"Weiss, wait, I'm not mentally prepared! What if he doesn't remember me!? What if he does remember me?"
Her protests, and Weiss' counter arguments, faded away as they entered the diner. A bell jingled when the door opened, and then again when it slammed shut. In the silence that followed, Blake looked at Yang and sighed.
"What?" Yang laughed. "I think it's cute."
"You're a terrible sister."
"Hey, I cleaned her underwear and did her laundry. If she wants to repay me now with comedy, who am I to say no?"
"As I said, terrible…"
Bah, everyone was a critic. Yang laughed and pushed through the door, holding it open for her partner to come in after her, and for some mother and child to slip out. Once she was in, she took a quick look around the place. It looked nice enough, pretty spacious compared to some other places, and had plenty of room between the tables – a definite plus compared to the fast food joints she was used to. They normally liked to cram people in like sardines.
Other than that, it was light, airy and clean, with a set of well-lit glass displays forming a counter, with some cakes and other stuff on top of it. It wasn't busy, but there were two other tables occupied, so it wasn't empty. Yang watched as a lone figure with blonde hair leaned over a table and put some cups down. He said something, rubbed the back of his head, and then headed back to the counter.
He paused when he saw them.
Ruby shifted awkwardly.
"H-Hey Jaune… I'm not sure if you rem-"
"Ruby!" The man – or boy, really – smiled, and there was no mistaking the way his eyes lit up. It seemed enough for Ruby, too, for the girl broke off and rushed forward, giving him a quick hug that he returned. "It's so good to see you," he said. "I didn't know if you were ever coming back."
"I know, and I'm so sorry. I wanted to, but I said I'd show you my team, and there were some things and I kept trying to make them come and it took so long!" Ruby growled something under her breath. "But I managed it in the end, even if it took a few days. But you! You made it, you're still in business," she gestured to the other people, "and you have customers!"
"Ha ha, well, I guess even I can do some things right." He bashfully scratched his cheek. "It's thanks to your help though. The cakes were a huge hit, and people like them with the coffee too. I don't think I could have done it without your advice."
"What? Nah, I bet you could have! How has it been? Are you making enough money!?"
The two went on and on, trading questions back and forth at such speed that Yang lost the ability to follow. It wasn't just her either, for Weiss and Blake stared at them, and even the other customers seemed vaguely amused.
"Does she even remember that we're here?" Weiss asked. "What's the point of our presence at all if she was just going to ignore us?"
"Shh…" Yang held a hand over the heiress' mouth. This wasn't the time for her to ruin the magic. Not when Yang's smile couldn't be any wider. Ruby, her little sis, was actually having a conversation with someone. Not one about weapons, or dust, or killing Grimm – but an actual involved conversation, and all by herself.
That would have been a small thing to anyone else, but this wasn't just anyone. Ruby was many things, including a genius, sweet girl and a brave fighter – but a conversationalist wouldn't have made a list of the top ten thousand traits. Dad and Uncle Qrow had to hear about this. Sure, they wouldn't believe her, but they had to know.
"Hey Ruby," she interrupted, hiding her grin. "Isn't this the part where you're supposed to introduce us? Or, you know, remember that we exist in the first place?"
The look on Ruby's face was priceless. First confused, then aghast – before it turned an incredible shade of red as she realised not only what she'd forgotten to do, but how everyone in the café was now staring at her. That, at least, confirmed that her sister hadn't been abducted and replaced by aliens while she wasn't looking.
Still, Ruby being sociable, and with someone who wasn'ta huntsman, and didn't have a crazy weapon?
She had to look into this.
/-/
Ruby breathed a sigh of relief once they were all sat down, and the other customers had stopped looking at her like she was some kind of bizarre creature they'd never seen before. What, she'd just been excited to see her friend. Was that so weird?
"So, this is your Beacon team, huh?" Jaune asked, handing out some menus. "It's nice to meet you all. I'm Jaune Arc."
"Blake Belladonna."
"Weiss Schnee." Weiss took a menu and paused, then seemed almost irritated when he didn't respond to her name. Ruby tried to convey her pleas for mercy and calm, trying to show it all in the way she twisted her face. Weiss looked to her and sighed. "Ruby, do you need the toilet or something? You look ridiculous."
Ugh, Weiss was so useless!
"And I'm Yang Xiao-Long, older sister of this little munchkin." Yang said, grinning up at him. "Hope she didn't cause you any trouble~"
"Trouble…?" Jaune looked to Yang and then to Ruby, who was rapidly shaking her head as she tried to convince him to lie with all his might. It was just a black eye and he'd already healed. Lie, damn it! "No, she didn't cause me any trouble at all."
Yes!
She knew there was a reason he was her friend.
"How did someone like you become friends with her, anyway?" Weiss asked.
"Someone like me…?"
"I meant no offence, only that Ruby is a huntress-in-training, and you're a civilian. It's not as though you'd both frequent the same places, and I doubt very much you met at a weapons convention."
Ruby shot a little glare towards Weiss, one which the heiress caught, but which it was clear she didn't fully understand. She shot back her own, one that seemed to ask what it was she'd done to earn such ire. Ruby sighed, but wasn't able to explain. Luckily, Jaune didn't seem too upset at being called a civilian, even after he'd failed his Beacon entrance exam.
"I met her here. Ruby came in when I wasn't fully open. I… left the door sign saying open."
"She barged in, didn't she?" Weiss asked.
"N-No." he lied.
"She totally did," Yang sighed, catching it easily. "Rubes, you need to pay more attention."
Her cheeks flushed as everyone stared at her, Weiss and Yang with exasperation and Blake with barely hidden amusement. "W-Well maybe I wouldn't have if a certain someone hadn't abandoned me in the middle of Vale," she whined. "Oh yeah, and that same certain someone was busy getting in a bar fight!"
"You got in a bar fight?" Weiss asked Yang, eyebrow raised. "Somehow, that doesn't surprise me as much as I feel it should. That's kind of disappointing."
"Ha, yeah…" Yang looked up towards the ceiling and smiled. "It was great."
Ruby sighed and met Jaune's eyes. She rolled her shoulders and nodded towards her sister with a vaguely humiliated expression, and he nodded back understandingly. Sisters… what could you do about them? They existed to embarrass you. At least Jaune understood her.