32"Ughhhh…"
"Here." I say as the sick guy with his face in the trashcan groans. I place down a bottle of water next to his feet. "This should help with the taste."
"Uhhhhh… thanks." He groans his thanks to me without looking up but he does wave in my direction. With that, I continue walking with my friends to our new home.
The view from the airship did not do the academy justice. After we finally landed and started walking out of the ship, and giving a wide-berth to the same person who puked on Yang's shoes, who was deathly staring at him while he was heaving in the trashcan, Ruby, Yang and I start walking up to the academy with all the other new students of the academy. "Wow…" The both of them say in awe at the sheer size of the place. I however just gape at it all.
"The view from Vale's got nothing on this!" Yang comments as she folds in her arms.
"No kidding." I agree with her from her left. I've seen some pretty impressive looking pieces all over Remnant but this academy has an air about it that's just breathtaking.
"Ah ah!" Some more than others. Yang and I both look to our left to see Ruby gushing at some students that walk by with their weapons out. "Ohmygosh, sis!" I don't know how but my eyes are playing tricks on me because Ruby gets so excited she becomes a 2-D, starry-eyed, floating chibi of herself. 'What?' I question in my head as she waves at them. "That kid's got a collapsible staff! And she's got a fire sword!" She says giddily as she begins floating off. I rub my eyes and when I open them again, I see Yang pulling her sister back to normal proportions between us. "Ow! Ooww!"
"Easy there, little sister. They're just weapons." She tells her little sister matter a factly.
"Just weapons?!" Ruby asks like she was just slapped. "They're an extension of ourselves! They're a part of us! Oh, they're so cool!" She gushes at the new weapons. 'Speaking of weapons, I wonder what's their's?' I think on my new friends.
"Well, why can't you swoon over your own weapon? Aren't you happy with it?" Yang asks her sister.
It only takes a glance to my left before I hear the tale-tale sounds of a weapon opening up. I look back and see the tip of a blade on my face. "Ah!" I yelp and fall back. As the two of them look down at me, I can't help but gape at the massive weapon used by the tiny girl. "That's your weapon?!" I slightly yell in disbelief.
"Yep!" Ruby happily replies like its nothing. "You like?" She asks with a sly smile.
"Uhhhhhh…" I don't form a coherent answer as I feel I almost lost my head just a second ago.
"And for your information Yang," Ruby turns back to her sister. "Of course I'm happy with Crescent Rose!" She says as she cuddles the deadly weapon. 'Crescent Rose? Wow that's… fitting alright.' "I just really like seeing new ones. It's like meeting new people, but better..." She finishes saying the last part almost sadly. 'I won't argue there Ruby.' I think as I get back up. 'Although I don't think I'm as much a gun nut as you.' I lean back and make sure I'm where she won't accidentally take my head off, especially with how much ease she moves that thing with.
"Ruby, come on, why don't you go try and make some friends of your own?" Yang asks her little sister and playfully pulls her red hood down over her face.
"But... why would I need friends if I have you?" She asks, then points to me. "And hey, Ethan's a friend!" I smile at the mention.
"He doesn't count."
"Hey!" I can't help but say in annoyance.
"We 'both' made friends with him. You need to make friends on your own." She accentuates the both part. "And besides," As she says that part, a stampede of footsteps come from around us before a crowd of people surround Yang. "My friends are here. Gotta go catch up. 'Kay, see ya, bye!"
"Hey whoa!" I shout as Yang's rapid talking completely confuses me followed by her speeding away with a crowd of people knocks me to the ground as they almost barrel into me. I fall onto my back in a heap and groan a little. "Ahhhh, thanks Yang." I groan as I take a second to get my bearing from the spin. I hear tumbling which I can only assume is Ruby having similar problems as well because of her sisters abrupt departure.
"Sorry?! Do you have any idea of the damage you could have caused?" A new voice pipes up, shifting me from my moment of hurt. Looking up, I see a pale white-haired girl in a white skirt dress staring down at a confused Ruby, who is laying in a pile of luggage bags and suitcases.
