Hey, after a chapter of just 3k words, we have one of 4.4k words. Not that this is much, but I guess it's already better. Dunno, part of me says it's too short, and part of me says I'm being too harsh with myself.
Anyway, enjoy the chapter.
Ruby Rose's day hadn't been exemplar so far.
First off her sister, who was supposed to help her blend in and at least offer her moral support, had vanished with her friends something like fifteen seconds after they got out of the Bullhead, leaving her in a very awkward situation since she had not only known nothing about what to do, but she had also been disorientated by her sister's sudden departure alongside her friends, and that had lead to the second bad event of the day.
Right after Yang had left her, she had just left herself fall to the ground to try and calm her headache, that was making her world spin, and of course her luck had made her fall straight on someone else's luggage, sending it all to the ground and starting a heated discussion with the owner, said Weiss Schnee Heiress of the Schnee Dust Company, that had ended with the girl stomping away and leaving her to fall back on the ground, in the middle of the crater she had accidentally created when she set off some Dust with a sneeze of all things, and her position had been what had caused the next event to happen.
She had had barely the time to utter a defeated `Welcome to Beacon` before a shadow had been cast over her, and when she had opened her eyes she had found the blond boy from the robbery and the airship, the same one who had been vomiting basically all thorough the trip to Beacon on Bullhead, offering her a hand to get up with a small, nervous smile and a friendly glint in his eyes, and of course she had ended up accepting the help, although she could've stood up on her own just as easily and even faster thanks to her Semblance.
The two of them had them talked a bit on their way to the atrium, although in the end they managed to get lost when following a theoretically straight path, and she had been able to fully show him Crescent Rose, that impressed him only mildly, even though he did admit it was extremely well done, and then she got to see what awesome weapons he had, that had turned out to be a one-handed sword and a shield that could be combined into a greatsword, and on top of all that the shield could fold into a scabbard and be carried easily around. And while Jaune had no ranged weapon, he had repeatedly told her he was more than sure that ranged fights weren't gonna happen often with Grimm and that he was more than able to handle his own fights... although none of them had managed to keep track of where they were going, that resulted in them making a mad dash for the atrium at the last moment.
She had of course bolted to her sister immediately, scolding her for her sudden disappearance, leaving Jaune behind. She heard him muttering something under his breath, but since she was already talking to Yang she couldn't exactly make out what he said. Her blonde sister already took up most of her attention.
"Great way of helping me out with friends, sis!", she pouted at the older girl. "You literally left me on the ground to have fun with your friends, without giving a damn about me!".
"Buuut you made a friend!", retorted Yang, pointing a Jaune, who was standing awkwardly on his own a little away from them. "Was he nice or do I need to break his bones?".
"He was nice, and I don't think you would be able to break his bones", replied Ruby, crossing his arms. "He's so flexible I doubt he even has bones. At the robbery he dodged a bullet by bending all the way back. It was unnatural".
"Maybe he's a contortionist", proposed Yang, shrugging her sister's concerns off. "Also, being flexible could really help the two of you if you decided to go all the way...".
"Yang!", exclaimed Ruby, immediately as red as her cape. "H-He's j-just a fri-friend!".
"He'd better be just a friend, if he values his genes as they are now", scoffed Yang. "I would hate to give him the talk about `Ruby is off limits` so soon during your friendship".
"Ugh, you and Dad with your stories about me having a boyfriend only at thirty! You're two hypocrites!", huffed Ruby, clearly annoyed. "Your first kiss was at twelve, and Dad's so-called first time was at fourteen. And then I should be forbidden a relationship only because I'm two years younger than you are?".
"We're not hypocrites, Ruby. We just want you to learn from our mistakes. As for my first kiss, it was horrible". She faked a gag. "As for the relationship stuff, yes. No boyfriends nor girlfriends until you are an adult".
Ruby turned to sulk in silence, but a familiar pale face stopped her before she could pout. Pale skin, pale blue eyes, and white hair. Yep, her day was definitely going to be horrible, if it continued like that. Weiss `Princess` Schnee herself had chosen to stand right beside them, and that Heavens protected them from her icy attitude. Also, said cold demon was evidently going to speak. Definitely not her best day so far.
"YOU!", Weiss Schnee, Heiress of the Schnee Dust Company and resident Princess. "You're lucky we weren't blown off the side of the cliff".
