The locker door swings open with a loud squeak. He’s quick to discard the various textbooks into it with little care. With all of them in the locker, Jaune nods with a smirk.

“Good riddance,” he says before continuing to rummage through his bag.

Many uniform wearing students wander through the slick and clean hallways of Beacon Academy, chatting amongst each other, pillaging their own lockers and even sleeping on the walls and window sills. Rays of sunshine beam through the wide and clear windows, providing more than enough natural light so that the electric fixtures on the ceiling aren’t needed.

A ringing comes from Jaune’s pocket and he takes out his Scroll. On the holographic screen, the name ‘Pyrrha’ is seen along with a nice picture of her and ever-excitable Nora jumping on her back, smiles on both of the girl’s faces.

Jaune chuckles and answers the call. “Pyrrha, that picture of you never gets old.”

At the other end of the line, Pyrrha can be heard saying, “Oh, for goodness sake, Jaune. Why didn’t you use the other one I sent you?”

“Because I like the first one better. It’s really cute.”

“It would have been fine if Nora didn’t decided to be silly and jump on my back with little warning.”

“Says you. I actually think that makes it better.”

“Hi, Jaune!”

Jaune laughs. “Hey, Nora. Say, you like that first picture you and Pyrrha took for me, right?”

“Oh yeah, the selfie thingy? Totally! That one was fun!”

“I rest my case.”

“Well, good for both of you,” Pyrrha responds, clear sarcasm in her voice.

Jaune continues taking items out of his bag and putting them in the locker, balancing his Scroll between his shoulder and ear. “So, I’m pretty much done with classes for the day, give, or take some homework…” he says that last part under his breath. “You wanna meet me somewhere after dropping little miss sugar rush off, or what?”

“Actually, we’re still in the school. We can simply regroup with you and depart for Ms. Goodwitch’s office together.”

“Oh, even better. I’m at my locker right now.”

“And we are very close to you. Standby please.”

“Aye-Aye, captain. Talk in a sec.”

“Can do.”

Jaune takes his Scroll down and ends his call with Pyrrha. Not even a second after, Jaune lurches forward into his open locker, almost dropping the binder in his hand. With laughter behind him, Jaune shakes his fall off and turn to whoever’s responsible for shoving him.

“Whoa, sorry, Arc, didn’t see ya’ there!”

Of course. Cardin Winchester. His three lackey’s lag shortly behind him, all giggling like hyenas at Cardin’s little “accident”. Jaune’s shoulders sag at the sight.

“Hey, no need for all that,” Cardin says, leaning on the locker beside Jaune’s. One of Cardin’s followers hangs behind Jaune, holding on to his locker door. “We were just passing through and thought it’d be fun to chat up an old friend. Haven’t seen ya’ in a while, pal!”

Jaune’s brow lifts. He looks over his shoulder at the guy hanging over him. Shaking his head and sighing, he bends down and begins picking up his discarded papers. Cardin follows, bending down to get on Jaune’s level.

“Not in the mood to talk to ya’ pal, huh?” Cardin throws his hands up. “Alright-Alright, I can take a hint. We got stuff to get back to anyway, don’t we boys?” Chuckles and snickers come from the other three dudes. Jaune doesn’t react as he takes up the last document and stands back up. Cardin follows suit. “Welp, I’ll let you get back to whatever losers tend to do in their free time.” He reaches up and messes up Jaune’s hair. “You keep doing you, alright?”

Cardin gives Jaune a little shove, then turns and starts to walk away. His three boys follow. The one behind Jaune walks by and smacks the binder of papers out of Jaune’s hands and to the floor, laughing at his handiwork. As the group walks away, Jaune sighs and goes down to retrieve his items once again.

Just then, a figure passes him and he looks up to see the familiar sight of Nora skipping down the hallway after Cardin and his crew with her hands behind her back and a large smile on her face. Jaune stands up straight and doesn’t even need to look to the side when he addresses the redhead standing next to him with her arms crossed.

“Pyrrha, what she is doing?”

Pyrrha shrugs. “Whatever Nora does, I suppose.”

Jaune slowly turns to Pyrrha with a warning stare. Pyrrha turns and looks him right in the eye, her face devoid of emotion. Jaune flicks his head at the skipping Nora. Pyrrha sighs and gives the boy an exasperated look, her lip poking out and shoulders sagging.

She sticks her hand out towards Nora, and says, “Nora,” sternly. The orange hair girl turns to Pyrrha perplexed. Pyrrha wags her finger. “No.”

Nora’s shoulder’s sag now. Then she bends backwards, groaning loudly and rolling her eyes. She vanishes from sight and reappears next to Pyrrha, the older woman’s hand on top of her head.

“I know that kid did not just teleport. I did not just see another one of that red cloak girl”, a passing student is heard murmuring.

“Just act natural, Dan. Pretend we didn’t just see that and act. Natural.” a second student says back.

“So, were you just gonna let her do whatever she was about to do to Cardin and his three oompa loompas, or what?” Jaune asks Pyrrha, putting the rest of his things in his locker.

“I was gonna break their legs!” Nora exclaims.

Still looking at Pyrrha, Jaune sweeps his hand at Nora.

“Well, Jaune, allow me answer your question with another question,” Pyrrha says. “When are you going to stop letting Winchester step all over you? If you would actually stand up for yourself, Nora wound’t have to threaten to break a man’s legs.”

“I wasn’t threatening anything. I was gonna snap em’,” Nora says outright.

Jaune shrugs. “Eh.”

Pyrrha puts a hand on her hip. “I’m sorry, ‘eh’? What exactly is ‘eh’ supposed to mean?”

Jaune closes his locker. “It means that I could not care less about Cardin Winchester, or his ‘merry bunch of fiddle winkles’. That guy thinks his pestering is actually doing anything for me, but it really isn’t. After seeing him get his jaw caved in, he’s about as threatening to me as Nora is on a good day.”

Nora attempts to touch her nose with her tongue.

“Well, Jaune, I suppose I can see what you mean, but that still doesn’t excuse…”

Pyrrha drones off as she begins to stare off behind Jaune. Her jaw slowly drops open and her green eyes widen.

Jaune cocks his head to the side. “Uh, Pyrrha? Yo.” He snaps his fingers in front of Pyrrha’s face. “Did you just break? Do I need to reboot you, or something? Hello?”

“I swear, Arc. One of these days you’re going to be pushed over the limit and it’ll be Armageddon.”

Jaune freezes at the sound of a new voice behind him. His eyes mirror Pyrrha’s. “No way…” He slowly turns around to face the approaching voice. At the sight of the new figure, he takes in a long breath in.

Nora leans over curiously and looks around Jaune to see what he and Pyrrha have their eyes planted on.

A pale skinned, white haired, teenage girl stands with a blue gloved hand on her cocked hip, a small smirk on her pale lips.

“You always did have the patience of a saint.”

“Holy crap…” Jaune lets out.

Pyrrha moves by Jaune, her eyes square on the smaller girl. “Oh my gods… Weiss…”

“Hello, Pyrrha. It’s been quite a while, hasn’t it.”

Pyrrha’s astonished gaze hardens. She almost looks a bit angry as she begins to walks forward. “Almost five months to be exact.”

The minute she reaches Weiss, her arms wraps around her tight, burying her head in Weiss’ white hair. The heiress, for but a moment, looks shocked at the act, but soon begins to return the embrace. Soon, Pyrrha releases Weiss and pushes her back by the shoulders, looking down into her blue eyes.

“So… you’re not upset with me?” Weiss asks.

Flick!

“Okay, ouch.”

“Of course I’m upset with you, Weiss!” Pyrrha says. “You simply packed your things and departed without so much as a farewell! And then you have to nerve not to call a single time since then!”

That’s when Jaune is knocked out of his stupor and he walks forward. “Y-Yeah! You just up and left me without a partner! You can’t just wake up and do that out of the blue! Well, I mean, you technically can since that was exactly what you did, but…”

“I was worried sick about you, Weiss! And all I had to go on was what Jaune informed me about the events that took place in that…! What were you thinking?!”

Weiss stares up at the seething redhead, perplexed by the verbal onslaught she was receiving. “U…Um… W-Would it help if I bought you something?”

“I don’t want your money, Weiss!”

“…Then what am I supposed to do now…?”

“… I wouldn’t mind another hug.”

“Would that make you stop yelling at me?”

Pyrrha sighs and shakes her head. She pulls Weiss in for another squeeze, rubbing the smaller girl’s back. “I’m sorry, Weiss. I was just so worried about you. It would be nice if you would, at least, attempt to communicate with your friends before leaving.”

“My… friends?”

“Yes, Weiss, your friends. Jaune and I? Who do you think I mean?”

Weiss looks over at Jaune next to Pyrrha. He scratches the side of his head. “Uh… Hey, Weiss. You’re looking… different. Liking the new style.”

Weiss looks down at herself, fiddling with her hanging white hair. She looks back up at Jaune. “Thank you. Just… thought I’d switch things up a tad.”

“Cool-Cool, yeah, um… Well, y-you look nice. Oh…” As he looks over Weiss’ form, his eyes can’t help but land on her exposed chest. Three jagged, faded scars up it, reaching the bottom of the blue collar around her neck. “Wow, uh… man…”

Once she notices where his eyes are, Weiss puts a hand over her scars and looks to the side. Pyrrha notices this and turns to Jaune. She jabs his shoulder and he looks down at her.

“Oh! Geez, sorry, Weiss, I… Sorry…”

Weiss doesn’t look back at Jaune. “Forget it, Arc.”

Jaune recoils from Weiss’s tone and his eyes fall to the floor.

Pyrrha looks back and forward between the two and sighs sadly, crossing her arms under her chest.

Weiss feels a tug on her dress and she turns forward, jumping a little at Nora suddenly being only inches from her face, the teal eyed girl staring into Weiss’ blue ones. The two stay like that for a moment. Weiss’ eyes dart from side to side as she waits for something- anything to happen.

“U…Um…” Weiss stammers.

A smile stretches across Nora’s lips and her eyes light up. “You smell like blueberry ice-cream.”

“…Okay.” Weiss looks over at Pyrrha and points at Nora.

Pyrrha chuckles. “Nora. Personal space.”

“Okay!” Nora vanishes from sight and appears next to Pyrrha, rocking back and forward on her heels and toes.

Weiss can only stare at the teleporting girl for a second. Then she looks at Pyrrha.

“We… have a few things to talk about,” Pyrrha says, scratching her cheek with an awkward smile.

Weiss looks down at Nora, who smiles back at her. “Indeed…” She clears her throat. “Well, I suppose we’ll just have to do that during our day out.”

“Day out?”

“I have a bit of proposition for you all. As a sort of welcome back, I’d like for you to accompany out into the town. Think of this as my way of apologizing for my long absence.”

“Oh. Well, that sounds nice.”

“What exactly did you have in mind?” Jaune asks.

“We’ll talk about it while we walk. First, I need to ask, do you two, by chance, still keep in contact with that little red trouble maker.”

“Little red trouble…? Wait, you mean Ruby?”

“Nora and I actually just saw her a few minutes ago,” Pyrrha finishes.

“Good”, Weiss says. “I need you to take me to her. I’ll tell you the plan on the way.”

“Oh!” Nora jumps up. “I’ve got this one! Just follow my lead, Weiss-Cream!”

Weiss does a double take at the name Nora gives her. “Excuse me?”

“Oh, this is good,” Jaune says with an amused smirk.

Weiss turns to Pyrrha. “What did she just call me?”

Pyrrha averts her gaze. “Uh…”

“Come on! Lets get going then! Whoosh!” Nora proceeds to stick her arms out like an airplane and run down the hallway, rounding a corner.

“Yeah, we most certainly need to have a talk about her,” Weiss says.

Pyrrha shakes her head. “Where to even start…”

“Come on, you two,” Jaune cuts in. “We should get after her before she somehow causes more trouble. Lets go see Ruby.” Jaune moves past Pyrrha and Weiss and follows after Nora. The two ladies are quick to move behind him.

As the group departs, a bunch of students roaming the hallways are all gathered around something around a corner down the hall. With their heads sticking out, stupid looks on their face, Cardin and his posse stick to the wall in a giant block of ice.

The gymnasium is empty. Large stands are folded into the walls and a group of floor mats stand rolled up in one of the corners. However, in the middle of the room, two lone chairs sit, one of them draped in a hooded red cloak. At the chair’s base are multiple spray cans, some clearly having been used recently.

Other than the chair, the only other thing filling the gymnasium was a young, red haired girl and the sound of a bottle spraying against one of the large walls. Over her ears, a pair of dark red headphones blared music.

The wall is painted with a red, rounded streak. Another follows. Beneath the dark cloth over her mouth, a contented smile takes its place as she peers at her piece in progress through safety goggles.

Seated in a folding chair near the entrance, a much older, blonde woman has one of her legs over the other as she watches Ruby spray paint away. She sends a small smile the young girl’s way, then refocuses on the stack of papers in her lap, writing notes and grades on each sheet of paper.

Mid pen stroke, she stops short and sighs.

“Nora, we’ve had this talk about personal space, have we not?” Glynda Goodwitch says, not even bothering to look up from her papers, continuing her work.

From Glynda’s side, Nora slowly backs away, hands behind her back “Sorry, ma’am…”

That’s when Glynda notices the rest of Nora’s company and turns to the entrance. “Mr. Arc, Pyrrha. Back again, I see.”

Jaune waves. “Hey, Ms. Goodwitch.”

“Weren’t you off to drop Nora off at my office?”

“With all due respect, ma’am, aren’t you supposed to actually be there by now?” Pyrrha asks.

“I have plenty of time to finish off here and make it back before our session. I just wanted give Ruby a bit more time.” They all look over at the crouched reached painting away. “She looked to be having such a good time, I figured I could get a bit more grading done while she…”

Glynda leans over to look behind Jaune, Pyrrha and Nora. Leaning on the wall, eyes square on Ruby, Weiss stands with crossed arms.

“Oh, hello, Ms. Schnee. I almost didn’t see you there?”

Weiss turns and gives Glynda a nod, then turns back to Ruby.

“What is she doing?” Weiss asks.

“Ah, well, Ruby has taken a rather sudden interest in art as of recent. Can’t really say what brought it on, though.”

Jaune and Pyrrha automatically stare at Nora, who is absolutely oblivious to it.

“In any case, she seems to really be enjoying it, along with Nora here. So, in an effort to keep these two from vandalizing any property, Professor Ozpin thought it’d be a wonderful idea to allow students who like this sort of thing to unleash their creativity on these, admittedly, dull gymnasium walls. I’ve taken the liberty of supervising these two in between my classes.”

“Why’s that?” Jaune asks.

“One: to make sure these two don’t get too rowdy. Two: to make sure a random student doesn’t walk in and absolutely terrify Ruby. And… honestly, I find this… quite relaxing.” She shrugs. “Go figure.” She turns to the group. “Now. My turn to ask a question. What brings you all here?”

Nora points at Ruby.

“I see. Do be careful approaching her. She startles easily.”

Nora nods and looks to the others in the group. “I got this.”

From there, Nora begins to flip across the gymnasium towards Ruby. When she gets close, she lands on all fours and begins to crawl as if prowling toward her prey.

Weiss walks up next to Pyrrha and asks, “Does she tend to do this often?”

“You have to admit, she is quite acrobatic,” Pyrrha responds.

“She can most certainly move, I’ll give her that.”

