Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Weiss was used to getting up early, it came with the life of a singer, normally she got up early to do her exercises or do a vocal test. Now though she woke up to the quiet of a bedroom she still did not fully recognize, yet was her own. Her only responsibility now was to make sure she ate breakfast before she went to school, the first normal school she had gone to since she was ten.

Checking her clock to make sure it was still before six she pulled herself out of her queen-sized bed, smaller than the bed she had back in Atlas but much comfier in her opinion. Grabbing a brush from her night stand she gently stroked her long white hair, untangling the few knots that had formed in her sleep, getting it back to its usual silken straight style. Satisfied her hair looked presentable after ten minutes of brushing she left her room and headed to the kitchen where she was greeted with the smell of cooking food.

Winter was already in her officer uniform, because she was always ready before Weiss got up no matter how early, and was eying a frying pan when Weiss sat down.

“Good morning Winter,” Weiss said, sitting straight and proper as she addressed her sister.

“Good morning, breakfast should be ready momentarily and there is coffee set aside for you,” Winter replied.

Weiss nodded in thanks and poured herself a cup and sat back down, it was a new routine for her since she moved in with her sister in Vale. Not having to rush off to do something first thing in the morning, and getting to see the sister that until recently she only saw a few times a year. She was glad she had taken the break, a hand reached up to rub the still fresh scar around her left eye, no matter what had caused it.

A plate with eggs and two strips of bacon slid into view and Winter sat down across from her with an identical plate. “Today is your first day at Beacon, I hope that it goes well for you sister.”

“Thank you Winter,” Weiss replied, “I was wondering, is there no chance you can drive me today?”

Winter sighed. “Unfortunately, I cannot, as said yesterday I have been assigned a new case and I cannot be late, the perpetrators have been a persistent thorn in our side, a serial robber has been hitting several stores around the city.”

“Then you should not be late,” Weiss said with resignation. “I will be fine then, and I will call you when class is finished.”

The rest of breakfast was over small talk on them still catching up with each other after so long apart, Winter asking if Weiss’ scar still hurt, and plans for going out to dinner when Winter got out early. Once breakfast was finished Weiss changed into a simple pair of jeans, new but not too expensive, a white blouse, and the bolero jacket Winter had gotten for her as a birthday present last year. Tying her hair back into a ponytail she took one final check in the mirror on her make-up before grabbing her new backpack and out the door, giving a final wave to Winter as her sister drove off in her cop-car.

The early morning fall weather was cool but not nearly as cold as it got in Atlas, so Weiss felt fine as she waited at the bus stop. She had been educated mostly by tutors the last seven years and before then she was always driven by Klein when she went to school, so she had never actually been on a bus. From what she had read about them though, they did not paint a picture of a pleasant experience. But it was one she could tolerate, probably.

The big yellow bus appeared around the corner and pulled to a stop; the driver was not what she was expecting from what she read. Instead of an overweight bored looking man there was a pleasant dark skinned older woman sat at the wheel with a thick pair of glasses. 

“Well, you getting on or what?” The woman asked, waving Weiss on.

“Right, of course,” Weiss said hurrying on. 

The inside was more what she had heard, the seats seemed packed full of students, chatting amongst themselves, or clutching their bags and sleeping the way to school. Weiss shimmed down the aisle and nearly fell when the bus lurched to a start.

“Make some room for her,” The driver called back. 

“Um, you can sit here,” A boy said, scooting and opening a space next to him. He looked like a freshman from his age and wouldn’t look Weiss in the eyes as she sat down.

Weiss immediately noticed the lack of seatbelts and nearly fell into the seats in front of her as the bus started rolling down the street, some of the sleeping students rousing before falling back asleep.

“Yeah, she likes doing a little jolt to get started,” The boy said. “I don’t recognize you before, you new around here?”

“Yes, I am,” Weiss said, gripping her tightly so it didn’t fall on the floor, which she could tell was filthy. 

“Well, welcome, name’s Oscar,” The boy held out his hand.

Weiss eyes it for a second before shaking but she didn’t give her name.

“Think you’ll enjoy it here, it's a pretty nice school,” Oscar said sitting back.

“I’ve heard, it is also the school closest to where my sister lives, so it was the best choice for me,” Weiss said. 

