Chapter 6: Friction

AN: Another long chapter, and no I'm not planning on forever leaving them this long. More dialogue to follow up the past one and a half chapters of combat. Team RWKY is officially formed. RWY start suspecting something's up with their teammate. Nora challenges Kassidy to an eating contest.

Also, after the three chapters past this, I'm currently coming up with nothing for a two week gap in the story. I don't want to skip that much time, so if any of you have suggestions for one shots during the first two weeks of school (shenanigans preferred), it would help me immensely beef up the story.

As always, don't hesitate to let me know how my writing is going and what I can do to improve.

(Perspective: K)

"And finally, Kassidy Smith, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, and Yang Xiao Long."

Yay, ceremonies. Kass was never a big fan of big public events, but this was kind of necessary. Stepping up to the stage with her partner, the little sister, and Weiss, she stood at attention as Ozpin regarded them from behind a microphone.

"The four of your retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, the four of you will work together as… Team Rookie. Led by… Ruby Rose."

Kassidy looked around her. Yang wasn't to her left anymore, instead running over to hug her kid sister who had just been made team captain. Ruby was busy getting smothered in a bear hug. It was Weiss that gave her some concern. Although Schnee was too practiced in formal public events to show it, she was obviously furious. Kass shifted her weight to her left leg; her ankle was now screaming at her for not having taken care of it yet.

Ozpin made some final remarks about this shaping up to be an interesting year, and the four girls stepped down from the stage. Her foot particularly didn't like the stairs, but Kassidy grit her teeth and the group found their way to JNPR. As the seven of them conversed, she leaned against the wall and rested her ankle. Closing her eyes for a minute and doing a breathing exercise, she managed to blink the pain back a bit before she opened them to come face to face with Yang.

"Your foot's hurting, isn't it?"

Kassidy gave a smirk that convinced nobody. "My foot? Nah, I'm just standing on one leg and leaning against the wall because it's fun." She moved to rejoin the group, but then a pain shot through her left shoulder and she practically doubled over. She managed to get out through gritted teeth, "Alright, so maybe I hurt myself a bit. Need to get to my bag."

Ruby found her way under Kassidy's shoulder, and together with her sister they got Kass to a chair. "What's in that bag that you need? And wouldn't the infirmary be better?"

Bob started squawking from her back. "Wait, there's an infirmary here? Thank Java, there's someone here other than me who'll care about your wellbeing."

"Hey, I care about my wellbeing plenty, thank you! And in my bag, among other things, are a number of toys for Bob to play with. One of them being a portable X-ray scanner."

"So why not just head to the infirmary and use theirs? It's closer than the locker room anyway."

Kassidy opened her mouth to argue, but no words came out. Well, it is closer, judging from the map we all got. The doctors would probably waste their time with treatments, but… actually, that's the only drawback I can see to that plan. Shaking her head in defeat, Kass fought to her feet. "You're gonna look out for me, right Bob? You know what needs to get done."

"Someone has to look out for you. I'll make sure they don't go messing around with stuff they shouldn't."

"Then it's settled! Team RWKY, to the infirmary!" Ruby raced off, curiously leaving more flower petals behind her. Weiss pinched her nose, then sighed and stormed off after her. Yang chuckled and got herself under Kassidy's shoulder, despite the latter's protests.

"Really, Yang, it's just pain. I can deal with a little pain on the way to the infirmary."

"Doesn't mean you have to." Pyrrha walked into her field of view. "And Yang didn't make it sound like it was just pain. You really ought to have that taken care of."

Kass tried to argue, but Yang was almost ready to drag her at this point and she decided not to make her partner's life any more difficult than necessary. As the pair stumbled through the hall, they didn't even need to consult their maps as a trail of petals led them straight to the infirmary.

"So… what's up with your sister dropping flower petals everywhere she goes? And where is she getting them all?"

Yang snorted and waved it off. "Oh, it's kind of her thing. Ruby's fast, really fast. And when she gets going, she just drops rose petals behind her. What did Bob mean when he said that he'd make sure nobody messed with stuff they shouldn't?"

Kassidy bit her lip. "He meant that I have certain tolerances. Sensitive to some compounds, outright ignoring others. It's some weird medical condition I forget the name of, but medical processes for me tend to be different than for other people. Bob knows them all, and so I wanted to make sure he'd step in if the doctors were about to do something stupid."

