Crimson II: Meeting Reds

'Thank god the ceremony's over,' Ragna thought to himself before he covered his mouth as he let out a rather large yawn. 'Damn it... falling asleep... What the hell did I do to deserve... Let's not go there...'

The ceremony congratulating those that he been accepted into Beacon academy hadn't ended that long ago, but Ragna had just barely managed to make it out of the ceremony still awake. Now certain students were getting things ready for their upcoming classes or even attending secret parties being held in the dorms (at least until Goodwitch found them and put a stop to the nonsense), but Ragna had decided that he'd be better off trying to catch up on the sleep he'd been denied last night. Couple that with the energy he'd had to exert during the exam and he was generally exhausted.

'I'll have to head back to the guest quarters before long... but there's no trouble in resting my eyes for a moment. Right? Right,' Ragna said as he finally let his eyes close before slumping back on the bench he'd been sitting on. A warm breeze in the air hit the Reaper in the face, causing him to slowly start to fall into a blissful sleep.

"So here's where you've been hiding," came a familiar voice. Ragna groaned as he opened his eyes, only for them to fall upon his fellow teammate Azrael. "This is where the mighty Bloodedge finds himself after a fight. Sitting on a bench with his guard down..."

"Not my fault I'm dead tired, and you didn't help with that shit you pulled during the exam," Ragna told him harshly, leading Azrael to chuckle.

"Come on now, shouldn't a leader always be on his toes?" the Mad Dog asked before roughly sitting on the bench next to the Reaper, much to Ragna's growing ire.

"Tell you what, why don't you be the damn leader since you seem to know so much about it?" Ragna asked him with a harsh glare in his eyes.

"Please, I want the job even less than you do, and that's quite clearly saying something," Azrael told him. "Although... maybe then I could finally order that fight I've been waiting for."

"...Just try it asshole," Ragna bit.

"Heh, you've got some spunk at least," Azrael chuckled. "So... what do you think of our competition?"

"If you're talking about the other teams, you've got the wrong idea," the Reaper told him, not bothering to stifle his yawn. "We don't have any opponents here, they're going to be sent on missions, same as us. You're just looking to pick a fight."

"Maybe... but I won't be the one to take a fall come competition time," Azrael told him as he stood. "Hey the little version of you..."

"You mean that kid from the ceremony?" Ragna asked, more than a little annoyed at Azrael's wording. "What about her?"

"Well, is it just me or does something about that kid seem off?" Azrael asked before smirking. "Maybe I should-" Before the mad dog could finish, he felt Ragna's sword at the side of his neck. "Oh? Acting protective now?"

"I owe someone a favor, and you're really pissing me off," the Reaper told him, his earlier grogginess seeming to be gone entirely. "Back off; something tells me you'll get a fight to the death soon enough."

"Heh, I'm holding you to that... leader," the Mad Dog said as he began walking off. "Also, do me a favor and don't let the red head put her knife in your back, last thing I want is her interfering."

'Why do so many people always want to kill me?' Ragna thought to himself with a sigh before he impaled his sword in the ground before him and closed his eyes. 'Maybe now I can actually get some-'

"THERE HE IS!" a girl's voice called out.

'Dammit,' he groaned to himself before opening his eyes. Heading his way was the blonde girl and his little look-alike from the ceremony. The blonde seemed to have an eager smile on her face as she pulled the other girl behind her, the girl trying to break out of the hold with little success. "Can't a guy get any sleep around here?"

"Well if you wanted to get sleep, you should've headed to the dorm rooms," the blonde told him with a cheery smile. Ragna merely let out a groan. The girl besides the blonde didn't say anything, but stared at the sword impaled in the ground between the two. "Well then, I guess I'll leave the two of you to talk."

"Seems pretty sudden. Where the hell is this coming from?" Ragna muttered.

"A girl's gotta look out for her sister and at least help her net a friend or two," the blonde told him with a continued smile. As her sister was about to protest, she glared down with authority. "I told Weiss to lock the doors until I say so. See you in a half hour!"

'Half an hour, seriously?' Ragna thought with a sigh as the blonde headed off, leaving him with the girl before him. "So... You're Ruby Rose then?"

"Y-you know who I am?" Ruby asked, a little surprised.

"I heard a few of the rumors, youngest kid that got accepted into Beacon. Managed to show her stuff against a major group of thieves single-handedly..." Noticing Ruby's blush as she heard the stories praising her, Ragna let out a chuckle. "You have no idea how much Qrow wanted to boast to me about his niece to everyone when he heard the news about you."

"How do you know Uncle Qrow?" the little huntress-to-be asked with shock on her face.

"It's a bit of a story... You know you can take a seat if you want, I don't bite," Ragna offered to her.

"I'D KILL YOU IF YOU DID!" the two heard off in the distance.

"STOP SPYING YANG!" Ruby shouted back before shaking her head and sitting beside an amused Ragna. "Sorry about my sister, she's always sort of been like that."

"As far as siblings go, you're honestly the lucky one here," Ragna said as his expression darkened. "The less said about my brother, the better."

"Your brother? What's he like?" Ruby was starting to get more comfortable talking Ragna, slowly but surely.

"You'll find out soon enough, he's here at this academy," the silver haired man told her, his dark complexion not letting up in the slightest. "He's actually the leader of team JACK."

