RAVN
Chapter 2
The Shining Beacon
Unlike when he had first gotten onto the airship, Raven waited until he was the last one on the airship before leaving. He didn't want to risk being drawn into yet another conversation with Yang and Ruby, let alone anyone else. He was better off on his own.
Walking onto the docking area, Raven looked around to confirm that he was alone, and checking his scroll to make sure he wasn't late, he walked forward past a small crater in the ground and made his way to what must have been the front entrance.
Beacon was a school, and as such the layout needn't be confusing to new students. All he had to do was walk in a straight line, swerving to the side occasionally to pass by fountains and such.
Though that was as far as his luck held it seemed, as it seemed two unfortunate souls were, well, lost. Raven sighed resignedly, it was just his luck that he would run into one of the girls he was trying to avoid so soon.
"Hey!" the girl yelled when she caught sight of him, and Raven's shoulders slumped as he sighed in resignation. 'Damn you Murphy', anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. It was unrealistic to expect that he could go any length of time without running into either of the two people he was desperately trying to avoid.
"Hi, I'm Ruby," she said when she caught up with him, and when he stared at her blankly, though she really couldn't tell through his mask. "Ah!" she said and began to rub the back of her head with an awkward look on her face, "I said that already, didn't I? Umm..." She looked around briefly for anything to talk about. Her dad and sister told her to make friends now that she was at Beacon and she didn't want to alienate anyone, after all life was supposed to be better with friends in it. Wasn't it?
"Oh, this is Jaune!" Ruby finally said, dragging the boy in front of her, and Jaune let out a rather unmanly shriek when she tugged him in front of the imposing man. "Um, hi. My name is Jaune Arc, it's a pleasure to meet you." The boy said haltingly, extending his hand warily.
The boy, Jaune was tall, taller than himself by an inch or so, with dark-blue eyes and short messy blonde hair. He wore a white-silver vaguely diamond-shaped breastplate of a similar style to his own, with white-silver spaulders with rerebraces as his only other pieces of plate armor. Underneath he wore a black short-sleeved hoodie with short burnt orange arm warmers. He also wore blue denim pants with a white patch on the left knee where the fabric was worn and frayed to the point of tearing, and black high-top sneakers.
He has two crisscrossing belts around his waist, one dark brown and one light, with a pair of small pouches on them. Finishing off his outfit were a pair of brown wrist-length fingerless gloves with small metal plates over the back of his knuckles. Strapped to his left side by a magnet/hook on his belt was a familiar white-silver sheath and arming sword.
Raven looked toward the Arc boy for a moment before taking his outstretched hand and giving it a firm shake. His father was right, the Lenoreah and the Arc families would always be involved with each other in some capacity, it was fate.
"Raven Lenoreah" he said in response, and Jaune's eyes lit up in recognition, albeit confused recognition. "Lenoreah? I could've sworn I've heard that name somewhere before, but I can't quite remember where," he looked at Raven from under his eyebrows "sorry."
Raven put his hand on his hip ad said sardonically in response "you don't know much about your family's history, do you?"
Ruby pouted at being ignored, she puffed up her cheeks and glared at the boys in what she hoped was an indignant look but was really just adorable.
Instead of getting angry at Raven's mocking tone he rubbed his head and looked off to the side "not so much, no." Before Raven could reply Ruby cut in, "we're going to be late! We need to get going or we'll never make it to the amp... ampi..." Seeing that she was tripping over the word, Raven helpfully supplied "amphitheater" "thank you, and we're totally lost, can you help us?"
Raven sighed inwardly 'kids,' "we're supposed to go to the foyer, it's pretty much a straight line from the airship. From there, we'll find a directory that will point us in the right direction." He explained, and both Ruby and Jaune blushed in embarrassment at how they failed to grasp something so basic.
Raven sighed inwardly again, seeing that they needed guidance but were to proud or shy to ask for it. He started for a moment, thinking of the irony that he of all people was giving anyone such guidance with anything.
He shook his head, "come on" he said, turning on his heel and walking.
Jaune turned to Ruby, making a gesture as if to ask 'so we're following him?' and Ruby shouted after him "wait up!"
The rest of the journey was rather uneventful, if one didn't count the incessant chattering of his companions. It was astonishing really, if he had to guess then he'd say that Jaune and Ruby were almost as socially awkward as he was, and yet they were talking so wearily much. It was as if they have never even heard of the phrase 'silence is golden'.
