Ch. 83: Pillow Wars (3)

---Saturday, June 19---

"It's weird not having Ray here." Velvet commented, surprised at how comfortable she had gotten around the younger man.

"I think you mean stiff." Fox joked as he rolled his shoulder. Ray was out on another away mission for Ozpin and had ended up missing this week's Hell Training. Not that any else had gotten out of it just because the progenitor of the tortuous session wasn't around. Professor Goodwitch may have also been gone with him, but the always smiling Professor Peach had proven she could be just as ruthless as Ray and as strict as Glynda when she wanted to be.

The gang had ended up as stiff and sore as ever, but without Ray's massages to look forward to, it somehow felt a hundred times worse. They had tried giving each other massages when they got back to the dorms and decided to convene in team CFVY's room that night since they couldn't use Ray's, but it just wasn't the same.

"Well, since we have the chance~," Coco said in a teasing voice as she rolled over to look at Ruby and Yang. "Why don't his siblings share some embarrassing stories about the man who was so careless as to miss our weekly slumber party?"

Ruby and Yang grinned excitedly as they sat up straight.

"Well, if you insist." Yang drawled as she tried to casually lean back against the pillows propped up behind her, feigning reluctance.

"Ooh, we have some great stories to tell." her younger sister had no such desire for theatrics and happily displayed her eagerness. "Let's see… Oh!

So this happened when we were twelve. Ray had never gotten Valentine chocolates from anyone except Yang and me because his fan club kept getting in everyone who tried's way, not wanting anyone to get a leg up over them. Just like they always stopped anyone from confessing to him. But this year, somehow, they had figured out that Ray had never gotten Valentine's Day chocolate before. They apparently felt so bad about it that they all decided to make sure he got chocolates this year."

*Ha ha ha* "It was a Mess!" Yang burst out laughing at the memory and picked up the story. "Everywhere he went, Ray was flooded with chocolate. Opening his book locker, BOOM, chocolate raining down on his head. Opening his desk, BOOM, it's stuff full of chocolate, and when he finally digs through it all, he finds that they had removed his school supplies to make room for it all. Opening his weapons locker, Boom-NOT, the locker room's AC had been out, and all the chocolate had melted into one huge sticky brown glob that covered everything! It was hilarious! It was one of the few times Ray willingly interacted with his entire fan club! *Ha ha* The scolding he gave them. I'm not sure if those girls were going to cry or swoon when it was over." *Ha ha*

---Saturday, June 26---

""Congratulations!"" Everyone cheered as they popped party poppers over Velvet, her face cherry-red from embarrassment. After Velvet had learned Aura Sight three weeks ago, her talent had truly blossomed. Her Semblance, photographic memory, didn't just let her memorize and replicate the physical movement of people she observed. Once she learned Aura Sight, it allowed her to copy the movement of their Aura too. Thanks to extra attention from Ray during lessons, she had already jumped all the way up to the Aura Weaponization realm.

"Wow. Your so awesome, Velvet." Ruby fawned over the Faunus girl.

"Yeah. You RAYsed from Aura Sight to Aura Weaponization even faster than our brother. Eh Eh!" Her sister agreed, smacking Velvet on the back. Yang's pun didn't even earn her an appreciative groan from the others.

"And what would a celebration be without cake." Ren announced as he carried in a white frosted cake with the words "Congratulations Velvet" spelled out in brown icing on the top that he had baked earlier that day.

"Velvet." Ray twirled a knife expertly between his fingers before offering it to the blushing bunny with pride in his voice. "Would you do us the honor of cutting your cake?"

---Saturday, July 3---

"A squid!" "A pervert." "A perverted squid!" Yang and Weiss shouted out their guesses as Blake stared with furrowed brows at their leader, who was wriggling her finders around weirdly with the heels of her palms pressed together in front of them.

"And… time!" Ray announced as the last of the sand fell to the bottom of the hourglass.

"It was the hydra Grimm we fought yesterday! You guys are terrible at charades." Ruby pouted in annoyance

""Ohhhhh"" her teammates said as they exchanged a look that questioned if they were really the ones that were terrible at this game.

"Team JNPR, your turn." Ray offered the bowl filled with scraps of folded paper to Jaune to pick from.

"Here goes." Jaune reached his hand into the bowl without looking and felt around for a bit before drawing one out.

"Ok." Jaune read the note and smiled confidently before handing it back to Ray to set aside and taking his place in front of everyone.

