A/N: I barely managed to put this up today. I really should be studying for Calculus though... I'm such a bad person...
Well, at least my bad grade will mean fun for you guys!
Ah hah... ah haha... I am so friggin screwed.
Weiss stared in horror as the annoying gardener took a bullet for her.
Literally.
As the two figures dropped to the ground, Weiss rushed over, frantically checking over the other girl. She felt sick, horrified, and scared in equal measure. Trying to remain calm, Weiss pulled out a high tech smart phone and dialed the police.
"I have a gunshot victim and a gunman both unconscious at the Schnee estate. Hurry." She snapped, then shoved it back in her pocket. Next Weiss looked over the girl. She was breathing, barely, but there was a hole clean through her shoulder. A list of possible medical complications ran through her mind as Weiss took a pair of scissors from the fallen gardener's utility belt, snipped a strip off her black t-shirt, and bound the wound as tightly as she could.
Second she turned her eyes to the gunman. Using some twine from the same utility belt, she bound his hands, threw the gun in the bushes, and kicked him for good measure. Then she sat down beside the gardener, holding one gloved hand in her own dainty, pale one.
"Please don't die." Weiss whispered, surprising herself. She felt like absolute shit. This girl, this brave, wonderful girl was bleeding out on the ground and she didn't even know who she was. A total stranger might have just sacrificed herself to save Weiss, and she couldn't even remember her name. The emergency responders found her like that, kneeling in front of the two fallen people.
"I'm riding with her." Weiss informed one of the EMT's as he helped get Ruby into the ambulance. Her tone allowed for zero debate.
"Sure. She your friend or something?" He said, a concerned frown creasing his forehead.
Weiss stared at the gardener. "Or something." She murmured, climbing into the back.
Ruby was stable.
That was her name, Weiss had discovered, feeling incredibly guilty that she hadn't known before. Ruby Rose, age eighteen, graduated with perfect grades from Beacon Academy earlier that year. She knew all this because she was in a shouting match with her sister.
"It wasn't my fault!" Weiss yelled, trying to drown out the tall, muscular blonde, who looked like she wanted to be sending another patient to the wonderful doctors of the Vale ER.
"Well then whose fault was it!" The blonde bellowed back. "My sister is fucking shot!"
"Blame the Faunus trash who shot her, not me!"
"She's here because she tried to help you!"
"Her decision, not mine!"
"You-"
Their contest was abruptly interrupted when a furious nurse shot them a glare. "You two keep it down." She growled. "That poor girl is lucky to be alive and you're acting like children. You should be ashamed."
The blonde sighed and faced her opponent. "Sorry."
Weiss sniffed haughtily. "Fine. I accept your apology."
The blonde seemingly didn't hear the snippy response. "I'm just really worked up." She slumped into a chair. "I mean, my little sis just got shot..." She paused for a moment. "Oh! Right! I never introduced myself. The names Yang. You're... Weiss right?"
Weiss nodded hesitantly. Was this girl bipolar or something? "A pleasure." She seated herself daintily in another chair. "The doctors hope she'll be awake within an hour."
"Welp, I suppose I got nowhere else to be." Yang said, leaning back. "You can go home now. I got this covered."
"No, thanks." Weiss replied. She certainly wasn't about to leave, not until she made sure Ruby was all right. It was the least she could do.
Yang gave her a funny look, but didn't push it. And so they waited in a tense silence.
Time passed.
Forty five minutes later, a nurse came in and asked for a "Miss Xiao Long." Yang got up instantly and rushed for the room where they were keeping Ruby while Weiss watched her go, wondering why the two had different last names. She sat, and would have fidgeted if she were anyone else, but a Schnee does not fidget and so Weiss sat still and poised for another ten minutes before Yang came back.
"You better just go talk to her." She said with a mysterious, wry grin. "She's totally ignoring me."
Weiss stood up and took a deep breath. She followed the nurse into the room, and saw Ruby sitting up in bed, looking absolutely awful. Her face was tired and pale, her black and red streaked hair was completely messed up, and she was wearing an awful hospital gown. Two different IVs were pumping blood and some chemical cocktail into her.
"Hey!" She said perky despite her weak voice. "Are you all right? Yang wouldn't tell me anything, she just kept worrying. Like, she's completely impossible to talk to when she's worked up about something."
"I'm fine Ruby." Weiss said, sitting down on a chair next to the bed. "Thanks to you." She added after a moment. It sounded horribly cheesy, and Weiss winced, but Ruby beamed delightedly.
"Awesome." Ruby was quiet for a moment, and stared down at the scratchy cotton blanket someone had spread over her. "You know, I think this is the longest conversation we've ever had." She laughed, a sparkling, joyous sound, even weak as it was.
Weiss winced. "I..." She paused, looking for a way to explain that wouldn't make her sound like a complete jerk. "Can be a bit..." How to say it how to say it... wait, why did she even care? "Antisocial." She finished lamely.
