Chapter Six: Team Raspberry Go!
Authors note: normally I would be super excited about a chapter upload, but it's hard to be excited right now. On February 26th at 2am I was informed that a friend of mine had committed suicide. It makes no sense, I keep asking myself what I could have done, and now that it's happened, I see all the signs of them slowly pushing themselves away from the friend group that we shared and seeing less and less of them. I can't help but feel partially responsible for not being there for them.
Please, if you ever have thoughts of self-harm or thoughts of suicide, please reach out to someone. A family member, a friend, anyone. Please reach out. It's not worth it, whether you realize it or not.
The international suicide Hotline number is 988
You are not alone.
(Rykers pov)
I ran along the streets of Atlas. I had spent every bit of money that I had saved to get an Airbus up to Atlas this late at night. It didn't matter though I was running out of time. I could save her. I could make it on time. Fools Folly was already in my hand as I raced to Mom's office building. I could do it.
I turned a corner, seeing the SDC main office building just down the street. I was almost there. I could make it. I could save her. I ran faster, my lungs burning with effort as I pushed my body to get to the building faster. Yet no matter how hard I pushed myself. No matter how fast I ran. I couldn't get close to the building. I could see them, hundreds of yards away I could see the White Fang preparing to attack the building. They had no features, just pitch-black persons that adorned a single identifying feature. A mask made of bone. A mask made to look like the Grimm.
Monsters, they were monsters. I just couldn't make it in time. I raised Fools Folly, aiming and pulling the trigger as I fired bullets into the group of terrorists, but my spray missed all of them. I was useless.
I felt the heat long before I saw the explosion. It shook the very ground I was running on, the blast sending me onto my back as the entire side of the building was demolished. Screams rang out, and gunfire filled the streets as the White Fang attacked.
The moment I made my way back to my feet the street was empty, the White Fang nowhere to be found, as the building crumbled to dust.
"Ryker." A voice called, muffled and scared. Someone was trapped beneath the debris.
I rushed to the debris, pulling broken concrete away as I tried to dig out the person buried beneath the rubble.
"Ryker."
"Hang on. I'm going to get you out. Just keep talking." I call as I move rock after rock in the area I heard the voice coming from.
"Ryker!" The voice screamed, the bloodcurdling sound making my veins ice over.
"Mom? Mom is that you?" I scream back, rushing to pull rocks away faster and faster, my hands getting cut up, blood leaking from scrapes and gashes as I try and save my mom.
"Ryker!" The voice screamed louder.
I was close, any rock might reveal my mom. I could save her, I would get her to a hospital and she would be ok. I pulled one last stone away, and when I did I let out my own blood-curdling scream.
"Ryker, why didn't you save me?" Mom's decapitated head spoke to me, its dead eyes boring into my own as its body tumbled forward from the pile of rubble while it remained perched in the hole she had been trapped in.
I vomited at the sight.
"Why didn't you save me, Ryker!" She started to scream, her voice multiplying as if coming from multiple people. "We needed you and you let us die. This is your fault, Ryker."
"No," I mumble closing my eyes.
"This is your fault, Ryker."
"Stop it."
"Your fault, your fault, your fault."
"Stop it, shut up!"
"Ryker." A voice whispered next to my ear. I shot up, arm swinging as I elbowed something warm next to me.
"Ow!" The body screamed as I pushed myself deeper into the wall I was next to.
"Ryker!" A new voice spoke as its arms wrapped around me. "Ryker, it's ok! It's me, Blake. Ryker, you're ok!"
My eyes widened, the world pulling into focus as the haze of the nightmare bled away. My chest heaved as my breathing started to slow down. Blake was pinning my arms to my side, her face full of concern. Ruby sat on the floor next to my bed holding her eye as she also looked at me in shock and concern.
We stared at each other for only a moment before I pushed myself away from Blake who let me go as she climbed out of my bed. "I'm sorry, I didn't mea- Ruby I'm so sorry." I hiccuped, tears dotting my eyes as I tried to make sense of the situation.
