Apparently, Beacon's forge was open for use by just about anyone. It was a little known fact, not technically advertised, but it was true. So long as you paid a rather large fee and personally knew someone in the school itself, their facility was opened to you.

Money wasn't really an issue for me any more, and I was much more than a mere acquaintance with a certain silver-eyes student, so it was easy to get in.

Unlike most other places within Vale, the forge in Beacon was state of the art. It was nothing like the tiny forge I had used to make Trick, and I found myself looking around curiously, a little out of my element as I took in the various tools and machines that were strewn across the room itself.

There were a few students currently using the facility, hammers clanging against steel and fires being stoked as they worked at their latest projects, armor plates and weapons strewn about as they worked on their internals and externals.

A few of them gave Ruby and I curious glances as we passed, clearly recognising the silver-eyed girl but not the Faunus who was following behind her like a lost puppy. I gave them a shallow nod, adjusting the strap of my bag as I did so and that was seemingly enough for them to decide I was uninteresting as they all immediately turned back to what they were working on.

"Here we are!" Ruby said happily as I turned my attention back forward. She gestured at the small alcove she had stopped in front of with a happy grin, "My little piece of paradise!"

I looked around the area curiously. Apparently Ruby was in the forge often enough that an entire area had been completely dedicated for her own personal use which honestly made complete sense. Bright red pieces of metal that I could recognize would fit Crescent Rose lay scattered across a large desk in various states of repair. Several tools ranging from wrenches to welding torches were hung on the wall just behind the desk, easily in reach and ready for use.

There was a rather large furnace off to the side, coals inside of it dim with the lack of heat running through

And to wrap it all up in a way that was decidedly Ruby, there was a large poster of a Beowolf eating a cookie hanging just beside the tools. I had always found it a bit odd how we had a tendency to cutify the literal genocidal monsters that threatened to plague humanity's very existence, but I suppose there was something to be said about coping mechanisms and all that

I giggled as I sat my bag down on the floor, "Nice decor Ruby. Really livens the place up."

Ruby saw where I was looking and blushed brightly, "That's not mine! S-someone must have put it up there to prank me! Or something…"

I raised a brow, "Oh? The cookie and dog loving Ruby Rose had nothing to do with it?"

"A-anyway." Ruby quickly moved on from the subject, "We should have most of what we need to make your weapon in the forge. Materials are free to use for any student as long as they aren't purposefully wasteful, so we've got quite a bit to choose from."

I decided not to tease her further, instead looking around at the stack of ingot and various other tools, "Looks like we have a good amount of stuff. Will this be enough you think?" I asked curiously.

Ruby hummed, studying the area, "Maybe." She finally decided, "We'll likely have to go through at least two or three prototypes depending on your designs, but the forge gets a new shipment of materials every friday based on what was used during the prior week. We should be good to go."

I nodded, "That's good. If we need anything that we don't have, I can make a quick run down to Vale to get it."

"So how long were you able to rent access for?" Ruby asked curiously as she pressed a small button on the side of the furnace. The coals inside began to glow orange immediately as they rapidly warmed up, and I winced at the wave of sweltering heat that immediately soaked into my jacket.

"My job pays really well so I was able to pay for a month's worth of time." I said as I set my bag down in a corner, far away from the furnace of course, "We should be able to get it done by then right?"

"Yep." She popped the 'p', before looking at me curiously, "Hey Rei?"

"Hmm?"

"What is your job?"

I froze as the question registered in my ears. I had been hoping to put this conversation off for a little while longer, not really sure how to go about telling Ruby of my, well it wasn't really a hobby anymore was it? I knew Ruby wasn't likely to hate me for something as trivial as theft (Even the grand heists I was probably going to have to pull in the future) but it was still going to be a difficult task to tell her that her best friend had plans to be a master thief.

I wanted to tell her. Oh how I wanted to. I often found myself staring at her during our hangout sessions, words on the tip of my tongue in preparation to spill everything to the only person who was likely to understand.

But I couldn't. One of the only conditions of mine and Gerard's contract was that I wasn't allowed to tell anyone what I was doing. I wasn't willing to break a promise to the man who had practically saved me from destitution, but I was just as unwilling to keep lying to my friend's face like I had been. It was a bit of an impossible situation.

