I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M DOING.

Sorry for the extremely long hiatus. I didn't know what I was doing, and I also had nonstop writers block. I literally started three new stories just to try to get rid of it, and it finally took me this long to do it.

This is not my proudest dream sequence. I definitely wanted more symbolism in it, but I suck at that. So, enjoy.

I backstepped away just in time as one of Weiss's projectiles landed on the ground in front of me, making me cover my eyes as the dust scattered from the explosion.

I coughed and tried to wave away the dust to regain my composure, only to be startled as Weiss leapt towards me with Myrtenaster's sharp end poised, taking advantage while I was distracted.

The impact was swift, yet brutal.

Like a freight train ramming me at a thousand miles per hour, or like one of Yang's playful punches, I felt weightless as I was knocked into the air, and then I felt terrible immense pain when my head basically Evel Knievel'd into the wall. I think I might have made a huge me-shaped dent. Yeesh.

I thanked Oum for giving me an aura, because without it, I'd probably be dead with a hole in my chest. Then cursed Oum for giving me an aura, because at least death would have been less fucking painful.

I was having a bad time.

Actually, no, I'm lying. I was having an amazingly epic fun time!

I could just feel the bond between us getting closer each minute we fought!

That, or my broken ribs bouncing against my organs. But that's beside the point.

I like to think that both Weiss and I were learning a little bit more about each other each time we stabbed one another with our weapons.

I felt glad that she wasn't holding back for my sake.

"AND THIS IS FOR CALLING ME A PRINCESS!" She screamed in utter fury, shooting another ice beam at me.

I felt glad that she wasn't holding back.

Okay, just gotta dodge this- Nevermind, I seemed to have lost all feelings in my legs.

Being too disoriented and tired from the fight, I didn't have the strength to pull myself out of the wall I was indented in.

So, the ice beam landed directly in my face.

Ouch.

Everything was blurry. My ears were ringing. My head couldn't comprehend a single thought that passed by. For a moment, I actually forgot what I was doing here.

All I could understand was that I couldn't give up. Not yet. Not until I proved something.

I felt myself slowly falling off the wall. The world was spinning non-stop. At that moment, I had no idea what I was doing. No idea where I was. Just that I could never give up until it was over.

My face reunited with the ground. It was a lovely reunion.

I wanted to get up. So I got up. Just barely.

I stood on one knee and held my dislocated shoulder. Crescent Rose was right next to me. I probably had just enough energy to reach out for her-

"I pronounce that the victor of this match goes to Weiss Schnee!"

Wait, what.

I heard the loud cheering and howling from a crowd of people that I forgot existed. The lights turned back on, and I saw the entire first year students waving and whistling down at us. I took a glimpse above me on the stadium screen. Both a picture of my face and Weiss were displayed. Just underneath us were two bars; a nearly empty red one under my picture, and a somewhat almost empty orange one under Weiss's.

Huh. Looks like Weiss won. Neat.

Welp, better go congratulate her. She won fair and square, after all.

As Weiss limp-walked towards me while bruised and battered, I moved to stand up.

Despite looking like she had her shit handed to her on platter, she was giving me this huge grin. Still kind of jarring, to be honest. But still kinda cute, too.

I took a step forward to meet up with her- aaaaand the floor was on top of my face again. Or vice-versa.

Something slid next to me and was shaking me. I didn't think it was helping my possible concussion, but it was the thought that counted.

Somebody was dimming the lights in the stadium, I think. No, wait- that's actually just me passing out.

You know, for an unconscious guy that was possibly brain-damaged, I seemed to be pretty coherent so far.

What do you think, Keanu Reeves?

"Woah."

And now I lost all feelings to my arms. Hm.

Wonder if the cafeteria is still open.

A couple minutes later or something.

"He's going to be fine, right?" Weiss asked after the nurse finished applying medical gel on her leg and wrapping it up in a cast. She glanced anxiously at the bed next to her, currently occupied by her comatose partner.

Ross was attached to Beacon's finest medical equipment, an air mask on his face to breathe, and a heart monitor steadily beeping at a calm rate.

