A small bell chimed as team RNJR walked into the restaurant. Though they looked refreshed after staying a couple nights at the Inn, they looked down as they were lead to their table.
"I was sure that Uncle Qrow would be able to get us a meeting with Professor Lionheart today." Ruby sighed as she slumped down in her chair.
"It appears that the Professor is more occupied than Qrow initially presumed." Ren stated and sat across from Ruby. Nora joined Ren as Jaune took his seat next to Ruby.
"This doesn't make any sense. If Professor Lionheart knows what's going on why wouldn't he want to speak to Qrow?" Jaune asked irritated, crossing his arms over himself. "I mean, Qrow isn't the most charismatic person I know but-" He trailed off, glancing over at Ruby. She looked down at her lap, her bangs covering her eyes.
"I think we all just need a good meal." Nora chirped. "I know it always makes me feel better!"
"Yes, but only after you make me exhausted from cooking it." Ren commented, causing Ruby to smile slightly.
"No, because the last time I ate something you made, it looked the same coming up as it did going down." She responded back. Ruby attempted to stifle a giggle as Nora playfully stuck her tongue out at Ren.
Jaune chuckled slightly but frowned toward the end of Nora's response. He began looking around the restaurant, trying to take his mind off of his former partner. They had heard from locals that this restaurant was a popular place and the décor confirmed that. Dozens of pictures, memorabilia, and tokens of gratitude hung on the walls. As Jaune continued to glance around, he saw depictions of great artists and leaders, but his eyes fell on a picture just past Ren's head.
"Good evening everyone." A calm voice came, shaking Jaune's focus. "My name is Jay and I'll be your server today. New around here?" The young lady asked the group with a smile. She had dark or tanned skin which complemented her tightly curled black hair. She had gentle blue eyes that matched the sash around the waist of her simply grey uniform dress.
"What gave it away?" Ruby joked as she took a menu from Jay. With the weeks of travel they had completed, Team RNGR was often asked that question.
"Mistral may be big but when you work in one of the busiest spots it the city you start to know who's who." She laughed slightly as she passed out the other menus. "Would you like a menu?"
"Huh? Oh, yes please." Jaune quickly answered embarrassed. He glanced back over at the picture behind Ren as he took the menu from Jay. She followed his gaze and spotted the picture he had been so focused on moments before.
"Oh, you must be wondering who that is." Jay said with a smile. "Well, if you watch any televised fights or even commercials you've probably seen her before." Everyone looked over at the picture hanging on the wall and of the red headed girl poised in the center. "That's Ms. Nikos. More specifically, that's a picture after she won the Mistral Regional Tournament."
"Did," Jaune began, clearing his throat, "did you know her at all?" He asked.
"All of Mistral knew of Ms. Nikos!" She exclaimed. "However, I did have the pleasure of knowing her as Pyrrha." She beamed. "My family and the Nikos are very close. Pyrrha and I practically grew up sisters."
"Must have been nice." Ruby said quietly, taking another look at the picture. Pyrrha stood tall, her shield and spear in hand with a medal draped around her neck. "So you were close with Py-Ms. Nikos?" She asked.
"Well closeness is in the eye of the relationship." Jay joked. "With her skill at fighting and my family business needing help we slowly went separate ways. However Pyrrha always made sure to connect back with her family and mine. Even when she went off to Beacon she kept in touch. Her favorite thing to talk about was the new team she'd formed."
"Really?" Nora asked, eyes wide with excitement.
"Yeah, team JNPR and their leader. A boy by the name of Arc, I think." She continued, not noticing Jaune turn and look at her as she spoke. "My family instantly recognized the name from stories of the Great War. When they asked about him and what he was like Pyrrha said she believes he is just as much a leader and hero as his family line. After hearing all about them and that they were going to compete, I made sure to watch them during the Vytal Festival. My family couldn't really see why Pyrrha talked so much of them or their leader, but I thought they did great. Their leader may need more practice but that's what the Academies are for."
