Ruby peered around the corner leading into the cafeteria. Dozens of students meandered around within the room, trafficking plates of delicious, sweet waffles.

But she had a mission, a mission that must be completed before she could consume any food of the waffle variety. She had to find a certain red head…

"You do realise that you can't avoid her forever, right?" Weiss states, sneaking up behind her. Ruby jumped at her voice, and then turns around, pasting on a smile.

"What do you mean?" She put her hands together and stared down. "I'm not avoiding Pyrrha—I mean anyone!"

Weiss snorts, "Sure, Mrs. "Is Pyrrha okay?" Her voice becomes squeaky, "Oh but don't tell her I asked! It'll look creepy!"

Ruby kicked her, not hard, but enough to feel it. "S-shut up!"

Weiss shook her head. "Come on, let's just go in there and eat. Blake and Yang are already in there, see?" She pointed them out. Yang waved, Blake glanced away from her book.

Ruby sighed, and then threw up her hands.

"Fine. Fine, I'm going."

She walked in, Weiss trailing behind her with a smug grin firmly affixed to her face.

Ruby closed her eyes, breathed in, and grabbed a tray. She grabbed a dozen waffles, and drowned them in syrup.

So far so good.

She reached to pick up some strawberries, but a gauntlet encased arm blocked her.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" The hand pulled away, and Ruby turned to look at the face of Pyrrha Nikos.

Ruby stared at her, unable to speak. Pyrrha shuffled her feet.

"Oh it's, it's okay!" She managed to say, quickly stepping away from Pyrrha. "I'lljustgooverherebye!" She ran off towards her table.

Once she arrived, she hit Weiss in the shoulder.

Weiss rubbed her warm where she hit her. "What was that for?" She said, glaring at Ruby.

"Don't tell me you didn't see!" She groaned and dropped her head onto the table. "Now I'll never be able to talk to her again! I'll have to change all my classes and—" A waffle suddenly smacked her in the head, the syrup sticking to her hair. She looked to Yang, who was hoisting another waffle in her hands.

"Sorry Rubes," She said, putting down the waffle, "But you were kinda panicking."

Ruby peeled off the waffle, "Of course I'm panicking! I s-still…" She said with her voice cracking. She stopped and looked over to Pyrrha, who was sitting down with her team.

"How do you talk to someone that you let die?"

The table grew silent. Yang winced, realising what she brought up.

Ruby picked up her fork and went to consume her breakfast, but discovered her plate was missing. Whipping her head around, she found Weiss digging into her pile.

"Weiss! Those are my waffles!" She yelled, and started to shake the white haired girl.

Weiss swallowed, and said, "You weren't eating them!"

Seeing the looks of shock around the table, she coughed, "A-and you're being a dunce!" She turned Ruby around to face Pyrrha.

She leaned in close, "Do you really think that she would care about it? She chose to attack Cinder, and she chose to do it alone. You tried, and that's all she would have wanted. "

Ruby started to speak, but Weiss stuffed a waffle into her mouth.

"No, don't ruin this by thinking about it. Just eat your waffle, and when you talk to her again, say hi. Got it?" Weiss said. Ruby nodded, a muffled "Yes" barely understandable through the waffle.

Ruby swallowed, and turned around.

"Okay, okay, fine." She closed her eyes, whispered something under her breath, and stood up.

"I'm going to go talk to her right now!" She yelled, and wilted under the stares of the other tables.

Yang stood up and cheered, "Go Rubes!"

Grinning, Ruby ran off to JNPR's table, but slowed down once she got close. Pyrrha and Jaune were discussing the finer points of swords—well, Pyrrha was, Jaune was more just listening—and Nora was balancing an empty plate on her nose with a fork. Ren looked with his head in his arms.

"I can do this… I can do this…" She whispered, and then shyly waved her hand.

"Hi Pyrrha."

Pyrrha, flashing a brilliant grin, waved back.

"Hello again… Ruby, correct?"

Ruby slowly nodded.

"Well then," She stood up and grasped Ruby's hand, "It's nice to meet you."

"Uh yeah, same here." She let go of Pyrrha's hand and stared upwards for a minute.

