Despite having basically fully recovered from her spar with Weiss, Ruby was told by the doctors that she should lay off the intense training of theirs for a while, as to avoid any damage to parts of her that may be a bit tenderer. This, of course, saddened the redhead, but in the time she was given off she found ways to make good use of it.

First and foremost was Crescent Rose's monthly disassembly. This was a fairly long process, even for her, despite knowing the weapon inside and out. She had pushed the weapon to its limits in the battle, as well as herself, so she needed to give the scythe a proper seeing to, to make sure that nothing was broken or faulty.

Making her way down to the workshop, Ruby had time to think about how she felt about Weiss and Winter. She was dating both of them, and that put her between a rock and a hard place, and she didn't want either. It was extremely lucky or extremely unlucky that both girls had asked her out on a date, and Ruby wasn't sure which it was. A curse in the guise of a blessing.

As if all that wasn't enough, this was Ruby's first relationship, if she were to call it that way. Her first time dating, and already it was with not just one, but both Schnee daughters at once! Both were stunningly beautiful and Ruby knew that, given the choice, she wouldn't be able to choose only one of them. She was a real sweetheart, not wanting to hurt anybody. She recalled that someone once told her that if she wouldn't hurt anybody, she'd be the only one hurt in the end. And that was what was scaring her senseless. She didn't want to lose either of them, but she also knew she would not be able to hide it forever.

What would happen once one found out about the other? Ruby held no belief she'd be able to keep dating both Schnees a secret. And once that would happen? Would they both abandon her? Ruby hoped that wouldn't happen. Secretly, she hoped she could have both of them, but she knew that was not possible. It made her sad and she quickened up her pace to get to the workshop as quickly as possible, to take her mind off the Schnees.

Arriving at the workshop, with Crescent Rose, she set about finding herself a place to set up shop and begin the lengthy process of completely servicing the weapon. She'd need a large table, with space for the six foot long weapon, four foot wide scythe head and somewhere to put all of the individual components, too.

Finding a table with the requirements wasn't too difficult, as Beacon recognised that some students were inclined to use larger weapons, such as Nora's Magnhild and Ruby's Crescent Rose, and so there were a couple of large workshop tables which provided plenty of space. Setting the sniper-scythe down, Ruby went off to go and find some tools in order to disassemble every part, and to retrieve the special polish she kept hidden behind the cupboard. Gathering all of the necessities, Ruby then pulled up a stool and got to work.

First she detached the head of the scythe with the large hinge that allowed the blade head to reflex, and angle, and pivot, and do basically anything that normal scythes couldn't. Several small bolts and a much larger one later, the head was detached from the shaft. She took a moment to admire the large scythe part of the sniper-scythe in all of its glory - the curve of the blade, the segmentation of the steel, and the wickedly sharp edge of the blunt end.

Refocusing on the task at hand, she then put the sniper rifle shaft to one side and began disassembling the head of the scythe. First came unscrewing the segmented blades that formed the actual cutting head itself, and then she disconnected all of the parts of the supporting and folding backbone of said blade. It was a marvellous piece of engineering, if she did say so herself. Her uncle Qrow helped her construct the scythe at a younger age, and each little nook and cranny provided some kind of benefit to the weapon. Even the tiniest dents served some purpose.

Detaching the shaft connected from the backbone of the blade, Ruby then took apart the blunt end of the scythe and the very tip of it. All in all, there were exactly sixty two parts in front of her, including the many screws and ingenious locking systems that helped the intricate scythe unfold. The scythe head itself was actually only made up of about twenty five or thirty parts.

Ordering each part nicely, Ruby then turned her attention to the sniper rifle segment. Without the scythe head and a big, blocky compensator, the barrel of the sniper rifle was quite a terrific sight to see. The sturdy construction of the weapon of course made it huge, but it was also incredibly strong. The outer barrel was painted a dark black colour, and the inner barrel itself had curved grooves carved into it to keep the heavy calibre rounds flying dead straight. It could actually be extended, and it when the scythe head was attached this was the case, which made the weapon so big. It was also considerably lighter without the scythe head.

