Author's Notes at the end
Jaune Arc liked to think that he had a lot going for him in life.
His family was loving and while they were a bit frustrating at times, his sisters were there to back him up if he ever truly needed them, just the same as he was there for them. His parents tried to give him good advice in life, although he found that his dad's dating advice hadn't exactly gotten him anywhere, having never been on a date or even gotten a girl to look at him in that way in all of his seventeen years of life.
There was a time, once, when he wanted to be a huntsman. A hero like the legends of eld, but one day, when he was young, Domremy came under attack. The walled city held firm, but it was the first time he'd ever actually seen a Grimm, and they… terrified him. Beings black as night with eyes as red as a blood moon, gnashing fangs and sharp claws…
…He decided that day that being a huntsman was not what he wanted in life. His parents were happy to hear, that was for sure, but that left him with a question of what exactly he wanted to do in life, divorced from that. He supposed he could become a police officer, or a paramedic, or some other heroic profession, but he just didn't know.
It was that confusion and lack of purpose that led him to apply to Beacon Academy, but not for the huntsman track, oh no, he applied for their civilian university program. Major? Undecided. He was going to have to take all the gen-ed courses first anyway, so he had at least a year to pick something to spend the rest of his life doing! Simple, right?
Brothers help him, he was hopeless.
At least he made it into Beacon! Those exams weren't easy, but he pulled through. It was his hard work that saw him to Vale, his parents had paid for him to stay in a hotel the day before he needed to go to Beacon for orientation. When the morning came, he was eager to get started with the day. He never expected to actually want to wake up early, yet there he was getting dressed in his Pumpkin Pete's hoodie, jeans, and shoes before he checked his scroll.
Six AM, he might have overshot it a bit on that whole 'early to bed early to rise' thing, but hey, he was excited! He hadn't felt this excited since… well, his last day of high school, which wasn't that long ago now that he thought about it. He was a very excitable person! Sue him!
He slipped his scroll into his pocket and started for the door, his suitcase rolled behind him as he went. Once he was outside of the hotel, he was able to take in the cityscape, he had seen it on his way in obviously but he was so tired from travel that he had barely gotten to really look at it.
Vale was a beautiful city, it had a nice mixture of high-rises and skyscrapers with more local and smaller establishments, as well as the occasional town house, although those weren't anywhere near where he was staying in the commercial district.
His mood was bright and he greeted people as he headed for the ship that would take him to Beacon. He had some worries about his motion sickness, but he also had his medicine! He should be fine. He greeted people with a smile as he passed, and they greeted him back. Bright skies, fair weather, and endless possibilities. Jaune's smile only grew as he approached the ship.
So began his new tomorrow!
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Ruby Rose knew that things were going great for her, which was something of a rarity for the weapons expert. Her main goal in life was always to become a weaponsmith, to build weapons for huntsmen and huntresses across the world and to maybe start up her own business somewhere down the line. She hadn't exactly been expecting to get sent up a grade because of her stellar work designing weapons, but the Headmaster of Beacon, Ozpin, had been visiting one day and saw her work. He said she should be brought up to a level that should challenge her, so he offered her a full ride scholarship to Beacon.
To say that she was excited was an understatement, sure it meant she had to say goodbye to her favorite professors, Burnside and Hazard, but still! Beacon had its own forge that had far more equipment than the one at Signal! One of her friends had even been brought up in the huntsman track due to stopping some robbery! So at least she wouldn't be going in not knowing anyone, even if they'd probably not be able to talk that much due to having different schedules.
Ruby was in her room, getting dressed in one of her favorite outfits. A black long-sleeved blouse with a high collar and red trim on the sleeves, over which went a black waist cincher with red lacing up the front and a matching skirt. On went thick black stockings and black combat boots, all finished up with a cloak. Swaying behind her was a fluffy raccoon tail, her fair skin had a marking on it, her mom called it a 'mask'. Regular racoons had them, and she did too, she also had sharper canines, retractable claws, and a penchant for looking through the garbage.
Well, she did that once, and it forever earned her the nickname 'Trash Panda' from her sister. She couldn't help it! Just because she saw something shiny she wanted once…
There was knocking on her door and Yang called out, "Ruby! We gotta get going, we need to be on that ship in twenty minutes!"
Ruby huffed, her bags were already packed and downstairs, so she didn't know why Yang was so worried. She walked over to the door and opened it, "Yang! I still need to brush my hair!"
Yang laughed, "Yeah, sure! As if you ever do that!" Ruby's hair was very fluffy and stuck out all over the place, over her eyebrows, just barely covering one of her eyes, fully covering her nape and ears… Yang was right, Ruby had no plans to brush it nor did she ever really want to. So, instead of protesting, the two of them made their way down while Ruby huffed about being 'defamed.'
When they made their way downstairs, they were greeted by Summer Rose, a grin on her face as her tail swished behind her, "There you two are! Oh I remember when I was first going to Beacon!" She hurried over to them and wrapped Yang in a tight hug, "You two keep each other safe, okay? Yang, don't be too much of a public menace, Ruby's gotta spread her wings too!"
Taiyang entered the room and gave Ruby a tight hug, in spite of her protests, "And you don't cause too many problems! Make new friends, have new experiences, but don't go dumpster diving and don't get in with the wrong crowds! Remember, don't let anyone touch your tail unless they're really special!"
Ruby returned the hug after a minute, "I promise I won't dumpster dive and I promise that I'll try to make friends." Of course the odds of her actually being able to make any were low, and she might well just outright forget about it and focus on her studies, but at least she'd try! On the first day, at least! The idea of having someone touch her tail sounded weird, Tai and Summer both acted as if it was a big deal, but Ruby hadn't the slightest idea why. Not that she would ever want someone to touch it! It was her fluffy tail, not theirs!
