Hey. If you are reading this, first, thank you very much, it's my first fanfiction I've written for this account. Second, the Canon characters have a very small role in this story, so if you're expecting Ruby X OC bullcrap, leave. Thirdly, this is minor self-insert on my part, and my co-writer...well..
It's complicated.
Enjoy.
-O-
The sun gleamed off the many metals in the courtyard, mixing violently with the multitude of colors. Reds, pinks, yellows, and blues, it was all very confusing to Cobalt.
Once his eyes had adjusted, he picked up the small duffel bag containing his clothing and singular belonging, a picture of his parents. Cobalt never really knew them, as something happened when he was young.
What happened, you may ask? Well, he doesn't really know that either. One day he was with his parents, the next, he was thrown into a foster home without so much a "Goodbye". It became his nature to run away, again and again and again, until they finally gave up trying to bring him back.
Shaking the thoughts from his mind, he began to pace towards the front entrance, and was terribly interrupted by a belching sound from Hell, and someone's lunch splattering all over the bottom of a nearby trash can.
Cobalt turned to meet whoever was losing the fight with their stomach and, not quite sure what else to do, put a supportive hand on The blonde's shoulder.
"There there..." He said awkwardly, barely audible under the "bleghs!" and "braighs!" "Are you alright...?"
The boy lifted his head, and looked as if he was about to say something, before immediately dumping his head into the trash can again. The blue haired boy dug into his pocket and readied his scroll for whe- er, if the young man required an ambulance
And so he was there, for about 10 minutes. Standing there.
In the meantime, he looked to the tallest tower of Beacon. Multiple orbs of green glowed, in a way that intrigued the boy, much like the rooftops of Vale did when he was young.
Well.
-O-
Beacon appeared to Ombra as a bucket of new opportunities. Many would question his chosen metaphor, as bucket was an unusual way to describe the most renowned school for Hunters and Huntresses, however he was pleased to say that he gave little to no shits about said nerds' opinions After all; so many girls to date, so many dudes to rival, so many teachers to prove wrong. In fact, many things appeared to Ombra this way.
Sadly, his luck was overshadowed by his ambition.
Not just with girls, but... everything.
Ombra came from a prosperous family, specifically the Angelos. They had given birth to many a badass over the years, and Ombra was proud of his heritage.
Unfortunately, they entered a stupid war with two other families, which took Ombra's father, and his many uncles, leaving him with the only two other Angelo that couldn't go to war. It was only then that Ombra had realized that his family wasn't on the best of terms with, well, many people.
Back to the two Angelos however - Nero, a girl too young to go to war, but not too old to hold the family name. And, rather unsurprisingly, she was a badass. Hunting the Grimm from a terribly young age. Ombra had many warm memories of the woman, though he had always felt concern over the scars that were barely visible on her exposed flesh...
And, of course, there was Ebony. The man too old to war. To Ombra, he seemed almost depressed as his sons turned him down the chance to fight once again. That day, he gave Ombra his blade, and made him promise to not use it, unless the circumstances were dire.
He died three months after the war, when Ombra was a mere seven years old. For the next eight years, he was raised by Nero in Mistral. She fed, taught and trained him to carry on the Angelo name.
Ombra however, wasn't exactly up to his family's standards. Nevertheless, she trained him until she deemed him worthy of the name Angelo, before leaving. Yup. Just like that. Gone.
The dark-haired boy clenched his fists as he listened to the obnoxiously sarcastic voice narrate his life like some sort of TV show.
After that, he ended up moving to live with his mother in Vale. She was long since divorced from Ombra's father, likely the only reason she hadn't died with the rest of the Angelos. However, despite not bearing his last name, Ombra loved her all the same. It was from there that he bounced from combat school to combat school, eventually by some miracle, despite his underwhelming skill, lack of good looks, and general-
"Shut up!" Ombra snarled, causing the person closest to him to give him a strange look before skittering away from the clearly insane young man. "I'm trying to tell my own story here!"
Oh. Sorry.
Basically, he got into Beacon. Somehow.
He walked into the courtyard of Beacon, wearing his grin like a true badass, shoulders back and his eyebrows arched as if he was asking for you to punch him.
He winked at every girl he passed, being met with mostly disgusted looks back. He swore some winked back, however. Definitely.
Suddenly, a red light ignited beside him, as he was checking his scroll for directions. With a boom, the boy recoiled in the most pathetic way, lifting his leg and fumbling with the device as it comically bounced through the air like a happy sack. However, when he finally realized what he was looking at, his scroll was forgotten in an instant as he tripped and landed square on his ass.
"Did you just explode?!" He questioned immediately, to the two girls coated in ashes.
And of course, like with any girl, he was ignored.
The girl in white was very cross with the other, clad in crimson and black.
After a rather long and cold reprimand from the girl in white, the girl he had finally settled on calling Red seemed to reach her breaking point.
"Hey! I said I was sorry, princess!"
Her admittedly anticlimactic breaking point.
"It's heiress, actually." Another voice was heard, and suddenly yet a new insanely hot young woman joined the conversation as she strolled past Ombra without a glance, casually tossing a bottle of dust into the air. "Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, one of the largest producers of energy propellant in the world."
