Disclaimer: RWBY and all affiliated characters/titles belong to Rooster Teeth, those wonderful geniuses.
"Okay so what did you say you did to this?" Ruby looked up from Magnhild, which was carefully laid out in several pieces all over her desk, over to the rather embarrassed wielder standing beside her.
"Well, I was trying to eat this crepe on my way to practice with my team and it was delicious and full of diced up strawberries and chocolate syrup and all this stuff and so I was running to practice because I was late because I went to get the crepe." She stopped and gave Ruby a concerned glance, "Do you know what a crepe is?It's like this really thin rolled up pancake that you fill with all kinds of stuff to make it even more delicious-" Ruby held a hand out to stop her.
"Nora we have to stay on topic, this could be bad." she glanced back down at the weapon, the insides were all gunked up with what she now knew must be crepe and crepe filling. It had dripped all over the actuators inside and bits of dough were stuck in between gears and wedged into vital hinges. "I think we might have to take the whole thing apart and clean it by hand." Nora collapsed backwards against the frame of Weiss's bed.
"Aww are you serious? That's gonna take forever to do. I hate having to clean it." she looked up to Ruby, a bright idea shining behind her eyes, "What if we just get like a hose and spray it all over the inside to force the stuff out?" Ruby shook her head.
"No, you can't just spray water in there. It'll mess with all the lubricants and might even rust some of the gears. They should have pretty good protective coatings on them but the layers can crack and chip away if you don't redo them all the time," she gave Nora a glance that meant she knew she didn't do that and then continued, "Honestly it won't be that bad to do it all by hand. I take Crescent Rose apart completely every weekend and oil the whole thing, I check every piece and reapply lubricants, calibrate the actuators and make sure the blade's slot if clean and open. It's really important to make sure that you're weapon is always in top condition Nora, you trust it with your life every time you fight." The light in Nora's eyes died and she slumped back against the bed again. "Don't worry, I'll help you with it."
"Really?" Nora jumped over to Ruby's desk and fell to her knees, grasping at Ruby's cloak with both hands. Ruby laughed and swiveled in her chair to face the redhead.
"Yeah, I've never seen inside your Magnhild and I'm always up to clean a weapon out and learn how it works." Ruby gave her a bright smile and Nora released her cloak with a grin. "Now come on let's get to work."
"See Nora, I told you she'd be up to help you out." Yang tossed from her spot on her bunk where she had been watching her girlfriend and sister interact.
"Yeah, just because you're no help," Nora turned and stuck her tongue out at Yang.
"Oh come on. Part of the reason I made my gauntlets the way they are is so maintenance would be really easy. They're simple and straightforward like me." Yang grinned wide.
"Pffft, she's said she's simple." Ruby snickered and Nora tried to suppress a giggle.
"Hey I heard that." Yang's grin dropped and was replaced with a playful scorn.
"Come on Yang, get down here and help your girlfriend make sure she doesn't die the next time you two try to take on a whole nest of Grimm on your own." Ruby swung her chair back around to the mighty hammer and Yang hopped down from her bed.
"Excuse me, try? We handled those Grimm no problem. Had a lot of fun too." Yang came up behind Nora and wrapped her hands around her waist. Nora turned into Yang and gave her a playful kiss on the nose and Ruby started humming very loudly.
"Dum dum da dum, I can't hear you," Ruby kicked her feet back and forth under the desk and focused intently on pulling a sticky gear out of the hammer's inner workings. "Just trying to fix Nora's hammer, no big deal." Nora laughed and slid herself out of Yang's grip.
"Sorry Ruby, here let me take the handle. It's actually probably the most complicated part." Nora slid a chair over to the desk and grabbed a few tools from Ruby's collection to start disassembling the handle. Yang stepped to Ruby's other side to eliminate her temptation to continue fondling Nora and leaned on the desk next to Ruby's.
"So Rubes, how's it goin'?" Yang asked in such a long sarcastic manner that Ruby stopped working and looked at her.
"What do you mean?" Ruby raised a suspicious eyebrow.
"I mean I wanna know how my lil' sis' is doin'. Can't I ask a simple question?" Yang bemoaned and Ruby turned back to her work.
"Trying to focus right now Yang. Kinda busy." Ruby stuck her tongue out between her lips and squinted hard at a small screw, trying to fit her tool into the proper slots.
