Weisser Ritter - Two

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Beta(s) :

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Requested By : Polemoduke

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"You ordered enough rations? For everyone?" Weiss asked, sitting at her desk and working on an assignment while the others got ready around her. Flicking Ruby a look she added, "And not just sweets?"

"Yep! I got the right ones! Just like Pyrrha asked." Ruby chirped, sitting on the floor beside her partner's chair and picking up the little grey lunchboxes, each emblazoned with Beacon's emblem, and setting them out in four little stacks of two. Tapping them she said, "I got Pyrrha a Mistrali chicken and rice one, since she likes it, and I got you a rice and veggie wrap! Since, you know, you don't like dried meat."

"That was… Thoughtful." Ruby turned and grinned up at Weiss at the words, nodding excitedly and earning a little roll of her eyes as she turned back to her work. Though she did add, quietly, "Thank you."

"You know it, bestie!"

"Please do not call me that…"

"But Weeeeeiss!" She whined, leaning back into the back of her chair and smirking at the little scoff her partner answered with. Smiling, she tugged the little crate the delivery-bot had brought the supplies she'd ordered around and fished out a little packet. Holding it up and shaking it, she said, "Also, I did get sweets, too. Dried strawberries and cherries~"

"Of course you did…"

"At least it's fruit." Pyrrha chuckled from across the room, sitting in all her armor apart from her greaves and gauntlets, running an oiled rag along the rim of her shield methodically. She didn't even look up as she smiled and chuckled, "She has what we asked for, and some fruit out there could be nice."

"Yeah, Pyr's right." Jaune grunted, laying on the floor and doing crunches, his pack already mostly done up and waiting on his rations. "A little treat now and then is good."

"How would you know?"

"My dad is a Hunter, used to tell us about it all the time." Jaune grunted, ignoring the sharp way Weiss had asked the question.

After a second, Ruby realised even she hadn't really reacted to it. Which was… Either pretty good, or really bad, and she couldn't tell which. Though she did lean towards 'pretty good'.

"I see. Very well, then" Weiss muttered after a moment, nodding and adding under her breath, "If I'd known that was alright, I'd have asked for tea…"

Ruby blinked, and considered for a second whether she should respond. Weiss hadn't said it loud enough for the others to hear, so it was probably just a passing thought. Not something she'd want to be teased about. Buuut…

Teasing her was fun, so she leaned back into the chair again, her weight scooching it a bit to get Weiss' attention, and she offered, "I can run and get you some, ya know."

"I…" Weiss stiffened, and Ruby smirked at having caught her out. It was silly, sure, but it was nice to finally be able to tease her and not get shouted at. "You don't have to. I'd hate for you to be late to the take-off."

"I dunno if you've noticed," Ruby smirked, "but I'm kinda fast."

"I appreciate the thought, but…" For a long moment, Weiss was quiet. Still. With her back turned, Ruby couldn't see her face to gauge her expression. But when she turned, Pyrrha was looking their way. She hadn't looked up from what she was doing, though. Hadn't even turned, and she kept cleaning her weapon. But she'd turned her gaze away from her sword, eyeing the woman from the side while she worked. When Ruby leaned forward and turned to look, though, Weiss hadn't noticed.

Still, she shrugged and went back to work, sighing a quiet little, "If you really want to. I'll send you my preferred flavor, and… And a recommendation for you? We can… Take tea together?"

"That…" Sounded boring, and slow, and quiet in half a dozen ways that made Ruby's instincts go 'blegh'. But it was Weiss inviting her to do something she liked. She was trying. So she beamed a smile, shot up with a flash of petals that fluttered around her, and threw her arms around the girl as she squawked in surprise and protest. "That sounds like so much fun, Nice Weiss!"

"I-" She struggled for a second, but eventually gave up and let Ruby hug her for a moment. Then, as Ruby backed away, she muttered in that quiet irritable but not really irritable way she had, "Stop calling me that, you dolt…"

"Sure!" She grinned, heading for the door, "Don't forget to send me that-" Her Scroll went off and she turned to find Weiss smirking at her, her own Scroll on the desk beside her work, and Ruby snorted, "Guess I'm not the only speed freak, huh?"

"Oh, go get our tea."

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The pack was heavy enough that, after a few minutes of quietly riding the Bullhead as it shuddered and shifted up, angling through the air towards the mountains, Weiss sighed and shouldered it off. She left it on the floor by her feet, between her and Arc, and scowled when it bumped into him and he gave her a look. Almost a reproachful one.

"What?"

"Doctor Oobleck said not to take off our packs unless it's to-"

"Fight or sleep." She cut him off, crossing her arms, rolling her eyes and leaning back against the hull. "You don't need to tell me anything about any of this, Arc."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jaune huffed, shaking his head and waving off to the side, towards where Beacon was - or close enough, "I was just saying what he said. I get not r- Not listening to me. But Oobleck is-"

"A Huntsman." Weiss cut him off, turning to give him a baleful look. 'Which you aren't' she left unsaid, but she could see him get the message anyways. And felt bad enough that she sighed and said, "It's fine, Arc. It's just heavy, and there's no reason to wear it before we're even landed."