Summer grinned as the two parents separated from their kids and stepped out of the way, "You two need to get going! Beacon's not going to wait for you, you know!" She sighed, "Oh seeing you two ready to go out into the big wide world reminds me of when Tai and I left Signal to do the same thing! Oh you should have seen it back then, it was wonderful! This one time…"
The two sisters shared a look of panic as they started for the door with Yang calling back, "Okay, bye Mom, Dad! We'll see you later! Adios! Wiedersehen! Some fourth language!" Neither of them missed the sound of Summer laughing up a storm, no doubt this was her plan all along, she was sneaky like that. The sisters exchanged looks and a smile before they started towards the bullhead landing, from there they would be able to reach and board the big carrier ship that hovered over Vale for all future students, huntsmen and civilian.
So began their new tomorrow!
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The ship was massive, and Jaune continued to thank past Jaune for having the foresight to take his medicine, because while the ship wasn't moving yet, he knew that once it did he would have folded like a lawn chair. Instead, he found himself looking around the place and taking in the appearances of other students while he sat in the corner of the ship.
Maybe that made him weird, but he wasn't good with people! He could talk, but he always ended up saying something stupid, so he opted to try and think before he spoke. Although he knew himself well enough to know that he would probably still screw up. Especially because he faced an unassailable and undeniable problem: everyone on the ship was attractive! The boys looked like they had their lives together, the girls ranged from beautiful to hot to some other third thing…
Jaune knew he was going to have to try and get used to that. He promised himself that he would try to not be weird, after all this was a new place, with new people and new experiences! He could be someone better than tall, scraggly, and dorky! Someone better than 'No-Date Arc', called such by his friends from high school for having, well, never gotten a date in spite of his several tries. Better than 'Noodle Boy', called such by everyone because… well, because of everything. He was just a 'Noodle' apparently, as one of his sisters said.
At least he was a good noodle!
The ship lurched and he held his stomach as it moved with the ship. Maybe he didn't take enough of his medicine, but his stomach was not agreeing with this situation, not at all. The carrier shuddered and that was the final straw, he got up and hurried to the bathroom, internally cursing himself for not having taken enough medicine.
He vomited a bit on his way there, but he didn't have time to think about that! Instead, he made it to the bathroom and emptied his stomach contents for the rest of the ride. No time to talk to anyone when you were too busy metaphorically dying!
Thankfully the ride was brief, and when the ship came to a stop he hurried out of the ship, his stomach was empty but it still screamed in protest at him. He needed to lay down to settle it, and there was only one place to do that. So, he laid on his back in the grass near the path that led deeper into Beacon and sighed, staring at the sky.
So much for having a clean slate, now everyone on the ship, prospective hunters or civilians, knew him for vomiting. He could already hear the nicknames, he just hoped that university would be so busy that people would be studying instead of getting up to hijinks or causing problems for him. He heard talking and turned his head towards the source, which was on the path.
His breath hitched.
Long, white hair, ice blue eyes, beautifully pale skin, like that of a porcelain doll. A sense of fashion that spoke royalty, with a tiara on her lopsided ponytail that revealed just a dash of rebelliousness. Her face was unblemished, no scars or marks, and the only thing that marred it was a look of annoyance at a black and red haired girl. Her voice matched her person, with an air of regality to it. She chastised the girl, "You should really watch where you're going. What if I had fragile material on me? Like dust?! You could have blown us up and that would have caused a serious problem."
She looked like a goddess! Wait, no, that was too dramatic and creepy. She looked like a princess! Elegant, refined, beautiful, ladylike, beautiful, charming, did he mention beautiful?
His face heated up and he cleared his throat before directing his gaze up to the sky. He had already made a fool of himself by vomiting on the ship, he wasn't going to make it worse by getting caught staring at someone.
The princess walked away, the girl he had vomited on walked past and seemingly abandoned her sister to hang out with some guy that had long blue hair. Jaune guessed that he should have been glad that she didn't seem to hold a grudge, although the girl that had been left behind looked a bit bummed.
Then, that girl walked forward a few paces and then promptly tripped on her cloak and fell forward onto the ground. Jaune's eyes widened, especially when she didn't immediately get back up. Worried that she may have been hurt, he scrambled up and hurried over to her. Once he arrived, he placed his hands on his knees and leaned forward a bit to look at the girl, "Hey, are you okay?!"
That prompted her to turn onto her back and his vision was filled with, shocker, another beautiful girl, he hadn't been able to truly appreciate it from the distance he was at before. This one was a different kind of beautiful though. A racoon mask lined her face, and her bright silver eyes dulled with defeat and embarrassment. Her outfit was best described as 'gothic lolita', Jaune only remembered that term because one of his sisters was really into that type of dress, but at least he knew what it was. She was beautiful in a cute way, Jaune believed she would best be described as a 'girl next door' type.
She nodded and he held out his hm she accepted and stood up, "Thanks." Her voice was as cute as the rest of her, he had to admit. Then, she regarded him with a sense of familiarity, "...Weren't you the guy who vomited on the ship?"
Jaune sputtered, "Wha- I- Well-" He deflated, "Yeah." He grumbled, causing the girl to giggle. He huffed, "Look, motion sickness is a serious problem!" She started to walk, but her gaze stayed on him, so he figured that was enough of an indicator that he should follow her, "It runs in my family! You should have seen my older sister when she was just getting off a Bullhead."
The girl giggled, "Okay, Vomit Boy." That caused Jaune to gasp and sputter as he tried to put together a coherent response, causing her to giggle more, "Sorry, sorry! It was just the first thing that came to mind."
Jaune huffed, "Yeah? Well what if I call you Pavement Girl? How's that huh?" He crossed his arms and smiled when she suddenly looked just as embarrassed as he was.
She stammered, "Th-That was an accident! I tripped on my cloak!" She gestured to her cloak, even taking it in her hands and showing it to him, it also allowed her tail to be more visible as it swished around behind her.
Jaune noticed it, although he didn't need to see it to know that she was a Faunus, just based on the extra features on her face, "Well, the name's Jaune Arc! Got it memorized?" He tapped the side of his head, "Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue. Ladies, ah…" He huffed and deflated a bit, "Ladies have mixed opinions on it."
