Chapter Text
Ruby had been having the worst luck. Her family was gone, any payments she would have gotten swindled by loopholes, and never making it to her. She barely had enough to afford a ticket to Mistral, and a bit of food. Her clothes were barely held together, and she just needed a fresh start.
It was beyond late when the boat finally arrived, and she stumbled into town.
She had no idea what to do, or even how.
If she’d been paying more attention she might have avoided going down a particularly well known alley. During the day it was full of foot traffic, but at night it was known by the more affectionate nickname of ‘Cutthroat Alley’.
To Ruby, who didn’t know that, she wasn’t prepared to be accosted by a large looking man who demanded her money, and became more angry when the woman had nothing to give him .
At least until he raised his fist to strike her. Ruby curled up, and held up her hands to protect her face only to open her eyes after a few moments when she felt a small spattering of liquid hit her face, and a thud of something heavy hitting the ground.
A young woman with white hair was standing in front of her, a small bag of groceries by her feet she moved out of the way of an expanding pool of blood. She leaned down, and precisely stabbed into the man thrice around the abdomen. Ruby wasn’t exactly sure of the why she was doing so, or the exact names for the locations the knife sliced into, but they definitely seemed well practiced, and deliberate, as if the woman had done them so often it was a habit by this point.
The woman stood up, and looked at Ruby as if unsure what to do with her. Ruby however, knew only one thing.
“Wow, you saved me!” Ruby said excitedly as she wiped away the blood, clearly uncaring save for the fact that it was keeping her from seeing her savior more clearly.
A raised eyebrow was her only response to that as she handed over a handkerchief Ruby took on instinct. “Indeed.”
“You were so cool. I was frozen in shock, but you were like pow, stab stab,” Ruby said until the woman glared, Ruby eeped, and started cleaning the blood on her face, and hands.
“Keep your voice down,” they hissed before they picked up their grocery bag. “But you are welcome.”
“Seriously, you were so cool,” Ruby assured her, keeping her voice low. “Won’t you get in trouble for helping me?”
“Hardly,” the woman stated. “There’s several well known gangs in the area. The tattoo on his arm says he’s one of the White Fang. They’re in a turf war with the Spiders. They kill with a series of bladed cuts. It’s supposed to be symbolic, but the last one I ‘asked’ about it wouldn’t tell me why,” the white haired woman explained as she stepped over the corpse as if it was no more than refuse left on the road.
“That’s so smart. You’re smart, like really smart. I was good at math in school, and stuff like that, but you’re good at like well that stuff.”
Weiss felt the strangest bit of amusement take hold of her as a potential victim walked home, and showered her in compliments. Having never actually had anyone compliment her who had seen her act in such a matter was…strangely pleasing.
She nodded her head as she listened to the story from the woman. No family, no one knew where she was? Well, well. She had quite a lot to think about over dinner. She’d invite the woman, and see what her read on her was after that.
If she felt she could be trusted as her instincts said she could, and she’d not been wrong yet, then she’d be free to go. If not? Well she had new blood cheese she wanted to experiment with.
Based on the way the blood, and murder hadn’t phased her? Weiss was oddly optimistic about things, not something she was used to.
Ruby had accepted her offer of spending the night without complaint. As far as Weiss could tell, she showed no negative reaction to witnessing murder in front of her.
Weiss had expected a need to threaten her into keeping a secret, or even dispatching the woman herself to keep it that way.
The fact that she’d walked, willingly, with Weiss was a point in her favor. When she talked there was no nervous tension, or undertones in her voice. She seemed entirely at ease, even pleased to be in Weiss’ company albeit a bit shy rather than actually worried.
She wasn’t unused to such a thing. Plenty of customers had thought her a lovely young woman, but Ruby was the only one who had seen her as she was, and didn’t seem to care.
It was strange, but her instincts had yet to steer her wrong after all, and they were urging that she not harm the woman walking to her side, the one who had insisted on carrying the groceries to help out.
“Are you alright with a simple soup tonight?” Weiss asked as they turned town a street closer to the back alley she’d use to get into her shop without being seen.
“Oh, sure. Anything is great. I just…”
“Just?”
“Thank you. For saving me. You were awesome,” Ruby said with a wide beaming grin.
Weiss merely nodded at that as she gestured for her to follow her, and be silent as she did so.
The fact that Ruby did so meant she was either entirely without survival instincts, or…well there had to be another reason, but Weiss wasn’t sure she could even entertain it at the moment.
She was half expecting Ruby to be gone after showing her to the restroom to clean up while she got dinner started.
