Premise of this series

This is a series dedicated to looking at how various ships work. As actual people, rather than people who inexplicably have their emotions warped around to fit the desires of the author.

The format is as follows: Arc One - Chapter 1-X will be ship one. Arc Two - Chapter X-X will be ship two. So on and so forth. I will never change ships without finishing the arc of the ship I'm on. I will not repeat ships that already have an arc. Arcs will not be related.

I am open for requests as to which pairing comes next, as I have no particular order. That said, I'm going to have an ambitious arc one.

Let's see if I can't put a new spin on the grand cruiser of RWBY ships.


Arc One:

White Rose


Part One - Reciprocation


Spinning a pencil on her finger is the most productive thing she's done today, isn't it? Patience, Weiss, patience. You told yourself you would be the best teammate ever. Give her time, maybe she'll -

"Weiss, can I eat a cookie now?"

Weiss slammed her pencil down on the table and stood, her chair screeching against the floor as it flew backwards. Before she even knew what she was doing Weiss shouted, "RUBY! YOU HAVEN'T DONE A SINGLE THING ALL DAY!"

Ruby dropped her pencil, startled by the outburst, and hastily assumed her best puppy dog eyes. "But Weeeiiiissss, I just don't understand what we're doing! You never help me!"

Weiss, for all intents and purposes, considered herself reasonable. She considered herself level headed. She knew it was her job to stay calm if she wanted to work well with Ruby.

Unfortunately, things don't always pan out as planned.

"I HAVE HAD IT WITH YOU!" Weiss turned and strutted away, too furious to notice the librarian who was staring at her, appalled by Weiss's behavior in the library. She was certainly too furious to even care what Ruby's reaction was.


"Ooookay. Here's the thing, Yang. You can always give me advice, right?"

"I charge the right to two puns per advice given, but yes. You can always count on me, Rubes!" A bright smile, carefree and boisterous, managed to lift Ruby's spirits a bit.

"Great! How do I stop Weiss from being mad at me?"

"Oh. You're screwed." Ruby frowned at her big sister, her face quickly forming a pout. An adorable pout, in Yang's opinion, but a pout nonetheless. "Okay okay, there might be hope. What did you do to make her mad?"

"I, uh, I don't know." Ruby coyly looked away, not meeting her sister's eyes.

Yang smirked as she said, "Come on now Ruby. You couldn't be more see-through to your bigger sister if you tried to be. Tell me what happened."

Ruby sighed and hesitated, her eyes still not meeting Yang's. "I might have been slacking off and not helping her on the partner assignment for Grimm Anatomical Studies and she might have been doing all the work and being really patient and I might not have been aware of that and I might have ended up complaining unfairly and I'm not really sure but I really, really, reeaally want to make things right!" Ruby let the entire confession out in one big whoosh of air, leaving Yang blinking as she tried to process the jumbled information.

"...Okay, you're definitely screwed."

"Yang!"

"I'm just kidding! Look, Weiss has been trying really hard to be a good partner, right? Just try to return that a bit more then. She'll appreciate it more than you might expect her to. I recommend actually going and doing some of the work you were supposed to be doing when she got angry..." Yang trailed off meaningfully before patting her sister on the shoulder and exiting the dorm room. As she left she called over her shoulder, "You just gotta yang in there, Rubes!"

Yang heard one last groan from her sister before the door closed, chuckling and shaking her head as she walked away.

I sure hope that works out all right... If not... Nah, Weiss knows I hit hard. It'll be fine.


It started, as all things Ruby started, with good intentions. Return to the library, pick up their stuff from the table, return to the dorm, work on it until Weiss returned, and then apologize. No plan had ever been devised that was more fool proof, she was sure of it.

So why, oh why, did their stuff have to be missing when she returned to the library?

It was right here. Ruby desperately searched the table, looking under it and running her fingers across the surface as if hoping their material were merely invisible. All of it, all of our books were right here!

After several fruitless minutes, Ruby decided to approach the librarian. She was afraid the strict woman would be annoyed with her, but that she always tried her best to help students regardless. Worth the risk of her wrath to avoid Weiss's, in Ruby's opinion.

"Um... Excuse me?" Ruby whispered shyly, afraid of making the woman snap before they had even begun conversing.

She looked up from the book she had been reading behind the counter, quickly standing to greet Ruby. "Hello. Do you need something?"