"It was an accident, and you're exaggerating", retorted Ruby, who after the conversation with Yang was feeling quite snappy. "It wasn't that strong. It barely left a crater! Beacon's grounds should be able to withstand much more".
Weiss narrowed her eyes. "Fine. But it doesn't change the fact that you exploded me!".
"Ehm...", was all Yang could say before Weiss thrust a hand out to stop her, and then handed some kind of information card to Ruby, beginning to recite its contents at memory.
After she finished, she glared at Ruby. "Do you really want to make things up to me?".
"Absolutely", nodded Ruby, now out of her snappy moment and back to her awkward person.
"Read this, and don't ever speak to me again", spat Weiss, turning and crossing her arms in annoyance.
"Ehm... I guess you two started off the wrong foot", said Yang, scratching the back of her head. "Why don't you two start anew?".
"Oh, yes, thank you Yang. Ehm-ehm". Ruby cleared her throat. "Hello Weiss, I'm Ruby! Wanna hang out? We could go shopping for school supplies~".
"Yeah, and we could paint our nails, and try on clothes, and talk about cute boys like tall, blond and... scraggly over there".
"Hey!", protested `tall, blond and scraggly` from `over there`.
"Oh, really?", asked Ruby, elated and completely unaware of the heavy sarcasm.
Weiss stared at her for a second before delivering the final blow with a dry "No".
Ruby slumped in defeat, and Yang's eyes turned red in an instant as she readied herself to punch the insolent little Schnee brat straight through the wall of the atrium, but before the blonde could spread devastation, a voice interrupted their thoughts.
A seemingly young man with very premature grey hair and silvering glasses had walked on the platform in front of them, and had then begun to speak at the gathered students, an audience mildly interested but listening nonetheless. Beside him there was a tall blonde woman with a very stern expression and transparent glasses that did nothing to hide her pale green eyes. The man with grey hair, who was wearing a tailored dark green suit, cleared his throat before speaking.
"I'll keep this brief", he said, gaining the attention of all the students. Basically all of them had studied in combat schools, and all of them were expecting a long and boring welcoming speech. The prospect of a `brief` speech was alluring indeed, especially for the ones who were tired from the journey. "You've all travelled here today in the source of knowledge. To hone your crafts and acquire new skills. And when you're finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people".
He made a short pause before continuing. "But I look amongst you and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose... direction". His gaze swept across the hall. "You assume that knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove you that knowledge can only carry you so far. It's up to you, to take the first step".
As he finished his brief speech, the woman beside him took over and he walked away. "You will gather in the ballroom for tonight. Tomorrow, your initiation begins. Be ready", she said emotionlessly. "You're dismissed".
The students began to file away as the woman, who they figured was the Deputy Headmistress, walked off the stage, following her through the vast maze of corridors of Beacon and finally into a large hall that they could clearly recognize as the ballroom.
Ruby and Yang chose their sleeping bags in order to be as far as possible from Weiss.
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Jaune really didn't know what to think. On the bright side, he was glad that he hadn't been pulverized the second he'd stepped in Ozpin's school. It was a good sign. But at the same time he was almost sure that all the stares he was earning while walking back to his sleeping bag after having changed into his usual onesie weren't normal. He was receiving more stares than the prettiest girl in the room, for crying out loud! And for the Prince of the Grimm, the Dark Knight, and if Salem was right also the Bane of Humanity, stares weren't a good thing. Stares meant attention focused on him. Attention wasn't good.
He doubted he was found that handsome. Sure, he wasn't bad, but the stares were far too many. Far too many. He looked down at himself to make sure he was still in his human form. It would've been next to impossible for him to transform unconsciously, but not completely impossible. Nor it had ever happened in his sleep, not even when he had nightmares. He also doubted that they could be so impressed by the small scar on his cheek, since it was barely visible and the room was dark. And since his onesie covered him completely, he doubted his other scars were the reason for all the stares. He really wasn't liking it. What was wrong with him, if people looked at him?
