Sunday Morning, but before then...

Weiss POV

Weiss couldn’t wait to get back to the dorms and have a lovely warm shower. Ballet was brilliant exercise and even helped with her balance, timing and technical footwork, vital parts of her fighting style… but Gods was it exhausting. Despite her extensive stretching routine before and after the session she could already feel the muscles in her legs starting to stiffen, making getting up the stairs an annoying prospect. As to be expected, she was the last to arrive, Ruby having to stay in and study while the other two left and usually arrived back half an hour earlier than herself. Unlocking the door with her Scroll, she nudged the door open with an experienced twist of her hip.

“Hey Weiss.”

“Yo Ice Queen.”

“Weiss.”

Her roommates welcomed her in chorus. Blake was already buried in one of her books on her bed, Yang was changed into her PJs and was towelling down her immense mane of hair following a shower. Ruby was sitting at the desk behind the door, various books laid out in front of her. Weiss’s eyes narrowed as she scanned over them.

“Ruby, are you still only looking over the Math assignment? I’ve been gone for over two hours, you should’ve moved onto your History essay by now you dolt,” she grumbled as she threw her bag over to her bed and banged her hand on the table for emphasis. Doing so, she spotted something that was not where it was meant to be. “Is that my coffee cup? Who’s been drinking from my cup!?”

Blake and Yang offered no response bar confused expressions and shrugs. Huffing, she made to grab it up off the table before it was snatched from her grip by Ruby.

“No one touched it,” Ruby said, grabbing it up. “I mean um, I did it. I needed a second cup.”

“What?” Weiss replied. “Why didn’t you just refill your own cup, dolt. And if you were drinking that much, why’d you let it go cold?”

“I um, you see I…” Ruby stammered, clearly struggling to come up with an answer to these perfectly reasonable questions. However, before Weiss could continue her inquiries, Ruby was saved by familial intervention.

“C’mon Weiss-cream, no need to be so cold,” the blonde chuckled, wrapping a muscled arm around her shoulders. “Lay off her, her brain’s probably fried from the back to back all-nighters.”

“It's fine,” she grumbled, snatching back her cup from Ruby’s hand. Gods she hated that nickname, though it was an improvement on Ice Queen. “Just don’t do it again. And don’t waste coffee either!”

Never one to put perfectly good bean juice down the sink, she grimaced in preparation as she downed the half-full cup in one. The cold bitter liquid made her shudder, but the caffeine would be a welcome help as she looked over her essay due Monday after her shower.

It took Weiss several moments to realise a small detail that didn’t quite make sense about what she’d just done, and by the time she left the shower with this realisation on her lips the others had already gotten all set to sleep, and the moment for an interrogation had passed. The discrepancy? Even if it was freezing cold and had been left by Ruby for a full day… there was no way she would ever drink sugarless black coffee. Someone had been here, and Ruby hadn’t told them. Why wouldn’t she? The most malicious reason she could possibly think of would be that she had been organising a surprise party or something, but that didn’t make any sense. Weiss’s eyes narrowed as she settled into her bed alongside her Grimm Studies manual. This would require… investigation.

Cardin POV

It had been a day since Cardin had had his little chat with Ruby. He’d spent his whole Saturday pacing his dorm, thoughts and plans bubbling in a chaotic mass in his head. The possibilities were endless. He could corrupt the whole Kingdom, perhaps even the world! Ahem… perhaps he shouldn’t get too ahead of himself. For now, his goals were simple, direct. Experimentation, with Ruby as the somewhat unaware subject. They’d agreed to meet up on the roof of the dorms on Sunday. Apparently Ruby went on early morning runs around the campus semi-regularly, so she was used to sneaking out and her roommates wouldn’t be too worried so long as she got back before noon. He honestly wasn’t too sure about her sneaking abilities, but his plan had to rely on taking her word for it, so that was all he could do for now. But that left him stuck waiting for a day with nothing to do. He’d sent his dormmates away to fetch some things for him. He’d taken a quick look at their scores and wasn’t to find them mostly in or around the 30s to 40s. He wasn’t interested in breaking his friends though, especially as he was fairly certain if he explained his plans to them they’d probably all be behind him 100%. But he was a cautious man. Before he brought them in, he’d need absolute certainty about all this. And he was going to get it soon.

That night his fitful sleep was filled with dreams of Ruby Rose kneeling before him, her oh-so-innocent eyes filled with lust and adoration. The fantasies he’d **** her to fulfil, the things he’d make her do and say. It was all he could do to sleep at all, how excited and horny he was getting. Finally, he was roused from his half-asleep stupor by the buzzing of his Scrolls alarm. Grabbing his Scroll, his armour and his weapon (Dust Chamber empty, didn’t want to give himself away with a freaking explosion), he was out his door and headed up the stairs in a flash. Reaching the access door to the roof, he carefully cracked it open, scanning the roof to make sure there wasn’t some couple sneaking up here to enjoy the sunrise or something. Seeing the area deserted, he began to prepare for his “teachers” arrival.

