Author Note: I released this chapter soon than later to test the waters again.

It has gotten a large response so far. To be honest, my take on romance has never been reviewed before, seeing I'm mostly about plot and stuff, but I'll try my best to give my own take on both ships competing against each other. They'll be treated equal with a mix of fluff and drama that stays true to their characters, as best of my abilities.

Enjoy this chapter with everyone's lovable dork boy.


Waiting On Her

Have we met?

Chapter 2: The First Day on a Job

"This is gonna be my every morning for the rest of the summer, huh?" Ruby grimace.

Today indeed would be the first day on being a pizza delivery girl. Her first day completely off the island, without her overly protected father keeping her there, and through the helpful machinations of her uncle, her first time assuming responsibilities of her own-self for the rest of the summer before classes in Signal resume. But along the 'first' of accomplishments, 'first' of upsets would also run parallel during the day.

The first problem of the day came with the struggle of getting that stubborn bicycle over the two flights up; bumping the front wheel on every cement step until it rolled onto the leveled boardwalk. Ruby momentarily rested against her bicycle. She was feeling accomplished just to be on street level. She'll have to get used to it.

The bicycle itself-bright red fading into basic silver steel frame-was an absolute necessity for the delivery job. Despite Ruby being in the pizza delivery business, she couldn't exactly use her speed Semblance without delivering some cold pies; that's where the pink basket on the new bike came in. It already eaten into her established funds, and while it wasn't Yang's definition of what a bike was, Ruby couldn't argue in "You gotta spend Lien to get Lien.".

Resigning a short sigh Ruby pedaled into the cobblestone road. Riding at a leisure pace among the pedestrians she was careful not to let her mind wander. Not even for that Dust shop perched up ahead taunting her with amazing sales. Qrow had instructed her not to deviated from the route to the pizza shop. A difficult test of will for a girl who hasn't step foot on the Kingdom in ages. But if a secret were to be hatched, a Dust shop visited on a certain free time away from her uncle's knowledge, it wouldn't be bad, right?

A cry of a lone crow spooked her from up close. Ruby gasped and yelped, the bicycle weaved left and right before she gain control again. Relief was short lived; fresh anxiety struck a chord. Looking around at people who would be minding their own business this morning gawked at her earlier spectacle. Ruby felt insecure, like a clown in her current getup. Things could've been worse, Ruby thought. And with that thought she peddle away in a faster, stronger rate, heading into the populated streets where her new workplace would be found.

At least she thought: the memory has been hazy due to all the nervous excitement entitled to stepping into the outside world. Ruby pedaled to a crawl, lowering her head to the handlebars to discreetly, shiftily look around for a familiar store to gain some sorts of bearing from the last trip here. She navigated through the much traveled brick-road, where more entered and then left the stylized stores; noting that under every stripe awning and all the walled terrace were packed by customers. Yet, the long, commercial strip has yet to make sense to the girl.

After a few minutes of looking around, even after timidly trying to flag down a local-who ignored her on each try-it became apparent that she was lost. Though Ruby left before the crack of dawn her chance to leave a good impression by showing up early dwindled away. The streets began to flood with pedestrians as the sun rose. After countless polite efforts of trying to make her way into the crowds the patience had worn to nothing. She saw a brief opening in the crowds towards the next block, gunning it as fast as she could, blindly heading into the next corner…

"Ow!"

Just as soon as the first one, a second problem arose.

Ruby felt the dull ache after the sudden stop, she was laid sprawled after the blunt crash. Ruby groaned. Everything around her felt cramped and dark, which frighten Ruby into a mad scramble that made her pull backwards, and pull her head out of the harmless pink basket. Looking up into the light blue sky Ruby tried to get her head together; being laid on top of the bike in the middle of the street she looked like a silly sight, more so, being in her job uniform. Under Ruby something started shaking, she rose upright to see that she was a lot more elevated off the street than previous thought. A whiny groan heard, Ruby looked down, and froze in fear.

Ruby immediately got up and out of the way to see that piled under the bike was an older, blonde teenage boy. The boy groaned again, clearly confuse on what happened. He push himself off the sidewalk only for the back of his head to hit the saddle, he collapse again, triggering a ring from the bicycle bell on the way down. Another groan from him. Ruby gasped. She pull the bike off away from him, she lend him a hand who then graciously took it without seeing who it was.

Once the boy had gotten to his feet he was washed by the flood of apologies let loose from Ruby. "Oh, gosh! I didn't see you! I didn't mean to! I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" she continued on and on.

