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Requested By : Polemoduke
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"Remember, use big leaves, so you can bend them up with the broad part on the bottom!" Ruby coached, circling the line of dirty, tired, but surprisingly focused former party-goers and sailors.
Aside from Roman, who sat at the end with Neo at his side. He was barely putting any effort in at all, pouting while Neo chewed on her lip and tried to make the knot with the thin wires Ruby had 'borrowed' from the wreckage Pyrrha had collected. Both were disguised, of course, and Ruby was sure she should feel bad, but… Seeing Roman pouting and making baskets gave Ruby a bit more satisfaction than she was willing to admit.
Satisfaction she buried as she marched around the circle, raising a finger like Miss Goodwitch might have when she was giving a lecture.
"Don't make them too shallow if you want 'em to be useful for coconut carrying, but if your fronds won't work, that's fine! We can use it for shells, fish, whatever." She smiled, watching them work - and looking forward to rubbing how useful it all was in Yang's face when they got back - as she circled. Neo offered hers to her as she passed and Ruby took it, pressing a finger against the bottom and flicking it to check for her Semblance before she handed it back and nodded. "Good! You can help your butler out, I'm sure. He seems to be struggling…"
'Trivia' just gave her a smirk and a thumbs up.
And Roman grumbled a quiet, "...all my work, and I'm getting sassed by a fifteen year old.."
"Sixteen and a few months~" She corrected him, smiling as she left and he groaned in annoyance, "We just need twenty or so and then we can start on the coconuts! You guys keep it up, I'll go help collect them."
She heard a chorus of affirmations, and turned to walk up the beach.
Early that morning, she and Jaune had gotten up to walk the beach, looking for any good spots they could find shell food or close-knit crops of coconut trees. They'd found a handful of them on the inside of a gentle curve the island naturally had. It was two hundred and some feet across, with a deep inner area protected by coral and sand that came up on the outside of it, sheltering it. According to Jaune, that meant plenty of fish and shellfish he could gather for them, and she could see him out in the shallows of the water working on that right now, with one of the little baskets she had the people making under an arm that he was filling with…
Well, she couldn't tell, but she was willing to guess food.
He caught her watching and turned, waving with his other arm and calling out, "Hey!"
"Hey, Jaune!" She smiled, waving, "Having fun?"
"No!" He called back, shaking his head, "Not really!"
She rolled her eyes and turned as she heard movement, looking up as Weiss appeared, stepping around a cluster of short palms. She had sticks and leaves tucked under her arms, and a heck of a glare, but she softened as Ruby came over to take some of the weight. Sighing, she lead Ruby along to a circle wide enough for her to lay spread eagle in, enclosed by rocks and metal, where she added the wood to an already pretty large pile and got to work stacking the wood, layering the wet leaves between them for later.
"Don't put 'em too tight." Ruby warned, kneeling to open up a few paths for air and explaining, "We want smoke, so we need fire. Air under it will get the fire going, before the fire burns through the wood and it all, uh… Kinda falls down."
"I see…" Weiss had never liked being taught, especially by Ruby, but she seemed to take it in stride and listened as Ruby showed her how to layer it for an emergency fire.
"Jaune can probably check it over later, we're both in the same survival supplementals cuz, uh, you know… We're both behind! Like… A lot." She said, straightening and turning to watch him come up to the beach a few yards away, where he set the leaf-basket he'd been using in dug out holes a foot or so in from the water.
The water could still get there through the sand, and would keep everything in the baskets alive and fresh for later. He paused for a second to dig a bit deeper, until he was satisfied it'd keep, and then he grabbed another and turned to plod back out for a second basket. It was a lot of work, and part of Ruby felt bad, but… Well, he'd volunteered, and he didn't seem to mind all that much.
Still, she called out, "If you need help, lemme know, Jaune!"
"I will!" He called back, not even turning all the way to address her, focused on kneeling to dig out a crab he threw into his basket with a whoop.
"Okay!" She smiled, turning to add, "You too, Weiss."
"I think I shall manage to defeat the twigs well enough on my own, thank you." She rolled her eyes, leaving the extra wood aside and turning to grab fronds off the low-grown palm plants scattered around the trees. "Pyrrha is further up the beach, if you need someone to help. Or ogle. That isn't my boyfriend, I mean."
