Happy Birth-ween
"Miss Gelato, where is Miss Rose? The Champions are supposed to be going in shortly." Professor Glynda Goodwitch of Beacon Academy asked.
"I'm don't know Professor." Neopolitan Gelato, fourth year student for the same school asked.
Beacon Academy, one of four Hunter academies in the world. Once every four years the schools held a competition. It was only open for fourth year students, and while some of the third-year students didn't like this, they understood why.
The four schools would come together to one of the academies, to one of the academies which alternated with each cycle.
This year though it was Beacon's turn, and the first round had already taken place. Each school put forward a champion, one that was voted on the students and staff of the academy.
This year Beacon had put forward Ruby Rose, a prodigy in her own right and was just as surprised to be selected, especially since she was only nineteen years old, compared to the other champions who were twenty-two years old as she had entered the school several years early.
The competition wasn't all about fighting each other, or even fighting at all. The first task had been putting the champions knowledge of the Grimm to the test in how to defeat them which had put two of the champions off early on. Though the next task was a mystery to the champions, at least to Neo's knowledge.
"Could you go find Miss Rose please, and remind her that she's supposed to be here." Glynda said, stopping a passing student.
"I saw her earlier Professor, she was in the training hall." The student informed Glynda.
"She lost track of time." Glynda mumbled though Neo heard her. It was common for Ruby to lose track of time when she became embodied in something and apparently tonight was no different.
"Sorry, sorry, sorry!" Ruby quickly dodged between the students before she stood in front of Glynda and Neo.
This afforded Neo her first look at Ruby's dress. She'd been secretive about her dress and what she would be wearing that evening.
The ball was held on Halloween though it wasn't a fancy dress but rather a formal ball. But still Ruby managed to have a sense of Halloween on her outfit.
Ruby wore a long, red sleeveless dress with a plunging neckline. She had a thick white sash around her waist, as the dress went past her waist it fell into overlapping red and black layers until it reached the floor. Where she wore heels to bring the dress off the floor.
Attached to her white sash was her sword, she was the only one armed out of the champions but no one batted an eyelid at that as she was never seen without her sword at her side.
Her hair was long with its natural dark red colour and was resting over one shoulder. Though in her hair she wore devil horns. Around her neck she wore a small necklace with a rose shaped ruby pendent, a present from Neo to mark their first year together.
"Wow." Neo said, she'd never seen Ruby in formal wear before, even with the addition of the horns.
Neo wore a long, sleeveless black dress which was nowhere near as elaborate as Ruby's dress, and it ended just below her knee though she wore heels the same as Ruby so there wasn't much of a height difference.
Neo's Neapolitan coloured hair was straightened and left running down her back while around her neck she wore a simple black choker.
"Miss Rose, you're late." Glynda stated.
"Apologises Professor, where would you like us?" Ruby asked as she didn't bother to offer an excuse.
"At the front please Miss Rose, with Miss Gelato. The Atlasian champion behind you, Vacuo next and finally Mistral." Glynda was quick to get everyone in position.
"Now remember, you walk into the hall and into the centre, the tables are moved out of the way and you'll be having the first dance. Once the dance is over you'll head to the main table where dinner will be served. After that there will be another dance which you'll start off and the other students will join in. Is that all understood?" Glynda informed them all once more.
A series of confirmations echoed back and the professor walked forward and then walked in opening the doors to the hall with the champions following after her.
Ruby and Neo kept their heads forward as they walked into the hall. Their sights clearly set on the dance floor.
While their relationship wasn't really a secret, they never announced it to the school and they both knew that the topic of who Ruby would bring as a date had been popular around the school, considering that the champions had to have a date.
Neo didn't mind the conversations too much, she found it rather funny who they thought Ruby would be going with but now though, it was open in front of the whole school.
It was hard not to allow her eyes to stray, to look around at the other students to see their reaction. Ruby was popular before, a young prodigy with a heart of gold and a caring nature that had seen her hurt too often in Neo's opinion.
But now that she was the champion for the school she was thrust into the spotlight even more, especially because she was voted into that position by the students.
She felt an arm wrap around her shoulders and she couldn't help but smile as Ruby had clearly felt her worry and tried to ease her anxiety.
"Focus on me, it doesn't matter what everyone else thinks. I love you, and only you." Ruby whispered soothingly, "Now let's dance." Ruby said as they stood in the middle of the dance floor.
Holding her hand out, Neo took it carefully and allowed Ruby to guide her into the correct position. She wasn't used to this type of dancing but she knew that Ruby was well versed.
"So why were you late?" Neo asked as the music started, talking about something mundane would help ease her worry and distract her, or so she hoped.
