Author's Note: Another experimental fic that has been floating in my head. Same as my previous deal, if people like it and want to see more, I'll start working on it with more focus, otherwise I'll keep it on the back burner.
Heavy breaths from a long distance march were all any of the four young men could hear. It was louder than the light breeze in the branches, the insects and birds, and even their own footsteps. Deep breath in, deep breath out. Did it help that each carried their own duffel bag's worth of clothes and personal possessions? No. Did it help that they were almost all wearing black on black clothes from head to toe? No. Did it help that this was the end of the summer and for all seventeen years of their life they had lived on a far south coastline? No. But still, the four young men trudged on as they were possessed by their ambition and the importance of their mission to make it to their destination. Someday, their homeland would be returned to its former glory. As soon as they could see the city of Vale on the horizon, the floodgates of complaints let loose.
"Noct," the young man with the unruly blond hair and blue eyes whined. "Carry my stuff for me wouldja?"
The young man with black, spiky and wild hair, replied, "Prompto? Quit whining, and get Gladio to carry it."
"Well, prince's orders, you heard him Gladiolus, open up them arms for my bag," Prompto Argentum cheered obnoxiously.
Gladiolus Amicitia, the largest of the four, both in size and muscle density, rocked long black hair, and a scar down his face, he replied gruffly, "Didn't you listen to Noctis? You are supposed to make me. So make me."
"Alright, calm down you two. Save some of that energy for the rest of the journey," the final teenager said. He was unique in a few ways to his companions. For one, his garb was the most well kept and formal. Secondly, he sported a stylish pair of glasses, which he does need to see. Finally, he was the only one sporting a different accent.
"Aw come on Ignis, you know you want to listen to them argue for the rest of the walk," Noctis Lucis Caelum said sarcastically. This got him a mock offended look from both of the guilty parties. This won him a small smile from Ignis.
"I suppose you could be right. Would be fun to see which one gives up first," Ignis Scientia replied back completely straight forward. It seemed that Noctis's sarcasm had just barely gone over his head. The next couple of miles went by in relative silence as the group continued making their way towards the city of Vale. They were actually ahead of schedule. Ignis had an itinerary that would begin in two days which meant that all four of them would have free time for 48 hours. Two whole days in a big city for the first time in 17 years. As they approached the edge of the city, the sun was close to setting.
"Hey Gladio, I know that you are too big for sleeves," Noctis said idly. "But could you put a shirt on while we're in the city?"
"I am wearing a shirt," Gladiolus replied.
Ignis cut into the conversation, saying, "Technically you are wearing a jacket, Gladio." Gladiolus proceeded to begin buttoning up his jacket. "Even if you buttoned up it would still be a jacket."
"Fine," Gladiolus replied, defeated. He set down his duffle and pulled out a tank top. He pulled his jacket off and pulled the tank top on. In this moment, anybody who saw him during this transfer could see he was completely ripped. If there was a single shred of fat on him, no one could see it on his impressive frame. He shoved the jacket into the duffle.
Prompto looked unimpressed as he said, "You did this all on purpose, didn't you? The jacket when you woke up this morning at camp, the tank top laying right on top of the clothes. You just wanted to show off didn't you?"
"No," Gladiolus said neutrally. Prompto gave him a look as if to scrutinize the giant man for any falsehoods or tricks. Ignis and Noctis however knew that this was completely true on Gladiolus's part. Gladiolus knew how to flirt, he was really good at it. It was a confidence that the eighteen year old had gained as the oldest and protector of their friend group. But he took his sworn duty far too seriously as he was taught by his father and the former Shield of the King back before their homeland fell. Gladiolus would likely never take a serious relationship until long after their current quest was done. Which they all knew was a job likely many years in the making.
"Maybe I'll believe you… this time!" Prompto finally said with a final scrutinizing look. Prompto was the youngest by less than a month, but at sixteen, he had the energy of a child sometimes. Even though he and Noctis were both the same age, it sometimes felt like they were entire generations apart.
"So, uh," Noctis started as he looked around for a brief moment. "What should we do here? This place is uh…"
"Really big," Gladiolus finished for him.
