It's Not Like I Like You or Anything

Chapter One: What? Are you mad?

Ruby Rose was confused. She wasn't often confused, only about social cues and friend making and maybe the occasional school subject or two. Yet, she found that to be her state of mind much more frequently nowadays and it had something to do with the white haired girl on her team. Weiss Schnee had been cold and standoffish to Ruby at first, and Ruby had been understanding. Weiss was used to being a leader, to getting everything she ever wanted, so when Ruby had gotten the spot of team leader, naturally Weiss had been more than just a little ticked off.

Ruby gave her some time to cool off, and tried her best to fulfill her new obligations. But being team leader was something entirely new to her. She wasn't used to being the center of attention. She wasn't one to make friends easily. Or to command other people around. Really, Weiss seemed a good fit for that. Or even Yang, Ruby's older sister. Which left Ruby wondering why Ozpin had chosen her for the position. Had he wanted to knock Weiss' self confidence and ego down a couple pegs, because that was what Weiss thought of it, mumbling under her breath about the headmaster's stupid choice when she thought no one was listening.

Ruby tended to avoid Weiss when she was in a foul mood like that. But Ruby couldn't avoid her forever, because they were on the same team and they did live in the same room together, and Ruby was her leader. So it often fell upon her shoulders to check up on her teammates status. Like now.

"Hey, Weiss," Ruby greeted, awkwardly trying to casually slide on over to where Weiss was pouring over some textbooks, taking down notes. She didn't respond so Ruby figured the girl hadn't heard her, studying too hard.

"Hey Weis-"

"I heard you the first time," Weiss sharply cut in.

"Oh, alright," Ruby was taken aback by the tone of Weiss' voice. It was one that sounded a lot like 'go away'. But Ruby had to be a good team leader even if she hadn't wanted the position. "I was just, um, wondering how are things holding up?"

"Good." Was the curt reply. Weiss still hadn't bothered to look up at Ruby.

"Uh, well, that's...good," Ruby said for a lack of a better term. She scuffed the carpet with her toe, thinking of how best to phrase her next question without making Weiss too mad. "But...I was wondering," at this she took a big inhale before rushing the words out. "Are you still upset about me being team leader?"

Weiss' pencil snapped in half. "No, of course I'm not mad. And I'm definitely, most certainly, absolutely, not mad at you! Why would you think that?" Weiss' voice was too high in pitch to be normal and her eyebrow was doing that weird twitching thing. Which meant she was mad.

Ruby was afraid to talk about it, but she knew it was the right thing to do. The kind of thing a leader would do. "Do you maybe wanna talk about it? Cause you seem mad-"

"What is there to talk about?" Weiss turned her head to Ruby fixing her with a smile that did not match the flames of war in her eyes. It made chills run down Ruby's back and she felt like if she didn't go she'd have something thrown at her head.

"Uh, okay. Gotta go," and with that Ruby ran away. It was time to initiate plan B, better known as Ask Yang.

"Yannnnnnnnnng!" Ruby whined, slamming the door to their shared room open. Blake startled at the loud noise, nearly losing her precarious position from where she sat cross legged, balancing on one of her bed posts reading a book. Yang wasn't bothered by the noise, her being used to it from all her years of living with Ruby. It was a trait they shared in fact; slamming doors whenever they got excited or had something important to say or ask.

"What's up, Rubes?" Yang swiveled in her chair.

"Yang, Weiss is being hard to talk to. Again."

"What did she do this time?"

"I tried to ask her if she was still mad about the whole thing on how I got picked to be leader over her, and she said she wasn't mad but she was maaaad. Like real mad. And I don't know what else to do because I wanted to talk to her about it but she doesn't want to and I don't know what else to do because as team leader it's my job to make sure all of you are okay but she's not okay and she won't let me make her okay, and it's so weird how she's still so mad over this, it's been like four weeks!" Ruby at long last finished speaking, drawing in a huge gasp of air.

"Ruby, don't worry about it. Some people just tend to be grumpy pants, and sore losers, and Weiss is both of those. She'll get over it eventually. Just give her some time."

"Thanks Yang! You're the best!" Ruby gave Yang a hug, those simple three sentences making her feel better already.

Ruby was going to wait for Weiss to get over her hurt feelings.

