Chapter 7 - - - Enclosure
Blake's eyes scanned the page in front of her, none of the words registering in her mind, though she turned the leaf regardless upon reaching the bottom. Her legs were crossed as she lounged against the headboard of her bed, her foot bouncing to an unheard beat.
Her thoughts were still locked on the strangely dressed individual at the docks, her suspicion of them being Ruby wavering after voicing her concern to Yang and Weiss.
Weiss had reasoned that despite how the stranger and Roman might have similarities to Ruby's fighting style, it wasn't concrete enough to accuse Ruby of having an affiliation to a terrible organization and deplorable criminal. It could just be a coincidence that they're similar, nothing more.
Yang had also joined in, informing the two that she had seen Roman Torchwick with some other girl when she was out. She hadn't known Roman was a wanted criminal (as she hadn't been paying much attention to the news), but had mistaken the other girl for someone else. She theorized the possibility of the other girl being the strangely dressed individual, as the two were nearly or exactly the same height.
With sounding arguments, Blake reasoned that her suspicions were misplaced… But there was something in her gut telling her that she wasn't wrong, and that feeling was difficult to shake off. The only way to rid of her doubts would probably be to ask Ruby herself, but the team leader had been gone all weekend and Blake wasn't certain when she would have an opportunity to ask.
The sound of the doorknob rattling shook Blake out of her thoughts, her head snapping up as she saw Ruby come rushing in with heavy breaths.
… Evidently, that opportunity would be now when Blake was the least prepared.
"Oh! Hi Blake!" Ruby absentmindedly greeted, heading straight for her trunk at the foot of her bed and pulling out her uniform. "Sorry for all the noise, I sort of woke up late and had to run here."
"It's fine…" Blake said, politely turning her head away as Ruby quickly stripped herself from her clothing.
"Where are Weiss and Yang?" Ruby asked, her voice muffled.
"Getting breakfast."
"Oh… Lucky…" Ruby muttered in slight envy, "I'm done!" She announced, allowing Blake to look back in her general direction. "How was your weekend?"
"It was… fine." Black carefully said, gauging Ruby's face for a reaction. "Weiss, Yang, and I ran into some trouble at the docks."
Nothing of note seemed to fleet across Ruby's face other than sympathy. "Geez, that sucks… Hopefully it wasn't too bad?"
Blake mentally frowned at the lack of reaction, and decided to push. "We ran into Roman Torchwick and a few members of the White Fang.
Ruby's eyes widened, her head tilting to the side as though unsure of what to say next. "Oh… uh…Are you guys okay?" She asked, concern showing on her face. "What happened?"
Blake lightly shook her head, "We're fine. They got away though and we had to talk to the police."
"Oh." Ruby huffed in annoyance. "That sucks."
Blake made a noncommittal hum as silence stretched between the two. The doubt and suspicion had yet been erased from her mind. Ruby continued gathering her school materials, seemingly unaware of Blake's inner turmoil.
Finally, Blake gritted her teeth. She couldn't allow herself to continue living with Ruby while doubt and suspicion lingered within her mind, she knew that if she continued with it, then she would spend every waking moment over analyzing and paranoid over each of Ruby's actions. So she had to take this moment now, when it was just the two of them, to question her leader… and hopefully erase any and all mistrust residing within herself.
"Hey Ruby?" Blake began hesitantly, closing her book as she swung her legs to the edge of the bed.
"Yeah?"
Blake fidgeted with her paperback, drawing her thumb against the pages to cause them zip by. "While we-" Blake shook her head, Weiss and Yang had nothing against Ruby, this suspicion was her own to deal with. "While I was fighting against Roman and his… associates, I kind of thought… they sort of fought like you."
Ruby spun around with a perplexed expression, "O…kay?"
Blake bit the inside of her cheek as she tried to gather her words. There really was no way to ask nicely - after all, an accusation is still an accusation. "Are you affiliated with or related to him in any way?" she finally blurted.
Her team leader seemed to freeze at the question, until her eyes narrowed, her usual bright silver eyes turning into steel as she folded her arms across her chest. "Why would you ask that?"
Flustered, Blake dropped the book into her lap. "It's just, they fought so similarly to you and-"
"So?" Ruby snapped, "Just because I fight like a crook I suddenly am one?"
"No!" Blake insisted, "It's just- it's a peculiar fighting style to have. It's not something you would come up with by yourself." She winced at her terrible reasoning.
"Most people don't even come up with their own 'styles'" Ruby grounded out, her shoulders becoming tense.
"I know. That- That didn't come out the way I intended."
"Then what are you trying to say?"
Blake swallowed hard, her Faunus traits flickering out of anxiety as she shrank back at the annoyance and anger seemingly rolling off of her team leader. "I wanted to know if you were working or grew up with criminals."
Silence stretched through the room, causing Blake's ears to twitch in apprehension. Finally, Ruby scoffed, a dark chuckle escaping from her lips soon after as she shook her head and dropped her arms.
"I can't believe you would-" Ruby began muttering, but stopped herself short as she lifted her head to look straight into Blake's eyes.
"I grew up on the streets you know. We had to move from kingdom to kingdom and find different means to survive. So yeah, you could say I grew up with 'criminals'. No more than how you did yourself though." She stated, causing Blake to wince at the sudden sharp pain of guilt cutting into her chest, her faunus ears drooping to showcase her feelings from her bow. "My family did their best to provide for me and themselves though, some had to become mercenaries and others had to do some risky underground tournament fighting in order to have a decent income and keep a roof over our heads. But, because of how dangerous their jobs were, they had to teach me how to fight in that 'peculiar', and apparently criminal style. It took years for them to find a steady and stable job and income so we wouldn't have to worry about how much longer we had until we were back on the streets."
"I-I'm sorry Ruby, I didn't-" Blake tried to voice out.
