An OC nobody asked for. By the power of fanfiction, Weiss Schnee gains an extra sibling.
As for his personality...have you seen what the title spells out?
"Beacon in view, starboard side!"
Weiss Schnee looked up at her brother's shout. Sure enough, the towers and arches of Beacon Academy had come into view out the airship's right-side window, glimmering in the spring sun.
"I know what it looks like, Sable." she sighed. "You know what it looks like." They'd been planning this trip for five years, after all, and read through brochures and floor plans more times than she could count. She'd computed an optimal route from the airship terminal to the auditorium, compiled dossiers on all known staff members, and figured out the ideal way to arrange her possessions in her future dorm room. Still, her eyes lingered on that tower for a moment. It really was beautiful, the way those green globes shone in the light...
"You're still staring." Sable gave her a knowing look. "Just admit you're excited, won't you?"
Well, he wasn't wrong. Four years on the other side of the world from home; four years without Father breathing down her neck. After gods knew how many late-night study sessions, hundreds of bruising spars, and couple gruesome facial injuries, they were finally here. This was the day they'd been waiting for!
"Perhaps." she allowed. That was all the satisfaction he'd get from her. Weiss took in her twin brother's appearance for a moment—a rather unusual thing to do considering they had seen each other nearly every day of their lives, but it was an unusual occasion. It was almost like looking in a mirror, as her own blue eyes and fair skin looked back at her. Well, maybe if the mirror flipped your gender, and height, and clothes...and hair color. As his name indicated, Sable's hair was raven-black; he stuck out like a lump of coal on a glacier, especially with his insistence on an black-themed wardrobe. Weiss assumed it came from their father's side, since the portrait of a young Jacques Schnee in his study had the same coloration.
"But it's important we maintain our focus." She levelled her most serious look at him. "The first hours and days at Beacon will be absolutely crucial. We need to make good impressions and start scouting for potential teammates." Her teammate spreadsheet still had only one name on it ("Pyrrha Nikos"), leaving five empty slots between the two of them. Sadly, she hadn't heard of any other world-renowned fighters starting at Beacon this year. "And as my brother, bear in mind your actions will reflect on me. So I would be pleased if you refrained from...starting any incidents."
"I don't start anything!" Sable complained. "But very well, icy Schnee reserve. I get it. You'll be free to impress Pyrrha Nikos with that sewing needle of yours."
"Myrtenaster is quite ready for action, thank you for asking." Weiss declined the bait, fingering the elegant rapier at her side.
Sable buckled his own sword onto his belt—a hand-and-a-half sword (or bastard sword, as he insisted on calling it, probably so he could say bastard without getting in trouble with Klein), with a revolving dust chamber built into the hilt, much like on Myrtenaster. A fine piece of craftsmanship, though it was a pity about the name. Schwarzfeuer. Ugh, her throat practically closed up even thinking about it. Weiss was fairly sure he'd combined his favorite color and favorite Dust variety, translated the mess into Old Mantlean, and left it at that.
The Schnee twins alighted from the ship and took their first steps into the brave new world of Beacon. Weiss couldn't help a small smile, taking in the sight like a queen gazing on her new kingdom. From the central tower piercing the sky, walkways fanning out from it like spokes on a wheel, to the distant fountain, to the red shape rapidly approaching them-
What?
A moment later, the red shape crashed into Sable's legs, sending them sideways into a luggage cart, where they were buried under a cascade of Dust cases.
"What are you doing?!"
"What are you doing?!"
"Sorry!" squeaked the prone red figure, who Weiss finally registered as a small dark-haired girl, clad in a red-and-black dress and red cape. Sable levered boxes off himself and got back to his feet, brushing off his suit jacket.
Satisfied that her brother hadn't been killed in a freak Dust accident minutes into their Beacon careers, Weiss turned her baleful gaze onto the little red girl. "Sorry? Do you have any idea of the damage you could've caused?"
