Hello, RWBY fans! If you read KH fanfic, you may already know me, Cloudhead. I have recently become addicted to RWBY, this wonderful show filled with colorful characters and fun fight sequences, and so I've decided to branch out a little with my fanfic. This is the first result of my efforts, a little adventure inspired by a headcanon I thought of while playing a roleplay. If you're new to my work, it should be a good representation of my style.

Fair warning, Ruby is the only RWBY character I've written before, so characterization might be off. By all means, let me know if it is, and how to fix it. With that out of the way, I hope you enjoy!

0=0=0=0=0=0

Fang Fever

0=0=0=0=0=0

In worrying over the end of the world, we forget how resilient people really are.

0=0=0=0=0=0

Chapter One

Health Concerns

0=0=0=0=0=0

There was one official food of Team RWBY, and that was cookies. The team leader herself declared it. So when they ran out of cookies, more of them had to be acquired as quickly as possible to ensure continued functioning and happiness of the team. As Beacon Academy did not simply hand its students recreational food, like they were good dogs in need of treats, this generally meant going to the city and getting them from a store. On this particular day, this task fell upon Ruby and Blake.

Well, technically just Blake, but Ruby had insisted on coming along because she had been cooped up in the Academy for a whole week and she was tired of it. Every locale in the world becomes boring if you stay for too long, after all. In any case, this was the situation, Ruby and Blake going out to the city to acquire cookies. Perfectly normal day.

And it was on perfectly normal days that Ruby was the perfect mix of uplifting and annoying.

As the two approached the bakery, Ruby pointed at it. "There it is!"

Blake crossed her arms. "Thank you for pointing that out. I would never have noticed."

Ruby grinned. "You're welcome!"

"That was sarcasm."

"Do I care?"

Blake smiled just slightly. "You know what I like about you, Ruby? You have way more energy than I could even imagine having myself."

"Maybe you just need coffee."

"Maybe."

As they entered the store, Ruby noticed a young man browsing one of the aisles. He was wearing a scarf around his mouth. That was strange—it was the middle of spring, and the temperature was comfortably warm. She was about to chalk it up to an odd quirk until the man made a small but very noticeable cough.

She flinched and tensed up. "No, no, stop," she told herself under her breath. "Calm down, calm down…"

Blake turned. "You okay?"

Ruby blinked, then nodded quickly. "Uh, yeah, of course I'm okay. I am cool. Cool-lio."

Blake raised her eyebrow. "Ruby. You know you're a bad liar."

"Liar?" Ruby scratched the back of your neck. "Why would I lie about—" The man coughed again, louder this time, and Ruby covered her mouth. "AH—about not being okay?"

"You're shaking."

Ruby noticed that Blake was right about that. "I'm cold!"

"It's room temperature."

Before Ruby could come up with a retort, the man coughed again, and she couldn't help but step backwards a few paces. Before she could hit the shelves behind her, Blake caught her, then grabbed her arm and pulled her to the restroom in the back of the store.

Blake shut the door behind her, then held Ruby by the arms. "Ruby, you're making a scene. You never make a scene. I've never seen you act this way before. I'm your teammate, okay? I need you to tell me what's wrong. Now."

Ruby could tell that she was out of options. She bit her lip. "It was that coughing guy, okay? Are you happy?"

Blake looked around, as if someone might be listening, then looked Ruby in the eyes. "Ruby…are you afraid of getting sick?"

Ruby sighed. "Yes…I watched this news report about a really bad flu in a town I was near when I was a kid, and I've been terrified of getting sick ever since…I've tried reasoning myself out of it, it never works…"

"How come you didn't tell the rest of us earlier?"

"Yang knows, but she thinks it would be rude to bring it up without my permission, and I…well, I just never had the nerve. I'm sorry."

"It's okay." Blake pointed at her bow. "I know how that feels."

Ruby frowned. "That's different, though."

