Ahhhhhhh! Here it is! After not a long wait at all!

I really enjoyed this chapter and hope you all do as well!

The inside of the arcade was nice! A bit crowded maybe, but Ruby was able to ignore that as long as she was with Jaune and Pyrrha. Jaune had been quick to buy the duo some tokens, insisting that he at least had to be able to do that, after Pyrrha had paid for their meal at the restaurant, and Ruby grabbed the drinks for everyone. The sentiment was nice, at least, and it wasn't as though he'd insisted he had to pay for everything just because he was a guy.

They were currently still around the entrance of the sizable main room, trying to decide what to play first. Ruby had suggested they play a shooting game, but Jaune was a little hesitant to go against two girls who both had experience with rifles when he lacked any experience with firearms.

"Well, what do you want to play, then, Jaune?" Pyrrha asked, the picture of serene patience that Ruby wished she could be, the younger girl fiddling awkwardly with the sides of her cloak as her boyfriend and girlfriend talked. "There seems to be a sizable helping of unattended games."

"Hmm…" Jaune looked around the room, before settling on something Ruby couldn't see past the crowd (darn people being tall!), a mischievous smile slipping onto the blonde's face. "How about this, we play some of the shooting games, but in exchange, you two have to go against me in one of the dancing games."

"Yeah, sure!" Ruby agreed without a second thought, happy that they'd come to a decision. At Pyrrha's nervous chuckle, Ruby turned to look back at the taller girl, giving her the best reassuring smile she could. Maybe she should have waited until her girlfriend had come to a decision as well, so Ruby offered an addendum. "I-If that's okay with you, Pyrrha!"

"Oh, I don't mind, Ruby." The taller girl insisted, waving a hand dismissively. "It'll be fun to see who scores higher, in both games."

"I'll have you know I'm going to do the best." Jaune boasted, Ruby chuckling at the confident grin the blonde was giving the redheaded duo. "Come on, I know the way."

Following their boyfriend's beckoning wave, Ruby and Pyrrha walked through the crowded arcade, the younger girl quick to grab the older's hand to comfort as the amount of people in the room became more apparent. Maybe agreeing to a dancing game wasn't a good idea after all, they might get an audience.

"Here we are!" Jaune announced, enthusiastically patting the side of a rather… well used machine of "Grimm Night," an old shooter that Ruby had some experience playing back on Patch. On noticing the almost wicked grin the shorter redhead was giving him, Jaune deflated slightly, pouting. "Let's get this over with."

Unsurprisingly, Ruby was the best at the game, having played more hours than she really ought to have back when she frequented the arcade while living on Patch. What was surprising was how badly Pyrrha did. Maybe Uncle Qrow was lying when he told Ruby that playing games like this was good practice for using Crescent Rose's rifle form.

Jaune was surprisingly decent at it, given his lack of confidence. Even if he didn't have experience shooting a real gun, he had played similar kinds of stuff in the past. Ruby flashed him a gentle smile as she stood next to Pyrrha, having to rely on her tiptoes to try getting on an even level as the taller girl faced off against the blonde again.

Pyrrha did prove to be a quick learner, at least, and soon enough the final game between her and Jaune was a lot closer to a tie than the first had been, Ruby happy to step aside and just help her girlfriend after her first match had gone so well. As they stepped away from the machine, Ruby made sure to step between the older two, feeling far more comfortable with the crowds that way as they walked the short journey to the old dancing game.

Unlike the last game, this one actually had a wait, so the trio found themselves loitering as the line died down. Jaune looked a lot more confident here than he had at the shooting game, and Ruby got the suspicion that he might be a bit better at dancing than he was with shooting. That was kind of a funny thought, given how clumsy he could sometimes be.

As the line cleared up, giving the trio a chance to approach, Ruby hung back a little. "Something wrong?" Pyrrha asked, noticing the absence of the smaller girl's hand.

"I, uh, I don't know if I want to play this." Ruby mumbled, eyes darting around to the various people who were lingering around. It seemed that a lot of people liked to watch, and that made her stomach tense up as she felt anxiety building up again. "I, um… You guys get started, I'm just gonna… find somewhere to sit, okay?"

"If you're sure…" Jaune looked a little hesitant, but he seemed to notice the growing discomfort on Ruby's face, and offered her a warm smile. "There's a place to get food near the entrance, we'll meet you there when we're done here, okay?"

