Weiss kept glancing over the book she was reading to look at her partner, Ruby's tongue slightly sticking out as she focused on writing down an answer. She'd been making decent progress so far, nothing major, but she had consistently been improving with each subject that Weiss had worked with her on. History was still her biggest downfall though. Plant sciences had been steady progress, small steps, but progress, nonetheless. Weiss had set Ruby a target for this last week, if she could get above 70% in the two mini tests Weiss gave her, then she'd get a prize. Weiss had been deliberately vague as to what the prize would be, but said it was definitely something that Ruby would like. She'd managed 71% in the Plant Sciences test and if she did well in the History one tonight then Weiss had the two gift certificates for Mr Chip in her bag ready and waiting. She was really hoping Ruby got above the 70% mark, as Ruby had been really committed to working hard.
The first study session they had together Weiss had been prepared for Ruby to get distracted and not really pay attention, but she'd sat down, pen and notebook ready, and actually listened. Weiss had been really shocked at how much of a good student Ruby could be, whilst she knew Ruby wasn't an idiot and definitely had a good brain in there, her skills in Professor Mulberry's class were testament of that alone, never mind Professor Port's Military Strategy lessons where Ruby also excelled. Outside of those she'd remembered Ruby being a jokey student, not paying attention to the classes that bored her and not taking notice of much outside of combat and weapons, and it had infuriated her when they'd first been put in a team. But over a year, and a war against an immortal Queen of the Grimm, later, Ruby had clearly…well Weiss couldn't say she'd matured, not with her tendency to still act like a child over some of the silliest things, but her attitude to schoolwork had definitely matured. She no longer joked around in class…well not as much as she used to, but in the study sessions she had really tried hard and pushed herself, making notes on anything and everything Weiss told her, using highlighters to mark the most important details. When the first one ended Weiss had, surprising even herself, been really proud of her leader.
Weiss hadn't been the only one surprised by Ruby's attitude to their study sessions, Ruby herself had been a little surprised. Whilst she'd turned up ready to study and learn, she'd expected to get distracted, get yelled at, and not enjoy it at all. What she hadn't expected was for Weiss to be able to explain things clearly, point out things that connected and how much it had helped her remember things, although she still struggled to remember them for the first two weeks or so, and ended up getting very confused, to the point where she didn't want to say anything for fear of upsetting Weiss. When she'd finally given up and told Weiss she couldn't remember anything unless her notebook was in front of her, her stomach squirming, Weiss hadn't yelled. She hadn't been disappointed. She'd asked questions, what bits didn't Ruby understand, what she could remember, what bits she struggled with, and then helped her go over them. Ruby's worries had melted away, and after that any time she didn't understand something she asked Weiss to explain it and she did.
The last study session had been a test on Plant Sciences, and Ruby had amazed herself by getting 71%. After only a month and a half of the study sessions she'd improved so much (in her eyes anyway), and now it was time for History. Ruby read through the quiz one last time to check everything, and whilst there were a few things she wasn't sure on, she was happy with the majority of it. "Alright, I'm finished." Weiss looked up, held out her hand, and Ruby passed the sheet of paper over, then sat nervously, fidgeting with her hands and her leg bouncing. She'd hit one of Weiss' targets yesterday, and she thought she'd hit it today as well, which meant a prize! Weiss had been super vague on what it was, but Ruby trusted her, it was going to be something good. Whilst she didn't enjoy studying, and probably never would, spending this much time with Weiss was a definite plus, and she had to admit it, even to herself, her heart swelled when she saw Weiss happy, which at the minute was mostly dependent on Ruby doing well. Ruby wanted to make her BFF proud.
Weiss had a red pen in her hand, going over the sheet of paper with Ruby's answers on, and whilst Ruby definitely saw quite a few moments where Weiss would write something down, she saw more ticks than notes. A lot more ticks than notes.
Ten agonising minutes later and Weiss had finished going over the test. "Ruby..."
Ruby gulped. "Yes Weiss?"
"I'm impressed."
Ruby's jaw dropped. Whilst she'd hoped to get a good score, she hadn't expected Weiss to actually be impressed!
"You got 82 and a half per cent. I'm honestly proud of you." Weiss sounded genuine and slid the paper back over to Ruby. "There's a couple of basic questions you got completely wrong, and you were decades out on the year that Menagerie was given to the Faunus." Ruby's face dropped a little bit, hopefully Blake wouldn't find that last bit out. "But you did really well. I'm...well, I'm a little surprised at how well you've done."
