Chapter Fourteen: Making Plans, Taking Showers

Trigger warning for depictions of self-harm. if you wish to avoid this when Weiss returns to the dorm simply skip to the (Ruby pov).

Also, smut warning. We get our first bit of smutty action in a romance book and it only took me 180 pages to do it.

(Ozpin pov)

"Could you explain to me why you decided to harbor a wanted criminal?" James spoke through gritted teeth.

"I don't know what you are talking about, I harbor students, teachers, janitors, cafeteria workers-"

"I know you have allowed Ryker Thorne entry into your academy, or should I call them Emmet Cole?" James snipped.

I sighed, taking a sip of my tea. Playing ignorant would not work with James, and while I may not have wanted to reveal just how valuable Ryker could be, it looked like my hand was being forced.

"Ryker Thorne has become an incredibly valuable asset, something that we can't let slip through our fingers and risk Her finding out about him."

"What could some brat from Mantle possibly be capable of that has you hiding him from the law, from me?"

"Tell me, James, do you know what Rykers Semblance is?"

James looked incredulous, his brow furrowing as he pondered my question. "No, I don't."

"Mr. Thorne is capable of rewinding time in exchange for aura," I say simply, the gravity of how valuable Ryker was now clear as day to James.

"How far back can he rewind? How do you know he is telling the truth? How have you verified this?"

"As of right now, I am unclear on how far back Ryker can rewind, though I do know that he had yet to achieve his goal of being able to rewind back to the night of the Schnee Dust Company's main office attack. Ryker lost his mother that night, it had become quite clear why he suddenly decided to train to become a Huntsman."

"You haven't answered how you know for sure he is capable of rewinding time." James pointed out.

"His semblance gives me deja vu, At first I thought it was simply a side effect of his semblance, but simply asking Glynda if she had the same feeling led me to believe it was something else."

"And that would be?"

"Professor Ozpin," Ruby Rose's voice wavered.

"Yes, Ms. Rose?"

Ruby hesitated for a moment, she had been doing that more and more. Her time away from Beacon had seemingly done little to help her heal. What used to be a bright-eyed Huntress-in-training who had more bravery and determination in her heart than most seasoned Huntsmen and Huntresses now sat a small, timid, and self-conscious girl who second-guessed every decision she made.

"I wanted to ask you, the Thursday night before Ryker got hurt. We had a meeting that was about Ryker going to therapy Right?"

"Ms. Rose I don't quite understand your question. Yes, Ryker had a meeting he was supposed to attend, but he failed to show up to that meeting and we had to tell him those details over a scroll message." I responded flatly.

"I could have sworn we went to the meeting, I convinced Ryker to let me come with to support him, and then he got really mad at you. You were being kind of mean to him." Ruby spoke, her eyes were unfocused, and yet they darted around the room as if they were trying to find something. It was obvious that the girl was racking her brain to try and figure out what the real order of events that night was. "I must be misremembering Professor, I don't know why, but sometimes when I'm with Ryker, it's like deja vu. I get my memories mixed up."

My eyes narrowed, so she had the same feelings and issues from Ryker's use of his semblance that I had. Was it because of her silver eyes? If that were the case, then-

"Young Ruby Rose has the same sense of deja vu that I do. She has reported multiple instances of memories not aligning correctly. I believe that Ryker's semblance does not work as intended as with those who have magic." I state my fingers drumming against the side of my mug. "While Ryker might not be able to reset the board if we need, he is capable of giving us more time when we need it. Information we could learn tomorrow could be acted upon today."

"Except the child you have hinged your bets on is currently sitting in your medical ward in a coma," James responded.

I nod, turning to look out the window of my office, the eyesore that was James ship sitting in the air above Vale. "Yes, what happened to Ryker was a failing on my part. I failed to keep him and my other students safe. As a result of my failure, I am now down a promising first-year team, and it is unclear if any of them will ever recover. I believe that if Ryker doesn't wake up soon, then we will also lose out on three promising young women, one of whom has silver eyes."

"I don't like that you withheld this from me, for a man that has chosen his inner circle so carefully it doesn't inspire faith that you are still keeping secrets."

"I know."

(Weiss Schnee)

Sitting in Doctor Azule's office was always unsettling, not because the room itself was uncomfortable, but because I was still not used to being so open to someone. It always left me feeling raw, like an exposed nerve. This was my first session since Ruby came back, I had tried to convince her that she needed to see a therapist too, but she shot it down. Apparently, she saw one back home but it didn't do anything for her.

