If one didn't know better, one might have mistaken the scene inside team RWBY's room for an interrogation scene.
Ruby was sitting cross-legged on the floor, staring up at Yang, who was sitting on the bed, her arms folded. Blake was lying on the opposite bed, holding her book in a way that suggested she wasn't really reading and was just waiting for the conversation to start. Weiss meanwhile, was huddled at the corner table over some school books, desperately trying to pretend she wasn't listening. Nora meanwhile was muttering angrily outside their door, having been kicked out by Yang.
"So, Ruby," Yang's smile was genuine but forced, the kind that a policeman would give a robbery victim before rushing off to find the perp. "Tell me about this… Jaune."
"He's a friend!" Ruby chirped.
"How did you two meet?"
"A few weeks ago, I was eating and he asked if he could join me." A cheerful smile took over Ruby's face at the memory, the girl seemingly unaware of the room's atmosphere. "He offered to pay for my food; and we hung out!"
"So he approached you first huh." Yang's eyes were narrowing suspiciously, gears in her head turning.
Blake chose to jump in. "So what do you do when you two meet up?"
"Oh, you know, we eat, he buys me things, normal friend stuff."
"Stuff like jewelry huh?" Yang traced the pin, having grabbed it out of Ruby's drawer. "Awfully expensive for a friend don't you think?
Ruby's smile faded, picking up that the current situation was a little more delicate than she thought, and it probably called for a little less praise for Jaune and a little more trying to convince Yang that Jaune wasn't some kind of creep.
"So this… Jaune, are you two close?"
'Er, sort of? He's a friend."
"Just friends huh? Does he ask you to… call him anything?"
"No? I just call him Jaune…"
"Really? No pet names, no- Wait." Yang looked up, her expression looking like she had just realized she had homework due in twenty minutes. "So all those times you disappeared during lunchtime and after school, you were meeting him?"
"Er, yes?"
Yang looked shocked, and Blake couldn't blame her. If her mental calculations were correct, that was a lot of outings with a random boy.
"I hate to interrupt." Weiss cleared her throat. "But we need to go soon. The place I reserved does have a time slot."
"Fine. This isn't over though." Yang narrowed her eyes at Ruby, before grabbing her towel and vanished into the bathroom.
For a while there was no talking in the room, as everyone busied themselves with dressing up.
"Ruby, are you sure you're not joining us? The table I booked is for four."
"Don't worry about it Weiss, I've got dinner covered."
Both Blake and Wiess snorted. When Ruby said she had a meal covered she usually meant that she was going to stuff herself silly on cookies before working on Crescent Rose, or that she was going to order in some cheap fast food before working on Crescent Rose. One of the two.
"Bye guys!"
Yang looked up from powdering her face to see her sister about to leave. "Hey Rubes, where are you going?" Her sister was dressed nicer than she expected.
"Franco's. I'm meeting Jaune for dinner."
"Oh ok- WAIT" Moving at a speed that would have made Ruby's semblance proud, Yang leapt in front of the door, stopping Ruby from leaving. A faint cloud of powder came up from where she had thrown her sponge.
"Wha-"
"You're meeting him? The two of you? Alone?"
"Ye-yeah?"
"Dressed like that?"
"There's a dress code…"
Yang's eyes dilated in horror. "There's a dress code. It's a date, I knew it."
"Yang, I'm going to be late…"
"It's ok, we'll escort you there." She grabbed Ruby's arm, only for her sister to squirm out of it.
"Why?"
"It's only right for an elder sister to meet her younger sister's boyfriend right?"
"He's not my boyfriend, he's not!" Ruby petulantly stomped her feet.
"You're meeting for dinner!"
"That doesn't mean anything. I eat dinner with you all the time!"
Yang gaped. "Ruby, there's a big difference between eating dinner with me, your sister, and meeting a random boy at a restaurant!"
"An expensive restaurant." Blake piped up.
"He's paying!"
"And you don't see the implications?" Yang's eyelid was twitching. "I-We're coming with you, Ruby."
Ruby sighed, before looking to the left of their room. Her eyes widened.
"Oh hi Jaune!"
"WHAT?" Yang, Blake, and even Weiss's heads all snapped to the side, only to be greeted by their empty bathroom. The half second of distraction was all Ruby needed, as the girl activated her semblance and vanished out the door.
