Small Dilemma

A commission for aikaterian, who asked for Ruby and Weiss trying to reach something but being a bit too short for it (hence the double-meaning "small" joke in the title ahaha~)

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY.

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						   Small Dilemma

When she arrived at Beacon, Ruby made sure to take as many classes with her teammates and friends as possible.

For the most part, she'd gotten into lectures, labs, and lessons with her entire team, or at least one of her teammates. But every Tuesday morning, the four of them had classes without any of the others.

Whenever that morning class of Ruby's got cancelled, she liked to do a few different things.

Firstly, if the professor was able to message the class on their scrolls about the cancellation ahead of time before they could even leave their dorm rooms, Ruby would happily flop back into bed to sleep for the next few hours.

But if she ended up waking, dressing, eating breakfast, and then venturing all the way to the classroom only to find it locked and with a note on the door from the professor, she never fancied the idea of going back to bed. Not when she was already wide awake and ready for the day.

Presently, Ruby sighed as she found herself in exactly that situation, staring at a locked door and an unlit classroom beyond. This was the third time this semester this class had been cancelled, and briefly she had to wonder what her professor was doing.

"Well," she mumbled to herself. "At least this means we won't have homework! ...Until next class when assignments are doubled..."

With a sigh, she slumped back against the wall, and with no other ideas in mind, pulled out her scroll. Weiss was probably in class already, and Blake was likely on her way to her lecture as well.

But Ruby knew someone on her team who would always answer her scroll, even if she was in the middle of an exam.

She sent Yang a message to explain her dilemma:

/My class got cancelled agaaaain :( what should I do?/

She waited a moment, passing the time by playing a game on her scroll until it vibrated a moment later.

//Lucky! I wish mine got cancelled as often as yours did! But idk what to tell you. Maybe go back to the room and play with Zwei?//

After she read her sister's response, Ruby perked up. Yang made her realize that this would be the first time since Zwei had arrived that Ruby was in this predicament.

She quickly typed up a 'thank you'' message to Yang before closing her scroll and setting off back down the hallway the way she'd come.

She started at a walk, but the idea of getting to play with Zwei and have fun with him by herself instead of going to class was exciting her more and more by the minute until she was darting through the hallways, leaving rose petals fluttering behind her.

She arrived at the dorm in a matter of minutes, typed in the password to unlock it, and then burst through the door with a happy announcement.

"Zwei! Guess what? My class is cancelled so I can play with you for a while!"

The corgi had been snoozing in his favorite spot, on Blake's pillow. As soon as she saw, Ruby scurried over to scoop him up and promptly remove him.

"Ooooh what did I tell you about touching Blake's stuff, mister?"

The dog smiled innocently and licked her face. Ruby chuckled and let him down onto the floor.

"Alright, alright. I'll just throw her pillow in the laundry later. But for now, we should go celebrate my... um.. off-ness from class together! Whatddaya say, boy?"

Zwei wiggled his tail and yipped, clearly excited to get out of the room.

Ruby bent down to pat his head, then crossed the room to where they kept his toys. She picked up his favorite red ball and rolled it in her palm before spinning around and heading towards the door.

"Come on, boy! Let's go have some fun! Oh, but try to stay behind me if you can. I know some of the professors still don't approve of me taking you out since, y'know, we're not really supposed to have you here in the first place, heh."

But for whatever reason, Ozpin had allowed it, likely due to a highly-praised commentary given by Dr. Oobleck about the dog's merit on the battlefield.

Nonetheless, Ruby lifted her cloak for Zwei to scuttle underneath and let the material fall over his back. He followed behind her heels as she left the room and started down the hallway, bound for the exit so they may play outside.

But things didn't go quite as she'd planned.

It seemed that down at the end of every hallway she turned there was a professor walking about, monitoring the halls or making their way to their offices.

Ruby already felt as though she were doing something bad by not being in class right now, even though it wasn't her fault the lecture had been cancelled. But that feeling of guilt coupled with the fact that she was smuggling a dog behind her ankles made her anxious.

