Requested by P3R50N4

Suggested Reading: Crimson XV Black Reunion

Extra 004: Reaper's Repast

"It's over… at long last… finals are over," Ruby Rose groaned as she stumbled into her team's room, barely mustering the bit of strength needed to close the door behind her. She didn't even have enough energy to climb into her bed, instead electing to lean against the wall for support. "The end of term exams at Signal were nothing like this. How isn't there some law saying it's illegal for testing to be this tough?"

"Ruby, you're exaggerating… less so than usual, but you're still exaggerating," Weiss said as she lay in bed already wearing her pajamas as she read through her magazines. Her hair was currently undone and wet after the shower she'd taken to try and relax.

"No I'm not! On my last test I actually had to use my semblance to write in the last of my answers and that test was three hours long!" she exclaimed, her legs giving out as she slid down to wall and seated herself on the floor. "...At least I knew the test material."

"After all of those late nights we had to spend studying, I feel like I could recite my textbooks from memory," Blake Belladonna commented as she laid in her bed as well. As soon as her finals had ended, the first thing on her mind was to grab a catnap. Unfortunately, she was actually too tired to fall asleep and had instead could only lie awake in bed. "At least we won't have to wait long for the results, just a few days…"

"And then we're all officially on break," Ruby said dreamily, already thinking of all the time off that she had been waiting for them. "Anyone here have big plans?"

"Aside from getting a certain someone an actual wardrobe, I'm afraid I don't," Weiss said thinking to an earlier promise that had been made. "What about you Blake? Thinking about reconnecting with that friend of yours?"

"I would, but Makoto's actually going to be leaving the day the results are posted so we're not going to have a lot of time for that," the cat Fanus admitted. "Something about all of the girls spending vacation together."

"Bummer, but at least she's coming back next quarter," Ruby said, looking on the positive side. It was at that moment that there was a harsh banging on the door, much more aggressive than your normal knock like they were kicking on it. "It's open."

"My arms are already full; open the damn door," came Ragna's gruff voice on the other side. Sighing, she opened the door to find her best friend waiting on the other side… whilst carrying her older sister in a piggyback hold on his back. The usually spunky Yang was out cold with a small trial of drool falling from her mouth onto Ragna's jacket. "Pretty sure this is yours."

"What happened to her?" the fellow team lead demanded as she made room for Ragna to come in before closing the door behind him. Placing the blonde in her bed, he finally wiped the drool off his shoulder

"Soon as we got on the transportation back from the forest, she passed out cold," he explained. As part of everyone's finals, they would be judged in combat situations that were similar to their orientation exam. Failing to perform here wouldn't mean expulsion from the academy, but it was certainly one of the more heavily weighed exams at the academy. "If Ren didn't distract the procter while I booked it out of there, I'm pretty sure they would've docked her points."

"Nice of you to care about me." Ragna and Ruby both finched as she looked down at Yang in her bed. The blond still looked as exhausted as all hell, but her eyes were open as she looked at Ragna in a knowing smirk.

"...You were awake when you drooled on me?" he demanded, glancing to his still slightly damp shoulder.

"You know I wouldn't do that to you; I woke up a few halls down," she told him before trying to give him a charming smile. "Couldn't tell my Knight in Shining Armor that his services weren't needed, now could I?"

"...I prefer Reaper in a Red Coat," Ragna decided, knowing that there was little chance in winning with Yang.

"Putting Yang teasing you aside for the moment," Weiss began.

"NEVER!"

"FOR THE MOMENT," Weiss ordered before looking accusingly at Ragna. "How are you still looking so fresh!? You just got out of finals, but you barely even look tired!"

"I was kinda wondering that myself," Yang said as she tried to fight back a yawn. "Start of the exam, he was looking just as bad as I was, but now he's looking as energetic and pissed as ever."

"You can really help a lot with the latter," the Reaper gruffly told her, leaving Yang to stick her tongue out. "As for the former… there's not a whole lot to say, I was in my element so of course I'd come out looking good."

"Hey, I might not be as big a Grimm expert as you are, but I can do my fair share of fighting and then some," the blonde told him.

"No one's saying you can't," Ragna told her… before smirking harshly. "Unlike you though, I don't go all out first thing and get burned out halfway in."

"What?" Yang said, aghast at even the suggestion. "I don't-"

"You do," Weiss told her.

"First thing you do most of the time," her partner added.

"It's like you can't fight if you're not completely flashy," Ruby finished, even she was getting in on the accusations.

