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Weiss digs her room key out of her pocket with a tired sigh.
The walk back to her and Ruby’s shared dorm is short, but the sand in her heels makes her wish it’d been shorter. With all the turmoil surrounding their divine return to Remnant, she’d yet to find the time to shop for a new outfit more suited to Vacuo’s climate. Also due in part to recently being bombarded with more attention from her family than she was granted for most of her childhood.
Being presumed dead has ignited a new protectiveness in them that she isn’t entirely accustomed to. And on top of all that, she's had to make time for reuniting with friends she hasn’t seen since Beacon fell. Who also thought she and the rest of her team were dead.
It’s all just been… very overwhelming. Everyone’s hearts are in the right place, but it’d be nice to get a moment of peace to herself.
That hope is dashed the second she opens the door to her and Ruby’s room and finds her partner curled up on the floor.
“Ruby?” Worried, Weiss crouches by her head and does a quick scan for visible injuries. She finds none, but there’s a pair of headphones wrapped around Ruby’s ears, clutched in her hands like she’s trying to press them into her skull.
The music is so loud that it’s no wonder Ruby doesn’t hear her when she calls her name again, so Weiss taps the back of her hand softly in order not to startle her.
But Ruby just curls into a tighter ball. She appears to be muttering to herself.
Weiss huffs and yanks the headphones off her head.
Ruby’s eyes fly open, distressed. “No!” She lunges at Weiss, shoving her to the floor. “Give them back!”
The wind knocked out of her, Weiss ends up losing her grip on the headphones and they go flying, hitting the door with a crack.
Ruby dives for them, holding them to her ears to see if sound is still coming through. “No, no, no—” It isn’t.
Ruby shakes them desperately like that’ll fix the damage. When it doesn’t, she turns on Weiss. There’s a hint of hysteria in her eyes. “What have you done?”
“What have I done? You just tackled me!”
“Now what am I supposed to do?” Ruby tugs at her own hair, knuckles white.
“Do about what—”
Weiss freezes.
A sound. An awful sound she hoped to never hear in any lifetime resonates through the wall closest to them.
Ruby whimpers and slaps her hands over her ears. Her eyes squeeze shut.
“Is that…?” Weiss can’t bring herself to ask. Regardless, Ruby is not in a state to answer.
A shameless moan shakes the air around them and gives her all the answers she needs but really, really doesn't want.
Oh, the—the audacity of those two—with her and Ruby right next door—
Another moan. Louder and more dreadful than the first.
But not the first that Ruby has been subjected to, apparently. She drops to the ground, rocking back and forth while hugging her knees. The mutters start up again. “Go to your happy place, go to your happy place—”
Weiss just barely holds in the urge to screech obscenities at a godless sky. Her other two teammates are doing enough of that as it is.
She would happily accept sand in her shoes, no—in her teeth everyday for the rest of her life if it meant she could erase these horrid sounds from her memory permanently.
“They couldn’t even wait for the sun to go down?” Absolutely barbaric. Weiss is going to kill them. “I’m going to kill them.” She unsheathes Myrtenaster.
Ruby grabs her ankle before she can make it to the door. “Don’t leave me! Partners are supposed to suffer together!”
Weiss halts, lowering her weapon. Then: “Ruby… why didn’t you leave earlier?”
Ruby stares back blankly. Long enough for Weiss to realize that the option hadn’t even occurred to her. Most likely due to the horrors.
She crumples to a boneless heap at Weiss’s feet. “Because I’m a stupid idiot,” she bemoans, “The dumbest dummy in all the land.”
For the first time in what feels like years, Weiss agrees with that sentiment.
She picks Ruby up, staggering under the weight of her partner’s grief. “Come on, let’s go before you’re traumatized any further.” The both of us.
As the final nail in the coffin, their ears are plagued by what can only be the obnoxious knocking of a headboard against the wall.
Ruby goes slack in Weiss’s arms. “Too late. Kill me instead, please.”
“…Do you want to go get ice cream? Will that help?”
Ruby just nods, too despaired to speak another word. Weiss has to carry her out of the room.
-
“I told you there was more going on!”