She kept changing their course to avoid the professors, making Zwei turn around and follow her in another direction. Once, she almost tripped on him and squeaked out loud, but before the professor could look up to see who was there, she'd hurried off with Zwei in her arms.

"Geez!" she whispered once they were safe from view. "Why are they all out and about today? I'm starting to think we should just go back to the room and ditch the idea of playing outside today, Zwei."

Zwei wiggled in her arms and whined pitifully.

"I know, I know," Ruby sighed. "But we'll play outside on the weekend instead, okay?"

Zwei seemed to approve of the idea, and he demonstrated as much by giving a bark. The sound echoed down the hallway, and Ruby scrambled to put her palm over his muzzle.

"S-Shhh!"

But in her scramble to stifle his noise, she ended up dropping his red ball. It bounced several times, getting farther and farther away by the second.

Seeing it moving, Zwei instinctively wanted to play. He barked again and struggled to get free of Ruby's grasp.

"Z-Zwei!" she hissed. "No, no! Hold on! I'll-"

But he didn't give her the chance to finish. He wrestled himself free of her grasp and tore off after the toy, swatting at it with his paws and causing it to bounce higher and roll faster, yipping all the while.

Ruby slapped a hand to her mouth to stop herself from swearing like Uncle Qrow after a night at the bar.

Instead, she hurried off after her dog, who was causing quite the commotion now. Surely it would only be a matter of seconds before someone came out of one of the classrooms to discover this ruckus.

Zwei's stubbly little tail was already disappearing around the corner, and Ruby knew she needed to catch him now.

"Zwei!" she whispered. "Get back here!"

She zipped after him as quickly as she felt she could afford inside the building, veering around the corners and skidding down the hall.

She followed the sounds of barking and skittering paws to a rather short hallway. Ruby froze dead in her tracks when she realized where they were.

"Zwei!" She half-whispered, half-shouted, now more fearful than anything.

They were at the faculty members' offices.

Meaning teachers' offices.

Ruby couldn't think of a much worse place to be on campus with her hyperactive dog on the loose.

But Zwei still didn't obey her. He was too intent on catching the ball, and he'd only stop once he had it.

He followed it to one wall and then the other, until he finally went without touching it for long enough to let it stop bouncing. Instead it rolled... rolled... rolled...

Right into one of the slightly-ajar doors.

Ruby felt the life wheeze out of her as Zwei followed it inside the office.

"Ooohh, Weiss is gonna kill me!"

But she had no choice now.

Ruby rushed into the room behind her dog, making sure to leave the door open just a crack behind her. She didn't want to risk it locking on its own, because then she and Zwei would have no way of getting out until the professor this office belonged to came back.

She whipped around, casting her gaze about, skimming the large desk piled high with neat papers, the organized book shelves, the important-looking plaques and trophies on the wall...

And Zwei was like a miniature tornado. He chased that ball all around the floor, hitting it with his paws enough times to get it bouncing again.

Ruby shrieked as it headed for one of the trophies, closing her eyes as it neared. But it just barely missed, hitting the wall instead before dropping back down.

Ruby had seen enough. She was in enough trouble already.

With a stomp of her foot and a deep, stern voice, she called out to Zwei in a demanding tone that gave him no choice but to listen.

"Zwei Rose-Xiao Long!"

She'd only ever used his full name a handful of times in her life, only when he was misbehaving or too unfocused to listen. The last time she'd done it had been years ago, so to hear her say it again now...

Zwei skidded to a halt, sliding across the carpet on his bottom and very nearly bumping into one of the book shelves. Ears drooping, he slowly turned around to face his master, even though the red ball kept bouncing.

With her arms crossed, Ruby glared disapprovingly down at him.

"Zwei! You've been a very bad boy! Do you know how many times I called you and told you to stop? No treats for a week! We are gonna be in soooo much..."

