Ruby broke through the grass, her red plume bursting straight towards Weiss. Her Aura screamed, begging her to stop, but nothing would stop her from seeing the girl again. She didn't care if there was a fight— she'd seen red icicles flying after she left Yang in the dust. She needed to see her, to make sure she was alright, and if need be, protect her. She was ready, weapons or not. She'd find a way.

The sight before her made Ruby drop out of her Semblance, and her boots skid along flagstone as she arrested her momentum. She stared at the battle, if it could be called that, her silver eyes wide and dumbstruck.

Weiss straddled a tall, armored fay, but the only telling fay attributes left were his long ears. The rest of his features were actively being reduced into a purple pulp, courtesy of Weiss' fist and the knuckle-guard of her saber. The duelist herself barely seemed present; her eyes were wide and frenzied, and a sheen of red overtook the cerulean irises to make her look like a human Grimm. Ruby watched the fay twitch with each squelching blow.

"Weiss!" She tried to call for her paramour, but no answer came. She just kept breaking the fay, each swing of her knuckles adding to the purple-smattered halo around them. "Weiss?"

Another sickening crunch, another spurt of violet.

This was wrong.

Ruby burst into petals, ignoring her Aura's cries as she burned its last shreds and closed the distance. She tumbled out of her rosy Semblance as her soul went dry, but she'd expected that to happen. Her body sailed towards Weiss.

She slammed into the tranced girl, throwing them both from the shattered fay as Ruby wrapped her limbs tight around Weiss, pinning the duelist's arms against her sides. The two rolled against flagstone. Ruby grunted as the uneven pavings struck her back and sides, but Weiss never made a sound. The duelist just struggled, the muscles of her arms surging and pushing with far greater strength than Ruby expected.

Their roll eventually slowed, the two tumbled to a perilous halt. Ruby gulped.

Weiss was above her, arms freed at some point. Her face was impassive, eyes still a frenzied crimson. She raised her saber high, ready to plunge into her paramour's heart.

Weiss had been here before. Technically.

Even if the moment had been brief and sap-constructed, she immediately recognized her and Ruby's ramshackle cabin like it was her own home. In some ways, it was. Myrtenaster hung above the hearth of their main hall. The floor was dirt, packed down and smoothed by six pairs of feet over years of walking, working, loving, and playing. The table in the room's center was splintered and well-worn, crafted by her wife's own hands— their first piece of furniture, actually, and though it was shoddy and a bit too short and very wobbly, they didn't have the heart to replace it.

It smelled like home. Rosemary, onions sizzling in fat, straw and dirt, oils for leather and steel, the general people-stink that came with the blessing of children— home and memories. Aelia getting her first scrape. Ansel and Yves throwing fireplace ashes at each other. Carmen learning to read from a barely-more-literate Ruby. So much home in one place. The palace Weiss was born in, throughout its grand halls and rooms innumerable, had been desolate of such feeling.

But now it was quiet, and in the void of sound and love and family, it was more crushing than Palace Schnee could ever hope to be.

The main hall was silent. If Weiss looked to the wall, through the rough-cut and curtain-shut hole they called a window, she should see Ruby working the day away in her forge, hear the anvil's ringing, but nothing came. A hollow wind blew.

The children's bedroom was silent. The beds were all packed together, so seeing the little ones napping in a dogpile on her wife had become standard, but Weiss heard no snores, no breathy half-words from a dream, and no groans when her entry woke somebody up. Part of the house creaked. The way it cut through quiet only made the returning stillness more oppressive.

Their own bedroom was silent. For once. Weiss let out a chuckle. It was empty, and sounded like the cracking of lake-ice beneath her feet.

Weiss sat alone in the bedroom. She looked around: dust and cobwebs. If Ruby were here, she'd ask if Weiss was okay. When she told her she wasn't, Ruby would sit behind her, wrapping both arms and legs around her torso like a latching insect, squeezing her tight and warm until all the other things were forced out by sheer love.

