Friday afternoon saw Nora & Ren walking out of an ice cream shop. Nora had two double scoop cones in her either hand. Ren, on the other hand, was satisfied with his single vanilla soft serve.

"Thanks, Ren," Nora said. She chomped happily into her treat half a second later.

"My pleasure," he replied. Ren then started to lick his dessert. 

Nora, three bites in, gave a chuckle. 

"What is it?" 

Nora kissed her friend's cheek, marking it with rainbow sherbet.

"Ew! Nora!"

Not even sorry, "Sorry."

In the distance, a continuous screaming could be heard. Accompanying it was the sound of a speeding motorbike. At first, it had the two's attention. But as it grew closer and closer, it had Ren's concern.

"Does that sound like We—"

A yellow blur dashed past them with enough tailwind to knock Nora's ice cream off the cone. By the time it was gone, Valkyrie was already in a state of grieving. Ren looked to his side to see a woman slowly and dramatically going to her knees.

"My sherbet." She wept, "My...chocolate."

Ren, knowing this would pass, squatted down next to his friend and patted her shoulder.

"You want me to buy you more ice cream?" She nodded. "Okay, let's go get you some more ice cream."

 

-Meanwhile-

 

Weiss was going to school for engineering. Her family's business mainly did work with construction and automotive parts. Thus, she grew up seeing and interacting with a lot of different types of automobiles. Motorcycles were not one of them. Yang didn't know this. If she had, it still wouldn't have stopped her from going 70 mph down the street with Weiss bear-hugging her and screaming.

"You okay there princess?" Yang asked, approaching the movie parking lot. The bike slowed to the actual speed limit giving Weiss a moment to catch her breath. "Need CPR?"

"Shut up!" Weiss snarled. "Were you trying to kill me?!"

"You're wearing a helmet." As Yang parked, Weiss jumped off thanking God for the existence of land. "Plus, you were complaining about how we were 'running late'."

Weiss ripped her, technically Yang's, helmet off to reveal a sweaty face.

"That doesn't mean you drive past cars like some sort of psycho." The two women walked toward the entrance. "We could've just left sooner."

"Weiss," Yang raised a brow, "The previews are like twenty minutes. You wanted to get here for that?"

"No." she pouted. "I wanted to be on time. Punctuality matters Miss Long." Yang nudged her arm before holding the door open for her. "Thank you. I'll be in the bathroom cleaning up."

"Sorry," Miss Long said. "Didn't mean to get you wet."

The poor theater worker didn't know how to act on what was happening in front of her. Did she laugh at the sunflower blonde's joke? Did she ask the platinum blonde to stop hitting her (girl) friend with her purse? She inevitably decided to say hello through a forced cough.

"May I take your tickets, please?" she asked.

"Weiss," Yang alerted, "Give the nice lady a...Penny?"

Confused beyond anything, "What?" 

The red-haired worker took a closer look at the woman. Not two seconds later and she was beaming with joy. Professionalism was thrown out the window in exchange for a big hug.

"Salutations Yang Xiao-Long!"

Penny was a few inches taller than Weiss but was still shorter than Yang. Her ginger curls were kept short but full. Resting at her shoulders amongst her freckles. Freckles that traveled up her neck, cheeks and nose. 

This little socially awkward woman with no visible muscle definition had managed to lift Xiao-Long off the floor during the hug. Lift is an understatement as it was done with no effort at all. Weiss was impressed. So impressed that she subtly cleared her throat watching them interact.

"Great to see you haven't changed," Yang said. "Listen, can you let me down?"

"Oh!" Penny did just that. She did a little happy bounce and stayed on her toes while talking. "How have you been? Is your sister, Ruby Rose Xiao-Long, doing well? Are you and Blake Belladonna still friends? Is Blake Belladonna doing well? What are you doing now?"

Weiss did her best to keep up with Penny's rapid questions. The girl wasn't just talking a mile a minute, she was speaking with perfect execution. It was kind of admirable, if not odd. Yang didn't seem to mind. Penny did seem to have Yang's full attention though.

Weiss never thought of herself as the envious type. Or perhaps, in this scenario, jealous. Regardless, Weiss felt it necessary to remember that Yang had her own set of friends. Her own past. It wasn't her place to interrupt the reunion. That was until she heard the following.

"You look really pretty!" Penny said, "I do mean even more than you already are."

Weiss cleared her throat a little louder than last time.

"Oh!" Penny vigorously shook her hand. "Hello. My name is Penny Polendina."

Complacent, "Weiss Schnee."

"It is a pleasure." Penny's joy was genuine, not that Weiss knew that. "You are friends with Yang?"

"...Yeah," Weiss gave a quick glance to the woman in question. "We're seeing a movie actually." 

Penny still hadn't let go of Schnee's hand. Her big green eyes weren't blinking. Also, she was still on her toes and smiling from ear to ear.

"Listen," Yang spoke up, "We'll catch up later. You still have my number?"

"I do not," Penny answered, losing her smile. "I had my phone stolen a few years ago and I, unfortunately, lost quite a few of my contacts."

Yang dropped her shoulders and exhaled through her nose.

