Through Her Eyes

by Peroth

Ruby is born with an unusual and dangerous power: the power to summon Grimm. Sheltered, shy, and carefully watched, Ruby is suddenly invited to join Beacon Academy. With the awful potential her power carries and a disturbing deformity that could out her to her peers, Ruby is tested in protecting the humanity of Remnant while keeping a dangerous secret. - AU, sorta follows canon.

10. First Day of Class

Weiss cringed, awakened by irritating beeping. Her eye cracked open as an annoyed slap stopped the noise. In the bed within her view, Ruby stirred awake. Weiss watched her partner sit up and contemplate her lap for a second, before kicking the blankets off her body. Ruby slid out of bed and stretched with a small, girly grunt of exertion.

Judging from the light coming through the window—or lack thereof—the sun wasn't even up yet. Weiss sighed and heard a thud from behind her. She rolled tiredly to her other side to get an eyeful of Yang's tummy. The blonde's hair was spiky and askew, looking brilliant yet horrible all at once. Weiss smirked a tiny bit and closed her eyes as Ruby and Yang's footsteps provided some ambience.

They moved as quietly as they could, bless their hearts, but Weiss's eye cracked open as they began to mumble. She caught Blake's golden yellow eyes peering at her from the corner bed, both sharing a tired, annoyed moment as Ruby and Yang got dressed and exited the room.

Weiss closed her eyes and fell asleep again.

Ten minutes later, she was stirred awake by a smell. She rolled onto her back to watch with a mixture of envy and exasperation as she smelled coffee.

"Don't drink all of it." Yang chided in a whisper. Ruby made a quiet, unhappy noise, but passed Yang the cup, letting the blonde chug down the rest. Sitting on a desk was a tray with orange juice, milk, slices of toast, scrambled eggs, and a chocolate chip cookie. Weiss's eyebrow twitched at the sight of the dessert and tried to close her eyes again.

Gentle clinking and swallowing kept Weiss awake. It wasn't loud enough to get angry over—there was a very clear, conscious effort from the sisters to give her peace and quiet—but Weiss was used to her utterly silent, dark room. Nobody woke her but Klein, and even then only on days she needed to be up early.

She let out a soft sigh.

Two beds over, Blake was fast asleep. After the alarm clock, nothing disturbed her. Having spent most of her teenage years in a tent, surrounded by noisy, active Faunus, this was heaven: she had a nice comfy mattress, elevated from the ground, and her two awake colleagues were trying hard to be stealthy.

However, routine and ritual caught up to her not too much later. She woke herself up, feeling wonderfully loose and calm, her hair bent and poofy around her head as she sat up. She smacked her dry lips, tugged at her shirt, and frowned as she realized she'd failed to change the night before.

She looked around the room. Weiss sat at a desk, trying to not drink all the orange juice and eat all the eggs under the lamplight, while Ruby held her sister's feet. Yang was doing push-ups, with Ruby counting each motion for her. Both wore running shorts and tanktops, each with their respective color scheme. Blake paused, taking a moment to admire Ruby's lithe, pretty form in her tight clothing, but her eyes then fell on Yang.

She licked her dry lips again. Her partner had strong legs, of course, but that butt was something else. Blake shook her head, removing all those idle, early-morning thoughts. She got to her feet and stepped past Ruby and Yang, taking the milk off the tray. "Cafeteria's open this early?" She asked, hiding a yawn.

"Thirty-six—opens at five AM!—thirty-seven—breakfast foods only though—thirty-eight…" Ruby answered.

"Cool… the cookie?" Blake muttered, sipping the milk, then cringing. Skim milk. "Tell me they have whole milk." Blake set the glass down.

"Forty-two—specially ordered—forty-three—and yes—forty-four…"

"Good." Blake went and tossed on her clothes from the night before. Weiss stared after her, setting the orange juice down. "I'm going to grab some breakfast."

"I'll join you!" Weiss announced as she stood up, much to Blake's chagrin. However, with a defeated sigh, she resisted the impulse to deny the girl. Nothing to get upset about, this was her new life. She would tolerate the Schnee for the sake of the team, and for the sake of staying incognito…

"Might wanna get dressed before we go." Blake pointed out. Weiss glanced down at herself. With the lamp behind her, the lack of privacy afforded by her gown was readily apparent. Blake's eyebrow slowly rose as she made out the details of Weiss's shadowed figure. The heiress scrambled to a box of her clothes and pulled out her school uniform, then ran to the bathroom. Blake smirked.

At her feet, Ruby and Yang had switched places. "Had to say—seven—something, didn't you? Eight." Yang counted, staring at the bathroom door with a small, nostalgic sigh. "Nine—girl's got some grace—ten."

"I'm sure the whole school would have loved to see it." Blake pointed out, whilst silently agreeing.

Ruby did her push-ups, her small, thin muscles flexing and turning red as she exercised. Blake sat back, wondering if she could just go without Weiss, but decided that it would be rude. Weiss seemed like the sort who would get all offended if left behind, so Blake sat by and watched the sisters exercise.

This was clearly a well-practiced convention. Despite her smaller frame, Ruby was hardly put off by the work, only taking a brief break to sip some OJ before getting right back into it. Yang was encouraging, and when it was time for sit-ups, they did them side-by-side. Blake noted the difference. Push-ups they did separately, sit-ups they did together, possibly just how they'd always done it.

Blake quietly recalled when she had been the drill instructor for her camp in the Fang, barking out numbers and orders, shouting out names and allowing for breaks. It was informal but had a sense of power; the older, often male resistance members listened to and respected her, and some even sought to impress her, especially after a failure. Blake was always stingy with the compliments, but wasn't afraid to acknowledge when they were performing better.

That was before Adam decided she needed to do more front-line work, and, despite her repeated insistence, refused to believe that the camp morale had tanked. Blake squeezed her eyes shut, silently counting to fourteen before the door to the bathroom open.

Weiss walked out in her school uniform and heels, looking natural in both. She briefly glanced down at Yang and Ruby curling on the floor, and stepped around them. "Let's go." She said with a smile.

Blake stood, stretched, and popped her neck before nodding. "Sure."

"Do you want to comb your hair first?" Weiss asked, pointing to Blake's messy locks.

Blake thought about it as she swept her fingers through her hair, then shrugged. "Nah, I'll be fine. It's just breakfast." Despite her casual tone, she was watching Weiss like a hawk.

"It'll only take a minute, I promise." Weiss said. Blake frowned and backed away as Weiss pulled a comb out of her purse. "Here, let me-" She reached up, and Blake grabbed her wrist tightly. Weiss stopped, startled, and finally seemed to look Blake in the eye. Blake was visibly angry, and Weiss's wrist went loose. "I-I just-"

"Just… don't push it." Blake ordered in a terse tone, making Weiss frown. Blake let her hand go, and Weiss reluctantly put her comb away. "Let's go." Blake grunted, heading for the door, her cat ears feeling itchy and exposed from their close encounter with Weiss's hand.

Blake walked out of the room, Weiss behind her by just a second. Ruby and Yang both laid on the floor and splayed out, already covered in a thin sheen of sweat. "... What was her deal?" Yang asked, staring at the door upside down.

"What?" Ruby asked, her chest rising and falling rapidly with each pant.

"Nevermind." Yang sat up, stretching her legs out so she could lean way forward and pinch her big toe. "You ready to go running?" Yang asked with a grin.

"What, giving me a choice?" Ruby smirked as she stood up.

"Hell no." Yang grinned evilly.

---

Very few students were awake around this time. It seemed plenty opted to stay in bed, and Blake certainly didn't blame them. There hadn't been a precedent set, so nobody wanted to be awake if they didn't have to be, and Blake silently envied them. She hit the call button for the dorm-wing lift, and waited patiently.

By her side, Weiss had her arms crossed and eyes closed. She didn't seem irritated, just tired, and Blake didn't blame her either. At the same time, Blake wondered if she should have been so quick to dismiss the offered comb…

From the moment she could understand the plight of her people, Blake had nursed a grudge against the Schnee family. There were hundreds of individuals deserving of the White Fang's attention, but the Schnees took precedence. Their cutthroat business practices essentially turned the Faunus into slaves, since it had taken nearly ten years after the Color Wars for Faunus to finally gain equal rights in all four kingdoms.

The Schnee Dust mines were notoriously harsh for Faunus during that period of time. Poor rations, poor equipment, poor wages, poor safety standards, and perhaps most tellingly, poor security against Grimm attacks.

After being brought under the equal and fair employee laws, the Schnees exploited every possible loophole, cut every corner they could, abused every technicality there was, and used Faunus prejudice at the time to ensure they could get away with it without so much as a slap on the wrist.

Times changed attitudes, however, and illicit business practices became more and more public as technological and communication advancement meant the Schnees couldn't hide their treatment of the Faunus anymore, and equal rights journalism encouraged pro-Faunus attitudes.

The Schnees were still far from squeaky-clean. Many Faunus workers still suffered from diseases and conditions they'd been afflicted with before iron-clad laws had been placed throughout the four kingdoms. Working conditions in the mines were better, but still heinous, and many faunus still had difficulties getting access to dust as 'dust licenses' were introduced, essentially forcing the Faunus communities to become literate overnight and prove they were 'safe' in using Dust. It was all an attempt to ensure the Faunus couldn't catch up, especially now that they had their own continent and a popular civil rights group… well, most of the White Fang was still about civil rights.

Standing next to Blake was the face of oppression. Blake shot Weiss an idle look as the white-haired girl looked ready to go back to bed, but kept herself awake. Weiss was featured on numerous posters and talk shows to discuss her family's practices and inspire a sense of Schnee 'purity' in the public eye. She had a beautiful face, a lovely voice, was a talented performer, and was well-read, but Blake picked up from a few interviews that perhaps Weiss didn't understand—or possibly didn't know—the conditions the Faunus were kept in.

She was quick to defend her family and company, giving good soundbites for the media and using the same defenses her family had always used. Blake always had a dislike for Weiss the Schnee, and privately stole from Weiss the songstress.

She had always held a distaste for the Schnees and an almost personal grudge against Weiss as a person, until yesterday. Weiss could have, should have, remained rude and furious, and it would have made throwing her at the Nevermore an easy decision, but… it was apparent that something made her grow up in that forest. She and Ruby had bonded, Weiss was far from unreasonable during the fight, and ever since, she had been a… person. Not a spokesperson, not a Schnee, but a pretty, rich, noble young lady who, while deeply confident in herself, remained level-headed.

Blake still did not like being on a team with her, but at the same time, was a smidgen curious what she could gain from observing Weiss more closely. It troubled her that some small part of her heart wanted to reach out. It had been such a long time since she had had a personal friend that had nothing to do with her business or her war...

"Sorry." The voice broke Blake from her trance, and she turned swiftly to face Weiss as the heiress roused herself to look at Blake. "I didn't mean to bother you earlier." She sighed. "I just thought, you know, we should look our best and-"

Blake waved her hand idly, dismissing the apology. "It's nothing. I just don't like people touching my hair." She looked away from Weiss, trying to not be overtaken by relief. She had to remind herself who Weiss was, what her family did…

"Then I won't, but if you want a borrow a comb…" Weiss patted her purse. Blake sighed heavily.

"Sure, Weiss. Thank you." Despite herself, she meant it. She thought about being more dismissive, but she meant it. This was her new life, and she didn't have a choice. She would treat Weiss like a person; she had no reason to make enemies here, especially not her own teammate.

The two fell silent, Weiss unaware of the storm of emotions coursing through Blake. Blake thought she'd have every reason to hate Weiss Schnee just from watching her treatment of Ruby, but then she came around. Blake frowned…

"This elevator is taking forever." Weiss snarled. "Let's just take the stairs."

"Mmm, alright." Blake and Weiss both turned, but then the doors opened. They both sighed in annoyance and turned back around.

Ren and Nora both stepped out. Or, rather, Ren stepped out, holding a plate of fresh greens, while Nora staggered and sagged against him tiredly, eyes barely open. "Hello Blake, hello Weiss." Ren nodded to them both. The two girls greeted him in return before he took Nora to their room.

Weiss and Blake stepped in and descended.

---

Yang threw the dorm room's door open with a happy, "We're back!" Weiss slapped a hand over her mouth to stop herself from spitting out her mouthful of orange juice as Yang strode in, a thin sheen of sweat covering her body and staining her workout clothes.

"Could- hack! Cough!—couldn't you have knocked first?!" Weiss whimpered, rubbing her throat. She'd swallowed all wrong, and the itch wasn't going away. "You are su—hcchk!—such a—" Weiss couldn't finish the statement amidst a sudden coughing fit.

"Ah, you'll be fine." Yang slapped Weiss's back, making the heiress double over with a yelp. "So how's breakfast?" Yang snagged a half-eaten muffin off Weiss's plate and finished it for her.

"They have fish tacos." Was the only thing Blake said between bites. She had a small ball of tinfoil on her plate, along with two more foil-wrapped tacos.

"Nice… Fish tacos…" Yang just smiled suspiciously as she went into the closet.

Blake ate and Weiss suffered as Ruby walked in, looking more exhausted than Yang, but not worn out. She was equally sweaty, and added to the stench of BO wafting through the room. Weiss may have said something about it between sips of her juice, but Ruby didn't notice as she plopped onto her bed with a groan.

"You alright?" Blake asked, walking over with her breakfast. She watched the younger girl dig through a box and pull out her school uniform, which was vastly smaller than Blake's own. Ruby laid it out and dug out fresh undies.

"I'm fine, this is normal." Ruby rolled her shoulders, wiping her sweat stained hair off her brow and leaving her with a cowlick. Blake hid a chuckle. "They have a really nice track out there, and the gym is like a gym-gym, with weights and stuff."

"I'd hope so." Blake held her taco out to the tired girl. Ruby sniffed it curiously, then took a bite. Blake suppressed a pleased grin as she hand fed her team leader, and Ruby seemed relieved as she chewed and swallowed. "You and Yang should probably shower before me and Weiss. Help clear out the air a bit."

"Sorry." Ruby mumbled, then stole one more bite from Blake's breakfast and stood with her clothes folded in her arms. "I won't be long!" She promised. Ruby slipped into the bathroom as Weiss finally seemed to recover.

"Ugh…" She grunted, while Yang stepped out of the closet with her own clothes. Blake had returned to her seat and was watching as Yang sorted out her uniform, taking note of the color of the older sister's underwear: black with a flame pattern. It seemed fitting.

Ruby was honest in not taking long, she was dressed and in her uniform (plus goggles and cloak) not too long later. Yang went in next. Blake suspected there would be a much longer wait for Yang, but the blonde was out in a surprisingly timely manner. Her hair was still a drenched mess, but Ruby sat behind her and helped her groom. Blake couldn't decide who she was more envious of: the sister under the comb, or the sister that got to manage those glorious locks.

Weiss went in next. Blake kept track of the time, and noted Weiss took quite a bit more time than Yang did. Weiss did, however, come out smelling like the good part of a perfume store: the subtle mixture of shampoos, body wash, lotions, and scented sprays making Weiss smell… dreamy. Blake stopped herself from chasing Weiss with her nose, and focused on gathering her clothing.

"C'mere Princess, sit." Yang ordered.

"Eh? What do you want?" Weiss pouted, just starting to put up her familiar side-fixed ponytail.

"Just do it." Yang ordered, her blonde mane now a more orderly mass of chaotic curls from Ruby's touch. Reluctantly, Weiss obeyed and sat in a chair as Yang pulled the heiress's hair over the back.

Blake ducked into the bathroom.

She locked the door and set aside her clothes from last night, examining her body in front of the mirror as she undid her ribbon. The Nevermore hadn't managed to break her aura so its attack left no lasting marks, but Blake quietly counted the little off-colored lines left on her body from her time with the White Fang.

Her ribbon sat on her clothes, her large, black cat ears twitching in the mirror. Blake turned the shower on and stroked her Faunus ears, massaging away the discomfort of being bound all day with a sigh. As much as she hated the idea of hiding who she was, she was terrified of revealing herself to the Schnee. Yang was a loudmouth; there was no way she could keep a secret, and Ruby had mysteriously bonded with the heiress.

Blake closed her eyes and reaffirmed her mission: she would not reveal herself to anyone, she would take classes, grow stronger, cultivate her skills, and stay far away from Adam's reach. She quietly inspected a miniscule white scar just above her left nipple, wincing at the memory of a night gone horribly wrong.

His anger had carried over into their shared sleeping bag, and it was the first time she had to stop him and order him out. He was simply too furious, too rough, too much like…

… like an animal.

It was the first time Blake had felt like just a piece of meat. It was a far worse feeling than being called a traitor, or being kicked in the ribs by some anti-Faunus thug. A friend, a close ally, somebody whose ideas made the world seem more malleable had hurt her when her defenses were down. Blake had never had to use her aura when she and Adam were alone before, but those furious, grabbing hands, pulling at the delicate spots of her body…

She understood he was angry, but she was not his stress-relief toy. She would have gladly massaged his feet and kissed his pains better if he had just kept some sense of self-control, more than storming out like a petulant child when she ordered him to…

Blake dismissed her idle musings and tried to enjoy the hot water. She quietly thought of Ruby. She was young, true, but seemed sympathetic and well read. She lead with her words and her actions, much as had Adam had done, and both had carried a sense of righteous fury when at the intersection of victory or defeat. However, Ruby had directed her fury towards the Grimm, whereas Adam had directed his rage towards the humans. It was a much less difficult moral quandary when the Grimm were involved…

She reached out to turn off the shower and paused. Hanging on the shower wall was four small, wire cages. Three of them had products in them, for hair-care, skin care, and more. Only one cage was empty, and Blake realized she hadn't brought her own cleaners. She glanced down in the corner of the shower, and sitting on the edge was a few off-brand products that would certainly get the job done, but…

Blake got nosey and poked through the shampoos and lotions curiously, able to determine who owned which product. Ruby had the fewest products, including two bottles of moisturizer specifically for the skin around the eyes. Yang favored lustrous shampoos for blondes, and apparently liked the smell of cinnamon. Finally, Weiss owned dozens of tiny bottles of many scented oils, creams, and soaps, with two large, very expensive bottles as her primary cleaners. Blake grumbled in bemusement as she found that Weiss apparently shared in her tastes in hair-care, while Ruby had the right moisturizing body wash. Was it right to ask them…?

"It couldn't hurt, right…?" Blake whispered to herself. They were teammates, it wasn't as if cosmetics were at a premium, they were right next to a city they could shop in freely without the authorities swarming them. Blake laid her ears flat as she could as she crept out of the shower and cracked the door just enough to speak. "I forgot my shower stuff, could I borrow some of yours?" She asked loudly.

"Go ahead!"

"Yeah."

"I don't mind."

Blake shut the door and felt her cheeks redden. Well that had been easy...

She made sure to use as little as she could of what was available. She avoided citrus-y smells as much as she could, and sighed when she finally convinced herself to use Weiss's product. Schnee-brand Snow-scented shampoo... How did one even capture the smell of snow? It seemed like a thin mixture of vanilla and cocoa, but it had a sharp iciness to it as well...

It was nice. Really nice. Blake glared at the bottle the entire time she used it.

She stepped out of the shower, dried, and got dressed. She checked herself in the mirror, and her reflection granted her a small smile. She looked good, she looked ready. She was a student now. What a strange change in her life's direction, from freedom fighter to student…

She wrapped her ribbon carefully around her ears to hide them and stepped out of the restroom.

Weiss stood in front of the full-body mirror, looking pleasantly surprised at how well she pulled off a Vale braid. She poked and prodded her hair, her cheeks turning pink as a smile overtook her. She twirled, watching her hair swirl around her. Blake blinked in dull surprise, but Weiss was too interested in her own hair to pay her any mind.