"Yup! I noticed!" Ruby giggled. "You know, you should do stuff like this more often."
"Like what?" Weiss asked. She was already off balance and confused. Wasn't she supposed to be talking? Or something?
"Be nice to people." She shrugged. "You know, without crazy assassins and extremely amazingly heroic gardeners."
Weiss bit down on a smile. "I'll consider it."
Ruby yawned deeply, her face suddenly slumping along with her body. "Well, I think I'm gonna have to take some sick days offa work... sorry about that..."
She was suddenly asleep. Weiss quietly stepped out, only to see Yang leaving.
"Hey, mind staying with her a bit?" The tall woman asked casually, shrugging on a jacket. "I gotta get back to class."
"She's your sister!" Weiss said, then stopped. "Fine."
Yang chuckled, giving her a thumbs up. "Cool! I'll be back... eh. Someday."
"Wait, what!" Weiss started to demand, but Yang had already gone, grinning all the way.
"I hope you appreciate this little sis." She said quietly. "Though I gotta say, you sure know how to pick em."
As it turned out, a few phone calls later Weiss had arranged to spend the entire day with Ruby. Her father was doubtful, and extremely concerned, but surprisingly he approved it. Weiss knew he had probably added a few private guards to the people in hospital, just in case, but she didn't mind. He was just looking out for her after all.
Ruby dozed in and out, striking up brief, random conversations with Weiss before falling back asleep. It was a week before she had recovered enough to go home, and Weiss had spent about half of her time at the hospital with the girl, cautiously talking and listening as the cheerful little gardener spouted everything on her mind, mostly a sea of questions for Weiss.
In short, Weiss had made a friend.
Two weeks later Ruby was back, one arm in a sling but still chipper as ever.
Weiss was waiting for her in a short white sundress and a large brimmed hat. The only color to be seen was in her ice blue eyes and in the faint blush on her face.
"I... thought I could help you get caught back up with your work." She explained, slightly embarrassed. "You know, since you've been out and all."
"Great!" Ruby cheered. She put Weiss to work mercilessly, giving her a never ending stream of instructions. Weiss was surprised at how difficult it was. She had never done a chore more strenuous than setting the table in her life, and a full day of gardening was a fair bit harder, to say the least. But by the end of the day, Weiss felt like she had really accomplished a lot.
Ruby didn't agree. "Ugh! It's going to take another three weeks of this before this place is fixed again!" She grumbled. "Oh well."
"Three weeks!" Weiss exclaimed.
"Oh, you don't have to help." Ruby said bashfully. "I mean, it's not your job, and you probably have other stuff to be doing and all."
Weiss gave her a look. "Ruby, you can't use half the tools one handed. I'll keep helping you until you can use your arm."
Ruby blushed a brilliant scarlet. "Thanks Weiss."
"You're welcome. So... what do you do after work?" She asked curiously as she wiped sweat from her forehead.
"Uh... usually I grab a late lunch..." Ruby said hesitantly.
Weiss realized she was starving. "Well, come inside then. I'll have the cooks fix us up something." She said, struck by a sudden kind inspiration.
"Wait, come inside? Cooks?" Ruby was obviously panicking.
"Oh it'll be fine, don't be ridiculous. Come on." Weiss took her good arm and dragged her for the house. She was not about to let Ruby turn her gesture down. That would be humiliating.
A little something ended up being pancakes, at Ruby's request. At least, that was what she asked for when she finished an impromptu tour of the house that she had insisted on Weiss giving. Afterwards they had sat down in the huge, empty dining room, aimlessly chatting while they waited for the cooks to finish making the food. Finally, it arrived, and both girls dug in.
"Mmm." Ruby said through a mouthful of fluffy, syrupy goodness. "Deesh aww weely gut."
"Don't talk with your mouth full." Weiss snapped. "Some of us don't speak grunt."
Ruby gulped down the bite. "Oops. Sorry. These are really good!"
"I'll tell the cooks you said so." Weiss said, cutting a smaller, much daintier bite off her own pancakes.
"So, I'm curious." Ruby said. "What do you do here all day? I mean, you know what I do, just a bunch of gardening stuff."
"Well, I have tutors here for a few hours each day. I asked father if they could come late today, so I could help you." Weiss replied. "I have one for school subjects and one for fencing. Other than that, I'm usually studying. My parents like me to always be practicing something."
"Really? Fencing? Man, you should talk to Yang. She's huge into martial arts, like boxing and stuff."
Weiss looked doubtful. "I think there's a fair bit of difference between hitting someone in the face and fencing."
Ruby shrugged. "Maybe. I wouldn't know, I'm not that kinda person."
"Oh?" Weiss asked. "Then what do you like to do?"