The girl grinned, her pronounced canines just added to the general slightly more animalistic look she had, and to the overall feeling of 'chaos' she exuded. Then, she responded, "Well I'm Ruby, Ruby Rose, got it memorized?" She tapped the side of her head, mimicking Jaune. She thought for a moment before adding, "Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue. People have just as many mixed opinions on it, boy or girl!"
Jaune was surprised, did she know what he was referencing, or did she just feel like mimicking him? He wanted to test this, he needed to test this! "Oh yeah? I guess both our names are… simple and clean."
Ruby's face lit up as bright as a floodlight, "Someone asked me once if I ever thought of changing it, but it's hard to let it go!" That prompted both of them to laugh, and just like that the ice was broken.
The two of them walked together and talked about what they wanted to do. Ruby was planning to become a professional Weaponsmith, while Jaune himself was left kind of embarrassed due to his lack of knowing what he wanted to do. Making weapons sounded cool, but he wasn't really that smart technically, sure he could fire guns, and talk about them, but make them? Not really his forte.
Jaune couldn't believe his luck, finding a friend had never been so easy!
The two of them made their way forward towards orientation, getting turned around a couple times in the process, but once they got there, they found the place crowded with students like them. When they got there, Jaune saw the snow-haired girl in the distance, her arms crossed as she waited expectantly for the orientation speech to begin.
He had to tear his gaze off of her, not wanting to stare, as he followed Ruby to where she was going. He arrived and spotted the girl he'd vomited on, Ruby had explained that that was her sister, Yang. When she spotted him and glared he rubbed the back of his neck and began to apologize, "I'm sorry I vomited on your shoes! I've got motion sickness, it's really bad, I didn't mean to." He hoped that the apology paired with a sheepish smile would be enough.
Luckily, it seemed to be, Yang just smirked, "Alright, Vomit Boy, you won't get pummeled today." Jaune had to wonder what she meant by 'today', but at least disaster was averted for the time being. Then, she looked at her sister, "I found out who that girl is." She nodded towards the white haired girl, "The one that got onto you. Weiss Schnee, apparently she's the heir to the Schnee Dust Company. Some big shot." She shrugged, "Doesn't seem that special to me."
So that's her name…
Jaune couldn't help but steal glances at Weiss while he listened to Yang and Ruby talk about what they were excited about. Apparently Yang was excited to try out the food, it was supposed to be top notch. Ruby was excited to see the forge, and Jaune had to admit he was curious about that too, but only because he'd never seen one before.
Eventually, everyone started to go quiet as someone approached the microphone. It was a fair-skinned man with short salt and pepper hair, was clean shaved, and had green eyes. He was wearing a pair of slacks, a white dress shirt, and a black vest, yet he carried himself with ease. He tapped the microphone before speaking, "I won't keep you all for long. The Headmaster is busy giving some big scary speech to the hunters-in-training, and you all get me." He grinned, "I'm Professor Kyros, Dean of the Civilian Schools, under the Headmaster. I also teach Dustology and Economics, but enough about me…" His grin turned into a regular smile, "...Let's talk about all of you."
He began, "You've come here, you eclectic bunch of bright minds, for a bevy of reasons. Some of you wish to change the world, some of you just want a steady job, maybe a house with a dog and a couple kids, and some of you… don't know what you want." The way Kyros worded it almost made Jaune believe he was being talked to directly, almost, "Regardless, you are all joined under our academy's banner with the goal of getting your education and finding your place in the world. The single quality that will keep you all going, that will prove most useful, is determination. You must be determined to get good grades, determined to do well, and determined to find what you want to do in life. Be it something big or small, you must forge ahead."
It was a very uplifting speech, but it wasn't over, "You might sometimes feel hopeless, you might feel afraid, maybe you got a bad grade, maybe you feel as if you've let everyone down, however! Your failures don't define who you are, rather, what you do and who you become in response to those failures is truly what makes you who you are. All you need to do to find yourself… is take the first step"
As the speech came to a close, the students gave their applause, Jaune had to admit he felt better about being here already. He supposed that was the point. The Dean concluded with, "Your dorms have already been assigned and your luggage has been moved, if you're uncomfortable with your assignment don't hesitate to talk to Residence Life to get it sorted out. Good luck." With that, he left the stage and allowed the students to begin filing out as they all got notifications on their scroll as to where they needed to go.
Jaune couldn't help but feel like this truly was the start of the rest of his life.
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Ruby couldn't believe her luck, finding a friend had never been so easy!
She'd never really had that many friends, actually, she'd only ever had one really. Everyone else just treated her as 'Yang's little sister' and tried to use her as a way to get to her sister. Ruby wondered if maybe that was why she was so obsessed with weapons and machines, they couldn't act with ulterior motives, they just were. Simple and clean.
Thinking about her meeting made her giggle, she'd never expected to make a friend who shared her same dorky interests. She certainly never expected to meet him on the first day. It was absolutely elating in every way.
This wasn't mentioning the fact that civilian students had a day off the next day, while the hunters-in-training were off doing initiation they were allowed to do whatever they wanted. They could even watch the initiation from some live-feed the school had set up, and Ruby was almost certain that was what she was going to do, if only to see how her friend did.
She was making her way to her dorm, it was a pleasant surprise to find out that she was rooming with her sister. The only reason she was on her own was because everyone else was still eating and she wanted to get a head start on unpacking her stuff. She also had two other roommates, that Weiss girl and a quiet girl with cat ears named Blake. She wasn't sure how to feel about Weiss, but Blake seemed nice!
Ruby walked into the lobby of the civilian dorms that she was assigned to. Then, she spotted someone.
Her breath hitched.
Crimson hair pulled back into a ponytail drew her attention first, then the green eyes that blinked with a distant look in them. Fair features created a beautiful figure, the most beautiful that Ruby had ever seen. She was wearing a pair of jeans and a shirt that was as red as her hair.
The girl was looking at her scroll with a look of confusion on her face. Ruby wasn't that good at telling what people were thinking but it was easy to tell that she was lost. If she had a bit more courage she might have offered help, but instead she tried to walk past…
…Only for the girl to wave her down, "A-Ah, excuse me! This is the civilian dorm, right?" She smiled politely, her voice was warm, "I'm trying to make sure before I go deeper in since before I got lost in the huntsmen dorms for awhile until a second year pointed me in the right direction." She grinned sheepishly, "That was embarrassing."
