"I'm not so sure about this anymore, guys," Ruby murmured from where she hung back behind her girlfriends.
Blake paused, turning so that her black knee-length dress flared out slightly. "It'll be fine, little rose, you know we'll be with you."
Pyrrha reached back as well to fold the smaller brunette into a hug, her sleeveless and form-fitting red dress silky smooth against Ruby's cheek. "We don't have to stay long if you don't want to, just enough to say hello to the birthday girl."
"No, it's okay," she replied somewhat glumly. "It's Nora, and she was really excited when I said I'd come… I just…"
Her Cat Faunus girlfriend moved in on the other side, completing the circle of her embrace. "I know, sweetie. You hate crowds."
"Not just the crowds," Ruby mumbled. "It's the people, and the talking with the people, and trying not to act like an idiot when I just know I'm gonna say something stupid or fall over or step on someone's toes with my stupid lady-stilts or-"
Blake tipped her chin back and placed a warm and loving kiss on her lips to cut off the rapidly downward-spiralling rant. "And we'll both be by you, just hang on to us and you don't even have to talk to anyone you don't want to."
"That's what we're here for, love," the redhead murmured before bending down to capture Ruby's lips in a kiss of her own.
The brunette let out a happy little sigh. "Yeah, okay. Thanks guys."
Still, she made sure she was ensconced safely in between her girlfriends, arms linked as she walked with them into the night club. Her red and black dress had gotten some nice comments from the both of them earlier, but she still felt… exposed. Uncomfortable. The brunette girl knew she'd feel better if she were wearing her cloak, the familiarity of it lending her some measure of normalcy, but everything about this entire evening was as if designed to increase her stress levels.
Ruby looked around anxiously as they walked down the steps and onto the level of the dance floor. She spotted her other teammates and friends across the crowded room, some of them gathered around a table. Yang was already out dancing, along with Nora, Coco, and Velvet, but Weiss was sitting down and chatting with Ren.
She stifled a whimper as she took in the number of people she'd have to wade through to get to her partner.
Oum, how she hated crowds.
Like she'd said earlier, though, it wasn't even just the crowds. It was the people, the seething, writhing mass of people all usually towering over her. Interacting with them, trying not to get jostled by them, feeling so closed-in and without any breathable air… She'd always been this way, so much better in small groups, especially when it was people she knew. Or just her sweetheart, why couldn't people be more like weapons? That'd make them much easier to deal with.
Ruby sighed resignedly, gripping Blake and Pyrrha tighter as they began to make their way through. Not for the first time she gave thanks to whatever spirits watched over her, be it her mom or otherwise, who gifted her with such amazingly wonderful women in her life who effortlessly returned her love and affection.
She could do this. With Blake and Pyrrha at her sides, she could do this.
Taking a deep breath, she plunged ahead. Pyrrha called out cheerfully to a few people that she knew, while Blake kept mostly silent at her side. Ruby caught her glancing down at her worriedly, but she gave her what she hoped to be a reassuring smile.
Almost there, almost to the tables…
And then they were through. Ruby released the breath she didn't realize she'd been holding and loosened her death grip on the arms of her girlfriends. Pyrrha gave her arm a squeeze back before moving off to the side to speak with Jaune, while Blake bent down to give her a quick kiss on the cheek.
"Are you alright now, Ruby?" she murmured over the sound of the throbbing dance music.
"I'm fine, kitty cat," she smiled back, giving her a one-armed hug around her waist. "You wanna go dance with Yang and Nora?"
"Mmm." The Cat Faunus looked at her, concern still filling her amber eyes. "Will you be alright here?"
"I'm fine, I got Weiss and Pyrrha and the others. Go on."
Blake gave her another kiss, this time on the lips, before she smoothly slid into the crowd with a quick glance back, gracing her with a brilliant smile as she slipped through the dancers as if they were shadows.
The brunette let out a sigh as she plopped down in a chair next to her partner. "Heya, Weiss. Enjoying the party?"
The white-haired girl smiled softly at her and gave a small shrug. "It's alright. A little too… chaotic for my tastes. That would be why Ren and I are over here."
"Indeed," Ren replied with a small smile of his own. "We're not much for such festivities."
"Oh, Oum, I know what you mean!" Ruby exclaimed, swinging her hands around wildly. "I mean… all these people!"
"Well, you're welcome to hang out at the quiet table," Jaune chuckled from behind as he slid into a seat next to Ruby. He handed her a plastic cup. "Fruit punch, not spiked, I promise."
"Eh, it might've made the evening go by faster," Ruby chuckled lightly. She held her cup up. "To the socially awkward!"
Though both Ren and Jaune tapped their cups to hers, Weiss let out an irritable huff. "I am most certainly not socially awkward, thank you very much. I simply do not appreciate having smelly people thrusting their unclean bodies into my face."
