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Requested By : Polemoduke

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Ruby was not a happy camper, right now.

Which was kinda ironic given she'd literally been a happy camper, like… Twelve hours ago. Hunting Grimm was her job! She got to go super fast, kill big monsters, and work out her baby in front of Py- In front of her team, and even got to learn about catching Grimm! Which was super weird, or felt that way, sure, but also super interesting. Port was one of, like, three people in history that could do that - and his could even move! So it was new, and exciting, even if she had to put up with Port…

Nora could like him all she liked - but she remembered him hitting on people in class.

Nooooo thank you, joking or not.

But it was still fun, hearing his old stories and roasting marshmallows… Even if Weiss and Jaune being all snuggly was weird, it was still fun. And besides, when they woke up they'd run into a Nevermore and had to kill that. Weiss had shot her at it like a spear! It was awesome! Something she couldn't wait to write Dad about.

Now, though…?

She hoped no one ever heard about now.

"Come on, Ruby, you have to have some kind of opinion." Her sister sighed, standing in front of the dressing room at the underground mall in Vale's shopping district. Holding up each of the things in her hand, she asked, "Which do you prefer? Frills, or no frills?"

She sighed and gave the things her sister was holding a look.

Both were two-piece bathing suits, one black and one grey, hung on one of those funny clothes hanger with the little plastic spice running down to the second piece. The black one was the one with the frills, hanging around the… Seat, Weiss called it. She hated them both, really, they were just- How could they be too much and nowhere near enough at the same time? And flicking Yang and the lily-white two-piece she had draped over Ren's shoulder about twenty feet away…

"I-I dunno, I don't think that's my… My kind of thing, really, um-"

"Uh huh." Yang chuckled, shaking her head, "You're going to a boat party, Ruby. You need a swimsuit."

"I-I mean, yeah, but-" Yang raised an eyebrow and, seeing the argument coming, she hot-swapped to a different topic and asked. "W-Why are you guys even here? It's just our team going, you don't need a bathing suit."

"What, I can't come shopping with my baby sister?"

"I mean, yeah, but…" She turned, giving Nora in the wheelchair she kept promising she didn't need but Ren and Blake had essentially forced her into since she was still a day out from 'recovered'. Turning back to Yang, she raised her eyebrow and made a face and Yang sighed.

"Okay, right," Yang sighed, "Nora was jealous so we're getting suits and going to a river Ren knows about, out in Forever Fall."

"That… Tracks."

"Yeah, so, getting back on topic since I know you tried to duck it-" Ruby scrunched in on herself a bit and Yang smirked in her 'got you' way she always did, and Yang held the swimsuits up again, shaking them a bit. "So! Frills or no frills?"

"I-I don't-"

"No frills."

"Ack!" She squawked, spinning as Weiss arrived and flicked the swimsuits a look. Turning to Ruby, she smiled softly, almost… Gently and explained, "It's a deck party, so getting wet is likely, but no one is really planning on swimming. So get something tasteful-"

"So this-"

"For a fifteen year old, Xiao Long."

"Okay, first off, sixteen."

"What?" Weiss blinked, "Since when, precisely?"

"Since October…" Yang rolled her eyes and sighed, jabbing a thumb at Ruby and chuckling. "Ruby is a bit anxiety shaped, if you know what I mean, so I bought her a big cookie, and me and pops did a vid-call to wish her happy birthday."

"O-Oh, welll, um… Sixteen is not much better, y-you dolt!" Weiss scoffed, turning and holding out a little box for her. "Here. I bought you a bathing skirt."

"Bathing skirt…?"

"Imagine a skirt." Weiss deadpanned at the blonde, raising her eyebrows, "Now imagine a thinner one you can take into a pool. Bathing skirt. I ordered it black with red embroidery. For Ruby, I'd suggest a black one-piece to match."

"Laaaaame…"

"I'll be wearing the same." Weiss pointed out dryly, crossing an arm over her chest and resting her elbow on her wrist to look at her nails. "It's quite elegant, I'll have you know."

"Yeah, and-"

"Also, I'm the one paying for your stuff, since Pyrrha wasn't asked." Weiss cut in, smiling in that toothy, kind of scary but wholesome when it was directed at other people for picking on Ruby or Jaune sort of way she'd fallen into lately, "Unless you wanna tell her you're bullying her dear teammate, that is, and see if she'll pay for yours, too. Though, I can imagine what sort of outfit she'd buy you in that case…"

"...I'm sure it'll be adorable!" Yang smiled, tossing the swimsuits away and pivoting on a heel as she marched off. "I think the onesies are over here!"

"Thanks, Weiss…"

"Don't mention it." Weiss smiled, waving a hand at the counter, "If you head over there and give your name, I have a one piece I ordered for you. It has your emblem on the back. It should look rather fabulous, if I do say so myself."

