"Penny?! What are you doing here?" Ruby jumped with surprise; weariness completely forgotten. Everyone else, whilst not as quick to forget the tiredness seeping through their bones, was equally surprised.
Penny saluted and grinned from ear to ear, "I'm on a top-secret mission from General Schnee and Professor Goodwitch."
Everyone turned to look at Professor Goodwitch. She rolled her eyes and glared over her glasses at the seven teenagers before her, "Miss Rose, you and your teammates can return to your previous dorm to reacquaint yourselves. Miss Polendina, Mr Arc, Miss Valkyrie, and Mr Ren can follow me. We have several things to discuss." Turning on her heel she marched through the doors. Penny smiled, waved at Ruby and then followed her. Team JNR sighed as one, before following after the two polar opposites.
Yang waited for Professor Goodwitch to be completely gone before muttering "Guess she's in more of a witch mood." Ruby stared at her, Weiss shook her head, and Blake placed a hand on Yang's shoulder comfortingly. "Okay, okay, so it wasn't the best in the world but I'm out of practice."
"Let's just go back to our room and get some breakfast." The four of them started walking to their old room, but at Weiss' words Ruby looked up eyes wide, "No you cannot have Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes for breakfast, they're hideously unhealthy." Ruby's face fell.
"Please Weiss? I haven't had them in months!" Ruby begged, looking at Weiss with big silver eyes, her bottom lip sticking out slightly. Walking a couple of steps behind the pair, Blake gave Yang a knowing look and held up two fingers, whilst Yang held up one, the pair of them betting on how long it would take Ruby to convince Weiss to let her the sugary coated cereal for breakfast.
"No, they're drenched in sugar and the last thing I need is you bouncing off the walls" Weiss' voice was still quite strong but Ruby sensed weakness and moved closer, bending her knees slightly to put her below Weiss' eyeline and looked up at her.
"Pretty please? I promise not to eat them again for aaaaaages…" Ruby quivered her bottom lip after she finished talking.
Weiss looked into Ruby's eyes for a moment, taking in everything about her, before "…F-fine." She caved into Ruby's puppy dog eyes, knowing she could never hold out against her partner for long.
"Yay! Thank you Weiss, you're the best partner ever!" Ruby jumped in the air punching her fist, before hugging the smaller girl next to her.
"G-get off me you dolt! And it's the last time you get them until at least Christmas!" Weiss tried to scold her partner, but Ruby was too happy to really take notice of her.
Yang grinned at Blake "I win that one, Ruby hasn't pulled the puppy dog eyes out in a whiiiiiile." Blake rolled her eyes and smiled as the four of them walked down the hallways and finally arrived back at their old dorm room. They all looked to Ruby and motioned that she should be the first to go through. Smiling, she pushed their door open and found the room, not exactly how they'd left it.
"Where are the bunk beds?!" Ruby cried stopping in the doorway.
"Pretty much the whole school got taken over by Grimm, did you REALLY think everything was going to be exactly the same as it was when we left?" Weiss sighed as she walked around Ruby and leant her case up against one of the beds.
"Awwww" Ruby's face was crestfallen as she dragged her feet across the floor and sat down heavily on the bed next to Weiss'.
Blake spoke up as she moved her case up against the wall, "We could always make it how it used to be?"
"N-"
"Yes! That's exactly what we'll do!" Ruby jumped in before Weiss could object, only for a loud and long gurgle to come from her stomach and Ruby's cheeks to go pink. "…After breakfast?"
Even Weiss couldn't keep a straight face once Ruby's stomach began to growl and the others started chuckling before the four headed down to breakfast in the hall. As it was a week before school was due to start back up again, they were the only four in the hall, and after getting their food and sitting at a table, they glanced around a little sheepishly, feeling out of place in the giant room. Yang was quiet the whole time, and under the table Blake slipped her hand onto Yang's leg and gave it a quick squeeze, letting her know she was next to her. Yang breathed out slowly and heavily before smiling sadly back at Blake and starting to eat her breakfast, whilst opposite them Weiss and Ruby had noticed the short exchange of glances and smiles but left the two partners to it. Ruby looked down and took the first spoonful of Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes from the bowl and put it in her mouth. Eyes glazing over, she thought there was nothing that would ever taste this sweet, nothing could ever taste so good (other than chocolate chip cookies and milk of course!), but for breakfast? This. Was. Heaven.
Yang burst out laughing as Ruby started to wolf down the cereal as fast as her arms would move, splattering milk all around and Weiss immediately started berating the redhead to be more careful or else she'd choke. Blake smiled and started to chuckle as well, laughing even more when Ruby tried to apologise to Weiss with a mouth full of cereal, nearly causing Yang to fall off her seat she was laughing so hard.