Ruby interrupted her, waving her off as she muttered, "Whatever. Let's just go before we're late to class."
Blake frowned as Ruby turned to the door, shoving her hands into her red coat pockets as she stalked out out. Breathing out a soft sigh, Blake got off of her bed, grabbed her school bag, and regretted ever thinking Ruby was a criminal as she followed her out.
… So why couldn't she still shake off the feeling in her gut telling her that there was still something… off about Ruby?
She shook her head, reclining her head down to stare at the floor of the hallway. It didn't matter. Ruby was her leader, her friend. She should be able to trust Ruby. Ruby was different from-
Blake clenched her teeth, bringing her hands up to hug herself loosely around her waist. No, she wouldn't think about it… What mattered was that Ruby was trustworthy. Ruby had her back, Ruby had nothing but good intentions for her… Why else would Ruby stand up for her during her fight with Weiss?
Blake nodded to herself, glancing up to the back of Ruby's head as she assured herself. Ruby was different. Ruby was trustworthy.
Due to the two ending their conversation on a bad note, tension and awkwardness ensued between the both of them for the rest of the day and throughout their classes. The two wouldn't even look in the other's way, even when one of them spoke - Ruby out of annoyance, and Blake out of guilt. It caused a lot of perplexity to rise within Yang and Weiss as they had never seen Ruby so annoyed for so long before, and were curious as to what happened between their usually cheerful leader and Blake.
As Ruby had been absent during lunch, Blake took that opportunity to tell Yang and Weiss about the events that had transpired that morning.
Yang and Weiss didn't blame or reprimand her, fully understanding where it was that she was coming from and were actually proud of her for wanting to erase her suspicion, but they were worried about whether Ruby and Blake's conflict would drag throughout the day and into the studying session their team had promised with JNPR later that evening. Their worries especially grew when Ruby murmured that she would see them later after their last class and stormed away as JNPR came up to them to confirm their plans.
"Is everything alright?" Pyrrha asked in concern, emerald eyes flickering between the direction Ruby had walked off to and the remaining team.
Blake fidgeted under everyone's gaze, "There was a bit of a…" She bit the inside of her cheek as she tried to think of an accurate description. "…misunderstanding on my part, and I made her upset." She finished, looking down at her feet guiltily.
"Oh, well I'm certain the two of you will work things out." Pyrrha offered with a consolidating smile.
Blake lifted her head up, meeting Pyrrha's comforting expression and nodded. "Thank you." She looked at her feet in thought and nodded to herself. "I'll be sure to apologize to her before we all study together."
"You don't have to," Yang said, "I'm sure Ruby will be fine after she blows some steam. That's how it usually works for me at least."
Weiss gave a small shrug, "Or she might simply wish to forget all about the incident and ignore it for all we know."
Realization seemed to dawn on Yang's face as she turned to her, "Now we know why you're so quick to express your opinions…"
Weiss bristled at the accurate analysis, "I resent that."
Blake shook her head with a light chuckle, "No… I think this is something I want to do."
Yang and Weiss glanced over to her in uncertainty, but upon seeing her determination, allowed smiles to grace their faces as they nodded in agreement. Yang clapped Blake on the shoulder, "Don't worry, we're with you."
Blake smiled at the gesture, taking solace in the fact that she had people to rely on.
Ruby hummed a listless tune as she sauntered down the hallway, hands lazily swinging by her sides and eyes scanning between passing and idle students without a care in the world. Occasionally, a random student would greet her or tell her a variation of good job and she would happily wiggle her fingers in greeting or thanks. If she knew someone well enough, she would stop for a short chat before asking them, "Have you seen team CRDL today? I need to talk to them." And then following the direction she was pointed to shortly after departing.
Upon finding CRDL chatting with each other though, she grinned and hastened her pace, not bothering to hide her presence. The moment one of the boys saw her though, he quickly informed the other three, causing all 4 of them to glance over and immediately pretend they didn't see anything as they all turned and tried to scurry away.
They only needed to be threatened a few times to start trying their hardest to avoid her.
"Hey Cardin!" Ruby cheerfully stated with a wide and bright smile on her face. "I hope you and your team had a nice weekend!"
To the boys, it might as well have been a smile from a demon itself as they all paled and tried to quicken their pace. To no avail though, as she somehow managed to catch up and grab a hold of their leader's upper arm.
"I need your help with something." She said with a smile that made no room for defiance.
Cardin gave a small, wary smile as he tensely nodded. "Yeah. Sure. Anything." So long as he never has to be half encased in ice, have cool metals touch his face or neck, and be threatened and told how his life will be ruined ever again.
"Great!" Ruby beamed, "Let's go to the library then." She stated, letting go of his arm and walking ahead.
Cardin and his team warily glanced at each other, hoping that the sight of one another would help collect their bearings before timidly following after, making sure they were a few steps behind. They didn't bother voicing out their questions though, out of fear of the possibility of irritating Ruby.
They had never seen her angry of course, as she typically had a mischievous and predator like smile on her face instead, but the idea of it sent chills down their spine.
"I just need help to gather some books." Ruby said, glancing back as she walked a little slower until she was in step with Cardin. The unexpected action made his eyebrows rise in surprise, though Ruby didn't seem to notice as she continued on. "It'll be too much for me to search for and carry by myself, so I thought you guys would be happy to be productive with your free time and help. You're welcome." She smiled
Cardin nearly groaned at her statement, as it could not be any further from his feelings, but he swallowed it down and forced another smile. "Thanks…" He choked out.
One corner of Ruby's mouth stretched up, causing her grin to turn into a smirk of amusement. She didn't say anything though, as she continued to lead the 4 over to the library. Once they arrived, she hurried over to the librarian, Sergeant, with a huge smile.
"Ruby! My favorite student!" Sergeant grinned in a soft voice, "How was your weekend?"
