Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It's a little more complicated than that, Weiss will insist to herself later. But really, in the moment, it's nothing. She's behind the school with Blake, smoking, and Blake asks her.

"You've got quite the reputation, haven't you?"

"Depends on what you mean," Weiss says carefully, blowing another puff of smoke into the air. She does have a reputation, it's true. She has a reputation as that girl, the one who tries a little too hard to rebel from her oppressive family. The one with nose piercings she puts in every day and hastily takes out before she enters her house again. The one who cuts class just enough to avoid failing any classes, the one who drinks because she can and gets into fights because she wants to.

"If you believe the rumors, you could have anyone in this school you wanted," Blake continues.

Not to brag, but it's true. Weiss is beautiful, and her family has money, and it doesn't hurt that she can be suave when she wants to be.

"Yes, and?"

"Really? Anyone?" Blake studies Weiss's face for a long moment. "So if you put your mind to it, you could take, say, Ruby Rose to prom?"

"If I wanted to, I could," Weiss says, not entirely sure where this conversation is going. Ruby Rose is some skinny girl who skipped a grade or two, and has no friends. None whatsoever. She's one of those awkward nerds that Weiss wouldn't give a second look unless she wanted somebody to mess with.

"Prove it," Blake says, smirking. "Take Ruby Rose to prom."

"And if I don't?"

"Then I stop buying you cigarettes," Blake says, plucking it out of Weiss's fingers and crushing it under the toe of her combat boots. Oh, sure, she has to flaunt that just because she's eighteen and can actually legally buy cigarettes, she's Weiss's current supplier.

"Sure, why not?" Weiss says. "I could use a bit of a challenge."

And that's that. It's nothing complicated or unusual, just one of Blake's little bets. Just a bit of fun.

Weiss corners Ruby at her locker between classes. When Ruby sees her, she gives a little squeak of alarm and nearly drops a textbook. Ruby's tiny, and the enormous textbooks she's carrying make her look smaller.

"Hey there," Weiss says, letting her voice go lower and breathier. "How are you, sweetheart?"

Ruby turns scarlet, the blush extending down her neck.

"Um, hi," she says, her voice squeaky. "I'm – I'm good. Yeah. Good."

Weiss's mere presence is enough to turn Ruby into a blushing, stuttery mess, so this bet should be easy. Weiss smiles, although it's mostly a smirk, and lets her fingers trail along Ruby's arm. Ruby drops her textbooks onto Weiss's shoes, then immediately kneels to collect them and starts stuttering apologies.

Weiss feels a bit of regret. This poor girl clearly does care about Weiss, and someone cool noticing her is probably the best event of her life.

An elbow hits the lockers above Ruby's head, making Weiss jump. The elbow belongs to one Yang Xiao Long, who gets angry easily and isn't a fan of Weiss, so this might not be good.

"You okay, Ruby?" Yang asks. She's staring at Weiss, eyebrows lowered, and Weiss can practically feel the flames coming off of her.

"I – I'm fine!" Ruby squeaks, finally gathering all of her textbooks and rushing away down the hall. That's a shame, but Weiss has her foot in the door and it won't take long until Ruby is like putty in her hands.

"Stay the fuck away from my little sister, Schnee," Yang growls, grabbing Weiss by the collar for good measure. Weiss swallows; she isn't afraid of a fight, but Yang is a football player with a good six inches on her, and she can't say she's looking forward to finding out who wins that.

"I didn't do anything to her," Weiss says, continuing to meet Yang's eyes. She isn't scared of some jock.

"You think this is funny?" Yang demands. "I've seen what you do to her. Shoving her, tripping her up, stealing her stuff. You think it's a game? Ruby isn't – tough, she hasn't learned how to handle that sort of thing yet. She's just a kid!"

She drops Weiss's collar. Weiss doesn't back away, because backing away means losing.

"I wasn't trying to bully your sister," she says evenly. "But I suppose you just assumed that, didn't you? Always rushing into things without thinking first."

Weiss turns around and walks away before Yang can come up with a retort, because baiting people like her is too easy.

…

It's hours later, when they're both on their couch watching some cheesy action movie with car chases and explosions, that Yang brings it up again.

"Ruby, if you need me to fight that Schnee girl for you, I'll do it."

Ruby turns and hastily shakes her head.

"No, don't fight Weiss, please. She wasn't doing anything wrong!"

"Then what was she doing?"

Ruby blushes a little at the memory.

"She called me 'sweetheart', and asked me how I was doing. Nothing bad."

Yang's murderous frown appears instantly.

"Ruby, she was probably just trying to mess with you. People like her don't fall for people like us."

"Why not?" Ruby takes another handful of popcorn. Yang's anger can be fun to watch as long as it's not directed at Ruby.

