"So, where are you going for the winter break?" Blake asked Weiss as the two of them slowly made their way back to the dorms from their lockers in the gym. The last two items for their trip on their back and hip respectively.
"Hm? Oh, this time I'm staying here. My father will be in Vale on business so I'll have a chance to speak to him and my mother some time in the next couple of days." Weiss responded robotically, her thoughts obviously on something else.
"Will you be staying in Vale the whole time?" Blake asked, breaking Weiss out of her thoughts. It was odd for Blake to be talkative, but someone more mature to talk to was somewhat grounding to Weiss as she needed to get used to talking formally once again.
"It will only take me two days at the most to take care of what I need to, so I would be able to come back to the dorms early. What did you have in mind?" Weiss asked.
"Well, I've been invited to Ruby and Yang's house since I had nowhere to go." Blake said before pausing.
"In other words, I'd have the dorm to myself." Weiss sighed. Sure she liked the quiet, but she wasn't looking forward to being completely alone. That time of her life was one she'd rather not return to.
"Actually, that's why Ruby asked me to talk to you." Blake said as she pushed open a door and held it for Weiss.
"Ruby did? Why couldn't she talk to me herself?" Weiss asked.
"I believe it was something along the lines of, and quote, I don't want her to change her plans just because I invited her because she probably has more important stuff to do than hang out with me." Blake said monotonously. "But regardless you're invited to Ruby and Yang's house in patch if you want to go."
"If I…" Weiss slowed her pace as Blake pushed the door to the dorm open.
"Hey Blake!" Yang shouted almost immediately. "Sit on top of this case for me, kay?"
"Sure. But you really shouldn't pack so much." Blake responded before sitting down on top of Yang's suitcase allowing her to force it shut.
"Done!" Yang exaggerated wiping sweat from her brow before noticing Weiss was standing in the open door and staring off into the distance out the rooms window. "Hey Ice Queen! Whatcha doing?"
"Huh?" Weiss snapped her head around to Yang, looking her in the face and mentally sighing as she realized she wasn't in trouble. "Sorry, I was just thinking."
"Been doing a lot of that lately. Anything we should be worried about?" Yang asked. Her tone sounded worried and caring. Two things Weiss didn't yet associate with the blond brawler.
"No…" Weiss responded before glancing around. "Where is Ruby?"
"She's-" Yang was interrupted by a loud bang behind Weiss.
"Your team leader has returned!" Ruby shouted in a triumphant voice, two large boxes in her hands. "Bearing gifts crafted by the finest in the land in order to uh-sewage your hunger!"
She placed the boxes down and lifted the lid of the top one to show an assortment of pastries. Yang immediately grabbed two and started eating as she moved her suitcase to sit beside the large bag that had been packed the previous day.
"I think you meant assuage." Blake told Ruby who blushed as Blake turned away and sat back on her bed, once again opening her book.
"That's our kitty!" Yang joked as she jumped up on her own bunk. "Not a word in existence she doesn't know!"
"Stop Yang." Blake said. A small smile appearing on her lips behind the book she raised further to hide her reaction.
"Speaking of words… Ruby can you spare me a few minutes?" Weiss asked, placing her weapon down on her bed.
"Always!" Ruby chirped, reopening the door and turning back to her team. "Oh! And the second box is dust. So don't eat it, Yang!"
"Damn it! That was one time!" Yang shouted, bolting up to a sitting position in her bed. "And I was eight!"
"I never ate dust, ever. Your point?" Ruby asked with a laugh.
"Shut up." Yang grumbled as she turned to the wall and collapsed back to her pillows.
Ruby led Weiss out of the dorm and down the hall at a leisurely pace. Soon they found themselves on the roof looking out over the long path to the airship docks and the cliff.
"So what's up?" Ruby asked, noticing Weiss had been oddly quiet and unfocused.
"I…" Weiss trailed off into mumbling.
"I have no idea what you just said." Ruby said worriedly. "What's wrong?"
Weiss took a deep breath to focus her mind and nerves.
"I…" She started again and paused before continuing in a much quieter voice. "Need your help."
"See, not so hard, right?" Ruby took Weiss's hand in her own. "Just let me know what it is and I'll try my best, okay?"
"Thanks… but I don't want to ruin your plans for the break." Weiss said, squeezing Ruby's hand slightly to add emphasis to her words.
"Weiss, my break is literally going home, sleeping, and relaxing before I come back. There's nothing I have planned… well, unless someone special came to spend the break with me?" Ruby blushed as she hinted at the invitation she'd given Weiss through Blake.
"If that's the case, may I ask a favour of you?" Weiss asked nervously.
"Sure!" Ruby chirped, happy to have Weiss relying on her rather than the typical inverse. "Whatever it is consider it done!"
"Don't say yes until you know what I'm going to ask!" Weiss reprimanded Ruby. After a moment of silence, she continued. "It's so cold out today…"
"Yeah. Not the warmest." Ruby let go of Weiss's hand and instead wrapped her in a hug with one of her arms trailing her cloak so Weiss wouldn't freeze.
"Thanks…" Weiss pushed Ruby away slightly and was trapped by the enchanting silver eyes that swirled with energy and optimism. "About the favour… would you accompany me when I inform my parents of our relationship?"
