RWBY and all related characters are ©Rooster Teeth. Story/"Plot" is ©Jessica X. Fun times.

WARNING: Lesbians! All of the things that go frick-frack in the night! Some fairly vanilla but (I think) sweet smut between Weiss and Ruby contained within. Mostly it's about friendship and romance and how they sometimes overlap, but yeah, frickity-frack, too.

Note: To everyone who was hoping I'd actually get off my duff and do a bit of work on Freeze Out... well, I'm sorry! Really, I am! Honestly, this came to me in the hours between sleep and awake this morning, and I've spent all day trying to get it just right. Hopefully I succeeded, but let me know if you see any spelling/grammar/consistency flubs. This takes place sometime in the middle of Volume One; no episodes in particular.

And yes, it's a one-shot that will never get a sequel or anything, and yes, after this I'll get back to working on MSM and FO and maybe, eventually, some century... the cake fic.

Until we meet again,

Jessex

Princess Fresh Powder

A "White Rose" Fanficlet By Jessica X

OOOH, that stupid, lazy, irresponsible... klutz!

You know exactly who I'm talking about already. Crater Face, queen of the dimwits. How she ever got to be captain of this team, I'll never know. Honestly, I wonder about it on a daily basis. She's completely inept, she has two left feet and her peripheral vision is like, nil, and she doesn't think before she acts!

Sure, we ended up on the same team because her Crescent Rose is a phenomenal weapon and she certainly knows her way around it. Sure, I can more honestly concede that with a lot of work – and I mean a LOT – Ruby Rose could conceivably be an asset to the Huntsmen and Huntresses one day. But it's going to take an awful lot of tempering to turn that blunt instrument into anything remotely sharp. And I'm simply not that patient.

Look at her, wandering into the showers like that and whistling to herself, like she doesn't have a care in the world. Makes me want to gag. I'm already lathering my hair more quickly, hoping I can escape before I'm forced to endure more meaningless conversation with the little dope than is strictly necessary.

"Oh wow, Weiss..."

My lips pull back from my teeth automatically. "What now, you waste of space? Do I have something in my teeth? Does my hair being wet make me look like a drowning duck?" Truth is, I've heard that last one before. Hurriedly, I rinse it clean, desperate to flee.

"No," she breathes. "You just... your body is so perfect. I'm way jealous."

My next words catch in my throat. What does she mean? I glance down at myself, but of course I see the same old body I've always had. Nothing special about it; I suppose it's graceful and trim, and I work hard to keep it that way, but otherwise it's painfully average. It's not as if I'm well-endowed like her sister, Yang.

How can they be sisters with different names, anyway? Why won't anybody explain that? And they look nothing alike. Everything about her is just bizarre. Annoyed yet more at how inscrutable her very existence is, I send a menacing glare in her direction – but she's still goggling at me.

"S-sorry!" Ruby yelps, turning away slightly. "You seem ticked. I shouldn't have said anything."

"R-right," I manage to sputter. I didn't mean to say that; I didn't know what I was going to say instead, probably something much more clever and scathing, but now it's too late.

Unintentionally, my eyes trace the contours of Ruby's body. Hers is nice enough in its own way; her figure's very slightly more curvy than my own lithe frame, but no less alluring. I see no reason for her to be jealous of me, not really. Then again, I'm not a man, so how should I know which of our bodies is more attractive?

Suddenly, I snap myself out of it and return to soaping up my own instead of examining hers. Why was I looking at her, anyway? Why was she looking at me?! It's just all too weird and I don't have time for this; I want to do some work on Myrtenaster before bedtime.

Still... it's "perfect"?

My cheeks start to warm as my hands pass along my stomach. It never seemed particularly attractive to me. I liked to imagine it was, to project an air of superiority, but privately the only thing I considered about my own body was how to better wield it as a weapon against the Grimm and the White Fang. How fair was it that the only person to ever compliment its aesthetics in such an honest way, free of any other implication or obligation, was my air-headed teammate?

I hadn't shampooed my hair a second time, but I forego it tonight in favour of a hasty retreat from the showers. Just not very comfortable in there. I notice Ruby raise a hand to wave goodbye, but don't wait around to watch her do it.

~ o ~

Later that night, my blade was well-polished and its Dust reserves restocked, every last one of my assignments complete, and my share of our room in order. Yang was sawing logs in her bed across the way, and Blake was Remnant-knows-where. More or less, I had forgotten about the incident in the shower... until Ruby walks in, wearing her cutesy black tankini and rose-patterned pyjama bottoms and a sleepy expression.

"Heya, Weiss-a-roony! Did you get Oobleck's homework finished?"

My face tightens. It always does when I talk to that pest, but today I know it's doubly tight because she made me uncomfortable earlier. "I'm not helping you, Rose. You have to learn to do this on your own or you'll always be useless."

At my words, her cheerful expression slips a notch. That left an unexpectedly bitter aftertaste in my mouth; it hadn't been my intention to darken her demeanor, merely to get her to leave me alone. "O-oh. Well, I wasn't asking; just wondering if you were ready for tomorrow. I'll be up another hour or so, I'm sure."

"Hmph!" I say airily. "Well, good luck with that, I suppose. I'll be turning in now."

And with that, I carefully lay my book on my bedside table and roll over to face away from her, pulling the covers up around my shoulders. A second passes in silence with her just standing there. For whatever reason, this makes the bitter aftertaste spread further, down into my chest. Did I really hurt Ruby so easily? Why wasn't she moving or saying anything?

She clears her throat as she reaches the side of our bunk beds. "Weiss..."

"What?" I snap. I try to make it less harsh than usual. No success.

And then I freeze when I feel her hand on my shoulder. Worst of all, it's peeking up from the sheets and this particular nightgown is very sheer. It's almost like she's touching me directly. "Are you mad at me about something?"