"So… how you doing after the fight a few days ago?" She asked, remembering how JNPR had finished the fight.

Pyrrha frowned slightly, "I'm fine. Mostly. Well, the doctors say I'll be able to join my team in combat in a few more days, assuming I continue to follow their instructions."

Ruby face fell, and she started to sniffle "I'm so sorry about that."

Ruby felt a hand on her shoulder, and she looked up into Pyrrha's concerned filled eyes.

"Don't be sorry, it's not your fault."

Ruby pulled off her hand, "But it is! I should've helped! I should have turned around or—"

"And leave your team to deal with a Goliath?" Pyrrha crouched down to Ruby's eye level.

"Never be sorry for trying to help your friends Ruby. Succeed or fail, as long as you try it doesn't matter."

Ruby stared at her, before she began to giggle. The giggle soon burst out into a full laugh and with tears streaming down her face, she pulled Pyrrha into a spine breaking hug.

She stayed like that for a few minutes, long enough that even someone as socially inept as her could tell was getting a little awkward. So she pulled away, and wiped the tears from her eyes.

"So, I'm sorry for running away on you like that. I was just a little… scared, I guess."

Pyrrha waved it away, "Don't worry about it." She grinned, "It's happened before. Although you're a little too young for me, I'm afraid. And I don't like girls in that way and-" She stopped, and noticed Ruby had frozen.

"Ruby? Are you alright?" She quickly waved her hand in front of Ruby's face, but got no reaction.

Jaune leaned out from behind her, "I think you broke her."

A cold cup of water and some hasty apologies later, Ruby zipped back to her own table.

"So, how did it go?" Yang asked, before Ruby shushed her.

"What? I'm just—" "SHH!"

"What—" "SHH!"

Yang groaned, "Fine. I'll stop asking."

Ruby sighed in relief, before pulling out a binder. She opened it to a schedule.

"Okay then! So, classes! We've got…" She trailed off, her eyes widening like a tunnel.

Yang leaned over. "What is it oh my God…"

Blake closed her book.

"What's going on?" She asked.

"It's him…" Ruby whispered in awe.

"Who?"

Qrow leaned heavily on the desk, partially unpacked boxes littering the ground around him. He drank heavily from a flask. Thankfully, he didn't seem too be really drunk yet. He pulled the flask away and threw it behind him, before gazing into the assembled crowd of students with an appraising eye.

"So," He said, his voice full of scorn, "This is Ozzie's latest batch." He shook his head, before pushing himself off the counter.

"My name is Qrow. It's not professor Qrow or Mr. Qrow or whatever, just Qrow." His eyes settled on Ruby, "I suspect some of you know this."

He coughed, "Since Ozpin finally got his head out of his ass, I'm now the one of two people teaching combat. Don't worry; you'll still have Glynda to ogle on Tuesdays and Thursdays. But for Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays?" He spread out his arms, "You've got me."

Ruby hit the desk with a thump, cursing out an uncle with all the swearwords an innocent fifteen year old knew.

Uncle Qrow was a great person, he really was. But it wasn't his manners that kept him employed at Signal for all those years.

"So, first thing for today then." He pulled out his sword and rammed it into the ground.

"Pop quiz!" He peered out into the audience, as if it was dark. After a minute, he grinned, and pointed towards Pyrrha. "You, tournament lady, get down here."

Pyrrha shook her head, and said "Sir, I haven't been cleared for combat yet. I was told it would delay my recovery."

"Doesn't matter," He pointed his sword at her, rotating the blade downwards and showcasing the barrels. "Grimm don't care about doctors' orders."

Sighing, Pyrrha began to make her way down the steps. Ruby's grip on her pencil tightened enough to make it snap. Didn't he understand what he was doing?

Qrow shook his head, "No! I meant," He leapt, smashing his sword into Pyrrha's back and sending her over his desk.

"Attack me!"

Pyrrha rose from behind the desk, weapons at the ready.

She charged, swinging her sword down on his hard enough to make them sing.

Before she could even blink, Qrow struck from behind, smashing the pommel of his sword into her spine.

He went to strike again, but Pyrrha barely manages to activate her semblance in time, moving the blade just above her body.

