Rules of a Cuddle Pile.
Part 2.
Weiss sat on a bench in the cafeteria and kept examining the brilliant white cape she was wearing. Weiss's family large crest was stitched in icy blue thread on the back of the cape and around the bottom edges smaller versions of the crest went around the whole edge of the cape. The cape came up to a hood similar to Ruby's and for a good reason. Ruby had painstakingly made the cape for Weiss herself. The inside of Weiss's cape was a deep red color.
"I can't believe you made this for me Ruby." Weiss said in almost awe. Weiss of course had always had the finest of clothing. Much of it custom made for her by some of Atlas's finest seamstresses and tailors but never had someone made something by hand just for her because they wanted to and not having been paid to do so.
"Well I intended it to be a birthday gift for you and I know your birthday is weeks away but thought with the extreme cold weather it made more sense to give you your gift now rather than wait. I'm just glad I finished the work on it a few days ago. The inside of the cape is lined with red fire dust so if you put just a trace of your aura into it, it will keep you nice and warm."
Weiss looked worried for a moment.
"Oh don't worry! I had the Dust Application teacher do that part for me so no danger you'll blow up cause I messed something up but all the rest I did myself."
Pyrrha and Nora sitting across the table from them looked on in amazement as well. "Such fine craftsmanship Ruby. I am deeply impressed." Pyrrha praised her.
"Yeah. It's awesome." Nora added.
Ruby blushed and gave a sheepish smile. "Once I looked at sewing and clothing making like I do weapons forging, it was surprisingly easy. Oh! I almost forgot!" Ruby reached into a pocket and pulled a small box out and handed it to Weiss.
"Is that a ring?" Nora asked smirking.
Weiss and Ruby blushed and then frowned at her. "No." Ruby replied.
Weiss opened the box and inside was a clasp for the cloak to hold it closed near the throat. "I keep my cape pined to my blouse with my cross pins but I figured you would want something a little different so I made that myself as well."
The clasp was Weiss's family crest looking like a stylized snowflake but in the center of the snowflake was a small rose.
"Look like someone is trying to claim someone to me." Yang said in a teasing voice.
"Am not. I just thought my rose symbol looked good inside Weiss's snowflake." Ruby muttered blushing again. "I mean if Weiss doesn't like it I can make another clasp or get her one from a store. I just thought…."
"Ruby I love it." Weiss told her and taking the clasp out she quickly fixed her cape and pulled the hood of it up. Putting a tiny bit of her aura into it she immediately felt the cape warm up. "Does your cape have the dust option in it as well?"
Ruby nodded enthusiastically. "One of the reasons I nearly always wear my cape. Well that and my mom had it made for me before… Her final mission." Ruby ended a little sadly.
Weiss spread her cape out a bit so it covered partially Ruby's side and after a moment Ruby did the same with hers overlaying her cape over Weiss's as the two girls sat side by side. "So warm." Weiss said with a smile. "We don't even need a certain barbarian to keep us warm now."
"Sure you say that now but tonight if the heat stays off, you'll be crawling back to me and begging for the Yang hotness."
A shivering Blake was sitting as close to Yang's side as she could without climbing up into her lap. Blake was just not one for cold weather. She much preferred lying out in the sun on a warm day to blustery winds and snow.
Across the table from them, Team JNRP sat now fully dressed in their normal clothing well except Nora. She had commandeered all the blankets from both teams and was huddled under the mass of them with once again just her eyes showing. Everyone thought she had dressed in her normal clothing when they returned to their own room from Ruby's before coming to the cafeteria but then again none of them could remember her ever not being covered by the blankets so who knew for sure?
"When is the cold going to stop?" Nora asked plaintively. "It's freezing in here!"
"It's really not that cold in here." Pyrrha corrected her. "The kitchen staff have the stoves working and with all the students in here it is actually warming up quite nicely. It's just the few times the doors open to let new students in that a cold air blast comes through."
"I'm cold! It's cold." Nora repeated. "Can I join…?"
"No." Blake said without looking at her.
"Nope." Weiss said snuggling against Ruby's side.
"You guys were more fun when we slept together last night." Nora grouched.
