#moonlitsails

" i mean my doctor told me when i die, he wants to send my body off to science to figure out how the fuck i'm not dead yet sooooo... get in line, cutie-cat. you gotta wait before you can get your hands on this bod. "

" do you know WHY there's egg splattered on the ceiling of the dorm's kitchenette? " the heiress stands half in their dorm room and half out, looking at the faunus as if she would have all the answers to the mysterious source of the egg white and yolk splattered in an improbable place, the remnants of the shell still sticking and clinging to the mess. " do we blame ruby, yang, nora, or jaune? "

the brawler stares at the wallet left behind on the locker room bench. a moment passes, a finger resting on her chin as she deeply considers it. lilac eyes flash at mismatched pink and brown, a wide grin spreading across her face as she gives her sister a nod. " good point. we don't tell mom about this. "

" and you still smell of cheap, mistralian liquor. " weiss quirks a brow at her lover the huntsman, arms folding over her chest. she wasn't any shorter than ruby or nora who he had been tailing for the last six months. and in these heels, she was taller than the latter. she takes a step closer, icy blue eyes finding the red she had grown to miss. he seemed... tired. more than he had been during the vytal festival, more than he had been in the fall of beacon, that brief moment when her father had shown up and snatched her away and his name was a lump caught in her throat she couldn't release.

her eyes soften, her voice even softer as a hand comes up to brush across a stubbled jawline that was overdue for a shave. " i missed you, too, qrow. " the moment can't be held for long, not out in the open where yang or ruby could see. jaune, nora, or ren she could handle finding out—even if she was worried the former two would blurt it out under pressure—but to look her actual teammates in the eye, girls she came to consider family after the train wreck that was her own? mortifying.

the siren has her fingers steepled togther, her brow furrowed and in apparent deep thought, elbows resting on the kitchen table in front of her. scarlett lets a moment pass, then two—long enough to make this absolutely idiotic genius she devoted her life and soul to sweat over what he may have said or done recently.

he hasn't done or said anything, but it was always fun watching roman squirm and grovel before he fell to his knees for her. but this time... she decides to have a little bit of fun with him. the steepled fingers slowly move towards her nose, pinching the extremity between the two pointer fingers.

" well, " weiss hands come beneath her skirt to tuck it in and press it flat as she sits, ensuring it doesn't ride up to where bare skin is pressed against cool marble stone. she WAS raised a lady, after all. "it just surprised me, is all. after that ninjas of love book you put on our shelf, " and she raises a brow at her teammate with that remark, " i was expecting your taste in literature to be more... erotic. "

her hands fold in her lap as she looks at the title of the book blake was currently reading. a romance novel still, yes, but one that was more about the connection rather than the smut. she has to resist an eyeroll. love wasn't real. it was some made up idea to convince people to get married, have children, and settle down, only to fester into hatred and disdain for the other partner in time.

can't you see i've moved on? yes, actually. raven had made it clear plenty of times where she stood with THEM all now. ozpin, qrow, taiyang, yang, herself. but she wasn't here to bring up those issues of the past anymore. she wasn't here to shame or judge raven for the choices she made anymore. no, they've already been made and there was no changing that. there was moving forward. raven with the tribe, summer with yang and ruby and taiyang.

" i'm not here about that, raven. " she chooses her words carefully. there was a time at beacon, teammates and partners within the same team, that she would have been much more informal, much more casual with affectionate nicknames. but times had changed. THEY had changed. her fingers twitch at her side, an itch crawling up her skin and into her bones from the eyes of the bandits around them. enemy territory as a huntress, but as someone who once meant something to their leader, she hopes this is still a safe place.

ruby's eyes narrow, silver slits watching the way neo walks around the room. yang had been one of the more resistant ones to neo joining and even weiss had her own arguments to make, but ultimately everyone had trusted and listened to ruby's judgement. really, the only one who didn't really challenge her was blake and she figured that was because of her own dark past made her sympathetic to neo's plight. that's what ruby could see.

maybe that was why neo had asked to talk to her over anyone else. hell, neo had barely gotten a third of the way into their whole spiel before ruby was shrugging her shoulders and simply telling her " okay. come with me. " the look on neo's face had been priceless.

besides, they needed the allies now more than ever. sure, they had a complicated past—hell, who DIDN'T have a complicated past with neo, scarlett, roman, or any other member of the clockwork syndicate—but that past didn't matter right now. there were bigger things to worry about and deal with beyond petty criminal empires in vale and grudges. ruby could look beyond all of that for the stake of remnant at large and the greater good... although.