"And that is why you should never mix yellow and blue Dust."
Weiss put down her marker pen and turned around with a proud smirk. Behind her was a white board filled with carefully written annotations, schemes and drawings. It had been a lot of work for one person, but she thought it would be more than worth it if it got her teammates through their exams.
As always, her expectations were a bit too optimistic. Her sight first fell on Yang, who was staring at the board blankly. Weiss' eyes narrowed and she snapped her fingers.
"Ah!" The blonde screamed, jumping in her seat "What?!"
"…You didn't pay any attention to anything I said, did you?" Weiss asked emotionlessly.
"…No?" Yang smiled sheepishly "Sorry. Look, all I gotta know is which elements are represented by which color of Dust!"
"Oh, really?" The heiress put her hands on her hips testily.
"Yes, really! I don't have to worry about anything beyond that. The professors made it very clear that the only subject they will demand of us are the elements."
Weiss groaned angrily. Yang could be surprisingly practical and smart when she wanted to be, and the heiress couldn't find any flaw in her argument.
"Blake?" Weiss called "A little help here?"
The cat faunus perked up in her seat and turned to look at her partner.
"Weiss is right, Yang." Blake said "Even if you don't use Dust, you still should know everything you know about it. What if we were on a mission and you had to prevent a Dust explosion from going off, for example?"
"I'd just have Weiss take care of that." Yang replied simply.
"What if she wasn't with us, then?"
The blonde crossed her arms stubbornly, but conceded under her breath. Weiss smiled gratefully to Blake.
"At least one of you appreciates my work." The heiress said.
"Well, my winning argument did have one big flaw." Blake noted "We'd be lost without you, Dust explosion or none."
Weiss hid her surprise at the remark, as she had been taught to do since she was a child. She had rarely ever heard Blake compliment someone so openly, and had never been the one being praised. Despite their differences, or perhaps exactly because of them, she felt really honored.
Before the heiress could respond tactfully, a beep and a giggle drew her attention to her young leader. Ruby was sitting cross-legged on her chair, looking down at her Scroll and tapping disturbingly fast.
"Are you… texting?" Weiss asked "During my class?"
"N-No!" Ruby squealed while pathetically trying to hide her Scroll "I wasn't texting!"
"Yes, you were!" Her partner said sternly "Give me your phone, Ruby Rose."
Yang buried her face in her hands to muffle her laughter, and even Blake had to look away and bit her lip to hide her amusement. It was just too easy to picture Ruby and Weiss as student and teacher, respectively, even if their real hierarchy dictated the contrary.
The redhead lowered her head in shame and offered her phone. Weiss emitted a soft humph and took it. Her air of authority was ruined by her looking down at the screen curiously.
"Who's Cinder?" She asked sharply.
"She's a friend!" Ruby protested "What, are you going to forbid me of having those?"
"Maybe I will, if it means you'll pay attention to my tutoring you!" Weiss replied "No one, be them friend, family, lover, should ever get in the way of us learning. We are in Beacon to study and become the best Huntress we can be, and I will not allow such a silly distraction to get in the way of-"
Another beep echoed in the room, and in the blink of an eye, Weiss was handling her own Scroll. As she looked at its screen, her lips widened, revealing a smile so happy, it scared her teammates.
"Neptune calls to me." She said evenly after putting the phone away "I must go meet with him."
"Wait, what?" Blake blinked "You suddenly have a date?"
"No." The heiress looked away embarrassedly "It's just a meeting."
"What about your speech about how important studying is?" The faunus pressed.
"T-that doesn't apply to me!" Weiss shrieked "This session will be resumed tomorrow! Goodbye!"
The white-haired girl left so fast, one could assume she possessed the same Semblance as her partner. Once she was gone, Ruby retrieved her Scroll, which Weiss had dropped on the floor in her haste to read Neptune's message.
"Well, I'll be off too!" The redhead said.
"Where are you going?" Yang asked curiously.
"I promised Cinder I'd show her the rest of the school. Apparently no one gave her a tour when she got here." Ruby explained "Have a good day, sis, Blake!"
Once they were alone, Yang crossed her arms and frowned.
"Do you know this Cinder?" She questioned.
"No." Blake answered.
The blonde looked at her partner and raised an eyebrow. She knew very well the faunus wasn't one for long responses, but this one was unusually short, even for her standards. Blake had reached Ren's level of quietness with that sentence.
"What's bothering you, Blaky?" Yang asked worriedly.
"Nothing." Blake answered quietly "…What's the deal with Neptune, anyway?"
Yang's chin fell as realization hit her.
No way. She thought. This isn't happening. I'm just imagining things. Blake doesn't mean anything by it. Really? Weiss? Blake's more likely to have a crush on a lamppost than her.
