Chapter 39: Let's Begin Our Work

Okay, good news, everyone! We're getting back to the main plot. Sure, that brief interlude was nice, but hey, pacing is just as important too. I'm sure all of you know that well enough. Anyway, to keep the lawyers from clawing at my door, I should tell you that I'm just some random guy with a laptop, and I don't own a damn thing I write about. I can't stress that enough. So, without further ado, let's get to the story now!

xxx

"Well, I think it's time to head back to our room," Blake announced, looking at the time on her scroll. Her and Yang had been exiled from their room for about an hour now. There was no way Ruby and Weiss could keep on going for that long.

"Sure. It was nice seeing you two again," Yang said as she excused herself from the table, but not before she grabbed the breadsticks and pizza.

"Oh, it was our pleasure! Goodbye!" Pyrrha bided farewell as she waved at the departing pair.

"See you tomorrow," Jaune added.

With that, Yang and Blake exited Team JNPR's dorm room. Well, it was more like Team JP right now. Where the hell were Nora and Ren? They were gone for a while. Maybe they had taken their time getting ice cream.

"Well, it was nice to see things are normal here," Yang commented to Blake in the hallway.

"Indeed. At least here is something resembling normal," Blake concurred.

"At least we won't feel all that bad or awkward anymore," Yang optimistically said as she opened the door. Of course, given how she tempted fate with that statement, she was immediately proven wrong.

Blake watched on as she heard Ruby shriek "AAAIIIEEEEEE!" and a thrown shoe struck Yang in the head.

"Sorry, sorry!" Yang apologized as she kicked the shoe back in and closed the door. She then leaned against it and slid down to the ground.

"I take it they were still eloping?" Blake couldn't help but ask.

"Yeah…" Yang groaned as she took a hand off of the pizza box to rub the sore spot on her head. "I won't get that image out of my head anytime soon…" she grumbled on further. No matter how much sex you were used to, it was still incredibly awkward and weird to walk on your sibling doing it. It was even worse than the tome Blake accidentally farted while the two of them were getting busy.

Taking the wisest route, Yang and Blake decided to wait in the hallway for the lovers inside to finish. To their surprise, they didn't have to wait long. After about five minutes, a fully clothed Ruby slowly opened the door for them.

"Y-you can come in now…" she offered as she stared at the floor in embarrassment.

With the speed that comes with and awkward situation, Yang and Blake shuffled their way into the room.

"Sorry for throwing my shoe at you…" mumbled Ruby to Yang.

"It's fine, I deserved it," said Yang, hoping to move past all this awkward tension.

Weiss, who was dressed now also, simply observed, "Well, I didn't really mind. It's not that much of a big deal,".

"Because you didn't care, or because you wanted us to watch?" Blake asked her.

Weiss paused as she tried to come up with an answer. Eventually, she settled on, "Yes,".

"To which—oh, never mind," Blake said as she sat on the chair in the corner.

The awkward tension kept on building, and it evolved into a weird feeling silence.

"Who wants to watch a movie?" Yang suggested as she put down the food. Without waiting for an answer, she turned on the television and flipped it to a movie channel. With any luck, that might break up the aura filling up the room.

On the television, some romantic comedy was playing. How appropriate.

Weiss, with that being her favorite genre of film, immediately pulled up a chair and began to watch it. Before long, she was absorbed with the drama on screen. Ruby, having nothing better to do, joined Weiss' side and also watched the movie with her.

Yang silently patted herself on the shoulder for thinking up that distraction. She had managed to make sure that some weird argument about her sister's sex life didn't come up.

The rest of the day passed by without incident. It was the best consolation prize the universe could give them. Of course, given the way the nebulous cosmic force was toying with them, it was comparable to saying, "Hey, I'm sorry I accidentally ran over your pet with your car that I stole, but here's a nice fruit basket for you!". And the fruit basket was only filled with pineapple. And slightly out of date. And from a third-rate company. It's around this point the metaphor is starting to break down, so let's just skip to the next day.

xxx

"… And so she was like 'You killed the sun named moon,' and I was like, 'I don't remember that!'," Nora exclaimed as she repeated the common feature of telling her dreams to any audience in front of her.

"Then what happened?" Yang asked, her jaw hung in shock. She was one of the few people who regularly listened to Nora's stories.

"Then a bunch of robots attacked me so they could eat me!" exclaimed Nora as she stabbed her breakfast with her fork. It really confused the others (except for Ren, it was a given to him) as to why she decided to eat her marshmallow cereal with a fork. There wasn't even any milk in the bowl. It was one of those great mysteries of life, alongside, "Why are we here?", "Is time really an illusion?", and "Does this make me look fat?".

"Whoa…" Yang said, amazed. Nora's dreams were awesome!

"You left out the part about the robot dog," Ren said in his normal flat tone.

"Oh right! So, as I was saying…" Nora continued to Ren and Yang.

Naturally, much like any other Monday morning, nobody really gave much attention to Nora's story. Blake was more interested in her (actually safe for work) book, Jaune and Pyrrha were doing some last minute homework, and Ruby and Weiss were looking over something on their scroll.

More specifically, Ruby and Weiss were looking at the website for the Azul Concern. They were hoping to find Ms. Han's office number in the employee registry, as to recruit her for their revenge plan.

Alas, they were having little success. Although, the poor way Ms. Han handled her job made it easy to think that she either got fired or demoted to a very low position. That was certainly an obstacle that they would have to overcome if that was the case. It would be much harder to go on without her assistance.

