Chapter 2: An Awe-full Sight
Ruby Rose - Afternoon - Beacon Academy - Vale -
As Ruby took her first step onto the grounds of Beacon Academy she couldn't help but but be in awe of what she was seeing. And not from the incredible view of the school itself.
Specifically, it was the disturbing sight of watching some tall, lanky blonde kid sprint off of the airship and violently vomit what could only be stomach acid into a nearby trashcan, considering how he had been puking the entire flight here as well.
She really wanted to just walk away and get on with her first day of Beacon, but Ruby could identify with the blonde boy's struggle, even if only a little bit.
Not that she got any form of sickness due to travelling in a vehicle, that would be a nightmare for any huntsman or huntress. She didn't enjoy travelling in vehicles though. She might even go as far as to say she disliked doing it.
With the exclusion of aircraft built for speed and some of the higher end cars or motorcycles, Ruby could out speed or at least keep pace with most vehicles with her semblance and honestly she preferred relying on her own body for travel when she could. Much safer. In her own opinion at least.
Unfortunately when it came to long distances or hard to reach destinations, travel by vehicle became the optimal way to go no matter how much she detested it.
Hesitantly, Ruby made her way to the slowly recovering boy, who had finished puking while she had been thinking.
"You...alright?" she asked, announcing her presence to him. He turned with a surprised look and took a few seconds to respond to her. She took that time to take a good look at him when he wasn't hunched over a trashcan.
He was dressed rather plainly, the only thing that really stuck out in his outfit was his armor and the sheathed sword on his belt. His hair was blonde, a bit of a lighter shade that she was used to within her family and he had a dark blue eye color. All in all he looked a bit like her dad. If her dad lacked most of his muscle mass, confidence, tan, and tattoos. So maybe he didn't look much like her dad at all. Finally he seemed to snap out of whatever it was he was doing.
"Oh! Yeah, I'm feeling way better now that I'm not on the ship any more. Thanks for asking, I'm Jaune Arc, short, sweet, rolls off the...tongue. Ladies uh...love it?" He had reached his hand out as if looking for a handshake halfway through his spiel but had slowly sputtered to a very awkward finish when he saw the disgusted look on her face. "Right, I should probably wash my hands. Sorry." He laughed a little but quickly cringed when he accidentally smelled his own breath. She hoped she didn't come off as rude when she laughed right at him.
"Might want to brush your teeth while your at it." She commented. He nodded and turned to the airship with a contemplative look on his face. Looking over his shoulder he gave her a sheepish smile.
"You wouldn't happen to remember where the cargo was, do you?"
A disbelieving look was her response.
"How did you forget over a 30 minute flight?" She questioned. Jaune scratched his face with a look on his face that screamed out that he was trying to remember. Or think of an excuse.
"I puked my brains out?" He tried with a sheepish grin. Until he realized that he was scratching his face with the same hand she had refused to shake a few seconds ago.
Ruby sighed. A small smile took hold of her lips as he freaked out over how dumb he was making himself out to be.
"Come on, I'll show you."
Maybe he's a little like her father.
Ruby Rose - 10 minutes later - Beacon Academy - Vale -
After leading him back to where they had stored their stuff for the flight, both of them grabbed their bags and headed back towards the school after Jaune took a quick stop in the airships bathroom to clean himself up.
"So why did you help me out back there?" Jaune asked her as they strolled through the courtyard towards the Academy. Ruby glanced at him and shrugged.
"I don't really know. My uncle said I should try and make friends while I'm here and I guess you were as good as anyone." She explained.
"Uh...really? I was kind of throwing up, like, everywhere. That looked like as good a friend as anyone?" Jaune questioned waved him off.
"Oh, please. Half the people on that airship looked like they wanted to throw up. I know I did." Ruby whispered the last part so quietly that the only reason she was sure he heard her was because of the relieved look on his face.
"Works for me. My mom always says strangers are just friends you haven't met yet anyways. I know I already said it but, I'm Jaune." Again he held his hand out toward her and she noticed how much larger his hand is than hers. She supposed that came from both the age difference between them and that he was a rather tall boy and that she was a rather small girl.
Musings aside, this time she shook his hand without issue and figured she should introduce herself as well.
"Ruby." She couldn't help herself. "I'm not sure if the ladies love mine though." He glared at her out of the corner of his eyes and she gave him a giant smirk.
"You are short though." Damn it. She had forgotten that part of his little intro.
"Very original." She huffed out. She tried to give him a glare as well but she was still smirking a little.
Jaune grinned before speaking up again. "Anyway, where are we- gah!" He cried out accompanied by a feminine 'oof!' sounding out from his sudden collision with a girl dressed in all white. Ruby immediately noticed that she seemed to have been speaking to an entire entourage of butler looking men who were pulling around entire carts of her luggage.
Ruby stopped immediately when they collided and winced when she saw the absolutely furious look on the girl's face.
When she took in the girl's appearance, Ruby actually had to blink to make sure she was seeing things correctly. The girl could actually be defined by the color white. Her hair was a pristine shade of white similar to snow that no one could mistake for gray, done up in a offset ponytail. Similarly the girl's skin was about as pale as Ruby's own.
