Writing Prompt Wednesday 2-1-17
Jaune entered the bar and a deafening wave of sound from conversation, laughter, and sports broadcasts washed over him. The walls were covered in wood paneling that had been nice decades ago, but years of rowdy patrons and indoor smoking had aged it. Cigarettes filled the building with a blue-gray haze and the smell of spilled liquor wafted over from a nearby table.
"Jaune!" a voice called. Weiss emerged from the crowd, her eyes wide. "Oh thank god you're here!"
"Man, what I would have given to hear that three years ago," he said, raising his voice over the din.
Weiss rolled her eyes, but her lips curved in a faint smile. "We can't have everything we want, can we?"
"Which is why you called me for help."
"We're the only responsible people in the group tonight."
"Fill me in; a lot of what you said got drowned out by the background noise."
Weiss gestured for him to follow her and she led him away from the entrance, through the main room, and into a side room away from the crowd and noise—only to find it empty, save for a young couple entwined on a couch by a low table. Weiss scowled and leaned down, yanking them apart.
"Uh-oh, I've had this dream before and it doesn't end the way movies tell me it does," Sun said.
"Hey Weiss!" Blake said, her cheeks flushed. "And Jaune."
"Blake they're gone!" Weiss shouted.
Blake looked around. "Yang said they'd be right back."
"When was that?"
Blake checked her scroll then looked back up at Weiss, her ears flattened. "Promise you won't be mad?"
"Ugh! I'd expect this from anyone but you. Do you have any idea where—"
A round of cheers erupted from the rear of the bar. They followed the noise to a room with a padded section of the floor roped off like a boxing ring. Two mechanical grimm sat in the middle of the ring, bucking like wild horses. Yang and Ruby stood atop them, swaying back and forth while trying to down a glass of something bright and colorful.
Ruby stood atop her machine in a loose stance, leaning with the animatronic like a surfer, giggling the entire time as she took gulps of her drink. Yang almost fell off hers, then dropped into a seated position, trying to empty her glass. The machines' movement accelerated and grew wilder, tossing Yang about before throwing her and her drink off, towards Ruby. Ruby leapt to avoid colliding with her sister, landed, and wobbled long enough to empty her glass before she was tossed off her own machine. She rolled to her feet and thrust her arms over her head to enthusiastic cheers from the crowd.
"Oh," Jaune said.
"Exactly," Weiss replied.
"JAUNE!" Ruby lurched across the room, snaring both of them around the shoulders in a bear hug.
"Happy birthday Ruby," he croaked.
…
After finding Ruby, they all piled into a booth in a quieter nook of the bar. Ruby dragged Weiss and Jaune onto the bench so that she was sandwiched between them and recounted the night's events to Jaune.
"—hated the beer, hated the whiskey, and I was ready to punch Yang off her stupid barstool, but then she ordered me this:" Ruby indicated a curved glass filled with a thick brown milkshake that smelled like rum, her eyes sparkling.
"It's called a bushwhacker, and it is awesome," she said, her voice climbing from a conspiratorial hush to an excited squeal. She fell backwards into Weiss, giggling and batting at the end of Weiss' ponytail. Weiss shot Jaune a long-suffering look, and he nodded.
"Yang, how much did you give her? Jaune asked.
Yang pondered the question, face scrunched in effort. "Only three," she said, her words slurred and a little defensive.
"Only three yummy milkshakes," Ruby said, her tone reprimanding. She began to count with her fingers. "There was also the beer, the shot, the fruity stuff I had between the yummy milkshakes, the neon thing I drank on top of the mechanical ursa—"
Ruby paused, frowning at her hands now that she had run out of fingers. Jaune and Weiss glared at Yang, who blushed and took a long, slow pull from her beer.
"I left for thirty minutes at most," said Weiss.
"So why didn't you come out at first Jaune?" Yang asked, ignoring Weiss. "Afraid you'd bring 'Vomit Boy' back into style?"
Jaune sighed and Ruby laughed, contorting so hard that Weiss had to keep her from rolling onto the floor.
"I forgot about that! Now that you're older does that make you…Pukey Man?"
"That joke wasn't remotely funny," Weiss said.
"Weiss, you're my bestie, but you don't know anything about being funny. Stick to your strengths, like being pretty, and looking at things with disapproval."
The booth erupted into laughter. Yang doubled over, clutching her ribs, while Blake and Sun collapsed into each other; even Jaune had to suppress a few laughs. Weiss just groaned and shoved Ruby off her into Jaune. She looked up at him and grinned.
"Hi!"
"I take it you enjoyed your first legal night of drinking?"
She nodded, then reached a hand up to muss his hair. Her eyes widened.
"Weiss! You have to try this! His hair is almost as soft as yours!"
