"K. ;) Library sound good?"
Cool, Ruby thought to herself, replying with a brief 'yeah' before quickly realizing that she'd just asked a random stranger to meet up with her over text. Shaking her head and slapping her cheeks, Ruby cut down on the tiny bit of self consciousness clipping at her hair. The girl had practically invited her to text and chat anyways, so there was nothing to worry about. It wasn't weird to take up that offer so quickly, right?
Bah, what was she going on about? Everything was fine.
Miss goth had practically been rubbing up against her, like most besties would on tv, so clearly she must have been okay with the sudden decision. Besides, if push came to shove, Ruby could just lean in with the excuse of wanting to spend a bit of time together doing girl things, like going to the mall, talking about romance, and...
Who was she kidding: Ruby didn't have the faintest idea about what normal girls did when hanging out.
Tossing her head into her hands, Ruby once more attempted to calm down. This was so much easier when going out with Yang: all she had to do was follow her sister's lead, and Yang would take care of the rest. But even then, if Ruby got going about something she actually cared about, like fuel management for switch systems in weapons, or even the best companies to order parts from, everyone would just give her weird looks. Now, though, Ruby was on her own, meaning she didn't even have her sister to lean on as a crutch.
What would Yang do if I started going on about boring junk?
Probably jump in and change the subject immediately. Grumbling to herself, Ruby sighed, falling back on her pillow and earning a curious glance from Blake across the room. Normally, Yang's partner wouldn't pay much attention to things like what she was going through now, instead just letting everyone work through their problems by themselves. So it startled Ruby a bit when Blake actually engaged her directly.
"Are you still thinking about that girl?"
"W-what! No! No no no no! I'm not!" Defensiveness... In hindsight: not a great misdirection tactic. Blake saw through the lie effortlessly, and even Ruby herself could tell she'd draped it in the wordy variant of transparent plastic Yang's partner then made to inquire further, leaning up from her spot and twisting over on her belly. Propping her head in a lazy hand, and closing her book before settling it aside, Blake tried again.
"One 'no' would have been enough. The rest make it sound like you're in denial." Ruby tossed out another groan, and Blake latched on, sounding almost motherly in a strange sort of way. "You know, you don't have to deal with her if you don't want to."
"What?" Ruby popped up, somewhat confused over what Blake was going on about.
"I'm pretty sure we all saw how she acted around you."
If Yang hadn't run to the library with Weiss right after to finish up an assignment, Ruby was pretty sure she'd say something along the lines of, "darn straight; that chick was creepy." While funny in hindsight, Ruby wasn't particularly upset about the goth's strange obsession with rubbing up against her. Moreso, she was confused about what happened after. Or, to be more specific: she wanted to know why the girl split in two, and how everyone else seemed to miss it.
The change happened right as she lost control of her body, and while that came about through pure coincidental timing, Ruby still wanted to know what the girl was doing. If Ruby didn't know any better, she'd say the girl was snooping around through their underwear, like in those cartoons Yang said she wasn't allowed to watch as a little girl - but she totally did anyways.
After a second of silent recollection, Ruby realized that, yes, she really did need to get out more often. Why was her first thought towards sneaking aimed at underwear? While Ruby may have been internally pondering her headspace and its strange eccentricities, Blake took the lapse in response as something deeper and continued on where she left off.
"If she makes you feel uncomfortable, just let us know." Blake sat up fully, eyes squinting a bit as her brow furrowed with the barest hint of aggression. "We'll make sure she doesn't lay a hand on you."
Oh... OH! Crap! So that's what Blake was suggesting. Ew.
"There's no need for that!" Ruby popped back into things, shaking her hands ahead of herself as if physically defusing the fastly escalating situation. "I'm not worried, honest!"
Following a brief pause between them, Ruby took that as her cue to keep going, and letting herself relax and breath, she did her best to explain her situation to Blake... without actually explaining anything; it was weird, she knew, but Ruby didn't want everyone to start tossing in their own two lien about how sensible her ideas and outlooks were until she'd at least given them a shot herself.
"I'm not really uncomfortable around her. I..." Rubbing the back of her neck, Ruby made an attempt to twist her words in such a way that didn't make her sound as though she'd been experiencing the beginnings of a crush; one unbearable week of Yang's cooing a year ago had wizened her up to the art of wordplay - at least in that area. "I just want to ask her if we know each other."
