Ruby wasn't quite sure what to make of her current situation. On the one hand, she had Yang, her sister, holed up in her room talking to Blake. And on the other, she had Weiss. Someone she definitely now considered a friend, even if she was a little…difficult. Ruby stood out in the hall talking with Jaune, rambling.

"Wait, wait, wait." Jaune said, waving his hands in the air to get Ruby to be silent for once. "I'm just passing through here, and you just kinda started rambling off at me. Rewind please. I'm currently about as useful as a sloth on Mars."

Ruby took a big breath. "Okay, I told you how Weiss kinda blew up at me this morning?"

Jaune nodded. Ruby had told him during lunch when she had introduced him to the Blake girl.

"So apparently…shit kinda hit the fan." And so, Ruby recapped to Jaune the events of the previous day that didn't involve her, from what she was told anyway.

Blake

So, according to Blake, after she dropped me off she went back to our room to get her books and things ready for her classes…

Blake sighed as she turned away from her roommate and began navigating her way back to their room. That girl had her wrapped around her little finger. Not that she minded all that much, but still.

Daydreaming absently, she didn't really pay attention to where she was going till she collided into another person.

"Oh! Wow, I am so sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going and-" Blake stopped talking when she realized who she had run into. "Oh. It's you."

Weiss Shnee pulled herself up off the ground with a huff and dusted herself off. "You should watch your step. I could have gotten hurt there you know."

"Wouldn't make me sleep any worse." Blake replied snidely, ready to lay into this bitch after her completely unwarranted attack on Ruby.

"Excuse me?!" Weiss said in an incredulous tone. "How could you say such a thing? You're as much of a barbarian as that blonde-haired menace I'm forced to share a room with!"

"At least us barbarians have this little thing called tact."

Weiss let out a noise halfway between a gasp and a cough. In one of the rare moments Blake ever saw Weiss speechless, she gathered her thoughts up quickly before retorting "I'll have you know that I have plenty of 'tact' I just prefer not to waste it."

"Oh and Ruby is a waste of tact?" Blake said, trying very hard to keep her voice from rising.

"What are you talking about?" Weiss exclaimed, not sure what the girl was getting at.

"This morning, asshole. When you blew up at my friend for no reason!" Blake was, at this point, getting rather close to Weiss's face, and Weiss took a couple steps back at this vehement burst of emotion.

"I'm sorry? I don't know what you're talking about." For once, Weiss was telling the truth. She wasn't quite sure what Blake was getting at.

"You told her to shove off. She wasn't even being mean to you, just asking some questions."

Weiss then understood what she meant, and although she conceded the point in her heart, her mouth had other things to say about it. "At five thirty in the morning!"

"You were getting up soon anyway! First day of school, eight o clock class? Everyone actually taking it seriously and who isn't scarily good at navigating got up at six, six thirty!"

Weiss couldn't really come up with a counter-argument to this, so in response she let out a very haughty sounding huff and stormed off in the direction Blake had come from.

"Ugh!" Blake said, frustrated. She then kicked the stone walls, an action she immediately began to regret. Walking off in a huff, she got back to their apartment and packed up her things in a rather hasty and half-assed manner, then stalked back to her classroom and essentially sulked the whole way through.

Cling! came the noise from her phone. Ruby had texted her, although not for the reason she thought. 'Don't worry about fetching me, found a friend! Ttyl!' Slightly disappointed she wouldn't be seeing Ruby until lunchtime, Blake decided to explore a little more of the campus. She did have until her and Ruby met up for lunch to screw around. The rest of her classes didn't start till 2:30.

Eventually she found a suitably gloomy-looking tree and sat down with her back against it and her knees tucked up to her chest. Resting her chin on her knees, she sat like that for almost thirty minutes. Then someone's hands wrapped around her eyes with a very loud, delighted "Guess whoooo?"

Squealing, Blake scrambled away from her captor only to discover a laughing blonde who for once was properly clothed.

"Yang you scared the shit out of me!" Blake scolded as she crawled back over to the tree. "Don't do that!"

