Explosions rumbled from somewhere else in the facility, and the corridor Ruby was sprinting down shook as dirt and dust fell from the ceiling.

Her world was shadow and flashing light, darkness and baleful red illumination bestowed by flashing sirens mounted on the walls. Alarm klaxons and the shouts of panicking White Fang members echoed down the hallway as Ruby's fellow hunters and the Guardsmen of Vale - its combination of army and special police force - pressed their attack on Cinder's hidden base in the mountains of Vale.

She put on a burst of speed and vaulted down another reinforced stone hallway, deeper into what she could only really describe as Cinder's secret lair. She was also lost. The hallways were a maze, a twisting, confusing warren of hallways, inexplicably empty rooms, storage areas filled with stolen dust and equipment, and guard outposts strewn with the bodies of unconscious White Fang members.

They were unconscious because she had already been to - and cleared out - each room she passed. She was going in a circle, and she was at the verge of breaking down. Because Cinder had Weiss.

She took a quick turn down a ninety-degree hallway junction, kicked off the wall, and flew halfway down the tunnel before skidding to a halt in front of an open doorway. She rushed inside and Yang and Blake looked up from where a handcuffed, gagged, and blindfolded Roman Torchwick sat, among the strewn bodies of Guardsmen and White Fang.

"Ruby, what the hell! Why are you back here?" Yang shouted over the alarms. "And where's Weiss?"

Ruby hesitated, stuck halfway between talking to her sister halfway between dashing back out of the room to look for Weiss. "I-I can't find her! I don't know how this place works, I'm freaking lost! We were chasing down Cinder but then Weiss rushed ahead and this big iron door slammed down but I saw Cinder use some kind of magic and knock her out before I could do anything but I can't find her and-"

Yang stood up and gripped her by her shoulders. "Ruby, you have to calm down. The Guardsmen and the other Hunters are spreading out through the rest of the base. They'll find her."

"You don't understand!" Ruby yelled. "She took Weiss into some kind of secret passage or something, no one's gonna find it and she's gonna get away and I'm never gonna see Weiss aga-"

"Ruby!" Yang shouted. "Shut up! For the last time, calm down and think. If she's going to leave and take Weiss with her, she has to have an escape route."

"And the Guard already seismically mapped all the tunnels," Blake spoke up. "None of them let out of the base except the one we assaulted through, and that's guarded. So she'll have to leave by air."

"Right," Yang replied. "And that means a secret hangar or something with access to the outside of the mountain."

Ruby stopped and took a deep breath. "Okay. Alright. Calm. So if it's open to the outside of the mountain, that means we can see it from the outside too. Blake, are all the Guard gunships the second strike team came in on still in the main hangar?"

"I don't see why not," Blake mused. "They should just be in a holding pattern."

Yang grinned. "There we go, now that's a plan. Grab a gunship and fly around the mountain until you see the secret hangar. Blake, you should go with her."

The faunus shot a wary gaze at their struggling prisoner. "Are you sure you can take Torchwick if he breaks out of those restraints?"

Yang stared at the criminal mastermind, looked thoughtful for a second, and then punched him in the face. Hard. He collapsed backwards and let out a groaning wheeze. "Well he's unconscious now, so yeah, I think I'll be just fine. And if he wakes up I'll just knock him out again."

Blake shrugged. "Fair enough. Alright Ruby, let's go."

"Ruby, promise me one thing," Yang interjected. "If you can't find her, just come back here and meet up with me."

"I'm not leaving without Weiss," Ruby challenged.

"I get it," Yang replied, "but please just listen to me. I know you care about her but if Cinder already has her she might be long gone, and we need to secure the rest of this place before-"

"I am not. Leaving. Without Weiss," Ruby growled as she strode out of the room.

She turned on her heel without another word, unslung Crescent Rose, and started sprinting down the corridor to the main hangar She didn't even check to make sure Blake was behind her.

