Apologies in advance if this turned out terrible. Shipping is new to me.

26: Be My Valentine

"You came!" Connor called when Ruby sat down beside him in the small ice cream shop.

"Well, yeah, I said I would, didn't I?" Ruby reminded him.

Their ice cream arrived soon after. Connor's was a reasonable hot fudge sundae, but Ruby's was a giant pile of chocolate, strawberries, cookies, and sugary sauce.

"You're cute," Connor told his date.

"You're cute," Ruby replied. "And you've got some ice cream on your nose."

They left the shop smiling and holding hands. "So, what else are we gonna do today?"

"I can't believe my sister is going on her first date!" Yang said cheerfully, plunking herself down on the couch and almost launching the other two girls off it.

"You seem awfully excited about this," Blake pointed out.

"Ruby wasn't good at making friends back on Remnant," Yang admitted. "She was kind of weird even at Signal. Here, she's positively a freak."

"That's kind of a mean thing to say about your sister, isn't it?"

"We're all freaks, Weiss."

"Don't you have your own date to get ready for?" the annoyed white-haired girl pointed out.

Yang shook her head. "Nah, it's not for three hours. It doesn't take me that long."

She removed what looked like a DVD case from... somewhere and waved it in front of her teammates. "Now, since we've got nothing better to do, I borrowed this game from a friend."

Weiss glared at it in disdain. "Halo 4? Is that another first-person shooter?"

"I'm so happy you asked me on this date," Connor said to Ruby, their hands now firmly intertwined. "I mean, you could have had anybody-"

"I don't think so, Connor," she replied sadly.

"Why not? You're fantastic!" he replied, waving his free arm. "You're smart, you're strong, you're good with-"

"I'm kind of a weird girl, Connor," she said sadly. "I hear people talking about me, saying all kinds of bad things. Those aren't things I'm supposed to be, or something."

"Oh," he replied. "Do you ever wish you were... normal?"

She shook her head vigorously. "Of course not! We're all different and we're all who we are. I just wish people would accept that better."

"Me too." He paused. "I still think you're great."

Ruby smiled. "I'm glad you think so. As long as the people I care about like me, I'm happy."

Gavin laughed as he left the restaurant with Yang. "Of all the fancy restaurants we could have gone to, you chose this?"

"Didn't like Pizza Hut?" Yang asked, worried.

"I just thought you'd want something fancier, that's all," Gavin assured her.

"I'm not exactly a classy girl, Gavin." She admitted. "I like short shorts, not long frilly dresses. And I like greasy fast food more than weird fancy food."

"I am one hundred percent okay with that." In fact, that was probably- maybe- what made her so attractive. All the hotness without the bitchyness. "Still, I thought you'd want some sappy chick flick or something."

Yang countered. "Girl on the poster, romance subplot... this is totally a chick flick."

"It is not a chick flick."

"It's not a total chick flick."

"Let's just wait and see," Gavin said diplomatically.

As they headed toward the ticket booth, Yang agreed, "That's a good idea."

A white-haired heiress and a black cat girl sat in front of a flat-screen TV, controllers in hand, utterly transfixed. Yang had long since left to go on her own date, but Weiss and Blake kept playing, barely noticing that the blonde was no longer with them.

"This game is so stupid," Weiss moaned. On-screen, her character died yet again. "Damn it!"

"Ready to give up?" Blake asked. She flicked the right analogue stick, spinning her character around to headshot another alien.

"No. Never." Weiss gritted her teeth, ignoring her terrible score as she respawned. This time...

"Hey, Yang," Gavin suddenly said as they left the theatre.

"Yeah?"

"Are you secretly an alien princess?"

"Of course not."

"What if, like, you just don't know it yet?" Gavin suggested, chuckling. "God, I sound like Aaron when I say that."

"Well, not a princess," she replied with a laugh. "I'm more like Caine. Badass alien warrior."

"Genetically engineered?"

"Nope." She motioned to her well-endowed body. "This is all natural, baby."

"Even the hair?"

"Uh-huh."

"This was nice," Yang admitted. "I'll admit, there's more to you than I thought."

"I could say the same thing about you," Gavin replied. "It's getting dark. Do you need a ride home?"

"It's okay," she dismissed. "Badass alien warrior, remember?"

They shared one last laugh as she waved from across the parking lot. "Alright. See you Monday."

"Yeah."

FOODninja-321: Probably about 10 more, but it could be more or less depending on time constraints.

animal56: Vicki is not supposed to be a lesbian. That's not to say Weiss/Vicki is right out, but I didn't intend to write her that way.

Guest7: There are some mythological and historical figures that sound a lot like Remnans, aren't there? And they speak the same language as us, too...

mastermind: It's the multiverse thing. All possibilities are assumed to exist in some universe somewhere, and that includes everything fictional on Earth. The act of creating RWBY did not create that universe, but it lines up with one of the universes in the multiverse. That's a bit of a simplification, but basically the gist of it.

GreatWyrmGold: Weiss has really loosened up, and I wanted to show that.

coolshades45: Removing her ears would be akin to self-mutilation, and she would really prefer not to do so if she can avoid it. Bullet resistant is a relative thing. Weaker Grimm can be taken down with hunting rifles, bigger and tougher Grimm require more hits, more kinetic energy, or penetrating weapons.

Little Can: All of them are understandably appalled, but to different degrees. Blake is the one who looks at it the most, and it scares the hell out of her. She realizes that this could have happened to the Faunus if they'd gone a bit farther, and it could still happen.

themetaduck: I think a lot of the complacency here is reflective of myself, both in regards to this fic and life in general. When I started writing this story, I had a lot of big stuff planned for it, but because of various things it slowly turned into a sort of grindy, bogged-down story with not a lot happening. I'm trying to reverse that trend and there will be more eventful chapters coming up.

No, it's not a joke, that was the real chapter. I had some good ideas for this chapter, but I just couldn't get them to come together. Coming up: one transition chapter, then a classy upscale party. Those ones WILL be better.