A/N:

Alright, new chapter time! More on the way soon! Enjoy!

Previously on Because Why Not?…

With an attack by the White Fang underway in Mistral, the staff of Beacon brief their soon to be graduating students on their final mission. As the top teams, CRDL is sent to defend Vale's parliament, JNPR is sent to defend the residential quarter, and RWBY is assigned Vale's airfield.

Back in Atlas, Weiss awakes to an assassination attempt which luckily only succeeds in rattling her nerves. As they leave to rejoin their teammates, they're met by a protest against the SDC in the lobby. Thankfully Winter is being collected, so Ruby and Weiss manage to leave with an unexpected honour guard.

"Ruby, wake up. We'll be there in about ten minutes." Weiss hummed gently into Ruby's ear before leaning over and laying a gentle kiss on her sleeping girlfriend's lips.

She felt Ruby stir as she could no longer breathe through her mouth and watched through half lidded eyes as Ruby's snapped open then closed again as her arms wrapped Weiss in a hug.

Weiss obliged Ruby when she moved to deepen their kiss, and quickly lost herself in how simply amazing Ruby felt against her.

Three years was what it had taken for Weiss to finally realize what Ruby meant to her, and in that time Ruby had become not only her best friend, or the partner she trusted with her life in combat, but also the one who seemed to know her hopes and dreams sometimes better than herself. Now she couldn't picture herself without the scythe wielder, and knew that Ruby felt the same. It was a fantastic feeling she had never had the opportunity to feel before, but she knew it was contentment that allowed her to simply let Ruby take control and guide them along.

"Best way to wake up, ever!" Ruby whispered as she pulled back from Weiss. A string of saliva still connecting them broke and Weiss snapped back to reality, wiping the remnants away from her mouth. A blush was quick to form on Weiss's face, but she simply coughed lightly as if she were clearing her throat before she swung her legs up and over Ruby's before she cuddled as close as she could, hoping Ruby wouldn't mind how tight she was holding her. Ruby placed a hand on her thigh and squeezed slightly as reassurance and allowed Weiss to nestle into her neck while she wrapped her arms around the older girl's shoulders.

Ruby gasped as Weiss gave her neck a soft nibble. It was the kind of thing that set Ruby's blood pumping as if she'd been sprinting, the kind of thing that they'd done together before everything went crazy. Before the mission and ball had done their best to kill them. Before the built up desire and stress led to a night to remember and one they'd rather forget. To Ruby, returning to Vale had already started to repair everything to the way it was before they'd last left. To Weiss, returning was simply the completion of the mission and a time to return to normal. To the way she wanted to be, not the person she always seemed to struggle with.

Except that wasn't really true, not entirely. Weiss had grown a lot over the past years, the past month especially, and Ruby couldn't help but see the subtle differences. It wasn't in her tone, it wasn't even in her eyes. It was just the way she'd do things like she was now, sliding into her lap and cuddling up with her without really saying why. It was like she knew Ruby and trusted Ruby knew her, so she didn't need to ask, which was fine with Ruby. It just saved them time and the slight embarrassment of asking in the long run.

Weiss slowly brought her face up to Ruby's, her crystal blue eyes drinking in the silver ones that met her. After a moment she opened her mouth to speak, only to be cut off before the words had begun to leave her throat by a blaring siren loud enough to drive a spike through her head, followed a second later by a flashing red light that illuminated the entire cabin.

The huntresses heads snapped up and Weiss swivelled back into her seat as they looked around in confusion right as the siren died and the craft lurched hard to the side. The metal shook with how it needed to fight the air. It flipped once then twice as the girls hung tightly to their seats while struggling to latch their emergency harnesses together.

Weiss was first, clicking hers into place and helping Ruby get hers clipped on. Right as they did, the craft stopped spinning and dove, losing hundreds of meters in altitude in a fraction of a second as Ruby and Weiss both felt their ears pop from the sudden change in pressure.

Another barrel roll followed in the opposite direction and a sudden turn gave the girls stomachs a twist as the negative gravitational forces tried to bring up their non-existent breakfast.

"Anti air on the north shore of Patch!" A voice came over the intercom in a pant as if the speaker was out of breath. "Taking evasive action!"

"Patch?" Ruby asked in confusion. "Why are we coming from the west?"

