The place we wound up going first on the list was a more chill place. There were a couple of places we could've chosen. But I had a feeling this was the place to start with Ruby. Call it a hunch.
It was a laid-back sort of place, not at all like any of the other places Yang had listed. Well-lit, inviting, and lacking the subtle hint of danger I'd come to expect from Yang's typical haunt. The décor was something tastefully urban, but cozy. Something homey, like walking into a cramped apartment someone had put a lot of effort into. The seating was open, spread out. Only a few tables with stools along the outer walls. Any seating further in lacked a table, but the furniture was a bit more plush. Sofas, easy chairs, even an ottoman or two. Couple it with the hanging portraits of past patrons and vases of plants, maybe it was an apartment at one point.
But perhaps that made the most sense.
The place listed was a café, not a bar or nightclub.
Had to wonder if it wasn't listed more as a stop-off for a quick caffeine boost than an actual stop. But, it was on the list, and I wasn't going to turn down a chance for a quick cuppa.
"Remember, let me do the talking." I said, as we crossed the floor to the register. "This place is pretty tame looking, probably a deadend."
"Got it." Ruby nodded. "You play good cop, I'll do bad cop."
"…What? No." I told her. "We're not doing that, just let me lead."
"Right, then I'll step in when I need to." Ruby said brightly.
"No, Ruby, just let me handle this." I said, shaking my head.
We approached the counter and waited there for a moment. There were a couple other people there ahead of us. Normal patrons, just chasing their own cups of bean juice. More evidence I felt pointed this to just being a dead end. Though I got the feeling Ruby wasn't paying attention to it. She was clearly trying to contain herself, look more serious. Arms crossed, face set impassively. But it was a thin mask. I could see the twitch in her fingers, as she drummed them. Saw the way she swayed back and forth despite standing in place. She was already wired, just looking for a reason to blow.
Kinda gave the other patrons even more reason to watch us cautiously. Not that they needed any more reason, of course. I wasn't exactly dressed to blend in, and Ruby wasn't exactly inconspicuous with her red cape, or the scarf covering most of her face. Was probably just her luck that they didn't confuse us for stick-up artists. Told her she should've taken the scarf off before coming in, but I was ignored.
After a minute or two, we found ourselves in front of the counter. Behind it, a young woman with short brown hair, streaked with either golden blonde or wheaty yellow. She wore what I assumed to be the uniform of the place, a cropped black button-up over a shorted, pleated blue-white skirt. Sleeves rolled up, a pair of dark tights under the skirt. She was young, probably somewhere in her mid-twenties. High cheeks eyes that seemed to hold a natural sparkle to them. An amazing feat, considering she was a cashier. She was a looker, if ever there was one.
Though the way she looked over me and Ruby did seem to give her pause, she soldiered on. "Hi, how can I help you?"
"We ju-"
"Tell us who's in the back room!" Ruby snapped.
"…"
I looked over at Ruby, mirrored by the cashier. Who was somewhere between confused and nonplused by the sudden outburst.
"Um… Huh?" The cashier, Roquel, given her name tag, asked.
"Don't play dumb, we know who's in the backroom!" Ruby continued to push.
"Excuse you?" Roquel asked, somewhere between annoyed and confused, reasonably so.
"We know there's something going on back there." Ruby said, pushing up against the counter. "You going to tell us about it, or do we need to go back there and check?"
I think she was trying to be intimidating, make it seem like she'd leap across at a moment's notice. But her smaller stature didn't help with that. Made her look both unprofessional and amateur. Not the same thing. You don't jump to threats until after you've read your make. Even then, only if it's necessary. Wrong person will take it as an excuse to call for help.
Looking at Roquel, she wasn't looking particularly intimidated at this point, just annoyed and confused. If she thought there was actually a chance for danger, which I didn't believe there was, her reaction wouldn't be a good one. People like her, their reaction goes from confused to fight-or-flight in a blink. When you're questioning someone, having them get combative is less than useful.
"R- Tiny." I said, catching myself at the last moment. If we were going to bother covering our faces, we might as well avoid using names too.
"I told you to call me Red!" Ruby snapped indignantly.
"Quit being Tiny and I'll consider it." I said. "-and you're going to want to dial it back."