"No," I lie. Am I lying? I don't actually know for certain. "Just... I'm very tired and it's been a long day, and I'd like to sleep now if you're done fondling my arm."

Why on earth did I say "fondling"?

"Oh," she breathes dejectedly, but with less sorrow aimed at herself. "Sorry, I'll leave you alone. Hope you get enough rest."

Then, as she climbs up and over the side of her bedframe, I feel remorse blast into me with the force of a tidal wave. I nearly bite her head off, and she only hears that I'm tired and wishes for the situation to improve for me. How can she be so damned nice to everyone, all the time?

As I listen to the quiet sounds of rustling bedclothes and book leaves, I think about Ruby, about how I've treated her since we both started at Beacon. It's true that her gung-ho attitude and recklessness need to be reined in; I won't back off my stance on that. At first, I was merely dismissive of her because she annoyed me so effortlessly. Then, once she became part of my team and I began to see the potential in her, I kept doing it in the hopes that it would accelerate her growth. After all, the sooner her raw talent and mastery of weaponcrafting are honed, the sooner she'll be a dependable asset to the rest of Team RWBY... instead of a wild card that may or may not help in any given situation.

Stupid child. She's always tripping over things, destroying property, annoying everybody with her effervescence and dim-witted observations. Although, underneath all that ineptitude, inexperience and sheer thickness-of-skull... I'd only be lying out of spite if I didn't admit she's going to be a fantastic Huntress some day.

Her bed creaks overhead as she shifts position. I do the same, but when I do, for some reason I feel her kind hand closing on my shoulder again. It's a phantom sensation; she's still in bed, she's not thinking about me anymore. Not with such an assignment weighing her down; it really will take her hours to finish it. Should I offer to-

No. She needs to learn this on her own; holding her hand will only handicap her ability to learn under her own power. Maybe if she sounds overly frustrated after a bit, I'll offer to just get her over whatever section is holding her back. Only that far, and then she's on her own again.

And then I realise, for no purpose and without warning, that I'm alone at Beacon Academy. Yes, I have a team of three other women – or two women and one child, I guess – who view me as a valuable ally, yes. But they're not really "friends", per se. I'm abysmal at making friends. Always have been. At Weiss Manor, I had my servants to chit-chat with, and my family loves me, no matter how stand-offish they can be sometimes. Here... it's just me and a building full of strangers.

Except Ruby.

Unbidden, my hand comes up to rest against where she touched my shoulder. Why won't she take the hint when I keep making it abundantly clear that I'm not particularly fond of her? How is it that she can like me so much when I obviously don't want anything to do with her? It's certifiably insane, and just makes me want to slap her silly all the more. However, right in this moment... I don't want to slap her silly. I want her to touch my shoulder again, to ask the same question one more time. Maybe I could answer differently. How would I, though?

'Yes, I'm mad at you, Ruby. Because you're so kind and gentle with me, even though I'm nothing but venomous toward you. And that's infuriating because I can't understand why.'

We made a promise that we would try to help one another, to see past each other's stumbling blocks and help ourselves become a better team. Was I not doing that right now? By refusing to help her with her homework, by keeping her at arm's length because it's how I'm used to treating people, was I going back on my word? I couldn't have that. A Schnee is always faithful to their promises. Always, always, always.

But how I could I be when she's so, so...

Before I knew it, the frustrating nature of my train of thought was forcing my eyes to heat up, my body to quiver. It was a very peculiar reaction to being confused. Then I realised my hand was still on my shoulder where hers had been. The touch had been soft and warm, without any remote indication of potential harm. She had touched me like I were fragile, as if she wasn't sure she was allowed and that pushing too hard would make me break. It was the opposite of how one would normally treat such an antagonistic, spiny opponent as me.

And I'm shivering beneath the blankets, my chest hiccuping. Tears are forming in the corners of my eyes, but I can't be crying. That's asinine; I haven't cried in literal years. Thrown tantrums, shouted and screamed, given people the silent treatment... of course. But not cried. Not bawled like a baby simply because I couldn't so easily sort my feelings this time.

I hear a thump behind me; sounds like Blake is back from skulking around the grounds again, as she typically does. Maybe I should take up that habit. It looks like sleep won't be coming easily for me tonight.

Why am I even crying, though? Because Ruby was nice to me? Because I wasn't very nice in return? A combination of the two, or something else entirely? Perhaps it was just sheer loneliness. Yes, I'd hoped to find a tight-knit group of comrades upon joining up at Beacon, people who shared my interests and might even become good friends one day, and instead I'd been thrust into this rag-tag team of weirdos and freaks. It made me one of them, and yet not truly one of them. My refined upbringing and status as heir to the Schnee mining empire set me slightly apart from the rest of them; commoners. Normally, I'd be proud not to be among their number... but tonight, that only meant that I wasn't accepted. That I was alone.

"Weiss?"

I freeze. That's Ruby's voice. She's right behind me.

"Weiss, are you okay?" she insists, voice slightly higher than a whisper but not by much.

"Go away," I snap quickly in a hushed tone, pitched more appropriately for the late hour.

I hear another clunk, and hope fervently that it's her climbing back up into bed. No such luck; an instant later, I feel the mattress sag slightly at her added weight. "Seriously, what's up? Y-you sound... not so good."

"Not so good?" I laugh wetly. "Honestly, you're such a child."

It takes her a moment to recover from the undeserved insult. But she does. Instead of leaving as I prayed she might, she lays a hand on my upper arm through the layers of sheets. "Come on, Weiss, I just want to help."

"How can you help when you're the problem in the first place?" I hiss.

"I... I'm the..." I can almost hear her slow gears turning, trying to process my words. "Wh-what did I do?"

"What don't you do, you idiot? Dragging your feet and holding the entire team back, making weird comments in the shower, being nice to me when you really need to be focusing on not being such a... a dead weight! You're a walking disaster!"

