"It's just I've never met anyone that flippant about their responsibilities. And don't even get me started on Nora." Blake poked at her breakfast while listening to the whining rich girl complain to the good natured celebrity across from her.
"Well, have you tried talking with them?" Pyrrha asked somewhat absentmindedly.
"Uggh, YES," Weiss said, "and they just, ignored me. Ignored ME" It was clear which part of that statement annoyed Weiss more. "Speak of the devil." She mumbled under her breath, no one else would have been able to hear it but Blake could pick it up easily.
"Hey guys!" a loud energetic voice called out as Nora approached the table. "Where's Ruby and Jaune?" by now the rest of team YRVS had joined them at the table, although as always their leader said nothing and looked at no one.
"We, don't know." Pyrrha said. Blake nodded.
"They went out last night…" Blake began to say.
"Oohh?" Nora said with a glint in her eye.
"And they didn't come back at all last night." Blake finished.
"Wow, they move fast." Nora said.
"Are you implying that some of our fellow students would be engaged in such, unscrupulous activities?" Weiss asked indignantly.
"Well there's only one reason a couple would be alone together for an entire night without telling anyone where they were going." Nora said.
"How are you so sure they're a couple?" Weiss asked.
Meanwhile Blake looked at her teammate. Pyrrha had been had been quieter and more subdued than normal.
"Hey are you alright?" Blake whispered to her teammate.
"Yes, I'm happy for them, but," Pyrrha said, also keeping her voice low, "I just wish I could find someone like that." Blake nodded. She understood being lonely, she also understood the opposite, having a significant other that tried to control your life, but she had no reason to bring that up here.
"Don't worry, I'm sure you will." Blake said. In the background, they could hear the others continuing their conversation.
"Is that even legal isn't Ruby like fifteen?" Weiss asked. Everyone missed how Yang stiffened a little at that.
"Jaune is only seventeen I believe," Ren said, "so yes still legal."
"Soooo," Nora began, getting Blake and Pyrrha's attention. "It's the weekend, do you guys have any plans?"
"What do you mean, this is the perfect opportunity to get ahead in our studies." Weiss said.
"Booooring." Was all Nora said in response.
"Well, I was planning on doing some reading." Blake said, not that she would tell them what kind of reading she was thinking of.
"I was just going to do some training." Pyrrha said.
"Wow you guys are more dull than Ren over here." Nora said, "Alright it is decided!" Nora proclaimed the last part loudly while standing on the bench and putting her foot on the table. "I will teach you guys how to have fun!" she turned towards Yang, "what do you say fearless leader?" Yang looked up at her then at the group.
"Just do what you want." Yang said as she grabbed her food and left the dining hall. The group seemed to pause as they watched her leave until Nora broke the trance.
"Sounds like permission to me!" She said.
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Jaune woke to someone shaking his shoulder He looked up to see the elderly man that had helped him get Ruby to the hospital. The man was holding a glass of water out to him.
"Thanks." Jaune said as he took the water.
"Don't mention it." The man said as he took a seat. "The names Rudy by the way, Rudy Greenhouse, though most folks 'round here just call me shopkeep."
"Jaune, Jaune Arc." Shopkeep nodded and looked at the young wolf faunus sleeping on the bed.
"Poor girl," he said. "How's she doing." After Shopkeep and Jaune had carried Ruby into the doctors, said doctors began asking them about both Ruby's injuries and the numerous scars that apparently littered Ruby's body. The only explanation Jaune had been able to give was that she was a huntress in training.
"The docs said that her Aura was recovering remarkably fast, so as long as she wakes up, she should be fine." Jaune said and Shopkeep nodded in understanding, "hey why are you going so far to help us."
"The little miss helped protect one of my businesses a few weeks ago." Shopkeep said, "and I'm not the kind to abandon someone so young." At that moment Ruby began stirring. "Hang on, I'll go get the doctors." Shopkeep finished before walking off.
"Hey Ruby how are you feeling?" Jaune asked.
"Uh, like I got hit by a truck." Ruby said while sitting up and looking around, "What happened?"
"Um, well…" Jaune said, trying to think of how to tell Ruby she was more or less right in her first statement. Fortunately he didn't need to as she looked at him and it seemed to click in her head.
"Oh, Right." Ruby said as she fell back onto the bed, "Torchwick?"
"He got away, getting you to help was more important." Jaune said. Ruby nodded in understanding thankfully. They sat there a few moments before Ruby got fully out of bed.
"Alright lets get out of here." Ruby said before noticing that she was in a hospital gown. "Where are my clothes at?"
