79

Chapter 79Chapter Text

"We're dooooone! It's finally over! Semester one of Team RWBYP's Beacon experience is finally over!" Ruby cried out, throwing open the door to the dorm and flinging herself into her and Penny's bed with a sigh of relief, the scent of rose petals filling the air as she used her Semblance and sent petals scattering all around the room in a tide of black and red. "And I don't have to keep stopping myself from stealing people's under-maintained weapons anymore!"

"Until next semester," Yang deadpanned, rolling her neck whilst throwing off most of her combat outfit as she came in and let herself just flop down onto the rug in the center of the room, not even bothering to try and climb the ladder into her bed at this point. "Uggggghhhh…. Professor Goodwitch is too strong… she fuckin cheats, I swear…"

"I don't know what you were expecting trying to go up against someone twice your age, with twice your experience, and at least twice your actual Aura volume," Weiss huffed and did much of the same as she set her coat aside, stepping over her girlfriend and partner as she slid into bed with a quiet sigh of relief, watching as Blake and Penny shuffled into the room after- with Blake reaching down to pick Yang up and drag her into bed alongside Weiss moments later. "Your Aura might have prevented her from just picking you up and throwing you around, but you still got cocky and tried burning blue when you should have saved your Aura."

"Yeah yeah… Ugh… I was so close too… I saw her Aura meter, I knew how close she was…" Yang whined, grabbing onto Weiss once she was bodily hauled into bed and cuddling her shortest girlfriend as though she was a body pillow, pressing a gentle kiss to the shell of Weiss' ear as Blake settled in and flopped down on top of both of them like the weird cat that she was. "Blehhhh… I almost won …"

"I think Ruby is, out of all of us, the only one who'd win against our Professors… even if she did lose as well," Weiss sighed, rolling her eyes as she turned faintly and watched Penny climb onto the bed she shared with Ruby and roll their team leader up into a blanket burrito before cuddling into her beneath their blankets. "I'm still shocked that she didn't outright defeat Professor Branwen."

"Considering that Uncle Qrow taught Ruby everything she knows about scythe combat and fighting in general? There really wasn't any way for her to win against him unless she broke her own rules," Yang snorted, rolling her eyes as she buried her face into the crown of Weiss' hair, nuzzling against the silken white strands as she let the stress and effort of the last two weeks fade away- they'd all be leaving in the next few days for Patch, but there really wasn't any rush. Patch was close by, and really, even if they missed the flight they could just ride on Ruby's back if they took a bit of a detour. 

Being able to turn into a full sized Alpha Nevermore was… extremely useful, it turned out.

"Mmnnn… I'm almost there, though!" Ruby called out, grumbling idly even as she burrowed against Penny's chest, curling up and purring loud enough to be heard from across the room from the proximity to her girlfriend. "I had him on the ropes! And then he punched me!"

"All these years and you still get confused when someone throws a punch…" Yang groaned, palming her face and sending an exasperated look up at Ruby, who was barely visible as little more than a red lump all but parasitically wrapped around Penny's torso. "And you've spent how long training with me and Mercury?"

"Mneh! Shut up!"

"You shut up you little brat, I still haven't forgiven you for saying Cinder's your favorite sister!" Yang growled, shaking her fist vaguely at her sister without any real heat, her frown turning into a mischievous grin halfway through because she was unable to actually keep up a straight face. 

"Cinder lets me eat cake! And cheese!" Ruby protested, sitting up ever so slightly and returning the angry fist shake, the wolf girl's ears flicking up angrily as she glared over the nonexistent railing that separated her from Yang, sisters locked in eternal combat. "And she doesn't hog the bathroom for hours on end every weekend just cuz she has to do her hair care routine!" 

"Do you know how hard it is to maintain this much hair!? You should be so lucky that I only spend a few hours a week doing it!" Yang shot back, sitting up as well while Weiss and Blake rolled their eyes at the familiar argument. "You don't even use the bathroom most of the time! I know you don't fucking shit you little darkness gremlin! I've watched you go a whole fucking month without eating, sleeping, drinking, showering, or going to the bathroom just because you wanted to see if you could!"