"Thank you! I tried really hard to take everything that you'd said in, and whilst I couldn't remember some of it, I figured a guess was better than nothing." Ruby laughed and rubbed the back of her head, feeling a little strange and awkward to be getting such good praise from Weiss.
"Don't let it drop! Seriously, just don't, ok?" Weiss got serious, hoping to keep Ruby a little focused, but inside she was beaming. Now she could actually provide the prize that she had promised. Reaching down, she grabbed her bag, fished around in it for a moment, then pulled out two small envelopes and passed them over. "One for doing well yesterday, and one for today. I promised you a prize for doing well, so here it is."
Ruby's smile dropped the tiniest amount, Envelopes? That's a weird prize, whatever could be...OH MY GODS SHE DIDN'T! SHE DID! Ruby's eyes shot wide open as she took in the small gift certificate and the writing on it. "Is...is this..."
"Yes, it is." Weiss couldn't help feeling a little smug, Ruby's reaction was exactly what she had been hoping for.
"OHMYGODSYOUGOTME..." Ruby managed to squeak out loudly before Weiss leaned over and covered her partner's mouth with her hand.
"We're in a library you dolt!" Weiss said in a half whisper/half shout, before taking her hand away.
"Oh my gods you got me two gift certificates for Mr Chip! You're absolutely amazing!" Ruby wanted to launch herself over the table and give Weiss a massive hug. Not just one gift certificate, but TWO! Best. Partner. Ever.
Weiss smiled, a faint pink tinge appearing on her cheeks, "I thought seeing as you had been trying so hard, and with how well you've done, you deserved a treat."
Ruby was absolutely ecstatic, and it was easy to see, "You're the best partner ever Weiss!" She was practically bouncing in her seat with happiness, and Weiss couldn't help but feel a massive surge in her chest at the sight, and she blushed at Ruby's praise.
"Can we go now?!"
"You dolt he'll be closed by now, it's gone 8!"
"Ok but can we go to Mr Chip tomorrow? Pleeeeeeease?" Ruby threw her biggest puppy dog eye look at Weiss, knowing that she couldn't ever resist it.
And Ruby was right, Weiss couldn't resist Ruby's those adorable silver eyes, so she rolled her own ice blue eyes, before smiling, "Yes we can go tomorrow."
Blake and Yang were revising a lot more quietly than the rest of the team in their room. From what Yang had heard from Ruby about Weiss' study sessions, Blake was the more forgiving, and relaxed of the two 'teachers.' Weiss did pop quizzes and going over things until they were memorised, whilst Blake took a more leisurely approach, asking questions as they went along to check Yang's understanding and memory. Yang knew which of the two suited her more, and it wasn't Weiss' approach. Despite all of Yang's jokes, she was serious about getting her grades up. "Alright, and finally, what's last on the study board for today?"
"Healing herbs." Blake replied, closing one book and sliding it to one side, before pulling a different one closer and opening it. "What are the ten herbs or plants that can help either increase natural aura rejuvenation or replenish it?"
"Ten? Right..." Yang sat back to think, casting her lilac eyes to the ceiling, "There's Chamomile, Valerian, Gingko, Feverfew, Milk Thistle, St John's Wort, Goldenseal...erm...eck-something...echidna?"
Blake couldn't help herself and laughed out loud at the last one and Yang immediately backtracked, "Wait, no, echinacea? That's it!"
"Yes Yang, it's echinacea. Echidnas are those porcupine-like animals with the spines." Blake was still smiling at the mental image of Yang trying to fight one of the spiky marsupials into her mouth. "If you tried to eat one of those, I think it might do more harm than good."
"Might?" Yang raised an eyebrow at her partner.
Blake was still chuckling, "Ok, ok, it would definitely do more harm than good." She stopped chuckling and tried to look serious, but her ears betrayed her mirth, "Come on Yang, what about the other two?"
Yang closed her eyes and thought as hard as she could, trying to remember her lessons with Professor Peach, as well as any bits of information she'd picked up over the last year at home and on the road. "Margolia. And..." she scrunched her eyes tighter before, "Taramis." She opened one eye slightly at the last word, and grimaced, not fully sure if it was right or not.
Blake raised her eyebrows, "Both right. That's all ten." Yang beamed and Blake smiled right back at her, "And first time of asking too." Yang flicked her fingers out wide and laced them behind her head, a smug grin on her face. "Now which ones replenish aura by a bit, and which just boosts your own natural rejuvenation." Yang's face dropped into a pout, clearly annoyed that her moment of triumph had been ruined.
