Ruby woke to a room filled with only the sound of a light drizzle falling against the glass between Weiss's bed and Blake's. The sky was still dark outside, and the curtains were drawn back from the night before. After a large, Hunters-only dinner banquet, the teams were released to their dorms. Every team was given a new room number and key, as the freshmen had to take the rooms the now sophomores had, and so on. Team RWBY was already exceptionally tired and worn out from initiation, and with a large amount of food that needed digesting in their stomachs, the team agreed to unpack in the morning, leaving their luggage strewn about the room for now, only touched last night to retrieve pajamas.
Ruby shivered, even under the blanket she wrapped herself in last night. She missed being able to cuddle with her children, a luxury she got all too used to at Qrow's. She made the executive decision that the wolves will stay outside of the dorms, out of courtesy for their resident cat faunus. Which reminded Ruby, that was gonna a fun discussion, to explain how she knew. Not today.
Sunlight slowly broke the horizon, filtered through the grey rain clouds. The little light that did enter the room drew Yang from her slumber. The blonde looked around the room in slight confusion, before her memories clicked into place. Her eyes eventually locked with Ruby's.
"Heya Rubes. How long you been up?" Yang's voice sounded drowsy. She mumbled beneath her breath something about, "coffee."
"I dunno, ten minutes maybe." Yang made a noncommittal grunt of acceptance, before she glanced at the two sleepy-head teammates in their beds between the sisters.
"I'm going to go get some coffee… want any Rubes?"
"Sure, since Qrow got me addicted to that filth. I take mine with cream and five of those little sugar cubes." The blonde snorted with laughter, before she jumped off her bunk, and left without bothering to get dressed in more than her tank top and shorts. Her thump on the ground rustled Weiss and Blake from their slumber, both twisted in their beds to watch the blonde leave the room. Shortly thereafter, the catgirl pulled her comforter over her head. The blankets rustled around, before Blake popped her face out, glaring at the world from her perfect little blanket-cave. The young leader chuckled a bit at the sight.
"What," Blake demanded more than asked with an unamused tone.
"Nothing." Yes, she wanted to protect Blake's secret, but knowing the truth made the catgirl's actions frighteningly amusing. Weiss thoroughly ignored this interaction, with a hairbrush already in hand on her way towards the room's single bathroom.
With a slight glare towards the young leader, Blake snuggled back into her blanket. Ruby—who had the foresight to shower the night previous—jumped down to gather her clothes for the day, and brush her hair.
Shortly after Weiss emerged from the bathroom—dressed in the same dress-and-jacket pair she wore to initiation—Yang also returned, two mugs of coffee in her hands, one nearly half empty already.
"Ruby, take your… poison," the blonde said, only half-jokingly. The concoction quickly filled the room with its sickeningly sweet smell—a smell that only Ruby could enjoy. The nearly full mug disappeared in a flash of rose petals and whispered thanks as the girl returned to her corner of the room. The older sister threw back the remaining black tar from her own cup, which let Yang's reinvigorated gaze search the room, with its vacant walls and plain beds.
"Time to unpack, I guess." Yang commented, if only to break the silence. Blake and Weiss made their respective sounds of agreement, while Ruby simply stood from her bed beside her suitcase, left there by Beacon's staff. She didn't bring much, if only by virtue of not needing much. Clothes, ammunition, maintenance tools for Crescent Rose, a mostly flat pouch that carried her '...female necessities,' as her Uncle called it, pause in speech and all. She unpacked and had everything where she needed it within five minutes, tops. The coffee had inexplicably disappeared during her unpacking.
Her sister, partner, and teammate were still busied with their own unpacking, and moved furniture around so that it could all fit. Thankful for the opportunity, and with confidence they wouldn't notice until her return, Ruby slipped out the room. She had wolves to go hunting with!
Just outside the door to the First Year Dormitories sat all three of her children, excitement on their snouts already staring at where they knew Ruby's face would be. Even Fenrir, who despite his grumpiness throughout a normal day, looked relieved to see her, albeit the mental connection related his slight distraught by the thought they couldn't enter her room.
"Aw, come on Fenrir. You know Blake would flip out. I'm just looking out for her," Ruby said, a bit of downplay towards her darkest pup snuck in with her motherly tone. She crouched down and scritched each wolf behind the ears, then stood to lead them into the forest.
