Day 29/30

"Alright everyone, here's the deal!"

Yang slapped a stack of notebook paper onto the coffee table, looking at everyone sat around her. The whole house was gathered together, minus Ruby of course; can't have the birthday girl around when planning a surprise party now can you? Weiss was absent as well, still bedridden and resting up. Some of them weren't too happy to have been woken up before 8 AM to start working, and groaned internally when they saw the dozens of instructions for properly setting up Ruby's 'Super-Sweet-Sixteenth B-Day' written on them. Half of them hadn't even had their caffeine yet. This was going to be a rough day.

"Isn't this a bit much to throw at us so early?" Roman yawned, rubbing his eyes, "At least let us wake up first."

"No can do, Roman," replied Yang enthusiastically, "Ruby's an early riser, so the only way we can get this going is if we see the sunrise before her! We've got a lot to do to make this the greatest birthday my baby sister will ever have!"

"It's not like she's my sibling…" Roman mumbled like a petty child. Neo elbowed him in the side to put him in place. "Okay, fine. I'll stop bitching."

Pyrrha began leafing through the stack of paper, handing sheets around for everyone to read. "So, shall we start from page one then Yang?"

"Not exactly," Yang said, "We've gotta get through this all at once. We'll have to split into teams to get everything set up. I'll need one team to wrap Ruby's presents and another to help me set up the dance floor downstairs. You guys can pick whichever team you want, but I'll need some muscle downstairs."

"Did you say dance floor?" Ren questioned, "Last I checked there was a movie theater downstairs."

"Not for much longer. Now Ren, I need you to start-

"Cooking the food for dinner tonight. Prepping the cake. Making even more food for tomorrow."

"How'd you know I'd say that?"

"I've been doing it since the first day here, Yang. I know my niche by now."

"Fair enough."

Velvet noticed one hole in Yang's planning. "But what about Ruby? What if she walks in on us setting up all this for her? It would ruin the surprise for sure."

"Don't worry. I locked her in her room like I always do. Though it might not hurt to have someone go and check on her once in a while."

The opportunity to be alone with one of the most potentially compromising individuals to his plan was something Virulet couldn't afford to let slip. "I would be happy to watch your sister for you, Yang. I am one of her closest friends, after all."

"If I may interject," Ren raised his hand, quickly butting in, "I would not mind having you assist me in the kitchen today, Penny. Nora has told me she wishes to spend some time with Ruby lately, anyways."

Now this didn't sit well with either of the two red heads Ren had spoken with, especially the one that was actually human. Nora tried her best not to tackle 'Penny' and physically remove him/her from being in the way of her and Ren. "R-R-Ren! But I…!"

Ren gave Nora the subtlest of looks, but she knew exactly what it meant. Something was up, and he wasn't going to keep her in the dark about it for much longer. For now, she'd try her best to stay quiet. In Nora's case, that was nearly an impossibility.

Virulet was probably even more furious for the boy to blatantly sabotage his scheme. Oh, he couldn't wait to gut him tomorrow! Still, he had to keep up his act of bubbly kindness. For now. "…Very well, then. I suppose I could assist you, oh excellent friend of mine."

"Okaaay then…" Yang brushed off that strange outburst and stood to her feet, "Now let's get to it people! Time isn't on our side today!"

With everyone clustering together to decide which group they wanted to be a part of, Cinder quietly broke off and slipped out the front door. Closing it gently behind her, she looked over to the shed across the lawn. Pulling out a small sheet of lyrics from the pocket inside her dress, she took a deep breath and prepared for her final practice session.

"You can do this," she told herself, staring forward with determination. It was then she noticed a burlap sack in the middle of the grass, brightly colored boxes scattered around it. There was no time to wonder where those came from, or what fate had befallen their owner. She was going to master this song, and she would be damned if anything distracted her from doing so.

Letting out a great big yawn, Ruby moved Zwei from off her chest and stretched her arms over her head. The Corgi licked her on the cheek before she rolled out of her bed. "Morning, Zwei. Did you have a good sleepy-time?"

"BARK!"

"And what about you, little guy?" Ruby bent down and asked Mr. Tibbs, still snoring softly in his sleep. The little Grimm was surprisingly heavy, and Ruby had to let him nap at the foot of her bed instead of beside her and Zwei. She couldn't have two creatures sitting on her while she slept, or else she'd have a pair of crushed lungs! "Aw, you're just a lazy little butt."

Sliding her feet into her slippers, Ruby looked over at Weiss's bed with its covers thrown around everywhere. The heiress was still sleeping like Mr. Tibbs, but had dark bags under her eyes. It must have taken her a while to actually fall asleep last night, with the constant coughing and blowing her nose. Ruby walked over and pulled the sheets over her best friend. "That's better. Now, time for breakfast!"

Ruby put her hand on the doorknob, twisting and pushing outwards. However, the door didn't budge. She tried again, putting all her muscle into it but the door was jammed shut. Was someone trying to trap her in here? Maybe it was Yang playing another prank… or maybe someone had taken the house hostage and locked her away! That would be terrible!

Nah, that probably wasn't it. This wasn't some crazy crime drama show like Sun watched on TV.

And then she remembered just what tomorrow was. Ruby sighed in relief, remembering that Yang and her dad did this every year her birthday came around. They usually didn't lock her in her room a whole day before though. Maybe this party was going to be super-extra special!

If that was the case, she didn't mind being trapped in her room for so long, even if her stomach was growling like a Beowulf right now.

"Man, I hope Ren does room delivery…"

"No, Mercury. Let me show you!"

