Ruby made enough of a physical recovery to be released from the nurse's ward the following morning. Weiss had nodded off with her head onto her folded arms against the edge of Ruby's bed, and was roused by none other than the younger girl herself.

That being said, Professor Port's class proved especially difficult for Ruby to stay awake in. She sat next to Weiss and scratched out a note to her, sleepily smudging the graphite as she passed it discreetly.

If I had known Port's class was gonna be the first thing I woke up to I would've stayed in bed.

Weiss blinked at the reply before her brows knit together with a glower. She scribbled back:

And you'd leave me to suffer alone? You're not staying in bed unless you've got room for me to hide with you, you dolt.

Ruby smirked and if Weiss hadn't been paying attention before, she definitely wasn't now. She propped a hand under her chin to casually watch the words taking shape.

I thought you liked Port's lectures. And ugh don't remind me that I've gotta figure something new out with my bed now.

Weiss sighed and dragged the paper back to herself.

I like them the first time. Maybe the second. Definitely not the third. Or, you know, the 17th-

Ruby stole the paper back before she could finish.

HAS IT SERIOUSLY BEEN 17 TIMES ALREADY OMG

Weiss sighed and scribbled in return:

YES-

I DON'T BELIEVE U-

Well, believe me, here comes the part about how he wrestled the ursa-

"-and then-ha-HA! I captured the brute in a headlock and-

Ruby slumped over the desk in defeat.

...

The bell couldn't have come soon enough. Lunch time meant free time and free time meant that they could work on their project.

"Weiss, can we grab some lunch first before we start? I'm like, really super hungry-" Ruby pouted, and her stomach growled audibly, right on cue.

Weiss was loathe to admit it, but she was feeling rather peckish herself, and the events of the previous night were still fresh in her mind. She wanted to make certain that Ruby was fed and healthy and that she was taking proper care of herself.

"Go ahead. I'll find a table and get started."

"Thanks so much! Did you want anything?"

"I've already brought mine." Weiss took a neatly-wrapped parcel out of her back to reveal a partitioned lunch box filled with a mixed salad, green apple slices, celery sticks, carrot sticks, cucumber sticks, and a small container of hummus.

"Bunny food!" Ruby made a face and stuck out her tongue. "I'm gonna take you out for pizza sometime. And I'm not even gonna let you wipe the grease off with a napkin."

"That's disgusting."

"But you'll eat that!?"

"You can't just have cookies for lunch every day, you know."

"Says who?"

"Says me you little dolt-"

"Who're you calling little you little...shrimplord!?"

"Come here."

"What? No!"

"Come here, Ruby-"

Weiss tugged Ruby down by her collar and watched her eyes widen as she plucked a cucumber stick from her box and prodded it at Ruby's lips.

"No! No no no no-!" Ruby squirmed and turned her face away, "Weiss no! It's so green oh my god-!" Ruby shrieked as Weiss twisted a bite of it off into her mouth and clapped her hands over it, staring at her partner with the most betrayed expression Weiss had ever seen in her life.

"It's not that bad."

"I hate you Weiss!" Ruby swallowed and gagged miserably, shivering from head to toe. Contrary to her exclamation, she beamed at her as she turned around to make a run for the lunch line. "Be right back!"

Weiss raised an eyebrow and caught herself smiling in return, before quashing it down to turn her attention to her notes-

"H-Hey! Ruby!"

A voice called and ran past, in Ruby's direction, and Weiss looked up again in spite of herself.

...

Ruby hummed to herself in the lunch line, bobbing up and down on her ankles to make sure there were some cookies left. Weiss had kept her, so maybe she was too late-

But really, it had surprised her. Weiss wasn't a very physical person in many senses, so for her to get so fun and mischievous on her all of a sudden-

Well. There was nothing fun about that nasty cucumber. Blech. Ruby wrinkled her nose at the memory, but her expression gave way to a smile as she thought of how Weiss had smirked at her.

At the beginning of the semester, she'd thought of Weiss as a 'negative friend'.

If she didn't know better herself, she wouldn't have believed it now.

Ruby turned as she heard a familiar voice, grinning as Jaune jogged up to her.

"Oh! Hey, friend." She took an extra tray and passed it to him, and then realized that he was probably going to ask her about last night. "Uh-thanks a lot for-ah, you know-"

"Don't worry. I get that people are probably gonna be all over you today asking if you're okay, so-if you don't wanna talk about it it's all good." Jaune spooned some mashed potatoes beside his Grimm-shaped chicken nuggets as he followed her in line. Ruby's shoulders relaxed considerably.

Thank god. "Thanks Jaune. I really appreciate it." Ruby helped herself to a sandwich and a few chocolate chip cookies, and then a carton of milk. Going to class right away had distracted her from thinking about what had happened, and she was okay right now, so, she hadn't given it much thought until she saw him.

Jaune was understanding, but what about everyone else? She could probably just get away with telling people she'd forgotten what she'd dreamed about, that it was an isolated thing, even though Yang knew better about the frequency of it.

Except, one person knew. One person knew that she'd remembered her dream, and it was the person she spent the most time with, too.

She was hiding it from her own partner.

It wasn't like the current project had been helping things either. She'd been trying to hide how uncomfortable it made her, but that had manifested in delaying the inevitable and now she had to buckle down and get the work done.

But, it wasn't like she could just tell her about it, and tell her that she believed it was true. Weiss of all people wouldn't understand something like that. Weiss wasn't afraid of anything.

"And of course if you do wanna talk about it-I'm your guy, okay?" Jaune took a hand off his tray to give her a thumbs-up, but the smile slid off his face as quickly and as easily as the gravy spilling over the edge of it as he underestimated the weight capacity of that many chicken nuggets and his volcano of mashed potatoes. "Aww crap crap crap crap crap-!"