Ren sighs. “Yes, you did.” But he would’ve preferred not getting a front row seat to just how much was going on.
“Helluva way to be proven right, though,” Nora says.
Her sentence is punctuated by another sharp cry echoing from the adjacent room. Ren winces.
He peeks an eye open from where he sits cross-legged on the floor. Nora stands right in front of him, hands on her hips, seemingly too smug to be bothered by the noise.
Her grin widens and she leans down into his space. “Can you see any sexy flower petals through the walls?”
“That’s not how it works.” Hopefully.
Just to be safe he’d made sure to face away from the wall they share with Blake and Yang’s room. With his eyes closed.
He’d told Nora he was meditating. Which he actually did want to attempt at first but, well—
“Oh, baby...”
Yeah. Yep.
-
“Go fish.”
Ilia huffs, but abides. “This game is for infants.”
“You’re just cranky ‘cause you’re losing,” Sun chirps.
“I’m not entirely convinced you’ve been playing clean.”
“Sore loser says what?”
“Wha—oh, go fuck yourself.”
She’s just about to give up and make Sun play fifty-two card pick up when a keening cry of right there floats up from the room beneath them.
Ilia snorts and throws her cards down. “At least someone around here is having a good time.”
Sun squirms in his seat.
“…What?” Ilia asks warily. Unused to Sun of all people looking uncomfortable.
“I… think I know whose room that is.”
“Who?”
“You’re not gonna like the answer.”
Ilia rolls her eyes. “Then why mention it at all—”
The next loud, lustful shout that rings out carries with it a name she knows all too well. And she has yet to meet any other Blakes since arriving in Vacuo.
Ilia and Sun stare at each other for a few horrified, struck seconds, both of them red in the face. Ilia’s eardrums feel like they’re bleeding.
Sun scratches the back of his head awkwardly. “Heh. Maybe it’s a different Blake?”
It’s not. Yang’s voice comes through again. Distinct, undeniable, clear as day.
Ilia shoots to her feet. “I’m out.” In a flash she’s across the room, opening the window and leaping down to the next roof.
“Hey, wait for me!” Sun jumps out after her. “Wanna go get ice cream?”
-
Emerald steadies her hand. Primed to brush polish over her thumb nail when—
A moan echoes through her ceiling.
She pauses. Takes a moment to try and recall who occupies the room above. She’d assumed everyone at Shade knew by now what little privacy the dorms allowed.
“Ngh, Yang…”
Ah. Right.
Good for them.
The telltale, rhythmic squeaking of bed springs reverberates next.
“Hot,” Emerald says to herself.
She goes back to painting her nails.
-
“Wow.”
Splayed out and sated, Blake can’t help but hum her agreement. She uses the last of her strength to roll on top of Yang’s bare chest and snuggle into her neck.
“That is… quite a set of lungs you’ve got,” Yang continues, still a bit breathless.
Blake kicks her in the leg.
Yang chuckles. “Is that any way to treat the girl you love?” She runs her fingers through Blake’s hair gently, unsticking the sweaty tresses from her skin.
“You weren’t complaining a minute ago,” Blake jokes back tiredly. A pleasant ache rolls through her whole body that threatens to put her to sleep. Plus, Yang is the perfect pillow.
“I was a bit distracted by you screaming my na—” Yang cuts off with a gasp when Blake nips at her ear.
“I seem to recall hearing my name a lot, too,” Blake says, voice low and tingling all the way down to Yang’s toes, “Or do I need to refresh your memory?”
“I—I guess it wouldn’t hurt.”
The fatigue in Blake’s bones calls her bluff. “Too bad,” she yawns, “You can scream it again tomorrow.”
She feels a blanket get pulled up over both of them. Soon joined by Yang’s light caresses along her spine. “Can’t wait, babe,” Yang laughs to herself, “Good thing the walls are so thick.”
Blake nuzzles closer, letting her eyes slip shut. “What, did you inspect them beforehand?” Every time she’d made an attempt to muffle her own voice, Yang stopped her. And who was Blake to refuse such a request when faced with the stunning view of Yang panting beneath her? Skin glistening, pupils blown—
“Nah, Coco told me.”
