Waning Hours
Remnantian Year 875
Ruby could nearly sigh in relief as she and Jaune made their way into the auditorium just as Professor Ozpin stepped up to the microphone. Ruby looked around anxiously to try and find Yang but was unable to spot her amongst the other students. Ruby’s shoulders slumped, but she almost smiled when Jaune put a hand on her shoulder as reassurance.
“Not alone. I’m not alone,” Ruby repeated to herself, comforted by the presence of a new friend in the inexperienced blonde. She was glad to have met someone to stand near at least.
“I’ll… keep this brief,” Ozpin began to speak and Ruby felt a shudder run down her spine just like when she met the man after she fought Roman Torchwick, a feeling as if his words meant more than he let on, “You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills. When you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But when I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction. I can not provide those things to you. Your purpose must be something one has to discover for themselves. Your time at this school will teach you that knowledge can only carry one so far. It is up to you to take the first steps.”
“Huh?”
“What’s he on about?”
“Aren’t we here to learn?”
As Ozpin began to walk away, he let his gaze flicker over the crowd, his eyes soon finding them staring into a pair of silver eyes that seemed more curious than everyone else’s confusion at his words. Ozpin just gave a small smile as he walked away, letting Glynda Goodwitch take the stage.
Ruby though did not pay attention to her words as she ran Ozpin’s speech through her head. When he spoke, she felt as if he saw her as a step above everyone else. As if, she had already taken that first step and he had acknowledged that with the look he had given her. That look she felt already familiar with.
“Ruby Rose,” The elderly professor sat across from her in a small room at the police station she had been brought to after her encounter with Torchwick, placing down a plate of cookies in front of her before continuing, “You… have silver eyes.”
“Hmm?” Ruby tilted her head to the side, letting her ears flop as her cloak fell from her head. She didn’t quite understand why he brought that up or brought her cookies here. Ruby supposed that with how he sometimes came to their house to talk with Uncle Qrow and Tai, he must have learned some things about her despite Ruby usually being too anxious to talk to him. She also saw that Ozpin was staring at her with a strange glint in his eyes at her reaction.
“Ruby?” Jaune shook her shoulder, breaking the silver-eyed girl from her thoughts, and brought her back to the present as people began to flow out of the auditorium, “You kinda spaced out there. You okay?”
“Just lost in thought…” Ruby muttered as she let herself scan the crowd yet again and managed to find a familiar head of blonde hair and she started waving her arm around, “Yang!”
“Oh?! Hey Rubes,” Yang broke off from the crowd and made her way over to her sister and gave Jaune a quick look over, “He’s not giving you problems, is he, sis?”
“Nope. Jaune’s cool,” Ruby gave a thumbs up of approval and then snickered, “You could also call him vomit boy.”
“Hah! That was you?! Dude, you need to see someone about unlocking your aura,” Yang let out a snort of laughter and Jaune just chuckled sheepishly.
“I already got the whole talk from Ruby. I’m gonna call my sister in a minute to ask about it,” Jaune pulled out his scroll and began to look through his contacts, “I should probably go call somewhere without a lot of noise.”
“Have fun, vomit boy,” Yang teased and Jaune just sighed as he began to walk away from the duo of sisters, already talking on the phone “You seem a bit tense sis. What’s up?”
“Hmm?” Ruby blinked in response and shook her head, “Nothing. Just thinking about that speech Professor Ozpin gave.”
“He did seem off. Dad’s said he’s probably the busiest person on Remnant though, so maybe that’s why he’s off. Maybe he just got back from a meeting with some Atlas officials. Uncle Qrow always says those are always draining,” Yang offered and Ruby shook her head, her ears flattening slightly as she gained a thoughtful look on her face.
“Why is he so busy? He’s just a headmaster, right?” Ruby wondered in curiosity and Yang rolled her eyes as the two of them began to walk behind the rest of the crowd.
“Who knows? He’s definitely been weird whenever he’s visited. Wish I had the answers for you sis, but let’s not go digging quite yet,” Yang spoke cautiously and Ruby rolled her eyes.
“Yang Xiao Long, not wanting to stick her nose where it doesn’t belong? Who are you and what happened to my sister?” Ruby teased and Yang just laughed in response as she shook her head.
“Oh, I’ll go digging alright. I just want to figure out my team tomorrow first before getting into problems,” Yang wrapped her arm around Ruby’s shoulder and pulled her close, “Here’s hoping I’m on your team so you can bust me outta jail if it comes to that.”
“Tai said the next time you’re in jail, he’s not hiding us when I break you out or paying your bail,” Ruby reminded, to which the response she got was just Yang shrugging her shoulders, uncaring of the statement.
“He also said that the last twenty times I’ve been there. ‘Sides, Uncle Qrow said Tai also told Team Stark the same thing,” Yang smirked back but her demeanor fell when she saw the sadness that this statement put onto her sister’s face, “What’s wrong Rubes?”
“I just… miss Ma and Mama…” Ruby wrapped her arms around herself and began to shiver slightly, “I… just want to hug them again.”
“Sis…” Yang frowned as her sister began to lightly cry and pulled her into a hug, uncaring of the looks sent towards them by other students, and the white-haired girl who had run into Ruby earlier looked at them with a contemplative look on her face, almost jealous of the two sisters. The girl just shook her head and continued to walk.
“Ignore it, Weiss. You’re a Schnee. Affection is not meant for us,” Weiss thought to herself unconvincingly, knowing already she was just trying to lie to herself. She tried to ignore these thoughts and continued walking, that is until Jaune tripped and fell on top of her.