Team CRDL's eyes bulged at the happy expression on the librarian, who was known to have a grouch and rigid demeanor, ready to hold a finger to their lips to hush any loud students, and would only grunt when spoken to as they checked books out. To see them happily and willingly talking to a student, it was as though they had stepped into another dimension.
Ruby's body seemingly relaxed as her eyes brightened and gleamed in happiness. "It was fantastic! How about yours?"
Sergeant chuckled, "Take a guess."
A knowing smirk made itself known on Ruby's face, "Spent building your aeroships?"
Cardin's eyebrows shot up in surprise, he didn't know their librarian built planes.
Sergeant nodded happily, "But of course."
"Were you able to finish that last one we talked about?" Ruby inquired curiously.
A light chuckle and shake of a head, "No, I'm still working on it, but you can expect it to be finished within two weeks time!"
"That's great!" Ruby exclaimed, lightly bouncing on the balls of her feet and giving light, soft claps of excitement. "You have got to let me watch you fly it!"
A soft smile spread itself on Sergeant's face, "I wouldn't have it any other way. Now tell me my dear, what are you searching for today?"
Ruby quickly explained that she was looking for books on the history of the school and town along with maps of sites and certain locations. She also wanted a few academic texts on weapons, forging, and dust. "And if you can, could you please group the ones closest to each other on four separate pieces of paper?" she asked, holding up the same number of fingers for emphasis.
"Still a busy student I see," Sergeant chuckled, following exactly what she asked. "Just make sure none of your wild pranks pull me in like you did to Glynda and Doctor Oobleck earlier today." They warned, handing the papers over to Ruby.
Ruby merely grinned, "I'll try to keep the pranks on you on the more calm side." She said, taking the offered note.
Sergeant nodded in approval, "Good, now off with you." They said, making a shooing motion with their hand.
Ruby playfully rolled her eyes before wandering back to CRDL. "Alright! Take your pick!" She smiled, fanning the papers out with the blank sides facing the boys.
Everyone glanced to each other in question, obviously expecting that Ruby wasn't actually going to have them help her with getting books, but evidentially, her intentions were really what it seemed.
Ruby stared at them expectantly, a wide grin still on her face. Finally, Dove sighed as he reached out for the one second to her right.
"So Dove is stuck with history books! Have fun with that." Ruby stated before turning her gazes to the other three. She lightly shook her hand that held the remaining notes, indicating that they hurry to take them.
Hesitantly, they all grabbed the remaining slips of paper, Cardin and Sky each in charge of grabbing the academic texts and Russel having to grab books with maps and locations.
Ruby nodded in approval, "Alright team CRDL!" She began, placing her hands on her hips in a typical authority-like pose, "Meet back here when you've all got the books." She ordered with a pseudo-serious face.
CRDL merely shuffled in their places awkwardly, hesitantly nodding as though they still could not believe that the little girl in front of them was capable of threatening their lives and had been the one to during the previous past few weeks..
"Right! Spread out!" She ordered with a wave of her hand. The boys immediately brought their slips of paper up to take another look at the section they should be heading towards before walking off.
Cardin didn't get too far though, as he sensed another presence beside him, causing him to turn his head in question. He regretted though, when the sight of Ruby greeted his eyes.
The young leader seemed to notice his apprehension and grinned. "Don't mind me, I'll just be tagging along."
The comment confused Cardin, as Ruby usually didn't speak to him or his team unless it was to order them to do something.
Now that he thought about it though, her behavior had been out of place ever since she came up to them. First of all, she usually didn't walk up to them in plain view, as she seemed to prefer seemingly popping out of nowhere to scare them. Second, she explained to them what she needed as opposed to demanding them to do so. Finally, there was the fact that she seemed to prefer tagging or walking alongside with them… Usually she would have them walk behind her, flanking her sides, but this time… she almost seemed like… she wanted their company. It was odd, and Cardin couldn't help but find himself a little miffed at this slight change.
Ruby didn't seem to notice his befuddlement, or if she did, chose not to say anything as she perused through the tall bookshelves, her eyebrows furrowing in annoyance at a particular book on the top shelf.
Perplexed, Cardin followed her line of sight and glanced back at her, realizing that he had to look pretty far down, he let out a snort. "Shorty."
Veering her head toward him with a vicious glare, Ruby stomped hard on his foot, causing him to yelp in pain as he curled over and brought his foot up to hold it.
"Just grab the books." Ruby stated with a roll of her eyes before walking away.
"Ow. Fuck." Cardin muttered under his breath. He couldn't believe that he had thought there was a difference in her demeanor; she was obviously still acting the same way she always did.
The two began searching for the books, and Cardin hated to say it, but with Ruby's help he was able to find all the books much more easily than had he done so by himself. Though… If it weren't for Ruby, he wouldn't be caught in the library at all.
Half an hour had barely passed by the time they finished and began heading toward the checkout with 9 books in Cardin's hands, the rest of the members were already there with the rest of Ruby's books. Pleased, Ruby gestured from them all to set the books on the counter to allow Sergeant to scan them…
She seemed content to stay silent as the boys did all the grunt work for her, until she heard the sounds of someone whining. Turning her head to the entry, she saw Velvet staggering in with a tower of books in her possession that hindered her sight. "No….no…. Nononono!" She whimpered loudly, quickly backtracking as the books began leaning back, threatening to fall, though thankfully stopped as balance was regained.
Raising a brow and feeling a little sorry for her, Ruby turned to face Cardin. "You should help her out." She stated
The order made Cardin splutter, "Wh-What? Are you crazy? I've been messing with her for the first few weeks of school! She's not going to want help from me."
"Well then, all the more reason for you to help her." Ruby shrugged.
Cardin blanched, ready to protest further until he saw silver eyes narrow down on him. Cold fear shivered through his body, causing him to lower his head in compliance before stalking away as he muttered under his breath, not at all happy with the order. He made sure to walk directly in front of Velvet, ensuring that he stay well out of her sight, before grabbing more than half the books right out her hands.