Eyes shooting back open, Blake pushes herself up to look at Yang. “…Coco?”
Yang blinks, confused at her sudden alertness. “Yeah?”
“Coco Adel, notorious for fucking with people, Coco? That one?”
Yang’s gaze shift away and back. “I mean—um.”
They stare each other down, combined dread growing the longer they think it over.
Yang chuckles nervously. “She wouldn’t…”
She would. Blake knows she would. “She told Jaune it was a good idea to serenade Weiss.”
A beat passes. Then, Yang smothers her face in her hands. “Oh no.”
Blake glances up and feels a mortified blush flood her cheeks. There’s spots of chipped paint where their headboard lines up with the wall. “…Weiss and Ruby’s room is next door.”
Yang wails into her hands.
-
The next morning when Blake and Yang walk hand in hand into the cafeteria for breakfast, they’re greeted with jeers and wolf whistles from most of their so-called friends. And a few strangers.
Embarrassed to hell and back, Yang tries to ignore them. From the corner of her eye, she spots Nora standing on top of a table making some… suggestive motions with her hips. “Word travels fast around here.”
“The thin walls probably help with that,” Blake grumbles.
Yang clenches a fist and grits out, “I’m gonna crush Coco’s head like a grape.”
“Might wanna replenish your energy first, superstar.” Summoned, Coco strolls right by them without a care in the world. She tugs her sunglasses down to convey the full extent of her all-knowing amusement. “Heard through the grapevine that Blake made a woman out of you last night.”
Coco ducks Yang’s hasty swipe and heads for the nearest exit with a cackle.
“Get back here, Adel!”
-
“Please.”
Yatsuhashi shakes his head. Again.
“Please.”
Once more, he refuses.
Ruby sinks to her knees with a sob of dismay and punches weakly at his legs. “Why do you hate me?”
Yatsu sighs. Then, he turns to Velvet and says, “You need to tighten Coco’s leash.”
She hums. “Could have worded that a tad better, but… yes, I agree.”
“Ruby.” Weiss pinches the bridge of her nose. “Stop bugging him. He’s not going to use his semblance on you.” But if he was willing, Weiss definitely would’ve tried to get in line.
“I can’t live with these memories, Weiss! I’ve heard things no little sister should ever have to hear!”
“I don’t remember you being this dramatic,” Velvet muses.
Ruby throws one last sad punch at Yatsu’s knee. “I used to be full of so much life and wonder. And now it’s gone.”
“Ruby—”
“Gone, I say!”
Weiss feels a migraine start to creep in. “Just—ugh, go ask Nora to hit you over the head with her hammer or something.”
Ruby pops back up with a gasp. “You’re a genius.” She vanishes in a flurry of rose petals.
Weiss allows herself a moment to breathe deeply despite having a new crisis she now has to go handle. “Velvet, Yatsuhashi, it’s been lovely catching up.” She gives them both a polite nod, then brushes invisible dust off her skirt and adds primly, “Please let Coco know she’ll be hearing from my lawyers.”
Velvet giggles and throws her a lazy salute. “Believe it or not, we get that all the time.”
“Respectfully, Velvet, I don’t doubt that for a second.”
-
Two days earlier…
“So, I see Blake finally kicked your ass into gear.”
Yang rolls her eyes. “Alright, get it all out now, Coco.”
“Took you long enough, you’ve had heart eyes glued to her ass since before the school dance.”
“Nevermind, please shut up.”
“Not still waving the virgin flag, are you? Or am I gonna have to wait two more years for that to resolve itself, as well?”
Yang cocks her gauntlets. A threat. “I’ll give you three seconds.”
“Shame, I thought you’d at least try to last five. Let's hope for Blake’s sake your refractory period makes up for that.”
“Three, two—”
“Okay, don’t blow your ammo all at once.” Coco turns to leave, then throws over her shoulder, “But seriously, take advantage of the dorms while it lasts. Thick walls are one of the few spoils Shade has to offer.”
And with a parting wink, she saunters off.
Yang watches her go, eyes already glazing over with all the possibilities that tidbit of information incites. “Good to know…”