Heck yeah! Ding ding ding; and we have a winner. Leave it to Ruby Rose to pull through with an excuse that's only half fibbing. She did have some genuine curiosity towards the girl in that regard, and so it wasn't a completely suspicious lie to say she wanted to check up on that.
"Oh." Blake seemed to deflate her anger, and in its place inflate some... was that happiness? Truthfully, Ruby couldn't tell, but it wasn't anger, so she counted it as a point for her. "That's right. You jumped ahead a couple of grades, didn't you?" Shaking her head, Blake fell back down to bed. "She's probably an older friend of yours, or, that's what you want to find out, right?"
"Yeah." Again, Ruby threw in some bashfulness to play up the role, even if on the inside she felt a little gross for stretching the truth this much. Not having long to dwell on her own personal gripes with her own personal decisions, a quaint little ding interrupted Ruby, and she looked down at the text sitting prominently on her scroll.
"OMW."
Oh... And her heart rate skyrocketed. Double crap!
.
.
Neo was, understandably, not at all in a great mood.
This was all happening so fast, and not in the wishy washy sort of way she'd poke fun at on television either. Dealing with the twerp wouldn't be easy, and it most certainly wasn't something she could just brush aside. According to Cinder's - quite frankly - stupid fucking plan, they needed to bide their time in Beacon for upwards of a couple months or more. It was all in a bid to both get everything set up: collecting dust, orchestrating the White Fang, wrangling Grimm, and a whole slew of extra points Neo couldn't be bothered with remembering because they didn't involve her.
To an ordinary crook, it sounded stupid, but to Roman and her? It… it still sounded stupid.
Seriously: what the heck could possibly warrant drafting a grimm incursion on a whole ass city? At best, Roman and her knew it had to do with Beacon, but that was it. What? Did one of the teachers piss Cindy off as a tot, and now that she's grown up she'd returned to waste the capital in a childish act of revenge? You see, mass destruction sounded fun on paper, but then you had to take into account that, hey, they lived here!
With that in mind, one would assume the bitch's goober squad would have something to say to that, but no. Mercury was doing what he was told presumably because it kept him both alive and paid, and Emerald was so busy shoving her face into Cinder's ass to notice anything but the scent of shit.
Neo actually shivered at that, discovering only now with the image of Emi's stain-covered face vividly displayed within her head that she'd been stalling. How long had she been standing outside the library? For about a minute or so: pretty much since she'd sent that text saying she was on her way. Internally, Neo berated herself over that. Would it really have killed her to think for two seconds and schedule a better time and place? You know, like... later, or something?
Better yet, why didn't she just leave the kid alone in the first place?
"H-hi." With blood running colder than the dairy treats she loved so much, Neo swallowed once before letting courage bumble its way drunkenly throughout her body. With this illusionary sense of calm and a practiced casual flair, Neo twirled around quickly and sent the source of her internal panic a small playful wave, hoping to dust her smile didn't take too hard a hit from the baseball that was the girl she'd come to meet.
Ruby Rose, the subject of Roman's woes, stood just a step before her nose.
Wow... she really was losing it; Rhyming? Really? That's how far gone she was? Neo, having let her ponderings wander momentarily, pulled her senses back into the now when a subtle shift passed by her eyes. Ruby tossed up a shy wave of her own, and lasting about three seconds was a small inkling that maybe, just maybe, this wouldn't be so bad.
"I'm Ruby." The kid locked up, shaking a little again before speeding up a gear quicker. "B-but you probably knew that already."
Now it was Neo's turn to fidget. Why in the Pumpkin Pete's cereal box did the twerp think that she, a complete stranger, already know her? By the grace of whatever gods were out there, Little Red answered that question for Neo, and thus the undercover crook was spared the effects of panic induced heart failure.
"Just... don't believe what everyone's probably said. I'm normal, just like everyone else."
This... this was the sentence where it all clicked for Neo - in a good, pleasant, and manageable way. Ruby Rose wasn't like everyone else, was she? She was two years younger than the rest of the student body, and if Neo had read into it right beforehand - kind of difficult not to when one of the prime players of the rumor kept bitching about it nonstop - then Little Red was accepted into Beacon because she ruined one of Roman's jobs, and thus beginning the streams of insecurities that the older man now faced.
