Co-Authored by ToxicExotic

Disclaimer: All characters belong to Rooster Teeth Productions

Shocking Schnee

Ruby took in a deep breath as she entered the workshop, the smell of Dust, metal, and smoke filling her senses and creating a sensation many would find weird given her current location. Comfort. While the loud noises, hints of sweat caused by the heat, and potential risk for random mini-explosions caused most people to be annoyed and eager to leave, the workshop was one of Ruby's favourite places in the world.

Unlike the workshop back at Signal Academy that was little more than two rooms, the one at Beacon was huge and comprised almost an entire building. In the central room was the forge itself, the massive metal contraption constantly spewing enough heat to crack lips should someone stay close for longer than a couple of minutes. While most of the main room was stone floored, the stone partially cracked around the furnace itself, there was also an area that was tiled where numerous tables were placed so that people could sit and work on their weapons. Along the four walls were also normal looking doors, each one leading to a more private room where people could work in peace. Between each door were rows and rows of tools of all kinds, and the furthest wall was mostly a screen door that had a few fans drawing the heat out and was always drawn aside to stop the heat getting too much.

The whole place was like heaven to her, not only because she could take care of her precious Crescent Rose, but because everyone's weapon was on full display for her to drool over with impunity. The reason she knew that wasn't exactly normal behavior however, was that her partner beside her was sighing, just as she always did when they visited the workshop. Turning to her side to watch the heiress, she saw that Weiss' nose was upturned and her eyes were staring scornfully around the room.

"With all the money Beacon has, can they not afford a retractable roof so that it doesn't smell like the sweat has never been cleaned from the floor?" Weiss said, annoyance tingeing her tone as they made their way towards an open table.

"It's not that bad," Ruby replied and pulled her partner to the table she favoured, mostly due to the fact that a previous student has scratched little plans into the wood, one of which was a scythe. "We're only here to do our ammo anyway so we won't be staying long."

"I still find it incredible that you sound so sad when saying that."

"You know I can do your dust for you if you don't want to be here?" Ruby said, knowing what the reply would be so was completely unsurprised by the fact that Weiss' scowl turned on her instead of the room.

"You know how I feel about us all doing our own dust," the heiress replied as she sat down and placed her rapier on the table.

"Riiight," Ruby chuckled nervously, tucking her shirt further over the three black handgun magazines stuffed into her belt before playfully reciting Weiss' words. "We all need to acquaint ourselves on the proper ways to handle dust, and know how to craft it into bullets with as little effort as snapping our fingers."

"Don't be a pest," Weiss tutted while removing the chamber from her weapon.

Sticking her tongue out at her partner, Ruby placed her sniper scythe on the table along with a stack of her own magazines next to it. "I'll get the dust."

"I'm low on fire and air could you grab me some while you get yours?"

"No problem, I got you."

Leaving her partner behind, Ruby made her way towards one side of the room and pulled open one of the doors; a small cloud of red mist falling from the hinges. Gazing at the cupboard contents, she saw boxes upon boxes of various Dust types. The boxes themselves were made of a special material that was airtight to stop potential leaks that would result in random explosions; though enough of them tended to happen in the workshop anyway. Leaning down to pick up a basket, she filled it up with all the vials, tubes, and crystal she needed and left the room, jotting her name and what she took on the clipboard that hung on the wall.

While most of the common forms of Dust were free for students to use, every student was required to log what they used. There were also rarer forms of Dust that weren't free. Gravity Dust was one such thing, as it was one of the rarest natural Dust types and was only found on Anima. Another was Lighting, that while could be formed with Fire and Air, the process was rather delicate, so stocks could be taken if need be.

"So, Bestie," She said and sat down, placing the basket on the table between them. Fortunately, Weiss had already retrieved the tools they needed for the casings so she could get started on her work. "How's your day been?"

"I spent my day with you, Ruby."

"Yeah you did," Ruby grinned happily at the white-haired girl who rolled her eyes in response. "So it had to be amazing, right?"

"It was what I have come to expect from a day with you," Weiss shrugged noncommittally while pulling a couple of boxes from the basket. "A muddy dress, less standing trees in the forest, and cafeteria being out of cookies after our visit."

"So what I'm hearing is that it was super awesome," Ruby cheered as Weiss shook her head, though the scowl that had marred her features earlier was definitely gone.

