Chapter 16

"So, Taiyang…" she bumped him with her elbow. "You gonna… gonna spill the deets to me?"

He sipped slowly from his water bottle, keeping his attention down on the centre of the room, where Glynda was soundly wiping the floor with another of their classmates. It actually seemed pretty unfair, since Glynda had the ability to literally yank her opponent's weapon from their hands from across the ring. And even close up, Glynda's tall six-foot five stature meant that she could and would easily knock them into the mat.

"I don't kiss and tell, Summer. I think you were the one that told me that."

"Yeah, but did you kiss her?"

"Uh, no, I thought you told me not to, was I supposed to?"

"That's up to you, big guy. Tell me about how it went."

"No!" he shout-whispered. Glynda stopped beating the tar out of her opponent for a moment to scowl up at him. He sheepishly waved before turning back. "It's rude when she's not here, that's gossip!"

Damn goody two-shoes. Raven was late for class today, having been kept after by their Grimm Studies professor who needed to talk to her about her grades. She wasn't doing poorly, per se, just low enough to require a bit more attention. Especially since Grimm Studies was probably the easiest class, since their TA was so much fun.

Qrow had his feet up on the table and earbuds in, listening to some heavy metal garbage at an absurdly high volume.

"C'mon, no one's gonna hear you, you can tell me."

"Why are you trying to get me to break your rules?!"

"I want to know how your date went. It's been a week, I've abstained from talking to Raven about it, and now I need to know, so I've come to you."

"...You haven't spoken to Raven, yet?"

"Nope."

"Aren't the two of you attached at the hip?"

"Yes, but I understand that she's her own person and will tell me when she wants to. You, on the other hand, will tell me here and now."

"Ugh, why?"

"Because I want to know how it went, Xiao-Long."

"Don't hurt me, please."

Ruby turned in her chair, pointing her favourite glare at her friend.

"Do not make me."

"Alright, alright. I'll spill."

"A wise choice, my boy. Tell me, did you like the dress I picked out?"

His shoulders fell.

"Oh my god, it was stunning. That can't have been cheap."

"It was only about a hundred and sixty lien. It was on sale."

"She kept adjusting it down, then back up again. Is that something I should have noticed?"

"She was nervous, dummy. Probably couldn't decide how much skin was appropriate." She winced as Glynda literally dragged her opponent across the mat with a scraping sound. "Question is, did you see nip?"

He recoiled.

"Wh- god no! I wasn't even looking there!"

"Where were you looking, if that wasn't it?"

"I dunno, her face?"

"Don't lie to me."

"Ugh, I…" he passed a glance to his partner, still engulfed in his music. "...Look, she scares me with how beautiful she is, I can't maintain eye contact for more than two seconds. There's something about her, man."

She smiled, leaning back in her chair and putting her hands behind her head.

"There certainly is. But she likes you, dude."

"I mean, I hope so."

"So what did you wear? If you say 'cargo shorts', I'm going to cut your legs off."

"I went out and bought a pair of slacks and a tie, and Qrow leant me one of his shirts."

Ruby sputtered out a laugh. "You wore a tie?! On your first date?!"

"Is that… uncommon?"

"You really don't know a damn thing about dating, do you?"

"No! Not a thing!"

"Oh my god, you two are perfect for each other. You're both idiots."

"Hey, no I'm not!"

Ruby nodded vigorously.

"Yes, you are. You cannot deny it, and choosing to do so only proves my point."

"Summer, please!"

Ruby chuckled and rolled her eyes at him.

"So what did you guys talk about at dinner?"

Taiyang sighed and relented. "Well, we talked about her hobbies and stuff. She says she likes riding her bicycle and hanging out in the arcade."

"Uh huh."

"I don't know if that means at the mall or at Haywood's Video Arcade, but either is fine with me, really."

"Sounds like you already know where you're taking her on date number two, my guy."