"Because, people like her, they're, they're bad, okay? You know what Dad says, 'don't fall in love with bad girls, because they're going to break your heart.'"

"But Dad doesn't say that," Ruby points out.

"He should." Yang's face softens. "Ruby, I'm just trying to protect you."

"Yang," Ruby whines, but Yang is already getting up.

"I'm heading out with Pyrrha. There's a party, if you want to go."

Yang always extends the invitation, even though she probably knows by now that Ruby is never going to go.

"And watch you and Pyrrha drink beer and make out all night? No way," Ruby responds, because that's what she always says. She doesn't actually know what happens at parties, but she knows there are too many people.

The doorbell rings, and Yang grabs her jacket off a coathook and opens it.

"Hello!" Pyrrha says cheerfully. "Good to see you, Ruby!"

Pyrrha's nice, at least, and she and Yang were friends for ages before they even started dating, so Ruby's only a little bit scared of her.

"Good to see you too," she calls over her shoulder. The door shuts behind them, and Ruby gets up to lock it and returns to her movie, and popcorn, and replaying that moment Weiss touched her arm over and over again in her head.

Chapter Text

Ruby Rose is complicated and frustrating. Weiss has spent a week showing up to flirt with her, and judging by the scarlet blush that still spreads across Ruby’s cheeks each time, it’s working. But Ruby always walks away, like she’s not actually wrapped around Weiss’s finger, and it’s confusing. After the third time, Weiss gives up and decides to go for the unconventional route.

Ruby likes to eat her lunch in the library, or at least she does eat in the library, but Weiss can’t see how she enjoys it. Weiss heads to the library, rather than head out for a smoke, to find Ruby. She’s nested in a pile of cushions presumably from the library couches, holding a book bigger than her face.

She looks up as Weiss enters and Weiss grabs a random book off a shelf because she can’t seem like she was deliberately looking for Ruby, because only someone desperate would do that. Wuthering Heights, which she’s read twice already.

“Hey,” Weiss says. “Good book?”

Ruby nods and returns to it, not actually saying anything.

“It’s a little rude to not even talk to me,” Weiss purrs, kneeling so she’s at Ruby’s height.

Ruby glances up, swallowing.

“I know, just, Yang said people like you don’t fall for people like me.” Ruby’s voice quavers. “She says you’re just messing with me. Are you?”

She looks heartbroken at the mere suggestion. Weiss winces, because this is going to be a little more complicated than she’d anticipated. Ruby seems like the kind of person who would cry if someone led her on too much, and Weiss can’t deal with people crying.

“Of course not,” Weiss says, feeding as much sincerity into her voice as she can muster. She’s a good liar. “Do you really think I’d do that to someone as – pretty, and smart, and kind as you?”

…

Ruby’s heart stops.

Weiss is staring into her eyes, and just called her pretty, and smart, and kind, in a voice that’s so gentle Ruby barely recognizes it. She’s nursed a crush on Weiss for the better part of two years, because Weiss was so rebellious and devil-may-care, but now, seeing her be sincere like this? Ruby’s head over heels.

Ruby tries to form a sentence, eventually coming out with “Um, i-is your book good?”

“It’s not bad,” Weiss says, shrugging. “But that’s not important. Tell me about you.”

…

Ruby launches into a long explanation of a robot she’s building for a robotics competition, and ordinarily Weiss would be bored, but Ruby is so happy about drive trains and tank controls that Weiss finds herself listening, even if she doesn’t understand it.

“So, anyway, the competition is next month, and I’m already in testing stages, so I think I’ll do well. Maybe you can stop by and I’ll show you how it works some time. I’m going to paint it, too, so it looks cooler.” Ruby stops. “Was that too much? I kind of like robots.”

Weiss has to smile at that.

“It’s not too much,” she says. “Just, aren’t you worried about robots taking over the world or something?”

Ruby launches into another long, rambling speech about Isaac Asimov and how robots will have to be designed to be benevolent, and she is too fucking adorable for words. It wasn’t long ago that Weiss would have made a stinging comment and walked away, or at least put up with it while mentally hating every word that came out of Ruby’s mouth.

No, she’s not, that would be ridiculous. She’s grudgingly making friends, and the happy friendly personality she’s trying to show Ruby is starting to rub off on her soul, or something. There are no real feelings involved here. None whatsoever.

Even if there were real feelings involved, that would be impossible, since when Ruby finds out that this whole thing is just a bet, she’ll cry and never want to see Weiss again, and Yang will pick a fight with her, and so everything will go horribly wrong. It’s for the best that Weiss isn’t mentioning any of that.

The bell rings, and Ruby seems to snap out of her happy robot trance.

“I have to get going,” she says, picking up her bag and standing up.

“Wait.” Weiss grabs her wrist. “Would you like to get coffee after school’s over?”

