Disclaimer: I own nothing within this work of fiction.
AN: I wrote a RWBY story.
"Welcome to Beacon." Ruby Rose let out a defeated sigh as she realized the state she was in, wanting to just drop to the ground and let this day be over.
All alone at Beacon with her sister Yang off doing whatever it is with her friends from Signal. Friends Ruby didn't have the benefit of having on account of her run in with Roman Torchwick. Headmaster Ozpin had decided to let her enroll two years early compared to everyone else.
'Isn't everything off to a great start?' One run in with a scary girl with white hair and another with a mysterious girl in a bow later and she was still all alone. She had no idea where Yang even went off to so had no chance of finding her on Beacon's campus, a place she had absolutely no idea on how to get anywhere on.
'Why did I ever bother saying yes? Oh yeah. It was supposed to be better here. Be different. I wasn't supposed to be the weird girl with no friends.' At Signal, her classmates were either weirded out with how excited she got with weapons or just didn't like her after a training match had left them on the floor. Having an uncle as cool as Uncle Qrow made it a lot harder for anyone her age, and most above it, to match her in a fight.
"I guess I'll just be by myself. All alone." She gave one last futile glance around the crowded courtyard for Yang before she officially deemed it a lost cause.
"Hey, you alright?" The voice behind her nearly made her jump out of her boots, turning around when a gloved hand landed on her shoulder.
A smiling blonde in white and gold armor over a hoodie drew his hand back. "Sorry, didn't mean to surprise you like that." A gloved hand was raised to the back of his head. "You just…I kind of…" He gave a sigh and shrugged his shoulders, offered a bright smile despite the embarrassment he was feeling. "OK. I totally overheard what you said and wanted to know if I could do anything to help?"
Ruby stared past him.
"Oh, what am I doing. I should introduce myself first." He held out his free hand. "Jaune Arc. Happy to meet you."
Ruby's eyes zeroed in on the weapons she could see peeking over his back, her mind mentally running through all the weapons she had seen since getting on the airship to Beacon.
"Um…hello?" His smile faltered for a second, his face shifting to concern when he didn't get a response from her.
Ruby snapped herself out of her own head.
"Sorry! I just saw all those swords on your back and…They're your weapons, right?" Ruby wanted to wince. 'Of course, they're his weapons Ruby! Why did I say that! Why do I say anything?'
"Oh, yeah!" His smile was back. She was glad her being awkward hadn't chased him off yet. "I do have a lot of them. Luckily, I know how to use them. At least I hope I do." He laughed. "What about you?" He caught sight of Crescent Rose behind her. "Wow. That looks pretty cool. What is it?"
"It's my baby!" Ruby excitedly drew Crescent Rose from her back, letting the end of the scythe strike the ground as she beamed at her weapon. "Introducing Crescent Rose! Part customizable high impact sniper rifle, part scythe, and all amazing! Every piece of it personally designed and built by one Ruby Rose! That's me by the way."
"That's pretty awesome. You must be some kind of genius to make something like that." His raised eyebrows hadn't dropped since she had revealed her weapon. He reached behind him and drew one of the swords off his back. "I don't have anything that fancy. Just kind of a lot of swords. Some big, some small." Ruby ran a critical eye over the wide two-part blade, noticed a seam that could likely split it in half down the middle. She would guess it was triggered from a system built into the lower half of the weapon. It was built for two handed use judging from the long blue and gold hilt but the oversized handguard made her eyes go back to the other swords she could see on his back. She counted five. Without getting a good look at the rest of them, she didn't know what they could do but judging by the other blue and gold hilts she would say they all came together somehow. "This is Multos Armis."
He smiled as he set the blade into the ground for her to appraise. The well sharpened weapon easily cut through the stone but didn't go any further once Jaune took his hand off.
"Well, part of it anyway. Or is it most of it? I don't know, I'm not too good with explaining stuff like this." He shook his head with a laugh. "My sisters told me I went way overboard with the whole swords making a bigger sword thing. Maybe they were right?"
"No way!" Ruby shook her head, snapped herself out of her head again and the rabbit hole she was going down. "Weapons are an extension of ourselves. They're part of us, show who we are as Huntsmen. If you have a lot of swords than you may just like keeping things simple. You just want to help people. Like a knight."
"You're right." Jaune nodded along with her. "I guess that's all I really want as a Huntsman. It's why I'm here after all." He drew his sword out of the ground, returned it to his back. "You're pretty smart Ruby. Anybody ever tell you that?"
"Yeah…but people also tell me I get a little weird with weapons." She looked to the ground. "They're probably right."