Yang pet the chair she tended to Weiss in, smiling promisingly at Blake. "C'mon partner, lemme make you pretty."

"Oh, uh…" Blake tensed nervously. "I think I'll pass, I like my hair loose-"

"C'mon, it's our first day! Let's start this whole school thing off with a Yang!" Yang fired a pair of cocky finger guns at Blake, making her look left and right for a way out of this. She did not expect Weiss to slide up by her side, hand on her shoulder.

"Blake doesn't like people touching her hair." Weiss said firmly, warmly stroking Blake's shoulder. Blake had never felt so conflicted in her life… except two other times she was trying to repress.

"Wha'? Not even a little? C'mon Blakey, I'll be real nice." Yang held her hands up pleadingly, and Blake shook her head.

"Uh uh. Sorry Yang, just got a thing against it." She tugged one of her long, ebony locks, and Yang pouted loudly.

"Fiiiiine. Jeez, I was just gonna do pigtails…" The blonde whined. Blake's eyebrow twitched.

"What time is it anyways?" She asked.

"Seven fifty-five." Ruby answered, putting together her school supplies in a little mailbag. She smiled over her shoulder at her teammates.

"Man, we still got an hour." Yang plopped into the chair with a grunt, arm hanging over the backrest. "We should go explore!" She offered with sudden enthusiasm. "Check out everything on campus! There's gotta be some cool places to just hang out and chill."

"If we check the syllabus we could get a head start on our lessons." Weiss offered, looking excited at the prospect. Yang couldn't have been less impressed by the idea.

"Boring!" Yang huffed.

"Why don't we just relax? It's only our first day." Blake added.

"It's school, we can't just sit around all day. We should get busy early and get used to the hustle and bustle of a normal school life." Weiss eagerly opened her scroll to access Beacon's database.

Yang let out an aggravated groan. "I wanna do something."

"Studying is doing something!" Weiss shot back.

"We have nothing to study for." Blake reminded her.

"Not unless we dig a bit! See, period one, History of Remnant with Dr. Oobleck." Weiss was going through a box of textbooks, and the other two twitched… "It's school, what, did you think we'd spend all day just… carousing?"

"I thought I'd get to meet babes. At least ones who are fun." Yang snorted, and Weiss planted her hands on her hips.

"School is not just for fun and definitely not for 'meeting babes.' We have to get serious, so stop lazing around!" Weiss huffed.

Blake watched the two go back and forth with a small pout then finally glanced to Ruby. Ruby seemed generally distant from the conversation, though she was listening in. She offered no opinions, no options, nothing…

"I think we're missing a very important detail here." Blake spoke up, and Weiss turned on her with a small, curious frown. Yang was silent, eyebrow raised, interested in what Blake had to say. "Ruby is team leader. She decides what we do as a team."

At that, Ruby sat up straight like an iron bar had replaced her spine. She whirled to face the three, looking pale and panicky as she suddenly gained all of their attention. Weiss was frowning silently at her, Blake was curiously staring, and Yang let out a chuckle.

"Know what? Sure. What are your orders, sis?" Yang asked with a confident urge in her tone.

"We should study." Weiss said immediately, staring into Ruby's goggles.

Ruby froze up as she stared at the three of them. Explore, study, or relax? She trembled a tiny bit, then slowly looked away from them. She looked out the window, at the beds, at the boxes… they were already looking to her for answers and direction, Ruby was content to let them sort it out democratically!

"Well, uh…" Ruby said with cotton tongue, her brow wrinkling in distress.

"Come on Ruby, what is team RWBY going to do? We have an hour, we should prepare." Weiss said firmly. Yang made an unhappy grunt.

"Don't push her, let her decide." Yang ordered.

Ruby winced. She had no clue. She tapped her fingertips together anxiously. "I, uh, I-I dunno, but, well…" Ruby froze up as the girls began to lose interest, Weiss openly sighing in dismay. "N-no no-no… okay, um…" Ruby glanced to the boxes at her feet, the boxes around the beds… "W-we should, uh…" The barren walls, the empty bookshelf between the beds… "Um…" And the room was so cramped with four beds… "Decorate."

"... Decorate?" Weiss's eyebrow raised.

"Y-yeah, we should decorate." Ruby swept her hands out, as if presenting the room to them for the first time. Weiss's frown deepened. "No no! Don't—it's important!" Ruby felt her elbows knock. "We need to decorate! And-and unpack all of these boxes. They're everywhere, and like Yang said, we should make the room feel, uh, lived in. Make it homey! So let's, uh, let's unpack." She offered. After a second of thought, Blake and Yang both moved to their beds to grab their boxes while Weiss looked at the floor, hands on her hips.

"Well… fine. Okay." Weiss said with slight disappointment, but then she knelt down to start sorting out her luggage.

Ruby trembled a tiny bit, this time in relief, and bobbed her head. "I don't want to see a single box in the room or in the closet by the time classes start, so… let's get moving!" She tacked on. She chided herself as she went to grab her other things… they were already moving…

Boxes were opened and emptied to be sorted. Ruby and Blake took over one bed to sort through their collection of books, and had to be snapped at by Weiss on several occasions to return to actually sorting and shelving rather than just chatting about their literature.

Weiss made repeated trips into the closet to get personal items together and Ruby, Blake, and Yang paused to watch with increasing worry as the mountain of clothing and shoes around Weiss's bed steadily grew larger and larger. Then the jewelry boxes opened.

"—genuine Vacuan royal sapphires, all set in solid gold. It's probably worth more than this entire room." Weiss bobbed her head, smiling in great pride as Blake, nearly afraid to touch the necklace she was trying on, tried to oh-so-carefully remove it.

"And you brought it?" Blake asked with a raised eyebrow, numbers racing through her head.

"Of course." Weiss's expression shifted to confusion. "Why wouldn't I? It's one of my favorite necklaces." Blake's response was an impartial hum as Weiss returned the necklace to the jewelry box she'd brought.

"I'm a princess!" Ruby announced enthusiastically. Weiss glanced at her partner, currently adorned with Weiss's graduation tiara, and her eyebrow twitched. "Kneel before me, peasants!" Ruby ordered, hands on her hips.

Weiss groaned and took the tiara. "If you want to try anything on, just ask and be super careful. Most of this is very expensive."

"Wow, and boys always told me pearl necklaces were easy to get." Yang indelicately flicked the pearls hanging around her neck, making Weiss screech in horror. Needless to say, Yang was no longer allowed to continue wearing them.

Blake set the last of her books on the room's small bookshelf. She frowned. She had brought her whole personal library of eighteen novels with her, and Ruby still had her massive pile of reading material to shelve. Then there would be their collected textbooks… they really needed more places to put books. Actually, as she maneuvered around a pile Yang's clothes dumped on the floor and nearly tripped on Ruby's action figures, she realized they needed a lot more room period.

They also needed to empty the closet first.

Boxes lined the room, every flat surface was covered in clothing, magazines, books, and little personal items of traditional, historical, or entertainment value. Yang was busy trying to figure out a twisting cube puzzle Blake had brought while Ruby anxiously looked over Weiss's entire makeup collection. Blake had finished unpacking well before the other three, but they needed a place for Ruby's Heroic Hunters model collection, somewhere for Yang's weights and punching bag…

… and that wasn't getting into what they'd need for Weiss.

"... This would be way easier with bunk beds." Blake said absentmindedly as she stared at the mess of a room.

"That's crazy, how would we even make bunk beds out of these?" Weiss asked with a crinkle of her nose, patting one of the springy mattresses testingly. "They'd need to be tall and stable."

"What if we got rope?" Ruby offered from the floor, flipping through one of Weiss's fashion magazines. Weiss and Blake looked from her to each other with contemplative looks.

"None of us have rope." Weiss concluded, shaking her head. "We're just going to have to—"

"I can get us rope."

"—live with—wait, how can you get us rope?" Weiss asked in exasperation.

Blake shrugged. "Gotta be some rope in the school. I'll go dig through some supply closets."

"Oh! See if they have any screws and hooks and stuff too!" Yang called from the other side of the room, hefting a big, heavy box over one shoulder with incredible ease.

"We are not stealing from the school!" Weiss crossed her arms and put on a firm expression.

"Teeeechnically all facilities are open to students, including equipment for modifying the room, so if, theoretically, a student needed rope, who are they to complain if it improves the quality of her livelihood?" Yang offered with a cheeky grin. Weiss's eyebrow twitched. Blake was already gone.

"If you get caught, do not make me an accessory to your criminal activities!" Weiss huffed as she began to move her clothing to the closet.

By the time Blake got back with armfuls of rope, screws, and wall hooks, the clothes had been moved into their single, shared closet. Ruby, Blake, and Yang shared one side of the closet, their outfits loosely pressing together. The other side was dedicated solely to Weiss's outfits, wall-to-wall with everything from gorgeous dresses to casual, lay-about clothing. Yang was briefly awe-struck by the sheer amount of quality threads Weiss had on hand.

When all the materials were dumped onto the floor, Blake shot Yang a curious look as the blonde smiled in pure delight.

Some Time Later!

Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose. "... Please tell me we aren't keeping it like this." One of the middle beds precariously hung over a corner bed. Ruby, Blake, and Yang crossed their arms as they admired their work, and Weiss just groaned as they gave each other a thumbs up. "This is so going to backfire."

"I call dibs!" Ruby waved her arms madly as she began to climb, the creaking ropes making Weiss whimper.

"I want a top bunk!" Blake moved to the remaining two beds with a nearly gleeful expression, causing Yang to snicker and Weiss to sigh.

"We are out of rope though." Yang pointed out.

"Well…" Blake hummed.

"We have a lot of books." Ruby pointed out from the bed she had taken over. The other three looked to her with quizzical expressions as she hopped down. "Look." She held up one of her hardcovers. "Fellowship of the Twelve."

"... Garbage bin." Blake nodded slowly. Ruby tossed Blake the book, and it was balanced on one of the four bedposts.

"Books hold a valuable wealth of information and entertainment!" Weiss insisted with a scandalized expression, watching in fury as Ruby and Blake went through their collections.

"Yipperman and the Froggy Bog?" Ruby held up a thick hardback.

"Ugh." Blake sneered, and Yang caught the book with a grin as she added to the stack. "Wait, you have a signed copy of Love in the Wilds?" Blake waved the dark, old book. Yang pulled it out of Blake's hand and added it to the stack.

"Not mine, it was my… um… aunt's." Ruby glanced to Yang, but the blonde remained calm. "Mantle of Summer?"

"Trash. How about 'Beyond Belief'?"

"Keep it! Oh, my Holy Trilogy set!"

"Anyone going to read it?" No response. "Stack it!"

"Is this an original copy of Blind Hunters?" Weiss asked, flipping through one book.

"Nah, it's just printed to look old, try bending a page."

"... Ew. Add it." Blake obliged.

"What about Saint Monia's Siesta?"

"It's garbage, but it's sexy garbage."

"Eh, keep it…"

The process continued until Ruby and Yang successfully stacked the final two beds. They shot each other a thumbs up and a smile, and Weiss and Blake tested it for balance. "This is seriously an awful idea." Weiss muttered under her breath.

"You aren't doing anything to stop them," Blake countered, stepping back with a nod. "And everything's stable."

"If you don't rock it too hard, that is." Weiss sighed. She silently pulled and squeezed her braid as she stared around the room like it was brand new. There was plenty more room between the beds, the boxes had been reduced to a bare minimum and mostly consisted of the extra things Weiss couldn't find a place for, so they were stacked at the foot of the bottom bunk Ruby had claimed the top of.

Weiss looked up to Ruby's bed thoughtfully, examining the ropes with worry as an idea occurred to her. Without a word, she stepped out of the room amidst her teammates' curious looks and walked past rows of dorm rooms. In short order, she found a supplies closet.

She reentered the team RWBY dorm with two bedsheets in her arms, handing them to a confused Yang. "I think if we tied the ends around the ropes and hooks, we might be able to give Ruby a privacy curtain." Weiss explained. The blonde gave her a slow, almost uncomprehending blink while Ruby, sitting on her bed, glanced over in surprise.

It took almost ten seconds of uncomfortable silence for Yang to finally say something. "Weiss," She said, almost sounding shy, "Thank you." Yang bowed her head in a polite way before quickly heading to Ruby's bed. Ruby took the blankets and started planning how to afix them. Weiss stood on several stacked boxes to help, shooting Ruby's goggles a look as Blake helped Yang go through the last of her boxes.

It hadn't seemed like much of a big deal; it was purely in the team's best interest that everybody was comfortable. Being trapped wearing a pair of goggles all day would be bad for the skin and could have lasting effects on her mental and hygienic state. This was a total non-issue as far as Weiss was concerned, it was for the good of the team. The one she wasn't in charge of, as she'd always dreamed...

She sighed and tried to suppress her disappointment. Her dream of coming to Beacon couldn't have been perfect, but still, how was she supposed to cultivate leadership skills if she was only a member of a team? Weiss's expression darkened just the slightest bit. Ruby wasn't a bad person, but was she a good team leader? She contemplated her options as Blake dug out Yang's calendar.

The dark-haired member of the team flipped through the months to find March and set it on the currently-full bookshelf, with just enough space on top for the calendar. She paused for a second to reread the date. "Hey, Yang?" She called, drawing an acknowledging hum as the taller of the two sorted her weights. "What's the red square mean?"

"Red square?"

"On the date?" Blake pointed. Yang shot a look, her eyes widening in comprehension, and she shot to her feet. "Yang?" Blake called with a raised eyebrow as her partner stepped into the bathroom.

Yang walked out with a cheerful call. "Ruby! Happy feminine hygiene day!" She said perkily, throwing a small package. Ruby caught it in one hand and groaned loudly, the contortions of her cheeks and brow telling Weiss and Blake both that she was not pleased.

"Today? But school starts today! That's not fair." Ruby mumbled as she slid off her bed and put the pad in her school bag. Weiss cringed the moment she realized what it was, while Blake just shook her head.

"Welcome to the woman's life Ruby, biology doesn't wait for a day off." Yang seemed surprisingly cheerful as she tossed a pad into her messenger bag.

"It's not enough that I'm out of the house for the first time, or it's my first day of classes?" Ruby asked with a grouchy dryness that made Yang chuckle.

"It's not that bad, you did take your pill during breakfast, right?"

"Well yeah, no preggers for me." Ruby didn't sound any less relieved, but Weiss shot up with a small, mortified squeak and dug through her boxes. Blake watched in confusion as Weiss pulled out a green, plastic medicine tray and dry-swallowed one of the pills inside. As she caught on, Blake had a private moment of embarrassment and decided not to comment.

"Look, pregnant or not, whatever boy decided to slip you the noodle wouldn't be a boy for much longer." Yang said with a raised eyebrow. Ruby scoffed, and Yang just laughed at her little sister's embarrassment. "We should totally invest in a mini-fridge or something. Stock up on ice cream and cookie dough."

"Yeah, but we always crave ice cream and cookie dough." Ruby pointed out, tying the last edge of the sheet. She sat on the edge of her bed, drawing the curtain back and forth testingly.

"But it's so much more satisfying to eat it when you're on your period." Yang hummed. "What's the team's lien allowance?" Yang perked up.

"Dunno, I'd have to check the-"

"Four-hundred lien a week." Weiss answered without hesitation, sitting in a desk chair as she tried to ignore her embarrassment.

Yang whistled, long and low. "Bank!"

"To be split between all four teammates, so don't get too excited." Weiss reminded her duly. Yang grinned.

"No worries! Maybe I can get a loan from dad, buy a mini-fridge, get a TV... aww man, I wonder if I can get us a mini-bar…" Yang rubbed her hands together with a mischievous smile before a pillow knocked her out of her plotting.

"TV and mini-fridge maybe, but we are not giving you an excuse to liquor up." Ruby said defiantly, causing Yang to cross her arms and huff.

"Whatever, mom." Yang threw the pillow back, knocking Ruby flat onto her bed. "Hey Weiss." Yang called, picking up the calendar and a red pen. Weiss glanced up curiously. "When do you start?"

"... Start my…" Weiss winced. "My thing?"

"Yes. Your period, Weiss, c'mon, we're all girls here." Yang looked to her curiously. Weiss squirmed, her cheeks turning a bright red.

It took a few moments for her to finally admit, in embarrassment, "My last thing started last week, Sunday." She didn't know what she expected, but Yang tapped her chin with her pen as she read the calendar, counted, and marked the day. "Why do you care? It's my business." Weiss asked, arms crossed over her chest.

"A: I gotta live with you, and you are kinda bitchy, but no offense, it's a sexy kind of bitchy." Yang answered, making Weiss's blush turn a deeper shade of red as she stared at Yang in disbelief. Yang continued. "So knowing when you're gonna be extra bitchy will be nice. B: we can stock up some food for you too! What's your big comfort food?"

"My comfort food?" Weiss asked slowly, trying to rub the red out of her cheeks. "Like, what do I eat when I'm comfortable?"

Yang put the calendar down and gave a small, but amused snicker. She pulled up a chair next to Weiss and plopped down next to her. "No, what do you eat when you're unhappy and annoyed and want to be comfortable? What makes you happy when you eat it?"

Weiss drummed her knees, trying to not stare at the far-too-confident young woman next to her, then let out a little huff. "It's… embarrassing."

"Oh please, it's food. Food's great! Nothing embarrassing about enjoying it. When I'm all crampy and need something to take the edge off, I gorge myself on chocolate chip ice cream and pretzels." Yang said casually, leaning against her chair with a comforting smile.

"Cookie dough." Ruby waved, a little shyly. "Sugar cookie dough, chocolate chip cookie dough, snickerdoodle cookie dough, I'd mix it at home just to eat it raw."

"Isn't that a health hazard?" Weiss asked with a cocked eyebrow.

"All those food and safety warnings are lies!" Ruby wrung her fists at the heavens. "Nobody has ever died from cookie dough, they just want us cookie dough lovers to stop living our lives!" She announced with a dramatic rise in her voice. Weiss's eyebrow twitched.

"... Uh huh." She pursed her lips, swallowed thickly, and clenched her fists. "... Hot wings."

"Come again?" Yang blinked.

"Y'know… hot wings." Weiss tried to explain as if she was in trouble, staring at her knees, red-cheeked. "Unbreaded fried chicken, covered in a spicy sauce? Hot wings, like-... like you'd find at a Faunus food stall."

"... For real?" Yang seemed genuinely shocked. Ruby was still lamenting the prejudice she suffered as a result of the Vale Food Purity Administration, while Blake was counting her lucky stars that nobody noticed the way her ears shot up. "Isn't that stuff kinda cheap for a rich girl?"

"No!" Weiss said with a defensive whine. "Ugh, I knew you wouldn't get it." She tugged at her braid in distress, earning a swat from Yang to stop her from undoing it.

"Well, tell me then." Yang insisted, smiling at Weiss. "What's your deal with hot wings, Weiss?"

"It's…" Weiss pouted. "I mean, I've grown up on really good food from everywhere. The best chefs, the best nutrition, especially since I started my training as a hunter. Lean meats, plenty of fruits and vegetables, artisan bread, sweets from every end of Remnant… but never anything just… gross, fatty, meaty, or spicy." Blake and Yang both leaned forward to listen. "I was with my father, on a trip to visit the Mistralian Schnee dust mines. A few of my friends from Atlas came along so we could go to the hot springs later, but we needed to kill some time while my father was in a meeting. We were watching the workers during lunch time, and noticed a huge line at one of the stalls."

"Oh!" Blake spoke up suddenly. "Faunus food stalls are really common around the mines... er, right?" She added swiftly.

"Yeah… why is that? They get daily free meals." Weiss's nose crinkled.