She trailed off as her eyes caught sight of the ball, still bouncing. She forgot how to breathe as the last word slipped out.

"Trouble..."

The ball had somehow found its way up onto one of the highest shelves on the wall. It bumped against a book – thankfully, not hard enough to knock it over and cause a domino effect – but not enough to bounce back down to the floor.

It rolled to a stop there, on the very edge of the shelf, teetering just an inch away from the fall. But there it stayed without coming down.

Ruby felt her knees growing weak.

"Oh, man..."

She waited for a moment, her eyes trained on the ball, begging – praying – for it to shift just a little bit and come back down. But it never did.

Zwei whined and kneaded his paws on the carpet. Ruby gulped.

"We're dead."

Especially now that she knew whose office this was. She'd caught sight of the black plaque on the desk where little golden letters spelled it out:

Professor Glynda Goodwitch

Ruby could essentially feel her spirit leaving her body.

This was bad. This was so bad.

She couldn't just leave the ball up there like that. First of all, it was plain evidence that she'd been in here unauthorized, and second of all Zwei was crying so pitifully it was making her eyes water.

"Okay, okay!" she whispered. "Don't worry, boy. I'll get it. I'll think of something..."

And she needed to do it quickly.

She could already assess that the shelf was far too high up for her to reach on her own. She looked around for a chair, but the only one in sight was a rolling one, and she didn't trust it to bear her weight. She could already see herself slipping off, bumping into the shelves on the way down, breaking all kinds of important things...

She'd get detention until she was a senior.

Shaking her head, she tried to think of something else. She scooped up Zwei and held him up as high as she could, hoping he'd be able to paw the ball down.

"Careful..." she exhaled.

But Zwei couldn't reach it either. There were a good five or so inches between him and the shelf, frustratingly close, but devastatingly far. He whined again, and Ruby sighed as she put him down.

"D-Don't worry. I'll think of something," she whispered again.

She knew she'd have a bit of time to figure this out. Professor Goodwitch was teaching a class right now, and she was sure of that, so she wouldn't be back at her office for almost another half hour.

Unless she needed to come back earlier for something. And of course there was always the possibility that one of the other professors might hear Ruby and Zwei inside the office, considering the door was still ajar.

Ruby glanced around the room once again, trying to discern if there was anything she could use to potentially poke the ball down, like a rolled-up poster. Professor Goodwitch's riding crop might've even worked, but Ruby knew the woman never went anywhere without it.

She scoured the room, nervous with jitters in knowing someone could walk in any second now. There was a sense of dread hanging over her constantly, and she reminded herself to tiptoe as though the floor were made of eggshells.

For several minutes, she looked around with Zwei to see if there was anything she could use to dislodge the ball, but came up empty-handed. She sighed, and Zwei whined again.

"Alright..." she mumbled, pulling out her scroll. "Time for Plan B."

She couldn't call Yang. Her sister would probably just laugh at her and tell Ruby she was on her own. And she knew Blake had an exam today, so there was no hope in the Faunus girl even answering her scroll at all.

There was only one person she could rely on.

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Weiss had been in the middle of some very rigorous note-taking in Doctor Oobleck's lecture class.

Her wrist always got sore before long, and she'd have to resort to transferring her pen into her right hand to try and scribble things down until her left wasn't numb with ache anymore.

She'd been doing well this morning, attentively taking down just about everything he said. It was a little sloppy, but she always re-typed her notes later on to make everything neat.

It was halfway through the doctor's lecture about Altas' joint military, school, and political system of government when Weiss felt her scroll buzz in her pocket. It made her jolt in surprise; she knew all of her teammates were supposed to be in class right now, and she'd told them only to message her if there was an emergency.

She hoped this was just a fluke, an accidental message.

Telling herself that was the case, she ignored her scroll and continued writing.

But a few seconds later, another message came in, then another and another, until the influx of vibrations was beginning to irritate her stomach.

