PLEASE READ THIS GUYS! REALLY!
So, first off, trigger warnings for domestic violence/abuse. Now that that's out of the way, you guys can just start reading.
For anyone who cares to keep reading this, this is what I meant when I said I want this fic to deal with some of my personal issues. I think it's a shame that people who write really gay fics don't bother to talk about the issues of being some flavor of LGBTQ except for "some people don't like gay people and that's sad." I tried to do some more complex stuff too, and I hope it turned out well.
And don't worry, there's fluff and stuff too!
"Ruby..." Weiss mumbled, her voice still hazy and bleary from sleep.
No answer. Ruby was dead asleep, hair cutely strewn over her face as she breathed deep, steady breaths.
Unfortunately, she was also lying directly on top of Weiss.
"Ruby!"
Still no reply. Weiss was even considering just letting her stay there a bit longer, but then she noticed the little trail of drool hanging off of Ruby's lip.
That did it.
For the second time in the past few hours, Weiss gave Ruby a sharp, vicious pinch.
"Ow!" Ruby shrieked, wide awake. She fell off the bed with a thump, and, fortunately, off of Weiss, hitting her head on the frame on the way down.
"You were drooling in your sleep! On me!" Weiss snapped.
Ruby rubbed her aching head. "Geez, sorry princess... I guess I was, you know, asleep!"
"It's still disgusting." Weiss huffed.
"Yeah, yeah... so..." Ruby rubbed sleepily at her eyes and yawned. "It's a Saturday morning and I'm hungry. So uh, yeah I'll be in the kitchen. Um. Do you want anything?"
"Whatever you have is fine." Weiss replied. "Though, if you don't mind, I do need some clothes." She wrinkled her nose. "I wore these all yesterday and last night, and they have your spit on them."
"Mhmm. Yeah. Um, dresser over there. I'm getting food now..." Ruby shambled off, leaving Weiss alone in her room.
Weiss just shook her head. Ruby was not a morning person in the slightest...
Well, time to find some clothes, at least.
Weiss stood, smoothed her skirt, and crossed to the unvarnished wooden dresser. She pulled out the top drawer, eyeing the rough wood suspiciously and taking care to avoid splinters. Well... there were clothes in here at least.
Weiss had to let out a sigh at the state of Ruby's dresser. Everything had just been thrown in there, with no regard for folding it or organizing it. The top layer seemed to consist of three tank tops, a pair of sweatpants with a hole in one knee, three mismatched socks, and a pair of bright pink boy shirts that very nearly made Weiss turn the same color just looking at them. They were about as modest as underwear could get, but still.
Some things simply weren't appropriate.
Sighing, Weiss began to rummage through, and by the time she had found a pair of pale red pajama pants and a bright yellow t-shirt with a cartoon waterfowl and the words "shut the duck up" on it, she'd also had time to fold and organize the drawer. She looked down to assess whether or not the outfit was appropriate, and sighed again.
Nothing Ruby owned would look even vaguely tolerable on her. It was simply a fact of life. She needed to get that girl some new clothes...
Weiss walked out of the room, tip toeing around the mess on the carpet, and heading for the smell of food.
She really wished she hadn't.
Ruby was sitting at the table, still wearing the tank top and pajama pants she'd had on the night before, sipping at a cracked glass filled with milk. That was normal, that was okay.
What was a little more on the traumatizing side of things was her sister, prancing back and forth at the stove in her lacy black underwear, head bopping as she sang along to something that could only be vaguely called music. It blared out of a little iPod hooked up to a cheap pair of portable speakers that sat on the counter, butchering the already awful music with their terrible quality.
"Stop calling stop calling I don't wanna - Hey Weiss!" Yang chirped, still swaying back and forth to the tune. "Bacon in ten. I went shopping, so we have real food! I mean, Ruby got a girl to sleep with her, finally, so I thought we could cele-"
"What is wrong with you!" Weiss shrieked, absolutely mortified and blushing hot enough to catch fire. "Put on some clothes! And Ruby and I weren't sleeping together like that!"