"Oh! Thank-" Velvet began in pleasant surprise, turning her head up to Cardin though froze dead in her tracks as her voice hitched. "YoU?" She finished with a whimper, her ears falling down and flattening against her head.
Cardin rolled his eyes, knowing this would have happened. "Yeah. Whatever." He muttered. "So are you turning this in or what?" He demanded
Timidly, Velvet nodded, glancing back and forth between the turn in box and Cardin, as though wondering if she could jump into it as well for safety.
Cardin merely grunted as he made his way over, gently placing the stack of books on the ground for Velvet's convenience.
Still perturbed by his gesture, Velvet ensured that she kept a safe distance from him as she did the same. Not wanting to sound rude or ungrateful though, she timidly spoke, "U-Uh… Thanks… Cardin."
Surprised at the light warmth spreading in his chest at the gratitude and guilt of looking at her, Cardin casted his eyes away. "Yeah, well. Don't mention it… Ever." He roughly said before making his way back to Ruby.
"Aw, wasn't that nice Cardin?" Ruby mockingly asked with a sickeningly sweet smile. "You're making a friend." She cooed, even going so far as reaching up with her hand to pinch his cheek
"Shut up." He grumbled in embarrassment, slapping her hand away.
Ruby casted her eyes over to the Faunus, catching Velvet's eye and gave a knowing wink over to her and causing Velvet to smile, mouthing the words "Thank you" over to Ruby.
Ruby quickly waved the other off as she finished checking out her books while saying goodbye to Sergeant.
Taking a glance over to the clock behind the librarian, Ruby let out a weary sigh and turned to team CRDL. "Listen, hold these into your room for now. I'll grab the rest later." She stated, only taking 3 books. She turned back to Cardin, holding a pointed finger at him. "And you, I want you to grab one of the school maps and remember it."
"Why?" Cardin asked, crossing his eyes to stare at the finger.
"Just do it." Ruby stated with a huff, spinning on her heel before hurriedly walking out.
She didn't even bother receiving an answer from CRDL as she left, wanting to make sure she would make it in time for the joint tutoring session between her team and JNPR.
At the thought of her team, she let an inaudible groan, her pace slowing down substantially.
She was not looking forward to seeing Blake again. Their argument from this morning was incredibly draining and left a bad taste in Ruby's mouth. Blake's accusation had nearly hit home, and Ruby's heart nearly stopped in fear of being caught.
Ruby couldn't just blatantly lie; she knew that she was terrible at them, hence why she had been feeding everyone white lies. But to use her background to guilt another person, someone like Blake, made her feel weird. She didn't like it.
What was worse was that she knew she couldn't take it back, everything she had said was true, beside the fact that she omitted what everyone's steady and stable job was. Using her background against someone who grew up similarly, someone who could empathize with her situation, and then turn around and use it against them… It was something she didn't ever want to have to do that again. It something she didn't even want to think about.
As she slowly approached her dorm room, she could hear the rowdy banter between her team and team JNPR were causing in the latter's dorm and she wondered if she could simply just… not go in.
It would be so easy for her. She would be able to avoid Blake and she wouldn't have to think about what she had done to her teammate that morning
Unfortunately, it seemed that her decision would be made for her as Blake had been standing right by JNPR's dorm door, fidgeting in place.
Ruby began feeling apprehensive, uncertainty rising in her like the time when she had gone missing and put the entire base on lockdown as Cinder and caused everyone to search for her, but was still too scared to tell on who had trapped her in the storage room. She continued walking though, knowing fully well that she shouldn't show that she felt bad for what she said and instead, showing annoyance.
… It was difficult though, as Ruby knew there was nothing to be annoyed about with Blake.
"Hi… uh… Ruby." Blake greeted her nervously while ducking her head.
Ruby eyed her teammate with uncertainty, hoping that Blake had not seen through her white lie from that morning.
"I-I uh…" Blake woefully stared down at her feet, one arm coming across her stomach in a slight hug as her hand clung onto her other arm. Her throat bobbed, showing her swallow before she brought her golden eyes up. "I-I wanted to apologize for this morning… I… I was just being paranoid, and you reminded me so much of my life from when I was… in the White Fang." She whispered the last part, ashamed of her past affiliation. "So I suppose, I just…. I guess I was projecting my fears onto you…" Blake confessed.
A prick let itself be felt within Ruby's chest, her hands twitched by her sides as they yearned to reach out and hug the girl in front of her for being courageous enough to let her fears be known, to be trusted with Ruby.
Ruby could sense that Blake's fears ran so much deeper though, and that hurt. To see, to feel all of Blake's doubts, all of her uneasiness at her surroundings, and worry of being somewhere she no longer could withstand… it made Ruby feel terrible. It took all she had to not reach out and tell Blake that it was okay, because it wasn't Ruby's place.
Besides, she was the reason why Blake was like this. Comforting her just… didn't seem right when Ruby knew that it was just a lie.
"It's okay." Ruby whispered, crossing her arms instead as she glanced off to the side, her eyes forming a clear wall of tears. "I understand."
Blake inhaled a sharp breath of surprise, her body tense as she didn't know what to do, but slowly began to relax as she realized that everything was fine between her and Ruby. "I'm so sorry." Blake whimpered, rubbing her eyes to prevent tears from obscuring her vision.
"It's okay." Ruby repeated, "I forgive you."
Blake let out a deep shuddering sigh of relief, a single tear escaping from the corner of her eye as her body sagged, happy that she hadn't broken their bond of friendship. Slowly, a smile began to stretch across her face. "Thank you. This… It means a lot to me."
Ruby felt another twinge of pain at the statement, guilt ridding up in her as she shuffled in place.
