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Chapter Text

"Dam how the hell did shit hit the fan so fast? …I blame Neptune and and and Weiss and Sun and Yang... maybe." I said as tears streamed down my face and onto the fluffy red pillow Weiss bought me not to long ago. "And now I'm talking to myself … Maybe I'm going crazy" I laughed humorlessly and continued "yet another clock maker gone crazy, just like the stories Qrow used to tell me and Yang when we were kids." I rolled over, and pulled my knees to my chest, wrapping my arms tightly around them I let a few more tears slide down my face. "I only just got to know Weiss a month or two ago, but I can't help but feel the way I feel about her and and and STUPID NEPTUNE! I blame him! He's the one that started everything and made me lie to her." I rolled onto my stomach and mumbled into my pillow. "I hate life."

2 months before

The bell on top of the worn red door dinged as a newcustomer walked into my store. "Hello! Welcome to Crow Clocks! How may I help you?" I said, not bothering to look up from my work bench behind the counter. "Well, look at you! All cute and concentrated on fixing clock like always. You know you really should pay more attention to who walks into your store. What if I were a burglar about to hold up your store?" Before Yang could say another word, I had already pulled the rifle out from under the counter and had barrel pointed to her head. "That. Come on Yang you know no one's faster than me." I smirked at her before lowering the gun. Yang jumped over the counter and crushed me into one of her signature bear hugs.

"Yang… Can't… Breath…" "Oh! Sorry Rubes!" She quickly let me go of me and let me catch my breath. "So, Yang what brings you to my store? And aren't you supposed to be working?"

"I got the day off. The girl I was protecting felt sorry for me since I'm going to pull a triple shift, because the other guard got sick with some flu or something."

"What was this girl's name again? Black? Blan? Blaine?" I said as I got back to working on the pocket watch I had previously been working on.

"It's Blake Ruby and she has got to be the most beautiful girls I've ever seen! She has wavy black hair that you just want to run your fingers through and this mysterious vibe that always keeps you on your toes and Rubes that not even the best part! I think I saw her smile at one of my jokes once!" By the end of the sentence Yang was bouncing on the tips of her toes with a small blush on her cheeks.

"Ohh~ looks like big bad womanizing Yang Xiao Long has a crush on her new boss~."

She stopped bouncing and blushed so hard her ears turned red. "Well… I...I… Well at least it's not as bad as little miss I've-been-single-since-high-school-because-I-would-rather-play-with-machines-than-talk-to-people." She crossed her arms and smirked at me, while I stayed silent and quickly returned back to my work. "Come on Rubes your 22! Live a little!" She patted my back a little too harshly causing the tool I was using to fix the pocket watch to snap some very important wiring in the watch. When Yang heard the snap she turned away from me and tried to get away from me as fast as possible, but she was too slow.

"Yang... " I said in a slow ad menacing voice that made her stop dead in her tracks and slowly turn back to look at me.

"Y-Y-Yeah?"

"That was a 20,000 dollar watch that belongs to the daughter of a mob boss! She was going to pick it up today! Now I might have to delay it by another day and give it to her for free! You know how much money I could have gotten by fixing that thing? No? Well it's more than you earn in a week!"

"I'm sorry Rubes…" Yang looked at the ground while kicking the counter with her heel.

I sighed and rubbed the bridge of me nose. "Its okay Yang just… be more careful next time… Maybe I can fix the watch with some leftover parts from some other expensive clocks but it's gonna take time I don't have."

Yang raised her head and smiled. "Thanks Rubes! Maybe I can chat her up to distract her while you fix the clock!"

I sighed again, "You can try, but this girl is the quiet type, it might be hard to start up a conversation with her. Anyway I'ma get back to work and try to fix this thing before she gets here."

"Alright! I'll just watch you work so I have something to do since you probably don't want me to talk so you can concentrate right?"

"Right."

I started to get to work while Yang wandered aimlessly through my store and eventually settled for watching me work. The hours flew by and just before I was finished with the clock the dreaded bell on top of the door dinged announcing the arrival of a new customer. I looked behind me from my work bench and said "Welcome to Crow Clocks! How may I help you Miss Belladonna?" Knowing she was going to ask for the clock I was minutes away from finishing.

"I came to pick up my pocket watch…" She turned her head and looked at Yang. "Yang? I didn't think I would see you in a place like this. I didn't even know you liked clocks."

Yang smiled before responding to the dark haired girl. "Hi Blake! I'm just here visiting my sister in her shop! I didn't know you were the customer that Rubes put on her I-need-to-fix-this-as-soon-as-possible priority list."

"Well I guess I'm flattered that your sister put me on her priority list." Blake said to Yang with a smirk. Yang continued their conversation buying me some much needed time. While Yang had her distracted I put the finishing touches on the clock and even had some extra time to polish it, wind it, put the correct time, and put it in its box.

"As much as I like talking to you Yang I have other things to do today." She turned to me. "May I have my pocket watch now?"

I smiled and said "You may. And it was nice meeting the Blake Yang wont shut up about." Blake smirked at Yang and for the first time in a long time Yang blushed. I stared wide eyed at her and the effect she was having on the player that was my sister.

"Oh really now? What kinds of things does she say?" said Blake

"Well…" Before I could utter another word Yang put her hand over my mouth and said "I ready don't think that we should keep you. Didn't you say you had to be somewhere?"

"Oh. Yes I do. Ruby could you give me my watch now?" "Sure." I turned to my workbench and grabbed the little black box with violet borders and gave it to Blake. She took the box wordlessly and examined to watch. When she closed it appearing satisfied with what she saw and dug through her little black purse to take out a check book. Once she finished writing the check with her loopy and slanted hand writing, she handed it to me with a small smile.

"The watch looks good I hope I can come by with jewelry too?"

"Yeah sure! We fix jewelry too!" I said with a beaming smile.

She smiled back and turned to leave, once she was at the door she looked back and smirked at Yang. "Goodbye Yang. I hope to hear about all those things you say about me. Goodbye Ruby." She turned and left with the door closing behind her triggering a small ding from the door. Yang visibly exhaled and leaned against the counter the minute the door closed behind the girl.

"So that's Blake?" I said with a raised eyebrow.

Yang looked at me and gave me a small smile. "Yeah"

"The same one you crushed on the moment you saw her after her dad hired you to be her bodyguard?"

"Yeah"

I put my palm to my forehead and sighed. "Yang… That was Blake Belladonna. The daughter of the most notorious crime families this side of Vale...What kind of death wish are you looking for? If you get with her and break her heart like all the others her father is going to make it his personal mission to make sure your body never turns up… Yang what are you thinking getting involved with her."

"Rubes it feels different this time… I don't know." she sighed and put her hands on her face. "It's not like I haven't tried keeping it professional, because I have but… I don't know. Anyway I think she's just playing with me…" She finished off with a sad smile, before brightening up instantly.

"Anyway lock up so we can go." She said with a smile.

I smiled back before responding "Yeah sure… Isn't Neptune bringing His new girlfriend over today?" I turned away from Yang to clean up my bench.

"Yeah I think so. He must be serious about her if he's bringing her to meet the gang."

I laughed and said, "Yeah right, he's almost as much of a player as you."

"Hey! ...That's only slightly true." I burst out laughing before Yang lightly punched me on the shoulder, making me calm down into light giggles.

"Come on lets go." I said finishing up the maintenance of my bench.

"Ok." We walked out into the cold afternoon and started walking to my red Beetle and Yang to her yellow and black motorcycle.

When we finally got home our friends Jaune, Pyrrha, Nora, Ren and Sun were in our apartment. Jaune and Pyrrha live next door in apartment 21, While Nora and Ren live across town but practically live with Jaune and Pyrrha. Sun lives with Neptune in apartment 23, next door to ours. Me and Yang live in apartment 22. It's where everyone loves to hang out even though we have the keys to each other's apartments we silently decided to hang out at mine and Yang's apartment.

"Hi everyone!" We called out greeting everyone before they noticed us. "Hi Ruby. Hi Yang." Everyone said back almost immediately. "So where's Neptune didn't he say that he was going to introduce us to his new girlfriend?"

"He said he got stuck in traffic while picking her up and that he might me a bit late." Said Pyrrha not looking up from her magazine.

"Pssshh. Well all know that's a lie. He's like a rabbit every time he's a relationship . There's no way he just got 'stuck in traffic' for an hour." Said Sun with an infectious grin.

I grinned and said "Yeah Sun's right no way he just got 'stuck in traffic'."

I flopped onto the black leather couch and Yang did the same. Jaune, Pyrrha, and Sun were in the red leather couch across from us, Ren and Nora were snuggled up in the love seat. Well more like Nora clinging to Ren as he sat there silently.

The moment I was about to speak again I heard the door open and voices coming from the hall. "Why in the world do you have the keys to your friend's apartment?" said a high pitched voice that I guessed to be Neptune's girl. "Oh. We have the keys to each other's apartments." Said a voice I recognized as Neptune's'. "Whose ridicu-" "Hi guys!" Yelled Neptune before the girl could finish her sentence. The moment I saw the girl we locked eyes and the world seemed to stop and I just knew I was in love.

Chapter Text

"Hello everyone." Greeted a beautiful girl with rich white hair tied up into a slightly off center ponytail that gently flowed past her slender hips. My breath caught in my throat when she turned my way causing our eyes met. I quickly looked away and looked at Neptune of whom had a huge smile spread across his face.

Sun whistled loudly and yelled "Wow nerd! When you said that she was beautiful you weren't kidding."

"You got that right" said Jaune before he got a seemingly painful elbow to the ribs from Pyrrha.

The white haired girl blushed and looked at Neptune with a slightly annoyed expression. "Well everyone this is Weiss. Weiss this is everyone. The guy who whistled is Sun. The guy with possibly broken ribs ids Jaune. The girl issuing broken ribs to her fiancé is Pyrrha. The two asleep in the love seat are Ren and Nora. The blonde one is Yang. And the girl with red highlights is Ruby."

"Hi" said everyone in unison along with a with a small wave towards Weiss.

"So where do we sit?"said Neptune noticing there was only one open seat left, the seat next to me on the black leather couch Yang and I were siting on. Neptune walked over to us from the entrance of the hallway and sat down. He patted his leg and said "Come on babe you can sit on my lap."

She looked at him with another annoyed expression before responding "For the last time do not call me babe. I am not an infant and another thing, I will not sit on your lap. I know you well enough to know your hands are not going to be well behaved." She finished off by crossing her arms in a silent gesture of and thats final.

Just the thought of her sitting on his lap didn't sit well with me, I jumped up and said "I can go get you a chair from the dining table if you want."

"That would be lovely...um Ruby? Was it?"

"That's my name don't wear it out!" I said just before leaving to go get the chair and caught a glimpse of Weiss grimacing. I quickly turned away from her before a blush formed across my face and walked over to the dining table to drag one of the chairs over to the side of the couch, next to Neptune. Even though there were usually eight of us the dining table only had four seats. Yang has been meaning to buy a bigger one but we just keep putting it off. I quickly grabbed one of the simple wooden chairs from the table and brought it over to Weiss.

She smiled at me and said "Thank you." Before sitting down in a very lady like manner.

"No problem." I responded, while thanking all the gods that helped me not blush at her beautiful smile.

We talked about random things the rest of the night. I got to learn more about Weiss through the interrogation everyone put her through. I learned her father owns some big business and that he was the one who hired Neptune to be Weiss's bodyguard and things just took off from there. It was the first time that I regretted not getting into the bodyguard business along with Sun, Yang, Neptune and Nora. I also found out that she recently moved here a few months ago (which is why she needed a new bodyguard), and that she actually does care about Neptune. It hurt to hear her talk about how much she did care about him. It hurt to see Neptune making kiss-y faces at her and her eventually complying by letting him kiss her. It hurt so much, even though I had never met her before I had already fallen hard for this white haired beauty

Heart broken by a girl you just met. Wow Ruby you are hopeless. I thought.