With a groan of exasperation, Weiss dropped her pen and pulled out her scroll, something she never did during class. She kept it low beneath the table in an effort to conceal it, feeling like some kind of criminal for doing so, even though half her classmates did this sort of thing daily.

She swiped the screen and opened her messages, seeing they were all from Ruby.

Weiss felt something tighten in her chest as she saw her partner had frantically sent her about ten messages within the past minute.

With one last glance at Doctor Oobleck's back, Weiss opened them to read:

/Weiss!/
/Weiss!/
/Are you there?/
/Weiss please I need your help!/
/I need you to come here!/
/Pleeeease answer!/

Instantly, part of her grew concerned, until the other part realized Ruby couldn't have been in that much trouble if she had the time to type and send so many messages.

She tapped over her keypad and sent one back:

//You dolt! What are you doing? Aren't you in class?//

Her partner replied with speed to match her semblance:

/I was supposed to be but it got cancelled and now something happened and I needhelppleasecomehelpme Weiss!/

The heiress was conflicted. The way Ruby was typing made her sound very desperate indeed. But Weiss wasn't going to walk out of a lecture for the first time in her life just to meet Ruby and discover the issue was that she couldn't find her cookie box. If this was something she could resolve without physically being there, she'd do just that.

//What is it? What do you need?//

Another second, and she glanced up at Oobleck who was addressing another section of the class. Her scroll buzzed again and she looked down.

/You Weiss! I need your help pleasepleasepleapslepleapslewase!/

The heiress heaved a sigh. Considering the topic Doctor Oobleck was discussing now was one she already knew everything there was to know about, she decided she'd be able to afford missing a few minutes. Plus, it'd give her hand a chance to rest.

She tapped her message back to Ruby:

//Fine. Where are you?//

She'd been expecting an answer like "In the dorm room!" or "Outside in the courtyard!" or "I locked myself in the bathroom by the cafeteria by accident!"

But it was none of those things.

Ruby's reply was simple:

/Room 369/

Weiss nearly fell out of her seat.

Thankfully, she slapped a palm over her mouth in time to stifle her horrified gasp, but that didn't stop her heart from leaping up into her throat.

All of the classrooms numbering from 1 to 299 were lecture and lab classrooms.

But everything 300 and higher were for administration offices only.

She didn't need to see any more than that.

She snapped her scroll shut and shot her hand up to get the Doctor's attention. He saw her hand and grinned.

"Ah, yes, Miss Schnee! Always something of value to add to my classes! Go ahead."

"I-I'm sorry, Dr. Oobleck," she said meekly. "I'm not feeling very well. May I please be excused?" It wasn't a lie, either. Ruby's predicament had Weiss' stomach twisting in an awful knot.

The man frowned, likely seeing how pale she'd become.

"Yes, yes, my dear girl! You may go immediately! Would you like me to assign an escort to help you to the infirmary?"

"That's alright, sir," she wheezed, leaving her books and notes behind as she made her way to the aisle. "I'll be fine. Thank you..."

And with that she whipped around and hurried out through the doors.

---------------

Ruby waited anxiously, growing more and more worried by the second.

There were only about fifteen minutes left now before the current lecture classes would end, and maybe only about twenty before Professor Goodwitch would return. She hopped from one foot to the other, scooping up Zwei and squeezing him as she mumbled into his fur.

Weiss hadn't replied to her last text. She was probably mad at her.

But that was the sole reason as to why Ruby had texted her above anyone else.

She knew Weiss would be so mad that she'd run all the way here just to yell at Ruby, and then the leader would beg and plead until Weiss helped her.

She had faith that Weiss was coming.

"Please let her be coming..."

She buried her face in Zwei's back and prayed, listening.

It wasn't long before she heard footsteps.

Ruby froze, quickly ducking behind the door to press herself against the wall, covering Zwei's mouth. But the person was definitely running, much too quickly for it to be a teacher.

Ruby stepped away from the wall and was about to call out to her, but Weiss beat her to it.

