#rwby rarepair exchange

[howdoyoudothedew]

Rated: G

Pairing: Goopleck (Tyrian Callows/Dr. Bartholomew Oobleck)

Word Count: ~2k

A/N: @rwbyrarepairexchange for @preppy-lizity, using their coworker professor's prompt! I hope you like it, sorry I'm posting it here a bit late

"Huh, that's wrong." A voice says over Bartholomew's shoulder, making him turn around. Tyrian is staring down at his teaching notes, tail curled around his leg, frowning. "My nana didn't do that."

"Your... grandmother?" Bartholomew asks slowly.

"Yes." Tyrian blinks down at him. "Lieutenant Brunhilda?"

Bartholomew stands quickly, his chair rolling away. Tyrian sidesteps it easily. "Your grandmother was one of the best fighters in the war?"

"Who do you think taught me to fight?" Tyrian says like it should be obvious. Which it very much isn't, though it does explain a few things. Bartholomew grabs Tyrian by the shoulders, Tyrian's tail flicking out briefly in instinct before it curls around both their legs.

"Tell me everything," Bartholomew says with a seriousness and excitement only a history professor can have. Tyrian frowns suspiciously at him. It doesn't diminish Bartholomew's excitement.

"... alright," Tyrian says slowly and perches on Bartholomew's desk. Bartholomew sits back down, moving himself back to sit slightly to Tyrian's side so Tyrian's tail can wrap itself around his wrist.

Tyrian and Bartholomew's relationship was... complicated, to say the least. Tyrian was a well of forgotten history, thanks to his connection to a still little-known (though steadily growing more well-known) island. But Tyrian was also... rough. Not cruel, but not quite kind either. He's saner than he was when he first joined. Often Bartholomew doesn't know what to make of the other man, which to him, simply makes him more intriguing. Bartholomew has always liked learning.

Bartholomew watches Tyrian's combat class sometimes, watching the students run through the intense obstacle course he's still not entirely sure how Tyrian convinced Glynda to let him build. It contains fire dust, though not enough to seriously injure a student. Not after the first time it happened, seemingly to Tyrian's genuine surprise. (Tyrian had asked him to watch over the class while he took the student to Rose and Oobleck still remembers the concerned look on his face, under everything else.) Despite the dangers of the obstacle course, Bartholomew knows several students rather enjoy it. It's also a helpful, if unusual, tool.

Sometimes, Tyrian also comes to watch Bartholomew's class or perches on his desk, tail swaying calmly, while Bartholomew himself paces over every inch of his room as he plans a lesson or grades papers. Sometimes Tyrian will bring food. Or sometimes, Bartholomew brings extra for Tyrian. It always ends with them eating together, anyhow, Tyrian looking over whatever Bartholomew was half-rambling about without noticing.

"I'd still give them points for this," Tyrian says, cackling, looking at one of the answers Bartholomew marked wrong. Bartholomew looks back at it over his shoulder. What stopped the Great War? Signatures

"They're certainly not wrong," Bartholomew agrees, laughing. He adds back half a point to their grade.

Some of the other teachers have questioned Bartholomew before, when they learned he watches Tyrian's class occasionally, about the nature of the obstacle course. They haven't seen the class before, but they think it's too dangerous. It is dangerous, but so is being a huntsman. At least with the obstacle course, they're being watched carefully. Bartholomew always replies by asking how they feel about the accompanied missions, which are just as dangerous, if not more. It's kind of funny how quiet they always get, afterwards.

The first time Bartholomew sees Tyrian like he was when he first joined is also the first time Bartholomew ever sees Tyrian's semblance in action.

Semblances are a mystery of science and philosophy, with some needing to be activated and some always being active. Bartholomew's own semblance sits in a grey area, with how much he uses it. Anymore even he's not sure if it's a permantely active one or not, despite speed semblances typically needing to be activated. Tyrian's semblance is in a similar grey area, simply because of how it affects him.

It's rare for teachers to go on missions, but even combat school's take breaks and teachers are still huntsmen. Tyrian and Bartholomew go on a mission together on one such break during winter, and it goes well, until Bartholomew's own curiosity outweighs their luck. One day, Bartholomew might learn from his own mistakes and be more careful with strange things he doesn't recognize. Of course, he's in his forties and still hasn't learned it, but he's not dead yet so there's always time.

Tyrian is the reason he's not dead and still has time.