Nora crawls in closer to the seemingly unsuspecting Ruby, doing a few balled up rolls. One last leap and flip through the air and she lands directly behind Ruby, crouched down, smiling.

“Hi, Nora.” Ruby says, not even turning around.

She pulls down her headphones and mask and turns to the teal eyed girl, smiling. Nora waves. She looks up at Ruby’s work.

“How’s it coming?” Nora asks.

“I’d say pretty good. Still have a few more details to put on it, though. I didn’t wanna do too much before you could get back. Say, why are you back anyway? I thought you were going to your therapy session?”

“Had to make a slight detour before we left.” Nora points back at the gym entrance.

Ruby looks around her and sees Jaune and Pyrrha waving at her. She waves back. She soon stops, however, when she sees the forth party member in the group and her eyes slowly widen.

“No way…”

Ruby stands up from her crouched position and fully turns to Weiss, the two looking straight at one another. She vanishes from sight and appears closer. Weiss pushes off the wall and stands up straight, arms uncrossing, no readable expression on her face. Ruby slowly walks forward, stopping a few feet away from the white haired teen.

“You… came back…” Ruby says.

Weiss shrugs. “Had to at some point.”

Ruby gives Weiss a once-over. “You’ve changed.”

“Trying a new look out. Thought I’d switch it up a bit.”

“T-That’s not what I…” She stops short of finishing her statement. Weiss looks on expectingly. Ruby shakes her head, then looks away. “Never mind. I-It’s nothing…”

Weiss averts her own gaze.

Jaune leans into Pyrrha. “Man. Deja-vu.”

“S-So…” Ruby starts. “When did you… get back?”

“Only recently,” Weiss answers. “I needed to settle in first before coming to meet you all.”

“Oh. I guess that makes sense.”

More silence.

“Are you… planning to reenter Beacon?”

Weiss shrugs. “I’m still discussing things with Ms. Goodwitch. We’ll just have to see how things go from here.”

“Right… Right…”

“Hm.”

Even more silence.

Jaune groans out loud, throwing his head back. “Yeah, okay, you know what? Weiss, why don’t you just pop the question already?”

Ruby tilts her head. “Question?”

Weiss sighs. “Excuse me for not wanting to come straight out the gate with full assault bluntness, Arc. Ever heard of the art of subtlety?”

“Yeah. I’ve also heard of ‘The Art of Wanting To Get On With It.’ Read up!”

Weiss turns back and sends a glare at Jaune. He raises a brow at her. She rolls her eyes and turns back to Ruby.

“Alright, look, red. I suppose I’ll just cut to the chase then. I’m taking these three out for the day so that we may ‘hang out’. I’d like for you to join us.”

Ruby looks surprised. She points at herself. “M-Me?”

“No. The other teleporting weirdo in this room.”

Nora suddenly appears behind Ruby and points at herself. “But I’m already coming with you.”

“What? N-No, I was… I meant…!” The whitehead throws her hands up in frustration. She then smacks her forehead into her hand. “Look, do you want to join us, or not?”

Ruby looks to the ground in thought.

“No one is forcing you to come. There’s no need to get antsy about-“

“Sure, Weiss… That would be nice.”

Mid-speech, Weiss’ eyes shoot open and her head jerks up to stare at Ruby. Behind Weiss, Jaune and Pyrrha mirror her reaction and they give each a look. Even Glynda stops jotting down on her papers to watch the scene.

Ruby looks around at all of them, puzzled. “…What…?”

“Seriously?” Jaune asks.

“…Yes?”

“You’ll come out with us?” Pyrrha asks.

“…Yes?”

“Just like that?” Glynda asks.

“…Yes?”

“You’re not even going to question the fact that I’m the one asking you to join us right now?” Weiss asks.

Ruby’s eyes dart back and forward. “…Why would I do that…? I just… want to be with you guys…”

The group continue to stare at the redhead.

“Right, okay, so, Nora has a therapy session with Ms. Goodwitch for about an hour, so Pyrrha and I are gonna take her to that first, then we can just meet you and Ruby at the mall after we finish, Weiss,” Jaune says, quickly moving to the next topic. “That sound good to you?”

Weiss shrugs. “Fine.”

Ruby looks around her to look at the boy with wide eyes. “W-Wait a second, we’re going by ourselves?”

“Relax, Ruby,” Pyrrha says. “We just have to take care of Nora first, then we’ll see you soon. You can handle being alone with Weiss for an hour, right?”

Weiss and Ruby exchange looks.

“No, I feel for Ruby on this one. Can’t imagine having to deal with this storm of a chick for more than fifteen minutes at a time,” Jaune snarks.

“Ha-Ha. Go jump off a cliff, Arc,” Weiss snarks right back.

“You two behave yourselves,” Glynda butts in.

Jaune puts his hands up in defeat. “Yes, ma’am.”

Weiss crosses her arms. “He started it…” she says under her breath.

Glynda looks to Ruby. “Ruby. Are you sure you’re okay with this?”

Ruby nods. “I’ll be alright, ma’am. This… might be good for me.”

Glynda smiles. “I couldn’t agree more.” With that, she straightens up her papers and stands from her seat, adjusting her clothes and glasses. “Well, I suppose it’s about time we head off then. Jaune, Pyrrha, Nora; come along you three. We have things to attend to.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Pyrrha nods. “Come on, Nora.”

“Okay!” Nora proceeds to twirl around Ruby and skips to Pyrrha.

“You two play nice, now,” Jaune says. “See ya’ in a minute.”

After, Jaune follows the three women out of the gym, leaving the princess and the redhead alone. They, once again, exchange looks. While Weiss looks on with a rather stoic expression, Ruby sends a shaky smile her way with a small wave.

Weiss waves Ruby over. “Come on then.” She turns and walks for the exit.

“O-Okay.” Ruby follows with a start.

Her lips are pursed in curiosity. Her eyes are squint as she anxiously wondered why she was even in this position in the first place. Why hadn’t she ran for home yet?

However, that was a question that would always be answered by the reminder of the older teenager standing over her with crossed arms and a cocked hip. That same teenager has a brow lifted as she (not very) patiently waited for the young redhead to make a move. Ruby knew good and well that she was being waited on, but chose to bide her time for as long as possible by staying crouched in front of the store window.

A clearing of the throat comes from the whitehead behind Ruby. “Are you quite finished yet?”

Ruby doesn’t bother to answer. Instead, she persists on with her staring at the current target of her piercing gaze; the mannequin. This wasn’t just any mannequin, mind you. No, for you see, this particular mannequin had been mocking the young girl from the very moment she and Weiss walked up the mall clothing store.

She could feel the lifeless doll burning a hole in her with it’s endless stare of disapproval at Ruby’s “filthy” style of dress compared to it’s far superior design. Ruby could tell that 6 foot tall barbie doll was judging her like it was leagues better than she could ever be. No, the redhead saw through it’s clever guise as a simple store object. She knew all too well about the truth of that embodiment of evil beauty. She had the good mind to bust through the window and give that stupid mannequin a left hook to the—

“Oh my god, what could you possibly be thinking so long about?”

Ruby slowly turns to the ice princess and gives her a childish glare for interrupting her train of thought.

“You’d think the stupid mannequin was alive, or something with the way you’re staring it down. If you’re just trying to keep from going in, you could always say that.”

Ruby jumps to her feet, twisting toward Weiss. “T-That’s not true! I was j-just… um… admiring the c-craftsmanship! T-There really is a lot of detail on these t-things if you were to—“

She stumbles a passing shopper brushes past her shoulder muttering a halfhearted “excuse me”. Ruby squeaks and runs behind Weiss, bumbling a “sorry” as she stood shaking behind the white haired girl.

Weiss rolls her eyes. “God, you are hopeless.”

Ruby peaks out from under her hood. “I-I don’t like being in places like t-this... Can we g-go now?”

Weiss groans. “You’re awfully wishy-washy, you know that? One minute you’re completely fine with the idea of going to the mall, then when we actually get here, you act like you didn’t even want to come in the first place.”

“I-I know… I do that a lot…”

The princess rolls her eyes, then looks around for a second. Once she spots a bench across from the store, she grabs on to Ruby’s hood and starts to drag her along.

“H-Hey!” Ruby squeaks in protest. Weiss leads the young girl to the bench. When they reach it, she turns Ruby around and plops her down. Ruby gives Weiss a halfhearted glare. “W-What did I say about touching me like—“

The blue eyed girl puts her hand out to stop Ruby from talking. It surprisingly works. “If you aren’t going to enter the store, then we’ll wait for Jaune and Pyrrha here,” Weiss says. “Now just sit here and relax for a moment, will you?”

Ruby looked ready to talk back, but she finds herself looking around the mall, seeing the hundreds of people walking by. That’s not even to mention the many more just over the ledge behind her down on the first floor. She simply pulls her hood down more and puts her hands between her legs silently.

Weiss puts her hands on her hips and sighs. “I swear, it’s like taking care of a child…” she mumbles to herself as she walks to the railing beside the bench. She leans on it with arms crossed over chest, eyes closed. As the rather noisy crowd passes by, the two girls resume their silent wait for the rest of the party.

As Ruby sits uncomfortably, peaking out from under her hood at the many people walking through the mall, she would sometimes jump a little whenever it looked like someone would bump into her knees passing by. She sat on the left side of the bench, but not necessarily on the edge. Between her and the arm rest, another person could easily fit into the spot.

“Excuse me.”

Ruby’s eyes go wide and she twists to her left when a man suddenly takes a seat right next to her, very close to touching her. She started to shake slightly. Her mouth opened to complain, but she bit her tongue.

Weiss couldn’t help but notice the redhead’s louder than usual squeak and opens one of her closed eyes. She lift’s a curious brow at the scene.

Ruby’s body trembles and her hands convulse repeatedly. However, she keeps her lips shut tight as if holding her breath. Her eyes dart all over the place, most frequently landing on the man next to her. As discreetly as she could, she does a little hop across the bench to move away from the stranger.

A little smirk tugs at Weiss’ lips as she watches in curious amusement.

Seemingly out of the predicament, Ruby gives a silent sigh of relief.

“I know, right! He totally said that! I heard the whole thing!”

However, before she can even finish doing that, a rather chatty teenage girl quickly runs over and squeezes herself in between Ruby and the man whilst blabbing into her cellphone. Ruby almost sputters at how quickly she found herself in the same problem as before.

Weiss couldn’t help but to snort, becoming more intrigued by the minute.

Ruby had to keep her cool. She’s running out of bench space, but there was still plenty for her to use up. So, once again, she starts to slide down, distancing herself from the chatty girl.

But, of course, things couldn’t be that easy. A woman decides to fill up the spot between Ruby and the girl, holding a rather large shopping bag. At this point, Ruby has just about reached the edge of the bench. She looks absolutely distressed. If she moved to the edge now, there’d only be one spot left to fill up before she could no longer escape. However, she had to move down if she wanted to get way from the woman.

This might as well have been written on Ruby’s face, because Weiss could read her like a book. “Just get off the bench…” Weiss says under her breath.

Ruby’s tremors only increased by the minute.

“Just get. Off. The bench…” Weiss repeat under her breath.

Ruby looks like this was the most difficult situation any one person could find themselves in. She eyes every person that walks by in fear that they’d get the urge to take a seat on the bench just as the last people did. She was stuck between a rock and hard place. Or, rather, a middle aged woman and an armrest.

Weiss groans, shaking her head. “Oh, for goodness sake…” She lifts herself from the railing and walks over to the bench, then stands directly in front of Ruby, the redhead giving the princess a confused look. Without saying a word, Weiss grabs Ruby by the shoulders and slides her to the edge of the bench. Then, she takes the spot between Ruby and the woman, giving Ruby the proper space to breath.

Weiss sits with her arms and legs crossed, her eyes closed, not giving Ruby the slightest of glances. Ruby, however gave Weiss a long, perplexed stare, trying to decipher what the whitehead just did. After a quiet moment, Ruby lightly tugs on Weiss dress to get her attention.

“What?” Weiss answers without looking up at Ruby.

The redhead opens her mouth to talk, but no words come out. She looks to the floor, swallowing saliva. Taking a deep breath, she tries once more. “…Thank you, Weiss…”

The princess shrugs. “Yep.”

And with that, Ruby turns forward, not another word spoken. However, on Ruby’s own lips, a small smile can be seen.

The two teens sit in silence for a good fifteen minutes. Various shoppers come and go, leaving Weiss and Ruby in the same position: Weiss sitting with crossed legs, hands over chest, eyes close, Ruby fidgeting in her seat as she looks around the expansive mall, hands between her legs, hood pulled over her head. She knocks her black boots together as she waits.

“Yo! ladies!”

At the sound of a familiar voice calling out to them, Ruby and Weiss look up and to the left where the voice rang out from. Drawing closer, the blonde seventeen year old Jaune, and the amazonian women, Pyrrha, walk toward the two girls side by side, the boy waving, smiling bright, the woman sharing a smaller one, hands behind her back.

“About time,” Weiss mumbles before standing from her seat, arms still crossed.

Ruby quickly follows her lead and moves to stand next to the white-head. Pyrrha walks a bit faster to move ahead of Jaune and approach Weiss. When she reaches her, Pyrrha wraps her arms around Weiss, the heiress returning the light hug.

Pyrrha pushes Weiss aways. “Sorry about the wait, Weiss.”

Weiss shakes her head. “Don’t worry about it. I figured you two would run behind. Especially Jaune.”

Jaune flinches at all that shade thrown his way. “Geez, Weiss.”

Weiss looks around Pyrrha to eye Jaune. “Oh, please, Arc. I had to live with you for a little while. You could be standing at the door to a class and still somehow be late to it.”

“What? No way!”

“No, she’s right, Jaune,” Pyrrha agrees with Weiss. “You have quite the problem with being punctual.”

He gives his partner a look of disbelief. “Oh my god, Pyrrha. Help. Me! That is not proper partner etiquette!”

“I am helping you. A good partner will always have your back no matter what. A good friend, however, knows when to call you out when you’re in the wrong.” She sends an innocent smile his way.

That was pretty much K.O. on Jaune’s part. As he tries to retaliate, he finds his tongue tied and he can only groan. Weiss shakes her head at him, then refocuses her attention on the tall redhead before her.

“All finished with your errands?” Weiss asks.

“Indeed. Jaune and I decided to stay at the school and wait for Nora rather than wander off too far.“

“That so?” Weiss takes a second to look around for the orange haired girl. “Speaking of that little weirdo, where is she anyway?”

At Weiss’ question, Pyrrha and Jaune only now realize that they were missing a piece of the party, looking at each other, then looking around the area. Jaune palms his face.

“She was here just a minute ago,” Pyrrha says, sounding exasperated. “Now where did that child go?”

Weiss shrugs. “Looks like that friend of yours could really use a-“

Glomp!

“What the hell?!”

“Weiss-Cream!”

With no prior warning whatsoever, Weiss finds her neck and upper body entangled in a figure of pink and orange. She stumbles back as Nora squeezes her bosom into her face. Pyrrha looks on with a dumbfounded expression.

Jaune snorts at the sight. “Found her.”

“Hi, Weiss-Cream!”

“What are doing, you little freak?!” Weiss yells. “Unhand me this instance!”

“But it’s so hot outside and you feel like a Weiss-cicle!”

“Get off of me! Arc! Pyrrha! Would you do something already?!”

