En Garde! A RWBY White Rose Fanfiction

Chapter 48: Red Roses

Ruby was on her routinely journey to the kitchen when she saw someone sitting on the couch with Yang in the living room.

"Blake?" she called. "Since when were you here?"

The cat Faunus' black bow twitched before she turned around. "Yang invited me over for tea and scones a while ago, and I couldn't refuse."

The cheerful blonde winked at her sister behind Blake's back. "You're welcome to have some."

Ruby was at the coffee table in an instant, picking up a blueberry scone and shoving it in her mouth.

"You are the exact opposite of Weiss," Blake chuckled. "Never afraid to go for what you want."

Ruby tried to reply, but she forgot about the pastry she'd clogged her ability to speak with. She held up a finger and chewed vigorously until she could consume the entire thing.

"And what exactly does Weiss want?" she questioned.

"Your constant attention," Blake teased, although she wasn't entirely wrong.

"Hardy har har," Ruby responded sarcastically. "I'll remember to add that to my list of reasons to have self-esteem."

Yang and Blake glanced at each other.

"What do you know that I don't?" Ruby asked suspiciously.

"This." Blake pulled a little spiral book out of her purse.

"What's that? A sketchbook?"

"Not just any," Yang replied. "It's Weiss'."

Ruby gasped. "No way! How'd you get ahold of that?!"

"It happened to be laying underneath her dresser when I was in vacuum duty a while ago," Blake explained. "I bumped into it, and-"

"Curiosity killed the cat," Yang interrupted.

"Yes, Yang, very witty." Blake rolled her eyes, but she was smiling. "The first thing you want to do when you find a strange book is to open it to the first page, right?"

Ruby nodded.

"Here." Blake handed her the sketchbook. She took it and slowly turned the cover. On the inside was a familiar phrase:

PROPERTY OF WEISS SCHNEE

IF FOUND, RETURN TO OWNER

"Typical Weiss," Ruby mumbled to herself.

Curiously enough, the first page was blank. Ruby scrunched her eyebrows and flipped to the second page. What she saw made her gape in awe.

Sketched in elegant detail and careful shading was a rose, presumably white, coated in a thin layer of water droplets.

"I caught Weiss drawing every now and then, especially in the greenhouse, but not even I knew she had this kind of skill." Blake leaned back on the couch and looked at Ruby. "She seems to take particular interest in our roses."

Ruby eagerly leafed through the sketchbook, hoping to see more pretty flowers, and was not disappointed. There were lilies, violets, lavender, poppies, and, of course, roses. A majority of them appeared in white, but every few pages were splashed with light watercolors.

"My favorite one is the girl with the bouquet of red roses," Yang commented. "It looks like it belongs in a studio."

Girl? Ruby hadn't seen one yet. She kept searching until she found a beautiful arrangement of roses in the dainty hands of a pale figure, her dress draping across her body in a velvety scarlet. However, it was only a body shot, and the girl's face was missing from the piece.

"Wow. Did she do this without a reference?" Ruby wondered out loud.

Blake shrugged. "She didn't use me as a model, that's for sure. I'd be caught dead wearing any colors."

Yang and her younger sister laughed at the previously unspoken truth.

Roses look really hard to draw, Ruby thought, skimming through the pages again in reverse. I wonder what makes her want to draw them so much.

Feeling as if she had invaded Weiss' privacy for a bit too long, Ruby closed the sketchbook and handed it back to Blake. The heiress' precious belonging returned to the safety of the black purse.

"Thanks for showing me," Ruby smiled. "I don't think I ever would've been able to see it otherwise. Who knew Weiss was such a good artist?"

"Figures," Yang muttered under her breath. "She's perfect at everything."

"Not at being open and honest," Ruby argued.

"You have a point there, dear sister," Yang responded with a smirk. "Want another scone?"

Ruby didn't need to be asked twice. She grabbed three more scones and scuttled off to her room, eager to feast upon the delicious treats.

•••

That night, Ruby had a recurring dream where Weiss would be sitting at a patio surrounded by a beautiful garden. A girl in a red dress with a bouquet of roses would walk down the cobblestone path that led to the patio, and she would stop in front of Weiss. Ruby never saw her face, but she and Weiss would meet eyes, and the girl would offer her a deep red rose from her bouquet.

Weiss would take it with a warm smile, bring it gently to her nose, and breathe in its sweet aroma. Suddenly, her smile would turn into a frown, and she'd reluctantly hold the rose out for the girl to take back.

The girl received it the same way every time: she'd take the rose, pluck off a single wilting petal, and offer it to Weiss a second time. But Weiss watched the lone petal drift to the ground, tears welling in her eyes. She'd turn away, ignoring the girl completely until she silently left the garden. And she did, stepping on the rose petal on the ground each time she left.

When the girl disappeared from sight, Ruby awoke with tears in her own eyes. Seeing her friend with such a devastated expression broke her heart, even if it was just a dream.

The fifth time it happened, she silently cursed herself for reading Weiss' sketchbook. The girl with the flowers was her imaginary nemesis. Why would she think that removing part of a whole made it any more beautiful? And how could she hurt Weiss that way without feeling a hint of guilt?

Couldn't she tell that Weiss loved the rose just the way it was?

AN: whoa, this chapter came out to be exactly 1,000 words. That's kinda freaky XD anyways, hope u guys enjoyed this week's marathon! I did, even though I kept forgetting I needed to do it -.- See you all next Thursday, and I hope you had a nice break!