Special Thanks

Xlyra from AO3 helped with storyline development and was one of the people

who helped inspire this story! Thank you so much for the help!

Mikotizini from FF.N helped with the editing of the final draft for chapter 1 and was the other

person whose work inspired me! Thank you as well!

Sky has helped with editing and proofreading the final draft of this chapter!

(Sky is not a fanfiction author, but is an amazing editor!

Make sure to give this great person some extra love!)

Give their works a look! They are truly amazing!

A Painting in the Park

Chapter 17

Weiss sat on the couch of her current temporary housing. She had out papers for her work but she wasn't really doing much with it. There were currently other things on her mind, such as how she wanted to confront Ruby. They had been living in the same apartment for about a week and so she thought it was about time to ask the girl on a date.

She was currently thinking about waiting until after their little party though. At least they can have that without things getting awkward if Ruby said no. In the meantime, she should do some work. Seeing as how she'd be working from home for the next month and a half, that would be the smart choice.

However, instead of buckling down and working, Weiss pulled out her phone and scrolled through her small list of contacts. Surely she could talk to one of them about what she should do? There weren't a lot of options though.

There was Yang, who had the best insight on Ruby. Although Ruby was already likely talking to her. Blake was also a good option but seeing as how Yang was always around her, Ruby would probably hear about it. Velvet and Coco were also on her contacts but that would lead to a lot of teasing. Even more teasing than Yang liked to hand out.

Lastly, she could talk to Jaune and Pyrrha. Jaune was clueless about this sort of thing though. And Pyrrha? Well, she would be a pretty good option actually. The girl was popular and pretty so she probably had some experience with this sort of scenario. Weiss smiled before clicking on her information.

After a few rings, the other girl finally picked up. There was a bit of rustling as the phone found its way to the owner. Then, finally, there was an answer. A happy and light greeting that never failed to put a smile on the face of whoever it was directed at.

"Hello! How can I help you, Weiss?" Pyrrha said cheerfully and Weiss couldn't help but smile.

"Hey, Pyrrha. I just wanted to talk, if that is fine? And if you aren't busy that is." Weiss said as nonchalantly as possible. Pyrrha was quiet for a few moments before responding.

"Of course I'm willing to talk! Just give me 15 minutes maybe? I just need to take a shower, seeing as how I just finished a… um, workout." Weiss was about to agree but hesitated. After listening for a few more moments she could pick out Jaune in the background. So instead of agreeing, she just smirked.

"It sounds to me like you are not training people at the gym. So unless you consider a date with Jaune to be a 'workout'... Actually, if you consider a date with Jaune to be a workout then I honestly do not want to know what you two have been doing." Weiss said hesitantly, giving an exaggerated shudder. Pyrrha started coughing uncontrollably.

"I can assure you, we're doing nothing like that." Pyrrha said. Weiss only shook her head and rolled her eyes.

"Mhmm. Of course, you are not. Anyways, just call me back whenever you two are done with your date. Oh and congrats on that by the way!" Pyrrha and Weiss said their goodbyes before hanging up. They would talk about it later, she was sure of that.

In the meantime, Weiss set her phone to the side and leaned over the paperwork and stacks of chapters she was supposed to work on. She had been procrastinating on doing it because Ruby's been around constantly. However, she wouldn't be able to keep that up and needed to do her job.

So she started to work as efficiently as possible in the time she currently had. After all, Pyrrha would call her back soon enough. And, even if she wasn't going to be calling her back, Ruby would probably come around and bother her pretty soon anyways. Although, if she was honest with herself, she couldn't really say that she was bothered by the girl. Weiss smiled softly as she continued to work.

"Alright Yang, do you think you can get it all set up? If I disappear for too long things might look suspicious and I don't really trust someone else with this. I've been working on it for too long." Ruby said in a hushed tone. She had called Yang to talk about her plan to ask Weiss out. She had managed to finish all the pieces to the project and just had to wait for the party.

