*Foreword*

Hello. Wow, 25 chapters, huh? I honestly didn't expect to go this far with Love is a Knight-mare. My original intention was maybe 15 or so, and end it on a nice note. But somewhere along the way, we hit the silver mark. And I admit, I love writing this. It lets me get creative, and gives those of you non-psychotic and overly annoying RubyXWeiss and/or JauneXPyrrha shippers who enjoy a good Rose Arc fic a nice read. So, thanks for sticking this far, and here's to another 25 (let's hope I can go that far (I likely will, because I like this pairing and it makes a hell of a lot more sense than those other two I mentioned.)) Now, before the killjoys come and try to bash this shipping, let's continue with Love is a Knight-mare.

The day was slow. Horribly, undeniably slow. All Ruby could do to keep herself awake was remember that when she got back to her room, she'd be able to boot her sister, boyfriend, and other teammate out of the room and dedicate a few hours to fixing her beloved scythe. All she wanted to do was cuddle with it; to caress it, snuggle with it, and treat it like most people would treat a family pet. No. More like how most people would treat their daughters or sons. Yeah.

So, she was in Grimm Studies class, and Professor Port was giving a lecture (read as boring old-man tale) about his adventures on this island made of blocks, where he and a bunch of his friends (one with the name of Lazer, which made Ruby perk up ever so slightly) fought tall Grimm, Undead Grimm, and Exploding Grimm. Ruby wondered where such Grimm came from, and why they would kill themselves.

As Professor Port's lecture droned on, Ruby was honestly contemplating her odds of being able to dash out of the room with her semblance and not getting caught when a sound more wondrous than music reached her ears. The bell had rung, and class had ended.

Okay, now I just have to survive Weapons Shop and I can go back to my sweetheart. Awww, don't worry baby. Momma's coming home soon enough. I'm gonna make you all right again, and maybe add some stuff. A laser canon, a rocket launcher, an under mounted shotgun…

Anyone in the immediate vicinity of Ruby would have found her undeniably cute, as her mouth was scrunched up to one side, with her tongue poling out in this adorable manner. To anyone who knew Ruby, they would know she was currently coming up with some insane ideas about weapons that would make anyone rated as an amateur blacksmith or lower question what language she was speaking. Ruby had in fact come up with dozens of new ideas for improving Crescent Rose, which she had planned to present to her team, and NNWB.

While in transit to shop, her favorite person in all of Remnant, not blood-related to her of course, managed to sneak behind her in her reverie and grab her around the waist. Said person, due to Ruby suddenly being snapped to attention and not thinking through the few possibilities of who would actually try this on her, grabbed the arms of said person and threw him over her dainty little shoulders. Seeing a blonde tuft of hair below her, Ruby immediately regretted her action.

"Jaune!"

"Ohh- uhh. Hey Ruby. Lovely day, huh?"

Ruby could practically see the stars revolving around his head. Oh foot! Jaune is already having trouble in class, like me. What will I do if he misses the class because I gave him a concussion? Helping her now dazed boyfriend up, Ruby all but pushed Crescent Rose to the back of her mind and tended to Jaune ensuring he was okay.

"Ruby, did I maybe do something to upset you? Like the random hugging?"

"No Jaune, that's not it at all! Oh man, I'm so sorry! YouseeIwasthinkingaboutCrescentRoseandwasn'tpayingattentiontoanythingaroundmeanddidn'tnoticeitwasyouwhoputyourarmsaroundmeandIfreakedandthrewyoubyinstin-" Before Ruby could go any further with her single-breath apology, Jaune put his finger to her lips.

"Ruby, take a breath. Please." Once he confirmed she had calmed down, "I probably shouldn't have snuck up on you. That was entirely my fault. Nuh uh, don't even try arguing. "

"Okay. But Jaune?"

"Yes Ruby?"

"We've got one minute left to get to class before the bell rings."

"Oh shi-"

Without letting Jaune finish his sentence, Ruby grabbed his hand and utilizing her speed and strength to their fullest, practically flew to class, dragging along her boyfriend in the process. Upon reaching the classroom (with literally a second to spare), and the bell confirming their safety, Ruby slowed down and stopped. Still holding Jaune's hand, Ruby noticed he was becoming more fidgety. Turning, she noticed Jaune was turning a disturbing shade of green. The same shade he got when…

"Oh foot! Trashcan!" Once again using her semblance, Ruby raced the few short meters to the trash bin, grabbed it, and returned to Jaune in the span of two seconds. So fast that most of the class, which happened to be watching the ordeal, didn't even realized she'd moved until they noticed the bin in her hands.