"I-I don't ogle!"
"Not him, no." She smirked, turning to give Ruby a look that made heat creep up her neck that was completely unrelated to the sun beating through the clouds overhead.
"D-Don't… Frickin' tease me." She pouted, "That's not fair at all."
"No?"
"How can I tease you?" She squawked, "You're dating him! You… Cuddle and stuff! It's not a fair game."
"Schnees play to win," Weiss chuckled, "they don't necessarily play fair, Ruby."
"I'll remember." She muttered, "I forgive but I do not forget. Remember this…"
She turned and stalked off in a faux-huff, and heard Weiss scoff, snort and chuckle all at once behind her as she seemed to process what she'd said. Smiling, Ruby left her to her work, glad she'd brought at least some tiny bit of comfort to her friend. She couldn't do much else…
She found Pyrrha less than a minute later, hanging upside down from a palm-tree where the trunk boughed and curved naturally. She had one of the sailor's coats on, tied around her sternum to keep some of the sun off her chest, but Ruby still kept from looking anywhere near there for how little it did. And she had her hair in a few long braids tucked into holes cut into the collar to keep it mostly out of the way.
Yanking a couple of the coconuts free, she dropped them in the little scattered pile she'd been gathering and noticed Ruby, smiling and chirping, "Hello there!"
"Hey, Pyr." She smiled, watching the woman let go of the tree with her legs and tuck them in, turning to roll in mid-air and landing like she'd been doing it for years. Which, given how insane some of the training Pyrrha had described to her had been, might actually have been a bit true.
Acrobatics were a huge part of the style she'd developed, after all.
"I came to see if you needed help with, you know, all the stuff." Ruby smiled, turning to start kicking the coconuts that had escaped closer to the pile while Pyrrha knelt to start packing them into a wide, shallow leaf-basket Jaune had made that morning.
It was made of several flexible sticks bent into an oval shape and tied together with some actual rope from the ship. A few leaves layered along the bottom, and some more sticks tied along the bottom to support them, and it had held water. Well, at least the weight. The water leaked through the leaves, but they didn't need it for water collecting. They needed it for a basket, and it still held up under the weight of like thirty coconuts as Pyrrha stood and brought the basket up, resting on her shoulder and powerful bicep Ruby didn't look at at all.
Nope.
"B-But it looks like you're about done, yeah?" Ruby stammered, flushing when Pyrrha's eyebrow rose and she cocked her head knowingly. Pouting, she crossed her arm and said, "Don't do it… Weiss has already been teasing me!"
"I suppose that's fair." Pyrrha chuckled, sighing and turning to avoid running the basket into Ruby as she passed by. She walked sideways long enough to say, "Come on. You can grab a couple of Jaune's baskets on the way back."
"Cool." She smiled, following behind the taller redhead. "Sounds like a plan, boss lady."
"Oh, boss lady?" She chuckled, "I think I like that."
"Hey, when you're the boss, you're the boss, right?"
"I suppose." Pyrrha sighed, grimacing as she looked out at the water while Ruby grabbed her couple baskets of shellfish. Ruby followed her gaze, where several tables were floating just beyond the raise in the coral at the other side of the 'bay'.
"Are you okay…?"
"I'm fine." Pyrrha snapped, turning to stalk away while Ruby rushed to follow. She only made it a few steps along the beach, though, before she sighed, slowed, and said, "I'm… Sorry, Ruby, I shouldn't have spoken to you like that."
"No, it's fine." Ruby chuckled, adjusting her grip on one of the baskets with her hip and sighing. "I get it. You liked your boat, right?"
"I did…"
"And now she's gone." Ruby nodded, frowning deeply. "If that happened to Crescent Rose, I… Wouldn't be as calm as you are, honestly."
"No?"
"She's my baby." Ruby shrugged simply, because, to her, that was the end of it. But she figured Pyrrha wanted more, since most people did, so she went on. "I spent hours just on the shifting mechanism, so that I didn't need to unload it to shift between forms and the barrel would always be aligned to help my mobility. And do burst-cuts like I do. Drafting that, the engineering behind it, the weeks and weeks of trial and error to piece it together… I'd be devastated. And I guess you did a lot of the same, right?"
"I did…"
"And that's why you're upset?"