"I don't know, but by the sounds of it," Weiss fell silent, bracing herself as the craft shook as if it were about to fall to pieces. "We're going to have a hard time getting to the airfield."

"Why can't we ever have one trip where nothing happens?" Ruby complained as she gritted her teeth against the new forces that tried to make her throw up by pulling her body about by the inside.

"Why don't you ask them?" Weiss asked sarcastically, in an equal amount of discomfort as the craft shuddered again as it lurched to the right.

"Maybe I will!" Ruby shouted as the worst lurch yet jerked the craft. There was a flash of light and the ringing sound of an explosion going off far too close for comfort. Their shocked ears deafening anything else that either shouted, as their stomachs dropped out from under them as the world quickly started to fill with smoke and spin uncontrollably.

Weiss watched as the roof of the craft ripped off, giving her a glimpse of the sky and then the ground and ocean and then the sky again in less than a second. As they spun, more pieces ripped off the craft, giving them more to see such as a glimpse of bloody twisted metal that was most likely once the cockpit.

"WE LOST OUR PILOTS!" Weiss bellowed to Ruby as their hearing finally started to come back. The red light that was blinking finally lost power and Weiss could feel the pressure of the air return to something very close to what she knew was normal at ground level. "JUMP!"

Weiss unclipped her harness while summoning a glyph to keep her from being thrown from the wreckage. She turned to find Ruby still struggling with the harness. Ruby waved her to leave as Weiss drew her rapier from her hip, slashing the harness quickly while trying to keep the cuts she gave Ruby minimal. The cuts ended up shallow and almost instantly healed with her aura as her body slammed into Weiss's from the spinning craft.

Weiss caught her as the floor under her boots groaned one last time as the front half of the craft finished ripping itself apart. Weiss jumped as she saw a flash of blue that was brighter than the ocean, pulling Ruby with her as her air step launched her clear of the wreckage as it continued to fall the last hundred meters to the ocean.

The two held on tightly to each other as they tumbled through the open air. Weiss oriented herself quickly, keeping a hand on Ruby at all times as she summoned glyph after glyph that shattered on their impact, slowing them down bit by bit as the water below them rushed up at terrifying speed.

The wind caught what Ruby was yelling at her and blew the words away with a sound like a train rushing by, and Weiss just redoubled her grip on Ruby, pulling her into a hug as they hit the last glyph Weiss had time to make and Weiss's back made impact with the water as she projected her aura to take the brunt of the hit provided she survived landing on the water with the speed of a missile.

Weiss felt the air get forcibly removed from her lungs and her vision obscured and dimmed before she snapped her eyes shut as she plunged into the waves, her combat skirt flaring out and slowing her only meters from the surface. Ruby had been ripped from her arms and the salt water burned at her eyes as she forced them open again and looked around for any sign of red in the dark water.

No longer able to last without air, Weiss pushed herself to the surface, looking around at the rough waves for any sign of Ruby. Desperately, Weiss dove back down just as a pair of hands slapped her on the side, causing her to resurface just as Ruby came up next to her coughing and gasping desperately as her arms tried to keep her afloat.

"Ruby!" Weiss almost cried as she pulled her partner into a one armed hug for a moment before she realized they'd need to stop swimming first. Weiss summoned a large glyph beneath them and pulled it up to just above the water as they caught their breath, both tearing off a portion of their skirts to make the inevitable swim easier after their breathing started to return to normal.

"Where's land?" Ruby asked after a moment of laying still on her back, taking deep breaths, her eyes locked to the sky where the smoky trail of their airship was slowly disappearing.

"There." Weiss pointed, already feeling the severe drain on her aura from all the use it had gotten in such a short span of time, not to mention maintaining the glyph they rested on.

"Let's see." Ruby rolled over and pulled her weapon from her hip. She aimed down the scope and quickly did a calculation in her head. "We're about five hundred meters out. And on the east side of the island based on the boardwalk near the beach."

"Lets go." Weiss said as Ruby put her weapon back.

"Right."

The two jumped off Weiss's glyph as it shattered, sending them plunging back into the icy ocean. For about fifty meters, they simply swam until they were being pushed back by the current coming off the shallows.

