"Huh?" Weiss snapped awake, the ceiling above her barely illuminated with the light of the early dawn. She stared up at it as she took in the sounds around her. Ruby's breath was still slowly alternating as she remained asleep and the ventilation hummed almost inaudibly as it pushed freshly heated air into the suite.

The ceiling flashed brighter for a second just before a quiet rattling sounded beside her head. Weiss reached blindly, not wanting to move lest she accidentally wake Ruby from the movement. Her fingers found her scroll and brought it to her face.

There was a single missed voice-mail with the time-stamp reading only a minute prior to the time in the top corner.

Odd… who would leave a voice-mail at this time? Weiss wondered as she turned the speaker volume to its lowest setting and loaded the message.

"Weiss." Her sister's voice sounded fake, as if she was putting on an act while leaving the message. "As of now, you are officially engaged to Mr. Bruce Noar. The wedding will take place on January the twenty first. You will be collected for the ceremony and will not be returning to Beacon afterward. Have a nice day."

Weiss was frozen. Her phone was silent against her ear, the usual end of the message evidently not reached. She cursed her father over and over as she wondered why it was her that had to take over the company when her sister was more than capable. But that was the problem. Even though she was capable, she couldn't produce an heir. It was the only reason she'd been bumped to the side in favor of her younger sibling. And Weiss hated it.

"I'm so sorry, Weiss…" Winter's voice continued in a whisper as if she was being careful not to be overheard. "I'll… send a copy of the contract when I can… you know what to do…. Good luck little duck."

The phone beeped and Weiss hung the phone up before it started to recite the automated mailbox options. She couldn't decide if she liked her sister at the moment. On one hand, if she hadn't gone to a college party with her friends, she wouldn't have been in the accident that almost killed her and she would have remained the heiress to the family company. But now she'd basically done the only thing that could help Weiss get out of the arranged marriage. She'd promised to give her access to the contract.

Weiss stared at the ceiling, thinking about the massive amount of work that had just been dumped on her shoulders. Maybe in another time before she'd met Ruby, she would have let it slide and just followed what her parents told her to do as she had always done. But now, she knew she'd be spending every waking moment going through what undoubtedly was a very, very long contract. The only comforting thought about the entire ordeal was how skilled she was at contract work.

Winter and a group of her college friends had once given her the nickname of Contract Killer when she'd gotten her father's company out of a business deal gone sour. That contract had been eight thousand pages long and had clauses for almost everything. Yet it only took two and a half days for Weiss to locate the lone loophole that allowed a clean exit by only looking over the shoulders of her sisters group. And she had found it after looping through the most insignificant section of the agreement twelve times, effectively nullifying it and creating a hole large enough for the official company lawyers to use in court.

Weiss noticed the first rays of the sun come out from behind the neighboring building and the whole suite suddenly started growing lighter as the light grew, flooding in the clear glass that surrounded the place.

"Ugh… turn off the light." Ruby grumbled while nuzzling her face into the blanket and curling up into a ball beside Weiss, her arms still firmly wrapped around her waist.

"That's the sun, Ruby." Weiss whispered, not really caring whether or not they got up just yet. It's not like she had the contract to work on at the moment.

"Turn it off." Ruby moaned. She shifted again and readjusted herself so one hand slipped under Weiss's nightshirt.

"Ruby!" Weiss jumped at the sudden contact. She went to grab Ruby's wrist and remove her hand but realized Ruby was giggling. She waited for a moment, realizing how quickly she'd gotten used to the unusual contact on her stomach. Ruby's warm hand felt comforting and Weiss felt the inclination to remove it leave her. After another moment she relaxed. "As much as I enjoy cuddling with you, we should get going. I don't really want to stay here much longer."

"Is there a problem? You seem tense." Ruby said, straightening out so she was still cuddled with Weiss but able to look up at her face at the same time.

"Yes, but its nothing to worry about right now." Weiss said shortly. "What I want to worry about now is what we're going to do with a whole day to ourselves."

Ruby smiled softly and curled up slightly while wrapping her leg over Weiss's. "Can we maybe just stay in bed for another few hours?"

"And miss all the trouble you could get us into?" Weiss mocked shock, making Ruby laugh. "I don't want to, but I suppose I could be convinced…"

Ruby took the bait and started peppering tiny kisses over Weiss's neck, her warm breath tickling the heiress as she moved. Several minutes and light moans later, Ruby decided to stop. "How was that? Persuasive enough for you?"

"Um… s-sure…" Weiss stuttered as she battled the part of her that wanted nothing more than to pin Ruby to the bed and do things that would be wildly inappropriate for their newly established relationship. Ruby settled back to her spot and Weiss calmed down. The feel of Ruby's warmth as she slowly breathed in and out while pressed against her side was almost too comforting to be real, letting the stress that had come with her sister's call sink away into the rays of the new day. As she relaxed, Weiss couldn't help but fall back to sleep. The fatigue from being waken prematurely overcoming her desire to leave the lavish penthouse.

Author's Note:

First off, thanks for reading! I'd like to thank every one of you that has followed and favourited this, you've made this my most popular story yet.

Now news...

For those looking for when I'll update, and what, I keep an update schedule on my profile. I normally post a date somewhere between 1-2 weeks ahead of the chapter release. I also make note of what I'm working on next so you know what my next update will be if I don't have an exact date.

I am releasing this chapter and the next one this week. Provided I keep up the current writing pace, I should be able to push out another two next week and the week after as well. I have a rough idea of where I'm taking this story, and I'm (pleased/disappointed [pick whichever you like]) to announce that the ending of this story is in sight (Use binoculars, its there. Trust me.). I never really imagined it would go this far (considering it started as a one-shot version of chapter 24) and get so much support. But it did and it has, so one final time until the next chapter: thank you for reading.