She stormed through the door as quietly as was humanly possible and shot a furious glare deep into Ruby's eyes. With a voice of dripping vehemence, she hissed a bombardment of questions.

"Ruby Rose! What in the world do you think you're doing here? Why do you have the dog? Do you even know whose office this is? Do you have any idea how much trouble we'll be in if we get caught in here?!"

Ruby let Zwei jump to the floor as she clasped her hands together and bowed her head in repentance.

"I know, I know!" she whispered. "I'm sorry, Weiss! It's just that my class got cancelled so I thought I'd go outside and play with Zwei but we lost his ballie and it bounced down the hallway and this door was open and it rolled in and somehow he managed to bounce it all the way up there and I don't know what to do and I'm sorry I dragged you into it too I j-just-"

She started to sniffle, hiccuping pitifully as she turned her watery silver eyes up at Weiss.

The heiress' heart twanged at the sight of her, and she realized Ruby was just as nervous about all of this as she was.

With a sigh, Weiss tried to calm herself down as much as possible given this situation. She inhaled slowly, then exhaled, trying to let the anger go with it.

"Alright, you dolt. Don't cry..." She pulled her partner into a soft hug to let her know she wasn't angry now that she understood everything.

Ruby whimpered and hugged her back, nuzzling into her collar.

"S-Sorry..."

"Don't be. Let's just get out of here as quickly as possible."

"B-But..." Ruby pulled away and sniffled, then pointed up to the bookshelf. "Zwei's ballie is still up there. I couldn't get it down. And if we leave it, then Professor Goodwitch will know we were here!"

Weiss followed her gaze and flinched. It was rather high up.

With a glance over her shoulder to make sure there was no one outside, the heiress exhaled another shaky sigh.

"And why did you call me of all people to help you? I needed to leave Dr. Oobleck's class early!"

Ruby whimpered like Zwei did when he'd lost the ball.

"Well, I knew you'd be upset enough to come find me..."

Weiss scowled. Ruby knew her too well.

Her partner went on apologetically.

"I'm really sorry, Weiss! I know you hate missing class, I just-"

"I get it. You needed help with this. But why not call Blake or Yang? I think they'd be of more help here than I ever could."

Ruby tilted her head to one side.

"Whadda you mean?"

"You dolt!" Weiss hissed. "We're the same height! If you couldn't get the ball down, what makes you think I can?"

Ruby's shoulders slumped.

"B-But, well, you're a little taller than me..."

"Perhaps an inch, but that won't make much of a difference here..." She assessed the height of the shelf again and let out yet another sigh. "I swear, if we get caught-"

"I know, you'll hang me upside down by a glyph and I won't be allowed to eat cookies for a week!"

"A month," Weiss snapped. "Never before have I ever been in such a dunderheaded situation. I've heard what becomes of students who sneak around in restricted areas, Ruby. It isn't pretty."

"I knooow!" she sobbed. "But let's stop talking and thinking about that and just try to get the ball, please!"

Weiss realized she was right. They were both scared enough already. They didn't need to think of the 'what ifs' when they hadn't been discovered yet.

Weiss flashed another panicked look behind herself at the door before glancing at the clock on the far wall.

"Alright, we've got ten minutes until the current lecture classes end, but I'm not going to take that risk. We're out of here in eight minutes, no arguments."

"E-Even if we can't get the ball?"

Weiss gave her a stern look.

"Let me put it this way. Would you rather leave the ball behind up there where she might not even notice it? Or would you rather risk having detention for the rest of the semester for being in a professor's office without permission of any kind?"

Ruby gulped and that was all the answer Weiss needed.

The heiress then looked down to Zwei, who was sitting beneath the bookshelf whining.

"Have him stand guard," Weiss suggested.

Ruby nodded.

"Go ahead, Zwei. You stand at the door. And if you see someone coming don't bark. Just run back in and let us know."

The corgi blinked up at them both before scampering off to sit at the door and stick his head out.