She stayed out of Weiss' hair for a good two weeks before she grew impatient and had to ask. The white haired girl was still deriding Ruby's leadership skills and it was beginning to make the small girl upset and demoralized.

"Weiss," she called out, following the girl down the hall in between classes. "Are you still mad at me?"

"No Ruby, I'm not," Weiss called back, walking faster. But Ruby had a quick semblance; Weiss wouldn't be outwalking her any time.

"Are you sure?" she asked, making Weiss yelp in shock. The white haired girl hadn't heard Ruby approach her at all, the brunette now walking side by side with Weiss. Weiss tried to increase her walking speed but Ruby easily kept up. "Are you sure, sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure," Weiss huffed breathlessly, sweat pouring down her face as she power walked.

"Because you act all mean and huffy and criticize me a lot," Ruby poked her pointer fingers together bashfully.

"That's just called giving good feedback. It doesn't mean I'm mad," Weiss was now jogging. Ruby was still keeping pace with her by walking.

"But-"

"Ruby, leave me alone! I'm trying to go study!" Weiss was now running, and Ruby was still walking! How did she even do that? Weiss wondered breathlessly.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to bother you!" Ruby apologized before stopping. Weiss turned her head to the side upon Ruby's disappearance. Damn that girl was quick. No where was she to be seen in the halls. Weiss was only more infuriated by Ruby's cool semblance abilities. That girl had everything going for her- cool powers, a loving sister, the leadership position, and a cute face- Weiss frowned. A cute face? Was Weiss jealous of Ruby's cute face? Why? Weiss liked her own face much better. It was elegant and refined and had nicely arched brows. Minus the scar over her eye, it would be what people described as a perfect ten out of ten.

Maybe Weiss was just jealous that because of Ruby's cute features, like how her eyes would light up in joy, and how she would pout when she was sad, she could easily get things from people, could sway them. Weiss couldn't bat her eyes at someone for extra cookies. They'd think she was having an epilepsy, right after laughing at her awkward attempts.

Weiss who had still been running, lost in her thoughts, ran into something.

"Ouch..." she moaned, grabbing her hurt forehead. Luckily for her she had a hard head. Very hard.

Someone under her also moaned, and she opened her eyes to see she was sitting on some poor blonde haired boy's lap, his whole body sprawled out under her.

"Weiss!" He stammered out, flushing beet red when he saw who had ran into him and who was now sitting on his lap. The gorgeous heiress herself. Jaune felt like the Gods were on his side. He had had a crush on Weiss ever since he entered Beacon and saw her in the halls. All he had ever wanted was a chance to talk to her. And now here she was, sitting on his lap!

"Are you okay?" he asked, although he was the one with the bruise forming under his eye.

"I'm fine," Weiss said, trying to stop herself from getting embarrassed over this. What kind of a Schnee was she that she couldn't watch where she was going. No, it wasn't her fault- it was this guy's! "But you should watch where you're going next time," she reprimanded.

"Yea, uh sorry," a flustered Jaune apologized, not wanting the heiress to think lowly of him. She got up with a sniff and he hurried to his feet, following after her as she flipped her lopsided ponytail over her shoulder in an effort to regain some calm over the incident. "But are you okay? What were you running from?"

Weiss' shoulders tensed up at this. Dust, what was the issue with everyone today and in trying to ask her if she was okay? She turned on her heel and stared at the boy, whose name she couldn't at all recall. Did he even go here? "I'll kindly ask you to take your concern and stick it where the sun don't shine." Then with that, she left an open mouthed Jaune standing in the halls as she left to go finally study.

"Wow," he breathed out after a long moment, stunned by the cool tones of her voice and that piercing blue gaze. "I think I like her even more now."


Ruby didn't give up after that incident, however. She really didn't want Weiss to be mad, but she couldn't see that by constantly bringing the issue up, it was making the whole loss of leadership position sting even more for Weiss.

"Weissss," Ruby called out, spotting the white haired girl in the cafeteria. "Are you still mad at me?"

"No, Ruby. Now stop asking." Weiss said with too much force as she stabbed down so hard on her food with her fork that she broke her utensil.

That was the third week.

On the fourth week, Ruby found Weiss while she was in the showers.

"Weissssss!" Ruby's voice echoed off of the tiles. "Are you still mad-" she pulled open the shower door to peek in to make sure Weiss was really there and listening to her.

