Chapter 30 – Whiterose

In which Ruby Rose is upset with Weiss Schnee, and no one can say why.

So, Weiss had finally stopped applying remedying salve to her problems and was finally beginning to heal them, or at least patch them up so that they could heal themselves. Yang had finally learned that it wasn't okay to use brute for as a solution for every problem.

It may have come at the cost of my physical well-being, but nothing else would have hammered the message through her then-thick skull. Words certainly hadn't.

In the end, it had only worked because Yang had started to come around to Weiss. They'd brushed aside their issues initially and warmed up to one another, talking and attending classes and simply spending time together. There was no way that they couldn't develop friendship after that, and it was when Yang had hurt Weiss, her very own friend, due to her out of control behavior and boundless temper that she was forced to reconcile the fact that she was too prone to overreactions.

Sadly, as one problem went away, a new one opened up entirely.

Ruby was shutting herself out from the team.

Yet again, one of the four members of Team RWBY was hiding away from the rest of the them. Ruby would wake up earlier than the others and come back home when they were already asleep, meaning that the most they saw of her was scattered glances throughout the day. The night after their split-up investigation, Ruby had simply glared at the other girls while they walked back home from the airship landing platform and immediately gone to bed.

"Was it something that happened when you called Father?" Weiss asked Blake on Wednesday, by which point it had become clear that Ruby wasn't cooling off.

"Not at all. Weiss, she was in a great mood before you came back."

It had been a waste of time to even bother asking, but Weiss had always been a methodical person. Now, she was even more absolutely sure that it was because she and Yang had fought once more that Ruby was so upset.

"I'm sorry," she apologized to Blake, and to Ruby as well even though she wasn't present to receive it. "I know I should have cleaned off before returning. I'm amazed I was even let on the bullhead."

Blake heaved out a breath. "Yeah, it was kinda dumb to ask us to not look at you and think that would work. I mean, seeing you like that was just…mmmmm, I don't even want to think about that memory."

While Blake had suffered by seeing Weiss in jeopardy, it was the other fighter that had caused Ruby such distress. Ruby was concerned for Weiss, or at least Weiss had hoped she was, but it was seeing that her sister not only broke her promise but also had sunk to such lows that pained her. Perhaps Ruby could have excused the breaking of Weiss' wings as a one-off mistake from her sister, but twice was a pattern. Even if it was resolved now, the pedestal was broken, and the perfect image of the sister who had raised and sheltered her for all those years as gone.

But what Weiss couldn't understand was why Ruby was seemingly mad at her and Blake as well. Perhaps it was just annoyance at the whole witchcraft thing, where Weiss had treated a severe situation with levity, but that seemed like a minor thing that would wear off quickly. The truly baffling part was the lack of sympathy from Ruby, aside from a brief moment of what had appeared to be concern before she'd run off to tattle on them. Weiss could appreciate involving a teacher when students were injured, but the look on Ruby's face when she'd dragged over Ozpin and Goodwitch wasn't fear or concern.

She looked vindictive, like she wanted us all to get in trouble.

Weiss wanted to corner her outside of class and fix this, as she had fixed Yang, but she needed to first figure out what there was to fix.

Is she mad at me for being the one to break the façade of her perfect sister? Does she resent me for forgiving Yang, as Blake briefly did? Is it because I gave her such distress without a proper warning, returning bathed in blood as I was? None of those sound right, though. Ugh, I want to go over to her and scream at her to just tell me just what is wrong!

Is it…is it something worse? Has she decided to quit Beacon? Is this her final temper tantrum after the inciting incident heralding in her resignation as a huntress?

…but then why would she keep going to class? It doesn't make sense.

Weiss couldn't ask for help this time. This was a problem with Ruby, not her own leadership, and the only people who knew enough about the situation were Blake and Yang. No professor could be asked, as they could potentially report back to Ozpin, and Ruby's lack of a friend circle meant that most other students didn't know Ruby all that well.

Perhaps the solution was to handle this the same way she had with Yang – befriend her first and address the problem after that. Weiss was already Ruby's friend, but the idea of simply approaching Ruby as a partner and not as a leader might work.

