Ahhhh! It's my first time writing fanfiction in a long time, about eight years now, and the first time I've written for RWBY. It's sure to be a bit rough, so please leave criticism if you have some!

Today was, well, bad, so far, at least in Ruby's opinion. It was hard enough just being nervous about being bumped ahead two years and attending Beacon early, but ever since the airship ride things had been going downhill. First, a boy, Jaune, Ruby reminded herself, threw up on Yang's shoes. Apparently he had motion sickness, so at least he had some sympathy from Ruby, but it was still a pretty big warning of what would come.

Speaking of, the first thing that happened after getting off the airship, Yang ditched her! It wasn't like Ruby got to bring her friends along to Beacon but sure, it's totally fine to abandon your sister on a crowded campus of intimidating people. Then she ran into someone, almost literally! Into her luggage, anyways. The yelling and explosion that followed just added more onto an already stressful day.

At least she made a kinda sorta friend with Jaune, after he helped her out of the crater the mean girl's Dust left her buried in. She hoped he was her friend, but it was hard to say, they hadn't really spoken all that long, just introducing themselves and showing off their weapons. Even if it wasn't fancy, Ruby had to admit she admired his sword, the idea of a weapon being passed down through a family for almost a century was amazing!

So now she was here, feeding chickens, now that Yang had gone off to have lunch with her friends following Professor Ozpin's speech. At least they were friendly, happy to accept food from her as she sat alone at the school's farm. Honestly, she was a bit shocked to see Beacon had a farm, but she supposed they would want to locally source what they could, and it wasn't important anyways, she had chickens to feed!

Ruby couldn't hide the smile from her face as the birds seemed all too happy to stay around and accept feed from her, it was always nice to just watch something peaceful like this. It reminded her a bit of all the raccoons that would stay around their house as a kid, they still came from time to time, but it seemed likely to her that her dad wasn't as big a fan of them as he once was.

Even if she was alone, it was still more comfortable than being in the cafeteria, with all those eyes on her, people wondering if she was too young to be here, like that girl, Weiss, if she recalled correctly, had accused. It didn't help that the tall redheaded boy in armor had pushed her aside when she was in line. Her face felt warm just thinking of how embarrassed she was about it, and Ruby turned her eyes back to the chickens, smiling softly.

"Oh! Hey, Ruby!"

Ruby froze, shocked to hear someone call out to her, slowly turning her gaze toward the sound of her name, and looking at Jaune Arc. It was kind of a relief, to just have him, instead of Yang and her posse. "Hey Jaune!" She squeaked out, a little embarrassed to be found hanging out with a bunch of animals, even if Yang always said there was nothing to be ashamed about. "What're you doing here?"

"I was just finishing up lunch and wanted to take a walk." He explained with a nervous chuckle, rubbing at the back of his neck, and Ruby got the impression that he probably hadn't gotten to enjoy much of his lunch either. "I'm surprised to see you here, that is, at the farm. I figured you'd be with your sister." The one she'd ditched him for earlier, he didn't need to say it for her to feel a bit bad about it.

"Oh, I don't really do crowds. Like, at all." She mumbles, offering a halfhearted smile as she turns her focus towards the chickens. "Yang has a lot of friends, but I've only had a few, a few that were really mine, anyways. A lot of people I thought were my friends at Signal just wanted to get close to me so they could hit on my sister."

"Yeah, that sounds familiar." Ruby gave a rather perplexed expression, which spurred Jaune into explaining further. "I have a few older sisters, and all of them are really pretty. I had guys get close to me back in Domremy who were only really interested in getting close to my sisters. It was really rough, probably why I didn't really mind r- leaving home, to become a Huntsman."

Ruby gave a reassuring smile, scooting over on the bench so that he could sit down. "I promise not to try hitting on your sisters, then." She teases, patting the space next to her to indicate she wanted him to sit down. "Do you want to help feed the chickens?"

"Oh, sure! I used to do this at home from time to time, though really it was more Goldie's thing than mine." Jaune commented as he took the seat beside her, reaching into the bag she had for feed. Ruby's face scrunched a bit in confusion at the mention of "Goldie," causing Jaune to elaborate. "Goldie's one of my younger sisters, she's about fourteen and a half, now. She was good with animals, but I don't know if she was ever as good as you seem to be, these chickens are really calm."

"I, uh, I think they're just used to people." Ruby didn't like to feel singled out for how the animals seemed to calm around her, and she was fairly sure that the chickens were supposed to be relaxed with how many different students might come to visit. "Goldie, though, huh? I wonder if it's nice having younger siblings instead of being the younger one."

