Yang was feeling mildly nervous as she went throughout the day. Sure she was most definitely the biggest fitness buff on team RWBY, but that didn't mean she knew everything there was to know about exercise or how to train specific muscles. She knew how to lift weights, do squats and some relatively intense cardio workouts, and while she'd love to see her team try to lift weights, it really wouldn't help any of her teammates with their respective combat styles unless they wanted to become a brawler like her. So instead she settled on the cardio workouts that she was familiar the thought that cardio is always useful, both for building up endurance and for self control.
As Yang went throughout her day, she couldn't help but second guess herself, and she was absolutely positive that the rest of her team was doubting her as well, but Ruby had said it was unanimous. The few times she glanced toward her teammates, she never saw doubt in their eyes, the worst she saw was a kind of cautious unease in Weiss' eyes, as if the heiress felt that Yang would run her into the dust.
In the end, Yang felt the pressure fall on her shoulders as team RWBY's last class of the day ended. Looking up she saw her three teammates standing in front of her desk, waiting for her to guide them to their training location. Repressing her internal doubts, the blonde stood up and started leading her team. The walk wasn't very long, only fifteen minutes, though it felt longer. The location she led them to though, was her little treasure. Yang loved being loud and obnoxious, she loved being a part of the group, and she loved it when people were paying attention to her, but surprisingly to many, she also loved quiet places. Everywhere she went, she'd find a quiet place somewhere, and she'd always hold that place close to her heart. This was the place she'd found for that at Beacon. A decent sized clearing behind one of the buildings. It wasn't anything fancy, just a small clearing with a concrete walkway along the side of it that, she assumed, led to an old school building that has long since been taken down and rebuilt elsewhere. She loved it because it was well cared for, and because of the absolute silence that reigned here, almost as if the building itself was working to prevent any outside noises from reaching the clearing.
Yang smiled as she turned to face her team. "This is the spot," she said happily. Her teammates nodded in response, and she saw a questioning look form on the heiress face. "We're just going to be running today. I figured since I couldn't help each of you develop the specific muscles you'll need in combat, instead I'd help you increase your stamina. We're going to run until we can't run anymore, and then we're going to use our time today as a benchmark to compare ourselves to in the future."
Ruby nodded in understanding, her silver eyes darting around as she looked at the clearing. "When do you want us to start?" Her voice sounded so innocent and soft that Yang had to do a double take to make sure it had been her sister who spoke. Ever since Yang had been reunited with her younger sister, Ruby's voice had always held a detached and cold feeling to it. It felt nice to know that she could still sound so innocent, even if it was almost certainly faked.
Yang noticed that her other two teammates also glanced at Ruby in surprise, but ultimately decided to not question it. She decided to follow their lead and not to question it either. The blond chose instead to enjoy the memories that her sister's voice brought to her mind. "Whenever we're all ready, I'll set up a stopwatch and we'll record the time whenever someone has to stop."
"Sounds good," the silver-eyed team leader responded, her tone back to its normal businesslike indifference. She then quickly got into a sprinter's stance and waited for the signal to start running.
The other members of team RWBY quickly joined their leader, though not getting into a sprinter's stance, they all prepared to start running. A blonde head turned back to make sure everyone was prepared, before she finally started counting. "Three, two, one … GO"
With that shout the four girls took off from their positions. Ruby in an obvious lead as she led her team around the clearing over and over again. She never lapped them though, or even get too far ahead of them. She instead got a good four or five seconds ahead of the rest of her team before slowing down to their speed, as if she was trying to encourage them to keep going. Or possibly trying to insult their speed. Yang much preferring to believe it was the first of the two.
To Blake, it had both effects. Ruby being so far ahead of the black-haired girl lit a fire in her, as her own pride in her speed and agility crushed was by Ruby, who seemingly effortlessly, claimed the lead and kept it so steadily. She used her disappointment to push herself harder and harder, and while she eventually pulled ahead of both Yang and Weiss, but she still never got any closer to the shorter team leader.
Weiss instead took it in a completely different way, her mind taking an oddly philosophical turn, which hadn't been expected, even for her. She saw the distance between Ruby and the rest of the team as a symbol of the distance between them socially. Why should Ruby go out of her way to run alongside her teammates, if she didn't even call them friends in the first place? The white-haired heiress would have sighed to herself, if she hadn't been running. This was the kind of thing Yang had been yelling at them about, and, unfortunately for Weiss, she had to admit that the blonde was right. The distance between the four of them was entirely unacceptable, and even worse, she had no small part to play in it herself.