By the time they left to take Weiss home it was already one in the morning. Everyone was exhausted from being on their best behavior …Well me, Pyrrha, And Jaune were, Sun and Yang were their usual perverted self except they toned it down a bit. Nora and Ren woke up halfway into Weiss's visit and thoroughly embarrassed Neptune with by telling horrible stories of his past conquests. Weiss couldn't stop laughing through the stories and my heart could stop fluttering every time she did.

God I need to talk to that girl again.

The only ones with any sort of energy were Ren and Nora (mostly Nora). "Come on guys! Its everyone's day off tomorrow let's do an all nighter we haven't done one in ages!" Said Nora while bouncing up and down in her seat. We purposely synced our schedules to have the same day off to hang out and do something together.

"Ugh, Nora the only one that isn't tired is you and maybe Sun… Speaking of Sun where is he?" said Yang as she started to look around for him.

"Pretty sure he's in the bathroom he went in right after Neptune and Weiss left." Right as I finished my sentence Sun walked back into the room. He walked over to where he was sitting with Pyrrha and Jaune only to find Pyrrha spooning Jaune in her sleep taking up the whole couch.

"Aww come on I like that seat." complained Sun before going over to the couch me and Yang are sitting on and sit down were Neptune previously sat.

"So did I miss anything?" He said looking expectantly at Yang and me with his usual megawatt smile.

"Nora wants to do an all-nighter when most of us just want to go to sleep already." I said tiredly while leaning my head back to rest against the couch.

"Oh I forgot to tell you guys that I'm working tomorrow. My boss gave me the day off today so that I could protect her during some important event." Yang said glumly.

"What!? But we were going to watch Beowolves attack 7! And laugh at how horribly made it is!" Said Sun.

Yang put her hands up defensively and said "Yeah yeah I know You guys should go without me, we already bought the tickets and everything… Oh hey! What if you guys give my ticket to Weiss so it doesn't go to waste?"

I froze at the thought of seeing Weiss again. A mix of uncertainty, fear, and excitement hit me like a ton of bricks keeping me silent. "Oh yeah! That would be awesome and maybe we can get to know her a little more!"

Sun eventually went home and we convinced Nora and Ren that going home would be a good idea, but they just went to Jaune and Pyrrha's leaving Jaune and Pyrrha on our couch. No one even bothered to wake them up since Pyrrha's dagger eyes could make you want to dig a hole and die. So we just left them to go when they felt like it and its not like Yang and me minded anyway.

When I finally made it back to my room I couldn't go back to sleep. I tossed and turned. I couldn't stop thinking of the white haired beauty and about what would happen tomorrow.

Chapter Text

"Ugh. I don't know what to wear." I said for the hundredth time that afternoon. I had thrown every piece of clothing I own around my room in a desperate attempt to look good for Weiss. "Why am I trying so hard to get her attention when she's dating Neptune?" I sighed "I'm hopeless." I continued to rifle through my belongings and eventually settled for simple black t-shirt with the words 'join the dark side we have cookies' on it, black skinny jeans with a red belt, and my favorite red and white converse. I didn't notice that I had forgotten my red leather jacket that I had gotten passed down from my mother.

On my way out I looked myself in the mirror one last time and went to the living room to meet up with the gang. Weiss and Neptune were going to meet up with us there since Neptune had to go pick Weiss up. We all piled into Jaune's ugly green van and headed out. (The only reason Jaune owns the thing is because it would be less gas going to places as a group.) The ride there was an uneventful except for the casual joke here and there.

Once we gotten there Sun said "Hey Rubes where's your jacket? Aren't you anemic or something?"

Seeing that I had forgotten my jacket made me accurately aware of the cold pre-winter air surrounding me. With a slight shiver I responded "Damn I forgot it at home, I've had a couple things on my mind lately." I crossed my arms in a pitiful attempt to retain heat.

"Hey, here's my jacket I don't want you dying from the cold before I finally get to beat you in street fighter." joked Sun as took off his black leather jacket put it around my shoulders it was way big on me since Sun was all muscle and obviously bigger than me.

"you really donthave to Sun." I said trying to take off the jacket.

Sun put the jacket back on me and said "It's fine, its fine. I don't get cold easy I only wear it to look good."

"Considering you didn't wear a shirt for pretty much the first year I knew you that's pretty easy to believe. Thanks by the way."

We laughed and Sun said "Don't mention it."

We walked into the theater and found Weiss and Neptune waiting for us by the concession stand with the popcorn and sodas already bought. "Hi guys what took you so long? The movie is going to start in five minutes." said Neptune the moment we reached him and Weiss.

"Well you can blame crater face over there for that she took forever to change." announced Jaune.

"Wow Jaune way to throw me under the bus, why don's you." I commented while glaring daggers at him.

"Anyway what happened to your jacket Ruby? I thought the only one you wore was that red one." Questioned Neptune.

"Oh. It's Sun's I forgot mine and he let me wear his even though it looks like a cloak on me since I'm so small compared to Sun." I saw Weiss's eyes flash with something but it was so quick I played it off as my imagination.

"Oh~ Are you and Sun finally getting together? Sun you dog you." Laughed Neptune making the rest of the group laugh, even the always stoic and emotionless Ren.

To play off the comment I laughed while Sun blushed a bit. "Nice joke goggles but everyone knows I play for the other team."

There were still some residual snickers as we walked into the movie theater. I sat down on the end seat of the middle row and Weiss sat down next to me with Neptune next to her after them the order was Sun, Nora, Ren, Pyrrha, and lastly Jaune. The movie hadn't even started yet and I could already see Neptune putting his hands all over Weiss.

These are going to be the longest ninety minutes of my life. I thought to myself as I sunk deeper into the seat.

After a couple of long minutes of Neptune's hands all over Weiss the movie started, helping me distract myself from the fact that it wasn't my hands groping Weiss every single way possible. The only good thing was that Weiss kept pushing him away to focus on the movie and laughing at the horribly scripted and obviously fake props the movie showed. It was supposed to be a horror movie, but everyone just watches the Beowolves franchise to see how bad each movie gets.

By the time the movie was over I really wanted to deck Neptune so hard he doesn't know his own name. "That has got to be one of the funniest movies I've ever seen." Snickered Weiss.

"Yeah if you think that was funny then you should see 'Beowolves Attack 4 the Return of the Red Reaper'. It had me dying." I said to her.

"Oh yes please these movies are just too funny."

"We can watch them at my apartment if you want Yang insists on buying all the movies just to have a nice laugh here and there." Me and Weiss smiled at each other for a long moment and I could just feel something starting to bloom between us.

But of course, the moment had to be ruined by the blue haired demon. "Awesome when are we getting together for that." He said while putting his arm around her.

Who the hell said you were invited you arrogant goggle wearing dumb ass. God I wish I had my gun.

"Hey everyone how about we stop by the ice-cream shop?" Suggested the blue haired dumb-ass. Everyone agreed and we started walking to the ice-cream parlor across the street. Once we got there we were greeted by the friendly waitress named Velvet. She owns the shop with her girlfriend Coco. We've known them for years since we usually go here after a movie or after a day of hanging out or just because we wanted ice-cream.

"Hi guys! I haven't seen you guys in a while. Are you guys cheating on me with a different ice-cream shop?" joked Velvet.

Nora laughed and said "You wish Velvs you make the best ice-cream in Vale you're stuck with us." Velvet laughed and walked with us to our usual table that was pretty much the only table able to fit eight people comfortably. We sat down and Velvet took our orders before leaving.

Everyone talked about random things before Weiss had to get up to use the restroom. When she came back she was just about to pass by my chair to get to where she had previously been sitting, but just as she passed by my chair she slipped on something (most likely some leftover ice-cream some kid dropped earlier) and fell right onto my lap. Out of reflex I put my arm around her so that she wouldn't continue falling. When Weiss opened her eyes she looked at me and we both tuned beet red.

Of course Velvet and Coco had to come back with the ice-cream in the worst possible moment. "Oh looks like Shorty finally got herself a girlfriend. At least she'd stop hitting on my woman." said Coco while smirking at me clearly still not forgiving me from the one time I hit on Velvet when I was drunk with Yang and we got a craving for ice-cream.

"Coco for the last time I was drunk and Weiss isn't my girlfriend she just slipped and fell into my lap."

"Yeah, Yeah keep telling yourself that." she said while placing the ice-cream on the table along with Velvet.

Everyone couldn't stop laughing at mine and Weiss's red faces for at least a couple of minutes Weiss eventually got off me but it felt like she lingered just a little bit but of course it was most likely just my imagination.

We finished our ice-cream and said our goodbyes to Velvet and Coco. We got to our cars and said our goodbyes for the night. When I got home I noticed that I had forgotten to give Sun his jacket back. "Eh. I'll just put it his apartment tomorrow."

Chapter Text

"Ugh. Who knew just standing here waiting for customers to come by would be this boring." Business has been slow for the past couple of days, which lead me to spending extra time finishing the watches I currently had to fix and as soon as I had finished that task I just sat there doing nothing but waiting for customers to come into my store. Sure some people would stop and look into the shop though the window, but over all little to no one came into the shop. I had also forgotten to bring a book today so I couldn't really do anything till my lunch break.

I sighed and began to talk to myself, "I wish Yang would visit so that I'd have something to but she's been spending so much time with Blake that it feels like she's forgotten all about me sometimes." I put my elbow on the counter and leaned my head against my palm. "I mean it's nice that she finally got a steady girlfriend, but does she really have to spend every waking moment with her during and after work?"

Just before I was going to continue my ranting the bell on top of the door dinged. I automatically said "Welcome to Crow Clocks how may I help you?! Oh it just you Coco." I slumped back into my previous position and watched Coco walk up to the counter.

"Just Coco? Is that how you talk to a paying customer?" Coco smirked.

I laughed and said "Yeah whatever can I help you with something?" I smiled back a Coco.

"Well I know it says Crow Clocks but do you sell jewelry too?"

"Yeah I fix and sell clocks and jewelry. Had to expand the things I sell and fix since not that many people have clocks anymore, but I can fix almost anything mechanical if you need something fixed."

"I'll remember that the next time the ice-cream machine breaks down, but no I camebytobuyanengagementringforVelvet." She said the last part so fast I didn't hear it.

"A what?" I said with a confused expression.

"... An engagement ring."

"Awww big bad Coco is finally going to pop the question! Finally! Gosh you guys have been together what? Five years?"

"Yeah just about. Anyway you gonna help me pick a ring or not?" she said with a slight blush

I laughed and gave her a big smile, "Hell yeah I'm gonna to help!"

We spent the next hour picking and choosing what kind of ring she wanted for Velvet. I was on my last tray of rings before she chose a ring with a thin silver band with a chocolate colored diamond in the middle surrounded with a bunch of smaller white diamonds set into it. I gave her a discount, since we've been friends for as long as I can remember and also because everyone's been nudging them to tie the knot the moment they hit their three year anniversary.

By the time Coco left she was practically skipping out of the store and it was still another hour till my lunch break. I was about sit down on the small chair I kept behind the counter when I tripped and fell back first onto the floor and landed on on my back with a hard THUD.

I laid there for a long minute thinking. Of course, only I have the skills to trip on a flat surface.

I turned my head to the side and spotted a red and black DS under the counter

Isn't that the DS that Yang lost two years ago?

I slid my hand under the counter and slid it out from under the counter. I turned it on and noticed the last game she played on it was pokémon white. I shrugged and started playing from where Yang had stopped off not bothering to get up.

I quickly noticed she hadn't even played through half way through the game before she had lost the system. Time flew by as I sped through the Unova region and even ended up beating the elite four. I didn't stop playing till I heard another person walk into my store. I quickly closed the DS before getting up as quick as I could.

"Hello! Welcome to Crow Clocks how may I help you!" The silver haired man that walked in jumped back a bit before laughing it off and saying "You gave me quite the scare. Anyway I was wondering if you could fix my pocket watch."

"Of course! Who should I put this under?"

"Oh you can just put it under Ozpin."