"Whoa, hey now! It's alright, it's alright! I mean, you shouldn't have been riding a bicycle without a helmet and then going fast into a corner without looking..." the boy said, awkwardly grinning. "But other than that. I'm fine, everything's okay!" he hoped to calmed her down.

"Sorry! I guess for saying 'sorry', so many times. Hehe." her nervous laugh abruptly ended when she gotten a good look at what the boy was wearing. "Wait a minute…" she peered closer, puzzling the boy, she inched closer causing him to stumble back worryingly, and he almost fell right back on the ground when she let out a loud gasp. "Oh, gosh! I ruined your ugly uniform!"

The bewildered boy did a quick check and spotted a streak of brown dirt that easily scattered away, a few swipes from his hand and it was hardly noticeable. He chuckled. "There! Good as new. Sadly! But all things considered at least we have jobs."

"Yeah, but it's nothing to write home about-for different reasons." Ruby giggled. She took another glimpse just to see that the boy was indeed wearing the same uniform as her. "So I guess you're the other one that Mr. Boss hired."

"Yup!" he admitted. "The name's Jaune Arc! Short, sweet, and rolls of the tongue!" he held his hand out. "Don't you think?" his seductive wink wasn't at all convincing; it only made him look like he was trying get something out of his deep blue eye.

At least he wasn't threatening in her eyes. Maybe just a little more awkward than herself. "Heh. I'm Ruby, Ruby Rose." she shook his hand lightly. "And my dad won't let me see anybody that way. Yet."

"So, he-"

"Pretty much would beat anybody up if they cross the line-him being a Huntsman and all." Ruby said curtly.

"Got it. Sorry. It's a nervous habit of mine; got it from my own, bumbling Huntsman dad, or was it my mom? Hehe." Jaune went over to pick her bicycle up, and held it steady for her. "Still, I can't see why we can't be friends along being co-workers."

"Sure!" Ruby then added an lopsided smile. "Say...You wouldn't happen to know where Red's Pizza place is? I kinda don't know."

Jaune nodded. "I was just going there until you...anyway." he gestured down the road. He reached into the pocket of his dark red slacks to pull out small, crisp folded paper, "Should be around the corner near Heather Avenue and Brick Road." the paper folded, Jaune took a good look. He wasn't sure. "At least I hope. I'm not from around here, being from the outskirts of the Kingdom, this my first trip."

"Yeah, it's my first time in a long time here. I'm from Patch."

"The Island?" Jaune asked unsure.

"Yup!" Ruby answered cheerfully. For all its current faults, she was always proud to admit of her homeland. "I live there with my dad, my older sister, and my uncle."

"That's cool." Jaune said. "I live with my family too. Oh, along with my parents, I have my share of sisters too-like seven of them. All cramped up in small hamlet named Carrot."

"Whoa...seven sisters, huh?" while Ruby had always thought highly of Yang, the idea of that many siblings doing the usual 'annoying sibling things' was enough to make her head spin in torment. Ruby shook the dizziness off. "That's sounds like a lot of trouble. What kind experiences does that give you in the real world? Heh." she mused.

"A lot of things. But for sure it hasn't prepared me for getting a job on a pizza place operated by that Mr. Boss guy." Jaune nervously chuckled. "Makes me wonder how I got hired!"

"You got that right." Ruby joined in his chuckling. Her eyes moved to the side. "Makes me wonder if my hiring was a fluke or something."

'A fluke, maybe?' Ruby's confidence took a nose dive.

A few days ago she with her uncle Qrow when she arrived at a newly established pizza place near the docks, the first answer in the wanted ad. Funny enough, that alone almost hired her. The owner was even stranger than her, invited her into the interview to go over the kitchen basics, and forgo them too. She already pegged him down as a weird, angry looking man with a buzz cut who was possibly in the military and seemed to have an irrational hatred for the color blue. Although she wasn't qualified to man the kitchen full time, once she mention her use of a high-caliber sniper rifle she was hired on the spot. Ruby wasn't sure what that had to do with anything, but that's how she gotten her first job.

The girl went in there nervous and came out with a job-and a quirky, if possibly, dangerous employer.

Ruby shrugged her shoulders. 'Things could've been worse.'

"Oh, I wouldn't think so. Going by the ten minutes we had met, you seem pretty capable." Jaune assured her and pulled her from her own small depression cloud, making Ruby feel a little bit better. "Mr. Boss probably saw it too, maybe? He's a little...eccentric?"

"Yeah, I think that's good enough word for him." Ruby said just when she gotten a good look at the eyesore with Jaune.