But maybe it didn't have to be. Gerard had specifically stated that I wasn't allowed to tell anyone he didn't approve of about the exact details of my employment. Anyone he didn't approve, that was the important part. If I could convince him, he could simply add Ruby to that list of approved people, allowing me to tell her everything.

Surely Gerard would understand, right? Ruby was my best friend, even if what I was doing was technically illegal, I wasn't hurting anybody, didn't have plans to hurt anybody, she would understand. But until I got his explicit permission, I would have to keep her in the dark.

'Just for a little while.' I promised myself, 'Only a little while longer.'

"I can't tell you." I said finally and watched as Ruby's face fell slightly. I hastened to explain, "I mean I can't tell you yet. There's something I have to do first."

Ruby tilted her head, confusion clear in her eyes which was much better than the tinge of sadness that was there just moments ago, "What do you mean?"

I sighed, turning back to my bag, "My employer has specifically told me that I'm not allowed to tell anyone what I'm doing without his permission." I explained as I began pulling things out of my bag in search of something specific, "It was one of the only rules he had for me when he hired me on and it's in the contract I signed. You're my best friend Ruby, but I can't tell you just yet."

It sucked, and I could tell Ruby wasn't happy about it by the way the edges of her mouth curled down slightly, but she nodded anyway, "Alright. Just promise you'll tell me if it gets too dangerous. I don't want you to get hurt." Her face was set into a serious expression, and I knew she wasn't going to let this one go.

"Deal." I said. I would talk to Gerard next time we spoke and do my best to convince him. I didn't like hiding things from Ruby.

I finally found what I was looking for, pulling a notebook from my back and holding it out for her to take, "Here. I had a feeling something like this would happen so I started making designs a while ago. These are the final drafts." I handed it to her and she hummed curiously as she opened it up.

Ruby was silent as she flipped through my notebook, and I felt a tinge of nervousness prickle the back of my neck. I was the furthest thing there was from a mechanic, much less a weaponsmith, and I had no way of knowing whether or not my designs were even possible. There was a not so small possibility that Ruby would just laugh in my face at my ideas.

'No, that's silly.' I shook my head as Ruby studied my designs, 'It's Ruby, she wouldn't do that. She doesn't have a mean bone in her body.'

That didn't help the nervousness that continued to build as she flipped through my notebook, silver eyes darting along the pages as she took in my illustrations.

"It's gonna be tricky to get all of the mechanisms working without interfering with each other." Ruby finally spoke, sounding more like she was talking to herself than me as she continued scanning the papers, "The dust chamber specifically would need to be reinforced to handle the stress you're planning to put it through, and that would severely impact its mechashift abilities. Though that could be fixed if we- No. No that wouldn't work, that would increase its weight to the point that the shifting nodes wouldn't even be able to rotate. Maybe…"

She continued muttering to herself as she flipped through the notebook, and I let out a sigh of relief as she didn't dismiss my ideas straight away. It would have really sucked to have come all the way down here only to learn that I would have to start from scratch.

"So it's possible?" I asked the muttering girl. Silver eyes blinked in surprise as she turned to me, seemingly having forgotten I was there. I smiled in amusement as her face flushed red in mild embarrassment.

"Oh, um, yeah it's possible." She said as she placed the notebook onto the workbench, "Just tricky. Some of your ideas are sound in writing but actually putting them into action will be a bit difficult."

I frowned at that, "I can change it up a bit if that would help." I offered, "There's a few features in there that I don't completely need."

She surprised me by shaking her head with a grin, "Nope! The tricky parts are what make it fun! It's super boring working with analogue stuff and your designs are pretty complex. It's pretty cool that you were able to think of something like this without going to an academy for it." She praised.

I could feel a blush warming my cheeks as I rubbed the back of my head, "I just tried to imagine what would be useful in a fight. It's nothing really."

She shook her head, "Some of the second-years here don't have a weapon this complex. You clearly put a lot of thought into your fighting style and saw what you were lacking and figured out how to fix it. That shows a level of introspection that some veteran Huntsmen don't even have!" She insisted.