Yang wisely decided not to comment any further and get herself in a worse situation than she already was. Ragna couldn't help but smirk as he noticed the touch of pink on her face, earning himself a well earned win (though he was clearly far behind in the overall count). It didn't stay long as there was another knock at the door.

"Lot of visitors here today," Ruby noted before calling out. "It's open!"

Waiting on the other side of the door was someone the girls hadn't expected to see. Tsubaki Yayoi was outside in her academy uniform, looking about as exhausted as the rest of the students did now. There were slight bags under her eyes and her hair was messier than it usually was (anything other than perfectly styled), but she still looked like she was managing to hold up decently after her own exams.

"Never expected to see you around here," Weiss said, poorly hiding her protective tone.

"When I didn't find Ragna in his room, I thought it would make sense to check here," she said calmly, giving Weiss a smile that the Schnee heir was unsure how to take it.

"Safe bet," Ragna told her with a modest shrug. "So, what've I done now?"

"Passed your exams hopefully," Tsubaki told him, making it clear she wasn't here to chew him out for anything. "I was actually wondering if you didn't already have dinner plans."

"Dinner plans?" Ragna asked. He then remembered that (before the chaos of finals) he'd been trying to repair his team's dynamic. Noticing type of glances he was getting from Team RWBY, it was clear they wanted him to turn the offer down out of suspicion. "Nothing outside the usual cafeteria food. You got a craving for something?"

"I'll let you decide on the food," she said with a small smile. "Six o'clock at the gate? That'll give me time to freshen up."

"Fine by me. It's a da-"

The look she was giving him made it clear to Ragna that she wasn't willing to go that far.

"-Aaaaaaay plan. It's a day plan… evening plan if you want to split hairs," Ragna said, poorly trying to save face. Tsubaki didn't bother trying to hide her eye roll, but somehow still managed to leave and close the door with her smile intact. "There go my plans of heading straight to bed and staying there until break's over."

"You could've turned her down. Told her you were too tired, had plans, something," Blake informed.

"Yeah, but if she's reaching out like this I'd rather give her a chance," he admitted. "You didn't have anything you wanted to do to celebrate, did you?"

"Honestly, we're all so beat I'm not sure we can even make it to dinner," Ruby admitted, before looking up at Ragna seriously. "Just be careful. I know she's... mellowed out recently, but I've just got a bad feeling about this."

"You do, huh?" he questioned before chuckling as he patted the top of Ruby's head and caused her to blush. "Even after the sheer hell of finals, I think I've got anything she could try to throw at me." He chuckled. "Nice of you to worry about me though."

"Um…" Ruby said, blushing and unable to think of a response. "I…"

"...Sheesh, I'm Ruby's older sister and I don't dote on her nearly as much as you do," Yang cut in, causing Ragna to flinch as he took his hand back.

"Who's doting?" Ragna demanded, honestly not the best defence in this situation.

"You are…" Blake input, crossing her arms as she smiled at him knowingly.

"All the time…" Weiss added with her hands on her hips, her tone making it unclear whether she was disappointed or just plain jealous.

"...It's not like I mind," Ruby finished, scratching the back of her head. Without much of a comeback, Ragna only slowly nodded in admittance as he headed out the room to take a well needed shower… that or try poorly to save face. Once he was gone, Ruby glared at her team. "It's not like he was doing anything wrong."

"No, but it looked like you were getting close to overheating," Yang teased. Ruby gave her big sis a pout.

"I dunno, you got doted on enough for Ragna to carry you back," she retorted, trying to pull off Yang's teasing look and direct it back at her sister.

"True, true…" Yang said, before instead deciding to deflect to Weiss and Blake. "I guess that means you two are still completely left out."

"Oh, don't you get us involved in this!" Weiss demanded.

"Too late," the cat faunus sighed. Before pulling the blanket over and trying to get comfortable for another attempt at a nap. "If you're going to bicker, go outside or keep it down."

"We're not bickering!" Weiss screamed in denial.

"You a-" Ruby could barely start before Weiss shot her a look, ending the third vocal assault before it could even begin. Giving a small giggle, she began to gather a few things so that she could take her own shower.

Not Long Later

After getting a nice hot shower, Ragna was finally allowing the tension brought onto him by preparing and participating in Beacon's finals. He didn't necessarily feel like he'd completely recovered (and there was always the tension on needing to wait on the results), but it felt a lot better than when he'd taken care of his written exams. He wouldn't say that this type of testing suited him at all, but it was a bit of fresh air compared to what he was usually put through… but that sort of felt like the problem.

