Ruby wasn't entirely sure where Jaune was taking her.

The two'd been walking for about five minutes, hand-in-hand as Jaune guided her through sidewalks, alleys and around street corners. They'd just passed the public library she'd met Blake at yesterday when Jaune finally stopped. "Welp, here we are!"

Ruby looked ahead to see a small diner, an old, wooden sign that said 'Dandel's Delights' hung over the door. The windows were mostly covered by wooden blinds, though through them she could see a mostly empty diner. "Huh. I don't think I've ever been here."

Jaune nodded, guiding the two to the glass doors that served as the entrance. "It's a bit of a hole-in-the-wall place, I know. But trust me, they've got some of the best food in the city."

Walking inside revealed a rather well-decorated interior, with dozens of pictures—some of which were in black and white—lining the walls. The floor was patterned like a chessboard, with booths, tables, and bar stools mostly colored a dark red.

Behind the bar stools was a granite counter, a young woman spraying and wiping it down. Said young woman had blonde hair and dark green eyes, her hands covered in rubber cleaning gloves. Other than that, she was wearing a mostly black uniform, with the name of the restaurant printed on both shoulders and the back.

It was a beat before she noticed them, turning to see the two customers walk in. Her eyes immediately flicked to Jaune. "Usual table?"

Jaune nodded.

The woman dropped her cleaning supplies, walking around the counter. Then, from behind her a large, lizard tail rose and wrapped around the bottle, continuing to clean as she gave a toothy smile at Ruby. "And who's this little cutie?"

Ruby blushed at that, giving a little wave. "I'm Ruby."

The woman chuckled, using her tail to grab a few menus from behind the counter. "Well, I'm Dandel—welcome to my diner! Here—" she flicked the menus in the air, expertly catching them before spinning them the right way around, holding them to the two. "I'll be with you shortly."

She walked back behind the counter, tail pulling her cleaning supplies with her.

Jaune, meanwhile, guided Ruby to a booth near the far back, sitting on the side facing the door as Ruby took its opposite. Her eyes flicked to Dandel as she disappeared into a back room. "You know her?"

Jaune nodded. "I come here a lot."

Ruby nodded a few times, looking over the menu. It was about what she'd expect from a diner, all things considered. A rather large selection of entrees, some breakfast items still on the menu—even a few desserts.

It was also surprisingly cheap—given the most expensive thing on the menu was twelve lien. Well, good for my wallet, at least.

She placed the menu down after a second, looking to see Jaune doing the same. He looked up, giving her a faint smile as he laid his arms on the table. "So, what do you plan on getting?"

Ruby shrugged. "I guess the 'Dandel's Delicacy'?"

Jaune nodded a few times. "Good choice—one of her best dishes."

Ruby smiled. "What about you?"

"Eh, I'll just get the Mistralean Salad."

The two set the menu's aside, Ruby leaning back slightly as Jaune did the same. The two sat in silence for a moment before Ruby cleared her throat. "So, besides the whole training thing, how've things been going with you?"

Jaune shrugged, a faint smile on his face. "I can't complain too much. We've been trying to work on a team attack—like a big, one right after the other finisher kind of thing."

Ruby's brows furrowed. "What do you mean?"

Jaune scratched his chin for a moment, face twisted in thought as he tried to think of how to explain it. "Well, it's…maybe it's better if I just start from scratch."

He cleared his throat. "Okay, so for now we've got the idea to test this out against an Ursa. Big enough that it'd be kinda hard for just one person to take down, but not too big that it would overwhelm us. We're hoping to use it on bigger grimm that we can't kill any other way. It's sort of like a combo move from that one game you and Yang always play."

"Kung-fu ninja sleep fighter ultimate death battle II?"

"Yeah—man that's a mouthful."

Jaune shook his head after a second, grabbing one of the menus. He grabbed the salt and pepper shakers from nearby, along with three different kinds of sweetener—made for being placed in coffee. He placed the pepper near her, a green, pink, and yellow sweetener near him, and the salt shaker just in front of them.

He pointed to each. "Okay, so this salt shaker represents me—"

"Since when are you ten feet tall?"

Jaune gave her a blank expression, a faint annoyance behind his eyes. "I'm improvising, Ruby. Work with me here." he gestured to the three sweetener packets. "The green one's Ren, pink is Nora, and yellow's Pyrrha—following so far?"

Ruby nodded.

Jaune moved the salt shaker until it clinked against the pepper. "Step one is to agro the grimm toward me specifically. Thanks to my shield and aura, I can hold my ground while everyone else gets into position."

