Ruby’s hands were growing sore. She knew it was a bad habit, but couldn’t help wringing her hands when she got nervous. And she couldn’t help being nervous when she was within Weiss’ line of sight. When those beautiful blue eyes were trained on her Ruby iced up and usually could only stare back, save for the rare occasions where she managed to sputter a jumbled string of words out. It was so wonderful and unfortunate that she sat next to Weiss in all of their classes. Always surrounded by her alluring grace, always distracted by her natural elegance, always anticipating the moment when she’d be caught off guard again.

Those beautiful blue eyes stared blankly at the digital clock her Scroll was projecting while Professor Port rambled on about another story of his. Ruby tried not to stare at Weiss, instead limiting herself to occasional glances matching her timing so she wouldn’t be caught in the act.

But what if Weiss saw her? What would she do then? Say ‘Hi’ even though she already said hello when they sat down? Or ask her what was up? Or was that too casual… maybe saying nothing and meeting her glance would be better. But then what if they just ended up staring and Ruby froze up again?

Weiss moved. She leaned over to reach her bag but stopped. Her hand froze while her eyes landed on Ruby, who went wide-eyed watching her lips moving.

“Yes Ruby? Do you need something?” Weiss quietly said, turning her full attention to the redhead.

Ruby stopped breathing to process what Weiss had said to her. All she heard was her heartbeat warning her she was in trouble and telling her to say something. She searched for anything but Weiss was freezing her brain over and she couldn’t focus. Weiss raised a brow when she didn’t respond, reminding Ruby that she was expecting an answer.

“Huh? Need what? I don’t need anything!”

She sucked in a breath and stared at Weiss in a panic, who narrowed her stare.

“Are you alright Ruby?”

Ruby put her head in her hands. She couldn’t look at Weiss any longer. She was too pretty and her voice was too sweet and her eyes were too cold and beautiful, especially with how nicely her snow white bangs always complimented them. Ruby hid her face but felt her blush all the way up to the tips of her ears, and quickly flipped her hood over her head. She knew Weiss could see it and knew Weiss probably thought she was a dolt as usual. Weiss was probably laughing at her right now and probably thought she was being annoying-

“Ruby?” Her shoulder was touched by Weiss’ hand. “What did I do?”

She spoke quickly, in urgent concern, but the sudden touch only alarmed Ruby more.

Breathe in, breathe out. Ruby sat back up and looked directly at Weiss to answer her while her stupid blush simmered in her stupid cheeks.

She was again stunned by Weiss’ beauty. It easily pierced the flimsy defense Ruby put up straight through to her heart, and she grinned like a loon while waiting for her partner to prompt her with another question.

Weiss instead went bug-eyed, withdrawing her hand while words froze on her tongue. Ruby emerged bashfully from her cape, smiling shyly at her with that embarrassed red tinting her cheeks.

Ruby noticed her retreat and started to ask if she did something wrong, but Weiss turned in the opposite direction and folded her arms, huffing out a sigh. Ruby spotted a blush reaching the tips of her ears.

"Dolt," Weiss murmured, growing even redder.

Ruby’s smile just widened, half out of embarrassment, half out of pure and utter happiness.

But it felt too good to be true. Ruby quickly convinced herself that Weiss blushing didn’t mean anything. She knew better than to let the small hopeful seed in her chest take root.

Ruby had been called cute before, sure, but she had to wonder if she was Weiss’s type. Could someone like Weiss, with her more refined stature and higher expectations, ever be interested in someone as clumsy and awkward as her? But it was at least worth a shot, right? Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all?

She knew better than to get ahead of herself, yet she couldn’t stop the hopeful seed from growing. The way Weiss turned, blushed, and even insulted her were reassuring signs. Ruby obviously couldn’t ask her anything out loud during class, so she pulled out her notebook and opened to a fresh page near the back. She lifted her pencil, but didn’t know what to say. What attitude should she take? Dancing around the issue usually worked better than cutting to the chase - at least with Weiss - especially about something so serious.

‘Sorry Weiss! I was daydreaming but noticed you move, and I was staring because of how pretty you are… I didn’t mean to look creepy or bother you or anything.’

Confessing to Weiss that she was pretty was the part that worried Ruby. She hoped that by adding the sheepish apology at the end, if worst came to worst and Weiss didn’t actually have feelings for her, the older girl would pass it off as Ruby being overly friendly like usual. She waited until Professor Port turned around to slide the notebook in front of Weiss, though part of her opposed the idea.

