The coastal island of Patch was several miles off the coast of Vale. It's tropical beaches were an incredibly popular destination from all over Remnant, especially amongst teenagers.

Somewhere near the coast, but not too close, was a log-cabin in the woods. It was a cozy, comfy household that was practically begging you to enter. The home was two-stories and had a shred-metal roof that was red and dull. There was a shed nearby that contained some boxes as well as a motorcycle that belonged to the eldest daughter of the houses owner.

Sometimes Grimm would be in the forests but they never really posed much of a danger, especially with trained huntsmen around. Signal Combat School was little less than twenty minutes away from both the beach and the Xiao-Long household in the woods.

Summertime had come to the denizens of Patch. All across the island, students from regular schools and Signal both were finally free from a long year of study and training. Several students were making their way down to the beachside early in the morning. The taller one wore a two piece swimsuit that was as yellow as her golden locks of hair. They fully showed off the goods she had, much to her younger sisters embarrassment.

The younger girl herself was wearing a simple one piece suit and carried alongside her was her beloved weapon Crescent Rose. Alongside the two sisters was their canine companion, a ball of black and white fur named Zwei.

Ruby Rose and her elder sister, Yang Xiao-Long, had almost hurt themselves in order to get to the beach. Everything from sunscreen to their father fretting about boys and Yang calling up all her friends.

There was much to celebrate this summer. They, and all their friends, had been accepted into Beacon Academy and most of all, Ruby Rose had been accepted in two years earlier! All their friends were going to throw a party later on in the week for her. Ruby checked her Scroll as the pair walked to the beach, her other hand carrying the red cart that contained all the sunscreen, mats and tents needed for a day at the beach. There were several unread messages from her best friend, Weiss Schnee. They consisted of several frantic "Where are you guys?"

Ruby couldn't hold back a smirk, catching the attention of her elder. "Whatcha lookin at Rubes?" Yang said as she tried to peek a look at her scroll. "It's just Weiss" Ruby quickly said back. Yang narrowed her lilac eyes, signaling she didn't quite believe her baby sister. Oh come on! Ruby thought with a pout before sighing. Yang wouldn't relent until she had seen her scroll.

Seeing as she had nothing to hide, Ruby turned her device over to the watchful eyes of Yang Xiao-Long. Almost immediately, the blond haired girl snickered at the messages of Weiss. "Same old Ice Queen!"

Ruby joined in with her sisters laughter, giggling as the two continued to walk towards the beach. They could smell the beach and could hear the cawing of the seagulls looking for a bite to eat.

Weiss Schnee was certainly the strangest of their little friend group. Born in Atlas to the Schnee family, she was raised in such a way that was utterly foreign to the sisters on Patch. Add in her fathers treatment of Faunus workers, one would wonder at first sight why she was friends with a cat faunus as well.

In reality, Weiss was utterly unlike her father and disliked him severely. While at first she was a cold and distant person she warmed up to all three of them soon enough. She had met them three years prior when her father dragged her along to the grand opening of a Schnee beachside hotel. Yang and Ruby had been there to watch, and had ran into her on the beach (Ruby insisted she hadn't seen her dust briefcase, but no one believed her.)

While at first they had been at odds, the three girls met again. And again. And again. For some reason, Weiss Schnee couldn't stay away from the the Xiao-Long/Rose siblings. By the end of her trip in Patch, she promised to visit again. Next summer she proved just that. So a tradition was made. Every summer, Weiss came to Patch for all three months before sadly having to return to Atlas. While it wasn't perfect, it worked for now. She too had been accepted into Beacon and had chosen the academy over Atlas Academy because of Yang, Ruby and Blake.

—

The girls finally stood at walkway that led them to the beach. They stood on a raised stone floor. It went right and left lengthwise until it reached Schnee Hotel rooms. Along the stone was a small shower for both body and feet. There was also a small building called the "Luau Shack" were you could buy and plan special activities on the beach. On the less firm parts of the beach was a long volleyball net that already was seeing some use.

