Author's Note: Just to let you guys know, I've always read every single review I get. Let me know if you guys are enjoying the story so far, and where things could be better. I'm always looking to improve. If you honestly think my writing is shit, I'd like to know why it's shit instead of getting a "Your story is bad and you should feel bad" kinda review, those just don't help anyone.
Update: For all the new readers or just people who are confused in general, this chapter was originally posted as chapter 4, but after some reviews complaining about consistency issues on Jaune's personality, I decided to fix it.
Ruby's mind blanked, the words failing to come out of her mouth as she stared up at the douchey sunglasses on Jaune's face. A few more awkward seconds passed as the latter continued to stare until his façade cracked, a smile creeping onto his face. Jaune let out a small chuckle as he removed his aviators which quickly evolved into howls of laughter, "Serves you right for breaking my only rule."
A wave of relief came over Ruby as she joined in on Jaune's laughter, "Oh please, it's not like this hasn't happened to you before, remember when you tried playing with Crescent Rose?"
"While you're not wrong there, I'd like to remind you that it was your idea. Does 'Jaune, you need to learn how to use a gun, start with Crescent Rose' come to mind?" Jaune continued to chuckle, closing the door behind him, as he helped Ruby to her feet. He held out his hands, exchanging a portion of the groceries for his weapon back, and the pair made their way to the kitchen. Hearing Ruby's stomach grumble, Jaune unpacked the bread and placed a couple pairs of slices into the toaster, "I'll make us some sandwiches and as for snacks, I hope you still like cookies and strawberries."
"Are you kidding?" Ruby said, taking a strawberry from its packaging, "Even if they weren't my favorite, anything would taste amazing after eating those field rations for six months at a time."
"That's pretty metal," Jaune cringed as he remembered the taste of what he could only describe as nutrient bricks, "but why on Remnant would you do that to yourself?"
"Hey, they're cheap," Ruby shrugged, biting into the fruit, "and I'm not the best cook."
"Right, I wouldn't want to get near a stove either if I were you," Jaune thought out loud as he laid out ingredients, "how did you even manage to set boiling water on fire?"
"I don't know!" Ruby threw her hands up, "I'm still just as confused as you are about that."
"God, I feel sorry for your future husband," Jaune smirked.
"I'm not exactly the housewife type of girl anyways," Ruby turned away to grab a cup of water, hiding her blush, "Besides, I'm a huntress. I wouldn't mind being the breadwinner."
"From what you told me, you're not exactly the 'get a home' type of girl either," Jaune teased as he retrieved the toast from the toaster.
"That's because I was looking for you, you jerk," Ruby turned to face him, her face still red, "You didn't call, I didn't get a 'Hey, I'm alive' or anything. I thought you were my best friend, I thought you wouldn't just up and leave me like that."
Jaune hummed to himself as he assembled the sandwiches, seemingly ignoring Ruby as she ranted. After topping the piles of chicken strips, lettuce, and tomato off with a bit of mustard, he wrapped the bottom half of both sandwiches in sheets of paper towel and handed one to Ruby. Breathing heavily, she looked into his eyes defiantly, then eyed the food in front of her, her mouth starting to salivate. Ruby's stomach growled once more, to which Jaune responded before taking the first bite, "It's okay if you don't want it, I'm assuming you still have more field rations to last you until our mission?"
"Hmmph," Ruby scowled, looking into his eyes once more, a dumb toothy grin still plastered on Jaune's face. Her expression softened slightly as she lingered on the shade of blue she had missed. Catching herself, she snatched the sandwich out of his hand and quickly retreated to the couch using her semblance. Jaune watched her take a bite, letting out a tiny squeal of delight. Realizing the noise she had just made, she turned her attention from the food back to Jaune, "You're still a jerk."
"Thanks Jaune. Oh, no problem, Ruby, I only spent the last of my lien to feed both of us until the mission," Jaune mocked as he walked back to the couch to join his guest.
"Got a problem, Arc?" Ruby snapped, her mouth full of food, "Say it to my face."
"Yeah, Rose, I got a problem," Jaune snapped back after taking another bite, "you're annoying."
"Jackass," Ruby childishly stuck out her tongue before taking another bite out of her sandwich.
"Dumb kid," Jaune returned the gesture.
"I am not a kid anymore, I'm twenty-three," Ruby argued the remark.
"Fine, does Crater Face work for you?" Jaune sneered.
"Oh come on," Ruby punched Jaune's arm, "Fine, if we're doing nickname throwbacks, then Vomit Boy has a nice ring to it, don't you think? Oh, do I see some salt on your face?"
"I'm never going to live that nickname down, am I?" Jaune sunk into the couch in defeat as he took another bite out of his sandwich.
"If you're not gonna let me live down Crater Face, then you're not allowed to live down Vomit Boy either," Ruby said as she stuck a finger into Jaune's cheek, "besides, vomiting on Yang's shoe was probably the least embarrassing story you have from our Beacon days."
"Heh, not as embarrassing as some of yours," Jaune lightened up, "Remember when you accidentally walked into Professor Port's office at the wrong time of day?"
"And just when I thought I was finally rid of that memory," Ruby shuddered, "but that's nothing compared to when we caught you dancing like a ballerina in my team's room with Weiss' weapon."
The pair continued to laugh and reminisce about their shared past. All the pranks they pulled on each other, the food fight on the first day of their second semester, all the times they spent all night playing video games together. As the conversation went on, neither of them noticed how much time had flown by and before they knew it, the room had darkened from the setting sun.
"Hey, Jaune," Ruby began, fidgeting with the green bracelet that she had kept with her, "do you still remember what we said we were going to do together after we beat Salem?"
"I can't say that I do," Jaune said, rubbing his chin as he tried to remember the words.
"It's alright, I didn't expect you to remember. It has been seven years since then," Ruby took a deep slow breath to control her heartbeat, "I'm sure you meant it as a joke back then, but you said that wanted to catch up on bad movie marathon night."
"Oh yeah, I remember bad movie marathon night," Jaune snapped his fingers as the memories of countless nights of watching poorly made movies returned to him.
"Since we have the chance now, I was hoping we could catch up on at least that," Ruby looked up from her bracelet with a smile.
"Well, now that Salem's gone, I don't see why not," Jaune smiled back before getting off the couch, "I'll make some dinner and snacks, I picked up some really bad movies over the years, they're on the shelf under the games."
"What do you wanna watch first?" Ruby asked, walking over to the TV, "Or should I ask what don't you want to watch?"
"They're all bad," Jaune said as he turned the dial on his stove, setting it halfway between medium and high, before placing the pan on the burner, "I just can't stop buying really bad movies."
Ruby opened the cabinet and looked through the collection, still individually wrapped in plastic, that filled the bottom shelf. Confused, she reached in and retrieved a handful of random DVDs, "You haven't watched any of these?"
"It just felt wrong to watch all of these by myself in one sitting," Jaune answered plopping two frozen burger patties into the pan, "I'd spot a few movies, look them up on Rotten Potatoes, then buy them if they're stupidly bad, but I just never got around to watching them."
"I'm glad I'm here to share these next few terrible hours with you," Ruby jested as she settled on a movie about homicidal cellophane.
"Any preferences on drinks?" Jaune smiled to himself as he stuck his head into the fridge.
Ruby thought to herself for a moment, a devious grin forming, "Oh, what the hell. Let's play a drinking game tonight."