Work Text:
Blake woke up facing the walls, eyes taking their time to adjust. Even after several minutes, his vision was still dark, and he leaned over to check the clock. Five forty-two, still some time to rest. As Blake laid back down into the warmth of his blanket, he felt a rectangular object dig into his side. He frowned, digging around in the sheets.
He pulled out a hardcover book, a red ribbon pulled around the cover, ordained with a small matching bow in the center. A small tag was attached to it, and Blake brought it closer to read the neatly printed words.
“From Ruby, love you!” it read, a heart doodled next to it. Blake smiled at the gift, freeing the ribbon with care and leaving it on the night stand. He opened the book, reveling in the sharp scent of a brand new book. She must have gotten the novel new from one of Vale’s bookstores, a welcome addition to Blake’s collection of used and worn out books.
Setting the book aside, Blake quietly got up from his bunk, heading over to the RW side of their dorm. Pushing aside the cloth that covered their leader’s bed, he found her sleeping on her stomach, various books and papers with weapon schemas littering her bed. Ruby’s sleeping mask resided on her head, uncovered eyes twitching from dreams. Blake leaned over, pressing a light kiss on her forehead before pressing his own forehead to Ruby’s.
“Thanks,” he whispered. Ruby never opened her eyes, but he could tell by her rustling and the change in her breathing patterns she was awake. He closed his eyes as her hand went out to touch his shoulder.
“No problem,” she mumbled before rolling over onto her side, paper crunching as she lazily swiped them aside. Blake put the curtain back in its proper place, returning to his own bed to read until the team had to wake up properly.
***
An hour later, Ruby brushed her teeth in a hurry, their first class less than 10 minutes away. She threw her toothbrush sloppily back into the holder, slamming the faucet’s handles back to off. As she darted to grab her bag, she brushed Blake, struggling to put on his binder.
“Hey Ruby, do you think you could-?” he asked, turning around to show the half-zipped binder. Spinning around, Ruby frowned as she helped her partner coax the zipper up the rest of the way.
“This is your new one?” she inquired, helping Blake into the rest of his uniform before grabbing her cloak and clipping it on her shoulders.
“Yes, sorry, I’m not used to it yet…” he trailed off, trying to remember which books he needed for his morning classes. Ruby wrapped her arms around his front, gently hugging and simultaneously helping him stuff the correct books in his bag.
“Don’t worry about it, but let’s get going,” Ruby said as she grabbed Blake’s hand, pulling him out of the dorm.
***
Three classes later, Ruby flopped over on Blake’s bed. She was the only one with free time right now, the rest of her friends and teammates in classes or training. Her bag fell unceremoniously to the ground, sounding out a dull thud followed by the books that slid out. Unhooking her cape, she wrapped it around herself as she sat up, reaching out for the red 3DS on the nightstand. She opened the hinged system, finding a purple post-it note with Blake’s handwriting on it:
“Planted more flowers in your town during my free period. Hope you like them. –Blake,” Ruby quickly fired up the system, clearing off the smudge from the sticky note. She selected Animal Crossing from the menu, finding that Blake had, indeed, planted more flowers. Red and white roses were systematically planted around her house in neat rows, only broken up by the pathway right in front of her house.
She rifled through the drawers, finding the sticky notes Blake had used. Ruby wrote a quick thank you, adding a doodle of a rose on the note. She stuck it right next to Blake’s pillow, knowing the Faunus would find it next time he came to their dorm.
***
“Have you seen Ruby? I need to make sure she got all the notes for Grimm Anatomy,” Weiss asked Yang as she sat down at their lunch table mutually shared with team JNPR. Not to her surprise, the blonde was preoccupied with showing off her scars to Pyrrha, bragging about the reckless battles she had received them from. Weiss looked to Ren, who pointed at the empty seat where Blake usually sat.
“Of course she runs off when we have an exam on Friday,” Weiss mumbled to no person in particular, placing her weapon down in Ruby’s seat to deter any stray comrades from claiming it.
Meanwhile, Ruby and Blake slipped out of the cafeteria, making a beeline for the doors as inconspicuously as they could. Neither wanted Cardin or any of his cronies to follow them out, especially since Blake was identifying as male that day, which drew enough attention even without the bully’s commentary. Once outside, they wrapped around to the school’s side, sliding down the wall underneath a window.
Blake immediately pulled his cap off, letting his second set of ears spring free. Ruby moved herself closer, gently massaging one ear while Blake worked on the other one. The bow he wore on his feminine days did not restrict his ears as much as the cap did, since he had to use extra cloth to keep the ears down. Once both ears were back up, Blake relaxed, letting his back lean against the wall.
“How were classes?” Blake asked as they spread their lunches between their laps, Ruby’s cape laid out to help keep everything in check.
