Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY.

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Friday

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Ruby goes to sleep in a poor mood, and wakes the same just after midnight. Pessimistic, running out of time, and stressed and tired. Unable to go back to sleep, Ruby looks at the ceiling as time passes and she knows what will occur. Wrath will go off to school for her tournament. Envy will drag Jaune away. It's a day that seems doomed to be wasted as the end of the week approaches and the clock runs out on Ruby's hopes.

At least until a bolt of inspiration hits Ruby, and she races out of bed and begins waking the sisters.

Despite their tiredness and the obscenely early hour, Ruby leads a sisterly council of brainstorming with all the sister's she's won over to date. All the sisters know Wrath's continued enmity towards Jaune, all of them wish it could be resolved, but none of them have an idea of how to fix it. Not until Ruby comes up with the novel idea of- why not fulfill the promise now?

Ruby remembers that Wrath is having her finals today, and that her finals are a class tournament. She also remembers Wrath's condition- that she wants the brother who could keep his word. Maybe this is the lack of sleep talking, but if they can re-construct the context of the tournament, if Wrath can make it to the finals, and Jaune be there… then maybe that would help Wrath forgive Jaune?

But Ruby will need their help to put it all together, and despite the early hour she has it. The sisters light up in shared optimism, hopeful that this could work and glad that Ruby has thought of something that could help fix an issue that's lingered over the family the entire family reunion. Starting well before daylight, the sisters plan, prepare, and execute the idea, each with their own special skills or contacts to create a small-town tournament on the fly.

Pride will uses her prestige and the Arc family prestige in these parts to push the class tournament to a more public venue. Avarice makes early morning calls and her role of helping organize the festival to prep the tournament field on the fly, overruling concerns of an incoming storm front over the weekend. Lust uses a lot of her contacts- including blackmailing some of the exes- to push the approvals and spread the word and help gather a crowd and other person-to-person contacts. Sloth and Gluttony help out in their own way. Gluttony has the idea of a bake sale or concessions stand to gather interest, and has friends from school (a baking club) begin a massive bake off. Sloth is the most tired of them all… but bursts into energy and single-handily makes a great deal of the stadium décor to the amazement of everyone, because no one actually sees her working. (A comedic moment of 'work smarter, not harder'… and calling up the secret boyfriend, who is finally revealed to the sisters, but gets a warm welcome for virtue of helping provide supplies needed for the plan.)

The ladies work until dawn breaks, and then some. Work stops and is hidden when Wrath and Envy get up, but resumes as soon as they're shuffled off the school with breakfast in hand and not a clue about what is happening. When Nicholas and Leandra come down, they're surprised but end up being involved as well- using their contacts and friendships across the community to bring in crowd. And Jaune… Jaune, when he comes down, is given the hardest task of all: to figure out how he's going to play his part. Jaune sits at the breakfast table, working on an apology script, with his sisters looking over his shoulder and making occasional suggestions.

What would have been a small, family-only audience for a school tournament becomes the early start of the weekend festival over the course of a morning, a testament to the diverse abilities and common effort of the Arc family. Both Nicholas and Leandra are impressed, by the achievement and the intent, and ask who is responsible.

Ruby, on her way out the door, credits the efforts of the Arc sisters before she leaves to spread fliers around town with her semblance.

The sisters, after she's gone, all credit Ruby.

Suffice it to say, it's a success as the town wakes up starts to come onboard. Ruby tags along with Pride to convince the combat school's principal to move to the new venue. There are some minor hiccups- they can't move the entire tournament on such short notice, there's concern that the less capable students would be humiliated, and the tournament field isn't ready yet anyway- but between Pride's word that the tournament field would be ready on time and Ruby's minor celebrity endorsement/indulgence yesterday, the principal agrees to move the last few rounds.

With their tasks done, Ruby and Pride sticks around to watch Wrath compete in the early stages of the finals tournament. Wrath is good for her age- close to where Ruby was at Signal- and easily wins with some skill, though clearly holding back so as to not humiliate her less-capable peer.

Wrath is initially disdainful and suspicious of Ruby's applause, thinking it's an insincere play at winning Wrath's approval, but the same praise from Pride clearly means a great deal to her. As the other sisters finish their tasks, they too come to the school to watch- something Wrath relishes, even as she tries to hide it and pretend otherwise. She guesses they can stay- it's not like she's happy to see them cheering her on or anything.

Wrath is clearly happy to have her sisters there, and believes the promise Nicholas and Leandra made to be there in time for the finals. What's unasked is Jaune's (lack of) presence. Wrath keeps shooting noticeable glances to the empty seat where Jaune should be, and frowning all the more every time he isn't there. Her pink eyes blaze every time he's not there.