"And… Start!" Ray turned over the hourglass, and Jaune held both his hands up to his chest in puppy paws and tilted his head to the side, letting his tongue hang out.

Immediately, ""A golden retriever."" All three members of his team shouted together.

"Got it." Jaune smiled and gave them a thumbs up.

"Aww, man. How did they even get the type of dog right that quickly?" Ruby complained.

"What other type of dog would Jaune be?" Coco asked as she rose to her feet for her turn.

"Fair point." Ruby grumbled, still annoyed at how easily Jaune's team had understood him while her's couldn't even remember the giant Grimm monstrosity they had fought yesterday.

---Saturday, July 10---

*Hmm* "team CFVY isn't here tonight, so what should we play." Ruby asked, honestly feeling a little guilty about the idea of having fun without them at their weekly slumber party while they were fighting for their lives out in the wilds on an away mission with Professor Port.

"I have the perfect idea. Since we don't have too many people tonight, let's play Ein." Ray proposed holding up a deck of cards that had in no way any relation to Uno from his original world.

""Sure. Alright. Why not. Sounds like fun."" everyone voiced their approval of Ray's idea, but he wasn't done yet.

"In fact, let's make it a last man standing tournament. And I know exactly what the grand prize will be. I found it while I was surfing the dustnet yesterday, and it has been cooling in my fridge all day. Tada!"

Ray opened up the door of the minifridge in the corner of his dorm room with a flourish to reveal a large dark brown bowl filled with half a dozen scoops of vanilla and chocolate ice cream, topped with a dusting of crushed pecans, split bananas, and sliced strawberries.

"Umm, ok? I admit that looks good, but aren't you getting a little too worked up over a banana split?" A skeptical Weiss asked.

*Tsk tsk tsk* "I'm afraid you have missed a critical detail, my dear snow fairy." Ray chided her with a shake of his finger. "You see, this is no mere banana split. The bowl itself is a giant cookie coated in chocolate sauce."

*Swish* *Boom* As soon as he spoke, Ruby dashed across the room in a shower of rose petals, grabbed the deck of cards out of his hand, and slammed it into the floor. "Bring it on, losers! That giant cookie is mine!" Ruby shouted, her cookie-vore spirit fully ignited as she prepared to battle to the death for the delicious treat.

---Saturday, July 17---

"Left hand" Ruby said and watched as Fox carefully slipped his hand through Jaune's legs to reach the closest yellow circle. They were playing twister again, but with a twist. Since Nora was the last of them to reach the Aura Sight realm during their Aura Manipulation class with Ray earlier this week they decided that instead of calling out the color, the spinner would light up the circles using Aura Shaping instead.

It made things a lot easier for a blind man like Fox to play. Another rule they had made using majority vote after some of the guys had been caught getting a little too excited about being tangled up with the girls last time was that the boys could only play against each other. The boys weren't too happy about such a rule, but they were outnumbered and agreed.

"I think I might be awaking to something new here." Yang whispered to Coco as they watched the mass of toned, muscular flesh rubbing and flexing against each other.

*MmHmm* Coco mused as she also enjoyed the sight.

---Saturday, July 24---

"Alright! Looks like I'm the king." Coco cheered as she held up her stick. Out of the corner of her eye she watched as Blake used her semblance as cover to leave a clone of herself behind as she dashed back, peeked at Weiss's number from over her shoulder, and sign the number 9 to her, and then looking over Ray's shoulder on her other side and signing 3 at her before zipping back into her spot without either the heiress sitting beside her noticing. As for Ray, he didn't really care. He was enjoying how things were going.

"I decree, number 9 will tell number 3 what they think of them." Coco decided with a smirk. They had all agreed without letting Ray of Weiss know that they would use the cover of playing the King's Game to try and make Ray and Weiss make up or at least find out what was wrong with them. Well, the members of teams CFVY and JNPR wanted to know why their friends were fighting. The rest of team RWBY, who had found out when Weiss came back from her date with Ray ranting about how shameless he was for wanting her to be a part of his harem, were just enjoying the chance to meddle and mess with them.

"Not again." Weiss groaned as she turned her stick around the reveal the number 9. She was starting to get suspicious of why she got picked almost every time. A suspicion that only grew when Ray turned his own stick around to reveal the number 3.

"So, Weiss, what do you think of me?" He asked with a teasing smile.

"You're a talented huntsman and a good teacher." Weiss said with a huff.