"Uhh..." The red klutz mindlessly picked up one of the fallen Dust cases, then gave another squeak as a shadow fell over her, now sounding rather terrified. Weiss's brother hadn't just inherited his hair color from Jacques Schnee, but his height as well. At age seventeen Sable had reached their father's stature-six feet and three inches. Probably from stealing Weiss's height in the womb, the greedy brat. Not that she was bitter. Height might be more intimidating on first glance, but a smaller frame was clearly better for mobility and evasiveness...clearly.
"You've done enough here." Sable pulled the Dust case from her arms. "Get out!" he snapped, waving a hand in dismissal. With one last "eep", the little red girl turned tail and literally vanished. One moment she was cowering on the flagstones, and then there was nothing but a rush of wind and a few bits of red—were those flower petals?—floating in the air.
"What? Don't look at me like that! She crashed into me!" Sable said defensively. "Look, if anything, I saved us from an explosion! I think some thanks are in order!"
"You successfully frightened a little girl." Weiss crossed her arms. "Excuse me for not being very impressed."
"And you were going to bore her to death with a Dust safety lecture." Sable rolled his eyes. "I think my way was much more efficient."
"Whatever you say." Irritating as that little episode had been, at least it had ended quickly and without losing any of their precious Dust. "We should be heading to the auditorium. It wouldn't do to be late for the welcome speech."
Jaune Arc finally lifted his head out of the trash can, quickly turning away from the foul mess inside. A few hours ago he'd had a nice, balanced lunch—a bowl of Pumpkin Pete's, two slices of pizza, and a can of soda—and now it was a lump of half-digested sludge. It was honestly kind of embarrassing that a 15-minute ride from Vale to Beacon had reduced him to this. At least things could only get better from here.
Now what...I should probably try and make some friends, right?
Jaune looked around the courtyard. His future classmates passed by, heading purposefully towards the fountain, weapons proudly on display.
Oh gods, everyone looked so confident. One look and they'd probably figure out he didn't belong there—no! He couldn't think that way. They might be a bunch of strangers with scary weapons, but that just meant they were friends he hadn't met yet! Just as long as he acted like them, he should be fine. "All women look for is confidence," his Dad had told him...maybe it was the same with Huntsmen.
Well, maybe not everyone was like that. Jaune finally noticed a small girl sitting in a corner, giving off the air of a kicked puppy. As Jaune approached, she flinched a bit for some reason, but he reached a hand out nonetheless. Her sulking expression was strangely adorable, Jaune thought. Something about those wide silver eyes and the cute red cape...
"Hey...I'm Jaune."
The girl blinked and let him help her up. "Ruby."
Yes! Friend get! A girl too, and she'd voluntarily touched his hand! Holy crap, Dad had told him something useful for once!
"Aren't you the guy who threw up on the ship?"
A metaphorical rain cloud formed over Jaune's head. Why did he feel like he'd be hearing that for a while?
"Ruby! Over here! I saved you a spot!"
Ruby said something to her blond buddy, and started making her way through the crowd. I knew ditching you was the right idea, Yang thought victoriously. In spite of her protests, Ruby seemed to have made a new friend easy enough. It was a tiny bit concerning that said friend was a boy, but Vomit Boy looked like he couldn't hurt a fly. Hopefully figuratively. Otherwise he was going to have a rough time at Beacon.
"I can't believe you just ditched me like that..." muttered Ruby.
"Hey, turned out pretty well for you, didn't it?" Yang grinned back. "Bold of you, walking in with a boy on your arm like that. Though I wouldn't have picked Vomit Boy myself..."
"His name's Jaune!" Ruby corrected. "He's really nice, and he said Crescent Rose was cool, and he's got this sword that's been in the family for ages!" Ruby paused awkwardly, and worked her face into a cute little pout. "But anyways, I'm still mad at you for leaving me!"
"Yeah, you look real mad." Yang said. "Sorry about helping you find some nice, dorky boy to talk to."
"But before that!" Ruby said dramatically. "I tripped into this tall boy and knocked over a bunch of boxes, and then some crabby girl yelled at me, and I felt really bad and tried to say sorry, and then they both yelled at me and it was really scary and I had to use my Semblance to escape—EEK!"
