Weiss huffed impatiently.

Ruby Rose, who was poking around in the captain's left rib-panel with her maintenance tool, perked up and lifted her goggles. "Are you okay?" she asked genuinely. "This doesn't hurt does it?"

Weiss, unused to such a level of real care, looked away with a light blush. "N-no, it doesn't."

Ruby cocked her head. "What is it?"

The captain's lips pressed together in a thin line. "Nothing. Schon gut."

"Tell me," Ruby huffed. "I'm basically doing surgery on you, I need to know."

Weiss got redder. "No, no, it's not that, it's just…"

Ruby sat up a little straighter, her eyes widening with worry. "Is it me?"

"Nein, nein!" the captain immediately rejected. "I— I mean… no, but… I just…"

The concern on Ruby's face didn't waver.

Weiss continued, her blush so bad that it started to run down her neck. "I thought… it vould be…" she looked away and chewed her lips. "Hotter."

"Ha!" Ruby easily snorted, worries evaporated. "Yeah, no— like I said, this is basically surgery. Your internals aren't normally haptic-sensitive. At least, the haptic sensitivity isn't usually on, and when it is triggered it's not necessarily pleasant." She pulled her maintenance tool out and waved it conversationally, elaborating, "I mean, we could do that— hypothetically— but right now it'd be best it we not risk any squirming or wriggling while I'm inside you, ja?"

Weiss' lips parted in shock and disgust. "Hey! Don't appropriate meine Muttersprache!"

Ruby giggled, slipping the tool back in. "I-don't-know-what-that-means," she sang cheekily, bobbing left and right as she rooted around in Weiss' maintenance panel. "But seriously, I'm doing surgery, so if any of this feels like anything, tell me. That would be a problem."

"Why?"

Ruby smiled sweetly and leaned over to peck the little captain on the tip of her nose. "Because I haven't modded you yet, sweetie." Her words were honeyed, her smile genuine, but her eyes were dark with desire. "I wouldn't want my little toy to break before the fun could even start would I?"

Weiss' lips flapped, a tantalizing kind of fear gnawing at her gut. "M-modded?"

Ruby slunk back down to her work, giving Weiss a tiny nod. "Yeah, I'll have to mod your haptics," she stated, raising one brow as she started to remove her maintenance tool again. "I thought you knew about wireplay?"

Weiss nervously glanced left and right. "V-vell… ja! Of course I know!"

Ruby closed the rib panel and pressed in the other one, making it rise slowly from the girl's skin. The synthetic fascia was a pale sheet of opaque blue, hard enough to take a blow and support augs but soft enough to remain flexible with the body. Channels for electrochem fluid were engraved in flowing lines, contrasting with the geometric rose-gold biocitcuitry. Thin membrane lines ran throughout, often diving into or out of the fascia, linking with arteries, veins, and semisynth lines to transport their necessary liquids. A ribbon of red and yellow current wires ran along the top edge of the panel, thrumming with electricity.

Ruby slipped her maintenance multi-tool— which looked like a foot-long soldering iron with a screen and a bunch of other shit— into the panel and scanned its interior, getting only a handful of blips. She debrined a few electrochem channels before washing the biocircuits with a treated solution, then drying the whole interior off with the compressed air function. Weiss shivered at the cold CO2.

Ruby tutted gently, laying her cheek on the girl's stomach while she (quite literally) blew out her insides. "It's okay, little captain," she cooed. "I know it's cold. I'll warm you up when we're done, okay?"

Weiss wriggled. "S-sei ruhig."

Ruby met the captain's eyes through her goggles and smirked. "Abupup, I need to understand you."

Weiss clenched her jaw hard and looked away. "Shut up. Stop… teasing me."

Ruby chuckled darkly. "Are you sure?"

Weiss said nothing. Ruby chuffed, closing the maintenance panel. She scooted her rolly-chair over to Weiss' head.

"Oh Captain," she called singsong, taking off one glove to run it over Weiss' hair. The girl still wouldn't look at her. "Er, Captain?"

Weiss kept her face firmly away from Ruby. "Vhy are you being like zis?" she asked.

Ruby blinked at her. "Like what?"

Weiss turned to face forward, but only regarded Ruby with her eyes halfway. "So… sveet," she elaborated unsurely. "Ist das nicht ein… Knick? Ein Fetisch? Wie Domme und Sub?"

Ruby looked softly upon the captain, her grey eyes a gentle silver in the light. She ran her hand over Weiss' hair again. "You're asking why I'm not being more aggressive?"

Weiss' pursed mouth squirmed with words unvoiced. She nodded.

Ruby's lips quirked into a small, caring smile, and she shrugged. "It's just my thing," she said casually. "And this can be… a lot, especially for someone who's new to it."

Weiss started an objection, but the knowing look from Ruby shut her right back up.

"It's a lot of trust to put in someone," Ruby told her softly, stroking her white locks. "I mean, I'm fucking with your nervous system. It's something only a person like me can really do— it's not safe otherwise. I'm gonna be touching things that generally shouldn't be touched." She rested her hand on the captain's crown, her thumb slowly rubbing along her hairline. Weiss met her eyes and Ruby laughed. "I'm literally fucking you in a way nobody else can. Not safely, at least."

