Still slow, still slow.
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Chapter 6: Formation
After getting rid of the sticky tree sap on Yang's palm, the girls proceeded to have a 'meeting' (according to Ruby) in Secret Base to discuss their plan for today.
Currently, Ruby was standing in front of the other three girls who were sitting on the rocks with a certain golden retriever beside her. She was still carrying that backpack she used to store her scythe and according to her she was supposed to carry the weapon behind her waist when she got her own personal combat attire.
"So! What do we do today my fellow huntresses?" Ruby said, her chin and chest held high.
"Reporting for duty Sergeant Rose!" Yang stood up and saluted the younger girl, "My teammates and I had cleared out sector twelve and it's free of Grimm now!"
"Good job Officer Xiao Long! Seeing as you are back now, why don't we make new plans to evacuate the people from other sectors?"
"Aye sir!" Yang shouted.
Blake giggled at their dramatic act while Weiss just shook her head and sighed.
"What are your opinions Officer Belladonna and Officer Schnee?" Ruby turned to the monochrome pair.
"I…I don't know." Blake got nervous when everyone in the cave, even Topaz was looking at her.
"Very well. What about you Officer Schnee?" Ruby turned to the heiress.
"Officer Schnee would like to know what type of game normal children play with their friends." Weiss answered.
"Oho, princess' always alone in the castle eh…" Yang wiggled her eyebrows.
Weiss' face turned red as she turned to the side and huffed, "W…what can you expect? I'm home schooled and I don't have any chance to live a…playful childhood with…with my friends…"
"You have friends other than us?" The blonde teased.
"Yang!" Ruby shouted, "Stop teasing her!"
"Alright alright. Sorry princess, shouldn't have done that." Yang turned to the girl only to see her clenching her fist tight, blue orbs watery as she squeezed out a heartbreaking sentence.
"All this time…people only…care about my last name…I…I don't have…many friends…I was…happy because…when I tell you that I'm a Schnee…you didn't abandon me or flatter me or…or befriend me because of my fortune…"
Yang felt a sting in her chest as she saw the heiress crying. Other than guilt she felt something else…something that she wasn't able to make out. She had an urge to hug the fragile girl tight and kiss her and mumble things in her ears to make her smile. She wanted to make her happy.
"W…Weiss?" Blake looked at the heiress.
"Sorry." After wiping her tears Weiss had quickly regained her usual posture, "I…Sorry for the…well, breakdown just now. It will never happen again."
"It's okay Weiss." Ruby knelt down in front of her and held her hands, "You can tell us if you feel lonely. That's what friends are for!"
"Y…yes Weiss!" Blake joined them, "You saved me just now! It's only fair if I…if I return the favor! As a friend!"
"Thank you." The heiress smiled.
Yang was still blaming herself for making the heiress cry. She didn't say a word and was sitting there staring at the floor. The girls eyed each other and in the end it was Topaz who had snapped her out of it.
The dog went and nuzzled his nose on her knees and licked them.
"Topaz?" She said.
"Ruff." Topaz barked.
The blonde then followed Topaz's eyes and it had led her to the heiress'.
"Weiss…" She said, her voice lack of the usual energy in it, "I'm sorry."
"It's fine Yang." Weiss stood up and walked to her, "It's fine. I know you don't mean it."
"Weiss…"
"A…alright!" Ruby shouted, attempting to break the awkward atmosphere, "Let's play a game!"
"Ruff!" Topaz barked to support her.
"The number one game that children like us plays!" She raised her hand, "Hide and seek!"
"Ruff ruff!"
"Come on Weiss, we'll show you how it is done!" Ruby burst into rose petals and got to Weiss, holding her hand tight, "Let's go outside!"
"Ruby?" Came Blake's shy voice.
"Yes Blake?"
"I…I have no idea how to play this game." Blake said.
Aside from hiding in her own room trying to avoid hearing her parents arguing, the black haired girl spent most of her time reading in the library. Her shy nature didn't help a lot and she always kept to herself in class. Cardin was right, she had no friends at all; she had totally no experience in playing with kids around her age.
"It's easy!" Ruby said cheerfully, "It's as the name suggests! Three of us hide and one has to go and seek us out!"
"Who is going to be the seeker?" Weiss asked.
"Umm…maybe I can become the seeker for the first round?" Ruby said, "Let you all get used to it first! After that we can take turn, what do you say?"
"Alright."
"Blake?"
The girl nodded.
"Yang?"
"I uh…"
"Hush." Weiss moved a bit and Ruby released her hand. She then walked to Yang who was still blaming herself for those playful words she said that had hurt the heiress, "Stop blaming yourself. Come, let's go."