"Oh, don't you worry 'bout a thing, ma'am. Despite the injury and the beatings from the fight, his aura seems to be healing him at a surprisingly fast rate. He'll be up and about in no time." The nurse replied. Sticking the last bit of medical tape on Weiss's cast, she stood up. "You should be all healed up by .tomorrow morning, but try not to overexert yourself in the meantime. Get some rest and let your aura concentrate on doing all the healing for you, okay?"

Weiss nodded and thanked the nurse as she went to leave.

Being left alone with Ross, all Weiss could do was stare curiously at him.

There was definitely more to Ross than what she had at first assumed. Ever since the heart-to-heart talk they had, she had stopped looking down on Ross and started seeing him in a new light. Sure, he might act like a childish idiot at times, but he did have a lot of potential to be a competent team leader.

But she would be lying if she said she didn't underestimate him a bit simply because of his age.

Looking at it from a practical view, how could you blame her? She was Weiss Schnee, heiress of the Schnee family, owners of the Schnee Dust Company. She had been raised to be absolutely perfect. She had invested all her time into her academics since the age of four, and started training her combat finesse when she had manifested her semblance at age seven, while also being tutored by the best Atlasian teachers the Schnee family could afford.

She had trained nonstop every single day of her life, up to the day she had finally chosen to transfer to Vale and join Beacon at the age of seventeen.

But Ross? He didn't go through any of the training she did.

Instead of private tutors, he went to public schools.

Instead of training at the earliest age possible, he started training after passing elementary school.

Instead of being accepted into Beacon at the normal age of seventeen, he was accepted early at the age of fifteen.

By all accounts, she was more experienced, more capable, more intelligent, more skilled, more- Ugh, she was doing it again, stop it- stop it!

So the question was, if Weiss was supposed to be better than Ross in theory...

How was it possible that he was up to par with her combat skills?

His combat stance was clunky, he had too many weak points, he focused more on being flashy and extravagant in his movements, and he constantly talked during the fight.

Yet he was more challenging than any human opponent she had ever fought, besides her older sister and her private tutors.

There was definitely more to Ross than what she had assumed.

Hm...

She should try to get to know him better, to further strengthen their relationship as partners, and as...

Friends.

She and Ross were friends now, weren't they? Even though she knew the definition to the word, saying it still felt... new to her. When was the last time she had called or considered someone a friend?

Was there even a last time for her...?

Although confused about her own views on Ross, she could only wonder what Ross thought of her in return.

Meanwhile, in the vast incomprehensible land of Ross's brain.

"Prepare thyself, thou foul beast! For I, the legendary hero who hailed from the Kingdom of Vale, Knight of Huntsmen, titled Grimm Reaper, shall slay thee for thy crimes and returneth the Princess back to the Atlasian Kingdom from which thy trespassed!" I proclaimed bravely towards the face of danger, my knightly hoodie armor shined brightly red in the rays of the sunlight, and my trusty tool Crescent Rose twirled in my hands as I prepared for battle. "I advise thou to returneth the princess, fly back from whence thy came, and to never cometh back, lest thou should feeleth the fulleth of my wrath!"

The giant and immensely-intimidating dragon arose from his tower, his white scales scarred from the many battles and wars he has fought in, and his giant black bowler hat slanted atop his head. He laughed in my face, "Pfft, what is this, a joke or something?" He cleared his throat, and proceeded to dismiss me, "Kid, why don't you scurry back home to your parents or something. I got important business to deal the King of Atlas, and today's a tight schedule. Ransom the princess for the kingdom's gold, report in with my boss, go to another kingdom to kidnap another princess, rinse and repeat. I don't have time to play games or babysit some dumb kid fantasizing about being a heroic knight slaying a dragon."

"Thou darest make mockery of me by dismissing my presence?!" I yelled indignantly, "Foul reptile of bowlerhat-wearing-douchbaggery, I shall teach thee many painful lessons of wisdom as to why thou should NEVER underestimate the Grimm Reaper of Hunters!"

From within the tower the dragon perched on, I could hear the faint indignant cry of Princess Weiss Schnee.

"Why the hell am I a princess in this?! I know that I'm an heiress for my father's dust company, but I seriously don't get how you came to the conclusion that I'm secretly some frilly princess of a kingdom. Also, why am I a helpless princess? I can easily kick your butt to next month, so why am I the one that needs saving, let alone by you of all people?!"

