Sorry for the delay! I've had family visiting from out of town the entire week, plus a little bit of writer's block. :-/
I still don't own RWBY or the characters!
Blake woke up the next morning full of excitement for the first time in a very long time. She hopped out of the decadent bed in the oversized bedroom she had chosen and went over to her still unpacked bag to pull out clothes for the day. She could feel her skin tingling with anticipation at what the day could bring. Would she get to fight a Grimm today? She truly hoped so; her combat skills could use a quick dust off.
As she walked out of the connected bathroom, fully dressed and prepared, she heard what sounded like Weiss scolding someone downstairs. What used to make her roll her eyes only made her smile today; some things never changed.
She softly closed the bedroom door behind her as she stepped into the hallway, which sported a railing that overlooked the foyer and front entrance below. At the same instant, Yang came tumbling out of her own room next door, nearly tripping over herself as she tried to put on her boots while still pulling on one sleeve of her vest. Blake's eyes widened in surprise at the girl as she opened her mouth to ask where the fire was.
Before she got a word out, Ruby suddenly appeared below them and looked up at the still struggling Yang.
"I'll answer the first alert today, Yang!" she said cheerily as she waved to her sister, before she shot out the front door, leaving a small cloud of rose petals floating softly to the floor behind her.
Blake turned back to Yang as the blonde haired huntress gave a loud huff of annoyance, taking slightly more time to pull on her boots properly now. No doubt seeing the surprise on Blake's face, Yang said, "I always want to answer the first call of the day, to start the day off right, but Ruby always beats me to it."
"Ahh…" Blake began, trying to act like she understood why the first call of the day was such a big deal to the girl, but she apparently didn't succeed in convincing Yang, who continued, "The person who answers the first call has a better chance of having more Grimm kills for the entire day! Which means that they'll have more kills for the week, which means that they'll have more for the month…" The girl trailed off, seemingly depressed by her train of thought.
"Stop your complaining," came an icy order from below as Weiss now stood in the foyer. "Come eat breakfast before another call comes in and you whine about having to skip a meal again." With that, she stalked off below them, presumably towards the kitchen.
Yang sighed before trudging off towards the stairs, beckoning for Blake to follow her.
"She's just mad because Ruby is beating her in the kill count too," Yang said with a slight grin. "She's right though, you never know when the next call will come in and it sucks to have to run out on an empty stomach."
Blake let out an uncharacteristic giggle. It was just like Yang to worry about food when she had to fight a huge monster.
The two girls joined Weiss in the combined kitchen/dining room area that was nearly twice as large as the apartment Blake had just been living in. After taking a moment to absorb the massive space, Blake decided that it was time for her to gain some background knowledge on how this operation was actually working.
"So, who's calling in the locations to you guys?" she asked as she followed Yang's lead in grabbing a bowl and pouring in some cereal from one of the boxes sitting on the countertop.
"Glynda and Professor Ozpin, of course," Weiss said somewhat derisively, earning a small glare from Yang.
"Oh, I see, so when they're notified of a Grimm sighting, they notify whoever's closest?" Blake sidestepped the attitude gracefully; she was fully expecting much more of that in the future, actually. It wouldn't be fair for her to have hurt feelings after what she had done to them.
"Yup," Yang replied before Weiss could begin her answer. "Which reminds me, we'll have to get you one of our scrolls so that you get notified too. Weiss, do we have an extra one somewhere?" she asked as she turned towards the third girl.
The heiress gave a heavy sigh, clearly not very thrilled about being interrupted while trying to read the paper and eat her breakfast.
"I'm pretty sure my old one is in the closet in the hallway," she lowered her reading slightly to look at Blake and continued, "If you can find it, feel free to use it."
"Thank you…" Blake responded. It was truly going to be an uphill battle to win Weiss' trust and friendship back. It had been a near miracle that they became friends in the first place, and now Blake had to hope for the same miracle to happen twice. She let out a small sigh. That wasn't even the only miracle she was wishing for.
She decided to go find the scroll now so that she could learn how to use it while eating her breakfast. Opening the hallway closet, she looked around for a light switch, quickly finding it on the right hand wall and flicking it on. As her eyes adjusted to the light, she slowly looked around the closet at the shoes that were strewn on the floor, jackets hanging in one corner, Crescent Rose and Myrtenaster leaning against the back wall, and some boxes on shelves towering up to the ceiling. The scroll was likely in one of those boxes, Blake thought to herself as she reached towards the first one before gasping.
"Weiss, Yang, why would Ruby go out without Crescent Rose?" she yelled frantically back towards the kitchen.
"What do you mean? She wouldn't," Weiss snapped as she sauntered out of the kitchen towards Blake.
Blake felt the blood drain from her face as she silently pointed towards the back of the closet. The heiress' eyebrows furrowed as she came over to peer at whatever Blake was pointing at. Upon seeing Ruby's precious weapon still leaning where it had been since last night, Weiss gasped as well.
"She must have forgotten it being in such a rush to beat Yang outside!" she exclaimed, voice filled with terror as she pushed past Blake and grabbed her own weapon, then raced out the front door without another word.
By this time, Yang had come out of the kitchen to see what all the fuss was about. As she watched Weiss fly out the front door, she quickly glanced into the closet, confirmed that Crescent Rose was indeed still sitting there, and took off after Weiss.
"Wait," Blake called out, "I'm coming with you!"
Yang stopped for a half second, turned and threw her scroll towards Blake before racing out the door, yelling behind her, "You have to stay here in case another Grimm is dropped somewhere!"
She sighed, realizing that Yang had a good point. They couldn't all be away from the house if another call came in from another location. There had to be someone to answer that call if it did come in.
If it did.
Since she was stuck here for the time being, she might as well find that other scroll so that she could have her own when everyone returned. She pulled down some of the boxes and placed them out in the entryway to sort through, hoping that everyone would return shortly and that Ruby would be safe and unharmed.