She was more surprised to hear her come in, and ask if she could help set the table. Nonplussed Weiss nodded to where everything was, and she did so.
What a strange woman.
“This is really good,” Ruby praised after only a few spoonfuls. “I’ve never had bread this good either!”
“Really?” Weiss asked, partly interested in the answer, and partly to keep studying the young woman, to catalogue her reactions, and responses.
“Yeah, it smells really nice,” Ruby said before she blushed in embarrassment. “One time back at…uh, home. I smelled something like this, but it was just from mold, or bacteria in the sink that had grown for a couple months, and uh…this is better.”
“I can certainly imagine that. What brings you here?” Weiss asked. “I know you said your family was…”
“I…” Ruby gripped the spoon in her hand tightly. “My family is gone. It’s just me.”
“I’m…sorry,” Weiss said, doing her best to channel the appropriate response. She knew what one should say, she’d had plenty express as much to her, and she’d done so to others where appropriate, but for some reason she felt almost annoyed at herself for not truly meaning it.
“The insurance companies,” Ruby said. “They claimed some technicality so I didn’t get anything. I had some money left in my account, but everything I saw reminded me of them,” Ruby explained with a shuddering breath. “S-so I just left wherever I could afford,” she explained as she fiddled with a napkin at her place.
“And they sent you here?” Weiss asked curiously. It was almost like they’d wanted her to die. She almost had. The idea was strangely displeasing to her.
“I guess,” Ruby said with an aborted attempt at a shrug. “I mean I know I can be a bit clumsy, and I’m not perfect, but I can clean, or-”
Ruby stopped her rambling when Weiss held up a singular hand, the motion instantly gaining her attention.
“The guest bedroom has no one using it. You may stay,” Weiss said firmly, but not unkindly. “In return you will work as part of the front facing part of the store.”
“I didn’t know you had one,” Ruby admitted.
Weiss nodded as that made sense seeing as she’d never told her. “I sell cheese, of all sorts.”
She braced for the questions about why, but was yet again surprised when Ruby beamed. “That sounds awesome. I bet it’s fun!”
“I enjoy it,” Weiss said, her tone surprisingly honest.
“I don’t,” Ruby struggled clearly unable to, or unwilling to bring herself to admit to something.
She merely raised an eyebrow, and waited. She was already sure that between the two Ruby would ‘break’ first. Weiss had learned patience, and its importance. Knowing when to, or not to speak was worth more than most would ever know.
“I don’t know anything about cheese,” Ruby said after a few moments.
Weiss blinked, but nodded, accepting it as easily as she accepted most news. “I will teach you.”
Ruby blinked, and pinked slightly, an action Weiss took note of if only because of the increased blood flow was an…intoxicating look.
She reigned herself in with minimal effort since her last kill was less than an hour ago. Ruby’s assistance would only serve to help normalize the shop, and make it more ‘homely’ and ‘normal’ to passersby, and customer alike.
“I’ll learn super quick,” Ruby promised.
Weiss tilted her head as she considered her. Strangely enough, she believed her.
Weiss awoke the next morning without an alarm, her body simply knowing it was time to get up as had long become habit.
She got ready for the day, and went over her thoughts as she tried to make sense of them. In theory, Ruby could have left during the night, found a way to escape, and had informed the authorities about what she’d seen.
Had she done so that would be at worst mildly troublesome for a short time, the police around here were notoriously corrupt, lazy, and as it had been a gang member attempting a mugging none would truly care.
Perhaps his fellow gang members, but she digressed.
Her mind was telling her however that Ruby wouldn’t be like that, and would still be waiting for her this morning. It was a strange feeling, and she had no idea as to why she felt that way, only that some strange part of herself she seldom, or rarely had use for was insisting that was the case.
She didn’t waste time arguing against it, in a few minutes she’d know the answer, and either have to hunt her down for such an act, or her feeling would be proven correct, and she’d gain an assistant.
It turned out she didn’t even need to wait that long as Ruby was already in the hall, in an outfit she vaguely recalled being in the guest rooms wardrobe. She couldn’t have told you where it came from, but it could work as an employees uniform she supposed.
“Weiss, hi!”
“Good morning,” Weiss greeted. She didn’t bother mentioning that Ruby had stayed, it was clearly obvious she had, and would only draw attention to the fact that it was strange she had thought she might not.
“I’m cheese selling ready, or learning to be ready!” Ruby offered.
Weiss allowed a brief upturn of one of her lips, for a moment, not long, but enough to be noticeable, for Ruby to realize what she was doing was correct, and to encourage it without being overly verbose.