"Well… I have to ask her first-"

The door at the top of the auditorium opened quietly, dragging their attention away from the ring and from their conversation. They turned almost in unison, directing their line of sight up to the intruder. Her long and feathery black hair were beautiful, even without the light of the stadium seating beating down on it.

"Speak of the devil…"

"...and she shall appear." Raven quipped, padding up next to her and sitting down. Ruby fumed as she noticed Raven sitting down next to her and not Taiyang. "What're you guys talking about? Me?"

"Hey, good lookin'." Ruby started. "We were just gossiping about you."

"Hope you were saying only good stuff. I'd have to be offended if it was anything else."

"Hey, don't you worry 'bout a thing, babe."

They were suddenly interrupted by a piercing whistle from down in front, having to cover their ears to not have them burst. Ruby winced as she looked back down to the combat ring in the middle of the room. Glynda stood off to one side, her arms formally folded behind her back and her chin held up, and her opponent crumpled to the ground on the other side. The big screen behind them belay the scores, with Glynda still maintaining one hundred percent of her aura and her opponent at a resounding zero. This was not what she was scared by, however. Standing in the middle of the ring was the combat professor. The black suited, no-nonsense, brutally strict Mr. Smith.

"Do you feel the need to speak amongst yourselves instead of paying attention to the lessons, Miss Rose?"

His sunglasses were almost a mirrored piano black. Ruby gulped.

"N-no, sir."

"Would you instead prefer to… participate?"

"Y-yes, sir."

"Good," he pulled his sunglasses off, revealing his prominent and intimidating browline. "Then I will ask you to approach the ring and pick your opponent, Miss Rose."

"Yes, sir."

Ruby had to do her best to hide her embarrassment as she stood up from her chair. She gingerly pulled her folded white cape out of her back and tucked it under her arm, skittering down the steps to the edge of the ring. Glynda squeezed past her, muttering a 'good luck' in her ear as she returned to her seat. As Ruby pulled up into the ring, she realized just how tall Mr. Smith actually was. From her seat up in the bleachers and from when he would sit down at the ringside seats, he never seemed all that tall. But with the way he carried himself and the sharpness of his suit, if he wasn't the most intimidating man on the planet, she didn't know who else would be. She shivered.

"Make your decision, Miss Rose. And choose wisely. The headmaster is watching."

He gestured to the edge of the ring. Somehow, without her ever noticing, there indeed was Ozpin himself, with Little Cindy sitting next to him eating one of those comically large swirly lollipops. Ozpin gave a little wave, a mischievous smile on his face. She squinted at him, wondering what the heck he was doing here, and if Cindy had ever eaten anything except candy her whole time with him.

"Have you made your decision, Miss Rose?"

"How about…" she looked around the room, eyeing Glynda's team, a few of the other students, and her friends up in the top row. "...The rest of Team STRQ?"

Mr. Smith seemed momentarily taken aback by this.

"Your… own team, Miss Rose?"

"Yeah. I think I can take them."

She looked to Ozpin, who nodded and gave a subtle thumbs up.

"Well, if you believe so. Mr. Xiao-Long, Branwens, please join your team leader on the mat."

The three of them seemed confused as they slowly got up from their chairs, gently pushing them in so they didn't scrape the hardwood floors of the stands. They made their ways carefully down the steep steps and onto the mat, pulling up on the opposite side to her.

"Summer, what's going on?" Tai asked, scratching his ear.

"Yeah, what's the deal, Mere?" Qrow added, chewing his gum far too loudly.

Raven, of all people, seemed the most at ease in this situation.

"As punishment for your little side conversations, you four will be fighting one another." Mr. Smith followed in his intimidatingly slow and poignant tone. "Collect your weapons and prepare yourselves."

Ruby watched her three teammates move over to the lockers at the side of the room and retrieve their weapons before making their ways back up to the mat and standing across from her.

"What, no axe, kiddo?" Tai probed, his staff collapsed and tucked into his belt.

"I wouldn't want to dull the blade unnecessarily."