"I was training and Winter arrived with a present, I ended up talking to her for a while and then I had to get ready." Ruby explained.
"What did she get you?" Neo asked though she was stumbling a little as they began to dance, "Sorry, I struggled with learning the dancing." Neo said, mentioning the dance classes that Glynda had given the students for this event.
"Here, follow my lead. Think of it like a fight." Ruby said, pulling Neo a little closer to her.
"Like a fight? How?" Neo asked as she was still struggling.
"Simple. Follow me." Ruby said, taking a step back as Neo followed. "Moving forward, attacking which pushes the other person back." Ruby began, "Then comes the counter attack." Ruby said, taking a step forward with her other foot, pushing Neo back a little. "This continues, attack and counter attack." Ruby said, and it seemed Neo was starting to get it as she followed Ruby as she moved around.
They continued keeping it simple for a minute as they turned and moved around the floor in time with each other before Ruby began to make it more complicated.
"Next we add in a few other bits, maybe a spin away." Ruby said, gently twirling Neo around before pulling her back in and continued going. "Or perhaps a dodge." Ruby said as she dipped Neo down, getting a startled gasp from Neo.
Pulling her up after a few seconds Ruby smiled wide as the room clapped, the music had stopped and so had the first dance.
"Sorry for the surprise." Ruby apologised, kissing Neo as an apology as well.
"It's fine, it just took me by surprise." Neo said, the two moving out of the way as Glynda moved the tables onto the dance floor and around the room.
"Come on, time for food." Ruby said as she led Neo to their seats, pulling Neo's chair out and pushing it in for her.
"Thank you." Neo said as Ruby took a seat next to her. The other champions and the headmasters took their seats around the table while the officials for the event were on the table next to them.
Waiters came out taking orders for food and drink, each course had several different options on the menu and for the first course both women had taken the small salad.
"Ruby, Neo, you look beautiful tonight and your dancing was brilliant." General Ironwood said, leaning over to tell them.
"Thank you General." Neo replied with a slight smile.
"I trust your doing well General?" Ruby asked, making polite conversation.
"I am, thank you Ruby. Though I must apologise." Ironwood said.
"For what?" Ruby asked in confusion, which was echoed by Neo.
"For forgetting what day, it was, Winter reminded me earlier when she asked to barrow a Bullhead to get to Vale." Ironwood explained, pulling out a small box.
"Thank you." Ruby said, accepting the gift. Carefully she opened up the box, seeing that it revealed a pistol similar to Ironwood's.
The pistol was the same mixture between a revolver and a semi-automatic pistol with a cylinder and a slider. The duel triggers operated two separate parts of the guns as it could fire two shots at once, and it even had an external hammer.
Instead of white and grey it was black and red. The top half was red with an intricate rose was engraved with its stem running along the slider. While on the other side was a series of snowflakes running along the slider.
"It's beautiful, thank you." Ruby said, putting the weapon back into the box.
"I knew that your tastes were different, and you wouldn't like anything traditional. So, I went outside the box. I'm glad that you like it." Ironwood said.
Neo stayed quiet as she didn't want to ask Ruby in front of everyone just what this day was as it was clear she seemed to be the only one who didn't know.
During their meal, they made idle chatter with the other champions, who despite the competition were rather relaxed about everything going on unlike the schools which had gotten rather competitive with each other.
Once the meal had finished and enough time had passed the champions were invited to the dance floor again as Glynda moved the tables away once more.
As the four champions and their dates danced again, the live musicians began playing and after a minute of the champions dancing the rest of the school were invited to join which gave the musicians the cue to play more upbeat music.
Those dancing with dates soon split up but stayed near each other to go with the fast music but also to stay close by.
Ruby smiled and laughed freely with Neo as they danced together, all their worries and problems for a short time as they lost themselves in the music and each other.
The two women had no idea how long they had been dancing for, it could have been minutes or hours but eventually they grew tired and had to stop, at least temporarily.
Neo took a seat at a table to the side while Ruby went off to get drinks for the pair of them. They were hot and sweaty because of the dancing and how close they were and needed to cool down, at least a little bit.
While she was waiting for Ruby to come back she had Winter and Blake both sit down next to her, taking seats on each side of her.
"So, she didn't tell you, did she?" Winter asked as she sat down.
"Tell me what?" Neo asked, looking at both the woman.
"We saw your look when she got that present from Ironwood, and the present from Winter and I. She never told you? Well she never told me either but Winter told me." Blake began explaining.
"Why didn't she tell me?" Neo asked in despair. They shared everything together, but for some reason she hadn't decided to share this with her.
"She doesn't like her birthday, she hasn't liked her birthday for quite a few years so she just…she just doesn't mention it or even tells people anymore. Try not to take it personally, she doesn't mean to." Winter explained, trying to ease Neo's worry.
