A/N: Sorry if my updates are a bit sporadic. This isn't my main story, so I'm not focusing on it as much. Also, remember that this story is following Ruby around, so some flashbacks/scenes surrounding other characters might not be written out.

Chapter 3: Welcome to Beacon

Ruby sat next to Yang on a bench outside the airship docks, kicking her legs out in boredom. Weiss had run off to the dorm to grab some extra Lien, and Blake had said she didn't want to go with them, instead deciding to go to the library.

"Alright we can go now." Weiss said, making Ruby jump and look up. 'When did she get here?'

"Great!" Yang leaped off the bench and grinned. Ruby hopped off after her. "Let's go!" Yang shouted, before turning and beginning to board the airship, Weiss at her heels. Ruby had to run to keep up with the two taller girls.

"Wait up Yang!" Ruby called, trying to speed up a bit. She didn't want to use her Semblance as she wouldn't be able to stop in such a small area. Yang stopped walking and laughed sheepishly.

"Sorry sis! I forgot you were shorter now!" Ruby glared at her and pushed passed her onto the ship. Yang blinked. "What? Was it something I said?" Weiss rolled her eyes at the blonde and boarded the ship as well.

Ruby hid slightly behind her sister as they walked down the streets of Vale. Everything was much bigger than before, and it was all really rather intimidating. Strangers waved at her every time they noticed her staring and older women would beam and call her cute, making her blush. It was all so... overwhelming.

"Hey Ruby, we're here!" Yang called, and Ruby looked up at the store they stopped in front of. It was a simply clothing shop that appeared to sell mostly children's clothes. Yang tugged on her hand, pulling her into the store. "Let's see, what do you want to wear?" Ruby shrugged and started looking around. The chime above the door behind them rang out as Weiss entered, a look of distaste on her face.

"Weiss?" Ruby asked, making the white-haired girl look down to her. "What's up?" Weiss shook her head.

"Nothing." Ruby continued to stare at her. Weiss sighed and relented., "This store makes me uncomfortable, okay?" Ruby frowned and looked over the store.

"Why?"

"It's just... poor peoples clothes. I've never set foot in a store like this, alright?" Ruby giggled as Weiss began looking even more uncomfortable when they began walking deeper into the store.

"It's just clothes!" Ruby pulled her hand from Yang's, and skipped off into an aisle full of red coloured clothes. She ran her hands over the many fabrics, before pausing on a red hoodie. It had no sleeves and looked like it would be a bit big on her, but that wasn't what caught her attention. It looked exactly like the hoodie she wore when she was younger. "Yang!" She shouted as she pulled the hoodie from the shelf. She heard her sister walk up, and turned to hold it up. "Look! It's just like the one I used to wear!" Yang grabbed the hoodie from her hands and grinned.

"You're right! Let's get it!" She folded it up and draped it across her arm. "Find a few other things and then we'll go."

Around an hour later, Ruby had four red hoodies- two with long sleeves and two without, three red vests, an extra pair of boots, some socks, and seven black skirts. There was also a nice little red and black formal dress that Weiss bought her for some dance coming up. She'd never heard of this dance, but Weiss hadn't taken no for an answer. At least she didn't have to wear those silly lady-stilts that Weiss was going to. She let out a sigh of relief as they left the store. She had never really liked shopping, unless it was weapon shopping.

"Well..." Yang started, swinging the bags around. "...that was a thing." Weiss gave a non-committal hum as she checked her watch.

"We should head back now if we want to catch dinner." Ruby stretched and nodded.

"Yeah, I'm beat." She yawned, reaching up and grabbing Yang's unoccupied hand. She didn't want to get lost or be left behind. As the walked, they passed by a store with yellow police tape surrounding it.

"Another Dust robbery?" Weiss muttered, staring into the store. Ruby carefully avoided walking on some broken glass that made it to the street. She looked up at the store.