“Ah, living with your sister then?”

“I am.”

The bus jolted and rumbled along, seeming to hit every bump in the road as it went, it was certainly the roughest ride Weiss had ever been on. By the time it finally came to a stop the sun had fully risen and the students who had been sleeping were awake and talking to those around them. Weiss, after her brief talk with Oscar, had kept to herself and observed how the other students acted.

“Alright here we are, make sure to grab your stuff otherwise it’s mine!” The driver laughed as students filed out of the bus, Weiss keeping to the sides until most had left. “So, enjoy your first ride?” The driver asked as Weiss reached the doors.

“It was certainly different from anything I’ve been on before,” Weiss said, she looked at the driver and her nametag. “Thank you for the drive, Ms. Calavera.”

“Any time dear, no git before you’re late!”

Getting her first look at Beacon it was certainly larger than the school she remembered going to as a child, to be fair was primary school while this was a full-on high school. But even from her first glance it was a rather large school, five separate buildings close together in a large circular shape with a large common area where hundreds of teenagers milled about. The center most building was taller than the rest with an actual clock built into it like a clock tower.

“Okay, now what,” Weiss wondered aloud, according to the schedule she had read, it would be another half-hour before classes started. Perhaps she could use the time to start on one of the goals she had set out for when she enrolled at Beacon, to make a friend.

Weiss, as far as she could remember, had never had a friend before even as a young child, the closest people in her life were Winter and Klein and while she loved both dearly, she couldn’t exactly call them friends, even she knew that would be rather sad. So she wanted to use the move to public school in the hopes she could actually make a friend for once. The problem was she had no idea how to do that. 

She had a few acquaintances from her singing career but those had just been people she worked with on occasion, and she had mostly kept to herself around them per her father’s request, so she had no idea how to actually approach someone. Looking around she could see most of the teens had gathered together into their own little social groups so there was no chance of talking to any of them. The few she saw that were alone were either working on some last-minute assignment or were reading to themselves. She doubted either would enjoy getting interrupted by talking to her.

“Maybe I should just wait until class starts and try talking to someone there, seems more likely to work,” She muttered to herself.

With a resigned huff Weiss went to look for some quiet place to sit and look at her scroll until class started. She could see some benches under the shade of a few trees near the building that looked promising.

“Ah, look out!” Someone suddenly shouted behind her, Weiss barely had time to turn around before someone flopped into her, knocking her to the ground, followed swiftly by loud laughter nearby.

Weiss looked up at the sky, laying on her back and feeling a heavy pressure on her from whoever had fallen on top of her. “Get off of me,” She groaned.

“Er, I’m trying, just going to be a minute, sorry,” The person who fell on her, who Weiss figured was a girl, said.

“What are you talking abou-oh,” Weiss stopped as she pushed herself into a sitting position and got a good look at the person who had crashed into her, and why she couldn’t get up.

She looked around Weiss’ age, maybe a little younger it was hard to tell, with short dark-red hair in a messy style, slightly tanned skin, and bright gray eyes that seemed to almost sparkle in the light. She wore a black shirt under a red hooded jacket, red sweatpants, and black shoes, laying on its side not far from them was a simple red-and-black wheelchair with a matching discarded backpack next to it; she certainly had a color theme. The girl was trying to push herself off of Weiss but was having difficulty doing so without pushing down on her.

“Here, let me help,” Weiss said reaching down.

“I’ve got it!” The girl insisted and pushed with her right arm, rolling off Weiss.

“At least let me help you with your chair,” Weiss lifted the wheelchair back up, the girl looked at it with a huff. 

“Do you need help getting back in?” Weiss asked.

“I can do it myself, just a little embarrassing,” The girl said. 

“Then just let me help,” Weiss suggested, the girl thought it over for a second before inclining her head in permission. Weiss reached under the girl’s arms and pulled her off the ground and towards the chair, she was heavier than expected and ended up doing most of the work of getting into the chair properly while Weiss held her in place.

“Er thanks, and sorry about that,” The girl said sheepishly with a blush as Weiss handed the girl’s bag back to her.

“Just be careful where you are going,” Weiss said simply, she was a little peeved about being run over but it wasn’t like she could go insulting the other girl.