"But… that leaves you unarmed…"

Ruby shrugged.

"Not necessarily."

With a dramatic flick of her wrist, she unfolded her cape and tossed it around her shoulders, securing it around her neck with the bronzed clasp. She reached behind her head and pulled up the hood, letting it come down and obscure her eyes so they couldn't see them. What they could see, however, was the evil smile she let fall over her face.

"I want to see a fair fight, students. No eye-gouging, no genital-shots, and no continuing after your opponent's aura has been depleted. If you ring-out, you are also out. Is that clear?"

"Crystal." Ruby muttered, keeping her tone low.

"Begin as soon as you hear the bell."

Ruby prepared her stance. Well, actually, she prepared Taiyang's stance, bending her left leg slightly and bringing her right knee up until it just about touched her chest, and brought her fists out, pinky fingers and thumbs extended. The man across from her stopped mid-movement.

"Hey, wait a sec, that's my stance."

"Indeed it is, Taiyang."

"How the hell would you know tha-"

The bell rang.

Qrow and Raven wasted no time in charging forward, swords drawn and tips pointed directly at her. She noticed that Qrow was slightly ahead of his sister, making him the more obvious target for her.

"Too slow, Qrow."

He swung hard upwards at her, coming in from her left side. She dropped her right leg and pulled in her arms and spun to the left, dropping her torso and easily avoiding the heavy slice, leaving Qrow badly off balance. Keeping low, she drove the heel of her right boot into the side of Qrow's knee and forced him to drop sideways.

"Ack!"

He clattered to his side, rolling over his shoulder and back to his feet. Raven was next, attempting a devastating chest-high slash at her with a glowing red katana. Ruby made quick work of this, putting to use the steel plate in the sole of her boot and catching the blade just in front of her heel and guiding the slice up and around with her foot so it wouldn't catch her in the neck. Raven tried another horizontal slash from the left side, this time using both hands on the grips. Ruby smirked and dove forward, jumping up and onto the swinging blade. She ran basically up the length of the shimmering sword and up her partner's arms as well, kicking her feet out and landing with her thighs around her neck, locking her legs together behind the woman's head.

With a twist of her torso, she pulled Raven's balance so far off she twisted sideways and fell, landing on the floor with a heavy thud. Ruby released her head from between her legs and vaulted back up to her feet, still not having taken her arms out from inside her cape.

Taiyang seemed extremely hesitant, but ran forward anyway, pulling out his staff and letting it extend all the way open. It came at her swinging in a tight circle in his hands. She blocked the first strike easily, bringing up her right knee and catching it against the outside of her leg. The staff spun again in his hands and came down toward her head, but she just raised her right foot all the way up and blocked again. She had to switch legs quickly as he spun the staff around again, flipping laterally and catching the hit on the outside of her left leg this time.

"How the hell do you-" he paused to block a kick aimed at his face. "-know what I'm going to do before I do it?"

Ruby didn't say anything, only smirking.

The fear in Tai's eyes was apparent now, as he drove the end of his staff into the ground and used it as a vaulting pole, using is not-insubstantial arms to fling his feet towards her chest. Ruby dropped into the splits, letting him sail over her head, and turned as he landed to sweep his legs out and trip him up. He landed flat on his back as she pulled her legs back together to stand up again.

"C'mon, Tai, you can do better than that." she teased down at him.

"What the hell are you?"

He sprung back up by his hands, and twisted the grip on his staff. The cage at the end opened up again, revealing the little reactor core that it held inside. With a flash, the end ignited with the force of a thousand suns and he jumped forward at her. She didn't even flinch, bringing her hands up and out of her cape and caught his staff between her thumbs. She smirked up at him as his face contorted, clearly confused by what he was experiencing. She simply wrapped her fingers around his staff and twisted it back again, shutting off the burning head of the hammer and collapsing the reactor cage again.