"All right." I said writing down the name. "I'll have it ready for you by tomorrow."

"Alright." He said before giving me the watch. "I'll see you tomorrow then." He turned and walked to the door before turning around and saying. "Goodbye." He turned away again and walked out of the store.

Weird guy… The name sounds familiar though, I wonder where I heard it. I thought to myself

I sighed and looked at the clock noticing that I had skipped my lunch break and it was almost time to close up shop. I decided to close up shop a little earlier than normal and placed the DS under the counter next to my gun before grabbing my jacket and locking up the store.

I took my time getting to my car and driving the five minute drive to my apartment building. Once I got home I went to my room and noticed I still hadn't given Sun his jacket back.

Well its not like I have anything better to do.

I grabbed the jacket and walked over to Sun and Neptune's apartment. I used the key they had given me to open the door and walked over to Sun's room. The moment I opened the door I regretted it. I opened the door to find a naked Sun and Neptune. "Eep!" I squeaked before slamming the door shut as quickly as I could.

"Wait!" "Ruby!" I heard Sun and Neptune yell out from Sun's room as they rushed out to talk to me. I walked faster but not fast enough. Since Sun caught up to me wearing only a pair of boxer shorts and blocked the exit. I turned away from him and ended up face to face with an equally as dressed Neptune.

"The hell Neptune? How could you do this to Weiss? She genuinely cares about you! And I thought you cared about her too!"

I've been holding myself back to be a good friend and this is how you treat her?!

"Ruby it's not what you think!"

"What?! Did your clothes just magically disappear and then slip and fall onto Sun's mouth dick first?!"

"Um… Well...No," He sighed, "No me and Sun have been casually sleeping together for years… Please don't tell Weiss about this… I do really care about her."

LIES!

I sighed and ran my hand through me hair, "Neptune, Weiss and I just started to become good friends and you want me to already start lying to her?"

Oh god no if she found out that I've been lying to her face to cover that lying bastard's ass she'd hate me and it'd ruin what little chance I have with her.

"Please? Ruby, we've been bros for a long time now and I would appreciate it if you gave me the chance to tell her myself."

"..."

I don't want to do this.

"Well?" He said while looked at me with desperation evident in his face, anxiously waiting for my answer.

I sighed and gnawed on my lower lip, I closed my eyes and said "Okay… But you better tell her" I turned to leave, but Neptune surprised me by hugging me from behind.

"Thank you." He whispered into my ear.

"Don't mention it." I responded in a tiered monotone voice.

I hate you so much right now.

Chapter Text

~ Weiss's P.O.V. ~

I was sitting in my office, going through various files I needed for my upcoming meeting. I was not looking forward to it, but needed to participate never the less. Looking through the files, I noticed a few of them were missing.

Of all the incompetent...

I sighed, and pulled my chair closer to my desk and reached for my silver laptop. Opening it up, I went through a few folders in search of the documents I needed. Once I found them, I grabbed my green flash drive and plugged it in. Once the files were transferred over, I tossed the device to my assistant. Of whom had just walked into the room with her coffee.

"I need these documents before the meeting with the Belladonna family." I said to the blonde haired man that stood across from me.

"Yes Miss Schnee." he said, before he put my coffee on my desk and rushed out the door. I put my elbows on my beautiful oak wood desk and started rubbing my temples with the tips of my fingers. "Ugh. I hate dealing with those cretins. Why in the world does father insist on having me deal with that family?"

Just the thought of talking to that girl again makes my skin crawl.

I shivered at the thought of talking to the dark haired beauty. I quickly busied myself with work to forget about her and only stopped when Wendell came back with the small stack documents and my flash drive. Once he gave them to me, I quickly thanked him and made my way to the elevator. I needed to go down to floor 23, which was where the meeting rooms were held. I hesitantly pressed the button and watched as the doors closed and the elevator began moving. Internally, I wished the elevator wouldn't stop, just so I wouldn't have to attend this meeting. When I first heard I would be hosting the meeting, I nearly refused. It was only until father 'reminded' me of how important it was, did I rethink my decision.

Once the elevator finally stopped, I could finally feel my dread seep into my bones when the doors opened and I stepped outside. Looking down the hall, I could see various meeting rooms, with people walking in an out of them. I took a deep breath and started walking down the halls. I've walked up and down these halls thousands of times, and instinctively knew where my target room was. Once I arrived at room 2302, I walked in to the dull gray room to find the dark haired girl and her entourage of 'businessmen' sitting around the large glass table in the middle of the room waiting for me.

"Schnee." She said nodding her head to me.

"Belladonna... and associates." I said nodding back.

We just glared at each other for a few moments, silently swearing and cursing at each other, ignoring the presence of the other people in the room. We continued glaring until one of her entourage spoke up.

"Hi Weiss! I didn't know you were the person Blake kept complaining about seeing!" said a big busty blonde.

I took a slight step back, not expecting to see her, of all people here. "Oh. Hello Yang what are you doing here?"

"You two know each other?" said Blake with widened eyes.

"Yup!" Yang happily replied, roughly patting me on the back, nearly sending me to the ground in the process. That blonde brute didn't know her own strength, I could almost feel my spine shattering into tiny pieces. "Weissy here is dating one of my best friends!"

And has the hots for your sister. I added silently, rubbing my now sore shoulders.

"Is she now?" said Blake, her long nails beginning to dig into the arm rests of her seat. I nearly scoffed at the action, but held my tongue to maintain my professional demeanor.

"Yes, I am. Now then, may we get on with the meeting? Or would you two prefer stand here a gossip all day?" I snapped at Blake. The dark-haired girl narrowed her eyes, but nodded. We continued with the long and tedious meeting. We discussed finances, looked at charts detailing growth, spoke about upcoming HR events, among other seemingly unnecessary things. When the meeting had finally ended, I shook the hand of all of Blake's associates as they left the room, leaving the dark haired beauty for last.

"Bye Ice Queen." She said to me with a smirk, holding out her hand. I begrudgingly accepted the hand, applying a bit more pressure than was necessary.

"Good-bye, beast." I replied with a smirk of my own. I got the reaction I wanted, as her smirk quickly turned into a frown. She quickly withdrew her hand, narrowing her eyes at me once again.

"Snob." the girl shot back.

"Cretin."

"Bitch."

"Der wagon." I blurted out. That got her to stop, clearly confused. I could almost see the wheels turning in her head as she tried to translate what I just said.

"... Did you just call me a car in german?" she asked in disbelief. I could practically feel my face twist into a devious smirk. I knew I won this battle.

"Of course, because anyone can just get in, if you know what I mean."

Her face started turning red with anger and was about to slap me when the blonde put one hand on my shoulder and the other on Blakes wrist, preventing the attack.

"Easy there." Blake and I turned to her with a glare on both of our faces. The blonde held up her hands up in defense and said "Can you two calm down before you kill each other?" Blake huffed, turning away from her and staked out of the meeting room.

"Can you tell me what the hell that was about?" Yang asked, watching as her friend stormed off down the hall.

"We hate each other. It's as simple as that." I was about to walk out of the meeting room myself when a strong hand landed on my shoulder. I turned around to see Yang, looking at me with questioning eyes.

"But why? Did something happen?"

It took me a second to decide whether or not I should tell Yang. What happened between me and Blake was very personal, and not something I felt I should share with someone I hardly knew. I felt a small friendship with Yang, but didn't know if it was strong enough to open up to her. For a brief moment, my thoughts traveled to her sister and I sighed.

Might as well come clean.

"... Yes, something did happen..."

Yang took her hand off of my shoulder. "What happened?"

"To put it simply...we broke up."

"What!?" The blonde yelled. I immediately clasped my hands over her mouth, looking around to make sure no one heard her outburst. When I was certain that we were still alone, I gave her a menacing glare.

"Would you keep it down? I don't want all of Remnant to know about my personal life, thank you very much." I hissed.

Yang nodded as I removed my hands from her mouth. "Sorry. But, I thought you were straight?" Yang asked.

"I date whoever I find interesting." I said, crossing my arms. "Now will you please let me leave?" I said, motioning for her to move out of my way. However, the brute ignored my request and continued poking her nose where it didn't belong.

She crossed her own arms and asked,"How serious were you two?"

I sighed, uncrossing my arms and rubbing my temples. This girl was going to drive me to insanity. "We almost got married. Key word being almost… We were 20 and stupid." I could tell that she was not expecting when her eyes widened. I almost thought her eyes were going to pop right out of her head, and rolled my eyes.

"Whoa, really? What happened?"

I looked away from her and clenched my fist. In almost a whisper I said "One of us never showed up to the wedding."

I shoved Yang out of my way and speed walked out of the meeting room. I passed by Blake on the way to the elevator. She gave me an incredibly nasty look, but I opted to ignore it. Instead, I just entered the elevator and slammed the button to my floor. After the doors closed, I took a moment to recompose myself, forcing back the emotionless mask I normally wear. I tried my best to just forget about that irritating woman, but no avail. No matter what I thought about, they kept coming back to her and how angry she made me feel. That woman had doneme wrong, and yet whenever we saw each other, she acted as though it was the other way around. I continued thinking about Blake until it started drifting off to thoughts about Ruby. The moment her name crossed my mind I calmed down and even had a slight smile on my face.

Hmmm I haven't seen her in a while. Its been, what...Two weeks? … It's almost like she's been avoiding me.

The second that thought crossed my mind, my heart sped up while and it felt as though something like a fist was tightening around it. I felt somewhat queasy and had to rest against the back of the elevator.

Oh god. Did I do something wrong? Was I too cold? I hope that's not true...

I shook my head in an attempt to clear the million thoughts coursing through it, but it didn't help much. The elevator dinged, announcing that I had arrived at my floor. I quickly walked to my office and sat down at my desk. I decided to just immediately bury myself in my work to get my mind off of things. Thankfully, it had worked, and the hours just flew on by. The alarm on my phone alerted me to my lunch hour and a small, notification popped up.

~Wristwatch~

That's right. My wristwatch is still broken...perhaps I should go and get it fixed… I wonder if there's a good clocksmith around here.

After searching on the internet for a short while, I found out that there was a clock shop not far from my office named "Crow Clocks". I decided to use my lunch break to go and get my wrist watch repaired, deciding that it would also help me keep my mind off of Ruby.

In the end, I managed to get lost twice on my way to the shop, cursing at myself about how unacceptable such a thing was. Eventually, I made it there after wasting a barely less than half my lunch break just to find the place. The trip in itself should have only taken about ten minutes on foot, but getting turned around a few times hadn't exactly helped. In the end, it took me twenty minutes to get there. I had finally made my way to a relatively small, black and white store. It had large gold writing across the top saying "Crow Clocks" knowing I had the right store I walked into the store and opened the door causing it to make a small ding and not even a few short seconds after, I was greeted with a familiar voice.

"Welcome to Crow Clocks how may I help you?" said the object of my thoughts with her back turned to me seemingly working on something on her work bench.

"Ruby?"

Chapter Text

~ Ruby's P.O.V. ~

"Ruby?" said an angelic voice that I instantly recognized as Weiss's. The same voice that had been haunting me in my dreams as of recent. The same person I'd been avoiding for the past two weeks in a feeble attempt to avoid lying to her about Neptune and his… habits.

I quickly dropped my tools onto my work bench and turned to face Weiss. "Hi Weiss!" I ran my hand through my hair to help me look slightly more presentable to the white-haired girl. I nervously stepped closer to the counter and awaited her response.

"I didn't know you worked here are you the clerk or something? Is your boss around?" said the confused Twenty-six year old while looking around for the owner.

"...Um no I own the store it was given to me my my uncle after he passed away." I said with a sad smile.

"Oh, I'm sorry…I didn't want to bring back bad memories."

"Its okay Weiss… So did you come in for something specific?" I said trying to change the subject.

"Oh yes. Do you fix clocks?"

"I sell and fix jewelry and clocks. Do you need one fixed?" I said with a real smile beginning to form on my lips.

