"So… you threw a lamp at her?" Yang probed, dropping a couple cards and tapping one with the other. "Sack, invulnerable, wipe all non-heroes and tokens with strength below 12."

Already mentally beleaguered by her sister's unbearable playstyle, Ruby scooped up her (approx.) 3 billion tokens and set them aside, groaning. "Weiss threw the lamp. I hit her with it." Ruby drew, dropped one card, and showed her hand. "Reveal, I'm revealing my cards, these are my cards, this is my hand, revealing."

Blake rolled their eyes, despite them being the reason Ruby did that now.

She dropped another card and trashed the hand she just irksomely displayed, then scooped up a whole fresh menagerie of cards. "Aha, Weiss, peep this top-deck."

Weiss leaned over her partner's shoulder and stared egregiously at her hand, her face much too close for Ruby not to blush. Blake and Yang raised their brows when Weiss whispered, "Is it still a 'top-deck' if you cheated?"

"I did not!" Ruby hissed back.

"I saw you," Weiss continued to whisper, widening her eyes in a way that indicated 'I can read your thoughts, idiot' more than her actually seeing anything. "And your hand is clearly squished up to hide the fact you drew ten, not seven."

"Shut up, Wei—"

"Hey, wait a minute!"

Ruby dropped five cards before her sister could finish her thought, declaring, "You fuckers ready to gamble!"

Blake and Yang blinked at her. Weiss sighed, but smoothly slid a Lien chit into the middle space between the three players. "Sixty on any of ye besides Ruby."

Ugh. It was never gonna sound right. "I mean, like, with the game, the cards. Not real money."

Yang shrugged, surprising everyone by throwing a Ln40 chit into the middle. "I'll toss 40 for me."

Blake slid A Ln20 chit, either placatingly or as a joke. Ruby slid in Ln100, regretting it immediately when Weiss widened her eyes rather than fawning over her richness— Ruby inhaled the vibe of words for acts hidden by thick blizzards. "I-I think I, uh… got this," Ruby muttered, her confidence sapped. "I'm feeling lucky. Weiss, go in my backpack and get the spinner."

"Get it thyself?"

"Sorry, Weiss, did you think you had a choice?"

Okay, it was meant to sound like a joke, but even as it came out Ruby sounded how domineering it sounded. She started an apology, bending down to get it herself, but Weiss intercepted the small pocket of her backpack before Ruby could. Apparently there was a word for that thing snow foxes did when they dove face-first into thick snow.

Weiss fished around in Ruby's backpack, visibly confused, so Ruby dove in with her own hand to help. Bad move. Or good move. Move of indeterminate benefit.

Weiss siphoned her immediately, even through skin, but Ruby felt it deep in her flesh and she knew exactly what was being touched. Her heart— Weiss' heart that was in her heart, Weiss' lungs that were in her lungs, Weiss' soul that was in her soul— and she felt something blue glowing from the bottom of the incredible drain.

SHOW THE PEOPLE, DARLING

YES SHOW THEM

SO PRETTY IS IT NOT

A GIFT FROM ON HIGH

AS BEFITS THE WORTHY

THE CROWN GIVES TO THOSE WHO LOVE IT

GOOD JOB

I AM SO PROUD OF YOU

YOUR HAIR IS SO BEAUTIFUL

GO SHOW YOUR M̷̛͖̼̠̫̮̗͕͔̺̌͗̔̓̌̀̑͆̋͒̕͜͜͝͠Ó̸͕̠͕͚̜̠̳̱͇̠̠̖͉̯̳̌͒͛̂̍͘̚͜͝ͅT̸̨̼͙̼͔̙̲̩̰̖̙̩̐̂͜H̴͓͚̖͋̀̽̾̾͐̆̒̅̈͑̓̕͘͠E̸̟͈͔̯̓͋̓̔͋̀̿͊͒͘͠͠R̵̨̯͙̞̻͔͎̲̱͉͒̽͐͛̒̍̾̆̚͘

Weiss pulled away like she'd been shot again. Ruby pulled away and sneezed.

A tiny blue bird shot out of her nose.

