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‘Don’t fall. Whatever you do. Don’t. Fall,’ Ruby thinks to herself.
‘If you fall, Yang will never let you live it down. Not to mention how Weiss’ll be disappointed and Blake will laugh at you (that wouldn’t so bad as long as it means she’s laughing again), and Penny will think I’m malfunctioning, and Professor Ozpin will think he made a mistake appointing me as leader, and, and, and … oh, right. Door. Focus on opening the door and not on how much everyone will think you’re a clumsy, bad, useless Huntress and leader if you trip and fall.’
As she struggles with her worries and her balance, Ruby opens the door to Beacon’s ballroom. On the other side awaits her sister, who is tasked with greeting the guests as they enter. As the door opens, Yang visibly snaps out of a bored daze and starts jumping in excitement.
“Oh, you look beautiful!" Yang coos when she spots Ruby
‘Ugh. Please don’t exaggerate sis.’
Instead of responding directly, Ruby merely groans as she wobbles into the ballroom. During her unsteady entry, she briefly spots the various clusters of pink-and-blue balloons scattered around the room and the pink garlands hanging from the chandeliers, Yang and Weiss’ respective influences immediately obvious.
Though Ruby's attention is swiftly drawn back down to the wooden floor, which, while impressively shiny and reflective, remains a surface she’d rather admire from standing height.
“Can we have a serious talk about how Weiss fights in these?" ‘Come to think of it, I have similar questions for Blake and Pyrrha. I could also ask the same of Coco, or Emerald, or Cinder, or even Professor Goodwitch. There must be some trick to it that makes it not cause problems. But I don’t know that trick, so I’l just have to hope I don’t fall.’
Ruby continues to struggle with her balance on the high heels she wears, tripping repeatedly, much to her sister’s amusement. She does however manage to avoid introducing her face to her reflection in the floor.
The music has grown louder by the time Blake and Yang finish their own dance amidst the many pairs on the dance floor. The noise of the crowd in the ballroom swells and ebbs like rushing rapids battering Ruby’s ears. Yang makes a show of allowing Sun to take over as Blake's dance partner and moves to join Ruby and Weiss in watching Blake. The three can hear Blake’s cheerful laughter, although the noise of the crowd, the music, and the distance conspire to render the exact cause inaudible.
Upon reaching her teammates, who had been waiting by the chairs beside the dance floor, Yang speaks without preamble. “I told you she would come."
"Mission accomplished," Weiss concurs.
While Ruby is relieved at Blake’s enjoyment, she turns to Yang with a look of uncertainty. "So… what do we do now?" While saying this, she turns to Weiss to include her in the questioning.
"Just have fun!" Yang says, seemingly assuming this to somehow be sufficient explanation.
Weiss and Yang depart in opposite directions, neither taking Ruby along as she twists uncertainly to see where both are going.
"Does that mean I can change out of these stupid things and into my hood now?" Ruby tries to ask of them before they leave earshot, but to no avail.
In a quiet voice, she grumbles. "Stupid. Lady. Stilts," as she continues to be unsteady on the high heeled shoes. ‘Who invented these things? And who decided you have to wear them to fancy parties?’
"Not enjoying yourself?" a familiar older voice suddenly says.
The owner of the voice being none other than Headmaster Ozpin, having approached from a direction outside of Ruby’s floor-aimed vision.
"Oh, …”Ruby begins to respond, taking a moment to think of what to say, rejecting the thoughts of ‘my team ditched me and it is noisy and my ankles are starting to hurt in a way Aura can’t help with and I keep tripping and I miss my hood and I know Weiss likes this music but I don’t and I don’t know what to do or who to talk to or why anyone thinks this kind of thing is fun,’ that shoot through her beginning-to-hurt head. Instead she steels herself to focus on the conversation and says. “No, everything's fine,” after letting out a nervous giggle to cover what would have otherwise been a silence.
She continues uneasily. "I'm just not much of a dansey, pansey… dancey girl." ‘Maybe if I’d had my sweetheart Crescent Rose on me, it would be different, but even I know sniper-scythes aren’t accepted at formal dances. Boo.’