Well. The dark-haired boy thought grimly as the black-clad woman folded her arms. I was just going to call her Ice-Queen, but I guess that works too.
Weiss's face lit up in a smile that made Ombra feel like she kicked puppies in her spare time. "Finally," She said smugly. "Some recognition!"
"The same company infamous for its controversial labor forces and questionable business partners." The young woman added quickly.
Weiss looked as though she had been slapped, and Ombra felt himself cackling inside. He didn't know what exactly made these Schnees so important, but apparently they were a big deal. The girl began stuttering in outrage, clearly unable to form a sentence that could portray how enraged she was.
"Will anyone acknowledge my existence?" Cried the boy, and of course, The girl in white stomped off after snatching the bottle and the one in black went walking in the direction opposite of the Academy.
A moment of silence ensued, and Ombra watched as the girl tried to restore peace between the two parties, before eventually trailing off into a mumble and, oddly enough, falling down.
After a moment, the dark-haired boy decided to take pity on the girl. Tapping his shoe to draw her attention, he offered a hand downwards to her politely.
"Angelo. Ombra Angelo."
-O-
"So, your sword is like, older than you." Said the boy in blue.
"Yeah, it's been in my family for years!" Continued Jaune. "It's probably twice as old as my grand father!"
He had stopped puking at around the twelve minute mark. The garbage dude wasn't going to be having a good time when he arrived on the scene.
"Yeah, I only created my sword three years ago." He held out the short double edged sword, a hint of blue along the blade. "Peacekeeper. It's one of the greatest things of all time."
"It is pretty cool. But, I'm kind of confused. If that's your weapon..." Jaune began, pointing at the sword that was slung haughtily over the boy's back, before his finger drifted to point at the bulky and clearly abnormal bracers that engulfed most of the boy's forearms. They seemed to be made partially out of leather, with several intricate metal workings surrounding the leather bracer along with numerous vials of dust, giving it the appearance of a dust-powered revolving elemental matter dispenser. However, surely that was not the case.
"Oh, this is Dust. Duh. I use it to make weapons!" He exclaimed, flicking his wrist as a stream of flaming dust ejected from the nozzle at the wrist, and then he flicked again, causing the blade to solidify and simultaneously slash cleanly through one of the nearby benches before the sword disappeared. "I didn't do it."
Jaune's eyes were wide saucers of blue as he did a double take, looking from the flaming two chairs that once was a bench to the boy that was stomping out one of the burning splinters of wood that had landed at his feet.
Cobalt seemed almost surprised. It was simply really. You thought about the thing you make, and then you make it. Well, perhaps it was a bit more complicated...
"Still, my swords older." Says the blonde, with only a hint of pride. "And longer."
The boy in blue deflated before dejectedly saying-
"Only a bit..."
Jaune put his arm around Cobalt's shoulder. "Aw, come on, slightly shorter ones are cool too. Plus, you can make ones right now if you wanted to."
The bluette looked up from under his hair and grinned. This Jaune guy seemed like a dork, but not a bad dude.
"Thanks. You think maybe we should go to the assembly thing?
"I thought you were leading me there..." Jaune trailed off, his eyes staring dead ahead in an almost numb fashion as they slowed.
"I thought you were leading me there!"
The two teenagers stopped, seemingly torn between running in separate directions, before both turning back and slamming head-first into the other with a shout.
-O-
"I...uh, I am... Ruby. Ruby Rose." Said the girl as the boy picked her up effortlessly.
"Let me tell you something, Rose." He wiped some ash off his face with his sleeve. He wouldn't even need to wash it. "You sure know how to start off the year with a bang."
Ruby chuckled nervously, while fiddling with her fingers.
'Socially inept? Didn't look like that from a distance.'
"So, Ruby, got any family?" The boy started along The path to the front entrance.
"Well, uh, yeah...my sister Yang, my dad, my uncle Qrow...and that's it." She finished happily.
"That's a small family. I've always had quite the string of relatives back in Mistral."
Ruby seemed to take off talking. Ombra made her crack really easily there.
A few comments regarding what her sister and uncle had done to previous...friends have convinced him to find someone else to date.
Well, that wasn't just the plan, I need as many friends as possible, so my team has only the best students…. yeah! With ME as their fearless leader!
"Oh, and he helped me make this!" She quickly finished, before skillfully twisting the crimson scythe until the tip of the blade made contact with the ground.
"It's also a customizable high-impact sniper rifle!"
Ombra took a second to deliberate...
High impact.
Customizable…
Sniper Rifle? Sniper Rifle!
"It's also a gun?"
Ruby's eyes lit up like illegal fireworks, and she swore she could hug this guy. Like, literally.
"You...understood that?"
The dark-haired boy shrugged. "Heh. It was nothing. Although, I'm not too good with all the fancy weapon jazz."
"Oh, well that's fine, I mean, I am a dork when it comes to the weapons..." Ruby says sheepishly, hugging her 'baby'.
