Weiss passed the cup of steaming coffee across the counter. The crow Faunus gave a mumbled thanks, and she briefly considered lecturing him about proper social behavior, but the bags under his eyes and the fact that he was ordering an espresso at 2 in the afternoon heavily implied the fact that he was already suffering enough under the pressure of finals. It was still the week before actual exams, but many students had projects and papers to finish up. Or begin, in some cases.

Weiss glanced up at the clock. 2:14. It was almost the end of her shift, and the girl was fourteen minutes late. Was she not going to show up? Weiss had taken the trouble to prepare her order ahead of time, as she often did, but now it seemed that her foresight was to be in vain.

No, that wasn't possible. The girl almost never missed a day. Every single day at 2:00 pm, the freshman with the red backpack would come trouncing through the door and up to the counter (since there was almost never anyone waiting in line in the middle of the afternoon despite the bakery's popularity on the small campus) and demand−

"One whole-wheat bagel and a chocolate chip cookie, please!"

Weiss nearly jumped out of her skin, the voice erupting right across from the counter. How had she not seen the girl enter? The barista shot the grinning girl a furious glare, but quickly smoothed her expression.

"Welcome to the Beacon Bakery and Coffee Shop. I'll have your order momentarily."

The brunette suppressed a giggle. "You looked surprised."

Weiss gave a huff, not dignifying the girl with an answer. Instead, she swept up the prepared order and passed it over the counter.

"That will be $1.94," she informed the girl, who still was looking rather pleased with herself. As if she had done anything to be proud of! "How will you be paying?"

"Cash. You had it set aside for me?" Weiss met the girl's silver gaze, and she felt herself getting embarrassed again. This kid!

"Of course! You come in every day and order the same exact thing. I see you every shift, so I had it memorized by the second week!" Weiss realized her voice was starting to pitch up, so she cleared her throat and waited as the other girl went digging for her wallet.

Weiss took the moment, not for the first time, to examine the brunette. Her clothes were normal enough, but childish in design. Everything about the girl seemed childish. A round face, short stature, loud and bubbly nature, even the food that she ordered was better fit for a seven-year-old than a college student. As much as she wanted to be disgusted, though, Weiss couldn't help but find the girl a little bit amusing too.

"Not every day…" the freshman mumbled, still trying to find her elusive wallet in the various pockets of her bright crimson backpack, but then brightened again. "Ah, here we go!"

But it couldn't ever be that easy. Weiss sighed internally as the girl dumped out a handful of change onto the counter.

"A dollar ninety-four, right? Twenty-five, fifty, seventy-five, eighty-five, ninety…" She slid the coins towards Weiss as she counted. The barista let out an audible groan, though she knew it would make no difference.

"You could just give me two dollars and I'd give you back six cents!" she complained, but the other girl predictably shook her head.

"Nope! I have a lot of coins and I need to get rid of them. Here, ninety-four cents, and here's a dollar!"

Weiss accepted the change, and the girl scooped the rest of the coins back into her wallet before gathering up her bagel and cookie. Before she left, the girl gave Weiss a little wave.

"Bye, Weiss!" she called, a megawatt grin lighting up her face. The barista simply rolled her eyes in response, turning to wipe off the counter to hide a creeping smile. Freshmen are weird.

"Oh, shoot, it's that time already?" Ruby sprang off of her bed and grabbed her backpack. Jaune glanced up from his DS, frowning in confusion.

"What time? Where are you going?" he asked, knowing that Ruby didn't have any more classes on Tuesdays.

"Oh, just grabbing something from the bakery, I'll be back in a second." Ruby continued to pull on her jacket as she spoke, then grabbed her keys from her desk.

"From the bakery? Ruby, we're in the middle of a battle! Don't tell me you're running away?"

At that, Ruby laughed. "As if! My Houndoom's going to kick your sorry butt in a minute, but first I have to get down there. It'll only be a minute, I promise!"

