Work Text:
Despite not actually being related, Ruby still took after her uncle Qrow in many ways. Their naturally spiky hair was most obvious, but once Weiss started looking closer, she noticed the smaller things. They had the same fierce look in their eyes whenever they gave something their all. They both gravitated towards scythes in any game that let them. Even their gravelly morning voices were similar.
What Weiss had never expected, however, was that Ruby was capable of growing stubble nearly as well as her uncle. Except instead of black, like every other hair on her body, Ruby’s stubble was crimson.
Weiss had woken up before her girlfriend like she usually did, ready to start her day with her beauty routine, but she was distracted by her girlfriend’s sleeping face, smooshed into her pillow, a thin line of drool dripping from the corner of her lips, sleeping mask over her eyes. What really caught Weiss’s eye today, though, was the vivid color of Ruby’s facial hair.
Ruby once told her she had red facial hair, that it gave her less of a beard shadow, and she was “super duper thankful for it.” Weiss had laughed it off then. She wasn’t laughing now. She shook her head in disbelief, barely able to wrap her head around the fact that not only did Ruby have little red stubble all across her cheeks and jawline, but that Weiss had found it cute.
Weiss had really, genuinely thought Ruby was joking back then. Of course, that was early in their relationship — before Weiss had realized she was gay, before the two of them had gotten together. Weiss had been a little racist back then, she remembered with a sigh. A little Asian girl with a red beard? Preposterous.
Now, though, she knew better. Weiss had never met Summer Rose—obviously, the woman had been dead for years before Weiss and Ruby had even met—but from what she knew, Ruby took after her mother more than her father. In the pictures she’d seen, Summer looked like a less-Asian, older Ruby. She came from northern-European Jewish ancestry, Ruby has told her once, and with that in mind, surely that explained why Ruby’s facial hair was red, despite Taiyang’s genetics.
Growing up in an interfaith household had been hard on the girl, particularly after her mother’s death. Summer hadn’t even lived to see Ruby’s bat mitzvah. For the most part, Weiss tried not to pry. She’d made plenty of idiotic fumbles early on in their relationship, thanks to her father’s stringent interpretation of the Bible and Weiss’s own arrogance in thinking that Ruby’s religion was simply “just the Old Testament.” Still, she knew that Ruby had fought tooth and nail to stay connected to her heritage, rather than easily assimilate into the relaxed secularism of the Xiao-Long home, and Weiss couldn’t help but feel proud of her girlfriend.
Weiss squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, blinking away the early morning bleariness. She’s gotten lost in thought, staring all the while at her girlfriend’s sleeping form. The ginger of Ruby’s stubble still startled her. It had to be a joke, no? She’d seen Ruby’s body hair, even her pubes, for fuck’s sake, and they were perfectly ordinary, brunette as the hair at her scalp.
She knew, on some level, that Ruby dyed her hair, but seeing her like this, it was really, really hard to remember that. Had she dyed the tips of her hair to match her stubble, back before she’d come out, only to wind up sticking with it? She must have. How else could Weiss explain just how perfectly the two shades of red mirrored one another? Weiss shook her head. She knew Ruby dyed the tips of her hair. Perhaps the act was just to match her chosen name? Surely it couldn’t be so simple. Maybe just to have more in common with Penny, Nora, and Pyrrha, justify the existence of Ruby Rose’s Redhead Squad, and make her feel like she belonged.
Weiss blinked once more for good measure. Ruby’s stubble really was red. After all, why would Ruby lie to her about something like that?
Weiss caught herself when her arm was already half outstretched. She knew she shouldn’t caress her girlfriend in her sleep, not like this. Perhaps if she were clean-shaven, like normal, but this was uncharted territory.
