It wasn't until they'd arrived at Ruby's inn that Weiss realized she was still holding her hand. Their palms were clammy and warm, but Weiss didn't know when she was supposed to let go.

Ruby looked up at the building in which she planned to sleep. It was remarkably similar to The Crow's Nest, but the night was late enough to calm the inhabitants. Regardless, that didn't make the structure seem any less towering, not unlike the ones that had trapped her in that alley. Her chin and throat throbbed with the memory.

"Are you going to be okay?" The voice at her side made Ruby jump, but gratefully returned her to the moment. The sweaty hand clutching Weiss' eased its grip.

Ruby stepped away from the heiress, and her blood-encrusted chin rose so their eyes could meet. Under their hoods, silver met cerulean. "Why did you do this?"

Weiss gave the smith an odd look. "It's late, I wasn't just going to let you roam alone aimlessly."

Ruby shook her head. "No, why did you do all of this? Finding me, rescuing me— you didn't even have to give my hammer back. I could've got it back myself."

"Gotten,"Weiss corrected. "You could've gotten it back yourself."

Ruby briefly sputtered, cheeks blooming red. "Answer the question!" After an awkward pause, she added a quiet 'please'.

The noble immediately opened her mouth to answer, but found her words to be lacking. Why did she do this? To find Rupert, of course. But whyfind Rupert? Just to chase some fleeting fancy? To act out against her father's will? To claim some damn freedom in her life? She'd found Rupert, and found that she was a blacksmith named Ruby. Weiss could've left it at that. Her curiosity was sated, and her fancy was rebutted. Rupert was a was that. The passing fancy had passed, her search was over. Now she had to go home. Return to her toil. Latch closed, monkey dead.

"Well?" Ruby urged, silver eyes shimmering under the moonlight.

She had to go home— father would have her head if he found her room empty, and empty he would find it. Her illusory glyph fizzled long ago. Unfortunately for her, she had no desire to return. In fact, her desires pointed in the exact opposite direction. She stared into Rup— Ruby's eyes. Something danced in her chest, its heavy feet pounding into her gut. Rupert's features hadn't left Ruby's face. If anything, they were stronger. Her neck was bruised, her chin was covered in dried blood, her nose was offset, and her face was scarred in two places, but she still carried the same tantalizing beauty as before. "I… I had to find you," Weiss answered dumbly, unable to grasp anything else.

Ruby let out a frustrated growl and turned to the inn's door. "Well, you found me! What else? I'm sorry for ruining your tourney, okay? I'm sorry! I'll leave, I'll go back to Patch." Back fully to Weiss, she muttered something that made the heiress' heart leap into her throat. "I'll stop living this lie."

Just as soon as Ruby reached for the door, though, somebody else burst through. A mostly-bald man, drunkenly shambling while loudly speaking to his follower, who came out in a similarly disheveled manner.

Ruby leapt away on instinct, nearly knocking Weiss over as she barreled into her. The heiress kept herself steady by gripping Ruby's shoulder. Before she could pull away, though, she noticed the intense tremble in the girl's muscles, and the way her breathing immediately sped up to a panicked pace. The alley may be well behind them, but it was clear the smith's mind hadn't left it. "Let me walk you to your room," Weiss quietly offered with a squeeze to the girl's shoulder. It was the least she could do.

Ruby turned to deny the heiress, but another gaggle of drunks emerged through the doors, harried by a shouting bartender. She jumped, startled, then turned back to Weiss with a more accepting gaze. She nodded slowly, and the two made their way in.

Weiss crinkled her nose as they entered— she had been under the impression that urine was reserved to alleys and outhouses, but the building's scent begged to differ. Regardless, she remained silent as she followed Ruby up the stairs, one hand on her rapier's hilt.

