Chapter Text
“Ilia”
Ilia rubbed her eyes to wake up.
“Yeah?”
“I’m leaving”
“When will you be back?”
“I won’t. I’m leaving. When I do, will you join me?”
Ilia didn’t hesitate for a moment.
—----------
Ruby couldn’t believe this was really happening. She was on an airship on her way to Beacon Academy! Two years ahead of schedule even. It was her dream come true. But now she couldn’t imagine being more terrified.
Ruby was totally on her own. None of her friends from Signal academy were here with her, and none of the graduating upperclassmen had been close to her, so Ruby was really on her own for the first time. She didn’t even have her dad or Uncle Qrow around to guide her. Although, considering her dad’s incessant stream of puns and Qrow’s propensity for causing fights with more “responsible adults,” maybe it was a good thing her family wasn’t around.
Still, Ruby was totally lost on how to make any friends here. At least all of these older teens wanted to become huntresses and huntsmen just like her, that gave her something to talk about at least. She would convince them that she was a totally normal girl, somehow.
Ruby nervously held onto Crescent Rose at her hip and scanned the passenger chamber of the airship for anyone friendly-looking. There was a blonde-haired boy in jeans who appeared to be turning green, either from the altitude or motion, Ruby couldn’t tell. Either way, while she did feel for the boy, it seemed like a bad idea to try to approach him right now. If Ruby got vomit on her dress, she would never live it down, and would probably just jump right off the ship right away and save herself the embarrassment.
So who else? It seemed like everyone in the crowd was already part of a pair or group of friends. There was a red-headed chatty girl talking excitedly to a dark-haired boy dressed in green. A bunch of buff-looking boys were all chuckling together and showing off their weapons. Ruby liked the idea of showing off her Crescent Rose to them, but they had a certain…mean vibe that gave her pause. There were two other girls just standing and watching Lisa Lavender present the news of the day. They seemed pretty normal. One girl was dressed almost entirely in black with a pretty bow on her head, and the other had a long ponytail and freckles.
Ruby thought they seemed approachable enough. Urging her little legs to move forward, she awkwardly inched closer and closer to the girls over the course of a minute. She mentally pleaded to whatever gods existed that the girls wouldn’t notice her and walk away in disgust.
Finally, she was close enough to overhear their conversation. They were discussing the white fang segment on the news that had just concluded. The girl in black mentioned something about a train robbery before her eyes shifted in Ruby’s direction.
Her golden eyes were cold and icy, but there was a curiosity and perhaps a bit of fear hidden beneath them.
“Uh, can we help you?”
Ruby flinched and her voice squeaked as she tried to form a response. The other girl with the ponytail shifted to put herself in between Ruby and her friend.
Ruby finally formed real words. “I’m Ruby Rose! What are your names?!”
The two older girls exchanged a look. The girl wearing a bow looked a bit amused, as if she was watching a cute kitten do something silly. The other girl looked at Ruby skeptically, probably wondering if some child had somehow managed to sneak onto the Beacon Academy airship. Which, to be fair, is sort of how Ruby felt about herself right now as well.
“My name is Blake” the girl in the bow said. She turned and put a hand on the other girl’s shoulder. “And this is Ilia. We’re both going to be first-year students at the academy.”
Ruby smiled in relief. They were at least willing to entertain her awkwardness for a little while.
“Me too! I attended Signal Academy here in Vale before this. Where are you both from?”
Ilia looked away out the window while Blake once again answered. “I come from outside of the kingdoms. Neither of us attended an academy for our training.”
Ilia interjected. “I’m originally from Mantle, but I’ve traveled around a lot.”
Ruby nodded. “That’s so cool! You both must be really skilled if you got into Beacon without any formal training.”
Ilia looked back at her and eyed her up and down. “Are you sure you finished your training? You look a little bit younger than everybody else here.”
Ruby blushed. “Oh, yeah I am. I was invited to enroll here early by Professor Ozpin.”
It was Blake’s turn to examine Ruby, which made her blush all the harder. But this time, instead of skepticism, Blake looked honestly impressed by the short girl in front of her. “The headmaster himself scouted you out? That’s quite rare.”
Ruby scratched the back of her head and shifted her feet awkwardly. “Um, thanks I guess. Well it all happened randomly one day after I stopped a robbery. Professor Ozpin liked how I used my weapon I guess. He called it ‘one of the deadliest weapons ever designed.’ Do you wanna see!?”
Without waiting for an answer, Ruby reached down and grabbed her Crescent Rose from behind her back. As she did, Ilia put her arms out and pulled herself and Blake a step away from her. Ruby, being too attentive to unfolding her weapon into its scythe form, didn’t even notice their hesitation.
Ilia and Blake gazed up at the long blade standing several feet above them, then back down at the small shy girl holding it effortlessly. Both then looked at each other’s smaller weapons, which appeared to be a katana and some kind of rapier-gun hybrid.
Ilia finally spoke up. “That looks really heavy. For a tiny girl you must have insane upper-arm strength.”
Ruby blushed again and re-compressed Crescent Rose before more people noticed her and started staring.
“Uh thanks, I guess I do my best to keep in shape. My dad always makes me do push-ups and stuff before I get to eat dessert.”
Ilia and Blake both gave the girl a dim smile.
“So uh, what do your weapons do?” Ruby asked excitedly.
Blake pulled her sheath off her back. “My weapon is called Gambol Shroud. It’s a pretty normal blade, but it does have a ranged firearm installed within it.”
Ilia didn’t say anything, but she put her hand on her weapon’s grip and pulled it out of its holster. She held it about an arm’s length away from Ruby and let the girl examine it up and down.
Ruby gazed at both the girl’s sleek designs admiringly. Compared to her beautiful, but bulky crescent rose, both of their weapons seemed elegant, refined, and precise. Ruby loved the way a weapon could tell you something about its owner. She had such an easier time reading weaponry than she did people’s facial expressions or tone. She could tell that Blake was fine being understated, maybe even wanted to be passed over or ignored, but her cunning would find a weakness in her opponents and strike decisively. Ilia also had that same quality of focus, but her weapon was also flexible and extendable. Yet, Ruby could tell enough from Ilia’s stance that she seemed nervous too here in the Airship, and rigidly protective of her friend Blake.
The conversation stalled out here. Ruby could have spent the rest of the ride chatting about weapons, but the other two girls seemed to have lost interest in the topic.
“Well, uh, good for you Ruby, I wish you luck at the Academy. Perhaps we’ll run into each other again soon.” Blake said, and then the two walked away.
Ruby was left wondering if that had been a good conversation or not. It was hard to tell with those two girls.
Quickly, another problem took over in the forefront of Ruby’s mind as she lunged to dodge the vomit being let loose by the airsick blonde student she had noticed earlier.
“Ew ew ew gross gross.” Ruby exclaimed as she rushed to the other end of the passenger chamber, hoping none of the vomit had landed on her.