"But…"
"Come, on." The heiress held her hand, dragging the taller girl to join the rest of the gang, "You have to make up to me by playing this game."
"What?"
"Yeah that's a great idea Yang." Ruby smiled sheepishly.
They left Ruby inside Secret Base with Topaz guarding her so that she wouldn't cheat; she was facing the cave wall at the most inner part while counting to thirty and once she had finished counting she could start searching for people. They had made an agreement to not hide too far away from Secret Base to avoid potential accidents.
"…Twenty-nine, thirty!" Ruby shouted and turned around.
When she walked out of the cave it was very quiet; as if no one had ever been to this place before. In fact it was so silent that she had started to be a little bit scared and she was thankful to have Topaz by her side.
She unzipped her backpack and took out her weapon – which she named Crescent Rose and unfolded it to its scythe form. She always felt safer holding her weapon; it was technically her first friend and also her best friend in life. She valued her very much and yes, in Ruby's mind Crescent Rose was a beautiful maiden.
"Alright…let's do this…" She said as she held the scythe, slowly making her way into the opening of the forest with a Topaz behind her.
It was quiet and the only sound she could hear was her own footsteps and the rustling of the dry leaves on the ground. Occasionally there would be birds chirping and the sound of wings flapping but other than dead it was dead silent. She had to constantly make sure that Topaz was behind her because the dog didn't make any sound when he was walking.
"Okay…where would they hide…where would they hide…" She mumbled and had spotted a big stone which was located in the middle of two trees.
What was ironic was that she could see a little bit of white through a crack between the tree and the stone.
Slowly she made her way to the stone and indeed a certain heiress was hiding behind it.
"White!" She shouted as she dashed to Weiss, startling the latter.
"Ruby! Don't scare people like that!" The heiress shouted.
"Ehehe…sorry."
Weiss shook her head and sighed, "I guess having white hair and white dress don't really help in hiding in a forest."
"It will! When we play hide and seek during winter it'll be so hard to find you!"
"Indeed." The heiress smiled.
"Alright, now I need to find Blake and Yang!" Ruby smiled, gaining a bit of confident with the heiress around her.
Weiss made sure to hug Topaz before the three made their way around the forest trying to look for the two members of the gang.
And those two were either really lucky or really skilled in hiding because after around twenty minutes of searching, Ruby still couldn't find them. Frustrated, she had decided to use her aura to cheat a little bit. Not that Weiss would notice, right?
As Weiss had explained just now, aura could help detect threat but at the same time it could also detect living things around the searcher. Meaning, as Ruby focused more on using her aura it would act like a radar surrounding her, detecting anything around her that couldn't be seen with eyes.
Ruby could only do this when she was extremely focused; unlike her parents who could do that without even trying. And she trusted that one day she would be as skilled as them.
"Ruby, stop cheating." Weiss huffed, "Is that how you found me?"
Little red's focus was interrupted and she turned to the heiress in shock, "You…how did you know?"
Only a person who possessed aura could detect when Ruby tried to use that certain feature of aura – meaning Weiss had unlocked her aura too.
"The fact that I didn't brag didn't mean I haven't unlocked my aura." Weiss said, her tone flat.
"Oh…hehe, sorry. I thought you wouldn't know so I tried to cheat a little…"
Weiss raised her eyebrow.
"But no that wasn't how I found you. I saw white thing behind the rock through the crack…"
Weiss mouthed an 'oh'.
"I…I won't cheat anymore. But I can't find them…it's been so long!" Ruby stabbed Crescent Rose into the ground with force.
"You can just give up Ruby."
"No!" Ruby exclaimed, silver eyes shining in determination, "A Rose will never give up!"
Weiss just shrugged but couldn't hide that smile on her face.
Both had searched for another few minutes before Ruby suggesting to return to Secret Base. They couldn't believe the black and the yellow were so good in hiding – they couldn't have gone too far because without the help of Topaz they would be lost, but both Weiss and her had searched the surrounding area for so many times.
"Just where did they go…" Ruby folded back Crescent Rose and put it inside her backpack.
"Do you think it's possible that something happened to them?" Weiss frowned.
"Yeah, it's possible." Ruby's expression became serious, "We have to look for them."
Weiss nodded and both of them started expanding their aura to detect things – and they really did detect something. There was someone behind those huge rocks just beside the lake.
Ruby had once again burst into rose petals as she made her way to the back of the rock and to her surprise Blake was there.
"That's why we couldn't find you in the forest! You're here all along!"
"Y…yeah." Blake said, "I'm sorry."
