A/N: Fiercesomest here with the LAST chapter of this crazy story- officially wrapping up the longest epilogue in the history of epilogues.
Shout outs and thanks to our long time reviewers, DarkRai, Kathi9000, CelesteSky598, Chaosrin, jeaccea and all you other wonderful people. Your notes are always awesome. We love you!
And to ILoveCoco: we have seriously not stopped laughing about the Weiss harem suggestion. (I may suck at writing ships, but I could write confused and flustered Weiss all day, any day, so stay tuned.)
"Yaaaaaaaaang, why aren't they answering their scrolls?" Ruby hung halfway off her bunk, her hair falling up away from her shoulders as she regarded her sister from her upside down position.
Outside, the sunset painted the sky orange and pink. The first stars glimmered high, autumn's chill was in the air, and there was no sign of either of the sisters' teammates.
Yang stood stock still in front of the dorm room's open window, leaning forward with her hands resting on the bookcase as she stared out at the horizon with empty eyes, willing the sun to pull itself back into the sky.
The truth was, she knew exactly why Weiss and Blake weren't answering - they hadn't brought their scrolls - a risk for sure, but necessary. Scrolls meant you could be tracked, and when your intended destination was off-limits, that wasn't an option.
The forced radio silence made waiting all the more unbearable. So unbearable in fact, that Yang hadn't moved from her spot at the window since the sun touched the horizon line ten minutes ago, even as her stomach growled loudly in protest.
She'd told herself she would wait until roughly dinner time for Weiss and Blake to return before going to look for them - technically the cafeteria had already opened, but Ruby wanted to wait for their partners so they could all eat together - but she never expected to actually have to go look for them.
Success or not, Blake and Weiss should have been back by now. Sure it would have taken them longer to search the forest with only two people, but not this long, and it was well past the set return time their initial plans had called for. They were supposed to leave whether they found the cloak or not. They were supposed to be here, right now, eating dinner with them.
Something had to have gone wrong.
The cold breeze blowing in through the window did nothing to cool the heat beginning to pour from the brawler as her hands clenched into fists. Yang was at an impasse. Every fiber of her being wanted to jump out the window before her and sprint to the forest of Forever Fall, but there was no way she would leave Ruby behind.
Even thought she was quite literally burning with the desire to find Weiss and Blake, she wasn't stupid. Going alone would be tantamount to suicide, and Yang refused to ever become yet another person that left Ruby and never returned. No, Ruby would have to come with her. But... that meant telling her what she'd done.
She was the one who suggested going to find Ruby's cloak. She was the one who had stupid nightmares and slept in. She was the one who didn't follow Weiss and Blake out there, leaving the two of them to deal with the forest's dangers on their own. If their partners never came back it would be her fault.
Yang's thoughts were spinning out of control and she knew it, but she was fed up with waiting. Earlier this morning she should have taken Ruby and gone after them immediately. Right then and there. What was she even thinking, just letting them go off like that. No, no more waiting, they needed to go find Weiss and Blake right now.
Taking a deep breath to steel herself, Yang turned to speak to Ruby. She faltered upon seeing her little sister's bright silver orbs already trained on her.
What if... they went and didn't find anything. Or worse, what if they did. What if they found pieces... red scattered amongst more red... Would Ruby ever look at her the same, knowing her big sister had knowingly left their partners to die on some hairbrained mission for a sentimental piece of cloth?
"Ruby..." Yang tore her eyes away from that warm, shining silver that she didn't deserve to look at, and locked her gaze back onto the horizon. "I think I messed up-" her voice hitched. "I messed up really bad."
Ruby flipped down off the bed, pocketing her scroll as she went to stand by Yang. All afternoon her big sis had been tense. Ruby had a feeling something was up, but, well, Yang had said not to worry, and she had dodged her questions about Blake and Weiss until now.
The young team leader stood next to her sister at the window, reaching to touch her sleeve, voice uncertain, "I'm sure they'll be fine, right? Where are they?"
The lock clicked, breaking the tension, and someone fumbled with the knob.
