Chapter 6
Ignition.
In Ruby's opinion, the weeks that followed Weiss and Ruby's elevator predicament couldn't have gone better. Ruby and Weiss's first meeting in the Tivoli café had gone over so well that the two girls agreed that they should continue to meet every Friday, classes willing.
As a result the redheaded rebel spent most of her free time during the next several weeks thinking about their next study date, which were totally not dates and just a meet up between two friends to go over notes and get to know one another. She thought of their meetings so often in fact that she had begun to find it difficult to concentrate on her classes.
When Ruby wasn't in class, and not hanging out with Jaune, Velvet, or her sister, she had taken to walking around the campus listlessly for hours at a time due to the nervous energy that infused with her every breath. Jaune had been incredibly patient with her however on a fateful Friday, about a month after She and Weiss had begun their not date study dates, he finally decided that he should say something.
"Hey Ruby?"
Ruby glanced up from the book she had been pretending to read on the steps of her dorm building and fixed Jaune with a quizzical glare.
"Yeah, what is it Jaune?"
Jaune chuckled and kicked the ground nervously as he spoke, being incredibly carful to look anywhere that wasn't Ruby as he spoke.
"So um, is everything cool? You've seemed really distracted lately."
Ruby heaved out a heavy sigh and closed the book.
"Yeah, I'm cool Jaune, just nervous I guess." At his questioning look she continued, speaking so fast that Jaune had to strain himself to keep up with her.
"Well, you see um, Weiss and I have been meeting up to study to and get to know one another every Friday for the last few weeks. At first it was great and worked out for both of us but now… I don't know. Like, I can't seem to get our study dates out of my head. They've become the best part of the week for me and I am always thinking about our next meet up." Ruby paused to catcher breath before continuing, her face turning a deep crimson color as she spoke.
"I don't know what do but…but.. Oh god… I-I need to go clear my head, its 2 right now so I need to go calm down before our study thing this afternoon." Ruby stopped talking, gathered her belongings and began to walk off in the direction of the schools quad. "I-Ill see you tomorrow Jaune, we still on for that concert?
Jaune nodded dumbly. Whatever he had expected he hadn't thought she would let all that out like she did. He had suspected that there was something going on between the two of them, however he hadn't thought that Ruby had yet to approach Weiss. In all the years he had known the redhead he had learned that subtlety was not among her skills. It was uncharacteristic of the excitable redhead and it worried him considerably.
Jaune watched her turn to leave, only to pause mid-step and turn back to face him. A mischievous glint returning to her eye as she spoke.
"And don't think I've forgotten what I told you, Jaune boy. You get your skinny ass moving and go find Pyrrha right now and you invite her to go with us tomorrow, got that?"
"Only if you sack up and ask Weiss to come with us too Red." Jaune retorted without thinking as his cheeks began to burn. His statement had the desired effect however as Ruby's cheeks began to turn as red as her namesake. Her face changed from mischievous, to surprise, to determined all in a manner of seconds. The smaller girl squared her shoulders before meeting Jaunes eyes, defiance radiating off her in waves as she spoke in a voice that was, much to her chagrin, not completely free of her shaken nerves.
"A-Alright Jaune-boy, you've got yourself a deal." With that Ruby stalked off in the direction of the Tivoli, not noticing the smirk that had firmly set itself upon Jaunes face.
Ruby took a deep nervous breath as she stood just outside the Tivoli café. She couldn't remember the last time she had been this nervous. Surveying the crowd she caught a glimpse of Weiss's familiar white hair in one of the corner booths and her heart immediately jumped into her throat. She began to mutter to herself nervously as she proceeded to wring her hands together.
"Okay, you can do this Ruby. All you have to do is go in there and ask out the cute girl that both excites you and terrifies the shit out you. No biggie, you've done this plenty of times. Ok no you haven't but c'mon how hard can it be?"
"W-well if you're going to stand there all day then pretty hard."
"Yeah seriously sis, grow a pair and go ask princess out already."
Ruby's hands flew up to her mouth to smother the startled scream that had begun to escape her as she twirled around to meet the pair of voices that had snuck up on her. She supposed she should have really been all that surprised when she found Velvet and Yang standing before her. Velvet looking concerned while at the same time amused by Ruby's reaction though she made an attempt to cover her mouth in order to save some of Ruby's shattered pride.
Yang however made no attempt to hide her laughter as she doubled over, holding on to Velvet for support which caused the Bunny girls face to go a deep crimson, roaring with laughter and drawing several looks from the students that sat at various tables around the café. Weiss was one of them.
