Ruby pressed her face into the glass and breathed. She admired (read: 'was depressed by') the way her breath fogged over it, how the grey cloud covered up the words 'MASTER OF SCIENCE' so 'BIOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING' sat alone with its utility, just as she was doing. Ruby Rose, Bionic Tech. Ruby Rose, Prosthetic Adjuster. Ruby Rose, Aug Unclogger.

Not Ruby Rose, Design Lead. Not even Ruby Rose, project manager, which had no impressive capital letters.

Ruby Rose. The grease monkey you call when your tech itches. The one who has a master's degree from an ivy league school just… hanging up, right there in the back of her shop. There, under the certification for building code compliance. No, to the right of the business certification. Left of the perishable bodily components handling certification. Above the food safety cert— shit, why does she even have that up— no, no, it's like a cross, okay? All her shittier, less important and significantly less expensive pieces of paper kinda orbit her (supposedly) very important piece of (significantly) more expensive paper.

Not that anyone ever looks. Always just, 'hey, you're a tech! Fix my arm!'

'Sure thing sir/ma'am/other, what's your biont level?'

'Biont?'

'Biological integration?'

'Oh, this is all cyber.'

'I am a bio-tech engineer.'

'So… you can't fix my arm?'

'...'

'Well?'

'Fine, but it's an extra 50 Lien.'

'Still the best rates!'

Ruby sighed again, because she did have the best rates, and that made her very poor. Her diet for most of this year had been instant noodles and cigarettes— Yang made her cut the cigs out about a month ago, so it was just noodles now. Noodles and plain, non-cancerous air that would carry her into a long and full life of doing absolutely nothing fulfilling or useful.

Her fingers itched to be holding a cig. Her lungs beggedto be stuffed with smoke. Her brain mewled for nicotine.

But she was a good sister, and Yang was an even better one, so she'd listen. Even if Yang might get to come around every few months to hold her accountable, she wouldn't need to. She could trust Ruby for one thing, at least.

But fuck was it hard not to give up. She even had a pack in her desk drawer, under a bunch of other stupid, useless things. It was wrapped in electrical tape— her 'suicide box', because the moment she opened it, Yang would murder her ass. The whole thing, her entire ass. Each cheek reduced to atoms, their destruction so cataclysmic that any stuff or part of Ruby would return to stardust.

Ruby, with the most labored of her sighs, rubbed a finger on the fogged glass front of her framed degree, drawing a little happy face on it. Then she put bags under the eyes, then used her pinky-nail to drag one tear drop down, down, until the fog gave way to clear glass.

She'd quit today. This was it. No more bullshit— she'd close shop and enlist with the Pilots, with Yang, do something more with her life. Space adventures. Big mech. Star monsters. Why the fuck did she go to college?

"Hallo?"

Ruby jolted, scaring so wildly that she knocked her degree off the wall. It tumbled to the floor. Glass broke.

"Fuck!" Ruby cried, scrambling to pick up the frame. Sad shards spilled out of the front, further shattering on the concrete floor. "Aw, shi-hi-hiiiiit."

"Entschúldigung, is zis a, ah, bad time?"

"J-just a minute!" Ruby cried from the back as she threw on her work gloves, carelessly stepping over the glass with her heavy boots. Leaving her busted degree on the desk, she rushed from the back room and grabbed her brick-colored work coat, throwing it over her shoulders and hiking the tall collar all the way up in one smooth, practiced move. "Okayokayokay," she rushed, snapping her goggles around her forehead. "Whacanuhdofor… ya…"

Ruby's voice trailed into nothing as she rounded into the shop proper, bringing to view one of the most magnificent chordates Ruby had ever seen. She stood halfway in the threshold of her humble shoppe, bringing an aura of magnificence that even made all the nearby grease stains appear regal. She was tall— at least six inches taller than Ruby— and dressed so sharply that Ruby had to look away lest her corneae be scratched (or her blush be seen).

Before averting her gaze, Ruby caught that she was garbed in a regal military cut: white jacket of authority, double-breasted with silver buttons, open at the upper left corner, trimmed in bluish-silver filigree; white trousers, cuffed just enough to show the first silver clasp of vaguely familiar boots— familiar in form to Yang's tall, armored drop-boots, but different in their perfect, glossy white shine.

What made Ruby's heart really beat was the gloves. Light grey leather, perfectly featureless, but Ruby would bet her kidneys that they hid something truly magnificent.

"Entschuldigen Sie," the woman said with noticeable disdain. "I had hoped zat, er… Ruby Rose vould be in ze Crescent Rose, but you must be ze assistant. Tell me, ven vill your employer be present?"

Ruby pressed her teeth together, but kept her grimace behind her lips. The woman's accent was so… odd. She'd spoken to a couple of Atlas-born people and they didn't talk like this.

"Hallo!" the woman said loud and sharp, making Ruby jump. "I have asked you ein qvestion!"

Ruby shook her head to clear out the brain-gunk. "N-no! No, I'm Ruby, this is my shop," she clarified, gesturing towards the workshop interior before nervously tugging her collar up. It reached up to her jaw, so she hoped the ruddy color would hide any blush. "I'm the only tech working here. What's your biont level?"

