Approximately one week had passed, and Ruby was feeling a good bit more confident in the idea of going to Beacon. Her bags were packed, Qrow had given her a card to use incase she needed to buy anything. Her weapon was in gleaming condition, and she was ready to head out. The little dark-haired loner felt like she was finally growing up a bit! Then she saw the large crowds of students gathered at the airship port-
Almost immediately, her sense of bravado shattered as her antisocial tendencies kicked in. She carried on towards the airship that was to take her to her new school, bumping into the occasional person and uttering small and quick apologies before scurrying ahead. After entering the airship, she was surprised to see how many students were going to be joining her on the trip to Beacon. As the ship finally filled up and set out, she admired the scenery passing her by as she thought back to the conversation she had with her uncle the day prior.
"Ruby, you know that I can't go to see you off tomorrow. I really wish I could kiddo, but I have to go to work ahead of time to get some stuff done. Believe me, I don't like it any more than you do, but I'll be rooting for you."
"Come on Uncle Qrooooow, you can take the day off this once so you can see me off can't you? It's just for one day! How bad could it be?"
"It's not that easy to take a day off of work for me, I can't just bring it up outta the blue! Besides, it's important!"
"More important than giving your adorable niece a final farewell before she's shipped off to a school far away?"
Ruby said a little downtrodden. Her hands clasped together and thumbs fidgeting innocently as she looked down at the ground. She was sad that he couldn't come, but he was always there for her when she needed him any other time. She just wanted to guilt him a little to see if he was just trying to avoid something. This caused Qrow to try to brush her statement off, but stop and let out a sigh of defeat. Resting his hand on her shoulder, Qrow knelt down infront of her and gave her a reassuring smile.
"Look, if I tell you why I can't make it, will you forgive me? It's pretty important anyways, and it involves you a bit. It's only fair."
With that, Ruby looked into Qrow's eyes and offered a small smile.
"Sure, but you better not lie or i'm gonna come back and give you a big old smack on the noggin."
"Haha, well, let's just say that the work I'm doing is payback for the folks that helped me give you your gift. I'll be out scouting the frontiers for a bit, and doing what I used to do before I retired to take care of you kiddo."
Ruby's eyes lit up slightly as she perked up a bit. She couldn't believe he went to all the trouble of doing all this for her. It made her feel happy, but there was still one small question that lingered in her mind…
"Will you be going to look for clues about 'that' again..?"
"You know as well as I do that I want to kiddo, but this comes first. At least with you going to school, I can work freely and not worry about you trying to burn down the house working with all that dust and smithing equipment."
Qrow let out a chuckle after seeing Ruby's face turn into a small pout at his teasing. She knew what he used to do and was always scared he'd leave her to go back to work, but he never did. He raised her as best he could, and tried to remind her of some of the things in her past that she had forgotten after the 'incident.' Her memories of her mother, father, and sister were all but nonexistent. She can sometimes vaguely see them in her dreams, or when she returns to visit the remains of the cottage she used to call home. Still, brushing her thoughts aside, Ruby reached out and hugged her uncle tightly.
"Just be careful with whatever you end up doing. I wanna be able to call you to tell you about what happens at school some time."
"I will kiddo, I promise."
He said those words and it made her feel a bit more comfortable with the news. She knew her uncle was one of the bets huntsmen in the world, and she believed him when he made that promise. As the memory passed her by, she noticed a blonde boy walking awkwardly around. He looked the worse for wear, and he seemed to be looking around for a garbage can. Ruby felt sorry for him as he ran off into the crowd and she heard the sound of disgusted students and some girls screaming. The faintest trace of a golden-maned girl running around and muttering "Gross gross gross gross gross!" on the other side of the crowd sparked a thought. Ruby then shook the thought off and turned back to admire the now closing in visage of Beacon Academy.
It was large and beautiful, gold, what looked like marble, and silvers all adorning the structures as they landed. Ruby was transfixed as she stepped out of the airship. The sunlight reflecting off the beautiful buildings made her stop to admire the view for a moment as students flooded out past her. The blonde boy from earlier having taken her attention away from the view as he bumped into her on his way out of the airship. Bending over a nearby trashcan and relieving his stomach contents into it.
"Poor guy…maybe it'd be best for me to avoid him…but Uncle Qrow did say I should try and make friends so…"
Ruby sighed to herself and walked up behind the blonde, tapping him on the shoulder as he was leaning on the trashcan to steady himself. Causing him to jump in surprise, Ruby held up her hands slightly and spoke up.
"Hey there, you alright vom- I mean- stranger?"
She caught herself before accidentally insulting him, he seemed to look her over for a second and awkwardly straighten up, scratching the back of his head and stumbling over his words.
"O-oh! Heya- hi there! I'm uh just- I mean-"
He let out a defeated sigh as he slouched a bit.
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine."
Ruby couldn't help but snicker a bit at how he reacted, giving him a small smile and leaning over to pat him on the shoulder.
