Chapter Text
Ruby was getting too used to sleeping in and skipping morning classes. She really did want to attend class, but her team made a good point on that sometimes mornings just…suck.
They also had made too good a relaxing and comfortable apartment for themselves, and she was just enjoying her morning. Hearing her Scroll buzz though, she tiredly reached for it and looked at it. Then she blinked and hurriedly reached for her Scroll.
J: Good morning, oh lovely Romeo. No Shakespearean quoted greeting for me today?
Ruby laughed quietly, mindful of her still passed out team. Lying on her front, she started to message James back.
R: Nope. Tired and lounging instead~
J: No classes today?
Ruby cringed and buried her face against her pillow, groaning.
R: Um …slept in a bit.
J: …Up and at 'em, Romeo. Time for class.
R: Ugh, James!
J: Talk to you later, Ruby!
Ruby sighed and closed her Scroll, tiredly rolling off of her bed and slowing her descent to the floor with her Semblance. Grumbling, she went to get ready.
Her team would probably skip out that day too!
Instead of eating alone in the dining hall, Ruby took a bowl of strawberries and walked around campus. Bored and not looking forward to attending class all by herself, she slowly ate her fruit and wished she'd woken one of the others up.
Honestly, James! She could've just slept in and had a nice, relaxing day…
Huffing to herself, she chomped on a strawberry and strolled around.
"Morning, Miss Rose," she heard the Headmaster say and she saw him from a way's away, waving to her while holding onto his customary mug and his cane clipped to his belt. "You look lost in thought."
She gave him a shy smile and slowly walked over, while he met her halfway.
"Good morning, Professor Ozpin," she greeted. "I was just thinking that I should have dragged at least one of the others out of bed to join me today."
Ozpin chuckled. "You've done well with your group so far, especially given…how each individual is."
Ruby coughed, blushing a bit. He smiled slightly at her, taking a sip of his mug.
"We're not too bad," she giggled, blushing the more she hung around him. "And they're all great actually! I really enjoy my team and like my teammates! We're bonding all the time even! Actually, just like last night, we had our first movie night!"
"Movie night?" he asked puzzled.
She nodded. "Uh huh. We watched Hostel," she made a face at that. "But then we watched my movie! Roman even sung some of the songs in Moulin Rouge for me~"
Ozpin's smile turned a bit stiff for some reason, and Ruby was about to question him about it.
"Huh, I see. So you guys can watch in your room?"
Ruby nodded again. "Yeah! I don't know how, but Adam managed to get us cable and even have us subscribed to a streaming service."
Ozpin's face twitched. "I see," he said again.
"Sir…?" Ruby questioned, unknowingly giving her a cute puppyish look that made him unwittingly smile and then mentally shake his head.
"Perhaps I'll give you my Scroll number. That way, the next time your team decides to watch movies, I can get a heads up on my account activity," he said wryly.
It took a few seconds before it connected for Ruby and she moaned, covering her face in exasperation.
"Oh Oum! I'm so sorry, Professor! I had no idea we were using your streaming service account!" she said horrified.
He laughed and shook his head. "I suppose it really shouldn't be a surprise, what with your team," he echoed her exasperation. He fondly ruffled her hair. "But for you, I won't mind. Besides, it seems to be helping your team bond, so have at it, Miss Rose."
She smiled at him, shy again and cheeks warmed. Professor Ozpin really was super nice.
For him, he once again reluctantly acknowledged her cuteness and the destructive power of it.
"Hi, guys!" Ruby greeted her sister's team and her friends from Team JNPR.
"No team today?" Blake asked her kindly and Ruby shook her head.
"Nope! They all slept in, so I thought I'd at least attend class myself," she told them.
Weiss' eyes oddly glinted and she suddenly was standing by Ruby.
"No worries," she told her firmly. "I can partner with you for now," she said.
For some reason, Yang (and even Blake) looked at Weiss strangely. Ruby inwardly shrugged and beamed up at the older girl.
