Chapter 4 — In Which Ruby is Patient
Weiss bit her lip, focusing on the metal construct before her. She was cutting holes into three of her sheets of metal. It was her second attempt now on the top plate, trying to punch a slot for her lever, with the original discarded in the scrap pile for someone else to eventually make use of… probably.
"How's it going, Weiss?"
And a second plate then followed its predecessor's footsteps, joining the reject pile. Weiss nearly punctured her lip with her teeth, before sighing and responding to her leader, not so much as turning around. "Just fine, Ruby. Thanks for asking. Again. For the third time."
The Schnee could still feel the eyes of her leader on her back, an instinct honed over the duration of her life. Even as she grabbed another piece from the scrap pile and walked back to her station, whatever the machine was called, to try once again.
"Want some help?" Ruby's voice came from her side as she took a position next to Weiss. Sparing a glance, the heiress watched the innocent smile and bright eyes of the redhead. She wanted nothing more than to shove her greasy palm into Ruby's face and push her away, frustrated enough with her project. She didn't need the usual struggles of dealing with her younger superior as well.
"No, thank you." Weiss hissed through grit teeth.
"Are you sure? Because class ended five minutes ago and you're still here…"
The snow-themed girl looked around the room abruptly, finding it completely empty, save the two of them and Ozpin, still sitting behind his desk silently. The accursed man spent half the class actually showing the students around the room, and its many devices for metalwork, despite them all figuring it out the previous class, before sitting back down behind his desk again and eyeing the student body over his small glasses.
What are they even for? They're too small to be useful! Weiss thought spitefully, turning back to Ruby.
"I'll only be a couple more minutes, if I could just have them in silence."
Ruby looked down, fingers intertwined around her own switch box. The beautiful button was now painted a sleek red with black details, and the edges were all beautifully soldered together. In fact, some didn't even look joined, but instead a single piece. Small wires poked out the top and bottom of the completed project, but how? We only had half an hour; she did all that already?
Weiss looked away from her leader, back to her station. The something-cutter that used highly concentrated lightning dust—Plasma cutter? It didn't matter, so long as she could use it to complete her task.
Ten minutes later, Weiss finished the incredibly slow and precise assault on her steel sheet, holding it up and admiring her own handiwork. Now all that was left was to poke a hole through a stick and attach it to the inside of her box, then wire it and she'd be finished.
Turning, Ruby was found sitting on the beaten wooden table beside the rest of the heiress' assignment, head bobbing away to the music playing through headphones over her ears and hands fiddling with the button she spent so much time making the previous class. Her perfectly crafted little button, on her perfectly crafted little box.
And Ozpin was still sitting, though he was now looking intently at some paperwork in one hand, rather than staring at Weiss as he had been previously.
Weiss walked over to the table, grabbing her stuff and putting it in a bag she had smartly brought with her to class this time, rather than carrying the parts in her hands again. Ruby took notice of her approaching, pulling off her headphones and quickly turning down the volume as the music immediately filled the otherwise silent room. It was an offensively distasteful Rock 'n' Roll of some sort, with scratchy singing that would have made the Schnee's old vocals instructor pop a blood vessel.
"You ready to go now?" Ruby asked, blushing in embarrassment. Weiss huffed subtly.
"Yes. I should be able to finish on Friday, now that I'm sufficiently caught up."
Weiss began walking towards the door out of the classroom, ready to leave the dirty hole of a classroom she had been confined to.
"Hey! Where's my 'thank you?'"
"Thank you? For what?" The heiress raised an eyebrow genuine confusion, unsure of why her leader was now pouting at her as she followed behind.
"For being quiet! I didn't bug you at all after you asked me not to."
Weiss swore she heard a quiet, single chuckle from the man in the green scarf known as their headmaster, though a quick look over her shoulder revealed nothing but his poker face.
"I have to thank you for doing what's expected?"
"Of course! It's common courtesy to thank the people who do things for you."
"All right, fine. Thank you, Ruby Rose. Happy now?"
Ruby made a humming sound as she nodded her head, positively beaming with her lips pressed in a large smile. It was ridiculous, childish—downright silly—and yet somehow satisfying to the heiress.
"Now let's go. I want to stop at the cafeteria before we head back to the dorms." Weiss said as she turned away, beginning to walk down the hallway as she tried to suppress a grin.
Ruby and Weiss sat across from each other in the dining hall, taking bites from their respective meals. Other students idly milled about, not many coming out for a meal so late in the day. The Rudimentary Mechanics course was an odd one, due to it taking place in the eight to nine timeslot in the evening. No other course was so late, but Weiss wrote it off as most likely taking place to fit into Ozpin's probably hectic schedule. Surely he had headmaster duties during the rest of the day.