"Ah dang it Ruby!"
"Give it up Yang, we're not going to be able to catch her." Blake grabbed her wallet. "We'll meet him eventually."
"Arggghhh…" Yang grabbed handfuls of her hair, wondering how she could have fallen for such an obvious trick.
"Franco's not that expensive…"
The remaining members of team RWBY turned to stare at Weiss.
"Really?"
…
"Hey, I told you guys about him! I deserve to know!"
"Private matter!" The sound of a door slamming shut came from the corridor, before Nora walked into the room, looking annoyed.
Pyrrha looked up from her textbook. "What's wrong?"
"Urggghhh, they wouldn't let me know about Ruby's boyfriend. It's a 'team matter' they said, so it's 'private'." Nora rolled her eyes, doing air quotes. "Like they could have found out without me."
Pyrrha nearly dropped her book in shock. "Ruby has a boyfriend? Since when?"
"Since last week!"
"How did you know? You saw them?"
"Yeah! It happened when we went to buy pancakes… "
…
"Come on Ren, the store's gonna close soon!"
"Nora, the store closes at 5. It's not even noon."
Ren sighed as the redhead just sped up.
The two members of team RPRN were in Vale. Not for anything important, but because Nora had, as she did most days, asked Ren to make pancakes for breakfast. Unlike most days however, they had discovered that they were completely out of pancake flour and eggs.
All this led to a previously inconsolable Nora dragging him out to Vale on a Saturday morning to buy flour and eggs so she could have her pancake breakfast. Well, pancake lunch by the time they were done.
Ren was knocked out of his thoughts as he collided into Nora, who had suddenly stopped walking, her gaze locked on someone.
"Nora, what's wrong?"
"Hey isn't that Ruby? Hey Rub-"
Nora's hand stuttered and her yell died in her throat as she watched the leader of team RWBY sit down at the table with a boy.
"Renny! Look, isn't that-"
"Yes." Ren's eyebrows were raised, he did not expect that this was how Ruby was spending her afternoon.
The blonde was talking to the waiter, who nodded and talked off. A few minutes passed before the waiter returned with two slices of cake and two mugs of whipped cream coffee. The blonde nodded, handing over a hundred lien bill, before shooing the starry eyed waiter away.
"What do you think they're doing?"
"Nora, this is priva-"
"Let's get closer!" Ignoring her partner's protests. Nora grabbed Ren by his arm and dragged him forward. They somehow managed to get close without being spotted, hiding on a park bench behind a bush.
"So you fixed Crescent Rose?"
"Yup!" The sound of the weapon being deployed came from the other side. "It's even better than ever!"
"Cool. I wish I had a weapon."
"Doesn't your family have a sword?"
"Yeah, but Crocea Mors is more of a family heirloom than a- Hey they have the tart! I'll go order some."
"No no, let me pay! You're paid for everything since I met you!"
"Ah, don't worry about it. It's just cash."
Ren was starting to feel a bit uncomfortable. Whoever this boy was was Ruby's own business, and they were intruding on what was clearly a private outing.
He cleared his throat, trying one last time to get his teammate away from Ruby's outing. "Nora, the store is closing soon…"
"Aw nonsense, the store doesn't close until 5."
Sighing, Ren pulled out his scroll. They were going to be here for a while.
…
"That's when we got bored and left."
Pyrrha's head tilted, staring in mild disbelief at her teammate. 'What? Just like that?"
"Yeah, all they started talking about was their day and their hobbies and how lucky it was that they had each other, so we left!"
"Oh." Against her will, Pyrrha started to feel a little bit curious. Team RWBY's leader was the last person she would have expected to start dating, even more the last person she would have expected to be the first to start dating. What kind of boy was this?
"So, Ruby is happy then?" Pyrrha averted her eyes, hoping she would come off as concerned rather than nosy.
"You're curious aren't cha?" So much for that. "Don't worry, we can go spy on them next week, they're meeting for some kind of whole day convention."
"THEY ARE?"
Their door slammed open, and Yang, Blake and Weiss tumbled in.
Nora snorted, putting her hands on her hips. "Well well well, look who decided to come crawling back."
