The Vale Bakery is one of the oldest buildings in the very center of the city of Vale. It was the third building created after the great war that pushed the Grimm out of the Vale region. In addition to being almost two hundred years old, its architecture uses a bomb resistant, fireproof material that had been mined in a now Grimm infested country to the north. The stories about that area say that the entire mine, that was slightly larger than modern day Vale at the time of the war, is now filled with one large Grimm nest. Since Vale Bakery is made out of the rare material, it has survived through the fires and bombing during the second faunus civil war virtually unscathed.
Blake moved away from the sign hanging on the wall just beside the counter and went to sit with Yang. The tray she carried had two sandwiches and glasses of iced green tea.
"They're late. I knew that prissy little bi-" Yang started complaining only to have Blake cut her off.
"First off, they're not late. We're early because you couldn't sit still and wait another half hour. So they still have twenty minutes to get here." Blake took the plate with her tuna sandwich and one of the iced teas off the tray and placed it in front of her as Yang copied her and moved the tray out of the way. "And second, you seem to be awfully angry with Weiss."
"Of course I'm angry!" Yang shouted, drawing stares from nearby tables. "She's obviously taking advantage of my sister!"
"What makes you say that?" Blake asked.
"Well… uh…" Yang blanked.
With a smile, Blake continued. "If anything, Weiss has more reason to think Ruby's trying to take advantage of her."
"What? No." Yang shook her mane of curls to emphasize her disbelief. "Ruby's not that type of person."
"Regardless, I assume our heiress has had experience with people like that." Blake explained. "If that's true, then what we witnessed this morning was much longer in the making than just last night."
"You know, you're not exactly helping me calm down." Yang said between her clenched teeth. Her knuckles were white as her fist rested on the table, clenching to help her control her temper and by extension, her aura.
"Well, if you explode and get kicked out, that's your own fault. And I won't repeat anything we discuss later." Blake sipped her tea and picked up her sandwich for a bite.
"This is payback for rushing to get the party started last night, isn't it?" Yang groaned in realization.
"I would say no, but I'm not confident in my ability to lie to you right now." Blake responded in between bites. Yang sighed and picked up her sandwich and ripped half of it off in one huge bite.
Blake couldn't help but grin at how the blond's personality contrasted so sharply with her appearance. On the outside, she looked like an attractive and sweet girl, but in times like these her personality was more similar to a bull in a china shop. Scratch that, a berserking bull in a china shop. Just waiting to break everything within reach.
With the conclusion of that thought and the last bite of her sandwich, the bell above the entrance to the shop rang and in stepped a girl with a red cape followed by another wearing brilliant white.
Blake waved a greeting as they stood in line for their food. She didn't often judge people at a distance, but her two teammates seemed… content. The atmosphere between them seemed to have been cleared up since the morning as Ruby was now talking to Weiss in her normal fashion with Weiss responding in her usual clipped tone. But despite that Blake's instincts told her it was anything but the usual.
"You two are early." Weiss stated as she took the chair at the table that was closest to Blake and across from Yang, effectively putting herself the farthest from the blond's fists. Ruby took the remaining seat and they each took their sandwiches from the tray Weiss had carried.
"She couldn't sit still, so we arrived twenty minutes ago." Blake said with a nod to Yang, the reason this discussion would be held in public.
"So, how about you explain yourself, princess?" Yang said threateningly, cracking her knuckles as if readying to hit Weiss.
"We haven't even eaten yet. Be patient or we won't say a word." Weiss threatened. "It's not like this matter concerns you anyway."
"Like hell it doesn't!" Yang shouted, once again drawing glares from the surrounding tables. "She's my sister!"
"Oh, please. Holding to that logic, you should take up any problems you have with me, with my older sister." Weiss stated sarcastically. "Now let us eat."
"I didn't know you had an older sister! That's so cool!" Ruby squealed through a mouthful of food. Weiss swallowed before reprimanding her for talking with her mouth full.