The woman stepped fully into her shop— god, even her walk was a perfectly graceful stride, long and smooth— and Ruby immediately noticed something with her gait: a slight bounce in the legs with each step. Perfectly soundless, unnoticeable to most, but Ruby could recognize strider augs from a mile away on a foggy night. Since her kidneys were already on the table, Ruby would bet a lung that they were giving her issues. Milspec augs like that weren't made for survivors.

"I vill see your Spezifikationen first," the woman said, barely regarding Ruby with her glacial eyes— it was an imperious affect, but Ruby could tell she did it for a reason: no glint or sparkle under the intense shop lights, and she wasn't blinking; probably AA or SDC optics, sixth or seventh gen tetrachromats so she could see Ruby's pretty-woman-embarrassment on a whole extra spectrum. They needed no lubrication from the lids, and keeping her gaze off Ruby was probably something she did out of common courtesy— milspec eyes had some pretty intrusive auto-scanners.

"Fräulein!" she shouted again, "Qvit your gawking unt show me your Spezifikationen!"

Minor secondary vibrato, probably a vox-entagler riding on a third lung, all bracketed over the— "S-sorry!" Ruby shook her head hard. "Yes. My, er… specifications. You mean my cert-ifications, right?"

The woman scowled. "Ja."

Ruby nodded thrice, then did a double-take as she got an extra look at the woman's face. She was painfully hot, and she had a giant rip of a scar up her face— left side, down from the hairline, over the eye, disappearing under the subtle, straight lines of an entire lower jaw replacement. "Dear fucking god," Ruby breathed, nearly drooling, completely incapable of preventing what darted next from her lips: "How much of you is left?"

If this woman's optics had laser-glare functionality, Ruby would probably be dead. "You are very lucky," she seethed, fists clenched and face reddening with rage, voice and accent perfectly manicured for maximum threat reception. "If zere vere any other bio techs on zis godforsaken station, you would be gurgling on vacuum."

Such a threat— one which could easily be carried out, judging by the augs Ruby had seen so far— would probably drive a normal, god-fearing person to shrivel. Perhaps whimper or grovel, or at least flee to fulfill whatever the woman had asked.

Unfortunately, Ruby Rose was not a normal, god-fearing person. She was an abnormal, hot-lady-fearing person, and receiving a backhanded compliment with that death threat was exactly the kind of thing that gave her awful thoughts. Thoughts like 'what that jaw do?' or 'can you see what you're doing to me on infra?' or 'could you deploy those striders right on my throat please?'

Instead of airing any of her horniness, she managed to say: "O-one moment, uh…" and let herself trail off, waiting for a name.

"Captain to you," she said decisively, her eyes finally drifting to Ruby, dragging their icy gaze all over the girl, judging her. Scanning her. Probably detecting exactly which parts of the little tech wanted to squirm between her teeth.

Ruby shivered, but managed to bite back the shaky 'fuck' that almost came out. "O-okay, er… Captain." The lady smirked at Ruby's shaky voice, innocently unaware of why she was shaking. "I will need a proper name for the transaction, but I can get that when—"

"No!" the captain cried, lunging for Ruby just as the girl had started to turn. She grabbed the little tech around a shoulder, her grip tight through the coat's heavy protective peace. Ruby squeaked at the contact, nearly buckling.

"N-no," the captain repeated— less frantic, but no less urgent than before. "No names, please. Off ze books."

Ruby's dark eyebrows shot up high enough to nudge her goggles. "Uh… that's illegal."

The captain slowly nodded, but now clamped both hands around Ruby's shoulders, forcing their gazes to lock together. "Not for you," she insisted, "not if you're doing it to survive."

Ruby blinked. This was so fucking bad. Not only was she getting actually threatened— in a very real way, with very real risk of bodily harm— she was also getting unreasonably turned on by it. Her hands— whatever was under those gloves, they're just… god, she could break her like a fucking glowstick, and Ruby's only response would be a simpering 'thank you, Captain'.

"Y-you— you're threatening me?" Ruby said, her voice quivering.

The woman's grip tightened even more on Ruby's shoulders, forcing the tech to grunt as her bones were pressed in her vice grip. "Ja, Fräulein. I am threatening you. If my name shows up on any of zose papers of yours," she brought her lips to Ruby's ear, whispering. "I vill rip you apart."

Ruby bit her lip. She may have mewled a little, but the woman didn't notice. "R-right," she conceded (as if she were ever going to put up a fight). "Well, Captain, I will, uh… get… get my certs if you… still wanna see."

Captain Hot'n'Scary held Ruby there, scoffed right into her ear (fuck), and gave the girl one more squeeze that almost buckled her bones. "No, Ruby," she said, backing up just far enough for Ruby to breathe again. "I suppose, if ve are all doing some under-ze-table business, I can forgo ze inspections."

"I-I can get them," Ruby offered, kinda desperate to show off her degree in the hopes of getting praise (or pity) from this lady. "It's really no big. I mean, I do have a real Master's in Biotech."

The captain waved her off. "Not necessary."

Ruby deflated. "Oh… okay. Well what's your biont level then?"

The captain eyed her for a while, then said: "Thirteen."