Ruby swallowed a lump in her throat, in all her life she'd never met someone, guy or girl, who'd looked quite like her. She'd had crushes on a few different people, her friend that she'd known from grade school, he was great, but still ultimately just a friend. Then there were some other people, but she never pursued any of them, mostly because a lot of them were just being friendly to her to try and get to know her sister.
She did eventually respond, to her own credit, "A-Ah, yeah! Th-This is it! Normal people dorms! Like me, I'm a normal girl!" She laughed nervously, "N-Normal knees and all that, not any bees knees."
The girl sighed, "Oh thank the brothers." She smiled, "Thank you so much!" She grinned and Ruby felt her heart skip a beat, not literally but certainly close to it.
After that Ruby waved, "A-Ah, no problem! I'm just gonna… get going. Alright, seeya!" She lowered her voice at the end there, only drawing a confused look, causing Ruby to get more embarrassed, she ran off, "Sorry, bye!"
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The rest of Jaune's first day was, thankfully, pretty good.
His new roommates were interesting, Pyrrha was apparently some kind of champion athlete, which was kind of amazing to him. He didn't view her as a celebrity, because he honestly had no clue about it beforehand, but still, one would think that someone like her might want to become a huntress. Then there was Nora and Ren, they were the reason why Jaune believed there had to be some sort of bias towards who ended up rooming together, because Nora and Ren had known each other their whole lives, starting at pre-school all the way to then.
Nora was an MMA fighter, a boxer, a lover of pancakes… As well as a massive ball of energy. On the first day alone Nora had talked up such a storm that Jaune had trouble remembering what they had talked about in the first place, she wanted to be a sports coach of some kind, Jaune couldn't remember what sport exactly. Ren, in stark contrast, was a quiet guy. He read books, spoke in short sentences, barely emoted much before small smirks or frowns, and generally acted a bit weird. He was still a cool guy, just very mysterious. He wanted to be a librarian, apparently at least in part so he could have all of the quiet time he wanted, even if he had to do more than just read books.
Jaune might not have exactly understood wanting to be a librarian, but he could respect it.
The next day there really was nothing to do, given that civilian students had the day to themselves, and that meant Jaune was left to wander. Sure, he could have hung out with his roommates, but Nora tired him out faster than a marathon run, Ren was really reserved, and Pyrrha… Well, there really was nothing off about Pyrrha, but he also had no idea what she did for fun, nor did he even really know her to begin with, so he decided to just take the day and explore on his own.
Well, that was what he was going to do.
Just as he was leaving the dorms and heading out for the courtyard, he heard a familiar voice call out to him, "Hey! Jaune!" He turned around and saw Ruby hurrying towards him, she stopped and placed her hands on her hips, "What're you up to?" She smiled.
Jaune rubbed the back of his head, "Ah, I… I'm not sure to be honest." He smiled sheepishly, "My roommates are cool and all but I don't really know them that well so I was just going to look around a bit."
Ruby pitched forward ever so slightly, a smirk on her face, "I know what you should do! You need to let me take you to my sister's favorite store so you can buy her some new boots!"
Jaune blinked, he knew that Yang was her sister, but he hadn't expected the 'boot incident' to get brought up again, "Uhm… why? Is she gonna do something if I don't?"
Ruby nodded and declared, "Yep!" With a poppin' P, "If you don't nip this in the bud, you better believe you'll never get a chance to talk to Weiss, 'cause Yang will be dragging you around to every store in Vale as retribution!" At Jaune's surprised look, Ruby rolled her eyes, "Please, Jaune, I saw how you were looking at her during orientation, I might not be that smart with people but I can tell that! Weiss is my roommate, and so is Yang, so you know Yang could conspire to keep you away from her."
He knew she had a point, he wasn't exactly subtle, as much as he tried to be. The fact that his new friend was offering to help him avoid disaster in the form of her scary sister was more than welcome. He smiled, "Well, alright. Thanks for the heads up, so… where should we get those boots?"
Ruby's victorious smirk told him she knew exactly where to go before she even spoke, her tail swishing from underneath her cloak, "Come on, let's get down to Vale! I know just the place." She had learned early on that there were some places that didn't like people like her, luckily it was apparently not as bad as it used to be due to the efforts of the White Fang in spreading the peaceful message of the Faunus, but it still existed. Luckily, Yang's favorite clothing store was one of the places that was incredibly accepting of just about anyone.
The two of them headed down to Vale via Bullhead, luckily Jaune had taken his motion sickness medicine in anticipation of possibly going down to Vale to explore. He'd never been before, although thankfully Ruby was familiar, once they touched down and started to walk she explained, "Yang and I used to come out to Vale all the time. Patch is great and the town is really nice but Vale gets a lot of stuff earlier than Patch, like Weapon's Weekly! It gets the next issue a week early!" She huffed, "I didn't always get to come out here to buy the next issue but whenever I could I did. This one time my friend went to pick it up for me from this dust shop and he ended up stopping a robbery! I heard it was crazy! Wasn't anything big, some two-bit gangsters, they all got arrested."
Ruby was surprised with herself, she didn't really talk this much to anyone that wasn't her sister normally, yet it came easy here. She figured that was a good thing, especially as Jaune nodded along and whistled at the end of her story, "Sheesh, I think I heard something in the news about that. Guess those robbers bit the dust huh?"
His companion was silent for a few moments and he wondered if maybe the joke flopped, but then she laughed, a lilting and boisterous laugh. It was a proper cackle, she wrapped her arms around her stomach and leaned forward slightly as she did so as if it was the funniest thing she'd ever heard. Sometimes Jaune had read books where a girl's laugh was described as 'melodic' or 'like chimes', Ruby's was decidedly not that. However, it was just as infectious and caused him to break out into his own laughing fit.
