Weiss stared at her.
Ruby blinked. The bird disappeared in white-blue sparkles. She wiped her nose, feeling wintry in her sinuses. "Huh… okay, was that, like, what your Semblance would be or something? Without the—"
Ruby was struck. Right in the face— she hadn't even conceived that there would be any reason for Weiss striking her, so she was completely unprepared for the fist that plowed into her right cheek. She fell onto her side from the blow, cupping her face.
"What the fuck, princess!"
She looked up and saw Weiss looming over her, fury burning blue in her eye. Weiss looked down at her, and Ruby thought she saw some kind of realization starting to crest in her face. She thought she saw a hint of regret threatening to dawn. She thought that maybe it would be a bad idea to fight while she was high, tired, and distinctly lacking in blood, and maybe that realization was making Weiss experience a (probably virginal) bout of empathy. Ruby tasted blood in her mouth— her cheek, cut by her own teeth.
Her Aura hadn't risen.
Her Aura hadn't risen because Weiss had basically just hit herself. She was in Ruby, accepted by her soul— why then would her soul rise against its own body?
The handicap was gone.
Weiss could fight fair now.
Ruby didn't even know which one of them pounced first. She didn't know if Weiss had realized at the same time and thrown herself on top of Ruby, throwing the burgeoning look of care and regret to the wayside. She didn't know if she'd leapt up and tackled Weiss, either preemptively anticipating her attack or simply so turned on to the idea of a real, fair fight with her partner.
She didn't know. From the vibe of a furious, blinding snowstorm she felt in the part of her heart that was Weiss' (or the part of Weiss' heart that was hers), Weiss didn't know either. Not that it mattered. Either way, they were rolling together, all thoughts of 'honor' and 'nemesisship' discarded beneath the feeling of Weiss' knuckles on her mouth, Weiss' knuckles in her mouth as she bit down on them. Weiss made a thin, choked noise of pain before punching Ruby right in the ribs, drawing a grunt that Ruby had to cut off early, the both of them restraining their voices like their parents were in the next room.
Weiss was on top, punching down at Ruby until the Faunus managed to grab one of her hands before it could land. She rolled aside with her hips, pulling the girl off and over, and tried to jump up and straddle Weiss before she found a sole pressed into her sternum. Weiss kicked her off, throwing her back with force, and Ruby staggered to catch herself on her feet, her vision briefly fading before she shook herself awake.
Weiss stood up, panting, her face flushed red from exertion and the trickle of blood running down her nose. Her good eye was wide and bright in the night— no, the morning, with the orange sun finally showing its first sliver over the horizon— locked onto Ruby with wild adrenaline. Weiss stepped to the side. Ruby mirrored it. Weiss kept stepping, Ruby kept mirroring, until both of them were circling with perfect synchronicity.
"That's mine," Weiss claimed, her voice hoarse.
Ruby grinned. "Come and take it then, see how much a little magic birdy is gonna help."
Weiss stared at her, fury in her eyes, a grin tugging her heart. Ruby felt it.
Rather than charge towards each other, Ruby offered the first step, extending a bird-leg in a single stride to approach Weiss, continuing to circle. Weiss noticed and took a step of her own. Another from Ruby, another from Weiss, one long step at a time until Weiss was right in front of her partner, arms braced upwards, hands open. Ruby grinned, and for some reason it felt almost conversational the way she spat blood at her partner's face. Weiss didn't even wipe it away. Her pale face was made paler, and the red blood was in turn made redder by the colorless cheek it'd splattered across— like someone had turned the saturation up in Ruby's eyes— and Ruby couldn't process that it might be fucked up how pretty she looked.
Ruby kept her eyes locked on Weiss' as she bowed forward, fanning her arms and feathers out to the sides, her palms open to her partner. Weiss looked her up and down, her eye flashing with recognition. Smartly, she didn't take her eyes off (unlike the boy who she'd let defile her just to get at Ruby).
Weiss reeled, shaking her head, her hands dropping slightly. "D— defile?"
