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"I'm so glad that my favorite baby sister is visiting me at college!" Yang said with a big smile.
Ruby struggled against the crushing bear hug. "YAAANG!! I'm literally attending the same school!"
"And early admission! I'm so proud of you!"
Finally wriggling free, Ruby protested. "Really, sis, it was nothing."
"Oh come on, Rubes! Let me indulge you a little."
"I seriously doubt she needs further indulgence from you," Weiss muttered from her desk, trying her best to ignore the blatant sisterly affection as she focused on her books.
Yang shot a deadpan stare at the prissy elegant rich girl who barely reached her shoulders. "Jeez, princess, classes just started and you're acting like it's exam week."
Weiss shot back with a glare, "Well, someone has to take their studies seriously! Some of us actually worked to get here, not just throw a ball around."
"Hey!" Ruby interjected before Yang could fire off another retort. "Yang was top of her class when she graduated in addition to being a butt-kick football player. Plus she made her own modifications to her prosthetic arm because she's a mechanical genius."
"Well, the apple didn't fall far from the tree, did it?" Yang said as she ruffled Ruby's hair with said prosthetic. Any chance she could get to point out Ruby's own engineering smarts, she took it. But Yang couldn't deny that Ruby had also learned a lot from her older sister.
Sighing in defeat, Weiss turned back to her books and hoped for a quiet evening. But Yang had other ideas.
"Say, how about dinner and tea?"
Ruby perked up. "You mean...?"
"Yep." Yang winked.
Ruby made an excited squealing noise. Weiss leapt up from her seat and shouted, "Will you PLEASE stop making so much noise?!"
Ignoring the heiress, Yang flung the door open to poke her head into the adjacent dorm room where her reclusive roommate was curled up on the bed. "Blake, you want some tea?"
Looking up from her book, Blake wanted to say 'no' but found it difficult when looking into those earnest lilac eyes and that sunny grin. "Sure. I'd like that."
"Great! Come on, Rubes, let's go. And bring the ice queen too."
Despite Weiss's protestations, she got dragged out as Blake followed with a barely concealed smile.
"I thought you said we were getting tea!" Weiss exclaimed as they got out of the truck. It was bad enough having four people crammed into Yang's old pickup - for Weiss at least - but arriving at some cheap-looking fast food joint was not remotely what the heiress imagined.
"Duh!" Ruby replied, gesturing to the restaurant as if it was obvious. Weiss just stared from her bizarre roommate to the building and back.
"It does look... different," Blake remarked. She wanted to use another word but decided not to align herself with the prissy heiress.
"Hey, dinner's on me," Yang announced, arms wide as she turned back to her posse. "Now don't tell me y'all aren't hungry."
"I'm famished!" Ruby cried out in dramatic fashion.
"Uh..." Weiss seemed to be contemplating how best to escape and return to her dorm.
"I might go for something," Blake said before the loud growling of her stomach betrayed her.
"Then it's settled." Yang got behind Weiss and Blake and pushed them inside the Bojangles as Ruby held the door open before bounding up to the front.
Ruby's eyes were aglow as she nearly bounced in place by the register. Yang sauntered up to the front to order and pay while Blake calmly looked over the menu and Weiss resembled a skittish cat. A true irony considering Weiss was not the one with cat ears in this party.
Once the cashier was ready, Yang began her order. "Hey, I'll have a Chicken Supremes meal with a large fries and large sweet tea. Also a sausage biscuit. Rubes? Country ham biscuit, fries and sweet tea?"
"Large sweet tea!"
"Yeah, Bo-size her combo and a Bo-Berry biscuit..."
"Make that two!"
"Two Bo-Berry then. And Blake? You want anything?"
"Two piece breast and thigh meal with dirty rice and Cajun pintos."
"Ooh, spicy! Drink?"
"Same as you."
"Large sweet tea for her, then. And..." Yang looked at Weiss who still did not want to be there. "Kid's meal, princess?"
"HEY!"
"Fine, get her a biscuit and a medium sweet tea."
By the time their order came up, Ruby was as giddy as nondescript winter holiday morning. She grabbed her tea and took a huge gulp. "AHHHHH. So many memories."
"You said it, sis," Yang replied as she took a swig of her own and carried over most of the food to the table.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Weiss asked, sitting awkwardly beside Ruby and staring at the drink before her that was tea. With ice. And something wrapped in paper that was a biscuit.
"Yang took me to Bojangles a lot when we were growing up," Ruby explained after choking down a mouthful of a Bo-Berry biscuit while she had her country ham biscuit in her other hand.
"That seems... questionable."
Blake just shook her head as she dug into her food.
"Hey, Weiss." Yang put one elbow on the table as she leaned in. "I was working various jobs from a very young age to support myself and my sister here. Her mom was gone and so was mine, and our dad was often busy with other things, so I had to hold it together. Going to Bojangles wasn't just some reckless choice or a poor dietary option; it was a small treat for us, something we could do that was cheap and tasted good."
That humbled Weiss enough. "Oh. I'm sorry to hear that. But..."
"Shut up, there's food!" Ruby interjected, grabbing Weiss's plain biscuit, still in the wrapping, and shoving it in her face.