"Sorry Blakey, I couldn't resist! You looked so sad. Tell Big Sister Yang allll you're problems!" Yang stated happily. As she said the last part she stuck her arms out from her body, apparently thinking Blake had either a lot of problems or a really big one.

"It's nothing. And don't call me that. And I'm not calling you Big Sister Yang, so stop that." Blake said in a dry voice. She then resumed her position by the tree, only this time she had a new puppy. Or, at least, that's what it felt like.

"Stop it with the puppy eyes Yang! You make me feel like I just punted a baby." Blake tried to not look at the very pitiful expression on Yang's face, but like a moth to flame, she couldn't look away.

Yang situated herself next to Blake and threw her arm around her shoulders and pulled her close.

"C'mon Blake, we're buddies! Sort of. You're my baby sister's best friend. Anyway, spill the beans. What's up?"

"Hmph. Fine." Blake sounded reluctant, but her face was slightly tinged pink and Yang noticed her snuggling in just a little bit. "But you have to answer a question first."

"Shoot," Yang said, ready for some really weird question.

"How far apart are you and Ruby, age-wise?" Yang blinked. She had been expecting something a lot different, but she could roll with this.

"I'm twenty one, actually. Ruby is seventeen. She's starting college early, I started school in general late."

Blake was confused. "But…we went to high school together. And I'm eighteen. How are you three years older than me?"

"Bit of a living situation fuckup there. Basically, we were kinda poor for a bit and couldn't afford to send me to actual school so my parents 'homeschooled' me. And then due to some screw-up at some office, when I did finally get the chance to go to high school, they stuck me in freshman year. I mean, learning-wise it was probably a good thing. Social life wise, nope."

"Weird." Blake said, not sure how that actually was able to happen. A shrug from Yang told her she hadn't the slightest clue either.

"Now spill. I answered your question." Yang said, squeezing Blake.

"Fine. I'm angry. At Weiss." Blake said in a grumbly tone.

"Understandable. What happened? Did you forget to call her 'Your Majesty'? Were you sarcastic in calling her 'Your Majesty'? Did you look at her funny? Did she get all holier-than-thou on you?"

Giggling a little, Blake shook her head. "No, none of that."

"Well, I'm out of ideas."

"No you aren't."

"No I'm not, but we aren't gonna get anywhere this way. What happened?"

"She, um…kinda blew up at Ruby."

Yang immediately disengaged herself from Blake and sat directly across from her. She put her hands on Blake's shoulders and stared right into her eyes, her face a mask of neutral, but in her eyes burned the righteous flames of classic Big Sister 'You-Done-Fucked-Up-By-Screwing-With-My-Baby-Sister' look.

"Come again for Big Sister Yang?" she said curtly.

"It was at like 5:30. Ruby had just figured out that her and Weiss shared a few classes together, and wasn't exactly thrilled. But they were weird classes to just be sharing by coincidence so we went over to ask her. It was a morning class, everyone with any of those early ass-crack-of-dawn classes was up already, so we thought it wasn't a big deal."

"Turns out they both have the same major. But instead of being civil, Weiss acts the total bitch and literally tells your sister to shove off."

Yang's face remained stony and impassive as she stood up and slowly began walking away.

"Where are you going?" Blake asked, slightly nervous and amused at the same time.

"I'm going to shank a bitch." Yang said in a deadpan tone. It would have been funny if Blake hadn't seen Yang's eyes a few seconds earlier.

After Yang stalked off, Blake went about the rest of her day. Around lunchtime she got a text from Ruby saying 'Sorry! But I'm having lunch with another new friend from English. I hope that's okay. You can join us if you want! But otherwise I'll see you tonight, alright? Blake smiled. She texted her back saying it was fine and she didn't want to intrude.

For all she knew, Ruby had a date already.

So, she went about her normal day until she returned to her room to find screaming coming from Weiss and Yang's room. As Yang stomped out of her room and into Ruby and Blake's, she saw Ruby walk out of the room following her sister, then stopping in the hall with a confused look on her face.

Catching Blake's eye, she waved her over.

"Hey, um, so…shit kinda hit the fan here. Can you fill me in on whatever the hell is happening here and then go talk to my sister? She likes you and doesn't consider you a fragile little china doll, so you can calm her down."