"Stupid, worthless, idiotic- I'm trying. You push it open-" Weiss and Blake shouldered their way past the heavy door. The heiress had an arm across the Faunus's shoulder, favoring her right leg.
They were streaked with dirt, their hair sprinkled with bits of distinctly colored leaves. Under Blake's free arm was a very, very familiar bundle of red cloth.
The Faunus stumbled forward slightly, pulled off balance by Weiss's weight. Thunderous stomping brought a pair of feet into her vision, and her eyes followed them upwards to find Yang standing before them, the perfect picture of fury, crimson eyes watering as they bored into her and Weiss.
Blake offered her partner a tired smile. "Sorry we're late."
For a moment it looked as though Yang would burst - whether in anger or tears, Blake wasn't certain - but the brawler vigorously rubbed an arm across her face, amethyst back in place when her eyes opened again. "Better late than never." She broke into a grin, reaching out to help support Weiss.
Grateful for the help from her far-less-exhausted partner, Blake left the bristling heiress in Yang's surprisingly gentle hold and stepped past them towards Ruby, using both hands to hold out their hard-won prize with that same tired smile.
"I believe this belongs to you."
Ruby received her cloak with both arms, staring at the mud-crusted tangle of cloth with almost reverence. She looked up at Blake, and then at Weiss, "How did you guys...?"
Weiss was too busy wrestling with Yang to answer.
"It's just a sprain, you don't need to lift me off the ground," the heiress snapped, clinging to the brawler's shoulder and shoving at the hand around her waist.
"Oh, but I do~!" Yang responded in a sing-song voice, sweeping the heiress off her feet into a bridal carry and laughing in sheer relief.
Blake quietly ignored the shrieks of protest coming from Weiss, keeping her focus on Ruby. "We could tell you've been missing it," she motioned to Ruby's cloak with a slight tilt of her head as she folded her arms behind her back, "so... we went on a little excursion." A splash of mud dropped from the cloak to the floor. "...Sorry it's a bit dirty."
Next second, Ruby was hugging Blake really, really hard. She hadn't let go of the cloak and her face was buried in the Faunus's collar, "Thank you-you guys are the best and you shouldn't've gone and you even got hurt and why didn't you bring us too but thank you so, so much."
Wrapping her arms around the younger girl and squeezing right back, albeit a bit more gently, Blake rested her chin atop Ruby's head and responded with a low rumbling purr.
"-so help me I'll punch you in your other eye, Yang Xiao Long- if you don't- if... if you- if-" Weiss hit the laughing brawler's shoulder with her fist one last time and quit, one arm almost around Yang's neck, one gripping her arm to keep from falling. She tossed her hair out of her face and heaved a frustrated sigh, glaring daggers up at the blonde. "I hate you. And if you drop me, I promise I will make the rest of your life miserable."
"Aw, Weiss, you know just what to say to make a girl feel loved." Smiling down at the very cause of her inability to wink, Yang wiggled her eyebrows as she set the mildly disgruntled heiress down on her perfectly made bunk, taking extreme care to be one-hundred-percent as gentle as possible. "Speaking of which, hey Ruby!" Yang stepped back and struck a pose, motioning to Weiss with open hands as though she were a work of art on display. "This one needs a hug too - she's looking a little gimpy."
Blake's purring stopped, replaced with calm words. "Don't worry too much," she turned her head just enough to show the corner of her mouth raised slightly in a smirk, "she just tripped on a rock."
"After stabbing a Nevermore in the eye," the indignant heiress swung her legs over the edge of the bed so she wouldn't get dirt from her boots on the covers, "Honestly, you make it sound like I was taking a stroll."
Ruby gave Blake one more squeeze and pulled away, pointing to her with both hands as she stepped over to Weiss, "Um, your hair still smells really good."
She took a second to sweep her cloak around her shoulders, fastening it on and dusting out some of the worst creases as the crimson fabric swirled at her knee level. Bits of bark and leaves and dirt scattered on the tile floor.
Weiss frowned, "You should really wash that before you wear it. You have no idea where it's been. There could be bugs in it, or some kind of..." her eyes were drawn up to Ruby's as the younger girl stood at the edge of the bed next to her, waiting. Weiss resigned herself to her fate, rolling her eyes and lifting her arms away from her sides a little. "... fine."