"No, that's a book shop!" She said, pointing up at the sign. "Tukson's Book Trade." Yang narrowed her eyes at the sign, and hailed a cop over.

"Hey copper! What happened?" She asked, and the cop shook his head.

"Poor bastard- oh pardon my language," He said, looking down at Ruby. "Some poor sap got offed." He wandered back into the store. Ruby felt Yang's hand tighten around hers. She looked up at Yang and Weiss, and saw them staring into the store at something she couldn't see from her angle. If she had to hazard a guess, it was probably either a body bag or a bloodstain.

"C'mon, let's go back..." She whispered, pulling on her sister's hand. Yang glanced down at her and nodded.

"Yeah."

About two hours later, Ruby and the rest of the team were seated in the library, the event from the book shop earlier pushed from their minds. Ruby glared across the table at Yang, who smirked in return. She looked down at the cards in her hands, and grinned.

"Yang Xiao Long! Prepare your Kingdom for battle!" Ruby shouted, slamming a card down on the table.

"Bring it on!" Yang shouted back. Ruby flipped her card over and smirked.

"I deploy the Atlasian Air Fleet! That means I get to fly right over your Ursai and attack your walls directly!" She made a noise reminiscent of an aeroplane as Yang gasped,

"You fiend!"

"And, my repair time only lasts one turn." She grinned victoriously. And then Yang smirked back.

"Too bad sis! You activated my trap card!"

"WHAAAAT!"

"Giant Nevermore!" Yang laughed as she placed the card in play. Ruby glared.

"You have to roll a seven or higher or else the Nevermore turns on your own forces!" Yang glared back as she picked up the die laying off to the side.

"That's a risk I'll have to take." She shook her hands together, and let the die fly. Ruby moaned pitifully as the die displayed a perfect seven. "Mwahahahahaha!" Yang laughed, taking several of Ruby's pieces off the board game in front of them. Ruby lay her head on the table and continued making pitiful sounding whines. Yang turned to Weiss, who was staring at the game in confusion. "Well Weiss? You're up!"

"Uh..." Weiss stared at her cards. "I have no idea what I'm doing." Yang rolled her eyes, and sidled up to the girl.

"It's easy!" Yang glanced at Weiss' hand. "You're playing as Vacuo, which means all Vacuo based cards have an advantage."

"That's stupid." Weiss muttered, as Yang began to rearrange her cards.

"See, look, you have Sandstorm, Desert Scavenge... ooh, oh! Look, Resourceful Raider! Now you can take Ruby's discarded Air Fleet, and put it in your hand!" Weiss blinked. "And, since Vacuo cards all have endurance, you can use Sandstorm to disable my ground forces and simultaneously infiltrate my Kingdom!" Yang then glared and pointed at Weiss dramatically. "Just know, I will take this as a declaration of war."

"And what does that mean?" Ruby piped up from her position of half-laying on the table.

"It means your three moves away from conquering Remnant!" Weiss blinked, then smirked evilly.

"Ah-hah! Fear my forces! Cower as they pillage your villages! Yes, finally, I, Weiss Schnee, will be ruler of-" She was cut off by Yang shoving a card in her face.

"Trap Card!" Weiss blinked as Yang took out her forces on the board. "Your forces have been destroyed." Weiss sat down, a scowl on her face.

"I hate this game of emotions we play!" Ruby launched herself at Weiss, who caught her with ease.

"Don't worry Weiss! We'll make it through this together!" Weiss huffed, but didn't push her away. Yang turned to Blake, who had been watching in boredom.

"Alright, Blake, your turn!" Blake looked at her cards, before standing. "Blake?"

"This is childish. I'm heading back to the room." Yang frowned at the secret faunus' back as she walked away. With a sigh, she looked back at the remaining two players.

"Well... I guess I won?" Ruby nodded, and Yang crowed happily in victory as Weiss packed the game away.

