Sorry this took a while. Was meant to have this up around early November but some exams required last minute preparation. It is what it is.

In other news, nice to see that people are enjoying the character dynamics; they'll be taking quite a central role in this story.

The day passed quickly after that. The only part Ruby remembered was trying to avoid Yang's baseless accusations of her trying to build a reverse-harem. It'd been funny the first time she said it, even if Ruby put up some pretty desperate defences to keep the accusations at bay. Unfortunately, by the fifth time, the joke had been worn out and Ruby couldn't begin to try and defend against it. Of course, her silence was only confirmation for Yang so it only gave the brawler some wind in her sails to keep on going.

Thankfully, that second wind only lasted another two rounds of accusations and weak dismissals before Yang got bored herself and tapped out of the impromptu teasing session to go check up on her friends.

Yang was lucky; she still had her friends close by to check on in person. Unlike her older sister's friends, Ruby's friends were on a completely different land mass and were likely a little annoyed by the fact that Ruby was the one who was lucky enough to be in the right place and the right time to skip ahead instead of them.

Whilst she could get a scroll call done, she'd been told pretty frankly that the group was a little annoyed with her. It might not have been the kindest thing for a friend to say but Ruby could sort of understand why they'd said it: she'd made promises years ago that they'd all form amazing teams together when they made it into Beacon and she'd broken that promise without any warning.

Thankfully, she had one person who might hear her out: her old partner Ebi. Signal had everyone join up into pairs so they could teach the basics of teamwork and how to fight alongside other people. Even with Ruby's social awkwardness, there was only so long she could go being partners with someone before she ended up befriending them. The two girls weren't the closest pair that Signal had ever seen but Ruby liked to think that they were close enough that Ebi would read the letter instead of throwing it away.

"Dear Ebi…" Ruby read back to herself as she checked over her words, "It's a little weird not to see you and the rest of the gang after the summer holidays. I miss you guys a lot, more than I thought I might. Not that I thought I wouldn't miss you or anything but it's… weird to go back to being alone. I hope you guys aren't worrying too much about me. If anything, I'm worried about how our tabletops will go without me to keep the weapons interesting."

Ruby shook her head as she read the last line back to herself. She didn't want to make it sound like she was the keystone the rest of the friend group was built on. What if she made herself sound arrogant? What if they hated her for it? She knew she was more of the lurking kind of friend, who kind of just stuck to the few people she knew well and lingered around the rest, and she was already on thin ice for ditching them all to go to Beacon. As she'd been reminded more than a few times, it wasn't like she had to accept Ozpin's offer. She knew she'd have been allowed to stay in Signal if she wanted to, but she also knew that none of her friends would have turned it down in her position.

That's why she was sending a letter at all. She needed to say something, at least, if she wanted any of her friendships to survive. This was what she meant when she said that she didn't want to be the bee's knees; making herself out to be more special than she was just made things tense. She got into Beacon two years early but she hadn't changed; she was exactly the same person she was before she went to that Dust store to pick up the latest copy of Weapons Weekly.

And yet, nothing she said would make her friends believe that.

"How's your half-pike going for you? Did you make the balance adjustment I suggested? From one polearm user to another, the weight was a little too bottom-heavy because of the way you implemented the firearm but it's cool if you want to keep it as is. I bet you've already made that calibre conversion, right? It's kinda sad that I spent a whole year trying to convince you to move to 10mm but won't get to see the change. At least I know you don't have to spend an arm and a leg for 5.7, right?"

She giggled to herself at that last line. She could understand being attached to a certain calibre; she'd been a sucker for .303 herself when she was a little girl, especially because it was the first rifle calibre she'd practised with. Things had been different back then: Crescent Rose was a halberd instead of a scythe, and wasn't even called Crescent Rose to begin with, while Ruby had been an eager novice with a trigger finger. Back then, she'd been trying to focus everything on speed and that mindset seeped into her marksmanship too: she'd focused all her training on increasing the speed of aiming, the rate of fire and her time to reacquire sights instead of focusing on accuracy and precision.

She grew from that style eventually; its reckless aggression caused her to lose more fights than she won but it was an important part of her growth as a fighter. After all, if it wasn't for that early style, she'd have never moved to bolt-action to curb her old habits. That had been a happy accident: there was nothing better than the feeling of hand-feeding a round into the chamber and slamming the bolt back into place. It was why she'd spent some extra time and money to copy the bolt of the hybrid semi-auto-bolt-action SK-46 to Crescent Rose; all just to retain that nice gun feel.

