*Author's Note*
Yo, Dravyn here. Time for a nice, romantic, and rather long arc. The Midwinter Ball. Basically, Ruby and Jaune spend their couple time together, and I maybe throw a new pairing or two into the mix. Who knows, my pairings may be as obvious as the words they appear in, or you may have to do some guessing. I wonder who, if any of you, will see these coming? Well, one's gonna be obvious. Maybe two. The third? Just to troll.
Anyhow, I plan to make this a three parter, and as such I'll try to update each day in a row for the next three days, so as not to make you guys wait too long for each part to release. Hell, I'll see if I can avoid sleep long enough to get a second chapter in if possible. I wanna make this a good chapter, because it's gonna be a huge part in our two little hunters' time at Beacon, and I don't wanna mess it up.
Or maybe I do :) (Don't let Yang know I said that, please.) Anyhow, time for some magic! (Err... dust, as the case may be.)
It's that same forest. Again. When will I ever stop coming here. This scene is so bleak. This dead wonderland so depressing. It all just makes me sad. Angry. Empty.
But wait. This is not the forest. It was too dark before to tell, but I'm not in the forest. I'm in what appears to be hallways. Looking up and around, I notice what appears to be a window, through which moonlight filters through. The moon has broken further from the last time. It seems to just be a scattering of rose petals now. Looking back down, I take note of the environment.
It's all monochrome. Black and white tiles plaster the floors. What I mistook for trees turn out to be pillars. Support pillars. Glancing around, I notice how spacious this hallway seems to be. I can't see anything but darkness beyond the two zones. The options are the same, so I waste no time deliberating. I choose one direction, the direction the moonlight is coming from, and I begin to walk. Stalking along the shadows. I walk with my hand at the ready. At my belt. On my weapon.
My weapon. Designed to destroy even the darkest shadows at night. The shadows that would haunt us humans. The shadows that would haunt my family.
The shadows that would haunt me.
Keeping my hand on my weapon, I stalk along the shadows. Following the pale moonlight. These shadows absorbing each ray. Trapping them. Blocking them out. Removing their light, and leaving their inky darkness in the surroundings. These shadows feel cold. Malevolent. Evil. I hate them. They bring only discomfort and a chill. A chill I could normally ignore. A chill that feels so wrong.
But I ignore the chill and press on. The shadows thicken. And thicken. And thicken. And darkness. I can no longer see, but I keep pressing my way through. Hand on my weapon. My weapon. Wait, where is my weapon. I no longer feel the comforting steel. For that matter, I cannot feel my warm cape either. I've become colder, if that were possible. I feel less secure. More exposed. What is going on?
I keep struggling on. Step after step. Guiding my way with the pillars that I thought were trees. Step. Step. Step. Each of my steps accentuated with another breath. And with each breath I grow ever colder. And colder. A malevolent, freezing feeling. I hate this. Hate it.
MY walking finally bears some fruit. I press on and finally see light. Blinded, I close my eyes. When I open them again, I'm in a room. The moonlight streaming down on me. All is illuminated. The monochrome tiles and walls. The gray/black pillars. The skylight. The hollow knights that stand at attention all around. This seems to be a castle. Gothic. Cold. Dark.
And I notice myself. I'm wearing a dress. Black with red. Silver belt at my waist instead of my sheathe. Instead of my round and my symbol, a cross. A beautiful and simple, silver cross. My boots have been replaced with slippers. Ruby slippers. Damn they're uncomfortable.
As I consider my next step, a shadow appears before me. No, not a shadow. Simply a man shrouded in shadows. As the clouds shift, the light shines upon the figure. Blonde hair. Blue eyes. Wearing a tuxedo with a single rose corsage. At his belt hung a pale yellow sheath with a sword.
He holds his hand out to me. As though inviting me to dance. But there is no music. Or is there? The knights now have instruments. And they're playing. In my mind, lyrics form to the melody.
'Mirror, tell me something
Tell me who's the loneliest of all'
And he prompts me again. I relent. Taking his hand, we begin to spin to the music. Twirling and whirling around each other. My hand in his. His strong arm around my waist. And we spin until the music stops. Breathing heavily, slight sheen of sweat. But smiling. Laughing. And he leans in to take my lips, my heart grows stronger. Yes. Yes. Yes...
'This will be the day you've waited for~'
Eyes open, Ruby was now wide awake. Her wonderful dream interrupted right at the good part. Like always. Getting up, Ruby looked down at herself. No dress. No slippers (made of silver and rubies at least). Her cape at the foot of her her sweetheart right beside her (don't worry, she switches the safety on before she goes to sleep (most of the time anyhow...)) Her good dream ruined, Ruby simply punched her alarm clock, causing it to fly into the wall and smash apart. Damnit!