"See, they… um, I read this in a flyer, the free meals aren't filling and have very little protein, which is important to hard physical labor." Blake winced, wondering if she was, perhaps, a little too knowledgable on the subject.

"Right." Weiss said dismissively. Blake wasn't sure whether to be offended at the dismissal of her people's nutritional needs or relieved Weiss didn't notice. "Anyway, we saw a lot of the workers pay for plates with a pile of weird, goopy stuff. We were all curious about it, but we waited for their lunch break to end. My friends dared me to order some. The food servers were very, very nice about it, and it barely cost a thing, but I suddenly had a plate of chicken wings in Mistralian sweet sauce. It looked like the most disgusting thing I'd ever seen, and, ugh, Cristal wouldn't stop retching so it made it hard to eat, but I took a bite and…" Weiss's eyes glimmered. "It was kind of explosive."

Yang chuckled, hiding her amused smile behind her hand as Blake hid a little smirk. "So our princess had a moment of enlightenment?"

"Shut up, oaf!" Weiss grumbled, squirming shyly. "It left me with stomach cramps all night, but it was so good. I finished the whole plate, my friends couldn't believe I even liked it, not that they tried it." Weiss huffed loudly. "I had just started the whole… girl thing that year, and every time it happened I was just unhappy and hated everything they tried to feed me. Nothing was fulfilling! But a few weeks later after trying the wings, the girl thing happened again. I hadn't had any more hot wings since, but, well, my butler and my chefs were at a loss on what to give me. I just… I needed those wings again, so I pulled the one faunus chef I had to the side and asked if she knew how to cook them. She did, and two hours later I had them again and it just… satisfied an itch. It kept satisfying that itch."

"Makes sense to me." Yang shrugged, grabbing a piece of paper Ruby had left behind from the night before, writing it down. Weiss scrambled to grab her arms.

"Don't record it, it's embarrassing enough that you know, I don't need some janitor walking in and selling that information!"

"Aww, c'mon, I'm just making sure I remember! I know this amazing little hot wing place in Vale, run by the most adorable Faunus couple!"

Weiss argued with Yang over being publically seen eating Faunus food, and Blake watched with a confused expression. Not that she was a major fan of chicken wings—or chicken in general—but it was considered a Faunus staple. Vacuo, being the more inclusive region in Remnant, brought Faunus in as natural citizens with little friction, and had a popular method of frying chicken in its own fat, as well as using spices and sauces to jazz up the taste. It had been a huge hit amongst the Faunus; so much so that, as they travelled from Vacuo, it became a widespread, cheap, filling, and tasty meal among other Faunus. The ingredients were affordable on even a Schnee miner's wages, and it even found its way into Atlas, where the fatty food and spicy sauces helped stave off the cold.

It was one of the first areas Faunus became lucrative, selling food to their own kin and humans, giving them the opportunity and the money to send their children to private schools and begin a Renaissance of education. Of course, food alone wasn't the major reason behind the Faunus finding success, but it helped more than one notable Faunus family find a foothold and respect among the rich humans. Even in the mines, some Faunus found it more productive and satisfying to cook for their fellow workers, providing them with something beyond expiring bread, military-grade ham sandwiches, and a meager amount of vegetables.

That Weiss, of all people, liked traditional Faunus food was both confusing and entertaining. Of course, Weiss didn't want to give that information to the public—which Blake understood from a neutral standpoint—but it was nonetheless interesting. She shook her head and silently recounted who Weiss was and what her family did and so on and so forth ad infinitum until she suppressed that desire to know more about the Schnee.

"What about you, Blake?" Yang's voice shook her out of her thoughts.

"Oh, uh, fish." Blake responded. "Salmon or tuna preferably, but sardines are acceptable, and I won't say no to albacore or mahimahi. No catfish, though." The words just tumbled out of her mouth, and Yang stared at her in silent surprise, then nodded.

"Ice cream, cookie dough, hot wings, and fish. Sounds manageable. This floor should have a commons room to cook in, right?" Yang puttered through her school things, ultimately getting the confirmation from Weiss. "Okay! So, Blake, when do you start next?"

"Start…?" Blake paused, then resisted a grimace. "Right. That. Two weeks, should be Tuesday or Wednesday."

"Did you remember to take your pill this morning?" Weiss asked curiously.

Blake stared at her, and silently glanced out the window to hide her discomfort. "I… don't take pills."

"Huh?!" Ruby poked her head out from behind her privacy curtain. "But what if you get preggers?!"

"There are other contraceptives." Blake reminded her, but still felt Weiss and Yang watching the back of her head.

"Well, yeah." Yang nodded in agreement. "But it never hurts to stack them together. Besides, they stops the cramps, the mood swings-"

"It's not that bad. Nothing a hot bath and a nap won't fix." Blake mumbled, shoulders shrinking.

"That won't do at all." Weiss said, and Blake could imagine her crossed arms and shaking head. "We all need to be at peak performance, even when afflicted with girl things. Do you have some sort of medical or religious thing against birth control?"

"No! It's just…" Blake winced. "I haven't ever used them. I was kinda… trained in a camp." She admitted, arms over her bust. "I just kinda got used to it. I mean, sure, it sucked at first, but-"

"No buts." Weiss stood abruptly. "Blake, like it or not, it's for your personal health. Even if you don't meet the right guy here, or even if you're Yang," Weiss shot Yang an accusing look, making the blonde click her tongue and wink sleazily, "It'll keep you closer to peak performance. Look…" Weiss planted her hands on her hips and thought to herself.

"No, it's really no big deal." Blake argued, brow furrowed, a frown forming. "I don't like you poking through my hair, much less my health. If I don't want to-"

"Blake?" Ruby's soft voice interrupted the beginning of her tirade, and Blake paused. She looked up to Ruby with pleading, golden eyes. Ruby tilted her head quizzically. "Are you scared of doctors?"

"No…" Blake said softly. Ruby dropped to the floor on her feet and set a hand on Blake's shoulder as their eyes 'met.' "Ruby, I just… I'm uncomfortable."

"I know, it made me uncomfortable too, but I tried going without them and it was cruddy." Ruby gave Blake a warm smile, and Blake shuffled on her heels as she tried to resist. "Why don't we go with you? Yang and I's gynecologist is a cool lady, she can find you the right brand. It's not weird, all of us do it."

Blake stared down at Ruby with a hesitant anxiousness that took every ounce of her willpower to not let reach her ears. She glanced from Ruby, to Weiss, to Yang, all of them looking encouraging, and she crossed her arms behind her back and sighed. "I'll… I'll think about it." Ruby's quick but pleased nod made Blake look back out the window.

She had lied, but just a teensy bit. She was sort-of scared of doctors, but after having relied purely on camp medics for broken bones, open wounds, and sickness, she was hesitant to willingly sign herself up for another one. Maybe it wouldn't be as bad…

"That's not a bad idea…" Weiss hummed. "I'll go too; it'll be nice having one on hand." She rubbed her chin thoughtfully, and Blake sighed. Weiss seemed insistent on joining her for everything. It didn't bother Blake as much as she wanted it to.

Somebody's phone beeped. Weiss blinked, picked up her scroll, and turned off the alarm. Then the color drained from her face. "Grab-your-things-we-have-five-minutes-go-go-go!" She shouted as she lunged for her purse.

A second later, the door burst open and the four girls fled down the hall.

---

Earlier.

Nora and Ren were drifters with a purpose, but drifters nonetheless. They carried little, with the prospect of a dorm room as a permanent home having been a shared dream. As a result, they had little to unpack. Jaune was a farm boy, who had only brought two backpacks full of anything he could fill them with.

Pyrrha had, by a large margin, the most luggage.

"The Martial Master of Mistral, Volume Four…" Ren, in his school uniform, read aloud as he sorted through the enormous pile of movies in one of Pyrrha's boxes, filling a shelf with Pyrrha's collection by alphabetical order. "You do realize the Martial Master series relies heavily on hearsay and stereotypes for the martial arts they use, right?" He asked as he lifted Volume Five out of the box.

"I know." Pyrrha answered, also in her school uniform, as she continued to carefully sort her clothing. She smiled. "But it's such a fun little spectacle, I always loved the idea of his semblance." She clasped her hands, smiling brilliantly. "Could you imagine, every day when the clock strikes twelve at night, you gain extraordinary, intimate knowledge of one of the twelve styles?" Pyrrha stood. She held her one arm forward, one arm back, one leg partially raised in a kicking position. "The actor is actually a master of the Wind of Luigosa, one of the most artful martial arts styles." Without a word, Pyrrha spun, her foot kicking out at chin-height, coming down so she could twist with her other foot, spinning across the room in a rapid series of well-practiced roundhouse kicks that only stopped when the tip of one foot brushed the opposite wall.

"Mm. Wind style has performed so poorly in the last eight tournaments, unfortunately." Ren shook his head in disappointment.

"I know!" Pyrrha visibly pouted as she slowly moved towards the other end of the room in a slow, revolving kata where each breath taken, and each breath passed, accompanied her movement like the howling winds between the salted peaks of the Luigosa coastal cliffs. "I am still of the opinion that Achto's four arm style should not be allowed to use their pugilist gloves."

"The original doctrine states that the Hands of Achto were made strictly for fighting the Grimm." Ren nodded, his lips tight with annoyance.

"Considering the amount of corruption that the Mistral Regional Tournament spent so much time rooting out, I would not be surprised if money had exchanged hands to bend that particular rule." Pyrrha sat back at the desk in annoyance, getting back to sorting her clothes.

"The MRT also has much greater public acclaim, while the Twelve Arts Tournaments is less publicized. It would take much more focused internal reformation, and unfortunately, it is a profit-making business. Purity is not the first thing on their minds…"

Pyrrha made a small, aggravated noise just thinking about it.

Nora stuck her head up from behind a bed, where she was working on something Pyrrha and Ren couldn't see. "What's that one style where everyone dresses in, like, just ribbons?"

"The Art of the Bare Yystran." Pyrrha glanced over as she reached into a box and pulled out a very large trophy, depicting a foot-tall version of herself in solid gold, with a hand-engraved nameplate on a wooden base. "A two-pronged style, where the user cultivates a near-supernatural beauty through rigorous dieting and exercise, uses their physical form and flexibility to catch their opponent off guard, and waylay them with attacks that primarily target the soft spots."

"Yeeeaaaaah, why isn't there more of that?" Nora asked in petty frustration. "I wanna see pretty dancing naked people beat up a buncha chumps!"

"Nora, half the time it doesn't work." Ren called over as he set an empty box aside, opened it, took one look, and scooted it over to Pyrrha. Pyrrha looked into her box of unmentionables and took it into the closet. "A beautiful, naked woman wouldn't work on a gay man or a straight woman. You would simply be exposed and easy to catch by a well-disciplined opponent."

"Yeah, but even if it's a fifty-fifty shot, you got a pretty good chance of keeping your opponent distracted!"

"A disciplined warrior would not be distracted so easily by some exposed flesh."

"Oh yeah…?"

A few seconds later, Pyrrha poked her head out in time to see Nora's shirt flutter down to cover her belly as Ren, red-cheeked, pinching his nose, and crushing his thighs together, glared at his giggling girlfriend.

"Sorry, did I miss something?" Pyrrha asked, making Nora break down into harder giggles as Ren whipped his head away, trying to keep his dignity intact as he opened another one of Pyrrha's boxes. Pyrrha glanced between the two other hunters curiously, and chalked it up to an in-joke she hadn't been included in.

She sat at the desk again as two of her roommates sat mostly in silence. Unlike the locker rooms of the Grand Mistral Olympic Center, the silence was not one of anxiousness, but Pyrrha was so used to people not making eye-contact, working on their weaponry, failing to speak, preparing for an all-out conflict in front of thousands of spectators, she felt that knot of stress in her tummy form.

Nora and Ren were her companions, her allies, her… her friends. This she knew. Vaguely. She had actual conversations with them, she didn't feel hounded to constantly worry about her physical shape for the tournament, or put on her best smile for the cameras, or answer the same dozen questions she'd been asked over and over again, or asked about some deeply personal aspect of her life.

For once, she sat down with an hour of nothing to do but unpack, and she wasn't questioning if she wanted to continue on like this. Gladiators often had early retirements not just because of physical injury, but the stress of being a combatant and a celebrity status that weighed down on them. Pyrrha was no different, but she was far less comfortable with her fame than others. While she loved the idea of being a hero, an icon, and a paragon of fitness and goodness, she hated having to dress in the best fashions, constantly worry about her make-up and hair, having to constantly monitor what she said, ate, or did so it didn't slip she was anything less than a perfect swordswoman.

In the eyes of children, she was a role model… but the adults weren't so pure with their intentions. Children liked her because she was strong and nice, or hated her because she won so much. Their vision of her was pure, she won a lot so that was either good or bad depending on who they were rooting for. Pyrrha had met far too many adults who promised her a cut of the cash if she took a dive, or wanted to nitpick and micromanage every last detail of her life to figure out her secrets. It was the adults who wanted more cleavage, tried to hide a camera in her locker rooms, or tried to record her private practice.

It was the damn, greedy, fault-hungry adults that wanted to turn her father's surgery complications into a soap opera-affair full of pointing fingers and flagrant lies for the sake of controversy and views.

Pyrrha had spent far too much time around adults, not enough time around teenagers her own age. She wanted to drop her practice some nights to join a study group in Haven, she wanted to call in sick to go to a birthday party some blushing boy slid her an invitation to, she wanted to do so many things that students her age got the chance to enjoy, but Pyrrha had been stuck in a world of business and practice, and found herself spiralling away from what she wanted.

Now, here, she could be an actual hero. Not in the ring, but for the people. Being a huntress wasn't as lucrative, and was far more deadly, but she could shrug off the weight of everyone's expectations as a celebrity and become something far greater. She was going to be a huntress, and just as she promised herself seven years ago when she was first submitting her application to the Gladiatorial Union of Mistral, she was going to be the best. Not for money, or status, but for the people.

Pyrrha's shoulders sank as she took steadying breaths. She would become greater than ever before… but she didn't want to be out of everyone's reach or under anyone's thumb.

"To the cute honeys with the eyes of blue, I got a message of love, from me to you!~"

Pyrrha snapped to attention as the excited voice seemingly came from nowhere. "Finally!" Nora announced, putting a radio up on the bookshelf. Her smile went from ear to ear as the room filled with bouncy, energetic jazz. Pyrrha shook her head, clearing her head of those thoughts.

It was the here and the now, and she had friends now.

She watched in unspoken amusement as Nora began to shimmy in place to the music, wiggling her hips, her eyes closed, elbows hugging close to her ribs as her hands formed limp fists. Nora hummed along to the cheery music and the sensual singer's voice, kicking her feet out as the music became more lively. She was clearly no expert dancer, but she didn't let that stop her.

"Ren!" Nora wiggled up close to her boyfriend with a big smile. "Dance!" She held her hands out, wiggling her butt as she did.

"You know I'm not a big jazz fan." Ren looked uncomfortable as Nora put on a big pout.

"C'mon Ren, please? You dance to classical stuff with me!" Nora worked her hips as best she could, but it was clear she wasn't quite loose enough to really bust out something magical.

"It's just annoying." Ren waved his hand dismissively. "Classical dances are rituals, carefully crafted to be beautiful and smooth, this is just… senseless wiggling."

"But senseless wiggling is what I'm good at though!" Nora stomped her feet huffily. She turned away and looked to Pyrrha with big, pleading eyes. "Pyrrrhhhhaaaa, dance with me, pleeeease!"

Pyrrha swallowed hesitantly, but slowly rose to her feet. "I-I've never really danced before, but I can try." With that, Nora beamed, happy enough to look silly and throw her limbs around in barely controlled ways to a rhythm, but Pyrrha was used to a much more strict form of movement. She swayed her hips, arms held up and close to her bust as she half-shimmied, half-squirmed to the music.

It did have a nice beat, and Pyrrha tried to get a little adventurous, even offering Nora a smile as her feet moved more. The two 'danced' for maybe thirty seconds before Pyrrha stuck her foot out in an attempt to try something different, and Nora tumbled to the ground with a thump. Pyrrha squeaked, and quickly retracted her foot. "I'm sorry Nora, I hadn't- it was a total-"

"Foul! Foul!" Nora flailed on the ground, making it difficult for Pyrrha to help pull her up. "Okay, so you gotta watch your feet, see, like-"

"N-no offense Nora." Pyrrha smiled apologetically as she interrupted. "But I'm no good at dancing. I think I'll sit this one out."

"Aww, c'mon, nobody starts good at anything!" Nora crossed her arms over her chest unhappily as Pyrrha sat down shyly. "Ugh! You're both total stiffs…" Nora's voice fell as she scuffed the floor, and Pyrrha and Ren both shared a guilty look.

The bathroom door flew open, and Jaune stepped out, one hand's fingertips pressed to his forehead, the other pointing at Nora in dramatic fashion. His legs were spread, testing the limits of his school pants, before his voice rose: "You!" He announced, making his three teammates blink in surprise. "My blue eyed ba~by, I see you in the waters blue, it's true, when you're around I don't gotta chooo~ooooossss~sse-uh!" His voice rose, making Ren wince as his voice cracked at the attempt to match the singer, but the blonde boy paid no mind to his lack of singing talent and swept in.

Nora squeaked as her hand was taken, and Pyrrha stared in silent awe as her partner spun Nora around, letting her go so they could stand across from each other. Nora broke down into laughter as her will to dance was renewed, her hips and arms swinging as she and Jaune openly, and happily, grooved.

Ren's eyes widened as his girlfriend showed little care or worry dancing with a boy she'd just met yesterday. There was zero hesitation in taking one another by the hands to spin around, legs kicking, arms swinging, smiles wide and happy. Ren stared blankly, unaware of the way his fingers were digging into his knee harder and harder as Nora gave Jaune a toothy smile.

The song went on for another minute, ending in a dramatic explosion of brass, while Jaune and Nora held each other by one hand, their other hand out in the same flamboyant pose. They were grinning brightly at each other, and let go as the radio started another song.

Hair still wet, Jaune stood in front of the body mirror and combed it as Nora clung to his side in a happy hug, one leg raised behind her. "Eeee! Finally! Somebody who will dance with me!"

"Ren won't dance with you?" Jaune glanced down at Nora curiously.

"Ugh, no, he's such a stiff!" Nora openly pouted, and Ren stood up as a sudden shot of adrenaline ran through him. He wasn't even aware he was frowning. He walked behind Nora, set a hand on her shoulder, and gently squeezed. Immediately she fell against him, resting her back against his chest as her hand snaked into his. A small squeeze relieved most of the tension, but Ren still felt a tiny, bitter taste in his mouth that he was not happy with. He glanced down at Nora, as she looked up at him. "So stiff!" She repeated, reaching up to poke his nose. "Boop!"

"It's just… all it is is moving." Ren mumbled defensively as he stared at the back of Jaune's head.

Jaune turned to look at him over his shoulder, shrugging a little bit. "Sure, but, like, it's fun moving. You look dumb for a second, but it makes you feel… loose. Gives you energy."

Ren's eyes narrowed a tiny bit as he considered it. "So does exercise and a good breakfast." He countered.

"Yeah, but those aren't as fun. With dancing, you get the music, you get to show off a bit…" Jaune's swayed his hips left and right, and Nora giggled. Ren glanced up and sighed.

"I just don't see the point." He shook his head, releasing Nora. He moved to go back to his seat when Nora called back.

"You also don't see the point of makeup, but look at Pyrrha!" Nora pointed to the redhead. Pyrrha blinked slowly, her cheeks reddening the tiniest bit as she held her hands up. "She's gorgeous!" Pyrrha turned more red at the compliment.

"It's just a little eyeshadow and blush, nothing excessive." Pyrrha admitted bashfully, but Nora made a dismissive noise.

