The M-rating is thoroughly earned in this chapter.
Yang had about a week of complaining about the steadily deteriorating weather and unseasonal chill before she'd jinxed it so thoroughly that the heater broke. She was kind of sucky like that.
Of course, Ruby didn't tell her that because she had super team-leader planning skills and had the situation covered. While Weiss and Blake lay shivering in their bunks, she was sneaking over to her sister's. The floor was ice cold but she hadn't dared borrow Weiss' slippers since she'd been on the receiving end of The Glare.
She didn't wanna repeat that one.
"Yaaang," she whispered, giving the blonde's shoulder a firm poke.
"Jus' two more minutes, dad," Yang slurred, the words muffled by her pillow.
Ruby poked her again, harder, and her sister blinked her eyes open. There was no need to ask - Yang took one look at Ruby and then shifted half a foot closer to the wall, lifting up the covers.
Ruby gratefully slipped underneath and sidled up until Yang's arms wrapped around her, pressing herself flush against Ruby's back and enveloping her in a cocoon of softness and warmth.
"Been awhile since we last did this," Yang said after a while. "Can't even remember when."
"First night at Signal," Ruby supplied.
"Oh yeah… the thunderstorm."
"Stupid thunderstorm."
Yang didn't say anything for a while. She knew better, at this point, than to insinuate that there had been anything but the thunderstorm that had scared Ruby that night.
"Do you miss it? Signal."
Ruby considered the question for a moment.
"A bit," she said. "Beacon's way cooler and it's so awesome to have a team now and to get to fight grimm for real but… I miss Uncle Qrow and seeing dad more."
Yang's hold on her tightened and Ruby's eyes drifted closed.
"Me too. I'm glad you could come with me to Beacon. It makes this whole place more like home."
"Wish Zwei had been here, too" Ruby mumbled. "Coulda slept on my feet and kept 'em warm."
Yang chuckled and gave her feet a light kick.
"Frickin' icicle toes. We'd need a flamethrower to warm em' up."
"Shut up and warm me," Ruby muttered, kicking back gleefully.
"Always," Yang promised.
Minutes went by and the cold retreated from Ruby's bones (if not her toes). Yang's breathing slowly deepened and Ruby felt herself drift off too, feeling more comfortable than she could remember in a good long while.
"At least it's warmer here," Blake said. "I can't believe it'll take them a week to fix the heater. How hard could it be?"
"I know," Ruby said. "They wouldn't even let me check in on it."
It wasn't fair. She could totally have fixed it. Improved it even. Maybe added some kind of self-defense system to prevent people tampering with it. If only rats or mice could be trained to use laser guns mounted to their heads. It was definitely worth considering.
Blake squeezed her hand under the blanket they'd brought to the library. It had taken her half an hour to stop shivering, though it had given Ruby the excuse to snuggle a bit, which had been awesome.
Blake smiled at her and Ruby felt her heartbeat speed up and glanced out through the stacks of bookshelves. They'd moved all the way into the deepest recesses of the library and so they were probably safe. Safe-ish. She'd take the risk.
She squeezed the faunus girl's hand back and leaned in slowly. Blake met her halfway and their lips brushed. It started off soft, gentle, like the few other times they'd managed to sneak away for a moment of affection.
Much like those other times, it didn't stay that way for long. Less than a minute had passed when Blake pulled Ruby up into her lap, their bodies pressed snugly together.
"We… Should stop," Blake panted, her hot breath caressing Ruby's face. She licked at her swollen lips and heat surged through Ruby.
"Aww. Just one more?"
Blake laughed and and kissed her again, pulling Ruby's shirt out from where it had been tucked inside her skirt to allow her hands to roam greedily along the goosebumps rising on her back.
Ruby whimpered and rolled her hips against Blake and then froze when she'd realized what she'd just done. They parted slowly and only far enough to look one another in the eye.
"Oh." Ruby said. "I'm sorry. Was that was a bit - uhm - forward?"
"No…" Blake said, her voice smoky, her gaze unwavering. "It wasn't. Not if you feel ready for it."
Ruby pouted at the implication. She didn't want to sound upset or whiny, but she probably did anyhow.
"I can take care of myself, you know."
"I know you can, but this isn't a fight with grimm. It can be different, even if you know how to handle yourself. It's important to me that I know you're sure."
A frown creased Ruby's forehead. Blake looked like she did whenever she was thinking back on her past, most of which was probably sorta bad. They didn't talk about it much. Yang knew a little more but she wasn't the kind to gossip.
"Okay," Ruby said. "I'll tell you if you get too handsy or something."
She held out both hands in between them, waggling her fingers with her best attempt at suggestive look for illustration.
Blake watched her in silence for a few more seconds, assessing… something, probably if she was being serious. Then she smiled. Not a full-blown smile, like when Yang made some stupid joke but the shy one that only touched the corner of her mouth. Ruby liked that one better.
"Maybe we should save that for later, though," Blake said. "Someplace more private."
Ruby nodded eagerly. She moved out of Blake's lap, untangled herself from the blankets and dug through her bag until she found her scroll. 11:57. She knew Yang had gotten up late that morning, so odds were good she and Weiss were still working out.
"Probably best," Ruby agreed, looking out towards the rest of the library. "Say… You wanna go check in on Weiss and Yang? I think they're still sparring."
Blake's eyes twinkled.
"Do I want to see Yang kicking Weiss' ass?" She grinned. "I think I do."
"Okay. I'll call her."
She pressed the phone number next to the picture of her sister's grinning face.
There was a soft dial tone, then another before it resolved itself into a single, dull beep. Behind it, Ruby thought she could hear something. Voices. Lots of them, all melding together into that strange, shrill note, almost like a scream that had only ended when the person ran out of breath.
It sounded a lot like back when they'd had to connect their scrolls to the net via the wall-outlet before she'd gone to Signal.
"Let's just go see em," she said, restoring the scroll to her bag and swinging it over one shoulder. "I think the signal's having a tough time getting through or something."
Though it was a tower, Beacon also had several underground levels for some of explosion-y parts of Huntress training. The sparring rooms, the workshops and the dust labs were all underground and kept separate to avoid any sort of unfortunate chain-reaction.
They took the stairs down - Blake always went with the stairs when it was possible - and stepped out on the second floor, walking down the concrete hallway and peering through doors until they spotted their partners.
The room was a simple fifteen by fifteen yard square box made out of concrete with a padded matt taking up most of the center of the room, which was where they found Yang and Weiss.
The blonde bounced up and down on her bare feet, grinning broadly at the heiress as she batted aside her punches.