Arriving now at the most desolate part of the area, was it ever a wonder that she had trouble remembering the way here. More like she wanted to forget. The pizza joint was tucked away in a rundown corner lot, just barely close enough to the boardwalk to be considered part of it, but still carry the oil, salty air of the industrial port side. The building itself colored faded pink with a large, red sign saying "Red's Pizza." The less than stellar advertising suits it better, one might walk in by accident after all.

"Good luck, I guess." Jaune said, accompanied with a disappointed sigh.

Both entered the pizza joint dragging their feet.


"Alright you two green little buttercups! You better listen, and you better listen well! Today will be the worse day of your life!" the man raising his voice like a drill sergeant had Ruby and Jaune pitifully backed into the back of the counter, they were baffled and stunned. The man's face was strained, an angry frown, then he smiled gleefully behind his gold colored shades. "That is...if you hate success! Hehehe, See how I went for a curve ball? Good old tactic!"

"Okay?" Ruby said nervously.

"Unless you like the color blue!" the man's expression change to that of an angry buzz-cut tomato. "I love colors, but dagnabbit, I hate the color blue and you will not fit in this establishment if you do!"

"Umm, what?" Jaune uttered out loud.

"You!" the man hollered at him. Jaune scooted against the counter far as he could before the man he would be working for got into his face. "You have blue-eyes but behind them burns the red passion to make the best darn pizza this Kingdom has ever seen, by stars! Are you ready to commit to that, son?!"

"Y-yeah?" Jaune squeaked.

The man nodded and then turn towards Ruby. "And you!"

"Meep?! I mean, m-me?"

"Yes!" he shouted at her. "You have red highlights on your hair. That's pretty cool. You also have the qualifications of going beyond the duty in making the best darn pizza this Kingdom has ever tasted! Don't you?!"

The constant shouting had Ruby shaking, backing away into the counter almost to the point that she was sitting on it. Ruby tried desperately to pull on Jaune's elbows, she was shoulder to shoulder with Jaune, "L-let's go make some pizzas! Could we make some pizzas already and gets this day over already before my eardrums pop..." her voice muted half-way.

"Good!" Oblivious, or hard of hearing, the man continued his odd rallying over them. "Then are you both ready to start making those Mistral-style pies at this moment?! Well, are you?!"

"I think we already agreed that we were ready…" Ruby murmured.

"Um sir?" Jaune was entranced by something past the shouting man-staring at something unknown to the man or Ruby.

"Don't call me 'sir!'," the man responded. "Although I love serving my time in the Atlas military I don't want any of you to call me 'sir', just address me as Boss, or B-Dog like my friends if I had them; Y'know, just because you're my employees I don't see why we can't be friends? Friends with a bunch of teenagers, 'how do you do fellow kids?' Blah! No, you will address me as your boss within the premise, but I still prefer you see me as the cool boss, so call me B-Dog Boss. The redundancy is what seals it!"

Ruby was starting to be overwhelmed by her new boss' yammering, she was about shut off her mind to let it wander when an unpleasant and artificial smell lifted her tiny nose, not all sweet like the birthday breakfast of a few days ago it made her look past her boss. "Mister?" her eyes grew.

"Again, I appreciated young lady, if you call me B-Dog, or maybe Boss as in my title as proprietor."

"Sir!" Jaune tried again, this time louder, but still the sense of urgency fell short on the man's cauliflower ears.

"By gun you're right! We should leave this up to vote! What should we go for: Boss or B-Dog? Or that sounds too street? Nothing is good in the hood anymore!" the man kept rambling until the two finally blew up.

"Sir! The stove is smoking!" Ruby and Jaune screamed at him.

"What, what, what?!" Boss (or B-Dog) hollered before spinning around. He dove into action, literally diving onto the floor just inches from the smoke blanketed oven before bonking his shaved head into it, by the time he was up in his feet fanning the fire away with his baseball-cap Ruby and Jaune weren't even surprised anymore.

Ruby looked around her for any means, she then spotted the fire extinguisher in its red case, she sprung to it using her Semblance, Ruby saw Jaune waiting for her and she tossed it to him, Jaune pushed the clueless owner away and spurt concentrated amounts, the fire gone the smoke diminished in its own rate.

The teenagers were befuddled to find their adult boss reaching in still bellowing oven for something, he proudly then disappointingly held a set of melted red shades. Boss scratched his chin, inspecting the burned plastic mess. "I don't get it; I thought it would work like them computer boards I use to solder back in Atlas making them metal men." he laughed like it was a joke, the two meanwhile, took as a warning.