Ruby, still sipping her milk, winced. "Weiss... it's too early to be that loud..."
"At least turn the music down." Weiss muttered.
Yang shot her a huge grin over her shoulder, seeming expectant. "What do we say when we want something?"
"Fine, please, just turn it down!" Yang seemed a little slow, so Weiss barked, "Now, Yang!"
"We need a volume control for you, princess. I mean geez! Chill your tits!"
"Yang. Don't antagonize my girlfriend." Ruby mumbled, and the two bickering girls abruptly turned to stare at her.
"Wait, girlfriend? It's official?" Yang asked.
Weiss, meanwhile, was finding it hard to say much of anything, except a few sputtering, choked noises. Did Ruby just... say that? Right out loud and... well, only in front of Yang. Still, it was a shock. Weiss had never dated before, and the warm glow she felt when Ruby said 'girlfriend' was something she'd never felt before.
"Mmph. Yeah. And Yang?"
"Huh?"
"Put on some clothes, please. I know I've seen your boobs, but I don't think Weiss wants to."
Ruby was also a lot more blunt when she was tired.
"Fine, fine. Welp, bacon's ready anyway. I'll be right back." Yang strolled out of the kitchen, a little swing in her hips. Weiss glared at her, and Yang gave her a saucy wink in return.
"Like what you see?" She said, her voice teasing and exaggeratedly flirty.
Then she was gone, heading for one of the other rooms and whistling loudly.
Weiss was very swiftly getting to the end of her rope with that woman.
But instead of getting mad, she went over to the stove, using Yang's spatula to gingerly scoop up some of the fatty pork strips in the pan. She'd never had bacon, and it looked suspicious, but she figured Ruby desperately needed some food, what with the way she was acting. And maybe a bit more sleep... waking her up might not have been the best idea...
"Where are the plates, Ruby?" She asked over her shoulder.
"Uh, they should be in the cupboard to the right of the stove. Use the paper ones... they won't be gross."
"Oh come now." Weiss said, reaching in and pulling down a thick ceramic dish. "They can't be..."
Her finger brushed over some sort of crusted, baked on smear of nastiness, and she shoved it back in with a clatter. "...Nevermind. We're eating off the paper ones, and you really need to do dishes. Again."
Weiss served Ruby first, grudgingly added a plate for Yang, and finally served herself. She was just about to come over with food when she spied an open package on the counter. "Why is there smoked salmon on the counter?" Weiss asked curiously.
"Ah, that's Blake's. She brings it so she'll have something to eat in the mornings." Ruby replied, between a mouthful of crunchy bacon. "C'mon, sit down. It's really good!" Her voice was already a bit perkier, and she wasn't slouching as much in her chair.
"Who's Blake?" Weiss said, slipping into a chair next to Ruby. The leg wobbled, but she was fairly certain it wouldn't crack under her. She hoped.
"Yang's girlfriend." Ruby watched as Weiss eyed a piece of bacon. "Um, are you gonna eat that?"
Without replying, Weiss took a dainty bite, her mouth exploding with grease and salt. She coughed, barely choking it down, the meaty, oily aftertaste clinging to her tongue. "That's awful!" She sputtered. "How can you eat that stuff!"
Ruby pulled her plate over, unceremoniously dumping it onto her own. "Like this! And now, more for me!" She cheered. It was amazing how much perkier she seemed already, after just a little food.
Just then, a new person came into the room, looking like the female version of 'tall dark and handsome.' She had long, dark hair, with a slight curl to it that gave it gorgeous waves. A little black bow perched atop her head, and her body was wrapped up by a long grey bathrobe. She sat down opposite Ruby at the small table.
"Good morning." She said softly, her amber eyes blinking slightly. She gave Weiss a heavy lidded look. "Weiss Schnee, isn't it? My name is Blake Belladonna, it's a pleasure to meet you."