Ruby suddenly threw herself into Yang's arms, eyes staring at something over her sister's shoulder. Yang turned around to find herself face-to-face with some person's neck. Whoever it was, they were wearing an expensive-looking double-breasted suit jacket. Seriously, who the hell wore a suit to fight Grimm? And that funny-looking white scarf on their neck...was that a cravat? She'd never seen someone actually wear one, outside of pre-Great War period dramas.
Well, based on Ruby's reaction, she guessed this was 'Tall Boy'. Yang lifted her eyes. She'd expected some sort of thug who'd fit in at Junior's club, but the guy in front of her looked more like a prince...scratch that, he looked like a princess. Pale, delicate features, with sleek black hair going down nearly to his chin—Yang briefly thought of her, of the picture always at the back of her mind—but his eyes were light blue instead of vivid red. Said eyes were fixed on Ruby at the moment.
Well. If he was some asshole thinking Ruby was a frail girl he could torment, he had another thing coming to him, no matter how pretty. "Hey," Yang greeted, a touch sharply. "Can I help you? It's rude to just stare like that, you know?"
Tall Boy flicked his eyes over to her. "No, not particularly." His voice was unexpectedly high-pitched for someone of that height. "It seems your friend noticed me this time, huh?"
"Sable? Who are you talking to?" A girl's voice cut in. Yang looked over to the newcomer. About Ruby's height, her all-white outfit clashed with Tall Boy's, but between the heeled boots, poofy skirt and honest-to-gods tiara on her head, it looked about as practical. At this point, Ruby had gone from looking over Yang's shoulder to trying to hide her entire body behind her sister's. So this was 'Crabby Girl', if Yang had to guess.
Crabby Girl took in the scene and rubbed her temple with a sigh. Well, maybe they could smooth this thing over? Much as Yang loved to fight, throwing down with a future classmate in front of the entire initiating class and Ozpin was probably a bad idea.
"Look..." Yang started, "I don't know what happened between you three, but sounds like you just got off on the wrong foot. Why don't we start over and try to be friends, okay?" She stuck out a hand to Crabby Girl, who seemed the more reasonable of the two. "I'm Yang Xiao Long, and that's my sister Ruby Rose behind me."
"You're sisters?" said the boy incredulously. The girl promptly jabbed an elbow into his ribs. "Ow!"
"Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company," she said, grasping Yang's fingers for a brief handshake. Yang half expected her to feel cold to the touch like an ice sculpture, but of course, it felt like any other hand. "And this is my brother, Sable."
Despite the obvious differences in height and color scheme, Yang could see the resemblance. They had the same snow-white complexion, and their eyes were the same icy shade...hell, they even had matching scars running by their left eyes. Okay, that last part raised some really disturbing questions. Maybe it was a birthmark?
"As for what happened," Weiss continued in a lofty tone, "your sister collided with Sable and some of our Dust containers in the courtyard. I'm sure he was only concerned for our safety, Dust being as volatile as it is. He can be rather careless with his phrasing in the heat of the moment, is all."
"Hey, you yelled at—oof!" Sable was cut off by another elbow.
"Heh, what are the odds we'd meet another pair of siblings? Eh, Rubes?" For the sake of comity, Yang decided it was best to change the subject from the Courtyard Incident. She stepped aside and pushed a cringing Ruby in front of her. "And Sable, I hear that all the time. We're half-sisters, as it happens."
"Yeah, you two look nothing alike." Sable replied. "You don't even look the same age!" He caught a third elbow for that, but didn't even flinch this time.
Yang grinned. "Yep, she's actually two years younger than me!" She pinched Ruby's cheek affectionately. "My baby sister got invited to Beacon early! You could say she's the bee's knees!"
"Is that so?" Weiss gave Ruby an appraising look.
"Yaaang..." muttered Ruby, embarrassment trumping her nervousness. "We've been over this, normal girl with normal knees, remember?"
"You seemed pretty scared of me back there," Sable said skeptically. "Are you sure you're up for facing some big bad Beowolf?" Another elbow.
