The RWBY series does not belong to me. This is not for profit - please don't sue me.

To Ink: thank you for encouraging me to write.

Jaune just managed to stifle a snort when Ruby passed their impromptu comic back to him, instead making it come out like a strangled cough. He could feel Weiss pin him with another one of her well-practised shut up or I'll make you glares before he even looked at her, and he unconsciously shrunk into his seat, trying to make himself smaller in the face of her ire. When she finally turned back to her own work, he relaxed enough to properly look at what Ruby had drawn.

Done in her hasty, light-stroked style, he saw an obvious imitation of Weiss, tall and menacing and holding a ridiculously large Myrtenaster, jump into the scene, cracks digging into the pavement under her heels. Ruby had even taken the effort to draw shadows around Weiss' features, making her stand out in sharp relief from the bare-bones background. It had become a sort of tradition for them to draw comics while they studied with their teams in the library. It helped a lot to keep them awake, even though they were significantly less productive, much to Weiss' despair. She'd given up on trying to stop them from being distracted, however, once she'd figured out that going to the library at all was a big step for them.

Looking at the storyline of this particular comic, though, he could tell it was coming to a close. It was a common motif that once Weiss appeared, poor mini-Jaune wouldn't last much longer (and if anybody asked, it was entirely coincidence that villain-Weiss was a recurring theme, and it definitely did not mean anything, or reflect on her in any way). He rolled his pencil between his fingers as he thought about what he wanted to draw, before an idea hit him. The end of his pencil shook madly as he sketched out a familiar suitcase with the Schnee dust symbol, and a small girl in a hooded cape passing by. As he drew, he looked up at Ruby, blue and silver meeting briefly, before he focused on the comic again, channeling his attention in a way study never would.

Her bright eyes widened in delight as he slid the sheet back across the table, and she looked up at him in faux mortification, her tiny fist pressed to her mouth to hide her smile. He couldn't stop his own answering smile from spreading across his face, and he found himself re-reading the same sentence on his screen as he continued to watch her reaction in his peripheral vision.

It always amazed him what a friend he had made in Ruby – they both felt awkward and out of place, both loved comics, both were made leaders of teams that were so well-accomplished and capable that they often wondered what Ozpin was thinking (although he'd argue that in this case, it was considerably worse for him). More recently, he'd found out in one of their nighttime rooftop talks that she was two years younger – he wanted to kick himself for not seeing the glaring signs – and they'd bonded over how inadequate they felt for their respective positions. He hadn't said it then, but he was about to confess to her how he'd made his way into Beacon, which scared him a little, because he'd been prepared to take that secret with him to the grave. There was just something about her innocent, wide eyes, and her deep honesty that liberated him from his shame of his own self.

He turned to his right when Pyrrha nudged him lightly.

"I've found some suitable sources to cite for the mechanisms behind incompatibility between unlike dust types," she said, keeping her voice low to not disturb the others. "If you need them, I can send them over to you."

"Wait – the what now?"

"The lab report that's due on Friday – most of the discussion questions require citations," she said, raising one of her finely-kept eyebrows at him, a small, knowing smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.

"Huh?"

He forgot to keep his voice down, and this time, Weiss slammed her pen onto the table with a resounding snap, making Blake's bow twitch suspiciously, her narrowed eyes locking onto him for the second time. Hey, so it was okay for her to make noise? Where was the justice?

"I mean, don't we just have to submit our individual results?" He lowered his voice and tried to forget about her, turning back to Pyrrha. He hadn't figured out how to thank her for it, but she was like a safe-haven that protected him from Weiss. He didn't question why Weiss was unwilling to confront him aggressively in front of his partner; he just knew it worked, and had been depending on it since the first time he noticed. It was just one of the many reasons that made Pyrrha the best partner in the world.

"… Jaune, at least look at the report before making conclusions about its contents," she sighed, not quite unsurprised. He just rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly in response.

She was about to turn back to her own work when she decided to look at his screen. He was almost insulted when she did a double-take, her half-smile completely melting off her face as she looked between him and his work, reading incredulously.

"This is content from four weeks ago," she whispered, enunciating her last few words slowly. Honestly, she made it sound worse than it really was. It was just hard to focus in his dorm with Nora around – and whose idea was it to get Super Smash?

Ruby chose that moment to push the piece of paper back to him, and he felt a little embarrassed when his partner sighed deeply.

"I'll catch up after the lab report," he promised her. He could always come back and work on his own later, anyway. For now, he had something more important to do.