“I didn’t really have control over where I was going,” The girl looked down.

“What are you talking about?”

The girl didn’t respond, pointing around behind her, Weiss looked and saw four large teenage boys laughing to themselves. It took Weiss all of two seconds to piece together what the girl meant, and her ire rose and she stomped her way over to the smug looking boys.

“Were you the ones responsible for what just happened?” Weiss demanded.

The apparent leader of the group, who was larger and more idiotic looking than the rest, shrugged. “Just helping the poor cripple move faster, not our fault if she couldn’t control herself.”

His three goons chuckled at his words.

“That was incredibly reckless of you, not to mention you pushed her in my direction knocking me over.”

“Well, you're fine now aren’t you new girl, maybe you should just learn to be more careful, she’s always rolling around without looking. All she can do since she can’t run anymore, so best to learn about her now so you can avoid her.”

He actually seemed proud of his comment, the sheer stupidity and insensitivity only made Weiss angrier. “I see, so it is funny to push around a girl with a disability then, I guess chivalry must really be dead then. But then I doubt you have enough intelligence to understand the concept if you find such antics funny.”

That stopped them laughing. “Excuse me?” The leader grumbled.

“I said you were clearly not intelligent, and perhaps hard of hearing if you didn’t catch that, perhaps you should get that check out instead of picking on a girl half your size who can’t walk.”

“Listen here you-” He started only to be cut off by a hand from Weiss

“I don’t have time to listen to what you have to say, just consider your actions and I expect an apology once you’ve learned to string together words of actual remorse, now I must go before class starts,” With that she walked off leaving the boy sputtering in anger.

“Sorry again about running into you,” The girl said as Weiss walked back to her, “I tried to stop but just ended up falling out on top of you,”

“It is fine really, I hope that is not a daily problem for you,” she said looking back at the boys.

“No, normally my sister is around, and they leave me alone, but she had to check on a friend and I wanted to get to class early. I hope she doesn’t start a fight with Cardin when she hears about this.”

“Hmm, while I don’t think fighting is the best way to deal with him, there should be some punishment for his actions.”

“Yeah, I’ll tell a teacher about it when I see one, don’t worry. What’s your name by the way? I haven’t seen you before.”

Weiss hesitated for a moment before answering. “It’s Weiss,” the name didn’t get any reaction out of the girl. 

“Well, hi Weiss, my name’s Ruby, it’s nice to meet you.” 

Chapter Text

“Just so you know, most people at Beacon aren’t like Cardin and his friends,” Ruby said, parking herself across from Weiss. Weiss had sat down at the bench near the building where she had her first class. “He’s just a jerk no one else talks to.”

“Well I would hope so,” Weiss said.

“Everyone just normally keeps to themselves, at least that’s what I’ve seen.”

Perhaps that is not such a good thing with people like that buffoon lurking about, Weiss thought. She took another look at the other girl who didn’t seem at all phased about talking to Weiss, perhaps she didn’t know who she was, that would be nice. 

“You mentioned your sister is normally with you and she keeps, what did you call him? Cardin? Away.”

“Yeah, she likes to keep watch over me, even though I don’t really need her to,” Ruby folded her arms.

“I’m sure,” Weiss replied. “Now I should get going if I’m going to be early enough for my first class.”

“Oh yeah I need to get going too,” Ruby unlocked her chair, “See you around Weiss and sorry again about earlier.”

Weiss and Ruby split up to get to class. Ruby took an elevator while Weiss’s first class was on the first floor. The door to her class was already open and the teacher, Mr. Port was already writing on the board, a couple of other students were already present.

“Ah Miss Schnee was it? Welcome to Beacon,” Mr. Port said. Weiss internally relaxed when the name garnered no reaction from any of the students. 

“Thank you, Mr. Port,” she smiled.

“Take a seat, anywhere now would be good, we have very flexible seating in my class.”

Weiss nodded, taking a seat near the front of the class and getting her English text-book out. As more students filled in she noticed that the back seats were the first to be filled and no one besides herself chose the front row.

The bell rang and Mr. Port stepped in front of the board. “Well another day has come and with it another day for another good story to be read. But before that we have a new face to welcome to our campfire of knowledge. Miss Schnee, please stand and introduce yourself.”