Ruby had been on edge for a while. Nothing had gone her way all week. She couldn't grow roses (still), her hood/cape had gotten torn from a fight, and her boyfriend is avoiding her. Why the hell would he do that?! All Ruby knows is that every morning, Jaune would somehow be up and gone before she woke up. And he would usually not show up until class which started a few hours later. And right after class, he'd be gone. Ruby was starting to get annoyed. She didn't know why Jaune was keeping his distance. Normally, there'd be almost no distance between the two. Except during sparring. That was the only time Ruby was used to Jaune running away (needless to say, it was always a futile attempt.) Today, Ruby decided to use the resources at her disposal to find Jaune.
Going over to NNWB's room, she steeled herself and just walked on in. Scanning the room, Ruby only saw two people, Weiss, and Blake. Weiss was sipping an espresso at the table while reading the newspaper, and Blake was reading a novel.
"Good morning Ruby." Ruby was greeted thus by Weiss, who oddly had started to show her some respect lately. Maybe it was because the younger girl had been doing better and better in class, or perhaps it was her combat skill that had defrosted the ice queen. Whatever it was, Weiss had started to show Ruby the respect she deserved as a leader. "What do you need?"
"Oh, morning Weiss. I came over to borrow Blake for a while. Do you mind?" Not noticing a faint blush that crept up Weiss' neck, Ruby was a little confused when she stammered a tsundere-like line, "O-of course! What am I, her keeper?"
Ears (both sets) perking up at the mention of her name, Blake looked up from her book to find Ruby and Weiss talking away. Getting up and walking over to the two, Blake entered the conversation.
"Good morning Ruby. Was there something you needed?"
"Hi Blake! Yeah, I needed your help with finding something. Or rather, finding someone."
Noticing the emphasis on the younger girls words, Blake could basically guess what Ruby was getting at. Placing her book down, the name of which Ruby caught to be something like 'The Game of Hunger', Blake nodded and followed Ruby out of the room. Once out of earshot of Weiss, Blake began to pry.
"So Ruby, why exactly do you need me to find this someone? A debt or...?"
"No Blake. It's, well... It's Jaune. He always gone, and I have no idea where he disappears off to. He's gone after class, he's gone before even I wake up. I'm worried that something might be going on. So I want you to track him down for me so I can fix whatever problem he has!" While declaring such, she was (perhaps unintentionally) stroking her scythe, which hung in it's gun form on her lower back. Seeing this made Blake fear for Jaune. She sincerely hoped, for his sake, that he wasn't doing something to piss Ruby off.
"Alright Ruby, I'll help you search for on one condition."
"Name it!" No hesitation. Geez.
Leaning into the younger girl's ear, Blake began to whisper to Ruby what it was she wanted in exchange. All the while, the young red-haired girl's face began to match her hair.
Having just heard Blake's condition, Ruby was seriously doubting why she ever came to the faunus for help. But if anyone could track Jaune down, it was Blake. But still, that's just... embarrassing. While Ruby decided her course of action, Blake just stood there and stared at the younger girl, getting a slight sadistic satisfaction at how affected she was by her condition. Chalk that up to one new thing Blake has learned about herself, she is slightly sadistic.
"F-f-fine. I accept."
With a merry little hum, Blake showed a satisfied smile. Perking up her other set of ears, and utilizing her advanced senses, Blake began to look for any and all trace of Jaune. Ruby, meanwhile, was to wait for Blake to return with any news of Jaune. Although impatient, all Ruby could do was agree and stay back at her own dorm room. Meanwhile, to keep her mind off of Blake's search, Ruby began to draw.
Ruby drew, and drew, and drew. Her pencil did not stop, not even for a single moment. She wasn't even paying attention to what she was drawing. She simply let her pencils to the talking, and her paper be the screen through which her thoughts were projected.
An hour passed.
Two.
Two and a half.
The area around Ruby had begun to look a little messy. It was not even lunch time yet, and Ruby had already gone through a small stack of papers.
Another half hour. At this point, Yang burst through the door, sweat streaming down her face and body. Although to Ruby, seeing her older sister this sweaty was sort of gross, the sight of Yang with her workout clothes tightly hugging her rather well proportioned body would have been enough to take any guy in Beacon down a notch or two.
"Hey Ruby. What's u- uhh, what?" Looking at her sister, Yang saw all the drawings around her. And unlike the usual drawing-Ruby, this one did not have her tongue sticking out. She simply had an anxious expression on her face, and her pencil was starting to get short. Well, by starting, Yang had noticed Ruby's pencil was literally just the eraser and the point. Just how much has this girl drawn?! Bending down, Yang picked up one drawing. Then another. And another. Another. And Yang was surprised, and impressed. All were basically of the same thing.