"Wh-"

She flicked back upwards, unbalancing him. With a slide forward, she brought her body down into a forward lunge and caught him in the chest with her right fist, flexing her left over the back of her head. As was to be expected, he flew backwards and landed on his back. He was quick to roll back over his shoulder and stand up again, charging forward and spinning his staff again.

"So predictable."

It was almost easy. Once more his staff came around on her left side. She brought her foot all the way up and let it fall down and capture the staff under her knee. She used this as a horizontal bar and rotated her body around it, catching him under the chin with her toe and disarming him. She flipped all the way over and landed on her right foot, the staff still under her leg.

"How?!"

"Practice, Taiyang."

"I just invented this technique."

"It's boring."

Ruby smirked again and flipped the staff up in the air and kicked it back over to him. As he was distracted by his weapon returning to his chest at subsonic speeds she moved in, raising her right arm in front of herself. She stopped just as the ends of her extended fingers touched his chest. He looked down at the open hand, and the fingers barely touching the fabric of his vest, then looked back up to her eyes. She smirked and wiggled her eyebrows at him.

"No, please-"

"Shoulda told me about the date."

She closed her fist and pushed her arm forward the last one inch, landing a substantial hit on his chest and knocking him back hard enough that he skidded across the mat, landing next to Qrow and Raven, who had only just gotten back onto their feet. Ruby grinned evilly at her teammates as she paced slowly across the mat, eying them up and down.

"Where did you learn to fight, Summer?" Taiyang questioned, getting back to his feet. "Who taught you the one-inch-punch?"

She shrugged.

"I saw it in a Bruce Lee movie."

"You fight like a Xiao-Long…"

"Do I? Interesting."

"I want to know how you know our style."

She looked to her partner with a smirk.

"Rae, you wanna tell him?"

The woman sighed, sheathing her katana briefly to recharge it.

"I'm gonna go with 'she knows a guy' and leave it at that. She did just have her thighs around my face, though. I might be a little out of it."

Ruby smiled.

"Actually, my father taught me to fight."

Tai squinted. "Was your father a Xiao-Long?"

"Maybe, maybe not. For all you know, my father could actually have been Bruce Lee."

Tai seemed irritated. He spun his staff a few more times and charged back in, accompanied this time by Raven and Qrow at his sides. Unfortunately for Tai, he had taught her to fight, he just wasn't aware of it yet. The staff came around, accompanied by two large swords from both sides. Ruby flipped forward and blocked the staff's downward attack with the bottom of her boot while upside down, before rapidly opening her legs into the splits and blocking Raven and Qrow's attacks as they came in, still upside down. She finished her rotation and landed upright, her back to her teammates.

She jumped up and flipped backwards and landed on Tai's shoulders, crossing her feet over his chest. In his flustered state, she pulled his staff from his hands and spun it herself in her hands, blocking two more hits from Raven, catching her on the side of her face and knocking her to the mat from her new raised position. As Qrow tried to take a swing at her stomach, she stood up onto Tai's shoulders and flipped off forward, kicking him under the chin as she dismounted and knocking him to the floor as well. She landed and immediately drove the end of Tai's staff into Qrow's chest, spinning on the spot and catching him on the temple and cracking him to the ground.

Raven was the first to get back up, coming at her with her katana in both hands, tucked up against her waist. Ruby raised a kick and knocked the point of the sword upward, reaching out and grabbing the handle above where Raven was holding. She slammed her chest into her partner's chest and knocked her backwards, removing the sword from from her hands. Raven blinked a few times, not seeing the kick aimed for her face that sent her down to the mat. Qrow ran in to avenge his fallen sister, even though the person he was charging in against was now holding two weapons and had already kicked his ass multiple times now. The massive sword came around, and she easily deflected it using Raven's katana before ramming the end of Tai's staff through the geared mechanism above the grip and twisting it out of his grip. With another resounding kick, Qrow fell back to the ground again.

Ruby flipped backwards with all three of their weapons in her hands, landing on the far side of the combat ring. She brought her leg up and captured Tai's staff under her leg, and split the two swords between her hands, holding them loosely in her fists.