Jaune leans in closer to Pyrrha. “I don’t know, I’m kind of enjoying this.” Pyrrha turns and gives Jaune a deadpan look. He sighs. “Fine. Do your thing.”

Pyrrha smiles and turns to the scene of Nora "nuzzling” up on Weiss. She calmly walks over and approaches the two girls.

“Weiss-cicle! Weiss-cicle! Weiss-cicle!” Nora says repeatedly, laughing the whole time, Weiss’s muffled screams coming from under her.

Once Pyrrha walks up, she clears her throat and says, “Nora.” Her hand reaches up and she presses two fingers into the small of Nora’s back, her thumb pressing into a spot just below it. “That’s enough.” The instant she did that, Nora goes stiff, her face freezing up. Right after, she release Weiss and falls flat to the ground, still in the same position.

Weiss takes a few steps back, hand on her chest as she breaths erratically. “I could have died!”

Pyrrha bends down over Nora’s still statuesque body and smiles up awkwardly at Weiss. “It looks like she’s taken a liking to you.”

Weiss eyes the orange haired girl on the ground with a glare. “Lucky me…”

Pyrrha reaches out and pulls up Nora’s shirt to expose her navel. She puts a hand atop the girl’s tummy and begins to rub in a circular motion. Before she knows it, Nora begins to giggle and loosen up as she sprawls out on the ground.

“That tickles!” Nora laughs. Pyrrha, chuckling herself, continues to rub Nora’s stomach, making the girl laugh even more.

Ruby walks over next to Jaune, watching the scene with a titled head. “How did she do that?”

“We just kind of… figured it out,” Jaune answers. “I think Nora and I were wrestling one day and I did that to her back. She went as stiff as a statue for a good few minutes. After that, we started to experiment and see how we did what we did. Still have no idea what we’re doing to her, though.”

“That is weird…”

As Ruby continues to stare at the scene before her, Jaune looks back and forward between Nora and Ruby. He bends backward a little and scans Ruby back. His eyes land on a spot just above her behind. He sticks his lip out and makes the same hand sign Pyrrha makes, then between his hand and Ruby’s back.

Jaune shrugs his shoulders and reaches down to Ruby’s back. His fingers press into the spot mirroring Nora’s. The various layers of Ruby’s outfit lessen the impact, but something does end up happening. Ruby stiffens as a chill runs up her spine, her eyes going wide. Jaune jumps back at Ruby’s reaction and looks at her surprised, then to his hand as if he discovered some sort of amazing power.

“Well, I’ll be damned…” he says.

As she slows her breathing, Ruby slowly turns to Jaune and gives him an agitated glare from under her hood. He looks back with a nervous smile.

She begins to approach the boy and he puts his hands out towards her, laughing nervously. “I’m sorry-I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”

Thonk!

“Ow! Okay, I deserved that,” he says as he holds the spot on his forehead Ruby lightly smacked with the palm of her hand.

She points at him, glaring. “N-Never do that again,” she warns. And just for good measure, she gives him an evil eye.

He nods, chuckling. “Gotcha.”

“Alright already, enough!”

Jaune and Ruby turn towards Weiss, who just spoke. Pyrrha, still kneeled down, stops her tummy rubbing to look up at the white haired teen. Nora continues to giggle to herself as she continued to lay on the ground.

“Can we please just get on with it?” Sighing, she clears her throat. “Now, look. Today’s outing will be my treat. You see something you want, just get it. Jaune, that does not mean you can buy that car we saw on display on the way in.”

“Dang it...” he can be heard saying in the background.

“That is awfully kind of you, Weiss,” Pyrrha says. “What's the occasion, if I may ask?”

Weiss shakes her head. “Just feeling nice is all. I suggest you all take advantage of my generosity, because this won’t be a regular thing.”

“Wow, shocker…” Jaune says under his breath, thinking no one would hear him.

“Change of plans. The girls can buy anything they want. Jaune gets nothing,” Weiss says, indeed hearing him.

His shoulders dip. “Aw, nuts…”

“Weiss.” Pyrrha says sternly.

Weiss sighs. “Fine, punishment retracted. Make another comment, though, and I’m taking away your purchase privileges. We clear?”

“Clear as crystal and cooler than a polar bear’s toenails,” Jaune says. At his comment, all the girls look at him with varying degrees of confusion. Even Nora looks up from her spot on the ground.

Weiss rolls her eyes. “Yeah, right, okay, as I was saying: I actually wanted to go into this clothing store for a moment, if you all wouldn’t mind accompanying me.”

At that, Nora shoots up into a sitting position, causing Weiss to hide behind Pyrrha. Nora begins to smile and look at Weiss, who looks ready for whatever happens next.

“Actually, I wanted to go somewhere, too. And Ruby!” She turns and looks at Ruby, making the redhead jump a little. “I wanna show you something cool, okay?”

Ruby blinks. “U-Um, well—”

“Great!” Nora vanishes from sight and appears with her arms wrapped around Ruby, the redhead looking as if she didn’t even register what was going on yet. “I’m taking Ruby for a minute, okay, Jaune?”

He stares back. “Yeah, okay.”

With that, Nora grabs Ruby’s hand and begins to run off, dragging Ruby behind her, the young girl protesting, but, never the less, letting herself be dragged off.

Pyrrha turns and calls out, “Be careful Nora! Do you still have Jaune’s scroll with you?”

As she runs, Nora calls back, “Yeah, I got it! I’ll be good!”

Before Pyrrha knows it, Nora and Ruby leave her view and she smiles softly.

“Well, she couldn’t take Jaune with her, but at least two out of three isn’t bad,” Weiss says.

“Ha,” Jaune responds, unamused. “We going in this store, or what?”

“Why would you want to go into a women’s department store?”

“I’ve seen it all before. Nothing new in here.”

And with that strange, out-of-nowhere statement, Jaune puts his hands in his pockets and proceeds to walk into the clothing store without a second thought. Weiss shakes her head at him. Pyrrha, on the other hand, stares at the boy dumbfounded, mouth hanging open.

“Such a weirdo. Goodness.” Weiss proceeds to follow behind Jaune.

“J-Jaune? What exactly did you mean by that? Jaune?” Pyrrha follows behind quickly.

Weiss strolls between the isles of various shirts and pants to her left and right. Behind her, Pyrrha follows, eyeing the assortment of apparel she passes by. She leans in closer to the shorter girl’s ear and asks, “Um, Weiss, what exactly are we supposed to be looking for, if I may ask?”

Weiss sighs. “Pyrrha, there isn’t a particular objective to being here, or anything. You just pick out something you think looks good and then you go try it on. You like it? You buy it.”

“Ah. I see… Another question, if I may; how is one supposed to do that?”

Weiss halts in her walk and turns to the redhead, giving her a half annoyed, half perplexed look as her shoulders sag. “How does a girl your age not know how to pick out her own clothes?”

“Um…” Pyrrha looks down at her golden armor like top and red skirt. “I rather like what I have on now.”

“Please tell me that isn’t the only thing you have to wear.”

“Now you know good and well I have more clothes than this, Weiss. I know you’ve seen me wear a few things around the dorm from time to time.”

“Yeah, but those were, like, ‘hang around clothes’.”

“Wow, I hadn’t realized they came in their own category other than ‘clothes’…”

“Don’t you start sassing me, now. Look, all I’m saying is that you could spare to have a few more items in your wardrobe other than some extra jeans and Jaune’s smelly hoodies. Besides, I have a feeling he’ll be stealing your clothes a lot. He looks like he could actually be a size or two smaller than you.”

Pyrrha gives Weiss a sort of deadpan stare. “…Did you just call me fat?”

“I’m calling Jaune a twig.”

Pyrrha found herself letting out a chuckle at Weiss’ jab at the blonde. "Weiss, don’t be mean.”

The whitehead shrugs. “I’m being honest. Alright, look. Just walk around a little and try to find something you wouldn’t mind being seen in public wearing. I’m covering today’s little outing, so take advantage of this while it lasts. Okay?”

Pyrrha gives Weiss a soft smile and nods her head.

Weiss nods back. “Good. Now, if you would excuse me, I’m going to go see if I can find something to go with this top,” she says as she motions to the clothes in her arm.

Pyrrha eyes the shirt with a curious gaze. “I didn’t know you were fan of red and black?”

“I’m not.” She turns from Pyrrha. “See you in a minute.”

With that, the blue eyed girl begins to walk away, leaving Pyrrha her of Weiss as it grows smaller and disappears between the further down clothing aisles. Pyrrha lets out a whimsical breath.

“Well, at least she seems to be okay…”

“Hey. You there. Little girl.”

Pyrrha perks up at the sound of a strange, very nasally voice calling out to her. She looks around herself expecting to meet with whomever was trying to get her attention. However, no matter how hard she looked, she couldn’t seem to find anyone.

“Direct your eyes this way, miss thing.”

Pyrrha twists around and ends up face to face with one of the clothing racks.

And… a skeleton puppet… poking out from the… top of it.

It was just a doll of a body of bones standing on top of the rack, looking directly at her. There was really nothing Pyrrha could do but simply stare for a moment. But, to be fair, this was quite possibly the last thing she was expecting to see today.

She wondered if it was even the little doll that was calling out to her—

“Yes, child, it was I who summoned thee.”

And now it reads minds, too. This just keeps getting better.

“Come closer, amazonian women of power. Approach Lord Skelsor if you dare.”

Pyrrha’s eyes swipe side to side and she slowly starts to approach the tiny skeleton doll. She leans in, a confused yet curious look in her eye.

“Speak to me your greatest desires, mortal. Ask upon Skelsor thine wishes and watch as my power makes all your dreams come true!”

Her face scrunches up as she gets a read on the voice. She notices, on the back of the little doll, a hand rising out from the clothing, holding on to it’s plushy skull. The woman starts smiling.

“Jaune?” she asks.

“Who is this John you speak of?!” Jaune, or, rather, Skelsor exclaims, flailing wildly. “There is no being of such name here! I am Skelsor the Almighty!

“I thought you said it was Lord Skelsor?”

“Do not question Skelsor the Conquerer! I am immortal! I am the ultimate! Grimm quiver in fear at the sound of my very presence!”

Pyrrha lets out a chuckle. “The sound of your presence, Jaune?”

“Skelsor the Fabulous!”

“You know what, stick with that one. That one sounds the best.”

“Do not squander my time any further, you seductress of muscles! Lay upon Skelsor the Fabulous your hopes and dreams and I shall bathe you in wealth no mortal could ever dream of!”

Pyrrha holds a hand over her mouth, stifling the laughter threatening to let loose. She straightens herself up, attempting to keep a poised look. “J-Jaune, you… you realize Weiss is going to be vexed by this, don’t you?”

“Who is this W-ice you speak up? Are you referring to that annoying little vixen by your side a moment ago? Let her be angered! Her half pint wrath is nothing compared to the unlimited power of Skelsor the Fabulous!”

Pyrrha continues to hold her laughter in. However, she stiffens when she looks to her left and sees a certain white haired teen standing by her, giving “Skelsor” a flat look, face completely devoid of amusement. Pyrrha looks between Skelsor and Weiss as Skelsor continued his rant.

“In fact, I imagine by simply growing to my god-like form, she’d spend an eternity simply climbing before she could even confront my magnificence! I fear no mortal! I am immortal! I am—“

“Um… Skelsor.” Pyrrha cuts in, making Skelsor turn to her. She points her finger to the side at Weiss who remained standing with the same unamused look. Skelsor slowly turns to Weiss and looks at her for a moment.

After that, he slowly turns back to Pyrrha and says, “Well… It seems someone has a bone to pick with Skelsor. HAHAHAHAHAHAH!!” Skelsor starts to flail around as he laughs likes a maniac.

Weiss snatches Skelsor from Jaune's hand, the doll squeaking, leaving Jaune to widely move his hand around. She then reaches into the clothing rack and grabs for the idiotic blonde boy. When her hand comes in contact with his shirt, she grabs on tight and yanks him through the clothes, his upper body popping out.

He looks up at Pyrrha. "Oh hey, look at that, we shop at the same store."

Weiss unhands Jaune, letting him fall to the floor on his face. She puts her hands on her hips. "Jaune, you are a complete idiot."

Pyrrha chuckles. "Oh come now, Weiss. That was quite amusing."

Weiss slowly looks up at Pyrrha, receiving a shrug from the taller girl. She looks back down at Jaune, who gives her cheesy grin. She palms her own face, shaking her head. "My god, he's infecting you…” She sighs. “Look, if you can’t find something in here to your liking, why don’t you go find that redheaded nuisance for me. Tell her I wish to speak with her.”

Pyrrha nods. “Sure, Weiss.”

With that, Weiss begins to walk away from the duo. Pyrrha extends a hand down to Jaune and the boy accepts the offer. She pulls him up to his feet, he dusting himself off.

Jaune looks down at his bare hand and looks to Weiss with a start. "H-Hey, can I at least have Skelsor back?"

Squeak!

"Thank you, Weiss."

"Whatever!" She calls back to him.

He takes the doll down from his face and inspects Skelsor for injuries. Pyrrha gives the doll an amused smirk. "How did you even find that thing in a women's clothing store?" she asks.

Jaune looks at Pyrrha and doesn't reply for a moment. Then, lifting Skelsor up, he responds, in the same nasally voice as before, "Skelsor knows not the boundaries of female apparel, mortal!"

This causes Pyrrha to let out an uncontrolled volley of laughs. Her laughing must have been contagious, because Jaune begins to chuckle as well.

“Come on," he chuckles out. "Let’s go find the two troublemakers.”

“Oh! This should go great with the base, don’t you think? And this— Ooo~! I can totally find a use for this! Maybe I could put this at the very tippy top and this right at the bottom. Yes? No? Hmmm…”

The hyperactive girl dashed around the place, looking from aisle to aisle at the large variety of tools and parts that stocked the shelves. All the while, Ruby strolled along at a more manageable pace, eyes staying right on Nora the entire time.

After Nora abruptly drug her off, the two found themselves in a hardware shop located in the large mall. “Bucky’s Empire” was the name of it; a name that Ruby could not, for the life of her, see the connection between it and it’s actual contents.

All throughout the warehouse-like shop, tall rows of separate parts and pieces were stacked on shelves, some more organized than others. The minute they arrived, Nora began to run amok and Ruby had to take a few minutes to track the orange haired girl down and keep her on a “leash”.

“Gahhhh! Why is there so much stuff to choose from?! How am I supposed to choose just a few things when I want everything?!”

Ruby looks up at one of the large shelves to see her blabbermouth companion hanging off the side.

“Nora, I-I think you should get down from there before someone sees you,” Ruby says, taking a quick glance around. “Come on, I don’t wanna get in trouble.”

“But I have to find the perfect parts, Rubles!” Nora jumps off the shelf in a multitude of flips and lands on the ground on all fours. Right after, she teleports from sight and appears next to Ruby, arm slung over the redhead’s shoulder. “At this rate, I’m never going to finish my super ultra amazaballs project! And that makes me sad!”

Ruby, not really digging the proximity, teleports away from Nora’s grasp a few feet away. “You know, you still haven’t even told me why we’re here in the first place. Maybe if you did, I could help you find what you need quicker.”

Nora turns to Ruby. “My toy!”

Ruby stares at Nora blankly. “That still does not help me in the slightest, Nora.” Nora bends backwards, groaning in an over exaggerated manner. She blinks out of sight and appears next to Ruby once again. “Why do you keep getting right in my face?”