Ren, Nora, and Jaune looked at each other, smiles forming on their faces. Ruby placed a hand on Jaune's shoulder and smiled at him. They all looked back at the picture of Pyrrha, her kind smile returning theirs.
"Oh, well look at me, off jabbering while you must be famished!" Jay said suddenly. "I'll give you all a minute to look over the menu and if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask."
"And an order of our potato pancakes with a special request side of syrup." Jay finished, putting the plate in front of Nora. "Enjoy and I'll be back to check up on you in a little bit."
"I still don't know why you ordered those." Ren commented as he put his napkin on his lap. "How do you know if you even like them? Plus they said they usually come with applesauce, not syrup."
"I haven't had pancakes since we left from Ruby's house." Nora responded back, picking up her fork and knife. "Since they don't have regular pancakes I need to improvise!"
"Yes, improvising." Ren drew out with a bit of a sigh. "Just like the time-" He stopped before he finished his thought.
"Just like the time-" Nora began to question but then stopped too. Both she and Ren stared behind Ruby's head, their mouths slightly open.
"You are in so much trouble." A voice came from behind Ruby
Jaune and Ruby's heads whipped around to look behind them. Starring down at them was a pair of dark, reflective aviator glasses framed by golden curls. Beneath the cold gaze though was a gentle smirk with the slightest curl at the corner of her lip.
"Hey there-"
"Yang!" Ruby squealed through a cracking voice. She nearly knocked over the table as she leaped from her seat and wrapped her arms around her sister. Ruby buried her head into Yang's chest, her body shaking slightly.
"Good to see you too, baby sis." Yang smiled as she gently shoved Ruby off of her. Ruby took a step back, staring at her sister, eyes wide. A tear rolled down her cheek as Yang took her left arm and wiped it away. She then raised her right arm and took of her glasses, her purple eyes sparkling.
"Hello! Would you like a table?" Jay came up and asked Yang.
"Oh no!" Ruby quickly said, still looking at Yang. "She's with us."
"Oh, alright." Jay said with a smile. "Well I don't want you to be crowded." She said to Yang. "I'll pull up another chair for you."
"I got this." Yang said pulling over a chair for herself.
"Well, it looks like you can handle yourself." Jay laughed. "I'll get you a menu."
"Take your time." Yang called back. Ruby sat down at the new head of the table and Yang took her sister's old seat. Everyone stared at Yang in silence.
"How did you get here?" Ren asked first, the only one to regain their words.
"Bumblebee." Yang said with a grin. "How else?"
"Well, you could try walking." Nora joked.
"Oh no!" She responded as everyone laughed at her reaction. "I don't have time for that. You know I like to go fast." Yang leaned back in her seat and put her hands behind her head. Everyone grew silent again as they realized Yang's right, yellow and gray elbow.
"How did you find us?" Jaune asked, trying not to stare at her arm. The four of them nearly got lost trying to find their way around Mistral the first time they went exploring.
"I asked around." Yang began to explain. "When you're me people just love to strike up a conversation, especially when I ride in on Bumblebee. So when someone would come up to me I'd tell them I was looking for a little black haired girl wearing a long red cape. Some of them thought I was talking about Uncle Qrow when I mentioned the cape, while others had no idea. Eventually I found where you were staying and they told me they suggested this place to you."
"I guess he's more known here than we thought." Nora commented.
"Huh?" Yang asked confused.
"We ran into Uncle Qrow on our way here." Ruby said excited but then dropped her voice level, glancing around the restaurant. "But what about things back at home sis?" Ruby asked, changing the subject. "How's Dad? And Zwei?"
"As fine as they can be." Yang responded. "Both Zwei and Dad miss you a lot. But we kept each other busy working on this." Yang finished taking off her right glove and cuff, exposing more of her new metallic arm.
"Wow." Jaune said quietly as Yang showed her arm to the table.
"Great color choice Yang." Nora added, Ren holding back her hand from feeling the metal frame.
"You know it." Yang smiled back, putting her glove back on. "Yellow is my signature color. Now, what are you guys eating 'cause I'm famished!"
