„All done." Ruby grinned as she placed the contraption on the desk. She looked it over a few times and shook it to check if there wasn't any loose parts inside. Nope, everything was in perfect condition, which in return made her happy. Hey, maybe it was something that didn't require much, especially considering how advanced she was, but still she enjoyed succeeding.

That smile lasted till she looked at the far end of the desk, there laying were a few parts that initially belonged to the original design, now not integrated with the final product. She groaned at that as she allowed for her head to hit the desk in front of her. She hated when this happened, she dismantled something, assembled it again, everything worked… Yet she didn't include a few parts because she forgot about them for this or that reason.

She raised the item in hand and looked angrily at it. "Why are you working?! You lack parts, so why the hell do you still work?!" Another groan of frustration left her mouth and she just settled the object back onto the desk.

She shook her head, this wasn't really important or at least worth getting angry at, though what if she has some big important project in the future and she does something like this? It would be horrible if because of a similar issue someone would get hurt, or worse!

She bit her lower lip, at least she knew, right? She can work on that later. For now it was break time, but first to tidy up the place, her working place or at least her little hobby corner. She took a small plastic bag and took all the additional parts that weren't used in her little tinkering, placing said parts inside the bag, once that done she opened a drawer to hide it inside for the time being, or rather she would if something didn't catch her eye.

She settled the bag to the side as she reached out for it. It was a piece of paper that she immediately recognized. Something that brought a smile to her lips. A letter. She unfolded it and decided to sit back, as she began to read it.

Dear Ruby,

I regret that we had to part ways to reach for our individual goals, for what makes us happy. I thought about it a lot on the train ride over here and we agreed to share all of our thoughts and feelings this way. It's just unfair how we can't have everything, we can't reach for the two things that made us happy. Our goals and us. Still I agree with what we talked about before we departed, how this could snowball into us blaming one another for never reaching what we aimed for. Life's never as sweet as we want it. I'm tired, but I want this letter to get to you as soon as possible, so I wanted to write it the instant I settle in. I'll fill you in with details about this place in my next letter. Look forward towards it.

Weiss Schnee

She smiled as she read the letter, it was her idea to do it this way, to limit their communication to one letter per week and one phone call per month. At first she thought that it was because she wanted to get rid of her, that she had someone else, it was all a big emotional mess on her part. With a sigh she settled the letter on top of the desk, reaching towards the drawer to see if she can find any other letters. She was such a messy person, it was almost a fact that Weiss kept all her letters neatly stacked in one place. There was another one, yet that was it for that particular drawer. She could always find more somewhere else she assumed. She took the newly found piece of paper and unfolded it, deciding to read it just like the one from before.

Dear Ruby,

I admit that my idea for us to limit our communication is harder than I thought. I hope you don't blame me for it, I really don't wish for what we have to be made more shallow by a non physical presence created by soon to be empty phone calls and online presence. I'd rather tease myself with the few bits and pieces and crave for that moment where we could be united, even if for a moment.

I promised to let you know about the place I was staying and everything, so this letter will focus on that. Although I'm sure I'll receive plenty of questions in your next letter or maybe you'll just make a list of question for when our phone call will happen.

The apartment I live in is even smaller than yours. Luckily it has a private bathroom so I have some privacy. Outside of that its a microwave and a sink that serves as a kitchen and a small bed with a few drawers and one old wardrobe. It's cheap, and I'll be able to pay for it from my part-time job alone, which means I'll me counting on my tutoring to pay for everything else. Don't worry, I understood the price I'd pay.

As for my job I found something in what I call a nerd store. You'd like it here, video games, board games, books, novels and everything that a nerd like you would love. I'm helping to manage the book part of it, even if I don't recognize any titles they offer.

I try to smile like you said, although whenever that happens I just think about you and it's even harder to smile, knowing that you're so far away. But I try, you told me to smile, to make friends even for the sake of people not treating me like some sort of outcast. It helps, thank you for that advice.

I'll tell you more about it in my next letters since I'm running out of space on this piece of paper.

Love

Weiss Schnee

Ruby let out a sigh as she placed the second letter on top of the first one. She leaned in her chair and closed her eyes to focus on her thoughts entirely. It was such a hard moment in her life, they both knew that distant relationship often broke up, found new people, new meaning, become friends that later just forget about one another. Just that thought hurt.

She stood up and placed both her hands on her hips as she looked around. She was now curious where the rest of the letters could have been placed. In different drawers? Maybe, but was there some sort of rule to the madness, some specific way she placed the letters to not find them out of order.