Ruby seemed the clever sort, and would pick up on it. Hopefully.
“So I see,” Weiss said before she made a faint gesture with her fingers, and turned to show her toward the shop.
It turned out Ruby was fairly quick on the uptake, and what she lacked in cheese trivia she more than made up for in enthusiasm.
The customers seems to fairly adore her, the older women seemed to find her seemingly endless energy to be ‘adorable’ or ‘cute’ in so many words.
Many of them also seemed to offer a considering hum as they looked between the two. Why, Weiss didn’t care to entertain. She had more important things to accomplish.
An assistant after a short period of training would give her far more free time to handle more expensive orders. The ones where the clients required a personal touch, or were wealthy enough they expected it.
She set a letter to the side, and her eyes flicked around the room, and out onto the front of the store where Ruby was enthusiastically wrapping an entire half of a cheese wheel in the proper paper.
Weiss nodded approvingly at the choice of parchment paper. It would allow the cheese to continue breathing until they got it home. After that it was their responsibility, but she was gratified her new employee had taken her lessons to heart, and the fault would not lie with them.
If a fool wished to ruin their own cheese at their leisure then so be it, but it wouldn’t be on their heads, or reputation.
At thoughts of her employee she returned to the desk. In theory Ruby would likely accept just room, and board for her efforts, but Weiss was nothing if not thorough. You had to be to continue operating as she did with her…eccentricies.
She drafted out a standard letter of employment, and frowned. It was fine, suitable for most, but…would Ruby care for that?
Weiss wasn’t an overly personal sort, but she knew Ruby needed something different. Thought in mind she spent some time writing something specifically for Ruby, and sealed it before placing it on the stack with the others.
After a moment she fought her normal instincts, and gently used a finger to move it slightly to the side. Some things, she decided, needed to be a bit different, and stand out. Ruby was likely one of those.
She stood, and made her way to the front as she saw the trickle of customers start turning into a river to help her new employee.
Quick learner, or not there were limits after all.
“So like this?” Ruby asked as she showed the small wedge of cheese to Weiss.
“Mostly,” Weiss said after a moment. “You’re still rushing slightly, and as a result,” she said as her fingers grabbed onto the wedge, and removed a barely there transparent slice of cheese that she peeled like an extra piece of skin off of it.
“Oh,” Ruby said, shoulders slumping slightly.
“Don’t worry,” Weiss said, voice neutral. “You are learning, and quickly. If you were problematic I’d let you know.”
Oddly enough Ruby beamed at that. She was strange, Weiss decided.
But as she saw her go back to trying to slice the cheese just right, she figured that sort of strange would work well for her here.
“Do people buy milk with cheese?” Ruby asked as she looked at the small section of Weiss’s shop that wasn’t dedicated to cheese.
“Some do, and they pay well for it, so it’s something I keep for them, but I do not care much beyond that.”
“I mean I get the salami, wine, and crackers,” Ruby admitted. “The milk just seems weird to me.”
“Even with how connected it is to cheese?”
“I’m just trying to imagine someone dipping the cheese into milk like a cookie, and it gives me a stomach ache,” Ruby admitted with a strange facial expression.
Weiss blinked at that.
“Was that weird?” Ruby asked, worriedly.
“You have a gift,” Weiss said. “For evoking images even I find disturbing,” she said. She was actually more shocked that she’d made what could be considered a joke about her own ‘habits’.
Then Ruby giggled, and Weiss relaxed. Something inside her relaxed just the tiniest bit. Not enough to undo who she was, but more so that she realized there was a small crack, something, or someone could fit in, and fill.
She avoided thinking about it for now. There was cheese to make.
Weiss frowned as she left the shop. It was late, far too late for a normal girl, woman, or even man to be out in the streets, and definitely too late for a solitary citizen to be out, and turn down a side street almost ten minutes walk from her establishment.
She had been feeling a sort of pressure gently grow over the last few weeks. Strangely enough it seemed to grow more slowly with Ruby around. Likely she was so busy showing her the ropes, and how the business was run that she didn’t have time to devote to anything else.
Granted, Ruby's singular attempt at cooking had been an unmitigated disaster. Weiss had always heard the phrase that it was the ‘thought’ that counted. Were that the case she would have to assume Ruby despised her. Seeing as it was clear she did not, Weiss assumed that like most advice it was meant for normal people, not herself, and perhaps not even for Ruby.
That might be why they seemed to get along well enough. Ruby slotted into her life with the ease she was always told most people seemed to experience, and yet she’d found exceedingly rare.