That should do it. That was needlessly cruel enough that by all rights, it really ought to send her packing to leave Beacon, so at the very least she might go back to bed rather than keep digging to find out what's bothering the unfriendly bunkmate.

"I know," she breathes sadly. "B-but I'm working hard. I'll be good enough someday, I promise."

My throat is ten times tighter as I say, "Well, you aren't yet. So just... just go back to your homework. What are you doing up, anyway?"

"Glass of water. You..." Her own voice sounds strained now. "Are you really crying because I... I'm so pathetic?"

It would have been so easy. If I said "yes", she would have left. If I said "yes", our friendship – in as much as we really have one to begin with – would probably not survive that one simple word, and I would be rid of her for the night. Perhaps forever.

But she was being so kind to me when I clearly didn't deserve it. She was opening herself so fully and I was taking advantage, raining down blow after blow on her exposed heart. Yes, I wanted to harden her for battle, teach her to pay attention to the dangers in life instead of feelings and other useless drivel. However...

If I attacked her out of spite, if I lied and said I was crying solely because I was frustrated with her shortcomings just to get her to leave me alone... I would truly be a monster.

"Can you stop being s-such saint for two seconds?" I choked out.

"Wh-what?"

"You're always so nice, and I can't stand it!" I blubbered, hating how I sounded, hating that she wouldn't let me have this moment of weakness in privacy. "I'm trying to whip you into shape, to hold to our promise, and y-you don't take it badly, you don't resent me for it, you just... ugh, stop it! Stop being so... so good all the time, it's driving me crazy!"

"Weiss, how can y- I'm not good! I'm just a dumb screw-up, you say that all the time!"

"But you're not! Well, you are, but you so earnestly mean to do the right thing that... you make it impossible to be really mad at you when you do 'screw up'! Do you know how endlessly annoying that is?! I'm so frustrated!"

To my horror, I heard and felt her sliding closer, her fingers tightening around my arm. No. No, I didn't want her to comfort me when I was such a disgusting and irritable little bitch. "Listen, Weiss... come on, what's really wrong? You're crying, and I don't want you to cry, please don't!"

"Damn you, I'm trying to stop! You really think I want to cry in front of you, anyway?!"

"Don't worry ab-"

"Why can't you stop doing the 'noble' thing all the time like that? Just let me cry in peace like a normal person would do if they came across someone like me in this state!"

A choked laugh slipped out. "Someone like who? What's that even mean?"

"Someone who's been so... so ugly to you! If somebody had treated me like I have you and I found them sobbing like a two-year-old, I'd just say 'serves them right' and be on my way! You keep doing stupid things like this, and I don't get it!"

Horror spreads through my frame as I feel her body settling up against my back. It's so warm, even through the bedsheets, and I can't handle it. What is she doing?!

"It's okay," she whispers tightly. She's not crying, not really, but I can tell the emotions are running pretty high. My fault. I'm the one crying, she can't be blamed for having a hard time maintaining indifference in the face of this putrid display. "Before, when I said I d-don't want you to cry? If you need to, you can. Go ahead."

"Why are you doing this?" I demand in anguished growls. "Why are you so nice? Why are you hugging me when all I want to do is turn around and slap you for sticking your nose in where it doesn't belong? What is wrong with you?!"

"Shhh," she soothes me, hand passing up and down my stomach. Her chin nestles in the crook of my neck, breath hot on my chin. This feeling is too much; she's too close, I never let anyone get this close. How can she take advantage of my momentary weakness to invade my personal space like that? Does she honestly not see how uncomfortable I am? "Let it out, I'm right here."

My fingers lift from my shoulder to touch the side of her face. Actually, I was wrong; she has been crying. Just silently.

Everything in my brain ceases to function. It was one thing when she simply couldn't let me have my moment to myself, when she kept prying into my affairs of out concern. This level of empathy... crying over me crying, when she didn't even truly understand why I was in the first place?

Then my own heart is confusing me with its mad desire to roll over and bury my face against her shoulder, to hold her as close as humanly possible. But that could never happen. What an impossibility; me embracing Ruby of my own accord! No. I would simply lay there and sob while she offered me comfort.

And I gave her none in return. I really was a terrible human being.

"Ruby," I whisper, the single word meaning so much more than I could even understand. But I feel her head shaking behind mine. I didn't have to speak, her actions were telling me. The magnitude of my struggle to do so must have been readily apparent in my voice.

So what do I do? The opposite.

"It's not fair," I begin wetly. "Y... you're a child, you're younger than me, and... you treat people so well, and I used to think that was a handicap, but here you are now, and I... and I've been the worst to you, and you're giving me the most kindness. It's as if you really are stupid, but suddenly that's not a negative thing anymore."

"You're welcome," she half-jokes at my backhanded compliments, but when another sob burst forth from me she merely susurrates into my ear, causing my body to shiver. "It's okay, really, I... Weiss, I know you're not being mean on purpose. I get it."

"What do you get, infant?" I snap. There's no way she can fully understand the depths of my ridiculous psyche. Not when she's so much younger.

"That you think... I'm not mature enough to be a Huntress yet. And you're probably right, so you keep trying to get me to grow up. You're doing it because you care, in your own way."

My chest tightens yet further. She was right; even I had admitted that. But I hadn't truly admitted that I cared about Ruby. Did I? How much do I care for her?

"Help me," I breathe. "Help me understand how you're like this. Why I can't be like that."

"Like what?"

"Beautiful on the inside."

Her breathing ceases for half an instant. "I... oh, come on, you don't mean that."

Honestly, I am also reeling from my own words, but I'm too emotionally strained to stop more from tumbling out. "You are. Maybe you're not wise or educated, or mature, but you have... a way of just simply being good that drives me crazy, because I can't do that. Nobody's going to disagree that I'm prettier than you on the outside, but on the inside?"

