Neptune Vasilias was having an…. iffy evening.

Just a few hours ago, he'd been hanging out with Sun when the monkey Faunus told him that they should go hang out with the Beacon girls. There was….. Ruby, Weiss, B….B...the one who Sun liked and didn't talk much, and Yang. Now, he was airborne, flying off the top of a giant mechanized Atlesian battle suit that this Roman Torchwick guy the girls talked about was piloting. Neptune and that spunky badass Yang had chased that mech suit on motorcycle across a fucking freeway. Neptune was a good shot with his rifle, but he had thought he had a good idea. When he activated his glaive and jumped onto the mech suit, it didn't affect the hunk of metal in the slightest, and promptly threw his ass off it, and Sun with him.

And now, as Neptune flew through the air like a Nevermore that didn't know how to use it's wings, only one thought crossed his mind. "How the hell is that Yang chick so badass?" It wasn't like he didn't know the answer. He'd seen how she carried herself at Junior's club, like she was totally in control of that man, like she owned the place (and from the stories he heard about when the nightclub got trashed, at this point, maybe she did.) Yang was like Neptune in most ways, she was cool, good-looking, and smart even when you wouldn't think her to be with those antics. But unlike Neptune, she didn't have to try so damn hard to be cool. She wasn't a big ass nerd on the inside. "Shit." He thought. "I should"—

Crack.

Neptune's head hit the payment and his Aura broke. In fact, his Aura was the only thing that saved him from smashing his skull open on the hard asphalt. Sun was a lot more lucky. Activating his Semblance at the last second, he landed on a nice, soft cushion of his four light-clones. He jumped off them, safe as a cat jumping off a roof, and they disappeared into a flash of light particles. Neptune wondered if Faunus could interbreed with other types, and quickly pushed the thought away.

"Well shit on a stick, Nep," Sun said, seeming half amused at his best friend's plight. "We lost 'em."

Neptune chuckled sadly as he struggled to stand, his aching joints heavily resisting him. He looked to his left to see that his weapon, Behir's Wrath, had clattered to the ground on the chipped asphalt next to him. "Now where in the fuck do you suppose we are?"

"My best guess? In some lot off of a freeway. I hope there's none of those little Rat Grimm fucks." Neptune rolled his eyes at his best friend's comment. "That's very helpful, Sun. Next time, state the obvious even more." Neptune quipped. Sun looked at him with a faked look of hurt in his eyes "Oh, I'm sorry Neppy, I'll be better next time, I promise!" Neptune rolled his eyes begrudgingly and said "You know what I could really use right now, Sun?" "Noodles?" Sun said. "Yeah." "I think I know a place. Yang'd like the name. It's pretty…. punny?" Sun said nonchalantly, looking over at Neptune.

Goddamn, why was he still friends with this kid?

Neptune and Sun sat down at A Simple Wok Noodle Bar, ordered two of the largest bowls and contemplated what to do next. As his noodle bowl arrived, Neptune asked, grabbing his chopsticks, "They're probably fine, right?" Sun didn't even look up from his noodle bowl as he replied. "Probably." Neptune thought of the four girls he had met today. They were all strong, but as it seemed, Yang especially so. He'd seen her during the food fight with Team JNPR, the way she smacked her foes with whole rotisserie chickens. And when Nora had smacked Yang through the ceiling with a watermelon-hammer, and yet she landed on her feet, like nothing was wrong.

"Do you know what Yang's Semblance is?" Neptune asked his friend.

The Monkey Boy perked up, noodles still in his mouth. "Ohh, yeah. I've only heard about it. Her whole thing is she takes in enemy's kinetic energy or something and dishes it back out twice as hard. And her eyes go scary red. Cool shit. It's… It's like the world uses her as a punching bag, and she punches right back."

"Huh."

"Why do you…. ask?" Sun said, sliding closer to Neptune.

"No reason. They're probably fine. Plus, that cat girl of yours seems pretty strong, and so does Weiss. And I don't think you wanna see Ruby mad. She seems like the type to turn into a Grim Reaper when you get her angry."

Sun thought for a moment. "Sounds about right. But dude. You and Weiss. How about it? I sense a connection."

Neptune pretended to act startled. "Whaddya mean, me and Weiss?"

"Oh, don't play dumb, dude, you were always the smart one out of us two. She's totally into you. You're… tall and all that stuff girls like. It's, like, what you try to do every damned day."

Neptune ignored the monkey boy. Weiss was cool and all, but she wasn't exactly his type. Maybe it was his perceptions about rich chicks, and how they were full of themselves, or maybe it was something else. He couldn't and didn't care enough to figure it out. He wouldn't turn her down on a date or anything, but maybe not anything necessarily long term. He watched Sun stir his noodles with his tail for a while before he changed the subject. "Shit, what are Sage and Scarlet gonna think of us? We go on a nice vacation to Vale for the Vytal Festival, and yet we're already rolled up in some criminal-underworld-terrorist-organization madness?"

