"Suck in your stomach."

"Sucking in my stomach." Ruby announced before inhaling a deep breath of air and puffing out her rosy cheeks.

Weiss rolled her eyes. Standing beside Ruby, Yang was also holding her breath. It caused her chest to be an even more prominent feature. Ruby glanced down at herself, and not for the last time in her life felt bad for Yang's back. Weiss took her spot beside Ruby and sucked in her own breath. All the meanwhile Blake watched from a computer chair at her desk, a bored expression on her face. She studied the three of them for a moment, then sighed and turned back to her keyboard.

"Nothing has changed. Yang is still bigger than Ruby, and Ruby is still bigger than Weiss." She told them.

They all let go of their breath at the same time. "Woo! Told you guys that it wouldn't make a difference!" Yang cheered, bouncing her way to Blake's side triumphantly.

"At least I can run, you boob!" Weiss spat at her, and Ruby snorted.

"C'mon, Weiss. You know what we should do? Go for some pizza." Ruby suggested, trying to keep a smile off her face while looking at Weiss' reaction. Unlike most people when they were angry and their face got red, Weiss' turned pink and blotchy, a fact that everyone liked to point out when possible.

"No! I want Yang to apologize for her constant heckling!" Weiss demanded, stomping a foot on faded green carpet. The effect was lost on the deviant blonde, who stuck a challenging tongue out at Weiss. "Ooooh!" Weiss growled, balling her pale hands into tight fists. Ruby stifled a giggle at the sight.

"Weiss, you're my friend, right?" Ruby asked.

The question made Weiss blink. "Yes, I think so. Why?"

"Then you'll come with me, to get pizza, and not fight with my sister?"

Weiss turned her gaze defiantly back to Yang, who had cocked her head and was flashing a marvellously antagonizing and innocent smile in Weiss' direction.

"Ooooh!" Ruby said, repeating Weiss. "Yang, stop it! You're making her angry and she's too small; she'll get tired too fast!"

"Hey!" Weiss protested, turning on her heel to poke Ruby in the shoulder. "You take that back!"

Ruby threw her hands up in the air with a great sigh, the action causing Weiss to step back in case of being hit by one of the flailing limbs. "See what you've done, you big dummy! Now she's mad at me too! You're the worst big sister to ever be!"

Yang snickered and leaned down to whisper something in Blake's ear. The other girl quietly giggled.

"What's that about?" Weiss asked suspiciously, to which both girl's shook their heads. She sighed and glared uselessly at the duo.

"Now do you wanna go get pizza?"

"Fine. We'll go out and eat pizza and not bring anything back for them. Nothing!" Weiss threatened. Yang and Blake only laughed some more. "Hmph! Come on, Ruby." Weiss said, stalking out of the study and into the small living room.

"Yeah. Hmph!" Ruby copied Weiss, and flashed both Yang and Blake a quick grin behind Weiss' back. They returned the smiles, and then Yang made a rude gesture at Weiss, who was facing the opposite direction. Ruby scowled darkly at her and left the room.

"They're terrible. Absolutely unforgivably terrible." Weiss said, exasperation evident in her tone. Ruby nodded her head, chewing on a mouthful of meat lover's pizza. "I mean, it's one thing to bring it up once in a while, but they're terrible."

"Absolutely unforgivably terrible."

"Exactly, and- hey, wait! Ruby, don't be a dolt." Weiss sighed, taking a delicate bite off the tip of her own pizza slice. Ruby giggled and rubbed her hands on a napkin.

A silence lapsed over them. Ruby stared down at her black and faded jeans, cupping her hands in her lap. A boring pop song played on the radio, drowned out by the endless drone of voices in the mall's food court.

She was stuck with a conundrum. She wanted to spend some time alone with Weiss; as much as possible. However, the amount of time that could be squeezed out of their lives to be together as a group, much less together in pairs, was often small, with Weiss attending to matters dealing with her father's business, Ruby still getting through university, and Blake being a reporter as she was.

Yang just did Yang things.

The business of their individual lives put a strain on their relationships, particularly Ruby's relationships with Blake and Weiss. She never had to worry much about Yang. That was a good thing. With finals coming up, and Weiss soon having to leave for Atlas on a yearlong trip pertaining to the Schnee business, Ruby was scared that this would be one of the last times she saw Weiss for a very long time, and perhaps forever, if life dictated it to be that way.

Ruby huffed in annoyance and kicked the leg of her chair.

"That was uncalled for. I don't remember the chair doing anything to you, after all."

Ruby looked up and blew a strand of hair out of her face. "It didn't." She said, putting an elbow on the table and resting her chin in her hand.

"Uni stress?"

"Nah."

"Oh. Then, what's the kick for?"

Ruby sighed and slumped in her seat, pushing her bottom lip upwards past where it should normally sit. "I thought the chair should be kicked."

