Disclaimer: RWBY is not mine, yadda yadda yadda Property of RoosterTeeth and Monty Oum, etc etc.
Just One Date
Volume 3
By: athrunzala
Chapter 5: Into the Daylight
In the village hotel, Ren and Nora sat on the bed that they had shared several nights ago. They regretted that they hadn't been out to find their team mates yet, but they both understood the words of the older doctor. It was pointless to try anything without any help. When they had received word from Doctor Oobleck that Ozpin had sent Team RWBY to help them, they were relieved.
"Boooooored…."
Nora Valkyrie flopped backwards on the bed, her turquoise eyes scanning the ceiling, thinking about counting the peaks on the spackle. She wouldn't get much of a chance to do this, however, as the phone went off in the room.
Ren answered it to discover that it was the front desk telling them that 4 individuals from Beacon had arrived. He said for them to be allowed to come up, and unlocked the door.
"They're here, Nora. Be ready. And no using Magnhild today, alright?"
"Fine… When they get up here, are we gonna talk?"
Ren smiled. He wanted to tell her what he really felt, but he couldn't do it right now. He knew it wasn't the time or the place. But he would let her know. Eventually.
"Yes, Nora. We have to bring them up to speed on the situation."
As he opened the door, Ruby was about to knock. Taken slightly by surprise, she face faulted for a moment when she saw that Ren's left hand was bandaged.
"Are you…"
"I'm fine," he reassured her. "Minor cuts and scrapes. Everything major has healed."
He then stepped back, allowing their four friends to enter the room.
"Alrighty! So, let's compare notes here."
Yang was ready to get to work.
"Fair enough," the martial artists said. "You tell us what you know, and we'll fill in the rest."
"Your team was dispatched out here to destroy a large Grim that was taking an interest in the town. There was a cave-in," Blake shot Nora a glare mid-sentence, which caused that hammer-user to shrink a little. "And you two made it out safely, while Jaune and Pyrrha were trapped inside."
"Yup. That's all of it!"
Nora was back to normal. She was looking around the room, when she suddenly sat bolt upright and leaned in towards Ruby.
"Woooooah…."
The younger girl was slightly confused by this reaction.
"Can I… help you?"
"Where'd you get that?"
Nora's statement was seemingly out of the ordinary to Ren until he managed to spot what his partner was talking about. Sure enough, on her hand, was a ring. However, the explanation on that could wait until later.
"Nora, later. She can tell us after we have rescued our leader and team mate."
"Ookaay," the orange-haired woman sing-songed as she skipped out of the room, followed by the others.
Back in the mine, Jaune was sitting and thinking. He didn't know exactly what day it was, as there was no sunlight. However, they had managed to use up a good chunk of their flares starting fires. So he guessed that they had been there for about a week. He was shaken out of his trance when Pyrrha tapped him on the shoulder.
"Huh?"
"Jaune, listen."
The swordsman put a hand to his ear and heard the definite, but faint, sounds of people coming through the rocks. And he was certain that he recognized four of them.
"Told you they'd come back! And it sounds like they brought Team RWBY with them!"
On the opposite side of the rock wall, Ren managed to just barely make out Jaune's exclamation. They had been digging for about 10 minutes before Nora had accidentally thrown a rather large rock in Weiss' direction.
"Hey! They're alive. Let's start moving up the rocks!"
Of course, Nora and Ruby jumped up, followed closely by Blake, who managed to get to the top of the pile first.
As she removed the smaller debris, a shocking flickering light came through. However, she knew that glow anywhere. It was the light of a campfire. Now joined by Ruby and Nora, she hollered a warning through the opening she had made.
"Stand back! We're gonna start up here!"
Jaune and Pyrrha had, by this point, started tearing down their "camp" and getting things packed up.
"Jaune, go up and help them. It will go faster."
The blonde nodded in agreement and rushed out to start climbing. Once at the top, he began pulling rocks out as well. Once there was enough of an opening for faces to be seen, he looked across to the smiling face of Nora, and a slightly confused Ruby.
"What? Is there something on my face? Do I offend? I know I probably do."
"Just help us clear these and we'll talk back at the hotel."
"Good plan. That is another one I can get behind."
They continued removing rocks until it was clear enough for the pair to safely climb through. Both Jaune and Pyrrha looked back at the location that had been their home for the past week and then scrambled through the opening. As they walked out into the daylight, the two formerly trapped members were having a hard time seeing. They didn't understand Ruby's confusion until they reached the hotel.
"Jaune, you look…"
"Different."
Yang's interruption to Ruby's attempt at tact was par for the course with them.
On his face was a slight beard from the week of not shaving (they had deemed the water more necessary for drinking), and he was wearing his armor directly over his black tee-shirt. Pyrrha, on the other hand, was wearing his hoodie over her usual attire.
"Yeah. We were kinda trapped underground for a week. What's with the ring?"
"You mean this," Ruby fidgeted with the circle of metal that adorned her finger.
"It was… a gift… from Weiss."
"Looks good on you."
Jaune's compliment did not go unnoticed by the heiress, who leaned over towards Ruby and whispered, "I told you," in her ear. This caused the younger of the two to blush slightly. She was still not used to Weiss gifting her things, even though it was their one year anniversary.
Yang then hit on one topic that was bugging her.
"So… What did you two do while you were trapped?"
Both Jaune and Pyrrha looked at each other and grinned.
"Nothing we're gonna tell you about," was the response that came in unison from their mouths.
After all, they weren't about to tell her that they had been intimate with each other. That wasn't any of her business. And even if it was, there was no way they would be sharing that detail of their relationship willingly. After all, their relationship had started very publicly. They wanted what little details that they could keep private to stay that way.
Blake spoke up next.
"Let's head back to Beacon. You guys probably want to sleep in your own bed tonight."
With nods in agreement all around, the two teams packed up and left the sleepy village behind as the airship took off into the sky, only stopping once it had arrived at Beacon's familiar paved campus.
To be continued…
a.n./ - Yes. I did a thing. I hastily wrapped up a story arc. Not like that doesn't happen in all episodic writing. Long story short, I didn't want to drag this chapter out as I hadn't slept much prior to writing it. So I made Jaune's appearance similar to how I looked in the mirror. I'll sleep when I sleep and that is that.
As for the ring, I'll go over that more in the next part.