A RenXRuby fic, which I have been informed, is called Red Lotus.

I don't own RWBY, and this fic was inspired by the story 'All These Lonely Nights' by Ragehappy Mavin Fan.

If you're reading this, consider this inspiration from you.

I ...I...well; I know I said I would have news now, but I don't. Monty refused my request to own RWBY, so now I just write Fanfiction.

*Sobs*

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"Let me tell you this: if you meet a loner, no matter what they tell you, it's not because they enjoy solitude. It's because they have tried to blend into the world before, and people continue to disappoint them."

-Jodie Picoult, My Sister's Keeper-

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Ruby was a loner; it wasn't exactly rocket science why she was. She never had sleepovers; she was an extreme introvert and weapon fanatic; she hated large crowds and was socially awkward. The list could go on. Ruby was what many would call 'weird'. Ruby was, to say the least, completely ignorant to what people say about her, what they want to say about her. She was only fifteen and she basically chased a criminal- who got away- to get in. Of course, Ozpin saw not only potential, but leadership within her and made her the leader of her little group; so he not only subjected her to more rumours by the student body, but also, unwillingly, got her sidelong glances and...Suggestive smiles from her friends and fellow students.

It seems people liked introverted, scythe wielding warriors at fifteen.

Ruby, in question, was sat on the roof of Beacon on a Saturday, basking in the warmth the sun provided her pale skin. She could sit and sunbathe for hours and her skin would never lose its sickly pale complexion, and she stopped trying to figure it out after a while. She was currently thinking about a certain something called a certain scythe, Crescent Rose; designs, blueprints, schematics and more flowed through her brain, clouding her thoughts until a shadow loomed over her, and a pair of twin, magenta eyes stared at her.

"Ruby, can I ask why you're up here when the sun's out?" Ren's magenta eyes flashed into her mind for a second, before it was clouded by weapons and schematics again. Though, she was forcing these thoughts on, not letting them flow.

"Oh hey, Ren... Just thinking, is all." She said absentmindedly. In reality she was taking apart crescent rose and a number of her teammate's and friend's weapons to add upgrades and the likes. Ren's Stormflowers crossed her mind, and they stayed there.

Then, something occurred to her; she didn't know how they worked. Her friends had shown her how theirs worked, but Ren hadn't. More importantly though, every single person on her own team and JNPR could be considered friends, but Ren...she wasn't sure.

Her head darted up so quick that Ren had to take a step back to allow her to jump to her feet.

"Ren...We're friends, right?" Ruby asked, looking at Ren, then her shoes.

Ren, in question, was raising his eyebrow. "Do you not want to be friends?" this side to Ruby was a rare treat, but right now she was red in the face, sad and looked like a kicked puppy...too bad for Ren he liked puppies.

"I do! It's just you haven't really talked to me that much, and we haven't had a proper conversation and we haven't told secrets or done friend stuff or-" Ren simply spoke to stop Ruby from talking.

"Look Ruby, I know we haven't really talked that often, if at all, and I would like to be your friend, but there is a question I would like to ask."

"...of course. Yeah, of course...!" Ruby was over the moon that Ren wanted to be her friend, her face showing glee.

"Don't you have enough friends?" he questioned, and saw the drop in her cheery attitude.

"Well...Weiss doesn't really like me as a friend; she 'tolerates my leading her'. Yang is my sister, and after being around her for fifteen years of my life, it would be nice to talk to someone else. Blake doesn't really socialise, so I doubt I could hold a conversation with her or have fun. Pyrrha and Jaune are nice, but they're more of..." Ruby was lost for the word.

"...Friendly acquaintances...?" Ren guessed which got him a nod from Ruby.

"Yeah...but they don't even want to talk or go out to do something or...I don't know, they're too wrapped up in themselves to notice me..." Ruby gave a small sigh, and for once, Ren saw a side he never thought he would see to Ruby; sadness. "Nora...she's too hyper to hold a conversation, and if she does it will most definitely be about sloths or something."

Ruby gave a rueful smile and a sad laugh. "No one seems to want to be my actual friend, even though they're all friendly and happy around me. I've been lonely, a loner, an introvert, all my life. I just want a real friend. Someone to talk to and trust, someone to be near and not have to worry about anything, to tell secrets, to travel with and laugh with..."Tears started to fall from Ruby's eyes. "I just want a friend..."

Ren was shocked. Ruby, the always smiling Ruby who showed nothing but compassion and care towards her so-called friends, was not as happy as everyone thought she was. They all thought her always smiling, cheery, whimsical and care-free; she was the exact opposite. He could almost guarantee that when Ruby turned her head after Weiss scolded her for something admittedly cute, she was silently wiping a tear away. Or when she was left behind by her sister and 'friends' as they all went to a movie Ruby couldn't see he thought he saw, as he walked off with them, a small tear and a frown on her face before she turned and walked away, hiding her pain behind smiles and cheerfulness.