Weiss slumped a little in her seat. “I’d rather not sir.”

“Now, now, no need to be shy,” He said jovially. 

Weiss looked around at the other students, most looked bored and disinterested, none of them seemed to know who she was but she still wanted to keep a low profile if possible. “Well I-”

The door opened, cutting Weiss off as another student entered, tall long blonde hair, and violet eyes. She was dressed like she was going for a motorcycle ride instead of school she gave Mr. Port a cocky grin.

Mr. Port turned his attention to her, he spoke in a tone that was casual, ruffling his large mustache. “Miss Xiao-Long, so kind of you to show.”

The girl shrugged. “Sorry Port, I had to help out a friend.”

“That is good of you then but perhaps next time knock before entering, otherwise we might think a monster is bearing down on us,” He laughed, no one else did, then cleared his throat. “Why don’t you take a seat next to Miss Schnee, perhaps she can help you focus in class.”

“She can try but your stories are so relaxing it's hard to stay awake,” The blonde sat down next to Weiss. “Yang Xiao-Long.”

“Weiss Schnee,” Weiss replied, opening her textbook.

“You won’t need to use that much,” Yang pointed at the book.

Weiss raised her unscared eye, “What do you mean?”

“Port here doesn’t really take much from the textbook, he prefers to do his own dramatic style of plays,” Yang explained.

“Dramatic Style?”

“How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, that has such people in it!” Mr. Port bellowed, pulling out a long wooden staff from behind his desk.

“Oh yes dramatic style,” Weiss closed her book.

One hour and several long verses of poetry followed by discussions on the meaning of such poetry and the class was over. Yang, despite her words earlier, had remained awake the entire time which was some relief to Weiss. She’d rather not be stuck sitting next to someone who slept through class, though she didn’t take any notes either which irked Weiss a little.

Her next class was a biology class with Ms. Peach, where she was partnered with a tall red-headed woman wearing glasses that looked vaguely familiar to Weiss but she couldn’t put her finger on where she’d seen her before.

Her lab partner, Pyrrha, was polite and didn’t speak much unless spoken to so Weiss wasn’t able to get much out of her. She also cleared through their shared assignment so fast Weiss was barely able to contribute before it was finished. Pyrrha didn't seem to mind doing so much of the work, if anything she was smiling by the time they finished. When class finished she hurried off like she was going to be late for something, and like was going to run into someone with how she kept her head down as she moved.

After her second class she had lunch so Weiss made her way to the cafeteria, it was packed full of people and there was a long line waiting to get their food. Winter had asked Weiss if she wanted to make her lunch but Weiss said no at the time, a little curious on what school lunches were like and not wanting to put even more work on her sister. Nearly ten minutes of waiting later and Weiss was starting to wish she had said otherwise, the food itself didn’t look bad, a lot cheaper than what father would have prepared for her, but it all looked edible. Grabbing a burger, a salad, and a drink of juice she paid and started looking for a table to sit at.

With how packed the cafeteria was though there was not a single table that didn’t have someone already sitting out it, many were sitting with their friend groups just like the courtyard in the morning. Just as she was considering heading outside the cafeteria and taking her chances in the courtyard a voice called out her name.

“Hey Weiss, do you not have anywhere to sit!” Ruby called out several tables down waving her hand in the air. “You can sit with us if you want!”

Blushing a little at the loud call and how people turned their heads to look at her as she walked over to the table. Ruby wasn’t alone, next to her on the table bench was Yang picking at a soup, she looked up when Weiss sat down.

“So she’s the one who helped you this morning?” Yang asked Ruby.

“Yep, she helped me get back up and told off Cardin right to his face, he looked like he was going to explode,” Ruby said.

“Well then thanks for helping my sister, Weiss,” Yang said before her eyes darkened and her hands clenched. “Those guys never seem to learn to leave her alone.”

“Yang, I’m fine, don’t get in trouble because of them,” Ruby tugged at Yang’s jacket sleeve. “Besides I think Weiss’ words did more to them than them pushing did to me.”

