The sudden downpour had taken everyone by surprise, and the rain came down in sheets, drenching anyone unlucky or uncaring enough to be in the open. The vast majority of students had left the courtyard due to classes bearing down on them, but there was one person who had some time to spare.
Tucked away in the corner, leaning slightly against one of the many walls of the Academy was a figure, their arms resting on their knees as they drew deep, ragged lungfuls of air. They were soaked to the skin, hair plastered to their back and shoulders like glue. They remained this way for a while, gradually normalizing their breathing and standing upright, just in time to catch a cloaked figure darting down the main pathway, holding their hood over their face and running as fast as they could. It was difficult to mistake them for anyone else, and as they approached the center archway, they stopped momentarily by a familiar call to their left.
"Hey Ruby, where've you been? Don't you have class in like, five minutes?" Ruby turned and pulled her hood back slightly, just enough to see her older sister against the wall, gesturing with one hand behind her towards the building. Her normally wild blond hair was as flat as the floor she stood on, and she looked as though she'd just swam through a lake. Not that you'd be able to tell that from her cheery voice, or the energy with which she radiated.
Ruby slid under the shelter of the arch and pulled her hood back; it hadn't protected her face from the cold, as her nose was as red as her cape, matching her cheeks and ears. She yelled over the rain back to her sister. "No, class doesn't start for another hour! I'm going back to the dorm and drying off, are you coming?" She would've pointed, but while one hand was holding her hood up against the rapidly changing wind, the other was clutching something just out of sight, hidden behind her torso.
Yang took a few short bounds and gently ushered her younger sister through the marble archway, towards the warmth and dryness of Beacon. Anything would be preferable to this level of precipitation. They walked side by side hurriedly through the open doors and snaked their way through the maze of corridors and rooms until eventually, they arrived outside their dorm room. By now, the heat of the building was starting to show, as the majority of their clothes had stopped dripping on the way. Ruby pushed open the door first, and promptly threw her cloak onto the coat-rack and made a beeline for the bathroom, shutting the door behind her.
Yang too had removed her sodden jacket, hanging it adjacent to Ruby's personal attire. She kicked off her boots and began the methodical business of changing into her nice, dry sleepwear. While doing so, a slightly muffled call came from behind the bathroom door. "Do you know where Weiss and Blake are? I didn't see them while I was outside, do they have classes like most of us today?" Ruby inquired with her usual spirit. Yang slowed down for a second, her pulse quickened slightly and she looked around nervously, even though she was the only one in the room.
"Uh, no, no I don't." She replied, cringing slightly at the waver in her voice. She quickly followed it up with a subject change, lest Ruby try to continue on the topic. "Whew, didn't expect that rain though, did you? I bet people got soaked!" By this point she was largely finished with her work for the day. She only had one piece of studying to finish, and then she had the rest of the evening to do as she pleased.
She finished changing and snatched her research material from a pile of her belongings beside the bookshelf. She climbed up onto the top bunk and flopped on her back, giving a long sigh. She was quickly reminded that it wasn't safe to relax just yet, as Rubys voice came through the wall again.
"No, I really didn't." she said, somewhat distant. Just as Yang was about to ask her if everything was alright, she was interrupted by that very question from Ruby. "Are you okay? You seem a little...eeh, off. Did something happen?"
"Welll..." Yang began, quickly catching herself mid-answer and changing her reply to fit. "I just wasn't expecting such a big change in the weather, that's all. I had to run back here and it's not easy when you can slip, y'know?" She replied, without realizing her mistake. She was physically and mentally tired, all she wanted was to rest. She released a quiet sigh and murmured to herself.
"Study first, sleep later." Her eyes rolled absent-mindedly, and she flipped open one of her books and started taking notes, such was the downside of learning how to kill monsters. Every now and then she would glance behind her out of the window, only to be met with a monotonous sky and raindrops winding their way down the glass. It wasn't dark, but it certainly wasn't as bright as she would've liked.
Before long, the bathroom door to her right opened and Ruby came out in what Yang could only assume was a spare uniform. She looked dry, but it was difficult to tell. She gave a half smile to he sister as she checked the dampness of her beloved cloak. Yang smirked a little, reading the displeasure in Rubys face. "Still wet?" she asked with a faint mocking tone. Ruby shot her a glare.
"Yeah, I just hope it'll dry before I have to go for class again. Why did it have to rain today?" Ruby questioned as she climbed onto her top bunk and pulled out various books and sheets of paper, tossing them on her bed in a large, untidy mess. Yang raised an eyebrow as she watched, twirling her pencil around her index and middle finger while she thought about what to do. She tilted her head to the side slightly and inquired about Rubys schedule. "Which class is it?"
"Uuh, let's see." Came the reply as Ruby rummaged through her pile of things to find her schedule notepad. "Now where did I put it..." she muttered, casting objects left and right with little regard to where they landed. "Ah ha! Found it! Now, the class I have next is..." she began, trailing her finger along the page with an almost comical level of concentration. "Written Geography. Uugh...I am not looking forward to that." she concluded her sentence with emphasis on the 'not', which elicited a snicker from Yang. Ruby continued. "At least you don't have to do anything else today, I have three more classes!" she whined. Yang merely nodded her head and stuck a thumbs up in the direction of Ruby, apparently engrossed in her studying.
"Well, sometimes that's what the schedules are like. You'll get time for yourself, don't worry about it." Yang remarked, tinting her voice with the warm edge she was used to using. Despite this, her attention wasn't focused on her younger sisters complaints, and this did not make Ruby happy.
"I may as well head off early, you're clearly too busy to talk to your sis." She remarked. Without waiting for a response, she gathered all her books and papers, stuffed them all into her bag, hopped off the top bunk and exited the room. Snatching her cloak off the hook as she left, she almost knocked over the stand. Just as the door clicked shut, Yang stopped trying to study and instead closed her book, pushed it and her notes to the foot of her bed and sat up, spinning herself around 180 degrees so she was facing the window.
She folded her legs, rested her hands in her lap and watched the rain splash against the glass. She listened too, each tap of a raindrop was different from the last, and to the first, but when they came in this volume it was difficult to make out any pattern at all. She could barely make out some greenish shapes through the blur of water, and guessed that the wind had picked up severely since she was last out. It was practically non-existent just an hour or so ago, and yet now it was shaping up to be a storm.
"Just great. This is exactly how I want to spend my free time." She mumbled dryly to herself, propping her elbow on her knee and resting her head in her palm. She had planned to spend the majority of today outside, doing physical exercises like she enjoyed, but there was no point in even trying when visibility was this low and the temperature was that cold. Not to mention the rain and the wind making things worse.
She really didn't feel like she could focus on learning things right now, and so she didn't even try to continue with her work. Instead, she gazed in quiet contemplation, a rare thing for her to do. Yang was normally a very active person, but when she had other choice, she'd sit and watch whatever held her interest. In this instance, the rain reminded her of someone, in a way that she wasn't quite sure.
She pondered over the thought for a minute, and threw her arms up in protest. She was tired, and she knew that someone would wake her up at some point, so she decided to let it go for now. She didn't even bother to get under her covers, she simply lay down with an audible whump and closed her eyes, and very quickly found sleep carrying her away.