He found the answer by looking around and seeing that basically everyone had changed in much more... revealing outfits and that he was the only one with a choice of nightwear that made sense. He had packed other pyjamas, of course, and he had resolved to sleep shirtless if the heat became too much to bear... but they were in a ballroom that was pretty cold, and not even in proper beds with covers! Hadn't they had Aura, all those show-off students would've caught a cold. He idly wondered if Aura could be used to stabilize the body's temperature, and if it could, he wondered if large companies would try and use it for heating or cooling systems. Oh, right, they didn't have Grimm beetles to extract Aura from people. And he didn't think Grimm would be welcomed into business just for that.
As he reached his sleeping bag and tucked himself in, he heard a noise that he had always associated only to Beowolves' fights. A messy ruckus made up of cries, growls, some outraged meows -cats always got involved- and hisses. When he looked at the source of the noise, he saw a tall blonde girl brawling with a smaller girl. He narrowed his eyes as he recognized Ruby from the courtyard, and then his eyes narrowed even further as he recalled her silver eyes. They weren't anything he was particularly worried about, although he knew the effect they had on normal Grimm. Fortunately, his mother had told him that while the Silver Eyes could harm him, he was too strong and too human to be completely influenced. And besides, from what he knew humans didn't even know about the Silver Eyes' powers. Talk about irony. So he was safe.
Unfortunately, that didn't mean he was going to get sleep anytime soon. Not that he needed sleep. He was a Grimm, and like every Grimm he didn't need to sleep. But sleeping was nice, and besides staying awake all night was a pretty boring thought. He had nothing to do, and nowhere to go, so it was probably better for him to sleep. But the two brawling girls seemed to have different ideas. A third girl, one he recognized from the courtyard as well, with black hair and a black bow over her cat ears, was watching the fight without as much as moving, and he frowned at her for the lack of helpfulness. Not that she responded.
Fortunately, someone else decided to step in before he could get annoyed enough to transform into his Grimm form and spread terror amongst the students in order to make them stop, that was an option he was seriously considering, but unfortunately it seemed to be the wrong person for the job. Never send a human to do a Grimm's job. And absolutely not Weiss Schnee Heiress of the Schnee Dust Company. He could only sink his face into his pillow in despair as the white-haired girl chastised the other two girls, and that of course caused another heated discussion. He was really surprised by how hostile the two sides were. Ruby was slightly snappy, Weiss was definitely icy and the third girl, the blonde one, was definitely nosey. Yeah, she might've been Ruby's sister, but if the small crimsonette was able to handle Grimm and criminals, she could handle an angry Weiss Schnee. The blonde's attitude made him frown. That really wasn't her fight.
Fortunately, the cat Faunus decided to put an end to that madness and blew off the only light remaining in the room.
Jaune sighed deeply as he rolled on his side and tried to sleep. On a side was his normal sleeping position since he normally slept in his Grimm form, and so his wings would've bothered him if he slept on his back. And he hated sleeping on his stomach, out of pure discomfort, and so he really had only the choice to sleep on his side. Left or right, it didn't really matter. After all, basically every single Huntsman was ambidextrous, and he in particular had been trained by Tyrian Callows, so it really didn't matter if he slept on his left side or his right one. His night vision was countered by the fact that he had his eyes closed, so the only thing that could've prevented him from sleeping, now, was another commotion.
And he was in the mood to transform if that happened.
#####
He woke up what seemed to him like five seconds after he had laid down, that was normal for humans and Faunuses, and for him too since he had gotten used to sleeping. Of course he could live without sleeping... but it would be kinda boring with no one around. That would make sleepovers particularly hilarious, since he would be the only one not to show any kind of sleepiness all thorough the night. Unfortunately, not if said sleepovers involved drinking: for whatever reason it was, Jaune Arc was definitely a lightweight at drinking.
Without any actual need for sleep, Jaune could count himself amongst the very few so-called `morning people`, normally considered aliens or monsters straight away by normal people. Well, in his case they weren't completely wrong. A half-Grimm, half-Faunus, human-like teenager who could very easily rip the limbs off any civilian was definitely considered a monster. Not that he would ever rip limbs off innocent people. And even of the deserving ones, only if he really had to. There were many ways to kill that were way more merciful.
Taking advantage of his early rise, he quickly got in a shower and cleaned himself thoroughly. Not that he was trying to make himself presentable for something: it was just something he picked up thanks to his sisters. And now that he thought about it, he would need to come up with good names for his `Arc` siblings. And relatives, too. But not at the moment. At the moment, he decided to turn into Grimm to enjoy the feeling of wildness it gave him. Besides, he doubted he would be spotted in the shower. Surveillance was okay, but that was creepy right away. Not that all his being a Grimm wasn't creepy...