"Thank you, Weiss! I really appreciate it!"
Wow, for some reason at Beacon, she seemed to get friends and get along so much better with people than she was used to doing.
"And we'll help out too!" Nora added in.
Weiss tossed her a nasty glare that Ruby missed. The others became utterly perplexed.
With a strange air among them, they traveled to their first class, where Ruby sat with Weiss at seats where the non-destroyed part of the class was —snagging them while most of the rest of the class had migrated to the floor or to some flat surface they were managing to station themselves at.
Professor Port stood at the front and started his lecture, and Ruby wished she'd stayed in her bed after all.
Still, she diligently took notes so that she could share with the rest of her team (even if they claimed they didn't need it or care about grades). She would be doodling, but she thought making notes for them and being a good team leader had to take priority…and it was also more fun to doodle with Adam, as she'd found out.
"These are notes from the first day, the ones you missed," Weiss said, providing them helpfully to her.
Ruby's eyes widened and she looked at her new friend in awe and gratefulness. "Oh wow! You're so nice, Weiss. Thank you so much."
Weiss smiled widely, a strange glint to her eyes. Yang and Blake, having been close by, both turned to each other and looked completely confused.
What on Remnant?
By the time they were in Professor Peach's class (substituted by Professor Goodwitch accompanying them), Weiss had shown off and helped Ruby through little things that made Yang feeling weird about the whole thing. What was up with the Ice Princess? Why the hell was she showing off to Yang's little sister?
It just made her all so damn confused!
"Is it me or is Weiss actually being nice? And helpful? Like when did she actually decide she'd drop the princess, ice bitch front?" Yang whispered to Blake.
"Pretty sure when she decided she should've been Ruby's partner and that your sister should be on our team instead," Blake whispered back.
Yang blinked. "What?"
Blake coughed. "I overheard her ranting about Ozpin refusing to have Ruby switch over and that the two of them were much better suited to be partners. I think she's trying to prove a point, as well as show off to Ruby."
Yang's mind wanted to blank. The hell? So that's what this craziness was all about?
"Oum, I don't know whether to applaud her and cheer her on —since it would be nice to have Ruby with us —or shake my head at it all."
"I don't know," Blake mused. "Ruby's been pretty good for her team."
"They're all a bunch of crazy fucks."
"Case in point," Blake said dryly. "They're calmed and compromised for her sake, and aren't throwing everything into total chaos because of their 'beloved team leader.'"
Yang grimaced. Why was Ruby stuck with a bunch of possessive, dangerous assholes?
"Why is Cardin glaring over at you, Pyrrha?" Ruby asked, looking over innocently at her.
Pyrrha gave her a small smile. Not including what happened last night (not that Jaune and her would say anything about it), "Perhaps because yesterday I'd corrected him in Professor Oobleck's class —I believe you weren't there that morning."
"Oh, Neo and I were having ice cream," Ruby said thoughtfully, recalling it.
The red-head blinked and then inwardly sighed. Ruby's team were quite irresponsible and such bad influences on the sweet girl.
"Anyway, he's probably just pissed that Pyrrha showed him up," Yang grinned. "And Blake made it worse by adding in some awesome details," she added proudly.
Last night probably made it worse, she mused to herself again. Cardin's ego must be at a low right now.
"What's he up to?" Ruby narrowed her pretty silver eyes.
Pyrrha opened her mouth to answer her, also watching Cardin looking over to their group while talking to his team, and then there he was holding a jar of the sap they were suppose to be collecting, looking to throw it over. But then he paused and looked confused, and she looked to where he was looking at.
She saw Ruby pouring some of the sap from a jar on her front and down her legs, before smashing the jar down at her feet. Then she was screaming bloody murder, like she had that one time at dinner.
"OH GODS! CARDIN, WHY?"
