Chapter Two - Varied beginnings
Ruby Rose marveled up at Beacon with her older sister Yang. The excitement had finally overshadowed the anxiety she had been feeling.
"Wow," They said together
Ruby look around "Look at all these weapons" She geeked out over the bounty of weapons the students carried. "Their beautiful"
"Chill out little sister they're just weapons," Yang said.
"Just weapons," Ruby exclaimed "Their extensions of ourselves"
Yang crossed her arms "Well then aren't you content with yours" pointed out.
Ruby pouted taking her scythe gun Crescent Rose and unfolding it to full size.
"Of course, I love Crescent Rose she's mine but that doesn't mean that I can't admire other weapons" Ruby defended. Yang nodded uncrossing her arms.
"Yeah, but maybe you should focus more on making friends than looking at weapons" Yang suggested kindly. Ruby looked down feeling anxious again.
"Making friends is hard, plus I've got you" Yang got a slightly guilty look in her lilac eyes.
"About that, I'm gonna go hang out with my friends," Yang said before taking off with a group of people. Ruby stood dazed for a moment before she put Crescent Rose back onto her belt, looking around desperately for a familiar face. When one boy caught her eye. He had dark blue hair and walked with his shoulder slouched. He looked around with his eyes downcast. Like he was trying to avoid others gazes but he looked over towards Ruby. He had eyes that were the color of molten gold.
So pretty
Was the last thing she thought before colliding with a luggage cart. Ruby tumbled back onto the ground, "Aww" she groaned sitting up
"Watch where your going" A girl scolded standing over Ruby. She had a disapproving look in her pale eyes.
"I'm sorry," Ruby said instantly attempting to give the girl a piece of her scattered her luggage.
"Give me that," she said grabbing it, Ruby sank back.
Great first day she thought sadly
Alfie wanted to strangle Lenox, it took him one moment for Alfie to turn around before he vanished. Alfie now found himself wondering about the Beacon campus avoiding eye contact. Which is how he nearly bumped into a girl. Alfie looked up just in time to see her. The world slowed around them giving Alfie the seconds to raise his hands. Stepping back as they both stumbled back to avoid the collation.
"Sorry" he muttered
"It's fine," the girl replied she had short brown hair and emerald green eyes. Alfie nodded glad to have not started his first day by being a klutz. "Are you new too?" she asked.
"Yeah, I am," He replied quietly. "Hey have you seen a guy with black hair, red eyes always smirking like a jerk"
The girl thought for a second "Sorry, I don't think so, is he your friend?"
"No, my brother."
"Brother?" she repeated "Your twin?"
Alfie shook his head "No, adopted," he said turning away, "Well thanks anyway," Alfie added before hurrying off feeling a bit anxious.
I'm gonna kill you, Lenox.
Yang hoped that Ruby was not too mad at her for throwing her to the wolves. However, she knew that it was the quickest way to aid her little sister in making friends.
"Took you less than ten minutes before ditching your little sister," An annoyingly familiar voice said behind Yang. She turned around smirking
"Funny, I don't see Alfie anywhere," Yang shot back playfully.
"Touché, Xiao Long," Lenox Zane smiled, Yang punched his shoulder gently.
"Good to see you, Lenny."
"You, too," Lenox replied chuckling.
"I heard you stopped working with my uncle," Yang said, as they walked side by side.
Lenox shrugged "Qrow was broken-hearted really, but I needed to take a few years break."
Yang raised an eyebrow "I don't think I've seen Qrow broken hearted more than once."
Lenox grinned "Okay, you caught me but that doesn't lessen the point."
"Whatever makes you feel better," Yang teased "So does this mean you're actually intending on being a halfway decent student."
Lenox feigned insult "Are you implying I'm a bad student, unthinkable," he said with a wink. "But honestly I'm gonna be good at least when it comes to actual grades and stuff."
"Then you're still on for pranks and being a menace to those around you?"
"Always," he said with a particularly wicked smile, his red eyes twinkling. Yang matched his smile with a mischievous one of her own.
"This is gonna be a fun year," Yang said
"Without a doubt."
Alfie was still trying to figure out if he had heard an explosion as he searched for his flake of a brother. Though he had to give it to Lenox, he really knew how to dodge a person. Alfie skulked around the perimeter of the school. He was doing a bang-up job of avoiding people when he spotted a pair of students talking. One was a younger girl dressed in red and black, her hair matched; black with red stripes and she wore a red cape. She was holding an impressive looking scythe weapon. Alfie marveled at the thing. It stirred up a need to call out to praise it. However, he controlled himself as he crept closer for whatever reason. The other student a boy with blond hair, who Alfie was sure was the boy who had barfed on the airship. Pulled out a broadsword a simple but old school weapon. He opened up a shield it was a handy contraption, however, the boy was clumsy and it got away from him. It folded up and spun towards Alfie. He reacted, catching it. The blond hair boy sighed in relief.
"Thanks," he said as Alfie held the shield out for him. "Um..."
"Alfie," he supplied stepping back, he noticed the girl looking at him. She quickly looked down once she realized he noticed.
"I'm Jaune," the boy introduced himself.
"I'm Ruby," the girl piped up in a clear high voice and a friendly smile.
"Nice to meet you," Alfie replied something stirring in his mind. Ruby, the name sounded so familiar to him.
"So, are you a new student here too?" Jaune inquired.
"Yeah." The three fall into an awkward quiet.
"Sorry, I kind of suck at this whole small talk thing," Alfie said, breaking the silence he created. Ruby and Jaune grinned at him, feeling relieved.
"Yeah, me too," Ruby said. Alfie just nearly cracked a smile.
"Amazing weapon by the way," he said pointing at Crescent Rose. Ruby perked up at the compliment.
"Thanks, I made her myself."