"On the inside?" she prompts with slight amusement at my boastful comment.

"I'm so hideous. I'm disgusting inside, deep in my heart."

"No, Weiss, that's-"

"Look at how I've been treating you! And you keep being nice to me, anyway, while I yell at you, berate you, belittle you! I'm a colossal bitch to you, and you won't stop repaying that with kindness, and it drives me up a wall because I... because even though you're so stupid, I would rather be like you than like me! There, you got me to say it! Happy now?!"

Silence descends upon my bed as we both hold very still – or as still as I can with my entire body hiccuping from the tears that won't stop. I hate myself so much in that instant. If Myrtenaster had been in my hands... I might have been tempted to do something drastic. Luckily, it was tucked safely under the lip of my bed.

"I did it."

"What?" I whisper.

"Told you I'd make up for it somehow," she half-sobs, arm tightening against my stomach and chest. "That you couldn't hate me forever."

"Damn it, this is so unfair."

"This isn't how I wanted it, though, okay?" she persists against my neck, sending chills down my spine with her nearness, the heat of her breath. "Not with you... upset like this, please don't think I ever wanted to hear you cry, it... it hurts my heart!"

"Oh, your heart! Shall I cut off my tears because it's upsetting poor Ruby?"

"That's not how I-"

"I know," I hurry ahead. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I'm so bad at being nice back. I shouldn't expect you to stop being an inept dork overnight, and you can't expect me to start being nice so easily, either."

At those words, the distraught quality in her breathing lowers, and she calms back into the weird sadness from before. But as I listen to her speak, it begins to change.

"Weiss... I didn't want this to happen, not exactly. But I'm really happy we're closer now. If... I mean, maybe we're not, th-that's okay, too. But that you... I don't know, I don't want to assume too much."

Still being so annoyingly perfect. "If you're not going away, you might as well get under the sheets. You'll probably get cold lying on top of them like a buffoon."

But she doesn't move. I chance a look over my shoulder at her expression... and freeze.

Her glistening grey eyes are so full of confusion, remorse, sympathy, and – if I dared believe it – affection that I am literally struck dumb. Why did she care so much about me? I'm almost a perfect stranger to her. Worse still, I've been figuratively kicking her around since the day she arrived. And here she is, so grateful for this chance to break down the walls between us that she's willing to stare at my red, puffy, tear-stained face. That offering to allow her to get closer isn't met with disgust or apprehension, but with... anticipation, I think.

We examine each other's faces for a long while, unable to speak or otherwise move. The gentle slope from the bridge of her nose, her unremarkable lips that somehow still hold my gaze longer than they ought. Her ridiculously-untamed eyebrows. Not that they needed a lot of work, but she clearly didn't pay a single bit of attention to her overall appearance beyond dressing herself in the morning.

And then her other hand, the one not pressed against my stomach, comes up and traces a finger along the scar.

"I've... been wondering about this for a while."

My eyes slide shut as the fingernail sets my flesh to tingling. "I-I..."

"Where'd you get it? What happened? Did it hurt too much?"

It takes everything I have to speak while her hand is on my face like that. "Um... b-battle against Dust-animated armour. A test of my abilities. It doesn't hurt anymore, I'm fine."

"I'm sorry," she whispers. "It's... y'know. You're so pretty, and it's not fair that something happened to your face. Not that you aren't still pretty, scar or no scar."

Did she have any idea what she was saying to me, and how it made me feel? That scar was an awful disfigurement. I carried myself as if I had no scar; if I ignored its existence, everyone else would likely follow my example. But here she was, remarking on it and simultaneously making it seem of no importance. How was that possible?

When her lips meet my eyebrow, pressing against the pale skin and even paler scar tissue, my throat constricts and I hold perfectly still. Fire licks along my spine and into my cheeks and around my heart as I feel that contact, that gentle caress of her soft lips.

"Sorry," she says as she pulls away, a blush rising in her cheeks at her forwardness. "You told me I could get under the covers, I forgot. I'm a dummy."

That was the last thing I needed while I feel this way. For her to get even closer. She was already too close, pressing right through the boundaries of my personal space and touching me far more than anyone had done in several years. But without the power of speech, I can do nothing to dissuade her from picking up the corner of the sheet, from sliding her tiny body in next to mine.

Why did she have to kiss me? Even if all she was doing was that old "kiss the boo-boo to make it feel better" useless thing, it still makes no sense because it's such an old wound. What's the point?

This time, when her arm slides over my side and up along the center of my chest, a fresh and pronounced shiver passes through me; I can feel every pinprick of warmth and movement through the sheer fabric of my nightgown. The slight swells of her breasts press into my back, her other arm snakes under my neck and the adjacent hand clasps her own wrist as she tries to find a comfortable position next to me. Because she's staying.

She's staying. That both exhilarates and terrifies me. Do I even want her to stay? I invited her. My words, though they had been flippant and off-hand, did mean she was welcome to share my bed for as long as she wished... or until morning. Someone else is in my bed. It's Ruby. Ruby is in my bed, flush up against my body, stirring my air and listening to me breathe.

"Why?" I whisper for what had to be the hundredth time.

"Why what?"

For a minute, I have no answer. All I do is lie there and wonder what to do, what to say. I've never shared a bed with anyone in my entire life. "Why are you so close?"

"Am I too close? Do you want me to go?"

"No!" It's out before I can stop it, or soften it somehow. "I mean... you don't have to."

Her knees settle against the backs of my thighs, and I stifle another sob. My mental capacity to process new things is being stretched to the limits. She misinterprets the sound and shushes me again, tightening her arms briefly and pressing her lips against my neck to comfort me, not knowing that it's doing the exactly the opposite.