The extending and folding stock wasn't really used all that often, as it was much easier to simply unfold the scythe and throw its tip into the ground if precision was really that necessary. This kept it perfectly stable and gave no recoil from the shots. The pistol grip could be folded into the shaft and sniper rifle, exposing only the trigger itself and making handling the weapon a whole lot more ergonomical when wielding it with deft moves as a large scythe.

Red in colour, the casing itself hid a highly advanced firing mechanism, which was bolt-action and catered for the extremely heavy calibre which she was using. More often than not, the twenty millimetre ammunition would be found on aircraft and it was capable of tearing anything to the ground in seconds. This is what gave the sniper rifle such a huge amount of recoil, and kick when firing, and was what allowed her to literally tear Grimm in half with a single shot. Maybe one day, when technology advanced even further, she could be able to make a semi-automatic firing mechanism that was still convenient and practical to use, but bolt action would more than do for now.

Disassembling the sniper rifle itself was fun. First, off came the stock and butt of the gun, which unlike most assault rifle style weapons didn't actually contain any important parts, and then the scope was unscrewed from its rotating mount, the large locking mechanism near the front end of the casing was unbolted and then the outer barrel was slid off. Picking apart every single tiny detail of the firing mechanism, Ruby was entranced by her weapon, and before she knew it, everything was disassembled in front of her - all three hundred and thirty two parts, in total. The trigger mechanism made up nearly fifty of those parts alone. It wasn't long before she grabbed a rag and polish before she began to clean every single part.

Letting her mind wander while she worked, she must have missed the people coming in and out of the workshop, and also lost track of the time - it was now a good three hours later, and all the parts seemed to be clean. She held the inner barrel up to a light to make certain, and sure enough, it gleamed like it was brand new. Confident that she had given the weapon a full servicing, she then took upon herself her favourite task of all - reassembly.

Putting Crescent Rose together again was her favourite part, simply because it made her feel like it was her first time doing it once again, despite moving swiftly through muscle memory to put the whole thing back together. First up was the sniper rifle, and putting everything back into place, reattaching the stock, sliding over the outer barrel and screwing the scythe-folding locking mechanism back onto said outer barrel took less than seven minutes. Then came the scythe head - every polished piece of metal was carefully screwed and bolted together, making sure that the hinges and pivots functioned properly, lest the weapon fall apart in combat.

Knowing full well that she had done it perfectly as per usual, all that was left was to attach the scythe head and slide on the huge blocky compensator and the thing would be complete. This too went without a hitch, and soon enough, she was staring at her newly serviced Crescent Rose, functioning better than ever. Grabbing a magazine from her waist from the two she often kept there, she was about to head out to the testing range to ensure that the firing mechanism had all been assembled properly when she nearly jumped out of her skin.

Having had headphones on for most of the process - especially the sharpening of the segmented blades - she had entirely missed the fact that Weiss' sister Winter was stood right behind her, staring at the large scythe in awe.

"W-Winter! H-How long have you b-been there?"

Winter's dreamy blue eyes kept going up and down the scythe and the scythe wielder. She answered with her usual voice. "Oh, you know, a while. I was wondering how you're doing. If we are going to get serious with this dating thing, we'll have to see each other more often, right?"

Ruby scratched the back of her head while sporting a blush. "I guess you're right."

"I didn't want to say anything because you looked so peaceful putting that thing together."

"Hehe… Yeah… I get pretty invested when I put this thing back together."

Winter shifted all of her weight onto one leg, put her hand on her hip, and resumed her normal sassy personality. "You really love this scythe of yours, don't you?"

Holding it in both arms like it was a precious thing that needed to be protected, and - was she stroking it? It was still unfolded, in all its scythe glory. Winter couldn't help but wonder just how heavy the weapon was.