I had hit Ruby. She was my first friend and I had hit her. She was going to hate me, she would probably tell a teacher about this. I was going to be expelled for attacking another student.
"Ryker." Her voice whispered softly, my eyes snapping to her own. "It's ok, you didn't mean to. You were having a nightmare and I tried to wake you up."
"I'm still sorry. I would never intentionally hit you, Ruby, I swear. You're my best friend." I whimper as I pull my legs to my chest.
My comment made Ruby's eyes go wide, her mouth hanging open as she dropped her hand from her eye. "I'm your best friend?"
"I-uh-I mean…yes? I don't really have many friends, and you were my first friend. So that would probably mean that you're my best friend. Isn't that how it works?" I ask shyly.
Ruby squealed, nodding as she leaped from the floor, the girl flying like a bullet as she tackled me, her arms wrapping around me in a hug. My face felt hot, and I could feel the blush creeping up from my neck as she hugged me.
"What is with all this noise?" Weiss's voice broke through our small moment. Ruby seemed to realize that she was hugging me in my own bed as she let out a small squeak jumping out of my bed.
"Nothing! Nothing happened." She stammered looking at Weiss who was staring at us with a glare. "But it's time to get up anyway!" She cheered, trying to ignore the smirk Blake was giving her.
"What do you mean it's time to get up? It's six-thirty you dolt." Weiss snipped before her eyes seemed to catch something on Ruby's face. "Ruby, why do you have a black eye?"
I jolted, looking at Ruby's face too, and sure enough her eye was just starting to swell up from where I had elbowed her.
"Ruby I am so sorry, I didn't mean to. I woul-"
"Wait, you hit her? What is wrong with you, are you some kind of violent psychopath?" Weiss screeched.
I opened my mouth to protest but Ruby held up her hand silencing me. "Weiss it's fine, Ryker had a nightmare and I tried to wake him up from it. Don't worry about it, I will be more careful if it happens again, besides my aura will have this healed in no time."
"Still, doesn't it concern you that we have a teammate that has such bad nightmares that they might attack us in the night?"
"He's not going to do that, we have more important things to worry about."
"What could possibly be more impor-"
"We have to unpack." Blake interrupted with a gesture to the mass of luggage that we had left from the night before.
"That's right, and as Team RSBR's first mission we need to get unpacked!" Ruby cheered with her arms held above her head.
"I need to get dressed first," I grumble as I grab one of the school uniforms that was provided to me. I walked to the bathroom that we all had to share, shutting the door behind me as Ruby chatted excitedly with Blake and Weiss.
"Don't you dare use all the hot water!" Weiss's voice shrieks through the door.
I roll my eyes like I would ever care if a stupid Schnee had to shower with cold water. I lock the door and make quick work of getting undressed, my vision focusing on avoiding really looking at myself. However, I did catch a small glimpse of myself in the mirror. I flinched at the image of my visible ribs.
I pushed it to the back of my mind, getting myself clean as quickly as possible, though I found myself standing under the water for a while. I stopped focusing on cleaning and just tried to enjoy the water that was pelting me. It was hot, almost dangerously hot, but it felt cleansing in a way I couldn't describe.
After a while I finally got out of the shower, grabbing my uniform after getting dry. Getting dressed sucked, the academy uniforms were ugly, but I had to make due. It was made clear that the uniform only had to be worn for classes, and that outside of them I was free to dress however I pleased.
Unlocking the door and stepping out of the bathroom I was greeted by the sight of Ruby, Blake, and Weiss all working at unpacking.
"Finally, you took forever. Aren't boys supposed to be fast at taking showers? Unless…" Weiss's eyes widened in horror and she looked at me. "You are disgusting!"
"What are yo-" I start to say, not understanding what the hell her problem was. Even Blake was looking at her weirdly before her eyes too widened and looked at me with a questioning gaze, and in that moment I understood too. "Don't be gross, I didn't do that. What the hell is wrong with you? I don't even do that!"