Several twists and turns later she burst forth into the large, open hangar made of rock and steel. One whole end of the massive space was open to the swirling mountain air, while the space further in was full of platoons of Guardsman waiting to be deployed into the fortress. Several gunships had landed, while several more still hovered, filling the air with the droning whine of their engines. She walked past the temporary barricades covering the door, nodding a quick greeting at the up-armored officers manning it.

She strode to the nearest grounded gunship, a beast of an airship with angled wings like a hawk and several vicious looking rocket and chain-gun mounts. The Guardsmen in Vale were almost like a police force, but much better armed and much more well equipped. They were called in for the big threats that the regular police couldn't handle, and they were accordingly prepared.

The pilot of the gunship, standing in the open crew compartment along with his gun crew, held up a hand in greeting.

"What can I do for you little miss Huntress!" he shouted over the engine roar of the other gunships.

"I'm not really a Huntress yet, but- whatever that doesn't matter! I need to borrow your gunship!" Ruby shouted back. Blake suddenly materialized beside her, but Ruby wasn't surprised. The faunus seemingly had the ability to vanish and appear wherever she pleased.

"Borrow my Gloria? What in the world for?" he asked. She couldn't see anything of his expression because of the tinted visor covering his eyes.

Ruby decided on honesty as the quickest solution. "It's my partner. Cinder's got her, and she's taking her to a secret hangar somewhere in this base. We can't find it from the inside quick enough, but if we fly around outside and look..."

He nodded brusquely. "I get it. And the rest of the Guard is already busy clearing out the rest of the White Fang, so you figured you had to borrow a gunship."

"Well yeah," Ruby replied. "Look, my partner is really important to me. I have to find her."

"Well don't worry about that miss," the pilot replied. "Name's Tarl." He stuck out a hand, and she shook it. His grip was firm but not rough. He slapped the side of the gunship. "And this here's Gloria, my sweet mistress of the skies. She ain't ever let me down once. And these two ugly sons a' bitches are Orsk and Victor."

The two crew gunners nodded at her in turn. She smiled at them, and one of them actually smiled back.

Tarl turned to the gunners. "Let's go then boys, saddle up! Not everyday you get a special mission from a Huntress!"

Blake laid a hand on her shoulder. "I'm going to see if I can't find that secret tunnel Cinder took Weiss into. Be careful."

Ruby hugged her for a quick second. "You too Blake."

Blake looked almost startled, but smiled as she turned to leave. "I'll see you and Weiss soon."

"Yeah. You will."

"I hope," Ruby thought.

With that she stepped up into the crew compartment of the gunship, a cramped space halfway between the cockpit and the engines, with two large openings on either side of the gunship. Each opening had its own dedicated chain-gun, and each chain-gun was manned by one of the crew gunners. She grabbed a hold of one of the metal rails hanging from the ceiling and braced herself as the whine of the gunship's engines grew to an ear-splitting shriek.

"Here we go," Tarl's voice crackled from the compartment's speakers. "Hold on to something!"

"I already am!" Ruby shouted back.

The gunship rose into the air faster than she was expecting, turned a full one-eighty, and shot out of the hangar and into the freezing mountain air before she had the chance to fully brace herself.

"Holy crap this thing is fast!" she shouted.

Ten minutes later they were still searching. The gunship circled the mountain in wide loops, and Ruby shivered in the freezing air blasting into the open crew compartment as wind and snow whipped her cloak and hair about in every direction.

"What if they've already taken off and we're just on the wrong side of the mountain?" Ruby shouted to Orsk, who was manning the chain-gun next to her.

"Eh, we'd have picked them up on radar! These birds have state of the art detection suites, you don't have to worry about anything getting away from us," he shouted back.

Ruby nodded and continued scanning the steep mountainside for any sign of a hangar. A depression in the snow, a wide gap in the rock, an open space, anything that could tell her where Cinder had taken Weiss. The possibility that Weiss was already gone or killed was something she wasn't considering. She had to believe Weiss was alive. It was that or give in to despair.