"I, er, yes. I was working with my partner in here earlier..." The librarian sniffed crossly, evidently aware of who she was referring to. Ruby pressed on regardless, "But now I came back and our stuff is all missing. Do you know who might have taken it?"

The woman narrowed her eyes at Ruby. "You aren't supposed to leave your things in the library, and I'm not responsible for lost items." She sat down and opened her book, and Ruby sighed despondently before turning to leave. As she did, though, she heard the woman call out to her. "Your 'friend' came back for your things. She had to struggle quite a bit, carrying your bags along with hers." The librarian sounded an annoying mix of smug and amused, but Ruby didn't pause to think about that. Weiss had carried all of their stuff?! She would be furious!

Ruby hurried out of the library and began running back to the dorm room, hoping to salvage her plan with at least getting the 'apologize' part right.


Ruby crashed into the dorm room door at full force, flinging it open as she entered.

The sole occupant was Blake, who looked startled at Ruby's dramatic entrance. "Ruby, why are you in such a hurry?"

Ruby paused for breath before replying, "I'm looking for Weiss. Have you seen her anywhere?"

Blake frowned, her head tilting quizzically. "That doesn't answer my question. You can search for Weiss without running around."

"Yeah, but..."

"You also have a scroll specifically for contacting other members of Beacon."

Ruby froze at that, and Blake sighed in exasperation. "You know, rushing around like that without thinking is the reason you're having trouble with Weiss."

Ruby's eyes flashed indignantly. "What did Yang tell you?!"

Blake chuckled a bit at that, a wry smile on her face. "Yang doesn't have to tell me anything. It's obvious you and Weiss would have trouble getting along. Her entire life has been structured, and she was raised in an environment similar to old nobility. As much of a brat as she seems when interacting with us 'commoners', Weiss is hard-coded to think about everything she does. It'd be disastrous in a high class setting for a person to act without thinking. She's literally your opposite."

Ruby scuffed the ground with her boot, taken aback. Trying to change the topic, she asked, "Have you put a lot of thought into this? You don't normally talk this much."

"You'd normally be excited to hear me talk so much."

"Yeah, but..."

"But it's not as exciting when it's bad news."

"... Okay, I think I liked you better when you were quiet." It was a childish thing to say, and not well considered, but she was quickly walking back out of the room to avoid Blake's response.

She was not entirely successful, however, as she heard Blake call after her, "Weiss is in Professor Port's classroom working!"

Ruby sighed in relief, not wanting to search the school for Weiss... or admit that she had left her pocket sized scroll in her bag.


Apologize first. No, offer to help first. No no, ask her if she wants to head to dinner first. NO! AGH, WHAT DO I DO?!

Thinking about apologizing was certainly not Ruby Rose's strong suit. This could be said to be twice as true when the apology in question needed to be delivered to her partner, Weiss Schnee.

Yang said she would appreciate it if I tried to be a good partner back. That means I offer to help work, right? Or does it mean I should be concerned about her not eating, and offer to take us to a nice restaurant? Wait. This is Weiss SCHNEE. A 'nice' restaurant for her would require a reservation and six months of allowance for me. I don't have that much time or money!

To call it unproductive would be generous. To say it was only weird looking that she was pacing around the entrance of Professor Port's classroom, running her fingers through her hair anxiously, would be even more generous. Fortunately, she was too busy with her own thoughts to notice the trickle of students leaving detentions and make-up lessons whom were giving her strange looks. Unfortunately, she was too busy with her own thoughts to notice the sound of Weiss bidding Professor Port a fond farewell, thanking him for letting her work in the peace and quiet of his classroom.

Thus it was that Weiss opened the door of the classroom, a cool blast of air rushing past her, to find Ruby nervously pacing back and forth in front of her. Completely oblivious to her.

"Dolt." No reaction. That was annoying. "Dolt!"

"Is something the matter, Miss Schnee?" Professor Port spoke from behind her, still seated at his desk.

Weiss looked over her shoulder, her cheeks blushing lightly as she realized she must look like a fool to him since he couldn't see Ruby. "Nothing at all Professor! I'll be going now."

"Have a good evening, Miss Schnee. I look forward to that project from you and your partner in our next lesson."

"... Yes, Professor." Weiss stepped through the doorway and pulled the large door closed behind her. In the process she stepped close enough to Ruby that her shoes fell inside of Ruby's vision, and Ruby froze stock still.