Ruby seized Weiss' wrist and made her feel Jaune's hair. She paused for a second, then repeated the motion, pressing Jaune's hand into Weiss' hair. Both of them froze while Ruby smiled at the tangle of limbs she had created. Blake and Sun watched, grinning at the scene. They sat in silence until it was interrupted by a loud thump. The sound of Yang laughing drifted up from beneath the table. Jaune and Weiss pulled their hands away at the same time, their faces scarlet, but before they could scoot away Ruby wrapped her arms around their shoulders and drew them close.
"Hey, thank you guys."
"For?" Weiss asked.
Ruby's expression assumed the fatigued gravity of a drunk discussing serious matters. "For getting along. I know you guys don't click as much as you do with other people in the group. But Weiss is my BFF, even if she calls me a dolt sometimes; and Jaune is my BFWIABF—"
"I'm your what?"
"That acronym killed part of my brain."
"—'Best Friend, Who Is A Boy, Forever'; it doesn't sound like I'm saying you're my boyfriend that way—the point, is that you are both super important to me, and I'm grateful for you, and I appreciate that you both try to get along for me. It means a lot."
Ruby squeezed her arms around them a little tighter, and this time they reciprocated, forming a group hug.
"She really is a dolt, isn't she Weiss?"
"That's the wisest thing you've said in years."
Ruby made a distressed noise. "Such treachery after I bared my heart to you! Oh how will I go on?"
Yang nudged a fresh bushwhacker towards Ruby and she slipped free of her friends to guzzle it down. Jaune and Weiss reclaimed their personal space and poured themselves water from a pitcher.
"She's not that different," Jaune said. "Just more 'her' than usual."
"Unlike some people," Weiss muttered.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"There's a reason I called you first."
Jaune began to reply when a pair of voices squealed his name. For the third time that night someone pinned Jaune in a hug. He looked over to see Nora standing by one end of the booth supporting an almost comatose Ren. Craning his neck around further, he came face to face with Pyrrha, her cheeks flushed nearly as red as her hair, which hung loose instead of being bound in its usual ponytail. She beamed at him.
"You've missed the most grand evening!"
"I'm—here now!" Jaune said, dumbfounded by the lack of Pyrrha's usual poise.
She let out a bright peal of laughter collapsing on Jaune's shoulder. Ren raised his head and whispered something to Nora that made them both giggle, swaying with alcohol and laughter. Jaune looked back to Weiss who shrugged. Ruby struck the table insistently a few times, flagging Yang's attention.
"What's next?"
"Well, we've popped your alcohol cherry and Pyrrha's, and Jaune and Weiss are going to be lame and not drink…we could grab food somewhere the not-lame people can keep drinking. I know a place that has fifty kinds of dessert shots."
Ruby grinned, turning to Pyrrha.
"What do you think Pyrrha?"
"It sounds grand!"
…
Several hours later, the group stumbled home through the snow towards the Vale bus; off-balance from drinking or supporting those who had.
"Who'd have guessed? The invincible girl's weakness is her liver."
"Weiss," Ruby said with a curious, childlike tone; leaning into Weiss. "Can you see Atlas from your high horse?"
"I imagine she can see it quite well when she's not pointing her nose into the air," Pyrrha said.
"Nikos, I swear—"
"Don't 'Nikos' me, Weiss!" Pyrrha said, jabbing a finger towards Weiss. "I could beat you with my hands tied behind my back—and I did that one time you froze my arms to my waist during sparring."
Jaune reached to coax Pyrrha's hand down. She snapped at his fingers like a puppy and he yanked his hand back, making her giggle and bury her face in his shoulder. This time it was Jaune's turn to give Weiss a long-suffering look, and she smirked in reply. The expression disappeared when Ruby came to a halt.
"Carry me, I'm tired."
"Ruby Rose, I will not—"
Ruby let her body go slack, leaning into Weiss hard enough to almost knock her over. She sighed and crouched down, letting Ruby wrap her arms around her neck and grabbed the smaller girl under the knees before standing. Ruby let out a tiny chuckle and kicked her feet. Pyrrha looked from them to Jaune.
"Jaune, I must confess—"
"Don't lie to your friends Pyrrha, you are not that tired," said Weiss. Pyrrha scowled at Weiss, who turned and started walking. From behind her came a yelp of surprise, followed by a scuffle and the sound of crunching snow. A moment later Pyrrha walked alongside Weiss, her nose upturned, while a bewildered Jaune sat atop her shoulders.
"This is my life now," he said.
Weiss pursed her lips at him. "Look on the bright side. Between the photos Nora is taking and the amount everyone put away tonight, karma's going to hit like a truck tomorrow."
Ruby groaned. Then she shrugged.
"Eh, worth it. Best late birthday ever?" She reached a hand up towards Jaune.
Jaune shrugged and leaned down to give her five.
"Just promise you'll go easy next year."
Ruby grinned, and they continued through the snow to join the others for the bus home.