Yang was walking through Forever Fall Forest, wearing a thick jacket to ward of the cold winter air. She was not quite sure why Ruby wanted to meet up for stargazing in the middle of their winter break, but who was the blonde to just say no to her sister. And so she had set out during this nice winter evening, clear skies above her revealing the lights of the stars, making her way to the small clearing near the edge of Forever Fall the half Grimm had told her to meet up. As she entered the clearing, she checked the time on her scroll. Seeing as she was still a few minutes early, Yang leaned against a nearby tree to wait for her Sister.
Soon she heard twigs snapping and leaves crunching under feet, heralding a new arrival to the clearing. Turning around, it was not her sister who was approaching her, but Weiss, wearing just her normal outfit like she had done all Semester, only adding a simple scarf to ward of the cold. While Yang was still wondering how Weiss was not freezing right now, Blake lept from the branches of a nearby tree between the humans, wearing a long mantle either a dark violet or outright black, Yang was unable to tell in the little light shed by the moon.
"So Ruby invited you to do some stargazing as well I guess?" Yang asked the two new arrivals.
"Stargazing? I was told we we would perform a low light exercise so we could get better used to Ruby and Blake directing us thanks to their near perfect night vision," Weiss huffed arms crossed before her chest.
"Well Ruby told me that we were going to practice navigating the forest at night, so-" Blake's bow twitched for a moment as she paused mid sentence, "There is someone approaching from the Forest." the Cat Faunus continued as she moved her hand to Gambol Shroud's grip while pointing towards the other edge of the clearing for the humans sake.
"Let's hope it is our leader so she can explain this to us."
Soon, Yang could also hear something approaching the clearing through the underbrush, or probably even multiple somethings. Seeing Blake drawing her weapon, Yang quickly deployed Ember Cecilia as Weiss drew her rapier. Hoping that it was Ruby's pack of Beowulf surrounding them and not some other Grimm or wild animals, they stayed put for now.
Shortly after their half Grimm team leader stepped into the clearing from where all the sounds of movement had come, her tail wagging behind her in excitement.
"Hey guys, glad you all came!" Ruby exclaimed cheerfully, the hood over her head the only concession to the cold temperatures, "But could you put your weapons away? They're making the Beowulfs nervous."
"What is going on here?", Weiss asked as she lowered Myrtenaster, "Why did you give each of us a different reason to come here?"
"Well I hoped that if I told you all to come here but lied about the reason," Ruby tried to explain, tapping her index fingers together nervously, "you all would get angry with me once you learned the truth." As she finished, the two bulges in her hood made by her ears shrunk a bit.
"Why would you want us to get angry?" the cat Faunus asked confused.
"See over the break so far there were no students wandering through the Forests around Beacon." Ruby answered sheepishly, while rubbing her neck, "which means my pack is starting to starve, as none of us want to eat that strange sap more than once."
Yang could not believe what her sister was saying; the cute little girl before her, whom she trusted implicitly, had lied to her just so she could feed her monstrous pets.
"Did I hear that right Rubes? You asked is to come here just so we could act as food dispensers for your little monsters?" Yang shouted, her eyes turning Crimson with her rising fury.
"Yes?" the wolf eared girl replied meekly, getting ready to run for safety if it became necessary. Which it did just moments later as Yang charged at her sister, stopping herself at the last moment before her fist would have made contact with Ruby's face. While the blonde backed away, starting to recite some of the Calming Mantras she had learned from professor Peach to herself, Blake and Weiss began to murmur to each other.
"Well it seems Ruby's plan has succeeded fully with her sister."
"But won't that attract more Grimm than Ruby's pack?"
What made it really hard for Yang to calm herself though, was the red haired girl standing before her, poking the blonde every now and then while literally asking her to not calm down yet.
Some time later, (Yang wasn't quite sure how long as she had been focusing on her heartbeat and breath) she finally calmed down enough to trust herself with interacting with her sister once more. Opening her now lilac eyes, she saw Ruby standing before her, a wide grin on her face. Before the elder sister could say a thing, the half Grimm had already enveloped her in a tight hug.
"Thank you Yang! That should keep them until class trips into the forest start up again."
"Your welcome I guess?" Yang said, unsure how to react to being praised for being good Grimmfood. Looking around, the blonde noticed that both Weiss and Blake had moved closer to the two sisters while Yang had applied professor Peach's lessons.