Ruby continued, leaning down to speak softly into Weiss' ear. "That's why I'm going to show you I care. I'm going to be soft with you. I'm going to appreciate you. I'm going to tell you I'm proud of you."

Weiss squirmed, bright red and whimpering, overloaded with promises she'd never been given before.

"I'll make you comfortable being in my hands." Ruby threaded her fingers in tight to her scalp, just a taste of roughness for the sweet little captain. She brought her lips right to Weiss' ear and whispered: "That way, when I break you into a million little pieces, you'll know that I'm gonna put you back together."

She pecked Weiss on the ear. The captain drew in a sharp inhale and keened, her striders twitching. Ruby had finished decompressing them (since their malfunction had basically started the process) first thing, patching the grey muscle-like extensor that'd popped since she didn't have an immediate spare.

Ruby stood and, surprising Weiss immensely, slipped her arms around the captain's back to pull her up into her chest, embracing her. The tech pressed Weiss' face into her bosom. "I'll bet you haven't had something like this before," Ruby mused, "so I'll be extra sweet with you, okay?"

Weiss nodded a little, her nose firmly beset by two flanking titties.

"Just like you deserve," Ruby whispered, her voice so quiet Weiss wouldn't have hear it without bionic cochlears.

"Alright, now flip over," the engineer said more firmly, depriving Weiss of her glorious resting place as she backed up and grabbed her multitool. "You've got gunk on one of your nerve-brackets. I'm gonna scrape the plaque and make sure you're not leaking CSF anywhere."

Weiss pouted petulantly, but flipped herself over on the operating table and fit her face through the face-hole. "Zere. Happy?"

Weiss yelped when Ruby ran her nails all the way down her spine. "Very," she answered. "Now I'm— hey, wait a sec."

Weiss slipped her face out and craned her neck around. Ruby was pointing at something on her back.

"The hell're these?" the engineer asked, resting a finger on the outline of Weiss' shoulder blade, where both sides had a silver hexagon. Little straight lines traveled from each hex to the base of Weiss' skull, with an additional pair of seams linking the hexes to the spine.

Weiss hummed, realizing what she was looking at. "Zose vould be mein cybers."

"Your what?" Ruby asked, her eyes widening.

"Mein cybers," Weiss repeated. "Eine Munition-response system. It predicts ankommende Projektile unt, if dieses Projektile is likely to kill me, es gibt mir ein… er…" she tipped her head left and right, thinking. "You know zose action movies vere ze guy goes in slow-motion?"

"Bullet… time?" Ruby provided, aghast.

"Ja! Es gibt mir ein bullet-time!" she let out a long, wistful breath. "Just like in ze movies…"

Ruby, on the other hand, was terrified. She ran her fingers lightly over the hexagons, praying they would disappear when she touched them. "You need to get these out."

Weiss frowned at her. "Huh? Vat for? Vithout zose things, I'd be dead eintausend times over."

"You're lucky you're not dead now," Ruby said harrowingly. "Your biont level is fifty, and this thing screws with your brain! Your shunted brain! You can't mix biont and cyber like this, Weiss! Your brain is gonna fry!"

Captain Weiss Schnee flipped herself over and looked at Ruby furiously. "You know my—"

"Of course I know your name!" Ruby hissed, taking Weiss off guard. "Your arms are custom, it was the first thing I saw!"

Weiss opened her mouth, but the tech jammed a finger in her face, silencing her.

"You will get these cybers taken out," Ruby commanded. "Before they kill you."

"But mein Vater had zem put in—"

"I don't give a shit!" Ruby exclaimed. "If he really did that, then he probably didn't care about his other two dead kids!"

Weiss moved automatically, nearly slapping the technician before she realized her bionics would probably splatter Ruby's brains all over the Crescent Rose. Her not-porcelain hand stopped just short of Ruby's face. The tech didn't flinch, and stuck a thumb at her own chest instead.

"Dead mom," she quipped. "I'm the only one who can judge."

Weiss glared, but let her hand slowly drop, her resolve dropping into her gut. "Vould it really… kill me?"

"Yeah," Ruby confirmed. "And it'd be a lot less pretty than a bullet."

"Vat vould happen?" Weiss pressed.

Ruby sighed, dropping back into her office chair as she listed off with her fingers. "Hallucinations. Neuronal death as the cybers shock your shunts— immediate memory loss, loss of bodily control." She stopped counting to pinch the bridge of her nose instead, her other hand waving the tool. "You start seeing shit, lose all or most of your memory, then you piss yourself. Your brain is cooking and you smell it— it's the last thing you smell as you forget how to breathe. Semisynth, CSF, and hemorrhaged blood churn up in your cerebral interstitium, you start seeing all your worst nightmares as your brain swims in the jungle-juice. You can't assemble any real last thoughts, you just get an overwhelming sense of dread. Then you seize, and you die."

"And zat could just… happen?"

"Anytime," Ruby confirmed. "Right now. On the battlefield. It's a miracle it hasn't happened already with you being unserviced for so long, but now I worry this—" she waved to her tool and to Weiss. "Is gonna kick something off and fry you."

Weiss stared at the tool like it was a gun pointed at her forehead. "Can you… take it out?"