"...In part, I suppose." Pyrrha sighed, going on a bit more… Almost wistfully as she went on, "But there was also a certain freedom, to being able to sail. I needed a crew, technically, of course. But if I didn't need to entertain party guests, I could manage it on my own well enough."
"How often did you get to do that?"
"Less times than I would have preferred," she answered quietly, "but more than many would get to. I spent it mostly just off the coast, of course, and I had the Captain with me. But even the hypothetical freedom meant a lot to me, in those years."
"I can see that…" Ruby sighed, feeling a bit sad herself for the ship's loss, now. Quietly, she said, "I'm sorry, Pyrrha."
"I…Thank you." Pyrrha flicked her a look, and then smiled ever so slightly and nodded in thanks, taking a breath and rolling her free arm as the camp came properly into view. More brightly, but still quietly, she said, "I appreciate your kind words, Ruby. They… Mean a lot to me."
Feeling more heat creep up her cheeks, she said, "A-Anything you need."
"Mhm." The woman chuckled, rolling her eyes, "We'll see."
What that meant Ruby left alone, calling out to the people still working on their baskets, "We have fooooood, ev-a-rybody!"
The smiles and relieved looking faces she got was almost as rewarding as how much more relaxed Pyrrha looked as she settled down and got to work on skinning the coconuts, setting the dryer outsides aside for fire-stuff later.
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"You're staring again, Trivia…" Her partner said from beside her, leaning back against the tree Neo was sitting under and offering her a hunk of coconut to snack on, She shot him a glare, and looked past the thick trunk of her shade source to where fish was roasting over the fire, and took the offered snack with another glower that made Roman sigh, "What? You are. And you're not being incredibly subtle, either…"
"She isn't paying attention." Neo signed with a hand, shrugging.
"But you admit to staring…" Roman pointed out, "Which was my actual, you know, point."
She only shrugged again, completely ambivalent to Roman's probing. What, did he expect her to flush and stammer because Roman accused her of having a crush or something? She wasn't that kid he'd taken in anymore. She didn't get flustered going into bars for his deals because of short skirts or big arms anymore. No, instead she got flustered by being saved from drowning, apparently…
Shaking her head, she signed quickly, "Just trying to figure Red out, that's all."
"What's to figure out? The brat's pretty obvious, if you ask me. Way too obvious for her own good, in fact…" Roman asked, easing down to sit beside her, wrapping a comfortable arm around her shoulders in a familiar gesture of comfort. So she knew he wasn't trying to start a fight or anything.
She leaned into it to show she took his meaning and signed, "What do you mean?"
"The only real mystery is her not turning us in." He answered, "But… Well, not wanting to cause drama right now tracks. She's a goody-two-shoes type. Simple and straightforward."
"Straightforward would include telling her team about us." Neo pointed out, adding with a smirk, "Besides. There's nothing straight about her at all."
"Talking about Big Red?"
"Why did you name her after gum again…?"
"Because it'll be funny when she realises it." Roman shrugged, smiling lopsidedly and leaning his head back to rest against the tree. "Anyway, you mean her, right?"
"Yeah."
"Yeah, Red isn't exactly subtle when she's interested in something. Whether it's a girl or that big, red, damn abomination she calls a 'sniper Scythe'." Roman sighed, turning to watch the girl sitting beside the taller woman and bouncing on the spot gently, chatting about whatever nonsense they could find to talk about on a tiny, uninhabited nothing island south-ish of Vale. Grimm, probably, she figured as Roman droned on, sounding bored himself. "So, what, you're chasing after a girl already chasing another one… Because she's a good swimmer?"
"No." She rolled her eyes, "She's cute."
"She was cute before this too, I'm assuming." Not that he'd know, the overly sassy plant of a man that he was. He raised an eyebrow that made it a question for her, and she rolled her eyes and nodded, so he asked, "So… What changed? What, does she make you feel safe now that she pulled you out of the water?"
This time, Neo felt some heat creep up her neck…
"Aha!" Roman laughed, poking her in the ribs with his other hand while she glowered and gnawed on her coconut. "That is it!"
"Shut up." She signed by way of an elbow into his ribs.
"Hey now." He chuckled, "I'm just an old man! I could be hurt…"
She rolled her eyes and elbowed him again for good measure, signing, "They can't see what we're doing."