Bob piped up from her back at this point. "Kassidy, my prime directive is keeping you safe. You don't need to make sure I'll intervene if the doctors were to do something that might harm you. I couldn't ignore the situation if I tried."

At this point they arrived at the infirmary. A middle aged man approached and asked her to sit, and Kassidy handed Bob to him.

"I need X-rays of my right ankle and left shoulder. I have unique medical needs; my computer has dealt with them in the past and he'll be able to help you determine adequate treatments as well as which compounds to avoid."

The doctor looked surprised for a moment, then smiled and nodded. Taking Bob, who was busy chattering his ear off about something or other, he left the girls to their momentary peace. Weiss was the first to break the silence. "So how, exactly, did you get hurt? You weren't even in the fight half the time."

"Hey, she was in the fight plenty! She even got more kills than I did!" Yang hadn't taken too kindly to Schnee snapping at her partner. "And she fell twenty five feet on top of an ursa."

"So it only took a twenty five foot drop to completely deplete her aura, to the point of horribly mangling her foot?" Weiss was very, very mad. Wheeling on Kassidy, "How did you even get in this school anyway? You don't know what dust is, you don't know what Grimm are, and a small drop completely lowered your defenses? You don't belong here!"

Yang was about to argue more, but Kassidy stood up and glared daggers at Schnee. She was pissed, and venom flowed freely from her voice. "Listen here, princess. Between dozens of bipedal wolves, a scorpion the size of a house, and a giant murder bird that could shed its own feathers as projectiles, I've had it up to here with shit trying to kill me today. I don't know about you, but I could do without getting yelled at about how I don't know about things I've never had to deal with in my little slice of hell earlier."

Yang and Ruby had backed up a few steps, but Weiss, the smallest girl of the bunch, was unintimidated. Kass continued, taking some of the edge out of her voice. "Now, in case you've already forgotten, the lot of us are going to be working together for the next four years. If you would like to sabotage our chances of success by nursing a grudge, that's on you. I, however, will not be dragged down by petty concerns of being holier than thou."

(Perspective: RWY)

At this point, the doctor had returned. "Miss Smith, if you could follow me, we're ready to have you screened." Once Kassidy had hobbled out, the three girls were left standing for a short while. Weiss was practically quivering with anger, her left hand gripping Myrtenaster so tightly the knuckles were bone white. Eventually, she managed to calm herself down. Flipping her hair over her shoulder, Schnee made her way to a chair and sat down.

"Well geez. And I thought I had a temper." Yang had been sheepishly rubbing her neck, but she recovered and turned to Weiss. "Look, she's trying, okay? I know she's not the best fighter, but she's obviously committed to working on it. And from being with her all day, she just might be the best shot. Sorry sis."

"That doesn't explain how she had no idea how dust worked. Or what Grimm were." Crossing her arms, Weiss was staring a hole into the opposite wall, wondering how she could have been so unlucky to have been teamed with a child and an idiot.

"Well, uh, I think there might be an actual explanation for that." All eyes turned to Ruby. "When we met, she said that she was a traveler; that she wasn't from around here. She didn't know what Atlas was and was surprised that we had, oh how did she put it, 'a country named after a book of maps.'"

Weiss scoffed. "Did she seriously call my home a book of maps?"

Ruby ignored the comment and continued. "When we were fighting that Torchwick guy, Kassidy said that she hadn't even been around for sixty seconds. How would she get from outside the kingdom to being at the center of town inside of a minute, with that tin can on? You saw the armor she left behind, Yang. There's no way she could've been fast at all, never mind quiet."

"Yeah, you're right." Yang turned to the heiress. "After dad and I picked Rubes up, we went over to the scene of the crime. Right in the middle of the road was a twisted shell of iron bigger than Crescent Rose. It didn't look much like armor anymore, but still, it's inconceivable she just strolled up the street quietly in under a minute."

Weiss' jaw was clenched as the girl thought. "So what, you're saying she teleported into the middle of the road with a hunk of scrap built around her?"

Ruby shrugged. "I'm not sure, but here's the kicker: she didn't know what a huntress was. Think about that. There isn't a person alive on Remnant who doesn't know who the huntsmen and huntresses are. Combine that with all the quirks, the funny ammunition she uses, and her computer, and she might not just be not from around here." The scythe wielder paused for dramatic effect. "She actually might not be from around here. Like, from Remnant."

The heiress' brow furrowed. "That doesn't make any sense. At all. Do you even know what you're talking about?" Yang was about to fire back when some noise got their attentions.

*thump* "Argh! Son of a!"

"Kassidy!" Yang sprang up and was already dashing through the curtain. She found Kassidy leaning against the wall, shoulder already bruising. "What happened?"

(Perspective: K)

The doctor didn't even look at Yang. "Her shoulder had been pulled halfway out of its socket. Rather than accepting treatment for it, she settled for pushing it back into place by ramming her arm into the wall."

Kass grimaced. "My body can heal it up faster than the medicines can. Sorry doc, but downtime isn't a luxury that I have. You have news for us on the foot yet, Bob?"

"Unfortunately, I do." The black box was resting on a table on the other side of the room. "The ankle joint is shattered. I'm currently running simulations on how aggressive a treatment we can put you on without causing permanent damage, but there isn't a quick fix for this one."

At this time, Weiss stepped through the curtain, with Ruby poking her head through. "What kind of timetable are we looking at?" Alright, Weiss seems to have calmed down a lot. Still cross, obviously, but at least she's not raving mad.

"Best case scenario right now? Eighteen hours."

Schnee's eyes widened. "What? That's ridiculous. Not even aura can heal that quickly. Are you sure you didn't make a mistake?"

"I don't make mistakes."

"Bob!" Kassidy snapped at her computer, and the argument died down. "It's pushing five right now. Eighteen hours puts us at eleven in the morning tomorrow. That's not good enough. Do better."

"Working on it. These people have some strange chemical compounds bolstered by this dust substance. I'm not exactly thrilled about you ingesting a powder that has a tendency to explode, but I'm starting to run out of options here."

"Dust only explodes in its pure, unrefined form." Weiss, now the picture of grace, strolled up to the table where Bob was. Pride dripped from every word, and she flipped her hair over her shoulder as she talked. "Given that I'm the heiress to the largest manufacturer of dust on the planet, I should know. The small handful of types that find their way in medicine are perfectly harmless after they've been processed into the chemicals you can access."

"Your friend is correct. Bob, you obviously know Kassidy's unique physiology better than anyone else, probably better than she does judging from her actions. Let me give you my usual recommendation for this type of injury, and I'll let you work with that. Miss Smith, please get back on the table so we can continue our work. No matter the treatment, your foot will need to be immobilized."

Kassidy grumbled, but hopped over to the bench and sat. As the doctor worked on bandaging her foot, she glanced over at her teammates. "I've taken some hard hits. Never been an invalid before."

Yang barely stifled a laugh. "You're hardly an invalid now, and it apparently won't even take twenty four hours for it to fix itself. You'll be fine. And besides, after this your ankle should hurt nevermore, am I right?" Ruby, Weiss, and Bob all groaned.

"Uh, alright. That was a bad pun, and I have some pretty low standards when it comes to puns." Kass thought for a moment. "It doesn't even make sense. Nevermore seemed to be the punchline there, but… what?"

Ruby piped up. "Nevermores are the big flying Grimm that shoot feathers. You know, the giant raven thing we fought today?"

Kassidy shrugged. "Alright. In the meantime, I guess I'll just need to Yang in there." More groans, accompanied by a laugh from her partner. A large growling emanated from her stomach. "Um, does anybody know what's for dinner?"

"Alright, this has been bugging me for a while now. The white knight? We seriously had to pick those pieces?" Bob was talking to the group, which had rejoined JNPR for dinner. Balancing on some crutches, Kassidy couldn't help but chuckle. "I know, for real? Why do I get the feeling that'll bite us in the butt down the road?"

"Oh, you'll be fine!" Nora bounded up and almost knocked Kass off her crutches. "Does anyone else smell that? It almost smells like – "

"TURKEY!" Kassidy had just sighted the dinner being set out, which reminisced of a full blown thanksgiving feast. "Oh my god when was the last time I had turkey?" She was already drooling.

"Uh, are you alright there, partner?" Yang poked her in the uninjured shoulder.

"Oh boy. Fair warning to you guys, she has been on a strict diet for the past while. We haven't had much to work with. And this girl loves food. I wouldn't recommend – "

"I bet she doesn't love food as much as me!" Nora smashed her fist into her palm. Kassidy regarded the pink ball of energy before her.

"That's a bet you would lose, I'm afraid."

Ren had already started pulling people away from Nora and Kass. "Kassidy, I've known Nora almost my whole life. This girl is an expert at putting away more food than should be physically possible. You don't want to turn this into a competition."

Nora wasn't having any of Ren's business though. "Oh, ho, so you DO want to turn it into a competition! Well I bet I can eat more turkey than you can, skinny jeans!"

Kassidy regarded the glorious poultry before her, then looked at Nora. "I'm afraid I don't have much to bet. How about we settle for bragging rights?"

"Nope! How about – "

"Nora would love to settle for bragging rights." Ren stepped in at this point and stared his partner down.

"Very well, it's decided. Yang, can you help me set up a plate?"

Yang's face broke into the biggest smile Kassidy had seen yet. "Yup," she said, popping the P. "I do NOT want to miss this."

"Wonderful. Our dinner has already turned into a circus." Weiss was facepalming near the rear of the group.

"Ugh, that was a mistake." Kassidy's stomach was filled to bursting.

"You can say that again – urf!" Nora wasn't looking much better.

"I must admit, you're the first person I've met to have outeaten Nora." Ren was helping his partner through the hallway. "Although I can't possibly fathom how many calories are in eleven pounds of turkey. Or where either of you put eleven pounds apiece." Scrolls came out, and doors on the opposite sides of the hallway opened to admit their new tenants.

"Farewell comrades!" Pyrrha waved at RWKY as they passed into the room. "And thank you for the lovely time this evening!"

The room greeting them had the essentials for students. Four beds, four desks, eight bookshelves. Weiss was complaining about how her luggage had been stacked wrong and that if Kassidy barfed, she was cleaning it up. Red and yellow bags sat in front of two of the other beds.

"They knew we were going to be in this room, right? Why's there an extra bed in here? They knew I had a bedroll. Is there a fifth one of us nobody's told me about?" Between exhaustion and being intoxicated on turkey, Kassidy showed confusion at the scene before her.

Ruby looked at her funny. "What, you don't sleep on a bed?"

Kass shook her head. "Haven't for a good while. It won't fit in my backpack."

"Well then you're gonna sleep well tonight!" Yang ran over and jumped on a bed, instantly claiming it. "Ooh, soft! Hey, where's your luggage K?"

Kassidy threw a thumb at the backpack on her shoulder. "You're looking at it."

"Dang, you travel light. Well team, let's get ready for bed! We've got a big day tomorrow!" Ruby unzipped one of her bags, got a small pile of clothes out, and raced to the bathroom to change.

"Alright Bob, hope you're not too jealous." Placing her companion to the side, Kassidy dug her new scroll out of her pocket and wrestled with the controls before eventually finding a map.

"What could possibly be on that plastic card that I couldn't provide you?"

"A route to the nearest gym. You know how much I don't sleep. Whenever I get up at…" Kassidy regarded an alarm clock on one of the bookshelves. "… one in the morning, I'd rather get something productive done that doesn't wake everyone up."

"Wait, there's a one in the morning?" Yang called out from the pillow her face was buried in. "I would punch someone if they woke me up at one in the morning. What could you possibly be doing up then?"

"These days I'm lucky if I get more than four hours of sleep a night. Three is the usual rule."

"Yeah, but that was on your bedroll that can't possibly be comfortable and also has a big hole in it. Your turn, Weiss." Ruby had just gotten out of the bathroom after changing into sleepwear, and Weiss slipped in shortly after.

Kass grumbled for a bit, but suddenly felt too tired to argue further. Placing her crutches on the wall and being careful not to land on her foot, she laid on the bed and sank into a sea of softness.

"Hey, aren't you going to change first? How do you even sleep in that stuff? Or with your hair in that incredibly tight bun?" Yang was just about to take Weiss' place in the bathroom.

Kassidy fumbled with her hair for a moment, for the first time in a while. That bun had been in place for the past few months. It took half an hour to fix her shoulder length hair into it because of how tight it was. It needed to be tight since it kept her hair from falling into her face or getting caught on anything.

Kass was about to answer when she fell into the deepest sleep she had in years.