The 5-Star Man groaned when Velvet took his hands off the wrapping paper to correct his mistake. His eyes slowly drifted away as the Faunus leaned over his lap and began to fold the colorful paper around the tiny box of ammo for Crescent Rose.

"See? You fold over, then over, then under like this… Are you looking, Mercury?"

"Sure. You go right, left… right, and whatever."

Velvet puffed her cheeks in disappointment. "Don't be such a poop! This is supposed to be fun."

"I can name a few things a lot more fun than folding paper," Merc yawned, plopping onto his back, "And napping would be one of them."

He caught Velvet blushing intensely, wondering what could have made the rabbit so flustered. Only when he realized that he had fallen into her lap did he immediately sit back up. "That didn't happen."

"Then what did happen?" Emerald snickered, "Seems like the 5-Star Man is going soft."

"…I'm too good to respond to that," Merc started spinning a roll of tape on his finger to distract himself from the damage to his masculinity. It was too hard for Velvet not to put her hand on his shoulder to repair it.

"Its okay, Mercury. Guys are allowed to lay on girls once in a while."

"Just give me the present so I can finish this wrapping shit."

Blake could tell that Velvet wasn't the only thing bugging Mercury. "I think he's just bothered that there's something even Adam can do better than him." She jerked her thumb at Taurus, slowly but surely wrapping Ruby's presents in surprisingly neat fashion.

Merc had to force his jaw from dropping at Adam's actual show of competency. "You gotta be shitting me…"

"This is just like folding origami dragons," Adam said, writing on a gift tag, "Except much less fantastical and with less fire."

"I can't believe you're actually writing, too," Jaune said, genuinely impressed at Adam, "I didn't think you were capable of that."

"I may not be the most in-tune with social norms, Arc, but I am not completely incompetent. See?" Adam turned the gift box for everyone to see. They were impressed by his wrapping skills; less impressed by what he actually wrote on the tag. Neo had to quickly leave so she could burst into laughter somewhere in private.

"Um, question," Jaune raised his hand, "Why did you write 'Slippers' on the tag?"

"It is simple, actually," Adam replied with a bit of self-pride, "That way Ruby knows what lies within the box, therefore giving her no need to unwrap it."

"…But that's the whole point, Adam."

"Of what?"

Blake looked over at the five or six gifts Taurus had already wrapped up, seeing the same exact kind of tags on them. "Don't bother. Just… Just don't pick up a pen for the rest of the day, okay?"

As Jaune and Emerald tore open the gifts Adam had already wrapped (much to the bull's disdain), Mercury smiled to himself. He might not be able to fold some stupid paper, but at least he still had one thing going for him over Taurus. In his satisfaction, he was unaware that Velvet had slipped her hand over his until he felt her fingers squeeze in between the top of his. Merc flinched and almost tore his hand away, but found her touch… not as bad as he had thought.

He'd let it slide: 5-Star Men were cool like that.

Those who had joined Yang in the basement to help prepare the 'dance floor' soon saw why the blonde had hand-picked the Lieutenant to be part of this team. Needless to say, there was no better choice she could have made when they watched him rip one of the movie theater seat out of the floor and tossed it a few aisles away.

"Piece of cake, right?" Yang asked the rest of the team, slapping the big guy on the back "Pretty sure two of you at once can do what he just did."

"But… why?" Roman asked incredulously.

"I want to turn this place into an underground party room, of course! We can't have all these chairs in the way of our dance floor!"

"But there's at least 30 seats in here!" Sun gestured to the rows, "That'll take all day!"

"Why do you think I woke you up so early? Now get your butts moving!"

"Come on, guys!" the Lieutenant urged, literally ripping off his shirt, "Let's get physical! Time to work those biceps! Don't be afraid to get a bit sweaty! I'm looking at you, Sun!"

As Roman and Sun teamed up to remove their first chair, Pyrrha beckoned to Yang to come closer once the guys' back were turned. "Can I… talk to you in private for a moment? It shouldn't take long."

Nodding, Yang followed Pyrrha over to the popcorn machine, filling them both a bag to cover up their secretive conversation. "What's on your mind?"

"It's… It's about Jaune."

"Do you ever think about anyone else?"

"That is kind of the point. You know how we are… 'together-together', as Nora would put it?"

"I would have never noticed," Yang replied jokingly.

"Well, we have been close for some time now, even before we made things 'official' between us. I feel like we have been together much longer than we actually have, and that holds some merit to some… particular feelings I've been having lately."

"Gonna have to define that a bit more clearly for me."

Pyrrha blushed immensely, trying to think of a modest way to suggest it. "These feelings arose when we… camped out with Sun and Blake. I am pretty sure you are aware of the thing that happened between them on that night."

"…Are you talking about what I think you're talking about?"

"I-I'm sorry! I shouldn't bother you with this! It is a bit too personal-

Yang grasped Pyrrha by her shoulders to stop her from leaving. "Not at all, Pyrrha! There isn't anything wrong with going to someone for advice with that. Even if I think you should have asked Blake. At least she knows a bit more about it than I do."

"You've never actually…?"

"Nah," Yang shrugged, "I've still gotta figure out myself first before I start looking for a partner. I'm just glad to see some of my friends moving forward with things like that than wanting to do it myself. I've got a sister to take care of. If you think you're ready to take that step with Jaune, then the decision is yours. I know that anyone you ask will support whatever choice you make."

Feeling at ease, Pyrrha tightened her ponytail. "Thank you, Yang. I couldn't have asked for anything more."

"No pro, no pro," Yang said, "But you better rock that noodle's world if you go through with it, you hear?"

"Y-Yang!"

"Just messing with ya! Now let's show those boys how we get the job done."