"Oh?"
"How else can I beat you up for being an idiot?"
"Ah." Roman nodded, "Well, you could always not do that."
Neo just gave him a look and snorted, shaking her head.
"Oh, I know." Roman smirked, closing his eyes and leaning against the tree again. "When we get back, we'll get you some red hair dye. Maybe some platform shoes, too. Red obviously has an- Ow!"
Neo thwapped him with the stick she'd grabbed from beside the tree two more times while he tried to ward the blows off, before she signed with a hand, "Why would I need dye when I have some nice, aggravating Roman red I can collect from my dear friend, hm?"
"Now, now, you have your Semblance." Roman smiled, tapping at his chin unsurely, "Though that won't help your… Vertical challenges, will it?" She grabbed her stick and turned, scowling, and Roman looked away and smiled, "Oh, hey, Red, what can we do for you?"
She turned, slowly, her stick in hand, to meet Ruby's flat gaze. Just as slowly, and inside the illusory bubble Neo had tossed up lazily to keep most of the potential eyes off of her, Ruby turned to look at Neo's impromptu beating stick. Slowly, she lowered it, smiling nervously and waving with a hand while Roman snorted, watching the show with a smirk of his own.
"...I came to check on you guys." She finally said quietly, holding a quartet of roughly straight, burnt sticks with hunks of fish in one hand and a smaller basket - one Neo noticed she had made - with some shellfish in it. Quietly, she said, "I come bearing gifts?"
"We're fine, Red." Roman sighed, crossing his arms and glowering at the Huntress. "Did you just come off your high horse to bring us snacks? Because I have feet."
"I-I know, but… Ugh." She sighed and knelt, handing the fish sticks and bowl to Neo, and then flopped onto the sand in front of them, shooting Roman a glare. "And I know you have feet thanks to when we met."
"When we met…?"
"Yeah." Ruby smiled, "R-Remember? You used them to, uh, run away. Like, super quick."
A heartbeat passed before Neo snickered and turned, looking at Roman and laughing mutely while he scowled. But, eventually, he just rolled his eyes, clapped twice, and said, "Okay, fine, credit where it's due. But only half credit, like how much you got for stopping me from lifting that store. Sound fair, half-pint?"
"You're a butt…"
"What?" Roman smirked, cocking his head, "Sorry, can't quite hear you from all the way down there."
"Is he… Always like this?" She asked, turning to Neo who, knowing Ruby probably couldn't sign, just nodded and smiled. It might have bothered Red, sure, but to Neo it was familiar. Like an old, comfortable hat. Shaking her head, the young Huntress turned and said, "Well… Look, I figured that, since Neo is burning her Aura hiding you two, she might be… Tired."
"She is." Roman agreed slowly, and Neo nodded to back him up. "But we can't do anything about it, really."
"Well…" Red pursed her lips and finally sighed, "You two could go out in the morning with me? Look around the other coast, down towards its end, for fruit and stuff. I asked Pyrrha to help Jaune set up a water still kinda… Thingy, and Weiss is going to help him carry wood and stuff back for it. No one else ventures out, much, so she'd be able to rest."
"That's…" Roman blinked, "Nice of you. But, uh, why?"
"I mean, I figure Neo- Er, is it Neo or Trivia? I'm gonna guess Neo, but, uh, whatever, I'm sure she needs a break, right?" Ruby shrugged, "What other reason do I need, really?"
"...We aren't friends." Roman pressed, ignoring the little glare Neo turned on him. "Why do you even care what we need?"
"I'm a Huntress." Ruby shrugged, smiling and flicking Neo a look before she added. "We help people because it's the right thing to do. And… Maybe, I dunno, you'll pass it on to someone else who needs it?"
"You are ridiculous…"
"No," Ruby smiled, "I'm Ruby. 'Ridiculous' is my cousin."
This time, Neo laughed properly, if still soundlessly. She clutched at her sides and flopped over while Roman watched her, glaring down at her petulantly. Then he mouthed 'traitor' and shrugged, turning back to Ruby and saying, "Fine, whatever. If Neo feels up to it, we'll go do… Whatever with you. As long as it's shaded."
