A Spellbound Gem (a RWBY fanfiction)

Chapter 6: Not Another Fire

"She was so powerful!! I didn't realize that Beacon Professors were human weapons!!" Ruby said in amazement, her eyes sparkling in thought over their early lessons.

Weiss smiled slightly to herself at her partner's excitement. "She was pretty wonderful, wasn't she? Hopefully her class will be as entertaining as seeing Mr Winchester get knocked down."

"What was that, bitch?!"

A massive figure cut off the pair, his hand landing on the slim shoulder of the Schnee.

"You wanna say that to my face?" Cardin growled, practically pressing his forehead against the smaller woman as he glared daggers into her. "You think you can talk trash like that without me giving my thoughts on it?"

"Hey, lay off!" Ruby shouted before a pair of boys stepped in front of her. "She didn't do anything to you!"

"I-I wasn't talking trash as you call it..." Weiss stuttered, standing tall and meeting his eyes firmly. "I said what I saw. I-I said what I felt. There's nothing wrong with that..."

"Nothing wrong, huh?" The boy pushed. "Then why are you acting to scared?"

There was a quick snap of echoing words before Cardin fell back, one hand clutching his throat as if he was searching for words.

"Hey, are you ok, dude?" One of the boys walking with him asked, stepping forwards before falling face first into the floor, shoes tied together. "The hell is this?!"

"Maybe she's acting scared..." Yang began as she walked into view, wand out and twirling between her fingers. "Because she's being picked on by such a big asshole."

Cardin tried to snap some remark, but again began to choke, a hand going to cover his mouth as something climbed up his throat.

"Yeah, we may want to leave, this is gonna be super unpleasant." Yang laughed as she threw an arm around both Ruby and Weiss.

The pair let Yang lead them around until they found themselves in the cafeteria and at a table occupied by Blake, a boy with short blond hair, and the girl from all those Pumpkin Pete's ads.

"I made friends!" The tall blonde bombshell happily told her sister and the random girl she had kidnapped with Ruby. "You know Blake."

The dark haired girl smiled at the pair, book in hand. "Hey there."

"That's Jaune, he's a part time student." She explained, gesturing to the boy sitting by the redhead.

He waved, chuckling awkwardly as the poor guy couldn't think of anything to say.

Yang pointed to the last girl at the table, smirking half to herself. "And the mighty Pyrrha Nikos of cereal brand fame."

"You know, I have done other things besides those ads." She put in, smiling as a light laugh came from her lips. "My mother thought it would be a good way to pay for school."

"Obviously it worked." Ruby joked as she took a seat, eyes turning to Jaune. "How do you go here part time?"

"I work here whenever I'm not taking classes." He explained simply. "I get free room and board, and I can take a couple of simple classes every semester to build up credits."

The girl in red raised a brow. "Wait, how many years have you been going here?"

"Umm... Kinda embarrassing I guess, but I've been going here for four years, since I was fourteen." The blond chuckled. "Technically I just started my second year. This is the first year I'm taking more than one class."

"You've been working since you were fourteen?" Weiss questioned, a concerned frown forming on her face.

"Well, when you're part of such a big family, you've gotta be ready to make some sacrifices." He said simply. "I ran away from home because I wanted to become a wizard and I knew that I'd never get a scholarship to Beacon with my grades. I'd have work for it. The headmaster cut me a deal and gave me everything he could without giving a free ride."

Ruby was still in slight amazement at the story, eyes wide as she listened. "Wow! That must take a lot of bravery."

Weiss in contrast didn't see anything strong about leaving a family that loved him just because they didn't have money. She knew a lot about money and the people that had it. The girl looked down and almost felt jealousy at Ruby's innocence.

But as she looked down, she saw the girl's hand sitting there and thought about her conversation with herself the day before.

Why the hell not?

Weiss gently set her hand over Ruby's, flinching in shock as the younger girl wrapped the two together and held tightly.

A warm spark flickered to life in the Schnee's belly as she looked at Ruby, the girl talking with the others at the table as if nothing had changed. A bit of pink spotted over Weiss' cheek, but the girl simply looked away as to avoid any unwanted attention.