Chapter Text
Ruby flopped down on her bed, finally done unpacking. Her dad and Yang had left about an hour ago, once they’d gotten all of her things in from the car. She stretched and yawned as her scroll buzzed.
Yang: Did your new roomie get there yet?
Ruby rolled on to her side, swiped open her phone and lazily typed out a reply with one hand.
Not yet.
Finally got all my boxes unpacked, though.
Thanks for helping with that, btw.
I told you, I have homework!
Classes haven’t started yet.
Well when you’re a junior they don’t wait for classes to start before crushing you with work.
That’ll be you somedayyyy~
Ugh really?
Enjoy your youth while you can, dear sister.
Lol love you<3
Love you too<3
Ruby rolled her eyes at Yang’s antics and rolled off of her bed. She put her hands on her hips and stared at the gargantuan pile of stuff that she had made from the contents of her boxes. “Okay,” Ruby said aloud to herself. “I can totally do this. I’m gonna get organized and put things in the right places, and… yeah.”
Her room was surprisingly nice, for a freshman dorm. Yang had told her that Beacon College was like that, which Ruby was very grateful for - she could vividly remember her dad’s stories about his college days with Qrow, and how they apparently had just thirty square feet to their name during their first year.
The room was listed as a “studio double” apartment, so it was mostly all one chamber. There was a tiny kitchenette right by the front door, with little more than an oven/stove hybrid, refrigerator, and sink. Across from the kitchen was a door that led to a small but private bathroom. Ruby’s bed was in the far corner, and her desk was against the wall opposite the front door. Her short dresser was at the foot of her bed, and a tiny (apparently shared) closet took up the very small amount of wall space between her bed and the kitchen.
On the other half of the room was an almost identical setup, with the two desks actually touching one another. Ruby was a little concerned about that, because if she and her roommate didn’t get along, then that would make homework very awkward.
Ruby was around halfway through moving all of her kitchenware into the cabinets when she heard the door beep once. She recognized the sound from when she’d unlocked it herself. Ruby fumbled the several objects in her hands for a moment - this was about to be her first impression with her new roommate!
“How am I supposed to be standing? What would a normal person be doing the first time that they met their roommate??? What if she’s mean and judges me?!?!?”
“This appears to be your room, Miss Schnee,” Klein said.
“Yes. Thank you for helping me carry everything, Klein.”
“Of course, ma’am. Though I do apologize that Mr. and Mrs. Schnee weren’t available to help you move in.”
Weiss sighed. She knew that he was only trying to be polite, but she was honestly grateful that neither of her parents were there to help her move in. She’d chosen Beacon College over Atlas University for a few reasons, but by far the largest one was to get some distance from her family. Especially since Winter had started going to Atlas U, and had been making excuses to stay there for every holiday since.
Weiss pressed her brand-new card up against the door’s electronic lock. As soon as she did, she heard a small amount of clanging and a high-pitched, feminine voice saying something incomprehensible. This gave Weiss pause.
“M-miss Schnee?” Klein asked.
“Sorry,” Weiss said. She punched in her code, took a breath, and pushed open the door.
A small yelp was heard, followed by several clanging sounds. Weiss stood in the doorway and stared.
A young woman stood before her, awkwardly balancing on one foot, surrounded by a small number of pots and pans around her on the floor. Evidently, she had dropped them all, and startled herself with the sound.
The girl had short black hair, dyed red at the tips. Her clothing was remarkably casual, just a solid red tank top and black sweatpants with Beacon College’s insignia in white on her right leg. Her feet were bare, and Weiss could see the straps of her bra next to those of her tank top. Curiously, her eyes were a very pale grey - almost like silver.
They stared at each other for a moment, completely frozen. Slowly, awkwardly, the girl returned to a neutral stance, putting her hand on the back of her head in embarrassment.
“Um, hi,” she said. She stuck out a hand, which Weiss made no move to touch. “I’m Ruby Rose. It’s, uh, really nice to meet you!” An obnoxiously massive grin immediately found its way to her petite, round face.
“Weiss Schnee,” Weiss said, desperately trying to recover some of her dignity after startling the girl like this. “It.... appears that we will be living together.”
“Yup!” Ruby replied. “Uh - here, lemme get out of your way…” Ruby then spent the next several seconds picking up the four or five kitchen elements that she’d dropped, barely able to hold them all at once. She let them haphazardly spill out of her arms onto the kitchen counter, finally giving Weiss the space to actually walk into the apartment.
Sighing dramatically, Weiss quickly strode past her helpless roommate, putting her suitcase on her bed and her backpack in her desk chair. Klein silently walked behind her, carrying a stack of three neatly-labeled boxes. He set them down at the foot of her bed.
“Shall I help you unpack, Miss Schnee, or should I make another trip?”
