76

Black Rose Blooms SilverCyberQueen_Jolyne

Chapter 76

Notes:

This chapter is just Bees Schnees fluff

Chapter Text

"Do you think we should be worried about the frequency with which Ruby casually commits some new horrific crime against common sense and decency?" Weiss asked idly, halfway buried into Yang's side as she, Yang, and Blake all cuddled in Weiss' bed. They would have used Blake's but unfortunately her faunus teammate had the horrifying habit of snacking in bed so the amount of dried nori crumbs and smoked salmon bits that would have to be washed out of her sheets was… horrendous. And unlike Ruby, Blake could not simply pretend to have clean sheets by dousing everything in her own grimm matter and consuming everything not made out of fabric. Because she wasn't a grimm. "It seems like every time we walk into Ruby's new workspace she's trying to convince someone to start trying to upgrade their weapon to something twice as big with three times the firepower and eight times the likelihood to break their own arm."

"Considering that she's been doing this ever since she made Augury and did it even more when she made Crescent Rose? We're probably fine," Yang snorted, sighing sleepily as she peered to the side and roughly checked the time with the position of the sun that was… eh. Whatever. Early afternoon-ish position. "It's the same thing as always, it's just that Ruby's only method of actually getting comfortable with a lot of people at once is to talk about weapons and, well, Professor Port and Oobleck literally gave her an on-campus machine shop. Really, what I'm worried about is her figuring out how to actually modify digital stuff."

"Why would you be worried about th-" Blake paused, blinking slowly as her brain made an astounding leap of logic akin to Blake flinging herself halfway out of bed from a sudden lightning strike. "No. Absolutely not. We can't let her actually get to a level where she can modify Penny's tech."

"Oh dear gods the destruction would be…. Horrific," Weiss winced, shuddering a little despite the heat of Yang's side (which, really, was much nicer than her usual outfit or uniform would imply. Even if she insisted on wearing one of her novelty pride tank tops. Suck My Gock indeed) at the thought of Ruby Rose, the half grimm mad genius weaponsmith, managing to learn enough about Atlesian systems and robotics to actually modify her super powerful robot girlfriend. "We… we should put a stop to it, right? Tell her she shouldn't modify Penny to become even more horrendously strong than she already is?"

"We… probably should … but also at the same time, Penny knows what boundaries are. Probably. Just because the two of them don't seem to have any…" Yang muttered, looking to the side for a moment before shaking her head. "Anyway. Ruby's not that obsessed with weapons that she'd ignore Penny saying no, and Penny's not that interested in being even stronger so really the most that'll happen probably is Ruby upgrading Floating Array a little and turning them into even stronger laser cannons? I guess? Nothing to worry about."

"I worry about the structural integrity of the house we're going to visit during the break if that's your criteria for safety," Weiss deadpanned, palming her face as she bumped her forehead into Yang's ribs with a discontented sigh. "Ugh. At least she hasn't convinced Jaune to turn Crocea Mors into a railgun yet."

Blake cleared her throat rather awkwardly, stiffening in such a way that the feeling of her hand pressing more insistently against her waist made Weiss' heart sink like a rock.

"Oh she didn't ."

"She… might have," Blake confirmed with a heavy grimace, looking to the side as her ears flattened out and pressed flat against her head. "I heard Jaune talking to Ren about it earlier, after Ren picked up Stormflower from the upgrade shop."

"Has she really not named it yet? It's been a week and a half ," Weiss sighed, shaking her head before lifting her head up and staring down Blake. "Regardless of the lack of name, we have to stop Jaune from asking Ruby to turn Crocea Mors into a railgun. Does that oaf even know how to fire a gun? I've never seen him so much as pick up a firearm- even I learned how to use a revolver since I needed it for Myrtenaster!"

"Speaking of, did you ever figure out if Myrtenaster actually counts as a firearm for the end of year certifications?" Yang cut in, tilting her head a bit as she shuffled around a bit, all three of them changing positions slightly as they decided to get more comfortable so they could actually talk instead of just mumbling into thin air and hoping the others heard it. "I know you had some difficulty with it."

"Professor Blackberry was swayed eventually… mostly by Ruby insisting that Myrtenaster does everything a Dust laser rifle does," Weiss huffed a little as she sat up fully, crossing her arms and letting her long hair spill out in a silken curtain as she glared off at nothing. "Honestly, I provide an actual essay and it's still Ruby that sways the opinions… Though, she did provide the actual technical drawings she used for Myrtenaster's upgrade… Anyway. That's not important. The important thing is that we need to get Jaune to actually learn how to use a firearm before he gets talked into turning Crocea Mors into a weapon he can't use… and we also need to make sure that Ruby doesn't accidentally destroy half of the school by upgrading Penny to extreme levels and/or doing something stupid to her programming."

"Pretty sure the second one is low priority for now, but sure let's go with that," Yang snorted, rolling her eyes and gently wrapping an arm around Weiss' waist so she could pull her in close again, both Weiss and Blake resting securely in their larger girlfriend's arms. "I actually like Jaune and I don't want him to break his arms firing whatever ridiculously over-tuned bullshit railgun Ruby manages to stuff into that sword."

"His arms are weirdly noodly for all that he's surprisingly well muscled," Blake noted dryly, shifting slightly and pulling open her scroll so she could read one of the many ebooks she'd downloaded recently after finding out they existed- she still liked physical copies more, of course, but it was much more convenient to read in bed if she only needed one hand to scroll instead of using two to turn a page. "You'd think he'd be able to lift more."

"Yeah… we're working on that," Yang sighed, flopping back down against her pillow with a light grunt of discontent. "He's got a long way to go before he can casually bench a couple hundred like me or Nora, or… y'know. Break the machines like Ruby."

"Ruby cheats, and besides, it's not like he has to bench several hundred kilos. Just a hundred is more than reasonable for most applications," Weiss snorted, rolling her eyes and bumping her head against Yang's shoulder with a slightly reproachful look. "He's been working on his agility, so bulking up won't really help him much."

"Oh right, he's been talking about having Pyrrha train him for more agile movements," Blake murmured, nodding along with the conversation as she recalled the fruits of Jaune's training- with all of them from RWBY+P, the rest of JNPR, and CMNE (and sometimes CFVY if they stopped in) giving him tips and helping him work on a focused regimen, he was getting pretty good, pretty fast. He was well above average even if he lagged behind the rest of his team and RWBY+P, but what he lacked in pure combat skill he more than made up for in tactical thinking and on the fly strategizing. With a bit of luck and a couple desperation moves that he was working on making into a proper style (like throwing his shield in such a way that an opponent slipped on it and using Gravity Dust to guide it back to his hand when they kicked up while falling) Jaune's overall skill level was more than enough to snag ninth place and ensure JNPR and RWBY+P's places at the top of the sparring charts… if not at the top of the academic charts.

Because, well. 

Even after a few months of cramming, self study, and tutoring from Ruby… Blake's math was a bit stunted. And Weiss still wasn't great at survival skills (and could barely make scrambled eggs without burning them). And Yang was terrible at stealth for all that she wore a black leather duster. And Ruby was still largely catatonic in history class. Penny was actually great at everything, no surprises there… Meanwhile in JNPR, Jaune was pulling up his grades from "barely passing" to "middlingly acceptable", Ren and Nora did great at practical exercises but lagged behind in history and diplomacy, respectively. Pyrrha was also good at everything… except for cooking and, somehow, grimm studies.

Consequences of their many and varied backgrounds, Blake supposed idly. She was a former terrorist who hadn't gone to school since she was twelve, Weiss was a prissy rich girl who'd only ever gone through private tutoring, Yang had ostensibly the most normal education but just sucked shit at stealth anyway (which… fair. She had giant shotguns on her arms and exploding anklets on her legs), Ruby had been homeschooled since she was six and largely lived out in the woods, Jaune had been in a kinda backwoods village situation so his education hadn't been amazing, Ren and Nora had a pretty good education but some things hadn't been covered well in Harbour, and Pyrrha spent most of her time training for the Mistral Regional Tournament since she was twelve or so.

"Yeah… he's getting pretty good too," Yang nodded, then yawned quietly as she settled down a little further, eyes drifting shut as the warmth of her own body and of Weiss and Blake started to lull her into a comfortably sleepy state. "Mmm… sleepy…. You guys wanna just take a nap for a while?"

"... We don't have anything major coming up and we're ahead of our work," Weiss admitted, pursing her lips as she checked her scroll. "Next week is our dead week before finals anyway, so we should be fine."

"All in favor of a nap, say aye," Blake nodded, already falling asleep against the crook of Yang's shoulder.

"Aye!"

"Aye…"

"Unanimous vote, time to sleep!" Yang grinned, holding Weiss and Blake closer as she snuggled deeper into her covers with a happy sigh. "Ahhh yeah… this is the life…"

"... Good… afternoon, I suppose… you two," Weiss muttered, settling down last and using a glyph to flick the light off and shut the curtains, plunging the room into a comfortable darkness as the three of them settled down into sleep.