Disclaimer: RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth.
Bright light flickered across her eyelids, tempting them open against her will. She was staring at a cloudy gray sky, thin fog making the treetops look blurry and dull. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply through her nose, feeling the cold, damp mountain air filling her lungs. "Mornin' Ice Queen!" Weiss screwed her eyes shut tighter at the sound of the ever-cheerful and always-obnoxious voice of Yang Xiao Long, silently cursing that she still had to spend the rest of the weekend with the peppy blonde.
She peeked one eye open and was met with a wide smile, Yang crouching over her and grinning ear to ear. "Good morning, Xiao Long."
Yang rolled her eyes and sighed in mock exasperation. "Again with the 'Xiao Long' thing? What's it gonna take to get you to just call me 'Yang'?" she said, resting her head on her wrist. After waiting for a moment, she shrugged and rose to her feet. "Anyway, it's time to get up! I'm making coffee and Nora's making pancakes." her voice called as she walked out of view.
Weiss pushed herself up to a sitting position, scanning her eyes around their campsite. Clear droplets of dew hung from the tips of every blade of grass and dripped off the waterproof lining of her sleeping bag. The logs were colored a deeper shade of brown from the dampness, and a small fire danced in the firepit, wispy white smoke drifting leisurely towards the sky like a ghostly snake. Pyrrha was by the edge of the campsite, dressed in sweatpants and a light jacket, doing warm-up stretches. Nora and Yang were chatting as they knelt in the dirt in front of a gas-powered portable stove lain on one of the logs, an old scratched percolator steaming on one side while a black-handled griddle sat on the other. Swiveling her head around, she finally spotted Ruby. The young girl was sitting on the log that was beside her red sleeping bag, her knees tucked under her chin and rocking back and forth.
Weiss unzipped her sleeping bag and pulled it off her legs, her skin prickling against the cold air that flooded into the space left by the warm covers. She slipped on her shoes and quickly tied them, standing with a groan and walking to the two girls by the stove. Plopping herself on the log, she covered a yawn and blinked sleepily at Yang. "So..." she said, putting her hands in her lap. She was glad she had worn her sweater to bed; the morning was chilly and wet. She wouldn't be surprised if she'd caught a cold in her sleep. "What are we doing today?"
Yang looked up at her with a grin. "Anything you want! After breakfast, all that's left to do before we leave is pack up!"
Weiss yawned again, rubbing at her eyes. "The sooner we're out of here the better..."
"Aww, are you not having fun?"
"Somehow, camping without tents and being woken up in the middle of the night doesn't really satisfy my definition of the word 'fun'." she said, glowering at the blonde. "I think I caught pneumonia, sleeping out in the open like this..."
"Heh, yeah..." Yang gave her an awkward grin and glanced at the ground. "Sorry about that. I still don't know what the deal with her is..." she said, looking over at her sister. "But she seems really freaked out. Maybe she did see a monster?"
Weiss scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Please." She leaned over and looked at the griddle, which was cooking four small, perfectly round pancakes. "Where did you even get pancake mix?"
Nora, clutching a spatula in her hand like a club, looked up at her and smiled wide. "A Valkyrie never leaves the house without pancake mix! Well, that's not completely true. Like, I don't go to school with pancake mix, but whenever I go on a trip I bring some!" She poked at the browning batter with the spatula, testing its doneness. "After that, you just add water and stir like crazy!"
"Uh huh..." Her attention shifted from the orange-haired girl to a steaming ceramic mug that was pushed into her hands, and she glanced up at Yang. "What's this?"
"Coffee! I told you I was making some."
"Right. Thank you." She stood, holding the warm cup with both hands, and crossed to Ruby, settling herself on the log beside the rocking girl. "Good morning, Ruby."
Silver eyes flicked to her, then returned to the small fire. "Hey."
"Do you want some coffee? You look tired." Ruby's eyes were wide and staring, dark circles like shadows underneath the sterling irises. Weiss held out the mug, but Ruby made no movement towards it.
"No thanks. Yang doesn't make coffee how I like it."
"Oh? How do you normally drink it?"
"With cream and five sugars."
Weiss' face puckered at the thought of all that sweetness, and she turned away so Ruby wouldn't see her grimace. "O-Okay. Well, are you cold? You're shivering. Where's your sweatshirt?" Weiss looked around, quickly looking over Ruby's sleeping bag and behind the log.
Ruby shrugged. "Don't know. Can't find it."
"She can borrow one of mine..." Pyrrha said from behind them, walking over after finishing her stretches. "It might be a little big..." She passed them, heading for her bag in the car.