Sun looked up. "Bro, I got their reactions right here." He held up his two hands from his noodle bowl, tail still wrapped around the chopsticks. He put on a strong accent quite like that of his red-haired friend, and opened and closed his hand, saying, "Well color me impressed, you nincompoops have such a penchant for blind dumbassery, don't you. Maybe that Torchwick fellow was right- you're not the brightest banana in the bunch!" Sun said, miming Scarlet's behavior. "And then Sage would grunt, say two words, and continue to stir his tea."

Neptune laughed "Sounds about right." Putting twenty Lien on the table, Neptune got up from what he considered damn good noodles, saying "Thanks. C'mon, Sunshine, let's go see if your Femme Fatale, Rose Petal, Firecracker, and Ice Queen made it back to Beacon."

Stun stared at Neptune for about five seconds.

". . . What the fuck did you just say?"

"Uhhhhhhhh…"

"They don't all need nicknames, asswad!"

"More nicknames are alway better!"

" 's too fucking many. Stop it."

"But I said one nickname, so I thought the more the better, the coolness increases at an exponential rate!"

"What the fuck does exponential mean?"

"Like exponents."

"Dude. You have problems. Do you need to talk to-"

"No."

They left.

When Neptune and Sun arrived back at Beacon, they saw Team RWBY walking outside, not even bruised from the battle they just endured. Sun walked up to Blake, saying, "Sooooooo, how'd the robot fight go? Didja get that Torchwick guy? What happened? Deets, Blake, Deets."

Blake stared at Sun with her piercing yellow eyes for a second before smiling. She always seemed kind of strange for Neptune, but Sun liked her so he'd be friendly. "Torchwick got away. He's still out there. Working with the White Fang," she said solemnly.

"Oh cheer up, Blake," Weiss replied. "I'm sure we'll find him again. Besides, we destroyed that Atlesian Mech Torchwick had captured from the military."

"How'd he even… get that mech? The White Fang doesn't exactly have friends in the Atlesian Military," Ruby asked.

"I suppose we'll never know," Yang chimed in, "But all I want is to get after that new henchmen of his." Neptune saw the fire in her eyes when she mentioned that new henchmen. "I've got a score to settle."

She walked away with that same fire, and when the rest of RWBY followed her, Neptune looked at Sun. "God, what am I gonna do for the dance?"

"Whaddya mean? You'll get a date easy peasy, bro. What does that have to do with the situation?"

"More than you think," Neptune replied.

It'd been a week since the incident with Torchwick, and a week since Neptune had had a conversation with Yang, Weiss, and their team. Neptune was sitting inside his dorm with Sun, whole Scarlet and Sage were out getting the team lunch in Vale. Hands on an X-Ray and Vav comic, Neptune read on his bed while Sun played a game with his Scroll on the holoscreen.

Suddenly, Sun looked up from his game, pausing it to turn to Neptune. "Yo, Nep. I've been thinking."

"That's unlike you, Sun. Are you feeling okay, bro?" Neptune quipped.

"No, seriously. Listen, we tell each other everything, right? So I think… you should tell me…. what you're doing for the dance."

"Wait, what?" Neptune said, startled.

Sun looked at him for a minute, confused, before his jaw dropped. "Wait, wait, wait, not like that. I'm, uh, trying to go with Blake. I'm asking her soon. What I meant to say was…. you were saying after we talked to the Beacon girls after the robot fight something about the dance. What did you mean?"

Neptune cringed. He didn't really want to admit it, but he had no choice. Sun was his best friend, and he'd grill Neptune if he didn't say something.

"I…. uh…. I don't even know if I can go, dude, I can't dance, remember? I gotta….. maintain my image!" Neptune said defensively.

"Oh, shut it." Sun replied. "Something is on your mind. You want to go, whether you dance or not. Besides, if you're just there, alone, what are you gonna do, hang out there? Talk to Blake and I, if I can get her to go? The Neptune I know wouldn't do that. So what's the deal? What's the big decision?"

Neptune looked up from his comic. "Alright, fine, bro. I can't choose if I wanna go with one girl or the other. I think you know which I'm talking about," he admitted, looking out the window into the noontime Beacon fields.

"Ohhhhh, bro, don't tell me…. you were asking about Yang at the noodle stand…. don't tell me you're into her. And Weiss. At the same time," Sun said. "Dude, you don't know either of them that much, and really, neither do I, but Yang's not exactly the…. type to go after you. As far as I can tell, she's not exactly interested in dudes besides beating them in fights. Weiss, on the other hand…."

"Well, what am I gonna do if I don't try? Just sit here and be a loner for the dance, like you said? Listen, I'll figure it out, no big deal. Cool, right?"

"Yeah, cool. Hey, I know this might hurt your pride a little bit 'cause reputation and all, but if you ever need any help…. you know who to call, amirite?

"Yeah, whatever, dude. I'll figure it out. Thanks though."

"Anytime."