Doctor Azule scribbled down on her notepad for a moment, the indigo-haired woman finishing a note of some kind before she looked back up at me. "We are coming up on two months of us seeing one another. How do you feel about that? Do you feel like therapy has been a benefit to you?"

"I think it has, learning to be honest and open has been hard. Before you and before the incident, I was hardly able to be honest about anything beyond surface-level information. My team hardly knew me, they still hardly knew me. However, these talks have helped me at least start to be honest with myself."

"Are you referring to your breakthrough on your sexuality?" Doctor Azule asked.

"Yes, I had never vocalized before to myself that I was a lesbian. It was always an internal acknowledgment, something I thought and then promptly buried beneath my duty and responsibilities." I spoke, Doctor Azule's pen starting to scribble as she wrote down even more notes. "But even more than that, I have been able to allow myself to be more intimate with my friends. To be closer to the real me."

"A few sessions ago you mentioned that you started to sleep in the same bed with your teammate Blake Belladonna. You mentioned that this was not a new action for you and that you and the rest of your team had taken to sleeping with your teammate Ryker Thorne when he had nightmares. Has that changed now that your team leader Ruby Rose has returned?"

My face blushed at her wording. The team was not 'sleeping' with Ryker, we simply slipped into his bed and slept there when he had nightmares, and since Ryker slept the most out of all of us we were always able to slip out in the mornings without him waking up. "No, me and Blake still sleep in the same bed, Blake needs someone in bed with her, or else she just spends the whole night awake unable to sleep."

"And Ruby is ok with you two sharing a bed?"

I open my mouth, the truth nearly spilling out. When I hesitate though, I hear her pen start to scribble again. I hated it when she did that. "Ruby… Ruby has joined us in the same bed, we took her bed down from the bunk beds and pushed her and my bed together to give us more room."

"If there are four beds then why take down one that's suspended in the air instead of the one that's already on the ground?"

"Because it's Ryker's bed," I answered, the damn pen scribbling more notes. "Plus, Blake's bed is held up by books on each post, so the best one to move would be Ruby's or Blake's, and not Ryker's."

"It seems to me that it is not the practicality that spurred your decisions. Whenever you talk about your dorm room or even your classes, you always try and treat it like Ryker is still there. You haven't moved his things, you always reserve a spot in class and the cafeteria for a teammate who is not going show up."

"I don't see your point." I bite out, feeling my walls start to build up.

"My point is that you and your team seem to not want to move on. You don't touch Ryker's things and you don't let others take Ryker's spot because you still hold out hope that Ryker will wake up."

"So what!" I snap standing up, the expression of pity that Doctor Azule gave me upsetting me further. "So what if we haven't moved on? Ryker's not dead, Ryker is in a coma, he could wake up at any moment, but everyone thinks we just need to move on and get over it. Well, we won't. As long as there is a chance that Ryker will wake up then we won't give up on him."

Doctor Azule looked at me with empathetic eyes, her pen finally stopping as she set her notepad aside. "Sure Ryker could wake up at any time, but what if he doesn't? Are you going to put your life on hold forever? When will you decide that you've waited long enough? The end of this semester, you're second year, or maybe your third, or maybe you wait for all four years of your time here at Beacon, holding out hope that your teammate will wake up and come back?"

"So what if we do?" I bite out.

Doctor Azule sighed. "Weiss, Huntsmen, and Huntresses die. You and your team will see more death than any other profession in the entire world. You will take lives and you will see lives be taken. That's just the way things are. You lost your first teammate, I'm sorry to say, but you will lose more."

I scoff pushing past Doctor Azule who doesn't try to stop me. Bursting through her doors and running back to the dorm. When I made it to the dorm I found the room empty. Blake and Ruby must have gone out. A frustrated noise escaped me, I really wanted to rant about my session to them, but I guess I couldn't even have that. With all of the emotions running through me and with no outlet, my body went on autopilot to the bathroom. Searching through the cabinet next to the sink before I found what I needed. In my palm sat an unused razor blade.

I locked the door to the bathroom, not wanting to chance Blake or Ruby finding me during this. I had a feeling that Blake knew exactly what I had turned to as my coping method, but that still didn't mean I wanted to be open about it. I also did not want Ruby to find out, at least not till she was better mentally. I didn't want to put more stress on her, the team's energetic leader was practically tearing at the seams. She was barely holding on, and even still she was taking Ryker's injury the worst out of all of us. Blake didn't sleep, and I did this, but Ruby had completely collapsed. She became clingy, not wanting to ever be alone, she claimed to have hallucinations, and she forgot to do basic things like eating or bathing. So she couldn't know about this, I didn't know if she could take any more stress when she had already fallen so far from the strong Huntress I had come to know her to be.