"Would you please keep your voice down?" Weiss asked Nora. "Rumors get started that way you know."
"Yeah wouldn't want Weiss's reputation to be marred by anyone thinking that a Schnee heiress would sleep with the common rabble." Blake said.
Weiss would have said something scathing back to Blake but to be honest she was too busy studying Ruby's profile. Weiss had always been fascinated by Ruby's silver eyes but they had been even more stunning this morning when she woke up to gaze directly into them. She wanted to see more of them. Thinking about this morning brought up another memory. "Ruby?"
Ruby glanced over at Weiss sitting next to her and Weiss almost forgot what she was going to ask from staring into her eyes. "Yes Weiss?"
Weiss frowned as she remembered her question. "Why when Pyrrha kissed you this morning didn't you struggle but just shut your eyes?"
Pyrrha sitting across from them blushed bright red and stared at the table but after a moment she looked up at Ruby. "Yeah. Why didn't you struggle?"
Ruby swallowed nervously and flushed bright red as well. "Um, isn't it supposed to be bad luck to wake someone dreaming?"
"That's for a sleepwalker. Pyrrha wasn't sleepwalking." Weiss said.
"Just sleep making out." Nora added helpfully.
"You were awake but had your eyes closed?" Pyrrha asked.
"It wasn't like I was faking sleeping." Ruby tried to defend herself. "I had turned over to ask you to let me go and you just suddenly pulled me close and…" Ruby blushed brighter.
"And she closed her eyes." Weiss added.
Ruby couldn't admit that even though she had a bit of a crush on Pyrrha the real reason she had closed her eyes was because she was imagining that it was Weiss who was kissing her so passionately this morning. "What? Is it unusual when you kiss someone to close your eyes?" Ruby asked.
Everyone at the table gave a kind of shrug and thankfully for Ruby dropped the line of questioning. Well everyone except Weiss. "That still leaves the whole not struggling or moving. I mean that kiss went on for a very long time and you just lay there."
"It really wasn't that long." Blake stated. "It might have seemed like it but it was only a few moments."
"Yeah. I was just surprised so I didn't react. That's all." Ruby stated. "Can we talk about something else? Like why are we having to eat this for breakfast?" She said nodding down at the bowl of oatmeal in front of her.
"The kitchen staff is worried the gas stoves might stop working due to the bad weather and they want to reserve the backup Dust generators for heat to keep us all warm. So, oatmeal. It is fast to cook and easy to prepare." Blake explained.
"Cookies wouldn't have been that difficult to bake and the ovens would naturally put more heat in the air." Ruby groused as she poked at the oatmeal with a spoon.
"Or pancakes." Nora added. "Heat a griddle, dump some batter and bam! Pancakes."
"Hey. We all should be glad we're all here safe and sound and that we have power and heat." Yang stated. As soon as Yang finished speaking the lights in the cafeteria went out plunging the room into gloom. "You know… Even while I was saying it, I half way expected this to happen." Yang finished in sudden quiet of everyone in the room stopped talking to look up at the lights.
"Well at least we have the backup dust supplies for heat…" Weiss started to say when there was a very loud explosion from the kitchen. A soot covered Professor Port and Doctor Oobleck came walking out from the kitchen area.
"I cannot believe you did that!" Doctor Oobleck said loudly to Port.
"A simple miscalculation on my part brought on by you stirring up such a breeze zipping back and forth. Truly most of the accident was your fault."
A disgruntled Professor Goodwitch and Dean Ozpin also came out of the kitchen. Goodwitch was practically stomping her feet in her annoyance while Ozpin looked as calm as always. As they neared Team RWBY, Yang couldn't resist the temptation and asked Goodwitch what had happened.
Goodwitch glared back to the two old time friends still arguing near the kitchen and then down at Yang. "After the power went out in here Bart, I mean Doctor Oobleck and Professor Port decided to check out our emergency Dust reserves and while they were inspecting them Professor Port sneezed.
Ruby winced. Memories of her first day with Weiss and a jar of red dust suddenly entered her mind. She turned to look at Weiss. "See? I am NOT the only one that has ever happened to." She said triumphantly finally putting an end to a long time argument with Weiss about how no one else in the entire world could make the mistake that Ruby had done.
