En Garde! A RWBY White Rose Fanfiction

Chapter 42: Led Astray

Ruby and Yang were sitting in the salon, the younger sister sitting in a head-drying chair with sheets of folded tin foil on the tips of her hair.

Ruby anxiously fingered at the thin sheets of metal. "How long has it been?" she asked. "I don't think I can sit still much longer."

"It's only been about 5 minutes," Yang chuckled.

"That's a long time!" Ruby complained.

"Not as long as Weiss was staring at your ass," the snarky blond muttered under her breath.

Ruby didn't hear her. "What?"

Yang waved it off. "Oh, nothing."

"You totally said something," Ruby accused her.

"And I take it back," Yang stated simply, lifting her chin, "because you didn't hear it."

The younger sister frowned suspiciously, but decided to drop it. There was no point in arguing with Yang, and she knew that better than anyone else on the planet.

The cheeky blonde decided to approach the subject, anyways. "So, how did things go with Weiss?"

Ruby looked confused. "What do you mean? You saw her and everything. That was kind of it."

"So not true!" Yang disagreed. "She went through the trouble of meeting you backstage."

"She ditched her dad's meeting and didn't want to risk being seen by anyone who knew him," Ruby explained, "so she wanted to keep a low profile and stay in the prep room."

Yang scoffed. "Yeah, right. That's a lame excuse. She just wanted to surprise you."

"If that's the case, she did a good job," Ruby admitted. "I didn't think my match would be that important to her, since all she really wanted was to fence again."

"Do I have to repeat myself?" Yang fumed. "She likes you more than you think she does. You're way too hard on yourself, and we both know she's good at hiding her feelings."

"I dunno... She was acting weird earlier..." Ruby trailed off.

Her older sister's interest spiked, and she leaned in. "How so?"

Before Ruby could answer, a timer went off, signaling the end of their waiting. The grateful brunette ducked under the heater and hopped up. "Finally! I can't wait to see how it looks!"

After a few minutes of taking off tinfoil and washing out the dye's residue, Ruby found herself in front of a mirror. "Wow!" she exclaimed. "It looks great!"

"I'll say," Yang approved. "It almost looks natural, like that's how your hair is supposed to be."

"Then maybe this is how it will be from now on," Ruby agreed hopefully.

•••

Ruby doesn't look any less childish with red-tipped hair, Weiss mused. Contrary to the mindset she was trying to follow, things had only worsened for her over the weekend.

All she had to do was think about that foolish girl, and her heartbeat was off to the races. Butterflies swarmed the heiress' generally impenetrable system every time her friend looked at her or said her name.