Everything feels so good with her there. Like this is something that's been missing up until now, and I had no way of recognising its absence since it's something I never had before. The gauzy cotton of her pyjama pants rustles against my bare legs, and my spine tingles again. What is this reaction she's sparking in me? I'm still struggling to understand why I don't hate how close she is, but at the same time I have to figure out why I enjoy it. What a cruel punishment I'm suffering through. Maybe it's because I was so unkind to her the first day. And every day afterward.

It's not as if Ruby is completely calm, either. I feel a slight tension in her arms, as if she's worried about something but trying to pretend she's not. Accidentally, my mouth says, "What's wrong?"

"Huh?"

"It feels like you're not okay, either. Nervous, or something."

"Oh," she half-laughs weakly, curling around me tighter – driving my mind insane. "Just... really hoping I'm not making you madder and, um, you're just not saying anything. I don't want to do the wrong thing."

"You're not," I blurt out earnestly. She relaxes slightly.

"You're still really shaky, though, I... just want to help. Is this enough?"

My head bobs. "I'm not used to... this. I guess. Stop asking so many questions."

Her face dips slightly lower into my shoulder, as if to hide. While her lips glide over my skin, I shiver and hold my breath, but when she stops moving I look down at the forearm nestled against my cheek and part of my chest, where it connects to the hand grasping another hand. My voice keeps betraying me, saying things I don't really mean. Yes, her words made me uncomfortable. No, I didn't want her to actually stop, and didn't have any right to ask her to. And I kept accusing her of being clumsy when it was me who was saying all the wrong things.

When my lips first brush over the bare skin of her arm, her breath catches. When it happens again, she releases the air in a long, low sigh. I couldn't figure out what I was doing or why it needed to happen, but I knew it was more effective than my botched attempts to state it in spoken language.

One of her legs twitches upward, knee sliding over my knee, and I feel her toes brush my ankle; more skin-on-skin contact. A tiny hiccup sounds in my throat. This was frightening me as much as it intrigued me, as I hungered for more. Physicality was so foreign. Without any close friends and only occasional, brief embraces from my parents, I hadn't been prepared to deal with being so intimate with someone for such a long period. Was I doing the right things, reacting the right way?

She must feel me shivering and hear my ragged breathing, because her arms tighten around me and she kisses my neck again, whispering, "It's okay." Such a simple phrase...

I kiss her arm again, leaving my lips against it this time as I feel hot tears sliding down my face. How can she be so prepared to let me do this weird thing to her bodily appendage? Why is she doing it to my neck? Okay, so maybe it's less weird to do it to someone's neck – but then again, I didn't know friends could do that for friends. What do I know about having a friend, anyway? Ruby's my first.

Ruby is my first friend. She's my best friend. When did that happen?

"Ruby," I breathe again, pushing myself to be more than I normally am. "I'm so, so sorry for how I normally am, how I treat you. I probably won't change. I'll try, but I probably won't. I'm hopeless."

"Don't worry about that," she whispers. "I know it's just your way, I don't think it actually means you hate me or anything. I get it."

Suddenly I'm rolling over completely, feeling our legs tangle and our feet brush past each other, fire spreading from my chest as it slides over hers, heat from our breath mingling in the air. One of her knees is trapped between mine, the other draped atop all the others as it was before. Again, I seek out her silvery eyes and hold them this time, staring up at her and willing her to understand what I mean, how deeply I mean it. The tracks down her cheeks hurt me because I know it's my doing, that if I wasn't such a cold and callous jerk that she might not have ever been crying. Her arms are still around me, hands now limply touching my back, but now my hands are on her collarbone, feeling electricity from touching it. My fingertips glide up to rest on either side of her neck, and I see the same anxiety mirroring mine in her face now; she's unsure what to make of this energy between us, one that feels so akin to when we're facing down a Grimm side by side.

"I wish I could hate you," my stupid mouth says. "Because... it's easier. I don't know how to do anything else."

A look of pity creeps into her eyes, but she tries to push it away. She does pity me, but she knows I would resent that; rightly so. My anger flares, but as I look at the way her lip trembles, it dies instantly. "You don't know how to... love?"

"Love?" I whisper madly, watching her mouth as if hypnotised, my head spinning. "You think that's what this is?"

"M-maybe." She clears her throat very quietly, and I adore the sound of it, no matter how abrasive it is. "Well... it doesn't have to be, like... that kind of love. Just some kind or another."

Dryness in my throat almost stops me from asking, "What kind did you mean?"

"I..."

It's insane. Her mouth is right there, and I've never kissed a man or woman in my entire life, but right then I know it's what I want. To kiss Ruby. And I'm terrified of what it might mean, about me, about Ruby, about our relationship and our team status and everything.

Her lips part slightly. Inviting me in? Trying to breathe? Either one, neither one? But I could never do that to her – could never assume she wants to kiss a cold-hearted Schnee.

"Help," I mouth, not even really speaking it aloud.

"It's okay," she whispers again, but this time she really is afraid. Just like me. "Please, Weiss, I m-mean it. Anything you do or say, it's okay right now."

"Why?"

"Because we're friends."

My head screams at me to be good. To take that word, "friends", and use it to make me behave myself, to simply nod and try to calm myself, to smile at her reassuringly, to do something that won't ruin everything for once in my life.

Instead, my lips reach out and brush ever so slightly against hers before I whisper, "Thank you."

Her eyes are so wide. I know I made a mistake. That was too much, even for friends. Too intimate, too far beyond the usual boundaries of companions. My eyes lower and cast aside to her ear, bracing to be told I'm evil, to be berated for a lousy performance as my father and mother usually did when learning of my grades or watching the progress of my training, to be urged to think before I act and stop mucking things up.

"For what?" she whispers back easily.

"Huh?"

This time, her lips brush mine. They're not so nervous, but she goes no further than I did a moment ago; very chaste and very brief. Then she's saying, "What are you thanking me for?"