"Woah!" "Wtf is that!" "Is that a bird?" "Holy shit, you just sneezed a bird!" "It's so tiny!"

Ruby watched the thing disappear into tinier blue flakes. "Huh?" was all she said about it, because what the fuck else were you supposed to say when you suddenly started sneezing tiny blue birds? She turned to Weiss, hoping for some of her stupid olden words to describe her plight.

Weiss was gone. Attempting to be gone. Ruby caught her red skirt and white ponytail disappearing through the cafeteria doors.

"Uh… lookit the time!" Ruby suggested, despite having been here for less than 15 minutes. "Class! Going!" She took one of the chits back and piled her cards haphazardly into her backpack, thus dooming them all to fold and crease— for which she would earn eternal damnation— but she had more important things to do than keep her cards unfucked. She chased Weiss. With extremely long bird legs and a passive penchant for making people shy away in the halls (which was probably racism, but whatever), catching up to the snow-haired pipsqueak was almost too easy. She'd suggest that Weiss let her, but that ghoulish girl squeaked when Ruby caught up and grabbed her jacketed shoulder, implying she actually thought she could outrun Ruby fucking Rose.

"Weiss," Ruby addressed, not panting at all since catching up to her partner was, like, a brisk jog at most. Weiss looked to be heaving her lungs out. "The— the—" how to word this? "The fucking bird? Whathafuck?"

Perfect.

Weiss looked away and shrugged off Her partner's hand. "What bird? The only bird I see is in front of me."

Ruby rolled her eyes— Weiss' racism only got more soggy with time. "The tiny blue bird. Don't act like you didn't see it, you ran away from it!"

"I didn't run!" Weiss, who had very recently been running, lied. Ruby deadpanned at her. Weiss shriveled up and shuffled back, her arms coming up to hold her middle. "I… don't want to talk about it."

"You don't—" Ruby inhaled. No way. Nuh uh. No chance in hell was she passing this up. "I'll tell you everything about me, everything ever, no matter what. We're partners," she offered, also adding, "And what better way to strengthen our future nemesisship!"

Weiss scoffed. "Then you'll—"

"Know all your weaknesses, which I pretty much already know! You're an incredible mid-to-close range melee fighter but you've got no ranged capabilities and you have a huge disadvantage in sanctioned matches due to your lack of Aura!" Ruby rattled the facts off with ease, meanwhile Weiss couldn't decide whether to look embarrassed, impressed, or offended. "I mean, I'm basically your hard counter— too fast for you to lock down, can teleport out of melee, and I'm basically made of things that'll pop your Aura monitor in a scrap. It's a little unfair, honestly, so how about I tell you all my weaknesses, too? Including the ones that come from my traumatic backstory!"

Saying she had a traumatic backstory out loud immediately made Ruby want to kill herself from embarrassment, but it also put a gnawing anxiety in her gut. Weiss scowled. "Your weaknesses? Like your arrogance? Your physical frailty? Thy anemia? Tics?"

Okay, that hurt a little, but whatever. She was prepared for an answer like that. "My weaknesses that could help in a real sanctioned match, in case you wanted to humiliate me in front of everyone and have it be ruled fair and square! Because right now, you know none of those."

Weiss' scowl curled almost fully off her face, but her arms slowly lowered from her waist. Ruby smirked.

"I can just read them off your mind, you know."

Ruby thought about how she could just not think about them, or how she could just think about kissing Nora, or Pyrrha, or Weiss' tiny—

"Silent!" Weiss cried, slapping her hands over her ears as if that'd help. "Be silent!"

Ruby snorted. "You were saying?"

Weiss' glare looked like an actionable threat to deepthroat a sword, but Weiss didn't have a sword anymore, so it didn't really have an effect.

"Hey, uh, you need a weapon," Ruby remembered. "What've you been using?"

Weiss' anger faded into shame. "A regular sword…"

"You've just been chucking the pommels, haven't you?"

"M-mayhaps."

Ruby snorted again. She reached into her pocket and took out her phone, opening a page for notes. "Alright, whaddaya want?"