"Word of advice," Ruby said said in a serious tone, or as serious sounding as her squeaky voice could get. Raven thought it was a little comical. "You should steer clear of my sister for a couple of days."
"Your sister?" Jaune asked, looking up in thought. Raven thought he must have been picturing and older version of Ruby.
He smiled amusedly beneath his mask, Yang and Ruby could be more different if they tried.
"Yeah you kind of, you know, puked all over the floor... and on her boots"
Jaune's eyes went wide at the thought of yet another angry, violent female bullying him into submission. He already had seven sisters, he didn't need another.
He was just lucky that his mother didn't have a violent bone in her body.
"You're just lucky you weren't in arm's reach when she noticed" she said, elbowing him in the. "Oh, and thanks to you, I nearly became a vomit-wipe!"
"Sorry…" the blond wilted under her accusing glare.
Raven sighed, thankfully their journey to the amphitheater was almost over, then hopefully he could go off and hang back from the crowd.
Raven, Ruby and Jaune were among the last stragglers to arrive at Beacon's amphitheater.
The assembly area, possibly one of many he guessed from the overall size of the castle, took the form of a glass-domed arena with raised bleachers arranged in a circle around a circular stage that has a tall, ornate backdrop with blue lights.
They had barely passed through the towering gates when Ruby heard a familiar voice.
"Ruby! Over here! I saved you a spot!" Yang yelled waving exuberantly.
"Oh hey, I gotta go" Ruby said to her male companions abruptly "I'll see you after the ceremony!" "Hey wait" Jaune tried yelling after her, but she was already making her way through the crowd and likely couldn't hear him. He slouched his shoulders with a sigh, "oh great, now where am I gonna find another nice, quirky girl to talk to?"
Rather than trying to answer Jaune's question, Raven turned and walked away.
Stopping short of colliding with a redheaded girl with... rather skimpy leather and bronze armor, he muttered a short apology and made his way to a wall. Though he had to resist slamming a hand into his face... mask.
It seemed the rules of dramatic irony were at play once again, as the spot he had picked had a clear view of Ruby and Yang. Why did fate have to screw with him like this? He became a mercenary in the first place because he wanted to get away from people. They didn't like him, were offended by his mere presence it seemed, so in return he would give them what they wanted and spend weeks at a time away from civilization tracking fugitives or dangerous grimm.
But now that he finally agreed to his father's requests to spend time with people his age, fate seemed to have fun making him run into the two girls he was trying to avoid at every turn.
Though thankfully they were too absorbed in their own drama to come over and pester him. But things began to escalate with the girls when a white haired girl approached them and started yelling at Ruby.
'Schnee' he thought, her identity made obvious by the snowflake embroidered on her back, his lip curling in distaste. As a mercenary he made a note to choose his clients wisely, but the amount of money they offered to him made him take the job anyway. Back then he didn't know to wear long coats to hide his tail, so when the Schnee family found out he wasn't human, not only did they not pay him, but they betrayed and almost killed him.
Needless to say he harbored quite a bit of resentment to them. He was tempted to draw his gun and shoot her in that bulls-eye on her back.
But thankfully he was distracted by his murderous thoughts by a noise from the microphone on the stage. Turning his eyes away from the Schnee girl to see Ozpin standing behind the microphone stand at the front of the stage with Glynda Goodwitch at his side.
Ozpin was a middle-aged man with tousled silver-white hair and thin brown eyes. He had a light complexion and sharp facial features. Interestingly, Ozpin has black eyebrows, suggesting that silver-white wasn't his natural color and that he either dyed it or it turned white with age. Only, he was far to young for his hair to have turned completely white... Marie Antoinette syndrome perhaps?
He wore small, oddly styled spectacles with shaded lenses and a small, purple, cross-shaped pin on the green cowl around his neck. He wore an open suit jacket over a buttoned vest and green shirt. He also wore black trousers and black dress shoes.
In his left hand he carried a long cane. Its handle was embellished with a scroll-work pattern. There was a large circular area at the base of the handle containing small bronze gears, and attached at one side was a gray knuckle-bar that extended down nearly to the end of the handle. The shaft of the cane was gray-black and appeared to have a square shaped shaft as as opposed a round one.
