There are days when you wake up wondering what happened the night before. This usually happens after a night of heavy partying and is accompanied by a feeling of deep-seated regret over things you cannot quite remember.

This also happened to be exactly what Ruby Rose was experiencing the morning after her friends engagement. Not entirely sure of what her actions the night before had been she pulled herself out of bed (when had she gotten home? she didn't remember that.) and began the hunt for breakfast. Unless Jaune had had a snack before going to bed (which he typically did when drunk) she should have half a bottle of strawberry flavoured milk in the fridge. Which she would pour over coco puffs for a overly sugared breakfast. Hopefully Jaune had made coffee already. If he was up.

Walking to the kitchen she rubbed the sleep from her eye, almost tripping on Jaune's shoes where they had been left in the hallway.

"Morning."

Ruby looked up as she entered the kitchen. "Morning."

"Coffee?" Jaune asked as she opened the fridge and crouched in front of it. He was standing at the stove, a pan-full of bacon in front of him, a pair of tongs in one hand, and a large energy drink in the other

"Yes please." She said as she searched through the fridge. No strawberry milk. She sighed and stood up, the jug of plain milk in hand. "How do you feel?"

"Like shit. My head hurts, want to vomit," Jaune said with a grin as he turned his bacon in the pan. "Hoping the old Arc hangover cure'll help that. How much do you remember from last night? Because I remember up until Yang started table dancing then it gets fuzzy"

"Not enough to fill in the blanks sorry." Ruby said, pouring her cereal. She had a sneaking suspicion she had done something she was going to regret, but wasn't sure what it was. "Wait, shouldn't you feel fine, healing factor and all that jazz?"

"My healing factor is the only reason I'm not dead in a ditch." Jaune joked. "Me drinking enough to forget is enough to kill your average man remember?"

"I think the issue here is that we don't Jaune."

"Aren't you a funny one this morning? We'll ask Blake when we see them off later then, she'll know what went on." Jaune said, focussing on the pan in front of him. "So you don't know how we got home?"

"Your shoes in the hall have dirt on the heel so I guess we walked?" Ruby said, scratching her head. "Though now is not the time for difficult questions, now is the time for recovery."

Jaune nodded as he slid his bacon onto some hash browns he had had sitting in the oven. "We have tomato sauce right?"

"I still don't see how it cures a hangover."

"Dude, just trust me, it works." Jaune said with a smile as he grabbed the sauce from the fridge.

"It's probably only because you want it to." Ruby stirred her cocopops, watching as the chocolate turned the milk muddy

"Don't care, it cures my hangover." Jaune sat down opposite Ruby. "So today we have to meet Blake and your sister for lunch in," He glanced at the clock. "An hour and a half."

"Yep." Ruby said. "It'll be a light lunch for us."

"Then we need to go check on Ren and Nora -"

"They are adults, they are fine."

"- Then do some grocery shopping -"

"Hungover grocery shopping never goes well, it's almost as bad as hungry grocery shopping."

"- and then relax all night. Maybe watch a movie."

"Now you see, that last part? I can agree with it." Ruby said standing up and moving to the sink. "Finish your damn cure, I'm taking first shower."

"I wasn't being serious about the shopping!" Jaune called down the hall after Ruby.

"I know!" She replied. "Terrible joke though. Just be ready to leave in an hour."

Jaune rested his head against the table. "I want to die."

"Tough shit."

"For someone who was equally fucked last night you are being very unsympathetic." Jaune said.

"Not my fault."

"Yeah but sympathy would be nice." Jaune said, fork halfway to his mouth.

"That's a great fucking joke, sympathy from me," Ruby said. "Don't worry, Yang will have plenty for you at lunch. You two can commiserate at the end of the table while Blake and I enjoy ourselves. But seriously, I gotta shower, I smell like a bar."

Jaune just nodded as he shovelled hashbrowns and bacon into his mouth.

An hour later they were both standing just outside their apartment block.

"They wouldn't care if we cancelled -"

"I feel like shit"

"Whose idea even was this?" Ruby rubbed her eyes.

"Blake's." Jaune said as he squinted in the sun. What had been a welcome presence the previous morning had become an irritant.

"Fucking sober people." Ruby slipped a pair of sunglasses into place, Jaune recognised them as having been a gift from Coco during the war.

Jaune nodded in agreement. "Where is this cafe?"

"Three blocks away." Ruby said, looking up from her scroll. "And they are on their way there. Are you starting to feel any better?

"A little." Jaune said, scratching at his stubble, he hadn't shaved that morning. "Do you reckon blake will tell us everything that went on last night?"

"Between her sobriety and Velvets camera there will be a perfect record of the night's events." Ruby said as she started down the street. "Honestly I can't wait to find out what we did."

"Usually when I can't remember the night before I take that as being a good thing," Jaune fell into step beside her. "Because I either had the time of my life or I did something dumb I wouldn't want to remember."

"Blake will tell us regardless." Ruby mused.

The cafe was a cute little place hidden on the edges of the industrial sector. It typically catered to factory workers with simple but good fare, but with a growing huntsman population in the area it was branching out into fancier dishes attractive to their new clientele. Blake had picked it because Velvet told her they had an excellent tea selection.

"Why are the lights so bright?" Yang moaned, covering her eyes after they finished giving their orders at the counter. "It's Sunday morning, that's prime hangover time."

"Everyone else needs to be able to see love," Blake said smiling. "Though Jaune looks like he is suffering about as much as you."

"It's not suffering it's torture." Yang mumbled as they all sat down at a table in the corner of the cafe. She and Blake sat in the both seat that ran along the wall, while Jaune and Ruby sat in the chairs opposite, their knees brushing against each other under the table. "All I did was have a a few drinks."