"Why? Why doesn't she like her birthday?" Neo asked almost pleading to know the truth.
"She used to love it, you could barely get her to sleep when she was young. She loved her birthday almost as much as Christmas. They were always a big affair in our house, even now they are but not Ruby's." Winter began explaining, "It happened when she was about six years old." Winter continued.
Blake, seeing Winter's distress at telling the story reached over and took Winter's hand into her own as Winter continued talking.
"Our mother, Summer. She had a contract the day before and would be returning home on Ruby's birthday but Ruby loved these flowers from the forest so every year Summer would go out and bring some back." Winter continued but stopped for a moment.
"She got hurt. Her Aura was near depleted on returning home but she could make it home. But she stopped to get the flowers, where she was attacked by Grimm. She won but when she got home she was hurt really bad…Ruby opened the door to her." Winter said sadly, upset at the memory but she powered through.
"After that, Ruby didn't ask for anything else…she stopped being excited about her birthday and wouldn't even come out of her room, eventually we stopped celebrating it but we still brought her presents. But that's why she doesn't say anything." Winter finished explaining, by this point Blake was sitting next to her now.
"I…I never knew, I haven't even met your parents yet but in know both are still alive…but I never knew." Neo said, distraught as she hadn't known any of this.
"It's not public knowledge, no one outside the family and close friends knew." Winter said though she looked up upon hearing approaching footsteps, which was a feat itself in the hall with all the music.
The three women all looked up to see Ruby standing by the table, two drinks in her hand but she just stood there and looked at the three of them.
Sighing Ruby walked over to Neo, "Would you like to come to the garden with me?" Ruby asked and Neo stood up to walk with Ruby to the gardens outside.
"Here." Ruby said as they walked, handing Neo her drink. They both still needed it though Ruby looked as if she wanted something a little stronger than the punch available at the event.
It didn't take them long to walk to the gardens, it was quiet amongst the flowers. Far enough away from the hall so they couldn't hear the music.
"I'm sorry for…" Neo began to say but she was cut off by Ruby.
"It's fine…I should have told you a while ago, it's just…it's not something I like thinking about." Ruby said, having stopped in front of a few dozen white flowers, kneeling down Ruby was careful not to dirty her dress.
Neo followed her down onto the floor, kneeling just in front of her. "I understand." Neo said, unsure what more to say.
"We were always spoilt as kids, even now we are to a point though I distance myself from it as best I can. I loved the flowers that it almost killed my mother…that made me realise what being spoilt could lead to so I swore to myself to never allow it to happen again…after that I became more practical. I asked for bits that I needed, for my weapons or clothes that I needed but struggled to get for whatever reason." Ruby explained as she began to touch the flowers in front of her.
"White Roses." Neo said as she reached out to the flower, recognising them as something that mainly grew in Atlas.
"They are, I found them planted here the first year I got here. I spent a lot of time here, most of my birthdays as well…it's a good place to avoid people." Ruby admitted rather openly.
"I'm sorry for not telling you, it's just…it's easier to not tell people." Ruby added, not going any further.
"I understand." Neo said, pulling Ruby into a hug.
After a few minutes Neo reached forward, cutting one of the flowers she removed the thorns and turned back to Ruby, "Come here." Neo said, placing the flower into Ruby's hair as she expertly weaved it into her hair.
"Thank you." Ruby said, smiling faintly at what Neo had done. "I haven't picked any for years…I've never had them in my hair before." Ruby said fondly.
"Would you like to return to the dance?" Neo asked after a few more minutes as the two women just sat there, hugging each other.
"I…I think I'd just like it to be us." Ruby replied, she didn't want to be around others at the moment, she just wanted to be with Neo.
"Alright, but I'd like to dance." Neo said, pushing herself up off the ground as she offered her hand down to Ruby. "Care to dance with me?" Neo asked, offering her hand to Ruby.
Ruby smiled at Neo, accepting the hand and allowing herself to be pulled up to her feet by Neo as the pair began to move together.
And so, underneath the shattered moons light the two women danced the rest of the night away, and into the small hours with only the music in their heads to keep their beat.
Even though it would be a few more years yet until Ruby was truly happy on her birthday but this night would be a memory she would treasure for the rest of her life.
A/N
So, for those that don't know, 31st October has been confirmed as Ruby's birthday. So, I'm a sad fucker who had an idea and wrote this. It's based a little off the Yule Ball from Harry Potter.
Anyway, I'm working on a couple bits, but nothing I can really pin down or truly like at the minute which is annoying but I'll get there. I may be posting something up later with a potential idea but I'm not completely sure yet.
Until next time.