23

"Blake Belladonna, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, and Yang Xiao Long. You four collected the White Knight relics, and will thus be known as Team RWBY… led by Ruby Rose!"

Ah.

Eh?

Wait what!? 

Ruby stared blankly as Ozpin announced that, of all people, she was the leader of Team RWBY. What!? Why!? She barely did anything! She just helped lead Blake to the temple and killed a couple grimm! That was hardly leader material! She barely even really talked about anything other than weapons!

"How did this happen?" she mumbled, barely reacting to the hug that Yang had wrapped her up in- merely sinking into it as she tried to think of something, anything she could have done that was noteworthy enough to make her the leader- sure, she'd killed two fairly large and old grimm, but that wasn't really that impressive, was it? Most people killed loads of grimm like that by the time they got to Beacon, didn't they? She was sure that if she hadn't taken care of it herself, then the rest of them would have been able to handle the Deathstalker and Nevermore just fine! Hell, Yang could have taken the Deathstalker solo as long as she'd managed to get under it or flipped it on its back! The Nevermore would have been more trouble, but Yang was strong, agile, and resourceful and there was no doubt in her mind that her older sister could have handled the thing within a few minutes or so! 

Weiss and Blake were also really cool- okay, Weiss was kinda snooty and didn't seem to want to be near Ruby and kept looking at her ears and twitching whenever Ruby got close so maybe she wasn't cool cool, but she'd seen the Schnee's rapier in action and the way it artfully combined with her Semblance and was entirely sure that she could have been the leader! She certainly had the bearing for it! Though…

Then again… Ruby wasn't entirely sure she wanted to try and deal with a leader who seemed to struggle against a measly pack of twenty B-type Beowolves. Even in an entire group of eight, Weiss seemed rather weirdly startled and unsure sometimes… Plus there was also the fact that, while they were all heading up the cliffs, Weiss had tried to corner her and accuse her of being part of the White Fang until she denied it… Blake had held her own better, and Ruby absolutely wouldn't have minded ceding leadership of Team RWBY to her partner, but… well.

What was said and done was said and done. So. All she could do was sort of blankly go through the motions as the day closed out and the team naming ceremony broke for dinner, then room assignments and schedule pickup, and then…

Then they were in their dorm room. And… Ruby had found herself sitting on Yang's bed.

And…

"What do you mean what am I doing? I'm sleeping with my sister?" Ruby blinked slowly, tilting her head at Weiss as she idly prodded Yang with her tail and tickled her shoulder in the exact way that made her sister scoot over just enough to make room in bed- Honestly, if Ruby actually still had to sleep she'd be exhausted by now, just like Yang had been. Poor Yang, if Ruby wasn't used to how easily her big sis could fall asleep, she would have gotten her dinner all over her hair, and then no one would have been safe. "I do this all the time back home, what's wrong with that?"

"Isn't it a little… juvenile?" Weiss asked, seemingly still very confused- not in the loud way, but her voice was naturally very well trained and projected on its own, so it was pretty hard for her not to feel loud. She also looked weirdly judgemental for some reason. And suspicious (which… Blake seemed to be quite silently peeved about). "I mean, you're in Beacon now- shouldn't you sleep in your own bed?"

"... I mean, maybe, but I always sleep with Yang when either of us has a really long, tiring day. I mean, what's the harm in it? It's not like it's a bad thing," Ruby huffed, rolling her eyes and shrugging a little as she slipped under the covers of Yang's bed and fluffed her tail a little bit, her ears twitching idly (and, why was Weiss staring so weirdly at her ears? Was it because of the White Fang thing…? No, there wasn't enough hostility…) as she started to lay down.

Thank goodness she'd had the foresight to actually go through the motions of nightly ablutions (she actually did brush her teeth and shower and stuff, because the minty fresh feeling and the soothing warmth of a nice, hot shower were things her grimm nature could pry out of her cold, dead paws) and shift her outfit into a pair of pajamas instead of her usual bony, spiky look. Then again… she still had some bony nubs around her collar, plus her mask. It got hard to focus if she went less than that, sadly. 