I stripped my clothes, not wanting to chance to get any blood on them, and sat on the toilet. I took the razor out of the small cardboard package that wrapped around the blade and threw it in the trash can next to the sink. The first line on the top of my thigh burned. They always burned in a way that can only be described as powerful. I added four more lines, letting the wounds bleed away all of my emotions. It felt like for every drop of blood that seeped out of the shallow lines I felt slightly better, slightly more normal, and in control.

I stopped after both of my thighs became a litany of lines and blood, by the end my legs were shaking from the ordeal. I felt woozy and lightheaded, but more than that I felt numb to the emotions that had brought me into the bathroom in the first place. It takes me half an hour to finally stand and clean myself up, disinfecting the cuts with rubbing alcohol and taping bandages to them. An hour ago I had walked into the bathroom a mess of emotions, and an hour later I walked out of the same bathroom feeling light and stable. The best part is as long as nobody saw my legs, nobody would ever know. The used blades and bloodied washcloth were disposed of in separate ways.

Nobody would ever know. Not till I wanted them to.

(Ruby pov)

I cheer in victory as I slam down my card on the table. "I deploy the Atlesian Air Fleet!" We had been embroiled in war for what felt like hours. Blake played as Vale, Yang played as the Grimm, Weiss played as Vacuo, and I played as Atlas. Yang had been dominating, the Grimm deck of cards all built around overwhelming force with tons of cheap units with only a few boss cards to combat harder-hitting forces. However Yang had made one mistake, she let me live. The Atlas deck was slow to start, with very weak and hard-to-bring-out early units, but with enough time and resources, I could play powerful air units that nobody could really touch. Playing against Atlas was essentially playing against the clock, and Yang's time was up.

"Oh no!" Yang gasped in horror.

"Oh yes! Looks like I get to fly right over your Ursai and attack your walls directly." I grin.

"You fiend!"

"I'm not done yet, since Atlas is part of Mantle, that means that my repair time is only one turn. Which means in two turns, you will be wiped from the board." I sneer, the blood lust fuiling my empire of air destruction and domination. She couldn't win, my sister had chosen to go against me and her hubris had led her to her damnation. Nothing could stop me, when I was through with her I would turn my attention to Blake, and then Weiss would be next, then I would rule the world!

"You activated my trap card."

Wait what?

Yang grins as my face goes pale, my sister flipping the card that she was holding. "I play Giant Nevermore! If I roll a seven or higher, fatal feathers will slice your fleet in two."

"But if you roll a six or lower, then the Nevermore will turn on your own forces." I countered.

"That's just a chance I am willing to take." Yang picks up her dice and rolls them, the first one stopping on a one. Ha, there was no way she could do it. She was doomed. DOOMED!

"That's a one and a six, looks like I destroyed your airforce."

"Nooooooooo! My fearless soldiers!" I wail as my forces are swept off the board. I had climbed the mountain and taken the crown, only to be stabbed in the back by two dice. It's not fair!

"Most of them were probably androids." Yang waves off.

"Robot lives matter!" I hiss as I mourn my destroyed fleet. "Goodbye my friends, you will be avenged."

"Not until I draw my rewards! Which are doubled this round thanks to the Mistral Trade Route. "Yang spoke turning over another card in her hands. She drew her reward cards only to grin with satisfaction. "And what's this? The Smugglers of Wind Path? Guess I get to take two more cards from my draw pile."

"You scoundrel, you absolute warmonger." I cry.

"Well, Weiss it's your turn."

Weiss looked at her cards with a look of utter confusion. "I have no clue what I am doing."

Yang slides over to her and takes a look at her cards. "Well, you're playing as Vacuo which means that all Vacuo-based cards come with a bonus." Yang scans through Weiss' hand and smiles. "Look you have Resourceful Raider, which means you can take Ruby's discarded air fleet, and put it in your hand."

"Ok…"

"And since Vacuo warriors have endurance against Natural-based hazards, you can use Sandstorm to disable my ground forces and simultaneously infiltrate my kingdom!"

Weiss looked even more lost. "Which means?"

I however understood perfectly what Yang had just done. "It means you're three moves away from conquering all of Remnant!" I gasp.

Weiss stands from her chair excitedly, maniacal laughter bellowing out of her. "Y-yes! Fear the almighty power of my forces! Cower as they pillage your homes, kill your husbands, sleep with your wives, and weep as they take your children from your very arms!"