He moved Ren and Pyrrha to the right, Nora to the left. "Nora fires a barrage of grenades to soften up the grimm, with Pyrrha using her semblance to redirect any of them that possibly miss. Meanwhile, Ren—" he placed the green sweetener on the pepper shaker. "Gets launched by Pyrrha and starts looking for an opening."

He clinked the metal tops of the salt and pepper shakers. "If Ren can't find an opening, Nora and my job is to make one. Nora uses her bombs to weaken its bone plating while I use Crocea Mors to peel one off. Then, Ren slams his blades into its exposed parts."

He grabbed Pyrrha. "Then Pyrrha uses her semblance to drag Ren's weapons into the grimm—killing it from the inside out!"

He set the items aside, laying his chin in his hand. "It worked each time we've ran through it in training, but…well—"

"Real grimm aren't like simulated ones?"

Jaune nodded. "Exactly."

He frowned as he stared at the menu, gripping his other hand into a fist. "I…this plan should work—there's no reason it shouldn't. Everything makes sense on paper and in training. But if we go out there and it doesn't…"

Jaune sighed, sitting back and dragging his hand over his face. "Sorry, I just…I don't wanna be the reason my team gets killed."

Ruby slowly nodded, a frown clear on her face. "I know what you mean."

Jaune's brows furrowed. "What?"

"I don't wanna get my team killed either."

Jaune shook his head, holding up his right hand. "I know that, but it wouldn't just be your fault if your team got killed. You're talented, you're tough—you can actually help your teammates if a plan goes wrong…"

Jaune pulled his hands back to the table. "I…I don't know if I can do that."

Ruby reached forward, gently taking the Arc's left hand. He looked up, blue eyes meeting silver as Ruby gave him her most reassuring smile. "Jaune, you managed to land a punch on me while I was using my semblance—Yang couldn't even do that! You scored higher than Weiss on a strategy test—you even stayed hidden longer than Blake during the stealth exercise!"

Jaune frowned. "By one second."

"Hey, a win is a win!"

Ruby shook her head, leaning over the table and laying her hands on his shoulders. "My point is, you're a huntsman. And you're already a pretty good one! Your team trusts you with their lives—and you trust them with yours! If something goes wrong, they know they're in good hands."

Ruby frowned. "I…can't always say the same for mine."

Jaune's brows furrowed. "What? Ruby, you're a prodigy. You got into Beacon two years early, you're faster than literally anyone at Beacon—and you got named team leader at fifteen. How could they be in better hands than yours?"

Ruby sat back in the booth, staring at her hands. "I…well…"

Ruby sighed, a faint chuckle slipping from her lips. "Nevermind. It's stupid."

Jaune's eyes hardened as he reached forward, taking Ruby's wrist. "Ruby, what's wrong?"

Ruby stared at him for a moment, opening her mouth to tell him it was nothing:

"I'm scared."

Words tumbled out of her mouth before she could stop them.

"I'm scared that one day we're going to go on a mission—like an actual mission—and we'll be super prepared and confident. We'll be ready, or at least we'll think we are. And then when we actually go to fight the grimm they'll swarm us and…and I'll try and help and then it'll…it'll…"

Ruby covered her mouth, shaking her head as she kept muttering into her hand.

Jaune, sufficiently concerned for Ruby's well-being, rose from his side of the booth. He walked to Ruby's side, slipping in beside her and wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "Ruby. Ruby, look at me."

She turned, silver eyes shining brightly through unspilled tears.

Jaune reached out with his other hand, holding Ruby's hand up between them. "Ruby, you're a good leader. You know that?"

Ruby stared at him for a moment.

Jaune leaned back a bit, tapping the table with his left hand. "You're a huntress, and a good one. No one's going to deny that. No matter how scared you are, how bad things look—you're ready. You can do it."

Ruby didn't take her eyes off him, only to snort a second later.

Jaune's brow furrowed. "What? What's so funny?"

Ruby started laughing, Jaune joining her a second later. While he wasn't sure what they were laughing at, he couldn't deny Ruby's laughter was contagious.

It wasn't until Dandel came back around, asking for their drink order that they stopped. Jaune ordered water and Ruby ordered milk before the two turned back to each other, both smiling now. "What was that about?"

Ruby sighed, leaning her head against Jaune's shoulder. "We tell each other that we're amazing huntsmen and we tell ourselves that we suck…we're trying to build up each other's confidence when neither of us have any. That's just…really funny to me."

