Everyone Should Learn How to Have Fun
Ruby and Pyrrha walked down the street, and people made way for them. They made way for Pyrrha anyway. It was as though she had a kind of magnetism about her that caused them to part before her, like a ship ploughing through the ocean. She never had to struggle to force her way through the press of people, and neither did Ruby while she walked at Pyrrha's side.
People took pictures of Pyrrha as she walked by, and sometimes, those pictures included Ruby. It wouldn't have bothered her, the occasional flash in the eyes aside, but it did bother her that nobody seemed to care that it was, judging by the look on her face, clearly bothering Pyrrha.
After a couple of evenings spent working through the quarter-term papers – and with the promise of another evening of the same tonight and losing their Saturday morning to Professor Port's Grimm Studies practical – Sunset had agreed to let them have a break this Friday afternoon. For a definition of ‘break’ that meant that instead of working on quarter-terms, they were going to work on the mystery of silver eyes instead. Ruby had managed to beg enough spare time from Sunset to read through some more of her mother's journal entries with Yang, but they were entirely concerned with the minutia of Beacon life: classes and homework and complaints about the food. While it was fun to read about Mom going through the exact same things that Ruby and Yang were going through, and just as fun to read about the things that had been different at Beacon back in Mom and Dad's day, none of it was any help in solving the mystery that Summer Rose had so tantalisingly dangled before them.
So this afternoon, they had headed into Vale and, there, split up, Sunset taking Jaune, and Ruby going with Pyrrha. They were supposed to scour through Vale's bookshops looking for anything that might contain some information on silver eyes, like books on mythology that might reference other books which might have more information. At least, that was what Ruby thought Sunset had said, and Pyrrha seemed to understand it.
They were both armed and both dressed in their huntress outfits. Since their last trip into Vale, Ruby had taken to checking the news, and it seemed as though every few days, there was another report of a dust shop being robbed. Although the official line went that the perpetrators were unknown, Ruby was convinced that Roman Torchwick was behind it, just like on the night she and Sunset had met.
A part of her, one that she didn't really dare confess to either Sunset or Pyrrha, half hoped that they would stumble across another robbery in progress and get the chance to catch Torchwick for good this time. She didn't understand why Sunset wasn't keen; didn't she want to be a hero?
A scroll flashed in Ruby's face as someone took a picture of Pyrrha. Ruby blinked rapidly as green blobs floated in front of her eyes.
"Is this bothering you?" Pyrrha asked softly. "We could find a more… obscure route, if you'd like."
Ruby snorted. "Pfft. No, it's fine, really."
"Oh," Pyrrha said. "I see."
Ruby had the distinct impression that she had just said the wrong thing. "Uh… unless you want to take a different route?"
Pyrrha didn't break her stride, but Ruby got the sense that she was hesitating nonetheless. "I… I would certainly like to, but I'm afraid I don't know this city well enough to be sure of finding our way through the less travelled streets."
"Me neither," Ruby admitted. "I haven't actually been to Vale very often."
"Ah, I see," Pyrrha said. "May I ask you what it's like, living… not outside the kingdoms, but on the fringes of their reach and authority?"
Ruby shrugged. "There are grimm around, if that's what you mean. You have to be a little bit more careful than you do here. But I didn't mind. I always had Yang to watch over me, even when I was little. And… it was nice. Forests, open spaces. You can walk a little way in any direction from our house, and before very long, you'll come to some place where you can forget that there are any other people around, or in the whole world. It's so quiet; it's just you and the wildlife. There are rabbits living not far from home, and Zwei – that's our dog - chases them every chance he gets. It was really nice. Really, really nice. Here in Vale… I don't think there's anywhere quite the same."
"No," Pyrrha agreed. "I get the impression that there are no truly wild places in Vale proper. There are some open spaces - parks, that sort of thing - but they're all carefully cultivated, curated; any wildness that you might see there is just an illusion skilfully created by land management."
