"Alright, so when I give you a salute…" Blake said as she walked with Yang. Together, they were coming back to the cafeteria from the washroom and were about to meet back up with Ruby and Weiss so the latter could enact the second phase of her master plan.
"I know, I know." Yang sighed. "I accidentally fire an explosive round at the table of second years."
"They'll get mad and you pretend to clam up. I'll get Ruby to help and while she's playing peacekeeper, Weiss will slip away under the guise of remembering a forgotten text book." Blake summed up.
"There are a lot of ifs in there, you know?" Yang asked as they entered the cafeteria.
"Not as many as you'd think." Blake replied before they split ways to sit across from each other with their teammates and JNPR.
"Sorry for taking so long." Yang said to the table.
"It's not a problem, we weren't doing too much anyway." Jaune replied as he moved his piece around the board. "Do you want back in?"
"Nah, my gauntlet has been a little off since my fight with Winter." Yang replied. "I'm going to see what might be wrong."
"Suit yourself." Jaune shrugged. He'd taken over from Yang and had been on a roll, so it didn't matter much. "Your turn Weiss."
"Very well." Weiss rolled the dice and moved her piece.
"Aww, that was my last one!" Nora whined as Weiss took her piece out of play and returned it home.
"Just get it out again, then." Ren advised and she took the dice to give it a try.
"So you used to play this when you were a kid?" Ruby asked Weiss.
"Yeah, at least until my father invested in trick dice to ensure the servants always lost." Weiss sighed. "If I wanted to win a game of chance all the time, I'd have played the stupid computer versions."
"That's a little messed up, eh Princess?" Yang asked.
"Well, you should know messed up when you see it, shouldn't you?" Weiss replied.
"And Yang just got burned!" Nora laughed.
"Freezer burned!" Yang jumped back in, even being the butt of the joke.
Weiss simply shook her head in defeat as the rest of the table started laughing and shaking their heads with similar feelings.
Blake saw who she was waiting for arrive at the second year's table and gave Yang a quick and inconspicuous salute under the guise of brushing her hair away from her eyes.
Yang fiddled with her gauntlet for a moment and a sudden bang made everyone at the table look at Yang and the arcing dust round that was flying through the air as if in slow motion.
It came down perfectly in the center of the second year table, shattering it and sending all the food flying in every direction. But the one person still standing had it worse off than her friends.
Coco wiped the food from her face with the back of her sleeve and her eyes met Yang's apologetic ones across the room.
The entire room seemed to sense the tension and held its silence as Coco slowly walked out and around her table. She crossed the room and stopped in front of Yang.
"You do realize this was my favorite shirt, right?" She asked, clearly not impressed with Yang. Behind her, her teammates and other classmates all gathered around.
"Um…" Yang hesitated. Normally she'd apologize straight off, but she knew Ruby needed to intervene before she could do anything.
"What? Nothing to say?" Coco asked, her temper clearly rising at Yang's lack of response.
"Please just say sorry, and she'll leave you alone." Velvet beseeched them.
"So tough that you can send a person through a wall fifty meters away, but not tough enough to admit you made a mistake?" Coco yelled at Yang, bending so she was right in her face.
"Uh…" Yang glanced over at her sister who finally moved into action.
"Hey Coco, can you just give her a little space?" Ruby asked, waving her hands placatingly as she squeezed herself between Yang and the second year. "I'm sure she'll apologize and make up for it, won't you Yang?"
Yang felt the glare Ruby gave her and noticed Weiss slip away in her peripherals. Now it was up to her and Blake to keep Ruby company for the next five minutes.
"Y-yeah…" Yang nodded. She stopped talking to drag out the time as Coco and the group watched her patiently. Ruby was giving her a look that she must have learned off Weiss as Yang felt uneasy under the glare she was subjected to.
"Any time now would be nice!" Coco said impatiently. "I'm hungry and I just got back from a mission. And now I have to go change before class."
"Right, sorry." Yang nodded quickly, she'd wasted a few minutes and they could surely waste a few more before Ruby went off to find Weiss. "That was my bad… I'll get you all another lunch."
"Alright, we'll wait at the table then." Coco said and turned to leave. She stopped after a few steps and turned back. "And don't do that again. You have access to a workshop for a reason."
"Right, ha ha." Yang rubbed the back of her head. She wasn't really embarrassed, but she had to play the part. Coco turned and the group returned to their seats. The noise returned to normal and Ruby found Weiss was missing.
"Where'd she go?" Ruby asked Blake who simply shrugged as she was reading her book again.
"Hey, Ruby? Can you give me a hand?" Yang called her before she decided to run off and start looking.
"Huh?" Ruby turned back and Yang pointed up at the line. "Fine, but then I'm going to look for Weiss."
"Oh, she mentioned something about a textbook from the other day." Pyrrha spoke up quickly. "She said she should be back in a few minutes, and otherwise she'd send you a message."
"Alright, thanks!" Ruby smiled, less concerned now that Weiss hadn't run away like she did the previous day.
It took ten minutes and all the lien Yang had on her to replace the lunches of the second years, but Weiss had promised her a reimbursement for the distraction. Now all they had to do was wait for Weiss to send them the message.
Turns out they didn't wait long. Yang had just arrived back at the table when Ruby pulled her scroll out.
"Oh, Weiss said she took too long so she's just meeting us back at the dorm." Ruby said.
"Alright, let's go back then." Yang wrapped her arm around Ruby's neck, pulling her back and continuing in a baby voice. "Because I know my baby sister can't live without her Weiss!"
"Yang…" Ruby whined to the group's general laughter.
"Alright, we'll see you later then!" Yang waved as Blake got up to follow.
The three walked back to the dorm together and Yang pretended she'd forgotten her key.
"Come on, that's the fourth time since we got back!" Ruby complained as she fished hers out of her pocket. "You seriously have to start remembering it and also to take the ammo out before you start working!"
Yang saluted her sister's orders mockingly as Ruby inserted her key and turned the knob.
She glared at Yang as she walked in and as soon as she was out of sight, Yang shared a smile with Blake.
"Oh my GOD!" Ruby's scream was heard loud and clear all the way down the hall.