Weiss dipped her head slightly in acknowledgement. "It's very nice to meet you." She already rather liked this girl. Well spoken, polite, and wonderfully modest. It was a nice change from Yang. She couldn't believe the two were together, Blake didn't seem anything like Yang's type.
Then, the brute came back in.
Her golden curls bouncing, and somewhat covered by a short sleeved women's dress shirt, Yang strode into the room. She bent a little as she passed Blake, pinching her butt, and took her own seat, beginning the messy process of demolishing her bacon.
Weiss was scandalized. Had she just... done that to Blake? A quick look at the other girl didn't reveal the slightest change in expression. Well... that was... interesting...
Maybe they were a perfect fit after all. If Blake could put up with Yang's rudeness like that, maybe she could actually tolerate the blonde. After all, there had to be redeeming qualities in there somewhere.
Weiss watched curiously as Blake's eyes flicked over at the counter, and Yang started in her seat. "Mmph! Salmon! Right!"
Of course, her mouth was full, so it was a lot less intelligible than that. It sounded more like 'Shalmon! Fright!'
Yang scurried over to the counter, scraped the salmon onto a plate with a fork, and gently set it in front of Blake, who smiled faintly and started taking quick, dainty bites, seeming to be in a rush to finish yet wanting to savor her food at the same time.
It was a very different side to Ruby's sister, and Weiss filed it away for later.
The meal was eaten in relative silence, until Ruby finished, wiping grease off her chin with the back of a hand. She broke the silence, her voice hesitant and questioning. "So uh, Weiss, what do you want to do? I mean... it's the weekend..."
"I don't quite know. I'm fairly caught up on my work, so I can spare some time." Weiss replied thoughtfully. "Though, I'd say you need to invest some time to catch back up. You didn't miss many concepts, though you probably need to go over them for at least ten hours to achieve any kind of mastery."
Yang blew a loud raspberry. "Ah, c'mon. You guys oughta do something fun!"
Weiss turned an ice cold glare on her. "The week before finals is a terrible time to slack off. Don't encourage her to do anything stupid."
"Well, was it new stuff, or review?" Ruby asked. "Because, I know most of them said that was all the last week was gonna be..."
Weiss frowned. "Yes, but that's no excuse."
Ruby waved a hand. "I'll get it done, but if it's nothing new, I know the stuff pretty well. I mean, I got a perfect score on all my midterms. I should do pretty well..."
"Still, Ruby - " Weiss started to say. Yang cut her off.
"Hey, princess, cool it, will you? I mean, can you take the stick of your ass long enough to do something with your girlfriend, that you just hooked up with today? Special first day and all, you know?"
Without further ado, Weiss threw Ruby's greasy plate at Yang. It hit her square in the face, flipped over, and landed square on her head. "How dare you!" Weiss yelled, furious and not sure what to be angry about first. "I'm trying to look out for her so she doesn't fail out of school! Do you know how much the teachers will likely judge her, just because she didn't pay to get in?"
Yang's eyes were wide, and Weiss repeated her accusation. "Do you?"
All of a sudden, Ruby's arms were around her, clinging to her while Weiss stood shaking with fury. "Yang, Weiss, please calm down!" Ruby begged, her huge silver eyes pleading. "Please, I don't want you to fight. Please?"
There was something desperate in those eyes, and Weiss realized Ruby might not be entirely recovered from her ordeal earlier. They had only been together for a day... she was probably still terrified Weiss didn't care about her. And added to that, she was fighting with her sister, who she'd need to get along with if any kind of relationship with Ruby was going to work.
Suddenly, she felt like an absolute ass, and sagged into Ruby's arms. "...I'm sorry." She mumbled.
Across the table, Blake was pulling Yang back by the arm, hissing into her ear with amber eyes narrowed. Yang looked ever worse than Weiss, a stricken expression on her face like she'd been shot.
"Sorry." The blonde mumbled as she was led out of the room by her girlfriend.
Weiss looked at Ruby, looking for the right thing to say. She settled on a soft "I am too." just before Yang got out of earshot. Then she was alone with Ruby in the tiny room. "Ruby..."