Ruby nodded amicably and held her cup out once more to her partner. "To the vertically challenged!"
The heiress smiled and returned the gesture. "Very well, that is a toast I can get behind."
Pyrrha walked up and wrapped her arms around Ruby's shoulders from behind. "Are you doing okay here?" she asked quietly.
The brunette grinned at the concern shown by both of her girlfriends and craned her neck back to give the redhead a warm kiss. "I'm fine. Blakey's out on the floor with Yang and Nora."
Nodding, Pyrrha nuzzled her neck, causing her to giggle. "I'll be right back, then, just need to use the restroom."
"Okay, fluffy fox."
Weiss groaned quietly as the leggy redhead walked off, though Ruby was too distracted by the sight of her gorgeous girlfriend leaving to pay attention to what she was grumbling about.
That dress just leaves nothing at all to the imagination… well, that's not true, I'm imagining all sorts of things… Bad Ruby, behave…
"Ruby!"
"Huh? What'd I miss?" Ruby turned back around, blinking innocently even though she knew a bright blush had spread across her cheeks.
Jaune was snickering quietly behind his hand, and even Ren looked highly amused, but Weiss was rolling her eyes in exasperation. "Honestly, I don't know what to do with the three of you…"
"Oh, I got all sorts of ideas of what to do," she murmured under her breath. Evidently it wasn't quiet enough, even over the noise of the music, as Jaune's forehead hit the table while he laughed helplessly.
"What was that?" Weiss barked sharply.
"Nothing, nothing…" Ruby tried once more for the picture of innocence, but then she caught sight of Blake out of the corner of her eye, dancing with unusual abandon with her blonde partner. The brunette's eyes glazed over as she watched the Cat Faunus move with such sinuous sensuality that she could feel the drool begin to gather in her mouth.
Oh, that is so unfair…
"Ruby, you're doing it again," Jaune snickered, jostling her elbow and shaking her out of her reverie.
She sighed and shook her head with a rueful grin. "Sorry, guys… can't help that I have such hot girlfriends, they're very distracting."
"Speaking of which," Ren interjected, motioning over towards the side of the dance floor. "It would seem that Pyrrha has picked up an admirer."
Ruby's eyes shot over to where he was indicating. A tall, lanky boy was blocking the redhead's path, obviously trying to engage in conversation. He wore jeans and a blue button-up shirt, with slicked-back dark hair and an even slicker smile. Pyrrha had a polite smile of her own plastered on her face as she tried to evade him, but he seemed to be extremely persistent.
In a flash of rose petals, Ruby was suddenly standing in between the two of them, protectively sheltering her tall girlfriend, her hands on her hips and glaring skyward.
"Hey, are you hitting on my girlfriend?" Ruby demanded.
The boy stared down at her in perplexion. "Umm…"
"You are!" She turned back to an amused-looking Pyrrha. "He is, isn't he? He was hitting on you!"
Without waiting for an answer, Ruby turned back to give the boy her very best Grimm-withering scowl. "You were hitting on her! Blake!"
Her angry shout was easily heard over the noise of the music, but Blake had already picked up on the commotion and was on her way over. "What's…" the Cat Faunus began, but Ruby didn't give her a chance either.
"This guy was hitting on our girlfriend!"
"'Our' girlfriend?" the boy asked, his brow furrowed.
Pyrrha laid a restraining hand on the increasingly irritable brunette. "Ruby, it's alright…"
"No, he was hitting on you!" Ruby exclaimed. "That's not right! I'm gonna fight him!"
Blake tried to move in as well, placing a comforting arm around the smaller girl's middle. "No, sweetie, you don't need to fight him…"
"But I wanna!"
"Seriously?" the boy smirked. He quailed under the intense glare that all three girls sent his way, and decided that perhaps the craziness wasn't worth the effort. As he slunk away to find easier prey, both Pyrrha and Blake worked on keeping hold of the excitable teen girl.
"Come back here! I'm tiny, fight me!"
Eventually the redhead and raven-haired girl managed to drag Ruby back to the table, even while she continued to hurl insults and threats at the boy no longer within sight.
The brunette let out a huff as she was dragged down onto Pyrrha's lap at the table where her friends were wiping tears of mirth from their eyes from the scene.
"I coulda taken him," she grumbled.
"Oh, no doubt," Pyrrha laughed softly. "My heroic little rose."
"Our shining red knight of valor," Blake added, leaning in for a quick kiss that brought a smile to Ruby's face again. The raven-haired girl sat down in a chair next to them and put an arm around Pyrrha while her head rested on Ruby's shoulder.
They stayed like that for a few minutes, just quietly watching the dancers out on the floor. Pyrrha absently ran her fingers through Blake's hair, careful not to jostle the bow, while Ruby traced random patterns on the back of the arm the redhead had around her. Yang came back eventually and dragged a protesting Weiss out, while Nora bounced over to grab hold of Ren. The orange-haired girl gave the three girls a cheery greeting, as well as profuse thanks for coming to her party, before she and the beleaguered raven-haired boy disappeared into the crowd.
