WEISS SCHNEE
"So you've really never met Yang and Ruby's Dad?" Inu asks as we are making our way to the front of the school. Inu is probably the one I talk to the most next to Ruby. I enjoy spending time with the others…for the most part but Inu and I just click more. Pyrrha is a close second but if I am honest I am a tad intimidated by her…
"Yeah, everytime I have been over these last few weeks he's been too busy with work but I guess he has the day off today."
"Why do you sound so nervous though?" she asks, confirming how obvious I am behaving. "I mean sure it's your best friend's Dad but you're acting like you're meeting your boyfriend's Dad or something."
"Oh please I'm not that bad!"
"You so are." she laughs.
I wouldn't know how that feels. I've never been in that kind of relationship before. Not to say plenty of boys haven't tried. More than a few of them were handsome, sure but little did they know they were barking up the wrong tree. Not that it matters, I wouldn't have been interested regardless. No one has ever pursued me out of genuine interest for me, only the perks of my name.
"On top of everything Ruby says she has a surprise of some kind."
"Oh really?" she asks as we walk through the front doors of the school. "What do you think it-?"
"WEISS!" Our attention is drawn to a very energetic Ruby, jumping and waving in our direction. Behind her is a very worn out looking motorcycle. 'Worn out' is probably putting it mildly to be honest.
"So uh, that's all you girl, I'll talk to you later." Inu quickly abandons me as Ruby walks toward me, pushing the bike beside her.
"Hey Ruby...is uh, that yours?" I point at the very busted looking bike next to her.
"Sure is, I just bought it from a friend of Yangs, they sold it to me dirt cheap, can you believe it?"
"N-No I can't imagine why." I said as convincingly as I could.
"Sure the old girl is a bit rough around the edges but with Yang's help I am going to turn her into the most beautiful bike ever." she says with a gleam in her eye. I can see how important this is to her so I just smile and play along.
"I'm sure it'll be amazing Ruby."
"Thanks Weiss." she smiles back at me before tapping the seat. "So you wanna go for a ride?"
"Huh?" I ask, making sure I heard her correctly.
"Yeah, it'll be a fun way to get to my place!" she beams cheerfully.
"Ruby...you sure that's a good idea?" I have several reservations.
"Oh yeah, she may not look it but she can get us there no problem."
I hesitate for a moment, the bike really does look quite old and beaten up, honestly just based on looks I'm surprised it runs at all. In my head all the terrible possibilities are playing out, like what if it just falls apart completely underneath us. I look toward Ruby with that bright, shining smile of hers and I just can't bring myself to say no. I don't know how she does that, if it were literally anyone else I would have no issue rejecting them flat out.
"Alright I suppose, just be careful okay?" she excitedly jumps on the bike and pats the seat behind her. I slowly take a seat, attempting to not put too much pressure on the seat as if the slightest movement will cause it to collapse and I wrap my arms around her waist.
"You ready?" she asks, I just respond with a hesitant nod.
"As I'll ever be."
She revs the engine and it actually chokes up a couple of times before finally coming to life, even if only barely. As we take off down the street the bike sputters and shakes more than I would like. When I look at Ruby though, she looks so happy, exhilarated even. This must be something she's wanted and worked toward for a long time, it's sad how detached I am from that experience.
After what felt like much longer than it probably actually was, we pulled up in front of her house, my head still rattling from all the shaking as I slowly pulled myself off the seat of her bike. My balance is so off that I nearly fall forward but Ruby catches me.
"Heh, sorry Weiss, I know she still handles a bit rough."
"It's...It's okay Ruby." I feel a gentle warmth in my chest but quickly straighten myself up out of embarrassment.
She opens the front door of her house and motions for me to step inside, which I do. It's bigger than Winter's apartment but quite a bit smaller than back home, which isn't a bad thing at all. I find it charming, it also just has a generally warm feeling to it. I guess if I was forced to describe it in a single word it would be cozy. I actually enjoy coming here after school, it beats being home all alone.
