Irrational Fears

Betrayal

10 Years Later, at Beacon Academy

"Hey Ruby, look who I found!" Yang called from the far side of the lunchroom, hurling a red sphere at the rest of her team.

"Ack!" Ruby yelled, barely catching the red ball in her hands, avoiding a catastrophic crash into Weiss' cereal. "What is it?"

Ruby turned it over in her hands a few times before noticing the big eyes on its' face, and the corny smile it wore right under them.

"Ack!" Ruby screamed, launching the ball across the room, pelting an unsuspecting Jaune right in the face, who fell backwards out of his seat.

"What was that for?" Jaune groaned, turning to see a small plush figure of Bob the Tomato. "What's this?"

"What is what?" Pyrrha asked, picking up the plushie and turning it over in her hands a few times, mimicking what Ruby did to a tee. "Oh, it's Bob the Tomato!"

"Keep that demon away from me!" Ruby yelled, backing against the wall. "Nora, smash it!"

"On it!" Nora replied, giving a goofy salute. She took the plushie and set it on the ground, before giving it a swift slam with Magnhild, barely even showing that she had took it out in the first place.

"Thanks." Ruby sighed, finally settling back down into her seat. "What in the world was that for Yang?"

"I thought you had overcome your little fear already, sorry!" Yang said, raising her hands innocently as she sat across from the hooded girl.

"What was that all about?" Weiss and Blake asked in unison, one sounding much more sympathetic than the other.

"Ruby had- has, a fear of, how should I put it, animate inanimate objects, like, becoming sentient and stuff." Yang explained, shoving a piece of toast in her mouth.

"Yang! You promised not to tell anyone!" Ruby whimpered, hiding her face slightly with her hood.