She ran her fingers alongside her belt, and pouch, gently touching the various jars, and tools were in place.
Her cloak was on, pulled up, plausibly due to the rain, which would help conceal what was about to happen, but mostly to avoid anyone being able to identify her hair, which was a dead giveaway as to her identity.
She felt them before she saw them properly. Two. Perfect. She feigned fiddling with her shoes to surreptitiously make sure her knife was in her hand, or ready to be as she needed it.
She straightened up, and forced a fake noise of shock past her lips as she hurried her steps.
They’d give chase, and she could make the ‘incorrect’ turn down a dead end alleyway. The kind that went high, had no windows that weren’t boarded up, and was best avoided even in broad daylight.
A pity they didn’t realize which was the real prey in this situation.
She dashed around the corner, and waited behind a nearby bin knife in hand. A small smile on her lips as a single pair of shoes came around the corner. Even better.
Azora hadn’t ever been sure she’d amount to much. Her teachers had said so, her mother had said so, when she wasn’t drunk that was, and the only people that had supported her had ended up joining Hana she had too.
Sure she was just a low level thug, but it meant something being a part of the guild. There was respect in the eyes of the common folk, and that was just fine with her.
She had coin, respect, and even a bed partner every now, and again. A far cry from her dear old mother.
They’d lucked out finding a woman out alone, likely new to the area.
“Easy pickings,” her partner for the night, she couldn’t remember his name, only that they called him ‘Cow Tit’ at the tables for some reason.
“Yeah, yeah don’t botch it up,” she admonished him as she lit up a cigarette, and the two of them followed their new target.
She blew out a bit of smoke, and relished in watching their target squeak, and start to hurry, not aware of the dead end they were likely about to hit.
“I’ll make sure they don’t get by you. Get the goods, and keep it clean,” she ordered as she stopped a short distance away.
He grunted, either in annoyance at being ordered around, or acceptance as he removed a set of brass knuckles he fixed onto his hands.
She took a long drag as she listened, hearing the sound of a brief struggle over the wind, and the rain. Poor lass. If she was lucky she’d be robbed, and learn a valuable lesson about walking at night.
If not, well it didn’t matter if she were dead she supposed. She rolled her cigarette around in her fingers before deciding she’d waited long enough, and flicked it to the ground.
“Oi, Cow Tit what’s the…” she asked as she turned the corner, stunned at the sight before her.
Her partner was on the ground, or leaning up against the wall, his hat pulled over his head, chin leaned forward.
“Did you fall asleep? Or did she get the better of you?” she asked in amusement as she came over, and kicked him.
“Get up ya lazy bastard,” she said kicking him again, only this time he toppled over, the hat falling off as she blanched.
His throat had clearly been slit, and he was absolutely dead.
“Shit,” she muttered as she whirled around, eyes frantically looking for whoever had recused their target.
She never saw the shadow detach itself from the wall, but she did feel the brass knuckles slam into the back of her head as a rabbit punch knocked her out cold.
Ruby yawned as she got up, and blinked. Today was the one day a week Weiss closed the shop. Mostly because other stores did so, and she wanted to appear normal.
Part of her understood, but Weiss was so far beyond normal Ruby didn’t know if she needed to.
Still she got up, and excitedly got ready for the day. She got to spend even more time with Weiss!
She got ready, and dressed as she excitedly remembered the look of shock, well for Weiss it was shock when she’d taken the money Weiss had paid her, and bought some cheese!
Weiss hadn’t understood that Ruby just wanted her business to grow. It didn’t matter if Weiss let her have some for free anyway! Now she could say she paid for dinner when she put a small sign of ‘Ruby’s cheese’ on the wedge in the fridge.
She blinked hearing something from down below. That was the cellar, where the cheese that needed to be aged was stored, or back stock that might be sold in another season was located.
She frowned, and decided to investigate. It might be nothing, but what if some sort of rodent, or someone had broken in, and was taking Weiss’s cheese?
Oh no. There would be no mercy if that was the case!
She grabbed a cleaver from the kitchen, and descended, careful to follow Weiss’s instructions she’d been taught. Keeping her breathing nice, and slow, walking to make as little noise as possible.
She heard it again once she was down. It was closer now, and coming from the packaging room, or she thought it was called that at least.
She opened the door, and blinked seeing the back of Weiss as she was hovering over a table. She looked around the room, and saw various jars, and other storage containers full of liquid, of all sorts of colors. A few might have even had cheese in them.
