god save the

To be completely honest, Ruby didn’t really understand fencing. Like at all. She’d tried, really she had! The previous night had been spent almost entirely on reading up on it and watching matches online in an attempt at comprehension. As it stood, she understood it probably about as well as she did football. Which was only slightly more than rugby or croquet, which were not at all.

But that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to cheer louder than everybody else! Even if she thought it was fancier than a sword fight needed to be.

Fighting her way through the crowd as they’ll made their way towards the restrooms or concessions, Ruby was determined to wish her girlfriend good luck one more time while the games took a brief intermission or seventh inning stretch or halftime break. Whatever you called it for fencing! She didn’t stop pushing until she’d finally made it down to the barrier separating the crowd from the athletes, standing as close to the blonde as the officials would let her.

“Weiss! Weiiiisss!!”

@schncc

Weiss had been practicing for months. She had prepared herself for this, over and over again with her fencing coach. Prepared herself mentally, physically, emotionally, conditioning herself into peak form ─ as if she was ever out of peak form. This felt good, though, it felt like this is where she was supposed to be. Even as she could feel her phone vibrating in her locker, two hundred yards away, her father on the other end of a call that she didn’t want to receive, she felt good. 

Even though she knew it was going to be hell to pay for taking up fencing for Yen Sid instead of her home planet. She could already feel the stab wounds that would come from her father’s words.

She had done good the first few rounds, three won to one loss, it was good odds on her part. For a break out star, she was doing just fine. Coming to the end of the hallway, she smiled at those who spoke to her, a ring of voice that had been cheering her on. The daughter of the Schnee Dust Company fencing like a commoner didn’t go unnoticed. She heard a voice cut through the crowd, Weiss offering her girlfriend a polite smile. They were in front of the press, after all. 

“You get to know a part of the plan!”

Grinning ear to ear, Ruby took a half step away from the blonde, pulling out the envelope as she did so. This was the moment of truth, either Weiss would think it was cute, setting the day up for success, or she’d be annoyed that it was so much more than just a gift and some cake at home, and all of Ruby’s hopes for ‘Best Girlfriend of the Year’ were out the window.

“We’re gonna do a scavenger hunt!” Holding the envelope level in front of her belly, just like she’d seen the host of Price is Right do every time she’d stayed home sick for the past two years, the redhead paused to allow the narrator to speak, or much more likely, Weiss to object.

“Inside this envelope is a clue to the first location, where you’ll find the next clue, and so on and so on…until we get to your gift! I hope you have you thinking cap, because to ensure no cheating, I’ll be holding onto your scroll!” Holding out one hand for the mentioned device and the other to offer the clue, Ruby was proud of herself for not making it sound too rehearsed no matter how many times she’d practiced in front of the mirror.

“A scavenger hunt...?” Weiss would not have guessed that in a thousand years. Two thousand. Maybe in the third millennia she would have been able to guess that this was coming, but she still couldn't promise herself that. It’s not that it didn’t sound fun, it was just that she wasn’t prepared for it. But once the envelope was in her hand, she couldn’t stop the grin from taking over her features, ready to embark on whatever adventure her love had planned out for her on this day.

Reaching into her back pocket, the heiress handed over the scroll before opening the envelope. Shifting eyes read over the scrawled words, doing her best to simultaneously dissect this without over thinking it. It was a simple set of words, obviously something that her girlfriend had come up with herself and Weiss felt her heart soar in her chest. 

What had she done to deserve someone willing to do this in her life?

“Weiss!”

Tackling the blonde with a hug, Ruby stopped just short of knocking her to the ground. A bruised butt was no way to start off a birthday after all, and she was determined to make this the best birthday Weiss had ever had! As long as she could control herself, and Weiss was every bit as smart as Ruby thought she was, things would be perfect!

Smiling up at the older girl, Ruby was glad she’d chosen to laugh off her attempts at singing. She knew she was awful at it. She liked to think she could scream with the best of them, but asking her to hold a tune without hurting her throat? Impossible. She wouldn’t have even tried if it weren’t tradition, but at least Weiss had appreciated it.

“Are you ready for the best birthday of your entire life?!”