"Oh please, miss bedroom-eyes." Nora shook her head, and Pyrrha instinctively touched her forehead, trying to figure out what Nora meant.

"Make-up looks fine in the moment, but it's not valuable. We're hunters Nora, we'll get sweaty anyways. Besides, I like you. The natural you." He said with an honest shrug, but Nora sighed and shook her head.

"I know, but… like, we won't be hunters all the time. I just wanna look a little girly sometimes, especially while I still can." Nora admitted. Ren chewed his inner cheek in frustration, Pyrrha thought for a second as she reached over to her make-up drawer, and Jaune…

"Y'know, I had seven sisters." Jaune admitted with a hesitant tone, moving to go sit in a desk chair. "I could, y'know… I mean, if we had any on hand, I can do a little, tiny, totally basic makeup." He winced as he admitted it.

"... Really?" Nora and Pyrrha both asked at the same time. Jaune groaned, blushing as Ren chewed his tongue.

"Really." Jaune shrugged again and tried to look completely casual about it. "I had sisters! They wanted me to do girly stuff sometimes, it's not my fault I can dance and do makeup! It's just, y'know, how I was raised!"

"Wow, Jaune." Nora just snickered as Ren shook his head.

"It's nothing to be embarrassed about Jaune, I'm sure many girls would find it impressive." Pyrrha nodded, trying to be consoling, but Jaune just threw his hands up.

"That's what they told me! But how many women have you heard say 'I totally dig a guy who knows how to do a Vacuo eye contour'?! None! They want strong, beefy, hairy men with big-"

"Pause!" Nora ordered, staring Jaune in the eye as the boy swiftly stopped gesturing to his crotch. "You can do a vec-curl?" Her eyebrow crawled up her forehead.

"... Maybe…" Jaune answered in a soft voice.

"Pyrrha?" Nora asked in a suddenly gentle, sweet voice. "Would it be okay if I borrowed some of your makeup? I'll pay you back, I swearsies." Nora's tone was suddenly coy, but she wore a pleased smile. Pyrrha stood, and nodded her head.

"Don't worry about paying me back." She went to the bathroom and returned with her makeup case, giving it to Nora. The redhead grew a big, happy smile, taking it and scampering over to Jaune as the blonde sighed, but opened up the case to carefully look through the contents.

"I still say it's a waste." Ren frowned from his chair, watching Nora as she pulled up a chair in front of Jaune. He had a strange feeling that wouldn't leave his gut, despite his repeated attempts at his normal emotion-quelling techniques. It was a cold, bitter feeling that he did not like, and it made him look at Jaune with distaste. That he liked even less. Jaune had saved Nora, Jaune had protected the love of his life, why was he feeling… jealous? He shook his head. It was nothing. It was dancing and makeup. Despite Ren's personal dislike of them, Nora still ran to Jaune, and did so with that happy wiggle in her hips she got whenever she was happy.

"Okay, hold still, this'll probably tickle a bit. Gonna lay down a little foundation…" Jaune spoke as, with the impeccable precision of an artist, he began to work on Nora's face. He hummed, he stuck his tongue out in concentration, he told Nora when to relax, when to blink, when to keep her eyes wide open. He lightened her cheeks and added a small amount of blush, causing her rosiness to truly shine through, and moved to her eyes. He shadowed her eyes, carefully lined her lids, and then redid the shadows. It was a slow, delicate procedure, but he did not shake and took shallow breaths. "Hm, y'know, Nora…" He spoke as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "You've got a very round, like, cute face, y'know?"

"Mhmm?" Nora chewed her lower lip to stop herself from smiling. Ren hid a growl.

"I don't think a vec-curl would suit you, you need sharper features. My little sister Jean pulled it off really well, but you're a little more like Jill. Let my try something different." He held the bottom of her undecorated chin and slowly moved her around as he thought, his appraising eye rolling over her facial features like a judge. He chewed his lip, made a popping sound with his tongue, bounced his eyebrows, and finally gave a little sniff of approval.

Pyrrha watched with big eyes as he went back to working Nora's eyes. He sat back with a satisfied look and closed all of Pyrrha's cases, while Pyrrha closed her mouth and swallowed her suddenly dry tongue. For reasons even she wasn't aware of, a barely heard, primal part of her wanted to plant her flag fast and early, but she held back with a slow, shy roll of her jaw.

Ren stared as Nora stood and walked to the mirror, his expression changing from annoyance to mild shock. Her cheeks had always been faintly red, like she'd always been the slightest bit embarrassed, but Jaune brought out a rosiness in her face that made Nora look not just cute, but endlessly pleased. Her brow was delicately rounded to make her look happy, but her eyes… Ren's fingers twitched. Black and smoky, with long, pumped curls and enough mascara to make the fine hairs pop in such a fetching way. Her lips were a glossy red, making them look smooth and shiny, a far-cry from her normally wrinkled, pale smile.

Anything Ren felt towards Jaune at that point was momentarily forgotten. He stared at his lover as she looked into the room's mirror, her whole neck turning red as she reached her hand up to touch her reflection's face. She dipped her head and blinked shyly, lifted her chin and smiled cockily, turned to the side and puckered her lips… Ren had a sudden thrill shoot through his leg, and he felt the urge to whisk Nora away to somewhere private.

He squeezed his eyes shut and clamped down on his emotions. Makeup wasn't a realistic thing they could expect out in the field, even as good as Nora looked in it, he couldn't constantly expect Jaune to sit there with her. For Jaune to make his girlfriend pretty.

He stood suddenly, wanting a glass of water. He made a move to go to the bathroom when a hand took his. He froze, squeezing Nora's fingers with familiar affection, and he turned to look at her. She had an embarrassed, unsure look on her face. "Ren?" She asked, rocking on her heels. "Am I pretty?"

Ren didn't say anything. He didn't have to. He looked into her eyes, at the way the touch-ups brought out the absolute best features in her, and he felt his own eyes water. A tiny smile tugged at his lips, and he nodded the tiniest bit. She was still the most beautiful girl he knew, and now, even more so, but that bitter nastiness would not leave his stomach.

Nora read his face like a book. He was so quiet and subtle with his emotions that she had gotten used to the little tics in his expression and movements. It was very rare that his eyes glimmered the way they did now, so she couldn't stop herself from grinning in a mixture of joy and triumph. Ren gave a small, amused sigh.

"Y'know, the first few classes are probably gonna be just dumb, boring introductory stuff. We could take the morning off…" Nora suggested, running her finger over his elbow naughtily. Ren felt that thrill shoot down his leg again at the suggestion, and the heavily restrained, wild part of him was demanding he take the suggestion. Jaune and Pyrrha stared as his hand touched her back, then slowly moved down to cup her bottom through her skirt, then move back up her back.

"Don't be ridiculous." He said in a tone of gentle amusement. "We'll have time later. We should get ready. If you'll pardon me, I am thirsty." Ren left Nora's hand, stepping into the restroom to grab a complimentary cup and fill it.

Nora's smile went from pleased to brilliantly feral as she turned on her roommates, her expression both distressingly predatory and fetchingly smoky. "Jaune, you dreamboat." She marched over, sticking her pointer finger under his chin and tilting his face up so they could look each other in the eye. "You, sir, just got Nora points. Which are like brownie points but better." She turned away, hands on her hips, and revelled at her reflection.

Jaune slid closer to Pyrrha and the blonde turned to his partner with a lopsided smile. "They're crazy."

"Oh, come now, they're happy. It's all a person can ask for." Pyrrha sighed longingly, thinking of how Nora and Ren held hands. "…but yes, perhaps a little bit crazy." Pyrrha admired Jaune from behind her eyelids, failing to keep herself from giggling.

Jaune pretended to not notice at first, but then she hid her mouth behind her hand. "What?" He asked, suddenly flustered. She didn't answer, the sudden attention making her giggle more audibly. "What?! It's a valuable skill around women!" Jaune began to wave his arms as Pyrrha hid her face and fell into open belly-laughing that made Jaune whimper. "I had to fend for myself somehow! It was a makeup or be makeuped world out there! They were evil Pyrrha; crazy, and evil, and trying to make me pretty!"

Ren stepped out of the bathroom to see Jaune futilely defending himself as Pyrrha folded in half, her laughter loud and wild. Nora shot her boyfriend a look, making his heart flutter, and she shook her head and jerked her thumb towards Jaune and Pyrrha. "You see those two? They're crazy."

"Mmhm." Ren smirked as he checked the time. "Ten 'til, everyone. We should go." He announced. Pyrrha stifled her laughter just enough to grab her backpack, while Jaune slumped and trudged over to his suitcase. Nora and Ren were waiting by the door with their handbags, and the four left as a team.

---

"We're not late!" Yang announced as she nearly busted the wooden door down.

The class of hunters stared in silent surprise as Yang walked in, Ruby meekly following behind her. Weiss and Blake stumbled in, panting heavily, their bags loosely held over their shoulders.

Bartholomew Oobleck slowly lowered the newspaper he was reading at his desk to evaluate the four girls before he slowly stood. Team RWBY snapped to attention as the scraggly-dressed man set his paper down and tugged his loose tie. He picked up a piece of chalk and turned towards the blackboard. "Ruby Rose." He spoke, his voice little more than a violent hiss as he slowly wrote her name in large, blocky letters.

Ruby squeaked, her lip beginning to quiver as he turned to stare at her through his gloomy glasses. "D-d-doc-doctor Oobleck…?" She whimpered, but his gaze shifted to her right.

"Weiss. Schnee." He snarled, writing her name underneath Ruby's. Weiss went pale—well, paler—as he then glanced to the next girl. "Blake Belladonna… and Yang. Xiao. Long." He wrote each name, and the entire class of hunters quietly whispered, wondering how harsh tardiness was punished at Beacon. Dr. Oobleck carefully set the chalk into its receptacle, his movements slow and precise, then he whirled, hunched over as he stared at the team with a animalistic ferocity. All four of them suddenly felt very small… "How… DAAAAAARRRRRE YOOOOUUUU?!" He suddenly roared, standing to his full height with his hands on his head.

Every teenager in the room stared silently as the Doctor stared at the floor in clear agony. "Um… Professor?" Yang spoke up.

"Doctor! It's Doctor Oobleck to you! I didn't get a PHD in Remnant History and Archaeology for fun!" He all but spat, giving the four girls a grieved look. Yang shut her mouth tightly, and silently glanced to Blake for help. Blake was squeezing her bow to keep her ears from falling flat. "Don't think I don't know! You have each made my list for the atrocities you committed during your initiation!" He shouted, pointing at them furiously.

"Atroci- what?!" Weiss looked at their teacher like he'd gone mad. Well, madder. "We didn't hurt anyone during our initiation! We passed like everyone else!" She threw her arms out, and the whole class shrank back in an attempt to avoid the doctor's wrath.

"Oh, you most certainly did! With flying colors at that! Congratulations by the way, your victory over the Nevermore was most certainly well executed and triumphant—BUT AT WHAT COST?!" Oobleck whirled towards the blackboard, chalk suddenly appearing in his hand, and Team RWBY stared in escalating comprehension as he drew three tall towers in record time. "The Ignopolus!" Spittle flew all over his desk, "One of the last vestiges of an ancient religion that worshipped Ignus, 'he who holds the sun in his palms!'"

Ruby looked to Yang. Yang looked back. Both girls shrugged as Blake silently raised a hand. "Um… sir? We had no control over the destruction the Nevermore caused, and, um…"

"We didn't know we would explode!" Ruby squeaked, trembling under Oobleck's angry stare.

"Indeed, Dust can be unpredictable in dire circumstances and depending on whose aura does what, but I can never forgive you!" Dr. Oobleck bent over his desk in grief, a loud, frustrated sigh escaping him. "You four passed, and therefore I am required to teach you, but don't you dare think for a second I will enjoy tutoring you… you wrecking balls!"

"Hey! We are all skinny, curvy, and sexy bitches!" Yang crossed her arms over her chest.

"Yeah!" Ruby, Weiss, and Blake added on, matching Yang's stance perfectly.

Dr. Oobleck let out a loud grunt, then snapped to attention and waved his hand. "Your crimes aside, we do need to start class—but you are staying on my list—so please take a seat—without destroying them—and get out your things—not your weapons."

The four girls awkwardly filed into four available seats situated conveniently by team JNPR. Ruby sat down first, next to Jaune, who was staring at Oobleck in open worry before glancing to Ruby in shock, as if she'd just appeared there. "So, uh…" He whispered.

"Students." Dr. Oobleck began, cutting Jaune short and drawing everyone's attention. Standing in a more composed manner, Dr. Oobleck lifted a telescoping rod in one hand, then hit a button on the wall behind him. "Today begins our first class in the History of Remnant. You may be asking yourself: 'what can I learn here that I haven't heard before?'" As he spoke, the blackboard behind him revolved slowly, vertically, revealing an enormous map of Remnant, all of its continents, their regions, their cities, their towns, and unexplored locations marked, at least what was visible beneath the dozens upon dozens of papers stuck to the map, with a massive series of red strings connecting each location. "The answer is simple: our mistakes."

Dr. Oobleck stepped out from behind his desk and paced slowly, not looking at anyone as his voice rose loudly enough for everyone to hear. "Between humans and faunus, between the Vacuo-Vale alliance and the Mistral-Mantle allegiance, from the wars of ancient past, to the skirmishes of recent history, one thing is apparent," He hit a button on the side of his desk, and now, covering the map, was a holographic display showing numerous treaties and armistice agreements from over the years. "We are learning. Not very quickly, but we are learning. Centuries of warfare amongst ourselves has lead to millions of deaths, not just at each other's hands, but at the teeth and claws of the Grimm that our strife inevitably calls."

The hologram changed with a click of a button on his pointer, revealing a large picture. The iconic painting of the King of Vale and the Premier of Mistral shaking hands during the Vytal treaty signing appeared, a scene of comradeship, understanding, and weariness over what has come to be known as a senseless war.

"We have fought less and less over the years, and war seems outlandish in this time of peace, but let me assure you, the same thing was thought by our ancestors before the Color Wars broke out." Dr. Oobleck lifted his gaze, looking at every single student in their seats, and put on a small, almost fatherly smile. "Students, we are not politicians, but we are leaders. Since the dawn of our history, Hunters are seen as icons of morality, the bearers of our ideals and our strength, no matter where we come from, who we were born to, or where we are now, we carry a torch; illuminating the darkness of the future as we strike forward and lead the people of Remnant towards a better time." His smile fell as a new hologram appeared, one displaying a Newspaper.

The headline read 'Crime Wave Grips Vale Ports! Shops destroyed, Dust stolen, people afraid. President Victoria promises to increase security.'

"But just as we hold the torch, there are those who lurk in the dark. They use fear and violence for personal gain, from the lowliest criminal…"

The hologram switched again, this time an old newspaper from the Color Wars. 'Emperor Khan Declares Ban on Colors; Mistral Feeling Gray! King Oscar condemns, but Atlas stays quiet!'

"... To the most well-intentioned king." Oobleck shut the hologram off, slowly moving to the center of the room to look up to his students. "I have taken this job to teach you, our future hunters, our future torch-bearers, what it means to be a person, both in the past and now, the inalienable rights of Remnant, and how our history has shaped our present. With this knowledge, I have the hopes that each and every single one of you will step out knowing, without a doubt, your right from wrong, and learn from the mistakes our ancestors have made."

The room was quiet, mulling over his words, and Oobleck suddenly stomped his foot.

"That said, prepare to take your notes!" He was off like a shot, reappearing by the map, the pointer in his hand wobbling from the speed. The classroom was filled with the sounds of shuffling bags, rustling paper, and the testing taps of mechanical pencils as Oobleck went off at light speed. "Picture this: Vale, only one hundred and eight years after the establishment of our capital, the winter is harsh, food is scarce, the bread lines stretch across three blocks, the king missing for the fourth week in a row…"

The scratching of pencils filled the hall as Dr. Oobleck poured in the facts and figures. Pyrrha, Ren, and Weiss wrote mechanically, neat notes with indentations to designate a relation to the topic and room in the margins for extra notes. Blake filled her pages from the heading area to the margins, writing in quick, fast scribbles that ignored the standard procedure, utilizing years of frantic recording. Nora chewed her pencil, waiting for a name, a date, and what they did. Jaune stared in bewilderment as he tried to write down names, numbers, facts, and figures, but mostly ended up with an incomplete mess. Yang wrote with fine handwriting, not going the extra mile as Weiss did, but her organization was good and had just enough fluff in case she needed to do extra credit.

Ruby was on her third page already. Her hand moved like a mechanical arm, recording every last word the professor spoke, sweat beading on her forehead, her tongue stuck out from between her lips. She filled each page as best she could as she strained her ears and listened to Dr. Oobleck.

She had to give Beacon her one-hundred percent, no less. She'd lucked her way in here, there was going to be no give and all take. Her hand ached, but she continued to write, she had to absorb everything…

It was like Professor Goodwitch told her, she was being tested above everyone else here. She was the youngest student at Beacon, and with the most dangerous semblance. She needed her professors to see that she was serious and tame.

She would get good grades, perform her best, and prove her worth as a huntress.

An hour flew by, and Professor Oobleck concluded his lesson by tapping away at a console on his desk. "Everyone, keep your notes available, we are now moving on to classwork! If you and your partner are not sitting next to each other, arrange it so that you are. You and your partner will be sharing classwork grades, but all homework and tests are individually taken." Holographic displays popped up in front of each pair of students, displaying the Vale continent, and under a drop bar was a list of twenty names, of people, events, and locations. "Your classwork today will be to pin each of the given keywords to their appropriate location, as close as you can get it, and put a brief—and I mean brief—summary of each keyword. Keywords may share locations. Remember, your notes and your partner are a valuable source of information, and don't hesitate to ask your teammates if both of you are stumped but I will be looking for matching entries!"

Ruby looked to her left. Weiss and Yang were already switching seats to sit next to their respective partners, and Weiss looked into Ruby's goggles. "I'm hoping you took notes?" Weiss asked with a raised eyebrow as she turned her notebook's pages back. "Because I am willing to share notes, but if you expect me to allow you to copy mine after the fact-"

"N-no no! I have them!" Ruby showed Weiss her notes. Weiss looked over the scrawled, though legible words with a discerning eye, and a slow frown formed. "Are-are they okay?"

"You only need the important parts, not every last scrap of detail." Weiss pointed out, but let it go with a sigh. "Anyways, let's start from the top." She took the first keyword out of the drop bar: Admiral Jameson Bravo. Dr. Oobleck's lesson had covered a number of events that happened between Vale's founding and its slow rise to power, and, thankfully, the events seemed to be in order in the drop bar.

'While Vale was initially considered impenetrable due to the advantage Grimm had over early settlers, Admiral Jameson Bravo was the first explorer into Vale to make use of a military company equipped with Dust-enhanced weaponry. Though he had suffered heavy losses, he created the first self-sustaining fortification able to harvest and trade Vale's natural resources.'

"Is that agreeable?" Weiss asked, leaning away from the holoboard. The event was tied to a spot on the eastern Vale peninsula, where Oobleck had pointed to during the lesson.

Ruby leaned in to read, and quietly nodded. "Okay, I guess I'll take the next one…"

"Don't guess." Weiss ordered sternly, making Ruby flinch. "If you're to be our leader, you must be sure of yourself." Weiss's eyes narrowed as she scrutinized Ruby. Ruby didn't say anything, just bob her head and shiver as she took the next event: The Eighth Grimm Extermination Act.

'In 012, Mistral's acting treasurer Yata MondALA CRESTED-'

Ruby took her hands off the keyboard. "Weiss?" Ruby whimpered, and Weiss just watched with mounting disbelief. "Why did all the letters become big?!" Ruby stared at the screen with a confused frown. Weiss glanced to Ruby suspiciously, reached over, and pointed to the caps lock button. "Oh." Ruby pressed it.

