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Chapter 118Chapter Text

"It's October!!!! Spooky month! Harvest festivals! Hayrides! Autumn's Eve! My birthday!" Ruby sang, dancing around the dorm room and throwing bundles of rose petals everywhere with every gesture, her cape fluttering as she spun around and around and laughed the laugh of someone who was just way too excited about the fall season coming into its full bore. "Wooooooooo!"

"Rubles, please, it's October first . You do this every year,"  Yang groaned, burying her face into Weiss' pillow and sighing as she tried to nap rather fruitlessly considering that Weiss was currently using Yang's butt as a head rest while she read her textbook and Blake was lying across her entire upper back with her legs dangling off the side of the bed while she read… something that was probably smut. "I know you're excited but come on . Please don't fill the room with rose petals again ."

"Too late for that," Blake deadpanned, vaguely looking in Ruby's direction as their team leader was joined by Penny, the two of them laughing and dancing around hand in hand before pulling against each other and starting to kiss right then and there. "They're… really starting to go at it again. Oof, Weiss don't bother looking up, it's getting diabetic in here."

"Oh ye gods, like it hasn't been happening every day since they got together last semester," Weiss groaned, palming her face and resolving to ignore the two giggling girls as they filled the room with rose petals and the smell of springtime. 

Rather ironic for two girls celebrating the upcoming autumnal equinox and the general month of October.

"Aaaaaaaaaa!!!! I'm so excited!!! We're gonna have so much fun this month! I've already plotted out all of the harvest festivals going on this month, and there's five of them in Vale that we can hit up in different parts of the city and then there's one back in Patch that happens to line up with the long weekend this month and then there's my birthday which happens also at the same time as Autumn's Eve which means we get to go trick or treating and have cake and cookies and ice cream and chocolate and oh my gods I'm gonna eat so much chocolate and then there's the equinox celebration happening in one of the big parks in downtown Vale and plus all of the coffee shops have pumpkin spice stuff coming out and then there's the pumpkin pie and oh gosh there's also gonna be Vacuo's Ancestor's Day right after my birthday and that means skull cookies and specialty treats at Vacuo Bell and then we can get costumes and decorate our dorm because it's spooky month and I'm gonna put up so many skeletons and bats and spiders and pumpkins and cobwebs and aaaaaaa!!! And I get to celebrate it with you this year!!!! It's gonna be even better than normal now because of you, Penny!!!" Ruby exclaimed, bouncing and vibrating as she held onto Penny's shoulders and smooched her right on the cheek, eyes literally glowing with silver light as she rambled on and on about the fall festivals dotting the month of October. "And-and there's the Fall Festival and it's also syrup season and honey treats season and oh gods it's apple picking season too! We gotta reserve at least an afternoon to go apple picking! We can make pie and cookies and cider and applesauce and baked apples and candied apples and fritters and pancakes and oh man I gotta get more cinnamon if we're gonna do that too!"

"All of that sounds very fun!" Penny grinned, dancing about with Ruby with her hands on her girlfriend's hips, squeezing gently as she held Ruby close and returned the kiss to her cheek with one to Ruby's forehead. "I'd love to go do all of these activities with you! Especially apple picking! I love apples!"

"I love them too! Not as much as strawberries of course but apple pie is soooooooo good and apple and cinnamon together in the oven makes the entire place smell amazing and it's like a Fall-time wonderland and ooohhhh I'm sooooo excited I can't contain myself!!!" Ruby squealed happily, latching onto Penny with an immensely tight, love filled hug with arms and legs flying just about everywhere as she cuddled into her girlfriend's shoulder and cocooned the both of them together in her cape. "This is gonna be the best October ever! And it'll probably be even better next year too! And the year after that! And the year after that! And the year after that!"

Their Auras fizzed together as they continued spinning around, bumping into things due to Penny's somewhat restricted leg movements until they came to a halt by the ladder to their shared bunk, chaste kisses pressing against each other's lips as both of them blushed heavily (Penny's lighting up in diffused green because it was actually just a series of light strips freshly added beneath her skin). Ruby's Aura was like lightning, quick and vivid and yet also like rose petals in its soft, gentle caress against Penny's skin. Penny's Aura was smooth and steady like polished steel, and yet as yielding and soft as the girl's lips themselves but only for Ruby, only for the girl she loved. When the two colors mingled against each other, they melded impossibly into a brilliant gold where their bodies touched, shimmering like glowing sparks and dust while Ruby's eyes shone silver and burned like coals in her pupils while Penny's eyes flickered a brilliant emerald green and matched Ruby's gaze in intensity.