After giving Ruby the Cliff's Notes of her day, Blake went in to talk to Yang…

…

"And then you came by and here we are." Ruby said to Jaune, who was concentrating hard trying to keep up.

"Alright…so…your sister found out that Weiss gave you shit. What happened after that?" he said, morbidly curious against his better interests.

Ruby sighed. "My info there is slightly more patchy. Most of what I know came from a very teary Weiss and a very angry Yang. And the big fight they just had."

Yang

Four thirty was a good time to wake up for gym, right? Not according to Ice Princess McBitch over there who was currently cussing Yang out while she tried to get dressed.

"Weiss, chill. You can go back to bed for all I care, but I gotta hit the gym before class starts. I have an eight o' clock! Gotta get in my workout so I can really start participating in the kickboxing club." Making a few swipes at the air with her feet with accompanying sound effects, Yang left with a trail of muttered curses at her back.

Slinging a backpack over one shoulder, Yang navigated the deserted hallways and located the gym. She found that it was empty save one person.

"Great minds think alike, eh?" she said as she approached the girl she had met yesterday. She had bright ginger hair going down to her waist and was currently wearing nothing but a tank top and gym shorts. She didn't answer at first, as she was running on the treadmill, but it was obvious she had been here for a bit as she was already a bit sweaty.

After she stopped, she smiled and greeted Yang with a bear hug. "I guess that's true. Morning Yang."

"Morning Pyrrha. Spot me?"

"Sure."

Yang and Pyrrha split off after their two hour workout, having different classes and all. "Catch you later!" Pyrrha said as she went off towards the dorms, whereas Yang had a class to locate.

…

Ten o clock rolled around and Yang was walking around the grounds, free from the unnaturally-cold buildings. AC was sometimes a blessing, but seriously, someone needed to tone it down a bit. She saw a familiar looking brunette sitting against a tree looking rather sullen.

Yang decided to creep up behind her and scare her a little. Putting her hands over her eyes, she said "Guess whoooo?" which elicited the desired response.

After properly greeting and snuggling her kitty friend, Yang tried to pry out what was bothering her after answering an odd question. After learning that the problem was, surprise surprise, Ice Queen, Yang gave a few half-assed guesses as to what pushed her buttons this time.

Then she discovered that that trash-talking, bottom-feeding whore had insulted her baby sister.

Leaving Blake behind, Yang made it her personal mission to go find Weiss and teach her a lesson, leaving her promise to Ruby in the wind.

She finally found her eating lunch alone. She waited patiently for her to finish her lunch, as while she may be about to deliver pure righteous justice, she wasn't cruel. As soon as those dishes hit the bin though, she had a firm grip on Weiss's other arm.

"Dorm room. Now." She growled, eliciting a very huffy response from Weiss, although she soon complied as she realized that Yang had a very tight grip on her.

Once they reached the room, Yang blew her top.

"What the HELL are you doing chewing out my little sister? For asking a damn question?!" Yang said, nearly throwing Weiss across the room.

"Whoa, Yang, please, calm down." Weiss said, going from huffy to unnaturally peaceful at the mention of this morning's incident. "I saw Ruby earlier, I apologized, we're all good now. Okay?"

"Hell NO we aren't okay! You insulted my sister!" Yang said, getting dangerously close to Weiss, who had backed up and sat down on her bed.

"Hey, please calm down." Weiss said, looking a little scared. "What do you want me to do? Apologize again? I'm completely okay with doing so. I'll do it now, actually, I have her phone number…" Weiss's sentence turned into a mutter as she dug her phone out to concentrate.

Yang snatched the phone out of her hands. "You are staying away from Ruby." Her voice was low, and deadly serious. Not wanting an argument right now, and on the verge of tears, Weiss nodded quickly.

"Can I leave now…?" she asked in a somewhat small voice.

"You just leave her alone, okay. Stay the hell away from her."

Weiss didn't need another answer and bolted from the room, tears already starting to come.

…

"Whoa…" Jaune said, sitting down with his back against the wall. "That's pretty intense."

