Weiss couldn't sleep. How could she be expected to sleep in an environment like this? She rolled over and put her pillow over her head, to no avail. It was times like these that she was jealous of her teammates. Yang and Blake could sleep through a Beowolf attack, it seemed.

And Ruby, well Ruby was the one keeping her awake. Weiss could see the light from her scroll seeping from above. She could hear the scratching of Ruby's pencil and her sighs of frustration and, worst of all, she just kept muttering to herself. Finally, Weiss could bear it no more. Standing up, she peered into her partner's bed. "Ruby!" she hissed.

"Eeep!" Ruby squeaked in surprise. "Oh, hi Weiss."

"What are you doing? Go to sleep."

"I can't sleep Weiss. I need to finish this essay for Peach's class by tomorrow." She gestured to her textbooks and papers scattered on her bed.

"Is that the essay on the mixing of dust types? Ruby, that was assigned a week ago!" Weiss put her hands on her hips and glared at her red-headed teammate. "Why do you always put things off until the last minute?"

"Well, you know," muttered Ruby, nervously tapping her fingers together. "There was doing work for, uh, other classes. And there was all the training with you guys and Team JNPR-"

"And all the video games you played with Yang and Jaune. The rest of us found time to write the essay, why couldn't you?"

"I'm sorry Weiss!" Ruby moaned, flopping down onto her blankets. Yang suddenly snorted in her sleep and rolled over. Ruby continued in a hushed tone. "I'm sorry Weiss, I just don't get it. I've gone over my notes so many times but I can't understand it."

"Well maybe if you payed more attention in class-" Weiss stopped herself with a sigh. I'm a good partner. I'm a good friend and a good partner. "Do you need help?" Ruby sat up and visibly brightened.

"You would…help me?"

"Of course I'm going to help you, dolt. No teammate of mine is going to fail an essay."

"Ohh, you're the best Weiss! Thank you!" Ruby scooted over on the bed to make room for the heiress and patted a spot nest to her welcomingly. Weiss hoisted herself onto the upper bunk and took her place next to Ruby.

"Alright. What don't you understand?"

"Well when it talks about the smelting and crystallization process of Dust, I don't get how the growing and forming of crystals combines them to make new Dust types."

"Well, what do your notes say?"

"They don't say Weiss! They just say that it does. But I'm still supposed to write an essay about it."

"Then think about it. What do you know about the smelting process?"

"What? I don't know Weiss! Just tell me what to write. You'd said you'd help." Weiss looked at her partner coldly.

"I am helping Ruby. But if I tell you the answer you'll never learn anything. So I'm going to help you figure it out for yourself. Now it says here in your notes that the smelting process removes the impurities from the raw Dust ore."

"Yeah, so?" Ruby pulled her knees up to her chin and was pouting at her partner.

"So, what does this say here?" Weiss gestured at another spot on Ruby's page of notes.

"It says that Dust is naturally drawn to people or objects with aura."

"And…?"

"And…um…" Ruby paused, her mind working furiously. "And if the liquid Dust is infused with someone's aura then the Dust will be drawn together and fuse into one type!" Ruby's eyes brightened and she started scribbling frantically on her essay paper. Weiss nodded approvingly.

"See? You can solve it on your own." Ruby nodded, still writing.

"But what about the standard energy Dust. I need to know how that works, too."

"Well you know that energy Dust is the standard power source used for most everything in Remnant, right?"

"Yeah…?"

"So what does that tell you?"

"Ugh. Why does it matter? Why do I need to know this? I'm here to kill monsters, not power cities."

"Beacon is a combat academy, but there is still standard education. This is important for all citizens, not just hunters. Besides, this is all basic stuff. You should have learned this already."

"I skipped two years Weiss, I never was taught this." Ruby's shoulders slumped. "I guess I'm just way behind everyone else here." Weiss sighed. As good as Ruby was in combat, it was easy to forget that the girl was two years younger than the rest of them.

"It's fine to be behind. You'll just have to work extra hard to catch up. You'll be fine."

"No, it's no good Weiss." Ruby swept all her papers to the side and flopped down onto her pillow. "I'm not going to be able to catch up to the rest of you. I was never a very good student. I'm only good at fighting. Maybe I should just go back to Signal for my last two years and then try Beacon again."

"Ruby Rose!" Weiss snapped. "Did you really just suggest leaving Beacon? You want to abandon your team? Your friends? All because you're worried about doing well in school?"

"I mean…" Ruby looked up nervously at the fuming Weiss.

"No, don't talk! Listen to me! Huntresses don't give up when things get difficult. What do you think would have happened in Mountain Glenn if we had gone home because finding the White Fang was too hard? Hmmm?" Weiss tone gentled a little. "You're better than that Ruby. So what if you're going to struggle a little bit. It'll only make you stronger. And I'll be here to help you when you need it. All of us will."

"Yeah, what she said," murmured a sleepy sounding Yang suddenly. "Now stop yelling at my baby sister, Weiss, so I can go back to sleep." Weiss slapped her hand over her mouth.

"Oh! Sorry, Yang," she whispered. Yang muttered something incomprehensible and rolled over. Suddenly, Weiss felt herself wrapped in an enormous hug.

"Thanks, Weiss," Ruby whispered softly. "You're a good partner." Weiss patted the smaller girl's head awkwardly.

"Thank you. Now please let go of me."

"Right." Ruby swiftly withdrew her arms.

"Now, are you ready to keep working?"

"Yeah." Ruby gathered her assorted papers back up. She smiled at Weiss. "I can do this."

AN: As always, praise/criticism is encouraged.

So, because of finals reasons, A Bodyguard or Partner is not updating today. Instead you get a nice, short, one-shot. The new ABoP will be put out later this week.