"Looking for these?" she teased, seeing her teammates getting up and looking for their weapons.

"How is that even possible." Tai almost demanded.

"If I told you, I'd have to kill you, Taiyang. By the way, Qrow, I love this scythe you've given me."

The boy in question sputtered.

"Th-that's a sword, not a sc-scythe."

"Oh, right, of course, how could I have mistaken this for a scythe?"

She smirked and pulled the hidden trigger just at the cross-guard. The large geared mechanism started to ratchet and spin open, unlocking the blade and starting the long process of turning the large straight blade into the curved one she remembered. The scythe's blade bent over and extended outward, extending the snath downward in her hand. The massive scythe Harbinger was light in her fingers.

"Such and odd looking sword, this is. Don't you think?"

Tai and Qrow were both completely white in the face. They seemed terrified of her. Raven, on the other hand, was just looking at her with a perplexed look in her eyes.

"How… I'm amazed by you. May I please have my katana back?"

Ruby blew her a kiss. "You want it, come and get it."

/… /

With another harsh axial twist, she weaseled between Qrow and Raven's swords, two swings that would have trisected her at the waist and chest had she not been more careful. She landed sideways on her right arm and swung at Raven's blade with her axe, the blade cranking off the glowing steel with a loud ringing. She directed a kick into Qrow's stomach and cartwheeled out from between the twins, blocking another shot from Raven with the handle of her axe, and kicked the sword away again. Determined not to use any dust cartridges on her teammates, she flipped backwards and sideways to avoid a powerful slice from Raven, her katana glowing a frozen white this time and pooling arctic mist. Qrow fired two concussion rounds at her, missing wide.

"C'mon, guys, I'm still standing, you're gonna have to try harder than that!"

"Stand still for a moment!" Raven yelled back, charging her katana with lightning. "You're too fast!"

"That's my charm, sweetie!"

The bolt of lightning ripped passed her head as she ran towards her partner, grabbing the electrified sword by the blade and bashing the end of her axe into the tall woman's face. This was the final straw for Raven's heavily compromised aura, which shattered like glass as she fell to the floor. Ruby winced as she hit the ground, her nose bloodied and pain evident on her face.

"Sorry, Rae."

"Ow."

Taiyang's attack came out of nowhere, but that didn't mean she was unprepared. The end of his burning hammer came down towards her head like a bomb dropping. She winced, knowing that a block would hurt more than just avoiding it, but she dodged all of that energy would land directly on Raven. She grimaced and flipped backward, placing her hands on either side of Raven's body and took the hammer shot on the soles of her boot as she rotated the rest of the way over. Tai leaped over Raven's crumpled frame and took another heavy swing as Qrow attacked from her right side.

"Ohp-"

She swung her axe up and grabbed the tip of Qrow's sword, and directed it over herself. She bent her back over as the hammer hit the side of the sword, releasing a sound like a locomotive falling off a cliff as the blinding heat exploded. With a kick to Tai's knee, she made him drop to the ground and slammed another heavy kick into the side of his head. The steel cap in her boot careened through his aura and knocked him out with a ting of steel on skull. His staff fell out of his hands and to the ground with a clatter, the reactor cage closing up.

Only Qrow remained.

He winced as he, too noticed this. Ruby shrugged at him, spinning her axe in her fingers. She watched him grit his teeth as he realized that his sword wasn't going to be enough to defeat her, or even just fight her. She watched patiently as he unlatched his sword and let it unfold into the giant scythe.

Ruby held up her hand to him, and gestured to him to approach.

She could see the resentment in his face. He came at her, scythe pulled back behind him and prepared for a slice. Her axe passed between her hands, gripped up close to the blade in her right hand. As the scythe came around, she deflected it off to the side with the handle of the axe. Qrow went for a low swipe at her legs, leaving her open to do a hands-free cartwheel to the left over the swinging blade. She pointed a shot at his neck, which he deflected on the snath of his scythe. She punched towards his jaw, missing as he blocked with the back of his hand.