Ruby hugged her so hard she could barely breathe. Weiss looked everywhere except at her teammates and had no idea what to do with her arms.
Ruby ducked her head into the crook of Weiss's neck. "You're the best."
The heiress flushed and tried to scowl, "Just don't smell my hair. Seriously. That's weird."
Yang's mouth was already half open, grinning, partially assembled quips at the ready, flash-formed by an overexcited mind surging ahead for another round of teasing - but she halted upon feeling a cool hand gently grasp and squeeze her own. She glanced sideways to see Blake's calming amber eyes shining with a quiet request to leave their teammates be.
Just like that, the brawler laced their fingers together and relented, content to simply watch the rare display of affection unfolding before them with a toothy grin, matched only by the smirk on her partner's face beside her.
They'd certainly been through a lot since their initial field trip to Forever Fall. Grimm Rats and their monster leader, big enough to take out a sizeable chunk of Vale. Psychotropic pain medications. Toxins that twisted you into your worst nightmare…
Weiss let out a slow breath. Compared to all that, the minor spats and rampant (and incredibly incorrect) rumors of romance didn't bear mentioning.
Tomorrow, they'd start back at classes. Lectures, combat practice, chances to shadow huntsmen or huntresses. She relaxed into Ruby's embrace- just a little, and only because she was suddenly very tired.
"Is your leg okay?" Ruby asked.
"It's nothing. It'll be fine in the morning." The fencer glanced down at the twigs and... was that moss?... caught in her partner's hood. She noticed Yang and Blake's gazes and stiffened, hands moving to push Ruby away, even though she didn't actually push, "And I'm done now."
"Right," Ruby stepped back. Facing the others, she squared her shoulders and cleared her throat in a team-leader-ish sort of way, "So then, now that we're all together in one piece, I'm nominating Yang and myself as hunter-gatherers for the night- meaning we'll get dinner and bring it back here on the condition that everyone agrees not to go on crazy adventures without telling the rest of the team."
Blake had the decency to look somewhat sheepish. "I second that nomination," she said through a yawn as she allowed Yang to lightly push her over to Weiss's bed. Exhaustion hit her like a brick to the face the second she sat on the bed's soft surface, so she busied herself with picking leaves out of Weiss's hair, sleepily focusing on removing every speck of red marring the usually-flawless white to keep herself awake.
With one smooth sliding step, Yang moved to stand beside Ruby, hands on her hips. "I third the nomination. Majority wins," She threw an arm around her little sister's shoulders, holding back a grimace as the muddy fabric smeared her with grime, "So fellow fearless hunter-gatherer, what are we going to forage for our dearest partners?"
"Eel."
The brawler blinked at Blake's immediate response to a question that wasn't even directed at her, watching for a moment as the sleepy Faunus pulled leaves and bark and other debris from the hair of the surprisingly compliant heiress, dropping everything in a nice pile on the floor. "OK. And... if they don't have eel?"
"You know what I like," Blake smirked, tossing a leaf at Yang's feet, causing the brawler to break into her trademark grin.
"How about you, Weiss?" Ruby asked, covering her hand with her mouth and snickering at the sour look on the girl's face as Blake continued to pick things out of her hair.
"No tuna, no cookies," Weiss ordered, attention mostly on Blake. The... grooming... wasn't exactly a welcome gesture. In fact it was downright odd. The heiress was much too fatigued to start another argument, though, even about personal space. Plus… it wasn't entirely unpleasant. So, while Yang and Ruby cheered and raced each other for the door, Weiss settled for shooting Blake a look that was somewhere in the wide, uncertain territory between comradely gratitude and death threats and offered, "If you get me a comb, I'll do yours."
The edges of Blake's lips quirked upwards at the unexpectedly kind offer. "Sure." In seconds she was across the room and back, comb in hand, letting out a tired sigh as she sat back down beside Weiss and unraveled her bow, twisting and stretching her Faunus ears. With a sidelong glance and a smile she held the comb out for Weiss - a peace offering. "So, is this offer a human gesture of affection?"
