Hey guys. This is a short story I decided to write while I had writer's block for Deep Purple, which I promise I will finish and publish in the next week. Until then I hope you're all happy with this. Please feel free to leave a review
The sunlight was strong throughout the kingdom of Vale with little breeze, causing a heatwave throughout the area. The situation was no different at Beacon Academy. Even though the day was young, the heat was already prevalent and beating down on the students, most of whom had awoken early due to the intense sunlight. On the flipside, the heat came as a welcome change to the previously mild climate of the days before, and it was a saturday morning, so there were no classes for the students to endure. As more students roused from their slumber due to the blinding light, the academy became more active, and the pupils were already discussing their plans for the day ahead.
In the dorm room of Team JNPR sat eight friends, deciding on where they would spend their day. Yang, in her usual cheery tone was actually the first person to put forward her idea. "We should all go to the beach! We don't get this kind of weather often and me and Ruby haven't been there in years." The blonde said with such excitement that she was practically jumping up and down on the spot. While the others mulled this idea over, Jaune was the only person to speak up, his face showing a mixture of fear and concern.
"Uh, that's a cool idea and all Yang but you see..." He had to take a deep breath and exhale before finishing his sentence, his face turning a deep shade of red as he spoke "I can't exactly swim."
This revelation made all the faces in the room turn to a very embarrassed Jaune, nobody looked amused, just bewildered. Swimming was just one of those things that was expected of most people, especially hunters and huntresses. Through the concern, Pyrrha, who was sitting next to him on one of the beds nudged him with her shoulder causing his attention to focus on her as well as the rest of the group. "Don't worry about it. You don't have to swim if you don't want to. I'll teach you if you want to. You can adapt well and I'm sure that you'll get the hang of it in no time."
Jaune's face started to become paler, more like his usual self as he smiled and looked to the spartan. "Thanks Pyrrha. If you don't mind that'll be great. I don't want to hold back the rest of us, so I guess I'm happy with going. " He said, trying to sound as enthusiastic as he could. He had been trying to be more independent, wanting to do more for himself, but at least he could trust Pyrrah and he was comfortable enough around the rest of his friends.
With this, Yang burst into happiness and jumped off her seat. "That settles it then!" She exclaimed "Well, unless there are any other objections?" The room was still for a moment, nobody spoke. Weiss was about to speak and say that she had never really liked the beach, but before she could utter a word she was cut off by the brawler "Oh don't worry Princess, I'm sure you'll warm up to the idea!" Weiss could do nothing but groan at the pun, but took solace in the fact that the others in the room held a collective death stare against Yang. She seemed unfazed by this and turned to walk out of the room. Her elation was evident as she was close to skipping across the room. She turned back to her friends as she was about to bound through the door to her own room. "Meet up in the corridor in an hour. If anyone's late, we're leaving without you." She turned back and closed the door behind her. Blake, Weiss and Ruby all looked at eachother with a worried glance. It was Ruby who realised why her sister had left the rest of them.
"Hey! Yang left to make sure that she was the first one in the shower, she's going to be at least twenty minutes!" She groaned. They knew what this meant. Yang would be rushing them around while they had a very small time frame to get ready. The girls all shot up with this realisation and left the room, leaving Team JNPR to get ready.
An hour passed and despite the various quarrels between the teams, everyone was out in the corridor in time. Ren and Jaune sported simple white tank tops, Jaune wore blue trunks and Ren wore pink, obviously a fashion choice by Nora. Nora wore a pink one piece bathing suit, surprisingly more of a pastel pink. Pyrrha opted for a mocha coloured bikini, showing off her immaculately toned body as well as a few battle scars. Each member of Team RWBY wore a bikini that showed their usual colors. Yang in yellow, ruby in red and Weiss in white. Blake on the other hand wore a baggy white low cut top and some black shorts, insistent despite Yang's best attempts that she would not be going in the sea. The temperature had increased again since the group dispersed and so they set off straight away to the beach, carrying a couple of bags containing towels, sun cream and in Blake's case, books.
The beach was about half a mile away from the Academy, an easy walk for the group if Nora would keep calm, which obviously, she didn't. Ren sighed as she skipped and jumped around manically, luckily without Magnhild. "Nora?" He asked her with another sigh of exasperation.
"Hmm?" She responded, not breaking stride.
"Care to keep stride with the rest of us? I don't want to be searching the city looking for you if you get lost." He asked as calmly as he could but to no avail as Nora resumed to her previous state. Ren knew he had to pull out the biggest weapon in his spoken arsenal. "I'll make pancakes when we get back if you stay with the rest of us."
Nora instantly turned around, giddy with excitement as she heard Ren's proposal. "With syrup?" She asked, jumping on the balls of her feet? Ren's subtle nod and warm smile made her squeal with happiness before she finally settled down and carried on walking with her friends.
As the pavements of the city started shifting into the warm sandy paths, the group livened up despite the heat. They picked up the pace and jogged until they got to the beach. It was busy, but not as much as the gang expected it to be. The beach was beautiful and sandy, and the tide seemed to be on it's way out, giving the people more time to bask in the summer sun. The group put out their towels on the sand and set themselves up. They arranged their towels in a circle, with a small rock in the center along with a cooler filled with drinks. Blake sat herself down on her towel and got a book out of her bag, showing no interest in the sea at all. The others ran to the foaming sea, although Weiss spoke up about the need for running in this kind of weather.
