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"So what's your big idea about Weiss's engagement present?" I wondered.
"I-" Ruby sighed. "I had the idea of, like, a bracelet. With like… I don't know. Our symbols as links in it. As charms."
"Okay… I'm still with it…"
"..." Ruby said nothing loudly.
"That's it, you mean. That's the whole idea?" I asked.
"You don't think it's enough…"
"It could be. It just doesn't scream Weiss at me. I mean it's not like she's a bracelet girl in particular. But she could be. It's not like she's a necklace or ring girl either per se. Maybe if we paired it with a fancy watch?"
"Oooh. That's nice. Make them match. Now you have to tell me your idea for Myrtenaster. We have to do something with that."
"Well, it sort of depends…"
"On what?"
"On whether Winter's extra saber survived her encounter with Cinder and if Ironwood will let us have it. He still has it, I bet. Him or Weiss herself."
"Okay and we do what? Make it so that Myrtenaster has that as an attachment?"
"Yeah. Pretty much. That's the whole idea. Don't wait around-"
"It's not enough."
"Yeah… maybe…"
"Don't get me wrong, using something from her sister like that is sweet and it shows we care. And it's a small tweak that doesn't have to affect her fighting style but it can. You know? If she wants it to. But it's still sort of a small tweak."
"I'm with you," I agreed readily. "I just can't think of anything else. I'm at my limit here. You're the weapon-girl. Be a weapon-girl girl." I demanded. Come on Rubes. This was your whole wheelhouse. If anybody was able to come up with something good it should be you.
"Don't put that kind of pressure on me! All I can think of is-eep!" She broke off. I took a sharp turn on my bike and Ruby's hands tightened around me. "You did that on purpose…" she muttered into the wind.
"Only a god can prove that. Scoot closer to me and it won't torque you as much."
She did. Sliding down the bike and putting her hands on my hips but such that her arms crossed me all down my front and she was pressed all into my back with her chest and stomach. Ah… much better… I'll have one of these, thank you very much. A take out order of Ruby Rose. Her aura was all cinnamon and flowery in my nose. And her whole body was pressed against mine and she wasn't a little girl anymore. She had assets and a fantastic figure.
We took a trip down narrow streets with tan walls and grey roofs. The pavement was cobblestone beside the asphalt here. We pulled up on that same jewelry store that Weiss and I went to. I didn't see the harm in it. And the last dude had been helpful enough. Service, service, service.
"I want to do something with the revolver. That's more up my alley. The revolver on Myrtenaster, that is."
"Okay. Sure. What did you have in mind?"
"I was thinking we could add another barrel or two to the mechanism. We'll need to rebalance the weight with the saber anyways. This could be a way to deal with that. And you know…"
"The chance to put your Ruby Rose flair to it?"
"Strife…" she whispered.
"I'm sorry," I intentionally missed her correction. "What was that?" I teased a little and tried to draw her out.
"Ruby Strife, I'm going to be Ruby Strife."
"Ah. And I should start referring to you that way starting… now?"
"May as well…"
"What? Do you like the ring to it? Ruby Rose rolls of the tongue. Dudes love it."
"There's only one dude I'm interested in having love it. And yeah. It has a nice sound. It makes me sound yours."
"So I should introduce you that way? When it comes up?"
"Yeah. You should. If you want. I mean… I won't force you."
"Then I will." We disembarked from the bike and Ruby's short hair was windswept. It gave her a more wolfish demeanor. She waved her head and her hair barely moved down her face. She reached up and combed her fingers through it to get slightly more manageable.
I kept my hair as windswept and spikey as possible. I locked my bike and left it behind.
Ruby and I walked inside with Ruby leading and me trailing behind her with a full head of height above her and at least twice her slender frame broad. "So what are you two going to get me?" I pressed her. I reached behind her and poked her in the side where she was ticklish and she bent over with a grin and quick giggle.
"I can't tell you. It has to be a surprise," she laughed. And my gods her laugh could brighten my whole pathetic life. She swept her cape back over her. She straightened back up and I was tempted to poke her again. "Weiss and I have worked hard to come up with some ideas."
