A/N: I know Weiss being the rebellious one is a little unconventional, but I could easily see that happening in an AU. There's Greek Fire, because it's been a while and I felt like writing it. Enjoy!

It's a little more complicated than that, Weiss will insist to herself later. But really, in the moment, it's nothing. She's behind the school with Blake, smoking, and Blake asks her.

"You've got quite the reputation, haven't you?"

"Depends on what you mean," Weiss says carefully, blowing another puff of smoke into the air. She does have a reputation, it's true. She has a reputation as that girl, the one who tries a little too hard to rebel from her oppressive family. The one with nose piercings she puts in every day and hastily takes out before she enters her house again. The one who cuts class just enough to avoid failing any classes, the one who drinks because she can and gets into fights because she wants to.

"If you believe the rumors, you could have anyone in this school you wanted," Blake continues.

Not to brag, but it's true. Weiss is beautiful, and her family has money, and it doesn't hurt that she can be suave when she wants to be.

"Yes, and?"

"Really? Anyone?" Blake studies Weiss's face for a long moment. "So if you put your mind to it, you could take, say, Ruby Rose to prom?"

"If I wanted to, I could," Weiss says, not entirely sure where this conversation is going. Ruby Rose is some skinny girl who skipped a grade or two, and has no friends. None whatsoever. She's one of those awkward nerds that Weiss wouldn't give a second look unless she wanted somebody to mess with.

"Prove it," Blake says, smirking. "Take Ruby Rose to prom."

"And if I don't?"

"Then I stop buying you cigarettes," Blake says, plucking it out of Weiss's fingers and crushing it under the toe of her combat boots. Oh, sure, she has to flaunt that just because she's eighteen and can actually legally buy cigarettes, she's Weiss's current supplier.

"Sure, why not?" Weiss says. "I could use a bit of a challenge."

And that's that. It's nothing complicated or unusual, just one of Blake's little bets. Just a bit of fun.

Weiss corners Ruby at her locker between classes. When Ruby sees her, she gives a little squeak of alarm and nearly drops a textbook. Ruby's tiny, and the enormous textbooks she's carrying make her look smaller.

"Hey there," Weiss says, letting her voice go lower and breathier. "How are you, sweetheart?"

Ruby turns scarlet, the blush extending down her neck.

"Um, hi," she says, her voice squeaky. "I'm – I'm good. Yeah. Good."

Weiss's mere presence is enough to turn Ruby into a blushing, stuttery mess, so this bet should be easy. Weiss smiles, although it's mostly a smirk, and lets her fingers trail along Ruby's arm. Ruby drops her textbooks onto Weiss's shoes, then immediately kneels to collect them and starts stuttering apologies.

Weiss feels a bit of regret. This poor girl clearly does care about Weiss, and someone cool noticing her is probably the best event of her life.

An elbow hits the lockers above Ruby's head, making Weiss jump. The elbow belongs to one Yang Xiao Long, who gets angry easily and isn't a fan of Weiss, so this might not be good.

"You okay, Ruby?" Yang asks. She's staring at Weiss, eyebrows lowered, and Weiss can practically feel the flames coming off of her.

"I – I'm fine!" Ruby squeaks, finally gathering all of her textbooks and rushing away down the hall. That's a shame, but Weiss has her foot in the door and it won't take long until Ruby is like putty in her hands.

"Stay the fuck away from my little sister, Schnee," Yang growls, grabbing Weiss by the collar for good measure. Weiss swallows; she isn't afraid of a fight, but Yang is a football player with a good six inches on her, and she can't say she's looking forward to finding out who wins that.

"I didn't do anything to her," Weiss says, continuing to meet Yang's eyes. She isn't scared of some jock.

"You think this is funny?" Yang demands. "I've seen what you do to her. Shoving her, tripping her up, stealing her stuff. You think it's a game? Ruby isn't – tough, she hasn't learned how to handle that sort of thing yet. She's just a kid!"

She drops Weiss's collar. Weiss doesn't back away, because backing away means losing.

"I wasn't trying to bully your sister," she says evenly. "But I suppose you just assumed that, didn't you? Always rushing into things without thinking first."

Weiss turns around and walks away before Yang can come up with a retort, because baiting people like her is too easy.

…

It's hours later, when they're both on their couch watching some cheesy action movie with car chases and explosions, that Yang brings it up again.

"Ruby, if you need me to fight that Schnee girl for you, I'll do it."

Ruby turns and hastily shakes her head.

"No, don't fight Weiss, please. She wasn't doing anything wrong!"

"Then what was she doing?"

Ruby blushes a little at the memory.

"She called me 'sweetheart', and asked me how I was doing. Nothing bad."

Yang's murderous frown appears instantly.

"Ruby, she was probably just trying to mess with you. People like her don't fall for people like us."

"Why not?" Ruby takes another handful of popcorn. Yang's anger can be fun to watch as long as it's not directed at Ruby.

"Because, people like her, they're, they're bad, okay? You know what Dad says, 'don't fall in love with bad girls, because they're going to break your heart.'"

"But Dad doesn't say that," Ruby points out.

"He should." Yang's face softens. "Ruby, I'm just trying to protect you."

"Yang," Ruby whines, but Yang is already getting up.

"I'm heading out with Pyrrha. There's a party, if you want to go."

Yang always extends the invitation, even though she probably knows by now that Ruby is never going to go.

"And watch you and Pyrrha drink beer and make out all night? No way," Ruby responds, because that's what she always says. She doesn't actually know what happens at parties, but she knows there are too many people.

The doorbell rings, and Yang grabs her jacket off a coathook and opens it.

"Hello!" Pyrrha says cheerfully. "Good to see you, Ruby!"

Pyrrha's nice, at least, and she and Yang were friends for ages before they even started dating, so Ruby's only a little bit scared of her.

"Good to see you too," she calls over her shoulder. The door shuts behind them, and Ruby gets up to lock it and returns to her movie, and popcorn, and replaying that moment Weiss touched her arm over and over again in her head.