The snow swirled into her eyes, blinding her momentarily, and she squeezed them shut. As she was brushing her eyelids clear of the snow she realized with a start that even if her eyes couldn't see anything, her senses might still be able to. She could feel Weiss' aura sometimes when they were close or when she were in danger, so maybe it would work now. She closed her eyes and shut out the sound of the engines, the howling of the wind and the sting of the whirling snow on her face. She reached deep inside herself and expanded her aura, searching for any trace of the cold blue presence that was Weiss.

She was almost overwhelmed in an instant. There were too many souls in the mountain. The aura of the White Fang defenders was colored with a bitter, burning anger and a black despair that came with knowing they would soon die. The Guardsmen burned with a motley of colors and emotions: the gold of valor, the red of rage, the silver of self-sacrifice and the noble purple of duty. So many souls, so many emotions, so many colors. Just when she thought she was going to be swallowed up in the overpowering mass of souls, she felt a familiar presence.

White mixed with blue, virtue and duty with honor and pride. And fear.

She snapped her eyes open, searching for the spot on the mountain where she could feel the presence the strongest. A patch of trees stood out to her. She had seen them on the first few passes around the mountain, but where they had appeared natural before this time she could see a pattern in them, as if they were man-made and artificial.

Just as she was about to tell Tarl to bring them in closer the trees started shaking. Snow fell in huge clumps from their boughs and blew around in a miniature hurricane, and Ruby's eyes widened as a jet black gunship rose from it. The thing was pure menace, vicious weapon mounts for teeth and racks of missiles for claws.

The mechanical whirr of Orsk's chain-gun spinning up snapped her out of her sudden fear. "Tarl! Ten o' clock, it's Cinder!" the gunner yelled.

"I don't see them on radar!" he replied.

"Well look with your fucking eyes then!"

"What are you talking- well fuck. They must have some sort of new stealth tech. Well they can't hide now, Gloria'll take em down! Weapons free boys!"

"Wait, Weiss is in th-"

Ruby's words were drowned out as Ork's chain-gun opened up, spraying a blinding stream of red-hot tracer rounds at the enemy gunship. The majority missed as Cinder's gunship immediately went into evasive action, but the few rounds that connected sparked and spanged off of its armor.

"Bastard's got reinforced plating too," Orsk shouted. "Gonna have to hit 'em with the big stuff boss!"

"I hear that," Tarl replied over the intercom.

"No wait, you can't!" Ruby shouted. "My partner is in there, I can feel her!"

The enemy gunship ceased its evasive maneuvers and turned to face them, and Ruby couldn't shake the sensation of being beneath the eyes of a hungry predator.

"Well sweetheart I can tell you one thing, it's either us or th-"

Shrill warning klaxons blared, cutting off the pilot and filling Ruby with a sudden terror.

"Missile lock!" Orsk yelled. "Brace yourselves!"

Tarl's voice was incredulous. "How the hell does that thing have missile lock so qui-"

The shrieking whine of incoming missiles cut off his final words, and Ruby's world dissolved into flame. The gunship broke up into several large pieces, and she was thrown out of crew the compartment and into the open air above the mountain. She didn't think; she didn't have time to. She was flipping and spinning and falling, but she still had the clarity to activate her semblance. Time slowed to a grinding halt, and suddenly she could see everything with perfect clarity.

Spinning fragments of metal spun by her in slow-motion, and the snow was spinning around her so lethargically that she could make out individual snowflakes in the morass. She twisted her head and found Cinder's gunship, still spraying rounds through the air and into the burning, falling wreckage of what had been Gloria. The rounds were moving so slowly that if she had wanted to, she could have plucked them out of the air with her hand.

She had all the time in the world now. As she fell in slow motion she extended Crescent Rose, pointed the barrel away from Cinder's gunship, and fired. Her downward momentum halted, and she could feel her stomach drop in micro-time as she was propelled towards the snarling black shark of an airship. Weiss was in there. She could feel her.

