Before anything else, I own nothing but the original characters, and content therein related to them. RWBY is owned by RT, and any mentioned creator's work belongs to them, and them alone. Rest in peace Monty, your vision lives on in us all.
"Listen up Joes! Tonight is The Dance, it wasn't yesterday, it isn't tomorrow, it's TONIGHT!" Some crazy drill I knew.
Let the shipping begin.
CHAPTER 6
Team SPGL was lending a hand to Yang and Weiss in preparation for the dance. Yang set down a large speaker, and stood up, dusting her hands off, only for Siniy, to set the other three down next to her. "Show off." Yang said. Siniy just shrugged.
"Any more streamers down there?" Clayton asked, hanging from the chandelier he'd climbed up to, a foot and a hand full of glow sticks and LED lights.
"Got some." Pale said, tossing the roll up.
Clayton caught it with his free foot, and tossed the now unraveled roll across the light fixture. "Thank you."
"So, are you wearing that red dress I know Clayton likes?" Yang asked, wiggling her eyebrows at her sister, who was slumped over a table.
"Drop it Yang, I passed out at homecoming one time... One time!" Clayton yelled at Yang from the ceiling.
"Yeah, but what's the point if Blake's not coming to the dance. Honestly her moping is starting to bum me out." Ruby said. Yang smirked at that.
"Oh, she'll be coming to the dance alright." Yang said, before her attention was taken by Weiss's decorations. "Weiss come on, we agreed on not having doilies." Yang said.
"If I don't have doilies, you don't get fog machines." Weiss said, before a glow stick fell on her head. Rubbing the top of her head and pouting, Weiss looked up.
"Sorry about that." Clayton said, before he dropped down to everyone, just as Sun and Neptune came into the dance hall.
"The dance is going to have fog machines?" Neptune asked.
Weiss perked up when she heard his voice. "We were thinking about it." She said, clasping her hands together.
"Pretty cool." Neptune said, before he spotted Halcyone up on the stage with the sound equipment. Halcyone leaned on the mixer, and smiled as she waved at Neptune knowingly. Neptune felt the sudden urge to get out of there.
Halcyone knew when she scared a guy off. He was F.I.N.E, but Neptune was not ready for her. Sighing internally, Halcyone decided to let the boy question his life choices, and continue her work… Besides, there were other people she could ask to the dance… Like say… Yang.
"You ladies excited to play dress up?" Sun asked.
Ruby rolled her eyes with a smile. "Yang and I will be turning heads tonight, but if you're looking for a date, I'm taken." Ruby said, as Clayton sat down next to her, nuzzling his nose to hers.
"What are you wearing to the dance then Sun?" Yang asked.
"Pfft, uh this." Sun said, gesturing to his open shirt.
"Ignore him, for he knows not what he says." Neptune said, putting an arm in front of his friend.
"Hey I may have moved to Mistral, but I was raised in Vacuo. Not exactly a shirt and tie kind of place." Sun said, pushing past his friend.
"Yeah, we noticed." Yang said in a deadpan.
"Soooooo… Is Blake still being all Blakey?" Sun asked.
"As usual." Weiss huffed.
Ruby sighed. "She won't change her mind." Ruby said glumly.
Yang waved her sister off. "Trust me, Blake will be at the dance." She said, before walking off to find the cat girl.
Halcyone sighed. She'd finish up her work with the sound system then run off to find where Yang had gone off to. After all there was only one day left before the dance...
Yang found Blake in the library, and instead of doing what she'd originally intended to, (distract Blake with a laser pointer) as it was kinda poking fun at her being a cat faunus, she walked up behind her, and placed a hand on her shoulder. "What do you want Yang?" Blake asked, without looking away from her terminal screen. Yang sighed at the response, and squeezed her partner's shoulder enough to make her feel uncomfortable.
"Come with me, and I won't show everyone your weird porn." Yang said. Blake's eyes went wide, though she tried to remain calm.
"You have no evidence to prove I own any of that stuff." Blake said.
"Oh don't I? Ninjas of Love? Wild Woman? Angels With Filthy Souls? Knights of Passion? RAM RANCH?" Yang asked. At the mention of the last one, Blake went compleatly stiff, and shut the terminal down, and stood up. "Oh, wow, I didn't even get to the hentai." Yang added, before guiding Blake to an unused classroom. Setting the girl down in the swivle chair at the teacher's desk, Yang leaned against the wood furiture, and took a deep breath. "Before anything, I'm not saying that you need to stop looking into the White Fang, if you feel the need to keep fighting them, I understand... But, you need to slow down. I... Have I ever told you how I got my semblance?" Yang asked, getting a head shake from her partner.