"Yeah, dontcha worry about it, lil sis! And if I'm not sure how you want it, I'll have Blakey to help me! We want this to go really well for you too ya know." Yang replied. Ruby smiled, comforted that they both wanted this to work out.

"Thank you, Yang. This means a lot to me. Oh, and please tell Blake I said thank you as well." Ruby said.

"Of course! Oh, and I have a request. Since you and Weiss haven't picked a date for the party, could I suggest this Thursday?" Ruby heard Blake let out a light gasp in the background but didn't give it much thought.

"Yeah, that day should work. Weiss has been working from home lately so we should be free that day. I'm sure she'll agree to have the party at the park too so that makes things easy for all of us."

"Awesome! Well, anything else you need us to do? I'm sure you're probably freaking out about all this. I know I was." Yang laughed good-naturedly as always, causing Ruby to smile.

"Thanks, Yang. But I should go and finish planning this party. Don't you think?" Yang gave her quick agreement before they said their goodbyes and proceeded to hang up. Ruby sighed and rolled her shoulders. She might need to go get a massage or something. All this worry was certainly giving her muscles some knots, which wasn't good for her art.

After a moment of leaning against the wall of the room she was currently hiding in, Ruby headed out the door and into the living room. Weiss was currently on the phone with someone and writing on what Ruby assumed was a piece of paperwork. Ruby jumped onto the couch next to her and gave her a smile.

"Hey Pyrrha, thanks for the advice! I have to go now though so I will talk to you later." Weiss said onto the phone before hanging up and putting all her papers in a pile.

"Well don't stop on my account. If you have things to do then go ahead and finish. I can wait." Ruby said with a smile on her face.

"Thank you, Ruby. But in case you do not remember, we have a party to plan still. I have been waiting for you to finish up your call with your sister so we could get started on that." Weiss said, turning to face her on the couch.

"Yeah, I did take a little while to finish that call, didn't I? But yeah, I didn't forget. I was actually gonna suggest the same thing after you finished." Ruby replied with a large grin.

"Well, then let us get started. The first thing to do is pick a date."

"Yang actually wanted to request that we do it this Thursday. I'm pretty sure it's some kinda special day for her or something like that so yeah." Ruby reasoned.

"That should be possible… I will have to let Velvet and Pyrrha know right away though. What about the time and place?"

"How does 4 sound? And at the park where we met? We can have Yang barbeque some food for dinner and just spend time as friends until we all have to go." Weiss' current smile only grew at the mention of the park and Ruby knew she was sold on the location.

"That sounds like a wonderful plan so far. I have not been out on a barbeque before though so I guess you will be doing most of this planning." Ruby giggled as Weiss said that.

"What is it?" Weiss questioned.

"Well, you just say that like the whole barbeque thing is gonna change the fact that I'll be planning most of this. It looked to me like I already was doing most of this on my own." Ruby giggled some more as Weiss pouted

"Hey, I was planning to help plan it!" Weiss protested. Ruby only hummed teasingly.

"Anyways, what else do we have to do?" Ruby asked.

They continued to plan for the next few hours. It turned out that they had a lot of things to plan, such as food, activities, and decorations for Weiss. After they had everything planned Weiss called Velvet and Pyrrha and told them the details they needed to know while Ruby told Yang and Blake. They then went to the store to buy everything they needed before calling it a day.

"Hey, Weiss? Where should I put the cooler?" Ruby called out from the entrance to the park. It was the day of their party and they had been setting things up for about a half an hour already. They didn't need to take so much time or put so much effort into this party but Weiss seemed to enjoy this, so Ruby humored her.

"Which cooler is it? Is it the one with all the beverages or the one with the barbeque supplies?" Weiss replied.

"The one full of milk!" Ruby yelled proudly. She had put together a small cooler full of milk just for herself because she enjoyed the drink immensely. Weiss gave her a curious look before finally replying.

"Go ahead and put it by the table with the rest of the drinks. Then can you come help put up these lights?"