“Weiss?” Ruby asked as her technical boss turned around to face her with an appraising look.
“You used the lessons.”
“I try to remember everything you tell me,” Ruby promised as Weiss tilted her head slightly as if considering that fully.
“Are you hurt?” Ruby asked worriedly as she abandoned the cleaver in an instant to reach Weiss’s side, and look at her face, a kerchief from her pocket already in motion to wipe it off.
“I am unharmed,” Weiss said simply, although strangely even to herself, she allowed Ruby to wipe the blood away.
“Oh,” Ruby said as she stepped back, her job done now that no blood marred her pretty friend’s face.
“I was out, and met several…individuals. This is one of them,” Weiss said as she stood to the side, and gestured at a woman on the table.
Ruby looked over the woman, and noticed the vacant eyes that stared into the ceiling, and gag in her mouth although she wasn’t doing more than making incoherent indistinct moaning. “Is she?”
“She, and her partner attempted to, or wished to mug me. I merely did so better,” she said simply, waiting to see Ruby’s reaction.
Surprisingly the other woman frowned. “If they were going to try, and hurt you they deserved it.”
Weiss felt her mouth twitch for a moment then. “Indeed.” Why had she even been worried? “There were two of them, and I couldn’t carry both back, but seeing as he was already deceased I opted to transport her instead.”
“Oh, well I could have helped you,” Ruby offered, clearly unbothered at the thought of Weiss killing, or harming others. What a strange woman, but not an unwelcome one.
“Perhaps next time,” Weiss granted as she tried not to read too much into Ruby’s beaming smile. “I didn’t wish to wake you. You’ve been working hard.”
If possible Ruby' s smile grew even wider. “Were you going to ‘work’? Can I watch?”
Weiss tilted her head once more in consideration. She’d never had an audience before, but strangely found herself enjoying the idea of Ruby seeing her ‘in her element’ as it were.
It would also let her see if her earlier reaction when being saved was a fluke, or even just gratitude.
“If you like. I would suggest sitting across the room unless you wished to get messy,” Weiss said as she gestured to herself which was already fairly well covered.
In response Ruby merely took a stool, and made sure she was close enough to see everything.
Weiss hesitated, or perhaps waited to make sure Ruby was settled, and began.
It was strange. Highly strange. Slitting the man’s throat had been wonderful. A true work of art on par with some of her best. The way his eyes had widened, had looked at her in fear, and yet wanted her help, someone’s help? Exquisite. Unfortunately the fact that he had a partner, and the weather meant she wasn’t able to play as much as she’d liked with him. She could have gathered many useful things, blood, organs, teeth, but…
She took a deep breath and forced it all down. There was still the spare.
Hence why she’d taken the risk of dragging the woman back to her cellar.
Seeing Ruby appear, and watching had her temper her impulses a great deal. Normally she’d revel in the cuts, the slicing of tendons, but she had to hold back.
Even with her self control already so iron clad her hands still shook even doing something as simple as collecting blood in a jar.
When slicing into the muscle it took almost all of her self control not to laugh madly, and keep going to keep them alive, and explain it all to Ruby.
It would be so easy, a simple cut right in the middle, and she could begin removing organs, preparing them, almost bathing in the pain, and anguish her victim would feel.
She had to keep steady. Not only so Ruby could see, listen, learn, but so Weiss could draw it out. The last thing she needed was another short lived release of tension. She needed this to last to truly satisfy her cravings.
Thankfully, whatever she’d done with her strike to the woman’s head, had left her mostly comatose, and barely responsive. She doubted it would last forever, but at least for now the gag was more than enough.
The longer the woman endured the better…for all of them really.
“You’re doing well,” Weiss praised the bound, and gagged woman. She didn’t know if it would help, but she doubted it would hurt. Not more than losing her finger had at any rate.
Now it was time for teeth. Molars, or front first? Incisors. Of course. The pliers were in her hand, and steady as she slowly felt herself relax as they clamped around the first tooth.
Ruby watched as Weiss explained her art. How each slice had meaning, what was connected to where, what bled the most, the least. What parts were useful for collection, or even for making cheese, how she had to test the blood to make sure it could be used, making her customers sick wasn’t good business after all, and the like.
With every slice, every snip, stroke, or hammer blow Ruby was more enraptured by the woman in front of her.
When she felt something warm land on her face her grin only widened.
Weiss looked at her then, blood on her face with a smile, and for the first time since she’d met her she smiled as well. Softly then, and for the first time, Ruby felt truly seen, and understood.
Strangely enough Weiss felt the same way.
