Chapter Text
As the sound of the wind whistling past her filled her with adrenaline, Ruby Rose nimbly shredded down the expert level slopes of Mt. Glen on her snowboard, Petal Burst. She cut through the snow like a hot knife through butter, weaving through the trees of the steep mountain slopes, perfectly maintaining her balance over every bump down the run. She was in the zone, in perfect form, and was thankful for that fact, because tomorrow was the finals of the Vale Kingdom Regional Snowboarding Championship.
She had wanted to try her hand in the competition for years now, ever since she became captain of Signal High School’s snowboarding team, where she was often told she was so good that she could go pro, a proper prodigy, and be the bee's knees of the snowboarding world.
While the competition was a great place to get scouted, that wasn’t why Ruby was there. She entered just for the fun of it. She didn’t want a life of fame, and she certainly didn’t want to be the bee's knees. She just wanted to be a normal girl, with normal knees.
Ruby, picking up speed, noticed she was rapidly approaching the bottom of the slope, where the mountain formation created a large natural jumping ramp perfect for practicing tricks. When she hit the jump, she briefly thought about executing her signature move that she had been perfecting for months in private, the move that would be her secret weapon in the finals.
But she decided against it. There were far too many people around, so instead she went for a backward 1080, and landed it perfectly. While she slowed down after her landing, she saw her biggest reason why she was thankful she didn’t go pro.
She saw the smiling freckled face and the beautiful deep emerald green eyes of the girl she loved, a girl she likely wouldn’t have met if she had gone pro: Penny Polendina.
Ruby boarded her way over to Penny as Penny waved at her.
“Hey Penny, how do the custom ski prosthetics feel?” Ruby asked Penny.
“They feel great, Ruby!” Penny replied. “I really appreciate you and Yang building them for me.”
“The real thanks should go to Dr. Goodwitch,” said Ruby. “There’s no way we could’ve built them right if we didn’t have her help us with the design. Ready to ski for the first time and give 'em a try on the bunny slopes?”
“I am, but are you sure you have time to teach me with finals tomorrow?” Penny asked.
Ruby smiled. “Oh I always have time for you, love-bug.” Ruby cupped Penny’s face and placed a big, exaggeratedly loud smooch on Penny’s cheek, nuzzling her nose against Penny’s face as she did. She let go of Penny to see the big, goofy, infatuated smile her kiss had caused. The sight of Penny’s smile caused a matching one to grow on Ruby’s face.
The two girls' smiling faces flushed as they briefly lost themselves in each other. Ruby found herself first, and held out her hand. “C’mon, let’s go.”
Ruby and Penny made their way to the top of the bunny slopes where Ruby, holding Penny’s hand, helped guide her down the hill. They repeated this a few times, each time Penny’s technique getting better, little by little. An hour passed before Penny made her first attempt without Ruby holding her hand, instead having Ruby just slowly snowboarding beside her. Penny did wobble a little, but she made it down on her own. She was all smiles when she reached the bottom, and Ruby found herself pulled into a big hug when she joined Penny there.
It may have been frigidly cold outside, but for Ruby Rose, even the most bitter bite from the coldest winter winds was no match for the warming power of a hug from Penny Polendina.
As she and Penny held each other, Ruby heard a woman’s voice venomously scoff at her. “If you’re spending your time going down the slopes with the babies, tomorrow is going to be easier than I thought.”
Ruby and Penny let go of each other and turned to the sound of the voice. They saw a nearly 6 foot tall, around 30 year old woman in black snowboard attire, the outfit accented with stripes of orange up and down the arms and legs. She had short black hair with bangs that covered one of her orange-amber eyes, and she was standing on an obsidian black, glass patterned snowboard.
“Ugh, her.” Ruby thought to herself at the sight of her opponent in tomorrow’s championship match, Cinder Fall, who had… earned quite a reputation for herself over the course of the competition. Ruby had heard her mom Summer describe Cinder as quote “someone who really needed to learn some manners.”
She had heard her aunt Raven describe Cinder as quote “a rotten bitch.”
“Oh, hey Cinder. I don’t think we’ve had a chance to meet yet. How’s it going?” Ruby asked, at least trying to be polite, something Ruby would soon learn first-hand you couldn’t say for Cinder.
“Oh, I’m doing great. Just on my way to warm up for tomorrow.” smugly replied Cinder, crossing her arms. “I’d say you should do the same, but you’d just be wasting your time. Nothing you do today could make you stand a chance against me.”
Ruby’s head was starting to throb. It seemed like her mom was right about Cinder. “Well, good luck!” Ruby said.
Cinder scoffed. “Hmph, I don’t need luck or anything else to beat a talentless runt like you.”
Penny, frowning, took a step toward Cinder. “Excuse me, that was very rude. I think you shou-”
“Excuse me,” Cinder callously interrupted while sneering at Penny, and placing a hand on her own chest. “Who are you and why should I care what you think?” Ruby’s head was throbbing even more now.
Cinder then turned back toward Ruby. “Anyway, I’ve wasted enough time here. Have fun with…” Cinder turned to look toward Penny. “…picking up the hopeless newbies after they stumble and fall.” Cinder then boarded away.
Ruby was ready to blow a gasket. Disrespecting her was one thing, but disrespecting Penny was something else entirely.
It seemed like her aunt was the one who was right about Cinder.
Ruby grumbled in Cinder’s direction, resisting the urge to chuck something at her, and then turned to Penny. “I’m sorry about her. Don’t let her get you down, you’re doing great.”
“Oh I don’t care what she had to say to me.” Penny said, looking in the direction Cinder went. “What I don’t like is what she had to say about you. Could you do me a favor?”
Ruby tilted her head. “Uh, sure. What?”
Penny turned toward Ruby, her usually bubbly expression instead dead serious, her usually loving and warm emerald green eyes glazed with a quiet, focused contempt. “Beat her so bad that tomorrow night there will be nothing left of her but a pile of shattered ego.”
Ruby’s eyes went wide as she flinched back slightly. She had never seen Penny like this before.
But a part of her was loving it. She confidently smirked at Penny.
“Yes, ma’am.”