"I… suppose. Though… how are you two sisters? I assumed you were close from how you stuck together, but… Yang is human, isn't she?" Weiss asked, still staring between the two of them with a different kind of confusion now. Blake had long since gone to sleep too, and it was literally just the two of them talking since Yang slept deeply and Blake said she was a light sleeper but she'd conked out the moment her head hit the pillow so maybe she was just really tired? 

"She is. We have different moms, though," Ruby shrugged, then sidled down and nudged at Yang until her big sis rolled over and started cuddling her. "Ahhh… nothing like big sis cuddles at the end of a long day…"

Huh.

For some reason that made Weiss feel sad and… jealous…? Huh. Interesting. Plus the vague amounts of fear and suspicion levied towards Ruby herself… she couldn't pretend to know anything of what Weiss was thinking, only what she was feeling, but… if she had to guess, Weiss was jealous of not getting to cuddle with her sister! Or… something? Jealous about something involving a sister, probably. Did Weiss have a sister? Maybe she had a crush on Yang? And that fear Weiss felt- it spiked a little every time she looked at Ruby's Beowolf mask and ears… well.

There'd been all that news about the White Fang attacking the Schnees… even if Ruby agreed with faunus rights and labor movements and unions and such, attacking and hurting innocent people was a jerk move. All that did was spread more fear and confusion and hatred around! But it did explain why Weiss had tried to ask about the White Fang during Initiation, and why there was so much suspicion in her emotions…

"We should get some sleep then, I suppose…" Weiss sighed, taking one of the free beds and flouncing into it with a quiet groan before starting to toss and turn- probably not used to it yet, Ruby thought as she sensed Weiss' mild discomfort. "As long as this doesn't become a problem, then…"

"It won't!" Ruby grinned, flicking off the light next to her bed and humming as Weiss did the same, plunging the entire room into pitch darkness that Ruby could see through clear as day.

She sighed quietly, settling into Yang's arms and closing her eyes as she forced her breathing to even out into a steady, sleep-like rhythm. She'd probably force herself into a state of dormancy later on, but for now she could at least plan on what she'd do in the morning. Since it was just past ten, she could probably start off with unpacking and decorating the room, plus maybe breakfast? Also organizing spaces for everyone so they wouldn't have to constantly leave the room if they wanted a little privacy. It'd probably get cramped since there wasn't that much space in the dorm, but… they'd make it work. Weiss had a lot of stuff, though… Ruby was just glad that she could keep her stuff stored inside of her- not needing a bookbag made life a lot easier. And also made it a lot harder for pickpockets and pranksters to steal her wallet ( Emerald. Neo.) as well as made it way more convenient for flying or traveling- no heavy luggage, no threat of losing stuff. Win win.

Mmm… yeah…

She was the leader now, so as much as she hated talking to people out of the blue and as much as she didn't feel ready to be a team leader… she'd have to step up, right? Had to put her all into making sure their team was not only as good a set of fighters as they could be, but also as good a set of friends as they could be- after all, they'd be living together for the next four years!

Ruby hummed quietly under her breath, as quiet as she could as she slipped her sleeping mask over her eyes and smiled, thinking of as many team bonding exercises and attack names and weapon upgrade plans as she could while Yang snored behind her, burying her face into Ruby's hair and mumbling something about strawberries and blood that would have been creepy if Ruby wasn't well aware that her own shampoo was strawberry scented and that she carried the faint aroma of blood on her no matter what she did.

She nuzzled against her big sister, then after a few more minutes of thinking, simply let her mind drift downward into the sea of her awareness for a few hours, laying dormant until hopefully when the sun rose.

Tomorrow… tomorrow would be the first day of class, and who knew what kind of challenges that would bring.

[The Gang's All Here!]