Shadows [BUMBLEBY]

3 - New Partners

Ruby yelped as Weiss' nails dug into her thin wrist. She had to admit, Weiss' hands were incredibly soft as they brushed against the side of her thumb and pointer finger. Well, compared to her rough and dirt-covered artist hands, at least. The white-haired girl looked terribly annoyed with Ruby, to put it blankly.

They made it to the library and sat at an empty group table that could fit up to what seemed eight students. The darker wood was elegant, older, vintage, with the odd scratches and pencil carvings from past students. Ruby knew that even her Uncle Qrow had carved his initials into these same tables. Chairs from the same wood with rich red cushions complemented the tables.

"Now," Weiss began, tossing their assignment papers in front of them. They sat across from each other, this put a rough metre distance between them. "I hope you have been at least doing some basic studying. I will not be failing because of you, and I will not have my grade averages be dropping due to some dolt's ridiculous-"

"Hey hey hey! I promise you, you won't be failing class anytime soon, Ice Queen. I'll try my best." Ruby interrupted her partner, sliding her work folder from her backpack and desperately trying to scavenge for the little notes she had. In her hurried faze, a single page slipped out and fell onto the table and spun around, as if it taunted Ruby and was begging for Weiss to look. "Anyways, let's look over the requirements- oh." Ruby cut herself off as she realised what was in Weiss's hands, making her face flush into a bright red colour.

"U-Uh I can-that is-"

"A drawing." Weiss deadpanned, studying it for a moment. Weiss herself was a relatively adequate artist, considering the amount of forced 'hobbies' she had picked up as a child, but her talent had nothing on Ruby's. Ruby had... a type of style that screamed who she really was, it was flawed in all the right ways. It may have only been a rough sketch, but Weiss thought it was one of the prettiest drawings she had ever seen. The semi-realism of it all made it ethereal. 

That was when she noticed something. On the paper, there was a girl sitting on a lone park bench, with a scarf wrapped snuggly around her neck, a coffee in hand. Her head was looking down, but Weiss could work out a long, off-centred ponytail and a face scar delicately scribbled over the person's left eye. They wore merely outlined scribbles as an outfit, but it seemed to look like and resemble the Beacon Acadamy uniforms.

"Is this..." Weiss began, hiding a small gulp, "It looks like me?" Weiss asked awkwardly, hissing and grinding her teeth in response to her own stupidity. She was a Schnee, she had to get ahold of herself.

Ruby looked down at her hands out of embarrassment for a few seconds then looked back up at Weiss. "Uh... yeah it is, sorry. I am sorry if that creeps you out, you're just naturally a really good reference to draw, and you are certainly not....ugly. Um, is it... bad? The drawing?" Ruby asked with wide silver eyes that bored into Weiss' baby blue ones.

"U-Um- no! No, it is not bad dolt! It's-" Weiss began flushing a light pink, and forced it down, not before Ruby noticed of course, "It's quite adequate! A good drawing! Keep it up!" Weiss feigned a sudden seriousness, placing a fallen brick back up on her wall of solitude that had somehow got taken down by Ruby of all people.

Weiss had to admit, she was flattered by the drawing, but she wouldn't dare be caught saying that out loud. "Anyways, we have to compare notes Ruby, can you pass me yours? You can read out the requirements." The snow haired girl coughed, the ice cold distant look in her eyes returning once again.

Ruby frowned internally at Weiss' retraction from the moment but shook it off, unclipping some papers from her black folder and handing it over shakily to the older girl. Their hands brushed once more and Ruby felt like she was going to internally implode from the unbreathable air, but she didn't know why. Why she couldn't breathe and why she felt the way she did. She figured it was due to the menacing and powerful presence the girl had, she was cold.