"Trap card," Yang says smugly.

"W-what?"

Tang pushes all of Weiss' pieces off of the board, and Weiss was eliminated from the game in one fell swoop. "You armies have been destroyed." Yang smiles.

Weiss collapses into her chair with a whine. "I hate this game of emotions that we play." She sniffed as tears trailed down her face. I hop into her lap, wrapping my arms around her as I bury my face in her neck.

"Stay strong, Weiss! We'll make it through this together!" I cry with her.

"Shut up! Don't touch me!" She cries back as she wraps her arms around me and hugs me back.

"Well Blake, it's your turn." Yang laughed.

Blake rolled her eyes before putting her cards down on the table. "I think I'm done for now. Besides, we needed to talk to you and the rest of your team." She spoke, her words peaking the interest of the rest of Team PNLY who were at a table next to us studying.

"What's up?" yang asked as Pyrrha, Ren, and Nora all pulled up chairs to the table.

I relaxed in Weiss' arms before clearing my throat to gain everyone's attention. "We need your help."

"With what?" Pyrrha asked.

"We want to go after the people who put Ryker in the hospital. Torchwick is still out there, and he is using the White Fang for something and we want to find out what it is and put a stop to it."

The entirety of Team PNLY leaned forward in their chairs, mouths open. Pyrrha was the first to break out of her shocked expression. "Ruby, we are students, going after the White Fang and a notorious criminal is out of our pay grade."

"So we should let them run free and do whatever they want simply because we are students?" Blake scoffed.

"No, I'm saying that we need to leave it to those who have been trained to handle things like this."

"The people who were supposed to handle it didn't, and it put Ryker in the hospital because it fell onto us to deal with it. Torchwhick has been active for months stealing Dust for who knows what, meanwhile the White Fang have started to operate in Vale and we have no clue why. Something is going on and the professionals have been letting it happen." I grind out, jumping out of Weiss' lap and starting to pace back and forth. "We aren't going to sit by and do nothing, we need your help but if you aren't going to help us then we will do this on our own."

Pyrrha looked to the rest of her team for help in what to say.

Yang sighed. "Rubes… I know Ryker meant a lot to you, to all of you, but putting yourself in danger, and going after a known terrorist and the White Fang is asking for trouble. What would Ryker say."

"Rykers not here!" I snap, tears starting to dot my eyes as I feel my emotions start to spill over. "He's not here and it's their fault. We will make them pay, and we will bring them to justice."

"We can't stop you from doing this can we?" Yang asked quietly.

"No, you cannot."

Yang sighed once more before clapping her hands and standing up. "Then we will help you."

"We will?" Ren asked.

Yang nodded. "I don't want to lose any more friends, and I don't want to lose my sister. If she is going to do this then I will be by her side, and if I'm going, then I expect my team to have my back."

Pyrrha stayed quiet for a moment. "I guess we will help."

"Yes! We get to break the bad guy's legs!"

"So what's the plan?" Yang asked and I grinned. With Team PNLY we would put a stop to whatever Torchwick was doing, and we would bring him to justice so he could answer for all of his crimes.

(Blake pov)

"Ruby you have to shower. It's been two days and you have fought in combat class both times. You smell." I groan as I pry Ruby away from the bed, her hands clawing gouges into the wood as I pull her to the bathroom.

"I don't need to, I can go another day without having to shower," Ruby argued.

"No, you can not!" I hiss, a growl rumbling out of my throat.

"Blake please don't make me go in there!" Ruby whined.

I roll my eyes as I set the red-themed girl on her feet right next to the bathroom door. "Alright spill, why don't you want to shower?"

"Ruby hesitated for a moment, I could see the lie about to spill from her tongue before she had even made a sound. I held my hand up to stop her from trying to lie. "No, we promised that there would be no more secrets. Secrets are what lead Ryker to get hurt, and we will not have any more of them in this team."

Ruby flinched, she had to know that I was right. She couldn't keep lying, not if we wanted to be able to protect one another. "The bathroom is where I see Ryker the most."

"What? Why?" the pair of questions spilled from my mouth before I even realized.

Ruby looked at the door to the bathroom. "Because I'm truly alone in there. It's fine when I have to use the bathroom, but when I shower, I'm in there long enough for my brain to start punishing me."

Long enough for her brain to start punishing her? Were her hallucinations that vivid? I bit my lip, looking at the embarrassed girl before me. She needed to shower, that was not negotiable, but I also wanted her to feel comfortable.