Much to the others' chagrin, he kept the shower occupied for a good quarter of hour before exiting and heading for the cafeteria. Fortunately the bathroom was large enough to house several showers, otherwise he doubted the students would've finished before noon. His stomach growled noisily at being empty and he hurried to the cafeteria. He was pleased to see the variety of food that was served there. At home his family used to cook very simple things, except for special events like their birthdays, Dustmas or New Year. He was bewildered at the sight before him.
At a table, there were Ruby and her sister. The small crimsonette had at least thirty cookies in front of her, and she looked really ready to eat them all. Probably in no more than ten seconds. At another table sat a tall, black-haired boy and a short carrothead girl, both of them with the most massive piles of pancakes in front of them. The girl seemed to have already finished her breakfast, although the boy had obviously just started it. At yet another table sat the cat Faunus, alone, with a tray of fish nonetheless. He bit back a grimace. 'Fish for breakfast... ugh'. It was blasphemy.
For himself, he decided to just take the cook's advice and keep it healthy. Not that he needed healthy foods, but back at home healthy foods where basically all they ate, so he chose to stick to normal. He remembered the times when Hazel or Watts had brought him or his sisters to holidays in all the four continents. Mistral, Vale, Vacuo, Mantle... he had seen them all, although just on holiday and for short periods. Of those trips, he would never forget the first time Hazel had brought him to eat pizza. It had been definitely worth the horrible Bullhead trip to arrive to Mistral, although on the way back he hadn't been able to keep it in his stomach.
He sat at Ruby's table, cheerfully responding to the sleepy greetings he received. The elder sister, Yang if his memory was right, seemed ready to just let her face fall in her plate. That being said, her hair was perfectly and her make-up in the exact same quantity she had worn yesterday. Her clothes didn't have a single wrinkle and it was clear she had come out of a shower no more than twenty minutes before. With all of that, she seemed still sleepy. Ruby, instead, was way less tidy and way more energetic. She chirped a `hey!` muffled by the three or four cookies she had in her mouth, and accompanied the greeting with a cheerful wave.
Fortunately, breakfast passed without further conversation. Yang returned from her zombie-trance in time to head for the lockers and made him swear, under the promise of pain and torture, not to tell anyone about her not being a morning person. He was utterly unfazed by her menaces. His mother's compliments were far more scary. But since he didn't want to irritate one of his first friends at Beacon, he played along and pretended to be intimidated in an overly exaggerated way that made Ruby laugh and Yang sulk. Basically, objective complete. And he still had his blackmail material. Uncle Watts had always insisted on taking advantage of everything he could, after all.
Since his own locker was a little bit off from their owns, he farewelled them before heading toward his locker to retrieve his weapons. He had named the sword and the shield Crocea Mors, while the white armour was Crocea Vitae. The katars, instead, where called Obscurité and the black armour was Soleil Noir. His uncle prided himself to have come up with such names, but Jaune suspected Watts had already had a list of possible names for his creations ready at all times.
Unfortunately, his path was going to cross a certain white-haired girl's. In order to arrive to his weapons, he would have to pass through Weiss Schnee Heiress of the Schnee Dust Company herself.
'Come on', he told himself. 'You have faced greater odds. Remember when you once dyed Aunt Cinder's hair green?'.
He shivered at the memory. Then he steeled himself and marched over, only for Weiss to bump into him as she turned to pose like an evil madwoman -the pose slightly reminded him of Cinder while planning, curiously- and of course it ended as bad as it could, with Weiss noticing his presence. Fortunately, he hadn't done anything to earn her ire, apart from being `tall, blond and scraggly over there` so he was relatively safe. Like a Beowolf in a King Tajitsu's den. Well, like a Wyvern in a King Tajitsu's den, really. He was hardly comparable to a Beowolf, even an Alpha one.
"And who are you?", she asked, surveying his -still armourless- attire, from his plain black hoodie to his plain blue jeans to his plain black boots.
"Ehm... my name's Jaune Arc. It's a pleasure to meet you", he said, eyeing his locker. 'So near...'. "I should get my weapons, if you don't mind...".
