Chapter Two – Diversions

Ruby had been almost as bubbly and excited as her team mates had expected, but she seemed to be trying to keep a lid on her excitement. She was excited when she got some cards from her classmates at Signal, and squealed when she got a box of cookies from her uncle. But oddly enough she only had a couple before closing the box and putting them away on her shelf.

It had been the same during lunch earlier on. Team JNPR had given Ruby a card signed by all of them as well as some small presents, a picture frame from Ren containing a group picture of Team RWBY, a rose themed hairclip from Pyrrha, a bag of sweets from Nora and a book on weapons from Jaune.

Ruby loved all of the presents, because it showed that her friends knew things that were important to her and had taken those thoughts into account when getting the presents. But again oddly enough Ruby seemed to try and curb her enthusiasm and only had a hand full of the sweets Nora got for her.

Everyone had fun chatting about various topics over lunch, and thankfully no one revisited the discussions about Cardin's comments before. Both teams knew that Ruby was still sensitive about her leadership abilities and they all wanted to get her thinking about more pleasant things so that she would be her cheerful self again.

Cardin himself had kept his distance, shooting the group a dirty look, but he averted his gaze when Yang, Blake, Pyrrha and Jaune noticed his look and returned harsh glares of their own when Ruby was looking at the picture frame, chatting animatedly with Weiss.

Weiss briefly noticed the looks her friends were shooting behind her and didn't need to turn around to see what was going on, she just have a subtle nod to the four before she turned her attention back to her partner. She smiled as she remembered when the picture had been taken; it was taken two weeks before, when the two teams had gone out to a quiet area on the edge of the Emerald forest for an inter-team picnic.

The fact was it was hardly anything special, Yang had some music playing on her scroll, and Pyrrha and Blake had taken care of the food, and everyone was sat on blankets just relaxing and exchanging banter and general conversation, but all of them agreed that it was a fantastic day out, nothing extravagant, just a simple gathering of friends enjoying each other's company.

Weiss chuckled as Ruby reminisced about some of the jokes that had been tossed about that day and caught Pyrrha giving the heiress a subtle smile and a thumbs up, the envelope Weiss had given the warrior in her other hand, quickly hidden from Ruby's sight. Weiss smiled and nodded in return, and her attention was once again on her partner. With Pyrrha's confirmation, one more part of her plan had fallen into place.

Suddenly, Weiss' scroll started chiming, indicating an incoming call. With an apologetic look the heiress got up and went into the hallway to answer, not noticing the slightly unhappy look on Ruby's face as she left.

Ruby watched Weiss talking into her scroll through the doorway and wondered once again what was going on with the heiress, because this wasn't the first time Weiss had suddenly taken off for some reason.

Over the last few weeks Weiss had been disappearing to read messages or take calls on her scroll several times a day. It didn't matter if the heiress was reading or talking with her friends, the second her scroll started chiming, she would excuse herself as fast as possible. The only times she didn't get a call was when she was in class.

Ruby had asked a few times what the calls and messages were about, the first time Weiss had firmly told Ruby to mind her own business, but after a moment she had calmed down and apologised for snapping, but said that it was a private matter, something to do with the company, and then she went back to her call and stepped into the hallway.

This situation kept repeating itself, Weiss getting a call or message, and sometimes Ruby would ask about them only to be told that it was something private. In the past Weiss had mentioned that sometimes her family would contact her with regards to a potential suitor. Of course Weiss never showed any interest in those arrangements, and the few times that one of them called, Weiss had spared no effort into dissuading the suitor from calling her again.

One suitor had been reduced to tears just before Weiss had ended the call in a huff.

"Hey, what's up Ruby?"

Ruby jumped slightly and turned her attention to her sister, who, along with Blake and team JNPR, was looking at her with curiosity and slight concern. Ruby flushed slightly, her social anxiety flaring up once again.

"Huh, sorry, what was that Yang?" She asked unsurely, fidgeting slightly in her seat.

Yang shared a look with Blake and the two girls nodded imperceptibly, both realising the cause of their leaders lack of attention to the current situation.

"I asked what's up; you've barely touched your lunch. That's not like you sis, is there something wrong?" Yang asked, raising a curious eyebrow.

Ruby squirmed in her seat, really not wanting to talk about what was bothering her, but knowing that she couldn't hide it from Yang forever. Sisters always know when something is up with their sibling, and older sisters are always able to figure out what the younger sister was trying to hide. At least that's how Ruby saw it, because Yang had an almost psychic ability to pick up on anything and everything that was causing Ruby some kind of concern.