I let out a groan, looking at the ceiling as I cursed my luck at the moment. "Don't freak out, but would you like me to shower with you so you are not alone in the bathroom?"

"W-What? B-b-b-yo-you would be-"

"Naked, yes." I wince as Ruby's entire face turns red. "You know what, forget about it, forget I even suggested something so stupid. It was a dumb idea."

"We can't ever tell Yang," Ruby spoke, the whiplash from the statement nearly bringing me to my knees. "A-and you have to help with my hair." She added hastily as she refused to look anywhere but directly at me.

"I promise I just want to help you be able to shower. I'm not trying to do anything heinous."

Ruby nods and reaches for the door to the bathroom. We both entered and stopped in front of the shower. It was spacious enough that we wouldn't be on top of each other, but not so big that we could avoid one another.

"Do you like hot, or warm?" Ruby asked awkwardly. "Or are you weird and like cold showers?"

"Warm, but I can handle hot if you want it hot," I say.

"I like it warm too."

We both stood there looking at the shower for what felt like ages. Neither of us knew how to proceed, the situation beyond awkward as we figured out exactly how to move on to the act of showering together.

Ruby let out a whine before she started to strip her clothes off. Her academy uniform comes off in layers. First, her blazer, then her vest, then her blouse, shoes, skirt, and stockings, leaving her in just her bra and panties. They were cute and definitely Ruby. She had a simple black bra that looked like her everyday bra, and her panties were mismatched with red and pink stripes. I giggle, of course, Ruby would be the kind of girl not to color-match her underwear. She blushed as she caught me openly looking at her.

"You know, it's not fair that I'm undressed and you aren't. You can't shower in your clothes." Ruby said shyly.

"Sorry," I mumble as I strip out of my own academy outfit. Getting down to my own underwear, though my bra and panties matched, both black. This time though I take the initiative and take my bra off. I blush as I quickly cover my chest with one arm, though I know I wasn't able to cover everything. I was a C-Cup, so naturally, I couldn't hide my entire chest. I stopped as I tried to figure out the best way to take off my underwear without- "Screw it" I mutter before taking my arm away from my chest and taking my underwear off. She was going to see me naked no matter what, better to just rip the bandaid off.

I turned to look at Ruby who was now staring at me slackjawed, her entire face red, pupils blown wide open as she stared unabashedly at me. If I could blush even more than I would, but I don't think that is possible right now. "R-Ruby, you're staring."

My comment seemed to snap her out of her trance. She broke her gaze from me and stared at the floor, wringing her hands, her nerves on full display. "Sorry… You're pretty." Ruby whispered before shakily taking her own bra off. I suck in a breath as I see her bare chest. Ruby's chest was smaller, but I had a feeling that was because she was a year and a half younger than me and nothing more. By the time Ruby was finished growing, she would probably be as big as Yang, maybe a bit smaller.

I turned my head away, realizing I had just been ogling my team leader's chest. This was to help her bathe, nothing more!

Ruby seemingly finished stripping down and the next thing I knew she was in front of me turning the shower on and messing with the temperature. I take a shaky breath as I see her ass on full display.

Keep it together Blake Belladonna.

Ruby steps into the shower, the stream of water immediately soaking her, her entire body dripping with water. I had to swallow the saliva building in my mouth at the site of my team leader. Beautiful didn't even begin to describe Ruby Rose.

"You going to get in here?" Ruby asked though she had now turned away from me, her gaze hyperfocused on a set of tiles on the shower wall.

"Y-Yes, of course!" I mutter before stepping into the shower, the spray of water immediately hitting the top of my back, I shivered as I felt myself being sprayed with the water. It was warm, but it still felt like a shock, much like the shock of being only inches away from a naked and wet Ruby.

"Can you hand me my loofa?" Ruby whispered, her voice tiny and hard to hear over the spray of the water. I turned around, shivering when my shoulder brushed against Ruby. I grab her Loofa off of the hook and pass it to her from over her shoulder. "Thanks."

"No problem." I grab my own loofa, mine a lot rougher than Ruby's, and grab my body wash and begin to scrub myself. Ignoring the few moments we accidentally brush against each other as we clean ourselves. My lilac-scented body wash mixes with Ruby's strawberry-scented one.

Eventually, I can't help but stare. Ruby was beautiful. She was built, I could see the ripples of every individual muscle beneath her skin. She wasn't jacked like Yang, Nora, or Pyrhha, instead, she was firm and toned. Every part of her body hardened and shaped for her to wield her heavy scythe. Chords of muscle flexed and shifted as she washed various body parts. I choked on my own breath when she bent over to wash her legs. Her ass was once again on display, but this time I was right next to her. I was so screwed.