“Fine, except Weiss and I have an exam in Grimm Anatomy soon,” Ruby replied, pulling out her notebook and opening it to a page brimming with notes and diagrams. Her handwriting was smudged slightly in areas; ink splayed to the right where her hand had pressed down. The diagrams were sketched with sloppy imprecision, arrows pointing at indiscernible parts with partial labels.
“Here, I can redo some of your notes,” Blake said, sliding the notebook out of his girlfriend’s hands, turning to a fresh page. Starting with a simple box, he began to sketch out a full profile of a Beowolf. The sketchy lines fluidly transformed into solid lines, outlining the Grimm’s body, intricate details such as their claws and masks becoming fully fledged. Moving inside the outline, he started filling in the larger parts of the internal systems. Lighter lines traced the nervous system, thick lines became bone structures, and shading represented the various organs. Neat arrows directed attention to the most important parts of the Beowolf.
Blake paused, embarrassment flushing his face.
“Here, try to fill out what you can and I’ll help you with the rest,” he said, quickly pushing the notebook back into Ruby’s hands. For a moment she was confused, before she remembered what Blake had confessed to her several months ago and her mind clicked.
Getting up on her knees, Ruby pressed a quick kiss to Blake’s burning face. Contrary to what their friends assumed, Blake’s handwriting was not a beautiful, ornate cursive. Instead, it was usually a hurried scrawl from untrained hands. Even though he had read a lot when he was younger, being in the White Fang hadn’t given him much time to practice finer things like writing. He could write, but Blake still felt ashamed of how messy his writing looked, especially when compared to Ren or Weiss.
Ruby chose not to mention it, aware that Blake was practicing. Instead, she started filling in what she could remember or salvage out of her notes. After a few minutes of scribbling and pages flipping, she stopped, chewing the tip of her pencil.
“Blake, what’s this?”
“That’s the stomach, Ruby.”
***
The evening found Ruby once again on Blake’s bed, curled into the pillows with her handheld propped up against the headboard. It was just past nine, and Blake was in the shower. Weiss was camped out in the library to study without distractions, while Yang had slipped off to spar with Nora.
Ruby heard the bathroom door open and close, peering over her shoulder to see Blake no longer had her wig or binder on, female night clothes selected over her male ones. Ruby raised an eyebrow, her way of asking without being rude.
“Yes, she again, for now,” Blake said, brushing out the last knots in her hair, still leftover from being bunched up under the wig. Once her fingers could run through her hair seamlessly, she laid down next to Ruby, pushing her closer to the wall. Ruby begrudgingly gave up the space, a playful smirk on her face as she softly dug her elbow just beneath Blake’s ribs.
Blake’s mouth twitched faintly, but nonetheless, always stubborn to keep her cool, ignored the leader’s attempt for attention. “Accidently” pushing her own arm right in the way of Ruby’s, she reached for the book on her nightstand with her free hand. Ruby pouted at the rejection, and for a few minutes let her girlfriend read in peace, focusing on her game instead. The few minutes were short lived though, another idea blossoming in Ruby’s mind. She stayed quiet just a bit longer, containing the goofy grin threatening to betray her. Blake kept her eyes focused on her book, glancing over every few lines to make sure the speed demon hadn’t darted off to pull some odd trick. When nothing seemed to be happening, she keyed in on the book, mind absorbed into its words.
“So do you like the book?” Ruby asked, sucking Blake out of her concentration from the sudden noise. She looked over at her partner suspiciously, yellow eyes searching for any clues.
“Yes,” she started tentatively, “you actually picked up an author I used to read a lot before I came to Bea-“
“Tickle attack!” Ruby yelled, abandoning her system and diving onto Blake, hands stretched out and ready to go.
Unfortunately for Ruby, Blake reacted faster than she anticipated.
Grabbing the nearest pillow, she shoved it right into Ruby’s path, her face hitting the soft cushion with a whoomp. Pent up energy died in Ruby’s muscles, and her arms twitched at the sudden brake. Once Ruby calmed down, Blake removed the pillow, rubbing her fingers into Ruby’s neck. Despite the cold no to Ruby’s games, Blake smiled.
“Sorry Ruby, but I believe my binder was on too tight today. If it wasn’t for the bruises I wouldn’t say no,” Blake explained, putting the book aside and draping her blanket around Ruby, who shrank into the warm sheets, silver eyes watching Blake with concern.
“Don’t worry about it, I’ll just have to stay off my binder for a couple of days to let the bruises heal,” she said, getting up to turn off the lights. “We’d better get to bed early, since Weiss complained that you were practically falling asleep during class.”
“Was not…” Ruby protested. Despite her denials, she settled herself in the blankets with a yawn. “G’night Blake, love you.”
Blake reclaimed the space on her bed, one arm looping around Ruby’s shoulder. She toyed with red bangs for a little while, watching Ruby easily fall asleep.
“Good night, my little leader. I love you too.”