"Oh all right. There are two such dolts in the world." Weiss then blinked and looked to Goodwitch. "Not that I think professor Port is a dolt…"
Goodwitch waved off the apology. "At the moment I'm more likely to agree with your sentiment than disagree."
"Wait. Does this mean the backup heating and food preparation is?"
Ozpin nodded his head. "We lost all of our emergency red heat dust supplies. Thankfully we were already low expecting a shipment in today or we may have had a much bigger explosion to worry about, but due to the current weather problems our next shipment is unlikely to arrive till after the extreme weather passes.
"No food?" Nora asked in horror. She looked to Ruby. "If we are stuck in here tonight and with no lights I plan to eat you first, just wanted you to know that."
Ruby shot her a look. "It worries me that you have already started planning for something like this."
Goodwitch shook her head at Nora's dramatics. "We have plenty of food. Sandwich things and fruit and vegetables that do not require cooking. There will be no need for cannibalism any time soon."
"Who said anything about cannibalism. I just said I wanted to eat Ruby first."
Everyone looked at Nora, looked away and then a double take.
Ruby looking away from Nora spotted fine cracks in the windows in the cafeteria. "Professor Ozpin? Do we have heat dust for keeping us all warm?"
"No but with as many students as we have in here, it should stay reasonably warm as long as no cold air gets in."
"We may have a really big problem then." Ruby said pointing at the windows. The fine cracking was spreading rapidly from the explosion and as Goodwitch, Ozpin and Ruby and her group watched more severe cracks appeared and started spreading, the glass already fragile from the differences in heat from the inside and the bitterly cold outside. The explosion having caused a quick expansion of air in the room pressing on the glass had caused it to start cracking making a bad problem much worse.
Goodwitch started to bring up her riding crop to utilize her semblance to try and repair the cracking glass but before she could the windows began popping, blowing out glass into the snowy near blizzard winds outside. Freezing air and snow flooded the room causing students to leap away from the windows and start to move back towards the rear where Team RWBY and the rest already were.
"Can you repair the windows?" Weiss asked nervously of Goodwitch.
"No. I can only use my semblance on things I can see. The glass is gone buried under the swirling winds outside and if I can't see all the glass I can't use my power to bring them back together to reform the windows. However, I can do this." So saying Goodwitch gestured with her riding crop and the benches and tables abandoned by the students near the windows when they broke flew apart and flying up sealed up the windows until only a few stray gusts of snow ridden air made it through the cracks. Unfortunately, most of the heat the room had built up had been wiped away by the sudden cold blast of air after the windows broke.
"Nora cold!" Nora shouted and disappeared under the table to only reappear a moment later between Ruby and her sister Yang and pressed herself to Yang's side.
"We may have a real problem here. Everyone knows about Yang's semblance." Ruby muttered but loud enough everyone at her table heard her.
"So?" Weiss asked.
"And how it generates heat." Ruby continued. Weiss's eyes grew wide and looking out over the first and second year students in the room, third and fourth year students generally spending most of the time away on missions and thusly were not at Beacon at the moment. While almost all the students had brought blankets with them as they made their way to the cafeteria, the temperature in the room was steadily dropping and their fellow students were looking for any sources of warmth they could find. Already Weiss could see some students pointing in Yang's direction and headed their way. She understood what Ruby was getting at. They were about to be swamped by dozens of boys and girls wanting to hog Yang for her warmth in the sudden freezing of the room but it was Jaune that said what she was thinking. "We may be facing not a cuddle pile but a cuddle mob in the making."
The first to reach them was Coco Adel pulling a shivering Velvet with her. The bunny Faunus had her long ears pulled down and kept rubbing them. Evidently the rabbit girl lost most of her body heat through her ears and was trying her best to keep herself warm. Oddly Coco didn't head towards Yang but to Weiss and Ruby. "Are the insides of your cloaks infused with heat dust?" She asked.
"Um, yeah." Ruby answered.
"I thought so." Coco said and then pulled Weiss and Ruby apart and placed Velvet between them. "Warm up Velvet for me will you? She is highly susceptible to the cold.