If my face got any redder I was pretty sure I was going to pass out. Somehow I had forgotten how passionate Ruby got about this sort of stuff. It was odd to hear her so seriously praising something I had created that wasn't just baked treats, and it sent my heart beating slightly faster.

Ruby placed the notebook back on the table, turning to me with a bright smile. "Alright! Let's get started! I'm going to go grab some stuff we need, you start stacking ingots by the forge so we don't have to keep walking back and forth." She ordered.

I grinned at the sight of her taking charge, and gave her a mock salute, "You got it boss!"

It was a little over two weeks later, and Ruby and I had run into a bit of a roadblock with the prototypes. Namely, the fact that they kept exploding on us. The first time it had happened had been a surprise, the second had been an annoyance, and the third had been mildly infuriating.

We had decided to put the work on halt while we figured out exactly what was causing the problem, going over notes and the mangled wrecks of the prototypes to find the cause. We'd had little success, and eventually decided to call it a day.

That had been yesterday, and I looked around as I entered the forge once more, noting that it was completely empty, which made sense considering how early it was. It seemed that everyone had better things to do than work on their project at seven in the morning. Well, everyone except me and Ruby. I grinned as I walked toward the noise of metal slamming against metal, making my way to the alcove that my best friend had made her own.

I rounded the corner, Ruby's name on my lips, only to stop as I took in the redhead, brow furrowed in concentration as she worked…

In a sports-bra.

She was hammering a glowing hot piece of metal, shaping it with purpose, before sliding it back into the flames of the furnace. My eyes were drawn to the drops of sweat dripping from her hair, the wisps of silky black stuck to the skin of her forehead which practically steamed in the intense heat of the forge, before my gaze fell lower.

I swallowed lightly as I took in the surprisingly toned muscles in her arms as she retrieved the metal, hammering it once more on the table. The burning furnace cast a beautiful glow on her pale skin, light shimmering along the thin layer of sweat that had built up during her work, and my mouth dried as I imagined running my tongue along the length of her biceps, the salty taste of sweat covering my tastebuds as I-

I shook my head, 'Down girl! That's Ruby you're thinking about, your best friend! She's not just some piece of meat for you to ogle! Cool it!'

I took a deep breath to calm my raging hormones, before taking another, more analyzing look at my friend. Unlike usual, her face was scrunched into an expression of mild frustration as she removed the metal from the furnace again, placing it back onto the workbench as she began shaping it once more. Each ring of her hammer upon the molten surface was louder than the last as she put more force into her strikes, before something eventually gave, and the next strike of her hammer was upon the table itself.

She stared at the twisted and bent metal in her tongs for a moment, before letting out a loud groan, "Ugh! Not again! I thought I had it that time!"

"Everything okay Ruby?" I made my presence known as I began picking up the scatter bits of scrap metal, placing them into a pile. They weren't hot, but it still wouldn't have been right to just leave them lying around like that.

Ruby's head shot over to me, surprise evident in her eyes, "Oh, Rei! I didn't know you were here."

I chuckled, "I don't think you would have noticed if the headmaster himself walked through the door Ruby. You were really focused over there." I gave her a concerned look, "What's got you so worked up this early? You figure out what was causing the malfunctions?"

Ruby groaned as she took the metal into her tongs again, "Ugh, yes… The issue is that the alloy mixes we have here at Beacon aren't sturdy enough to properly reinforce the dust chamber for your right sword. That's why all of our prototypes have been exploding on us. The casing is compromised immediately after firing." She explained as she carefully submerged the metal into the quenching solution with a hiss of steam, leaving it there to cool, "I've been trying different mixes to try to find one that's good enough."

Here, she grimaced, "But none of the metal we have on hand is pure enough to mix properly so it just keeps coming out even more brittle than before. I've gone through I don't know how many attempts and I'm about to lose my mind!"

So that's what it was. I'll admit, I had somewhat foreseen this when I had made my designs. I had based the dust chamber on the one within Trick so I knew it could be done, but Trick was just a gun, not an mechashift weapon which was a bigger difference than it sounded. Every component of a mechashift weapon needed to be carefully balanced or catastrophic failure was all but guaranteed.