"Maybe we should look on a different page?" suggested Ruby.

"But where? If she's still working there, then this would be the place to look," Weiss said back.

Ruby gave a small shrug. "I don't know, but we aren't finding her here," she observed.

Weiss sighed in resignation and opened a different page. "I guess these are the lower tier employees. Do you really think she'll be on here?" she asked Ruby.

"It's worth a shot," the cloaked girl replied.

The pair continued to look ever the employee registry. They hoped to find their possible ally soon.

Meanwhile, Nora was completing her story to Yang. "…So, the dog ripped of a part of me and ate it! It was crazy, and her became immune to the ruin because of it!" she finished explaining.

Yang was nodding as she listened to the story, but she couldn't help but shake the feeling that Nora just got her dream from watching some television show. If she did, that would make sense as to why many of her stories sounded so familiar. But, it was a good story regardless, so Yang went with it.

"Damn, that sounds cool," Yang stated in awe.

Ren groaned and said, "She's had that dream at least seven times by now,".

"Six, Ren. Six," Nora beamed.

"Huh, that's a first," Ren noted with a hint of surprise. That was the first time Nora had ever corrected him about her dreams. Normally, it was the other way around.

"See? I can have brain-thoughts too!" cheered Nora. She beamed like a small child showing off her 'flawless' crayon picture to a parent.

Even Ren had to admit that look thawed out his heart a little. So, he gave her simple pat on the head, and congratulated her. "Good job,".

"Aww, look at you two. Aren't you just the perfect couple?" Yang teased at that sight. Immediately, Ren took his hand off of Nora's head and Nora blushed furiously.

"W-what?! No, no, we're not together! I mean we are, like, partners and good friends and all that, but we're not together-together at all!" Nora denied. Even then, her mind was racing with the idea of her and Ren being together-together. She wouldn't mind at all her and Ren were already great friends! Their friendship could only improve if they did couple stuff!

Ren, however, acted more maturely about it. "Yang, I know what you're implying, but I can assure you that we're not a couple," he said in a calm demeanor.

Yang took this opportunity to troll the pair even further. "Bah, you're just lying. Tell me, does Nora go 'boom' in bed like her grenades?" she said with a wide grin. Teasing people was just sooooooooo much fun!

Nora looked shocked at Yang's accusation. But, it wasn't that she was angry about it, it was more of the fact that Nora wondered how she would feel in Ren's arms. Yang was making her body feel really confused right now, and Nora couldn't decide whether she liked it or not.

Ren decided to step in for Nora's defense. "Grow up, Yang. Just because Nora and I share a close relationship, that doesn't mean we're a romantic pair. Save your fantasies for someone else," he laid out, his voice sounding a little sterner now.

Yang raised her hands in a submissive gesture, although it was clear she didn't mean it in the slightest. "Hey, I'm just going off of what I've seen, and it seems clear to me. For all it's worth, I think you two would make a good couple," she said with a small smile. That last part wasn't a lie at all. It would make absurd amounts of sense if those two became a couple. Ren had almost no energy, Nora had all of it. Ren was smart, Nora was… well, Nora. It was a classic case of Yin and Yang. And the blonde that had the latter's namesake thought the idea of complementary people made for good pairings.

"Thanks for the compliment, but we're good," Ren said with a dismissive tone. However, Nora's brain was still focusing on the idea of them becoming a pair.

"Ren's my special friend! But if he's my friend, is it possible to be more than that? Like a super-friend! Or, what was it called in those books Ren doesn't like me to read? 'Friends with benefits'? But I already have benefits with him! He likes me, and I like him back! I only want him to be with me more! But, is that selfish?" Nora wondered in the space of about three seconds.

Contrary to what others thought, Nora was at least somewhat aware that she annoyed people sometimes. But, she dreaded the idea that Ren thought that about her.

"Would it be bad to want it so much and have him say no? 'I don't love you with everything I have and you're so mega uncool and lame and I don't like you like stuffed animals and other things I don't like'. Ohh, I can hear that stuff right now!" internally panicked Nora.

However, as Yang ended her teasing train, Ren noticed that Nora wasn't ranting a mile a minute like she normally did. Whenever that happened, Ren knew that it meant that Nora must be really thinking about something. So, he gave her a small smile, and reassured, "Don't listen to her. She's just being a pest today,". That last part had a glare directed at Yang.

"Don't shoot the messenger," Yang chimed in.

Before Ren could say something to the effect of 'I'd do it,', Weiss and Ruby cheered, "We found it!". They then gave each other a high five in celebration.

"Found what?" Pyrrha asked, drawn away from her work.

"Oh… just some phone number I was looking for," was Weiss' excuse. It wasn't exactly a lie, but it wasn't the while truth, either. But, half-truths were the best for her purposes. She just wasn't ready to talk about what had happened to her friends just yet.

"Oh… was it an important one?" Jaune also asked.

"Yep, it was," Ruby said with a victorious smirk on her face.

"Good for you, then," said Jaune as he went back to his homework.

Little did the members of Team JNPR know, this was indeed a good thing for Team RWBY. Well, possibly. It would take that call to determine if it was or wasn't.

xxx

Oh, what's going to happen now? Well, it's spelled out plainly above, so there goes all that suspense. But, look on the bright side, the plot is back on track! But was it ever off track? I don't know, I'm not looking at it from an outside point of view. But, you can tell me what your view is with a message or a review! This is The Draigg, signing off for now!