I can offer to tutor her, with the promise not to bring up any drama.

Except tutoring would only remind Ruby of the problem, if it was in fact related to her quitting Beacon.

No matter. I'll ask her if she wants to spend time together as partners. We can…work on our weapons together? Yes, Ruby likes that. This is about her, and I should strive to make her comfortable. If I can bridge the gap between us, she might eventually feel comfortable enough to talk about whatever is troubling her at her own pace.

Assuming that Ruby didn't just ignore Weiss altogether, of course.

Weiss didn't go to Ruby outside of a classroom that had just let out or anything like that. Doing so would make Ruby feel like she was being cornered. The goal was to put as little pressure on Ruby as possible and make this a friendly gesture to spend some time together.

Instead, Weiss merely stalked Ruby for about fifteen minutes after the class let out, tracking her to the library. Then, when Ruby as all settled in, Weiss casually approached her table.

"Hello, Ruby."

"Weiss," Ruby said, without even looking up from her book. It was rather impressive that the normally chipper girl could keep up the stoic face with such ease.

"I was wondering if you were free, and we might work on tuning and maintaining our weapons together."

"Tuning…" Ruby's book clapped shut. "…you've never asked to do weapons together before. What, was Blake busy or something?"

"I normally handle Myrtenaster independently. However, I would like to extend the offer to do so together."

"And…?"

"And nothing," Weiss declared. "I merely wish to spend time with you. No ulterior motives nor obligations. Just…working on our weapons. As friends."

"Friends." Ruby made a weird noise with her lip, something like a click. "Is that what we are?"

"I…yes?" Weiss wasn't really sure what that question was supposed to imply. "I believe we are. Do you…Do you disagree?"

There was silence between them for a moment, with Weiss eagerly awaiting Ruby's answer. After about forty seconds, she realized that Ruby had either taken it as a rhetorical question or simply declined to answer.

"If you are busy right now, then –"

"Oh, I'm not busy," Ruby said coolly. She set the book down on the table. "I'm not busy with anything."

Weiss held her breath. "Then…would you care to join me?"

"I'm not busy. But I'm not going with you."

"It doesn't have to be weapons. If there's something you'd ra–"

"Weiss." Ruby's eyes shut, and she tilted her head backwards so much that she faced the ceiling. "Just take a hint."

This was going worse than Weiss had hoped, but as she'd stated at the beginning, it was for Ruby's comfort. If Ruby didn't wish to interact, Weiss would not force it.

"I understand. My offer shall be a standing one. Any time you wish, merely inform me and I shall be there."

Ruby picked up her book again. Weiss could tell she wasn't reading it; it was merely a prop for her to look at so she could ignore Weiss. "No, you won't. Go away, Schnee."

The name was said so dirtily that it practically stung. Weiss blinked away the tears that were threatening to fall and left Ruby to her pretend-reading.

"How'd it go?" asked Yang, the very moment Weiss walked through the doors. Blake seemed to be intently waiting for the verdict as well.

"How did what go?" Weiss asked, unsure just how much the other two knew.

"Weiss, you went after Ruby. It's totes obvious."

Weiss' eyes narrowed. "I took care to not be transparent."

"It's not that we saw you," cut in Blake. "It's just that it's fairly obvious where you went when you show up to the dorm twenty minutes after Yang and me."

She supposed that made sense. "Ruby heard me out, but she was unreceptive to my offer to spend time working on our weapons together."

Yang whistled. "Never known her to pass up an offer like that. She must really be pissed."

"She was," Weiss agreed. "But I don't know why. Rather, I don't know why it's directed at me. What did I do?"

There were a lot of potential answers to that question, but none of them merited the intensity of Ruby's response. The fact that this anger was lingering and didn't pass only made it all the more worrying.

At least Blake was being good about all of this. Weiss knew she'd had a particularly tough time accepting Yang due to her numerous outbursts, but the cat Faunus had had faith in her leader, and she seemed to have realized as Weiss had that Yang's worser days were behind her. Thus, Blake had tentatively accepted this new leaf being turned over, sparing Weiss from having to deal with two rowdy teammates instead of one.