"At Signal," Alfie guessed.
"Yeah," Ruby confirmed.
"You went to Signal too?" Jaune asked.
"Yes," Alfie confirmed, "I made these while I was there." He reached into his backpack pulling out two oddly shaped guns. They had short black barrels and slender handles. On either side of the barrels were semicircles that were dark blue like Alfie's hair. A metallic band ran down the middles of the semicircles.
"Nice," Jaune appraised.
"Just wait," Alfie said, clicking the gun's slim handles. The semi-circles moved out connecting together into larger circles. The handle went up and connected in a straight line with the barrels. Becoming a handle for the circles and the metallic strips popped up. They were four sharp blades that encircled the blue metal but did not connect. Alfie spun them around once for effect.
"They are so cool," Ruby exclaimed, studying the intricate working of the weapons. Jaune nodded in agreement, feeling a little under-armed with his old sword and shield.
"Thanks, I put a lot of work into them."
"What do you call them?" Ruby asked innocently. Alfie folded up the round blades returning them to his backpack.
"I've never actually named them," he said.
"You never gave them a name?" she asked.
"I'm not really good at coming up with names," Alfie said, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Is it normal for people to name their weapons?" Jaune asked them.
"Yep," the pair said together. Ruby smiled at Alfie who smiled just the tiniest bit at the girl.
Grendell Wolf was not one to blend into a crowd, or, more accurately, he was not able to blend in. There were three main reasons as to why he stood out. Two of them were his towering height and muscular frame. The fact that he was a Faunus was the other reason, with pointy ears and sharp canines teeth like a wolf. He had hairy forearms and if he didn't keep his hair cut short it grew out wildly in a few days. People tended to avoid him or glare at him in either wonder or disgust. So far in Beacon, he had seen more looks of wonder at his size than disgust. Gren looked up at the school that would be his home for the next few years. Where he'd be put into a team and have a partner. Gren strolled around the campus knowing he'd needed to get to the assembly but he kept up his relaxed pace. His older brother was always saying Gren was too calm about things, which Gren could never really argue. He would not have been able to as he felt a smaller body slam into his own.
"Sorry," Gren said. His hands shot out instinctively and caught the other person before they could fall.
"Does anyone around here watch where they are going?" a girl's voice complained. Gren let his hands fall away as he looked down to the girl. Another apology was on his lips as he realized who he was looking. Weiss Schnee looked up at Gren and saw his ears, she grimaced at him stepping away.
"Watch where you're going," she snapped, crossing her arms. Gren felt a faint smile crossed his face for no reason he could fathom.
"I'm sorry for not paying attention," he said politely, "I'll be more careful next time." Weiss eyed him suspiciously, trying to detect any malice in his words.
"Be sure to," Weiss said apparently finding none of the expected bitterness in him. "Not that I expect much from a Faunus," she added marching away from him. Gren watched her, still trying to decide why he was, in fact, smiling at the Heiress. He shrugged and continued his walk but this time made sure to more aware of his surroundings. When he heard a pair of particularly loud voices coming near him as he neared the assembly.
"That is, by far, not the stupidest thing I've done," a boy said. Gren looked over to him, he had black hair and red eyes. A girl stood next to him with long blond hair and lilac eyes.
"You did break that guy's arm," she replied to him casually.
"True, but you broke my nose the first time we met so breaking that guy's arm was not that bad in hindsight," the black haired boy replied. His friend, the girl, laughed probably remembering the nose breaking. Gren wasn't sure if he should be worried by that or amused. Through as he followed them into the room, he realized there was not must he was sure about here at Beacon. Which did not bother Gren in the slightest.
"Then you're like a prodigy," Jaune marveled to Ruby as they walked along with Alfie toward the assembly room. Alfie had, luckily, checked out where they were supposed to go before running into the two, helping them avoid being lost as they wandered around.
"I guess so," Ruby said humbly. She had just told the two boys about how she had been advanced two years to come to Beacon early. They had gotten on the subject since Alfie had confirmed himself having been from Signal.
"You must be a pretty amazing fighter," Alfie said in that seriously earnest way of his. Ruby squared her shoulders, feeling less worried about her being younger than her peers. Alfie and Jaune were easy to talk to; Jaune in his quirky friendliness and Alfie with quiet kindness.
"Thanks, both of you," Ruby said skipping ahead, "Back to your nameless weapons."
"You are so hung up on this," Alfie remarked gently.
"Yep," she said.
"Listen if you, either of you," Alfie said, addressing both of his new acquaintances, "can come up with a name for my weapons and it's good enough then I'll keep it."
"Sounds good," Jaune said with a nod. Ruby nodded enthusiastically at the boys.
"I promise you two won't regret it," Ruby promised. Alfie felt his chest warm as he watched the pure excitement in Ruby's silver eyes.
"I'm not seeing things, am I?" Lenox asked his voice laced with amusement, "'Cause that looks like my brother and your little sister."
"Unless we're both imagining the same thing, then I doubt it," Yang confirmed smiling, amazed at the trio coming towards the assembly. Ruby had her back turned but Yang and Lenox knew the red cape anywhere. Smiling ever so faintly at her was Alfie.
"How did we not plan this?" Lenox asked.
"Because even we're not that talented," Yang answered, "Through clearly the 'throw our little siblings to the wolves' plan did work." Lenox nodded holding down laughter. Their siblings were also talking to a blond haired boy that, Yang realized, had barfed on her boots.
"Guess we really don't need to worry about them," Lenox said proudly.
"Were we actually ever worried?" Yang said.
"No, but the point remains," he said, "Now I'm gonna go before Alfie starts believing there was some master plan here."
Yang hit his shoulder again. "See ya later Lenny," she said as he weaved through the crowd to intercept his brother.
