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It was a quiet day at Beacon Academy and Weiss liked it that way. She, Yang, Blake, Sun, and Neptune were all in the library. Working quietly for once. Ruby went back to the dorm to grab some books, Blake was drawing or writing or whatever she did in her notebook, Yang was listening to music, and Sun and Neptune were reading. It’s nice to know that someone appreciates the library for what it’s made for. She thought glancing up at Neptune.
She looked outside and saw snow gently drifting down from the other side of the window. However, the serenity was interrupted by the large library doors swinging violent open and banging into the walls.
“Guys! It’s snowing outside!” Ruby called as she crashed into the library, dropping her books in front of her and leaving a trail of papers and pencils in her wake.
“Yes, and it is also quiet inside because we are in the library and don’t shout!” Weiss responded sternly back to her partner.
“Aw, come on, Weiss, let’s go outside! We’ve been cooped up in here forever.” It’s probably only been two hours. Weiss thought rolling her eyes. Ruby continued without noticing. “Let’s make snowmen or snow angels!”
“Why go outside for snow angels when we’ve got one right here?” Neptune quipped, giving Weiss a wink. She blushed slightly, though Ruby still didn’t notice anything and continued talking.
“Come on, Yang, you love the snow!” Ruby finished her rambling with a pleading look at her sister.
“Snow, huh?” She smirked at Ruby, taking off her headphones. “You know what that means if we go out right?” She finished putting her fists together.
“Hot cocoa with cinnamon and marshmallows!” Ruby screamed again, jumping up excited. “Just like dad used to make!” Weiss noticed Yang’s face fall slightly but she smiled again as Ruby continued. “This will be just like the start of second semester! Come on, Weiss, please?”
"Mentioning the beginning of second semester is not going to convince me to go outside. It took me a week to get the stains out of my uniform.” Weiss responded closing her book.
“Your loss!” Sun said standing up. “Party outside! Blake are you in?” He said looking at Blake who had yet to take her eyes away from her notebook.
“No.” She said, continuing to write notes down.
“No?” Sun and Ruby both asked confused.
“No.” Blake said again. “You have fun.” Everyone looked at Blake confused. However she offered no answer. Always the mysterious type, Weiss thought.
“Aw, come on guys, it won’t be fun with just two of us.” Ruby whined.
“Don’t worry, Sun and I will join. Right dude?” Neptune said standing up and looking at Sun.
“Well…I…um…” Sun struggled, looking from Blake to Neptune to Ruby and back to Blake. “I don’t want to leave a lady unaccompanied.” He finally said trying to look suave. Who said we needed your help in the first place? Weiss thought
“Come on, Sun, don’t leave me hanging.” Neptune said disappointed.
“Well, I guess I could go with you, Neptune.” Weiss added.
“I thought you just said you didn’t want to join?” Ruby asked.
“I never said I didn’t want to join.” Weiss corrected Ruby matter-of-factly. “Besides, it might not be a bad idea to take a break from studying and enjoy good company.” She said, looking at Neptune with a slight smile.
“Well, are we gonna spend the entire time talking about it or are we gonna go outside?” Yang asked impatiently.
“To the outdoors!” Ruby said dramatically, leading the group out of the library.
Pyrrha felt the cold crystals beneath her glove as she formed a small ball from the snow. As she molded it into a perfect sphere, she looked over at Nora lying down in the snow. Pyrrha could still hear her singing “It’s snowing” around their dorm room from when Pyrrha came back from dropping some notes off to Team RWBY in the library.
As Nora stood up from making yet another snow angel, she almost blended into the background wearing her blouse and a pair of Ren’s pants with the bottoms rolled up for her height. Nora had insisted that she would be fine in her skirt but Ren wouldn’t let her go outside without dressing more appropriately for the weather. Now we need to make sure she doesn’t trip over the pant legs.