Ruby almost laughed at how stupid and terrible of a lie that was. "No way," she objected, unable to help herself. "Those striders are ten on their own, plus the eyes— three each, I think— for sixteen, lung and vox run you up to twenty, and I guarantee you've got some tens for arms. Nerve bracketing is probably five on its own, plus interface and compatibility, plus the jaw, plus whatever nanos are holding you together…" Ruby tapped her chin. "At least forty. Forty… eight, I'd bet."

The woman sucked her teeth and frowned, impressed. "Fick mich, you are…" she wiped her forehead, brushing a stray white hair behind her ear. "Zat is almost spot-on. I'm at fifty."

Ruby huffed. "What'd I miss?"

The captain flicked the shell of one ear. "Cochlears."

"Milspec?"

She shook her head. "No, just normal biont cochlears; I vas deafened at a young age."

Ruby 'huh'd, then motioned deeper into her workshop. "Well then, let's see what you need."

The captain bowed her head politely, seemingly having forgotten how this was being done under threat, and followed the tech in.

"Fifty, huh?" Ruby mused, motioning to the large inclined seat of her operating table. "You must have some miraculous compatibility."

The woman carefully set herself in the long chair, wincing as her spine rested on the 45-degree incline. "Nein, I have shunts."

Ruby nodded, then jumped when she realized this woman— who couldn't be more than a couple years her senior— just casually dropped that her fucking brain is shunted. "Y-you— you—"

She rolled her eyes at the tech. "Ja, ja, I'm shunted— ooooh, sehr spooky!"

"S-sorry, uh…" Ruby gulped, deciding to shut the fuck up on that front. "Could I see your hand, please?"

The captain gave her a wary look. "Do you need to?"

"If you don't want to corrupt my diagnostic tool with your shunts, then yes," Ruby said, adding, "Please."

"Fine," the woman huffed, unbuttoning her jacket.

Ruby leaned back and watched, her mouth parching more with each slipping silver circle. She didn't ask why the captain had to take her jacket off—you know what they say about free equines and their orifices— and just remained silent, her eyes tracking the moment of each gloved finger until the jacket was fully off. The captain handed it to Ruby, her snug grey fatigues now revealed, sleeved all the down to her gloves.

"Hold zis," she commanded, handing the jacket over, and Ruby was all-too-happy to obey. The captain then, as if she knew Ruby was watching— slavering, more like— slowly tugged the tip of each finger, teasing the glove away before suddenly ripping the whole thing off her hand.

Ruby leaned in. "Oh, fuck me," she moaned shamelessly. "What is this?"

The hand was perfectly white, perfectly smooth, and decorated with flowery lines of silver like some porcelain doll, even though Ruby knew just from a look this it was universes away from such fragility. The fingers were so fucking beautiful— perfectly interlocked, trimmed silver at the knuckles, long and smooth and so, so fucking hot.

Then the captain flipped her hand, showing Ruby her palm, and it took everything for the tech not to just put her stupid idiot face right fucking in it. The palms had fucking creases— perfectly useless, but god were those faint little lines some of the sexiest things Ruby had ever seen.

"W-where… where's the… uh…" fuck, she couldn't speak. She couldn't move. She couldn't think, save for the single blaring desire for that hand to be grabbing her whole entire face.

The captain looked at her strangely, which was fair since she was probably making some very disturbing faces, then tapped the base of her wrist. A panel— dear unholy fuck, Ruby hadn't even seen an outline for it— popped open, revealing an interior of shining chrome with golden circuitry and a single tempting input port.

Ruby, unfortunately, was not able to stop her brain from telling her to put her tongue in it. She even leaned down a little before she decided to keep living with all her limbs, instead pulling back and playing it off like she'd seen some dust or something. "Uh… huhuh… okay, uh… Cap," Ruby mumbled, her brain stupid and dumb and mushy. "I'm gonna stick it in ya."

The captain didn't have time to question her before Ruby slipped the diagnostic jack into its circular socket, making her jump at the sudden intrusion.

Ruby, remembering she was a technician who was being threatened (and hopefully still getting paid) for this, tried to wall off her raging hypothalamus by stuffing her nose in the diagnostic tool's display. She immediately caught the captain's real name, which shouldn't have surprised her— something as expensive as these arms had to be custom— but no tech worth their salt would be able to keep their brows down when the name 'Weiss Schnee' popped onto their diagnostic feed. It was all Ruby could do to flee to her customer service script.

"What're you having issues with?" she asked, steady and practiced.

Weiss fucking Schnee, who did not know that Ruby knew who she was, said: "My haptics have been touchy, especially in ze hands, and my striders aren't keeping height on their own."

Ruby hummed, even though her brain was exploding. "Mhm, oh yeah. What else?"

"My spine hurts sometimes ven I sit down. And… my hips," she looked away, her eyes and face falling into something ashamed. "They… they hurt."

Oh fuck, oh god, oh fuck, she was sad and beautiful and Ruby wanted to take all the pain away forever. "Mhm, yeah, anything else?"

"My left eye, sometimes it flickers. My right is fine."

"Oh yeah?"

"And my right cochlear blew on my last drop. That's it."

Ruby perked up. "Drop?"

The captain eyed her warily, then pointed to the jacket that was still in Ruby's lap. "Drop-Captain," she clarified. "Eighteenth Martyrs Company."

"Martyrs?" Ruby parrotted. "You're not a Pilot?"