It doesn't happen immediately after he touches it, because it's only ever immediate in dramatic scenes in movies or books or plays. Instead, they're walking, keeping an eye out for grimm, when Bartholomew's knees start to buckle and his vision blurrs. He does go down slowly, though. Or at least it feels that way. But for a man who's always going at a rabbit's pace, it's not much of a surprise a fall which likely takes a few seconds feels like several minutes. Tyrian catches him before he wobbles fully into the dirt, lowering him carefully so he doesn't hurt his knees on the ground.

"What happened?" Tyrian asks, looking him over with a careful eye and an expression Bartholomew recognizes from survivors of tragedy. Bartholomew doesn't like the latter, so he chooses now to focus on the former. The hand Tyrian puts on his forehead is cooler than it should be.

"It seems I've touched the wrong strange plant," Bartholomew says with a smile forming slower than it should. For a second, Bartholomew thinks he sees Tyrian panic. His tail wraps around Bartholomew's ankle. Before Bartholomew can assure him it'll be fine, he's interrupted by a coughing fit he knows means it likely won't be. Both of them know they are too far away from anyone else and their medkit is too bare to do anything. All they can do is hope whatever Bartholomew touched isn't as bad as it is making itself seem. Except Tyrian's eyes go purple for several moments, the tail around Bartholomew's ankle twitching. When Tyrian's eyes go gold again it's with a terrible, hacking cough. And suddenly, Bartholomew's vision isn't blurry behind his glasses.

Bartholomew helps Tyrian to a hospital, Tyrian's tail wrapped around Bartholomew's waist and Tyrian himself twitching and cackling in spurts around coughing fits the entire way, while Bartholomew's brain reels. It's not until a nurse is treating Tyrian for the plant Bartholomew touched that it really hits. Whatever Tyrian's semblance is, it let him take the poison from him and helped Tyrian's body deal with it better than Bartholomew's own could. Only once the poison is out of Tyrian's system does his tail unwrap itself from Bartholomew and Tyrian stops cackling. Later, he realizes neither the cackling nor the twitching were common effects of the poison.

Later, Tyrian tells in quiet words about losing his moms to a plague no matter how much of the sickness he took from them, and Bartholomew suddenly knows exactly why Tyrian was like he was when he ended up on Beacon's doorstep, looking for a job: Cackling, twitching, with a hollow expression in his eyes.

"I'm technically a prince," Tyrian says one day, out of nowhere, making Bartholomew's eyes snap to him, followed soon after by his entire body. The only thing keeping him from running full-bodied into Tyrian is Tyrian's tail. He might be worried, if he didn't know Tyrian and if Tyrian wasn't laughing brightly at him. Not quite the unhinged cackle, but close. Bartholomew barely notices either, half bracketing Tyrian to his desk with his hands.

"What do you mean?"

Tyrian shrugs, a familiar glint in his eye, backing further onto Bartholomew's desk. "Well when a beautiful, clever woman marries a very wealthy man-" He begins and maybe if he were anyone else, this is where Bartholomew would scoff and roll his eyes, but he's not and Tyrian knows that. Just as much as Bartholomew knows Tyrian isn't anyone else. Bartholomew slowly goes between pacing and simply leaning against his desk listening as Tyrian tells him about a beautiful, clever woman who uses her smarts to gain, only to lose everything in a tragic back-and-forth. It's sad, the way Tyrian tells it, in the way greek tragedies are sad. Inevitable. Unstoppable. For every rise, there is a fall, until there is no longer a rise.

Bartholomew stares at the floor, still, and Tyrian slides to the floor, wrapping his tail around Bartholomew's wrist.

Later, much later, Bartholomew makes a dessert with the help of two archeologists he knows who specialize in Vacuo's history. He's not sure if it's a thank you for the story, or a kind of apology.

Either way, it's one of the few times Bartholomew ever sees Tyrian cry.

It's also the first time Tyrian kisses him.

Dating Tyrian Callows is a bit strange, but there are many things in Bartholomew's life which are strange, from his seemingly always active speed semblance, to his weapon, to his choice of drink actually being decaf coffee instead of caffienated.

It's funny to Bartholomew, as a history professor, but Tyrian is more open about his past than Bartholomew himself is. Bartholomew tells his own story in bits and pieces, like a jigsaw puzzle, where Tyrian is sudden revelations followed by stories, like translating a short novel after finally cracking the forgotten language.

"I worked a dig site in Vacuo one summer. Even after all the warnings, I wasn't quite prepared for the heat."

"My parents died when I was a teen. It's part of why I'm a huntsman."

"I don't actually care for cauliflower."

He can feel Tyrian picking up each piece, fitting them all together to create a single picture. It's odd, because Bartholomew doesn't think anyone's done this before, even Peter. Maybe Ozpin, but Ozpin is more enigma than even Bartholomew can handle half the time and the rest of the time he's in his office, hidden away.

