A small chime sounded.

Professor Ozpin glanced up from the report of one of his senior teams' missions defending an outlying province. Hm. It had been a while since anyone had sent a locker his way.

It seemed to be headed for the balcony coordinates, just beyond the glass double doors. The headmaster's eyes strayed back to the page as he picked up his mug from beside him at his desk and reclined, "Care to field this one, Glynda?"

Leaning on the side of Ozpin's desk, Glynda turned her head just slightly, eyes flicking away from the day's team evaluation scores she was currently reading through to catch sight of the impossibly battered locker headed their way. She rolled her eyes. Freshman pranks never changed. It was probably filled with smoke bombs or stink bombs or some other petty explosive.

A gentle flick of her riding crop caught the unusually heavy object mid-air with a wave of purple light. Just as she was about to send it flying away to the scrap yard, her aura, wrapped around the locker, picked up the presence of other auras. Curious. She laid her scroll on Ozpin's desk, stepping past him and out onto the balcony to investigate.

Golden eyebrows arched at the enormous jagged hole that was probably once a door, revealing two very unhappy, very disheveled, and very familiar students, clinging to each other for dear life inside the ruined locker.

"... Professor Ozpin," she glanced back inside, "Could you come out here for a minute?"

Ozpin finished reading his paragraph and turned his desk chair slightly to see what was the matter.

"Um, can we please get down?" Ruby Rose's terrified squeak of a voice carried well. Weiss Schnee, pale as a sheet, seemed unable to make up her mind whether to push her team leader away or clutch her fluttering red cloak harder.

Amused, Ozpin took his coffee and joined Glynda on the balcony as he regarded the pair of students in the suspended, mangled locker. The wind snatched at his gray hair and emerald kerchief. "Hm, well, these aren't my regular office hours; in this case, however, I believe I can make an exception."

Half an hour, a few cookies (on Ozpin's part), and a stern talking-to (on Glynda's) later, Ruby and Weiss collapsed in the elevator on their way down from Ozpin's office.

"We should've taken the stairs," Ruby shivered as the walls seemed to close in around her. She slid further down the wall next to her partner, her hand accidentally brushing Weiss's.

Weiss snatched her arm away, flushing. "Don't touch me. Don't talk to me. Don't even look at me. Yang is ready to have me burned at the stake."

"Yeah," Ruby gave a nervous sort of half-laugh as she ignored directive number three, silver eyes flickering to her partner. Weiss had apparently abandoned her aversion to sitting on the floor for the moment. Her collar was crumpled and her jacket was a little scorched. Her shoulders slumped with exhaustion. The scythe-wielder's hair was still damp with sweat, so it stood up in funny directions when she brushed her hand over it. "I can maybe try to talk her down some."

"How humiliating," Weiss groaned, shutting her eyes and massaging her temple at the memory of the recent interview. With the headmaster and Glynda, no less. However, a little mortification was preferable to being murdered by a raging psychopath. "Your sister is an absolute maniac."

"You're the one who decided it was a good idea to make her mad." Ruby pointed out without looking up from examining the singed fibers of her cloak.

As they neared the ground floor, Weiss levered herself back to her feet, dusting off her combat skirt and fixing her side-tail. She squared her shoulders, "Well, it worked. We're out of that prison and have plenty of time to prepare for class next period."

Ruby couldn't really argue with that. At least, she was too relieved about being able to stretch and breathe fresh air to argue. She pulled herself up on the guard rail that lined the compartment as the elevator gave a pleasant 'ping' to indicate they had arrived at their desired floor.

The elevator doors slid open to reveal Blake and Yang, the former looking decidedly calmer than the latter. Heavy gloved hands landed on the heiress's shoulders. "Hello, Weiss."

The heiress didn't have time to dodge or really even think before Yang had her hands on her. She took a short breath to compose herself and tried to brush the brawler off, "Okay, truce. You got me, I got you. We're even."

"Hey Yang! And Blake. Er, even sounds really great. We're, uh, we're all for peace on Team RWBY, right guys?" Ruby stood halfway in, halfway out of the elevator, hands partly raised as she glanced anxiously between the two.

"Oh no, Weiss. No." Yang spared an apologetic glance at her little sister,"Ruby, I know you like this one but I'm sorry - we're going to have to put her down."