Ruby was the first one to reach the water, she sprinted in using her semblance, before diving head first into the sea. It was cold but she didn't care. It was the perfect remedy for the heat that was bearing down. Yang was next in, leaving her sunglasses on as she ran into the cool water. She was soon followed by Ren and Nora, who appeared to be having a race and who collectively made a huge splash that sprayed the sisters. Weiss calmly jogged over before walking in, making sure that she avoided getting splashed on the way in. Jaune on the other hand was standing at the edge of the sea, looking at it cautiously, as if it were a Grimm about to strike. Pyrrha was standing next to him with an arm on his shoulder. "Come on Jaune, the sea isn't going to hurt you. Look" She said as she made her way in. "It's fine, refreshing actually."
Jaune was nervous, he wanted to go in, to show Pyrrha and the rest of his friends that he wasn't a coward. At the same time though the sea looked so unforgiving. As he fought this struggle in his head a grin crossed the spartan's face. She walked up to him and went to embrace Jaune. Before he could question what was even happening, Pyrrha had him in a fireman lift and started to wade into the water. Jaune tried to object but felt so worried that all could escape his mouth was a small whine.
Yang watched this event unfold and started to get ideas of her own. She whispered into her little sister's ear, causing Ruby to giggle but trying to surpress her smile. She made her way out of the water towards her target. She ran once she was out of the water and threw herself down on her beach towel, eyeing Blake as she smiled happily to herself. "Hey Mittens! Watcha reading there?" The brawler asked, almost too innocently.
Without looking up from her book, Blake responded. "First off, you know I don't like that name. Secondly, it's just a romance novel, I'm sure it won't interest you."
Yang let out a laugh as she immediately said back to Blake, "I'm sure it won't either, but this might!" With this she scooped Blake up off her towel and started running to the sea. The Faunus' eyes opened as soon as she realised what was happening and she only just had time to drop her copy of Ninjas of Love.
"Oh, no! No, no, no, no!" She blurted as she was carried towards the water. Her instincts took over as she tried to wiggle her way out of Yang's arms only to find herself in a more uncomfortable position. Yang was too strong. In a final attempt at freedom, she did the only thing that the usually quick-witted Faunus could do at this time, she slapped Yang at full force. The Blonde simply turned her head away before turning back at looking at the cradled girl's eyes. "I'd make you sorry for that if I didn't you so cute when you're angry Blakey." She said, which made Blake blush as she was carried into the sea. She looked back at Yang, not realising where she was. Yang stared back at her before smiling mischievously "Hmm... On second thought, I'm not going to let you get away without a little punishment" She said before letting her grasp on Blake go.
The Faunus girl hit the water and instantly felt the cold. She scrambled to cling to something as fast as she could but unfortunately she could not find anything. Panic started to set in before she felt someone grab her hand before pulling her up. She looked down, noticing that the water only reached her waist. She could stand up. The water wasn't actually that bad. Blake started to blush as she made sure that her bow was still wrapped around her ears. How could she be so stupid? She was not going to let Yang get away with this. She looked back up to see who had the decency to help her. It was the Heiress, who smiled towards Blake, something she seldom did. "I wouldn't be surprised if that dunce drowns before the end of the day..." She notioned towards Jaune, who was paddling around, never straying far from Pyrrha. "...But I can't have one of my own team mates suffering the same fate. If you want to get out and lay around the beach that's fine, I'll come with you." Blake looked confused but happy. It was such a rare occasion for Weiss to be this kind. Must have been the heat getting to her, Blake thought, before nodding towards her friend. They both started making their way back towards the sandy beach.
When they returned to their towels, both girls noticed Ren and Nora were also back on dry land. Ren was cooking some food on a barbeque that he must have brought while Nora occupied herself by building a sand castle. Blake wandered off, searching for her book while Weiss made her way back to the sea to tell the rest of the group that food was on the way. It didn't take long for Blake to find her book and resume to the way that she was before Yang had exposed her to the imposing body of water.
Weiss soon returned along with the two sisters, Pyrrha and Jaune, who was smiling to himself and looking up to the bright blue sky. Ren looked at him slightly suspiciously before asking "Okay, what's with you then? Finally learned to swim?" He asked, trying to sound enthusiastic.
"Yep! It was actually easier than I thought, but I couldn't have done it without Pyrrha here" He said as he nudged the girl next to him. He purposely left out the part where she kissed his cheek for doing such a good job and he almost fainted and drowned.
"Great to hear! Now get ready, the food will be cooked in a couple of minutes." Ren said to Jaune, then to the group who all gathered around the barbeque, although he noticed a lack of numbers. He looked around briefly before he found the missing person in question. "Nora? Nora!" He shouted to her, trying to get her attention. She remained focused on her task however, which was quite uncommon in itself. The group looked cautiously at eachother as the lively girl was never this quiet. After five minutes she turned around to the group and looked at their faces of various shock. Behind her was a brilliant model of a castle, fully detailed with almost every brick being etched into the sand. It was truly magnificent. Ren was the first one to speak, who could only utter the name of his friend, still admiring the work of art in front of him. He was soon cut off by Nora, now louder than she had been all day.
"I'm queen of the castle! I'm queen of the castle!"