Ruby made a joke, laughing by herself across the table as Weiss zoned out. Her fork absently poked at the modest salad in front of her, otherwise untouched.
"You okay, Weiss?" The younger girl asked, drawing her older partner out of the trance. She was nibbling on her dessert cookie, the rest of her dinner wiped clean. Something about the Rose-Xiao Long family, they ate as though the world was about to burn.
"Yeah, I'm just thinking."
"About what?" Weiss stabbed some lettuce, sticking the piece in her mouth to buy some time. She really wasn't thinking about anything important, but Ruby would never accept such a bland response.
The heiress swallowed, freeing her mouth to speak again. "Just about how I'll be finishing the project on time. How are your studies in history going?"
"Ugh, they're fine, mom." Ruby floundered on the table, looking mildly frustrated. "But Oobleck's been going a little too fast this semester. I'm starting to fall behind…"
"fall behind in what?" A voice called out from behind the red-themed girl, a thin, blonde man in a white hoodie and armour plating placing his tray on the table near the pair. He was accompanied by one other, who placed her own tray beside Weiss.
"Hi Jaune!" Ruby said to the new arrival, the Schnee nodding to Jaune's redheaded partner sitting beside her. "We were just talking about classes. History's tough this time around."
"Tell me about it!" Jaune replied, tone immediately sounding defeated. "I had a hard enough time keeping up last semester. If it weren't for Pyrrha, I probably would have failed."
"Oh nonsense. You did all the work, Jaune. I just helped keep you company." Pyrrha Nikos, Jaune's partner, spoke up, quick to divert the praise. "I'm sure you'll do fine this semester."
Weiss watched the conversation, keeping silent as Ruby and Jaune began speaking excitedly about some comic book or something, a hobby the Schnee had no interest in. Still, it was nice to see Ruby speaking with someone other than herself or their other teammates, even if that other was the team living across the hall from them.
"So, how's the engineering course?" Pyrrha spoke softly, as though not to disturb the red and white duo and their happy conversation. It was enough for Weiss to pick up on, but would go by unnoticed by Ruby, or the few surrounding students enjoying their own meals.
"Who told you? Was it Ruby?" A sudden edge came on the heiress' voice as she responded under her breath. "I swear, if it was Ruby again, I'm going to have to teach her a lesson about respecting—"
"No!" Pyrrha said louder, immediately going quiet again. "No, Yang told me. I'm sorry, was it a secret?"
"Apparently it isn't anymore. Xiao Long better watch her back…" Weiss picked through her salad, moving the food around until her fork suddenly pulled back. Before Pyrrha could ask about it, the utensil shot down into the bowl, spearing a lone yellow slice of mango near the bottom.
"I'll take that as a rocky start, then." The redhead spoke hesitantly. She was safe, so long as the fork didn't start piercing cherry tomatoes.
"It's going fine. The workload is manageable, the material is simple, and the teaching is…" Pyrrha leaned in closer, eager to listen. Ozpin teaching a course was gossip that quickly circulated around the school, and it started spreading much quicker once two thirds of the class walked out on the first day. "It's awful. He doesn't teach us anything, or when he does, it's too late. It's like he doesn't care at all. No one could show up on Friday, and he'd probably just shrug from behind that desk of his, sipping his coffee while looking over papers."
Pyrrha placed a hand on Weiss' shoulder, causing the white-themed girl to tense more than relax.
"Are you at least enjoying the rest of the course?"
"Far from it. The work is mindless, the few other students left are all absorbed in their own projects, and it feels like the place hasn't been cleaned since it was built." Weiss huffed, chewing on another bite of her salad before continuing. "I'm not learning anything useful."
"Well it is only the first week. I'm sure things will improve." Pyrrha smiled, trying to convey her encouragement. It reminded Weiss of how the warrior beside her typically treated Jaune. Constant support for the otherwise useless boy. It was almost insulting, being looked down on like an incompetent buffoon.
The heiress pushed the remains of her salad away, standing up abruptly. The red and white leaders on the other side of the table stopped their rambling immediately, attention drawn to the sudden motion.
"I'll be excusing myself now. Enjoy your meals."
It wasn't until Weiss had taken several steps towards the exit of the dining hall, that Ruby's eyes widened, and she jumped up to follow her partner. She shouted around a cookie swiped off of Jaune's tray. "Weiss! Wait up!"
"What the heck, Weiss? What was that about?"
Ruby followed a step behind her teammate, catching up with the Schnee in the courtyard. The girl in question didn't so much as pause her step, marching toward the dorms. She just wanted to shower, to wash off the grime that felt stuck to her skin. It was greasy filth that had no right touching the young heiress.