Pyrrha was thankful that she had the foresight to bring warm leggings and a long sleeve shirt. She also enjoyed not having the weight of her armor on. Jaune preferred to keep his on, but for a day in the snow, Pyrrha thought it would be best to leave it in the dorm. However, Nora pleaded that Pyrrha bring her shield outside along with Jaune’s so she could race someone down a sledding hill. We’ll see if she remembers that. Pyrrha smiled to herself, watching Nora now dance around Ren, tossing snow glitter into his jet-black hair.
She glanced over at Jaune who was looking for sticks for his snowman. Well, at least what he was calling a snowman. He started off with two large snowballs but unfortunately the second was too large to stack on top. Pyrrha then heard muffled footsteps coming from behind her.
“Smash!” Nora called, crashing into the snowman head on, causing it to collapse into a sad snow pile.
“Nora! What’d you do that for?” Jaune exclaimed, sinking to his knees as he looked at his destroyed snowman. Pyrrha went over to him and put her hand on his shoulder. Nora’s head pop out of the snow and she shook it out of her hair.
“I thought it was target practice.” Nora responded, confused at Jaune’s reaction. Ren sighed and came over to the group.
“Nora. That was a snowman.” He explained, pulling her out of the snow pile.
“It wasn’t a Grimm?” She asked with big eyes.
“No. It wasn’t a Grimm.” Nora looked down at the snow pile glumly.
“Oh. Well, then I’ll rebuild it!” Nora exclaimed, her face lighting up. “Then Jaune can knock it down and we’ll be fair!” Nora jumped excited and began making a ball for the new snowman.
“Don’t worry, Jaune.” Pyrrha began, trying to bring up the mood. “I could tell it was a snowman.”
“Yeah.” Jaune started, forming a small ball in his hand. “Hey Nora, think fast!” He teased, letting the snowball fly as he tossed it toward Nora.
However, rather than following a straight trajectory towards Nora, it ended up curving, heading straight for the doors and hitting Weiss square in the face.
“Weiss! I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean that! It was for Nora!” Jaune began to ramble as the remains of the snowball slid off Weiss’ face.
“Now that’s what I am talking about.” Yang said, pointing at Weiss.
Why they would want to spend an afternoon in the freezing snow it beyond me. Blake thought, returning to her chair from picking out a new book. I’m staying right here.
“Almost thought you caved and joined them.” Sun joked, turning his chair around so he sat backwards on it and rested his head on his hands. “But that’s impossible.”
“Yes, because you’ll never catch me out in the snow.” Blake responded, opening her new book.
“No, because you would have told me.” Sun said, smiling. Blake rolled her eyes and tried to return to the book. “Come on,” he continued, “it might be fun! I mean I don’t know why you wouldn’t enjoy the snow. I feel you of all people would appreciate it.”
“Appreciating and enjoying are two different things.” Blake corrected him, putting the book down. If he’s gonna try to convince me to go outside, he’s picked the wrong fight.
“Ok fine. So why don’t you like the snow. Give me one reason.” He challenged her with a smug look on his face. Challenge accepted.
“I’ll do you better and give you two.” Blake began. “First: Snow is cold. I grew up where it’s warm. I don’t like being cold and the snow feels weird on my hands…”
“Really?” Sun interrupted Blake, unimpressed. “You’re gonna let a little cold stop you from having fun?”
“Have you ever even experienced snow?” Blake asked back.
“Well, no but, I mean, people in Atlas live with that weather nearly year round! It can’t be that bad.”
“Alright, second point: Clothes.”
“What about clothes?” Sun asked, even more confused.
“More specifically your lack of them.” Sun looked down at himself and then back at Blake.
“Hey I like to keep things loose.” He said, putting his hands behind his head. “You can’t keep me down.” He began to lean back but, forgetting he had turned his chair around, managed to fall backwards onto the floor.
“Maybe not. But gravity can.” Blake responded back, smiling at Sun moving the chair off of himself.
“Alright.” Sun groaned standing up. He propped himself on the table and crossed his legs in front of him. “But that’s still only two reasons and I’m not convinced.” He finished resting his head on his hand. He’s really gonna make me say it.
“Fine. Three,” Blake said pointing to one side of her bow, “and four.” She finished pointing to the other side.