The teal eyed girl digs in her pants pocket, fishing out a folded piece of paper. As she begins to unravel the piece of paper, however, it turns out to actually be a rather large, poster size parchment. Ruby raises a brow at what Nora was trying to show her.

“Look-Look! This is the new toy I’m working on, see?”

As Nora holds the large poster out in front of her for Ruby to see clearly, the redhead can’t help but to show genuine surprise at the contents, not at all being what she was expecting.

It’s a blueprint of sorts (even though the paper itself was actually white). Many honest-to-god well done sketches are scattered across the poster, representing the different assortments and pieces that made up Nora’s “new toy”. They are all lined up very neatly and they’re all varied greatly, showing much detail for the design Nora has been apparently working on. Ruby ends up taking the poster into her own hands and scan over it diligently.

“A… hammer?” Ruby asks.

Nora nods vigorously. “Yep! And a giant one, too! Cool, huh?”

“Okay, first: you're a really good artist.”

Nora giggles a little at that.

“But, um, why… exactly are you trying to make a hammer?”

Nora shrugs. “Why not?”

“As always, Nora, your wisdom is unmatched.”

“I always see other people at Jaune and Pyrrha’s school carrying around cool toys and some of them aren’t even that great. This one guy’s weapon is nothing but a lame ol’ mace! I could burp out something cooler than that.”

“Well… Jaune’s weapon is just a sword.”

“Yeah, but he makes it look awesome!”

“Hm. Noted.”

“My point is: after seeing everyone carrying around cool little toys, I thought to myself, ‘Hey! I want a cool little toy, too! Why don’t I get one?’ And so, I decided to have that all change! One night, I just sat down and started drawing stuff. And you know what’s funny? This was actually my first pick!”

Ruby looks back at Nora wide-eyed. “You mean to tell me that this was your first draft?” Nora nods happily. Ruby looks back at the schematic. “You are just full of surprises, aren’t you?” As she continues to scan over the art, Ruby notices a certain part that looked a little odd out of the bunch. “Nora, what is this part right here supposed to be?”

“Huh?” Nora questions, skipping closer to Ruby, looking over her shoulder.

“This one here.” Ruby points to the picture in the top left corner of the page.

Nora looks where she is being directed and ponders for a moment. Shortly after, her eyes lighten up immensely. “Oh! That thing! Yeah, that’s the grenade launcher!”

It takes a second for the information to sink in. But when it does, Ruby slowly turns to the side to look Nora directly in the eye, a blank expression on her face, contrasting with Nora’s bright, excited one.

“…I’m sorry?” Ruby asks.

“Yeah! You know how Pyrrha’s stick thing can transform into a gun and stuff? Well, it’s kind of like that! See, the head of the hammer is supposed to double as the body of a grenade launcher at the push of a button. What do you think?”

Ruby continues to stare at Nora with the same, flat expression while Nora, in turn, eagerly awaits the redheads response. Ruby’s head drops, an elongated sigh following suit.

“You know, Nora, I’ve gotta be straight with you, that is six different kinds of awesome.”

“I know, right?”

“How long have you been working on this thing?”

“About… a month and a half! I’ve actually got the base ready to go. You know, like the handle, the head; the hammer’s pretty much ready design-wise, now I just have to actually put it together and make it… stay together. And stuff.”

Ruby shakes her head in disbelief, a grin on her lips, a chuckle or two escaping. “I’ve… gotta say, Nora, this is something else. You’ve really got something going with this.”

Nora giggles as if being tickled, putting her hands on her cheeks. “Oh stop! Now you’re just teasin’!”

“No, Nora, I’m serious right now, you have a real talent here.”

At this, Nora immediately stops laughing and looks at Ruby as if she were genuinely shocked by Ruby’s words.

“I mean… there are people in Beacon who couldn’t come up with the handle of this hammer you have here, let alone actually put it together and put so much work into it. Not to mention that you did this in just a little under two months. And, on top of all that, this artwork is really impressive. The amount of detail in this is just stellar.”

As Ruby goes on signing Nora’s praises, the orange haired girl herself rubs her arm uncomfortably, her eyes averted the floor as she shuffles in place. “No, it… it really isn’t all that…”

Now it’s Ruby who looks to Nora surprised. “What are you talking about? Nora, look at this! This is amazing! What do you mean it isn’t all that? You’ve got a creative imagination.”

“No I don’t.”

Ruby looks absolutely taken aback by this, not really having any words to respond with.

“You don’t have to lie to make me feel better, Ruby… I-I know I’m not all that smart… It’s okay…”

Ruby’s appalled expression only grows with those few words, almost looking angry even. For a minute, the two girls simply stood in the empty hardware aisle, Ruby staring at Nora, Nora staring at the ground. The redhead takes on a more calm face and she folds the schematic in her hand. After, she walks closer to Nora and her hands land on the teal eyed girl’s shoulders.

Nora looks up at Ruby. Ruby’s silver eyes pierce into Nora. However, her look was not one of anger or irritation, rather it was calm, though hardened.

“You need more support on the handle,” Ruby says flat out.

Nora only blinks. “H-Huh?”

“The head of the hammer looks to be pretty hefty as is. And once the grenade launcher attachment is worked in, there’s gonna be a considerable increase in weight, so the handle is going to need to be able withstand the pressure and not snap with the tiniest swing.”

She unhands Nora and walks away from her, hands on hips. She looks around the many shelves.

“Speaking of the gun, we’ll put that on the side for now. Right now, we should focus on just getting the hammer together; making a foundation. I think a double reinforced steel casing might do the trick for the whole thing and make it pretty durable, especially if you’re gonna be smashing it into stuff all willy nilly.”

As Ruby talks on, Nora simply stands in the same spot, eyes on the redhead.

“Maybe a two- no, three leather grip? We can have a detachable second handle for extra support, that might make things more manageable for you. I would say make it as light as possible, but we also need to make sure that we can keep it heavy enough to make smashing into things actually effective…” Ruby turns to Nora. “What do you think about this?”

Nora, for a second, can only stare at Ruby. “…You… sure know a lot about this stuff.”

Ruby turns her gaze back up to the tall walls of shelves. “I’ve had a little experience in this department.”

“…The… hardware department?”

Ruby can’t help but giggle at what she just said. “N-No, Nora. I meant making weapons. The ‘building cool stuff’ department, you silly.”

“Oh. Okay, then… So… are you… gonna help me make my hammer?”

Ruby shrugs. “I… guess I am. It might actually be fun. That is, if you don’t mind collaborating with me anyway.”

Nora brightens up once again, her large, toothy smile returning in full force, her permanent blush reddening even more than usual. “O-Of course I don’t mind! That sounds so awesome!” She teleports closer to Ruby and wraps her arms around the redhead. “Yay! We’re gonna be bash buddies!”

Ruby’s face turns purple from Nora’s enthusiastic show of affection. “Nora… please… stop…”

At that, Nora realizes what she is doing and halts in her excited squeezing. When her grip lightens a bit, Ruby droops over like a deflated ballon. Nora chuckles awkwardly, releasing Ruby and taking a step back. “S-Sorry, Ruby.”

Ruby takes a big gulp of air, inflating herself. “It's... all good” Her throat clears. “Now. We should finish up shopping so we can get to work on your weapon. Okay?”

Nora salutes, standing erect. “Yes ma’am!”

Ruby begins to walk forward and pass the orange haired girl. Just as she gets side by side with her, she stops moving for a moment. Quietly, she says, “And do me a favor.”

Nora looks at Ruby.

Ruby eyes Nora from the corner of her socket. “Don’t ever call yourself stupid again…”

Nora looks taken aback, as if she can’t believe what Ruby was saying, surprised by the calm tone of voice she sported while relaying her rather stern message. She dips her head low and nods slowly.

“Nora! Ruby!”

The two teleporting girls turn to look down the long aisle. Walking their way are Jaune and Pyrrha, she having her scroll in hand.

“Oh, h-hey guys,” Ruby greets, moving to meet the two halfway, Nora following. “How’d you find us?”

“We used the tracker on Pyrrha’s scroll and found mine,” Jaune answers, motioning to the scroll in Pyrrha’s hand. “We’ve been looking for you girls.”

Ruby gives Jaune and Pyrrha an exasperated, yet confused face. “Oh my god, what is with you two? Why don’t you guys ever just think to call? That would have saved so much time and effort.”

“Hey, in our defense, we actually chose to walk this time.”

“Jaune wanted to purchase a pretzel on the way to finding you,” Pyrrha says with a chuckle.

“You had one, too, you know.”

“I know. I wasn’t complaining.”

“Well, what were you guys tracking us down for?” Ruby asks, getting back on topic.

“Actually, it’s Weiss that needed to find you, Ruby,” Jaune says. “She just sent us to do the dirty work.”

At Jaune’s statement, Nora’s shoulders sag. She turns to look at the redhead and Ruby looks back with a small smile.

“Don’t worry, Nora. We can always come right back after I talk to Weiss. Promise.”

And, just like that, Nora’s face brightens up.

“Oh no, did we interrupt you two?” Pyrrha asks.

Nora turns to the older women. “It’s okay. We can finish our project later. Come on, let’s go see what Weiss-Cream wants!”

Nora proceeds to run past Jaune and Pyrrha, her arms outstretched as she makes airplane noises.

“Hey, kiddo, hold up would ya’?” Jaune calls out to the hyperactive girl. “Geez…”

“Well, good thing your scroll has the tracker,” Pyrrha sighs. She turns and looks at Jaune and Ruby. “Come on, you two, we should get going. Nora’s most likely going to beat us to Weiss and we should probably be there to save her.”

Ruby, Jaune and Pyrrha enter the clothing store, passing a few other shoppers on the way in.

“She’s this way,” Ruby says, pointing towards the back of the store.

“How do you know?”

Ruby shrugs. “Just… kinda do.”

Pyrrha and Jaune look at each other and shrug, then follow Ruby’s lead. As the three draw closer to the back of the store, they start to hear the familiar motor mouth of their target of interest.

“Do you like watermelon, because I absolutely love~ watermelon! It has this nice, sweet taste that just makes my mouth wanna sing an opera!”

Jaune and Pyrrha breathe a sigh of relief as the familiar voice reaches their ears. They reach the end of an aisle to see Weiss sitting next to what looked liked the dressing rooms. She has one leg crossed over the other, arms crossed over her chest, eyes closed. The whole while, the energetic Nora sits directly next to her, doing what she does best.

“I actually really just like sweet things in general, but Jaune and Pyrrha say I shouldn’t have too much off it at once, or I go into this weird, talky, jumpy state and they say that really cases trouble for them, so I listen even though I don’t want to. Hey, is your hair really white, because it is, like, really white! Like, if I were to put you in some snow, I wouldn’t be able to find you for a long-long time unless you started to talk, or move, or something. So, is your hair actually white like that, or do you just dye it?”

“Natural.”

“See, that’s what I thought! I figured you wouldn’t have to dye your hair, because I don’t have to dye mine and my hair is orange of all things! How crazy is that? How many times do you see people with hair like ours? I personally think we’re apart of some sort of secret alliance and we don’t actually know it yet. I bet we’re, like, top secret operatives who’re defined by our weird hair colors so that we could stand out from crowd, never conforming to the system norms. Fight the power! Smash the system!”

“Nora.”

The orange haired child turns to Pyrrha with a smile and a head tilt.

“Why don’t you finish this talk with Weiss a little later. Let’s see what she called us here for first, okay?”

Nora nods her head. “Okay~!”

With that, she hops off her chair and walks over to Pyrrha’s side, hands behind her back as she rocks back and forward on her feet.

Weiss rubs the bridge of her nose. “She just talks and talks and talks… ‘Do you like this?’ ‘Do you know that?’ ‘Wanna see something cool?’ ‘Have you heard of this really weird thing that you obviously have never heard of?’ ‘Why are your boobies so small?’ ‘How old are you?’ It was just question after question with her.”

Pyrrha smiles at Weiss, rubbing the top of Nora’s head. “Sounds about right.”

“The worst part was that I couldn’t tell her to shut up.”

“Why?” Jaune asks. “Would she just ignore you and keep going?”

Weiss shakes her head, leaning forward, putting a hand on her forehead. “No, it’s not even that! I just… couldn’t… do it! I can’t explain it, but… I physically could not bring myself to tell her to be quiet. She would ask me a question and I would answer every single time! It’s like she put a spell on me that I couldn’t get out of! Eventually, I just accepted my fate and stopped trying to fight it.”

Weiss sighs yet again, her head dipping low. After a moment, she puts her hands on her knees and stands from her seat.

“Alright, never mind that. Is the little red squeegee with you three?” Weiss turns to see Ruby standing next to Jaune, her red hood pulled over her head. “Ah, there you are. Come over her for a moment.”

Ruby, a bit hesitant, begins to slowly approach Weiss. “What… did you want with me, W—”

Before Ruby can finish her question, Weiss sticks a finger out, followed by a quick “shush”, effectively silencing the young girl. Weiss begins to look Ruby’s body up and down, a hand on her chin. Her eyes careful scan ever single nook and cranny of the redhead’s features, going from the boots to the head. The whole while, Ruby looks around nervously, shuffling in place uncomfortably.

Weiss sighs at this. “Would you please hold still for a moment? Stop all that fidgeting.”

“W-Why are you looking me like that…?” Ruby asks.

“I’m trying to get an idea of your proportions.” Weiss clicks her tongue. “But that’s a little hard when you’re wearing that freakishly long cloak. Could you take that off for a second?”

Ruby’s eyes widen. Behind her, Jaune and Pyrrha’s follow suit.

“…No,” Ruby answers bluntly.

Weiss groans. “Oh my goodness, it will just take me a second. Why are you being difficult?”

“I-I never take my cloak off.”

“Hey, wait,” Jaune interjects. “You’ve taken your cloak off in front of us before. What are you—”

Jaune’s words cut short as Ruby slowly turns her head to him, looking just about ready to smack the guy in the mouth, an eye twitching ever-so-slightly. Jaune fidgets nervously, realizing what he has done. So, in a show of master-like ducking and weaving, he looks behind himself as if Ruby were looking at someone besides him.

“What do you think I’m going to do to you exactly?” Weiss asks. “Look, I just need you to remove the cloak for but a second so I can get a good look at your body structure.”

Ruby turns back to Weiss, eyes narrowing. “W…Why?”

Weiss shakes her head, rubbing a hand through her white mane. “…I have some clothes for you try on, okay…?”

For a moment, everyone stares at Weiss… Well, everyone except Nora, who looks around the store as if her mind wasn’t even on Remnant at the moment.

A large, bright smile begins to form on Pyrrha’s mouth as her lips begin to part, her hands raising to her mouth. Weiss is quick to notice this and she sends a glare Pyrrha’s way.

“No…” Weiss warns.

“Weiiisss!” Pyrrha says with an uncharacteristically high pitched voice.

“No! No! Don’t you dare!”

“You’re trying to do something nice for Ruby!”

Weiss rolls her eyes, groaning indignantly. “Oh. My god!”

“This is so sweet of you, Weiss!”

“Shut. Up.”

“You really do have a heart!" Jaune says.

“I will stab you all…”

Pyrrha walks over to Weiss speedily, Weiss recoiling at her approaching friend. However, before she can actually do anything about it, Pyrrha pulls Weiss into a tight embrace, lightly swinging her from side to side.