Finally, there was the wooden walkway that carried them all the way to the firm, cold sand. It took all of Yang's strength to stop Ruby from flying down to the water with her Semblance. "C'mon Yaaaaaaaannngggg! We're here!" She was practically bursting out of her swimwear to get to the water, and Yang frankly couldn't blame her. Laughing, her big sister spoke.

"We need to wait for Blake. She said she would meet us here." Yang looked down at Ruby, who was wearing the most adorable fake pout she had ever seen. "Alright, fine" she conceded, raising up her hands in surrender. "Go find Weiss. I'll catch up."

"Aw man, thanks Yang!" Ruby squeaked out before quite literally, blasting her way to the beach. Yang swore she could hear Weiss screaming "RUBY!" and the sound of a beach pavilion collapsing.

Yang herself leaned against one of the walls of the Luau Shack to wait for her best friend. Blake Belladona was the quiet, curious addition to their friend group. The black haired, amber eyed cat Faunus has joined their group of friends a year before Weiss did.

It was a particularity hot summer when Yang Xiao-Long had spied someone creeping through her yard at night. She watched them tiptoe all the way to the shed with her lilac eyes. At first she was curious, but when it crossed her mind that someone might be trying to steal her precious bike...

Like the bullets from Ember Cecilia, she shot out of her front door with her Semblance flaring. Her red eyes and burning hair flew to the shed and kicked the door open, ready to DESTROY the fool who dared try and steal her bike.

What she found was a black haired girl with deep amber eyes that seemed to almost glow. On her head was a pair of ears. Cat ears to be precise. A Faunus? She thought with confusion. Her red eyes turned back to lilac as the cat-ear girl got wide eyes filled with fear. She wasn't anywhere near the bike, but was hurriedly eating from a can of processed meat that Yang's father left in the shed in case of emergencies.

Her clothing looked dirty and unwashed. Her hair was unkempt. She looked like she hadn't slept for days. "Woah! Hey! I'm not gonna hurt you!"

The girl didn't seem to believe her, backing up slowly. Yang made a step towards her and the girl took a defensive posture. In an act of peace, Yang lifted her hands up and slowly stepped towards the cabinet the intruder had found the food from. An amber gaze stalked her every step, waiting for any sign of duplicity. Yang slowly took another can out and then pulled out a can opener to easily cut the top off. The black haired girl looked confused when Yang handed her a second can. "You should probably use the can opener. It's easier than trying to claw it open!"

The girl looked utterly confused, but just for a moment, she smiled. "Why don't you come inside?" Yang had motioned for her to come with. Hesitantly, the girl moved slowly to meet the blond haired girl who for some reason didn't want to hurt her. "I'll tell my dad, and he'll cook some real food for ya. You can clean your clothes too! Oh man, Ruby is gonna love this! It'll be like a sleepover!"

The girl simply nodded without a word as she walked behind Yang towards the log cabin. For a while she thought it might be some form of trap. She'd certainly seen it before. One human would feign kindness while another prepared the trap.

But the blond girl seemed trustworthy, and looked her age as well.

Plus she really had cute eyes.

"Blake" she finally croaked out. Her lips were cracked and her voice was hoarse after days without use. She stood in the yard, looking at Yang with those mystical amber eyes.

Yang heard her speak finally and snapped around. "Huh?"

"My name. That's my name."

Yang paused for a moment and put a hand on her hip as she pondered the name. She had pegged her as an Erin or a Luna. But Blake was nice too. It flowed well off the tongue. "Blake" she repeated, as if she hadn't heard clearly the first time. "I like it. Well come inside Blake! My names Yang! Yang Xiao-Long!" The blond girl made an exaggerated pose with one hand on her hip and crooked to the side with her other hand pointing upwards to the sky and then back down towards Blake.

The Faunus raised an eyebrow before laughing ever so slightly. Her small laugh broke into something larger as she barely was able to keep her breath. "What?!" Yang bemoaned as her faux confidence collapsed as fast as her embarrassing pose. Her hands swooped down to her sides as she felt incredibly humiliated. "I worked really hard on that too!"