"Well, why don't you move closer to the fire? You're going to catch a cold..."
A tiny smile pulled at Ruby's mouth as she let herself get pushed beside the fire, her hands held towards the small, dancing flames. "I told you you were kind of nice..." she whispered as she set her chin on her knee.
"I... uh... well, it's just... um..." Weiss stammered before sighing. "Don't tell anyone, especially your sister! I have a reputation to uphold." she whispered, tilting her head upwards.
Ruby giggled. "Okay. I promise I won't tell Yang." She breathed out, and the smile disappeared, replaced by a sad, distant expression. "Hey Weiss, can I ask you something?"
"I'm sorry Ruby, but I still don't think you saw 'the monster'."
"It's not about that, it's about-"
"Here you go!" Pyrrha called, tossing a dark gray sweatshirt to Weiss, who floundered as she tried to catch it one-handed and wound up spilling half of the coffee onto the ground. "Oops! Sorry! It's just the school's gym sweatshirt, but it's warm and I just washed it!"
"Thanks Pyrrha..." Weiss said, trying to smile but only frowning at her embarrassing display of coordination. "Here," she said to Ruby, handing the younger girl the sweatshirt, "put this on and get warm, and I'll go get you some breakfast." She stood and walked away, reassuming her frosty attitude.
"But... okay..." Ruby's outstretched arm fell back to her side, and she sighed as she pulled Pyrrha's sweater over her head.
A droplet of cold water fell from a branch above her head and landed on her ear, the tufted appendage reflexively flicking the moisture off. Her stare remained unbroken by the chilling wetness, one golden eye peeking around the trunk and through the needles of a broad pine tree and carefully watching the five humans as they wandered around the flat, grassy campsite.
She had barely slept at all, her mind filled with panicked and terrifying scenarios of crowds of humans trudging through the forest, searching for her. They would have guns, and flashlights, and, the most worrying of all, dogs. She had crept back to the camp after depositing her newly acquired sweatshirt into the safety of her den, mindful of every footstep and creaking twig. The forest's creatures had returned into the open, as if sensing her fear and unease, their chatters and caws mocking her from out of reach.
Dawn had found her huddled on an upper bough of the pine tree, her hands sticky with sap and her hair riddled with stiff, stinky needles. She had watched the fog roll in, the preamble for the storm that she had smelled the previous night, and her nerves only rose at the thought of being caught outside in the rain. Her body was exhausted, begging for her to go home and sleep, snuggled in the new, warm clothes she had stolen. But she had to know that she was safe from these campers before she could relax.
The girl who had seen her never went back to sleep, as far as she could tell from the distance she put between them. She had sat by the dying fire, her head twisting at every nocturnal creature's cry. When morning came, and the others began to rise, she still didn't move, just sat and rocked with her arms wrapped around her knees. The blonde had quickly checked on her, but walked away after only a few moments, and nothing changed.
She had cringed and pushed herself closer to the tree trunk as the blonde and the orange-haired girl entered the forest towards her, picking small sticks off the ground, remaining still until they returned to the campsite and threw their haul into the pit. The orange-haired girl started a small fire while the blonde pulled several odd objects out of their car.
Her hunger was reignited by the wafting smell of... something. It smelled definitively brown, bitter and strong, but faintly tasty. She swallowed and licked her lips, but didn't dare move. Hopefully, the campers would forget some, as they had with the meat cylinder earlier. Another drip landed on her head, and she scowled. It was cold, it was about to rain, and the campers didn't seem to notice. She wished they would leave. She watched as the white-haired girl got up, walked to the blonde, then to the scared girl. The tall redhead passed them, going to the car. She gasped quietly as the redhead returned to the pair with a gray sweatshirt.
More clothes? Humans had so many things...
After what felt like another hour, and another dozen drips on her head, the humans had finally packed everything into the car, and she watched them douse the fire before climbing in themselves. The car creaked across the gravel, loud music playing from the open windows. She sighed in relief and lowered herself to the branch below, her nails scraping against the wood. She dropped to the forest's floor with a grunt, and inched cautiously up to the campsite. She circled it once, until she was finally certain that there weren't any traps or secrets left by the campers, then approached the ring of logs. She frowned disappointedly when there wasn't another sweatshirt, or a book, or some of whatever had emitted that brown aroma.