"I LIKE SITTING ON THE TOILET AND PRETENDING I CAN STILL USE THE BATHROOM FOR ITS INTENDED PURPOSE!"

"THAT'S STUPID! YOU'RE THE ONE WASTING PEOPLE'S TIME THEN!"

"YOUR FACE IS STUPID!"

"NUH UH!"

"YUH HUH!"

"NUH UH!"

"YUH HUH!"

"Ladies, you're both incredibly stupid. Can we please skip the sisterly arguments in favor of shutting up and actually relaxing for once?" Weiss cut in, groaning at her first girlfriend and her team leader yelling at each other like the backwater idiots that they were, thumping Yang on the abs and sending a Glyph to blow icy wind at Ruby's face until she relented. "Honestly, why must you talk about such vulgar topics while we're supposed to be cuddling in bed? Why can't you talk about something romantic like going on a date, or dancing in the moonlight, or burning down another criminal affiliated nightclub?"

"I- okay, that last thing was one time , and it was just because Junior was a piece of shit who was absolutely garbage at being an information broker!" Yang protested weakly, but settled back down anyway with a huff of discontent, grabbing both Weiss and Blake to be her emotional support pillows. "Honestly, what kind of information broker just keeps going 'I don't know' when a paying customer asks for information!?"

"The kind where you threatened him for two minutes, got huffy when he didn't instantly tell you what you wanted, and then blew up his entire operation because you got mad that he wanted payment instead of the promise of not putting your fist in his jaw," Blake answered, poking Yang's nose with a little snort of amusement, casually leaning down and nipping at Yang's shoulder. "In my experience, getting information out of an info broker goes best when you have something that actually makes them want to give you information instead of resenting you for blowing up their entire business, Yang."

"... I- well… uh… fuck Junior anyway, he's a jerk and he's the reason why Roman Torchwick had so many goons with him to rob all those stores before the docks happened!" Yang continued huffing and pouting discontentedly, playing up the melodrama before tightening her hugs around Weiss and Blake and letting out a sigh as she calmed down. "Eugh… I hope the bastard keeps his head down… Can't believe he broke out somehow…"

"He broke out!?" Ruby cried, leaping up again and shouting down over the edge of her bunk while Penny just pouted and changed positions so she could wrap her arms around Ruby's waist and bodily drag her back into their cuddle. "What do you mean he broke out!?"

"He broke out a month after he surrendered to the police, and robbed a few places before vanishing again," Weiss answered, shaking her head and brushing loose strands of hair from her face as she flicked off the lightswitch with a Glyph. "Now can we all please actually take a nap like we were supposed to? I want to get some sleep before dinner now that we're done with the semester. And don't forget that we need to start packing tomorrow and that we can't afford to forget anything while we're gone for the month! That means food gets thrown out or eaten-"

"I'll do it!"

"Yes, I know, Ruby. Anyway. We need to start and finish packing by the end of the day tomorrow and wake up early for our flight. No, Ruby, we are not using 'Air Rose' no matter how much you want to fly around as a Nevermore. I tried it once during Initiation and I am never doing it again."

Ruby tilted her head, forming a Rosebud clone to actually look over at Weiss as her actual body settled into her cuddle with Penny and she buried her face into her girlfriend's neck. It sure was weird making one with her actual face instead of a Geist mask but oh well. "I thought you got thrown around by a Deathstalker?"

"Unfortunately, Yang decided to try and ride the Nevermore first, then we fell off of it directly into the path of the Deathstalker as it was trying to murder Pyrrha and Jaune. Nora and Ren were there too, but they managed to hold on longer. It was… not fun."

"Okay, but I'm not going to just throw you off- it'll be fun! I can make sure you have nice seats, a windshield, luggage storage…" Ruby protested lightly, trying to list off the convenience features she could totally probably make if she made a big Nevermore that they could all ride on. Which…

Huh. There was an interesting dilemma. If Ruby made a Nevermore and flew it around, was she the body on top, or the grimm doing the work? Hm. Ontological questions for later, probably.

"I'm not doing that, Ruby. Let's just… sleep for now, and then focus on getting to Patch the normal way?"

"Fiiiiiiine…"