Hi! Hi! Hi! Welcome back! I've been working on this story all year... WARNING, this story does contain MATURE THEMES!
Relationships:
Ruby Rose/Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long, Robyn Hill/Winter Schnee(implied)
Characters:
Weiss Schnee, Ruby Rose, Blake Belladonna, Yang Xiao Long, Winter Schnee, Jacques Schnee, Sun Wukong, Lie Ren, Nora Valkyrie, Taiyang Xiao Long, Willow Schnee, Robyn Hill, Original Characters
Additional Tags:
Alternate Universe - Aged Up AU, Lost Family AU, Semi-Slow Burn, Action/Adventure, Emotional Trauma, Emotional Angst, Connections by Aura, Platonic Sunflakes, References to Canon, Lots of Illegal Traveling, Broken Trust, Rekindling, Fake Identities
Location: Vale, Beacon Academy
Tuesday, May 5th
[Dust]
They were in their last year of Beacon with three to four weeks left of the semester.
However, the next two weeks of classes had been postponed in preparation for the upcoming Vytal Festival, giving the competing students time to prepare and finalize their battle techniques before the tournament. They'd also be participating in their second Vytal Festival this year, and this time it would be held in Vale! Glynda had even opened the stadium for any students interested in fighting inside rather than outside on the courts, as per Ozpin's request.
The Vytal Festival meant that all students had to ensure that their weapons were in tip-top shape to avoid any mishaps or malfunctions that usually occurred on the training field.
Blake and Yang had left the dorm early that morning to get their weapons from the Smith in Vale. Despite Ruby's eagerness and willingness to service them herself, Blake had been looking to get some modifications done, and she didn't particularly want Ruby to mess with her weapon. Blake didn't exactly trust many people with Gambol Shroud, the feeling even extending to her own teammates, much to Ruby's disappointment.
Yang decided to tag along with her partner for the fun, bringing her own gauntlets, Ember Celica, to see what could've been done if she had the Lien for it. Both Ruby and Blake knew that Yang was secretly hoping for a free modification, either by her luck or her 'Yang Charm'.
The right side of the homely dorm remained silent, the two single beds stacked neatly atop one another unusually quiet. The bottom bunk's bed sheets had been made tidy, tucked carefully under the mattress and around, but the top bunk still looked like a bomb had hit it. Sheets lay strewn everywhere, a pillow half hanging off, a duvet sheet pulled from the end from the results of a caught ankle.
The clock on the nightstand read 11:30AM and the bee duo had yet to return from their morning travel, thankfully.
Ruby and Weiss had their own plans on how to spend their free morning, having carefully planned the occasion for the past several days. Due to their extended free time, they seized the opportunity with open arms, and were using it to their full potential. It was a rare treat that the other two girls had the dorm to themselves for the better half of the entire morning.
"Shh, shh, quiet now." A sultry voice murmured quietly, just barely reaching her partner's ears. "Don't want the rest of the dorms to hear you, do you? It's not exactly early anymore."
"Easy for you to say…" Weiss murmured under her breath, gasping as a nimble tongue slipped inside her again. She felt a pressure and Weiss twisted her body, relaxing herself the best she could and pressing her face into her pillow as an attempt to silence herself. A sharp jab caused her to tense up, "Damn it." She whispered, gritting her teeth and refocusing herself on Ruby's soothing touch.
The tension eased away slowly and she felt something shift below her, followed by a soft clicking sound. "There." Ruby reassured her softly, calloused fingers coming up to touch the woman delicately. "It's done," Weiss glanced down, eyes following as Ruby crawled up to hover over her. "I thought you said it wasn't painful?" She asked, leaning over Weiss to set the vial on her nightstand.
"Not painful," Weiss corrected hoarsely, trying to relax herself, "just discomforting. Especially after what you did to me."
"Sorry, babe." Ruby giggled and leaned forward, dipping her head under Weiss' chin and dragging her tongue over the older woman's pulse. Weiss let out a soft hum, closing her eyes as Ruby's teeth scraped over her thrumming pulse point ever so lightly.
Before Weiss could become too used to it, Ruby lifted herself up, "How about Iris?" She questioned, raising her head to look at her girlfriend, who just grumbled in annoyance upon the lost contact.