That said I do feel bad not being there to cook dinner for Winter but she assures me that she picks herself up something on her way home from work. At least I can still cook breakfast for her.
It only takes a moment of me looking around and placing my bag on a hook by the front door before I am suddenly greeted by the sight of a man, roughly middle aged with the same hair and eye color as Yang, popping his head through the kitchen archway. He is also quite scruffy looking but he looks friendly enough. A judgment that is confirmed when he smiles and walks toward me, shaking my hand with one of the most firm handshakes I've ever experienced.
"Hey there I'm Ruby and Yang's Dad but you can just call me Tai."
"N-Nice to meet you sir." I almost curtsy but stop myself. "I'm-"
"Ruby's new friend Weiss right? She has barely stopped talking about you for weeks." he says with a soft laugh.
"Dad, you promised you wouldn't say anything about that!" Ruby pouts and stamps her foot.
"I guess I did huh?" he says with a smirk that says he knew full well that he did. "I will say that you weren't lying, she IS very pretty."
"OKAY THANKS DAD, CALL US WHEN DINNER IS READY!" Ruby shouts and begins shoving me towards the stairs, her face beat red. Though based on the intense heat rising to my cheeks, I would guess I'm putting her to shame.
We walk up the rest of the stairs and down the hall before entering Ruby's bedroom. It matches her so well, the walls are bright red and plastered with various posters for musicians, anime and video games.
"Sorry about my Dad, he's usually awesome but he can be very embarrassing." she plops down in her desk chair and lays her head down in her arms.
"Yeah it's..it's fine don't worry about it." I say, still slightly stuck on the fact that Ruby thinks I'm pretty. I don't know why but it makes me feel..happy? I guess that's how I'd describe it.
"Soooo what'cha wanna do?" she eventually asks, raising her head up and slowly swiveling in her chair.
"I'm not entirely sure, maybe watch a movie?"
"Well...I was kind of hoping we could finally play a game?" she rushes over to her shelf and pulls out a game. The cover has two female warriors back to back, fighting off monsters. It's that Amity Arena game she and Alan are so into, she asks almost every time I'm over to play it.
"Ruby...I told you I've never really played video games before." I say, trying not to feel embarrassed. At first she looks at me a little disappointed but before long that Ruby smile returns but slightly betrayed by sad eyes.
"I-It's okay Weiss, we can just watch something." she starts putting the game away but I sigh and tell her to stop. At that moment, if she had dog ears, I swear they'd be perked up.
"Okay okay, we can play but I'm going to be awful." she immediately jumps up in excitement.
"That's no problem, I'll just teach you!" She walks over to the game console and puts the disc inside, flipping it on which automatically turns the TV above it on.
"If you say so." I say, hesitantly taking the control that she hands to me. I'm not even entirely sure how to properly hold it, let alone maneuver the crazy amount of buttons on it.
The hour is spent with Ruby absolutely dominating every challenge. All I do is what can generally be called flailing around helplessly. As we play more though and Ruby patiently teaches me all the ins and outs as best she can, I slowly start to get the hang of it until my abilities can be described as above toddler level.
"It's okay Weiss, it was your first time, you'll get it eventually!" Ruby takes the controllers and places them on what looks like some kind of stand.
"I don't know about that but in spite of my lack of ability it was...fun." I admit.
"I'm glad you liked it…" Ruby slumps down next to me on the bed. "Next time we can do whatever you want I promise."
"It's fine Ruby." I smile at her. "You have a way of making anything fun."
"That's high praise." she laughs a little. "Not sure how much I deserve it though."
"Ruby…I don't want to go into it too much but..I've never had any real friends before you." I look up at the ceiling to avoid eye contact. "You've been nothing but kind and considerate since we met, even when I didn't deserve it so I guess what I'm trying to say…is that as long as we are spending time together I'm happy."
"Weiss.." I turn to look at her and see that she is definitely blushing, almost as much as I assume I am.
Thankfully before I can get anymore choked up, Tai calls us down for dinner. We walk down the stairs into the kitchen to see a full meal spread out across the kitchen table. It all looks delicious, I guess he can really cook. Then again being a single dad will do that I guess.