"Weiss?" Ruby looked up, and blanched at being confronted with her partner, who had a familiar scowl on her face.

Not good. I haven't decided yet!

"Oh, heeey, Weiss! I was just looking for you! You wanna go eat at a nice restaurant while we work on our project and I apologize for everything?"

Split second decisions were not Ruby Rose's strong suit.


"Weiss."

"Ruby."

"For the millionth time, I have to ask-"

"For the millionth time, stop making me say no."

"BUT WEEEIIISSSS!" Ruby pitched her voice into a whine, her eyes doing their best puppy impression. An impersonation which Weiss was glad she was nearly immune to, as controlling her partner would be impossible otherwise.

Still, she was still only nearly immune to it. "Ruby, I will NOT start our presentation with the joke 'Don't let Nevermores get you down, Nevermore will they drag you down!'"

"But it's catchy..." Ruby gave up the puppy eyes, mumbling under her breath as she pouted.

"Let me put it this way, Ruby."

"Yes?" Excitement sparked in Ruby's voice, hoping Weiss had come up with a compromise of some sort.

"It sounds like the sort of joke Yang would make."

"Hey! That's mean!" Ruby cried it out at the same time as Yang, who had been listening in from her bunk. At the sound of each other's voices they turned to look at each other.

"Ruby! That was even more mean! Stop turning into Weiss!" Yang sounded hurt, doing her own pouting routine. Luckily for everyone, Yang was not nearly as good at pouting as Ruby was, and the tense atmosphere quickly disarmed itself as all four girls broke out laughing.

It was a pleasant Sunday morning, their last day before their projects for Grimm Anatomical Studies were due. Blake and Yang had finished nearly a week ago, because Yang was always willing to work when Blake asked her to. At the beginning of the year Weiss had thought Blake's partner was as useless as her own, but she had gradually grown to envy the cooperation the duo had. Yang was similar to Ruby in academic terms, insofar she was not a hard worker and she wasn't a natural genius. Unlike Ruby, though, she seemed to take the idea of reliability very seriously. Whenever she was part of a group assessment of any sort she gave it her all, and Weiss had come to admire that about the girl. If only her own partner could be so trustworthy.

Well, maybe that was unfair. It had been a few days since the day Weiss had stormed out of the library on Ruby, and a lot had gone well since then. That day had been a stressful one, and it had been the first time in a while Weiss lost her head when it came to dealing with Ruby. Still, if she had known how much Ruby would change once that happened, she would have done so much sooner. The younger girl had taken to working on the project with a fire she had never used on schoolwork before, so enthusiastic that, at times, Weiss felt like she was the one contributing less. Not that she would ever admit something like that.

The results of Ruby's hard work combined with Weiss's own efforts had resulted in a truly spectacular result, if Weiss had to put a word to it. Rather than finishing with merely 'above average', as was normal for them, they had finished with a guaranteed perfect score. The project was two parts, half presentation and half detailed essay. Their presentation board had been almost entirely made by Ruby, and though Weiss protested the glitter, she had to admit it looked much better than the ones Weiss herself usually made. Hers normally ended up lacking... That is to say, were plain and boring, meant only to effectively convey information. With Ruby's help, their board was both neat and showy. The essay was as immaculate as it always was, since Weiss would never accept less than perfect on a write up, but it had been significantly easier with Ruby's input.

"Hey sis, congrats on doing the impossible!" Yang gave a mock cheer for her sister, earning an embarrassed glare from her younger sibling. Weiss completely ignored the blond, in too good of a mood to let Yang ruin it.

"Ruby let's go eat in Vale for dinner. My treat."

Ruby's mouth dropped open, her eyes growing as large as saucers. "Really Weiss?!" When Weiss nodded with a small smile, Ruby squealed in excitement.

She also didn't miss the chance to stick her tongue out at Yang, who was scowling at her. Yang whispered loudly, "My partner never rewards me. My luck is as bad as if I ran across a black cat."

Everyone threw pillows at her in unison.


A/N: I hope you all liked it! It's meant to be a mix of "funny and cutesy" as LazyKatze called it. Speaking of her, she helped to quality check this chapter, so a big thanks to her for that!

How voting for the next ship works: Leave a review or PM me with the name of the ship you want to see next arc. Voting is open until this arc is done, it closes with the final chapter of this arc so I can tally votes and quickly start working on the next arc.