'Just because I know that doesn't mean I like it.' Each pup stood and followed their mother as she began her stride.
'You just like being momma's bedwarmer,' Sköll's 'voice' flitted across the mind sphere that was the group's mental connection, shortly followed by a growl. Ruby simply rolled her eyes, and with one deft move expanded her scythe.
"You're all so cute. So, how does a hunt sound this fine morning?" All three wolves responded with both audible and mental cries of agreement, ready to stretch their legs in the morning fog. All four darted into the forest again. Ruby neglected to use her semblance so that her kids could lead her toward a good hunt. Fenrir picked up a scent first and darted off northeast, which pulled the rest of the pack with him. A scant few moments of dashing through the trees was shortly followed by minutes of stalking. The pack had snuck up on an elk. Not a challenge for the young Huntress, who was used to fighting off creatures as strong as Ursai on her own. But this wasn't for her. This was for her children, another of Qrow's training ideas.
The three wolves snuck through the bushes ever carefully, their mother crouched on a thick branch overhead. Sköll knew he couldn't use his semblance if he wanted to eat anything. His "boulder" was more of a flaming dirt pile. It broke apart on impact, contaminating whatever meat it touched. As such, he snuck forward with his brother and sister, whose semblances were as of yet unknown.
As they were about to pounce on their unsuspecting prey, Hati misstepped. The crack of a snapped twig alerted the oversized mammal, and the white wolf's own surprise made her slip in the mud. The elk jumped onto its back legs in an attempt to turn and run, which narrowly avoided its death. What would have been a gash across its throat was now a cut hamstring and tumbling Sköll. Fenrir jumped out of his bush in front of the cornered animal, growled with a glare into the scared animal's eyes, and jumped in mimicry of his brother.
The black wolf found purchase, his canines piercing into the elk's throat. As hard as he could, Fenrir ripped that chunk of meat out, which pulled the near-dead mammal crashing to the ground. The three wolves backed up, as Ruby fell to the ground in the creature's sight.
"Does your sister always leave without telling anyone?" Weiss asked, very annoyed about pretty much everything. The three of the remaining team members finished their unpacking, which brought about a rather obvious problem. Aside from Ruby's practically untouched quarter of the dorm, nothing fit. Weiss—with the help of Yang—pushed her and Blake's beds together in an attempt to fit two dressers, one for each half of Team RWBY. Now, both dressers were jammed in diagonally, with clearly no space to straighten out and be flush against the back wall. Four study desks laid two-by-two against the door-wall with nary functional space. And that was just the furniture.
All in all, it was a mess. One that had no easy answer, by way of Weiss's adamant refusal to touch Ruby's stuff—or lack thereof—and bunk-beds required a "three-to-one vote" for the heiress to even reluctantly allow.
"You're the one who keeps making up bullshit. Ruby probably doesn't care." Yang yelled back, frustrated of her own right at her sister's habit of disappearing.
"Yang. Before anything, you have Ruby's scroll number. Text her, and tell her to come back. Simple as that." Blake spoke in an attempt to stop the fight she knew was already brewing. Those two were going to be a pain in the ass. She could tell.
"Oh, right. Durh." Yang dove for her scroll on her nightstand on the other side of her bed, crammed as it was. The scroll emitted a faux-clicking sound as the blonde typed, and with a whoosh her simple message sent.
Vvvvbbt.
Not even a second later Ruby's scroll lit up and vibrated across the room on the leader's bed.
"Goddamnit Ruby." Three facepalms followed Yang's exasperated sigh.
"Luckily it's raining, even if only a little. We can find footprints or something in the mud. And yes, Weiss, you're coming. You were the one who had the issue to begin with." Blake led them out of the dormroom and building itself shortly after. She was indeed correct, a pair of distinctly Ruby-boot-shaped tracks and multiple canine tracks led down into the forest for them to follow. Along the way, Blake caught wind of something following the trio, but to keep her secret, she deigned not to bring attention to it. Safer if Yang or Weiss took notice first.
Around a particularly thick tree, their red leader finally came into view, scythe held high and her back facing toward them. With a loud bark, her scythe discharged a burn round, and a downward swing started. The strike swung true, and startled all three members of team RWBY when a red, glistening trail of blood splurted forth, following the scythe blade back into the air.