Weiss' expression flattened out. "Ruby, you're doing it again."

"Doing what?"

"That!" Weiss said, pointing at Ruby's face. She twisted her face into one of confusion.

"What?"

Weiss sighed and rolled her eyes. "You're a dunce..." She muttered under her breath, though Ruby still caught it. "You're being detached."

Ruby stared at Weiss in mild shock. Was she really being that distant that Weiss Schnee would notice? And was she that way so often? "Oh. Erm, sorry."

Weiss' expression turned soft. "Ruby, are you alright? I imagine life has to be pretty swampy lately, what with finals and all that coming up. Is there trouble at Vale U?"

Ruby shook her head, laughing. The idea that there was trouble in the University was ludicrous. "Are you kidding me? It's really great. People there are awesome. There's lots of cute guys and gi- er, yeah, and uhm, I'm doing really well and I'm not that swamped up or nothing!"

Weiss took another bite of her pizza, chewing it slowly while her cerulean eyes bored deep into Ruby's. Ruby swallowed under the intensity of the stare, fighting hard not to get caught up in the dazzling depths of her sparkling irises.

"You're worried for the future." Weiss stated confidently, and Ruby bowed her head in submission.

"Yeah, I s'pose. It's gonna be really big out there."

Weiss nodded sagely in an understanding manner. "It will be. But you won't have to worry too much. You've got a very rich friend should you ever run into trouble."

"It's got nothing to do with money," Ruby said, waving her hand, "it's like, you know. By the time I'm done with school, things are going to be way different. Like this; do you ever think we're going to be able to go out for pizza again?"

Weiss sat back in her chair, looking down at her single slice. She had a troubled expression on her face, emulating Ruby's own worries. "I doubt it would happen nearly as often." Then she looked up with a shrug. "But that's life. It goes on."

Ruby blinked. She was... She didn't know. She wasn't able to process the brutal dismissal. It was stinging, burning. Her chest seemed to constrict around the left side of her body. "I-I mean, yeah, life goes on, but it's just that it really sucks that it does, don't you think?"

Weiss conceded with a nod. "It's not fun, knowing our friendship is likely coming to an end. But I've had time to come to terms with it, you know? And for your mental well-being, I suggest you do similar."

"But I want to cherish it, and, you know, live every last minute of it enjoying it!" Ruby protested, struggling against the pin pricks in the corners of her eyes. "You're important to me, Weiss! You're like, my best friend!"

"I'm probably your only friend." Weiss said with a half smile. The joke made Ruby give a little ha, but nothing more. Weiss frowned and started twisting a bland silver ring on her pinkie finger. "Ruby, you're obviously very special to me, as well. Of course I care for you."

Ruby nodded, taking a breath to combat the growing anxiety. "Duh!" She said, with an anxious giggle. "I mean, it's not like just because we're never going to see each other again or anything that we can't stay in touch, right?"

Weiss nodded, looking relieved. "Exactly. There's nothing to worry about. You're simply overreacting over a silly matter, as you often do, I might add."

"But what if that's not enough f-for me?" Ruby asked, biting back a hiccup. She didn't know what made her blurt the question instead of accepting the escape net that had dangled just beneath her. Instead she'd jumped off the other side of the cliff, and the water was rushing fast towards her.

Weiss frowned with sad eyes. "Ruby... You'll be fine. It may be hard for the first little bit, but you'll get close to another friend, eventually find a boyfriend or something, find your passion job and it'll be enough."

The world seemed muddled to Ruby, who sat back in her seat and stared with wet eyes at Weiss' half eaten pizza slice. The audio of the surrounding area was muted, and all she could hear was the pounding of her head. Her cheeks suffused themselves with her blood and her chest tightened to the point where she thought her ribs were going to break, and her stomach churned.

"Ruby..." Weiss breathed sadly.

Hot wetness stained her skin and dripped silently against the fabric of her jeans. Ruby blinked, shocked. Then she laughed loudly and shook her head, desperately wiping the tears away. "I-I'm crying in a pizza joint." She said with disbelief, still chuckling. Weiss' chair scooted as she pushed away from the chair and came to help Ruby out of her own chair. Ruby had to fight the urge to throw herself into Weiss and wrap her arms around her. Her base instincts cried for it, but she denied them.

"Come on, we're going to get you some air." Weiss muttered.

"M'kay."

Ruby walked as close to Weiss as she could without it being awkward. Weiss didn't seem to mind, even making it easier on Ruby by making no signs of recognizing her nearness.

Alas, but I curse this crush. Ruby thought melodramatically.

"I don't have to be anywhere until tomorrow afternoon." Weiss assured her. They were back at Ruby's and Yang's place, enjoying the empty coach and milkshakes.