"So Ren," Yang began to ask as Jay set down a large bowl of their Dragon's Breath Soup in front of her, "what trouble did Nora cause after she improvised?"
"Well, it was coming up to be my 16th birthday." Ren started, taking a sip of water. "And Nora had to find a way to celebrate it."
"And so I thought I'd use confetti just like at the New Year's Celebrations that he went to when he was younger." Nora began, taking over the story. "Unfortunately I didn't have the time or money to go out and get green and pink confetti so I had to improvise. I began looking around for something that I could cut up and use for the confetti. I then found some papers on Ren's desk that he was done with and used that." Ren sighed as Nora finished her part of the story.
"I was done with the papers because that was my finished application and essay to attend Beacon Academy." Ruby and Yang burst into laughter as Ren finished talking. Jaune stared at Ren and Nora, mouth dropped open.
"Oh man, Nora." Yang chortled, wiping a tear from her eye. "How did you two manage to fix that one?"
"Well," Nora began, "we were able to tape it back together and got one of our friends who's pretty good with computers to scan the paper and reprint it as if it wasn't ripped at all. Good as new!"
"Or so we thought." Ren corrected. "When we both got our acceptance letters into Beacon, mine had an extra sentence on it. Ozpin added 'By the way, Happy Birthday' to the end of the letter. Apparently Nora had wrote Happy Birthday on the back of every piece of confetti and when we sent the new copy into Beacon, 'Happy Birthday' was printed all over the back side." Ruby and Yang laughed even harder at the second statement, with Ruby nearly falling out of her chair in the process.
As she tried to recover herself, Ruby glanced across the restaurant and made eye contact with a new customer. She was elegantly dressed with a long ponytail and carried a small suitcase and sword.
"Ruby?" She asked, almost not believing her eyes.
"Weiss." Ruby said gently, her voice cracking again. She quickly got up from her seat and walked over to her partner. They stood facing each other, neither of them speaking. "Weiss, I-" Ruby began, but Weiss cut her off as she wrapped her arms around Ruby's shoulders.
"I've missed you so much." Weiss said. Ruby wrapped her arms around Weiss' waist and held her tight.
"I've missed you too." She squeaked back. They held each other for a moment and smiled as they broke apart.
"But oh my gosh Weiss! It's so good to see you!" Ruby suddenly said, taking Weiss' arm and leading her over to the table. "How are you here? Why are you here?" She asked quickly as she pulled over another chair to the other side of the table. However, Weiss didn't sit down.
"I feel the better question is why are you all here?" Weiss asked confused. Jaune, Nora, Ren, and Yang all looked at each other and then back at Weiss.
"It's… it's a long story." Ruby responded for everyone. Weiss raised an eyebrow and shook her head.
"Well if you must know, I'm here looking for my sister." Weiss began to explain. "I had to get away from home and the only place I thought to go was Mistral where some Atlas military is stationed. If I find them, I'll be able to find Winter."
"Get away from home?" Yang asked concerned. Weiss looked over, her eyes hurt.
"Well, it's not my home anymore." She said, lifting her head. "I just need to find Winter."
"And you can join us until you do." Ruby said with big eyes.
"Yeah, we can always use you at our side." Jaune added, Nora and Ren nodding in agreement. Weiss smiled at everyone.
"I would love to." She responded, setting her things down and taking her seat at the second head of the table.
Weiss unrolled her silverware as Jay set down the restaurant's seasonal salad.
"I'm impressed." She said, looking down at the bowl in front of her. "I wasn't quite sure what to expect from here but it looks like this will be good."
"It is." Yang said, as she passed her finished soup bowl to Jay. "Much better than Beacon at least."
"Anything could be better than Beacon food after the food fight." Jaune groaned and the rest of the table laughed. "I swear the cooks gave us dirty looks after they found out what we did."
"Trust me, this is one of the best places to eat. The guys and I would go here all the time." A familiar voice said from the front door.
"Is it always so crowded here?" A female voice responded.