"Shaded…?" Neo explained by sitting up and holding out her arms, letting her semblance fall to reveal the speckling of sunburn where she'd withdrawn her Aura's protection to keep her Semblance running and gotten sunburnt. She'd tried to keep it to mornings and evenings, but… Well, she couldn't help how taxing hiding two people was. Ruby grimaced in sympathy and reached out to gently run a finger over the burn, muttering, "It's not too rough, so it's not bad…"
Neo, meanwhile, was pursing her lips against the sting and silently lamenting that the second time Red touched her was on a fricking sun burn.
"I think we have some aloe from the kits from the ship. And sunscreen. Not much, but…" Ruby withdrew and met Neo's gaze, worry filling her face, "If it's bothering you that much, I'll bring it by in the morning. Roman can put it on you when we head out, so no one sees, okay?"
"Or you could put it on me, all over. You'll be way gentler on me than him~" She signed quickly, even winking, before she remembered Ruby couldn't understand her. So the Huntress only looked confused, turning to Roman and gesturing at Neo for an explanation.
"She said that'd be great." Roman smirked, "Thanks."
"Okay, uh, see you guys in the morning I guess." She nodded, standing and dusting the sand and dirt off as she turned and jogged back to the fire.
Slowly, Neo turned to Roman, glowering and signing, "Traitor."
Roman just laughed, and she signed 'shut up' via her elbow in his thigh.
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Roman grunted as he dropped onto the sand beside the tree the next afternoon, arms and legs tired from half a day or so of walking, collecting crap, and walking back. Which, of course, Trivia got out of doing for the most part. Since she was such a dainty little creature, after all, they couldn't possibly risk her being spotted working. Which meant she could pass the buck on to the two of them and she was not going to load Red down, so…
"Frickin' mute psycho." He muttered as Neo plopped onto the spot next to him, looking way better for wear than she had that morning. She heard what he'd said but just smiled, waving daintily, and he sighed as he turned to where Ruby was laying out a line of rocks in the sand. Raising an eyebrow, he asked, "What is she up to…?"
"She mentioned ideas to pass the time." Neo signed and shrugged, "I had one."
"Which was…"
"Okay everyone!" Red suddenly chirped, clapping her hands while the other three on her team came out, the blonde carrying a battered soccer ball he'd gotten from… Somewhere. The other survivors were already trailing towards them as Ruby smiled and explained, "Place your bets! Best of three volleyball, Reds versus Nots!"
Roman took a second to process what she'd said, and then turned to Neo, who grinned like a cheshire cat. Sighing, he muttered, "Lecherous midget…"
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The Right Price :
No such shift is happening, friend. Also, they have plenty of chemistry. It's just a softer chemistry, since theirs is a more long-term set-up than Nora and company's. Them existing side by side may, however, be muddying that a bit in reading, which is understandable.
I also suck at romance.
That is sure to cause issues. XD
Jack Blaze :
Ren is not in any way assertive enough to even begin leadership learning. It's just outside of his nature. Plus, he is carrying a LOT of baggage, as we learn later on in V4-5. Nora, on the other hand, is boisterous and assertive, but reasonable and nurturing as well. All of which is far more easily groomed into a proper leader. Hell, even in canon she isn't afraid to take the lead on things, or make a stand, when needed.
Weiss starts out as a cold, entitled, demanding and arrogant woman. These traits needed to be tamped out, and she needed to be humbled, thus she couldn't lead. Pyrrha lacks LITERALLY all of that, so conflating the two as 'the exact same' is incorrect just factually. PYRRHA'S problem is feeling like she's on a pedestal - which is more easily broken down than trying to explain to someone that feels entitled to command that she isn't when you GIVE HER COMMAND. That's kind of muddling the idea of the message lmao.
I could go on, but this alone should illustrate that I gave these team set ups thought even if you disagree with my conclusions.
And now, I get to be rude-
Don't insult my work, thanks.
Also, before this becomes a long debate. Yes, the leaders are predetermined. This is literally a commissioned work of fanfic. To judge em for making them leaders when I came to em with "hey I have an idea what if Nora and Pyrrha are leaders instead of Ruby and Jaune?" is utter nonsense. Despite any logic, sound or otherwise (and I believe it to be perfectly sound thank you very much), at the end of the day this is what I'm paying for. So drop it. I'm getting what I paid for and you can either read it too or read another fanfic.
-Polemo