"I mean, he's not even that good-looking." The faunus said, a little louder this time "I don't know why Weiss likes him so much."
Yep. Yang shook her head in wonderment. The world is officially upside down.
When Cinder had contacted Ruby to arrange some time for them to spend together, she had been firm in her resolve to obtain as much information from her as possible. Her team's strengths and weaknesses, their families and close friends, their pasts… All the things that she needed to know to make her mission go as smoothly as possible.
As the day went on and Ruby lead her around the school, though, Cinder found her initial intentions fading away quickly. It was too easy to get lost in the redhead's happy babbling and spirited mannerisms, so much that Cinder couldn't stop herself from becoming actually interested in what she was talking about.
She tried to reason with herself why she was being so… unlike herself. Cinder wasn't, and most importantly, didn't see herself as, someone who indulged herself with the little things of life, or who put her happiness and satisfaction on the hands of others, or who laughed. She was repulsed by these kinds of people, yet for some strange reason, she enjoyed Ruby's company.
It didn't make any sense to her, and that only made her work more for the answer.
"So, Ruby…" Cinder said evenly as they made their way back to the dormitories, after they had explored the whole perimeter of the school "Is there anything else you can show me?"
"Nope. That's all there is to the school." Ruby answered, then inclined her head to the side with a look of wonderment "Well, I didn't show you the janitor's lounge, but I don't think you wanna see that." She shuddered "Trust me, it isn't a nice sight."
"It really doesn't sound good." The raven-haired girl agreed, then giggled softly.
She looked away to the side and covered her mouth. Ruby looked at her discreetly as they walked, noting her behavior and finding it… she couldn't quite place how she felt about it, actually.
Cinder wasn't that much older than her, at eighteen years, but she was already like a fully realized young woman. It wasn't only her appearance that reflected that, but also her personality. Ruby was really intrigued by how differently she talked when compared to her friends. There was a conviction in her words, and as she said them, each one was full of meaning.
And then, she would giggle or laugh or smile, and immediately pretend she hadn't. It should look awkward, but it wasn't. Ruby found it… Found it…
She just couldn't understand how she felt about it.
"You shouldn't hide like that, you know?" The redhead said abruptly.
"What?" Cinder asked confusedly.
"You know… When you want to laugh or smile, just do it." Ruby explained "There's nothing wrong with being happy! Besides, it's really nice to see you do these things!"
"…What do you mean by nice?"
Ruby joined her hands behind her back and looked down at her feet. She tried to hide it, but Cinder could see the crimson shade her cheeks had taken.
"I mean you look cute when you laugh, okay?" The redhead mumbled.
"Oh." Cinder said, not sure how to respond "Well. You… also look cute when you laugh. Thank you."
Ruby lifted her head and smiled. Slowly, Cinder responded in kind, resisting the urge to hide once again.
"I am glad we could spend time together, Ruby." The raven-haired girl spoke, not fully considering what she wanted to say "You're a good friend. Do you think we could do this again sometime? I promise to laugh and smile some more, if you want me to."
"Yeah! That would be awesome!" Ruby answered ecstatically "But… I think it might take a while. We're having exams, and then my team will go on a field mission…"
"That's fine." Cinder said "I can wait as long as needed if it's for you."
The redhead blushed slightly, then gave her a quick hug. With a wave of her hand and a smile, Ruby broke from their path towards her dormitory.
Cinder stopped in her tracks, observing as her friend walked away. It was only minutes after she had resumed walking and reached her own dormitory, that she realized she hadn't yet undone her smile.
"Hello, Team RWBY!"
Three pairs of eyes widened with terror as Weiss strode into the dormitory room, her voice trailing musically. There was a light hop in her steps and a wide smile between her lips.
"Weiss?" Ruby asked fearfully, poking her eyes beyond the edge of her beg "Is that you?"
"Yes, dear Ruby, it is I, Weiss Schnee!" The heiress exclaimed "I have an announcement to make."
The redhead sat up again, her curiosity winning over her fear. Yang stared at her white-haired teammate expectantly, though she had already guessed what the announcement was about. Blake didn't look away from her current book, but her breath stilled subtly.
"I have a date." Weiss said.
"…That's the announcement?" Ruby asked.
"Yes, you dolt!" The heiress glared at her partner.
"Okay."
Weiss shook her head in disbelief.
"I'm your partner, you should be happy for me!" She protested.
"Good luck with that. Ruby's as interested in romance as you are in roller coasters." Yang said "I am happy for you, Weissy. I assume Neptune is the lucky guy?"
"Yes, he is." Weiss confirmed happily "It's not like there's anyone else I'd be interested in at Beacon."
She turned to look at Blake, hoping for a reaction similar to Yang's, but the faunus was completely immersed in her novel. Weiss shrugged and sat down on her bed, then started to remove her boots.