Ombra chuckled, and pulled out Angelo Uccisor in a similar fashion to Ruby. Well, basically. He swung it outwards flashily, drawing it from behind his back and allowing the katana to unfold to it's full length, accidentally decapitating one of the nearby statues in the process.
"This is my sword. It's big. Probably the biggest you you will ever see."
"But…" Ruby frowned. "Didn't you say you were from Mistral? Why a Katana?"
Ombra barked a laugh, before slinging an arm over the confused girl's shoulder. "Because, Rose! Katanas arebadass!"
Ruby placed Crescent Rose behind her and looked around in the empty courtyard.
"Do you know where the assembly is, you know, happening?" She asks.
Ombra placed his sword away. "No, I lost the pamphlet a week ago."
"They handed out pamphlets?"
Ombra nodded. "Yeah, why?"
Ruby went for her scroll, whispering about how she didn't get a pamphlet.
-O-
By the time Ruby and Ombra had found their way to the assembly, it had already ended. And judging by the looks on their faces, Ozpin probably told them that eye contact is not allowed or something equally depressing.
"Ey, Ruby!" Cheered a young blonde girl, tall and perky, with lilac eyes.
Ombra immediately winked at her. To his surprise, she winked back, with sincerity. He thought.
Score!
"Yaaaaaaaaanng..." She trailed off as she turned away, crossing her arms and pouting.
Ombra gave a cheesy grin to the approaching blonde.
"I'm sorry Ruby, my friends just, really wanted me!"
"Who are your friends anyway?" Ruby retorted, spinning to meet her sister.
"Well, there's Sarge, Donut-"
"Those sound really fake." Interrupted the small girl, face red as her cape, not realizing how totally correct she was. "Who names their daughter Donut?"
Ombra sat and watched. In silence, as he did earlier today. 'Women...' He shuddered from the thought of all them after him, trying to assassinate him and whatnot.
Wut?
After Ruby had calmed down, Yang had begun to fill them in on Ozpin's speech.
"And then he says all he sees is wasted energy!"
Ombra immediately scowled. "Wow. What an asshole."
"Yeah, what a... butthole." Ruby repeated.
"And now, here we are, sleeping in the gym."
The blonde opened the door and thousands of teenagers were there. The fact that they didn't separate the boys from the girls meant many were flirting, and the more, lonely, depressing types were leaning up against the walls, reading or doing something else that wasn't socializing.
"I'm sorry, ladies, I'm afraid my people needs me." He said as he ran into the crowd of people.
He saw many girls, and many guys, and frankly, he felt as if his lines needed a little, erm... tuning.
After a girl had kicked him onto his back, with a "Fuck this," he left the crowded gym, exiting via ninja-kick out the window.
"Damn it..." The dark-haired boy grumbled as he tumbled across the concrete and onto the balcony with a tinkle of glass. His fancy black button-up was all torn up and dirty now. "Who the fuck put that window there? It's-..."
Ombra trailed off as he rolled over, brushing bits of glass off his shoulder-cape. At the other end of the balcony, balanced precariously on the railing that you have never seen before in any of the intros, a figure clad in white stood - his attire almost causing him to blend with the shattered moon in front of him.
"Uh…" Ombra muttered, picking himself off of the ground. "Hello?"
The boy turned, wind rippling through his silvery hair, the dark glassy lenses of what appeared to be a gas mask concealing his eyes as he dropped down onto the balcony noiselessly.
"Let's get this out of the way." Ombra chuckled nervously. "I'm not your mummy."
The masked boy stepped forward towards Ombra, until they were toe to toe, and while Ombra stood at least a head taller, he was the frightened one.
"Dude, seriously, you're creeping me out."
"Oh. This? It's just a mask." The boy reassured, lazily taking off the gas mask, leaving it on his head.
"Well… duh." Ombra muttered, letting out a breath. "The hell do you have that thing for, anyways?"
"Can I ask you-" The boy broke into a long yawn, and Ombra looked at him unamused as he dodged the question. "-what you are doing out here?"
"Oh, I just needed some air." Air. Right.Suddenly, Ombra squinted at him. "Hey… have we ever met before? You look kind of familiar…"
The boy in the white hoodie opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by a voice shouting-
"Hey! Do you know where the assembly is?"
The two monochrome teens exchanged glances as two other students scrambled over the railing, the one in blue nimbly vaulting over as the knight hauled himself over the edge with a grunt. Ombra thought about askingwhy they had scaled the balcony instead of using the stairs, before he thought better.
"It ended like, three hours ago."
Both the blonde and the bluette groaned.
"Where the hell did you go?" Questioned Ombra again.
"I think… everywhere." Said the blue haired boy, exhausted.
"Like, where?"
"Like everywhere!" He coughed out.
The balcony was silent as the teenagers all eyed the boy.
"Well, the gym's in there." The boy in black said, pointing to the window from which he had left. Sure there was a door directly beside it, but using the window got you badass points.
With their heads hanging, they entered through the smashed window.
"Still, you look familiar." Ombra pointed back at the young man in the hoodie.
The other student shrugged.
"Coincidence."