Captain Weiss (fucking) Schnee (who was in Ruby's shop, on her table, with her mind-blowing augs and everything), sighed a painful, longing sigh. "No, not after…" she clamped her mouth shut as if she knew she shouldn't say something, but then she said it anyways: "I was piloting with my brother and sister, station-breaching."

"What station?"

Weiss' face crumpled. "Fort Oz."

Anything Ruby could've said shot back down her throat. She knew about Fort Oz— Yang had told her secondhand stories from her wife's personal experience, and it did not paint a pretty picture. The picture was pretty fucking grim, actually— blood-gouache on a medium of corpses and shredded steel— a battle of gov-on-corp violence where the defenders fought like lions for their corporate overlords, then vented the entire station once they started losing.

And if Weiss breached the station…

Ruby lowered her diag tool and stared at the captain like she was a corpse.

Weiss didn't flinch at the technician's look. "I vas the only survivor, though ze station left me mit einem… parting gift," she said, raising both her arms a little. "Und mein Vater… he told me I couldn't pilot without real arms—"

"That's bullshit," Ruby immediately objected.

Captain Weiss Schnee raised a hand. "I know, but zat didn't matter. He put me in striders, stuffed me until my biont vas in ze thirties, zen shunted me so I could handle more."

Ruby slumped back towards her diag. "Oh. I'm…"

"Don't."

"Okay."

Weiss looked away, guilty. "I'm… sorry. For doing zis— for making you do zis. I… I can handle it normally, b-but lately it has… it's been…" she trailed off, tugging nervously at her sleeve.

Ruby put her free hand on the captain's shoulder, and she was surprised to find that it was still hard aug despite being so high up. "Too much?" she supplied.

The captain nodded. "Ja… too much."

Ruby tried to ignore the voice crack, but she couldn't stop her own eyes from venturing to its place of origin.

Her bottom lip was just a little paler than the top. Was it softer?

"And you?" Weiss asked suddenly, making Ruby jump and realize she needed to be writing notes on the diag. She scrambled for her tiny notebook and started jotting feverishly.

"M-me?"

Weiss gave her a 'who else, dummkopf?' look. "Ja, you. I gave you ze tragic backstory, boo-hoo, now you vill give me yours."

Ruby coughed. "Aha-ha-uh… I… don't have one?"

The captain rolled her eyes. "Ja, you do. Everyone does." She scanned Ruby deeply, making the girl squirm. "Dead mom?"

Ruby seized, her back shooting up straight as she froze.

Captain Weiss Schnee grinned terribly. "Bing-o!"

Ruby's lips curled into a pained snarl. "It's not funny."

Weiss waved her off. "My sister and brother died in front of me. Of all people, I am ze only one who can laugh."

Ruby's snarl didn't ease, but her eyes did slide away concedingly. "Diag's almost done."

The captain looked at her, visibly brimming with words that she managed to keep at bay.

Ruby pulled the plug free. It didn't feel as sexy this time, even if Weiss did make a little noise. Ruby checked her notes and sighed.

"Alright, definitely need to decompress your striders, they're critically overdue. Looks like you've got some plaque around your C-6 bracket— we'll scrape that out— and one of your electrochem channels is misaligned with your eye. On top of that, your soft is… well, it's definitely milspec."

"Sheiße?"

Ruby gave her a tentative nod. "I'm pretty sure that means shit, in which case yes. It's shit. That's why your haptics are bungered, the hardware is too good for its software." She gently lifted one of the hands, turning it, admiring it. "Miles too good."

The captain pulled her hand away. "Vell fix me, zen! I'm not paying you for nothing!"

"You're… paying me?"

Weiss scoffed. "Of course I'm paying you, idiot! Any good business arrangement cannot be founded vithout mutual benefit!" She pointed to the jacket— without her glove, Ruby could see every flawless articulation of those fingers, the perfect movements, the impression of fingernails carefully formed in the not-porcelain material. "Mein checkbook, give it over."

Ruby followed the captain's orders, rummaging through her interior jacket pockets (wow they're spacious) for the finger-thick, rectangular grey slate. The little tablet had a smooth, matte texture that made Ruby want to take her gloves off and rub it in her fingers. Though, to be fair, she'd wanted to take the gloves off since Weiss sat down.

Ruby handed the thing over.

"When's your birthday?" the captain asked out of the blue, making Ruby blink.

"Uh…" she checked the wall clock, reading the relative orbital date aboard the station. "In a month?"

Weiss executed a series of rapid taps on its dim amber screen, causing it to ring with a pitchy ch-chrrrrrr as it gradually spat out a small slip of paper. The captain ripped the paper off at its perforated base and handed it to Ruby.

Ruby took it, careful of the thin and flimsy material. She read the print on its face:

PAY TO THE ORDER OF: RUBY ROSE

LIEN AMOUNT IN WORDS: _ LIEN AMOUNT: _

MEMO: Birthday gift

THIS CHIT IS PROMISED TO THE ACCOUNT OF Weiss Schnee AND IS FUNGIBLE TO THE SUM OF LIEN PROVIDED HEREIN.

AA7738466 BB5317739 CC0000922

Ruby reread it, then scrunched her eyes and brows at what was missing. "Not to be rude, but uh…" she waved the chit and pointed at the blank spots. "You forgot to put the money down."

