AN: Hello again! Thank you so much for reading this far and a big thank you to everybody who has reviewed, favorite, and followed the story or myself. I know I've said this before but I do write to improve overtime so hopefully you notice an increase in quality in my future chapter/stories. But anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter please let me know what you think!

Chapter 5

The morning after her brilliant plan had come to fruition, Ruby Rose awoke in her dorm room surprisingly refreshed and ready to face the day. Her alarm continued to blare whatever pop song was popular on the radio, she had switched from the beeping tone, and Ruby simply lay there listening. The song really wasn't that bad, she thought as she mentally prepared herself to exit the comfort of her bed.

Ruby's surprise solace was disturbed by a shrill voice coming from across the room "Would you turn that terrible noise off!"

She had expected to wake up alone in the room like usual and Weiss' shout surprised Ruby into throwing her hand onto the alarm quickly. She nearly fell out of the bed in her rush to get to it and Ruby's heart still beat from the surprise company.

"S-sorry Weiss." Ruby apologized to her roommate, who was clearly not a morning person she noted. "I didn't expect you to be here this morning." Weiss didn't have class, Ruby was sure that she would never skip or sleep in. The question that popped into her mind then was Weiss being here due to the day or was she no longer avoiding her?

After a moment of silence Weiss answered with a muffled "I don't have class until this afternoon and skipped my morning run." The pillow she was addressing this into made her sound regretful over the decision but Ruby couldn't be sure if it was that or simply Weiss' reaction to her newfound state of being awake.

"Do you run every morning?" Ruby asked as she recovered from her near fall and got out of bed. Unlike Weiss, she had class this morning in about an hour and needed to get ready.

"I don't on the weekend." Weiss replied, rolling over onto her back and coming to the realization that she would not be going back to sleep this morning.

"Cool, uh," Ruby hesitated as she considered the question she wanted ask. Be brave. Last night was the first step and this could the second. She continued "maybe I could join you sometime. I'd like to avoid the whole freshman forty thing." Ruby let out a nervous laugh as the possibility of one of Weiss' firm "No's" loomed in her mind.

"Fine." Was all Weiss did say though and relief washed over Ruby. Her roommate wasn't finished though. "I'll wake you up in the morning. Shouldn't you be getting to class though instead of having this conversation?"

The fact that Weiss knew she had class caught Ruby off-guard but she really did need to start getting ready if she was to make on time. "Yeaaahhhh," Ruby drew out as she admitted this to herself. Talking to Weiss was just such a nice change though and she didn't want to surrender an opportunity but Ruby also knew that she had to do so now. Without another word, the brunette made her way into the bathroom, humming her morning wake up song. It really wasn't that bad at all.

Weiss was out of breath and feeling more tired than she had in a long time. The sun was rising in the direction she was facing on the road and seemed to be some sort of distant, unreachable goal. Sweat had begun to soak through her shorts and t-shirt a mile back and the usual enjoyment she found on her morning runs had slowly declined since that point. Instead it was replaced with the companionship of her running partner.

This morning marked the fourth run that Weiss and Ruby had gone on together and the former was reconsidering how often they did this. Her previous runs had been more about the solitude than actual physical fitness, Ruby however changed things dramatically. For someone who had expressed concern over weight gain, Ruby was incredibly athletic, seemingly never getting tired no matter the distance. Weiss had struggled to keep up for the past four days but Ruby had always made sure to stay by her and keep up her resolve.

"Are you still with me Weiss?" her partner asked, presenting an effortless smile that always disturbed Weiss in a way she couldn't really understand.

"I'm fine Ruby." She lied, not wanting to admit weakness.

Ruby looked concerned at her words though "Well, we're almost there, just another half mile I think." Her features suddenly developed into a mischievous grin. "You said you're fine right?

"Yes, Ruby." Weiss lied again between deep and rapid breathes "I am perfectly fine. Why I could keep going for miles." I am SO going to regret that.

"That's good." Ruby stated, retaining her grin "Because we're going to sprint to the finish."

"Wait, wha…" but Ruby was already off, rapidly increasing the distance between them. Damn it. Weiss took off too, trying to make her inevitable defeat a little less of a rout.

In and out. In and out. Control your breathing, Weiss. Don't die and more importantly, don't throw up.

"Are you still okay Weiss?" Ruby asked her she looked down on Weiss' prone form. Her breathing was barely heavier than average.

"Yeah." Deep breath. "Yeah…just….catching my…breath is all."

"You know, you don't need to act so tough in front of me." Ruby's smile transformed into a more serious look of concern "I shouldn't have done that stupid sprint at the end, I knew you were lying and just wanted to make you admit it. It was really immature of me."

"No, it's my fault Ruby." Weiss admitted as she sat up "I'm just so used to keeping a…..a mask on I guess you could say that it's hard for me to admit weakness." She couldn't look at Ruby as she confessed this, opening up was another thing she had never had much practice in and the act felt extremely uncomfortable.

The smile returned to Ruby's face. "Well you don't need to worry about that with me. We're friends Weiss and we don't need to pretend anything in front of each other."

How do you do that? Weiss wondered. How can you be so open and nice and manage to make it look so easy?

"We should head back now." Ruby spoke, bringing Weiss out of her thoughts "You have class in an hour and a half." Over the past week the two had done more than just run together, they had begun to eat lunch together every day and conversations occurred on a regular basis. The last one seemed silly but Weiss treasured it the most, talking to Ruby about anything that came to mind was such a change from her life until meeting her again. Their newfound friendship had led to them becoming quite familiar with each other's schedules, not that Weiss hadn't already known Ruby's. She had acquired her schedule shortly after she moved in so that she could be sure to work around it. Now her efforts proved fruitful in a different way.