"There's a rock formation that keeps the water flowing away on the surface here." Ruby shouted as she allowed Weiss to swim up beside her. "Dive under, just stay off the bottom and it should pull us past the formation and into calmer water."

Weiss nodded and Ruby dove. Weiss followed a second later after filling her tiring lungs with as much air as they'd hold.

The light dimmed quickly and the water cooled until the dim shade of red in front of her was the only guide as she felt a gush of warmer water rush over her from behind. Water clearly coming from the surface. That was when Weiss realized she was picking up speed, significantly. Her body raced to the bottom of the sea as the current pushed down on her. She fought to stay off the floor as Ruby had instructed, summoning glyphs here and there to push her one way or another. After two or three adjustments, she found herself leveling out from the turbulent currents as she was propelled forward even faster, staying barely half a meter above the rocky bottom.

Weiss wondered how far she'd travelled after almost a minute as her lungs fought for her to take a breath. She kept holding on, trusting the red in front of her to keep moving and start surfacing soon. All she hoped was that they would be able to surface sooner rather than later.

Suddenly, Ruby's legs bent and her body flew upwards, Weiss following a second later, mimicking the angle of Ruby's body as she felt the water push her up and out of the strong current.

Weiss broke the surface, her entire body down to the waist raising out of it before she settled back into a tread where Ruby was panting and waiting for her. She shook her head to clear her eyes of water and smiled as Ruby coughed from smiling at her just as a larger wave splashed into her face.

Weiss swam forward, passing Ruby as Ruby moved to follow. They were now within two hundred meters from the shore, so they just kept swimming, conserving as much of their energy as possible.

They swam and swam and swam some more, no longer fighting the current, but instead the waves that were growing progressively larger and more dangerous as they got closer to the beach. Weiss felt her recently healed muscles complain and could see Ruby's own pace slow slightly as they pushed through their pain to continue moving forward.

At about fifty meters, Weiss tried and felt the rough sand touch her boot. She thanked whatever gods there were that this seemed to be a swimming beach, so it was at least free of most of the more disgusting things one might find in the sand. She pulled Ruby to slow her down and together they kept moving, touching the sand as they allowed their muscles to cool down from overexertion.

They reached the shore some time later, still gasping and soaked to the bone from the chilly spring ocean. Weiss collapsed on the first bit of sand that wasn't getting hit with waves, and Ruby landed next to her a moment later, resting her head on Weiss's flailed arm.

They both coughed and choked on air as their lungs finally started to regain their usual amount of oxygen, and Weiss noticed movement coming from the boardwalk. Weiss had no energy left to fight, and was relieved to see who she recognized as Ruby's father among the trio that was approaching.

A man with blond hair froze as his two associates kept going, kneeling next to Weiss and Ruby and asking if they were injured while still taking their pulses. Weiss pushed herself up to a sitting position, and assisted Ruby in following.

"Ruby? Weiss?" Taiyang asked incredulously. "You… where's Yang? Blake?"

"Not…" Ruby's voice failed as she fell into a coughing fit, sending either some swallowed ocean water, or a portion of her lunch to the sand next to her.

"They're in Vale." Weiss rasped as she massaged her sore and freezing throat.

"Thank god!" Taiyang sighed as he scooped both girls into a hug before shouting back to the boardwalk where there were four more people looking on. "We'll fill you in on what's happened already, and then Qrow and I'll need your help. The White Fang has taken Patch, and we're going to take it back, but you two need to rest up."

Weiss and Ruby were ushered into a building that must have been a restaurant during the summer. The floors were full of sand and made of weathered wood. The bar alone looked pristine with fresh polish and a spotless marble top. Cots were set up, holding three men and two women who had bloody bandages covering their wounds. Weiss and Ruby were each given a blanket and a cot, as well as a thick towel and a bowl of hot soup. Taiyang went around the injured as the other two who'd assessed them at the beach went to talk to the others who were sitting at a table near the entrance. Each of them were outfitted in heavy armour, and eyeing the weapons that were leaning against each end of the table as they spoke in quiet voices.

"Take a rest, girls. It'll be nightfall soon and you had a hell of an arrival." Taiyang said, resting a hand on each girls shoulder as he guided them away from the injured to the cots at the end of the row.

"Thanks, Dad." Ruby wrapped her arm around him for a moment before stepping back. "But before we rest, can you tell us what's happening?"