There is something nice about it, though. He doesn't know why, because it's not as if he's ever felt like the amount of thought others put into his personal life or past relates at all to how much they care about him, but something about Tyrian taking the time to figure out where each part fits is nice. Bartholomew wonders if this is how fossils feel when archeologists put their skeletons back together. If, of course, the long dead creatures could feel anything at all. If they did, he thinks they would thank them simply for taking the time to learn their story.

Because that is what archeologists and historians do—they learn the stories. That is what Bartholomew has done, both consciously and subconsciously, a very large part of him always wanting to learn. And that is what Tyrian's done as well, Bartholomew realizes slowly. He has learned as much about Bartholomew as Bartholomew has learned about Tyrian, only he has learned it in chunks and pieces with careful tools in dangerous hands. And Bartholomew has been on several dig sites in several places. He's been a historian for nearly three decades. Bartholomew knows from experience; you only use the most careful brush strokes to sweep away grime to reveal the things you really love. And sometimes, with luck and patience, they reveal themselves to you, and it feels like being loved back.

The next time Tyrian shares a story, they are in the training room, and Bartholomew tells Tyrian a story of his own.

[rwbyrarepairexchange]

RWBY Rarepair Exchange 2023 Sign-Ups!

Hello and welcome to the third RWBY Rarepair Exchange!

You can sign up for the event here.

Be sure to check out this year's revised guidelines as well as this year's schedule! New this year is a drop-out deadline.

@rwbyrarepairs Thank you for your support!

[harmonylight]

A gift for @marsb1n for the Rwby Rarepair Exchange! Hope you like it

[stormage-writes]

My submission for the 2024 RWBY Rarepair Exchange for @harmonylight!!

@rwbyrarepairexchange

[stellarfoam]

Relationships: Whitley Schnee/Ruby Rose, Whitley Schnee & Neon Katt & Flynt Coal

Tags: Modern AU, Pre-Relationship, Pining, Childhood Friends, Meet-cute, College Graduation Party

Whitley is hosting his college graduation party in his apartment. He invited Weiss, of course, and shared high school friends, but he didn't expect any of them to show up. He didn't expect Ruby to make herself at home in his kitchen. He definitely didn't expect her to remember him. And he certainly didn't expect those old, inconvenient feelings to come roaring back to life. Written for RWBY Rarepair Exchange 2024! ---- Whitley makes a point to be the life of any party he hosts, and a scintillating conversation partner for any event he graces. He is charming, refined, and occasionally magnanimous. He does not take breaks, especially not for something held in his honor. Ruby does not listen to his explanation, and her grip is far stronger than expected for a person of her stature as she steers him into the kitchen.

@rwbyrarepairexchange

[theriveroflight]

if you're wondering what I'm up to...I had to make a spreadsheet for my WIPs to keep track of everything I'm participating in. yeah

this also includes some stuff that aren't fandom events. I realize SAVE a Way Out is well ahead of chapter 4 (the next chapter is chapter 6) but there were some worse errors on this before that have been corrected. so there's that (and after taking this screenshot I edited it bc I realized it was wrong). if dreams are just for dreamers is definitely coming before the end of the month. I thiiiiiiiink the next thing that I post for one of these events is going to be the RWBY Rarepair Exchange fic.

[archester-creations]

bruised circuits

My second (and final) @rwbyrarepairexchange fic for @leanmeansaltinemachine featuring robot Pyrrha, inventor Yang, injuries, and greekfire (also a little Nora!)

“Are you sure about this?”

“Of course I am! Since when are you the worried one, Nora?”

Nora shrugged her shoulders. “I figured we took turns, Yang.”

“Fair enough,” Yang said. One of them had to be responsible and, well, since it was just the two of them it could really go either way.

The two stood together, shoulder to shoulder– or, not quite shoulder to shoulder. more like shoulder to midsection–, facing Yang’s latest creation. It wasn’t finished quite yet. She wasn’t finished quite yet. But with Nora’s touch she would be. The touch of life. Frankenstein’s creature coming to fruition, Galatea having life breathed into her. Except Yang wasn’t going to abandon the robot the second it breathed. Nor was she in love or going to fall in love with it. The classical references still felt fitting, though, given the circumstances. Creator and creation. Unlife to life. Yang felt like she would vibrate out of her boots with her excitement. In her twenty six years she’d made plenty of things, but this is the first time she’d made a human being .

“Just touch her. Please?” Yang said.

