Warnings: Trauma, dream!Ruby being dream!Ruby, unchildlike behavior, cisswap, trauma, suffering, mentions of unhealthy coping mechanisms
Chapter One - A Knight and a Monster
Pyrrha Nikos awoke to a buzzing scroll, a great headache and the steady weight of Nora on her stomach. She was pretty sure that she'd fallen asleep sans Nora but this was a thing that happened if Ren didn't sleep. Or eat. Or wear clothes that kept him warm. Nora was both of their self-care and honestly?
She was kind of bad at it.
Not that Pyrrha was a real space heater. With Yang's help she could make one, but they weren't allowed to do that at the dorms anymore.
Still, Pyrrha had a soft spot for the carrot top's sleeping face, so she wasn't inclined to move her. Thankfully, Lie Ren, her inseparable partner, crept by silently a moment later, and scooped her up. Nora rolled into his arms at once and Ren looked away to not be obviously embarrassed. He waved a hand at her in thanks, then scooped her in more properly.
"Go to bed," she told him. "And don't worry about it. There are much worse people to cuddle with."
Like Jaune who for some reason slept with his sword by his arm and sometimes rolled over with it in his sleep. All the healing in the world and the green dust had not stopped him apologizing from being a girl that was not his future wife, let alone nearly cutting her foot off.
Again, she didn't mind .People were raised differently than her. Everyone had their quirks.
Ren slept every three days, Nora ate hyperfast and cut Ren's food for him, Jaune slept with his weapons, Weiss never let anyone help her wash up no matter how annoying her hair was, Yang ran a fever when she slept and often sent embers at the wall in her snores and Pyrrha…
Pyrrha woke with the sun and cried because she thought it was flashing reporter cameras.
She didn't do it this time, but that might be because of Nora. A teammate nearby always mitigated it somewhat and since they were the only six person team in Beacon (at the moment, there was always one weird numbered team per year because at least two people died in initiation, three people quit, etc, etc), she had options to choose from.
Except maybe Yang, who asked questions and got nosy. And even then.
Pyrrha picked up her scroll and opened it to a missive from the deputy headmistress. "What does she need to see me for?" she muttered, picking up a clean uniform.
"Where are you going so early?"
Weiss' eyes were wide open and wary, their light color only making the scars running down the left side of her face so much more pronounced as they stretched.
"Professor Goodwitch contacted me," Pyrrha replied, beginning to strip. The heiress' eyes closed, face going shut.
"I see." She paused. "Yang left last night."
"She did? Without saying anything?" That was odd. Sure, Yang had a tendency to go out at night to stretch her wings, she'd call it, but she'd usually warn them ahead of time. Or at least Weiss, who thrived on routine and sameness and control. Weiss said she didn't have anxiety. Liar.
"Yes. I don't even think she showered before she left." Weiss wrinkled her nose at the concept.
"Probably not. Just to mess with you."
Weiss sniffed. "How rude."
Pyrrha hid a smile. "You can open your eyes now, I'm very decent."
"Decently shameless, you mean." Still, Weiss pulled herself up to look at her. "Is it too early for me to go submit my latest report to Professor Oobleck?"
"I think so. Go back to sleep."
Weiss gave her a willful look, clearly trying to guess if she was worrying over her or not, or mocking her, or something. Weiss was the youngest Schnee, after all. Pyrrha had met her often enough in balls and parties and showboating events of all sorts. She was not interested in being reminded of her place.
Nor was Pyrrha interested in that sort of thing. She waited until Weiss looked away, her gaze held a little too long. But her eyes soon closed again and the girl fell asleep once more.
Pyrrha really hoped she never met Jacques Schnee personally in Atlas. He'd probably be punted off of the grand tour that the rich and famous considered home. Hopefully he'd be stabbed by one of the many spires on his way down, though even that might be too good.
She slid out of the room, past Jaune snoring, past Ren and Nora curled protectively around each other. Nora's fingers were softly stroking Ren's throat, which meant she'd woken up in the past five minutes. "Seeee yaa~" sang Nora in a quiet, cheery voice. Ren waved a hand.
Warmth swelled in Pyrrha's throat as she left. It was so good not to be alone.
Which didn't explain where Yang was, especially since she liked to sleep like the dead.
At the early hour, there were few people in the halls. Early rising teachers, medical staff, cooks, but only the most anxious of students could be found. Which was how she preferred it. Even the muscleheads could be a bit much this early.
She headed up to one of the more secluded towers, where the headmistress's office lay. Separate from the deputy and somewhat convoluted, it ensured a takeover of Beacon and stealing of important data would at least be a little difficult and not recommended.