Blake had finally managed to get a hang on her laughter. When had she last laughed so hard? She couldn't even recall. Life on the streets and surviving day by day gave precious few moments to laugh. She used to laugh with Adam, before he had died. He never failed to make her smile or laugh whenever she was down. Maybe she could learn to laugh and smile again with Yang now. She seemed nice. Blake took a breath and stepped forward with her instead, deciding to trust her new friend.

—

"Looking for someone?" Yang heard from behind her. Sneaking up to her side was a certain black haired female feline. She was wearing a black two piece, similar to Yang's. Standing together they looked like a bumblebee. In her hands was a long surfboard that was as amber as her eyes. As usual, she brought very little with her.

"Maybe I am. You haven't happened to have seen any other black haired cats around, have you?"

"Can't say that I have."

The silence went on for a second longer before the two broke down into laughter and hugged. Blake had been studying her hardest in Signal to get into Beacon with the rest of them. While she had been behind the rest of them in terms of combat training, she was at least better than their mutual friend, the adorkable blond knight, Jaune Arc.

The pair of friends made their way down the wooden walkway towards the beach, the white open pavilion of Weiss Schnee easily visible compared to everyone else. When they finally reached the cool, firm sand, they kicked their sandals off and put them next to everyone else's. "This. Is. Perfect" the brawler said simply, taking in the sounds and sights and smells of the beach. There were people playing in the water at various different places. Some had snorkels or beach balls or floaties. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves.

"YANG!" The sound of a shrill fifteen year old was quickly followed by a half tackle. Ruby Rose hugged her big sister tightly, before being pushed off by her. Weiss was laying on a a beach towel, lazily reading a book. When she heard the commotion she leaned up and lowered her sunglasses. Before she had the chance to berate Ruby for her loudness, she broke into a smile when she saw Yang and Blake. "About time you guys showed up" she huffed in that 'I'm above you' tone of voice that they had all grown to love. What she really meant with her words was 'I'm so glad to be with you guys for another summer.' That was just the way Weiss Schnee worked. Her actions, her heart, spoke louder than her words.

—

It wasn't easy at first, to get Weiss and Blake to become friends. Blake didn't like the Schnee Dust Company for what they did to Adam before he died, and Weiss didn't like Blake because of her faunus features at first. But through some quick thinking, a dorky blond knight, Yang using some underhanded tricks such as locking them in a closet, they had reached a tentative peace.

But that wasn't good enough! At the insistence of Ruby, she fully intended for all of them be BEST FRIENDS for life. So, she went through every card in the book. Tell them to meet somewhere without letting the other know, forcing them on the same teams whenever they played beach volley-ball, making Weiss pay for her ice cream (That last part was less about friendship than Ruby would actually admit, but the effort was there.) While Yang was hesitant at first results came back and showed that Blake and Weiss actually had a lot more in common than they both thought.

Both were more soft-spoken than their counter-parts, both enjoyed reading, both detested Jaques Schnee, both were attending Beacon in the fall and both really, really hated when Ruby and Yang came up with another diabolical plan to get them to become friends.

This resulted in a counter-scheme. Together, the Heiress and the Ninja worked together to get back at Yang and Ruby. Oh yes, it was evil indeed.

Two summers ago

"Rubes, does your swimsuit feel?..."

"ICKY?" Ruby finished Yang's sentence with a scream as she tried to scrape the copious amounts of sunscreen that was poured into her swimsuit off. Yang's lilac eyes nearly bulged out when she saw the goop drip out from her swimsuit too. "Yaaaaang" Ruby moaned in distress. "Get it off me!"

Yang panicked and rushed for the garden hose to try and wash Ruby off. That was her final error! With the help of a certain Signal teacher that held an avian name the two had managed to fill the hoses...

With more sunscreen. Ruby Rose was blasted in the face with a large globule of sunscreen that coated her face in slick, greasy sunscreen. "EEEIEEEEEEEEE" She screamed from the top of her lungs and triggering her semblance to fly towards the house and right into a shower.