Ruby refused to peek and see how Weiss was reacting so she wouldn’t get caught staring again. She relied on her peripheral vision to keep her informed so she could plan her next move, but so far, Weiss hadn’t picked up her pen. Not a good sign.

Finally she started writing. Ruby patiently waited for her notebook to return, but Weiss also took her time setting down her pen. Finally she laid it down and slid it back over.

Weiss’ handwriting was neat, as usual. One line below Ruby’s she wrote: ‘You didn’t. I was just worried that I did something wrong.’

Beyond that were lines scratching out a sentence. Ruby reread it and Weiss’ lack of response toward her comment about her being pretty, and started to regret adding it in. That effectively split the path she was trying to walk, but as she was deciding on a new direction to go in Weiss reclaimed the notebook and started writing. She shortly passed it back over.

‘I wasn’t trying to be rude, either, when I looked away.’

At least she made it easier for Ruby to respond.

‘You weren’t. But why did you turn away? You called me a dolt and it was kind of sudden is all.’

Ruby passed it over and started wringing her hands again. She knew better than to get too hopeful. Weiss was blushing as she turned away; while it wasn’t the first time it had happened, Ruby figured now, while they weren’t verbally speaking, would be the best time to try and probe for a feeling from Weiss. Weiss didn’t write anything for a long time again, so Ruby took it back just like she did and added below: ‘Did I do something wrong?’

Weiss quickly took to the paper and returned it.

‘Of course not. The way you were blushing just made me wonder what I did or said.’

‘Sorry. I only do that when I’m around you Weiss.’

A bold move, but a necessary risk, as it seemed Weiss was just as determined to dance around the issue.

‘And why is that?’

Ruby debated daring to say it again. However, she felt that this was her moment of truth. Weiss asked why; now was her time to explain.

‘Well, I said it already…’ Ruby drew a long arrow all the way back to the sentence, but wrote it again anyway. ‘You’re really pretty Weiss.’

Weiss hastily wrote something down and passed it back. As Ruby was about to read it she saw Weiss move, propping her cheek in her hand and extending her fingers so that they covered her ears. The hope blooming in Ruby’s chest wilted into unease, questioning whether Weiss turned to hide her blush again or because she was angry at Ruby for saying such a ludicrous thing. She quickly read what Weiss wrote:

‘I don’t know what would make you think that, much less blush, but thank you for saying that Ruby.’

Ruby’s worry folded back over into relief. There were more scratches marring Weiss’ sentence, rejected words discarded to the abyss. What to say next? Reinforcing her attraction would be a safe move. Ruby twirled her pencil between her fingers while brainstorming any other strategies, but Weiss stole the notebook back. She quickly scribbled something down and passed it back over before Ruby could even begin to dread what she was writing.

‘You’re also pretty Ruby.’

Ruby reread it. Feeling the blush seeping into her cheeks again, she pulled her hood back over her head, wondering if Weiss noticed. She turned to check, confident that Weiss would still be turned away from her, but found the heiress watching her through her peripheral.

Ruby knew better than to be hopeful, but still she smiled at Weiss, and to her delight Weiss’ lips curled back.

“Is that why you blushed?” Ruby whispered.

Weiss nodded. She looked away, probably to hide her smile.

Ruby took a deep breath. Breathe in, breathe out. She turned back to the notebook.

‘So… do you want to do an activity together after this? Study or something?‘

She passed it back over to Weiss, this time directly glancing as she wrote. As far she had gotten, amidst all the positive signs, including the fact that Weiss Schnee herself just called her pretty, Ruby still tried to suppress the hope and happiness bubbling to the surface.

Weiss held onto it for a long time but eventually passed it back over.

‘“Do an activity?” You mean like a date?’

Plentiful black lines cut a space between the two sentences. Apparently Weiss had trouble settling on calling it a date. Ruby hesitated to write anything else, wondering if the intention behind Weiss’ words was to admonish Ruby or suggest to her that she should ask her to go on a date. The fact that Weiss corrected her sentence made her think the former, but everything else leading up to this moment promised the latter.

‘Yeah. A date. If that sounds good to you, of course.’

‘Yes. That sounds great.’ Weiss drew a smiley face.

Ruby looked over and found Weiss grinning to herself, but as cute as that was, all she could think was that great is better than good. Ruby read it once more, just to be sure it was Weiss that said that. It was written in the dark blue ink opposing Ruby’s pencil lead. And this wasn’t a dream, right? Ruby pleaded for all this to be real and not another dream she was sleeping through. She read it over and over again: ‘Yes. That sounds great.’

‘So… how are you doing right now? Because I’m extremely nervous.’ Ruby drew a tiny exasperated face next to her message to stress her anxiousness.