Ruby POV

Ruby groaned a little as she stretched her arms up above her head. She too was in the process of heading up to the roof, though the poor young reaper was definitively far less of a morning person than the man she was off to meet. She miiight have said a little white lie about exercising in the early morning on the regular, but she’d just been so excited to have someone who wanted her to mentor them. It sounded so… responsible, she would giggle excitedly at the thought if she wasn’t in **** need of some caffeine. She’d gotten out of her dorm without anyone noticing of course, though there was a brief false alarm when Weiss gave out a yawn. Her patented wide-eyed freeze like her hand was caught in the cookie jar ensured she was simply adjusting in bed. Now she was on the verge of exiting out onto the roof, and a whole range of challenges and experiences that teaching will bring! She could hardly wait as she stepped out and…

“Oh hey Ruby, sorry got here a little early to stretch and do some warmup exercise.”

Ruby stood, mouth agape, face slowly changing shades from pink to a light red to a deep crimson, unable to speak as she looked at the sight in front of her. There, a thin layer of sweat reflecting the dawn light off his skin, was a muscular, topless Cardin. Mouth opening and closing like a goldfish, her brain eventually rebooted enough for her to slam shut the door.

“H-h-h-hey Cardin. Sorry, I uhh, I didn’t expect to see you uh… maybe um, you should put your shirt back on. A-a-and your armor, yeah, for protection, don’t want any accidents,” she sputtered through the small crack she’d left open.

“Sorry, what was that Ruby? I can’t quite hear you through the door,” his muffled voice replied. “Come out here and repeat that.”

Her thoughts were doing somersaults in her head.

‘This’s not okay, this’s not okay this’s not okay…’
‘Omgomgomgomgmogmmgoogmomgomgmog’
‘Isn’t this just like that scene in Ninja’s Of Love where…’
‘Pull yourself together girl, you’ve seen guy’s topless in those magazines bef-’

“Ruby? Did you hear me?”

Cardin’s voice, now much closer and clearer, was enough to send her from a chaotic spiral of thoughts to freezing like a deer in headlights. A single stray thought noted the coincidence that this was the second time today she’d had this reaction.

“Are you really nervous about a little injury? We’ve got aura, and we’re training to face unholy demonic creatures from our nightmares. So, come on. Open. The. Door.”

Her stomach wasn’t just full of butterflies, the whole thing felt like it was trying to fly off. The biggest issue she was facing was that she couldn’t think of a way of saying no. She’d agreed to do this training, she couldn’t just cancel last second cause her sweet innocent mind got a little embarrassed seeing a hot guy (who had been mercilessly bullying one of her friends not half a year ago) topless. Taking a deep shaky breath, she pushed on the door, opening it to the sight of Cardin standing with his shirt draped over one hand. (Ruby Rose -42 -> -34). She fixed her gaze squarely on his eyes, but her cheeks continued to redden.

“If you’re not comfortable with me being topless, ask me to put a shirt on Ruby,” he said, a grin creeping up his face.

“Shirt. Now please,” she said, pushing past him striding along the rooftop with her back to the source of her discomfort. Not facing him, she didn’t notice the quick flash of anger that crossed his face before the easy smile returned.

“Of course, I didn’t realise,” he said, pulling the shirt up and on again. “Apologies for embarrassing you Ruby.”

“Embarrassed, me, nooo, I wasn’t embarrassed at all, no idea what you mean,” she stammered, before pulling out and extending Crescent Rose. “You ready?”

Cardin POV

What followed was about twenty to thirty minutes of awkwardly trying to translate the basic sythe drills Ruby had been taught years ago into a usable exercise for his mace with its much shorter handle. The pair had agreed that forty minutes would be all they could risk before their dormmates would get suspicious (although Cardin’s friends probably wouldn’t mind at all, but no point telling Ruby that), so as the last ten began, Cardin began the second phase of his plan.

“Y’know Ruby… I think maybe I’d get this a lot better if we went back to the most basic of basics real quick,” he said, rolling his shoulder to stretch a little.

“These are the basics Cardin,” Ruby replied in a tone that carried a little bit of disappointment at their progress. Her voice went back up into her overly abundant optimism as she continued. “Oh, but I’m sure you’ll get it with some practice. You might even be able to beat me eventually!”

Biting his tongue for a moment to avoid reacting to that unintentionally backhanded compliment, he forged onwards through the nauseating positivity.

“No, not the weapon basics Ruby, I mean combat basics,” as he spoke, he gently lay his mace down leaning against a pipe. “Lets try doing some hand-to-hand sparring.”

“Um… uh, well, that’s always been more my sisters thing…” Ruby’s eyes turned down in clear embarrassment, refusing to meet Cardin’s gaze. Just as he’d heard, Ruby’s greatest weakness in combat was losing her weapon. A progidy with one of the most dangerous weapons in the world, a pansy with her bare fists.

“Oh, I’m sure you’re not that bad Ruby,” he said, fighting the predatory grin that threatened to ruin his careful facade. “You’re one of the best students in the combat class. And its important to train in different ways. What if a Grimm attacked while we were sleeping and our weapons are knocked out of reach? C’mon, one sparring match.”

“I don’t know Cardin…”

“Hey, why don’t I sweeten the deal? Let’s make a bet about it. Whoever loses has to… hmm…”

He’d checked his Scroll during their session, he’d got her down to below (above? Negative numbers are weird) -40, and there was some sort of notification next to her name. But did he risk making the bet something big that might scare her off, or keep it tame and not get too many points.

A/N- Hey folks, thank you very much for the wait. Apologies for the delay on this update, IRL shite decided to kick my ass a little, but I hope to keep updates going as regularly as I possibly can from now on. No poll for the decision facing Cardin here, but I’d love to hear some suggestions and/or preferences.