They passed several doors before Ruby finally stopped. She cast the heiress one last look before reaching for her door's handle—

"Fuck!" Came a cry from the other side, barely muffled by the inn's (apparently thin) walls. The sound of objects tumbling followed. Ruby moved to rip the door open, but another mewling cry froze her. "Gods, Blake! I—"

Another sound followed, this one even longer and higher-pitched. Ruby shrunk back from the door, her face scarlet as she turned back to Weiss, who didn't seem to be faring much better. "I don't want to be here," Ruby muttered.

Eyes wide and face red, Weiss nodded. Whoever this 'Blake' fellow was, Weiss didn't want to see what he was doing behind that door. Instead, she turned on a heel and marched straight from the inn, Ruby at her heels.

When they were finally free of whatever brothel Ruby had decided to stay in, Weiss breathed a long sigh. She looked to the deep night sky, the open market square giving her a wide breadth of view to work with. The Lovers were still visible, but they would be gone soon, leaving the moon to shine alone.

"Now what?" Ruby asked, voice downtrodden as she came to Weiss' side.

Weiss looked around the square, searching for a building that didn't seem infested by squalor. Unfortunately, her urban sense was extremely lacking, so she just looked for one that didn't have a drunkard slumped against its walls. When she thought she'd found an appropriate establishment, she snatched Ruby's hand into her own, ignoring the now-cold sweat between their palms.

She pulled the smith into the inn, hopeful that no rank stenches would greet her. Unfortunately, the Watcher didn't see fit to spare her nostrils, and she nearly bailed straight back out of the building. The only thing that kept her from ditching the place was Ruby's anchoring grip.

"This is… okay," Ruby conceded, voice thick with deep-seated exasperation.

Weiss frowned, but gave the girl a begrudging nod. Their clammy hands separated once again as they made their way to the innkeeper. He regarded them with pursed lips and a raised eyebrow, but didn't say anything.

"Two rooms, please," Ruby asked.

"Just one, actually," Weiss corrected. "I'm not staying."

The man snorted, then gave the both of them an appraising look. "Coin," he calmly demanded, open hand extending towards them.

Weiss moved to supply him, but Ruby stopped her with a nudge and a look, one which told the heiress to let her handle this. Curious, Weiss let the girl reach into her own cloak and pull a pouch free. She made a show of sighing forlorn into the open bag before slowly reaching in and pulling free a pitiful stack of gold. Ruby leaned forward with begging eyes as she dumped the money into his hand.

The man stared, unimpressed. Ruby deflated, then begrudgingly gave him another stack, slightly less meager than the last. Weiss felt bad watching the girl give her money away, but she had insisted.

"Third from the left," the innkeeper stated, then turned back to whatever he'd been busying himself with before.

The two went up their second pair of stairs that night, following the innkeeper's directions until they both stepped into the empty room. It was a far cry from Weiss' own bedroom.

Ruby removed her shoes at the entrance and proceeded to fall face-first into the bed. Weiss stared for only a couple seconds, then forced herself to turn around. Ruby was safe. She had to go home.

"Why did you 'have to' find me?"

The words nailed Weiss' feet to the floor. "Pardon?"

"You said you had to find me," Ruby recalled, now sitting at the edge of the bed. "Why?"

Weiss slowly turned, nearly gasping when she laid eyes on the girl before her. Ruby had shed her cloak, revealing her dark hair and rolled up sleeves, under which lay forearms that looked like they could swing a hammer for days on end. Weiss gulped, mouth suddenly dry. "W-well, I, er… I wanted to find Rupert," she answered lamely.

Ruby sighed and rolled her eyes. "I know that, Weiss, but why?"

For some reason, hearing her name pass the smith's lips made Weiss' heart pound. Perhaps it was the informality of it, or maybe it was just the way it sounded, but she wanted to hear it again. "Rupert is… or was an honorable fighter," she stated, the words slithering out like a lie. "I just wanted to congratulate him."

Ruby's shoulders sagged, but she continued to stare at Weiss like the heiress was holding something back. "Is that it?"