"That's okay." she said to herself, her shoulders finally relaxing. She already had a new sweatshirt. Her ear twitched and her head turned, the rumble of distant thunder washing over the forests. "Time to go home." She glanced around the campsite once more before setting off towards her den, her gait light and calm as her feet sank into the moist dirt.
She could hear the patter-patter of the beginning rain against the leaves as she crossed the old, forgotten footbridge that spanned the empty, overgrown stream bed near her home, the rotten wood creaking as it took her weight. A tall hill made of slate-gray rocks jutted out of the earth in front of her, cloaked and speckled with lichen. Her breath was misting in front of her face in the cool wet air as she pulled aside the drape of moss that served as a door, dipping her head below the low-hanging rock and sighing contentedly as she entered her den.
The floor was covered in soft needles and scraps of cloth that had been left by hikers or campers. The roof was a single solid stone, mud and dirt packed into the few cracks that had appeared over the years. It wasn't warm, but it was waterproof, except in the absolute worst storms. She had taken over the cave with His help, forcing out the old wounded bear that had once slept where she now did. The claw marks were still visible on the walls, despite her efforts to cover them with books and cloth. Her favorite books were stacked in a corner, forming a half-wall of their own. She wished she had another to add to the collection. She tossed a couple out of the way as she retrieved a dirty, smeared bowl, setting it just outside her 'door' to catch rainwater.
She shivered as she knelt on the old, ripped blanket that she used for a bed, a table, a napkin, and a towel. He had stolen it for her, breaking into a tent while the campers were gone. She reached over and picked up her new red sweatshirt, putting her arms through the sleeves and zipping it closed. She hummed while pulling the hood over her ears, lying down and curling into a ball, her back to the door. The sweatshirt was warm.
Another burst of thunder boomed, and the rain fell harder, making loud wet splashes against the ground. "Thank you..." she whispered to the red-haired girl she had scared last night, just before she drifted off into a deep, restful snooze.
The windows had been rolled up after the fat raindrops started splashing onto the windshield, but the rock music still blared through the speakers, filling in the silence that occupied the car. Yang matched the beat with her fingers, tapping them against the steering wheel as she drove. Pyrrha was reading a book she had pulled from her bag, absently turning a page and tracing her eyes over the words. Nora was strangely quiet, gazing out the front window with her mouth open, watching the rain get brushed away by the wipers. Ruby's eyes were blank as she stared out her window, her arms cradled to her chest. Weiss was typing on her laptop's keyboard, her fingers flying across the keys, halfway through the second body paragraph of her final essay. Her noise-canceling earbuds were doing their job, completely blocking the rock music with slow, melodic piano compositions.
"Lucky we left when we did, huh?" Yang asked her passengers, trying to bring some conversation to the dour car. "Would have been quite a surprise, waking up to this..." She glanced at Weiss through the rear-view mirror, her forced smile dwindling as she was ignored by the white-haired girl. "It was fun, right guys?" she asked, quickly turning her head to gauge her friends' reactions.
"Hell yeah!" Nora piped. "We had s'mores, and told stories! It was awesome!"
"Yeah!" Yang said, her grin returning. She checked on Weiss again, and her rising spirits fell as the girl's face was still neutral, her eyes locked to the computer screen. "We'll drop you off first, Weiss." She was answered by a long bout of typing, and she rested her cheek on her fist, driving one-handed through the rain.
They arrived at Weiss' house with little interruption and even less conversation, the only stop being at a gas station to refuel and to let Nora run to the bathroom. "Can you open the trunk, please?" Weiss asked Yang, closing her laptop and pulling out her earbuds. She opened her door and hunched over her computer as she walked to the back of the car, heaving out her bags and backpack. She put the computer in the backpack and zipped it closed, shouldering it and preparing to leave. She took half a step then paused. "Thanks for the ride, Yang."
"Sure thing, Ice Queen!" Yang called backwards through the car, turning in her seat and smiling. "I'll give you a ride anytime!" Pyrrha snorted in the passenger seat. Yang glared and whacked her on the shoulder. "See you at school tomorrow!"
"Yes, I can't wait." Weiss mumbled, shutting the trunk and hurrying onto her porch as the rain fell against her shoulders.
Yang waited until Weiss had disappeared through the white double doors before shifting into reverse and starting to drive away. "Good grief, Yang, why didn't you just say 'I'll ride you anytime'?" Pyrrha said, struggling to hold in her laughter with a hand to her mouth. "You were halfway there already!"
"Shut up, Pyrrha." Yang grumbled, her fingers wrapping tight around the steering wheel. "It wasn't... it didn't come out how I wanted it to, okay?"
