Hello my readers!
Just wanted to get one more fic before Christmas Day. Beware this fic contains dangerous amount of cheese.
Hope you enjoy!
I don't own RWBY, it belongs to Monty Oum/Roosterteeth.
After completing intense sets of challenge matches, all of the students of Beacon were currently standing in the auditorium while listening to Glynda Goodwitch give the announcements. For the most part, it was nothing all too interesting. Until she spoke of the final announcement.
"Remember students, tomorrow evening will be the mandatory ballroom dance. It will last from 6 to 8 pm and you must wear your school uniform. And again, attendance is absolutely mandatory."
This announcement had mixed reactions among the students.
For the most part, reaction among the students was positive. Several students already were contemplating on their plans for that evening, and overall were exited for the event.
On the other hand, there were still those who felt the opposite. Those who were distasteful of crowded events or dancing clearly were not all too cheery about the upcoming event.
Two team leaders in particular fit under the latter.
Ruby's world around her seemed to shatter at the announcement for the mandatory ball. Ruby always hated parties or large get-togethers in general. This more often than not put her at odds with her party-loving elder sister, who gave her many unpleasant memories of being dragged to parties where she felt awkward and uncomfortable the whole time. She stopped doing that now, but neither sister had shifted views of large parties.
Ruby looked over to see how her teammates were reacting. Yang, as expected, was very exited and eager to attend. Weiss seemed to have a face of familiarity, likely stirring up from her past an heiress, which signified that she would be mildly comfortable in the setting. Blake, as a fellow introvert, did not seem very pleased to hear of the ordeal either. But she was not nearly as panicked as her younger team leader. So she probably wouldn't understand Ruby's pure panic. Ruby couldn't help but feel as if she were the only one in the school to be dreading the upcoming ball.
Little did she know that was not the case, as a blonde knight was not so joyful of the dance either.
Jaune had always considered himself to be an outgoing person, and many would agree, even if he was quite awkward at times. He also loved dancing very much, even if he preferred to dance in private, he still enjoyed it very much.
School dances, however, were not something Jaune was fond of.
Dancing with a partner while a large group of people is surrounding you while doing the same thing did not seem like a very good time to him. At least when alone, if you messed up or did something dumb, there were no witnesses. With school dances, if you mess up, then not only do you have multiple witnesses, but you also have to see those same witnesses everyday whether you liked it or not.
Jaune looked among his team to see how they felt about the dance. Immediately after Goodwitch announced it, Nora called dibs on Ren being her partner, while exclaiming that they weren't 'together together', while Ren had no clear opposition to this. Pyrrha actually seemed quite exited about the ball. When Nora asked why, the Amazon-girl responded that she appreciated the idea of balls and dances. Jaune silently disagreed.
So when the next day arrived, the day of the dance, both team leaders were expecting an awful blend of awkwardness and misery to overtake their evening.
"Ruby, it's mandatory. We have to go."
"But what does dancing have to do with being a huntress?"
Currently, Ruby was refusing to leave the RWBY dorm room to head to the ballroom, and her sister was given the task of talking her into going, seeing that she still had a more powerful influence over the girl than her teammates did.
"Goodwitch said we're going, and unless you want to get counted as a troublemaker, you better get going."
Ruby sighed, not wanting to put her dreams in jeopardy, she finally complied.
"Fine. I'll go to this stupid dance."
Yang placed a hand on her sister's shoulder, "Don't worry, sis. It'll be fun."
Ruby snorted, "I doubt it."
"Come on, I'm sure that if you let yourself have fun, you'll have a great time." Yang's supportive smile turned to a smirk as her next sentence left her mouth, "You may even meet someone special tonight."
Ruby snorted again, "Whatever."
Ruby hated this dance. She had just arrived here and she already hated it. This was for a number of reasons. The first one was the sheer number of people automatically gave her a pitting feeling in her stomach and she felt like the air around her had gotten much heavier. The second one was that she was required to dance with someone. As in dance with them. With Jaune and Ren being her only real male friends, and with high chances of them being partnered with their own partners, she knew that there were high chances that she would be paired with a stranger. Oh, how the possibilities of intense awkwardness have risen.