That, at least, was humorous enough that Neo could introduce some honesty into her playful expression - now only sixty percent of it was an act. Taking this sudden boost in confidence around the girl as her cue, Neo rolled her eyes and waved any rogue thoughts away, whipping out her scroll and typing up a quick response before flashing the girl.
"No worries. Personally, I like a little spice in my pals~ Name's Mint, and I'm normal too. :)"
Was making it sound flirty necessary? No, but it made things easier to deal with. The girl probably caught on, at least a little, to the implications of saucy delivery, because she started blushing a little. This was good, very good; Neo was in her element when she was in control, and Ruby's embarrassment meant she had less control of the situation - and thus, had unintentionally handed it over to Neo instead.
"A-alright. Good, that's... that's good!" Ruby shouted that last bit a little, only to pause, settle down as best she could, and continue on by bringing the topic back to where it should have been. "Nice to meet you, Mint. Right... um, okay then. How about we go in so I can ask you what I wanted to ask you."
Cringing before putting on yet another fake smile, Ruby seemed no stranger to how unnatural that request sounded, and not wanting to lose her miniscule sense of control and collectedness, Neo nodded and waved as she stepped out of the way, silently instructing Ruby to take the lead.
"Ah, hello there, Mint~"
Son of a whore! Neo fought vehemently not to crush her teeth with how hard they'd clenched shut. Like the scripted actress she was, Cinder Fall chose right then to pop on out and seemingly check up on her. Ruby, obviously, heard her too, making things doubly difficult. Pausing, the abnormally alone kink in Neo's back prattled off, pointing out the young woman's close proximity, and aptly commenting on it.
"Hmm~ You've made a friend already." A treacherous grin played gently across her stupid mug. "Good for you. I knew you would come out of your shell eventually~"
"Huh?" Ruby tossed a small look between them, and Neo wanted to do many things to Cinder that involved removing her skin, but instead settled on playing up a squirming appearance, as if self-conscious about what her 'team leader' had just said. Cinder, in turn, sent a... questionable smile towards Ruby, opening up a can of worms which would make the coming conversation immensely more difficult.
"My~ Ruby Rose?" Patting her own cheek, the bitch began twisting the knife with a teasing expression. "Certainly a calculated pick." Neo felt as though she were being stabbed when Cinder's eyes pressed into narrowed slits. "I hope my teammate hasn't been fangirling too hard~"
Ruby went bright red in the face.
"F-fangirling?!"
Following up with a quizzical look, Cinder popped a brow, losing some of her smirk in way of a plain line.
"Oh, she hasn't?" Like magic, that line bent into a pleasant smile. "That's good to hear. You are rather popular, you know. Not many beginner huntresses and huntsmen can claim to have bested one of Vale's most powerful criminals." Cinder paid no mind to the shell-shocked state of the girl, leaning in a bit and almost whispering. "Try to forgive her if she gets a little weird. Mint was... more than a little impressed by how you handled everything involving Roman over the news. But even so, be sure to let her know if she's getting too handsy." Pulling back, Cinder topped off he execution with, "For as well meaning as she can be, Mint has a habit of overstepping her boundaries."
At this point, Neo had pretty much shut down; errors in the core programming of her mind were aplenty.
.
.
Pulling back, Cinder admired her handiwork.
Miss Rose seemed suitably stunned, and Neo was, presumably, little more than a mess of directionless indignation, masked with petrified mortification. Neo settling herself in with the student body was fine, however she couldn't let the little doll get too comfortable. Neo was a crafty one, and while it would be easy enough to leave the girl alone and rely on her to do her thing, Cinder reasoned that Beacon may be the best place to discover how the woman functioned.
Academies were, after all, a place of learning.
"It's been a joy chatting with you, but I'm afraid I must be off." Starting past the two, Cinder pushed open the door to the library, tossing back some final farewells before heading off to link up with the others. "Try not to push her too hard, Mint. Not everyone's as rough as you are~"
That would certainly leave Neo doing some fashion of damage control, but it also had the additional effect of establishing a personality to her relatively new face. Being labeled a 'fan' would give Neo an excuse to spend time around Ruby and her team without arousing too much suspicion, and while not important at first, having that connection would establish her identity far easier than what Emerald, Mercury, and even she herself had to face. Honestly, Cinder knew she really shouldn't be making things easier for Neo, but they needed to ensure nobody suspected foul play until it was too late, and if things went to plan flawlessly enough, Neo would be able to keep her identity intact even after the chaos to come.