To Ruby, here was nothing better than a bolt-action rifle for some recreational shooting and semi-auto sniper for live combat.

"Not the time to think about Cressie," Ruby had to say it aloud before she took it to heart, "Er… What to say next?"

Ruby hummed and hawed as she tried to think of what to write, "If you're doing the calibre conversion, you might want to change your halberd to a closed-bolt mechanism while you're at it; open-bolts are only really useful for machine guns and you have way too much trigger discipline for those. Unless you don't want to change it. It's not like I can talk your ear off about it anymore, right? Hah, hah, ha…"

Ruby's pen dropped out of her hand in dreary acceptance: she just couldn't write a good enough letter. This sucked: all it was doing was reminding her that she was drifting away from all of her friends. Was it even right for her to try and rebuild these bridges? It's not like she could go back to Signal to make things right. It's not like they'd even want her to; if she turned down Beacon and came back to Signal to join them, they'd just be envious that she didn't make the most of an opportunity they'd have done anything for. Was she just trying to keep her old relationships alive to hide from having to make new ones? Was she allowed to do that?

"Hey there, baby sis. What's got you all frowny?" Yang crashed into her sleeping bag, interrupting all of the questions bouncing around in Ruby's head, "It's like a big slumber party! I thought you loved these."

"Yeah, when it was with my friends and we'd stay up at night to watch movies together. This is just a room full of strangers lying around! And, I don't think dad would appreciate all the boys," Ruby knew her dad wouldn't appreciate all the boys.

"Heh, I do," Yang gave a not too subtle look at two people who were arm wrestling without any shirts. Obviously because arm wrestling was too strenuous of an activity to do while fully clothed.

"Yeah, yeah. You can't function without at least three boys drooling over you," Ruby jabbed, "Let me guess, you're going to hop into their arm-wrestling match, crush both of them and add them to your reverse harem?"

"Psh, I only need one boy to drool over me," Yang grinned before she saw her opportunity, "Hey, now that I think about it, where's Vomit Boy? He's the perfect person to enrapture with my feminine wiles."

"Please don't," Ruby didn't want to picture that particular outcome, "I'd like to have at least one friend here that's mine. Everyone else will flock to you anyway."

"Relax, Rubes. You know my type: hot, bad boys that take shit from no one," Yang gave a look which Ruby could only describe as being conspiratorial, "So, if you meet anyone along those lines, will you hook a sister up?"

"Keep me out of your love life!" was Ruby's immediate reaction.

If Yang would be anything like their dad, it'd probably be an eventful love life. Eventful as in having a bunch of colourful characters, strong personalities, warring ideals and some sort of really twisted love polygon to make any rom-com weep in inadequacy. Knowing Yang, she'd probably end up in some weird love star or love pentagram or something.

Ruby wouldn't want to be within sniping range of that; it sounded like it'd be way too much of a headache.

"Wait a second, aren't you into boy bands?" Ruby thought for a second, "Isn't that-"

"I've got street cred, Rubes!" Yang's hand kept a tight grip on Ruby's mouth, "I can't have you saying that too loud."

"You brought the poster! One of their songs is your ringtone!"

"Pft, yeah. But that doesn't mean I'm into boy bands! I'm into their music!" Yang reasoned.

"The poster!"

"You can hear images, y'know."

"I… what?" Ruby couldn't understand what Yang meant, "Can we talk about anything else?"

"Yeah, obviously," Yang rubbed Ruby's head patronisingly, "So, if romance is too much of an adult topic for my little Rubaby, what do you want to talk about? What's the letter?"

Yang just had to bring it up, didn't she?

"I'm just… trying to write a letter to the gang in Signal. Well, to my friend in Signal who'll probably share it with the rest of the gang," Ruby gave a pointed stare at Yang, "It's not like I have anyone to talk to here."

"Hey, you've always got me," Yang shuffled over to read the letter herself, "Writing a letter to your friends shouldn't get you like that."

"I don't know what to write!" Ruby whined, "I need to say something to them but what do I even talk about? I'm never going to see any of them again. What do I even say? Oh, I'm sorry for leaving you all behind, let's talk about how great my life is and how I get to go to the school of our dreams early. Why? Because my eyes are a weird colour."

"Don't say that; they're an adorable colour," Yang gave a final glance at the letter before looking into those weird coloured eyes, "Also, all you talked about was someone's weapon."