"So if he's their leader, then that makes him..." Ruby tried to think back to the blonde man that had been introduced earlier during the ceremony, the one that had the family name Weiss was familiar with. "Jim... Calamari?"

"Jim.. Ca..." Ragna slowly began before starting to laugh, Ruby was slightly embarrassed that she'd butchered his brother's name so badly, but she was also slightly relieved that his dark complexion seemed to fade completely. "It's Jin Kisaragi! What is he!? An octopus!? Oh, that's too funny!"

"Hey, so I screwed up a single name... Ragna the Blood-fridge," Ruby told him, while crossing her arms. (Ten points those who remembered who called him that first)

"It's BloodEDGE, or was that one on purpose?" he demanded, leaving Ruby merely to smile tauntingly. "Cute, Ruby... Nose? Toes? I got nothing," he admitted, only leading to more giggling from Ruby. "Heh, you've certainly got some spunk to you, I'll give you that."

"I'm having a hard time telling if that's a compliment or an insult," the young huntress-in-training admitted, leaving Ragna to chuckle. "Hey!"

"I'll let you be the one to decide that one, kid," the Reaper told her.

"Don't call me kid; I'm in the same classes as you," Ruby as she puffed her checks slightly in her pout, something which Ragna found adorable.

"Qrow told me that you were pretty quirky, I guess the old bird knew what he was talking about," Ragna said with a smirk as Ruby continued to pout. "...Must be why you were choosen to lead your team."

"Tha-thanks! I'm just doing my best!" Ruby told him proudly, confident that she wouldn't fail in the coming days. "Can I ask you something though?"

"Shoot."

"How exactly do you know my uncle?"

"Long story short, he and my own teacher have had a bit of a history with each other, but that's really all I know about it. Whenever I hounded him for answers, he'd never tell me about it..." Ragna groaned. "I actually met him a couple of times, helped give me a couple of pointers with my weapon... after he tried sneaking me alcohol. Jubei kicked both of our asses for that one."

"Hee, sounds like something Qrow would do," Ruby agreed as she thought back to her uncle's attitude. "So... I can see a revolver cartridge on your weapon. Does it shoot dust or anything?"

"Nah, it's not a long range weapon, but..." Ragna began as he grabbed it out of the ground with his right hand. Ruby noticed a strange form of energy pour into it from Ragna's arm before the weapon transformed, stretching skywards before reaching over its side to form a massive scythe. "It can do that."

"Awesome!" Ruby said with sparkles in her eyes as she showed off her own weapon. Ragna watched as it first turned into a sniper rifle before turning into a scythe like his. "Looks like we've got similar weapons then."

"I guess so..." Ragna noted with a chuckle. "Guess it's just a matter of time 'till we see who's the better Reaper then."

"Reaper? Aren't you trying to become a huntsman?" Ruby questioned him.

"I guess I'm going to try to be both," Ragna admitted. "I just think Reaper's the cooler title to have." Adjusting his body, he let out a small yawn. "You should probably head back to the dorms, we've got classes starting early tomorrow, right?"

"I think so..." Ruby said as she thought back. "My team has Grimm studies with Professor Port first, what about you?"

"Same here, I guess I'll see you there" Ragna told his new acquaintance before yawning and taking a seat back on the bench. "I'll head back in a bit, but you go on ahead... Take care of yourself kid..."

"I'm not a kid!" Ruby shouted at him, but Ragna had already closed his eyes and it appeared that he'd already fallen asleep (he hadn't, but he didn't feel the need to correct her). "Seriously?"

Thankfully, when Ruby made it back to her dorm later, Weiss wasn't doing anything to keep her out yet... now that she thought about it, would Yang have actually coaxed her partner into doing that, or was it just a bluff? Regardless, as soon as she made it back inside Yang was on her in a moment's notice.

"That wasn't exactly half an hour, but you get points for trying," she told Ruby who rolled her eyes. "So... What was he like?"

"He's... he's definitely different than most of the boys I've met," she told her sister. "He also seems to know our uncle."

"Old man Qrow? Really?" Yang asked with surprise. "How'd that happen?"

"I don't know, just that Qrow knew his teacher."

"Really? Must mean that his teacher was quite the huntsman... or was it a woman?" Yang asked.

"Uh... he said the name Jubei... but that's about all I know," Ruby admitted.

"And his family life?"

"His brother's the guy from Team JACK, but that's it."

"And what about his hometown; where's he from?"

"I... I don't know, I didn't ask," Ruby told him.

"Got it, got it," Yang asked with an (apparently) knowing look in her eyes. "You were just too busy looking into the mismatched eyes of his, weren't you?"

"Y-YANG!" Ruby shouted with a blush.

"This is going to be a regular occurrence, isn't it?" Blake muttered to herself aloud as she continued reading her book while Ruby tried to defend herself from her sisters claims.

Author's Note: Wow. This one Really needed some TLAE (tender love and editing). I've changed a couple of things around this chapter, but not by a whole lot. It is a bit easier to fill in the gaps now that I've completely caught up with the main series.

Anyways, I'll see about posting both the next chapter of this and my last written chapter of... something before my February Hiatus. Take care everyone! Caio!