It was 6:30 AM and Jaune sincerely hoped that Yang was awake and in an amicable mood. He knew that from the war that Ruby could be an early riser, especially when hungover, and he needed to call the elder sister to sort a few things out.

"What?" Came Yang's snapping voice when she finally answered, a yawnedging her words.. "Little busy here Jaune, Serafina's got preschool today and Blake's on a mission and I'm not wearing my prosthetic yet so this better be either really important, or really fast. Or both, preferably both."

"Just put me on speaker." Jaune suppressed a yawn, he didn't like being awake this early any more than Yang. In fact, he was certain that the only people who enjoyed waking (up this) early were Ruby and Nora.

"Jaune! Just tell me why you called me first?" Yang snapped. She had been awake for all of 10 minutes, and she was not in the mood to be messed around first thing in the morning. Although that was a fairly normal mood for her.

Jaune sighed as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. "Well I found your sister."

There was an audible tap as Yang switched her scroll to speaker and dropped it on her bed. "Open with that next time, how is she?"

"About to wake up with a terrible hangover I'd guess, I found her drunk in Vale, and she's sleeping it off on my couch." Jaune replied. "She said she left some stuff at your place, is it okay for you to drop it off?"

"Jaune that's an 8 hour round trip, with Blake away, I'm not going to have anyone to watch Sera after preschool while I'm gone - OW you stupid thing!" Yang added a few hushed curses. "Damn arm, who designed this?!"

"Your sister."

"Don't be cheeky." Jaune could hear the scowl in Yang's voice. "And anyway, I do have a job to do here, I teach a few combat classes at Signal remember? Can't you come and fetch her stuff?"

Jaune shook his head, knowing that she couldn't see him. "I leave for a week long mission tomorrow and I need to prep for that, I think Ren and Nora are busy too, and I don't think Ruby is going to want to move from Vale for the next few days."

"All I've got is her scroll and mission supplies, which are understocked anyway, It's not like I've got much of her stuff she needs right now and can't buy in Vale, she can live without her scroll for a few days, might help her to cool down a bit, I might come for a visit over the weekend with Sera, she'll be excited to see Nora, but I can't do much more than that at the moment, OWW!" Yang tried not to scream too loudly as she finally got her prosthetic to attach to her neural link. "I will never get used to that. Makes me wonder if having a fully weaponized arm and a general use arm is worth it."

"Yeah but without the fully weaponised one you wouldn't have a flamethrower." Jaune pointed out.

"And weaponised arms are kind of a hassle to have around kids, right?"

"You make a good point." Yang said.

"How come you weren't wearing it overnight, don't you usually?"

"There were some aquatic Grimm causing trouble along the coast, I volunteered to get rid of them, I was just too lazy to change my prosthetic over last night after I got back." There was a grin in Yang's voice. "I took out most of them single handedly." She ignored the groan from the other end of the line. "You know everyone thinks living on an island without a spawner must be great, but we still get the Aquatic and Avian Grimm from time to time."

"I nearly forgot, Ruby mentioned a bit of what happened in her fight with Weiss." Jaune interrupted Yang as she began her usual spiel about the advantages and disadvantages of terrain. The line was dead for a moment. "About how they both accused each other of being like their parents?"

"Yeah, that bit."

Yang sighed. "You know what happened to Summer Rose right?"

"Yeah, I mean Ruby mentioned her a few times, And Qrow explained all of the maiden and hereditary power stuff to me, which included a fair bit about Summer Rose."

"Look, I knew Summer better than Ruby did, and Ruby has a lot of the same drive Summer did, That was something Dad and Qrow used to tell her a lot too, Ruby took Weiss's comments pretty badly because of that." Yang sighed. "Though being like Summer is better than being like Dad I guess." There was just an edge of bitterness in Yang's voice as she thought about how when she felt she had been abandoned by her partner she had fallen into the deep depression her Uncle said was characteristic of her father.

"I'd argue that your sister is too much like your uncle." Jaune said. "I mean, if last night is anything to go by."

"He always did have a strong influence on her, I'm gonna say that wasn't always a good thing." Yang stretched her Prosthetic arm out before picking up her scroll, cool metal fingers clinking against the metal edges. "Sorry Jaune, I really should probably get going, gotta get Sera ready for preschool and that is going to be a nightmare, Never have kids Jaune, it's not as worth it as you think, And then I have to get myself to Signal, Thanks for the Ruby update, I really will try to drop that stuff off over the weekend."