“Yeah, yeah I won’t start trouble, but only for you Rubes,” Yang sighed and leaned back. “So Weiss, what’s your story, don’t see too many transfers a month into the school year. What? You get kicked out of your old school?”

“Yang!” Ruby protested.

“What, I’m just curious.”

“It’s fine, really,” Weiss said before the sisters, who really looked nothing alike besides the slight tan to their skin, could start arguing. “It’s nothing too special, I’ve been homeschooled since I was ten and recently moved in with my older sister and I decided to start at a new school.”

It was mostly true but it did leave out a few details she didn’t want to tell them about. “And I’ve never been to a public school before, even one as well funded as I’ve heard Beacon is.”

“Well, I hope the transition to regular school is okay for you, I know homeschool is a bit different,” Ruby said.

“You were homeschooled?”

Yang nodded. “Yeah, she was homeschooled for about a year when she was thirteen, our dad’s a teacher so that helped.”

“Why exactly were you homeschooled? Or is that something you don’t wish to talk about.”

“It’s kind of personal really… Hey, it's Blake! Blake, over here!” Ruby suddenly called out, Weiss turned in her seat to see another girl approach.

Blake looked about the same age as Yang and Weiss, her skin was a bit dark, darker than the sisters, and bright amber-yellow eyes. She wore a white blouse under a purple vest, black jeans, dark combat boots, and a purple headscarf with floral patterns that covered her hair. She sat down across from Yang and next to Weiss, casting a glance in her direction before looking at the blonde.

“I see we have someone new with us,” She commented dryly.

“Yes I am-”

“Weiss Schnee, yeah I know you,” Blake rolled her eyes and poked at her food.

“You do?” Ruby asked.  

Weiss felt her already fair skin pale even further as Blake glanced in her direction, Blake shrugged. “Yeah, a friend of mine’s family works for her dad. I did research on the family for a project once.”

“Oh so your dad runs a business then?” Ruby asked.

Weiss nodded, relaxing a little. “Yes it's mostly based back home in Atlas, I don’t really have any connection to it.” 

“I wouldn’t be sitting next to you if you did,” Blake said, and Yang and Ruby gave her a look. “It’s nothing, I know you don’t work with your dad so just forget about what I just said.”

There was a lull of silence after that as the four girls ate their lunch and Weiss relaxed that Blake wasn’t going to tell them about her, because she was certain Blake knew more than just her family. She had been a relatively well-known singer but most of her stuff was under an assumed name, but she was pretty well known in Atlas. Part of why she chose to come to Vale was that her music hadn’t reached too far and it was all under her alias.  

She was worried that if her past came out, either her family’s business, or her previous career it would mark her and everyone would immediately have their own opinion of her.

The silence was broken when Ruby spoke up. “So Blake was everything okay this morning?”

Weiss saw Blake stiffen before answering. “Like I told Yang this morning I’m fine really, I just got into an argument yesterday. Nothing big really.”

“Didn’t seem like nothing when you called last night,” Yang muttered loud enough for everyone to hear but Blake didn’t look.

“It got a little heated but everything’s fine, he apologized before I came to school, so really everything’s fine. Sorry if I made you worry.”

“It’s fine, we’re glad you’re feeling better,” Ruby said, Yang nodded but Weiss thought the other girl didn’t look convinced by Blake’s words.

When lunch ended she checked her schedule, history with Mr. Oobleck in Building 3, second floor. Mr. Oobleck was a very jittery man, sipping on a large thermos filled with coffee and he looked like a mad scientist out of an old story.

“Ah Miss Schnee good, good, I was told you were our new student you picked a good time to transfer yes. Perhaps you could sit by… Ah Miss Rose, would you mind sitting with our new arrival?”

“Sure Mr. Oobleck,” Ruby said, rolling up behind Weiss with a big grin on her face, Weiss followed her to the front row of the class. “We share a class, isn't this great?”

“It is nice sharing a class with someone I know,” Weiss agreed. “Do you know what Mr. Oobleck meant when he said I joined at the perfect time?”

Ruby shrugged. “Not sure, guess you’ll find out.”