Seizing the brief advantage, she struck hard with her shield, ramming the sharp edge into his stomach. He grunted, before he quickly pushed her away.

Most of the audience had forgotten their seats, preferring to stand and not miss a thing. Ruby was nowhere to be seen.

Qrow took a step, and suddenly he was in Pyrrha's face swinging his sword. She tried to throw it off, but he simply shifted his arm and kept it straight.

She closed her eyes, and braced for impact. She started to lift her shield, but she knew she would never pull it up in time.

Suddenly, gunfire rang out. The impact Pyrrha had been dreading never came, and she tentatively opened her eyes.

Qrow's sword was nailed to the wall, kept there by a red scythe. Up this close, Pyrrha can see the small amount of nicks and dents visible in the frame.

She looks at him, and she will admit it's nice to see him look surprised. It fades quickly, replaced by a smug smile.

"Ah, I see someone's getting bored." He pulled his sword out, leaving a rather limp Ruby hanging on to it. "Redhead steeling your thunder?"

"NO! I just… she doesn't look so good right now." She tilted her head towards Pyrrha, and Qrow had to admit that she had a point. Pyrrha had tried to get up, but she could barely keep herself from collapsing on the ground.

Qrow sighed, "Fine." He then threw Ruby back into the crowd. "Now that we've had our demonstration…" He pulled Pyrrha up to her feet, seemingly unconcerned by how shaky she was.

"So," he began, pushing Pyrrha back to a waiting Jaune, "anyone want to tell me where Pyrrha went wrong?"

Various members of the class spoke up in defense of their comrade, stating that Pyrrha was still sick, of course Qrow won. How she would beat him in a heartbeat in a real match. Qrow simply smirked, and drank out of his flask.

Weiss spoke up, "She approached it like it was a tournament fight."

Qrow stopped drinking, and stared down the bottle towards the heiress.

"…Heh, so we do have some talent here." He holstered his drink and gestured for her to continue.

"Well…" She started, and all the eyes in the room turned towards her. She squirmed in her seat, and then spoke again, with more conviction.

"She was still recovering from injury, yet she attacked you like it was a normal fight. In order to survive an encounter with an enemy in her condition, she would have had to find some way of gaining an advantage."

"And what would that be?" He smirked, and Weiss started to grind her teeth. She remembered how he attacked Winter without warning. Suddenly she had an idea.

"The pipes." She said, straining to keep her voice level. "The school walls all contain pipes. If those were taken down, the water could distract you or interfered with your movements. Then she should have either attacked or retreated."

Qrow stared at her, studying her. Weiss began to wonder if she said something wrong.

Suddenly Qrow sheathed his sword, and the bell rang shortly afterwards.

"Well, I guess that's that for today." He smirked at Ruby, "Something tells me that I'll be seeing some of you later."

Thankfully for RWBY's frazzled nerves, the next class was Ports lecture. Having already heard it before, even Weiss felt comfortable ignoring it in favor of talking with her team.

Ruby opened their dialogue, "What's Uncle Qrow doing here?"

Weiss whispered back, "I thought you two would have known! He's your uncle!"

"Yeah but he's still working at Signal! Or I mean he was last time."

"What if he never was?" Blake said, causing the other four to stare in shock at her.

She shifted her gaze, "It's just a rumor I remember from… the White Fang. Some guy with a sword, really dangerous. Kept on stalking our, the Fang's messengers." She shrugged. "Maybe it was him?"

Yang shook her head, "No way. Qrow was way too busy to be working for anyone full time. Right Rubes? Rubes?" She looked over to her sister, only to see her biting her lip.

"He…did say he knew Ozpin." Ruby said slowly, like the words were molasses. "And Ozpin wanted to talk to him when he got here."

"Winter knew him too."

"And that means…?" Yang groaned loudly and leaned back. "You know what? Maybe we're overthinking this. He probably just got bored teaching kids how to hold their weapons in Signal."

"Ah! I see we have a volunteer." Port boomed out, shocking RWBY into paying attention. "Miss Xiao Long, since you clearly believe you do not need to pay attention, you may battle this ferocious creature."

Yang stared at him, before standing up. "Sure, no problem sir." She said with her hands clenched. "I'll go fight your horribly dangerous giant pig."