"Congratulations, Weiss."
The heiress looked up again, surprised to hear Blake's voice. The brunette hadn't torn her eyes from her book.
"I thought you weren't listening." Weiss commented.
"I was listening very carefully." Blake said "When's the date?"
"We settled for the weekend after our mission." The white-haired girl told "That way I won't have to worry about studying and preparing."
"Good thinking." The faunus stated "I hope it goes well."
Weiss smiled lightly.
"Thank you, Blake." She said, and returned to removing her boots.
"No problem." Blake muttered, turning back the pages of her book to reread the chapter she had gotten to when Weiss had arrived.
She tried hard, but couldn't focus on the words anymore.
A week later, the team walked outside the school after taking their mission. Mountain Glenn was far away, but they would reach it in hours by flying. Still, they could take days to come back to their normal schedules.
They took their times saying their farewells to team JNPR and Sun and Neptune. Weiss in particular chatted for a long time with the blue-haired boy, which had Jaune almost screaming in frustration and Yang patting Blake softly on her should, much to the faunus' puzzlement.
Weiss, however, was very annoyed by Ruby's reaction. The redhead was constantly poking at her, demanding she hurry up. Eventually, her sister had to drag her away while uttering apologies.
"You really are clueless, Ruby." Yang said with wonderment.
"What?" Ruby frowned "I know Weiss likes Neptune, I just wanna go on our mission already."
"Ruby, sometimes you like someone so much, you just can't help but do this kind of stuff. Weiss is no exception to the rule." The blonde explained.
Ruby opened her mouth to protest further, but a hand poked her on the shoulder. The redhead turned around and saw Cinder, who was smiling amusedly.
"What are you so anxious about?" The raven-haired girl asked.
"I just wanna get going, but Weiss won't stop talking to Neptune!" Ruby exclaimed.
"Well, romance is a tricky thing." Cinder stated, trying to be helpful.
She noticed Yang looking at her confusedly, and her smile disappeared immediately. Yang didn't let that escape her attention, but didn't show any reaction to it.
"Hey, I'm Yang. Ruby's sister." The blonde introduced herself "I suppose you're Cinder?"
"Indeed." Cinder said "Ruby told me a lot about you. It's good to finally meet you in person."
"Ruby has been very secretive about you." Yang looked at her sister accusingly "But it's nice meet you too, Cinder."
The raven-haired girl nodded slightly.
"I hope your mission goes well. I have to go now." She began to walk away, but then turned and looked at Ruby "And don't forget about our plans!"
"Yep! Never forgot!" Ruby responded happily.
When Cinder finally left, Yang looked at her sister with suspicion.
"What… plans are those, Ruby?" She questioned.
"We agreed to have an afternoon together again sometime." Ruby explained "I'm looking forward to it, and so is she."
"Oh… So, you have a date, is what you're saying?"
The younger girl's face paled.
"N-no!" She refuted "I-I mean, if it's a d-date between friends, yeah! But not, like… Like gross dates."
"Really, Ruby? Gross dates?" Yang chuckled "How old are you again?"
"Old enough to know what butt touching means." Ruby replied, pouting afterwards.
They returned to their teammates, and found the same predicament as before. Now, however, Neptune seemed to be slowly edging away from Weiss in fear, even as she continued talking, and Blake was pinching her forehead impatiently.
"Oh. Weiss is… still talking." Yang said worriedly "Is she… okay?"
"Now you see my point?" Ruby crossed her arms and shook her head.
After five more minutes, one of them finally broke. Blake mumbled something venomous under her breath and threw her pistol in Weiss's direction. Her ribbon wrapped around the heiress, whose expression became a mix of confusion and horror as she was pulled away from her future date. Neptune took no time walking away hurriedly.
"Seriously, Weiss." Blake deadpanned as she unwrapped her teammate "Hold on until your date, please."
"But Neptune…" Weiss whimpered.
The faunus patted her on the head comfortingly, then looked away with barely concealed sadness. Nobody seemed to notice except for Yang, who shook her head slowly.
Blake likes Weiss and Ruby has a date. She thought. Now, the world is officially upside down, inside out.
Madness, I say. But of course, this is a Zeroan fanfic, so it would be madness perhaps if there wasn't Monochrome. Just to clarify and alleviate some worries some of you lovely people might have, Falling Petals will always be the main focus of this story. Monochrome is only one side-story/element/plot/thingy/whatever. And I promise *CoS spoiler beware* Blake won't lose any arms this time *end CoS spoiler*.
And I'd like to take this space to say something...
Holy shit I love you people. So much support! I would give each and every one of you a thankful glance if I could. (I'm a very warm person)
Upside-down-inside-out-thanks to everyone who reviewed, followed and favorited Falling Roses Burn Brighter!
-Zeroan