"I refuse to dignify that with a response," Weiss snatched the comb, steeling herself. Dust, had she ever actually done anyone's hair before?
With Ruby and Yang off getting dinner, the dorm was quiet in the darkening evening. Weiss clicked on her bedside lamp and started working the tangles and leaves and whatnot out of Blake's dark hair, "Really, though, don't expect me to do this every time you roll through a thicket."
"I'll just have to enjoy this while I can, then," Blake replied evenly, the tail end of her sentence trailing into a contented purr.
Weiss focused on her task, working her way up to within six inches or so of her teammate's Faunus ears. She hesitated. Then she set the comb on the covers and got up, standing with most of her weight on her good leg, "There. You can do the rest."
Amber eyes glanced up at blue, waiting in silence for what felt like ages, expression carefully blank. "You... can touch them if you want," Blake finally said, flicking an ear in Weiss's direction.
"No, that's fine," Weiss said almost too quickly. Blake's joke about not making a mistake earlier burned hot in her memory. "Maybe I'll just go to sleep."
Blake regarded the heiress, staring without a word. Just as Weiss was about to speak again, she stood, offering a hand. "Let's at least get cleaned up first."
Weiss drew back from Blake's touch, steadying herself on Ruby's bunk, her shoulders square, "Look, Blake, I don't understand why you're being so touchy-feely all of a sudden, but I'm really exhausted and I need to do laundry again anyway, so..."
"Touchy-feely?" Blake's eyebrows disappeared behind her disheveled bangs. "I'm just... trying to..." her words slowed to a stop as she took in Weiss's patented scowl.
A cactus. Weiss was an actual real life human cactus. "So, let me get this straight," she sat back down and started again, retreating into the safety of logic as she often did, "You're limping, and exhausted, and apparently need to do laundry... And you want me to let you hobble around by yourself."
"I wasn't going to do laundry now," Weiss snapped. She studied the wood grain pattern in the bedframe beneath her fingertips to avoid looking at Blake, who remained inconveniently situated on her covers, "I was going to sleep and simply wash the sheets tomorrow with the rest of my things, so if you wouldn't mind getting off my bed…"
The two held a brief staring match, each waiting for the other to make a move, until finally Blake shook her head, quietly muttering to herself, "cactus..." She stood and crossed her arms, "OK... do you need help changing? Or would you like to hobble around on one leg for that too?"
Weiss's hackles rose at this offer. Assistance crossing the room was one thing; aid undressing was something else entirely. Was Blake trying to make her uncomfortable? The heiress reseated herself on the edge of her now unoccupied bed, unzipping and shedding her boots. She set her hair ornament carefully on the bookshelf. "I honestly can't tell if you're being serious or completely insufferable."
Blake rolled her eyes. "Says the queen of insufferableness herself." Perfectly brushed raven locks slipped forward as the taller girl leaned towards Weiss, as if to purposely invade her personal space. "Maybe you'll be less grouchy after a good sleep," she wondered aloud, eyes curiously examining her prickly mystery of a teammate.
"Excuse me?" Weiss bristled, glaring, sitting ramrod straight as Blake leaned in, "I don't see how turning down an offer for help undressing justifies you calling me names."
"...Fair enough," the last vestiges of sunlight disappearing over the horizon cast shadows across Blake's face as she straightened back up. "But I don't see why simply offering you help justifies so much animosity in return," her gaze dropped to the floor, brows furrowed a fraction of an inch. "At this point, I feel like I could offer to help you across the room, or offer to break your legs, and I would get the same response."
"That's not true," Weiss looked down at her hands and closed them into fists. "Could we maybe not talk about this right now? It's been a long... however long it's been since that field trip, and I'd rather not-" she stalled, frustrated. One part of her wished Ruby and Yang would get back so she could try to brush this off, or that Blake would leave so she could sleep. The other, larger part knew she should try to address this. So she tucked a loose strand of hair back over her ear, "I mean, I... appreciate you half-carrying me back here. Just... being in close-quarters isn't really my thing."