“Yes!” Ruby squeaks, then rushes away down the hall, a megawatt grin visible on her face.

At least Weiss is going to win that bet.

…

“She said she’s not messing with me,” Ruby insists, scowling at Yang. “Anyway, you don’t get to control my life.”

Yang sighs, then relents. Her little sis is going to kill her one of these days, but they love each other, and making mistakes is just part of growing up. It’s Ruby’s life, not hers.

“If Weiss makes you happy, I won’t stop you,” she says, quietly issuing a little prayer to any god who might be listening that Weiss is in fact being genuine. Yang just doesn’t want her to get hurt.

“Really? You’re the best!” Ruby throws her arms around Yang, then dashes away. “I’ll get a ride back from Weiss! Don’t wait for me!”

Yang stays worried through practice, then after when she heads out with her friends. She picks at her food, not really taking part in the conversation. Pyrrha takes a few minutes to notice, since Nora keeps up a constant stream of conversation regardless, but then she stops and looks at Yang, concern clear on her face.

“Yang, is everything all right?”

“Everything’s fine,” Yang mutters. “Why wouldn’t everything be fine? Ruby just has a girlfriend who’s going to break her heart, and I let her go see the girl. Nothing wrong whatsoever.”

“Yang, I understand that you worry, but you have to let Ruby make her own decisions,” Pyrrha says soothingly. “In the worst case scenario, she gets her heart broken, and there’s no permanent damage.”

“Well, excuse me for not trusting some Schnee girl to keep Ruby safe,” Yang snaps.

“Oh, Yang …” Pyrrha’s face softens. “That was years ago, and a different person. You can’t make assumptions about the future based on the past.”

“Ooh, what happened with a Schnee girl, and how did I miss it?” Nora asks, wiggling her eyebrows.

“Well, it was back in freshman year, before we were friends with you,” Yang begins. “So, back then, I had a bit of a crush on that senior, Winter Schnee.”

“A bit of a crush?” Pyrrha asks, snorting, then quiets when Yang glares at her. “Sorry, continue.”

“And I was young and stupid, so I thought it would be a good idea to bring her flowers for Valentine’s Day. I planned everything out. I asked her friends what kind of flowers she liked, stalked her for a week until I knew her class schedule, and then I walked up to her, so nervous I couldn’t speak, and I gave her the flowers, and she threw them away. Took me two years to actually work up the courage to date someone after that.”

“Mhm, wow, what a sad story. Can I have your fries?” Nora asks, and Yang wordlessly pushes them over. She doesn’t feel like eating, not when Ruby might be in the same situation she was in years ago. New and alone and out of her element, pinning all her hopes on a girl who turned out to be – well, a Schnee.

Chapter Text

They have coffee, and Weiss tries to pretend she isn’t having serious misgivings about any of this.

Ruby is a lot more than Weiss initially gave her credit for. She’s funny and enthusiastic and kind and far more than someone like Weiss deserves. Weiss doesn’t like feeling like that, when the entire point was that Ruby was some kind of outcast who would never normally get the attention of someone half as good as Weiss.

But no, Weiss just had to make that stupid bet, and now she’s caught feelings for someone like Ruby. She wants to make Ruby smile, to give her fits of hysterical giggles, to see her blush and stumble over her words when Weiss gets too close. She wants to spend hours bickering about old science fiction and whether or not Wrath of Khan really was the best movie ever made. She’s started wanting things she doesn’t want or need, like peaceful domesticity, which is just not Weiss’s thing.

All of this is a little too complicated for Weiss right now.

“I should get going,” Ruby says, glancing at her watch. “Yang’s gonna get worried if I stay out for too long.”

Weiss glances at her own wrist, out of habit, before she realizes that she isn’t wearing her watch. She nods, then offers her hand to Ruby.

“You don’t drive, right?” she says. “I’ll take you back.”

Ruby blushes again.

“That’d be great, I mean, if it isn’t any trouble. If you don’t want to, I can call Yang or just walk back, or, I mean, I’d love to if it’s on your way.”

The address Ruby gives her is in the opposite direction, but Weiss doesn’t care. Ruby holds her hand the whole time, even when Weiss points out that it might cause an accident, and keeps pointing out trees rather than actually giving directions, so they make more than one wrong turn. At any other time, Weiss would be fuming and seriously regretting the decisions that led up to this point, but she doesn’t really mind. Ruby’s sort of fun to be around, even if her constant enthusiasm gets loud.

When Weiss pulls up in front of a blue one-story house that Ruby identifies as her own, Ruby doesn’t get out. She sits there for a few moments, twisting her sleeves and the strings of her hoodie in her hands. That’s not Weiss’s problem.

“Can I kiss you?” The words come out garbled and hasty, and Ruby immediately looks down again. “I mean, if you want me to.”

