This story hasn't gotten too much love lately, so here we go!
Victory3114: It would be possible to enhance weapon with bone, yeah. Of course, most metals are far stronger than bone so I'm not sure there are many instances where you'd want to. Still, cool idea.
V01dSw0rd: Thanks, and hope those ideas work out well for you.
Naruto Uchiha 999: I will be following the main plot for the most part, with some small additions here and there to accommodate Shiro as a character.
Blake woke to the sound of running water. At first she resisted the impulse to rise and investigate, wanting nothing more than to return to her dream. It was a good one, full of fish and romance, though how those things intersected was anyone's guess. But after a few minutes her tiredness was overpowered by curiosity, opening her eyes to see which of her team members had woken before her. To her confusion, she saw that Ruby and Weiss were still in their beds, and she had no need to check on Yang. Girl was not the quietest sleeper, though thankfully it wasn't loud enough to prevent any of the others from getting rest. That left only one member of the team, but she hadn't heard the door open to admit him. Blake was a relatively light sleeper, trained to be during her time with the White Fang. The bathroom door was one thing, but the door to the room had an electronic lock which beeped when opened, something she wouldn't have missed. Then she saw the open window the window, remembering that nobody had closed it after Shiro jumped out last night. 'That explains that.'
The water stopped abruptly. There were a few muffled bumps from the other side of the wall before the door opened to admit Akujin, their not-so-resident fifth team member. Who was once again nude as he entered the room itself.
'Would it kill him to remember he's sharing the room with four girls?' Blake thought despite the fact that she was continuing to watch him dress, red-faced. Thankfully none of the others were awake to see it; Weiss would have had an absolute fit. From there the boy just took a seat on the floor next to the wall, closing his eyes and laying his hands on his legs as he took up a meditative pose.
Seeing no reason to disturb him, Blake made sure to keep as quiet as possible as she got out of her bed and grabbed a uniform. She kind of liked it, mostly black and white just as her normal clothes were. She could have done with leggings instead of a skirt, but whatever. She must have not been walking quietly enough, however, because as she passed in front of Shiro he opened his eyes briefly. A second later he closed them again, apparently having seen whatever he'd needed to. She let the incident lie without saying anything. She entered the bathroom, the floor still slightly wet from where the previous occupant had been standing while he dried himself, which he'd done with Ruby's towel if the item's dampness was any indication. They'd each claimed one before dropping off the night before, the last one being given to Weiss who fell asleep before them. Because the room had been meant for only four people, the team had only been supplied with four towels, so no matter what Shiro would have had to use someone else's. Blake was just glad it hadn't been hers, not that it mattered all that much, it would just have been weird to dry herself with a towel that was already somewhat damp.
She took a relatively short shower, maybe fifteen minutes, and exited back out to the room dressed in her full uniform. Shiro was sitting in the same exact position, his breaths deep and slow. When she passed in front of him, however, the rhythmic breathing stopped. "Blake?" he said quietly.
"Yes?"
"Yesterday you were trying to correct me from being naked in front of others, right?"
"Yes," she confirmed.
"I'm a bit confused, then. How can you correct my behaviour when you walk around the room without underwear on? It seems hypocritical to me. Then again, I'm only moderately familiar with the concept of modesty, so maybe I'm in the wrong." The girl's face turned a bright crimson, remembering the momentary glance he'd given her as she passed him. He was at about the right level to see, now that she thought about it, and it was true that she slept without anything under her kimono.
"W-well that's your fault for looking," she explained as calmly as her distress would allow. He wasn't making a huge deal out of it, so neither would she. Besides, if the others woke up to this, it would be awkward for everyone. "Most men don't look up a girl's nightgown."
"I see. By that logic, though, isn't it your fault for looking at me after I shower, as well?"
"The difference is that I at least wear something to cover myself and I change where no one can see. That way, unless someone invades my privacy, or just happens to be at the right angle like you were, they don't see anything."
"So that's how it works. Alright." Conversation apparently over, he went back to his meditation, chest rising and falling in the same pattern as before.
She thought she was in the clear until a hand settled on her shoulder, the other slowly making its way toward her chest. "What, you give him a free show but not your partner? I'm hurt, Blake. How are you going to make it up to me?" Blake spun around quickly, breaking the loose hold Yang had around her as she tried to suppressed a laugh at the reaction, failing superbly. She was clutching her stomach with one hand while the other found a wall, which she used as support throughout her giggling fit. Surprisingly, neither of the sleeping girls woke up as a result of her laughter.
After a minute or two the shaking subsided Xiao Long stood up straight again, wiping a bit of moisture from her eyes. "So, what's this about lecturing him over showering? He come out naked or something?"
"Pretty much. There was an. . . incident on the first day." She wouldn't elaborate any further unless pushed. There was no need for Yang to know the details, and Oum forbid she ever find out Ruby was there too. She'd probably put Shiro through a wall, maybe several.