As I go to stand up, I feel a bit lighter for some reason. 'Hey, where's my bag?' Looking around for a second, I see my bag fell off me and landed a few feet away. "There you are." While Ruby and the other girl argue or whatever, I crawl over and quickly swipe it back before looking inside to make sure that everything is alright. Thankfully nothing got broken, especially my weapons. Seeing as how I almost lost my bag, I quickly grab Razor and Revolt before I slip them onto my arms in their compacted states. "Nice."
*BOOM!*
"Holy—!"
*Shing*
My instincts flare up at the sudden explosion only a few feet away from me. I saw fire, lightning, and some snow, I think? Either way, I'm more concerned with the RAPIER STUCK IN MY HAND!
"Ow." I quietly say as I stare at the weapon embedded in my right hand. Fortunately, the tip of the blade just barely cut through the top of my hand and drew blood but not skewered my hand all together. The metal plate used to protect my hand from my own weapon just saved me a whole lot of pain. Very carefully, I sling my pack onto my back with my left hand, and stand up.
"Unbelievable! This is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about!" I look up to see the white-haired lady yelling at Ruby again.
"I'm really, really sorry!" She quickly apologizes but the other doesn't look convinced. I also notice another girl standing a little ways off holding a book and a red bottle but I look back to my hand. A noticeable red spot is starting to form and it's starting to ache. While the two continue to argue, I grab the blade and try to pull it out. "Mm!" I moan as the pain flares up and it doesn't budge whatsoever. "Great." I groan in defeat and slowly walk over to the person I presume owns the rapier.
"Hey, I said I was sorry, princess!" Ruby replies sternly.
"It's heiress, actually." Ruby and the girl look over as the red dust bottle holding, black-haired, bow wearing girl walks up to us. "Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, one of the largest producers of energy propellant in the world."
'A Schnee? Here? Wow.' I think in slight awe as I walk up behind them unnoticed. I mean slight because my hand hurts.
"Finally! Some recognition!" Weiss smiles smugly at being recognized but I have more pressing matters to attend to.
"The owner of this rapier, I presume?" I ask out loud. All three of them turn and see standing close by cradling my hand with the long sword sticking out of it.
"Oh my gosh! Ethan, are you okay?!" Ruby cries out in worry.
"Hey! That's mine!" Weiss verbally claims her weapon while pointing at it. I try to pull the weapon out again but it remains firmly stuck in my hand.
The third girl however just purses her lips and crosses her arms. "As well as the same company infamous for its controversial labor forces and questionable business partners." She informs us all with maybe a hint of malice in her voice.
"Wha-" She stammers for a second at the insult basically thrown at her and her family's company. Ruby snickers at the failed retort. "How dare you- The nerve of... Ugh!" Fed up, Weiss gets up in the bow girl's face and takes the bottle from her, walking off in a huff toward her helpers as they gather the luggage and follow. She doesn't get far before turning at a complete right angle towards me. She walks right up to me and stands there with her hand at her hips, making me sweat drop at her intense glare. "Give me that!"
*Shick*
"OW!" I shout as with one swipe, she pulls her sword out of my hand, not caring in the least bit about any pain that befell on me. She looks at the tip of the blade in disgust at the redness staining it. She pulls out a handkerchief and starts rubbing it off as she walks away.
"I promise I'll make this up to you!" Ruby calls out to the Schnee girl as she walks away. She gives off a sigh. "I guess I'm not the only one having a rough first day... So, what's..." She begins to say to the other girl but she's already walking off. In a huff, she falls back onto the ground. "Welcome to Beacon…" I hear her moan.
"Quite a first impression, eh?" I say with a smile as I walk up to her. I extend my left hand for her to take, the one not sporting a cut. With a smile back, she takes it and I pull her up.
"Yep." She says with a tired smile when she stands tall.
"Hey." We turn our heads to the new voice. It's the blonde haired guy that was puking earlier. "I'm Jaune. Are you two okay?"
I look at Ruby and she looks at me before turning back to the concerned guy. "We're good." I bring my injured hand up. "Just a flesh wound. I'm Ethan."