The problem was that this usually led to monumental teasing or advice that the younger girl could never follow.

Ruby eventually sighed in defeat, knowing that Yang would ferret out the problem, but she was hoping that the presence of all of her friends would help keep the pun-loving girl from teasing her sister too much.

"Well...I'm kinda...that is...I-I...oh, I'm worried about Weiss." Ruby eventually got out, looking at the table and just waiting for the embarrassing comments to start.

"Why are you worried about her Ruby?" Blake asked, her voice gentle and reassuring, and when Ruby looked up, she saw Blake looking at her with a small, kind smile.

She couldn't have seen that Blake had stepped slightly on one of Yang's toes with her Stiletto, not hard enough to hurt, but the implied warning was there and had been understood.

Ruby sat for a few moments, noticing that Team JNPR were giving her encouraging looks, silently offering their help to the unsure teenager. Taking a deep breath and trying to relax she started speaking.

"Well, she's always getting these calls and disappearing for a while talking on her scroll, and sometimes she can be talking for hours! Have I done something to make her mad at me again? I mean I haven't used the whistle in over two months! And why is she so distant these days? I can't even talk to her properly, it's like she's avoiding me!"

Ruby kept laying everything down before her friends, who were fighting down the instinct to flinch with every other word Ruby said. They all knew, thanks to Weiss' note, what was going on and why the heiress was talking on her scroll allot, but if they wanted to save the plan they couldn't say a thing. No one, it seemed, had taken into account how the plan would start to upset the younger girl.

Ruby's prowess on the battlefield and natural talent had a rather difficult side effect that caused problems sometimes. The fact was, everyone else at Beacon was at least 17, however Ruby was still very young. Add that to her slightly introverted and shy personality, it was no wonder that the girl would start getting concerned over one of her friends suddenly acting distant. Sometimes her friends completely forgot the fact that Ruby was younger than the rest of them.

Pyrrha stood up and moved around the table, sitting next to Ruby and putting a comforting arm around the shorter girl's shoulders.

"I don't know exactly what Weiss is doing, but I really don't think that she is upset at you, she is always sitting next to you in class after all."

"Yeah that's right, if she was really avoiding you she could just move to another seat." Jaune piped up, trying to help encourage his fellow team leader.

Yang and Blake kept supportive smiles on their faces but quickly locked their gazes, silently coming to an agreement that they needed to speak to Weiss as soon as they could.

"Ruby, if it's that big a problem then you should talk to Weiss about it. I don't think she realises that this is upsetting you this much." Blake's careful, logical words helped to cut through Ruby's concern. Blake and Yang could see Ruby starting to relax and think things through and they silently breathed a sigh of relief.

"Besides, she's probably got allot of things coming through from SDC to deal with, remember, her dad's the owner of the whole company after all, she gave you that leaflet on our first day remember?" Yang decided to add into the discussion.

"Yeah...yeah I guess you're right. Thanks allot you guys." Ruby eventually said after thinking everything over, managing a small but honest smile.

A little while later everyone around the table was chatting amicably about various topics, including the private training Pyrrha was giving Jaune. Everyone was rather surprised when the redhead mentioned that Jaune was steadily getting better at fighting.

"Seriously? Are you honestly telling me 'He' is getting better?" Yang asked incredulously, pointing an accusing finger at Jaune, who visibly deflated at the gesture.

"Yes I am and he is. He's been getting progressively more confident; he even landed several blows before I knocked him down." Pyrrha replied, looking at Yang with an expression on her face that almost said 'I dare you to argue with me.', thankfully a dare the blond did not take up.

"That's great! I knew you could do it Jaune!" Ruby exclaimed, unintentionally easing the minor tension that had been caused just moments before. Jaune smiled bashfully and he relaxed into his seat, taking a sip of his drink.

"He certainly can, a good kick to the leg and a punch to the stomach, and he can now block most of my moves."

For an instant Yang looked like she was about to make another comment, but she stopped when she noticed the raised eyebrow Pyrrha shot in her direction. A moment later a chime echoed throughout the cafeteria signalling that the lunch period was over and students had to make their way back to their classes.

Both teams RWBY and JNPR quickly finished the remains of their meals and picked up their trays, putting them on the side of the kitchen area for the staff to deal with later, all the while sharing curious banter about the next class they were going to be taking.

As they left the cafeteria, Yang and Blake immediately spotted Weiss making her way back to the group, putting her scroll back into her pouch quickly and smiling at her team mates. Ruby turned around and noticed Weiss had joined them, her own expression immediately brightening.

