Author's Note: So, I finished editing this chapter like, right before I posted it. As opposed to what normally happens with me editing the chapter Thursday/Friday and just working on the next chapters the rest of the week. So, kinda stressful, but it's all good. Originally, this chater was much shorter, but during the editing process itself, I added about 800 words, so I'm happy with myself. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy it!
After teams were set up, the first few weeks of classes went by as normal. The teams, surprisingly, yet unsurprisingly at the same time, are exactly the same. Things are going very similarly to how they panned out the first time I've lived through this. Team JNPR was, as before, quick to befriend us; we have already hung out a few times. With studying parties, early morning pancakes, and classes, we've gotten quite close already. I suppose that's a difference from my first time, as I've been pushing for doing more around Beacon and with JNPR. The only other noticeable difference: how I'm treating Ruby.
Instead of being a cold and heartless teammate that I was the first time around, I'm now supportive of Ruby as the team leader. I'm no longer a spoiled rich kid that is upset that she didn't get what she wants, because now I have everything I want: Ruby: alive, safe, and sound. Blake and Yang are once again partners, and it's fun seeing them in the stages of learning each other, especially since I know what lies for them together in the future.
Things for me have been getting easier for me to be around her. With each passing day, there's less and less chance that I screw this up by saying something I shouldn't know about. The adjustment process, mentally, has been somewhat draining on me. It's been tough adjusting back into the school mentality. Of course, I don't let anyone see that it's been draining me. Or at least, I try not to. While things have been easier when it comes to me being around Ruby, that doesn't mean that everything is easy.
Right now, she and I are sitting in the dorm working on homework with Blake in her bed reading her book: Ninjas of Love. In all of the years that I used to know her, I still never found out what that book was about. Ruby asked me for some help on homework, and who am I to say no to helping such a dear friend in need? While that was my "official" reason of agreeing ti help her, my real reason was to just be with her. Any time I'm around her, my heart beats faster, and now is no different. I keep trying to steal glances at her, admiring how beautiful she is. This has been going on since the first day of classes. There have been a few times that she's almost caught me staring at her, but I manage to look away in time before she could see me. I've caught her staring at me a lot too. I feel like she stares at me a lot more than I stare at her. Any time that I catch her, she looks away and blushes heavily. Those times when I need to get close to her for something, her face flashes that same red.
A few times, I've caught her looking at my answers, but I have decided to not say anything to her. Not yet, anyway. I'll hold this bit of information for a later time. At least it's better than her doodling on her paper like when we started working on this assignment.
My latest staring attempt has been going on for about one or two minutes. She's been extremely focused on her homework, her tongue sticking out of her mouth slightly as she's working on her homework.
She's so cute… I think to myself, smiling.
"Hey, Weiss?" Ruby asks, still concentrating on her work.
"Yes?" I ask, still staring at her. A few seconds pass, and it doesn't occur to me that she's now taken to staring right back at me with those beautiful silver globes that are her eyes. The sudden visage appearing before me snapping me back into this reality. I mentally shake myself out of whatever trance-like state that was.
"W-why are you staring at me?"
What I can see of her face flashes a slight scarlet as she asks me. I feel my cheeks heat up in tandem as I realize that what I thought was me being sneaky, was actually incredibly obvious.
"O-oh… I was… Umm… S-sorry, you were just so focused, and it was… it was kind of intriguing." It was only partially a lie. While part of me did think it was intriguing, most of me was just admiring her, the fact that I'm here with her, living through my life again still new to me. It's unreal, almost like a dream. A dream that I don't want to wake up from.
"Oh, well… okay. Thanks…" She just kind of smiles weakly at me and goes back to working on her assignment, looking at me from the corner of her eye a lot. A silence falls upon us soon after that. Ruby from how socially awkward she was/is at this point in her life, and me due to how embarrassed I am over the fact that I wasn't nearly as sneaky as I thought I was. That was so awkward. I think. I look back and start working on my homework again: The History of Remnant. Professor Oobleck sure likes to assign readings any time that he can. Seeing as how I already took these courses, however, most of this is just a recap of the things I already knew, so it's easy.
"Weiss?" Ruby asks.
"Yes, Ruby?"
"How do you know so much?"
I have to think for a second to make sure I know exactly what I'm saying. "I had to learn a lot of things growing up. Studying was really all that I did because my father wanted me to be perfect. I didn't have the same childhood as a lot of people did. There wasn't fun, only studying to be the best." I decide that's a reasonable explanation, and it's true for the most part.
Ruby slams down her book, which kind of startles me. With an extremely determined face, she stands up and grabs my hand. I blush a bit at the sudden contact.
"Ruby, wh-what are you doing?" I ask, flustered.
"You said you never really got to have fun, so we're gonna stop studying for now and go have fun! Follow me!" Her smile is infectious. She pulls me along by my arm. My heart starts beating faster.