“Another trip, if you don’t mind,” Weiss said over her shoulder as she began to open her backpack. “Thank you.”
“Of course,” he said. “I shall return shortly.”
“Here,” Ruby said. “Lemme prop the door open for you, so you can get back in.” Weiss watched her reach into a small, disorganized pile of shoes near the entrance, retrieve a single red sneaker, and jam it into the path of the door, preventing it from fully closing.
“Ah,” Klein said, likely as perplexed by this girl’s mannerisms as Weiss, though he was definitely better at hiding it than she was. Weiss figured that it was a part of his job. “Thank you, Miss…?”
“Ruby!” Ruby chirped. “Uh, Ruby Rose. Nice to meet you.”
“A pleasure to make your acquaintance as well, Miss Rose,” Klein said, giving a little bow. Ruby’s eyebrow raised, and Weiss could immediately tell that she’d never been called “Miss Rose” before. Klein gently pulled open the door and left the room. Too late, Weiss realized that that meant she was trapped here, alone with this… girl.
Weiss enjoyed a bit of silence for a moment, setting up her computer at her desk. The very large pile of objects that Ruby had apparently stacked on to her adjacent desk was concerning to Weiss, though she hoped that Ruby was in the process of putting those things away.
“Soooooooo…” Ruby said. Weiss resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the loss of her blissful silence. “Who was that helping you move in? He, uh, didn’t seem like your dad or anything.” Weiss’ eyebrow twitched just slightly, annoyed that Ruby’s choice of icebreaker was a rather invasive, personal question.
“That’s Klein,” she said, keeping her tone neutral.
“Cool,” Ruby said, closing the cabinet where she’d put all of her kitchen things. “Is he, like, a family friend or something, or…?” Weiss sighed.
“He’s my family’s butler,” she explained. “He accompanied me from Atlas to help me move in.”
“Whoa, you’re from Atlas?” Ruby asked, as if it were an incredibly exotic place, and not one of the four major continents on the planet. “You must have flown a long way.”
“Yes, I have, and I’m very tired from the trip,” Weiss lied. She’d flown in yesterday and slept very well. “I’d rather focus on unpacking, if you don’t mind.”
“Oh, sure!” Ruby said. “Sorry.”
Weiss let out a breath, happy for the return of quiet. Well, relative quiet. Ruby had finished moving her things into the kitchen and bathroom, so she was now setting up a large number of posters on the wall above her bed. She kept making little sounds of exertion as she stretched up to reach some part of the wall, often muttering under her breath about where to put things.
“Oh!” Ruby said. “Almost forgot.”
Weiss gave her a look.
“Sorry. Uh, here, this might help.” She slid a decently-sized box out from under her bed. It was poorly duct-taped together, but once Ruby opened it with an artist’s Xacto knife, Weiss could see over her shoulder that it had been packaged with a level of care that Weiss would not have previously imagined was possible for Ruby.
She grunted, lifting with her knees as she pulled out a huge silver box, short and wide. Carefully, she rested it on top of her dresser, then returned to the box with two tall and thin speakers. She caught Weiss staring, but before Weiss could look away in embarrassment, she said, “I figured I could put some music on. Would that be okay?”
“I suppose,” Weiss replied. Some ambient noise to drown out Ruby’s constant fidgeting sounds would be very welcome. “Though… I can’t say I’ve ever seen something like that before.”
“Oh, yeah,” Ruby said. “It’s, uh, my mom’s old stereo. It plays cassettes and stuff. It’s a bit old-fashioned, but the sound quality is great!” Weiss wouldn’t have imagined Ruby to be an audiophile. “Wanna listen to classic stuff, or, like, actual recent music?”
“Whichever,” Weiss replied. “As long as it’s not too distracting.”
“Easy listening, huh?” Ruby asked. “I can do that.” She reached into the box and dug through a large stack of cassette tapes in plastic cases before finally settling on one. At a glance, Weiss could tell that it was a custom mix, its track list handwritten in a black pen.
Ruby spent the next three minutes or so quietly wiring the stereo to the speakers, and then she inserted the cassette and pressed Play. Weiss had to admit, it was a rather interesting change of pace to watch the cassette physically spin instead of just listening to something on her scroll.
After a few seconds, a light melody came in - either guitar or synthesizer, she couldn’t tell. True to her word, Ruby was apparently playing something mostly relaxing.
“I like it,” Weiss declared after a moment. “Thank you.”
“You can never go wrong with the ‘80s,” she said. “Or, I guess, in this case, ‘79.”
Weiss couldn’t help her curiosity. “What’s the song?”
“It’s called ‘Goodbye Stranger,’ by Supertramp!” Ruby said. “It was written in ‘79, but I’m playing the 2010 remaster.” She gave an embarrassed grin. “Sorry, I’m a huge music nerd.”