Weiss audibly recoiled— lots of words for wintry surprises— and spluttered, "Er, I— I don't need—"

Ruby rolled her eyes. "No shit, dumbass, that's why I asked whaddaya want."

"W-well, thou—"

"If you tell me I don't have to, I'm gonna kick your ass," Ruby promised, looking up from her phone to make sure Weiss understood this was a promise, not an empty threat. "I know I don't have to, I want to, and I want a partner who's useful in and out of this Winterfaire thing." With a false-saccharine grin, she added: "Since what I want means so much to you."

Weiss said nothing. Ruby got a vibe of 'blades' being contextually synonymous with 'icicles.'

"What, a rapier?" Ruby surmised. "I'm getting pointy vibes."

Weiss cringed. "Eugh, no thank you. I happen to like being able to cut. Though I do enjoy a good stab…"

Ruby nodded, humming. She tugged Weiss' jacket as she walked, taking her to the class they were probably now late for. It was Goodwitch's— not that Ruby left her own head at any point, she just heard the professor's voice and knew this unit was a sleeper— so she stayed contently focused on the stuff filtering through her head.

The arming sword was so cool. She'd never seen a pommel thing like that, so she'd definitely have to replicate it. It wouldn't be too hard— it would be hard, for sure— but she wouldn't be blowing any fingers off making it. She'd just have to commission the engraving machine, which… it'd cost some money, probably her whole part of the team's equipment stipend for this quarter, plus she'd need material, plus her own thing… how long did she have?

Ruby's phone told her she had till the end of January, so about a week and a half before the celebrations started. She needed it done before then. A week and a half.

She sighed. Two weapons in a week and a half was easy work.

"Ruby, the sun is up!"

Ruby stopped the lathe and turned, raising both brows. She pushed her hearing protection (her headphones, which were probably more of a risk than any of the machinery with how loud her music was) off one ear. "Wassup?"

Weiss cocked her hip, her arms akimbo. "The sun is up!"

Ruby winced, saying, "Okay, so?" which was definitely the wrong thing to say. Weiss scrunched up her petite, pointy nose.

"When was the last time you slept." She said it less like a question, more like a statement meant to wrack Ruby with shame or regret. Ruby shrugged.

"I dunno," she answered truthfully.

"Your grades are slipping."

Ruby snorked. "One: how would you know? Two: they're not. Do you need something?"

Weiss looked past her partner, unabated in her fury, probably realizing she wasn't getting anywhere by coming out the gates so dickishly. "What's that?"

Ruby grinned, fighting her lips to restrain the full-blown smile that threatened her. "It's a staff!" she said incorrectly. "Er… a spear. Staff. Thingy. Kinda." she corrected slightly less incorrectly. "A multi-function staff platform," she said, most correctly of the three attempts. "It's gonna be sick."

Weiss eyed her suspiciously. "So… you're finished with my weapon?"

Ruby barked a laugh. "Hell no! Haven't even started it!"

"Ugh, F— Ruby!" Weiss exclaimed. "You need to do that first so I have time to train with it!"

Ruby waved her off. "You will, you will. I mean, lookit this thing, it's almost done!" Ruby looked at the window outside. "It's been, what, three days?"

Weiss scowled. "Four, now. Is this what you've been doing after class?"

Ruby nodded, giddy, which rattled her brain hard enough for the lack of sleep and the anemia to swirl together between her ears. She wobbled on her feet. Weiss' scowl intensified.

"How much is left," she said, once again not very much like a question. Ruby looked at her project.

"Be done today, if I keep this up," she answered confidently.

Weiss smacked her on the back of her head. "Have you forgotten something, idiot?"

Ruby batted at her hand. "We already talked about your sword. I'm waiting on my guy for the material money."

"No, you ingrate! Our talk!" Weiss shook her head and squinted. "Wait, your… guy?"

Ruby nodded more tamely this time. "Yeah, my money guy. And we can have the talk now, if you want, sorry I—"

"Wait, Florabel," god, finally, "It is far too late— early, I mean— to do that now. And 'money guy' is even more worrisome than just 'guy'!"

