Their small fridge was spotless, free of stains and food alike. The only thing within it was the ice formed around the rectangular freezer area to the top right. Yin closed the fridge and moved on, opening every cupboard in their kitchen. The provided oven and microwave weren't spared from the treatment.
"Are you looking for something?" Pyrrha, standing on the other side of the island separating the kitchen from the rest of the room, asked. She'd been watching him the whole time, only now deciding to voice her curiosity.
"No, just taking a full stock of what we have which is a whole lot of nothing." He said while closing the last cupboard and joining her at the island. "You know how to cook?"
"I know some basic breakfast recipes. Beyond that I wouldn't say so."
"You, Weiss?"
"No." The woman in question grumbled out, preparing her binder for the day over at the desk across the room.
He knew better than to make assumptions, but he doubted Ruby was much of a cook either.
"Can you?" Pyrrha asked.
"Yep." A fact that could only benefit, especially since the others weren't capable in the kitchen. From what he understood the skill was basically an easy way to impress others both in and out of a romantic sense. "I'm thinking about buying ingredients and other stuff for the kitchen since we have all this stuff. What do you guys think?"
"I think the first thing you should buy is a coffee machine." Weiss said, rising up from the desk and joining Pyrrha on the other side of the island. He could tell from her face that her pride was forcing her to hold on to the yawn. "How can you two function so well this early in the morning?"
"I'm usually up early."
"I am as well." Pyrrha said after him. This morning when he went out for a jog, Pyrrha had joined him and likely planned on doing so going forward.
Weiss grumbled about them being unnatural before refocusing. "What's the point in cooking? From what I've seen Beacon provides an extensive selection for every meal of the day. There are better ways to use our time."
"Maybe but being able to cook what you want when you want is convenient." Yin said. "I'll probably head out to the city this weekend to get some things. If you guys have something specific you want, I don't mind making it as long as you buy the ingredients."
"We should go as a team!" A muffled yell came from the bathroom. The door swung open and Ruby stepped out, the ribbon and her shirt noticeably wrinkled but otherwise ready for the day. "I know a lot of cool places in Vale."
"Uh, I don't think so." Weiss said haughtily, not too groggy to show her disdain for anything involving Ruby. "I have better things to do then go gallivanting to whatever places you want to drag us to."
"But you do want that coffee machine, don't you?"
Weiss huffed. "That doesn't mean I have to go anywhere. I'll just give Yin the lien to buy it for me."
"I see, I see." Ruby nodded, a mischievous glint in her eyes. "Yin, as your team captain, you have to follow my orders, right?"
"I do believe that's how it works."
"Then as your captain, I order you not to buy anything Weiss asks for."
"Understood, captain Rose." Yin said with a casual two finger salute.
"What?" Weiss exclaimed. "You can just give out an order like that. It's an abuse of power. And you." Weiss turned the icy glare typically reserved to Ruby onto him. "Why are you going along with her nonsense?"
"She's the captain. You understand what a hierarchy is don't you?"
Weiss huffed again. "Fine. I'll just have Pyrrha do it."
"Pyrrha, you're not allowed to buy her anything either."
Caught between the two, Pyrrha wasn't nearly as quick to come to a decision but ultimately sent Weiss an apologetic smile. "Sorry, Weiss."
Victorious grin spread across her face, Ruby joined him in the kitchen, a pep to her step. "Come on Weiss, it'll be our first weekend as a team, so we should go to the city as one. Me and Yin can help you two figure out where everything is in the city, we can all grab a bunch of stuff for the room, and we'll be able to fill up the fridge. How can you say all of that is a waste of time?"
"You're the last person I'd need help from for anything." Weiss retorted. Pointed looks were given to him and Pyrrha before the outnumbered girl released an exasperated sigh. "I expect it from her, but I can't believe the two of you would be immature enough to rope me into this distraction."
"So that's a yes?" Ruby asked.
Weiss huffed and headed back over to her desk.
"That's totally a yes. Alright, team RWPY has their first mission!" Ruby fist pumped the air, full of excitement. "But first, classes! This is going to be so exciting!"
XOXO
"This is so boring." Ruby groaned her head laid flat atop their shared table.
Not a single person inside the spacious lecture hall that was their classroom would argue with her, except Weiss, but even she would be hard-pressed to win said argument.
Their first class of the day was Grimm Studies, taught by professor Port, a man on the rounder side with a thick graying beard. Based on what he observed from his classmates back at Signal, it was typically considered one of the more interesting classes despite much of it being memorization. Studying monsters had a strong appeal for the youth that were being prepped to hunt them.
Professor Port, in an impressive show of no self-awareness, managed to turn that on its head.
Most of the class was struggling to stay awake as he told them a tale from his youth, recounting what he undoubtedly considered to be a riveting encounter with a pack of beowolves. Some had completely given up, subtly swiping through their scrolls, or exchanging whispers. There were nuggets of information in his story, such as taking down the alpha to disperse a herd, but the only person really making an effort to chalk it down was Weiss.
Probably not the superior curriculum most were expecting.
Yin, arms crossed, idly leaned back in his chair, one ear on the man's story and the rest of his attention on his surroundings. Best to keep an eye out and-
Ruby tapped her knee to his, a sheet of paper slid over. She'd drawn a grid on the blank sheet, an X in the middle. He grabbed his pencil, leaning forward to draw a circle in one of top corners. A few turns later and he came out the winner of the impromptu game of tic tac toe.
She started another.
Then another.
And another.
All ended the same way or in draws no matter who went first.
Pyrrha bumped her shoulder into his. She hadn't quite given up on listening to professor Port, a pencil still in hand, but unlike Weiss's, her paper was entirely blank. "I don't think Weiss is all that happy with you two." Pyrrha whispered without looking away from Professor Port.