That would be the nightmare – Blake and Ruby mad at me. Not only because I depend on those two, but because it would mean that Yang would be my only lifeline.

All three of them had collectively agreed to postpone investigations of Roman Torchwick until Ruby could be brought back onboard, because moving on without her was simply too cruel for any of them. Weiss was struggling to keep the knowledge that her teacher was potentially a murderer contained within her, but he seemed to pose no direct, pressing danger to anyone in Beacon at the moment, and even if he did, there was nothing Weiss could do.

Maybe Blake got proof from Father, and we can discuss it as a group when Ruby returns.

"She'll come around," said Yang. "I think she's just mad at me and taking it out on the world, Schnee. You know Ruby; she doesn't have a mean bone in her body."

If that was true, then Weiss must've just been harshly shut down in her offer for friendship by a doppelganger, because it had felt pretty mean just a moment ago.

"I just wish we could take a break from all this conflict for once," Weiss bemoaned, slamming her face into her pillow as she collapsed into bed. Her homework could wait; she needed time to decompress from…from everything.

"Well," Yang began. Weiss couldn't see her, but she would've bet cold hard lien that Yang was wearing a shit-eating grin right about now. "There is the upcoming dance…"

The mention of it made Weiss tense slightly.

"Don't worry, Weiss. I was kidding about making you do some crazy ask-out for me. I only said that because things had been…simpler back then."

"It was before we were forced to cast a spell as a coven at risk of detention," Yang explained. "Still mind-blown that you somehow managed to pull that off."

Weiss had tried to explain to Yang what she'd seen, but Yang had refused to acknowledge it, preferring to 'rules of cool' explanation that Weiss truly was a witch. In time, Weiss would explain it to her (Yang needed to know her teammates' semblances in order to mesh with them during combat), but that could be something for later down the road. They hadn't even gone on their first mission, yet.

"I'll still ask you out properly," Weiss promised, as much for Blake as for her own sake. She valued her relationship with Blake and intended to do this the right way. Nothing matter to her as much as –

Oh.

Oh, that's why.

After semi-politely excusing herself from the rest of the team, Weiss ran straight back to the library in hopes of finding Ruby right where she'd left her, but the spot was filled by some second year, the huge man from Team CVFY. She was moments away from turning right back around and continuing the search elsewhere when a thought struck her.

Perhaps he knows where Ruby went?

Weiss cleared her throat as softly as she could, knowing that this was a library. The giant looked up from his scroll and unplugged his headphones.

How did he even…never mind.

"Excuse me, sir. My partner was previously occupying this seat."

"Oh," said the huntsman, rising. "I'll vacate if you wish."

"N-No, I was wondering if you know where she might have gone."

He shook his head. "It was empty when I arrived."

Well, that sucked. Weiss finally had a decent idea of what might be wrong with her relationship with Ruby, and she wanted to get this done as soon as possible. Time to pursue her wayward partner, then.

It wasn't anywhere near mealtime, but Weiss checked the cafeteria first. Ruby was frequently known to get mid-afternoon snacks in the form of chocolate chip cookies, or the occasional fruit salad when she was feeling mindful of her caloric intake.

Nothing. A complete dead-end.

Maybe she was in office hours with a professor? She had just finished studying at the library, after all. Weiss pulled out her scroll, brush some of the sweat off her brow from having sprinted across the campus twice now, and checked which teachers had scheduled their office hours.

Only two – Torchwick and Peach. It can't be Torchwick, so…

Professor Peach's classroom was halfway across the academy, and Weiss didn't think she had it in her to run even further. Her legs were too tired from the jogs she'd already done…

But every second I waste is a second where Ruby thinks she's all alone.

There was one other option. It was actually faster than running.

Weiss had never truly flown as a means of locomotion. Hovering, sure, and using the boost from a launch like she had during initiation, but never to get from point A to point B The humanoid body of a Faunus was improperly proportioned and weighted for sustained flight – the issue was gaining speed from a standstill, where flapping as furiously as she did tended to look grotesque and exhaust her quickly. However, if she simply got to a spot of great height and glided, that would grant her a sudden boost and provide the velocity she needed.