She decided to go the easiest route and just check the drawer next to the one she found the first two letters. She grinned as she was once more successful today. Not only did she find one, but a whole stack of them. She carefully took them out and placed them on top of the desk, sitting back in her chair and looking over the small stash of paper.

She took a deep breath at the sight. Why was she doing this? Wasn't this something that old people did, look through letters and things like that. Maybe that's why letters were so nice because they were a physical representation of your past, some part of it at least. Whatever the reason was, it was too late to question it, right? She had the letters and she would go through them either way. With that, she reached for the first letter from the top.

Dear Ruby,

I shared with you my fears about being used by the people from my year. How they pretended to like me only because I shared my notes and things like that. Perhaps it's true for some of them, but I made a little test of my own. I asked a few people from the group about notes, saying I didn't have them, and those that had them agreed to share them. While it might be just a mutual agreement that we all share things among ourselves, it's nice to know that I'm not being simply used.

Sadly I don't really have any connection with them. Their names fly out of my head the moment I leave, some of them come back when I see their faces, but most of the time I just play around the fact I forgot. I discuss some of the classes and issues around our courses but never anything outside of that. Maybe it would be different if I went out to drink with them, but I didn't have the money to do that, nor would I want to indulge in that sort of entertainment. I would be afraid of doing something I'd regret when drunk. Especially considering how much I miss you.

On the good side of news, Not that the previous things written in this letter were bad, I did found one person I found some sort of connection. She works with me in the nerd shop and in the same section as me, books.

At first, it was awkward, she's a very quiet person. It was hard to even start talking with her, but I found out she really likes books. She's my age as well. It went from discussing books to talking about other things, real-life issues. She doesn't seem to mind when I get a bit moody and chatty about missing you. She seems to understand and if I am, to be honest? I think she enjoys listening to my emotional life. She does know a lot about romance books, might be why. Maybe we're like a book for her. Maybe one day she'll write a book based on our story, that would be nice.

This letter is once more too short to really share everything. I'm sure you'll have questions so I'll wait to answer them.

Love

Weiss Schnee

Ruby inhaled sharply as she finished reading the letter. She felt the very familiar feeling, something she hated. Her body heating up and her mind getting clouded by thoughts and not the nice kind of thoughts. It actually took her awhile to figure this out the first time she received this letter. She felt frustrated and angry, she didn't know why. She re-read the letter over and over, each time feeling the same way about it. Yet even she was able to figure it out with some time.

Jealousy.

She was feeling jealous of Weiss's friend that she meet. It was a difficult time for them since she wasn't entirely sure how to handle those emotions. The issue with them is that you can't control them. You can try to suppress them, but that rarely works or even if it does work, it never ends too well. She decided it wouldn't hurt, to be honest about her feelings… Which complicated their situation.

Dear Ruby,

I'm not sure what to say in this letter. This is not the first letter I have written tonight, as many crumbled balls of paper lay all around me. This is perhaps a good thing, that I can think carefully about what I want to say, to make sure you'll understand the meaning and not misinterpret the words.

I'm disappointed, while I understand your frustration which I share completely, I also could read between the lines that you seem to not trust me. I meet people I could call friends, and you immediately turn suspicious, ask questions that aren't hard to understand considering the context of. If you were feeling insecure about it, you could simply speak the words in a plain and simple way, not run around the subject and finally get passive aggressive about it.

I think this is a good moment to cut our little letter sending our next phone call. I think it'll do both of us good to rethink this, to make sure we're not making mistakes. If you send me any letters I won't read them up till that point in time, so please respect my request.

Weiss Schnee

Perhaps she wasn't as openly honest about them as she thought she was. She dropped the letter onto the desk and leaned against it, hiding her face in her hands. It was so stupid of her to act that way. Weiss was right, she could just tell her, she could be honest from the start, how she felt that way, how she knew it was stupid but it was because of she… Because she cared.

That was the last letter, it would be silly to read those that were before this since why bother. Like a spoiled TV show. It was painful but some things just end suddenly and without a warning. To peter out. She shook her head, not the first time she did that tonight, as she started to gather the letters into one pile and looked over the drawers to decide where to hide them. She still had a few of them to find before her stash was complete, she really hoped she didn't lose them over time.

"Hello, Ruby." The redhead jumped as she felt a pair of arms wrap themselves around her neck. She really had to be deep in her thoughts if she didn't hear the main doors getting opened, the footsteps and then the doors to her little office being opened.