Glynda appeared to be just a few years shy of forty, and had very platinum blonde hair tied back in a bun with a curl hanging down the right side of her face. Her eyes were a bright, emerald green and she wore thin ovular glasses. She wore teal teardrop-shaped earrings with a matching pendant on her collar.
She wore a white long-sleeved, pleated top that had a wide, keyhole neckline and cuffs that flare into pleated frills. Her lower body was covered by a black pencil skirt that reached up to just under her bust-line with bronze buttons and ever-so-slightly transparent black-brown leggings.
Her shirt seemed extremely tight, but wasn't strained at all, so if he had to guess he'd say that she wore corset under her shirt.
She wore black high-heeled boots with bronze heels, and a short cape that was purple inside and black on the outside. The cut of the cape was stylized to end in flames and arrows, with a row of diamond-shaped bronze beads on the back. Above this line of beads was an emblem of a tiara.
Professor Ozpin (no one knew his surname, did they), the headmaster of Beacon Academy, cleared his throat before beginning his speech. "I'll keep this brief" he started in a distracted, almost bored tone. "You have traveled here today in search of knowledge. To hone your craft and acquire new skills. And when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your lives to the protection of the people.
"But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy in need of purpose, direction."
Raven crossed his arms over his chest and stood a little straighter. That statement really struck him. For years now, he just roamed Remnant, without purpose, direction, or goal. That was why he agreed to come here, not just because it would make him a better fighter, but because even he could see that his life was becoming far too lonely. The rest of the students didn't seem to agree, as their postures shifted to reflect either anger or depression at Ozpin's speech.
They were children after all, supremely confident in their own abilities and unable to see past their own arrogance. Ozpin so far wasn't making any friends with his students, but Raven ventured a guess that their tunes would change during their stay at Beacon.
"You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far." Ozpin looked over the youngsters in the hall with a sharp gaze that seemed to meet the gaze of every single one of them, "it is up to you to take the first step."
The headmaster readjusted his grip on his cane and walked away from the microphone. His speech had turned out a lot shorter than Raven had expected, and a lot more controversial going off of the muttering of the prospective students.
Glynda stepped up to the microphone after a seconds hesitation, clearly she hadn't expected the abrupt speech either. He was expecting a more thorough explanation from her, but he was to be dissapointed, as her speech was even shorter and more to the point. "You will gather in the ballroom tonight. Tomorrow, you're initiation begins."
Narrowing her her eyes, Glynda looked out over the crowd with an extremely shrewd gaze. "Be ready. You are dismissed."
Raven's breath hitched and his hands tightened around his upper arms, the metal of his gauntlets almost digging into the leather of his sleeve, when the implications of her speech hit him. They were ALL to gathering the ballroom, meaning that for their first night, they would all share the same sleeping quarters. He was going to be sleeping in the same room as a bunch of girls!
He started hyperventilating. 'I'm going to be sleeping in the same room as...' his eyes drifted toward Yang, roving down her well formed body. She seemed just like the type of person to have a set of skimpy pajamas, and she was going to be wearing them in the same room as him!
He was having a panic attack now, his shoulders and legs shaking at the thought. As a natural loner, Raven wasn't used to being around girls at all, much less half naked ones.
Shaking his head to calm himself, he took a box of pills from his jacket. After puberty hit him like a semi-truck, his entire life started to change, though thanks to a convenient hormone imbalance he never grew any body hair, he was thankful for that at least. He never really... handled himself either, too afraid of judgement from his peers or from his elders, all of whom led him to believe that such things were, on varying levels, wrong. Unfortunately this only made his urges become nothing short of maddening. Then, with the help of his doctor, he discovered medication he could use to suppress his urges, and ever since he had maintained a steady supply.
Opening one of the boxes and taking out the aforementioned pills, along with one to help with the bone density side affect of the former, as well as another for his panic attacks in general, and brought them to his mouth and swallowed them. Raven sighed in relief as the shaking ceased, once again the hormones were driven back and again his mind was a cold engine of logic.
"I'm a natural blond you know." He heard clearly now that the amphitheater had been mostly emptied. He looked over in the direction to see Jaune flirting with the Schnee girl, Ruby looking on with confusion, and Yang with amusement.
Raven shook his head in disdain. 'No accounting for taste, I see.' Why did Jaune have to be interested in her of all people? Sure, her family was rich, but Jaune didn't particularly strike him as the type to go after rich girls... well, not unless he was a very good liar and actor. He could see why he didn't try flirting with Yang, what with the vomit incident, and Ruby was... Ruby.