"You are a boy, of course you do that." Weiss accused.
"Do what?" Ruby asked, her face confused.
"Nothing" Blake, Weiss, and I all answer simultaneously.
"Either way it doesn't matter, like I said I didn't do that. I was simply enjoying the hot water. Hope I didn't use it all." I spat as I walked over to my own luggage.
"Whatever, deny it all you like pervert." Weiss snipped as she walked to the bathroom.
"Screw you, Schnee." I hissed.
Weiss rolled her eyes before slamming the door to the bathroom shut.
"Ryker, are you ok?" Ruby asked.
"I'm fine."
We broke into a silence, both Blake and Ruby seemed to be thinking that I was the exact opposite of fine, but I didn't care. I didn't want to talk about it, and I was pretty much already done with the day, and we hadn't even gone to our first class.
"It seems a bit crowded." Blake pointed out as we took in our absolute mess of a room.
"Well, we could always get rid of some stuff," I suggest looking at the three girls who had brought basically their entire bedrooms with them.
"Easy for you to say, you only brought a single suitcase." Weiss huffed.
"Yeah, because I didn't need to bring my entire wardrobe." I bit out.
"Ugh, you are such a jerk."
"I'm a jerk? No, you are a jerk!"
"Bunk-beds."
Weiss, Blake, and I look over at our team leader. Ruby's eyes shone, practically turning into giant stars as she stared at our mess of a room.
"What?" I ask.
"Bunk-beds, we don't really have a lot of room, so if we turn our beds into bunk-beds then we will have plenty of room for all our stuff," Ruby explained excitedly, her hands waving at the mess of our beds in the center of the room as if that was proof enough.
"That seems incredibly dangerous," Weiss mutters.
"No, it will be fine." Ruby waves off.
"It would give us more room," Blake mumbles.
"You can't seriously be on board with this?"
"Let's leave it to a vote!" Ruby says before pointing at Blake.
"I vote yes." She smirks before Ruby then points at Weiss.
"Obviously I vote no." She pouted before Ruby then pointed to me.
"Ryker, you are the tiebreaker, what's your vote?"
I look at Weiss for a moment, her gaze practically begging me to talk sense into Ruby and say that this was a bad idea. I grinned at her, feeling a sick amount of glee as she realized what I was about to say. Call me a pervert will you? "I vote yes, bunk beds sound like an awesome idea."
"Yes!"
"No!"
It took us a little bit but eventually, we had arranged the beds into bunk beds. Ruby's bed was suspended in the air by an absurd amount of ropes, and Blake had placed several of her books as struts to balance her bed on. I would be sleeping on the lower bed as Ruby and Blake didn't want me to fall off the bed in the middle of the night because of a nightmare.
As we all sat on our respective beds catching our breaths, Ruby pulled out a binder. "As team leader, I have taken the liberty of working out a schedule for us. We have our first class at nine, then we hav-"
"Did you say nine? Ruby, it's eight-fifty-five!"
We all looked at each other for only a moment before Ruby screamed out "Run!" we all leaped from our beds, rushing into the hall as we tried to not be late for our very first class of the year.
Monsters! Demons... Prowlers of the night! Yes, the creatures of Grimm have many names, but I merely refer to them as prey! Ha-ha!" Professor Port gloated. The man had been droning on for what felt like forever. It seemed like he had given the introduction to his lecture five separate times already. It was putting me to sleep.
However, his rambling did give me time to think about everything that had happened in the past twenty-four hours. Yesterday's exam was insane, and frankly, I was surprised I managed to pass. Then the ceremony happened, and everything went downhill from there.
To say that I had been dreading every single moment of being at Beacon since finding out that I was now teammates with a Schnee was an understatement. What's worse is that Weiss wasn't just any Schnee; she was basically 'The' Schnee.
