Klepto Club
Darknessxxx
Author's notes: This is just something I thought up after watching the second episode of RWBY Chibi. I do not own RWBY
Cardin looked over the members of his team, all of which were haphazardly picking at their lunches with doomed expressions on their faces. "Gentlemen!" he called out, causing the three to turn to face him. "As you all are aware, tomorrow we are taking Dr. Oobleck's infamous history test; commonly referred to as 'The Freshman failer'."
At the mention of the test, Russel clenched his stomach, Sky dropped his head on the table, and Dove let out a sigh.
"Named so because every year at least one freshman has to retake the course as a result of failing the test!" Cardin continued.
"We know!" Sky said, face still planted on the table.
"Stop reminding us!" Russel added.
"Ah, but did you also know" Cardin said "That the good doctor was kind enough to leave the answer sheet just lying on his desk for someone, like me to just pick up?"
Russel, Dove and Sky looked up with renewed vitality. With everyone looking at him, Cardin pulled a few folded together sheets of paper out of his pocket, unfolded it, and threw it on the table in front of them. "Yes boys" he said as Russel and Sky grabbed at the answer sheet. "Once again your fearless leader has provided you with the tools you need to succeed!" he casually sat down with the rest of them and put his feet on the table. "Of course all we need to do now is…" he trailed off when he noticed something was wrong. "
"Where's the answers!" he demanded, after he realized that it went missing. He scanned the table, looking for a guilty face when another realization came to him. "And where the hell is Russel!"
"Hey Ruby!" Russel called out "Hey." he had seen the girl walking past and before he even realized he was doing it, he was calling out to her*.
Ruby shifted the pile of books in her hands so that she could see who was calling to her. "Oh hi… um…Randall?" she said when she saw him. "What's up?"
"Oh nothing much" Russel answered, now scratching the spontaneously itchy back of his head. "I just saw you struggling with those books you're carrying and thought I'd give you a hand."
"You'd do that?" Ruby asked. When Russel nodded his head Ruby dumped her load on him, causing him to reel back. "Thanks!"
Russel looked down at the stack of books that ended just before his chin. At the top was a book titled 100 Tints of Dusk, featuring a cover with two shirtless muscular men facing away from each other, and between them a seemingly naked woman barely visible through the shading.
"It's no problem" Russel claimed, nervously looking away from the book. He noticed Ruby had already resumed walking towards the library and quickly ran to catch up with her. "Sure are a lot of books though."
"Yeah" Ruby said. "I said I was going to return some books I borrowed, then Weiss asked if I could drop some of her research material off, and Blake added some of her things. Good thing Yang wasn't around at the time, she'd probably ask me to return an entire encyclopedia set for her."
Russel let out a small laugh, half at her joke and half relieved that it wasn't the case. It wasn't long before they were at the library, where they met with someone else loaded down with stack of books.
"Hello Ruby" Velvet Scarlatina greeted them. "Here to study for the Freshman Failer too?"
"Nah!" Ruby said. "I think I'm ready for that! No, we're just returning some books that were borrowed." She indicated to Russel and the books he was carrying to illustrate.
Velvet took a second to properly process the image in front her. "Are you two…" she trailed off, unable to articulate the words.
"Is there a problem?" Ruby asked, genuinely unsure what she was asking.
"Oh no! Not at all!" Velvet quickly said, afraid she accidentally offended her. "I'm happy for you, really!"
Still not sure what Velvet meant, Ruby decided to move on. "We should probably return these books" she said. "Come on Reed" She continued to the library, Russel right behind her, leaving Velvet to watch them go.
"Have fun you two!" she called. As they disappeared into the building. She saw some pieced of paper on the ground where they were standing, and went to pick it up. "What's this?" she said, and looked it over.
Velvet pulled her soaking wet face out from the sink, and looked at her reflection in the mirror. "Okay" she said to herself. "Okay."
As soon as she realized that she was in possession of the answers to Dr. Oobleck's infamous test, she hurried to the nearest washroom to splash water on her face and recollect her thoughts.
"It is true history isn't exactly my strongest subject" she thought out loud. "And this couldhelp." She looked at the pieces of paper sitting on the counter. "It could definitely help!"
She hesitantly reached for it. She only stopped when she saw her reflection in the mirror, specifically the reflection of her Faunus rabbit ears.
"No!" she said. "Not like this!"
She thought about her lessons on the Faunus war. Back then Faunus were thought of as thieves and cheater. She figured if she were to use that successfully pass her test, she'd be doing nothing more than perpetuating that stereotype.
With a determined face, Velvet than looked at herself in the mirror, picked up her books from the other end of the counter and left the washroom.
A short while later, Nora walked up to that very sink to wash her hands, when she saw what Velvet left behind.
"Attention my loyal servants!" Nora said to the other member of Team JNPR, back at their room. "Today is a momentous day! The day your queen has been promoted to goddess!" she was standing atop her bed, the light coming in from the window behind her created a glow around her.
"What is she talking about?" Jaune asked, looking around for an answer.
"I have no idea!" Ren answered not looking up from his workbook.
"Of course I am a merciful goddess" Nora claimed, the smile on her face extending ear to ear. "I am willing to use my newfound status to spread good luck and fortune to all my closest followers!"
"That… sounds very… generous of you!" Pyrrha said, a little nervous about what Nora meant by being a goddess. "If you don't mind me asking, just what brought about this… promotion?" Pyrrha careful selected the words she chose to humour her.
Nora gave a small laugh at the question. "I'm glad you asked" she said. "You see, the one you knew as Nora Valkyrie was content living her life as a mere mortal. That is until she found this!" She showed them what she found in the washroom.
