I do not own RWBY or any of these characters: they are creations of Roosterteeth and the magnificent Monty Oum, may he rest in peace.

Rated M for violence, language, themes of depression and suicide, and sexual humor.

This is primarily a rewrite of the series to facilitate a romance between Ruby and Glynda, but there are side pairings and non-romantic themes as well, and there's a fair amount of canon divergence and embellishment.

I guarantee no expertise of or even basic correct knowledge of romance, teaching, anxieties of middle-aged women, maid cafes, or Ruby's canonical family history.

Originally posted on Ao3.

-OOO-

"This is the third time this week, Ms. Rose."

Glynda tapped the desk in front of a shorter girl, an anxious red-haired student sitting down and looking guilty. Detention was always an unpleasant affair.

The classroom was empty, and the aves of twilight peaked through the partially closed blinds. This was detention hour, and Glynda would have preferred to be spending it doing any number of other, more interesting things. But if a student was struggling, it was her proud duty to give that student as much extra attention as they needed to succeed.

Ms. Rose in question poked her fingers together and pouted at the ground. Was she even taking this seriously? Glynda once again noted that her student's huge crimson cloak was not part of school uniform regulations, and that she wasn't supposed to carry her (showy, distracting) weapon to class, even if it was folded up. Did she take anything seriously?

"Why is it so hard for you to both complete your assignments correctly and turn in your assignments on time?"

"I'm sorry, Ms. Goodwitch." Ruby shirked under Glynda's gaze.

Glynda smiled in spite of herself. It really should be Mz, but Ruby never listened to her when Glynda tried to correct her. It was a little flattering, she was embarrassed to admit.

Ruby tilted her head down and looked up with her eyes. "I've been a bad girl, Ms. Goodwitch. I'm sorry."

Glynda turned to the wall and hoped her blush didn't show. Ms. Rose couldn't possibly know how that sounded, it wasn't her fault. And what kind of teacher interpreted that that way anyway?

Certainly not any decent teacher, and certainly not Glynda Goodwitch. She prided herself on being an excellent teacher, which was why she had her student's files in front of her. She had done some investigating to try to find the heart of the matter, because nothing else she did seemed to get through to the Rose girl.

Glynda ruffled through her files. "You've performed exceptionally in every other class you have, you're first in your class at combat, and your previous school has nothing but good things to say about you," She pushed her glasses up her nose idly.

Ruby never broke eye contact during the previous sentence, and she inhaled sharply. Damn, she was more upset than Glynda counted on. Glynda decided to back off a little.

"Look, I'm sorry if that sounded harsh," Glynda said, "But I'm only angry because I care about you."

Ruby looked at the floor and tried to discreetly hide her face in her cloak, but Glynda knew what that was. Guilt. Damnit, that wasn't what Glynda had been trying to inspire.

"Hey, now," Glynda put a hand out to Ruby's shoulder. Ruby didn't look up. Crap.

Glynda cleared her throat. "I mean to say that you've been performing well in everything else you do. You're an amazing student, Ruby, and you have the potential to be amazing in my class, and it's clear you'll make a great huntress one day."

That got through to her. Ruby looked up and beamed, positively beamed. "R-really?" she smiled at Glynda, bashful, then at the ground, embarassed. "You're just saying that..."

"No, I really mean it." Glynda smiled and pulled her hand back to ruffle through Ms. Rose's files again.

"So what I don't understand," Glynda said as delicately as she could, "Is why you're struggling in Aura Manifestation 101 when everything else seems to come so easily to you? Is it the subject matter? I know that the battlefield and the classroom are very different environments and that can throw people off."

That was a stretch though. By all means if Ruby could manifest her aura in a hectic battlefield, with her life on the line, while being attacked by horrifying eldritch monsters, she should be able to do so in a quite, well-lit air-conditioned classroom under no time limit and only her grade on the line.

Ruby shuffled a bit, doing something adorable with her thumbs, but she stayed silent.

"Or is it my teaching style?" Glynda didn't mean for any hurt to creep into her tone. It was almost inconceivable that, after... however many decades she was willing to admit having been a teacher, that her teaching style would completely fail to get through to a student.

Ruby looked distraught. "No! No, you're an excellent teacher, Ms. Goodwitch. It's not your fault..."