"Yeah. My uncle helped me make it, and as soon as I started learning how to use a scythe, I knew it was the weapon for me," Ruby explained. That seemed logical enough to Winter.

"...How heavy is that thing?" Winter asked this for two reasons. One, she was genuinely interested to see how much the weapon weighed. Two, if it did weigh a lot and she was constantly swinging it around like it was nothing, then her muscles must have had some kind of definition to them. Oh my, what if she has a six-pack?

"It's quite heavy. Like, not super heavy, but it definitely weighs more than all of my teammate's weapons put together." So it's pretty heavy. That's step one. "Here - you can hold it if you want."

Ruby carefully handed Crescent Rose over to Winter, still unfolded. What if I chop my arm off with it, or something? She lay the weapon in her hands before looking up and asking for confirmation that she was ready to take the weight. Winter nodded in response, and suddenly the whole weight of the weapon was in her hands.

It weighed a ton.

"Agh - it's not super heavy? A-are you sure? This thing is way too heavy!"

Ruby giggled at the sight of Winter trying to hold the scythe properly. She looked good with it. Obviously she wasn't the huntress type, and that might have also been the reason she found the scythe so heavy. "Eh, I'm used to lifting it up and swinging it around. Trust me, I found it really heavy the first time I picked it up too. But yeah, you get used to it."

This girl was insane. What other fifteen year olds did Winter know that went to the very best school for warriors, wielded a sniper-rifle scythe combination which weighed a ton and killed monsters for a living?

None. That was for sure. But that was what she found intriguing about her, what made her want to get to know Ruby better.

"Y-you can have it back now," Winter said, breathing a sigh of relief as her arms were removed of the absurd weight of the scythe, dumping it into Ruby's waiting arms. The girl laughed. "Heh, it would be even heavier if I made it out of proper metals, rather than these super-light alloys. It's why I can swing it so quickly."

Winter was glad that it wasn't heavier.

"Do you have to be strong to swing it around and carry it everywhere?"

Ruby looked like she'd never been asked this question before. "Huh, I never really thought about that. I mean yeah, I'm a huntress, so I guess I must be pretty strong anyway? I fell down a hole on a trip to Mountain Glenn, and Blake brought my scythe back, she didn't seem to struggle with it that much while she was holding it. She did breathe heavily after she let go though, so… I'm not sure."

Listening to the girl ramble on was rather enjoyable, Winter found. She could just sit there in a room with the little reaper and listen to her talk for an entire day without stopping, and it would be great. What was Winter going to ask the girl next? Wait, yeah, ask if she has abs. It won't be weird, right?

"So uh... From lifting that much weight… Do you have… Like, you know, abs and stuff?"

Ruby's light blush instantly intensified to a deep crimson. She stuttered slightly, and seemed to have wide eyes. "Oh - uh, I didn't mean to upset you! Please, I'm sor-"

"Nah, it's, uh, fine, I guess," said Ruby who seemed to have regained her composure, "I mean I think I sort of do… they're not like Yang's though. They're just sort of there and I don't really mind them."

"Could I... You know…"

Her blush went even deeper. Even Winter was blushing at this point.

"I'd have to get changed though… Because, I uh, have my corset on and it takes forever to take on and off on a whim…"

Winter was happy with that. "Sure. Okay. Maybe you could show me later if you're really fine with it." The two were definitely getting closer now, so close in fact that Winter had nearly forgotten why she went out to go and find Ruby in the first place.

"Oh yeah! Ruby, your team says that there's a speech or something going on later, and they'll all be going to it, so I imagine that you need to, too." She smiled at the younger girl.

"That's gonna be Ozpin's speech, right? For the Vytal festival? Yeah, that's the start of it. We should really get going and make sure we don't miss it."

The two girls began walking out of the workshop, and into the grounds. As usual, it was a nice summer's day, and a light breeze was playing with the ends of Ruby's skirt and Winter's ponytails. The dorms were all the way across the grounds from the small and honestly rather forgotten workshop, and so the walk would take a couple of minutes.