"Well, you can't spend your entire life on the battlefield. Even if you may want to," Ozpin retorts as if knowing she is thinking of her beloved weapon and its use.
"Yeah, that lesson's been floating around a lot lately." Ruby reluctantly admits, unable to fully keep her irritation contained. ‘Still doesn’t explain why I should bother with this.’
"If you think about it, fighting and dancing aren't so different. Two partners interlocked.” The impromptu lecture is briefly interrupted by a chuckle, after which Ozpin continues. " Although, one wrong move on the ballroom merely leads to a swollen foot."
Ruby interjects under her breath. "Or a twisted ’broken’ ankle."
Ozpin does not give any indication he heard Ruby’s comment as he continues. "It's not every day that friends are able to come together like this. Time has a way of testing our bonds. But it's nights like these that can help keep them stronger than ever."
‘Okay Ruby, just try to think of this as a team-building exercise. A very, very, boring, overcrowded, loud, uncomfortable, headachy team-building exercise. The way Professor Ozpin describes it does make it sound like it could be nice.’
"Night like these are ones we'll never forget." Ozpin finishes his impromptu lecture on the importance of social events.
The sound of the door opening draws Ruby's attention away from Ozpin, as Emerald and Mercury enter.
"You guys are just in time," Ruby overhears Yang say, though Mercury’s response is lost amidst the noise.
An indeterminate amount of time later, Ruby finds herself by the drinks table, holding a glass of punch, the pressure in her head from the noise and the crowd beginning to outgrow her ability to ignore it. She looks at the festivities without paying them much attention.
"I see you're hiding at the punchbowl too," Jaune says.
Ruby’s response is quiet, a succinct yet tired. "Yup."
Jaune lifts his glass in Ruby’s direction. "To the socially awkward."
Ruby laughs softly.
Recognising that Jaune’s glass is raised in preparation for a toast, Ruby moves her own glass, and a clinking of glasses is heard. The piercing sound provokes a brief stab of pain to lance through Ruby’s head, though it fades into Ruby’s background discomfort quickly.
"Sorry things didn't work out with Weiss," Ruby quietly says.
"Meh, it's fine; Neptune's pretty cool," Jaune says, seemingly dismissive.
‘What does Neptune being cool have to do with Jaune being fine with Weiss rejecting him? Weiss’ll be happy if this is what finally gets him to stop asking, but still, what does Neptune have to do with things? Is this one of those things people are supposed to just get without explanation?’ Ruby’s thoughts do not grow clearer with this new information as her headache spikes instead.
Jaune, unaware of the confusion he caused, continues. "I get why she went with him."
‘Jaune, what.’ "What do you mean?"
"Well, come on. Not many people can pull off blue hair," Jaune answers.
‘That explains nothing, Jaune.’ Keeping that thought to herself, Ruby instead comments. "No, I mean Weiss came to the dance alone."
Jaune chokes as his drink goes down the wrong pipe. "Uh, what!?” he says, somehow surprised by a basic fact.
They both cast their gazes out into the crowd, spying Weiss fussing over a wilted flower(a white tulip she herself had insisted upon for reasons Ruby tried to memorise as a good partner and team leader should, but she is already too tired to recall). The table she is doing so at is otherwise empty of people, unlike most of the room now that even most late-comers have arrived.
Ruby decides to elaborate for her ignorant friend’s benefit. “Yeah, she said she had too much to focus on to worry about boys."
Something (or perhaps someone, Ruby couldn’t follow his gaze fast now if she tried, so she doesn’t), catches Jaune’s eye, prompting an outburst.
"Hold. My. Punch."
Ruby tries to follow Jaune's line of sight, but can’t quite see what Jaune’s reacting to. The noise of the crowd makes hearing why a lost cause too. Jaune then holds his drink out for Ruby to grab.
Ruby accepts the glass, and Jaune walks off.
While he crosses the dance floor, Jaune notices Pyrrha walking past and diverts his path to follow her up the stairs. After this Ruby can no longer see where either goes, and has to come up with either another way to pass the time until she's finally free, or a way to have fun in spite of everything.