'Damn, doesn't feel like I've been getting that much stronger,' Ragna thought to himself as walked through the silent hallways of Beacon, everyone either at dinner by now or relaxing after a series of sleepless nights. 'Sure I've been heading out to hunt on my own every now and again, but compared to Jubei's training, I don't think I've been getting much tougher from it.'

It was clear to the Reaper what he needed to do, find a new way to test himself in the coming days; find some way to make sure that he wasn't just wasting his time at Beacon waiting to hear back from Qrow. Fighting in mack battles was always an interesting experience and he learned a few things from participating in those, the problem was that there only seemed to be a select few students that actually had a chance of keeping up with him… but there was one that hadn't been paired together in class yet.

'Big as a pain of an ass he is, there's something about all of the raw power he's carrying that just doesn't seem right.. and that might be just what I need,' the Reaper considered. 'Maybe this way I can actually manage to reign that Mad Dog in… somewhat… Oh god, am I really doing this?'

The future prospect beginning to worry him, he almost didn't notice that he was about to pass his own brother in the hallway. Giving a quick glance around, he realized that the two were alone in the immediate area. Jin might've been becoming calmer as the school year went on, but whenever the two brothers were alone like this their discussions had a tendency to become heated quickly.

"Heading to dinner?" Ragna asked, trying to keep his tone even in front of his brother. Jin didn't look like he was hoping to start something, but Ragna knew his brother wasn't nearly as transparent as the ice he wielded. His cold exterior was a different story entirely.

"Indeed, but it doesn't look like that's your plan," the Kisaragi heir noted, seeing his brother heading in the opposite direction.

"You're right; I'm eating out tonight," he said before a thought formed. "Courtesy of Tsubaki."

"Is that right?" Jin asked, not showing any otherwise unusual signs of reacting to the news.

"You put her up to this?" Ragna tried again, this time getting right to the point.

"Not in the direct way that you're thinking; I only suggested that she give you a chance," he informed. That was obvious to Ragna, he'd been told as much by Tsubaki herself.

"You know, it might be good if you followed your own damn advice," he bit, making it clear that he was still well aware of the conflict between the two of them.

"I already am," Jin informed as he passed his brother so that Ragna only had his back to look at. "I'm making sure that you have any chance."

"Thanks but no thanks," Ragna told him as the two brothers head on their way. They hadn't raised their voice and there was only minimal swearing from Ragna, so that might've been one of their most peaceful encounters their entire time at Beacon. Shaking his head, the Reaper tried to put on a better face as he headed for the school entrance.

Later -Vale City-

"You'd think there'd be more people out with finals finished," Ragna noted as he walked along the streets of Vale with his partner. Tsubaki had changed out of what she usually wore (either her cream colored outfit or her school uniform) and was instead wearing a blue uniform with a long mini-skirt. Ragna had remembered her telling him that it had been her official uniform when she was at Flare Academy with Noel and Makoto. He was wearing what he usual did (not like he had anything better to put on) and had just commented at not seeing a single Beacon student in sight.

"Most of them are probably still finishing up their finals as we speak," Tsubaki informed. "I hear that some of them are starting as late as ten tonight. Others are probably just too drained to have any hope of going out into the city."

"Definitely seeing a lot of the latter today," Ragna commented, remembering how everyone had been slumped over with exhaustion after the combat portion of the testing… at least he figured it was exhaustion, some of them might've just been depressed with worry of their less than stellar performances.

"What did you decide on for tonight?" Tsubaki asked, bringing their focus to the present.

"...Ramen; sort of my go to for comfort food," the Reaper decided (truthfully, it's one of the few types of food that he doesn't feel guilty about not cooking). "I remember hearing from someone that there was a good place a couple of streets down. That work for you?"

"It does, though I can't exactly say I'm any sort of ramen connoisseur," she admitted.

"Don't have to be, like I said this is comfort food," Ragna told her. It was then that he noticed that Tsubaki was acting off. Something about the way that she was standing just seemed rigid, like something about this whole thing made her feel almost on guard. "You… doing okay?"

"I'll be fine," she told him, trying to act a little more at ease, though Ragna could tell it was a forced effort. "I'm just a little tired after finals."

'That sure as hell isn't it,' Ragna knew, but decided against pushing her on it for now. "Any problems with them?"

