Weiss awoke from one of the most peaceful slumbers she had had in a long time. She already had gotten used to the tilt Ruby's bed was in since she had attached it to the ceiling of their shared dorm room. "Why didn't we ever order actual bunk beds?" the heiress mumbled to herself, still half asleep as she slipped out of the bed and let herself down to the floor, carefully this time. It was a beautiful Saturday morning, which meant no lectures for the day, and the teams RWBY and JNPR had planned a shopping tour through Vale Central Mall. With Ruby's Birthday now just a week away, the heiress was bound to get her a fitting present. With a little bit of observation and some extra help of Blake Weiss found just the thing: The newest installment of the 'Souls' book series by the name of 'Lost Souls'. However, Jaune – of all people – had suggested the addition of a personal touch to the present, like a ribbon or something along those lines, which Weiss actually deemed not a good, but a great idea. A mere ribbon did not suffice the heiress' standards, of course, but she already had something else in mind. But first things first: Her shower was in order, followed by the remaining preparations for the day. The shower itself went by more quickly than usual, and Weiss started to imagine Ruby's possible reactions to her gift in particular.
Would it be one of her cute squeals of joy, followed by a rushed invasion of the heiress' personal space for a hug of gratitude?
Would it be a more reserved 'thank you', since Weiss was not expected to give much thought to things like these?
Would it be disappointment for the lack of creativity by the heiress, even? It was quite obvious to all of her friends that Ruby was a fan of that book series.
Weiss concluded that her first thought would most likely be Ruby's reaction. Although she still was not used to being touched without being asked beforehand, the heiress did not mind the thought of it. In fact, she played different scenarios in her head in order to conclude the best course of action – or reaction in that regard – when it happened. Returning the hug seemed off to her at first, because nobody would be expecting it. On the other hand, Ruby and Weiss had gotten along very well the last couple of days. Scolding the little rose for another assault on her personal space was off the table for Weiss, since she knew Ruby meant well. No, the heiress was certain that she was going to let the hug happen, and started preparing words for her answer, when it would happen. Praise for her first duel after the incident, although she lost to Blake, would definitely be in order, while the heiress would be at it. And while everyone was glad Ruby recovered rather quickly – Pyrrha would be back in shape in time for Ruby's birthday party – the heiress herself was just glad that her failure leading up to Ruby's condition in the first place had been reduced to just a minor detail. To put it in Yang's words: "Yo, princess! What's the hold up?"
Wait a minute… That isn't, what she said, Weiss thought to herself, and looked at the alarm clock inside the bathroom in confusion. She had been in here for one hour, thinking about Ruby and herself for the last forty minutes, at least brushing her hair absent mindedly while doing so.
"Oh, ehm… Sorry, thinking again," she then replied loudly, and rushed her finishing touches to her hair, tiara, and combat skirt before leaving the bathroom she had been blocking hastily. Yes, Weiss had been thinking much lately, drifting away almost every time – even during classes. She had reassured her friends time and time again that she was alright. However, she was just lost in her thoughts again when Blake decided to be next in the bathroom. While Yang just followed her lover with her eyes as Blake started to undress before she actually had entered the bathroom, let alone closed the door Weiss just stood there, and thought about the metaphorical cherry on top of Ruby's gift. Blake did close the door after winking at Yang. "She's teasing me again…" the blonde groaned. Weiss could feel her face getting warm at the thought of that certain tension building up between the two lovers; it had been going like that for two days now, and it started to annoy Weiss, whose trail of thought had been interrupted again.
"How?" Ruby asked suddenly, "She didn't do anything mean, did she?"
Oh, innocent Ruby… Weiss thought to herself and managed to keep her snicker in check.
"Y-you're awake, Ruby," Yang pretended to just have realized – badly. But before Yang could come up with some sort of excuse, Ruby seemed to have an epiphany, as her beautiful silver eyes widened.
