Throughout the week Weiss had encountered several problems. Some as small as dropping her coffee when getting out of her car, others were more significant, such as two of her biggest clients not renewing their contracts. To top off the monumental pile of issues that had formed this week, she had been told that a shipment of Dust was stolen and the odds of finding it were low. Taking a deep breath of the frigid winter air and exhaling, she pushed everything from her mind. All of that could wait until Monday. Right now, the only thing she wanted to do was eat something and relax with Ruby.

She fished her keys out of her coat pocket, unlocked the door, and stepped inside. She shut the door and turned to hang her coat, eagerly awaiting Klein's regular friendly greeting and an offer of something to eat or drink.

When it failed to come, she turned around expecting to see another servant in his place. She saw that the house was immaculate as always, but there was no Klein, no servant, no Ruby, even Zwei hadn't bothered to welcome her.

Saddened by the lack of a familiar face she said, "Hello, is anyone here?" It was rare for Klein to not greet her and she didn't know of anything that would demand his attention. As her survey of the house came to an end, she saw a piece of paper and a neat pile of clothes laying on a nearby table. Picking up the paper, she saw that it was a note written in Ruby's sloppy handwriting, "Get changed, then come to the good living room -Ruby" There was also a cartoonish rendering of Ruby smiling up at Weiss from the page.

Weiss set the note down and tried coming up with an explanation. Ruby was up to something, that was for sure, but what? Weiss's birthday wasn't for months, she didn't think anyone was visiting, no clear answer presented itself. Which only made her more curious as to what was going on.

She eyed the pile of clothes, then gave the top garment an experimental touch. It was soft, and she liked the shade of blue. Picking it up, she realized it was a V-neck sweater that she had worn a few times before. Below it was pajama pants, jeans, a T-shirt, a nightgown, and some cozy socks. Whatever Ruby had planned involved comfortable clothes, that was a good sign, and she had gone the extra mile of leaving options.

Looking around to make sure she was alone, Weiss quickly shed her blazer, blouse, bra, skirt, and tights, then donned her recently acquired sweater, pajama pants, and socks, finding them infinitely more comfortable than her work clothes. With that done, she began the journey to Ruby's favorite living room.

After her walk through the mansion, she came to the pair of doors belonging to the living room that Ruby liked most. She found another note taped to one of the doors. Like the previous note it was in Ruby's handwriting, "NO ENTRY! (Except Weiss and Ruby)" Accompanying the words was another cartoonish Ruby, but this one wore a stern expression and held a stop sign.

For the first time that day Weiss felt the edges of her mouth form the ghost of a smile. She hadn't even seen Ruby yet and she was already making her feel better.

Weiss knocked on the door.

Faint footsteps approached until it was opened a quarter of the way. Peeking out was Ruby, her eyes gleamed mischievously, and she wore a matching smirk.

Weiss let out a soft giggle at Ruby and how silly this whole situation was, "What are you up to?"

Ruby's smirk changed to a full grin and she said, "I'm surprising you, obviously."

Weiss's ever-increasing intrigue had peaked, "You're surprising me with what exactly?"

"You'll see. But first…." She paused for dramatic effect, "you have to close your eyes and promise to not open them until I say so."

Weiss eyed Ruby skeptically, on the way here she had continued to speculate as to what Ruby was doing, but she couldn't even think of a guess.

"Alright." Weiss shut her eyes, as an afterthought she added, "This better not be some dumb prank."

"Relax, you're going to love it. Hold out your hand." Ruby opened the door the rest of the way.

Weiss did as instructed, she felt one of Ruby's strong hands grip her own and she was gently tugged forward. Weiss took a few tentative steps until Ruby told her to stop and she let go of Weiss's hand, she closed the door and returned to Weiss's side.

Leaning close to Weiss, Ruby whispered, "Open your eyes."

Ruby's breath sent shivers down Weiss's spine and her eyelids slid open. She saw something completely foreign to her.

The furniture was gone and in its place was a collage of cushions, pillows, blankets, and other assorted cozy things. They had been used to form a sprawling mess that took up nearly the whole room. Parts of the structure were lower to the ground and more organized while others rose up taller than Weiss and appeared more sporadic.

From the look on Weiss's face, Ruby could tell she was surprised. But she couldn't tell if it was a good kind of surprise or a bad kind, "What do you think?"

Weiss was silent for a few moments. She didn't know what to think. She hadn't known what to expect and whatever this was would have been impossible to predict. Studying it in greater detail she concluded that it didn't look awful, but she didn't know what it was or what she should do with it. She fumbled for the right words, "I don't not like it." Those were definitely not the right words.

Ruby started to panic, though she hid it very well. She had the idea for this weeks ago and spent a good amount of her time since then making it. She hadn't considered the possibility of Weiss not liking it.