Mr. Oobleck started class without any further acknowledgment of Weiss, jumping straight into a lesson on the Great War, zooming from fact to fact at a speed far faster than Weiss had ever learned at before. She tried to keep up with her notes as fast as possible but when she looked down at them half of what was written was ineligible to her in her rush to keep up. Looking around she noticed most of the other students weren’t even taking notes, the only other was… Ruby.

The red-head seemed to match the teacher’s pace without any trouble and while from a quick glance Weiss could see they weren’t the neatest she could still make out the words.

“Ruby,” Weiss whispered a little embarrassed by what she was about to ask, “Could I get a look at your notes later?”

“Sure,” Ruby said, still writing at speed. “I do the same for Yang all the time. She never keeps up with note-taking in any class.”

That might not be a speed problem , Weiss thought, remembering her first class with the blonde sister.

“Alright class now I will announce the project of this month,” Oobleck proclaimed, getting a few groans from the students. “Now-now it’s not too difficult for you all. Rather simple really, just pick an event on the Great War or its prelude, a leader, a battle, an agreement, anything then create a presentation on its impact on the great war itself. You may work with a partner and we will present at the end of the month. Now back to the lesson!”

By the end of the lesson, Weiss’ wrist ached from trying, and horribly failing, to keep up with Mr. Oobleck’s lesson. 

“Hey Weiss,” Ruby spoke as Weiss put her things away. “I was wondering if you wanted to partner up for the project?”

“Are you certain you want to work with me?” Weiss asked. “I of course know about the Great War but I am still new to this class and might not know what is correct for it. Wouldn’t it be easier to work with someone else?”

She wasn’t sure why she said that, of all the people in the class working with Ruby seemed to be the best option for her.

Ruby nodded. “Yeah, if that’s okay with you that is.”

“It is fine with me,” Weiss replied. “We can schedule a meeting to figure out what topic we can research.”

“Great, see you soon then Weiss,” Ruby waved rolling off.

Weiss slung her backpack over her shoulder and thought that maybe she would have an easier time socializing than she thought.

Chapter Text

By the time Winter returned home, Weiss had already been back for a couple hours and was working on her assignments when her sister walked through the door and unbuttoned her uniform shirt.

“Hello Winter, did everything go well?” Weiss asked.

Winter sat down at the table, back straight despite the tired look on her face. “It went acceptable, no new leads were found today but I am certain we will catch the perpetrators soon enough. But that is not important right now, how was your day?”

“Well it was only my first day but the classes do not seem overly difficult, I was able to follow along and only had some difficulty keeping up in one class but was able to get some assistance in taking notes oh and I have already gotten a head start on my assignments,” She tapped the almost completed worksheet on the table.

“That’s good but not what I meant,” Winter said. “I want to know if you had any troubles, did anyone pester you, did you make any friends?”

“Oh,” Weiss blushed a little. “Like I said it’s only the first day, someone did recognize me, I think, but didn’t say anything on it. And I might have made a friend with this one girl I met, but we only met today.”

“Still it is good you are already talking to someone, I know you didn’t really have that before you came here,” Winter reached over and placed her hand over Weiss’. “So who is this girl you think might be a friend?”

“Her name’s Ruby, we met before class in an…interesting way, and we share a class together, we also are partners on a small project.”

“Interesting, tell me more about Ruby,” Winter leaned forward.

“Um there isn’t too much to say about her, we have only talked a couple times, she seems nice and did invite me to sit with her and her friends at lunch,” Weiss wasn’t sure if she should bring up Ruby’s disability or not, she wasn’t sure if it was acceptable to do so or not. “And we are going to meet up later this week.”

“I am glad to see you are already starting to make connections at your school, perhaps you could invite this Ruby girl over to work here so I can meet her,” Winter said getting up. “How about I prepare some dinner and we can speak some more.”

“Thank you Winter, dinner sounds lovely.”

Two days later, Ruby got back to Weiss about meeting up to plan their project.

“So Weiss,” Ruby said at the end of their class together, “There’s this public library we can meet up at after school where we could work on our topic if you want.”

“Which public library?” Weiss asked, “And do you mean meeting up today after class?”

“Fall Memorial Library, and yeah if that works.”

“Well, I don’t have a ride to take me there really,” Weiss said, Winter would be working till long after class finished and she doubted her sister would be able to take time out to drive her to a library.

