Just almost got this up before Halloween ended too. Wasn't really my goal at all, but hey, the thought counts. This took a bit longer than I'd thought but there's a reason why, I swear. I'll tell you guys on the bottom author's note.

So, since I've started working on this, Volume 3 has started airing and is already two episodes in. I have to say, I'm really excited about how things will turn out and how the first arc of RWBY will end. Really looking forward to seeing more Qrow and Winter from here on out.

08. Shopping

"Ugh, Weiss, how much loooooonger?" Ruby whined.

The red girl was sitting on a waiting chair in an accursed dressing room, surrounded by bags of clothes her girlfriend had bought earlier from previous store ventures. The two girls had decided to go on a date to the outlet mall earlier that day while Yang and Blake looked after the house. The air conditioning had been rather wonky as of late, so Ruby was sure that those two were just glad that they had no one else to hog all the fans at home. Fortunately, she wanted to get out of the house anyway and going out with Weiss was the perfect excuse.

However, clothes shopping wasn't exactly what she had in mind.

"Be patient, Ruby. This is the last one, I swear." Weiss called back.

Sure, Ruby had decent taste in fashion. She knew what went with what, but she never really needed more. As if she subconsciously wanted to prove that point, she wore her red short-sleeved hoodie, deciding to forego her red cloak for today, over a thin t-shirt and shorts.

But if there was any consolation for waiting so long…

"So, how do I look?"

It was how beautiful Weiss managed to make every mediocre outfit.

Weiss stepped out wearing a stylish short-sleeved denim jacket over a dark cotton tank top with an addition to a skirt. Ruby had to admit that even though the outfit was simple, Weiss knew how to bring out its best. Before long, Ruby noticed how mesmerized she was that she forgot to even answer Weiss's question.

"You look great! Are you thinking about getting it?"

"I don't know yet. I feel like something's missing…" Weiss replied, inspecting herself in the mirror.

"Hmm…" Ruby looked into the mirror as well, analyzing what could be missing from Weiss's outfit. "Perhaps…?"

"R-Ruby?! What are you doing?!"

The younger girl removed the tiara holding Weiss's ponytail together, letting her alabaster hair to flow. She ran her fingers through the snow white locks in order to straighten it.

"There. Is that better?"

"Uh… yeah. How did…?"

"Yang taught me about fashion when we were younger. She never felt particularly fond of ponytails during the summer?"

"You learned something like that from the girl who barely keeps half her body covered and never actually wears ponytails?"

Ruby chuckled, putting Weiss's tiara back in her purse and grabbing a hairbrush. "After Mom passed, I couldn't dress myself for the life of me. Dad wasn't much help either. So Yang took it upon herself to learn about the latest trends and such. And there!"

Stepping back to admire her work, Ruby looked at Weiss with pride as she wore her new outfit with freshly brushed hair. Ruby was grateful that Weiss's hair was nowhere as thick as Yang's was or else it wouldn't have gone as smoothly. She was also glad that Weiss wasn't nearly as sensitive about her hair as her sister was.

"Not bad, Ruby. I have to say, I like it."

"You're welcome." Ruby smiled. "Honestly, you'd look great in anything, but this seems just perfect for this particular look."

Weiss's began to flush, looking away from Ruby's view. "Y-You dolt…"

Ruby chuckled in response. "So do you have everything you wanted?"

"I suppose so. I guess I will get this outfit after all."

"I'd hope so, after all that time I waited just for you to pick it out."

Weiss decided that comment was deserving of a flick to the forehead.

After changing back into her regular clothes, consisting of a black sleeveless jacket over a white long-sleeved shirt and dark pants, Weiss went to the register and purchased her new findings. She decided to keep her hair down as it usually takes meticulous work to tie her hair and keep her tiara on.

Outside the store, Weiss turned her gaze towards Ruby, who was looking around for their next destination.

"I've been dragging you everywhere all morning. Where do you want to go?"

"Well, there's this new game store that opened up recently. I thought we could go check it out."

After a couple wrong turns, the two girls finally made their way into The Gamer Point, the newly established game store that Taiyang had told Ruby about earlier. Apparently, the store also had stock on toys and plushies relating to many forms of media.

"Welcome to The Gamer Point!" A young man with short silver hair, greeted them. From the looks of it, he seemed to be an employee. "Is there anything I can help you with?"