"Hooh buddy! So, Vomit Boy strikes again, huh?" Of course, Yang having the same class, she had also witnessed the spectacle. And unfortunately for Jaune, Yang never passed up an opportunity to tease someone. Even someone with motion sickness. "Wow Vomit Boy. You look about ready to kick the bucket. Get it? Cuz of the trashcan?" And unfortunately for anyone in earshot, she never missed the chance to go for a lame pun.

Taking care of Jaune after he gave his breakfast to the gods of the trashcan, Ruby went and grabbed two seats for the both of them. As it were, Ruby was at least kind of happy to be in this class. The instructor was apparently replaced once a year, due to how hard it was to find someone qualified to craft, maintain, and repair weapons, who was also qualified to teach said skills. It was like that one school that always cycled through self-defense teachers. What was it called again? Pigacne? Boarpimples? Oh whatever.

The class went like usual. The teacher brought up some new kind of technique (well, new to any students not with the last name of Rose), and the students would act half interested or would fall asleep. But today, something odd happened.

"Okay class, it seems most of you don't really want to learn any of this. So I'm going to hold a small contest. The winner gets an automatic "A" and can skip class for the rest of the week." At this, any student whose head wasn't literally bolted to the desk snapped to attention faster than Weiss' attitude shifts. "Oh ho. That seemed to wake some of you up. So, the contest is simple. I will have one student act as the judge, while the other students all design a weapon. The weapon must incorporate the qualities of melee and ballistic weapons while being fully functional. The judge will also be allowed to participate, but will be judged by me. So, who will be my judge?"

Almost all at once, as if choreographed, the entire class' heads and eyes all sought and locked onto the small, red-haired girl. Even Yang, who normally sided with her sister, seemed to single her out for judgment.

"Alright Miss Rose."

"Aww, I want to participate!"

"Moss Rose. How badly do you actually need those "A"s? There are some students here whose grades would necessitate such an outcome. And besides, placing you in this contest would ruin actually making a competition. Rest assured, I would still like to see what you design."

With a slight pout that Jaune found to be rather cute (he would have to figure out a way to make her do it again later), she reluctantly agreed and trudged over to the desk beside the teachers podium to do her task, bringing her book along with her.

So fifteen minutes passed. A half hour. Forty-five minutes. An hour. The entire time, no pencil had stopped moving. The pencil sharpener was in near constant use, and many students could be seen downing the energy drinks they usually kept hidden in their bags to keep awake and finish the assignment. The concentration of some of the students was borderline zen, and left the class as silent as a town ravaged by a pack of Beowolves. The students had piled a small stack of crumpled papers on their desks.

Well, the average student did. But not Ruby, and not Jaune. Ruby's desk was stacked neatly with a short pile of papers, and Jaune had simply been entranced by the look on Ruby's face while she'd scribbled. It was the same look she got when she began to draw; a look that fascinated Jaune. It wasn't her usual cheerfulness or childishness, her bloodlust in combat, or her sheer joy when eating strawberries. No, it was something far more relaxing. It made Jaune feel comfortable, a large part of the reason he liked to watch Ruby when she had a pencil on hand and a notebook in her lap or on a desk.

"Alright students, cease! Drop your pencils, and bring up your designs in order to present what you came up with."

And as Ruby sat at the designated desk, she felt rather disappointed. All of the weapon designs were simple. A few katanas with various small fire arms integrated into the handle; a couple of swords with dust enchantments; a spear with a rifle in the handle. Ruby was sorely disappointed at the lack of creativity. I mean sure, there were a few guys who knew a good deal about weapons, and it showed on their designs. But the majority of the designs were unbelievably simple. And finally it got to Ruby. The teacher had seemed to feel the same as Ruby, as his face had slowly grown to adopt a bored look. As Ruby came up to the projector to show off her work, the instructors face seemed to brighten just a bit. Perhaps hope that his favorite student would make this class worthwhile.