"That isn't what he said."

"I'm quite sure he didn't mean literally never take it off unless we're sleeping. Or fighting." She sighed, "What if we stop to cook? Why would we sit on the ground with our packs on instead of, oh, I don't know, next to us?"

"Because we were told to!" Jaune snapped, startling Weiss as he rounded on her, scowling, and his hands curled into fists. He banged one on the hull, hard enough his Aura sparked, and added, "but you know better than everyone, right?"

"I-I didn't-" She scowled, eyes narrowing, "Where is this even coming from?"

"Jaune, stop." Ruby pleaded quietly, tucked into the corner towards the tail of the Bullhead as best as she could manage with her pack on. "Weiss is trying! I'm sure she doesn't mean it that way. She's just… It's heavy."

"Maybe," Jaune nodded, "but that doesn't stop any of us from doing what we're told, does it?"

"Why do you even care?"

"Because what if something happens!?"

"Like what?" She scoffed, shaking her head and pursing her lips as the Bullhead angled up and to the side, gravity tugging Weiss back a bit, towards the hull behind her. Until, a second later, it evened out and dipped the other way, which told her, "We're just outside the city! We're as safe as can be without being in the city. By design."

"But-"

"Stop, both of you." Pyrrha cut in, stepping closer to both of them and glaring. "If you two don't calm down, then you're going to attract-"

"Contact!" The pilot suddenly bellowed over the ship's intercom as the Bullhead suddenly pitched to the side, an alarm screaming as the hull behind her came apart in a rush of air, heat and fire. She barely had the time to feel the breath get pushed out of her lungs by the force of the blast, her arms coming up to shield her face, before something crashed into the side of her head.

And all she saw was darkness.

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Weiss came to and, for a moment, she couldn't feel much of anything except a dull, deep ache settled into every inch of her body. Like how she'd felt after her first day of real training, under an instructor that didn't care what her name was. Only, multiplied. And unlike then, as she took a breath and came around, the pain only got worse. Like fire, crawling up her thigh and along her ribs, building to an inferno that she recognized before she even forced herself up, hand pressed against her broken ribs to look at the swollen, purple stretch of her lower leg.

Broken… With her foot bent off to the side, just a bit.

And numb in a painful, distant way she did not like.

"Shit." She allowed herself, pushing herself up on her arms and ignoring the pain in her shoulders as her Aura went to work - focusing on her arms and ribs, for now, because there was no way she had enough to heal her leg. Looking around, she muttered to herself, trying to focus, "Remember your lessons… First aid… Where's my pack?"

It took a while to find, sitting on the ground where she'd fallen, in the middle of the dense, temperate woodlands that clung to this side of Vale's mountains. But she found it, after a few minutes of sitting there, twisting and turning to look for it. Up in a tree a few yards away, stuck on a limb about thirty feet above her.

"Perfect." She hissed, rolling onto her side and trying desperately to ignore the pain in her leg as she pulled Myrtenaster out and used it to drag herself up the hill to the tree. At its base, she rolled over and sighed, resting against it and spinning her rapier's canister around, checking her Dust. Most of them were cracked, and had leaked most of their Dust, but…

"Ice." She grunted, spinning to the right one. "Perfect."

Flicking Myrtenaster out to the side, she forged a thin spire of ice, pointed at the top, that lanced up and into the tree at an angle, carving away the limb and sending it tumbling to the ground, sliding along the carefully shaped ice-slope to land a couple feet away from her. Now she just had to get to it… But as sore as she was, even just this much had exhausted her. Drained what little stamina she had left after the crash, the fall, and all she could do was sit there, Myrtenaster laid across her lap, and suck in short breaths through ribs that were only just now starting to ease.

But, before she could get the energy up to drag herself over to her pack, she heard something.

Steps, heavier than any of her team and getting closer. Past the tree, she could hear its owner chuff and snort as it sniffed at the ice she'd used. Slowly, Weiss turned, peeking around the ice at the animal.

It was a bear - a normal bear, with deep brown fur and little, beady eyes - and licked lazily at the ice. Then scratched at it, confused and curious, leaving deep gouges in it with its powerful claws. It turned as it rounded the ice, and came very nearly face to face with her. So close, so surprised, it rumbled a deep, unsettling growl and Weiss' hand trembled around Myrtenaster's hilt. She wanted to raise it, to spin the selector to Fire and send it running, but with it so close, she knew it would move first. Its claws would go for her and, with so little Aura, she wouldn't be able to do much.

Then more crunches and thuds from the other end of the tiny little clearing, and she heard Jaune gasp, "Weiss!"

Whether it was because she was hurt and the bear somehow knew, or because Jaune had shouted, the bear turned away from her. Took a step forward and bellowed as Weiss turned, looking at Jaune's muddied form as he drew Crocea Mors. His shield extended, but instead of taking up a guard stance, he stepped forward and spread his arms.

And bellowed, "Fuck off!"

The bear roared in response, and Jaune matched it, screaming long and hard enough that his face turned red. The animal took a step toward him and he swung his sword between them fast enough for it to whistle, and then pounded the weight at the end of the pommel into his shield and screamed again. It was an impossible show, Jaune bellowing as the bear roared. And just as impossible, a moment later the bear seemed to get bored, or just decided they weren't worth all this, and turned, dropping onto all fours and walking away.

