Chapter Text
Screw thinking. No, fuck thinking! Ruby was not going to do that anymore, she was going cold turkey. Thoughts? No sir, no madam, she was not doing any of that. She was running - well, she was hobbling on her crutches - in the hallways and no one could stop her.
While walking, her head tried to convince her to just do that, think, think hard about what Port said, think on how she wasn’t prepared for that meeting, think of what caused her to go insane alone in her dorm, but she refused! She shook her head violently and almost crushed the foot of another student. She’d find a way to feel bad later, once she had a nice, quiet corner to-
Wait, where was she going? She frowned and looked around at the identical windows lining the hallway. Well, no matter, she’d just keep going forward. Better to leave everything behind her.
—
After a few minutes of half walking, half jumping, she arrived at the cafeteria, that was technically still open, no that anyone really used it at this hour. Beacon technically allowed students full access to the place at all hours, but few were the souls brave enough to walk in the huge, empty room and take some food.
Ruby was, to her own surprise, one of those. She opened the door and went inside, eyeing the food. Now technically holding a plate up with using her crutches was close to impossible, but she could do with one. She went to a table, left one of her crutches there, and put all her weight on the second one to go to the buffet. A part of her wanted to smash her foot on the ground just to see how much it would hurt, but she suppressed it. Even if she technically deserved the pain, she wasn’t in the mood.
She was in front of the vast array of food and immediately went to the desserts. She had missed sugar, a lot. When food was scarce after the Fall, sugar had been one of the first things to go, only found in the rare fruits. And up in Atlas? Forget it.
She helped herself to a generous serving of strawberries, pear and apple slices with an even more generous dose of whipped cream. Then she took a few cakes, a few other pastries - that Weiss had assured her weren’t cakes, oddly enough - and sat down.
That was a lot of food for someone who wasn’t hungry. She wasn’t, right? But as she was staring at the food, her hand mechanically made her take a bite. Then another. Then one more. It was good, sugar exploding in her mouth, juice flowing from the fruits, sweet, soft texture for her tongue. It was good, but she shouldn’t eat that, it clearly wasn’t the time to eat!
She tried to make herself stop, but she couldn’t. She ate the strawberries, the apples, the pears, the cakes, she went and took some chocolate milk and water and drank that too, and even as she was feeling quite full she couldn't see herself stop and ate some more.
She just really liked the taste, that was it. So what if she wanted to puke when she took a spoonful of whipped cream and ate it? What if the act of chewing, the texture of the food inside her mouth was grossing her out? What if she drank water until she felt she couldn’t drank more and then did it again, savoring the cold liquid? She loved it and hated it. But then again, wasn’t that a fitting punishment? She wanted to indulge, didn’t she? So the least she could do was eat until she burst and then eat some more!
She was done, her plate was clean and she was ready to burst, but the simple thought of stopping was now worse than continuing, so she got up and went for another plate. She filled it with whatever she saw that seemed good, if she couldn’t control her hunger she’d at least control what she was eating. When her plate was on her table again, she took a spoon in a trembling hand and-
“Aaaaand mine!”
Another spoon went past her and stole her food.
Ruby turned around and, unsurprisingly, saw Nora.
“Hey Rubes! Sorry there, couldn’t help but notice that fine plate of Vacuan Date balls here, and I just had to take a plate.” Nora took the plate. “Aw, thanks for sharing Ruby!”
Ruby half heartedly tried to take it back, but Nora deftly kept it out of her range. “Hey, that’s mine!”
“Nah, you looked at that thing like it was going to eat you! I can’t let that happens, you know? Wouldn’t be fair!” She put her spoon away - thinking back, why did she try to eat these things with a spoon? She could just use her hands - and threw some of the balls in the air before eating them. “Nom! Food is great, don’t you think?”
She was thinking precisely the opposite. It was disgusting, and she needed more. She reached for her plate. “It is, so could you - hey!” Nora pushed her hand away. “It’s mine! You can get some for yourself!”