"Ruby, come on." Weiss' voice appeared from behind her, "Tell tall blond and scraggly that we have work to do." Her voice was clipped and irritated and Ruby wondered how long she'd been there.

"Sorry Jaune, I really should get going, thanks again a lot though!"

"Don't mention it!" Jaune called back with a wave as Ruby and Weiss left. He was still frantically chasing the dripping gravy with a wad of napkins. "Like seriously!...Don't mention it."

...

They took their seats and Ruby passed Weiss a cookie. The heiress regarded it with an arched brow before her cheerful leader spoke up.

"We'll start small. There's hope for you yet."

In other circumstances, Weiss might have accepted it, but as it were-

"I don't like sweets." She tossed her hair, a pout turning the corners of her lips, "And I don't want crumbs all over the notes."

Ruby shrugged and took a bite of it herself. "More for me, then." If Ruby was saddened by her refusal, Weiss was choosing not to know. Ruby had the kind of face that could smile through any amount of tears or heartache, and Weiss was not going to look up.

"I can probably go over all the scientific parts about the formation of the moon and the origins of dust. You can probably get away with simplifying the explanations and we should have more than enough to finish the presentation and touch base on all parameters of the assignment. Provided that you understand everything we're going over. You can use any of my notes to prepare and I'll help you practice. The details in light blue highlights are mine and yours are in red. I've tried to make it as clear cut as possible."

"Weiss-"

"And it'll be okay if you talk fast and get nervous a little anyway, it's not like Professor Oobleck of all people can fault you for that-"

"Weiss, wait."

Unfortunately, Ruby was more keen than she often gave the girl credit for.

"Hm."

"Something's wrong." It wasn't a question.

Oh well. Weiss had wanted to clear the air sooner or later, anyway.

"...You're my partner, Ruby."

"O-Of course."

"So if you're going to tell anyone anything about last night-" Weiss hesitated. It felt like a deeply personal thing to be asking of her, somehow, partners or not. Or rather-

It was because this sort of thing felt like something deeper than their partnership. Weiss wasn't sure if she wanted everything that that entailed, but-

She knew she wanted to know, and that she cared for Ruby. So wasn't that enough?

She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. Weiss knew enough that she wasn't simply doing this out of a petty impulse to know about it before Jaune-if Ruby were to choose to tell him-it certainly hadn't helped that he'd approached and offered and schmoozed to Ruby to find out-

Jaune wasn't that smart. She was being paranoid. He was dumb, but genuine. Like a golden retriever puppy.

Okay, maybe she was more jealous about it than she wanted to let on, but still, her motives were sincere, and-

Maybe she did want to be closer to Ruby.

"Weiss-?"

She'd fallen silent for a little too long, and sighed in frustration.

"Weiss, I-I wanna tell you."

Weiss felt her heart jump into her throat. That was certainly sudden. She'd wanted to ask and put it out there but the reality of Ruby reciprocating was almost too good to be true. The younger girl was staring at the table and fidgeting with the wrapper of her sandwich.

"I just-it's..." She sighed and poked her straw into her milk, picking at the folded-down cardboard flaps on the sides. "I haven't even told Yang. I wanna tell someone, really, but-I'm scared."

"Scared?" Weiss stared hard at her, trying to gleam any information she could from Ruby's expression.

"When I think about it, I start to feel like I can't do anything. I just feel really weird and-" Ruby's voice was shaking and her eyes were wide, lips drawn tight as she fell silent. She closed her eyes, and when she opened them she seemed a little more at ease.

"I just don't wanna worry anyone-"

"Stop." Ruby blinked as Weiss leaned forward. "Ruby Rose. I am your team mate-your partner. And-" She hesitated only briefly. "-I am also your friend. And you're my friend. Too."

"Weiss-" Relief shone in every part of Ruby's posture and Weiss plucked the bitten cookie from her hand, regarding it with mild interest before taking a bite of it herself.

"So it doesn't have to be right now. But I hope that when and if there's something bothering you, just-don't take too long about it, of course, but also, I want-I want you to tell me first. I'm going to earn that right, so just, trust me. Okay?"

Ruby sniffled and nodded vigorously.

"Oh god, don't cry. Come on, take your cookie back-there you go." Weiss knew it wasn't about the cookie, but she still-

-lacked skill when it came to dealing with tearful people.

Was this a good idea after all?

It was too late now, first of all, and secondly-

-she didn't care. She wasn't taking a word of it back over her dead body.

She just wanted Ruby to talk to her.

"Yeah. Yeah, I-" Ruby sighed and wiped her eyes on her sleeve, "-I'd like that, maybe-maybe after the project is over with. I do wanna tell you."

"Good. Let's finish our lunch while there's still some time left, then. I tried your cookie, so, I think you're due for another cucumber stick-"

"Aww Weiss, come on! You already made me try one so we're even, right?!"

Weiss snatched Ruby's cookie and stole another bite before handing it back.

"Oh come on that's so cheap I can't believe you-!"

"At least you picked up an actual lunch this time."

"It was just because Jaune was in line with me, I never know how to carry a conversation so I had to grab other stuff to fill the space or something-"

"You're certainly doing fine right now, you know."

Ruby's cheeks colored and the blush went all the way out to her ears. "That's different." She insisted, slurping at her milk through the straw and looking away.

...

"Hey, Weiss?" Ruby asked as they packed up their belongings upon hearing the bell for class ring.

"What is it?"

"Have you ever... had a dream where you were falling?"

Weiss paused momentarily in her efforts to zip her bag, but then continued with a shrug. "Sometimes. It's pretty common from what I've heard. Why?"

"...No reason."