But Ruby wasn't there. Nobody was there. So Weiss just sat, wishing the opposite were true.

'Weiss?'

Except Aulus. He was there, just like always. She hadn't freed him yet, but neither of them were particularly troubled by that. The fay soul was kindred to her now, so thinking about a life without his constant presence was hard. But still, Yang, Blake, and Qrow searched for the knowledge to let his spirit pass from the blade. Even if they'd grown a strong bond, both of them knew he'd rather be in the afterlife.

"Aulus?" She whispered, though she didn't need to. He'd be able to hear her thoughts even if they were realms apart.

'Weiss!'

Why did he sound so relieved?

'Can you hear me? Weiss?'

She scoffed, her dismissive tone masking how desperate she was to avoid the cabin's crushing quiet. "Of course I can."

'You need to stop! Stop, please! You're hurting her! Snap out of it!'

Snap out of what? And how could she hurt anyone? There was nobody here to hurt.

'Hey, talk to me! I can't hear you! Don't tell me you're—'

"What're you talking about?"

He didn't answer— at least not with words. He grunted as if he were exerting real, physical strain. A distant rigidity tingled in Weiss' arms.

"Weiss, please!"

Ruby? Why did she hear her voice? She didn't remember turning her wife into a cursed weapon.

"It's me! It's me!"

She'd never heard her voice sound so desperate. Weiss blinked, but when her eyes opened again, her vision was split by an annoying, silk-thin crack.

'Let me go, for fuck's sake! You're hurting her!'

Weiss shot to her feet, shutting her eyes tight as her head exploded with a sound like breaking glass. The crack in her vision spread across everything. Its lines were amber.

'Get a hold of yourself!'

"It's— Weiss, please! Don't you remember!"

Weiss burst from the bedroom, chasing her wife's voice. Furniture was toppled over, the hearth was roaring, Myrtenaster was dangling from its mantle. "Ruby?" She shouted into the home. "Where are you!"

"It's me, Weiss!"

The cracks in her vision doubled. From outside, she could hear the fwoosh of pumping bellows.

"We're paramours, aren't we!"

Ruby screamed through her teeth, her palms clasped tight along the saber's blade. Red mixed with purple as the edge slipped through her flesh, her grip only made worse with the slick of her own blood. The sword was so sharp, she'd already done all the begging she could. Gritting out a final, desperate cry to Weiss, she closed her eyes and awaited the inevitable.

The tip breached her shirt, then one, two layers of skin before it came to a sudden halt. Apparently the end was more evitable than she thought.

"Ruby?" The sound of Weiss' voice bade the smith's eyes open— one of them, at least, which cautiously pried its lids apart. Finally, they locked gazes again. "Wha— you—"

Ruby gave her a tiny, pained smirk. "H-hey, Weiss."

Weiss stared, eyes wide, disbelief pouring out through her tears. "You… you bumbling idiot! What are you doinghere, you dolt! There's a—"

Ruby's other eye opened, casting itself between Weiss' saber and the girl herself. "You're stabbing me again."

Weiss looked down at her hands and yes, she was stabbing Ruby again. Unfortunately, she scrambled away in total shock and revulsion, failing to actually keep her hands on the sword and leaving the stupid thing in Ruby. At least the smith had the brains to keep her hold on it, and grunted as she pulled it out of her chest. She pushed herself up with another pained noise, one hand absently grabbing the sword's handle so she could pass it back to Weiss.

'I appreciate your helping her,' a voice blasted into Ruby's brain, almost deafening if not for the fact that it sounded like it was separated by a pane of glass. 'But you will unhand me. Now.'

The weapon in her hand suddenly felt wrong, as if she were cradling her own mother's severed head. Ruby threw it away. Somehow, despite her wild toss, its arc swerved to Weiss' feet.

Weiss picked it up slowly, her eyes locked to Ruby as if she were an apparition. "You're… are you real?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" She answered, finally giving Weiss a full smile. A few red sparks flew out of her chest and closed the minor wound. More showered from her palms.