"Oh come on, Princess. I know you can do better than that!" Yang called out. "Hey Ruby!"
Weiss glanced over her shoulder and Yang's leg swept out, low and hard, striking Weiss at shin-level and sending her toppling to the floor in an ungraceful heap.
"What was I saying about paying attention?" Yang asked.
She bent down and offered a hand along with a generous amount of cleavage to Weiss while Ruby and Blake walked up to them, enjoying the way their teammate's face was reddening.
Having hauled the slight girl to her feet, Yang watched her with one eyebrow raised.
"You know…" she drawled. "If you're going to be staring like that at the goods like that, I think I'll want dinner first."
"That is not- How dare you suggest-" Weiss sputtered.
Blake was nice enough not to laugh out loud. They sat with their arms brushing up along the wall and Ruby could feel her shake with suppressed mirth, though. Weiss was visibly fuming - and Ruby would've sworn that was true - as she engaged Yang in another flurry of blows with newfound aggression.
"Get her, sis! Kick her butt."
"You're my partner," Weiss snapped, ducking under Yang's arm and moving back a couple of steps. "You're supposed to be on my side!"
"Sisters before misters. Or partners!"
Said sister closed in on Weiss in two long strides, leading with jabs of her left hand, forcing her opponent to defend, to be passive, while she waited for the right moment.
Ruby saw that moment just before it happened. Weiss lowered her guard just a little too much to avoid taking another blow the gut and Yang gave her head a solid tap with her fight fist.
"Keep your guard up," she called toward the staggering girl, "We're giving a show here."
"I think you're giving enough of a show for both of us," Weiss said through grit teeth, waving a hand towards Yang's ample cleavage.
Yang smirked, straightened, put her hands behind her back and arched her spine. Weiss made a valiant effort to maintain eye contact. Yang breathed in deeply and the heiress' gaze dipped.
"For the record," Yang stage-whispered. "I like burgers."
Weiss' fists clenched and unclenched and she calmed herself through a visible effort of will. The tension faded from the set of her shoulders and a slow, eerily sensual smile spread across her face, both tantalizing and frightening, like the fire that drew in the fly.
She sauntered forward in the most un-Weiss-like fashion, hips swaying. Yang's eyes had widened in surprise and she moved back half a step as the heiress advanced on her.
"Uh, Weiss, what're you-?"
Yang's confident grin faltered as Weiss looped her arms about the blonde's neck. She'd gotten real close, close enough that Ruby first thought they were about to kiss or something, standing on her tiptoes to whisper something in her ear. Ruby couldn' hear the words, but they made her sister's knees buckle slightly and Blake drew a sharp breath at her side.
And then Weiss fell back one step, drew her arm back and punched Yang straight in the jaw. There was a solid thump of impact, then a second as Yang's ass hit the matt and she lay there, stunned, staring up in utter disbelief.
For a few seconds, the room was silent. Then Yang chuffed out a breath through her nose, a soft laugh. Weiss' lips twitched. Ruby couldn't hold back her snickers anymore and grabbed a hold of Blake so that she wouldn't keel over.
Blake was the last to join the party, so to speak, and she set off everyone else again, until they were all more or less writhing on the floor with laughter.
"Shoulda seen your face," Ruby gasped, pointing at Yang. "Like she'd sprouted a second head or somethin'."
Yang gave Weiss' arm an affectionate punch and then leveled her stern gaze at Ruby.
Uh-oh.
"Since you're here, sis, why don't you come up for a round?"
Crap.
Ruby looked to Blake for help, only to find the faunus already on her feet and heading over towards Weiss. Grumbling, she headed over to her mean, grinning sister.
"No semblance," Yang said. "I saw that Torchwick jerk kick your butt when you didn't have Crescent Rose with you. You need the practice."
Ruby grumbled a bit more but started limbering up. On the other side of the room, Blake was doing the same, bending down to touch her toes. Ruby watched the process intently. Blake's tights hugged the curve of her rear in a very intriguing manner. Very intently.
"Earth to Ruby?"
Yang's fingers snapped in front of her face and her tone suggested she may have asked more than once.
"Yeah. Sup?"
Yang looked over towards Blake, then back to Ruby, with a knowing big-sister smile.
"I think maybe we need to have a Talk later," she said. "Come on."
They tapped their knuckles together lightly and began to circle one another slowly, the way Ruby had always watched Yang and their dad do when they sparred. Ruby fared about as well as her big sister had against their dad, too, and about an hour later, when they were dragging themselves up towards the dorms, she felt sore in places she didn't even know she had.
"You guys go ahead," Yang said, putting her arm about Ruby's shoulder. "We need a few minutes for some girl-talk."
Weiss clearly didn't know what to make of that, but she wasn't the sort to pry and headed off with a fluid shrug of her shoulders. The corridors of the first year's wing was still freezing and the students had all fled elsewhere, leaving Ruby and Yang alone and shivering when their partners had departed.
"So…" Yang drawled, reaching up to ruffle Ruby's hair. "You've got the hots for Blake, huh?"
Ruby could feel the heat of a blush creep across her face,despite the chill of the room.
"Yeah."
"How long has that been going on?"
Her voice was surprisingly gentle and cautious.
"Like… Two weeks, maybe? Kinda happened in the library after I got out of the sick bay."
Yang's brows furrowed.
"Hang on - what. What happened?"
"Uhm. We sorta kissed and…"
She waved her hands about, trying to illustrate… She wasn't even sure what, really, just the she didn't know what words to use to convey what she and Blake were to one another.
"And?" Yang prompted. "Did ya bang?"
"No. No, we haven't, well not really."
Golden eyebrows quirked up in question and all Ruby wanted to do was run, or preferably just vanish, anything if it meant they wouldn't have to talk any more.
"Just make sure to take care of each other?" Yang said, her voice lower, more serious. "It's not exactly my - uh - area of expertise or anything, but if you need to ask anything, you come ask me, okay?
Ruby nodded and Yang's bright smile was infectious as she led them back towards the room.
"C'mon. Let's get cleaned up and get something to eat. I'm starving."
They'd passed Weiss and Blake on their ways into the showers, with their teammates already getting dressed at the fastest pace they could manage, their breaths steaming in the frigid air.
"We'll meet you downstairs," Weiss said, grabbing her scroll off her bedside table before hurrying up with a miserable-looking Blake in tow.
Ruby and Yang lingered a little while in the showers, both unwilling to head out from the blissfully warm water. Eventually, they agreed it was time to go and braved the cold dorm, hurrying into their clothes and down the halls. It wasn't until they left their first-year's wing things got warm again.