She stepped aside, still eyeing him with an inquisitive look and then scoffing. "My name is Weiss Schnee".
He nodded in acknowledgement and opened his locker, glad to find his equipment still there. If what Watts had told him about his weapons being made out of diamond instead of steel, they had to have costed a lot... although wealth wasn't exactly a problem when one's mother was Salem, the Queen of the Grimm, herself.
The girl seemed unsatisfied by his meek response. "Let me guess: you don't know who I am, right?". She snorted. "Another one".
"You're Weiss Schnee, current Heiress of the Schnee Dust Company since your sister Winter got disowned by your father Jacques Schnee when she joined the military", he said, recalling his many researches. They had been `to find out more about the enemy`, but they could surely be used to let this Weiss know he did know who she was. "If what I've read and heard is not wrong, you ran away from your father since he didn't want you to attend Beacon and instead he wanted you to attend Atlas Academy".
The girl looked stunned into silence for a second, but then her expression turned from confused to stormy. "How do you know that?".
"My uncle Jonathan was an Atleasian scientist and doctor", he said. Watts had been a doctor and a scientist, and the simpler he kept the lie, the easier it would be to keep it. "He told me".
Weiss's eyes narrowed, but when she saw no lie in his eyes, she sighed. "I guess it was too much to ask everyone to keep quite about it", she grumbled before turning to face the other girl and returning to their conversation. He frowned when he recognized the girl. Her name was Pyrrha Nikos, if he had heard right. He waved lazily at her before returning to his equipment.
Weiss noticed, of course, and turned. "Wait, you know her?", she asked.
"Mmh... not exactly", he replied, bending down to fasten a greave's straps. "Just caught her name on the airship".
Weiss raised a single eyebrow. "Very well, Arc. This...". She motioned at the redhead. "is Pyrrha Nikos".
"Hello", waved Pyrrha.
He waved back with a courteous smile before continuing with the other greave.
Weiss frowned. "She graduated with top grades in her class at Sanctum".
Jaune paused. 'Sanctum... nope'. "What is this Sanctum?", he asked, raising his gaze just in time to catch Weiss's frown turn into a scowl. "Sorry, homeschooled. Never heard of many combat schools... if this Sanctum is a combat school".
"She won the Mistral tournament, four times in a row", announced Weiss. "A new record".
"And I can beat anyone but my mother at poker", he replied with nonchalance. "Another record".
Mentioning poker seemed to halt Weiss's rant for a second, just enough for him to glance at Pyrrha. "Not meaning any offence, of course. I'd hate to make an enemy so early during the year", he said, not caring about the fact that he was probably making a white-haired enemy in that very moment. "Especially such a beautiful one as well". 'Yeah, Jaune, go for honesty. Uncle Hazel always did say that honesty was the base for friendship'.
The statement stunned Pyrrha long enough for Weiss to regain her composure, and promptly losing it again. "She's on the front of every Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes box!", she exclaimed, and then fell silent as he fished out his scroll from his pocket and typed something before holding his scroll in front of him. Peeking at the screen, Weiss almost facepalmed as she saw a Remnant Search of `pumpkin pete marshmallow flakes`.
Jaune didn't know why was she so overly dramatic. He didn't know what was she talking about, he made a quick search. What was wrong with it? "Yeah, I guess you're right. She's the same", he admitted eventually, pocketing his scroll again.
Weiss waited for a follow-up, but it didn't come. "What am I trying to say, she's famous, you're not", she finally said. "Shouldn't you... I don't know... show respect?".
"But I am showing respect", he argued. "And as for being famous, that does not mean anything".
Then he turned to Pyrrha, who had been silent all along and was just looking at the two of them while they bickered. "As for knowing you... well, I kinda did. I saw your fights. Not bad, by the way. You're very good", he said, offering a hand for her to shake. "My name's Jaune Arc. It's a pleasure to meet you".
She smiled as she took his hand. "The pleasure's mine".
Footnote time!
Tonight I slept horribly, so now I'm irritable, but that's okay!
Anyway, the shipping is currently with Lancaster leading and Arkos close behind. I've always been an Arkos fan, so let's see if my ship will be outclasses by Lancaster! Fight, Arkos, fight!
Until next time,
Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh