Oh, What a Spectacle!

Chapter 7

Eyes on the Prize

Saturday Morning had come, which meant three things for our intrepid band of heroes. One- no more classes. Two- no travel restrictions for the day. Three- Game Night.

And Yang Xiao Long, hungover as she was, took game night very, very seriously. She had neglected to tell her team that she was busy tearing up instead of returning to the dorm immediately, thus she had to sneak in late in order to avoid raising suspicion. She had just barely managed it. Whatever Gods may have seen fit to guide her, she would find them and kiss their feet.

She had drifted into sleep quite easily. The blonde was snoring loudly, a trickle of drool from the corner of her mouth wetting the pillow under her head, which she was clutching tight enough to bust. She was a very huggy person, when she got tired. Or drunk. Or both.

Then...

*BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BE- PTOOM*

With the grace and agility of a drunken tortoise trying to do the tango on a pair of stilts, Yang fell to the floor going after Ember Celica, slapping the weapon sloppily over her right hand, and blowing a chunk of the cabinet away with the alarm clock.

Fuck the alarm clock. Fuck it.

Once again, she had awakened the rest of RWBY with her antics, with Weiss going into her usual hysterics about Yang nearly killing someone, and Blake responding with frustration that she was going to have to buy yet ANOTHER alarm clock. Frankly, the fact that Ruby only sat up and yawned spoke volumes as to how batshit-crazy a life she lead up to this point.

"Yang! One of these days you are going to miss the clock and shoot me! Or Blake!"

"I'm certain that will only happen once she's already drained all of my lien by destroying more of these clocks. Yang, there is a snooze button," Blake informed her.

"Ish too far away..." Yang muttered, burying her face in the pillow. "Tdysh gm nght, hmh?"

"What?" Blake asked.

Yang lifted her head. "Today's game night, huh?"

"Yes. We're meeting in JNPR's dorm tonight."

"Yaaaay..." Yang muttered. "We go' Thunderaid?"

"Yes, why?" Blake asked.

"Just for breakfasht."

Blake immediately realized she was hung over, while the team's precious muffin child remained blissfully unaware of the exact nature of Yang's groggy state. With a sigh, Blake got up and moved to the minikitchen. "What kind of cereal do you want, Yang?"

"Pumpkin Petesh, duh."

"Alright."


Pyrrha's pencil broke.

The lead went spilling off the side of the bed as she jerked a little too hard on the angle of a shoulder. She sighed, putting it to the side and grabbing another one from the small holster on her sketchbook, and continuing where she left off. The rest of the team was still sleeping, but they would be awake any minute now. She had skipped her run, instead opting for a little bit of weight and endurance training. She was wearing a white tee and the same boy shorts she always wore to exercise. Ren, unusually, had been up before her today, which gave her a bit of a fright.

What she didn't know- and what she should have known, that so long as there was a Dance Drive Remix on campus, and it was Game Night, Lie Ren required no such trivialities as food, drink, or sleep. Those were for the weak. He was a machine, and he had only one directive- outdance the shit out of anyone who dared to enter the hallowed halls of Beacon Academy.

Said boy in pink looked over at her from his place on the bed closest to the window, watching his teammate doing her art.

Her Scroll vibrated, and she took the device from her pocket, opening up the Messenger application. The message was from Ren.

U drawing?

She put her pencil at her side for the moment and moved to reply.

yep.

what u drawing?

nora, she replied.

nora doing what?

being nora

since when did you become so vague?

since you started being so nosy

ouch. im offended.

sorry ^-^

The girl returned to her drawing, finishing filling out Nora's figure before moving on to the eyes and smile. Before she could continue, the Scroll vibrated again. She looked up at Ren, who shrugged. 'Not me,' he mouthed.

Pyrrha shook her head, and checked. Turns out, it was Blake, who rarely, if ever, so much as spoke to her outside of the cafeteria. None of RWBY were usually up this early, even on weekends...

bumblekitteh: Hey, do you have some PP? We're out. ~_~

thisisMistral: PP?

bumblekitteh: Pumpkin Pete's.

thisisMistral: blake that stuff is terrible for you, and ive told you all that multiple times.

bumblekitteh: look, p-swizzle, I don't tell you how to live your life... well, your non-love life, anyway. besides, its for Yang. She's hungover AF. ;-;

thisisMistral: =_= ill be right over. got thunderaid?

bumblekitteh: got you covered, bb. ;3

Pyrrha immediately jumped out of bed and made straight for the cabinets. Ren looked confused, following after his teammate.

"What's going on?" he asked quietly.

"Yang has a hangover AGAIN, and they need cereal for the hangover cure," Pyrrha replied. Ever since JNPR had gotten close to RWBY, she had come to know Yang quite well- they were both their team's heavy lifters, and both had similar tastes in music (EDM and rap, although Pyrrha's personal preferences tended to the former) and literature (comic books and action novels). However, Pyrrha was an avowed teetotaler with a Spartan health regimen and a downright nun-esque private life, while Yang cared little for such things, preferring to enjoy life and everything it had to offer- her code for taking her fake ID and getting plastered at Also a Gun in full view of the populace at large. Considering Pyrrha and Nora were likely the only ones that could physically restrain Yang when she was drunk or angry, which often coincided, and that Pyrrha was considerably less likely to join in said drunken antics than Nora, Pyrrha Nikos had yet one more job added to her daily responsibilities- Yang's one woman restraining bolt.

And, if Weiss was to believed, she was damned good at it. Then again, if you could suplex Yang Xiao Long through a wooden table, you were pretty badass.

"Need me to come with you?" Ren asked.

"No, but thank you. Yang's my friend, this is the least I can do for her."

Ren never did understand where Pyrrha got off on being everyone's best friend and doormat. Pyrrha grabbed a box of the cereal, feeling very self-conscious, and walked out of the minikitchen, through the bed area, and out the door.


*knock knock knock*

"Who is it?" Weiss asked.

"It's Pyrrha."

Weiss opened the door for her, the redhead stepping through the portal, cereal in hand. "Good morning."

"It's not good, not good at all..." Weiss grumbled, facepalming.

Pyrrha's eyes were immediately drawn to the smoking remains of the alarm clock. A large spread of bullet holes in the china cabinet it sat on also had small wisps of smoke rising from them, and one hole was dangerously close to the bottom bunk on the other side of the room.

"What in the hell did she do this time?" Pyrrha asked, her voice lowered at a dangerous mezzo-soprano.

"She blew up the alarm clock again."

"Again!?" Pyrrha asked, surprised. She had done it before?

"This is the seventh or eighth one," Ruby informed her, sitting on her bunk and rocking side to side. "She doesn't like having to get up and find the snooze button."

"So she blows it up?"

"Only when sufficiently tired or hungover," Weiss replied.

As if this school couldn't get any weirder, Pyrrha could add 'sociopathic clock-destroyers' to the list of people accepted to Beacon Academy. Oh, the humanity. "Where's Yang?"

"The minikitchen."

Pyrrha huffed, walking to said cutout room, to find Yang leaning on a counter, talking to Blake.

"- and then I said, 'well, what the fuck do I look like? A-"

"Drunken slob," Blake finished, looking over at Blake. "Morning."

"Hello again, Blake."

Yang looked over at the redhead, and grinned a shit-eating, audacious grin. "Yo, P-Money! Has our favorite noodle finally become a man? Is there a mini-Jaune on the way?"

"If I had so much as held his hand, Nora would have told you already." Pyrrha tried not to smile at the blonde's antics, tossing her the box of cereal. "You really need to stop this, Yang. You should be setting a better example for Ruby."

Yang rolled her eyes. "Ruby, rule number one?"

"We don't talk about Fight-" Ruby began in the other room, only for Yang to interrupt her.

"No, the OTHER rule number one!"

"Don't do anything you wouldn't do!"

"Rule number two?"

"Don't do anything you WOULD do, either!"

Yang looked back at Pyrrha, who gave a resigned sigh. "See?" Yang informed her, "pro-tier older sister. Hey, do you have any siblings?"

"Two brothers, two sisters," Pyrrha replied. "All older. Oldest two are twins."

"Funny, I pegged you as an only child. I guess you'll have to introduce us someday."


Heracles Nikos coughed once. He looked up from his place on the front porch of his home, not noticing anything unusual. With a shrug, he went back to trying to drown out the sounds of the latest family gathering in the house.


Pyrrha looked visibly uncomfortable, which Blake did not fail to notice.

"Alright, Pyrrha, I think we're good, you can go back to your dorm," Blake informed her.

"Yeah... hope you get to feeling better, Yang." Pyrrha walked back into the bedroom area, bidding the rest of RWBY adieu, and heading back to JNPR's dorm.


By the time she returned to her dorm, the rest of JNPR was up and about, with Jaune already setting up the various game systems for the night. The teams planned to meet up around lunch, go out to eat, and come back for the games. Hopefully, it would go according to plan, but knowing her classmates, that was very unlikely.