"No, I'm serious!" Pyrrha said, sounding the opposite. She sighed and settled her giggles, blinking back tears. "And when is it going to 'come out', hmm? Weren't you going to show her you were interested?"
Yang gnawed her bottom lip, her eyes wandering the road. "I... yeah? But it didn't feel right, you know? Like... I don't think she had fun! It didn't seem like the right time." They came to a stop sign, and Yang leaned her head back against her seat. "Like, what am I even doing? I'm not blind, I can tell she doesn't even remotely like me! But I just... it's like... I can't... I can't stop, you know?"
"Mm-hmm." Pyrrha sighed, leaning her head against the window and watching the rain fall. "Yeah, I know."
"There's something about her... and..." Yang's mouth twisted as she struggled for the right words. She couldn't find them, breathing out in a long groan. "She looks at me, and I smile. Even if she's glaring, it makes me happy. She talks to me, and my heart flies. I... I just... I want her to be happy, because of me. ARGH!" She growled and punched the instrument panel. "But all I do is piss her off!"
"Why don't you just tell her all that?"
"Uh, hello? Tell that to the Ice Queen? She'll tell me to fuck off then prance away with that stupid, gorgeous ponytail bouncing behind her."
"Well, it's that or you keep doing what you're doing. And it seems to be working out great."
"Whatever." Yang sighed, shifting into park and opening the trunk. "We're here."
"Okay." Pyrrha climbed out of the car and rushed to the back, gathering her bags. "Hey Yang? Don't worry too much about it. It was fun, I'm sure she enjoyed herself." She pushed the trunk closed and then jogged to her door. "Thanks for the ride!" she called back, waving as Yang pulled onto the street.
The drive to Nora's house was quiet, Yang lost in her thoughts while Nora was oddly lulled by the falling rain. Ruby remained, by visual examination, comatose in the back seat, her eyes tiredly watching the drips of water as they flowed across the window. When they arrived, Nora bounced out, jabbering out several 'thank you's for a hundred different reasons. Curiously, she ran to the house next door, her arm whipping side to side as she waved goodbye when Yang and Ruby drove away.
Ruby had switched to the passenger seat now that it was just the two of them, and quietly plucked at the edges of her borrowed sweater. The silence was heavy, an overwhelming presence of agitation stifling any desire to talk. Ruby glanced over at her sister, the blonde's jaw clenched and knuckles white as she gripped the steering wheel. They were leaned forward as the car slowed to a halt at a red light, the rain clattering on the car's roof. Ruby breathed deep, summoning her courage. Yang was in a bad mood, and is wasn't always a good idea to try and talk to her when she was like this. "Ya-"
"What the fuck, Ruby?!" Yang screamed, smashing her hands against the steering wheel. "Why the fuck did you feel like embarrassing me?"
"Wha-"
"Forgetting the fucking tents, screaming about 'the monster'! It doesn't exist, Ruby! It's a joke, a story, a legend!" Yang growled and shifted angrily in her seat. "She thinks I put you up to it, to try and scare her! She must think I'm a goddamn idiot!" She glared at her sister, her face red with anger. "What the fuck is your problem? This was my chance, my one goddamn chance, and you fucking ruined it! You ruin everything!" Yang sighed, running a hand through her hair. Her voice was low and regretful as she said, "I knew I shouldn't have brought you. I knew you'd embarrass me. God damn it."
"Ya-"
"What?! What?!"
Ruby had shrunk into the back of her chair, her arms clutched under her chin and her eyes flicking between the ground and Yang. "The light's green." she murmured, pointing.
"Hmph." Yang slammed on the gas pedal, the tires spinning on the wet road before finding their grip, and the car hurtled through the intersection.
The car screeched to a stop in their driveway, Yang snatching the keys out of the steering column and stomping onto the porch. Her father was sitting in a chair reading, dressed in a t-shirt and jeans, his glasses pulled to the edge of his nose. "I was wondering when you'd come back for those..." he said with nonchalance, pointing a toe at the two green tent bags that lay side by side on the stairs. He closed the book and set his glasses on his collar. "Did you have fun?"
"Shut up, Dad!" Yang spat as she stormed past, thundering up to her room.
"Hmm." He hummed, listening as Yang slammed her door closed. "Probably not then, I'd guess." He turned his head to look at his younger daughter as she slowly climbed the steps, her eyes downcast and her hands in her pockets. "Hey there, Ruby. Where's your sweatshirt?" he asked, frowning at the unfamiliar sweater.