They could possibly make use of her as a spy, especially since Ozpin had, predictably, allowed the silver eyed child into his school the moment he got a chance.
Cinder could see it now. Poor little Mint, abandoned by her teammates as they revealed their dastardly desires. Poor little Mint, who's team's constant bullying was always overlooked as teasing and play. Poor little Mint, having her reputation tied to killers after the Vytal Festival, and having her dreams of heroism dashed. Poor little Mint, all alone with nobody to fall back on as everyone abandoned her, thinking she was no better than the ones to use her...
Nobody, that was, except the girl she looked up to: her hero, Ruby Rose.
Ruby Rose, the young huntress extraordinaire. The youngest full fledged Beacon student to ever attend the academy; having been shot ahead two grades early by the school's headmaster himself, who was also a prodigy in his own right - in more ways than people even knew. Potentially the second coming of Ozpin himself, and most surely the one who he'd place all his trust and reliance upon eventually. They would do well to hoist Neo into the pockets of this little rose bud early on.
But those were considerations for the future, and right now, it was best they get themselves settled in. And so, when she came upon the small table along the back where Emerald and Mercury were waiting for her, Cinder sat down and immediately began rectifying the issue of their lacking presence.
"You're a little later than expected." Mercury began, wincing as Emerald glared lightly; chances were, she probably kicked him under the table. They had a very openly adversarial relationship, almost that of a rivalry between brother and sister. While that was a decent start, they'd need to settle themselves into the consciousness of the student body in order to make the most of the coming plan.
"What he means to say is that we're glad you made it." Surely, this would appear almost comical to any onlookers passing by.
"I apologize for keeping you waiting." Cinder opened up, twisting on a little grin. "I had a short run in with Mint earlier, and I just had to meet her new friend~"
"Babe's got some babes of her own now?" Mercury offered up with a sly crook along his lips. "Guess I'll need to introduce myself soon; can't have 'em thinking she's the only decent one on the team."
Emerald rolled her eyes, and Cinder gave off a mastered little chuckle.
"I'm sure we'll have enough time for that later, but as for right now." She leaned in, ready to get discussions underway, and spoke the established code phrase. "Let's go over our combat dynamics."
.
.
All of a sudden, things started making sense, and Ruby's feelings of apprehension towards Mint were, for the most part, replaced with a mild sense of pity.
No matter how hard she tried, or how much she said, Ruby knew she really wasn't like the other students here. While she may have been a normal girl in the way of being... Well, ordinary, but there was no sense in trying to claim her inclusion in this year's batch of students was anything other than abnormal. Sure, stopping Roman Torchwick may have been a spur of the moment reaction for her, but the headmaster himself had still seen it, and thus made the decision to let her join Yang in attending Beacon Academy.
Taking down a well established crook and skipping a couple of grades. Not many people could say they've done even one of these things, let alone two.
Twisting to the side, Ruby squirmed a little into herself at the sight of Mint's pale face. Yeah, she'd probably be feeling the same if Yang came up to her when she was trying to appear cool and collected around her hero, only for her sis to then spill the beans about how awesome she thought said hero was. That was a pretty cruel joke her team leader had played. Mint, if the girl was anything like herself, was probably wishing she'd never left her room.
Although a bit weird, Ruby felt obligated to at least try and relieve the awkwardness now spreading between them.
"So... uh..." Too bad she didn't consider how she'd go about that. Mint snapped to life though, looking over with a still expression. For a moment it seemed like she considered breaking the ice herself, but stopped and chose to let her hero - which sounded weird no matter how it was said - take the lead. No longer having an out now, Ruby drabbled off with whatever excuse her brain could conjure. "I'm normal, and you're normal. Why don't we be normal together?"
Nope, she still sounded stupid. But hey, on the bright side, Ruby's following spotlight of 'I don't know what I'm talking about' was received a tad better than she expected, as Mint kinda just shrugged and rolled with it. Clearly, the girl who looked up to her would take what she could get, and so Ruby, latching on to that baited hook, readjusted the plan.