Ruby sucked her teeth. "Oh yeah. I can't promise it'll be perfect but—"

Weiss grabbed her hands, eyes wide and pleading. "Do it. Bitte."

The technician absorbed the look in the captain's eyes. How had she ever convinced herself this woman would be anywhere near on top of her? Ruby cupped her cheeks and leaned in, kissing Weiss' forehead. "Okay, I'll do it. You can count on me, okay?"

Weiss nodded slowly. "Ja. Counting on you. Don't make Wurst aus meinem brain-meat, please."

Ruby grinned, running her thumbs over Weiss' cheekbones, carefully avoiding her scar. "Oh please, I've deshunted someone before," Ruby assuaged. "This'll be a walk in the park. Now flip back over."

Weiss reeled. "You're— ve are doing zis now?"

"Yup!" Ruby said, cheekily popping the word. "It'll be done in a jiffy, then I'll service the rest of you, then…" she rose, leaning forward and pushing Weiss down on the operating table. "I'll service you. If you're still down, that is."

Weiss looked aside unsurely. "Von't ze operation, er… take a lot out of me?"

Ruby nodded. "Probably, that's why I said 'if you're still down'. Otherwise you can crash here."

The captain blinked. "Crash… here?"

"Yeah! I assume you're here on leave, so you've probably got time." She threw a thumb over her shoulder. "I live in the back, my bed's super comfy."

"Zen vhere vill you sleep?"

Ruby winked at her. "We can cross that bridge when we get to it, my captain. Now!" she clapped. "Let's get those cybers scooped!"

"And how do we—"

"Lay down and flip over!" Ruby commanded with a smile, which Weiss obliged. "Alright, big important question: You wanna be asleep, or awake?"

"Was?" Weiss questioned. "Vhy vould I— Vhy can I be avake?"

Ruby swapped her bulky gloves for pink latex. "You're bracketed all the way up, babe!" she said easily. "Your nerves are all bottlenecked along your cervical vertebrae, so I can shut 'em off like light switches. No pain, no feeling, no nothing."

"And vhy vould I vant zat?"

"'Vai vood Ai vant zat?'" Ruby mocked in a stupid voice, giggling. When Weiss glared knives at her, the technician explained: "Uh, to feel safe, I guess? Not wanting to fall asleep around someone you don't trust?"

"I tr—"

"Wanting to see your own surgery?" Ruby continued, steamrolling the other girl. "I mean, I would wanna see my own surgery."

Weiss shivered.

"You don't wanna see?"

The captain frowned, sighing. "I… I guess I could," then, not letting the opportunity go to waste, she added: "I do trust you."

Ruby's pleased hum came right next to her ear. "Aw, Weiss," there was a gentle, warm press of lips on the back of Weiss' neck, then a slight jolt as Ruby slotted a jack into her spinal port. "You're such a good girl. Now stay still, mommy's gonna make it all better."

Weiss stiffened. "Vat did you just—"

Weiss' entire back suddenly went void of feeling, which was a profound enough experience to shut her up immediately. Where once she could feel her own presence— skin and muscle and aug— now there was only absence, so distinctly not that it made a spike of anxiety pierce her chest.

Ruby seemed to sense this— that or Weiss couldn't even feel her own rapid breathing— and lightly scratched the back of her head. "It's okay, I've got you," the technician promised, her voice soft. "You're okay. You're just numb. I can still put you to sleep if you want."

Ruby stared at her through a curved mirror, one which was pivoted for Weiss to see her technician and her own back from the face-hole, the image bouncing off another mirror to give her such a view. It was an interesting set up. Very BDSM-y, which… hmm…

Weiss didn't want to disturb her back while it felt so wrong, but she didn't really know how to answer Ruby in a way that didn't involve movement.

Ruby waited for a second before saying, "If you don't feel comfortable speaking, blink twice."

Weiss looked at her, then blinked twice.

"If you want me to put you to sleep, blink three times."

Weiss looked at her, but only blinked once.

"Are you sure? Twice for yes, thrice for no."

Weiss blinked twice.

"Are you sure-sure?"

Weiss blinked twice, scrunching her eyes hard with obvious annoyance.

Ruby smiled down at the captain's back rather than the mirror. When Weiss saw it, her heart fluttered. She was smiling at her like she thought nobody was looking. Judging by the way she blushed and ducked when she remembered the mirrors, that was probably accurate.

Shaking her head, Ruby visibly got serious as she took out her multi-tool.

"See these?" Ruby asked, pointing to the semi-hexagonal seams surrounding each knuckle of Weiss' spine. Weiss tracked the point of her tool, following its short lateral path as it traced a line from her spine to her cybers.

"These lines are your seams," Ruby told her— Weiss already knew such basic concepts, but it was comforting to hear the gentle explanation nonetheless. "I'm basically gonna unzip you along these, then I'll manually kill your cybers." The tool moved up, tracking the vertical seams towards Weiss' skull. "Then I'll open these up and sever the connection to your brain." She tipped the tool thoughtfully in her hand. "If I can't take all of the wires out, it'll be okay. Worst you could get is minor headaches and a faded sense of loss until you get them properly scooped by a surgeon. This—" she motioned to the shop around her. "Isn't the place to be going any deeper than blue."