Blake placed a pacifying hand on her partner's shoulder and said nothing, but something wasn't quite right about the way her eyes lit up.

"Yang, no no no no no no no," Ruby grabbed one of her sister's arms. "No actually killing teammates!"

"Wait, what?" Weiss looked up from scowling at Blake. Put her down? They meant 'put her down' as in like you would a dog? Equal measures of panic and indignation rose in Weiss's chest as she tried to pull away. "Not funny. Not funny, Yang."

"Not funny?" Yang's grip on Weiss's shoulders tightened. "What's not funny is you getting all handsy with my little sister," she leaned forward, nearly nose-to-nose with the heiress, "Where was your hand, Weiss? Where was it."

"Yang," Blake stepped a bit closer, trying to catch the brawler's wild gaze, "Wherever it might have been, the death penalty is highly unusual for a first-time infraction."

"How do I know if this is the first time."

Blake considered this for a moment. "...Fair enough."

"What are you talking about?" Ruby gritted her teeth, hauling at Yang's arm so her body made a forty-five degree angle with the floor. Her sister didn't budge.

"Nothing! There was no first time for anything!" The heiress jabbed a finger at Ruby even as she twisted to get out of Yang's grasp, "My hand was on her face so she would shut up and let me fake you into getting us out of that stupid locker after you both abandoned us there."

Blake rolled her eyes. She was about to "explain" that they had been "looking for a professor", definitely not hiding up in the air vents, no way, but she was cut short as Yang surged forward past Ruby, pinning Weiss against the back of the elevator.

The brawler's eyes snapped to her little sister. "She was using you? To make me angry?"

"That's what it sounds like," Blake passively supplied from the sidelines when the younger girl picked herself up off the floor and hesitated.

Yang rounded on the heiress trapped in her grip, pressing their foreheads together so she could see the whites of her eyes. "That's. Worse." With a mighty roar, she grabbed Weiss and hefted her into an ironclad over-the-shoulder carry, storming out of the elevator and towards an unknown destination.

Weiss shrieked in counterpoint to Yang's roar, "What are you- let me go- get your hands off of me, you- you-" with a flicker of her hand, a pale blue glyph sprung up beneath the brawler's feet in the wide atrium of Beacon's main building. A few bystanders glanced to see what was going on while Weiss held the glyph hard in an attempt to keep the brawler in place while she fought to get off from over her shoulder.

Ruby shook off her hesitation and caught up to them, her cape swirling at her knees. She tried to talk over the struggle that was taking place, "Yang, wait, I wasn't thrilled with the plan but Weiss was just trying to help, and you did lock us in and just leave us there, and it was super hot and stuffy, so maybe we could just all apologize and go to class and everything will be fine?"

Yang paused to regard her sister, softening just a fraction at the earnest silver staring up at her.

After a tense moment during which Blake caught up to the group as well, the brawler stopped trying to struggle against the troublesome glyph holding her feet in place.

Brushing her hair out of her face with one hand and tightening her grip on the squirming heiress with the other, she straightened up, frowning down at Ruby as the gears turned in her head. Finally, she sighed. "Ok sis. I'll apologize if she will."

"Fine," Weiss gasped, red in the face from being partly upside-down. She braced her elbows on the back of Yang's shoulder, still holding her glyph, "But first let go of me."

Eyes narrowed in suspicion, Yang lowered the heiress back to her feet, but kept a firm grip on her shoulders. "So help me if you try to run..."

Blake came to stand beside her partner, interrupting whatever threat might have been coming. "She's not going to run, Yang."

Still squinting, the brawler finally released Weiss completely.

"...But if she did, you'd still be stuck on this blue glyph."

"I don't run," Weiss stepped back, straightening her bolero and tossing her hair so it fell back over her shoulder. Once out of Yang's immediate reach, she dropped her glyph, "and I resent the implication that I would fail to uphold my end of a verbal agreement."

"Says the girl who just threw rule number one out the window the second I turn my back," Yang shot back.

"Pretended to throw out the window," Blake corrected with a small smile.

"Still."

"It only counts as a verbal agreement if it both people actually agree," Weiss rolled her eyes. "I don't recall accepting your rules."

"Ahem. Apologies, guys?" Ruby prompted, her arms crossed and her gaze as disapproving and serious as she could make it.

Yang crossed her arms as well, leveling an expectant look at Weiss.