"Was it not like that where you grew up?"
"I grew up in the heart of Mistral," Pyrrha said. "It is… not a city exactly like this one. Aesthetically… a little more pleasing. The whole city is built around the highest peak in a series of mountains, a shining city on a hill set amidst peaks and troughs of verdant green. The mountains around are covered with grass, and in the valleys, there are farms and grazing fields stretching out in all directions, but in Mistral itself… all the buildings are white; they cover the slopes so that when you approach from a distance, it appears that they are rising like marble out of the mountain itself. I remember, when I was returning home from one of my tournaments, approaching Mistral by airship, everything coming into view more clearly the closer I got to home: the commercial and residential districts nestling at the foot of the mountain, and then the houses becoming larger and larger the higher up you climb, mansions belonging to old and wealthy families, until you come to the very peak, the pinnacle of the mountain and the great palace that sits atop it. It's used by the Council now, of course, but still a sight to behold, like a second peak erected atop the first, built astride a waterfall that flows down the mountain through the heart of the city. In a lot of ways, it is the heart of the city, and its life blood."
"It sounds beautiful."
"It is," Pyrrha agreed. "The white of man's creation and the green of nature blended together in perfect harmony. When the dawn light strikes…" She stopped, and a smile flitted across her face. "You should come and see it one day. I mean, if you'd like." Her eyes brightened. "In fact, you should all come, for Spring Break. I'll talk to my mother; I'm sure she won't object. We'll take an airship and fly through the clouds, and when they part before us, you'll see the whole of Mistral spread out before you, rising up to touch the sky. The view from a train is less impressive, but perhaps a little more imposing."
Ruby smiled. "I'd like that," she said, and not only because it made Pyrrha look so happy to hear it, but because she had made her home sound so beautiful that Ruby genuinely hoped to see it one day, and with her friend too. "You sound as if you really like it there."
"Mistral is my home," Pyrrha said. "I will fight for all of humanity, but Mistral will always have a claim upon my heart."
"Why did you leave?" Ruby asked. "I mean, you don't have to tell me, but… you seem to like it there so much that I wondered why you didn't go to Haven."
Pyrrha glanced down at the pavement over which they walked. "Mistral is a beautiful place, but I thought that a change of scenery might do me a little good." She fell silent, and they walked on in that way for a little while, with the sounds of the street ebbing and flowing around them as their shoes tapped upon the concrete slabs. Pyrrha gestured to a nearby bench, overlooking a small park where a few children were running under the supervision of their parents. "Would you mind if we sat down for a moment?"
"Uh, no, not at all," Ruby said.
The two of them sat down, and for a moment, neither of them said anything as the sounds of children playing and dogs barking reached their ears. A drone flew overhead, passing through the sky above them with a buzzing sound.
It was not the first drone that Ruby had noticed since they got into Vale today. "Have you noticed there seem to be a lot of drones this afternoon?"
"Yes, I had," Pyrrha said. "Perhaps the police are using them to keep an eye out for any more dust shop robberies."
"Perhaps," Ruby murmured and hoped that it was enough to get the job done. "There's going to start to be real trouble if someone doesn't put a stop to all this soon."
Pyrrha was silent for a moment. "You have the heart of a hero, but in this… we are only children, and if we are the only ones able to act in this matter, then… woe unto Vale that untried youths should be its hope. There must be others better able to address this crisis than ourselves."
"I hope so," Ruby replied. "But why should that mean that we shouldn't do anything?"
"Because we don't yet know what we ought to do," Pyrrha answered. "As capable as you are… there is a reason we must attend the Academy before we can become huntresses."
"I guess," Ruby muttered, not entirely convinced by this. She was distracted by noticing an ice cream cart not far away.
"Would you like some ice cream?"
"Hmm?" Pyrrha murmured.
"Ice cream," Ruby repeated, pointing at the cart.