"Why do you always win this game Yang?" Ruby grumbled. She could never remember a single time when she or their father had won against the blonde at this game. Yang patted her head and stood with a flourish.

"Because I'm awesome, that's why."

Ruby made a face as her team made plans to go after the leads they had on the Dust robberies and on Torchwick and the White Fang. Conveniently forgetting to even mention her name in their plans. To be fair, she hadn't quite paid attention to what Weiss and Blake were arguing about, since they did it so often, and had drifted off, until she heard Torchwick's name being brought up. She crossed her arms as best she could with her still cast-covered arm, and sat up.

"Guys, what about me?" Her team looked at one another. Well, Yang just looked at Blake, who shrugged lightly.

"But Ruby you look like a kid still. What we're doing is dangerous- I don't want you to get hurt!" Yang said, making Ruby pout. She wouldn't get hurt! Despite her size she was a Huntress in training!

"But I could go with the person who has the least danger!" Yang blinked, and looked at Weiss and Blake. Weiss rolled her eyes with a dismissive gesture and Blake shrugged once again, saying,

"Well, she could." Yang frowned, and made to argue her point again, when Weiss glared at her. Yang glared back, before turning back to Ruby.

"Then I guess you could go with Weiss to the CCT... now-" Ruby cut her off with a sudden gasp, having remembered that they left her game in the Library, and jumped to her feet. "Ruby?"

"I left my board game in the library!"

"Wha-" Yang started, only to once again be cut off by Ruby speeding out of the room. "Ruby!"

Ruby ran down the hall, and took a sharp turn at the corner, barreling into someone else. With her being the size she was, she was sent onto her back, while whoever she ran into just stumbled a bit.

"Ow ow ow..." Ruby mumbled, rubbing her arm through the cast on it. Well, trying to at least. She blinked when a hand invaded her vision. She tilted her head back to see who she ran into. It was a green haired, dark-skinned girl with the, in Ruby's opinion, coolest red eyes. A grey haired boy stood behind her, his own dark eyes narrowed in confusion. In fact, both of them were looking pretty confused.

"What's a kid like you doing here?" Green-hair asked, as Ruby grabbed her hand and let the older girl haul her to her feet. She brushed off her skirt and fidgeted.

"Uh... well.." Green-hair raised an eyebrow intimidatingly. "It was an accident with Dust?" Ruby squeaked, and the two foreigners shared a look.

"How does Dust explain why a kid is in Beacon?" Green-hair reiterated, her eyes narrowing.

"Emerald, be nice." A new voice piped up, making the two turn. Ruby tilted her head back a bit further to see the newcomer.

"Cinder!" Green-hair, or rather Emerald if Ruby had to guess, exclaimed, surprise in her voice. The newcomer had black hair and glowing gold eyes. Ruby ducked her head as all three sets of eyes landed on her.

"Why, hello there." The newcomer- 'Cinder,' Ruby reminded herself, said, staring down at her. "Ruby Rose, was it?" Ruby blinked, and looked back up at her.

"How did you...?"

"The story of your accident has been floating around all day, but it was hardly believable until one actually sees you." Ruby huffed and scuffed the ground with her boots.

"Stupid gossiping teenagers..." She muttered. A hand patted the top of her head suddenly, making her jump.

"Could you point us in the direction of the Haven dorms? I'm afraid we got a little turned around." Ruby nodded. Makes sense, Beacon was a maze when she first arrived!

"U-Uh sure, your dorms are just east of here. Take a left up ahead."

"Thank you." Cinder said, and all three of them walked around Ruby to continue down the hall. As Cinder passed her, she commented, "Maybe I'll see you around." Ruby nodded with a exclamation of,

"Maybe!" Ruby watched them go for a few more seconds before calling out, "Welcome to Beacon!" Cinder gave her a wave in return, just as they turned towards the Haven dorms. Ruby nodded to herself. "They seemed nice." She smiled and turned on her heel, racing to the Library for her game.