Chapter One So Ruby Blabs

Another day, another story from the Adventures of Peter A. Port. Ty sighed, folding his arms on the desk before setting his cheek in the crook of his elbow. He spared a glance at his watch and his brows furrowed. And it's gonna be a long one.

His gray eyes went on patrol around the room for something that would hold his interests over the drawn-out ramblings of Professor Port. Ty respected the portly man, the wizened huntsman's memoirs had sent countless young children to their dreams over the years; Ty included. But the difference between the reading of Port's escapades in a book and hearing them straight from the horse's mouth was a thing of presentation and coherence. Port's recounts on paper were tightly edited by a surprising number of ghostwriters to make the stories more interesting and—frankly—more exciting. The professor was an incredible teacher and practitioner of his craft, but he was more of a "here's a thing!" sort of storyteller, he went in deep with saying exactly how he acquired his contract or how it was he tracked his prey to its decrepit dwellings. To hear him talk it was mostly the initial hunt that spurred him and the actual action was an afterthought.

He was less like Robert E. Howard and more like William Golding in that regard.

Minus the cliff side coloration fetish. Ty chuckled quietly to himself.

Not for the first time that day he pondered and reevaluated his class scheduling. Why was he even taking this class? The rest of his team tested out of Port's Grimm Studies after the first week. Yet here Ty was, sitting alone in a class that effectively served as a refresher course while his teammates were off doing whatever for a free period. He was considering asking to be excused when out of the corner of his eye Ty caught a flash of honey-colored locks in the light from the windows in the row in front of him. He grinned wickedly.

Bingo.

"Yang!" Ty whispered, frowning when she didn't respond.

With a scowl, Ty dug through the assorted documents splayed out on his section of the lecture desk in search of something that would catch Yang's attention. After a few moments, a few longer than he probably needed, Ty settled on a crumpled piece of scrap paper from one of his notebooks. Ty did his best to smooth out the crumpled bit of scratch pad, scribbled out a greeting to the blonde brawler, and waited until Port was facing away from his end of the classroom before he aimed and tossed the folded note. Arching it so that it bounced off of Yang's crown and landed just in front of her.

He just managed to catch the surprised, "What the—?" before Yang turned around with a perturbed smirk. Ty winked and popped his brows twice before motioning to unfold the paper before he settled sat back in his chair.

While Yang was scribbling something down Ty absently pulled on his collar. Christ, it was hot. When was it that the students were allowed to switch over to the Summer uniforms? If the heat kept rising like it was then there was a very good chance that Ty would swap his suits out and find that there were permanent sweat stains that— WHACK!

Ty gave a girlish yelp when the refolded note struck him in the face. His knees bumped up against the underside of his desk and his hand snapped up to cover where the offending object had struck and glared at Yang as she mouthed, "Sorry!" with an embarrassed and apologetic smile.

"Master Boreale?" Professor Port called out. The venerable man's tone made Ty wince. "Is there something the matter?"

Ty snapped his attention to the professor and quickly shook his head. "Uh, no, Professor! I was—uh—startled by a fly landing on my face!"

The aging instructor hummed and raised an eyebrow but after a moment he returned to his tale with a boisterous, "As I was saying!"

Ty sighed relief and unfolded the paper, quickly scanning what the blonde brawler wrote.

Hey Goldilocks. You busy?

Ty! What's up? :)

Ty tapped his pen on the desk and started his reply.

The usual: trying to stay conscious through Port's latest yarn. What's this one supposed to be about again?

Ty chuckled to himself and tucked the paper into Yang's hair, sitting back with a satisfied smile as he watched her fumble through her thick hair for the piece of paper with a groan and scowl. The petty but satisfying revenge prank earned Ty a curious look from Ruby and a raised eyebrow from Blake. Ty touched his finger to the side of his nose and winked at the two girls. Blake rolled her eyes and went back to taking down notes in her textbook while Ruby cocked her head to the side. Ty watched for Yang's reaction when she had successfully freed the note from her mane. It was all of two seconds that her purple eyes glanced over what he wrote before setting the note on the desk to write.

Ferravores in Guyles I think. I lost track a while ago.

Yang folded the note and flipped it behind her when Port about faced and started for the other side of the lecture room. Ty replied immediately.

I hear ya :) Great arm, by the way. Does Roger Clemens know you nabbed it from him?

Secreted by Yang and slipped back to Ty.

No, I don't think he even noticed.