Ruby blinked, her own stance slacking. "Uh…s-sorry. I… I dunno why I thought that. Adrenaline making me think weird?"
"What, thinkest I belong to you?" Weiss probed, her stance hardening again.
Ruby stared at her. "You're the one who started it, 'laying claim' and shit."
"I thought you enjoyed that," Weiss hissed, grinning as if it were a good argument.
"I did?" Ruby replied obviously. "Like, I definitely do? What, we're just kinkshaming now?"
Weiss' face was already red with exertion, but Ruby could tell she was blushing. "I— I don't know what that means!" She lied. "I do not!"
"I mean, it's not like you could ever actually exert any control over me that I didn't expressly allow," Ruby continued, ignoring her partner's whinging. "And it made me feel special."
Whoops, too real. Shit.
"It…" Weiss' hands dropped again— just a tiny bit— her voice small and distant. "I made thee feel… special? Verily?"
"Y-yeah," Ruby said quickly, adding, "Look, dude, if we don't keep fighting right now I'm gonna pass out."
Weiss looked at her strangely, like she wanted something but didn't know how to get it. Which was stupid. If she wanted something she should just ask; at least she'd know. Weiss looked away, her arms sagging. "Stop doing… that."
Ruby kept her stance, but relaxed slightly. "Doing what?"
"Knowest I can hear you," Weiss mumbled under her breath.
"So?"
"So… stop it."
"What is it, dude?"
Weiss turned her head away. "If thou… didst… pass out," she said, barely audible. "Wouldst thou mind if I caught you?"
Ruby chuckled. "You did just a minute ago, why would I mind now?"
"N-nay, I mean," Weiss held out her arms at a right angle, trying to mimic something, but Ruby was better at doing charades than guessing them. "Caught thee."
"Like… if I fell—"
"Into mine arms."
Ruby snorted. "Dude, you can just hug me if you want. It doesn't have to be anything."
Weiss looked at her, trying to deadpan, but her eyes slid away again after a second. "Would it not?"
Ruby, unfortunately, realized her partner was kinda right. She started to sag and yeah, her ass was definitely about to conk out. "I… I guess it would, huh?"
Weiss said nothing.
"Would that be so bad?"
Weiss' arms crossed tightly over her middle.
Ruby relaxed. "Welp… I'm definitely going," she muttered, wobbling more as her adrenaline faded. "Sucks that… no one'll be thereta… catch… me…"
Weiss caught her limp body under the arms, lowering with it until Florabel was essentially sleeping in her lap on the floor. She took a moment— just in case she wasn't really unconscious— before hugging the godless bird close to her chest, just like they had that first time. Weiss even adjusted to wrap her legs around the girl's middle, but revoked that change when she remembered they were in a publicly-accessible area, and people would likely start milling from their dorms soon. Some might even come for a smoke. She needed to move.
But Florabel was warm, and the morning breeze was cold. It was profoundly nice. She barely wanted to murder Florabel for stealing the Semblance she'd lost. 'Barely,' as in she very much did want to murder Florabel for stealing the Semblance she'd lost, but the moment was too pleasant and murdering the girl in her sleep would be far below Weiss' standards. Fighting her while she was hamstrung in triplicate was well within Weiss' standards, and she felt only some shame admitting that. An acceptable amount of shame, which, judging by how this night had gone so far, was quite a fucking bit since she hadn't tossed Florabel over the balcony for that 'incident' in the workshop.
She did not understand which part of that situation had made her so enraged. She was used to getting looked at like that— encouraged it, sometimes— but the mental commentary that adjoined her partner's ogling was… intimate. Nigh pictorial. The way she had seen Weiss wasn't the way some boy's wandering eyes saw her, she didn't have to imagine anything beneath Weiss' clothes. She knew her brassiere was padded. She knew how gaunt she was. She knew the tone of her flesh beneath the shirt and she knew that all the bare parts of her were too easily stimulated. All the naked truths that nobody else knew, that nobody else would want to know, Ruby knew. Worse, she was enriched by them. The things which Weiss could not pretend were perfect, Ruby saw, and she did not like or enjoy them by virtue of her thinking they were beautiful, she craved for them precisely because they were all Weiss.