Winning this bet will be easier than Weiss ever predicted. Ruby is wrapped around her finger, and Weiss very nearly accepts without even thinking.

But that’s not what Weiss wants. As sappy as it sounds, Weiss wants their first kiss to be a little more romantic than some brief affair in the front seat of her car. Ruby deserves that much. Judging by how nervous she is, it might be her first kiss, and Weiss isn’t going to take that experience away from her just for some stupid bet.

Plus, Weiss can see Yang through the open curtains of a window, and that means Yang could see her, and Weiss isn’t a fan of dying.

Weiss leans in and kisses Ruby’s cheek, smiling when she goes beet red, and whispers “you should get back to your family. Wouldn’t want to worry your sister, would we?”

Ruby nods and scrambles out before dashing up the driveway. Weiss pulls away from the curb, but she still hears the faint squeal of joy.

…

“And then she kissed me! On the cheek, so I don’t know if it counts, but she kissed me!”

Yang looks up from her textbook and does her best to smile warmly.

“Wow, she sounds like a catch, Rubes. Tell me all about it.”

Ruby sits on the couch next to Yang for about half a second before she’s up and bouncing around the room again, pantomiming her interactions with Weiss occasionally. And Yang can’t even be mad at Weiss, because Ruby is just so damn happy. Her baby sister is finally making some friends, and God that makes Yang sound like someone’s maiden aunt.

“You’re not still worried, are you?” Ruby asks, pausing in the middle of a long rant about Star Trek.

“I’m your big sister; it’s my job to worry about you,” Yang says.

Ruby frowns at her, crossing her arms.

“Isn’t it supposed to be your job to let me sneak out and go to parties with you, and teach me how to flirt with boys, or something? Since you’re older and cooler?”

“Ruby, we’re both gay.”

“Okay, but my point still stands.”

Yang doesn’t feel like talking about that sort of thing, so she deflects it.

“Am I not a cool enough big sister for you?” she exclaims, hand over her heart in mock outrage.

“No, you’re still the coolest.” Ruby settles into the couch next to her and Yang wraps an arm around her. It feels like it’s been too long since they’ve spent time together, just as sisters, and even if there’s a lot that Yang should be doing, her homework can wait one more day.

“Why don’t we watch that show you like, and get pizza since Dad’s working late?” she offers. “Voyager or something.”

Ruby looks horrified by the mere suggestion.

“Voyager is by far the worst of the Star Trek shows!”

“Okay, then not Voyager. Pick something.”

Ruby immediately starts extolling the virtues of various shows, trying to decide between them. Yang puts her textbook away and settles back into the couch, grabbing a blanket that Ruby immediately tries to steal.

Yang can talk to her about Weiss tomorrow. There’s always time.

Chapter Text

Okay, sue Weiss for wanting to have a good time and shoot things. Sue Weiss for thinking that Ruby could be invited along for said good time and shooting of things. Sue Weiss for wanting to win this bet and also get Ruby to come out of her shell a little.

“You’re still whipped,” Blake mutters, then dodges Weiss’s attempt to smack her.

“I have a bet to win; might as well go all out,” Weiss snaps back, fighting a blush that’s threatening to rise. She’s starting to get a faint suspicion that Blake knows more about Weiss’s real feelings than she cares to let on, and she doesn’t like that.

Blake shakes her head and absently tugs at her hair, staring off into the middle distance. She does that often enough, and Weiss has gotten used to the little silences in conversation. She opts to ignore Blake and work on planning out the weekend. Ruby has Saturday afternoons free; she mentioned that days ago, and it embarrasses Weiss that she remembers that. The paintball place doesn’t get a whole lot of customers, so it won’t be any trouble to get a reservation or even just show up. After, they can get some food, because Ruby eats a lot and Weiss can afford to buy her just about anything. Maybe they’ll stop by that new bakery, the one with the wood floors and the sunlit countertop, and get something.

“You’re smiling a lot these days,” Blake says, and Weiss hastily tries to force her face into a scowl. It doesn’t really work.

“Bullshit,” she says flatly, not really having the energy to keep bickering when she’d rather daydream.

Blake frowns slightly and taps her cigarette out against the bricks, then walks away. Weiss watches her leave, feeling a little guilty but not enough to go apologize. It takes a lot to make Weiss apologize for anything.

…

Ruby is thrilled at the prospect of paintball, claiming that her family loves the game but she always loses “Just because Yang’s bigger and stronger and I trip over my own feet and it’s not fair!”

“I’ll go easy on you,” Weiss says, grinning. She won’t.

“Oh yeah? Well, uh, I should be the one going easy on you, because you are about to be destroyed!” Ruby looks adorable when she’s trying to be intimidating, face scrunched up and eyebrows pulled down, and Weiss tries not to laugh at her.