‘As am I. I really want to talk to you, but Port won’t quit rambling on… not that I would know what to say anyway. Cute.’ Weiss added an arrow pointing to Ruby’s drawing. ‘Just like you.’

Ruby was certain she was going to either explode or melt; she didn’t know which would happen first. Now she had been called both pretty and cute by Weiss in the same hour. This had to be a dream. But, just in case it wasn’t, Ruby started writing again.

‘You’re making me blush…’ Ruby pointed an arrow at Weiss’ arrow that pointed at her nervous drawing.

She slid the notebook over but saw Weiss’ eyes looking at her. She was smiling, watching Ruby’s blush burn ever stronger.

‘Have you not seen me for the past five minutes? You should take that cape off, by the way.’

‘I’ll take it off if you stop hiding when you blush, because it’s cute if you ask me. Just like you!’

Ruby added the compliment as a test. She watched Weiss read her message, pleased to find her embarrassment returning. Weiss pulled her ponytail over her shoulder to hide behind it, but remembered she couldn’t, frowned at Ruby, and took to the paper again.

‘Oh, fine. I suppose that’s fair.’ She added to the chain of arrows pointing at the flustered face Ruby drew.

Ruby grinned as Weiss passed the notebook over and folded her arms, and took to writing again before being interrupted by the bell. The silence she and Weiss were sharing was suddenly shattered by the sound of students rising from their seats to leave. She froze for a moment, pencil in hand, before peeling off her cloak, smiling and waving at her partner.

“Hi Weiss.”

“Hi, Ruby,” Weiss said while waving back. “We really lost track of the time, didn’t we?”

“Yeah. Sorry about that.”

“No, don’t worry about it. I-It was fun.” Weiss nervously smiled.

The last students finally left the lecture hall, leaving the two partners to themselves.

“So… have any place in mind?” Ruby asked while distracting herself by packing her notebook back into her bag.

“Not a clue. I’ve never gone on a date before,” Weiss bashfully announced as she tucked her binder into her bag.

“Oh. Well that’s a relief, because neither have I. So we can be clueless together! Um… how about the library? That’s a good place to study, right?”

“Ruby? Just so we’re clear, you were asking me on a real date, right? And not a study date?”

“A real date, yeah,” Ruby squeaked. Weiss’ smile reassured her however, so she tried to calm her wildly pulsing heart.

“That’s a relief. When you suggested the library I was afraid I’d misunderstood you. How embarrassing would that have been…” Weiss stood from her chair and Ruby followed her up as well.

“Are you kidding? When you asked me what kind of date I meant I was afraid you’d misunderstood too and wanted to go on a study date.”

“I guess we really are clueless when it comes to this kind of thing. But, here’s an idea: instead of the library, why don’t we go somewhere else, like one of the tables outside? Since I don’t think you intended on studying to begin with.”

“Sure! That sounds great! Um, do you want to go now?” Ruby asked, leaning to her side and pointing her fingers at the door. “It’s fine if you’re busy or something, we can do it later.”

“No, I’m not- I mean, yes.” Weiss exhaled to blow the butterflies out of her stomach and compose herself. “I’d love to go now. Does the courtyard by our dorms sound good to you?”

“Yeah, that sounds great. Wherever you want to go Weiss.”

Weiss smiled and left the desk rows, waiting for Ruby at the end. They walked down the stairs and out into the hall together, joining the flow of students. Ruby suddenly grew nervous again now that they were being seen together. Not that it was unusual for them to be seen walking together, what with them being partners, but Ruby had the pervading sense that everyone now noticed their feelings for one another. She at least felt safe in assuming Weiss was dealing with the same issue, given her silence on the way to the dormitories.

Ruby wanted to say something to distract herself, start a conversation, ask Weiss anything except for the question burning in her mind. She knew she should just wait until they made it to the courtyard, but she couldn’t shake the thought no matter how she tried to distract herself. She preemptively stepped closer and accidentally brushed Weiss’ arm, though the older girl didn’t step away. Ruby flexed her fingers, considering taking the leap to hold Weiss’s hand but couldn’t overcome the butterflies that shook her confidence.

“Weiss?”

“Yes?”

“Should we, er, do you want to… you know, hold hands, maybe? Since we’re on a date and all, I just thought maybe it would-”

Weiss’ palm touched Ruby’s. Her thin fingers slid between hers and tugged them tightly. Weiss didn’t slow down, show so much as a glance or say a single word, but Ruby recognized the blush they shared as it crawled all the way up to her ears. Her smile just widened, and Ruby’s did the same.