Ruby’s confidence boost

Ruby gasped as the cool ocean air hit her bare skin, scrambling to snatch her top from Yang’s outstretched hand. "Yang! Give it—"

SPLASH.

A wall of water slammed into them, ripping Ruby’s top from her fingers and sending both sisters tumbling in the churning foam. Ruby flailed, saltwater stinging her eyes as the undertow dragged her deeper. When she finally broke the surface, coughing, she realized two things:

1. Yang was laughing so hard she was barely staying afloat.

2. Both their bikini tops were gone, swept away by the wave.

Ruby crossed her arms over her chest instinctively. "YANG!" "Yeah, I deserved that."

Ruby’s next scream gets cut off as another wave slapped against her back, the cold shock making her gasp. She twisted in the water, legs kicking wildly as she realized—

"Oh no. No no no—Yang!" She frantically patted the water where her bikini bottoms should have been, but all she felt was bare skin.

Yang wiped tears from her eyes, still wheezing with laughter—until she glanced down. Her grin froze. "Wait. Wait." She dunked underwater for a second, then resurfaced, eyes wide. "Ruby. My bottoms are gone too."

"You, definitely, deserve this!" Ruby hissed, cheeks burning as she angled herself away from shore.

Yang blinked, momentarily stunned—then burst into even louder laughter. "Oh come on, Rubes! Like you’ve never gone skinny-dipping before!"

Ruby splashed her frantically. "Not on purpose! And not when Weiss and Blake are right there!" She twisted in the water, scanning the shore. Weiss was still slumped against the beach towel, sunglasses askew, while Blake had her nose buried in her book.

Yang waved a dismissive hand. "Relax. If they notice, we’ll just say it’s a bold new swimsuit trend." Another wave smacked against them, sending Ruby sputtering. Yang grinned. "See? The ocean’s on our side!"

Ruby glared at her, arms still clamped over her chest as the water lapped at her waist. "This isn’t funny, Yang! What if they look over here?"

Yang wiped a strand of wet hair from her face, still smirking. "Lesson number one, Rubes—panic makes everything worse. You gotta own it." She stretched her arms overhead dramatically, completely unbothered by her own lack of swimwear.

Yang grinned, treading water effortlessly as she leaned closer to Ruby. "Look, Rubes, here’s the thing—if you freak out, Blake’ll notice for sure. But if you act like it’s no big deal? She’ll just assume we lost our suits in the waves and moved on. No drama, no teasing." She flicked a droplet at Ruby’s nose. "The emotional impact isn't there anymore, and as a bonus; people can’t **** you if you don’t really care."

Ruby hesitated, arms still locked around herself. Another small wave nudged them, making her wobble. Yang rolled her eyes and grabbed Ruby’s wrist, prying it away from her chest. "See? Own it. Like this."

The moment Yang tugged Ruby’s wrist free, another monstrous wave reared up behind them—this one even taller, curling like a predator ready to strike. Ruby barely had time to yelp before it crashed down, swallowing them whole in a churning rush of foam and salt.

The world spun—sand scraped Ruby’s back as the wave dumped her onto the shore, limbs tangled in the froth. She gasped, coughing up seawater, only to freeze when she realised two things:

1. She was sprawled on her back, completely exposed to the open sky (and, more importantly, Weiss and Blake).

2. Yang had landed face-first beside her, legs kicking in the air like an upended turtle.

Ruby’s entire body went rigid as the cold sand stuck to her bare skin. A slow, horrified breath escaped her as she caught Weiss stirring under her sunglasses—then Blake’s ears twitched, her book lowering just enough to reveal widening golden eyes.

Yang groaned, spitting out a mouthful of sand before pushing herself up onto her elbows. "Wow," she drawled, flicking wet hair out of her face with a dramatic sigh. "The universe is so funny that I forgot to laugh." "You're just mad because you got with instant karma, again!" (Ruby) "Yeah, I am."

Ruby made a strangled noise, scrambling to roll onto her stomach just as Weiss sat bolt upright, sunglasses sliding down her nose. Blake’s book slipped from her fingers entirely.

Yang’s whisper—"Remember; own it, Rubes"—was barely audible over Ruby’s frantic heartbeat. The sand clung to her skin as she squeezed her eyes shut, bracing for the inevitable shriek from Weiss or Blake’s quiet, judgmental sigh. Instead, she heard a slow, deliberate click—Weiss adjusting her sunglasses—followed by Blake clearing her throat.