As she flew through the air she took a closer look at the gunship, looking for a weak spot or a vulnerable opening. It had two large thrusters on each wing, but they could only point up – making the gunship hover – or forward, making it fly in a straight line. The ability to turn seemed to be controlled by a swivel thruster on its tail, so that was what she aimed herself towards. The weak point.

To her, the gunship hung in mid-air. Even if the pilot had seen her survive the destruction of Gloria, she knew she was moving too fast for the human eye to track. A few more seconds passed in micro-time, and then she was close enough to the gunship to touch it. She pulled Crescent Rose back, preparing for a brutal swing with all of her weight behind it. She passed the cockpit, the wing thrusters, the main bulk, and then she was at the tail. She picked out what looked like the weakest point in its armor, grit her teeth, thought about Weiss, and swung.

She had chosen well. In slow-motion the blade of Crescent Rose sheared straight through itl, sending sparks flying and the entire tail section spinning away in the opposite direction. She knew the gunship would lose control without that thruster. But she wasn't in a good situation either. She was growing tired, her muscles felt heavy and her eyelids drooped. Sustained use of her semblance was shutting down her body, compressing all the energy she would have exerted from an hour of fighting into a scant few moments of time.

She released her semblance and time sped up. She heard a sharp whine as Cinder's gunship spun out of control and fell into a spiral of death, but all she could see was swirling white. She fell, fell, fell, and then hit the snow hard and blacked out.

She came to her senses, suddenly aware but not sure how long she had been lying there for. She dug numb fingers into the packed snow and pushed herself to her feet. Her ribs hurt, and she knew at least one was broken. That was good. Pain meant life. If you were past the point of pain you were dead already.

The world around her was nothing but swirling white. She couldn't see more than a ten feet in front of her thanks to the snowstorm, but she could still sense Weiss somewhere nearby. Her hands felt empty, and she suddenly realized why. She searched around frantically, feeling her heart thud a beat of relief when she found Crescent Rose half-buried in the snow behind her. She dug it out and picked it up, taking comfort in its familiar heft and weight.

She briefly thought of searching for Tarl, Orsk, and Victor, but she knew that she had only survived the blast because of her aura. They didn't have the luxury of a soul shield like she did, and she also knew with a bitter certainty that her actions had killed them. If she hadn't asked Tarl to hold his fire maybe they would have all survived. But then Weiss might have died. She shook her head to clear it. There would be time to feel guilty once her partner was safe.

She spun around, found the direction in which Weiss' aura was strongest, and set off through the howling gale. Adrenaline pumped through her body along with the thrill of her near-death, but her need to protect and save Weiss overrode it all.

She stumbled over a slight rise in the snow, slipped, and slid down it on her rear. She came to a halt and stood up. Flaming wreckage surrounded her, blazing pieces of black metal that flickered and cast strange shadows upon the snow. The wreckage of Cinder's gunship was in between her and Weiss. She was shivering and her hands were numb and unresponsive, but she brought Crescent Rose up in its rifle form anyway and held it in front of her. If anything jumped out, she would put a .50 caliber round right through it faster than it could blink.

With careful steps she moved through the burning chunks of Cinder's gunship: large, wrecked panels and engine fragments, some as small as her foot, some taller than her. She felt Weiss' aura draw closer and closer, but she also felt something else. Something that had taken great pains to conceal itself before, something that now blazed with a fierce black light.

Ruby knew that aura. It was Cinder. She had somehow survived.

She picked up her pace, but it was difficult because the snow swallowed her foot with every second step she took. The heat from the wreckage and the chill from the snowstorm played havoc on her body, making her sweat on one side and go numb on the other. She blinked tears out of her eyes caused by the whipping and howling wind. Then she stopped next to one of the wings of Cinder's gunship. It lay half buried in the snow like a jet-black wall. She could feel Weiss on the other side. She could also feel Cinder.