I was angry, I was sick to my stomach. I didn't have it in me to be happy. After the team naming ceremony, we all went to our newly assigned dorm. Pyrrha, Yang, Ren, and Nora were next-door neighbors, Team PNLY excitedly chattering with our team.
Yang was so proud of Ruby, she had been named leader. In fact Ruby had done something that had never been done before, she was Beacon's youngest-ever team leader. Yang couldn't stop praising her sister.
The rest all kept going over their favorite moments from the exam, apparently, Pyrrha and Yang got lost and entered a cave and that's how they found the Deathstalker. They apparently had been running away from it for a while. Yang had tried to rip its tail off and that's how she got thrown all the way to the ruins where Blake and I had met her and Ruby.
Ruby's story was also similarly adventurous. She had apparently immediately found Weiss, and they had fought a pack of Beowolves together before hitching a ride on the Nevermore. Weiss claimed that both situations were entirely Ruby's fault.
When they turned to Blake and me on what happened with us before the ruins Blake took one look at me and must have seen something that she pitied and simply said we didn't run into anything on the way to the ruins. She could have easily told them about my encounter with the Ursas, how I had frozen and nearly gotten myself killed. She could have easily told them how I had frozen up at the Deathstalker as well. She didn't though. It was kind of her. She simply told me that we would talk later, though never mentioned when later would actually be.
The others must have sensed my mood as they didn't really direct any questions towards me, though I could tell that Ruby, Pyrrha, and even Yang were worried for me. I hadn't said a word since the ceremony and had not made any effort to sign or write to them on my scroll. I simply blocked them out.
I didn't eat that night, I instead opted to go to bed immediately instead of going to the small dorm kitchen that Team PNLY and Team RSBR shared. I even chose to not practice my semblance last night, my aura was already pretty low, and was only just barely recovering and I was too upset to really focus on it.
I heard them through the wall chatting excitedly as they celebrated like they had been long-time friends. Hell, I even heard Weiss make conversation.
Weiss, what the hell was her problem this morning? How could she accuse me of jerking off in the shower? Is this what I had to look forward to every day now? I wake up and get greeted by the biggest brat in the entirety of Remnant?
I cleared my head, focusing on Weiss was only going to drive me insane, besides I was here for a reason. That crow guy said that I could grow my aura here and get stronger. So that's what I needed to do.
"The moral of this story? A true Huntsman must be honorable! A true Huntsman must be dependable! A true Huntsman must be strategic, well-educated, and wise! So, who among you believes themselves to be the embodiment of these traits?" Professor Port asked.
I raised my hand, it going up slightly before Weiss's did.
"I do, sir!" She practically shouted.
"Ahh Ms. Schnee, I am glad you are enthusiastic but I believe that Mr. Ryker had his hand up first." Port gestured to me, Weiss shooting daggers at me with her eyes.
I smirked, If I was going to be stuck with her, then I was going to be a thorn in her side the entire time. Her family got my mom killed, and I was allowed to be petty.
"Then young man please go get your gear on and come back. I have a special challenge for you." Port gestured.
(Blake pov)
Waiting for Ryker to get back was interesting. Weiss had been practically cursing his name the entire time. Her teeth grinding as she muttered about how he had stolen her opportunity to show everyone how strong she was.
Ruby was busy furiously scribbling on several pieces of paper with crayons as she made banners with Ryker's name on them. The young team leader was always trying to go the extra step in supporting the rest of the team. I smiled when she handed me a small piece of paper that was taped to a pencil, Ryker's name emblazoned on it with stars dotting the entire thing.
When she handed Weiss a flag the girl practically hissed at her. That was going to be an issue. Ryker and Weiss had practically been at each other's throats all morning. Ryker seemed to hate her, and I couldn't really place my finger on it. My only guess was that he was a faunus hiding his traits like me and he knew who the Schnee family was. Beyond that I had no clue why he had such animosity. He seemed fine yesterday around her, he had even saved her from crashing into the dirt when she fell from the Nevermore. They had also worked together briefly during that fight.