The two laughed like maniacs for a solid thirty seconds as they closed in on the store they wanted to go to, 'Diogenes' Closet', the sign for the store had a barrel in place of the second 'O'. Ruby wiped a tear from her eye and caught her breath before clapping her hands once, "Alright! Here we are! Let's get those boots!"
Ruby greeted the cashier as they entered, "Hey, Skinny!" The cashier's name was well deserved. A spindly, black haired, brown eyed, boy with sunken eyes. He looked like a high school student, probably working there as a part-timer. The cashier just nodded to her and as they continued on, Ruby said, "One of the things Yang loves about this place the most is that the employees are not required to be fake. They can say what's on their mind, within reason! They can't go threatening or insulting people on a whim, but nobody's gonna care if they speak up against a rude customer."
Jaune supposed that made sense, and from what he'd seen of Yang it made sense that she would like a place like this. She exuded an aura of being very fun-loving and rowdy, the kind of girl who went to places like bars and nightclubs. The only place Jaune had ever been to that was remotely like that was a disco, and that was only once! "Sounds cool. Where are the boots?" She showed him to them and picked out the ones right for Yang's size, then he saw the price tag and his heart sank, two-hundred Lien… "Are you sure this is the only way?"
Ruby nodded and placed her hands on her hips, "Yep!" Again, she said this with a popping P, it seemed to be her thing, "So get to it! Then you can present them to her as an offering and stave off going on more shopping trips for her!" She honestly felt bad for him, but this really was the best way for him to stave off her sister! The hapless boy sighed, took the box, and made his way over to the cash register, where Skinny waited.
Skinny dutifully scanned them and said, "Bit whipped aren't you?" At Jaune's aghast expression, he chuckled, "I've seen it all too often. Guy gets dragged in by his girlfriend, has to buy some two-hundred Lien pair of shoes, then gets dragged off to do Gods know what else."
Jaune swallowed a lump in his throat, his face was burning as he shook his head, "S-She's not my girlfriend. I kinda ruined her sister's shoes by accident so she's helping me make it up to her." Ruined was perhaps both an over and under exaggeration, sure they could be washed and worn again, but would that stink truly leave? The quip about Ruby being his girlfriend didn't escape his notice, but he didn't think much about it. Jaune had a girl he wanted to date, the beautiful Snow Angel he saw just yesterday, now she was a girl worth fighting for.
Even if he wasn't a fighter at all, but hey, details.
Skinny chuckled, "Ah, so you're just a whipped friend. All work, no play." He bagged the box with the shoes in it and slid it over to him, "Have fun, pal." Instead of trying to argue about not being whipped, he just took the bag and waved for Ruby to follow, which she did. Together, they escaped and exited the store.
Ruby smiled, "See, was that so hard?" Instead of letting him answer, she just pointed forward, "Back to Beacon!" Jaune saw that smirk on her face, and the way her tail seemed to wag didn't escape his notice either. He was surprised to see it do that, he was pretty sure only dog tails did that, but maybe he was wrong.
Either way, in spite of being out two-hundred Lien, he could say that this day had already been a success.
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The first couple weeks went by in a blink.
Once school started, a lot of time was dedicated to studying and working on homework, some less so than others but it was still there. Everyone was still taking gen ed courses, at least, so there was that common ground that Jaune and Ruby could lean on. Ruby had an 'Intro to Advanced Weaponsmithing' course she was taking, but most people didn't have anything specialized yet.
The two groups of roommates had sort of defaulted into being each-others go to groups, for one reason or another. Ruby had found that Yang wasn't able to talk to her friend as much as she used to because he was a huntsman-in-training, so she defaulted to spending time with her roommates. Weiss, well… nobody really liked Weiss that much outside of her roommates, at least that's what Ruby gathered, she was a bit… prickly, but she had gotten better.
Her coursework was busy, she was taking eighteen hours of classes, which meant most of the time when the others were done, she was still going. Finally, Blake shared most of the same classes with the others but had a few of her own. Ruby still wasn't sure exactly what the other girl was aiming to get a degree in, but she supposed she'd figure it out later.
Jaune and his roommates were just as busy, but a pattern had developed. The two groups of friends shared a lunch period, and had a lot of free time at the same time. It ended up being somewhat natural, then, that the eight began to hang out together. Nora was a big factor in them finally getting into the habit of eating together, having befriended Yang over their mutual love of MMA and boxing. Ren and Blake apparently shared a book club, and Jaune found himself playing games with Ruby either in the common room or in one of their dorm rooms when both had nothing else to do.
The boy still could hardly believe his luck in making a friend like her so quickly, or even at all. She played the same games as him, watched the same Mistrali animed shows, shared the same sense of humor… Really, one would struggle to find something they didn't share an interest in. Yang had joked about them being a couple a few times already, but it was pretty swiftly quashed because neither of them seemed interested in that.
At least, not at the time.
Instead, Jaune had figured something out about Ruby. The fact that she had a crush on Pyrrha, his roommate and his second best friend at this point. Nobody else seemed to notice, but he did. It was subtle, the way her tail would wag when she was looking at Pyrrha, the way she would listen with rapt attention anytime Pyrrha started talking… it was obvious.
No more obvious than when they were all eating lunch together, for example, on their second Friday together. On that day in particular, Nora was regaling everyone with an exaggerated tale about a tournament she won once, while Ruby was, well… Stealing glances at Pyrrha, who was talking to Weiss about something. Jaune wouldn't lie, he was stealing glances at Weiss, he had thought of a few ways to try and ask her out, but hadn't been able to come up with anything concrete yet.
Ruby, similarly, knew about Jaune's crush and was certain that nobody else knew. Jaune had mentioned it to her, asked about some possible ideas, but other than telling him not to try and outright brazenly flirt with her like he was planning, she had nothing. The two had, in their short time knowing each other, become close friends and it was that friendship that was the catalyst to an idea that was cooking in Ruby's brain.