I called out for her, "Do not worry, dearest princess! I shall rescue thee in thy time of need, and thou shall sooneth be reunited with the people of thy kingdom!" I looked upon the dragon again, preparing my combat stance. "Foul dragon! Thou shall soon feel the strength of a true hunter knight of Vale! Quiver in thy feet, as thou knoweth that the justice for thy crimes shall be swift, yet brutal!"

The douchebag dragon looked on with disinterest. He sighed, "Look Shorty, I don't have time for this. If you could just go back and-"

"YOU FUKIN CALLED ME WOT M8?!"

Taken back from my sudden out of character speech, he silently gave baffled looks at me before asking a bewildered, "Wha-"

And then I decapitated him.

Without even trying.

Cuz I'm awesome.

Using my magical skills of awesomeness, I flew up to the tower and saw the princess shackled to the walls, her dress and well being still in pristine condition.

Running up to her, I asked, "Fairest princess, art thou alright?"

"No seriously, why am I the helpless damsel in distress." She deadpanned. "This is like, the most cliche story trope ever used in every story ever. Realistically speaking, there's a higher chance of you being in this position than me. Knowing my luck, it's also more likely that I would be the person that's forced with the task to rescue you."

"It is calming to knoweth that thy witty snark is still prominent and healthy within thou." I told her, using Crescent Rose to cut the shackles that bound her.

As she rubbed her wrist after being freed, she sighed. "Whatever. Thank you brave knight, for rescuing me and yada yada blah blah you're a true hero to all." She glared at me impatiently, "Can we just skip all this pointless filler and get to the important parts?"

"Of course your highness," I bowed graciously as she took my hand to help herself up. "I shall escort thee back to thy kingdom right away. Your father, the king of Atlasia, must be worried to death about the state of your well being."

"Pfft, that's a laugh." She chortled.

"My lady?" I asked, perplexed at her response.

Weiss suddenly donned a more bitter expression. "My father probably didn't even notice that I was gone this entire time. Even if he did, I doubt he even cared to send any of his knights to try to retrieve me. You were the only one who probably even bothered to come search for me."

"Uh…" I stammered, a bit confused. Wasn't she supposed to act like she knew this entire thing was a dream that I was having, or what?

"Look, this is probably just some weird symbolic foreshadowing about your relationship with me in a weird dream of yours. A dream that I would likely comment is nearly bordering to fetish levels of creepiness." She said in distaste, looking down at her dress.

"Wait, how is this dream bordering on fetish levels of creepiness? It's not even remotely inappropriate like that!" I argued, a bit peeved.

"What's not inappropriate about this weird mess? You're a tall handsome knight saving a cute and pretty princess from an evil dragon. This is basically the most uncreative and perverse power fantasy dream you've ever had." She shook her head disappointedly, "You're extremely lucky that I'm not the real Weiss. Otherwise, she would be really creeped out by now."

"What do you mean you're not the real Weiss?" I asked, confused as to why she would say something like that.

She rolled her eyes, and suddenly pushed me to the ground.

Before I could even get back up to ask her why she did that, she suddenly laid on top of me and put her face… really close to my face.

"Uh… Weiss? What are you doing?" I asked her, a bit surprised about our awkward position.

"Hey, don't ask me. You're dreaming this. I'm just making you feel more comfortable."

"But I feel very very uncomfortable right now…"

She suddenly got closer to me, "No you're not."

I could feel the warm air of her breathing close to my face. I could feel myself blushing from the close contact, as I felt myself at a loss for words.

She gave a rare and cute smile, "You know, all these White Rose shippers are probably going giddy in their seats right now. Such a shame for them when they realize that none of this is even real, or will probably ever be mentioned in future parts of the story. Might probably be a running gag or something though."

"I… Um…" I stuttered, finding myself hypnotized by the pretty eyes of the girl on top of me.

She sighed again, before replacing her cute smile with a deadpanned expression, "You're in a dream, Ross."

…

Oh, wait a minute. I'm in a dream.

"Wake up, you dunce." She whispered, slowly closing her eyes as she leaned her head closer to mine.

"Wake up, you dunce!"

I opened my eyes to find light blue eyes of Weiss, her face literally centimeters away from mine.

…

"AGH WEISS, WHAT THE CRAP-"

My face sure has been getting real friendly with the floor these past few days.