Nodding, Ruby took a seat next to Jaune. "Yeah. I ran into Weiss crying by the girl's bathroom a few hours after that happened. She told me what happened and I brought her back to her room. Sat with her for a few hours, until, well, fifteen minutes ago."

Jaune could already see where this was going.

"Then Yang came back and…well…then shit didn't just hit the fan, it fucking exploded all over it."

"And now you're stuck between your probably crying friend and your overaggressive, overprotective sister." Jaune concluded.

Ruby nodded, her eyes a little watery. "I'm…kinda lost."

"Do…do you want me to help?" Jaune kinda didn't want to interact with either a crying girl or someone who could punch his lights out, but he and Ruby were friends, kinda. I mean, they had lunch together earlier, right?

Ruby shook her head, smiling. "No. No it's okay. I just needed to talk to someone not personally involved in this. You can go now, and I suggest running. Things might still get ugly."

Jaune didn't need telling twice, and after another expression of sympathy to Ruby, began speed walking down the hall and out of sight.

Taking a deep breath, Ruby walked through the door…

…

"Yang. Calm down." Blake said, her hands on Yang's shoulders, forcing her down onto a bed. The blonde was anything but calm as she was spitting out atrocities and death threats and other unintelligible babble.

Blake wasn't sure what to do, so she tried what she now calls the Ruby Tactic. She lifted Yang up by her armpits, stood her on the floor, and wrapped her in a bear hug.

Yang shut up. Mostly out of surprise, because A. Blake just picked her up and B. The social-recluse, only –friendly-with-Ruby Blake was hugging her. Hard. Yang wasn't sure what to do, and eventually hugged her back.

"Sorry." She muttered.

"It's okay. You just need to calm down." Blake said, sitting down on the bed and pulling Yang with her into a snuggle. "What's got you all worked up?"

"It's just…I hate people being mean to her. Ruby. She grew up without Dad or me, and just had her mom, Summer. I did get to visit, and while Summer was really neat, she wasn't really…protective? I guess? I mean, she talked with Ruby about everything and almost never got angry. But if someone was picking on Ruby, it was always me that had to intervene. And I wasn't there often."

Blake didn't say anything and let Yang continue.

"And now…now she only has me. She doesn't have anyone else to protect her. So I have to do it. And that…that…." Yang obviously couldn't find a word to fit, so she went generic. "girl, she had to go and try to push her around. Which I am not having."

"But wasn't Ruby comforting Weiss?" Blake said, trying to be helpful.

"No! Well…maybe! I don't know. All I know is that I told Weiss to stay away and she didn't listen."

"Maybe it isn't what you think. Maybe Ruby went to Weiss." Blake suggested.

Yang obviously hadn't considered this possibility and went silent. "Well…Weiss did say she apologized to Ruby…"

Blake blinked. Weiss? Apologize? Maybe the stuff she said in the hall actually had an effect on her…

"And if she really did, Ruby would be one to forgive and forget right then and there…" Yang muttered. Then she hung her head.

"I'm a massive asshole, huh?" she asked.

Blake nodded. "Little bit."

Yang laughed at that and pulled Blake closer to her. "Thanks Blake. You're a pretty cool girl you know."

Blake blushed and didn't say anything, content to just have Yang hold her for a few more minutes.

"But…isn't this a little weird now?" continued Yang, motioning at their current activity. Turning a deeper shade of red, Blake quickly disengaged.

"Sorry." She said, hiding her disappointment. Disappointment…what? Blake, what the hell has gotten into you? What is it about Yang that gets you all weird and funny-acting? Blake shook her head back and forth. No, that isn't important right now. I can deal with this later.

"We should probably go apologize…" Yang said, motioning towards the door.

Blake arched an eyebrow. "We?"

Laughing again, Yang grabbed her hand. "You are going to be my moral support. C'mon."

…

Ruby opened the door to Weiss's room to find her sobbing in the corner.

"Go away!" she cried out, though her voice was cracked and shaky. "Please. Just leave me alone."

Ruby walked over and touched her shoulder. Weiss jumped and peered at Ruby. Her eyes were puffy, red, and a little bloodshot. Her cheeks were stained and her breathing was racked and heavy. Ruby grasped her hand and pulled her up and hugged her tight.