“Oh.” Sun said slowly. Game. Set. Match. Blake thought triumphantly.
A thunderous laugh echoed across the frozen ground of Beacon academy as Nora stood triumphantly atop a massive snow pile.
“Haaaaa, hahahaaaa! I’m queen of the castle! I’m queen of the castle!” She sang across the yard.
“Justice will be swift. Justice will be painful. It will be frozen!” Ruby shouted back at team JNPR as her team and Neptune backed her up. They were still in their usual fighting clothes but Yang had longer gloves that reached her upper arm and longer black pants underneath her belt and half skirt.
Yang threw the first punch, or snowball, nearly knocking Nora off her perch atop the snow.
“Jaune! Give me your shield!” She shouted down, avoiding more snowballs coming from Yang and Ruby.
“What? No!” Jaune said, trying to block sneak attacks from Weiss. However, she was too quick on the snow for him and knocked him onto his back.
“Nora, get down!” Ren shouted, trying to get a hit on Neptune. She landed with a plume of snow, giving enough coverage for Jaune to get back up and Pyrrha and Ren to nail Ruby and Yang who stood out within the white cloud. However, this also gave Weiss coverage.
Weiss came up back behind Jaune, knocking him off balance. Yang then came, having recovered from her earlier hit, and stuffed snow into his hoodie and pulled it over his head. Pyrrha knocked Yang over and began throwing snowballs at her until she was back on her side.
“Retreat!” Jaune called, trying to shake the snow out of his ear. As team JNPR returned to behind Nora’s castle, Jaune and Pyrrha blocked more snowballs from Yang and Ruby with their shields.
“What do we do?” Pyrrha asked, once behind their fortress as the rest continued to throw snow at them.
“I’m not sure! Weiss is like a snow ninja so you can never nail her and Yang’s just non-stop.” Jaune said as another one of Yang’s blows knocked into their fort.
"Well, you know what they say, the best offense is a good defense.” Nora said, hurling two snowballs back at Yang.
“Nora that’s not…” Pyrrha began, looking down at her shield. But it might just work. She looked back up at the formation the others were making. “Nora! Time for sledding!” She called to Nora, who now had a wide grin on her face
“What?” Ren began to ask. Pyrrha ran back to gain ground and launched her shield across the snow. Nora jumped onto the sliding disk and careened toward the others, her orange hair a blur. All four of their opponents jumped out the way as Nora flew into the midst of their formation.
Unfortunately, the shield had a bit too much momentum and kept going all the way into the remains of Jaune’s old snowman, causing a miniature avalanche and burying Nora underneath.
“Nora!” Ren called, as everyone began to collect themselves. Suddenly, two heads popped out of the collapsed snow pile.
“I’m ok!” Called the first, giving a big thumbs up. “Aw, it’s broken.” She continued looking at the snow around her. “Hi Velvet!”
“Nora? What are you guys doing?” Velvet asked, confused.
“I’m sorry.” Pyrrha called, running over to them.
“It’s alright, Pyrrha.” Velvet said pulling the shield out of the snow and handing it back to Pyrrha. “But seriously, what are you guys –”
“Duck!” Pyrrha interrupted Velvet, blocking a barrage of snowballs coming from Ruby, Yang, Weiss, and Neptune. Velvet took the hint and burrowed back through the snow to safety.
“Nora! Pyrrha!” Ren and Jaune called in unison. Jaune came charging with his shield in front of him. Ren threw curve balls from behind and nailed all four of their opponents. First came Yang with a shot to the back of her head. Next, a duel shot to Ruby and Weiss. Finally, Ren nailed Neptune with a crippling money shot.
“Man down.” Neptune squeaked as he fell, tripping Weiss and Ruby as they tried to counter back against Jaune and Ren. Nora then nearly buried the three of them under a mass barrage of snow.
“That’s it!” Weiss shouted as she unburied herself from beneath the snow. “Ruby!”