The heiress let out a breath. "For what?" Weiss opened her eyes, blurry icy blue orbs struggling to focus on the brunette rested comfortably above her.
"For when we have a baby." The brunette answered, "Iris Schnee? Or Iris Rose?"
Weiss snorted, "You mean the baby that doesn't exist yet."
The reaper shushed her playfully, swatting at her girlfriend. "Quiet! She can hear you! You'll hurt her feelings!"
Weiss laughed, batting Ruby's hands away from her face. "She hasn't been conceived."
"Yet." Ruby answered almost knowingly.
"Ugh, you just have to have an answer for everything, don't you?" Weiss quipped light-heartedly grabbing Ruby by the cheek and squeezing lightly. Her partner whined in protest.
"Weiss~"
The named girl let go, letting out a gentle sigh as Ruby flopped to the side of her. Weiss felt silver eyes watching her carefully, turning to meet them with a frown.
"What?" She questioned, moving from her back so she could lay facing Ruby. The reaper smiled adoringly.
"I hope they'll look like you. Then I'll have two pretty girls to look at every day," Ruby said, lighting a fire that rushed heat across Weiss' face. She scoffed, turning away and tugging the blankets up to smother Ruby in them.
"We don't know if it'll even work," Weiss muttered, sounding almost downhearted. "It didn't last time…"
Ruby gave her a small smile once she was able to remove the blankets. "Well, it worked for that other couple… Who says it won't work for us?" She giggled enthusiastically, reaching out to boop her girlfriend's nose. "Don't be so negative."
"Oh shut up you dolt-"
A loud, unceremonious bang shook the room suddenly, scaring both girls out of their skins in shock. Weiss scrambled to cover herself, eyes glaring at the rambunctious blonde that had just entered the dorm. Ruby practically threw herself to the floor in a last ditch effort to get out as soon as possible, her legs tangling in Weiss' blankets half way and catching her, landing her on her shoulder on the ground with a whine.
"Guess who's back!" Yang boomed, swinging her arms into the air and clicking Ember Ceclia on her wrists as she walked in, "And guess who has new dust cham...bers?" Yang paused her excited entrance to take in the scene in front of her. Ruby groaned from the floor, standing up and rubbing the aching shoulder she fell on. Weiss remained paralyzed in horror and embarrassment, blankets clutched up to her mouth in an attempt to cover herself.
Blake peeked out from behind the stocky girl in front, bow twitching as her feline ears beneath took in the sight as well. She sniffed the air a few times, before a knowing smirk grew on her face, her eyes filling with mischief. She looked to Weiss and winked, sending a new horror filled crawl down the Schnee's spine.
"Okay well I didn't need to see that." The blonde said in slight annoyance, turning her eyes away to allow the girls to redress. Ruby disappeared in a flurry of rose petals and the bathroom door swung shut, Weiss carefully leaned over the other side of the bed to fetch her own clothes.
"Yang… knocking is nice-" Ruby, suddenly redressed in the blink of an eye, whined as she exited the bathroom. She glanced up to look at the old gauntlets, and suddenly all rational thought was out the window, "Whoa! Are those the new chambers from DustX?!"
Yang didn't respond for a second, eyeing Weiss wearily as she fidgeted under her sheets. She was met with a cold death stare, forcing her to immediately lose eye contact or risk limb loss. Her head snapped back to Ruby with a look of panic on her face, before she grinned down at her younger sister. She flexed her arms to show off the newly modified weapons.
"You bet! Didn't even pay a penny for 'em!"
"I'm pretty sure that's called scamming, Yang," Weiss joined from her bed, having finally gotten some form of decency beneath her sheets. The blonde shrugged.
"Eh, potato tomato," she hummed.
Weiss sighed. "That's not how the saying goes."
"Did you two get up to anything while we were gone?" Blake asked, placing the book she had brought for the flight back into the bookcase between the beds. As she did, her eyes found the vial Ruby had left there, a hint of surprise flashing across her face. Weiss turned to see Blake staring at the glass tube, horror crossing her face.