"Excuse me." Weiss said in annoyance. "Don't you think it's a bit rude to just pull two people apart and demand they warm…" She faltered when Velvet with chattering teeth looked at her. "Oh… Alright. Come on Ruby let's get this poor thing warmed up." Ruby already her cape draped over Velvet's right part of her back and Weiss quickly added hers to the left side.
"Thank you." Velvet finally managed to say through her chattering. "I really hate the cold."
"Not a snow bunny are you?" Yang grinned.
"Barbarian." Weiss muttered. "Pity puns can't be used as fuel or we would all be set."
As the rest of the mob of students started to reach Yang, she seemed to reach a decision. Standing up she nodded to Ms. Goodwitch. "Can you please clear the benches from the center of the room?"
Goodwitch gave her an odd look but a moment later she flicked her riding crop in that direction and obediently all the tables and benches slid away from the center of the room. Students running or leaping to keep from being swept away in the tide.
Yang strolled into the now empty space and pointed at Cardin of Team CRDL. "Hey Cardin? Feel like fighting?"
"Huh?" He asked in confusion.
"Oh I get it." Ruby said drawing everyone's attention to her in the near silence of the room after Yang's question. Ruby looked at all the people now staring at her. "Yang's abilities increase the more hits she takes, which means her semblance goes up, which means more heat."
Yang smiled at her sister. "You got it." She turned her attention back to Cardin. "So you want to bump heads or just freeze? I can see you are already quaking in your boots with the thoughts of fighting me so maybe you should sit this one out?"
Cardin cracked his knuckles. "Oh I am going to enjoy this."
"Not half much as I will." Yang promised him.
Leaping forward Cardin threw a straight punch directly at Yang. She didn't even attempt to evade the hit but took it. Her aura absorbing the impact and feeding the kinetic energy into her semblance. Yang's hair brightened and a wave of heat washed out away from her. Most of the students pulled up benches on the outer fringes of the fight and held their hands out to capture the warmth.
Yang laughing threw enough of her own punches at Cardin to keep him on his toes but didn't bother to block or duck any of his and steadily her semblance grew. Ruby laughed as she noticed some of the students had taken wooden skewers from the kitchen and had stuck marshmallows on them and when Yang during the combat maneuvered near them, held them out for her to toast them. Even Cardin seemed to be enjoying the mock combat and was smiling and Yang? She was having the time of her life, alternating between laughing and winking at some of the students as she neared them in her fight.
"Sure she's having fun but I'm still freezing." Nora sitting next to Ruby complained. Ruby without a word merely held out the other side of her cape not being used to warm Velvet out to her and after a moment Nora opened the blankets she had with her and slid next to her gratefully adding her blankets to Ruby and Weiss's capes to hold in the heat.
"I'm cold too!" Blake whined having also been abandoned by her personal heater Yang. Ruby was sandwiched between Nora and Velvet and had no more cape to offer. She shot Weiss a look. Weiss sighed and motioned for Blake to join her on the other side not being taken up by Velvet. Blake hesitated only for a moment before leaping up and running over to her side and snuggling against her side so Weiss could cover her with the other half of her cape. Blake pulling free only long enough to reposition one of the extra blankets Nora was using and throwing it over Weiss's shoulder and her own trapping Weiss's cape heat like Nora had done for Ruby's.
They watched Yang's 'battle' with Cardin for a while, finally Cardin took it a bit too far and insulted Yang's hair. Yang was suddenly up in his face and with a single punch knocked him out of their makeshift arena and into a distant wall where he finally slid down unconscious.
"Weeeell crap." Yang muttered. "Any other takers?"
Most of the students who had been whooping and hollering suddenly became silent and looked anywhere but at the blond inferno waiting for another challenger. "Oh come on. I promise to take it easy as long as none of you insult my hair or my team or my baby sis Ruby." Yang smirked. "I'll even let a few cracks go by dealing with the Ice Princess."
"Hey!" Weiss shouted.
Finally, Russel Thrush and Sky Lark of Team CRDL stepped into the cleared circle.
"Ooh. A two-fer!" Yang smiled widely. "You sure you boys are up to a threesome with me?" She said putting one hand to her hip and posing.