Is this going to be a thing that happens now frequently now? Random girls I've only just gotten to know, waking me up by putting their faces directly in front of mine, startling me awake every time I go to sleep?

I already get enough bullshit from this from Yang. After finally learning to get used to it, am I now cursed to relive this torture all over again from my new female teammates?

Turning myself over, I saw Weiss stretching her hand to help me up.

I was a bit surprised by the gesture, but I took it anyway, as I wasn't exactly complaining.

Weiss was really working hard on keeping that promise to be a better team member and partner, huh? I'm really glad about that.

Looking around to notice that I was in the infirmary, which I was predicting would become a very familiar sight these coming days, I asked, "So uh… What happened?"

"It's Saturday afternoon. You've been knocked out for an entire twelve hours after our sparring session."

"Oh."

I'm... having a bit of a hard time remembering how that fight went. There were some explosions, I think I said the word Evel Knievel at some point. I'm 90% positive that Weiss won?

"How was I in the fight?" I asked, hoping that I had at least proven to Weiss that I was a good fighter.

She hummed, mulling over how she thought about our fight, before deeming it as: "Mediocre."

I slouched, feeling my self-esteem deflated.

This girl was cold. Ice puns not intended.

"But…"

Ooh, there was a but! I straightened back up, curiously glancing at her to hear what other comments she might have had for me.

"Despite how incredibly reckless and pointlessly theatrical your fighting style was, I will admit that I had a fair amount of difficulty when facing you. I guess I was so overwhelmed by how unorthodox you were that I couldn't properly think straight." She crossed her arms and looked away, but I was able to notice a small smirk to the side of her mouth. "There was certainly room for improvement, but I guess it's fair that the same could also be said to me as well. So…well done."

I couldn't help but grin. In fact, I went as far as to give a happy cheer from her response.

"WOOHOO! YOU FINALLY NOTICED THAT I DON'T SUCK AS MUCH AS YOU ORIGINALLY THOUGHT! THIS IS THE BEST DAY EVER!"

Despite herself, she rolled her eyes and gave me a dainty round of applause. "Yes yes, you've proven your capabilities to me. Congratulations on accomplishing such a wondrous feat." She giggled.

Suddenly, I had an image in my head of Weiss in a stereotypical princess outfit laying on top of me, nearly inches away from making out with my face.

I don't know why that appeared, why it happened, or where I even got the image from, but I felt my face growing a bit warmer as I looked at her.

Damn, she really was cute.

And totally out of my league.

And two years older than me.

And taller.

And richer.

And probably has a father that was eight feet tall and had a chainsaw for a hand.

Yeah, I-I definitely have no chance in hell with that.

Weiss walked up to a pile of red clothing, picking it up and handing it over to me. "Come on, make yourself look presentable. The rest of our team and your friend Jaune is waiting outside to see if you're alright."

I looked over my clothes and hoody, admiring how it was shiny and clean as a whistle. All the holes and other stain marks were patched and fixed up. It was like it was just recently made.

The Beacon staff here were good. Real good.

"Yeah, I can imagine. I mean, I was kinda basically in a coma for, like, an entire day." Which brought up a good question to ask. "How come I was out for so long anyway?"

"Gee, I don't know," Weiss answered in mock-curiosity, "Maybe it was because a certain someone decided to use up most of his aura reserves to pull out flashy and extravagant spinning attacks to look cool, instead of, you know, saving it up to protect himself from my all-out barrages of dust spells, thus taking the full brunt of the damage at the absolute last moment." She pierced at me.

I nervously chuckled and tried to wave at her to go easy on me, "Alright alright, I get it. I'll stop trying to show off all the time, I promise."

She nodded, "Good. Now, I'll be waiting for you outside with the others."

"Okay. See ya outside." I waved at her.

She waved back, leaving the room.

I was now alone, with nothing but my thoughts to keep me company.

They mostly revolved around Weiss for some reason.

We seem to be proper friends now, finally. We were getting along well with each other, and hopefully, it would remain that way for the next four years. Having a positive relationship with each other would definitely help out with team synergy.

The sudden image of Weiss laying on top of me returned, and I couldn't help but blush again.

What the hell was I dreaming about back there?

Did this mean I have a crush on Weiss?