That was profoundly unhelpful, and completely untrue. Of course it was her fault. Something she had done had caused Ruby to start failing her class, and Glynda's negligence had meant that Ruby was still failing her class, and, right now, Glynda failing to discern precisely what she had done wrong meant that Ruby would continue to fail her class. And Aura Manifestation was a prerequisite for every other Aura and magic related class at Beacon, so this was putting her student's entire academic future in jeopardy.

The teacher frowned. Ruby was being obstinate, and nothing about this situation made sense. So, if Ruby didn't hate the class, and she understood the material, and she didn't have any problem with the teaching style, what was the problem? Glynda hoped she was wrong but her only conclusion was that this was personal in some way. And she really shouldn't take it out on her student but there was only so much she could take.

"So then why, Ms. Rose?" Glynda's voice was a little louder than it should have been. "Why are you failing my class?"

Ruby didn't' say anything. She actively tried to avoid eye contact and her fidgeting got worse. She started hyperventilating, and Glynda could tell that bringing her own face closer was making things worse but she would get to the bottom of this somehow.

"For Dust's sake!" said a bubbly, annoyed voice from the hallway. Everyone really should have gone to their dorms by now, Glynda thought, idly, but another student appeared, slamming the classroom door open, and a tall, well-built blond girl with a magnificent mane of blonde hair waltzed into the room. Yang Xiao-Long, the problem student's elder sister. Glynda had pondered the possibility that Ruby's poor performance was a result of her sister being a poor role-model, but Yang was a decent student, if a little rambunctious, and never had any discipline problems despite her casual flaunting of authority which, as the records revealed, had never actually verged into subordination. Though technically, interrupting another student's detention might cross that line.

"Yang, what are you doing here?" squeaked Ruby.

The blonde ignored her half-sister. "You want to know why she's failing your class?" she said to Glynda.

Glynda didn't get the chance to speak, but she was sure her expression said yes.

Ruby's expression, however, was complete horror. "Yang, don't you dare-"

"It's 'cause she has a crush on you." Yang folded her arms and nodded, like a detective who just solved the case of the century. Yang even pulled out a pair of sunglasses. Glynda may have expected a bad pun if she wasn't too busy being shocked out of her mind.

Like seriously. What?

"Is-" Glynda lilted, turning to Ruby. The girl was red enough to match her namesake and was seemingly paralyzed in her chair. Glynda could sympathize. "Is this true, Ms. Rose?"

Suddenly Ruby was a blur, a blur that was accosting their new arrival. "Oh my Dust Yang that was a secret you monster!"

Suddenly everything made so much sense. All the excuses to stay late, all the failed assignments, the acting out in class. The blushing, the apprehension, the hyperventilating when Glynda got near, the lack of eye contact- the innuendos! They were deliberate! Glynda made up for two months worth of embarrassment with a searing in her cheeks that almost made her eyes water, because it turned out she was completely justified in thinking they were weirdly personal - Holy Dust.

Aaaand the girls were fighting. Like, with their weapons. Glynda figured she should probably stop them from doing that.

Glynda took a deep breath. She was a veteran, with multiple decades of teaching under her belt after an even more lucrative hunting career. She could handle something as simple as a blood duel to the death among teenagers. Glynda waved her riding crop- (Oh Dust, she used that on Ruby so many times- not in that way, of course, just her wrists, she'd never- but if Ruby knew about S&M that just made things a whole level of awkward. But she was definitely too young to know about that, Glynda reasoned, and the tingling in her, let's just say heart, was completely inappropriate)- and the two girls froze as if they were caught in mid air by invisible arms (which was pretty accurate), and pulled to opposite sides of the room. Purple runes appeared in the air as Glynda waved her arms and crop-wand in elaborate patterns, until the two teenagers were separated and had stopped trying to attack each other.

"Children," she said in her authoritative voice, "This was not a reason to fight. And even if it were, this is not the place to fight. Do you understand?"

The two girls nodded. Glynda put them down. They shuffled around awkwardly and neither of them made eye contact with each other or her.

Glynda cleared her throat again. She gave a small speech about the importance of forgiveness she'd memorized years ago as she tried to sort her thoughts. There was a lot to go over, and the few moments of trying parse it all were largely unsuccessful, but by the end of the speech, after the girls nodded in assumed understanding, Glynda thought she found a way to solve Ruby's particular problem.