"And populated," Prompto added.
Ignis stepped forward and said, "Well first we should secure lodgings. We will also want to restock on dust before we go to the school. If we want to be particularly efficient, then the following two days will be ours to spend as we please." Once again, Ignis's maturity shined through. At seventeen years old, he was wise beyond his years and often mistaken for the oldest.
Prompto stretched his back and said, "Well if we are taking jobs, I call getting lodgings, I could really use some time to lay down and look through my pictures."
"Well if Prompto is going, then I suppose I shall as well," Ignis added after. "We'll need someone who actually pays attention to where they are going to find our lodgings."
"Hey!"
Noctis chuckled and said, "Well in that case, Ill look for a dust store, there has gotta be one nearby. And if I'm going, then-"
"I'll go find the dust store as well," Gladiolus interrupted, finishing Noctis's thought for him. It was a move that surprised no one present. The two of them would likely be inseparable for the duration of life.
"Then the plan is settled," Ignis replied. "Let us meet at the hotel and we'll figure out what to do for the next couple of days."
"We'll be back," Noctis replied and he and Gladiolus began to leave.
Promoto waved and said, "Take care! Bring me back a souvenir!"
Noctis and Gladiolus were both shocked by the sheer size of the city around them. Tall buildings surrounded by smaller businesses and all of it was lit up by street lamps. Occasionally, people would drive by and their car would catch their attention. Each new sight and sound was an invigorating experience. Soon, they found themselves down the street from a place called From Dust Till Dawn and decided they successfully found their shop. As they headed down the street, they were both bumped from behind and knocked to the side as a man in a white coat and black bowler hat, flanked by men in black suit vests and red ties, made their way down the street.
"Watch it," one of the formal looking men said as he attempted to push Noctis extra hard out of the way. However, his hand was caught by Gladiolus. The man attempted to pull his hand free, but the giant teen held steady.
Gladiolus threw the man's arm back and with a faint growl he said, "Keep your hands to yourself, friend. Don't want to accidentally lose it, do ya?"
"Men, we have a schedule to keep, please keep moving," the man in the bowler hat called. If the man in the vest had plans to do anything else, he thought better of it to follow his boss.
"Well, big city hospitality is exactly as we were warned, nonexistent," Noctis commented sarcastically. The two of them watched as the crew made their way into the dust shop. "Maybe we wait out here until they are done."
The two of them waited across the three way intersection for the group of men to leave the shop. As they did, Noctis set his duffle down and held his hand forward, taking on a blue glow. As if forming from glowing crystal, a sequence of weapons seemed to flash before him. With a focused effort, the weapons rotated around and then they slowed. As the glow faded, Noctis was left with a single blade in his hand.
"Hey, you're getting pretty good at that," Gladiolus complimented him.
Noctis nodded and replied, "I've been practicing. I've found that the more weapons I store that way, the more difficult it is for me to rotate through them. When we start going on missions as Hunters, I think I might limit myself to four or five, just for easier use."
Gladiolus nodded. He seemed pleased that Noctis was taking such an interest and initiative in figuring out his special abilities. That was exactly the type of initiative someone with Noctis's destiny needed to have for the good of the people around him. So Gladiolus approved.
Suddenly, the sound of breaking glass caught both of their attentions and they both looked over towards the Dust shop. One of the fancily dressed men had come flying out the window and standing on him was a small teen girl in a black and red skirt, with a red cloak. She stood up straight and from her belt she retrieved a red device. It began to unfurl into what was quickly revealed to be a large scythe.
"I'm not gonna lie, that is a pretty cool weapon," Noctis commented with raised eyebrows.
"Stand back, Your Highness," Gladiolus commanded. He gave his shoulder a quick rotation to stretch the muscles of his left arm. Extending out from a black hand wrap was a hefty looking shield. As Gladiolus approached the scene, the girl made quick work of the goons, but soon she was confronted by the lead man.