"Excellent, can you fix this for me." said Weiss while removing a gold and silver watch from her wrist.

"I'll see if I can." I responded taking the watch from her. I quickly turned away from her and began working on the watch. The only problem was that I could feel her watching me as I worked causing me to work slower than normal.

"... Um… Did you need anything else?" I said not wanting to directly tell her to get out and come back for the watch later.

"Hm? Oh no I'm just waiting for you to fix my watch. Is there a problem?" I looked back to see her looking at me innocently with her deep blue eyes.

"Nope just wondering." I quickly turned away from her with a slight blush creeping up my neck and on to my face.

God she's cute. Especially when she makes that face. Ugh, I just want to kiss her so bad… Neptune's so stupid, he has Weiss and he doesn't even appreciate her. I thought to myself. Clenching my tools tighter than normal

We stayed in silence for a long while. Eventually Weiss began to get bored and started to wander around the store. I watched her from over my shoulder and saw her curiously looking at the intricate clocks I had hanging around the room. She walked to the other side of the store and looked at the painting of a grim reaper sitting on a clock but instead of a skull under its cloak it had a smiley face. It was hung across the dark wood panel wall surrounded by five other clocks.

"This seems familiar where is it from?" she asked starting to turn around and catch me staring. Luckily I turned away from her last second and pretended to work.

"Hmm?" I answered pretending I didn't know what she was talking.

"This painting." she repeated while pointing at the painting.

"Oh that? Its just a copy of something a street artist did." I turned around and continued working on her clock to get her out of here as fast as possible.

She wandered around the store a few more times before she eventually ended up behind the counter watching me work from over my shoulder. It was torcher for me to stand still and feel her breath on my neck, when all I wanted to do was turn around and push her up against the counter. She eventually leaned her chin on my shoulder and stood there quietly. The only thing that could be heard throughout the store is the constant ticking of the fifty or so clocks placed around the store.

Is it my imagination or is Weiss acting differently?

"Hey Ruby can I ask you something that's been on my mind lately?" she asked not taking her chin off of my shoulder.

"Yeah sure Weiss what's on your mind?"

"Have you been avoiding me?" she whispered in a tone to hurt it broke my heart to hear.

"What? No I've just been busy with the shop and all sorry I haven't been able to hang out every time you asked."

Liar, you've had less customers than normal.

Shut up mind.

I quickly finished fixing the clock and started winding it to the correct time. I nudged Weiss off my shoulder and turned around to give her the watch.

"There you go good as new."

"How much is it going to be?" She said reaching into her purse for money.

I gently took hold of her wrist and took her hand out of her white prada bag. "No charge. First one's free." I said with a wink that caused her cheeks to turn a cute shade of pink."

"T-Thank you" she stuttered while turning her head away from me

Point Ruby.

"Don't mention it" I said with a big smile.

"Well I must go I'm sure you have a lot more work to do."

"Yeah it was nice talking to you Weiss."

The moment that I thought she was about to leave the alarm on my phone rang saying "lunch time" in a high pitch voice.

Oh god you must really hate me.

"Oh its your lunch time now? Would you like to go get something to eat?"

No.

"Yeah sure just let me grab my jacket."

I walked into the small room in the back of the store where I usually kept spare parts and tools. I opened the wooden door to reach behind it and grab my jacket that was on a hook behind the door. "Lets go" I said while I pulled on my red leather jacket. "Alright" said Weiss as she followed me out of the store. The moment Weiss stepped out I locked the door and we started walking to the closest coffee shop. The trip there was made in comfortable silence and before I knew it we had made it to a light brown building named Ozpin's Coffee.

So thats where I hear the name before I can't believe I didn't recognize the name I come here all the time.

When we walked into the shop we walked over to the closest light green colored table and sat down. Not much later a waitress blonde haired waitress walked you to us and said "What would you like." She took out a small notepad and put her pen to it.

"Um I'd like the usual Glynda." I said to her and she started to write down my order.

"I'd like the a black coffee please." said Weiss. Glynda nodded and walked away

"So you come here often?" Said Weiss with a slight smile.

"You know if I didn't know any better I'd say you just used a pick-up line Weiss." I smirked at the girl while her cheeks started to go red and she started stuttering in order to take it back." I burst out laughing and said "Just kidding Weiss calm down." This seemed to cause her cute face started to burn impossibly redder than before.

"Anyway… Neptune invited me over for Christmas" She said trying to change the subject.

I'm going to kill Neptune that dumass.

"Oh yeah? That's cool." I said struggling to keep a smile on my face.

"I want to get everyone in your group a present and was wondering what would be a good present for everyone?"

" Well that depends what's your price range?"

"Lets just say money isn't an issue."

"In that case Yang would probably want some boxing gloves signed by her favorite boxer Manny Pacquiao, um you can get Nora an all you can eat pass to a pancake place, since Ren's a writer you can get him a fountain pen and a nice notebook, Pyrrha could use some new boots, Neptune would probably like some new goggles, Sun would probably like a new pair of fighting gloves for when he has a match with Yang, you should get Jaune a beowulf plushy since he wrote the beowolves series…"

"Wait Jaune wrote that horribly written thing?"

"Yup it started out as a joke to see if they would accept it and it turned into a really famous series. He wrote it when he was just starting out as a screenwriter and it turned out well even though each movie just keeps getting worse."

"Wow they really will make anything into a movie… Anyway Ruby what would you like for christmas?"

"Not gonna tell you" I laughed and she laughed along with me.

"If you don't tell me I'm just going to get you a pillow." she said

"Liar you wouldn't get me a pillow for christmas."

"We'll see."

We smiled at each other and spent the rest of my lunch hour laughing and talking with each other.

I love this day. I thought to myself

Chapter Text

"Ruby wake up its Christmas!" Yelled Yang as she burst into my room.

I rolled over to glare at Yang and said "Ugh. Yang go back to sleep no one cares that its Christmas." I pulled my soft maroon sheets over my head and snuggled deeper into my bed. Only to have my sheets ripped from me and have Yang start dragging my half sleep form from my bed and onto the cold hardwood floor.

"Come on get up we have to clean before everyone comes over so get your lazy self up." I groaned and tried to lazily roll out of her grasp. When I noticed Yang wasn't going to give up any time soon I decided to humor her and stand up. Yang smiled and said "Awesome."

I followed her to the living room and noticed that it was a complete mess. The leather couches were pushed up against the walls, the TV had a broom speared through it, all of the ten frames of pictures of our friends and family were broken causing broken glass to be scattered around the living room and I didn't bother looking into the kitchen since I had a feeling it was also in shambles.

"... Yang, what did you do after I went to sleep last night?" I said to Yang with a questioning look.

Yang looked at the floor with a small smile and said "Wellllllll it started out with Sun challenging me to a wrestling match and then a bunch of stuff happened in between and it ended up with Nora making pancakes with Ren in the kitchen. Frankly I'm surprised you didn't wake up."

I probably didn't wake up because I was having a good dream and didn't want to deal with all of this nonsense.

I sighed and rubbed the bridge of my nose. "How long do we have?"

"Well everyone is supposed to be here at seven in the afternoon and it's six a.m. now so quite a few hours"

"Alright then lets get to work we have to clean up and then decorate." I said in a monotone voice as I started to look for a different broom, not wanting to deal with the one in the television.

"Thanks Rubes!" said Yang as she gave me a bone crushing hug from behind.

"Yang... can't... breath…"

"Oh! Sorry Rubes!" said Yang immediately putting me down.

We started to clean the small apartment and eventually finished after three hours of picking up glass, moving furniture, gathering now useless frames and cleaning the kitchen. After cleaning we started to decorate the inside of the apartment by placing Christmas lights everywhere and setting up the tree. We also brought out the presents we got for everyone and placed them under the tree.

"Alright! All that's left is to get dressed and to wait for everyone Pyrrha said that she would bring over the food."

"Alright." I agreed with a long yawn.

It took us almost no time at all to shower and dress into our costumes for the night. we both dressed in similar Santa suits the only difference was that Yang's was a bit skimpier than mine. She's wearing a tight red vest with white fluff around the collar and short shorts that ended around her mid thigh length. She also wore a tacky over sized belt around her waist and to top it off she also had on a santa hat. I wore something similar only instead of a tight red vest I wore a loose santa jacket with a white shirt underneath.

"Oh I almost forgot!" Yelled Yang before she rushed into her room and came tumbling out with a small green plant tied to a string.

"... Yang, what's that?"

"Oh its a mistletoe its just to spice things up."

"Yang you do know that most of our friends are in relationships. They can't just go around kissing random people." I responded to my twenty-five year old sister with a look of disbelief on my face.

"Its okay Ruby everyone's okay with it as long as they wonder by the mistletoe by accident."

Maybe this is my chance to finally kiss Weiss without it looking suspicious.

"Oh and I forgot to tell you that Nora is bringing over her cousin." said Yang interrupting my daydream of feeling Weiss's plum pink lips upon my own.

I squinted my eyes suspiciously at Yang and said "Wait a minute you guys aren't trying to set me up with someone again are you?"

"What? Noooooo… a little bit."

"Ugh. Yang for the last time I'm fine with being single."

"Will you please give her a shot Ruby?" The moment I looked up I regretted it, Yang had the biggest puppy dog eyes I've ever seen her use. She wore down all my defenses in an instant.

"Mine as well if she's already coming over." I sighed

Its not like I can be with Weiss anyways.

We suddenly heard a sharp knock on the door causing us to turn our heads and wonder who it was since our friends would normally just walk in.

"You go get that I'ma hang this on the entrance of the kitchen." With that Yang left to go hang the mistletoe leaving me to answer the door to a mystery person. When I opened the door I was greeted by all seven of my friends holding an assortment of food and presents. There was also a mysterious red headed girl that was standing off to the side next to Nora.

"Oh hi everyone! Why'd you knock? Don't you usually just walk in?"

"Nora's cousin said it was rude to just walk into people's homes." said Jaune throwing yet another person under the bus.

"God Jaune who don't you throw under the bus?" I scolded Jaune as I turned to the red headed girl with emerald green eyes. "Hi I'm Ruby what's your name?"

"Sal-u-taions Ruby! I'm Nora's cousin Penny." Greeted Penny with a big smile on her face.

"Nice to meet you come on in you guys it's cold out." I gestured to everyone to come in and a few of them sighed at the warmth of our apartment. They all walked in put down their presents and food and sat down leaving penny still standing since Neptune had convinced Weiss to sit on his lap this time.

Lucky bastard.

"Um where do I sit?" asked Penny

"Oh I can get you a chai-"

"You can sit on Ruby's lap!" said Yang interrupting me.

Penny and I blushed causing me to start to get up from my seat in the love seat "No really I can get her a chair"

"Don't be silly" said Yang pushing and unsuspecting Penny into my lap causing my me to crash back into the couch with Penny on my lap. Through quick reflexes I put my arms around Penny preventing her from getting hurt. I felt her put her arms around my neck automatically leaving our flushed faces inches apart. We both coughed and turned away from each other making me look directly into Weiss's eyes that seemed to be burning with jealousy.

Its probably wishful thinking… right?

"Alright everyone house rules about the mistletoe if you get caught under it you have to kiss for at least four Mississippis' and it doesn't matter if you're in a relationship you have to do it agreed?" said Yang while pulling over a chair from the dining table for herself. After she looked around everyone seemed to have agreed to Yang's ridiculous rule.

I have a feeling that this is a plot to get me to kiss Penny.

After Yang's decree the beers were brought out and everyone seemed to be having the time of their lives. The whole time Penny didn't move from my lap and I felt Weiss glare at Penny every once in a while and also glance longingly at my lap as if though she would rather be in my lap than in Neptune's. I tried my best not to glance at Weiss often since every time I did I would see Neptune groping some part of her and it made me want to throw off Penny and take Weiss away from Neptune. This only made my grip on Penny tighten slightly sending the wrong message to Penny making her think that I liked her and she started snuggling into me. Causing a lot of people to send me and her knowing grinds.

