Chapter II:

"You know what you're there for Ruby. Don't ruin this chance you have; you've practically strolled right in the entrance undetected; this is more than we could've hoped for. Don't screw it up."

"Of course, Uncle. But… can I ask why?"

"No. You may not."

"But Uncl-"

"No, Ruby. This conversation is finished. Begone!"
Ruby awoke with a gasp and blinked rapidly as she attempted to assess her situation, only to find a pale girl situated on a bed, wrapped in the occasional bandage and a hospital gown, covers wrapped in a pile on the floor. The memories flooded back to her in a heartwarming rush alongside concern and worry.

Has her condition worsened? No, wait, why should I care. But her covers are on the floor, she's shivering.

Ruby got up from the cushioned chair slowly, attempting to work out a rather nasty kink in her back as she bent down to shake out Weiss' blankets.

I have to help her… but just for now, right? Just have to gain her trust… then we'll see where that goes. What do you mean, Ruby, 'see where that goes', it's simple enough; we gain her trust and then use it to gain an advantage. But isn't that exploitation? Ah, fuck it.

Ruby shook her mind out with a similar ferocity to her current attack on the blankets, silently cursing the tendencies of her human mind to wander.

Dragoning is so much simpler; none of this complex madness ever happens when I'm flying free, roasting goats, sleeping in my cave…

The silver-eyed girl cast a glance backwards towards the now-still figure on the bed, an IV running from her arm to a complicated machine making intermittent beeping noises.

She seems so delicate when she's asleep, cute even... RUBY. We're not supposed to find humans attractive. We don't. Cut it out, give her back the covers if you insist, and go sit back down. Wait patiently. But she's so cold… I could warm her up…

Ruby leaned forward with the half-folded cover in hand and pulled the rim up to Weiss' chest and stopped.

I could just… how does Yang say it… cop a feel? It'd be harmless; she won't even notice, she's asleep… RUBY. Focus. Give her the damn covers and sit down, we don't have time for your human interactions and attractions. But she's still shivering! I could at least warm her up… just a little, I mean I…

Ruby slowly reached her right hand forward; if Weiss had been awake, she would've noticed a strange energy emission from the half-dragon's hand accompanied by a warm, glowing, swirling light on Ruby's palm. As she touched her palm between the prone girl's breasts, the shivering abated substantially, but not completely.

Still not warm enough… RUBY. Sit your ass down on that couch, now! But if she dies, who's our way in?

Ruby's inner voice shut up at this thought; the girl gave a smirk before amping up the energy output slowly; the feeling was akin to sliding a dimmer with the power of the mind.

Just a little more, and she'll be just fine, just a little mo-

Three sharp knocks slammed into the door, followed by the door squeaking open slowly. Ruby yelped as the sudden noise shattered her concentration. The result; a smoldering rose imprint emblazoned upon Weiss' sternum. Ruby paused in awe for a moment before yanking the covers over Weiss' smoldering hospital gown and turning to stare out the window like nothing had happened.

"Hello? Weiss, I brought you som- oh, god, why does it smell like something's burning in here?" Ruby turned around nonchalantly and opened her mouth to speak before being silenced by the elegant cat faunus that stood before her.

"I don't stand a chance…" Ruby's mouth leaked before she could stop herself; the newcomer frowned slightly and perked an eyebrow.

"Erm… what was that?" The black-themed girl questioned.

"Oh! I, uh, well, I was saying that I didn't stand a chance against the popcorn that I tried to make earlier. Yeah! That's the burning smell, uh, probably… aha… ha… um, yeah." Awkward silence ensued as the shorter girl shifted her weight back and forth across her legs uncomfortably while looking at the floor. The faunus was rather amused, however; a slight smirk adorned her features and one ear above her head was twitching playfully.

"You must be the dragon girl everyone's been talking about. I'm Blake; nice to meet you." Ruby looked up to see Blake's right hand outstretched with a small, brown paper bag by her side in her left. Ruby stared at the hand for a few seconds before a light bulb connected her thoughts to her actions and she scrambled a few steps forward to take it in her own.

"Oh! Of course, I'm, uh, Ruby. Nice to meet you too, Blake. Are you one of Weiss' friends?" At this, Blake's left eye twitched a little, but nothing anyone without sharp senses would pick up. Scared that she had struck a nerve, Ruby began to spout apologies.

"Oh! That was really inconsiderate- I mean, you don't have to tell me anything, I'm just a strange dragon girl who showed up outta nowhere and I didn't mean to pry so please, I'm so, so so sor-" Blake's soft chuckle interrupted the demi-dragon's rambling before the taller girl patted Ruby on the shoulder and walked by her, setting the bag and a slip of paper on the dresser.

"I guess you could say that I'm a friend, I suppose." Blake turned around to face Weiss, soundly sleeping in her bed.

"Well, it looks like she's still asleep, so call me with her scroll when she wakes up; I want to see her reaction to my gift." Blake chuckled mirthfully before she focused on Ruby's intent and shocked wide-mouthed stare at the incapacitated huntress.

"Is… something wrong?" Ruby blinked twice, startled; mentally cursing herself for acting like an obvious idiot.

Just play along until she leaves, dammit! But… how did she sleep through that? I don't believe it… and I didn't even think to check if she had woken up yet- how could I be so stupid!