"We're just browsing for now." Weiss replied. "We'll come up when we need your services."

Before Ruby could leave to browse, she glanced over the young man and recognized him. "Wait a minute… Silver? Is that you?"

"Hold on, Ruby? How's it going?" The professional smile on Silver's face faded, transforming into a friendlier one. "Why didn't you tell us you were back in Patch? We could've gotten the gang back together to hang out for while!"

Weiss stood rooted in her current position. Her eyes kept alternating between Ruby and this newcomer Silver. How does Ruby know this boy? What's their relationship? Did they have a thing together or no?

Too many questions filled Weiss's head, with far too little answers.

"Oh, I had only just gotten here a few days back. I wanted Weiss and Blake to get situated here in Patch since this is their first time. Oh! I should introduce you!"

Ruby looked back at Weiss and gestured to Silver. "Weiss, this is my old friend Silver. We met each other at Signal Academy and we've been friends ever since. And Silver," Ruby gestured to Weiss. "This is Weiss Schnee."

"Wow, 'Schnee'? As in, the Schnee Dust Company?"

Ruby nodded. "She's my partner at Beacon and together with Yang and our friend Blake, we form Team RWBY!"

"That must get confusing." Silver chuckled. He offered his hand towards Weiss. "Thanks for taking care of Ruby. I'm sure she's quite the handful."

"Hey!"

The heiress hesitantly shook the boy's hand, sweat forming on her face. "Y-Yeah."

Releasing his grip on Weiss's hand, Silver glanced at his watch and his eyes widen. "Oh, I should probably get back to work. You two go look around and come up to me if you need anything."

"Sure thing!" Ruby called back.

"So Ruby…" Weiss started hesitantly, examining the merchandise. "Who was that?"

"Hmm? I told you, he's my old friend from Signal."

"No. What I meant to ask was 'Who is he to you'?"

"I'm not sure if I understand your- Wait a minute." Ruby shot Weiss a sly grin. "You're not jealous, are you?"

Weiss huffed and looked away in embarrassment. "O-Of course not! Why would I be jealous?!"

"Aw, Weiss~ I'm just messing with you." Ruby giggled at her girlfriend's flushed expression. "Silver's a nice guy and all, but boys aren't really my thing."

"I know that! So I wasn't jealous!"

Ruby laughed at Weiss's weak attempt to justify her envy and noticed a peculiar item in the plush bin near the register.

"Oh my god, Weiss look! They have a plush version of me!"

Weiss looked at the plush incredulously. How was this possible? Sure, the plush seem to have replicated Ruby's cute confident smirk, adorable outfit, and beautiful coat… (Not the time, Weiss she scolded herself) but Ruby wasn't exactly famous in the public's eye.

"And look at that! They have one of you too!"

What-

"Aww, she looks just as grumpy as you too." Ruby grinned, playing with the miniature versions of the young huntresses-in-training.

"I do not look that grumpy." Weiss scoffed in exaggerated disbelief.

Looking at the tag, Ruby tried finding the mastermind who produced these lovely plush versions of themselves.

"Hmm… Rooster Teeth? Have you heard of them, Weiss?"

"No…? The SDC doesn't really deal with any manufacturing companies unless they have a large influence. This 'Rooster Teeth' must not be very big. I'll admit though, these are rather high quality."

"Huh… That's weird." Ruby looked further in the bin, only to find there had been Blake and Yang plushes as well. "Hey, look at that! Now we have the whole team together!"

Weiss couldn't help but give out a small laugh. "That one's certainly Yang. Only she can have that dumb of a smile."

"Then why don't you get them as presents?" Silver asked from the register. "I honestly don't know how we managed to get those, but they're certainly on sale."

Ruby gasped in delight as if she reverted back to the excitable fifteen year old girl she was not too long ago. "Oh can we, Weiss?!"

Weiss sighed. How could she say no to that face? Besides, that Ruby plush certainly has its charms. "I suppose we could. But only if I get to keep yours."

"Okay! I was gonna give it to you anyway. It would've been a little narcissistic to cuddle with myself, you know? I'd rather keep yours."

While finalizing their purchase, Silver chuckled. He had known Ruby to be incredibly awkward at times but it brought a smile to his face to see that she managed to find someone so dear to her during her time away from Patch.