Ruby though looked unfazed, “Well my dad can drive both of us after school, and he can drive you home if you still can’t get a ride after we finish.”

“Can I think about it and get back to you at the end of the day?” Weiss asked.

Ruby nodded and rolled off to her final class of the day, Weiss watched her go as she thought over the option. It would be good to get the project started early, she didn’t know how long it would take to complete, and it would be nice to not have to take the bus home, even if Ms. Calavera is nice. But a part of her was screaming caution, she didn’t really know Ruby and she had never met Ruby’s father, and she didn’t know their intentions.

What if Ruby did actually know who she was, Blake might have told her or she might have always known and just been hiding it. Ruby could be an obsessive fan and this drive offer could be part of a scheme to kidnap her. If she got in a car with Ruby’s father, who was almost certainly larger than Weiss, if Yang was anything to go by, then she would be totally at his mercy.

Of course, the logical part of her brain was telling her that conclusion was highly unlikely and that Ruby was, in fact, just offering her a ride to the library so they could work on their project. Still, better safe than sorry, she thought as she pulled out her scroll and dialed up Winter.

“Weiss, is everything alright?” Winter immediately asked. “You’re not in trouble are you?”

“No, I’m fine,” Weiss promised. “I just wanted to ask you if it was okay if I got a ride to the library to work on that project I mentioned?”

There was a pause on the other end, “If you wish to ride with someone that is your choice Weiss, you are old enough to decide that.”

“I know but I, I still wanted to ask to make sure that it’s fine with you and if you think it would be safe?”

“Do you have any reason to think it would be unsafe?” Winter asked, Weiss could hear a slight edge in her voice.

“I do not think so.”

“Then it should be fine, however if it makes you feel better text me before you get in the car,” Winter suggested. “And I will check in with you an hour after that, if you do not respond then I will come find you.”

“That would be nice, thank you,” Weiss said.

“It is fine Weiss, now I have to get back to work and you still have another class, don't be late,” And with that Winter hung up before Weiss could say anything else. She did feel better with that assurance, even though she was almost certain everything would be fine. She ran a hand over her scar and headed off to class before she was late.

After her final uneventful class, she headed out to the courtyard to wait for Ruby, scroll out ready to text Winter when she got into the car. She was scanning the large crowd not for Ruby but for the tall blonde sister who would be easier to spot among the hundreds of students leaving the buildings. But as the crowd started to thin and she saw no sign of either sister she started to wonder what was keeping them.

“You’re here!” Weiss flinched when Ruby appeared at Weiss’ side. “Great, my dad should be here soon.”

“Yes, I went over it with my sister and she is okay with me getting a ride with your father, is your sister coming as well?”

“Yang? No, she’s driving Blake home on her bike, why did you want to see her too?”

“I was just wondering, I was looking for her since I thought she would be easier to spot,” Weiss explained.

Ruby chuckled. “Funny, normally I’m the one people look for when looking for us, think I’m more noticeable?” She leaned back in her chair lifting the front wheels off the ground. 

“Er,” Weiss looked away at the cars gathered in front of the school. “Which one is your father’s?”

“Oh we have a special parking spot, my family knows the principal and I’m pretty sure they gave it to him because they thought it would be easier for me. Come on.”

Weiss followed Ruby down the courtyard and into the parking lot, texting her sister that she was leaving the school.

“There he is,” Ruby pointed to a large pick-up truck that was perhaps the ugliest shade of mustard yellow Weiss had ever seen on a vehicle. The instant she saw it she suspected Yang rode with Blake to avoid having to drive in that monstrosity. The driver's side door opened and a large blond man built like a bodyguard dressed in shorts and a vest stepped out, it seemed Yang took more after the father of the siblings, she couldn’t see much of a resemblance between him and the dark-haired girl at Weiss’ side. 

“Hey, Dad!” Ruby called out.

“Hi Ruby, how was school today?” He asked, Weiss stood back as the father and daughter did their greetings looking the man up and down, despite his size he didn’t seem threatening, except for a bad sense of fashion he didn’t seem overly remarkable. “So is this the new friend you were telling me about?”

“Yep, Weiss, this is my dad. Dad, this is Weiss, she helped me out and now we’re partners on a project.”

