"She took a step and didn't want to take any more, but she did."
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
Chapter 6-
The next morning Neo woke up to the smell of bacon and eggs, slowly opening her eyes she saw she was laid down on the couch and Ruby had moved alongside being covered by a blanket.
"Morning." Ruby said from the kitchen warmly that made Neo feel warm inside.
"Morning." Neo said sleepily.
Smiling Ruby placed a plate of toast, bacon and eggs in front of Neo on the small coffee table with a knife and fork. "Here. I'm assuming you like this." Ruby said.
"I'm a vegan." Neo stated with a straight face.
"Oh…I'm so sorry." Ruby said taking the plate as she looked worried.
Neo just burst out laughing as she stopped Ruby from taking the food away, "I'm just joking. I'm not vegan, the food looks great." Neo said, taking a bite and quickly devouring all the food.
After she had finished and standing in the kitchen as Ruby annoyingly washed up again against Neo's protests she asked, "So what are you doing today?" She asked.
"Well the weathers clear and I've got my friends down for the week so we're going to get into the water before we head out to my mother's house. She lives not far away so we'll spend the day in the water with her as well before going back there." Ruby explained.
"Oh I see." Neo said, trying to sound happy but failing slightly.
"What's wrong?" Ruby asked, confused as to why Neo seemed upset.
"Nothing. Just I was sort of hoping to spend the day with you as well but you're going to be with your friends." Neo said.
"What? You're invited as well. Did you think you weren't included?" Ruby said, clear as to why Neo seemed upset.
"I did." Neo said, looking down in shame.
"It's fine Neo. You're here for a week as well before you go home, if you want to join us than you can. All I'm sorry for is the fact we'll mostly be surfing for the week. Any time you don't want to join us you don't have to, but I rather enjoy hanging out with you and so do the others." Ruby stated.
"Really?" Neo asked, unsure she heard Ruby correctly.
"Of course. You're fun to hang out with and fit in nicely, come on I want to see you in that lovely bikini." Ruby teased with a wink, making Neo blush but brighten up.
The pair got changed and headed outside, where Summer was in the water and stood out with the white and black wetsuit she wore.
The rest of the day and the next few after that the pair with Ruby's friends, soon becoming Neo's friends as well had all met up to surf and would do something different each evening for dinner although each evening Ruby and Neo spent it together at her house, so much so that Neo had pretty much moved her suitcase there, or at least a smaller one.
It was on the third to last day of the week that Ruby and Neo were sitting together on that couch, watching TV as Ruby was playing with Neo's hair, something she started to do on the second day.
"Can we talk about what happened that first night?" Neo asked softly, having not seen or heard anything more mentioned about that night.
"What exactly do you want to know?" Ruby replied. Having been a pretty open book with Neo whenever she asked anything since their talk about Ruby surfing big waves.
"The bathroom…how we found you, it wasn't nice." Neo said softly, sounding sad and worried at the same time.
"Oh that…I uh…drunk a little too much and vomited. I don't tend to drink that much too often." Ruby replied, but she knew it wasn't what Neo meant.
"The blood. I uh, scratched myself quite badly and a lot. It all healed up overnight as it wasn't that bad, looked worse than it actually was." Ruby said.
"But why did you do that?" Neo asked, she understood why people would cut themselves but Neo also knew that perhaps talking about the reason would help Ruby.
"I don't know…I just…just missed her you know? We used to be together almost constantly and then suddenly she just wasn't here anymore. I was just alone and well, that night it just reminded me of how alone I am." Ruby said, her voice soft.
"You're not alone." Neo stated, "Look at all your friends, I'm sure they'll happily come if you give them a call or if you just want to see them…even…even me. If you ever feel alone or just want to talk I'll make time to talk to you. I know it's not even been a week but I feel close to you, closer than anyone before." Neo explained rather shyly, looking away.
Ruby remained silent. Worried that she said something wrong Neo turned to look at Ruby but found silent tears falling down her face. Instead of speaking Neo just enveloped Ruby into a hug and waited patiently.
"Thank you." Ruby whispered, "I think someone just needed to remind me of that. I've got friends I can talk to, I'm not really alone. And I feel close to you as well, I don't know why exactly but I just do. I feel comfortable with you. And well, no one's ever spoken to me like you have before." Ruby replied.