My body flashed with heat as I felt my core clench. The tell-tale signs of arousal started to affect me as I was beginning to feel wet in a different way.

"Ruby, I think your legs are clean enough," I whisper.

My words seemed to have made Ruby understand exactly what I was inferring as she stood up, her entire body stiff as she turned around and gave me an embarrassed look. I could only gasp as I saw her from the front, her face flush, her chest on full display, nipples hardened. My eyes trailed down her toned stomach to the cleft between her legs and I whimpered at the sight.

"Blake?"

I snap out of my trance and turn away from her. "Sorry, I can leave. I'm sorry, I'm not meaning to look at you like that."

"Can I ask you a question?"

I crane my head to look back at her, she looked so fragile. " Yeah?"

Ruby shifted in place for a moment. "Before I left when you kissed me. What did it mean to you?"

I stare at her open-mouthed. How do I even begin to answer that kind of question?

"I just… I want to know if you have feelings for me. If you like-like me or if you were just needing comfort because of everything that was going on at the time."

"Ruby of course I have feelings for you. You are amazing." I breathe finally turning around and wrapping the smaller girl up in a hug. "How could I not have feelings for you? You are kind, caring, energetic, and so inventive. You love reading books that I like just so that you can talk to me about them. You started to drink tea simply because I like it. You do so much for me, and I always feel like I can never do enough for you."

Ruby's arms wrapped around me as she hugged me back. I blushed slightly realizing that I was pressing Ruby's face into my bare chest but I pushed that thought aside and just hugged the poor girl.

"I need to tell you something," Ruby mumbled.

"You can tell me anything, Ruby."

Ruby pulled away from the hug, looking unsure before she took a deep breath to steel her nerves. "I'm ace."

"Oh god Ruby, I'm so sorry. I would never try to make you uncomf-."

"I'm not sex repulsed. I'm just ace, sex has never been important to me. I find women and a few guys attractive, but I have never wanted to have sex with anyone." The smaller girl hugged herself slightly as she bared her soul to me. "I'm ok with it, but I know for a fact I don't want anything going inside of me down there. I also don't know how often I will be ok with you doing anything to me, but I don't mind doing stuff to you. Does that make sense?"

"I don't know what to say." I finally mutter.

"If it's a deal breaker then you should tell me now," Ruby spoke, her tone harsh.

"It's not a deal breaker. Ruby, I don't care if you never wanted to have sex. That was the last thing on my mind."

"Blake, I have caught you checking me out naked like five times. It was definitely on your mind." Ruby deadpanned.

"Ok, maybe it was, but you can't blame me. I have been standing next to a beautiful naked girl for like the past fifteen minutes, as she does things like bend over right in front of me." Ruby's face regained her blush as I reminded her of just how much she had presented to me.

"D-Do… Do you need help with that?"

"Help with what?" I stutter.

"Y-You are horny, right? Do you want me to help?" Ruby asked, seemingly not believing the words coming out of her own mouth.

"Ruby you don-"

"But I want to." Ruby interrupted.

I sighed, all of the objections dying in my head before I could speak them. I was turned on, and the thought of Ruby helping wasn't helping me calm down anymore either. "Y-yes. Yes please."

Ruby nodded before she seemed to hit a roadblock of her own. "How… How do I help?"

"We could kiss," I suggest.

Ruby's smile was small, but it was the most genuine I had seen in days. "I'd like that."

I step closer to her, my hands grabbing her hips as I pull her close to me. I groan as I feel my hands grip at her hips. While most of Ruby looked like rock-solid muscle, it turned out her hips were soft. I dipped my head down as I pressed my lips to Ruby Rose for the first time since she had left. Ruby gasps as I let out a low moan at her taste. She was sweet, like a fruit I couldn't quite place. My hands gripped her more possessively as I deepened the kiss. My lips spread as my tongue pressed against her slightly parted lips. A whimper escaped her as I bit her bottom lip, her mouth opening for me to claim her mouth with my own. She didn't fight for dominance in the kiss, she let me lead, and I was thankful for it. I was walking a thin wire, and if I didn't maintain control of the situation I would slip.

We sat there under the water, one of my hands leaving Ruby's hip as I cupped her face. I break the kiss, breathing heavily as we stare at each other. Ruby's eyes were wide, her pupils like a solar eclipse. "You kiss really good." She mumbled.

"Thanks, you too." I snicker.

"Want to do it again?"