"W-Weiss, you scared me!" She pouted as she tilted her head enough to see the face of the white-haired girl.

Weiss let out a soft giggle in response as she shrugged and looked at her with those blue eyes. Ruby couldn't even fake being mad for too long, as she saw happiness behind Weiss's eyes. It always worked to cheer her up, just the sight of those blue orbs.

"You were so concentrated on… Whatever it is you were doing, that I couldn't help myself. Speaking of which, what are you doing?" Weiss peered up to see the stash of paper in front of the redhead, her eyes glancing between it and the younger girl.

"Just… Sorting out some old letters." Ruby shrugged and smiled sheepishly. She was caught red-handed so there was no going around it.

Weiss tilted her head and reached towards the top most letter, as she briefly scanned the content of it, a soft frown appeared on her forehead. "Oh, this one." She let out a deep sigh.

"Yeah..." Ruby nodded, not sure what else to add to that.

"I don't know when you were more stupid. When we argued on the phone, or what you did afterward." The redhead squirmed as she heard the annoyance in the other girl's voice. The real deal was the worst part.

"I did apologize, remember?" She offered with a hopeful smile.

Weiss just covered her face with one hand. "The worst part is that in hindsight I can't really be mad at you, nor do you have anything to apologize for." She uncovered her face and focused her blue eyes on the younger girl. "You came in the first train in the morning to the city where I was at, you tried to phone call me but I thought you just wanted to talk things over so I ignored you. You then proceeded to send me a message telling me that you're lost, which got me curious enough to ask, and only then did I understand that you're somewhere in the city, lost and not sure where to go. I never told you the address you dolt, why did you think you could arrive somewhere you never been and find where I live." At that, she moved away from the girl and crossed her arms like a teacher expecting an answer.

"Well… I just was afraid we would grow apart after that, I didn't really think that through." Ruby lowered her gaze as if she was a child being scolded.

"To add salt to injury, it was pouring, and instead of waiting it out, you tried to find the place I worked at or find the school I attended to. Before I found you, you were soaked wet from the tip of your hair and down to your toes." Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose with two fingers. Just thinking back to that moment made her feel remember how annoyed she was. Annoyed and worried to death.

"But then!" Weiss raised her voice and squinted her eyes. "Then you did the ridiculous thing ever. There you are, having a high fever, me not being sure if I should call the ambulance at that point, and you decide to get up from the bed, almost fall down in the process, kneel down and propose to me." Weiss threw her arms into the air as she walked behind Ruby and out of her sight of vision.

She just sighed at that. "Yes, and fever or not I remember that you bonked me in the head and told me to go back to bed." She rolled her eyes at that. It was embarrassing, luckily she had her sickness as an excuse.

She felt the same pair of arms wrap themselves once more around her neck, she instinctively leaned her head back a bit to nuzzle herself into the hug.

"And the next morning?" Weiss whispered softly, it took her a bit to understand what she meant, as her cheeks grew red, she gulped as she felt her throat grow dry.

"And the next morning I said yes. For whatever reason, I said yes. I knew you'd have to go back as soon as possible, I didn't know if it would even work out, but I decided that I am ready to make a commitment of that sort." Weiss shook her head and did something that made Ruby squeak and jump in surprise for the second time today.

"H-Hey! Don't bite me." She squirmed to try and rub the previously bitten place by any means possible.

"Why not?" Weiss asked playfully. "Didn't we give vows to be with one another through good and bad? Bites included."

"I don't think bites were included in those vows." Ruby pouted.

The white-haired girl just giggled at that and planted a soft kiss on the redhead's cheek, letting a soft sigh afterward. "I'm sorry, but this did get my mind off of things, so thank you for that, Ruby."

"Oh? Did something happen?" That got her full attention, as she looked at the older girl with concern in her silver eyes.

"Not really, just… You know, the usual." Weiss shrugged, although Ruby wouldn't let it just slip like that, as she reached with her arms towards the other girl and pulled her towards herself till she ended up sitting on her lap. This, of course, surprised her wife, which was part of why she allowed for such to happen to her in the first place.

"R-Ruby! Don't just… Do things like that without a warning." Weiss frowned.

"So what's on your mind?" With having the girl in front of her, Ruby could finally fully enjoy wrapping her arms around her waist, as she kept her close. Although the feeling was nice, she couldn't really enjoy it fully, as she was still concerned.

Weiss just let out another sigh and looked away from her. "It's the usual."