Seated at the table is Tai but also Yang who must have gotten home from the gym. Ruby and I sit at the table right next to each other, I'm seated directly across from Tai and again I find myself nervous. I want to make sure I end this visit on a good impression.
We all just start eating as we sit around talking about school, Ruby's 'new' bike and so on. Everything seems to be going very well and as far as I can tell he seems to like me which I'm really glad about. The conversation eventually turns to me.
"So Weiss, why did you decide to move to our little town, if you don't mind me asking?" Tai asks.
"Well...let's just say I was hoping to find something here that I wasn't back home." I answer. He must have picked up pretty quickly that I wasn't super comfortable talking about it because he quickly changed the topic.
"So uh..Ruby, are you and Alan looking forward to the tournament?" he asks. I'm grateful for the topic change as I'm not really ready to go too deep into that topic.
"Oh uh yeah totally, I'm totally gonna kick his butt this time." As Ruby is talking she accidentally knocks a glass to the floor and it shatters, causing me to immediately jump back out of my chair. My breathing is rapid and my knees feel wobbly.
I take a second to calm down, trying to steady my breathing. Eventually I am calm enough to sit back down. When I look around I'm embarrassed to see everyone looking at me with a mix of concern and surprise. Oh great, I really thought I had that under control.
I really hoped Ruby wouldn't see that part of me, at least not so soon. I'm so embarrassed I could cry. Part of me wants to just get up and run out of the house as fast as I can but that would only make it worse.
"Weiss, is everything okay?"
I bite my lip, really not wanting to talk about it. I can feel tears welling up in my eyes but luckily, Tai seems to pick up on this and helps me avoid the subject.
"You three just enjoy your food okay?" He grabs a broom. "I'll clean up this mess and join you in a sec."
We finish the meal mostly in silence. A silence only occasionally broken by someone asking a question or getting up to grab something. I feel awful for ruining what was a mostly happy dinner, all because I can't just get over the past. I'm so weak.
After dinner I decide it's time to head home, I doubt Winter wants me to be out too late on a school night. Ruby offers to give me a ride which I accept despite my reservations about that bike of hers, my home is a bit far to walk to especially this late.
I'm so distracted by the thought of how badly the night ended that I barely notice how shaky Ruby's bike is. I stare at the street lights passing us by, silently hoping that Ruby won't bring up what happened at dinner. I can't blame her for being curious but I just...really don't want to talk about it.
I reach up and touch the scar over my eye, my hand lightly trembling. I wish I could just force the events of that night out of my mind, forget it ever happened but no matter how hard I try I just can't.
Eventually we finally pulled up in front of the apartment building. I slowly lift myself off of the bike and thank Ruby for the ride. Trying to walk away before she can ask about what happened at dinner but she gently grabs my wrist and I start trembling.
"Weiss?" Ruby asks, probably noticing my trembling, I silently curse to myself.
"Yeah Ruby?" I ask, not turning to look at her..
"I can tell that whatever is bothering you, that you really don't want to talk about it and I just wanna say that we don't have to but...if the time ever comes that you feel comfortable, I'm here for you." she says.
I slowly turn to look at her and see that she is smiling comfortingly. It's not a look of sympathy or pity like I am used to getting, it seems to genuinely be saying I'm here for you if you need me. It's a look I never thought I'd get from anyone except Klein or Winter.
"I'm….I'm not ready right now Ruby but someday..someday I'll tell you all about it." I say, trying really hard not to cry.
"Alright, I'll be ready and waiting." she lets me go and against my better judgment I give her a quick hug before speed walking away, slightly embarrassed.
I finally make it up to the apartment and open the door, stepping inside and quickly closing the door behind me. My knees feel weak and I lean my back against the door, placing my hand over my chest. What is it about that girl? Is it her smile? Is it how she treats me just like I'm a normal girl? Is it how thoughtlessly kind she is? What is it about her that makes my heart beat so fast?