Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Honestly, I don’t know why I listen to any of your ideas, Ruby Rose. This is an absolutely ridiculous waste of our time.”

Weiss Schnee stood, arms crossed, trying her darndest to keep up her regal, haughty façade. Truthfully, she was rather excited about this idea, but she’d be damned before she admitted that fact. The smirk Ruby was sporting suggested that her act may not have been as convincing as she would hope eliciting an exasperated huff from the heiress.

“What’s the matter, Princess? Scared you won’t be any good? Don’t worry, I can carry your weight!”

Blustering at that comment, Yang’s uproarious laughter, and Blake’s subtle smirking, Weiss made a decision. ‘I’ll show that smart-ass little brat who will be the dead weight here.’ Ruby let out a short laugh as Weiss made a show of tightening the straps and adjusting the laser gun in her grip. Turning to her illustrious leader, Weiss smirked.

“Try to keep up, kid.”

Ruby gaped, spluttering, before collecting herself and sticking her tongue out at Weiss (‘What a child, honestly’) and then turning to the other half of her team.

“Right, the rules are simple! Yang, we’re going by home rules, so you know what’s what, but Blake, Weiss, you’ve never played this with us before. To put it shortly, everything is allowed except using out semblances or touching each other. That means, Yang, that we’re not allowed to pin each other down, tackle each other, or otherwise touch someone on the opposing team. I guess you’re allowed to touch the person on your team, but that’s it! And I mean it about the semblances! Blake, no sneaky ninja vanishing, Weiss no jumping onto glyph platforms, and I won’t run anywhere using my semblance. Yang your semblance doesn’t even really help you here, so just remember; absolutely no rough housing. Got it? Great! Team Ice Flower is gonna take you down!”

“No way, sis! Me and Blake will be flying like a butterfly and stinging like a bumblebee!”

RWB groaned, sighed and rolled their eyes respectively at the horrific joke, while Yang laughed to herself. An employee entered to inform them that the game would be starting in a moment and they could enter the arena now. Immediately, upon hearing this, Ruby grabbed Weiss’ hand and sprinted into the arena. Usually, the heiress would protest, but she was far too amused by her partner’s antics and didn’t want to ruin the mood by scolding her. They came to an abrupt stop, and Weiss realised Ruby had lead her all the way to the other side of the arena.

“Why have we come this far out? Surely, we should have conserved our energy and chosen a location closer to where we entered?”

Ruby looked back with a smile, teeth glowing in the neon lighting, and shook her head. She pointed towards a tower and began to climb without a word, so Weiss huffed and followed her. Upon reaching the top, she realised that this was a brilliant vantage point, they would be able to see anyone who approached before they even got in range. Silently, Weiss was impressed with the forward-thinking Ruby displayed. Maybe this childish game did have its benefits.

“I know how Yang likes to play. For the first bit she’ll just charge in, so we can get in a few good shots from here. Then what will probably happen is she will throw a tantrum because she keeps getting zapped, so Blake will suggest a more covert plan. We’ll have to move once that happens. But for the first ten minutes or so, we can just snipe them from here. Don’t worry Princess, I’ll handle that bit. You can just relax for now.”

Weiss harrumphed at the shit-eating grin that Ruby wore and decided two could play at that game.

“Please, Rose. You may have slightly more experience with sniping due to that monstrosity you call a weapon, but something like this requires patience and delicacy. Two things you most definitely lack. You can sit back and watch a master at work if you want.”

Ruby hummed and Weiss could hear the smirk, causing her own smirk to form. She’d show her leader. A woman’s voice sounded over the speaker system, announcing the match had started, and the trashy sound effects and music began. A quick glance over to her leader allowed her to just make out the adorable, excited grin that she sported, causing Weiss’ own smile to widen. This was going to be a lot of fun.

Ruby’s prediction was correct. Yang really did just run straight out into the open area below their tower, multiple times, for about ten minutes. Unfortunately, unlike what Ruby believed, this was not just Yang’s regular imprudence, but a strategy that kept Ruby and Weiss focused on the blonde girl, while her partner slowly made her way around the outskirts of the arena, just out of sight, and slunk up to where Team Ice Flower was stationed. Weiss let out a yelp as her vest let out the loud sound that indicated she had been shot, turning in time to see Ruby’s vest also going down as a very smug looking Blake Belladonna lowered her gun. Yang’s laughter rose up from below them and Weiss realised they had been tricked with a huff.

“You know the rules, tower’s ours now.”

With a grumble, Ruby led them both out of the tower, past a very happy Yang, to an area outside of the tower’s radius. Weiss took the time to check the score on her gun’s screen and almost choked when she glanced over and realised that Ruby had wiped the floor with her. The leader was 1000 points up from where she was, and Weiss could feel her competitive instincts going into overdrive. ‘Well, she may be a better sniper than I am, but I am far better at close combat, so I can definitely even this out before she notices there was ever a difference.’

“We should figure out a new plan, Ruby.”

“Yeah…” She trailed off in thought. Weiss’ vest pinged, indicating it was active and she could continue to play so she turned to Ruby expectantly.

“Why don’t we just go and see what happens? No plan, just instinct?” Weiss thought about it for a moment. She would much rather prefer having a plan, but perhaps this was the better option? Most of the plans that sprang to mind would be thwarted by Blake’s superior vision, or Yang’s talent with the missile feature of the guns. Shrugging her shoulders, she muttered an “okay, sure” before setting off back into the arena, Ruby close behind her.