Ruby had gained Blake's trust… Blake's complete and utmost confidence toward Ruby, and she... She should be happy.
This was one of the reasons Cinder had allowed Ruby to be sent to Beacon, to gain the trust of as many people as she could.
She should be happy.
"Come on, everyone's waiting for us." Blake said, turning around to open the door to JNPR's room.
With a tight smile, Ruby nodded as she followed after, entering the room to find Jaune recounting his last sparring match with Cardin as everyone sat in various positions on the floor facing each other with 2 low tables (that they pulled out from who knows where) brought next to each other.
"-maybe he was sick or something, I don't know! He just wasn't fighting right, but I knew it was my chance so I beat him hard!" Jaune exclaimed joyously, flexing an arm in triumph.
Ruby rolled her eyes at his boast, reminding herself to tell Cardin to make it seem as though he wasn't trying to lose next time.
"I really think I'm getting this stuff down! I mean, this is my second or third time winning now? So I have to be getting better!" Jaune happily reasoned. The rest of his team hesitantly nodded in agreement with strained smiles.
"Yes, you've been improving quite," Pyrrha paused to think of a proper word. "Tremendously." She finished
Weiss arched a brow of disbelief. "You have got to be-OW!" She yelped, throwing a glare at Yang for nudging her sharply in the side with an elbow. "What?"
Yang gave a pointed look, gesturing with her eyebrows over to Jaune's proud and ecstatic expression. Understanding washing over her, but not appreciating it, Weiss rolled her eyes and scoffed under her breath.
Upon seeing Ruby and Blake enter though, she sat up straighter and smiled. "Blake! Ruby! Glad you could join us."
Blake nodded as she slid in next to Weiss.
"Why, I'm so glad I was given this opportunity to do so!" Ruby mocked in an overly polite tone, sliding in next to Yang and across from Weiss as she straightened her back and folded her hands on top of the table as though she were prepared for an interview. "Again, thank you so much for taking the time to consider me, it means a lot!"
Weiss rolled her eyes good naturedly, "Oh stop fooling around and pull your books and notes out."
Ruby stuck her tongue out as she shifted to get comfortable, "Spoil sport." Though she complied regardless.
"We're studying, it shouldn't be fun." Weiss stated.
"Ooh, how serious." Ruby said in a foreboding tone, spreading her notes and homework out for her team to see.
Jaune perked up at the word, leaning forward from the end of the table toward the Schnee heiress. "Speaking of serious Weiss, I wanted to ask you-"
"Ruby! Your handwriting is atrocious!" Weiss exclaimed, snatching a paper off the table as she began scrutinizing every detail of it. "I can hardly tell the difference between some of these numbers!" She paused as she brought the paper closer. "Is…. Is this a 4? Or a 7? … Maybe it's a 9…?"
"… You spelled these wrong…" Blake quietly said, pointing to numerous spots on another sheet of paper. "… And some of these aren't structured correctly."
"You can read that?" Weiss asked in disbelief, warily eyeing the essay in front of Blake like one would at upon stepping in animal droppings.
"Er… Ruby, I know you're more familiar with military history, but I'm pretty sure that our great ancestors… didn't have guns as their main source of protection in their time." Yang uneasily said.
Ruby scowled, her arms crossed over chest as she glared at the table. "Alright alright! I get it! I'm stupid. Now make me smart!"
Her team snapped their heads up and glanced at each other with wide eyes. "No! No! You're not stupid!" They all spoke at once, jumbling their sentences together to comfort and reassure their leader.
Ruby rolled her eyes, though the corner of her lips quirked up in mild amusement. "Uh huh. Well, I guess math is going first, since I have such atrocious handwriting and Weiss can't read it." she quoted, taking her scroll out and opening it for the calculator before setting it on the table.
Everyone nodded, scooting in as close as they could to Weiss before she turned to face Jaune on the other side, "I'm sorry Jaune. Were you speaking to me?"
"Er… No." Jaune hesitantly said, seeing as how Weiss already seemed to have her hands full.
"What is the subject for your team's studying session?" Pyrrha asked curiously, "Perhaps I could be of assistance?"
Weiss nodded, "We're currently working on mathematics. If you'd like to help Blake and Yang, I'd be grateful."
Emerald eyes flickered over to Ruby in question, "What about Ruby?"
"Ruby," Weiss emphasized pointedly, causing her illustrious leader to stick her tongue out once again. "Is unfortunately behind and requires my whole, and undivided attention with her work."
"You just want to keep me to yourself." Ruby sassed
"… Indeed." Weiss deadpanned with a rather blank face, showing the entire room that she did not mean her words at all.
"Ooh! Ooh! Help me too Pyrrha!" Nora excitedly exclaimed, raising her hand and waving it about.
"A-And me!" Jaune tried to voice in.
Pyrrha nervously glanced between the four individuals she was apparently now watching over, before landing on Ren. He seemed to have sensed her gaze as he brought his pink eyes up to meet hers, and sighed in resignation.
"I'll help too."
Relief flooded through Pyrrha, her smile spreading more naturally as everyone pulled out their materials to begin their study session.
Only a few minutes had passed when Ruby began shifting in her spot nervously as she kept looking up at everyone whenever someone got a bit too loud. She wasn't used to studying in such a large group, back at home, she only ever studied with 3 people at most since everyone was usually too busy. Most often times, she only studied with one person as they each rotated.
Studying with so many people was noisy and distracting, Ruby found it difficult to stay focused on her own work. But… it was also a lot more fun.
Of course at home, there was always small banter while she did her work, so she wasn't completely and utterly bored; but it was mostly quiet as someone peered over her shoulder and congratulated her for doing a good job. Or someone would read a book or struggle with their own work before looking over to her to see where she was at. Or… sometimes there would be a strained smile as they confessed that they couldn't help her with a certain subject, which they'll have to get someone else to look at it.