"Oh." I swallow, staring at her mouth, trying to decide if I want more or if I want to excuse myself to go to the bathroom and alleviate this alien tension. "For being my friend. For doing this, this... whatever this is."

"I don't know, either," she admitted quietly. "It's... different."

"It's possible that I... like it."

"Me, too."

Pushing myself, heart thudding against my ears, I whisper, "If I did like it? If I really, really liked it... would that be evil?"

"Not evil, no. Definitely new, but not weird in a bad way."

What were we discussing exactly? I looked back at her eyes and found they were just as round as mine, fearfully excited, worriedly anticipatory. "Ruby, it's possible I want... that I wouldn't mind doing more than... but that's so crazy. We're both girls, and we're on the same team. I've never heard of teammates doing this." Then my cheeks got even redder than they already were. "Okay, so I have, but those stories are uncouth and I won't repeat them."

Only now did she start to look truly afraid, not just hesitant or nervous. "H-how much more? Weiss, I, um, I've never- that is, nobody has-"

"NO!" I burst out louder than I mean to. Yang's snores halt briefly but resume again soon enough, and I become acutely aware of how exposed we are, of how anyone could wake up and roll over and see this taking place right under their noses. "That's... I always assumed I would save any of that for my wedding night!"

"God, I can't believe we're talking about this," Ruby half-giggles, and I reflect it in a reluctant smile. "Weiss... do you want to... just do what we've been doing? That's okay with me."

My lip curls playfully. "Why would you assume I want to kiss you?"

"I didn't say 'kiss'." My sneer vanishes as I flush deeper, and she smiles shyly. "But hey, it's true that it happened, so... I won't take it off the menu if that's what you're hungry for."

Hungry. She just had to use that exact word.

My tongue flashes out and runs over my upper lip, and I see her smile dissipate. But I hold still; I've done too much, pushed too far. Her face moves closer an instant later, granting me tacit permission to press beyond our boundaries, and I take her mouth with mine, at first slowly and gently, then with force, kneading our lips against each other and finding out how she feels when I have more than a half-second to experience it. Sweet, like marshmallows and custard. My fingertips hook around her shoulders as hers gouge into my back while the kiss only grows deeper, as our mouths part slightly and our tongues find each other. Tongues! We're using tongues now, and it feels incredible, and Ruby is opening up to me, releasing her hesitance as her leg moves higher and higher until I feel her foot resting against the back of my calf.

How on earth can this be happening? It's Ruby! Ruby the half-wit, the thorn in my side, the little girl who tricked her way into Beacon by making a pretty scythe and flashing her stupid dimples! But she's so delicious beneath my tongue that I feel those preconceived judgements about her melting away forever, my thundering heart trying to explain to me how I really felt about her from the moment we met. Still, I don't believe that; she was so useless then! Wasn't she?

Our mouths break apart and we're gasping for breath. Part of me wants more, but most of me needs a break to process what just happened.

"Oh, Weiss," she breathes heatedly. I can't deny that, no matter how much I want to; it's not just her mind that is thrilling to this new adventure.

"D-don't," I whisper, hearing a needy quality in my own voice that makes me blush a deeper shade of scarlet. "Don't say my name that way."

"What way?"

"The way that says I'm important to you, because I... I can't be. Not that important."

Her lips press against my cheek. "Oh, Weiss," she bleats even slower.

"Oh!" I gasp, taken aback at the searing pleasure she imbued my name with, feeling my thigh muscles clench inward. It's too much. She's setting me off too much. No longer is she simply amplifying feelings I'm inexperienced with. Now, she's creating new ones.

Our lips meet again, unbidden. This time our tongues are in contact almost immediately, and I feel sick from how much I enjoy it; we take turns attacking, invading the other's mouth, and I like it just as much when I let her in as when I'm the aggressor. Our hips move slightly with discomfort as we embrace, this new sensation demanding more and more loudly that I give it the thorough consideration it deserves.

When I suddenly sob with frustration, she pulls away instantly and whispers, "I'm so sorry, I- do we need to stop? Are you okay?"

"Okay?" I manage to splutter. "I'll never be okay again!"

"I'm sorry, Weiss, I didn't mean t-"

"Not without you!" She falls silent. "I... now that I've had this, that you've given me this... how am I supposed to go back to being okay, when I know what 'wonderful' feels like?"

It takes her a full five seconds for that to sink in after I stop speaking. Her face is completely flushed, and her forehead is starting to glisten slightly with perspiration. Said forehead then drops down to rest against mine as she breathes, "Tell me what to do."

"Do whatever you want," I repeat back to her. "I mean it. Anything you do or say, it's okay right now."

"But there are things I want to do that... I don't understand," she whispers as she strokes my back. "Why do I want to feel more of your body, when it's your lips I liked so much a minute ago? That's not normal, right?"

"My body?" I breathe. My so-called "perfect" body? I thought about hers in the shower earlier, and my face gets hot enough to fry an egg. "I... you really do like it, don't you?"

"Huh?" I can see she doesn't even know what I'm talking about. "Oh... I, um... I don't know. I mean, yes, it's beautiful, I always thought so! I just... the way you mean, I'm not sure, I don't know yet. Never thought about it this way before."

"Same for me. About yours."

"Mine? You... wow, I didn't think you ever cared about mine."

"In the shower," I blurt out, then realise that I should have saved that fragment of the sentence for later. "Earlier, you... looked at me, and I sort of, um, looked back. And I didn't think about it that way then, either, I promise!"

Her eyes drop shyly as she remembers both of us being naked in the showers. "You really mean that?"

"Of course. You're sexy." And then I feel stupid for having said that. "N-no, that- well, what I meant was that other people, people who are interested, would have nothing to complain about!"

"Yeah, and that's what I meant, too!" Ruby laughed nervously. "About you! Except... well, now those interested people might include... me."