"Oh god, Ruby!" Yang cried in surprise, her hand over her mouth. Her 'innocent' little sister started at the sound. Instinct took over. The Red Reaper practically teleported a few feet to the left in a flurry of petals, her scythe primed to strike as soon as she assessed the situation. Her move revealed the elk, its head freshly hewn.
"Oh, hi guys!" She flicked her scythe clean, sending drops of blood onto another tree. After fishing a granola bar out of her pocket and taking a bite of it a mental command broke its way across the connection with her children, before the Wolves began eating their breakfast. Ruby looked a little bit harder at her team, this time noticing the looks on their faces. "What? They're just eating. Freaked out by a little blood?"
"That is more than 'just a little blood!' You've damn near drenched the ground in it!" Weiss screeched, her own disgust rolling off into the sentence.
"That? Nah, that's nothing. You should see the amount that gushes out after killing some of the bigger game back on Patch." Ruby cracked an awkward smile, now rubbing her neck. Seeing her teammate's expressions darken, she panics. "Hey! At least I put my hunts out of their misery! Wild wolves would eat their meat as soon as they had it still. They don't care if it's dead or not."
"You're also not a wolf, Ruby." Blake said in a reminding, stern tone.
"I-I mean… no…? I'm not." Ruby's expression turned confused for a moment, and her head tilted to the side to stare at Blake in askance, "what's your point?"
Weiss steps forward, irritation written plain on her face. "Her point is you aren't some animal so you shouldn't behave like one."
That was hardly fair in Ruby's own opinion. She wasn't on the ground with her wolves gorging herself on raw meat, all she had done was end the poor animal's suffering. Something her children wouldn't have bothered to do themselves. If anything she was being decidedly humane and having her act of decency turned on her like she was doing something terrible is something the young huntress found frustrating in the extreme.
"- talking about." She mumbled darkly her gaze focused on the ground to avoid glaring at her team. She hadn't meant to say it aloud but still, someone caught it.
"What was that?" Came the stiff response from Weiss as her irritation shows clearly on her face.
"I said you two have no idea what you're talking about!" Ruby repeated at a shout, lifting her head to glare at the white and black pair in challenge. "Weiss, is it acting like an animal to save a suffering creature from it's pain in a quick merciful way? Sure it's a little messy but that's what happens when a wolf catches it's prey. It was always going to be messy but at least now the elk isn't suffering!"
"And you!" She continues turning from her stunned and hopefully considering partner to Blake. "I expected better from you! I thought if anyone could understand what it's like to be judged unfairly it would be you! You don't see me comparing you to cats just because you're a Faunus!" The red cloaked girl finishes only to cover her mouth as she realizes what she just said. Silence permeated the area, naught but bird chirps bounced between the trees. The heiress, mouth agape, took an instinctive step away from the outed catgirl, whose own features twisted in fear. Yang, to her credit, rolled her eyes and held down the bubble of mirth that worked it's way to her lips quite spectacularly.
"Wait. So lemme get this straight," Yang brought the the growing argumentative silence to a pause with a look of realization on her face. "Our team—Team RWBY, officially consists of: the introverted lesbian scythe wielding prodigy and her wolf-children, the cold-as-ice heiress of an overseas multibillionaire company, the badass ninja cat with trust issues, and the only talkative person here, the blonde with mommy issues."
Other than a brief blush and wide eyed surprise from Ruby, and Weiss's, "hey!" she received no argument.
"Well that's just fucking great."
"Wait, how did you know… that?" Ruby shifted her attention to her sister. While the early slip up wasn't resolved, this was welcome paused.
"What, your gaydom? Jaune can't keep his mouth shut. Told me a few months ago." Yang said, matter-of-factly. "To his credit, he probably wouldn't have said anything if I hadn't asked if he was dating you."
"...I don't know who to be more disappointed in. You or Jaune."
AN: Hello again. Sorry this chapter took so long. The only reason this is actually coming out today is thanks to Blacsparrow. He helped me write Blake, since I have no idea how to do so and kept writing myself into corners. Go give his stuff a read if you haven't. Everything he does is top teir. Next chapter should come out in a much more timely fashion, I hope. I've already got some of it written. Have a good day.