"I'll have a chicken stew, the steamed fish and vinegarette salad."

"Ok, drinks for you girl?"

She tapped her glass. "Just water, thanks." The waiter nodded and walked away.

Pyrrha Nikos leaned back, looking around the bistrol. It was one of the only places she could get good Mistrali food in Vale. It coincidentally was also quiet, out of the way, and by some miracle the owner had taken pity on her, agreeing to keep her dining here a secret, only asking for selfies and autographs rather than plastering her photo over the walls like he'd wanted.

She slumped over the table, morosely trailing a line down the condensation on her glass of water as she looked at the empty seats opposite her.

"-ally, none at all?"

She was brought out of her daze by the sound of the owner speaking to someone.

"Sorry kid we don't have any seats left."

"What about over there?"

"Hey kid, you shouldn't-"

"Hey, is this seat taken?"

Pyrrha turned her head up, a rejection and an apology already on her lips, before seeing who it was. "Jaune?"

"Hey! You're… Paisley right?" He furrowed his eyebrows. "No wait, that's not it. Meerah?

She smiled. "No it's-"

"Penelope!"

"It's Pyrrha actually." Out of the corner of her eye she could see the owner looking at her in mild surprise and disbelief.

"Do you mind if I sit?"

"Of course not!" She fought to keep her voice level as she gestured towards the seat. Jaune sat down, stared at her for a second to see if more conversation was coming, before pulling up the menu.

It wasn't that Pyrrha wasn't excited to speak with someone who didn't know her. If anything, it was a literal dream come true, and her brain was screaming at her to do something.

But something held her back. Multiple things actually. First of all was the possibility, however unlikely, that he was just pretending to not recognise her. She'd seen it before, rare as it was. Businessmen in sponsorship negotiations, her rivals trying to play mind games, and people who simply disliked her. She didn't think Jaune was one of those people, but what if-

Secondly, the fact that she didn't know what to say. The two hadn't exactly gotten off on the right foot, his first impression of her was a strange stalker, and the only topic that she knew he was interested in was Ruby, which would only make his impression of her as a stalker worse.

And the saddest of all, an entire lifetime of failure had made her wary of trying.

The two of them sat in silence as the waiter arrived.

"I'll have an omelet, extra gravy, and French toast. Give me the syrup on the side."

"Any drinks, boy?"

"Just ice water."

The waiter walked away, and Jaune looked up at her curiously.

"So, having a late lunch huh?"

She nodded. "You as well?"

"Yep. Gonna meet Ruby after this, but she's eating with her team so here I am." His eyes darted across the restaurant. "Where's the rest of your team?"

Pyrrha's smile thinned. Ren and Nora were having lunch together, and who knew where Russel was. Probably off with Cardin and the rest of his circle of friends.

It wasn't that Nora and Ren weren't nice. They tried, they really did to include her, in their conversations and their outings. They invited her out for meals and movies, they stayed up late doing homework with her, she was even wearing the friendship bracelet that Nora had given her.

But hanging out with them always brought a bitter taste to her mouth. Their references to events years ago, their inside jokes, their constant telling of stories about their childhood plans.

Seeing them so close… just reinforced what a total failure her own partnership had been.

She didn't actually want to tell Jaune that she'd turned down Nora's invitation to lunch though. "They're… busy."

"I see." Jaune had pulled out a briefcase and was rapidly sorting through some kinds of documents, arranging them in neat stacks and rapidly punching numbers into a calculator.

"What do you have there?"

"Oh, just some figures, profit margins and stuff for my dad's companies." He stapled a few together before pushing them into an opaque folder. "He wants me to take over some of them soon so I've got to get familiar with these."

"What figures?"

"Top secret." His eyes narrowed mischievously, cheekily holding up a finger to his lips. "If I told you what they were I'd have to kill you."

Pyrrha smiled, taking bites of her salad and carefully picking the bones out of her fish. The two of them fell into a more companionable silence. Jaune was a sloppy eater, messily shoveling chunks of omelet and slices of toast into his mouth, although somehow he was keeping the papers immaculate. The waiter walked up to their table and carefully set down her soup.

Jaune glanced up at her plates, before blinking and staring slightly incredulously. She couldn't blame him, the bowl of soup she'd ordered was a family size and the fish was the length of her arm.

"That's a lot of food. You sure you can finish that?"

"Well, I'm a huntress, we do need more calories than civilians. Doesn't Ruby eat a lot too?"

The boy tapped his head in a 'well duh' manner. "That's true. Her and all the other huntsmen I've seen, it's just not something you really think about until it's in front of you you know?"

He glanced at his watch.

"Oh I'm gonna be late!" His scribbling stopped and he frantically choked down the last few pieces of egg before sweeping the papers into a briefcase.

"Thanks for the seat, I'll get the bill." Before Pyrrha could protest he threw a number of bills on the table and ran off, tossing the briefcase to a suited man standing outside that she hadn't noticed until now before sprinting in the opposite direction.

Carefully, almost delicately, Pyrrha gathered up the messy stack of lien notes, picking up some that had dropped on the floor. Most people wouldn't have called that much of an outing, in fact if Yang or Weiss were her they might have called Jaune a poor conversationalist. But she couldn't keep a small smile off her face as she arranged the notes into a neat pile.

She'd just spent an entire lunch, not with her emotionally distant partner, nor having Nora and Ren unintentionally flaunt their relationship in front of her, nor fending off fans, or even alone with nobody but her thoughts. She'd just spent her lunch talking, no matter how briefly, with someone who didn't care about her fame. A normal lunch.