Weiss' stomach plummeted, swiftly reaching out and snatching the glass tube from the wood without a second thought, "W-we were just talking, that's all."
"Really, underneath the sheets?" Weiss' blood ran cold. "Alright. What were you talking about?" Blake prodded, a gleam in her eyes that Weiss did not like. There was no way Blake had not seen it.
"About going on another mission sometime soon," Ruby quickly pitched in, holding Yang's wrist in her hand as she examined the Smith's work, "It's starting to get really boring now, y'know?"
"Hm…" Blake hummed, backing away from Weiss with a suspicious frown. Weiss mentally thanked Ruby, pressing her lips together as she crawled out of her bed, shoving the vial beneath her pillow temporarily.
"Team mission or 'partner mission'?" Blake asked with an impish smirk on her face, sending yet another wave of humiliation through Weiss.
Ruby didn't seem fazed as the implication of Blake's question went over her head. "Team mission," she said as Yang retracted her arm back to her side, placing it on her hip, "if we can, that is. They've been very careful about what teams they send out with the Vytal Festival coming up."
The distraction allowed Weiss a few more minutes to adjust her appearance, attempting to twist her ponytail back into its asymmetrical position. She could feel Blake's eyes on her, watching her every move with a knowing look.
"Ah," Yang said as she flopped down on her partner's bed, crossing her legs comfortably and watching the red and white duo, "so that's where JNPR went. Was wonderin' why it was so quiet next door."
"Well it certainly wasn't quiet in here." Ruby remarked almost smugly, Weiss scowled at the back of her head with an expression of pure betrayal.
Yang laughed, "Well, yeah, with the two of you constantly going at it, of course not!"
The blood drained from Weiss' face.
"G-going at it?" Ruby stuttered, wearing an expression of horror.
"Wh- What's that supposed to mean?" Weiss barely managed to snark back, discreetly shoving the vial even further beneath the pillows. She could feel Blake's golden gaze watching her with mild interest, out of the corner of her eye she noticed Blake's ears twitch almost knowingly.
"With how much you two bicker, I'd be amazed if anybody got any sleep around here." Yang guffawed, unknowingly easing Weiss' already jittery nerves. "Seriously! Do you two have to fight at two in the morning? Couldn't it have waited?" Without giving them a chance to respond, Yang stood up and stretched her arms above her head with a strained grunt. "Anyway, Imma head on and get a shower."
Blake reached out and grabbed her partner's wrist, gently hauling her back down to the bed. "We can't." She reminded her, "They're remodeling the shower rooms for the Vytal Festival."
"Wha- they're really doing that?" Yang exclaimed in disbelief, "I thought it was just a rumor!"
"With how many students will be attending and participating in the tournaments, the board decided that they would need a little more space and somewhere to store their weapons." Weiss explained lightly, "The shower rooms will be under construction for the next few days."
Yang let out another loud groan of disdain. "You know," Ruby muttered from beside Weiss, attention fixed solely on the supposedly dying figure of her sister, "you could just use the dorm's bathroom. That's what it's there for anyway."
"Can't." Yang responded quietly as if all the life had drained out of her, "The water is only mildly warm, it's not enough." Weiss rolled her eyes as Yang pushed herself back up, "Well, looks like I'll be going without a shower until the Festival!"
Weiss' nose scrunched up in disgust, "Absolutely not. No teammate of mine is going without a shower for longer than a day if we can help it."
Blake hummed in thought, "Well, I suppose we could-"
A collateral explosion shook the room again and Weiss swore that her soul had left her body, if the aggravated ringing in her ears was any indication. "We're back!" Nora announced, entering the dorm as sound slowly returned to Weiss. Jaune stood frozen at the entrance with a horrified expression and his hand lifted, prepared to knock.
"Knocking is a thing." Ruby mumbled again as Nora strutted into the room and took a seat between her and Weiss. Pyrrha whispered an apology as the rest of their friends walked in. Delicately, Weiss reached under the pillows to remove the vial and navigate it to her pocket; with that done she stood and approached the door.
A pair of golden eyes watched her.
"Ha! Who knocks anymore?" Nora waved her hand dismissively while Weiss lifted the wooden door up. "Kicking doors down is much better! It's louder, more explosive, and nobody dies! It's fiiine!"