The team continued running, every member somewhere between a jog and a sprint, for the better part of an hour. The quiet of the small clearing only interrupted by their footfalls and heavy breathing. It was a somehow relatively surreal experience for the team, as it was the first time they did anything together other than spend time in silence in their dorm. Of course, due to the nature of their exercise, it had to eventually come to an end eventually. This end was signalled by Weiss, of all things, face-planting into the dirt after one of her legs gave out on her. Panting heavily she rolled over several times, to ensure she wasn't in the way of her teammates as they ran on, before simply lying on the ground in an attempt to gain her strength back.
Ruby heard her teammate fall, it was hard not to with the combination of her faunus ears and the relative quiet of the area. She slowed down, allowing Yang and Blake to catch up, and even pass her. "I'm going to go check up on Weiss, you two keep running." She said calmly, her breathing hardly labored at all. The silver-eyed girl then turned around and jogged lightly until she stood next to Weiss, who looked up at her questioningly.
"You know," Ruby began calmly, a small grin that showed no amusement present on her face. "You probably should have stopped before you collapsed. What if someone wanted to kidnap you right now?"
A short laugh, that sounded more like an exaggerated exhale, escaped Weiss. Her blue eyes showing no concern as she looked up at her team leader. "I guess," she began through panted breaths. "They'd have to deal with my angry glares."
"Such a weapon should be kept a secret," Ruby said with a soft chuckle as she sat down next to her fallen teammate. "We wouldn't want our enemies to become immune to it."
"Why'd you stop running to check on me?" The exhausted heiress asked with surprise. "I doubt you're anywhere close to needing to stop yourself."
"You're right," the red-tipped brunette responded while investigating her clothes. "I'm only slightly winded I guess, but I've been training my endurance since I was five. If you three could match my endurance I'd be pretty bad at training. As for why I'm here," she paused, as if she was trying to come up with a reason. "I need to care about my teammates."
"You need to care?" Weiss asked incredulously.
The younger girl nodded as she turned her head to look at the two teammates who were still running. "I know you've noticed. I'm emotionally detached to an extreme degree. I simply don't care about most anything. However, you're my team, and as your leader I need to care about you, at least to the extent that I'd go out of my way to keep you healthy and unharmed. Alive would be nice as well."
"Pretty sure if we died we would be neither healthy, or unharmed," Weiss responded sarcastically, just starting to gain some control of her breathing. "So you hold no love for us, why fake it?"
"It's less about faking it, and more about fulfilling my duty as the team leader. If I end up actually caring for the three of you along the way, it could simply be considered an added benefit."
Weiss nodded to herself. Ruby's explanation made perfect sense to the heiress. "May I ask one more question?"
"If it's something I feel like answering," Ruby responded with a nod.
"Why do you seem to … fake different emotions at random times? Like earlier you went out of your way to make yourself sound totally innocent. I've seen you fake being an overly curious person, and I've even seen you fake amusement."
Silver eyes looked at Weiss, betraying no emotion as they did so. In fact, it almost felt to Weiss as if they were the eyes of a machine. "It's almost like, trying on clothes to see which one fits you the best. I'm not an overly social person, so I need to figure out what kind of personality to 'wear' when I'm not around people I care about or trust. I'm still in the process of figuring it out, or even deciding whether or not I actually should forge a personality just for that. Don't worry though, as my team, I'm required to trust you, so other than short spurts, I won't really fake anything around you three."
"Yes, because I'm not supposed to worry about my team leader trying to develop one of the most unhealthy social habits of all time," Weiss responded dryly, earning an amused look from Ruby. "I may not be educated in psychology, but even I know that that has to be unhealthy." She waited for a response from Ruby, but got only a soft chuckle in response. After a few seconds she forced herself to sit up, "I'm alright, you can go back to running."
"No need, Blake just collapsed in a face-plant that I imagine was as glorious as your own," Ruby deadpanned, which earned a light embarrassed blush from Weiss. "I suppose Yang will stop now, as we're gonna need to carry both you and Blake back to the dorm."
Ruby was proven right when the blonde member of the team ran up to the two of them and asked, "Ruby, can you help Weiss walk back to the dorm?"
Ruby nodded. "I can," she said as she stood back up. Yang then turned and jogged back to Blake, who was still laying on the ground, breathing heavily.
"I can walk by myself," Weiss said confidently before trying to get up, and failing. "In a few minutes when I've recovered, anyhow."
"You didn't collapse because you ran out of willpower, Weiss. You collapsed because your muscles couldn't take anymore. That's not gonna recover 'in a few minutes.'"