Still, now that I knew what the problem was, I might have had a solution. My mind went back to something Misa had told me she often did during our training, infusing her aura into her weapon during our spars to increase its durability.

"Well," I began hesitantly as I finished stacking the discarded failures into a pile, "I might have an idea. But I'm not a blacksmith, I honestly don't even know if it's possible in the way I'm imaging."

Ruby just gave me a tired look, "It can't be any stupider than trying to use a quenching solution made from melon juice to strengthen the metal." She grumbled as she wiped her hands off with a rag, quickly transitioning to cleaning her neck of sweat.

I snorted, carefully keeping my eyes to myself and not on the bead of sweat making its way down her abdomen, "Melon juice?"

"I was tired. Melon juice has iron in it. It seemed like a good idea at the time." Was her explanation, and I shook my head as I shucked off my jacket, placing it on a table off to the side and leaving me in just a black T-shirt.

"Right, we're taking a break tomorrow. You've been working your tail off and I'm starting to feel bad. I'll treat you to that ice cream place you love so much as a thank you." I decided.

Ruby gave a small pout, clearly not wanting to go with my idea, but the mention of ice cream swayed her decision. "Yeah, okay. That sounds nice." She smiled lightly, looking up at me as I walked up beside her, setting a bottle of water from my bag beside her "So what was your idea?" She asked as she opened it gratefully.

I hummed, taking in the numerous ingots still in the furnace. They weren't nearly as hot as the one Ruby had been working on, a dull orange instead of cherry-red, but that might actually work in our favor.

"Well…" I spoke slowly as I took in the ingots, "Why don't we try infusing our aura's into the metal while we work on it? From what little I remember from school, aura infusion on an inanimate object isn't nearly as hard as on another person right? If it takes, it should strengthen the metal while keeping it around the same weight. We wouldn't need to change the alloy at all."

Ruby froze, water bottle halfway to her lips as she took in my words. I rubbed the back of my neck sheepishly, "Like I said, I don't even know if its possible but it seemed like a good idea in my head-"

I was surprised as a pair of arms was suddenly wrapped around my back and I was pulled into a hug, "Rei, you're a genius!"

I blinked, "I am?" I said as my arms hesitantly came down around her, my shaky hands resting against the bare skin of her back. As she spoke excitedly.

"You are! I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner! Aura infusion isn't easy because of how much of a strain it puts on your body so most people don't do it, but as long as we do it together there shouldn't be any issue! If we switch off every few cycles, the strain will be reduced but not only that, it should also increase the durability of the metal several times what it would have been if I we did it alone. OOH! I"ve got the perfect metal in mind, it's super conductive. Wait right here!"

She zoomed away, leaving me standing there dumbfounded with my arms outstretched , rose petals fluttering between my now-empty arms. I slowly lowered them back to my sides, staring straight forward as I tried to come to terms with what had just happened. I guess that break would have to wait.

…She was really warm.

It was a struggle. Creating a weapon as complicated as I had designed was no easy task even for someone as gifted as Ruby, even after my solution to our problem. The internal mechanisms needed to be just the right size and shape, the metal on the outside needed to be just the right shape or it would all fall apart spectacularly and that wasn't even mentioning the science of the mechashift itself. Even by the time we were finished, I still couldn't wrap my head around it.

It was a given that I wouldn't be able to help much in the actual crafting of the weapon. Oh sure, I could work the forge just fine and hammer metal with the best of them, but the actual cutting and welding and soldering was done by Ruby. In the later stages,

I certainly didn't mind. It was really something else to watch the redhead work at something she was so very passionate about, and every time her silver eyes lit up with excitement as another component clicked into place, my own chest buzzed with something just as powerful. Something that left me staring at her, breathless as blood pulsed in my ears with the beats of my heart.

Gods. I really was smitten, wasn't I?

And finally, after nearly the entire month of time allotted to us was consumed, it was done. With one final click, the last component slid into place like a puzzle piece, and our labor was complete. A weapon, forged by our shared hands and auras lay on the workbench, dim light glinting off the newly polished metal.