"Oh! I, well, when I was making the popcorn I kinda spilled some on her and she stirred; I'm just glad she's back to, uh, sleeping peacefully!" Her tone ended on faux cheerfulness, but Blake simply chalked it up to her dragon heritage.

"Well, alright. I'll be leaving now; I hope you're more competent at keeping watch over her than formulating sentences." Blake only watched with a smile as the partial redhead's face morphed from confusion to understanding to anger in less than a second.

"That I'm what? Excuse me, but I think you went a little too far there; I may not b-" Blake simply rolled her eyes and interrupted loudly.

"Chill out for a second; I was just kidding. Besides; I heard you were responsible for saving Weiss' life out there, and I couldn't be more grateful. If it weren't for you…" Blake shuddered a little bit at the unsaid addition and Ruby could feel the fire that previously swelled in her heart begin to simmer away.

"Anyways, I know it may not seem like it at first, but she really does care about people that care about her; most of the time, she'll just call it "keeping even" but she truly does care, Ruby. Don't get frustrated with her expression at times, or lack thereof. Coffee with two creams and no sugar, by the way. Don't forg-" Ruby's blinking had accelerated to 80 miles an hour and her mind was struggling to comprehend not only the information, but also the reasoning behind receiving said information.

"Woah, woah woah, woah. Why are you telling me all of this? How do you know all of this? Why are you telling me all of this? I'm not gonna be, like, her guardian for the rest of her life, am I?" When Ruby received no laughter in return, a bit of fear seeped into her tone as a nervous chuckle escaped her lips.

"Am I?" Blake sighed and leaned against a dry-erase board that hung on the entrance's wall.

"Ozpin tells me you'll be her shadow here at Beacon for a week at minimum; she apparently went into aura shock and will need to recover for the better part of two weeks. The job works two ways; your task is to protect her and make sure she gets everywhere she needs to go, on or off campus. However, you get to enjoy the beauty that is our school, Beacon Academy, and the city of Vale, occasionally; not such an awful trade-off. And she gets injured… a lot, being headstrong and having talent is not a safe combination. I've learned the drill by now."
"Wait, wait, wait. Rewind; me, protect her? From who?" Ruby gulped both for the conversation's sake and her own; it was of dire importance that Ozpin hadn't already figured out her reasons for being at the academy.

"From herself." Blake let her words sink in for a moment before nodding and walking out of the room, leaving Ruby in a shocked silence.
Of course; we get stuck with babysitting duties. Of all the things a dignified dragon would have to do, it'd be this.

Shut up, I'm trying to think here.

But so am I! Imagine all the mayhem we can cause with unrestricted access to the school, imagine-

-I SAID SHUT UP!

Ruby snapped open her eyes and relished in the cool relief of her overbearing mind's voice's silence. Taking a seat in the chair again, Ruby smashed her face into her palms and groaned, her mind overloaded with information. Any subsequent attempt to categorize anything quickly shattered into pieces like a mirror dropped from five floors up.

"Ruby?" A weak voice sounded from the bed; Ruby shot upwards and was at Weiss' side in a flash.

"You're awake! That's good- Blake stopped by and left you something but told you not to open it until she came back; it might be a while, who knows, but she left her scroll number by the bedside, and I, uh-"
"Her number? What?" Weiss' senses had, for the most part, fully re-awakened as she fumbled around with her right arm, blindly, to encounter the piece of paper that was just beyond her grasp.

"Here, let m-"

"No, I've got it; thanks." Weiss then proceeded to roll her left arm over her right before recoiling back while hissing in pain.

"Why does my chest hurt so much? Dammit, I swear, they stab me with something worse every ti-" The words died in the pale-haired girl's throat as she lifted the covers from herself and discovered her new marking. Eyes wide, mouth open, Weiss turned to stare at Ruby who sheepishly shrugged and spoke.

"I, uh, guess I may have, uh, gone a little overboard." Weiss craned her head slightly sideways and began propping herself up on her elbows before stuttering out words in gasping fits.

"Y-y-you… you did this? W-w-why? I, I can't… ugh." Weiss collapsed in the exhaustion of sitting up and resigned herself to breathing heavily through her nose.

"I'm so sorry; you were so cold, you were shivering- even when I put the blankets back on you, and I just had to do something, I really did, so I just wanted to warm you up a little, so I did a little magic trick thing my sister showed me when I was little and you stopped shivering a little but I just wanted to make you comfortable so then I tried to make it a little hotter and then Blake knocked on the door and it startled me and… I burned you." Ruby finished with an exasperated sigh, to which Weiss smiled and opened her mouth to speak before passing out again. A beeping from behind Ruby indicated some kind of pain medicine had released on its timed schedule; the half-dragon vaguely remembered the doctor mentioning that it made its recipients drowsy.

Instant knock-out though? What kind of definition does he use for drowsy?

Concerning as the current predicament was for Weiss, Ruby couldn't get two things out of her mind as she lifted the cover back over the burn and ceremoniously plopped back into her chair.

She smiled at me after I explained myself, thankfully.

She was even happier when I told her Blake's number was on the nightstand.


A/N: rev/follow/fav pls. reviews are huge. thanks

-ken