After Professor Port's Grimm Studies class, the rest passed in a blur. Sooner than she would have liked, Ruby was walking off with Blake to talk to her.
"So, what exactly did you want to talk about?" Blake rose a dark eyebrow towards Ruby.
The girl had been trying throughout the day, had made an effort to change herself because her teammates had told her she needed to. Blake wouldn't exactly say she was completely behind the idea of Ruby Rose leading the team, it had been only one day after all, but Ruby seemed committed to filling her role as team leader if nothing else. It was the only reason she could think of the rather awkward girl to talk to her. She had even shooed her sister off when she had tried to tease her for one thing or another, had seemed grateful that Weiss had grabbed Yang by the arm and dragged her off to the dining hall so she wouldn't interfere.
She was almost impressed at how quickly Weiss had turned around on Ruby. It seemed that both had misjudged her as nothing more than a child yesterday.
"I just wanted to talk." Ruby clearly didn't know what to say. She was trying but she seemed out of her depth. "Get to know you, what you like, what you don't like…" She trailed off.
"Your sister told me you like talking about weapons?" Blake would try to make this easier for Ruby. At least to start. There was no reason to make this conversation painful.
"I actually didn't get a chance to really see your weapon in action, even get a name for it. What is it? Would you mind showing me once classes are over? I don't want to not know what anybody on my team can do and I know we really don't know each other so its weird to think about fighting but team sparring could help us get to know each other and…" Ruby recognized she was rambling. Blake let the younger girl have a minute to calm herself down.
By the growing red on her face, she was embarrassed about it.
"Sparring as a team isn't a bad idea. You should talk about them to Weiss and Yang later, see if they're both onboard for it. As for my weapon, I use a modification to the basic VBCS."
"A Variant Ballistic Chain Scythe. You have a striker pistol built into your weapon and…no. You don't use Dust, it would be too impractical. But you didn't have a chain on you either so it must be something attached to the weapon that can stretch instead. A ribbon?" Ruby looked to her for confirmation. She nodded. She was more than a little impressed with the girl.
Yang hadn't been lying when she said she was a weapons nut.
"Do you use Dust in your gun? Do you add it to the scythe blade? I considered something like it for Crescent Rose but all my designs had it interfere with the rest of the weapon so I could never get a working prototype to show." Blake was certain now that Yang had been telling the truth. Ruby seemed to become a completely different person when she talked about weapons, confidence filling her because she knew what she was talking about, knew what weapons could and couldn't do mostly at a glance.
"No…Not at all." She had never considered anything like it but she could see it. Gambol Shroud's sheath went mostly unused when she wasn't using it either as a shield or using it over the blade for heavier strikes. Being able to coat the blade with Dust, perhaps even use a rotary system to switch from the main blade to any number of Dust blades, could be a useful upgrade in the future. She would need to think about it more.
"I-I could help you design any upgrades if you want. I asked Weiss this morning but she wanted to wait a few years before doing anything with Myrtenaster."
"I wouldn't mind the help. Once we're settled in at Beacon, we can talk more." Blake wouldn't be against an upgrade now that the idea had taken root in her mind. "What else did you want to talk about?"
Ruby's enthusiasm left her, a mixture of serious and morose taking hold of her face.
"About yesterday." Ruby swallowed. She balled up her hands in her lap. 'I can do this. I can do this. Be a leader. Tough talks happen.' She tried to relax. "Weiss made her opinion about me being named team leader known. I wanted to ask you today how you felt about it. I want to know what you expect from a leader, what you expect both in the field and here at Beacon."
Blake didn't hesitate.
"I agreed with what Weiss had to say yesterday." Blake saw Ruby immediately crumble at her words. She almost winced. She felt more than a little bad at what she had just said but felt that being blunt was better than avoiding the topic at hand.
"Oh…" She gave a sad nod. "I can see why…I didn't really show…well anything yesterday." She straightened, met Blake's eyes. "But that's all in the past. I will be a better team leader no matter what and, if I do mess up, I'll step down and follow Weiss or Yang or you if you get picked to replace me."
She lasted until she ended.
"But if you hate me…I can understand. I'm just a kid and you and Yang and Weiss came here to be Huntresses and I'm messing all that up just by being here." She was sinking in on herself again.
Blake shook her head, laid a hand on Ruby's shoulder. It managed to break her out of her spiral.
"Like I said, I agreed with her yesterday. So far, you showed me we were both wrong to think you were a child, too immature to lead us. You've been willing to own up to your mistakes by yourself, work to improve them because you want to be a better leader for all of us. If that doesn't show I was wrong, if that doesn't show you were the right pick for the job, then nothing will."
"I…Thank you! I definitely won't let you or Weiss or Yang down." Ruby moved to throw her arms around her but paused, looked up at Blake. "Is it okay for me to give hugs as your team leader? Do you even like them? Should I just do a handshake? A fist bump instead?"
Blake couldn't help but laugh at Ruby's energy asking the simple questions. It was small but compared to what she was normally like, it was the equivalent to loud guffaws from anyone else. She held out her arms.
"This one time, hugs are fine."
Ruby was enthusiastic about hugging and threw her all into it. Blake was nearly thrown off the bench the two were sitting on by the surprising force behind the smaller girl. Judging from the rose petals around them, it looked like she had used her Semblance to add an extra kick to it all.
'Yeah, this is definitely a one time thing.' Her ribs wouldn't survive many Ruby Hugs. She was better off keeping them limited.
Yang set Jaune's Scroll down, ended the call with a smile on her face.
"My baby sister is so awesome." She would hand the blond his Scroll back later at their next class, have something in mind about needing to make a call to hers to see if it was around somewhere. For now, she was just happy her little sister was being such an awesome team leader. Not only did she talk things out with Weiss this morning but she had done the same with Blake now too.
She spotted Jaune down the hall, his team having gone on ahead while he waited for Yang to finish her call on his Scroll.
"Any luck finding it?"
"Nope. But thanks for the loan Jaune-Jaune." Yang handed him his Scroll back with a wink. "Stay in my good books and you might just get something special one day."
Jaune didn't put his Scroll away. He gave Yang a half questioning/half interrogating stare.
"You're not doing anything weird right?" Yang had to give it to him, he was more observant than she thought. Or his sisters had pulled the same tricks she used for Ruby on him one too many times.
It seemed that all big sisters thought too much alike.
"Me? Weird? The very idea is outrageous Jaune." Yang laughed, punched his shoulder. "Anyway, I'm going to go find Ruby and ask her to use that team leader thing she's got to find my Scroll." Jaune was still looking at her. She gave a shrug of her shoulders. "I'm a big sister, sue me. I worry about her."
"I understand that." Jaune opened his Scroll. He opened up his recent calls. "Group call?" She could see the pieces come together as he looked up at her. "Left it open on your Scroll and joined from mine, right?" Yang sighed but she nodded. It looked like she would need a new trick.
Jaune could tip off Ruby to that one.
'Necessity is the mother of invention.' Yang didn't see any reason to lie after getting caught so quick.
"Yeah. I pointed out a spot to Ruby when she went off to get Blake and dropped my Scroll there right before she showed back up and went to find you." Yang crossed her arms, rose a blond eyebrow. "You gonna tell her my little secret?"
"No. I get where you're coming from. I've got four younger sisters myself. I can't say I wouldn't do the same." Jaune shook his head, wiped the call from his history. He put his Scroll away. "I'm just worried if this goes too far. She's team leader now Yang. That's a lot of responsibility she can't have you breathing down her neck about. She's got to have privacy sometimes Yang, you've got to let her sink or swim at this thing on her own."
Yang rolled her eyes at Jaune's suggestion.
"No way." She gave him a pat on his cheek. Some might call it too aggressive to be anything but a slap but she disagreed. There was no mark on his face even if it stung a little. One of the many wonders of Aura. "Now, don't worry about this anymore Jaune-Jaune, I'm going to keep an eye on my sister and be an awesome member of Team RWBY while I'm at it. Just you watch."
She strolled off down the hall, ignored the feel of Jaune's stare on her as she headed off to collect her Scroll.
She was Ruby's big sister.
It was her job to make sure she was safe.
If that meant she had to give Blake or Weiss a good pummeling after their talks with Ruby if they had told her off, given her an attitude, then she would do it no questions asked. Ruby didn't need a bratty heiress or her standoffish bookworm of a partner to ruin her time at Beacon, make her feel less than awesome.
Jaune sighed before he headed off to meet the rest of his team.
By the time their last class of the day arrived, Yang had grabbed her Scroll, teased Ruby a little, and promised to talk to her before they headed back to their dorm about a few things.
Professor Glynda Goodwitch was explaining how a regulated spar would work in her class, Combat Studies, and the behavior she expected before, during, and after them from her students.
Yang was proud to say she was half listening.
The other half of her attention was focused on Ruby and Jaune sitting next to each other. They weren't talking much and her name hadn't come up yet in what little conversation they did share but she wanted to stay in the know on the why if it did. So far, they were both just taking down notes on the rules Professor Goodwitch had been going on about for the last few minutes.
'Is she ever going to stop?' Yang focused on Goodwitch for just a moment.
"-when an opponent's Aura reaches the red zone, as displayed above, I will consider the match finished. The winner will be awarded points based around the following categories-"
Yang tuned the Professor out again.
She decided to look around.
Weiss was taking down notes like she had for all their classes and Blake was paying attention but nothing more. She managed a glance to what Nora was doing next to her.
She was drawing something about the Grimm and giant pancakes crushing them.
Yang gave her an A for effort. Despite the cartoon look to them, the girl had passion at least.
Ren was taking notes like Weiss but spared time to look at Nora's drawing when pressed. Pyrrha was staring at Jaune some of the time and taking notes the rest of the time.
And Yang was still bored just sitting here listening to Goodwitch go on and on about rules and guidelines and whatever else she was saying about paying attention when I'm talking Ms. Xiao-Long.
'Oh crap.' Yang's lilac eyes widened before they zeroed in on the glaring Professor Goodwitch.
"I'm glad to finally have your attention Ms. Xiao-Long. Would you care to summarize my guidelines towards sparring in my class?" Goodwitch knew she didn't know so Yang decided to just go with it.
"Nope." She popped the 'p' just because she could, leaned forward in her seat. "I'm guessing you just want us to beat the other guy until you say stop?"
"There's far more to this class than just 'beat the other guy' as you put it." Goodwitch took out her Scroll. "Perhaps you can learn more in practice than by hearing me talk. Tomorrow, you'll have the first training spar. Against an opponent of my choosing."
"Sure." Yang smiled. "I'm down to beat some poor sap into the ground."
Goodwitch gave her one last glare before the bell rung.
"Class dismissed." Yang waved her farewell to Professor Goodwitch. "Team JNPR. Remain behind." The four students in question shared a look before they settled in their seats.
"Xiao-Long, what do you think you're doing?" Weiss at least wasn't shouting. She wasn't letting the entire class hear her as everyone rushed to head back to their dorms after their first day of studies. "That was completely inexcusable. Professor Goodwitch had to call your name twice to get your attention!"
"Don't worry about it." Yang waved off her concerns. "So what if I've got to fight tomorrow? If you haven't noticed, I'm great at that. I'll pound whoever gets unlucky enough into the ground in a couple of minutes."
"That's not the point Yang." Ruby was waiting for them at the door. Weiss's glare met Ruby before she gave a firm nod, the Schnee marching out of class with one last heated look towards Yang. She was muttering some rather disparaging thing about blonds.
Blake rose an eyebrow but seemed satisfied enough to leave as well.
"Oh, worried about you're big sis Ruby?" Yang ruffled her hair as she stepped past. "Don't sweat it. Like I said, easy win for me tomorrow." She paused. "Well, as long as I don't fight Pyrrha or something. That whole 'Invincible Girl' thing didn't look like it's just for show."
"Yang, I'm being serious. We need to talk about what happened." Ruby followed after her. "This isn't good. We're going to have Professor Goodwitch's class nearly all four years. We can't afford to have a bad relationship with her, you or the rest of the team."
Yang waited for Ruby to get close enough to get her in a headlock, laugh as she dragged her away from the already dwindling number of students. She bunched up her cloak in the process, pulled the hood over her head.
"I told you not to worry, you're big sis has got it covered." She ignored Ruby's protest. She let her go to flex, show off her hard-won muscles beneath her uniform. "I'm going to show off tomorrow and then I'll apologize or something. Say I get like that when I'm nervous. Whatever." She smiled at Ruby. "Happy?"
"No." Ruby made an effort to both fix her hair and fix her cloak after Yang had messed with both. She finished. "We're going to go back and you're going to apologize to Professor Goodwitch now. Then we'll go over our notes from class to make sure you don't do anything against the rules. Now come on." She tried to grab hold of her but Yang stepped out of the way, smiled at her sister as she pushed her back by two fingers on her forehead.
"Yeah…Nope." Yang turned and walked away. "I'm going to go get changed and then head down to Vale."
"No!" Yang was surprised when Ruby grabbed her hand, tried to forcefully turn her around. She planted her feet and held back from accidentally belting her little sister across the face. Impulse was hard to turn off but she managed. "I'm not asking you to do this right now Yang. I'm telling you to do this as your team leader. We're going back to see Professor Goodwitch. Now."
Yang rose an eyebrow at Ruby's tone. Her sister was trying to be stern, wasn't stomping her foot but standing tall.
She turned and hoisted Ruby up with her hands on her waist, stared at her.
"Put me down Yang." She still sounded that way. Yang stared at her before she smiled.
"When did you get so assertive?" She laughed before setting her down, poking her between her glaring eyes with just enough force to push her back. Not enough to hurt, just to mess with her. "Come on Ruby, that scowl doesn't make you look cute. Turn that frown upside-down." She patted her on her shoulder. "Like I said, I'll kick butt and apologize to big bad Goodwitch tomorrow. Tonight, I'm going to have some fun."
She winked at her sister.
"See you later."
She turned and headed off.
Ruby only stared after her. Fury, embarrassment, indignation was on her face for a moment before it shifted. Just as swiftly as she was ready to chase down Yang, order her back to Goodwitch's class right this instance, she lost that fire. She didn't know what to do.
Yang was just going to ignore her, ignore anything she had to say if she didn't agree with it. Because that's what her big sister did. Yang was going to keep treating her like her little sister.
She was never going to be team leader to Yang.
She was never going to be a leader to Yang.
"Why can't you just listen to me?" Ruby's quiet words were heard by no one in the empty hall. She rubbed at her eyes.
She didn't know today would turn out so awful. She had managed to talk to Weiss and Blake, had got them to accept her as team leader, accept that she had a lot to learn but they would at least listen to her, help her if she needed it, if she asked them for help.
They weren't going to be like Yang.
A hand fell on her shoulder.
Teary silver eyes looked into concerned blue.
"Ruby…you alright?" She didn't talk. She just shook her head. Blue eyes sharpened as their owner made his decision. "Head back without me. We'll talk later tonight." His team didn't spend time questioning him. Pyrrha gave a nod before she led Ren and Nora down the hall.
Where the three nearly bumped into Weiss and Blake.
"Ruby, what's wrong?" Pyrrha spared a glance behind her and wordlessly motioned for the two to follow her.
"I-I just want her to listen to me. For once. I need her to and she's just ignoring me." Before they could hear any more of what the two were talking about, they were out of hearing range of their quiet voices.
Pyrrha was surprised to see something close to sympathy on Weiss Schnee's face before a mask seemed to settle in place.