"Oh, I also wanted all of you to meet some people." Ruby said, before she let out a sharp bark "come"
Like a pack of well trained dogs, about 15 Beowulfs stepped into the clearing stopping in a rough circle around team RWBY, while more could be seen just behind the first trees.
While everyone but Ruby readied their weapons, the half Grimm glared at the nearest Grimm, all of whom rolled onto their backs in submission.
"Now come on, they really like belly rubs you know," the redhead informed her teammates as she stepped closer to one of the wolf like creatures and began petting it.
After a moment of hesitation, Yange decided to trust her sister and stepped up to one of the Grimm as well. Holding out her hand carefully, like she would do to unfamiliar dogs, she waited until it had sniffed it before actually touching it. Soon her hand wandered to its belly, like her sister had suggested, moving through the dark, silky fur, and she was reminded of Zwei. So, she began scratching the beast behind its ears with her other hand. Judging by the Grimm's tail, which was wagging like Ruby's when she got to eat fresh Cookies, Yang thought she was doing something right.
It took a bit more time, and more than a little encouragement by the half Grimm, but a few minutes later, Weiss and Blake began interacting with the Grimm around them as well. All in all it was a night the three non-Grimms would not forget anytime soon.
The remainder of their winter break had passed by rather peacefully, much to the enjoyment of Weiss who used the time to study the old fencing techniques illustrated in the books she had bought from Tukson.
Sadly, Weiss was mostly alone in this opinion, and so after antics between Yang and Nora had escalated, the heiress had been forced to participate in a food fight between teams RWBY and JNPR. To be fair it could have been much worse, she did get to try out a few of the new/old techniques suggested for use with her improvised weapon. As it turned out, a swordfish was a surprisingly efficient stand in for a real sword. In the end they even 'won' the fight but now all of them were covered in bits and pieces of food.
On their way to the dorms Weiss saw an older capital airship from Atlas headed for Beacon, accompanied by what seemed to be her sisters personal airship. Excited by the prospect of seeing Winter in person, she grabbed her team leader and dragged her along at a pace much faster than before.
'They should be here in about 45 minutes' Weiss thought, 'giving me just enough time to get me and Ruby presentable again.' After grabbing a change of clothes for each of them, they moved on towards the showers.
"Weiss what got you so excited? And could you please stop dragging me along?", Ruby complained when they reached the showers.
"I just saw my sister's airship approach Beacon, and I want to greet her as soon as possible and introduce her to my team leader.", Weiss answered while she got ready to step into one of the shower cabin.
"Okay," Ruby answered as she started to undress as well.
When they both stepped out of the shower, Weiss started to regret her decision to drag Ruby along, as there was more fur on the half Grimms body than she expected, and getting it dry took a surprising amount of time. Despite this, they arrived at the docks just before the ramps of the Atlesian aircraft began to lower.
While Ruby was staring open mouthed at the Gun emplacements of the warship, the white haired girl was looking over the arriving people from Alas, searching for her sister. While the occupants of the smaller airship took a while to leave their craft, the larger was letting out a stream of students. After the first few Teams of students had disembarked, Winter Schnee stepped out of her own airship, followed by a pair of Atlesian knights, androids designed to bolster the ranks of the Atlesian military.
Seeing her sister, Weiss pushed through the crowd of students that had gathered to greet her sister.
"Hello Winter, I am surprised that you are here so suddenly. nonetheless I would like to welcome you to Beacon."
"Greetings Weiss, I am here in the place of general Ironwood, who wanted to attend this Vytal tournament himself for classified reasons, which now fall onto me to carry out." the elder Schnee replied, her voice perfectly neutral until she continued with a softer tone, "How have you been Weiss? And who is that girl behind you?"
"I am doing quite well, I even obtained a pair of fencing treatise I studied over the break." Weiss replied before she pushed Ruby next to herself.
"And this is my team's leader, Ruby Rose."
"It is an honor to meet you L- Teamleader Rose." Winter replied and, to the immense shock of the younger Schnee, curtsied towards the young half Grimm.
'Wait did Winter just curtsy before Ruby?' Weiss thought shocked, 'She never does that, not even for father's Business partners'
Not aware of her sister's confusion, Winter continued her conversation with Ruby.