However it would become a problem if it continued, and a dangerous one at that. If those two couldn't handle being together at school then how would they ever handle being on a real mission together?
I also needed to talk to Ryker about his performance in the forest. Him freezing like he had was an issue. He also seemed like he had little to no training. When we fought the Nevermore his aim was off, his stance even when standing still holding his rifle was barely recognizable. If I didn't know any better I would say he hadn't trained a day in his life. His stamina when running also aided that idea. Ryker was out of shape, and if he was going to be anything but a burden he would need to do something about it.
The moment Ryker entered back into the room the air felt slightly different. He was dressed back in his same combat gear from the exam, pink hoodie and all. He stepped to Professor Port, his weapon already in his hand in its sword form.
"Ruby do you know what Rykers weapon is called?" I whisper.
"No, I haven't gotten the chance to ask, but I put a team bonding exercise for us to do later today that will help us get to know each other a bit better." She whispered back excitedly.
"Ruby, be quiet." Weiss muttered, shushing us.
I rolled my eyes at the demand.
Ryker got into a ready stance as Professor Port walked to a cage on the other side of the theater, the rest of the class leaning forward in anticipation for what was now shaking the cage.
"Mr. Thorne, are you ready?"
Ryker nodded, the moment he did his entire form was covered in tendrils of electricity. "Is that his semblance?"
"He looks so cool. Go Ryker!" Ruby cheered holding open a banner of taped together papers.
The electricity settled down as a Boarbatusk raced out of the cage, charging at Ryker. The electricity crackled to life once more around Ryker as he jumped to the side avoiding being hit by the Boarbatusk. He switched his sword back into its rifle mode as he fired into the Grimm.
The Boarbatusk squealed from the hail of bullets as it turned around to face Ryker again. It looked no worse for wear, if anything it just looked angrier at the fact that Ryker had attacked it back. More electricity burst to life as Ryker switched back to the sword form, his hand reaching into one of the pockets of his hoodie and pulling out an ice dust crystal. He loaded it into a slot on the side of his sword just as the Boarbatusk charged at him again.
This time, as the Boarbatusk rolled into a ball and sped towards Ryker, he aimed his sword not at the Boarbatusk but at the ground in front of him. He fired his sword, the entire thing swelling before firing into the ground, the ice dust crystal activating as a giant ice pillar was erected in front of him. The Boarbatusk squealed with fright as it slammed hard into the pillar cracking the ice slightly before falling to the ground dazed, unfurling from the tight ball it had rolled itself into.
Ryker quickly moved around the pillar and stabbed the grim in the belly, the Boarbatusk giving one last squeal before dying and dissolving into the air. The moment the fight was over Ryker dropped to one knee, his body gasping as he took in air.
Why was he already tired? The fight lasted only a minute, maybe two. Was his semblance that taxing? How could he be tired after fighting a single Grimm?
"Bravo young man. That was an excellent display of prowess. If I didn't know better you had to have known what the Boarbatusk was doing before it even did." Professor Port laughed, patting Ryker on the shoulder.
"Uhhh-yeah, totally. " Ryker spoke.
"Well, that is all the time we have for class. Everyone make sure to do the assigned readings and stay vigilant! Class Dismissed!"
The moment Professor Port finished speaking Weiss stood from her desk and walked out of the class without a single word. Her entire face was etched in barely contained rage.
"What's with her?" Yang asked, both me and Ruby looking at each other just as confused as Jaune.
I didn't know, but I had the feeling I would need to find out before things got out of hand.
(Rykers pov)
I pushed around the food on my plate, I wasn't really all that hungry, and food in general still tasted like dirt, but I was trying. I had managed a few bites, though not much. My head was still focused on Professor Ports' class. It had taken me so much effort just to beat that stupid pig. I had to rewind six times just to kill the damn thing without looking like an idiot. By the end of the whole thing I was exhausted. Even if I was getting better, rewind still took a large physical toll on me. It felt like being kicked in the chest, with all the air in your lungs being pushed out of you by an unseen force. It sucked.
