RWBY: Raindrops on Roses and Whiskers on Kittens

Chapter Four: Dancing Through Life

Ruby lay upside down, reading a book, with Zwei lying across her legs, snoring quietly. It was the same one that she'd been reading at the White Stag, a few weeks ago. She was getting closer to the end - maybe around seventy-five pages were left. But so much could change in seventy pages. Her heart had been broken my this author in ten pages before, let alone seventy...

'"Ground Control to Schwarz Leader. Come in Schwarz Leader. Can you give us your position?"

The voice crackled through Rolfe's speakers and into his ears, very nearly startling him from the relative silence and calm of the flight thus far. He quickly shook out of his serene state, surprised and angry that he had so easily allowed himself to blank out. He scanned the clear skies in his line of vision as he prepared to respond. He hadn't thought he would need to do so anytime soon. They were nearly back at base, returning from a long mission escorting bombers to their new base on the Austrian border. Rolfe was tired, drained, and running low on both fuel and energy. He could only guess his three accompanying squadron members were feeling the same. He fitted his mask in place to respond. "This is Schwarz Leader to Ground Control. We are currently on vector one-seven-three heading two-four-five, all seems well. Over."

"Thank you, Schwarz Leader. We have received reports of enemy fighters patrolling your area. Be on the lookou-'

Her concentration was broken as her phone vibrated. She blinked, then picked it up. No text from Weiss, unfortunately, but...is that an email?

She sat up, crossing her legs, opening the Gmail app. There was one new message from 'noreply-schnee@schneeandco'. Strange. She opened it up, her eyes slowly widening in surprise as she read it.

Miss Ruby Rose,

You have been invited by Weiss Schnee to go to the Schnee Company's annual Vytal Festival Masquerade, at the Schnee residence, on September 22nd. The gathering's primary purpose is to celebrate the anniversary of the end of the Faunus War, hence it is expected that every guest's behaviour will be appropriate for the occasion. Please wear formal dress, an easily removable mask, and present ID at the door.

If you cannot attend, please notify Weiss or Winter Schnee as soon as possible.

Kind Regards,

Schnee & Co.

"There are somethings that money can't buy. For everything else, there's the Schnee & Co."

Ruby promptly fell off the couch, Zwei too, awaking with a surprised yelp.

She regained her bearings after a few moments, re-reading the email. F-formal dress?!

Confused, she read the email again, then called out, "Yang!"

The blonde poked her head around the door. "Yeah?"

"Did you get a weird email from Weiss?"

Yang frowned, pulling her phone out of her pocket. "Maybe? I haven't checked."

Ruby shrugged, looking at the email again. Formal dress...

The elder sister frowned down at her phone. "She could have just sent a quick, 'hey, want to come to the vytal masquerade at my place?'"

Ruby wasn't listening. She was just vacantly staring into space. Formal dress. Why.

Yang shrugged. "Sounds fun. Bet the food will be good. Hopefully Blake's coming too."