"Not with all of the studying I had to do, though finals weren't nearly this bad back at Flare," she told him as Ragna started leading the two to the shop. "Yours?"

"Think I'll manage," he told her. "Apparently I killed more Grimm than anyone else, so that might just be the grade that saves me."

"That or your Grimm Studies," Tsubaki added before smiling at him. "I'm starting to think you understand Grimm better than people."

"...You trying to tease me?" Ragna asked with surprise. Tsubaki couldn't hold it in any longer and had to cover her mouth to keep from giggling. "You too now... No offense, but after dealing with Team RWBY it'll take more than that to faze me."

"I wasn't trying to faze you, I was just saying," Tsubaki told him, this time with a much more relaxed expression. Seemed her ridgedness was just nerves since she and Ragna hardly spent time alone with each other. "Is that the place over there?"

"Yeah, guess it's more stand than hole in the wall," Ragna admitted as he got a look at the place before turning to Tsubaki. "This work for you?"

"As long as there's somewhere for both of us to sit," she told him.

As it turned out they were the only ones dining at the moment, and not for a lack of people walking the streets. Normally an empty restaurant would be a bad sign, but Ragna also remembered that this place had started up only recently. Taking two seats beside each other, Tsubaki was surprised when she saw the greying old man that was running the shop.

"Pardon me for asking, but weren't you the owner for the dust shop that was robbed a few months back?" The man nodded sadly as he remembered his old shop which was still under repairs even now.

'Old guy probably needs the business then,' Ragna figured, deciding he'd pass this place along if it passed his muster. "You got udon noodles and kakiage?" The old man only gave him a thumbs up. "I'll take a large Tentama bowl then; pretty hungry."

"I'll have the same, but a small bowl please," Tsubaki told him. Smiling at both of them, the old man turned to prepare the dishes. Once his back was turned, Tsubaki whispered to Ragna. "What's tentama?"

"You… you don't know?" Ragna questioned. Now Tsubaki was starting to faze him.

"I told you I don't know much about Ramen," she reminded as the old man continued cooking. "Is… is it fattening?"

"It is," he informed, leading Tsubaki to grow worried as she wasn't the type to over indulge. "Just be glad that you ordered the small bowl."

"If it's so fattening, then how are you able to stay so thin?" she demanded. Ragna only glanced down to his belt where his sword was resting.

"I burn a lot of calories; kind of have to when I'm swinging this thing around like crazy," he told her with a chuckle.

"...Can you tell me something?" she asked, her voice showing that small bit of hesitation and rigidness that it had earlier. He gave a slow nod. "Any… is there any reason why you brought your sword with you, even though we're just on a small trip into town?"

'...Dammit, I knew I should've gone back for this later,' the Reaper realized. "It's got nothing to do with you… just have something I need to take care of after this." This did little to ease Tsubaki and even the stall owner went rigid with fear. 'SHIT!' "It.. it's not like that… I'm just… I sort of felt like…"

"Like…?" Tsubaki asked, her nervousness showing through as she stared blankly at her partner.

"...Can you keep a secret?" Ragna asked her. Tsubaki didn't answer right away, but eventually nodded her head, if only to get an elaboration. Ragna then looked to the increasingly terrified shopkeeper, who only raised a single finger to his lips. "Lately I've been… well I've been Grimm hunting out in the woods."

"You've been…" Tsubaki began.

"I got special permission from Ozpin, but I'm supposed to keep it to myself," he admitted. "It's just a little something I do to…" He very well couldn't have said 'relax' so he settled on a different phrase. "Just a little something to keep my edge."

"Right, you were traveling around before you came to Beacon," she realized. "But you're hunting them at night? Isn't that dangerous?"

"Kind of…" he admitted, before getting a teasing smirk. "But I'd be more afraid of Goodwitch if I started skipping classes to do it."

"You've got odd priorities," Tsubaki told him before she gave a small smile herself. The noodle stall owner didn't understand much of what was happening, but since the situation seemed to be reasolving he felt a bit more at ease. Speaking of noodles, it wasn't then that their orders were finally done and the two differently sized bowls were put in front of the starving customers.

"Damn this smells good," Ragna said as he looked at the soup bowl in front of him. There were five slices of hearty beef on the side, nice and thick udon noodles, crispy kakiage (shrimp and vegetable tempura), and a sunny side egg that was perfectly cooked. Grabbing his set of chopsticks, Ragna broker the two apart. "Itadakimasu."