The cafeteria's rooftop wasn't available to students, and it wouldn't have been high enough either way, but the CCT was only a hop, skip, and a jump away. Plus, it had an elevator.

It was a school day, meaning that there were fewer civilians on campus to make calls, but Weiss could skip the lines if she weren't using one of the booths to make a call. Any floor of the CCT itself was accessible to all students, provided they had student ID on their persons.

When she disembarked at the top floor, Weiss made a beeline for the window. The floor wasn't empty, but it may as well have been for how distracted the few occupants were by their computer terminals.

When she tried to open it up, though, Weiss' fingers encountered resistance from the frame. No matter how hard she pushed, it simply wouldn't open.

C'mon…I'm on a schedule here…

When brute force failed her, Weiss resorted to logic (in hindsight, that was the wrong order). Examining the window, she found that it had been bolted closed.

What? Why even have a window if…? I sometimes wonder if the universe is coordinating to incumber me.

There wasn't time for this. Taking Myrtenaster, she carefully used some Ice Dust she had in the chamber to freeze it into the form of a Philip's Head screwdriver at the tip. Placing the frail implement into the drive of the screw of the bolt sealing it shut, Weiss rotated. This was an incredibly small volume of ice, and that meant it could easily shatter if she applied too much force. Even as methodically slow as she was, Weiss still broke the tip and had to refreeze it twice.

At long last, it was done, and Weiss could slide open the window. The height at which they were situated caused a sudden rush of wind to burst into the room, and Weiss' wings practically shivered in anticipation. She lifted a shoe and placed it on the bottom of the frame of the window, grabbing hold of the sides to pull herself through.

I've never done anything like this before, not from such a height. I'm almost excited.

"Weiss, no!"

The sudden shout of…Jaune?...dragged Weiss away from her plans of jumping.

No, wait. That wasn't the shout. It was Jaune tackling her.

"Don't do it! There's so much more to live for!"

"What…? Unhand me at once! Off with you!"

"Don't jump, Weiss! Whatever's wrong, we can work through it!"

Oh my gods, this man is an actual idiot. It was a blessing in disguise that Ozpin chose to partner me up with Ruby because of – oh, that's right. I still need to get to Ruby.

"Jaune," Weiss said, stopping squirming and moving her eyes to meet his. "Did you forget that I'm a Faunus?"

Arc blinked. "Uh. No, but what does…o-oh. OH! Oh, you were…oh, sorry."

He let go of a quite peeved Weiss, both for being interrupted and touched without prior approval. However, in this case, it might've actually been beneficial that he was here.

"Ren was in the library and heard you were looking for Ruby," Jaune said. "He texted Pyrrha since she was sparring with Ruby, and it was in the group chat. I noticed you from the cafeteria and chased you, but then when I saw you about to unalive yourself from the –"

"Unalive is an adjective, Arc, not a verb. But I wasn't going to jump. I was going to fly." Weiss lifted herself up off the ground. "You said Ruby is with Pyrrha?"

Jaune nodded. "In Building 99. Pyrrha was already there, and Ruby just insisted on joining her."

"Excellent." Weiss held out her arms. "Now, then. Do you consent to being touched?"

"Um." Jaune swallowed and looked down at her outstretched arms. "Like, in general, I guess I'm cool with it. Is this about prom or something? Cuz, I'm the guy and I'm supposed to be the one to ask…"

Brother Gods give me strength.

"No, Jaune Arc, it is not about prom. I have a girlfriend, anyways. What I'm asking is if you –"

"Yes," Arc replied immediately, his eyes wide. "Whatever it is you want me to do with you and your girlfriend, my answer is yes. Anything."

Well, if he was going to be a lecher of a teen, Weiss supposed she would accept his consent to be touched and act accordingly.

"Please face out the window."

"Okay," Arc said, doing so. "I've never heard of this position befooooooooooooooooooooooooore!"

Weiss had wrapped her arms around his stomach from behind and pushed them both out the window. Arc seriously needed to learn to not give a blank check and agree to 'anything' without defining what the other party had in mind first – that was Business 101.

"WEEEEIIIIISSSSSS!"

"Hold on!" Weiss shouted above the rip-roaring winds. "Just don't move, and we'll be fine!"