'In 012, Mistral's acting treasurer Yata MondALA CRESTED an act6 that-'

"No, no, no! Ruby, fix your mistakes!" Weiss pointed to the screen and gave Ruby an even more skeptical glare. "Don't you text?"

"I-I do but I haven't used an actual keyboard before!" Ruby squeaked, leaning away from the holoscreen.

"Surely they taught you this stuff in school! I took a computer class in Elementary…" Weiss's brow knit together, and Ruby let out a nervous laugh. "... ... ... Don't…" A gradual grimace crept across Weiss's face. "Don't tell me…"

"... I never went to school."

Weiss slowly turned her head, her neck stiff and rigid, to face Yang, who was watching her warily for the first sign of trouble. Weiss's jaw went stiff. Yang flicked Weiss's nose, making the heiress yelp. "She's homeschooled, sorry we didn't cover basic computing."

"Who doesn't have at least a laptop these days, though?! Somebody—I mean, she has a scroll and never found her caps lock button?!"

"Who uses a caps lock button to text?" Blake asked as she stared at her notes with a bored expression. Weiss and Yang both raised their hands. "... Weird."

"Look, if somebody you know screws up real bad, and you gotta let 'em know you're mad somehow." Yang shrugged.

"Besides, it's just proper to understand the tools at your disposal! How can you be a reliable person if you don't explore all your options?!" Weiss snarled, then shot a look at Ruby, and her young leader wilted noticeably. "Ugh…" After a moment of contemplation, she reached over and took Ruby's hands, making the smaller girl go stiff as her fingers were placed on the holoboard. "This had better not take all class. Now let's take this slowly."

Ruby looked at Weiss curiously, and Weiss snarled again, making Ruby look right back at the screen. Weiss taught her the keyboard and its various buttons, showed her a few shortcuts, and in just under five minutes, Ruby had the blurb typed out.

'In 012, Mistral's acting treasurer Yatta Mondala created an act that paid hunters to exterminate Grimm en masse in Vale. This act paid hunters 50 lien per kill, sending scribes, to record the number of slain Grimm, with each hunter. This job was dangerous for both hunter and scribe, but paid each extremely well for their services.'

Ruby sat back with a heavy sigh, staring at the screen with a small frown. "Okay, you get the next one."

"No." Weiss scooted her chair closer to Ruby, facing the screen as Ruby blanched.

"B-but-"

"If we are going to be doing work together, I expect basic competence with note-taking and computers. Now, hands on the keyboard, do it again." Weiss ordered, disgruntled that her leader had to be taught how to do classwork at her grade level. Ruby hesitated, but sighed in defeat and put her hands on the holoboard. "Good. Now, Abarem Town; don't hit caps lock."

Ruby did as she was told, albeit slowly. For eighteen more terms. Weiss noted that Ruby's information was factually correct, but she had to be nudged and reminded repeatedly to use what Weiss had taught her. It wasn't as if she didn't know words or how they went together, but simple computer skills hadn't been a factor in her life. It was the most backwards thing Weiss had ever seen, her grammar and recollection of events was excellent otherwise…

Ruby frowned at her sore fingers, stretching them slowly. She had the dexterity necessary for scythe-work, but this was new and different. Still, Weiss had few complaints as they rechecked their work. "Well, it all seems fine…"

"Girls." Ruby and Weiss glanced up to Dr. Oobleck. He sipped from his thermos, and Ruby and Weiss both noticed most of the students were kicked back, screens off. Blake and Yang were standing with team JNPR, Blake chatting with Pyrrha as Yang and Nora compared muscles. "Is everything alright?"

"Fine." Weiss nodded.

"Are you still mad at us?" Ruby asked in a tiny voice.

"Utterly furious, but more importantly, I want to know how you're handling the work. It wasn't a particularly difficult assignment." He leaned between them both and examined their terms. "Mmhm, everything seems in order…"

"I can't type very well." Ruby admitted softly, her pale face soft with disappointment.

"She's… unfamiliar with the common keyboard, so we took some extra time to familiarize her." Weiss said, gulping. Oobleck hummed thoughtfully.

"I see! Well, we'll determine whether or not it affects your grade when I actually grade it." He stood straight and absent-mindedly rubbed his bald chin. He turned to focus on Ruby, and cleared his throat to get her to look at him. "You shouldn't be afraid to admit your faults. We all have areas of expertise and things we've never learned. I am a hunter, a decorated scholar, and can pilot anything from a skiff to a military-class bullhead, but I have never driven a car, nor have I learned how." He grew a lopsided smirk at their stunned looks. "What matters is that you try, and you are receptive to learning more."

Weiss frowned at her hands as Ruby squared up, smiling in quiet understanding. Weiss spoke up. "But, Doctor, aren't there certain… expectations placed on hunters? Even if we open ourselves up to learning beyond our capabilities, something like knowing how to use a computer seems important to already know."

"Mm, true, but many people still make use of the old-fashioned way." Dr. Oobleck examined his thermos' contents, taking a quick sip before continuing. "I had a young lady four years ago, a faunus from Menagerie. She was sharp, perceptive, good in class, but had religious reasons to not use a computer. All her classwork, homework, and tests were done on paper, she was a fantastic cartographer and had very neat hand-writing, but absolutely refused to use a computer."

"Oh!" Ruby perked up. "A Naturalist. Was she a pre- or post-Fang?" Ruby asked curiously, and Oobleck gave Ruby a pleased look.

"Ugh, of all the movements to come out of Menagerie, an anti-technology one…" Weiss all but sneered at the thought, but Oobleck continued without acknowledging the complaint.

"Post-Fang, so she was perfectly fine with enhanced weaponry! In fact, she was one of the best duelists in her year, using a crossbow of all things!" Oobleck chuckled as Ruby's jaw dropped, and Weiss's eyes widened.

"A crossbow duelist? Did it have a spear attached? Transform into an axe?" Weiss probed, and Oobleck shook his head.

"Just a regular, electrically-powered crossbow with standard metal bolts. Used dust-canister bolts as well, but she had a talent for trick-shots, fantastic to see in a fight, always brought a crowd, but as I said, opposed using computers. Anyways, three years into her tenure at Beacon, she receives a letter from Ba'Rin Tinsam, her religious leader. The good Ba'Rin had declared that things like computers and scrolls would be a necessity if they wished to keep up with the modern world, but strictly for use in communication, education, and news. Needless finery such as movie-watching, wasteful social media, and any form of electronic entertainment was regarded as excessive. Their religion still forbids cars, airships, and artificially-powered watercraft, but suddenly she had computers in her life! She and her team used to come to my room after classes and spend hours teaching her how to use a computer and keyboard."

Ruby and Weiss both nodded as Oobleck looked off wistfully, and Weiss straightened her skirt impatiently. "And?" She asked.

"The point is," Oobleck continued after refocusing on the two, "we had a girl who adamantly refused to use our resources until her second-to-last year. Despite this, she excelled. She was intelligent, clever, powerful, and well-spoken, and when it came time to learn about computers, she was open-minded, and her team sacrificed their personal time to help her learn. If I am not mistaken, they are still signed up together today, their bond stronger than ever." He knelt, just enough to be on the girls' levels, and glanced between them with a small smile. "Help each other. Learn. Pride will be your downfall in the field, so if you feel unprepared, use each other, use your team, and use your school. It's not stupid at all to admit your weaknesses." The intercom chimed as the class came to a close, and Oobleck stood swiftly. "Welp! That wraps up this class. Everyone have a good rest of your first day, there's a test this Friday! Do be on time next class, team wrecking ball!"

"Hey!"

---

"Weiss?" Ruby whispered, wiggling her rubber-gloved hands. "I. Am. A. Scientist!" She whispered in heated awe.

"... Don't be stupid." Weiss set her clear, plastic goggles around her eyes and tightened the apron around her waist.

Ruby and Weiss, following the crowd of students from the wall hooks in the back of the classroom, made their way to an empty table alongside Blake and Yang. Blake did not seem pleased with the eyewear and adjusted them frequently, while Yang immediately took hold of a set of tongs. Ruby squeaked and flailed her hands playfully as the blonde tried to snag her nose.

"I'm gonna getcha!"

"Yang, stop!"

"I'm gonna getcha!"

"Noooooo!"

"I'm gonna getcha!"

"Eek!"

"Girls!" Weiss slapped her hands down onto the table, her cheek twitching. Yang stopped to stare at Weiss curiously, her tongs gently squeezing Ruby's nose. "Stop. Playing. Around." Weiss ordered, visibly frustrated.

"Bud why?" Ruby slurred, flicking the tongs to signal Yang to let her go.

"We're in school! We'll be adults soon! We can't juuuuuub-" Weiss glared at Blake, the smug, smiling black-haired girl having pulled Weiss's bottom lip out comically using the table's second set of tongs, leaving both Ruby and Yang both giggling. Weiss briefly turned into an enraged windmill as her arms flew about, grabbing all the tools-turned-toys out of everyone's hands and holding them to her chest with an overly dramatic glare. "Act. Your. Age." She hissed warningly.

"Is that an order?" Yang asked, leaning closer with a cocky smile. "'Cuz y'know, you can't really give orders since Ruby's the team leader!" Yang ribbed Weiss. The heiress's glare turned much harsher as her rage mounted.

"Well unless she starts acting like it then maybe, we should have somebody who will step up!" Weiss hissed unhappily, and Yang just gave a thoughtful hum.

"Sounds like a mutiny! Okay, so, in that case, let's put it to a vote! Who wants Weiss as a leader?" Yang asked the table. Weiss raised her hand, and her brow knit together grumpily as she looked between the other three. Ruby, for her part, just looked ashamed. "And who votes for Ruby?!" Yang asked, throwing her hand into the air. Blake followed suit. Ruby just stared at her lap meekly. "Ruby's still our acting leader!" Yang beamed.

"Yaaaaay…" Ruby twirled a finger, and Weiss silently glared.

"Okay class!" Professor Peach announced from up front. Ruby and Weiss continued to pout, even as they turned towards their teacher. Professor Peach had her long hair kept tame in numerous micro-dreadlocks, then tied off in a ponytail behind her head. Ruby noted that her outfit hadn't changed much from two days ago: her tanktop and baggy pants remained, but an apron now completed the ensemble. "Let's start with introductions: I'm Professor Peridot Peach, but Professor Peach will be fine. From now until you graduate, I am your go-to source on anything Dust-related." She gestured to the desk in front of her. At one end was a sink, but strewn across the rest of it was vials filled with numerous different-colored Dusts and all sorts of glass bulbs and plastic tubes used in creating small, personalized batches. "You wanna mix Dust? You get the kits from me. You wanna activate your license on campus? You ask me. You wanna order Dust? All requests go through me, and yes, I saw some of you trying to get your hands on 'combat-enhancement' Dust already, so don't think I'm not paying attention!"

Ruby pressed her pencil to her paper in anticipation of the lesson's start. She had never been very good with Dust. Her whole family relied more on fighting power than dust enhancement of any sort, usually using store-bought bullets. Yang had to do a few take-home experiments and record the results for Signal, and Ruby quickly learned how dangerous it could be when she got a little too nosey.

"So, Dust… As I'm sure you know, Dust is used for everything." Professor Peach tapped a button on her desk, and as with Oobleck's class, a holoscreen popped up above the desk. A scroll, a car, an airship, and a flaming sword were on display. "Modern transportation, communication, and combat would be impossible without the discovery, refinement, and advanced mutation of Dust. You see, kids, Dust is potential energy in physical form, and any form of energy is power. With the discovery of Dust, civilization became possible, as we became powerful enough to fight the Grimm."

The screen changed. Ruby blinked slowly, trying to take in the visuals of the Dust-making process, from the boiling vials of multicolored grains to the liquidized slurry being poured into vibrating mixers. Professor Peach took a vial of red Dust on her desk and poured a little more than a handful into a glass bowl. The class watched as she took the bowl and screwed it onto a wooden pole, set the pole into the middle of the floor, and dropped a match into the bowl. A few fascinated whispers came from the class as the inside of the bowl instantly ignited, more powerfully than a mere match could have caused. The flame roared and howled, barely out of touch of the ceiling as Professor Peach casually sipped from a water bottle, then picked up a vial of golden dust in her mechanical hand.

"As I said, Dust is power, and power is change." Her mechanical hand entered the flame fearlessly and poured in a portion of the golden Dust. The flame briefly jumped, turning a vibrant yellow, then suddenly froze. The roar and crackle of the flame died, the heat vanished, and the goldish, spiky pillar in the bowl stood still. Ruby silently set her pencil down and plopped her face in between her hands as she stared. "What if I told you that I petrified heat?"

Somebody in the back spoke up. "Isn't that impossible?"

"Not with Dust!" Professor Peach looked pleased as she flicked the flask of golden Dust with her normal hand. "Many of you are probably familiar with the basics: fire, cold, electricity, gravity, and enhancement Dust. However, in laboratories today, we are creating stronger, more potent Dust using the Schnee-Xing process. Class, prepare to write." A scramble of pencils put to paper, and Professor Peach went on. "Schnee Dust Company employee Dr. Mana Yun Xing cracked the code of laboratory-created Dust thirty-eight years ago. By employing advanced chemistry using household things such as table salt, water, iron, fire, and enough vibration capable of setting off an earthquake detector three floors down, we can create flawless, ready-to-use Dust inside the safety of our cities."

Blake raised her hand. "Doesn't this make the dust mines obsolete?" She asked. Weiss huffed.

"Of course not." Weiss answered, suddenly standing. "The Schnee-Xing method has created extraordinary results, but in limited quantities. Professor Peach, that thermal petrification Dust you used, am I wrong in saying that it took two weeks and around four thousand lien to create?" She asked, crossing her arms in a way that dared to be challenged.

Professor Peach grinned. "Leave it to Weiss Schnee! That is correct." Professor Peach held up the vial triumphantly, and nodded for Weiss to sit. "I was offered this generous sample from Dr. Yun Xing himself, to show my classes how far Dust has come since we were savages throwing exploding rocks at each other. This Dust is extraordinarily expensive and time-consuming, and has a shelf-life of approximately two and a half weeks, but, you are looking at the future in fire-fighting should we cut that all down. Eight gallons of this can petrify your average house fire." Professor reached up, snapped off one of the golden tendrils outside the bowl, and crushed it between her hands, creating gentle wafts of smoke. "And it can be safely disposed of by grinding it down into harmless ash, break down in the wild, and join the rest of the used dust particles in seeding the land."

Professor Peach tossed the petrified fire into a trash can and reclaimed her bowl. She changed the holoscreen to a set of figures that made Ruby's brain ache. Chemical symbols and numbers filled the screen, and Professor Peach planted her hands on her wide hips and beamed. "We have several Schnee-Xing tumblers at this school, thanks to the Schnee Education Foundation's generous donations. As our future hunters, it is important for each of you to understand up-and-coming technology as well as old techniques. We will be going step-by-step over creating the most basic and important Dust to a Hunter's repertoire: explosive Dust." That caused an excited stir to emerge from the class, and Yang in particular looked in love already.

"Explosive Dust?! Tell me your secrets, magic woman." Yang growled softly, as Ruby began to shiver.

"Make sure you are with your partner for this! One of you will come up to gather the materials and equipment you need, you'll be given a reference chart in case you need help identifying Dust! Remember, this is an effort with your partner, so be sure to split duties accordingly!" Professor Peach called over the students as they began to move.

Ruby gulped heavily and looked to Weiss, the heiress already drawing on a piece of paper. "Ruby, do you have any experience with Dust making, or mixing at the very least?" She asked in what sounded like an accusing tone, making Ruby balls her hands up nervously.

"N-no, not really. U-um-um, my family u-usually b-bought the b-bullets…" She was pale around her goggles, and Weiss looked up momentarily to examine Ruby's face.

"... You're stuttering more than usual. Are you okay?" She raised an eyebrow, and Ruby shook her head.

"I'm not good with Dust! I-I tend to, um, blow up…"

Yang spoke up, while running her hand along Ruby's back. "Ruby and Dust don't get along very well. We've… we've tried."

"Well, mixing…" Weiss's brow furrowed, and then her eyebrows popped up in inspiration. "You said you made cookie dough, Dust mixing is a lot like cooking."

"Except cookie dough doesn't explode." Ruby squeaked fearfully. "And Yang makes way better cookie dough than I do. I-I just- I mean- I knew I'd have to but I'm nervous and-"

"Look…" Weiss's hand twitched. With a small, unsure expression, she carefully rest her hand on Ruby's shoulder to try and calm her down, and awkwardly stroked her like a particularly dirty pet. "I've been involved with Dust all my life…" She thought back to Oobleck's words, and tried to console herself that this was the right thing to do, not a waste of time. "I'll help you. I always excelled in mixing, all you need to do is follow my instructions." Despite Weiss's words, Ruby still didn't look sure about herself. "Don't look so down on yourself. Look, we'll…" Weiss paused, took a deep breath through her nostrils, and tried to not rush things. If Ruby needed help, then she'd provide it… but she still felt this feeling of uncertainty. Weiss was the one leading things, currently… "... We'll take it slow."

Some Time Later

"... How?" Weiss wheezed, a black puff of smoke escaping her mouth. She lifted her smoke-coated goggles to stare down at the pile of what was once a chemistry set on the table, and Ruby carefully pulled herself out of Blake's shaking hands.

"I told you I sucked…" Ruby frowned as she stared at the smoldering glassware.

"Incoming! Outta my way!" Professor Peach roared, her voice piercing the shocked silence that hung over the class. Fire extinguishing foam bathed Ruby's and Weiss's Dust remnants, and the professor pushed her goggles up her forehead with a frown. "Alright, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, front desk, let's talk."

Weiss stood with a mortified expression on her face, Ruby looking so far beyond embarrassed that her neck was sinking into her shoulders. Professor Peach sat at her desk while giving them both a withering stare as the class behind the two girls snickered below their breath.

"Okay, so, what step were you at?" Peach asked, looking into both of their eyes.

"W-well…" Weiss gulped, then shot a sharp glare at Ruby that punctured what little self-confidence the younger girl had left. "We refined the Dust with the lemon juice and sieved the soft particles out, I was mixing the enhancing components away from the Dust, and then, then you—" Weiss's embarrassment was soon taken over by genuine anger as the the redhead felt about an inch high.

"I-I was following instructions, I swear!" Ruby squeaked. "I-I-I was warming the water and had just finished adding the worcestershire sauce to the nitroglycerin, then I picked up the explosive Dust to mix with the en-enhancing compo-ponents and it just exploded!"

Professor Peach hummed. "Did you shake the flask?"

"No!" Ruby shook her head.

"Did you add anything you weren't supposed to?" Weiss crossed her arms and glowered.

"No! It was just the ignite Dust!" Ruby whimpered feebly.

"... Alright Ruby." Professor Peach sipped from her water bottle and stood up. She took a small vial of rustic-red Dust and held it out to Ruby. "Hold this."

"... Why?!" Ruby asked in growing panic.

"We start with the simplest solutions first." Ruby meekly reached out to take ahold of the glass. "The most probable reasons are a Dust contamination or a mishandling of the glassware, but there is also the possibility that—" The Dust in the tube suddenly erupted in a flash of light, a billow of smoke, and a flare of heat that made Ruby turn into a statue of petrified horror, "... you aren't controlling your aura." Peach finished with a disappointed look.

Ruby wilted as Weiss's eyes turned cold. "I'm sorry…" Ruby whispered. Without a word, Weiss walked past Ruby and straight for the door, leaving the classroom without even removing her lab wear. Ruby all but melted in humiliation, and had to lean against Peach's desk, one hand to her face.