"Oh, THAT stuff… Eww…" Ruby simply grumbled to herself, and sat down on Weiss' bed in order to inspect the scar on her right leg, after taking off her pajama pants of course. While Yang prepared her clothes for the day, Weiss could not help but to look at Ruby's leg as well. The scar was not as distinctive as the heiress had feared, although it went from the middle of Ruby's thigh to her ankle; it was just an almost white line running down the leg. Weiss' field of view included the black underwear of her partner, adorned with dark red laces around her thighs and ornamental seams at the front side of the panty, covering her- WHAT are you doing?! Weiss snapped at herself internally, and took a seat at her desk hastily. Her face was even warmer than in the moment Blake had teased Yang, and her stomach tingled for an unknown reason. From her desk, the heiress looked at Yang and Ruby, who luckily did not realize what she had been looking at – she hoped. Weiss took a deep, somewhat nervous breath. What was that? You are supposed to care about her well being, not her taste in lingerie. Why does she even wear something like that in the first place, and why do I even bother?! Again, Weiss was confused. It was a good looking piece of lingerie, and there was no doubt that it suited Ruby well, but why? Why was- "Weiss?"
Startled by Ruby's voice, the heiress shook her head, and hopefully all those inappropriate thoughts out of it, before looking at her partner.
"Y-yes?" she replied, surprised by the fact that Ruby stood right in front of her, wearing just her usual tank top with the cute red teddy bear print on the front, right in the middle of her chest, and the panty Weiss had been looking at way too long.
"You're drifting away again," the little rose said concerned, "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine. I… I just felt bad again for what happened…" Weiss admitted, although it was partly an excuse. She tended to fall back into the feeling of guilt, despite the fact that everyone, especially the sisters, had acknowledged the events as an accident; it happened mainly when Ruby's leg hurt.
"Okay," the little rose simply said, and put a hand on the heiress' left shoulder. "There's no need to," Ruby then added with a smile so beautiful, the heiress actually smiled herself. Then Ruby suddenly yelled: "My turn!" She then stormed into the bathroom, after Blake had reemerged from it, leaving Yang and Blake some time to exchange caresses.
The rest of the morning routine went on without further disturbances, and after having breakfast together, all eight friends went to the landing pads, and used a shuttle to go to the City of Vale. Jaune's motion sickness had gotten the better of him, and Weiss actually pitied him, while he was fighting his own body in order to keep the little breakfast he had inside his intestines. She even joined Pyrrha in patting his back for comfort, before he eventually regained his composure. The heiress then took over supporting Pyrrha with her crutches, so that Jaune would have some additional time to calm himself again. The Spartan insisted on using those supports instead of a wheelchair for reasons Weiss could only associate with pride, but neither of them got into detail about these things on their way to Vale Central Mall, while Nora talked, and Ren listened, Blake and Yang had a chat of their own, Jaune had successfully kept his breakfast in, and Ruby exclaimed her excitement about the shopping tour she had been looking forward to since the day the group decided to do it on several occasions. It did not take too long before they reached their destination, and Jaune took over Pyrrha.
"So, here we are, friends: Vale Central Mall," Ruby exclaimed while standing on a bench as if she was giving an important speech, "What shall we do first?"
"The Arcade?" Yang suggested.
"Shopping tour, Yang," Blake intervened, and both laughed. "I'd say we start with some actual shopping, maybe some clothes," the black haired girl with the bow suggested.
"Oh yeah, I need a new pair of boots," Nora added.
Pyrrha just sighed, and cringed in pain. "What's wrong, Pyrrha?" Jaune then asked her quietly, while the others were discussion their first course of action.
"It hurts," she admitted, and shook her head, "I forgot the painkillers, I'm afraid."
"You put weight on it, huh?" Jaune then inquired, and earned a nod by the Spartan. He nodded afterwards. "Then let's sit you down first," he then proposed, and immediately brought his partner to the bench Ruby had been using as a podium, on which she sat with a relieved groan.
"I'm too young to feel this old…" Pyrrha complained jestingly, and smiled somewhat embarrassed at the others.