Ty snorted quietly. How's Weiss feeling? Any better?

Back to Yang.

She's got a bit of her strength back. Still gets dizzy when she moves too fast. Doc Brunswick says it'll be a few more days before the swelling goes down.

Yuck. Sinus infections are nothing to Schneeze at.

Ty smiled broadly when he caught Yang's cut-off laugh. Oh-ho! Well played!

I try.

Ready to suck knuckles next match?

Ty snorted and wrote quickly. You keep assuming you'll win. It'll make victory all the sweeter.

Try not to get Tyed down by your ego, slick.

The rest of class went on like that. Ty and Yang covertly and creatively passing the note to and fro while Port moved from one story and part of his lecture to the next. They earned more than a few amused glances from Ruby and an equal number of guffaws from Blake. Class ended and everyone packed up their books and papers so they could go about their day, and Ty made out ahead of most everyone. A bonus for having less junk sprawled on his desk and therefore less to pack away. He tucked the crumbled correspondence into his back pocket as he exited the room, a satisfied smile on his flushed face.

Aside from Ruby, Ty had never entrusted anyone with the knowledge of his crush and adoration for Beacon's resident golden haired pugilist.

Admittedly Ty hadn't actively sought Ruby out to confide in. As a matter of fact, she had more or less figured it out herself. For a girl so young Ruby had a remarkable amount of insight. It wasn't too much of a shock to him though, the scarlet sniper was dense, but Ruby knew a pattern when she saw one. Ty and Yang fought at least once every day for the past eight weeks since the year began, only to get beat by her over and over again. In Ty's defense, though, he and Yang were more or less on the same level, and he was always getting better. Hell, their most recent match ended in an exhausted draw.

Ty hadn't exactly kept his admiration for the blonde brawler exclusive to Goldwitch's class. Ruby had counted a large number of times that she had seen Ty looking at Yang, and how he was looking at the older sister. Too many times than Ty would ever admit to. He appreciated that Ruby had been discrete when she outright asked if, and why, Ty had feelings for her older sister. She had knocked Crescent Rose's barrel out of alignment sparring one day, which meant she had to disassemble, measure, correct, and reassemble the sniper-rifle-cross-scythe, and pump rounds down at Beacon's student firing range to re-zero it. Pyrrha, expert marksmanship bone of her mamy, many fortes, had stepped up and offered Ruby her help, but the younger redhead politely declined so she could "hang with Ty for a bit and nerd about guns a lot," in her own words. Everyone had a good laugh at that.

They had been halfway through the first box of ammunition when Ruby dropped the Crush Bomb and Ty stammered his way through several short-lived denials. Ruby assured him that they were friends enough that he could confide in her some of his secrets. Of course, she had said it with the biggest doe-eyes Ty had ever seen in his life, but he relented eventually.

"I don't know...How do I say it? Sure, she's kicked my ass from here to Browepont but...I can't help admire her." Ty had said, his face so flushed red it almost hurt. "She inspires me, Ruby. To do better. To be better. Everything she does is so incredible, she shines like the stars on a clear night. Sometimes she shines so brightly that I have to look away."

Ruby had let out one of the longest "Aws" Ty had ever heard from a girl her size. Defensively he derided it as sappy nonsense. Ruby insisted it was sweet. Ty had his doubts nonetheless.

"'She inspires me'," he huffed and shook his head. "Yeah total sap."

"Who inspires you?"

A hand landed on Ty's shoulder and he jumped in surprise. He spun around to yell at whoever had snuck up him only to be nose-to-nose with Yang, grinning from one ear to the next mere inches from Ty's face. He dropped his books and leaped back with a hand clamped over his gaping mouth before the tapestry of obscenities roared out. Yang crossed her arms as she watched him catch his breath with a wry smirk.

"Yang!" He heaved and clutched at his chest. "For—For Christ's sake! Don't sneak up on me like that, dammit! You damn near gave me a heart attack!"

"Ah-huh," she tutted, clearly amused with herself. An eyebrow rose up while her trademark grin swept across her face. "Who inspires you?"

Ty blinked, his mouth soundlessly opening and closing. Seconds dilated as he stormed up a good excuse. "Well, heh, um… You see I...I, uh—" Ty desperately glanced around for a distraction to either break the sudden conversation or get Yang to forget about it long enough to get away. His gunmetal eyes landed on a flowing red hood a few feet away.