"I couldn't think of anything else! I'm not sure if I should just restart… Ebi doesn't really like me talking about her weapon too much. Y-Y'know, it's that thing about not liking your work being critiqued," Ruby rubbed the back of her head, "Even if people aren't putting in half the effort they should."

"Yeah, yeah," Yang waved off Ruby's annoyance with a wave of the hand, "How dare people take pride in their work if it doesn't comply to Ruby Rose's Rules of… I can't think of a word for weapons that begins with 'r' but you get the point."

Ruby could think of someone who needed to be struck with her pillow but swallowed the justified anger with a bitter smile, "Well, if they're not willing to improve their weapons and keep them at their peak, why have them at all? It's not like weapons are what every Huntsman relies on to keep themselves alive, right?"

"Weapons aren't what keeps everyone alive," Yang wiggled her finger, "You know what Uncle Qrow always says: when everything looks like it's on the brink, all you need is another dri-"

Ruby's arm had thrown the pillow before her mind could stop it, "Alcohol is not the solution to every problem."

"Yeah, you were always all about drinking milk instead," Yang grabbed the pillow with ease before slipping it beneath her neck, "Qrow definitely meant alcohol, though."

The red reaper huffed, "Besides the point. People just don't give their weapons the respect they deserve. You can't even defend them since you don't give Ember Celica much love either. When's the last time you polished your slide, your carrier or your receiver?"

"Er-" Yang genuinely tried to remember if she ever did polish any part of her shotgun-gauntlets.

"Trick question: I know when because I did it for you." Ruby shook her head, "What're you going to do when you start having feeding problems out in the wilds? It's not like I can be your gunsmith forever."

"You can't? I thought you were dying to be on a team with me?" Yang gasped in mock hurt, "Oh my! Is that how it is, dear sister? Leaving me already to get with some boys? For shame, Ruby! For shame!"

Ruby's snort wasn't the least bit amused, "I was until you ditched me. Abandoning your own dear sister to hang out with your friends. For shame, Yang! You threw me to the wolves!"

"I threw you into your first friend!" Yang laughed as Ruby gew more annoyed, "But, enough about my claim to being the best sister ever, let's get back to the letter to your old pals . Let's see… How about talking about your first day?"

"What's there to talk about? I met Jaune but I doubt that's interesting. And I doubt that they want to hear that I'm replacing them already. That speech the headmaster gave was just kind of insulting. What do you want me to do? Tell them that I ate an explosion because you spun me around?"

"Skip that last bit about me and it's a good story. You've got a situation so weird even I can't believe it happened. I mean, the heiress of the SDC getting into a Dust accident? That's hilarious. You've even got a fun villain to hate on and rant about. Maybe you can make the Ice Queen a bloodsucking vampire in your retelling?"

"She's not a bloodsucking vampire, she's just... Her," Ruby waved her hand in a wishy-washy manner, "She's just not very friendly."

"A bitch."

"Not very friendly," Ruby tried again, "But, I'd rather not talk about her."

"Rubes, I get that you don't want to talk about a bad experience but, that's kind of the whole fun of sharing stories with friends," Yang tried to get through Ruby's social awkwardness, "Listen, I get that it might feel a little weird to be talking shit behind her back but… well, the Ice Queen's the daughter of the richest man on the planet and heiress of the richest company. I doubt a bit of slander would even register on her list of worries."

"Is there anything else we could talk about?"

"The Headmaster's speech, then?" Yang tried again, "It was literally a minute of calling us wasted potential. That'd be pretty interesting at least. Maybe spice it up by saying that maybe you can all be wasted potential together or something?"

"I'm… not even going to respond to that," Ruby sighed, "So, I've got no idea what to write to my friends. Er, how's it going with yours?"

"Eh, I don't keep a leash on my crew so I left them for a bit to come to you. You know me: I've got to make sure my baby sister isn't about to have her second explosion of the day," Yang's smile dropped at Ruby's persistent frown, "Alright, I won't bring it up again. But, y'know, I've got to look out for you. We did this same song and dance when you got into Signal, remember?"

"Yeah, but that time you were two years above me and you had actual advice," Ruby pointed out, "Right now, you're just as lost as I am."

"Harsh…" Yang rolled her neck a little before sighing, "But that's fair. You speak to VB? Maybe he's got some nuggets of wisdom in that mop he calls hair."

"I doubt it. He seems just as lost as I did," Ruby looked at her sister with blatant concern, "Wait… please tell me you weren't serious."