"Well... I really like writing." Ruby said, looking down at her plate, embarrassed. "I mean, as a kid I always loved having Yang read to me. And I read a lot on my own too... all sorts of things really."
"Any particular favorites?" Weiss asked. She wasn't much of a reader herself, unless it was a textbook. And she had never done any writing outside of essays.
"Have you ever read Grimms Fairy Tales? I absolutely love those."
Weiss shook her head. "Can't say that I have."
"They're fun, you should try them sometime. Oh, yeah, and I play a lot of videogames."
Weiss frowned. From what little she had heard of such things, they sounded like an incredible waste of time. "Videogames." She said flatly.
"Yup! Like-"
Weiss cut her off. "I think I'm better not knowing, thanks."
"Not your thing? Okay then." Ruby finished her food, and stretched, looking out one of the large windows that dotted the dining room wall. "Oh man! It's pretty late, I should really tell Yang to pick me up."
"Let me get Otto to drive you!" Weiss offered suddenly. More kindness. Weiss felt very disconcerted by it.
"Wow, thanks! Lemme just call Yang and tell her not to worry." Ruby pulled out a clunky flip phone and had a brief conversation with her sister, which for some reason put a furious blush on her face. "Okay." She said. "We're good."
"Wait, you're coming too?" Ruby asked as Weiss climbed in with her. "I thought you had tutors and stuff."
Weiss shrugged dismissively. "They won't be here for a while. It's fine."
From the front seat, Otto chuckled. "Is good for the young mistress to be heading out, hmm? Such wonders you have worked with her, Miss Rose! She almost never leaves."
"Yes, it's very nice Otto." Weiss muttered. She did not want this subject to be discussed, because if she knew Otto she knew she was going to be very embarrassed in just a moment.
"You know." The elderly man continued, seemingly unable to hear her. "When she was a tiny girl, just five years old, I was driving her for the first time. And she looked around and asked me where we were going. Away from the house I told her. She told me, very seriously, that there was no such thing. And she poked me for lying." He laughed uproariously, and Ruby joined him, chuckling along.
"Oh man, Weiss, that is too cute!" She said, shaking with laughter.
"Be quiet!" Weiss burst out. "It's not funny!"
Ruby faced her gravely. She extended one finger, and poked Weiss square in the forehead. "Poke." She said, poking Weiss gently. Then she started giggling again.
The rest of the ride passed with Otto telling Ruby embarrassing stories and then the two of them making fun of Weiss, who stared out the window stony faced.
They arrived a few minutes but far too many stories later.
Weiss gaped, as openmouthed as Ruby when Weiss had dragged her into the Manor for lunch.
"How do you live here?" She demanded. "I mean, if there's two of you!"
"Um, not everybody has a suite for a bedroom princess." Ruby said with a grin. "Do you want to see inside?"
Otto smiled encouragingly. "It would be fine. I will wait."
Weiss was torn. Somehow, she felt... uncomfortable. All the time she had been... friends with Ruby, it had been on her own terms. This seemed all too personal. She wasn't going to come in. "I'll come in." Her mouth said, something getting lost in translation between her brain and throat. "Just for a minute."
"Great!" Ruby bubbled, heading in. "And it'll only take a minute. I mean, it's just five rooms."
Weiss went in, and looked around. There was a living room with a tv and a couch, a kitchen with a table for eating, and three doors leading off. Yang was on the couch, watching some show with lots of loud gunfire.
"Ruby! How was work!" She said, spinning around to look. "Oh... hey... Weiss."
"Hello. Ruby was just showing me your house." Weiss craned her head, looking around. It was so small... how did they fit everything? There wasn't much more mess than there was back at the Manor. "Though I actually need to get back." Weiss said abruptly. She couldn't stay any longer. Had to get out, had to get out.
"Oh... okay Weiss." Ruby said gently, looking slightly crestfallen. "See you tomorrow?"
Weiss nodded. "Of course."
She hurried back outside. "Let's go Otto."
After her tutors had left, Weiss slumped on her huge canopy bed.
What did she think of Ruby? And why did she always feel so worried around the girl? She could stand it when they were at the Manor, but the moment she left the property Weiss went from a swan to an ugly duckling. She didn't know what to do, what to say! She knew what she wanted, which was to be able to spend as much time as possible with Ruby. The other girl was the first thing she had to enjoy, besides fencing and perfect test scores.
And to be honest, another person was a hell of a lot better than a good grade or a trophy.
Weiss sighed. She had to quit tripping over herself. It was just embarrassing, running out of Ruby's house like that!
The other girl was probably laughing at her right now.
A/N: I am really starting to get a feel for how the romance will develop. Though, I'm probably going to add another chapter to Roses Bloom before I do this one. Hopefully both will be put out Labor Day weekend (for you non Americans, November 8-11) but no promises. I have peeps to hang with, a guy to maybe ask out, and all sorts of other shenanigans.
Well, derp to you all.