05/04/2000…
Weiss yawned as she maneuvered her way through the school headed to where her friends were all waiting around their usual table. She was running a bit behind on this particular day from almost sleeping through her alarm, it was only when the cleaning lady knocked on her door that she realized she had to get out the door and get ready for school.
As she sat down at the group table she felt every bit of her physically exhausted body groan as her entire body protested and demanded rest. Her mind wasn't sharp as it normally was as she chugged her coffee in a very unladylike fashion.
She didn't even notice her friends all looking directly at her with concerned looks on their faces. After she spent a few moments rubbing her eyes she heard a familiar voice chime in "Morning sleepy head?"
"Morning Yang…" Weiss yawned out in reply
Yang Replied "Morning to you, but Nora said that maybe you need to open your eyes?"
Weiss forced her eyes open and looked at the face of a casually amused looking Nora "Oh hey Nora, sorry I'm still waking up"
"Yeah we can see that, did you actually sleep last night?" Nora asked as she tilted her head looking at Weiss "I mean I get that school is hard and all, but you have been dragging along lately."
"Yeah, I was just up late working on a project" Weiss replied as she noticed Blake and Jaune exchange concerned glances as Rwby was working on some last-minute math homework while sitting in his lap not paying attention to the conversation.
"What Project?" Nora asked.
Weiss had to think on her feet and picked one of the three major assignments she had actually been working on "Uh, It's a report on native American cultures for my US history class."
"Huh, I thought that was one of your better subjects," Blake asked.
"It can be one of my better subjects and still be a difficult assignment Blake," Weiss said as if she was just saying anything to get the others off her ass at this point.
Blake just shrugged it off knowing she wasn't going to get the truth out of her to admit she was having a problem at that point.
Jaune however wasn't letting it go. [You know you could have reached out to anyone of us for help right?]
"I, well, I didn't want to be a bother to anyone," Weiss said back as she tried to deflect the conversation away from her "Are you trying to grow a beard or something you haven't shaved in a couple of weeks."
Jaune reached up and rubbed the scruffy mess of fuzz on his face and replied [I mean I guess, maybe?]
"You're also in a desperate need for a haircut… I'm surprised Ruby even lets you within five feet of here in that state." Weiss said in a chastising tone of voice.
Blake sighed clearly looking tired as well "Weiss, lay off him… We all have our problems right now."
Weiss couldn't be too sure if Blake was referring to herself, or to her, or Jaune, or anyone else in the group for that matter. Weiss decided to let it drop. She just took a few more drinks of her coffee to help get her brain working.
When the bell Rang and the others took off she reached into her backpack for a small bottle of caffeine pills and took a couple once it was clear no one was watching her before she headed to her first class.
Later on that afternoon, Jaune and Ruby were "Studying" for that math test Ruby was struggling with, it was clearly hot in that room which is why Jaune had taken his shirt off, Ruby was feeling warm as well and that's why she had unbuttoned her own shirt, nothing else was going on, no sir.
So when Jaune's phone loudly went off alerting him of a text message while Ruby and Jaune were totally not making out, it had started the pair.
Jaune groaned in frustration as he reached out for his phone and flipped it open to see a new message from Blake.
"Who is it?" Ruby said in her still cute to Jaune awkward way.
"Blake…" Jaune Rasped out in his own way.
Ruby settled down next to resting her head on his chest and feeling his warm skin against her equally warm face. "Ignore it?"
Jaune scoffed and opened the message and the pair read it "Worried about Weiss? Can you get on IM?
Jaune just stared at the message as he felt ruby softly kiss his chest. Causing him to quietly groan.
Ruby looked up and smirked and softly said "Your mine first"
Jaune closed the phone and put it back on his nightstand. As the pair went back to studying for a while longer.
Almost forty minutes later Both Ruby and Jaune were huddled around His computer reaching out to Blake over IM
BLACKCAT42: Oh hey I texted you an hour, I wasn't sure if you got it?
J-ARC83: Uh... Sorry I was Help Ruby with some Math homework she said she was having trouble with.
BLACKCAT42: Right… Well Just make sure you both are taking care to make sure 1+1=2 there okay?
Ruby chuckled right away prompting Jaune to look directly at her and painfully say "I don't get it…"
"She's saying wear protection" Ruby Awkwardly giggled out.
Jaune blinked and signed [Well no shit I am]
Jaune turned back to the monitor and typed out…
J-ARC83: Right, so anyways what's up?
BLACKCAT42: Well we both have noticed Weiss lately yeah? How she never seems to sleep anymore?
Ruby silently nodded as he typed up his own reply
J-ARC83: I think we all have noticed that Weiss is slowly killing herself by a lack of sleep, yes
BLACKCAT42: Right so what do we do about it?
J-ARC83: I think as her girlfriend you have the best chance of getting to her to at least sleep at night, I'm just wondering how the fuck she's able to stay awake with how little she sleeps, she seems to be able to stay way more functional than me in our history class.
BLACKCAT42: I know right? I don't know how the hell she's doing it?
Ruby tapped her chin as she said "You think she's taking drugs to keep her awake?"
Jaune put a hand to this throat and said softly "I doubt it, maybe it's something else like… I do know she was really abusing the hell out of some coffee this morning…"
J-ARC83: Hey maybe she's just drinking a lot of coffee or taking caffeine pills?
BLACKCAT42: oh god damn it, I even know one of those small Korean ran stores nearby her place that sells them, they don't even bother carding people!
J-ARC83: How do you know this?