I couldn't handle it anymore and blurted out "Hey when are we going to open the presents?"

"Oh yeah almost forgot about them." said Yang

"Lets open them!" I said after I tapped Penny in a silent 'get off' gesture. She seemed to hesitate but eventually got up so that I could walk over to the presents and had them out to everyone.

After I distributed the gifts I found out that certain people gave everyone the same gift. Ren gave everyone poems he wrote. Mine said:

silver eyes that shine brilliantly,

blindingly so,

they bring peace and joy to all who meet them,

they show kindness to those who need it,

they show hostility to those who hurt those closest to them,

their owner is the keeper of time,

she fixes mechanical devices of time,

she holds time precious and dear,

because she is also precious and dear,

she loves everyone and everything,

she is the kindest soul you'll ever meet,

and I am glad to call her my friend

Ren's poem almost brought tears even though he almost never speaks he really has a way with words. Everyone seems to be in a similar state when they read their poems especially Nora. When she read her's he hugged him almost instantly with tears in her eyes.

Wonder what he wrote Nora. I thought to myself.

After that display we moved on and opened other gifts. Nora gave everyone sloth plushies, Sun gave everyone monkey plushies, Jaune gave everyone the scrip to the next Beowolves attack movie, Pyrrha gave everyone some kind of exercise equipment.

Is she telling us we're out of shape or is it because she's a personal trainer.

Neptune gave everyone bottles of water earning him a look from everyone and a few jokes about his cheapness. Yang got everyone t-shirts with horrible puns on them. Weiss got everyone what they said they wanted earning her the most love from everyone and she really did get me a fluffy red pillow which made me laugh uncontrollably. Once I finished laughing I gave everyone a different kind of pocket watch which everyone loved to no end.

Hehehe they'll never know I made them out of spare parts in the shop it didn't cost me a cent.

Penny didn't receive or give any gifts since she got here short notice and looked a bit sad sitting on the loveseat all alone.

Maybe I should get her something random from my room so that she has a present.

I walked over to my room and picked up a random sweater I don't wear anymore and brought it over to the kitchen where Penny was getting herself some food Pyrrha made.

"Here" I said to her holding out my old red sweater. "Since you didn't really get any gifts I thought that you might like one. I just got an old sweater from my room its cool if you don't want it." I smiled at her causing her to blush and silently take the sweater.

"Thank you" she whispered. "That's really sweet of you."

"Don't mention it." I started to walk out when I heard Yang cough to get my attention.

"You two have to kiss." she said with a growing smile

"W-what?" I shuddered feeling heat build up in my cheeks.

Yang silently pointed above me getting me to notice the mistletoe and simply said "House rules."

I sighed and turned to an equally flushed Penny knowing that there was no arguing with Yang. "Sorry" I whispered to her before kissing her suddenly. Her eyes widened but she almost instantly relaxed into the kiss.

One Mississippi

She started to get into the kiss and kiss back.

Two Mississippi

Three Mississippi

She really started to get into the kiss and her hands started to drift to my red tipped hair.

Four Mississippi

As soon as I counted the last Mississippi I broke the kiss and looked at Penny. She looked back at me with dazed eyes.

Hm the kiss seemed to have affected her more than it did me.

I suddenly became vaguely aware of loud whistles and clapping from my friends in the background but I ignored them and went to sit down in the love-seat. I looked at Weiss and all I saw was burning jealousy.

NO! Bad mind stop with the wishful thinking.

I looked over to Penny and found her just standing there holding my sweater in a daze, but when she saw me looking at her she blushed. She walked over to the dining table and dragged a chair over so that she wouldn't have to sit on my lap even though I could tell she really wanted to. After some Time passed and a few jokes were passed around I went back to the kitchen to get something to eat and bumped into Nora.

"Aw man do I have to?" I said looking up and then gave my blonde sister a questioning look.

"Yup house rules" she responded nonchalantly

"Fine" I sighed and kissed Nora.

one Mississippi

two Mississippi

Three Mississippi

Four Mississippi

I immediately broke the kiss and Nora just had to make it awkward by saying "Wow Ruby's a good kisser… Wait! But not as good as you Ren!" She finished before sprinting full speed at Ren and crashing her lips onto his.

"Well that was a thing" said Yang as I made it back to the love-seat.

The night went over just like any other night and no more people were caught under the mistletoe or so I thought until I looked up to see Weiss and Neptune caught under the mistletoe making out like there was no tomorrow.

Breath it'll be over soon. But soon didn't arrive soon enough the whole time I clenched my fist and tried my best to ignore them.

They only stopped when Yang yelled "Get a room!" at them.

They sat down with the rest of us and the hours flew by, eventually everyone had to leave leaving Penny for last since she came over in her own car.

"You know I really liked tonight." She said as I walked her to her lime green hybrid car.

"Yeah? That cool"

"Ruby… Um I was wondering if you wanted to go on a date sometime?"

"Sorry Penny I've got my eye on someone else right now."

"Oh… Can I at least have a kiss goodbye?"

"... Sure"

She closed her eyes and tilted her head expectantly. I put my hand on her cheek and kissed her on the forehead "Goodbye Penny" I whispered.

"Bye Ruby" She said in a disappointed voice. She pulled out a small slip of paper and gave it to me. "Call me if you change your mind" With that she got into her car and drove away.

Maybe I should have said yes. Its not like Weiss is interested in me anyways. I though to myself as I looked as the small piece of paper Penny gave me.

Chapter Text

"Here I am again at a boring job that has business so slow, time feels like its going even slower and all these clocks reminding me of the time isn't helping." I said to myself in my nicely decorated store. "Hm maybe I should stop talking to myself before someone hears me and thinks I'm crazy… Na." I laid down on the mat that covered the hard wood floor behind the counter and continued talking to myself. "Mine as well lay down its not like anyone is going to come into my store anytime soon." I reach up and put my hand in the small space under the counter and felt around for the rectangular shape of Yang's DS. When I finally pulled it out of the counter I opened it and started playing. I played for what felt like hours and only stopped when the bell on top of the red wooden door dinged announcing the entrance of a new customer.

"Welcome to Crow Clocks! How may I help you?" I said enthusiastically jumping up from my place on the floor.

The white haired girl that had entered my shop jumped back and yelled "Ruby! You dolt, you scared me half to death!"

"I'm sorry Weiss! I was on the floor and just jumped up without thinking!"

Weiss sighed "What were you doing on the floor in the first place?"

"Well um I was playing a video game…" I said with a shy smile.

"Why don't you sit on a chair and play like a normal person?" She said with irritation still evident in her voice.

"Its better to lay down on the floor and play because looking down for so long hurts my neck. Anyway did you need another watch fixed?"

"Oh I came by to see you because I had noticed that I hadn't seen you in around two weeks and wanted to see how you were doing."

Actually its been two weeks, three days, nine hours, and forty-six minutes since the last time I saw you... but who's counting? Certainly not me… Man I'm weird I'm counting to days since I last saw a girl that isn't mine god I'm pathetic.

"Ruby hello? Still in there?" Weiss brought me back to reality and made me notice that she was inches away from my face. I instantly backed a few steps away with a blush spreading across my face.

"Oh sorry I just got lost in my thoughts. What did you say?"

"I said that we should go out to get coffee for your lunch again I enjoyed the last time we had coffee together."

"But its not my-" I was cut off by the alarm on my phone beeping and saying the words "Lunch time!" in a high pitched voice.

"Well looks like its time for my lunch time come on let me grab my coat" I smiled at her and she smiled a brilliant smile that made my heart flip.

I went over to the door behind the counter and grabbed my coat from behind it, putting it on I walked over to the door and held it open for Weiss as we walked out. Once I locked the door we walked over to Ozpin's coffee in comfortable silence. When we walked inside we made our way over to a lime green table near the large glass window what took up most of the wall. It wasn't long after we sat down that Glynda walked over to us and said "Let me guess, Three creams and five sugars for the woman with red tipped hair and a plain black coffee for the woman in white."

"Yup! Thank you Glynda."I said to her with a smile. She nodded and walked away.

"So Weiss how have you been?"

"I've been good Ruby"

And just like that we spent the rest of the hour talking. We laughed and cried and just kept talking to each other every day for two weeks. I learned about her life and she learned about mine. I talked about the deaths of my mother and my uncle Quow. I talked about how my father disappeared shortly after my mother died. She talked about growing up isolated from friends and she talked about her relationship with Blake and how she was left at the altar six years ago but since her father needs the business connections she will always be reminded of what happened between them. The more we talked the more I fell for the white haired beauty and all her little quirks.

Then it happened... I got sick of being so close to her and not being able to be with her.

We walked back to my store after going out to coffee once I walked inside with her I immediately turned around to face her, she stilled for a second faintly surprised with my sudden movement and only relaxed when I began talking.

"Weiss, I have something to tell you."

"What is it Ruby?" said Weiss with a hint of curiosity and concern in her voice.

"I… Um… I… Never mind its stupid." I lost the will to tell her and started turn away from her, only to be stopped by a gentle hand on my shoulder.

"Ruby if something has you this flustered then its not stupid" she said in a gentle voice.

I turned to her and tried to speak again "Weiss I.." I gave up on trying to tell her and just crashed my lips on to hers, accidentally shoving her up against the store's front door. I instantly expected her to shove me away and give me a slap across the face. I certainly did not expect her to kiss me back and put her hands in my hair and around my neck deepen the kiss. We stopped to gasp for air only to have her pull me back into the kiss, slipping her tongue into my still gasping mouth making me kiss her back with more vigor.

Oh god if this is heaven please kill me now.

We stayed like that until our lungs burned for air. When our lips finally parted I leaned my head against hers and looked into her icy blue eyes "Weiss… I love you" I finally said gasping for breath.

"I'm sorry Ruby we can't be together… I'm with Neptune… Even if I might feel the same way about you we… just… can't… I'm sorry." she said equally gasping.

She pushed me away and for the first time in a long time. I got angry. "Why the hell are you so faithful to him when he has never been faithful to you!"

She visibly froze, looked into my eyes and whispered "What?"

"He's been cheating on you since the beginning of your relationship!"

"What!? How do you know?"

"I caught him with someone else."

"How long have you known?" said Weiss balling her hands into fists.

"I've known for a little over month but wanted to give him time to tell you himself!"

"All this time you've known and you didn't tell me!? You made me look like a fool!" Her face colored red with anger.

"Weiss I-"

"I don't care! You should have told me! Ugh I don't want to be friends with someone who would keep such a big secret from me. Good bye Ruby have a nice life." She opened the door and slammed it shut making the bell on top of the door to ring uncontrollably.

I stood frozen for a moment before ripping the door open and yelling "Weiss wait!" But I was too late she was gone and I wasn't going to see her again.

Chapter Text

~present time~

After Weiss left, I felt cold and empty inside. I could only last another hour alone with my thoughts before I closed shop early. My movements felt mechanical as I got into my car and slowly drove home. Once I finally got to the door of my apartment I felt someone turn me around and slam me against my door. I felt ice cold hands grip my throat and force me to look up into red rimmed blue eyes.

"What the hell Ruby! I thought you were going to give me time to tell Weiss my self!" I felt his hand tighten against my throat. I didn't put up any resistance except for a sight gag from loss of oxygen.

I started seeing spots before I heard a familiar voice yell. "Hey get the hell off of her!" I felt Neptune's hand fly off my throat before I blacked out.

I woke up in my bed covered in my soft red blanket not knowing what happened. After a moment of remembering what happened throughout the day I finally let myself cry. "Dammit how the hell did shit hit the fan so fast? …I blame Neptune and and and Weiss and Sun and Yang... maybe." I said as more tears streamed down my face and onto the fluffy red pillow Weiss bought me not too long ago. "And now I'm talking to myself … Maybe I'm going crazy hehe yet another clockmaker gone crazy just like the stories Quow used to tell me and Yang when we were kids." I rolled over and pulled my knees to my chest and wrapped my arms around them. "I only just got to know Weiss a month or two ago and I can't help but feel the way I feel about her and and and STUPID NEPTUNE! I blame him he's the one that started everything and made me lie to her." I let go of my legs and rolled over on to my stomach and mumbled into my pillow. "I hate life."