"Thanks anyway." Jaune scratched at the back of his head as the line went dead. "Guess I've just got to deal with the hungover idiot on the couch then, Typical." He stretched as he walked into the kitchen. It was a Wednesday morning, so Ren was probably asleep still and Nora would be on a run, and he had about a half hour to deal with Ruby before they both arrived.

Ruby came to with Jaune shaking her shoulder and pushing a glass of water into her hand, which she drank almost before she could register her thumping headache.

"Thanks." She rasped out as she pulled her blanket over her head in an attempt at blocking out the light.

"Oh no you don't." Jaune grabbed the blanket and pulled it off of her, ignoring her whines of protest as she shoved her face into the furthest corner of the couch.

"How much do you remember of last night?"

Ruby was quiet for a moment. "Bits of it." She mumbled into the couch cushions. "Sorry you had to see that."

"Pretty sure we've both seen worse from each other, now get up."

"Please just leave me to die." Ruby made no effort to move.

"Not happening. I have a lot to do today, which apparently includes taking you shopping because you thought so far ahead when you left Patch." Jaune glared at the woman.

"Can't Yang bring my stuff over?" Ruby whined as she pulled her face out of the couch cushions.

"Or you and I could go get it."

"No and no. Yang has a life, and I'm about to head off on a mission." Jaune stood from where he was crouched beside the couch. "And you can't live out of our wardrobes until Yang can visit either, so suck it up."

"I hate you."

"Noted."

Breakfast was a quiet affair, with Jaune pouring two bowls of cereal and milk, and Ruby glowering at any source of noise between sips of her coffee.

"Don't you normally have a ton of cream and sugar in that?"

"Yes."

"Do you want some?" Jaune pushed the sugar towards Ruby and moved to grab the milk from the fridge.

"No." Ruby glared at the sugar as if it had personally attacked her.

"You okay?"

"I'm fine." Ruby took a long sip and stirred her cereal. "Weiss used to make my coffee with all that sugar and cream because that's what I drank at Beacon."

"Did you not like it?"

"It just reminds me of her." Bitterness edged Ruby's voice as she stared into her mug. "Though I don't know how people drink coffee without it."

"I don't understand how people drink coffee with sugar." Jaune responded. "Too sweet for me."

Ruby sat there and studied him for a moment, he was reading something on his scroll which lay flat on the table, spoon resting idly in his other hand. She noticed the bronze band that he wore around his wrist as it peaked out of his grey sleeve. She had one exactly like it, as did Ren and Nora. She rarely wore hers anymore, preferring to leave it in the safety of her jewelry box in Atlas when on a mission. She didn't want to lose or break it.

"Where is your mission taking you?"

"Out past Mistral." Jaune replied. "It's been about a six months since I was last out that far."

"Are you going to visit Pyrrha while you're there?"

"Of course." Jaune answered, eyes trained on his bowl. "It's cathartic, I still miss her, hurts like a gaping wound some days, I'll see something that she should have been here for, or even just something she would have liked, those are the worse days."

"Shit I'm so-"

"I swear by all the gods above and below that if you apologise for that night again I'll never speak to you again." Jaune cut her off. It was a conversation they had had a million times, one they had both learned to shut down before it started. "You weren't anymore to blame than me. Fuck I should have been-"

"I was going to apologise for bringing her up." Ruby said, idly stirring at the bowl Jaune had

pushed towards her. You need to stop blaming yourself too Jaune.

"Don't, That's not something you need to apologise for either." Jaune looked up and met Ruby's eyes. "Just promise me one thing."

"Yeah?"

"That you'll try to reconcile with Weiss. I'm not saying you have to get back together, or that you have to be particularly good friends after this, but make your peace at least, Don't hate her forever, Not everyone gets an ending like Blake and Yang or Ren and Nora, but just don't lose her before you have to."

Ruby's silver eye met Jaune's blue ones, reminding herself that this was a man who had lost so much more than anyone should have to at his age. "I will. I'll try."

So shorter than last time, it was going to be longer, but this felt like the natural conclusion for the chapter. Shoutout to Reddit user BryceWilliam for Beta reading/editing this chapter!