine!" Ruby said abruptly. "That's… a flower!"
Cinder looked at her blankly. The redhead closed her eyes, cringing silently.
"Yes, jasmine is a flower." Cinder agreed. There was a vague note of amusement on her voice, but Ruby was too embarrassed to notice it. "It's also a tea flavor, and a very good one at that."
"I never heard people talk about it." Ruby said, relieved she wasn't being made fun of. "I hear more about chamomile, and… chamomile…"
"That's because tea isn't really popular in Vale, so not many people have only tasted a select few flavors like, as you said, chamomile." The raven-haired girl explained. "Jasmine is a favorite of mine. I find drinking it rather calming."
The waiter returned with two cups, which he set on their table. Cinder thanked him, then gestured towards Ruby.
"Come on. Try it!"
The redhead looked at the drink suspiciously, then slowly brought it closer to her mouth. After a quick sniff, she took a sip.
"Hmm… Wow, this is good…" Ruby said, then took another sip. "I can see why it calms you."
"I've got you hooked. Good!" Cinder smiled victoriously.
Her expression soured for a brief moment when she recalled how she had been introduced to tea. In other lands of Remnant, it was a much more common drink, and she and her colleagues had often taken advantage of that fact. Sometimes, a discreet addition of poison was much more effective than using swords or Dust.
Cinder quickly corrected her smile, afraid that her lapse had been spotted. Luckily, Ruby seemed none the wiser, having emptied her cup already.
"I'm really happy you know about tea. Even I'm afraid of what I'd do if someone gave me coffee." The cloaked girl said.
"Knowing how potent your Semblance is… Yes, I'd also be afraid of you having any more energy to work with!" Cinder agreed.
Ruby laughed lightly, which made a warm sensation to spread through Cinder's body. Part of the raven-haired girl's mind urged her to remember who she was, and how she needed to be careful. That part of her, however, had become so small lately, she barely heard it.
She took a sip of her tea, the corners of her mouth turning up as Ruby began to speak excitedly about one of her team's expeditions.
Blake was not, by any means, a scattered-brained person. Her ability to focus on something was not only something her friends knew well, but it was also something she took pride in. Nothing ever distracted her from whatever task she set for herself.
So, it became especially frustrating for her when she couldn't read through a single chapter from one of her novels all afternoon. She would read a paragraph, maybe even two, but then she would find herself staring blankly at the ink half an hour later, her thoughts having fled to somewhere else.
The worst part of her… thing, with Weiss, was her inaptitude to have it make any sense to herself. Sure, Weiss was a good friend, maybe even an excellent one after their differences had been settled, but Blake couldn't understand why she had become so fixated on her.
Yes, Weiss was beautiful (gorgeous), smart (a genius), supportive (close)… But she was also judgmental (sheltered), rude (suffering) and cold (reserved)! How could Blake ever love someone so flawed?
I don't. She told herself sternly. She's my friend, and that's all. This is just a passing crush. I'm being silly.
Besides, Weiss had Neptune, and she seemed happy with him. Well, they barely knew each other, actually. And from the little Blake did know of him, Neptune appeared to be nothing special.
Fucking Neptune. She cursed mentally, then coughed and rearranged her position on her bed. I hope they're happy. That's all that matters… Neptune…
Her musings went about like that all afternoon, until the sun set and the door to her room opened. Weiss strode inside with an even expression, looking down at her feet, as if she was deep in thought.
"Hey." Blake called quietly. "How did it go?"
Weiss looked at her and blinked, as if she was surprised by the question.
"It was… nice." She answered. "Neptune was cool."
"That's great." Blake said, then turned to look at her book.
Weiss went to her bed and lied down. For a long time, she just stayed there, staring at the underside of Ruby's mattress, while Blake still couldn't focus on her novel and kept giving her discreet glances.
"I lied." Weiss finally said. "The date sucked."
Blake closed her book and sat cross-legged, looking at her teammate. She was cheering inside, but that didn't reflect on her face.
"What happened?" She asked kindly.
"Nothing happened." Weiss said sadly.
"Then why did it suck?"
"Because nothing happened!" The heiress exclaimed. "We just… talked. I mean, I talked, and he spoke words back, but it was nothing! I felt like running away partway through the date." She crossed her arms bitterly. "Ruby was right. I shouldn't have been so excited about Neptune. He's just… a guy."
"You just don't know him well enough yet." Blake interjected. "Maybe if you two go on another date, you'll find out he's a great…" Her voice trailed off, not knowing how to express her thoughts properly. "A great guy?"
Weiss scoffed and shook her head.
"No. I know who he is, and it's not someone I want to be with." She said. "I just have to face it. There's no one for me here. I'll be lucky if there's someone for me anywhere."
She looked and sounded so depressed at that moment, Blake didn't think at all before getting up from her bed and nearing her. She only realized had she had done when her hands closed around one of Weiss's, and then she found herself frozen, unable to talk or go back to her bed.
"Blake?" Weiss spoke up, confused by her actions.
"…Don't say stuff like that. You're an incredible person, and it's impossible you'll be alone. Most people would kill to be with someone like you." Blake said quickly. "You just have to wait."
Weiss looked up at her silently, not letting go of her hand. Blake's heart started to beat faster as she wondered if something was about to happen… Then Weiss squeezed, then retreated slowly.
"Thank you, Blake." She said, a genuine smile appearing on her face. "I know you'll find someone too."
"Maybe." The brunette walked back to her bed, turning her back to Weiss. "Who knows, right?"
"I know." Weiss giggled. "Maybe you've met him already… He might have a tail and refuses to wear a shirt…"
For the first time in her life, Blake wanted to take one of her books and tear it in half.