Her eyes burned, she tried so hard to not tear up, but a few, small, achey hiccups escaped her. With a sigh, her professor took the black-stained vial and set it in her desk sink. She beckoned Ruby with her normal arm to follow her to a different door. Her head down, Ruby followed her into her office.

Book shelves lined every wall where there wasn't a filing cabinet. Above each shelf were different posters, each one dedicated to chemical compounds, formulas, mnemonic phrases for laboratory safety, and famed quotes from scientists across Remnant's history. Professor Peach's office desk was littered with books, and Ruby half-noted that every tome in the room was centered around scientific pursuits as opposed to storybooks; everything from artificial limbs, to vehicles, to Dust, to what the scientists had discovered from the very stars themselves.

Ruby's watering eyes focused on a small device sitting on Professor Peach's desk, which sort of looked like a crane on top of a tiny nutcracker, with an empty plastic bag at one end. Ruby's woes were momentarily forgotten as she stared at the little machine, and Professor Peach pulled the bag off, giving Ruby a chance to read what was on it: 'Vale Farm's Sunflower Seeds.'

Ruby blinked as Professor Peach set a bowl in front of the device, hooked up a bag full of seeds to the back of it, and hit a button. The professor smiled fondly as it clicked, and a sunflower seed was sucked between the crackers, the shell crushed as the two flat surfaces pushed together, and the crane dipped down and flicked the edible innards into the bowl. And just like that, every second, a new seed was flicked into the bowl.

"Like it? I made it some eighteen years ago." Professor Peach chuckled as Ruby leaned close, her mouth a small, curious little 'o'.

"You made this?" Ruby whispered.

"Back when I was doing my hunter training, I used to eat sunflower seeds by the handful! Well, I mean, I wanted to but the stupid shells were always in the way. That, and I got a bad toothache because I was an idiot who didn't brush her teeth." Professor Peach smirked wryly at the memory, taking a seed out of the bowl and popping it into her mouth. She chewed once, then swallowed. "I wanted sunflower seeds, so I got mad, got the parts, and made myself this. Every second, something to nibble on. It is probably the most useless thing in the world." Her smile grew as she said it.

"But it's neat…" Ruby watched it pull, shell, and flick seed after seed, the simplistic mechanical motions doing their job perfectly each time. "You just… made this to shell sunflower seeds? Just sunflower seeds?"

"Like I said, useless." Professor Peach sounded thoroughly proud of the declaration. "But it's not like I paid for it, and it still works eighteen years later."

"That's not useless." Ruby frowned, looking up to her professor. "Anything even a little bit helpful is useful. I mean, I wouldn't buy it…" She poked the little contraption. "But it did its job."

"Mhmm. My professors at the time laughed and called me a genius. I had the most simple of problems, I could have fixed it with a hammer, but no, I went a little crazy and made something dumb just because I could." Professor Peach ate another seed, and sighed. "I think that's what makes humanity so great. Sometimes, we do stupid, brave, and weird stuff just because we can, and it works, and because it worked we now have things like airships."

"Uh huh." Ruby nodded, looking at the bowl with her lips pursed. "Can… can I?..."

"Sure, sure, go ahead sweetie, eat up." Peach nodded, and Ruby began to nibble at the seeds hungrily. Professor Peach watched her student eat curiously, letting out a small sigh. Ruby was still such a young thing, and Peach empathized with her unpreparedness, but certain precautions had to be taken, and Ruby was not ready. "So, I can think of one of two things…" Professor Peach started, drumming her fingers thoughtfully. "Either you got one hell of an active aura—and considering what you can do I'm not willing to overlook that possibility—or you're nervous."

Ruby's shoulders sank, bunching up as she frowned and nodded slowly. "I think I'm just nervous…"

"And why's that, sweetie? Dust is potent stuff, but no reason to be nervous. You can't let little aura flare-ups like you had into the lab, Dust is ready to jump when it feels that surge." Peach gave her best consoling smile, but Ruby shook her head.

"I-I can't! When it's sealed in bullets and stuff it's fine, but I always had trouble with raw Dust. I just… I don't know…" Ruby's head hung low, and Professor Peach tapped the desk with one of her metal fingers.

"Listen Ruby…" Peach nudged the bowl closer to Ruby, so she'd glance up and look at the pile of seeds inside. "You're talented. The headmaster wouldn't let you in otherwise. You weren't brought in because you knew what you were doing, but because there's so much more you can learn." The professor closed her eyes and thoughtfully pieced together what to say. "Don't feel ashamed. You have every right to be wrong here at Beacon, it is our job to correct you so that you become stronger, and wiser."

"But… now Weiss is angry at me." Ruby chewed her lower lip, eyes closed tightly behind her goggles. "W-we'd just become friends, an-and she's a Schnee, this is probably as easy as tying her shoes to her, and I'm her partner so she's gonna get a crappy grade! And-and…" Ruby sniffled. "I worked so hard to get her trust; I feel like I accidentally kicked a puppy…"

Professor Peach chuckled softly to try and lighten the girl's misery, then reached out with her normal hand to rub Ruby's knuckles. "Look sweetie, Weiss might be mad right now, but I doubt she hates you. The Schnees tend to be prickly, but they aren't terrible people, though an argument could be made against the current administration…"

"What's…" Ruby looked up with a small frown. "What's going on with them anyways? I hear all these rumors…"

Peach stopped her with a halting palm. "Not my place to say." Peach sighed. "There's rumors, half-truths, stuff too nasty to be true, and some legitimate bad business, and I'm afraid of trying to guess what's true and false. Look, ask Weiss. If she's anything like her aunts, uncles, and cousins, then she'll just love talking about her family."

"If she'll even talk to me…"

Peach just gave Ruby a smile. "You gotta try, Ruby. That's all we ask of you here at Beacon, and all Weiss can hope for from you: to try. We're going to work on your Dust control and nervousness, m'kay?"

Ruby hesitated, staring down at her clenched fists, but then gave a very small nod.

Later Still!

Weiss pressed the tips of her fingers against her temple, trying to soothe away the anger. Ruby was young, new to all of this, even if, by her admittance here, she should have the expected skills. No matter what, however, blowing up wasn't going to solve either of their problems, especially, as Weiss recalled, all it did was make Ruby stand around and babble foolishly.

She sipped from a can of orange soda and continued back to her classroom. Truly, she was being tested. Her partner, her leader, a young, ditzy, little girl who hadn't used a computer and made Dust blow up just by being near it. Weiss grumbled silently. If Ruby wasn't such a nice person, she'd be unbearable, and Weiss had already vowed to be her partner in front of both Ruby and the Headmaster.

Weiss stopped mid-stride, quietly staring into her canned drink as she wondered… was it possible that Ruby's control of the Grimm caused Dust reactions?... She shook her head and continued forward. An absurd notion. The proximity of Grimm didn't cause Dust mines to go haywire, Dust responded to natural forces and aura. It all came down to just Ruby.

Weiss opened the door to the classroom, resolving to herself to make the explosive Dust all by herself. She wanted something presentable, and she'd be damned if she walked out of class today with a B. She looked past the rows of lazing students, casually chatting among each other, to her table and watched as Ruby took a deep, calming breath and carefully corked a flask of red-and-orange Dust. Weiss paused, staring at the young girl set the flask on the table, Blake and Yang smiling down at her by her side.

"I-I did it…" Ruby whispered, appraising her work apprehensively.

"Good job Ruby! Dad'll be happy to hear his coffee table's not in danger anymore." Yang put on an amused smile, while Ruby's cheeks puffed up indignantly.

"I'd say it looks like A-material to me. Go show the professor." Blake ordered, a small, proud smile on her face. Ruby bobbed her head and picked up the flask. She walked around the desk, keeping as calm as she could. Her head finally turned, her eyes meeting Weiss's, and she froze in place.

Ruby looked at Weiss, Weiss looked at Ruby, and Weiss suddenly lunged, pulling the flask out of Ruby's hands before her aura could flare nervously. "I can seriously read you like a book." Weiss admonished, hand on her hip as Ruby flinched. "You look wretched! You need to keep your aura in check, you know!"

"I-I know…" Ruby shuffled in place as Weiss lifted the flask and stared at the Dust within. Ruby shrank, rubbing her palms together nervously as Weiss silently judged the mixture.

"... The striping is off by a centimeter, there's a dud layer at the very bottom, and there's a noticeable amount of unrefined particles at the top." Weiss popped the cork as Ruby tried to babble apologies and excuses. Weiss wafted the scent of the Dust to her nose, breathed deep, and let it out with a sigh. "... Components were correctly mixed, however, and I don't smell too much flavoring." She corked the flask again and handed it over to Ruby. "Shoddy, but usable, and it didn't explode." Ruby took the flask in hand, a stunned expression on her face at Weiss's words. "Let's turn it in."

Weiss followed Ruby to the front desk, where Peach took the flask, examining it in much the same way Weiss had. "Hmm, all in all, I'd say this is worth a pretty solid B." Ruby let out a sigh of relief, Weiss sighed in disappointment. "However, there's still time before the end of class. If you think you can do better, you can take a redo-"

Weiss was already dragging a squirming Ruby to the chemicals table. Professor Peach just watched with an amused smirk. The Grimm Girl and the Schnee… she had a feeling this semester would be talked about for a long time.

---

"Are these armored?" Blake asked curiously, breaking Ruby from her trance.

The grimm studies classroom was a good bit larger than the other classrooms; their history classroom didn't have quite so much space between the teacher's desk and the tiered seats. More interestingly were the informative boards on the wall detailing the anatomies and basic information of common Grimm, and several Ruby had never heard of before.

Without warning, Yang's kicked the bottom tier of class seats, and a pained shiver ran through her as hopped back with a whimper. "Oooh… ow, ow… yeah, definitely armored. Ow."

"Should have kept your aura on, doofus." Blake smiled, making Yang shoot her a pained grin.

"What, and wreck the whole class? I like to practice restraint, Blakey-pie." Yang winked.

Just below the ceiling were about a dozen stuffed, fake Grimm heads. Ruby could tell they were fake instantly. The black skin wasn't all-consuming enough, it reflected light, while the white was too smooth. Ruby knew the consistency by heart… their pitch black skin was like a void, they had no reflective qualities whatsoever, and the armor was like bone. Smooth, for sure, but there was this pale, almost eerie quality to them, like they were ripped straight out of a human body.

"You? Restraint? Don't make me laugh, 'Yangey-pie…' Ick, it doesn't ring the same way." Blake crossed her arms in thought. "Your name is so hard to work with, it's just Yang." Blake huffed, making Yang scratch the back of her head, not sure how to respond. "I mean, Blake leaves so much open for changes at the end, but your name is like the perfect finisher by itself."

"Nuh uh!" Yang raised a finger, "Yang," another finger, "Xiao," and a third, "Long. Yang Xiao Long. Awesome, huh?" Yang wiggled her eyebrows. "It's super rad."

Blake hummed in agreement. "I'm pretty fond of Blake Belladonna. Repetitive sound, beautiful to hear out loud, really rolls off the tongue."

"Ruby Rose is pretty good about that too! Weiss Schnee though…" Yang worked her chin as Weiss gave her a withering look, as if daring her to insult her name. "Not that it leaves a lot to be desired, but Yang Xiao Long has oomph, Blake Belladonna and Ruby Rose just flow, Weiss Schnee…"

"Rich girl's name." Blake spoke up.

"What?" Weiss asked disbelievingly.

"It's a rich girl's name. Vaguely foreign and old-timey, and Schnee's a world-renowned name. It's a rich girl's name."

"But what does that mean?" Weiss asked haughtily, hands on her hips.

Blake put on a small, clever grin. "Just that you're probably haughty, a little stuck-up, a real 'do you know who I am?' sort of attitude…"

Weiss jut her jaw out and breathed heavily through her nose. "That's not true! How dare you imply that?! Do you know who I-" She stopped, blinked once, then quietly stared down at her hands like her entire life had suddenly been turned on its head.

"My point exactly." Blake chuckled.

Ignoring the conversation, Ruby privately noted that Professor Port must have had a very good opinion of himself as she checked out the presumably solid-gold bust he had next to his desk. She glanced up as she felt a presence. Ren bowed his head politely, while Nora clung to his arm with a giddy look.

"Is your day going well so far, Ruby?" He asked in his ever-calm voice, examining her cheeks, mouth, and brow for signs of stress.

"S-sorta…" Ruby rubbed the back of her head, a tiny frown forming. She let out a strangled yelp as Nora suddenly crushed the younger girl to her.

"Oh, you poor thing! Is it the history? Is it the science?! Is it all that writing?!" Nora held up a hand, her forefinger and thumb already a little red. She stuck her tongue out. "It's all so awful isn't it? We came here to kick butt, not take notes!"

"Y-yeah…" Ruby let out weakly as Nora cooed.

"Maybe later we could have a little study-date, just you and me, girlfriend…" Nora let out a suggestive purr, and Ruby was immediately scrambling to escape her grip. "We could compare notes…"

Ruby felt a sharp pinch in her bottom, and she rocketed out of Nora's arms. The redhead let out a maniacal laugh as Ren pinched the bridge of his nose. Ruby looked from Nora, to Pyrrha, whom she was currently clinging to like a baby chimpanzee. Pyrrha blinked down at Ruby, their noses almost touching, and Ruby dropped to her bottom with a pathetic 'ow.'

Rather than be annoyed, Pyrrha gave Ruby a comforting look. "We understand if this is difficult; getting into Beacon early may not have prepared you for all of the coursework. If you need any help, Ruby, I'm sure any of us will be able to lend a hand."

"Yeah! Totally! We all totally understand what we're doing." Jaune puffed his chest up behind Pyrrha, his smile a little too wide, a little too thin. It wasn't like Ruby needed to know that all Jaune did was hand over equipment like some sort of assistant to a car mechanic. "Aaaannnnd who knows, maybe you'll give us a few tips we missed!"

"I doubt it…" Ruby stood slowly, patting her skirt over her backside before Nora could comment. "But thanks. It's weird actually being in a school. Especially Beacon." Ruby turned to examine the finely decorated classroom, and let out a wistful sigh. "I still can't believe I made it."

Ren bobbed his head quietly. "Nora and I were only briefly schooled before Beacon. We took part in an open-house program for young hunters in order to ascertain some credentials for our manuscripts. Considering its volunteer nature, it was significantly less elaborate or well-maintained."

"Ren and I hunted better lunches than the ones they made for us." Nora grimaced.

Ruby nodded, smiling quietly. Jaune, Nora, and Ren began to make their way to their seats, and Ruby turned to join her team when a small 'ahem' caught her attention. She looked up to Pyrrha, and the much taller girl put on a smile. "So it is true, you're fifteen, not seventeen?" Pyrrha asked, hands behind her back.

"Uh huh… came in two years early, 'cuz… why not?" Ruby shrugged her shoulders shyly. Pyrrha was a nice girl, but far too good-looking for a conversation's sake. Ruby wondered if the man who designed the Beacon school uniforms liked legs as much as she did, and boy those leg-hugging stockings did not help... "It's really nothing…"

"Oh, but it means quite a bit! Having the skill to keep up with hunters even a year older than you is impressive at this age." Pyrrha tilted her head as she examined Ruby, and it took Ruby a second to pull her eyes up to Pyrrha's face. "And with a scythe as well!"

Ruby let out a shy giggle. "Th-that was my uncle's doing, actually, I was super garbage before he helped me. Well, him, my dad, my sister, my whole family pitched in to train me, but my uncle taught me how to use a scythe."

"Ahem…" Pyrrha shifted in place, looking noticeably embarrassed before she seemed to find a comfortable stance. "You… think we could spar sometime soon?" Pyrrha asked with the tiniest and most hopeful smile. "I love seeing new weapons and fighting styles, I followed the MRT for years, and I've only seen maybe a handful of hunters bring a scythe into the tournament, with… poor showings, usually."

Ruby gave her a small, sad smile. "I don't think I'll be much help there. I've trained all my life to fight Grimm, not other hunters. Well, I've fought other hunters but, y'know, super garbage…"

"Still, I'm curious! I mean, you use a great scythe model, correct?" Pyrrha asked, speaking with a rise of excitement in her voice as Ruby bobbed her head.

"Designed after the 1st Mistral Death Legion, in 089!" Ruby's smile grew brighter. "The first military division to deploy the great scythe en masse! Also created the official mold for great scythes in the future. They were designed to have far greater killing power than the war scythes used by Vale during the Color Wars."

"But with poor results if I remember correctly; the intimidation factor did not outweigh the skill of the user."

"Yeah, the scythe-user was natural prey to the sword-users of the Zengrove Blade Division, but there's a trick!" Ruby said, suddenly taking on a firm look.

"A trick?" Pyrrha asked with raised, curious eyebrows.

"Yeah! See, it's in the pinkie finger, you gotta know how to move it just right to let the scythe spin as you extend or shorten your grip on it!" Ruby held an arm out, all her fingers stretched to their full length. "See, you have to wear smooth materials on your lower arms so you can keep momentum, giving your hand enough time to-"

"Hello future hunters and huntresses of Beacon!" A jolly voice boomed from the door.

"Oooh, show me later?!" Pyrrha asked in a loud whisper. Ruby shot a quick thumbs up, and both girls raced to their seats.

Professor Port all but strutted in with a large gun, holding his chest out to try and shadow his rounded belly, his shoulders squared and thick arms moving with a purposeful strut. He beamed at the class through what seemed to be closed eyes, while notebooks flew open and pencils pressed to the blank pages.

He tossed his blunderbuss over his shoulder with practiced ease, ensuring the axe blades didn't come close to even brushing flesh or whisker, and he threw a finger out, pointing at the students indiscriminately. "Just yesterday, each and every single one of you proved something irrefutable: that you are Hunters! Slayers of Grimm, killers of monsters, banishers of demons, truer warriors that the world has yet to see!" His blunder-axe was swung into his waiting hand, thick fingers affectionately squeezing the barrel. "There is no profession that is more noble, more heroic, more harrowing than Grimm hunting, for we are not fighting mere beasts, nor humans of questionable alignment, we are fighting creatures of darkness! From the youngest Beowolf to the most ancient Nevermore, each of these beasts are defined by their thirst for human destruction! However, while they may have been great and powerful threats in the past, today, they are little more than our prey!"

His hand swung about, pointing to each and every single stuffed Grimm head on the wall. Any student worth their salt would know immediately they were all fakes, but there was still a sense of awe. It was true that there were hunters who embellished their records and claimed great fights, in fact, it was so common that the average layman was suspicious of any great claim without proof. The video age served a great purpose to hunters, as proof of their deeds out in the field were easy to capture and difficult to fake.

"I am Professor Port!" Their teacher went on, giving them all a whisker-raising smile. "That is, Professor Peter Port! I have been a hunter for over forty years, seen Grimm that dwarfed our largest battleships, and fought Grimm that, to this day, still have no name! I was the receiver of the Mistral Accolade of Great Deeds thrice, and there are still rumors of my work prowling the dunes of Vacuo! But today," he swept his hand out to the numerous black boards, full of detailed chalk drawings of the Grimm, "today, I am your educator on the Creatures of Grimm! I have been in the field studying their habits, captured them to study their anatomy and ferocity, and have slain enough to tell you where their weaknesses lie! If you have questions, I have answers! If you have doubts, I have encouragement! If you have fear, then you and only you alone can banish it; from this moment on, the Grimm are your job, and those who fear their job do not deserve it!"

He stuck his finger in the air, his blunder-axe over his shoulder in a cocksure manner, as if he was waiting for an applause. The classroom was silent, other than one boy coughing near the back. Professor Port's bushy eyebrows wiggled in annoyance, and he put his weapon on its mount over the blackboard.