"You don't have a clue yet, do you? You have no fucking clue what you're both getting me."
"You're so hard…"
"Oh for you, sweetheart, I could be so hard."
"Oh, pssh. Look, you. Why can't you be easy to buy something for?"
"I'm telling you. Get me two rings and a blowjob. Call it quits."
"Well if you really want a blo- hi. Yes. You can help us," Ruby cut herself off and turned a delicious beet red as a blonde clerk with her hair in a pony-tail came up to us in the store.
'What were you two looking for?" She asked helpfully.
I said nothing and looked expectantly at Ruby. I was deliberately unhelpful.
"Well," Ruby started. She brushed her hair back and gathered herself. "We need an engagement present for the third in our trio. We were thinking about getting a bracelet and wristwatch combination. But we wanted the bracelet to have our insignias as charms. And we wanted the bracelet to match the watch," Ruby spoke for both of us easily and I got the pleasure of watching her get herself together. It was so sweet to witness and she gave me a dirty look out of the corner of her eye when she finished. She knew I could have cut in. It was so cute. The little side eye that promised vengeance impotently. What was she gonna do? What was she actually going to do?
"What was your price range?" The woman asked helpfully.
"Um, in the ballpark of five grand for both. We can go higher too if we have to. Just… just show me all your matching sets."
"And we'd like copies of your insignia's to jewel into charms…"
"Oh… that's fine. Do you have an email address we can just send them to?"
"We do. Here. It's Table Mountain Jewelers at hmail dot com."
"Like this?" Ruby turned her scroll around to show the woman with the address in the bar. I leaned back and put my hands in my deep pockets and gently thumbed a dust crystal in one pocket and my pocket folder knife in the other. Ruby and Weiss took Crocea Mors from me when I tried to kill myself and they hadn't given it back yet. I mean, may as well, since they were modifying it anyways. Still I felt a distinct lack of something to my person without it. I liked running my hand along the too-long pommel. I liked the weight of it. I was used to that. I was used to it being it's harness on my back and with just the harness I felt naked. I may as well not be wearing any clothes. At least I had my armor but my weapon was my weapon was my weapon. You know what I mean? It was mine. And mine and mine and mine.
"Yes that's the address just fine. Just send images of the insignia's to that address along with your name. We'll match it up. And is this for a man or a woman or neither."
"A woman. Weiss is a woman."
"Weiss then. That's a nice name," The clerk led the way over to a display case. She pulled out several wrist watches of gold and silver and diamond and pearl and other gem stone encrusted bracelets. "Did you have a color theme in mind?"
"White and blue. So…" Ruby let the woman take away several green and red colored bracelets. She removed the gold wrist watches and left behind the silver and platinum ones. "These are nice… and this one matches with this one. And… blue diamonds would be best. I think. And… definitely silver or platinum for the wrist watch. And… we're all hunters so they have to be able to withstand punishment. Is that going to be a problem for any of these? Maybe Titania alloy or even pure Titania would be best. It also can't be loose and catch on anything. And if it does catch on something that's when it needs to break. But it shouldn't catch and it shouldn't break. But if it does catch it's better that it breaks and doesn't hurt Weiss. What do you think, Cloud?"
"The blue diamonds look nice," I leveraged.
"Oh, you're no help! You could be talking about any of these at this point."
"I came up with the bracelet idea. I've done all I can do."
"Come now. You must like some of these for your engagement over the others," the clerk waved me off.
"Um…" I trailed. Ruby looked at me vindictively. "Not that one…" I pointed out a really diamond encrusted one with hardly any chain. "Not this one…" I pushed one away that was a series of circular links with diamond surrounding blue jewels. "Not this either," I pointed at one that was super thick and broad with gemstones that I couldn't really see Weiss wearing. "And… so… one of these?" I pointed to the thinner ones with a bit of chain to them. "Are any of these Titania."
