Adam trudged to his dorm room with his new team after the ceremony. He hoped that the subsequent days wouldn't leave him as exhausted as he felt right then. There had been hard times before he had left the White Fang, but not quite like this. Blake's training had prepared him, and they had accomplished something few could claim. Despite the fact that he had pushed past his limits, he had some pride for what they had done. Pleased as he was, however, the only thing he wanted at this very moment was to sleep. They stopped in front of their assigned room, and Ruby did the honors with a wave of her scroll. They filed inside and got their first look at the room they would be calling home for the next four years.

The interior was sparsely furnished, with four beds and desks, with a holoprojection set in the central window. The walls were divided with wood paneling rising from the floor to waist height, and capped with floral-pattern wallpaper that stretched to a high ceiling. Their belongings were stacked at the foot of each bed. Ruby cheered with excitement and threw her arms up in the air.

"Alright, Team Rowan has officially moved in! Our first order of business should be to pick out beds, yeah?" Adam ignored the question and went straight to the bed with his suitcase, and then promptly fell face first onto it. "Or, we could do that," Ruby chirped.

"It's only three in the afternoon," Weiss replied. "I think I'll spend a little time preparing for tomorrow's classes." Adam heard her rummage through her things to pull out books and stake a claim on one of the desks.

"I'm with Adam," Yang chortled. "Think he likes to snuggle?" Adam suppressed a grumble.

"Don't you dare," he mumbled into the pillow. Yang laughed and tugged at one of his shoes. This time he didn't bother stifling the noise he made in the back of his throat as the shoe came off with a jerk.

"Yeah, at least don't get the covers dirty!" Ruby added as she pulled at his other foot. She had more trouble than her sister, so Adam hooked the heel with his other foot and popped it off. It fell to the carpet with a hollow thump. Yang had tumbled onto her own bed with a hefty sigh, and started snoring moments after. Adam buried his head under the pillow and tuned out Ruby and Weiss' chatter, somehow falling asleep a few minutes later.

He was awakened after what seemed far too short a time, and opened his bleary eyes to find Ruby nudging his shoulder. He sat up instantly and rolled off the bed to land on the far side in a crouch. His sudden movement caused Ruby to flinch backward as she splayed her hands out. He was wide awake now.

"Sorry! I didn't mean to startle you, Adam." He cleared his throat and stood up. "I take it you're not used to sharing a bedroom?" He shook his head and wiped sand out of his eyes. "Weiss and Yang just left for supper, and we didn't want to let you sleep through it. I hope you don't mind." She had a small, hopeful smile on her face.

"I suppose not, Ruby. I spent a lot of time in the wilderness though, so shaking me awake isn't a great idea." He cast about for, and found his shoes lined up next to his suitcase. Someone was a thoughtful bird. His money was on Ruby.

"Oh wow, really? What was that like? I've only been camping on Patch once in a while with Dad." She was eager to learn everything about her new teammates. He rolled his eyes with exaggerated patience and sat down to put on his shoes.

"It's pretty much the same thing, just uncomfortable sleeping and Grimm watches, but all the time." He stood and motioned to the door. "Shall we?" She gave an affirmative and dashed over to it so fast that he wasn't sure he even saw her cross the space in between. She left a trail of rose petals scattering behind her. He bent down to pick one up.

"Is this…?" he started to ask, but faltered. He wasn't exactly sure what to say without sounding rude or insensitive. Ruby laughed and waved a hand dismissively.

"Oh, that's just a by-product of my semblance. Dad says I got that from my mom." Adam looked at the litter of petals on the floor.

"Does this mean we have to clean up after you whenever you dash off somewhere?" He wasn't being completely serious, but Ruby laughed again and shook her head.

"Nah, they vanish after a minute or three. Come on, I hear they have cookies for dessert!" She opened the door and waited for him in the hall. He closed up the room and they made their way to the exit. Ruby filled the time by peppering him with questions about his fighting style and semblance. When he reluctantly told her what he could do, she didn't react as he had feared.

"Oh neat! You and Yang are both kind of special in the same way! Was that how you threw me this morning?" Adam let out the breath he'd been holding.

"I've never actually used it that way before. It didn't hurt you, did it?" She seemed to walk just fine, but she wouldn't be the first person to ignore injuries. She glanced at him sideways and shrugged a shoulder.

"My feet were a little numb when I landed. It's okay though; no different than falling from a long way up." That was a relief to hear. Still, he wondered what other unusual ways he could apply the technique.

"I gotta say, Ruby, your plan was pretty impressive, if completely insane." She giggled.