Ruby hissed, realizing her sleepless brain could not be trusted with keeping secrets. "It's… not bad," she lied, rolling her shoulders back in a way she recognized as it happened, but she was too late to stop it. Weiss glared holes through her.

"And the last time thou'st siphoned?"

Ruby itched at her chest. It was an easy thing to ignore while engrossed in work, but now, in this small break, the attention paid to her partner's heart inspired it to wash over her with an uncomfortable, sweaty heat, a lack of presence beneath her skin, and a relentless gnawing in her guts. Weiss rolled her eyes intensely, sighing like Ruby was the biggest disappointment in the world.

"Finish on this…" she flicked her dainty fingers at the lathe. "Thing, then thou'rt coming with me."

Ruby whined, "But I don't—"

"If you oppose me, I will vow never to lend thee my smoke again."

Ruby was too (she wasn't tired, shut up) to understand that. "Wuh?"

"I won't give you any more of my joints."

Ruby gasped, which had the effect of making her vision explode in starbursts, forcing her to steady herself on the lathe— not one of the controls, luckily. Honestly, she didn't care that much about the drugs themselves, moreso the act of smoking with Weiss, which was a super fucking gay thought to have.

Weiss snorted.

"You're not allowed to laugh at that," Ruby grumbled. "Fine. Go away, I'll—"

"I'm no fool, Ruby— oh, shut up, I am not— I won't just leave thee be to do whatever else thou canst before thou sayest 'yes, I did the one thing you said.'"

Ruby winced. That was—

"I know," Weiss interrupted her partner's thoughts. "You're easier to read when tired."

"Well you're—" come on brain, come on brain, come on— "gay." No, goddammit!

Weiss found a stool and sat on it, lounging back with her elbows on the edge of the table to watch her partner. "I'm really not."

Ruby noticed her pose and felt her mouth dry. She watched Weiss cross her legs. Her long, muscly legs. She had a new pair of shoes that looked very similar to the canvas ones she'd killed on the train. Her hair was tucked behind her ear, showing her fucked up eye to the whole audience in the workshop— that being nonexistent. With her elbows back like that, Ruby could see the intense arch of her back, the slightest suggestion of a swell at her chest, the long, pale neck—

The glaring, infuriated look. Even if her face was flushed scarlet, Weiss' anger was very real, and very much directed at Ruby.

"Harlot," she said and meant it. "This is precisely why I've been avoiding you."

Ruby immediately felt so awful that she almost cried. That was 100% super fucking gross, even if Weiss did it to her she'd probably feel violated, she'd literally just eye-fucked her and that was so many shades of not fucking cool. "Sorry," Ruby said, meaning it despite it not meaning enough. "I'm sorry," she tried as well, but still knew it was shit. "I… I'll do something. In apology. I'm sorry."

Weiss 'ugh'ed. "Don't, Ruby. Just don't. Focus on thy work."

The dismissive tone was the worst part. Ruby tried not to look dejected or anything while turning and going back to machining (she didn't want to look like she was trying to get sympathy, or something, she was 100% in the wrong for ogling her partner like some horny dude), but she physically felt the shame in her movements, dragging her down harder than the tiredness and the lack of blood. She finished the piece mindlessly, all thoughts of her weapon buried deep. Her face was still burning by the time she finished picking up. Weiss did something on her old phone, but Ruby didn't dare look any closer than her peripheral vision could offer.

"Art thou done?" Weiss asked eventually. Ruby said she was. She didn't say anything about the part she just finished, nothing about her plans for Weiss' sword, nothing about anything. She followed her partner out. They didn't talk (besides Ruby answering where she was going when she turned to the locker room to leave her tools and stuff), Ruby just followed her like a dog. Normally she'd have thoughts about 'like a dog', but she didn't. She was too tired. Not enough blood. Too hungry— mostly for something beyond food, but some breakfast would be nice— to do or think much of anything. It was just one foot in front of the other. Follow Weiss. She felt halfway dipped in a dream.

Weiss was saying something. And they'd stopped. Oh wait, she'd been here before.

"I… thought you'd be taking me to, like…" she racked her shitty brain, making her head throb painfully as she conjured a name. "Nora. Or something. For… soul stuff."

