A/N: Okay, chapter 4, nice and quickly. I had most of this written when I started again, and I've got a bit more done, so hopefully chapter 5 will be out soon. This one is a little shorter than the others, but it was becoming too big so I decided I'd split it into chapters 4 and 5, rather than having one 7000 word long chapter. So expect chapter 5 to be out soon (hopefully) and for it to be the longest chapter to date. Soon things begin happening...

"… And so, as I'm sure you've been told, we'll be having our first tournaments in a few weeks' time."

Professor Ozpin was standing on the stage in the auditorium, speaking to the entire student body at our weekly assembly. "There will be four tournaments taking place, one for each year group. Any performers, or groups of performers, who feel that they'd like to participate need to fill out a sign up form—which will be made available to you—and submit it to your year co-ordinators by this time next week."

Ruby sat in the middle of the auditorium, in between Yang and Weiss. She was sitting forward in her seat, listening to Ozpin excitedly. She looked back at Yang, a grin plastered across her face. Yang smiled back, she knew what Ruby was going to ask as soon as they got back to the room. Ruby turned her gaze back to Ozpin, looking on in excitement.

"Make sure you hand your forms in as soon as you can," Ozpin continued. "We only have so many spots, and we need to know how many entrants we have as soon as we can. If too many people sign up, we will need to have preliminary rounds to see who gets in. And, lastly, whoever wins the tournament will win the prize, but the two finalists will both win entry to the end of year tournament. So if you want to be in involved in the end of year performances, you'd be advised to do your best in this first tournament. That will be all."

Ozpin turned around and walked off the stage. The auditorium was suddenly filled with noise as students got out of their chairs and started talking to each other. Ruby rocketed her feet, smiling and bouncing.

"Yes, yes." Yang said placatingly. "We'll talk about when we get back to the room." Ruby squeaked with excitement and took the lead as they made their out.

After weaving through throngs of students and getting lost, Blake took the lead and brought them to their room. Ruby burst in the room, throwing herself across the room to land on her bed.

"So we're doing this right?" She asked excitedly. Her gaze rapidly shifted between the other three girls. She had a smile on her face that couldn't possibly be any wider.

"I don't know, Ruby." Weiss said as she sat on her own bed. "Are we really ready to be performing?"

"Of course we are!" Ruby cried, spinning to face Weiss. "We've been practicing for weeks!"

"I'm going to have to agree with Ruby here, Weiss." Blake said. "I think we're ready. Even if we don't win, we need to start performing. We need to get used to each other on stage."

"It'll be fun." Yang added. "Besides, I miss playing in front of people."

"I think we should put it to a vote!" Weiss said with a frown.

"I think we just did." Ruby laughed. "All in favour say 'I'!"

"I!" Ruby, Blake and Yang chorused, raising their hands. Ruby looked down at Weiss and gave her an encouraging smile.

Weiss rolled her eyes and stood up, raising her own hand. "I," she muttered. Ruby cried out in joy and pulled Weiss into a hug.

"This is going to be great!" Ruby squealed.

The girls filled out their application form the next day and handed it in to their year co-ordinator. Then, after their classes were over, they started working out what song they wanted to play.

"Well it's a three round tournament." Ruby said. "So we need three songs."

"We'll need a fourth one," Weiss corrected her. "In case we need to do a preliminary round,"

"Weiss is right." Blake said. "So what songs do we have?"

"This Will Be the Day, Mirror Mirror, From Shadows and I Burn."

"I Burn?" Weiss asked. "I've not heard that one."

"Oh…" Yang said, blushing. "That's one I wrote. I don't really play it much. It's kind of embarrassing."

"Don't be embarrassed!" Ruby said. "It's a great song." Yang smiled her thanks at Ruby, her cheeks still a lightish red.

"Well I guess you'll have to show it to us." Blake said with a smirk. "We need to hear it before we can decide if we want to play it." She nudged Yang to her feet.

Yang loosed a half-hearted kick at Blake as she walked over to her drum kit. "Come on Ruby," she sighed, defeated. "They're not going to stop until they hear it now."

Ruby giggled at Yang's expression as she picked up Crescent Rose and slung it over her shoulder. She turned on her amp and stood behind her microphone. Blake moved over to sound proof the room.

"So you sing this one too, Ruby?" She asked as the hit the button.

"Yeah," Yang answered. "I don't really like singing."

Blake shrugged and sat back down.

"Okay," Ruby said with a glance back at Yang. "You good to go?"

"Whenever you're ready," Yang replied. Ruby took a deep breath and hit her strings. She cut each chord short.

"Come at me," she sang as Yang joined in with her drums. "And you'll see I'm more than meets the eye."

"I burn! Swing all you want… Like a fever I will take you down!" Yang crashed her cymbals on Ruby's last words as she rang out her guitar. She looked up with a smile as Weiss and Blake applauded.