"Okay. Thanks Jaune. I'll see you two soon?" Ruby gave the best smile she could manage at the time, admittedly barely even a halfhearted one, before disappearing into the crowd, pushing her way past as quick as she could until she made it through, then rushed to the front of the store.

Finding the dining area wasn't too hard, though it was hardly a cozy looking one. From what Ruby could tell, the four tables provided had been haphazardly placed without much thought for convenience, given how cramped it looked. Ordering a drink to replace her now finished hot cocoa, Ruby sat near the edge of the small eating area, watching the people mingling throughout the arcade from a comfortable distance.

Sipping lazily from her soda, a loud ruckus drew Ruby's attention: the clattering of metal and a somewhat familiar grunt that left the girl frowning. Looking towards the claw machine, she found possibly the people she wanted to see least today, Team CRDL. Interestingly enough, they didn't look entirely pleased, either, and though she couldn't hear their bickering, it was clear from a distance that the members of the team were scolding Cardin for something.

Darn, curiosity was getting the better of her today, Ruby placing her cup down as she made her way over to the group cautiously. From what she could gather by the cracked glass and dent in the machine, someone - most likely Cardin, given the context - had broken the claw machine with a rather nasty punch.

Unfortunately, just as curiosity killed the cat, it had, well, not killed the Ruby, but certainly inconvenienced her. Just as she was about to return to her seat, Cardin turned around, still nursing the knuckles that had likely broken the machine, and made brief eye contact with her. Darn it, he had spotted her, there was no way Ruby could pretend he hadn't after they'd made eye contact, and now he was walking her direction.

Surprisingly, at least in Ruby's opinion, he was lacking his usual smirk, or an angered look at having been caught in such a silly situation. Instead, the large boy had what Ruby could only describe has a mix of shame, embarrassment, and maybe a hint of frustration. Feeling a familiar tingle in her arms and legs as she had last weekend during their encounter, Ruby was at least confident she could get away from him if he was acting weird again.

Standing in front of her, a good five feet of distance between them, Cardin jolted his head down in an awkward bow. "Sorry." He blurted out, the words clearly somewhat foreign to his mouth.

Huh? Cardin was actually apologizing? Without being weird about it?

"I'm sorry," he repeated, lifting his head and looking awkwardly to the right as he spoke. "For being such an asshole." She decided against commenting on his language, given he was making his best attempt at a sincere apology. "For bullying you and Jaune and everyone else, really. I want to… move past that."

"What he means," Russel spoke up, having approached from behind Cardin. "Is that Professor Goodwitch made it clear he has to clean up his act or he'll be the biggest humiliation to his family name since his father attended Beacon."

Russel was still sporting his combat attire, unlike the rest if his team, save his pauldron, and wearing a "Thrush Rush" apron. Oh, huh, that was probably obvious in hindsight. Looking to Cardin before the larger boy could protest, Russel knocked the back of his head, glaring. "And when I said I had to go fix something for my dad and you guys could come along, I thought it was obvious you weren't supposed to break anything.

"Right." Cardin mumbled, returning the glare to his teammate, who seemed entirely unphased by it. Looking back towards Ruby, she noticed his cheeks were colored, probably from embarrassment at being called out by his partner, if she was to guess. "Anyways, all I'm trying to say is that I messed up… I messed up a long time ago." Cardin offered a hand to shake, looking surprisingly timid given his usual attitude. "I just wondering if we can start again, you know, as friends?"

"No." Ruby didn't even need a moment to consider it, not caring as the older boy's expression fell, along with his hand. "Cardin, you made my life at Signal miserable. You harassed Yang because she wouldn't date you, spread rumors about her and made her feel awful. You bullied Jaune, and me, and probably every Faunus like Velvet who felt it was easier to tolerate your nonsense than it was to fight back. You've been a bad person for the entire time I've known you, and there's no way you can erase that in a simple apology."

"If you want to improve, that's good, but it takes a lot more effort than simple words." Ruby explained sternly, silver-eyes in a piercing glare as she looked at the older boy. "I don't know if we can ever be friends, I don't even want to think about that right now, but if you even want the chance of making a better impression with people at Beacon, you need to start showing some actual improvement. And apologize to Jaune and Velvet, too! And anyone else you were harassing!"