"Over there." Jaune said before rethinking it, "wait Ruby the Doctors on his way, wait until he's checked you out." as Jaune was saying this he noticed through the slit in the back of the hospital gown a very large scar that stretched from just below Ruby's shoulder blades to the small of her back. "Rub-" At that moment the doctor came in.
"Ah, Ms. Rose please sit down so I can get a look at you." the doctor said. Ruby glared but reluctantly complied. What followed was the doctor examining Ruby and asking her various questions. After confirming that, yes this level of recovery was normal for Ruby and no she didn't feel anything unusual in her Aura, the doctor told Ruby that she would be fine to go.
"I'll handle the paperwork so you can just come down to the front desk when you are ready." the doctor said as he gathered his papers, "also you will likely have to walk with a limp, but with your level of recovery it should be gone within a day or so." after he finished speaking and left Ruby entered the bathroom and changed. She came back out dressed in her normal outfit.
"Are you ready to go?" She asked.
"Yeah." Jaune said, "where we going next?"
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Pyrrha had to admit, Nora's Idea to do an all girls shopping trip, sans their team leaders, was a rather good one. She even managed to convince Weiss by pointing out several things that the heiress could use for school. She might be hyperactive but Nora was no idiot. The shopping trip had been going well and all the girls seemed to be getting closer to each other. As they were about to leave the clothing shop they were currently in, Nora who was leading the group, abruptly stopped at the entrance. She was looking out the door to one side. The reason why became apparent to the girls when they too peeked out the shop's door. Coming down the street was a familiar blonde boy and faunus girl shrouded in red and black.
"Why are we stopping like this?" Weiss asked. At Weiss's question Nora turned around, and Pyrrha could swear she saw stars in the girls eyes.
"They look like they're headed to this store." Blake said, she was still looking at Jaune and Ruby.
"Alright everybody let's hide and see what they are doing." Nora said before dragging Weiss into a hiding spot amongst the clothes. Blake and Pyrrha also quickly hid on the other side of the door. Then Ruby and Jaune entered the store.
"Of course that wasn't…" Ruby said before suddenly pausing and looking around. For a second Pyrrha thought they had been caught when Ruby shook her head and kept walking, or rather limping awkwardly.
"Of course that wasn't my first time." Ruby continued talking to Jaune. "It just hurt a little more than I wanted."
"I'm sorry," Jaune said back, "are you sure…"
"Jaune i'm fine, it was a rather large…" the group couldn't hear Ruby as she and Jaune rounded a corner towards the back of the store.
"Well she's very forward." Blake said after a moment. This felt kinda wrong to Pyrrha, sure she was curious about her team leader and partner, but she felt like spying on them like this would be wrong.
"Whatever they are doing I don't care." Weiss said, "If they wish to engage in such activities it is none of our business, we should continue our shopping trip."
"I actually agree with Weiss" Pyrrha said, "we should give them their privacy."
"Awwww." Nora said, "Spoilsport." Nora then turned to Blake, "what about you?" Blake gave a little cough into her hand.
"We should probably give them their privacy." Blake said.
"You guys are no fun." Nora said, "alright next store on our list is…"
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"You still haven't told me where we're going." Jaune said.
"Right," Ruby said, she was currently experiencing a major headache, likely due to her other half having retreated as far as it could go. He had done this so that Ruby's Aura would have as little resistance in healing her as possible. As a result everything seemed dimmer to her senses and she was having a little more trouble thinking. "we're going to get you some equipment to help you blend in on our investigations."
"Oh, ok." Jaune said.
Ruby could still feel the presence of her other half but it's lack of activity was making things a little difficult for Ruby. Not only was her hearing dulled slightly but the lack of snide comments at every human's actions was something Ruby was not used to. Everything felt, just, too quiet.
"Sooo…" Jaune began, Ruby couldn't really feel his emotions at the moment, but if the look on his face said anything, he felt awkward. "Was that the first time you've crashed like that?"
Ruby raised an eyebrow. That most certainly had to be an awkward question. She directed them into the store before beginning to answer.
"Of course that wasn't…" Ruby paused, something was off. She turned around, without her hyper enhanced senses the shadowed areas were not clear to her, she couldn't hear or smell anything out of the ordinary. Nevertheless Ruby felt as though someone was watching her. Eventually she decided that there was nothing she could do until she had recovered anyways, so she turned around and finished answering Jaune's question. "Of course that wasn't my first time, it just hurt a little more than I wanted."
"I'm sorry." Jaune apologized again, he seemed to think that it was through some fault of his that the White Fang driver had been careless. "Are you sure…"
"Jaune." Ruby said, knowing she had to nip this in the bud if they were going to work together, "I'm fine, It was a rather large mistake, but it wasn't yours." Strangely she felt the eyes following her disappear.