They made an immediate bee-line for the buffet and Ruby was just arriving at the table with her plate piled high when she realized something was off.
Team JNPR, Weiss, Blake and Velvet sat crowded around a table - which wasn't entirely unusual - but they were all silent.
She cast a sideways glance to Yang, whose shoulders were tensed with worry and whose eyes roamed the halls for suspects, or possibly targets. With neither anywhere to be seen, Ruby walked up to the the table and settled at the edge of the group by Blake's side.
A scroll lay at the center of the table and a video recording played on it, the footage jumpy and just a bit blurry. Ruby leaned closer, resting her chin on Blake's shoulder and peered at the video.
The quaint little street of the Vale shopping distract they'd walked down only a few weeks before, on their outing to the water park and cinema. had been turned into a warzone. Shop windows were broken, fruit trolleys were set on fire and the streets were covered in debris. Ruby's stomach did an uncomfortable flip as Lisa Lavender's voice could be heard over the feed.
"What started out as a peaceful protest turned violent at noon today when met with counter-protesters and law enforcement were forced to separate the two groups. As of yet, there have been no reports of White Fang involvement. We have reports of dozens injured and will get back to you when we know more."
A group of faunus - fifty or so by Ruby's count - were clashing violently with the police in the video, using signs bearing messages of peace as improvised clubs.
"White Fang?" Ruby asked Blake, keeping her voice low enough that nobody else could hear her. She was starting to feel a little queasy.
Blake kept on staring at the video but shook her head once in the negative.
"This is wrong," she said, voice quavering. "I know these people they're not… Like this. For goodness sake, they don't even litter."
Velvet nodded in affirmation, ears drooping.
"Another Grimm attack, this one of a medium size pack of Nevermore attacked the eastern perimeter wall and there are reports of light damage, but no casualties," Lisa continued, her tone changing to a steady monotone.
"Animals always show their true colours in the end," said a gruff, disdainful voice behind them. "It doesn't matter how tame they look or how tightly you've got them on a leash."
Ruby's queasy feeling settled into nausea and she turned around to find Cardin and the rest of his team standing behind them.
Blake kept staring down at her food, shoveling it into her mouth without turning or speaking, though her knuckles were going white with the intensity of her grip on the fork.
Giving her faunus teammate's shoulder a gentle squeeze, Ruby rounded on Cardin, hands at her hips, jaw thrust out belligerently.
"Hey, jerkface!" She called out. "Leave my B- my team mate alone!"
Cardin looked at Ruby, his own team and then back at Ruby and burst out laughing.
"Or you'll do what, pint-size?" He chuckled. "Send your little pet after me?"
"Who was on the ground after the fight in class, shit-for-brains?" Yang spat.
Cardin grinned smugly.
"Pretty sure it was little sister, blondie."
Yang's chair toppled over as she rose with an incoherent snarl of rage, but Weiss was quicker and put a hand against the blonde's sternum.
She couldn't physically halt Yang, of course, since she was all tiny and cute, but the gesture carried such implacable authority that Yang stopped in her tracks as Weiss strode smoothly up to Cardin Winchester.
"You…" She said, managing to infuse the pronoun with so much disdain that Ruby could've sworn she heard it pattering down onto stone floors. "Are such an imbecile."
Cardin blinked and his grin flickered for half a second at most before reasserting itself.
"Maybe but I'm not the one consorting with beasts."
All expression dropped from Weiss' features. The anger, the irritation, the disgust. Everything, leaving behind a smooth, cool mask that for once meant the nickname Ice Queen was kind of appropriate.
"I suppose you would know all about the consequences of such a thing, wouldn't you?" She said.
"You-" Cardin's hands clenched into fists, face flushing with his fury. "You - You don't talk-"
With a sharp, knife-edge smile, Weiss went in for the kill.
"Didn't granny teach you to articulate properly?"
Ruby wasn't even sure what was going on, but Cardin's arm suddenly lashed out.
Unfortunately, he had been far too busy visualizing his fist smashing into Weiss' face to realize how she'd set him up. Or to notice the glyph glowing under her feet.
Before he'd even gotten halfway, Weiss shot up off the ground and her knee smashed up into his chin with vicious impact. Cardin's head snapped back and he was lifted off his feet. Weiss's momentum carried her past him until another glyph appeared mid-air and the heiress pushed off it with her legs, shooting back towards the ground and Cardin's prone, airborne body.
She caught him by the face and added her momentum to his, smashing his head his head straight down into the stone floor with another meaty sound of impact and the crunch of cracking stone.
Weiss leaned in close to Cardin where he lay on the floor, blinking groggily up at her. Her voice carried clearly across the deathly silent hall, a snarl underlying the crisply spoken words.
"One day I am going to inherit the most influential and powerful company in all of Remnant. You should take that into account and consider the ramifications of making me your enemy before harassing my team. "
She rose smoothly and, completely disregarding Cardin, whose team was slowly pulling him up to his feet and away, she settled back into her seat, snagged a chicken drumstick off Yang's plate and bit into it.
"His grandmother?" Blake asked, voice soft.
Weiss grimaced as she swallowed a mouthful of chicken.
"Her maid put arsenic in her coffee." She paused for a moment, as if choosing her words carefully. "Her faunus maid."
Blake didn't speak but bobbed her head once.
"She was a… reasonably pleasant woman. Her husband, on the other hand… Knowing him, the maid probably had a very good reason to do what she did."
"Still," Yang interjected. "Don't get me wrong, nothing makes me happier than seeing his stupid face smashed to pulp, but that was really ruthless."
Weiss put the bare chicken bone back on Yang's plate and wiped daintily at her mouth with a napkin.
"Yes."
"I just didn't know you had it in you, I guess."
"So... " Nora said, in a tone of voice that clearly said she wanted to change the subject. "How are you guys dealing with the cold situation? Because Pyrrha had this great idea that we'd snuggle up and it was so much better!"
She paused for a quick breath, then added in a stage-whisper. "She's kind of a kicker, though."
Pyrrha's smile looked kind of strained and she glanced towards Jaune.
"Yes. Everything has worked out brilliantly."
Ruby suspected secondary motives. Scheming.
"At least Ren doesn't kick," Jaune said. His voice came out a little thick, as though he'd caught a cold.
Ruby frowned at him and then at her own team. It wouldn't do for any of her team to get sick like Jaune had. Okay, so they were made of sterner stuff than he was - probably - but it was still her duty as leader to keep them healthy.
If they got sick, their combat efficiency would suffer and they wouldn't be able to study. Plus, Yang got really gross whenever she was sick. Nope. Not acceptable. Something would have to be done.
