"Ruby."

Ruby's eyes slowly swiveled over to Jaune, who was whispering.

"What."

Discreetly, he lifted his finger, pointing beside them. "Do you know those people."

Without making it obvious, Ruby glanced over where he was pointing.

Pyrrha, Ren and Nora.

It was all Ruby could do to not slam her face on the table. Why were they here? Seriously? Bad enough that Yang was here embarrassing her but now them too?

As a substitute she let out a long groan and buried her face in her hands.

"More of your friends huh."

"Jaune I'm so sorry about this…"

"It's alright. On that note, I'm going to the washroom. Stall your sister for me would ya?"

"Huh? Oh sure." Ruby watched as Jaune hurried away from his seat and half walked half jogged around the corner before Yang could return with her food.

"Ok!" Yang slammed her tray on the table. "Yo-Hey, where's Arc?" She looked around the table for an answer, only to find the rest of her team staring at her.

"What?"

"Nora I-"

"Shhhh! Ren I can't hear!"

Similar to team RWBY before them, the three members of team RNRP were following Ruby and the mysterious blonde. They were currently hiding in an alleyway, Nora crouched near the edge, Ren standing a short distance away, and Pyrrha awkwardly leaning over Nora to try and hear what they were saying.

Nora had come to spy on Ruby on her quote unquote date. Ren had come along to keep Nora out of too much trouble.

And Pyrrha? Pyrrha, much to her shame, had come along because she was just as curious as Nora.

She peered back around the corner, leaning precariously over Nora to do so. From the looks of it team RWBY was laying it onto Yang.

"Yang you're being too mean!"

"I agree. While I cannot agree with Ruby's decision to start dating now, in the time we have been watching him Jaune Arc has been nothing but courteous."

"Ah Weiss, not you too! He's not my boyfriend!"

Arc?

Pyrrha tilted her head. That name was familiar. Arc. Wasn't that the name of some company? She vaguely remembered them sponsoring her for her last tournament before Beacon.

That's odd, she couldn't remember what they did.

"Can I help you?"

The party whirled around to see the blonde staring at them, one eyebrow raised.

"Uhhhh…" Pyrrha's face burned. It was one thing to stalk someone, it was something else to be caught!

Nora, unaffected, instead pointed at him in shock. "How did you see us?"

He raised his eyebrow even higher. "Uh, there's three of you, you guys are like thirty feet from our table, and you're not even hiding."

"We were around the corner!"

He took a step back, putting himself halfway behind the corner of the alleyway exit, similar to where they were, before spreading his arms slightly.

"Ah." Even Nora looked a bit embarrassed by how half hearted their hiding spot was.

"Kind of a dumb spot isn't it?"

Pyrrha blinked, slightly taken aback at the difference between the sarcastic boy before them and the perfect gentleman they had been following.

It must have shown on their faces, because Jaune's expression softened. He sighed loudly, dragging his hand across his face. "Look, I'm sorry, I'm a little on the edge. I, er, wasn't expecting them." He gestured at team RWBY. "Or you."

He sighed again. "Well I guess you already know who I am. What's your names?"

"I'm Nora!"

"Lie Ren."

Jaune nodded, before turning to Pyrrha. "And you are…"

Pyrrha blinked.

Ren blinked.

Nora tilted her head.

"Do-do you not know who I am?"

"Oh!" For a moment her heart sank. "Have we met? I'm so sorry, I'm not good with faces!"

"No no we haven't! My name's Pyrrha. Pyrrha Nikos." She searched his eyes for any recognition.

There was none.

"Well it's nice to meet you all. Do you want to join us?"

If looks could kill, Pyrrha would… well she wouldn't be dead, but she would at least be severely ill.

The seven of them were arranged around two round tables that they had pushed together. Jaune had gone off to the washroom like he said, leaving them to awkwardly stare at each other.