Ruby's scream of happiness nearly got us kicked out, but the look on her face and resulting hug would have been more than worth it.

While Beacon's forge was open for use to just about anyone, their training facilities were certainly not. They were student-only and any outsiders caught inside could get in serious trouble for it, as well as any student helping them.

Of course, that wasn't going to stop Ruby who really wanted to do a live testing with my newly made weapon, nor me who had a habit of sneaking into places I wasn't wanted. It was a simple task to navigate to the room using Ruby's student map, sneaking through the empty halls to meet her in the training facility.

And what a facility it was. A room specifically for weight lifting, one containing a large circular ring specifically for running, and even a swimming pool the size of a baseball field. It was insane. And that wasn't even getting into the battle facility.

See, in order to keep the death counts low from students venturing into the wild to look for Grimm to test their weapons on, Beacon had opted for a more… simple solution, if you could call it that.

Holograms. Tangible holograms of Grimm that would attack the student based on the setting they had been put on, shutting off when their aura was depleted or all the Grimm were dead. I didn't even know that that sort of stuff was possible but I suppose that's why Beacon was the best Academy in most people's eyes. I was certainly all too happy to utilize the facility for myself.

My weapons fit perfectly in my hands, like they had been there all along. And as I sliced my way through fake Grimm, I couldn't be more happier with the results of our work.

Even before Misa had advised me, I had noticed that dual-wielding was the most comfortable fighting style for me. It just came naturally to me to fight with both of my arms, keeping up with two weapons not an issue at all like it was with most people. I had taken this into account when I had made my designs before giving them to Ruby, and now that I was holding the finished product in my hands, weaving between slow-moving fake Grimm I knew I had made the right choice.

Hit and Run. A month-long labor between Ruby and I, and one that turned out beautifully. They were a pair of black and blue mechashift hookswords with short range weapons incorporated into them, meant to accommodate my more personal way of fighting. While it had taken a bit of getting used to, especially since they were both around two feet longer than my escrima sticks, it hadn't taken long to shift my style to accommodate.

Run was my left weapon. It included a high-capacity SMG that worked by shooting chunks of pure dust. It was certainly an expensive type of ammunition, but one I was more than happy to use given the sheer variety of effects I could choose from. Well that, combined with the fact that money was of little consequence any more, had spurred my decision.

Hit, my right weapon, was exactly the same as Run except instead it included a low-capacity, high-caliber pistol whose barrel ran along the length of the blade. It was also the weapon responsible for the whole dust chamber issue that Ruby and I had run into, as the caliber of bullet I had decided to use was much larger than it had any right being. That was intentional however, and I was supremely glad it had worked out. Anything on the wrong end of my sword was in for a big surprise.

Truly, both weapons had come out incredibly well, and I knew I had Ruby to thank for it.

I grinned sharply as I sliced off the head of a fake blue Beowolf, the sharp hooks of my weapons clicking together as the resistance of the Grimm's thick neck suddenly disappeared. The training room was currently on its second-lowest setting and so the Grimm were much less aggressive than they would have been in the wild. But that was fine, I was here to get used to my weapons and test them out, not fight for my life.

Still, I couldn't deny that it was fun. Much more fun than I had ever had in a fight before.

I twirled as I heard movement, ducking under a swiping claw as the Beowolf dispersed into particles behind me. A simple twitch of my fingers activated a hidden mechanism in Run as I turned to the attacking Grimm, pointing the hilt of my weapon towards it as a barrel emerged.

Burning chunks of dust pelted the hologram, stopping it in its tracks with a grimace as I closed the distance rapidly. I thrust Hit forward, activating its mechashift at the same time and causing the hook to face forward in a way more akin to a standard blade. It speared through the hologram's stomach with ease, killing the fake Grimm and causing it to disperse as well.

I wasn't given a moment of rest as my ears twitched on my head as I picked up a shift in the air, and I just barely managed to dodge out of the way of another snarling hologram, my white aura flaring as fake claws scraped along its surface. As it passed me, I extended Hit outwards, shifting it back into a hook and catching the running Grimm in the leg, causing it to fall forward into a tumble as its leg came out from under it.