"Hey, guys?" Ruby murmured.
"Hmm?"
"Yes, little rose?"
"D'you think we could head home?" the brunette asked plaintively. "I think I've had my fill of people."
Pyrrha placed a kiss on the top of her head while she hugged both girls closer to her. "I think that's a lovely idea."
"Would you like me to send a message to both Yang and Weiss, let them know we're leaving?" Blake asked, smiling at the both of them.
"Yup," Ruby responded with a twinkle in her silver eyes. "And while you're at it… maybe that they should stay and enjoy the party for at least another half hour?"
The three of them stood, Pyrrha stretching her long frame out from being bunched up with Ruby in her lap.
Ruby's gaze wandered over the redhead's toned body under her very form-fitting red dress. "Umm… maybe make it an hour instead?"
"Gladly," Blake whispered, licking her dry lips.
Pyrrha giggled merrily, taking hold of her girlfriends and dragging them out of the club with her.
A/N: "I'm tiny, fight me!" is the battle cry of my youngest daughter, PandaAnimeLover. I can commiserate here with Ruby, though, as I have rather crippling social anxiety when it comes to large crowds, parties, talking to strangers, making new friends… I like my little shell. It's nice and warm and safe.
I've actually been looking forward to doing this chapter for some time, all based around Ruby's attempts to defend her girlfriend's honor. It made me giggle every time I proofread it.
DarthMaine: That actually is a very good question. Everyone from RWBY is matched up, Renora is a thing, as is Crosshares… So who for Jaune, indeed? What new crack ship can we devise here? Jaune x Fox? Jaune x Glynda? Jaune x Cinder? Jaune x Zwei? The one thing I'm not going to do is either introduce him into an established relationship (sorry, no Jaune x Weiss x Yang) or break one up, so that limits what we have to work with. And in any case, it's only going to be peripheral and not a major component of the Purruby tale like Freezerburn will be over summer break.
THB4: You crack me up. Four Queendoms indeed. And a very timely comment about hitting on one of their girlfriends, as is evidenced by this chapter already having been written a week ago, lol.
Boarador: If nothing else, this is certainly a ship-happy tale here…
RealTerminal: So happy to… encourage… your Freezerboner. Just watch where you point that thing.
Gorsouul: My appreciation for Freezerburn has definitely grown, besides the fact that I love Ladybug so very much. I do like how on the surface there's so much prickliness, but as you say, so much potential underneath.
Psykotic101: W00t! If I've made somebody happy, then I consider that a success!
ILikeHotDogs: Dammitall, stop makin' me blush! (/squees quietly off into the distance)
growlscout: Heh, glad you picked up on the tidbit of Blake sleeping more soundly. Yes, it's a testament to the warmth and safety with her girlfriends that the normally skittish former White Fang member can sleep so soundly. I imagine it's the best sleep she's ever had in her life, which alone would do wonders for a person's disposition.
ladygoddess8: Interesting observation about the bed situation. Yes there are now two empty beds in the room, but it's towards the end of the semester, so the setup once school resumes might be a bit different…
Boombox94: Welcome aboard the crack ship! No regrets!
DandyHandy: Whelp, no drinking this time, but there will be in the future. Hope the clubbing was still enjoyable!
kaiju62: Cheers for another Freezerburn fan, and thanks for the kind words!
thesecretsix: Heh, no regrets. But, happy to oblige with an actual resolution for Weiss.
Hey, know what we haven't had in awhile? An omake!
Blake tried to move in as well, placing a comforting arm around the smaller girl's middle. "No, sweetie, you don't need to fight him…"
"But I wanna!"
"Seriously?" the boy smirked. "Crazy-ass bitch…"
The poor unfortunate soul quailed as he was affixed by three glares that pinned him in place more surely than the stinger of a Deathstalker.
Both Blake and Pyrrha simultaneously released their grips on their diminutive girlfriend.
"Ruby," the raven-haired girl growled quietly. "Sic 'im."
Most of the ensuing carnage was shielded by a whirlwind of rose petals and blood. There were enough breaks, though, for the two girls to observe some of the more visceral scenes.
"Well, she's certainly improved in her hand-to-hand combat," Pyrrha noted. "Nice arm lock there before she broke it. The arm, that is."
The both of them winced briefly. "That's new," Blake commented. "Since when could she vibrate her hand fast enough to pull out a rib?"
Pyrrha shrugged nonchalantly. "I don't think that's come up in our sparring sessions."
They shared a brief smile over the sounds of the beleaguered boy's anguished screams.
"Arrgghhh, my spleen!"
Yeah, I still amuse myself. Go, me.
Stay shiny!