“Hello sir, it is nice to meet you,” Weiss said professionally.

“Heh, no need to be so formal kid, can just call me Mr. Xiao Long, or Tai if you want,” Mr. Xiao Long said.

“Alright Mr. Xiao Long, thank you for offering to drive.”

“No problem, hop on in, got to help Ruby so it’ll be a minute.”

“I wouldn’t need help if you drove the other car,” Ruby mumbled loud enough for Weiss to hear as she got in the back.

“You’re mother needs it for work and I like being able to help my daughter,” Mr. Xiao Long countered, opening the other back passenger door. He scooped Ruby up out of her chair, Weiss glanced and caught an embarrassed look on the other girl’s face and quickly looked at her feet. There was a small noise as Ruby was set down and Weiss felt it was fine to look up again, Mr. Xiao Long closed the door and put Ruby’s chair in the truck’s bed.

“Sorry if I made that uncomfortable for you by being here,” Weiss spoke up when Ruby didn’t say anything. “And if my looking made you feel embarrassed.”

“It’s fine really, Blake’s seen this hundreds of times, it's just you know,” Ruby tapped her fingers against her still legs. “It just never really gets easier having to be lifted into a car, especially when someone else is around, even if it's family. So it's not you, I promise.”

“Well I still don’t want to make you unnecessarily uncomfortable,” Weiss said, the driver’s door opened and Mr. Xiao Long got in.

“Alright girls, next stop the library.”

Mr. Xiao Long promised to pick them up around five to take Weiss home and left after helping Ruby back into her chair, Weiss made sure to have her back turned as he did so.

“So was there any part of the Great War in particular that you wanted to research?” Ruby asked once they were inside.

“I was sort of hoping we could pick something that focuses on the Vale Campaign,” Weiss said looking through the shelves. “The Vacuo Campaign and Vytal are the ones everyone talks about, I was thinking we could try something different.”

It was also the part of the Great War where Atlas wasn’t the main antagonist, which she had read plenty of already. 

“Sure we can try that, can you pass me ‘Spark of War’? It’s a little out of reach,” Ruby pointed to a thick book on the top shelf.

“Of course,” Weiss handed the book to her and grabbed a few more that could be used.

They spent the next hour in relative silence researching early battles of the Great War and writing down possible topics for their project. Weiss found some debates on who threw the first strike in the war and how the Mistralians were forced back while Ruby looked into the Vale retaliation on Mistral. The silence was only broken when Ruby looked up from her book and said.

“You know what I don’t get?” Ruby said.

“What?”

“These books always talk about the military and the government but it doesn’t really speak about how the average person in Mistral or Atlas thought about the Great War.”

“From what I’ve read the people of Mistral didn’t really get much of a choice in starting a war, some even speculate the settlers sent into Vale were those who opposed the Mistral Government and were sent as bait to start the war,” Weiss said.

“I know but it would be nice to know what they were thinking, you know,” Ruby closed her textbook.

“So Weiss, what do you normally do when you’re not at school?”

“I mostly just stay at home, sometimes I go out to dinner with my sister when her work allows it,” Weiss replied.

“What does she do?”

“She is a police officer,” Weiss said.

“Hey I’ve got an uncle who is in the police, maybe they work together,” Ruby wondered. “But I was wondering if you wanted to hang out sometime after school.”

“Isn’t that what we’re doing now?” Weiss smirked, waving a hand at the pile of books on the table between them. 

“Well yeah but I was wondering if you wanted to do something fun, get to know each other better. Oh you can come over to my place sometime!” Ruby suggested.

“Um…” Weiss looked back down at her book, she had always been warned not to go over to anyone’s house alone, too much of a risk, but those were father’s warnings and Winter always said to ignore them and that she should make her own choices, but still… “I might need to talk about it with my sister.”

“If you want she can come over too, we could work on our project and maybe get to know each other better.”

“Would that really be okay? Don’t you need to ask your parents first?” 

Ruby shrugged. “Eh not really, they never say no when I bring people over, they’re just happy to see me invite someone over.”

“I’ll talk with Winter about it then, besides it would be best to get this project out of the way as soon as possible.”

“Exactly, and it’s always nice to get to know a new friend.”