This forced break for Pyrrha's sake came in handy, however, since the rest of the bunch was still deciding what to do first – aside from making a stop at the drug store for some medication, of course. It took another five minutes to finally make the decision to go to the upper floor of the mall, where most of the clothing stores were clustered. As the group went inside, up the first set of escalators, Jaune rushed inside 'Doge's Drugstore' to get a small box of painkillers for Pyrrha. The kind of pain the Spartan was currently in made appear like she was whiny to some extent, or maybe she was in a lot of pain. Either way, Ren had taken a look at Pyrrha's knee before they continued their way inside the mall and could not find anything worrying, much to everyone's relief. Weiss would have actually felt bad for her red haired friend, who had been almost bedridden that past week – aside from attending her lectures Pyrrha had not much to do. Weiss had learned that the Spartan did not stay at the infirmary on her own accord, so if anything would have gotten to Prof. Goodwitch for instance, the heiress was sure that she would have ordered Pyrrha to back down from her decision. Her pride may even- "Excuse me, Miss?" Weiss heard a man speak up behind her, and turned around startled. "You're kind of standing in the way," he continued, and Weiss immediately stepped aside to the right, making way for the man who appeared to be a staff member of the mall – a janitor of some sort, or a mechanic.
"Oh, sorry, Sir," the heiress apologized in her best manners.
"No problem. Thanks," he replied politely, and went on his way without further ado.
"…happened again…" Weiss mumbled to herself, as she followed her friends along the many shop windows, stands, and an ice cream parlor. Naturally, Ruby, the lover of all sweets, had to take a look at the display. "Ruby, it's too early for that," Weiss said plainly, not even remotely close to being agitated.
"It's NEVER too early for the sweetness of ice cream," the little rose replied with a sheepish smile at the heiress, who found herself in awe of the sheer cuteness of Ruby's face. Those silver eyes had always fascinated Weiss for some reason, especially when the little rose had been happy over something, or laughing about some other thing.
Like during the lecture of Prof. Port the last day, when he was boasting about one of his many achievements in hunting down an alpha Beowulf all alone, Ruby had decided to play Battleships with Yang – across the whole lecture room. The latter had gotten her girlfriend involved, and Ruby had tried to hire the heiress as her advisor a couple of times before she had given in eventually. Weiss liked the game for its unknowns, since one would have to locate the opposing ships, while one would also hope the own armada would not be found too quickly. After the heiress had guided her partner to five consecutive hits, Yang had shouted: "Oh, gods damn it!"
"My thoughts, exactly, Ms. Xiao Long," the professor had replied to that, still oblivious actually nobody, not even Weiss herself, had been paying attention that day. Ruby had started snickering so hard, her eyes had filled with tears, while they had been almost closed. That expression had- "Weiss?" Ruby spoke up to the heiress in Vale Central Mall.
Oh not again! She berated herself internally, and looked at Ruby. "Yes, Ruby?" Weiss replied.
"Where were you this time?" the little rose asked then.
"…Battleships," Weiss answered, and could not help but grin at Ruby, who started to snicker again the way the heiress just had thought about.
"What made you think about that?" Ruby inquired as they joined up with the others again, after the little rose caught her breath again.
"Well… The sheepish smile you just gave me…" the heiress admitted openly.
"How?" Ruby seemed to be confused about what her partner just told her.
"I don't know," said partner answered equally confused. Weiss did not even look at Ruby. The little rose left it at that. She got distracted by Nora, who loudly declared a certain set of boots to be hers. Said set of boots was so brutally pink, Weiss thought that color should be illegal – and Yang said what Weiss was thinking, causing a playful brawl between her and Nora. Ren just stood by and watched, smiling to himself. Nora and Yang stopped, as the rest of the bunch went inside the store, where they decided to split up: Nora dragged Ren along with her, Blake simply followed Yang around, and Jaune took Pyrrha to the nearest bench to sit and talk, while they were waiting for the medication to kick in. Ruby went on alone, and so Weiss decided to take look around where the dresses were. The quality of the materials used in these rather cheap dresses was still good, but could not be compared to the quality of the fabric the heiress was used to wear. After a thorough inspection of one dress in particular – a simple white one with a ribbon at the front and center – Weiss concluded the value for money of said dress was actually decent. She considered buying it for its modest elegancy, something the heiress had never suspected to find a common clothing store, but left the dress where it was for the time being. Weiss decided to move on, and somehow ended up in the lingerie department of said store, where she found Ruby again.