"Ruby!" Ty tugged her over and slung an arm over her shoulders. "How'd class go for you, Munchkin?"

It was a low move. Ty knew she hated being called that, but as he glanced back and forth at her and Yang and her he hoped she would get the idea. And then, something short of brilliance happened.

She grinned at him and said, "Hey Yang, what's going on?"

"Hey, sis! Tyrus here was just telling me how inspiring I am!" Yang smiled at Ruby. Mischief twinkled in the older sister's eyes as she sent a playful wink in Ty's direction.

Ruby raised an eyebrow and glanced at the young Hunter. A smile of her own growing on her pale face.

Ty managed to squeak out, "Ruby—" but the damage was done.

"Well, it's about time! Jeez! I was starting to wonder when he'd finally spit his crush on you out. So when's the date?"

It took a moment for the Boreale scion to register what Ruby said. When the words clicked Ty's jaw dropped through the floor and landed somewhere in the middle circles of Hell, only for some kindly denizen of the Inferno kick it back up and reconnected it with the rest of his head.

Ty felt the color drain from his face. He flickered his eyes to Yang, who was looking right at him with her own lavender eyes equally as wide and cheeks flushed. Ruby stood there a moment and processed the situation, a rotating hourglass spinning in place above her head, and immediately tensed up when she finally realized what she had just done. Ruby took a deep breath and a flurry of apologies burst from her mouth over and over.

All the while Ty stared at Yang in horror.

"I, uh...I u-um, I'm just g-gonna..." Ty stepped backward, stumbling over his dropped books and stopped after catching his balance and averted his eyes to the floor. His face felt like it was on fire.

"Ty!" Yang called after him but Ty was already halfway down the hall. "Ty, wait!"

"Oh man!" Ruby's hands clasped against her face in horror of what she just did. "Ohmanohmanohmanohman! I messed up really bad! Like, really, really, really bad! Total violation of Guy Code! I-I didn't know! I thought that Ty told you that he has a crush on you and I just up blurted out that you inspire him and asked when your date was and—!"

Tears welled up in Ruby's eyes and burst out into a fountain. "I'm the worst friend ever!"

Yang grabbed her sister and gave her a shake. "Ruby! You're spiraling sis! Get a hold of yourself."

Ruby met her sister's eyes and closed hers. She took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, twice. "Okay. I'm done. Thanks, Yang."

"Good, now. What did you just say?" The blonde watched her sister blink, confusion washed over Ruby's face and her head tilted to one side.

"What?"

Yang sighed before she gently shook her little sister by the shoulders. "What did you say? About Ty?"

"He...That he's inspired by you?"

"Before that, Ruby!"

"H-He's crushing on you?"

Ruby watched as her sister stumbled back, her face flickering between emotions at a breakneck speed. One moment alarmed, then shocked, then overjoyed before Yang's features finally settled on panic. "I gotta find Ty! Thanks, sis!"

The young huntress barely got a word out before Yang whirled around and took off running down the hall in the direction Ty went, his forgotten books piled in her arms, long blonde hair fluttering behind her.

"Well, that was something."

Ruby jumped as Blake seemingly materialized into being beside her in the hallway.

"Blake!" The black haired girl smiled at Ruby before her amber eyes flickered in the direction her partner went running.

"You know, Yang never shuts up about him after she finishes in Goodwitch's class," Blake said. "You know, I actually caught her on Duster the other day prowling through his profile? She didn't even bat an eye, just blushed and bit her tongue at me," Blake brought the back of her hand against her temple and adopted an exaggerated impression of her teammate. "'Oh, Blake! Isn't Ty just the cutest thing? Look at him in that suit! And look at his smile! Ahh, I just want to chew on those little hamster cheeks of his. Ooh-woo!'"

Blake jerked her mouth open wide, jutted her tongue out, thrust a finger towards the back of her throat and made a gagging sound as she squeezed her eyes shut. Both of the girls giggled insatiably.

"Come on," Blake said after they had calmed down. "Let's go back to our room, I'm sure we'll hear all about it when Yang gets back. And Weiss is waiting for her homework."

Nodding, Ruby took one last look in the direction Ty and Yang went, a smile on her face as she hollered after them. "Good luck sis!"

A/N: Thus, it begins. Bit of a true story on the confession fiasco. I was caught in an encounter between my sister and current brother-in-law when I was a Junior in high school. Take a guess as to who I was supposed to be in that little anecdote.