A sigh escaped Weiss' lips. "Okay, help me up, I guess it'd be better to rest on my bed."
Ruby reached down, and lifted Weiss onto her feet before looping the heiress' arm over her shoulders and behind her head, and wrapping her arm around Weiss' waist to help support her. "This way," she said softly. "You can at least pretend you're supporting some of your own weight. I also felt that you probably wouldn't appreciate a princess carry."
"Your feelings were completely right."
A small grin found its way onto Ruby's face for a moment, before she started walking with Weiss toward their dorm. On their way, they passed by a faunus with rabbit ears. The girl was wearing a brown coat, and shorts of the same color, over a body fitting black shirt, and similar black tights. She completed her outfit with some bronze colored highlights, which included her shoes, a belt, a pair of pauldrons, and some bracelets. She had the deepest brown eyes, and moderately dark brown hair.
"Are you okay?" The rabbit faunus asked softly as she approached the two after realizing how exhausted Weiss seemed to be. Ruby found it interesting how obvious it was that she cared, despite the fact that she didn't even know either of them.
"I'm fine," Weiss responded though her voice was soft from exhaustion.
"She pushed herself too far during training," Ruby added when the faunus' look of concern didn't lessen at all.
"Oh, okay," came the response from the brunette faunus. "Well, I'm Velvet Scarlatina, is there anything I can do for you two?"
Ruby took a second to think. "Could you get us some accelerade? I have some money t in my left pocket. Could you please take that and grab some from the store for us?"
Weiss looked at her team leader in disbelief. "You're just going to trust a random person with taking money from you and returning?"
"Yup, it's not like I can't find her if she doesn't bring us the accelerade."
"I can do that," Velvet said with a smile, interrupting Weiss before she could argue any more. "What's your dorm number? I'll bring it by there."
"Cool, thank you," Ruby said with a nod. "Though you're going to have to reach into my pocket to grab my wallet. Our dorm is number 27."
The rabbit faunus did so, doing her best to make it the least awkward possible, before taking the money out of Ruby's wallet, and placing the wallet back into Ruby's pocket. "I'll be there as soon as I can"
With that, Velvet left the two behind, as she raced off to acquire gatorade for the two.
"I still can't believe you'd trust her when you don't even know her," Weiss said sourly.
"I don't," Ruby responded calmly. "However, if she ends up being trustworthy, then it's a win-win situation. Plus, my wallet had nothing but money in it, and it's not even close to a fraction of my total savings. I had nothing to lose."
The two continued the rest of their walk in silence. Weiss found it odd that she had been able to have actual conversations with their team leader before she had one with her other teammates, but then she remembered that she hadn't really tried before. Neither had Ruby though, and that brought an idea to Weiss' mind. She generally wouldn't go out of her way to start conversations with them, but she's willing to talk. It spoke volumes about how social they had, or rather hadn't, been as a team, that she'd never seen Ruby talking to anyone, other than at least responding to Yang yelling at all of them for being anti-social.
Weiss and Ruby shared a moment of surprise when they got to their dorm almost a half-hour later, and found a grocery bag full of accelerade bottles hanging for their room's dornob. A smile found its way onto Ruby's face as she took the bag and opened the door. "I suppose Velvet was trustworthy after all, you should thank her the next time you see her. These are all for you and Blake afterall."
A/N
Hey Everyone, how's it going? Sorry it took a little while to write this chapter. I didn't expect it to be so … boring to write a chapter about team RWBY running. (Though I guess that shouldn't have been a big surprise.) One thing that I loved while writing this, was that when I got to the part where Weiss face-planted, Carry On My Wayward Son by the band Kansas started playing from my writing playlist. Yup I have a playlist for writing, 'cause music helps me calm down and concentrate. The playlist is about 200 songs long, in case you care. (I need more songs for it.)
Nyway, how'd you like the chapter? Did I do a good job of making it… not boring to read? Any issues you find in the chapter? Anything you think I could do better? If you have a response to any of those questions, please feel free to PM me or leave a review and let me know. :) Before anyone really asks, yes, I know I keep mentioning Ruby's faunus ears even though you all should be fully aware she has them by this point in the story, but that's because I want there to be a constant reminder that they're there, despite the fact that she was born a human in this story (and considers herself a human rather than a faunus.) That's it for now, hope you all have had a great day and enjoyed the chapter!
Shoutout to SecretlySilentEvil for creating the name of Accelerade in replacement of Gatorade. He saved this chapter. Literally.