“Oh, Weiss, you've grown so much!”

Finally, Pyrrha loosens her grip on the heiress, allowing for Weiss to break free, looking ready to throw down, hands out. Pyrrha just continues to smile at her.

“D-Don’t get it twisted!” Weiss says, looking past Pyrrha and right at Ruby. “I-It’s not like I’m doing this for you, or anything!”

A beat. Then Jaune raises his hand. Everyone looks to him.

“Then, Weiss, who exactly are you doing this for?”

Another beat. This time, everyone turns to look at Weiss. Sure enough, a luminescent blush starts to form on her cheeks. Pyrrha swells up for another round of hugs. Weiss catches her this time.

“Stop!” She points to Pyrrha.

Pyrrha giggles. “Sorry-Sorry! Ahem. So, what exactly did you pick out for Ruby?”

Weiss looks unamused, a slight pout on her face.

She takes a look around at the group. Pyrrha looks absolutely excited to see just what Weiss is trying to get Ruby to wear. Jaune looks absolutely amused at the whole situation, trying his best to hold in a laugh. Ruby stood looking as if she hadn’t quite grasped the situation, mimicking a deer in the headlights. Weiss stares at Ruby a tad longer than she did Jaune, or Pyrrha. The redhead happened to collide her gaze with Weiss, jumping at the eye contact.

From there, Weiss’ gaze narrows a little. Ruby quickly tries to avert her eyes from Weiss, looking to the floor, pulling her hood down. On Weiss’ own cheeks, a small blush appears.

Finally, Weiss sighs, deciding to give in. So, she turns and walks to the seat she was in before the rest of the group arrived. On the back of the chair, a small stack of clothes sit. She picks them up and inspects them for a moment. Then, she slowly turns to everyone else and shows what she picked out.

The minute he saw it, Jaune went from amused to surprised, his hands dropping to his side, mouth slightly open. “Hello…”

Pyrrha looks on intrigued, inspecting the clothes up and down. “Interesting… I… actually think this would fit Ruby perfectly.” Pyrrha then turns to Ruby. “Well? What are your thoughts, Ruby.”

The redhead, at being address, lifts her gaze from the floor. When she sees the clothes Weiss picked out, she looks at a loss for words, a small gasp coming from her. From there, she stares at the clothes, being sure to look over every stitch of each item.

“I will admit, they’re a bit more revealing than something you would wear, but I really think these would look nice on you. What do you think, Jaune?”

He laughs. “Hell, I really wanna see her wear that now. That color scheme practically screams Ruby. I say go for it.”

From the side, Nora pokes her head in front of Pyrrha as she looks at the wardrobe. The moment she does, her eyes sparkle. “W~ow! They’re so cute! Ruby would look awesome in these!”

Pyrrha looks at the whitehead. “What made you pick this out?”

Weiss looks to have been taken off guard by Pyrrha’s question, she looking away. “I-I just… I just did, okay? I saw the stupid clothes and I decided to take them with me. T-These weren’t even meant for her! I was gonna wear them myself, but… uh… I figured red would fit her a tad better! That’s all!”

Pyrrha giggles. “Weiss, you can just say you thought Ruby would look nice in these.”

Weiss sends a pouty glare Pyrrha’s way, cheeks poked out.

“But, when it all comes down to it, the final say goes to Ruby. So, what do you think, Ru…?”

Pyrrha drones off as she turns back to the redhead. At Pyrrha’s pause, Weiss looks up to look at Ruby, too. When she does, her expression changes from one of annoyance to slight surprise.

Across from them, Ruby was no longer looking at the clothes in Weiss’ hands. She’s now reverted her gaze back to the floor. This time, however, her expression is one of melancholy, lips pursed, eyes half open.

Pyrrha takes a step forward. “Ruby…? What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

Nora, from behind, looks at her friend worried. Jaune, from behind Ruby, reach out and take her shoulder, but pauses from touching her.

“…Thank you, Weiss…” Ruby begins. “But… I think I’ll pass…”

Weiss’ arms drop to her sides.

“W-Wait, Ruby. Is something wrong?” Pyrrha asks. “Do you not like the clothes she chose? Is that it?”

Ruby shakes her head. “No, it’s… it’s not that, I… I just… wouldn’t look good in them…”

Pyrrha deflates.

“I think I’m gonna stick with what I’ve got going on now. You should try those on for yourself, though, Weiss. I’m sure you’d look nice in them.” She turns and begins to walk away, leaving the rest of the group in confusion.

“H-Hey, wait a minute, Ruby…” Jaune reaches out to stop the young girl from leaving.

All the while, Weiss stares at the back of Ruby’s head, her expression absent.

“Put them on.”

Ruby stops dead in her tracks. Jaune, Pyrrha and Nora turn to look at the heiress. Ruby follows suit, not turning around all the way.

“You have to at least try them on once. Put them on and then make a judgement call.”

“Uh, Weiss…” Jaune tries to warn.

“She doesn’t want to wear them, Weiss. It’s fine, really.”

“No, it’s not,” Weiss replies, throwing Pyrrha for a loop. “You can’t just say something doesn’t look good on you without even given it a chance first.”

“I don’t want to put them on, Weiss. Forget it,” Ruby says.

“‘Because you wouldn’t look good in them’. Yes, I got the memo the first time. I just think that’s quite the pathetic excuse is all.”

“What?” Ruby now fully turns to Weiss.

Pyrrha puts hands to her head. “Oh dear…”

“You heard what I said,” Weiss says. “Selling yourself short like that just because you’re ashamed of your own body? I find that to be a pretty weak excuse for not giving it a chance.”

Ruby flinches back.

“I don’t know what you’re hiding under all that jacket of yours, but letting it underestimate how you feel about your own body is quite sad in my eyes. How can you undersell yourself without even putting what you’ve got on the market yet? “

Ruby’s eyes dim. “It’s not that simple…”

Weiss scoffs at that. “You don’t think I know that?”

Ruby looks up at Weiss, surprised.

Weiss’ eyes close. “…Look. How about this?” Weiss lifts the clothes in her hand once again. “Just put these on once. Go in the changing room, try these on, see if you like them. If you don’t, you can burn them for all I care.”

Ruby looks down in thought.

“And I’ll do you one even better. If you show us how they look at least once, you can punch me in the face if doing so really is such an unpleasant experience for you. One good time in the jaw.”

“G-Goodness, Weiss,” Pyrrha says.

“W…What if I don’t wanna punch you in the face, though?” Ruby asks.

“Oh please, why wouldn’t you want to give me a good slug?”

“No. Why would you assume I’d want to punch you in the face?”

Weiss skips a beat at Ruby’s statement, but quickly catches herself, shaking her head. “Look, whatever. Are you going to try on these stupid clothes, or what? Or do I need to figure out more ways to bribe you into the changing room?”

Ruby continues to ponder over Weiss’ words. As the moment of silent takes place, Jaune and Pyrrha find themselves looking back and forward between Weiss and Ruby, anxiously. Suddenly, Nora walks pass Pyrrha, heading toward Ruby. Ruby notices her approaching and looks up. Nora stops directly in front of the silver eyed girl and looks up at her.

“Go on, Ruby,” Nora says.

Ruby’s eyes widen a little.

“Don’t let this get you down. ” Nora smiles. “I bet they’ll look wonderful on you.”

Ruby looks into Nora’s teal eyes for a moment, mouth closing into a straight line. She breathes in deep, before letting it out in a puff, then looks up at Weiss. She walks forward and stands in front of Weiss. Her hands raise from under her cloak and take the clothes in hand, inspecting them one last time before looking into Weiss blue eyes.

Weiss flicks her head to the dressing room with a hand on her hip. “Get to it. We’ll be waiting.”

Ruby looks pass Weiss and at the dressing room entrance behind her. Swallowing saliva, she slowly walks by the white haired teen and down the hall, disappearing around a corner.

Forty five minutes.

The number on the Scroll clock ticks down. Jaune stares at it with a bored expression, sputtering his lips. His finger tinkers with some of the screens on the device before his little game appears, square blocks slowly following to the bottom of the screen, catchy, rhythmic jingles playing in the background.

As the blonde leans lazily in his seat, practically falling out of it with how far down he is, Pyrrha sits next to him with her elbows on her knees, chin in her hands, an equally bored look on her face. While Jaune passes the time by playing games, Pyrrha takes to watching over their much younger protege.

The young girl somehow has a pile of building blocks and seems to be bidding her time by playing with them on the floor. For the past fifteen minutes, Nora has been building some sort of structure that looked indistinguishable at first, but, as time passed, started to actually resemble some sort of building. Before she knew it, Pyrrha finds herself actually recognizing the structure Nora is putting together. One last block on the top and Nora leans back to inspect her work.

Pyrrha’s brows rose in surprise at what she saw. “Wow. Beacon Clock Tower.”

Nora, crossed legged, hands between her legs, gives a large bright smile.

“RAWR!!”

And then Nora lunges at the building and absolutely demolishes it, pieces scattering to the floor as she brought desolation upon her freshly built project.

Jaune, staring at Nora’s rampage, leans over to Pyrrha. “You, uh… think we should stop her?”

Pyrrha continues to stare at Nora rolling around the floor, biting into blocks and throwing them around in a frenzy. Her dull expression doesn’t change in the slightest and she shrugs. “Eh.”

“RA~WR! I’m queen of the castle!” she proclaims, pounding her hands on her chest triumphantly over the demolished structure. “Give me cookies, or give me death!”

On the wall between Jaune’s seat and the dressing room entrance, Weiss stands with her arms crossed, a foot on the wall behind her as her back leans on it as well. There is an irritated look on her face, her brows scrunched up tight. She turns and looks to the dressing room. Her fingers tap on her forearm restlessly.

She looks down at Jaune and asks, “Arc, how long has she been in there?”

Without looking up from his game, Jaune replies, “Forty seven goin' on forty eight minutes. And I don’t think she’s coming out anytime soon…”

Weiss groans and pushes herself off the wall, arms to her side in fists. “Okay, seriously, what could she possibly be doing in there? It cannot seriously take this long to put on some stupid clothes.”

“Weiss, please calm yourself,” Pyrrha says, sounding almost exasperated by Weiss’ temper. “I’m sure there’s a perfectly good reason for the hold up”

“Besides, I’m pretty used to this,” Jaune adds. “You used to take just as long to get out of the bathroom in the morning and that isn’t even adding the showers you took.”

Weiss glares at Jaune. “Shut up, Arc. Unless that girl somehow tripped, hit her head on a railing and got knocked out cold, it should her this long to figure out whether an outfit fits, or not. Even I don’t take this long to put on my clothes.”

“Implying that you do in fact take a long time to get dressed.”

Weiss’ glare deepens even more, her cheeks poking out. It looked as if she was trying her hardest to keep from smacking the taste out of Jaune’s mouth. The boy, on the other hand, simply smirked as he focused on his game.

Rather than give Jaune the satisfaction of a retort, Weiss simply sighs and ignores the blonde, turning back to the dressing room.

“Alright, that’s it, I’m going in and seeing what the hold up is all about.” She proceeds to walk forward.

“Weiss, please don’t do anything to upset the poor girl again,” Pyrrha warns. “You know how that turned out the last time.”

Still walking, Weiss turns to the redhead and says, “I’m not going to do anything stupid. Goodness.” And, with that, she fully enters the dressing room.

A long hallway stretches out before her. On either sides, wooden doors sit evenly, most of them hanging open; vacant. In the hallway, there are thirteen doors, six on the left and right walls and one at the end of the hallway. Of those thirteen doors, nine are wide open and four are closed.

“Which one to pick…” the heiress asks under her breath, looking around at the four spread out doors.

“Hic…”

A small hiccup. She was sure she heard it. It was small, barely even audible to the naked ear, but she manages to catch the sound due to the silence of the hallway. It came from the closed door furthest down the aisle. Slowly, she moves forward, approaching the door. When she reaches it, she cautiously leans her head forward and puts her ear to the it.

“Hic…”

Weiss recoils. “What in the…?” She raises a fist and gently knocks on the door. “H-Hey. What’s taking so long in there?” No answer resounded. She knocks again. “Hello! Anyone in there?” Still nothing.

She groans, taking a step back, hands on her hips. Groaning, she turns to the side and prepares to walk away.

But then, before she can even take her first step… she freezes. Something kept her from leaving. And something else made her slowly turn back to the closed door. Her icy blue eyes stare at the handle for a moment.

She sighs, shaking her head, then slowly walks back to the door and knocks again.

“Look, I’m coming in, alright? Any objections to that, I’d speak now if I were you.” A moment passes and no answers comes back. “Okay. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

With her final warning spoken, she takes the door handle and slowly twists it. Carefully, she pushes the door inward, a small crack opening up, just wide enough for the white haired teen to poke her head through.

The sight took her off guard, to say the least.

Standing further in the dressing room, close to the mirror on the wall, the familiar redhead stands, looking directly at her own reflection. Tears stream down her face as she silently weeps. Her entire top half was bare, the only thing covering up her breast being her arms as he hugs herself.

While Weiss’s face could clearly be seen in the reflection behind Ruby, the young girl doesn’t seem to notice the heiress enter. It looks as though her eyes are planted squarely on Weiss’ image. However, on closer inspection, Weiss can see that it wasn’t her she was looking at, but her own shoulder.

Or, more specifically, the three faded, long, red scars running from her shoulder down the right side of her chest. At the sight of the scars, Weiss hand reaches up and run across the scars poking from the top of her shirt.

Fully opening the door, the whitehead enters the room, a hand still on the door knob, her eyes still on Ruby’s crying form.

“Oh…” Weiss says almost absentmindedly.

At the sound of her voice, Ruby’s teary eyes dart up and land on Weiss form directly behind herself. She quickly turns around, startled, mouth slightly open as if she’s going to scream. Her eyes widen in their sockets.

Weiss makes no reaction to Ruby’s startled one, continuing to stare at Ruby’s long scars. “So that’s how it is…”

Ruby hugs herself even tighter to cover chest from Weiss view, turning to obscure image even more.

“N-No, please!” she cries. “Don’t look at me!”

Weiss’ mouth forms a straight line at Ruby’s action. She sees the young girl’s hand clutch to her scarred shoulder, squeezing tight. Her body trembles, her bottom lip being bitten hard, eyes shut, the tears still streaming down her cheeks.

“Just leave, Weiss…! Please… Just go…”

Rather than abide by Ruby’s small pleas, Weiss turns and pokes her head out of the room, scanning around. She then completely shuts and locks the door before returning her attention to Ruby.

Weiss’ hands reach around to her back and she fumbles with her top, fingers latching onto the zipper running down the backside. The minute the sound of the zipper being pulled down rings out, Ruby’s eyes shoot up and she looks up into the mirror, seeing Weiss’ reflection. She turns to Weiss, confusion and a bit of horror evident in her expression.

Weiss fully pulls down her zipper, unlatching the two sides of her top. After which, she begins to slide off her top. The lower it falls, the wider Ruby’s eyes go.

“W-Weiss!” she calls out, not getting a response. Instead, Weiss only continues to strip herself of her clothing. By the time her front is fully exposed, Ruby looks away. “What are-What are you doing?!”

“Look at me,” Weiss says, her voice barely rising over a whisper.

“Why are doing this? Why don’t you just leave me alone?”

“Ruby.”

Ruby’s entire body freezing up.

“Look at me…” Weiss repeats again.