"Hey!" Ruby retorted, finally snapping out of her funk. "You were a lot scarier than a Beowolf back there!"
"Thank you." The boy gave them a crooked smile.
Weiss coughed lightly. "Well, I think we ought to go and situate ourselves for the headmaster's speech. It was a...pleasure to meet you." And with that she was gone, pulling her brother by the arm.
"Phew..." Ruby sagged in relief once the icy pair left them. "That was so awkward..."
"Look on the bright side Rubes, at least you're at plus one friends for the day?" That could've gone worse, in Yang's estimation. Sure, Weiss seemed pretty uptight, and Sable seemed like...kind of a dick, honestly...okay, maybe it could've gone better too.
"You belligerent idiot. What did I say about starting things?"
Night had fallen, and the aspiring students were strewn across the ballroom floor in sleeping bags. There was a large circle of empty space around the Schnees, as if their classmates had sensed the aura of negativity around them and wanted nothing to do with it.
"Right, it's entirely my fault, like you didn't yell at her too. Unless you think there was some other crabby girl she was talking about?"
"I'm talking about that scene with her sister, you dolt. You insulted them every time you opened your mouth! If I hadn't been there—"
"I was just making observations, all right? And that Yang girl seemed to take it just fine. Not everyone gets offended as easily as you. We didn't fight, so would you just drop it?"
"Ugh...I don't know what I expected. Have you put any thought into your partner, at least? I'm set with Pyrrha of course, but you might want to consider Ruby Rose—if she's not completely repulsed by you already."
"Ruby? I don't see what's so special about her. That girl could barely look me in the eye. Her sister seemed much more put-together."
"Were you even listening?" Weiss sighed, "I've never heard of anyone being allowed into a Huntsman academy at fifteen. Never! There's must be a reason she's the first."
"How about you be her partner then?" her brother snapped. "You might even get the chance. Maybe Pyrrha Nikos prefers a partner with an actual personality, who knows—"
Blake Belladona hmm'ed as her cat ears picked up on the twins' argument, amber eyes remaining focused on her book. She'd recognized the SDC heiress on sight in the courtyard. It'd taken her a bit longer to piece together the dark-haired boy's identity; Sable Schnee rarely appeared in public and certainly did not have a widely followed singing career. Considering his actions so far, Blake was starting to think there was a reason for that. Wasn't it an ominous sign, if your behavior didn't meet Jacques Schnee's standards? Then again, perhaps that wasn't so surprising. If Ninjas of Love had taught her anything useful, it was that the pretty-boy villains were the worst ones...
Blake sighed. Seeing one Schnee at Beacon would've been an unwelcome enough surprise, but two was getting really getting out of hand. There was nothing to be done for it but to tighten her bow, avoid the wonder twins like canine distemper, and keep the f-word and W.F.-word to herself.
For four years. Wasn't this going to be fun?
Pyrrha's day had gone wrong.
"So, Pyrrha...have you given any thought to whose team you'd like to be on? I'm sure everyone must be eager to unite with such a strong, well-known individual such as yourself!"
Pyrrha cringed internally—only internally of course, on the outside she kept her trademark Invincible Girl smile firmly affixed. She'd been doing so well to avoid attention last night too-her trick of sitting in the corner and polishing Miló had worked wonderfully. It was, after all, a major faux pas to bother a Huntress while they were maintaining their weapon, less out of politeness and more to avoid said weapon being used on you. Especially when the weapon in question had spent four years on television, beating people up. Of course, it would have looked ridiculous to do it while walking to the Beacon Cliffs for initiation, which was when Weiss Schnee found her.
As far as pick-up lines went, she'd heard worse, though not by much. Weiss's opener was much too obviously scripted; if anyone on Remnant actually used the phrase 'strong well-known individual' spontaneously, Pyrrha would eat her sash. At least it beat the one guy who asked if she was from 'Tennessee'. She was pretty sure no such village existed. And wasn't it well known her hometown was Argus?
"Hmm...I'm not quite sure" she hedged. "I was planning on letting the chips fall where they may."