"Well for one thing you're not alone and it's okay to feel the way you feel about her." I froze and slowly turned to the dark haired girl leaning against the frame of the doorway of my maroon painted room.

"Blake? What are you doing here?"

"I saw Weiss storm out of your shop when I was on my way there to get another watch fixed and decided to follow you home to make sure you got home safe, after I saw you leave your shop distraught. I was about to leave when I saw that blue haired guy attacking you. I got rid of him, searched you for your key and dragged you in here after I guessed which room was yours."

"Wait I was in my store for an hour did you wait outside for that long?"

She shrugged her shoulders and said "I wanted to give you time to cool off from your chat with princess and sat down to read a book on that bus bench outside of your store. I kind of got lost in my book and only noticed time had gone by when you slammed your store door shut."

I curled up even more and turned away from her "Oh… Thank you for caring." I said in a whisper.

"It okay you don't need to thank me" I heard steps approach my bed and felt it sink a little bit due to the dark haired girl sitting on it.

"So my guess is that you got your heart broken by princess and you're just going to sit here sulking and not do anything about it?"

I looked up at the smirking mobster and saw that she honestly did care about what was going to happen next between me and Weiss. "Why do you care? I thought you hated Weiss?"

Blake signed and visibly deflated. "I don't hate Weiss I just act like I do so it'll be easier for her to hate me after what I did to her. I really would like it if we were to go back to being friends but since that seems rather unlikely. It would be nice if she found someone else to make her happy."

"... So why did you leave Weiss in the first place?" I blurted out before I could think about what I said.

"... I met someone else"

Looks like Weiss has a history of being cheated on. Must be what she's so sensitive to it.

"So what happened after?"

She sighed before giving me a sad smile. "Looks like we're not going to talk about your feelings for her until we get through this so mine as well tell you. While I was with Weiss I met this guy named Adam… He was my father's right hand man… After a few flirtations and amazing conversations I ended up falling for him. I didn't go to the wedding because it was the day I ran away with him. Eventually I found out that he was just using me to climb higher in the ranks…" She started to tear up but kept going. "When my father found out that he was using me he killed Adam in a blind rage. I swore to myself that I wouldn't let myself fall for another person again… Until I met Yang." At this she smiled a bit before wiping her eyes and continuing. "Anyway that's enough about me. Now what's this thing you have going on with Weiss?"

Since Blake shared something so personal I felt that I owed her the same trust she gave me. "Um. Well… It all started when I kinda fell for her the moment we met which was the first time Neptune -the guy who attacked me- brought her over to meet us and the gang. I denied my feelings for her for about two months and then we started hanging out and my feeling only grew and then I got sick of denying them so I kissed her and she kissed back. But she's faithful to a fault she said she had feelings for me but couldn't be with me." My voice cracked and more tears streamed down but I continued telling her what happened "Then I told her about how Neptune had been cheating on her and she got angry at me for not telling her and said she never wanted to see me again then she stormed out." By the end Blake had put her hand on my shoulder in an attempt to comfort me.

"Thanks for listening Blake you really didn't have to we barely know each other" I said to her while making a weak attempt at wiping my tears.

"Hey you're my girlfriend's sister. Of course I'll comfort you."

"Oh~. So you guys are finally official?"

Blake's cheeks visibly colored before she spoke "Well yes even though we only made it official about a week ago"

"I can't believe she hasn't told me she literally couldn't shut up about you the first time she started working as your bodyguard." I said to her with a smile on my face.

She smiled back before telling me "That's nice to know for the next time I see her anyway Ruby I have a meeting to attend and you need to think about how you're going to make up with Weiss."

"I think I'll leave her alone for now, but thanks for being here Blake, Yang hasn't really been around lately."

"Sorry about that I'll make sure she has some time off for you guys t have some sister bonding time." She got up and ruffled my hair "I hope you figure out this thing with Weiss you two deserve to be happy. Bye for now Ruby."

"Bye Blake"

And just like that she was gone leaving me alone with my thoughts. I pulled my sheets up to my neck and closed my eyes.

Maybe I should figure out a way to make things right with Weiss… No she probably hates me I should leave her alone.

Chapter Text

I woke up the next morning and went over the usually empty living room with my blanket wrapped around my shoulders.

"Morning Ruby!... Hey what happened? Are you ok?"

"Oh hi Yang, what are you doing here? Aren't you usually at work at this hour?"

"Blake gave me the day off and suggested I spend it with you. Now I see why, come on sit down with me and tell me what's wrong." Yang sat down on the red leather couch, patting the seat next to her. I layed down on the couch and put my head on her lap.

"I'm… Fine"

"No your not sis tell me what's wrong." I started breaking down when she said that but when she started stroking my hair just like mom used to the dam burst and I was unable to keep the tears from spilling any longer. While wiping away the tears streaming down my face I told her what's been going on with me since Weiss came into my life she tensed when I got to the part about Neptune but relaxed again when I told her about how Blake had saved me and about how we had a bit of a bonding moment.

When I finished she was silent for a long moment before she spoke again. "Wow thats one heck of a month or two… I'm sorry that I was gone all the time with Blake and made you go through all of this alone."

I heard the sadness and regret in her voice which made me turn my head to face her. "Yang this isn't your fault I'm happy that you found someone that makes you so happy and not some string of flings"

She smiled at me with her usual infectious smile and said "Thanks Rubes… But I'm here now so lets start fixing your problems okay?"

"... Yang what are you planing?" I said to her in a warning tone.

"I'm only going to help you clear the air with Neptune you can handle the Weiss thing by yourself."

"Wait Yang-" I tried to say but she was already across the room, quickly jogging away. After a few moments I heard a few shrill screams accompanied the sound of someone being dragged into the apartment.

"No Yang I'm sorry! I didn't mean to hurt Ruby! Honest!" I heard Neptune yell as he was dragged into my apartment. I sat up only to have Neptune thrown on the couch next to me so now we were sitting inches apart.

"Now you too are going to talk out your differences." With that Yang left only to pop her head back and say "Play nice you too and good luck." Once we heard the door close we sat in silence for a few minutes not sure how to start a conversation.

"Soooo… Sorry about choking you." Neptune started awkwardly.

"Its okay sorry about telling Weiss your secret."

"Its cool bro."

More silence followed before I broke the silence. "I kissed Weiss and I told her about your secret after I got mad that she rejected me because she wanted to be faithful to you… I know she likes me back though."

"Wow, now I feel like a douche bag… I really don't deserve someone like her... If she really likes you you should go and make her happy… I haven't told anyone yet... but I'm leaving Vale and going to Valco"

"You're leaving?" I turned to him with a surprised expression.

"Yeah I need to get away from it all. From Weiss, from Sun, and I need to start fresh and become a better person."

"Well good luck man" We both stood up and hugged each other for a long moment. "I hope you find what you're looking for."

"I hope things workout with Weiss Ruby and good bye I'ma miss you guys"

"We're going to miss you too Neptune" Even with everything we've been through we both teared up.

"Say goodbye to everyone for me shorty I've never been good with goodbyes" His voice cracked and he turned to leave before he started crying.

"Sure thing sea-brain" more tears rolled down my face as I watched one of my best friends just walk away not knowing if I'll ever see him again. When I heard the door finally shut I sat back on the couch and curled up into a ball before crying some more.

Later Yang came back to find me curled up on the couch with puffy red eyes. She silently sat down next to me and put her arms around me.

"Neptune left for Valco." I whispered to her after a short while.

"Shhh it's okay." was all she could say as she held me for what felt like hours, more friends came by and we were forced to tell them that Neptune had left for Valco. No one took it harder than Sun he walked away from us when we told him the news, just before he turned away I saw tears in his eyes.

Looks like it was more than just a fling to him. I sadly thought to myself.

"Here I am back at this stupid store." I said to myself bitterly "Maybe I should just sell the joint it has too many bad memories… I mean its the place Qrow had his heart attack, the place I received the news about my mother, the place where, where… where Weiss rejected me…" I sighed and sat down on the wooden stool behind the counter. "What's it been? A month? A month since she stormed out of here and I've been too chicken to contact her."

You know better than that Ruby its been exactly one month, six days, nine hours, and twenty six minutes… God I'm pathetic… Well the bright side is that I've stopped counting the seconds.

"... On the other hand this store is the only thing I have left of uncle Qrow and its not like its all bad I love working on clocks don't get me wrong its just that business has been slow-" I was cut off by the sound of one of my grandfather clocks I had set to only sound when it was time to close shop.

"Looks like its finally time to close up shop…" I silently went to get my jacket, turned off all the lights, and locked the front door when I walked out into the cold winter night. I started the long walk to my two story apartment and quietly thinking to myself.

I hate that I didn't have time to fix my car in the morning now I have to walk home.

I saw a flash of white being forced into an ally and found myself gravitating towards the dark alley I saw the flash of white go into. The closer I got the more I could hear sounds emanating from the ally.

"I'll give you all of my money just please don't hurt me." Whimpered a high pitched voice that sounded vaguely familiar.

"Oh don't worry honey I don't want you for your money~" said a smooth deep voice.

By the time I arrived I saw a tall man in a white coat holding a knife against the neck of a girl with white hair. Both their faces were difficult to see in the darkness of the ally, but I was sure that girl was Weiss. From where I was standing I could see his hands wandering over her body, groping her in inappropriate places. The girl just stood there whimpering from the red haired man's wandering hands.

The sight of this made me curl my hands in anger and sprint over to them yelling "Get the hell off her!" "Huh?" Was the last thing he uttered before my fist connected with his smug face making him lean forward, holding his face. I took this opportunity to knee him in the stomach and give him a roundhouse kick to the head when his knees hit the floor. Effectively knocking him out.

Without looking at her I grabbed her hand and pulled her away from the man "Come on Weiss we need to go before he wakes up."

The girl stumbled after me and as soon as we were a far enough distance away she whispered something that I didn't catch. "What did you say?" I said carefully to her, not wanting to spook her.

"I said that my name isn't Weiss. That's my sister's name…"

"Huh?" When I looked at her again under a street light I noticed that this girl was almost nothing like Weiss except for the white hair and striking blue eyes. She didn't have Weiss's scar instead her face was clear of any blemishes, her hair was significantly shorter than Weiss's but still held loose curls that reached just below her shoulder. Instead of wearing a white coat and skirt combo Weiss always wore she was in a pair of blue jeans and a black T-shirt. She was also a few inches taller than Weiss.

"Oh sorry" I said letting go of her hand instantly "Wishful thinking I guess… Anyway my name is Ruby Rose" I held my hand out to shake hers "Nice to meet you"

I smiled at her and before she smiled back and said "I'm Winter" She took my hand and continued. "I'm Weiss's older sister"

Chapter Text

I smiled at her and before she smiled back and said "I'm Winter" She took my hand and continued. "I'm Weiss's older sister"

"Oh your Weiss's sister? She didn't mention you when we used to talk"

She smirked at me before continuing "Well I wouldn't expect her to we only just started talking again recently when I moved in with her two months ago."

"Oh what did you do that made you guys so mad at each other?" I started walking with her to what I assumed was her house.

"Well I kinda ran away forcing her to take over the company in my place she forgave me though then again she can't stay mad at anyone for too long she's just the forgiving kind… But don't bring up that's she's really forgiving because she will deny it to no end."

"Sounds like her" I laughed.

"So I'm going to take a wild guess and say that you're the infamous Ruby that made my sister cry a month ago and then mope around the house for the next month or so. The same Ruby that I came by to see but I got lost along the way, because I have my sister's sense of direction, and got attacked along the way to talk to you?"

"Um I think so I don't really think that Weiss knows any other Rubys'." I said to her while looking at the floor not wanting to look into her questioning gaze.

"Well that makes this easier"

"Make what easier?" I finally looked at her to see that she was smiling.