This time, Ruby finds her body complying against her will. Her head slowly raises to Weiss, her mangled, unorganized, long, red hair shadowing her face, falling over her bare shoulders. When her eyes fully rise, a look of shock overcomes her expression, lips parting in surprise, a light gust of air being taken in.

While Ruby’s wide, silver eyes continue to stare at the scars, Weiss’ blue ones are dim, planted on the ground, looking almost devoid of life. A small, melancholic smile stretches across Weiss’ lips.

Her smile drops and she looks up at the redhead. “Would you like to feel them?”

Ruby jumps a little at such an abrupt offer. However, before she can really give an answer, Weiss strolls over and reaches down for Ruby’s hand, taking it up. Ruby looks away, squeezing her eyes shut as her hand is lifted.

The cold sensation of Weiss’ skin hits her touch, sending a shiver down Ruby’s spine. She cautiously opens her eyes and looks to where her hand touches. Her fingers run across the rough surface of the old scars. Every imperfection, every crevice; Ruby feels it all.

Weiss sighs. “See…? Not as perfect as I claim to be… Am I…?”

With those last words, Weiss and Ruby’s gaze connect.

“Why are you doing this…?” Ruby finally asks.

Weiss’ hand reaches up and wipes Ruby’s left cheek, then her right of the tear streaks. “Just returning a favor. Believe it or not… I don’t like seeing people sad either…”

She releases Ruby’s hand and the redhead places it on her chest, lightly rubbing her own scars.

“You can cry about them all you want.” Ruby looks up at Weiss. “But that isn’t going to make them go away anytime soon. Trust me… I know what I’m talking about this time…”

Weiss turns to a hanger in the dressing room and spots the outfit Ruby was supposed to be trying on. She reaches around the redhead and takes it up by the hanger.

“Now. Enough with the waterworks. Everyone’s growing restless waiting. Lets get these on you so we can get out of here. I’ll even give you a hand.”

Weiss begins to take the particles of clothing off the hanger one by one. Ruby watches, still at a loss as to what just took place and the fact Weiss is barely having a reaction.

“What if everyone can see them…?” Ruby asks, taking a step back. Weiss sighs then turns to the redhead. “What if they all see them… and they…”

Weiss fully turns to Ruby, cocks her head and puts a hand on her hip. She sticks up her middle and index fingers. In that order. “Fuck. Them.”

And just like that, Weiss goes back to dealing with Ruby’s wardrobe. All the redhead can do is stare in shock. Her hand wanders up her chest and rubs over the faded scars running down her breast once more. Her silver eyes fall to the floor in a contemplative stare.

She soon begins to look back up at the heiress before her, but quickly loses her words when a burning red blush appears on her face.

“U…Um… Weiss…”

Weiss pauses what she is doing to look up at Ruby. “Hm?”

“Y…Y…Your top… You’re still…” She points the ground.

Weiss follows where Ruby points and sees her top still discarded on the floor. She then looks down at herself to see that she was, indeed, nude. Giving it a thought, she simple shrugs. “Eh.”

And, without a second thought, she returns to her previous task. Ruby, on the other hand, can do nothing but cover her face with her hands.

Pyrrha leans on the wall next to the dressing room twiddling her fingers. She sighs.

“Jaune, what are you doing?” she asks, looking at the floor to see the aforementioned boy flat on the ground in front of his seat, face-down.

“Mh-Mhm…” he says through muffled speech.

“Excuse me?”

He raises his head to uncover his mouth. “I’m bored!” His head goes back down.

“Yes, Jaune, I am, too, but you don’t see me laying on the floor.”

His head raises. “Yeah, well, you don't see me hiding in the clothing racks like a Jack In the Box.”

Pyrrha tilts her head. She looks up and realizes that Nora is nowhere in sight. She looks around to catch a sight of her, but sees nothing. However, she soon finds what she is looking for when, from with a clothes rack, Nora’s face pops out. Pyrrha can only stare. Nora looks over and the two girl’s eyes connect. Nora does the “what’s up?” head gesture. Pyrrha continues to stare. Back in the rack Nora goes.

Rather than react, Pyrrha simply turns her head to look forward, unblinking.

The curtain of the dressing room swings open and Pyrrha looks over.

“Weiss, there you are,” Pyrrha greets.

Jaune looks up with the mention of Weiss’ name and Nora pops her head out of the rack.

“Yes. Here I am. Finally,” Weiss responds. She looks past Pyrrha and at Jaune, who still lies on the floor and Nora, who still pokes her head out of the clothing rack. She turns to Pyrrha. “You live with these people.”

Pyrrha takes a look back at “those people” then turns back to Weiss with a shrug. She takes on a look as if she just noticed something. “Wait, where is Ruby? Oh no, please tell me you didn’t do exactly what I told you not to do.”

“She screw up?” Jaune asks from the floor.

Weiss looks down at him. “No, I did not ‘screw up’. Everything’s fine.”

“Oh good,” Pyrrha says with a relieved breath. “Then how did it go?”

Weiss peaks through the curtain and nods her head. She walks forward a little, then sweeps her hand at the dressing room entrance.

“See for yourself.”

Pyrrha takes a few steps back away from the dressing room. Jaune stands up from his spot on the ground and Nora continues to poke her head out of the clothing rack, all three of them looking to the dressing room entrance.

Slowly, the curtain begins to move to side, slowly revealing the redhead everyone was waiting to see. She takes trembling steps out of the darkness and into the light. Finally, she fully steps out, her eyes on the floor the whole time.

Pyrrha gasps. Jaune’s mouth slowly falls open. Weiss simply smirks.

Ruby walks into the light, looking to the ground, a faded blush across her face. One of her one-finger forearm gloves tugs at the dark red choker around her neck. The other fiddles and adjusts the rather revealing opening on her top, showing off the top of her scarred cleavage. Her hands fall to either sides of her dark corset tied tight over her keyhole top. She straightens out the pitch black, hanging garment over her dark dress tinged with red linings and shuffles her equally dark ankle boots nervously.

Her hands makes its way back to her exposed chest, about to cover the scars that are much more clearly visible to the world. However, she stops herself and holds her hand steady with her other, forcing herself to leave the scars uncovered.

Weiss sighs with a grin. “Good lord, I’m good.”

Ruby shuffles in place, fiddling with her new outfit. “H…H…How do I… l-look…?”

She works up enough courage to inspect the group’s reaction and jumps at what she sees. All eyes were squarely on her, wide, sparkling. All mouths were also hanging. This goes on for a few more moments and, as time slowly moves forward, Ruby’s face increasingly reddens.

“Oh no, they hate it! I’m taking this stuff off!” She prepares to scramble back into the dressing room.

“Whoa-Whoa-Whoa-Whoa-Whoa!” Weiss shoots forward and grabs Ruby before she can run off. “Calm down would you? How about giving them a chance to voice their opinions first before going into another one of your frenzies.” Weiss turns Ruby back to the group. “Now. What do you all really think about Ruby’s new look?”

They all continue to stare. Weiss deadpans.

“…I’d prefer words to facial expressions please.”

“Can I adopt her?” Jaune speaks up.

“No, but I like the enthusiasm. Pyrrha?”

Pyrrha shakes her head, collecting herself, then clears her throat. “My apologies, Ruby. It’s just… I mean, I don’t recall ever seeing you outside of all those clothes you wear. Not to mention that long cloak of yours. I did not realize that underneath all of it that you were… well… that you were-“

“Ruby, you could end worlds with how bangin’ you are.”

Jaune, for the second time in his life, had the eyes of multiple girls not related to him. This was becoming a trend.

He looks between all three of the girls and shrugs. “Someone had to say it.”

Pyrrha sighs and Weiss rolls her eyes.

From the clothing rack behind everyone, Nora hops out and rolls towards the group. When she reaches them, she hops up and stands erect, staring at Ruby. Weiss can be seen flinching at her approach.

Pyrrha looks down at Nora. “What do you think of Ruby’s appearance, Nora?”

Rather than answer, Nora proceeds to walk toward Ruby. Weiss’ face scrunches up and she moves out the way cautiously. Ruby looks on nervously. Nora gets right up in Ruby’s face, lips poked out, nose scrunched up, eyes narrowed. She takes a whiff of Ruby’s scent. From there she begins to roam all around Ruby’s body, inspecting every nook and cranny of it, even climbing up on her.

Weiss stares on with a completely puzzled look. She slowly looks at Jaune and Pyrrha, who turn to look at her. Weiss points at the scene. Pyrrha and Jaune exchange looks, then turn back to Weiss, shaking their heads.

Nora finally finishes her inspection and jumps off of Ruby, arms crossed. She doesn’t speak.

“S…So?” Pyrrha asks what everyone is thinking.

Nora shrugs. “Nothin’ new.”

And that’s all she says. They group exchange looks.

“The heck is that supposed to mean?” Weiss asks.

Nora looks at Weiss. “Just what it sounds like. Nothing here’s changed. Still just as in love with her as I was an hour ago.”

Silence…

In a bit of a twist, all eyes are now on Nora. Ruby’s face, already rather red to begin with, now matches the color of her hair.

Weiss’ mouth is open wide as she inspects Pyrrha and Jaune reaction. Surprisingly, they don’t. “…So, you’re just gonna ignore what your friend blurted out right now?”

“Yup,” Jaune says.

“This is just how she is,” Pyrrha says,

“I don’t even know why you’re still shocked by this, Ruby. You know as well as anybody that Nora would take you down the lovin’ express if she had a couple of tickets.”

Ruby covers up her face. “I-It’s still weird…!”

With a laugh, Nora skips over and puts her arm around Ruby. “Aw, lighten up, Ruble! Just messin’ with ya’! I think you look wonderful in anything you wear! Your new outfit looks just as nice as the old one!”

Ruby looks up at Nora, still blushing. “R…Really?”

Nora nods. “You’re a pretty pretty angel, Ruby! Now come on! Lets get you out of here already so we can go have some more fun!”

“Actually, I’m with Nora,” Jaune agrees. “Lets ditch this bore-fest. I didn’t come to the mall to hang out around designer jeans and fake pearl necklaces. Lets hit up the arcade!”

“Yeah! The arcade!”

The two high five.

“Hang on, you two,” Pyrrha intervenes. “We still need to actually purchase Ruby’s clothes before we can leave.”

Jaune turns to Pyrrha. “It’s cool. Lets do that real fast, then we can bounce. Come on, you two trouble makers. Hop to it!”

Nora salutes. “Yes, sir! Onward, my dearest Ruby!”

Ruby looks at Nora, surprised. “Oh, uh… Ok- AH!” Suddenly, Jaune lifts Ruby up bridal style. “H-Hey! Jaune!”

He laughs. Nora jumps on his back. “Let’s go, noble stead! We ride!”

With both girls in his possession, Jaune walks off to reach the cash register. Pyrrha and Weiss look on, the heiress with a hand on her hips.

“Those three are certainly something else…” Weiss says.

Pyrrha smiles. “I know. Isn’t it wonderful?” Weiss begins to walk after the three stooges. “Weiss.”

The princess looks back at Pyrrha. “Hm?” Pyrrha continues to smile at her. Weiss groans. “Oh no. Don’t you start this again.”

“Weiss”, Pyrrha softly softer this time. This catches Weiss’ attention and she stays silent. “Thank you for doing that. You did a good thing today. Something I think we all needed. I’m sure everybody appreciates it.”

A light blush appears on Weiss’ cheeks and she averts her gaze. “I-I didn’t even buy you guys anything yet.”

Pyrrha puts a hand on Weiss’ shoulder and gets a bit closer. “And what do you think that says about us?”

With those final words, Pyrrha walks past Weiss and follows the rest of the group, leaving Weiss alone. The white haired teen rubs her arm and says, quietly, “I don’t know…”

And as the heiress proceeds to walk forward, the rest of the day presses on…

The sky is tinted orange as the sun sets on the horizon of Vale City. The streets are still covered with wondering people, but the crowd has obviously died down now that the day is nearing its end.

The automatic doors to the mall slide open as civilians mostly leave the giant complex.

“La-La-La-La-La~! Wheee!”

Along with that crowd, Nora skips out, holding bags in each hand. She twirls and hops onto the open streets of the city with a big smile on her face. Following close behind, the rest of her group trots out, each holding their own handful of bags. Most of them are the same as the ones Nora holds.

“Out of everyone here who I expected to take full advantage of my generosity, she was not at the top of my list,” Weiss says. I had no idea she was the one that would use this opportunity to the fullest. Ruby got an outfit she didn’t even ask for and you two… Actually, what did you two purchase?”

Jaune looks into one of the three bags he holds. “I got myself a couple games, a new shirt and, uh… a candy bar.”

Pyrrha looks into the single bag she carried. “I also purchased a few candy bars. Though, honestly, I got these for you, Weiss, Ruby, her sister, Ms. Belladonna and Nora.”

Ruby smiles over at Pyrrha. “Aw, thank you.”

“You rock, Pyrrha!” Nora calls back.

“Really?” Weiss asks. “Is that seriously all you got?”

“Well, there is this last item…” Pyrrha digs through her bag and pulls out a familiar looking doll, holding up for Jaune to see. As he smiles with a gasp, Weiss groans.

“You’ve got to be kidding me…”

“Skelsor!” Jaune takes up Skelsor as Pyrrha frees ones of his hands by taking one of the bags he carried. “Pyr-rha, why are you so awesome?!”

She giggles. “To be perfectly honest, Jaune, buying him was a bit of a selfish action. I quite like the little fellow. He’s… funny.”

Jaune puts his hand in the doll and uses his nasally, high pitched voice. “Skelsor the Fabulous appreciates your kind words, fair maiden of the swool!”

Pyrrha chuckles at Jaune- er, “Skelsor’s” antics.

Weiss watches the scene take place. “It’s like he doesn’t even have to try…” she says under her breath.

“I don’t think he has to.” Weiss turns to Ruby next her, who spoke. “Those two are pretty good friends now. I think Pyrrha… just likes being around him.”

Weiss’s gaze softens and she turns back to the scene. Pyrrha says something now and Jaune bursts out laughing, holding his stomach. Nora suddenly appears between the two and pulls them in for a tight hug.

“You don’t say…” She looks back to Ruby, who smiles while watching the three interact.

“Nora, stop, you’re gonna break me in two!” Jaune says jokingly as he pries himself from the young girl’s grasp. He rubs her head, messing up her hair, then looks over to Weiss and Ruby. “Hey, I think we’re gonna go ahead and call it in for the day.”

“Weiss, where will you be staying now that you’re back in Vale?”

“Oh, right”, Weiss says. “Ms. Goodwitch and I have already discussed my reentry process back into Beacon. She’s preparing a dormitory for me as we speak, so, until then, I’ll be staying in one of the apartments close to the school.”

“You’re welcome to stay with us, if you’d like.”

“You and Pyrrha might have to share a room, but, hey, it’s better than sharing the couch with me,” Jaune offers.

“Or, she could stay in my room!” Nora chimes in. “We can be bunk buddies and stuff! We’ll watch movies, play games, paint our nails, discuss our eventual plans to come together and destroy our various, unspecified enemies, talk about Ruby-“

Jaune taps Nora on the head. “Yeah, really don’t think she’s gonna go for that one, kiddo.”

“Aw…”

“It’s fine, really,” Weiss says. “I’m more comfortable on my own anyhow. You can all head home now, I’ll walk Ruby home. Pyrrha, I see you over there revving it up, so just stop it now.”