“All right, good luck with that,” she says, then feels an impact into her chest that makes her take a step backward in shock. There’s purple paint spreading across her protective gear.

Ruby tries to give Weiss an innocent smile, but it comes off like a smirk, and then dissolves into hysterical giggles. That cheater.

“You’re dead,” Weiss says as Ruby takes off for the shelter of the woods. She has a bet to win, but that doesn’t mean she’ll take it easy.

Turns out Ruby is alarmingly good at paintball, and kind of terrifying when she stages ambushes from trees. It doesn’t take long for Weiss to turn completely purple, but she keeps fighting, and fighting dirty, shooting at Ruby from safe zones. Not that either of them care much about the rules at this point.

Weiss fakes a stumble over a tree root in her mad pursuit of Ruby, and Ruby stops for a moment, which is long enough for Weiss to hit her in the shoulder. Ruby gives what might have been intended as a battle cry, but comes across more as ‘disgruntled pelican’, and charges straight at Weiss.

Their dignified game of shooting turns into a wrestling match pretty quickly, with Ruby flailing indiscriminately against Weiss’s attempts to hold her, and eventually tackling her and bringing them both to the ground.

“Get off of me,” Weiss groans. Ruby stays there, heart beating so fast Weiss can actually feel it through all the layers separating them. She plants a quick, awkward kiss on Weiss’s lips and tries to scramble to her feet, but Weiss pulls her back down.

They stay there for a bit too long, Weiss barely even minding that Ruby’s elbows and knees keep poking her. Ruby has such pretty eyes; they’re gray, kind of, but different from most gray eyes that Weiss sees. They’re sparkly, for lack of a better term. Ruby is awkward and tentative and honestly just bad at kissing, and Weiss doesn’t mind. She might be a little bit infatuated, and that might be a problem, but honestly Weiss doesn’t even care about the bet at this point.

They get food, and Ruby eats at least six croissants, and Weiss pays for everything. Everything is a little too perfect. Even the streaks of purple paint in Weiss’s hair that won’t come out for days are perfect, because they match the green streaks in Ruby’s hair that clash horribly with the existing dye.

“You should come to my robotics competition,” Ruby says through a mouthful of pastry. “It’s going to be so much fun.” She coughs and hastily swallows, then stammers out an apology for her table manners.

Weiss sincerely doubts that some robotics competition will be anything remotely close to “fun”, but she doesn’t want to disappoint Ruby.

“Of course I’ll go,” she says, giving Ruby her best attempt at a friendly smile. She’s smiled too much today, so her face is in pain when she tries. There are worse problems.

Ruby’s grin in return is enough to light up the room, as she begins listing off her competitors, and how she’s going to destroy them (metaphorically, she has to clarify, since her robot can’t actually kill people yet). Weiss listens and tries to remember what she’s saying, occasionally adding in her own comment. Like a real conversation, rather than one of those one-sided talks.

Weiss gets home late. Her father isn’t pleased, but that’s nothing new. She ignores his lectures and Klein’s fussing over her hair, because her entire mind is too full of a girl with silver eyes and a glowing smile and a sort of happiness and enthusiasm for life that Weiss will never have.

Chapter Text

The word that keeps floating up in Weiss’s brain is too good to last. Which technically is several words, but that’s not the important part. Ruby’s good at finding things out, and eventually she’s going to work out that all of this was just a bet, and then she’ll hate Weiss forever, and – no, Weiss isn’t going to worry about that. Weiss is going to have a good time and make sure everything’s perfect.

She made a banner for Ruby’s robotics tournament, and tries to enlist other spectators to hold the banner. Ruby’s family have their own engagements, so Weiss is the only one cheering for her, and she’s going to be loud.

Ruby’s ‘bot, that she calls Crescent Rose and insists that Weiss say it too because the robot will get offended if she doesn’t, is chunky, gears visible under the red-and-black paint. It looks unpolished and lumpy compared to some of the sleek, elegant steel-plated robots, but it’s faster and stronger than a lot of them. Weiss isn’t entirely sure of the rules of the game, but Ruby and Crescent Rose barge aside other robots to pick up plastic cubes and toss them into baskets, and there’s some complicated kind of point system based on the color of the cubes and the height of the baskets. Ruby wins the first round, and jogs away from the arena set up in a church basement to squeal in Weiss’s ears.

“Did you see that! We destroyed them!”

“You certainly did,” Weiss manages, smiling. She’s never seen Ruby quite this loud and enthusiastic before, and two weeks ago would never have predicted that someone this shy and awkward could be so – whatever this is.

