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The evening I spent with my girlfriend was fantastic. And again in the morning when I got up early. My dog would just have to wait on that run for a bit. When I came back from my morning run with my dog and the weights she was scrambling eggs in the kitchenette in my dorm. Or our dorm, as it were now. Weird to process that.

She threw her hands up in frustration as I sat down at the round dining room table. I immediately got back to my feet again to investigate her outrage. She had burned the eggs until they were a deep brown. She'd had the heat way too high.

"Need a hand?" I asked.

She sighed a little but nodded. "I tried. I tried and look where that got me."

"What did you try aside from the eggs?"

"I don't want to say."

"Now you have to tell me."

"I'd really rather not."

"Weiss, it's me we're talking about. Come on Weiss. Come on."

"Fine. I wanted to make you breakfast. Happy?"

"A little," I confessed. I gave her a teasing grin.

"You are laughing at me," she complained.

"Would I?" I asked.

"Yes. You would. It's not my fault. I never learned to cook anything."

"All those fancy servants coming back to bite you."

"Go ahead and keep laughing."

"Let me show you how it's done." I lowered the heat and scrapped the eggs off the pan into the garbage and cracked some new ones into it.

"But the higher heat cooks it faster, right?"

"It also burns it. You have to be patient and stir it. Give it a try."

She stepped in and stirred the eggs around with her spatula that I handed her.

"How much heat is too much?" She asked me.

"Just a nice medium is fine. No reason to blaze out."

"Where did you learn to cook?" She wondered.

"First of all we're scrambling eggs. Not making a cake. This is barely cooking. It's a half step below boiling pasta and above cooking rice. Second of all, Ren taught me. He knew how and picked up a little from him before… you know…"I trailed off.

"He died?" She supplied.

"I was going to say 'I murdered him.' But we can roll with what you said."

"Gods you're so depressing. You're honestly so lucky that you're cute."

"You think I'm cute?"

"Don't be dumb," she countered with a smirk.

"I'll try?" I endeavored.

"Do you think Ruby and I would have sex with you if you were ugly?"

"Maybe I just have a hell of a personality?"

"It's not bad. Could just use some work. Like the depressing bits. They irk me."

"You don't look or sound irked."

She brought my face down to hers in both of her hands. It was a low smooth and long kiss that made her clutch at my chest.

"Darling?" I whispered, against her lips. "Your eggs are burning again."

"Oh shit!" She swore and I listened to it with a certain hunger. She didn't swear often but when she did it was savory. She whipped around to begin and scrape the eggs around the pan. They would probably be fine. Good enough to eat. And they weren't the only thing in the room that was scrumptious. I took my seat and watched Weiss's butt in a pair of tight white shorts and a purple tunic of mine I sometimes wore over my armor. I had a few colors. She looked incredibly sexy in that. Her bare feet paced around the hardwood floor of the kitchenette. Given half an opportunity I would rock her world for the third time in twelve hours. She looked delicious.

"You left these marks on my neck… How am I supposed to go out in public like this?" She pointed at both sides of her neck with the red and purple bruises.

"I dunno. Don't tease me next time."

She huffed. "So now what do you do in the mornings?" She asked. She set a plate in front of me with some eggs and two pieces of toast. I piled the eggs onto the buttered toast and it was good in combination.

"I work private tutoring with anybody who comes to me, mostly. Sometimes I don't have any appointments but I do this morning."

"Oh yeah? One on one sessions?"

"Pretty much. Just in case they don't want to discuss their semblances with someone else."

"With all the young girls around here…"

"I'm not sure what you think you're implying but I get as many guys as girls in these sessions."

"Is that what you think? Because I doubt it."

"Maybe a few more girls than guys but not many."

"Do you know why that is?"

"I know why you're going to say it is. And you're wrong. You're biased."

"I'm biased? Because I love you? I suppose that's certainly sort of true but kind of a warped way of looking at things."

"Not everyone sees me in the light that you do," I countered. "Some people probably see me for the fucked up, shitfest I really am."

"You are not. And I'm beginning to think you have some body dysphoria. Do you not know how good looking you are?"

