Every morning held her same mental checklist.

One: Got out of bed: Check, but that doesn't mean she's awake.

Two: Went through all personal hygiene rituals: Without getting into the irritatingly long sub-checklist that came with this one, check.

Three: Ate breakfast: With how early she's been having to get up for school this year, she thinks that the habitual assessment of this one was almost like her subconscious was mocking her, if that was possible.

There were literally five-hundred-thousand things she should also be checking (or, at least, that's the number her mind came up with.), but for all intents and purposes, Ruby Rose was fully dressed and fully prepared for school at an absolutely astounding four-thirty in the morning.

There is, however, a lingering thought that floats in her mind as she prepares herself that is only that, a lingering thought, and it doesn't cross her mind to confirm it until she catches a glimpse of the calendar on her way out of the house.

The date was Thursday, February 7th, 2016.

...This was also the date that her early morning classes were not meeting.

And then, Ruby Rose prayed to whatever almighty or extraterrestrial being that would listen, that they would kindly put her out of her misery right there and then.

A couple painfully boring and woeful hours later, Ruby was quietly walking beside her half-sister to school, still burning through a bit of the grief that was left over from earlier that morning.

"Hey, Rubes, why the long face? Did you sleep in for morning classes or something? It's weird to walk together like this."

In response to her sister's question, laced with understandable concern, Ruby stopped walking entirely, leaving her companion to walk a few feet ahead before noticing.

"...Yang...morning classes didn't meet today…"

Whether or not it was her goal, the somber face that the young Rose held laced not only Yang's words, but her entire body with more concern.

"T-Then what's up? Hey, there's not some bimbo giving you trouble at school, is there? Or maybe it's some creep that's coming on to you?!"

"...No, Yang...it's...far, far worse…" At this point, Ruby was sniffling slightly, which piled on even more concern to the point that Yang almost felt like crying in fear and frustration, rushing over to hold her sister by the shoulders."

"S-So, what's wrong?!"

"...*sniff*...I...woke up at the regular time todaaaaaaay!"

And now, there is no cause for alarm or concern, and every emotion that Yang was feeling defaulted into the physical representation of 'what?', despite her sister now having crumbled into a full-on breakdown.

"...So?"

"I COULD HAVE SLEPT FOR TWO. MORE. HOOOOUUUURS!"

...Honestly, she questioned why she should have been worried in the first place.

Nevertheless, the sisters soon arrived at the front of their school, Beacon Academy (Academy was its official title, but everyone knew that it was just a high school.) There, they were greeted by the other two of their group. Despite the earlier breakdown and the remainder of their short walk, Ruby had yet to break out of her emotional rut, causing the group of friends to feel the same concern Yang had earlier.

"Ruby, are you okay?"

"She's upset because she forgot the was able to sleep in today."

"Oh, nevermind. I forgot, you're a dunce."

An elegant insult that came from Weiss Schnee, third-year student, voted simultaneously as the school's biggest heartthrob and 'Queen of Ice and Crushed Romantic Dreams' in her second year, but the last title never reached her ears.

"While the way you worded that could have been nicer, I have to say I'm not surprised either."

Then came the girl who'd been silently given the title of 'Group Mediator', third-year student Blake Belladonna, commonly known among the student body as a 'mysterious intellectual beauty'. She wasn't the most social girl, tending to keep to herself even when hanging out with her closest friends, and was commonly seen reading, whether it be for studying or enjoyment. This reflected greatly on her academics, as she was one of the top ten in her class.

"God, you guys should have been there! I was literally freaking out, like, I thought she was being bullied or harrassed or something…"

Yang Xiao Long, as you've become well acquainted with, was a third-year student as well. Throughout her first two years at Beacon Academy, she was right on par with Weiss as the school heartthrob, her beauty even causing a small group of males within the student body (The telepathy club, the not-so-secret group of slackers.) To title her 'The Majestic Goddess of Beacon.' It was when the current year began, however, when she was more commonly seen in an over-protective sister mode, taking it upon herself to be Ruby's bodyguard for the entire first week of class. This, combined with the common knowledge of her being addicted to meaty foods, caused a group of rejected Ruby-suitors to shamelessly grant her another title, 'The Carnivore who's Discarded Womanhood.' (Although, they were the only ones that called her that.)

"Yaaaaaaaang! This is a serious problem! Guuuuys!"