"Wow that was good." Blake said. "I'm happy to play that one in the tournament. We'll have to spend some time to learn it though."

"I've got the sheet for it in my file of stuff somewhere…" Yang said as she pulled out the folder in question. She dug through it, shuffling papers around and pulling one out. She handed it over to Blake and Weiss, and they began reading through it.

"Is there no keyboard part?" Weiss asked.

"No," Yang answered. "Ruby and I wrote this one, and we didn't have a keyboard player. But we have time to write one, if we decide to do it."

"Okay," Weiss nodded. "I'm happy with it. If we can take some time before we start rehearsing it to write a part for me, then it'll be great."

"We'll see what we can do," Yang said. "I can't really think of a way that we can fit it anything really big and flashy though, so you might be restricted to back up parts."

"That's fine," Weiss said. "As long as I've got something to do."

"Okay," Yang laughed. "Well I guess we'd better get started."

Once again, they lost themselves in the fervour of music. Days flashed by while they worked on their new song. It was finished a lot faster than From Shadows; most of it had already been written. Rehearsals and working in a part for the keyboard had only taken a few days, and it was finished by the weekend.

It was late Saturday morning when the music of their last rehearsal faded away. Ruby stood in front of the others, panting lightly. Yang wiped sweat off her forehead and slumped back on her stool. Even Blake had a few drops of sweat running down her face, though Weiss was as composed as ever.

Ruby spun around the face the others. "Great job, guys!" she cried as she jumped up and down with excitement.

They all smiled back at her, and Blake reached out to pat her on the shoulder. Ruby gave her a grin in return and picked up Crescent Rose, swinging the strap over her head, and put it on its stand.

"Well," Yang said. "I guess we're covered for the tournament."

"Definitely," Weiss said. She'd been happy with the way I Burn had turned out, even if she had only ended up playing background parts. "The fourth song is only a contingency, but I feel safer having it as back-up."

"Alright!" Blake said, clapping her hands. "Well I say we take the rest of the day off. We can rehearse all our songs again tomorrow. We should probably play them at least once or twice a day until the tournament, just so we don't lose them. But I think we've all earned a rest."

Yang toppled over on to her bed and, less than a second later, started snoring. It was hard to blame her; they had pulled a few late nights.

Blake raised an eyebrow at Yang's unmoving form. "Well I guess we know what she's doing."

Ruby giggled. "What are you two going to do?"

Blake sighed. "I've got to go and see one of my tutors. Got something to deal with… I don't even really know what."

"Ah, that sucks," Ruby said.

"It is what it is," Blake said with a wry smile. "I'll see you guys later." She spun her bass around, so it was hanging off her back, and stepped into the hall with a wave.

Ruby spun to face Weiss. "So what're you doing this afternoon?" Ruby asked.

Weiss looked up from her laptop and glanced out the window. "I… uh… I was going to go into the city for a while. You don't have to come with me."

"No way!" Ruby cried. "I'll come with you. We've been cooped up in this room for ages. Let's go and have some fun!"

Weiss smiled. "Well… okay. If you're sure."

Ruby nodded eagerly. "Of course! Come on. Let me have a shower, and then we can head out."

"Okay," Weiss said. "I'll have one after you, though. Then we can go."

Ruby dashed into the bathroom, stripped and jumped in the shower. As excited as she was to go out, she couldn't help but linger in the shower. After a morning full of playing, a cool shower was the most refreshing thing in the world. She closed her eyes and let out a contented sigh as the water poured down on her. She looked up, towards the shower head, and let the stream of water pour down on her face, washing her hair back.

After far too short a time, there was a knock at the door.

"Ruby?" Weiss asked, her voice muffled by the door between them. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, Weiss. I'm fine," Ruby called out. "Sorry, I'll be out in a minute."

She washed in a hurry, turned off the shower and stepped back into the bedroom with a towel wrapped around her. Weiss looked up as the bathroom door opened, but turned away when she saw Ruby's almost-nudity.

"Ruby!" she hissed. "What're you—"

"Don't worry about it," Ruby said quietly. She glanced over at Yang, making sure she was still asleep. "Just get in the shower already," she added with a grin.

Weiss huffed in frustration and entered the bathroom. Once Ruby heard the shower turn back on, she shed her towel and fished through her drawers for a fresh change of clothes. She pulled out a pair of jeans and a long shirt that flared out at the bottom, almost looking like a short cut dress.

Yang shuffled around on her bed a few times as Ruby dressed, but she didn't wake up, for which Ruby was eternally grateful. Even though Yang was her sister, she didn't want to have to explain why she was standing in the middle of the communal bedroom stark naked.