Ruby’s head popped out from the snow, a determined look on her face. She pulled herself out, crouched down, and began running toward team JNPR. However, she took a hard left and ran right past them. Soon she began to circle her way back around, petals beginning to form off her red cape.
“Not again!” Neptune called over the column of snow beginning to form.
“Duck!” Yang called, grabbing Neptune and Weiss and diving behind the snow. Team JNPR began to run but was not as fortunate. First, Nora who, after tripping over herself and the snow, was soon picked up and pulled into the vortex. Next came Ren and Pyrrha as the wind grew too strong for their footing. Last came Jaune, who was quickly thrown around like a rag doll due to his shield acting like a metal kite within the swirling cloud of snow.
“Hey, everyone, it’s time for…” Blake began to speak a she and Sun walked out of the school doors. They slowly looked up to see a winter tornado in the middle of the courtyard, with Ren, Nora, Pyrrha, and Jaune being spun and turned around inside of it.
“Blake!” Ruby called as she stopped running. Unfortunately, she stopped after running toward Blake. Soon, nearly half the cloud of snow came from behind Ruby, landing on top of Blake. The rest of it dropped down, burying not only those inside the cloud but those around it too.
“Ruby!” Weiss shouted angrily, pushing against the snow in a vain attempt to get out.
“Weiss!” Ruby called back, concerned. “Blake!” She called again looking forward.
“Blake?” Jaune asked, his head still spinning from being inside the snowy tornado.
“Neptune?” Sun asked confused, looking toward the mass of yellow and blue next to Weiss.
"Nora!” Nora called across the snow-covered courtyard. Every head turned toward the orange head smiling from above the snow. “So,” she drew out, “that was fun!”
“Speak for yourself.” Blake said with shivering teeth as she brushed snow off herself.
“Well, now that that’s over with.” Yang said calmly. She too attempted to get out of the snow. However, she could only muster out one arm. “Grr. Ugh. Blake, can you lend a girl a hand?” Yang groaned.
“No.” Blake continued to shiver as she wrapped her arms around herself. “You all got yourselves stuck. Now you need to get yourselves unstuck and come inside for dinner.”
“What!” Yang yelled. “This isn’t my fault!” She called back.
“Oh really?” Sun asked back with a laugh, bending down in the snow. “Well better late than never.” He said, bending down and beginning to mold a ball of snow. “Wanna throw, Blake?” She looked at him with narrow eyes. “Your loss.” He said, letting the ball loose toward the rest of the group in the snow, nailing Yang on the shoulder.
“Hey! Watch it!” Yang shouted at Sun, her eyes now turning red.
“Huh, now I know what the fuss is about.” Sun laughed, throwing more snowballs at everyone, especially Yang. Soon, he was showing off. Throwing curve balls, high balls, and speedballs. Eventually, he threw a high flier, nailing on Yang right on top of her head.
“That’s it!” Yang screamed, activating her semblance. In a burst of fire, she rushed toward Sun. Though the monkey boy was able to dodge her blow, he and the rest of the crew got swept up in the flood of newly melted snow Yang had created.
The flood carried away Team JNPR, Team RWBY, Sun, and Neptune through the school doors and down the hall.
“I’m drowning! I’m drowning!” Neptune screamed, kicking his legs furiously.
“Neptune!” Sun called toward his friend. However, he didn’t appear to hear him. “Neptune!” Sun tried again.
“I got it!” Nora called, lifting Neptune off his back and onto his feet. “Feel better?” She asked the hyperventilating Neptune with a smile, water dripping down her hair onto her face.
Everyone was soaked to the bone. Yang’s hair lay tangled and dripping over her face. Blake furiously struggled to get the water off herself and Ruby attempted to wring out her cape. Weiss stood vexed, water trickling off of her sleeves and skirt onto the ground. Jaune strained under the combination of his waterlogged hoodie and armor and eventually conceded to lay on the ground. Pyrrha twisted her hair to begin drying it out and Ren sighed as he sat up, water dripping from his bangs.
“How about some of that hot cocoa Ruby mentioned earlier?” Neptune asked, clutching himself. “And a new set of clothes?”