Captain Weiss Schnee lazily turned her eyes up and away, pouting her lips in obvious conspiracy. "Ach Scheiße, vatever vill I do? Eine Diebinhas her filthy little mittens on ein blank cheque! Mein Gott! She could do anything vith zat kind of money!"

Ruby blinked. "Oh."

The captain leaned towards Ruby, pinching the chit between two impossibly gentle fingers. Her ring and pinky fingers reached out to gently brush against the technician's gloves. She batted her long white eyelashes over those beautiful blue optics, one gloved hand going back to flip her gorgeous, colorless braid over her front. She teased the pristine white ends between index and thumb. It looked so soft.

"Unless you vould prefer something different over…" she rolled her eyes and grinned, as if laughing at her own joke. "Vell, vatever it is ze Schnee fortune could possibly get you. A new shop, new tools, your own droid, your own ship…" her grin fell a little. "Please don't get ze ship."

Ruby looked at her, looked at the chit between them, and smacked her lips. "Yeah no, let's fuck."

Weiss Schnee, Drop-Captain of the Eighteenth Martyrs Company, reeled back like Ruby had shot her, nearly toppling fully from the examination chair. Her whole face went wide with shock. "Eh? You— you know I vas joking, right?"

Ruby scowled and shot to her feet, stricken. The Drop-Captain's jacket tumbled from her lap to the dirty floor. "Seriously?" the tech whined. "Come on!"

"Vat do you mean 'seriously?' I'm ze one who should be saying zat!" She thrust an accusatory finger towards Ruby. "You are ze freak here!"

"Am I?" Ruby asked, waving the chit dismissively. "Super hot customer comes in with the sexiest augs I've ever seen, ticks all my boxes— and okay yeah, maybe those boxes are a little problematic but you can't kinkshame me— then she offers to bang! That's, like, my dream!"

Weiss gaped with disgust. "Your dream ist die plot zu einem Porno!"

"You're the one who offered!"

"I vas joking!"

"Well it didn't seem like it!" Ruby mimicked her hand being caressed. "You were touching me and shit! With that hand! God!"

"V-vell— I—"

Ruby verbally chased the captain, her voice taunting. "What? Huh?"

"I didn't— you—" Weiss turned a hot, fuming red, pent up in the face and constipated with words. "You veren't zupposed to like it!"

"Why not!"

"Weil—" Weiss motioned over herself obviously, but her movements slowed with realization as she stared at the technician before her. Her eyes flicked around, one synthetic lip tucking in lopsided to be worried twixt incisors and canines. "Weil…"

"What?" Ruby scoffed. "Oh come on, don't give me that 'Ich bin inzecure auf mein zexy-ass augmentatzionen' crap."

Weiss ducked into herself. Her eyes slid away. The synthetic bottom lip went deeper between her teeth, creasing indicatively of the points that tortured it.

"No, come on," Ruby groaned, nudging Weiss' hard shoulder. "You're not serious, right?"

Weiss did not meet her eyes.

Ruby sagged, missing the ease with which she could imagine this woman turning her into paste. "Come on," she urged, offering a hand up. "Let's get you fixed up."

The girl— she seemed more like 'the girl' than 'the captain' now— looked up helplessly, stoking something that Ruby was a little more ashamed to acknowledge than her 'step on me mommy' side. Weiss' voice came weakly, its shake audibly tickling her vox-entangler. "B-but, I thought you—"

The technician looked away. She couldn't look at Weiss like that, those pleading bionic blues below, staring up, wide and unsure. She'd think awful things— even more awful than before, things with wires and teeth and mods.

"Don't worry about it," Ruby said through her teeth, reluctantly waving the chit in the other hand. "I've still got the money. Let's go."

Weiss turned warily to Ruby's hand, then to the (probably dirtied) jacket. She took the former and winced at herself.

Ruby switched their joined hands into a clasp, expectant of a hefty augweight as she buckled down and lifted with both legs, helping to bring the Drop-Captain up on her feet. She nearly let Weiss go when the girl's striders depressed with a long, audible kssh. Weiss staggered at the unexpected drop in height and squeaked, grimacing hard as her back arched.

The captain let Ruby's hand go to clutch her shoulders instead, bearing her augweight down like the technician was a wobbly red cane. Ruby pushed up with her legs in response, her face pinched with effort.

"E-entschuldigen Sie!" Weiss squeaked, glowing with effort, pain, and embarrassment. "I'm sorry, it— it—"

Ruby shifted, pulling the captain's arm over her shoulders for support. Weiss leaned into the offered assistance guiltily, still sputtering until Ruby interrupted. "Is it your spine?"

Weiss looked away. "N-nein."

"The hips?"

Weiss reddened, her voice slipping out so quietly that Ruby nearly missed it. "Ja," she whispered.

Ruby bit her cheeks. The captain took two steps with her, easing off but not relinquishing herself fully from the shorter girl. Their height difference was significantly less noticeable now, and getting even smaller with each passing moment. Weiss looked down. Her perfectly white pants were turning a bright, angry red around the left calf.

"Er, Ruby?"

Ruby had seen it before Weiss even noticed. "I saw," she confirmed, absently taking more of the shrinking captain over her shoulders. "It's just extensor fluid. Your pants are fucked, but it's nothing I can't fix. It doesn't hurt, does it?"