Now that he thought about it, the teachers seemed to understand this, like they saw this happening, the internal conflict within Ruby's head; they seemed to be nice to her not because they favoured her as a student- which they did- but because she was sad and lonely and she was hiding behind a mask of happiness.

Fake happiness.

It also occurred to Ren, as he stroked Ruby's hair as she sobbed into his green jacket, that she was probably the loneliest person in the world-Weiss probably has nothing on her loneliness. Her sister always left her to go with her own friends, her teammates didn't want to befriend her, like they didn't care. Team JNPR just didn't like her as a friend, and saw her as a companion, nothing more.

Lastly, it dawned on him; that was why she invested so much time into her weapon, and offered to repair and upgrade everyone else's. She was trying to prove herself, show people she could be a good friend, but people didn't see it like that, they saw it as a way to see their weapons more in-depth, as the weapon fan they thought she was.

She wasn't a weapon fan, she just saw weapons better than people; at least weapons couldn't leave you in the dirt and make you cry when they wouldn't be your friend.

Ruby seemed to come to the same realisation as Ren, but maybe she was taking it the wrong way.

As Ren let her go and held her at shoulder length, Ruby wiped her eyes and forced a smile, to which Ren frowned at; he didn't like her hiding her pain.

But she wanted to. It was all she knew to do, hide her pain behind many masks of the opposite of what she was feeling.

"Thanks, Ren...sorry for snotting up your shirt." She shyly chuckled, before turning to walk away, seemingly forgetting about the little outburst and her attempted friendship with Ren. It was as if some sort of switch had turned off, and she forgot her pain. But she didn't, it was just well hidden.

Ren frowned deeper, and called out to Ruby as she walked over to the doorway that led to the school's second floor, the dorm area. "Ruby!"

She stopped walking and turned, facing him with a small smile, clearly forced now that Ren knew what to look for.

"Please stop hiding your pain behind smiles; if you need anything, just come and talk to me." For the first time ever, Ren smiled a genuine smile and his tone filled with warmth. "Just come and see me if you need anything okay? I'm pretty sure friends help each other out."

Ruby looked puzzled for a second, then sad, then happy when he finished. "We...We're friends?"

Ren nodded, a small smile on his face. "Of course we are."

Ruby just looked perplexed and slightly nodded, turned, and walked off, a look of purpose in her steps; though what that purpose was is, as of to Ren, unknown.

He just shrugged, a small smile playing his lips as he walked back to his dorm a little time after Ruby entered hers.

Blake, who was watching the whole ordeal from her little perch in the shadows, was utterly mortified. Ruby, who she assumed was always cheery, always happy, was silently suffering? It seems, as she came to the same conclusion Ren did, Blake was growing a frown as Ruby smiled everything off.

Blake had to do something.

(^^^^^^)

Ruby entered her dorm room, the same smile on her face as when she always had to see Blake sat there, curiously with no book in her hands, Weiss filing her nails as she always did and Yang sitting in her bunk reading the latest edition of X-Ray and Vav.

"Hey guys!" Ruby said, her voice chipper, despite what had happened earlier. It was clear that Ruby was hiding everything she was feeling behind that smile and voice now to Blake; it was painfully obvious to her and Ren now.

"Ruby..." Weiss said nonchalantly.

"Hey Rubes." Yang muttered, clearly distracted by the comic she was reading.

Blake frowned up at her partner and Weiss before nodding with a small smile on her face to Ruby. "Hello again Ruby." she said politely.

Ruby was taken aback by Blake's sudden kindness, and stumbled over her words. "Oh...hey Blake. Umm...how's it going?" she was just throwing her luck to the wind; Blake never did talk to her a lot.

Blake seemed to smile a little more. "Well, I read a good book, which I think you'll like and I was hoping you'd like to go for a walk tomorrow. I need to get out and stretch my legs anyway."

Ruby didn't know what was happening to her teammate, but she was going to milk this for every ounce of luck there was, damn it!

"Sure...Hey, umm...do you want to...maybe...read together later?" reading and taking peaceful walks through the safe parts of the forest were really all they had in common. Blake seemed to light up like a Christmas tree for some reason, but Ruby didn't seem to care, and Weiss and yang were too busy. She was so going to milk this new friendly Blake for every ounce of friendship she had, and then some.

"Of course." Blake beckoned Ruby closer and the little redhead did so with a dizzying amount of stamina. "How about we go for a walk right now. These two don't really seem to care, anyway."

Ruby nodded, and followed Blake as she led the way out of the dorm and to the forest, unaware of Blake's real motives for this.

'I'll give you a friend you can rely on if it kills me, Ruby.'

Whist they walked out, Ren was heading to the forest, trailing after the two girls with his thoughts travelling the same direction as Blake's.

'I'll give you a friend you can rely on if I have to get Nora to kill me, Ruby'