"You know, there's a jewelry shop that specializes in couples across the street. Maybe you two could pick something for yourselves."

The two girls blushed at the boy's comment, leaving Ruby with a sheepish smile and Weiss looking away in embarrassment. "Y-Yeah, we'll go check it out."

"Hope to see you at the summer festival, you two." Silver said, handing them a plastic bag with the plush toys inside.

"We'll be there." Ruby waved. "See you, Silver!"

Entering into the jewelry store, the two girls playfully gagged at mushy romantic décor. Red and white hearts were taped throughout the walls, surrounding a large U-shaped glass case holding all forms of jewelry ranging from rings to watches to necklaces.

An employee greeted them when entering, guiding them through the glass case. The fancy necklaces looked nice, being encrusted with diamonds or other various precious stones, but none caught Ruby's eyes. She knew this was more of Weiss's field of knowledge.

"Ooh, this one looks nice. What do you think, Ruby?" Weiss pointed to a pair of rings, one gold and the other silver. The designs were intricately engraved, as if craved by hand by a master.

"They look nice, I guess." Ruby deadpanned. "But a little too expensive for my taste."

"Are you sure?" Weiss asked, arching her eyebrow. "It wouldn't be a problem for me."

"Weiss, I thought we agreed that neither of us would get each other expensive gifts when we started dating."

Weiss sighed. She really hated that rule sometimes. She knew that trying to buy Ruby's love was shallow, but she had little means of showing she loved her otherwise.

"Oh, what about these?"

Ruby walked over a rack holding some of the cheaper merchandise. It mostly contained various earrings or smaller rings. She grabbed two items and presented them to Weiss.

They were two pairs of earrings, if they could even be called that. One set was in the shape of a small red rose and the other, a white rose. Both sets were missing a piece, but Ruby felt determined to get it regardless.

"Oh, those are nice." The employee had said. "Would you like me to look in the back if we have any complete sets?"

Ruby shook her head. "I think these are perfect."

Weiss watched Ruby as she walked over to the register to make her purchase.

The white-haired girl was hesitant. Why would Ruby want to get not just one, but two incomplete sets of earrings? Sure, they looked nice, but that hardly mattered when there'd be only one in your…

Without even noticing, Ruby had placed the red rose earring onto Weiss's ear and the white rose into her own.

"What are you doing?"

Ruby flashed her winning grin. "Look, now we match!"

"This way, we'll both have something that will remind us of each other if we're ever apart. Besides, if I went with red and gave you white, it would've been too easy."

Weiss sighed in exasperation, but couldn't help but feel a smile creep up on her face. "You dunce."

I'm sorry if that last part felt a little tacked on, but it was a part I really wanted to add in for this particular chapter. The thought of the two having matching earrings of each other's colors was really cute to me and partly inspired by the Tumblr page ask-poorly-drawn-white-rose. Their work is actually pretty funny and sweet when you look past the fact that everything looks like it was just made on MS Paint. But something about that adds to content and makes it all the more enjoyable.

So, to explain why this chapter took so long. I'm not gonna lie, White Like Roses is supposed to be a test for me. On whether or not I have improved on my fanfiction writing. Doing the 30 Day OTP challenge seemed like the best way to approach it since each chapter is pretty much its own story and you don't have to worry so much about following up on an idea posted on a previous chapter. I have to say, I've become much better compared to my old days as a writer.

Since then, I've come up with an AU story I really wanted to write for RWBY. For those interested, it will be a somewhat different take on the high school AU genre. Or at least, I hope it's different since I don't normally find high school AUs particularly story will have a large focus on friendship and romance along with fantasy and musical elements added in. The characters will almost vastly differ from their canon counterparts, but this is in attempt to watch them grow and make them more connectable as a whole. Right now, I've created several Word documents with the entire overarching story with notes for each arc I will be putting into this project. I have no finalized title as of yet, but what I'm most likely going to name it is "Converging Paths". If you want to know more about this AU, you can leave me questions in a review and I'll get back to you through PM.

Now that that's out of the way, the next chapter will be hanging out with friends. I had a really good idea for this particular theme, but I'm gonna have to do a little research before typing anything up. Please leave a review and any questions you have on the Converging Paths AU!