The heiress let out a high pitched scream and went to cover her private parts and chest. "Ruby, GET OUT!"

"Okay, but are you mad-"

"I swear to dust Ruby, if you don't leave, these showers will rain blood, YOUR blood."

"Okay..." Ruby mumbled wearily before closing the door slowly.

Weiss let out a sigh, feeling her heart rate slow down once more. Seriously, could she not even enjoy her showers in peace? She picked up the bar of soap she had dropped in favor of covering up and began to wash up once more.

"But just for clarification," Ruby's head popped back in and Weiss dropped the bar of soap she had been holding as an animalistic scream began to bubble up in her throat. "Are you mad at me right now because of the shower thing or because of the leader-"

"RUBY!" Weiss let out the scream and Ruby gave a yelp as she fled, only her semblance saving her from Weiss's outstretched murderous hands.

Dejectedly, Ruby slammed the door open to their shared room, Yang immediately knowing what her younger sister's mood was by the type of door slam it was. If she was sad, then the door sounded like it was screaming in pain as it slammed open. If Ruby was happy then the door slam was accompanied by flowers. And if she was angry, then it was violently ripped off of it's hinges and used to decimate the rest of the room that Ruby had entered.

But Yang knew Ruby was dejected because the door slam was but a soft sigh.

"What happened this time Rubes?" Yang asked, swiveling in her chair. Blake glanced up shortly from her book that she had been reading on her bed post before going back to it. The drama in her book was currently less stressful to deal with than this, so she was going to ignore her teammates again.

"Weiss is still mad at me. And I tried waiting."

"Try waiting some more, but without bothering her at all this time. She's really stubborn. I can tell."

"Thanks Yang! That's such great advice!" And a happy Ruby skipped out of the room, humming to herself.

So Ruby waited again. This time, she decided not bothering Weiss meant she had to completely ignore the white haired girl.

Which made Weiss confused. Because Ruby was doing a really bad job of it.

"Hey Weiss!" she'd greet in between classes, only for her eyes to go wide like she'd made some huge mistake. "Stupid, you're not supposed to be bothering her." And then she'd tug painfully on her hair tips and run off quickly before Weiss could so much as arch an eyebrow in question. This behavior would repeat itself over and over, and you'd think Ruby would eventually learn but she didn't, making the same mistakes every time.

And this behavior from Ruby was only making Weiss more mad. And a mad Weiss meant tyrannical control over the rest of the team's homework habits.

"Blake, stop reading porn and do your work-"

"It's not porn, it's fanfiction-" Blake said defensively as she cradled her scroll to her chest protectively, hoping to hide the sex scene between her two favorite characters that she had just been reading.

"-same difference," Weiss powered on, hands on hips and glaring down at her teammates who were seated at a table, cowering under her imposing icy blue stare. "Yang, stop eating, you're getting crumbs all over your work-"

"But I'm a big girl, I need to eat," Yang said, flexing a muscle for demonstration.

"-and you'll be an even bigger girl if you don't stop!" Weiss prodded Yang's slightly chubby cheeks, full of some hastily stuffed granola bar.

"Low blow," she murmured, her bicep deflating in dejection.

"And Ruby!"

Now it was Ruby's turn to fear what Weiss would say next, the heiress seeming to be thrice her size, towering over poor Ruby. She pulled her hood up, hoping it would protect her from the ire spitting out of Weiss' mouth. "Stop lollygagging around! Your stupidity can reflect poorly on all of us since you're leader, and I will not tolerate your bad grades bringing us down! Now get to work!"

"Yes Weiss," Ruby yelped out and began to hastily scribble down notes.

All of the team was reading and writing and diligently studying, if not shivering a little in fear of Weiss as she stood hands on her hips and watched, chin jutting out proudly. This was more like it. This was how it should be. Everyone under her command, and taking her orders. Leadership was a natural fit for her. She still couldn't understand why Ozpin had picked Ruby over her. Weiss was a natural born leader; she had the knowledge to back it up, and the skill. Had Ozpin skipped over her because of her family and their cruelty to faunus? But Weiss had no part in that. She had wanted to escape it by becoming a huntress. And what better way to prove how serious she was than by being the leader of a successful team?