"Well, when I was younger, probably only 7 or 8 years old, Ruby and I ran away from home. We... We lost our mother. Ruby's mother really. My mom walked out on my dad after she had me..." Yang said, causing Blake to cringe.
"The tiny age gap between you..." Blake started. Only for Yang to chuckle merthlessly.
"Yep... My dad was cheating on my mom... But that didn't stop Summer from being my mother. Even after dad told us that she wouldn't be coming home, we didn't belive she was dead, and so the both of us took all of the money we had, and took a ferry to one of Vale's outlying south east settlements to start looking for her. We spent an entire two days walking through the woods, only to exhaust ourselves when we needed our strength the most, and the only thing that saved us both, was unlocking our semblances.
It took a life or death survival mechanism to keep us both from becoming grimm food. I decided to stay and fight, and told Ruby to save herself... Ruby ran faster than I'd ever seen anyone move... I only got out alive because I picked up a stick and a textbook sized rock to defend myself... And you know what, it worked, I was able to return all the damadge I took and the anger I had right back into the grimm, but if Ruby hadn't shown back up with my uncle Qrow, I'd have been ripped apart by three Ursa I wasn't paying attention too." Yang said.
Blake sighed. "Yang, I get what it is you're trying to tell me, but we can't just shut down our search. This isn't some lost cause we're fighting for, this is a real war being waged, that only I can fight right now." She said.
"But that's not true, you've got all of your friends trying to stop Torchwick and the Fang together." Yang said.
"Are they though? The only one who's even put any amount of effort into hunting down the White Fang is Pale, and he's not my friend, the farthest thing from it." Blake countered.
"But he's been doing this for a long time, and he's learned to take the time to slow his pace and rest, because he know's that if he dosn't he's going to burn himself out, and get killed." Yang said, earning an irritated frown from Blake.
"He's nothing like me... I can't slow down, I don't have the time to." Blake said, getting out of the chair, and nearly falling over.
"And if Roman walked in through that door right now, what would you do? Fight? Trip up? Die? I know it probably sounds rich coming from me, but going into a fight like that half cocked, is a bad idea, and doing it while you're about to fall asleep standing up, is a death sentance." Yang said, pushing her friend back into the chair gently. "We arn't stopping just becasue the dance is coming up, but we have to slow down if we're ever going to make it to the boss at the end of the game. Please, get some sleep, get some decent food, maybe take a really warm shower, and come to the dance with your team, and more importantly with the people who care about you, Blake. And if you come tomorow night, I promisse I'll save you a dance." Yang said, smiling at Blake as she got back up. The blond wrapped her friend in a hug, before leaving her with her thoughts...
After aimlessly wandering for an hour, Halcyone managed to catch Yang outside of the library. Halcyone licked her hand, then tried controlling her hair, which had grown into a short and unruly pixie cut since she came to Beacon. "Hey Yang." Halcyone said, as she approached the girl from behind. Yang turned around and smiled at her friend.
"Sup Halc?" Yang asked.
"Nothing really…" Halcyone said, before just getting it over with. "Do you want to go to the dance with me?" She asked. Yang's eyes widened in surprise for a moment, and instantly she became a nervous wreck.
"Like-like as a date?" Yang asked. Halcyone shrugged, but internally she was fist pumping and jumping in the air.
"I mean if you want it to be, I wouldn't see any issue with it. I just sort of figured… Well, I didn't have many people I could go with, and… Ruby told me about, ya know… The whole, never had a date to a dance thing." Halcyone said.
Yang sighed. "She told you about that huh? Kinda pathetic."
Halcyone shrugged. "Like I said, it doesn't have to be a date kind of date, but if you want, I'm offering."
Yang was shook. She'd never had someone ask her out, let alone another girl, and this was right after she promised Blake a dance too. "What the fuck?! Is my life turning into a rom-com?!" She asked herself in thought.
There was a second of silence, before Halcyone decided to incentivize her. "How about this? If you go to the dance with me, I'll let you in on the one secret I have." Halcyone said.
"Secret?... Halc are you a-" Yang was stopped from speaking, as Halcyone put a finger to cover her lips.
"No guessing, it'll ruin the whole point of me telling you… So… What do ya' say?" Halcyone asked. Yang went silent for a second.
"Uh… Yeah… I'll go to the dance with you… But that secret better be good." Yang said with her usual cocky smirk.