'My soul did.' Weiss wanted to say, adjusting the surprisingly unfazed door to set it back on the damaged hinges. She could wield it back together later, again. "Twenty years old and they still act like children…"
"See?!" Out of the corner of her eye, she saw life return to Yang as the blonde buffoon leapt to her feet with a grin on her face. "Someone who understands my way of thinking!"
Ruby's face turned into one of confusion, "But. . . The door. You know if it can't be fixed, we have to pay for it, right?"
Nora shrugged, "A small price to pay for fun."
"I'm pretty sure the cost of repairing damaged school property is out of both of your price ranges." Weiss muttered in irritation, cautiously checking to see if the glass object still remained in her pocket. "Okay," she said as she turned to face the group, brows narrowing as she glanced between Nora and Yang, "before I fix it, is anybody going to kick the door down again?"
"Maybe." Yang replied with a small shrug of her shoulders.
"Yes." Nora said shamelessly.
With a roll of her eyes, Weiss started back to her bed and took her seat beside Ruby, who offered her a small apologetic smile. "Well," the woman sighed, "I guess it can't be helped."
Jaune opened his mouth to say something in protest, only to stop short as he got wind of the smell that was lingering in the air. He sniffed a few times, before his face shifted into one of confusion, "Does. . . it smell weird to anyone in here?"
"Bet you're smelling yourself there Vomit Boy," Yang quickly said back, however Jaune shook his head.
"No- this isn't me. It's. . ." he stopped to take another breath, unaware of the mortified faces of Weiss and Ruby nearby, "Musky. . ."
Ruby's eyes met with Weiss' icy pair, flitting back and forth between her and the rest of the group. They hadn't had a chance to shower and clean up the room... "I don't smell anything!" Ruby said rapidly as an attempt to throw them off, she stood to her feet and hurriedly approached her desk to grab her weapon. "So um, how about we head to the training room?"
"Yeah!" Nora roared, rocketing to her feet from beside Weiss. The heiress held the bed as it shook with the might of the girl, eyes wide. She didn't need to fix a bed too.
"Let's get going then," Pyrrha said from the door, already carefully opening the half broken door, "We need to find Glynda to let her know we'll be there for the afternoon."
"Right!" Yang said, climbing to her feet to join her sister and JNPR.
Weiss breathed a sigh of relief, "I'll catch up with you." She informed them, wanting to properly fix her appearance and hide the vial before she left. Ruby shut the door behind them and Weiss stood to her feet, approaching her dresser and reaching into her pocket to remove the vial.
Her heart stopped.
The vial wasn't there.
Thinking that she must've dropped it somehow, the heiress spun around and icy eyes frantically scanned the floor for the glass item. She didn't see it anywhere, she'd even checked under the beds to see if it'd rolled underneath. 'No, no, where is it? It has to be here.'
With her luck, one of her friends had spotted it and had picked it up.
"Looking for this?"
Weiss' head snapped up to see Blake sitting on her bed, rotating the glass tube in her hand as she examined it. "Hm," the faunus contemplated, lifting it to her nose. Weiss' blood ran cold. "That's some strange dust, don't you think?" Blake asked, her expression remaining neutral when she turned to the fencer.
'That's not dust.' The look in the woman's eyes said that she already knew.
"Has a rose-scented smell to it." Weiss flinched away in horror, her thoughts raced as she searched for something, anything, to throw Blake off her trail. The woman smirked at her, "Any idea what it is?"
Weiss' mind blanked and she lunged for the item, "Give me that!" Just as her hand made contact with the raven-haired faunus, she vanished into a puff of smoke as though she'd never been there at all. "Blake!" The named girl spawned behind her with the vial still in hand, "It's just some dust my father sent for me to-"
Blake cut her off, "Oh, you and I both know that this isn't battle dust." She let out a hum of thought. "The dust has Ruby's scent," mischievous golden eyes met Weiss' blue pair, "interesting… Here." She said as she tossed the vial back.
"We weren't doing anything!" Weiss tried to protest.