Yang looked toward the boy meditating against the opposite wall. "Hm, guess I could get behind that show, too." She still didn't know what to think of the boy, but she had to admit that he was at least somewhat attractive. Blake groaned at her new partner's decision, getting the distinct feeling that this would not be the last time Yang did something shameless.
"Just go shower. It's seven already, and we still have things to do." The blonde rolled her eyes but complied, knowing that if she didn't do it before the Schnee girl woke up there'd be trouble. The shorter girl just looked like she would take all the bathroom time if she could. "By the way, Shiro."
"Yes?"
"You came back earlier than expected. I think our earliest class doesn't start until nine. Change of heart?"
"No. I was never told what time classes started, so I just came here once I was done with my exercises." Blake's hopes sank slightly. "I could leave, if you prefer."
Blake waved off the suggestion, though he obviously wouldn't see it with his eyes closed. "No reason you should. Having you here will make moving things around easier." Shiro made no attempt to respond. Blake actually somewhat liked the boy, despite what it might seem like to other people. She just didn't really know how to interact with him. It was rare that she found someone more antisocial than she was, avoiding as much contact with other sentient beings as possible. Likely the only reason he was even here was because he didn't have anywhere else to go that would accept his eccentric personality.
Sometime during Yang's shower Ruby woke up as well, her gaze unfocused and hair slightly wild. She smiled when she noticed Shiro in the room, calling out a soft greeting which was acknowledged with a wave. Yang was out a few minutes later, allowing her sister to shower and change while she left the room for a few minutes. Where the blonde went was anyone's guess, and nobody bothered asking. It was no surprise that Ruby took the least time in the shower, just under ten minutes. She came out right before Yang returned.
"Hey, why was my towel already wet?" the young leader asked the room.
"I think Shiro used it," Blake replied shortly.
"Oh, makes sense. I guess we need a lot of things because of the extra person. That can wait until later, though. First, we have to get the room set up!" The shout at the end caused Weiss to stir slightly, which gave Ruby an idea. She pulled out a whistle from her bag and leaned over the heiress' bed. When the late riser sat up, Ruby blew the whistle right in her ear, startling her so much that she toppled onto the floor with a shriek.
"Good morning Team RWBYS!" the leader yelled. The girl on the floor did not share her enthusiasm, understandably.
"What in the world is wrong with you?"
"Now that we're all awake, we can get on with our first order of business!"
"Excuse me?"
Yang held up a pile of items. "Decorating!" She was holding quite a few things, most of which were not hers, or even her roommates'. Shiro, not able to continue meditating with all the noise, noted that she held a miniature version of Pyrrha's shield, a bottle of Samurai Shampoo, and one of the chess pieces from the set used as relics, among a bunch of other things. 'Explains what she did while she was out. Only question is why.'
"We still have to unpack." Blake added, holding up her suitcase. The luggage instantly snapped open, spilling the contents all over the floor. "Aaand clean."
Weiss just stood there, dumbfounded and unable to understand what was going on in the slightest. Ruby apparently thought that the situation called for another blow of the whistle, sending Weiss down for a second time. "Alright!" the leader announced with a confident smile. "Weiss, Blake, Yang, and their fearless leader Ruby have begun their first mission. Banzai!" She threw up a fist for emphasis.
"Banzai!" the others joined, causing Shiro to look at them almost as strangely as Weiss had begun to do from her place on the floor. He'd thought the cry was something used only by people from certain sects of Vacuo, like the one he was born in. Apparently it had grow to popular in Vale too.
The three girls stood like that for several seconds as Weiss stood up before staring at her expectantly, causing the recently woken girl to sigh in exasperation. "I'm taking a shower first," she stated before grabbing her own uniform and walking into the bathroom.
Ruby shrugged, not allowing the brusque behavior to affect her too much since there was an unspoken agreement there. She shifted to the member of her team who had been on the ground willingly this entire time, noticing for the first time that while he was dressed for the day, he was dressed in his normal clothes. "Um, Shiro?"
"Yes?"
"Why aren't you wearing the uniform?" Blake and Yang turned their heads, also noticing it for the first time.
"Uniform? You mean the clothes they left in the room?" His only friend nodded. "They're harder to move in. I really don't like them, so I decided to wear this instead."
"But you have to wear the uniform when you go to class."
"Why?"
"Because the rules say so," Blake intoned. "If you don't wear it, the teachers will bother you about it." Shiro appeared to think about it for a moment, probably weighing whether the freedom of movement was worth being bitched at by professors. He came to a decision shortly, standing up and stretching with a few satisfying pops. He stripped off his shirt and unceremoniously threw it off to the side, eliciting a squeak from Ruby. The youngest turned away, red-faced, while the other two girls watched him. Yang was always up for a chance to grab some eye-candy, of course, and to Blake it was quickly becoming a normal thing. It helped that she enjoyed the view almost as much as her partner.