Weiss simply hummed in response. Perhaps this roommate situation wouldn’t be too terrible after all.
Ruby heard the door open again as the well-dressed man that Weiss had brought with her returned to their room.
“Apologies for the delay, Miss Schnee,” he grunted, pushing the door open with his back, a stack of boxes in his hands, with a long, cylindrical gym bag hanging from one arm. “I had to repark the car in a parking garage, and there was a delay downstairs because the representatives were expecting a parent…”
“Oh, I’m so sorry, Klein,” she heard Weiss reply. “I should have gone with you, I would have been able to clear that up, and to help you carry.” She moved to help him set her boxes down. Ruby watched with astonishment as he pulled an honest-to-goodness handkerchief out of his pocket to wipe his forehead.
“Thank you, Miss Schnee,” he said, clearly winded from carrying all of that with him.
“Here, sit down for a moment to catch your breath,” Weiss said, gently leading him to her desk chair.
“A-are you sure, Miss Schnee?” He asked. “Your fath-”
“What my father doesn’t hear about won’t hurt him,” Weiss replied instantly, sitting Klein down. He nodded gratefully for a moment, relaxing in the chair. Weiss gave him a smile and started opening one of the boxes that he had brought with a pair of scissors.
Ruby was very surprised. At first she had Weiss pegged for a standard hoity-toity rich girl, literally bringing her butler to help her move in (Ruby was also confident that her outfit cost about as much as Taiyang made in a month), but perhaps she should re-evaluate that first impression.
“I say…” Klein said after a moment. “Pardon the interruption, ma’ams, but… is this ‘Lake Shore Drive?’”
“Yep!” Ruby said.
“Ah, I remember buying this record in my youth,” Klein said, eyes glazed over with nostalgia. “I’m surprised that… younger people are still listening to it these days.” Ruby giggled.
“My mom was really into old music,” Ruby said. She laughed at a memory. “My dad says that she was allergic to anything written after 1989.”
Klein let out a polite laugh at that, and for a while, Ruby’s cassette player was the only sound in the room.
“Well, thank you, Miss Schnee,” Klein said, standing up from her chair. “Is there anything else that I may assist you with?”
Weiss stopped for a minute, considering that. She looked around her half-unpacked room for a moment, then sighed.
“No, Klein, I figure that you should probably be getting back,” She said. Contemptuously, she added, “Wouldn’t want to keep Father waiting.”
“Indeed,” he replied, with a courteous nod. To Ruby, he said, “It was lovely meeting you, Miss Rose. I hope that you and Miss Schnee have a wonderful semester.”
“Oh, uhm, thanks so much!” Ruby said. She hadn’t at all been expecting that, and was embarrassed at how she’d fumbled her response.
Weiss stood up from one of her boxes, reaching up on her tiptoes to give him a hug. The balding man blinked in surprise, but soon returned her embrace.
“I’m going to miss you, Klein,” she said.
“And I you, Miss Schnee,” he replied.
Ruby felt like a horrible interloper as she witnessed the exchange. The moment that Weiss started to leave his embrace, her head whipped back to facing the decorations on her wall, pretending that she hadn’t been watching.
“Have a safe trip!” Weiss called after Klein. After a moment, Ruby heard their door quietly click shut.
Silence filled the air for a while, heavy as lead. Ruby could tell that Weiss was having a bit of an emotional moment, and while she wanted to give her her privacy, there was also nowhere else for her to be. She sat on her knees, frozen, completely unsure of what - if anything - to do or say.
Weiss sighed, still facing the door. Ruby carefully looked over her shoulder, and was immediately caught by Weiss. They just stared at each other for a moment, in complete silence.
“Oh!” Ruby said. “I, uh, I have to flip the tape.” She quickly but quietly made her way to her stereo, incredibly grateful for the excuse to do something. After a few seconds, music filled the room once more, and Ruby’s shoulders fell down from her ears in relief as the semi-comfortable atmosphere that they’d been enjoying slowly returned with it.
Things were going to be just fine.
She hoped.
Weiss had finally put away all of her things. She felt somewhat bad about taking up three quarters of their shared closet, but Ruby assured her that it was no big deal. She put her hands on her hips, satisfied with how pleasant and organized her half of the room was. Everything was color-matched, and her decorations were minimalist, but tasteful.