She took in a deep breath, trying to ignore the way it burned her lungs with its freezing chill. She glanced around the corner. Cinder was dragging Weiss across the snow by her hair, and the younger girl was struggling and scrabbling at the ground beneath her.

"Shut up!" Cinder screeched, barely audible over the snowstorm. "You stupid, bratty bitch! You're lucky your upstart father would pay a fortune for you, otherwise I'd end you right now!"

"Screw you!" Weiss shouted back. She looked exhausted, and Ruby could see a bruise over her left right eye. "He's not going to pay anything for me! He'll never give in to terrorists!"

Cinder stopped. Ruby held her breath, waiting for her moment. Her pounding heart wanted her to jump out from behind the wreckage and save Weiss as fast as possible, but her mind told her that would only get them both killed. Cinder was injured, but not weak. No, never weak.

"Actually, you're right." Cinder deadpanned. "Your father might not pay anything for you. If I know your father he'll put money before his family, and he can always sire another child, right?"

Cinder dropped Weiss, and the heiress gave out a sharp gasp and immediately struggled to rise. Cinder laughed and kicked her in the chest, sending her sprawling over on her side. She raised a hand and a fireball came to life in it, spinning and flickering with a baleful light.

"Seems the best thing to do is just kill you then," Cinder said. "You're just dead weight to me now."

Time seemed to stop, but it was nothing like when she was using her semblance. When she was using her semblance she had perfect clarity and vision, but right now she couldn't think.

Her brain was blank, but her muscles and nerves reacted as if on their own. She turned the corner, pivoted her waist, raised Crescent Rose, and fired. The rifle kicked into her shoulder as it had a hundred times before. It only took the space of a heartbeat.

An echoing shot drowned out the snowstorm for a split second, and then its reply was swallowed by the howling wind. Weiss had her hands over her head as if bracing for another blow. Cinder was frozen for a moment, then looked down. She moved her hand to the hole in her chest, as if expecting to still feel solid flesh. The fireball in her hand suddenly swelled and grew, and Cinder looked up at it frantically. She shrieked, and then it exploded a foot from her face and sent her flying backwards into the snow. Her aura blinked out. She was dead.

Ruby couldn't move. She had just killed someone. For the first time in her life, she had taken someone else's. No matter that it had been Cinder, no matter that the woman would have killed Weiss. A person's life was the only thing they had, and she had taken it away. She felt her knees buckle, but Weiss raised her head at that moment, and Ruby found suddenly that the only thing she could do at that moment was run to her partner.

She dropped Crescent Rose in the snow and tackled Weiss, who had just been starting to rise. The heiress shrieked and they flopped into the snow, but Ruby didn't care. She lay there in the bitter chill, holding her partner close. The older girl ceased her struggle, and Ruby buried her face in Weiss' tangled, snow-white hair. She held Weiss in like a deep breath, wishing this moment would last forever, wishing that Weiss would be safe and in her arms eternally.

"You dunce," came a gentle whisper.

Ruby just grunted and held her closer.

Later that night, Ruby stood by the window in her room at moon was bright and full and the night was peaceful.

After she had rescued Weiss, the Guardsmen had quickly found them with another gunship and delivered them back to the main group. Ozpin and the other Hunters had finished clearing the base out, and after hours upon hours of intensive questioning about the circumstances of Cinder's death, Ruby and Weiss were released back to Beacon. Blake and Yang were out and about, Weiss was slumbering peacefully in her bed, and all was calm and quiet. All that was, except for her thoughts.

She replayed the events over and over in her head. The way Weiss had laid in the snow, bracing herself for another blow from Cinder. The way the rifle had kicked into her shoulder. The feel of the stinging snow in her eyes. The look on Cinder's face right before the fireball had exploded. The dreadful shriek she had given right before she died. The crimson snow around where her body had fallen.