Weiss sighed and rolled her eyes before looking past Velvet to Ruby. "That's your sister."
Ruby smiled sheepishly.
"Does that mean you might be up to a threesome too?" Nora asked her loudly.
Everyone sitting on the bench turned to look at Nora. Ruby blushing madly shook her head. "You are starting to worry me Nora." She settled for saying.
"Try being her partner." Ren muttered.
Nora peered out of her nest of cape and blankets and saw several first year students she didn't know staring at her. "We're partners but not together-together." She stated gesturing at Ren.
"Nora! They don't need to know that." Ren in exasperation sighed.
Ruby's eyes grew incredibly large and she jumped. Turning slightly to glare at Nora. "Nora what are you doing?"
"My hands got cold." Nora replied.
"Yeah? Well don't warm them like that again." Ruby warned her.
Weiss leaned forward to look past Velvet. "Are we going to have to kick you out of this cuddle pile Nora or am I just going to have to tie you up?"
Nora leaned forward to look past Ruby and Velvet and opened her mouth.
"Don't!" Weiss warned her and then to herself she muttered. "I knew as soon as the words left my mouth that I was leaving an opening for her to make some kind of crude comment."
The students around the ring that Yang was fighting were starting to sweat a bit as Yang intensity kept increasing. Her hair was shining a blinding gold color and the heat being thrown off her was starting to get scorching as the two team members of CRDL kept rushing in to trade blows and then quickly darting out again. Not only to avoid Yang's counter hits but because the blond was getting literally too hot to handle. Meanwhile the students on the outer limits of the lucky group that had got there first was starting to freeze as ice crept along the outer walls of the room.
"Hey Rubes?" Yang called out to her sister.
"Yeah?" Ruby answered.
"We need to circulate the warmth a bit more evenly. I'm worried I'm going to start burning the floor where I'm at while the people on the outside are starting to look like a Weiss-cicles."
"HEY!" Weiss's indignant voice was heard.
Ruby nodded. "I was wondering when you would realize it. So… Outer ring laps?"
Yang nodded her head.
"Full speed?"
Everyone in the room was looking between the two sisters wondering what they were talking about.
"Are you nuts? We want to warm people equally. Not create a cyclone and blow them out through the roof."
Ruby gave a slight laugh and to the great disappointment of Nora and Velvet threw off the blankets on top of her and pulled herself out of the cuddle pile. Removing her cape, she had Nora slide over next to Velvet and draped it over the two of them. "Watch my cape for a moment." She instructed the two as she replaced the blankets over the top of them.
"Okay sis. Half speed then?"
"Better make it a quarter. We don't want to suck any cold air from outside in. Just circulate the air in here."
"Gotcha. Quarter power it is captain." Ruby said with a laugh. Instantly she vanished in a flurry of rose petals and a red and black blur began running around the outer edges of the room. As Ruby made lap after lap of speed runs around the room, the warm super-heated air in the center with Yang got pulled out to the outer edges of the room and then forced upwards to hit the ceiling and then being redirected back to the center. In a matter of a few minutes the heat in the building stabilized to a nice warm temperature with no excess hot or cold spots.
Yang remained standing still for a moment with her arms folded just underneath her chest. She addressed the room. "My sister. Circulating air to keep us all warm. She's my biggest fan. A circulating fan. Get it?"
Weiss could be heard groaning from the pun and what sounded like banging her head on the table she was at.
"Yeah." Yang continued. "Ruby sure knows how to get around doesn't she? Heh?"
"Okay. Let me up. I would rather freeze to death outside than be forced to listen to her puns." Weiss could be heard as Nora, Velvet and Blake tried to hold her down.
"Oh come on. No need to be… Weiss cold?" Yang continued.
Suddenly noticing the breeze that Ruby was causing had stilled, Yang looked beside her to see Ruby standing there tapping her foot. Yang gave a sheepish grin. "Okay. I'll cool it with the puns."
Ruby cocked her head to the side and continued to look at her sister with a frown.
"Hehehe. Oops. That one wasn't deliberate. Just a slip of the tongue."