Ruby was just finishing lacing up her boots when Weiss walked out, snatched up some clothes from the end of her bed, and vanished back into the bathroom. Ruby grabbed her tablet, her wallet, and a guitar pick, and slipped them all into her pockets. She never went anywhere without a pick; one never knew when the opportunity to play the guitar would arise.

Weiss came out of the bathroom, dressed in a pure white outfit: a tight blouse, a skirt, and a light jacket. She had a purse slung over one shoulder, and was wearing her usual high-heeled boots. She gave Ruby a smile and opened the door.

"All ready to go?" she asked.

Ruby nodded. "Let's get to it."

They stepped into the corridor, closed the door behind them and locked it. Then, with a shared smile, they headed towards the main hall, and the train station that waited just outside the school's main doors.

The sun was hanging high in the clear, blue sky by the time they made it into Vale. Beacon was built on a hilltop just outside the city, overlooking the sprawling the metropolis, and it took a short, ten minute train ride to get from Beacon into the Vale city centre.

Ruby looked up as they stepped out of the train station. The sun was almost directly above them, shining its light and warmth down into the street. The light bounced off the sides of the immense buildings that towered up all around them and filling the area with little patches of reflected light—like all the times, when she was little, that Ruby had held her watch in the sunlight and bounced the light into Yang's eyes.

Ruby spun in a circle, gazing upwards all the while. This was the first time she'd gone into Vale since the semester had started—they'd been too busy over the last few weeks with the song they were writing or rehearsing—and she could barely contain her excitement.

Growing up on Patch—the smaller island off the coast of Vale—as she and Yang had, provided few opportunities to venture into the city. They'd taken a ferry in before—it wasn't her first time in the city—but they'd rarely had the time or freedom to just explore, like Ruby was looking forward to doing now.

She stopped spinning and looked down at Weiss, who was watching her with a faintly amused expression.

"So," Ruby said, excitedly. "What's the plan?"

Weiss blinked in surprise. "I thought you had somewhere you wanted to go."

Ruby cocked her head to the side. "No… I don't know the city very well. I've only ever been here a couple of times, and never for very long."

"Oh…" Weiss mumbled. She looked around for a few seconds, watching the people milling about around them. "Well, how about a music store?"

Ruby leapt at the suggestion. "Really? Is there one here?" she squealed.

"Of course there is," Weiss said. "Are you kidding? Vale is the biggest city around for miles and one of the biggest on the entire continent. How could there not be a music store?"

Ruby blushed for a moment, but quickly recovered. "So where is it?" she asked, her voice almost pleading.

Weiss looked around, getting her bearings. "It's… uh… this way." She pointed across the road to their right. "It's a little bit of a walk from here, but we should get there in about ten minutes."

The streets of Vale were filled with all kinds of people walking along the streets: groomed businessmen, rough-looking tradesmen, couples, families, and a few Beacon students that Ruby recognised. All of the students that Ruby noticed seemed to be walking in the same direction.

Ruby made most of the conversation as they walked, prattling on about whatever caught her eye. Weiss let her talk without saying much. She replied whenever Ruby asked her a direct question, but for the most part she just walked in silence.

From time to time Ruby caught Weiss looking up and down the street nervously, as if she was looking for someone, or keeping an eye on someone.

It wasn't until they spotted the sign for the music store—across the road ahead, a hundred yards further along the road—that Ruby decided to bring it up.

"Weiss," she said softly. "Is everything okay?"

Weiss flinched at the question and met Ruby's concerned gaze with one of anxiety. She gathered her composure quickly, her usual calm exterior returning within seconds.

"Of course," she said with a smile. "I'm fine."

Ruby raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure? You like you're worried about something, or looking for someone."

Weiss' smile faltered for an instant. "I… I'm just looking for someone. I have an old friend that spends a lot of time around here. I thought I might be able to find them."

Ruby cocked her head to side. "Then why do seem so nervous?"

Weiss took a moment to glance down the street again. "We had a… falling out the last time we met. And I don't quite know how he'd react if he saw me again."

"Oooh! 'He', huh?" Ruby asked, her voice layered with curiosity. "Is he an old boyfriend?"

Weiss smiled slightly at Ruby's sudden, innocent curiosity, though it quickly faded. "Something like that," she mumbled.

Ruby's smile vanished as she saw Weiss' sudden sadness. "Oh, Weiss… Sorry. I… uh… That was dumb thing to say."

Weiss gave her a smile. "Don't worry about it. You weren't to know. Come on, the store's just there. Let's go look at some instruments and forget it ever happened."

A grin spread across Ruby's face. "Okay. Sounds good."

They walked the last hundred yards to the music shop in silence. Ruby had to force herself to walk, had to restrain herself from running, but, eventually, they made it to the door. Weiss pulled it open and Ruby held her breath as they stepped across the threshold.