And her next line will be...'Well, I was thinking we could be on a team together.'
"Well, I was thinking maybe we could be on a team together." Weiss said hopefully. Close enough.
"Well, that sounds...grand." Pyrrha replied noncommittally. Weiss broke into a smile, not noticing her lack of enthusiasm.
"There you are!"
Pyrrha turned to see a tall black-haired boy approaching, his facial features suspiciously similar to the girl currently badgering her. Oh gods, there are two of them?
"Excuse me, we're in the middle of something!" Weiss seemed less than pleased with this turn of events. "Why are you even here?"
"You two aren't the hardest to spot." replied the boy. "Anyways, I'm Sable Schnee—Weiss's brother—she probably hasn't mentioned me at all. I was thinking we could be on a team together. I can pretty much do anything she can, and I promise I'm much less boring." He paused, then added an afterthought. "Nice to meet you too."
Dear gods, what did she do to deserve this? Well, 'win the Mistral Tournament four times' was the obvious answer, but she was thinking more in a karmic sense. It had been a nice, calm morning, and now Remnant's richest family was fighting over her like dogs over a bone. Pyrrha could think of nothing to say that wouldn't offend one or the other.
"That...also sounds grand." she replied lamely. Weiss's smile immediately dropped, replaced by a look of betrayal. "Er...you could both be on a team together?" She'd meant to add 'with me', but could not bring herself to say the words. "I mean, you're family after all—"
"No."
"Definitely not."
"Oh..." This was awkward. Pyrrha was an only child, but she'd always thought twins were supposed to be best friends who did everything together, coordinated their clothes, answered to the wrong name for fun—okay, the last one wouldn't really work here. Not to be at each other's throats like princelings in some royal court period drama.
"We have the same Semblance." explained Weiss. "It would be quite redundant to have two glyph users on the same team."
"That, and better to have eight Huntsmen between us than four." added Sable. Eight Huntsmen between them? Was this going to be an Academy team or some sort of SDC paramilitary squad?
"Hey, what's up? I'm J—"
"Hey!" Weiss snapped at the new voice, patience apparently wearing thin. "If you're here to recruit as well, kindly wait your turn!"
Pyrrha turned to see a fourth person, a tall blond boy, standing there awkwardly. "Uh...no?" he stammered. "You're just...uh...kind of in front of my locker..." he peered at a piece of paper in his hand, "...number 636, yeah, that was it...so anyways—"
"I'm sorry!" exclaimed Pyrrha, seizing the opportunity for all it was worth. "I didn't mean to block you from your own locker! I'll just be on my way now. It was nice meeting you!" She bolted from the locker room, and didn't look back.
Weiss's day had gone wrong.
She'd been that close to sealing the deal with Pyrrha Nikos, before her brother had butted in with the grace of a bull faunus in a Dust refinery. Judging from the speed of the Invincible Girl's departure, the odds of a Schnee-Nikos partnership weren't looking very grand at the moment.
"...the first person you make eye contact with after landing, will be your partner for the next four years."
What. What. WHAT?!
Well, never mind any of that. Apparently networking and making good impressions and any remotely scientific processes were completely irrelevant, and her fate was going to depend on velocity and launch angle instead. Winter hadn't mentioned anything like this in her Academy stories; Atlas didn't form teams until the end of first semester, based on a combination of preferential ballots and staff evaluations. Beacon had a reputation for being less regimented than Atlas, true, but surely this was going too far?
She forced herself to get over the shock and take in the rest of Ozpin's instructions. North end of the forest, abandoned temple containing relics, destroy everything or die, got it. That much, she could handle.
There was a faint click under her feet, and moments later Weiss flew over the cliffside. If there was a silver lining to all this, at least this part of initiation was perfectly suited for her. Falling from a great height wasn't much of an issue when her Semblance could literally create platforms in mid-air.