"I never said you were." Blake pointed towards the worn black ribbon tied securely on her head, the piece of fabric twitching as her feline ears moved about. A sly grin formed on her lips, "Yang and I were outside for a while before we came in. I heard everything."
Weiss pales as Blake brushes past her, Blake's chuckles churning her stomach like an ocean as they leave the foul smelling dorm behind.
By the time the monochrome duo got down to the arena, the rest of RWBY and JNPR had set up. The indoor arena had been cleared of the stamina obstacles, and instead replaced with crates to create a cheap sense of cover. The rest of the classroom was empty, a dark shadow cast over the empty seats where students usually sat.
Yang and Ruby were leaning against the side of the arena when Weiss and Blake finally arrived, talking amongst themselves. Weiss watched as Yang nudged Ruby playfully in the ribs when her girlfriend's face turned beet red, followed by an embarrassed "YANG" that Weiss could hear from the door.
She smiled gently at the sight, thoughts of her own sister crawling to the front of her mind. Weiss had invited her to come see them fight in the Vytal Festival, but Winter has not responded yet, but that was no concern. Winter often went a bulk of time before contacting her younger sister, which was understandable. She did work in the military after all.
"There they are," Yang called from her spot, motioning all eyes to look over at Blake and Weiss as they joined the sparring session. Ruby tried to catch Weiss' eyes, curious and concerned at why Blake had stayed behind, out of all people. However, Weiss was more occupied with fixing her hair tie to be tighter, not wanting to make eye contact with her girlfriend, before looking over to the arena they had cleared.
"Everything okay?" Ruby asked, straightening herself up as the latter half of her team approached. She held Crescent Rose in her hand, fully extended and polished to perfection. Weiss finally looked up at Ruby as she registered the question, a carefully hidden blush appearing along the ridge of her cheeks.
"Everything is fine," she hummed, gesturing over to Blake with a hand and a very sharp look in her eyes, "Blake just wanted to ask me something."
Blake was muttering something into Yang's ear when she saw Weiss gesture at her. She smirked to Yang, who cackled under her breath. Playful golden eyes stared back at Weiss, the smirk lingering, "Yeah. Nothing important."
Ruby blinked, lost. Weiss sighed heavily, turning away as a heat crawled up her neck, feeling Ruby staring at her in utter confusion. She changed her attention back to JNPR's warmup, which looked like it was coming to a close. Pyrrha was pulling Jaune up from the dust, a compassionate smile on her face as the raggy blonde dusted the dirt off his butt.
"Look, Jaune fell for Pyrrha," Yang said beneath her breath, earning a shared groan from her friends as the other team walked over to them.
"Where were you two?" Nora asked as she got closer, Magnhild glistening over her shoulder. Ren folded Stormflower down, placing them into their holsters as he took his break, his hair pinned back out of his face. Pyrrha and Jaune joined behind them.
"I wanted Weiss for a second," Blake explained, folding her arms to lean against the arena wall. The Schnee could see Jaune's attention shift to her, enough for her to move closer to Ruby, who offered her a small, reassuring smile and a discreet, possessive glare in her friend's direction.
Either this kid couldn't take a hint, or he was extremely dense. Chances are it was both.
"Not to worry, we've still got plenty of time left to practice," Pyrrha said, placing Milo onto her back.
Weiss groaned, stretching her hands out in front of her to relax her shoulders before she went into training, "I suppose I wouldn't mind sparring-"
"I'll spar with you!" Jaune suddenly exploded. Everyone turned to look at the scraggy blonde in shock, including Weiss, who had frozen up more in horror than anything else. Behind her, Ruby's eyes were glancing from Weiss to Jaune.
"Pardon me?" Weiss murmured.
"I-I mean…" Jaune quickly recoiled, his eyes flickering back to Ruby before reaching up to scratch the back of his head, eyes shifting to the ground. He cleared his throat. "I-if you want to."
Weiss was stuck for words, looking between the stunned faces of everyone around her to make sure she had heard him right, and that this wasn't some kind of revolting joke. Yang's dropped jaw slowly turned into an open mouthed smirk, a laugh escaping her.
"Oh, I have got to record this," she mused, reaching into her pocket to pull out her scroll in preparation. Nora made a strangled noise of glee, shooting over to grab her own scroll from the ground nearby.