He hurried after the departing crowd to avoid the Schnee girl and Jaune's bad one liners.
Yang left the bathroom after her long, relaxing shower. Her hands were tugging on her short, orange tank top and black short shorts (show would have gone with her usual booty shorts, but her sister was in the room), making sure they fit right and didn't show too much. She was all for showing skin, but she didn't want a wardrobe malfunction to show something she wasn't ready to show.
Least of all in public where her little sister could see.
She didn't mind showing off her developing body, but she did curb her behavior where her sister was concerned. God forbid word of her exploits reached her innocent little ears.
Spotting her sister in the crowd, Yang made her way back through the minefield of lecherous looks, pickup lines (some of which she might have responded to had the situation been different), and former classmates that was Beacon's ballroom. She and Ruby had bunked in the far corner away from all interruptions. It wasn't a weekend full of fun and games in a nice hotel, but it was a start.
Ruby had settled down in her pajamas. She wore a black tank top with a heart-shaped Beowolf design on the chest and tight white pants with pink roses decorated with pink roses. She also wore a black sleeping mask with triangular red beowolf eyes, sitting slightly askew on her head. Yang had given it to her as a birthday present a couple of years before, and she had worn it every night, since. It was an adorable a sight in the first few years, except that she was laying on her stomach, her tight flannel pants showing off her tight, round butt.
Yang looked around with a glare, scaring off any boys who might have gotten the wrong message. She wanted her baby sister to be small and cute forever, not grow up and, she shuddered, have sex with boys! It made her depressed just thinking about it.
Yang sneaked up behind Ruby and plopped down on her sleeping bag with a big amused smile on her face. Ruby jumped and almost dropped her pencil.
"It's like a big slumber party!"
"I don't think dad would approve of all the boys, though," Ruby said in a deadpanned voice as she tried focusing back on her notebook.
"I know I do!" Yang said with a purr.
Her attempt to lighten the mood failed the moment her eyes fell on Jaune - Ruby had been insistent on dropping the nickname during dinner - wearing blue fleece full-body pajamas with a cartoon bunny on his chest and cute bunny slippers. They looked comfortable and warm, but were embarrassing as hell to wear in public. Either he had really big balls or he just didn't know any better.
He noticed her stare and gave Yang a smarmy smile that made her shudder. He looked like he would be kind of fun, but only after he worked on his public image a bit. The one thing he had going for him was what she could see through the tight pajamas. That was pretty darn impressive.
His confidence didn't last, though. A panicked look crept into his features and he scurried away before Yang could figure out what had happened. She hadn't accidentally given him the evil eye, had she?
Not that it mattered. Yang was more interested in what had Ruby so captivated. She propped herself up on her elbow to sneak a peek.
"What's that?"
"A letter to the gang back at Signal," Ruby said with an endearing smile. "I promised to tell them all about Beacon and how things were going."
"Awww, that's so cute!" Yang said, half seriously and half teasingly, only to be hit in the face with a pillow.
'Ah! You're lucky you're cute.'
"Shut up!" Ruby yelled defensively with a bright blush on her face. "I didn't get to take my friends with me to Beacon. It's weird not knowing anyone."
Yang sighed. Personally, she wouldn't have minded a blank slate. Already knowing people was causing her nothing but trouble she could do without.
"What about Jaune? He's…" she hesitated, fishing for a positive adjective, those pajamas weren't helping matters, and telling her sister the boy was hung was out of the question. "Nice?" Yang decided on, for lack of anything better to say about him. "There you go, plus one friend! That's a hundred percent increase."
Ruby flipped over on her sleeping bag and became very interested in the high ceiling. "I'm pretty sure Weiss counts as a negative friend, back to zero."
"There is no such thing as negative friends" she admonished, amused by her sister's childishness. "You just made one friend and one enemy!" Ruby's favorite corgi pillow smacked Yang in the face. She sighed and propped herself up again. "Look, it has only been one day. Trust me, you've got friends all around you. You just haven't met them yet."
"My mom always says, strangers are just friends you haven't met yet."
Silence fell over their camp as Ruby went back to writing her letter. Yang didn't want to disturb her sister while she was working on something that was important to her. Instead, she focused on the ballroom. The next day they would face their initiation. Three of the people in the room would become part of her team. They would be bound together until graduation.
