Chapter 13: Setting Up (Ground Rules)
Hi, it's The Draigg again! Pull off that wrapping and open the box. Surprise! It's another chapter! Before you enjoy your gift, be sure to remember that Monty Oum owns RWBY, and that any other media mentioned is owned by their creators. Also, be sure to thank JimboYokimbo for helping me! Now, you can start reading this stuff!
Tuesday. Team RWBY didn't have a morning class on Tuesdays. So, that was the day that they got a little extra sleep. In fact, one would just fall asleep by standing next to their door. That's how much they slept in.
Weiss cracked open her eyes. Shifting her gaze over to the clock, she saw that it was eight o'clock. Given her breakdown yesterday, it came as no surprise to her that she slept in late. She just felt so tired from her tears. But, for some reason, everything felt okay. Then she realized that Ruby had slept next to her while she was asleep.
Weiss started to panic. Not again! Oh god, Yang is going to KILL her! She never even got her chance to fully love Ruby! Her breathing started to grow faster. Oh no, oh no, oh no! Not like this! Weiss' breathing grew shallow. She was sucking in air and blowing it out as fast as possible. Her breath was starting to tickle Ruby.
"Weiss… stop it… you're tickling me…", mumbled Ruby. She pulled Weiss close to her. Weiss in turn wrapped her arms around her.
"Ruby, if I die here, don't forget that I love you…", choked out Weiss. There was very little that could terrify Weiss. Overprotective sisters that could light people on fire with her aura was one of them.
"…Huh? What're you talking about…?", groaned Ruby. Now awoken, she rubbed the crud out of her eyes. By now, Weiss' hug started to turn into a vice grip.
"Can't move, Yang will kill me. Can't move, Yang will kill me…", Weiss kept on chanting. She buried her head in Ruby's chest. Ruby blushed at the position. Weirdly enough, Weiss' head fit perfectly between her breasts. It felt odd, if secretly a little stimulating.
"Wait, you're scared of Yang?", asked Ruby. She could feel Weiss nod her head. Ruby couldn't help but chuckle. "Oh, Weiss! We talked it over! She's cool, don't worry!".
As soon as Weiss heard Ruby's words, she let go and pulled she head out of Ruby's chest. Inwardly, Ruby felt a little disappointed. Smoothing out her nightgown, Weiss tried her best to look dignified.
"That was… a test. I just wanted to see how you reacted!", Weiss said, trying to save face. Naturally, Ruby knew that wasn't true. What was what Blake had once called her? A tsundere or something? Whatever that was, she was probably acting like one right now. She would have to ask Blake later.
Patting Weiss' hair, she said, "Sure you were, Weiss. Sure you were.". Weiss face scrunched up in protest of her sarcasm. That just made her look even cuter to Ruby. Before she could defend herself, both Ruby and Weiss were startled by a loud thud.
Yang hag a bad habit of moving around in her sleep. She often tossed and turned. Hell, she just randomly punched the air sometimes. They must be good dreams, since she usually had a smile on while she did it. Today, she had delivered a kick that ended up with her falling out of her bunk.
A groan filled the room as Yang sat up from where he fell, rubbing her head. She looked around in a daze. She looked over at Weiss and Ruby. "Morning, lovebirds.", she groaned.
Weiss was stiff with terror. Ruby, on the other hand, smiled. "Good morning, Yang!", she said with a smile. Standing up, Yang walked over to the bathroom. "I'm gonna shower first, okay?", Yang said.
"Just save some warm water, okay?", warned Ruby.
Yang let out a slight smirk. "I won't promise anything". She shut the bathroom door. Ruby and Weiss could hear her start the shower.
Weiss audibly exhaled. Ruby just grinned at her. "You were still scared, weren't you?", she teased.
Weiss' eyes shifted around nervously before she settled on a steely gaze on Ruby. "It was still a test!", was her defense. She leapt out of bed. "You don't know! You don't know!", she continued. Ruby was giggling by now. Clearly, her excuses weren't believable.
Unknown to them, Blake was eavesdropping on them. Her cat smile grew. Yeah, this was EXACTLY like her books and anime. Now all that was left was for one of them to call the other 'sempai'. Then her fantasy would be complete.
Overall, this morning wasn't too out of the ordinary so far.
Classes were boring, as usual. It was the regular drag the team running (Or in the cases of Blake and Yang, limping.) from class to class. Luckily, there was nothing much left to do today at practice. All they had left to do was put together the sets and see how they fitted together. So, that meant the actors and script crew could just relax today.