"Hey, it's only insane if it doesn't work, right?" She had a point, but he wasn't going to tell her that. The brunette didn't need any encouragement from him. He was sure that this morning's mad plan would be the first of many to come. Four years, gods help them all.

"I can see why they let you into Beacon. How did you convince them, slay a dragon?"

"Oh no, I stopped a robbery. That Torchwick guy hit the store I was browsing in. It was so cool!" That was her? He remembered seeing it on the news, but the reporter hadn't mentioned her name.

"You didn't get any credit?"

"Nah, being let into the school was good enough for me." She paused to consider something. "There's got to be more to it than that, though, right?" He nodded in agreement. Killing giant Grimm was one thing, but stopping a handful of criminals didn't seem like a very good audition to him. "I'm sure Professor Ozpin had other reasons. Maybe he'll tell me one day." They exited the building and made their way across the campus. Ruby chattered excitedly about her ideas for the team, which Adam listened to with detached interest. They entered the dining hall and Ruby pointed out the table where Weiss and Yang had chosen. Adam took an assortment of foods, while Ruby tried to take nothing but cookies. He admonished her for it and convinced her to find a little more balance.

"Ugh, yes mom." She rolled her eyes and added fruits and several slices of ham to her pile of sweets. He could only shake his head in amusement as they made their way past the other students to join their teammates. He heard a whispered 'freak' as he walked by a group of boys, causing him to frown. He'd seen nothing of team Cardinal beyond their formation at the ceremony, but he was sure that's where it had come from. Ruby leaned in close and murmured to him.

"Don't pay them any mind. They're just mad because they didn't get to kill any Grimm this morning." They might be embarrassed, but he doubted that was the real reason. Bigots might use any excuse to spread their hate, but something told Adam that he'd better watch his back around them.

"I'm used to it. If that's all they do, there won't be a problem." They sat down, but before their partners could greet them he added a caveat. "The trouble is, those sorts of people tend not to be satisfied with insults." Weiss and Yang looked at him, then to Ruby.

"What are you guys talking about?" Weiss asked. Ruby jerked her head at the boys they had passed.

"Oh, you know, just Cardin being a racist jerk. I mean, unless he was talking about how many cookies I took." Yang turned to look at them, and when she caught their eye, she made a rude gesture. They snickered and returned to their meal.

"Don't worry, Red, we got your back." Adam gave Yang a tight smile and nodded once. He wasn't really worried about a fight, but experience had taught him to be ready for anything. Humans could be kind, he knew, but they could also be terrible. He noticed that Weiss had said nothing, and was giving him an unreadable look. Yang was annoyed by her silence, and gave her arm a light smack. Weiss grunted and gave the blonde an irritated glance of her own.

"I'm sure if you ignore them, they'll get bored and move on." She didn't sound convinced. "But yes, if they make trouble, I'll stand beside you. We are a team, after all." She sounded sincere, but her body language said she'd rather it not come to that. Frankly, Adam was surprised by her willingness to overlook his heritage. Did the apple fall farther from the tree, or was she just covering? She had certainly turned out to be more than he'd expected of a Schnee. He decided to take a wait and see attitude.

"Bah! Enough of that nonsense," Ruby chimed in. "Let's talk ideas for team attack names!" Weiss dropped her fork into her salad, but looked mildly interested. Yang immediately offered ridiculous suggestions, and he didn't like most of them – though fire dragon sounded kind of cool, he wasn't sure how well that would work being shouted in combat. Ruby, on the other hand, had given the topic some thought, and most of her ideas were met with approving nods. He wasn't keen on he and his partner being called bumblebee, but maybe it would grow on him. On the other hand, he and Weiss being called checkmate had a certain poetry to it. He flatly refused to be called ladybug with Ruby, but was unanimously outvoted because it was 'cute'. He grumbled, but got even by calling the sisters enabler. The tie was broken by team Juniper from the next table over.

The remainder of the meal was spent talking about combat tactics and plans for a practice regime after classes. As the evening wound down, they returned to the dorms to prepare for the next day's classes. Ruby and Weiss had a short disagreement that ended in Weiss loudly apologizing for her attitude when they'd first met. While it hadn't sounded genuine, Adam fished out the bottle of fire dust and handed it to the heiress with a wink. She responded with a simple thank you, and they got ready for bed.

A/N - I know I said I was going to follow the show by the episode, but this felt like a better way to develop the characters a little. I hope it doesn't end up reading as too contrived. I have definite plans for the next few chapters, so this should update a little more regularly (free time depending). Thanks for reading, and to those of you leaving reviews, it's greatly appreciated. :)