"What do you mean?" Ruby asked, hoping to find a way to salvage this.

Weiss appeared uncertain, "It's just that…I don't know what it is. What am I supposed to do with it?"

A flash of understating went off inside Ruby's head, "Wait a second, you've never seen a pillow fort before, have you?" Ruby found it hard to believe that Weiss could have gone her whole life without seeing a pillow fort. Although, this wouldn't be the first time that Weiss found out about something that normal people did. The more Ruby thought about it the more it seemed plausible: given Weiss's unique childhood it would make sense she had never thought to take the pillows off a couch and make something with them.

"A Pillow fort?" Weiss uttered the words as though they tasted funny, confirming Ruby's suspicion.

"You're being serious, aren't you?" Ruby looked at Weiss just to make sure she wasn't lying.

"Of course I'm serious, why would I lie about never seeing some cushions and blankets thrown together."

Ruby could tell that Weiss really had no clue as to how impressive the masterpiece of architecture before her was. "Oh my god, I married someone that's never made a pillow fort before. That's like first date 'get to know you' stuff; what do you do for work, what do you do for fun, what's your favorite kind of cookie, do you like pillow forts?" After taking a breath she continued, "How did it take this long to come up? I should have made one of these years ago."

"I think you're being a bit dramatic." Weiss crossed her arms.

"You don't understand how wrong you are, and that's okay. You haven't gotten to experience the coziness of a pillow fort before." Ruby went over to the fort.

Weiss watched her go. She hadn't had any expectations coming into this, now she was just waiting to see what happened next.

Ruby turned back to Weiss, with the immense pride she felt from making the fort and her own love of pillow forts swelling in her chest, she said "This is not just a pillow fort, this is the most incredible pillow fort ever created, in fact, calling it a pillow fort is an insult. Pillow Palace would be more accurate." A deep sense of conviction was interwoven in each word, Ruby had been pondering the significance of her creation the entire time she was crafting it. It was a Pillow Palace, and Weiss was going to love it.

Weiss raised an eyebrow at Ruby.

"Just come here, it'll be fun." Ruby lifted the blanket draped over the entrance and motioned Weiss over.

"I'm supposed to go in it?"

"Yes, now come on. It'll blow your mind." Ruby insisted.

'what do I have to lose' Weiss thought, she went over to the entrance. She hesitated for a second, then got on all fours and crawled inside.

"Wait for me, I've got to turn out the lights." Ruby went over to the light switch while Weiss asked, "How are we supposed to see inside it?"

"Glowsticks and lamps." Was Ruby's answer. Looking deeper into the Pillow Palace Weiss saw that there were indeed glowsticks placed at regular intervals through the hallway.

The lights clicked off and Ruby used her semblance to get back over to Weiss. She entered the Pillow Palace and pulled the blanket back over the opening.

Ruby's mischievous smile had returned, and she said, "Okay, follow me." She began to crawl deeper and Weiss stayed close behind.

The glowsticks provided plenty of light to see by and Weiss noticed the variety of cushions that made up the walls and ceiling, "Where did you get all of this?" Weiss asked with genuine interest, she knew there were a lot of furniture sets in the house, but she never would have guessed there were enough to make something like this.

"I spent a week going from room to room taking cushions, blankets, pillows, and whatever I thought would work. After I had been to every room, I think I went to every room." There was a hint of uncertainty in her voice, "I started building everything." Weiss didn't know what to say. She hadn't even bothered to see every room, spending time moving things from all over the house to make this pillow fort, or Pillow Palace as Ruby called it, was impressive. Although, Weiss still didn't believe that it would be as magnificent as Ruby had built it up to be.

Another question occurred to her, "Why did you make it so big? I would think they're supposed to be smaller." She wanted to know why Ruby had gone to such great lengths instead of making something more typical, or what she assumed was typical. Most people wouldn't have a mansions worth of cushions and blankets to make a pillow fort.

"At first it was going to be a normal pillow fort, just something for us to cuddle up in over the weekend. Then I remembered how many couches are in the house and I figured you deserve something special. I wanted it to be the most amazing pillow fort you had ever seen, you'll notice how I assumed you would have seen a pillow fort before now." Weiss had noticed and didn't comment, "That's why it's so ridiculous. In fact, we're almost at the dining room now."

"You made a dining room?"

"Yup, but it's nothing fancy, just a table and some chairs." Weiss was going to love pillow forts almost as much as Ruby by the time they left. This entire thing had been made specifically for her enjoyment.

"If there's a dining room, does that mean there's food?" Weiss sounded hopeful. She had only eaten a simple breakfast this morning and been forced to skip lunch.

"I asked the cook to make one of your favorites." Ruby could almost feel the joy pouring out of Weiss.

The promise of food sent Weiss's mouth watering and she eagerly awaited their destination.