Gladiolus overheard the man say, "Well, Red, I think we can all say it's been an eventful evening, and as much as I'd love to stick around..." Suddenly the man pointed his cane at the girl. "I'm afraid this is where we part ways." Gladiolus leapt forward as the man fired a blast at the girl in red. Gladiolus landed down and slammed his shield into the fired shot, sending it careening down the street and impacting into the asphalt. However that brief moment of distraction was enough for the man to seemingly disappear.
"Hey!" the girl in red called out after the man. Noctis noticed the direction she was looking in, where the man was not climbing up a building's fire escape ladder. Before she gave chase she turned to the man in the shop and asked, "You good if I go after him?" The man nodded and grunted in confirmation.
Noctis watched her take off towards the building and she fired her weapon downwards and launched herself upwards. Noctis decided that Gladio would take too much time to follow her. So he stepped away from the building and called out, "Keep an eye on the shop Gladio, I'll take care of this."
With a small flash, Noctis was gone and a faint blue outline of his form remained for a brief moment. Noctis had thrown his weapon up to the top of the building and his bady warped to its position. Catching the weapon in midair, Noctis rolled onto the roof and he watched as a bullhead rose from behind the building. Noctis had seen a bullhead once or twice from when Huntsmen and Huntresses came out to their village for jobs. The man leapt aboard the ship.
"End of the line, Red!" the man in the bowler hat yelled as he threw a small red shard of dust out. If his approach with Gladio was any indicator, he was going to shoot it. Noctis dashed forward and appeared in front of the girl. He turned and grabbed her by the arm and he ran backwards dragging her along. The two of them barely managed to escape the blast. Or so he thought, because when he turned he saw a tall blonde woman manifesting a shield of energy.
The man disappeared further into the ship and a woman in a red dress and deep shadows stepped into the fray. Noctis noticed almost immediately how outclassed he and the girl in red were when the two of them ended up having a battle of epic proportions as they both expertly manipulated dust in an elemental maelstrom. So Noctis instead focused on deflecting the occasional stray attack while the girl in red fired her gun at the figure. Eventually the bullhead made its escape. Gladiolus finally managed to get himself up the ladder as the fight ended. Noctis was about to look at the girl in red and check on her, but she had already dashed over to the huntress that had intervened.
"You're a huntress," she cooed. "Can I have your autograph?"
Almost as if in an instant, the three teens all found themselves taken by the tall platinum blonde huntress, to a police station interrogation room. The riding crop in her hand had hit the table and other surfaces and it kept the three of them in line. Clad in white blouse and a black high-waisted pencil skirt with bronze buttons and black stockings, she gave off the air of a woman who was not be trifled with.
"I hope that you all realize that your actions tonight will not be taken lightly. You all put yourself and others in great danger," the woman chastised.
"But they started it!" the girl red replied.
Gladiolus snorted and said, "What were we supposed to do, let them rob the old man?"
"If were up to me, you'd be sent home. With a pat on the back…" the woman said, pausing. The girl in red seemed to get her hopes up until the woman's expression hardened again. "And a slap on the wrist." She brought the riding crop down on the table with a loud smack. After another pause she says, "But there is someone who wants to talk to you all."
Gladiolus and Noctis gave each other a quick look of contemplation before the door opened and a tall man with silver hair, a black suit coat over a green dress shirt, vest, and dress pants. He had a small pair of bifocals on his nose and they gave him a wise look.
"Greetings," the man said. "It seems we have two wayward visitors and… a girl with silver eyes? Tell me, where did you all learn to do these things?"
The girl in red said, "Signal Academy."
Noctis replied, "Locally trained."
Gladiolus added, "Taught by my father and his associates."
"So, Ruby Rose, if you don't mind my asking, why is an adorable girl such as yourself going to a school that trains warriors?"
The girl named Ruby seemed to get real modest and replied, "I want to be a huntress."
"You want to slay monsters?" Ozpin asked. Noctis and Gladiolus started to feel a little out of the loop.