Weiss did her best to keep calm, as she cast her gaze about the office, refusing to move herself if she could help it. She was fine with being thrown into a hoard of Grimm without instruction; she could do that with one hand behind her back and still come out in one piece.

But to be in a professor's office without authorization, especially such a high-ranking person's...

Weiss put a hand to her chest to keep her heart from bursting out as she met Ruby's gaze.

"Alright. What have you tried so far?"

Ruby shuffled in place.

"Well I was thinking we could try to knock it down with something, but I couldn't find anything good for that. I tried lifting Zwei up, but he couldn't reach it. There's only one thing I couldn't try by myself, but now that you're here, maybe..."

"Just spit it out, Ruby." Weiss flashed another glance at the clock. Seven minutes left.

"W-Well!" Ruby stammered. "Maybe like, we could try sitting on each other's shoulders or-"

"Absolutely not."

"Y-Yeah, I figured... Um..." She looked back towards the large desk with the stacks of organized papers on them. "Um, well th-there's a chair..."

Weiss perked up instantly.

"Perfect. Bring it over here."

"B-But I would've done it myself if it was that easy! It's got wheels!"

Weiss' eyes went to the clock again. Six minutes.

"It's our best bet. Just get it!" she hissed.

Ruby squeaked and hurried across the room. She moved quickly enough that the air she disturbed ended up making a few of the papers fly up, and she shrieked softly and patted them back down.

Grabbing the rolling chair, she scurried back over to Weiss and positioned it beneath the bookshelf. Ruby looked at her partner nervously, waiting. Weiss had her arms crossed and was tapping her foot expectantly.

"Well?"

Ruby whimpered.

"What? You're gonna make me stand on it?"

"This is your fault in the first place."

"B-But you're taller!"

"Five minutes, Ruby."

"Uuu..."

Hanging her head in defeat, she shakily lifted one foot after the other onto the seat of the cushioned rolling chair. Weiss reached out with one hand to hold the chair in place and braced her other palm against Ruby's back.

"Just stand up straight!" she snapped. "Don't wobble on purpose!"

"I'm noooot!"

"Hold onto one of the shelves!"

Ruby tried reaching for a shelf, but her legs wobbled again and she missed. Squeaking, her weight shifted, and it was up to Weiss to quickly push her back up before she could fall.

The heiress struggled to keep the chair from moving, using one foot to stop one of the wheels and the other to keep herself balanced. Grunting, she pushed Ruby a bit until she was standing straight once more.

"Try again," she ordered.

Ruby did so, straining with all her might to extend her hand enough to touch one of the shelves.

But there were just too many factors working against her. She kept imagining herself falling, knocking things over, breaking things...

With tears in her eyes, she looked back down to Weiss and shook her head weakly.

"I caaaan't..."

Weiss looked at the clock again and felt her heart leap.

"Fine, just get down."

She kept her hand on Ruby's back and guided her down. Ruby was all too eager to crouch and hop off, back onto solid ground.

"Never mind, Weiss. Let's just go..."

Dejectedly, Ruby made for the door. Weiss flashed out her hand to grab her partner's wrist.

"Is that the kind of attitude a leader should be having in such a situation? You're just going to give up?" She bore her gaze sternly into Ruby's. Her partner bit her lip and sniffed.

Weiss softened her expression a bit, and her voice along with it. "We've still got three minutes."

Ruby swallowed and wiped her eyes, then smiled.

"Yeah!"

She followed Weiss back to the chair, which they repositioned beneath the designated bookshelf. This time they switched roles, Ruby holding the chair in place as Weiss stepped onto the chair.

She had much better poise than Ruby and only swayed a little bit. Even so, Ruby spotted her, bracing one hand against the small of her back and the other at her waist. She could feel Weiss trembling, but she knew it was less for fear of falling and more for fear of getting caught.

Weiss leaned forward a bit, grabbing a nearby shelf to support herself. Ruby chewed the inside of her cheek nervously.