Not running - just walking.

It wasn't scared of them…

"Not hungry enough for a fight?" Jaune called after it, pounding on his shield some more to make sure it kept going until it passed a tree and he stopped. Voice ragged, he let his arms dropped and stepped forward, watching it go, and with the sunlight coming down through the hole she'd made in the canopy to wash over him he looked like…

Well, a knight, come to save her from the beasts of the forest. Just like in the stories her grandfather had told her when she was little.

Smiling, he turned and said, "I can't believe that worked…"

And just like that, the moment was gone. He wasn't the handsome knight in shining armor, and the sun wasn't surrounding him like a halo. He was just Jaune, turning and laughing under his breath. And Weiss laughed, too, in spite of everything. Or maybe because of it - the ridiculousness of it all. Jaune, scaring a bear off like that?

Ridiculous…

She remembered her aching side too late to stop the laugh, though, and hissed as she clutched it. Shifting like that made her leg move and that hurt worse, enough to yank out another, "Shit!"

"Weiss, what's-" Then he noticed her leg, and was beside her, shouldering off his pack and yanking out his own little medical kit, which was a long silver rectangle. Gently - more gently than she would have expected from him - he trailed a finger along the bruising. Quietly, he said, "Broken - and turned, judging by the foot. I'll have to orient it right, split it, and get some painkillers in you. Bruising is light, so it's not that bad a break, shouldn't be bone loose. Not enough to do anything at least, and Beacon can check for that when we get back."

"You can tell all that," she mumbled, "from the bruise?"

"More or less?" He flicked her a look, gave her a little half-smile, and turned to get what he needed out of the pack. Some wrapping material, a syringe of emergency painkillers, another with a red stripe down the side - anti-inflammatories - all arranged neatly on the inside of the lid. Quietly, he explained, "Been taking first aid courses online at night."

"That's…" She blinked, "At night? After our sessions?"

"Mhm."

"When do you sleep?" The question was sharper than she'd meant it to be, and cut off in a painful hiss as Jaune gently took her foot and pulled it down and straight.

"Sorry." He said, hesitating at the hem-line of her skirt and frowning as he held up the syringes. "I, uh, have to inject it at an artery above the break. Only one I know of is at your thigh…"

"I see." She flushed and nodded, looking away, "Just do it."

"Alright." He nodded, pushing the hem up. He was professional, though, and bunched it up to let her keep her modesty. Gently, he massaged her thigh until he grunted, nodded, and slid the syringes in at a spot between his thumb and forefinger. He smoothed the skirt back out and turned to the break, gently setting a metal splint around it and wrapping it up tight.

Finally done, he straightened and packed what was left of the kit away and said, "You can't walk. I'm going to put your pack in mine and carry you. Alright?"

"That's…" She blinked, "A lot of weight."

"Nah." He smirked, "You're what, a hundred pounds at best? Light as a feather."

She scowled, "Arc, this isn't the time for your pride-"

"We have to go." He snapped, face suddenly hard, all that soft faux-charm gone so quickly she actually flinched. Turning to pick up his pack and then standing to go for hers, he went on, "I know why you- You have to learn to trust me, Weiss. We're teammates, and right now, you're hurt. So you need to do as I say, and trust me. Alright?"

Part of her wanted to argue - he wasn't on her level, and not just in one way. He didn't have the skills, or the ability. Except he'd had them a moment ago, enough to tend to her leg. And the ability to get to her - to run off a bear. She would never say she'd been wrong to step in as she had, to doubt him, but…

Maybe she'd been wrong to doubt him so much?

Finally, she nodded and quietly said, "Alright. I'm sorry."

"Don't be." He chuckled, at her side again, his bulging pack on his back as he slipped an arm under her. The pack was heavy, and she was, too - dead weight at that - but he stood with little more than a grunt and turned, heading down the slope and said, "We're teammates, so just trust me, okay?"

She nodded, wrapped her arms around his chest and leaned in.

Only so it'd be easier to carry her - not because it reminded her of stories of her grandfather. Not at all.

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Geralt Rex :

Nora's team is Noble. Pyrrha's is Prodigy. Nora's is, more or less, a pun on Nora being 'queen of the castle' while Pyrrha's is more… On the nose. Lol.

Nora's team, NYBL, also does have a member that is actual Nobility, Blake (her father is the Chief of Menagerie, making her essentially a princess). While Pyrrha's team, PRWJ, has multiple Prodigies if you consider Ruby, and Weiss is no slouch herself…then there's Jaune lol. So each team has multiple people that the names of the teams apply to! - Polemoduke

Darth Atrox :

'Acceptable' and 'proper form' are a bit different. Weiss, iirc, was correcting a bad form, not something being technically correct or not. Like a German saying 'Aluminium' instead of 'Aluminum'. Both are TECHNICALLY correct - but the latter is the more 'proper', formal word.

Real :

Weiss was making a point, that was all. She was TECHNICALLY inaccurate, sure, but it was more of a metaphor than anything literal.