"O-okay…" I stutter out. I can't say no to her. She's too cute. I don't know how anyone being this adorable or cute can be legal. She better not take me by the police station. I'll turn her in, because being this cute is a crime.
"Have fun, you guys." Blake nonchalantly waves to the two of us from behind her book.
"Where are we going, Ruby?" I ask, somewhat shouting even though I don't mean to. The sound of my heart beating so loudly in my ears from nervousness is probably to blame. It's hard judging how I sound when I can't hear how loud everything else is.
Ruby turns around mid-stride, still continuing in her original direction and laughs. Such a cute laugh. I missed it so much. I smile.
"You'll find out, Weiss. It's a surprise." She smiles back. And without another word, she speeds me off towards some unknown location. On the trip to wherever we're going, we see something strange. As we're walking through the late afternoon air in the direction of what is looking to be the airship docks, a certain blonde guy can be seen running towards us.
"Ah! Get them off of me!" He screams, still running towards us, but far enough in the distance that I can't see what's going on. Ruby and I briefly glance at each other before looking back at the scene at hand. In the small amount of time that Ruby and I shared a glance at each other, Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren all come into view, also running after Jaune. He's gotten close enough so that we can see that he's swatting away a bunch of very angry pigeons that have swarmed around his head. Ruby starts laughing, and I follow suit a few seconds later. As Jaune runs past us, Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren stop for a brief second of rest, their breathing heavy.
"What happened?" I ask between fits of laughter. I try to start slowing down my breaths to keep myself from laughing, but it's not working.
"He upset some pigeons, as you've probably seen by now. He was feeding them bread, but then he ran out." Pyrrha explains. We start laughing even more. Nora joins in on the laughing as well before they start heading off in their own direction again, this time walking after Jaune instead of running.
With this event now behind us, we resume our original path. We end up boarding an airship and heading right into the very center of Vale.
"So NOW are you going to tell me where we're going, you dolt?" I ask, looking around the airship. There are a few other people sitting in some of the seats along the back wall, though Ruby and I are standing in the front area. Ruby smiles at the name. She knows that it's just a joking kind of thing, almost a pet name, that I've given her.
"Nope! I told you, it's a surprise. We're gonna have fun, okay? Trust me, I promise." Another smile.
"Okay… I'll trust you." I say, trying to remember all of the places that Ruby liked going to in Vale, the ones we didn't find together that we liked. There's that one café that's out in the Western side of the City that Ruby threw up at after eating too many cookies. Or maybe it's the park on the Eastern side that Ruby and I took Zwei to, and Ruby fell in a puddle because Zwei pulled on the leash too hard. I smile at the memories attached to my favorite places: the places where I was with Ruby. And then I smile wider with the realization that I will be making a lot more new memories with Ruby now that I'm here with her again. Currently, she was explaining to me her favorite part of the book she had just finished. The one that Blake was reading about the man with two souls. Blake got Ruby into it. I listen to her and
"And so, this one par, there was this guy that-" She stops and looks at me listening to her. "You've been smiling a lot lately, Weiss. What's up?"
"I'm just happy, that's all. Especially now. At this point in my life, no one has shown me as much kindness as you have. It's… nice." I blush. I can't tell her that I love her yet. It would be way too soon.
"Well, I'm glad to hear that." She looks at the ground, avoiding eye contact with me. I can still see a large smile forming on her face though. A few seconds go by before Ruby rushes to the side of the airship. "We're landing!" She once again grabs ahold of my hand and drags me out of the ship. Once out of the airship, I do my best to orient myself to the position of the sun, that way I know which way Ruby is taking me. Much to my surprise, she went neither East nor West, but North. We navigate through the city with a Northbound destination, apparently. We end up walking for a good ten minutes, enjoying the late afternoon autumn breeze, before Ruby starts slowing down. The building we approach is round, and has the words "Ice Skate" on the front.
"Ruby. What are we doing here?" I look at the building, presumably an ice skating rink, and then back to Ruby. It's been some time since I've been ice skating, and I'm kind of nervous about messing up.
"This is where we're going to have fun!" Ruby says, beaming at me. Once she sees the nervousness on my face, she asks, "Are you okay?"
Nodding, I say, "Yes, Ruby. I'm fine; just a little nervous. It's been some time since I last went ice skating."
"No way!" Ruby looks jokingly dumbfounded. "THE Weiss Schnee nervous about embarrassing herself? Afraid the press are gonna snap a picture and sell it to the dark web?" She grins mischievously.
"Ummmmm, no," I deadpan. I'm nervous about embarrassing myself in front of you.
"Fine, fine. Let's go inside, okay? I mean, if you want to anyway..." Ruby once again grabs my hand. I'm so glad that when she does this, she's not looking at me, but forward so that she can't see the blush creeping onto my cheeks.
"S-sure thing, Ruby. I'd love to." I agree and follow her inside.