It felt nice.

Stupid Miss Goodwitch.

Muttering angrily under her breath, Ruby stormed into her room. She'd been on the verge of forcing the parcel back into Jaune's hands when something had pulled her off him. The next thing she knew Miss Goodwitch was standing above her, lecturing her about Beacon's reputation or something like that, and Juane had taken the opportunity to escape.

Stupid Jaune, forcing her to accept this.

She held up the package, bouncing it up and down to feel its weight. It was light, and more worrying she couldn't even hear anything in the package when she shook it.

It would've been less worrying if it was heavy, then at least she would've been able to guess what it was, but her hyperactive imagination was rapidly filling her brain with a variety of scenarios, none of which she would be able to afford to pay off.

Hearing footsteps, she hastily stuffed it under the bed. She'd deal with it in the morning.

The morning came and Ruby found herself sitting cross legged on her bed, staring at the parcel. If someone had stumbled upon her at that moment, they would have thought that she was in the midst of some personal crisis.

What was it? Jaune wouldn't give her an empty box. Was it money, packed tightly so it didn't move? Was it a piece of jewelry, packed into foam? Was the box just for shape and the wrapping paper was actual gold?

No point putting this off! Squeezing her eyes shut and ripping the expensive wrapping paper off, Ruby tore open the box, slowly prying open her eyes to stare at its contents.

"Oh." Holding up her gift, Ruby breathed a sigh of relief.

It was just a sweater. That wasn't so bad.

She flipped it over. The tag didn't have a price on it, which was kind of odd, but

Pulling off her shirt, she slipped the sweater on, marveling at how well it fit her.

Coco Adel thought that not much could surprise her.

She'd lead an interesting life after all. She'd dated all sorts of crazy, chased off other sorts of crazy from Velvet, gone on missions against Grimm and criminals. She'd probably seen enough that nothing could catch her off guard.

"WHAT THE FUCK?"

Her team jumped. Velvet tumbled out of her chair, Fox managed to right himself before he did the same and the fork in Yatsuhashi's hand shook as he lost his grip before regaining it.

"Coco, what's wrong?"

"Is that Doory's?!"

The entire team, save Velvet who was still on the floor, turned to follow her finger. Sure enough, the leader of Team RWBY was standing nearby, wrapped in an expensive looking cream coloured cardigan.

"What's wrong?"

"What's wrong? What's wrong is that that sweater costs 899 lien! I've been saving for weeks!"

"Maybe Ruby's been saving too?"

How was that possible? Ruby, the girl so obsessed with guns she slept with a gun magazine under her pillow, who threw every piece of spare change she had at weapon maintenance and upgrades, somehow stopped spending her meager allowance on dust and polish and bought a sweater that cost half an average month's paycheck?

She was going to get to the bottom of this.

She stalked towards Ruby. As she got closer, she could see that the sweater was brand new, with Ruby not even bothering to take the tag off.

"Oh, hey Coco!" Ruby grinned up at her as she approached. "What's up?"

"Hey Ruby…" the girl took the chance to inspect the cardigan more closely. Sure enough, it was Doory's, a sweater from their latest Spring collection.

"That's a nice sweater."

"It is, isn't it?" Aggressively Ruby rubbed her hands over her arms, causing Coco's eyes to widen at the rough handling of the fabric. "It's so soft!"

Of course it is, be careful with it! Coco swallowed her indignant words.

"Where did you get it?" Maybe Ruby got it second hand, a resale from someone who made a hasty purchase and just wanted it off their hands as fast as possible. Wouldn't explain why she had got it, but it would at least explain how she could afford it.

"Oh, Jaune bought it for me!"

"Who's Jaune?"

"He's a friend. And don't you dare say he's my boyfriend!"

She blinked. "I… wasn't going to actually."

"Ah." Ruby's face reddened. "Well he's not!"

Uh huh. What did they say, those who protest too much?

Out of the corner of her eye, Coco could see a boy brisk walking towards the two of them. He winked at her, putting a finger up to his lips.

Who was-

Something must have changed in her demeanor, or maybe the boy was reflected in her sunglasses, because Ruby stiffened.

But she didn't react in time before the boy grabbed her from behind and scooped her up in his arms.

"Ruby!"

"Jaune, let go!" Ruby giggled, pawing at his arms as he trapped her in his hug.

"But you're so comfortable!" he squeezed her tighter, lifting her off the ground and burying his cheek into her back. Ruby kicked her legs fruitlessly, her arms swatting ineffectively at the air behind her.

Coco, and the rest of her team from their table, stared at the pair, who had seemed to have forgotten they had company and were fighting to keep hugging and get out of the hug respectively.

"Uh, Ruby." The two of them stopped, turning to face her. "Are you going to introduce me?"

"Oh, this is Coco! Coco, meet Jaune! Jaune, Coco."

The boy, Jaune, dropped Ruby and held out a hand. She took it, noticing how his hands were soft, with only the barest of calluses.

"And that's Coco's team!" Velvet and Fox waved while Yatsuhashi nodded, which the boy returned with a nod and a smile back.

"Nice meeting you, but we're in a hurry. You've got your ticket right?" The pair rummaged in their wallets, pulling out identical tickets for something before nodding.

"Alright, let's go!"

"Jaune!" The boy had tried to hug her by the waist again. Ruby's face darkened and she squirmed out of his grasp, although not before he got another hug in.

Coco could only watch as the two walked off, arm in arm. Did that- did that guy buy her a almost thousand lien sweater because it made her more comfortable to hug?

What the fuck?