"Interesting swimsuit choice," Blake deadpanned, her ears twitching as she deliberately turned a page in her book. "Yeah, just trying something out! Managed to pull into Ruby into it in the process." Yang said as stayed lay down, holding the right side of her face with her hand.

Ruby’s face burned hotter than the sand beneath her. She opened one eye to see Yang already sitting cross-legged in the surf, arms stretched behind her head like a sunbathing seal.

Ruby and Yang exchanged a glance—Yang’s smirk twitching, Ruby’s lips pressed into a thin, nervous line—before a choked, disbelieving chuckle escaped them both. The sound was barely out when a sharp click-click-click of camera shutters cut through the air.

Ruby’s head snapped up just in time to see a cluster of tourists—phones and cameras raised—gaping from the boardwalk. A man in a floral shirt lowered his zoom lens with a grin. "Now that’s a vacation photo!"

Yang, still shamelessly sprawled in the surf, wiggled her fingers in a wave. "Tag us if it goes viral, we could use the Lien that'll come from it!"

Ruby’s breath hitched—her spine prickling with dread as she spotted Cardin’s smirking face among the tourists, his phone angled directly at her. His thumb hovered over the screen, no doubt already drafting some humiliating caption. The old Ruby would’ve curled into a ball. The old Ruby would’ve begged. But Yang’s voice echoed in her skull: Own it.

Gritting her teeth, Ruby **** her trembling limbs to still.

Ruby’s fingers dug into the wet sand as she pushed herself upright—slowly, deliberately—ignoring the way her legs trembled. The saltwater dripped from her skin, the sun glaring down as she straightened to her full height. A few gasps rippled through the crowd. Cardin’s smirk faltered. Yang let out a low whistle, propping her chin on her hand. "Atta girl."

Ruby exhaled sharply through her nose, then—before she could second-guess herself—planted her hands on her hips and struck a pose. Chin up, shoulders back, as if she were modeling for a high-end photoshoot rather than standing bare under a dozen gawking lenses.

The moment Ruby struck her pose, the boardwalk erupted in a frenzy of camera flashes—dozens of shutter clicks overlapping like startled insects. Cardin’s sinister grin twisted into a look of confusion as his thumb hovered uselessly over his phone. This wasn’t the reaction he’d banked on.

Yang whooped, rolling onto her knees to clap sand-crusted hands together. "Front row seats to the Ruby Rose Confidence Tour!" she crowed, kicking up a spray of seawater for dramatic effect. Ruby decided to then did a swimsuit modelling pose; arms still to her sides but her shoulders and left knee pointed out.

A woman in a sunhat lowered her phone, blinking. "Is this… a performance art piece?" A man next to her, a man who looks like a modelling agent, just continued to take pictures with his scroll. "If it is then I think I just found my company's next star!"

Weiss, still frozen mid-sip of her iced tea, choked. She then saw Ruby do another pose; now putting her hands behind her head but still having her knee stick out.

Ruby’s defiant stance lasted exactly three more seconds before Cardin’s scroll hit the sand with a dull thud. His retreating back was rigid with frustration, shoulders hunched like a scolded child; he had lost his ****. The moment he vanished into the crowd, Ruby’s knees buckled—only for Blake’s arm to dart out, catching her elbow with surprising gentleness.

"Enough theatrics," Weiss snapped, though her voice lacked its usual bite. She’d already shrugged off her sheer cover-up, draping it around Ruby’s shoulders with such precision it might as well have been a military maneuver. The fabric was cool against Ruby’s salt-sticky skin, smelling faintly of ocean breeze and expensive sunscreen. "Well, that's certainly gonna make you quite a bit of bank; maybe a modelling career too if any one of them was a modelling agent." Yang stated as she did notice a person taking pictures of Ruby more than the rest.

The cover-up settled around Ruby’s shoulders, but instead of shrinking into it, she found herself standing a little taller—her skin still tingling from the adrenaline, the salt air sharp in her lungs. A strange, giddy warmth spread through her chest, unfamiliar but exhilarating. She’d expected shame to claw at her, but all she felt was the sun on her bare shoulders and the weight of Weiss’s stare—not judging, just… assessing.