"I was finished my meal, that's all." Weiss responded with practiced ease. Her voice wasn't going to waver, not now.
The sound of the red leader behind her ceased, giving the heiress a moment of reprieve to believe she wouldn't be questioned. It lasted up until the voice appeared again, Ruby now in front of the heiress. She looked angry, or frustrated? Yet she wasn't going off on the heiress like she used to.
She's grown, Schnee. Now it's your turn.
"What did you talk to Pyrrha about?"
Weiss kept her gaze level, staring right through her partner. "She asked about the engineering course."
The reaction wasn't subtle. Ruby could always easily be read, her emotions worn on her sleeves. It was uncomfortable, the heiress used to dealing with her servants and those in business with the Schnee Dust Company. A smile didn't mean kindness, nor did a frown mean displeasure, in her world.
Weiss' hands clenched into fists, the only sign of her internal thoughts, while her leader's face shifted from a frown, to a smile, to shock and realization; it was followed by fear, then concern, and finally lingering doubt.
"And?"
Or was it confusion?
"You were smiling when we left. You were happy when you left. What changed?"
"Nothing, Ruby! Nothing's changed! I didn't enjoy the first class, I wasn't enjoying the second class, and I won't enjoy the next class. To add to that, I certainly don't favour my hands being encased in black grime. Talking to Pyrrha just reminded me of that."
No, it wasn't confusion. It wasn't doubt, either. That look was Ruby's way of saying 'I'm listening.' She didn't explode, like Weiss did—Like Weiss always did. She just stared back at the Schnee, face unfazed by the outburst.
"What do you not like about the class?"
The courtyard was empty, street lamps flickering to life as the sun sunk behind the horizon. No one was around to see the two speaking, to witness the heiress struggle with her words. It was rare to find the girl hesitating when she spoke, typically responding immediately with at least some form of retort.
"… It's menial. It's basic. We're making boxes, for dust's sake. Anyone could do it. Something so simple is…"
"Beneath you?" Ruby's face didn't change, but her eyes did. They felt colder, the kind of eyes Weiss was used to. She didn't want to see those eyes from her teammate.
So she kept silent. It filled her with shame, watching her partner's eyes grow more and more chilled. At any moment, she could snap, the Schnee could feel it, but the longer it took, the worse it would be.
She wasn't afraid, rather Weiss was willing to stand in the explosion. It was the least she could do after running her mouth uncontrollably yet again. The white-haired girl shifted her weight, causing the bag with her project inside to rattle. She had completely forgotten she was even carrying the bag, the sound enough to jolt her nerves.
But it also caught the young leader's attention, and after hearing the noise, Ruby broke eye contact, looking at the strap her partner held onto. In time, her eyes softened, back to normal, and all at once she exhaled.
"We're only making boxes for one more class. You can last until after then, right?"
Weiss still hesitated, unsure of how she would respond if her lips were to part.
"For me?"
"... Fine."
A/N: Hello reader, and welcome back. Thank you for continuing up to his point. In case it's unclear, the Rudimentary Mechanics One course has classes every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Since students enter Beacon at age seventeen, typically, I'm attributing the class schedule more to a Canadian university set up.
If you have any feedback, criticism, or just want to blurt out what you liked/disliked, please feel free to leave a review. Also, letting me know about any mistakes in the grammar or spelling is greatly appreciated. These tired eyes barely have enough focus to write, let alone edit properly. I can't wait for my vacation.
Also, thank you, guest, for mentioning a couple possible inconsistencies. To clarify, soldering is a form of joining two metals through the use of a filler metal with a low melting point (solder). It is certainly weaker than brazing or welding, but that's not to say it can't be used. In terms of simple practice, it is a safer and easier task than welding or brazing, and can be done with a blowtorch (source: I've done it with a blowtorch). It is also used in electronics, but for the purpose of solidly connecting wires with a conductive solder, not for creating any structural integrity.
Welding in the first week of the introductory course might have been a bit much, so I leaned on personal experience and used a practice which was taught to me back when I took a first year course in wood shop and machine shop at my high school. People weren't welding until their third year, if my memory isn't betraying me. Also, even though hunters forge their own weapons typically, that doesn't mean they're all at the same level of expertise, and this class is designed to be introductory. Not to mention, other circumstances. (Who made Weiss' weapon? Who made Blake's weapon? What if Ruby helped Yang with hers? Jaune's was handed down to him, so how often might that happen?)
Notes:
18/03/2016 - Minor typo correction.
02/06/2016 - Minor typo correction.
04/06/2016 - A couple words were missing. Weiss said "All right, you, Ruby Rose" instead of "All right fine. Thank you, Ruby Rose." Weird...