Jaune gave a faint chuckle, wrapping Ruby in a one-armed hug. "Yeah…guess we've both got a long way to go before we can be huntsmen, huh?"

"Yeah…guess so."

The two sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes, Ruby leaning against Jaune's shoulder as he leaned his free arm against the table. Neither complained, enjoying each other's warmth and company as they waited on their food to finish.

The silence was only interrupted when Dandel came back around, a bright smile on her face as she carried two plates. "Alright! I have the Dandel Delicacy?"

Ruby slipped her hand up. "That's mine."

She slid a plate of what looked to be grilled fish and mashed potatoes to Ruby.

"And your Mistralean salad, Jaune."

Jaune took the salad from her, revealing it to consist of lettuce, cheese, croutons, chicken, and some weird dressing Ruby'd never seen before.

"Enjoy your meal!"

She walked away at that, disappearing back into the kitchen as the two grabbed the silverware she'd brought. Jaune set his napkin in his lap, eyes flicking to Ruby as she did the same. "Is your hand okay?"

Ruby shrugged, reaching over and grabbing a fork. Though, when the pain started spiking up her hand, she simply dropped it. "I think that's a nooo…"

Jaune frowned, watching Ruby grab at the fork with her right hand, awkwardly trying to cut the fish while holding her fork only with her fingertips—only to send it skidding along toward his plate. "Sorry…you'd think my aura would've healed it by now."

"Do you need help?"

Ruby looked up at him, about to refuse it before staring at her hand. She sighed, letting her hands fall to her lap. "As long as you don't tell anyone I had to have someone feed me."

Jaune smiled. "Hey, my lips are sealed."

He reached over, grabbing Ruby's knife and cutting off a piece of the fish. He promptly held it toward her lips, Ruby taking the bite before her eyes widened. "Oh my gosh! It's amazing!"

Jaune chuckled. "I told you: It's one of her best."

Jaune fed Ruby half of the fish before she turned to him, frowning as she saw his salad virtually untouched. "You better eat yours before—"

She very quickly realized the error in her thinking.

Jaune smirked, not one to pass it up. "Before a salad gets cold?"

Ruby crossed her arms, pouting as she looked away from him. She felt him tapping her shoulder, but simply glared at the tile wall. Though, when she saw the fish beneath her nose, she didn't hesitate to bite it off the end of the fork.

After a few seconds she turned back, seeing Jaune still smirking at her. She glared only harder, turning straight ahead.

She let out a little, shocked gasp as Jaune ruffled her hair.

She glared at him once again.

Jaune smiled. "Sorry, I can't help it! You're cuter than a corgi when you're mad."

Ruby's face tinted red as she looked back down to her plate, mindlessly eating another bite of fish. There was still some faint anger as she turned to Jaune, a faint smirk on her face. Cuter than a corgi, huh? Well, let's see how he likes one that bites!

She lunged a bit forward, chomping on his neck.

"AAH!"

Jaune's face went bright red as Ruby moved back, his entire body shaking slightly as his hands flew to his neck. "I…y—you…"

Ruby's eyes widened, confusion replacing her anger. "Uh…Jaune? Are you okay?"

Jaune shot upright. "I'LL BE RIGHT BACK!"

Jaune dashed toward the back of the restaurant, ripping open the door to the bathroom before locking it. His heart slammed against his ribcage as he walked to the mirror, removing his hand to reveal the slight mark where Ruby had bitten him. He tried to control his breathing, turning on cold water and splashing his face.

Oh my dust that just happened! I can't believe that just happened!

He took a few breaths, trying to still his racing heart and prevent blood from going places he really didn't want it to. It's okay—she definitely didn't mean anything by it. Just…how the hell am I gonna explain this?

He walked out after a second, straightening his shirt slightly. His expression shifted to one of practiced neutrality, gently rubbing his neck. Long as she doesn't do it again, it's fine…she doesn't realize.

The moment he sat down, Ruby's face was immediately guilty.

"Jaune I'm so sorry—I was just mad about the corgi thing! I didn't hurt you, did I?"

"NO!" Jaune took a breath, gently rubbing at his neck. "No…my neck's just…really sensitive. So if you could, uh, y'know, not bite me? That'd be nice."

Ruby nodded, holding up her right hand as her left went over her heart. "I swear I won't do it again!"

Jaune nodded, letting out a sigh of relief. "Good…now—"

He cut her another piece of fish.

"Open wide."