Nora raised an eyebrow, though she was smiling. “I need you to know how dirty that sounds.”

Yang wiggled her eyebrows back at her with a smirk.

“Alright, fine,” Nora sighed. A token protest, Yang knew. Her friend loved her too much to deny her anything. Though it kinda went both ways. Two years ago Yang made Nora her own robot dog, a veritable monster that stood taller than Nora did while on his hind legs and could chew through steel. Nora named him Pancake and he was probably the friendliest dog Yang had ever known.

Nora stepped up to the robot and placed her hand on the robot’s arm. There was a spark of pink and it raced along the metal outside for a split second, like lightning shooting across the sky, before it disappeared into the tiny nooks and crannies that would allow it to move. A second passed. Yang held her breath. 

Green eyes opened with a blink and looked down at them. “... hello?”

Yang lit up like a forest fire. “Hiya! I’m Yang and this is Nora. You’re Pyrrha.”

“Pyrrha…?” The robot, Pyrrha, tilted her head.

“Pyrrha Nikos is your name,” Yang said. She jabbed Nora with her elbow and quietly added. “‘Cause she’s made partly with nickel.” Nora snorted.

Pyrrha smiled at them. Her eyes went all bright when she did, like Nora’s lightning was still lighting her from the inside. “Hello again.” She gave a small wave.

“Hiya,” Yang repeated, responding with her own half wave, her chest feeling warm.

She'd done it. With Nora’s magic, she'd created life.

  A troublesome life. Yang gave a huff of a laugh. Here she'd thought Ruby was a pain when they were kids. Somehow Pyrrha seemed to find more trouble than her kid sister ever did. Or maybe she attracted the trouble? It was hard to tell. She pushed her goggles back up her forehead as she put her tools back in… well, probably not their exact places, but close enough for her. After all, she was normally the only one who worked in here.

“So what happened?” Yang asked over her shoulder, feeling like that question was starting to become her catchphrase.

“It got… run over by a car,” Pyrrha said.

“You what ?” Yang turned suddenly to look over at her, though the damage was no longer there. The leg had already been replaced. In all honesty the answer shouldn’t even surprise her. The damage was clearly done by something running it over, the way the plates were smashed and the wires hung out. But it was one thing to look at it and guess. It was another thing to be told. Pyrrha wouldn’t meet her eyes. The leg Yang had replaced was hidden behind her other leg in a move Yang wasn’t sure was conscious or not. Yang took a breath.

“There was a kid, they didn't see the car,” Pyrrha said, eyes on her knees. “I did and I moved before I could think. I'm sorry, Yang.”

Yeah, Yang couldn't exactly say she wouldn't have done the same thing. And she was definitely glad Pyrrha had done it instead of doing nothing. “And the kid?”

Pyrrha looked up. “Just a small scrape from our landing, but nothing more.” One of her hands clenched against her knee in a way that would’ve had Yang worried about her metal bending, if Yang hadn’t been the one who built her. Her head tilted. “Yang?”

“I’m not going to be mad at you for saving a kid,” Yang said.

Big, green eyes blinked at her. “Really.”

“Of course not,” Yang said. “I'm glad you did. Though if you do it again, I’d like you to try not to get damaged. Or warn me so I can get the parts ready,” she joked. Pyrrha smiled. It was a pretty smile. Clearing her throat, Yang waved Pyrrha out of her workshop.

“I have a commission I need to finish,” Yang explained when Pyrrha gave her a questioning look.

  It becomes clear very quickly that Pyrrha has no self preservation. Anyone else might scoff at that. Say that she's a robot and can just be rebuilt, so it didn't matter. Yang was not anyone else.

“You're not a shield, you know,” Yang said in a way that might have been conversational, if it was anybody else. But even older she didn't do great at hiding her emotions, them coming out in thinly veiled tones when she attempted, and the bits of worry belied any casualness. Pyrrha bit her lip. If she was human it'd be bleeding. Yang instinctively reached out to gently save Pyrrha’s lip from the abuse. It was warm, even through her thick leather gloves. Though that was likely just optical illusion. Pyrrha took long enough to answer that Yang started to feel concerned. Then Pyrrha blinked a few times like she was rebooting. (Fittingly enough.)

“But I'm… not real?” Pyrrha asked.

“What?”

“I’m not real,” Pyrrha repeated, this time with out the questioning inflection. “So I can be rebuilt.”