Silence filled the space between them as Blake quietly regarded Weiss, intrigued at having gotten both an expression of thanks and a straight answer all at once. It was nice to know that the heiress's aversion to touch was simply a personal preference, rather than a subtle means of declaring spite. Honestly, if she had just said as much right from the start...
Blake's head tilted to the side as her posture loosened up. "Then... Yeah, you should take it easy. Relax," she finally said with a smile, "If you push yourself too hard, you could make things worse," the smile became a smirk, "maybe end up in the care of our dear fearless hunter-gatherers."
"Oh fate worse than death," Weiss grumbled to herself, relieved that Blake seemed to understand. Or was at least pretending to understand enough to drop it. "But really, it's only a sprain. My aura is more than capable of taking care of it by morning." She shifted to the other side of her bed, closer to her dresser, and glanced back, "So, if you wouldn't mind turning around, I'm going to get changed."
"Consider me gone," Blake lifted her hands in surrender as she turned on her heel and retreated to her own bunk, stopping briefly to grab the neatly folded pile of nightclothes at the foot of her bed. "But if you're not going to get cleaned up, then I am," she said lightly as she shuffled over to the bathroom door where she paused.
So Weiss didn't like to be touched. How could she have missed picking up on something so simple? The more she thought about it, the more Weiss's reactions made sense with this new piece of knowledge in hand, and Blake suddenly felt rather terrible about having teased the heiress so relentlessly.
"Sorry I didn't figure it out sooner..." she spoke out of nowhere, seemingly to the door, "I thought..." her voice trailed off as she searched for the right words. Nothing came to mind. "I don't know what I thought," she sighed, glancing back at Weiss.
Weiss regarded her from the edge of her bunk, undoing the clasp of her necklace and pulling it free of her hair, "... what are you talking about?"
"I, uh," Blake faltered, turning sideways to better meet the questioning gaze being aimed her way. The desire to escape, to duck into the bathroom flashed through her mind, but she stopped herself. She was done running. Determined to clear the air once and for all, Blake heaved a great sigh and redoubled her efforts to put her thoughts into some sort of cohesive order.
"I always thought... you were giving me mixed signals," she started slowly, working things through in her head even as she spoke. "Every now and then you would do something pretty nice," a smile briefly crossed her face at the memory of those incredibly thoughtful tuna sandwiches before falling back into a frown, "but then you would turn right around and push me away again." Blake's eyes retreated to the floor, "like you wanted nothing to do with me. Or... like you just tolerated me for the sake of the team."
Her words were coming more easily now, but she didn't like where they were headed - how they pulled her back down into doubt. "I know you're not overly friendly with anyone, but," Blake loosely folded her arms around her middle, "I've also never seen you fight with anyone. Not like we've fought."
Weiss sat still, searching her teammate's shadowed face while she processed what she was saying. This was a huge deviation from the reserved and moody Blake she was familiar with. Maybe she was tired? That must have been it. At least, Weiss was tired- much too tired for earnest heart-to-hearts. She rubbed her temple, "So you're worried that I hate you? Pardon me for asking, but why do you even care?" she added, "I don't. Hate you, I mean."
Blake's ears flattened as she stared openly at Weiss, finding herself at a complete loss. More mixed signals - nothing but mixed signals. "Do you... do you even hear yourself?"
"Yyyyes?" Weiss dropped her hand, brushing dirt off of her combat skirt, her frown deepening when she saw Blake's ears, "I said that I don't hate you. I'm not just tolerating you for the sake of the team. In fact, I have a lot of respect for you as a huntress in training and as a teammate, but I don't see why my opinion is suddenly so important," she rubbed her arm, her self-assurance slipping a fraction of an inch, "I wasn't... I'm not trying to push you away."
A muffled groan slipped past Blake's lips as she pressed her hands to her face, as though she were physically trying to hold frustration at bay. "Then, what are you trying to do?"
"Well, what are you trying to do?" Weiss glared, her guard snapping back up.
Slowly, Blake's hands lowered, tired amber peeking through her fingertips. "I'm... trying to understand you."