Ruby snatched a napkin from Yang and began to doodle a design for Fort Awesome.
"I think… I'm going for a walk," Blake said, rising and taking her half-finished plate.
Ruby felt a sting of worry but when Blake wanted to be alone she would be alone, one way or another, whether they wanted to find her or not. Pushing only meant she'd stay away longer. Except that one time with Yang, but that was the sort of thing that made the jealousy monster come up and play, so Ruby tried not to think of that.
She considered her sketch. To fix everything, she'd need her tools. Probably some rope. Blake tended to have some of that laying around. Ruby didn't want to speculate on why.
"Anyone wanna head down to the forge and get some stuff?"
Yang's face immediately brightened.
"Ooh. Yeah! I've wanted to fix up my babies ever since you showed me that improvement you thought up and-"
Weiss put a hand on her shoulder and said, in a tone of utter finality:
"No."
"But-"
"No. You've already put off Professor Port's homework and you promised you'd do it today so we're going to go to the library."
Yang's shoulders sagged and she tried her best to look pathetic. Weiss remained unaffected.
"I guess that's a bust," Yang said glumly. "See you later, Rubes?"
Ruby nodded.
"We should do a sleepover tonight," she said. "Celebrate that you've done all your homework or something."
"It's a dorm," Weiss pointed out. "Every night is a sleepover."
"Not the same," Ruby insisted. "So not the same."
"Sounds awesome," Yang said, talking over whatever Weiss had meant to say.
She typed something out on her scroll and a few seconds later, it beeped.
"Blake's in," she reported.
Weiss sighed and grabbed the blonde by the arm, firmly dragging her away.
"Noooooo," Yang cried out in an overdramatic falsetto that had most of the hall staring at her and the red-faced Weiss. "Saaaave me, Ruby!"
Eh. She'd be alright.
The Forge, located in the bowels of Beacon academy was easily the coolest place in the entire school and Ruby's favourite place to be except the dorm… And maybe the library if Blake was in a snuggly sort of mood. Anyways, it was positively ginormous and let the students do just about everything weapon-related.
The room was kind of T-shaped. There were rooms for electronics, wiring and other technical stuff, large tables down one side for engraving and finer aesthetic details on weaponry and, at the far back, large contained forges that even let the students dustforge steel.
Ruby inhaled slowly through her nose, taking in the scent of gunpowder, dust and something thick, sweet and coppery behind that, that she couldn't identify. It was always a little bit too warm for comfort, a little dirty and loud but she loved it all the same.
It wasn't closed on Saturdays, but none of the more explody of the machines were active without mastersmith Mina Creft around to monitor them and, unusually, the place seemed entirely deserted.
Ruby closed the door behind her and most of the light coming from the corridor behind her died down. A few of the fluorescent lights overhead worked and some were flickering, but most were as dead as Weiss' sense of humour.
Fumbling behind her, Ruby managed to find the lightswitch, though that didn't do anything but plummet the area she was in into complete pitch darkness. She flicked the light switch again and the light tubes buzzed to life like locusts.
It was eerily quiet, still as the grave, with nothing but the slow, rhythmic wheezing moan of the vents, and the solid thunk, thunk, thunk of her combat boots on the concrete.
Ruby slowed her steps as she moved into another patch of shadow. There was something ahead, something sharp, gleaming… Like the nightmarishly wide gaping maw of a beowolf, scarlet teeth bared to savage tender flesh.
She edged a step closer, then another, horribly aware that she should just run, that she didn't even have Crescent Rose with her. Her heart pounded frantically in her chest and some suicidally curious part of her made her edge another step closer, to reveal that a large circle-saw.
She burst out laughing in sheer nervous reaction, giggling as she pressed on.
In a stroke of illogical logic, the lockers were at the far end of the building, a little bit off the forges, to the left. She fiddled with the combination lock for a while in the dark, distracted by the slow, thick-sounding patter of water dripping down the piping somewhere in the dark.
The pipes were probably rusting or something, judging by the smell. Oh well. She'd tell maintenence as soon as they fixed the frickin' heating. Ruby smiled as the lock clicked open, grabbed her toolbox and set off back to the dorm.
"What in the name of…?" Weiss snapped, a couple hours later. "Ruby Rose! What on earth is the meaning of this?"
Ruby pushed aside the drape that she'd repurposed as the door for Fort Awesome and poked her head out to find Weiss in the doorway, hands at her hips, staring down at her in disapproving judgement.
"Oooh hi Weiss," Ruby chirped, jumping out into the room. "Sooo… What do you think, eh?"
Pale blue eyes glided over her masterpiece.
She'd pulled down the beds and leaned them up against the walls in the corner just to the left from the door. Two of the mattresses were inside and the other two she'd turned into the roof, using blankets and all of their fluffiest sweaters and jackets to complete the wall, with a couple of blankets left for the bed inside. She'd even incorporated the two bookcases Blake needed for her collection inside of the fort to have somewhere to put drinks or snacks. The books had been piled a foot high to help form the fortress wall closest to the windows, where most of the cold seeped in.
"Weiss, you're blocking the do- Holy crap, Ruby."
Ruby grinned at Yang, who was peering over Weiss' shoulder at her creation, holding a plastic bag in each hand.
"Cool, right?"
"Uh. It's… Certainly something."
They were silent for a while and an uneasy feeling settled in Ruby's tummy. Didn't they like it?
"It looks cozy, though," Yang said, "Don't you think, Weiss?"
"Well, I certainly - ouch." Weiss winced as Yang stepped past her, accidentally treading on her foot. "It looks quite hospitable, yes."
Okay, so maybe she'd been worrying for nothing.
"Come on in," Ruby insisted, holding the 'door' open. "What's that you got there, Yang?"
Her sister grinned and held up the bags. They clinked.
"I talked to Coco and got us some supplies for tonight."
Weiss re-directed her Scowl of Supreme Scepticism towards the bags and peered inside. Her eyebrows rose.
"We are not allowed alcohol in the dorms," she noted even as she pulled out a bottle of vodka. "And if we are to break that rule, must we do it with this swill?"
"Yepp. It's traditional… And I couldn't afford anything nicer."
Weiss set aside the vodka and pulled out a bottle of wine and a bottle of whisky, frowning at each name in turn.
"If you keep me up to date on your current idiocy I will be better able to… Assist you."
The door opened before Yang had a chance to fire back and Blake came in. She looked tired, almost as bad as that time when they'd been trying to stop The White Fang during the first term.
She almost sank down along the door when she closed it, cast one look at the Fort and then she grabbed the whisky, uncorked it and took three long pulls. Yang quickly took the bottle back.