"Sure! But, uh, are we allowed to even put these up? This is a state-owned park you know." Ruby asked curiously. She hadn't read much of the rules other than those that had to do with art but they were very strict about that so she assumed it would be the same with other things as well.

"Well you leave your art here do you not? I would think that this is less likely to cause trouble." Weiss retorted.

"Yeah, but I had to get a permit for that." Weiss paused at those words before slowly turning towards her.

"In that case, we might want to keep this between us. We already bought the lights and hung over half of them after all." Weiss said with a smile. Ruby couldn't help but nod back with a smile.

It only took a short amount of time for the two of them to finish the lights and put out a few different snacks and side dishes after that. Thankfully, they hadn't arrived too early and so people arrived not too long after they finished. Ruby and Weiss were in the middle of talking about what had happened with the stalking and then murders.

"Hey, there hot stuff." Came a voice from behind them both. Weiss turned around quickly and smiled widely.

"Coco! You made it!" The platinum-haired girl cried out before giving the girl a hug. Coco laughed and returned the hug. A girl that Ruby recognized as Velvet stood just off to the side.

"Hello. You must be Ruby. Weiss' friend?" Velvet asked as Coco and Weiss continued speaking. Ruby smiled and nodded.

"Yeah! And I take it you're Velvet? Weiss told me a bit about you. I'm really glad you and Coco were able to make it here." Velvet smiled but didn't respond. The two of them sat there quietly, not knowing what to say next. Thankfully though, another person entered the fray of the party.

"Rubyyy! Where can I find the food?!" Came a loud shout from a short girl with orangish hair. Everyone that was currently gathered turned towards the sound.

"Nora! Where's Ren?" Ruby asked, happy that someone she knew was now here.

"Probably like three streets away still. He's slow! Now, where's the food? I'm hungry!" Ruby smiled at the exuberant nature of the other girl.

"There are some snacks over there but we'll have to wait for Yang before we get any real food. She's kinda the only one decent at barbequing." Nora pouted at the comment.

"Heyyy, I can barbeque as well! I have plenty of practice!" Nora whined.

"Plenty of practice starting fires. Not barbequing." Came the calm reply from behind Nora.

"Ren! If you tell them that, then they won't let me do any of the cooking!" Ren only smiled and shook her head. It wasn't long before Pyrrha and Jaune appeared as well, closely followed by Yang and Blake.

"Hey, Rubles!" Yang called out as she drew near to everyone else with a smile. Blake was right next to her, the two of them walking hand in hand.

"Yangggg! It's been forever since we've seen each other!" Ruby cried out as she jumped onto her sister for a hug.

"It's only been 2 weeks. It hasn't been that long ya know." Yang said with a chuckle. Blake moved away to go talk to Weiss.

"Yeah, yeah I know. But did you remember to bring them?" Ruby asked in a much quieter voice. She spared a glance towards Weiss and smiled lightly when she saw how the other girl was enjoying herself.

"Now how could I forget? I've had you and Blake pestering me about it all day." Yang said with a lighthearted wink.

"Well, then where is it? I don't want someone else walking off with it if you left it sitting somewhere." Ruby replied worriedly.

"Blake and I left it in our car so don't worry. Just let us know when you want us to go set it up." Yang said, poking the younger girl in the stomach.

"Alright. Well, I think you should go cook up some food in the meantime. Otherwise, Nora is gonna eat all the snacks."

"Nora's here?! Where's she at? I need to go say hi to my old buddy!" Yang cried out while running off to find her partner in crime.

"Well, this isn't gonna end well." Ruby said with a sigh.

"What is not going to end well?" Weiss said with a smile as she came to stand beside Ruby.

"Nora and Yang. Those two are probably going to cause some trouble at some point tonight." Ruby said simply. She was too nervous to explain in depth about what happened last time those two were allowed to be together alone. Weiss gave the normally talkative girl a weird look.

"Is something wrong Ruby?" Weiss asked.

"Hmm? Oh, no there's nothing wrong. I'm just a bit worried. But forget about that, it's time to enjoy ourselves! I mean that is why we put this all together right?" Ruby said with a smile. Weiss returned the smile with a nod.