Ruby does a victory lap of the arena, then starts the next round. She defeats the next robot, an electric-blue contraption with tank treads, by the skin of her teeth (or Weiss assumes she does, because she still doesn’t know how this is scored). Ruby flings her arms around Weiss again, nearly making Weiss drop her banner, and just stays there for a few moments. Just when Weiss is about to break away because she doesn’t like hugs, Ruby lets go and rushes back to the arena to watch the next battle.

Ruby doesn’t quite win the tournament; she gets knocked out in the semifinal round, but she takes her third place ribbon grinning like a loon, and insists that Weiss take around fifty pictures of her and Crescent Rose, to commemorate the occasion. Weiss doesn’t mind all that much.

Weiss helps Ruby carry Crescent Rose out of the church and into the backseat of Weiss’s car (not the trunk, because “what if something happens and she gets stolen?”). Ruby throws her arms around Weiss again, and hops into the passenger seat. She’s enthusiastic for about half of their journey home, but Weiss is getting less and less talkative.

Weiss isn’t sure she can keep doing this. It was just supposed to be a bet, just a harmless joke. Actually falling for Ruby was never supposed to be on the table. Weiss isn’t supposed to fall for people. She’s supposed to be the heartbreaker, and now she’s so whipped it isn’t even funny any more. Damn, Blake was right.

On the other hand, Weiss can keep alternately trying to suppress her feelings and letting them shine through when she’s with Ruby, and try to win this bet in the process.

“Will you go to prom with me?” Weiss keeps the request as casual as she can, staring at the road in front of them, praying to whatever might be out there.

Ruby looks nervous, she can tell from the corner of her eye.

“I – I don’t know,” Ruby says. “I don’t think so.”

“Why not?” Weiss asks, fighting to keep her voice light and casual. She’s not going to actually seem like she has emotions, not now.

Ruby shrugs, twisting the strings of her hoodie.

“It’s just – too many people I don’t know, and everything’s too loud, and it just doesn’t seem like fun.”

“All right,” Weiss says. “If you want, instead of going to prom I could come over and we could talk about your robots.”

That really isn’t what Weiss is supposed to be doing, but that’s okay. She doesn’t want to push Ruby into something she’s not comfortable with, and some stupid bet isn’t worth ruining everything.

Ruby brightens up and nods.

“That sounds good,” she says, grinning again, and Weiss has to stop her from trying to give her a hug while she’s still driving.

A notification flashes up on Weiss’s phone, which is propped up on the dashboard for purposes of navigation, and Weiss ignores it. It’s either Blake or her father texting her, and she doesn’t need to deal with either of them right now. Weiss pays her phone no attention until she realizes that Ruby is staring at it, and has gone alarmingly pale.

“Are you okay?” Weiss asks. Ruby doesn’t respond, so Weiss snatches her phone off of the dashboard and squints at the screen.

Blake: Aww, sorry you’re stuck with Ruby. Good luck with the bet (you’ll need it).

Shit.

Shit, shit, shit.

Weiss may or may not have just spectacularly fucked things up.

“Stuck with me?” Ruby asks, her chin quivering. Weiss pulls over, because trying to deal with all of this and drive is a recipe for disaster.

“Look, Ruby, that’s just, that’s just Blake, she’s not very nice sometimes.”

“You think I’m just some, some stupid little girl,” Ruby says. She’s starting to sniffle, and Weiss hates that she’s making Ruby upset but she can’t do anything about it. “And what is she talking about, a bet?”

Weiss shuffles her feet uncomfortably.

“We made a bet, that if I could take you to prom …” she trails off. She doesn’t want to finish the sentence, or need to.

“Fine.” Ruby wipes her face and opens the passenger door. “You don’t have to be stuck with me any longer. Go have fun with your real friends.”

She hauls Crescent Rose out of the car, slamming the door, and then collapses on the sidewalk.

Weiss drives away.

Chapter Text

Weiss isn't supposed to be crying this much over some girl. That thought just makes her more miserable, and she flops down across the couch again, not caring if her tears stain the immaculate white leather.

Weiss fucked up. She hurt Ruby by fucking up, and that's unforgivable. Weiss is unforgivable.

She doesn't have the energy or inclination to get up, so she stays on the couch. Klein finds her eventually and sits down beside her.

"Weiss, dear, tell me what ails you."

Weiss rolls over to face him, aware that her face is probably a mess. Klein has seen her looking worse.

"Ruby," she manages, before bursting into a fresh round of tears. Klein sighs quietly and offers her tissues until Weiss is at least somewhat calm.

"I made a stupid bet, and I hurt Ruby so much, and now she'll never trust me again," Weiss says despondently.

Klein nods. His expression doesn't change, which is good. Weiss has been on the receiving end of Klein's full wrath once, and she'd really prefer that it never happen again.

"Well, Weiss, you should consider apologizing if you've hurt her."