She had taken a life. She had killed someone. She had been in many fights before, but she had never deliberately killed someone. The worst part was that it hadn't even occurred to her to try and spare Cinder. She had shot her without thinking, without hesitation, without pause. Was it because of Weiss? Was seeing Weiss in danger and the thought of a life without her snowy-haired partner the thing that had caused her to do it? She had realized that one day she would probably be forced to kill someone, but she had always thought it would have been after long, careful deliberation, weighing the choices and consequences.

But when the moment had come there had been nothing. She had simply raised Crescent Rose and pulled the trigger. Ended a life. Just like that.

Her thoughts spiraled in on themselves, leading further and further down. Could she have saved Weiss and still spared Cinder? Was she a murderer? Was she a terrible person? Could she think about herself the same way anymore? She had joined Beacon Academy to become a huntress and save lives, not end them. Her palms were sweating and her stomach felt upset. She leaned forward and braced herself on the window-frame. Pale moonlight shone down on the courtyard and trees below, and she wondered if she would ever be able to sleep peacefully again.

"Hey," came a voice from behind her.

She turned, startled, and found Weiss standing a few feet away in her pale blue nightgown.

She rubbed the back of her neck. "Eh heh, hey Weiss! What uh... what are you doing up so late?"

The heiress joined her by the windowsill, leaning against it and gazing out at the courtyard below. "I couldn't sleep."

"Wha? But you were sleeping pretty soundly a few minutes ago."

"Obviously because I wanted to make it look like I was asleep," Weiss scoffed. "Anyway, stop trying to turn this on me. You're the one sitting here looking so glum and morose."

"Glum and..."

"Morose," Weiss explained. "It means downcast and thoughtful. Sad."

"Ah," Ruby replied. "Yeah, I guess. I dunno, I've just got a lot on my mind tonight."

"About what happened?"

Ruby leaned forward and flexed her grip on the windowsill. The wood was cool to the touch. "Yeah. I keep thinking about the crew of the gunship that helped me. Tarl, Orsk, Viktor, they were really good people. And I got them killed. And then what happened after... I just... I don't really know how to talk about it. Or even if it should be talked about it. I... I killed someone. Weiss, I actually killed someone."

Weiss glanced at her. "It's not like you didn't have a good reason," she mumbled. "And besides, some people deserve death Ruby. The world is a far better place without people like her, if you can even call her a person after all she had done."

"It's not that simple to me," Ruby groaned. "To me she was still a person. Sure she had lost her way and all that and done some horrible, horrible things, but everyone deserves a second chance right? I took that from her. All we have is one life to do our best with, so we can live and love and experience things. I think maybe she could have changed. But not anymore. I took her second chance. Or third, or whatever it was."

Weiss laid a gentle hand on her shoulder and turned her so that they were facing eachother. The white-haired woman stared dead into her eyes, and Ruby could see the determination and drive that had brought her this far.

"Ruby, listen to me. Those men knew the risks when they joined up with the Guard. Trust me, they wouldn't want you to feel sad about them. And... the only reason I can't sleep is because I'm trying not to think about how close I came to dying today. If you had been a second later it would all be over for me too, instead of just her. If you had hesitated just a second longer I..." Weiss trailed off, staring down at the floor.

"I wouldn't be here talking to you right now. You saved my life Ruby. You saved my life by ending hers. I don't know if one life is a fair trade for another, but I can only hope I'm worth more to you than she was."

Ruby couldn't help but follow the path of her words, couldn't help but imagine what this night would be like if she had hesitated. A empty room and a cold night alone. Never hearing her voice again, never seeing her smile, never talking to her or feeling her touch or...

She lunged forward and pulled Weiss into a tight embrace, overwhelmed by the simple need to be close to her. Her heart was pounding away in her chest and a strange warm feeling suffused her body, spreading from her chest to her arms and legs. This closeness with Weiss was almost overpowering, and she took a deep breath to try and hold the moment in. In the back of her head she realized that the feelings she had for her partner weren't normal, that they went far beyond what she was supposed to feel for a close friend. In that moment though, she didn't care.