If happiness could make someone fly, Ruby would have done three laps around the world and still have the energy to complete a dozen more. She had an unbreakable smile formed on her face as she walked back to Beacon.
Cinder was in a similar mood, though she showed it in a much more reserved manner. One of her hands held Ruby's, and it would take a lot of effort for someone to make her let go. Her thoughts were all focused on the girl beside her, and none of them had even a drop of malice to them.
When they reached the dormitories, Cinder insisted on accompanying Ruby to her room, and the redhead didn't protest at all. As the two made their way there, both slowed their pace in a silly attempt of making their date last longer.
Finally, they found themselves in front of RWBY's room. The team leader looked at the door, conflicted, then back at Cinder, who was staring at her silently.
"I…" Ruby said, suddenly finding it very difficult to speak any louder than a whisper. "I really liked our date."
"That was obvious. I did too." Cinder smirked. "…Do you want to do it again sometime?"
"Yeah!" The redhead exclaimed. "Yeah, I do! Next weekend? No, screw that! Next Monday?"
Cinder chuckled. Monday was only three days away.
"That would be excellent." She agreed.
The two of them stared at each other silently for a few moments. Cinder inched forward, her head leaning down slowly. Her eyes met Ruby's in a silent question, and the redhead barely nodded in response.
For a good ten seconds, they both felt like their worlds had turned into an explosion of fireworks and sparks all around them. Their lips only parted after a door creaked open, then a loud thump echoed through the hallway.
"J-Jaune?" Ruby called worriedly, her breathing erratic.
She looked down at him. He had fallen backwards into his room, a bit of blood painting beneath his nose. Pyrrha appeared beside him, looking quizzically at him, them at Ruby and Cinder.
"Did you… punch him?" She asked slowly.
"No." Ruby said quietly. "We just… kissed…?"
Pyrrha shook her head disappointingly, then dragged her leader away by his feet, muttering something about why she even tried anymore.
Cinder looked at Ruby and offered a small smile.
"See you on Monday."
"O-okay."
The raven-haired girl nodded and walked away.
Ruby took a deep, calming breath, then entered her room. She was met with expectant stares from both Weiss and Blake.
"Well?" The heiress asked sharply. "How did it go?"
Ruby promptly started to freak out.
"I don't care how strong she is; just get her out of here!" Junior whispered, crouching behind a counter on his bar while shaking one of his subordinates by his shoulders. "I can't have her trashing the place again!"
The minion gulped, then got up and walked around the counter until he was on the clients' side of it. Slowly, he made his way to Yang, who was sitting on a stool, poking her glass distractedly.
"Uh… M-miss?" He called meekly. "I'm g-gonna have to a-ask you to leave…"
"What?" She looked at him indignantly. "Can't I have a few drinks here?!"
"Y-you knocked out half our security guards, miss…"
Yang scoffed, as if his complaints had no relevance whatsoever. She got up, however, and raised her hands in compliance.
"Okay." She glared towards the spot she knew Junior was hiding behind. "I hope you go out of business!"
She walked away, slamming the front doors open in a gesture of defiance. She stood outside for a little while, just breathing the clean air and taking in the sight of the night sky.
Yang had decided she didn't mind what her sister was doing. Ruby was almost an adult, and she was also a team leader and fearsome warrior. Soon, she would be one of Remnant's most awesome Huntresses. There was no more reason for worrying about her like she was a baby.
Still, she was her little sister. Yang could reason as much as she wanted, but she was a creature of emotion. Visiting Junior's club was a necessity; it was the only place she could beat up people indiscriminately and get away with it. It was a wonderful way to take care of her stress.
When she started to walk back to Beacon, her mind was clear. In fact, she even found herself getting excited about hearing about Ruby's afternoon. Cinder seemed like a decent enough girl, and she would love to learn more about her.
I hope everything went okay. Yang thought happily. They talked and had fun and maybe they even kissed-
The faint noise of someone landing on the ground behind her snapped her away from her thoughts. She didn't stop walking, waiting for the right moment to react to whoever was following her. It was difficult, and it went against her very instincts, but she knew it was the most sensible approach to the situation.
"Yang."
She froze. The stranger knew her name, and there was no ill intent apparent on their voice. The person seemed hesitant, even, as if they were afraid of speaking to her.
Yang turned and almost fainted. Her savior – the woman with the Grimm mask and red and black dress who had come to her rescue when Neopolitan had been about to kill her – was standing there, one of her hands resting on her sword's hilt.
"You." Yang said. Her confidence grew, and she took a step forward. "Who are you?"
"It doesn't matter." The mysterious woman answered. "I'm here to tell you something very important."
Yang's eyes narrowed, but she stayed put. Her curiosity was bigger than her confusion.
"Stay away from Cinder Fall. She is not a friend."
The woman didn't wait for a response, taking a step back already. Yang ran towards her, reaching forwards with her hand, but suddenly she found herself on the ground, a stinking sensation on her forehead.
Her savior was gone. Yang grunted angrily.
"Why can't things ever be simple?!" She exclaimed. "…I'm going back to Junior's."
Kisses! Heartbreaking! Ominous warnings! We've got them all!
To answer a question that was posed by NarfoOnTheNet, and I'm sure many of you have too... Cinder's eighteen-years-old in this story. Yeah. Who the hell knows how old she is canonically...
I'm super happy about how well this story is being received! In one month of existence, it already has 130~ follows and 65~ favorites! Gosh darnit, that makes me jolly! (I don't know why I expressed myself that way, but gosh darnit, it's gonna stay that way!)
Branwen-surprise-sized thanks to everyone who reviewed, followed and favorited Falling Roses Burn Brighter!
-Zeroan