Coughing and refusing to meet anyone's eye, Blake swept aside the curtain-door to Fort Awesome and vanished into the dark.
"What in the world?"
Yang made to follow her partner but Ruby stepped in front of her.
"Just gimme a few minutes, kay?"
Lilac eyes narrowed but Yang stepped back.
"A few minutes," she repeated, nodding.
Ruby slipped inside of the fort. It was still light outside and enough daylight slipped through the drape that she could navigate to the dark-haired bundle at the far corner without lighting any of the flashlights and lanterns she'd brought for later in the evening.
She kicked off her boots and slipped under the blankets too, slowly moving in closer until she lay pressed along the length of Blake's back. Blake didn't cry, but Ruby could feel her shaking and slipped her arms around her middle, squeezing her lightly.
A minute went by or maybe it was ten.. Ruby wasn't sure but eventually, Yang came inside. She stood in the doorway for a little while and then she came over, squeezing herself in between Blake and the wall.
"Hey there," she said.
"Hey," Blake replied. Her voice sounded raw.
"You don't look so good, kittycat."
"I don't feel good,"
"I know. You don't have to talk about if you don't wanna, but in case you do…" She bent down and placed a kiss in between Blake's dark, fuzzy ears. "We'll all listen to you if you need us to, kay?"
Blake's hair shifted as she nodded and Weiss came up.
"Here. Drink."
Ruby untangled herself from Blake - slightly - and the girl sat up, accepting a glass of soda and, judging by the smell, some vodka from Weiss. She sipped it and gave Weiss a thankful smile.
Yang clapped her hands together, grinning.
"Right. I think it's time we take a night off and relax." She grabbed the bottle of wine and handed it to Ruby, then drank some whisky straight out of the bottle and smacked her lips.
"Take it slow with that one. If you end up puking in any of the potted plants again, I'm not cleaning up after you."
Ruby nodded grudgingly.
"We might as well make a proper slumber party out of this," she continued. "Soo Weiss. Truth or dare?"
Snow white eyebrows rose a fraction of an inch but Weiss settled on the mattress.
"Truth."
"Oooh-"
"And behave!"
Yang's grin faltered but only by a fraction.
"Aww. Fine. Why do you wear your ponytail to the side like that?"
"Because it annoys father," Weiss said, shrugging daintily. "He would prefer it if I were more… Proper."
"More proper?" Yang blurted, eyes twinkling merrily. "Is that even physically possible?"
Weiss made a face.
"Just wait until you meet my sister. Ruby. Truth or dare?"
"Um. Truth? Yes, truth!"
"That packet of Atlesian cookies that I had for about a day and that then mysteriously vanished. Did you eat them?"
Ruby flushed. "Uh. Nooo. I - uh - I don't know what happened to those tasty little things."
"In case anyone needed a demonstration of what happens when you lie - here you go. Drink, Rubes," Yang said.
Ruby pouted at her sister but dutifully took two sips of the wine. It wasn't bad. A little sourer than she would've prefered, but at least it wasn't as bad as the beer she and Yang had celebrated her acceptance to Beacon with. Taking the opportunity for sweet revenge, Ruby turned to her sister.
"Yang. Truth or dare?"
"Dare."
The answer was all but immediate. Yang never backed down, especially in matters of truth or dare. She considered her options, then proclaimed:
"I dare you to serenade Weiss."
Yang blinked and frowned, humming softly under her breath on a couple of different songs before coming to a decision. She shifted closer to her intended target, sipped some more of her whisky, and then began to sing.
Ruby had always loved Yang's voice. Probably from back when they were kids and Yang would read to her but she couldn't carry a tune if she had a bucket. Not even if she had two.
Weiss expression of uncertain awkwardness quickly morphed into one of painful cringing as Yang butchered the notes of her favourite love song with the same gleeful intensity as she'd treat grimm. She'd only just gotten to the chorus when Weiss leaned forward and firmly put a finger to the girl's lips.
"Shh.. I think that's enough for now. Thank you, though."
Yang didn't seem to mind her lack of appreciation and turned over to Blake. "Your turn, Blakey. What do you say?"
"Truth."
Blake sounded a little distracted still. Ruby gave her hand a squeeze under the blankets pooled across their laps. Yang… Well, she kept acting like herself.
"Jaune, Neptune, Sun. Kill, screw, marry. Go."
Blake's eyes widened to an almost comical degree and the corner of her mouth quirked up a little. She gave Ruby's fingers a little squeeze in return and seemed to consider it.
"Well.. Sun and Neptune don't strike me as the kind to settle down. Jaune might make a good housewife, though."
Yang chortled. "I could see him wearing an apron and we know he can rock a dress."
Blake nodded thoughtfully.
"A sexless marriage to Jaune, sleeping with Sun on the side… and Neptune bites the bullet."
She eyed an affronted-looking Weiss with a significant, prompting look.
"Fine. Dare. Do your worst, Belladonna."
That prompted a grin from Blake, the first one that night.
"Show us what you keep hidden in the hollowed out book you keep by your bed."
Weiss' mouth fell open and her face coloured rapidly.
"I-" She shook her head and drank her forfeit, refusing to meet anyone else's eyes.
Having been unfortunate to be refilling Yang's sock drawer once, Ruby could guess just what Weiss wasn't willing to talk about.
Blake turned out to have no mercy. "It's okay, you know. Everybody does it."
Weiss pointedly buried her face in her pillow, though Ruby could hear her name and the words truth or dare being muttered along with a few choice Atlesian swear-words.
"Dare," Ruby proclaimed as Weiss resurfaced with a vindictive look on her face.
"Fine, then. Ruby. Go to Blake's bookshelf, wherever that happens to be right now, and find the book aptly disguised as a textbook on human anatomy. Then read one of the dog-eared passages for us."
Now it was Blake's turn to seem to want to hibernate somewhere out of sight, under the covers, and Weiss who looked smugly superior.
"You don't have to read it if you don't want to, Ruby," the faunus said, sounding almost desperate.
Ruby just smiled at her.
"It's fine. How bad could it possibly be, huh?"
She headed outside and scanned the pile of books until she found the one she'd been tasked to locate.
Flipping it open, she noted that the real title read: Ninjas of Love - Seas of Lust. Oh boy. As Weiss had instructed, she found a dog-eared page by random and settled back under one of the blankets. It was already noticeably warmer inside Fort RWBY 1 - Winter 0. Suck it, mother nature.
"Okay… So…" Ruby cleared her throat. "Deirdre's breasts shone with per-perspiration and her cries were muffled as she suckled on his finger - oh dear."