Naturally, everyone was curious as to why Weiss had run off crying yesterday. Weiss had wanted to come up with an excuse, since she didn't want to look bad. However, on the way over, Ruby convinced her to tell the truth. So, when she revealed that she and Ruby loved each other, everyone was surprisingly supportive.
"Wow! How cool!", was Nora's reaction.
"Congratulations.", Ren said with a hint of a smile.
"Weiss, I'm proud of you! It's never easy to just admit your emotions.", congratulated Pyrrha.
"So, the princess is into the damsels? Huh, now that I think about it, it makes sense.", said Jaune, voicing his thoughts.
"This is excellent! Now your acting will be even better!", exclaimed Velvet. Everyone turned to her to give her odd looks. Thinking quickly, she redid her sentence. "I mean, congrats, Weiss! Love always prevails!". Seeing that everyone bought it, she gave a small breath of relief.
Moving on from that, Team JNPR started to assemble the set pieces. Weiss continued to chide Ruby for eating too many cookies, and Blake had run off to the walkways above the stage to read a book. Yang, however, was on a mission. Even if Ruby liked Weiss, Yang had to make sure that Weiss knew what dating Ruby would be like. She strode over to the food table.
"You're going to gain thirty pounds!", exclaimed Weiss. Her statement didn't stop Ruby from shoveling cookies in her mouth. She had so many in her mouth that she couldn't fully close it.
"Ife down't no whaff ur fsayin, Weisff.", Ruby said, her mouth full. "Ife halfn't gffained a pfoundd.". She then tried to grin. With the bits of sprinkles and raisins between her teeth, it was pretty disgusting.
Weiss suppressed a gag. Grabbing a napkin, she tried to ignore Ruby's mouth. "And don't talk with your mouth full, you dork!", she scolded. As she started to wipe off the corners of Ruby's mouth, Yang tapped her on the shoulder.
"Hey, mind if I talk with you? Over there?", Yang asked, gesturing to the back stage changing booths.
"Er… ummm... sure.", Weiss agreed. "She's going to kill me! I knew it!", she panicked on the inside. Finishing cleaning Ruby's mouth, she followed Yang as she walked.
As soon as they got there, Weiss held her arms out to her sides. "Okay, just make it quick.", she sighed, resigned to her fate. Yang gave her an odd look.
"What?", she asked, confused. Then , it clicked in her head. "You think I'm going to kill you?". Yang started to laugh. "Oh man, that's too rich!", she said full of mirth. Weiss lowered her arms.
"You're… not going to kill me?", Weiss asked.
"Of course not! Not of my sis loves ya!", answered Yang, her laughing slowing down. "I just want to talk to you about her.", she continued on, her voice getting more serious. Weiss gulped. Even if Yang wasn't planning on killing her now, she still felt pure terror.
Yang put her arm around Weiss, in an attempt for her to calm down. It pretty much ended up doing the opposite. "Now, I know you love my sister, right?", asked Yang.
"R-right.", Weiss managed to say through her fear. It felt like she was being interrogated.
"Right, right. So, have you slept with her yet?", Yang asked on. Well, THAT was a blunt question. Weiss was shocked at how casual she was talking about this.
"What? Of course not! I can assure you, I will try to court her properly!", assured Weiss. While the thought of doing THAT had repeatedly crossed her mind (Especially in her dreams.), one thing that Weiss had prided herself on was having self-control.
"Good, good. Now, Weiss-y, we're friends right? So, you should have no problem following the rules for dating my sis.", said Yang. She made sure her eyes met Weiss'. She flared her aura, to make her look a little scary. "This is too easy!", she thought.
When Weiss saw the small flame in Yang's eyes, she tried her best not to let loose her bowels. Despite her best efforts, the smallest drop of urine escaped her and dampened her undergarments. If this kept up, she might need to call a janitor.
"Rule one: If I EVER find out that you want to bang her without her being ready, you'll become a stain on the wall. Rule two: IF you break her heart, I'll break YOU. And finally, rule three: try being nicer. Ruby has a big heart, so she's a little sensitive when it comes to emotions. Ya got it?", Yang listed off.
Weiss nodded, her mind being too afraid to disagree. Yang pulled her arm off of her. Suddenly, Yang decided to pat Weiss on the back. "Come on, don't be like that. Have some fun!", she encouraged. She started to move to the stage curtain. Before she went through, she turned to Weiss. "But remember, if you do ANYTHING to her, I'll come down on you so hard that you'd think you'd been gang banged by trains.". Yang exited through the curtain after her threat.
