Ruby comes back to her dorm to find something upsetting, to say the least. And she isn't the only one who stumbles across it.
Okay, Ruby could admit, this was not fine.
She sniffled, staring wide eyed at the disaster hanging from her dorm room.
It was barely clinging to the feeble pieces of tape attaching it to the door. Ruby gingerly peeled it off, rubbing a bit of the dirt away with her thumb, and she took a moment to really take it in.
She couldn't even identify everything on it. There was clearly mud caked over most of it, the fabric itself was damp throughout, but the bottom looked like it had been burnt off, leaving only a frayed, blackened edge. It smelled rancid, and she had to stop herself from gagging as she got a good whiff of the stench. She looked at the inside of the hood, which was thankfully free of any dirt, but as she looked closer, it was a light pink instead of the usual red. They must have bleached it first before doing anything else to it.
Wonderful. Just fan-freaking-tastic.
With a start, she checked to make sure nobody else was around, before speeding inside the dorm, pulling the ruined cloak with her.
Once she was safely inside, she hung the fabric over the edge of her bed, silently apologizing to Weiss if the smell stayed around after Ruby found out what to do with the cloak. What could she even do to fix this?
Before that, how did they even get her cloak? She hadn't moved it from her room ever since she had been banned from wearing it around school. Well, they would have obviously found their way in here somehow. But students weren't allowed to come back to the dorms during school hours, unless they wanted to be about half an hour late to their class.
Cardin wouldn't have cared about that though, and neither would his friends.
With a shaky breath, Ruby examined her precious cloak once more. She gritted her teeth in a futile attempt to keep back the tears that leaked out of her eyes and streamed down her face.
She climbed up into her bed, pulling her knees into her chest as she sat on her pillows.
Her top half of her cloak sat next to her, a reminder of what she had put up with the past couple weeks. Burying her head further down, a muffled sob sneaked out, followed by another, and then another, until it all came pouring out.
Ruby didn't know how long she sat there, it felt like hours but it was probably only a few minutes, until she heard the door creak open.
She shot up, scrubbing the tears off her cheeks as she rushed to hide the cloak.
"Ruby?" Weiss asked, making Ruby jump.
Ruby kept her back to Weiss, scrunching up the cloak in her hands as she turned her head to give Weiss a smile.
"What are you holding?" Weiss tried to peer around Ruby, but Ruby twisted to keep her hands out of Weiss' sight.
Ruby only shook her head in response, edging away from Weiss as she looked for a good place to stuff the cloak under without Weiss noticing.
"Ruby I'm serious." Weiss warned, the ground underneath her lighting up as she summoned on of her glyphs.
Ruby narrowed her eyes, hoping Weiss would get the message and just stay out of this.
Weiss shot forward, her glyph boosting her speed as she shot past Ruby so she could finally see what the younger girl was hiding.
"Is this your cloak?" Weiss asked incredulously, staring at Ruby in shock as the young girl wilted under her gaze.
Ruby shook her head in tentative denial. Shrinking down even more as Weiss' glare turned sharp and irritated.
"Really Ruby? It certainly looks a lot like your cape, except I don't even want to know how you managed to get it in this condition." Weiss snapped back, crossing her arms.
Ruby shrugged, dropping her eyes to the ground, praying that Weiss would drop it here.
Weiss sighed, and Ruby hoped this meant her prayers would be answered.
"You didn't do this, did you." And there went Ruby's hopes, dashed into the ground as Weiss softened her stance.
"Was it Cardin's gang?" The question was clipped, and Ruby looked up to see Weiss tighten up again, her eyes narrowed.
Ruby shook her head, pulling her cloak in closer as she hunched her shoulders.
"Fine." Weiss walked away from her. "I'll just ask Yang then. Since you don't want to give me any straight answers."
Ruby barreled her way in front of Wiess, putting herself between Weiss and the door as she vigorously shook her head in protest.
"You don't want me to tell Yang?"
Ruby nodded, her body shaking with the motion.
"You-" Weiss started, raising herself up for a rebuke, only to then sigh in defeat. "Fine. I won't tell her."
Ruby gave a breath of relief, hoping her smile clearly conveyed her gratitude.
"But, if something like this happens again, you have to promise to take it straight to Professor Ozpin or Goodwitch."
Ruby slumped, giving a quiet grumble in protest.
"Promise? Or else I go and tell Yang everything I know right now." Weiss stared down at Ruby, her expression uncompromising.
Ruby nodded slowly in agreement, frowning in displeasure.
"Good." Weiss walked out, but she turned at the last moment to add on, "I have some stuff under my bed that should clean it up completely. But you'll have to find a way to get it past Yang on your own."
Ruby nodded, giving Weiss another thankful smile as the older girl left.
Now all she had to do was try and get her cloak back to normal and she'd be okay.