"So, what is on the itinerary, Jaune?" Ren asked, watching the blonde fooling with the wires for two Guitar Warrior controllers.

"You know, GW, Alley Fighter, Ultimate Brawl, the usual kind of thing," he replied.

"Oh, thank goodness! I thought we would have to play the dancing game again," Pyrrha said, breathing a sigh of relief.

Bad move

Ren's eyebrow twitched, his eyes narrowing at the warrior as he lowered his latest recipe book. "Is there something wrong with, quote, 'the dancing game', Pyrrha?"

Pyrrha locked eyes with her teammate, who looked like he would snap at any moment. She threw her hands up, frantically waving away her earlier statement. "Uh, of course not! I-I loved the dancing game!"

"Of course you did, we all do." Ren did not understand where his teammate got the absolutely absurd and downright blasphemous idea that they would not be playing the dancing game. She must have gone mad! Silly, silly Pyrrha.

Jaune wiped a bead of sweat from his brow, glad that he hadn't been the one to push that particular button this week. Unfortunately, in his foolish hubris, he made the fatal mistake of opening his mouth. "Okay, so I guess that means DDR is on the table..."

"Was it ever not?" Ren asked, his attention now focused on the blonde, and it was at that moment that Jaune Ducoté Narcisse Valjean Arc knew he had fucked up. Praise be to Oum, his figurative, non-physical ass was taken from the fire by a cry of "REEEEEEEEEEN!" from the minikitchen.

Ren disengaged, looking over at Nora. "What is it?"

"What did you do with the leftovers!?"

"You ate them all for breakfast, Nora. Do you not remember?"

"No!" Ren was a fool, Nora told herself, for thinking that enough of her mental faculties were not occupied by thoughts of shipping, downright lewd bedroom fantasies involving him, herself, and possibly a lot of macaroni and cheese, destroying Grimm and/or public and/or private property, or WHAT IN THE GREAT SACRED AND HOLY NAME OF OUM HIMSELF A FUCKING SLOTH SOUNDED LIKE to worry about such silly things as remembering. Yes, Ren was truly a fool. A downright sexy, tantalizing fool, but nonetheless, a fool.

"Well, you did. Along with this week's supply of pancakes. And Pyrrha's salads. And Jaune's entire supply of candy."

"WHAT!?" Jaune shouted, dropping the wires he was hooking in, alarmed by this sudden revelation. "Even the taffy!?"

"Yes, Jaune, even the taffy. I am sorry for your loss." To be fair, Ren would probably have eaten that taffy, too. Jaune's family sent him the nicest care packages full of sweets and such. When they weren't making fun of his mom and sister's pet names for him, they were eating his food. That's what friends are for, right?

Jaune's face went blank as he attempted to comprehend the sudden lack of sugary sweets in his life at this moment in time, while Pyrrha simply ruminated on the fact that, not only did Nora eat her salad, but apparently enjoyed it enough to eat the other ones she had made.

Nora's stomach growled with the volume of a roll of thunder, drawing all the eyes in the room to her.

"You're STILL hungry!?" Pyrrha asked, her eyes as wide as saucers.

"... Maybe..."

Ren, in his infinite patience (in matters not related to dancing), simply smiled knowingly. "You all go ahead and get ready for the day, I'll fix something up immediately."


"Ah... sweet relief..."

Yang kicked back in her chair in the minikitchen, waiting for her turn to get dressed for the day, bowl of Xiao-Long patented Hangover Cure now cleared from the table. Ruby had donned a corgi t-shirt and loose-fitting windpants, with a pair of sneakers Yang bought her for her 13th birthday that somehow still fit. Weiss wore a polo with khakis and formal leather shoes, and Blake... well, Blake wasn't finished. She normally went about in her usual outfit- hell, so did the rest of them, come to think of it. Why did they change?

Yang shrugged, and went back to ruminating on other things.

Meanwhile, Blake looked herself in the mirror of their bathroom. The red-on-black flannel shirt she was wearing was... certainly unusual, but it was comfortable-considering Ren's love of dancing games, freedom of movement would be paramount. To that end, she donned a pair of black jeans to complement her shirt and her bow. However, there was still one thing missing.

She awkwardly adjusted the glasses on the bridge of her nose. Hopefully, at the very least, Yang would notice the change. Blake was never good at directly expressing herself to people, but she figured that, maybe, this would somewhat alleviate her anxiety regarding the blonde.

