Junior's Club.

Ah damn. Yang's eyes flicked around nervously. She wasn't scared of the bouncers, or even the twin bitches that had tried to stop her. No, what she was scared of was the possibility of her getting in another fight, and then Beacon, or more specifically Miss Goodwitch finding out about it and tearing her a new one for it.

Jaune had no such concerns. He walked right up to the bouncer, ignoring the other customers complaining in the queue.

"Hi, my name is Jaune Arc. I'm on the list?"

The man dragged a finger down the clipboard. "Ah, yes! Welcome. Do you have a plus one sir?"

"Her I suppose."

"You!" The man fumbled with his clipboard as he reached for his gun.

"It's ok Tony, she's with me." Jaune held up his hands, and reluctantly the man holstered his gun.

"Alright then. Welcome sir, have a good night."

She couldn't help but notice how the workers were all strangely deferential, and even the bouncers were giving off the air of letting in a VIP. Well, it made sense, he was probably one of those crazy high tippers that threw cash wherever he went, if how he treated Ruby was any indication.

The two of them took their seats at a relatively more empty section of the bar.

"Care to float me a drink?"

To her worry there was a flash of genuine annoyance, but he waved a bartender over nonetheless. The bartender rushed over, looking a bit too eager to do his job.

Jaune didn't order something expensive as she'd expected. Instead, he flipped to the first page of the menu, and ordered a Grapefruit Spritzer. It was a beginner cocktail, a sweet fruity thing that had less than 2% alcohol and the type of thing one would order on their first time bar diving.

"You?"

Her finger, which had been preparing to point to an expensive cocktail, trailed down and pointed to a cup of soda.

"Woman of simple taste aren't ya." For some reason he looked slightly disappointed even as the bartender placed their drinks on the table.

As she watched, he grabbed the glass, drained half of it in one gulp and started nibbling on the chunks of fruit.

"You sure you don't want anything stronger? I'm paying for this anyway."

"It's fine." She took a sip of the sparkling juice. "Why? Trying to get in my pants too?"

"I was hoping that if I threw enough money at you you'd get drunk enough that I could run away."

"Heh heh… heh…" her awkward laughter trailed off when he didn't laugh.

"Well, lay it on me."

"What?"

"I mean, that's why you're here right? To give me another lecture." He rolled his eyes and took another sip of the drink.

"W-what? No!"

"Really? Oh." Jaune blinked, stunned and a bit embarrassed. "I'm sorry, why did you follow me then?"

"Uhhh…"

Why was she here?

She'd originally rushed after him because she was scared he was gonna get mugged. Then she wanted to stalk him to get some answers out of him, but she couldn't admit that now! She did have her pride.

With no other option, she defaulted to the only thing she could think of, which was to push it to him instead.

"Well why did you invite me here?

"Uh, no offense, but you've been giving me the overprotective big sister act since I met you." Yang wanted to point out that he'd only met her once, but he pushed on. "It's pretty obvious that even if I didn't invite you, you'd force yourself in here with me anyway."

"What? That's not overprotectiveness, that's just being protective. That was a normal amount of protectiveness."

He gave her a look. "Yang, I have sisters too you know. I know what overprotectiveness looks like."

"Really? How many?"

He smiled wanly. "Seven."

She gaped. "Seven?!"

"Oh my gosh…" She tried to imagine what seven Ruby's would look like, and came up with a bunch of scenarios where they either huddled together in one big ball of social awkwardness her entire childhood or she would end up as a glorified human shepherd corralling a herd of Rubys through everything, which as adorable as it sounded would've have probably gotten really old really fast.

"So yeah, you don't get to act innocent when in your mind I'm, and I quote, 'trying to defile your sister's innocence."

"Well you can't exactly blame me can you?

He tilted his head questioningly.

"Look at the way you treat her!"

"We're just frie-"

"Yes yes, you keep saying that you're just friends, but how am I supposed to know that? How is anyone?" She spread her arms. "Look at you! You're tall, you're somewhat kinda sorta easy on the eyes-"

"Hey!"

"-and you throw money at Ruby like there's no tomorrow!"

"I don't 'throw money at her'!"

"The pin! The money! The museum tour! You bought her a sweater that cost like a thousand lien!"

"Oh please." He waved his hand dismissively. "I would've bought her an entire outfit if she wouldn't have rejected it."