"Ah…" Taiyang sighed while rubbing the back of his neck in a very Jaune-like fashion. "That's a bit tough to say, but what we know is that the White Fang came on boats from the west. There were hundreds of them packed into a dozen or so boats, all armed to the teeth. Luckily, that kid that lives at the end of First Street was going by when he saw them all making land. We were able to evacuate everyone we could to Vale before they set up their anti air weapons on the northern shore. Only a couple people in the medical building couldn't be moved too far, so they were moved here. Luckily, nobody has been killed yet, but I don't know how long that will last since Ozpin has told Qrow to get the AA guns down as soon as he can. Problem is, the White Fang are better equipped, have their fortifications blocking most of the island, and a boat to attack from the water will be noticed long before it gets there. Along with that, they seem to have some sort of radar set up as the boat carrying supplies to us from Vale was sunk by using their AA as artillery. We also don't have enough people so I have no idea if they've moved into the town proper."

"And we're stuck on this island, useless and distracted, when they attack Vale." Weiss finished, not needing any more information to understand the situation.

"Is Uncle Qrow here?" Ruby asked hopefully, looking around over her father's shoulder.

"He's out at the moment getting a bit of tactical information. He should be back in a while though." Taiyang answered. "To be honest, if it weren't for him, we'd all be dead already. But get some rest. We'll fill you in on the details of everything in the morning."

"Alright Dad. Do you mind if we put up that divider though?" Ruby asked, pointing to the metal wall that had probably been used to cordon off private sections of the restaurant before it turned into a field hospital and outpost.

"Sure thing, I'll even help you." He said as he moved over to the large sheets of metal and started pulling them over one by one, clipping them into slots in the floor as he went, making a small but spacious room for the two girls. Once he was done, he looked at his handiwork and the remaining pieces of divider. "You know, if you want your own rooms, I probably have enough to set up a second room."

"No thank you, Tai." Weiss said with a smile, knowing his offer had been directed at her. "I'll share with Ruby like always."

"If you're alright with that." He shrugged in response. "I have to get back to the others, so I'll see you two in the morning."

He left them and returned to the injured people on the other end of the restaurant, leaving them to enter the small room and close its door to the others. Inside the room was a pair of tables and two small cots that were actually just sheets wrapped over pillows. Weiss felt her wet skin freezing even in the warmth of the room and looked over to Ruby who was also shivering.

"Clothes off?" Ruby suggested with a nervous smile.

"Definitely." Weiss didn't wait for Ruby to respond and started stripping her soaked garments as fast as humanly possible. Weiss picked up the towel she'd had wrapped over her shoulders and dried off as best as she could with it as Ruby did the same. They both finished, exchanging glances that easily told the other the lack of warmth gained from drying off.

"Beds?" Ruby asked as she uncomfortably shifted as if she weren't sure whether she should cover herself or not. "Together, or-"

"Together. I'll hang our clothing." Weiss replied with a nod, keeping her uneasiness hid much better than Ruby.

Weiss busied herself with hanging their cold garments over the chairs at the tables, hoping that they'd be dry by morning. Behind her, Ruby pushed the beds together and re-wrapped the sheets so it changed from a pair of small beds to one medium sized one, still barely large enough for the two of them, but Weiss suspected they'd be doing a lot of cuddling in the night.

"Get in." Weiss said as Ruby turned around. Weiss placed their weapons against the wall near them and followed Ruby, slipping under the covers and wrapping Ruby in a hug as their legs tangled together. Even Weiss could tell that Ruby was just as frozen as she was from the clamminess of Ruby's skin on her own. The air in their cordoned off room was steadily warming up as their breath was added to the restaurant's heating, but even so Weiss felt herself start to shiver as the numbness slowly retreated while she slowly warmed up.

"I'm-m f-f-freezing." Ruby shivered, hugging Weiss closer as Weiss returned the embrace.

"M-me t-too." She replied as her own skin started to prickle as it slowly thawed. The thick blankets covering them felt amazing as the fuzz tickled their skin, wiping away the cold the more they shifted and shivered against each other.