"Yeah! I only have two more years of training left at Signal! And then I'm going to apply to Beacon!" Ruby replied and her enthusiasm began to build as she spoke faster and faster. "You see, my sister's starting there this year, and she's trying to become a Huntress, and I'm trying to become a Huntress 'cause I wanna help people. My parents always taught us to help others, so I thought, Hey, I might as well make a career out of it! I mean the police are alright, but Huntsmen and Huntresses are just so much more romantic and exciting and cool and really, gosh, you know!" She ended her excited ramble with a big smile and squeak of excitement. It was cute, but it mostly earned her looks of interest from the others in the room.
"Do you know who I am?" the man asked.
"You're Professor Ozpin," Ruby replied. "You're the headmaster of Beacon."
"Wait, you're the headmaster?" Noctis asked with renewed interest. Gladiolus also leaned in with a particular interest.
The man nodded and replied, "That is correct. And you two have traveled a long way to get here haven't you? Have your other friends arrived safely as well?"
"Yes, they are waiting for us, actually," Gladiolus replied with arms crossed.
Ozpin seemed to think for a moment as he sized up Gladiolus. There was a solid minute of silence until Ozpin finally turned back to Ruby and said, "You want to come to my school?"
"More than anything," Ruby replied earnestly.
Ozpin looked over at his associate who simply rolled her eyes. "Well alright," Ozpin said with a small smile.
"Wait, what?" Ruby asked. The headmaster stood up from the table and exited the room. His associate followed shortly after leaving the three teens inside the room. All three of them sat in silence. After a moment Ruby looked at the two next to her and said, "So I guess, we're now classmates. Great way to meet, huh?"
"I guess so. Could have been worse," Gladiolus replied. "Gladiolus, by the way. I think the headmaster said your name was Ruby?" He held a large hand out to her.
Ruby did not take it but smiled awkwardly and said, "Yeah that's me. Nice to meet you Gladiolus."
"Just call him, Gladio," Noctis said suddenly from the far side of his giant companion. "It takes a lot less time to say. I'm Noctis by the way. You can call me Noct."
"Noct and Gladio," Ruby repeated. She swung her legs back and forth. Her younger age was apparent by her nature, but both of them saw her fight, so maybe it made a lot of sense for her to be brought into the school. "Ozpin said you came here from far away?" Ruby asked, trying not to be socially awkward.
"Uh, yeah. A village far to the south. It is called Hammerhead, are you familiar with it?" Noctis replied.
"I've heard of it, but I don't really go anywhere much. I live out on Patch. So I mostly come to Vale when I am not going to school," Ruby replied.
"Signal Academy, that is on Patch right?" Gladiolus asked.
"Yes, both my dad and my uncle have taught there until my uncle started going on missions again," Ruby explained as the conversation got easier for her. "In fact my uncle is the one who taught me how to fight."
"He taught you how to fight with a scythe?" Noctis asked. "That's a difficult weapon to use."
"I used to be total trash at it until he helped me and- wait, I thought you fought with a sword how would you know how difficult the scythe is?" Ruby asked, surprised. Noctis seemed to be a bit bashful before he could answer. Gladiolus however decided to answer for him.
"Noctis has been trained in almost every weapon," he explained. "He specializes in a small handful of them, but he can fight with basically any of them."
Ruby looked at Noctis and her eyes seemed to light up in admiration. "How did you learn all of those weapons?" she asked.
Noctis ran his hand through his hair as he simply said, "I just had to do it. All of this will eventually lead me to my destiny." The three of them sat in brief silence until a police officer walked in and let them know they were now free to go. The three of them all stood up and as soon as they left, Ruby was immediately confronted with a tall blond man.
"Ruby, are you alright? You're not hurt are you?" he asked. He wore shorts and a short-sleeved button-up shirt under a short drown vest. His appearance just screamed young dad energy. A soul patch and stubble adorned his face and was sporting a red bandana around his arm and a tattoo. It almost seemed to Noctis like this is what Gladiolus might have been like had he not been raised to be such a straight-edged hardass.
Ruby seemed to blush a little as she said, "I'm fine, Dad. I got hurt more from the boredom of sitting in that room than I was by the criminals I chased after."