Yang herself didn't fare much better. The hose found its newest target in the form of her. She too was bathed in the gooey substance with a shrill scream. Yang wished her Semblance was like her sisters just in those moment. As she ran towards the house, she caught a glimpse through her slime covered face. There, laughing on the ground, was Weiss Schnee and Blake Belladonna. It seemed they had put their foot down on the Rose and Xiao-Long family meddling.

—

Blake smirked at Weiss after she spoke to them. "So" the cat said as she found a spot to lay down. Unfurling her Ninja's of Love towel on the cool sand, Blake plopped herself down to follow in Weiss's footsteps and read a good book. Yang groaned as she saw her feline friend do what she always did.

"Come on guys!" Ruby bemoaned in anguish! Yang followed suit, horrified that the two girls were reading when they could be bathing in the sea!

"I'm good."

"Me too."

Ruby however was not ok with that answer from her bestie. Well, her other bestie. Her first bestie was Jaune Arc, but he was in Mistral for the summer with his long time girlfriend, Pyrrha Nikos. She, alongside Ren and Nora, usually also came to Patch for summer.

"Nope!" Ruby piped up, stepping over all the way to where Weiss was laying down. The Schnee Heiress looked up at her friend with her blue gaze. Realizing what she was about to do, Weiss shouted a brief "No don't!" Before Ruby Rose put a hand on her friends pale shoulder and said "We're going on a beach ADVENTURE!" Before activating her semblance, dragging Weiss Schnee with her.

Yang laughed as she heard Weiss's scream fade away as the white and red petals shot down the beach. Blake merely chuckled as she buried her nose back into her book. Rolling her eyes, Yang merely took her towel and tossed it by the sand next to Blake. Turning with a wave, she ran towards the water.

—

Ruby and Weiss were near the rocks at the end of the beach. It looked like a storm had hit Patch recently, with seaweed and a few logs tossed around the edges of the beach. There were several sandy hills with grasses in and between the jagged rocks. Seagulls were flying around lazily as Ruby and Weiss stepped onto the first of the grassy, sandy hills. "Wowwwww" the red haired girl exclaimed at the sight of the hills and rocks.

Weiss herself looked a bit annoyed, but she followed along with her friend. Even the Ice Queen was a bit curious as to why the rest of the beach wasn't so affected by this apparent storm. "It is quite impressive" Weiss admitted to her friend.

"Duh!" Ruby responded, jumping off the sandy hill and down towards the rocks. She was running so fast that Weiss nearly thought she was using her semblance. "Ugh! Ruby! Wait!" She called out, but it was too late. The Heiress jumped down to follow the overexcited young reaper.

"Ruby!"

—

Ruby Rose heard Weiss Schnee call for her as she went in and around the jagged rocks and up and down the grassy sand hills. Her exploration of the edge of the beach had yet to reward something of great value, but she was sure something was about to show up! She was sure of it!

Walking around another large rock, she noticed several pieces of wood strewn about the sand. They didn't look like logs tossed from the sea, but they were covered in seaweed and halfway buried within the ground. As if someone or something put them there.

"Nngggg" She suddenly heard from around one of the sandy hills. W-what? Fear immediately gripped her chest. Could it be a Grimm? All the way here? She felt more naked without Crescent Rose than if she wasn't wearing a swimsuit at all. She heard the groaning voice again but pinpointed it as... human! Or maybe Faunus!

With a spry step, she ran around the sandy hill carefully, to make sure she got the jump on whoever was there! Maybe someone is hurt! Ruby felt herself panic. She didn't know anything about first aid! Even if she did, what could she do in just a swimsuit?

She would soon find out as she turned to see... that.

—

"Guh...guh..."

Ruby Rose had seen many incredible things. She'd seen Roman Torchwick and a mysterious woman fight with Professor Goodwitch. She'd seen Yang's semblance kick boys in places she didn't even think were possible. But this... this was something else.

A quarter buried in the sand, was a man. One arm was extended towards her as the sandy around him shifted and crumbled while he tried to move. His right shoulder and part of his upper back was visible too. He was most certainly naked, barring the white sailors dixie cap with two perpendicular blue lines running around it on his head.