"Weiss! Hey! How was...I mean, everything, you know, ok?"

Weiss could feel her expression softening, and it was all that she could do not to smile at the adorable sight of Ruby going from just fine to painfully nervous in the space of no seconds flat. She nodded at Ruby and checked the time on her scroll, frowning slightly as she noticed how much time was left before their next class.

"Yes everything is fine Ruby, but if we don't get to class Professor Goodwitch is going to make sure things ARENT fine." Weiss responded, nodding in the direction of the classes.

Ruby didn't have anything she could add to that and simply nodded, falling onto step next to her partner. As the group walked, Ruby couldn't help but steal glances at Weiss, partly wondering why the heiress has been so distant recently, but mostly marvelling at the changes in her relationship with the older girl in the past few months.

No one could deny the changes between team RWBY's leader and the heiress, almost every day the two were together, working on class assignments, having lunch in the cafeteria, or just wandering around the campus talking. It was a stark change from their first interactions, Weiss chastising Ruby for some error, no matter how small, the younger girl trying desperately to appease her team mate.

Indeed it was more unusual to see the two apart, and rarer still to see them not smiling.

Ruby still felt it was strange, the changes in Weiss' attitude, the closeness they now shared, it was all so bizarre to her, yet so wonderful and precious. Ruby didn't think there was anything that she wouldn't give to keep this companionship she now shared with Weiss.

She remembered the morning after her food poisoning, when she had awoken to find herself wrapped in Weiss' arms. When she opened her eyes, it took some time for her to realise what she was seeing; Weiss still deep asleep, her arms cradling the younger girl to her chest. It took her a moment more to realise that was the source of the comforting rhythm that had greeted her as she awoke from her sleep.

As Weiss' gentle heartbeat threatened to send her back to sleep, Ruby's eyes suddenly went wide as she realised where exactly she was. Her entire body froze and she held her breath, almost desperately trying to figure out what was going on. The sudden surge of panic was more than enough to clear any remaining drowsiness from her mind and she quickly remembered the events of the previous day.

Weiss' visit to the company who catered for the party, Blake and Yang trying to distract her from worrying about the heiress, and falling asleep still upset and wishing her partner was there with her, hugging the older girl's bolero jacket as close as possible, she remembered all of it.

And she couldn't help feeling like a pathetic little brat.

As she laid there, an unhappy frown on her face, Ruby thought about the day before. She really didn't know why it was so important to her that Weiss was there, or why she was so upset when Weiss left. The only thing she knew for certain about the experience was when Weiss was by her side and holding her hand or taking care of her, she felt safe.

'But I'm the leader; I should be making my team mates feel safe! I shouldn't be getting sick like this!'

As the sun started to filter into the dorm room, Ruby kept as still as possible, trying to make sense of what was going on, all the while, self-doubts and recriminations rolled around her head like a stormy sea.

She didn't even notice when she clutched herself closer to the heiress, the warmth of the older girl slowly soothing her worries, even though it could do nothing to ease them.

At the very least they weren't getting any worse.

"How are you feeling?"

It took everything Ruby had to keep the surprised squeak quiet, her entire body going rigid at the unexpected question. Very slowly she turned her head to look towards the other side of the room, and saw the affectionate yet amused glint in Blake's amber eyes. Blake's smile only grew as she saw Weiss Roll over onto her side, letting Ruby lay on her back to face Blake properly, and she grinned slightly as her young leader started babbling.

"B-Blake! I swear I didn't do anything! I-I-I don't know what happened b-b-but-"

"It's ok Ruby."

"-I really don't know why Weiss is here or anything really! This is all just a-

As it became apparent that Ruby would keep going in professing her innocence, Blake simply shook her head bemusedly and walked over, putting her hand over her yammering leaders mouth. The Faunus girl chuckled quietly as Ruby seemed determined to get her point across, her ramblings confined to quiet mumblings behind Blake's hand.

It took about thirty seconds for Ruby to realise that Blake wasn't listening to her, and it only made the young girl blush even more than she was before as she stopped trying to talk, finally taking note that she was prevented from speaking at the moment.

Once Ruby had stopped mumbling and was simply laying there, the picture of supreme embarrassment, Blake waited a moment more to make sure her leader wasn't going to start speaking and took her hand away, moving it up to Ruby's forehead to check her temperature.

"You don't feel as warm as you did yesterday, how's your stomach?"

Ruby looked away for a moment before looking back at Blake, her shoulders slowly relaxing. She was beyond grateful for the change in topic, and was determined to avoid the subject of her current sleeping arrangement as much as she possibly could.