"Weiss! Let go of me! Wait, don't! I changed my mind!"

Probably a good call, as they were several hundred feet in the air, sailing through the sky. Weiss' strong upper body gave her a good grip on the noodle-adjacent child in her arms, but his legs were still hanging down. All of the people below must've been entirely astounded by the sight of two students sailing through the sky from up high…at least, those who bothered to look up.

"We're going directly to Ruby," Weiss explained quite voluminously. "It was good fortunate that I ran into you, because I think you're just what she needs."

"Weiss, please! I don't care how hot you and Ruby are, I want to go back! I'm too young to die! And also she's fifteen!"

They were nowhere close to dying, or even being in danger. Weiss' wings were the epitome of strength, having been allowed to grow and blossom. Father mandated regular exercise with them and had even hired a physical trainer and health consultant for that particular body part of Weiss. After all, she was to be a proud Schnee with Gelé Faunus heritage, and the cameras needed to see a robust set of wings. Weiss was actually prohibited by Father from ever expressing any shame, hesitation, or displeasure over having her wings.

It wasn't a stretch to say that Weiss' Faunus trait had literally changed the course of the world simply by existing.

"Weiss!"

"We're fine, Arc!"

"No, it's Ruby! I see her!"

He couldn't point, as his arms were tightly enclosed by Weiss' in order to keep him aerodynamic, so Weiss was forced to survey the surroundings and locate Ruby manually. They were close to Building 99 but not yet upon it, meaning that Ruby (who was walking in the opposite direction) had been leaving.

Ren texted Pyrrha, who probably informed Ruby. She knew I was on my way to her and tried to avoid me.

Weiss knew how to fly – it had been an instinct she'd been born with, even though learning the mechanics to perfect it had required time and effort. However, landing was another matter, and landing while carrying a lanky blond boy underneath her was an entirely different animal altogether.

"Arc! Raise your aura when we touch down!"

"G-Got it!"

Weiss had no idea if it would be necessary, but in the event that something went wrong, it would be a good precautionary measure to take, just in case.

In the end, Weiss found that there was no safe way to rapidly decrease her altitude, so she just entered into a spiraling pattern above Ruby and gradually let gravity bring her down. After enough mewling and whining from Arc, Ruby eventually looked up and noticed them. Weiss might've imagined it, but the first thing she did upon seeing her flying partner with her flying partner's ex-partner was let a tiny giggle escape her lips.

Maybe that's a good sign?

It actually took about a full minute and over twenty revolutions around the Ruby axis for Weiss to finally feel comfortable enough to drop Jaune (with warning, of course). On her own, she could easily retract her wings and drop down into a somersault landing.

"Weiss, never do that again!" Arc moaned. Then, he gave Weiss and Ruby an intricate look at just what he'd been eating in the cafeteria when he'd seen Weiss.

"Ew!" Ruby cried, fleeing from the pool of hurl. "Ew ew eeeeew! Oh, that's foul!"

"Ruby!"

"Alright, Weiss, I'll bite." In spite of her presumed disgust at Jaune and anger at Weiss, Ruby was smiling ever so slightly. "That was quite the entrance."

"Ruby…I'm sorry," Weiss wheezed.

"Weiss, you can't –"

"I'm sorry, Ruby, for checking on Blake first. I'm sorry that I made you feel like an afterthought."

Ruby stopped speaking.

"I figured it out, Ruby. You're my partner, and I made you feel like I didn't care. But I do."

"You just care about Blake more," Ruby grumbled, the smile disappearing.

"I can't lie and say that Blake isn't my best friend," Weiss admitted. "But that doesn't mean you aren't important to me. You're my friend and my partner, Ruby, and I wouldn't trade you for all the Dust in the world."

"Great." Ruby folded her arms and turned her back to Weiss. "Second place. Whoopee."

"I don't rank the people around me."

"Yeah, but I don't have any friends! At all, Weiss! You've got Blake and she's got you, but…I thought we were best friends! But it turns out I'm not my best friend's best friend. I'm not anyone's best friend. Yang's become a jerk since coming to Beacon, the rest of the team's too busy with each other to even notice me, Torchwick's a supervillain, Mom's…" Ruby's voice fell. "It just feels like there's no one who's on my side."