"…umm-" Roquel interrupted. "Can I… help either of you?"
I looked back to Roquel. "Forgive my vertically challenged friend, she's suffering memory loss, forgot her manners and all that."
"Vertically challenged!?" Ruby hissed.
Roquel looked between me and Ruby for a moment, before shrugging it off. "Uh, all good… can I help with anything?"
"As a matter of fact, you can." I said, putting the necessary Lien on the counter. "Medium coffee, strong, and black." I looked at Ruby "What's yours, small, 10 creams, 7 sugars?"
"5 and 5!" She said indignantly.
"A toothache's worth, thank you." I said to Roquel.
Roquel merely nodded, taking the lien and turning to make our order.
"And if it's not too much trouble, tell me, is there anything going on in the backroom?" I asked.
Roquel looked over her shoulder at me with a somewhat annoyed look. Though it softened when I slipped a few Lien into the tip jar beside the register.
"… The owner does card games back there sometimes." Roquel answered, turning back to the brewing. "Pretty sure he's not allowed to do that, but we get police in here sometimes, so that's not happening a lot."
Translation: no, there's probably not a White Fang safe house here.
"I see, thank you." I said, chipperly depositing a few more Lien into the jar. I then turned and leaned back against the counter, soaking in the atmosphere of the place. Better to enjoy the quiet while we could. If we actually found a place, then we were going to be in for it.
Ruby mimicked my action, and pose, leaning up against the counter and glaring forward impassively. Though slowly she craned her head up to look at me, still glaring.
My head calmly swiveled down towards her. We locked eyes for a moment, and I could tell Ruby was trying to convey she wasn't happy with me. After about ten seconds of prolonged contact though, she must have realized she'd made a mistake. Her glare evaporated, and she broke eye contact, looking towards the door. I kept an eye on her for a bit longer, just for an added bit of pressure. But, I eventually turned my attention elsewhere. Looking around the café, I found my gaze drifting towards the front window. There was a blonde haired woman sitting on a stool next to it, slowly tuning a guitar. She had a bit of a hippie look to her, so whatever she had planned had a fifty/fifty chance of being hilarious. Or hilariously bad. Which could be the same thing depending on who you are.
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Though looking that way, I took note of a small group, sitting on an orange couch not too far from the register. Not much was memorable about them. There were four of them, three guys and a girl, all young adults. Three of them with darker hair, could've swore one of them was an actor. Think I saw his face on one of the billboards around town. Shampoo ad or something.
But there was one of them that stuck out to me like a sore thumb. Stocky looking guy in a ruffled suit. Looked like he just got out of the office. Face was long, a little pudgy, and had a big forehead. His hair was slicked back slightly, dark color with little flecks of gray in it.
When I saw him, I almost did a double take.
Could've sworn I was looking at Benny. Unlucky bastard.
Though all four of them were looking at me and Ruby curiously.
I gave them a small wave, and they turned back to their own, hushed, conversation. Pretty sure they were wondering if they should be calling the authorities or not. While I was busy contemplating if Ruby and I shouldn't just make a hasty retreat, I felt my scroll vibrate, and fished it out of my pocket
(Tiny Flowers): ["Did I scrw up?"]
My eyes crept over to Ruby, and I saw her looking ahead, towards the door still. Though I could see her scroll open at her side, in reach of her hand. I resisted the urge to laugh.
(914010169311125): ["Wait until we get outside."]
(Tiny Flowers): ["… ur mad, aren't u."]
(914010169311125): ["Wait until we get outside."]
(Tiny Flowers): ["R u going 2 yell at me?"]
(914010169311125): ["Wait until we get outside."]
Clearly seeing the pattern, Ruby closed her scroll and slid it back into her pocket, absently drumming her fingers on her leg as we waited for Roquel. She ultimately proved quick enough on her feet, and we got our coffee after another minute or so. Quick enough that we probably wouldn't have to worry about any concerned patrons calling the cops on us. Roquel was even thoughtful enough to provide me with a straw. How she knew to do that I do not know, but it was thoughtful enough to earn her a few more Lien. I could spring for it, easy enough.