"Well, I guess it depends." Jaune chuckled, giving her a slight smirk. "I'm still one of the younger ones, and my little sisters can be real brats sometimes."

"Well, I'm sure that they had a good reason to be." Ruby insisted, sticking her tongue out playfully. A few minutes passed in relative silence, save the clucking of the chickens, as Ruby and Jaune passed out more feed. "Thanks for hanging out with me." Ruby finally mumbled, offering a nervous smile.

"Hey, it's no problem. You'd do the same for me, we're friends, right?" Ruby looked a bit shocked at the question, something Jaune seemed to pick up as he started to back out of what he said. "I mean, if you want to be! I totally get if you don't want to be friends with someone like me."

"Yeah." Ruby gave him a cheerful smile, feeling suddenly relieved at his suggestion. "We are friends. It's, well, it's nice to have friends of my own." She mumbled, only to squeak in surprise as he gave a light ruffling of her hair.

"Sorry, you just reminded me a lot of my sister when she starts feeling down." Jaune gave a sheepish grin, scratching at the back of his head. "She always seems to get her mind out of a funk when we mess with her hair, so I figured it was worth a try."

Ruby stuck her tongue out at Jaune, but offered a smile nonetheless afterwards. "I don't think that'd help me much, but I'd warn against doing it to Yang. My sister hates when people mess with her hair. She tore down a nightclub earlier this year when one of the bouncers messed her hair up."

"I'll keep that in mind, then," Jaune nodded, laughing nervously. "My big sis Saphron can get pretty out of shape when people mess with her hair, but I don't think she's torn down any nightclubs."

"Well, Yang's pretty unique in how much she loves her hair." Ruby insisted, chuckling at Jaune's comparison. "I don't really care too much about doing things with my hair, I just like it nice and simple, like it is. Yang's always getting some new fancy hair product to use in her hair and I just use the same stuff I've used since I was a kid. I don't have to worry much about the tearing but I use no-tear anyways." Ruby shut her mouth, realizing she'd gone off on a tangent like she had when they were chatting before orientation, cheeks warming with embarrassment until she realized he didn't seem to care.

Instead, a befuddled look grew on Jaune's face, a mix of surprise and horror. "Wait, you mean to tell me that it was no tear? I thought it meant no tear, like if I got any in my eyes!"

At that, Ruby couldn't stop herself from bursting into laughter. "Oh my gosh, you're kidding, right? There's no way that you haven't gotten any in your eyes in all the time you've been using it!"

"I just, uh," Jaune's cheeks were pink with embarrassment, "I thought that I was weird for tearing up when it got in my eyes! Don't laugh, I'm serious!"

"Sorry, sorry, I just wasn't expecting to hear something like that." Ruby gave Jaune a wide grin, playfully nudging his arm. "Well, at least now you know for the future, right?"

Jaune gave a pout that could've matched one of Ruby's, before relenting and nodding. "Yeah, I guess so. It's just weird to have something I believed all my life be wrong, but I should probably be glad it was just about shampoo, and not anything important."

"Ha, yeah! Can you imagine not knowing something important about becoming a huntsman instead? That'd be awkward!" Ruby joked, a cheerful smile across her face, her attention being drawn away at the sound of clucking from one of the nearby chickens. "Aww, you're a cutie, aren't you little lady?" She insisted, picking up the chicken, who seemed fairly content to be handled by the girl. After a moment of glee, she turned to Jaune, holding out the chicken. "You try! I'm sure you'll see that she's just as calm for you."

Though he was clearly reluctant, Ruby was glad to see Jaune acquiesce to her request, taking the clucking chicken into his arms, where he held it awkwardly. "Are you sure this is okay?" He asked, his teeth clenched in what she assumed was nerves about the chicken reacting poorly to him.

"I'm sure!" Ruby nodded, grinning as the chicken seemed content to remain in Jaune's arms for the next few minutes, before he placed it back on the ground. "There, see! It isn't just me!"

Jaune gave a supportive chuckle, grabbing more feed to give the chickens, before looking up to the horizon, finding it starting to color with reds and oranges. "How long have we been here?"

"Not that long, I don't think, but I should probably go find Yang. She might get the wrong idea if I'm gone for too long." Ruby announced, rising from the bench and giving a quick stretch of her arms. "Thank you again for hanging out with me Jaune, I was feeling pretty lonely."

"Aw, sheesh, it was no problem, Ruby. Anytime for a friend." Jaune said, giving a dorky thumbs up.

As the two wrapped up, a crow perched on a nearby tree cocked its head, before giving out a croak and taking flight, flying off towards Beacon's tower.