"This one is. This one… also is. This one is not… and so is this one," The clerk got rid of several of the bracelets.
"Rubes. Help me out here…"
"Oh do you need my help?"
"Um… I feel like 'yes.'"
"Well what do you think about this one." Ruby reached and picked up a bracelet that was blue gemstones and diamonds intertwining one another. It was a thin and supple thing with plenty of rocks and it had a little hook so that it could be tightened appropriately.
"Um… hard maybe."
"Oh. You're really no help."
"I helped a lot."
Ruby examined one that was alternating hexagonal blue and white diamonds on a Titania and silver chain. She held up yet another to the light that was gold and silver plates with a diamond trimming to it. She dismissed that one. She got rid of one that was such a dark silver it was almost black. Yeah, good call. She was Weiss. Not… not Bleiss. Or whatever. I didn't speak old Atlesian. I had no idea.
"Get rid of all of them that have gold to them," I decided. "Just get rid of them."
The clerk removed one with a golden interior to the chain. She also got rid of one that was blue stones wrapped around golden links.
"Some of these are too blue. It's like… we want a soft blue. Like a light blue. Like ice."
Several bracelets with deep blue stones were removed. Some had alternating patterns with diamonds and some had diamonds wrapped around the deep blue stones. The only selections left were all light blue like Weiss's eyes rather than a deeper royal, navy, or sapphire. The ones left were all aquamarines or diamonds. There was a nice thin one with alternating square cut gems that Ruby removed and she closely examined one that had diagonal strips of diamonds and blue stones.
"What do you two like the most?" The clerk with the ponytail asked.
The selection of bracelets was now rather narrow. I reached for one of interwoven snaking stones in thin stripes at the same time Ruby did. I pulled back my hand and let her pick it up and look at it a little closer.
"I think… this one? Maybe? Cloud?"
I took it from her. It was thin enough that it wouldn't bother Weiss and it had some chain to it to add our insignias.
"Yeah. I like it too."
"Now the watch. Just… we want it to be durable. And… mechanically powered. And we want it to be thin just like the bracelet. And it has to be silver, platinum, or Titania. Or some alloy. So. And the face should be adorable. I don't like the rectangular ones. It needs to be a match for the bracelet. Oooh look how thin this is cloud. I didn't know watches could be made so small."
She held up one with a little oval face and all silver backing. You could hardly tell that there was glass to the face and it didn't have room for a logo or brand. It didn't have room for a date or month but it wasn't like Weiss was going to be losing track of those things. If she did then she wouldn't be Weiss and I wouldn't be marrying her.
I didn't know they made watches so thin either but between this and the bracelet Weiss's wrist was going to be occupied. We had to go thin. It wasn't like Weiss had much wrist to her to begin with. She had supple arms sure but not exactly long ones.
There was another watch which was slightly wider but it had a hint of blue to the metal it was worked with. It had a round face and no room for logos either. Just a clock face. The hint of blue to the face was what caught my eye and I picked it up and turned it over in my hands. It was so small and delicate. It seemed almost fragile but the Titania alloy assured it was not. There was a rim to the face that made it pop a little in the light.
"That one?" Ruby asked.
"I think so… It's so… softly blue. Isn't it?"
"Like Weiss's eyes. We like this one," Ruby pointed. "We'd like to place an order on those insignia and we'll fit them to my wrist. I checked. We have about the same wrist size."
"When did you check?"
"Just… just at some point… Cloud. Are details really important? I did it at some point let's drop it and leave it at that."
"It just sounds like a story is all."
"No story. We compared wrists and hands once. Back at Beacon. Oh shoot I was a lot smaller back then. Do you think-"
"We should just have Weiss fit them after we give them to her. Better to be safe than sorry."
"Let me put together your order. And those insignias will be extra."
"It's no problem," I told the clerk. "We'll just pick them up when you're done."
"You'll leave a scroll number with us with your order. Just be sure it's a private cell so 'Weiss' doesn't pick up," she reminded. That wouldn't be an issue either.
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-WG