"What? Are you afraid I'll actually scare him out of joining your harem? Relax Rubes, I really ain't into tall, blonde and scraggly. Didn't think you were either but we all have a- Ow!"

Ruby didn't bother trying to retrieve the pen as it bounced off of Yang's incredibly thick skull. It wasn't like she was getting any writing done anyway so its sacrifice wouldn't be regretted.

"When will you drop that?"

"When you make your first girl friend, as in girl space friend, obviously. Unless all those Mistrali cartoons were leading to something. Wasn't that last one you read all about that girl-on-girl action-" Yang flinched, expecting something to be thrown at her only to find nothing but a stern glare hitting her, "Huh, I thought that'd have been the one to set you off."

"Cypher Curse is a deep political thriller about a disgraced prince trying to lead a rebellion with giant mechs and psychic powers! It is not all about girl-on-girl action."

"The director must not have got the memo. I remember all those cockpit shots," Yang gave a sly wink, "No one draws an ass in that much detail unless-"

"Yang!"

"Alright, alright. I'll leave your tastes alone," the older sibling finally relented with a happy sigh, "Well, alone for now anyway. So, let's get you a gal pal."

"Yang, please don't…" Ruby begged her sister not to try and set up a play-date, "I'm fifteen, not five. I can make my own friends."

"That you can, little sis," Yang ignored her pleas and scanned the room, "I need someone calm… Quiet… Maybe a little nerdy too… Perfect!"

Despite having super speed, Ruby couldn't begin to explain how she'd moved from the safety of her sleeping bag to a bench along the walls. Had she blanked out? Frozen up? Had her body resigned itself to embarrassing her in the most socially awkward way possible? That wasn't fair! She'd been treating her body pretty well recently: she'd been giving it plenty of cookies and quality rest in preparation for Initiation. If this was how she was going to be repaid, she might just let her body suffer in the worst way she could think of: strength training. See how her body felt about blanking out when-

"Sis, say something-" Yang elbowed her in the ribs none too gently before whispering to the side, "You're being creepy."

No thanks to Yang, obviously.

Ruby took a deep breath to steel herself; it was game time. The target in front of her was a tall girl with an incredibly dark sea of hair. She looked familiar, almost like she'd been in the background of something. But… where? The airship? No, Ruby wouldn't have remembered anyone there. In Beacon's courtyard? She'd been with Jaune the entire day, except when-

She was the girl who'd defended Ruby against Weiss! Right, how could she have forgotten? Aside from eating a Dust explosion at point-blank before meeting her and aside from the girl disappearing as soon as the confrontation ended, Ruby had no excuse! What should she begin with? A "thank you" for helping her out? A light tease for running as soon as Weiss left?

No, not that last one; what if she left because she was shy? Ruby was an introvert herself and she wasn't hypocritical enough to call someone else out for being the same. What did she say instead? What was a safe answer? With Jaune, she'd asked about his weapon and they'd broken through the ice like it was a warm summer's day. With Weiss, Ruby only needed to ask about her weapon to stop a fight that was already in motion.

At this point, Ruby had found her magic bullet to socialising.

"What's your weapon?" Ruby asked, blatantly ignoring Yang's facepalm, "You must have a pretty cool one to get in."

"I'd… rather not," Blake gave her a patronising smile, "Do you mind?"

Not a success! That was not a success! How? Why? What was different this time? If it worked against someone as mean as Weiss, it should've worked on everyone.

"E-Er, sorry. Just… wanted to thank you for helping me out back there," Ruby rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly, "So… thanks."

"You're welcome," Blake muttered before turning back to her book, already bringing the conversation to a close.

"What're you doing?" Yang muttered, voice low and eyes worried, "You're losing her."

"I don't know!" Ruby whispered back, "Why didn't the weapons line work?"

"When does it ever work?" Yang huffed and shook her head before speaking again, "So, what's your name?"

"Blake."

"So… Blake. Whatcha doing?"

"Reading a book, as you can see here," Blake waved the book gently, "Which I'd love to get back to… once you leave."

"Cool… Welp, you win some and you lose some, Rubes. Onto the next one," Yang sighed before grabbing onto Ruby's arm.

"What's the book about?" Ruby asked softly, "It must be pretty good if you want to get back to it so bad."

"It's about a man with two souls, each fighting for control of his body," Blake offered before noticing some recognition in the younger girl's eyes, "You've read it?"

"It's part of Signal's curriculum, actually. Something about it being culturally significant," Ruby smiled in memory, "It's an interesting story, right? About how much good a person is capable of and the hidden darkness that they have to bury beneath."