It suddenly occurred to Yang that ‘anyone else’ might include Pyrrha . Any attempt at casualness is pretty gone from Yang’s voice after that thought. “So what?” Yang asks, and at least she is able to keep the snap from her voice. “You can be rebuilt, whoop-de-do. So can a lot of people.” She pushed up the sleeve on her right arm to show the prosthetic her uncle made for her years ago. “Just because you can be repaired doesn't make the damage any less real nor does it erase the worry I'm gonna feel fixing it. Or Nora's when she hears about it.

“And you are real, by the way. I didn't build you and Nora didn't use her magic to bring you to life for anyone to say you aren't . And that includes you. You're as real as I am,” Yang said.

Pyrrha looked at her like she was something unreal, eyes bright again like some of the lightning from Nora’s magic was still in them, just under the surface. “... But wasn’t I built to protect people?”

“To be honest with you,” Yang rubbed the back of her head, causing her ponytail to bounce. “I didn’t build you with any purpose in mind. So you can just do what you want.”

Her eyes wandered back to her lap. There was silence, for a long time. Or maybe it just felt like that to Yang. It was hard to tell sometimes. “I want to protect people,” Pyrrha eventually said.

“Alright,” Yang said.

After Yang finished fixing the circuits the bullet damaged in Pyrrha’s arm- which weren't many, thankfully- she asked Nora what she thought about teaching Pyrrha magic. Neither of them actually knew if Pyrrha even could do magic. But if she could, Nora would have to teach her. Yang didn't actually have magic.

Of course, Nora agreed. She liked the idea of the challenge and also thought Pyrrha could use something to defend herself more. Along with it, Nora actually suggested Yang teach Pyrrha boxing, which Yang agreed to.

When they told her, Pyrrha agreed to try to learn both. It didn't change the amount of danger Pyrrha found herself in. But it made Nora and Yang feel a bit better about it.

  Pyrrha doesn’t come over just when she needs repairs. For one, she actually lives with Yang. With Yang and Nora, who Yang has lived with since they graduated from their separate colleges and who Yang was still trying to get to confess to her little sister. It was an ongoing process that started Nora and Ruby’s junior year and her senior year of high school. One of these days it would work.

For a roommate, Pyrrha was quiet. Ren-quiet. It didn’t exactly balance Yang and Nora out, nor did they balance her out, but none of them really cared about that. Yang didn’t spend much time at their place. Or in her bed. Her life was busy and fast paced and didn’t leave a lot of room for sleep. She liked it that way. It's been like that since about middle school. It was comfortable. So Yang didn’t actually take many breaks, despite what people probably thought.

“You look tired,” Pyrrha half slurred, finally awake and loopy with it.

“I'm tired of you always coming to my workshop damaged,” Yang replied.

“I wasn't damaged this time,” Pyrrha said. Her inflection just barely remained pouting instead of questioning, a frown on her face and red eyebrows deeply furrowed. It was hard to tell whether or not Pyrrha was actually confused.

“You got tazed and passed out from the electricity overload,” Yang said. “Nora carried you in.”

“Noraaaa?” Pyrrha asked.

Yang nodded. “Nora found you on her way home.”

“Oh, that's nice of her,” Pyrrha said. “She's nice.” Her body swayed a little too far to one side and Yang caught her and resteaded her before she could tumble off the stool.

At least this time was funny. Pyrrha seemed like she was drunk or maybe sleep deprived, though Yang would bank on the former. It was kinda cute. Pyrrha smiled at her, small and soft even as her entire body tilted to the side again. Thankfully not as far.

“Yang,” Pyrrha said, her voice less slurred now. “I think I like you.”

“Aw, I like you too!” Yang smiled back at her.

“O- oh.” Pyrrha looked down. Somehow Yang got the feeling she'd said the wrong thing. When Pyrrha looked back up, her smile had changed. She looked a lot more sober than she had five seconds ago. The electricity must've finally reached equilibrium again.

“You should sleep,” Pyrrha said.

“I don’t need to,” Yang sighed. She pushed herself away from Pyrrha, the stool she was on wheeling backwards. A kick of her heel against the floor and she spun back to face the workbench again. What she was working on is still there, not actually started but still in the blueprint stage. Her words were a lie, she's tired and she can feel it a little more since Pyrrha mentioned it. But she's happy. To her, that's always been more important than a good sleep schedule.

Later, she wakes up with a blanket over her and she knows Pyrrha was the one who put it there. She smiles and snuggles into it a little and flicks on the small desk light so she can continue to work.

  An explosion. It was small and everything turned out okay, but that did not change that Pyrrha came to her with charred metal and shrapnel stuck painfully deep in her legs and back. A table had to be cleared so Pyrrha could lie on her stomach and Yang could get all the many pieces out. Getting sharp, jagged pieces of metal out of even bigger jagged pieces of metal that made up a friend was not fun. At least Yang was able to turn off Pyrrha’s already pretty shot pain receptors. That didn't change how careful Yang was, of course.