Weiss watched the red spot grow, eyes wide, lips tight against her teeth. She stared as if scared of her own augs. "N-no," she admitted. "But…"

Ruby started shuffling towards the workroom again, ignoring the way Weiss' pants bulged with each step— a result of her movement squirting extensor fluid from the breach. "Did your service tech never decompress you? All your soft's old too— what did they maintain?"

Weiss gave her that look again, wide and helpless, and her voice was tiny, shaking her double-vibrato. "S-service… tech?"

Dread punched right down Ruby's throat, fisted around in her lungs, and made her cough. "You had a maintenance service, right?" she asked, knowing Weiss would guiltily shake her head and look even helpless.

Weiss shook her head, looking even more helpless, which did nothing good to Ruby. She took on more of the girl's weight, doing it without thought and absently noting that, if she set the poor thing down, the height advantage would turn Ruby-wise.

"Eh… ve have medics?" Weiss postulated, audibly unsure of her own words. "Vell, ze infantry have medics. We, er…"

Weiss trailed off and stayed shamefully silent. Ruby huffed, limping instep with her for a dozen more labored feet before sitting her down on the operating table. The captain winced as her hips made contact with the surface, but tried to hide her pain by looking at her shoes.

"It's… it's not… I am nobody else's responsibility," Weiss said— more to herself than Ruby. "I've been given zo much, it is my fault I have not taken care of mein body, I… I should have—"

Ruby shushed her by cupping both of the girl's cheeks in her hands and tilting her face up. Weiss met the tech's gaze for a second before her eyes darted away, her blush rising to warm Ruby's palms. "You're supposed to have a maintenance tech," Ruby asserted, leaning in to deliver her point. "That's not my opinion, that's code."

Weiss moved in Ruby's hands, a half-hearted attempt to remove her face from her grasp that Ruby didn't permit. "Vat vould you know about code?" Weiss challenged, limply slumping into the tech's hands.

Ruby leveled her with a flat gaze. "Do you know how many of you I've fixed?"

Weiss matched her eyes, but her own icy optics were unsure. From this close, there was a wine-colored sparkle visible between the semi-synthetic threads of her irises. Ruby felt the synthetic jaw shift with a gulp.

"Can you fix me?" Weiss hesitantly murmured, her double-vibrato a quiet and tempting sound.

Ruby set her jaw, grinding her molars as her eyes ducked from the captain's gaze. She tried to force images into her mind— Weiss atop her, Weiss grinning down at her, Weiss fitting the point of one strider between throat and jaw— but nothing held, not with the captain asking that, not with the captain in her hands, not with the captain looking at her. Ruby's mind turned to other things.

Open panels, tasting like batteries; the threatening tug of a wire between her fingers, current that could kill; the satisfying resistance of a synthetic line, the press of her jaw and the gracious snap beneathher canines, the tang of electrochem leaking all over her tongue—

'Don't worry, I can fix you.'

'R-Ruby, stop— this is too much, you're scaring me.'

'Scaring—'

'I'm sorry, I… I have to go.'

'But you're—'

'I can't be here right now. I'll fix it. Bye.'

"Fräulein?"

Ruby hissed through her teeth, her chest feeling like someone had ventilated it with a hardpoint railgun. She dropped her hands from Weiss' face, her voice dead. "Take everything off and lay down."

"T-take my—"

"Yes, take your clothes off," Ruby commanded harshly. "I can't fix your augs if I can't get to them. You can leave your bottom parts covered, but I need access to the top."

The captain's lips stretched into a shaky line, her eyes darting around unsurely.

"Do I need to look away?" Ruby offered.

Weiss looked at her, then down at her hands, then only halfway back up at Ruby. "Nein… no… maybe. Ich kann nicht—"

Ruby started to turn, hoping Weiss hadn't seen her scowl.

"No!" Weiss darted out and grabbed one of Ruby's wrists, holding her. "No. You can…" she avoided Ruby's eyes and pursed her lips, her voice small. "You can look."

Ruby's gut wrenched hard. "You don't have to," she insisted, turning away. "You shouldn't."

Weiss tugged her wrist. Ruby only turned her eyes to the girl. She looked so fragile on that table, despite how much of her was metal and polymer. "I'm sorry," Weiss said weakly, quietly, even with two voices. "I vas… overconfident in meine teasing."

Ruby turned her head a little, just enough to show Weiss that she was listening.

"I think… if you really vanted to, you could…" Weiss let her hand go and shrugged with false flippancy. A treacherous blush crawled down her neck, disappearing beneath her tight collar. "Have me. If you vant. For vhatever reason."

The air came thinly to Ruby as though Vale station's backup life-support had kicked on. She bit her cheeks hard to keep herself from hyperventilating, though she still took overly-fast breaths through her nostrils.

"Ruby?"

Ruby screwed her eyes shut and yanked her hand out of Weiss' grip, turning her back on the captain. "Take your clothes off," she commanded again, shakily this time. "Then lay down across the table."

"You're not going to—"

"No!" Ruby bit out. "No. I'm not." Then, through her teeth, she added: "You're already fucked enough."