Weiss smoked the thing (which Ruby only now knew to be a 'joint', and she felt kinda stupid about that— you're a year ahead in Dust Applications but you don't know what a joint is? Dumbass) between her lips. She leaned forward, elbows on the rail. Ruby— the idiot she was— looked, and she couldn't stop her brain from going 'dear god she's so pretty,' which made Weiss turn.

She looked at Ruby with a lot less abject hatred than last time. Very much less. None, maybe, but Ruby didn't trust her tired eyes to analyze that correctly. "I technically am," Weiss responded, turning back towards the view over the balcony.

She'd said the sun was 'up', which Ruby learned to mean 'the sky is starting to get lighter now, but the sun is definitely not yet up' in Weiss' eyes.

"The bird," Weiss said ominously, not accompanying that with anything to further assist her partner's wrung-out brain. Ruby squinted at her.

"Like… me?"

Weiss flicked ashes at her (she missed, but still). "No, you twat, the—" she closed her eyes and visibly sought inner calm, taking some assistance via a long hit that she blew into the night. "The blue bird," she elaborated when her lungs were air-filled again. "The… when we touched. Come here."

Ruby joined her at the balcony, standing uncomfortably straight. She didn't want to lean over the railing; it'd be too comfortable, too reminiscent.

"Don't be a baby," Weiss admonished, because Ruby kept forgetting she had no solace in her own head. The soul-sucker huffed (frustration, not drugs) and pushed Ruby's back, forcing her to double over the rail, her sleepless body and mind unable to coordinate as she threatened to roll over and plummet to her potential doom. Weiss, of course, yanked her back by the collar with a long-suffering sigh. She passed the thing which was called a joint. Ruby took it.

They smoked in silence for a long couple of minutes. The silence wasn't good, and it wasn't bad. It was just quiet.

"I, uh…" Ruby didn't really know what she was supposed to say at all. Part of her wanted to talk about Weiss' weapon, but the idea of bringing her mind even close to the workshop was awful. "I got a new piercing. Over the break."

Weiss looked at her, genuinely interested. Ruby almost cried. "Show me."

Ruby turned so she could lean back against the rail, considered doing a cool pose, but ended up sliding down until she was just squatting with her back against it. She pointed to her left ear: a plastic, half-opaque bar crossed the inside of her upper part. She hadn't been feeling decorative today, but it felt nice to know the cool thing in her ear was there.

"I think I have noticed that," Weiss admitted. "Yes, I saw the metal one."

Ah, right, when she dragged her crashed-out ass from an alleyway and fed Nora to her.

"Don't say it like that."

Ruby pursed her lips, frustrated. "I didn't. I thought it. I'm not used to policing my own mind, okay?"

Ruby took a hit and passed the joint back. Blowing it out, she felt bad. Weiss was just as happy about this as she was.

"Sorry," Ruby said first, raising a hand because she knew Weiss was going to try first. "And… back there. I'm really sorry. It… I crossed a boundary, I think, and… even if it's in my head, that means I…" it was hard to think, but it was too easy to talk despite her words melding together. "I don't… try to… think of you like that. Even…" she managed to cut herself off at that, although just 'even' was too far for them to not know what she was going to say.

Weiss took a big hit and coughed it out, fanning her rapidly-reddening face as the smoke overwhelmed her. Ruby patted her back instinctively. Weiss said nothing about it, mutually falling back on instinct with the way she gave Ruby the 'I'm fine, I'm good' wave. She took a long, shaky breath. "'Tis fine," Weiss said, lying.

"It's not."

"I like it," Weiss said, making Ruby severely confused before she pointed at the industrial piercing. "I think it… suits thee."

Maybe it was a conversation they should have, but thank fucking god they weren't. Ruby pounced on the topic shift. "Thanks. I, uh… got it during the break."

"I figured."

"And some… uh… emo-ish stuff, I guess?" Ruby said, her voice feeling distant despite how easy it was to talk. "Blake said it was emo. I thought it was punk, but… whatever."

"It looked punk to me."