"Oh come on Ruby, I just wanna know what you've been up to lately." Yang kicked off the desk and landed her elbows in front of Ruby, resting her chin in her hands.
"I've been studying and training and working really really hard. I mean the Vytal Festival is coming up and that's a big deal plus I'm the team leader so I have to try my hardest at everything and I wanna be a really good teammate and really good partner for Weiss because she would be mad if she thought I was slacking off at all and I don't want her mad at me because then we won't-" Ruby cut herself short and dropped her screwdrived inside the hammer, throwing her hands over her mouth, she then immediately plunged her hands back into the hammer, trying to retrieve the dropped tool that had wiggled itself down into the workings of the weapon. "Oh dust, see what you made me do Yang." Nora bobbed her head along to some unheard tune and continued disassembling Magnhild's handle.
"What was that Ruby?" Yang reached over and grabbed a long, thin set of pliers to help Ruby get the screwdriver out and handed them to her, "What about Weiss?"
"Thanks," Ruby accepted the tool, "and nothing at all. I just want to be a good partner for her. I promised her that I would try my best and I need to keep my promise." Ruby focused intently on wiggling the pliers down to grab at the other tool.
"Uh huh, you know, you never were a great liar Rubes." Yang laughed and leaned back against the wall, propping herself up against the corner of the desk.
"I'm not lying Yang." Ruby pulled the tweezers out and threw her hands down in a frustrated huff.
"Yeah, but you're not telling the whole truth either." Yang cocked an eyebrow at Ruby and gently took the tweezers from her, sliding the hammer head across the desk and starting to try and get the screwdriver out. Ruby sighed and dropped her head to stare at her lap.
"Yeah, but, I don't know if I can tell you the whole truth right now Yang." Ruby didn't lift her eyes and Yang tried desperately to get the screwdriver out but wasn't having much success. "I mean, it's just weird because there's like a lot going on and I don't know how you'll react or anything and I'm not even sure about the whole deal myself and I'm just really confused. Yang could hear Ruby's voice starting to weaken and lifted her head to speak.
"Hey Ruby it's okay you know. To be confused I mean. I was confused for a long time and you should have seen Yang, she was a mess." Nora chimed and cut Yang off before she could even begin. Yang looked down and saw Nora's hand resting on Ruby's wrist. Ruby looked up to Nora, worry spread out on her face. Yang went back to trying to get the tool out of Magnhild's head, she trusted Nora to handle this for a moment.
"But I mean," Ruby trailed off, "What if it all goes wrong? We're supposed to be partners right and I'm having all these feelings and I don't even know what to do with them. It's like...it's like when I'm around her my chest is gonna explode and I mess up all the time and I feel like I don't have enough time to think about what I'm doing and then I do things and she has to help me fix them and that just makes me more embarrassed." Nora lifted Ruby's hand and grasped it in between both of hers.
"Ruby, do you like Weiss?" the directness of Nora's question caught Ruby off guard and Yang set the tweezers aside, this was now far more important. Ruby sat there for a moment stunned into silence, she looked at Nora and turned to Yang. Yang tried her best to keep her face even, she didn't want Ruby's answer to be based on what she thought Yang might think of her.
"I... I think I do." Ruby's eyes fell back to her lap, "I don't know though, maybe. I've never even had a crush on a boy before, how do I know if I like girls?" Yang reached forward and rubbed her back.
"It's not necessarily like a one or the other kind of thing Ruby and maybe you've never had a crush on a boy or liked a boy yet because you just don't like boys. There were some pretty cute ones at Signal and you never even really noticed." Yang stood up and moved to Ruby's side, putting her hands around her shoulders.
"And if you do like Weiss then you should go for it. You just follow what your heart is telling you and it will probably work out." Nora gave her a reassuring smile and kept her hand in hers.
"What if she doesn't like me like that though? I don't think she's gay." Ruby pulled her hand away and stood, stepping away from the desks. Yang and Nora glanced at each other and shared a voiceless thought. It was completely possible that Weiss wasn't gay at all. She had asked Neptune to go to the dance with her after all and had been really bummed when he didn't and really excited again when he showed up.
"The only way you're gonna know is if you bring it up," Yang offered.
"Yeah and you do spend a ton of time together so maybe she does like you and she's just as worried as you are." Nora stood as well, turning to face Ruby whose back was turned.