Nora had finished her story, "So finally I give him one good punch and he goes down! I won the tournament, made a bunch of money, and Ren made me celebratory pancakes with whipped cream and Red Sap syrup!" Red Sap, the sap only produced in a scant few places around the world, most predominantly Forever Fall, Jaune hadn't gotten to try it yet but he'd heard it was good. Not that any pancake could beat waffles, of course, those were superior.
Ren, as usual, stood by to offer corrections, "It was more like five good punches in quick succession, she won the tournament, made about three-hundred Lien, and… yes, I did make those pancakes." He nodded a few times, Nora didn't seem too bothered by his corrections.
Ruby wished she had a connection like Nora and Ren, she'd known a few people for awhile but had never reached the level of synchronicity that those two had. They seemed to know what they were thinking and even sometimes finished each other's sentences. At one point, Ruby might have called that gross, but now she thought it was kind of romantic. If only she and Pyrrha could have that kind of connection… She sighed and looked at her almost eaten meal of waffles, spearing a part of the stack with her fork and eating it.
That was when Nora shifted the conversation, spotting Ruby eating waffles, "Man! Waffles?!" She placed her hands on the table and leaned forward slightly, squinting at Ruby, "I pity you, Ruby! You clearly don't know what good food is! Waffles are weak, pancakes are strong!"
Ruby gasped, "Nora! You're one to talk, pancakes are inferior! INFERIOR! Waffles are the best creation mankind has ever made!" She couldn't believe Nora would speak such heinous heresy about her beloved food, it was an unprompted attack!
Jaune was having similar thoughts, "Yeah! Waffles are so much better! Pancakes get all soggy and the syrup just kinda slides off and pools around the plate! Waffles have built-in syrup receptacles, it's first grade, Nora!"
The three began to have a much too intense argument about pancakes and waffles, all in good fun of course! Although after about three minutes when they were discussing 'syrup to food distribution', Weiss had heard quite enough. She set her fork down and signed, "Could all of you please settle down?" The word 'please' might as well have physically hurt her to say, based on how she said it, "Your breakfast food debates happen at least once a day and it's seriously tiring."
That got them to settle down, Jaune the quickest of them all. Pyrrha giggled softly, "Weiss, you needn't be so harsh. They're just having a fun debate. A debate that I happen to side with Ruby and Jaune on." To Ruby, having Pyrrha side with her was basically winning the debate, she stuck her tongue out at Weiss, who fumed.
Weiss frowned, "Oh, is that so? Well, I happen to think that pancakes are the superior food!" She crossed her arms and looked away, "This silly debate is pointless when the facts are simply indisputable." Jaune couldn't tell if he should have been happy that she had it in her to participate in this most important of debates or if he should have been aghast at the fact that she preferred pancakes.
Naturally, the debate reignited, with Yang joining in on the pancake side to quote, 'even the teams.' Somehow, this debate got so lively and so involved that it began to spill into other friend groups! Although nobody really noticed at first, the debate got people asking the question, what really was the best breakfast food between the two? This simple question put lines in the sand, turned brother on brother, friend on friend, enemies into friends and friends into lovers! Well, that last one was an exaggeration, but the point remained!
The whole of the dining hall roared to life with this one debate, seeking the answer to this one question! The first question, the question that all had been asking since the dawn of man! Pancakes or waffles?
Were it so easy to find the answer to such a complicated question within the span of time that everyone had before classes began again. Unfortunately, it wasn't, and afterward everyone had to break for classes. The debate would rest, smoldering under the surface until it one day boiled up again!
In one of the classes they shared together, Ruby and Jaune sat together listening to the History professor, Oobleck, desperately trying to keep up with his lecture. Ruby had the luxury of a laptop, while Jaune only had his notebook, unfortunately he hadn't heeded the warnings that a laptop would be a savior in his classes. Eventually, Jaune had to stop because of his hand cramping. By the time he was able to start again, Oobleck had already moved on to something else.
Frustrated, Jaune groaned and face planted onto his notebook. Ruby watched all of this out of the corner of her eye with a smile, and then a giggle once he finally just gave up. She felt bad for him, she could only imagine what writing all of this material by hand would do to someone, "I'll let you borrow my notes after class." She whispered to him, causing Jaune to turn his head to her and give her a pained grin along with a thumbs up.
Ruby continued typing away as fast as she could, all of the talk about the Great War was rather boring to her. Sure, she loved learning about history, but at what point was she going to need to know what year General Leguna was born in? The important lessons of history are in the broader strokes and bigger events, not the dates! She whispered, "Hey, Jaune! Let's go for a walk after this, I've got something I need to talk about."
Jaune found that curious, the resident 'Trash Panda' as Yang had called her hadn't asked something like that before. Usually, when she needed or wanted something, she'd just ask outright, even if they were in class. He assumed it had to be something important, and so he just nodded.
After class was done, they were finally free to do whatever they wanted with their day. Once they were out and walking the peaceful paths paved perfectly with cobblestone (do you pave cobblestone? Jaune wasn't sure), they were silent for a while. They passed by some of the gardens the school had, there were roses and moonflowers, magnolias and more. It was a very beautiful place, Jaune couldn't deny, nor did he see any reason to.
Ruby hummed and kicked her feet out in an exaggerated manner as they walked, holding her arms out on either side of her as if she were tightrope walking while humming under her breath, "Hear my tummy rumble… It's crying out for food! I should just apologize, I know I was rude. Why am I so stubborn? Why do I cry and moan? Aah, there's one thing I want right now…"
Jaune recognized what the song was immediately, it was from one of his favorite Mistrali animated shows! "I wanna go home!" He finished the verse for her, causing Ruby to light up with a grin on her face, her silver eyes sparkled with joy and humor that mimicked Jaune's own mirth in his deep-blue eyes. She nudged him with her shoulder and he laughed before asking, "Alright, what's the deal? You always just tell me what's on your mind, you don't just…" He gestured around, "Wait."
Ruby took a deep breath, stopped walking, and turned to face him, her cape billowing and her tail twitching in a way Jaune was pretty sure indicated she was nervous, "It's simple, I have a plan, Jaune. You have a crush on Weiss- don't try to deny it!" She preempted him before he could and he deflated with a huff, both of their faces were burning red for different reasons, "And I… I ha-have a crush on Pyrrha." She rubbed her left forearm with her right hand, sheepishly smiling as Jaune looked at her as if it was obvious, "I think… we could help each other."