"Itadakimasu," Tsubaki said as well, most likely copying Ragna since she saw him as the expert here. Taking her first few bites, Tsubaki almost felt overwhelmed by the flavors. Hearing a soft crunching beside her, she saw that Ragna was going all in and starting with the tempura shrimp. She went for that next, only to find that some of the yolk from the egg had spilled onto her piece. That didn't do anything to dampen the flavor and the cooked shrimp underneath was bursting with flavor.

"What do you think?" Ragna asked confidently, seeing how much Tsubaki was enjoying herself. He wasn't the only one smiling as the stall owner was proud to have another set of seemingly satisfied customers.

"It's delicious," Tsubaki told him. "Although… I think I might need to work it off when we're done here."

"Work it off?" Ragna repeated, realizing that she was asking to join him. "You sure you're up for hunting the day you had?"

"I should be fine, after all I have you to cover for me," she told him. Ragna gave a slow nod. "That and… I think it's high time that the two of us started to take our teamwork seriously."

"Right after finals?"

"We'll have to start some time," Tsubaki told him. "Besides, think of this like we're retaking the entrance exam. We can use this to see what needs more work and what strengths we already have."

"...As long as you're willing, I'm ready to put the effort in," Ragna promised as he went back to the noodles. 'Maybe this can actually work after all.'

That Night -BEACON-

"Soooo…" Yang uncomfortably began as she stood in the lobby to the dormitories. Even though it was late after an already exhausting day, the girls had decided to stay up until Ragna had returned (a few of them were still a little skeptical of Tsubaki). Not only had Ragna come back later than they figured it would take (as far as they knew he was only grabbing dinner), he'd arrived... not in the way they'd expected.

"Not. A damn. Word." Ragna's scowl was more annoyed than fierce, but that didn't mean he was ready for any of Yang's commentary. Making his way past her and the others, he carried the sleeping Tsubaki on his back to her room. The redhead had lasted for a few hours fighting in the wilds, but eventually all of the stress from the past few weeks had caught up with her and she'd passed out, leading Ragna to have to escort her piggyback style much the same as he'd done for Yang earlier.

"I'll make sure Goodwitch isn't around to make a fuss about bringing her back," Ruby promised. Nodding, Ragna head back to his team's room while Ruby rushed off to find the instructor and keep her busy.

"So is this a good sign, a bad sign? What?" Blake questioned the others, trying to get a gauge on the current relationship between the two partners.

"It's… a Ragna sign," Weiss finally decided.

"Both?"

"Both."

Author's Note

Just a fun little chapter that I've gotten and decided to put out in the middle of things. A lot of people had been suggesting that I include a chapter of Ragna and Tsubaki working to repair their relationship, so I decided that this here would be a decent way to start.

The core story of 'Grimm Reaper's of Remnant' is up next and we'll be starting on the second Volume, but I might be making a couple of changes this time around… whilst trying to stay along the path of the regular events.

Now them, let's get a couple of reviews taken care of.

MeteorElDrago: Think the first part of your comment might've been cut, but thanks.

Dracus6: I haven't gotten to playing Three Houses yet (sacrilegious, I know) so that's going to be off the table for quite a bit.

Lawiegg: ...I guess someone had to say it.

The Unplanner: Damn autocorrect… But I wouldn't say Ragna was spineless per say, just a little annoyed at the play of events.

EpicLinkSam: Crap, that totally could've worked… ah well, hindsight is 20/20.

ArmantusCumPianne: Yeah, there was just a lot to be done in this chapter, I didn't think I could cover every route. What I did was give it a much more general start.

P3R50N4: I'll get to those eventually, but I agree that 'Soul' needs an update.

Fernandamichelleraya: That's what I was trying to call on, with all of the back to school sales that were still happening at the time.

Ragriz: Nice of you to say, always hoping to keep improving.

Seriously: I mean sure, I could've done Joseph, but I like more in my references than 'Oh, these people share the same VA's' not that there's anything wrong with that. Jotaro and Ragna are much closer in personality and have that whole delinquent stigma so I think this works better, but that's just my two cents.

Pally111: Yeah, I'm kinda hoping to develop a fleshed out friendship(?) between the two of them by the end of this.

GrimmJowTaichou: Much as I like Bleach that would be a hell of an investment and I've got a lot to keep working through until then… I dunno, maybe I'll do a one shot and see if it takes off.

Until the next chapter I put out everyone. Ciao!