54 Ch 53: Ice Flower

Do you know what is worse than catching the flu? Being an arrogant heiress who is trying to be independent and catching the flu.

Do you know what is worse than being an independence-seeking heiress with the flu? Being an independence-seeking heiress with the flu that is being taken care of by her childish team leader.

Such was the situation Weiss Schnee found herself in while Ray was off on his mission. She was stuck in bed, feeling nauseous, clammy, and fatigued, unable to leave her bed to escape from a concerned, cheerful nurse Ruby who was annoying her to insanity with her well-meaning care.

"Ruby, please! I don't need those things. I need medicine." Weiss pleaded with her leader. She had never felt this bad before. She could barely even muster the energy to move.

"What!? Nah, this was the stuff Dad used to do for me when I was sick! It would always make me feel better!" Ruby denied as she began to take things out of a white doctor's handbag with a red cross on the side she had placed on the ground beside Weiss's bed. Ruby was wearing a sleeveless white nurse's outfit with red piping that clung tightly to her body and didn't even reach halfway down her thighs, revealing the clasps of the garter belt she was wearing to keep her white over-knee socks pulled tight and a white nurse's cap with a red cross on her head to complete her nurse cosplay. Of course, she also had her usual red hood on.

"Warm whole milk." Ruby pulled out a hot thermos of milk and a sippy cup. Filling the sippy cup with whole milk, she placed it on the bedside table beside Weiss.

"Blech." Weiss didn't have as much faith as Ruby in the magic power of whole milk.

"My favorite video game, Kung Fu Ninja Ultimate Slayer Death Battle 2!" Ruby pulled out a video game cartridge next.

"Bleh." Weiss was even less enthused about the game than she had been about the milk.

"Yeah, you're right. The first one was way better." Ruby misunderstood her reaction and placed the game on the table next to the milk.

"And finally!" Ruby rummaged around in her bag for a bit. The sound of many heavy and noisy things being moved about not matching with her small bag's size as Ruby went down to her shoulders searching for something in it.

"Ah, Ha! I knew I still had a copy!" Ruby pulled out a rolled-up piece of poster paper and held it above her head triumphantly.

"A motivational cat poster." Ruby said confidently as she began to unroll the poster.

Weiss started to roll her eyes at Ruby, but then she got a good look at the poster's content. It was a picture of a shirtless, grumpy-cat-faced Ray wearing black tights, black cat paws on his hands and feet, and triangular black cat ears with cat whiskers painted in black face paint on his cheeks and nose and a black cat tail hanging down from behind his waist as he held onto a rope suspended in the air over the words "Hang in There".

"Me-ow." Ruby purred as she pulled back the poster so that she could get a look at it as well while still showing it to Weiss.

"Our twelfth birthday. Good times." Ruby admired the poster for a moment before sliding into bed next to Weiss and taping the poster to the underside of the bunk above Weiss.

[At least I'll have good eye candy.] Weiss turned to face Ruby to ask her for medicine again. However, when she saw Ruby's smiling face so close to her own, her brain hiccuped, and she forgot what she was going to say.

"Hmm." Ruby turned to face Weiss.

"Is your fever getting worse, Weiss?" Ruby asked worriedly when she saw that Weiss's face looked redder than it had been. Ruby pulled Weiss's head forward as she leaned her's in to meet her and gently touched their foreheads together so that she could check Weiss's temperature.

"Hmmm. You don't feel hotter, but you are definitely getting redder." Ruby informed Weiss, gazing into her eyes with concern, as the sick girl's face turned even redder from Ruby's casual actions.

[What is wrong with me!?] Weiss cried to herself as she tried to find a way out of this situation she had found herself in before it was too late.

"Ray!" Weiss almost shouted suddenly. Ruby pulled away from Weiss slightly at her outburst and looked at her in confusion.

"Did your family make Ray dress up in an embarrassing costume every year for your birthday?" Weiss explained, a bit calmer now that she couldn't see her own glacial blue eyes reflected in Ruby's silver mirror eyes.

"Yep*. It's on Halloween, after all, and Ray was always a good sport about it. Not wanting to be a party-pooper, he would let us dress him up and pose him as we pleased. However, letting us keep our treasures was a different story. After the fun was over, he would try to destroy all the embarrassing pictures we had taken of him. It became a kind of game for us. Yang, Dad, and I would hide them, and Ray would hunt them and leave their remains scattered across the dining room table." Ruby confirmed.

"Then you have more?" Weiss asked, intrigued.

"He he he." Ruby got up and crossed her arms over her chest triumphantly.

"Of course. But treasures like these need to be savored properly. Brought out to be enjoyed only at the correct time and place." Ruby declared.

[Well, maybe being sick isn't so bad.] Weiss thought to herself as she snuggled down deeper under her blankets and looked up at the motivational poster. She was soon forced to reevaluate that, however.

"You have to drink your milk if you want to get better." Ruby cooed as she forced the sippy cup past Weiss's lips.

[Ahhhh, she is so cute!] Ruby squealed in her mind as she watched an angry Weiss suck the milk out of the sippy cup while glaring up at Ruby.

[I take it back. Being sick is the worst!] As Weiss came to this conclusion, Yang walked into the room. With a jerk of her head, Weiss freed her mouth from the offending sippy cup.

"Yang, help. I need medicine." Weiss cried out to Yang for help.

"Oh, I'll get the whole milk." Yang promptly turned around to get more milk.

