Ruby stared down her options as she ran scenarios through her head. Ruby's eyes darted back and forth between the two choices, weighing her options with tactical precision knowing she may only get one chance. While Ruby stared at her options like the tactician she is, Yang began to poke her in the cheek each poke lowering the young captain's tolerance. Ruby clenched her teeth and smacked Yang's hand away. Yang gave a little chuckle breaking the silence, "Ruby I don't mean to break your concentration, but you're holding up the line." Yang said as she held a thumb up, gesturing to about fifty or so hungry students waiting in the line for breakfast.
"Hey, I don't interrupt you when you're making decisions like this." Ruby said impatiently to her sister. 'Honestly why can't she wait a few more minutes, this is important.' She said inwardly with a dead serious tone.
Yang let out a large sigh and smacked herself on the forehead, "You're choosing what kind of jam you want on your toast!" Yang shouted as a large red mark appeared on her head. Yang's loud proclamation had caused some students who had already retrieved their meals to turn their heads to them curiously, while a fairly large amount of students in the line let out irritated groans.
Ruby blushed noticeably, now embarrassed from being forced into the crowd's attention. The young captain threw a stern glare to her sister which was greeted with a flat indifferent stare that read "Hey you brought this on yourself," At this Ruby turned to the jams and grabbed a serving of each before breaking away from the line making a short stroll across the bustling cafeteria to sit with Team JNPR.
'I probably could have just chosen both of them in the first place.' Ruby admitted to herself guiltily before coming face to face with her strange and almost flamboyant friends. "Good morning, everybody," Ruby said cheerfully, pushing the memory of her little jam debacle out of her mind.
Jaune remained silent but gave a weak smile and waved hello. Ren gave a small nod over his cup of tea while Nora waved rather frantically as she gave a similar reply through what appeared to be a mouthful of pancakes. "Good morning Ruby. Where is the rest of your team?" Pyrrha asked inquisitively, after taking concerned eyes off of Jaune.
"Yang and Blake are getting breakfast and Weiss is still getting dressed. Yang and Blake should be here in a couple of minutes though." Ruby said with a hope that no one would ask why Weiss was still getting ready. As Ruby tried to think of a subject to talk about, her wandering eyes saw that Jaune's food was almost completely untouched. After a glance at Jaune she realized that he had a rather large bruise on his cheek and jaw with a fair amount of swelling.
"Hey Jaune, are you okay? Your face looks a little… bruised." Ruby said trying to find a word that wasn't quite as harsh as what she was thinking.
"I can explain that." Pyrrha said guiltily after a fake cough. "We were training this morning and after a miscalculated throw I might have accidentally hit Jaune in the face with my shield." Pyrrha said blushing brightly while trying to avoid eye contact with Jaune.
"Wait, what about Jaune's aura? Shouldn't it have healed up by now?" Ruby asked with concern and curiosity.
"Usually the answer would be yes, but he wasted a very large amount during training which is why I'm assuming he hasn't healed entirely." Pyrrha said trying to hide her shame. "It may also be due to the fact that I broke a couple of his teeth," Ruby gave a sympathetic and almost pitiful glance to Jaune, ", and possibly his jaw." Pyrrha forced out as she placed her head in her hands.
Ruby flinched at Pyrrha's horrific retelling. 'Holy crap, a broken jaw, that's got to hurt.' Ruby said to herself as she stared at Jaune's large swollen purple wound. Ruby had broken her arm, and her leg on occasions but breaking your jaw was unimaginable. 'I'm surprised Jaune is even managing to sit here with an injury like that.' Ruby thought while mildly doubting Jaune's tenacity. "Did you take him to the medical ward at least?" Ruby asked growing concerned for Jaune's well being.
"He's being stubborn and won't let me take him there." Pyrrha said with resentment and irritation for her leader's bold, but stupid choice.
Ruby threw a look of concerned disbelief at her fellow captain "Jaune I really think you should get some help so-"
"Goooood morning Team JNPR!" Yang exclaimed ecstatically as she sat down to Ruby's right while Blake sat down to Yang's right. "So what's going on with, whoa! What happened to Vomit Boy?" Yang asked staring at Jaune's hideous bruise before throwing a suggestive look and a broad smirk to Pyrrha, "Lovers' quarrel?"
Pyrrha gave a spiteful unamused stare to Yang, "There was a training accident, Yang." Pyrrha snapped before returning her gaze to her unfortunate friend.
"Huh, I thought you would be more careful and try to keep his face pretty." Yang beamed as Pyrrha gave another infuriated stare which Yang responded to with an almost flirtatious wink.
Pyrrha turned away, trying to hide the blush Yang had managed to induce, before standing up. 'Yang sure knows how to get under Pyrrha's skin, I'll give her that' Ruby thought to herself as she watched Pyrrha try to contain her cocktail of emotions.
Pyrrha let out a sigh and turned to face Ruby, "I'm going to go get some ice for Jaune's face. I'll be back in a couple minutes." A shameful expression crossed Pyrrha's face before beginning to walk towards the kitchen.
"So," Yang said with a wide smile across her face, "How're ya' doin' there Vomit Boy?" Yang teased Jaune with what almost sounded like sympathy. 'I must be hungrier than I thought if Yang is actually being nice to Jaune.' Ruby thought to herself as she began to lift some pancakes into her mouth.