At least until the tournament preliminaries move into the main venue. All the local school students, especially Wrath, are taken aback by the over-night addition to the festival. But Wrath is most affected by the sight of Jaune- dressed up in all sorts of paraphernalia like a 'Wrath #1' foam pointer finger, and cheering her louder than anyone. They can't talk from a distance, but it's clear that Wrath is touched and holding back tears even as Jaune makes a fuss amongst the crowd point out his sister as she makes her way to the final round.

A last minute emergency threatens to occur when the other finalist, having suffered injuries, has to drop out - threatening to leave Jaune unable to cheer Wrath in the finals, and so fulfill the promise. Ruby saves the day by stepping in as a replacement, giving a Wrath vs. Ruby match for the championship finale.

Ruby holds back, of course, and gives Wrath a chance to show the extents of her training. Wrath does- practically showing off in a way she hadn't been able to before- and with the crowd on her side she actually presses Ruby to defend herself. Wrath even pulls some tricks up her sleeve when she reveals her semblance to get some legit blows in. Wrath's semblance is ability to manipulate the size and density of objects- making them bigger or smaller. She can carry any number of weapons up her sleeve to be one-girl arsenal… or she can throw them to devastating effect. When Wrath takes a few small peas and hits Ruby with what look and feel like bowling balls, the crowd cheers and Ruby's nights makes a bit more sense.

Wrath knows she's being played into showing off with Jaune present, but can't restrain her joy as her eyes flicker between the angry pink and a joyful blue- and gleefully takes both out on Ruby as 'punishment' for her sneaky duplicity with Jaune. Ruby playfully shoots back how even liars can keep their word, and the match adopts a big-girl/little-girl mentorship as Ruby coaches Wrath and gives her improvements throughout the fight.

It's a happy atmosphere, but when Ruby looks at Jaune to see how he's playing his part a phantom of hurt and jealousy passes. All his attention is on Wrath. None is on the girlfriend she's fighting. A bittersweet feeling passes through Ruby despite the cheers of the everyone around her. Guess family really is first.

Ruby takes a dive, letting Wrath win the school tournament. Everyone comes to congratulate her, but everyone makes space as Jaune approaches. Jaune struggled all morning to come up with a script, but throws it all away to do what he needs to- sincerely apologizing for taking so long to fulfill his promise, and asking for forgiveness now that he has. And even if she can't- even if she's still mad- he's proud of her.

Wrath jumps at him, mid-air hug-tackle, and calls him an idiot with her face in his chest. All she needed was the apology. When she looks up, her long-pink eyes are a familiar family blue. The two reconcile, back to doting big brother and his tsundere little sister.

The family have a late lunch to celebrate, with Nicholas in particular inviting a tired Ruby to join them. With more than a tinge of over-compensating for lost time, Jaune and Wrath are inseparable at the restaurant- coming between not just Jaune and Ruby, but Envy as well. Envy stews jealously from the side while Jaune dotes on Wrath, and Wrath makes a reference to the Top Ten when she asks Jaune if she's made number two yet. Jaune jokingly denies it, saying that while she is a number two she's still behind mom... and implicitly behind Envy as Envy childishly sticks her tongue out. It's a familiar family joke which all the Arcs laugh at, but reminds Ruby where she ranks on that infamous list.

Wrath is still taken aback by the tournament, and wants to hear how it came about. Tired from the week and the battle, Ruby eats in silence as all the sisters recount what they had to do to pull it off. They also give credit to Ruby for the idea, with Leandra herself overruling her modesty when Ruby again credits the Arcs. Ruby and Wrath, having already bonded during the fight, reach a new level when Wrath realizes that Ruby was behind her reconciliation with Jaune. With just a bit of prompting from Nicholas of all people, Wrath formally approves of Ruby as Jaune's girlfriend.

This sets Envy off at Wrath, causing a commotion in the restaurant. Envy shouts that the two girls had promised to band together to reject Ruby- and that Wrath's approval of Ruby is as much a betrayal to Envy as Jaune's abandonment of them both. Shouting her intention to never let Ruby surpass her, Envy runs off, fleeing her family and losing them in the festival crowd.

The family believes Envy has gone to her secret place- some place in the woods that none of them, not even Jaune, knows about. While they're sure that Envy will return for dinner as per tradition, there are also concerns that she could get hurt. The areas are unsecured from Grimm, who are drawn to negative emotions like Envy's, and Envy been told before that she's not supposed to go there.

The family scatters to search for her, even Jaune. Ruby, on the other hand, is tired. Terrible sleep, an already long day of over twelve hours and going, and the battle have left her worn. No one asks her to, but Ruby musters herself to help search- barely belatedly realizing that Mama and Papa Arc were watching her.