With her team and team JNPR though, there were so many other expressions that were changing as they helped one another. No one looked ashamed for asking for help, or consulting with someone else. Sometimes Ren would lean over to Pyrrha while pointing to a problem for her to check over, Weiss wouldn't mind asking Ruby herself to read out her handwriting, or Pyrrha would occasionally furrow her brows as she asked to be given a moment to redo the problem. It was… nice.
"Did you do anything exciting over the weekend?" Pyrrha asked Ruby once she had completed her assignment and handed over to Weiss to look over.
"Oh. I uh-" Ruby hesitated, casting a quick glance over to Blake who was pointedly staring at her own homework. "I spent it with my family." Ruby confessed, looking back at Pyrrha. "Since we haven't seen each other in a while, we kind of just… hung out."
Yeah… They hung out at Mountain Glen to oversee or help clear the underground railway and fix up the train to get it functioning once more. Fortunately, it was relatively painless as there were a few Grimm to take care of, but the rest of the time was rather boring.
Despite Ruby's renowned popularity through base for making all sorts of missions enjoyable, even she couldn't make picking up rocks fun.
"That sounds wonderful," Pyrrha smiled. "You must have missed them dearly."
Ruby nodded, her posture relaxing as she thought about her sister and everyone else. "Yeah. I was really happy to see everyone again."
Blake visibly winced in the corner of Ruby's eyes, causing that tight feeling to form within her chest again.
Ruby shook her head, hoping to rid of the feeling.
"Are you alright?" Pyrrha asked
Snapping her head up, Ruby scrambled through her mind for an excuse. "Uh… A-Actually, I'm kind of hungry. Do you guys have any snacks?" she asked
It seemed that Ruby had said the magic word as Nora jumped right into the conversation. "Yeah! We have loads!" She eagerly stated, moving to stand. "Let me just-"
"Nora." Ren said in a warning tone.
"But Ren!" Nora whined, only to elicit a firm headshake from her childhood friend. She plopped back down with a huff, mumbling with a halfhearted gesture over to the bookcase in the corner. "They're over there…"
Ruby grinned, jumping to her feet and rushing over to the designated area where delicious snacks awaited… Only to come to a halt when she realized that they were located on the very top shelf, a few feet higher than her.
She frowned at the sight and stretched up as far as she could, standing on the tip of her toes and hopping a little in hopes of getting closer to the basket of snacks.
Just when she was certain that they were at the tip of her fingers, she saw hands easily grabbing the basket and lift it off the shelf.
Suddenly aware of the looming presence behind her, Ruby tensed, swiveling around on her feet with wide eyes, her hands reflexively twitching up - ready to initiate combat - only to find Pyrrha sheepishly looking down at her, basket of snacks in hand.
"I… believe you needed some help." Pyrrha asked more than said, lowering the basket down as she took a step back to hand it over.
It took all Ruby had to not get upset at the fact that she couldn't reach something because of her height, or to get upset at Pyrrha for being tall and helping.
If it had been anyone else, she would have immediately stomped on their foot like she did to Cardin earlier that day (unless it were her sister of course)
But, she knew, she just knew it would gather the attention of the other and her team. So, she grit her teeth and forced a smile up at Pyrrha, "Uh. T-Thanks Pyrrha." she said as she accepted the basket, taking a subtle step back to increase the space between the two. She completely forgot about the bookshelf though and smacked the back of her head onto it, causing her to duck and clutch her head with a free hand.
"Oh! Are you okay?" Pyrrha asked, raising her hands to hover over Ruby.
"Yeah!" Ruby said a bit too hurriedly as she sensing the concerned presence while snapping her head up and, sidestepping her way out Pyrrha's hovering arms. "Yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry about it." Ruby assured, waving it off in hopes that Pyrrha would drop it.
"If you're sure." Pyrrha said, lowering her hands down.
"I'm sure!" Ruby asserted, keeping in mind where the other's hands were. She didn't want them anywhere near her
A small smile of satisfaction crossed Pyrrha's features before she relaxed her limbs, intertwining her hands together. "Then, I suppose there is nothing to worry about."
"Yup. Nothing to worry about at all." Ruby restated with a tight smile
"Well, if you continue rewording my scrutiny into statements, then maybe there is something to worry about." Pyrrha laughed.
A pout tried to force its' way onto Ruby's expression from being teased, though she stamped the urge down by ducking her head again and biting the inside of her cheek. This was… weird. She didn't know what to do or what to say. She knew she wasn't going to get caught pouting, of all things, at school in front of her peers though.
Exaggerating her pout was one thing, but to actually do so as a legitimate reaction was another.
"I'm sorry, did I speak out of turn?"
"No!" Ruby said, snapping her head back up. "I just uh-"
Think. She had to think of a good excuse.
"Don't wish to speak out of turn?"
"Yes!" Ruby proclaimed, jumping at the opportunity for a provided explanation. It wasn't until a few seconds after that the words Pyrrha said registered, causing her to raise her hands to her chest in pleasure as she giggled, and for Ruby to look absolutely appalled to allow herself to be lured with such bait.
"My apologies." Pyrrha laughed, her fingers wiggling against each other in delight, "I did not intend to make you feel less."
This time, the pout that had fought against Ruby's will won and showed itself, causing her to hug the basket of goods to her chest. "It's fine." Ruby petulantly stated, "I'll get over it."
Pyrhha smiled, pleased to hear the response and was about to say something, until a shout from outside interrupted and caught her attention.
"Doctor Ooblek! Please, keep those chickens under control!" The voice of Professor Goodwitch announced
"You may think that a task such as this is simple as saying so, but I assure you Glynda that it is not!" Doctor Oobleck affirmed, his voice occasionally rising to be heard over loud clucking sounds.
"I don't care if it's difficult," Glynda gritted out. "Just make sure you don't let go of them! I do not wish to spend my day running around campus, searching for them again! Now help me find number 4! It's got to be around here somewhere!"