"Wanna just walk and talk instead? It's probably nice outside." Way to go, me, sounding twenty years older is never a bad sign.
Mint nodded anyway, accepting the invite through sheer pity probably. The two began their journey of pacing laps around that one open space in the park, where the grass was always trimmed and the path circled endlessly around the garden work spread generously to and fro. Around a quarter of the way through the second lap, Ruby opened up in what she hoped didn't come off as antagonistic.
"Can I ask you something?"
That didn't sound too bad - a touch random due to their wordless journey so far, but there really weren't all that many other ways to start up something like this. Mint shot a tiny grin, giving a quick nod, and thus Ruby dropped the bag of what had been bothering her.
"When you first came by, I remember seeing you split in two. That did happen, right?"
Mint lost a bit of her luster there, but regardless, she appeared to give it some thought. Making up her mind, Mint typed her message, and as per the usual, held it up for Ruby to see.
"Yeah... I'm not weird, I promise. I just like to mess around sometimes. You're the first person to ever see me, though. How'd you do that?"
The first person to ever see her? That actually had Ruby stumped for a minute. It looked a little weird at the time, like laying eyes on a pump-action revolver, but it was still fairly obvious. Mint's 'ghost half' - because there really wasn't a better way to describe it - had still, even if only an outline, taken on the shape of the girl. In a way, it reminded Ruby of an old video game she used to play, where you could use invisibility to sneak around. Everyone in the game couldn't see the player, but for the one playing the game, their character would have this shifty looking outline.
"I'm the first?" Not the answer Mint was looking for, probably, but enough of one to get another response.
"Nobody's commented about it until now, so yeah, you're the first. Why? Was I really that obvious from your POV?"
"Not really." With no other ideas on how, Ruby just told it as it was. "You were just standing there looking over the photo, and this weird 'you shaped' outline sort of split off and started wandering around." Ruby's face began to fall. "I'm not making any sense, am I?"
Mint grinned playfully, although Ruby could tell there was still some strain, and whipped up a new answer after a half a minute.
"Not really, but I don't think anything is right now, so it's not your fault."
"Sorry." Ruby tried on a remedy smile. "I'm not really great at... saying things that sound right."
"It's cool." Mint's expression went through a small quirk right then, and her next sentence spoke in harmony with her playful grin. "Wanna hang a few times each week? We can chat about stuff, and I can try to explain myself, while you try to do the same."
Was Mint asking to be her friend? Why the heck was she even asking that? Of course Mint was trying to be friends. Ruby belittled herself on the inside again; she really should learn to be normal when it came to people. For dust's sake, Yang could do it, and being the little sister of a woman like Yang, Ruby reasoned some of that pizzazz had to have trickled down to her somehow.
Now she just had to find where it landed.
"Sure, that sounds good." Finally, a sentence that sounded natural. Victory, however small, was still a version of success, and Ruby immediately began letting it go to her head. But she had to stop that party though, because she nearly blanked when Mint came back with one last retort.
"Nice. Catch you later then~"
Watching the girl wander down the path, Ruby was left frozen in the park. Mint... Mint was a friend now. Ha... ha ha... he hehehehehehehehehehe! She'd done it, yes, Ruby Rose had officially made a friend completely on her own, and without even so much as a scratch across her skirt!
And that was how she was found, snickering to herself out in the garden, being stared at by her team who'd come to check on their missing leader - at Yang's behest when coming back to a Ruby-less room. This left Ruby blushing for a good while upon return and retirement for the day.
Note to self: gloat only when back in the room from now on.
Author's note
...
We are hauling through this one. Neo's already making ties with Ruby, and we haven't even eclipsed ten chapters - had this been any other story, we'd still be on the 'getting Neo into Beacon' phase.
But I've been wanting to try a quicker paced story for once, so we'll see how this plays out. Despite Neo's mild bonding time with Ruby - in a platonic way - we still have to remember Cinder is moseying about. Plotting so far ahead before you've even prepared for the first step really isn't a great idea, but this is Cinder we're talking about, so I'm sure she has this in the bag.
On the bright side, Cinder's teasing has given Neo a backstory she can work with when it comes to the mask of Mint - surely this will have no repercussions whatsoever.
Anyway, I'm going to cut it here for now. Catch you next chapter.