“Urgh,” Ruby said as she flopped back onto Weiss’ bed. She was so tired. No one had told her that learning was going to take so much energy, or that she’d have to bear all the responsibility of leading a whole team of huntresses on top of everything else.

“Get off my bed!” Weiss shrieked.

Ruby rolled over, pulling the covers over her head as she did and undoing the perfect smooth surface of the bed all in one motion. She really shouldn’t have been complaining, she got to go to Beacon early. Who else got to say something like that?

“You’re ruining my sheets,” Weiss said. “And you didn’t even shower first. You’re probably all dirty!”

“Hehe, I bet you’re proud, Weiss-cream, something dirty finally happened in your bed, if you know what I mean.”

Ruby groaned, reached out to grab Weiss’ pillow, and stuffed it over her face.

“My pillow!”

She could still hear Yang’s laughter through the soft, soft fluff of the pillow, but at least it was a distant thing. Then some horrible creature tore the pillow away and left Ruby blinking up at the bottom of her own bed. “Why?” she asked, her voice small and lost like a wet kitten. A sad kitten. A kitten that just wanted to take a nap.

“Don’t touch my pillows,” Weiss said.

“I don’t think I’d call them pillows,” Yang said from where she was leaning against the frame of her bunkbed. “More like a washboard.”

Weiss’ pillow went ‘fwoomp’ when it rammed Yang in the face.

Ruby placed her arm over her face to hide from the inevitable backlash.

“Could have stayed in the camp,” Blake was muttering. “Just me, and my books, and none of this. No Schnees, no Yangs. Just me, Ninjas of Love, and a nice warm sleeping bag.”

“Alright, alright, I give!” Yang shouted above Weiss’ tirade about her lack of culture. She was grinning, but had both hands raised in surrender. “And you don’t need to lose your mind, princess, I’m heading out anyway. You won’t see me for hours.”

Ruby sat up. “Wait, you’re leaving?” she asked.

“Ah, yeah,” Yang said, and was that a touch of red on her cheeks that Ruby saw? “I’ve got, um, work.”

Ruby blinked slowly. “You have a job? Someone hired you? On purpose?!” Her incredulity rose with every new sentence and so did the indignation on her sister’s face.

“Yeah, I got a job. I’m hirable,” Yang said before she crossed her arms and looked off to the side. “Anyway, I need to head out to Vale. It’s Friday, so I’ll be out late.”

Ruby hopped off Weiss’ bed and placed both hands on her hips. “I’m coming with you,” she declared.

“What?” Yang squawked. “N-no no, I don’t need my little sister to escort me to work,” she said.

Ruby rolled her eyes. “Not to your job, I’m going to Vale,” she said. “I need to go to The Club.”

Yang’s face went from pale to red and right back to pale again all in the time it took for Ruby to blink twice. “Ruby, why are you going to a c-club? The Club isn’t a place for you. Especially not on Friday nights. They have dancers on Friday night,” Yang said.

“How do you know that?” Blake asked.

“Shut up Blake!” Yang shot back.

“As much as I despair of participating in your debauchery,” Weiss said. “I would like to visit Vale. I hardly got to explore the city from my hotel room.”

Blake made a noncommittal noise. “I heard there are a couple of bookstores that are decent. Might as well tag along. You two know the city better than I do, I’m sure.”

Ruby felt a smile tugging at her lips and she clapped her hands. “Perfect! It’ll be a group trip! Go team RWBY!”

“Oh god, no,” Yang whispered, but it was drowned out by Ruby’s cheering and Weiss’ complaining.

***

“Ugh,” Velvet said as she crashed back-first on her bed. She spread her arms and legs out as if she was the most comfortable piece of roadkill on the continent, then let out a small sigh.

“Are you tired, Bun?” Coco asked.

Velvet felt her forehead creasing and her mouth moving into a pout. She stopped it in time, but still rolled onto her side, back towards Coco’s voice.