Well, I wouldn't be surprised. I mean, she was pretty cute and nice once you got past her cold personality and gotten to know her a bit.

But I definitely do not see myself going out with her anytime soon.

Meh, this was probably just some sort of school-crush thing that'd pass by quickly. I wouldn't want to make things awkward with her again just when I was finally able to break the ice and become friends.

"I'll just pretend that dream never happened and move on with life."

I donned my signature clothing, braced myself, and walked out of the patient's room.

LITTLE DOES ROSS KNOW, THE AWKWARD SHIP-TEASING HAS ONLY JUST BEGUN FOR HIM. MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Let's see, uh…

Next up is Blake, or Nora, depending. Later after that, I'll probably do Velvet the cute bunny girl. Pyrrha might come next after that. Then later, at some point in the future, he would be ship-teased with himself for no absolute reason other than for the lolz.

Since this is a short-ish chapter, I'll just add in a few cute omake scenes that I made for fun to get pass the writer's block…

Which also took about a few months to make, due to writer's block.

I suck at writing fanfiction.

The problem with living in a co-ed dorm room.

Ross opens the bathroom door with towels in hand, preparing for a relaxing shower.

…

"PERVERT!" Weiss screams, as she explodes the room and knocks Ross out the dorm window.

Ross opens the bathroom door with toothbrush in hand, preparing to brush his teeth and then go to sleep.

…

"OCCUPIED!" Blake screams, as she judo-throws Ross out the dorm window.

Ross hesitantly walks near the bathroom door, and knocks on it to make sure no one is inside. "Anyone using the room?"

No response.

Ross sighs in relief and goes in, only to see Yang taking a shower. With the curtains open.

"Oh hey lil bro! Can you help reach a spot on my back?"

Ross, tired with this shit, calmly walks away from the bathroom, and jumps out of the dorm window.

"And this is why I'm forced to use the locker room showers instead." He explains to his male compadres in the men's locker room showers.

"Same." Proclaimed literally everyone else in the room.

Trap Doors.

Ozpin walked down a hallway one day, observing the student populace and making sure everyone's morale and satisfactions were high.

Suddenly, a wild Ross Rose appears.

"HEADMASTER OZPIN."

"Ack!" Ozpin started, before composing himself. "Oh. Good morning Ross. How can I help you?"

Ross shoved a random book near his face, and excitingly spoke in a rapid pace. "Okay, so I was reading this awesome fantasy book called Parry Otter, right? There's this setting that takes place in a magical school for gifted wizards, and it's called Sowmole, and the headmaster is this elderly wizard guy named Bumblebore. As I keep reading and reading, I started finding these small similarities between this school and Beacon academy, and I sometimes compare the headmaster with you because he reminds me of you so much, so anyway in this school they have these awesome magical stuff like talking paintings, ghosts of the past, moving stairs, and sometimes the paintings are actually hidden trap doors that lead to new hallways and secrets to get around the school- and I thought to myself, 'Gee, I wonder if Beacon has hidden trapdoors too.' Then I was like, 'naw, that's not possible.' BUT THEN, I started wondering to myself… What if it did? I mean, Beacon has been around for a long while, right? Longer than Sowmole in the storybooks right? So chances are, there's gotta be some hidden trapdoors that were implemented at some point right? Since you're the headmaster of the academy, you of all people should know whether or not this place has any secret compartments and hidden doors, right? Am I right? Am I?"

Ozpin blinked. Then he stuttered, "I… Uh…"

Ozpin continued to look at Ross's youthful face, brimming with hope and excitement. Also possibly extremely high on sugar. He really needed to cut the amount of sweets given out after the lunch period.

"Um… Suuuuurre…?" He answered unsurely.

"I KNEW IT! I knew there would be some secret doors hidden around here somewhere!" Ross jumped in joy at finding out his guess was assumed correct. "Can you tell me where a few are located?" He asked with clear enthusiasm.

"Well… Erm…" Ozpin paused for a moment, before deciding to just go along with the child's shenanigans. "If I told you so easily, then they wouldn't be secret doors now, would they? The reward comes from finding it yourself." He smiled.

Ross deflated a bit, furrowing his eyebrow at such a cheap answer. But then he widened it back up, going: "Oohhhh… I getcha." Ross nodded a winked at Ozpin conspiratorially.