But nooooo, Ozpin had to pick Ruby. Ruby who was small, young, innocent, naive, childish and had a face that was too cute to take seriously.

With her stupid big silver eyes that you could get lost in, and soft round cheeks that begged to be kissed, and cute button nose that wrinkled up in the cutest way.

Weiss only got more irritated at thinking all that, and took out her anger at Yang. "Yang, stop breathing so loudly! You sound like a dragon!"

"But I can't help it!"

"Then don't breath at all!"

"But then I'll die!"

"That sounds like a personal issue." Weiss concluded coldly.

After that terrible review session, Yang and Ruby had a quick meeting, under the covers of Yang's bed, whispering because Weiss was in the same room as them getting ready to go to sleep.

"Yang, what are we going to do? Weiss is super pissed now. I've given her space but it seems like the space just made it worse!" Ruby whisper whined. The small glow of Yang's scroll was lighting up the dark space, revealing Ruby's distressed expression only made more distressed by the weird lighting angles.

"Eventually-"

"But Yang, it's already been eventually! How much longer can I wait!"

"Hey, what are you guys talking about?" Blake inquired as she slid her way in under the covers. "Can I know?"

"It's about Weiss. And how she's still mad at Ruby." Yang was beginning to sweat under the covers. It was really hot under here and especially with her high natural body temperature and the heat of three others joining her.

"Hmmm," Blake hummed. "Did you listen to Yang's advice Ruby?"

"I did!" Ruby protested. "But it didn't work!"

"Just give it more time, Ruby. Eventually-" Yang didn't get to finish.

Weiss who had just come out of the bathroom, freshly showered, noticed that there was an odd situation going on. She could make out the rears of Ruby and Blake sticking out from under the lumpy cover's of Yang's bed. Whispering was coming from there too...what were they doing?

Weiss walked over and snatched the covers off, causing screams to elicit from all three teammates hidden there. They sounded like they had been caught by some horror movie monster and were about to be devoured, but it was only Weiss. "What are you three doing here?"

"They got cold so they were gonna cuddle with me!" was the hasty explanation.

"We're talking about you!" was the guilty admission.

"We're having a threesome!" was the unfortunate slip up.

Everyone's eyes swiveled to Blake.

"What? I just meant like...you know, one where- a threesome of talking, sheesh!" she began to color in her cheeks when her teammates didn't look too convinced. "Get your minds out of the gutter." But it was her mind which had been in the gutter. She really needed to be more careful when she spoke; her fanfiction addiction might come to light.

The rest of the team decided to ignore that slip up. "Yang, it's not even cold enough for any of us to require borrowing your body heat- it's the middle of spring right now. And Ruby, you were talking about me?" Weiss felt a little hurt that her teammates seemed to be talking about her behind her back. Or behind the covers, more accurately.

Ruby nodded her head but Yang quickly clamped a hand over her younger sister's mouth before she could bury them deeper. "Ruby wasn't talking about you, but, uh, You."

Weiss arched a brow. "I don't get the difference."

"There's a guy named You. He's new to the school. And we were just talking about him. Because it seems like You has a crush on Ruby!"

"Whoa, for real?" Ruby ripped Yang's hand off of her face. "I didn't know that! I want to meet this new You guy-" Yang slapped her hand onto Ruby's mouth once more before the brunette ruined things. Because Ruby actually believed that You was a real guy and Yang couldn't explain that he wasn't without giving them away.

"Hm."

It was hard to tell if Weiss was convinced or not because her face was as smooth as ice right now. Yang sweated some more, hoping that Weiss would buy into it. Blake just calmly sat there, trying not to die from mortification of what she had blurted out moments ago, while Ruby struggled against Yang's hold which only tightened the harder she struggled. Ruby was finding it hard to breathe.

"Okay, but then Ruby confirmed she was talking about me-"

"Another new guy. Me is You's brother." Yang was so glad her many years of studying puns was paying off. She'd never thought it'd be used in saving her life, she'd always assumed it'd be more of getting her a career on stage.

A long silence passed in which Ruby was starting to go blue in the face. And in which Yang's face sweated some more until it began to drip down onto her shirt front, and in which Blake continued to fret over her verbal slip up. Weiss's gaze was unrelenting. She felt like she was missing something here...but was it really important? The rest of her teammates liked to get involved in silly schemes. She wasn't going to let herself get drawn into that.