Port's eyes narrowed, "Go retrieve your weapons."

A few minutes later, she stood in front of the class, her gauntlets armed. She had quickly switched to her normal outfit while grabbing her weapons, as the school uniforms were not very well designed for actual combat.

The class watched in anticipation. Rumors had quickly spread throughout the school about what Yang was capable of. Many of the students watching had actually seen her battling the Goliath. Such a feat was rare amongst professional huntsmen and huntresses, let alone someone who had yet to even enter Beacon.

Port lifted his weapon.

"Begin!" He yelled, and smashed the lock with the axe blades. The Boarbatusk ran out and roared like a demon. It lifted its snout into the air, sniffing out its next target. Its blood red eyes swept the crowd, searching for the delicious morsel it could feel.

"Hey! Four eyes! I'm the one you want! Come on!" Yang yelled, brandishing her gauntlets.

The monster turned, shifting focus towards the much closer target.

It stormed towards her, head down, tusks up.

Shortly before it hit it curled into a ball, revving up on the floor. It drove itself straight into Yang.

Who then proceeded to grab the thing while it was still moving, lift it over her head, and punch it in the stomach several times, spraying black blood across the roof.

Eventually she dropped the gored Boarbatusk on the ground. Wordlessly, she rejoined her team. Weiss pushed her a few inches away.

"W-well then, apparently we are in the presence of a true Huntress in-training!" Port said, wiping off his jacket. "That's all the time we have for today. Tomorrow we will begin discussing Grimm eating habits!"

The bell rang, and the classroom quickly emptied. Yang ran out before her team mates could talk.

"Is she alright?" Weiss asked, packing up her books.

"I don't know. She's never gotten mad at a teacher before…" Ruby said, slinging her backpack over her shoulder. She started to run after her, but was stopped by Blake.

"No, Ruby, she won't say anything to you." She said, glancing back at Yang's retreating form. Ruby started to protest, but Blake cut her off.

"You're her sister. She won't say anything to you because of that. I'll go, alright?" Ruby started to pout. Blake sighed, "Look, if it's important, I'll tell you. She's probably just tired." She looked at Weiss.

"Can you keep her away for a few hours?" She asked, expecting Weiss to complain.

"Sure!" Weiss sang, causing Blake to stare at her in shock. "Come on Ruby, I've got something to show-," Catching the stares she was suddenly receiving, Weiss blushed pink, and spoke again, "I mean, of course Blake, I'd be happy to." She bowed slightly, before pulling an equally red Ruby away.

Aaand now there's something going on with Weiss too, isn't there?

She moaned, covering her eyes with her hand. She just wanted a simple first day, where the only problems they had were remembering what they had learned.

She really should have known it wouldn't be that simple.

Weiss dragged Ruby into their room. They had set it up almost identical to the way it was before, bunk beds and all. (Although she had insisted that they set up Ruby's bed with something sturdier looking than the ropes. So they chose steel cables.)

Ruby plopped down on Weiss's bed, and snuggled into her pillow. Despite her plans of following her sister and Blake, she was out like a light within seconds.

She looked so peaceful, sleeping the way she was. All Weiss wanted to do was fall down beside her, curl up into a ball and sleep…

She quietly slapped herself.

Get a hold of yourself! You. Are. A Schnee. Schnee's do not sleep between classes.

Normally such an argument would have kept her from even looking at the bed, but she couldn't stop herself.

She had been much the same way since the initiation. Perhaps it was simply some side effect of the medication she was on, but she kept on thinking random thoughts that simply had no place in her mind.

She didn't even like cookies, and yet she found herself consuming one of Ruby's many hidden stashes—not again!

She glared at the offending object. Already half of the baked good had been consumed by her, and she could taste the chocolate chips melting in her mouth.

"Listen to me, you stupid cookie. I am better than you." She growled, standing to her full (un)impressive height.

"You think that you'll beat me?" She scoffed, "I will beat you. You'll see! Soon you'll be ruing the day you ever crossed paths with Weiss Schnee!" She started to laugh, a laugh that stays in your head and haunts your dreams for the rest of your natural life. "You're nothing! Just some stupid combination of flour, eggs and—"

"Weiss?" Ruby asked, stirred from her slumber, "What are you doing?" She rubbed her eyes.