"Ruby." We introduce ourselves but for some reason, my friend barely suppresses a chuckle. "Aren't you the guy that threw up on the ship?"
"Ehhhhh." I sigh at her blunt attitude before reaching into my pack.
"All I'm saying is that motion sickness is a much more common problem than people let on!"
"Yes Jaune, we know." I drown out in annoyance. 'Geez he will not shut up with that.'
"Look, I'm sorry! Vomit Boy was the first thing that came to mind." Our red wearing companion manages to say through slight laughing.
"Oh, yeah? What if I called you Crater Face?" He tries to mock her but fails in my opinion.
"Hey, that explosion was an accident!" She replies.
"Sure it was." I sarcastically say as finish wrapping my hand up and holding it up.
"You sure your okay?" Jaune asks but I wave him down.
"Yeah, yeah. The blade barely nicked the skin." I say and carefully slip my glove back on. It's a slight tight fit what with the extra bandage but nothing too bad.
"That's good. And anyway, the name's Jaune Arc! Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue. Ladies love it."
Ruby and I look at each other at the attempt of suave he tries to do. "Do they?" We both ask, completely skeptic about it.
"They will! Well, I-I hope they will. My mom always says that... Never mind." He stammers but fails in the end.
Ruby gives off a short set of giggles at him and I chuckle but soon we delve into an uncomfortable set of awkward silence. "So... I got this thing!"
*Thump*
"Whoa!"
"Geez Ruby! Careful with that thing!" I shout and Jaune yelps as she opens up her weapon and stabs it into ground right by my feet. A few inches to the right and I'm pretty sure I'd have lost my big toe. "You almost got me."
"Eh hehe, sorry." She apologizes with a sheepish grin.
"Is, uh, that a scythe?" Jaune hesitantly asks. I'm not surprised with his reluctance to talk to her. If she pulled that out the first time I met her, I would have surely been more weary than friendly. We stop altogether to talk.
"It's also a customizable high-impact sniper rifle." She informs us with a proud smile.
"A-wha...?" Jaune asks confused.
"A gun." I answer with realization in my voice.
*Ch-chik*
She cocks the gun with little effort. "Correct."
"Oh. That's cool."
"Cool? That's awesome." Jaune and I both admire her weapon.
"So what've you got?" She asks Jaune about his weapon. I'm curious about what his equipment is as well. I saw the sword but it could be something else entirely. After all, I was not expecting that small bit of metal on her lower back to turn into a giant scythe that could shoot high impact snipe shots.
"Oh. I, uh...I got this sword." He pulls out a simple look sword from the sheathe on his hip.
"Ooooohh." My friend simply regards the weapon as do I. It's nothing too big but it should at least be effective in fighting. Especially if it's paired with a-
"Yeah, and I've got a shield, too." He tells us as he pulls out his scabbard and it turns into a kite shield. 'A shield that's also the swords scabbard. Nice. You can never go wrong with a classic combo like that.'
"Nice." I compliment him. He returns a smile.
"So, what do they do?" Ruby asks as she touches the shield but it seems like she pressed the wrong thing because it suddenly retracts in his hand.
"Hey! Whoa! Ah! Ah!" Jaune fumbles about as he tries to catch his folding and unfolding shield before it finally falls to the ground. He picks up and puts away his shield on his hip again. It was slightly amusing seeing him fumble about like that. "The shield gets smaller, so when I get tired of carrying it, I can just... put it away..."
"I can appreciate the need for a compacted form." I tell him, which slightly lifts his mood.
"But... wouldn't it weigh the same?" Ruby points out.
"Yeah, it does…" He replies dejectedly with shoulders slumped.
His action elicits a small laugh from me and Ruby before she turns to me. "Well, what do you got?" She asks as she shoulders her giant scythe. Seriously I can't get over that thing.
Not wanting to be left out, I bring both my arms up and show my compacted weapons slid up my arms. "I give you, Razor's Revolt." With a flick of my arms downward, my blades slide into my palms and open into the circular blades I've come to know and love.