"Perhaps not," Weiss said. "But that doesn't mean there can't be. Ruby, I'd like to introduce you to Jaune Arc."

She gestured to the individual in question, who was looking away and whistling to avoid getting involved in the conversation up into this point.

"He's socially inept, a complete outcast among the huntsman community, and desperate for personalistic connections with other human beings. I present to you, your very own friend for the befriending."

The description may have sounded scathing and garnered a note of protest from Jaune himself, but Weiss could practically hear Ruby's breathing intensity.

"S-Socially awkward?"

Weiss nodded. "He made an utter ass of himself the first time we met and only continued to do so for the rest of the day."

"He did?" Ruby turned to Jaune. "You did?"

"I-It wasn't so bad! I was just showing off my good side to this fine snow angel of a girl. The old Arc charm can't just be contained, you see." He winked at her.

"Oh, he's perfect!" Ruby declared, pleased with Jaune's display of idiocy.

"And his weapon is a plain, unmodified, non-mechshifting sword," Weiss said. "It was damaged during recovery from the Emerald Forest during initiation and must be repaired."

"Unmodified? It's like a blank canvas!" Ruby grabbed Jaune's hand and began to yank him in the direction of Beacon's workshops. "Let's go, Jaune!"

"H-Hey! I…I…"

Everyone got to win. Ruby had a perfect practice friend to whittle her social skills against, Arc got to spend time with a female human being, and Weiss could rest easy knowing that she wasn't the sole member of her partner's social circle. Assuming it worked out, Ruby would no longer be stressed by the fact that when Weiss was busy, she was all alone in the world.

I didn't think much of it, but when Blake and I went on a date, she tagged along. It felt endearing at the time, but with Yang gone and the two of us out, she was entirely by herself.

This was a decent outcome, even if it wasn't a complete resolution. Eventually, Ruby would need to fix things with Yang, but hopefully her mood would be improved by the fun times spent with the bumbling replacement blond, and maybe she would even be good enough at speaking to others that she could make her own friends by that point. It wouldn't do for Ruby to just have one companion, after all.

Weiss watched as he went along, not fighting back very much. Perhaps he might not have wished to go initially, but he was literally being dragged away by who he described as a 'cute girl.' It was Arc's stated fantasy.

"Remember to use protection!" Weiss called out to the departing duo.

"I brought my shield!" said Jaune, lifting the defensive object in question.

"He brought his shield!" echoed Ruby, leaving earshot with a wide smile plastered across her face.

Weiss nodded to herself. "He brought his shield."

The day after Weiss had introduced Ruby to Jaune, she'd been approached by the younger girl who was nervously kicking at her own heels.

"I was…I was wondering if you'd be willing to, you know, do the thing."

"Do the thing?" Weiss asked, unsure of what Ruby was referencing. Her lack of certainty only seemed to make Ruby recede into herself.

"You know. You said anytime, any place. So, uh, now."

Weiss racked her brains, but she couldn't piece together what 'thing' Ruby was wanting to do together.

"Together – oh, you want to work on our weapons!"

Ruby blushed. "Y-Yeah. I'm…I was being…but now I…yeah."

Weiss decided to not push Ruby for details. She'd let Yang's behavior slide in spite of it involving two instances of physical violence, so Ruby being on her best behavior except for a single instance of rudeness was excusable.

"We can begin immediately," she said. "I'll just grab my weapon."

It was the first time Ruby had been given the chance to look at Myrtenaster beyond mere superficial inspections, and although there were no specific modifications Weiss had in mind to upgrade or repair her weapon, she knew that Ruby would generate some ideas of her own accord.

Ruby also brought Crescent Rose, so that it could be a group activity that they shared together. For about an hour or two, the pair of girls simply spent time in the workshop, explaining the inner workings of their sword and scythe, bouncing ideas off of one another, and discussing how to improve them.

Weiss was far more familiar with Dust as a whole, and while Ruby knew the inner workings of bullets to the fullest extent possible, her lack of theoretical knowledge had been holding her back. She only purchased storebought items, never attempting mixing for unique effects; Ruby hadn't even know that that was an option. Weiss, on the other hand, had been raised with a Dust crystal in each hand.