Qrow was a good fighter. Just not with his weapon folded up as a sword. With Harbinger released as a scythe, there was almost no comparable combattant. Almost. Something he didn't know was that he would eventually train Ruby herself in scythe-wielding, meaning that she knew literally all of his tricks. She batted two more slices away with the blade of her axe, sparks flying off the colliding metal. She knew just how heavy Harbinger was, and just how heavy of an impact it could deliver. Even with the strength she possessed, she couldn't fight all that physical mass, and how fast it moved. She batted the scythe away, backpedalling towards the edge of the ring as he continued to swing that massive blade at her.

It was time to end the fight. The next time the blade came around, she mounted it, running up the curved blade and up the snath, running over his hands and flipping over the end of the handle and back into the middle of the ring. She turned to meet him. He turned to meet her. Their weapons met in the middle. The force reverberated through her arm like an explosion, but from the expression on Qrow's face he wasn't doing any better. They both dropped their weapons, the scythe flying off to the left and axe flipping away to the right.

She looked back to Qrow. he looked back to her. They both dashed forward, fists raised. Ruby threw a right. Qrow blocked left. Ruby threw a left. Qrow blocked right. She grunted and jumped forward and sent a series of seven or eight punches into his raised arms, trying to break his aura by force. He tried for a kick to her face, which she batted back down with her palms. He tried for a tackle, but didn't get particularly far into her guard as she grabbed him around the wrist and forced his arm around to hopefully flip him onto his back. Qrow just tumbled away and back to his feet. Ruby jumped forward again and sent two spinning kicks into his chest.

"Go down, Qrow."

"Death before dishonour."

"If you insist."

She leaped at him, using his knees and hip to get herself up to his throat and landed with her legs around his neck. With a twist of her body, she spun around so she was sitting behind his head, and locked her legs down. She flexed her core and spun herself towards the mat. This took his balance off and they fell together, landing with a hearty slap of skin on vinyl. She cranked his torso like an alligator, pinning his right arm under his body and crushing his neck in her legs. His left arm came up to try and slap at her but she just caught it, pulling and twisting it almost out of its socket.

"Tap out, Qrow."

"N...ne….ver…" he struggled for air as she slowly choked him out.

She rolled her shoulders a little to see the screen. Taiyang and Raven's auras were depleted all the way, and Qrow's was slowly decreasing past the ten percent warning line. Rather quickly.

"Do it, you're going to pass out."

"N...no… Sur...ren...der…"

"Qrow… tap…" Raven weakly said from the other side of the mat.

"Listen to your sister, Qrow. I don't want to hurt you."

His aura started to ripple around his skin, showing signs of breaking. His eyes were getting lidded, and his struggles were getting weaker and weaker. At this point, Ruby was scared she might actually asphyxiate him. Although, she thought she remembered one time her uncle telling her a story about wanting to be killed by a barmaid's thighs around his cheeks. She felt her face turn a shade of green, realizing she was now perpetuating his little fetish. She decided to just get it over with and squeezed as hard as possible, cutting off his breathing entirely. She rotated his body to free his right arm so he could tap out.

"fffff….."

His arm came up as he finally relented and tapped twice against her calf. She gasped loudly as she let all of her muscle strength out and released his head and arm from her tension. He coughed loudly and rolled out of it, defeated. Ruby grasped at her chest, lying on the ground and feeling her heart nearly beating itself out of her chest. She slowly sat up and watched Qrow slowly rubbing his neck, two rather substantial bruises on both sides of it just below his jawline.

"I'm sorry, Qrow."

"It's fine." he coughed, his voice entirely expended. "Good fight, Summer."

"Sorry."

She stood up slowly, helping Qrow to his feet and made sure he could stand before letting go.

"You alright?"

"Yeah… Just a little winded. Where did you learn to fight like that?"