"I lost it..." Ruby said quietly as she lowered herself into the open chair to her father's right.
After a moment, her father sighed. "Guy trouble?" he asked, jerking a thumb towards the house.
"Dad, you know she's into girls..."
"Yeah, I know. But it's easier to kick a guy's ass than a girl's..." He linked his fingers and leaned back in the chair. "Did she yell at you?"
Ruby sniffled, wiping her eyes with her sleeve. "Yeah..." she said, her voice wobbly with sobs.
"She has her mother's temper..." Her father reached over and held her hand, squeezing it gently. "Ruby, it's not your fault. She's not really mad at you. She's mad at herself, she just doesn't want to blame herself, so she's lashing out. It doesn't mean anything. Okay?"
"Y-Yeah..."
"So, did you have fun?"
"Um... no, not really."
"No? Why? What happened?"
"I saw a mon-... I had a really bad nightmare, and embarrassed Yang."
Her father breathed a heavy sigh, leaning back and rubbing at his eyes. "Okay. Well, I'll talk to her about it." He stood, groaning as he stretched. "There's leftover meatloaf in the fridge if you're hungry, and we can have whatever you want for dinner. Sound good?"
Ruby smiled, her tears gone. "Yeah..."
"Good." He turned and started walking inside. "Ruby? I'm glad you went, even if you didn't have fun. I'm proud of you."
"Thanks, Dad." He disappeared into the house, and she pulled her knees up to her chin and just sat, enjoying the warmth of the sweatshirt. "I just had a nightmare. It wasn't real. It was just a nightmare. It wasn't real." she whispered, closing her eyes and listening to the falling rain.
Weiss dropped her bag on her bed, laying her backpack next to it and extracting her laptop. Putting the computer on her desk, she turned back to her bag and started unpacking. She rolled her eyes, annoyed with herself that she had so obviously over-packed. "Three pairs of pants? Did I think I was going to stay the week? And emergency makeup? Who was I trying to impress, the trees?" she scoffed, tossing a handful of clothes into her hamper. There was a knock on her door, and her displeased scowl turned to face her mother. "Hi Mom."
"Hey honey!" her mother said, stepping into the room and looking over her shoulder. "Did you have fun? Did you finish those essays you were complaining about?"
"Ugh, yes, and they took forever!" Weiss groaned, tossing a shirt at her hamper. "It didn't help that she kept bugging me!"
"That girl? What was her name?"
"Yang! Well, in this case I mean Nora, her friend, but Yang was also annoying! Grrr!" Weiss slowly clenched her fingers into fists. "She wouldn't leave me alone! 'Weiss, want to do this?' or 'Weiss let me show you something!'. She's so irritating!"
Her mother giggled and sat on the bed. "Ha ha! That almost sounds like me when I was trying to get your father's attention." She sighed and looked at the ceiling. "He was always so gruff and moody, but I could see a nice, hardworking person buried underneath all that... attitude."
"Did you blackmail him into going camping with you also? And then forget the tents?!"
"She didn't! And no, I didn't do anything like that, but I did make it very clear I was interested." She waggled her eyebrows at her daughter, smirking.
"Gross, Mom!" Weiss stuck out her tongue and shivered in disgust.
"Ha ha, you're too easy, Weiss." Her mother pushed herself off the bed and made for the door. "Well, good for you for going, even if you were blackmailed. I'm proud of you, it's about time you made a new friend!"
"Yang Xiao Long is the last person I want as a friend! She's always touching me, and smiling at me, and bright and happy and cheerful and everything I'm not!"
"Huh..." Her mother tapped a questioning finger on her lips, looking off to the side. "It almost sounds like she likes you..." she said, vanishing down the hallway before Weiss could retort.
Weiss stood silently in her room, her mouth hanging open and a pair of underwear clutched in her hand. Yang couldn't like her, right? That wasn't... that didn't... no way she... "Hmph." Weiss snorted, sitting at her desk and crossing her arms after dropping the underwear into the hamper. She opened her laptop, the bright screen lighting up her face. "No... she couldn't." Weiss mumbled, chewing on her lip as she read over her last essay. "She was talking about some boy she had a crush on..." She shook her head, pushing the subject to the back of her mind and focused on her essay.
Author's Notes: Oh, the drama of teenage love. I feel like my secret preference for White Rose leaked through in the early bit. Sorry about that. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter!
Remember at the end of chapter one, where I said that this story will be about 3-5 chapters long? Yeah, probably not anymore. Closer to 10.
Please remember to review/favorite/follow the story!
Thank you for reading!
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