"Careful!"

Weiss gave a grunt to show she'd heard. She reached up for the red ball peeking out just barely over the edge of the higher shelf. She stretched her fingers out to grab that shelf, then crept them forward across the wood.

She was so anxious she almost forgot to breathe, and took a deep breath to steel herself. Weiss strained onto her tiptoes, gripping the bookshelves so tightly her knuckles turned bone-white, arms shaking.

Ruby held her breath as she supported Weiss' trembling waist, fighting to keep the chair from rolling beneath her partner's weight by stopping it with her foot.

Weiss' arm was aching as she reached for the toy.

"Just a bit further..." she wheezed.

Ruby gave her a slight push. Weiss' fingernails scraped the ball, knocking against it ever so slightly-

And then the world came crashing down. Quite literally.

All at once, Zwei scampered back into the room with a warning bark, which startled Ruby. She squeaked and her foot was displaced. The chair rolled, Weiss' weight shifted, there was a scream-

And then all was loud thudding and moaning as Weiss fell, Ruby only just barely managing to grab her around the waist. They both crashed to the ground in a heap of limbs and hair and ruffled clothing.

Zwei yipped nervously, his warning that someone was coming towards the room. He skidded to a terrified halt beside his owner and whimpered.

Ruby was still moaning, crushed by Weiss' weight. The heiress had fallen at an odd angle and now lay horizontally across Ruby's stomach. Weiss was holding her head and groaning in pain, curling up on herself.

Ruby pulled herself out from underneath her partner, nursing a pain in her lower back with one hand and using the other to tap Weiss' shoulder.

"Owwie... Weiss, aah, are you okay?"

Her partner hissed in pain as she pushed herself up off the floor with Ruby's help.

"Yes. Just... give me a minute..." She was clearly winded from the fall, panting heavily in an effort to get her breath back.

Ruby rubbed Weiss' back for her and shook her own head to clear it. She looked up at the shelf and felt her heart drop into the pit of her stomach. The ball was still up there.

"We've got no choice. We've gotta leave. We can-"

"What is going on here?"

Ruby froze mid-sentence as a familiar voice sounded behind her. Her jaw hung open dumbly as a horrible fear shot through her.

Weiss had heard the voice too, and it only made her breathlessness worse. The blood drained from her face and her eyes went wide. She looked like she was about to pass out. Or cry. Or have a heart attack. Or all three.

Ruby followed her partner's petrified gaze and turned around, looking up at none other than Glynda Goodwitch.

They'd been caught.

The owner of the office surveyed the room through narrowed eyes from behind her glasses, and Ruby couldn't help but notice the crop at her hip.

As the reality slammed them like an oncoming train, Weiss swayed and fell limply against Ruby's side. But the leader refused to let things end this way.

"P-Professor Goodwitch!" she cried. "I-It was my fault! Don't punish Weiss, please! She was only trying to help me because I called her here because I lost Zwei's toy ball and it ended up bouncing up to the top shelf but it was my fault! You can give me detention until the end of the semester or until forever, but please don't punish her!"

She squeezed her eyes shut and clasped her hands together in front of her as though in prayer. Or as though she was fully prepared to be handcuffed and dragged off to be thrown into prison.

She cringed there on the floor with Weiss half conscious from pain and fear beside her, awaiting her fate.

Glynda looked down on the two girls and the dog, more puzzled than upset.

"While I'm curious as to why you two are in my office unauthorized rather than in your classes, I'm not one to pass judgement without first hearing the entire story. Now, Miss Rose, Miss Schnee. Why don't you explain to me in detail what's going on here? Slowly, please."

Ruby sniffled all the while as she explained what had happened, while Weiss tried to regain her breath and composure on one side of her, and Zwei hid behind Ruby's other side.

Glynda looked about the office as Ruby explained things, noticing the out-of-place chair right away. When she looked a bit higher, she could indeed see the red ball Ruby had mentioned, teetering at the edge of a shelf.

