The first sign came during a study session.

Most of the class was clustered together at the library. As per usual, team RWBY was divided. Half of them, Blake and Weiss, were studiously poring over their books. Meanwhile the other half, namely Ruby and Yang, looked to be on the verge of death, melodramatically sprawled over the tables in despair.

"I can't work like this." Yang growled, pulling out multiple sugary snacks from her bag.

"Mm!" Ruby nodded fiercely in agreement, pulling out a snack of her own.

Weiss, mouth already halfway open to yell at them, paused. "Wait. Ruby, aren't those Vox Cookies?"

"Yep." Ruby popped the p, grinning with excitement as she tore open the packet.

That stuff was premium! The best cream and flour from Mistral, baked in state of the art Atlas ovens, this was basically as close you could get to fresh baked cookies when buying prepackaged.

"How did you get this? The local cafes usually buy up all the stock!" Weiss sounded outraged, no doubt because she had tried to buy some but failed.

"Well I-"

"C'mon Ruby, share some!" Nora was already clambering over the table, hand outstretched.

"Hey don't forget about me!" Yang wrapped her arms around her sister, seemingly forgetting about her own pile of snacks.

"No, they're mine!" The table descended into chaos as Ruby, Yang, Nora and even Weiss tried to snatch some of the fabled cookies, the four of them collapsing into a big ball of violence on the ground.

In all the ruckus, nobody remembered to ask Ruby where she had got this from.

...

The second sign came during a class. Professor Goodwitch's class to be precise.

That day, to everyone's shock and horror; she had decided to forgo combat class and instead carry out combat theory, which amounted to long lectures on how to fight instead of actually fighting.

All this led to the torturous situation where an entire classroom full of excited, physically active teenagers itching for combat were instead being forced to sit still through a tutorial on how to best hold a sword.

Yang's eyes were twitching. Her body, too used to Beacon's strict schedule, had produced an enormous amount of adrenaline for a fight that was nowhere to be seen. She drummed her fingers on the desk, body practically twitching as she tried her best to absorb the dry lecture. If something even slightly interesting didn't happen soon she was going to lose it.

Surprisingly, it was Pyrrha that broke the silence.

"That's a nice pin Ruby."

Six pairs of eyes swiveled over to team RWBY's leader. True enough, stuck on the lapel of her shirt was a pin. It was a nice thing, a red steel base lined with thin lines of rose gold. The kind that wasn't cheap or expensive, but straddled that thin line where it was nice enough to be a good present, while not so pricey that either side felt embarrassed.

Blake tilted her head. "When did you buy that?"

Ruby puffed her chest out proudly. "It's a gift."

"A gift?" Yang's eyes narrowed teasingly. "From who?"

Nobody missed how Ruby's cheeks darkened. "Uh-"

"Miss Xiao Long." Miss Goodwitch glared down at them, having somehow covered the distance from the front desk to their row without anyone noticing.

"Do you have anything to add? Perhaps you could share with me what is so interesting here."

"No ma'am."

"Please pay attention Miss Xiao Long, this is important. Now, since you are behind, why don't you come up and help me demonstrate the proper technique." The glare on the woman's face making it clear that this was the most merciful option available to her.

"Yes Miss Goodwitch." Sighing, Yang got up and trodded down to the arena, grabbing the generic practice shield that Goodwitch gave to her.

It was only a few days later did anyone realize that they still didn't know who gave Ruby the pin.

...

The last sign came during a shopping trip. The four of them, plus Nora, had decided to go on a shopping trip, partially because Nora did need new headphones, partially because Weiss insisted on maxing out her allowance every month as a small form of rebellion.

"That will be 470 lien. Card or cash?"

"Card." Stacking their purchases of two headphones and one electronic wristwatch on the counter, Weiss pulled out her credit card and passed it to the storekeeper.

The cash register emitted a harsh electronic beep. "It got rejected."

The heiress blaunched. "What? How can my card be declined? I wasn't even halfway through my monthly allowance."

"It's alright, I'll pay for it."

Yang grinned at the innocent offer, and even Weiss gave a smile. No doubt the kind hearted team leader meant to cover as much as she could with her limited allowance, and the rest of them would chip in to pay for it all.

To their shock, Ruby instead pulled out a large stack of cash from her wallet.

Yang's eyes widened. Wha- that thing was huge! Ok, it was all 10s, but there was at least 500 lien in that!

"100… 200… 300… 4! Here ya go!" Ruby handed the storekeeper the money, and pulled their things over the counter.

"Come on guys, lets-" she didn't get further than that before Yang grabbed her shoulders, trapping her in place.

"Ruby, where did you get that money?"

"What?"

"This money!" Yang snatched Ruby's wallet away, gripping it so hard it started to bend. "Where did you get it?"

"Ow ow! Yang, that hurts!" Her sister was also crushing her wrist, the flesh turning white.

"Did you pick it up? Did you steal this? Did somebody pay you to do something?!" Her face paled. "DID THEY DO ANYTHING INAPPROPRIATE?"

Yang, like most overprotective big sisters, was not thinking very clearly at the moment.

"No no Yang, calm down." Ruby tried and failed to pry her wrist away.

Nora hummed, already trying her headphones on. "Maybe her boyfriend gave it to her."

"Boyfriend?" Weiss looked scandalized.

"BOYFRIEND?" Yang, who usually would have jumped at the chance to tease her sister over an alleged romance, instead looked torn between that urge and genuine concern over whether somebody was taking advantage of her naive, innocent sister with money.

"Boyfriend? I don't have a boyfriend!"

Nora tilted her head. "Then what about that guy we saw you with the other day?"

Ruby laughed. "Oh, that's not my boyfriend. That's just Jaune!"

Nora was smug, Blake curious, Weiss scandalized and Yang a mixture of the three. But all of them asked the exact same question.

"Who the heck is Jaune?"