Ruby's dad gave her one final once over and then said, "Thank goodness you are safe. Alright, where are these boys who dragged you into all of this?" Gladiolus grunted, Noctis smirked and watched his friend's annoyance begin to rise. Gladiolus hated when people talked about him like he was not there. His inner-hardass was beginning to boil over.
"Wait, Dad," Ruby said quickly. "It's not like that. I was already involved, I dragged them into it."
"Oh Ruby you are too good of a person. I know you think you should cover for them because you think they're your friends, but if they are a bad influence on you-" he continued until Ruby interrupted him.
"DAD!" Ruby said loudly. "I was being mugged and then I swung first. They just came to help, like the Huntsmen-in-training they are supposed to be." Gladiolus crossed his arms and lightly growled in the back of his throat. His teeth clenched and his brows furrowed, deeply. He closed his eyes, and Noctis put his hand to his mouth, preventing the building laugh from escaping.
"Huntsmen?" he asked.
Gladiolus finally broke and said, "You know you can stop talking about us like we're not in the same room. My name is Gladiolus, this is Noctis. We're about to go to Beacon." Noctis finally gave a short laugh at his friend's expense.
The blond man looked at the two of them before he finally said, "Oh, really? My name's Taiyang Xiao Long, thanks for helping out my little girl."
"Xiao Long?" Noctis asked. "Why the different last names? And hair colors. And eye colors. Are you adopted?"
"No," Ruby said suddenly. "I just inherited a lot of traits from my mother."
"I never got the chance to get married to her mom, so she was born with her mom's last name," Taiyang explained.
"Oh, sorry," Noctis said, a little nervous and embarrassed.
Taiyang simply shook his head and said, "You are fine. You couldn't have known. But seriously, thanks for looking out for Ruby. I hope you'll be her friends at school."
Ruby blushed at his request, but Noctis simply replied, "Of course. Seems like things are gonna be interesting around her if this is her before graduating Signal." Ruby seemed thankful for his words as she smiled in response. From her dad, the look was much more skeptical. The four departed ways and Noctis felt his scroll vibrate.
"Hello," Noctis said as he answered.
The voice of Ignis came through and he asked, "Where are the two of you? It has been almost an hour, buying dust cannot be that difficult can it?"
"Yeah, we kinda got distracted when the dust shop got robbed and we got brought in for questioning by the police and the headmaster," Noctis answered honestly.
"Wait," Ignis said, trying to process everything. "You met Ozpin?"
"Headmaster Ozpin, yes," Noctis replied. "Look, give us directions to the hotel and we'll talk about this in person."
"Well come along, we'll have dinner and talk about the events of tonight," Ignis replied. "Do try not to get arrested again, before you get here."
Noctis gave a very sarcastic fake laugh before he hung up the phone. So he and Gladiolus began to walk, shortly after they received a text from Ignis with detailed instructions on finding the place they were going to be staying until school started. Unsurprisingly, Ignis's instructions were immaculate and the two found themselves at the hotel within fifteen minutes. They stepped into the lobby and as they did, the man behind the counter hung up the phone and let them know that he just got off the phone with the person expecting them. With new directions, the two got on an elevator to the third floor and were soon in the room. The room was a decent size, but definitely not as extravagant as the boys had been used during their upbringing. The duality of their life was a strange one, they all had to admit it to themselves.
Noctis was the prince of a kingdom lost the year of his birth. The Kingdom of Insomnia was well on its way to becoming the fifth major kingdom of Remnant, until one day it fell. From what the parents, trainers, and retainers had been willing to reveal to the young men, the kingdom had been built around an ancient crystal. It was believed by the population of insomnia, that the crystal was what gave the Lucis Caelum family their power and protected the kingdom. After a few generations, this was believed so strongly that it would eventually, and ironically, lead to the downfall of the kingdom. One day, the crystal disappeared. When word got out, the people panicked and this brought the Grimm down on the kingdom. Noctis's father Regis died trying to protect the Kingdom and securing the escape for as many of its people as he possibly could. The people who had escaped scattered across the world, with the exception of the remnants of the Crown's Guard, who gravitated to Noctis and watched over the now orphaned boys. Among those families were the Scientia and Amicitia families from which Noctis was granted his personal guardian, Gladiolus, and his first retainer, Ignis. It would not be until their teenage years that they would meet and befriend Prompto, who had searched out Hammerhead. He had wanted to come to Hammerhead as soon as he learned that his family had come from Insomnia.