Pyrrha covered her open mouth with her hand, and Ren simply stared.
"Nora" Jaune said slowly. "What is that?"
Nora's answer was just a short laugh.
"Is that what I think it is?" Pyrrha asked.
"If you think it's the greatest sheets of all time, than yes" Nora said.
"Where did you get that!?" Jaune demanded.
Nora's response was a cryptic "I plead the fifth!"
"You plead the…? What does that even…"Jaune tried to make sense of Nora's comment, but decided against it. "No what is doesn't matter! Nora, hand it over! I'll bring it back to Dr. Oobleck."
"Ah, but before you do that, ask yourself" Nora said. "Do we really have to?"
"We can't keep it!" Pyrrha said. "That would be cheating!"
"Alright then let me ask this" Nora argued. "What exactly is cheating?"
Jaune took a deep breath. He gave Nora a stern look and extended his hand. "Nora" he said slowly and firmly.
"For that matter, just what is studying?" Nora said, wavering just a little at Jaune's glare.
"Nora" Jaune said again, a little faster than before.
Nora was now having a hard time keeping her smile. The corner of her lips were trembling, and sweat was forming on her brow. "But, but" she tried thinking up a reason to use the answer sheet. "…Goddess!" she ended up saying.
"Nora!" Jaune's shout did the trick. Nora hung her head, and stepped off her bed. Without making eye contact, she walked over to and handed Jaune the answer sheet.
"Alright then" Jaune said, folding the sheets and placing them in his back pocket. "I will bring this to Dr. Oobleck!" he then promptly left the room, leaving the rest of his team behind.
"You know that was the right thing to do" Ren said, turning back to his work.
"Yeah, I know" Nora said as she plopped herself back down on her bed, actually relieved it turned out that way.
In his hurry to return the answer sheet back to Dr. Oobleck, Jaune rushed through the halls of Beacon. As a result, while turning a corner, he nearly collided with Mercury Black, who had his face in a comic book while he was walking.
"Sorry about that" Jaune apologized, stepping back. "I wasn't paying attention to where I was going."
"Don't worry about it" Mercury told him, snapping the light paperback shut. "No harm, no foul."
Mercury stared at Jaune, with his steel grey eyes. Though Mercury did have a smile on his face, Jaune couldn't help but feel suspicious. "Well, I guess I'll be on my way then…" Jaune said. He turned around and was about to leave, when Mercury called out to him.
"You probably shouldn't run!" Mercury said. "Unless you actually want to hurt someone."
"Right…" Jaune replied, turning to face him. Without thinking about it, he checked his back pocket. Once he was satisfied that the answer sheet was still there he said "…anyway, see ya!" he then turned back around, and fast walked away.
Mercury watched him go. Once Jaune was out of sight he said. "You know, I think I may have scared him off."
"As if" the sudden appearance of Emerald Sustrai came as no surprise to Mercury. "Who would be scared of you?"
"Hmm" Mercury thought about it. "I definitely made nervous though" he claimed.
"Yeah" Emerald admitted. "That's because he thought you were going to find this!" she showed him the folded papers she took from Jaune's pocket.
"What's that?" Mercury asked.
"Let's see…" Emerald unfolded the papers to examine them. As soon as she realized what they were the let out a short whistle. "Not something he was supposed to have, that's for sure!"
Mercury looked over her shoulder at what was in her hands. "An answer sheet!?" he said. He brought his hand to his mouth in mock surprise and sarcastically went on saying "But why would he have something like that? Unless he planned on… gasp… cheating? Who would have thought these Beacon students were such ne'er-do-wells?"
"Okay, so maybe it's not the most illicit thing ever" Emerald said. "But you got to admit, it's not something you'd expect a goody two shoes like him to have!"
Before Mercury could respond, they heard a pair of voices heading their way.
"Dude! There is no way that is going to happen!" the first voice said.
"Hey! Trust me on this" the second voice said. "Just find yourself a nice jacket, maybe something that matches your gauntlets, add a nice fashionable tie…"
"Absolutely not!" the voices turned the corner, revealing them to be Sun Wukong and Neptune Vasilias. "I'll stick with something I can move in thank you very much! Function over fashion dude!"
That last comment managed to completely upset Neptune. He abruptly stopped in his tracks to turn and point a finger in Sun's face. "You take that back!" he said menacingly.
"Whoa!" Sun raised his hands in front of his face. "There's no need to get hostile. I'm just saying that putting on some different clothes isn't going to make that big a difference!"
Neptune's nostrils flared. He saw Emerald, and turned to her. "Excuse me, Emerald right?" he said to her. "You seem like someone who truly understands how to look good. Would you be so kind as to tell my friend here how much better he would look in a suit, with a tie!" he turned back to Sun as he said tie.
"Ah, but!" Sun argued. "That would hide my best features!"
Since settling their argument was not something Emerald wanted part in, she quickly thought up a reason to leave. "Actually, Mercury and I are late for a team meeting!" she lied. "I was actually sent to go find him and bring him back! Excuse us." She then grabbed Mercury and dragged him away, leaving Sun and Neptune behind.
"Seriously though" Sun said once they were gone. "They're just clothes."
"Hey, I can't help it" Neptune said. He noticed the sheets of paper that Emerald dropped and walked toward them. "I was born with a tendency to make myself…" he picked up the papers. "…and those around me look great!" he then crumpled the papers and threw them in the nearest trash can.
*About the whole Russel Ruby thing, long story short, I once made a fanfic which ended with Russel captivated with Ruby, while didn't even really know his name and now I'm acting like that's a thing.