"Well, yeah, but still." Blake let go and sighed. "Look…I'm not great at sentimental things like helping people get over fears, so…splash your face with some cold water while I go buy those cookies so that you don't have to hear the coughing guy, then we'll go back to the Academy and you can talk to Yang or Weiss or whoever you want about this. Okay?"

Ruby took a deep breath. "Yeah, that sounds good. Sorry if I embarrassed you."

"Hey, it isn't like you attacked the guy or anything. I forgive you." Blake started to walk out the door, but then stopped. "…I will say this, though. Huntsmen and Huntresses go all over the world, sometimes to very remote places without good medicine. If you let some germs scare you, you might have a bad time as a Huntress."

Ruby looked down. "I know…I'm sorry…"

"Stop saying you're sorry, it isn't even really your fault. I'm not accusing you of anything. Just consider it motivation."

With that, Blake headed back into the store, leaving Ruby alone with her thoughts. She sighed. She already knew that she had to get over her fear if she wanted to reach her full potential or whatever. The question was how. Like she had told Blake, if she could have reasoned herself out of it, she definitely would have done so by now—she kept trying. She never had the nerve to scare herself out of it through research, and ironically, her immune system was strong enough that she didn't get sick often or long enough to get scared out of it naturally.

She took Blake's suggestion to splash herself with cold water and looked herself in the mirror. "Come on, Ruby. You've got this." She looked away. "Probably…"

She heard a loud thunk and whipped around. It had come from the back door meant for employees. For a second, she thought she had imaged it, but then it happened again. It was like something—or someone—was pounding against the door as hard as possible.

She palmed her weapon a bit as she approached the door. "Hello? Is someone out there?"

The sound came again, and now that Ruby was closer, she could hear a grunt of pain. She decided to take her chances and kicked the door open. She saw a young man, no older than twenty, rammed against the wall next to her by a larger man wearing a White Fang mask.

The larger man turned to her. "Get the hell outta here! And if you call the police, we'll know!"

Ruby tilted her head. "Are you threatening me?"

The man scowled. "Yeah, I am! I said butt out, girl!"

Ruby grinned. Now this was something she could handle just fine.

She kicked the man away and pulled out her gun-scythe. Crescent Rose unfolded, making the lovely sound of metal sliding against metal, and she pointed it at the man, hoping to intimidate him into submission. No such luck. The guy pulled out his own weapon, a huge hammer, and charged.

Ruby dodged out of the way and used her semblance to appear behind the man. While he was distracted by the rose petals floating everywhere, Ruby hit him from behind, knocking him to the ground. Then she pointed the edge of the scythe at the man's face.

Ruby smiled. "Okay. New deal. You're going to go back to the White Fang, and you're going to tell them that you got your butt kicked by Ruby Rose, leader of Team RWBY. In return, I won't beat you up worse than I already have. Will that work?"

The man nodded, and Ruby let go of him, watching as he ran off. Blake came running out of the building, her own weapons drawn. Ruby raised her hand, smiling. "Don't worry. You missed all the fun. There was a guy in a White Fang mask beating up that guy over there, but I sent him running."

Blake nodded, sheathed her weapons and went over to the man. "Hey, are you awake? Can you hear me?"

The man opened his eyes slowly. "Yeah…everything hurts…."

"What's your name?"

"I'm…I'm Grey. Grey Starra."

Blake nodded. "Okay, Grey, we'll get you somewhere safe. Do you know why the White Fang was attacking you?"

Grey sighed. "I dunno…the guy kept going on about the 'Atlas Superstrain' or something…I'm a microbiologist, maybe he thought I knew something about something…"

Blake drew in a breath, then let it out again. Ruby could already feel her chest getting a little tight just from the implications, but she walked closer anyway. "Blake…do you know…"

Blake looked Ruby in the eyes. "Let's just say you'll want to get over your fear really quick…"

0=0=0=0=0=0

And there we go, a nice beginning to a story I think I'll have fun writing. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Remember, reviews are always appreciated. Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for the next chapter!