Throughout their childhoods and leading up to the present, they had been trained by the Crownsguard, the upper echelon protectors of the royal family. Many of the Crownsguard were not comfortable with sending Prince Noctis away, even if it was just to a Huntsman Academy, but they could not deny the logic behind Noctis's insistence. The four boys often went on training missions out at Insomnia, alongside their protector and teacher Cor, the Immortal. However, during these Grimm hunts and extermination missions, they had been doing their own secret job. They desperately wanted to know the whole truth about the fall of Insomnia. Old documents and journals were potential goldmines of information. One day, the boys finally got a solid lead. King Regis had been in communication with one Ozpin. No last name, and no title, but his affiliation with the school was evident based on the contents of his correspondence with the King of Insomnia.
It had seemed, at least in the written letters, that Ozpin had expressed an interest in opening a Huntsmen Academy in Insomnia, fielding it with members of the Crownsguard and local huntsmen and huntresses to take on students and teach them there. However, before this could be done, Insomnia would have had to have made itself known to the world and claim its place as the Fifth Kingdom of Remnant. If this had been done, then the school would have been built, alongside a CCT System Tower. The last letter found had never been sent, dated just before the fall of Insomnia, King Regis was going to request Ozpin's assistance in helping Insomnia announce their presence and to hold a special treaty meeting in Vale to officiate their alliance.
So the plan was made, and it had all coalesced to this moment in their Hotel Room.
"It makes sense that he would have so much pull in the political sphere if he was head of an academy," Ignis commented after Noctis and Gladiolus brought him up to speed on their actions that night.
Prompto, laid supine on the bed with his head hanging off the end, said, "So did you ask him about his letters?"
"No, like we said, there were a couple of uninvolved parties in the interrogation room with us," Gladiolus said, gripping the bridge of his nose.
"Do you suspect he knows of our true identities?" Ignis asked as he pushed his glasses up to the bridge of his own nose, simultaneously steering the conversation back on track, before it could wander too far.
Noctis shrugged. "If he does, he doesn't look like it. Honestly, he seemed far more interested in the girl who was arrested with us. Like the first thing he said to her was about the color of her eyes," he recounted afterwards. "Speaking of which, if he is headmaster, then that would explain how he knew we were part of a group. We were successfully applied with our fake last names, right?"
"Of course," Prompto said as he flipped himself over and grabbed his camera. "Got the pictures of them right here."
Written upon the four forms as he flipped through the pictures were their fake monikers as clear as day. Noctis Starlight, Gladiolus Asparagales, Ignis Scripture, and Prompto Quicksilver. They were all names that directly related to their original names in concept, but were as different as they thought necessary to hide their true identities. Afterall, if Insomnia had enemies enough to snatch the crystal and kill thousands of innocent people, then one could never be too careful.
"It's gonna be weird not using our real last names," Prompto commented after a moment. This got a quiet nod from the other three present in the room.
Ignis cleared his throat and then announced, "Well, since we are here, I think it is time we finalize our rules. We're going to be in an environment where we are going to have very little control, be it socially or structurally. I know we started this discussion back in Hammerhead but we need to finish it now."
"Alright," Noctis said. "Rule 1: No referring to me as 'Prince' or 'Highness' while we're here. I am just another student."
"Rule 2: No talking about Insomnia in public, if discussion in class is brought to attempts of establishing a fifth academy, participation must be kept to a minimum," Gladiolus added.
Prompto sat up and dangled his legs off the end of the bed, "Rule 3: Everybody is doing their own homework. I am not gonna be suckered into doing your work for you again, Gladio."
Ignis thought for a brief moment and then added, "Rule 4: All research done about Insomnia is to be kept on written paper and never stored on our scrolls. We do not need someone poking around in our personal files and discovering our true reason for being here."