As an overcast sky settles in with the approach of a storm front, Ruby searches the woods, and finds clues to help track Envy. Envy's Secret Spot is in a stream bed, the sort of flood channel that is usually just a trickle. Envy is hiding, and hurt with a twisted ankle, and also afraid, because Grimm are nearby and smell her fear. Tired and stressed as she is, Ruby can't stop the thought that if Envy just so happened to suffer an accident- a terrible tragedy that just so happened to clear the last veto keeping Ruby from Jaune, who'd no doubt need comfort in his grief…

Ruby pauses far longer than she should, worn and frustrated and so sorely tempted, but does the right thing. Ruby saves Envy and carries her back. Despite the rescue, Envy sullenly states that she's still not changing her mind and approving of her. Ruby knows. Just to rub it in a bit more, Envy claims that she's number one of Jaune's top ten- surpassing even mother. She's his favorite family member. Ruby knows, unhappy as it makes her, and the two return in silence.

Jaune rushes to Ruby and Envy as they return. Instead of focusing on Ruby in gratitude, Jaune rushes to Envy in relief as Ruby recounts the encounter with the Grimm. Even Jaune embracing and thanking her profusely after fussing over Envy doesn't cheer her for coming second. Nor does the gratitude of the rest of the family over dinner. Ruby is the toast of the family, even Leandra is grateful, but Ruby is too tired to care or even notice Nicholas's approving words of how Jaune is reconciled and approved of by all of his sisters. Ruby, having gone a week without good sleep, retires early- and is helped upstairs by an apologetic Wrath, who insists on doing it herself when Jaune offers to help.

With just the two of them, Wrath admits that she was the one who'd been sabotaging the bed across the week, using her semblance to manipulate the peas that Ruby had found earlier. She and Envy had united to oppose Ruby- her to punish Jaune, Envy to drive Ruby away- but now that the game is up it won't happen again. Wrath apologizes, and after stringing her out a bit with the same sort of liar-liar skepticism Wrath held towards Jaune, Ruby accepts the apology.

Wrath's promise from Ruby is hardly conditional, and almost a plea- a promise from Ruby to never let Jaune ever go back on his word again. An Arc who goes back on their word is hardly an Arc at all, and Wrath doesn't want to lose Jaune- or anyone else of her family- like that again. Wrath cheekily makes an offer to punish Jaune for Ruby if he ever does, while playfully threatening the same to Ruby if Ruby goes back on her word. Ruby doesn't intend to- on any of the promises she's made- and just barely manages to keep her patience and play nice back rather than snap. Wrath gets the hint, and leave Ruby to go to bed and get some rest.

The bed isn't sabotaged now, and Ruby has the most comfortable night since she arrived, but it's still a poor night's sleep. Ruby's fears and insecurities have grown over the days, and are raging with her exhaustion. Wrath is won, but Envy is adamantly opposed, and there's nothing Ruby can think of that might change it. Ruby is at the bottom of the Top Ten, and Envy at the top, and that damn mantra of family first…

Ruby doesn't doubt Jaune cares for her, but if Envy and Leandra reject Ruby…

The thought keeps Ruby up a long time.

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Author Notes:

Ah, character perspective shading. How I (don't) love you at times. How you feel affects how you perceive things.

I'll probably be one of the few to like this chapter, not because it's longer, but for a bunch of things I can't really share yet. Fortunately, I'll (probably) hit them on rear-end analysis of the story. Coeur and I both, actually- a big ol' look at what changed, what didn't, and why between this and the Writer Games version.

Wrath, in retrospect, without concern of spoilers.

Wrath (Ren) (Part 2 of 2):A tsundere with strong visual, not personality, influences by Ren. On top of pink eyes (distinctive amongst the blue-eyed arcs, and an element borrowed from Yang's berserk state), she has similar clothes and a 'slide weapons up the sleeve' style like Ren uses for his storm flowers. Her semblance is the ability to manipulate size and density, making her an ideal weapons master- she can miniaturize the weapons, increase density on the swing, or simply throw small things and turn them into heavy objects. Wrath's personality is that of a tsuendere stuck in anger due to Jaune's running away- a mix of personal betrayal and genuine fear that lingered because of the strength of Wrath's emotions. What Wrath really wanted/needed to reconcile all this time was a direct apology- but her anger over Jaune's lies made him afraid that an apology wouldn't be believed, and so he didn't try, perpetuating the anger. The tournament scenario is important, but more to Jaune (to fulfill his word) than to Wrath (who wants the apology). What the tournament really shows- why it wins approval of Ruby not just from Wrath but most of the family as well- is that Ruby 'gets' the importance of trying to fulfill promises between family.