“Uh… hi. Sorry,” Jaune apologized sheepishly as he got up and extended a hand down to the girl he didn’t know, “Do you need help getting up?”
“Of course not! I… I’m a Schnee, I can’t lose myself that easily. He already apologized, accepting his help now would mean I could ask for a favor later,” Weiss told herself as she took Jaune’s hand and stood up, brushing herself off and scowled at the boy.
“Watch where you’re going next time,” Weiss reprimanded lightly, grateful that she wasn’t getting as annoyed as she used to. Jaune’s shoulders fell slightly and Weiss could immediately tell that he took her words far more seriously than she had meant.
“Sorry… uh, by the way, you have a leaking dust jar in your sheath. I think it’s water dust?” Jaune pointed out cautiously and Weiss glanced down at her sheath, where her sword, Myrtenaster, stayed and indeed the sheath has droplets of water falling from it and then evaporating into dust particles.
“Well, thank you, mister…” Weiss thanked after she pulled out her sword and dislodged the water dust container, pulling out a small handkerchief to cover it in until it could be replaced. Weiss awkwardly waited a moment for Jaune to respond as he realized she had been asking for his name.
“Oh. I’m Jaune Arc, short, sweet, rolls off the tongue, the ladies love it,” Jaune winked and Weiss raised an eyebrow.
“Do they?” Weiss questioned, wondering why he introduced himself like that.
“No. I mean, they will… I hope they will. My mom always says… never mind…” Jaune put his hoodie hood up and tightened it to hide his embarrassed face. Weiss just shook her head and walked away, leaving Jaune to his embarrassment.
“Great job, Jaune. Screwing things up like normal,” Jaune berated himself as he put his hood back down and broke off from the crowd to head to Professor Ozpin’s office like his sister had said to. Saphron had been horrified, to say the least, that she had forgotten to unlock Jaune’s aura during his training and had apologized a lot for that. She said she’d call Ozpin and explain the situation to him and hopefully, he could get things sorted out. Here’s hoping he didn’t completely mess this up.
“Let’s be honest, I probably will,” Jaune thought negatively, feeling more and more unsure as he reached the elevator.
While Jayne readied himself to head up to Ozpin’s office, elsewhere Ruby had found herself engrossed into her scroll as she relaxed into a chair in the common areas they would all share for the night. After her crying not too long ago, Ruby found herself stared at even more. At least Yang had her friends from Signal to talk to right now. So she ignored it as best she could while she texted Penny.
Gemstone: Heya. How’re you doing dear?
Brightlight: Ruby!!! How has your first day at Beacon been proceeding? Have you encountered any difficulties?
Oh yes, I am doing quite well myself. I’m sure you recall that classes at Atlas Academy began last week and they have all been proceeding quite well!
Gemstone: Yay!!! Wish I could say the same. Yang kinda ditched me earlier after a joke she made. Then I think I made three friends? Also, someone with white hair yelled at me for being in the way of her luggage. Then after Professor Ozpin gave his opening speech, I kinda had a breakdown and cried into Yang.
Brightlight: It seems you have been having an eventful day today. I am glad to hear that you have made some new friends though. How did you meet them?
Gemstone: Well I met Ren and Nora due to me making a dumb joke that Nora overheard. Then I met Jaune after that white-haired girl yelled at me, but he left an impression earlier by vomiting on the plane. And yes I already brought up to him about his aura not being unlocked. I think he went to see Ozpin or something after he called his sister.
Brightlight: That is very unusual. From what I know, the headmasters of each academy check to see if every student’s aura is unlocked when reviewing applications. It is something that has to be marked for these kinds of situations. Perhaps Professor Ozpin did not notice it upon first inspection.
Gemstone: Yeah, I guess…
Brightlight: Your use of ellipses indicates that you’re feeling somewhat down. What is wrong, Ruby?
Gemstone: Just… kinda hate how I can feel everyone staring at me. For getting in early, for crying to Yang, for trying to curl up into a ball in the corner right now.
Brightlight: Do you wish to call me? My classes have concluded for the day already, as evidenced by the speed of my replies.
Gemstone: Sure, gimme a minute or two.
Ruby sat up off the floor and stretched her shoulders as she pocketed her scroll for a moment and began to walk out of the common area. As she did so, Blake looked up from her book to take note that Ruby was the only person leaving the common area to head elsewhere. Blake silently decided she would follow after the wolf faunus to see what was going on.
“And maybe to try and connect to another faunus here,” Blake silently added to herself as she quickly and quietly followed the red-cloaked girl outside into an empty courtyard as the sun was beginning to set and the girl sat down on a bench and pulled out her scroll. Within moments, a small hologram call was being displayed. It seemed to have been a girl around their age who was smiling very brightly at Ruby.
“Girlfriend Ruby!” Penny happily cheered and Blake’s eyes widened from this and felt a small smile come on her face that this Ruby, who everyone knew was younger than everyone else at this point and whom people were not so so secretly talking about, had a good support system in a sister and a girlfriend.
“Better than I ever had,” Blake silently and bitterly added to herself as she decided to sit behind a tree and read her book, checking to make sure her earplugs for her second set of ears were still in. Wearing the earplugs and a bow may be seen by some as disrespectful to other faunus, but Blake just wanted to hide from it all. Pretend she was normal, “Though maybe I’ll never be normal. Maybe I wasn’t meant to be.”