Yang noticed her sister still staring at her. "Anything else?" She asked.
"Yeah. Russel and Sky are sneaking up on you while you were distracted with your standup routine." Ruby stated and then was gone in a whirl of rose petals. Yang blinked and then looked behind her to see both boys had indeed been inching closer to her while she was stopped and now were in mid leap towards her. Yang had time enough to bring her gauntlet fists together and smile and wink at the boys before punching them both to the outer ring of the make shift arena.
After the mock battle, Ruby organized a tournament of World of Remnant card game which managed to distract the students and keep them from fretting about the blizzard outside the cafeteria. When the temperature in the room began to drop too low, Yang went back to fighting anyone who would challenge her. Even though the blond firebrand was careful to pull her punches, well except for Team Cardinal, eventually she ran out of challengers and returned to sit with her team.
Goodwitch watched as Team RWBY not only kept the students warm but kept them pleasantly distracted with games and banter between Yang and all of her team. She was thinking things were certainly going a lot better than expected with such an unusual situation when Doctor Oobleck suddenly zipped over next to her somewhat frantic. "This is a disaster." He muttered where only Goodwitch and Ozpin could hear him.
"What is it now? The roof threatening to collapse on us because of the buildup of snow outside?" Goodwitch asked eyeing the structure above them.
"Worse than that."
"What could possibly be worse than the roof collapsing on top of us?" Ozpin asked as Professor Port made his way to the group of instructors as well.
"We have run out of coffee!" Oobleck stated as he chugged from the thermos in his hand.
Goodwitch blinked at him. "How could we run out of coffee? We filled three huge dispensers when we had the stoves working to prevent just such an occurrence."
Port watched as Oobleck took another huge chug from his thermos.
"Gee. I wonder." He said to no one.
"In the grand scheme of things I don't think us being out of coffee is all that dire." Ozpin stated as he brought his own coffee cup to his lips only to realize he was out. He stared into his cup for a moment. "Completely out?" He asked.
"I got the last bit left." Oobleck stated and then raised his thermos to his lips and a moment later held the thermos out and upside down to show that not a drop was left. "Good Dust man. What are we going to do?"
Glynda rolled her eyes. "You two need to ease up on the caffeine anyway."
"But what of the students? They may panic when they realize no more coffee is left!"
"I hardly think the students are the ones we have to worry about panicking." Glynda said looking pointedly at Oobleck.
"Perhaps to keep the students distracted I should tell a few of my adventures?" Port asked.
Ozpin and Goodwitch shared a look. "I don't think that will be necessary Peter. Team RWBY has done an excellent job keeping everyone's spirits up." She said diplomatically. Professor Port starting on one of his long boring tales might be just enough to drive the students out into the snow to escape and no one needed that.
The group of professors watched as the last of the World of Remnant tournament ended and was surprisingly won by Weiss, with a little help from Yang and her sister Ruby. Yang realized the cold was once again starting to creep into the room as she saw some distant students start to shiver again.
"Okay to keep my Semblance up I'm going to just let people hit me rather than the fighting part." Yang said standing up and addressing the crowd.
"Wait! You don't need to do the fighting? Just let someone punch you a few times and it does the same thing?" Weiss asked.
"Yep!" Yang replied.
Weiss rose from the bench she was sitting on and cracked her knuckles. Yang cocked her head at her. "Something on your mind?"
Weiss smiled and then said. "Weiss cold." And punched Yang in the stomach. "Weiss Princess." She punched Yang again. "Weiss decision." Punch. Finally, Weiss had to stop not because she ran out of puns that Yang had done to her but because her hand was hurting. Blake stepped up. "My turn."
"Et Tu Kitt..ay?" Yang asked in mock hurt.
"Hello Kitty." Punch. "What's up Pussycat?" Punch. "This is puuuuurfect." Punch. Finally, Blake had to sit down and rest as well.
Yang in no way hurt smiled at them and then turned to her sister Ruby. "What about you sis? Wanna get a few punches in for the puns I've done to you?"
Ruby seemed to ponder a moment before replying. "Punch you for every bad pun I was the butt of? I don't think the blizzard is going to last until mid-Summer sis.