"I'll be sure to accompany you each and every year, then!" Penny answered almost breathlessly despite her lack of lungs, kissing Ruby softly as they all but fell into their own little world, only having eyes for each other as rose petals swirled around them and the very atmosphere seemed to glow with the sheer softness of their love. "I may not have any prior experience with this sort of thing, but I am very excited to learn! I think it will be very fun!"

"It's so fun! I didn't get to go to a lot of them when I was younger but I've been catching up recently and it's amazing! It's so, so, nice to just get to relax and have fun and do stuff like a normal person and I just… ohhhh I wanna go on a hayride right now! It's not really like, the most exciting thing in the world but it's so fun getting to just sit around on some hay, lay back and look around at all the nature and the harvest festival going on…" Ruby continued to gush, stars in her eyes as she wiggled about in Penny's arms and started purring in her throat, a deep rumble shaking Penny's frame as the glow of their contacting Auras grew brighter, casting the area between them in soft, golden light as their shimmering souls pressed together so tight that it flooded the room with the overwhelming atmosphere of a beautiful spring afternoon, shining literally bright enough that they could have been used as a lightbulb. "Mrrr~! We should go get some right now! Pumpkin spice lattes and pumpkin pie and apple treats and- oh! There's a bunch of other fruit too, there's probably a lot of road-side stands in the orchards down south! Plus some of the orchards will let us pick some stuff ourselves!"

"We do have the afternoon free," Penny pointed out, noting on her internal clock that, now that lunch was over and that their combined Team scores were high enough across the board (with the exception of Weiss' cooking grades, but… that was optional anyway) that they could very well skip their afternoon classes with no reprisal, as long as they stated where they were going and were back before the campus closed for the evening… or at least, if they didn't, weren't caught sneaking back into campus. "Would you like to go now? There are currently eleven locations in southern Vale that will allow us to pick as much fruit by the pound as we like. I can chart a course that will allow us to procure pumpkin spice lattes on the way, wishing star."

"Yes! Yes yes yes! Okay okay okay- Yang, Blake, Weiss, you guys hang out or whatever! Penny, wait right here, I'm gonna go get ready!" Ruby squeed, somewhat reluctantly letting go of Penny and climbing down as she bounced in place for a moment, clapping her hands together before flapping them up and down as her ears twitched and her tail wagged so hard that it almost became a blur. "Be right back!"

And with that, Ruby ran into the dorm's bathroom, slammed the door, let out a squeal so loud that it was only barely muffled, and then seemingly exploded into rose petals with a dull, muffled thump .

Yang sighed, groaning as she looked vaguely to the side from where she was pinned to the mattress by Blake and Weiss' combined weights. "Is she okay in there?"

"I think she exploded. Gods, I hope she didn't clog the toilet with petals again… it takes forever to clean out…" Weiss sighed, shaking her head and lightly bumping up against Yang's posterior, humming as she brushed a stray lock from her face. "Hm… still not used to the short hair…"

"Still looks really good on you, though," Blake mentioned, rolling her neck as she looked over to where Penny was excitedly waiting, then frowned as she tilted her head at the orange haired girl. "Penny, are you gonna change your clothes?"

Penny blinked, then looked down to see that she was still in her Beacon uniform with her cape atop. "Oh! Of course! I will need to change into more casual clothing! Give me a moment!"

"Dorks, the both of them," Yang groaned, stuffing her face back into her pillow and huffing as she activated her Semblance slightly- just enough to make her feel like a heat pad now that the weather was starting to take a turn for the colder. "I'm so glad I wasn't staring directly at that display…"

"I'm a little blind now, honestly," Blake murmured back, snorting as she shut her book and blinked a few times for emphasis… not that Yang could see it but still. "They're starting to get literally brighter. I don't think I've seen that level of Aura synchronization even in my parents ."

"Neither have I, ever," Weiss mentioned dryly, then sighed. "Not that I had any chances to. Yang, have you seen anything like that?"

"With us, mostly," Yang answered promptly, slightly muffled by the pillow in her face. "Ruby has pictures of us glowing like a nightlight when we all make out together. Also, I guess mom and dad? I remember them glowing occasionally… at least, before she… y'know."

"... Right."

The three of them sat there in silence while Penny rapidly changed clothes in the corner, settling into her cute, fluffy, soft, casualwear with a smile before Ruby came barreling out of the bathroom with a squeal of delight, crashing into Penny again and triggering even more rose petals to fall from her puffy coat.

The two of them left the dorm then, giggling and kissing and leaving a trail of rose petals behind them as Penny carried Ruby along bridal style down the hall.

Weiss sighed, looking after the two dolts with a slightly peeved grimace.

"I'm going to die of diabetes before I hit thirty at this rate…"