*Author's Note*

Yo. Last chapter was kinda simple, so meh. I made it that was because my time for writing it was limited. This one I was able to put just a bit more time into. Just because I have barely any free time doesn't mean I have none, so I took a bit of my break time from the past couple of days to write this. Anyhow, hope you like it.

Team RAYR was lounging around in their dorm like usual. Scratch that. They were lounging around, sans their leader. Ever since she had found her roses all alive and healthy, she'd been tending to them every day during a free break. It was the middle of the week, and Yang was angsty about not getting much combat practice in. Normally at this point in the day, they would enter the training room, and, for all intents and purposes, evict everyone who wasn't up for sparring with them. Which was basically every last student. Violent mama bear older-sister and her psychotic scythe-wielding battle nut of a younger sister.

But reputations aside, Yang was annoyed. A team could not use the practice room unless their leader was there to authorize it. It was a dumb rule that was put in place to keep stragglers from taking over the room from the teams that really needed it to practice. As such, leaders could come and go, but the normal team members had to wait on their leader. And today, RAYR's leader was off smelling the roses, and not in the dorm readying for battle.

"Uggh! That's it! Forget her roses, Ruby is coming with us and we are going to spar and beat the snot out of each other. Who's with me?!"

Not even a cricket chirped in assent. Despite his great martial skill allowing him to handle Yang's brawler style better than most, Ren had still collected his fair share of bruises from the boisterous and busty blonde. As for Jaune, it was fairly obvious. Even with Crocea Mors defending him, he still had no desire to face the blonde, who in truth still harbored a slight feeling of resentment toward Jaune for what she considers "corrupting Ruby's innocence." Even if she did mercilessly tease her baby sister and her new boyfriend, she still harbored some feeling against her baby sister even having a boyfriend. So when they would spar, Yang would often strike at Jaune so viciously that his shield was left dented and his arms bruised and sore from holding off her punches.

Not taking no for an answer (more like she didn't even acknowledge the two's lack of a response), she grabbed both her partner and her teammate, and the three headed down to the green house, both men futilely struggling to be released from Yang's terrifying grip. Upon reaching their destination, they did not even slow down as Yang viciously kicked the door open, nearly taking one of them off the hinges. Looking around, she spotted the little red-caped girl she had been looking for, and dragged the two males, now both resigned to their respective fates, over. Upon getting there, however, Jaune was met with a sight that he can only describe as enchanting.

Ruby, sitting in a bed of Roses, looking as beautiful as ever. Her face, which still retained some of her childish features, and her figure which had not yet reached Yang's state. To Jaune, she was perfect. But framed by those roses he had carefully grown, the roses he had raised for her enjoyment and happiness. Seeing her hunched over, hands covered in dirt as she worked on these roses (inappropriately, Jaune thought, adding a mental note to teach Ruby how to at least provide basic care for roses later), her perfect features framed by petals of red, white, yellow, and lightish-red, Jaune felt his heart skip a beat. Then two. Wait, no, that was just him forgetting to breath. As he inwardly struggled to remember how to take a simple breath, Yang strolled right up to Ruby, finally having released her prisoners.

"Hey Rubes, wanna go do some sparring?" At this, Yang was met with silence. Ruby didn't even acknowledge that Yang had come in the room, or was even standing right there in front her. Ruby just kept working on her roses. Annoyed by this, Yang spoke up, a little louder than before. "Hey, Ruby. Wanna go get some practice in?" Again, only silence. Not even a sign that she had acknowledged her older sister. Suitably annoyed at this point, Yang grabbed her sister by the shoulders and picked her up. "Hey Ruby! Want to go practice?!" Yang had practically spit the words in Ruby's face. Emphasizing each word with a shake, Yang was glad to see Ruby finally notice her.

"Oh, hey Yang. When'd you get here?"

"Never mind that Ruby. We all wanna do some sparring, and you know the rules about that. So, come on!"

"But Yang, I wanna take care of my roses!"

With this, Yang was unsure of how to mention to the younger girl that the one keeping her precious roses alive was not her, but her boyfriend instead. But trying to hide this, Yang simply told Ruby something like "I'm sure your roses will be fine. You've done such a wonderful job of keeping them alive."

"Oh- well, uhm..." started to grow embarrassed from the unexpected praise, Ruby began to stutter some half done acceptance. Finally agreeing, Yang made a mental note of her latest victory over Ruby. Leading off the group to the battle room, Yang cheerfully whistled a tune reminiscent of 'I Burn.'

During their sparring time today, Yang had said she wanted to take on more than just one person today, and asked Ruby if she could borrow her boyfriend as well. Ruby said she could, and also joined the battle herself. Now Yang is by no means a genius, but she's also no fool. She knows that in a fight, if one enemy is as strong as you, then it doesn't matter if the help is weak, you're at a disadvantage. And Yang knew that Ruby was far from being weak. In fact, in a straight up fight, Yang knew her chances of beating Ruby were only about 50-50. Odds that, she admitted, she didn't really like. Adding Ren and Jaune in, Yang knew she was screwed. Her chances of winning were low, and her odds of coming out unharmed were virtually nonexistent.