Several minutes later, mainly the three of them waiting for Weiss to finish, Ruby gathered all the dirty dishes and took them to the garbage and added them to the existing pile. In her brief absence, the atmosphere went solid with tension emanating from Yang as she stared down her white haired teammate. Ruby sat back down and looked between Yang and Weiss and coughed lightly to break the silence.
"So, you said you'd explain so explain." Yang said. "Why did you kiss my sister? And when did this start?"
"First of all, I kissed nobody." Weiss clarified.
"That was sort of me." Ruby piped in quickly.
"And define 'this'." Weiss said, taking note that Yang's eyes were still completely void of the red that gave warning to her level of temper.
"This. You two being all buddy buddy. Sharing clothes, sleeping together. Hell you're never apart for more than a few hours a week!" Yang said, realizing just how much time they spent together.
"Well I'd have to say that at the very least last night it was unavoidable." Weiss then went on to explain how the upper bunk had almost killed her, to which Yang seemed saddened and disappointed, and explained the solution they'd come up with in their semi-intoxicated state.
"I'm sorry, I just don't see why she had to share your bed. And both of you being tipsy doesn't help your argument." Yang argued.
"I'm not going to explain anymore. I know it was not the wisest of decisions, but what's done is done. Nothing happened." Weiss stated firmly before leaning back in her chair.
After a moment of silence, Blake spoke up. "Are you two dating now, then?"
Yang's eyes drilled into Weiss who simply turned her head to Ruby.
"Yes!" Ruby chirped happily before she took Weiss's hand and gave it a quick squeeze before letting it go.
Yang witnessed this odd behaviour and looked between Ruby and Weiss. "You're hiding it aren't you?"
"Sort of…" Ruby nodded, leaving her head down to look at the table.
"For now. Until I have a chance to speak with my parents." Weiss stated, noticing red starting to emerge in Yang's eyes.
"And why do you need to do that?" Yang breathed threateningly.
"They have already had my whole life planned out. This sort of ruins a large part of those plans. Not to mention that if they found out from the media first, it would be exponentially worse." Weiss said. "Ruby will already have to deal with White Fang assassins. No need to add those my father hires to the list."
The red in Yang's eyes flashed bright for a moment before disappearing. She slowly started nodding her head up and down as she realized that their current situation was unavoidable with Weiss being who she was.
"Is your father really that bad?" Blake asked curiously. Out of everyone there, she'd been the only one who had been part of a militant organization prior to Beacon, and had worked for the group that opposed Weiss's family's company.
"He's worse than that." Weiss said with a slight shiver. "Normal assassins, like the ones from the White Fang, just don't care. They run if things look like they're going bad. The ones my father hires are… different. Unhinged. They like to kill. They have fun doing their job, and most of them would rather die than give up. They tend to be… messy."
"I think I've heard about some of those guys…" Yang mumbled as a conversation with a bartender a couple of years ago came back to the front of her mind. "Suicide Squad… or something like that…"
"That's them. Or at least most of them are part of that gang." Weiss nodded.
Yang sighed and stretched her arms. "Well, I understand why you want to keep it quiet for now. And I agree, but you have until the end of this winter break to talk to your parents."
The four got up and headed out the door, Blake leading followed by Ruby, Weiss, and Yang in the rear.
"Hold up Ice Queen." Yang caught Weiss's arm as she was about to follow Ruby out of the cafe.
"What now?" Weiss stopped, though she didn't have much choice in the matter. Yang's upper body strength was unrivaled.
"If you need some help… convincing your parents to keep the hit men at home…" Yang said, cracking her fingers on her free hand one by one as she spoke quietly to her teammate.
"Thank you. I'll be sure to let you know if I require your… assistance." Weiss responded to Yang, copying her tone of voice.
"That's all I'm asking." Yang said while putting both hands up in surrender before stepping past Weiss and leaving to rejoin the rest of their team.
Weiss sighed and followed. Her life was going so smooth. Why did it have to turn upside down so suddenly? She thought about everything and decided her energy would be better put to figuring out how to tell her parents what would surely be treated as unwelcome news.