"Eh no no it's not your fault." Ruby grinned, "You're very smart! You fooled us!"
They all laughed before Topaz started barking, telling them that there was still one person.
"Oh, I've forgotten about Yang…" Ruby joked.
"Looking for me ladies?"
They turned to the source of the sound – which came from the lake. A certain blonde was slowly emerging from the water and a few moments later she got up onto the land.
"Yang, that's cheating!" Ruby pouted.
"Technically…it isn't." Yang smirked.
"She's not wrong." Blake said.
"The lake is not too far from Secret Base." Weiss shrugged, "Which is in our agreement."
Ruby whined.
"I kinda just was inside the lake behind those rocks. Blake saw me but she didn't tell. When I heard you guys coming back I just dived in and hope you'd turn another way so that you wouldn't see me." Yang took the rubber band she used to tie her pigtails off and tried to dry her hair.
"Yeah, you won the game Yang." Ruby said.
"Uh oh, I'm the master of hiding!" The blonde crossed her arms and grinned.
The girls then proceeded to play another few rounds of hide and seek when evening approached. The forest would be dangerous at night so they had gotten ready to go back home – and they were tired too from all the searching and hiding inside this complicated forest.
As they got out from the entrance of Dragon Tears Forest Ruby's cloak had caught on a branch and poor little red had fell down with her cloak strangling her.
"Ugh…not like this! Not like this!" She said as she struggled and the first thing that came in her sight was her cloak and a flash of white.
Weiss had helped her to get the cloak off the branch and Ruby sat on the ground, panting for breaths looking at the heiress.
White.
She then heard sounds of concern as the other members of the gang came and knelt down around her – first she saw black, and then yellow.
Black…yellow…
"Rubes? You kay? Hey Rubes!" Yang's voice had snapped her out of it and she just grinned sheepishly.
"Sorry guys…I'm fine!" She said as she got up, scratches already healed, "Guess I'll have to practice more to not get my cloak to hook on random places…"
"Or you can just not wear it." The heiress huffed.
"No!" Ruby quickly pulled her hood down defensively, "Anything but that! This cloak is even more important than Crescent Rose!"
"Crescent Rose?"
"Why is that?"
Yang and Weiss' voice was heard respectively asking different questions.
"It's my scythe! And…this is the first gift I get from mommy…this was what mommy used to wear before changing to white cloak!" Ruby squeaked.
The three girls mouthed an 'oh' as a car honk was heard from the roadside. George got down from the driver seat and walked to them asking if everything was fine. He then offered to send Blake and Ruby back home in which they agreed immediately (because they were too tired to walk).
Yang on the other hand still had to walk back into the forest through another entrance to go home. She was really glad she took physical-based class in school – her stamina was probably the highest among the gang as she still could make her way back home in ease.
The next day everyone was at their usual routine; Blake and Ruby walked to school together, Weiss studying with Glynda and Yang who barely made it to school before the bell rang.
The girls had politely rejected George's offer to fetch them again as the distance between Weiss' house and their houses weren't exactly short – in fact it was a ride more than twenty-five minutes.
It was another peaceful day at school again – at least for Blake. She saw Cardin when it was recess time and the boy was terrified of her. He stayed as far as possible away from the black haired girl in the cafeteria, even going as far as to ask his friend to buy him food because he didn't want to be waiting in the same line with Blake.
And apparently Yang saw that and was laughing like hell. The blonde had decided to make it a habit to hang out with Blake during recess time as she was probably the closest friend the black haired girl had in the school.
Ruby waited for Blake again at the school gate today and both were happy to walk home together. However when they had finished lunch Blake had gone to Ruby's house to ask the girl to go to Secret Base first. She said her father was home and needed to sort something out and that he needed her help. Ruby said she would wait for the girl but Blake insisted she go.
And Ruby understood the reason.
The people in Remnant could only get access to buying scroll when they reached the age of thirteen – or when they entered middle school. If neither Blake nor Ruby showed up at the entrance of Dragon Tears Forest both Weiss and Yang would be really worried about them as they didn't know what happened and Blake couldn't explain it either with no scroll in hand.
So Ruby had obliged and went there first, ready to tell them that nothing bad happened to Blake. However when she reached the entrance nobody was there and she had assumed that they were late.
She played a game with herself guessing which of them would arrive first when a familiar car came to view and a certain heiress had got out from it.
"Hi Weiss!" She almost dashed to hug the girl but remembered that Weiss wasn't fond of physical contact. Holding hands was fine but the heiress disliked anything beyond that.