"Winter," Ruby asked, garnering the other girl's attention, "What was it like to live with Weiss as kids? Like, was she like she is now?"

Winter had to stop and think about this for a while. The two sisters certainly weren't on the best of terms, having had a bit of an argument before Weiss left for Beacon but deep down they both knew that neither one wanted to back down and apologize. "It was… nice, I guess? She was an okay sister, we played together sometimes, did normal stuff, but we didn't have many friends, so it was just me and her. I guess that's what happens when you get cut off from basically everyone else because of your parents."

Ruby felt sort of the same way about Yang. Patch didn't have a huge population, but Yang had managed to make friends regardless. Ruby on the other hand was a total introvert, and hated speaking to new people when she was younger. She didn't really have many friends of her own and so she just stuck around Yang most of the time, especially when her father was all broken up over her mother's death.

"So she wasn't that different to how she is now?" Winter shook her head. As the two girls continued their walk, their hands brushed together by accident. The two girls looked at each other, just slightly embarrassed. Winter then took the lead and confidently put her hand in Ruby's, sending her a confident look. Their eyes met for a long moment, Winter getting lost in the silver eyes and Ruby getting lost in the blue ones. Then Ruby widened her mouth in a cute smile before squeezing the hand gently. Winter quickly took the hand away and Ruby was sad for a moment before realizing that nobody could see them holding hands.

The duo, after "accidentally" brushing their hands against each other a few more times, eventually arrived at the scene of Ozpin's speech. They were right on time as they squeezed through the crowd to the front, where the rest of team RWBY was.

"Where have you been for so long?" was Weiss' immediate question.

"I-I took longer than I thought w-with cleaning Crescent Rose."

Weiss eyed Ruby suspiciously, but did not press the matter. Professor Ozpin started talking with his soothing voice.

"Welcome to Beacon, students of Mistral, Atlas and Vacuo, and a hearty welcome to our home students as well. The Vytal Festival, the symbol of solidarity between the people of Remnant and a symbol of peace and prosperity, is about to begin. There will be many duels, as most of you already know. I hope you will all show your absolute best in the tournament…"

Ozpin kept on talking, but Winter didn't listen to him. Not only did it not concern her since she wasn't participating, but she was busy with checking Ruby out. She took in her shape, imagining the well toned abs on her belly. Abs that she promised to show me.

Weiss couldn't help but look at Ruby, either. Ozpin's speech was lost on her as she was busy ogling her partner. She also noticed Winter looking at Ruby a few times. She wouldn't dare, though, right? Ruby's mine and mine only. She definitely wasn't going to allow anyone, especially Winter, to try and take Ruby away from her.

"The first match of the tournament will start now. We have determined that the two combatants will be Jaune Arc, leader of team JNPR, and Fox Alistair from team CFVY!", Miss Goodwitch said over the speakers when Professor Ozpin was done with his speech.

"And… Begin!"

The signal of the referee began the match, and Fox was already heading straight towards Jaune. The blonde raised his shield and charged towards Fox in a similar way, and quickly avoided the first strike of the elbow-blades that he used, aimed at his head. Having ducked to the left, he brought his sword arm up to the right in a diagonal slash in an attempt to deal some damage but he hit nothing but thin air.

Sidestepping around Jaune, Fox made his next move to the recovering knight. Angling his right arm blade forward, he leaped towards the other boy and watched as he brought up his shield to block the strike. This was exactly what he wanted him to do, as he was now focusing only on the blade currently against the shield, and in a quick spin, Fox brought his left elbow blade around and struck Jaune in the head.

Jaune shouted in pain as he was struck by the solid blade, and made a mental note of the fact that Fox was both quicker and stronger than he looked, even for a Hunter in training.

Getting back to his feet, Jaune met his opponent who was running towards him with his own shield again, and bashed away the blades. A swing to the left with Crocea Mors in his right hand was very nearly left unimpeded as Fox rolled backwards, knowing he wouldn't be able to deflect the attack fast enough.