"Uh.. Ruby? Can we talk about this little 3 on 1 business? I mean, this is kind of unfair..." And to Jaune's surprise, Yang was visibly sweating. He'd never seen the older blonde so nervous before. And he realized he'd never seen a proper match between these two. Most of the time, it was wrestling or hand to hand; no Crescent Rose or Ember Celica. Even in class. Jaune wondered abstractly how a fight between these two would look. Unfortunately, he wouldn't get his chance. Just then, someone came into the room and began asking around for Ruby. When the person got closer, they noticed it was Blake. When she'd finally gotten over to the group, Blake grabbed Ruby and was about to drag her. Yang's hand shot out immediately, grabbed Blake's hand, and did not let go.

"Whoa whoa whoa. What's this about Blake?"

"Ruby should come see for herself. It's about her roses-"

And with that, before Blake had even finished her sentence, Ruby was out. She was gone so quickly that it took them all, even Blake with her Faunus senses, a good long minute to realize that Ruby wasn't there. All that remained to show she was ever here was a cloud of rose petals. Still holding onto Blake's hand, Yang began to interrogate her as to what was going on.

"All I know is that I was in the greenhouse taking care of my Lotus and Nightshade plants when I'd noticed she wasn't in there like she usually was. I checked on her roses, and found that someone had destroyed the roses. Cut them up. Crushed them. Burned them. Not a single rose was spared. I ran here as fast as I could. Now would you please let go of my hand?"

Dropping Blake's hand, Yang took for the greenhouse at a full sprint with the others following her. Yang expected to see some scene out of hell when she got there, and with good reason. If what Blake said was true, than someone just hit one of Ruby's few buttons. You see, there are five things you absolutely never do to Ruby. One, is mess with her roses. The second is harm Yang. The third is mess with her weapons, the fourth being her cape. Messing with either of those is, according to Yang, the same as committing suicide. The fifth, which was recently added, was to mess with Jaune. Now, when any of those five things happens, Ruby gets pissed. And she gets even.

But getting there, Yang didn't find the berserker she had expected, but rather a small, red-cloaked girl sitting fetal position in front of a bed of ruined roses. Despite the hood covering her face, sobs could be heard escaping from Ruby as she stared at what was once her little garden. Seeing her like this, Jaune didn't even hesitate to make his way over to Ruby, take a seat next to her, and just sit. No contact, no consoling. Jaune simply sat there with Ruby, mulling over a little problem he'd been having for the past half a week. Finally making up his mind, and to the chagrin of Yang who was watching this with curiosity, Jaune grabbed Ruby's hand, and began.

"Ruby, I'm sorry. These roses were lovely. But you weren't the one who grew them. I saw you were having difficulty getting them to grow right, and so I decided to help out a little. But you became so proud, and you looked so happy that I couldn't tell you. I didn't want to hurt you."

Turning her head to look at him, Jaune could see Ruby was smiling a little. Removing her hood, and leaning in, she gave Jaune a quick peck on the lips.

"I knew Jaune. I knew all along that I wasn't the one making them grow. Ever since I was little I've loved roses. Sadly, I was never very good at getting them to grow, though I would try often. When I saw these ones all beautiful and vibrant, I knew it wasn't my work that had gotten them that way. But I didn't care, I just thought they were beautiful, that I was glad to have them regardless of who grew them, and that no sight could compare to how beautiful they were."

And Jaune saw that Ruby was telling them truth, for her usual bubbly grin was gone, and replaced with a more genuine, warmer smile. And at this moment, all Jaune could think was You're wrong Ruby. I know of at least one sight that can compare to those roses. But his courage failed him, so he kept that thought private. Meanwhile, he just sat with Ruby, looking at the remains of the rose garden that once was. At this point, Jaune had a rather simple thought. Excusing himself from Ruby, he went over to his own garden where he picked out a few flowers and brought them back with him. They were roses. About a dozen of them. Reds and whites. And black?

"I figured with your last name being Rose and all that you'd like roses, so I set to growing some in my own personal garden. I wasn't sure what color you would like, so I just chose three colors that I find represented you the best. Crimson Red for passion and love. White for purity and innocence."

"What about the black ones?"

"Oh, those I managed to make myself. Took a lot of trail and error. Unfortunately, black has a rather negative meaning. Death." Despite this, Ruby still took one of each rose from Jaune, and to his surprise gave him another kiss.

"Actually Jaune, the black rose has one other meaning. One that most people don't remember because it's rarely used. Possession. As in, ' I'm yours', or 'You're mine.'"

And again, she leaned in to her boyfriend, as her sister, teammate, and friend watched on, all eyes glued on the two. But Ruby and Jaune didn't even care. In fact, they had all but forgotten about the others and were in their own little world. And in the background, a group of five students were lamenting how easily Ruby had recovered from their sabotage. Lead by a bulky freshmen, and an apple-haired girl, the group just looked on, disappointed at their latest failure.

*Afterword*

So, ends another chapter. Next chapter's gonna be about the ball, and this one may be made into a rather long arc with what I have planned. Who knows? Anyhow, not much to report on this end. Just doing all my work, and writing this when I have time. Speaking of which, I'm out, so see you all later.