Ruby flushed, realizing she couldn't exactly admit that she'd learned it from him and Taiyang, so she just shrugged.

"I've had a lot of practice."

"Evidently." he coughed, his lungs sore. "Ever think of teaching someone else?"

"Like you?"

He just chuckled to himself as they moved over to Taiyang, still on the floor, and helped him to his feet. He seemed a little loopy from the kick in the head. He was muttering something about daisies, which could be fixed with a ten minute trip to the infirmary for some Speedy-Up protein bars. With them all standing again, something that couldn't be said about Glynda's opponent in the previous match, they approached the teacher for their scores. Mr. Smith didn't seem impressed, but he hardly ever did so they thought nothing of it.

"Team… STRQ." he muttered in his monotone voice. "That fight was certainly… something."

He paused to put his sunglasses back on.

"I suppose you want your marks. Very well. Mr. Xiao-Long, B+. Mr. Branwen, A-, a reasonable effort, and you did last the longest. Ms. Branwen, B. And Miss Rose…"

He paused to look down on her. She tried to beam up at him, since she'd obviously won the match, but it was hard with his thousand-tonne stare.

"...D."

"What?!" they almost all said in unison.

"Showmanship will get you killed, Miss Rose. Disarming your opponents to show off is rather juvenile, and I'm sure they didn't appreciate it. If I was to score only your actual fighting skill, you'd be getting an A+, but since you chose to humiliate rather than defeat, I have chosen to deduct marks."

Ruby looked to the headmaster, still sitting in the front row. It wasn't fair what Mr. Smith was doing, was it? Unfortunately, all he gave her was a shrug and a 'that's what happens' kind of look before crossing his arms again.

Ruby pouted.

"Aw, man."

/.../

"Oh, come on, Summer, it's fine!" Tai rubbed her shoulder with one hand, holding a pack of ice to his temple with the other. "You beat us fair and square, I'm sure we can contest the mark."

Ruby just huffed into her arms, sinking lower into the lunch table and trying to force herself into a liquid state.

"Yeah, but you heard the teacher."

"Don't beat yourself up about… beating us… up. Uh, I mean, it's literally the class!"

She sniffled.

"Yeah, but he was right, I was just showing off."

Raven interjected, her mouth full of peanut butter sandwich. "Sunshine, we've seen you fight Grimm, we've seen how strong you are. I knew we weren't going to win that fight. Even all three of us against you."

"I coulda made it fair, though."

"We watched you suplex an Ursa in Grimm Studies." Qrow pointed out with his chopsticks, noodles hanging from his mouth. "If you had made it 'fair' you wouldn't have had a challenge. I'm surprised I lasted as long as I did."

She just sighed. She'd brutalized her teammates basically for no reason other than to 'prove' to them that she was the strongest and that she could, on command, take them all down at once. Her Leader Complex was showing again.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't… I should've just picked someone else."

"Wouldn't you have just beat the shit out of them, too?"

"Well… yeah, probably, but… I don't know, I blew it again."

"You're fine, Kiddo." Tai ruffled her hair in the very familiar dad-like way that she remembered. "I think if it had been anyone else, you might have actually killed them. Since it was the three of us, you were able to spread out your energy to all of us."

She looked through her bangs at him, her eyes red.

"Why are you justifying this?"

"Because that's what a team does. And we're gonna make sure you get the mark you deserve. That was most certainly a grade-A asswhooping. Eat your lunch, you've barely touched your sandwich."

Raven reached for it over the table.

"I'll eat it."

Raven, no." Tai slapped her hand away. "Eat your own lunch."

"I already have, I'm reappropriating hers if she's not going to eat it. Besides, it's either me or the seagulls."

To be fair, there were three gulls sitting up in the tree just behind the picnic table they were sitting at. Ruby shrugged and pushed her plate over the table to Raven. The woman's giddy attitude was silenced quickly as Tai dragged it back over.

"No, you're gonna eat your sandwich, Summer. Don't feel bad."

She chuckled.

"Yes, dad."