Yang’s grin widened as she caught the shift in Ruby’s posture. "Uh-oh," she sing-songed, wading closer with a splash. "Someone’s got a taste for rebellion." "Hey, I just decided to take your advice seriously. But still; I never felt so alive before, I think I'll actually go naked the next time we go to the beach!"

Yang’s grin froze mid-cheeky-retort, her eyebrows shooting up so fast they nearly vanished into her hairline. Blake’s book slipped from her fingers again—this time landing with a soft plop in the sand—while Weiss’s grip on her iced tea tightened audibly, the plastic cup creaking under pressure.

Ruby watched the reactions unfold with a strange, bubbling satisfaction. The salt-damp cover-up fluttered around her shoulders as she squared them, tilting her chin up just enough to catch the way Blake’s ears twitched—first forward, then flat against her head—before the faunus cleared her throat. "You’re… serious."

Ruby’s grin widened, salt-crusted lips parting as she pointed at Yang with all the subtlety of a firework. “Yeah! And it was Yang who told me to ‘own it,’” she announced, voice bright with vindication. "I probably wouldn't have done it at all if it weren't for her advice!" Ruby grinned as she honestly didn't see anything wrong with that statement. Yang looks at her sister with both betrayel and fear as she doesn't know what floodgates she just unleashes on her oldest and most important sister.

The effect was instant as Blake’s golden eyes slid toward Yang with the slow, deliberate precision of a predator locking onto its prey. Weiss’s fingers twitched around her iced tea, her glare sharp enough to puncture steel.

Yang’s grin faltered, her hands coming up in surrender as Blake and Weiss turned toward her with terrifying synchronicity, her own advice had come back to haunt her. Sand crunched under Weiss’s sandals as she took one deliberate step forward, her blue eyes narrowing into ice chips. "You," she enunciated, the single word dripping with venom, "are grounded."

Yang’s laugh came out strangled. "Uh, technically we’re already on the ground—" Yang couldn't come up with anything before Blake’s tail lashed once, cutting her off. "Yang." Her voice was dangerously soft, the kind of tone that made Yang’s survival instincts finally kick in. "You ENCOURAGED this?" Blake growled as she didn't think Yang was anywhere near that stupid.

Yang’s mouth opened, then closed. A bead of seawater trickled down her temple as she floundered, fingers twitching at her sides like she was mentally grasping for an escape route. "I—uh—okay, see, in my defense," she started, voice pitching higher with each word, "it was more of a philosophical suggestion? Like, metaphorical ownership of one’s—"

Weiss’s teacup cracked.

Blake’s ears pinned back fully now, her tail rigid as a blade. "Yang." At that point; she knew what Blake and Weiss were gonna do to her and she had no one to blame but herself.

"Right! Bad timing!" Yang yelped, backpedaling so fast her heels kicked up sand and she knew she had to get outta there but Yang’s retreat was less of a strategic withdrawal and more of a full-blown tactical disaster. One second she was floundering in the sand, the next she was sprinting down the shoreline like a startled crab, limbs flailing. "I THINK I HEARD NORA CALLING!" she shrieked, voice cracking mid-lie. She just knew that she needed to escape as fast as possible.

Weiss didn’t even blink. "Oh, HELL no." Her sandals hit the sand with lethal precision, kicking up a spray of granules as she launched after Yang with the grace of a vengeance-fueled missile, Blake not too far behind.

Yang’s bare feet pounded against the wet sand, her breath coming in sharp bursts as she zigzagged away from Weiss’s wrath. Blake was already in motion—her faunus agility sending her leaping over a discarded beach towel with feline grace, her outstretched fingers just brushing the back of Yang’s tankini strap. "You don’t get to run from this!" Blake called, though the edge of laughter in her voice softened the threat.

Ruby watched them go, the giddy rush still humming under her skin. Then she noticed a group photographers—a small cluster of tourists with expensive cameras—hovered a polite distance away, their lenses pointed cautiously downward until one brave soul stepped forward. "We're just curious but, um... we heard you were doing nude pictures and we were hoping we could take some?"

Ruby falsely thought about it before removing her cover-up, revealing her nude form; making them gasp. "Sure thing, just make sure to get my good side, alright?" Ruby proudly smiled as she struck a sexy pose, and then camera's and scrolls started flashing immediately after.