And Ruby was crying. Weiss held her gently, swaying a little while her girlfriend sniffled a bit, her tears soaking silently into Weiss's shirt.
Ruby's sniffles slowly died away. "I just want you guys to get along..." She said quietly.
"I know." Weiss whispered. "I know, and I promise I'll try to be kinder to her. I just... have a bit of a temper..."
They stood for a few more minutes, and Weiss could not help but think about Yang's words. Maybe she was being too hard on Ruby.
"...Do you want to go out somewhere, Ruby?" She asked quietly.
"Mhmm. I really do. Is that okay?" Ruby replied equally soft, her words hesitant. She was trying so hard to make Weiss happy, and it almost broke her heart.
"If you really did that well on all your midterms, then of course." Weiss paused to swallow. "Though... do you have anything better in your dresser? I can't go out like this..."
Ruby stepped back a bit, giving Weiss a little smile. "I think so. Just gimme a sec, okay? I needa change too."
Twenty minutes later, Weiss was feeling better. Much better actually, especially considering she'd had time for a shower. And, as it turned out, that one day she'd loaned Ruby an outfit, the other girl had never returned it. Given how convenient it ended up being, she decided not to be mad and count her blessings.
It was a little wrinkled, but she decided she could live with that. She stepped inside the skirt, and her head bumped against the wall of the bathroom she was changing in.
How did Ruby manage with such little space? It was absurd! Now she knew why Ruby had been so amazed at the size of her own apartment.
A few moments later she came out, her hair looking as well as it possibly could given the circumstances, and her outfit at least presentable. Ruby had been hanging around the bathroom door, thumbs hooked into the belt loops of her ratty jeans.
"So uh, where do you wanna go?" She asked, cocking her head a little in a way that Weiss found adorable, her long bangs drifting to the side.
"I don't particularly care." Weiss replied. "Though we shouldn't be gone for more than an hour or two. You really do need to study."
Ruby smiled, a little sad, a little affectionate. "Yeah. I know. Still, we got a bit, so we can have some fun."
"Well, where would you like to go?" Weiss asked, retrieving her dirty clothes and putting them in a plastic grocery bag, to be washed at her apartment later.
Ruby shrugged. "There's movies near here... um, and... well actually that's the only thing you might like." She bit her lip and looked down.
"A movie sounds nice." Weiss said gently. "Is there anything you'd like to see?"
"Uh, a ton of stuff actually... there's a bunch of superhero movies out lately..." Ruby said slowly, carefully watching Weiss's expression to see her opinion.
"I... confess I've never seen any of those." Weiss replied. "I would be willing to try one." Privately, she was reflecting that she hardly knew what a 'superhero' was. However, people seemed to like them, so why not?
They started outside, Ruby shyly slipping her hand into Weiss's, the other girl hesitating a moment before taking it with a gentle squeeze.
The moment was perfect.
And abruptly it shattered with a high, clear scream from the apartment upstairs, and the sound of something breaking. A deep, male voice shouted something indistinguishable and angry, a slamming door punctuating the sound.
Weiss's head whipped around to the noise, but Ruby wasn't hesitating, already running up the stairs, taking them two at a time to their upstairs neighbor's apartment. An instant later Weiss was at her heels, and they were both up at the top. Ruby tried the handle, and finding it open, they both burst in the door.
It was dim inside the apartment, shadows playing across the eerily silent rooms.
And sprawled across the floor was a girl, something dark and sticky oozing from her head, and the broken pieces of an expensive looking mug coating the floor.
Weiss immediately took charge of the situation. "Ruby, call 911." She commanded, picking her way around the broken bits, getting to the girl's side. Some of her clothes were torn, ripped at like someone had tried to pull them off her body, and her long, pale blonde hair was sticky and matted with blood.
Quickly, Weiss found her injury, a large gash along her forehead, and pressed a gentle finger to it, checking for any damage to the skull. She breathed a sigh of relief, not feeling anything out of the ordinary. Permanent damage was unlikely, and a concussion should be the worst of her problems. She would wake up. She would be fine.