Weiss froze up, before jabbering, "I… uh, you see, I was simply…"

Ruby squinted at the cookie. Weiss glanced at it, and then stared at Ruby, putting on a nervous smile.

"Oh, you're just talking to a cookie. Good night Weiss." She yawned and fell back down.

Weiss sighed. Then she ate the cookie.

"Forget it; I'll just make sure to pay her back…"

Finding Yang had been easy. Just follow the cracked floor. Eventually Blake found her in the outskirts of the forest, blasting trees to cinders with Ember Celica. She called out to her from a distance, sneaking up on her right now was a bad idea.

"Yang!" She yelled, only just loud enough to be heard over her friend's rampant tree abuse. Yang whipped around, eyes red, but they quickly faded back to her normal violet upon seeing who it was.

"Hi Blake." She sighed, and both her gauntlets collapsed into their bracelet forms. "How long were you standing there?"

Blake tilted her head. "Just a minute. Why?"

"It's nothing." Yang breathed in, and started speaking with a modicum of her normal cheer, "So, what did you follow me out here for?"

Blake shrugged, "I was worried about you." She walked over and set her hand on Yang's shoulder. "You just stormed out of class, and none of us knew where you went."

Yang shoved her hand off. "Yeah, well I'm fine. So you can go tell Ruby that. Or did Qrow send you?"

Blake jumped slightly, startled. "Qrow? What does he have to do with this?"

Yang snorted, "Oh don't act like you don't know." She stormed off.

"Wait! Yang! Get back here!"

Yang turned around, but kept walking the same direction. "Why? So you can drag me back to him again?" She turned around and started running.

She ran through the forest, completely ignorant of what direction she was going or where she was. Blake, thankfully, was fast enough to keep up and track where they were.

Eventually Blake simply jumped in front of the Brawler, forcing Yang to a stop. She crossed her arms and glared at her.

"What are you doing Blake?" Yang growled at her, her eyes crimson red.

"Repaying a debt. Now," She pushed Yang down on a log. "Talk to me." She stared into Yang's eye, "Please. You know you can trust me."

Yang sighed, "I guess that's just it. He doesn't it."

"What do you mean?"

"Well," Yang shifted her eyes towards the ground. "When we were in Signal, Qrow would always be calling me into his office after classes." She picked up a leaf and started twirling it around. "He always said it was some extra practise or that he just wanted to spend time with his niece. But every time I went there." She crushed the leaf.

"Every time he asked me about Ruby. Or about what I had just done to try and find mom. It was like he was questioning me, and it was every day." The gaps between her fingers began to glow with orange light.

"I know why he does it. I do, really. But it just never stopped." She looked up at Blake, opening her hand and allowing the burnt ashes of the leaf to float away in the wind.

"It hurts, not being trusted. I mean, he's my uncle, so he's family and all that. But it just, it just hurts so much…" She wiped tears out of her eyes.

Blake's mind flashed back to a certain day in their dorm room. She pulled Yang into a hug.

"I trust you Yang, okay? I always will. I'm sorry about what I said, I... I should have known you would have never hurt him." She buried her nose in Yang's hair, smelt the lavender shampoo the brawler used. Tears of her own soon joined Yang's.

They sat like that for what felt like hours, the sun slowly crawling through the sky. Eventually Yang pulled away.

"A-anyways, it just sucks having looking over my shoulder all the time again. I was looking forward to having some time without that." She smiled, "But hey, maybe I, we can convince him we're up to the task, eh partner?"

Blake's response was to pull her to her feet.

"It's probably not a good start to miss your next class."

Yang laughed, "Ah, don't worry about that kitty! We still got…" She pulled out her scroll, and her joyful expression wilted, "Five minutes." She looked up, "I guess we better run… Blake?" There was no Blake near her.

"Blake? Blake? Oh no, you didn't leave me behind! I can't run fast enough!" She pocketed her scroll and groaned.

"When I find you, I'm going to make sure you never run again!" She yelled, and the sound echoed off the trees. Then she started to run.

She never heard the quiet giggle from the bush.