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Every time someone new asked her why she went to Beacon, Weiss had a different excuse.
Beacon had the most Vytal Festival winners, a robust Dust Studies program, supported non-combat tracks for students, was far away from Atlas, and the headmaster was world renowned.
In reality, all those reasons, while valid reasons Beacon was better than the alternatives, had no sway in her decision. It had really only come down to one thing: the saltwater swimming pool.
Haven and Atlas both had pools, but theirs were poisoned with chlorine. Shade had a few natural lakes, but those were in very public places that didn’t mesh well with a shark faunus trying to hide her gills. Only Beacon, bastion of freedom, had an indoor saltwater swimming pool closed to the public.
When she found that out, it wasn’t even a choice. Whoever had put that pool there had decided for her, and blessings be upon them.
It was a little embarrassing to be a stereotype, but being underwater just felt right. Back in Atlas, she had a private bathroom with a large tub that she filled with sea salt and chilled with ice dust. She would spend hours submerged underwater, simply floating as every bit of tension left her body. It was the only way she knew how to relax, and she wasn’t about to leave that behind just so she could be a huntress.
Even though she’d been excited, it took Weiss a few weeks to work up the courage to actually go to the pool. It was private, but that only meant it was limited to Beacon students and faculty, any of whom could walk in on her with her gills out. Sure she could have worn a swim shirt, but any one that was thin enough for her to breathe through would reveal the outline of her gills.
And so, she waited and scoped out the pool. She noted the people who regularly used it and when, developing a schedule of when she could swim in peace. It took almost a month, but she eventually figured out that she would most likely have the pool to herself between four and six on weekdays. It wasn’t as often as she would have liked, but it seemed like a reasonable amount of time to spend relaxing after classes.
Another month passed and she put her ideas to the test. At first she was too cautious to chill the water with ice dust or stay submerged for too long, but eventually she relaxed. The large pool became a place of safety and solitude for her. It was a break from her small dorm and noisy classmates. It was a place where she could simply be.
At least until her partner followed her one day.
Ruby, guided by a determination to strengthen their bond, had stalked her partner to the pool near the end of the first semester. She’d long since wondered where Weiss disappeared to on a near-daily basis, but she was never rude enough to press the issue. At least until the moment she crept inside the pool while her partner, gills exposed, relaxed several feet below the calm surface of the water.
Of course, she had no idea that’s what was happening and assumed Weiss had drowned when she saw her unmoving partner underwater. In a matter of seconds, she dove in with her semblance, grabbed Weiss without leaving Petal Burst, and carried them both to the poolside where she started performing CPR on her stunned teammate.
As it turned out, Ruby was really bad at CPR and it mostly just ended up being awkward one-sided kissing. It wasn’t that she was a bad kisser, but she could have stood to use a bit more tongue. And a breath mint.
It didn’t take long for Weiss to recover and use a glyph to launch her partner away with the flick of her wrist. Still in shock, she then stormed over to her partner and began giving Ruby a verbal teardown of how bad the girl’s CPR was.
Ruby listened intently until her eyes dropped to Weiss’s waist then widened.
Weiss, in her infinite wisdom, had completely forgotten her gills were on naked display for her partner to see. Fortunately, Ruby was far too kind to blackmail or expose her, instead saying her gills looked “cool”.
After that, Ruby had an open invitation to join Weiss to swim. She mostly just treaded water or hung by the poolside and played games, but her presence was oddly comforting for Weiss.
Weiss had never imagined she would feel okay with anyone seeing her gills. Very few people knew about them, and most of them had never actually seen them. Having someone who treated them so normally was nice, much nicer than the way most others tried to simply ignore them.
Her only wish was that Ruby could join her beneath the surface and they could truly relax together. Sure they swam together sometimes, but Weiss preferred to use the pool to decompress rather than simply swim. She’d looked into snorkels and diving equipment, desperate for her fantasy to come true until one day in survival class a familiar idea was reintroduced to her.
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In the locker room closest to the swimming pool, Weiss changed into her swimsuit and psyched herself up in front of the mirror.
You can do this, she told herself, her face hardening with determination. Just give her the goggles then invite her underwater and kiss air into her.
Not that she was going to be kissing Ruby. That would be absurd. Her gesture to share the place she felt safest with the person she tolerated most was not at all romantic. It was just… a bonding experience. Yes, that was it. She was just getting closer to her partner in a purely professional sense that involved them locking lips and sharing oxygen. There was nothing romantic in sharing what was basically life with someone. It was totally normal.
After all, she’d gotten the idea when Professor Peach had gone over CPR in survival. It was the same concept, really. It would just be preemptive rather than necessary. That was it. It wasn’t kissing underwater while they looked into each other's eyes. Not at all. That was absurd, a completely ridiculous summation of her plan to share an intimate moment with her partner. Intimate in a literal sense of course, not in a romantic or sexual one. She was going to be sharing something personal. It was intimate by definition. The butterflies in her stomach definitely didn’t contradict that.
With her mind made up about how professional and normal her plan was, Weiss emerged to the swimming pool where Ruby was waiting for her at the edge of the pool. She’d said she wanted them to swim together that day, but she never said how.