Before the older boy could get a word in edgewise, Ruby kicked off with her right foot, turning around and walking back to her table as confidently as possible. Truth was, she actually hated having to be so severe to anyone, but she knew that Cardin definitely didn't deserve easy forgiveness for all the trouble and stress he'd put people through. Maybe he really was interested in changing his ways, but it wasn't Ruby's responsibility to advocate that or accept any attempt at mending things he made.

Sighing, she took her seat, returning to her drink as she waited on Jaune and Pyrrha to finish up. Silver eyes brightened as she spotted the duo slipping through the crowd, a smiles on their faces, along with a healthy sheen of sweat. It seemed that their little dance off had been a bit more intense than Ruby had expected.

"Hey you two!" Ruby chirped, waving cheerfully to her boyfriend and girlfriend. "All done dancing?"

"Hey, you really missed out." Jaune chuckled, looking to Pyrrha with a light blush on his cheeks.

"You should try it sometime, Ruby." Pyrrha suggested, sharing the look with Jaune before turning her gaze towards their girlfriend. "It was much more fun than I'd expected."

"Oh, uh. Maybe somewhere else. It was a little too crowded today." Ruby nervously chuckled, blushing at the supportive smile Pyrrha was giving her. "Besides, dancing isn't really my thing!"

"Really?" Jaune asked, offering a hand to help her stand, which she was happy to take, even though it wasn't really necessary. "I would've figured with how you fight with Crescent Rose, dancing is something you'd really like."

"What, why?" Ruby asked sheepishly, her cheeks still a light pink as she looked at Jaune, who returned the look sheepishly.

"Well… it's just that, when you fight with Crescent Rose, it reminds me a lot of dancing." The blonde admitted, scratching at the back of his neck nervously as his cheeks became a bright red. "It's, uh… it's really beautiful."

"It is?" Ruby squeaked, shoulders tensing as embarrassment filled her head.

"It is." Pyrrha confirmed, placing her hand on the shorter girl's shoulder and squeezing affectionately. "I am known in Mistral for my graceful fighting, but if you had been a tournament fighter back home, I am certain they'd sing to how beautiful and solemn a dance your fighting is."

"Oh!" Ruby's eyes were wide, face a color matching her cloak. "Th-thank you!"

"There's no need to thank me for the truth, Ruby." Pyrrha insisted, smiling brightly at the younger teen. "Now come on, do you have anything else you'd like to do here? Jaune and I will stick by you the whole time."

"Yeah, sure!" Ruby chirped cheerfully, still blushing as she gave her girlfriend a wide grin. She didn't feel like talking about her little run in with Cardin right now, but maybe she could later, while they were enjoying themselves. "Let's go!"

Blake was feeling, in a word, awful. She knew that she was right to turn down Yang's interest, but it didn't make it feel any better. She really liked her partner, but the last time she'd gotten close to someone like that, maybe the circumstances between her and Adam were different than her and Yang, but it didn't make it any less scary.

The Faunus had found a comfortable place in the wooded area dotting the main campus, far enough away from other people to keep alone, while close enough that wasn't at risk of drawing Grimm with her melancholy. Flipping through the pages of the book Ruby had given her, The Boy Who Fell from the Sky, a tired sigh escaped her lips. It wasn't as pleasant as reading one of her "romantic" novels, but given the current situation, she felt sick at the thought of reading one of those.

The concept of the book was at least interesting, that of a boy sucked into a great conflict he had no preparation for after falling to Remnant from the sky, granted a great power by forgotten gods, determined to help people who weren't his own, even if it didn't result in returning to his home. Blake liked it, the idea of being willing to help others without a concern of finding a way back home. With how much she was sure her parents hated her, she was sure she wouldn't be able to find a way back home, either, but that didn't mean she wasn't going to avoid the responsibility she had.

"Hey, Blake!" Shutting her book as Sun spoke, Blake shut her eyes with a hint of frustration. When she'd heard him approaching, she'd hoped he at least had the wisdom to realize she wasn't really in the mood to deal with anyone's shenanigans, let alone his. Dangling upside down from the tree beside her by his tail, Sun Wukong gave the cat Faunus a wide grin. "How's it hanging?"

Normally, that would've simply elicited a groan from the oft brooding brunette, but today, it reminded her too much of the sort of word play Yang would use. "Go away, Sun."

"What's wrong?" The monkey Faunus asked, voice chipper as ever as he swung from the branch he was on to land beside Blake on the ground. "Cat got your tongue?"