With a deep breath, and a nervous shudder, she stepped out into the room. "Your turn, Yang."

The blonde brawler looked out of the corner of her eye, a slight pink creeping up her cheeks. "New glasses?"

"I figured I would join in the fun. I got them yesterday."

"Nice... I'mma go change. Like, right now!" With that, Yang darted into the restroom, leaving the rest of RWBY a bit confused, save for the 'R', who was her ever-bubbling, joyous self. The mental gears in her teeny-tiny head were a-spinning like corgis on a hamster wheel as she thought, and schemed, and wondered.

"So now it's Weiss' turn!" she suddenly exclaimed, adjusting her glasses to accentuate her point. "You're the only member of Team RWBY who doesn't have a pair!"

"Ruby does have a point, you'll look quite out of place, now..." Blake opined, a cat-like grin gracing her features.

"There is nothing wrong with a bit of contrast!" Weiss countered, folding her arms. "Besides, I see no purpose in wearing glasses that serve no practical function. It's a waste of money."

"But you said you associate glasses with sophistication, intellect, and class..." Ruby replied, confused. Did Weiss not like her glasses? Oh, no! That would suck! She needed to take her glasses and break them, vaporize them, make them a burnt offering to the gods!

Weiss looked up and away, rolling her eyes. "I just don't see a need for any. That's all."

Phew, for a second there Ruby was worried about becoming a heretic! "So, when are we headed to the mall?"

"Probably as soon as Yang and JNPR are ready," Blake replied, looking at the bathroom door as she said so. "What's taking her so long, anyway?"

As if she had heard that, Yang threw open the door, revealing her outfit to everyone. A pair of short denim shorts, a tied-off purple-and-yellow button up, and a white tee shirt that preserved a modicum of modesty were the order of the day, with her glasses resting high on the bridge of her nose. "Ready to roll!"


JNPR was waiting for them, all in various states of formal dress, outside of the main dormitory building. Nora's nigh-legendary hot pink 'Boop!' shirt shone like a second sun in the morning light, while Ren wore a simpler dark green long-sleeve shirt with his jeans. Jaune was wearing a light vest and blue-on-white Achieve Men shirt, while Pyrrha looked completely out of her element in a muscle tee for some exercise equipment company, and a pair of workout pants.

"Do you own no other kinds of clothes than athletic wear?" Weiss asked. "If you need help picking something out..."

Pyrrha knew better than to wear her good outfits to Game Night if Ren was in any way involved. Let Weiss try and fail to learn her lesson again. "I'm perfectly fine in what I'm wearing."

"So, what's on the agenda?" Blake asked, throwing an awkward glance at Yang, who had been doing the same since they got dressed.

"Okay! So, first, we're gonna do some shopping. I have to go pick up something, so I'll be over in..." Jaune gave a vague gesture of his hands to the right. "This area. You guys can do whatever, then we can hit the food court for lunch and hang out for a while. Then we'll finish up, get some snacks for tonight, and head back to Beacon. Simple, right?"

Knowing them, there was likely going to be something that exploded in the meantime, but, it couldn't be helped. They all gave varying responses that summed up to 'okay', and the group split for the moment, leaving Jaune to focus on his mission, and his alone. This was the moment of truth, the moment where- despite the injuries that had yet to completely finish healing- his confidence would be made or broken. Right now...

He had. To get. The glasses.

"Hey, Jaune!"

Jaune immediately whipped around to find Asher Maddox awkwardly standing behind him. The black-haired student was, if Jaune's memory served him right, their neighbor in the dormitories. He had recently come by the other day to talk to Pyrrha, according to Ren, but that was during the time they were doing their daily training, so he supposed that it was simply a coincidence.

"Oh, hey!" Jaune greeted him.

"What's up?"

"About to do some shopping, you?"

"Yeah, same here... Uh... Look... would you happen to know what, uh... um..."

Jaune raised an eyebrow, a mix of confusion and amusement on his features as the taller trainee fumbled over his words.

"Uh... do you know... Shit, nevermind! Have a good day!" With that, Maddox marched off as quickly as he came, confusing both Jaune and the gods of the universe immensely as his frustration boiled over. After giving it a few minutes of thought, Jaune shrugged, and made his way to the glasses store.

In today's headcanon news, Ren enjoys dancing a bit TOO much, Yang is very responsibly irresponsible, Blake is that emoji spam girl, and Pyrrha is your designated driver.