"And Ms. Rose," she said, trying to soften her voice, "If you want to impress me, you'd do a better job by just doing well in class. I'll forgive you for these last few transgressions if you do."

Ruby stood up straight. She saluted and smiled and blushed, "Yes Ma'am, I will! Thank you, Ma'am!"

And she left, though Glynda spent the night hovering between being too awkward to think about the whole situation and trying to sort out her feelings about it.

And so Ruby made good on her promise. Almost immediately, she started turning homework in, correctly and on time. She started acing tests. She acted out less in class, instead asking clarifying questions and in turn volunteering to answer questions Glynda would occasionally pose to the room.

Ruby became Glynda's best student, which was good but also a little awkward. By all means, Glynda would give special attention to her best students, would acknowledge any work done above and beyond what was expected, would make special arrangements for the benefit of their education, no matter what their history. She tried to imagine what would have happened if Ruby never revealed she had a crush on her. Why, of course Glynda would agree to meet with her, alone, in her study, to talk about her lesson plans, without a thought, and it wouldn't be awkward. Of course she'd go over material her student didn't think she understood. And of course she'd agree to come over there, right behind Ruby's chair, and take a look at a section of the textbook that needed further scrutiny...

And, if it had been someone she didn't know had a crush on her, Glynda wouldn't feel awkward when she realized she was leaning way too close over her student trying to read that textbook, her arms on either side of Ruby's shoulders, almost close enough to brush in the event of errant shuffling, her face close enough to smell Ruby's hair-

Ruby looked up, a soft smile on her face and a tint of red on her cheeks. Glynda pulled her arms to her side, and stood up straight, and cleared her throat and pushed her glasses up her nose.

She realized her shirt hadn't been completely buttoned (she normally dressed that way, so why would she change for a random student?), and Ruby may have caught a face full of cleavage, if she looked backwards during that little lesson. Which Glynda never would have assumed would have happened if she didn't know Ruby felt that way about her- and if some other individual did, what would it matter? It was just a wardrobe malfunction.

"Is something wrong, teacher?" asked Ruby, seeming to be completely innocent.

Glynda's throat was always dry around Ruby these days it seemed. "No, I just- I think maybe I should pull up a chair so we can do this formally, don't you think?"

And Ruby acted as if nothing was wrong, but what gave her away was the giddy smile and tinted cheeks that painted every young lovestruck fool.

Glynda spent a lot of time wondering what it was her pupil saw in her. Glynda was self-aware enough to know she was reasonably attractive, and she was popular among men and women her age on the few occasions she went out, usually with Ozpin or- well, mostly just with Ozpin, though she had contact with other agents in the conspiracy of good- but that was another story. Anyway, also, in the past there were a few students who had crushes on her, mostly out of some misconfiguring of authority or just plain reflexive lust; those usually went away as soon as said students discovered boys and girls their own age. None of them had been meaningfully attracted to her as a person. And even if Glynda looked at most half her real age, that was still getting up there (though Glynda hated to admit it), so what was such a young person like Ruby seeing in someone like her? People understood people around their own age the best, so by all reason Ruby should have found a greater connection with one of the other students, someone who watched the same cartoons and listened to the same music and had the same teenage existential crisis's as her. It's not like they even had any conversations about their personal lives- oh, well, sometimes during those extra study sessions, yes, but- wait, actually, that was kind of often. Damn.

At some point Ruby revealed she still had that autograph Glynda gave to her; the first autograph of a huntress that wasn't related to her, she'd said, which Glynda suspected was a lie, or at least not the real reason Ruby guarded it so religiously. The adult wondered if maybe Ruby was just misinterpreting admiration; Glynda was a good huntress, and maybe Ruby just wanted to be her, rather than be involved with her romantically. And maybe she was conflating these feelings because she was so young. Glynda had made an excellent good impression, if she did say so herself; she'd saved the young huntresses life on that rooftop at least twice, and had used some of her most impressive spells during the subsequent wizard's duel. Maybe this was just a misunderstanding on Ruby's part.

But one day in class, Glynda gained some new insight into what Ruby thought of her.

