Chapter 4
The next day, Sergey was awoken by a knock on the door. She opened her eyes and slowly took in the scene around her. The tantrum from last night was still at the forefront of her mind. Even though that action was not uncommon for her, she still was afraid that Ozpin would not let her have a room anymore when she told him. Then she would have to find a place in the city, and she would have to travel to beacon every day, and that would get her even more weird looks and- Her thoughts were cut off by another knock on the door, reminding her why she got up in the first place. She went over to the door and opened it slightly, just enough to reveal Ruby on the other side, but not show off the destroyed state of the room.
"How did you find my room?" Was the first thing she asked, Ruby was a little surprised at the sternness in her voice, it seemed almost strained, but she answered anyway, "Ozpin gave it to me." Sergey sighed, "Of course he did. Well, you're here, what do you want?" The strain in her voice was gone now, replaced with the normal blunt and uninterested attitude. "I was wondering if you were ok. You missed the first half of classes, its lunch now." Surprise flashed across the girls face before she looked back to see that the clock had gotten unplugged during her tantrum. Ruby noticed this and two things stuck out to her.
First off, Sergey wasn't wearing her hood, or her cloak at all. Even her swords weren't across her back. Ruby didn't know her well, but knew that is had to be weird for her. Second, Ruby noticed what looked to be some feathers in the girl's hair. She chose to ask the less dangerous of the two questions, "Why do you have feathers on you?" Sergey reached up and plucked some of the feathers from her hair. She then opened her mouth to respond, but as she did so she made the motion to pull her hood up. Finding that it wasn't there, she panicked and ran to go put it on. Not liking being, in her opinion, uncovered like that.
However, as she did so, she failed to close the door completely, and as she got her blades and cloak, she saw that the door had begun to swing open. She finished dressing as fast as she could, but it was too late. Ruby had seen her room, and was now determined to figure out why it was in its current condition. "What happened?" She asked, still surprised. "It's none of your business," Sergey replied sharply, but ruby wasn't going to let her win so easily, not this time. She stopped the door from shutting in her face, "Sergey please, whatever or whoever did this could be dangerous, especially since it happened in the school." "Nothing did it, so why don't you just leave me alone," Sergey almost yelled, trying harder to close the door.
Again Ruby would have none of it, "Obviously something did, it didn't just get like that on its own. So why don't you stop pushing everyone away and tell me something for once!" This time ruby did yell, and she was matched by Sergey's reply, "I don't need you or anyone else. But if it will get you off my back then fine, I did it. OK? Now will you GO AWAY!" The door slammed, leaving Ruby standing in the luckily otherwise empty hallway, stunned and crying slightly. She spent the rest of her lunch in her dorm, but all to soon the bell rang and she had to go off to her next class. When she got there, her team had noticed that she had been crying, and asked what was wrong. She told them that she would tell them after classes.
Now the entire team was standing in the hall, waiting for the elevator to Ozpin's office. They had all met up after class, and Ruby had explained that she wanted to tell this to Ozpin as well, so they had decided to save her from telling it twice and go up there with her. The elevator ride was silent, and when they got to the top and stepped out, the only person to talk was ruby. Even Yang knew to keep silent and let her sister explain things. "Team RWBY, what are you all doing here?" Ozpin asked as they stepped off the elevator. "I want to tell you what happened today." "I assume you mean the yelling match you had today with Sergey during lunch?" Ospin asked, though the team expected he knew the answer even before Ruby's confirming nod.
He motioned for her to speak, so she started her story. "I went to go see her today during lunch. She had missed all the morning classes and I was concerned. When I got to her room I had to knock twice. It sounded like she was just waking up. When she opened the door, we talked for a minute or two, then I noticed that she wasn't wearing her cloak or her weapons." Ozpin's face confirmed that this was not normal, but he said nothing, so she continued. "I asked her about it and she ran off to go put them on, I assume she didn't even realize she had taken them off. When she ran off however, she didn't shut the door all the way, and when it opened, her room was… well…"
Ruby trailed off then and Ozpin spoke, "She takes her weapons off to sleep, but she keeps them by the bed. And I can only think of one reason she would remove her cloak." Ruby was shocked, "You mean she has done this before?" "Quite frequently actually." Ozpin replied." Though not as much recently. She says it happens when she feels too much emotion, she wants it to go away and… well, you know." Yang rose her hand and spoke up, "Umm, we don't. Could you please tell us?" Ruby realized she hadn't actually finished her story, "The room was destroyed. The bed frame was shattered, the mattress and pillows were torn to shreds. It looked like she had slept on the chair."
After a collective gasp from team RWBY, she finished. "I was scared for her, so I wouldn't take no for an answer. It got to the point where she told me she did it, then yelled for me to go away… It's my fault though, I shouldn't have pressed so hard…" She looked like she was about to cry, until Ozpin put his hand on her shoulder. "Don't think this is at all your fault. Like I said, she does that a lot. Also, in case you haven't noticed… She isn't exactly perfect emotionally. She refuses to see the therapists we have, and gets lost in fighting. When the emotions do catch up, that's just her way of dealing with it. Don't worry, I expected this. I'll have new furniture brought to her room tomorrow sometime. However, as punishment, I am going to make her apologize."
Ozpin gave them a note with his signature ordering her to apologize for the way she treated Ruby. He instructed them to give it to her, and was about to send them away when Ruby spoke up again. "Wait, Professor Ozpin, you said you would have people bring her a bed tomorrow. How is she going to sleep tonight?" Ozpin sighed, "Ruby, she is a huntress. She has been for about two years now. I'm sure she can handle sleeping on the floor." Ruby knew this was true, but something didn't feel right none the less. A thought came to her then, one so crazy that as soon as she said it she wished she was anywhere else, just to be away from the looks she got. But she did say it, "What if… What if she slept with us tonight?"
The collective what from the team, followed by the jumbled complaining was enough to make her want to run away. But for some reason she didn't, she turned to her team and gave her best puppy dog eyes, which sadly no one fell for. "Please guys… you said that you would help her, this could be our chance to get to know her. Come on, she isn't that bad." "Isn't that bad!?" Yang questioningly yelled, "She made you cry at least twice, gave Blake a black eye, and bruised my wrist. There is a bad thing for every interaction we've had with her." Ruby knew she wasn't getting anywhere, so she turned to Ozpin to ask him instead.
"Please professor, you know it could be good for her. And if not we promise to not let her break anything else. I just don't want her to hurt herself." Ozpin knew that he was making a bad decision, but with this girl, there was barely ever a good one. And Ozpin knew that ruby had the best shot of getting through to her. So he did what he had to do. He wrote up a new paper, singed it, and switched it for the first one. "Fine Ruby. Here is an order for her to stay in the RWBY dorm till the room is fixed. But you will have to be responsible for her, as well as calming down your teammates." Ruby nodded all too excitedly, and went off to the elevator. After getting angered looks from the rest of the team, Ozpin said, "Look at it this way. It's more likely than getting an apology." And with that they were gone.