"It feels better, but still a bit weird. I'm hungry though..."

Blake smiled gently and rubbed Ruby's head a little, making the younger girl smile a bit for the first time that morning.

"I'm not surprised, a hand full of crackers do not a full meal make. Unfortunately we'll have to stick with them until the doctor says otherwise. Or would you rather some toast? I can get some from the cafeteria."

The second Blake mentioned the crackers, Ruby's expression did a marvellous job of expressing her distaste at the idea of eating more of the bland biscuits, but after a few seconds her expression changed, giving her a depressed appearance.

"No...I'll have the crackers...I don't want to bother you more than I already have."

Blake frowned at the unhappy look on Ruby's face, instinctively knowing what the younger girl was thinking about.

"Ruby don't be silly, people get ill every day, and it isn't limited to the average person. Police officers, doctors, judges, even government leaders, they can all get sick at some time, and just because they get sick doesn't mean that they let people down and fail them. You haven't bothered us ok?" The Faunus girl spoke gently but firmly, her gaze locked on Ruby's uncertain silver eyes. Ruby looked away, for a moment trying to hold on to her melancholy state, but after a moment, she looked back at the Faunus girl and smiled, nodding her head gently and relaxing once more, unconsciously settling more into the arms of her partner.

Neither Blake nor Ruby noticed the slight curling at the corners of Weiss' mouth.

A few moments later, Blake came back to see that her young leader had fallen asleep. Blake smiled gently and laid the packet of crackers on the corner of the cabinet, leaving the two sleeping partners to their rest.

Ruby shook the recollection out of her head as she noticed she had been daydreaming all the way to the class room.

"So, anyone have an idea what this 'something special' Goodwitch mentioned is?" Yang asked, immediately grabbing the attention of both teams.

"I'm not sure, she seems to think it's going to be fun but at the same time she is acting like it's something VERY important." Pyrrha's reply was meted by nods of agreement throughout both teams, who couldn't really think of anything else that would fit. Goodwitch wasn't often very subtle when it came to her lesson plans

"But why would she tell us about something interesting before the lesson? She's never given us a heads up like that before; remember some of the surprise tests she's thrown at us?" Ruby piped up, her voice becoming rather disgruntled at the memory.

Professor Goodwitch had taken over a class in Grimm Studies the month before and handed out a surprise test, something no one was expecting, and several students had some trouble with the sudden test, but none more so than Ruby considering the test was of intermediate to advanced level, even for first years.

It seems that no one had taken into account the gap in Ruby's education, considering her prodigal jump from Signal to Beacon. Needless to say Ruby's confidence had taken a beating when she was told she had failed that test by a significant margin.

Naturally Team WBY, once they found out of course, made sure to go straight to professor Goodwitch, who had the decency to look embarrassed, considering several of the topics covered in the test she handed out were subjects taught to students the year BEFORE they came to Beacon.

Ruby was told that her score from the test would be voided and a new test would be compiled for her, and her teachers informed to take into account her early admission. After that, Ruby sat the new test the next day and did very well, almost getting a perfect grade.

"Don't worry about it Ruby, they learned from the last time, I promise!" Yang reassured, grabbing Ruby around the neck and pulling her into a hug, making the shorter girl start frantically waving her arms to try and get away.

"Yes Yang and you almost got suspended when you said you'd 'Bust some heads' if they didn't sort the problem." Was Blake's deadpan response as she pried her partners arm away from Ruby, allowing the younger girl to drop to her knees and cough as she tried to breathe through her slightly bruised throat.

Weiss was at her partners side immediately, helping her to stand and rubbing the younger girls back to help ease the coughing. Ruby smiled at the gesture and swallowed a little, the pain passing quickly, as Blake and Weiss shot pointed looks at Yang, who seemed almost oblivious to the discomfort she had just put her sister through.

Team JNPR decided to stay out of the situation and were pointedly looking anywhere other than at their neighbour team.

As they waited for the doors to open and admit the students, Weiss leaned against the wall and relaxed, her mind drifting to the last few preparations that she needed to take care of. Or at least that was her plan, because she was disturbed from her thoughts by the arrival of her Faunus team mate, who was leaning against the wall next to the heiress as close as possible without invading personal space.

"I'm not going to tell you what to do, but I'm going to ask that you be a bit more careful with the calls you get, Ruby's getting rather upset." Blake muttered, her comment only audible to the girl next to her.