"Shut up!" Blake groaned, rolling her eyes. If there was one thing Sun should have picked up on by now, it was that she didn't really appreciate the animal related jokes. "I'm not in the mood today, Sun."

"Blake, I don't know if you've ever met you, but you're almost never in the mood." The blonde chuckled, taking a seat beside the brunette and flashing her another grin. "That just means you've got something boiling inside you need to talk about, and if you can't talk to your team, I'm always here to lend an ear - even if I only have two!"

"Do you have to joke about that kind of stuff?" Blake scolded, sending the blonde a glare.

"Of course!" Sun grinned in response, giving her shoulder a playful shove. "Back home in Vacuo, we laughed about that kind of stuff like that all the time."

"Well, we're not in Vacuo, are we?" The brunette snapped back, frustrated by how laid back her friend was about all this stuff, but a bit glad she had managed to turn the conversation from his earlier inquiry. Sighing, her expression softened slightly. "You talk about Vacuo a lot, I'm surprised you left it."

"Well," Sun chuckled, scratching the back of his neck. "Vacuo is nice, but… it's hard. I lost a lot of family in Vacuo, back when we were still nomads. My cousin and I settled down in the city, but even then it's not the safest. I just… I hope Starr is safe."

"Starr?" Blake raised an eyebrow, her ears perking up slightly. That was the first time Sun had actually mentioned a name from his time in Vacuo.

"Yeah. My cousin, Starr Sanzang." Sun said fondly, leaning back lazily against the tree with a smile on his face. "After I lost… after our tribe faded to the sands, Starr and I made our way to Vacuo -the city- and then she helped train me at a dojo she took over running."

"Why'd you leave then?" Blake asked, her curiosity peaked.

"Well, what can I say? I'm a wandering soul!" Sun insisted, puffing out his chest proudly as he stood up, offering a hand to Blake. "Come on, let's go for a walk, it'll be better for you than brooding!"

Blake was a bit skeptical, but relented to the monkey Faunus' request, accepting his hand to help her stand. "Where exactly are we walking?"

"I don't know!" Sun announced, grinning wildly. "That's the best part! It's all about the journey, not the destination."

"If you say so." Well, he clearly did, given the enthusiastic nod he gave. "When was… when was the last time you saw Starr?"

"Starr? Back when I visited Vacuo, on my way here from Mistral." Sun explained, walking with a pep in his step as the duo casually strode through the woods. "Only visited for a little while, though. Never got a chance to check in on the dojo, I just wanted to say hi before I had to find a boat to Vale."

"Ah, yeah, a boat to stow away on." Blake bit, giving him a rather disappointed glare.

"What? It's not like they were going to let me onboard anyways." Sun defended, shrugging his shoulders. "I was a Faunus, they were a human crew. It was easier to avoid the fuss and just hide, it's not like they even noticed until we got to Vale."

Blake frowned, but she knew that was true. Despite improvements made after the Faunus Rights Revolution, there were still holdouts, particularly with private groups. That was part of what the White Fang was fighting against, and from what Sun had told her before, they weren't very active in Vacuo.

"Why didn't you just come with the rest of your academy to Vale, then?" She asked, trying to at least glean something less negative from the conversation. She didn't want to think about the White Fang, about the reasons they were still necessary. About how Adam had sullied that in his bloodlust.

"Oh, well, I wanted to see Starr! And I guess just enjoy a bit of the city." Sun shrugged again. "I can't say I'd love to live there forever, but Vacuo is nice. Simpler than the other Kingdoms in a lot of ways."

"You really miss it." Blake said, sounding a bit sad.

"Yeah, I do." The blonde nodded, before turning around to look at his friend. "What about you, Blake? Do you miss wherever you're from?"

Blake's expression sunk, the cat Faunus looking down, trying not to show the regret in her eyes. "Yes, I do." She admitted, "I miss it, even as much as it stands as a symbol for our oppression. Menagerie is a beautiful place, and the Faunus living there have done much to claim what we can of the continent."

"So you're from Menagerie?" Sun asked, giving her a sheepish grin. "I mean, I kind of assumed, but I wasn't sure! Why do we call it Menagerie, anyways? Isn't that name kind of… on the nose?"

"It had a different name, once. Before Mistral invaded and took it, five centuries ago. Before the people were enslaved, their language all but eradicated." Blake said bitterly, "we've tried to reclaim what we can, but after so many hundreds of years, almost all has been forgotten save fairy tales and legends."