"Uh, hello there class." With all eyes on her, Ruby felt like a nervous wreck. But with weapons being the topic of her speech, she quickly eased into her presentation, becoming more animated. "These designs you see here today were created as modifications or upgrades to my sweetheart, Crescent Rose. Now, as you know, she is a six-foot and some-change long scythe in her full form. My thought was to reduce her size to roughly two thirds of the original, putting her closer to my height. With the smaller version of Crescent Rose, I had designed a special type of chain using interlocking braids of a special dust and steel compound to improve the strength of the chain itself. The chain would connect Crescent Rose II to a small morning star on the end. This morning star would have special pellet-like projectiles situated into the spines, with a type of trigger located along the chain itself…" and as Ruby continued to speak simply about her first modification, her instructors jaw had nearly hit the floor. He had already prayed Ruby's Crescent Rose as being a masterpiece, with the design being made so flawlessly, and the concept being so simple yet difficult to pull off. But with how Ruby had set up this design, the instructor honestly thought she was too advanced for the class, and should herself be teaching.

"And that was design one. You see, these next four…" and Ruby again, continued to wow her class with design after design of upgrades and modifications to Crescent Rose. One made Crescent Rose double edged, with a scythe blade and a rifle barrel on each end. She said she designed this mod for faster swinging and spinning speeds. She also had made a design concept similar to Schnee's rapier, Myrtenaster. By adding a revolver mechanism for dust just ahead of the magazine, and by using specialized rounds designed take the properties of the dust, she had designed Crescent Rose to be usable as a magical rifle of sorts, able to fire off various elemental types of bullets and increase the power of her regular ones tremendously.

And she went on and on. And by the time her presentation was over fifteen minutes later, not a single student made a sound. Her weapon designs/mods had stunned them into silence. The majority of them were simply impressed by how amazing she made them. The more weapon and engineering savvy among them, however, saw how incredibly skillful she was and how much sill would be required for such delicate and complex tasks. After a minute of shocked silence, the bell to go home rang.

"Oh. Well class, that is all for now. I'll announce the winners tomorrow."

And with that, the students went back to their dorms. In the room, it seemed team NNWB had made themselves at home, and Ren had returned ahead of them as well. Thinking on the eight mouths she had to feed, plus an extra helping for Nora, Ruby decided to get to cooking. In the kitchen, her boyfriend helping her out with some simple things, Ruby focused on the task at hand. Cooking. Something she had been unable to do for a couple of weeks, and was just getting the hang of once again. In the middle of her fin, Jaune broke the silence.

"Ruby, why are you so god with weapons? I mean, I always knew you were really amazing and all with them, but I never knew you could think of and make such things. So where'd you learn about them?"

Turning to her curious boyfriend, Ruby simply gave a mischievous grin. Slowly walking up to him, she planted a light kiss on his lips. In a teasing manner, she said "That is a secret~. And why do you wanna know? Want me to improve Crocea Morse? Maybe add a sniper rifle or a shotgun to it?"

"Uuhh, no thanks Ruby. I was just curious is all."

"Really? Not even a tiny little modification?"

"I don't want my dad yelling at me for changing a family heirloom. And it's fine. Still wish I knew how you learned this stuff though."

"Well Jaune, that is a story for another time."

And with that, Jaune pulled Ruby into a hug, and kissed her. He held her lips for a few minutes. Meanwhile, in the background, four other teens were watching with great interest, one was figuring out ways to tease the sappy couple, and one was plotting to kill Ruby for doing this so openly. And back inside the kitchen, unknown to the two lovebirds, the potatoes began to boil over.

*Afterword*

Wow, first time in a while I've done a nicely sized chapter. Anyhow, the weapon designs O had came from a few sources. The Japanese kama (scythe with a chain and weight attached), the dual light saber of (I believe it is, but I'm not 100% sure) Darth Maul, Weiss' own weapon + some Dungeon Fighters Online (Spitfire class). So yeah, I had some fun there.

Anyhow, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. The cheer was based more on Ruby just being a weapons-otaku, and impressing June with her vast knowledge of weaponry and weapon design. I'm not 100% on what to do for a full on romantic chapter (save the Chekhov's Gun I threw in a few chapters ago about some kinda ball), and maybe something about a picnic or outing. Ideas would be appreciated. Otherwise, you all know the deal. Constructive criticism is always welcome, and leave your comments on what I can improve on in later chapters if your internet permits. Now, I'm off to finish my third Monster of the day and go off to class. Ciao.