"How was your Dustmas?"

It was an innocent question, one that Ruby knew was being asked earnestly by her partner as they sat on a couch in the commons room, celebrating the last night of the year. Perhaps even asked out of concern, given that everyone – Ruby, Blake, Yang and Pyrrha – were being extremely quiet about it.

"It was… Well, you see… Um…" Consequently, Ruby wanted to give some kind of real answer, it's simple; just tell your best friend that Yang's mom showed up, ruined everything and said that my mom died because I was born, before knocking uncle Qrow out and… yeah I'm not going to say that…

Luckily, Pyrrha came in for the save, scooching up to Ruby's side of the couch. "It was eventful." A single white eyebrow rose in question, only for Pyrrha to shake her head.

"Ah."

"Sufficed to say, we're all rather glad to be back here." Ruby vigorously nodded along, "how was your trip to Atlas?"

Given the rather understandable amount of drama that had happened, Ruby had completely forgotten that they hadn't been the only ones to travel. "Didn't you say Winter was going to be there?" At the mention of her elder sister's name, Ruby swore Weiss's face lit up for a moment before her lips arched down into a frown.

"Sadly she got called away on work."

Weiss was surprisingly tight lipped about her family, something that Ruby had picked up from the beginning; the only one she ever talks about is Winter… "Well… did you at least get to see Penny?" Ruby asked.

"Regrettably, my flight was cancelled due to weather." Weiss merely shrugged. "So I spent the week here."

"If we'd known that, we would have left sooner… you didn't go crazy without any school work or us around?"

"I survived, somehow."

For a moment, Ruby swore she saw Weiss smile as icy blue eyes focused on something behind the redhead. Not smile, as in your average, run of the mill happy smile, but the kind of smile that seemed dopey. Unrefined. Like the kind that was always plastered on Ruby's face whenever Pyrrha so much as looked in her general direction. Yet as quickly as Ruby noticed it, it was gone.

Silver eyes darted towards the direction her partner was looking at… only to find Ren and Nora talking. Well, more like Nora talking and Ren listening. Ren and Nora always stay over break… so that means Weiss got to hang out with them? Quite suddenly, it clicked; the source of Weiss' happy grin.

"Did Ren make his super-special pancakes while we were gone?!"

Weiss was taken aback, confusion crossing her face before she blinked. "…yes?"

"Crapbaskets, we missed them again." Ruby made a sad noise before Pyrrha's hand squeezed her own.

"I have a way to make it up."

The way Pyrrha said that had all of Ruby's attention. "H-how's that?"

"Now that we aren't at your father's house and there is still a few hours left until midnight..." Ruby lost herself in emerald eyes, " perhaps we could make up for lost time?"

The idea certainly held merit given the awkwardness of getting caught by her dad last time meant that they had been relatively chaste during the trip. With only an exception or two…

The two of them disappeared in a cloud of rose petals, the lock on team RWBY's dorm clicking shut.

Idly playing with Pyrrha's hair, Ruby had decided she was fine with missing Ren's pancakes if she got to do this every time. Then again, three hours of cuddling and kissing your girlfriend with no fear of interruptions tends to change one's mind rather easily. It was surprising just how much Ruby had missed being able to spend even a few minutes alone with Pyrrha, without the fear of her dad walking into the room; despite all the teasing Yang gives us, at least she does gives us privacy…

"Do you think we should get back to the party?" Pyrrha asked tentatively, "Not that this isn't lovely!" She held her hands up defensively – or as much as she could, given their position around Ruby, "But, the countdown is going to happen soon…"

"I guess so…" Reluctantly, Ruby extracted herself from her girlfriend's arms, before giving a huge stretch and plopping to her feet. While some of the reluctance came from being nice and comfortable, that wasn't the whole reason. She didn't have to be a genius to know the moment she left the room, Yang was going to be winking at her and teasing her for the rest of the night. A small price to pay for being left alone.

"Hey, there are my two favourite love birds!" Lo and behold, Ruby wasn't surprised the moment Yang slid up to the two as they entered the common room – after straightening their clothes out first. "Catchin' up, I see?"