Not only that, but Weiss had picked a fight with Ruby right after class. The brat basically told Ruby that she didn't deserve to be leader and that I didn't deserve to be on the team. It pissed me off, if anyone on Team RSBR needed to be replaced it would be her.
Now we were sitting here tensely with Team PNLY eating lunch. Nora was rambling about food, while Yang and Ruby talked excitedly about some band that they liked.
"Ryker," Pyrrha's voice chimed softly. I looked up at her in confusion, her face was warm, but she had a touch of concern there too. "Are you ok?"
I open my mouth to answer before Weiss scoffs. "Of course he's ok, why wouldn't he be? The pervert has been messing with me and making me look stupid all morning so I bet he is feeling just fine."
The grip of my fork gets tighter as the rest of the table quiets down from Weiss's comment. "Pervert?" Yang asked.
"Yes a pervert, and a violent one too, why don't you ask Ruby about how Ryker hit her in the face this morning."
Yang looked from Weiss to Ruby, then to me. Her eyes turned red as she stood from the table. "You did what to my baby sister?"
"Yang it's not what you think." Ruby stuttered as I held my hands up.
"I can explain," I spoke, which only seemed to enrage Yang even further.
"You better explain fast," Yang growled as Ruby, Blake, Pyrrha, and Ren stood from the table at the same time. Pyrrha and Ren grabbed onto Yang's arms, trying to pull her away from me.
I whine, the sound escaping my throat as I feel myself start to clamp up, my voice leaving me as the anxiety of the situation grows. I grabbed at my throat gasping as I tried to get air into my lungs.
"Yang back off, you are making things worse." Blake snapped as she put herself between me and Yang who was easily dragging Pyrrha and Ren around the table to get to me.
"Making things worse? This piece of shit hit my sister and you three did nothing about it!"
"He was having a nightmare, Ruby woke him up and he reacted violently because he didn't know where he was. He thought he was being attacked." Blake argued, her words seemingly getting through Yang's red haze. The blonde woman looked at me as her eyes bled from their violent red color back to their lilac color.
"Did you apologize?" She asked, teeth gritted.
I nod repeatedly, unable to verbalize how awful I had felt about hitting Ruby.
Yang sighed, all the tension in her body melting away. "Don't let this happen again." She said before retaking her seat.
"That was uncalled for Weiss," Ruby mumbled.
"Uncalled for? I was simply looking out for you Ruby. I know you're still just a kid, but you should know by now that you shouldn't let a dangerous psychopath like that beat on you."
"Stop doing that!" Blake groaned.
"Stop doing what? Trying to look out for the fifteen-year-old I have been saddled with for the next four years?"
"Stop infantilizing her! Stop calling Ryker awful things. Stop being bitter that you weren't made team leader." Blake shouted, slamming her hands on the table.
"This seems like a Team RSBR issue, we will give you some space," Pyrrha spoke as the rest of Team PNLY got up and left the table.
"No, you should stay, see the awful conditions I have to work in." Weiss scoffed.
I finally snapped, anxiety being replaced with unfettered rage. "You know nothing about poor work conditions besides the ones your family put enslaved and indentured faunus through!" I shout, hands slamming into the table.
Weiss's eyes widened, with her mouth hung open in surprise before anger soon replaced it. "How dare you. The Schnee Dust Company takes care of its workers."
"If that were the case my mom would still be alive, you sheltered brat!" I scream, the entire cafeteria going silent as the entire table stares at me with shocked expressions.
I shuddered, my chest heaving as I let out a choked sob before I turned and ran out of the cafeteria. Hearing the shouts of Ruby, Blake, and the entirety of Team PNLY. I ignored them all and just kept running.
I had spent the rest of the day hiding from the others. I had missed the last half of the day's classes but I couldn't be bothered to care. I felt stupid, I could have just rewinded time and avoided the whole thing, but by the time my mind had cleared enough for me to think of that as an option, too much time had already passed. So I sat on top of the roof of our dorm for the entire day. The sun had already set about an hour ago, I would only need to stay up here for another couple of hours before I could go and sneak back into the dorm and go to bed.