Yang looked like Christmas had come early. Weiss' expression was hard to read. So was Blake's, but not because of any poker face or anything, but because she'd hidden behind Yang.
Dialogue came up and Ruby tried her best imitation of a man's gruff, booze-roughened voice.
"'You can scream as much as you want, lassie, ain't nobody gonna care.'"
Yang stifled a giggle and Ruby continued.
"And scream Deirdre did as the pirate captain's mast plundered her treasure cave, letting the entire ship hear her pleasured cries without shame or concern - goodness Blake, what is this?"
Ruby continued reading and the story got less anatomically believable the further she got.
By the time she put the book up onto one of the shelves, Blake had all but disappeared behind Yang and seemed to consider if she could use her semblance to get through the floor.
"Welp…" Ruby said. "That was interesting. There was some stuff you didn't cover in The Talk in there, Yang."
"That's because I didn't know what a perv Blake was," Yang said, though there wasn't anything judgemental in her tone.
"Huge perv," Ruby agreed, sticking her tongue out at Blake. "Truth or Dare, sis?"
"Same as always," Yang said, leaning her head back onto Blake's shoulder. The faunus gave her a playful shove and rejoined the loose circle they'd formed while Ruby pondered her choices.
"Ooh. Go into team JNPR's dorm and flash Jaune."
Yang's eyebrows climbed, more from amusement than shock, by the looks of things.
"No dares outside of the room," Yang said firmly. "And come to think of it, no dares that might make Pyrrha want to murder us."
They all shared a chuckle at that and Ruby bit her lip, thinking.
"Okay. Since you were so eager to give Weiss a show earlier, why don't you do it properly now?"
Yang scoffed in disdain. "Please. Easy peasy."
"Now hang on a moment," Weiss protested, even as Yang crawled over towards her on all fours. "I do believe I want a say in this and-"
Yang settled in front of her and slowly pulled up her shirt. Ruby couldn't really see anything from where she sat at the side, but Weiss' eyes widened and her protests faded into silence when Yang's breasts gave a little bounce as they were freed from her shirt and bra.
Yang let her stare for a few seconds, then put the shirt back on and gave Weiss' nose a light flick. Weiss glared.
"You don't have to look quite so smug!"
"You don't have to make it so easy," Yang countered, laying back down on the mattress.
"Blake. You're up."
"Dare, I suppose," Blake said.
"Okay…" Yang took a moment to think. "I dare you… To kiss Ruby."
Both of the aforementioned girls turned to stare at Yang, then at one another. Ruby's heartbeat sped up to a skitterish pitter-patter and heat that had nothing to do with the alcohol spread over her face.
"I… Okay," she mumbled, then frowned. "Uh… Is it okay, Blake?"
Blake's smile was so brief you'd have needed a video recording to catch it, but it was there. She nodded.
Out of the corner of her eyes, she could see Weiss' wide-eyed expression and Yang's self-satisfied smirk. Blake didn't seem to want to make the first move so Ruby crawled on over, noting as she did that her arms weren't feeling quite as steady as they usually did. The fourth of the wine bottle missing probably accounted for that.
She plopped herself down in Blake's lap, looking up at her.
"Is it okay if I just-?" She edged an inch closer and Blake closed the rest of the distance.
The kiss was a lot like their first ones, slow, cautious, neither wanting to commit too far and risk scaring the other off. She was more patient than Ruby and seemed to enjoy making her step things up first, which she always did.
This time wasn't an exception. If anything, Ruby caved quicker than she usually would, swiping the tip of her tongue against Blake's lips, tasting the sweet sting of the vodka and soda.
Blake's hands tangled into Ruby's hair, nails gently scraping along her scalp and it wasn't until Weiss cleared her throat as obnoxiously as was humanly possible that Ruby remembered the part where they had an audience.
"Well… I guess we can't say you chickened out on that one," Yang said, her eyes a little wide.
Laughter lurked somewhere behind her words, though. Weiss was still staring at them and the alcohol gave Ruby enough confidence to wink at her. The heiress' bottom lip had slight indentations in. Teethmarks.
Blake reached for the bottle of vodka, knocked it over, and righted it again before grabbing it, uncorking it and swigging. Then she sighed, smacked her lips and turned to face her a partner with a dangerous, playful glint in her eyes.
"In the spirit of getting friendly and in the spirit of team bonding, why don't you show Weiss some appreciation?"
Yang smirked right back.
"First of all, kitten, you gotta ask me if I even want a dare. Second, I am the undefeated master of this and I do - not - back - down."
"Oh, we'll see about that."
"Do I even get a say in this?" Weiss said, sounding unusually small.
Yang licked her lips and moved on over to her.
"Nope," she said. "Why… Don't you want to get bit of smooching in? Just imagine how upset daddy dearest would be."
That seemed to tip the scales and Weiss didn't resist when Yang pulled her up into her lap, one pale leg splayed on either side of her hips. Their lips met in a kiss that was all hunger and aggression and Weiss pressed closer within only a few seconds.
It got a bit awkward to watch them fight for domination and shoving their tongues down one another's throats after a while, though, and Ruby looked over to Blake instead. They exchanged a knowing smirk and once more clasped hands under the covers.
Yang's and Weiss' parting wasn't quite like that of a plunger or anything, but Ruby made the cartoon-ish sound effect in her head anyways. Their lips were swollen and glistening in the wan light and they were both breathing heavily.
"I must know," Weiss panted. "Where did you get it done?"
"Eh?"
Pretty, manicured nails - the secret of which Ruby really needed to hunt down one day - were pointed in an almost accusatory gesture at Yang's chest.
"Your breast job. It's remarkable how well it's done. Where did you do it?"
"Hey," Yang protested, sounding genuinely affronted. "Way rude. They're not fake. You know what, princess. Have a feel and get some… What did Oobleck call it, Blake? Empirical evidence, that's it. Come have yourself some empirical evidence. On the house. I dare you."
Weiss swallowed. Her gaze darted to Blake, then Ruby, though it wasn't really clear if she was asking for permission or pleading for help.
Yang bore down on her like she was prey, back straight, chest thrust forward. She chucked out of her jacket, carelessly discarding it in a corner.
She beckoned with a finger and Weiss drew closer like the fly to the fire as Yang pulled her top off, once more baring herself to them. There was something captivating about it all, a kind of energy to it. A heat that drew Ruby's eyes, too.
Weiss hesitated at the last second and Yang made an impatient noise, grabbed both of her fine-boned hands and placed them on her breasts.