"Whoever said that doesn't know what they're talking about." Jaune smiled. Ruby noticed he never really stopped smiling. "Ruby Rose is awesome."
She collapsed Crescent Rose.
"Does that mean you want to be friends?" She took her shot.
"Sure!"
And that's exactly how Ruby Rose and Jaune Arc became friends.
He walked with her to Beacon Academy proper, following the last of the stragglers from their airship. The two were the last to step into the entry hall. On the way, Jaune had managed to explain more about his weapon, Multos Armis, and Ruby had pieced together what exactly it did halfway through his explanation. She had actually helped him clarify a few things he must have gotten wrong. He definitely knew how to use his swords but he clearly had more than a little help to put it all together into the finished product.
She was actually excited to see what he could do with it. She had managed to catch a glimpse of the swords all strapped to his back and could manage a rough picture of what they must all look like despite the cloth covering the majority of them. She had even managed to glimpse some of the Dust he must use with it, had seen the pouch he kept it all in on one of his belts when he had started looking for his Scroll to show her something.
They had reached the hall before he could find whatever it was but he had been saying something about his sisters.
"Ruby! Over here! I saved you a seat!" Yang's voice rang loud and clear over the dozens of voices around her, silver eyes zeroing in on her sister. More than helped a little by how bright her blond mane of hair shined even in the dim room. If there was one thing her sister was more amazing at than fighting it was her hair care routine.
Ruby still found managing her much shorter red and black locks far too time consuming for her liking.
"Yang!" Ruby waved to her sister, turned back to Jaune. "I'll talk to you later Jaune, is that alright?" She still didn't exactly know how friends worked.
"I'll see you later Ruby." Jaune gave her a wave and a smile before she was off thanks to her Semblance, the few people between her and Yang now having to brush a sudden burst of rose petals off of themselves. Some had to pick them out of her hair.
"Superspeed?" She dimly heard Jaune's question before she stopped in front of Yang's open arms.
"What, no hug for your awesome big sister?" She was smiling as she rose a blond eyebrow.
"You totally ditched me the second we stepped off the ship. I ended up exploding." Ruby crossed her arms.
"Really? I wasn't even gone for that long before this meltdown. That's got to be a new record for you." Yang shook her head before planting her hands on her hips. "Alright, tell big sister what happened. What weapon was it? Or was it someone messing with your precious Crescent Rose?"
"No. I literally exploded." Ruby pointed back towards the entrance. "I left a hole right in front of the school, right where we got off the airship."
"No way." Yang grabbed her sister under the arms, held her up to check her over. "You're totally fine." She set her protesting feet back down. She ruffled her hair.
"Yang, you know I hate it when you do that!" Ruby managed to force a laughing Yang's hand off. "And it really did happen. I tripped over this crabby girl's luggage and suddenly she was waving Dust right in my face and you know how I get. I sneezed and everything went BOOM. There was fire, ice, and I'm pretty sure lightning was there too. It was so awful! And that girl's going to be here at Beacon Yang. She's going to find me and she's going to yell at me even more, she's going to yell at me all the time. I should just drop out now before she finds me. I felt really bad about it already but she just kept yelling at me and it just made me feel even worse about everything. I wouldn't have sneezed if she hadn't shaken the Dust in my face but I did trip over her luggage and she could yell at me for that too."
Yang only patted Ruby on the shoulder as she rolled her eyes at her sister's word vomit. Ruby was just being overdramatic about all of this.
"There, there Ruby. I'm sure everything's going to be fine." She ruffled her hair again just to mess with her, draw a complaint from Ruby as she tried to bring it to some semblance of order again. "Besides, Beacon's a big place. You're probably never going to see that yelling crabby girl again."
Unknown to either, a white haired girl not too far away from them narrowed her eyes as she caught sight of Ruby after her high speed dash. Fury, righteous indignation, came to her pale face when she heard herself described by both girls as crabby. She had begun marching through the crowd still moving towards a stage on the other side of the room.
"YOU! Just who do you're think you're calling crabby! You're lucky we didn't end up getting blown off the side of the cliff thanks to that little sneeze." Ruby jumped at the sound of the voice, bolting into Yang's arms. Her sister spared a glance to her sister before raising an eyebrow at the white haired girl in front of her.
The dots connected.
Lilac eyes widened in shock.
"Oh my God you really did explode." Yang stared at her sister, partly out of surprise, partly out of concern, and partly because she was just impressed Ruby had actually managed something like that.
It had taken her months at Signal and a weapon malfunction during a spar to get the same results her sister had managed in less than an hour.
