Chapter Text
Her eyes were alive with anxiety, and her lips frozen in a semi-horrified-semi-hopeful grin. I knew what she was thinking right now, it was plastered all over her face—“What the hell did I just say?”
I didn’t even know what my own expression was. Judging by the fact that tears were starting to well in her eyes, I was—
Oh. I was silent. And I probably looked more confused than anything.
“Sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything—“ She started to apologize, she had started to slowly move back—breaking our forehead-touch and creating a distance.
“No.” I moved forward—a bit too fast, a bit too impulsively—and accidentally bumped our foreheads together a little bit too hard.
We both cried out in pain immediately, and then after staring at each other for a few seconds, we had started to laugh.
“Sorry, I just—you looked so pitiful, and that’s the last thing that I want—”
“I only looked pitiful because I thought you were upset!”
“Don’t be stupid, why would I ever be upse—can we just. Try that again?”
I held my breath as she nodded—if I didn’t suck up my embarrassment, she might think that I was pissed, or something else. So I held my breath, and started to reach for her hands.
“Weiss, your cheeks are kinda puffed out. Sorta like how you’d do when we were younger, and you’d be pouting or mad about something.”
I exhaled—it was audible. Oh-so-audible. “Sorry.” By this point, I had taken her hands in my own, and held them close.
I started again, still holding her hands as I rested my forehead against hers—brushing our noses together briefly. “I would love to be your girlfriend, Ruby. I want to have more dates. I want to be close to you—and your… What is she? Penny?”
“My queerplatonic partner?”
“What even is that?”
“Think of like… Super exclusive best friends. In a strictly-platonic relationship.”
“Oh.” I blinked. I tried to go through my memories—to think if I’ve ever felt anything similar to what she’s probably describing.
Now… Wasn’t really the best time.
“Her, too. Penny. I want to be close to you two…” I gave her hands a gentle squeeze, and I shut my eyes tightly. “I want you to know that I genuinely care about you, that I genuinely love you.”
I felt her start to shake a bit when I had finished—but I only shut my eyes tighter. If I said something wrong, then I would just have to tough it out, apologize, and learn from it.
It was only when she had started to sniffle that my eyes shot open. Despite the tears flowing down her face, she had the happiest, largest grin I had seen from anyone in so long.
Did I really make her that happy? There’s no way.
“I love you, too!” She beamed, managing to escape my hands to throw her arms around my neck—toppling me over with her weight in the process. “I love you, too, Weiss. I can’t wait for everything we do together.” Now she had rested her face against my neck, and honestly? I don’t think I’ve seen her so relaxed.
She was still sniffling.
I blinked—I knew she was always super emotional, but this was the last thing I expected to happen. I slowly moved my arms around her, holding her close.
“Hey, Weiss? I don’t mean to kill the moment…” She’s literally about to kill the moment, I thought to myself. “But our hands got really sweaty a few minutes ago. Can we just… Go wash them off in the fountain or something? And also I think you’ve got a leaf in your hair.”
She plucked a leaf from the back of my head, flicking it aside before rising and gently tugging me up by the hand. She wiped her face off on the bottom of her shirt and beamed at me once more. “I’m really happy, Weiss. And I’ve never seen you smile that much, so I know that you are, too.”
She was right. I was happy. I was happier than I’d ever been, I had started crying when I was driving her back to her town. We sang happy, sappy lovesongs that, when I was younger I would’ve hated, at the top of our lungs together. We took one last stop to watch the stars on the roof of my car, and then we went to her house.
No more motels for me, she offered to let me live with her, if I wanted.
And honestly? It didn’t feel right to decline.
I woke up from my phone vibrating like there was no tomorrow on the dresser of our bed, and quickly made it shut up. I was sleepy—it was morning, and I hadn’t had my coffee. Ruby was still fast asleep—and snoring—next to me, and the morning light was filtering in through the window.
I wasn’t about to wake Ruby up, so I idly scrolled through my phone and checked whatever made it go haywire—unsurprisingly, it was a message from Yang.
I trust you, okay? I want to get to know you again, and so does Blake. So just be patient with us, and we’ll be patient with you. Got it?
Okay with me already? That's a surprise. I smiled, sent back an "Understood.", and I laid back down next to the love of my life to sleep in for the day.