"Actually! The gender of the chicken would be that of a female if we're going with human social normalization." Doctor Oobleck informed, shuffling the 2 chickens under his arms that had an apparent numbers 1 and 2 hanging off their sides. "Seeing as these chickens don't-"
"Doctor Oobleck!" Glynda shouted, pointing toward a white bird attempting to flutter up into the air toward him with the number 4 strapped to its' side. "The chicken!"
"U-Uh! Right-o!" The history professor stammered out as he tried his best to chase after it.
Every member in the JNPR dorm room stared out into the window in disbelief, save for Ruby who was snickering to herself at the display.
"... Ruby… What did you do?" Weiss asked, her eyes still fixed on the two professors that she respected, who were now running around in circles to chase a chicken. She knew fully well, along with just about every other student at school, that Ruby was the only person who would pull a prank that involved teachers.
"I brought chickens to school!" Ruby said with a large, proud smile. Even going so far as raising her chin and nose into the air to exaggerate her expression.
"I can see that, but what-"
Weiss stopped what she was saying, as she narrowed her eyes at a once again snickering Ruby. The type of snickering where she wanted to say something, but wouldn't until incited to do so. The kind of snickering where Ruby was pretty sure she had a joke, but knew that Weiss would not find humor in. It was the kind of snickering that Yang enjoyed though, because she knew that she would enjoy whatever it was that Ruby had to say.
"What is it?" Yang asked with a wide smile.
Ruby tried to bring her snickering under control, but only managed to speak out her mind in between bouts. "I… I brought cocks to school."
Weiss groaned at the comment as Yang snorted in amusement before allowing guffaws of laughter to consume the air, along with Nora and Jaune. Throwing a glance over to Blake, Ren, and Pyrrha Weiss's only hopes for maturity, she had hoped for someone to help back her in admonishing Ruby, but was remiss to find the three caught in small bouts of chortle. Blake and Ren both seemed to be hiding their amusement behind papers or a polite in front of their mouth, but Weiss was especially shocked to find Pyrrha laughing at such an immature comment. Though, the latter seemed try to cover up her merriment with a polite cough.
Regardless, Weiss allowed a small groan to escape as she rolled her eyes toward the ceiling.
She was surrounded by children.
"Awww, C'mon Weiss! It was funny!" Ruby whined, settling back down in her seat along with Pyrrha.
"Hardly." Weiss deadpanned
"So why the cocks?" Yang asked, allowing snickers to take over as she said the word.
"It's not about the cocks." Ruby said.
"Then what's with the cocks?" Nora asked
"Can you stop calling the chickens that!" Weiss demanded
"Well, the point of the cocks is to make the teachers run around." Ruby said, ignoring Weiss's request.
Everyone stared at her with a raised brow, knowing that there was more to the prank then just that.
"... There's also only 3 cocks on campus." Ruby finished with a whisper before giggles overtook her.
Everyone knitted their brows in question, not sure what Ruby was speaking of until they heard a yell of triumph from outside, garnering their attention.
"Alright, we finally-" Glynda heaved a sigh, swiping loose strands of her hair that came undone from her bun to the side. "Have 3 of them. Now to just find the last one."
"I'll say! This took much longer than I thought!" Ooblek commented, struggling to keep all of the chickens under his arm under control. "Maybe we ought to keep these fellas somewhere safe before we search for number 3 hm?"
Glynda nodded in approval before turning away, "I swear, the next time Miss Fall pulls something like this again, you can be certain that she'll be the one to clean up her own mess!"
"Now now Glynda," Ooblek placated as he followed after, "While this activity did indeed take up most of the day, you must admit that it was interesting. Besides, it's not as though you don't enjoy it. Otherwise Miss Fall wouldn't continue to pull pranks on you."
Glynda allowed a sigh to escape, "Of course."
As the two teachers stalked away, the room erupted into more laughter as Weiss stared at Ruby in disbelief. "You're sending our teachers on a ghost hunt."
"Just those two, they're the only ones who were free." Ruby stated, fluttering her eyes with a look of angelic innocence.
"I… You know what? I'm not even going to try." Weiss stated, shaking her head as she went back to the material in front of her.
It was a sign for everyone else to settle back down and to return to their study session as well, but this time, with a bit more of amusement in the air.
At some point, Ruby felt Pyrrha's gaze on her while she was waiting for Blake to review her notes, raising her head in question.
Pyrrha merely smiled in response, shaking her head to indicate that she didn't wish to talk at the moment. Most likely to avoid disrupting the quiet focus that had finally settled in the room.
Not wanting to drop it, Ruby quickly scribbled on a spare piece of paper and passed it over to the other.
"Do you need help with something?"
Pyrrha's smile brightened in glee upon reading the note, and wrote something back in her much more neat and legible cursive writing.
"Actually, I wished to inquire if you are willing to spar with me some time? I haven't fought so hard before since our match, and I think with you, I could learn a lot to better myself."
Ruby bit her lip in contemplation, hesitantly casting a quick glance up to Pyrrha who returned the look with a small smile.
Unsure and wary of the request, Ruby wondered if there were any benefits for her or the mission for accepting it.
Pyrrha was one of the most respected students and fighter on campus, and after their match a few weeks ago, Ruby's status as a fighter rose up to par as well. There was no benefit to her in regards to that, and therefore no reason to accept it in the name of the mission.
On the other hand, a regular spar session would allow Ruby to continue building and renewing her skills as well as other tactics when it came to heavy hitters like Pyrrha. It would be beneficial to her as a fighter.
Still, that also meant that Pyrrha would improve as well…
Ruby chewed the inside of her cheek, before writing down her response.
"Alright"
Pyrrha's smile seemed to widen at the acceptance as she mouthed the words "Thank you" to Ruby, garnering an uncertain smile.
