Chapter 8: Neptune to the Grudging Rescue
"And she said yes?"
"Yes!"
"So you're going out tomorrow?"
"Yes!"
"And you're sure she said 'yes', not 'no'?"
Jaune was fighting really hard not to just get up and storm out on his teammate. The two guys moved back and forth around their dorm room as they talked, making sure Jaune had everything he needed.
And it would have really helped if Ren showed any type of humor on his face to show he was joking.
"Ren, I understand your skepticism, really, I do. But I had Neptune right there, coaching me the whole way through."
"Just… why don't you tell me exactly what she said. Was the word 'yes' actually in her message anywhere?"
The blonde let out a sigh. He could understand some doubt from his teammate at the latest turn of events, but really, this was a bit much. "It was all casual; I sent her a message asking if she wanted to go into Vale on Sunday. She responded with 'Yeah, sounds fun.' That's pretty much it." To help his point, Jaune pretty much shoved his scroll into Ren's face, showing him the messages.
"Wow, this says yes."
Jaune really had to restrain guys urge to punch Ren. Like c'mon, it was getting insulting.
"In other news, Blake tried to grill me for information."
"Oh, poor Blake. Did she punch you?" Jaune asked, a little too enthusiastically.
"No, and I don't think she learned anything helpful either. I do know my way around words." Ren stated with a barely hidden hint of pride in his voice. 'Heh, the master is still unbeaten.'
"Well, if we keep this up, our plan should be a full success in no time. Although, I have to say you've been getting a surprising lack of attention on you; good or bad."
"That you've noticed," Ren countered. "Nora's been pestering me about every little change since this started."
"Really? I didn't notice at all. Still, I guess it's been going okay so far, out cover isn't broken."
"Yeah, Nora is pretty easy to distract when you need to. Having grown up with her also helps."
Jaune tried to imagine what that would've been like, before giving up with a shudder. That was not something he thought he would survive.
"Still, after this, we might want to push you into the spotlight for a bit. As much fun as it is to have our friends whiskering behind my back, we're in this for the both of us."
"Alright," Ren nodded his agreement. "Hopefully after this, we can try to change things up."
"Perfect. Now, any chance you own some cologne?"
Ooh, this is so exciting!" Ruby exclaimed, practically bouncing around the walls of the dorm room. "Jaune's being social again!"
"Calm down, you energetic fool." Her partner snapped back, barely managing to avoid the red bullet which flew around as she got ready. "Just because Jaunes choosing to be social with our team again doesn't mean everything's back to normal. We can't ignore that he had been acting oddly for a while now."
"Yes, but doesn't this mean he's getting better? Maybe he's overcome his problem now! And wants to celebrate by going out for cookies!"
"Possibly, possibly not." Weiss chose to ignore the part about cookies. Somebody else could let Ruby down on that front. "It will depend on how he acts today down in Vale. Speaking of which, would you hurry up Yang!"
"Two seconds!" Sounded from the washroom. "This hair takes effort you know!"
"Trust us, we know. You wouldn't let us not know." Blake grumbled
"What was that, dear partner? I couldn't quite hear you."
"I said 'No one will see your hair if we don't make it on time!'"
"Well, I say my hair's worth it. Some of us have more to do than just tie up a bow over our ears."
Weiss just let out a sigh as Blake and Yang got into yet another argument. She loved her team, really she did. But sometimes, just sometimes, it would've felt so cathartic to freeze them all in ice and just sit in peace for once.
Eventually, team RWBY managed to sort themselves out, and began to make their way down to the airship loading area, where Yang has said team JNPR would meet them. Even with Weiss' skepticism, the four of them were hopeful for a normal even out, the eight friends together like before.
Which made it quite confusing when, upon rounding the corner, they were witness to Jaune standing alone in the landing area.
"Hey, Jaune!" Ruby, as clueless as ever, immediately ran over to the blonde, who managed to blink once or twice in confusion before being bowled over by the small red missile.
"Uh… Hey, Ruby? And Weiss, and Blake?"
"Forgetting someone, champ?" Yang said, giving her hair a flick for good measure. "So where's your team at?"
"Uhh, yeah… my team…"
"Why Jaune, you didn't try to organize this so you could get a full day out in Vale with three beautiful girls and one cute underage girl did ya, you sly dog?"
Jaune let out an abnormally high pitched laugh. "Ha, of course not. Haha." A long silence followed. "Nora, uh, dragged Ren along to do something just the two of them. Yeah, that's right, since they haven't done much together recently. And Pyrrha…" Another long pause. "She, uh, was feeling a bit under the weather, and so… decided it would be better to stay here and study. Yep, that's what happened." He ended it with an awkward grin. Flawless.
Most of team RWBY studied him with narrowed eyes, but let it go. Nothing he said seemed to out of place. And Jaune is Jaune; unusual was about par for the course.
"So it will be just the five of us, then?"
"What? No! Uh, I mean, no, because… Sun and Neptune are meeting up with us in Vale!" That got some varied reactions. Weiss visibly perked up at the mention of Neptune's name, while Blake's bow seemed to flick back in irritation.
"Yeah, I'll call them now, to let them know we're on our way!"