Ruby stared at her. Her eyes didn't move as she took the joint, hit it, and passed it back. She couldn't tell if it was a compliment or something else— a simple observation? An offhanded comment? Weiss was unbearable sometimes.

Weiss turned to glare.

God… whatever. "Blake said it was emo, that I was, like, 'performative' punk or something, which… hurt. You… I mean, you saw my skirt. I don't usually wear stuff like that, not with my legs. Isn't that punk?"

Weiss shrugged. "I don't care what she thinks."

"Who?"

"Blake."

"They, Weiss."

Weiss cocked her head.

"Blake's nonbinary, dude. I mean, I doubt they'd be too miffed if you called them 'she', but you should get into the habit of using their preferred pronouns."

Weiss' head cocked further. Ruby's eyes went very wide.

"Oh, you don't know shit, do you."

"What?" Weiss squawked. "What should I know!"

Ruby plucked the joint from her partner's fingers and took a hit that was big enough to be good, but didn't leave her dying. As she exhaled, she dropped her face into her hands. "I… I don't have the energy to explain all that to you, Weiss." She looked up from her hands, side-eyeing her partner with what she hoped was a genuine look. "It's not that I don't want to— it'd be shitty of me not to— but I'm literally running on nothing and it's a lot. Maybe, like…" Ruby sighed. "Maybe get a book in a library or something. The internet." She raised her head, a little more frantic. "N-not to be, like, dismissive! Just… I kinda can't right now. And it's technically not my place in the whole… spectrum, I guess."

Weiss blinked at her. "And your place is…"

"Gay?" Ruby said unsurely— not because she was unsure of her answer, but because of why Weiss was asking. Even Jaune had known, and she'd made it pretty explicitly clear with Weiss. Although… thinking about Weiss…

Ruby heavily creased her brows, which made her wobble bloodlessly— sleeplessly— high, whatever.

"I… okay, maybe I don't know, really," Ruby admitted. "I mean, it's definitely gotta be girl's, guys are just… eugh. But… I dunno, kissing Nora was like… just putting my meat on her meat." Weiss' eyes went extremely wide. "No, dipshit, like… it felt like my lips were on someone's lips. Not, like, a kiss. You know?"

Weiss didn't know, Ruby could tell from the look in her glazed-over eyes, but whatever. Ruby hummed.

"And Pyrrha was… like… the most attractive person in the world? And Blake too? But Pyrrha… it was like 'oh you're the most attractive person in the world of course I'd like dating you, yes kissing you is definitely fun and not at all like a mannequin to me,' like, 'woah, this chick likes me? Well who'm I to say no, or, like, not enjoy it,' y'know?"

Again, nothing in Weiss' eyes said that she knew. Ruby couldn't stop talking now, though.

"And Blake, well… I thought they were hot. And they seemed nice at first. But even by the time we were gonna go on the date, even before, the… the wonder was… I guess it was wearing off."

Talking was the only thing keeping Ruby awake. She wasn't even thinking.

"But, like, with you, it was, like… like…" she looked at Weiss. Really looked at her. "I guess I… I'm sorry if this is, like, bad, especially after today but if I stop talking I'm gonna pass out, so, like…" Ruby looked down. The balcony overlooked the courtyard. One person was there, passed out, sprawled backwards across a bench. A girl with brown hair. "Like… you look… I dunno, not, like… not really hot, or, like, sexy, but, like… like… art? Like a painting that's fucked up, but, like, the eyes are painted really good, like you can feel what that painting-person feels… or like a really thick brushstroke, and… like… pretty. You're pretty. But a weird pretty. Like I shouldn't think you're pretty, or something, or like… like nobody else… like… like I'm the only person who would see you… like that. Like… like I've got special glasses or something. And… and you're a huge asshole and it's… usually I hit people, but, like… with you, it's just… right?"

Weiss looked at her. She placed the joint between her lips, but Ruby snatched it before she could hit it. She pulled until she tasted cardboard, then coughed everything out so hard she gagged, losing the last bit and dropping it off the balcony.