That was a pretty tall order, she could easily end up with the wrong people.
Her eyes wandered from face to face—familiar and unfamiliar—wondering how she could make sure that that wasn't going to happen. It didn't take long for her to give up. There was no point in over-thinking or over-complicating things when there was a far simpler solution at hand: She would plow through initiation at full steam, and whoever managed to keep up should do.
Ruby was taking her sweet time, though, and Yang ended up watching the people in the room just to pass time. As it turned out, there was plenty of entertainment to be found among their classmates. Like Pyrrha Nikos, minor celebrity and prodigy fighter, who had been cornered by a group of fawning fans, looking very uneasy. She was a lucky draw for Yang that should make combat practice a lot more entertaining.
There was Weiss, whose mountain of luggage stood tall and lonely in the middle of the room. The rich little bit... princess was all by herself and had already turned in for the night. No surprise there given her generally crappy attitude.
Yang settled on watching Jaune. He was strutting around the room in his ridiculous pajamas, trying to chat up girls. From the looks of it, he wasn't having much luck.
He was about to approach a group of particularly unpleasant girls from Signal when a peculiar sight ripped Yang's attention away from the prowling buffoon. Sleeping (or just leaning, it was hard to tell with that mask) against the wall in the corner of the ballroom with his long legs bent in front of him was none other then that boy from the airship who figured out her fighting style just from seeing her gauntlets for a few seconds and then ran away like one of the boys who asked her out and ran before she could say anything sat a lone figure. A large kite shield she had seen on the guy's back was leaning against his left leg, and a sheathed sword was held against his body, his head leaning against the handle like a pillow similar to those veteran warriors in those movies her dad liked.
He hadn't even taken off his armor or coat. He couldn't be comfortable like that...
Then she noticed movement… his head was slowly and subtly swaying back and forth, and Yang thought that he was observing everyone in the ballroom behind his mask, though the black lenses made it hard to tell what his eyes were doing.
Then his posture registered in her mind. His back was against the wall, with his legs bent and his feet on the floor. His shield was close by, ready to be grabbed if he needed it, and his sword was even closer. Was he worried about their initiation and trying to scout teammates? No, it felt a lot more ...immediate. It was anxiety, maybe even fear, that Yang saw in his his relaxed but still tight body.
His behavior wasn't the only thing that worried Yang. He was sitting on the cold stone floor, in full battle gear, with no sign of a sleeping bag or even a blanket nearby. Was he intending to spend the whole night huddled into his corner like that? What could have him so worried about his fellow students that he would do that to himself? On the night before their initiation, no less.
Yang had heard enough stories about the rougher parts of the world to know that he was serious. Whatever the story, she would bet a year's worth of her allowance that the boy was no wide-eyed graduate fresh out of a primary combat school like most of the people in the room.
Then, it happened: Their eyes met... well, her eyes met his lenses. Just for a moment, the boy's entire body froze up like a deer caught in the headlights, before he pulled his legs closer to his body. She thought he looked like a cornered animal ready to lash out.
Getting caught couldn't have helped disperse the boy's fears, and with every second Yang kept focusing on him they would only grow. He needed a way out, but he wouldn't just give in either. She needed a way to break the ice and show hm that she was no danger, something that would provoke a strong reaction without showing aggression.
Her lips curled up in a smirk as she came up with the perfect plan. She made sure that she had the boy's full attention before she gave the best seductive smile and wink she could manage. Her opponent stiffened again. Yang chuckled and continued watching him before a movement caught her eye. His coat, splayed on the ground around his hips as a round, wide black object slithered around his hips.
Yang blinked and rubbed her eyes to make sure she wasn't seeing things, and when the image didn't go away her eyes widened. Was that a tail!?
Then that would make him a faunus. That made things clearer. There were a lot of people out there who hated and/or feared faunus. His timid, cautious posture made sense. He must have had a rough time of it around humans, and there were a lot of humans in the room.
"—ang? Hey Yang, are you listening to me?" Ruby asked waving a hand in front of Yang's face.
"Uh? Sorry, what was that?"
"You were sitting there all quiet for ages and then you suddenly started acting wierd. It's creepy, stop it!"