"Okay...I'm going to let this slide for now. But you'd better cut these shenanigans out because I'm going to bed!" Weiss reminded sharply, dropping the topic. All three of her teammates were acting odd but she decided it wasn't worth investigating.

When Weiss finally climbed into bed only then did they all relax. Yang let go of Ruby's mouth, the girl finally able to breathe. "We just dodged a bullet," Yang said, wiping the sweat off of her face as Ruby took deep swallows of air.

"Sleep!" Weiss reminded them, causing all three to flinch. They decided it was a good idea to go to bed to avoid unlocking Weiss' wrath.


Thus, Ruby was forced to continue waiting it out for Weiss' bitterness to end. But it was really, really, taking a long time and Ruby didn't know how much longer she could wait.

"Yangggggg," she whined to her sister as they walked down the halls.

"Eventually," her sister reminded her.

"Yannnnnnnnnnnnng," Ruby whined during lunch.

"Eventually," Yang said resolutely.

"Yanggggggggggggg," Ruby said in a gasping breath as she and Yang just got back from another one of Weiss' brutal tutoring sessions.

"Even...tually," she gasped back, dragging her limp body to her bed so she could sleep off the violent way knowledge had been crammed into her brain.

Yangggggggggg Ruby passed a note to Yang in class during a test.

….Eventually, Yang passed one back, only to have the teacher catch them. Oobleck looked at them in confusion when he actually read what was on the notes. "You weren't cheating...?"

"Unless you count writing these two words as cheating, then no." Yang had shrugged.

Oobleck shrugged back, deciding this was not worth his time.

Then at the gym, "Yaaaaaaaaaaang," as Ruby dodged a fist to her face thrown by Yang.

This time Yang said with less confidence, "Eventually."

And finally, at the library where Weiss was berating all of them for failing on a team task. "Yang." Short, simple, to the point.

Yang sighed. "Fine."

The plan was to make Weiss proud of her team, and to make her see Ruby was worthy of her leadership position.

"And how do we do that?" Ruby asked eagerly. She was done waiting around- how many months had it already been? Like seven? That was a really long time to let an issue got unresolved.

Yang rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "I think I got some sort of plan. Just leave it all up to me. And Nora." And with that she darted out the door to get in contact with the orange haired girl, her fellow partner in devious crimes.

"Okay." Ruby was perfectly content in allowing Yang handle things. Blake had doubts, but not about Yang.

"I have a bad feeling."

"Why?" Ruby turned her innocent gaze on Blake who shuddered as memories hit her. "Because whenever Nora is involved in something, it doesn't end well." Blake could still remember when Nora had tried to help Blake with breakfast so they could 'bond'. The only thing that had bonded that day was the melted kitchen appliances to the floors and walls of the devastated kitchen.

"Oops, sorry about that," Nora had giggled. "I wanted the toaster to work faster and I thought my semblance would give it a kick. But I guess it was too much of a kick."

Blake had stood their mutely, soot faced and slightly burnt as electrocuted hair still sparked occasionally. Blake swore to never cross paths with Nora again.

And Blake's bad feeling proved true. The plan was to have Nora and Yang dress up as thugs and attack Weiss as she was walking downtown. Ruby would then show up, and save the heiress, thus proving her good leadership and hero like qualities. But before Ruby could even appear, Weiss had wiped the floor with Nora and Yang, proving there to be no need for a savior.

Ruby was stuck right back where she started, and Yang and Nora had a matching pair of bruises around their eyes. "Not to worry, Rubes. I'll get this situation straightened out." For now, Weiss wasn't only angry at Ruby but also at Yang for that stupid plan. Of course when Yang had asked, Weiss had merely scoffed. "I'm not angry." Which meant she was.

And in her anger she had decided she needed to confide in someone. Weiss was becoming irritated with these two idiot sisters. One for being too cute and in taking her position of power, and the other for being dumb and meddlesome. The only neutral ground Weiss could see was Blake, so she approached the dark haired girl, who was perched in her usual spot, on the bedpost reading a book.

"Blake. I have a favor to ask you. And since you're so quiet, friendless, and anti-social, than I know I can trust you to keep it a secret."

