Ch. 28 Is this a date?
Ruby was understandably very excited about the prospect of actually going on a date with Jaune.
And there was little to no doubt in her mind that this was a date. Jaune even dressed up a little as did she. While Ruby wasn't one to care too much about her boyfriend's appearance, she had to admit Jaune looked good in the white dress shirt and blue zip up hoodie. It was very civilian but also very Jaune. Ruby thought the formal casual look suited him.
As for Ruby, she elected to wear a grey button up shirt along with a black skirt, though she added a few modifications since the last time she wore it, most notably a lightweight metal cover on her left shoulder. The pauldron was something she made after they returned to Beacon and while Jaune was busy with reading through an old book.
It made her feel all bubbly inside when he not only noticed the new armour piece, but also complimented her on both its craftsmanship and her looks.
Of course they still wanted to keep their date a secret, especially from Yang, so they didn't exactly broadcast that this was a date. Their team knew and helped cover for them, but that was it.
They spent a good chunk of time just walking around, talking. They got icecream, watched an Atlas presentation of their new model of Atlesian Knight and overall had a good time.
At least until they almost got spotted by Maroon and Cocra.
"What are they doing here? They don't look like they are on a date."
"Do you think they are looking for us?"
"Maybe… they get along with Yang well enough."
"They do?"
"Yeah, but my dearest sister shouldn't have a clue about this. I think it's about something else."
"Right… Do we help or do we hide?"
"...We should help. What if it's something serious."
"Alright, but I promise we'll make up for this some other time."
Ruby smiled and nodded before dragging Jaune in the other pair's direction.
"Cocra, Maroon! Hi!"
"Ruby, Jaune! Have you seen Weiss? Or Blake?"
"Uhm… no? What happened?"
"Weiss said… some stuff and Blake reacted badly. Weiss ran away and we lost Blake right after."
"It was kinda inevitable I guess. What with both of their heritage." added Cocra with a scowl on her face.
"Let me guess, Blake's a faunus?" asked Jaune.
"Is that a guess or…"
"Saw the name Belladonna in a book in my family library. Didn't want to assume though."
"Right, well yes. It's not like this was the first time Weiss heard of it, but it's fairly recent and Weiss can be…"
"Racist, say it how it is."
"Cocra!"
"What! Let's not beat around the bush, Blake is a walking stereotype once you get to know her and Weiss grew up sheltered by Atlas high society. This was bound to happen eventually!"
"Look, let's just calm down for now. We can help look for the two, but you're not going to help anyone by yelling at each other."
"Fine… just… ugh. Look, we're not used to dealing with this. Keeping the team together is supposed to be Blake's job dammit."
"The whole team is responsible for that! Look, we'll help look for them, just… just try to not make things worse. Yelling won't help and neither will calling Blake a stereotype or Weiss a racist."
The two were quiet and thoughtful for a while. Jaune's outburst shook them somewhat and made them reflect on the situation.
"Look, we… we're sorry. We know we can be abrasive at the best of times."
"Hey, it's alright. This is a stressful situation. Let's go look for the lost ones."
=O=O=O=
Cardin could barely believe he was here. First Yang annoyed him into contacting the mute girl he met at the club, and then she responded with a time, day and an address followed by "Date?"
He tried to play it cool and replied with "Sure." followed by an emoji. He was fairly sure he came off weird, as he wasn't really one to use emojis.
And to his surprise she appeared at the location. And he meant she literally appeared as she had apparently sneaked up on him. He was starting to suspect she was a student from another of the academies and simply arrived early for the festival.
Her outfit told the same tale. He had originally thought it was just something she wore to party at the club, but seeing as she wore the same frilly outfit as last time he saw her it wouldn't be unreasonable to think it was her huntress outfit.
Cardin thought that the combination of a black blouse with white vertical frills and the black mini skirt with a white belt looked pretty good on her. Combined with the black twintails haircut and her unnaturally green eyes she stood out, like a huntress was supposed to.
Of course Cardin complimented her on her appearance. He actually had to look up how to sign that since he was pretty rusty. It might not have been necessary but he thought it was a nice gesture to communicate in the same language.
Of course Mint, as she later introduced herself, was quick to let him know that she appreciated the gesture.
Of course when he tried asking about the other question that gnawed at his mind since a few days ago, that is how did she take that selfie without him noticing, she just smiled mischievously and signed "secret".
He of course changed her contact info to Mint, but as he would later find out, that didn't last long as she changed it back to the mess of emojis it was before. Of course, she did it without him noticing. She must have taken his scroll again.
=O=O=O=
Neo was having a good time. It was a little marred by the fact that she'd have to go and pretend to be a student along with the bitch and her two henchmen, but now that she met Cardin again…
Well suffice to say that she secured something to do while at Beacon. Or perhaps someone to do.
Neo smiled wildly at the idea, coinciding with a joke Cardin tried to tell. He messed it up quite a bit since his sign wasn't quite there yet and some of the signs were closer to other ones but she appreciated it all the same. That the signs he accidentally used turned his joke into an unintended innuendo only made it better after all.
Neo would have to get her story straight with the woman that currently employed her before telling Cardin anything more about Mint, but for now she was enjoying the game this turned into.
Unfortunately when she had to sign "Secret, surprise for later." for a third time, Cardin seemed to grow tired of posing questions he didn't get any answers to. So the game ended and Cardin focused on making sure they had fun on their date instead. Luckily for him he decided to take her to an ice cream parlour without any hints on her part, so that immediately made the date into an enjoyable experience.