"Fine. I'll go first. You don't have to look at me like that," Weiss drew herself up and faced her team leader. She took a breath and suddenly couldn't quite meet her partner's eyes. "Ruby, I apologize for using threats of being indecent with you as part of a strategy without your direct approval. I should have listened when you said it was a terrible idea."

She ignored the way heat was creeping up her neck and turned to glare daggers at Yang, "Was that suitable?"

Blake and Yang stared at Weiss with twin expressions of shock. This was quite possibly the first time they had ever heard the heiress manage to straight-up apologize for anything.

The brawler was first to break into a smile. "Yeah, actually. More than suitable," she threw an arm around the heiress, grinning. "You know, you're all right, Weiss. You really got me good! Sorry I tried to kill you."

"Okay, hands off," Weiss fumed, pushing Yang's arm away and fixing her hair while Ruby grinned off to the side. The heiress shot a look at Blake, certain that she'd been involved in this to some degree. To Yang, she said, "Does your apology include shoving us in the lockers in the first place?"

"Yeah, of course," came the easy reply as the brawler stepped away, sidling up next to Blake, who was currently staring down at the floor, deep in thought. The Faunus looked as though she was about to say something when the warm familiar weight of Yang's arm around her shoulders caught her by surprise. Amber eyes glanced curiously up at her partner, finding the amethyst gaze she sought already trained back onto Weiss. "You know me," Yang cheerfully rambled on, "can't resist a good bit of fun!"

"Alright! Apologies accepted," Ruby cheered, pumping both fists in the air, "Let's go to class! Er... maybe let's clean up, and then go to class."

"Hm," the heiress crossed her arms, not quite satisfied. Then she noticed the time on the large clock over the reception area. "We have fifteen minutes?! That's hardly enough time to get back to the dorm, much less change and get to class!"

"Wait, why do we have to change?" Ruby pulled a face. Her clothes were a little singed and stained with gobs of sword polish, but she had been planning to wash her hands and face and call it good.

"Rrrrrg, fine," Weiss wasn't in much better shape, but she'd been spared most of the flames by virtue of being behind/underneath Ruby, and there really wasn't time to get back to the room. "Let's find a mirror at least. I need to fix my hair," she gave her partner's a dubious glance. When Ruby ran her hand over it self-consciously, it sprang right back up in a dozen unruly cowlicks. "... and your hair. Come on."

The heiress turned on her heel, storming to the restrooms. Ruby followed, grinning sheepishly and waving to Yang and Blake, "Uh, see you guys in class!"

"Good luck in there!" Yang waved back with a wink as her little sister disappeared after Weiss behind the swinging door.

The handful of students who had stopped to watch began to disperse as they realized the brief scuffle had ended. Blake followed their lead, Yang's arm slipping from her shoulders as she turned to head towards their next class. She allowed herself a small smile as her partner rushed to walk next to her. "You didn't have to cover for me," she said lightly, gently nudging the brawler's arm.

"Of course I did," Yang gently nudged back, her own definition of gentle sending Blake stumbling sideways a step or two, "Pranking anonymously has its perks you know!"

Blake offered her partner a thankful smile. "Speaking of pranks," her smile turned sly as they rounded a corner, "you weren't really going to kill Weiss, were you?" The words came out closer to a statement than a question, but she found she was still curious as to the brawler's limits.

"Er - haha no, yeah, I knew she was faking," Yang waved a hand dismissively, looking everywhere but her partner as Blake's smile widened. "There's no way the Schnee heiress would risk being indecent in public... I uh, I just wanted to give her a good scare is all," she grinned unconvincingly.

"…That was a pretty impressive shriek," Blake couldn't help but giggle. Their eyes met, and within seconds they broke down completely, leaning on each other as they laughed in hysterics. Blake was the first to recover, wiping tears of mirth from her eyes. "Still, it's too bad we didn't get to send those two on a nice romantic getaway."

"Yeah~"

"We'll have to go visit the place ourselves," she continued, looking thoughtful.

Yang's eyes lit up. "Yeah?"

"We can scout the area for pranking potential."

"...Marry me."

"Make me," Blake taunted, perfectly mimicking Weiss's icy tone.

Neither could keep a straight face - dissolving into laughter once more, the covert partners in crime continued down the hall, already planning their next joint venture.