"Oooooohh!" Both Ruby and Jaune say in awe at the sheen that my blades hold.
"Neat huh? Their small forms allow me to get in nice and up close with my enemies so I can do massive damage to them. You'd be surprised at how the bigger bulkier Grimm creatures have some trouble taking me out when I get right up to them." I explain my method of attack. Usually I've seen a lot of melee weapons be some sort of long arm or have some reach to it. While reach may be at a disadvantage to me, if I can move past their area of attack then I can wreak some serious havoc on my opponents.
"Nice." Jaune compliments me, making me smile.
"That's cool and all… but is that it?" Ruby asks confused. "It doesn't have anything else?"
I stare at her for a few seconds with a neutral expression before I smile. The smile soon turns into a laugh, much to their confusion. "Ah hahahahahahaaaa… Ahhhhhhh no." I let out a low moan before I answer with a deadpan no. "Yeah this is not the only form I have." I take a step back from my friends and extend my arms outwards. With a click of a button, the segmented blades click off before they stack upon one another, extending into four long straight blades onto each handle in a 'plus' pattern that the blades extend from my hands to my elbows.
"Whoa." My friends gape at the transformation.
"Wait for it." I hold their thoughts and next the blades begin spinning. Slowly at first but soon they spin at the speed of helicopter blades. I smirk at their expressions before I slowly bring them forward, carefully to keep the blades from hitting each other and make sure they see the sides and front of the blades spinning. After a couple shows of movement, I click the buttons again and they stop spinning before going back into their standard forms. "Cool, huh?"
"Very." Ruby says with a giddy expression.
"Yeah, the blades spinning like that ensure that if a Grimm or anyone else tries to attack me from the front, then it'll be that much harder for them to attack head-on."
"Now that's pretty cool." Jaune says.
I smirk at that but I also notice Ruby keeping a very close eye on my weapons with a large grin on her face. "Excuse you?" I say, snapping her out of it.
"Oh, sorry!" She quickly apologizes and backs up with a grin on her face and rubbing the back of her head embarrassingly. "I'm kind of a dork when it comes to weapons. I did go a little overboard when designing Crescent Rose here." She tells us as she rubs her weapon.
"Wait, you made that?!" Jaune asks surprised at the idea that she made her own weapon.
"Of course! All students at Signal forge their own weapons! Didn't you make yours?" She asks. From the simplicity of his set, I'm not a hundred percent sure it's something he made.
"It's a hand-me-down." He answers. "My great-great-grandfather used it to fight in the war."
"The war? Wow." I comment and give another once over for his blade. Despite the time, it looks very well-kept. "For a hand-me-down, it looks like it hasn't aged a bit."
"Hehe, thanks."
"Sounds more like a family heirloom to me!" Ruby pipes up and I role my eyes at her comment. She laughs a bit. "But still, I like it! Not many people have an appreciation for the classics these days." She says good-heartedly.
"Can't ever go wrong with a classic. It's called a classic for a reason." I add.
"Yeah, the classics…" Jaune says somewhat sadly before sheathing his sword.
With the topic of weapons off the table, I compact my weapons onto my arms and we start moving again. "So why'd you talk to us back there? In the courtyard?" Ruby asks our blonde friend.
"Eh, why not? My mom always says, 'Strangers are just friends you haven't met yet.'" He answers happily. "Besides, this guy right here did give me that bottle of water out of the blue for my stomach. Thanks again."
"Oh yeah." I say as I remember that small action I did. I look at my red wearing friend with a smile. "Not even an hour Ruby and already you're rubbing off on me."
"Then I am a positive influence!" She happily says with arms flared into the air. Her action allows Jaune and I to lightly chuckle. After a few more feet of walking, we delve into silence before she looks around. "Hey, where are we going?"
"Oh, I don't know. I was following you." We stop altogether at his words. The two of them look at me.
"Hey, don't look at me. I was following you two." I tell them with hands up in a defensive manner.
"Y-You think there might be a directory? Maybe a food court? Some kind of recognizable landmark?" At our silence, and then Ruby's smirking, his mood deflates a little more. "Is, uh... Is that a 'no'?"