"I'm glad to hear that. Wouldn't wanna be sick on the first day to Beacon would ya? I'm Ruby, Ruby Rose. Nice to meet you."
She held out her hand to the boy, and he took it awkwardly shaking and trying to compose himself.
"Jaune, uhm..Jaune Arc. Nice to meet you Ruby."
He seemed to relax a good bitt after their introductions were out of the way, letting ruby also let herself be a bit less tense. She wasn't used to holding much conversation with anyone but her uncle, and maybe the few older villagers that she would meet when going to town during their shopping days. Still, she thought she did a good job at a first introduction.
"Well, Jaune, it's been good to make your acquaintance. I hope we can become friends and work well together while we're attending."
"Yeah, likewise, it was good to meet someone so friendly right off the bat. I was a bit nervous that after the airship thing nobody would wanna talk to me. That one blonde girl was really mad at me for throwing up on her shoe…"
This caused Ruby to chuckle a bit and give Jaune a reassuring pat on the back. She felt for the guy, and didn't want him to get his hopes dashed too badly.
"Everyone has a bad day. Don't worry, I'm sure things'll get better soon. Besides, orientation hasn't even started!"
With that statement, Ruby blinked in realization. Orientation! It was starting soon! She had to hurry or she wouldn't make it in time to see the opening ceremony! With that, she quickly grabbed Jaune's shoulders and shook him as she spoke.
"Orientation! Jaune! We're gonna be late! Let's go!"
Her words seemed to jolt Jaune into a small state of panic as he also let out a scream of surprise. He immediately ran off towards the building, following tha last couple of students making their way into the building so he wouldn't get lost.
"Good meeting you Ruby, I hope we get to meet up again at the ceremony!"
"Hold on, Jaune wait up! Don't leave me...behind..."
Her voice trailed off as he ran off without her. She shook her head at having already been abandoned by her first friend in his panic. She sighed and started to run, but a girl in all white immediately passed by her. Trying her best to avoid hitting the girl, Ruby still failed miserably and bumped directly into the girls back. Knocking both of them over and the case that the girl was carrying burst open upon impact with the ground. Spilling its contents all over the concrete. Ruby rubbed her head and immediately started to try and apologize as she got up. Reaching around and carefully collecting the dust crystals around them and returning them to the case. As she grabbed the first few the girl in white immediately began her tirade.
"Watch where you're going! Do have any idea how much this stuff costs? Do you know who I am?!"
"Uhhh…no…?"
At that response, the girl in white looked surprised, and glared down at Ruby, who had finally collected all but one of the crystals. The last one was at the girl's feet, and she lifted it up. A red crystal that seemed to leave traces of dust in the air as she waved it at ruby indignantly.
"Do you even know what you're doing handling those? Those are pure dust crystals! You know, lightning, fire, wind, energy? They're not meant to be jostle around like that when so close together, and you could have cause some serious damage to them!"
As the girl spoke, she pointed the dust crystal in her hands at Ruby angrily, the dust having gotten into her nose slightly and irritated her sinuses. She nearly sneezed, but closed the case and covered her mouth to hold it in as the dust faded away. She knew how to handle dust, and knew that if she let herself sneeze they'd BOTH be caught in the mother of all explosions. She didn't want to risk exploding today…
At seeing Ruby do that, the girl looked at the dust crystal and noticed the faint traces of dust flowing off of it as she moved it around a bit. Then she looked to Ruby who was holding in an oncoming sneeze, then back to the case of dust. She realized that Ruby was Trying to prevent a dust reaction that might have ended poorly for both of them. This caused her to calm down a bit and snag the case of crystals from Ruby's other hand as she quickly deposited the red crystal into it. Closing the case and securing it, the girl sighed and walked off briskly.
Ruby sat there and finally let herself sneeze, taking in the clean air and wiping her eyes a bit as they watered.
"Ugh…who was that girl…?"
"Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company."
A voice spoke up next to her, causing Ruby to jump in surprise. In her distracted state, she never noticed someone else walked up beside her. A Black haired girl with a cute purple bow in her hair stood by her, reading a book.
"She's as annoying as the critics say she can be. If I were you I'd keep your distance from her."
The girl said with a disapproving tone as she walked off towards the main building. Likely heading to the opening ceremony. This left Ruby there rubbing her eyes and letting out an exasperated sigh. What the heck was with that girl? The students here really are weird if they just keep popping up randomly like this. Ruby couldn't help but hope that things didn't keep up like this for her entire stay here. She quietly muttered to herself as she continued into the building and towards the auditorium.
"Welcome to Beacon…"
Author's Note:
Hello there everyone. I hope that you've all been enjoying what i'm writing so far. This has mostly just been for my own entertainment, but I figured that I might be able to make something out of the little stories that keep popping into my head. Feel free to leave feedback and comment on the progress of the story so far. This is, infact, an AU, and as such won't be following the exact track of the real show.
Until next time!