"M'kay, good." Ruby said around her straw. She was curled up in a shared blanket with Weiss, leaning into the slightly older girl against the arm of the coach. They were watching The Fellowship of the Ring, Frodo and co. Having just made it to Bree. Weiss usually didn't go for such things, neither cuddling nor fantasy movies, but she was obviously enjoying herself right now.

After Ruby's episode, they'd equally decided to go home, but first, milkshakes. There was nothing awkward in the air between them, and Ruby had never appreciated Weiss so much. She kept smelling Weiss' thick, exotic perfume, and kept thinking about how warm and huggable she was. It kept making her smile. She tried not to think about anything else.

Therefore, it was hard for her to pay much attention to the movie.

After about midway through, when the two of them had got drowsy enough, they'd stretched out along the length of the couch, cozying up. Ruby was content, if not sore in the heart. It was a wound, but a bandaged wound. It still needed to be disinfected and stitched up, but she could ignore it for now.

Weiss yawned, adorably so, and nuzzled Ruby's cheek with her own. Ruby didn't know if it was purposeful or not, but she got the fuzzy feeling anyways. "Ruby, you're not going to cry on me like that again, right?" Weiss asked playfully, her cheek rubbing against Ruby's with the movement of her jaw.

"Nah. Maybe. I mean, the day you leave for Atlas, expect the waterworks, you know? The whole shebang, there goes the dam, time for a tsunami."

"Hmm." Weiss hummed, and sighed. "Between you and I, I'm not exactly excited to leave Vale for so long. It's just unavoidable."

"You don't want to miss me, huh?" Ruby said, and Weiss conspicuously poked her hard in the ribs, making Ruby squirm and giggle.

"No, I suppose not. I don't want to miss anyone here, but most of all I think I don't want to miss you."

Ruby giggled at the admission, frustrated when her face grew unwarrantedly hot. "Gee, I don't know what to say. Keep that up and you may be able to sweep me off of my feet."

"Right." Weiss deadpanned, and Ruby imagined her rolling her eyes. "Anyways, I just wanted that out there. We're missing the movie."

The screen suddenly froze as Ruby hit the pause button on her remote. "You can continue if you want."

Weiss sighed, flattening out and rolling her head off of Ruby's. That side of her face felt cold and strange, now, and the feeling made Ruby frown. "You're making this complicated, you know that?"

"How?" Ruby asked, going to sit up but being held down as Weiss put a hand on her shoulder.

"Just... stay there. And just lets drop the conversation now. We're good now, both of us, let's leave it at that."

Ruby didn't have the energy to disagree with staying lied down, so instead she flipped over to face Weiss, who jumped at the sudden reversal in Ruby's position. "Weiss, we should talk about it if you feel like talking about it."

Gosh she's pretty right now. Ruby thought, blinking. Even when she was borrowing from Blake's introvert wardrobe of ratty clothing, Weiss looked like she came straight out of a playboy's magazine. Ruby forced herself not to stare or think about Weiss' lips, as nice to look at as they were. A perfect balance between thick and thin, seductively glossy, so appetizing to look at.

Ruby swallowed.

Weiss huffed and looked away from Ruby. "I don't feel like talking about it, Ruby."

"I bet you want to."

"I don't."

"You totally do."

"Bah!" Weiss grumbled, and Ruby flinched, then giggled. Weiss gave her an irate look. Then they stared at one another for awhile, silently carrying on a conversation neither were aware of. "I just... I thought about it, and I just had to express that in this time of parting and confusion as it is, that you mean more to me than any friend I know. I just want you to understand this perfectly and clearly." Weiss rushed through the words, and Ruby was oblivious to the growing shade of blotchy pink on her face.

"Oh. Well, you know, thanks... I'm glad. I'm kind of, you know, the same way. No one else would have put up with my gross crying like you did."

"I want to hold on to this. This, this normalcy, this basic, fundamental easiness." Weiss admonished, and Ruby blinked. "I don't want to be a corporate god, regardless of the fact that I can fit the role perfectly well."

"Yeah but, you're good at that-"

"I'm good at being with you, Ruby. You, and Yang, and Blake. I find that, the more my sister goes on about her great archaeology finds out in Vacuo, and the more Blake and you and Yang approach life and reach for the things in life that make you happy, rather than successful, that I don't want to be break the cycle."

Ruby bit her bottom lip. She wanted to latch onto Weiss' words and help cement that thought, that idea in her friend's, her crush's, head. As selfish as it would. "I say... Whatever you think you should do, Weiss." Ruby said. It seemed ludicrous, anyways. Weiss was the next in line to inherit one of the largest companies in the world. No way she could throw it away on a whim; that wasn't Weiss.

Weiss sighed, and caught Ruby's eyes. There, Ruby found herself swimming in Weiss' icy pools, lost in color that had no shore to wash up on. The only possible saviour would be for her to spit Ruby. "I don't know, Ruby. I want to do many things. I don't know what I should do, which is the problem. You should understand that, I imagine."