Weiss raised an eyebrow as a sudden stab of vexation shot through her mind, an almost instinctive reaction to potential criticism. However, knowing that Blake more than likely had a good reason for commenting, and the fact that it was apparently causing trouble for Ruby, Weiss fell back on a tactic she had found to be almost a regular occurrence in the last few months, and took a deep breath, counted to three, then asked her team mate to elaborate.

Weiss found it made things more pleasant dealing with situations like this when she did not immediately start shouting at the other person she was speaking to.

Making sure to keep her voice as quiet as possible, knowing Blake's sensitive hearing could pick up her response, Weiss eased into a relaxed stance, trying to avoid drawing any attention to herself, and trying to keep the slight edge of concern out of her voice.

"How are the calls upsetting her?"

"She's begun to think that she's done something to upset you, according to her you've taken allot of calls at various times during the day, and she said you've been a bit distant, as if you're trying to avoid her. She's probably confused at the change in routine, you two have been practically inseparable for the last few weeks, but with you taking these calls and all the other preparations, it's clear to see you haven't been able to spend as much time with Ruby. None of us considered that she would notice you working allot on the preparations."

Blake spoke with a slow pace, making sure to pause whenever she saw Ruby glance anywhere near Blake's general direction. Weiss maintained a calm, if bored expression on her face, but Blake could spot the heiress' eyes narrowing very slightly at the corners, and her mouth pulling down into an almost invisible frown.

Blake felt a good deal of sympathy for the shorter woman, knowing what it was like trying to do one thing, but getting a completely different result for her efforts.

"I wanted to tell you about this before things went any further. We convinced Ruby to come and talk to you at some point, but I wanted to let you know what was going on, and give you some time to come up with a cover story. Yang mentioned 'SDC business', which may be a good option to go with."

Weiss had a thoughtful look on her face and nodded minutely, her mind already working to process the information she had been given. The heiress thought that everything had been going according to plan, but she hadn't considered that all the effort she had been focusing into making sure that her plan went off without a hitch would upset the person she was working so hard for. It was an oversight that left Weiss wanting to kick herself.

"Thanks for telling me Blake, I'll sort something out after class."

***
End of Chapter 2

Authors notes: Ok, I know I'm doing this allot but I really can't apologise enough for the massive delays for this chapter. Writers block and not having enough time to work on the story have been a major hindrance to me.

But I just want to make one thing perfectly clear. There is NO WAY I will abandon this story! It may take longer than I hoped, it may even take a few YEARS (I hope not), but this story will be finished come snow, wind, fire, earthquake, or plague of snakes! (Bonus points to anyone who can guess where that came from)

Now, there's one thing that I felt I should clarify with my story. Technically it could be considered an AU because I have edited or plain ignored several parts of the canon story line. This is not because I don't want to include them, far from it, for example I would love to have Penny asking odd little questions all over the place, or have Sun strutting his stuff and making smart aleck comments.

The reason I haven't included them in this story is because for right now where the story is, I haven't found a point to bring these characters in that is believable. I also don't want to diverge from canon too much (or at least any more than I have already) So just give me some time, and I'll do my best to introduce some more characters.

And on the subject, I'm sure some people have wondered if there will be any Bumblebee or other pairings in this story. The simple answer to that question is this: I really don't know.

Personally I find White Rose pairings easier to write rather than Bumblebee, Blake and Yang I see as best friends, or as close to being sisters as possible at times, at other times it seems like they just don't mesh at all. Remember if you will what happened when it was revealed that Blake was a Faunus, Yang sat in her chair and didn't move when Blake ran off, and after that when the girls were searching for Blake, the only one who seemed intensely concerned with finding her was Ruby. Yang just, to be perfectly blunt, didn't look too bothered.

Then again with Yang getting Blake to take a rest and go to the dance, that previous argument was destroyed, but thinking about it, the dance isn't anywhere close considering where I am with my story so far.

Maybe I'm reading into the situation in a completely different direction to everyone else, but the fact is I see Yang and Blake as dear friends, but I have trouble seeing them as a couple. I'm not saying that people who like that pairing are wrong, not at all, in fact there are a few stories I have read that have a really good Bumblebee pairing, but I just have trouble seeing how I could pair Blake and Yang together in a believable romantic relationship.

Plus, Blake has allot on her plate worrying about what the White fang are up to, dealing with a sudden relationship with her partner might just make her snap in my mind.

As for other relationships such as Pyrrah and Jaune, or Ren and Nora, there's no way I could possibly top what has been seen on screen for them, excluding Ren and Nora, who 'aren't really "together"...eh he he...'. In the end, I just want to focus on just one pairing for now, and then see how things go.

See you Next time.