Knowing that it wouldn't hit hard enough to kill with the amount of ammo left, I placed Run on my back, clicking it in place into the magnetic strips located there, before retrieving Trick from its holster. Two quick depressions of the trigger, and the third Beowolf was gone as well. I placed Trick back where it came from as blue particles drifted upwards as the simulation ceased displaying the fake Grimm.

Which left just one. I kept my eyes on the last fake Beowulf as I pulled a chunk of fire dust from the bandolier around my chest, placing it inside of the now-open slot on Run, reloading it. I brandished my weapons, narrowing my eyes as the hologram roared angrily, before darting forward, swords held low in preparation.

As I neared the Grimm, I thrust my left arm forward, depressing Run's trigger and unloading red-hot dust into its stomach and causing it to let out a digitized yell of pain. As I got close enough, I shot Hit forward, the sharpened hook sliding mere inches from its neck, before I brought it back towards me with an expectant grin as it bit deeply into fake fur and flesh. And as the weapon locked around the hologram's neck, I pressed a button on the hilt, bracing my arm in preparation as a click sounded out.

With a loud bang, an explosion of fire dust emerged from a small barrel beside the blade, propelling my arm backwards and easily slicing through the hologram's neck, cleanly decapitating it even as the explosion and bullet itself reduced the head to a pulp.

The training hall was quite apart from my deep breaths, before it was broken by Ruby.

"YES!" My best friend shouted happily as I inspected my weapon with a satisfied smile, taking in the lack of cracks on the face of my right sword, "That was really good Rei! And the dust chamber worked perfectly!"

I clicked a button on both hilts, shifting them back into their regular bladed forms as I held them out for Ruby to inspect, "Seems infusing our Aura's into the metal worked. There's zero damage from what I can tell and they're still really light."

She skipped up to me happily, grabbing the Hit as she inspected it, happily noting the lack of damage evident on it. She gave it back to me before grabbing Run and doing the same, turning it this way and that as she inspected the face.

"It's really too bad we couldn't test the alt mode. But we'd need to go to the firing range for that, and the second-years are holding a group practice there; they'd definitely know you aren't a student." Ruby pouted.

I chuckled as I grabbed Run from her. I twisted the small dial on its face, causing it to jump in my hands as its components shifted around in the way that mechashift tended to do until finally, I was holding a smaller-than-average rifle in my hands. I handed it off to Ruby who hummed as she looked it over.

"I can't see any imperfections in the welds." She muttered, "The sight is a bit rudimentary, but it should allow you to fire at a relatively good range though nothing too drastic. Trigger isn't too squishy, barrel alignment is good and there's no cracks from the shift so that's good. I wonder if-"

"Let's test all that some other time." I placed my hands on hers as she began to ramble, stopping her in her tracks, "We've been working really hard this month, you more so than me with your schoolwork and all. You deserve an actual break."

She pouted as she looked up at me, "But Reeeeiii! We still have so much to test! What if the mechashift malfunctions while you're in a fight! We've got to make sure everything is perfect!"

I chuckled lightly as I took in her enthusiasm, "And we will Ruby, but later. I'm not getting into a fight any time soon so we have all the time in the world. Let's take a break."

She opened her mouth to argue, but I just raised an eyebrow at her and she closed it, "Alright. I guess a break sounds nice." She muttered and I nearly shook my head in amusement. This girl was too much sometimes.

I stared into her eyes, pools of silver reflecting my own enamored gaze, and I swallowed thickly as I came to terms with just how close we were, mere inches between our faces. Ruby seemed to realize the same thing too, as her face suddenly bloomed scarlet and her eyes darted away from my own.

My breath caught in my throat as I took her in, analyzing the way her dark hair curled along her ears and the way her rosy blush enhanced her soft features in a beautiful way.