"But we do all of that stuff because we're partners and I know you guys make a lot of jokes but we really do train and study all those times. I keep asking her to train and saying yes and going with her because yeah I should be working hard and stuff but just because I wanna spend more time with her too. I think she's just there because we're partners and we're supposed to work together." Ruby spun around to face them and Yang could see tears just bubbling up in her eyes, "What if that's all it is and then I tell her I like her and it all comes out and freaks her out and then she never wants to talk to me again and I'll lose even the parts of her I do have now." Yang rushed forward and caught Ruby up in a hug, wrapping her arms under her sister's arms and pulling her up towards her. Ruby's head fell on Yang's shoulder and she buried her face in Yang's long blonde hair.
"It's okay Ruby. That's not gonna happen. Even if she said no and she doesn't like you that way, there's no way you're gonna lose her. Weiss is your partner, you guys are really really close and even she's a better person than that." Yang rubbed Ruby's back and felt the smaller girl's leg snake around her waist. Yang hefted her weight up higher and pulled Ruby against her. Nora walked over gently and put a comforting hand on Ruby's back, rubbing small circles between her shoulder blades.
"You know we can help you with this stuff right Ruby?" Nora asked gently in a soft voice that Yang was very unaccustomed to hearing, "I mean Yang's your big sister and I'm your friend right? So we're here for you you." Yang turned a little so she could see Nora over Ruby's red tipped hair and gave her a warm smile. She was so happy that Nora was such a caring and supportive girl. She had been there for Yang when she was so unsure about her feelings and now she was helping Ruby out to. She really was a keeper. Ruby pulled her head away from Yang's shoulder slightly and rubbed at her nose.
"Really? You would help me?" she sniffled a little from the tears that had almost taken hold.
"Of course Rubes." Yang set her down and smiled.
"What do you want us to do? We could get Weiss and you in here together and block the door." Nora laughed, trying to ease the tension in the room. Ruby laughed a little too so evidently it had worked, at least a little.
"No," another nervous little giggle, "I think that would make things worse. Could you maybe just talk to her for me?" Yang laughed, Ruby wanted them to see if Weiss was gay and if she liked Ruby back. They could try, but the platinum haired heiress was not really the forthcoming type, especially on personal matters.
"Of course we can," Nora gave Ruby a confident smile and Ruby seemed to brighten further.
"Yeah, we'll see if we can melt the Ice Queen's heart a little for ya'," Yang gave Ruby a playful slug on the shoulder and Ruby chuckled again.
"She's actually really nice you know?" Ruby looked at Yang pleadingly, "She just kinda gives off the wrong impression."
"Kinda like your sister." Nora shot Yang a teasing wink, "She's like this big hulking monster until you get to know the little fuzzy cuddly thing hiding inside." Ruby laughed and Nora rushed over to Yang, grabbing her around the waist before she could protest.
"Hey, I'm a very loveable person." Yang crossed her arms in protest despite the desire to scoop Nora up bridal style and kiss her, she loved when Nora was playful like this and she had just cheered her sister up. Nora was scoring all kinds of points and making Yang very sure about how she felt.
"Maybe you'll convince me if you help clean my hammer," Nora released Yang and walked backwards towards the desks and waggled her tongue at Yang. Ruby laughed and followed the redhead over to where they had been working. Yang just shook her head and followed behind, how was she supposed to deal with both of them working together like that? She made her way to the desk as well and scooped up Magnhild's head and heard the screwdriver rattle inside. She flipped the hammer head over so the opening was facing the ground and shook it vigorously. Little bits of crepe dough fell out and the screwdriver rattled and rattled until it finally plopped out onto the floor.
"There see, I'm super helpful." Yang tossed the hammer head back towards the desk and it went straight through to the ground, splintering the wood and sending Ruby's tools flying.
"Aww Yang, that's like the third desk this year. They said we're gonna have to start paying for them." Ruby moaned and looked around at her tools scattered all over the room now and Nora rolled in laughter.
Well, we finally got a little bit of the WhiteRose confirmation we've been looking for. Ruby likes Weiss, but they still need to find out if it goes both ways. A little bit of a shorter chapter here but they will be longer on the weekend to make up for it, promise. There's lots left to do, lots left to say, just a very particular pace to say it at.
Thanks for reading and I hope you're all still enjoying it.
-Zach