Coco sighed. “Come on Velvet,” she said. “Please?” She didn’t say what she was asking for, but it was obvious to everyone in the room.

“Will you apologise?” Velvet asked. She didn’t want to sound so petulant, but it wasn’t her who had betrayed a friendship.

“For keeping you safe? Never,” Coco said.

Velvet rolled over then swung her legs off the side of the bed so that she was sitting and facing Coco. There were circles under Coco’s eyes and for all her bluster she was missing that spark, that fire that made her who she was. “That’s not what you should be saying sorry for, and you know it,” Velvet said, but her voice softened as she realised how mean she was sounding. “It’s just that... you betrayed me, Coco, I thought we could do better and...” She swallowed. Speaking from the heart had never been her strong suit.

Coco looked away too. “Yeah, well I thought I was doing the right thing too.”

Velvet came to her feet with a single bouncing motion. It was too much, being in the same room as a moping Coco, the air stank of bad feelings and neither partner was willing to meet each others eyes. “I’m going for a walk,” she announced.

Coco looked up, but nodded.

She didn’t see Velvet’s hug coming and squawked for a moment before realisation hit her and she melted into the embrasse. “I still love you, Coco. You’re my best friend,” Velvet said.

She felt Coco nodding and her arms tightened around Velvet’s waist. “Yeah. Me too.”

Smiling a little, Velvet pulled back and nodded once. “Right, I’ll be back.” She waved to the boys and both of them waved back, Yatsu wearing a knowing smile and Fox looking just a shade bewildered.

“Stay safe,” Yatsu called after her as she slid out of the dorm room.

The moment the door was closed behind her Velvet felt herself slumping down. It was almost a relief to be out of there, and yet guilt churned in her stomach. There was more she could have done to repair the gap, to fix the break in their relationship, but she always hesitated before doing it, a mixture of fear and lingering anger keeping her back.

But she did love her teammates, and she knew that things would get better, eventually. Resolve hardening, Velvet started walking down the corridor, letting her feet carry her wherever they would. Maybe she would stop by the cafeteria and grab something to drink.

The problem was a bit too big, sometimes to just tackle in a day. Coco had, basically, arranged an ambush on someone Velvet considered a... friend. Even if Coco did it for what she thought were good reasons, Velvet couldn’t look past the sight of Akelarre’s disappointed face the moment before the walls exploded and she was attacked.

That Akelarre seemed ready for an ambush meant... well she didn’t know what it meant, but it still ate at her.

She was crossing one of Beacon’s flower-lined courtyards when she saw a team of younger students walking by, just four girls in colourful uniforms bickering and arguing as any team would. She would have ignored them and kept on her way, but a snatch of conversation had her ears perking up.

“But Yang,” the shortest girl in the group said. “Akelarre stays there too, and she would let me in.”

“Ruby,” a white-haired girl next to the short one said. “You can’t just enter a bar. You’re too young. For that matter, so are the rest of us. It’s hardly the kind of place you’d expect respectable people to go.”

“Yang is going,” Ruby pointed out.

“Exactly.”

Velvet hesitated for just a moment before she spun around and started following the team. “Um, sorry,” she called out to them as they moved from the courtyard and into one of the corridors leading to the bullhead docks.

Four pairs of eyes turned to her and Velvet found herself suddenly nervous. She tried to speak, but the words caught in her throat. “Can we help?” the black haired one asked, she tilted her head to one side, bow sticking out of the top like the centrepiece of a cake.

“M-maybe?” Velvet said. She pressed her fingertips together and focused on her shoes. “Were you guys talking about Akelarre?”

Two of the four girls flinched at the name, but only one of them teleported to an inch in front of Velvet and grabbed her hands. Wide silver eyes stared up at her as if they could see through her soul. “You know Akelarre?”

“I, yes?” Velvet said.

“Tall, kind of pale?” the girl asked as if to be sure.

Velvet nodded. “Yes. We met in Patch a few months ago. She, um, has an interest in bugs.”