Yang looked at her for a moment and then broke out laughing. "Should have known you would 'Rose' to the occasion."
"Yeah, yeah. Yang it up but I think you are taking too Xiao Long." Ruby came back. Both sisters started snickering.
"Oh god. Ruby is being infected by Yang. We need to get her away and try to reestablish her sanity!" Weiss mock panicked.
Yang smirked at Weiss and then glanced down at her sister. "I'll let you get back to Weiss now. I think you are getting a bit thorny for her."
Ruby promptly blushed and backhanded her sister in the stomach.
Yang laughed and returned to the center of the room where she allowed her semblance to flow out super heating the room once again. Ruby did a few laps around to spread out the heat once more and then did return to Weiss's side under the blankets.
Finally, the day began to draw to an end and students began to gather the blankets they had used to bundle up to come to the cafeteria and started to choose places to sleep. Most of the teams stay within themselves but a few wandered out to bed down with friends of other teams. Some teams merged for the night to provide additional warmth to their groups.
Goodwitch watched over the procedures with an eagle eye.
"You are starting to scare some of them." Ozpin muttered to her.
"They are all young adults." Goodwitch stated. "Isn't it our duty to make sure none of them get ideas?"
Ozpin grinned. "I'm sure by this time they have plenty of ideas but I doubt any of them are bold enough to enact them amidst a large group of observers. Beside…" He said growing serious. "It's difficult to tell young people to train and die for the safety of the public but deny them the also very adult act of choosing what partners to be intimate with."
"I suppose." Goodwitch conceded. "But they are so young. To being doing either of those things."
"They are the same age we were when we started training to be hunters." Ozpin reminded her.
"Yes." She looked at him out of the corner of her eye. "And I will remind you of some of the things we got up to during that time."
He chuckled. "And that reminds me. This cuddle pile thing for sharing warmth?" He smirked at her.
"Don't even think it." Goodwitch warned him. "I may be willing to be swayed into letting some of my students get away with some risqué actions to keep warm but I am not going to indulge myself in same behaviors where they can be seen by my students! We do have to be some kind of role model."
"But… But… It's cold." Ozpin said sounding a bit like Nora Valkyrie.
"Get Peter or Bart to cuddle with you then." Glynda said with a smirk of her own.
They both looked to the mentioned professors. Bartholomew Oobleck was lying half on and half off one of the dining room tables flat on his back. His head hanging off the edge with his mouth wide open and snoring. When the caffeine addict crashed, he crashed hard. In a bundle of blankets underneath the very same table Professor Peter Port was lying, also snoring. Needless to say not many students decided to sleep anywhere near those two.
"How can they stand each other's snoring?" Glynda asked.
"They used to fight together when they were hunters before becoming professors. I think they subconsciously use their snoring to let one another know that the other is safe."
"Also perhaps as a sonic weapon to drive the Grimm away?" Goodwitch suggested as the two's snores suddenly synched together to make a terrifying chainsaw/fingers on a chalkboard sound.
"Well if I can't tempt you with a cuddle pile to keep warm, how will you find somewhere warm enough to sleep. I seem to remember you are not overly found of the cold." Ozpin asked her.
Goodwitch waved her riding crop and several unused tables floated and stacked. "Heat rises." Goodwitch said with a smirk and then using her crop she caused herself to rise until she was sitting on top of the tables. "Good night Headmaster Ozpin."
Ozpin watched her for a moment and then giving a shrug he walked over to the center of the cleared circle that Yang had used earlier to fight in and was still giving off some faint heat from the floor and throwing a blanket across his shoulders he sat down cross legged and seemed to go into a meditative state.
Once again Ruby woke with the feeling of someone lying on top of her. "Weiss?" Ruby asked not opening her eyes.
"Nope." Nora's voice answered her.
Ruby's eyes flew open to find it was indeed the orange haired hammer welder on top of her. "Boop." Nora said touching a finger to Ruby's forehead. "Where's Weiss?" Ruby asked in a bit of a panic.