"That's a 'no'."
"Yep."
"Great." He says annoyed as he looks all around us. We are on some sort of path behind some buildings but other than that, there is nothing that screams any discernible point. "Now where?" He asks out loud as he scratches his head in confusion.
"Hold on, let me try something."I mutter, unsure if they heard me or not but not really caring either. Slowly, I bring my right hand forward in front of me. Clenching my fist, I concentrate. Feeling the energy course through me, I clench my eye and purse my lips as I feel the energy release from me. With that moment finished, I unclench my hand, stand straight and look around before looking up. A lone bird high up in the air makes a silhouette from the sun itself.
"Does that bird look weird?"
"Maybe?"
Pursing my lips at my friends comment, I watch as it glides over and disappears over the rooftop of another building "Forget it. Let's go." I direct them towards the building where the bird disappeared to since that's now where we are supposed to go.
"Wait, how do you know?" I stop at Ruby's question and glance back to her over my shoulder.
I smile. "Call it instinct." With that cryptic saying, I continue walking towards where we are supposed to go. I hear their footsteps falling in behind me as I glance up to the sky one more time.
Looks like I was right because as we make our way through the doors, the many sets of voices coming down the hallway instantly hit us. It was just a matter of following them and next thing we knew, we are standing in a large auditorium of sorts almost filled to the brim with student of all kinds.
"Wow. This place is packed. I wonder how we'll be able to find—"
"Ruby! Ethan!"
"Oh there you go."
"Over here! I saved you a spot!" We look over to Ruby's sister Yang as she waves to us, getting our attention.
"Oh! Hey, I-I gotta go! I'll see you after the ceremony!" Ruby quickly tells Jaune and starts moving but immediately moves back to grab my hand. "C'mon Ethan!"
"Hey, whoa!" I yelp as she pulls me with a surprising amount of strength. I skip as I almost trip but I manage to keep my footing, somewhat, as we make our way to Yang. I vaguely hear Jaune mention something about a girl but that's it. We move up on her left and look towards the stage.
"How's your first day going, you two?" She asks us with a cheeky smile.
"You mean since you ditched us and I exploded?" Ruby asks her sister with slight anger in her voice as we look at her. I'm not surprised at her nager, especially since she 'did' explode.
"Yikes. Meltdown already?"
"No, I literally exploded a hole in front of the school! And there was some fire, and I think some ice...?" Ruby explains and asks herself.
"Ice, fire, lightning… and a sword." I calmly explain and pull off my glove, revealing the bandaged hand.
Her eyes widen at the wound. "Wow. Wait, you're not joking?" She asks in disbelief, which makes Ruby a little irked.
"I wish! I tripped over some crabby girl's luggage, and then she yelled at me, and then I sneezed, and then I exploded, and then she yelled at me again, and I felt really, really bad, and I just wanted her to stop yelling at me!" She tearfully tells her sister of the events that happened. Something else is bothering though.
'Why do I feel like I'm being watched specifically?' I question in my head at the odd feeling.
"YOU!"
"Gah!"
"Oh god it's happening again!"
I jerk forward and turn around at the loud abrupt voice while Ruby jumps into her sister's arms in surprise. As if to prove to Yang of what happened, Weiss Schnee, the girl who owned the luggage crates that Ruby fell into, and the sword that almost skewered my head, heard everything that my red wearing friend said. "You're lucky we weren't blown off the side of the cliff!" She angrily tells us.
"Oh, my God, you really exploded." Yang says in disbelief.
"See." I say.
"It was an accident." Ruby says to Weiss as she gets down from her sister. "It was an accident!" She is suddenly stopped as Weiss pushes a pamphlet into the girls face. "What's this?"
I squint my eyes at the name on the pamphlet. 'DUST for dummies and other Inadequate Individuals. Wait that's seriously the title?' I question in my head at the slightly insulting name for a pamphlet by a big company.