So leaving her conversation with Weiss behind as her partner had already begun the complicated process of getting the fire and air dust to bond without blowing up the table, Ruby set about making her ammunition. Pulling a few trays of casings and hollow point bullets towards her, along with some tools, Ruby gently went about crumbling the dust into smaller sections. It was tricky work as she had to be careful not to ignite it, but she made quick work of it before putting them into one of the many mortar and pestles she brought over to work with; grinding the dust into smaller and smaller parts until it was a fine powder. Once that was done, she picked up one of the rounds before putting it back down, noticing a small deflection that would cause a small issue in accuracy, picking her way between the trays she found just enough bullets for her to make about two large magazines of dust augmented rounds.

Setting aside the hollow points that she was going to use, she picked back up the dust she grabbed and decided to do something different with one of the mags drawing inspiration from the mag that Weiss handed to Blake before the train incident. She also sneakily grabbed a tray of 9mm bullets and started grinding up a few different types of dust to make a few mixed mags of dust for the Faunus, curious as to what would be the response from the quiet girl.

Following her inspiration, Ruby started a mag rotation of making two earth dust then one air dust and marking each with the appropriate pattern, earth to make heavy ammo and air to have knock back. It would make for an interesting combo against an opponent that relied on movement, she mused to herself. When she was finished, she started another mag of standard ice augmented rounds, well as standard .50 caliber hollowpoint sniper rounds could be, which were normally reserved for hunts that went against more heavily armored targets than she faced.

While the work itself wasn't the most interesting, Ruby had become rather proficient at the task. Putting the dust into the tip of the hollow point and sealing everything had become such a second nature during the years that she could at least let her mind wander a little. And just like every time she had allowed it to wander lately, her thoughts turned to Blake.

The fetching Faunus surprised her that morning by asking her to stay back in the room and talk before they left for breakfast, and she had happily obliged. To her surprise, Blake had asked her to a party of all things. Never did she think that Blake would be willing to go into a crowded room by choice, but for them to be so public when Ruby knew Blake was already struggling with the extra attention made her hesitate with her answer slightly. Fortunately Blake had been quick to assuage her caution and ensured her that she was okay with it since the whole school already knew, so her hesitancy only lasted a couple of seconds before she gladly accepted the invite. Having a second date with Blake lined up had put Ruby in such a good mood that she had dragged Weiss off to the forest to hunt Grimm and brag about the upcoming party.

"So," Ruby said slowly, placing her crystals aside as she saw Weiss set down two yellow crystals on the table and wipe her hands clean on a towel. "Are you really thinking about not going to the party?"

During her bragging session, Weiss had reveal her foolish intentions of not wanting to go to the event; however as her bestie, Ruby decided that it was her job to make sure her partner had some fun. Fortunately she knew that you had to take things slowly to convince Weiss of something she wasn't keen on.

"There is no thinking, Ruby," Weiss replied and picked up a fire crystal and air crystal. "I am simply not going."

Ruby had always found the process interesting, so watched intently as Weiss held the two crystals close to each other and began to gently channel her aura between them. She knew from experience just how volatile the process could be, so to watch Weiss delicately balance the red and white streams that were flowing into each crystal. After a couple of minutes under the heiress' care, both crystals began to change colour, the white darkening and the red lightening until they were both a striking yellow. As was normal, a few small chips had crumbled away from each crystal as it had ungone is transformation and Weiss quickly placed the new lighting crystals on the table before cleaning her hands again.

"But why?" Ruby asked while continuing to sort out her bullets. "You can be my wingwoman."

"Do you even know what that word means?"

"Uhh…" Admittedly she didn't. It was a word she'd heard Yang use from time to time when talking about going on dates and had always thought it sounded cool. "Someone who stops me from embarrassing myself?"

"Close, but no cigar, Petals," a voice said from the table in front of them, and she looked up to see Flynt standing up from the workbench to sit at theirs. "A wingwoman gets you a date, which I don't think you need."

"Oooohhhh."

"See, so there's no reason for me to go," Weiss said smugly and returned to her work, not even bothering to acknowledge Flynt. "Besides, even if it did mean what you thought, an entire team of wingwomen would be needed to prevent that."

"I dunno, Schnee," Flynt chuckled amusedly and pulled his weapon from behind his back, a rather ordinary looking trumpet that Ruby knew fired Wind dust everything he blew on it. "From what I hear, you have a concert coming up. Listening to me bring the house down might give ya some inspiration."