BLACKCAT42: Ask Ruby
"How do you know this" Jaune said with a hand to his throat
"Yang and Neptune buy Condoms from there…" Ruby said with a smirk "So do I"
Jaune looked back at the monitor with a blush as he replied
J-ARC83: I'll have to remember to ask her about it?
BLACKCAT42: Alright, I'll think of a way to ask her about it and get back to you guys, I'll see if I can convince her to take a few more naps or something at least. Also if you can, try to find and talk to Sun and see if you can convince him to seek some kind of help, this bullying needs to stop!
J-ARC83: I'll do what I can talk to you later.
Jaune turned to Ruby with a serious look on his face before he signed [So that's the place on 4th? Where yang buys her protection?]
Ruby laughed and signed [Calm down tiger…]
[Your fault this time.] Jaune signed with a smirk.
[What was this about Sun?] Ruby Signed
Jaune rubbed his neck and grumbled [I know you didn't want me involved with him.]
[Because he was part of a gang of ruthless murders…] Ruby signed
[I get that Ruby but-] Jaune started to sign
[Who also put you in the hospital, and torched one of your art books] Ruby said.
[That's really not the poi-] Jaune also tried to sign.
[His best friend killed an officer and Weiss's sister…] Ruby said.
[This might surprise you but I do remember most of this.] Jaune said
"That same bastard almost fucking killed you! Why in the hell are you and Blake wanting to help him?!" Ruby shouted.
"Because it wasn't him that did any of that!" Jaune shouted back before he added, "Well okay the artbook, yes, but he's not a murderer."
Ruby glared at him [I'm glad we fooled around before we got on IM with Blake] she signed Bitterly [Cause I wouldn't want to now…]
[Look Blake is on board with it, and she knew him for longer than any of us, I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt if she is.] Jaune signed
"Just… Don't expect me to be best friends with him…" Ruby said.
Jaune nodded and signed [I'm not going to ask you to do anything you're not comfortable with.]
"You're damn right you're not going to." Ruby said with a likely more stern tone than she was aiming for "I'm sorry, Blake can forgive him, you can do, but I don't have to."
[Of course not.] Jaune signed.
"Damn right" Ruby replied
[So what are we going to do about Weiss then? If she's abusing caffeine pills rather than sleeping… that's a problem.] Jaune signed
Ruby leaned back in her seat as she stared at Jaune "When are you going to learn you don't have to try and save everyone"
[Hopefully never] Jaune signed.
"Hopefully never…" Ruby repeated, "I guess that's just who you are."
A quiet silence filled the room before Ruby spoke again "So I really did need help with my math homework…"
[How in the hell is someone as smart with machines as you so terrible with the numbers?] Jaune signed
"That's funny coming from someone who's best grade right now is a C+..." Ruby said with a chuckle
[Hey, I was in a coma!] Jaune said with a pouty look on his face.
"Yeah yeah, excuses…" Ruby said as she walked over and kissed him "You're lucky I'm not dating you for your GPA…"
Jaune smiled and said in reply [I guess I am…]
Ruby stood up grabbing onto one of Jaune's hands and leaning back with her entire body pulled Jaune up and out of his seat to a standing position. It took Jaune a few seconds to get himself steady with his leg in the condition that it was in.
"Are you planning on shaving that scruff off your face any time soon?" Ruby asked as she put an arm around her boyfriend to steady him.
"I… I quite like it actually," Jaune said as he let his girlfriend prop him up so he could find a way to shift his weight to the sweet spot that hurt the least.
As Ruby helped Jaune walk in the absence of his cane she found herself asking "Are you really okay?"
"Well…" He faintly said "I won't pretend at this exact moment I'm good barely being able to walk"
After a pause, he continued "I'm happy to have you helping me though"
Ruby put on a smile and said "Well… I'm glad I can help"
The following morning, Jaune arrived at school early with a singular goal in mind, Blake had told him where he was going to be able to find Sun Wukong, and it was well past time the two of them had a talk to clear the air between the two of them.
When Jaune finally found Sun the first thing he noticed was the fresh Black eye he was sporting, and the completely disheveled look on his face.
Sun took one look at Jaune and asked directly "What the fuck do you want?"
Jaune frowned at the sight of how frankly pathetic Sun looked and he said "I… I want to talk…"
Alright, let me get this out of the way now, I am very excited about War for Cybertron Siege tomorrow, I have Cliffjumper sitting next to me and the Amazon exclusive "Corpse of prime" figure is on my desk looking... we dead as fuck.
Also after a full two weeks, I am confirmed to not have Covid, thanks to everyone who sent well wishes, I'm okay.
This chapter was a bit of a challenge since I have to think up ways to move the plot forward but not end up with something under a thousand words, and honestly, a lot of characters just don't have parts to really play right now. So I'm kinda having to pad a little bit. I mean I won't lie I'll never get tired of writing cute couple scenes. But at the same time, I do like the idea of not everyone being on the same page for how certain situations get handled. So I'm happy with how this turned out even if I'm not happy with how long it took.
Dragonlord and Chinaluv, I'm glad to see you both liked how the last chapter came out. Scarcity your absence is clearly noticed on discord, I hope whatever is going on with you gets taken care of soon!
Hey Ultorious, I'm glad you're enjoying the story so far, I still have a while till the end and I hope you enjoy the ride!
And Beowulf It's going to be interesting now the next chapter or so turns out, Sun was not a major character in this story, but he's having a heck of a story arc here!
As for everyone else, I want to once again thank you all for taking the time to read this, and I hope you all have a great rest of your day!