Why this combination again? Weiss thought.
"Oh, hey," Ruby greeted her partner. The little rose appeared to be slightly embarrassed as the heiress approached her.
"Ruby, why are you here?" Weiss asked, as if she did not already suspect the reason – Ruby was getting a new set of lingerie for herself.
"Getting a look at some potential new underwear," the little rose even admitted openly. The heiress could not understand why someone as young as her partner would already be interested in those kinds of things… Unless… She was already interested in physical contact with someone. Weiss did not dare delve into these trails of thought any further.
"They're quite beautiful, aren't they?" Ruby then stated, thankfully dragging Weiss back to reality in the process. They took a look at a couple of sets, which were on display right in front of them. They were shaped very similar to the one Ruby had worn this morning, and Weiss wondered if the little rose was wearing one in that moment.
"Yes, they are," the heiress agreed, focusing on the end of that conversation already, "but I was just passing through, so if you would excuse me? I need to find a restroom." Weiss may have lied to Ruby, but it was for a good cause: Said lie was her ticket to separate herself from the group in order to get the birthday present for Ruby – which was supposed to be a surprise, after all.
"Don't go off too far, then," Ruby remarked, which made Weiss smirk a little bit. It was you, who walked off alone first.
Having thought that, the heiress immediately made her way to the bookstore she had seen on the way to the clothing store. It went by the name 'The Bookcase', and the layout of the shop just fitted its name. Aside from books many different magazines were on display in bookcases, and even the counter resembled one. A bear Faunus by the name of Maritime Blue – he had a nametag – greeted the heiress.
"Hello, Miss. May I be of service?" the tall, somewhat plump man asked politely, but with a bit of nervousness in his voice. He probably recognizes you, Weiss. Stay polite.
"Hello, Mr. Blue," she greeted him, and smiled politely, "I think you may be. I'm looking for 'Lost Souls', do you offer this book, Sir?"
"Yes, but of course, Miss. Do wish to purchase a hardcover, or a pocket book?"
"Hardcover, if you don't mind, Sir?"
"Yes, Miss. Would you follow me, please?" Weiss noticed that this man in particular was way more polite than his coworkers, who were serving other customers, as she followed him to the 'Fantasy' section of the store. There he let her choose one of the hardcover versions of the book in question. Weiss took the liberty of reading the blurb, before handing it over to Mr. Blue, and following him to the counter. After entering several codes into the cash register, Weiss remembered something very important. "Oh, would you please gift-wrap the book for me?" she asked the shop assistant.
"Of course," he answered, and did just that, before returning his attention to her. "So, that would be 75 Lien, Miss Schnee," he said, confirming what Weiss had suspected by addressing her by her name – accidently, as his expression told her.
"I'll use my card, Mr. Blue," the heiress replied, and handed over her usual means of payment. He put the card in the designated device, pushed a button, and returned the card to its owner.
"Transfer completed," the bear Faunus read what the display of the register said, "Thank you for your purchase, Miss Schnee."
"I have to thank you, Mr. Blue," the heiress replied, "I have to say, the customer service in 'The Bookcase' is one of the best I've seen," she then added a bit louder than necessary, while the shop assistant packed the book, which just happened to be wrapped in light blue wrapping paper, much to Weiss' delight, into a small paper bag. When the heiress left 'The Bookcase', she could hear other people inside talking about the Schnee heiress praising the store, and she was proud of the good deed she had done.