Springing high up into the air, Fox took note of their position on the battlefield, and saw no environmental advantages he could use on the flat field which the qualifying rounds of the tournament were taking place on. The forest near the edge - completely burned down for some reason - was out of bounds for the fighters, and he would have to make do with the weapons on his arms.

Jaune backed off as the spinning attack delivered by Fox very nearly struck him, but almost fell over in surprise as the quick roll to his feet carried on towards Jaune with a blade pointed forward, aimed at his head. Barely blocking this attack too, Jaune knew he'd have to go on the offensive soon or he'd never have a chance.

Bringing the sword up in a vertical arc nearly worked, as Jaune found the awkward angle Fox had his blades positioned at made them not only very hard-hitting but also limited their range. Having his first attack blocked Jaune quickly swung his sword again at Fox in a more diagonal arc, and much to his surprise, actually hit Fox and knocked him to his feet.

Attacks in quick succession are good. Awkward angles are good too.

It was barely a moment after Fox had gotten up that the blond knight was charging at him again. Sidestepping him, Fox managed to leap around to the boy's rear and deliver a somewhat hasty blow to his neck. Jaune cried out in pain as he stumbled, but was quick to deflect the second and third blows Fox delivered, outright blocking the fourth.

Finding his arms somewhat tiring, Fox was now put back onto the defensive as Jaune swung and swung at him with his sword, breaking through his defences once or twice, and lowering his aura by a fair amount. It wasn't looking good for the boy in red.

Pyrrha, stood on the outskirts of the field with many other spectators, was cheering Jaune on as he seemed to be gaining ground on his opponent, and then disaster struck.

What Jaune thought was a last ditch charge by Fox was met with his shield - and that's when Jaune found his shield met nothing as the boy and leaped over him in a well practiced backflip, and before Jaune knew it, the full force of both of his elbow blades came crashing down on him and knocked him to the floor, completely breathless and likely out of aura.

The referee blew his whistle, and walked between the boys shouting "And that's the match! Mr. Arc's aura has dropped into the red, below 10%, and that makes the victor Mr. Alistair!"

Jaune felt crushed - he had worked and trained so hard with Pyrrha, yet Fox had put him flat on his back and won the match. He was in over his head trying to participate in a tournament for real hunters in training, when all he had behind him was just a few weeks of swordplay with Pyrrha.

Weiss watched at Jaune lying on the floor and looking so sad at his defeat. As dense and pushy as he was towards her, Weiss didn't feel too much malice seeing him crushed like that. When she looked towards Ruby, she could just barely notice her sister giggling maniacally. Weiss' eyes widened at the sight.

"That's for calling me Snow Princess!" Winter said that out loud, but it was not really audible over the cheering of the crowd. Ruby and Weiss did hear it, though, and looked at her. Weiss seemed to be sporting a small grin on her face. Perhaps we can find some common ground anyway. See, the two sister weren't on fantastic terms, but they certainly didn't despise each other either. It was more like a standoff, neither one wanting to back down, and clashing because of it.

Not too long later, Jaune had arrived and immediately Pyrrha was fussing over his bruises and scratches from the fight. It was an exchange of, "You're hurt!", "I'm fine," et cetera, et cetera. It was painfully clear to team RWBY just how highly the spartan thought of the knight, yet he was so oblivious to her clear advances it hurt just to watch. The two teams settled in and watched a few more matches, all declared by Ozpin himself, and before they knew it, the end of the day had arrived. None of team RWBY had gotten to fight yet, and if the remaining members of team JNPR had fought, then they probably missed it in their day dreaming.

Ruby, as per usual, was dreaming about the twenty-five millimetre sniper rifle she read about in her weekly weapons magazine a few days ago - the biggest calibre sniper rifle to be made functional and practical so far. It was huge, though, and the magazine only fit about three rounds in them, so reloading often was necessary. It simply wouldn't work with Crescent Rose, but for taking down Death Stalkers and Nevermores in just one or two shots? It'd be great at that.