Weiss seemed to have the patting instinct despite her standing and Ruby squatting, which resulted in her patting Ruby's head. It would be a giant fucking lie to say it didn't feel nice. Eventually, her voice hoarse as a corpse, Ruby managed: "I… I dunno what I am, but I—" she coughed, and Weiss patted her again. "Don't really c-care. I just like—" a moment that was almost too long— "People. Girl-people."

Weiss huffed out a laugh, her hand still light on Ruby's hair. She probably heard the correction, but she made no comment, and Ruby appreciated it. They stayed in silence for another long while, though this stretch was less oppressively neutral. Weiss broke it eventually.

"I think you're pretty."

Ruby turned up at her partner. Weiss' eye was very blue in the dim morning. Bluer than the sky. Brighter, too. Stellar. Ruby's glow-eyes weren't nearly as celestial.

Weiss' face curled with disbelief. "Sure they are," she said obviously. "They're like the moon. Beautiful, dare I say."

Ruby was glad her whole face was already red from all the coughing. "Shut up."

Weiss did not shut up. "And I think you have a dashing face. I like your beak."

Ruby was briefly confused, but had to hide her face in her shirt once she realized what her partner meant. Cruelly, Weiss continued:

"And thy legs art so shiny in the light— never did I think I'd develop an appreciation for scales." She laughed at herself, her horrible laugh, her horrible voice, her horrible everything that Ruby couldn't stand. Something tugged lightly on the feather of Ruby's forearm and she made a noise, opening her eyes to see Weiss squatting, too, her legs closed at the front as she ran her thumb through a pinion. "These are incredible."

Ruby froze. She was honestly a little scared.

"Preferest I hate thee?"

Weird words, but it only took a few seconds for Ruby to get it. "Yes," she said honestly.

Weiss laughed. "Good. At least now thou'st an idea of the truth when I say horrible things." She stood back up, patting her pockets. "But I don't know if that is normal. My life has only been viewed through the lens of man and woman. It's all I have ever known, and I have yet to… feel for another… er, an other woman. Besides thyself." The admission was too late to take back, and Ruby wasn't unconscious yet, so all Weiss could let out was, "Um."

"O-okay."

"But… I suppose I could learn from thee; that art of uncaring sounds fortuitous."

"I still can't believe you can talk like that while high," Ruby snickered. "'Fortuitous.'"

"Silence, Florabel."

Ruby closed her eyes and inhaled the sound. Weiss didn't correct herself. Thank god.

"Perchance, if thou canst prove thyself, thou wouldst be worthy of another kiss."

After a sufficiently long period, mostly to let the words fester in the air, Ruby snorted. "You're playing it up."

"Fuck thee. You. Thou. Kill thyself."

Ruby didn't need to muster the classic response to that. She could feel that Weiss could feel it. Somehow. She was high and tired and bloodless; things were just kinda going on in her. Her chest itched. "Uh, so, are we gonna, like… how?"

Weiss got what she meant, whether by mind-reading or by speaking High Dumbass. She extended her bare hand. "Touch me," she commanded, then "Oh shut up, very funny."

She didn't even think anything before Weiss preempted her, but she reached out to meet Weiss' hand. The siphon snapped in immediately, nearly sucking her straight into an abyss of unconsciousness, but Weiss kicked one of her shins to keep her awake, then motioned to the contact of their hands. Slowly, like a giant gate rising, she felt the channel of her soul taper off until it was a mere trickle. Weiss pulled away.

Ruby wobbled on her feet, her head light, but… not from the lack of soul post-drain. Usually she felt it for a while afterwards, at least until her Aura recovered. Now it was just the drain, the feeling of the drain, and she wasn't on the verge of death. Beyond the 'high, sleepless, and anemic' trifecta (which she now needed on a t-shirt), she just felt… okay. Not emptier, nor more full.

"Uh… is something supposed to happen?"

"I don't know," Weiss answered. "Try sneezing a bird out."

Ruby laughed. Weiss laughed too. Briefly. Then it was back to… trying to summon a tiny blue bird? Whatever. With all of Ruby's heart and soul, she tried to summon a bird.

Nothing.

Oh, right.

With all of Weiss' heart and—

Ruby sneezed.

Let there be bird.