"Um," Pyrrha hesitated, before her face brightened a little. "Alright. Let me just get out my-"
"Oh, no, I wasn't trying to-"
"I really don't mind-"
"No, it's fine, I can-"
"It will be my treat."
"You don't have to-"
It took a few minutes of this back and forth before they realised how stupid it was to sit there arguing over who would pay for a couple of ice cream cones, and both of them burst out laughing at the silliness of it.
"Shall we each just pay for ourselves?" Pyrrha suggested.
"That's probably the only way we'll agree on something," Ruby agreed.
Pyrrha got a simple two scoops of vanilla, while Ruby got one scoop each of chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla with a chocolate flake, strawberry sauce and a covering of multi-coloured sprinkles. Fortunately, nobody had taken their bench while they were away, and they were both able to return to it with their ice creams. Ruby began to devour hers greedily - and a little messily - while Pyrrha licked delicately at hers.
"So," Ruby said as she ate. "What did you want to talk about?"
Pyrrha produced a tissue from out of her sleeve and dabbed delicately at her ice cream stained lips. "I…" she looked troubled, her brow furrowed and her mouth set in a sort of frown. "I envy you, Ruby. I know that isn't very good of me, but… it's the truth. I envy that you have… such an open heart. It draws people towards you. It makes it easy for them to like you. I suppose I envy your ability to make friends so easily."
"I don't really make friends as easily as that," Ruby said as she felt her cheeks burn up a little.
"You do it far more easily than I do," Pyrrha replied. "And that is what I wanted to talk to you about. I understand that you want to learn more about your mother and your past - I would never discourage you from that - but this… I want to be sure that you understand what it might mean to go further than that. To go from understanding what it meant for your mother to be a silver-eyed warrior, if that is indeed the term, to seeking to become one yourself."
Ruby blinked. "You… you don't think I should do it? I mean, we still don't know what 'it' is or whether I could do… whatever 'it' is. But, if I could do it, whatever it is, then you don't think that I should?"
"I think that it isn't my choice to make," Pyrrha clarified. "Nor is it Sunset's. We cannot choose your destiny on your behalf, Ruby. And we shouldn't try. But you should see where the path leads before you set your feet upon it."
"I don't understand," Ruby said quietly. "Mom's power, the power of the silver eyes, she used it to destroy a whole bunch of grimm just by… just by looking at them, maybe. The hero in that storybook defeated a dragon that no one else could stand up to and saved an entire kingdom." She paused, and again, the question niggled at the back of her mind that if the power of the silver eyes was all that, if her mother had been all that, then why hadn't she come home? Had the power of the silver eyes grown in the telling, or had Mom in all her strength come up against some power mightier still? "If I can do that, if I can have that power then… don't I have to take it?" Mom had seen it so, judging by her early diary entries; if she had wanted a brief interlude of normalcy at Beacon, then she had nevertheless been prepared to devote the rest of her life to the struggle against the grimm.
Pyrrha looked away and gazed out across the park where the carefree children played. "Look at them," she murmured, as the wind rustled her long ponytail. "Do you think they realise that they are living in a fortress of humanity? A fortress under siege by incomprehensible evil?"
"Probably not," Ruby ventured. "And to be honest, I don't think that they should know that." She had found that out when her mother didn't come home and her Dad had sunk into a mire of grief. She wished she hadn't had to find out so early.
"No, you're quite right," Pyrrha said. "And many of them, most of them by far, will probably grow up never quite realising that. And yet, some of them may have the potential to become great huntsmen and huntresses, potential that they will never realise. They could risk their lives to defend humanity, but they never will, and there is no shame in that. To take upon one's own shoulders the burden of defending the world is a great weight… but it is a weight that must be freely chosen; it can never be imposed by others. Or at least, I don't think that it should."
"Sunset isn't imposing anything on me, if that's what you think."