Weiss blinked at her a bunch, expressing obvious confusion and/or panic.

Ruby giggled. "It's fine, it's fine!" she insisted. "I do have a clean room if need be, but you're not gonna catch an infection on your blues."

Weiss sighed.

Ruby rubbed her back comfortingly, then showed her tool. "I'm gonna start, okay?"

Weiss blinked twice.

Ruby beamed at her. "You remembered. Good girl." She placed her tool at the joint of two spinal seams, her thumb rolling the dial. "Here we go."

Weiss felt nothing when the multi-tool shallowly entered the semi-synthetic integument above her spine, but she reflexively gasped anyways. Ruby gave her a worried look.

"All good?" she asked, holding the tool still. "Jumpy?"

Weiss blinked twice.

Ruby sighed in relief. She continued moving the tool, opening Weiss' bloodless seams and revealing the blue fascia beneath. Her tongue peeked out between her teeth. Her movements were steady.

"I'm moving to the cybers now," Ruby announced, barely minutes later. She flicked her eyes to Weiss, imploring silently.

Weiss blinked twice.

Ruby grinned. Her tool split the lateral seams, exposing the white gold cybercircuitry upon her blues, subtly different from the rose gold of biocircuits.

"I hate this stuff," Ruby admitted quietly, still focusing. "Don't get me wrong, I know lots of people use cybers and it's the only option for many," she parted more semisynth skin from the blues, opening Weiss' shoulder blades and revealing the silver hexes of her Munitions-Detecting Projectile Avoidance System. Ruby also parted the skin a little further, showing the bone-white undersocket of her bionic arms.

"See these?" Ruby asked, her multi-tool pointing to something tiny that Weiss couldn't see. "Probably not from there, but they're screws. You know what they screw into?"

Weiss blinked three times.

"Your bones, Weiss. These things— auxiliary systems, non-necessary bodily modifications— are drilled into the things that make all your blood!" Ruby shook her head and started searching around the cyber, still talking. "Infection! Rejection! Aggressive immune response!" She touched the multi-tool to the side of one hex, and Weiss felt a little blip in her brain. "That's why biotechical integration is best. I mean, just look at this."

Ruby waved to the base-plate of Weiss' shoulder, a worshipful expression on her face.

"God!" she marveled, pointing at various things in abject wonderment. "Look at that! The ossymer is perfectly integrated with your natural bone— full of marrow-analogous structures that produce blood and synth-fluid! It's seamless!" She waved vaguely at the striders. "The striders aren't bad, but these… ugh! I'd take a picture if I could."

Weiss blinked three times, which made Ruby laugh. She had a pretty laugh— weird and nasal and snorty, but pretty.

"I know, I know. But now you're gonna be—" she pulled her tool out, proudly displaying the screw stuck on its end. "Free! Lovely. And, more importantly, safe. No more constant-risk-of-death for you, doll."

Weiss, unfortunately, had a perfect view of her own blush crawling down the back of her neck.

Ruby laughed again, low and dumb. "Huhuh… doll." Weiss watched the tech ogle obviously at her arms before working more on the cyber. After only a few more minutes, all the screws were out.

"Close to the arms as these are, I'd love to see if these holes get filled by bone or ossymer," the tech adorably geeked, staring closely at what Weiss guessed were literal holes down to the bone. "That's that done." Ruby removed the frame that held the cyber to her skeleton, leaving the small aug itself loose on Weiss' synthetic fascia.

After another quick 'you okay?' from Ruby and a twice-blinked response from Weiss, the technician's tool went up, splitting vertical seams all the way up to Weiss' neck. Eventually, through the parted seam and contrasting brightly with her blues, a black-and-yellow ribbon of cables could be seen between the captain's cyber and her brain.

Ruby's tool halted just below the other girl's nape. "This is as far as I'm willing to cut here, at least while you're awake. I'm not gonna make you watch your own skull get opened."

Weiss blinked multiple, panicked triplets.

"I assume that's in agreement?"

Weiss blinked twice. Ruby smiled.

"Good. Then I'll just…" Ruby leaned forward, her tool dipping into the opened seam as her thumb rotated the dial— drawing a tiny blade in the tool's rip, Weiss would guess— before drawing it across the cables, severing them.

Weiss immediately jolted. She felt a severe and intense ease in her brain, as if someone had left the microwave fan on and just remembered to turn it off.

Ruby jerked her tool back. "Weiss! Are you alright?"

Weiss took in one long breath, let it out just as calmly, and blinked twice with a smile.

"Thank god," Ruby muttered. "You had me worried. Now let's get the next one."

The second went quicker with less commentary, and Weiss soon found her mind plummeting into a beautiful sinkhole as the other cyber was disconnected. It was as if all the microwave fans in the universe had abruptly been atomized, their noise no longer taking up spaces in Weiss' brain that she'd honestly forgotten were there, her disquiet so subtle and complete that she hadn't ever noticed it until her head was completely silent. She hummed, long and low and quiet, perfectly content as Ruby did… whatever else she needed to do while Weiss closed her eyes and reveled.

"You're literally purring,"Ruby pointed out, her warm hands making Weiss realize that her nerves were back on, her synth-skin was pieced back together, and she couldn't give less of a fuck.