She needed to get out of this dance, and fast.
So she hung around the edges of the ballroom with her back to the wall to not attract suspicion. During this time, she managed to catch sight of her teammates. Yang was at the center of the floor, practically swinging the poor by she was dancing with. Weiss was awkwardly paired with Cardin Winchester, whose towering stature made it look very difficult for either to try and dance with any efficiency at all, and Blake was no where to be found. It was more than likely she was hiding in some unlit part of the ballroom where no one would find her. In a sense, she was doing exactly what Ruby was doing, except infinitely better. After doing this for a few minutes, she slowly but subtly made her way to the door and to freedom.
Or what would be freedom had she not turned the corner and run straight into Goodwitch.
Jaune took another sip of his cup of punch while looking out into the sea of students. His initial plan was to simply pair with Pyrrha and be sure to dance close to Nora and Ren to not feel as uncomfortable.
Unfortunately, some problems came to this plan.
Upon entering the ballroom, Nora immediately grabbed Ren by the arm and took him to somewhere unseen within the pool of students. On top of that, Jaune and Pyrrha had gotten separated during the fray, and the last time Jaune saw her, some other random guy had already taken her.
If anything, Jaune was perfectly fine with the current situation. He could not see any other free girls, so he could get off with an excuse for not dancing. And the food was pretty good, so this night was going much better than he had predicted.
The sound of grumbling got his attention. He turned his head towards the source to see Glynda Goodwitch, in her hand she was dragging along Ruby by her red hood, who was grumbling and swinging her arms at nothing in particular except to signify her defiance. Goodwitch had her usual face of indifference but had annoyance twinkling in her eyes.
Her face twisted to confusion at the sight of Jaune standing alone.
"Mr. Arc, where is your partner?"
"I don't have one. I can't find anyone available."
"Well, now you do." Goodwitch lightly pushed Ruby in front of Jaune before turning around and walking away.
The two were left to stand there and look at each other in awkward silence, knowing what they were required to do.
Figuring that at least he was at least dancing with someone that he was close with, Jaune offered out his hand to dance, a massive blush painted across his face.
Ruby, with an equally apparent blush creeping on her face as well, accepted the boy's hand, and the two rather clumsily stepped onto the dance floor together.
The choreography between the two was horrible. Since neither of them had danced with another person before, they really only relied on watching the student pairings around them, which led to tangled legs, near stumbles and awkward apologies leading to several turned heads and low chuckles.
After some time, Ruby grew tired of flailing around so sloppily and embarrassingly. So she asked, "Can we just do something … less complicated?" She didn't have to speak very loudly, as the music above was quite soft.
"Oh … um... ok." Jaune thought he had an idea as to what Ruby meant, so he wrapped his left arm around her waist and used his right hand to lightly press her head into his chest while Ruby used both hers arms to wrap around his waist. The two just stayed like that in each other's arms as the soft music played above.
Despite the initial strokes of brilliant awkwardness, this was actually much more soothing and rather comforting. Sure, there was still a tint of awkwardness that fell between them, but it was still easily dismissed.
In curiosity, Ruby looked up to read Jaune's facial features to check whether he was enjoying her company and dancing with her.
Jaune was simultaneously doing the same thing with the same intentions in mind, leading the two of them to look each other directly in the eyes. As silver met blue, they just looked and gazed at each other. And for the first time the whole evening, neither of them felt awkward or anxious. In fact, neither of them was feeling any negative feelings at all during this moment.
Eventually, the two smiled at each other. Not small, timid smiles that they would usually exchange, but true, happy, genuine smiles that left the other's stomachs fill with false butterflies and a joyous, tingling sensation fill their bloodstream.
At this moment, both of them were truly, genuinely happy.
They became even happier as they both leaned and made contact with each other's lips. Their soft lips were attached for no more than multiple seconds. To them, it felt timeless.