Weiss hugged her back without resistance and cried. After a few minutes, she slowed, then came to a slow stop.

"Does…does Yang hate me?" she whispered.

"No. She's just really overprotective." Ruby whispered back.

Another few moments of silence. Then…

"…do you hate me?" Weiss's voice was barely loud enough for Ruby to catch, even though she was right there.

Ruby clutched her tight and slowly swayed from side to side. "Gods, no. Never. I like you a lot Weiss. I could never hate you."

Sniffing, Weiss buried her face into Ruby's shoulder. "Really?" she said, her voice strained and delicate.

"I promise." Came the answer. They then sat down on the bed and fell back. Ruby put her head on the pillow and pulled Weiss close to her. Curling up, Weiss closed her eyes and let Ruby hold her there.

After a few minutes, soft snoring was heard coming from the lump of Weiss being held by Ruby. The door creaked open and Blake and Yang walked in.

"Shh!" Ruby said, quiet enough to not wake Weiss. "She fell asleep."

Blake walked over and smiled, gently touching Ruby's shoulder. Yang stood warily in the doorway, not sure what to do.

"Um…sorry Rubes." She said awkwardly, her hand scratching the back of her head.

"It's alright. But you need to apologize to Weiss too." Ruby said, still speaking in a very soft voice.

Yang nodded. "I will. I promise."

They all fell silent for a few minutes.

"Yang," Blake said suddenly, still remaining quiet. "Why don't you borrow Ruby's bed tonight?"

As Yang opened her mouth to question it, a look from Blake shut her up quickly as she turned and left.

Blake and Ruby remained for a few minutes more, with the former standing next to the two girls. As Ruby brushed some hair out of Weiss's face, Blake smiled. Weiss frowned even in her sleep.

"You love her, huh?" she said quietly. It wasn't really a question.

Ruby blushed, but didn't deny it. "It's only been what, two, three days? And I'm already in love with someone."

"Life's pretty funny that way."

Ruby smiled. "I liked her from the moment we met. She wasn't mean. She was fair, but not mean. I liked talking to her. So I didn't understand why she was mean sometimes. But she still showed a nice side every here and there to me. It made me happy when she did and I didn't really understand it. I guess I do now."

Blake blinked and realized she was experiencing the same feelings about a certain blonde. She shook her head ruefully. Ruby was a bad influence on her in this aspect.

But then she caught a look at Ruby's expression. She was looking at Weiss, holding her in her arms so gently as if she might break at the slightest wrong touch. Her expression had no hate, no resentment. She didn't resent the things Weiss said. Her face was full of tenderness, and caring.

Ruby sighed and gently kissed Weiss on the forehead. "Now shoo. Get some rest." She said to Blake in a gentle scolding tone.

Blake nodded and left, leaving Ruby to drift off to sleep with her love in her arms.

Ruby's last thought before she slipped into dreamland was I wonder if Weiss…could love me…back…

Author's Note

Well. As Ruby so elegantly put it, shit didn't just hit the fan. It exploded all over the damn thing.

I'm sorry for the overly-long chapter, but I felt that breaking this into 2 chapters would be cruel to you guys. I hate cliffhangers too!

But anyway, we now have the awkward stage where everyone knows Ruby is in love with Weiss….except Weiss. Awwwwkwaaaard. This pretty much concludes the first 'arc' of the story with the characters all meeting/getting used to each other.

Now we get to see a lot more of Weiss and how she deals with her strange feelings towards someone she considers her only real friend. Also, Bumblebee starts becoming a thing as Blake begins to accept her feelings towards Yang and tries to test the waters to see if Yang feels the same way.

Now, I know that this chapter might be a little jarring. I was testing something out. We'll be returning to our normal style next chapter, don't worry! Bet you guys can't wait to see Weiss's reaction to waking up in Ruby's arms. Gonna be sooooo cuuuuuuuute! 333

As always, please remember to review! It means a LOT to me when you do so, and I really appreciate it! Thank you to the readers who have stuck with me and my shitty writing so far, I'm very surprised to be honest. I love you guys!

Enjoy Chapter Five, and have a wonderful day.

Spike