"Jaaaaaa…" she moaned. "Das ist großartig."

"I could make it better," Ruby proposed.

"N-nein, ich… ich glaube ni-iiiiiiiii…"

Her high-pitched vowel melted as Ruby's strong, hot hands pressed into the flesh of her back and kneaded a second wave of incomprehensible bliss into the captain, who only mewled against her ministrations.

"Don't worry," Ruby told her, voice gentle. "I'll let you enjoy your peace."

Weiss gave her an appreciative hum, her brain too occupied with physical bliss to form words. Drop-Captain Weiss Schnee was just… meat. Rendered beef. Proteins, fats, carbs, amino acids— a vaguely Weiss-colored goo being molded by Ruby Rose's incredible fingers. She'd been to spas in her Pilot days, back when the people who loved her still lived, and Ruby certainly wasn't a technical expert— middling at best, really— but right after having her nerves basically get rebooted, along with all the fresh, free space in her brain to enjoy, this was paradise.

"E-es tut mir Leid, Ruby," Weiss eventually found it in her to mumble, feeling her pleasure be overtaken by guilt. "Ich kenne— I knew you vanted—"

Ruby shushed her. "Oh, sweet baby," she cooed. "It's okay, I wasn't done buttering you up anyways."

"Y-you… vat?"

"Stay right here, okay?" Ruby requested. "I'll be right back."

She left with another warm peck between the captain's shoulder blades, then briefly fled. Ruby wasn't gone for long, quickly returning to drape something soft and warm over Weiss' back.

Ruby carefully slipped Weiss' perfect bionics through what she'd brought— a robe, fluffy and red— before giving the girl another kiss on the cheek. "I can carry you to the bed."

Weiss snorted, her voice feeling easier than ever. "I doubt zat."

"I can," Ruby insisted. "Watch."

Ruby bundled Weiss against her chest and pulled the smaller girl up, lifting her. She immediately fell back from the augweight, landing with a hefty oomph as the captain body-checked her ego. She sprawled fully atop Ruby, making the girl wheeze out all her air before Weiss managed to push herself up a little. "Es tut mir—"

Her blue optics met the tech below her, who stared half-wincingly as she reclaimed air into her lungs. A scan in red text automatically clicked out at the side of her periphery:

rubylirose

23J.

NICHTFEINDNLICH

PRIORITÄT-INGENIEURIN

STATUS:ERSCHÖPFT

Ruby matched her gaze and blushed.

…

…

STATUS-UPDATE

STATUS:ERREGT

"Sie haben keinen Masterabschluss," Weiss said suddenly, surprised by her own voice and the fact that her words did not take regard to STATUS:ERREGT.

Ruby stared at the Schnee pinning her, still breathing hard. "What?"

"You can't have a Master's Degree," Weiss repeated. "You're too young."

Ruby grinned at her. "I got started early," she said with a wink. "I'm pretty smart."

Weiss looked down at her grinning lips, which only made the girl smile more. "Sorry I scanned you."

Ruby rolled her eyes. "It's okay," she said genuinely, adding, "I know you can't keep your eyes off me."

Weiss scowled at the technician. She was warm. Up close, Weiss could more easily see the red highlights in her hair. She could smell the tech's profession on her like leather and oil, but some shampoo or body wash made rosy undertones waft into her senses too. She was such a strange kind of attractive— face round, chin sharp, eyes big but hard-edged, her lips a narrow, upturned bow— as if the girl had been molded purely from half-contradictions. And her eyes… grey wasn't too abnormal a color, but Ruby's were special. They were sweet and caring, but sometimes they stared through Weiss like they could see right into her internals, and they held a hunger.

Weiss sucked her teeth. "Scheiße."

She dove down to kiss Ruby like she was an oasis in the desert.

She tried to, at least, but instead found herself smooching nothing but fingers. Ruby held her hand above her mouth, walling it off from the captain's desire to lap at her insides.

"No," Ruby said sternly, drawling in a chiding, matronly tone. "The floor is dirty. Plus, if you make me gag again and something comes up, I'll choke on it."

Weiss' features fell, which made Ruby coo.

"Don't worry," she said. "We can go to my room, then we'll decide if it's sleep or fuck, okay?"

Weiss blinked twice.

Ruby giggled sweetly. "Such a good girl," she praised, her hand moving to cup Weiss' cheek. Slowly, she swiped a thumb over the captain's synthetic lip. "God, you're pretty."

Weiss monkeybrained and nibbled the thumb. Thankfully, this drew another delightful laugh instead of a yelp.

"Oh, I'm going to fuck you up," Ruby promised quietly, her wide pupils sucking Weiss in as she spoke. Her words were dark and dreamy, as if sneaking out of Ruby's tight grip on their own. "It'll be terrible, Weiss. You'll have to come once I get your spare extensor, then I'll break you again and you'll realize you don't want anyone else but me fixing you."

Weiss blinked.

Ruby went bright red and bit her lip, her gaze hiding away from the captain's. "Sh-shit… uh… man, I wish I had those optics," she mumbled, shame creeping into her voice as she yanked her hand back, holding to her own chest like it was diseased. "That way I could know how much that probably scared you. Fuck."