With that, the girl was gone. Jaune sighed heavily, flopping back onto his friend's bed as he waited for her to return. He knew she liked going to the bakery, it was quite the popular place on campus after all, but couldn't she wait until their battle was finished at least? He had a secret weapon prepared and everything!

Ruby sighed with relief when she saw the familiar snowy hair of the prickly barista behind the counter. She was worried she'd be too late and miss the girl's shift. But there she was, those same icy blue eyes softening just a touch with recognition. Ruby felt herself grinning as she approached the counter, but she didn't even need to speak before the other girl stepped back and retrieved her order.

"I didn't even tell you what I wanted," Ruby informed the older girl as she searched for her wallet in her bag.

"You didn't need to. Unless you'd like to change things up today?" Her voice was cool and even as always. So composed, so dignified. But Ruby knew from experience that it didn't take much to poke holes in her façade of professionalism.

"Maybe I would!" she declared, scratching her chin with one hand thoughtfully. "I'll have an M&M cookie today, I think." Wow, the more Ruby considered it, the better that idea sounded. She caught a brief look of frustration on Weiss's face, and she couldn't help but giggle. "Actually, I'll have two. I just ditched my friend in the middle of a Pokemon battle to come down here, so I should probably bring him something."

"You ditched your friend to come to a bakery? We're open until 6, you know."

Ruby leaned her elbow on the counter as Weiss retrieved the desired baked goods. "Well, yeah, but your shift ends at 2:30, right?"

"…Yes," came her careful reply, the barista eyeing Ruby warily. It took her a moment to realize just what she'd said.

"Oh! Um. Well, yeah, I guess I could come in at any time. It's not a crime to want to say hello to a friend though, right?" Ruby felt her face heating up with embarrassment. She had never planned on admitting the fact that she'd memorized the other girl's schedule. Dust, she must seem super creepy now! And− oh Dust, was she still talking? "… not exactly friends per se, have I even told you my name? I'm Ruby, by the way, freshman Graphic Design major."

Ruby stuck out her hand, hoping beyond hope that the cute barista didn't blow her off, oh Dust please. Ruby wasn't sure if she would be able to handle that. Sure, the other girl had never exactly been too approachable, and it took a solid two weeks to even strike up any sort of conversation with her, but Ruby was sure that the two of them had made some progress towards friendship.

After a few agonizing seconds of hesitation, Weiss cautiously took the other girl's hand and shook it stiffly.

"Weiss Schnee. Third-year, Business Administration. It's, er, nice to meet you Ruby." She retracted her hand quickly, sliding the two cookies and the bagel to Ruby, who sheepishly accepted them and handed her money over in return. Two dollars, rather than change. This time, instead of coming up with excuses to stick around longer, Ruby just wanted to get the hell out of there. Her face was on fire, and she was sure that she looked absolutely ridiculous.

Weiss handed Ruby her change and receipt, and the brunette quickly retreated to the doorway. But a thought made her pause.

"Hey, Weiss? Will you, um, will you be working here next semester too?"

The barista was still giving her that weird look, but Ruby's heart rose when she saw the corner of the girl's lip twitch, the barest hint of a smile.

"Yes, I have arranged to have the same hours next semester. I assume I'll be seeing more of you?"

Ruby felt herself smiling again. "You bet!"

This was from a prompt that I can't find now, but it went something like "yes I know I keep coming to the cookie shop during your shift but it's finals week and I need these for my sanity don't you dare judge". I originally planned to reverse their roles, but there's just something intrinsically amusing to me about the idea of Weiss being forced to act professionally around Ruby. This particular story can be taken as platonic or romantic, I leave it up to interpretation.

I haven't written anything in a long time, and this was my first RWBY fic, so advice is greatly appreciated. I might do more of these 'cause I have a nice list of AUs that I'd like to sink my teeth into and the cast of RWBY is fucking hilarious. But no promises.

Also, the crow Faunus is both an original character and a self-insert. Finals week is rough.