Both of the teens facepalmed. The first day seem already a wash for the two new employees.

Fortunately, Boss was able to clean the oven right as new using only the finest frugal items from the local variety store. After the cleaning Boss led them pass the stove and into the mediocre kitchen. It was nothing special, and at the very least the counter table was clean, the red tile floor was clean, and the white walls was bare compared to clutter of necessary utensils; too many in fact, it might be might a waiting fire hazard of its own.

While there was some questions about his mental state, Boss demonstrated his technique in making pizza without sparing any details or quality of ingredients. A silly man dressed in a uniform of his own designs, his bulky arms covered in military inspired tattoos did well in spinning, tossing, and catching the pre-made dough; part of Ruby's immature mind hoped it would land on his face for a cheap laugh.

Despite an odd ball that Boss was, he showed a patient kindness in teaching them each step, after showing them approval over a test pie that he supervise, they were left to their own devices for future preparation.

Jaune while not as enthusiastic, he was able to create an impressive number of generic cheese and pepperoni pizzas in such a short time. He sighed heavily, and went off to work on another pie. To his left down the long table was Ruby, while she did (kinda) listen to the instructions that were simple enough, and her unwavering enthusiasm was stagnated by Jaune's progress.

Ruby admired his tackling of the task, he was bit awkward in the full hour that they met, but he seemed to be a lot more coordinated than her when put on the spot. Meanwhile Ruby still in the starter; at first she made the flat dough base on her first try, but soon fell apart after the instructions went blank on her head, then she realized she added too much tomato sauce, and panic mode set when trying to even things out with the cheese shavings and before she knew it her nervousness got the better of her and she indulged a slice of raw pepperoni out of nervous habit.

The timid girl kept on chewing the thin piece of meat like a hungry mouse; Ruby paid no mind to Jaune raising an eyebrow at the action. Jaune was baffled from the sight-a little bit nauseate too. Still he regarded her with some, small sympathy, and that iota had himself alarmed as he saw Boss coming back in the middle of Ruby's chewing frenzy. Reasons only known to him Jaune went over to grabbed Ruby by the shoulders and before she knew it, the nervous girl was now in front of a pre-made pizza and in Jaune's previous place.

"Good news! We got some of a first orders in company history!" Boss came in holding two strips of paper detailing addresses and names. "I just came here to see-" he set his sights on the progress: Ruby looking on perplexed on the crafted pizza before her, then at Jaune, wry smile, breathing in short burst over a messy dough base. "What in Sam Hill happened here, Arc?! Last I left you both, you were making the best dang pizzas that someone could possibly make as per my direct instructions. I might have to leave these next orders to little Rose there."

The weight of sudden responsibility spurred Ruby into another panic, she shifted her saucer large eyes to Boss and Jaune several times before settling back to the boy who put her on the spot. Jaune wasn't oblivious-he quickly set out to right the wrong.

Jaune clapped his hands together to plea at towering man before him. "Please give me another chance, sir!"

Boss scowled, he regarded Jaune silently, seemingly with ill intent before he smiled. "Well, okay, after all, second chances is how I was promoted in the old military. Dozens of chances!" he laughed; another warning to befall them. Boss then turn to Ruby. "While hopefully Arc will be making the correct order, why don't take a gander at the transcript. I'll be leaving you with the task on you: Delivery."

"O-okay, sir!" Ruby swiped the long piece of paper off his thick fingers.

"The transcript have the address and names of two of our first customers. Luckily, both in the upper-class district; by 'Luckily' I mean, while I don't interact with them silver spoon types, their filthy rich; they tip you well! I mean what rich person doesn't like frivolously giving money for a well earn service?"

"I don't..." Ruby scratched the back of her head. "Anyway!" she held the transcript up close, looking seriously at every detail; she at least wanted to get this one right. The silver of eyes shifted left and right to read the names and addresses.

"Let see what we have here..."


'I. C. Wiener'

Spring Flowers CT

Instructions: "Look for the bombing Blond!"

And

'Polendina'

Blue Fountain 156. Gold avenue.


Author's end notes: Yeah, A Futurama shout out. Bite my shiny metal ass.

So Jaune joins the story; maybe our favorite tall redhead would join too?

Ruby is off to deliver some pizzas. I wonder to who? Might we meet them in the next chapter?

Also this is the only chapter I had in backburner, I wasn't going to release these series until I had Weiss' arc done, the next chapter is almost done but I will probably not release it as soon like this chapter. But it won't take that long.

Let me know any spelling mistakes or grammar in pm or reviews, I'd appreciated.