Weiss read the other side of her periphery:

!UNBEFUGTEÄNDERUNG!

weissgiselaschnee

25J.

BENUTZER

KEINEPRIORITÄT

STATUS:ERSCHROCKEN

…

…

STATUS-UPDATE

STATUS:ERREGT

!STATUSKONFLIKT!

!STATUS:ERREGT!

!STATUS:ERSCHROCKEN!

ABFRAGE

…

…

…

…

ANTWORT

ANTWORTAUFENGLISCH

STATUS-UPDATE

STATUS:SCAREROUSED

"Scare… roused…" Weiss said to herself in awe. "Was für eine schöne Sprache."

"What?" Ruby asked, flinching at herself.

"Why are you like zis, Ruby?" Weiss asked.

"Huh?"

"You seem so sveet und caring, aber… so viele doubt," Weiss leaned down, coming chest-to-chest with Ruby. "Diese Person… zey really hurt you."

Ruby scoffed unhumorously. "I really hurt them."

The captain snorted and rolled her eyes. "You drank ze electrochem. Es steht nicht auf die Food Pyramid, oder?"

"I broke the hose," Ruby retorted, her voice small— quite like a child who was unsubtly assigning blame.

"But you modded zem," Weiss stated. "So it didn't really hurt. Scared zem, sure. But hurting zem? Nein."

Ruby bit her lip. "I'd rather be hurt than scared of my partner."

Weiss propped herself on an elbow, taking a lock of Ruby's dark hair to twirl between her white fingers. "Vell… you don't scare me."

Ruby side-eyed her, raising one brow. "Oh yeah? Why'd you make that scared face when I said that, then?"

Weiss huffed. "Zat's a different kind of scared. Or… or zat is scary, aber… es ist keine Angst. Angst, Angst, Angst…" she scrunched her face up, her mind running through all the translations she knew. "Annnnnnnnn… fraid! Afraid!"

Ruby turned, just to show Weiss that she was wholly confused.

Weiss screwed her eyes shut in thought. "Wie… wie… Scheiße das ist so schwer—" she wracked her brain for a few tense moments, then exclaimed: "Wie im Kampf!"

Ruby sighed. "Weiss, for the last time I don't—"

Weiss ignored her. "Wie im—" she cleared her throat, half-ignoring Ruby, "com-bat, I am afraid!Very afraid! I could die, ja?"

Ruby looked away and frowned. "Don't remind me."

Weiss almost coughed at the potential implication, but continued. "But ven you scare me, I know you von't hurt me. It's—" she perked up brightly, leaning closer to Ruby's face with a smile. "Like you told me! Trust! I trust you von't really hurt me. At least not in a vay you can't fix."

Ruby remained bitter, even if Weiss beaming in her face was very cute. "That's what they told me."

Weiss blinked, then shot up her chin to stare haughtily down her nose. "Vell— no offense— but ich bin keine pussy. I've been shot. I'm used to seeing meine Flüssigkeiten outside of my body."

"That's not the same thing," Ruby asserted. "It's the context—"

Weiss leaned in like she'd sprung a trap on her. "Ze context of being shot is less scary zan sex?"

"It—"

Weiss raised her eyebrows intimidatingly.

"Well maybe—"

Weiss raised them further.

"You haven't—"

They threatened to climb fully off her face.

Ruby's words became visibly pent up in her mouth, before finally being released as: "Fine!"

Weiss nodded once. "Fine vat?" she asked leadingly.

"Fine… whatever you want me to say." Ruby grumbled.

Weiss smirked triumphantly, dictating: "Ich bin Ruby Rose und I vill turn Veiss Schnee into meine eigenen kleinen Roboter!"

"Ich bin Rhuby Rho-ze unt ich veel turn Veiss Schnee into… meine eiguhhh…" Ruby trailed off, her brain processing what little of the captain's tongue she knew with the provided cognate. "Little robot?"

Weiss had about half a second of ego-triumph before she realized what she said, at which point she reeled all the way to her feet, her face bright red, hands waving in panic as she sputtered: "N-nein! Nein! Zat's not— er, I— I— I didn't—"

Ruby shot up in pursuit, her work coat trailing as Weiss babbled through her retreat, the captain backing up until the tech pinned her against the wall. Her grey eyes stared into blue optics.

"Is that really what you want?" Ruby asked, her voice a storm.

Weiss continued to flounder, especially now that she had Ruby bearing down on her. "I— I—"

"What was it?" Ruby leaned so close, close enough that her breath was on Weiss' lips, withone hand drifting to the bionic joint of shoulder and arm. "Meine… kleinen Roboter?"

Ruby's pupils were wide enough that Weiss felt herself slipping into them, as if the tech had cast a spell on her. Weiss whimpered, and Ruby brought her other hand to the captaches chest, letting it hover just above— a promise of possession. "I'm into the augs," Ruby said slowly, tauntingly. "And the… you. But you wanna be my thing?" She chuffed, grinning with a voracious hunger. "That's hardcore."

Weiss pressed her lips into a line and tried to look away, but the tech grabbed her jaw, lifting it up, forcing their eyes to meet.

"You want to be mine?" Ruby dared.