Having finished their breakfast (with Ruby managing to get through three bowls of cereal before Weiss could stop her), the four girls headed back to their dorm, Ruby speeding off ahead of them, leaving petals in her wake. "Bet Goodwitch forgot about that side effect of having us back" Yang chuckled as she strolled leisurely along, arms behind her head, Blake beside her and Weiss slightly in front of the two. Ruby suddenly appeared again, skidding to a halt.
"Comeonyouguys! Whyareyousoslow? Letshurryitup!" The words shot out of her mouth almost too quick to catch before she turned and was gone again.
Weiss sighed heavily. Why did I give in to that excitable idiot so quickly? This is going to be a disaster. I really need to stop letting her convince me. But she just looked so...She shook her head vigorously. No. Not the time for those thoughts.
"Come on you two, if we don't hurry up she'll probably try to make the bunk beds by herself." Weiss started to jog after Ruby only for the red tornado to come back, barely screech to a stop in front of her, grab her hand and, with hardly a chance for Weiss to say "Ruby, wait..." the pair were both off, a swirling red and white blur around the corner.
Yang looked to Blake and smirked, "Now that those two are gone, shall we actually hurry up or just continue to take a slow walk back?"
"We probably should hurry up, or else Ruby will try to make the bunk beds all on top of one another"
Yang pouted, "Awww no fair, I wanted to take a nice long walk around campus before going back..." She ruined the pout by grinning wildly at the end.
Blake felt something in her stomach flutter, "On your own...or with me?" She asked looking at the floor, not sure why she was so nervous to ask.
"Obviously with you! There's no one else I'd want to go with," Yang replied immediately before realising what she'd said, "O-of course that's if you'd want to do that with me."
Blake brushed a bit of hair off her face and murmured "Yes. I'd like that." She smiled shyly at Yang, trying to keep the butterflies in her stomach from overwhelming her completely. "But we should probably go rescue Weiss from your sister."
Yang rubbed the back of her head with one hand, not looking Blake in the eye, "Yeah…yeah I guess we should catch them up." The rest of their walk was mostly silent but neither of them minded, each content to just be in the other's company.
A couple of doors away from their room they heard a high voice call out "Ruby for the love of Dust, just stop for a minute!" The door was open and there were ropes on the floor next to one bed, a very loose knot attaching one to a single bed post, an exhausted Weiss, and a very hyperactive Ruby bouncing on the spot, clearly unable to stop moving. Weiss turned to Blake and Yang as they walked in and mouthed "Help me...Please." Blake gave Yang a look who rolled her eyes and went over to Ruby and placed a hand on her shoulder, causing Ruby to look straight into Yang's eyes.
"Ruby, why don't you do as Weiss says and let her take the lead on building the bunk beds ok? She's your partner so help her out with this?"
Ruby stopped bouncing, nodded, turned to Weiss and rapped out a salute. "Yes, Madam Schnee, what are your orders?" Ruby could only keep her face straight for a second or two before bursting into a massive grin and going back to bouncing on the spot.
Weiss sighed. "Tie the ropes around each bed post first, and make sure they're as tight as you can make it."
Ruby saluted again and zipped to the first bed post, redoing the knot again and again until it was as tight as she could make it. Blake and Yang meanwhile wandered over to their beds, stacking some hardback books on top of each bed post before the two of them threw the mattress off Yang's bed and put the frame on top of the books. After checking it was as secure as they could make it, Yang grabbed her mattress and sheets, put them back on her bed, and sat down next to Blake to watch the carnage unfold on the other side of the room.
After a few minutes of enjoying the sight of Weiss try to wrangle Ruby to either stay still out of the way, or to do what she'd actually asked, Yang and Blake got up and helped their teammates set the bunk beds back up. When they had all finished the beds looked like nothing had changed. Weiss sighed and brushed some stray strands of hair off her forehead, then suddenly realised something, "Wait Blake, where did all those books for your bed come from?"
Blake suddenly looked down and away from them all, "Well...when I...left...Beacon, I didn't really take any of my luggage back to Menagerie with me, so all my books stayed here. They must have been gathered up by one of the professors and then put back in the room before we arrived earlier."
Weiss accepted the explanation and decided she needed to clean off after dealing with the hyperactive dolt and putting the bed up, so said to the room in general "I'm getting a shower." Grabbing her suitcase, she marched to the bathroom and went in.
Yang looked at Blake, shrugged, then climbed onto her bed and pulled her scroll out, flicking to her favourite game, "Now then, how many updates have I missed? What?! 39 gig? Oh boy I have SO much to catch up on..."