My heart pounds while I stare at her in utter shock, a burning in my lower abdomen being resolutely ignored for the moment. "Ruby, I... you can't mean this. You're too young, and too much insanity is going on, and we can't, um..."

At that, she purses her lips briefly. "You're not that much older than me!"

"Okay, you're right, but so what? We still... I mean, I don't know the first thing about..." Neither of us can go further. Our hands are still exploring, but not too far outside their current regions. Then I finally whisper, "So... what do we do now?"

"I still... wouldn't mind feeling more. But I don't know if that's what you want – it probably isn't, I mean, I'm Ruby The Booby, right? I've already kind of stuck myself in your bed and that wasn't smart – why would you want anything more?"

A less-happy pang shot through me at those words. It's true that I still more or less think of her that way, no matter how much that perspective is shifting. But hearing her point those sort of words at herself was... sad. More than I could bear.

Slowly, my hands trail down her sides until they're at the waistband of her pyjama bottoms, and I hear a gasp from her as they begin to push downward. When I feel thigh-flesh against my fingers, I can't breathe, either. With great care, she turns her legs aside just enough so that she can bend her knees up toward her bunk above us, and I slide them down until they're around her ankles. Two quick movements and they're discarded, somewhere within my blankets.

Bare legs are against mine. Ruby's bare legs. Long and silken miles of flesh rubbing onto my own. Of course, some of my thighs are covered by the hem of my nightgown, but not much.

"H-how is it?" she asks me desperately.

"I like that," I admit reluctantly. "It's... different, but I like it."

Then her hands were at my waist, bunching my gown up around my hips. I don't know how to react; should I stop her? Should I encourage her? Unable to decide, I wind up staying perfectly still as she lifts it past my hips, breasts... and I want to tell her to stop there, that I'm not ready for more, but instead my arms arc obediently over my head and she pulls my gown off entirely, leaving me in nothing but underwear and shame.

I want to pay her back by taking off her top, to show her how suddenly uncomfortable you can be when you're stripped down to your smalls under these circumstances... but I can't, I can't move. Ruby is drawing me against her once more, lip trembling and chest heaving. Just as terrified as I am, yet somehow still able to act.

Now all of our thighs are meeting, and I feel part of my stomach against hers. Everywhere her arms come to rest sets me aflame without anything to shield me from her touch.

"Ruby," I sigh with so much pleasure that I instantly hate the sound. Except I don't; I'm wary of it, I'm exposed by it, but it feels right in my mouth. Like she does. Our mouths meet again, swirling tongues dance as my hands drift up along her back underneath her tank top, feeling the tight network of muscles she's constructed while learning how to use Crescent Rose to its fullest extent. We sigh into the kiss as we draw closer, as our legs angle up further...

Her thigh is so close that I open fully to admit it, throwing caution to the wind; while hers is raising up to meet me, I raise one of my own. Then we relax our legs again and find heat unlike anything I've ever experienced.

What are we doing, what does this mean? Am I... losing my virginity tonight?

"Ruby!" I moan as we break the kiss, nails leaving scoremarks down her soft backflesh. "God, what is this, wh-what are you doing to me? I'm s-so hot – you feel hot against me!"

"I'm sorry, Weiss!" she apologises needlessly, speech broken as her hips begin to shift back and forth slightly, pressing her body down onto the meat of my thigh. "I... is this okay? Please, for the love of- tell me it is, tell me it's okay, please!"

I merely nod, searching out her eyes with mine, finding them distant and cloudy but hearing her pant my name again casts out my lingering doubts. "R-Ruby, yes! Yes, it's okay – it's perfect! Your body is so perfect for mine!"

That was the last straw; when I say that, her hips buck wildly and I feel her dampness beginning to coat my leg even through her panties, just as I feel the converse happening beneath me. It's like a wildfire leaping up from my abdomen, consuming all of me, driving my body to respond all on its own. All the while, we switch off between gasping for breath and flicking our tongues against one another, biting lips and grasping at backs and panting and sweating. I want more, but I can't handle any more. In fact, I can't even handle this much longer.

"Weiss, something's- I think it's- oh, Weiss!"

"Yes, Ruby, yes! More! More for me, for us!"

"WEISS!"

"My Ruby!"

It was almost painful keeping our voices down as we coalesce into a single writhing mass of limbs and moisture and triphammering pulses. We managed. So much warmth, and it's all Ruby Rose.

Seconds pass full of us struggling to catch our breath, riding the aftershocks and cradling each other's bodies. I can't believe what's happening, I feel somehow tricked – but there was no trick, no matter how much I want to believe I'm blameless. We both did this.

"Did we just..."

Ruby swallows. "I... I think we did." My tears start again, but she whispers directly into my ear, "No, don't do that. It felt good to me. It felt so good, don't cry, Weiss..."

"It felt good to me, too," I choke out madly, shaking so violently I'm almost convulsing. "But why? Why you, and why now?"

I can hear the self-loathing as she phrases things the way she does. "You needed it. M-maybe you didn't need from me exactly, but I think... this is a thing your body's been craving for some time, whether it knew it or not. I'm... I'm sorry."

"Sorry?"

"For it being me. Somebody you hate."

"No," I breathe desperately, clinging to her harder. "No, I- that's not what I meant before, I just- when I've been so mean to you, over and over, and you give me this much love, and I'm such a bitch all the time! How do you do that?"

"Do what?" she breathed.

"Be so kind to me even while I'm mistreating you?"

At that, I feel her trim shoulders shrug as she cradles my head beneath her chin. "You need it. And... I guess I need it, too. Because you have a lot of love in you, Weiss; you just have to learn how to let it out sometimes."

A long time passes with me sobbing against her collarbone, occasionally using her tankini to wipe away the tears I'm leaving behind. She's patient, she pets my hair and whispers soft things, comforts me, is there for me in a way she shouldn't have to be. My perfect Rose. Then, once I'm more or less dried out and her breathing is beginning to slow, I whisper, "I don't hate you."