“I thought I said you’re not a shield,” Yang said.

“You also said I can protect people,” Pyrrha said.

Yang clicked her tongue against her teeth, because she had said that. And that agreement wasn’t something she would take back. The thought of telling anyone they couldn’t take their talents and use them or to not protect people sat bitter in her mouth and poked up and down her skin like thorns. “I did. But you could’ve found a safer way for yourself.” Already this felt like an old argument between them. It made her feel like her dad. She wondered when it would fade into more joking territory without her having to force it.

“It would’ve taken too much time,” Pyrrha said.

Yang shook her head but didn’t vocally respond. Instead she focused on Pyrrha’s wires and making sure they were all connected correctly. It wouldn’t be good if she fixed her only to miss a crossed wire. That could cause more damage than Pyrrha could on her own.

… that wasn’t fair. Pyrrha only did what she knew was right and while she was impulsive and still showed no preservation, she helped people and always made it home. Yang picked at a wire. That luck couldn’t hold forever, though. One of these days Pyrrha just throwing herself at things would bite her in the worst way. And she wouldn’t come back.

“Just please be careful,” Yang said.

“Why…” There was a shifting of Pyrrha’s shoulders and Yang knew she must've been playing with her hands. Or maybe she'd clenched them into the sides of the table. “Why are you so concerned for me? Is it because you made me?”

“I'm concerned about all my friends,” Yang said. Because that felt important to establish. Pyrrha was a friend. And an important one at that. Not that all her friends weren't important, but there was something special about Pyrrha that Yang just… hadn't figured out yet. Something that made her feel a little bit more accomplished when Pyrrha laughed at even her stupidest jokes or settled nice and warm in her when Pyrrha smiled early in the morning with the sunrise in her hair. “I don't want you to get hurt- or worse-, not because I made you but because you're one of my friends. You're important to me, Pyrrha.”

“Oh,” Pyrrha said.

“Did you… not think you were important to me?” Yang frowned.

“No!” Pyrrha was quick to reassure. Though her next words were mumbled partly into the table. “I mean… not fully? I can do a lot of good and that’s important but…”

Yang smacked the back of Pyrrha’s thigh. “But nothing. You’re not just important because you can and do do good. You’re important because you’re Pyrrha. Because you smile and you laugh and you cry. Because you are you and no one else. Because you’re my friend.”

Slowly Pyrrha lifted herself enough to look back at Yang. The green of her eyes was bright again. When she blinked, Yang saw the brightness was highlighted by a shine of tears. Yang frowned lightly and reached out to wipe under her eye, where some of them had spilled.

“I don’t know why you constantly think this is all you’re good for, but it’s not,” Yang said.

“I’m strong enough to do it, so no one else has to,” Pyrrha said quietly.

“And you help a lot of people,” Yang said.

“You help me in return,” Pyrrha said.

“I help you because I want to,” Yang said. Then she smirked and bounced her eyebrows. “Besides, no one else is cool enough to do all the stuff I can.” It got the intended reaction. Pyrrha snorted into her shoulder. Without prompting, Pyrrha moved back into a better position so Yang could finish up. It only took a few more minutes to finish her inspection of Pyrrha’s wires and other internal parts to find nothing inside had been badly injured, to her relief. If it had she would've had to put Pyrrha on what would basically be bedrest for a few days as she fixed everything and Pyrrha didn't really stay still well. They were very similar like that. All she had to do now was weld the broken pieces of her back and legs back together. She spun away from Pyrrha and the table to do just that.

“You're right, though,” Pyrrha said.

“What?” Yang asked, not looking back as she concentrated on the metal in front of her.

“You're very cool, Yang,” Pyrrha said. The piece of metal Yang had in her hand slipped just a little. Warmth flooded her chest, much more than it did when strangers told her the same. More, even, than when other friends told her that. Yang turned the welding machine on as her cheeks burned the same.

“Thanks, Pyrrha,” Yang said, instead of the joke that was on her tongue.

  Often when Pyrrha came in to be repaired, it was because she was shot. Yang did her best to make Pyrrha as sturdy as possible, but she could only do so much. All she was was an inventor. She didn’t have magic or anything else like Nora did. Though she was damn good without it. This was new. Certainly it shouldn't be as bad as being skewered by shrapnel from an explosion, but somehow it was.

“I tried to be more careful this time,” Pyrrha joked, though her smile was sincere for all that it was pained. It was almost funny how a fall affected her pain receptors when so many other things hadn’t. 