"Well I want you two to kiss and make up for one thing. It's tiring to constantly see Weiss moping around the house"

At the thought of kissing Weiss my cheeks flared up, this action did not go unnoticed by Winter.

"Oh~ The thought of kissing Weissy is getting you all hot and bothered isn't it?" Teased Winter.

My already flushed face got even more impossibly red. "W-what? N-no." I managed to stutter out.

At this Winter burst out laughing lean against the gray colored fence of a house we were passing. After she finished laughing she looked around and eventually found the street sign she was looking for. "Um hey Ruby you wouldn't happen to know where Snow street is?"

I sighed and put my palm against my face and mumbled "Looks like you and Weiss do have the same sense of direction" I sighed and told her "Snow street is in the other direction"

"Great! Onwards!" She turned around and started walking in the correct direction.

"Why am I still following you" I accidentally said aloud.

"Because you officially signed up to be my official bodyguard until I get home safely and you wouldn't let a poor defenseless girl all alone in the dark streets of Vale" She leaned down to whisper into my ear "And you know you couldn't pass up the chance to see Weiss again." Effectively making me blush again.

I stayed silent for a moment before answering her "You're right I couldn't leave the a girl with the sense of direction of a blind rock just wander the streets of Vale." I sped up, forcing her to jog a little bit to catch up to me.

"Oh look at you being all cute and knight in shining armory~" She put her face close to mine and whispered "Maybe I'll leave Weiss to mope around a bit and keep you for myself~"

"I don't mean to offend you Winter but you're not my type" I said to her effectively making her back down… or so I thought.

She put her arm around me and said "You passed the test! You are now allowed to officially date my sister!"

This made me freeze and stop us in front of a twenty four hour pawn shop. "What?"

She took her arm off me and smiled a kind smile "Well I had to test you and see if you could resist this beautiful thing" She gestures to her body "So I can make sure you don't end up a cheating bastard like Weiss's previous relationships. I mean I love her and everything but she couldn't pick a good partner if one landed right in front of her."

She reminds me of someone...Oh now I know who she reminds me of. She may look like Weiss but she acts like Yang.

We walked for about twenty minutes trying to get to Snow street, twenty minutes of Winter friendly banter between Winter and me, and twenty minutes of wondering how Weiss will react when she sees me, we finally arrive to a medium sized white two story house. Winter started walking up the steps of the wooden porch before looking back at me and saying "What are you doing standing there? Come on in." with that she walked into the house expecting me to follow.

It took me a few moments to gather up the courage to go inside, but once I did I sighed at the sudden rush of warmth the house provided. I closed the white wooden door behind myself and started walking down the light blue painted hall way. When I turned to corner to go into what I assumed was the living room judging by the black leather couches and large forty inch tv that hung on the opposite wall. I found Winter in the mostly white kitchen being scolded by Weiss.

"Of all the idiotic things you could do Winter, getting lost in Vale at this time of night is one of the stupidest things you could do!" I walked into the kitchen and noticed that Weiss was too busy yelling at Winter to notice me.

"You could have been hurt or attacked or-"

"I was attacked actually" interrupted Winter.

Weiss's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates "WHAT?! Are you okay?"

"Of course I am! I have my knight in shining armor to thank for that." She turned to me and put her arm around me. Weiss seemed to be very surprised to see me but stayed silent as Winter continued "I was backed into this alley by this creep and I thought it was over for me but then she comes in and beats the crap out of him and then we ran away and then she was nice enough walk me home. But that not the most interesting part I discovered that this is the same Ruby that has had you moping around for the past month." She put her other arm around Weiss and dragged us into the living room. She threw us on to the couch across from the tv.

"Now the real reason I was in out so late at night was so that I could find Ruby and drag her over here so that you two could talk about what happened-"

"You were attacked" responded Weiss in a monotone voice.

"Some things might not have gone according to plan but I succeed none the less. Now you two are going to talk" With that she walked away from us and walked up the stairs to what I assumed was her room.

We sat in silence for what felt like hours.

Looks like sitting in uncomfortable silence is becoming an unwelcome theme in my life. I bitterlythought to myself.

Weiss broke the silence with a sigh before saying "I really don't feel like talking right now"

"Neither do I" I agreed

"...You know I have the full set of those horrible Beowolves attack movies we could watch those instead of talking… if you want." She said hesitantly.

"That sounds like an amazing idea" I said to her with a smile that she reciprocated making my heart flutter uncontrollably.

Chapter Text

I slowly opened my eyes the next morning and saw that I was not in my comfortable bed wrapped up in my favorite red sheets.

Where am I? I thought to myself.

I tried to get up but felt two thin arms tighten around my waist. I instantly turned my head to look behind me to find Weiss snuggled into me with her face pressed against my back.

What the?

In that moment I remembered the events of last night. I remembered walking Winter home, sitting in awkward silence with Weiss, laughing at the beowolves movies with Weiss, leaning my head against her shoulder and falling asleep with her arm around me.

I laid my head back down and enjoyed Weiss's warmth for a few more moments before I felt Weiss begin to stir. Once I noticed her start to wake up I regulated my breathing and closed my eyes so that she would think that I was still asleep.

"... Ruby?" said Weiss asked groggily. "What are you… Oh now I remember"

I expected her to do everything but hold me tighter and snuggle up against me more. "I really missed you" She whispered into my back "I'm glad you're still asleep I really don't want to let go anytime soon." I heard her sigh happily and I had a small feeling that she was smiling. I chose that moment to turn around in her embrace and buried my head into her shoulder.

"I missed you too Weiss" I whispered back.

"How long have you been awake?" She said softly into my ear.

"A little while before you woke up but I wanted to stay here for a little longer."

She smiled and said "Me too"

We stayed on the couch for an hour that passed by in minutes the only reason we separated was because Winter just had to come down and say "Oh~ look at the love birds" As soon as we heard the clicks of a camera we separated as quickly as we could.

"Winter!" yelled Weiss with red cheeks to her mischievous sister.

"Eep! I've been caught! Abort mission!"

"Nerd!" yelled Weiss as she threw a small white couch pillow at Winter nailing her in the head before she could get away.

"Ice Queen!" yelled back Winter with a giggle from the top of the stairs and soon after we heard the slam of a door.

"Ugh. I swear she acts like a teenager sometimes… Wonder what she's going to with those pictures." I heard Weiss angrily mumble to herself.

"Well if she's anything like Yang she'll either use them as blackmail or just send them to all of hers and your friends."

"Sounds like something Winter would do" she sighed.

We sat together and stared in silence at the blank television not wanting to talk about the elephant in the room.

"Anyways Weiss I think we need to talk about… us… if there is an us." I said finally breaking the silence.

She sighed before she spoke "I think we do"

"So um what are we? Or a better question would be what do you want to be?"

"I… I don't know because if we dated we would run into Neptune and that would just be awkward"

"Oh you don't know?" I looked at her with a surprised expression.

"Know what?" She said with a hint of curiosity leaking though.

"Neptune left… and I don't think that he's coming back"

"Oh… I still don't know what I want to be though."

"Oh.."

We went back to uncomfortable silence and I decided to look at my phone to find it blinking with ninety three messages, seventy-four missed calls, and twenty- two voice mails. All of them from worried friends and a worried and angry Yang.

"Oh crap!" I said as I quickly stood up and started to rush toward the door.

"What happened?" Said Weiss following me towards the door.

"No one knows I'm here and I basically disappeared to my friends they're all really worried." I walked out of the door and turned around to say "Bye Weiss. Call me when you make a decision" With that I speed walked away. I reached my apartment in ten minutes flat since I started to jog the second half of the way home. The minute I opened the door I was met with one of Yang's bone crushing hugs.

"Where the hell were you! I was so worried! You haven't disappeared like that in so long I was so scared!" Her hug kept getting tighter as she kept talking making it almost impossible to talk back.

"Yang… Can't… Breath…" I managed to gasp out.

"Oh sorry Rubes I don't want to kill you before you explain where you've been." I heard her sniffle as I felt her grip loosen. I looked at Yang to see tears threatening to spill before she powered through and put a big smile on her face.

"Ruby's back!" I heard Nora yell before I was tackled down by her, Jaune, and Sun. "We're so happy your back and didn't do something like you did last time you disappeared" Sniffled Jaune and Sun agreed with a happy "Yeah!"

Once everyone let go of me and helped me up Pyrrha gave me a softer hug and a smile and whispered "I'm glad you're back" In my ear. Ren just flicked my forehead and said "Don't do it again" before he showed me one of his rare smiles and said "I am glad you didn't do something stupid. Let's all sit down and let Ruby explain what happened" Everyone nodded and listened to him, sitting down in their normal places and just sat and waited for me to explain the events of last night.

I sighed and began "Well for you guys to understand what happened last night I'm going to have to explain what's been going on these past few months and explain why Neptune left." With another sigh I began the long story of the events of the last two months. I told them everything from the moment I saw Weiss to the moment I woke up next to her. "... So that's where I've been" I finished.

I waited a few moments before Sun spoke "So where does that leave you and Weiss?" He looked around and everyone nodded in agreement before looking at me again.

"Um well I don't really know I kinda left the ball in her court"

Yang put her arm around me "Don't worry Rubes its gonna be okay I'm sure she'll make the right decision"

"How are you guys so calm about this" I asked them looking around to each of their calm un-surprised faces.

"For one thing everyone but Neptune knew you had the hots for Weiss and Yang kinda told us what had been going on with Weiss a month ago when we asked her why you had been moping around." Explained Jaune

"Wow Jauney -boy way to throw me under the bus" Mumbled Yang when I turned to look at her with a confused expression. "I'm sorry Rubes they kept pestering me until I told them.

Meaning they only had to ask twice. I thought

I sighed and said "Its okay Yang I don't really mind I'm just Glad I can relax for a moment."

Lier. You're really annoyed that Yang told them and you're not relaxed at all you're stressed as hell wondering what Weiss is going to say.

Shut up brain I'm too tired to deal with you right now.

Chapter Text

"Its been a week since the last time I talked to Weiss I don't think she's going to talk to me again." I said to myself as I laid my head down on the recently replaced glass counter. "I'm hopeless" I sighed. While I was wallowing in self pity I didn't notice the ding of the door announcing the arrival of someone new in my store.

"Are you sleeping on the job Ruby?" said the familiar high pitched voice of the girl that had been plaguing my thoughts.

"Weiss?" I said lifting my head up from the counter.

"Who else? Dolt." She said to me with a smile "I was wondering if you wanted to go get coffee with me"

"Of course!" I said a little too excitedly before I corrected myself with a more calm "Yeah sure" causing Weiss to giggle and in turn make my heart flutter.

I made my way to the room in the back to get my jacket and rushed back to meet her at the door. I locked up after we walked outside of the store, greeted by the cold post-winter wind we started to make our way to Ozpin's coffee in familiar comfortable silence. Throughout the walk our hands seemed to gravitate towards each others and ended up intertwining. When we got to coffee shop and sat in our usual table still holding hands.

I love the feeling of her hand in mine. I thought to myself.

Glynda came over a few minutes later and gave a slight smile at our intertwined hands. "Look who finally decided to show up. What's it been a month?"

"Sorry about that Glynda" I said

"We were having problems with each other but now we're okay" said Weiss with a rare smile.

"I'm okay as long you two keep your lovers quarrel outside. So what would you like? The usual?" Glynda began to smirk at us when she looked up from her notepad and saw us blushing. "I'll take that as a yes to the usual." With that she walked away.

Mine and Weiss's blush had just started to die down when Weiss spoke "So what are we now Ruby?"

My cheeks started to burn again before I responded "Um uh um… I don't know I left that question to you" I started to rub the back of Weiss's hand and wait for her answer.

She stared at our hands for a few moments before she whispered "I want to be more than friends" She tightened her hold on my hand before she looked away with a slight blush returning to her cheeks.