"You did very good Ms. Rose," said Glynda as she handed back last week's tests. Ruby had gotten a perfect score, so, like any other student who did the same thing, she deserved praise. "An enviable effort."

Ruby positively beamed. "Thanks mom!"

Glynda stopped everything. She didn't' stumble, not even a little. The rest of the classroom, emanating from Ruby's desk, suddenly became silent, like the reverse of the ripples from dropping a pebble into a still pond.

"What?" asked Ruby, a little forcefully, a little confrontationally.

"You just called Mz. Goodwitch 'mom'," said Nora Valkyrie, with a little bit of humor.

"What, no~," stuttered Ruby, "I said 'Thanks man!', you know, like human (not in an anti-Faunus way, of course), or like 'hey man, how's it going?'" She put on a low voice affectation for that last part.

"No, you definitely called her 'mom'," said Weiss Schnee, sounding a little more annoyed than usual.

Glynda cleared her throat. It didn't' take too long to regain her composure. "Ms. Rose, do you see me as some sort of mother figure?"

"What, psh, noo~" squeaked Ruby. Her face reddened though, and she started fidgeting. Glynda knew what that meant.

Glynda allowed a couple of Ruby's team-mates to get a jab in before she hushed the crowd. She successfully got the whole class to drop the issue and return to pretending to study while texting or whatever kids did these days did. Right before she started the days lecture, though, she couldn't resist a jab of her own.

"For what it's worth, I'm very proud of you," Glynda said, "My girl."

The class chuckled. Ruby sunk into her seat. Glynda felt a little bad, but if it had been someone else, who didn't have some teenage crush on her, she'd have teased them, so why treat Ruby differently, right? That was how she was going to handle this issue; by ignoring it until Ruby found some nice girl who suited her better.

But Dust, she hoped that last comment didn't count as flirting.

Armed with new information about Ruby's … matronly issues, Glynda made some discrete inquiries that never ventured into a breach of privacy; all lookups of public records, a short phone call with Qrow, under the pretense of academic concerns with his nieces (and which probably didn't blow his cover, Glynda reasoned), the sort of thing any concerned teacher would do for a student they were concerned about. She was just concerned. Yes.

So, Ruby's mother had died when she was very young. Glynda vaguely recalled being informed of that, years ago- Summer had been one of their agents, but Glynda hadn't known her personally. Ruby was raised by her sister, a father who became despondent in grief, and an uncle who- and she meant no offense by this; it was only a summation of his skills, seemed more comfortable around weapons than children. And he was always drunk, but whatever. Qrow tried his best, of course, and he was a good man at heart, but Glynda wondered if maybe he should have called in the cavalry on raising a young, grieving girl.

What this meant was that Ruby was looking for a female role-model, and it looked like Glynda was the best actor for that role, what with the life-saving and the currently teaching her and all. And if that was the case, it was Glynda's duty to fill that void in one of her student's lives as best as she could. Any other student, it'd be no problem. So there was no reason it should be any different with Ruby Rose, who had a crush on her.

Which meant that of course she'd say yes if her best student, who idolized her as a role model, asked a personal favor, but not too personal, just a little off-hours interaction, that didn't really have anything to do with schoolwork but was still tangentially associated with the school so it wasn't, like, inappropriate to bring up.

Ruby knocked on her office door during office hours one night and stepped in at Glynda's bidding, her hands behind her back and her body stiff, rocking on her heels and swinging back and forth on her hips like the worlds most socially awkward pendulum.

"Hey teach- Glynda," said Ruby. She seemed nervous. "So this Friday is the cultural festival..."

Glynda briefly looked up from the stack of papers she was grading. She smiled, hopefully goodnaturedly, "Of course. Everyone's been working their hardest, and I know you have been too." Aha, like she herself hadn't forgotten about it until this week, like everybody else.

"So my homeroom's doing a cafe and," Ruby but her lip and broke eye contact for an iota. "And I'd be super-honored if you'd come," she pulled a piece of paper out from behind her, a little arts-and-crafts project, complete with glitter and hearts, and she held it at arm's length, with a slight bow of her head, "Here's a coupon for a free meal."