“Hey, Weiss!” Ruby waved her partner over, excitedly vibrating in place. She beamed at Weiss, which warmed the shark faunus’s heart in a non-romantic way. It definitely didn’t make the world feel a little safer. “Are those your goggles?” She pointed to the red pair of goggles that Weiss held in one hand.
“No, Ruby, these are for you.” Weiss handed her partner the goggles and smiled as Ruby excitedly put them on. “I have my own, remember?” She blinked and slid a translucent membrane over her eyes.
Ruby took a second to adjust the strap then suddenly plunged her head underwater. A few moments later, she reemerged with a massive smile across her face. “Thanks, Weiss, the salt usually makes my eyes burn.”
“Think nothing of it.” Weiss waved away the thanks as she walked over to her school bag and pulled out a small vial of ice dust. It wouldn’t be enough to freeze the pool, but it would drop the temperature significantly. As she walked back to Ruby along the edge of the pool, she sprinkled the dust until the vial was empty.
Ruby, familiar with the routine, eagerly awaited the moment Weiss dropped the small glass vial into her hands. Once she received it, she spun around, stuck the tip of her tongue out of the corner of her mouth, then threw the vial ten feet so that it landed perfectly inside of the small trash can outside of the locker room.
“Excellent work, Ruby.” Weiss finished the small ceremony by giving Ruby a congratulatory high-five. She waited a moment for her partner to settle down, absolutely not smiling at how cute Ruby was, before she walked into the water and held out a hand for Ruby to join her.
Ruby followed her partner to the center of the massive pool, using her aura to keep warm against the chilled water. Per usual, she didn’t complain. She knew what it meant to Weiss, so she kept her minor discomforts to herself. “It’s all worth it to see you smile,” she had said, which made Weiss blush crimson.
“Ruby, do you trust me?” Weiss asked once they were floating over the deepest part of the pool. She took Ruby’s other hand in a totally platonic gesture of support.
“Of course!” Ruby got the biggest smile on her face when she was officially, in a friendly manner, holding hands with Weiss.
Weiss had prepared a big speech about how Ruby made her feel accepted and normal like nobody else could. She wanted to tell Ruby how much their time at the pool meant to her. She would tell a story about how nice it was to share a hidden part of herself with someone who didn’t sneer when they saw her gills.
There were so many words she wanted to say, but they died in her throat as emotion overcame her. To keep her composure, she instead kept it simple and asked, “Will you follow my lead?”
Ruby nodded, her brilliant silver eyes staring into piercing blue. There was something in that gaze, something that burned like a pleasant fireplace. Something that felt like love, but definitely wasn’t. It was probably just passion. Platonic passion between roommates.
“Hold your breath,” Weiss instructed, giving Ruby a few seconds to comply before she gently pulled them both underwater. They slowly traveled to the center of the pool, staring into each other’s eyes the entire time, until she anchored her hands on Ruby’s hips and leaned in.
Ruby eagerly accepted the gesture, taking initiative and meeting Weiss halfway. When their lips locked, her breath tasted of mint and she brushed her tongue against Weiss’s lips.
Weiss’s heart fluttered as she accepted Ruby’s advances. She closed her eyes and gave into the moment, uncaring of how the action might be perceived by those looking in on it. She was ten feet underwater with Ruby to keep her safe. It didn’t matter what others thought or how romantic it was to let Ruby take her. She just enjoyed existing where nobody would care.
A tap just above her gills brought her back to the moment as Ruby tried to break off the kiss. Weiss leaned back into it, took the air her gills filtered from the water, and gave it to Ruby.
Ruby only struggled for a second after the air entered her mouth before she seemed to realize what was happening. A look of amazement flashed on her face before she relaxed and brought up her hands to wrap Weiss in a hug.
Weiss returned the hug, looking lovingly into Ruby’s eyes as they shared the air from her gills. She took one breath then Ruby took the other. They stayed in that pattern, softly breathing as one, for what felt like a pleasant eternity. She let herself be lost in those beautiful silver eyes, disappearing into them as her world became Ruby, the cold water, and her gentle breathing.
Just as she was ready to return to the comparatively somber world above, something heavy splashed into the water above them. They both looked up to find Yang, of all people, diving toward them like a bullet.
Curse you, Yang Xiao Long, Weiss thought to herself as she suddenly found herself carried to the surface in one of Yang’s strong arms while the other held Ruby.
When they broke the surface, Ruby and Weiss were unceremoniously dumped onto the tiled poolside to find Blake passively waiting for them.
“Blake, you do Ruby,” Yang ordered as she knelt down over Weiss. “I think it would be weird if I did.” She then turned to finally look at one of the women she saved, and froze in fear at the icy glare she received.
“It isn’t weird to give someone CPR, Yang, even if you’re related to them,” Weiss scolded her teammate as she shot to her feet to loom over Yang. “It’s a life saving procedure, not a romantic or sexual act.”
“Weiss–” Ruby tried to speak up but her partner was in a righteous whirlwind.
“Furthermore, did you even think to check if we were drowning before you dove in? Your ill-advised and untimely stunt could have caused me or Ruby to swallow gallons of water.” Weiss prepared to tear into Yang’s habit of garlic for lunch that she had nearly gotten a mouthful of, but a pointed look at her waist from Blake shut her up.
Blake smirked at Weiss, otherwise unphased by the revelation. “I knew there was something fishy about you.”