Several attempts at reaching the tower later, Team Ice Flower had to conclude that Blake was unfairly good at spotting even the slightest movement they made, which made using her technique to sneak through the outskirts completely useless. Yang occasionally yelling taunts didn’t help matters. Both Ruby and Weiss were feeling their competitive drives raging at the injustice of it all. Ruby turned to her partner.

“Look, I know we were talking about beating each other’s scores and stuff, but that doesn’t matter if we lose. Yang won’t let us hear the end of it. So maybe we can have a truce and just try to actually win this together?”

Weiss nodded.

“I have an idea. You’re an excellent sniper, which is why I assume you wanted the tower in the first place, so why don’t I be the distraction. I’m particularly good at dodging and evasion, so if I, as you put it, ‘dance’ about the area in front of the tower and you get into a position that has some cover, you can pick them off while I keep them occupied?”

“That’s a great idea! Let’s do that!” Weiss was glad for the low lighting as her partner’s genuine praise and enthusiasm, coupled with the smile that was literally glowing in front of her, caused all of the blood in her face to rush to her cheeks. She coughed, then motioned for Ruby to get into position. Drawing in a breath, she centred herself mentally, before leaping out into the open territory. As she moved, she could see why Ruby thought of her as a dancer, her form and grace could easily be mistaken for ballet. She rolled and ducked and weaved and somehow managed to avoid every shot that was thrown her way. If this was the game she would be winning, but unfortunately, while she was dodging like a pro she wasn’t able to make any ground. If Ruby didn’t act soon she would either be forced back or get shot.

Just as she feared that Yang would land a hit, the tell-tale sound of two vests shutting down, along with Yang’s frustrated groan, was heard. Ruby ran forward, grinning from ear to ear, grabbing her hand and then dragging Weiss back towards the tower. Yang passed them sulkily, and Blake shot a smirk off to Weiss.

The two climbed the tower, but when Yang and Blake were no longer visible, Ruby grabbed Weiss’ hand once more and led them back down. Weiss questioned it in a harsh whisper, confused as to why they were giving up the advantage they had only just won.

“They expect us to be up there, Weiss, so they’re gonna make a strategy to assault the tower. If we sneak around the back they won’t expect us.”

It was logical, so Weiss allowed it. Ruby led her by the hand around various parts of the arena, other smaller towers, little cubby spaces to hide in, open expanses and areas littered with cover. Somewhere distantly, Weiss heard the indicative sound that meant Yang and Blake were back in the game and Ruby suddenly stopped. Unfortunately, Weiss did not. They were lucky that the area they were in was slightly padded as they fell with an “oomf” but it didn’t hurt nor make much noise, and Weiss was about to lecture Ruby about not giving due warning when doing things like this when she realised her position. She was all but straddling Ruby, her hands, having flown out to stop her from hitting her head, were pinning her friend to the ground by her shoulders. Blood rushed to her face as her mouth fell open and she began to splutter, beginning to apologise profusely and move off of her friend.

Then Ruby grabbed her wrist and pulled her down and suddenly they were kissing and time had stopped. The only coherent thought Weiss could grasp was ‘soft’, but before she could fully process everything, just as she started to kiss back, the lips were gone and her partner was helping her off the floor. She stared at Ruby in a daze, subconsciously bringing her hand to her lips and pressing down. In the light, Weiss could just about see the tint to Ruby’s cheeks, her beautiful silver eyes wide as she realised what she’d done, her mouth already opening, probably to spew apologies that were not wanted nor needed. Weiss reached over and covered the other girl’s mouth, speaking herself. Her voice was a low, husky sound she had no idea she could make, but was very happy to have discovered given the way it made her partner shudder.

“How about we win this game and then go out for a meal to celebrate?”

Ruby’s eyes darkened in determination (‘Or maybe…?’), her face flushed even more, and she nodded, darting off towards Team Bumblebee. Weiss smirked, hand going back to press against her lips. Maybe she should just let Ruby do her thing. So what if she came second to Ruby? There were far more important things she had to consider right now. A startled shout from Yang drew her back into the game and she decided she should at least lend Ruby a hand. After all, she said if they won and all of a sudden Weiss was feeling far too hungry to risk losing.

Yang didn’t know what had happened. One moment, it was one of their usual fun and happy games, everyone was having a laugh and teasing each other, trying to one up each other. Then Ruby and Weiss disappeared, leaving the tower vacant. When they returned they were ruthless, no jokes, no gloating, just purely efficient execution. Not even Blake could keep up with the pair of them. And to top it off, after having their backsides thoroughly kicked, when they went out to see the scores and found that Ruby had beaten Weiss there was no fun tantrum, no teasing and when Yang tried to instigate she was shot down not by the Ice Queen, but by her darling little sister! Betrayed by her own blood! The real cherry on top of this crap cake was when Ruby and Weiss said they were going out to celebrate alone. That’s not acceptable! Yang wanted pizza too! After an argument that was essentially two against one (“come on, Blake, back me up on this!”, “no”), she acquiesced and the two left, arms linked and smirking at one another. Yang turned to her own partner, who was looking at the other two strangely.

“Want to go follow them anyway?”

Blake blinked at Yang, but before she could try to figure out what she’d said that was stupid, a very odd smile grew on Blake’s face and she nodded.

“I think that’s an excellent idea. We shouldn’t disturb them thought Yang. We should wait and see what they do…”

Yang shrugged. Maybe they would catch the two of them gossiping about her or someone else and could use it as blackmail, that would be juicy.

“Sure thing, kitty cat. That might be interesting. Maybe we can catch the Ice Queen doing something ‘improper’ and blackmail her later!”

Blake smirked. “Maybe.”