"Okay," she then spoke to herself, "now to the personal touch, the actual challenge." Weiss knew she should not take too long for this, since her excuse to Ruby had been a simple restroom break. As she passed the 'Bejeweled Jewelry', the heiress stopped in her motion, and made a few steps backwards. There it was, the addition to the gift for Ruby. It was a ring, colored icy blue, and with a red adornment on it, which looked like it could be a flower – it required some imagination to see it, but nevertheless, this was perfect. As the heiress looked at the price of 225 Lien, she stayed in front of the jewelry store for a moment. An addition to a gift which was worth three times the amount of money as the gift itself seemed a bit off balance to her. However, it was the will that counted, not the monetary value of the exchanges. So she went inside the store, bought the ring, and left for the clothing store she assumed the others were still in, or at least close by. She did not take long, however, to find her friends again. Yang was the first.
"There you are," the blonde exclaimed, "That was a long bathroom break you took," she then added.
"Excuse me?" Weiss inquired, a bit confused about the statement. Ruby must've told her.
"You were gone for almost half an hour, princess," Yang then said. Weiss frowned and looked around for Ruby, but the little rose was nowhere to be seen.
"Well, I slipped away to get Ruby's birthday present, so…" Weiss then answered.
"Ah~" The brawler nodded and smiled in understanding. "Blake just took off to get hers done."
"Where are the others?"
"Pyrrha and Jaune went on to an armor shop around that corner over there," Yang explained and pointed to her left. "Nora and Ren are… Somewhere, and Ruby's still in there," she explained further while pointing at the clothes store behind her. The heiress nodded to that.
"Did you agree on a meeting point?" Weiss inquired.
"The ice cream parlor we came by on our way here, in…" Yang took a look at her scroll, "about ten minutes."
"Well then, I'll wait there, then. What about your gift?" the heiress inquired. Yang just laughed and waved it off.
"Took care of it yesterday, don't you worry, princess," the brawler then bragged. She had joined Weiss on her way to the meeting point, where they prepared three tables and eight chairs for themselves and the rest of the group to sit at. Jaune and Pyrrha were about ten minutes late, and while Yang snickered to it – and made some utterly inappropriate suggestions – Weiss just blamed the Spartan's injury for the delay. All of the others were discussing their recent purchases, when Weiss realized, she only had Ruby's birthday present and nothing else. Luckily it slipped by unnoticed, for Nora shared the tale of her new video game, as if acquiring it had been some sort of heroic quest. Weiss did not pay too much attention as her ice cream was served, along with those of the others, of course. While Ruby had ordered a literal pile of strawberry and chocolate flavored ice cream, the heiress had tried to get something at least less hazardous for her health, called a fruit cup. It consisted of vanilla ice cream topped by several bits of fruits, including, but not limited to, oranges, kiwis, and bananas. Yang shared a ridiculously oversized banana split with Blake, both of them playfully fooling about with each other while enjoying it. Ren watched Pyrrha and Jaune essentially doing the same with their dish of ice cream – a mix of vanilla, chocolate and strawberry with whipped cream on top of it – But they were much more subtle in doing so. Or maybe the heiress was just imagining it, blaming Yang and Blake for it. Nora did not have any ice cream, being too busy talking about shooting things with a variety of weapons for whatever prestige levels were supposed to be. However, she had ordered a larger version of what Weiss had, and Ren made sure it would not go to waste, while he seemed to actually be listening to his childhood friend.
After the ice cream break, which Weiss declared to be the replacement for an actual lunch for the sheer amount of calories she had taken in, the group decided to follow Yang's suggestion from earlier, and went to the arcade. Weiss took it a bit slower, though, browsing the displays in the shop windows they were passing. It was good for the heiress to occupy herself with something else but her thoughts.
"Can I ask you something? Err, I mean may I ask you something?" Ruby broke up a brief period of silence between the two. It appeared Ruby stayed a bit behind as well, most likely for the question she wanted to ask.
"Can, may, just ask away," the heiress rhymed by accident, to which the little rose just snickered.
"Are you happy with today?" Ruby then asked in a more serious tone. She little rose obviously wanted some feedback to this idea, which had been essentially hers to begin with.