"Hey, Weiss." Yang directed, "Why don't you go on ahead? I'll catch up in a bit."

She could argue. She could refuse. She could lie. Weiss had a dozen options in response to this request. Most of them would reveal one of her negative traits.

"Sure," Weiss said. "Nice to meet you, Penny."

Weiss sat in her seat watching previews. The woman had already toweled her sweat and applied some perfume. From the perspective of some nosey viewers, this cute girl was dolled up for a superhero movie at a local theater. She had to give one man a menacing look prompting him to turn back toward the screen.

Coming up the stairs was a smiling Yang. Her gold hair bobbed up and down as she jogged her way up the rows. She easily spotted her date. The platinum blonde woman with the white empire top, white shin-length skirt, and white jacket in the back of a dark room.

"I miss anything?" Yang asked.

Weiss lowered her brow, stuck her jaw out a little, and deepened her voice, "This October, only one man will save America." Talking normally, "Looks dumb."

Yang sat down, "You're the one who wanted to get here to see the previews."

"I wanted to get here to spend more time with you," Weiss admitted. Instead of following up on this, Weiss took a big sip of her drink.

"Aw." Yang said, "That's so sweet."

There weren't any eyes on them at that moment. There was a small possibility that someone heard them, but it wasn't likely. The loud gunshots from the action movie trailer helped with that. So, when Yang kissed Weiss' cheek, she did so thinking it was safe. Which it was. 

But, Weiss was still in, what a movie franchise would call, 'phase one'. This act, a kiss in a public place, would've been fine if she were in, say, 'phase two'. But she wasn't, thus she involuntarily squirted soda out of her nose as a reaction.

 

-Later-

 

Weiss was back inside the bathroom in less than 10 minutes. Her top was drenched and most likely going to become stained. The paper towels weren't helping much. The hand dryer wasn't doing any better either. Needless to say, this date wasn't exactly going as planned.

"Excuse me, ma'am." Around the entrance corner was a worker. She had a clean t-shirt ready for her. "Your friend Yang informed me that you were in need of a change of clothes."

"Thank you, Penny." Weiss was two seconds away from accepting the 'Adel-Family-Theater' t-shirt before remembering her comment to Yang earlier. "I'll uh, go change in the stall."

"Very well," Penny said. "If you would like, I could write down some of the ingredients needed to remove stains from your clothes. I would imagine that the top is very expensive."

This girl was a little strange. But she was heartfelt and caring. For Weiss, that was all that mattered.

"Sure," Weiss said smiling. "I would appreciate that very much."

 

- The Next Day -

 

'Ruby' Blake texted. 'You home?' She sat inside a café killing time between lectures.

Ruby's text back was an unintentional answer: 'OMG! You'll never guess who I'm with!'

Blake raised a brow at her screen.

'Yang?'

'Nope'

'Weiss'

'Nu-uh. Someone we went to high school with.'

Blake thought a little harder this time. She was always friends with Yang and, by extension, Ruby. But Ruby's set of friends weren't hers. She recalled a certain farm boy with freckles who definitely had a crush on Ruby. Nora & Ren were Jaune's friends and wouldn't be worth this guessing game. Inevitably, she gave up.

'The vending machine restocker?'

'He was nice. But guess whose nicer?'

'You mean 'who is' nicer.'

The next text came with a selfie image. Ruby was cheek-to-cheek with a red-haired girl. They both looked ecstatic to be in the same room. Ruby's open mouth smile was enough to make Blake happy. However, she didn't recognize this pale-skinned girl with pearly white teeth.

'Salutations, Miss Belladonna!'

'Hello, Miss...' Blake left a space open for a response.

'My name is Penny Polendina' she texted using Ruby's phone. 'I went to high school with Ruby. We are in the dorm room hanging out.'

'Okay,' Blake texted back. 'Can you give the phone back to my girlfriend please?'

'Absolutely'

A few seconds passed with no reply. Blake was becoming a tad nervous. Her leg began to bounce. Her grip on her phone tightened. Blake didn't realize she was holding her breath until a solo selfie by Ruby came through. She was making a silly face smiling big with her eyes crossed and tongue out. It was just a picture, but Blake could hear the 'bleh' noise in her head.

'Cookie Monster can't wait for you to finish your next class!'

'Love you too C.M.' Blake then remembered something important. 'Shouldn't you be in class?' 

Like before, there wasn't a reply for almost a minute. This time, when the picture came in, it was blurry and all that could be made out was a red figure going out a door with what appeared to be a backpack in their hand.

'Greetings Blake. This is Ruby's associate Penny messaging you currently. Would you be so kind as to tell me which campus building Ruby is presumably running too so I may meet her there? Alternatively, would you prefer I give her phone to you?'

'I'm in the café. It's a little closer.'

'Very well. I will see you there shortly.'

Blake put her phone down and sighed before chuckling. Ruby had just given her a new home screen and lock screen wallpaper. She also introduced her to a human spell check. The junior just needed a moment to reflect on this brief series of afternoon events.

She stared at the hardwood table snickering to herself. If she stared out the window, she would see a freshman in a red hood and black skirt sprinting to class and leaping over a bench.

END