Pyrrha deflates with an awkward chuckle.

“Well, you two get home safe, okay?” Jaune says. Nora jumps onto his back, he barely reacting. “You need anything, we’re a skip, hop, trip away.”

“Thanks again for this lovely afternoon, Weiss,” Pyrrha says. “We should do this again some time.”

“Thank you, Weiss cream!” Nora says.

Weiss waves them off. “Yeah-Yeah, whatever. Just go home already. I’ve had enough of you people for one day.”

Pyrrha mock bows. “Of course, your majesty.” With that, the three begins to walk away. “Sweet dreams, you two!”

Finally, Jaune, Pyrrha and Nora disappear from sight, leaving Weiss and Ruby alone in the empty Mall parkway.

“I’m really glad I met them…” Ruby says softly.

Weiss turns to the redhead and swallows saliva. “H-Hey… you.”

Ruby looks at Weiss. “Yes?”

Weiss fiddles with a strange of her hair, wrapping it around her finger. “So, um… I was thinking… I… sort of wanted to talk to you about something and… Well, I was gonna do this today after we finished up at the mall, but, as you can see, it’s getting a bit late for that… So, instead… Um…” She averts her gaze, a bead of sweat rolling down her cheek.

Ruby tilts her head. “What?”

Weiss breaths out and clears her throat. “Do you think… we could come back out tomorrow… just the two of us, this time…?”

Ruby looks a bit surprised by Weiss’ request. “What is it you wanna talk to me about?”

“No-No, not now. This isn’t the best time. I’ll… tell you then, okay.”

Ruby doesn’t look fully convinced, but she nods never the less. “Un…til then, I guess… We could meet at this coffee shop I always go to. I can just tag along with you once I’ve finished up with a friend of mine. Is… that okay?”

“Works for me. Give me the address on the way to your place.”

“No.”

“Wha…?! What do you mean-“

“I’m gonna walk you home, silly.”

Weiss looks taken off guard by this.

“I’m the one that can teleport and knows her around the city. It’d be smarter if we did that. Besides, I’ve got nothing better to do. Being out this late is normal for me.”

“O-Oh… Well, I… suppose that does make a bit of sense. F-Fine, have it your way. Oh, and before I forget…” Weiss takes one of the bags she holds and hands it to Ruby. “These are your old close you wore coming here.”

Ruby looks surprised by this. That’s when she looks down at herself and realizes that she never took of the outfit Weiss bought her and covers herself with the red cloak around her shoulders.

“Would you get over yourself. By now, everyone’s already seen it.”

Ruby sneers up at Weiss, then snatches the outstretched bag.

“Goodness, you’re hopeless…”

“You know…” Ruby starts. Weiss looks on expectingly. “For what’s it worth… and for all the fuss I’m making…” She brings up her cloak to cover her mouth. A blush forms on her cheeks. “I really do like the outfit…”

Weiss’s eyes widen and her mouth goes slightly agape, her arms uncrossing from her chest.

Ruby looks up with a smile. “R…Ready to head home?”

“Uh… Y-Yeah… Sure…” Weiss stutters out.

With that, Ruby begins to walk ahead. Weiss continues to stare on for a moment longer. Then, on her lips, a small smile tugs at the corners. She follows after Ruby.

The Next Day

“I might be out a little later than usual, Rube. I put some dinner in the fridge for you so you’ll have something good to munch on. If you don’t want that, there’s also some lien on my dresser. You gonna be alright until I get back?”

Ruby nods. “I’ll deal. Have fun, Yang. Don’t get into too much trouble.”

“Noted.” With that, Yang slides into the truck and slams the door shut.

Ruby moves to the passenger door, Blake sliding down the window for her. “You and my sis have a good time, okay? Maybe this will help take your mind off things, you know?”

Blake smiles at Ruby and reaches her hand out, lightly pinching the young girl’s cheek, causing her to giggle. “I’ll see you around, Ruby.”

Ruby then leans in close to Blake’s ears and say (not very) quietly, “And, if at all possible, try to keep Yang from trashing someone’s spot, or something. She can be a bit stupid when not under constant supervision.”

“Hardy har har, ya’ little butt sniffer,” Yang responds, clearly hearing Ruby.

Ruby and Blake laugh and the redhead backs up from the window, allowing for Blake to roll it up. She looks through the window at Blake and waves, the older woman waving back. The truck then begins to move forward as Yang leans her foot on the pedal. Soon enough, the sight of the black truck vanishes over the street horizon and Ruby is left alone in front of the coffee shop, a small smile still on her face.

Pulling her hood over her head, she turns to reenter the shop-

Tap.

A startled jump and she quickly twists around to whoever just tapped her on the shoulder, only to shortly calm herself at seeing a familiar white haired heiress gazing at her calmly.

“Good afternoon to you,” Weiss greets.

“Oh, h-hi, Weiss,” Ruby says, fully turning to her. “You… really shouldn’t do that kind of thing. I hate being taken off guard like that.”

Weiss shrugs. “I’ll be sure to make a mental note. How are you so amazing at sensing Nora’s every move, but you can’t see me coming from a mile away?”

Ruby opens her mouth and puts her hand up to answer. However, she doesn’t end up saying anything and puts her finger on her chin. She shrugs. “I really don’t know. That’s a very good question.”

Weiss shakes her head and sticks out a hand. “Forget about it. Trying to figure anything about you out is just gonna give me another migraine. Anyway, am I crazy, or did I just see you talking to Yang Xiao Long?”

“Yang? No, you’re not crazy, that was her. She’s my sister.”

Weiss’ eyes widen at Ruby’s casual reveal. She looks back and forward between the street where Yang’s truck took off in and Ruby, stuttering out incoherent sounds. The whole time, Ruby had her head tilted with a innocent smile. Weiss stares for a moment then sighs, walking past Ruby down the sidewalk.

“Yeah, sure, okay, whatever.”

“Ah— Hey, wait up, Weiss!”

A second, pink scoop of ice-cream hits the chocolate one on the cone and it is handed to Weiss. She takes it, wrapping a few napkins around the cone area and hands it back to a waiting Ruby, who quickly takes it and immediately begins to lick it.

Another cone with only one blue scope is handed to Weiss. When she takes it, she gives the man behind the cart a nod, then digs though one of her pockets. She pulls out a translucent cards and holds it out.

“Oh, sorry, sweetie. We only take physical,” the ice-cream man says.

Weiss looks surprised. “O-Oh. Really? I, um…”

Ruby walks next to Weiss and, while still going to town on her ice cream, digs through the top of her jacket and pulls out a few coins, handing it to the main. She dumps them in his hand and he smiles at the two teens.

“Thanks a lot, girls. Come again sometime!”

Ruby is the first to walk away, Weiss’ gaze lingering on her for a second longer. She takes a quick glance down at her unaccepted card, then tucks it away.

Ruby sits on a bench at the edge of a high-rise overlooking a good chunk of Vale city. Weiss sits next to the redhead and stares out at the view. A orange twilight drapes the city, peaking over the mountain horizon that surrounds a part of the city’s outskirt. There is a light, but comfortable breeze that perfectly compliments the warm kiss of the sun, Weiss’s locks blowing ever-so-slightly.

She looks over at Ruby, who has finally stopped devouring her cold treat for a moment to join Weiss’s gaze out into the horizon. A different sort a smile graced Ruby’s lips, one different from the other’s she’s seen up until now. This one was much more soft and contented.

“It’s nice isn’t it?” Ruby speaks.

Weiss turns back to the view. “It’s certainly something.”

“I like to come up her every once and while. Just me and my thoughts.”

“Why’s that?”

“Well… Sometimes I just have to… get away from it all. The apartment, the therapy, the city… And as much as I love her; sometimes my sister.”

“You get tired of being around her, hm?”

“No, that’s not it. I never get tired of being with Yang. I’m just… tired. It’s nothing personal against her, or anyone. It’s just that… I need to be alone now and then to… breathe. Does that make any sense to you?”

Weiss fiddles with her slowly melting ice-cream cone. “Most certainly…” She raises her treat to her mouth and takes a couple of licks. Ruby does the same and Weiss eyes her cone. “Vanilla, chocolate and strawberry...”

Ruby giggles. “Neapolitan; all of my favorite flavors rolled into one.”

“Is it good?”

“Do you really think I’d be eating it if it wasn’t?”

“Don’t you sass me.”

“Honestly, Weiss, it’s a challenge not to.”

“You enjoy toying with me, don’t you?”

“It’s just so easy! You are one of the most uptight people I’ve ever met.”

“Wha…?!” Weiss glares at Ruby defensively. “I am not uptight!”

“Oh my god, yes you are! Look, you’re getting heated already!” Ruby’s chuckle turns into a barely held back laugh.

Weiss puts a hand on her cheek as a blush appears. “S-Shut up, you…! You dolt!”

Ruby lets loose a much more hardy laugh now, keeling over bit. “Dolt? Seriously? Did you just call me a ‘dolt’? Who even talks like that anymore? Pyrrha wouldn’t even say something like that!”

“W-W-What are you t-talking about? Dolt is a c-completely normal word!”

“Weiss! Weiss! Please, I want you—“ She takes a pause as she tries hard to restrain her laughs. “I want you to name me— Just name one person you know who has ever used the word dolt in all seriousness. Go on. One person.”

Weiss stiffens at being put on the spot. She looks around awkwardly, twirling a strand of her bang around her finger. “W-Well, um… lets see…” Ruby leans forward in anticipation, biting her lip to stifle her impending laugh. A moment passes… and Weiss hangs her head. “I’ve got nothing.”

Ruby lets loose, belting out a lively laugh, grabbing her stomach as her body shakes. Weiss, all the while, blushes in embarrassment. After a second, her blush begins to die down and she has her eyes planted on a giggling Ruby. Her expression goes from annoyance to bewilderment at the sight. Her head slightly tilts to the side.

Ruby’s laughs begin to die down little by little as she covers her mouth to control herself. “Oh wow, I can’t remember the last time I’ve laughed like that. Almost forgot I could.”

“I…I’ve never heard you do it before…” Weiss says. She quickly goes back to a deadpan pout. “You really do get off on vexing me, it seems.” She looks away, nose up, eyes closed. “I suppose you really just aren’t that fond of me.”

“No, I don’t think that’s it.”

Weiss eyes snap open and she quickly throws her head back at Ruby. She is met with the sight of the young girl smiling warmly at her, head on her propped arm.

“…I thought you hated me…” Weiss says.

“I have no idea where you got that idea from, princess. There was never any ill will toward you. We just… got off on the wrong foot.”

Weiss snorts. “That’s an understatement. We almost attacked one another.”

Ruby scratches her cheek. “I was kinda having a bad day.”

“It didn’t really get any better from there.”

Ruby giggles. “No. No it did not.”

At that thought, the two’s teens smiles simmer down and they go silent. The very few passing civilians began to disperse, leaving the two alone, the ice-cream man beginning to wrap up his day by packing his supplies up. The ambient breeze blows by in the silent dawn.

“I never hated you, Weiss. Despite what I might have said, or done…”

Weiss stares blankly at the melting ice-cream in her hands, a trickle threatening to spill on her hand. “Likewise… If it means anything… I’m sorry for everything…”

“…Likewise…”

More silence…

“What did you want to talk to me about, Weiss? Why did you bring me out here, today?”

Weiss closes her eyes for a moment, letting the wind pass through her white hair. “…It still hurts…” Her hand raises to her chest, rubbing the three scares running across. “I can still feel where that… thing… cut into me… Where it taunted me… Where she pointed that gun at…”

Ruby makes no move, her silver yes shadowed by her red hair and hood.

“I tried to forget about the pain… I… I ran away, hoping to distance myself from the biggest mistake I’ve ever made… I tried to convince myself that they were just scars… but they still hurt… Every time I look in the mirror, I see her face there… staring at me with those cold, empty eyes…”

Her hands tightens into a ball.

“My mother, she… God knows she tried her hardest to support me… But nothing helped… I would writhe in pain… I writhe in pain… No matter what I do, no matter what I say to convince myself…. convince myself that everything is going to be alright… it still hurts… I couldn’t hide these scars from myself… so why bother trying to hide them from everyone else… it isn’t like it would change anything… because they would still be there… They would still hurt…”

She opens her glazed over, soft blue eyes and looks to Ruby.

“How do you do it…? How do you live with those scars…? How do you wake up in the morning knowing they’re still there every. Single. Day…? Please… You have to help me…”

Ruby doesn’t look back to Weiss. Her head only sinks lower.

“…Weiss… To tell you the truth… I don’t think I can help you…”

Weiss reels back.

Ruby finally turns and looks up at Weiss from under her hood. “I’m just as lost as you are…”

The young girl continues to stare at Ruby a bit longer. Her balled up hand squeezes tighter and she shifts her gaze back to the horizon over the cliff just a few steps before her. Her fist shakes.

“…Do you ever want to fly away…?” she asks. Ruby continues to gaze at her. “Do ever think about escaping it all… You know, just… leaving everything behind…? Have you ever come up to this place… and considered flying away…?”

Ruby looks forward, down at the city below; at the setting sun behind the mountains. “Every single time…”

A drop of moisture hits the ground. Followed by a few more.

“What stops you from doing it…?” Weiss asks through a shaky voice.

“…That’s a good question…”

The droplets seem endless. The ground becomes soiled as tears stream down Weiss’s face.

“Why does it hurt so much…? What do I do…? What do I do…?”

Weiss’ body trembles, her shoulder bouncing with each hiccup that escapes her. Ruby continue to stare out with an empty gaze. The ice-cream Weiss held joined her tears as it pooled all over her hand, before dropping to the ground altogether.

The dwindling street crowd mostly walk in one direction, either chatting in groups, or keeping to themselves. The streets of the city are shadowed. The tops of some of the taller buildings resonate with the orange glow of the setting sun.

Two young teens walks against the crowd. The white haired princess slugs along, her dim blue eyes on the sidewalk, the bags under her eyes puffy and red. Lagging behind, Ruby has her silver eyes on Weiss’ back, her hood over her head. Her gaze shifts around as she purses her lips. She opens her mouth to maybe say something, but shortly after closes it without letting out a peep, pulling her hood down over her face.

Her eyes wonder around the area. Another setting day in Vale City; nothing too interesting going on. It’s time for the younger generation to prepare for the day’s end and for older one to begin their long night of working, partying and everything in between.

She could feel a light breeze closing in, a chill running up her spine.

At least, that’s what she thought it was…

“Huh?”

She could barely see him, but a man stood shrouded in the shadows of an alleyway, obscured by the passing civilians stood across the street. He wears red sunglasses, but Ruby can tell he’s looking directly at her. The chill runs up her spine again.

Ruby looks forward and her eyes widen at the sight of two more men leaning on a building wall, The same red shades cover their eyes. One of them pulls his pair down to reveal the eyes piercing into Ruby.

Her brows knit together. She can feel a bead of sweat running down the side of her forehead. Ruby walks forward at a faster pace and takes up Weiss’ hand. The heiress looks up at her with tired, dull eyes.

“Hey…” she starts.

“Come on, I know a quicker way,” Ruby insists, pulling Weiss along.

The two teens round a street corner, their pace speeding up.

The blonde boy laughs as they walk through the crowd of people down the sidewalk.

“Don’t laugh at me,” she says. I’m serious.”

“Okay, Pyrrha,” he says.

“I am. I stand by my choice wholeheartedly.”