"Erm, right. Shoulda guessed you'd ask that. Margolia, Goldenseal, and Valerian replenish aura," She counted each off on her fingers, "Whilst the ones that just help with aura rejuvenation are Taramis, Milk Thistle, St John's Wort, Chamomile, Feverfew, Gingko and...Echidna" She looked at Blake and winked at the last one, getting it wrong deliberately.
It had the desired effect and Blake smirked, trying to stifle it, before letting another laugh out, her mind filled with the image of Yang fighting an Echidna again. Yang grinned, she loved hearing Blake laugh like that, it didn't happen often, and unfortunately it was never to one of her puns, but when it did happen it was brilliant. Blake's laugh was loud and clear, so full of joy and happiness. Whilst Yang did really like seeing one of Blake's customary smirks, sometimes with a sarcastic comment accompanying it, it was the laugh that was the best, partially because it was so rare, but mostly because it was so different to Blake's normally quiet presence. Yang had a soft smile on her face as she watched Blake try to control the laughter and put a straight face back on.
The door flew open and Ruby came through the doorway skipping like she was walking on air, with Weiss trailing after her, a small smile on her face. Blake immediately brought the laughter under control and turned to face the other two. Yang felt a mix of disappointment that the laughter had finished, along with a bit of...she wasn't sure what exactly, maybe happiness or pride, that Blake's laughter was something she was only happy to show around her.
"Well someone's clearly happy. And I thought this was supposed to be time for studying history, not each other." Yang wiggled her eyebrows as Weiss and Ruby reacted.
"Yaaaang!"
"Stop. Just stop." Weiss rolled her eyes and shut the door behind her. "We did study, Ruby is just happy because she's done really well."
"And because Weiss got me two gift vouchers for Mr Chip and we're going tomorrow!" Ruby couldn't help but add the extra information at the end.
Blake raised an eyebrow, as well as her ears in shock, and looked at Weiss. "Aren't they really expensive and didn't you get cut off over a year ago?"
Weiss suddenly looked a little awkward and embarrassed, "Err, yes, well. When Winter took control of the Schnee Dust Company after I...arrested…my father, she restored access to my funds." She added the next bit quickly, "I had enough saved up for them anyway, but...yeah."
Blake's brain suddenly made a connection and she smiled slyly and nodded at Weiss, accepting her explanation, but making a note in her head to talk with her about it later.
Yang's scroll started playing a song that Ruby recognised as Team OG from The Achieve Men, and everyone turned to look at it.
"Hey Dad," Yang answered.
"The ceiling." Blake rolled her eyes at Yang's next words knowing exactly what she'd been asked.
"Hi Dad!" Ruby yelled out from across the room, having jumped onto her bunk, her legs swinging beneath her.
"Err yeah it should be fine, I'll just ask." Yang moved the scroll away from her ear and looked to the rest of her team. "Dad's invited everyone to go to his for the Winter break, I'm just checking if that's alright?"
"Course it is!" Ruby answered confidently.
"I'm ok with that." Blake nodded to Yang.
"Well, I don't have anywhere else to go, and I don't particularly wish to spend it here on my own." Weiss replied as if the answer was obvious.
"Ok, so that's three yeses and an obviously. We'll grab a flight to Patch tomorrow and see you then." She hung up and turned to face everyone, seeing Ruby practically vibrating with excitement. "Looks like we're spending the Winter Solstice with our Dad."
"Woohoo!" Ruby shouted and pushed herself into the air, throwing a punch to celebrate before landing awkwardly, stumbling, and falling over.
"What are you doing you dunce? You could have injured yourself!" Weiss stomped over to Ruby and helped her up, chastising her for, as she put it, "Literally not looking before you leap."
Author's Note 2:
This chapter is quite a short one, so I'm sorry about that! Also, those herbs I mentioned in Blake and Yang's study session, the first eight were just ones I googled as "healing herbs" and most of them won't really do much and could even be harmful. The last two are just ones I made up. I included them because I needed some herbs and stuff to make up a plant sciences study session.
This is getting towards the end of the first mini-arc thing, which has mostly just been getting them back to Beacon and normal life. There's another two, maybe three chapters (not sure as I haven't written them yet) that will cover the Winter break, and then the next mini-arc will begin, and that one is going to show them as more professional Huntresses rather than just schoolgirls, and maaaaybe is the reason Goodwitch didn't want them guarding Oscar. That's all the advance notice I'm giving as I don't want to give any spoilers away too soon!
Finally, I've released a second story! This one here is still going to be the main one, with weekly releases on a Saturday, but I'd had too many ideas for a second story, so I'll be writing that at the same time. It's basically a high school au with Faunus. If you could check it out that would be really great and I'd massively appreciate it, thank you!