Weiss was tearing herself apart over her situation with Winter. If she kept making subtle advances on her girlfriend, then Weiss would have to take charge of the situation and stop her before anything bad happened. It was her duty, really. Winter was really subtle when she was being flirty with Ruby, incredibly subtle in fact - Ruby didn't seem to react in the adorable blush that she always would, so she probably just didn't pick it up.

Blake was consumed by her current book, the sequel to the infamous Ninjas of Love. It didn't mean she didn't pick up her surroundings, though. Winter was very clearly making advances on Ruby, yet the reaper didn't seem to mind them, despite Weiss being head over heels for her as well. Blake didn't forget how Ruby acted when Winter first met the team. Blake didn't forget how Winter acted around Ruby from the moment they met. She had too much on her mind to really give it much thought, though. They will resolve it best between themselves. She also wondered how long away their fights were, which would let them compete in the tournament. Blake might have also been checking Yang out - but only as a friend though, she swore.

Yang was busy sleeping. She was dreaming about how she trashed Junior's nightclub, and how so very much she'd love to do it again.

As it turned out, however, Ruby still had a couple of things to say to Winter as they were walking back to the dorms. It was fairly quiet, as most other people were going to eat dinner, and everybody was walking in comfortable silence. Ruby slowed down her pace just enough to start slightly lagging behind and discreetly motioned for Winter to slow down as well. Obviously very interested in what was about to transpire, Winter heeded the motion and as soon as she got to the back and were a fair few feet from the others, Ruby surprised her once again.

"What was that?"

"What was what, Ruby?", Winter asked innocently. She wasn't sure what Ruby was talking about.

"You know, when Jaune lost. You said he deserved it, and that was mean."

Winter's eyes darkened rather considerably as she said, "I haven't got any sympathy for people who shamelessly hit on me. He was just another one of those idiots, if you catch my drift."

Ruby sighed somewhat exasperatedly, and said "But Winter! You've only known him for, like, a day! Give him a chance at least, he isn't that bad..."

"Hm. Prove it."

"Well," Ruby said, gesturing with hands, "This guy Cardin was being a jerk to him -" Winter rolled her eyes, ready for a sob story, "- and you know what? After a bit of encouragement, he stood up for himself, and got him to stop bullying another girl too. He's not bad, really."

This is what Winter loved about Ruby, she was so helplessly innocent and willing to see the good in people, and one day it would get her in trouble. She was too kind and too unwilling to say anything bad for her own good.

"Well… I guess I could be a little kinder to him. But I'm not apologizing. He didn't hear me and he wasn't offended, so I don't need to apologise." Ruby's light frown seemed to clear up at this, and Ruby - after quickly checking that Weiss was very far ahead - gave Winter a small hug from the side and said "Thanks, Winter. You're the best girlfriend ever… Even if…"

"What was that?" Winter asked Ruby sincerely, "You mumbled to yourself and I couldn't hear you."

"I - uh…" she was scratching the back of her head again. A habit that Winter had found quite cute. "It's, uh, not that important?"

"Well, it had something to do with... Knees? Something like that?"

"Yeah. I. Uh. You're the best girlfriend ever," Ruby's tone quieting considerably, "evenifyoumakemykneesweak..."

Winter doubled over in laughter, barely managing to say, "Oh my, Ruby! You can't be s-serious, surely?"

The smaller girl's blush intensified. She didn't want to admit that she completely fell for Winter and that she might have wanted to be called Winter's own, but it was still partially the truth. Winter's voice, dripping with sassiness and posture verging on the very definition of flippancy, made Ruby feel weak inside. Ruby was much more bashful and refused to be outgoing, and that might have been why Winter asked her out before she asked Winter out. Perhaps she wanted a play-toy; a pet of sorts, sadistic as such a proposition sounded.

Ruby both did and didn't hope this was the case.