Another indeterminate span of time lost to the pressure later, Ruby finds Yang up on a quiet balcony overlooking the dance floor. ‘It is so much more comfortable up here. Oh look, Penny! Good to see her having fun, though it hurts we have to pretend we don’t know each other.’
"Y'know, I think we really needed this," Yang observes while looking at the festivities on the ground floor.
‘A quiet spot is so much better for me but I agree you guys seem to have needed this.’ Not showing her weakness, Ruby exclaims "Yeah" instead, sounding more upbeat than she has all evening, the relative quiet soothing the pressure in her head. ‘Finally finding you after you ditched me makes this the best part of the evening though.’
"And you did a great job planning it, too." She compliments her sister, closing her eyes, the lack of sights further relieving pressure, but leaving her open to Yang grabbing her in a one-armed hug.
As Ruby struggles against her mighty sister’s unbreakable grip, Yang speaks. "It wasn't all me though. Weiss did a lot, too."
As Yang says this, Ruby stops her dramatic struggles and quickly looks to where she knows Weiss is seated, seeing that Neptune approaches her and they seem to strike up a conversation. ‘The way Neptune is standing, could it mean that is he apologising? Wonder what that’s about. Weiss doesn’t seem angry though, so it must not be a big deal.’
Yang sighs. "Tomorrow it's back to work"
Ruby simply shrugs. Not sharing her sister’s reluctance in the slightest, she responds optimistically. "Well, I'm sure we can handle whatever gets thrown at us."
‘Our first official overnight mission. Oooh, I’m so excited! Kinda wish we could have done that instead of this. I still don’t understand what people find fun about this kind of party, but—’
Suddenly, laughter can be heard from the ground floor.
"Except for that," Ruby says as the sisters start looking for the cause of the laughter.
Down below Jaune has re-entered the building, now wearing a dress. ‘Wait, is he wearing his sneakers under a dress shorter than mine? Why did I let anyone talk me into wearing lady-stilts?! Next time I unavoidably must wear a dress, I’m definitely wearing my boots with it, and no one will be able to stop me! Especially since they’ll be tripping on their stupid lady stilts, while I can run and use my Semblance to go even faster, so they’ll never catch me! Muahahaha! Evil Laughterrr!’ A spike of pain disrupt Ruby’s train of thought. ‘Ow. My head hurts again. Gotta calm down.’
As Ruby attempts to entertain herself with thoughts of well-equipped escapes, Jaune approaches Pyrrha, whose laughter cuts above the crowd. Once Pyrrha’s laughter subsides, Jaune seems to invite her to dance. Someone unseen changes away the music from the calm (bearable) background noise it was before to something much faster and louder. Ruby immediately feels her headache from earlier return with a vengeance.
Down below Jaune and Pyrrha begin to dance. Ruby can faintly hear Nora shout something. “… happening!”
Nora drags Ren onto the dance floor. Team JNPR starts a rather complicated dance routine.
'Impressive. Did they practise for this?'
As Team JNPR dances, the crowd has stopped laughing. Instead it cheers them on, becoming much louder.
Ruby’s head is pounding now. She starts for the exit.
Once at the open door, she looks around, and when the coast is clear, she walks outside, her shoulders cramping ever further in tune with the headache while she makes her escape. ‘Ow. Ow. Ow. Please let no one stop me, I need to get out of here.’
The moment she crosses the threshold and is outside, freed from the party, the tension drains away as the cool night breeze blows the weight from her shoulders and loosens the clamp around her head. Her headache partially abated, she breathes a sigh of relief.
However, as she stands there, basking in the relief, Ruby spies something strange, a shape almost like a person, running across the rooftops.
Her eyes narrow as she considers what she saw.
'Hmm, who could that be? Must be trouble.'
Having reached a conclusion, Ruby moves to pursue. For a Huntress, duty can call at any moment, and now out of the noise of the Dance, the music cannot deafen Ruby to duty’s summons.