"I thought you're happy doing what you're doing." She tilted her head, they had this discussion plenty of times, and Ruby decided that it was necessary to play it out the same way each and every time, as long as it worked to convince Weiss that it was true.

"I am, I enjoy teaching. It's exhausting but… Fulfilling in a way. It's just that I feel like a leech." She grimaced at that.

"Weiss we discussed this before. Our relationship isn't about how we share our money." Ruby couldn't help but smile at that, it was amusing to observe Weiss being a responsible adult at one moment, and act this silly the other.

"I know it's just..." Weiss paused as her eyes went down.

"You have an honest job, a job that you give yourself out to help others just like you wanted. You do it well aware of your paycheck. You do it because you know that someone has to, and you do it even though you had a few offers to do something else for way more money, yet you refused." She reached to take Weiss's hands into her own.

The older girl looked down at the redhead, focused entirely on her voice. The silver eyed girl smiled at the fact she had her full attention and continued. "You sacrificed a lot to do what makes you happy, and not having to lead an unhappy life that could offer you what others think is a success. I couldn't be more proud of you. Don't you think it's because we both reached towards our happiness that life decided to offer it to us? That we didn't pretend to reach for what others told us to reach for and went against the current." She leaned forward to bury her face into the other girl's belly, feeling it raise up and down as she breathed and the warmness it offered.

Weiss just let out a soft grunt. "I hate it when you're being so… Smart." She felt the older girl rest her head on top of hers, happy that she managed to get such silly thought out of her head.

"Speaking of which, what's for dinner, Ruby?" The girl raised her head to look at the redhead.

"Pizza?" She smiled sheepishly at that.

"You forgot to prepare something… Again?" Weiss frowned.

"Well, I wanted to do it after I was done here, but then I found the letters and then you came and… You know. It happened." Ruby shrugged.

"We're not having pizza. We had it the last time you were supposed to cook. You'll prepare something, and you'll do it as fast as possible since I'm hungry." Weiss stood up and started to walk away towards the living room. She looked over her shoulder and Ruby could see the cold stare she offered her. "I'll think of a fitting punishment after I fight off my hunger, although you know I'm creative when hungry, so you better be quick about that dinner."

Ruby felt a shiver ran down her spine at that. "Y-Yes ma'am! Right away ma'am!" She jumped up and almost ran towards the kitchen. She very well knew how creative Weiss could be, although sometimes she wondered if she became this clumsy because she discovered that part of Weiss… Maybe? Whatever it was, she would never admit it to Weiss… Not openly at least.

As she started to look for ingredients she came along something familiar and she couldn't help but grin at the sight, as she picked it up and turned around to face Weiss who was sitting at the kitchen table. "Hey Weiss, remember?" She shook the object in her head.

The white-haired girl just raised a brow at that. "Bread? Yes, I remember bread, Ruby. Are we having bread for dinner?"

"No silly, I mean we could, but it's not just any bread. It's bread for something specific. Ten years ago? Remember?" She continued to grin as she held the packaged bread.

Weiss's eyes went wide as the realization hit her. "Oh right, grilled cheese. I remember."

"Since we had a little bit of… Recollection already, how about we go full out and have that for dinner?" Her grin turned into a smile, it was some time since they had that, or at least she, not sure if Weiss didn't have them somewhere out.

"That's… Not a bad idea. Very well, I accept that." Weiss nodded.

Ruby nodded and began to prepare the simple meal. It was amusing for her to think that it all started with this, something this simple. Perhaps it was fitting, looking back if anyone told her about something similar she would probably roll her eyes and consider the story to be extremely cheesy.

So it was fitting that it all started with a pair of grilled cheese sandwiches.

Author's Note:

I'm not really happy how this came out, mostly because it broke the main rule I try to uphold, which is "Show, don't tell" but I knew it was necessary here. Why? Mostly because this could be made into a separate story. Which would be a weird story, it would be a whiterose story where they aren't physically together. So like a struggle through having to endure distance relationship. Of course, that's not an issue, it's an interesting idea for a story, the main reason why I decided to do this chapter as I did, was mostly for time reasons. First I promised closure for their story, the second I have so many ideas and so many ongoing stories that I decided that I should focus on instead of making a "closure" chapter 20k words.

It's not that I halfassed this or anything, I really liked the letter idea I made here, just I had this going for the entire story and I just thought that while it's not a bad gimmick I can't just make a story where it's all letters from Weiss. Hence why later Weiss just explains a certain situation.

Well, as always it is what it is. I hope that you enjoyed this chapter and that it closed this specific story with a happy end.