Glynda put down her pen and refreshed her smile. She took the coupon from Ruby's hand, trying not to read into how Ruby seemed to deliberately avoid skin contact. "Of course I'll be there," she said. She cleared her throat and went into lecture mode briefly. "As a high ranking administrator I am of course required to attend, but I'll make it a point to visit your booth in particular."

And that seemed to make Ruby's day. Glynda wouldn't feel confident in saying that she'd never seen Ruby so happy, but the young huntress smiled from ear to ear and had to stop herself from literally bouncing between her walls with her semblance and she composed herself admirably with a breath and a bow and a formal statement of gratitude and only devolved into skipping when she was almost out of eyeshot.

Glynda found herself exited too, because her student's happiness was her happiness. Yes.

It turned out it was a maid cafe. It figured, though; 80% of the school was doing a 'maid' something or other. Seeing Jaune and Pyrrha dueling in a Maid Gladiator Ring was surprisingly entertaining, and Team CFVY's Maid Weapon Repair course was very informative but seemed to be targeted towards two disparate demographics.

But Glynda cleared an hour and a half during the day to get to team RWBY's little cafe and, when she got there, Yang, in an outfit less revealing but somehow more suggestive than her usual wardrobe, pulled her out of the line ahead of a couple other people and sat her down at an empty booth by the window and told her her waitress would be there shortly to take her order.

Obviously, the waitress was Ruby. Her maid costume was a little scandalous, and the way she blushed and twittered- uncharacteristically clumsy- as she walked up to Glynda only accentuated the aura of- well, you know what maids connotate.

"H-hello, valued customer!" she said with a botched curtsy. "Actually, uh, if you'd like me to call you anything...?"

"Call me something?" Glynda thought she'd try to think of magic theorems or something, to keep her thoughts from wandering someplace innapropriate.

"Uh," began Ruby. She poked her fingers together. "You know, as part of the service? 'Master' a popular request. So is 'Mistress'..."

Glynda's heart jumped into her throat at that, stopping her ears and half of her brain. That was unbelievably inappropriate, though of course Ruby probably didn't know that, but still. Glynda took a breath. Well, she supposed it wasn't inappropriate for normal people; it was simply the female version of 'master', right? And that's what maids do, work for people who were their master, and some of the masters were female and thus called 'mistress'? That particular word only had salacious connotations in a line of interests that a child shouldn't know. So Glynda decided she was overreacting to a simple coincidence.

"'Mistress' will suffice," said Glynda. After all, that was normal, right? Probably all the female customers asked that. It wasn't awkward at all.

"Alright, Mistress," Ruby bowed, seeming to have gained confidence. She held out a small sheet of paper to the teacher. "Here's the menu, and, uh, if you have a coupon or something...?"

Glynda smile slightly. This was part of the game, wasn't it? Ruby knew she had a coupon, but Glynda still had to present it, to show she held onto it and that it was important to her, personally. She'd kept it in her purse since Ruby had given it to her. (Hopefully Ruby wouldn't' read into that or anything).

But as she was served a meal that looked three times as well-prepared as the other patrons and in the way Ruby kept asking her if there was anything, anything (she couldn't know how inappropriate that sounded, right?) she could do to make her experience better, Glynda figured that there was definitely something more at work, here, and that she couldn't ignore it any more.

"Excuse me, waitress?" said Glynda, eventually.

"Yes Mistress?" Ruby squeaked, appearing right next to her in a petaled vortex.

"Would you mind taking a seat for a moment?" Glynda gestured to the seat opposite her's. (Also, why was her booth the only one with an extra chair?)

Ruby complied. Her mouth was in some sort of expression where she was smushing her lips together, like she didn't' trust herself to speak.

Glynda took a deep breath. Welp. How was she going to go about this?

"Ruby," she began, "You- you know I'm over three times your age, right?"

Ruby smiled and lightly rested her hand on Glynda's. "Is that supposed to make you less attractive?"

Glynda cleared her throat. Apparently her heart had tried to jump into it again.

"You're my student. I'm responsible for you," Glynda parsed.

"And I love that-"

"-And that means," Glynda interrupted, "That I can't be... intimate with someone I'm directly, you know, overseeing. It's a clear abuse of power, and it's creepy, and- and the things people will say..."

Ruby tilted her head. "Intimate? You mean-"

Glynda decided she needed to rush this along. "And you're only 15, Ruby. With me being- being as old as I am, that's a felony, you are aware, right?"