"All things considered: Yes," Weiss answered plainly, "But I don't think it's already over, is it?"
"Of course not. We still have the arcade, trust me, it will be fun!" Ruby exclaimed, and gestured wildly while doing so.
"You do realize I've never been to such a place before, correct?" Weiss inquired.
"You told us about four or five times the other day, and I haven't forgotten it," Ruby answered with one of her cute smiles that almost made Weiss getting lost in thoughts about the developing beauty of her partner. It was funny and strange to the heiress that she had actually managed to stay focused since she had gotten the gift for Ruby. However, that was exactly it: She needed to focus on the conversation to not- Happened again! she screamed internally. "Video games are not my thing, Ruby," Weiss then started, but her partner never let her finish that sentence.
"Good thing the arcade offers a variety of other, more physical activities," Ruby interrupted in a commercial manner.
"Oh, yes, that's how you convinced me to come along and give it a try," Weiss noticed, and nodded. The partners then joined up with their friends, and entered the Vale Central Mall arcade. Weiss' first impression of the place was somewhat outlandish. The arcade was mainly one large, dimly lit hall, with many gaming machines aligned right next to each other, creating hallways. They came in different sizes, shapes, and were adorned with somewhat blindingly bright lights, flashing irregularly or as reactions to the inputs of players. Add the loud, mainstream music on top of the noises the machines were making, and Weiss believed to be able to understand what Blake and other Faunus with enhanced hearing must have felt like on the streets of cities like Vale or Atlas. Ruby had grabbed the heiress' left hand, and dragged her to the left side of the hall, where strangely built tables could be found. 'Air Hockey' had been written all over at least one side of these things, and Ruby literally placed Weiss at one side of one such air hockey table.
"Come on, let's play," Ruby almost shouted – and she had to, considering the noise inside that place.
"How does this even work?" Weiss asked much louder than would have been necessary. Ruby put a Lien chip with the worth of five in the machine, which then lit up and started to hiss, before answering the question.
"You'll have to push the puck," Ruby started, as she held said thing up for demonstration purposes, "into my goal over here." The little rose pointed at a relatively wide slot in the framework of the table. Weiss immediately looked for such a thing on her side, and found it. Yang and Blake had joined their team mates, as team JNPR also had, in order to watch this unfold. Blake handed two strange objects to Weiss and Ruby – the pushers, which were to be used, as it turned out – and inserted the puck into a slot on the side of the table.
"Ready?" Yang asked. Ruby nodded, grinning in excitement.
"I suppose…" Weiss mumbled, and the game began.
It was a hectic back and forth between the two, when Weiss finally got the hang of it. It was a test of reflexes and perception. The heiress liked the fact that she could actually plan ahead, at least to some extent, although Ruby's quick reflexes made it nigh impossible for her to score. However, the main point of being here was to have fun, and that was what Weiss actually had – to her surprise, she had to admit – although she lost a couple of games of air hockey against Ruby – naturally, for it was her first – Blake, and Pyrrha – no surprise there, either. At least she managed to pull off wins against Yang, Nora and Jaune – which was a close one. Now that she had a taste of what Ruby had been aiming at in coming to this arcade, Weiss actually tried some of the video games there, but quickly decided that group activities were more to her liking. Hours went by rather quickly, and everybody had a good time, Weiss was sure of it.
But eventually the bunch had to return to Beacon Academy, and when they did, one of the academy's Bullhead arrived at the landing pads alongside the shuttle the heiress and her friends were in. She would not have given much thought to it, if it had not been for Ms. Grey who emerged from it, a medium sized traveling bag in her left hand, and a metal box on wheels she pulled with her right hand, after she and the pilot had placed said box on the ground carefully.
"Oh, guess who's back," Yang commented the sight all eight were watching right now.
"I wondered where she went. She's a new tutor, after all," Pyrrha added. Of course Weiss could not resist sharing the news of the contract signing she had been a part of with her friends. However, at that day the White Knight simply disappeared. Velvet had seen her board a Bullhead and everyone assumed she had been sent to get her bureaucracy errands done, find an apartment, and so on and so forth. And now she appeared to have gathered some of her stuff on that Saturday – some extra sets of clothes, most likely.