Still, that stubble looked so soft…
Unlike Qrow’s facial hair, or Taiyang’s, or any other man’s facial hair, now that Weiss thought about it, Ruby’s stubble looked soft. Perhaps it was the subtle influence of Ruby’s estrogen or some mystical abstract inner femininity, but whatever the case, Weiss knew it had to be softer than a man’s would be. She’d never considered herself attracted to facial hair in a million years—she was a lesbian, and, aside from a few odd cases, women, as a general rule, didn’t grow much in the way of stubble—but she adored Ruby from head to toe. Was it any wonder, then, that she thought Ruby’s stubble was cute? It looked soft enough that Weiss could kiss her and only feel a gentle tickle beneath her nose, rather than the scruffy poking she remembered from Taiyang’s beard when he’d kissed her cheek upon learning Ruby was her steady girlfriend.
Goddamnit, Weiss had to know. She had to feel Ruby’s soft red stubble, lest her curiosity drive her mad.
Gently as she could, Weiss reached out yet again, running the pads of her fingers along the curve of Ruby’s jawline. Her fingers moved as gently as she could, slowly and carefully, not even touching the skin, only grazing Ruby’s scarlet stubble.
She was right. It was soft. Softer even than Weiss’s ivory tresses. If she hadn’t known Ruby felt dysphoria over her facial hair, Weiss might have had a jealous fit over just how soft it was.
Ruby let out a soft groan, brunette eyebrows knitting above her sleep mask. Weiss froze, unsure whether to pull her hand away and act like nothing had happened or if any movement would wake her girlfriend.
“Weiss?” Ruby said, her sleepy voice thick with vocal fry. She pulled her sleep mask off, squinting against the light slipping through the slits between the blinds. “What are you…?”
Several excuses and explanations flashed through Weiss’s mind. She opened her mouth to speak before she decided on one of them, leaving her jaw hanging open in a rather unflattering look of surprise.
Ruby chuckled. She smacked her lips, the taste of morning writ across her face. “You okay there, Weissy?”
“It’s so soft,” Weiss said, lamely. She kicked herself inwardly. She should’ve said something, anything else. Goddamnit!
“It is,” Ruby said. She pressed Weiss’s hand against her cheek, nuzzling into it. “Puppy-dog whiskers, right? That’s what Yang said when I was, like, fourteen, I think.”
“Puppy-dog whiskers,” Weiss repeated. Her cheeks were nearly as red as Ruby’s, though for different reasons.
“I usually shave every morning and every night, when I take my pills,” Ruby said. “But I was so tired last night, and I was in a rush in the morning, so I guess I kind of just…” she trailed off. “I’m not particularly fond of it, so, uh, enjoy it before I get up and shave?”
“I will.” The words left Weiss’s mouth before she had a moment to consider them. Her face burned. “It, erm, it really is red, isn’t it?”
“Mhm,” Ruby hummed. “What, did you think I was lying to you when I told ya?”
“I don’t know what I thought,” Weiss admitted. She stroked Ruby’s jawline again. “You’re beautiful, Ruby.”
“Aww, Weiss.”
“It’s nice to see you like this. Without all the effort you put into trying to pass,” Weiss said. “It’s a privilege. An honor. Knowing you’re this comfortable with me, that nobody else gets to see you like this.”
Ruby blushed. Her crimson stubble seemed to fade into the pink of her cheeks. Weiss cupped her face, relishing in the soft tickles of Ruby’s whiskers against her skin.
Weiss leaned in and stole a kiss. Ruby’s stubble was soft against her face.
“You’re a good girl, Ruby Rose.” There were a great many things Weiss could have said right then, but that was the best choice.
“Nice Weiss strikes again,” Ruby joked, but Weiss could see the appreciation in her silver eyes. The subtle affirmation of her gender, despite the possible evidence to the contrary across her face, had not gone unnoticed. “I think I’m gonna go shave now. My face feels all tickley.”
“Be safe,” Weiss said. “I’m not sure I could tell the difference between a cut or a hair you missed.”
“I’ll be safe, don’t worry.” Ruby puffed out her chest. “I’m kind of an expert at this, y’know?”
“I’m sure you are,” Weiss chuckled. She leaned back on the pillows, watching as her girlfriend plodded with all the grace of a woman still half-asleep to the bathroom.
Even this deep into their relationship, after everything they’d been through, Weiss was pleased to learn that Ruby Rose could still surprise her.