Twenty stories… Pyrrha was lucky she was a robot and lucky Yang had built her so sturdy. The reality of what could've happened had the building been just a bit taller, had Pyrrha not caught a flagpole halfway down and slowed her fall, had Yang chosen an even slightly less durable metal, seemed to choke Yang. It'd been so close. She swallowed heavily.

“I’m glad you tried,” Yang said after two tries. It didn’t come out with as much humour as Yang wanted it to. If it did at all. Pyrrha stretched her fingers toward Yang. A wire sparked in Pyrrha’s wrist, but Yang wasn’t worried about feeling any electricity when she took Pyrrha’s hand. She was wearing her gloves, anyway.

“I figured you would want me to,” Pyrrha said quietly. That got a laugh out of Yang.

“Fuck yeah I would,” Yang said.

She took extra care in fixing Pyrrha’s wires, after she turned off Pyrrha’s pain receptors. Her mind kept wandering back to what she’d been told. Twenty stories. It was hard not to think about it, with the evidence in front of her. Smashed metal, wires sticking out everywhere. A leg would need to be replaced again. Some of the metal was torn, like when a can was crushed and pieces stuck out until they were broken and jagged. Too much more damage and Yang wouldn’t be fixing Pyrrha. She’d be recreating her. The thought twisted in her stomach. It felt like she’d fallen, not Pyrrha.

“Yang…?” Pyrrha’s voice was quiet and gentle. It wasn’t even a little slurred, but the words that followed before came anyway. ‘ I think I like you .’

Oh. Yang blinked down at the mess of wires before her, that made up the nerves of Pyrrha’s arm. The arm that was attached to the hand Yang still held. That was what Pyrrha meant. Not friendship. But… She squeezed the hand in hers just a little and Pyrrha squeezed back, the wires in her wrist sparking again.

“I think I like you, too,” Yang said, without really thinking about it. The words felt true.

“You… do?” Pyrrha asked. Her eyes were wide and sparkling with that electricity again, like when Nora brought her to life. It sent a shock of relief through Yang that she hadn’t known she needed. She breathed and her lungs filled easier than they had been.

“Yeah,” Yang said.

Pyrrha smiled at her. When Pyrrha leaned in, it felt easy for Yang to simply fall into her and let her press that smile to her lips. Brightness sparked in Yang’s chest. It had nothing to do with the sparks from the exposed wires at Pyrrha’s collarbones. But it had everything to do with Pyrrha.

Apparently she’d been wrong, in the beginning, because she did fall in love with Galatea. That was okay, though. Yang could admit she was wrong sometimes. The taste and shape of Pyrrha’s smile was worth it.

[empress-s]

[Image id: Four digital drawings of Weiss and Nora from RWBY as dragons. Two are small bust sketches, and two are full body designs. Nora is pink and orange with dark blue accents; a white chest, claws, and underwing; and lightning scars. Weiss is various shades of blue and white. End id]

The dragon designs for the rarepair exchange! I got the shapes down how I liked them pretty quickly, but the colouring & patterns were giving me a lot of trouble lol. Especially with Nora. I'm still not particularly happy with her design rip </3

[greenbeany]

Hello! This is your partner from the RWBY Rarepair Exchange Assignment. I just wanted to see if there were any headcanons I should know about the characters/pairings you like. Thanks!

HELLO HIHIHI

I should really make a masterpost for this actually OKAY

Parhelion headcanons

More Parhelion headcanons

Monochrome headcanons

Jewel lizard headcanons

Nordic winter headcanons

BONUS: Diabetic!Nora headcanons 1 & 2 in case I put a Nora ship down because I honestly don't remember

If you want Headcanons for any specific ship, I'd be happy to talk nonstop about it rn, these are just the ones I already have in the closet hehe. Most of these are negotiable too so feel free to entirely ignore them. Hope this helps 💖

[rwbyrarepairexchange]

Hello there! Signups for the 2023 exchange will be opening next month, and in light of fandom happenings, I'd like to take a moment to potentially revise my current guidelines, specifically around which relationships don't count as rarepairs due to being too common.

The list currently consists of:

Whiterose (Weiss/Ruby)

Bumbleby (Blake/Yang)

Renora (Ren/Nora)

Arkos (Jaune/Pyrrha)

Fair Game (Qrow/Clover)

Nuts and Dolts (Ruby/Penny)

Rosegarden (Ruby/Oscar)

Blacksun (Blake/Sun)

Emercury (Emerald/Mercury)

This is a list I first composed two years ago after the interest check for 2021's exchange. Fandom dynamics shift over time, so "what counts as a rarepair" can also shift.