Noctis nodded and then added, "Rule 5: New Rules or changes to current rules, must be agreed upon by a committee vote, in person."
"Good one Noct," Gladio complimented. "I think these'll get us started. Once we get started, I'm sure we'll discover some kind of oversight and make adjustments as we go. Can we all agree on these rules as written? Per Rule 5, we'll put it to a vote."
All four of them raised their hands and the rules were settled.
"So what are we gonna do tomorrow then?" Prompto asked, now that the serious conversation was done.
Ignis took off his glasses and began wiping one of the lenses when he said, "We will likely want to get the lay of the land. Find out where we can find our necessities as it comes time to replace them."
"Really, just a shopping trip?" Prompto said with a slight whine. "I figured we could go sightseeing, maybe get some good snaps along the way. Y'know stuff worth documenting about our rebuilding of Insomnia."
"Not everything is going to be great sights and fund time, Prompto," Noctis said with a small smile. "But we'll try to find some good shots for you." The four continued discussing their plans and began getting ready to lay down for the night. They were going to have a long couple of days before school.
Meanwhile…
"You know," Taiyang said as he and his daughter headed towards the docks to catch a late night ferry back to Patch, "I'm really proud of you. All jokes aside about those boys getting you arrested, I think it is great that you are going to be going to Beacon this year."
Ruby nodded but then looked down at the ground. "Just two short days to get ready for it. I wish I had time to go say goodbye to my friends at Signal before. But I have to pack and get my school stuff together. Pull all my favorite stickers off my binder so the kids there won't look at me like I'm some little kid."
Taiyang could hear in her voice just how nervous she was and it reminded him of her first day at Signal. His brain melted for a brief moment as he remembered how small and adorable she had been on that day. "Ruby, I know how nervous you are, but you made friends at Signal right? You can do it again. You are your mother's daughter after all. If anything, I should be the one whose distraught, both my girls are disappearing on me in the same year. I thought I was going to have two more years before the nest was empty."
"You know we'll be home for the summer, Dad," Ruby said, bumping him with her arm.
Taiyang nodded and said, "Sure, I'll have you back for a little while but you'll leave again. But as sad as that makes me, I fully support you and your sister in everything you want to do, even if it means that I have to be sad and lonely for a while, you two are doing what's best for you, and I will always support that. Do you understand what I'm getting at Ruby?"
Ruby nodded and grabbed his hand. "Well you haven't gotten rid of us yet, Dad," she said as they walked. It was a small gesture, but it gave her dad the biggest grin she had seen on him in a long time.
"That school's not gonna know what hit it," Taiyang said with a laugh.
Two Days Later…
"Oh, I can't believe my baby sister is going to Beacon with me! This is the best day ever!" a buxom blonde teen student declared as she wrapped her arms around Ruby for the fourth time that airship ride. It was a funny sight to those nearby, but the look of frustration and lack of air on Ruby's face showed that the novelty had long since worn off.
"Please stop," Ruby said from crushed lungs.
Ruby's sister let go and then seemed to physically scrunch up with excitement as she replied, "But I'm so proud of you! People are gonna think you're the bee's knees."
"I don't want to be the 'bee's knees,' okay? I don't want to be any kind of knees! I just want to be a normal girl with normal knees," Ruby explained hurriedly. Before the conversation could continue, she realized that she recognized a familiar mess of black hair nearby. Her sister's eyes tracked Ruby's gaze and saw that she was distracted by a guy. He was a bit taller than them, he wore a black sports coat over a white t-shirt and black jeans with sneakers. His hair was a spiky mess, but he had really striking bright-blue eyes.
"Wait, Ruby did you just…?" The blonde asked with a cheesy grin.
"Huh?" Ruby asked as she looked at her sister and saw her expression."Yang Xiao Long, no! Don't you even start."
"Whatcha mean, Rubes? Don't start what? Don't start calling you out on the fact that you clearly have a crush on tall mystery boy over there? Is that what I'm not supposed to be starting? Cause I think you just got me started," Yang said as her grin turned mischievous. Yang decided to start making her way over to the boys, with Ruby dragging behind her fruitlessly pulling at her arm.
