RWBY Through Worlds (End)

BC71: Respite (Heroes)--3

"Party shoes, you say?" Elle said to Emerald when she dropped by the shoe shop the morning of the big day.

"Yeah, the last pair of those I had broke." Emerald held up one. "Strap caught on something, snapped right off. Cheap junk, am I right?"

"Oh yeah, what bargain bin did you drag those out of?" Elle inspected it.

"A Vacuo shop that was giving us all free stuff. I guess I have trash taste." Emerald shrugged.

Really, she wouldn't know a name brand from a knockoff if her life depended on it.

"Where's your pretty friend?" Elle asked, as she took down some samples. "Here, these would go just perfect with your style."

"Thanks--and Ci--uh, Scarlet, didn't want to come. She'll just make her own perfect shoes." Emerald rolled her eyes. "I think they're uncomfortable, but what some people will do for fashion."

"Hmm, did you get rid of that awful woman who came in the last time?" Elle asked.

"Well, we talked.... Maybe she's not so bad, at least as an ally." Emerald shrugged.

"Hmm, I guess if you have to have one," Elle sniffed. "I hope the boss never sells this shop to someone like that. Personally, I'd love to take it over if all I had to do was sell the merchandise, but I hate the business side of it. I don't get it."

"Maybe you can learn."

"I'm not sure I'm cut out for it. Anyway, it's not a one-person job. If only we had more help, but pay isn't good enough, you know, for people who just want a part time job to want to work here when they could work in other places...and no one appreciates the art of shoes anymore." Elle pouted.

[Elle was a reference to the Shoemaker And The Elves story, her name is supposed to be similar to elf. Though my family thought it was a reference to Cinderella, which I only realized after writing the prior chapter.]

"I guess you'd be with Lavida. They should start making the Perfect Fit shoes again," Emerald said.

"If they could without putting us out of business," Elle said. "I do miss those shoes though. I never could afford them, but they were just the bomb to even look at. Both delicate looking and sturdy. Mr. Shoemaker says it's all in knowing how to shape them. They don't make 'em like that anymore."

Emerald finally selected a pair and left to meet up with Weiss and Yang at a salon--Weiss' idea.

Yang swore up and down she wasn't doing a thing to her hair or nails, never again. She was just going to criticize the others spending money on it--in person.

True to her word, she didn't do anything except that, but they ignored her.

"It feels good to do this again. It's been a while since we had a real party," Weiss said. "But Deliverance Day number 5 is coming up. Theo says they want to have a bigger celebration this year, since we'll have made it 5 years, which is longer than some people believed we'd survive without the gods."

"The gods didn't help a thing," Yang said, from over a magazine she was going through to judge how expensive everything was. "We're better off without them--and really? 20 lien for a basic manicure? Who has money to waste on this."

"It makes my hands feel dainty," Weiss said. 

"It's back to work after this though," Emerald said. "I wonder...but I promised myself I was not going to think about dismal things today."

"Is it that easy to turn it off?" Yang muttered. "Ruby, you're not really going to get highlights here?"

"I've never had them done professionally before," Ruby protested. "What's the harm? Don't be such a buzzkill."