"Rubthatinmyfacewhydon'tyou-But the two of you spend so much time together. You're almost stealing her away from our team, you can't tell me you aren't at least hoping for something more."

He blinked, looking genuinely perplexed. "Isn't this what friends do? They hang out with each other!"

For the first time, Yang Xiao Long considered the possibility that Jaune Arc was just as useless socially as Ruby Rose.

"This goes far beyond 'friendship'!" Her voice was so loud a couple of people dancing gave her strange looks. She gestured wildly with her hands, speaking slower like she was talking to a child. "Normal friends don't have one-on-one dinners and museum dates, normal friends don't buy each other clothes, and normal friends sure as hell don't give each other half a grand in cash to spend."

He raised his hands in surrender. "Fine, you're right. I will treat Ruby less nicely in the future, and try to make her cry at least once a week. Happy?"

"Wha- no that's not better! You better not!"

"What? You call me a creep when I'm nice to Ruby, you threaten me when I'm not, how am I supposed to win?"

Intellectually, Yang could tell that Jaune was saying this just to rile her up, but emotionally she was compelled to argue just in case. "Look, trying something with Ruby is one thing, but if you make her sad…"

"And what I'm trying to tell you is that there is no ulterior motive, I'm not going to 'try' anything. We. Are. Not. Banging."

They glared at each other for a moment, before Jaune slumped slightly.

"Look, let's be honest. I can't stop you from being an overprotective helicopter sister, just like how you can't stop me from hanging out, as friends, with Ruby. So we're just going to have to agree to disagree." He held out his hand expectantly, apparently being so used to doing that that he didn't realize shaking hands in a club either made you look awkward or like a drug smuggler. "Whaddya say?"

She looked down pointedly at his open palm for a moment, before sighing.

"Fine." Ruby would definitely keep hanging out with him no matter what even if she tried stopping her, she didn't exactly want to become enemies with this guy and definitely not with her sister, and at least this way he knew she was keeping an eye on him. The two of them clasped their hands together and shook, not breaking eye contact.

"I still think you're being ridiculous."

"And I still think you're trying to sleep with my sister."

They shook hands a few more times, not wanting to be the first to let go, before the bartender came over.

Jaune Arc smiled, a bit too mischievously. "So, now that we've concluded our business, whaddya say we have one last drink. My treat. You can take alcohol right?"

"Yes?" She'd wanted to answer with more confidence, but the glint in his eyes worried her.

"Two glasses of Snake Venom please."

The bartender gave Jaune a dubious look before reaching under the bar and pulling out a short, dark bottle.

Yang's eyebrows furrowed. The bottle was weird. It was smaller than most alcohol bottles she'd seen, strangely empty of any decorations save a tiny label on the front with the alcohol name and company logo. It even had a skull and crossbones on it like some kind of stereotypical cartoon poison.

Carefully, the bartender poured them two shots, giving them another long, skeptical look before pushing the glasses over.

"Bottoms up." They clinked the glasses together, and she downed the shot.

Her lungs instantly became empty, all the air escaping in painful hacking coughs. Her head felt like Nora had swung Magnhild at it, and her eyes were so watery she could barely see. Jaune was curled over the counter, coughing and gasping for air.

"W-" she sucked in another mouthful of air, which did nothing for the burning she was feeling, and forced down her nausea. "What the fuck was that?!"

"Sna- " he paused to have another coughing fit. "Snake Venom. It's a Mistrali booze, it's-" he paused again, looking like he was trying not to vomit. "-supposed to be 95% alcohol."

NINETY FIVE?! Yang hastily gestured to the bartender for a glass of water, trying to fight off her own nausea.

The bartender passed over two glasses of water, which the two of them drained in an instant.

"Ahhhhh…" Yang swiped at her mouth. Honestly, after the initial shock, the booze wasn't half bad. She had just gotten an hour's worth of drinking done in a few seconds, and the good kind of alcohol haze was settling in.

"Ok, now that that's settled, could you maybe go somewhere else? Not to be rude, but I kinda need privacy for this."

"Ah right. Business matters right. Well, you have fun with that."

She strided off, giving a cocky nod to the twins who'd shown up to keep an eye on her. After that last shot she'd lost the mood for drinking, so she was just going back to Beacon. Maybe Ruby was still awake and she'd be able to get in some last minute teasing.

If Yang had been less distracted, she would have noticed a man walking out of the empty alleyway behind her.