[These useless sisters! When is Ray going to get back from his mission?!] As Weiss seethed silently when she felt a hand petting the top of her hair.

"Don't worry, Weiss." Ruby reassured her as she soothed the top of the sick girl's messy hair, "I'll take good care of you while you're sick. 'Cause, you're my BFF! For as long as it takes, I'll be there to take care of you." Weiss had never known such a bright smile could give her such a foreboding feeling.

Ruby was true to her promise. Except when she had to leave to go to classes, Ruby was by her side the entire day. She would even rush back between classes to check on her favorite patient. Even in the shower…

*Phsssshhhh* *squeak* *squeak* Ruby turned off the showerhead after soaking Weiss and herself in warm water, leaving them both dripping wet.

"Close your eyes. I'm going to shampoo your hair first." That night Ruby helped Weiss to the showers so that she could wash all the icky sweat from lying sick in bed all day off of her body.

[She's almost as good as my maids back home, I guess.] Weiss silently appreciated and praised Ruby's diligence as she massaged her scalp and combed her fingers through her hair.

*Squeak* *Phsssshhhh*

"Ok, here comes the water." Ruby warned. Weiss leaned forward and bowed her head slightly as she let the warm water flow down her naked body and wash away the shampoo in her hair. Ruby lifted Weiss's hair up and ran her fingers through it to make sure she got all the shampoo out.

*gulp* As she rinsed Weiss's hair, Ruby couldn't help but swallow a mouthful of saliva in appreciation as she watched the suds slide across Weiss's snow-white skin. From her slender neck, past her delicate nape, down the gentle curve of her back, over her tender waist, to drip gently to the ground from her soft heart-shaped butt.

[So beautiful!] Ruby admired the picturesque scene in fascination. Thankfully, with the water cascading over her head, Weiss failed to hear her.

*Squeak* *squeak* Ruby shook her head clear of stray thoughts as she saw the last of the suds drip from Weiss and turned off the water again.

"Alright, soap next." Ruby picked up the tube of body wash lying nearby and lathered up her hands. Ruby parted Weiss's hair to either side and laid it over her shoulders so that she could have free access to her back. Weiss shivered slightly as she felt Ruby's gentle hands rubbing all over her back.

[Why does this feel so different from when my maids do it?] Weiss wondered to herself as she nibbled on the inside of her lower lip.

"What do you use to keep your hands so soft?" Weiss asked Ruby to distract herself from her wayward thoughts. Indeed, Ruby's hands were devoid of the calluses you would expect from the hands of a warrior. Ruby giggled lightly as she ran her hands down Weiss's willowy arms and felt the tight muscles hiding beneath her soft skin.

"One of the first tricks Ray taught us was to run Aura through our skin, rather than just over it. It makes our skin as tough as leather but as smooth as silk and as soft as velvet. It's a subconscious habit now and doesn't even cost any Aura since we are just circulating the Aura inside our bodies without expending it." Ruby explained as she paused in her washing to gently rub her thumbs against the light calluses Weiss had on her right hand. Despite using the best lotions money could buy, even the Schnee heiress hadn't been able to avoid gaining at least some callouses during her huntress training. Not that she particularly minded, most of the time. They were symbols of the hard work she had put in that was so often ignored by those around her who just assumed she was naturally perfect. However, right now, she was feeling unusually conscious of the rough patches of skin on her otherwise flawless hands.

Weiss stole a glance to her side at Ruby and then, even more quickly, turned her gaze away. The sight of Ruby's cute face and focused gaze as she massaged the palm of her hand had struck a chord within her.

Finished with Weiss's back and arms, Ruby stood up and moved to her front. However, as she stepped in front of her, she abruptly stopped as her mind fell into a daze.

Weiss was sitting there, soaking wet, with her hair over her shoulders, covering her small mounds, with her head slightly bowed, eyes averted to the side, and a dusting of maiden pink on her cheeks. From the heat of the shower?

Snapping out of her daze before Weiss noticed, Ruby slowly reached out and moved her hair back behind her. As she carefully picked up her hair, Ruby's fingernail lightly brushed over one of Weiss's protruding cherries. Weiss flinched, and she bit down on her lower lip.

"Sorry." Ruby instinctively apologized, not sure why.

"It's fine." Weiss quietly reassured her, also not sure why.

Both girls were extremely thankful for the heat and steam in the shower that excused the fact that their cheeks were red. Ruby continued to carefully wash Weiss's body, more aware than she had ever been of the other girl. The same was true for Weiss. The sight of a pink-faced Ruby diligently washing her body while soaking wet and with stray soap suds sticking to her budding body made it hard to look at her, but Weiss was always very aware of what she was doing.

"Mmhmmm~" Weiss couldn't help but let out a small moan as Ruby's hands ran along the inside of her thighs. Both girls promptly froze at the sound, not daring to look at each other. After a moment, Ruby decided she must have imagined it and continued as if nothing had happened. A farce Weiss was all too happy to go along with.

Once she was done cleaning Weiss, Ruby quickly washed herself and then helped Weiss dry herself off and change into her pajamas. When they returned to their room, they both went straight to bed.

[[That was the weirdest, most exhausting shower ever. What happened to me in there?]] Both girls complained to themselves as they quickly fell asleep.

Thankfully for Weiss, Blake was more practical about treating a case of the flu and slipped her some medicine the next morning when nurse Ruby wasn't looking. However, Weiss still had to endure Ruby's care for three days.