As the Huntress walked towards the students, who were standing right in the way to the living quarters of the academy's staff, she lifted her head and raised the eyebrow over her healthy eye.
"Hello. I didn't expect a welcoming party at this time of day," she said plainly, and somewhat tired. She wore her full armaments, so maybe the weight of those had something to do with said tiredness.
"We just happen to be here, ma'am," Jaune said, and saluted the White Knight. She just groaned angrily at him. "D-did I do something wrong?" he then asked in confusion.
"Just don't salute me," Ms. Grey said. "I hate that."
"Right, sorry."
"No offense taken. Now, what have been up to, if may ask?"
"We've been at the mall," Ruby exclaimed somewhat proud of her accomplishment in organizing the excursion.
"Ah, the classic," the Huntress replied with an amused smile. "Getting your heads free is a good thing."
"Are you going to teach us?" the little rose then asked excitedly.
"Your combat classes, field training sessions, and physical training will fall to me, I think," Ms. Grey answered after thinking for a brief moment.
"Whoa, cool!" Ruby exclaimed, and started bouncing around between her friends, Weiss in particular, happily sharing her excitement with everybody present.
"We'll see about that," the Huntress said plainly, and tipped her hat. "If you would excuse me? I still have some preparations to make."
Of course the group let Ms. Grey take her leave, and the friends went into their respective dorm rooms to prepare for dinner, do some studying, play some games, train, and hide Ruby's birthday presents. Weiss allowed her thoughts to drift away again, after she found a place to hide her present for the little rose: One of her Dust cases should be more than sufficient, since everyone had been forbidden to touch them, especially Ruby since the explosion incident. The heiress had to laugh as she remembered the plain stupid look on Ruby's face after it happened, and was glad that their Auras were able to absorb the potential damage of the small dust cloud completely. But had the incident not been the heiress' fault? It had been her, who had shaken that bottle with Dust around in front of Ruby, causing her to sneeze, after all. During the initiation, Ruby had charged at a Death Stalker alone, and had almost paid the price, had Weiss not intervened. A few weeks later, during combat class, Weiss and Ruby had fought a duel, and the heiress had become so agitated, that she had blown Ruby across the whole training hall with one of her force glyphs, literally smashing the little rose against the far wall. As Weiss remembered the way Ruby had slumped down after that impact, she started to feel bad because of it, although the little rose had stood up immediately afterwards – thanks to her Aura, of course. But why did the heiress feel bad in retrospective, and not when these things actually had occurred? How had she felt during these events? Thinking about it, Weiss had felt a variety of emotions.
She had been furious, because some dolt in a red hood had stumbled into her possessions.
She had been mad at the little show off for not being careful with her life, let alone the ones around her.
She had been annoyed during the duel, because Ruby had denied the heiress her victory time and time again.
But now she felt bad.
She felt bad for overreacting, since none of her possessions had been damaged.
She felt bad for scolding her, when Ruby only had been trying to prove herself to her.
She felt bad for almost hurting her designated partner in a fit of agitation.
And she felt bad for almost killing her friend by accident and then trying to cover it up.
No. No. Those things have been dealt with, they were okay now.
"Hey," Ruby's voice dragged Weiss back to reality in a calm tone, "What's bothering you?"
"Nothing really," Weiss replied, "just sorting my thoughts."
"Oh, sorry for disturbing," Ruby excused herself, "but I thought you would want to come eat something?"
"Yes, Ruby. Good idea."