There was a choked syllable behind her, then another— objections aborted before they could even start. Clothes shuffled behind her, servos making tiny noises as Weiss obliged to disrobing. Fabric hit the floor. Weiss said nothing.

Weiss continued saying nothing. Getting impatient, Ruby asked: "Are you done—"

Two white arms wrapped around Ruby's waist, pulling her into the body that pressed against her back. Even through the heavy work-coat, Ruby could feel how warm and soft she was. She could feel the captain's forehead against her back, nuzzling in, just tall enough to be above her shoulder blades. Weiss didn't say anything.

"Don't," Ruby begged, her voice hollow. "You wouldn't like it. You were right; I'm a freak."

"Freaky, ja?" Weiss chuckled. "I can do that."

"No, you can't," Ruby insisted. "It's… fucked up. I scared my last partner off."

"Mmm," Weiss hummed right against Ruby's back, pressing her body closer. "On top?"

Ruby thought about pulling away, but she'd never be able to break out of Weiss' arms. She wasn't sure if she wanted to. "It's… not my preference," Ruby admitted.

"Because you don't like it? Or have you not found one who could…" something pulled the back of Ruby's collar down, letting Weiss put her bare lips right onto her nape, "Take it?"

Ruby couldn't help the way her entire body went alight with energetic lust— she felt like she'd slept for a week, like she could use Weiss for days on end. The dual waves of dread and desire running up her spine made her head swim, keeping her silent.

"Vat did you do?" Weiss probed, drawling low, her vox-entangler's undertone like a lustful purr.

Ruby had never told anyone else, not even Yang, and she hadn't talked to her once-partner since. That truth had festered for so long that it pressurized in her sternum and burst out the instant it was disturbed. "W-wireplay," Ruby hastily admitted. "I know it's—"

Weiss pressed herself even closer and hummed, her mouth vibrating against Ruby's neck. "Ja? Zat's not too odd, vat did you—"

"I bit one of their synth lines!" Ruby whined, slapping both hands over her reddening face. "A-and… the electrochem…"

Weiss stiffened against her back. "You drank electrochem?"

"I couldn't help it!" Ruby groaned into her hands. "It was just there and I knew it wasn't toxic so—"

"Mein Gott…"

Ruby groaned, her arms dropping down as she slumped back against Weiss, defeated. "I know," she grumbled. "They haven't talked to me since."

Weiss backed up, but left her beautiful hands resting on Ruby's hips. With just a little force, the captain turned her around. Ruby pressed her face harder into her palms, ensuring she wouldn't catch sight of Weiss— if she saw, she'd do something terrible.

"Fräulein."

Weiss pressed her fingers into Ruby's hips, but the tech kept her eyes firmly closed.

"Ruby."

Against her better judgment, Ruby found her fingers parting around one eye, opening just enough to show Weiss' face.

The captain huffed through her nose, annoyed, before grabbing Ruby's wrists and yanking the gloves free, then pinning the tech's hands against her own naked sides. The tender skin was hot under Ruby's fingers. Her digits parted, slipping perfectly into the ridges of Weiss' ribcage— completely unbidden, but it was such a natural feeling that Ruby's scrunched-up eyes pried themselves open.

The thing under Ruby's hands couldn't be a Drop-Captain. It was too pretty, too soft, too petite. Its hair was too pristine. Its eyes were too deep. Its lips were too parted, panting too hard, breathing with too much need for someone that was supposed to charge headlong into suicidal danger.

Ruby held her eyes there, desperately bidding that they move no further south. Staring at Weiss' beautiful, mismatched lips, she watched them move into slow and perfect words.

"Ruby," the captain begged, dropping Ruby's wrists in favor of slipping her hands under the work coat. Bionic fingers snaked over the small of Ruby's back. "Look."

Ruby's jaw strained with effort. She did not look.

Weiss rolled her eyes and took one hand from her back, using it to pinch the taller girl's chin and force her gaze down.

Ruby tried to close her lids, but the muscles wouldn't listen. Her eyes were already looking. Seeing. Raking. Scraping over every inch of Drop-Captain Weiss Schnee. Her gaze followed a surgical line down the captain's windpipe, starting at the joint of neck and under-jaw, falling straight between the two mouth-watering collarbones and splitting at the end, just before the sternum. Ruby's eyes naturally drifted to her small, pale breasts, each one peaked by a rosy nipple that almost glowed in contrast to the pallor around them.

Ruby could've stared there forever if more lines hadn't caught her eyes. Each breast rested above long and straight scars that fell with sharp corners, forming clean, polygonal outlines on her lower ribs. She found her fingers following those lines, drifting over the soft skin. These were panels, she knew, for maintenance access or venting heat, and they'd rise from tiny pistons in each corner, just enough to let out heat or let a maintenance tool in. Or fingers. Or a tongue.

The technician's gunmetal-grey eyes, with pupils blown to wide sinkholes of desire, followed her fingers down. Her gaze stopped briefly at the perfect divot of Weiss' navel before finding the ridges of her hips, where the striders began.