"Easy there, sis. We can't make her eat if she doesn't want to." Yang bit off half a chicken tender before adding two or three fries into her mouth.
While Weiss now somewhat understood why this particular restaurant held such significance for the unusual sisters, she remained skeptical of the food because it looked so...
"It's all greasy."
"Duh, that's what makes it good!" Ruby retorted.
"And what's with all the...?" Weiss pointed at the fries that were covered in seasoning.
Yang slowly smirked as she chewed. "You don't know about Cajun style seasoning, city girl?"
"What?"
Yang took a fry and held it out. "Eat."
Weiss leaned away, her lips drawn tight. But the longer the fry hung in the air, the more the smell of greasy goodness got to her. It surely was very bad for one's health, but if Yang and Ruby were devouring this stuff, then maybe...
So Weiss took the fry and ate it. It didn't take long for the seasoning to kick in. She coughed and sputtered before Blake idly pointed to the drink sitting before her, and Weiss grabbed her cup with both hands as she chugged the ice cold beverage. Then she sputtered for a different reason.
"Who puts ice in tea?!"
Yang was laughing so hard while Ruby had the sense to be more sympathetic to her suffering roommate. "Weiss, that's how tea is prepared down here. It's served cold with ice and usually sweetened."
"But it's so sweet!" Weiss coughed, looking appalled that anyone could possibly drink tea like that.
"And that's what makes it great!" Ruby replied, oblivious to the tone in Weiss's voice as she took another huge swig that drained her cup.
"I gotcha, Rubes." Yang took Ruby's cup to get a refill along with her own.
Looking over to Blake who hadn't said a word and was most of the way through her meal, Weiss asked, "How are you okay with this?"
Blake replied sarcastically, "My spice tolerance is not White Girl." Smiling at the way Weiss glared back, she added, "Besides, this sweet tea is nice. It really goes well with the food."
"Well, I for one worry about that sugar intake, Ruby," Weiss said as she looked at Ruby's other Bo-Berry biscuit that was covered in frosting and quickly disappearing.
"Oh, she's used to it by now," Yang brushed off airily as she returned with fresh tea for herself and her sister. "Where do you think she gets all that energy from?"
Weiss didn't know whether to take that literally or that Yang might be yanking her rope. So she opted to eat her biscuit before it got cold - and she had to admit, it was very buttery and quite good.
They returned to campus, Yang and Ruby with their cups mostly filled with more sweet tea, Blake with her own, and Weiss having left hers for the trash. She had managed to drink most of hers but was seriously regretting not getting the coffee instead. Although she was thinking seriously about making a Starbucks run...
"Thanks, Yang. That really hit the spot," Ruby said as she gave a quick side-hug.
"Aww, anytime, Rubes. It was nice having some new friends along as well."
"It was quite good," Blake admitted with a soft smile. "I could go for that again sometime."
"Just don't try and drag me along aga-" Weiss started before something caught her eye. More like someone. "HEEEEY PYRRHA!"
Walking past was Pyrrha, the famous star athlete who got a full ride to the university and was likely to be at the very top of the class in academics once their first year was done. In her hands was a meal from a place called Halal Guys which looked like a gyro, fries, and a drink. She stopped at the sound of her name, then smiled warmly when she saw who it was. "Hello again!"
Weiss strolled up to the tall redhead, her hands behind her back. "So, Pyrrha, I hope you're ready for that first exam coming up in our history class."
Ruby looked on in bewilderment. "What is going on?"
Yang was too busy watching with amusement as she took a bite of her own Bo-Berry biscuit that she had snagged on the way out of Bojangles. Blake answered, "Don't worry about it." She knew exactly what was going on and just wanted to enjoy the show.
Having replied that the history test wouldn't be too bad, Pyrrha shifted her hands, wanting to dig into her meal.
"That looks delicious," Weiss said, wanting to prolong the conversation just a bit more.
"It is. Would you like to try one of the fries?" Pyrrha was sometimes much too nice for her own good. But in this instance, she was being sincere.
Weiss reached up but noticed the seasoning on them. "Oh, are they spicy?"
"Only a little."
"Well, I think I can manage."
Yang interjected. "Uhhh you nearly died from eating a fry at Bojangles."
Weiss made an annoyed sound in her throat and retracted her hand, having almost touched one of Pyrrha's fries.
"Oh, I understand. Not everyone can handle spice." Pyrrha spoke with genuine sympathy, then she dug around and pulled out a fry with minimal seasoning and offered it to Weiss, who accepted it shyly. As she nibbled on the fry, Weiss did not expect to feel Pyrrha's voice ghosting over her ear.
"Your next dinner is on me. Just call."
Weiss felt her face burning up in a manner very different than when she nearly died from spice overdose at Bojangles. And Blake noticed.
"Ooooooo!"
Yang was smirking but then felt a smack across her stomach from Blake. "Back me up here." Then both of them went, "OOOOOOO!"
Weiss sputtered indignantly at the teasing duo. Blake and Yang knew they were going to get a lot of mileage off this, while Ruby just kept drinking her sweet tea.
Little did any of them know just how much Pyrrha was looking forward to treating Weiss to dinner, even if she could barely handle the spice.