"That's awful." Sun lamented, offering his friend a sad smile. "I bet that Menagerie and Vacuo would get along pretty well, y'know? Both of our nations lost a lot of our identity thanks to the other Kingdoms."

"I admittedly don't know a lot about Vacuo." Blake confessed, looking a little embarrassed. "Can you tell me about it?"

"Ah, don't worry! Most people don't know about Vacuo." Sun waved a hand dismissively, grinning. "We keep to ourselves a lot, now, after all the damage Atlas and the SDC has done to our environment. There's even some sects of people who refuse to use Dust at all!"

"Really? That sounds interesting. Even in Menagerie, we can't escape the use of Dust, though we do try to avoid using SDC products as much as we can."

"Well, most of us don't eschew it entirely," Sun continued, beckoning that Blake should follow him, "but since Dust is pretty expensive there, our weapons don't always rely too heavily on it."

"I imagine." Blake replied, complying with his request, picking up her pace a little. Sun smiled a little more confidently, and the duo continued chatting as they journeyed through the woods, Blake grateful to have something to occupy her mind aside from her guilt.

"Hey Ren?" The Mistralan boy looked up from his classwork, turning to Nora, who had a curious look on her face. "Is that Yang?"

Looking in the direction his partner was, Ren spotted a familiar mess of blonde hair across the library, huddled away in a corner of the building. How Nora had located her, the dark-haired boy couldn't say, but his partner always had a knack for doing the impossible.

"So it is." Ren confirmed, keeping his words brief as he turned his focus back towards the redhead.

"She looks sad." Nora noted, pouting, before grabbing Ren's hands and squeezing tightly. "Ren! We should go talk to Yang, she needs to be cheered up!"

Well, with how she had said it, Ren could tell this wasn't a request. Smiling slightly, he nodded. "Very well."

Following his partner as she dragged him along, the Mistralan boy looked a little concerned at the ruckus they might be causing in the library, though Nora didn't seem to have any worries about it. Coming to a stop before their blonde friend, Ren had to agree with his partner's assessment that Yang looked sad. The normally bombastic member of Team RWBY had bags below her eyes that looked foreign, and an uncharacteristic frown painted her face.

"Hey, Yang!" Nora exclaimed, ignoring the several outbursts of "shh" coming from other students in the otherwise quiet building.

"Oh, hey, Nora, Ren." He was admittedly concerned by how defeated the normally confident blonde sounded as she responded to his partner, his lips forming a slight frown. "What're you two doing here?"

"We were here attending to some of our studies," Ren explained, his eyes briefly going to Nora and then Yang, before he settled on a more neutral expression. "Nora noticed you were alone, and we thought we'd say hello."

"Oh, well. Hello." Yang gruffly replied, before returning her eyes to the book in her hand. On noticing that neither Nora or Ren had departed after her brisk greeting, she frowned, looking up at them. "Did you… need something?"

"What's wrong?!" Nora blurted out, caring nothing for social tact and getting straight to the point. Noticing that Yang was reticent to answer, the redhead pouted. "You can't just pretend that nothing is wrong, not when you're over here alone and look so down."

"It's… It's not a big deal." Yang insisted, Ren chuckling as Nora leaned in with a suspicious squint, looking directly into the blonde's nervous violet eyes. "I just… I messed up! I thought that someone felt something about me, and they didn't."

"What do you mean?" Ren asked gently, sitting beside Yang and subtly sending his semblance her way. Not enough to muted her emotions entirely, but enough to gently calm her a little.

"I… I thought that she cared about me the way I did about her." Though Yang was doing her best to remain subtle, Ren thought it was pretty clear she was talking about Blake. He didn't mention it, of course, he knew better than that. "Have you ever… felt like you really care about someone, but… they're unwilling to commit, even though you know they feel the same?"

"Sometimes… sometimes even though we want to be ready, we can't be." Ren said slowly, his eyes drifting to Nora briefly, when the redhead wasn't looking. "Maybe they're worried about the future, about the dangers life might bring, for both parties. It can be… easier to shut oneself off, than risk getting hurt."

"But that doesn't… that doesn't make it better." Yang retorted, hands clenched tightly at her sides. Ren saw Nora place a hand over the blonde's in a sympathetic gesture, and did the same with his own.