Ruby didn’t really have much competition to outdoing past birthdays, the Schnee household not being the best at birthdays. They were too full of family dinners that felt less and less like family as each year passed. In the early years, Winter and her mother had done their best to make each year more special than the last, but that only lasted for a little while, time lapsing back into the sad silence that came from dinner parties without guests. 

Weiss wasn’t going to mention that to Ruby. Not today. Today was going to be a good day. It was going to be her birthday and she was going to enjoy it and for once she wasn’t going to think about the white and red target crudely painted on her back if things went wrong.

“I’m ready.” She laughed the words as she caught the weight of the girl in her arms, having to counter balance to adjust to Ruby’s solid core. “Do I get to know the plans or is it a surprise?”

Using the same breathing exercises she’d use before a big game, Ruby stood outside her girlfriend’s apartment doing her best to act like she wasn’t worried in the slightest about how the day would go. Given that she was a nervous wreck and her train of though on the walk over had been spiraling through one worst case scenario after another, mild panic at the front door didn’t seem so bad.

She just had to keep telling herself that everything would be fine. The envelopes were all in place, including the first one in her pocket. Blake was ready for her part of the plan, and could be counted on to follow through flawlessly. The only person she knew more meticulous than Blake was Weiss herself, but given that she was the recipient of the surprise, and it was a stealth mission, Ruby felt pretty confident in her decision.

And Yang was right. Weiss would love it no matter what, because it was from her. And Weiss loved her. She’d put a lot of thought into the day, and that’s what counted.

Hopefully.

Clearing her throat, the redhead fired off a quick knock on the door to announce herself before breaking into song, doing her best not to break any glass or cause any ears to bleed.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOUUUUUU~”

@schncc

Weiss had been planning on spending this birthday the way that she had spent the ones that had come before it. Alone. Or maybe with a few friends over, just get the gang together for a little something. Didn’t much matter to her, she didn’t care for her birthday. All it usually did was remind her of the youth that she didn’t get to enjoy. She had a feeling that this one was going to be different though, if only because of the fact that she had Ruby. That girl had way too much of a habit of going above and beyond when it came to... just about anything. 

Weiss, however, did not expect to be hearing her girlfriend sing from the other side of her apartment door as the heiress hurried to it.

The threw it open just in time to hear the last two of three notes screech through the air, wincing for dramatic effect. It was awful, truly, but it didn’t matter. She had never really understood the saying It was the thought that counts until she had spent enough time with Ruby to see her do things that she wasn’t good at for the sake of Weiss. Like walk in heels. And sing. She laughed at the girl’s antics, not able to hide the smile that came forward. 

Feeling her hat being lifted, Ruby struggled to get a good scowl going and maintain it, fighting as hard as possible against the smile already tugging at the corner of her lips. It was too much like when she was a little kid, trying to pout over some imagined slight, and her mom would poke and prod while telling her not to laugh until Ruby broke into giggles. And it had worked every time, darn her!

Plus silly Weiss was really hard to resist.

“Shushshh…” Hard as she tried, Ruby finally lost the battle, smiling at the blonde before turning away. She was not sweet. She was nice, the redhead was modest but knew herself well enough to allow that descriptor, but otherwise she was just awkward!

“No!” Whirling back around, the younger girl latched onto Weiss’s wrist, worried she would just get up and walk away. It was hard enough finding time to be together without some stupid slip up on Ruby’s part calling it an early night, “Stay…”

As a Schnee, Weiss was used to being steered clear of. She was not to be bothered by the people around her, they would treat her like what she was, the wealthy off spring of a feared man, the pride of a corrupt soul, the voice in a silent room ─ made only of melodies and cold smiles. It went without saying that no one dared to lay a finger on the daughter of a man that had taken lives for less.

This lead to a more than touched starved individual, Ruby’s fingers latching around her wrist like a life line and the heiress wondered if she could run. If she could actually do it. If she could make it far enough for her father to never find her, just start up a business of her own, make it honest, make it good.

Ruby was looking at her, wild and free, pleading with her not to go and she knew that she could do it.

