She didn't even realize they had fallen asleep together until she heard Weiss the next morning, angrily calling out her name. Pyrrha's arms wrapped tighter around her waist, sleepily mumbling something against the back of her neck, and Ruby only had enough time to think oh no before Weiss pulled aside the canopy on her bunk. Light slashed in. Wincing, Ruby pulled the covers over her head, trying to sink into the mattress and maybe turn into something small, like an ant. Or a dust mite.

"Honestly, Ruby," Weiss started, showing no mercy and yanking the covers down. "It may be the weekend but that is no excuse to stay in bed till noon when you know we have tr—"

She felt Pyrrha stiffen up, suddenly awake as Weiss stared down at them, mouth agape. Ruby cleared her throat. Pyrrha's arms whipped back, her whole body now a chaste distance away.

"Heyyyyyyy Weiss…." Ruby said, eyes desperately looking for some sort of escape. "What's… what's up?"

Weiss shut the canopy without another word.

Welp.

Stifling her giggles, Pyrrha clapped both hands over her mouth as Ruby turned around to give her the most aghast look she could muster up. "Oh my god," she said under her breath, burying her face against Pyrrha's shoulder as she continued to shake with laughter. "Oh my god, Pyrrha, shut up. Shut up, shut up."

The door slammed loudly, making them both wince. They looked at each other then, torn between guilt and giggles for a few more seconds before Pyrrha lost it again, a rude "pffffftthahahah" tearing from between her lips.

"I'm sorry, Ruby…" she said once she got control of herself again. She pulled the blankets up over her so that only her eyes showed, still creased from mirth. "That was awkward, and all my fault. I'm so sorry."

"It's okay, it's okay," Ruby assured her, pulling up the edge of the blanket to crawl underneath again, linking her arms around Pyrrha's neck to snuggle close. She tucked her head underneath Pyrrha's chin, sighing deeply at the feel of her body so close, and so warm. "It's not like we were doing anything bad. I think we just surprised her, is all. She'll get over it."

Something hard and plastic jabbed at her ribs; making a face, she shifted aside to see it was her portable gaming system. They had been playing all night with their headphones plugged in, curled up together. They must have simply passed out at one point before Pyrrha could bring herself to leave. She found her headphones tangled up under the pillow. To her eternal dismay, the soft earbud on one of them had popped loose, and she couldn't find it in the sheets. Crawling over Pyrrha to check the crevice between the wall and the mattress proved equally fruitless. "Oh man," she whined, showing it to Pyrrha. "Check this out. This is what I get for sleeping with them on, I guess. I don't even know where yours might have disappeared off to."

Taking the headphones, Pyrrha drew the cables through her fingers. Fiddling with the blunt end, her lips curled down in a frown, eyebrows tensing together. "Want me to get you new ones?" she offered at once, blurting it out and taking Ruby's hands between her own. Their hands caught together in the cables, twisted.

Ruby gave her a look.

"What?" she started, avoiding eye contact. Digging out the handheld they'd been playing on together, she toyed with it, moving it up and down on its little hinge. "You got me this Playplace—"

"Playspace," Ruby corrected her, pointing at the name on their toy. "It's a Playspace, Pyrrha. It's the newest model too, see?" She closed it shut, stroking one finger along its case. "Only the new ones have this cool red streak on the outside."

"Well," she said, "You got it for me, and I still don't know how to repay you."

Flushed, Ruby rolled her eyes. "What? No way. It was actually sort of… selfish! I needed someone to play with. And you know, you didn't— I mean, you don't even know what a Playspace is. It'd be a crime if I didn't enlighten you." She widened her hands, fingers flaring out dramatically. "A crime, Pyrrha!"