In the drawings, the setting was usually a large, Gothic styled castle. Or, Yang assumed it was a castle, because Ruby had always liked those from all the fairy tales. Anyhow, it was a large room in what appeared to be a Gothic styled castle. High arching walls, window panes, the supporting pillars. And it was all black, white, and different shades of grey. The floor tiles were checkered. And in the center of these rooms were two figures. One in a black tuxedo, with a light tie around his neck. Short, messy lightly-shaded hair, and a sword hung at his waist gave Yang the impression that it was Jaune, her younger sister's boyfriend. The other figure wore a dark black dress with frills and lacing. The middle of her dress seemed to be a corset, while a light-grey belt hung at her waist. The similarities to Ruby's usual outfit could not be ignored, so Yang simply assumed this figure was Ruby, despite this figure wearing slippers and not boots.
"Ruby, what are these?"
Looking up, and seeming to just now only notice her sister, Ruby saw Yang holding her pictures.
"Wahh! Don't touch those Yang!" Reaching out and grabbing the pictures from her sister, Ruby began to compile all of the things she had drawn into the little folder she had kept beside herself the entire time. After a short minute, Ruby began to tell Yang what the problem was.
"Those are drawings of a dream I had last night. It was a rather odd dream. It started off cold and dark, usually like my... other dream. But this one happened inside of what looked like a castle or something." Knew it, said Yang in her head. "I kept walking down a long hallway until the lights were gone. Then I noticed my sweetheart was gone, and so were my usual clothes. The I stepped into this big room and saw myself in a dress, and I saw Jaune in a tux. He held his had out to me, and we danced to some weird music that these armored knights were playing."
Waiting for her little sister to cool down, Yang asked Ruby what all this had to do with Ruby obsessively drawing this scene.
"Because for the past week Jaune has been avoiding me and it's making me feel... wrong. I asked Blake to help me track him down, but she hasn't come back with any news yet and I'm getting more and more worried by the minute. I just wanna know why Jaune has been so secretive and distant this week!"
"So he's been avoiding you, going placed without you knowing, and has been keeping a secret?" Ruby nodded. "That's it, his family jewels are now forfeit!" Gauntlets whirring to life, Yang was about to go hunt down and castrate a poor unfortunate Arc when Blake came into the room.
"Ruby, I found Jaune. You may want to come see this."
Ruby grabbed Blake's hand and dashed from the room, leaving Yang behind shouting "Save a piece of him for me, will ya?!" After a second, and realizing that she had no idea where to go, Ruby let Blake lead. Blake lead her to an old building that used to be used as a gymnasium. Now, it mostly served as a secondary training grounds for the students. Ruby wondered what Jaune could be doing out here. Maybe he's training secretly, and didn't want me to know? Maybe he's just embarrassed about it? But looking through the window, Ruby knew she was wrong.
Inside, Ruby could see Jaune clearly. He wasn't practicing controlling his aura. He wasn't working on combat maneuvers, nor was he practicing any of the techniques Ruby had taught him. No, Jaune was not even practicing combat. He was practicing dancing. With another girl that was not Ruby.
There Jaune was swaying to some music that Ruby couldn't even seem to hear. This other girl's hand in his, and his arm wrapped around her slender waist. The girl was Velvet. Velvet Scarletina. A nice Rabbit-Faunus who Ruby and her group of friends, both RAYR and NNWB, had become friends with when they had protected her from Cardin's bullying. On multiple occasions I may add. And yet this girl, whom Ruby had helped so often and befriended, was dancing with her boyfriend.
Blake, not feeling right about the younger girl, glanced over at Ruby. She immediately regretted bringing her here. Ruby had tears streaming down her face. Her eyes and expression just screamed agony, sadness, and betrayal. To Blake, this was about the worst thing she had ever done to Ruby, who she considers a good friend.
"Why?" Blake, with her Faunus hearing could barely pick up the whisper. "Why Jaune?" Checking back on Ruby, Blake began to panic. Ruby's hand was creeping towards Crescent Rose. "WHY?!"
*Afterword*
Boom, cliffhanger. Yup, I'm an arse. A few of you may guess where this is going, but no ruining it. This will indeed be a three parter. And it will introduce a new rival for Jaune, Velvet. But unlike Pyrrha, who keeps her feelings hidden, I'm gonna make Velvet more outgoing with hers. Maybe. It depends on how hard I find it to write about her. She doesn't have much going for her by way of the show just yet, due to the extremely limited amount of her we've seen, but that's what head cannon is for I guess. I most likely won't make her a yandere. Pyrrha fills that role, and I don't want Velvet coming to harm. She seems so nice.
Anyhow, sorry for the cliffhanger. Guess you're going to have to wait to see what happens. But I won't leave you hanging. I'll see about making time to get the next chapter out so we can hear Jaune's side of the story. Anyhow, I hope you all enjoyed this. I'm off to class. Ciao.