Well, one main reason Ruby came to the school was to help improve herself. She might as well take every chance she got she thought with a yawn.
As the study session continued on, Ruby slowly became more and more tired.
Around the 3 hour mark, where everyone was pretty much finished and it was close to curfew, Ruby had completely succumbed herself to the comfort of the table and was snoozing to the amusement of everyone.
"She's actually kind of cute like this." Nora commented with a grin, lightly poking Ruby's cheek.
"I prefer her like this," Weiss scoffed, gathering up Ruby's material and neatly placing them in her bag. "At the very least she's not causing any sort of trouble when asleep."
"She's not waking up." Blake whispered after lightly shaking her leader a few times.
"That's okay, I got her." Yang replied, carefully trying to pick Ruby up.
"Here, let me help." Blake suggested.
Yang nodded in gratitude as the two managed to place Ruby on Yang's back.
"Thank you for allowing us to study with you." Weiss stated, turning toward the members of team JNPR.
"It was no problem. We benefitted from it as well." Ren stated.
Weiss nodded, shuffling Ruby's bag onto her shoulder before walking through the door that Blake held open.
By the time team RWBY had left for their dorm room, JNPR all began stretching before they began cleaning up and rearranging their room once again.
The sound of a vibration reverberated through the door room, causing confusion amongst the team.
"Whose scroll is that?" Jaune asked
"Not mine!" Nora stated, "Mine's gone!"
Ren sighed at the proclamation. "I have it, and it's not mine either."
"Oh!" Pyrrha sounded, noticing the scroll left on the study table they used, "I do believe that's Ruby's scroll"
"Should we give it back to her? They're just across the hallway." Jaune mentioned.
Pyrrha shook her head, picking the phone up as it vibrated again. "No, she's already asleep. I'll give it back to her tomorrow." She said, peeking at the screen and noticing 2 new messages from a "Sparkle Butt", causing an amused brow to raise at the name.
Cinder stood silently at the door to her little sister's bedroom door, allowing only the light from the hallway to shine in the room. Standing there for a few minutes, she finally took a slow, silent step into the room and took it in.
It was so like her sister.
Small, airy, and when the sun came up - so filled with light. Even when the sun moved across the sky and was about to set, or even when the moon was high in the sky, the room would still be filled with light due to the fixed, large skylights.
Even the walls, painted a burgundy were accented with a single, muted yellow stripe a quarter down from the top, gave a clue to Ruby's personality posters of weapon designs and robots neatly lined around. Her single, short yet wide bookcase she built herself was set to fit under the bay window to form a semi couch with black covered cushions, orange and yellow pillows littering the area along with a large stuffed animal that Mercury gave her. Books ranging from all sorts of fiction to academia filled the case, leaving no room to be free space.
Cinder laughed to herself, if Ruby were home then most of those books would be littering around her room and there would be plenty of space on the bookshelves.
She continued looking around the room, noting the cleanliness of the walnut desk and bulletin board hanging above, free of scattered papers that would usually be filled with missions and operations for mundane items or pranks. A few pictures were still pinned at the side of the board of herself with other household members. Usually with silly facial expressions or poses.
Cinder's feet continued walking, shifting from the cold hardwood floor to the comfort of a large, circular eggshell white rug in the middle of the room, accented with a light, military green and brown to frame it. The only object placed on the rug was the foot of Ruby's full sized bed, held up with a plain, dark wooden frame of a sleigh bed with just a headboard set in the center of the wall. A dark, wooden dresser with picture frames and knickknacks set neatly across the top against the other wall.
Cinder slowly lowered herself to sit at the foot of the bed, placing her weight atop the pink and white patterned throw blanket that was neatly folded over the plain brown comforter. Continuing to lower herself, Cinder laid herself across the bed until her head rested on white pillows, sinking further against larger, slated gray pillows.
The older sister couldn't help but chuckle to herself, Ruby's bed was so much smaller than her own.
… The room was so much colder without Ruby.
"Wow, it's so much cleaner without Red in here." Roman's voice cut through the quiet air.
"No kidding." Mercury followed wil a slight snort, "It's usually a lot more cluttered."
"Did you two finish the job?" Cinder asked, turning over to the side and swinging her feet over to sit up.
"Yeah," Mercury sighed with a wave of his hand. "The body is now at the bottom of a river where the grim can eat it."
"And the trail?" Cinder asked with a raised brow, getting off the bed and straightening it out.
"Leads off and toward Vacuo." Roman said with a small smile of approval. He threw his hands up into a shrug as he shook his head, "So if someone picks up where this leads off, they'll go in the wrong way."
Cinder hummed in thought as the bed was fixed to her liking, "This person came a bit too close." She commented.
"Well, he was pretty good." Mercury thoughtfully said aloud, "Though, he made the mistake of actually trying to follow Ruby."
"Have you told her yet?"
"Yup, right after we finished." Mercury nodded.
Cinder nodded, eyeing the pictures on the dresser before settling on a specific one. "She'll be happy." She noted, picking up the frame.
Roman laughed, "Oh yeah, she'll probably be bouncing in joy. She was so annoyed when she noticed she was being followed again."
Mercury joined in for a moment before continuing with his report, "I told her about the other thing too." He mentioned, checking his phone real quick and noting the time. "She hasn't replied yet, so she's probably asleep."
Cinder smiled, pleased at the idea that her little sister will be happy as she placed down the frame containing a picture of the two sisters smiling widely as they hugged one another. "Good. Now we just have to wait for Emerald and Neo to come back with the supplies."
AN: Hello again! I'm sorry that it took so long to update, I've been hitting a snag in life and all that other stuff. Thank you all for commenting and giving support though! It really helps :) If you ever wonder how my progress on the story is coming along, feel free to check up on my Tumblr (under the same username as here) as I do put up my progress and items I'm working on for the week. Once again, Thank you!