Ruby finished up her panicked discourse with more begging.

"S-So anyways, that's what happened. Please don't punish Weiss. She was just trying to help me, Professor!"

Glynda truly had to stop herself from chuckling now that she'd heard the explanation for all of this. Both girls and the dog looked absolutely miserable, and she knew that was punishment enough.

"Now girls," she gently. "Don't you worry. There's no need for punishment. While I would've liked for you to have waited until I got back and explain all of this to me, I also understand why you would've liked to try and do this without my knowing. But since I'm here now and you've told me nothing but the honest truth, I'll let you both off with a warning."

She extracted her crop and gave a wave. The ruffled papers on the desk settled back into place as the chair rolled back to its spot.

And lastly, the red ball was lifted into the air and descended before landing lightly in Ruby's lap.

The girl wiped her face and looked up with dripping eyes.

"Y-You mean... you're not gonna expel us or give us detention...?"

"Would you like me to?"

"No! N-Not really!" she squeaked. "We're really sorry, Professor!"

Weiss was still too petrified and stunned to speak, so she merely dipped her head.

Glynda put her crop back into place at her hip.

"No need for apologies. No harm no foul, as they say. It's not as though either of you were skipping classes. Yours was cancelled, Miss Rose, and therefore you were permitted to do as you pleased with your time. Losing control of the ball wasn't something you could help.

"And you, Miss Weiss, have an outstanding attendance and participation record as it is. Missing the last fifteen minutes of Dr. Oobleck's class won't hurt you at all."

Weiss was finally able to mumble a response.

"Thank you..."

"Yeah!" Ruby piped. "Thank you, Professor! This won't happen again, I promise!"

"Glad to hear it," the woman said. "But just remember, you girls don't have to go about assuming you're going to be punished if something goes wrong. The other professors and I understand simple accidents like these. Don't fret so much."

She reached down and offered her hands to the girls. Ruby took one and Weiss took the other. Glynda helped them up and patted their shoulders to smooth their blazers.

"Now that was quite the nasty fall, you two. I heard it from the other end of the hallway. Are you both alright?"

Ruby glanced to Weiss first who nodded meekly, more surprised at the favorable outcome of all this than she was hurt. Ruby presented Glynda with a smile.

"Yeah! We're okay!"

"Good. Now, it's lunch hour, so off you go. All of you."

Zwei yipped happily as he followed the girls to the door. Ruby kept an arm around Weiss' back as she said goodbye to their professor.

"Thank you again, Professor Goodwitch!"

"Don't worry about it, girls. This will stay between us. Have a good day now."

And with that and a smile, she closed the door.

Ruby and Weiss stood frozen in the hallway for a moment, still baffled. Zwei waddled around their ankles, his belly growling and ready for lunch now that he had his ball back.

Ruby needed to shake her head to remind herself this was reality.

"We... we did it... we got out alive! And with no punishment!"

By now, Weiss had recovered enough to be able to flick her hard on the nose.

"Perhaps not academically!" she snapped. "But I'll have you know this incident took ten years off my life, you dolt!"

"But you survived it! We both did~!"

"Barely." Weiss heaved one last sigh as they began heading down the hallway. "I've got to go back and collect my notes..."

"Aww, let's do that after lunch, Weiss! We gotta tell Blake and Yang what happened!"

"You're going to make me relive that?"

"It ended in victory, so why not?"

Weiss rolled her eyes, partially considering forbidding her partner from eating cookies for a week or two.

But when she thought back on the event and all they'd been through in the past twenty minutes, and how the Professor had understood and let them off the hook and helped them...

She couldn't help but smile.

"Fine. Let's go."

Ruby beamed, looping her arm around Weiss' and half-skipping, half-dragging her down the hallway.

Zwei scampered behind, carrying in his mouth the red ball that had been the cause of all this.

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A/N: If you read my other fics, you'll recognize that red ball of Zwei's ;3

I hope you all enjoyed reading!

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