“Of course I do! Who woul-” The laugh caught her off guard, and the redhead realized this was one of those time her uncle had always warned her about as a kid. The times where dad was wrong and there were laughing at her, not with her.

At least Weiss wasn’t being malicious…

But ugh! She hadn’t really meant Weiss in particular, just an in general kind of thing! They were complements friends paid each other! Yes, she thought the blonde was all of those things, but that wasn’t anything to tease over! Pulling her hat lower, Ruby fond herself wishing for one of those old fashioned traveling cloak with a hood, something she could hide in.

“Weiiissss,” Arms crossed and slumped low in her seat, Ruby would fight anyone who accused her of pouting. Or sulking. Or moping or brooding. This was a perfectly acceptable response to the older woman’s barbs, “You’re worse than Yang!”

Weiss leaned forward and clipped the brim of Ruby’s hat with her finger, successfully pulling it up slightly. “Hey, no need for that. You’ve very sweet.” She was teasing, being playful, both things that were not very becoming of a lady of her stature. She was supposed to be aloof, serious, ready to defend at any point in time. But with Ruby, she didn’t have to be any of those things. 

“But, I mean, if you truly think that my company is unbearable, we could always cut this meeting short.” Weiss was joking, but she felt a pang in her chest. If the woman before her did want to cut it short, to give away the time that they had together, then she would not argue. 

That didn’t mean that she wouldn’t be mad at herself for causing the premature separation.

“I thought you could afford anything?” She may not have the same quick wit as Yang, another of the many things her sister had inherited that seemed to skip the younger sibling, but every now and then she managed to pull of a joke she could be proud of. Ruby wished she could retell it to her dad, but she was pretty sure he’d be too hung up on the Schnee part to laugh.

“Just friend things, yup,” The redhead was trying her hardest not to lose her cool, biting the inside of her cheek to keep the word vomit at bay. It was a losing battle at the best of times, but with Weiss, she may as well have been waving the white flag from the start, “Friends are supposed to compliment each other! Smart, sweet, pretty, ya know? It’s totally a normal thing!”

Oh God, why? They had moved on already! The conversation was flowing and the Universe, and she’d hoped Weiss, had been content to let her awkward misstep go forgotten. Was it too late to fake a sunburn, claim that she’d been on some stakeout at the beach? That was believable, wasn’t it?

Probably not.

The woman’s words were enough to elicit a chortle from the heiress. Yes, good one. She should be able to afford anything. She had enough money to do anything that she pleased, as long as she never laid a toe out of line. 

“So, you think I’m sweet?” Weiss laughed. “Sweet, smart and pretty, wow.” She had heard the last one more times than she could count, but it felt different in this moment. Like Ruby didn’t want anything in return for the word, she didn’t want a night on the town or a moment of Weiss’s time that she wasn’t willing to give. She called her pretty because she meant it and Weiss’s cheeks tinged the slightest dusting of pink.

“In a friend way, of course.” Just two girls having a secret meeting on a bench in the middle of a park as the sunset over the city. Just two fiends being dudes. Just two gals being pals. Weiss let her gaze fall back onto the tomato that had become of her companion and she couldn’t help the small smile that took residence on her face. She was adorable. 

In the most innocent of ways. 

For a cop, that is.

Oh thank God, she was going with it. Ruby doubted the blonde bought it for even a second, you didn’t survive her life by being that level of dumb, but she was grateful to leave it where it was. 

Out west…well that was a heck of a lot closer than Ruby’d been thinking. Europe had always been her secret dream. Somewhere far, far away from all this chaos, where she’d never have to worry about running into someone from her past. Never have to hear them accuse her of being a quitter and giving up on the people.

“It could…I mean, you’re smart,” She didn’t want to push it, knowing that going to far would probably just make the other woman angry, and who knew the next time they be able to meet up like this? But she just hated how resigned Weiss sounded, like she really did have zero control over her own life, and her own hopes and dreams just didn’t matter.

On the sad scale, that was right up there with Yang’s arm and mom.

“If anyone could do it, it’s you.”

Weiss shook her head, as if she could just shake this thought away. As if it wasn’t something that had plagued her for months, as if she wasn’t thinking of it when she fell asleep at night and when she woke up in the morning. She had things that were expected of her, and she couldn't leave that alone. She couldn’t run from her problems. If she did, who would take care of things?