Ruby— Florabel, dammit— did not think she was the prettiest girl in the world. She did not think that her flaws were attractive, per se. She simply saw the flaws were flaws, and she liked them. As she had said, 'like a fucked up painting,' and it was all brushstrokes, in the end. She may not have said it as eloquently, nor as cohesively, but Weiss understood. The girl was easier to read when she was tired.
And to have someone who could look at her behind the pomp and posturing, who could distinctly remember how she looked, sounded, and felt when she was at her most vulnerable… it was hell, to be known.
It also made her feel a bit like a piece of meat.
Weiss lifted Florabel's body with her, dragging the lanky girl off the balcony with her. She left her in her bunk and moved to—
Florabel's phone buzzed.
The sound was barely audible, perfectly normal, and Weiss almost ignored it.
But Florabel was asleep— not just asleep, she was unconscious, and doing something like graciously fiddling around in her pockets would go unnoticed. After all, what if it was important?
What if Florabel was seeing someone?
Oh, what an interesting happenstance— howsoever could Florabel's precious communications device have entered into Weiss Schnee's possession? Sheer luck? Devilish cunning? A poltergeist, mayhaps? Weiss was not one to question such fortune; god works in mysterious ways, after all. She punched in the passcode. She observed the notifications.
Asada7: still good?
Asada7: b 190 chapel round 2130
Weiss raised her brows at the screen, which achieved very little towards conjuring more context. Opening the messages, she discovered something interesting:
Florabel was an arms dealer.
Florabel. Was. An arms dealer.
Her arms extended as far as 'handload variety rds,' but Weiss was quite sure that qualified as (at least adjacent to) arms dealing. Looking through the girl's phone, she discovered multiple contacts, multiple conversations, multiple simultaneous deals that seemed to cease in favor of a regular customer with the name '4urum'. This user was none too pleased with Florabel's last correspondence, which coincided with her— as she called it— 'crashing out.'
But now she was on another client, this 'Asada7'. Something about him tied an uncomfortable knot in the back of Weiss' head. She did not like it, but she couldn't place exactly why.
She gripped the phone, gritting her teeth. Florabel. Florabel, an arms dealer. Florabel, some common criminal— that, or someone who vended out lethal munitions to common criminals… how dare she… that bird-brained nitwit…
How dare she do all this illegal dealing with her real phone!
Weiss was offended. She was insulted. She was angry, mad, and quite disappointed in her partner, who had the criminal wherewithal of gasping, land-bound fish. She was embarrassed to be partner— nemesis-to-be (which was a title Weiss immediately scrubbed from the folds of her brain)— to a girl with such a severe lack of insight!
This required amending. Immediately.
Weiss looked over at her partner. Florabel sighed in her sleep, her hands grasping air, her body uncovered by her sheets. She snored. She was dreaming about Zwei, Weiss was almost sure, who was compressed in a dog-shaped ball on Weiss' bunk. Nobody knew how he always got up there. It had been a long time since one of them questioned his mysterious canine machinations.
Perhaps the amending could wait. Waking Florabel like this would be criminal.
rubrtubr: Yes, the deal is on.
rubrtubr: If you fuck me I will skin you alive.
rubrtubr: Do not fucking fuck me.
Florabel cursed a lot, right?
rubrtubr: If I see these fucking chits aren't scrubbed I will shove every bullet up your urethra sideways.
rubrtubr: Got it pussy boy?
Asada7: yes ma'am love a controlling woman
rubrtubr: If you pull any candy shit like that I will saw your head off and make your brain into a fucking skull soup you wretched, maggoty cunt.
rubrtubr: Just have the goddamn money and if you're a fed then you'd better bring a lot of fucking backup bitch boy.
Threatening people was much more fun when you didn't have to watch your father do it. A nice… stress relief? Way to process trauma?
As if she could be traumatized. How childish.