=O=O=O=
Jaune and Ruby kept walking around Vale, though unlike before they were more focused on their surroundings instead of each other.
"Do you think we should ask around? Maybe someone saw them."
"Saw who?"
"Agh!"
Ruby jumped in the air, landing comically in Jaune's arms. She didn't know how the girl sneaked up on them like that.
"Oh, I am sorry. I didn't mean to startle you."
"Um, it's fine, I'm sorry but have we met before?"
"No, I am certain I could recall if that was the case. Oh! I didn't introduce myself yet, how silly of me. My name is Penny Polendina."
It occurred to Jaune that Ruby was still clinging to him, apparently still in shock from the sudden appearance and introduction of this girl.
Jaune started to put Ruby back on her feet as he answered the introduction
"Hello, Penny. I'm Jaune and this is Ruby, we're students from Beacon. We're actually looking for our friends, Weiss and Blake. They had an argument and ran off somewhere."
Jaune was curt in his introduction. The girl, while friendly, had something off about her. He couldn't quite put a finger on the feeling but it was slightly unsettling.
"Oh, are you perhaps referring to Weiss Schnee? I did see a girl matching her description."
"Hm? Do you know her?"
Jaune, already a bit on edge from Penny's strange aura, was acting perhaps a bit more inquisitive than normal, but he just couldn't shake off the feeling that something was off with this girl.
"Oh, I uh, she's a famous celebrity. I thought everyone knew her. *hic*"
The strange girl seemed flustered and apparently her panic induced hiccups.
"Jaune, of course she knows what Weiss looks like. Not everyone is as clueless as you are about famous people "
"Ah right, sorry about that."
Jaune had the decency to apologise after the confrontational way he asked the question. Ruby's voice shook him from the strange mood that had creeped up on him.
Still, the feeling wasn't entirely gone, but Jaune no longer felt it was ominous or anything like that.
=O=O=O=
"So, kitty cat. You haven't really been talking?"
"Please don't call me that."
"Why?"
"It's racist."
"No it isn't. My friends call me monkey all the time, it's a term of endearment."
"And we are strangers."
"Oh, come on. Are you not having a good time? I'm sorry if tea isn't your thing, but could you not?"
"The tea is fine, Sun. I'm just trying to make sure you don't have the wrong idea."
"And what idea would that be, miss "hiding her features under a bow"? It's not like I think you ran away from your team to be with me. You clearly got into an argument with the Shnee lookalike."
Blake, let out a laugh. Unfortunately for her, the timing couldn't have been worse and the tea she was drinking almost went down the wrong pipe. Thus she was left coughing and clearing her throat.
"Really? THAT made you laugh? I've been trying to be funny and this off hand comparison made you laugh?"
"Sun, that "Shnee lookalike" as you called her is Weiss Shnee."
"SHE IS!?"
"Yeah…"
"Wow, that's kinda cool. Do you think I could get her autograph for a teammate? Scarlet loves her music."
"…"
"What? Oh right! I meant after you two make up with each other."
"What makes you think…"
"Because she's your teammate. Aaaand because I think your team found us."
Sun was now leaning to the side, peering behind Blake and out onto the street. Before Blake had the time to react though she felt as though someone dropped on her, hugged her, restrained her arms all at the same time.
"Blake! There you are! Do you have any idea how hard it is to find you?"
Maroon was holding onto her and talking a bit too loud for the distance between them. Not outright yelling but enough for Blake's cat ears to lay flat on her head, together with the bow
"Uhh…"
"I got the drop on three different black haired girls with hats before we found you."
"You did WHAT!?"
Blake yelled and Maroon flinched back, though she didn't let go of her leader.
"I apologised afterwards…"
"And ran away before they could reply… or call the shades."
"Who?"
Asked Sun in confusion.
"She means the police."
"Right… soooo… I'm Sun Wukong. I'm from Vacuo originally, but I study in Haven Academy. I'm the leader of team SNNN, here for the festival."
"Oh, I'm Maroon Tailor, that's Cocra McMahon and this little kittycat here is Blake Belladonna, Leader of team BSMT."
"Don't…"
Blake only growled out the one word before Sun interrupted her with a smile on his face.
"Finally I have a name to associate with the pretty face."
"Blake… are you being antisocial again?"
Maroon was grinning as she said that and her other half, Cocra, twisted the proverbial knife with her follow up.
"How could you not introduce yourself on a date?"
"THIS ISN'T A DATE!"
=O=O=O=
Author's note:
We're getting closer to shit hitting the fan. Not that our characters know. Well maybe except for Neo, but I doub't even she knows what exactly Cinder is planning.
Speaking of Neo, yes I'm shipping "Headaches and Torment" as the Cardin X Neo ship is known acording to the "RWBY Shipping Chart". I believe my version of Cardin would get along reasonably well with Neo... and I'm gonna shut up before I spoil any more than that.
In other news, I wrote another oneshot, this time inspired by my summer job. Let me know if you'd be interested in it as it still needs to be polished and proofread before I do anything with it. In case nobody is interested in it it will join the other oneshots in the "break-glass-in-case-of-no-finished-chapter-for-this-week-box".
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed and are looking forward to the next chapter: Ch. 29 Welcome to Beacon