Jaune looked at her with an extremely pained look in his eyes, "I feel like crap," He slurred with a terrifying seriousness, "And I'm pretty sure my gums are bleeding."
"Oh… Well I hope you feel better, soon." Yang said now deterred from teasing him due to his already miserable state.
The six of them fell into a fairly awkward silence as they ate their breakfast and tried to not stare at Jaune's rather grotesque injury. Nora offered to tell everyone about one of her dreams, but Ren talked her out of doing so mostly due to the fact that they had all heard the story before and the only difference in this one was that she had a funny hat on. Admittedly Ruby would have still loved to hear her dream because her dreams were still interesting, and she wanted something to break the silence. Unfortunately for her, Blake found some fuel for a conversation when she noticed that Ruby had taken an unusually large serving of eggs, an extra glass of orange juice along with her milk, a few pieces of toast that remained untouched, and a pair of unopened jam containers.
"Ruby, what's with the extra food?" Blake inquired, raising an eyebrow while glancing around Yang. All members of the group turned their attention to Ruby who was now choking on a pancake.
After taking a quick drink of milk she threw hasty glances to each of them while stammering out a shaky response, "I-I grabbed so much because I –I, uh… Hey look Pyrrha's back!" Ruby gave a little sigh as Pyrrha rejoined the group handing Jaune a small bag of ice which he tentatively applied to his cheek.
"What're you guys talking about?" Pyrrha asked happily as Jaune gave her a weak smile.
"Ruby was just about to tell us why she grabbed so much food." Blake said matter-of-factly causing Pyrrha to lean forward and examine Ruby's tray. Ruby began to blush as the attention made her want to bolt out of the cafeteria. She was just about to do so when the answer to Blake's question stormed right up to the table almost ready to explode with rage.
"What's wrong ice princess?" Yang said with a small smirk.
"They've already stopped serving breakfast, and I got here too late." Weiss snapped at the blonde as she sat down about half a yard to Ruby's left staring at the table with contempt for the chefs in the kitchen who were depriving her of her breakfast.
'Now's my chance!' Ruby shouted to herself with the hope of saving her friendship with Weiss. "Hey Weiss I didn't finish all my food. You can have it if you want." Ruby said with an air of nonchalance.
Weiss gave a cold stare to Ruby dispelling her calm demeanor and replacing it with an extremely pitiful frown. Weiss let out a large sigh and took the tray from Ruby while trying to remain indifferent.
"Thank you, Ruby," Weiss said almost painfully while she spread a little bit of both jams onto her toast.
'Yes,' Ruby cheered for herself internally 'Maybe that will help make up for what I must've done to Weiss… Or what I didn't do… Why am I trying to make up anyways? I'm pretty sure I didn't even do anything. Oh well it's better to have her happy than be angry.' Ruby put on a cheesy smile "No problem Weiss, that's what friends are for right?" This caused Weiss to give an almost unnoticeable sigh… Almost unnoticeable. As the teams continued to eat, Yang gave a concerned look to Ruby who was now slumped onto the table and playing with the end of her cape.
"So," Weiss said suddenly breaking the dead silence that had covered the table "Jaune, what happened to your face?" Weiss' stark and straight forward question prompted a hateful glare from Pyrrha who decided to answer for Jaune.
"He got it in a training accident." Pyrrha stated eager to end this discussion immediately.
"Hmm you know if he really belonged here he wouldn't have to take extra training. Don't you think so, Pyrrha?" Weiss said brutally before throwing an acidic smirk to her.
"We should be getting to class." Pyrrha said stone faced as she grabbed Jaune by the forearm, and began to pull him along with her out of the cafeteria. As soon as Pyrrha and Jaune were out of sight Ren and Nora got to their feet and made to depart, but not before Ren leaned towards Blake beginning a private conversation. The only thing Ruby could make out through the whispers was something that sounded like, "The usual wager," which they must've agreed to because Ren and Nora left moments after with a couple waves. 'Why are those two always so cryptic?' Ruby pondered to herself briefly
Ruby sat up in her seat and looked to the members of her team. "Well, I think we should probably get to class, we don't want to be late." At this she stood and began to stretch a little as her sister followed suit and Blake just stood up and cracked open another book. Ruby turned to Weiss who had just finished breakfast and was dabbing her mouth with a napkin.
"You don't have to wait for me, I can walk perfectly fine you know." Weiss said resentfully.
Ruby gave a little grunt before beginning the long walk to Professor Port's class. Although she was trying to get on Weiss' good side Weiss had been making it difficult for Ruby to even be in the same room with her some nights forcing her to duck out of the room and wander the school aimlessly. 'Well I can forget about Weiss' foul mood thanks to one of Professor Port's sleep inducing rants and a free ticket to make up for lost sleep.' Ruby thought to herself now wearing a smile that not even Weiss could remove.
Hey everybody, just letting you know that i'll be posting new chapters every Sunday. Thanks for the support please and feel free to give reviews. Also my good friend and helpful editor, Ninjaslayer4x, is writing an awesome RWBY story called Crossing Swords, so check it out. Thanks.