"Ahem! Anyways, prepare your notes!" Professor Port went to a closet and the class followed his movements as he opened the door and pulled out a life-sized, fake statue of an enormous Boarbatusk. He pulled it to the front of the class and grinned. "It was 512 when I arrived in Clearblue City, though at the time, it was little more than a handful of houses, a mine, and a twinkle of hope in the foreman's eye! It was one of my first missions, and certainly my most dangerous! For little did I know, their operation was being endangered by the Clearblue Killer, an eighty-year old Boarbatusk who could smell the fresh coal, and knew that where there was coal, there were humans!"

Weiss tapped at her notes impatiently. Professor Port was much like her first Grimm Studies mentor. An old, out-of-his-prime hunter who loved to talk about his kills. She'd assumed there would be some nuggets of info in there if she paid attention, but the endless prattling about what he'd eaten for breakfast that day made her purse her lips and blow in annoyance.

"—of course, being a Grimm, it was not drawn to the scent of the pork, but the blood of a freshly butchered kill…"

She glanced to her left after making a note of the blood. Ruby was listening intently, and Weiss could almost imagine those… eyes wide with keen interest in the story. She was such a child… Weiss enjoyed stories and fairy tales, but not in a classroom. She had to focus on her goal, not be distracted by… these…

"That's really good." Weiss whispered, leaning closer to Blake. The black-haired girl smirked as she continued to copy the chalk-drawing of a Nevermore from the chalkboard. There were a few differences in Blake's version—namely, the sword drawn into its eye—but Weiss was impressed at how accurate it was.

"—should take note that Boarbatusks dig up roots, preferring to nest underneath trees and in dense groves of branches and vines—"

Weiss quickly jotted the information down.

On the other side of Blake, Yang was considering how to approach her own prey. "Love the headgear." She whispered to the girl sitting next to her. The dark-skinned girl blushed at Yang's lascivious smile, subconsciously adjusting her head cover.

"Thank you! My family made it for me after graduating. It's a traditional Vacuo shemagh, hand-woven from sheep's wool." She put on a proud expression that made Yang flutter her eyelids.

"Vacuo, huh? Tell me if I got this right: 'Unod yaj qin'racash, bonu daga yughraja?'" Yang asked in her best accent. Her smile grew with the girl's blush and raising eyebrows.

"That's… impressive, actually. I-I'm sorry, I don't think I caught your name?" The girl asked, turning her body enough to better face Yang.

"Yang Xiao Long, sugar, but you can call me 'mama' if you're feeling brave." Yang winked. The girl tried to stifle a shy giggle, while her partner visibly pouted.

Professor Port's story continued; Weiss and Blake both wrote diligently, as Ruby silently watched and listened to the Professor's story. Meanwhile, Yang got a scroll number.

"So!" Professor Port clasped his hands in front of his face with an excited quirk of his moustache. "Now that you have been properly inspired by my tale of heroic deeds, I want to move onto the practical part of our lesson!" Head lifted curiously as their teacher marched to the far right side of the room. As with the other teachers, he hit a button on his desk, but rather than create a holoscreen, a portion of the wall opened, revealing three heavily reinforced cages.

"Grimm cages…" Ruby whispered under her breath, making Weiss pause and inspect them more closely. They weren't the same style of Atlesian cages, but they were certainly durable enough to withstand the thrashing of smaller Grimm. They had no openings other than a thin slit on the door for Grimm to see through, keeping them isolated from humans.

Other than the viewing slat, there were no air holes or a place to slide in food or drink. Adding to the Grimm's generally unnerving nature was their lack of dependence on basic needs that other species couldn't live without. Grimm could be buried alive for hundreds of years, without air, food, or water, and come out stronger due to age. Several older Grimm had been observed eating meat, but never in a way that implied hunger; they never ate old, preserved, or cooked meat, only fresh, raw meat. They targeted bone marrow, the liver, the stomach, and the fattier parts of their kill: they ate solely for taste, for pleasure. Some ancient Grimm had discovered that eating people inspired fear and revulsion in other sentient races, and made a game of eating their victims alive, or where they could be seen.

Ruby remembered Jaune recounting her nearly being swallowed by the Nevermore. The goal of the Nevermore hadn't been to taste her or fill its belly, it wanted her to awaken trapped inside of a pitch black prison. Without stomach acids, she either would have died of fright, shock, or starvation, and the Nevermore would have thrived all the while on her fear, pain, and hopelessness…

The thought made her skin crawl, and as her fright and paranoia rose, so did the clicking of teeth in the back of her skull. She lifted her boot as a thin, meek claw dug into her sole, and she stomped her shadow once in fury, banishing her terror.

"I will be taking volunteers." Professor Port announced, one finger high in the air. "Based on my story and knowledge of Boarbatusks from your prior classes, I want at least three people to demonstrate their understanding of how to counter a much more significant threat than the average Beowolf!"

Weiss's hand shot up immediately. She stared down her professor intently. It was her time to show the world that she was a huntress. Professor Port looked along the dozen or so hands that shot up while Blake nudged the lounging Yang. "Isn't this your schtick? Show off? Get a little action?"

"Blake, I got my action." Yang held up a slip of paper with a grin. "Besides, what sorta fun is there in a controlled room? I'd rather go into the woods and find my own pig to punch." Blake simply shook her head at Yang's laziness.

Professor Port finally settled on one volunteer. "Cardin Winchester! You're the first up to bat." Heads turned as a tall, handsomely built boy with a weasley smile made his way down from the top row of seats with a swagger in his hips. Blake barely paid attention to the human boy, but noted Yang couldn't seem to tear her eyes off of him. Blake was about to poke fun, but Yang's small, tight frown made Blake reconsider.

"First up to bat, that sounds 'bout right." Cardin said in a tone that oozed self-confidence as Professor Port punched in a code into a keypad on the wall. The wall next to it opened up to reveal empty space, but within a minute a student locker filled in the closet-sized opening. The locker opened, and Cardin pulled out a mace with an unusual head.

He laid it across one shoulder as Professor Port unmounted his blunder-axe and walked to the first cage. Cardin stood at the other end of the room, and small barriers shot up from the floor, closing off the stairs from the demonstration floor. "Are you ready?" Professor Port asked, hand hovering over the release button.

"Born ready, teach!" Cardin hefted his mace with both hands, ready to bat.

"Then in three, two, one!..." Port slapped the button and stood out of the way. The door flew open, and out stepped a dog-sized Grimm. Hog shaped, with thick, bony plates across its squat, thick body, and enormous, hooked tusks, the Boarbatusk's red eyes took on an intense glow as it spotted Cardin.

The class felt a brief, silent moment of worry as the beast let out a distorted, piggish squeal, and charged far faster than its fat little body suggested it could. Its head lowered, the tips of its sharpened tusks ready to dig into the back of the leg, or under an arm, but Cardin didn't care.

His mace swung down like a golfclub, cracking the Boarbatusk in the face while he slid his thumb over a button on the handle. The red Dust gem glowed, and an explosion-powered downswing sent the Boarbatusk skidding across the ground on its side, crying and roaring in pain as its small legs thrashed.

"Risky, but a good show!" Professor Port called. Ruby bridged her fingers in front of her face as she watched.

"Too risky, he'd left himself open to getting gored." Weiss murmured, causing Blake to nod.

"He should have dodged first." Blake responded.

"That's just how he is." Yang grunted, earning a small look from Blake but no more than that.

Cardin's heel crushed the Boarbatusk's neck into the floor while he brought his mace back for a low swing. A repulsive cough escaped the pig as Cardin slammed his mace into its belly, but as he reared back again, the Boarbatusk's kicking allowed it to slide just enough under Cardin's foot to sink its flat, iron-hard teeth into his other ankle.

The muscular boy shouted in pain as he tried to kick out, but the Boarbatusk latched on and greedily gnawed at his foot, causing his amber-hued aura to flare to life. Boarbatusks didn't have sharp teeth, but having your flesh and bone ground together between two, dull, square presses hurt fiercely, and even with his aura Cardin was discovering this himself.

"Don't panic!" Port said warningly.

Cardin's hand shot out, grabbing the Boarbatusk's tusk while driving his foot harder into its neck, wrenching its mouth open enough for him to slide his foot out of its jaws. The Grimm took the chance to shake Cardin off its body, sending him back a step as it scrambled to its hooves. With a sudden leap, it curled its body like a ball, building so much speed in that instant that, when it hit the floor, the room was filled with the sound of grinding steel. It launched forward with enough speed to cannonball its way through a house, and Cardin leaned forward, arms crossed in front of his face as it jumped up towards his torso.

Cardin merely lurched back a step, gritting his teeth and snarling as the Boarbatusk tried to bowl him over, but Cardin held out until it stopped spinning. The Grimm gave him what may have been a confused look as it uncurled in the air, but then Cardin's hands grabbed its tusks. He threw the Boarbatusk over his head as hard as he could, grabbed his mace as he spun, and charged like a mad warrior, roaring his triumph as he swung, crushing the Grimm between his mace and the wall.

There was a distinct crack of the Grimm's bony plating, one final peep of distress from the pig, and then it fell with a pathetic whine. It hit the floor, and began to disperse into a black mist.

Cardin ran his thumb across his throat with an empowered grin, and Professor Port and most of the class clapped in a polite, appreciative applause. "Well done, Mr. Winchester! A little sloppy, but nothing some good old-fashioned experience won't fix! Take a seat, you and your partner will be earning some bonus points."

Cardin returned his mace to the locker and threw his arms into the air like a returning champion. He head back to his seat, where he and his team held a short, excited celebration of his strength and skill.

"Next volunteer?" Professor Port asked. More hands raised, obviously excited at the prospect of bonus points for killing Grimm. Weiss's was raised as high and straight as she could manage, her brow twitching quietly every second the teacher looked above or next to her. She was still the only volunteer from team RWBY. "Hmm, I see lots of you are excited to try your hand, but I think I'll call…" He looked to the left… "Upon…" To the right. Weiss stretched her spine, sweat beginning to bead from stress. "Weiss Schnee!"

It took a moment for her to realize she had been chosen. Her teammates looked to her as Weiss stood up, and a low, curious murmur went through the rest of the class. Weiss didn't look to them as she walked down to the floor, mentally preparing herself. 'A martial stance, slow it all down, defend and counterattack, don't be intimidated or overwhelmed.' She took a deep breath as Cardin's locker was replaced by hers, and she took Myrtenaster in her hand with confidence.

She moved to the opposite end of the room.

"You got this Weiss!" A small, meek voice rose above the storm of thoughts and strategy in her head. She looked to Ruby as the girl watched her with an apprehensive, though confident smile. "Go for its belly!" Ruby called.

"I know, Ruby." Weiss said firmly, her left hand and leg forward, her right leg back, her eyes focused on the cage ahead of her as Professor Port raised his hand and settled it over the button.

"You only have a second to react when it charges!"

"I know, Ruby!"

"Watch its tusks!"

"I know, Rub-"

"Aaaaaaaannnnnd GO!" Professor Port slapped the button.

The cage opened, and there was no time to prep herself. The Boarbatusk inside, having heard the commotion, was ready for its escape, and instantly barreled out with a wild scream. Weiss slid forward, the tips of her shoes barely touching the ground as she raced forward to meet it. She stared between its eyes and nose, at the thin, dark space where she could jab into its skull, and she lunged.

A perfect straight, but the Boarbatusk turned its head, allowing Myrtenaster's thin blade to scrape against its bony face mask.

"You got this Weiss!" Yang called confidently as Weiss backpedaled, away from its swiping tusks. She needed to get around it.

"Do it for team RWBY!" Blake encouraged next. Weiss slid around to the boar's left flank as it missed a lunge, and she jabbed at its haunch twice before it suddenly turned and grabbed her sword's blade between its teeth.

"Don't lock your wrist!" Ruby suddenly shouted. Weiss blinked, her wrist firm—too firm!—and Myrtenaster slid out of her grip as the boar tossed her weapon aside and ran her down.

Weiss lept backwards but the Boarbatusk flew into her chest, making her yelp as her white aura pulsated. She slid back a few feet, the Boarbatusk still charging her while gnashing its teeth in desperation for a kill.

"Weiss!" Ruby's voice rang out as Weiss rolled to the side of the boar's charge. "Five o'clock!" Five o'clock? Weiss stared at the boar, briefly puzzled, before a realization hit. She leapt backwards, slightly to the right, and grabbed ahold of Myrtenaster's handle in a smooth motion. "Left!" Ruby cried.

Weiss dipped forward, rolling out of the way as the charging Grimm barrelled in from her left. Weiss shot a look to Ruby, silently begging her to stop helping. She had to do this on her own, she had to be self-reliant, leaders lead through example, they didn't-

"Eyes forward!" Ruby shouted. Weiss turned to look in time to see a spinning ball of sharp, angry Grimm gunning for her legs. With a sudden, panicked impulse, Weiss threw her hands out and a white glyph formed in front of her, causing the pig to slam into it as if it were a steel wall. With a pained squeak, the Boarbatusk fell onto its back, sliding away. "Now Weiss! Its belly!" Ruby pointed, and Weiss grit her teeth.

She almost wanted to ignore her out of spite, but that was not why she was here. She leapt into the air, feet connecting with a spinning black glyph, and she was launched faster than the Boarbatusk's spinning charge to plant Myrtenaster up its belly, through its chest, and out its mouth as it died squirming, screaming, and then disintegrating.

Weiss panted quietly to herself. That should not have been hard… and it wasn't hard, so why was she so tense? She stood, pulling Myrtenaster out of the dissolving Grimm and staring at its corpse in silent displeasure. She had done exactly as Ruby had told her to the entire match, and it bothered her immensely.

She returned to her seat amidst the applause, and shot Ruby a glare, making the girl freeze. "Do you really think I can't handle myself?" Weiss asked in a low, venomous whisper.

"E-eh? Wh-wha- no! I mean, yes, y-you can handle yourself!" Ruby whispered back, a tremor in her voice as Weiss fixated on her furiously.

"Then why are you telling me what to do?! I don't need your help to fight!" Weiss hissed, making Ruby recoil, her moment of pride in her teammate turning sour and cold. "Having you barking orders at me doesn't help!"

"B-but… we're partners, a-and I-I'm your le-leader so I sh-should-"

"I never asked for you to be my leader." Weiss grunted. She turned away as Ruby's hands fell to her lap. The younger girl stared down at her knees quietly, her lips tense as Weiss dismissed any pity she had. If her supposed team leader couldn't trust in her…

"Ruby Rose." Professor Port called. Ruby and Weiss both looked up to see him looking to Ruby with a confident grin. "You seem to have an eye and mind for this!" Ruby gulped loudly. "Why don't you come show the class how you'd do it?"

"I-I didn't have my hand up…" Ruby responded softly, trying to speak through the breaks in her voice.

"And that's perfectly fine! I'm curious to see how our youngest entrant this year handles herself! Please, come on down." Professor Port gestured to the floor.

Ruby shot Weiss one more look, as if begging for help, but Weiss said nothing, turning her head away with a snooty "humph!" Ruby slowly, shakily stood up and walked down to the floor, another murmur going through the crowd. There had been plenty of rumors of a younger-than-normal student in Beacon, which, while not totally rare, was still unusual enough to warrant some curious chatting.

Ruby oh-so-carefully cradled Crescent Rose in her arms for comfort, frowning to herself. She wasn't entirely sure why this leader business was pushed onto her lap, and she certainly hadn't earned it. Maybe she should have kept her mouth shut, there was still time to go ask the headmaster to reconsider her position as team leader…

An excited ripple ran through the crowd as she went to the other end of the room, Crescent Rose expanding and locking into its full scythe form. Unbeknownst to Ruby, Pyrrha was leaning in and watching Ruby's movements carefully.

The young student scuffed her shoe along the ground then settled into her battle stance with a wary sigh. She really was proving to be a weight around Weiss's ankle today… maybe this was a mistake. She couldn't possibly prove herself to Weiss now. Not after failing to know… anything relevant to their classes and annoying her.

She just wanted to help…

"Three…" Port's voice seemed slow in her mind as she glanced up, her body loose and relaxed. Well, she'd get through this and go have lunch after. Maybe things would clear up. "Two…" Blake and Yang seemed excited to have her as a leader, as much as she didn't deserve it… "One!..."

"You got this Ruby!" Yang called excitedly as Ruby just stared forward, only half-paying attention. Weiss turned her head to watch with an annoyed stare, half-hoping Ruby struggled as hard as she did.

The door flew open, and the Boarbatusk raced out, already speeding across the floor like a runaway wheel. Weiss's eyes widened. It was opening up with that attack, and Ruby barely looked ready… She opened her mouth to speak when Ruby swung.

A single step forward, and Crescent Rose sliced the floor beneath the Boarbatusk, the force of the blow sending the pig skyward, uncurling in surprise and exposing its belly. Crescent Rose spun around Ruby's body, the morbid sound of the slicing scythe blade following her as she continued her stride past the airborne Grimm. A single shot fired as Crescent Rose cut through boar's midsection so quickly that the beast could only give a quizzical oink.

Ruby set Crescent Rose's head on the ground and leaned against the pole with a sigh. Maybe some chocolates…? Weiss probably liked chocolate. She would have to study extra hard to prove she could be a good teammate.

Two halves of the pig Grimm fell to the ground, both turning into puffs of smoke.

The whole class silently stared as Ruby shuffled over to her locker and put Crescent Rose back into place, Professor Port's eyes opening enough to be visible under his bushy brows. "... Three seconds. I do believe that's a new record." He announced, and the classroom broke out into staggered, surprised applause.

Ruby blinked behind her goggles, confusion replacing depression as her sister happily whooped. She blushed the tiniest bit, her stride becoming a little more self-assured. Blake's eyes were wide as she watched her team leader return to her seat, her smile both impressed and happy. "Well done, Ruby! You made that look effortless!"

"Oh, well, it's pretty easy…" Ruby shrugged her shoulders. "I wouldn't call it 'effortless;' it took me a few months to get that right."

Effortless… Between Ruby and Blake, Weiss continued to stare at the spot where the Boarbatusk was fading. Ruby hadn't so much as exerted herself killing the Boarbatusk. In two motions. She had no clue how to use a computer, she blew up her Dust, but against the Grimm, against their actual opponent, Ruby had been as distracted and stressed as if she'd been putting up laundry…

Weiss felt a cold, nervous sweat form on the back of her neck as she cradled her forehead between two fingers. Her own fight with the Boarbatusk hadn't been difficult, but she'd made mistakes, she had to prep herself, she had to expend Dust, and she had taken damage. Even Cardin had to struggle a little.

Ruby had made the exact same challenge… effortless.

Weiss suddenly stood, her teeth grinding. Ruby reached out to her, calling her name, but Weiss didn't hear her or respond as she ran out of class. She needed to cool off, get a drink, evaluate… she had been shown up by a fifteen year-old girl, who was a complete and total ditz…

First the Emerald Forest test, now here?... How was it that Ruby managed to keep showing her up?! Weiss marched down the hallway, away from her team, away from her headache...

"Miss Schnee?"

Weiss froze at the voice. She was fully intent on heading straight to a water fountain and a chair to try and clear her head, but Professor Port's voice was more important. Her teacher. She couldn't just ignore him.

She stopped, already halfway down the hall to the next corridor. She stared down at her feet. "I'm fine professor." She spoke up through grit teeth. "I just need a drink."

"You certainly sound like you need a drink, but I'm afraid we don't serve the right kind here at Beacon." Weiss heard Professor Port's footsteps as he walked down the hallway to her. He stopped a few feet behind her, and she chanced a look. His expression was not jovial nor energetic, but one of concern and thoughtfulness. He looked at her with small brown eyes as he laced his fingers together behind his back. "What troubles you, Weiss?"