Jaune rubbed his chin, contrary to the jokes Nora made he did have some stubble, it was just very light so nobody saw it! He hummed, "Help each other? Like… try to help each other get our crushes?" He could have sworn he'd watched an anime with this exact premise before, but he couldn't remember for the life of him how it had ended, "I don't see a problem with that."
Ruby clapped her hands a couple times gleefully before jumping at Jaune and tackling him in a hug that almost knocked him over. He staggered a few times and exclaimed, "R-Ruby!" The 'almost' turned into a 'was' as he stumbled into a rose bush and yelped at the thorns, "RUBY! ROSES! THORNS!" He didn't even have time to dwell on the fact that Ruby was, for a brief few moments, essentially laying on top of him.
Oh, she noticed, but she staggered up quickly and helped him up, "S-Sorry!" She grinned and scratched her cheek, still burning red, although Ruby herself couldn't tell you if it was the topic at hand or the awkward situation she created causing it. Probably a mixture of both, she decided, "S-So, yeah! We should plan to help each other out!"
Jaune nodded, he was lucky his hoodie and jeans were thick enough to stop the thorns from piercing his skin. It was times like this that he wished he had aura like Yang or Nora… "Okay, well, neither of us have had a partner before, so… We're probably gonna mess something up." He wasn't necessarily pessimistic, just realistic, "But… we both watch a lot of movies, read a lot of comics, and play a lot of games. We should be able to come up with something using that stuff as a reference, right?"
Ruby saw absolutely no flaws with that plan, it was the best they had! She was well aware that she and Jaune were both mega dorks who didn't know how to hold a proper conversation with anyone, well, anyone but each other, but details! They could figure it out, they had only known each other for two weeks but their friendship knew no bounds, they would overcome this challenge and then go on double dates with their respective crushes!
There were absolutely no flaws with this, she knew it!
Meanwhile, Jaune had already gained an idea for Ruby to try, "Okay, so, you like shooting right? Like, going down to the range, renting some guns, enjoy the day, right?"
Ruby nodded, "Yep! I've got my own collection back home! Why?" She tilted her head slightly as the two of them started to walk together again while they plotted.
Jaune heard some advice once from his father, have confidence, and some advice from his mother, find an activity that both him and his date could enjoy. At least, should he ever find a date. So, he decided to offer that, "Well, shooting guns is fun right? Why not rent out the lanes at one of the shooting ranges in Vale and ask Pyrrha to go with you?"
Ruby gasped and exclaimed, "That's a great idea! Oh! You like comics, right? There's a new X-ray and Vav movie coming out next week, the first in a new reboot to the cinematic universe! That's really fun, I bet Weiss would love to watch that! Even if the movie is bad you can joke about it!"
The boy grinned and slammed his fist into his palm before swearing under his breath and shaking out his hand, "Damn, I need to work out." He muttered under his breath before speaking up again, "A-Anyway, yeah! That's a great idea! We should both get everything setup and then ask our crushes to go with us, but it's gotta be real chill, y'know, we can't just say it's a date. That might scare them off."
Neither of them saw any problems with that approach, and so they both set out to make their plans. Well, 'set out', Jaune only needed to buy the tickets on his scroll and Ruby only needed to call her favorite shooting range. They both agreed to make their plans take place on the same day, next Thursday. Ruby's shooting range reservation was a couple hours before the movie, and once they had been returned from their dates they could talk about how great it went!
How could this possibly go wrong?
/-/
First up was Ruby, approaching Pyrrha that afternoon while she was walking back to the dorms. Pyrrha was sweaty and wearing her workout gear, just a pair of shorts and a T-shirt over a sports bra. She had a towel over her shoulder and overall, she felt very satisfied with her workout that day, humming on her way back.
Ruby took a deep breath and quickly walked up to Pyrrha in short and quick steps, "Hey Pyrrha!" She waved, her face red and her eyes wide.
Pyrrha waved and smiled, "Hello again! How're you, Ruby?" She didn't know Ruby that well, all things considered, but she knew she was a good friend to Jaune and that was enough for her. Jaune had become one of Pyrrha's closest friends as well, albeit mostly through the fact that he was one of the few people who didn't know who she was at the start of the year, Ruby occupied that same space.
Ruby smiled and rubbed the back of her neck before speaking incredibly fast, "Oh, you know fine! Just a bit of this and a bit of that. Hey! You know I've got reservations for the shooting range next Thursday do you wanna come with me?"
Pyrrha gained a confused look, she wasn't into shooting or anything like that, so the question came absolutely out of left field, "Pardon? I'm not a fan of guns."
The confused look and question was enough for Ruby to consider this a failure, her internal voice was screaming ABORT! ABORT! To that end, she raced away, "Nevermind sorry just forget I said anything bye!" Pyrrha didn't even say anything, she was just incredibly confused by everything that had happened.
Meanwhile, Jaune was psyching himself up to ask Weiss out. The object of his affections was working on some homework in the common room on her own, it was the perfect opportunity to ask her out! He lingered outside for a moment and took a deep breath before he entered the spacious area, complete with two couches, a television, a coffee table, and a desk which Weiss was sitting at in the corner. He approached and started simply, "Uhm… Hey, Weiss. How's it going?"
She regarded him for a moment, barely glancing up from her homework, "Economics homework, and then I have a music assignment I need to work on…" She trailed off and jotted something down before continuing, "What is it, Jaune?"
He cleared his throat and finally worked up the nerve, the worst she could say was no, right? "Uhm, well, you see. I got a couple tickets to go to the new X-ray and Vav movie that's coming out next Thursday. I don't have anyone who wants to go with me, so I was just-"
Weiss blinked, "X-ray and what?" She seemed more confused than anything, "Isn't that for kids? I never did like spending my time on immature things like comics. Why?" If she knew what he was preparing to ask, she didn't let it show, instead she just looked at him with a curious and confused look.