She turned to see Ruby’s half of the room, which was essentially controlled chaos - definitely closer to the latter than the former. She was lying on her bed, flicking through her scroll. The wall above her was covered in artwork and old band posters, just slightly misaligned with each other. She had a pillow meant to serve as a backrest at the head of her bed, and its blue did not at all match the red of her comforter. Her clothes were mostly in her dresser, but some of the drawers slightly bulged outwards from being overfilled. A red hoodie was sitting on the back of her desk chair, plus a few flannel shirts and a tote bag hung haphazardly from her bedposts. A ton of boxes were underneath her bed, opened but not yet broken down. Lastly, her desk had multiple cups of pencils and even paintbrushes strewn about, plus a sketchbook or two. Her laptop was plugged in, resting off-center, and she’d flipped the shelf that came with her desk upside-down. This, Weiss assumed, had been done so that she could rest an external monitor on the bottom side of the shelf, where it would be at approximately her eye level. A large lamp sat next to the monitor, and a pair of wireless on-ear headphones were hung on its neck.
“Are… are you an artist?” Weiss asked, trying to make conversation.
“Mm? Oh, yup!” Ruby said, looking up from her scroll. “Studio art major. I generally prefer traditional art, but the recruiter people told me I’d probably have to do digital stuff too.” She shrugged. “How about you? What’s your major?”
“Political science,” Weiss responded.
“Cool!” Ruby said. She paused. “What’s political science?” Weiss snorted.
“It’s fancy talk for ‘I want to be a lawyer,’” she said.
“Oh,” Ruby said. “Do… do you want to be a lawyer?”
“I’m not sure yet,” Weiss replied.
“Cool!” Ruby said again. She checked her scroll. “Oh, uh, hey,” She asked Weiss. “Do you have any dinner plans?”
Weiss didn’t.
“Why do you ask?”
“I just got a text from my sister, she said she’d take me to a restaurant near campus because I don’t have any groceries yet. Wanna come?”
Weiss also realized that she hadn’t bought any groceries, either.
“I… um, I’d like to!” Weiss replied. “What should I wear? Black-tie?”
Ruby looked at her like she had spoken a foreign language. She sighed, gesturing to her white dress and knee-high boots.
“Am I already overdressed?”
“Probably,” Ruby said. “ I should definitely change, though.” Unceremoniously, she started pulling off her top, making Weiss nearly yelp in surprise before quickly turning around and tightly shutting her eyes.
“Oh, uh… sorry,” Ruby said. “Here, I’ll just be a second.”
Weiss stared at the wall like her life depended on it. Only a small amount of time passed, but it felt like an eternity. After she heard Ruby close her dresser drawer for the second time, she shakily asked, “Are you decent?”
“Yeah,” Ruby said. When Weiss slowly turned back around, she’d changed into a red t-shirt with an abstract design of a rose emblazoned on it in white, as well as a simple pair of black pants. She was sitting on her bed, halfway through tying on one red sneaker.
Weiss took the opportunity to put her scroll and her wallet into a small clutch, checking her hair in her makeup mirror. Her long, asymmetrical ponytail was still in good shape. She touched up her eyeliner a little bit, and smoothed out her dress.
“Ready?” Ruby asked. Unlike Weiss, she wore no makeup, and was apparently carrying her own scroll and wallet in her back pockets.
“Yes,” Weiss said. “Oh, um, where are we going?” Ruby chuckled.
“How do you feel about burgers?”
Ruby and Weiss returned to their room, full and tired.
“I would never have imagined that you loved cheeseburgers,” Ruby joked.
“I had one at an airport once,” Weiss said. “Our flight was delayed by weather and all of the other restaurants were closed, so my parents reluctantly bought us fast food. It’s been my guilty pleasure ever since.”
Ruby laughed at that.
“I think I’m gonna shower,” she said. “Do you want the bathroom first?”
“No, thank you,” Weiss replied. Ruby nodded, grabbed a towel from her suitcase, and headed into the bathroom.
Weiss sat down at her desk and reflected on her strange day. Ruby and her sister were certainly more… bombastic than the company that she was used to, but Yang’s girlfriend Blake had been rather lovely. She couldn’t imagine how somebody so quiet was dating the rambunctious blonde, but they seemed to make it work.
With the room effectively to herself for a moment, Weiss took her time removing her makeup and changing for bed. She sighed with relief after finally getting into her comfortable bed clothes. She was around halfway through her evening skincare routine when she heard the shower turn off. The door to the bathroom opened a few minutes later, and Ruby walked out with a towel wrapped around her body.
Weiss wasn’t looking at that, though.
She was utterly frozen, staring just above Ruby’s head.
“Weiss?” Ruby asked. “What is it?”
Weiss blinked several times.
“Um… what are those?” Weiss asked, pointing. Ruby’s heart stopped. Her hand whipped up to the top of her head, dropping the towel in surprise. Ruby winced as her fingers made contact with a red, furry ear.
She looked at Weiss, about to explain, and then realized that she’d dropped the towel. Embarrassed, she wrapped her tail around her legs to cover herself.
Wait. Her tail was out.
Oh no.
“Um…” Ruby began. “You… probably have a lot of questions…”
Weiss stared at her, absolutely speechless.
“But… uh… would you believe me if I told you that I’m a werewolf?”