I jumped up and pulled her into a hug. I felt her stiffen but immediately relax into my hold. "I want to be more than friends too Weiss" I pulled away only to have her pull me back and into a kiss. Her velvety soft lips tasted like vanilla. I tilted my head to deepen the kiss and felt her teeth lightly graze my lower lip. I lifted my hand to her face and tried to run it through her hair.

Man I wish her hair wasn't in a ponytail. I thought to myself.

We stopped when we heard someone cough in order to catch our attention. We immediately separated and l jumped back into my seat.

"Well looks like you two are getting along" said a smirking Glynda. "And looks like Ozpin owes me twenty bucks anyways here are your coffees. One three creams and five sugars for Ruby and a simple black coffee for Weiss." Glynda walked away without a goodbye.

"Well that happened" I started awkwardly.

"Yup" said Weiss.

Crap I don't know what to talk about.

"Oh Ruby there's something I didn't understand"

"What is it Weiss?"

"Why is it that your friends were so worried about you? I hope you don't mind that I looked over at your phone when you checked it, but there were so many messages I mean I would understand a couple but there were so many and-"

For the first time I stopped Weiss from rambling instead of her stopping me from rambling. It was clear that she chose that to talk about because it was most likely the first thing that came to mind.

She's going to find out anyway mine as well tell her. Especially with Yang's big mouth she'd tell her within the first time she asked.

"Its okay Weiss there is a reason why they were so worried" I sighed. "Well there was one other time that I disappeared without a trace like the night I spent over at your house. It was when I found out that my mother had died…" I held back tears from spilling and forced myself to continue.

"You don't have to tell m-"

I cut her off by continuing my story. "You see my mom died when I was in my second year of high school and The moment I found out I was in my uncle's store… The moment they told me I ran out of the store and no one found me till a few days later at the edge of a bridge… at the time they told me she had died Yang and all our friends had started college and I was alone for a long time, which caused me to be clinically depressed and the only reason I had not ended it was because of my mom… When they found me I was a mess and they forced me to go into therapy and I lived with my Uncle Quow… Till he died too and luckily Yang got to me before I could run away again… So when I disappeared with you they believed the worst since I had been sad about how we left things… and that's about it" I wiped the tears that were threatening to spill and felt two arms go around my and tighten.

"Its okay you really didn't have to tell me, but I'm glad you did. Come on lets get you home"

"Just take me to my shop its basically home"

"Okay" We got up and payed for our drinks. On the way back to my store we held hands and she let me lean my head on her separated so that I could open the door to my shop. I walked in and went to put my jacket up while Weiss made her way behind the counter. We were about to start talking again when Yang walked into the store.

"Hi sis! I was wonder-... Who made you cry?" She turned to Weiss and quicker than I thought she could move she jumped over the counter, grabbed Weiss by the collar of her shirt and slammed her into the closest wall. "What. Did. You. Do." She said through clenched teeth.

"Yang! Its not her fault I just told her about mom and that got me a bit emotional! Yang its okay you can let her go."

"You sure?" She said still unsure of whether or not to let the terrified white haired girl go.

"Yes Yang. Please let my girlfriend go."

She looked at me and saw that I was telling the truth. She slowly let go of Weiss's collar and put her down. She leaned close to Weiss and I could barely make out the words she told her. "If you hurt her you'll wish you had gone to Valco with Neptune when you had the chance." She didn't back away until Weiss nodded.

Yang smiled her usually mega watt smile and turned to me "Okay! Now that we have that settled I was wondering if you could fix this watch I found. I want to give it to Blakey" She put her hand in her pocket and pulled out an old rusty pocket watch.

I took the watch from her hands and examined it for a few moments "... Yang do you even know how much work is going to go into this watch?" I said in a monotone voice as I looked at her with an annoyed expression.

"Come on Rubes pleeaaassee. Its going to be our two month anniversary soon and I wanna get her something nice." She pleaded with puppy dog eyes.

I sighed and said "Fine but you've used up the favor that I owed you"

"YAY! Thanks Rubes!" She yelled and pulled my into a bone crushing hug.

"Can't… Breath… Yang…" I gasped.

"Oh sorry!" She put me down and made her way to the exit. "Thanks again Ruby! I'll see you at home!" With that she left.

"Your sister is terrifying…" Said Weiss when she was sure Yang was really gone.

I chuckled and said "Only when it comes to things she cares about"

We spent the rest of the day in my shop talking as I worked on Yang's watch. Eventually it was time to close up shop.

"So do you want to come over to my house?" said Weiss suddenly as I locked up the shop.

"Sure"I said with a shrug, Weiss beamed and we started to make our way to Weiss's house. It didn't take as long since I kept us from getting lost not trusting Weiss to lead the way to her own house. When we eventually arrived we found Winter on the couch of the living room.

"Hi guys!" Said Winter enthusiastically .

"Hi Winter" Weiss and I managed to say at the same time. As we made our way to the couch and sat down.

"I'm going to make some tea, you guys want some?" I nodded my head and Winter said "No thanks sis I'm not going to be long."

"Okay" said Weiss as she made her way to the kitchen to put on the tea.

Winter leaned down and whispered into my ear "If you end up a cheating bastard like all her other exes I will make it my personal mission to make sure no one ever finds your body." She looked me in the eyes with her with her icy blue eyes, making my blood run cold and continued "First you'll suffer and then you'll have the knowledge of never being found. So you better not hurt her you got that?" she waited for me to nod before she gave me a big smile and a hard pat on the back "Good!" She turned and yelled in the direction of the kitchen "Hey Weiss I'm going now! I'll see you later!"

By the time Weiss came back Winter was long gone and I still feel cold inside from her threat. "Ruby? What's wrong?" I heard Weiss say in a worried voice .

I snapped out of my frozen state and looked at her "Oh nothing it's just that Winter gave me the big sister talk kinda like Yang only without the violence."

"What? I'll talk to-" I cut her off with a kiss and pulled her onto my lap.

When we finally pulled away from each other I said "Its okay. I'm okay with getting the big sister talk as long as I get to stay with you in the end."

She smiled and put her arms around me, pulling me in for another kiss.

"I'm really happy we can finally be together I've liked you for the longest time" She whispered in between kisses.

"Me too" I whispered back with a big smile on my face.

Chapter Text

Three Years later

Ruby's P.O.V

"I can't do this!" I yelled to Yang as she calmly sat in the love seat in their corner of the hotel room. The room was beautifully decorated the walls were a light tan color with a white ceiling. there was a chandelier hanging in the middle of the room giving the room perfect lighting. In the against the far wall there was a queen sized bed with white silk sheets. It was fairly simple compared to the other hotel Weiss wanted.

"Don't worry Rubes its going to be okay" Yang said calmly not even looking up from her phone.

"I can't Yang I just can't I look horrible and I'm not good enough for her and and and YANG! Pay attention to me!" I stopped pacing and looked at myself in the full length mirror. I looked over the dress I was wearing it was a long white dress with a red trim. The dress clung to my form like a second skin until it reached my hips from there on it was looser and a bit ruffly. "Just look at me Yang the dress is horrible how could you let me pick this out!" I started pacing again.

Yang finally looked up from her phone and gave me a small smile. "One, the dress looks wonderful on you, two, you look amazing, and three, Weiss is lucky to have you and is looking forward to this just as much as you I bet she's in her room with Blake stressing just as much if not more than you."

Weiss's P.O.V.

I sat down on the edge of the white bed with a cup of tea in my right hand. "So how are you feeling? Do you have any pre-wedding jitters?" Asked Blake as she sat next to me with her own cup. Blake and I had eventually patched things up a little after me and Ruby got together. Ruby was the one that forced us to talk to each other and here we are now three years after Ruby made us make up and become good friends after weeks of yelling and insulting each other. I even made her my maid of honor and she made me hers during her wedding with Yang a year ago.

"Oh you know just a little nervous but I'm really happy that were finally getting married." I gave Blake a small smile causing her to smile back at me.

"I wonder how Ruby's doing." I wondered aloud.

"She's probably jumping off walls with excitement" chuckled Blake.

"Probably" I smiled back.

Ruby's P.O.V.

"Yang let me go! I need to leave! I'm not ready! I look horrible!" Yang had put me into a headlock and was restraining me from jumping out the bathroom window and running away.

"No Ruby its just cold feet you need to get over it!" She tightened her hold and dragged me out of the bathroom.

"I need to change the dress Yang!" I threw myself back tripping Yang and making her land on the bed. I tried to roll out of her grasp but she just adjusted her hold to tighten around my torso.

"Damit Ruby stop trying to do things that you're going to regret later!" I eventually tired myself out and just laid there in Yang's hold. "Are you done?" she said waiting for me to nod until she started to slowly loosen her hold on me. "Its going to be okay Ruby Weiss is going to love the dress and you have nothing to worry about."

I tiredly leaned into Yang and whispered "Thanks for dealing with all my craziness Yang."

"Anytime sis. You did the same for me when I was freaking out about my wedding with Blake"

The memory made me laugh and say "I'm pretty sure you were worse me, Sun, and Nora had to tackle you down and calm you down. You kept saying that her family was going to kill you in your sleep because you weren't good enough."

"Hey its not my fault big daddy Tuckson chose my fucking wedding day to give me the if-you-hurt-my-daughter-I'm-going-to-kill-you speech. Who knew mob bosses could be so terrifying" I felt Yang shiver from the memory of Tuckson's speech. "He really mobbed the floor with me" Yang bust out into laughter as I groaned and tried to get away from her and her horrible puns.

"Yang this is not the time for your horrible puns." I responded in a monotone voice.

"Psh you love my puns and all the time is the perfect time for puns" I rolled my eyes at her and got up.

"Well at least they got your mind off that dress"

"Oh my god the dress I have to change it!" I quickly ran to the bathroom to jump out the window with Yang on my heels. She talked me down just before I got to the window.

The next hour until the wedding had a very similar cycle with Yang tackling me down and me making excuses to jump out the window. In the end I was thankful to Yang for keeping me from running because the moment I saw Weiss walking down the red carpeted aisle in a long white dress with a light blue trim there were blue stripes that went down the bottom half of the dress the moment that our eyes met I knew that I never wanted to stop looking at her, I knew that I loved her and I knew that she loved me, I knew that it was stupid of me to think that she wouldn't love me because the look in her eyes told me that she loved me unconditionally.

She eventually made it to me and smiled one of her used to rare smiles. I leaned in and whispered "You look beautiful princess."

Her smile got even bigger and said "You look good too. Love the dress by the way."

She made me smile even more and not pay attention to a single word Ozpin was saying. Ozpin turned out to be ordained when we told Glynda about the wedding and volunteered to marry us. The only time that I started to pay attention again is when Weiss said "I do".

"And do you Ruby Rose take Weiss Schnee to your lawfully wedded wife." said Ozpin turning to me.

"I do"

"Then you may kiss the bride"

Weiss and I leaned in and kissed for what felt like the first time because it was just as electrifying as the the first. When we separated we whispered "I love you" at the same time. We walked down the aisle hand in hand with everyone throwing white rose petals around us. We made it to the white limo and we were driven to the reception.

The reception was wonderful the band was suggested by Yang since she had a weirdly good taste in music. The tables had white cloth covering them with arrangements of white and red roses, the large ballroom was just two miles away from the hotel we had the wedding in. The dance floor took up about half the ballroom. (The ballroom in the hotel had already been booked so we had to have the reception somewhere else.) We spent hours at the reception with Yang and Blake inevitable getting drunk and with us sneaking away to the limo outside.

"You think its bad that we kinda snuck away without telling anyone?" I asked Weiss as we jumped into the limo and the driver started to drive us to the airport.

"I think its fine everyone is too drunk to miss us" Responded Weiss.

"Yeah its not like they would miss the people the reception was originally for." I smiled at her

She laughed and intertwined our fingers. "I'd rather have you to myself."

"Well you do have me all to yourself for the next two weeks so that's something and then of couse I'll belong to you fro the rest of our lives. "

"That I do" she leaned in and gave me a kiss on the lips which I gladly returned.