No. That wasn't it. Not even close. Unfortunately, Weiss didn't actually know what 'it'would be. "Y-yes."

Ruby looked at her with a frown, then averted her eyes. "Well, Rupert's gone. So what now?"

Weiss blinked. "Rupert's not gone."

"I'm not Rupert!" Ruby shouted, making the heiress jump. Her voice went quiet again. "I'm just me, and I'll be gone tomorrow."

"What?" Gone? Weiss shook her head. "You can't be serious. The tournament is almost over!"

Ruby threw her hands up. "What else am I supposed to do! I got into this to prove that I'm more than just a smith, that I can fight and that I can handle it,but I can't! Every single fight I almost die, and I would have died to a bunch of hapless drunks if you hadn't rescued me!"

Weiss watched the smith's head fall into her hands.

"I just wanted to prove that I can handle it, but I'm not strong enough," the smith mumbled into her palms. "Dad was right."

Weiss found herself stepping forward, reaching towards the girl. "That's not—"

Ruby slapped her hands away and shot to her feet. She stomped into Weiss' space, finger firmly poking her chest. "You don't know anything about me, so don't act like it now!"

Weiss winced and recoiled. "That's not true!" She reached up and grabbed the girl's hand. "I know… I know that you're brave. And strong."

Ruby tried to retreat, confused, but the heiress only followed her steps. "Huh? I'm—"

"You're an incredible warrior, Ruby, you fight like a genius!" Weiss marveled, unable to stop the gush of words now that it had started. "I've never seen someone do what you do!"

The girl was so caught up in complementing Ruby that she didn't realize she was about to back her up into the bed. "Wait, Weiss, you—"

"So much style, and you do it with a giant meat cleaver! Brilliant!"

Ruby blushed. Her words weren't getting through to Weiss, but Weiss' words were certainly getting through to her. Words like 'brilliant'and 'genius'usually stayed far from her orbit— she couldn't even read.

"And that fight against Neptune, when you took the Vaux's axe? You were right under me! I nearly swooned!"

What. "Swoo—"

"Yes, swoon!" Weiss suddenly separated from the smith, her pale face now a bright red. "I mean, er, I did." Trying to save some face, she let out a hollow chuckle.

Ruby folded her arms. "For Rupert," she added.

"For, uh… Rupert. Yes," Weiss responded, insides twisting with guilt. Why did that feel like a lie? "But—"

"But Rupert is a girl," Ruby finished for her, frown intensifying. "And girls cannot fancy one another."

The words struck Weiss, not because of their content but from the way she said it. It was true. Girls cannot fancy one another, it was a simple fact of life. But why did she say it like she was mocking the idea? "R-right," Weiss responded, unsure of what else to say.

Ruby let out a frustrated growl, hands balling up at her sides. She began pacing around the room with heavy, angry stomps. "And that's perfectly fair! Yes! People can do whatever they want so long as they don't fancy the people on their own side! Feel free to murder in a tourney, or even on the streets— oh yes, you'refit for the flock! Perfect!"

Weiss held her hands close to her chest. Wherever this was coming from, she wasn't sure where it would end up.

"But trying to protect your friend? Oh, you're a fay-fucking black sheep now!" Weiss' eyes widened as the girl exclaimed. "It's not like I would've been welcome into the flock, anyways. I'm unnatural. Girls don't naturally like girls, but everybody else can! Everything except for whatever I do is perfectly okay!"

Weiss stared at the fuming smith. She held an anger that Weiss knew all too well— rage and disgust at the world around her, all turned back on herself and buried deep, stuffed into a jar that would inevitably break. "Ruby, it's okay."

"Don't tell me that!" Ruby whirled on her, silver eyes swimming with angry tears. "You don't know what it's like!"

"Yes I do," Weiss automatically countered, unbidden. She floundered the moment the words passed her lips, but there was no way to put them back. She met Ruby's eyes, realization cresting over her face. "Oh."

AN: ha hahaha hahahaHAhaha