Jaune saw and heard the entire exchange from afar. He hadn't actually worked up the courage to ask Halcyone out, but there she was asking Yang to the dance, and man did he feel like an idiot. "Guess the stereotype exists for a reason." Jaune said, before he felt a hand on his shoulder. Looking up, he saw it was Neptune.
"Trust me man, you dodged a bullet there." Neptune said shaking his head.
"What?" Jaune asked. Neptune coughed into his hand.
"Well… Let's just say I have experience with that particular type of girl." Neptune said, looking nervous all the sudden.
"What gay girls?" Jaune asked, still confused by how Neptune was supposed to be comforting him by making it sound like gay women liked the blue haired boy… Which would kind of make sense, he had a sort of effeminate face.
"No no no… F- On second thought, yeah, let's go with that." Neptune said, as Jaune rolled his eyes. This was a worse consolation that he usually got from his sisters when they made him play dress up with him.
Approximately two hours later, just after sunset. Weiss had made a decision. If Neptune hadn't asked her out by now, she would do it herself. "Neptune." She said, catching his attention outside of the dorms.
"Oh hey, what's up?" Neptune asked, putting his hands in his pockets.
"I wanted to ask you something… I know it's a little unorthodox, but… Would you like to accompany me to the dance tomorrow?" There was a second of silence before Neptune bit his lip.
"Weiss, I'm sorry, but… No."
The night of the dance, the Crimson Couple arrived early, planning to leave early too. Both wearing their signature color. Ruby was in her favorite red dress. The top half above her breasts was sheer, as were her stockings. Naturally it was backless, something she knew drove Clayton wild when they'd dance. Clayton was in a tuxedo, a shade of red darker than Ruby's dress, with a black shirt and tie. The darker colors complemented Ruby's own. Having known heels would be a bad idea if she didn't want to step on Clayton's bare feet, Ruby opted for flats. The two each had roses on them. On Ruby, a corsage, and on Clayton the dethorned flower stuck through a button hole.
Pale made his entrance by shoving both doors open, and definitely lighting up a cigarillo on school property, sporting the exact same tux he'd worn last he saw Penny, only adding a yellow cotton flower buttonhole, and swapping out the neck tie to a black cravat. Speak of the girl. Penny entered the establishment shortly after Pale, and the two linked arms before moving to the dance floor.
Blake and Sun came in together as friends. Her black dress and his crudely informal shirt and tie… Actually looked better together than anyone would give them credit for. Blake's dress had a lot of sheer, and it wouldn't look too out of place at a club, much the same as Sun, who at least had the good idea to wear pants, some nicer shoes, and to un-pop his shirt collar… He kinda looked like some Atlas-trash drug dealer...
Yang and Halcyone stood outside for a second. Yang was… Surprised. Of course she looked good in just about anything, and the cream colored dress she had on was as stunning on her as it was simple. But Halcyone? She wore a suit without a tie. It was a good suit, great actually. The pants and leather shoes were black, as was the shirt, and vest. But the jacket? Swirling gold and black like oil and honey canvassed the material. Completed by Halcyone's gold and black shemagh, that hung loosely off her shoulders. The entirety of the ensemble was made of silk. It looked comfortable… And expensive. Had the Vacuo smuggler really spent money to look nice for her?
"So… Should we…" Before Yang could ask, Halcyone took her hand, and gave her a smile. And suddenly Yang felt at ease.
"What're ya' worried about?" Halcyone asked, as the two started walking to the door.
"Nothing… It's just… I've never really gone on a date before." Yang said. Halcyone chuckled.
"So you do consider it a date." She said, only for Yang to blush.
"Not that there's anything wrong with two girls dating… I just… Never really had the chance to experience either side of the fence, and-"
Halcyone shrugged as she cut Yang off. "I already know… Ain't no sham in liken' who ya' like. Besides, most people here think I'm a guy anyway, so no one 'll notice. And who knows, maybe this'll go somewhere." Halcyone said with a grin.
"Right." Yang said, feeling heat gather in her cheeks. "Holy shit, why does she have to look good in a suit?" Yang asked internally.