Weiss stood there, shaking. Yang could be really scary sometimes. Or, now that she was seeing Ruby, all the time. She really needed to find a bathroom. She really needed to pee. Weiss rushed off, in search of a porcelain throne.
Team JNPR was busy setting up the street set. Given the amount of time they had to make the sets, plus their low budget, it was one fake wall painted to look like brick, and another one painted to look like a store front. It wasn't the best they could do, but it was serviceable. As they erected the walls, Velvet kept on obsessing over the ways the play could go. It was starting to get grating.
"…I mean, what if they throw fruit again? Or garbage? Oh, I won't be able to live with myself. Oh no, what if they light the stage on fire! I heard that someone wanted to do that last time! Oh, no, no, no!".
Velvet was pacing around the stage. To say that she was unnecessarily worried was saying that the Delvez Sea was a little wet, or that Ursas could get a little grumpy. Finally, Jaune had to step in. Leaving Ren to support the wall, he walked over to Velvet and grabbed her by the shoulders.
"You've been saying that for the past hour! Just calm down, dang it! Everything will be fine!", she said, fed up with her worrying. Jaune let her go when she looked at him. "Just focus on what happens AFTER. Like an encore or something. Okay?", he pleaded.
That brought a shine to Velvet's eyes. "An encore! Of course, why haven't I thought of it yet?", she thought out loud.
"Because you were panicking.", came Ren's strained voice. That wall was way heavier than it looked. Remembering how he left Ren, Jaune ran back over before the wall was dropped.
"If the audience wanted an encore, what should we do?", Velvet mused. That had never really happened before. But, with this musical, it might actually happen.
"Oh! OH! I know, I know!", Nora interjected. She let one arm go while holding up the wall. She didn't really seem to have any issue lifting it up. In fact, she made it look easy.
"Really? You do?", was Velvet's enthused reply.
"We can have Ren do one of his kooky things!", Nora suggested. Her statement was greeted by silence.
Eventually, the only thing heard was Pyrrha's confusion. "Kooky?".
Ren sighed. It wouldn't be the first time he had to clarify facts that Nora should already know about him. And it also wouldn't be the first time she used the word 'kooky', either.
"She means kabuki.", Ren explained.
"Ohhh... I still have no idea what you're talking about.", Jaune said.
Ren sighed. "This is what I get for not being more sociable.", he thought.
"Kabuki theater. It's an honorable, ancient tradition of my people. It's like this musical, except we sing with our bodies instead of our mouths.", he explained further.
There was an awkward pause. Velvet put a voice to what everyone else was thinking about.
"...Is it a sex thing?", she asked, a small blush on her face.
If he wasn't currently holding up the wall for Pyrrha to add supports, he would have slapped his forehead repeatedly. He started to explain again:
"Urrgh. Why is EVERYTHING about sex with you people? Kabuki theater is...".
Ren was cut off by Nora. You know, that was a pretty bad downside to having a hyperactive friend. He should really check if she had a disorder of some kind.
"He puts on funny clothes and a mask, and dances around until someone else shows up to do stuff with him!", Nora tried to explain. Once again, there was a profound silence.
"... It still sounds like a sex thing.", Pyrrha drawled out.
Ren by now was getting a severe headache. Now getting frustrated, he said, "Look, you really need to acrobatic in order to do kabuki. You need to limber and flexible. Otherwise, you can't-". Ren was cut off by Velvet. Damn it!
"I'm not comfortable with you having sex on stage, Ren. It doesn't matter how flexible you are.", she decided. Everyone else nodded in agreement. Ren hung his head in defeat. He really had a thankless job being the straight man here.
"No offence, Ren, but nobody would want to see you have sex on stage. It would be weird for everyone.", Jaune said. Ren took offence anyway. Oh man, was he offended. Kabuki theater was a treasured part of his culture, damn it! Not some weird, creepy public sex thing!
"If that's what you think I would do up there, then all of you are a bunch of f-", Ren tried to spit out before being interrupted once more.
"Moving on!", announced Velvet. "What if we thought of a rock song to play? Can any of you play an instrument?".
As the conversation continued around him, Ren couldn't help but wonder, "Man, the universe just hates me, doesn't it?." He wasn't exactly wrong.
The universe hates everyone all the same.
And there you have it! Another chapter finished! Just want to give a quick shout out to JimboYokimbo. He helped me edit this chapter. Check out his stuff, he's a cool guy! Be sure to tell me what you think in the reviews section, okay? And be sure to be ready for more! This is The Draigg, signing off currently.