Weiss had many goals, some large, some small. She wanted to become a huntress. To bring honor back to her family name. To be perfect- or at least the best if perfection continued to elude her. (She knew it would.)
Her smaller, more immediate goals were more pressing. Getting good grades. Maintaining her status. Being a good teammate.
And there was the rub: being a good teammate. How was one supposed to accomplish this, exactly? You had to take care of your partner. Partners. Work with them. Look after them. Weiss knew she was more than capable providing support on the battlefield, but when it came to everyday scuffs and troubles...?
She pulled both legs up onto the mattress so she could turn to face Blake better but wound up scowling down at her bedcovers, "Look, I'm just… not very good at this."
Blake's ears perked at the heiress's sudden shift in tone, eyes widening at the dejected posture she now displayed. It was rare for the prickly heiress to open up like this, and vague though her statement was, Blake felt she knew what Weiss was trying to say.
"...Neither am I," she admitted, as much to herself as to the downtrodden heiress currently trying to glare a hole through her sheets. Her hands relaxed, the nightclothes in her grip losing their nicely-folded shape as her arms dropped to her sides. "I guess… we'll just have to figure things out together as we go."
Weiss glanced up, her scowl fading. In the light of her bedside lamp, she could see the start of Blake's uncertain smile. If she was so intent on figuring things out...well... maybe things would be easier. Maybe not. Weiss wasn't exactly the champion of tactful relations, and she still wasn't quite sure where she stood with the Faunus girl, but she wasn't opposed to at least attempting to be... nicer. Her mouth quirked up at one edge. Just a little, and only for a second. She hid it by busying herself with brushing her hair back over her shoulder. "I suppose we will."
At that moment, the lock clicked and the hall door burst open admitting- Nora Valkyrie?
"Hello!" Nora sang out flinging her arms up. She stopped short just inside the door, "Whoa. Heavy atmosphere. Are we interrupting something?"
The hammer wielder toppled sideways as the rest of the crew shoved their way in. Ruby, Yang, Pyrrha, Ren, and even Jaune, all loaded with plates and bowls and cups, all laughing or chatting or just plain trying not to drop stuff.
"We're back!" Ruby announced, zipping to Weiss's bedside in a flurry of red cape and rose petals, balancing three bowls along one arm, "Here, take one quick. It's cold. It's cold!"
She had bowls of ice cream loaded with strawberries and blueberries. Weiss took one disgusted look, "Ruby, I can't eat ice cream for dinner."
"There's also spaghetti," her partner said matter-of-factly.
In the doorway, Jaune fumbled one of the plates. Its contents spilled onto the floor with a disheartening splop of noodles and marinara sauce.
"Aw, man," he whined, juggling the other four.
Ren maneuvered around Pyrrha's mad dash to help Jaune, setting his stack of cups filled with silverware on one of the desks before helping Nora back to her feet.
Yang stormed past them all. "They. Had. EEL!" she exclaimed, triumphantly strutting over to Blake and proudly presenting her with a very dead, very slimy eel.
"It's... raw," Blake smiled up at her overly-happy partner. "Are you trying to kill me?"
"Wh- Huh? But you eat fish like this all the time! Sushi, right?"
"Raw eel is poisonous," Ren supplied from across the room as he brushed dust from the floor off of Nora.
Yang whirled around, clearly distraught. "What?! Aw, man, OK then - Nora!" she braced herself, "PUNCH ME."
"What? Okay!" Nora turned from Ren, a huge grin plastered to her face as she cocked her fist and launched herself at Yang's face. "TAKE THIS!"
Ruby yelped as Weiss thrust her out of the way with one arm, "No! Not in the-"
Yang's head snapped sideways with the force of the blow. Yes, she had chosen well, Nora was strong, and that strength now flowed through her. Heat exploded through the room as the brawler erupted into flames, carrying with it the pleasant scent of sizzling eel. Yang threw her partner a smile bright as sunshine, "Don't worry, Blake, I'll have this cooked for you in no time!"
Blake stared, blinked away her shock, then stifled a laugh as she tossed her nightclothes back onto her bed. She reached through Yang's flames to take the eel straight from her partner's burning hands. "You're supposed to cook it over the flames, not in them. Sit down."