Weiss came to the dance on her own, having watched from afar as everyone went in with partners or friends, and there she sat, waiting as if some mysterious force was going to randomly decide that what heartbreak she had was undeserved. It almost drove her to tears. The one boy she thought might not see just a name, or money, or even her scars and stature, and he turned her down. She clenched her first, and turned around to leave. She didn't need to go to the stupid dance…
While there was no mysterious force at play, a chain of coincidences had led to her turning around, just as Siniy approached the dance hall, nearly bumping into her. Weiss stepped back a pace, and looked up at him. Not a far cry from the pinstripe suit he destroyed, he was dressed in a navy blue suit, white shirt, red tie, and brown loafers. A small crocus speciosus pinned to his lapel. Siniy seemed confused. "Weiss, I am surprised to see that you are not here with Neptune. Is he inside already?" Siniy asked. Weiss nodded her head, a tear welling up. "Are you alright?" Siniy asked. Weiss nodded again, but she was lying, to herself and to Siniy. The giant looked up at the dance hall, then down at Weiss. "Did… He not ask you?" Siniy asked, one eyebrow raised.
Weiss's breath caught in her throat for a second. "I asked him… He turned me down." Weiss said, walking past Siniy to leave. She got about 5 steps away before Siniy spoke up.
"Then he was a fool." Weiss looked back at the giant, who turned around to face her. "What?" Weiss asked, as Siniy squatted down to be closer to eye level with her. "I don't know why he would reject you when it was you asking him to the dance, so I can only assume Neptune is a fool. Any man should feel honored to be asked to a dance, especilly if the lady asking is as pretty as you." Siniy said.
"What?" Weiss asked again, before the realization hit her like a freight train. "You were born beautiful… You are a very pretty girl... I've already told you Weiss, regardless of what I believe about your family, you are a beautiful woman… A pretty woman like you is bound to get married eventually..." All the kindest of words he'd spoken to her and she never understood he wasn't just being nice to someone he should have rightfully hated, someone he could have let die at the hands of the White Fang, or the grimm, or Torchwick. "Siniy actually likes me?" She thought.
"Weiss, you beautiful angel of the morning, it would be an honor and privilege, if you'd allow me to accompany you to the dance." Siniy said, extending a hand to her.
Teary eyed and conflicted, Weiss didn't move at first. This was ludicrous. Even if Siniy did like her, just for her looks or for more than that, he hated everything that surrounded her. The height difference alone was laughable. Then there was what people would think… What her father would think… Weiss Schnee, heiress to the SDC, dating a faunus, a branded child her family enslaved… It wasn't possible… So why did she take a step closer to him? Maybe it was pity or guilt for everything that had happened to him striking all at once, maybe it was the fact he didn't want her for the perks of her name or the prestige that came with it, possibly rejecting them even, or maybe it was his honesty and his kindness… Maybe Weiss didn't care. Weiss hurried her pace, and practically jumped into Siniy's arms, as she hugged him around the neck. "I'll allow you to accompany me to the dance." Weiss said, wiping away the tear in her eye before her makeup started to run.
Authors note: So who guessed that was going to happen? To be fair probably everyone, with Siniy constantly voicing his opinion that Weiss is attractive, and me constatnly guilt tripping Weiss, BUT! I'd been planning for Siniy and Weiss to be together since the first draft of this story, waaaaaaaaaay back before Siniy had his current name, backstory, and even height. (Originally I was going to have him also be 6 foot 10 like Clayton, who's already huge compared to almost the entire cast except Hazel, and Clayton was only going to be 6' 2". As well, Siniy was just going to be a poor human from Mantle who eventually got with Weiss as a representation of overcomming classism, but with Siniy being a faunus it just opened up the door to make the race topic of RWBY even spicier.) Fundamentally, (and people probably saw this back when Weiss was comparing herself to the rest of her friends, which is canonically part of the manga Mirror Mirror) Weiss in my version is lonelier than in the original story. Her friends still rib on her from time to time about her racism, Jaune in this version got distracted by Halcyone flashing him, and instead of hopelessly chasing after Weiss, spent the entire time working up the courage to even ask a girl out, (because the desperate guy being a relentless stalker trope is overused and urealistic) so Weiss isn't even able to get the satisfaction of guys going after her for her perks at Beacon, and Neptune being labeled a fuckboy by the other guys really makes Weiss question if he's actually interested in her, or just trying to get in her pants. As we saw, it was the pants he was after when he accepted Halcyone's offer for sex.
Combine Weiss's loneliness and Siniy's non existent dating life being a literal monster among men, and you've got the perfectly cheesy case of love born out of hate, even if it's in the spur of the moment and wouldn't have happened if one person or the other was just a minute too early or too late for the dance. But we'll get to see more of these two total opposites together in the future, because it's like my all time favored romance trope. Also bodybuilders in suits is funny as hell, look it up.
*Sips Smirnoff. Burps.* Lets get back to it.