'No Ruby focus' Ruby scolded herself in place of her dormant companion "If anything the fault was mine, I didn't take into account the civilian traffic that may or may not exist in the city." Ruby then saw an old Vacuean style brown leather duster on a rack behind Jaune. It was about the right size and would cover his weapon when sheathed. "Perfect." Ruby said.
"Huh?" Jaune asked confused at the sudden shift of gears.
"Jaune try this on!" Ruby said as she grabbed the duster and handed it to him. He raised an eyebrow.
"Really?" he asked, looking like Ruby had just suggested he dress up in ballerina costume.
"What, it's a good style, popular in the reaches and it has the benefit of being a minor form of armor as well as hiding your weapon from unwanted eyes." Ruby listed off the benefits.
"It looks like the coat Detective Doctor wears!" Jaune said.
"Who?" Ruby asked.
"Detective Doctor." Jaune said, "You know from the Sunday morning cartoon."
'Is he joking with me?' Ruby thought, though looking at Jaune's face told her it was not so, 'he's serious right now.'
"You've got to be kidding me." Ruby said, "Jaune I'm sure it doesn't matter, just try it on, I'm sure it will be fine."
"Alright but if I look like an idiot, it's your fault." Jaune said. He then grabbed the Duster and put it on. Ruby could immediately tell that it was a good look on him, and sure enough it hid Crocea Mors very well.
"I look stupid don't I?" Jaune said.
"What? No!" Ruby said, "It looks really good on you, c'mon take a look" Ruby dragged Jaune over to a nearby mirror. After looking for a minute Jaune spoke up.
"I guess it doesn't look bad."
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"So wait If Doctor Detective is so good…" Ruby asked.
"No Doctor Detective is the main villain, Detective Doctor is the main character." Jaune corrected.
"This show has the stupidest names." Ruby mumbled just loud enough for Jaune to hear.
"Hey!" Jaune said, "this show was a huge part of my childhood!"
"So if Detective Doctor is so good how come he didn't realise that the Shtabuum guy was the one who killed Professor Officer?"
"Well he…" Jaune began before stopping in his tracks, "Wait how do you know who killed Professor Officer? The show hasn't even gotten that far yet!"
"C'mon, Shtabuum clearly didn't like Professor Officer and was missing for a while after he was killed." Ruby said, "besides the guys name is Isaac William Shtabuum."
"So?" Jaune asked.
"As always the stupid names continue," Ruby said, "Isaac William Shtabuum, I. Will. Shtabuum. His murder is in his name."
"That can't be right Isaac is his brother in law." Jaune said.
"Then I guess we'll just have to find out, won't we?" Ruby said before looking at the store they were passing in front of, "besides this is our last stop for the night." Jaune looked at the shop for a second.
"Ruby this is a weapon's shop," he said, "I'm not getting rid of Crocea Mors."
"I'm not asking you too," Ruby said, "But you should have a ranged option." Ruby then grabbed Jaune and dragged him into the store. After searching for a while Jaune eventually settled on a revolver Ruby suggested, then they went to the shooting range in back of the store.
"It's easy Jaune," Ruby told him, "Just use both hands to start with, look through these back sights, and focus on the front sight, then just put it on the target and slowly squee…"
BANG!
"I said slowly squeeze!" Ruby said covering her ears as they rang profusely. At least her companion had awakened and returned her enhanced senses, just at the worst possible time. Ruby could see Jaune saying that he was sorry and asking if she was okay, though she couldn't hear him say it at the moment.
"I'm fine, it's just a small space and I wasn't ready for the sound." Ruby said, "I'll be fine in a minute." After said minute Ruby heard the ringing subside and, just in case, she took the earplugs and blocked up both her human and canine ears. "Okay, now you can shoot."
In response Jaune turned and fired at the target again.
"You're still jerking on the trigger, that'll throw off your aim." Ruby said before launching into full training mode. After a few hours of training Jaune seemed to be getting the hang of how to shoot a gun. It was also getting later in the day, so Ruby decided to call it a day and the two of them went back to Beacon. They arrived back at Beacon just in time for dinner. Their table was oddly quiet for them, and Ruby could feel a myriad of wildly varying emotions from both her team and her sister's team but nobody seemed to want to comment. Eventually both teams finished and returned to their rooms for the night.
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A/N another one down! Not much action this chapter, though we do have some pretty fun misunderstandings beginning. Also anyone who got the "Detective Doctor" reference, you know some fine comedy. As always I hope you enjoy this chapter.