Weiss looked away.

The fingers clenching Weiss' face softened. Ruby's voice took a somber, honest tone. "Answer me. Yes or no, I'm giving you a real choice, Weiss. Not just, like… a kink sex thing." Her fingers lightened even more, threatening to lift as Ruby took half a step back. "I'm serious, you don't—"

Weiss grabbed the tech's hand and pulled it back to her jaw. "J-ja. Ja."

Ruby half-smiled. "Like… the whole thing? Or do you just wanna fuck?"

Weiss' eyes slid away briefly, but returned to Ruby's. "I vant to try. Ze whole… shebang, you say."

"You wanna be my little robot?"

The now-shorter girl bounced on her empty striders and pouted. "Da habe ich eigentlich keine Wahl."

Ruby tightened her grip on Weiss' chin. "Language, Weiss."

Drop-Captain Weiss Schnee often led men and women to their deaths. Such was the simple nature of being a strider. It wasn't a job anyone got on their Aptitude test, it wasn't even something you could ask for. It was what happened when you fucked up. It was where someone sent you so they wouldn't have to think about you being alive anymore. As such, it took a lot of convincing— and often force— to get somebody into the drop-pod. Getting the traumatized striders out of their drop-pods and into enemy lines required a steel tongue and an indefatigable resolve. It also often required drugs to knock out whichever parts of the brain didn't want to be turned into Blutwurst, and it would be a lie for Weiss to say her body had never been tainted by them.

As such, she was used to getting others to follow her orders. She was quite used to threatening people that didn't. She was moderately used to killing people that went further off the handle against her than was strictly strider-standard.

So, when the tech pinched her face in her hands and chided her like a petulant child, it would not have been completely out of Weiss' character to turn Ruby Rose inside-out.

Instead, Drop-Captain Weiss Schnee squirmed like the little bitch she'd always wanted to be. "Ja," she said through pressed lips, her gaze wide and pleading. "I vant it."

Ruby rolled her eyes at the captain's half-compliance, but she could feel Weiss leaning further into her grip. Her other hand moved from the captain's joint to her back. "You'll be my thing?"

Weiss grabbed the tech's shirt and pulled herself closer. "Ja. Y-yes."

Ruby smiled proudly. "You'll let me break you apart," she tightened her fingers against Weiss, pulling her close and making her draw a sharp inhale. "Then put you back together?"

Weiss nodded fervently. "Yes. Bitt— please."

Ruby chuckled, her hand drifting further down. Pushing the bathrobe aside, she started tapping two fingers on a strider's socket. "Will you do something for me?"

Weiss hadn't realized she closed her eyes until she opened them, with the basis of a genuine request rising above her arousal. "May… be?"

Ruby smiled pleasantly. "Will you take me with you?"

Weiss mind ground to a halt. "What?"

"You're a captain," Ruby replied. "Important person. Probably got enough pull to get a tech with you, especially if you don't have one otherwise." She stepped back and gestured to herself. "I've got good rates."

Weiss blinked. She felt…

!UNBEFUGTEÄNDERUNG!

weissgiselaschnee

25J.

BENUTZER

KEINEPRIORITÄT

STATUS:SCAREROUSED

…

…

STATUS-UPDATE

STATUS:AUFGESTAUT

Pent-up, yes. Very pent up.

"Ruby."

Ruby perked up and smiled. It was very cute.

Weiss gave her a little smile in return.

Ruby opened her mouth, then gasped as Weiss grabbed her shoulders and yanked her around, slamming the technician into the wall and choking her desperate breaths with a synthetic tongue.

Ruby's eyes watered as she feebly grasped at the other girl's robe, but Weiss held steady, one bionic hand moving to cup the girl's windpipe and squeeze— just enough to make her breaths thin, just enough to make her eyes wide, just enough to make her clutch at Weiss' porcelain-colored arm. When the captain flicked her tongue deeper, Ruby gagged, and her clutching became clawing.

Weiss slowly backed herself out of the tech, leaving her with a prolonged bite to the lower lip. She kept her hand where it was, though, the press of her cold fingers announcing that she wasn't done yet.

"Enough… of ze talking," she breathed, relishing in the sound of Ruby's strugglesome noises.

Ruby panted. Her voice buzzed thinly against Weiss' fingers. "You fucking… did i-it again…"

"Ja!" Weiss agreed, genuinely frustrated. "You did it again!"

"What did I— oh!"

Weiss latched hard onto the girl's collar, pulling her coat aside and ripping the neckline of her thin black shirt away. She pulled skin between her teeth and bit, making Ruby buck, her feeble human hands scratching at Weiss' back as she keened. With the captain's hand still pressing her throat, her voice cracked.

"You keep teashing me," Weiss said, with Ruby Rose between her teeth. "'N you jusht back avay."

Ruby strained away from Weiss, exposing more of her neck as she threaded one hand into the captain's locks and pulled her in. "Th-this is di-iffere-eeeehe-heeeent—" she whined, squirming as Weiss fit one unforgiving strider between her legs. Ruby couldn't keep herself from pressing herself against it. "I'm trying to be helpful!"