Weiss stared, still in disbelief, which she tried to throw off with a firm shake of her head. "Ruby, you need to leave— this is dangerous, you don't have anything to fight with."

Ruby shrugged, unbothered. "I don't really care, I'll protect you either way."

How could she say that so easily? "You shouldn't—"

'Weiss, shut the fuck up.'

Weiss tried to continue her rejection, but her jaw suddenly locked under an unexpected surge of Aulus' control. Her lips moved on the sword's accord, parting in a grateful smile as she gleefully said, "Thank you, Ruby, I love you!"

Ruby recoiled from the sound, completely dubious. "Was that the sword?"

Weiss let out a huff of triumph— her mouth may be uncontrolled, but her nose wasn't. "W-what!"

Ruby rolled her eyes, a light blush crossing her cheeks. "I love you too, but I'm not stupid. You don't even sound like her— the accent is completely wrong."

"B-but—"

The care in Ruby's eyes sharpened, steeled as she demanded, "Now give her back before I turn you into slag."

Aulus shrunk back, more from dejection than Ruby's threat. Weiss worked her jaw before saying, "You don't need to threaten him, he's a frie—"

The words left her lungs, breath forced out as Ruby tackled her at full speed. Before Weiss could give her a verbal lashing for such roughness, she found her lips occupied by Ruby's. The smith's tears crossed onto her face as her hands came up, holding Weiss' head still as she pressed deeper, pushing all her longing, fear, and relief through the kiss.

When the smith finally parted, Weiss had been left breathless. Her heart was full. Aulus was right, and she could feel how smug he was.

'See? I knew that'd work.'

She wanted to tell him to be silent, but the way Ruby stared into her eyes before gently tucking a stray lock behind her ear, it…

"Gods, I missed you," Ruby whispered.

Weiss didn't say anything. The smith had taken the words right out of her mouth, literally and figuratively.

Ruby's eyes distanced a little, but the care never left her face. "I was so worried… but… not for you. I knew you'd be okay," she sniffled, turning her face away so Weiss wouldn't see her cry, "I just… I was scared I'd never get to see you again."

Weiss was wordless, still dumbstruck by how much she just… felt. She didn't know she could be so loved, and it filled her lungs so much that it smothered any words.

"But you're here," Ruby's eyes found her again, her lips parted in a wide smile. "I've got you, and I'll never let you go again."

Weiss could see the teeth she'd lost— she only just noticed how much more scarred the smith had become. The once-clean line across her cheek was broken by a rough circle, no doubt left from the branch that'd speared through it in their last fight. Her chin had a pink seam down the middle, her right eye sat among rippled flesh, and various, faded spots and lines littered her jawline from the vicious sundering of her mandibular. The girl's Aura had been so thoroughly exhausted, Weiss realized, that her healing was left to manual care alone.

She'd never seen someone so beautiful in her life. That fact, along with the girl's heartfelt promise, gave Weiss a smile that could almost match Ruby's. Almost, since nothing could truly come close— Weiss was the full moon, but Ruby was the blinding sun.

That sun suddenly eclipsed— Ruby's face fell with fear and confusion. "Weiss, your tee—"

"Hey, y-you… fuckers!"

They both turned. The fay was back on his feet, another vial of red lifting to his mangled lips.

"I'm not done with you yet! I'm gonna make you wish you'd—"

Yang burned through the wall of grass. Her blazing fist put him to sleep.

A/N: oh my god,,.,., theyre *paramours*

im so happy with this chapter, im so glad i took this route instead of the, uh... darker one. sucks i wrote so far ahead lol, but ill post the scrapped alts (at least this one) on my tumblr swagmagussupreme . ive also had to scrap the ruby/valerius fight, which... sigh... it was cool. definitely too hardcore for this ruby tho lol, the overly-dark shift on 73 kinda turned everything grim. but hey, we're here now, and things are much sweeter. for now.