"Hm?"

"I... like you a lot, Ruby. Guess I always did." It's not a lie; it's just a truth I hadn't seen before. At first, I don't think she hears me, but then her arms tighten imperceptibly around my body. She heard.

"Same for me," she whispers warmly into my hair. Then, as she tries to settle into my bed more comfortably for the night (she's really staying, I can't believe it), she remarks, "You know what? Think I'm gonna start calling you 'Princess Fresh Powder'."

"You... what?!"

A light chuckle. "Your hair is so white like snow, and your parents own Schnee Dust Company. Snow, Dust... fresh powder. Like right after the snow falls and the world is flawless and quiet."

I scoff. "That's lame."

"Everybody will think it is," she confirms happily, burrowing even tighter against me. "But we'll remember when I thought of it. Tonight. A perfect night, where everything feels new."

Suddenly, I'm blushing. The nickname is still ludicrous, but the more I think about it... she's right. This wasn't just the end of our bickering rivalry – which will likely continue in some form or another, anyway. It's the beginning of something neither of us have ever dared explore.

"I'm just going to call you 'Ruby'," I say dismissively as I sigh against her skin. "And 'dimwit'. And 'klutz'. And 'Crater Face', and-"

"Okay, okay," she giggles softly, kissing the crown of my head once more. "I can live with that."

~ o ~

"WHOA, what do we have here?!"

My eyes pry open to find both Blake and Yang leaning over me, the morning sun streaming in through the windows. What the hell do they think they're doing?

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" I'm not much for beating around the bush first thing in the morning. Or ever, really.

"Looks like we missed some party by going to bed early," Yang giggles, flipping her honey-hued ringlets over her shoulder as she stands back, fists on hips.

"Apparently so," Blake agrees quietly. Even her normally-impassive face is smirking.

Seriously, what is up with these two? I go to sit up and give them a piece of my mind – and find a weight pressing down on my chest. Three guesses what it is.

Ruby's hapless little face is still fast asleep, a line of drool running from where her mouth meets my collarbone into my cleavage. Also, since my sheets are draped around my middle, my little white cotton bra with a tiny heart in the very center is clearly visible. Somehow, that only adds further insult; it's the most juvenile undergarment I own.

"I-!" I begin, but the moment I do Yang and Blake are laughing up a storm, Yang literally slapping her thigh with uninhibited mirth. At least Blake is covering her mouth as she laughs, but laughter from her at all is so rare that it's even more embarrassing.

"Is this a common occurrence, Weiss?" Blake's sultry voice asks.

"Yeah!" Yang cackles. "Nightly snugglies with the two frienemies! I dig it!"

"HEY!" I shout, again trying to sit up but feeling an unconscious desire to let the woman curled against me sleep keeping me from dumping her into the floor. "J-just wait, now, you don't know what happened! I was upset, she just wanted to comfort me, and then-" My brain shuts down when it fills in the remainder of the night. Seriously?!

"And then?!" both of my fully-dressed teammates ask in unison.

"N-" I begin. My throat is dry as a gulch. "N-never you mind!"

"Hmnh?" Ruby asks, all the commotion finally breaking through the haze of sleep.

"Nothing!" I whisper, terrified of what she might say. "G-go back to sleep! Just a couple of howling Beowulfs who are going to be eradicated at practice today!"

"Oh," she mumbles, sitting up and staring at me. "Weiss, what are you doing in my bed?"

"I'm not in your bed, idiot! You're in mine! Now get out!"

"Okay." But as she starts to sit up, I suddenly remember that we're both almost completely naked and I pull her back down. "Wh-huh?!"

"Don't lift the blanket like that, I'm not decent!"

"I'll say!" Yang giggles.

"But I gotta get out somehow!" Ruby pouts, finally glancing over at the giggling. "Oh, hey guys. What's up?"

"That's what we'd like to know! Or do you guys not kiss and tell?"

"Stop laughing!" I shout through the gales, my head pounding. "Th-this is all perfectly innocent and you're making me angry!"

At that, Ruby turns and frowns at me. "Aw, don't be mad; they're just giving us a hard time. No biggie." Then she yawned. "What day is it?"

"Saturday," Blake supplies as she adjusts the bow atop her jet-black locks using her reflection in the window. Don't think I've ever seen her without that bow, to be honest – even first thing in the morning like this. "Classes start late. You've got time."

"Ah." Another wide yawn, exposing her molars. "I'm gonna get a hot shower and then grab a muffin or strawberry pancakes or something. Anybody coming with?"

My heart begins to calm down while she clambers over to her dresser and Yang and Blake start to lose interest. Maybe I imagined everything. Maybe she had comforted me while crying and I fell asleep, and it simply lead to a very surreal and terrifying dream that I could allow to evaporate in the heat of a shower. Then again, I wasn't sure I was up to sharing a shower with Ruby so soon.

"I'm going straight to breakfast, I think," I hedge, hand scrabbling under the covers for the discarded nightgown. First, I come up with her pyjama bottoms and hastily stuff them back where I found them, face reddening. "B-bathing can wait until after my workout!"

At those words, Ruby comes back over to the bed with her clothes and towel under one arm and, while Yang and Blake momentarily have their backs turned, leaves an extremely brief and silent kiss on my lips, sending ice water shooting through every vein and artery even while my heart bursts with an unexpected spring of warmth and affection. She pulls back, biting her lip while her silvery eyes dance with joy, and strides away as she announces in a casual voice, "Whatever you want, Princess Powder. Fine by me."

Then my Rose flounces out the door, leaving me to weather the pointed and suspicious stares of my other two teammates. GOD, that irresponsible klutz! How is it fair that I'm falling in love with somebody like that?! How, I ask you?! OOOHHH!

~ The End ~