"That was… acceptable." Weiss extends a hand and pulls you to your feet.

"That means you kinda suck but she still likes you as a person," Yang calls from the sidelines. "If you were Jaune, she'd have called you a huge disappointment."

"That is NOT what I meant, Yang! I'm saying he's not quite at our level!" Weiss almost lets you go before catching herself. "And Jaune is far below him!"

"Ouch, bro. She must just think you're cute if she's defending you," Yang teases, kicking her legs out.

Weiss succeeds in dropping you, causing you to fall back on the padded mat. You lay there, pride somewhat shattered as Weiss belts out, "Would you stop making assumptions based on nothing!" Blushing, she grabs your hand and pulls you up before Yang could knock her focus away again. "Unlike you, I don't make judgments on combat prowess based on appearance!"

You dust yourself off and wince once you remember everything hurts. In order to prep for your mission with RWBY, you thought it a good idea to see what Weiss' deal was. As you've learned, she's incredibly skilled, incredibly powerful, and incredibly hurty. Though you'll be fine once you're rested up, she… yeah, she kicked your ass. At least Yang had muscles on her…

At least Weiss thinks you're okay. Not great, but okay!

The whole point of joining RWBY on a mission was to get some more experience, so hopefully you'd come back ready to step up a bit. For now, you stretch and say, "It's fine, Weiss. I know I still have a ways to go."

"Do you see, Yang!? He's aware that he needs improvement."

"I do know that. I've been helping him train for like, weeks now. We all have. Like, this is your first time even talking to him, isn't it?"

"No, it is not. You are unbelievable."

Yang forms a heart with her hands and blows a kiss. "You know it."

"Anyyyway," Blake sighs. "We got nothing much else going on until the mission. This is pretty much the last free time we get until we head off."

"You make that sound as if it will last longer than a weekend…"

"Yeah, it's a short trip, but it'll still be a combat mission."

"One that we'll be able to ace!" Ruby cheers, jumping off the bench overlooking the training area. "This is gonna be one of the first times we show off what were made of!"

"And we'll have a guest who can sing songs about how sick we are," Blake says in an extremely dry tone before smirking at you.

"Eh, I don't got the lungs for it. I'll just touch up the essay Glynda will make me write." You earn a giggle from everyone but Weiss. "What I learned on my shadowing mission: RWBY is BIG COOL."

"I like to think of myself as BIG COOL," Yang says, kicking off the bench. She slaps you on the back, sending several shocks of pin through you that you barely play off. "You did good against Weiss! Especially for a guy without a ranged weapon; I doubt many could survive someone with that level Glyph spam."

"I do not spam my Glyphs! Do you know how hard I had to train to be able to sustain so many at once?"

"You've mentioned…"

"Yang, I think you killed him," Ruby says, genuinely concerned as you writhe from Yang's congratulatory slap. "Are you okay?"

You rub your various injuries and brush off Ruby. "I'll be fine. Just sore is all."

"I apologize. I felt the need to go all out, which I guess actually serves to put you in a better light," Weiss says, clearly a bit embarrassed. "You show promise and you adapt well in the middle combat; you just lack experience."

"Which is why I'm going with you guys! No better place than in the fields where I've got you four as backup."

"Before we start the whole singing-our-praises bit this early, what's say we grab some dinner?" Blake asks. "I'd say we earned something a slight step above Old MacDonald's. We can justify by saying we'll be stuck with rations on the mission."

"Sounds good to me!" Yang sings. "Oh, oh, how about that Pepper's place? The one with the cheese fries!"

Weiss wretches, but Blake interrupts her by saying, "They also are known for their salad variety."

"Is that true?" Ruby asks.

"Yes," Blake lies, shaking her head and mouthing no as soon as Weiss isn't looking her way.

"If you say so, I guess I'll try it."

"Good, cuz if we're gonna be a team, you're gonna have to live with normal people high-class food. None of us are gonna go for caviar sandwiches or whatever it is you normally eat." Yang smirks as Weiss glares.

"Cheese fries!" Ruby calls, stopping anyone from arguing. She leads the charge to the transport to downtown, and soon enough you're sitting in a crowded booth in a homely restaurant surrounded by tvs playing sports games and way too many commercials.

For the first time you've actually hung out with ALL of Team RWBY for an extended period of time outside of a movie and outside Weiss abandoning you at a mall, you actually see how they get along. Despite Yang constantly teasing Weiss and Weiss getting annoyed at Ruby's antics and wow Weiss really is the problem child here… Anyway, when they aren't arguing, they manage to read each other perfectly; Blake walks Weiss through ordering a salad under a thousand calories, Yang recommends their best fish dishes (wow Blake being a cat was obvious in hindsight), Ruby points you to her favorites, and you all partake in the glory that is processed dairy melted over fried potatoes. Weiss even gets pressured into eating a particularly greasy fry, which she admits tastes good, but refuses to eat more of on principle.