That's obvious advice, but Weiss doesn't feel like actually going and talking to Ruby. If she actually talks to Ruby, she's going to cry and be a total mess, and then Ruby will still hate her, and Yang will have blackmail material, and Weiss doesn't need that.

"You won't solve your problems by staying here," Klein points out. "Write her a letter, or apologize over the phone, if you don't think you can do it in person. Just speak from the heart, and Ruby will understand."

Weiss doesn't do speaking from the heart. She's too good at carefully repressing her emotions. Then again, maybe that's a problem that needs fixing.

Weiss composes herself, then picks up her phone and calls Ruby. She waits, listening to the faint ringing on the other end, trying to work out the right words to say.

…

Ruby's phone rings. It's Weiss, and Ruby doesn't feel like talking to Weiss now. She flips her phone over, but not before Yang sees the name.

"Ruby, what's wrong? Why aren't you talking to Weiss?"

That's enough to set Ruby off in incoherent sobs, spilling out the story between gasping breaths. Yang is clutching her so tightly she can hardly breathe in a matter of seconds, while Pyrrha and Nora make their way over. Ruby isn't sure why they're here, and she doesn't really care.

Ruby manages to slow her sobs eventually, and buries her face in Yang's shoulder. Yang keeps holding her, muttering vaguely soothing things.

"Okay, where does Weiss live again?"

"What?"

Yang cracks her knuckles audibly, and Ruby lunges to pin down her hands.

"No, you can't go fight Weiss!"

"Why not?" Nora asks. She's currently occupying half of the couch, relegating Pyrrha to the floor. "She broke your heart, and I'm not going to say I told you so but you really shouldn't mess around with Schnees, so what's the problem?"

"She broke my heart but I still care about her," Ruby sniffles.

"Oh, okay. This is you being an idiot. Gotcha."

Ruby knows Nora isn't being very serious, and she manages a watery smile at Nora, who grins broadly to show there are no hard feelings.

"All that aside, beating people up is not a productive way of resolving conflict," Pyrrha points out.

That starts an argument that Ruby doesn't need to be part of. She checks her phone, sees that Weiss left her a voicemail, and deletes it.

…

Weiss scowls at her phone, then shoves it into her pocket and goes for a walk. Her misery is turning into rage, and she'd rather not be inside the house, so she can kick things without breaking them.

Weiss walks a few blocks to a small park, the kind she visits once in a while, usually with Blake. There's a tree in her way, and she kicks it. It helps a little, and she starts drifting through the park and kicking more trees, feeling far too satisfied with herself when she startles a bird.

Blake is sitting on a bench, facing away from Weiss, blowing clouds of smoke into the cold air. Weiss stalks over, not bothering with a greeting.

"You!"

Blake turns around, stomping out her cigarette, and for a moment Weiss sees real fear in her eyes. She doesn't care.

"All of this is your fault, isn't it?" Weiss hisses. "You started the bet, you texted me at the wrong time, you're the reason Ruby hates me."

Blake takes a step back, looking alarmed, then marches up to Weiss, face set in a grim scowl that Weiss sees too often.

"You didn't have to take me up on the offer," she snaps. "Don't try to blame me. You're the one who didn't think twice about breaking some girl's heart."

"I didn't think I would end up breaking her heart," Weiss offers uselessly.

"You don't care about people, do you?" Blake says. "You care about what you can get from them. I'm only your friend because I buy you cigarettes, a little charity project. You can say whatever you want about how rebellious you are, but in the end you're just a spoiled rich girl playing with her toys."

Weiss doesn't have anything to say. She knows she's made mistakes, but having even Blake desert her now doesn't feel right.

"Ruby should stay away from you," Blake says, already walking away. "She deserves better."

Weiss flinches, remembering all the texts to Blake.

She'd never get someone like me in a thousand years.

It's charity, really. I'm doing her a favor.

Weiss stays in the park for hours as the sun sets, not noticing her surroundings.

She's been a terrible person. She's driven everyone she cares about away, broken them down, made them feel like they were nothing so that she could get what she wanted.

Chapter Text

It's prom night, and Ruby isn't excited. Yang offered to stay home with Ruby, but she refused. At least one of them deserves to be happy.

"How do I look?" Yang asks, emerging from the bathroom in a sheer white dress, batting her eyelashes. "Is this too much eyeliner? Not enough eyeliner?"

"You look perfect," Ruby says, because she does. Yang is the pretty one, and she'd look good in a garbage bag, and next to her Ruby just looks like a mess. In retrospect, she's not even surprised that Weiss was just playing a joke on her. People like Weiss don't like people like her. Yang can talk all she wants about how true beauty is on the inside, and the insides of people like Weiss are ugly as hell, but this is high school and outer beauty is what matters.