The milspec augs were a harsh black void in contrast to the captain's white flesh, their sockets' large metal rings integrating with what'd once been a hip joint for a standard human femur. Now though, the joints were a skeletonized framework of scuffed black metal, light and strong, leading into curvatures of dark struts— almost buglike, almost thighlike, the hollows of their frames covered by strong poly-glass. Lines and wires ran behind the clear front, pumping current and semi-synthetic fluid from the body to the systems in her calves, both hydraulic and electric. Below that, her feet were just three raptor-like claws, padded and articulated to fit into shoes during civilian use.

But, when fully deployed, those claws would pinch together as an unguligrade ankle for a third leg section— long and thin— turning the almost-human legs into something like a dangerous cross of equine and arachnid.

It was the third time Ruby had seen striders, but the first time she'd seen biont striders. Rather than standard machine fluids and battery power, these would work from resources in Weiss' body, making them less reliant on outside service. How else could the poor girl have gone so long without maintenance?

Ruby's gaze affixed itself to the broken extensor. It no longer leaked, but the captain's even footing at least meant that the fluid balancing system worked, draining bothextensors instead of leaving Weiss to stagger on one long leg.

Ruby longed to see the striders fully deployed, for the Weiss before her to be Drop-Captain Weiss Schnee— dangerous, fast, and powerful— just so she could see that lofty figure reduced to splinters and scrap, to groans and mumbles, to whispers and mewling little noises that made no sense besides 'oh god, please don't stop' or whatever string of compound bullshit the captain's language could come up with.

The technician bucked her eyes up before she could lose herself between Weiss' legs, and finally beheld her beautiful arms.

The bionic appendages were joined to marbled polygonal sockets beside each collarbone, full arms and hands from shoulder to fingertip, their joints perfectly flush unlike the framework of her striders. She truly was like a porcelain doll, that artistic blue-silver filigree and trim running delightfully across the whole of each white arm. All the joints were flush, both arms formed like actual human arms instead of something mechanical and cybernetic, with immaculately-paneled shells to hide all her scandalous internals.

They were both masterworks of biotechnical engineering— Ruby could see that much with just a glance— but the true delight would be in what lies beneath. Ruby itched to run her nails along each panel, searching for the seams her naked eye couldn't see. She craved the satisfaction of pulling each panel from its housing. She longed to behold the masterpiece inside the shell, the parts nobody could appreciate but her, the things not even a fellow biotech could appreciate the right way.

How were the wires grouped? With the joints so flush and articulate, how did the fluid lines run between them? Did the elbows, shoulders, and wrists actually make contact? Were they lubricated with semisynth? Or were they magnetically interlocked?

What sound would Weiss make when she scraped her nails along the haptic panels? Would she squirm when her tongue ran across the underside? Would she jump when she felt teeth?

How far could the joints be plied before the captain whined? Would Weiss try to stop her from pulling the wires with her bare hands? What about the fluid lines? What kind of noises would the little captain make with her technician running amok on her internals, touching and licking and biting things that'd felt neither skin nor tongue nor teeth?

Would she push Ruby away in horror? Would she cry? Would she never see her again?

What did her electrochem taste like?

Ruby's breath caught in her throat. "You'll hate it," she found herself saying.

Weiss huffed indignantly. "Zat's not fair, I haven't even tried it."

"I scared you earlier," Ruby pointed out, feeling an awful hollow in her larynx. "You'll get scared and run away."

"Blödsinn!" Weiss objected. "Could you even imagine what I've run towards?"

"I'll mess with things that're weird, things you've never felt before."

Weiss stepped closer, both hands moving to lay flat on Ruby's collar. Her fingers toyed deviously with the technician's neckline. "Ja?" she drawled, her two-toned voice thick with arousal. "Versprichst du?"

Ruby bit her lips and looked away. "You're fucking with me," she muttered through the sides of her mouth.

A frustrated growl rumbled strangely through the captain's vox-entangler. "Du gehst mir auf den Keks!" she complained, both her hands thrusting upwards and slipping into Ruby's dark hair, yanking her down to be kissed with instant fervor.

Weiss' synthetic tongue, smooth and cold and languid, immediately invaded Ruby's mouth. With her head between the captain's resolute hands, Ruby could do nothing but paw at Weiss' sides and groan as the inhumanly long and articulate appendage explored her hard palate, swept beneath her tongue, then dragged itself along every one of Ruby's tastebuds, running down from the tip to to the base, reaching as deeply into Ruby as it could until the girl gagged.

Weiss' hard optics locked onto Ruby's, wide open the whole time to observe the process of her gaze— surprised as their lips met, relaxing into the pleasure when Weiss danced her tongue around hers, devolving into submission, then a watery-eyed panic as the captain made her gag. She slowly pulled her tongue back in, relishing in Ruby's pleading expression. Their lips separated with a pop.

Ruby reeled the moment she was released, pulling a line of saliva between them as she desperately panted. "Fuck!" she wheezed, "God! You— you—"

Weiss checked her nails and smirked. "Mhm?"

"You made me gag!" Ruby accused, bright red and feeling thoroughly violated.

"Ja?" Weiss chuffed. "Did I?"

"You— I— why—"

Weiss raised her eyebrows and blinked pointedly. She waited for the girl's failed objections to cease. When that didn't seem to be happening any time soon, she unhanded Ruby and sat back down onto the table, her legs crossing imperiously. "Well?" she drawled. "Are you going to fix me or not?"

Ruby shut her jabbering mouth, blinked at the smirking captain, and went to work.