"Yeah? All right, then!" Yang dropped to sit cross-legged on the floor, grinning as Blake held the eel over her head - the world's most cheerful human campfire, willfully oblivious to the curious stares coming from her classmates.
"Uh... so did I mention we thought it'd be fun if everyone just came and had dinner in here?" Ruby sat up from the floor with a sheepish grin, cape askew. She was still somehow balancing the bowls of ice cream.
Insane. Completely insane. Weiss slid so she was face-down on the mattress, grumbling into the blankets, "... you're all hazards to my health."
Ruby scooted a bowl of vanilla up on the bed next to her partner. Weiss picked one of the blueberries off and ate it without lifting her head.
Jaune, relieved of his burden of plates which were all laid out in a row on Blake's desk by the door, picked up one of Ren's cups of silverware, "So, anybody need a fork?"
"Ooh! Ooh! Me!" Nora raised her hand and grabbed for one, using it to spear the marshmallow she seemingly produced from thin air. She held it over Yang's flames, "We should have campfires indoors more often."
"This is rather convenient," Ren sat beside his partner, pulling an entire bag of marshmallows from one of his sleeves and offering a few to Jaune.
Pyrrha took one of the plates of spaghetti and brought it over to Weiss, winking at Ruby as she placed the plate beside the icecream and kneeled down to better speak to the prone heiress. "Sorry for the intrusion, Weiss. Would you come join us?" she motioned over to the rest of her team and Blake gathered around the blazing brawler, who was animatedly showing off her half-healed black eye, obtained courtesy of the very heiress that was now eyeing her from her position on the bed.
A number of responses to Pyrrha's invitation flitted through Weiss's mind: 'No' was one. 'I'm quite close enough, thank you' was another. Honestly, Yang was on fire, did she really need to be any nearer?
Ruby, still in high cheer, seized her partner's moment of hesitation, taking one of Weiss's arms over her shoulder and literally dragging her off the bed.
"Ouch!" Weiss shrieked, "You dunce, what are you doing?!"
"I'm helping!" Ruby said and took most of Weiss's weight as the heiress caught her balance on her good leg. "C'mon, it's like five steps and we can cook marshmallows."
"Ruby. I don't even like-" Weiss stopped mid-protest. Not liking marshmallows wasn't really the point of this, after all. Ruby had checked at her rebuke, visibly uncertain of whether she'd made an error in hauling her partner off of her bed to join in the fun. Weiss was inclined to yell, or snap, but... she remembered the back room of the library, and the talk she'd just had with Blake.
Maybe... maybe this one time she could allow herself to be included. She took a deep breath, her words coming slow with her effort to be less abrasive. "Alright. But don't drag me around. Please. And could you get me a chair?"
Ruby brightened, "Will do," and called, "Jaune, can you grab us a chair?"
"Huh? Sure!" Jaune said around a mouthful of marshmallow and lifted a chair from Blake's desk over everyone's head to a clear spot on the floor. Weiss, assisted by Ruby, dropped into it just in time to catch the tail end of Yang's story.
Everyone was well, and happy. They'd jumped at the chance to celebrate the return of Ruby's cloak. Yang burned brighter than ever, fueled by the energy around her, but also her partner's quiet smile. Ruby braced on the back of Weiss's chair, grinning like a little kid at Jaune who had apparently inhaled a mashrmallow, coughing and hacking as Pyrrha pounded on his back. Lie Ren remained undisturbed, his coat patched in the place above his heart where Nora was leaning her head as she laughed.
On the road to recovery, they'd all come a long way. At least, they'd gotten back to where they'd been before the whole Grimm Rats set-back.
Weiss surveyed her team one last time- Yang practically poking Blake's eye out with her wild gestures, and Ruby laughing so hard she'd doubled over with her head almost on Weiss's shoulder. She tried to stifle her own laugh, but couldn't.
So, well, maybe they'd come a little way further.
A/N: I'm at a loss for words, in the good way, so HUGS TO EVERYONE.
And Fiercesomest and I... We'll be around~
More Hugs,
Defenestrator.