"After not drinking much since the war," Blake said gently. "You were always going to feel like shit. Also you aren't 18 anymore. Your body just can't bounce back from shit."

"Did you just call me old?"

"If she won't I will!" Ruby interrupted, a grin on her face.

"I'm not even 25 babe." Yang continued, ignoring her sister. Her voice was slightly muffled by her forehead being pressed against the table. "You're like 3 months older than me -"

"Shut up I'm older than both of you." Jaune said snippily. He'd stolen Ruby's sunglasses from where she had hung them in the neck of her t-shirt and was now wearing them to protect against the harsh cafe lights.

"Old man." Ruby teased.

"Young lady." He slung back.

"Gross, flirt with my sister somewhere else would you?" Yang said. "It's like I get it, your friends, you live together. You don't take it any further. Please for the love of god tell me you aren't taking it any further."

Blake stared intently at her glass of water, pretending to be fascinated by the etched designs in the glass while Jaune hastily shook his head and assured Yang he had no intentions with Ruby, and Ruby flushed a shade of red.

Yang lifted her head to let her eyes dart between the pair, they could almost hear cogs ticking in her brain as she thought things over. "Methinks thou doth protest too much."

"Methinks you need to retire saying shit dad used on us." Ruby said.

"It's a perfectly good phrase!"

"It's terrible and you know it. It's like being a parent has affected your brain. Turned it all weird."

The sisters continued to bicker, Ruby pointing out how her sister had turned into their father, while Yang brought up that Ruby was being unreasonable.

"That'll keep them occupied for a bit." Blake said to Jaune with a small smile.

"And arguing like children, it'll keep them young." Jaune said.

"You know you look like an asshole with the sunglasses right?"

"You know I have zero shits left to give, right?" Jaune said. "I mean mostly because of the alcohol, but also because of the not caring what people think anymore."

"You are really hungover aren't you?"

"Ridiculously so." Jaune said as a server brought over their meals. "I drank so much I can only remember half of last night. And Ruby tends to forget what happens when she's baked."

"Oh my gods." Blake whispered. "You don't remember anything?"

"Nope." Jaune said, stabbing his fork into his avocado toast. "Why?"

The conversation between Ruby and Yang had fallen into a lull as they tucked into their meals. Both were paying close attention to Blake.

"Let's just put it this way, I remember a lot more than you do." Blake said before taking a bite of her breakfast.

"And?" Yang asked, gesturing wildly with her fork. "C'mon don't just leave us hanging!"

Blake held up one finger as she chewed and swallowed. "Relax it's nothing bad. Jaune and Ruby kissed. They've done it before, right? No big deal."

Ruby felt the blood drain from her face as she abruptly jerked her leg away from Jaune's and he moved his at the same time. She could feel him stiffen like a board next to her

"Well I thought it was no big deal." She remarked.

"No no, it's not." Ruby said, willing her heart to stop pounding, forcing herself to relax. She wasn't sure why she had reacted like that. She had kissed him before, why would it be any different? Just because she might have been noticing how good it helt when he hugged her, or how much easier it was to be around him than anyone else didn't mean anything. Right? "I mean, we're both adults and we were under the influence. Shit like that happens all the time."

"Exactly." Jaune said, not meeting anyones eyes. "No big deal."

Blake and Yang shared a glance before turning back to their plates, both thinking over the other pairs reactions, though with differing ideas on what to do about it. Blake felt content to just let them be, let them figure things out. Though just a touch curious.

Yang however was on the quest to find out more.

"So do you have feelings for each other?"

Jaune and Ruby both paused mid chew, identical faces of shock and confusion while they both struggled to come up with an answer.

"Don't answer her," Blake said. "Seriously Yang I'd expect this from Serafina, not you." She admonished her wife.

"Oh come on you were thinking it too." Yang said, rolling her eyes.

"Seriously Yang?" Exasperation riddled Blake's voice.

"Fine, I'll shut up now."

The rest of the meal passed in silence, all four at the table focused on their own meals and thoughts, ignoring their table mates. After their meal and after they had walked with Blake and Yang to the airship port, Ruby and Jaune found themselves along, walking down an empty residential street on their way to ren and Nora's. Jaune was still wearing Ruby's sunglasses.

"Do you want to talk ab-?"

"Absolutely not." Ruby said as she stared straight ahead, determined to ignore the growing tension between them. "Maybe when we are both completely sober."

Jaune nodded as they walked straight ahead. "Because I was thinking -"

"Jaune . .." There was a warning tone to Ruby's voice.

"- That even if we did have feelings for one another -"

"- If you don't shut up -"

"- It would be irresponsible to act on them." Jaune said. "I mean the whole living together thing -"

"- If it went bad we'd still have to live together." Ruby said, nodding. "So we can't. Couldn't."

"Exactly." Jaune said. "even if I wanted to - which I don't - we just couldn't."

"Yes." Ruby said, still not looking at him. "Keep things the way they are."

"Yeah." He said as he glanced down at her, ignoring the twinge in his chest, pretending it was just his prosthetic acting up. Nevermind that he hadn't felt it in the nearly four years he had had it. "Just keep things the way they are."

Hi guys, it's been a while. Yeah, let's just say that. I've had things come up over the past few months and well, writing just had to fall by the wayside. It wasn't all good, but it wasn't all bad either, and it was things that needed my undivided attention. We had something very bad happen in the family, but I also graduated. I've just not had time to write until recently.

Thanks for reading, and being patient with me, and if you are new, I don't normally take long times to update. I love reading your thoughts on the chapter, so feel free to leave those.

And as always, massive thank you to Bryce who is an excellent beta reader.