"Oh, uh, thanks, but, um…" She shrugged and gestured at the fleeing blonde, "Why didn't you tell Yang that…?"

"So she wastes her time finding a few pieces only to discover that, lo and behold, you already have one." Weiss shrugged, turning and padding off to where Jaune was waiting with a couple of the same simple, white cardboard boxes that she'd given Ruby. Waving as she left, she called back, "Call me petty, but I think it's rather funny!"

Ruby just snickered and turned as someone else stepped out of the changing room and, very suddenly, Ruby felt just a bit warmer.

Pyrrha's swimsuit, she'd been told, would be branded, like a lot of stuff she wore or carried… Or ate, even, which was still weird. So she'd expected a simple onesie, or maybe a two-piece, or something like that. More focused on whatever it was advertising, probably on her back, than matching Pyrrha at all. Or even looking great.

Current Ruby wanted to punch Past Ruby in the face for thinking that and not letting her prepaaaare.

Instead of something simple, Pyrrha had something custom. With bronze leggings that ran up to her mid-thigh, hugging flush against the skin and cutting off for a few inches until it got to the high waist that curved up over her hips. Her abs were bare in the middle, surrounded by a dark crimson siding that ran up around her arms, with a fade-in to bronze across her chest. It was designed after her armor, clearly, but with a way deeper dip in the chest that made Ruby want to ask for the AC to be turned up. When she turned around to shut the door, the suit hugged her shoulders so well Ruby could see the muscles bunching up around a simple black circle with an emblem she vaguely recognized splashed across her shoulder blades - a pair of big gears working together with 'N-Tech' splashed across them.

What is 'N-Tech', her brain couldn't quite conjure up right now, even if she was sure she recognized it…

"Ruby…?" She blinked, looking up at her and Pyrrha smirked, "You're trailing petals…"

"O-Oh." She blinked, looking at her hands where flower petals were peeling away. Closing her fist, she nodded, "Y-Yeah…"

"So…" Pyrrha chuckled, "Does it fit alright?"

Ruby just nodded, squawked something she hoped approached 'yeah, fits great' and then shot away towards the counter Weiss had pointed out. And totally not for any kind of safety, no matter what Yang said later! No, she just wanted to get her own swimsuit and make sure it fit, too.

Yeah…

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The yacht was an older Mistrali style design her company had made maybe five years or so ago, with a wide, open front deck, narrow sides, and a two-level boathouse at the back. The bottom of which would be engineering, and the top and front of which would be the steerage. The rest was quarters for the snooty owner, and guest rooms on the bottom level of the above-deck levels. Below that, outside the engineering area itself, the inside of the boat was a honeycomb of sleeping rooms around a large dining-room and a small gym just off it. The gym was custom, she remembered, and the engine was apparently 'modified outside contract' which…

Well, that could always be a fun card to play, if she wanted to.

"Why do you look so smug right now?" Her partner asked from behind her. When she turned, he was dressed in a simple cloth robe and orange trunks that matched his hair - his real hair, at least, rather than the white she had splashed up for everyone else's benefit.

'Because,' Neo signed slowly under the shade of her umbrella, 'this is one of the first line of Mistrali-style yachts we made without sails!'

"We?"

'I was involved.' Roman raised an eyebrow at her and she pouted and kicked his shin. Even in sandals, it hurt, and he could hardly bap her back in public. How would it look, after all, for a grown man apparently thrice her age to hit a barely-adult woman in an oh so innocent creme onesie?

She even had little hip frills to sell it - no one suspected someone with hip frills! for some reason.

So he swore and turned, shaking his leg off, and Neo smirked. 'I was involved!'

"Right, right…" He sighed, looking up at where the crew and 'guests' were boarding. Most were snooty socialites who wouldn't leave the dining room or sun deck, he was sure. But a few caught his eyes - and, thus, Neo's. Or, well, one did. "Ah, fuck all kinds of duck…"

Neo raised an eyebrow and followed his gaze to little Nikos and her team of do-gooders climbing the gangplank. She saw the girl almost immediately and smirked.

'Wow.' She signed, stepping in front of him. 'You really do have the worst luck.'

"Oh shut up, Trivia." She scowled and rounded on him and he smirked, waving her forward with a practiced flourish. "Your esteemed partner, Alfred Copper, would be honored to escort you."

'Dick.' She signed as she reached out to accept his hand and turned, letting him hold her seemingly waifish arm in his own. An older gentleman accompanying a mute, supposedly traumatised, apparently helpless orphan.

It was perfect for their disguise, and while she normally hated these little outings they had to do for appearances…

Well, she could screw with Red, at least.