Ruby mumbled out a flustered response as she tucked her head against Pyrrha's shoulder, letting herself be led to where the rest of their friends had gathered. Namely, crowded around the TV screen, as a live-feed to Mistral's firework's display was airing. Snacks and pizza littered the table the group had commandeered, Ruby snagging a slice or two before rejoining her friends. More notably, however, was the alcohol that almost everyone had clearly been drinking in the time that the two redheads had left - some more than others, I don't think I've ever seen Weiss drink more than a glass of wine before…

"Soooo, what are your new year's resolutions?" Yang asked the moment the two sat down on the couch, "mine's to spend more time with Bumblebee." The blonde pouted, "I think I only rode her twice last year…"

"To kill all the Grim-" A throw-pillow went flying into Ruby's face.

"You say that every year!"

"Well, it's true!"

"Laaameeeee!" Yang rolled her eyes.

Amber eyes glanced up from behind a book cover, "Says the person who's resolution is to ride a motorcycle more."

"Well, what's your resolution?"

A single eyebrow quirked up, "…Fight the inequality the world is riddled with."

Yang's retort died on her lips, as Ruby busied herself with consuming lukewarm pizza. "To go back to your earlier question Yang, I'd say the same resolution from last year," Pyrrha pipped up, having been waiting to give her answer. "Be a better girlfriend to Ruby."

"Mhmm-mm, sorry, Pyrrha you're already the perfect girlfriend!" Ruby countered the moment she finished her pizza.

"I can't be the perfect girlfriend, since that's you," Pyrrha responded without missing a beat, playfully sticking out her tongue, prompting a bright blush to spread across Ruby's cheeks as she mumbled something out unintelligibly.

"You're both good girlfriends," Ren dryly noted, clearly not wanting to listen to the same argument that happened every week. "My resolution is to try a different kind of tea. Nora?"

Nora gleefully jumped up. "To break someone's legs!"

"…"

"…okay, but whose?"

Nora shrugged, "I dunno, but it sounds fun?" Turquoise eyes focused on Ruby's partner. "What about your resolution, Weiss?"

"…"

Ruby nudged her partner, who made an undignified noise of protest.

"Weisssss!"

"I don't have to share if I don't want to."

"I mean, yeah, but then you're a party pooper." Yang chimed in.

"I don't… do that to parties." Ruby could swear she heard Weiss making a gagging noise, "I just don't feel the need to say it out loud."

"Laaameeee!"

"I'm not going to dignify that with a response."

"Yeah, well-"

"Less than a minute left," Ren noted, as all eyes turned away from Weiss and back to the screen, as a big ball of Dust was about to be dropped. It was in that moment that a distinct sense of déjà vu hit Ruby.

Everyone is going to stare at us when we kiss like last year?

One of the customs of New Years that Ruby had only recently been able to partake in was kissing your significant other for good luck when the year turned. Given that they were the only couple in the room – much like last year – everyone was going to stare.

There was something uniquely awkward about knowing that was going to happen; sure, Ruby and Pyrrha had clearly slunk away from the party to make out for a couple of hours and everyone, everyone knew it and yet… there was something that made it more awkward to know that people were going to be waiting for them to kiss in a handful of seconds.

Fortunately for Ruby – or unfortunately depending on the outlook – there was only so much anxiety that could be wrought in a mere minute.

"Three! Two! One!"

With anticipation building up in her Ruby stood on her toes as Pyrrha bent down, hands meshing through her hair as the two welcomed the New Year in with a loving kiss. It was a kiss that Ruby was unwilling to break until air was needed, slowly pulling away and ready for all eyes to be locked on to them. Except...

Without a certain pair of lips to distract her, it was only then that Ruby noticed just how quiet the room was all of the sudden – even Yang wasn't making a sound of protest over their blatant display. Ruby understood why in a matter of seconds as her silver eyes found the source of everyone's focus.

There was another pair kissing. Not just any pair; one of them was Ruby's very own partner, who had grabbed the other by the shoulders-

Nora?!

AU: Who could have possibly seen this happening, what a twis- right, I've been hinting at this for over half a year now.

Quite a few of you have guessed at this happening, so kudos for actually getting it right… I told you the second year of Spoon Equality was going to get more interesting and I wasn't lying :P

I don't have much to say today, besides new chapter of Dilation will follow along with Acceptance in a little bit! Sorry for no chapter last week, the website was acting up on me and that's the story of that.

Thank you for reading, I hope everyone has a wonderful day! :D