Yang hummed. Her eyes briefly turned back to what had turned out to be the most interesting person in the room before looking away. She didn't want him to be any more uncomfortable than he already was.
"Oh, that girl…" Ruby said, sitting up from her sleeping bag and looking at a familiar black haired girl.
She was a fair skinned young girl about Yang's age with amber eyes and long black hair, and she wore a black ribbon was tied into a large bow on the top of her head. Her yellow eyes were ringed with purple eye shadow in cats-eye style. The girl wore a black, long sleeved, yukata-style shirt with white edging over a purple undershirt, and a matching skirt. A black obi was wrapped around her waist and tied with a black and white string belt.
"You know her?"
"Not really. She's the one who saw what happened with Weiss, but she left before I could say anything."
That girl was the mysterious stranger that had swooped in to save her sister from the bitchy princess?
"Well, now's your chance!" Yang got up and yanked Ruby along.
"Hey, wait! What are you doing?"
Looking back at it, Blake's day had gone a lot better than she had feared. Sure, the airship had been an ordeal and coming face-to-face with a Schnee could be considered suicidal, but it had provided one invaluable insight: Weiss didn't know about her.
Blake's mind kept coming back to the girl in the hood and how pitiful she had sounded, but the welcoming ceremony had vindicated her caution. As expected, the girl had met up with the tall blond and Weiss wasn't far behind.
The rest of the day had been smooth sailing with some minor hiccups. Mandatory teams and shared dorm rooms were something she wasn't looking forward to, but every advanced combat school followed a similar scheme. She had been prepared for it.
The tour of the campus had been a boring waste of time. Blake had thoroughly researched Beacon, collecting every scrap of information she could find: faculty, history, coursework, even details on some outstanding upperclassmen. Preparation was key to avoid mistakes, and it had paid off, in a way. At the very least, she had known more about Beacon than her guide—some self-important fool of an upperclassman—whose tour had been full of factual errors, gossip, and hearsay.
Her plan for the rest of the day couldn't have been more straight forward: get dinner, take a shower, and read a good book. By the time dinner had rolled around things had looked up. The food was surprisingly enjoyable and the dining hall large enough for her to find a remote spot free of any distractions. Her shower was a different matter. Blake had barely stepped into her stall when a very persistent but not very talented girl ruined her peace and quiet. With no end in sight, and any chance of enjoying her shower gone, she had cut it short and returned to the ballroom.
Blake picked up her candelabra and lit its three candles. It was an anachronism in times of dust-powered appliances and machinery, but no artificial light source could match the gentle glow of a real fire.
She watched the flames dance. The heavy brass fixture's halo soothed her mind and made her feel at home. It was the only home she had left after breaking with her former life. Beacon might be able to fill that void for the time being, but, even if everything went according to plan, it would only last for a couple of years before she would be out on her own again.
She picked up the book that would keep her company for the evening and tried to push the thought out of her mind. Maybe she would find a real home one day. Maybe she would spend the rest of her life as a vagabond. Either way, she wouldn't find the answer that evening. Instead, she silenced her mind by sending it to another world. She took on the role of another person and lived another life.
For a while, it provided enough of a distraction to forget about her situation, but it didn't last. It was the noise that kept her from enjoying her book in gleeful ignorance of her surroundings. The noise of several dozen strangers capable enough to be admitted to an elite combat academy. Blake was confident in her abilities, but if just a few of them ganged up on her, getting away would be difficult. Not that there was a reason for them to do so, but the idea that they could was enough to get to her.
Using her book as cover, she started to map her surroundings. Doors, windows, pillars, ledges; anything that could be used to traverse the room and allow for a quick exit was carefully cataloged in her mind. Next were the students. She tried to assess their strengths, weaknesses, personality, mood, awareness of their surroundings; any bit of information she could glean given the circumstances.
The rational part of her brain told her that she was being silly. She couldn't start off the next four years of her life by treating her classmates like enemies. Whenever her mind caught on to what she was doing, she forced herself to go back to reading her book. She rarely lasted for more than a couple of paragraphs before her eyes started to wander again.
She had nearly finished her sweep of the room, certain that nobody had noticed. After all, she had spent years of her life living in the shadows. A bunch of combat school graduates, still green behind their ears, couldn't make her even if they tried. She gave herself a satisfied smile before she took another peek at the room.
Blake froze, he tapping of bare feet on the stone floor was getting closer and closer.