As for Myrtenaster, Ruby immediately thought of five ways to improve it upon seeing it, and she had ten more by the time she'd finished taking it apart and putting it back together. It turned out that the inefficiencies that Weiss had learned to live with – the slowing of the rotating chamber when switching from the fourth chamber to the fifth, the reverberations within the blade when it bent out of shape, the way the chamber pressed against her wrist when she brought the sword in a parrying position from above – were all things that could be fixed. Some of them were doable today, but many others required custom parts or more time for Ruby to work up a solution. In the end, they had to schedule many more of these little get-togethers.

The next morning, Ruby didn't run off before everyone woke up for their morning breakfast.

No one chose to acknowledge their team's namesake's absence. It wasn't because of any choice to ignore their problems but instead the simple kindness to not make Ruby uncomfortable. These past few days had been Ruby's turn to make a mistake and upset the team, and everyone else in that position knew all too well how awkward it would have to be for her to be called out.

Instead, they all just went to breakfast together, with no mention of anything drama-related. It was no conspiracy, just an unspoken agreement to spare Ruby of the pain that they all instinctively understood. Weiss herself appreciated it greatly, as she was thoroughly done and done with this teamly intrigue that had plagued them from Team RWBY's very inception. It was just four friends being together, as it should always have been.

There was still some stiffness between Ruby and Yang, with the former biting her lips or flinching or doing some other little motion of unease every time the latter said something directly to her, but that wasn't a problem to be fixed, per se. The sister's relationship had invariably changed, and while it may have been for the worse, there was no going back or easily fixing this. Ruby didn't hate Yang; she'd merely been forced to reconcile the concept of her perfect sister with a reality that disagreed. The two would probably never be as close as they had been, but that was just how life would be for them from now on.

"…and then Jaune said that he has seven sisters!" Ruby crowed, shoveling in jam on toast into her mouth. Bits of food crunched out of it as she spoke while chewing. "Sewen! Da's crazee!"

"I can barely even handle two siblings," Weiss said.

"Oh, and he's introducing me to Pyrrha and Ren this weekend. The two of them need a fourth bridge partner for their games, and Nora's no good at it. Makes me wonder how – bridges are the most structurally-sound construct there can be if you make the arch right."

"I thought you sparred with Pyrrha," Weiss pointed out. "Just before I introduced you to Arc."

"Well." Ruby brushed the back of her head. "We didn't really talk. I was a bit mad, and I saw her training and just asked to fight since I knew she would be tough enough to work out some anger on. This time, we're actually meeting, not just using one another as punching bags."

"It's great that you have weekend plans," Blake said. "But isn't there something from last weekend that we still haven't discussed?"

The eating stopped, and red, white, and yellow looked between one another.

Yang swallowed the last bite of bagel in her teeth and cleared her throat. "Blake, if you need to talk about what I did, I can, but I think that we've all –"

"Not that." Blake leaned in and lowered her voice. "I'm talking about what we meant to discuss the moment we all got back but never did. Beacon's newest gentleman professor…Roman Torchwick."

Next Chapter: Checkmate

In which Weiss Schnee finally executes her prom proposal to Blake Belladonna.

Author's Notes

This chapter was sort of a one shot, in that it won't be the start of an arc. It's mostly just the follow-up to some of the aforementioned issues with Ruby's loneliness, which were briefly dropped by the characters since they were focusing on Weiss or Torchwick but still existed. For those of you upset with her for bearing a grudge against Weiss, recall that she's of an age where kids can get upset for the simplest of things. From Ruby's perspective, Weiss rushed to care for Blake and asked her in one obligatory sentence 'u good' before moving straight back to Blake. It's enough to bring some issues to the surface.

I can confirm with certainty, now, that the team is now teaming, and it won't stop teaming. Everyone's on board, and there's no more anyone jumping off board or being pushed...and just in time for some shit to go down. Well, for some shit to go down next year since we won't make it past prom this year, but that's beside the point.

Happy rats, and don't do crime!