With an expression somewhere in between reverent and gleeful, Weiss squeezed and Yang drew in a sharp breath through her nose. Eyebrows rising, lips curving up into a smirk, Weiss scraped a fingernail along a pink, puffy nipple.
"Oh dust, that feels so good," Yang moaned.
Weiss froze, eyes wide, like a deer caught in the headlights of a car. Her mouth fell open as Yang burst out laughing. She laughed so hard she could seemingly barely breath, falling back into Ruby's lap.
"The look… On your face," she wheezed. "Oh Weiss, you're so easy."
Ruby grabbed the hem of Yang's shirt and restored her sister's modesty. Blake had been staring a little harder than she felt comfortable with.
Weiss looked kinda scary, though. Angry, but like she might just pounce on Yang right then and there. She was really pretty like that, even if it made Ruby edge away just a little.
"Well, you weren't lying," Weiss said, her words clipped and precise. "Ruby. Truth or Dare?"
It was probably a good idea to see if she could make things calm down a little.
"Truth."
Weiss looked disappointed. She probably had a good dare prepared. Well, tough luck missy. She spent half a minute thinking, fingers drumming along the neck of the bottle she was sipping from.
"Fine," she groused. "Have you kissed Blake before? Because that looked like something you'd done before."
Blake gave Ruby's fingers a tentative squeeze under the blankets. Ruby squeezed back. They had meant to tell the rest of the team soon, either way. Maybe it was time.
"No. It wasn't the first time. We've been - uhm - kinda doing it for a while. Except, you know, not doing it. Not yet, anyways."
She looked at Blake for some sort of confirmation and Blake provided, pulling Ruby in close to her side. Yang, for once, had enough sense not to push things.
"We don't know what to call… This," Blake said, picking her words carefully. "It's nice, though."
Ruby grinned at her and kissed the older girl's cheek.
"Really nice," she agreed. "No tattling to dad, though. I wanna tell him myself."
"Fine, fine," Yang grumbled. "Your turn, Ruby."
"Oh. Uh. Blake. Truth or Dare?"
White teeth glinted in the dark.
"Dare."
Ruby took another gulp of liquid confidence.
"I dare you to do a… Uh-" She frowned, ransacking her memory for the word. "A bodyshot. On Weiss."
Blake looked at her, hunger and concern warring for dominance in her features.
"And you'd be okay with that?"
"Yeah. Duh. I wouldn't have dared ya to if I didn't, silly."
Maybe she should have been against the idea herself. Maybe it should've made her jealous to picture it, but it didn't. It just made her tingle all over with excitement.
"Let's move the covers away from the mattress," Blake instructed, bringing her bottle along with her as she moved over to Weiss. "Lay down and stay still so we don't spill."
At no point did she ask and Ruby shuddered at the tone of her voice.
"Okay," Weiss' said, her voice small and breathless, almost meek.
She did as she'd been instructed and lay down, arms at her side, while Blake managed to turn clumsy crawling along the mattresses into a kind of sensual stalk.
Settling the bottle beside the edge of the improvised bed, Blake straddled Weiss' hips and began to push her dress up, baring inch after inch of smooth, slender legs.
Ruby had expected Weiss' underwear to be a lot like the girl herself. Elegant, pristine, white. Okay, so she'd thought a bit about Weiss' underwear from time to time. That wasn't that weird, was it?
As it turned out, she'd been wrong. The underwear was black, lacey, and just shy of translucent.
"Racy," Blake commented, looking over her shoulder to make sure everyone had a clear field of vision as she kept raising the hem of the dress until they could see the outline of Weiss' ribs.
"Way to go, Weiss," Yang said. "Never thought you had it in ya."
"Your approval means the world to me."
She seemed to want to say something else, probably something snarky, but the words cut off into a sharply drawn sigh when Blake poured the vodka.
Moving a little to the side, to present a clear view for her spectators, Blake, then bent down and pressed her lips to Weiss' belly button. Her tongue darted out, slowly lapping the alcohol up.
Blake bared her teeth and bit down, catching Weiss' pale skin between sharp teeth. She grinned at Ruby and then wrenched her jaw sideways. Blood spattered the sheets as the skin ripped, steaming in the cool air. Ruby blinked and by the time she opened her eyes again, the blood was all gone. She shook her head, dazed, and looked at the bottle in her white-knuckled grasp. It was more than half-way empty, so no wonder she'd dozed off for a moment there.
Weiss was fine. More than fine, really. Her hips were raised off the mattress, the lean muscles of her thighs and belly taut and quivering.
"Enough, Blake," She panted. "It's all gone. You're done and -"
Again, her words cut off into an almost pained groan when Blake pursued a few stray droplets with a long, slow swipe of her tongue.
"As you wish," Blake said, rising and leaving Weiss laying on her back, still at display with her bare thighs trembling. It took her a couple of seconds before she'd gathered herself enough to yank the dress down again and even longer to sit back up.
Looking pleased with herself as she settled back next to Ruby, Blake turned over to Yang with a grin that she quickly found mirrored by her partner.
"I think I've got a dare that you won't do," Blake said.
"Oh it is on. Do your worst, Belladonna."
"Yang Xiao Long," Blake said. "I dare you to shave yourself bald."
It was always nice to see Yang taken by surprise. Mostly because it was so usual and looked really cute on her when her eyes went all wide like that.
"What my…" She shook her head and the aforementioned golden locks bounced. "That's not… That's not fair."
Blake shrugged and her voice turned utterly heartless.
"I thought you were the undefeated master of this game. You don't have to do it."
Yang squared her jaw.
"Oh no. I'm doing this," she said. "But if I do, you're going to do dare in return."
Blake shrugged. "Fair enough."
"Just you wait."
And with that, Yang climbed out of their little hide-out and vanished into the bathroom. A few seconds later, the buzz of the electric shaving machine could be heard through the closed door.
"She's faking it," Weiss said, looking to each of her teammates in turn. "There is no way she'll do it, is there?"
Ruby shook her head. "No way. She loves her hair more than anything in the world."
The buzzing continued for a while longer and then went silent. A while later, the water began to run in the shower.
Blake's hand gave Ruby's knee a little squeeze under the covers. Weiss' slightly vacant gaze flicked between them and the drape that was the door of Fort Awesome.
She licked at her lips in a nervous tick Ruby hadn't seen her display outside of combat, poked her head through the curtain to check on the closed bathroom door and then looked back towards Ruby and Blake.
"So… Is it nice?" She flushed deep red. "You know…"
Blake's hand squeezed down on Ruby's leg again, this time a few inches above the knee.