"Hello Ruby." The heiress greeted back and then turned to George, "Same time."
"Aye Miss Schnee." The driver answered and drove off.
"White…" Ruby mumbled.
"What?"
"Nothing…it's just that you always wear white."
"I like the color." Weiss ran her fingers through her off-center ponytail, "And my hair is white too. Even my name means 'white' in another language."
"What language is that?" Ruby tilted her head.
"Umm…I don't know. Papa said it's called 'German' and it was a very old myth language." The girl answered.
"Ah." Ruby nodded, "And why do you wear your ponytail not in the center?"
Weiss' face turned red as she looked to the side, "I…I couldn't tie it. Everytime I tried to it became off center so I just…went with it."
"That's better than me." Ruby scratched her head, "I don't even know how to tie…"
"You never grow your hair before?"
The younger girl shook her head, "It'll get in the way when I fight."
"I see."
"Ruff!"
Both girls turned to the golden retriever who appeared all of a sudden, wagging his tail hard as he sat down beside them, "Topaz!"
He lifted his head to show his collar again and Weiss had taken out the piece of paper stuffed inside it.
Rubes, Weiss and Blake, I gotta get something from a friend, you guys go ahead with Topaz, I already memorized the route to Secret Base (probably) so don't worry about me!
"Her handwriting is so ugly." Ruby shook her head, "Even mine is better than hers."
That earned a giggle from the heiress.
"I guess we have to wait here either way." Weiss said, "Blake isn't here too."
Ruby nodded as they heard familiar footsteps coming from their back. A black haired girl with her trademark ribbon on top of her head had joined them and the three had come to an agreement they'd wait for the last member before going in; the 'probably' in Yang's message wasn't really convincing.
They started chatting a little bit about their school and about half an hour after that the blonde had arrived on a red-colored truck. She waved goodbye to the orange-haired man smoking a cigar on the driver seat and he had driven away, leaving the three girls here.
"That's it!" Ruby suddenly shouted when Yang joined them, "This is it! I've been thinking for so long!"
"What is it? Calm down Ruby." Weiss looked at the jumping girl.
"I've been thinking of naming our team!"
"Team? What team?"
"Duh, we're a group of huntresses! We even have our own secret base!"
"Heh, what is it Rubes?"
"Red, white, black, yellow." Ruby answered.
"Huh?" The three girls said in unison; even Topaz was tilting his head looking at the girl in red hood.
"That's the sequence I saw when you guys helped me yesterday when I fell. And also it's the sequence you guys arrive here today!"
"So?" The blonde tilted her head too.
"Our color scheme! And also the initial of our names! R,W,B,Y! It's pronounced as 'Ruby' so from now on we are team RWBY!"
Yang gave her two thumbs-up while Blake nodded shyly, both satisfied with the name – but not a certain heiress.
"Why must it be so much like your name? It's not fair!" Weiss huffed.
"Because there's no other way to read it! How do you read 'RWBY' if it wasn't 'Ruby'?"
"Then we can…change the sequence! Like…WBYR or something!"
"How do you even read that?" Yang raised her eyebrow, "Wiper?"
Ruby laughed and even Blake giggled a bit, unable to restrain themselves.
Weiss crossed her arms and pouted.
"It's okay princess, Rubes' the one who got the idea anyway, why not just let her be the leader and name it after her?" Yang put her arm around the heiress' neck and pulled her close, "Let's just enjoy our team formation!"
"Yang! No hugging!" Weiss shouted, trying to struggle to free herself from the blonde's powerful grip.
"Whoops. Sorry!" She released the heiress, "But that doesn't count as hugging!"
Weiss shot her a glare.
"Well technically she's not wrong." Ruby grinned sheepishly and Blake nodded.
"You brute!" Weiss pointed at the tallest girl of the gang and stomped off into the forest, "Come on Topaz, let's ditch that brute master of yours!"
"Topaz don't you dare-"
"Ruff!"
"Noooo! You traitor!" Yang whined as her one and only family went with the angry heiress.
Ruby just ignored the blonde as she put her hand in the air and shouted, "Go team RWBY!"
She then went after Weiss and Topaz, leaving the bumblebee behind.
Blake shot Yang a 'let's go' look and Yang nodded as they made their way into the forest, eager to spend another day playing with each other in Secret Base.
#
Red…white…black…yellow.
Yes those are four colors Monty.
Man I miss him *cries*
Anyway, this is it. The next chapter will be a little faster and has a little time jump.
Again if you like the things I wrote and want to support me you can visit my profile and read the notes under 'Announcement' tag. The more help I receive the faster I can update!
I do not own RWBY.