"I'm not that good looking. I'm not like you members of team RWBY."

"You should just stick to Ruby and I?" She said, she leaned on one palm. She was smiling at me so I know that she wasn't really insulted.

"Yang is incredibly good looking. I mean you and Ruby are both my sweethearts and I wouldn't trade either of you for the world but I'm also not blind."

"Except in regards to yourself. Then you're blind as a bat evidently."

"Yeah well… you know. How is Ruby anyways?"

"She's so chipper. I don't know how she does it but she's matured a little and retained her optimism. It's wonderful. But you'll see her again soon. We both will. It'll be nice for the three of us to spend some time together. You simply must promise me to visit Atlas and see her again. I won't take no for an answer. You need to see Ruby again and you want to anyway. You say you're stronger mentally. You have no excuse to not see her. She's spending time with Penny and she loves that. But she also loves you, Cloud. It's time you came back to her."

I was quiet. What could I say to that. Was I really stronger? Was I safe to be around? I wanted to be. But I couldn't really be sure until my Mother's next attempt. Can I really be trusted?

"I want to see her. I'm glad that you're here with me now as well. I want… I've been burrowing her dream. It's big enough for all three of us and I think I want that. It's just also pretty big and scary in its own right. Isn't it?"

She nodded at me but said nothing. So I went on.

"But I still don't know if I'm passing along my darker aspects. Don't I have a responsibility to withdraw and eliminate myself from the gene pool? What if it's the worst parts of me that get passed on? That's why it's such a scary dream. It's massive and I don't know how to handle it. So many things could go wrong. What will I do then?"

"You should remember that you're not alone for one thing. Ruby and I will be with you every step of the way."

"My Mother is like a snake. She'll slither inside through the smallest gap. I can't have children while she still reigns. At that same token I have no idea how to bring her down."

"That's where your idea to infiltrate her mind comes from," Weiss observed.

"In part. Take the fight to her for once. Catch her on the back foot and push in. It could work."

"It's also very dangerous. Can't you live your life with us safely? Why does it have to be her or you? Come be with us. You send letters and you invite me in so you're not going away from us. Can't you compromise and say 'I might not beat her, but it doesn't matter?'"

"No. I can feel the pull towards her. It's her or me and the way things are looking it will probably be her. I'm losing time faster than she is. She has only to wait. Then I will be nothing at all. She can play things slow. She can afford to. I have to risk so much more if I ever want hope of Ruby's dream."

"You always make things so hard on yourself." Weiss was smiling softly. My eyes flickered from her lips to her ice blue eyes. She was so gorgeous.

"I wish that you could see the sort of person I became after I killed Ren and Nora and before I found you."

"I believe that it was I who found you," she pointed out. "And I did see parts of it. I saw the things you did. You have got to learn how to forgive yourself. Ruby and I don't care about that. Well, we do, but only in so far as it hurts you. Can't you see that you're doing at least some of this to yourself and it doesn't have to be that way?"

"So what do I do?" I wondered.

"You move on and live with yourself. You don't think that I also have regrets. I just don't let them hold me back like you do with yours. Can you see that you're causing a part of the problem? Can you see that this is the only way to fix it?"

"Yes," I breathed. "I understand. I'm a part of the problem."

"Oh good lord. Don't take that and run with it. I'm just saying that not everything is as hard as you want it to be. It can be better and you know the way how because I'm telling you it right now. Ruby and I will be there for you one hundred percent. And if you decide you don't want us we'll understand that too."

"I want you both," I claimed. "I want that dream."

"You want to have babies with me? Then?" She asked. "Not just Ruby's?"

"You and I have never talked about it… is that something you want? Kids?"

"I asked you first."

"I don't know. It's so risky."

"In a perfect world with Salem gone what would you say?"

"I'd say yes. How many would you want?"

"Maybe one or two. Not like Ruby's huge family. She wants three or four. I can't imagine that."

"That's a lot in total. Potentially six. Me, father to six children. Isn't that the craziest thing you've ever heard?"