Quickly, Jaune took his scroll out and punched in a number, turning slightly away from the girls.
"Jaune? Aren't you on your da-"
"Neptune! Hey, how you doing?Just letting you know team RWBY are all here and ready to head into Vale!"
"Wha- What are you talking about? Isn't it supposed to be your and Yang's date right now? Why are you calling me about this?"
"Yeah, you know, the outing that our two teams were going to have? The one I texted Yang and asked about?"
"You never did tha- How do you even get into these scenarios?!"
"And remember how my team couldn't make it, so you said you and Sun are going to meet us in Vale instead?"
"What? No, I 'm pretty sure I didn't-"
"Oh, you guys are running a bit late? It's fine, we'll just head into the city and you guys can meet up with us as fast as you can."
"Ugh, fine. But you owe me big for this bailout!"
"Great! See you there! Send me a message once you arrive!"Jaune hung up the call and turned back to team RWBY, who all had expressions which were just a little too neutral. "What?"
"Nothing! Nothing at all. C'mon Jaune, let's go find an airship!" And with that, Ruby sprinted off, dragging the poor boy behind and leaving the others to follow.
Weiss turned to her remaining teammates. "So, we all agree Jaune's not back to normal yet?"
"I don't know, that really did seem the most Jaune-like Jaune has been for a while. Forgetful, nervous and mumbling? Classic."
"I'm more concerned with the fact that somehow, despite the fact it was supposed to be us and JNPR, Jaune, and by extension, us, are still hanging out with Sun and Neptune," Blake interjected.
"H-hey, that's not so bad, is it?" Weiss tried to fight back against the faunus' less-than-subtle insult to the pair. "I mean, they're good people at least."
"Yes Weiss, I'm sure that's the reason you love hanging out with Neptune."
"And what's that supposed to mean, Xiao-Long? Are you implying something?"
"Nothing at all, dearest Weiss. Now let's not miss our flight."
Neptune sighed as he made his way along the streets of Vale, teammate close behind. Just how Jaune had managed to mess this up so badly. It couldn't have been his advice, of course. That was flawless as always. No, someway, somehow, Jaune had managed to turn his date with Yang into... whatever this was that had him awake before noon.
He had also needed to explain to a very annoyed Sun why they had to quickly rush to Vale without really knowing himself. In short, neither of them were very happy.
He checked his scroll again, making sure they were going the right way to reach where Jaune had said to meet up. Some diner or such downtown, he didn't really care. Idly, Neptune wondered how the reparations for the whole train fiasco were coming along. Given nothing was closed down anymore, must've been nearly finished if not completed by now.
Eventually, the pair reached the diner, Neptune practically dragging his half-conscience partner. The place was a small off-white building, decorated in retro red curtains, neon signs, and tiled floor. Against all the other stores and high-rises of downtown, it looked like this place had been transported about 30 years back in time. In the window, Neptune spotted his friends sitting in a booth, all with large glasses in front of them.
Just once. That's all he asked. Just once could Jaune manage to find somewhere cool? Although given the expression on the lone boys face, Neptune realized Jaune might not have actually picked the locale this time.
Just as the blue-haired hunter was wondering if he would be able to get away with just turning around now and heading back to Beacon, team RWBY spotted the pair outside and started to motion them over. 'Great, there goes that chance.' With one last deep breath, he pulled open the door and stepped through into whatever it was Jaune had managed to tangle them up in.
Immediately upon passing the threshold of the diner, Neptune's nose was mugged by the overwhelming sweet smell from inside. It was enough to cause him to physically stagger back and almost enough to slap the faunus behind him awake. Almost
"Woah, what is this place?"
"It's a milkshake bar!" Ruby greeted as the pair made their way over. "It's so awesome! I can't believe I just found out about it recently!"
"It was Ruby's idea that we all come here." Jaune offered as an explanation. "Apparently it's great because it 'combines milk with dessert, in the most awesomest mixture ever.'"
"Hold up," Neptune motioned for everyone's attention. "You mean to tell me that all of you," he paused to look each person in the eyes. "Decided that the best idea while out in Vale, would be to go to milkshake bar when you had the choice to go to an actual, real bar? Name one good reason for that!"
"It's lunchtime."
"On a Sunday."
"And Ruby's underage."
Neptune sighed and put his head into his hands and sighed. HE had his work cut out for him.
If I pretend like nothing happened, will I get away with not updating the story for several months? For real, sorry for just suddenly disappearing without warning. The reason is that for me, writing these stories was a relaxing side-project, but with how busy I got, it was becoming too much to try to continue writing, so I decided to take some time off. After that, I tried to go back several times but just found it really hard to get back into the habit again. But I'm here now, and fingers crossed I should be updating more.
Also, I know (from several months back) that many of you were excited for the Yang-Jaune date coming up, and I'm sorry to say that was never actually planned for the story. I bring your hopes up, only to smack them down.
Another thing, I noticed while re-reading through my story that I mentioned a trip to the Emerald Forest that would take place the next day, then I didn't actually write the trip. I have now updated the chapter so it says the trip is next week, so isn't missing.
I think that's all I need to say, so for now, happy reading!
-Dunkacoke-