Trooping up the stairs, Pyrrha took an extra minute to yawn and stretch and smooth out her appearance, having basically come in her battle uniform. (Even she was aware they'd cost more than all of Nora and Ren's clothes combined so they seemed decent.)
As she did, she heard the quiet sound of voices through the door.
"Yes, well, the fact that Qrow of all people called in a favor is enough for me to accept it."
"That's because you like having a wildlands all your own Dorothy." The deputy headmistress sounded amused, if exhausted.
"Don't worry, I'll perform my work admirably." A third voice, bright and soft and tinted with an edge of something… else. Something different.
"Perhaps you might but that will not change what you are." Professor Goodwitch sounded as stern as ever.
"Of course not, ma'am," agreed the third voice. "I will never bend what I am for anyone."
"Probably the smartest thing you have said all day."
"Glynda be at ease. She'll do wonderfully."
Pyrrha, too curious not to, moved to knock on the door.
It opened in seconds and she was met with the sight of the deputy headmistress' stern nod, the headmistress drinking coffee, a little girl with a cat in her lap and…
"Yang!" she said with a relieved smile. "Where were you all night? Weiss was worried."
"Eh, oh… uh…" Yang had the grace to scratch her head, dressed in more tattered than usual street clothes with cracked soot in her hair. "Sorry about that, I meant to call but everything was kinda a rush."
The girl in her chair blinked at Pyrrha, then Weiss. "I didn't know you had friends already, Yang." She sounded utterly delighted, as if the concept had escaped her. "You never told me!"
Yang, to her credit, looked abashed. "Rubes…"
The girl hopped to her feet and bounded over to Pyrrha, dislodging the cat from her lap with a mrrow of agitation. "There's safety in numbers, Yang, dad's always said so. Hi, I'm Ruby Rose, thanks for looking after my big sister, everyone needs a second pair of eyes."
Pyrrha couldn't speak, the silver eyes piercing hers as thick and heavy as a fog. "I… erm… yes, Yang is a good friend to me as well."
The cat on the ground pulled itself to its paws and meowed, forcing Ruby's gaze away from her. Pyrrha inwardly sighed in relief as the girl turned to pick up her cat.
"I'm so sorry, Bells!" she apologized, putting the cat on her shoulder now. "I was just really excited, after everything at Signal."
"Signal was months ago, sis," Yang said with a fond grin. "I'm tough as nails."
"Nails get knocked down, Yang," the girl said with a scoff, nuzzling her cat, who eventually settled down. "Sorry this is Bells, my cat! I tried to give her another name once and she sometimes answers it. Go on, Bells, check her."
The cat stared at her and Pyrrha had the distinct impression something was trying to see through her soul.
Still, it couldn't hurt to be polite, even if it was to a cat. "Nice to meet you."
The cat blinked at her and then hopped to her shoulder. For some reason, Ruby and Yang's eyes both went wide.
The headmistress cleared her throat before she could ask why (Pyrrha had a feeling she was hiding a smile too behind her ever present coffee mug). "Well, with those introductions out of the way… Ruby, this is Pyrrha Nikos. She'll be providing a… shall we say, less biased introduction to Beacon. Ruby here," he addressed Pyrrha now. "Was a student of Signal as of a week ago. However, she had a run-in with known criminal Relena Torchwick and captured her."
"What." Respect rose from her toes to lift her eyebrows.
To her credit the girl looked bashful, scratching her head and catching Bells as the cat leaped to her side from Pyrrha's outburst. "It was kind of hard. If it wasn't for Bells, it wouldn't have worked. And Miss Glynda."
"You two did manage to box her in yes," said the deputy, looking fondly exasperated once more. "Madame Torchwick is currently in recovery stasis while we complete future plans for her. But as such, Miss Rose is in a terrible amount of danger, so we elected to bring her to Beacon while Signal shores up its security."
"More like disappears off of the map," Yang muttered.
Pyrrha saw the point. Taking out a powerful criminal was nothing to sneeze at and he likely had friends in the right places. Better for her to mostly blend in as a part of the school. "So you'll be studying with us?"
Ruby glanced up and the grey (silver for killing wolves, her mind supplied) eyes pierced her brain, almost distracted her from the lopsided acknowledging smile. "Yep! That's right. I can't wait to see what kinds of tech everyone uses! It's gonna be awesome!"
Professor Goodwitch sighed and Pyrrha struggled to keep her composure. This girl had boxed in Relena Torchwick? How? It didn't help that she was so tiny. In fairness, Weiss and Nora were also small, but Weiss was precise and fast and Nora was stocky. She just looked small, fragile.
Except for her eyes.
Bells nosed Ruby's cheek. "Yeah, yeah I'm here to learn too."