Weiss began to pace across the battlefield, weighing Myrtenaster in her hands as she made her way to a starting position. Just as she passed Ruby, she felt a hand grasp her wrist. She glanced back at Ruby in slight surprise, instantly reading the concern and anxiety in her eyes that read 'Are-you-sure?'.
Weiss sighed lightly, smiling briefly before starting back to the arena. Jaune meekly followed, looking back at the group of gathered girls and Ren, watching with a range of emotions. Nora and Yang were already recording, obviously shown by the blinking red lights on their scrolls in their hands.
Weiss took a breath, turning and facing Jaune 30 paces away, Myrtenaster lifted to line between her eyes as she focused herself. She swung the blade through the air with a whistle, happy with its sharpness, "Classroom rules. The opponent is out when he or she is touched, or their aura broken. Ready?"
Jaune shifted nervously, looking down at his feet as he nervously shuffled into position. He made a final few checks on his shield, before lifting his Sword into the air, "Ready."
Pyrrha hid her eyes behind one of her hands, not willing to watch what was about to happen. Blake stood beside her, watching with tuned attention.
"He's going to die," she commented, a playful purr coming from the back of her throat. Pyrrha nodded sadly in agreement, looking from beneath her red locks of hair.
"Sorry Jaune-"
"Go!" Nora bellowed, causing Weiss to dart off a glyph with dangerous speed.
Jaune yelped in surprise, bringing up his shield to block himself from the flying spear heading towards him. Weiss narrowed her eyes, placing a glyph onto the front of the white steel. Jaune looked over the edge in surprise, finding the newly placed rune glowing on the steel. He ducked his head beneath the cover, tucked neatly into a ball beneath it.
The way the boy was cowering behind his shield gave Weiss the perfect angle to bounce from as she jumped, the sudden pressure knocking off Jaune's face and sending him to the ground as the heiress bounded over him gracefully. The blonde fell onto his back with an "Oof!" as Weiss landed behind him, dust kicking up beneath her feet. She walked up to him as he was recovering from the dazed hit, whipping Myrtenaster down and gently tapping his shoulder with the tip effortlessly.
"I win," she hummed, before whizzing the rapier in her hand through the air and back to her holster, "As predicted."
"Aw man," Jaune sighed against the ground, letting his arms fall to either side of him.
Pyrrha finally looked up behind her hand once Ren told her it was safe, wincing at the state of her partner on the ground. She shrugged weakly. "At least you tried, Jaune."
"Good job, Weiss!" Ruby cheered from the sideline as Weiss came closer, hands placed on her hips as she walked. The heiress flicked some dirt off her pristine white coat, coming to a rest back beside the rest of her team. She passed Ruby an 'I-told-you-I'd-be-fine' look, not noticing the dip in the earth, a battle wound from an old training session that had yet to be filled. Weiss' foot caught on the divet, her eyes widening in surprise as she fell forward. She quickly summoned a white glyph, catching herself from a mouthful of dust and an utterly humiliating fall.
Yang's loud laugh and Ruby's snickers didn't hesitate to rouse an embarrassed glow from her, though.
"That is definitely being saved to the blackmail folder," Nora snickered. "Alright! Who's next?"
"Oh, Oh! Me next, me next!" Ruby begged, her eyes sparkling like a pup, in fact, Weiss could almost see a mirage of ears and a tail wagging excitedly behind her. She eagerly folded out Crescent Rose, the oiled gears shifting smoothly under her grip, "Who wants to fight me?"
"What about Pyrrha?" Nora suggested, pulling the interest of the redheaded warrior from Jaune, who was dusting dirt off him in clouds. Ruby's eyes sparkled even more, if that was at all possible, her stares immediately locked on the warrior.
Pyrrha rubbed the back of her neck, "I don't mind?"
Ruby disappeared from Weiss' side in a heartbeat, replaced by rose petals as she reappeared where Weiss had fought Jaune merely seconds earlier. Yang folded her arms, a smile still lingering on her face, "I think that's a yes."
Story has initiated! RWBY are in their fourth year of Beacon, nothing bad ever happened.