"I know," Pyrrha said. "But I don't believe that Sunset understands… she sees a weapon, perhaps a very powerful one - and I admit that we have need of powerful weapons - but I want you to understand what it might cost you to follow this path to the end. You read your mother's diary entry; you know what she was afraid of once she revealed her power to others."
Ruby nodded. "She was afraid that they wouldn't see her as a person anymore."
"When you allow yourself to be placed upon a pedestal," Pyrrha said, "you lose all connection to the people who put you there in the first place. You may not want it, you might hate it, and you probably will, but… it will happen. Is that what you want, Ruby? Is that really the destiny you wish for yourself?"
Ruby tried to imagine it and struggled because her mind itself revolted against the very notion. She tried to imagine losing connection with Jaune, tried to imagine Yang holding her in such a state of awe that she ceased to see her as a little sister any more. She tried to imagine not being able to joke around with her friends, share hopes and fears, share everything that mattered. She tried to imagine it, and as hard as she might try, she couldn't. Even if she imagined everyone else in her life fading away into a fog of disconnectedness or falling down at her feet worshipping her silver eyes, her imagination always supplied Yang right beside her, ready to give her a noogie and embarrass her in front of everybody else while she wore that big-sister grin of hers.
She wouldn't ever have it any other way.
"No," she said. "That's not what I want. But I don't see that it has to be either."
"You may not be given a choice," Pyrrha said softly.
"We always have a choice," Ruby replied, "and it's never too late to make new choices. I can choose to find out about my mom, I can choose to find out whether I have the same power that she had, and I can choose to do all that and still have all my friends right beside me when I do it: Yang, Sunset, Jaune… and you, too. Pyrrha. You might think that you don't make friends very easily, but you have three already. And I don't plan on leaving you behind, not for a pair of silver eyes or for any destiny or… or for anything."
Pyrrha smiled fondly. "That's very kind of you to say, Ruby. But… I'm afraid… when you have a gift, I speak from experience when I say that the study of it consumes you all too easily until it's all that you have. You live it, you breathe it, and you go to bed and wake up again thinking about it. Until it's all that you are, and you have nothing else."
She bowed her head and sighed.
Ruby rested her hands on her knees, and leaned forwards so that she could look up into Pyrrha's face. "Pyrrha, when was the last time that you just had fun?"
Pyrrha was silent for a moment. "If I ever did, I think it must have been when I was very small."
Ruby's expression fell for a moment as she tried to contemplate what that must have been like before a wide smile like a particularly precocious puppy spread across her face. She leapt up from the bench and held out her hand. "Pyrrha, come with me."
Pyrrha looked up. "Where?"
"Not to some bookshop," Ruby declared. "We can do that some other time. Right now, I'm going to teach you how to cut loose. Everyone should learn how to have fun!"
Pyrrha hesitated for a moment.
"Come on," Ruby urged. "Don't you trust me?"
Pyrrha nodded, and she smiled slightly as she placed one hand into Ruby's outstretched palm.
Ruby's fingers closed around Pyrrha's hand as she pulled her up off the bench and began to drag her down the street. She wasn't quite using her semblance, but she was running pretty fast and yanking Pyrrha along behind her as she pounded down the pavement in search of something specific. She passed by shops that didn't interest her and shops that would have interested her if she hadn't been on a mission right now. She was looking for… she was looking for…
"Ruby," Pyrrha said, as she picked up her own pace to partially catch up with Ruby before her arm was pulled out of its socket. "Where are we going?"
"I'll know it when I see it," Ruby replied as she pulled Pyrrha to the right. There had to be something around here somewhere. "I'm about to show you a whole new world."
Ruby might not have been using her semblance, but she was possibly blurring the edges of it just a little bit. She was certainly running fast, even allowing for dragging Pyrrha - who was running herself in order to keep up - behind her. She was running so fast, in fact, that when a girl with orange hair ambled into the street right in front of her, there was no way that she could slow down in time.
"Look out!" Ruby yelled.