Blake didn't think that was a good way going about talking to someone if you wanted their help, but this was Weiss, and she could be a touch blunt and insensitive.

"What is is?" she said reluctantly, only because she hated getting involved with other people's issues.

"I'm in a real conundrum because both Ruby and Yang seem insistent on bothering me. They want to make sure I'm not mad at them which only makes me mad when they ask. Because I am not mad! Extremely not!" Blake rolled her eyes subtly at this. Everyone who had eyes could see Weiss was still pretty upset at the choice Ozpin made. Even Ozpin knew and had invited Weiss to his office to chat about it. Weiss had of course refuted his statements to which he didn't seem convinced either.

"And I don't know what to do to get them to stop asking me. I've tried being reasonable and answering their questions. I've tried ignoring them. I've tried...well, that's all I've really tried, but I don't know another way to go about this." Weiss let out a sigh, feeling some stress leave her shoulders at divulging this information to Blake.

The cat faunus had waited quietly for Weiss to finish. "Well, why don't you tell them your real feelings?"

"Real...feelings?" Weiss' eyes opened wide. "Tell...them?" At this a laugh bubbled it's way out of her throat and she began to laugh hysterically as she walked out the door. "HAHAHA FEELINGS! REAL FEELINGS! Schnee's don't have those!"

Blake watched, half terrified and half concerned as the heiress made her exit. "Boy, she's got some serious denial issues there." And then she turned back to her book because it was not her problem to deal with.


"Ruby, your form is wrong. You should know better as team leader."

"Ruby, stop losing focus on class. You should be paying attention as team leader."

"Ruby, stop eating all those cookies. They're bad for your health as team leader."

Each disparaging comment made Ruby feel even more down. Weiss was being extra picky today and it made Ruby's happy mood sour quicker than milk left out. Which made Yang's mood hotter than a fire. Because she hated seeing Ruby sad. It made her angry. And even more angry when she had to stop Ruby from crying which she had been doing when Yang followed her to the bathroom. She hated a crying Ruby. Whoever made Ruby cry was going to be hurt.

"What is up with Weiss today? She's being extra...Weiss-y," Yang said angrily, sticking out her tongue to think of a good way to describe the heiress.

"I gave her some advice. I don't think she took it well." Blake shrugged, packing away her notebooks for the next class.

"What kind of advice?"

"Told her to be true to her emotions. And then she started laughing. It was kind of scary."

"Hmmm, scary, you say," Yang rubbed her chin, deep in thought. Then she smiled as an idea came to her head.

About a day or two later, Yang had finally come up with the perfect way to fix all of the team's issues. She cornered Weiss in the hallway after class, cracking her knuckles as she approached. "Weiss," she greeted curtly with a nod of her head. She made sure to stand in a way that it would back Weiss into the lockers.

"Yang?" Weiss raised a brow in question, swallowing deeply when she noticed how red Yang's eyes were. That was never a good sign.

"Weiss, I don't know what your problem with Ruby is, but you'd better cut it out and real fast, or I will cut you."

"Cut me?" Weiss' heart thumped in her chest heavily. Yang looked deadly serious right now, which wasn't a good sign either.

"You made Ruby cry. And you know how much I hate when Ruby cries."

"O-oh," Weiss swallowed deeply. "I hadn't meant to make her cry." She truly hadn't but what would Yang care. Ruby had still been crying.

"Didn't seem that way to me. Now, are you going to stop being a salty bitch and let this grudge go, or do I have to do some talking with my fists?"

"No, I got the message. Loud and clear." Weiss nodded her head, slightly sweating under the collar as Yang peered in, eyeing Weiss hard. Weiss tried to back up even more but she couldn't as she had no where else to go, cold metal lockers pressing into her back.

"Good." Yang pulled back at last. "See you around later." Like a switch, Yang's happy mood was back and she ruffled up Weiss' hair before strolling off back to her room.

Weiss stood there a moment more, trying to regain her calm. That had been scary. But from then on whatever bitterness Weiss had felt from being passed over as team leader dispersed, because if there was one thing Weiss was more of afraid of than failure, it was an angry and overprotective Yang.

A/N: So, this is...something. Don't know where I'm going with this, but end game is WhiteRose. Just wanted to write Weiss as a tsundere cause she seems to fit the character archetype pretty well.