Still, it was interesting to observe what landing strategies the others were using. If anyone's strategy looked especially creative, she might even consider heading in that direction. Weiss looked around as she jumped down from glyph to glyph. Some people used the recoil of their weapons to arrest their momentum; some had blades extended, ready to snag against branches and soften the impact; some merely seemed content to let their Aura take the hit—and one blond boy plummeted through the sky, limbs flailing and letting out high-pitched screams.
Well, she supposed it was inevitable that not everyone would pass initiation. It was an exam after all, meant to weed out the prospects who'd collapse under pressure, and someone who lost his head so early in the game clearly wasn't cut out for it. His screaming was getting awfully loud though...it seemed they were headed towards the same patch of forest.
Weiss made her decision. With a flick of Myrtenaster, she formed a glyph next to the blond boy as he fell past her, and pushed. The glyph impacted his posterior with a solid thump, redirecting him off to the side, screams growing ever fainter. Hopefully to land safely, and far away from her.
One problem resolved, Weiss landed gracefully on the forest floor. Perfect. Now, to find...oh dear. She'd been so preoccupied with repelling that incompetent blond, she hadn't paid any attention to where anyone else was going to land. Weiss had managed to avoid one bad partner, but there were probably dozens more in the forest, just waiting to ambush her! There was nothing she could do but head north towards her objective. It wasn't as if a strong partner would suddenly appear out of the bushes.
Right on cue, a red blur burst from the undergrowth, skidding to a stop in front of her.
"Oh...hey Weiss." said Ruby Rose nervously, as silver eyes met blue. "So...I guess we're partners now?"
"You are the first person I've made eye contact with since landing, so by the rules of the exam...yes." Weiss replied. "I suppose you'll do." Considering how chaotic this whole exercise was, getting paired with the grade-skipper was an acceptable result. Probably one of the better potential outcomes, to be honest, not that she was about to admit it and inflate the girl's head. She was clumsy and stammering to be sure, but that was nothing a strong leader couldn't correct.
And she'd managed to stop before crashing into anyone this time. Progress!
"Hey! What do you mean, I'll do?" Ruby said in annoyance.
"That you meet the minimum expectations of a partner, which is better than the alternative!" huffed Weiss. "Continue complaining and I might change my mind. In any case, the temple's that way, so let's not dilly-dally."
"Yeah!" Ruby brightened immediately, pumping a fist. "I'll do, all right! I'll more-than-do! We'll beat everyone else to the temple, and we'll be the coolest team in Beacon, and we're gonna be best friends! Um!" Ruby briefly ran out of steam, but then thrust out her weapon—a scythe?—like a child showing off a drawing they were particularly fond of. "So...I got this thing!"
Weiss blinked at Ruby's sudden exuberance. "I see...I suppose it would be wise to familiarize ourselves with each others weapons and Semblances, if we are to be partners. Very well, so what can you do?"
Ruby's smile turned downright manic, and Weiss involuntarily took a step back. "ALL RIGHT! Weiss, meet my baby, Crescent Rose. She's a high-caliber sniper scythe!" She caressed the weapon's haft lovingly. "I built her with my own hands, back at Signal Academy! It has three different modes, the first one is this scythe form. Took me a lot of tries to figure the right amount of carbon for the blade but in the end..."
I've made a terrible mistake.
Jaune's day had gone wrong.
After his successful befriending of Ruby the previous day, he'd really started to hope he could, just maybe, actually pull off the whole confidence thing. In hindsight, trying it with three girls at once had been a bad idea. He hadn't even gotten through his signature introduction, and then that pretty redhead had fled the locker room at lightning speed. And then the white-haired girl had started yelling at the black-haired one, both totally ignoring him. Jaune had headed to the cliffs with his pride slightly dented.
Also, he was currently falling to his death. That sucked too. And probably looked really lame, between the terrified shrieks and him frantically waving his arms and legs around.
But as the green of the Emerald Forest rushed up to swallow him, Jaune suddenly felt a stinging smack on his rear end. Now he was flying sideways, rather than straight down, and descending at a more manageable rate, though Jaune was even more humiliated (and baffled) by the fact that he'd just been spanked in mid-air.
"My butt!"