That was stating the obvious. He'd picked up on Weiss's annoyed glances the moment she noticed their little game. Not like there was anything to be done about that.
When he turned his attention back to their shared paper, he found that Ruby had abandoned the game to write something beneath the dozens of grids.
What did Pyrrha say? It read. Unlike her drawings, Ruby's writing was rather messy, done with speed in mind.
Weiss mad He wrote back. She took the paper, writing on it for a whole minute before sliding it back to him.
When isn't she mad? Beside that was a quick scribble of a cartoonish depiction of Weiss, trademark frown in place.
He let a faint exhale loose before taking a minute to make his own drawing. Just a quick little scribble of Ruby and Weiss with stars in their eyes, both fangirling over Pyrrha. A faint laugh escaped Ruby after he passed it over.
She scribbled quickly and slid it back over.
Pyrrha is awesome though. Have u seen her weapons?
A piece of folded paper bounced off the top of Ruby's head and landed on their desk, Yin watching as Ruby unfurled it rather than writing his response. Whatever was written in it caused Ruby to twist around, red dusting her face as she glared at the row up behind them. Yang, just beyond them with her team, all of whom were slacking off, grinned as she gave them a thumbs up.
An older sister watching her younger sister laugh and pass notes with a boy? He'd read it was customary for siblings to tease each other and that was perfect teasing material.
What she say He wrote down, not bothering with any punctuation.
Yang stupid was all she wrote back.
They spent the rest of class writing and playing random games on shared sheets of paper with the occasional interruption from Yang.
XOXO
"Now this has got to be exciting." Ruby buzzed with built up energy, leading them around dozens of other students in the stands.
"Passing notes with your boyfriend wasn't fun enough for you?" Yang teased, walking beside her.
"Shut up, Yang." Ruby groaned.
After several hours in nearly identical lecture halls, they were now in a far bigger room. An arena by the look of things. Down below in the center of the room was a square shaped stage light up by lights with flat screens directly above it. Glynda, their combat professor, stood down in the center of it, waiting on them. They and the rest of the class were up in the high stands that circled the arena.
After finding enough space for all eight of them to sit together, their two teams took their seats in the stand.
"Think we'll finally get to fight?" Nora asked, just as excited as Ruby to be away from the books.
"It is called combat class." Blake said dryly, nose already back in a book now that they were seated.
"Think we'll be fighting as teams? Maybe as pairs? We can be partners if we're doing teams of two, Ren. I mean like combat partners, not partners partners. That would be-"
Yin tuned out Nora's ramblings, focused on scanning the room.
"Are you scoping out the competition?" Pyrrha asked, having taken the seat to his left. Weiss was to his right, quiet and in a sour mood. A product of spending as much time watching Ruby as she did paying attention to their lectures. She just might end up giving herself high blood pressure if she was so intent on focusing on someone who made her so angry.
"Yep." He said. There wasn't anything out of the ordinary among the students or in any of the darker areas of the room including the catwalks far above.
"Does anyone catch your eye?"
"Nope."
"Hey, don't forget us." Yang said, she sat on the lower row ahead beside Ruby and Nora. "I'm more competition than you can handle."
"Not a single person." Yin added for good measure. That got a quiet laugh from Pyrrha and an elbow to his shin from Yang.
"Remember that if we get pitted against each other. I'm going to wipe the floor with you." Yang assured him with a grin.
"If I may have your attention." As usual when she spoke, Glynda silenced the entire room with minimal effort, all eyes turned to her. "I'm sure you're all eager to see where your team stands in comparison to your peers but as you are all first years, we'll begin this course with simple single battles."
Her announcement received a mixed response, just as many relieved as they were disappointed.
"To those of you who think you may be able to skirt by without participating due to how many of you there are, participants are chosen both at random and by me." She adjusted her glasses, a stern look sweeping across them. Despite the distance and the fact they were looking down at her it was no less effective, some students audibly gulping. "Each and everyone of you will get your fair share of time on this stage before the year is over, that I assure you."
"Now, let us begin." Glynda didn't give any time for what might as well have been a threat to the meeker students to settle in before activating the screen above. Pictures of every student in the room spun through a pair of boxes displayed by them. As it began to slow some rose in excitement while others shrunk, praying for anyone but them to show up.
The first to stop was the one on the left, excited murmurs and defeated groans filling the stands.
"Pyrrha Nikos." Glynda called out.
"You've got this Pyrrha." Ruby said.
"You shouldn't struggle against anyone here." Weiss said in her own unique form of encouragement.
"Good luck." Yin held up his fist to her. It was pretty much accepted among everyone here that she would win no matter who she went up against and he more or less agreed. That was no reason not to show the support expected from a teammate.
"Thank you all. I'll do my best." Pyrrha said as she bumped her fist to his.
"Yin Coalson." Glynda called out.
Yin turned his attention back to the screens and, by some stroke of insane chance, his face sat firmly in the second box.
"You're going to need that luck back, hotshot." Yang snickered, elbowing his shin again.
"What? Teams can fight each other? Who am I supposed to cheer for now?" Ruby complained, torn by the situation.
"Try to put up a decent fight at least. It won't look good for us if you lose without showing some of your skills even if you are against Pyrrha." Weiss said. He doubted anyone would consider that a pep talk.
"Both of you make your way down onto the arena." Glynda ordered.
"Guess we're doing this partner." Yin said as he stood up.
Pyrrha gave him a half smile. "I guess so."
Reluctance. It was all over her face. Why? He could guess plenty of different reasons, but it wouldn't change the facts.
They were going to fight.
XOXO
(A/N: More school stuff but hey, a fight next chapter. Whenever that chapter comes out.)