"Yeah." Weiss agreed simply as Ruby helped her to her feet. The two began the short walk back to where Weiss had parked; there wasn't a decent route on campus to run so they had driven to a park a short distance away.

On the drive back Weiss asked Ruby about her running, she had been losing for four days and she needed to know the reason why.

"Pfft, it's not really losing Weiss. We run with each other, not against each other." Ruby commented, finding Weiss' question funny.

Everything is a competition Weiss thought, repeating her Father's words to herself. No. Stop it Weiss, he isn't here to control you. But still, it's hard to forget a lifetime of "teachings" so quickly.

"Still," Weiss started "you are way too good to just be a natural. I mean my runs weren't exactly hard before you started coming but they put me in pretty decent shape."

Ruby looked over to her before saying "You got me. I confess my performance enhanced nature, Detective."

"What?!" Weiss stopped the car at the turn before their dorm's parking lot "You cannot do drugs Ruby Rose, it doesn't matter what kind!"

Ruby burst out laughing so hard Weiss thought she may pop a blood vessel. "Weiss…I'm…I'm" she struggled to get out the words as she tried her best to get air into her lungs. "I'm sorry….it was a joke. I can't believe you thought I would use steroids!" Her smile was incredulous.

"Well of course you don't…" Weiss trailed off embarrassed for her outburst "It's just that you said you did and…and I didn't like the thought you doing something like that and…" She was unsure of what else to say.

"I get." Ruby managed between the lingering giggles "I really do Weiss. But we should probably park now if you want to shower and stuff."

Still embarrassed, Weiss didn't comment further and just pulled into the parking lot. She couldn't believe she had reacted like that to Ruby's joke. Really Weiss Schnee, that was hardly appropriate behavior to an obvious joke.

"I just don't get it Weiss. I'm sorry." Ruby stated for what seemed to be the hundredth time that afternoon. The library returned to deathly silence after she finished and promptly dropped her face onto the calculus textbook. Maybe osmosis was the way to go…

"You don't get it because you don't want to." Weiss shot back, clearly annoyed. They had been studying together for the past two hours with the past twenty minutes of dedicated calculus being the most stressful. Weiss, tired of Ruby always asking for help on a subject she had taken the previous year had instead offered to simply tutor her a little. This had turned out to be easier said than done on her part.

"I'm trying okay?" Ruby shot back, not appreciating the tone Weiss had used. Math had never come easy to her and having Weiss belittle her over it did nothing to improve her attitude towards it.

"If you were trying then you would understand by now." Weiss continued, her attitude unchanging "Now let's go over this again and try to pay attention this time."

Ruby felt her eyes begin to water and didn't want to say anything else. It had been nearly two months since she had moved in with Weiss and started classes. She had been doing well in all of her classes but only with a lot of work. The stress had slowly added up and Weiss' behavior towards her had only made it worse. Ruby did her best to hold back the tears and calm down as Weiss went over the lesson once again.

This continued for nearly two minutes before Weiss looked at her to make sure she was paying attention. Her look of annoyance immediately shifted into one of concern.

"Are you okay Ruby?" Weiss asked, placing her hand on Ruby's shoulder.

"Yeah…" Ruby closed eyes in another attempt to make the moisture disappear "I'm sorry, it's just stress I think. It's not your fault I'm being dumb."

"You are not dumb Ruby. Don't you ever say that again. Everyone struggles with studies sometimes and some subjects are harder for others." Weiss adopted a comforting smile as she spoke to her. When Weiss managed to actually smile it was one of the most beautiful things Ruby had ever seen. She immediately felt better as Weiss went on "I should have thought about that before snapping at you but it's only because I don't want you to fail."

"I know." Ruby muttered, a little embarrassed about almost crying in front of Weiss. Ruby knew that when Weiss was overly harsh on her it was because she wanted to help her succeed. On the rare occasion where she went too far, she had always been quick to apologize. Ruby didn't mind those times very much anyway as Weiss always had a genuine apologetic smile that made her eyes light up in concern - a small prize at the end of a berating. "It's getting late anyway." She continued "Let's stop for tonight."

"Fine." Weiss stated, not hiding her reluctance at all. Ruby could tell that Weiss didn't want to put off the work but she also knew that Weiss would put her first. That was one of the things she loved about her.

Ruby wondered if she should be shocked as these words traveled through her mind, but she wasn't. A part of Ruby had known these feelings for a while and finally admitting it to herself felt nice. Another, more pessimistic, part grew saddened at this realization though as Ruby told herself that there was no chance that Weiss would ever see her that way. Love from afar did not seem any fun at all….

"Are you coming or would you rather sit there and daydream?" Weiss asked sternly, standing next to the still seated Ruby.

"Yup, sorry." Ruby apologized while quickly gathering up her things "I was just thinking."

"Well do it on the way back to the room, dolt." Weiss turned and began to move towards the exit.

Nope, Ruby thought as she followed her newfound love, not a chance at all.

AN: I'm glad I was able to get another chapter out so quickly and I hope you enjoyed it. My goal in this chapter was to show snippets of Ruby's and Weiss' day to day together as their friendship develops. Weiss' attitude towards Ruby, I feel, has always been about helping her. Unfortunately for Ruby this ends up coming out as harsh at times but it is important for the two them that Ruby realizes this and doesn't react like Yang who simply views as mistreatment. I'm also fairly certain that Ruby likes the abuse to a degree...Anyyyyyyway I've managed to do something that I haven't before for a story, I have written a chapter ahead of time. So now I have chapter 7, it may end up being 8, ready and need to write what happens before; so that's nice. Once again, I thank you for reading and I hope you stick around through the rest of the story. Until next time!