"Hey Benny." I said, as we passed the quartet on the couch, heading out the door as the guitarist began her song. Something about a smelly cat, which I thought was highly inappropriate from the little I heard. Even if the song wasn't aimed at Faunus. Save that sort of thing for Gomorrah. Or the Atomic Wrangler. Definitely cemented that the White Fang wouldn't want to hang around there though.
We stepped back out onto the street, and I set the pace away from the café. Leading Ruby towards our next destination, but doing so in a fairly complacent manner. I didn't say anything to her, I just let her sip on her coffee in silence. Let her stew in her thoughts for a moment and let her imagination do the work for me. She sipped on her coffee, grimaced, blew on it, then traded it to her other hand when it got uncomfortable.
I did empathize with that. Even through my gloved hand, my coffee felt like it was boiling.
We continued walking for a few moments, before Ruby finally tried to say something.
"… Ok, so maybe I screwed up." Ruby said.
"Hm." I grunted.
"Maybe I didn't listen to you, but it didn't go bad… Right?"
"Hm." I grunted.
"… Can you please just give me an actual answer?" She asked.
"No." I told her.
"No what?" She asked. "No you won't give me an answer-"
"Yes."
"…" Ruby began sulking and sipped her coffee. She then sputtered, remembering that the amount of molten sugar in her drink was technically a chemical weapon.
"Should be careful doing that, hard to talk with a burned tongue." I told her.
"Hut hup." Ruby lisped, tongue poking out of her mouth.
"First you want me to talk, now you want me to shut up, which is it?"
Ruby glared at me, tongue still sticking out of her mouth.
"… Ok then." I said "What did I tell you before we went in?"
"… phoo het hoo hawk-" Ruby realized how she sounded and tentatively retracted her tongue. "To let you talk."
"And what do you think I meant by that?" I asked.
"… Um… trick question?" Ruby ventured.
"It meant to let me do the talking." I told her. "Let me ask the questions, while you watch and get a feel for it. So that, if I let you ask them, you know what to do… And what did you do?"
"… I jumped-"
"You jumped the gun." I told her, letting an edge of frustration creep into my voice.
"I-I just wanted to get it moving, I was excited!" Ruby said. "And it all turned out good anyway, right?"
"This time." I answered. "What if it hadn't? You'd have given anyone watching us an ample window to prepare an ambush."
"We could've handled it, right?" Ruby postured, confident.
"Maybe, but what about everyone that'd get caught in the crossfire?" I asked. "Did you think about them?"
"…"
"No, of course not." I groaned.
"Um… sorry?" Ruby offered.
"…" I sighed through my nose. "Sorry won't cut it when people wind up dead, Ruby. It doesn't matter that no one did this time, you didn't know that going in."
"Well… did you?" Ruby questioned, looking at her coffee.
"I had a hunch." I clarified. "But a hunch isn't worth much without something to back it. If I'd have been wrong, it would've been bad, but not as bad as what you did."
We paused at a crosswalk, waiting for the traffic to pass. A group of people slowly collected around us, and we put a pause to the conversation until we were across the street. I watched the surrounding group, just to be sure my luck didn't suddenly turn. It didn't, and me and Ruby walked another half a block before we were alone enough to talk again.
"… I know this is new to you, and it's exciting." I said, looking at her. "You're getting to do the things you've dreamed about since you were a kid, right? But you can't let that excitement mislead you. We're going after people that aren't afraid to kill bystanders, and will get violent and the drop of a hat. If they see you coming from a mile out, that's a mile before you can stop them from causing mayhem."
"… So don't let them see me." Ruby said, focused.
"Keep your enthusiasm in check." I told her. "Pump the brakes, make sure you've got every angle you can covered, and don't let them know you're coming until it's too late."
"And let you do the talking." Ruby said, giving me a lopsided smile.
"At least for the first few." I told her. "Once you see how it's done, maybe I'll let you take a crack at it." I took a small sip of my coffee, scalding my tongue, but powered through. "Full disclosure, I half brought you in there because I thought something like this was going to happen. Better to handle it someplace mostly safe than in an actual interrogation."
"… Jerk." Ruby said.
"Better a jerk than tiny." I said.
Ruby's arm snaked out and punched mine, harmlessly rebounding. Though the lopsided smile was still there.
"Could be worse." I said. "We aren't the only ones out here tonight… Hopefully everyone else's business goes as smoothly.