"I'm sorry!" Ruby was back on her own two feet, Yang letting her handle this for now as she processed the fact her sister really did cause an explosion from a sneeze. "Like, really, really, really, sorry. It was an accident. I swear."
She was more than a little surprised when a pamphlet ended up being shoved in her face by the girl.
"Here. Take this." She at least waited for her to take it. "How about you learn a thing or two about Dust before you cause any other "accidents"." The girl didn't stay a second longer, already walking off back to her seat. "Or save us all the trouble and drop out. Beacon has clearly let its standards drop if someone like you managed to get in."
Ruby numbly nodded. She was officially back to wanting this day to be over.
"Hey!" Yang snapped out of her shock. Protective big sister instincts kicking in pretty much instantly. She grabbed the white haired girl by the shoulder before she could get far. "I get that Ruby didn't make the best first impression but you're not so great yourself. She can at least apologize when she's wrong. All you're doing is giving her an attitude."
"Unhand me." The white haired girl was glaring at both Yang and Ruby. "I don't see how this is any of your concern. It's between me and the dolt over there."
"It's my concern because she's my sister so drop the attitude already. And the name calling. Her name's Ruby so use it." Yang eyes turned red and sparks made her hair shine in a way that was all natural, no products needed. "Got it?"
Static feedback made her, and everyone else, turn towards the stage. None of the three had noticed the majority of the lights in the room had dimmed, spotlights for the stage brightening and serving as a signal to the new admittees to Beacon to find a seat and listen.
Glynda Goodwitch marched onto stage.
Yang gave a parting warning glare to the white haired girl before letting her go.
"Let's go Ruby." Yang wasn't giving her the option to say no, grabbing her hand and taking her back to the seats she had saved for the two of them.
A brief message from Goodwitch, followed by a speech from the Headmaster that wasn't very inviting, Yang was letting Ruby drag her over to where she had spotted Jaune during said speech.
"Jaune! Hey Jaune!" Ruby jumped and waved to get his attention, Yang not holding back her smile at how excited Ruby was to introduce her to the new friend she had made at Beacon. The fact that seeing Jaune had helped her bounce back from that white haired girl and her attitude problem only improved her mood.
Jaune raised his head from where he was looking down at his Scroll, the device flashing with a new notification. It flashed again just as quickly. And again. He glanced at it before he put it away.
"Hey Ruby!" He waved back with a smile. Ruby came to a stop, Yang deciding not to embarrass her sister anymore.
For now.
"Jaune, this is my sister Yang, Yang, this is Jaune!" She smiled between the two.
Yang accepted Jaune's extended hand, gave him a once over. The hoodie and all the armor he was wearing made it hard to make out everything about him but he looked good enough.
"So, you're Ruby's new friend?" Yang planted a hand on her hip, nodded to Ruby. "I'm her big sis, Yang Xiao-Long. Nice to meet you."
"Jaune Arc. I hope we can be friends too." Jaune smiled. Yang had a feeling he did that a lot. "I'd like to stay and chat but I've got to go find my locker." He checked his Scroll again. It flashed with another notification. "And make a few phone calls while I'm there I guess."
Yang rose an eyebrow.
"Girlfriend trouble already?" She was surprised when Jaune laughed.
"No. Family. Seven sisters all wanting to know how I'm doing on top of my mom and dad." He gave a wave as he walked off. "I'll talk to you later Yang, see you around Ruby!"
"And there goes my one friend from Beacon…" Ruby sighed once he had gone.
"Oh, that's no problem Ruby!" Yang grabbed her sister in a headlock, ignored her immediate protests. "You've got your amazing big sister to help you find another!"
"Yang! Let go of me!" Try as she might, Ruby couldn't overpower Yang. While she could swing Crescent Rose just fine, Yang's training had simply put her at another level strength wise.
"What? You want me to hold on tighter? You got it Ruby!"
"Yang!"
An uneventful trip to their lockers later, Ruby was laying down on her sleeping bag for the night, looking up at the tall ceiling of Beacon's ballroom. Yang dropped down next to her, looked over to see what her sister was doing.
"You're still drawing weapons?" Yang didn't snatch the book like her big sister instincts were telling her to. She only shook her head. "And here I thought my little sister had a diary for me to read."
"Why would I keep a diary?" Ruby's silver eyes met lilac in earnest curiosity. "This is way more useful. Did you see half the weapons here? I can't make my baby any better but I can at least get some of my ideas onto paper."
"Only you Ruby. Only you." Yang smiled. "I guess you'll have to talk to people one of these days if you want to show them all your cool designs."
"What?" Ruby immediately panicked at the thought.
Yang only laughed.
"Night little sis."