"The Schnee Dust Company is not responsible for any injuries…"
And by that point I drown off, as does Ruby, while Miss Schnee begins giving us a long winded explanation about her company and liability issues like she's rehearsed this. I glance around and see everyone milling about in the auditorium and waiting for whatever it is we are here for. I notice a specific group of guys getting a little loud for my tastes and look to be very very excited to be here at the academy. They flail their arms around and look like their getting a bit too cocky for my liking of being here. 'Glad I didn't meet them first. At least with those I met already, they seem a bit tame in comparison.'
"Uuhhh…" Ruby's moan of unsure moves my attention back to her. It looks like the explanation was over.
"You really wanna start making things up to me?" She asks Ruby.
"Absolutely?" Her answer comes off as a confused question.
"Read this, and don't ever speak to me again." She shoves the pamphlet into her arms.
"A little much don't you think?" I pipe up. "I mean she did apologize." I point out but she doesn't look convinced, instead she looks sharply at me, making me recoil a little.
"That's right and, uh, it sounds like you two just got off on the wrong foot. Why don't you start over and try to be friends, okay?" Yang hopefully tries to mediate the tension between the two of them, and getting the attention off of me thankfully.
"Yeah! Great idea, sis!" Ruby is immediately on board with the idea but I have my reservations about it. I've met people and it seems like first impressions for Weiss here means a lot. She puts away the pamphlet and holds out her hand as she clears her throat. "Hello, Weiss. I'm Ruby. Wanna hang out? We can go shopping for school supplies!" She tells the heiress with a bit of hope that her new impression will be a turning point.
"Yeah! And we can paint our nails and try on clothes and talk about cute boys, like tall, blond, and scraggly over there!" She tells us with what I can plainly tell is fake enthusiasm. I would have probably said something but I'm too busy making a slicing motion with the tips of my fingers on my throat to Jaune. He heard Weiss mention and point to him so I'm basically telling him 'no don't' but he ignores me as he checks himself. 'Aw great. This won't end well.'
"Wow, really?" Ruby didn't pick up on her fake enthusiasm.
Everything is silent between us as Weiss glares at Ruby. "No." She bluntly says.
"Listen, why don't you—" I calmly begin to say but she immediately rounds about on me.
"And do you want something?" She asks crossly as she looks at me.
I stare at her for a few seconds. "Well," I start as I rub the back of my head. "I would like an apology for you ripping your sword out of my hand without a care for me." I answer. While the weapon didn't do any permanent damage to me, it was still painful having it abruptly pulled out like that.
"You want an apology? Fine. I'm sorry that her careless actions caused an explosion that nearly destroyed everything I brought with me and almost killed you. There?"
"…"
*Pop*
One of the bones in my fingers left hand pops as I clench it a little too hard behind me back. My friends look a little worried at me as I squint my eyes at the girl in front of me. 'And this is why I don't usually like talking with people, especially stuck up snobby entitled little…' I go to say something but the squeal of a microphone interrupts us and everyone else in the auditorium. Our headmaster of Beacon Academy, Professor Ozpin, stands on the stage in front of the microphone with the teacher we saw back at the airship in holographic form, Glynda Goodwitch.
The professor clears his throat as he pushes his glasses higher onto the bridge of his nose before speaking. "I'll... keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction." Some of the students start whispering among themselves because of his words. "You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step." He finishes up his short speech and starts walking off to the side.
Miss Goodwitch moves into his place at the microphone. "You will gather in the ballroom tonight; tomorrow, your initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed." She informs all of us and heads off.
"He seemed kind of… off." Yang comments and I can't help but agree with her.
"His speech did seem a little… vague when you think about it." I add as well, which my friends nod in agreement.
"It's almost like he wasn't even there." Ruby says her thought on the matter as well.
'He did come off a little strange in that speech of his. When I met him, or more specifically when he met me out of the blue, he came off as filled with so much wisdom but now? I don't know about—'
"I'm a natural blonde, you know."
Weiss puts her hand to her face in exasperation and I close my eyes and shake my head. 'Oh Jaune.'