"… It's not important. Just… personal stuff." Weiss sighed. She stared down at the floor, replaying that moment in her mind again and again, Ruby's almost leisurely walk forward as she cleaved the Boarbatusk in two, as if it had been little more than a piece of paper floating in the wind.

"Hmm. Miss Schnee, please follow me." Professor Port ordered. Weiss glanced up as her professor walked past her. She hesitantly stepped in line behind him and followed the stocky hunter down the hall. They walked for a few minutes before Professor Port opened a door, leading the way to a balcony that overlooked the Beacon gym yard.

The sun was high in the sky. It wasn't even noon, yet the warmth of the air hit her hard enough to make her wince. She was so used to the chilly winds of Atlas that Vale's spring mornings still shook her awake better than any coffee cup. It also halted her tumultuous feelings.

Professor Port walked to the edge of the balcony and looked over the yard, his back to Weiss. The heiress examined her teacher with a small frown, and slowly walked to his side to stare over the fields of green below. She sighed, her body relaxing immediately as she simply deflated. "Professor Port?..." She asked in a gentle voice. "Against that Boarbatusk, I did well, right? I mean, I killed it, I didn't get that hurt, right?"

Professor Port was quiet as he watched the trees sway in the distance. "You allowed it to disarm you, despite being to its side." He spoke slowly, calmly. "Boarbatusks have limited weapons. From the front, they are nigh invincible, yet despite maneuvering around it effectively, you lost your focus, you let it take your weapon which opened you up for an attack." Professor Port looked to her with an even expression. "You didn't do badly, Weiss, but it was sloppy. Very sloppy."

Weiss grit her teeth, her heart feeling heavier. "I wouldn't have been so out of sorts if Ruby wasn't shouting at me the whole time." She said through a firm, angry jaw. Her fists trembled, her vision going watery as her emotions welled up in her.

"Are you so sure?" Port asked her, drumming the guardrail in quiet thought. "I thought her advice was well-articulated and pivotal. With it, you retrieved your weapon and avoided a second attack. Ruby seemed to make quite the difference in your fight."

"She did not!" Weiss suddenly seethed, chewing her lip in anger. "I don't need her!"

"Of course you don't, but would you have done nearly as well without her?" Professor Port asked with a questioning raise of his eyebrow.

"We'll know next time." Weiss said firmly, and Professor Port quietly shook his head. "What?!"

"Next time, she'll be there too. And the time after that, and the time after that. She's your partner, your team; you, Ruby, miss Belladonna, and miss Xiao Long will be there to watch each other during each fight. That's what a team is, that's what a team does."

"I know that." Weiss muttered.

"Then what's troubling you, Weiss? What's really troubling you? Do you not want to work as a team?" Port asked.

"N-no, it's not that! I want to work as a team…"

"Do you not want Ruby's help whenever you fight?"

"No! I-I'm usually fine with her help, but…"

"Then what, Weiss?" Professor Port pressed on, staring her in the eye as the young huntress made a tight fist and slumped against the guardrail.

It took about a minute of hemming and hawing for Weiss to finally screech, "Who the hell is she?" Weiss grit her teeth, eyes squeezed shut. "I spent all day today teaching her how to use a computer, teaching her how to make Dust, she's barely competent at the most basic hunter skills! She's a babbling, nervous, awkward mess who needs her hand held whenever she's mixing ingredients and typing words, she's an overly nervous little pervert who acts like every dumb fifteen-year-old girl but with a heap of social issues, and then, out of nowhere, she saves my life!" Weiss gasped, taking a deep breath of calming air as her emotions threatened to spill out of her closed eyes. "She saves my life twice, she kills the Nevermore while all I did was annoy it and set her on fire, then when it's finally my time to prove I can fight, when I can prove I can fight, I'm doing everything she says, and then she kills her Grimm before I can even finish blinking!" Weiss slammed her fist onto the wooden guardrail, taking deep, loud breaths. "I have to babysit her through the most simple, basic tasks, but whenever it's time to do some real hunting, to prove myself, there she is! She walks away like it was no big deal, that saving me was just a normal, simple thing, that making me look sluggish and untalented was just a matter of flicking her wrist! I am Weiss Schnee! Why am I being showed up by some incompetent, annoying, little fool?!"

"Precisely because you are Weiss Schnee." Was the immediate answer. Weiss turned to give Professor Port a wild-eyed, watery look, her anger etched into every line on her face as he stood there, calm and collected, as if the girl in front of him wasn't contemplating gutting him. "I am making some assumptions here, so please tell me if I'm wrong: all your life, you have been incredibly important. You had the weight of the world placed on your shoulders by family and supporters, told that one day you'll surpass every hunter and Schnee to have lived. You've been given the best trainers in everything specifically for this purpose." His eyes opened, waiting for her to say otherwise, but Weiss could only work her trembling jaw as she found herself at a loss. "Nicholas Schnee was around my age when I first met him. I was but a young man, having only recently graduated and found a job with a group of contract hunters. My team was hired to help scout and escort Schnee Dust miners to a prospective mine, and among them was good ol' Nick."

"..." Weiss's lip trembled as Professor Port looked out over the yard below, his face gentle and neutral. "You met my grandfather?"

"I fought your grandfather." Port nodded slowly, making Weiss's jaw drop in offense. "He challenged each of us to a duel before we set out, and I was among the six people in our thirteen-person company to best him. He was a powerful, incredible opponent, he was a proud and boastful man, but when I chanced a blow that put him on his backside, he laughed and shook my hand. When my commander took a look at his plans and demanded a redraw of the map, Nicholas Schnee listened. When a miner corrected the way Nick swung his pickaxe to avoid overexerting himself, he paid attention. Your grandfather was a real man of the Earth. He had calluses thicker than anyone I'd ever seen, he came back to the camp covered in mud and Dust and smelling like a boy's locker room, he arm-wrestled anyone and everyone, he read books heavier than my weapon, he played chess with my company's chief strategist and won as much as he lost…" Professor Port sighed, smiling at the memory of his old days of hunting. "On top of all of that, he was a teacher. He could grow exasperated and tired, but he always remained calm as he explained things. His lessons were part of what helped me against the Clearblue Killer! If he hadn't set aside an hour and a half to help me install a Dust chamber in my axe, then set aside another two to teach me how to use it, you would have a very different Professor Peter Port in front of you. My point is, he was smart, strong, rich, handsome, and a good teacher, but all of this was as an elderly gentleman. He still made mistakes to the day we said our goodbyes, but small ones. In order to become the mighty, powerful legend you know him as, he had to make thousands of mistakes in his life, some small, some extraordinary. After all, in the end, he was but a man: foolish, fallible, and clumsy, and he wanted to make sure his workers and allies learned from his mistakes as well."

"Th-that can't be right…" Weiss frowned deeply, momentarily stunned by the passionate story. "He was a brave, noble, and strong company leader. An explorer, a worker, a fighter! Why would nobody talk about having won a duel against him? Why would nobody talk about the times he lost?"

"Because his losses didn't matter." Professor Port shook his finger. "What mattered was that he got stronger and won. He was a brilliant and noble man—he struck the earth with his workers for goodness' sakes! The stories don't talk about the number of times he fell down, because his heart and his strength pushed him back to his feet. People remember a perfect man… but he was far from it. Just like you, Weiss."

Weiss worked her jaw slowly, casting her eyes downward, staring at the professor's feet. "I-I never said I was perfect…"

"And nobody here expects you to be." Port said softly, giving Weiss a gentle, sympathetic look. "But back home, you are expected to be perfect because of your lineage, but strength comes from learning, and you learn the most from your failures. Do you feel you have failed today?" Professor Port asked in a sympathetic tone, making Weiss's face tighten in thought.

"... Yes." Weiss nodded. "I failed to live up to my own standards. I failed to fight the Boarbatusk as efficiently as I could have."

"So what will you do?"

"… Practice." Weiss nodded slowly, her heart calm.

"And who do you think, right now, knows best how to fight and kill Boarbatusks?"

Weiss stayed silent for a few seconds, and squeezed her eyes shut. "I can't ask Ruby… I-I have to overcome by myself-" A loud 'smack' made her open her eyes. Professor Port lifted his hand off the handrail, the imprint of his palm still visible in the wood.

"Wrong. You are part of a team, Weiss. You can gain experience by listening to others, especially those close to you. Ruby Rose may seem foolish, but she has proven she knows how to do at least one thing right: kill a Boarbatusk."

"But… but how can I possibly take her seriously after all her failures?! Mixing Dust and the computer and- and-"

"And if I recall, you have been at the mercy of a Beowolf and an Ursa, only for Ruby to continue trusting in your knowledge." Professor Port stared into Weiss's eyes, making her flinch. "You two are both exceptional at different things, that is not a bad thing. You are partners, take advantage of her experience and learn from her, grow stronger, become something beyond Nicholas Schnee. You have all the tools available to you, far earlier than he did."

Weiss looked down at the grass below, watching the wind stir it. It was peaceful, silent, pleasant… it made her ache having to admit her weaknesses, especially to somebody so… conflictingly skilled like Ruby… but she wanted to be the very best, like her grandfather. She nodded slowly, but a flicker of doubt crossed her brow. "Professor Port…" She whispered softly. "Did… did Ozpin make a mistake? Are you sure she's supposed to be the leader?"

Professor Port crossed his hands behind his back thoughtfully and considered the question. "You know, Weiss, it takes far more the knowledge and power to lead. They are valuable things to a leader, but not every scientist nor every warrior should be in charge. It takes a certain charisma, an inspiring confidence in one's abilities and their allies. When I saw your battle with the Nevermore in the forest, what stood out to me the most was how seamlessly you four worked together. You each have different, powerful skills, and they came together like a well-oiled machine, like your minds and hearts had become one." He bowed his head and chuckled. "Consider that, maybe, Ruby has qualities of leadership you haven't thought about. Think about how you can improve her to become a leader… and think about what she does that works. Then, in the future, when it's your turn, use what you've learned."

Weiss stared at the grass a little while longer.

That moment came rushing back to her, standing atop that tower in the canyon. Ruby's voice, for the first time, seemed to boom, she seemed absolutely confident that they could kill the Nevermore, and in an instant, Weiss believed it too. There was no false hope or skewed priorities, there was no lying or backstabbing. Ruby stood before her and made Weiss believe the impossible.

Professor Port turned to look over his shoulder as Weiss raced to the door, just in time for the lunch bell to chime.

---

Ruby carefully picked the pickles out of her burger, setting them aside for Blake to steal. She stared at her meal with a tiny sigh before taking a bite, letting the explosion of flavors briefly soothe her. However, one tiny detail was off… "Aww… they forgot my cheese." She whispered, peeling apart the layers just to double check.

"Go ask for some." Blake ordered, jabbing a fork into her salad. Ruby leaned over to look at the shredded cheese on top of her meal… "... No, go get your own." Blake gave Ruby a defiant look as the younger girl wilted.

"Okay, so, breakfast was great, but these chicken nuggets suck." Yang growled, pulling one apart to stare at the inner white meat. "They taste like that frozen crap you buy from a store."

"They probably are…" Ruby nibbled her burger with some melancholy.

"Lame. At least it's impossible to make ketchup bad." Yang dipped her chicken into the sugary sauce and ate with a smidge of annoyance. They ate, drank, and sat in silence. The lunch room was abuzz with chatter and activity, but Ruby, Blake, and Yang sat in around in a somber tiredness, weighed down by confusion, annoyance, and misery. None of them wanted to say it, but each knew why this discomfort had settled on them. Well, none of them except Yang. "Good riddance." She huffed.

"Mm?" Blake looked up to Yang as she sipped at her milk.

"If she's going to get pissy over nothing, then it's better that she left." Yang glared at the empty seat by her side, furiously tearing into a nugget. Blake rolled her eyes, then looked down at her lap, as Ruby's shoulders sank and put her burger down. "I'm not putting up with that attitude whenever she feels like being a bitch."

"I was being kind of distracting…" Ruby brought up, but Blake snorted.

"You were giving her informative combat advice, her bruised ego is nothing to get worked up over." Blake closed her eyes, trying to dismiss the niggling disappointment in the back of her mind, and the constant 'I told you so's.

"If she thinks she can come crawling back after throwing a tantrum like that, she can forget it." Yang shook her head, eyes narrowed as she ate in anger, ignoring the taste of her food.

The table fell into silent unhappiness, the food tasteless as they ate. It took the thunk of a plate and a chocolate chip cookie rolling away to the other end of the table for them to look up. Weiss settled into the seat next to Yang, an entire plate of cookies between her and Ruby.

Ruby, Blake, and Yang looked up to watch Weiss closely as she massaged her temples, took a deep breath through her nose, and finally spoke. "I made myself look really childish."

"Yeah, you kinda did." Blake nodded, watching the heiress suspiciously.

"What?!" Yang demanded, "You think you can just sit down with us after running off like-" Weiss's finger pressed to Yang's lips as Weiss focused on Ruby and Ruby alone. Ruby grew tense, Yang's eyes briefly flashed red, a puff of steam escaping her hair.

"Ruby… you did nothing wrong." Weiss began slowly, staring down at her hands with a pained expression. "I was so busy trying to be perfect, and important, and special that, when you showed that you were obviously much better suited to the task at hand, I took it as a personal attack on my ego. I know you just wanted to help me, but at the time I was trying to prove I could do it by myself."

Ruby shuffled in discomfort, she would have been happy with an apology and the cookies… "I-... It's okay, Weiss…"

"And I know we're a team, so that's a really stupid thing to say!" Weiss continued, eyes squeezed shut. "I wanted to be team leader so badly, and I just want to prove that I can do everything exceptionally so things might be reconsidered, but I know that's selfish because you're also really skilled!"

Ruby winced. "I'm really not…"

Weiss took a deep breath. "Your call-outs really did help me against the Grimm, and I still appreciate that you saved me, I had a lot of help learning to use a computer and mix Dust myself when I was young, and it's unfair for me to expect for you to have gone through the same circumstances as me!"

Ruby opened her mouth, but shut it tightly as Blake and Yang simply stared.

"I really could use your help in fighting Boarbatusks again and I don't want to sound selfish but if you could take the time to show me how you did it I would really appreciate—"

"Weiss…"

"—your help so please consider because I am begging you and I don't think you're a bad team leader I was just really disappointed that I wasn't—"

"Weiss!"

"—but I'm willing to give you a chance as long as you give your best effort so I'm really sorry and I think bunk beds are cool and- and-"

"Weiss!" Ruby clapped her hands around Weiss's cheeks, making her partner stop, and suck in deep, panicked breaths. "Breath. Eat a cookie." Ruby ordered. Weiss's watery eyes looked into Ruby's goggles, and the younger girl put on a small, anxious smile. Ruby sat back, and Weiss took a cookie to nibble on, chewing slowly. "... It's okay." Ruby whispered.

"No, It's not okay." Weiss sniffed sadly. "I made myself look stupid, all because I'm petty and jealous."

"And it's okay! You came back…"

"It's not okay! You were just trying to—" Weiss squeaked, nearly leaping out of her chair as Yang pinched her butt.

"Weiss, seriously, shut up and eat the cookie." Yang ordered tersely. Weiss went quiet as she nibbled.

The whole table was silent as they all looked into their respective meals, and after a few minutes of awkward silence, Blake let out a thick, annoyed sigh. She pushed the plate of cookies aside and pushed the remainder of her salad in front of Weiss, then handed her her fork. "Your lunch can't just be cookies. I'm not going to eat the rest."

Weiss blinked at the bowl, and looked back up to Blake with big, wet eyes. "Y-you're sure?"

"It's in the best interest of the team for you to be at your optimal performance." Blake chided softly, and Weiss gulped loudly, nodding her thanks.

A few chicken nuggets were tossed into her bowl, and Weiss blinked at Yang, who rolled her eyes and smirked. "You need some protein in you! Meat makes you strong, and you are a blubbering mess."

"Th-thanks." She looked back as Ruby poured her fries into Weiss's salad bowl, then took the plate of cookies with a greedy smile. Weiss sniffled quietly, eating slowly and savoring the offered food. The girls around her chatted amongst themselves a bit tensely, but didn't seem resentful whatsoever. It made Weiss even more stressed; she was expecting name-calling, petty sniping, and a stream of insults. This was… normal, as if they hadn't watched her storm off. "... You're all really fine with this?" She asked meekly. "Where I'm from, I'd have been a laughingstock forever."

Yang glanced over at her, chewing thoughtfully, and put on a sneaky smile. "Oh we are laughing at you, but only because you deserve it, but you did come crawling back with cookies and an apology, so, y'know, water under the bridge."

The blase answer made Weiss's eyebrows shoot up in surprise. "Really?" Weiss whispered up to Yang.

"Yeah, yeah." Yang shrugged it off.

Blake nodded slowly. "We are teammates, and we can't function properly if we aren't all trying to get along. Besides, in our own, weird, awkward way, we're all friends. We won't just abandon you for one screw up…" It was a strange thing for Blake to admit, especially to Weiss Schnee, but seeing the heiress of her hated enemies crawling back to apologize… and with sweets…

"Yeah, you'd have to screw up big." Yang nodded.

Weiss squirmed in her seat quietly. Right… friends… The friends she'd had before coming to Beacon weren't terrible people, but they weren't the most forgiving. Rich little cliques of roving, self-obsessed egos, each rich and educated, but hardly knowing anything close to an actual struggle. Many of her former friends wondered why Weiss would bother becoming a huntress, some of them accused her of being a glory hound, so few of them understood what it meant to keep up your family's legacy. None of them had followed her, and it was the loneliest thing realizing that none of her friends supported her dream in the end...

She sniffled the tiniest bit and looked up to Ruby, the younger girl savoring her eighth cookie. Weiss considered the girl in front of her… she was obviously raised away from a lot of things, and it was pretty clear why. Between her eyes and her power, keeping her isolated may have been the safest thing to do. Part of Weiss was uncomfortable with her good nature and cheer, trying to discern what selfishness or mockery Ruby hid behind her naive trust, but for all of Ruby's faults, she seemed no more cruel than a childhood teddy bear.

"Weiss?..." Ruby called quietly, making the heiress look up curiously. Ruby shifted her legs around nervously, and licked her dry lips. "Um… I know I'm not the best partner in the world, or the best leader, but… I really appreciate the help. I want to try, and-and you know a lot more than me, so, if-if it's not too big of an issue…"

Weiss blinked slowly, and finally answered, "Of course. We will start on your constant stammering and self-confidence..." At that, Ruby gave a small, but nervous smile. "And I think we can call it paid back if you'll help me with my Grimm slaying." Weiss said slowly, clearly unhappy having to ask for help, but there was no laughter, no eye rolling… Ruby's smile was plain and honest.

"Sure, but, you should ask Yang too. She's the best." Ruby bobbed her head. Yang tapped her chest with her thumb and beamed.

"She's right, I am the best."

Weiss simply nodded. She wasn't bad at killing Grimm, but having seen Ruby in action, she knew there was still so much more to it. She looked at Ruby, then her goggles, and imagined the eyes behind them…

Perhaps… perhaps there was a more… practical way to learn as well…?

---

Author's Notes:

Hello everyone! Apologies for the recent confusion in chapters. The strange update and missing chapter are the result of me combining chapter 7 (Slip 'n Fall) and the old chapter 8 (Horde Mode) into one chapter, as it was originally intended to be read. That means Horde Mode is now a part of Slip 'n Fall.

I wanted to fix the chapters while adding this one, but I'm still getting used to FF, and wanted to ensure the order of chapters or upload of this chapter did not get muddled. So to those of you who are confused, I, again, apologize, that was me making sure the store would remain solidly intact before I attempted to add to it again.