Taiyang had put actual effort into making their sandwiches and had packed everything into a little cooler for them to have lunch outside. It was a nice day to have lunch out in the courtyard of the school, even though it was the nearly the end of October. It was sunny enough to be outside, and hot enough that they didn't need coats or hats. That didn't stop Ruby from pouting into her cape and trying to hide. She sighed and reached out and picked up her sandwich, which was a delicious smoked meat on rye, made just the way she remembered it.

"Thanks, Tai."

"No problem, kiddo. Want a beer?"

For a moment, she just stared at him, confused.

"I'm sorry, what."

Without answering, he reached back into the cooler and pulled out four glass bottles filled with a dark brown fizzy liquid. One of the bottles was slammed down on the table in front of her, label facing towards her.

"Oh, root beer."

"What, you think I'm some kind of delinquent who drinks alcohol without being eighteen?"

Ruby looked at Raven, who just kind of looked away and sipped at her drink, not making eye contact with anyone.

"Uh, no, most certainly not."

Ruby cracked the lid off her drink

"Well, good. Underage drinking is not cool."

Raven nearly choked on her drink, trying to keep a straight face.

"Yeah, sure, dad."

"Eat your lunch, Summer, and stop moping. And stop calling me 'dad', you're making me feel old."

"I could kick your ass again instead."

He laughed.

"We'll see."

There were chuckles all around. Ruby smiled.

"You sure you're okay? You did get hit in the head pretty hard."

"I'll be fine, kiddo. It was a fair hit a fair hit a fair hit a fair hit."

There was a groan from Qrow, just before he reached over the table and smacked Tai across the face. Tai immediately stopped talking and blinked a few times.

"Sometimes you just gotta reset him."

"Has he been doing that long?" Ruby asked, sitting up straight.

"A few times. You just gotta remind him to talk normally when he does that."

"Huh. Maybe we need to do something about that."

"Eh, it's okay. He's fine, you just rattled him a little."

Raven leaned over on her elbow and stuck out her lower lip.

"I hope he's still in one piece. He's kinda important to this team."

"Important to the team?" Ruby poised. "Or important to you?"

"Shut the fuck up, Summer. You know what I meant."

About this time, Taiyang's brain rebooted and he perked up again.

"It was a fair hit, Summer. I'll get you next time."

Ruby scoffed. "No, you won't."

"That's the point of training, kiddo. You learn me up and I might actually have a chance against you. Waddayasay?"

"I'll think about it. Say, speaking of having a chance…"

She jabbed him in the ribs and gestured to Raven, who was busy cleaning dirt from under her nails with a pencil. Ruby gave him a dance of her eyebrows until he caught on.

"Oh, right, uh hey Rae…"

The woman briefly stopped and looked over.

"Uh huh?"

"What do you say you and I get out of the dorm on Saturday, go downtown or something."

"Can Summer come?" she asked, directing her stare over. Ruby panicked.

"Uh, yeah, I can't, I promised your brother we'd go… paintballing?"

Paintballing?" all of Qrow's attention was suddenly grabbed. "I love paintball!"

"Aw, man, now I wanna go paintballing." Raven pouted.

Shit

"Uh, oh, I just remembered. The arena is closed on saturdays. Sorry, Qrow. I'll help you with your physics homework like you asked, though."

"B-but I'm doing well-"

"I'll see you in the library on saturday, Qrow. Right?"

"I guess?"

"Good boy. Taiyang, you were asking Raven something?"

"Right, right, of course. Rae, me an' you, Saturday?"

She shrugged, but smiled, a hint of colour in her cheeks. Ruby secretly wiped her brown in relief.

"I suppose so, Xiao-Long. I wouldn't mind it if these two are busy."

"Excellent." he leaned back on the bench.

"Uh, guys, we're really late for class now."

They all looked up at the clock tower on the front of the school. Indeed they were, in fact, probably a half hour late. And it was Language Studies.

They all got up and bolted without another word.