"You have beautiful eyes." Ruby's head snaps from over her textbook to Cinder, who, she realizes, must have been staring at her from across the table for the last couple of minutes, the minutes Ruby spent diligently not getting distracted by the woman's presence. Weiss would be proud of her.
"Ieugh-" she delivers her flawless answer. Her brain only now catching up with both what the older student said and her own response. She turns her gaze away, towards the books surrounding their library booth, smiling nervously while valiantly (if vainly) fighting the heat assaulting her face. "T-thanks, your eyes are really pretty too." The words spew from her mouth before she thinks and her eyes widen in mortification.
"Oh, so you have been looking." Her voice takes on a teasing note and the smirk that Ruby has come to associate with the woman returns to her lips. The one that never fails to ever so slightly elevate Ruby's heartbeat. "I've been wondering if my mind has been playing tricks on me." It takes a lot but the girl manages to look at her friend again without straying, even though there's nothing more that she'd like to do than to sink into the ground.
"I'm sorry?" Not really she's not. Her eyes have been drawn to Cinder a great lot recently. She's embarrassed by herself, yes, but not truly sorry.
"Oh don't worry," and dust does her voice make her feel uncomfortable and wanting it. It confuses her to no end and normally she'd ask Yang but Yang is... protective, perhaps too much so for this. "I don't mind. In fact- I wouldn't mind it at all if you'd like to see more."
Poor Ruby's heart palpitates and her breath hitches when she feels Cinder's leg brushing against her own beneath the table. She's- she's been thinking- things... about the woman in front of her, yeah. But those mostly involve stuff like holding hands or being held by her, and she will never admit it to anyone but she's even been thinking about how would it be like to kiss her, but this? This is so out of her depth that all she can do is sit, completely frozen in place.
"Are you alright?" The Haven student suddenly asks, her coy smile giving way to a concerned frown. Ruby works her mouth, searching for words but not even a stammer leaves her in the end. Cinder quietly chuckles at the sight and stands up to sit beside Ruby, confidently taking the teen's hands between her own. "I'm sorry, but it's just too fun to tease you."
Ruby swallows. "Tease?" She finally croaks out, not quite able to control her voice.
"Why yes. I enjoy seeing you like this, it's adorable." She lightly tugs at the girl's hands and Ruby leans into her without protest, feeling strangely calmed by the closeness yet at the same time as if the lead in her chest will clog her heart up. "I think I'd like to see more of that too."
Ruby is glad for her constricted throat, were it not for it she's sure the surprised squeak she lets out when the woman kisses her cheek would be something infinitely more embarrassing.
"I-I don't mind either. I wouldn't- I mean, if you want t-to that is, I me-" She only stops her stuttering when the woman grabs her shoulder and turns Ruby fully towards her. And oh dust- there's that teasing smile again, the one that makes the young huntress yearn to know how would Cinder's lips feel like against her own.
"Calm down Little Rose." The woman says with a hint of amusement coloring her words, and Grimm take her heart but does something inside Ruby's guts ignite at the name. "No need to rush, we have time." She pulls her chair closer and lets Ruby rest her head against her shoulder while her fingers start trailing patterns of heat across the girl's hands.
Ruby's grateful, for the calming words, for her firm fingers, for the now-familiar smell of ash on the woman and for how she's indulging her anxiety. They both remain silent for a moment while the younger student's heart calms down from the wild rhythm it's taken.
"Um..." Ruby eventually begins, and it's hard, harder than fighting Grimm and even harder than her first day at Beacon to soldier on, but she tries. "There aren't lessons tomorrow-" only to clam up when her mind comes up blank with the next part of the sentence.
"So I hear." Cinder picks up where Ruby can't follow. "Say, would you mind showing me around Vale? I'm afraid I haven't had the time to explore it just yet." She finishes with a knowing smile.
Ruby beams up at the idea. Relieved, so relieved by Cinder's willingness in spite of her fumbling.
"I'd love to!"