"You mean so much more than she did," Ruby whispered, struggling to get the words out. "You mean so much more to me than anyone ever has. Please don't talk about not being here. It hurts to think about."

Weiss brought her arms up slowly and returned the embrace, then leaned in and rested her head on Ruby's shoulder. "Okay. Okay you dolt, I won't. And... thank you. Thank you for saving my life."

"It was nothing," Ruby muttered back. "I'd do it again in a heartbeat."

"A heartbeat? Really?" Weiss muttered.

Ruby giggled and pulled her girlfriend of almost five years closer against her chest, snuggling in with her on the couch in the living room of their home in Terser. "Yeah, I know. Pretty cheesy."

"I just can't believe you remember what you said back then."

"I remember pretty much every big conversation we have," Ruby replied. "I try real hard to remember them so I can replay them whenever I'm alone."

"I supposed I should feel flattered," Weiss deadpanned. She shifted and pulled her t-shirt down; the only thing she had on below it was a pair of white lace panties. "And you've certainly grown more used to... well, killing. How many times have you saved my life now?"

"Oh who knows, a few dozen probably. There was that first time with Cinder, then that assassin after you because of your family, then that Beowulf pack in the Emerald Forest, then that Ursa with the missing arm that you thought would be an easy fight, ooh, then there was that rabbit faunus in the theater back in Vale, and then there was that-"

Weiss twisted her head around and cut her off with her lips, pressing their mouths together in a forceful kiss. "Shut up you dunce," she whispered when she broke it off.

Ruby didn't reply, but instead pulled her girlfriend back in for another kiss. She wanted more. After recalling how many times she and Weiss had nearly died, she needed more. She grasped Weiss' hips and flipped her around so that they were facing eachother, Ruby with her back to the couch and Weiss pressed up against her. She probed gently with her tongue, and Weiss' lips parted for her after only a second of hesitation. Their tongues swirled and danced around eachother, and Ruby breathed in through her nose and gripped the back of her partner's head. Weiss tilted it to the side and circled an arm around her neck, and they were so close in that moment that Ruby's heart felt like it might burst. Being with Weiss like this, being this close and intimate with her made her so happy, happier than anything else did.

They had saved eachother's lives many times over the years, and the peril of it all only made her want to hold Weiss as close as possible for as long as possible. Their job put them in danger, was danger; their calling as huntresses had them risking their lives for others on a daily basis. It only made moments like these so much more precious. Ruby held on to each and every one of them as long as she could.

Weiss moaned gently and pulled her tongue back, inviting Ruby in. She eagerly accepted, plunging her own tongue into the open space of Weiss' mouth and licking and exploring as she pleased. The former heiress gripped the back of her neck and held tightly as Ruby claimed the former heiress' mouth as her own. At the same time Ruby slid her hand downwards, trailing her fingernails down her partner's stomach and stopping at her waistline. She broke the kiss for a split-second, just long enough to ask: "May I?"

Weiss nodded quickly, but then pushed forward and connected their lips again, like she couldn't bear to be apart for any longer than was necessary. Ruby could feel Weiss' heart thumping, and at the same time she felt their auras twist and overlap against eachother as they had so many times before. It was just as powerful and warm as the first time. She slid her hand into Weiss' panties and massaged her gently, moving in soft, slow circles as they continued to kiss. Weiss' moans changed to a higher pitch, becoming hitched and breathless as Ruby worked her hand just the way her partner liked it.

"N-Not fair," Weiss hissed, breaking the kiss for a breath. "You too."