The day passed relatively quickly and soon I and everyone else hoping to attend Beacon Academy did what we were told by Miss Goodwitch to sleep in the ballroom. After placing our weapons and equipment in our lockers, we went to the ballroom to get ready for sleep. The place is packed and nearly all of the floors on both levels have been taken up. I stand on the second floor balcony overlooking the bottom floor, looking for any spot I can use to sleep. There are a few spots but nothing to my preference. Everyone's too close together and that makes me a little uneasy. For the time I've spent on my own, I've slept alone and away from people when I can so the idea of sleeping in a tightly packed room like this… it doesn't bode well as much for me.
With my options limited here, I decide to go elsewhere. With one last glance over the floor, in which I lock eyes with Ruby for a second, I head over to the doors leading to the outside. I quickly but quietly open the doors and close them before too much cold air can get through. Thankfully, the air at night is only a brisk wind to it so it's not freezing and not too heavy and strong. As I quickly close the doors, I drop my stuff and take a quick look around. I have a pretty great overlook of a majority of the campus as well as vale and the surrounding landscape beyond. "Perfect." I say and start placing my sleeping bag down. As I roll it out and start flattening, I hear the door behind me open. Quickly turning around, I see its Ruby dressed in what I can assume is her pajamas.
"Ethan? What are you doing out here?" She asks in confusion.
"Just finding a good place to sleep that's not near a dozen other people." I calmly explain as I finish straightening out my sleeping bag with my feet.
"But why out here? It's cold."
"It's not that cold." I try to say.
*Fwooooooo*
"Brrrrrrr." A small gust of wind blows by us, leaving me unaffected but Ruby wraps her arms around herself, making her shiver. Once she's down shivering, she looks at me with a cross stare.
"… Much."
"Why don't you come back inside? I'm pretty sure there's an open spot next to me and Yang." She proposes with a smile.
I chuckle a little before giving her a smile. "Thanks but no thanks. It's nothing against you or your sister, far from it." I quickly say so she doesn't take it the wrong way. "I'm just not used to sleeping next to people, especially in a cramped place like that." I explain.
"Really?"
"Yeah. I've been on my own for awhile now and it's going to take some getting used to sleeping in a room like that." I say with a head nod towards the doors we went through.
She glances at the door before looking back to me. "And outside?" She gestures around us.
"I like the cold, I like the stars, and I like how quiet it is." I calmly explain to her of my reasons.
"Oh… that's nice." She tells me with a smile, which I return and nod. "You sure you don't want to come back in? It can't be that bad." She says and opens the door.
A loud roar of snoring immediately hits us through the small crack of the opened door. Ruby quickly shuts the door, stares at it for a few seconds before turning back to me with an embarrassed grin. "Uhhhh, eh he, okay it might be bad." She rubs the back of her head.
I chuckle at her action before I start sitting down. "Yeah, good luck with that." I sarcastically say.
"Oohhhh." She lightly groans at the potential uneven sleep she might have tonight and grabs the door handle. "Alright well, if your sure."
"I am."
"Okay. Well, goodnight then."
"Goodnight Ruby. Tell Yang goodnight." I wish her and her sister a good night before I turn onto my side. "Oh hey wait!" I quickly prop myself up, getting her attention before she close the door.
"Yes?"
"Thanks, uhhh, thanks for checking up on me." I manage to thank her.
"No problem." She replies with a smile. "See you."
"See ya." I reply as she closes the door with a oft clink. Thankfully when she opened the door, we didn't hear a chainsaw going off in the form a snore so hopefully she and everyone else will be alright. After staring at the door for a few second, I lean back. "So this is what it's like to have friends." I tell myself once I finish shuffling into my sleeping bag. After staring at the night sky for a bit, I turn onto my side and close my eyes.
"I think I like it."
Hey everyone, sorry I haven't updated this recently. With a plethora of new games to enjoy, essays and exams from school, I'm kind of all over the place with my writing. Already I've got half of the next chapters done for my other stories so hopefully those will be out soon. I hope this was alright for you all, especially since it was awhile since my last upload.
I also came down with a cold that messed me up for almost a week so that took some time out of me too.
In any case, despite all that, I hope you enjoy this, have a good day and have fun reading.