Cardin looked terrified, more so as Goodwitch suddenly appeared. Her green eyes sharply looked over to him, catching him still in his throwing pose, and then to Ruby.
"MR. WINCHESTER! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE! YOU STAY RIGHT THERE, YOUNG MAN!"
Goodwitch strode over to Ruby, clucking her tongue as she looked over her. "Oh dear, you'll be attracting Grimm and who knows what else to you like this. Miss Xiao Long, take your sister back to her room so she can clean up and change."
"Uh, yes, Ma'am," Yang said dazedly.
"Yang, your sister is terrifying," Jaune whispered.
Pyrrha nodded in agreement.
When Ruby walked through their door, covered in sweet smelling sap, the team was admittedly aghast.
"What happened?" Neo asked worriedly.
Ruby just smiled serenely. "Oh nothing. I just poured sap on myself and smashed a jar of it, so that Cardin would get in trouble with Goodwitch for throwing sap at me by throwing a jar dangerously in my direction. It was supposed to be Pyrrha, but his nonexistent throw must've been the cause of bad aim."
She whistled and grabbed a change of clothes, and went to shower.
It was silent a moment before Roman sighed happily, wiping a tear from his eye.
"I am so damn proud."
Then there was someone clearing their throat and they saw Yang still by the door, holding a few jars still filled with sap (to join the two that Ruby had held before putting those down).
"These are Ruby's from before, when we were collecting them in the forest," she said awkwardly. "Um, I guess she can turn them in for credit for your team later?"
Neo went over and collected them, and Mercury gently pushed Yang out the door.
"Yeah, okay, bye," he told her and then closed the door in her face.
Weiss had had a good day. Although she hadn't been able to keep Ruby to herself for all of it or monopolize her time as she tried to, she at least managed to impress upon the younger girl her own capability and skills. At least she thought so —she was at least sure that she showed how good a partner she could be if they were partnered up.
"Weiss!"
Speak of the devil!
Turning to face the younger and smiling, she saw Ruby coming closer and holding a paper plate full of cookies.
"This is for you," she smiled brightly at Weiss. "As thanks for the day! I made them with the sap I got from the forest."
Weiss accepted the plate but felt confused.
"The…sap? The one you needed to turn in?"
Ruby shrugged. "We kept the ones I got —My team really liked the taste and we decided to use them for baking and jam and stuff. Professor Goodwitch says that Cardin and his team will be replacing my 'damaged' and 'missing' jars of sap for detention this week."
Weiss paused, taking a moment to stare at the young girl smiling innocently at her.
Well, Cardin was the idiot who'd started all this and deserved punishment. It's not like Ruby was wrong?
"I appreciate these," Weiss focused on instead, giving Ruby a pleased smile. "I'll enjoy them, I'm sure."
"I hope so!" she chirped up. "I also wanted to ask if you know any good places to buy Dust from, since you're supposed to be the supreme Dust expert, according to my teammate. My usual store in the city is closed and renovating, so I can't go there to buy any right now."
Weiss' smile was like the sun.
Another opening.
"Why, you don't need to worry about that. Leave it all to me!"
She was going to be Ruby's partner in no time.
The knock at the hour it was made Roman grumble. Neo was ignoring it and Mercury was currently on the roof with Nikos and Ruby's blond puppy, it being his turn to 'help' teach Jaune. Adam was doing homework with Ruby (why bother?!), which left Roman to check it out.
He could ignore it too, but he didn't want to leave it to chance of it being important for some reason.
Roman was glad when he opened the door.
Three boxes labeled 'Dust' was placed there, a man in a delivery uniform waiting by them.
"Delivery for Ruby Rose?" the man said in boredom.
"I'm her teammate," Roman said, interest already alight.
"Sign here please," the delivery man told him and he snatched the clipboard and signed his name quickly.
Then he dragged the boxes in gleefully.
"RED! C'MERE!
There was a goldmine in front of him.
Started 12/14/20 – Completed 1/4/21