The snowy-haired woman reached down and pulled her pajama pants off of her waist and down to her thighs, leaving her exposed and vulnerable. She hadn't been wearing anything underneath. The former heiress started rubbing her as well, cradling the back of Ruby's neck with one hand and massaging her sensitive center with another. Ruby felt a rush of pleasure that built like a wave, but instead of breaking kept building and building and building. It only got more intense as Weiss continued rubbing her. She was struggling to keep her end of the kiss up, but she did her best anyway, circling her tongue around the inside of Weiss' hot, wet mouth. Even harder was the effort involved in keeping her hand rubbing Weiss' slick womanhood in just the right way, but she somehow managed that too. Every time she drew back for a quick breath a strand of saliva hung in between them, but it was swallowed up when their lips inevitably came back together.

Weiss rubbed her in the perfect spot in the perfect way, and she squealed into the kiss and bucked her hips. She tangled her legs together with Weiss', crossing them and pulling her even closer. They rubbed and kissed and breathed and moaned, and after only a minute or two - she couldn't be sure of anything that wasn't the touch of Weiss' fingers - Ruby could feel the wave of pleasure about to break.

"Weiss," she gasped, "I'm gonna- gonna-"

"Not yet," Weiss breathed, "just hold on for just a second... okay, y-you can-"

Ruby squealed and let herself go, and the wave of pleasure crashed down and washed over her mind, whiting it out with sheer bliss. Her legs jerked against Weiss' own, and she didn't know how she was able to keep her tongue working and dancing with her partner's. For a few seconds Weiss was the only thing in existence; Weiss was her world. The warmth and softness of her skin, the heat of her touch, the smell of her sweat and the sound of her breath. Weiss was everything, and Weiss was hers.

She rode the high out until it let her down, and then she found herself face to face with a very heavily-breathing Weiss. She mustered the strength needed to lean forward and kiss her.

"That was... that was nice," she breathed when she drew back.

Weiss only nodded, then leaned forward and rested her head in the crook of Ruby's neck. Both of them were sweaty and hot with exertion, but Ruby didn't care, and her partner didn't seem to either.

They gasped and caught their breath for a few seconds, tangling their hands in eachother's hair and reveling in the intimacy of it all. Ruby could feel Weiss' pleasure as her own through their combined aura, and it only deepened the love she felt for the other woman.

Ruby tried speaking in a hoarse whisper. "Do you wanna try and make it to the bed or do you wanna just..."

"Here is fine," Weiss mumbled into her neck, tickling the skin with her still-wet lips.

Ruby giggled. She pulled her pajama pants back up, but one of Weiss' hands stayed down there, resting on her hip.

"Okay, we'll sleep here then. I've got to go in the morning anyway. Yang needed help with that hunt, and someone has to watch the house..."

"I know," Weiss sighed. "I'll wake up early with you and cook breakfast."

"That sounds wonderful." Ruby buried her face in Weiss' too-soft hair and took a deep breath. "Are you gonna miss me?"

"Dunce," came the reply. "Of course I will."

Ruby snorted. "I love youuuu~"

"I love you too," Weiss mumbled. "Now shut up and go to sleep. You're all hot and sweaty, and it's gross."

She couldn't help but notice that even as Weiss complained about the current state of her body, she pulled herself a little closer to it anyway.

"Such a needy little princess," Ruby chuckled.

"Call me needy one more time and I'll-"

"You'll what," Ruby interrupted, "make me sleep on the couch?"

Weiss sighed long and hard. "Yes. Fine. You win. Now sleep."

"One second," Ruby replied. She shifted downwards so that her head was pressed against Weiss' chest, then shifted their tangled legs into a slightly more comfortable position.

"Dolt, what are you doing down there?" Weiss whispered.

Ruby smiled and leaned into her. "Nothing. Just listening to your heartbeat is all. It helps me sleep."

Bump-bump.

Bump-bump.

"You're such an idiot sometimes," Weiss sighed, but Ruby could almost hear the blush in her voice. "Can you sleep now?"

"Yeah."

She would have to leave in the morning, and wouldn't see Weiss for almost a week. But that was in the morning. So for now she held her close, breathed in her fragrance, and listened to her heartbeat.

Bump-bump.

"I can sleep just fine now."