Her hand slid up, to touch Ruby's shoulder, thumb stroking along the strap of her tank. Ruby's face immediately lit up. Though the touch was innocent, and they'd spent the better part of the night in a mess of sprawled limbs, something about the way Pyrrha looked at her just then made her more aware of their proximity. While they were comfortable in each other's personal space if they happened to fall that way, this felt deliberate. Like the difference between the times Pyrrha stood at her side on the firing range, critiquing her stance, and the times when she stood directly behind her to hold her arms, positioning them correctly. But she would always linger too long afterwards, her chest pressed against Ruby's back and her grip tight on her forearms. Her lips on Ruby's ear, murmuring instructions as Ruby would try to focus on anything except the sight of her biceps, close enough count the tight, shiny scars that crisscrossed her dark skin.

"Is that so?" she said, here and now, and Ruby realized she was staring at her.

Ruby's throat bobbed. "…Yeah!" she squeaked. "I needed. A Playspace buddy! And you're my girlfriend." Looking her in the eyes proved to be too much. Fiddling with Pyrrha's Playspace again, she opened it and closed it, the hinge squeaking in distress. "And I have this game where you can build a little avatar and make a town and visit each other, and I wanted you to visit my town because you're not really good at games but this one is super cute and easy and—" she drew a sharp breath, chest hitching as Pyrrha tucked a hand behind her head, fingers coiling through her hair. "—Maybe later I can ask dad to mail me one of the bigger consoles and we can play some shooting games cause I think you'd be good at that— though, I mean, you're the kind who gets motion sick from first person games, so maybe that's not the best idea after all. An-nnd— nnnhnn—"

Pyrrha had been grasping the back of her neck, rubbing it fondly, but she paused when Ruby let out a strangled noise. Ducking her head even lower, Ruby tried not to embarrass herself any more than she already had, the entirety of her face red as her cape. Her breathing came out in short bursts, face scrunched up in humiliation. "Sorry," she whispered, the rapidfire squeaking hinge of the Playspace only getting faster. "I'm being weird."

The room felt too stifling, the blanket covering them now clinging uncomfortably from the sweat that built up on Ruby's body. "Are you okay?" she asked, gently closing one hand over Ruby's, forcing her to stop before she broke the toy.

The truth was, she wasn't sure. There were times when it felt like Pyrrha was just like any other friend, someone she could laugh with and share secrets with, someone she trusted. And she did trust Pyrrha, it was just— she just didn't understand it when things shifted like this. The line between friend and girlfriend grew sharper, pressing between her ribs until she couldn't even breathe. If Pyrrha kept touching her like that, she risked melting into some unrecognizable puddle on the floor.

The door slammed again and they darted apart. Pulse pounding in her ears, Ruby lay rigid as she heard Yang's footsteps, recognizable to her even in her sleep. If Yang pestered her the way Weiss had, there was no way Ruby could pretend there was anything innocent about what had just been going on up here— even if, technically, nothing had happened at all.

Locking eyes with Pyrrha again, she waited for Yang to get whatever she was looking for and leave. There was a terrible moment when she was afraid Yang wouldn't leave— clutching Pyrrha's hand, she held it tightly as no more sound came from below. And then she heard her footsteps again, headed towards the door. It opened. Closed.

Ruby breathed again. Noticing she was still holding onto Pyrrha's hand, she let it go quickly, and they regarded each other from across the small space of the mattress.

"I should probably go," Pyrrha said at last. "I didn't mean to spend the night."

"Yeah," Ruby agreed, a bit too quickly, so she added, "I had so much fun, though. With you." Sitting up and swinging her legs over the side of the mattress, she let them dangle, already thinking about maybe taking a walk around campus. Something to clear her head. "I like being with you so much, Pyrrha."

In response, Pyrrha pushed aside her short hair to kiss her once, on the nape of her neck.

It felt the way molten gold looked.

I have to make her something, was all Ruby could think, dizzy and exhilarated. I should make her something. I bet I could craft a necklace. Or should it be practical? Would she like a multi-action knife better?

She hardly felt it when Pyrrha gave her a squeezing hug around the shoulders, hopping off the mattress. "Bye, Ruby," she said with a sweet smile and a farewell wave. "I'll see you later."

"Bye," she said back, faintly.

Bracelets, she decided. Matching bracelets.