And finally, the girl we've been following thus far, first-year student Ruby Rose. While often coddled as the baby of the four girls (only by Yang), she quickly gained a reputation among the student body for being ridiculously cute, and coupled with the danger that was Xiao Long, was seen as a sort of 'forbidden fruit' among the male population.

"Losing two hours of extra sleep is nothing, Ruby. You'll be fine."

"Yang, sis, amigo, you don't understand. We're not talking one hour, okay? Two. Two. Full. Hours. I could have taken this blessed boon but I SQUANDERED IT!"

At that, the little Rose broke into another heartbreakingly comical breakdown, only receiving sighs of resignation and one in exasperation.

Yang hoisted her little sister on her feet. "C'mon, Rubes. Let's get to class."

Two-o'clock PM.

Jaune groggily awoke and stared at the ceiling, surprised and a tad disappointed that he somehow had managed not to die in his sleep yet again. He threw himself out of bed with a sigh, went to grab a clean shirt from his closet and, finding he had none, made a note to do some laundry later and grabbed the previous night's shirt from the floor, and headed to the bathroom to clean himself up.

After hygiene was done and over with, Jaune grabbed a quick snack comprised of the chips and soda he'd had the previous night and went back to his room. He got himself situated at his desk and turned his Xbox on, thinking he could get some good progress done in the Crucible if he booted up Destiny now and played until the raid in a couple of hours. It was then that he checked his phone and saw that he'd gotten to planning for absolutely nothing.

From: Neptune

Hey, sorry man, but Oryx is a no-go. Sun's a total idiot and blew it with the sixth person.

'Oh yeah? What'd he do, invite the guy to party chat?'

Jaune never thought of himself as a king of insults.

But, goddamn, he was the fucking GOD of insulting Sun.

Well, he knew now that trying to get more light levels was pointless...but, he'd already booted up the game, so he might as well…

*knock knock*

"Jaune? Are you up?"

Shit.

This was never a conversation he looked forward to. Since he moved in with his aunt and uncle, the former had been trying to no avail to get him to quit being a shut-in and go to school. And, for a couple months now, he had a huge fear that one day she would come in and have all the paperwork laid out in full, forcing him to face the crushing reality that he wasn't escaping-

"Yeah, aunt Christie, I'm up."

Dammit, Jaune, you could have avoided this for another few hours!

With the door opening ever so gently, the generally small and fragile aunt Christie came into the room, with her short blonde hair in a bob and still wearing her work clothes from her job as a receptionist at a law firm.

"So, Jauney, I have a little favor to ask."

"Does it involve school?"

"No, honey...I know now you're dead-set on not going."

Well, that's one fear he could let shrivel and die in the walls of is mind.

"So...does it involve going outside?"

"Well...yes."

Shit. Against his desire to not hurt his kind aunt's feelings, Jaune couldn't help but let out an annoyed sigh.

"Okay, what is it?"

"See, all I need you to do is run down to the store and get the things I have written down here," Christie said, handing Jaune the shopping list. "And I'll even let you grab something you want if you go."

Jaune eyed the list with a bit of speculation. "What's with the stuff on the counter? Didn't uncle Joe go shopping last night?"

"Oh, that. Well, he's as much of a gremlin as you are sometimes, so he helped himself to that trash from the convenience store last night."

Ouch. He knew his aunt was oblivious to how bad that really sounded, but that kind of talk still put her at the top of Jaune's 'list of savages.'

"Uh...okay...I'll, uh, go get this for you, then."

"Thank you Jaune!" Aunt Christie exited the room, leaving Jaune to question if he really wanted to leave the apartment wearing his filthy shirt from last night.

At that moment, there was a glaringly obvious requirement for completing this task that he only brushed off before, and now it came back at him full force.

He accepted the task. And, now, he had to go outside.

"...Mother. Fucker."

A/N: Holy shit guys. My last post was in February.

So, first up, to everyone who followed this story back when the little snippet went up and has been waiting since, sorry. Not making any excuses for that.

Secondly, for people who liked Burden and were waiting on the other story I was talking about doing with my OC, sorry to you, too. I don't know if you people existed, but I'm not entirely sure where that idea's going.

And now, present day! I'm probably going to inch this one along, I mainly started this fic since the idea was floating around and bugging me to no end, so this will be something that stays on my mind while I think about the Azure fic and what I'm gonna do with that. Hopefully, my OC isn't God next time...

Anyways, that's that! Follow/Favorite/Review, boys and girls!

Until next time!