"Do you like stories?" Blake offered out a line.

Ruby took it gladly, "Yeah. Stories of heroes and monsters… they're what made me want to be a Huntress in the first place."

Blake almost laughed in disbelief, "How's that? Hoping you'll live happily ever after?"

"Aren't we all?" Ruby asked back, a little surprised at the cynicism, "No one goes through life wanting to be miserable at the end. If you're not hoping to live happily ever after, are you hoping to live at all?"

Blake flinched and Ruby could only smile pitifully. That was telling, It wasn't Ruby's place to pry but…

"Aren't you looking for a happy ending, Blake?"

"No... No. Unfortunately for all of us, the real world isn't the same as a fairy tale. There are no happy endings."

Ruby smiled in the face of Blake's cynicism, "Are you sure? Fairy tales are based on real stories, you know. A little exaggerated for effect but still based in reality."

"And what, are the tales of talking birds and massive ogres just a little exaggerated?"

"Who knows? Can you really say it's completely impossible for there to be birds that talk or a monster in a swamp? Can you even say that there's nothing that isn't similar enough to inspire those stories? That there's never been a bird which chirped in a way that kind of resembled speech or a Grimm that just so happened to be in a swamp?"

"They're fictional! It's fiction! It's just the made-up thoughts of an author with a lot of time on their hands."

"Fiction's art. And life imitates art far more than art imitates life."

Blake grumbled the name, "That quote's a misnomer. Sure, some people take stories as an example to follow and, very rarely, they sometimes succeed. But life's not kind. The world's not kind."

"According to who?" Ruby asked, "If you want to be cynical and objective, evil should always win. Good isn't rational; it's kind. But we're still here, fighting for what's right."

"And you assume that there's only good people out there? That evil only takes the form of monsters?"

"Not everyone is good but not everyone is evil either. And that means that there are good people out there trying to balance out the bad. Isn't that what the heroes do against monsters? Keep the evil at bay?"

"You're just a child," Blake deflected, "A child who hasn't let go of her fantasies."

"I'm not a child! Or, not just a child. I'm barely younger than… forget it. I just think that we shouldn't give up on making the world a better place," Ruby sighed as Blake returned to her book with a pointed focus, as clear a sign as any that the conversation was over, "It was… nice talking to you, Blake."

Blake responded with nothing but silence, causing Ruby to wilt; that wasn't fair!

How was she supposed to know that Blake was the most cynical girl alive? And why was she so focused on stories only being stories? Sure, not all stories are based on reality but the characters and ideas and concepts were always grounded a little. They had to be; if a story was completely separate from reality, no one would be able to relate with them or understand them.

One of her professors at Signal said that Huntsmen made their biggest impact in the stories they left behind. If a hero does something amazing and kind, a story might be written which immortalises that act of kindness and that story of kindness would inspire a new person to take action. And no one would know how many people were inspired by that one story, by that one act. Stories were legacies and to write it all off as fiction had the younger girl a little annoyed

If all Blake was taking away from stories and fairy tales was that the world wasn't anywhere near as happy as them, she wasn't a very perceptive reader, was she?

"You grew up too fast," Yang huffed as the two left Blake alone, "Now you're making friends even I never could have. I'm… not sure you even need me anymore."

"I don't need you to make me friends, not that Blake is a friend… yet. She… didn't exactly like my thoughts." Ruby asked

Yang snorted, "She's a grumpy one. But, I think you can break through."

"Thanks, Yang," Ruby smiled appreciatively, "For trying to help me."

"Anytime sis. Speaking of time, isn't it your bedtime?"

Had Ruby misheard? Yang did not just say-

"Yep. Definitely bedtime."

"N-No! Yang, are you serious?"

"Dad asked me to make sure you stick to yours but, well, he asked me to stick to mine as well," Yang laughed at the idea, "Not like he can enforce it or anything from Patch."

"So… you're going to let me stay up?" Ruby tried, "You were just making a joke, right?"

"Nah. I'm totally going to make you go to sleep. It's a big day tomorrow."

"B-But you said he can't enforce it."

"Yeah, enforce mine. I can enforce yours, at least until we're on different teams."

"No…" Ruby's eyes widened at the last part, "I-If we're on the same team, don't tell me-"

"Yep."

"You're the worst."

"I'd be the worst sister if I let you go into Initiation without enough sleep," Yang clarified, "And you need some more sleep if you want to grow big and strong like me."

"Still the worst."