“No-No, it’s cool, you do that. Good for you. Doesn’t mean you’re not wrong, though.”

“Um, I’m sorry, do you, perhaps, want to repeat that last statement.”

Jaune stops in his tracks, popping a chocolate ball in his mouth. “Hm. Gladly. You can stand by your obviously incorrect opinion all you want. Just acknowledge that it is, indeed, incorrect.”

“Oh, now that’s rich. Are you seriously going to tell me that Miyazaki could not beat Shura in a fair match, fully energized and with his Semblance activated?”

“No. I’m going to halfheartedly tell you that Shura would wipe the floor with Miyazaki in a fair fight, because this isn’t us having a debate. This is me telling you obvious facts of life.”

Jaune continues to walk, Pyrrha following beside him, rolling her eyes. “Oh, for goodness sake, you and I both saw the film. You cannot tell me Miyazaki is not quite the spectacle.”

“No-No, I totally agree; old dude’s got some moves. But Shura has literally everything else. The guy took down Fem with the power of being slightly annoyed. Miyazaki has to do an elaborate little dance just to cut a guy.”

“He’s doing a combat art and it helps him garner more power to slay his foes.”

“Well, either way, by the time the guy’s done doing his little rain dance, Shura would have already destroyed him and the world while he’s at it.”

Pyrrha shakes her head. “You poor-poor boy… to think someone as intelligent as yourself could be so misguided when it comes to combat skill.”

“Combat skill my tush. Shura only needs the power of The Flex to get stuff done. Guy is a— Ugh!”

Jaune stumbles and drops a few of his candy balls to the sidewalk as he runs into a man walking in the opposite direction. He catches himself and looks down at his wasted treat.

“Jaune,” Pyrrha says, checking on her friend.

“Aw nuts…” Jaune says sadly. He looks up at the man he bumped into. The man wipes a few stray candy balls from his shirt. Jaune smiles awkwardly. “Hey, sorry about that, man. Should really watch where I’m going.”

Pyrrha sighs. She takes him by the shoulder and pulls him along as the two continue to walk. “Really Jaune, you do this all this time. Why is it so difficult for you not to run into random strangers like that?”

“Hey, I wasn’t trying to do that. You know I have the crappiest luck in all of Vale.”

“You do not. Stop saying that.”

As the two’s voices fade, the man continues to stare at the back of their heads, unblinking. His hand reaches into his pocket and he withdraws a pair of red shades. Unfolding them, he carefully puts them over his eyes, then reaches into the back of his pants, pulling out a pistol.

Cocking the top, he hides the gun behind his back and proceeds to follow Jaune and Pyrrha.

Ruby’s eyes dart around the place, checking every corner on the street she and Weiss walk down. Behind a car, only barely visible, another man peaks out from behind it. Same sunglasses.

“What gives? Is something wrong?” Weiss asks.

Ruby doesn’t answer. She only increases her walk pace. As she does, she sees yet another man leaning from around a building corner. At being spotted, he quickly ducks back. Ruby’s bites into her bottom lip. She throws her gaze over her shoulder. One of the men lags behind, ducking behind various vehicles and buildings.

Her eyes narrow.

Her eyes widen when she once again inspects her surrounding, a look of realization crossing her features. The further down the street she and Weiss walk, the citizens with them have dispersed, leaving the two teens completely alone with their creepers.

“Oh no…” Ruby says under her breath.

“Oh no, what?” Weiss asks. “Would you please tell me what we are— Augh!”

Weiss is yanked from Ruby’s grip abruptly and the redhead quickly turns back. Weiss struggles against the hold of a much larger man, gripping her mouth with one hand, his other arm around her waist as he drags her away toward an alleyway.

Ruby grits her sharp teeth hard, preparing to act—

“Gah!”

She staggers and hits the side of a building as a gunshot rings out and hits her back. Another gunshot and she’s hit in the shoulder. Her pupils dilate and she turns to glare down her shooter. A man across the street has his gun pointed directly at her. On her side of the street, another goon walks out into the open, withdrawing his own weapon; a red tipped axe.

Ruby balls her fist to fight—

“Let me go! Ahh!”

Ruby turns to the alleyway Weiss got dragged into and teleports out of sight. She reappears in front of the alleyway just in time to see Weiss get pulled into an open garage. She teleports once again and appears running, entering the garage. The minute she enters, she sees Weiss being held captive, still struggling.

Weiss is able to briefly uncover her mouth and yell out, “Behind you!”

Ruby’s silver eyes go wide and she ducks low, a wrench sailing over her head.

The goon that swung at her catches his balance and turns to her, ready. Behind Ruby, three more goons enter the garage, looming dangerously. The wrench man runs at her and swings again, she rolling across the ground. She barely lands the roll before teleporting out of sight, a bullet hitting the spot where she was.

She reappears and disappears again, another bullet impacting. This time she’s closer to the gunman and rushes him. He shoots, but she vanishes, dodging again. When she reappears, she is soaring through the air, then plants her foot in the man’s chest, throwing him back to the ground.

Two men on either side of her, move in. The one holding the axe swings. She goes to her hands and swings her legs around, her foot hitting his axe wielding hand, causing the weapon to fall to the ground. She continues to breakdance, forcing the men to back away a bit, unable to get a hit in. She slows to a stop and pushes off the ground at one of the goons, landing before him.

He prepares to take a swing, but she punches him in the gut first, then in the face.

With Weiss, she continues to struggle against her captor, he holding on tight with his teeth grit. She looks down and raises her leg. She shoots it down and directly to the man’s shin.

“Fahh!” he curses, loosening his grip.

Weiss uses the opportunity and slams her head back into his jaw, then an elbow to completely make him let her go. She pushes off and away from him, making distance. The princess glares at the man and her hand goes down to her waist. Her eyes widen and she looks to see nothing there. Her teeth grit.

Pow!

Weiss turns to the sound and sees Ruby send two punches to one of her attackers. While she fights, the other goon sneaks up from behind, axe over head. Weiss gasps and shoots off for the scene.

Just as the man swings down his weapon, he is tackled by Weiss and the two tumble to the ground. Weiss struggles to keep her attacker on the ground, the man struggling to throw her off.

“Got off me, you little brat!” he yells. Weiss responds by opening her mouth and biting down hard on his forearm. “Ahh! Damn it, get off!” He begins to bash on her head, but she refuses to let up, letting out small whimpers of pain as she continues to bite down.

Ruby hears the commotion and turns. “Weiss!”

The man before Ruby groans in pain, regaining his senses. Before he fully can, however, Ruby ducks low to the ground and sends a spin kick at the guy’s jaw, making him twist though the air and hit the ground.

Blood starts to trickle of the man’s arm where Weiss bites. He grits his teeth and raises his axe in the air. However, his wrist is then grabbed. He looks up only to see Ruby glaring down at him. She grabs his hand with her other hand and twists.

Snap!

“Gahh!”

The axe in the man’s hand drops to the ground has he writhes in pain. It is only then Weiss opens her mouth from his arm and looks up, breathing hard. Her face soon twists into one of fear as she looks behind Ruby.

“Gun!” she screams.

Ruby’s eyes widen and she quickly turns, seeing the gunman leaning up, his gun pointed at her. The minute he shoots, Ruby teleports, appearing further away. Weiss ducks to the ground, out of the way. Another shot rings out and Ruby teleports even further back into the ground. She balls her fist and—

“Hey, little red.”

She turns to her side—

Boom!

Blood flies out from her chest as she soars through the air and she slides across the ground on her back.

Weiss looks up just in time to see what is happening and gasps in horror. “Oh my god…!”

Ruby, gasping for air, shaking tremendously, forces herself to turn over on her stomach, hair messy, strewn about the ground. As she drags herself across the ground, the blood from her chest leaves a trail behind. She crawls for a workbench a few feet before her.

“God damn did she fly!” A new voice says way too happily.

Ruby reaches the workbench and climbs up it, staggering.

“Uh-huh, would ya’ look at that! Seems like the kid really does have an achilles heel! Hot batch of Dust to the chest’ll do that to ya’!”

She leans over the bench, blood trickling from her mouth, tears falling down her face as she tries her damnedest to even catch a breath.

The goon that held Weiss captive walks beside the newly arrived orange haired, bowler cap wearing man, rubbing his head. The goon Ruby kicked down staggers to his feet and leans on a wall. The gunman has risen and is now behind Weiss, pointing his gun down at her. She looks up at him, trembling.

“Yeah, ya’ see! Bitch really does bleed! And there you all were calling her a one girl army. You just gotta apply the proper remedy for the situation at hand. And when you do, you get to see shit stains like these two—“ He points at Ruby with the shotgun in his hand, and at Weiss with the cane he holds. “—learn what what happens when you mess with the wrong crowd!”

Ruby eyes a small wrench on the table. One of her hands shakily reaches for it, balling her hand around the hilt.

“Now. Let’s finish up here and get on to other—“

Ruby turns to the man holding the gun on Weiss and throws her wrench at him. The tool hits the man in the face, and he staggers, dropping his hand. In the moment of confusion, Weiss turns to Ruby, and the two’s eyes connect. The gaze is held for a moment, Weiss’ blue eyes wide, Ruby’s faded silver one’s looking back intensely.

No words are spoken, but Weiss gets the point, quickly jumping to her feet, turning, and dashing down the shadowy alleyway. The orange haired newcomer and the other goons turn Weiss’ way to see her running. He lifts his shotgun.

Bang!

The shots hit the wall. Weiss ducks down in her scramble, barely dodging.

The man clicks his tongue. “Son of a…!” He looks around at his standing goons. They look back at him. He rolls his eyes. “Uh, go?!”

Two of them jump with a start and run out of the garage hastily, leaving only the man and two of the goons with a still struggling Ruby. They turn and eye her, she looking back, barely staying conscious.

“Well, congratulations,” the boss says, shrugging, walking over to Ruby. “You have successfully postponed the inevitable. My men are going to catch her and when they do, ho-ho-ho, I can promise you’ll regret having done that.” He lifts his cane and digs it into the gaping hole in Ruby’s back.

Ruby cries out in pain.

“Too bad you ain’t got no one to bail you out of trouble.”

He turns to his goon and flicks his head at Ruby. The lackey nods and walks over. The boss withdraws his cane and moves out of the way. His goon takes Ruby’s by the head and pins her down hard. She doesn’t have the energy to struggle back.

The boss moves in and leans down to get close to Ruby’s ear, smiling. “I have a bit of a theory, little red.” He leans his shotgun at the bottom of the table and swings his cane. “I know about your little healing abilities. And it seems like someone can’t teleport when they’ve got a hold in their chest.” He lifts his cane and taps the spot just before Ruby’s face. “So what would happen… if I kept you from healing…?”

Ruby’s eyes widen.

The boss stands up straight and swings his cane again, then places a hand on Ruby’s back as she’s kept bent over the workbench. She begins to struggle.

“Hold her steady, man,” he says to his goon.

“No… No-No…!” Ruby begins to panic.

“Shut up, brat,” the goon growls, holding her down.

The boss puts his cane on the bloody spot on Ruby’s back. “Come on now, this’ll be quick.”

“No-No-No, please…! Please don’t!” she pleads futilely.

“Stop friggin’ movin’ already!” the goon yells.

“Stop! Stop! Please don’t do this!”

“Oh, it’s happening, red!” the boss says, almost laughing. “Might as well ready yourself!”

“No! No! No!”

Stab!

Her mouth opens to let loose a nonexistent scream. Even more tears stream down her face, falling to the table. Her silver eyes roll to the back of her head and she slams down into the table. The world begins to black out slowly.

“Let’s see you teleport outta here now…” is the last thing she hears before completely blacking out.

Footsteps echo through the alleyways, then suddenly come to a stop, being replaced by ragged breaths. A grunt of annoyance.

“Little brat’s faster than I thought,” a voice says. “Where the hell could she have gone?”

“Look, I don’t know, man, but we gotta find her soon, or the boss is gonna chop our balls off,” a second man says. “Lets just keep looking, she couldn’t have gotten too far!”

“I’ll tell you what, I don’t care what the boss says. When I find the brat, I’m gonna wring her pretty little neck till she stops squirming. See her run off, then.”

“First things first, we gotta find ‘er first.”

As they talk, she is forced to listen from behind a dumpster a ways away. She holds herself, trembling, clothes and hair disheveled. She takes long, deep breaths, a hand over her mouth to mask the sound.

“W…What do I do…?” she voices her concerns in a whisper. “What do I do…?”

She looks down the alleyway before her; open and free of any of her chasers. Swallowing saliva, she cautiously peaks back from behind the dumpster. She sees a shadow move across one of the walls, the echo of a voice sounding out. She quickly retracts behind the dumpster, her breathing quickening.

She grabs her white hair and pulls at her locks hard. “Think Weiss…! Think…!”

Her eyes shoot open as an idea suddenly hits her.

A memory replays in her mind. She recalls how the day started. As she walks down the sidewalk to meet up with Ruby, she sees the girl in question speaking with two women standing outside a black van. One is a black haired woman, someone Weiss doesn’t recognize. The other is a familiar looking, shorthaired blonde, walking around the van and enters the van’s driver side.

“Yang? No, you’re not crazy, that was her. She’s my sister.”

That was what Ruby said.

She quickly reaches into her pocket and pulls out her scroll before opening it and going to a dial menu. As the cursor blinks, she throws her head back, shutting her eyes tight, bitting her lip.

“Come on, what was it- what was it…?!”

After a second, she looks down at her scroll and types out a number hastily. Finishing, she puts the device to her ear and waits anxiously.

Ring-Ring.

She hugs herself tighter.

Ring-Ring.

She bites into her lip harder.

Ring-Ring.

She looks around for any sign of her pursuers.

Ring-Ring.

“Please-Please-Please pick up…!”

Ring-Rin—

“Yang Xiao Long speaking.”

Her eyes widen and she takes in a quick breath.

“Hello!” she says in a hushed tone. “Ms. Xiao Long, this is Weiss Schnee from Beacon Academy! Do you remember me?”

“Holy cow, is that you? H-Hey, kiddo, how ya’ doing? Haven’t seen you in a while!”

“Ms. Xiao Long, please, listen, I don’t have much time! I need your help right away! Something’s happened and I think your—“

“Whoa-Whoa, hey now. Just calm down for a second. H-How did you get this number? What’s goin’ on? You ok-“

“Ms. Xiao Long, please listen! I need you right now! There are these people chasing after me and they’re armed! I don’t have my own weapon right now and am trapped behind some dumpster completely at their mercy! I can give you my Scroll code and you could track me! Please, you have to—“

“Wait, hold— slow down a little, okay? What are talking about? Who’s—“

“WOULD YOU SHUT UP AND LISTEN FOR ONE GODDAMN SECOND?!”

She quickly slaps her hand over her mouth in fear.

“You hear that?”

“Damn right I did. Come on, this way!”

They’re coming. Weiss’ body shakes violently.

“They have your sister, Yang! They kidnapped her! The man from before, the one who killed Melody, he’s taken Ruby and I…! I don’t…! Please, help me, Yang! Track my scroll! Please!”

“Come on! This way!”

Foot steps grow louder.

“Please find me!”

No time left.

Weiss darts from her spot and dashes down the alley.

“There she is!” one man yells.

“Oh no you don’t!” the other shouts.

He lifts his gun and pulls the trigger.

Bang! Bang!

To Be Continued...