Ozpin winked back in the same manner.

Ross then ran off for adventure, looking for any possibly nonexistent trapdoors hidden away in Beacon's many many many many hallways. "Thanks professor!" He waved as he left.

When Ross got out of sight, Ozpin heavily sighed in relief and chuckled as he shook his head.

"Ahem." Another voice startled Ozpin from behind.

Looking back, he spotted Glynda, raising a questioning eyebrow at him. "I wasn't informed that we had any secret doors hidden around Beacon."

"Oh, go easy on me, Glynda. There's no harm in letting a child believe that we may have hidden secrets around for him to find. I'm sure he'll just get bored after finding nothing and forget about all this later on."

Ross slowly walked around the hallways of Beacon, examining every nook and cranny within its walls.

"Now if I was a hidden trap door, where would I be placed?" He asked himself, studying a suspicious looking brick in the wall. "Hm…"

Just as he lightly touched the brick, a vent with a loose screw nearby fell off and caused the whole vent to drop on the floor with a clang.

Ross, being the naive and childish little shit that he was, asked himself, "Wait, can vents actually count as hidden doors?" To which he replied to himself, "Eh, I guess I can see the logic behind that."

So naturally, he proceeded to climb inside the vent and shimmied his way around the academy's ventilation system. Because why not.

Outside in the fountain gardens, Ross popped his head out from the top of one of the fountain geysers.

"Now this doesn't make sense."

He pulled his head back in.

Blake was quietly reading a history book in the library, when suddenly, a bookcase in front of her slowly spun around with Ross standing on the other side.

"Okay, yep, I am completely lost."

"Ross?" She asked, perplexed.

"Oh hi Blake, thanks for lending me your Parry Otter books! Because of them, I was able to find out that Beacon had secret trapdoors- OhwaitLookslikeI'mgoingbackinByeBlakeThanksagainforthebooks!"

The bookcase finished it's 360 turnaround, and all was silent again.

…

"Wait, what?"

Ross slowly crawled out from under the bed that he found himself under. Looking around to see two aesthetically unstable stable bunk beds, and a broken window, he safely concluded that he was back in his team's dorm room.

"I really need to make a map."

"Ross?" Suddenly, a wild Weiss Schnee appears. Weiss Schnee uses 'Questioning Suspicious Behavior.' "Why are you under my bed?"

Psychological defense sharply rises!

Ross Rose uses 'Obvious Answer.' "Going on an adventure."

Ross Rose cheats the system, and runs away, crawling back under the bed.

It's super effective!

Weiss Schnee is Confused!

"What."

Ross Rose defeated Weiss Schnee!

Ross got P16,000 for winning!

Sent some to mom!

…

Oh wait.

Later Tomorrow

"Alright everyone, be silent. It's time for attendance roll call." Doctor Oobleck sipped his forty seventh cup of coffee of the day. "Amberline Kras?"

"Here."

"Arnold Sven?"

"Present."

Meanwhile, as this went on for the next few minutes, the clanging inside the vents could be heard from above. Along with humming.

Students stopped paying attention to Oobleck as they noticed the clanging and humming from the ceiling.

"Dun dun dun do do, Spider Ross, Spider Ross, does whatever a spider does. Eating cookies, saving the girl. Stopping bad guys to save the world. Look oooouut, here comes the spider- *CLANG CLANG* Okay ow, that hurts. *MORE CLANGING* Oof, ack, ugh, why are there so many vertical vents, agh, dust dammit-"

As the clanging and yelling got more violent, even Oobleck had to pause to figure out what was going on.

The noise slowly started to move over from the corner of the ceiling, all the way to near the vent cover that just so happened to be right on top of a blonde knight.

To which said blonde knight groaned, "Why me?"

Then the vent cover broke, falling on Jaune's head. "Ow."

Then Ross fell through, falling on Jaune's back. "Augh." "Oof!"

Ross, slowly gathering his bearings, looked around the room he showed up in. Noticing that the clock said 12:28 PM, he cheered, "WOO, NOT LATE."

"My back~..." Jaune lamented.

Oobleck checked Ross's name on the list, "Ross Rose, present. Sylvia Starwing?"

"Here."

"Whyyyyyyyy…" Continued Jaune.