There's a knock on the door and Yang rushes to open it, then hesitates, then flings the door open. Pyrrha grins for a moment, then her smile gets softer and she looks a little like she's been hit in the head with a baseball bat. Yang is watching Pyrrha, and Pyrrha is watching Yang, and they both look so breathtaking. It's the look in their eyes, Ruby thinks, and she wonders if that's what being in love looks like.

"Some of us are trying to actually use the door," Nora interrupts, trying to squeeze past Pyrrha, and the moment is gone. Pyrrha laughs nervously and moves out of the way, because she's just like that, and Nora barges in and spreads out across the entire couch, even though she's all dressed up, because she's just like that too.

For a second, Ruby can stop thinking about Weiss, and even wonder why she was so upset. She has friends, or she has a sister who has friends, and she doesn't need the complications of romance. Nora's rummaging through the fridge while Yang smacks her hands away from the brownies she baked because those are for the afterparty, and Ruby gets up to join them and use her puppy-dog eyes until Yang lets them eat. It works every time.

Then Pyrrha pulls Yang into a kiss, and they're laughing and Pyrrha is trying to get Yang's red lipstick off her mouth, and Nora's complaining about how they're making her lose her appetite and she didn't even think that was possible, and things are different.

Eventually, the three of them make it out the door, about fifteen minutes after Pyrrha starts anxiously checking her watch. Ruby settles back onto the couch, not sure what to do with her evening. She wants to stay up until Yang gets home, at least, so she can sit on Yang's bed while she takes off her makeup and hear the stories about prom. That's what they do when Yang goes to parties, at least some of the time, and it never quite feels right when Ruby tries to sleep and Yang isn't home.

Ruby drifts, sitting down to play a videogame and giving up ten minutes later, picking up books and not reading past the first page. Even the brownie she steals from the fridge because Yang will never notice if just one is gone doesn't help. It starts to rain, and that fits because cold, damp misery is what Ruby feels like. Of course, it isn't cold or damp inside, and she's not really miserable yet, but it's close enough.

It takes her a few moments to notice that someone's knocking on the door. Ruby hurries to open it; maybe her dad's back from his late shift early, or Yang forgot her purse.

Weiss is wearing a blue dress, or those are the only words Ruby can immediately find to describe it since she's never been one for fashion. It's long and flowy and shiny in the light of the streetlamps, and she's thrown a raincoat over it but she wasn't very careful, so the hem of the dress is spattered with rainwater and her hair, let down from its usual ponytail, is drenched.

Ruby kind of wants to shut the door on her, but it's raining and Weiss looks miserable, and she's not evil, so Ruby steps back to let Weiss in and closes the door behind her. Weiss stands there, next to the door, looking miserable, and Ruby realizes that she's crying, kind of a lot, but it's hard to tell with the rainwater streaming down her face.

"I'm sorry," Weiss manages, punctuating it with a hiccup. "I'm sorry, I screwed up, I thought it was just a bet, I didn't think about how you'd feel, and then I – I ended up falling for you for real, and this is stupid because you're obviously never going to forgive me so I'll just go now."

She wrenches open the door, and Ruby steps past her to shut it.

"No, you're staying here until we talk this out or the rain stops, one or the other."

Maybe she shouldn't be so forward with someone like Weiss, who could well get upset at that and try to punch her, but Weiss is a shaking, drenched mess on her rug and doesn't look remotely intimidating, and Ruby feels like being brave.

"I don't expect you to forgive me," Weiss insists, drying the worst of her tears. "I can leave, and you can hate me, and I'll be okay and so will you. We'll be okay."

"Why settle for okay?" Ruby tries to wipe some of Weiss's hair off of her face, but it's drenched and sticks to what Ruby now realizes used to be carefully applied eyeliner. "We could be happy, instead, maybe even happy together."

Ruby gives Weiss a moment to respond, but Weiss is just staring at her in complete shock.

"I'm willing to give this a shot if you are," Ruby offers. "And, I mean, maybe this whole prom thing is going to be fun. Only one way to find out, right?"

"Who are you and what have you done with Ruby Rose?" Weiss asks, trying to move her hair herself and being marginally more successful.

"Is that a yes?"

"Of course it's a yes, you idiot," Weiss says, swatting Ruby's hand away from her face and kissing her properly.

Ruby wears a floor-length gown stolen from Yang's closet and her old hoodie, and they get looks, but that's okay, because neither of them even notice anyone else. They don't notice Pyrrha and Yang sneaking glances and exchanging little smiles, or Nora dragging Blake into the hallway to demand that she pay up, because after all Nora said they'd get back together and bet twenty dollars on it, even if Blake never actually agreed to the bet.

At the end of the night, Ruby and Yang crowd around their bathroom mirror, scrubbing away their own makeup and the residue of Weiss's black lipstick. They talk and laugh and neither of them mention her making up, because they're happy and that's what counts.