"That's all?" Ray asked wiggling his brows at her which earned him a glare from the ice queen.

"Why should there be anything else?" she asked coldly.

"Ok, next round." Ruby said quickly as she threw her stick into the cup in the middle, breaking up the teasing and icy looks Ray and Weiss were exchanging.

"You know, they say you only fight with those you care about." Ray idly commented as he also returned his stick to the cup.

Weiss pointedly ignored him and watched as Yatsu shook the cup to mix up the sticks before returning it to the center.

""Who's the king?"" Everyone said together as they each grabbed and drew a stick.

"I'm the king" Yang smiled as she caught the signs from Blake. "I decree, number 13 will kiss and make up with number 1."

"Enough of this nonsense!" Weiss threw down her stick with the number 1 on it and started to stand up to leave. However, before she could move, Ray was in front of her.

"The king's orders are absolute." He whispered as he brushed back a lock of Weiss's hair and ran his fingers along her silky smooth cheek, causing her to freeze up.

"I-" Weiss tried to say something, but Ray silenced her with a kiss. Weiss tried to fight back, but her body didn't listen to her, and instead, she found herself leaning into the kiss, her hands twisting tightly into the fabric of his shirt, pulling him closer as she felt her mind drift away on a sea of bliss.

*wo wo* *Awooo* Coco, Fox, and Yang's catcalls and wolf whistle eventually brought her back down to reality just as Ray broke their kiss and pulled away, licking his lips.

"So, do you forgive me?" Ray asked in a husky voice.

"I- I- I- I hate you!" Weiss stuttered and then screamed as she launched to her feet and raced out of the room.

"I think you guys might have gone to far." Ray turned to look at his remaining friends who all had chagrined looks on their faces.

---Saturday, July 31---

*Muahahaha* "Draw four, Yang. Ein!" Ruby laughed maniacally as she threw down her card forcing her to draw four more cards when she had been on the verge of going out. She hadn't been able to win the giant edible cookie bowl during the last Ein tournament, and she was determined to do so this time.

"Not so fast, Ruby. You've activated my trap card. REVERSE!" Yang shouted back as she slapped down her reverse card on top of it, emptying her hand.

"And I'm out." she said smugly.

"Whaaaa!?" Ruby screamed in horror and then turned to Weiss with tears in her eyes, "I'm sorry, Weiss. It's the only card I could play."

Weiss muttered darkly to herself as she added four more cards to her already overflowing hand. She had definitely lost this round. It wasn't like she wanted to win Ray's home-cooked sweets, but losing this badly was just humiliating.

After hearing about the Ein tournament the others had had while they had been away, team CFVY had insisted they hold another one. To make up for the extra players, they were playing with two decks, and all the draw cards seemed to be aimed Weiss's way.

Everyone couldn't help but feel a little sorry for her. They had found out earlier that week that Weiss had been mad at Ray because he had confessed to her while implying that he intended to pursue other girls as well. The girls all felt bad for her but didn't feel the need to make such a big deal about it, considering how common polygamy was and how incredibly Ray was. Though, it did make all their massages more than a little awkward as they couldn't help but wonder if they were one of the girls Ray intended to woo.

That said, there was a time and place for everything, and telling a girl that they weren't good enough to hold you down on their own while confessing to her definitely wasn't the right time or place. Now getting knocked out of the Ein tournament with over twenty cards in her hand was just adding insult to injury.

---Saturday, August 7---

"Come on, Nora." Ren encouraged as he tried to push the book his childhood friend had just shoved away back under her nose.

"I thought these sleepovers were supposed to be for having fun." she complained as she slammed her head down on the table in front of her so she wouldn't have to look at her textbook again.

"Yes, but Finals start on Monday, and Team CFVY was kind enough to offer to help us study." Ren gently tried to persuade the carrot top.

*Ugh* Nora grunted in annoyance as she turned her head to look around the room without raising it from the table.

Velvet was working with Weiss and Pyrrha on identifying different types of edible and useful plants found in Vale. Fox was helping Jaune, Yang, and Blake memorizes Grimm characteristics and weaknesses by introducing them to a little ditty his Uncle Copper had taught him while he was still alive. And Yatsuhashi was going over history dates with her, Ren, and Ruby. Ray and Coco were sitting across from each other as Ray used a set of flashcards to quiz the diligent huntress who was determined to be the best over the questions expected to appear of the second year's final exams.

"Yeah. I got it." Nora said with a huff as she sat up straight again and got back to studying.