"Not really. Not if you think you're up for it. And Ruby wants whatever you will give her. Two, three, one. Whatever. She's in love with the idea of a big family and between the three of us it will be pretty large already."

"Six kids…"

"You're really hung up on that," she observed with a sly smirk.

"It's a lot. What the fuck am I going to do with so many children?"

"Love them. Raise them in a world without Salem. Sounds idyllic."

"Yeah that's the kicker. Isn't it? Salem has got to go. She's a problem and I can't find any solutions and I have been looking hard. I can defeat her but never vanquish her. That's a real issue. She'll cling to life even if I cut her into pieces like the old gods of myth. She'll linger. Still, she'll linger."

"That bothers you?"

"It scares the shit out of me. Yeah it bothers me. It doesn't bother you?"

"I didn't say that. So what happens now?"

"Now… now I go lift weights. You're welcome to come with me."

"I think I just may."

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Weiss wore a tight shirt over her sports bra and tight black leggings. I'm pretty sure she wore it just to tease me. It was working and it was enormously distracting and I barely got through my workout. I couldn't exactly tell her that she was around looking like a snack with her midriff exposed because that would just encourage her. Not that I didn't want to encourage her per se. I was just tired of walking around with a halfsie.

Weiss was then off to teach her own class and I went to my office. Rosé was waiting for me there. She looked impatient, tapping her foot with her arms folded. By the hazy glass door.

"Did we have an appointment?" I asked her. I didn't think that we did. I opened the door and led the way inside. Rosé followed me in. "I've been a little… a little distracted."

"No. I just wanted to talk," she informed me.

"What about?" I wondered.

"You and the Schnee heiress. How long have you two been an item?"

"I don't know. Nine months. Maybe a shade longer. Maybe a bit further than that as well if you really want to stretch things. Some mornings in Mistral we got fairly close. I've known her for years. We actually went to school here at Beacon together. And it's ex-heiress now."

"You kept saying your romantic life was complicated. That didn't look complicated to me."

"I told you I was involved. I think I did, at least. And… well… the thing about that is hard to explain. And it's because there's another girl involved with the two of us. A woman now, really. Not a girl. Ruby Rose is her name. And Weiss and I are both with her as well. It's complicated. Like I said. It's not something I thought I would need experience with in my life. It just sort of happened."

"So you and these two girls are a trio."

"Pretty much," I agreed. "Yes."

"And it's been them that you wrote all those letters to?"

"Every single one of them," I affirmed. "We got together as a trio in Atlas but I dated Ruby a little longer before that. And then I had to leave Atlas. I had to leave them behind. That hurt. That hurt all of us. Um… so that's that. It's good to see Weiss again. I missed her. But enough about me. What's up with you?"

"What do you mean?" She bit out.

"Okay," I hedged, feeling stupid. "Why are you waiting outside my office at seven in the morning to ask me about my girlfriends?"

"What was so complicated about that that you couldn't have explained it to me all the time we were traveling together? Instead I always got cryptic replies. Why couldn't you have told me about it sooner before… before… before any of this happened?"

Was she just upset that I hadn't told her, then? I suppose that made sense. We were friends after a fashion. She would have wanted to know.

"I never wanted to explain it because it is complicated. It's the most complicated thing in my life. I'm sorry I never told you but it was never because I thought that you wouldn't understand or anything like that," I tried to appease her a little. Here I was, a teacher, and I was trying to supplicate to my student.

"It's not that that I don't understand. It's you. It's almost like you did it on purpose. Just kept me in the dark."

What the fresh fuck? What did she mean by that?

"What are you talking about?" I asked. "I told you it was complicated and I was involved. Rosé I have no idea what's going on with you right now. I always made it clear that I had some bullshit going on. That's just my life. I don't know what you're looking for or what you want from me. What's gotten into you?"

"How can you be so smart and so dumb?"

"That's about enough Rosé. Get out of my office until you've gotten ahold of yourself. Until then, au revoir."

She glared at me thunderously but she left all the same. She slammed my door on her way out.

Now did I tell Weiss about this? She would probably laugh at me but then at least I would know what was going on by the end of things.

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-WG