Her father. But that wasn’t the point. 

She couldn’t do it. 

Could she?

“I can’t afford to think like this.” A sigh escaped tired lungs. She bowed her head into her palm, shaking her head against her hand. Without returning the girl’s gaze she had a soft smile on her face. “Thank you though. For letting me imagine it. To think of what it would be like to get away from all of this.” She brought her gaze back up to meet Ruby’s. 

“So, you think I’m smart?” She was. Exuberantly so, but that was besides the point. “As in how a friend thinks a friend is smart, like how a friend would protect another friend if say the friend left across country and the other friend followed them? Just friend things?” She had thought that she was going to let it drop, but hey, she surprised herself sometimes. 

As much as she’d miss her family, more and more lately Ruby would catch herself thinking about just dropping off her badge and weapon, walking to the airport, and never looking back. It’d be better if she could get them to come with her, but Qrow and dad could take care of themselves. And Yang, she wasn’t even sure if the blonde would let her help.

 “I’d protect you…” The words were out of her mouth before she’d even thought them, her eyes bugging out as she realized what she’d said. In all her years of embarrassingly stupid situations she’d gotten herself in, this was the one that would replay every night as she tried to sleep, she was sure of it.

“I mean, cuz that’s what friends do, ya know?” Why couldn’t Weiss have just kept staring ahead as she’d been doing, and never notice how impossibly red Ruby’s face had gotten? Let her get out of this with a shred of dignity still intact. Instead she’d turned just in time for the redhead to make a fool of herself.

“So uh…where do you think you’d go?”

Her chest felt tight at Ruby’s words, but in a good way? The detective was flush, cheeks rosy and Weiss smiled though she couldn’t really figure out why. It just seemed like the right thing to do in this moment. Between them. They were having a moment. 

“Yeah.. That’s just what friends do.” She was going to spare the woman, more than willing to end the moment prematurely because she didn’t like to think of where it was going.

Ruby’s next words were enough of a distraction to allow her to leave it all behind. 

Weiss thought of all the places that her father had taken her, but at the end of the day, they had all been tainted. She didn’t want to go anywhere that he had touched, didn’t want to think of the places that they had shared memories, though she thought it might be because of the suppressed fear that he would be able to find her there. She wanted to go somewhere that he could never touch, somewhere that she had never been taken by him. 

The laugh, as beautiful as it was, could only be described as bittersweet. The noise itself was musical, and Ruby counted it as an achievement whenever she was the cause, but not over something so darned depressing. Weiss should be living a safe, comfortable life surrounded by people who cared about her. Not whatever it was her family and business had her involved with. Not that Ruby knew what that was, she’d turned it down every time the Schnee case had been pushed toward her.

“I mean, as I can be, I guess…” Which nowadays really just meant she wore a bulletproof vest round the clock. Even know she could feel the sweat pooling at her lower back from the added layer. That and a few more locks to her front door, not that it’d really help if someone was serious about going after her.

Mostly it just helped her sleep at night.

Why did it have to be so difficult to strike up a conversation? Why couldn’t they be two normal women able to talk about their families and their jobs?

“You ever just…I dunno, wanna run away?”

The thought had crossed her mind more times that she would care to express, the hankering to jump aboard the next train and just never look back. She could take what she needed, enough cash to get her where she’s going but not enough to have her father tracing her down with blood hounds. That was a joke in itself, the harsh reality that she was never going to be able to escape the vice grip that her father had around her neck.

But she looked forward and sighed, shaking her head as the cicada buzzed sweet nothings into the summer air. August. The month of her birth. Only a few days ago and Weiss bore the broach that was given to her by a man that she did not want to marry, hanging as limply as her spirit in this city here today. 

“Too dangerous to have thoughts like that.” Yes. Just say yes. Please, just tell her that you want to run away, just say it. Say it. She won’t tell your father, you weren’t followed, just fucking say it. “That’s how you end up dead. Or worse.” She shook her head, bowing it low, resting it on the palm of her hand, perched on the back of the bench as she turned her body more towards the woman. 