I don't even respond before I capture her mouth for a second time. This time there was more aggression. I nipped at her lip till it was red and swollen, my hand cupped her head, while the other cupped the outside of her ass. I was mindful of what she had said, she had spoken very clearly that she was against anything going inside of her.

By the end of this kiss, we are both left panting. "Do you want to go further?" I ask softly. "Because we can stop here and it will only take me a few minutes to finish myself off. You already have me worked up."

"No, we can keep going. Can I try touching you?" Ruby asked softly, her voice still sounding unsure as she navigated what I assumed was her first time.

I nod, and just like that Ruby's hands lift from where they were placed on my waist. Both hands slid up as she cupped my breasts. I gave a small gasp as she gave me an experimental squeeze. "Are yours super sensitive? Cause mine aren't." Ruby asked curiously, but as she did so she gave my left nipple a small pinch.

I yelped out a moan from the action before nodding. "Yeah, super sensitive," I mutter as she begins to kneed at my breasts. She stood there, her eyes focused much like they would when I saw her working out a sketch on a weapon. She had a look of concentration that I didn't want to interrupt. Another yelp is pulled from me when she pinches my other nipple before lowering her hand. It trailed down my stomach, going further and further down till she stopped right above my small patch of pubic hair. I kept myself mostly shaved, but I always liked to leave a little bit of hair, it made me feel prettier.

You're ummm. Yours looks different than mine. A lot different." Ruby said simply. I blush at the comment. I knew she wasn't judging, but having my body talked about in such a matter-of-fact way was sending my heart into orbit.

She was right though, when I finally looked down to see what she was seeing I immediately saw the difference. Ruby has a small slit, without much there, hints of pink showing itself beneath her folds, the tip of her clit sticking out with her arousal. Meanwhile, mine was much more pronounced, my folds much more puffed out, and my clit much larger than hers.

"It's pretty." Ruby hummed.

I whimper as Ruby's hand finally moves down, trailing through my pubes before lifting up slightly and missing my clit. I groaned with want. I wanted so badly for her to touch me, but without realizing it she was teasing me. I hissed out in pleasure as her index finger pressed into the middle of my slit. My pussy was so wet that her finger slipped in without much effort at all. She even looked surprised as I swallowed her up to the knuckle. "Woah." Ruby gasped as every minute little movement had me gasping for air.

Ruby slowly withdrew her finger from me before pressing it back in. "You are really warm. And you feel like… Velvet?" She hummed as she slowly rocked her lone finger in and out of me, every time she pulled away she curled her finger slightly, trying to find my-

"Ruby!" I shout as I hunch over the smaller girl, the only thing holding me up was her at this point. My legs felt like jelly, and every time she hit that spot inside me I saw stars.

"Is that your?"

"Yes!"

"So, I'm doing good?"

"Ruby!" I groan getting a nervous giggle out of her.

"Sorry, just want you to feel good, and since I hardly do this to myself, it's hard to know if I'm doing good or not."

"You're doing great, but could you add another finger before I kill you for edging me to death?" I whimper into her shoulder.

Ruby wordlessly did what I asked, her ring finger sliding into me with even less effort as she worked me open for her. Even under the shower spray, my ears burned as I heard the distinct sounds of my excitement dripping to the floor below. I was leaking like a faucet and Ruby's rubyisms were not helping me.

Ruby began to work up to a faster pace, her fingers sliding in and out of me as she held my boneless body up. With every thrust, I was brought closer and closer to the edge. "C'mon Blake. You can do it." She muttered as she focused on my body like it was her job.

I groaned with discomfort as I felt the dam cracking, but it refused to burst. I was on the edge but I couldn't fall over it. Every thrust was like a shock of electricity lighting up my entire system. Ruby was pressing all the right buttons, yet I still felt like there were buttons not being pressed. I couldn't verbalize to her what I needed, I didn't even know what I needed to get me there. I was stuck, practically hanging on the tightrope that I so desperately wanted to snap on me and give me what I wanted.

"C'mon Blake. You are doing so good." Ruby cooed into my ear as she pressed the flat of her palm into my clit harshly. I screamed as a large crack formed in the damn. "C'mon, c'mon, c'mon." Ruby chanted as she fingered me faster and faster. I wasn't even trying to hide my screams of pleasure anymore, she was ripping them out of me whether I wanted them to or not. "Be a Good Girl Blake. Cum." Ruby snarled.

The dam shattered. I saw white.

The next thing I knew I was sitting in the tub with Ruby holding me to her chest, she was rubbing gentle circles into my back. Her rubbing slowed as I stirred. "W-What happened?"