I sigh, looking into the night sky, constellations of stars filling the inky emptiness that was the sky. "So this is where you have been hiding?" Blake's voice called out. I turn my head to see her pulling herself up onto the sloping till of the roof. "You know me and Ruby had spent most of the day looking for you right?"
"Sorry," I mumble.
Blake sighed, taking a seat right next to me, only a few inches of space separating us. "So you want to tell me what happened?"
"Not really, but you're gonna make me anyway aren't you?"
Blake shook her head, her eyes focusing off into the night sky. "No, I know what it's like having things about yourself or your past that you don't want to talk about. I won't push you to tell me if you don't want to. Just want to offer an ear if you need it."
We sat in silence for a few minutes, it felt nice but I just couldn't shake the weight that was in my chest. "Did you know that my mom was a faunus?"
Blake side-eyed me, a small smile gracing her own face. "Does that mean that you are too?"
I shake my head. "No, my mom adopted me when I was young. My human parents one day just packed up while I was in school and left Atlas. They took my brother but left me behind. Mom found me a few days later, and since then she has been my new mom, my real mom. She died a few months ago, in the white fang attack on the main SDC office in Atlas where she worked."
"Ryker, I'm so sor-"
"I hate them, both of them. The SDC and The White Fang. The SDC takes advantage of faunas, but The Fang isn't much better since they killed her. She was a Faunus and they killed her just because she worked for a company that she hated."
At this point, I didn't even try to hide the tears that streamed down my face. Besides Mr. Meyama; Blake was the only one who now knew what happened.
"What's worse is that I got hurt the night she died, the news of her death unlocked my aura and I went into a coma for six weeks because of aura shock. While I was out the SDC decided that they would handle Mom's funeral arrangements. They cremated her and turned her into this." Venom laced my voice as I held up the ice dust crystal, the SDC logo stamped on the face of it glinting in the moonlight. "Then they charged me for it. I left Atlas, soon after, I refuse to give those greedy bastards a single lien."
"Ryker, that's awful. I can't imagine how you must feel." Blake started her voice trailing off as we lapsed into silence. She sighed, her hand landing on my arm, giving me an affectionate squeeze. "I get why you hate her, hate her family," She voiced, her demeanor calm as she looked to be trying to find the right combination of words to say. "But Weiss is not her father, and Weiss is not her company. Their sins are not her own, and it's not fair to her to be so angry at her all the time for something she has no control over."
"Are you really defending that brat right now?"
"No, I am simply telling the truth. Yes, Weiss is entitled, condescending, narcissistic, and even potentially racist, but that doesn't mean that she should be judged for what her family has done before she has a chance to show what she will do."
I snorted, the thought of giving her a chance seemed like the very last thing I should do after today. "In less than twenty-four hours she has accused me of jerking off in the shower, being a pervert, being a psychopath, trying to get Yang to attack me, has been treating everyone like crap, and has tried to convince everyone that she should be the team leader. She doesn't need anyone besides herself to make her look bad."
Blake nodded, removing her hand from my arm. "And in the past few hours, Weiss has admitted that she was jealous of Ruby being made leader, apologized in her own way, and even admitted to liking the bunk beds."
"You're joking, she likes the bunk beds? Weiss, the prim and proper Schnee brat likes the death sentence bunk beds made of wood, ropes, books, and a prayer?" I laugh, my body relaxing slightly as I let my hands drop from being wrapped around me.
"Yep, she and Ruby have already gone to bed, which is weird considering Ruby downed coffee like an hour ago, but I will take small miracles." Blake chuckled. "Why don't you come down and sleep in your bed. It's late and you have to be up early if you want to have time to shower after our morning run."
I paled, getting a giggle out of Blake. "Evil." I accused.
"Ontologically, remember?" Blake smirked.