Moments after, Ruby said, "Here it is." She went left and crawled through an opening. Weiss came in next and saw that it was big enough to stand up in. Whereas the hallway had been made of cushions, this room was made by draping and stretching lightweight blankets over the tops of shelves and lamps to form an irregularly shaped and patterned ceiling. In the center of the room was a small wooden table with two matching chairs. On top of the table was a covered silver tray, two wine glasses, and a bottle of red wine.

Weiss stood still, there was nothing grandiose about the room, but knowing Ruby had done it all by herself just for her sent waves of warmth through her body, "I can't believe you went to all this trouble for me."

"You like to do extravagant things for me, and I wanted to do something like that for you." Ruby pulled out a chair for Weiss, after she had taken it, Ruby went to the other one.

Ruby reached for the lid of the serving tray and said, "Let's eat." She lifted it off the tray. Waves of steam rolled off the food and Weiss felt her stomach growl in anticipation.

"That was so gooood." Weiss declared as she set her plate and utensils back on the tray.

Ruby did the same and said, "Now that we've had dinner, do you wanna watch a movie?" she took a sip from her glass.

Weiss looked at her, "Are you saying there's a movie theater somewhere in here too?"

"Calling it a movie theater is a stretch, but I did make a room specifically for movies and cuddling." Ruby replied coyly.

"I would love that." Weiss emptied her glass of wine. Then she eyed the bottle, "I'm taking this with me."

Ruby laughed and said, "Okay, but just so you know: there's more of a selection at the movies 'n cuddling room."

Weiss gave her a serious look, then gave the same look to the bottle. She set it down and said, "I'll wait and see what else there is."

Ruby made her way to the opening of the room and crawled out, close behind her was Weiss.

Back in the cushion hallway, Weiss thought it best to focus her attention on Ruby to avoid getting lost. And she was pleased by what she saw. Not only was Ruby's butt just feet from her face, she was wearing her pajama pants which didn't leave much to the imagination. Though Weiss didn't need to imagine since she had seen everything before. While watching her wife's ass sway slightly side to side Weiss was struck by the idea that she should give Ruby's trainer a raise, and a new car, maybe even a small island. Weiss had become so distracted by her ogling that she failed to hear Ruby say they were nearly there.

When Weiss didn't respond Ruby stopped crawling and looked behind her, momentarily worried that she might have gotten lost.

Weiss nearly ran into her and reluctantly shifted her gaze to Ruby's face. She noted the expectant expression and said, "Did you say something?"

"I said we're almost there. What were you thinking so hard about? It better not be work."

Weiss didn't answer. It only took a second for Ruby to figure out. She realized how close Weiss was to her butt. Ruby grinned, more than a little pleased with herself, "C'mon you pervert." Ruby turned her attention forward and started crawling again.

For a brief second Weiss thought about denying it, but what was the point. Ruby had caught her, and she knew Weiss loved her butt.

Weiss continued to admire Ruby until she went through another opening.

This time they were in a much smaller room. It was the shape of a semicircle; the walls had been made with bookshelf's and there were heavy blankets making up the roof. The dining room had been illuminated by lamps, but this one only had a scant few glowsticks. The back of a plush couch with an end table faced the entrance, and it was pointed at a large T.V.

Ruby was already standing next to the couch, a trail of rose pedals behind her, she looked at Weiss, "You can pick out the movie while I make us some drinks."

Weiss took the remote from her and sat down. She watched Ruby walk over to the side of the room and open a small refrigerator, without looking at Weiss, Ruby asked, "Anything in particular you want?"

"I'd love a Dark Atlesian." Weiss answered.

"One Dark Atlesian coming up." With Ruby putting together Weiss's drink and her own, Weiss looked for the right movie.

Nothing too actiony, Ruby might not like that, but she had given Weiss the remote. The only problem was that she didn't know what was popular right now.

Looking at the screen but directing her question at Ruby, "I want something that's not an action movie, but I'm not opposed to any action, nothing scary, and I'd like it to be at least a little funny."

Ruby was putting the finishing touches on her own drink, this kind of thing tended to happen when Weiss was in charge of picking the movie, so Ruby had checked to see what had come out recently, "Ummmmmmm. How about the new Dust Divers, that's supposed to be good?" She looked up from her task.

Weiss looked at her, "I don't want to think about Dust, what else?"

"Hmmmmmmm, oh, No Refunds. It's got love, action, and jokes." She made her way over to Weiss and set their drinks and a bag of popcorn down on the table.

Weiss queued up the movie while Ruby sat down beside her. She pushed play and asked Ruby, "You didn't put a blanket in here, did you?"

"Nope. Why would I put a blanket in the movies 'n cuddling room, that's just silly" As she said this, she reached over the side of the chair and brought a plush black blanket into view.