Please give me feedback if you think ships should be added to the list, or removed from the list. Link to the form is here. All feedback is appreciated. This form will close on March 30th, guidelines and this year's schedule will be released on the 31st, and signups will open April 1st!

@rwbyrarepairs

[harmonylight]

A some fluffy Helios dancing for @curiousscientistkae

[rwbyrarepairexchange]

RWBY Rarepair Exchange 2024 Sign-Ups

Hello and welcome to the fourth annual RWBY Rarepair Exchange!

You can sign up using this form here.

Be sure to check out this year's guidelines and schedule before you sign up!

Thank you @rwbyrarepairs for the support!

[rwbyrarepairexchange]

2024 Guidelines & Schedule

1. Under no circumstances are you permitted violate the Do Not Want list of your recipient. This rule is the most enforced, and breaking this will get you banned from the subsequent exchange or exchanges depending on the extent of the violation.

2. Fics must be at least 1500 words, and artwork must be complete.

"Complete" means completed to your ability; every artist has a different style, and thus this just means finished to the artist's ability. Black/white pieces are allowed if they meet standards of polish.

3. Life comes up, and you may need to drop out. Please let me know before the drop-out deadline if this winds up applying to you.

4. NSFW content is allowed. However, NSFW of characters that are minors is not allowed (e.g. Beacon arc RWBY + JNPR) and incest/pseudo-incest (e.g. Ruby/Yang & Ruby/Qrow) are not allowed. Relationships where one character is a minor and one character is a significantly older adult are also not allowed (e.g. Ruby/Ozpin). However, aging up characters is okay.

5. The following ships are not allowed due to being too common to be considered rarepairs: Whiterose (Ruby/Weiss), Bumbleby (Blake/Yang), Renora (Ren/Nora), Arkos (Jaune/Pyrrha), Fair Game (Qrow/Clover), Nuts and Dolts (Ruby/Penny), Rosegarden (Ruby/Oscar), Blacksun (Blake/Sun), Lancaster (Jaune/Ruby), and Emercury (Emerald/Mercury).

Polyamorous relationships including these are permitted, however (e.g. Blake/Yang/Sun or Jaune/Weiss/Ruby).

6. Most importantly, have fun! This is meant to unite the rarepair shipping communties and feed each of our individual desires for more content of our rarepairs.

SCHEDULE:

May 15th: Sign-ups open

June 15th: Sign-ups close

June 20th: Matches sent out

July 20th: Drop-out deadline

August 2nd: Posting day!

[rwbyrarepairexchange]

2023 Guidelines

1. Under no circumstances should you violate the Do Not Want list of your recipient.

Breaking this rule will not be tolerated, and if you do so you will be banned from the next exchange.

2. Fics must be at least 1500 words, and artwork must be complete.

"Complete" means completed to your ability; every artist has a different style, and thus this just means finished to the artist's ability. Black/white pieces are allowed if they meet standards of polish.

3. If you need to drop out at any time, please let me know before the drop-out deadline so that I can find a pinch hitter.

4. NSFW content is allowed. However, NSFW of characters that are minors is not allowed (e.g. Beacon arc RWBY + JNPR) and incest/pseudo-incest (e.g. Ruby/Yang & Ruby/Qrow) are not allowed. Relationships where one character is a minor and one character is a significantly older adult are also not allowed. However, aging up characters is okay.

5. The following ships are not allowed due to being too common to be considered rarepairs: Whiterose (Ruby/Weiss), Bumbleby (Blake/Yang), Renora (Ren/Nora), Arkos (Jaune/Pyrrha), Fair Game (Qrow/Clover), Nuts and Dolts (Ruby/Penny), Rosegarden (Ruby/Oscar), Blacksun (Blake/Sun), Lancaster (Jaune/Ruby), and Emercury (Emerald/Mercury).

New pairing added due to feedback. Keep in mind that polyships including these pairings are permitted, so Jaune/Weiss/Ruby or Blake/Yang/Sun are fine.

6. Most importantly, have fun! This is meant to unite the rarepair shipping communties and feed each of our individual desires for more content of our rarepairs.

[rwbyrarepairexchange]

Reminder that sign-ups for the RWBY Rarepair Exchange close tomorrow!

[rwbyrarepairexchange]

One day left to sign up for the RWBY Rarepair Exchange!

The sign-up form can be found here.

Please be sure to read the guidelines before signing up, and check out the schedule as well. Sign-ups will close in about 9 and a half hours.