Even her outfit consisted of the color almost entirely, the dress and jacket only being interrupted by bits of red and the occasional blue hue. She also noticed that the girl wore heeled boots and several pieces of jewelry. Honestly all the white made her ice blue eyes stand out the most and the scar that cut across the left one.
Shaking off the impression the girls appearance left on her she was about to try and help Jaune up but was quickly distracted by a shine from the ground next to them. Kneeling down she noticed that it was from a vial of dust that, along with several others, had fallen out of the suitcase that the white haired girl had dropped. It must of busted open when it hit the ground.
She reached to gather the dust up when a rather pudgy and short man walked up to her. He looked to be one of the girls butlers.
"Excuse me, miss. Perhaps I should collect Miss Schnee's things for her, they are rather meticulously organized." Ruby gave the butler a smile for his pleasant tone of voice and attitude.
"Thanks, but don't worry. I've got it." She assured him. He seemed hesitant for a moment but nodded and took a step back.
Over at the collision the girl shot to her feet and immediately rounded on Jaune, who was slowly climbing to his feet as well, rubbing his head.
"What are you doing!?" She screeched at him. Jaune, after shaking off the cobwebs, immediately started stammering out an apology, looking rather embarrassed. The girl with the snow white hair didn't seem to be looking for a simple apology, however.
"Sorry? Do you have even a shred of common sense? A huntsman in training and you can't even watch where you're going?" She seethed, taking a few steps forward she jabbed her finger into his chest plate and glared menacingly up at him. "Not to mention the damage you could of caused to my belongings! What do you have to say for yourself?"
Jaune looked shocked and at a complete loss for words. The girl was about to chew him out once again when she was interrupted by a calm voice.
"Didn't you have ample time to notice their approach and alert them or get out of the way yourself? Even more so considering he was talking." Another girl this one a near stark opposite appeared and added in her two cents, which seemed to be complete chump change in snow white's opinion.
The girl dressed in a mix of black white and purple, though black was the predominant theme of her outfit. Dark black hair, along with a dark black bow. A white sleeveless top that transitioned into black on the bottom half and a pair of black fading into purple leggings underneath a pair of short white shorts. Similarly to snow white, her outfit made her eyes stand out the most. A striking amber.
"Exactly what are you trying to say?" The girl in white asked an angry edge still in her voice as she turned to her new adversary. The girl in black raised a eyebrow.
"Weiss Schnee. Heiress to the Schnee Dust Company. One of the largest producers of energy propellant in the world." Snow white, now identified as Weiss Schnee looked surprised and slightly appeased for a moment before amber eyes continued on, "One would think that an heiress would exercise some caution before lecturing someone else about it, but I suppose no one would be surprised, considering your company's business practices."
Weiss looked like she was ready to fight now. Not to mention that she had become so angry that her face was going red. Amber eyes didn't show any signs of aggression in her face, but did tighten her fists.
Ruby cleared her throat and all eyes turned on her. Stepping up to Weiss she held out a suitcase to her.
"You dropped this. All of the dust fell out but I put it back in for you." Weiss took a moment to come out of her rage and register what Ruby had said. She reached out and grabbed the suitcase from her.
"You can't just 'put it back in'. All of that dust is ordered specifically by-"
"Granularity." Ruby stated simply. Weiss blinked and snapped her mouth shut. "The finer powders are first and the most coarse last. I also made sure they were in standard alphabetical. Burn to wind." The girl locked eyes with Ruby before glancing down and popping open her suitcase, checking to see if what Ruby said was true. Glancing back up she snapped her suitcase shut.
"I…" Weiss closed her eyes and quickly brushed off the front of her skirt. "Thank you."
"You're welcome. Sorry for Jaune, by the way, he was distracted because he was talking to me. We were just trying to get to orientation fast." She explained with a smile. The two of them locked eyes again. Silver and ice blue. Weiss took a breath, shot one last glare at the dark haired girl, before turning to Jaune.
"Watch where you're going." With that, Weiss spun gracefully on the spot and took off toward the school. Her butlers fell in line behind her, though she noticed the short and stout man she had spoken to walked beside her. Ruby turned to Jaune and didn't notice one last glance the heiress had thrown over her shoulder aimed that the caped girl.
"I owe you a million Ruby, that girl was seriously scary. That was pretty awesome how you got her to calm down." Jaune complemented, wiping his forehead.
"Ah, don't mention it and she was just angry not scary." Ruby clasping her hands behind her back.
"Is there a difference?" He asked as he brushed his jeans off. Ruby closed her eyes and saw the image of burning red eyes in her mind.
"To me there is."
"I guess. Hey, where did that dark haired girl go?"
I was going to space the chapters that I had already written out more, but I'm gonna fish for feedback lol.
Little Changes in this chapter: Ruby meets Jaune before meeting Weiss, Ruby and Yang flew separate, Jaune bumps into Weiss and subsequently gets chewed out, and Ruby gives off a much more competent first impression than she did before. Mostly because I had her understand the energy source that she somehow knows nothing about in cannon despite being a 'weapons nerd'. If you are wondering where the 'knows nothing about' part comes from, it's from the manga which 'is canon until it isn't'.
Thanks for reading friendos and shout out to anyone who followed and favorited. Special shout out to swimfeared for being my first follow and to TheLatiKing for being my first favorite. I'll probably post another one tomorrow or the day after but don't expect the pace to stay this quick. A lot of this has been pre-written.