"Uh…" Ruby blanked. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"
"No… but I don't have a better one." Weiss sighed, resting her forehead against Ruby's shoulder in her exhaustion. "Either way there's a list of things that can go wrong."
"Hey, nothing's going to go wrong. Like you said before, they'd rather hear it from you than the media." Ruby said optimistically.
"You've never heard of Murphy's law, have you?" Weiss sighed as she felt Ruby still for a moment, giving her the answer. "It says that if something can go wrong, it will. And it will happen at the worst possible time."
"That sounds… really pessimistic." Ruby said with a laugh. "I'm sure it'll be fine. Plus, it'll be good practice!"
"Wha- practice?" Weiss snapped her head back up to look at Ruby.
"Yeah, we're being trained to be adaptive to the situations we're placed in. The way I see it, there's only one question to ask: do you want to date me more than your father wants you not to?" Ruby asked gently and quietly.
Weiss was once again surprised by Ruby's clear perception of the situation and thought hard about Ruby's question. There was absolutely no doubt that her father would want nothing less than to have his daughter revealed to be a lesbian, but she knew that somewhere deep down he cared about her happiness. Just maybe that would help when he met Ruby.
"Yes. I want to date you. So much more than even you probably know." Weiss responded quietly, enveloped in the moment.
"Can you show me then?" Ruby asked as a blush came up on her smiling face.
Weiss didn't need to be asked twice. She leaned forward and closed the space between them. Their lips met tenderly at first, tentatively feeling out the others rhythm. Ruby's lips were like soft feathers as they ghosted across Weiss's repeatedly, small pecks that stirred an ache in Weiss that she immediately moved to remedy.
Weiss tasted Ruby's lips and her cherry lip balm. Ruby let out a soft moan as she opened her lips and met Weiss's tongue with her own. Weiss moved closer, pulled Ruby tighter in her embrace as she closed the space between their lips, their tongues dancing together in perfect harmony.
This time Weiss felt herself moan as Ruby captured her tongue and gently sucked while still twirling hers around it. Weiss broke the kiss only to take a breath before returning to their previous position, surprising Ruby in the process.
Some seconds or hours passed as they explored each others mouths, tongues dancing quickly, then lazily as they both slowly became accustomed to each others wordless communication, their hands forgotten in their embrace until Weiss felt her hand roam over the clasp of Ruby's bra beneath her rather thin shirt. At the same time she realized Ruby's hand was gently resting just under the bottom hem of her shirt, keeping them pressed tightly together.
Weiss gasped as she broke the kiss and buried her face in Ruby's shoulder.
"I'm sorry…" Weiss breathed not exactly sure what she was sorry for. She was sorry that she had made a move on Ruby without her consent, that they were in a public place, or that she stopped Ruby from going farther, or all those mixed up together. Regardless, she felt terrible. "I'm so sorry…"
"Hey… there's nothing to be sorry for…" Ruby breathed as she continued to monitor her breathing as it returned to normal. After a brief pause a thought occurred to her. "So how are we going to do this?"
"Well, the first few days of the break is our window to talk to my father here in Vale, otherwise we have to go all the way out to Vacuo." Weiss responded, moving out of their embrace but taking Ruby's hand as she did so. She looked out over the expanse of growing darkness that fell over the distant forests, her expression pensive as she thought. "Provided my worst case scenario doesn't play out… you can go back to visit your family for the rest of the break."
"That sounds good, but what would you do?" Ruby asked, noticing Weiss's word choice in the last part of the sentence.
"I could go back to the dorms, or my parents own a penthouse in Vale I could stay at." Weiss said. "I don't really want to be alone though, so I'll probably end up back at the dorms…"
"W-well, if that's what you want to do…" Ruby mumbled, moving closer to Weiss. "But if you felt up to it… you could come to my place. We have more than enough space and Blake will be coming. And we could do stuff together since we don't have to study for anything."
"Is that an invitation to stay at your house for the remaining part of the break?" Weiss asked, keeping her voice from betraying her true emotions.
"Yeah, I mean… if you'd rather do other stuff, I get it. But I'd really really like it if you came." Ruby said nervously.
Weiss cracked a smile to let Ruby know she shouldn't be nervous. "Would your family be there?"
"Yeah, my uncle is supposed to visit on the last day since he'll be coming back from a hunt then." Ruby said. "And Yang will be there obviously, and my Dad will be there, but he's on call for work so he'll probably be in and out the whole time. Will you come?"
"I'll come." Weiss said, answering with Ruby's words. "Because you are the first person to ever invite me somewhere in such a convoluted manner."
"I wasn't twitching…" Ruby blanked at Weiss's vocabulary causing her to giggle.
"I'll show you the definition of that word later." Weiss said after she'd stopped her giggles. "Thanks for inviting me to your house, Ruby. It honestly means a lot to me."
This time it was Ruby's turn to giggle. "You're so cute right now I just can't bear it anymore!"
"Hey!" Weiss huffed in embarrassment at Ruby's statement.
"So cute!" Ruby continued giggling as Weiss stomped back to the door to the school. The only indication of her lack of anger being the gentle grip she maintained on Ruby's hand.