A few minutes later the partners found themselves in the cafeteria, having dinner without the rest of team RWBY and without team JNPR. While there were no special or strange occurrences, Weiss could not help but admire Ruby. Not for her looks, although the little rose was pretty – literally no one would argue about that – but for the way she treated people. Although Weiss had shown disdain and arrogance towards Ruby, the little rose never developed a grudge against the heiress of the Schnee Dust Company – quite the opposite happened for some reason. They became friends instead, and when Weiss had admitted that the first time, Ruby just had squealed with joy, and had hugged Weiss tightly. The heiress, while not accustomed to that kind of behavior, had tried her best to return the gesture properly. Now they were sharing one of the few moments they were alone, away from the noisy Yang, observant Blake, chaotic Nora with her guardian Ren, and clumsy Jaune accompanied by Pyrrha. And Weiss liked it. It was not like the rest of the two teams were not her friends, but she had required some time to get used to being surrounded by… Well, friends. Taking things one step at a time, she had spent some time alone with each of them, even Nora. But with Ruby it appeared to be different, yet the heiress had a difficult time figuring out what said difference was.
The heiress followed that trail of thought for quite a while, until she had finished her dinner, as had Ruby. They silently agreed to return to their dorm room. However, at the door Weiss hesitated for a moment. Was that Yang…? Moaning? The heiress tried to listen in carefully, suspecting that the tensions between the lovers had now developed into something more physical – which was about time if the heiress had to share her opinion on that matter. Just as Ruby was about to ask for the reason Weiss did not enter the room, both of them could hear the blonde moan her lover's name.
Now it's official: They're doing it – about time. Weiss thought, and could feel the strong blush on her face. She looked at an also blushing Ruby, who in return looked at the heiress in confusion. The latter just nodded to the door of team JNPR's room. Weiss took a while to explain to a rather confused Jaune why she and her partner, who was probably too busy processing the imagery inside her head to actually speak, wanted to stay at their room for at least a couple of hours. After several failed attempts to do so subtly, she almost yelled it very explicitly, but the clumsy guy seemed to get it by himself, at least. Team JNPR, Ruby and Weiss spent the following two and a half hours watching Nora play her new video game, which appeared to be surprisingly rich in lore and storyline behind the characters and events, although the game play itself seemed to be very simplistic. At least all the action on screen was distracting Ruby enough to seemingly forget what was going on in their dorm room at that moment. Weiss on the other hand caught herself more than once trying to imagine what it most likely would look like.
Two and a half hours later, a tired Ruby and an even more tired Weiss stood in front of their room again, and listened. No sound was to be heard. Ruby bravely opened the door with care, trying to be as silent as possible. Weiss took a look at the room after closing the door, while Ruby used her scroll as a makeshift flashlight to maneuver herself through the clothes of Blake an Yang, which were scattered all over the floor. Weiss took the liberty of at least sorting them to two piles, one for each respective owner, while Ruby changed in the bathroom. While the little rose was busy, Weiss opened the window carefully to let in some fresh air. How could Blake possibly stand this smell in here? As she thought about that, her gaze went over to the lovebirds, snuggled up against one another, Yang lying on her back, while Blake nestled to her girlfriend from the side where the wall was, as if the cat Faunus was hiding behind her. Luckily the blonde's hair covered the chest area of them both, where the sheets of Blake's bed failed by simple absence. The heiress was about to correct that, when Ruby emerged from the bathroom.
"Just leave them," the little rose whispered, and pulled Weiss away from the couple gently.
"You're right," the heiress replied, and entered the bathroom in order to get ready for bed herself. After leaving the bathroom, Weiss found Ruby already sleeping, her back turned to the room. A gentle smile crept across the heiress' face before she entered her bed – Ruby had decided to go to the upper bed again, which was fine by Weiss. Although she had somewhat expected it, any thoughts about the lovers' act stayed out of the heiress' mind that night. However, the next morning would turn out to be quite the awkward one for Yang in particular, because Ruby just had to ask what her sister and Blake had been doing the evening before, much to Weiss' delight. Aside from that, it was an ordinary Sunday full of preparation for the upcoming lessons at Beacon Academy.
The next chapter: Echoes from the past
Hello again, dear readers.
First off: Thank you for reading this rather lengthy chapter. I humbly request, as always, feedback of you in form of either critique or suggestions.
I'm looking forward to read at least something, I honestly need it.
Sincerely
Erythreas