Watching Weiss roll her eyes as Flynt gave his trumpet a spin before placing it on the table, Ruby eyed the weapon greedily as she was extremely interested in how it worked. However, she had unfortunately learned the hard way not to touch the weapons of people who were not her friends after a third year had scolded her for getting too close to her twin chainsaw shields.

"You are simply contributing to the reasons for me not to go," Weiss replied stubbornly, though her eyebrow raised as she gave Flynt a sassy glare. "But do you follow all of my actions, or just the ones that you can use in attempts to get me to attend a party?"

"Please, a rare Weiss Schnee performance? All the headlines are calling it the event of the year."

"I already performed this year," Weiss shrugged and picked up some water and wind crystals to fuse them, the process of making ice being much easier than making lightning dust. "If I could give you my spot, I would."

Though Ruby could hear the sincerity of that statement behind the dismissive tone, Flynt clearly didn't and gave the girl a small scoff as he picked up a lightning crystal and inspected it.

"Sure you would," he said dismissively, placing the crystal down before picking up a fire and air crystal with one hand and turning back to Ruby. "So are you and Blake definitely coming?"

"Yang and Weiss will be there too," She replied, her eyes immediately darting to the boys hands as she noticed he had begun to transform the crystals.

"I will not," Weiss replied with the stubbornness returning to her voice, her eyes also noticing what Flynt was doing. "What do you think you are doing? Be careful."

"Simmer down, Schnee," he said with a shrug, not stopping the aura flow for a second. "Neon should be glad to hear Yang is coming, she ain't stopped going on about partying with her since our fight."

"Yang loves parties," Ruby said while carefully watching the transfer, worried that he might mess up the delicate process. "She just needs to be asked."

"Weird," Flynt hummed absentmindedly to himself. "Neon said she invited her to a couple. Oh well, the girl is zooming around so much that she probably forgot to give your sister details."

While Ruby knew that likely wasn't the case, she decided not to mention it and instead returned to slowly making her bullets while keeping one eye on Flynt.

"Anyway, be sure to tell her this is a school sanctioned event so there won't be any al…"

"For Oum's sake, will you pay attention to what you are doing?" Weiss blurted out angrily, interrupting the boy's words and causing both of them to look at her.

Contrary to Ruby's suspicions however, Flynt let out a soft chuckle and placed his hand on the table, removing it to show two perfect lighting crystals that had even less chipping than Weiss' did. The irate girl's face immediately formed into a scowl as she picked up one of the crystals to inspect it, but even Ruby could tell it was practically flawless.

"I've been making those since I was eight," Flynt shrugged, though Ruby could definitely see it was a subtle jab at Weiss that didn't go unnoticed by the heiress. "Guess it's easy when ya got the soul for it." Picking up his trumpet and giving it a spin, Flynt stood from the table. "Anyways, I best be off, still plenty to organize. See ya both there."

"Still not going," Weiss replied, the anger in her voice growing as she began to look much closer at the crystal.

Giving the boy a wave as he walked away with a tip of his hat, Ruby turned to face Weiss but saw she was clearly in no mood to talk; so instead she returned to the bullets. She couldn't blame Weiss for being mad because she had seen first hand just how much effort and how many sleepless nights the heiress put into learning everything she could about Dust. So to have someone effortlessly do something that took her an immense amount of concentration had to be a massive blow to her ego. That would be like me meeting someone who can put a weapon together faster than I can, Ruby thought to herself.

"Ruby," the annoyed voice come from her side and Ruby immediately felt a sense of dread washed over her as she realised exactly what had caused it. "Why are you making nine millimeter rounds?"

Uh oh, was the only thought that went through her head.

A/N

Raalm here, a small little chapter today but we promise the next one is bigger. The first scene of the next chapter was going to be here but it threatened to run a little long so we decided to split it up and allow this to just work as a Ruby/Weiss moment. You may also see that we chose to have Blake ask Ruby on the date off-page. That is because showing every moment begin to feel very taxing creatively and makes it seem like their relationship is only occurring on screen. We want their relationship to fee like its progressing constantly, even in the background, so there may be more moments like that in the future were things are reference instead of fully shown but I promise all the important stuff happens on the page.

But that's it from me, I hope you enjoyed despite its size. We promise the next two are much bigger.