No, no, no, no. Blake would keep reading her book. None of what she was hearing was happening. Her mind was playing tricks on her after concocting the worst case scenario. Everything was all right.
"Helloooo!" the blond sang, her singing voice both high and low in tone and warbling a bit. Not a natural singer, but she had a nice voice nonetheless.
Blake cringed and lowered her book just enough to get a look at the intruders bound for her little cove. The hooded girl—not actually wearing her hood—was getting dragged along by the blond whose skimpy pajamas barely contained her curves. The golden curtain flowing from her scalp and her exuberantly waving arm seemed to conspire to make her figure stand out even more. The stupid smile on her face completed the picture. From the corner of her eyes, Blake could see every guy within earshot transfixed on her swaying hips.
The two intruders came to a halt a step or two from Blake. The blond loomed over her with a cocky smile, exuding confidence. The younger girl was a different matter. She had been dragged over under protest and, the moment the blond hat let go of her, had turned her back on them and crossed her arms.
"I believe you two may know each other?" the blond asked, gesturing at the pouting girl.
Blake looked at her with squinted eyes deliberately delaying her answer. "Aren't you the girl that exploded?"
She turned around. All her annoyance and resistance washed away. "Uh, yeah. The name's Ruby." She leaned down and offered her hand.
Blake ignored it and brought her attention back to her book.
Ruby withdrew her hand and rubbed the back of her neck. "But you can just call me Crater…" she started to say before realizing that she was making a fool of herself. "Actually, you can just call me Ruby."
"Okay" she said in an exasperated tone after a brief moment of hesitation.
"What are you doing?" the blond whispered to the girl, "I don't know! Help me!" the hooded girl whispered whispered back pleadingly.
"So, what's your name?"
Blake peeked over the top of her book with a frown. "Blake" she said with a sigh, wanting nothing more than for the girls to leave her alone.
"Well, Blake, I'm Yang!" Yang gestured to herself confidently, "Ruby's older sister."
Blake's eyes darted back and forth between the two girls. Sisters? They looked nothing alike. Not that it was any of her concern. She returned to her book leaving the trio in an awkward silence.
"I like your bow!" Yang said loudly.
"Thanks" Blake almost hissed, so irritated at being bothered like this.
"It goes great with your…" Yang leaned forward frantically looking over Blake and her meager belongings, "pajamas" she finished lamely.
Blake looked up at the loud blond girl, "right" she deadpanned.
Ruby and Yang chuckled nervously, realizing they weren't winning any points with Blake.
"Nice night, don't you think?" Yang said, trying to recover from her fumble.
"Yes," Blake said staring into Yang's lilac eyes with as much annoyed disinterest as she could muster, "it's lovely."
Yang and Ruby looked at her with stupid smiles on their faces showing no reaction.
"Almost as lovely as this book…"
Nothing.
"…that I will continue to read…"
Still no reaction.
"…as soon as you leave." Blake returned to her book, once again.
"Yeah, this girl's a lost cause," Yang said nonchalantly, backing away and waving her hand dismissively.
Finally.
"What's it about?" Ruby asked.
"Huh?" Blake blurted out surprised by the genuine interest in Ruby's voice.
"Your book. What's it about?"
"Well, it's about a man with two souls, each fighting for control over his body."
"Oh, yeah," Yang said with a raised eyebrow, "that's real lovely."
Yang briefly wondered what it would be like to have two souls fighting for control of her body. She quickly decided she didn't like the idea and put it out of her mind.
Ruby moved closer to Blake, not realizing that the girl just wanted to be left alone. "I love books, Yang used to read to me every night before bed."
Blake looked at her skeptically. She didn't doubt it after seeing the blond dote on her sister, but why was she telling her this? It seemed to come a little out of left field.
"Stories of heroes and monsters," Ruby said with dreamy eyes. "They're one of the reasons I want to be a huntress."
"Why is that? Hoping you'll live happily ever after?" She said, her eyes becoming jaded for an instant, but hiding the look behind her mask before either of the could notice. Not that she thought they would, they didn't seem particularly bright.
"I'm hoping we all will" Ruby said overflowing with boundless optimism. Blake couldn't help but wonder at the girl's innocence.
"As a girl, I wanted to be just like the heroes in the books. Someone who fought for what was right and protected the people who couldn't protect themselves."