Hours passed as they enjoyed themselves and eventually it grew dark. After only a moment's consideration, Weiss turned on the lights that they had hung earlier, providing warm lighting to the surrounding area. It was at that point that Yang and Blake disappeared to help Ruby and that Coco and Velvet finally departed for the night.

"Hey, Weiss? You enjoying yourself?" Ruby asked with a wide grin. Weiss beamed back happily.

"I am really enjoying myself! It has been so much fun spending time with all our friends." Weiss said. Ruby glanced over Weiss' shoulder when she saw Yang and Blake return. Her smile grew slightly while her heart started to stutter nervously.

"That's good to hear! I was actually wondering if I could show you something real quick though?" Weiss hummed in confirmation and gave a nod. Ruby turned and started to lead her towards a side path. Yang gave her a thumbs up from off to the side while Blake smiled and gave a small wave.

Ruby led Weiss down the small path using a flashlight from her phone. It wasn't long before they spotted a lightly lit and open area just off the path. Ruby recognized it as a place she often went to relax and felt her nerves arise. Once they entered she wouldn't have any choice but to move forward.

After a quick look back Ruby saw Weiss give her an encouraging, yet curious, smile. That was all she needed to push forward and emerge into the clearing with Weiss close behind. When she entered she was greeted by soft lights and a single tree sitting in the center of the clearing.

Hanging from the branches of the tree were small lights and dozens of small, hand carved roses. Weiss gazed around in awe. Ruby started to slowly walk towards the tree and was amused by how Weiss followed her closely around.

After a slow circuit around the clearing, they stopped below the tree in a spot where the hand-carved flowers and lights hung lower than anywhere else. Weiss walked up to one and gently inspected it, seemingly afraid to break it. Ruby smiled and walked up behind the other girl, gingerly removing the flower from where it hung.

When she handed it to Weiss, the girl held it close. After a moment of hesitation, Ruby wrapped her arms around the other girl and rested her head on her shoulder so they could both gaze around together. It wasn't long before Ruby took a deep breath before stepping away and walking around to face the other girl, ready to ask her question.

"Weiss?" Ruby asked, heart thumping.

"Yes, Ruby?" Weiss asked, obviously a tad distracted by the surroundings. Ruby took hold of Weiss' hands in order to pull the girls attention towards herself. It seemed to work.

"Weiss, would you please go out with me?" Ruby blurted out, her nerves getting the better of her. She mentally facepalmed with a cringe as Weiss stared back at her.

"That… well, that probably wasn't one of my best moments… I coulda gone about that in a much better way." Ruby muttered to herself. It wasn't said loudly but in the quiet of the night, Weiss obviously heard. She quickly snapped out of her daze and jumped up to wrap her arms around Ruby.

"You do not need to be any more convincing, Ruby. I honestly just can not believe that you got around to asking that question before me." Weiss calmly muttered into Ruby's collar. Ruby giggled lightly.

"You were planning on asking me that too?"

"Yes. Although, I was going to wait for a few more days." Weiss said with a laugh.

"It looks to me like I beat you too it." Ruby said happily.

"So it does." Weiss said with a content sigh.

"So… girlfriends?" She asked. Weiss looked at her closely before giving the other girl a smile. She leaned in and gave Ruby a small and shy kiss, effectively stunning the girl in happy bliss.

"Girlfriends." And all Ruby could do was smile uncontrollably as the girl she had been attracted to for ages, was wrapped in her arms. The girl who and was now her girlfriend.

A/N

Yeah, I know. I said I would be taking a break this week

that you shouldn't expect an update. But then I had

a conversation with myself (oh shush, we've all been there)

and I realized that if I were to push myself for one more week,

I could get this special little chapter done in time

for valentines day! So… I did hehe…

Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter!

It's about time we got to this point and I know

that a lot of you were waiting for this

(my editor certainly was lol). If any of you have suggestions

for future chapters, let me know in the suggestions!

Thanks for all the support!