Blake sighed a little then curled up on her bed, pulling a book out, discarding the bookmark inside it, and started again from the beginning. The relative calm was only broken by the faint sounds of rushing water from the bathroom, and the soft thumps of a teenager bouncing on the spot. After a minute or so of the soft thumping starting to drill into her brain, Blake looked up to Ruby, "Why don't you start coming up with some new team exercises or moves we can practise? Other than briefly back in Atlas, we haven't had much time to just practice as a team together."
"That is the best idea! I'll come up with so many awesome new moves!" Ruby immediately grabbed a pencil and some paper from the desk and zoomed up to her bed. Lying on her front she kicked her legs back and forth whilst humming a quick tune to herself as she started to work on new practice sessions and team moves.
Weiss opened the door, dressed in a more casual (for her anyway) white blouse and light blue skirt, savouring the feel of her bare feet on the carpet. She'd wrapped her hair up in a towel to get most of the water out and she padded over to the dressing table in the corner of the room, sat down with one leg resting over the other, placed her scroll on her knee and started to dry her hair with the hairdryer she'd brought with her, knowing that none of the others would have thought to have brought one with them.
Just as she was finishing drying her hair, they all heard a commotion in the corridor. Yang looked to Blake who had got up with a strange expression on her face, almost like she was unsure of what she was hearing. "Blake? What's up?"
Blake tilted her head slightly to one side, "That's…interesting."
"What?" Yang sat up and put her scroll to one side, swinging her legs over the side of the bed.
"It seems we've got a new neighbour."
By this point the three girls didn't need the ears of a Faunus to hear a recognisable pair of voices getting ever closer.
"I've never tried that many pancakes before. It was definitely an experience!"
"Well Ren knows the best way to make pancakes, his are always so much better than the school's, but it isn't fair to get him to make that many pancakes when we've only just got back, plus it's SO much easier to order them from the school caf, as I can get UNLIMITED maple syrup as well, cos when Ren makes them he only lets me have a small amount of maple syrup for each when the best way to eat pancakes is to smother them in it."
By this point, the voices had gotten loud enough that Team RWBY had got up and wandered over to the door and stuck their heads out, Ruby climbing on top of Yang to see over her head.
"Penny!" Ruby scrambled over Yang's head, causing her hair to get ruffled, and if it had been anyone other than her little sister Yang would have blasted them into next week, but it was Ruby…a hyperactive-not-thinking Ruby, so she let it go. But just this once.
The redhead sprinted the few steps to jump at Penny and give her a massive hug. Jaune ducked under Ruby's swinging legs and kept walking to their dorm room, head slightly bowed and a dark expression on his face. He barely even noticed the others before walking into the room and going straight to the bathroom. The three girls looked at each other, then turned to Nora and Ren for an explanation.
"Professor Goodwitch told us that to graduate we need four people in a team." Ren answered the questioning looks, "So Penny is now part of our team."
At this the whole of Team RWBY turned to look at the android, even Ruby who was still swinging from Penny's neck giggling. "That is absolutely correct! My secret mission from General Schnee and Professor Goodwitch is to gain control of my new powers, and to protect the Fall Vault. My second mission from my father is to learn more about being a human and interact with you more." Penny beamed as she said it, "So for other students to accept why I am here, and so that they can graduate successfully, I have joined Team JNPR! I will be an excellent teammate and will not let you down."
She suddenly looked a little downfallen "But I do not fully understand why Jaune is so angry. I thought he wanted to graduate…"
Nora looked slightly awkward, "It's…it's complicated Penny, come on. I'll show you your new room!" Brightening up as she changed the subject Nora skipped to the dorm door and started to take Penny on a tour of the room. Ren shrugged and followed the two girls in.
Ruby sat cross legged on the floor, breathed out, and suddenly dropped her shoulders, yawning massively, "I'm exhausted."
Yang looked at Weiss, "You let her eat that much cereal, you're dealing with her comedown." Lifting her hands up in the air she walked back into the room, Blake following behind her.
Weiss sighed and shook her head "Come on you dolt, get off the floor." Ruby wasn't in the mood to move much, if at all, so Weiss ended up having to sling an arm over her shoulders, lift her up and try to convince Ruby to walk the few steps back to their dorm, taking the majority of the weight on her shoulders whilst trying not to blush too much at Ruby being so close.
Author's notes:
I know there's not much Bumblebee at the minute, but that's mostly because there's been quite a few hints in the show in the last volume, so it's already sort of established a little bit, whereas Whiterose hasn't been established much at all, so I need to lay a bit of groundwork first. Don't worry though, Bumblebee will start to show up quite a bit more pretty soon!