Sometime during the conversation, Blake had dropped her guard. The book in her hand had lost its use as a cover and rested in her lap. "That's very ambitious for a child. Unfortunately, the real world isn't the same as a fairy tale."
"Well, that's why we're here, isn't it? To make it better."
Blake's eye's were wide at the sentiment, but the moment was ruined when Yang jumped Ruby and squeezed the life out of her. "Ohhh, I'm so proud of my baby sister!"
The display of sisterly affection deteriorated into a rambunctious wrestling match. Blake couldn't believe that she had allowed two childish, squabbling sisters to break down her guard. Two squabbling sisters who were drawing a lot of attention.
"Well, Ruby, Yang, it was a pleasure to—"
"What in the world is going on over here!"
The sisters stopped in their tracks. Ruby was holding Yang's foot up to her chest while Yang's arms were flailing comically in an attempt to keep herself from falling over. Both wore wide, happy smiles on their faces. Blake did not feel like smiling given her latest visitor.
The new arrival had snow white skin and hair and pale blue eyes, widely recognized traits of the Schnee family. A small, crooked scar ran vertically down her left eye. She wore a faded blue nightgown with short sleeves and white trim, her nightgown displayed the Schnee Crest on the upper-right chest.
The Schnee girl leaned forward with her hands balled into fists. "Don't you realize some of us are trying to sleep?" She yelled, her frilly, blue nightgown taking away somewhat from the air of authority she she was trying to project.
The sisters had resolved their standoff leaving Yang free to come face-to-face with Weiss. "Oh, not you again!" they yelled simultaneously.
Ruby was caught in-between them looking very uneasy. Not just uneasy, there was a hint of genuine fear in her eyes.
Given her previous encounters with Weiss, that might be understandable, but it seemed to deepen whenever she looked at her own sister.
Blake's eyes returned to the blond trying to figure out what she had missed. Like lightning, the truth of the situation struck her. How could she have been so blind not to have noticed? The bubbly, blond airhead with her sing-song voice, swaying hips and stupid smile was gone.
Dangerous eyes were glaring at Weiss. Eyes that seemed different, darker, than before. Her rigid stance and skimpy clothes revealed what lay skin-deep under her curves, literally. The long limbs, tight stomach, and broad shoulders were all laden with tight, heavily toned muscles. It was a body forged by years of rigorous training, and, judging from the way she held herself, she knew how to use it.
With or without a proper weapon.
Taking in the full picture, Blake sympathized with Ruby. Yang was ready to pick a real fight with Weiss regardless of the consequences.
"Guys, she's right," Ruby said mostly reasoning with her sister. "People are trying to sleep."
"Oh, now you're on my side," Weiss said.
Blake rolled her eyes. Leave it to the spoiled Schnee princess to pick a fight even when people are agreeing with her.
"I was always on your side!" Ruby tried to say, but Weiss wasn't hearing any of it.
"Yeah, what's your problem with my sister anyways? She's only trying to be nice."
Much to Blake's relief, Yang had visibly relaxed and no longer looked like she was about to punch Weiss' lights out.
"She is a hazard to my health!" Weiss said stomping her foot on the ground.
The Schnee heiress's arrival had only made the situation worse. Their bickering was drawing the attention of the entire ballroom. Looking off to the far corner, she saw a figure looking straight at them. She had been nervous about him since she had first seen him. He was her age, presumably, but the way he carried himself and the way he walked told her that he was a fighter with years of experience and questionable morals.
Not helping was the fact that he covered up completely. A longcoat, armor, a hood and a mask. She was thankful it was a metal mask and not a bone mask, but even so, she had no way of knowing who he was. She had seen the subtle movements of a tail beneath his coat, so she was comforted in the fact that she could cross 'faunus hater' off the list of possibilities, but possible White Fang supporter wasn't any better.
Blake had to break them up, somehow. Before he got himself involved at the very least.
She took her candelabra and blew the candles out, and the sudden change in illumination drew three pairs of eyes towards her.
"How about we all go to sleep? It's getting late and we should rest up for tomorrow."
Weiss turned and stuck up her nose high. "That's what I have been saying all along!" She walked away without another word, not allowing any of them to point out that none of them had been making an excess amount of noise until she had gotten herself involved.
"We should leave too," Ruby said. "See you tomorrow?"
"Sure" Blake said, "have a good night."
"You too!" Ruby chirped.