His shoes and jeans followed suite, being replaced with Beacon's uniform within half a minute. "Alright Rubes, you've officially missed the show," Yang teased. Ruby spun back to face a properly dressed Shiro, though the term "properly" may be up for dispute. The sleeves of both the shirt and the blazer were rolled up to above the elbow, the tie had been dispensed with altogether, and the blazer was completely unbuttoned, and rather than the dress shoes and socks he had chosen to retain his sandals.
"I suppose it works," Blake judged after examining the boy for a moment.
"Yup, gives him a bad boy kind of look," Yang agreed, flashing him a thumbs up. "I approve!" In truth, he did look the part of a delinquent, his red eyes and messy black hair giving him a feral, unkempt appearance and the uniform's modifications looking like a statement of rebellion rather a matter of comfort and mobility.
Weiss left the bathroom in a little over thirty minutes looking refreshed. The others had all put their clothes away, something Weiss wasn't going to bother with at the moment. After all, they'd be there for a while if she tried. The next half hour or so was devoted to setting up furniture, hanging curtains and wall decor, and organizing everyone's things as best they could. Shiro was forced to do any heavy lifting, including moving out of the way the one thing that they seemed unable to organize: the beds. All four were piled on top of each other in the center of the room like some kind of beaver dam.
"This isn't going to work," Weiss brought up.
"It is a bit cramped," Blake admitted.
"Maybe we should ditch some of our stuff," Yang suggested.
"Or, we could ditch the beds," Ruby began, gasping as an idea formed in her mind, "and replace them with bunk beds!"
"That sounds incredibly dangerous," Weiss objected.
"And super awesome!" Yang contended with a fist pump.
"It would be efficient." Blake stated.
"Well," the heiress protested, "we should put it to a vote."
Ruby glanced toward her with her hands on her hips. "Uh, I think we just did." Weiss knew she was defeated, so she decided that it would at least go faster, and be safer, if she helped. A few minutes later brought the sight of two. . . multilevel things that could be slept in. To call them proper bunk beds when one set was simply stacked with books between their posts and the other top bunk was being suspended from the ceiling by rope would be sort of improper.
Shiro had been looking at the whole bunk bed operation with apathy while they worked, but in a rare display of emotion he was now scowling, a fact Ruby didn't miss. "Something wrong?"
"Ruby, he still doesn't have a bed," Blake reminded her.
Shiro shook his head though. "That's not it. This just looks like shit." All the girls looked at him in shock. There's no way the wild child standing in the room was criticising their aesthetic sense, right? "It looks like it's going to fall at any moment." Nope, just their craftsmanship.
"Well do you have any bright ideas?" Weiss baited. Normally Shiro wouldn't have cared, or even spoken up in the first place, but Ruby was sleeping in one of those and he'd be damned if they just fell apart with his friend in them. Without answering, Shiro walked up to the hanging structure and carefully dismantled it, laying the frame and mattress down off to the side. He activated his Semblance and carefully molded a piece of bone in his hand. It was a tall white prism, the square faces matching those of the posts on the bed frames. He created three more and placed each on top of a corner before lifting the other frame on top of them with a bit of help from Yang.
"Alright, but how are you going to keep them together?" the Schnee princess asked again. It was the biggest problem the girls had when making their own attempt. In answer Shiro put his hands on two of the supports he'd made, then stepped away from them after a few seconds to do the same on the other side. He jerked his head toward the proper bunk bed he'd created, an unmistakable gesture to test it. Blake stepped up and pushed on each of the parts - both bunks and the supports - in every corner. She was pleasantly surprised to find that they didn't budge in the slightest. "How?"
"Simple," he answered. "I made long screws inside of the supports, four each. They go a few inches into either frame. Extremely dense bone, shouldn't break unless you take a sledgehammer to it. Or Yang punches it hard enough." The blonde preened under the praise of her strength, and the objectivity he used in saying it made the words sound all the more sincere.
He repeated the process on the other set of beds, returning the books used to hold up the top bunk to the bookcase, a gesture Blake appreciated. Just like the former set, there wasn't even the slightest movement. Ruby tested them herself, squealing with delight as she hopped up to her bunk and rolled around in it. With possibly Semblance-fueled speed she jumped down and hugged the creator, who instantly froze in place on contact. "Thanks Shiro!" She let go almost as quickly as she had latched on, going back up to her bed and leaving Shiro to sort out why someone had just hugged the equivalent, in his own mind, of a barely tame Beowolf.
"Alright, with that out of the way, our second order of business is!" Ruby allowed for a short but dramatic pause. "Classes." She pulled out a book and a pencil from somewhere and looked over the schedule for the day. "Now, we have a few classes together today. At nine we've gotta be-"
"What?" Weiss interrupted, the shock in her voice breaking Shiro from his prison of confusion. "Did you say nine o'clock?" Ruby uttered a noncommittal noise in return. "It's eight fifty-five you dunce!" The white-haired girl bolted out of the room, prompting the other three girls to follow within seconds. Shiro simply looked at his Scroll to confirm Weiss' fears and walked out last, watching Team JNPR race along behind his teammates.
Thanks to all my readers and reviewers, as always!