Weiss took a piece of cloth, a torn bit of the girl's shirt, and tied it securely around her head, making sure it was pressing on hard enough to limit the blood flow. For safety's sake, she leaned over her and applied pressure to the girl's forehead with both hands. The pool of blood oozed around her designer sneakers, and soaked into her skirt, staining it a deep, dark red.
"Yes, apartment two, second floor. Please, hurry." Ruby finished saying, the only sound in the quiet room. Then she knelt down next to Weiss, staring worriedly down.
"Do you know her?" Weiss found herself asking. When she and Ruby said they were going to go out, this wasn't exactly what she had expected. It made her sick, seeing someone like this. Sick and scared and worried. Weiss had heard a second voice in the apartment, after that scream. Someone had done this to her. Weiss had always hated how cruel people could be to eachother, how easy it was for one person to hurt and abuse another. Maybe it was her own experiences with her father, maybe she just had a strong sense of morality, but she found it unacceptable.
Weiss wanted to kill whoever it was who did this.
"Yeah. I do. Her name's Eleanor... she's our neighbor. We see her a bunch I..." Ruby's tears dripped down, splashing onto the floor. "She makes tea. She has all these beautiful mugs and she loves to make tea and..."
"Ruby, she's going to be fine." Weiss said, calmly stating a fact. "I've gotten the bleeding under control, her skull is intact, and the worst she will likely wake up to is a concussion. We just need to stay with her."
Ruby's head leaned on her shoulder, and they sat there like that until sirens sounded outside.
Two men in black and green uniforms rushed in with a portable stretcher, lifting Eleanor up onto it and rushing downstairs. A pair of policemen were close at their heels, and one of them, a short, pudgy man with scraggly peach fuzz on his cheeks and a mole on his upper lip looked Weiss and Ruby up and down. "You the girls who called this in?" He asked, voice friendly and warm.
"Y-yes sir." Ruby stammered.
"Did either of you see what happened?" He asked, pulling out a notepad.
"No." Weiss replied. "We heard two voices in the apartment, one likely belonging to an attacker. Whoever it was, though, they were gone by the time we got in." Weiss paused a moment. "May we come stay in her hospital room?"
"Sure. Actually, I was gonna ask the two of you to come down to the station, but that works too. I can talk to you there." The cop said, slipping the notebook back into a pocket. "Just drive on down, and I'll see you there."
Weiss nodded, and thanked him. Then she turned to Ruby. "Let's get your study materials and then I'll call us a taxi. We can be there in twenty minutes."
Weiss hated hospitals.
This one, like all the rest, was cold and white, smelling of chemicals and cloyingly sweet medicine. Children cried in the background, and worried family members talked quietly with the nurses.
A friendly woman in pink scrubs showed them to Eleanor's room. To Weiss's relief, when they opened the door she was sitting up, calmly talking to the police officer who was at her apartment. A mess of bandages were wrapped all around her head, but other than that, she seemed fine.
"You're okay!" Ruby cheered, a little teary eyed, and rushed over to the bed, arms out for a hug. Laughing, Eleanor wrapped her arms around the younger girl.
"It's rather nice to see you too, Ruby." She said, her voice a little weak. It was on the deeper end of feminine, but warm and strong, and Weiss felt a rush of relief at how surprisingly good she sounded, given how bad off she'd been just thirty minutes earlier.
"Oh! Um, Weiss, this is Eleanor. Eleanor, Weiss. Weiss, Eleanor... okay you probably get it by now..." Ruby said, stumbling away from the hug and indicating the girl on the bed with a sweep of her arms.
"It's very nice to meet you." Eleanor said, a little grin on her face. "I understand you were very helpful in stopping my head from leaking all over my nice clean floor. Thank you very much, I'd hate to spend hours mopping the place."
Weiss's eyebrows arched. Was she really joking about a serious head injury? "I... suppose. And you're very welcome."