Ruby was casting a baleful glare at the three of them. Of course, this being Ruby, said glare was about as threatening as a puppy's, but the intent was still there. Blake and Weiss meanwhile were giving Yang looks that translated to 'Stop embarrassing us and shut up.'.

Jaune sat down, wiping his hands dry.

"So…" The stares from team RWBY grew fiercer. "Jaune…"

"Yeah?" Similarly, Jaune was staring at Yang like one might stare at a calm dog with foam on its lips, in that it wasn't currently attacking you, but you should still treat it as if it could turn hostile at any time.

"If you two aren't dating, and you aren't her… sugar daddy… Then why do you, you know…" she gestured towards the bag with the comic and the pin on Ruby's collar.

"You do spend a lot of money on her." Blake of all people added.

Jaune shrugged, looking a little embarrassed. "I've got a lot of spare cash, I don't have too much else to spend it on. Ruby's… a friend, I don't mind spending some of it on her."

Pyrrha frowned, feeling a bit down at how much she could relate to the spare cash part but not on the part where she could spend it on someone.

"Oh?" Yang's smile turned more teasing, with a hint of scheming. "A rich kid huh? Any chance of you floating me the bill?"

Anyone else would have missed it. Anyone else except Pyrrha, who had years of reading the emotions of her fans and hiding her own, would have missed the way Jaune's arms tensed for a moment before going back to normal.

"If it gets you off my back, sure."

Nora was… kind of disappointed.

Don't get her wrong, it wasn't like she wanted to spend the whole day seeing Ruby and Jaune make out or anything, but come on!

Jaune Arc and Ruby were now walking on opposite ends of their group, every single member of team RWBY and RPRN separating them. Every time they tried shifting to get the two of them closer they would awkwardly shuffle apart again.

Come on! She hadn't patiently stalked the two of them for hours and gotten into two awkward conversations just so they could lightly tread around each other! It was almost closing time! She wanted to know more about the two of them, but she couldn't just go up and ask! Contrary to popular belief, Nora wasn't completely tactless, she knew that that would be realllllyy awkward even if she asked indirectly.

But, if it wasn't her…

"So Yang," she ignored Ren's attempt to swat at her shoulder. "About Jaune and Rub-"

"It's fine."

"Really?" Ren looked a bit surprised, and Nora could understand why. Well, there went her plans to make Yang ask for her.

"Yep." Yang shrugged, spreading her arms out in a way that suggested she wasn't quite ready to let go yet, but didn't want to make things weird. "Ruby's got to learn to make new friends anyhow, might as well start now right? Yeah, he's a bit of a dork, but that just means he isn't going to try anything towards her. Its not like he gonna drag her into a hotel or anything."

"Well, they did go to one yesterday."

"They did WHAT?!" Yang's neck snapped over.

"Oh, it was for breakfa-" But Ren couldn't get the rest of his sentence out before Yang had pivoted 180 degrees back to the other blonde.

"I knew you had in you Renny!"

Lie Ren could do nothing but hold his face and groan.

"Come on Ruby, is this about intruding on your date? I said I'm sorry!"

Team RWBY's leader did not answer her sister, instead folding her arms and pulling her hoodie even lower, huffing as they walked back to their dorms.

She couldn't believe it!

Today was supposed to be just the two of them. Just her and Jaune, having a fun day out. Instead her whole team had tagged along. Wait, not just her whole team, practically all of team RPRN did too!

And it wouldn't have been so bad if they'd just met and embarrassed her in front of him. She was expecting that to happen sooner or later, especially with Yang.

But not like this! Not in the middle of an outing, not in front of team RNRP!

Urgghh…

She was going to have to make it up to him.

No she couldn't even do that! He paid for everything! Even if she invited him out for lunch or a movie it was basically like he was the one making it up to her! It was hard enough for her to do anything for him, now this? Urggghhhh…

Ignoring her sister's apologies she wrapped her hood around her head tighter.