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"I know you're all Huntresses-to-be, Miss, but I just wanted it known." Captain Moby rumbled, running hands through his old, scraggly beard while he leaned against the captain's wheel, nestled right in the center of the front wall of the cabin, and looked at the radar monitor beside it. "We've had reports about rough weather lately. A late tail-wind on the seasonal storms, supposedly. And these contraptions always seem to break on us… If it happens out there-"

"It will be handled." She cut him off, laying a hand on his shoulder and smiling quietly. "You have my word, Captain. And I trust you as well. It will be fine, in the end, short of a Leviathan attack."

"Right…" He sighed and nodded, rapping his knuckles on the wooden railing in a spot that looked rough, worn and aged beyond what the rest of it bore around it. Quietly, he went on, "I just wanted you aware, like I said, Ma'am. That was all for updates, though."

"Thank you." She sighed, turning and leaving out the main door in the smack center of the wall across from the long line of viewing windows.

The hallway outside stretched to either side, but she just stepped forward again and pushed open her own door, sighing as the more comfortable room of her quarters enclosed her.

Here, the room was carpeted in a dull red, with a large bed at the back, dressers and drawers anchored to the wall to either side, and a bathroom in one corner. She had, long ago, put in a work-desk in the opposite corner, right under some windows, and gladly sat at it for the time she had. Her weapons were laid on top of it, but she'd already cleaned them and retested their shifting components, so she sat it aside. Instead, she got to work organizing the drawers. Oils, tools, rags - everything had its place, and it was somewhat… Therapeutic, setting it all properly there. How and why, she couldn't be sure.

But for a quiet half hour, she was relaxed…

Until her Scroll buzzed and she sighed, closing the last, mostly-organized drawer with a click of its latch and standing to head for the door. And, turning, towards the stairs that lead down onto the party deck, as it was called.

The deck was wide and open, perfect for dancing she'd been told when she was fifteen, and ringed by a mid-chest high railing. Deck chairs and tables ran along its edge, where the dozen or so guests were lounging, scattered across the tables. They were a relatively eclectic mix, ranging from her agent's assistant, since he couldn't make it apparently, to Mister Copper, her sponsor's guardian, and a few people invited by her company who Pyrrha didn't know. Jaune and Weiss were at the table at the point of the ship, leaning against each other and watching the ocean as they pulled further away from port, and Ruby was…

Ah.

That was where Miss Vanille was.

Sitting at a table with Ruby… Who was talking rather animatedly.

"Oh…" Pyrrha blinked as she recognized the raised eyebrow the dainty woman wore, and the little smirk. "Oh dear."

"-saying their blades? Great. But their components?" Pyrrha heard Ruby finish saying, watching her scoff and throw a hand up to wave dismissively in a rather weak imitation of the same gesture Weiss used often enough. Like she was trying to shoo something away. "Craaaaaap! Even this ship's engine has been basically rebuilt. And I remember ordering parts for my scythe way back when and, get this, they got there late! And jammed up the first time I tried to shift them! It's awful! It's like they're trying to get someone killed out in the-"

"Ruby!" Pyrrha suddenly shouted as she slammed into the seat beside her, and between her and Miss Vanille. "Why, it's so nice to see you having fun! What, pray tell, are you and Miss Vanille, NeoTech's owner and my very important sponsor talking about?"

"Oh, u-um…" Ruby smiled weakly and shrugged, "The weather?"

"Please don't fire me, I am so sorry." Pyrrha turned, ignoring Ruby's suffering sigh to appeal to Miss Vanille directly. "Ruby is…"

Miss Vanille cut her off with a few quick hand gestures and, as if from nowhere, Alfred appeared to translate, "Miss Vanille forgives the transgression. Apparently, the little girl was more than a little amusing."

"I'm sorry…"

"Thank you, I-" She sighed and stood, shaking her head, "Please, we'll talk later. I have to start the party. And Ruby is going to come with me."

"What, but-" Pyrrha turned to give Ruby a look, and she deflated, standing and smoothing out the thin black skirt with red embroidery that ran around behind her and opened in the front. For the first time, Pyrrha recognized it was actually fairly cute, but…

She shook it off as she paced away, Ruby in tow.

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Roman waited until they were well out of hearing range, and everyone was focusing on the little champion's speech before he sat and sighed. Leaning over, he murmured, "Neo, I swear to the gods, if you suggest Pyrrha take you to a nice hotel again, I will absolutely throw you into the ocean."

Neo just gave him a smug look.

So, he grinned and added, "Along with your ice-cream stash down in the kitchens."

Neo blinked, gave him a questioning look, then sat up straighter when he just raised both his eyebrows as if inviting the challenge. When she nodded, he relaxed and turned back to watch the snooty brats and the somehow even more snooty rich fops start their dancing. Which more or less came down to two couples actually dancing and the rest lazily milling about in little trios and quartets to talk.

"Gods, Trivia," he sighed, sliding back into his role smoothly enough, at least as much as was needed, "but I can't wait to get back to the city."

Neo just shrugged and sipped at her drink, signing, "At least the view is nice."

Roman just groaned.

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