Weiss growled, moving her bite onto the technician's rosy neck and clamping down even harder, threatening to break the skin like she could tear Ruby open and drink her whole. The girl keened again, bucked again, so Weiss ground her strider hard against Ruby's center, simultaneously closing her grip on the technician's throat.

Ruby choked fully, gripping Weiss' forearm. She sank her teeth into her bottom lip, threatening to rend the supple, swollen flesh as her eyes strained towards the ceiling. She ground herself against Weiss' strider, her face twitching between hard animal panic and the deliquescent indulgence of collapsing into pleasure— perfectly uncaring of the danger, perfectly willing to starve the seat of her consciousness in the pursuit of one moment. The captain pressed her throat harder, making Ruby's back arch, and the tech rode that black line for just a couple more moments, edging her own neural apoptosis until one of those near-starving cells told her 'okay let's not die in front of the pretty lady,' and she started tapping Weiss' wrist.

Captain Weiss Schnee finally let her go, backing up and dropping Ruby all at once, but the girl chased her, clutching the soft robe as she collapsed against Weiss' chest.

"Good… fucking… god, Weiss," she breathed, one hand nursing her reddened throat. "Are you sure you're a bottom?"

Weiss snorted, smirking down at her. "I never said zat."

"But I thought you'd…" Ruby looked up at her like a pathetic, panting little puppy. "You know… little robot."

"So says ze one who got gagged." Weiss held up two fingers and booped Ruby on the nose with them. "Tvice."

"I—"

"Maybe if you really took control, zis vouldn't be ein Problem, ja?"

Ruby soured, her gaze drifting aside and coincidentally showing Weiss the raging red mark she'd left. She wiped her mouth on her sleeve, mumbling, "Sor-fucking-ry for trying to be real and help you. You said you wanted 'ze whole zhing'.''

Weiss flicked her between the eyebrows. "Don't mock mein Akzent."

"Don't—" Ruby put her face in her hands and groaned. When she looked at Weiss again, it was with fresh vulnerability, as if she'd peeled off some layer that Weiss hadn't noticed before. "Look, I hate this place, okay? And I need the money. And…" she bit her swollen, tortured bottom lip. "Andyouseemlikemytype," she said rapidly.

Weiss raised both eyebrows, at once amused, curious, and a tiny bit surprised. "Dein Typ sind people like me?"

Ruby shrugged bashfully. "I am an engineer."

"You mean because my augs or because you can fix me?"

Ruby's guilty look was answer enough.

Weiss pursed her lips. "Zat's…"

"Fucked up," Ruby finished for her. "Yeah, I know."

Weiss hummed.

"So now what?" Ruby asked.

"Vat do you mean 'now what?'" Weiss mimicked, revealing that she could do a perfect replication of Ruby's accent. Then, as if to make fun of herself, she doubled down on own accent. "Unt nau vee gø auf deiner beddenroomen und havingsie mich ein nappie-wappie mit ein cöödle unt maybe some hänkie-pänkie, ja?" She snapped imaginary lederhosen around her shoulders and yawned. "Because I am quite tired."

"And what about—"

"I'll even help pack your things," Weiss interrupted. "Though, I must varn you, I pack like someone who doesn't expect to live long at ze destination."

"Pack—"

"Ja, Idiot!" Weiss scolded, thumping her on the forehead. "Regardless of… all zis," she motioned around them both, "you are right about me needing eine Technikerin. Als solches, you vill be meine Technikerin."

"And what about your people?"

Weiss scoffed, head turning away as she shrugged. "Zey can come to you, you can go to zem."

"For… repairs, right?"

Weiss side-eyed the tech. "Ja, und… other reasons, if you vant."

Ruby snorted. Being (self-proclaimed) 'pretty smart', she flipped the coy proposition onto Weiss. "And what would you want?"

The captain held her arms tight to her chest and mumbled: "Ich bin ein eifersüchtiges Wesen."

Ruby tutted. "La—"

"No," Weiss barely said, the word squeezing through a tight throat, clenched teeth, and pursed lips, her face burning bright red. "I don't vant zat."

Ruby exhaled. "Oh thank God. Like phew," she melodramatically wiped imaginary sweat. "I know you military types can be—"

Weiss whirled, glaring at her. "Sluts?"

Ruby waved her hands, panicked. "No! Nonono, not like that just… uh…" she cringed at herself. "Living like there's no tomorrow?"

Weiss scowled. "Zat vas not any better."

The tech winced. "Yeah. I, uh… yeah, no. Sorry."

Weiss sharply raised her chin, once more like the haughty captain who'd walked in half a foot taller, and extended one dainty-looking hand. "Take me to your bedroom. There I vill sleep on vether or not to kill you for your rudeness, or keep you for your boldness. And your…" she opened one eye to scan the technician up and down. "Other assets."

"Right away, ma'am!" Ruby beamed, dashing forward to take the girl's hand and start dragging her to the back. Weiss kept her chin high, even if she had to surreptitiously fast-walk to keep up with the taller, more energetic girl.

"Und das hanky-panky," Weiss added, her voice still commanding as if she hadn't just said 'hanky-panky'. "Be sveet, ja? I like it."

Ruby looked back and grinned. Thankfully, with her nose so imperiously upturned, the tech probably couldn't see her idiotic smile.