The night passes slowly as you enjoy the warmth of the full Team RWBY. Eating with them showed you that, while they're not the best of friends yet, they were the definition of team. Even though they didn't get along completely, they were already in sync with what the others thought and felt. Looking at them, you saw a goal; RWBY was the kind of relationship you wanted with a team. Sadly, you don't know if you'll get a team, but at the very least, you'll be part of theirs for a bit.

Your thoughts pass as if watching a film. Even as you stood by their side, being with RWBY was a fever dream. As you exit the restaurant, they decide to mess around town a bit and enjoy their time before the mission. Every word you say passes like a haze as you follow, not lead.

Ruby leads her team around the streets. Without as much as a word, she maneuvers between people, carving a path for the four behind her to follow. Not once does anyone object to her decisions as she effortlessly flows past traffic while never losing that brightness she carries. Crowds, lampposts, cars, nothing slows her pace once and not once do her followers stray from the road she sets. Her lead snakes through streets and alleys, affording you the experience of someone that knows the city; you've lived in Vale longer, yet it felt like Ruby had ingrained the city in her mind. You've walked the streets, but you've never noticed that one street where every building is worn red brick, or that neon stretch of parlors and parties.

Weiss strays the party into various high-class boutiques. What feels like a montage, you see the girls pose in various dresses and jackets, trying on top name jewelry. Though you imagine none save Weiss would ever buy anything, even she laughs as Yang comes out of a changing room wearing a hideous mishmash of fashion and strikes a stuck-up pose, highlighting several clashing necklaces. Ruby causes an uproar when she dons three pars of $100+ sunglasses at once combined with a sideways baseball cap and a mumble-rapper's slickest pose; you would have thought Weiss mortified by the attention but the mood fit perfectly.

Blake's expertise takes everyone to far more quiet holes in the walls. An old antique toy store, a century behind in design, captivates the other girls as they rediscover playthings they knew as children. A discount bookstore carries both old retro games to entertain Yang and Ruby and rare classics that had special prints for Weiss. A specialty candy shop sells foreign sweets not sold anywhere else on the continent if Blake was to be believed. Every store Blake knows somehow entertains all her friends, despite their tastes.

And, of course, Yang finds a party wherever she goes. Every time your group stops at a light, blocks an aisle, or is recognized across the way, she somehow makes a new friend. She introduces Ruby to a guy freaking out over a new run of Dust engines and, for once, her sister's comfortable with the stranger. The blonde plays wing woman as a well-dressed man your age catches Weiss' eye, bringing the lovebirds together. Blake gets an author recommendation courtesy of a mousy bookworm that approaches when Yang notices her eyeing a new release. The blonde sends a guy your way after noticing he was listening to a band she knew you liked. Everywhere the group goes, she makes her impression known while also finagling a conversation for everyone without a second thought.

Everything blurs as you see how well-synced RWBY was. Each girl had their specific brand of specialty that they could integrate the others in. Even though their interests clashed so much, they each knew, without prior communication, how to include the others. Even Weiss, the brat that usually hated spending girl-time with Ruby, seemed to enjoy every second until late into the night.

What you see before you is the ideal. You know they've barely begun their training, but you can already see that Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang were a team, through and through. Your memory shifts to when you watched them in the initiation; even when they had never met each other (save Ruby and Yang), the four worked together to battle their way through the Emerald Forest. In the space of a few hours, they passed through their awkward first impressions and by the end of it, they worked together to launch Ruby up a cliff to decapitate a giant raven Grimm.

Combat was one thing, though. When push comes to shove, you're sure that anyone can come together and fight for survival. Sure, they synced up well in the field, but this was different. On the surface, none of the girls' personalities lined up, but this… watching them run around town, having fun as friends, was watching a team.

One you were going to be a part of.

You feel a strange sense of impostor syndrome, feeling as if you weren't part of the group around you even as each girl gave you their attention. Even as Ruby geeks out with you over a cool weapon, or Weiss suggests a new look you could rock, you feel you don't quite fit. This was your first time seeing RWBY like this. You wonder if they've even seen each other like this; to your knowledge, RWBY had yet to really hang out as a group outside of combat scenarios and dorm life. Still, it felt like they'd been friends their entire lives.

You know that one day soon, you'll be a part of this team–of this friendship, and not merely an observer that hitched a ride. You look forward to the day.