"..."

"Ruby Rose! Where are you? RUB-" Weiss was calling her name out before stopping in her tracks when she saw the man. His hair was... familiar in a sense. It was a mix of light blonde locks with red hair at the fringes like Ruby, though much lighter than the reaper. His lips were cracked as he kept coughing, trying to move and push himself up.

Near him, against a jagged rock, was a sword, shield and some armor that had white with gold accents. Two small arced moons were on the shield. They were very familiar...

Weiss screamed and backed away from the man. "Who the HELL IS THAT?" She immediately reached for her scroll to call Yang and Blake. Ruby however was focused on the man, who she now noticed had one blue eye and one green eye. Strange.

"Your name" he finally spoke after what appeared like an eternity. Ruby moved closer as he spoke, kneeling down to look at him, checking to see if he was wounded. Besides being buried in the dirt and the sand, he seemed to look fine, barring the strange bite marks on what appeared to be his birthmark. It was the same moon arcs, but they were intersected by a pair of arrows. Their color together was burgundy. It rested between his neck and his shoulder. That looks a lot like...

"Are you hurt?" She squeaked out, unsure what she could do to help. Her small hand reached out slowly to see if he would react. He only widened his eyes and continued talking.

"Ruby... Rose. Is that what she said? Your name..." As Ruby came closer, she nodded a yes to him. Her silver eyes then picked something up that she hadn't seen before. The buried man was buried in a pool of water?! It was mixed with the dirt and sand, forming a wetness that was all over the mans body.

"Yea.. that's my name..."

He looked confused, but less at Ruby and more towards himself. "Then who am I? What am I doing here?" Those were the last things he said before falling face down into the muddy water. Ruby could hear the bubbling of a drowning man! Rushing into action like a true huntress, Ruby Rose extended an arm to his and pulled at him, trying to tear him out of the ground. "Hold onto my arm!" She told him as she even kicked her Semblance in.

Pulling him out of the hole, Ruby confirmed that he was indeed naked, looking swiftly away from him to avoid a blush. This was when Yang and Blake conveniently decided to show up. "Ruby, I'm he-"

Uh-oh thought Ruby. This was not gonna be good. The naked man had fallen over by Ruby and was beginning to stand up. He could see in front of him, four girls in different swimsuits, in different colors. Red, white, black and yellow. The one wearing yellow had a long mane of hair that was blond and apparently, on fire? Her eyes were red too.

"YOU PERV!" Yang shouted at the naked man and was rushing at him with intent to hurt him with her fists.

"Yang! No! He's not a perv, he needs help!" Ruby shouted at her big sister to no avail. It was about to get messy, real fast. Ruby didn't even know if this guy had an aura! He didn't even know who he was apparently!

But, before Yang's fists connected with the mans face, she felt the anger disappear and her Semblance deactivate. In fact, she was becoming the opposite. Sadness began to take hold. It was as if her entire aura was inverting on itself. "Woah" she said, feeling lightheaded, and then falling down. The naked man hadn't done much it appeared, but he fell down too.

"Weiss! Call an ambulance!" Blake told the white haired Heiress, who quickly obliged. "Yes? Hello? We have two people unconscious at the edge of the beach! Please hurry!" Weiss cried out into the scroll before rushing to Ruby's side around Yang. Blake had the greatest of fear in her amber eyes as she hovered over Yang.

Nobody had seemed to notice that the naked mans armor and weapons had apparently been attracted towards him. No one noticed the little magnetic wave that had gently floated and crossed into Yang.

Ruby looked distraught, her eyes moving between the mysterious stranger and her big sister. Both were hurt and she didn't know what to do.

Oh man... Yang's gonna flip when she finds out her summer started out this way!

—

A/N: A new story for you all. It's not Skipping Through Beacon, but it serves as a test for how I want to move forward with that story! Stay tuned for more chapters of that as well as this. I can't say for certain when updates will occur, and they won't be on a schedule. But they will come. I promise you guys!

Best regards.