Dorothy chuckled. "Yes, well. That is the situation. We'd like to ask you to bring her into your little motley crew as it were. We still don't have quite enough students to split you off into teams yet."
"Jaune's the leader," Pyrrha said automatically. "But I don't think he'll mind at all." She glanced at Yang, who actually regularly worked with Jaune, mostly because Pyrrha had taken Weiss under her wing during that kind of thing.
Yang grinned. "Don't worry, Ruby's gonna be fine. Might ruffle Weiss' feathers though."
Ruby glanced at her and for some reason, frowned. But then she seemed to smile again. "I've got supplies and everything."
Pyrrha mulled it over. "If that's the case then I'm definitely fine with it."
Ruby grinned at her cat. "Awesome!"
Beacon stank.
Ruby didn't know how Yang stood it. But then again, her sister's senses were best with touch and taste, not sound and smell. She was lucky Blake was so used to hiding in her hood, her friend was probably inconsolable in there.
But seriously people stank. She'd figured Patch and Signal were a good example… and they were! But there were so many people. And they smelled like seventy different things at once and it was very distracting.
Ruby was very, very glad Qrow had told her to not think of a time limit, because this was going to be impossible even with two people. Three if she counted Yang, and Uncle had warned her not to do that, even though she'd be better at this than either of them. It was going to take ages to get used to all the people, let alone the pounds of Dust they carried.
Cripes.
Also Pyrrha walked fast. With purpose and speed and like she had nothing to fear. Interesting.
"She's a gladiator in tournaments," Blake supplied from by her ear, peering over through Ruby's dark red hair. "She's probably very used to fighting."
Fighting but not killing. Interesting. And the headmistress lady wouldn't pair her with someone unless she was the ultimate suspect or likely one of the more trustworthy.
She seemed very good for Yang, Ruby could only hope she really was. Too many years in forests taught her caution and care.
Her left leg twinged.
She had been so very lucky in her life.
"Over here," Pyrrha beckoned for her to a room that was full of clothes. "Let's get you a school uniform first, so we can put your weapon away and not have too many questions asked.
"Oh nice!" No wonder everyone's eyes had been following her. She must look weird.
"Humans and their predilection for looking alike," Blake muttered. "Conformists."
Ruby patted her head and bit back her fangs.
It would be so much easier if she could run through the grounds and get a good sniff in. But that would have to wait for tonight.
They entered a room full of wardrobes and mirrors. Yang squeezed her shoulder in warning. Ruby placed a hand on top of hers and squeezed back.
She was okay, she really was.
"Bells, watch my clothes, okay?"
Blake hopped over to Yang, who gave her a kiss on the head and laughed as she scrambled away. Ruby also laughed and began to pull off her clothes, just as Pyrrha turned around and promptly turned back to the clothes, face burning.
"Ruby," Yang said through laughter. "There are changing rooms."
"Oh. Right. Sorry! Come on Bells!"
Blake made an amused mew as Yang kept laughing at her.
She'd rather forgotten humans used changing rooms.
Still, she could use this. She gestured for Blake to hop up the hooks as Pyrrha passed her outfits, face still bright red and stinking of embarrassment. Weird. Didn't humans that were used to each other lack that kind of concern?
"Sorry," she heard Yang say. "It took me a while too."
"Patch isn't like that all the time is it?" All like what?
Blake meowed at her and Ruby nodded distractedly, still listening in between changing shirts.
"Usually it's not but Rubes and I had a bit of a… eccentric upbringing. It took me a year at Signal to realize I should change in the bathroom." Oh she had written home about that once… it hadn't seemed that important at the time… "Clothes are for warmth and stuff. It's not shameful or anything."
"Nora might take that as an excuse you know."
Blake had reached the top of the door by now and leaped out, mrrowing as she did. Ruby continued, switching to another shirt. This one was really loose. What kind of girls came here anyway?
"Ren will get mad at her, it's fine."
"If you say so."
Picking the skirt, she discarded it at once for something a little longer, with thicker socks. This was terribly impractical. She knelt down to tap the shoe heel, just as Blake returned with something in her mouth.
"Bells!" she called a little too loudly, winking at her. "What have you got there? I told you to watch my stuff!"
Blake looked at her with no amusement and mrrowed at her, so Ruby picked it up and turned it around. Her eyes narrowed and a smile split her lips and showed her teeth. "You know better than to rip up pants."
Blake flicked her tail.
"No tuna tonight," she said sternly and earned an eyeroll.
"All good, Ruby?" Yang asked. Ruby nodded and smiled as she opened the door.
"All good! Could you take the spares with you?" She'd even snagged a couple for Blake, just in case.
After all, if there was a spy in the school, Ruby would need all the help she could get finding them and tearing out their throats.
Much easier than studying though.