"I'm right here Ruby." A disgruntled sounding Weiss said from her right. Ruby turned her head to see Weiss was indeed lying on her side next to Ruby. "Oh I just hoped… Er, I meant thought… Well…"
"I was." Weiss said slowly, her teeth clenched tightly. Nora threw me off of you just a few moments before you woke up. "Which is why Ren is about to lack a partner. Whether they are together-together or not." Weiss said as she began to get up.
"Oops. Gotta run Ruby. We'll have to do this again…" Nora said as she started to ease off of her.
"Never." Weiss finished for Nora.
Nora tore off around the cafeteria with a very angry Weiss right at her heels. "Aww come on Weiss! You got to sleep on top of Ruby the night before last! Isn't it my turn to be on top of her for a change?" Nora yelled back. Waking most of the still asleep students, Ozpin and Goodwitch.
Ruby was sitting up hiding inside her cape while her face turned bright red in embarrassment. Next to her, her sister Yang just woken up was already starting to snicker as Weiss chased after Nora. "My sis. The girl everyone wants to wake up on top of." Yang said.
"So help me sis. If that shows up on a plaque on our dorm room door, I will end you." Ruby growled.
Yang started to laugh but then got a good look inside Ruby's cowl to see her face and decided that while Ruby might be her 'baby' sister and normally as about as frightening as a squirrel, she also was a sniper with incredible accuracy whose rifle also transformed into a deadly scythe and for the first time… Yang decided that teasing or making puns about her at the moment was not a smart idea.
Meanwhile… Nora finding a stack of tables had climbed to the top and was looking down at Weiss. "I'm Queen of the castle." She sang/taunted.
"No. No you are not." Goodwitch said from behind her. Nora turned just in time to notice that her sanctuary already had a Queen of it and that said Queen was her combat instructor Glynda Goodwitch before the woman used her semblance and her riding crop to lift Nora off the table and as light as a feather deposit her back in front of Weiss.
"Hello Nora." Weiss said cracking her knuckles.
"Goodbye Weiss." Nora said and once again took off running for all she was worth.
This set off Yang who started laughing and caused a good many of the now awake students to do the same. Some of the students also started placing bets on whom would win the foot race. Weiss or Nora. Also, to Ruby's embarrassment, some started placing bets on whom would end up with Ruby later.
Cardin and his team making the most bets and crudest statements.
Yang looked over at them. "Oh good. We did need to warm this place up some before breakfast." She rose to her feet, her eyes already starting to turn red as she approached them. Dove, Russel and Sky took one look at her approaching and leapt to their feet and started running. Cardin watched her for a moment longer and then yelled at his team. "Wait for your leader!" And leapt up also and began to run. Yang smiled, cracked her knuckles and happily gave chase.
Glynda lowered herself down from her makeshift tower of benches and approached Ozpin whom was watching the entire thing. "I've checked my scroll. The weather is predicted to turn warm and Vale has already started clearing their streets of accumulated snow and ice. Our own maintenance staff should have things under control here in about three hours."
"Excellent. I'm sure Team RWBY will keep the students amused and preoccupied with their antics for that long."
Team CRDL in their escape from Yang managed to pass Weiss and Nora.
"Some people have no manners." Weiss growled as she got elbowed out of the way of the boys running for their lives from Yang and paused a moment from her run to take a breath.
"I know. Right?" Nora's voice came from the sidelines near Weiss and Weiss started scanning the students huddled under blankets along the route of their run. Suddenly one of the bundled up students jumped and Weiss could hear an angry girl's voice asking what Nora thought she was doing.
"My hands got cold!" Nora replied as the blanket she had been hiding under slipped down revealing her. Another girl that Weiss didn't recognize stood up beside Nora and pointed down at her. "She's over here! She's over here!"
"Sheesh. Everyone gets so bent out of shape over someone just warming their hands!" Nora groused. Looking up she found herself staring up at Weiss. "Oops?" Nora said before throwing the blanket she had 'borrowed' from some other student into Weiss's face and took off running once again.
Goodwitch and Ozpin shook their heads and then heard Ruby muttering to herself. "And everyone says I'm the immature one here?" Ruby then lay back down and pulled a blanket over her face. Goodwitch noticed that Pyrrha and Blake were already sidling up next to the young woman for her warmth.