Ruby leaned backwards and flailed her hands, "Whoa, wait. I never said anything about us having sex-"

"Keep your voice down!" Glynda hissed. At least three other tables stopped their conversations to stare at them.

Ruby clapped her hands over her mouth.

"You're- you're not," parsed Glynda, "Attracted to me?" She didn't dare try to knowledge the possibility that the idea might have disappointed her.

Ruby almost fell out of her chair. Once she recovered she leaned across the tables, glancing sideways every so often. "I am," she whispered, "But that's not the only thing right?"

Glynda found herself leaning in, closer than she'd ever thought she'd dare, trying to get close enough to drown out the damnable pounding of her heart in her throat and the ringing in her ears and the stinging heat in her cheeks and for some reason she lost her peripheral vision but maybe that was because her glasses were fogging up.

"I mean," Ruby whispered, pausing to shoot an apprehensive grin and blink way more than necessary.

"Glynda," She breathed the name, with understated, desperate longing, "We could still be... abstractly intimate, right? Is it wrong for me to tell you I'm in love with you?"

Glynda... had no idea how nor any capability to respond to that.

"So uh," Ruby bit her lip, her voice was barely audible now, "Would you consider it? Just- just a little date, with me?"

Time seemed to stand still, the entire room slowed down and blue-shifted and Glynda could look everywhere in the room and process exactly what was happening, could focus on every thunderous beat of her heart through her body, could feel every red-hot pinprick of the scorching in her cheeks, but there was only one thing she could focus on right now -and possibly for the rest of eternity. She could only assume it was the same for Ruby, this surreal parallel dimension Ruby's words seemed to have pulled them into. It had been years since she'd been in anything even close to this situation, and part of her, a part she didn't want to acknowledge, wanted to savor it- especially since there was only one way she could respond.

Glynda closed her eyes and took a breath. She heard Ruby do the same. After another eternity Glynda found she had the energy to move her eyelids, and found her throat responsive enough to speak.

"My answer is no," whispered Glynda, "I – I cannot. Someone in my position- this is the only outcome, you must understand?"

Ruby's face was unreadable, but she nodded almost imperceptibly.

"But that doesn't mean I won't- I won't continue to fulfill my obligation as a teacher, right?" Glynda leaned back to normal and forced a smile, and raised her voice a bit back to normal. "You are my best student, after all, and that means a lot to me. So you must understand. I- I can't accept."

Ruby seemed to fall out of slow motion, into, as Glynda was relieved to see, an expression that seemed to be right on the happy edge of neutral. Way better than completely devastated, which was what Glynda would have expected and what she had feared.

"I understand," Ruby said, calmly, "And, for what it's worth, you're the best teacher I've ever had."

It was worth a lot, Glynda said. Or thought she said.

Ruby left Glynda alone after that. When it was time to leave Blake came by to clean up her plate, in an outfit that included fake dog ears, Glynda noted, which considering what she knew of Blake's circumstance was probably some level of irony that she was not prepared to interpret at the moment, what with her heart not having got the memo that this was all resolved. It was still drumming in her ribcage, echoing in her ears.

And so Glynda fulfilled her role as teacher as best she could during the festival, though she feared she may not have given the rest of her students as much attention as they deserved. She checked out booths and tried other food but dodged prof. Oobleck and prof. Port when she chanced upon them, because teachers were supposed to be less needy than students and she figured they wouldn't mind not seeing her for the rest of today.

And after the festival she took a rain check on her usual activity- Ozpin's debrief of the secret war and the afterwards reminiscences upon past lives- to retire to her study and cogitate. It'd been a long time since someone had said they loved her, even if today's was most definitely from a place of conflated feelings and – was it wrong to think of Ruby as too immature to know what that really meant?

But she wouldn't dwell on it. She was a teacher- the answer was always no- and she had a role to fill. One that had no room for- for whatever Ruby asked of her that afternoon.

.

.

.

"So that's that, huh Rubaby?" said Yang as she put a hand on Ruby's shoulder that turned into a bear-hug. "It's okay, you'll move on."

But Ruby just smiled forlornly. "I still have a few more years to change her mind, though, right?"

Yang groaned.