Maybe he could pull off a landing strategy now? If he could knock Crocea Mors against a few branches or trunks, that should slow him down. Then he could try and grab onto something, climb down and start looking for a partner!
Lost in thought, Jaune didn't notice his increasingly low altitude or the solid trunk right in front of him, which his face and crotch promptly slammed into.
"Ow...my nose...my balls..." he groaned.
Jaune's body slowly peeled off the tree, and fell the remaining distance to the ground, landing with a meaty thump.
"...my back..." For a few minutes, Jaune lay supine on the forest floor, until the pain faded to a dull ache. But eventually, he managed to roll onto his front, pushed himself onto hands and knees, and finally stood up. Nothing seemed broken, incredibly enough! Well, maybe his nose—it was bleeding an awful lot, and seemed a bit crooked. But he could still walk, and his arms seemed to be working right, and his organs were still all inside his body as far as he could tell.
"A happy landing's one you can walk away from, right?" he said to himself. Without a parachute even! In your face, Ozpin!
"GRRRRRR..."
"AAAAH!" Jaune sprinted away from the ominous growl at full tilt, blundering into a bush. His arms thrashed wildly, tearing vines and branches away. He was expecting to feel Grimm breath on his neck at any moment—wait, did Grimm actually breathe? Did a horrible creature of darkness even have lungs? Finally, his head burst through the other side. There was nothing to be seen but more trees.
As he stepped out of the bush, Jaune's foot caught on an errant piece of shrubbery, and he went tumbling, down an embankment he hadn't noticed before. He got a mouthful of dirt and leaves, then somersaulted, once, twice, thrice more in seeming defiance of physics, before crashing into something soft and coming to rest.
Well, not something and more someone. Jaune opened his eyes to find himself face-to-face with a pair of beautiful blue eyes, pristine pale skin, and soft-looking dark hair. His possibly concussed mind recognized the face as the black-haired girl he'd seen by the lockers. A second chance! From the feeling of their bodies against each other, she didn't seem as...well-endowed...as the red and white girls, but that face was positively angelic to his eyes.
"I'm Jaune Arc," he babbled. "Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue. Ladies love it-"
"GET OFF ME, YOU IDIOT!"
"AAH!" Jaune was shoved roughly to one side, sprawling in the dirt yet again. "What is wrong with you people?!" exclaimed the angry angel, brushing some dirt off a suit jacket. "Does no one at this school have any spatial awareness?"
Whoa, she was tall up close. Probably had an inch or two on him, even. And that voice was surprisingly deep...wait a minute...
"S-sorry" Jaune said awkwardly. Despite his questionable people skills, he felt that 'are you a boy or a girl' would dig him even deeper, so he opted for a different question. "So...the first person you make eye contact with...are we partners now?"
Pale eyes widened in sudden realization. They glanced left, right, backwards, and even up, before finally settling back on Jaune, taking in his bloody nose, his dirty face, his hoodie and jeans under his armor, judging him, and finding him wanting.
"I'm Sable Schnee." If looks could kill, Jaune was sure he'd be a smoldering pile of ash by now. "And for your information, I'm a boy!"
"...oh gods..." If some worm Grimm came out of the ground and claimed him at that moment, he would've accepted his death. "I-I mean, I didn't...um, I think you're very manly, okay? It's just that, uh—"
"Ugh...just shut up. Tall, scraggly blondes aren't my type anyways." Sable turned on his heel. "Pick yourself up and start moving! I'm not going to fail this thing because my partner couldn't keep up."
Those are some tight pants...NO!
Jaune staggered to his feet and trudged along, not believing his luck. Couldn't he have found Ruby instead? Or some other nice, quirky girl? How the hell was he going to survive four years with fake transcripts and a partner who hated his guts already?
He was beginning to think he'd made a terrible mistake.
Yeah...the Schnee household isn't exactly conducive to developing healthy personalities.
Sorry for breaking up Arkos, but this was the most dysfunctional partnership I could imagine, so naturally it's happening. Who knows, it might just be the butterfly that lets Pyrrha avoid her terminal case of arrow-to-chest...