"Ah, the incredible Sun Wukong." Jay said. "It's been a while since I've seen you monkeying around here." The entire table turned around to see Jay talking with Sun and Blake. "Hi, I'm Jay. And you are?"
"Blake!" Ruby squealed as she beelined toward Blake, wrapping her arms and legs around her thought to be lost teammate before she could even register her name being called. "I knew you'd come back!"
"Hi Ruby." Blake said, startled at the girl who had attached herself to her. She looked over to Sun with a helpless look. Sun put his hands up with a nervous grin.
"Uh, Sun?" Jay asked, with a small smile toward Ruby. "Do you know her?
"You could say that." Sun replied as Ruby slid off of Blake and stood up.
"So would you like to sit at your usual spot for…"
"They can join us!" Ruby interrupted Jay as she beamed at Blake. Sun's face dropped and Blake's ears flattened back. Ruby quickly pulled over a new table along with two chairs for Sun and Blake to join their group.
Ruby returned to her seat next to Yang and watched for Blake to sit. Blake's eyes nervously bounce around the table from Ruby to Yang, Jaune, Wiess, Ren and finally Nora. The two seats available were either at the head of the table facing Wiess or next to Nora facing Ruby and Yang. Blake gingerly sat next to Nora and Sun took the seat next to Ruby. Everyone stared, silent.
"So Sun would you like our famous noodles for old time sake or do you want to try our daily special?" Jay asked, taking out her notepad.
"The noodles please." Sun said.
"And would you like to look over the menu?" Jay asked Blake.
"What's your special?"
"Today is the catch of the day." Jay said glancing at her notes. "Tuna." Blake nodded her head, indicating her order.
"Alright. I'll put that right in. The chefs are going to think this table has the biggest appetite in the Kingdom." Jay smiled, leaving the table again in silence.
Not a word was spoken for what seemed like eternity for the now fully reunited band. Weiss' eyes narrowed ever slightly toward Sun but softened as she glanced back at Blake and then returned to her food. Jaune took a sip of his drink and stared at the table. Ren sat quiet but uncomfortably because of the tension. Ruby smiled at Blake but it slowly weakened. Yang put her sun glasses back on her face and crossed her arms over herself. Nora awkwardly looked around the table.
"Your ears are really cute!" She quickly said, pointing her finger toward the top of Blake's head.
"Nora." Ren sighed, covering his eyes. Nora closed her mouth and brought her hand back down into her lap. She glanced back over, having wanted to touch the soft hair that covered Blake's ears.
"Thanks, Nora." Blake responded, unconsciously touching them with her hand.
"So how's everyone liking my home town?" Sun quickly asked. "You've already hit the hottest spot to go. And that's even without my team here."
"Where are they?" Jaune asked. "Aren't they normally with you?"
"Honestly I don't know. We split shortly after the fall of Beacon and I haven't heard from them since. I was hoping to find them here." Sun answered
"Then where have you been Sun?" Ruby asked innocently. "Why'd you leave your team?" Sun froze, his eyes struggling to not glance over to Blake. Ruby's eyes were wide as she waited for Sun to answer. As the team leader, how could he leave them?
"Well…" He drew out, scratching the back of his head.
"He followed me." Blake said. Everyone turned to Blake, her ears now dropped flat against her head and her eyes down cast. "After Beacon fell and everyone was ok, Sun followed me." No one said a word at what Blake said. Nora bit her lip, trying not to say anything.
"Where did you go Blake?" Weiss asked, her voice concerned and confused. Even with her father so rushed to take her back to Atlas, she knew that Blake did not stay in Vale. Blake was quiet for a second, then lifted her head.
"Home." She finally answered, pausing. "To my family." Ruby smiled at Blake and then looked over at Yang. She had sat stone faced the entire time Sun and Blake had been talking.
"Yang, I…" Blake began, but Yang held up her hand.
"We can talk later Blake." Yang said. "But next time," her voice catching slightly as she continued, "please tell us where you plan to go before you leave." A glint came of Yang's face, though no one could tell if it was from her glasses or cheek.