Weiss was still freezing after a few minutes, and Ruby had shown no relaxation to her chattering teeth, but the blanket was slowly helping. It just wasn't fast enough for either of them, and before either noticed what they were doing, their lips had locked in a desperate embrace, attempting to find heat in any way possible.

Weiss tasted Ruby's mouth as Ruby returned the favour. Weiss thought that even their mouths felt freezing, as she tasted the remnants of salt water that still remained in her partner's mouth. She knew Ruby was tasting the same thing in her own, and redoubled her efforts, moving her hands up and down Ruby's body while Ruby mirrored her.

Slowly Weiss started to feel warmer, but it still wasn't enough. She felt exhausted and had a feeling Ruby felt the same with the way she seemed to slow down and speed up as if she were nodding off every minute or so. Weiss moved her hands lower in an attempt to get Ruby to wake up and was rewarded with a gasp as her fingers found Ruby's rear.

Weiss kneaded the flesh she found gently and Ruby quickly returned the favour, causing her to gasp as she realized how they were rubbing their nude bodies against each other, even if it was for the sake of warmth.

Weiss considered continuing further, but relented as she realized she didn't have the energy required to do what she wanted at the moment. She instead moved her hands back up around Ruby's lower back and moved her mouth to Ruby's shoulder, kissing and licking and occasionally grazing her teeth against the soft inviting skin. Ruby in turn latched onto her own neck and suckled gently as if intent on leaving a mark. Weiss didn't mind too much, again feeling the relief of being free from the life she'd been forced to live up till that point.

It was a slow process, warming up with someone as frozen as yourself, but Weiss felt a wave of calmness wash over her as she relinquished Ruby's neck and moved her head to look at the girl clinging to her. As if sensing Weiss's stare, Ruby pulled back after one last nibble that sent a pleasant shiver down Weiss's spine as she looked into Weiss's eyes.

"Hey." Weiss whispered, noticing the lack of stutter in her voice that had existed dozens of minutes ago.

"Hey." Ruby replied, her eyes glistening as she slowly approached Weiss. Weiss's eyes closed and her head tilted to meet Ruby's lips, pulling her close as their kiss lingered longer and longer.

After several long moments, they parted to stare at each other. Their eyes simply drinking the other's in as they stared. Ruby smiled at her serenely and gave her nose a small peck before settling down and pulling Weiss closer to her. Weiss didn't have any objection and wrapped her legs around Ruby's as if to ensnare her.

"I… I know I've said this before, but I'm really happy you're my partner, Weiss." Ruby mumbled into her hair as Weiss started to slowly drift in her exhaustion.

"I love you too, Ruby." Weiss replied with a small yawn. Her eyelids were weighing heavier on her by the moment and she wasn't sure how much longer she'd be able to stay awake. "You know…"

"Hmm?" Ruby hummed at Weiss's statement as the whisper fell off.

"I was just thinking… we have a pretty good record of surviving things that should kill us, don't we?" Weiss was being serious, but Ruby couldn't help but laugh a little at the observation.

"Yeah, you'd think being a huntress would be full of action enough as it is, then you get us two." Ruby laughed as she continued her thought. "A mission for us hasn't ended unless there's at least one complication, a highly lethal and rare grimm, a call for the cavalry, an attempted assassination, a plane being shot down, a severed head, and at least two emergency surgeries."

"It's been a wild ride, alright." Weiss agreed. "But you know what else?"

"Hmm?" Ruby asked again, the mirth in her voice gone as if taken on the wind. Weiss smiled at the feeling of Ruby's bare skin below her hands and squeezed her partner ever so slightly, and feeling a squeeze in return.

"I think I like cuddling with you. I feel relaxed right now, even if I shouldn't." Weiss sighed as she nuzzled into Ruby's neck and planted a small peck on her collar.

"I'm happy you feel that way, Weiss." Ruby smiled into the top of her head. "I feel like I could sleep forever with you here."

"Mhmmm…" Weiss hummed as she closed her eyes. Ruby had started to brush her fingers through her hair, and it felt like she was melting off the face of the planet as she drifted.

Ruby felt herself slowly succumbing to the exhaustion as she brushed her hand through Weiss's hair. Despite all that had happened, and all that would undoubtedly follow, she knew that as long as Weiss was with her, everything would work out. So it was with a great sense of peace that Ruby's consciousness faded to dreamless sleep.