Ruby remained silent on anything else as she was pretty sure where this was going between the two she remained quiet as not to scare Neo but also because she felt it was wrong, so soon.
The next day the pair woke up like normal, however while Ruby normally woke up before Neo and was making breakfast instead she was still hugging Neo, asleep.
Neo smiled warmly as she enjoyed the feeling of waking up in someone's arms, but it was interrupted when her phone went off.
Trying to keep it quiet she reached over and grabbed it, reading the text to herself from her parents asking to see her that morning.
"What's wrong?" Ruby asked softly, eyes closed.
"Huh? Oh. My parents want to see me this morning." Neo said.
"I see. What's the time now?" Ruby asked.
"Um…about seven?" Neo said, looking at her phone for the time.
"We've got plenty of time then." Ruby said, hugging Neo tighter as she started to go back to sleep.
An hour later they were both up, eaten breakfast and just finishing up getting ready for the day, at least Neo was. Leaving Ruby's flat she went over to the hotel to see her parents, who were in the restaurant attached getting breakfast.
"Hello Neo, been having fun this week?" Her mother asked as she sat down.
"It's been great. Ruby's been amazing and well, her friends are great as well. It's all so different." Neo said excitedly.
"I see. What do you plan on doing today?" Her father asked.
"Surfing again. I might go through the town a little later as well and look at a few things." Neo said.
"What about this evening for dinner?" Her mother asked.
"Um…I don't know. It changes each night, why?" Neo asked.
"Well why don't you and Ruby join us for dinner tonight? A place called Cook Island, say around seven thirty?" Her mother asked her, or rather requested of her.
"Um sure, I'll have to double check with Ruby." Neo said, confused and worried about the sudden change in her parents.
"Good. See you tonight." Her mother said with a smile as they paid for their food and left, leaving Neo alone.
Meeting up with Ruby she told her about the dinner date with her parents which Ruby agreed to if Neo was alright with it, which she was.
Smiling than the pair got changed and went out to the water, today they were the only two out there as their friends hadn't arrived yet but other people were in the water.
"Come on." Ruby said, paddling for a wave with Neo following close behind her.
Both of them caught it easily and stood up, Neo had a wide smile on her face as she was in easy control of the board and right next to Ruby who was smiling right alongside her.
"You're doing great." Ruby called out, as she turned slightly away from Neo and managed to go along the wave, even getting a little air off one.
Neo attempted to follow but was able to go along the wave, something she had been struggling to do but just did it now.
As they jumped off their boards as they started getting closer Neo raced over to Ruby and hugged her tightly, even jumping up on her.
"That was amazing. I can't believe I managed to do that." Neo shouted.
"You were great. Come a long way since that first time out on the waves." Ruby replied, albite a bit more calmly.
"It's all thanks to you. Thank you." Neo cried out, leaning down and planting a kiss right on Ruby's lips.
Stunned at first Ruby then went with it as she opened her mouth up and returned the kiss eagerly. They quickly broke apart but both wanted to kiss again but they heard Yang shouting from the shore so they quickly broke apart and waved back.
For the rest of the day they didn't kiss again nor hug but when they left the group earlier than the others they managed to wait until they got into Ruby's flat.
As soon as the door closed Neo all but assaulted Ruby, kissing her and jumping up onto her, legs wrapped around her.
Ruby supported Neo as she returned the kisses and the pair even managed to strip each other of their wetsuits.
But as Neo moved her hand underneath Ruby's bikini top something seemed to snap in Ruby as she all but fell backwards off of Neo and onto the floor.
"I…I can't…I'm sorry…Weiss I'm sorry." Ruby cried out as she sprinted out of her flat and somewhere outside.
A/N
So I don't know why but I feel like this may look rushed, but it's a little hard to just go through every day when certain things are the same, I sort of just skip things and go to important parts like on the evenings or mornings.
Also yeah, left that in a nice position didn't I? And sorry for not updating on Tuesday, was asleep all day after being ill the day before so I give the chapter to you a day later.
Might actually be editing next week's chapter a little bit more, but I've also got to finish my Christmas one shot at some point as well. And once more sorry if things look rushed but it's something taking place over a week, so what do you expect?
Also I've got a special one shot coming out tomorrow as well.
Until next time. ^_^