Before Ruby could think of an exit strategy of some sort the White haired girl approached the trio of girls with fire in her eyes. Weiss gave Velvet a polite nod while fixing Yang with her most disapproving stare. Ruby knew the girl thought it was menacing and for the most part she was correct but after spending so much time around Weiss the stare had become less frightening and more cute than anything else.
What followed in the next few seconds left Ruby standing dumbstruck and awed as her sister deftly went about manipulating Weiss to her own ends.
"What in the name of all that's holy has gotten into you Yang?"
"Oh…hehe… it's nothing you would care about princess."
"I assure you that if it is important enough to disturb the entire café than it is something I would very much like to know" Weiss retorted with a huff. Yang gave her a roll of her lilac eyes and a made a show of examining her nails as she gestured to Ruby.
"Have it your way. You see my sister was going to invite you to come with us to a concert tomorrow."
Weiss's face flushed red as she glanced at Ruby as if for confirmation of Yangs story. Ruby, not knowing what else to say simply nodded in response to Weiss's pointed look. Weiss then turned back to face the blonde.
"And this caused you to laugh? Forgive me if I am more than a tad bit confused."
Yang waved her off as she answered.
"I laughed because despite my assurance that you don't have the stones to keep up with us she remained very insistent on offering you the invite anyway."
Weiss's face seemed to morph into an even darker shade of red, this time from anger rather than embarrassment.
'I will have you know that I can take whatever you deem fit to throw at me Long. "She retorted angrily before whirling around on Ruby, her eyes softening with something the redhead didn't recognize as she addressed her with a slightly less harsh tone.
"What time is this concert?"
"I-Uh..8"
"Do you still want me to come with you?"
Ruby nodded dumbly. Weiss gave her a gentle smile.
"Then it's a date, I assume casual attire is appropriate?"
Again Ruby nodded. Still unsure as to what to make of the entire situation.
"Well I best be off then. I don't think my current wardrobe would be quite appropriate and I wouldn't want to appear….overdressed as it were. I'll see you back at the room Ruby. " Weiss gave her a reassuring smile before turning away and walking off toward the entrance, pausing only once to give,a very amused looking, Yang a scathing glare.
Weiss's departure left the trio in relative silence. Yang looked smug at her sister's look of perplexity while Velvet blinked confused. The peace wasn't to last however as Velvet whirled on the blonde, a sudden angry fire igniting in her eyes as she spoke in her most disapproving voice.
"What the Bloody Fucking Hell Yang. You couldn't let your sister handle that herself? You had to trick that poor girl into this, turning it into a matter of pride rather than desire?!"
Both Ruby and Yang's eyes widened in surprise and fear. Velvet never cussed, . To have her do so could only mean that Yang had gone way over the line in her eyes. At least that's what Ruby determined. Yang still seemed to be overcoming her astonishment as Velvet roughly took a hold of her arm and began to lead her away. Velvet paused and then whispered in a hush tone to Ruby.
"I am so sorry that you weren't able to ask her yourself Ruby. I shall be having a discussion with your sister on proper manners when we get back to our room." She paused to glare at Yang who tried and failed to hide the look of terror on her face at the threat in the Faunus girl's words. Turning back to the redhead Velvet gave her one of her most reassuring smiles as she spoke in a gentle, motherly tone. "I am sure everything will go fine tomorrow dear. We'll be right there with you to make sure of it."
With that Velvet led Yang away to meet her fate. Her sister cast her a pleading look just before she disappeared around the corner, Ruby responded with the bird. After they were gone Ruby slumped against the wall and let out a shaky breath.
Well that didn't go exactly as planned. She thought dejectedly. Than it struck her. W-wait. She said date! Oh my god Weiss said it was a date! Jumping up from the wall Ruby sped out of the hall so that she could find Jaune and tell him about her impending date with Weiss Schnee.
A/N: Sweet goddess I am so sorry that this took so long to get out to you all. It has been hell juggling fanfic with college papers the last few weeks. I actually wrote most of this between a research paper for Corrections and Philosophy: p. Anyway enough of my excuses. I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Please let me know what you thought. I hope to have Clarities next chapter done by the weekend but belch we'll have to see. My Eternal love defiantly will not be done until sometime next week unfortunately. Well I must return to the wonderful history of Alcatraz. Again I apologize for the wait. Take care and blessed be!
-Crystal