The longer they sat here, the safer it felt. No one had caught them. Another one safely met.

Good. That was…good? Yeah, good. Sure, she’d have liked to get more than one word in response. She could thrown an ‘I’m’ in there first and boom, word count doubled. Still, she’d learned to take what she could get whenever Weiss was concerned.

“Oh, uhm good,” Except for the increasing pressure from the higher ups for a big collar, the rampant corruption even within her own department, her uncle running an illegal speakeasy, and her sister’s growing alcoholism, “It’s good too. Zwei learned to play dead.” So at least it wasn’t all bad. There were some days it felt like that little dog was the only thing going right with her life.

“You’re…I dunno, you’re staying safe, right?”

The fact that Zwei learned to play dead was both an adorable act and a reality check that Weiss didn’t want to think to hard on. How often did her associates have to fake their own demise to live another day? This was not something that she wanted to think about when in the company of this woman, 

Ruby’s concern was comforting in a way that Weiss wasn’t quite sure how to process. It settled in her chest, rooted in the fact that they could still have these meetings every once and a while. 

“Safe.” She laughed, light and true, something that sounded like church bells and funeral organ all wrapped into one. “I’m careful. That’s all I can give you on that.” She cast a sideways glance at the woman beside her, for the first time taking her in. 

She looked good. Fit, well kept, and the jacket was becoming of the young cop. 

The young cop. By the gods, what was she doing here, with a cop?

Ruby fought back the smile at hearing the other woman say her name. They were just two people who happened to be sharing a park bench. They definitely didn’t know each other, she certainly didn’t consider the blonde a friend, and in now way whatsoever did she have dreams about her that polite society wouldn’t approve of. Nope, no sir. Just two women on a park bench.

Idly scanning the comics section, the redhead relaxed into her seat just a little, unbuttoning her coat as she did. The fact that she could relax at all was something of a miracle. No matter how she wanted to think of it, she was willingly sitting next to a criminal, and without metal bars or an interrogation table between them. Both of them would be ruined if they were found out. As terrifying as the thought was, she couldn’t stop seeing Weiss.

She needed to help her.

“How’ve you been?”

A loaded question. They both knew that she couldn’t discuss the comings and goings of her company, just as she would never ask for Ruby to spill details on someone in lock up ─ though she had almost asked just that when some of her men were taken, before she realized how impossible of a situation she would be putting the redhead in.

“Good.” She could give that much, give her something at least. “Things have been looking up lately.” She smiled, once against, nothing more than a blip, but something that could defintely be picked up in her tone this time. 

After making sure she hadn’t been followed, Ruby’s first ten minutes in the park had been spent watching and waiting, making sure the same could be said of the blonde. Whether they were an involuntary tail or people purposely brought along, the detective wasn’t taking a single step toward the woman if she wasn’t alone.

After those ten minutes, where the most deviant thing she was witnessed was a dog owner leave the pet’s mess behind, Ruby sighed as she straightened up from her post. Smoothing out the imaginary wrinkles in her suit, the redhead walked as casually as possible; neither too fast or too slow, without purpose but a clear direction. Without so much as a word, the younger woman took up the spot next to her on the bench, unfolding the newspaper as she crossed her legs.

“Afternoon.”

Weiss didn’t look to the person that took the seat beside her, instead opting to continue to watch the way that the leaves blew in the mid summer breeze. The last thing that she needed was for someone to get a photograph of her mid conversation with someone holding a newspaper for the god’s sake. How more suspicious could that be without the headline simply reading Rat In Central Park. 

Maybe she should have brought a newspaper too. Would have at least made this look a little less like she was here to talk over some rather touchy subjects and more like two women catching up on the news. 

They were in a secluded portion of the central forest any how, but that didn’t make the hairs on the back of her neck not salute.

“Ruby.” A single word, carried by a well formed syntax, sharp and concise with it’s flow. “It is good to see you.” She spoke forward, as if talking about the weather. Or the flowers. Or anything really. While the words sounded good, the smile never reached her tone, or her face really. Just a small blip on the radar. Something that could be missed by anyone who was watching.