"It'll be okay, Yang." Nora insisted, offering a supportive smile. "Just because you have to wait for now, doesn't mean you'll always have to. Just work on being friends for now, anything more than that can wait for now. Just… hopefully not too long."

Ren ignored the jab aimed his way, though he hated that such melancholy lingered beneath Nora's surface. "I should finish up my and Nora's work." The Mistralan boy stated calmly, standing up. "I'll come get you when I'm done, Nora."

"Okay!" The redhead exclaimed cheerfully, again eliciting a round of shushing from some of the other students. As Ren returned to his and Nora's work, he heard his partner gleefully chatting on with Yang, offering to show the blonde how to play cards "the Mistralan way." A soft chuckle escaped his lips, a show of weakness he would normally never allow, but Beacon had offered a measure of safety that made him reconsider how he'd viewed much from his time with Nora, as orphans on Anima.

Maybe it was time to listen to some of the advice he tried to give to others. Maybe he could finally lessen his worries, at least a little.

Their time at the arcade had been fruitful, the group having amassed a hoard of tickets that went to buying an oversized Beowolf plushie, which was now secure beneath Jaune's free arm. Ruby had been a bit nervous to accept that all three of their efforts go to getting her a stuffed toy, but Pyrrha had been quick to insist it could serve as a substitute for the absence of her partners the girl surely experienced every night. Ruby wasn't exactly sure what that meant, but she did miss the duo when they were apart, so she accepted it.

"I'm surprised you ran into Cardin here." Jaune said as the three exited the arcade, Ruby placed between him and Pyrrha, holding a hand from each of them.

"It sounded like Russel was there for some family business," Ruby elaborated, having only given the barest rundown of what had happened. "The rest of CRDL just tagged along. I can't believe Cardin broke the claw machine. It would've been nice to use."

"Breaking one of the machines seems rather what I would expect from him, if I'm honest." Pyrrha replied, chuckling sheepishly. "I'm just surprised he tried to apologize to you. He never seemed the sort."

"Yeah, he really sounded weird trying to say sorry." Ruby nodded, smiling up at Pyrrha. "I didn't accept it of course, not after how badly he behaved to everyone. It was… weird, not accepting an apology, but I knew it was the right decision not to."

"I agree with it wholeheartedly." Pyrrha reassured, smiling at Ruby as her eyes darted to Jaune, who gave an affirmative nod of his head. "Cardin is a bad person, and a worse student. If he wishes to improve himself, I wish him all the luck in the world, but that doesn't make it as though the things he did never happened. He has a lot of atonement to seek before he will be viewed highly by anyone at Beacon."

"Even if he didn't do as much awful stuff as he had, you never have to accept someone's apology, Ruby." Jaune furthered, squeezing her hand affectionately. "An apology being accepted is like… a gift to the person apologizing. It's not always necessarily earned, and it should never be expected that your mistakes are going to be forgiven. It's entirely up to the person wronged whether they accept or not."

"I guess…" The shorter redhead acknowledged hesitantly. "I don't have a lot of experience with people apologizing, outside of dad and Yang, and both of them I know are being genuine every time they apologize."

"It's different when family is involved," Jaune acknowledged, giving his younger girlfriend a reassuring smile. "But even then, sometimes, you don't have to forgive family. Not right away, at least. Even family can do really bad things sometimes."

"Yeah, I know." Ruby agreed solemnly. Even if she couldn't remember much of it, she knew of that period just after her mother's passing, when her father was… absent. "I guess… I guess I hope that Cardin can one day earn some forgiveness, even if right now he doesn't deserve it."

"That's an admirable attitude, Ruby." Pyrrha said gently, "only time will tell if he deserves it or not, we'll have to see."

"You're right," Ruby nodded, before putting on her best smile as she broke free from the duo, spinning around to give them a wide grin. "Now come on, let's get going! If we're too late, we'll miss out on dinner!"

With that announcement, the trio picked up their pace, talking and laughing all the way to the airship, and even more once they were on board, Jaune's motion sickness granting them a reprieve this evening as they rode back to Beacon.

Evening soon turned to night, and Ruby reluctantly departed from Jaune and Pyrrha, soon finding herself laying in bed beside the oversized plushie. Grabbing it and hugging tight, she imagined hugging her boyfriend and girlfriend, and smiled slightly. Maybe Pyrrha did know what she was talking about. As her breathing calmed and sleep overtook her, all Ruby could think was that today had been wonderful.