I swallowed roughly. Wasn't this the moment in movies where the smitten couple confessed their feelings for each other? That's what it felt like, and this was the perfect opportunity to tell the girl in front of me how I felt. Nobody else was in the room, and nobody knew we were here so we weren't likely to be interrupted anytime soon…

And yet, as she locked eyes with me once more, none of that mattered. All that mattered, was that Ruby was inches away, staring into my eyes with a look softer than any I had seen before. My throat worked as I thought of what to say, rendered speechless as I did my best to get my emotions in order.

"H-hey Ruby…" I spoke quietly as I gathered my resolve.

"Yeah Rei?" she said just as softly, staring up at me.

I could do this. I could do this.

"Would you, ah- I just- Are you-" I scrunched my face as my words tripped over one another in an attempt to get out of my mouth. I focused, trying my best to calm down in order to get my sentence out in a way that was understandable. This was important, "There's that new Mistralian place that opened up near my shop. Do- Would you wanna go there sometime? Just the two of us?"

Ruby's eyes widened, "Like a date?" She squeaked out.

I swallowed, glancing away, "Well, no. Not like a date. A date." There was a small intake of breath and I looked back to find silver eyes staring into my own, wide as saucers.

My heart pounded loudly in my ears as I once again struggled to form my next words. All of my usual confidence was nowhere to be found, the teasing that I had enacted on the girl in front of me not preparing me in the slightest for something so earnest. This wasn't just me trying to fluster Ruby like I usually did, this was something different. Something real.

With real consequences if I had read this all wrong.

But she hadn't stepped back, hadn't pulled her hands free from my admittedly loose grip. That was a good sign right?

My mind shot back to words I had heard my grandfather once say, something that had stuck with me years later.

"Our lives are all about risks, Rei. You take a risk every time you step out of your door to face the world, a risk of loss, love, and everything in between. It's simply a part of life. Don't live in constant fear of risks, embrace them. It can lead to pain, yes. But it can also lead to something wonderful. Now stop sniveling and go take that man's order, he doesn't even look that scary!"

Truly, that man spouted life-changing advice at the oddest of times. I missed him.

I remembered his words, took a deep breath, and decided to take the plunge.

"I… I really enjoy spending time with you Ruby." I began softly, making sure to keep my eyes on hers so she could see how serious I was, "Ever since we were kids, you've had this way of lighting up my life with your presence alone. I don't know when my feelings changed from friendship to what they are now, but what I do know is I've been finding myself looking forward to your presence more and more every day, and basking in it when we're together. You've become a staple in my life, and I wouldn't have it any other way/"

"I really like you Ruby. And if it's okay with you, I'd like to show you how much." There, I had said it. A little bit more mushy than I had expected, but upon recollection, nothing that I had said was untrue.

She was silent for a long moment, just staring at me, eyes scrutinizing as she took in my face, and my heart clenched. I had put my heart out there, laying my feelings bare for the girl who had caused them, and hoped that they weren't pushed away.

That would really suck.

Eventually, after almost too long for my heart to take, Ruby's eyes had found what they were looking for, silver pools softening as she looked down at my hands on top of hers.

"You know, it's funny." Ruby laughed softly, "Yang was telling me how there was no way you would reject me if I asked you out and I didn't believe her at first. I've been thinking about ways to ask you out all month but I just couldn't ever actually do it. And then here you go, just coming out and asking."

The pit in my stomach disappeared as I took in what she was saying, replaced by a tentative hope that threatened to consume me as I awaited her answer.

She looked up at me, "I really like you too." Ruby smiled shyly, the soft blush on her cheeks making the action even more radiant than normal, "I'd love to go on a date with you Rei."

I couldn't resist, I pulled her into me, wrapping my arms around her back as she pressed her slightly shorter form into my own, the hard steel of Run digging into my jacket. I didn't care one bit; I rested my chin in her hair, a massive smile forming on my face at her words.

"That's… awesome." I said for lack of better things to say. My chest felt like it was about to explode with how fast my heart was pumping, and there was a bubbly feeling that just wouldn't stop, threatening to make me light-headed with just how happy I was.

"You won't regret it Ruby. I swear." I promised her. I could feel her smile into my jacket, hands tightening around my back as she hugged me just as tightly.

"I know I won't."

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Next two chapters are posted there if you would like to read it early