"Do I?" Ruby asked, quietly. She only half heard the statement.

Weiss nodded, a constricted movement against the resistance of her current position. "I was told a while ago by Blake that life is a lot of decisions, that in the end, don't matter. I didn't know how to take that," Weiss said with a chuckle. Ruby furrowed her brow; it seemed pretty pessimistic to her. "But after some thinking, I came to the conclusion that it meant that if in the end our life, our decisions, don't matter, what's the use in not making the decisions that'll make us the happiest during such a meaninglessly long period of time?"

Ruby frowned. She really didn't understand all of it, or whether it was supposed to be a good thing or not. "So..."

"I think that me and Blake agree on our beliefs, at least." Weiss said with a smile. "Ruby, I don't know what it is that I'll end up doing, but..."

"But?" Ruby reiterated, growing uncomfortably hot as Weiss' voice slipped slowly into a lower, more heated tone.

"But I really, really want to stay here. With you. Here, on this couch, instead of going to Atlas where I'll just sit at a table full of unlikable and bitter people for a year straight. I want you, and this, Ruby. And I understand how you felt."

Ruby was confused. She didn't understand. If Weiss felt this way, why hadn't she talked about it before, at the food court? She wasn't mad, or anything... Maybe a little. But she was mostly confused.

In conclusion, she didn't understand. "I don't... What?"

Weiss sighed. Ruby pulled her hand back with a start when she felt something brush against her fingers, but then she realized it was Weiss' own hand that was grasping her own. The random contact was dazzling to her senses.

"Ruby, there's no rhyme or reason for me to stay, but if you can give me a reason to, I will. Because I want to! I want to experience the greatest things in life that I hold dear, not what my father deems important. I want a reason to want these things, I want to..." Weiss laughed, then, cynically. "I don't think I'm making much sense, to either of us."

Ruby's lips were stretched in a thin line. She didn't know what to say, or think, or do anymore. She thought she understood what Weiss meant, but how could she be sure? How could she know what to say? Part of her longed to turn back around and un-pause the movie.

Weiss' eyes sparkled, and Ruby saw her reflection in them. "Ruby, say something to me. I'm baring myself to you pretty openly, and I'm not even drunk to forget it."

Ruby gave an appreciative ha at that, grinning softly. "I dunno what to say, Weiss. I think it's... A huge thing to say. It would be brave to throw all that away, I think."

Weiss shook her head. "That's not what I need you to say, Ruby."

Ruby twisted her face in confusion even as Weiss gave her hand a squeeze. "Weiss, I don't understand."

Weiss guided their hands to sit between their faces. Their fingers were intertwined, curling and bringing their palms together perfectly. "This. Say something about this."

Ruby's breathing quickened. "I mean, Blake and Yang had their suspicion, and were constantly telling me that it was fine and that you would feel the same and that I should do it anyways and just see what happens but I never actually believed them, you know?"

Weiss stared dumbfounded. "Ruby, I missed all of that."

Ruby nodded, and took a steadying breath. "Yes?" She crossed her toes and her free fingers and hoped.

Weiss gave no signal for several heart-stalling moments, then pulled her hand away from Ruby's.

"Wha-"

"Ruby, just... Sleep with me? I want to go to sleep."

Ruby was crestfallen, but hopeful. Oh, she was hopeful. "O-okay."

They had to get up and rearrange the couch and remove the back cushions so there was more room for two full bodies. Weiss got beneath the snuggle blanket first, and when Ruby tried to get in beside her, Weiss attached their hands together, rubbed the calf of Ruby's leg with her own, and hummed contentedly.

Several thirty minutes later, Ruby was still staring up at the ceiling, contemplating philosophical questions as she tried to puzzle out Weiss.

The rich girl in question simply slept peacefully, her breath hot and wet on the bare skin of Ruby's neck. Her snoring was quiet and high pitched, like an easily ignored itch.

And Ruby embraced that, no matter what, she didn't want to let Weiss go. If she had to, she'd handcuff Weiss to her bedpost.

"You're gonna experience everything important to you." Ruby whisper promised. She had thought of keeping it in her head, but the words had needed to be spoken out loud. It felt more tangible that way.

Unable to sleep, she focused on feeling Weiss' heartbeat against her arm, our the vicelike clutch she had on her hand, or the whisper of the stray few strands of Weiss' ivory tresses that tickled her shoulder, or the fuzz inducing feeling of their jumbled legs.

And Ruby hoped.

Hi. I dunno if this is going to be followed up on, or left as a oneshot. It works as a oneshot. We all know how it goes, after all. I just stayed up all night writing this. Bah. I'm smart, and my head totally isn't making it hard to create coherent thoughts. Do enjoy! And no, nothing about this is realistic. It's fluffy fluff.