"Being together?" Ruby asked, frowning. "Or do you mean kissing and stuff?"
"Yes," Weiss said and again, her gaze flicked nervously towards the sound of tinkling water.
"Are you sure you don't want to ask Yang?" Blake asked, sounding perfectly innocent. "I'm sure she'd be willing to show you once she's chickened out of her dare."
"Ugh, no," Weiss groaned. "Under no circumstance will that ever happen."
Blake's dark eyebrows rose.
"If you say so."
The sound of the water died down and a little while later, a broadly grinning Yang returned, with her golden locks still present.
"Told ya," Ruby said, giving Blake a nudge.
The faunus made a soft "Mmm" sound of agreement.
"That's a shot for you, Yang," she added.
"You've sorta still got all your hair, sis," Ruby said softly. "We can all see it."
Yang didn't seem to be upset at all and that just didn't happen. Ruby knew her sister had many good traits but she'd never been one to handle defeat very well… Which meant something bad was about to happen.
"Actually," Yang said.
Then she moved over to Blake and Ruby, wobbling just a little on the uneven footing provided by the mattresses, hooked her thumbs into the waistband of her shorts and pulled them down.
She didn't look even a bit awkward about it all, either, grinning down at Blake.
"You should've been more specific."
Blake was staring. Heck, even Ruby was staring, though not for the same reason. She'd… Well, she'd definitely done what she'd been told. Um. Only probably - hopefully not what Blake had meant.
"You…" Blake swallowed and tried again. "I can't believe you, Yang."
"What? You wanna feel it, too? Just to be sure?"
She probably did because her hand squeezed down reflexively on Ruby's thigh. Woah, when had it gotten that high up… And why hadn't Ruby even noticed?
"I'm… I'm fine, thank you," Blake said, her eyes, like Ruby's trailing along the smoothly shaven length of Yang's- Well, okay, so she peeked. She hadn't ever tried - That - herself, so she was just a bit curious.
"You still haven't proven anything to me, except that those things are as painted on as they appear," Weiss said from behind Yang.
"Weiss, you know she wouldn't lie about that-"
Too late. Her sister had already turned around - which was only marginally less mortifying - and sauntered over to Weiss. Well… As much as was possible with a pair of shorts halfway down your thighs.
"You are unbelievable," Weiss said, though there was as much reproach as there was awe in her voice.
She was sitting with her legs crossed and Ruby could see her shifting every so often, rubbing her thighs together. Her eyes were glued to Yang and she clearly didn't realize she was being watched.
Blake leaned in close to Ruby's ear, eager pants preceding her low whisper.
"I can smell how wet she is all the way over here."
Ruby felt a slow shudder run down her body at the words. Blake's thumb was pressing right up against her- oh. Oh...
"And you, too," she all but purred.
A whimper slipped past Ruby's lips before she could press them shut. She wondered if Yang could tell what was going on. Probably. Yang had like super big sister powers when it came to embarrassing Ruby and no restraint whatsoever about using them.
"For your forfeit, Blakey," Yang drawled. "You're going to spend the rest of this game naked. In Ruby's lap."
She didn't wait for Blake to comply and moved over to settle behind Weiss. Once there, her arms wrapped around the girl's slender form, pulling her in close. With a somewhat coy expression, Yang pulled the blankets up to cover both of their waists.
Blake stood up in front of Ruby, smiling down at her, and began to unbutton her shirt. She didn't rush things, going one slow button at a time, all the while letting the garment fall open more and more, baring pale skin and the outline of a black bra.
Yang was whispering something into Weiss' ear and though Ruby couldn't hear the words, she felt reasonably certain it was payback for the work-out incident.
Blake's pants went next and she purposefully threw them at Ruby with a teasing smirk. Her undies were bright yellow, in stark contrast to the bra, and for some reason Ruby found that completely adorable.
Hands that otherwise never wavered or shook did so at the straps of Blake's bra and she finally settled in Ruby's lap as instructed, pulled the blanket up over her shoulders, and took it off there.
Both Yang and Weiss seemed to… busy to care. Ruby couldn't quite see what was happening, but Yang's hands were clearly moving under the blankets, slowly roaming by the looks of things.
The rest of Blake's underwear was soon shed and thrown aside.
Amber eyes quested for Ruby's and at her nod, Blake pulled Ruby's tank-top up over her head and pressed their bodies together. The feel of naked, warm skin that close to hers distracted Ruby rather thoroughly from what may or may not be going on only five feet away.
Then Blake's hand pushed her skirt and underwear aside and whatever remaining thought-processes Ruby shattered. Somewhere, she heard Weiss make a noise and she peered over Blake's shoulder to find the girl laying in Yang's lap, facing them. Her head was thrown back, leaned into the crook of Yang's neck, her spine arched. Her skin had turned from pale white to a ruddy pink. Her eyes firmly shut and her face set in a grimace that was somewhere in between bliss and agony.
Her feet poked out from the blankets and her toes curled inwards as she whimpered something incoherent to Yang before slumping into a senseless pile. The hand that had been moving underneath the blankets slowed and then, once Weiss had stopped shuddering, it ceased moving altogether.
Ruby wasn't far behind her and clutched hard at Blake when her climax overwhelmed her. Time went by. She wasn't sure how much, but Blake held her steady until she recovered and cracked her eyes open.
"That… That was cool," she murmured sleepily. "We should do that again."
By the sounds of things, Yang and Weiss already were.
"You don't have to now," Blake said, catching Ruby's hand between her thighs. "Not if you
don't want to."
"I do, though," Ruby said. "Unless you don't?"
Blake smiled and her grip on Ruby's hand loosened.
"I do. Please."
Ruby happily obliged her. It took a while, but Blake was as patient as always, guiding her through it and directing her attentions when they were misplaced.
They fell asleep in a close pile, with Ruby and Weiss in the middle as the little spoons for no other reason that they were the smallest. Both Blake and Yang had agreed that it was sound logic.
Weiss smiled shyly as they lay there in the fading light of the last lantern's candle, brushing aside some of Ruby's hairs in an uncharacteristically tender gesture before her eyes drifted shut. Blake's warm embrace lulled Ruby to sleep a few minutes later and she headed straight for dreamland.
It was New Year's Eve and Ruby found herself back in her silly ladystilts and the dress Yang always forced her to wear for parties. The rest of her teammates were all dressed in similar attire and they stood close to one another, champagne flutes in hand, staring out from the balcony and into the vast, endless darkness ahead.
Fireworks lit up the sky in flashes of colour and high, sharp cracks. It was cold but with Blake at one side and Yang at the other, it didn't bother Ruby at all.