When they finally pulled back for air, Ruby's head leaned into Jaune's chest again and he held her there for another timeless moment.
"Hey, lovebirds, we gotta go."
The two were drawn out of their trance at the intervening voice of Yang, and turned to look and see her standing with the rest of teams RWBY and JNPR.
"Wha- what-"
"The dance ended ten minutes ago, we were waiting for you to stop."
Blake's explanation left the team leaders, who were still holding onto each other, blushing madly.
Yang had a smug grin appear on her face as she spoke to Ruby,
"See, sis? I TOLD you that you would meet somebody special! Well, you already had met him, but still!"
This remark caused the intertwined pair to finally separate, awkwardness returning with a vengeance.
"Ok, let's go, you two! Then we can give you a room if you'd like."
Yang's teasing remark made Jaune and Ruby blush more.
The following day, Jaune and Ruby did not really speak to each other at all. That faithful evening was more than a simple, forgettable moment. And neither of them had walked away unaffected. Despite her teammates constantly urging her to speak to the blonde, she neglected fulfilling the task. What was she supposed to say? She had never been in a situation like this before. She knew that she had to talk to Jaune about it, but she didn't even know what to say.
This was easily the most conflicting moment of Ruby Rose's life.
She also couldn't properly decipher where her feelings on the Arc boy stood. He was her friend at Beacon, and still was considered one of her closest friends. But now when she thought of him, her heart would flutter and she would smile at the memories shared with him. Ruby knew she had never felt this way about anybody before.
And she had no idea if it was good or bad.
Jaune was experiencing similar predicaments.
He was trying evaluate what exactly he had felt that night, but the problem was, he had no idea what he had felt that night. He couldn't even remember thinking about anything then and there.
When his thoughts shifted to Ruby herself, he got a totally different reaction.
When his thoughts shifted to the scythe wielder, his stomach felt as if it fell through the floor bellow him. Her red and black hair, silver eyes, cute smile and features, her kindness, bravery, intellect, and nobility had received his admiration, even if he now discovered that it had.
Jaune Arc had a crush on Ruby Rose.
Now he had to tell her that.
Ruby finally approached Jaune one day after classes were completed and when the two were alone.
"Hey Jaune."
Jaune turned to face his crush in a mix of happiness and worry. He was always happy to see her, but now he was conscious to not do something dumb in front of her.
Ruby took a deep breath, and tapped her fingers together nervously, "I wanted to talk to you about the dance…"
Jaune immediately sprung into a panic, "Was it that bad?! I'm sorry! I've never practiced with another person befo-"
"Jaune, it was fine. It was great, actually."
"Oh." Jaune looked down in embarrassment. He had already looked stupid in front of his crush not even 5 seconds into a conversation.
"Hey," Jaune looked up and faced Ruby, "I just wanted to say…" Ruby was very hesitant about the next few words to escape her mouth, so she spewed them all out quickly,
"That IreallylikeyouandIhadalotoffunthatnightandwanttodateyou!"
"W-What?" Jaune failed to understand any of the gibberish that escaped the girl's mouth.
Ruby sighed yet again. She should have prepared for this earlier. But there was no turning back now. She had to tell him here and now.
"I had a lot of fun during the dance, and it made me realize …" Jaune looked at Ruby with his absolute focus, greatly anticipating what she would say next. "… I really like you a lot, Jaune." Ruby's face madly blushed as she continued, "And I want to be your girlfriend."
There. She said it. Now all she had to do was wait for the blonde boy to respond.
He finally did with, "Y-Y-You l-like me?"
"Y-Yes."
"W-W-Well, I like you t-too."
"Y-you do?!"
Jaune inhaled audibly, "Yes. I mean, you're pretty, nice, funny, talented, super smar-"
Jaune's rambling got halted as the object of his affection abruptly kissed him on the lips.
As the two shared their second kiss, they both still hated school dances, but atleast they could hate them together.
And thus concludes the cheeseist ship fic ever made. I hope you all have a Merry Christmas!
EAP615, signing off for now.