"Anyway, I was just about to give the officers my statement, but if you two wish to stick around, be my guest." With a grin, she indicated the tiny room. "What's mine is yours."
Weiss and Ruby seated themselves near the bed, listening closely as Eleanor began her story.
"I was at home, with this guy. He was taking me home after a date earlier; we had gotten a nice breakfast at a nearby cafe. The Ox and Rabbit. So when we got to my apartment, one thing led to another... he was kinda... groping at me. And, well, I think he found something he wasn't expecting." Eleanor's face flushed bright red, and she went quiet, staring at her hands.
"What do you mean, ma'am?" The officer asked.
Eleanor took a deep breath. "I'm transsexual. And have some... parts some girls don't have. He, apparently, didn't much approve of that." Her voice was soft, her eyes downcast.
Weiss's eyes opened wide. From an academic standpoint, she knew such people existed, people who didn't feel the gender they were born with fit who they were. But in her mind, she thought it would be easy to tell. Eleanor... well, she looked like any other girl. In fact, she was really quite pretty. Quickly, Weiss glanced around the room, checking to see everyone else's reaction. Ruby didn't look surprised, but the policeman...
The policeman flushed bright red, his thick eyebrows knitting together. Then, very deliberately, he stood, closing his notebook. "Thank you for your statement, sir." He said, spitting the last word. Then he made to walk out of the room.
Weiss abruptly felt a surge of anger.
How.
Dare.
He.
She was not going to tolerate his judgemental bullshit.
"You are going to turn around and finish taking her statement, right now." Weiss growled, furiously angry. She stood up, fists literally shaking with rage.
He kept walking away.
"Or you are going to explain to Commissioner Port why you lost the annual $400,000 donation from the Schnee family." Weiss finished, her voice dangerous and steel-edged.
That got him to come back fast. Without another word, he sat back down, pulling out the notebook with an angry jerk.
"Please, sir, finish." He grumbled.
"Use her proper pronouns." Weiss ground out.
The officer nodded stiffly, and Eleanor finished her story. Honestly, there wasn't much left to tell. There had been a fight, he'd thrown a mug, and obviously left. She gave the officer the man's name, phone number, and described his car. When she finished, he got up like the chair was on fire, stuffing the notebook into his back pocket and hurrying to leave, shooting nervous glances at Weiss as he headed out, probably worrying that she wasn't done with him yet.
And as it turns out, she wasn't. Just before he got out the door, Weiss added "I will be calling the Commissioner later today, to check and see if your report has been misplaced. So ensure that it isn't." She told him coldly. "You may leave now."
He did so, footsteps quick on the tile floor. Weiss slammed the door shut behind him. Then, still glaring furiously, she returned to her chair.
"Ruby, where did you find her." Eleanor asked. "And by any chance, does she have any siblings that are as kickass as she is?"
"I'm pretty sure she's one of a kind." Ruby said fondly, laying her head on Weiss's shoulder.
"Ah. Shame." Eleanor replied. "Well, you know, seems I'm single again so I figured I ought to ask."
Ruby tangled her fingers in Weiss's hair, leaning in close to her. She turned silver eyes on Eleanor, her gaze questioning. "How are you so relaxed about all this? I mean... I know I'd be freaking out..."
Eleanor shrugged. "Well, mostly because I'm going to be okay." A sad look came over her, hands bunching in the sheets. "Mostly, I just feel sorry for my... well, my ex boyfriend. I mean, he's obviously a jerk but... I just wish people weren't so scared all the time."
There was silence in the room for a little bit, before Eleanor broke it with a laugh.
"Though you know what the worst part about all this is?" She said, a little secret grin on her lips.
"The bastard broke my favorite mug."
*long sigh*
Okay.
That's written. I really need to sleep now...
Wendy Crescent is, as usual, an incredible person. Seriously, something really stressful happened to her and she didn't lose a positive attitude. For anyone reading this, please send her a nice message, she deserves it.