"I hope my sister hasn't caused you any discomfort or problems."
"Greetings Specialist Schnee," Ruby replied, her attempt at bowing made somewhat ridiculous by the tail wagging behind her. "And no, your Sister has been an excellent teammate so far."
Nodding in approval at this information, Winter handed Ruby what seemed to be a simple business card, featuring the same snowflake emblem Weiss had on most of her things with a silver rose crossing over it. "That is excellent. If you ever desire my assistance yo- miss Rose, just call this number. Now may I spend sometime with my sister?"
"Certainly," Ruby replied as she put the card in one of her pouches.
"Then we will take out leave now." the elder Schnee said, bowing once more before the half Grimm. But before she could lead her younger sister away, Ruby spoke up once more, trying her best to channel her 'inner Weiss' to sound sufficiently prim and proper.
"Very well, I will reconvene with you at a later, ah, juncture. But might I inspect the armaments of your ships more closely?"
"Of course my- miss Rose, just show the card I gave you to the guards, they should let you on board." The specialist replied, looking pointedly at the two soldiers guarding the ramp of the capital ship.
As Weiss and Winter made their way to Beacon proper, the young half Grimm entered the Atlesian airship and began exploring. Thanks to the signs set up at regular intervals along all hallways it was surprisingly easy to find the way around on her own.
When the wolf eared girl finally laid eyes on one of the canons beyond the door at the end of a hallway, Ruby rushed forward, even using her semblance in her impatience, until she crashed into an orange haired girl wearing a tan dress with green circuit-like detailing.
"Ouch Sorry about that.", Ruby apologized as she stood up, holding out a hand to help the other girl up while her ears flattened against her head.
"It is alright, I did not sustain damage, and the drop in Aura levels is negligible in this non-combat situation," the girl on the floor answered as she grasped Ruby's hand with her own, a silver ring topped with a small metal rose catching the half Grimm's eye.
"You must be Ruby Rose, it is nice to meet you. I am Penny Polendina. It is interesting to meet a half Grimm like you."
"Wait how do you know my name? And what do you mean half Grimm?", Ruby asked surprised and suspicious at the same time.
"Well you look like the description Specialist Schnee got from her sister about her teammates a while ago, so I assumed you were the leader of team RWBY. And it is obvious -hic- what you are. Your face doesn't have any noticeable seem like an actual mask, your ears are a 99% match to those of the average Beowulf and unless you wear gauntlets under your sleeves, the different pressure points during our impact would match up to a Beowulf's spikes projected onto a human sized arm." The green eyed girl answered matter of factly.
"You can't tell anyone about this, please Penny." Ruby pleaded the other girl, panicking at how the other girl deducted her species so easily.
Penny tilted her head to the right in thought for a moment before continuing, "In that case, I should tell you a secret about myself as collateral to ensure our mutual secrecy, that is what Humans do in such situations yes?"
Nodding at the other girl, the half Grimm watched as Penny looked around. After making sure no-one was around, the auburn haired girl pulled her sleeve up to her elbow, before she pulled a stretch of skin form her wrist towards her palm revealing the metal parts hidden beneath it to the now wide eyed half Grimm.
"Wow these must be top of the line prosthetics! Can you explain to me how they work sometime?" Ruby asked excitedly, her fear about her own secret taking a back seat for the moment.
"They aren't prosthetics I am a robot ca-"
"That can't be, I clearly impacted a protective Aura when I crashed into you."
"Well as I was about to inform you I am the first artificial being capable of generating Aura."
Penny explained, only getting Ruby even more excited.
"That's so cool! I never heard about a robot with a soul before!" the wolf eared girl exclaimed, her tail wagging quick enough to audibly impact the wall next to her repeatedly, "We should hang out sometime, I could show you around Beacon."
"Why do you want to spend time with a machine like me?" Penny asked confused.
"Well I once told my sister meeting new weapons is easier than meeting new people, and now I actually get a chance to do so! And anyway, you obviously are more than the parts you're built from, I mean, you do have to be your own person to create an Aura right?"
Ruby stuck out her hand to Penny, a cheery smile on her face as she continued. "So Friend, how about you tell me more about those cannons over there and I'll show you around Beacon afterwards."
Processing what she just heard, Penny's eyes seemed to literally light up with joy as she replied, "most certainly Friend Ruby!"