Yet, her words were enough for Jaune to put the breaks on this idea, "Oh! I was just, uh… Excited! Cause I'm going with Ruby and wanted to celebrate!" He gave his best fake grin.
Luckily, Weiss bought it, or at least seemed to, "Oh, well, congratulations. Have fun." Then, she returned to looking at her homework and working away. Jaune took that as his signal to leave, so he just scurried away with his metaphorical tail between his legs.
How could this plan fail?! She said it was for kids! KIDS! Who could say that about the most popular comic series on the planet?! At least, the most popular that wasn't a Mistrali comic or a 'manga' as it were. All in all, he couldn't call this a disaster, considering that she didn't know he was asking her out and believed he was just celebrating getting tickets to a movie with his good friend Ruby.
Ruby, in the meantime, literally had her tail between her legs as she scurried back towards her dorm to retreat. Both groups had their dorm rooms directly across from each other, so it was inevitable that the two retreating hapless dorks would spot each other. Ruby swallowed a lump in her throat, she hoped things had gone better for Jaune, "It didn't work! I asked her if she'd want to go shooting with me and she looked so confused and she said she's not a fan of guns! GUNS! Who doesn't like guns?! I have ten of them back home!"
Jaune couldn't help but feel that that was maybe too many guns, but who was he to judge? "Right…" He deflated, "It didn't work for me either. Weiss said X-ray and Vav is for kids! KIDS! How could she possibly think that?! It's only the biggest Valean comic series in the world! Now I have these tickets and nobody to go with." He huffed and kicked out his foot at the ground as if he was kicking up dirt, "And I don't get how she doesn't like guns, I love those! Dad trained me how to use them in case I ever needed to join the militia, he always told me I needed to be 'ready at a minute's notice' in case the Grimm came knocking on our city walls."
The Trash Panda huffed and crossed her arms, looking around, "Man… If Pyrrha wasn't so beautiful and nice I would be offended." She still had a crush on her, that just meant she was going to need to look for something else they would be interested in together, "Well… I guess it's back to the drawing board. Man! And I already rented the lanes! I don't want to cancel that, I was looking forward to going shooting! Doing it alone when I rented two lanes would make me look like a loser, though."
The 'Noodle Boy' as Yang called him huffed and crossed his arms, "Yeah, and going to a movie on my own sounds lame. Part of the fun of going to a movie is being able to enjoy it with someone! That way even if it's bad it can be riffed on, joked about, made into a good memory!"
Ruby huffed again, the two mirroring each other as they pouted and sulked for a few moments in the middle of the hallway. Eventually, though, she got an idea in her head, "Well… You already got the tickets and I already rented the lanes. Wanna just go together and we can figure out a new plan while we're out? Maybe walking around town will give us some ideas." She said all of this while keeping her arms crossed, she turned her body left and right a bit while watching him, causing her skirt to flare a bit, her tail had emerged from its hiding place between her legs and was now swishing about normally.
Jaune didn't even have to think about it for more than a few seconds before he nodded and said, "Yep." With a poppin' P, "Sounds fun and productive, we'll figure something out, I know we will!" He couldn't imagine a better afternoon, spending time with his (still relatively new, all things considered) friend and figuring out plans so they could get their dates!
Ruby grinned and clapped her hands once, "Great! My reservation is at two, so… I guess I'll pick you up at one? That way we have time to get there and walk around a bit." She, of course, didn't think much about the implications of the way she was wording this whole thing.
Neither did Jaune, he matched her grin and mimicked her clapping her hands once, "Yeah! Looking forward to it!" The two then separated to go into their respective dorms, the day was drawing to a close after all.
When Jaune entered his room, he couldn't help but feel his mood uplifted significantly from the disaster that had unfolded just ten minutes earlier. In the room, Nora and Ren were sitting around, and not too long after he entered Pyrrha also entered and then went to go take a shower. Nora looked up from her scroll and smirked, "Well you look happy! Did you get your date?" Of course Nora knew about his crush, that wasn't a surprise.
Jaune shook his head, "Nope, but instead I'm going shooting with Ruby next Thursday and we're gonna go see the new X-ray and Vav movie, it's gonna be fun." He smiled and then made his way towards the kitchen the dorms came equipped with. Nora and Ren shared a look before shrugging.
Meanwhile, in Ruby's dorm, she saw Yang and Blake sitting around, with Blake reading a book and Yang playing on her scroll. Yang looked up and saw Ruby smiling and could immediately tell she was in a good mood, she knew her sister like the back of her hand, "Hey! What's got you in such a good mood?" Unlike Jaune's crush, basically nobody could pin down Ruby's crush, not even Yang.
Ruby grinned, "Jaune and I are gonna go shooting and then watch a movie together next week! It's gonna be super fun!" She took off her cloak, her tail wagging excitedly behind her as she went to her closet and dug out her night clothes. Then, with a spring in her step, she made her way towards the shower, "I'm so happy I found a friend like him, he's the best!"
The door closed, and once the shower was running, Yang and Blake shared a look. Yang started to smirk while Blake sighed and said, "Do you think she knows what that sounds like?"
Yang shook her head, "Nope." Then, she began to grin, "I know Jaune's got a crush on Weiss, so I dunno if that's it, but I can tell when there's hijinks abound and I can already tell…"
"This is gonna be fun."
Author's Notes
Ya'll ever watched Toradora?
This story came to mind because, between writing a bunch of more serious stories, I wanted something a bit more light-hearted. That's not to say this story won't have heavier moments, but it's still an overall lighter story. So, there's a couple questions that I have been asked in the making of this that I wanted to preempt.
Q. Why Faunus Ruby?
A. Cause I saw a cute image and felt like writing it would be just as cute, and it is.
Q. Why civilians and not just huntsmen?
A. I wanted to explore a new perspective of the world and figured it would be fun, and it is.
I'm not sure how consistent the update rate for this will be compared to my other stories given that this is supposed to be the story I write to decompress, but it will get updates. I hope you enjoyed reading!