Nora laughed. “Alright, alright, let’s make a deal. If you talk to Jaune, I’ll give it back, okay?”
Ruby froze. “No deal.”
Nora grinned from ear to ear. “So I can keep it? Great!” She wolfed it down in a few seconds. Then she set the plate down and rubbed her stomach. “Wow, that’s the stuff. Filling, too.”
Ruby’s eyebrow twitched. “Yes, it was. Then someone stole it from me.”
“Now that’s funny, I could have swore there’s no one else but us here.” She put a hand on her heat. “Gasp! Ruby! Are you accusing me of stealing from you? Me?”
“Yes!” She slammed her hand on the table and winced - Right, her aura wasn’t active yet.
“Now that would be silly! Of course I’m not stealing from you!” She took out her scroll. “From what Yang told me, you’re back at the dorms right now.” She paused. “Ah, sorry, that’s not it. You’re ‘supposed to be’ back at the dorms right now. Woops.” She put her scroll back in her pocket. “So I did steal from you. Huh.”
Rubby groaned. All that moving around and she was feeling it now - she definitely ate too much. She really wanted to puke, but the simple act of moving and taking her damned crutches again seemed impossible.
Nora caught that, because she gently went to her and aligned her legs - carefully - so they were on the bench, the lowered Ruby until her head was on her tights. Ruby tried to protest at first, but quickly found she didn’t have the energy nor the strength.
Once she was on her back, the feeling of her stomach’s punishment got easier to bear.
“There there. It’s going to get better, just wait an hour or two.” She paused. “Also, don’t eat anything heavier than a vegetable broth. Trust me, you’re not ready for more.”
Ruby groaned again - she had a feeling she would do a lot of that in her near future. “Speaking from experience?”
“Oh yeah!” Nora flayed her arms about as she told the story. “Like, when we got into Beacon, I spent like, two days just eating until I couldn’t stand up. And before that with Ren, food was like, the one thing outside of him that I could count on to relax, you know?”
Ruby closed her eyes. “Yeah…” That was one thing that hadn’t changed with Nora. Food.
She kind of understood how Weiss looked at alcohol bottles now.
While Ruby was lost in thought, Nora had taken her scroll out again. “Yeah, she’s with me. We’re in the cafeteria actually. No- tell Yang she’ll come back in an hour or two. No I didn’t forget, jeez! Alright, see ya!”
She closed her scroll. “So Jaune told me Yang told him she was neither mad nor disappointed.” She twirled her hairs. “That doesn’t leave a lot of range for hostility, so I think you’re in the clear!”
Oh yeah, that’s right, she promised Yang she’d come back right away once she was done with Port. Another sin to add to the list.
“Speaking of Jaune, we’re going to do some shopping for the next dance tomorrow and you are coming with us.”
Ruby used her elbows to prop herself up. “I’m not talking to Jaune, Nora. Drop it.”
“I’m not saying you’ll need to talk to Jaune, silly.” She booped Ruby on the nose and pushed her back down. “I said you’re going to take a walk in Vale with us. You’ve been avoiding all of us for days now, we miss you!” She could tell Nora’s grin was real. It got sharper. “Of course, if you end up trapped in a small elevator for hours with Jaune, then, well, it’s just bad luck.”
Ruby sighed and closed her eyes again. Nora was surprisingly comfortable and it distracted her from the consequences of her own stupidity. “Whatever.”
An excuse to go to Vale? She’d just need to find a way to leave them alone and she was positive someone would contact her. After all, she hadn’t thought about it at the time, but wasn’t that a grand coincidence that Neo and Roman were shopping for weapons in the exact shop she’d been for the last ten minutes? If she had to bet, either Neo was following her - wouldn’t be the first time - or they had informants keeping an eye out for her.
Either way, meeting them shouldn’t be that hard.