“You do know her!” Ruby said. “That’s so cool. How did you meet? We’re going to go see her now, did you want to come?”

“Ruby!” the blonde said. “We don't even know if she’ll be there. You can’ just go inviting people to come.”

“I-I would love to,” Velvet said, a queasy smile crawling onto her face at all the attention directed her way. “If you guys wouldn’t mind, of course.”

“The more the merrier, I suppose,” the white one said. “I’m Weiss Schnee, these two are Yang Xiao-Long and Ruby Rose, and the quiet one here is Blake Belladonna.”

Blake waved at Velvet. “Hey.”

“Uh, hi,” Velvet said. Then she remembered her manners and bowed quickly. “I’m Velvet, Velvet Scarlatina. I’m a second year here at Beacon.”

“You’re our senior?” Ruby asked. “That’s extra cool. Come on, you need to tell us all the tricks so that we won’t have to do as much homework. Can we see your notes from last year? How did you meet Akelarre anyway?”

“Ahh.” Velvet allowed herself to be dragged forwards by Ruby where the girl still had a firm grip on her hand. “M-maybe only one question at a time?”

***

Ruby bounced ahead of the group because as long as she kept moving ahead and focusing on the things that made her happy, then there was no way the things that made her nervous could catch up. At least, that’s what her mom had told her a long time ago, and she believed it still. It was why her semblance was the coolest ever, it allowed her to speed past all the bad things in life.

One day Ruby would grow tall, and strong, and faster, and then she’d show her dad that you could outrun taxes.

Behind her, Weiss was being pouty about not being in charge and was complaining to whomever would listen that the area was dirty and nasty and that they would probably get sick if they stayed here any longer. Behind her, Blake and Velvet were talking amicably. She wouldn’t have expected Blake, who was such a shy and timid girl, to strike up a friendship with Velvet, but maybe they had a lot in common.

And Yang was at the rear.

That... was probably not a good thing, Ruby reasonsed. She knew her sister very well. She knew her sister too well, even, and when Yang Xiao-Long was being quiet it was because something was horribly, horribly wrong.

At least Yang hadn’t pulled out her phone to snitch to dad or Uncle Qrow, so maybe everything was okay? Or maybe Yang was just nervous about her new job. The job she hadn’t told her own sister about.

“Yang!” she called over her shoulder. “Where is it?”

“It’s just around the corner,” Yang shouted back.

Ruby rushed ahead a little, ignoring Weiss’ pleas for her to slow down and act her age (she was totally acting her age, Weiss was the one who was trying to be old) until she could hear the booming retort of a bass ahead.

The Club wasn’t easy to spot. The building looked like any other on the street, a bit dilapidated, a bit rough around the edges. The line of people out front, on the other hand, was super easy to find. It stretched out across half the block, a sea of younger people in clothes so bright they rivalled the average hunter team.

She was standing there, oohing and ahhing to herself when the other members of team RWBY and Velvet caught up. “So, that’s the place?” Weiss said, the sneer evident in her tone. “This is where your friend hangs out?”

“Yup,” Ruby said. “It’s going to take forever to get in, though.”

“I might be able to get us in,” Yang said. “Seeing as how I kind of sort of work here.”

Ruby stared at Yang, aware that all the others were doing the same. “You work here?”

“Well, not yet?” She laughed, but it sounded hollow. “A-anyway, follow me.”

The others all shared a look, but did as she asked, crossing the street and beelining right for the front door where Yang was waving a one of the guards. He eyed her suspiciously until she pulled a piece of paper from out of her shorts and handed it over. “Alright, you can come in, but your little posse has to get in line like the rest,” he said.

“But I wanted to see Akelarre,” Ruby said.

The bouncers all froze for a moment. “Do, do you have an appointment, miss?” one asked.

Ruby blinked. “Yes,” she lied. “I totally do.”

The sound the people in line made as the complained was music to Ruby’s ears. The bouncer held up a red cord that had been blocking their path and ushered them into the music filled world of The Club.