"You were kind of out of it. I had to sit us down because you stopped trying to stand entirely." Ruby spoke softly.

"You were pretty verbal." I hum, still feeling the haze fogging up my brain.

"Sorry, should I not have talked?" Ruby asked hesitantly.

"No, talking was good, really good. You called me a good girl. Where did that come from."

Ruby snickered. "I'm ace, but I still look at porn sometimes. Just not a lot."

"What kind of porn do you look at?" I ask in confusion.

Ruby is silent. "Don't laugh."

"I won't."

"I'm serious."

"Ruby, just tell me." I groan.

"I like BDSM." She whispered.

I turn and look at her with wide eyes. My team leader, the one who was supposed to be innocent and not know anything about sex liked BDSM porn? "Y-you what?"

"I never found regular stuff attractive. It's just bodies slapping together, and fluids mixing, and-" Ruby shivered cutting herself off. " One day I came across a video. It showed a woman kneeling for another woman. The one that was standing tied the other one down to a bench, and she hit her with a paddle over and over again. She eventually brought out a crop and used that. She never touched touched herself, she only focused on the woman who was tied down, and when I saw the way her body had formed welts and marks from the paddle and crop. I felt turned on. I suddenly wanted to be the woman with the paddle. It made my heart race."

I looked at Ruby in awe. It was safe to say that I and the rest of the team had underestimated our team leader. Just because she was slightly younger than us did not make her an infant. We had spent so much energy and effort trying to hide conversations like sex from her and yet here she was with probably the deepest understanding of her sexual identity.

"So I watched more and more videos like that, and I found the things I liked. One of them was praise, the other…" Ruby trailed off before sighing. "The other was degradation."

"Oh?" the sound came out of me as I became enraptured with my teammate's words.

"I don't like a lot of the physical aspects, but I like the power. I like the control. I just figured out that I prefer the thought of using my voice more than anything. I would have said so many things to you if I wasn't scared about how you would react, but at the end, when I couldn't get you to… You know? I got so frustrated and just said what I wanted to say."

I lean back into Ruby's hold and press my face against hers. "You did perfectly. You were perfect. I wouldn't change a thing and you listened to everything I said. Ruby… You were amazing."

Ruby sniffed, her body shaking as she squeezed me tighter. "Thank you." She whimpered as a few tears rolled down her face. "Thank you." She repeated as I turned in her grasp to hug her back. I cradled her head as she buried her face into my neck and a harsh sob ripped through her.

I whisper little sweet nothings to her. I let her take all the time she needs to come back down to Remnant. The emotional rollercoaster she just went through has been harder on her than I thought it would. It didn't matter, I would be here with her till she was ready.

After the talk with Team PNLY, it was agreed that we would start our investigation after our mid-term semester exams. In total, we only had to wait about two weeks, but for me, it felt like a lifetime. Every night felt like an eternity before I fell asleep, but we only had a few more days before we would start looking into what Roman Torchwick and the White Fang were doing.

It had been a long night, my entire body on alert, jumping at shadows that passed by our window. Ruby was curled up against my chest, Weiss had passed out with her face buried into the crook of Ruby's neck. They were adorable. I felt such a strong need to protect them, and I would. I would never let what happened to Ryker happen to them.

I had always been a light sleeper, and that just came with being raised within the Fang, however, since Ryker's injury my ability to sleep had drastically reduced. Where I used to get six hours of sleep on average, I now manage maybe three to four a night. I was having to supplement with naps during the day to just stay functioning.

It honestly was a surprise when Weiss offered to sleep in the same bed with me. I don't even really understand why she did it, but there were a lot of things our team did that didn't make sense. Like, having a designated bed for cuddling and now sleeping. Most teams didn't have sex with each other either. I blushed as the thought of a few days ago played through my mind. Not much had changed with me and Ruby besides us spending more time in each other's arms. Ruby always seemed to come up with different ways to let her be able to cuddle with me whether it was in the cafeteria where she refused to not sit next to me, or in class when she would have us hold hands beneath tables, or right now, where Ruby without fail would find herself in the middle of Weiss and I.

It was adorable, and I enjoyed every second of it. I just hoped that Ruby wouldn't end up changing her mind, that she wouldn't decide that she didn't want to be that close to me. We hadn't labeled what we were yet, both of us hesitant to say the Gfriends word.

That was ok with me, as long as I could have her in my life, I would take whatever I could get. I sigh, pulling Ruby tighter to my chest as I close my eyes. I don't know when, but eventually sleep finally claimed me, with my beautiful Rose in my arms.